Hailey sighed as Marjorie Dursley finally left the house only three days later. “Finally,” she declared, once the door had landed shut behind the torturous woman, who Vernon was taking to the train station. Petunia was going with them as well, as they planned to do some grocery shopping on the way back; Marjorie had emptied the fridge even more efficiently than Dudley, who was scrounging around in the fridge for anything either of them had missed. “I thought she’d never leave.”
Angriana stretched, growing about a foot taller for a couple seconds as she did so, her skin taking on a faint greenish tint for a moment. “Yeah, she was a pain. Calling me a freak just because I look like you- and then of course, calling you a freak.” She sighed. “I was so tempted to spit in her drink.”
“That would have killed her,” Hailey observed.
“I know. That’s why.” She sighed again. “I still don’t get why she thought it might be a good idea to call you a freak, though. I mean, who in their right mind calls any goddess a freak, let alone a goddess of life?”
“Well, I once met an old God of Freakishness… Yes, that seriously was his aspect, and he really was a freak.” She shrugged. “And what do you mean, goddess of life? I’m a death god, not a life one.”
She blinked at the door. “That’s even worse,” she muttered, then looked up at Hailey. “Are you sure? I could have sworn I felt the power of a deity of Life when you rescued me, not Death.”
She tilted her head. “Really?” She paused, then rubbed her chin. “Hmm… I suppose it’s possible I dual-aspected through my reincarnation,” she mused. “I know I’m a deity of death, but I suppose it’s possible I’m one of Life too now. That’ll be interesting, as I wasn’t just any Goddess of Death but an evil Goddess of Death, and life deities simply can’t be evil.”
She blinked. “Huh.” She paused. “Though, there was something you wanted to do, right?”
“Oh, right, yes,” Hailey nodded. “And if you’re right, and I’m the first dual-leaning deity I’ve ever heard of, it should be easy.” She chuckled. “I guess we’ll see what she thinks.”
And, both snickering like naughty schoolgirls, they vanished into the living room.
Lily Potter coughed gently as she awoke and opened her eyes.
She was lying on the floor, looking up at an unfamiliar ceiling. Did that mean…?
She clearly remembered Voldemort’s curse hitting her square in the chest. Did that mean Hailey had survived, and resurrected her?
She sat up to look around. Her first impression of the room reminded her instantly of her sister’s living room- but then, she spotted the girl kneeling next to her. Bright, green eyes- her green eyes, with amusement and anticipation dancing in them. Long, black hair, with the wave of Lily’s and the raven black of her husband’s. Gentle facial features being drawn slowly into a smile, a youthful build-
And last but most definitely not least… she felt the power of her own sacrifice attached to the girl.
She smiled, then rolled around to get her legs under her and silently hugged her daughter.
Hailey hugged her back. It was a tender hug, with none of the immense power she’d expected from the Royal, but it wasn’t any less valuable for it.
There was one other thing that the hug drew her attention to. Her daughter’s breasts were developing nicely; if she had to guess, the girl was… thirteen, or so. Yet, her own didn’t seem to be nearly as large as she remembered- nevermind that either Hailey was big for a thirteen-year-old, or she was small for a thirty-year-old. Had Hailey used a spell that resurrected her not into her prior form, but into something else?
She still felt human, and like a girl, so the change probably wasn’t as… dramatic as it could be.
“Welcome back, Mom,” Hailey finally whispered.
She let out a soft sigh, and didn’t let go. “You survived,” she whispered thankfully- and as she did so, some part of her brain noticed how youthful her voice was. Not that it mattered at the moment.
Hailey seemed to think it was funny, judging by how she chuckled softly. “Yes, I did,” she agreed. “Given what I am, though, it’s a bit obvious, in hindsight.”
She drew back far enough to meet her eyes. “And what are you?”
She smiled, a mischievous glint appearing in her eyes. “An ancient death god reborn as a Goddess of Life.”
Lily couldn’t help it. She laughed. She sat back down on the floor, fully releasing Hailey from her hug, and laughed. If that was what her daughter was, of course she couldn’t be killed by a mere dark lord!
It took several seconds for her to recover. “So… I guess bringing me back was easy, wasn’t it?”
Hailey laughed as well. “Maybe if I’d used my divine powers,” she suggested. “Nah. I used a spell cooked up by someone named Starlight Glimmer- a spell that any witch or wizard can use, for that matter.” She giggled. “A little caveat to that spell: It brings you back as a Hogwarts-age child, rather than your previous adult form.”
Lily snickered too, then kissed her on the cheek. “A perfect excuse to stay with you, isn’t it?”
Hailey snorted. “Yeah, I suppose, even though I’m the Student Instructor Program Management Team Lead, and the de-facto Defense Professor for two years running,” she mused.
“De-facto?”
She shrugged. “Well, Quirrell had Voldemort’s wraith-crux sticking out the back of his head, then Lockhart, ah, flopped, so…”
“He even flopped on his back.”
Lily jumped at the unexpected comment from… it sounded like a slightly younger version of Hailey’s voice, from her other side.
Then she looked.
It was… a slightly younger version of Hailey, except only for those bright yellow eyes. “Wha-?” she began, then turned back to Hailey. “You have a daughter?”
Both other girls laughed. It was bright and cheerful, and brought happiness to her heart.
“I suppose I do,” Hailey chuckled, “though not biologically, of course. This is Angriana, the Basilisk of the Chamber of Secrets. She’s got a second set of eyelids that holds back her deadly gaze, so don’t worry.” She paused, very briefly. “And she chose that appearance herself, in case you’re wondering. It actually fooled the Ministry magic into thinking she really is my daughter, so she’s Angriana Potter, no longer just Angriana.”
Angriana giggled. “Happy to serve,” she intoned, and bowed.
Lily looked up when she heard the front door open, and voices from it. She, Hailey, and Angriana had moved to the kitchen, where Hailey had conjured a meal- out of nowhere, as the fridge was empty- for Petunia’s son Dudley, who had promptly carried it back to the living room to watch TV while Hailey produced some food for Lily’s admittedly rumbling stomach.
“Sounds like they’re back from taking Marge to the train station,” Hailey observed.
Lily wrinkled her nose. “I never liked that woman,” she grumbled, then blinked. “Oh, and you probably don’t want to resurrect your father yet, either. He’s… well, the Potter Family used to be the stuck-up, pureblood supremacist, noble sort, like the Malfoys but ten times worse, and he’s his father’s son.”
Hailey met her eyes. “Are you going to be okay, being without him for a lot of years?”
She shrugged, and wrapped an arm around Hailey. “I have you,” she told her, “and something tells me nothing’s going to be taking you away.”
Hailey returned her sideways hug and chuckled. “I’m sure we could beat some sense into him,” she mused, just before the kitchen door opened.
Petunia was in the lead, her shoulders weighed down by reusable grocery bags, with Vernon behind her. It looked like there was someone behind him as well, but she wasn’t sure.
Petunia froze, staring across the kitchen at Lily, who met her eyes.
The silence held for several seconds, before Petunia finally spoke up. “Lily,” she muttered. “Is- Is that you?”
She nodded silently. Judging by Hailey’s age, it had been nearly sixteen years since she’d last seen her sister- even if it was just three to her.
Petunia staggered in and began unloading her grocery bags onto the table, without ever taking her eyes off of Lily. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
Lily suppressed her tears by sheer force of will. Petunia would be forty-three now, which made her around thirty two years older than her fraternal twin- and they had been separated for nearly thirteen years longer than Lily had ever dreamed.
Yes, Petunia had offended her when she’d insulted her choice of men, rather than her usual beating up on James alone (which Lily often joined her in; she loved the man dearly, but he still hadn’t been cured of his pureblooded upbringing).
The main reason she hadn’t visited in years, though, had been that she was afraid of hurting Petunia again. James insisted on visiting with her every time, even though she was more than capable of taking care of herself. That was obvious enough just with how often James found his head embedded in the bathroom ceiling from trying to interrupt her shower; she actually suspected, based in part on her ability to do that without a wand, that she might be a minor Royal rather than just a powerful Witch.
She had, against James’s recommendation, sent Petunia a letter when Hailey had been born. She’d stuck to the story they’d agreed on before their girl’s birth that they would pretend she was male, though, just in case it was intercepted.
Then she’d made plans to visit again on Christmas that year, and bring her daughter along… but no thanks to Voldemort, she’d been forced to cancel those plans.
She rose from her seat and walked around the table. “No, Petunia,” she told her. “I’m sorry.” She paused as she rounded the table, and saw Petunia’s stare wander over her much smaller frame. “It was an overreaction.” She sighed, averting her eyes. “I didn’t visit in so long because I was afraid of offending you again.”
Petunia completely lost control at that, taking a couple steps forward and lowering herself down to hug Lily with crushing strength. Well… comparatively crushing strength; she knew Petunia wasn’t actually all that strong, it was just that her tiny body was weak.
For all the crushing strength, though, she didn’t have any difficulty breathing. It reminded her of many similar hugs she’d received from her sister- or others- over the years, but in those times, there had never been such a dramatic strength difference that it had gotten her attention. And yet, here she was, getting crushed and yet not really feeling it at all?
She quickly set that thought aside and hugged Petunia back. “It’s been far too long,” she muttered.
Then Hailey’s voice cut into the silence. “Rita?” she asked. “What brings you back here?”
That got Lily’s attention at once- as did the way she could feel who Hailey was looking at without actually seeing either one.
A little twitch of her chin and she could see past Petunia’s hair to the woman that had followed Vernon in. It was… It was Rita Skeeter! There was no one else it could be!
She remembered the woman from her time at Hogwarts. A few years ahead of her, but with a fairly vocal dream of becoming a journalist. Judging by the woman’s appearance, it was a dream that had been realized, even though Lily had never heard of it before her untimely death.
“A-ah, well,” Rita stuttered, tearing her eyes away from Lily and Petunia to look at Hailey, and opened her mouth to speak, before stopping again. “Did you resurrect your mother?”
Hailey and Petunia both let out snorts of laughter, and the two of them separated to watch the exchange.
“Yes,” Hailey answered amusedly. “So.”
“So,” Rita repeated, once again tearing her eyes away from the twins that looked like mother and daughter. “I, ahh, did some digging. Turns out I didn’t have court records to examine for the simple reason that none exist, but I did have plenty of muggles to interview.” She sighed. “Turned out Black was sent to Azkaban without trial or investigation.”
“No trial or investigation, huh?” Hailey confirmed, her eyebrows raised.
“What moron did that?” Lily demanded, completely abandoning Petunia as she marched towards them and hardly noticing as the journalist jerked back in alarm. “What imbecile saw my daughter’s godfather imprisoned without cause?”
Then Hailey laid an arm across her shoulders, and she was shocked from her fury by an electricky wave of power shooting through her at the touch. “Calmly, Mom. There’s a reason death gods never lose their tempers, and it’s not because they’re the deadliest gods to anger.”
A shiver of primordial fear shot down her spine at those words, and she abruptly sat down, next to Hailey… on the couch in the living room? When had they left the kitchen?
But that sentence still served to remind her of what her daughter was.
An ancient, powerful Goddess of Death, reborn into a new world.
And she somehow knew that the death god in her daughter was just as angry as she was, after hearing what her relationship was with him.
Yet, she was withholding her temper far stronger than Lily herself, putting practice to her words.
She shuddered again at the sheer, deadly power of her daughter’s touch before they simultaneously looked back up at Rita.
Rita, apparently somewhat alarmed by the sudden change in scenery, had recovered rather admirably quickly, and had sat in an armchair facing them, while she dug in her bag for something. She seemed to feel their gazes and looked up instantly to meet their eyes. “Ahh-!” she began, sounding at once startled, frightened, and unsettled. “I brought a copy of the evidence,” she informed them quickly, “such as it was.” She turned back to her bag, then found what she was looking for. “Here it is.” She pulled it out. “Shortly after Voldemort performed his… attack, Sirius was arrested as the only survivor of an explosion that killed thirteen muggles and, ostensibly, Peter Pettigrew as well.”
“Peter?” Lily asked, raising an eyebrow. “He’s a rat animagus- and as slippery as one, too.”
Rita nodded. “Yes, that’s my expectation as well. I don’t know if you’re aware, but myself and Hailey figured that out a few days ago, with the help of one of her Royal friends.”
Lily blinked. “There’s other Royals?”
“Plenty of them,” Hailey observed, her tone lethally hard. “But back on topic.”
“Yes. Cornelius Fudge, the Auror on the spot, performed the arrest and ascertained from a quick, preliminary questioning of nearby muggles that Pettigrew had loudly accused Black of killing the Potters before the explosion. As for Black himself, he was merely laughing- and Auror Fudge observed it was likely shock or the like, and asserted that the man should be held in a Ministry cell and monitored by healers for a minimum of twenty-four hours prior to questioning. He wrote and signed a report on the incident, and this is a copy of it.” She held out a scroll, which flew across the room to Hailey’s hand.
Hailey then unrolled it, and Lily turned to read it with her, even as her ears listened to Rita’s ongoing explanation. Strange, she’d never been that good at multitasking before.
“As near as I can tell, Fudge did his job completely and correctly,” Rita informed them. “Unfortunately, though, that’s about it for the good news. When he got back to the Ministry with Black, he put him in a cell, issued the instructions for a Healer to watch him and for delayed questioning with possibility of self-incrimination in matters he wasn’t actually guilty to, and remanded custody of the case to Bartemius Crouch Sr, then Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, now Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation.”
“Uh-oh,” Petunia observed, standing in the doorway.
Rita nodded. “Head of the DMLE is usually a position one retires from, rather than transferring,” she agreed. “And there was a good reason. The same reason that Millicent Baginold gave up her position as Minister of Magic less than a year after he was imprisoned, I expect- a timing that rather eerily coincides with Crouch’s transfer. Well… yes.
“Black only spent about three hours in that Ministry cell before he was transferred to Azkaban and never seen again. The order that saw it happen, which flies in the face of many due process laws…” She sighed, holding it out. “Was signed by Bartemius Crouch Sr, Millicent Baginold… and Albus Dumbledore, then and current Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot.”
It was only the constant pressure of Hailey’s hand on her shoulder that kept Lily from flying off the handle once again at that revelation, even as Hailey let out a long, slow breath and leaned back. She’d trusted that man! And this was how he paid her back? Imprison the only person she and James had entrusted Hailey’s true identity to, and the man that had promised to see her daughter moved to the Dursleys after they died, even before they’d realized they could set spells to ensure that it happened anyways?
And with no trial?
“Why?” she snarled.
“I don’t know,” Rita answered immediately.
“That explains something that’s been bugging me for over fifty years, then,” Angriana said suddenly, pushing past Petunia.
Lily jumped, then turned to look at her. “Huh-?”
Angriana shrugged. “Fifty years ago, when Tom Riddle triggered that curse and forced me to kill Myrtle, I deliberately shed a skin in the main Castle, right in front of the Transfiguration teacher’s office door. Then last year, when Riddle again forced me to go around the Castle petrifying students that were too smart to get properly killed, I shed a skin on the stairs to the Headmaster’s office. I didn’t yet know that they were the same person, but that’s beside the point, because he had two shed skins to work with but never once figured out what I was, instead having to wait for-!” She paused, glancing briefly at Rita. “For your friend to tell him.”
“Straight out of the Basilisk’s mouth,” Hailey observed, a hint of amusement tinting her deadly tone. “Only problem is, Dumbledore is the only thing preventing a major Wizard-Muggle War from breaking out right now, so unseating him will be… tricky.”