Four days had passed since the presents arrived. She had, of course, remembered to send one to Harry since (oddly enough) their birthdays were on the same day. Strange, but true. She had gotten him a set of books on the best teams in Quidditch, but mostly for enjoyment and the endlessly fascinating moving pictures of the most exciting games since he obviously didn’t need it for improving his game. For awhile she enjoyed her days, pushing back her purchasing of the new year’s school supplies, and just enjoying herself to the fullest. There was no need to rush the trip back to school yet. But she couldn’t enjoy herself today. Not today. Once again it had come about, whether she wanted it to or not. The day had come. With a slight sigh of irritation, Alicia wearily went down to the Leaky Cauldron to eat breakfast before heading into the “Normal” world to conduct her business for today. The room, as usual, was filled with witches and wizards of all types, yet she didn’t feel like being a social animal. She simply requested a private booth, and set herself within to eat in private. That, more than anything, silenced the room. Everybody was used to her usual jolly self in the room, her eagerness to jump into conversations and correct magic folks when they had a misconception about Muggles (“No, no, Pink Flamingos are not used to attack unsuspecting door to door salesmen.”, but today --- today was different and they all felt it. She didn’t want company today. Even when her food was delivered she politely declined any offer of companionship and wished only to be alone. She wasn’t herself this morning, and nobody could figure out why. It wasn’t the Dursleys, that’s for certain. She hadn’t returned to their home on Privet Drive in days and days. She kept in touch with Harry easy enough via her raven (who could deliver any message silently and without fail), and she hadn’t even thought of the Weasleys in a long while. No, today was a particular “task” she did every year since she got here, which made this the third time since her arrival three years ago. Outside people were murmuring, but instead of the normal daily business they were murmuring about her. To shut it out she pulled out her portable “telly” sphere from her pouch tesseract and set it on the table, tuning it to the W3N2 Wizarding WorldWide News Network). “The magic community is warned that Black is considered extremely dangerous and prone to violence. The Ministry of Magic has set up a special hotline that can be reached via what Muggles call “telephones”, should any sighting of Black be made in the Muggle communities. Black should be considered extremely dangerous, and not approached under any circumstances. Instructions on the proper use of a Muggle “telephone“, and the types of coins needed to work one can be requested from the Ministry of Magic.” The news has been carrying on about Black non-stop it seems since he escaped. Meanwhile the other being that escaped, the unknown Ani-Magius, remained at large yet unreported on. Apparently he was really as harmless as the paper suggested, and people were more worried of the devil they knew (Black) than one that was unknown to them. Pity they didn’t take Jack Lazarus’ Guardian Academy class on the “Darkling Element“ (darkness and evil intent in both nightmares and humankind), because “it’s always the devil you know the least that can prove to be the most dangerous.” (Jack Lazarus) The only image they had of him was of a gaunt faced individual, hair a matted elbow length tangle. Of course that was before he broke out, even the dimmest of criminals knew to change their appearance after breaking out of jail so there stood a good chance that Black didn’t even look like this anymore. The news should have prepared more images of possible appearances he might have taken on, just to have been on the safe side. The news shifted to Quidditch news (World Cup news again) and Alicia shut her sphere off and put it back into her tesseract pouch. While it was nice that they occasionally reported on other thing, it seems that the news media in both the wizarding and Muggle worlds have been hanging on Black’s story for days (though only the Wizarding world knew the truth about Black, or as much of the truth as they had about him), but not so much as to inform the public as it drew in good ratings. Like vultures to a dead carcass, the news tended to hover over stories like this until it was beaten to death. Still, if this over exposure helped capture Black then more power to the news media. With that she finished her meal, tidied up (making a nice neat little pile for the cleaning staff to gather up) and made her way out of the doors of the Leaky Cauldron and into the Normal world. Right off the bat her day was already doomed. She missed her first bus and had to wait for a second one, all the while being passed by wizards from the pub still wondering what was bothering her. She smiled, and tried her best to be polite, though they all were acting like she had lost a limb back at the pub and they were all trying to give her missing arm back to her (the way they fidgeted about her like nervous cats). When she finally caught her bus and made it to the part of town she wanted to go she found the little store she wanted to visit was being visited already, by a gunman. With more than abit of annoyance in her voice, she stormed up to him and yanked the gun away screaming at him to get lost. Now, mind you, most Muggles should NEVER try such a stupid thing --- but then again she figured the bullets wouldn’t harm her anyway since her costume would only “emerge” from it’s resting spot in subspace to protect her, and she could have just yanked the gun free from his hand with abit of power. But she was in a foul mood, and he just so happened to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Anyway, she mused, at least she didn’t kill him. He should be grateful for that at least. What was worst for her was, as she bought her picnic lunch, she almost forgot to pay in Muggle money (cursing as she almost handed the cashier a fistful of silver Sickles for her purchase). Today she was definitely not paying attention. As she waited for her ride to the place where she was going to eat her lunch she felt her thoughts wander back to the permission form, and how to get it signed. She had, for the past few days (from time to time) mulled over it. And while it wasn’t a top priority with her it still demanded some thought from her, and yet she still hadn’t come to a satisfactory conclusion over it. She could have had her “associates” who masqueraded as her parents sign it, but it could have opened a sticky cage of Cornish Pixies if they did a background check and found out her “parents” were not even related to her. So far all she needed was a place for her mail to go that was, on the record, home, and that’s it. But this form could have opened up a deeper inquiry into her “life” and her “home” which was something she really didn’t want right now. She didn’t know how they did it at Hogwarts, but she felt she had to play it safe rather than take a risk like this. So she still had the form, but nobody to sign it. Stranger still was the fact that she tried to write to Harry two days ago for his advice, only for Chii to return to her with the note STILL in her possession and a small note asking her not to write for a few days. She thought it might have been that Mr. Dursley had “remembered” what she did to him, but in fact it was just that his “Aunt Marge” was visiting and she was, from what she could get in the one line or two he wrote about her, a major git and a half. Oh, well, she was once again stuck with her perdictiment even after trying to palm it off onto someone else. One form, no signers, and no answers. Maybe she was feeling a little bold because the next thought that came into her head was to send a message to Hermione to see if she could figure out a way around this. But knowing her she’d just scold her for trying to get around the rules and reprimand her. She had already written to Hermione anyway, making her promise not to buy her school books since this year it was going to be Alica’s “treat” to buy them. Part in reason was to return the favor for the Animes she got her, part because it made Alicia all tingly to think about buying Hermione “gifts” (even if they were only school books). (Maybe she would “accidentally” sneak chocolates in, just because--) A quick thought to try and get the Weasley brothers of George & Fred to “forge” a name on the form came up, but the form was probably magicked to detect that kind of trickery (and even if it wasn’t there was probably tests they’d do on the form to make sure it wasn’t monkeyed with). Overall? When it came to this one form somehow her scrolls of homework seemed a helluva lot easier to fathom than the problems that this one piece of paper was giving her. Sure she could dodge out of going to Hogsmeade until she was old enough to go without permission from parents she didn’t have in this world, but still -- the thought of using Hogsmeade’s’ resources to court Hermione with gifts of affection intrigued her greatly. Then there was the matter of Cho Chang. She’d been friends with the girl since first year (herself being a second year back then), and this year she heard Cho was going up for possibly becoming the Seeker for Ravenclaw. She thought for a few agonizing seconds about asking her, then declined it right off. There was something that needed to be said about this. Hermione was her crush, her interest and lost cause in love. Cho Chang was her best friend -- but when last year ended, and Alicia took a pass at Cho saying “Seeing how I probably won’t make it out of Hogwarts with everyone and their Darke Raven uncle trying to off me, maybe I should seduce you now before I die a virgin?” “Ask me again in two years.” And, with a smile most perplexing on her lips, she walked off, and they parted for the year. Heh. Alicia almost thought it way too naughty to even humor the unlikely thought that Cho was-- but still, in letters she sent (via Chii since she knew how much Alicia hated owls) she had hinted that, if Alicia was serious, that they could POSSIBLY try it later. Alicia said yes, and Cho said this in the next letter to her. “I want to court a Hufflepuff for awhile. Let’s stay friends until we’ve truly decided our heart’s desires, then we’ll make our choice then.” What a cryptic message. A Hufflepuff? Why? And who did she--- Alicia smirked at the thought of Cho picking her after her Hufflepuff “courtier“, then smiled a more humble smile. She’s just a nice friend who wants to make Alicia happy. Ah, if only it could be true. When she finally arrived at Big Ben a few minutes later it didn’t take long to find the place she was looking for. In the shadow of Big Ben, hidden out of sight of the Muggles, she tapped out a small sequence on an ordinary wall and opened a “door” to the most beautiful park in all of London. The park, which existed in a pocket “tesseract”, was huge and spanned as far as the eye could see. It was a hidden place of extreme beauty in the heart of the man made city of London. Trees, rolling hills of grass, and even a huge lake could be seen from her vantage point as she stepped through off of London’s hustle and bustle and into the serenity of “Tranquility Park”. Tranquility Park was a place for magical folk to relax and enjoy themselves without having to spend time in the “normal” parks where Muggles hung around. It was their own private nature sanctuary all to themselves, and they did their best to keep it clean and tidy for all to enjoy. The park was maintained by a small rotating staff of wizards who constantly patrolled the park zapping litter and lecturing people to clean up after themselves. Today was a nice day, as always, since the environment in the tesseract was always sunny (or a clear starry night if it was dark out in London), so it was as good a day as any for a picnic. Alicia set off across the grass, watching the birds fly by while minding not to step on the garden gnomes that wandered the landscape. She knew exactly where she was going. She’d done it before. But it had been a year since she was last there. The last time she was there she was commuting between Diagon Alley & the Burrows (where Harry was staying after he had to be sprung from his “imprisonment” by the Dursleys on the day of his birthday), and she had almost forgotten to come. But since this year things were relatively quiet she didn’t forget -- even if at times she wished she could forget. As she came over the tenth hill it came into sight. Rising up from the landscape was a quiet hill with a tall stone monument looking over the park from it’s vantage point. The marker, which she paid for herself from the large fortune of galleons she “earned” from the one key she confiscated from that Darke Raven she chased to this world that day three years ago -- the day she killed the real Alicia Spinnet and assumed her place. The monument was made in her honor. Her final resting place, in a sense, since her body still walked the Earth despite the fact that the spirit within had gone to heaven a long time ago. As she neared the marker, ready to set up for lunch, something felt wrong. Something was amiss. When she neared she saw that someone had vandalized the monument. Burned into the stone itself (no doubt with the use of a wand) were the words “DYKE” and “WHORE”. Alicia’s eyes narrowed, and her teeth ground together as she stared at the words, each one burning into her mind’s eye. She raised a hand, only to feel someone else’s presence. “Damn kids went and did it again, I see.” The sound of shuffling and a steady thunk thunk thunk in the soft grass alerted her to the presence. With a ragged sigh she released her pent up anger slowly and turned towards the source of the words. “They did it again, Moody. Damn bastards --” “Give ‘em a little credit.” Mad Eye Moody remarked as he neared, motioning towards the stone, “Least they managed to spell it right this time. Remember last time when they misspelled--” “Don’t remind me.” Alicia sighed bitterly, shifting her weight on the balls of her feet as she examined it. “I guess I’ll have to repair it again.” “Guess so. You brought lunch?” “You know I did.” ---- Tradition. She did it last year, and she was doing it again. Lunch with the man who helped her defeat the Darke Raven she was hunting. Once again he makes a table and two plush chairs appear on the hilltop, mostly since he would probably have a difficult time sitting on the grass with his wooden leg and all, and the two sit down. As they observed the fields of people relaxing, a coy thought came into Alicia’s mind. “People probably think we’re spring/autumn lovers, you know. Wondering what kind of naughty mischief we’ll get into beneath the bushes after lunch---” Moody frowned at her and took another bite of his chicken, looking about as usual for any sign of “Attackers”. “Don’t flatter yourself. You’re not my type.” “That’s my line.” she retorted softly, chewing her food slowly as she looked back at the now cleaned and sanitized headstone. “Magical folk can be so ignorant at times.” “Folk in general, or just me?” “Don’t sass me.” Alicia grumbled, eyes wandering as she spoke slowly. “You know what I mean. Muggle this, Muggle that, dyke dyke --” “Don’t be getting yourself all worked up.” “WHY NOT!” she snarls, taking a bite out of her food, “I’ve been riled up since this morning. Nothing but Sirius Black staring me in the face on the news, and in the paper, and this ignorance today--” (shoving a hand out towards the tombstone as she goes on) “--it’s just getting on my nerves. If it’s not one thing, it’s the usual thing. And that usual thing being---” “That usual thing being the homophobic nature of some of the younger wizards.” “And Normals.” she finishes. Her shoulders slump abit as she speaks, “No wonder Cho didn’t give me an answer last year. Even the sweetest and gentlest of girls can be stumped when their best female friend makes a pass at her. Bet she thinks I’m some sort of freak now.” “You’re quick to judge what others think of you.” “Aren’t you the same?” “Guess.” Moody accepts, smiling grimly at her as he watches her closely, “You really think that badly of others? That you can’t get close without being hurt? Do unto others as you want them to do unto--” “You swallow a bad fortune cookie or are you ALWAYS this annoying?!” Moody goes back to eating, his magical eye continuing to swivel about endlessly. ‘God I hate remembrances.’ she growled to herself, in her thoughts. ----- At the end they parted, and she laid her flowers at the base of the stone and prayed. She didn’t know what “faith” or “beliefs” the real Alicia Spinnet had, so she could only do what she herself knew and that was the Goddess faith, which probably wasn’t what the real Alicia believed in. Still, better than nothing. She then spent the rest of the afternoon telling tales to the stone of what she did in school, the adventures and the mishaps, and wished that Alicia could tell her what Heaven was like. She knew that Alicia went to Heaven in the end. She saw the angels come for her soul herself. But what happened next? Even she didn’t know. At the end she packed up her basket (dropping the empty thing into one of her tesseract gems for safe keeping), and went back into the now darkened Muggle streets to head back to Diagon Alley. Night was descending on the streets, and it looks gloomy in the now ominous shadow of the towering Big Ben. Time, definitely, to go. All she had to do was get back to the bus stop and catch the next bus and she’d be on her way. That’s when she heard the laughing, and in between a soft sobbing noise. Her attention turned away from the bus stop, and deeper into the darkness. She didn’t like the noise one bit, but she had to investigate. Drawing her wand (finely made custom job from Ollivander’s using a piece of rare wood from the Realm of Dreams and the “strings” of her own soul as it’s base) she held it out and tried to remember the word for light. “Lumos.” she finally remembered, shining a light ahead of her. A few feet down, and one turn, she ran into three robed boys (obviously magicals) tormenting two Muggle girls. One laid cowering on the ground, while the other shielded her from their gazes and taunts. One kept kicking the one on top. “Like being on top don’t YOU! Slutty little Muggle dyke!” “FUCKIN’ LEAVE HER ALONE YOU BASTARD!!” “Come on! Let me kick the little pu--” (they turned and noticed Alicia, and she them), “Well if it isn’t the little dyke from---” That’s all he said. Alicia’s eyes narrowed, her teeth clenched again (as before on the hill), only this time she had three live targets to “play” with. She lowered her wand hand, and jerked him into the wall with her free hand, her power building as her eyes began to burn red. The others paused as there was a sudden BANG and something rolled behind her. The two girls didn’t move, one was still petrified as the other protected her. Regardless of what it was, Alicia thought, she wasn’t going to let them get away. “Welcome to the Knight Bus, emer--- blimey.” the voice behind her gasped. Briefly she let her attention stray, battering back her three targets with a slight wave of the hand sending them crashing into the wall where she slammed the first one moments before. “Hang on.” she asked, turning her attention back, this time reaching out to cause all three pain by stimulating their pain centers severely, making them scream. “Here, here!” the voice yelled, “What ’u tink yer do--” (Alicia points her wand right at his head, his body shaking as he stands before her.) “Not now. I’m busy.” But her attention strayed, allowing them to get up to run for it. However, before the three could run very far she raised her free hand (keeping her wand pointed steady at the conductor) and began to power it, forming a disc at the palm of her hand, extending it outwards making it grow. “Eviscerator--” “STOP!!” “--DISC!!” She spins (wand still managing to keep itself pointed at the conductor through the large swinging motion of her body) and she lets the disc go, dead on at her prey. That’s when something shot out from behind her. “DISPELLIUS!!” The shot was dead on, hitting the disc dead center, shattering it. The boys continued to run. “OH NO YOU DON’T!!” Alicia yelled, only to feel a strong hand grab her. “DON’T!” She struggled, her eyes blazing, “LET ME GO!! LET ME GO!!” “Don’t do it! Scum like that aren’t worth it!” “THOSE BASTARDS!! LET ME GO!!” she yelled, finally breaking free. The jolt sent both people falling to the sides of the alley, each collapsing against the wall opposite the other. Alicia’s eyes met Moody’s, and she scowled. “You let those BASTARDS get away!!” “Not really.” A horrific shriek filled the alley, then two more and silence. “Better help me with their memories. Even love can’t wash away that kind of horror of listening to that.” ------ It was an easy enough task to mend their memories, and set the two on their way again. In the end they caught the bus that Alicia wanted, and she caught the Knight Bus. Moody was in a good mood after being fed, and he seemed to have had a special little spot for the loud Spinner, because he didn’t report her to the Ministry of Magic. The Knight Bus driver and conductor (a Mr. Ernie Prang and Stan Shunpike) also had their memories altered, but just to the point that they didn’t remember the violence. Still, as she stewed moodily in her bed (the entire bus made up like a dormitory with beds instead of bus seats) Alicia couldn’t let go to what they were doing. It boiled in her blood, and made her angry everytime the images of them doing worst to those girls if she hadn’t caught them came to mind. As for what happened to them? She knew it was better not to ask. At least for now. ------ It lolled it’s head back and forth, blood dripping from it’s mouth as it surveyed the dead. It didn’t stay long, moving back to the rooftops as soon as it heard footsteps. As the reptilian form took refuge above, Moody looked over it’s work. “Docile as a kitten, eh?” he sneered, “Shows what the lot of them at Azkaban know.” He turns, and walks away, leaving the bodies behind. “Nobody ever misses trash like them anyway.” he mutters as he disappears into the alleys.
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