Princess Sunburst

Seeing her brother’s emotions get the better of him as they sat in his godfather’s bedroom, simply looking through the Marauder artifacts made Apollonia realize that she was in for the same thing. Visiting Ravencrest would send the young Snape into an emotional spiral, seeing the house her cousins grew up in. It was why she wanted Harry nearby as she explored the house, for the emotional support that only her brother could provide. “We should probably use the floo,” Apollonia told her brother as they closed Sirius’s bedroom off, leaving the Marauder file back under the loose floorboard. They headed over to the fireplace. “I want to see how far Ravencrest is from Grimmauld Place.”

“How will you do that?” Harry asked.

Apollonia grinned. “So glad you asked, Harry. Here’s the plan; I’m going to floo over to Ravencrest and immediately go outside, sending sparks up in the air. I want you to do the same. From that, we’ll gauge the distance and figure out just how close we are from each other.”

“What about the Muggles?” he wondered.

The young Slytherin had ignored the fact that Grimmauld Place was actually housed in a Muggle neighborhood. But, she wanted to know how far Ravencrest was from the Black ancestral home, how far she might be from her brother. “Make it look like fireworks,” Apollonia suggested. “Keep it tame enough that none of the Muggles will notice, but visible enough so that I can see where it is.” Knowing the location of Grimmauld Place in relation to Ravencrest was important; especially after all that Ron did to try and disprove that Apollonia was on the light side. It was the only way that she would ever get to know her brother; while Ron knew of Grimmauld Place, he was clueless about where Ravencrest was. And, that was key. It was her only salvation, knowing that Ron was clueless about her life.

“I guess,” Harry shrugged.

Apollonia stepped towards the floo. “Ravencrest Manor.” The Lady Prince stepped out of the floo and into the house her cousins grew up in. It was strange being in the house, a place she had never set foot in while she was growing up, despite having been returned to the family at age eleven. She headed towards the front door and sent up sparks. Two minutes later, an identical set of sparks went up, precisely three houses down.

The realization that Harry was so close to her caused Apollonia to grin. It turned out that this was the one chance she had at getting to know her brother without Ron knowing of it. Ravencrest was three houses down from Grimmauld Place. And, so long as Ron knew nothing of the Prince holdings, Apollonia would be allowed to know her brother. Harry walked towards her. “Oh, I am definitely moving into Grimmauld Place. I considered going to Marauder Manor over in Hogsmeade or Potter Manor, but this seals it.”

“You have a house in Hogsmeade?” Apollonia asked.

The man-who-conquered nodded as he came to the door of Ravencrest and followed his sister inside. “Between the Potter and Black holdings, I have two houses in France; Grimmauld Place; Potter Manor; Marauder Manor; Godric’s Hollow; a place in Italy; and a house in an undisclosed location. They’re the houses that Mum, Dad, and Sirius left me.”

Apollonia laughed at the hilarity of the situation; it was just way too funny for the teenager to not mention to her brother. “Ravencrest; a house about a mile away from Hogsmeade (Glenview); and a house in France (Alpine Terrace); those are the properties I came into possession of when my cousins died, and I became Lady Prince. Harry, I wouldn’t be surprised if all the houses are within miles of each other. It would make sense.”

“That’s a little strange,” Harry said.

“You have no idea,” the girl muttered.

“Shall we take a look at the house?” he asked.

Apollonia nodded. She walked inside. “House elves of Ravencrest Manor!” she called. “Come to me.” Since she knew nothing of this place, Apollonia needed to call the elves to her and figure out what was going on here, who tended to the house for the last two years.

Two house elves appeared before her. One was an elderly-looking elf who walked with a bit of a limp. The other was younger and very hyper. It was the older elf that chose to address her. “I is Periwinkle and this —” the elf pointed to the younger one “— is Pumpkin.”

Apollonia nodded in understanding. “I’m the new Mistress of this house,” she informed the elves. “My name is Apollonia. Now, I don’t know if either of you are aware of this, but Christophe, Tabitha, Morgan, Delaney, and Zara are all dead. They have been for the last twenty-two months.” Apollonia wished she had better news for the elves, but she didn’t. Their old master and mistresses were gone, and had been during the last two years.

Apollonia looked between the two elves, wondering how bad the reactions would be, how loyal these two elves were to this family. It was the younger of the two elves – Pumpkin – who reacted to the news first. And, the elf’s reaction was not anything that Apollonia could have expected; it was the last thing she expected. “Missy Zara is gone?”

“Yes. All of them are,” Apollonia said quietly.

Pumpkin fell to her knees and sobbed freely. “No!”

The Slytherin and her brother both looked to Periwinkle for an explanation. And provide it he did. “Pumpkin was Missy Zara’s companion during childhood. She be the one who protected her over the years. Pumpkin be taking the loss of her Mistress very hard.”

“She’s not the only one,” Apollonia muttered, elbowing her brother. She turned to the two elves. “Would you mind giving us a tour? I’m afraid I’ve never been here before.”

“Of course Missy Apple,” Periwinkle said.

And so began the tour. Through the parlor, the study, and library did the two siblings walk, admiring some of the relics being housed here. Ravencrest Manor, as Apollonia soon came to notice, was like a work of art. Walking through the house was like walking through a museum, for it had different items running down the hallway. This continued through the vestibule, stopping only when they came to the dining room. Aside from the obvious rooms that were located on the first floor; a kitchen; dining room; parlor; study; and library; there was a ballroom; a drawing room; and a bedroom. On the second floor, there were five bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a second study. The third floor was the attic and the basement held a rather large potions lab and its storeroom.

“Well, this is an interesting place,” Harry said.

“No kidding,” she replied. “I could get a lot of use from this place.” The library, both studies, the first floor bedroom, and the potions lab; those would probably be the only rooms that Apollonia used. Maybe even the parlor as well. But, the other rooms; she doubted they would be used at all. Apollonia looked to the elves. “Which rooms belonged to whom?” A part of the young lady wondered which rooms were which, for she was most interested in what belonged to Zara; the cousin who risked her life for Apollonia.

Periwinkle nodded and began pointing out the rooms. “The Master and Mistress’s room is right here,” the elf pointed to the middle of the five rooms. Missy Laney had the room to their left and Missy Morgan was on her left. The room immediately to the Master and Mistress’s right was empty, and Missy Zara had the room to the far right.”

From the location of each of the rooms, Apollonia found things very telling. It appeared as if Zara might have been isolated from her family; she was placed in the room farthest room her sisters, with a room in between her and her parents. Apollonia had to wonder if that had anything to do with Zara’s decision to help her. Maybe Mirabelle would know. She turned to her brother. “Can you help me with this? I want to explore each of the rooms. I want to know what each of my cousins was like.” Already she knew that Morgan seemed to have a fascination with healing, as she did become a Healer; but there wasn’t much else that Apollonia knew about them, especially Delaney and Zara.

“Uh, sure,” Harry shrugged.

They entered the first room; Christophe and Tabitha’s. And, as the two siblings set foot in the room, Apollonia had a weird feeling. She looked over at Harry. “I have a weird feeling about this room.”

Harry nodded. “So do I. Tabitha’s brother was a Death Eater and her half-sister was a power-hungry Ministry official. Whether or not Tabitha appeared to be the nicest of the three, I doubt that she was much different. It often runs in families, so she’d be hard-pressed to follow her brother’s footsteps. There may be a few dark items in this room.”

“I hope not,” Apollonia said.

But, as Apollonia soon came to realize, Tabitha Prince (nee Selwyn) did indeed have dark objects hidden within the room. It wasn’t much, but they would have to be taken to the Ministry. They moved on to Delaney’s room, to which Harry had to cry out. “She was a budding dark witch!”

Apollonia shook her head sadly as they emerged from the room. Her cousin was following a dark path. Had she been alive, Apollonia had no doubt that Delaney Prince would have been tossed in Azkaban; for the path she was taking would have eventually led her to take the Dark Mark. “I didn’t think that another member of my own family would be sucked into the darkness.” There were books on the dark arts strewn all about the room. And, they were confirmed as being Delaney’s due to a spell on the house that caused all items to return to their owner’s room after a specified period of time. “I hope Morgan and Zara weren’t like that.”

“I doubt it,” Harry said.

“But, we don’t know for sure,” Apollonia complained.

“We’ll know shortly,” Harry assured her.

Neither Morgan nor Zara seemed interested in the Dark Arts, much to Apollonia’s relief. She would not have been able to take it if Zara had been intrigued by the darkness. But, as it turned out, the young Slytherin was allowed breathe a sigh of relief at the knowledge that Zara was not like her older sister. “I don’t think I’ve ever been more relieved to know that Zara would not ally herself with Voldemort; that she was on the side of the light,” Apollonia said, “and that includes learning that you accepted me as your sister.”

“You wouldn’t have appreciated that too much,” Harry agreed.

“You have no idea,” Apollonia said quietly. Zara meant more to Apollonia than anyway; to a degree, she was elevated to an even higher level than Harry. Because it was Zara who brought Apollonia back into the family, she would forever be grateful to the youngest of the Prince sisters for what she did. She helped a girl she barely knew – whether it was her cousin or not – and Apollonia would never forget what Zara did for her.

“Right. Well, I need to get all of this —” he motioned towards all the confiscated items that sat behind him, the majority of which came from Delaney’s room “— down to the Ministry. Probably a good thing I came over to help you with this,” he muttered. “Otherwise, you could have been living in a house filled with some very dark artifacts.”

“Lucky my brother is the boy-who-lived,” Apollonia countered.

“True,” Harry admitted.

While Harry took the confiscated items off to the Ministry, Apollonia tried to figure out what she needed to do before moving into the place. Perhaps the only thing that Apollonia knew for sure was that Zara’s room was not to be touched; she would never allow it. Zara meant far too much to Apollonia to let anyone touch that room. But, as for the rest; she had no idea what she wanted to do. “Pumpkin!” the teenager called.

The elf appeared. “Yes?”

“Please go preserve Zara’s room as it is,” Apollonia ordered the elf. “Make it so that I am the only one allowed to enter the room.” She was going to make certain that her cousin’s room was never touched, no matter who it was; she trusted no one when it came to that room.

“Of course,” the elf said somberly.

While Pumpkin went to close off Zara’s room, Apollonia turned to Periwinkle for some advice. “If I were to redecorate the house, which of the rooms should I leave as is?” As far as Apollonia was concerned, it seemed a good idea to question the elves. They would know how she should handle everything, having lived into the house for years before Apollonia came to become the Mistress of the house. It was her decision as to how the house should be decorated, what rooms she wished to keep out of memory of her family. Out of all the rooms in the house, the only two rooms that Apollonia was sure could not be touched were the potions lab and Zara’s room. Everything else, however, was up for grabs. It just didn’t matter what happened to the other rooms, because they weren’t as important to her. Just Zara’s room and the potions lab.

“The library and ballroom should remain,” Periwinkle said.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” she said.

***

Delaney Prince, a dark witch. That was definitely the biggest shock for the man-who-conquered; there was no way that he could have predicted something like this. Not once did Harry Potter ever expect that one of Apollonia’s cousins would turn out to be so immersed in the darkness. But, it seemed as if Gabriel Selwyn had an influence over at least one of his nieces. The one thing, however, that thrilled Harry was that Zara was not party to this. News like that would destroy Apollonia, especially given what Zara did for her.

As he apparated over to the Ministry, Harry was met with a rather unwelcome presence. Ron was walking by just as Harry apparated into the atrium, which could only cause a problem. The confiscated items were from a house that Apollonia owned. If Ron were ever to discover who owned the house, there was sure to be trouble. Only he and Apollonia knew that the confiscated items were from Delaney’s former bedroom. Ron wouldn’t even know the difference; only that it came from a house that Apollonia owned. It would be all the reason that Ron needed to justify his reason for targeting her. So, this needed to be kept quiet. If anyone was allowed to know, it would be Kingsley. No one else; and, most certainly not Ron. The youngest Weasley son victimized Apollonia and he would continue to do so, no matter what reasons were given to prove otherwise.

“Harry, what are you doing here?” Ron called.

The young hero held up the bag. “Confiscated dark objects.” Where and how he got them; that was what Harry needed to be careful about. Ron could never know that Apollonia allowed him the opportunity to search the house, confiscating any dark items he found. Such knowledge would only cause a rift between the two friends when Harry sided with his sister.

“Excellent!” Ron said. “Have they been arrested?”

Here was where the issue lay. How was he supposed to explain this to his friend without implicating Apollonia’s part in this? Eventually, something came to him; he had to be vague in order for this idea to work though. “No. It would be wrong to penalize this person for something that was not their fault. This person inherited a house thanks to casualties from the war. The house was not entered until today, so they had no idea that the house was filled with dark objects. Upon learning of this, the owner cooperated and allowed me the opportunity to take it in. I cannot fault this person for other’s mistakes.”

“If it was me, I would,” Ron said.

And that’s exactly why you’ll never find out that these dark artifacts came from my sister’s newly-acquired house. If you knew that Apollonia let me do this, you’d never let it go, Harry thought. Telling his best friend anything good about Apollonia would only cause his best friend to rant even more about what Harry was doing. And, this reaction caused Harry to lose any respect he still had for Ron because he was so narrow-minded. “You might have done things differently, Ron, but you don’t have all the facts,” Harry warned.

“Whatever!” Ron muttered.

As his best friend stormed away, Harry left out a sigh of relief. He was able to get away with hiding Apollonia’s secret. Few people would ever know that the confiscated items came from her house, only those whom his sister trusted. And, unfortunately for him, Ron was not one of those people in the know. He never would. Apollonia would never let it happen. Harry had a sneaking suspicion that he knew exactly who his sister would trust with the information; the entire Black family; him; Hermione; Zara’s best friend; Bill; Fleur; and George. Perhaps even Kingsley. But, never Ron.

Harry eventually arrived at Auror Robards’ office, knocking on the Head Auror’s door. “Sir, I have a bag full of confiscated dark artifacts,” Harry said, holding up the bag. “My sister gave me the opportunity to search one of the houses she inherited after the war ended and I happened upon items that the Ministry would be very interested in.”

Head Auror Gawain Robards was a harsh man. From what Harry had seen of the man in the last month, he was like a softer version of Mad-Eye. And, given how much he respected Mad-Eye, it came easily for Harry to respect Robards as well. The Auror looked at Harry in disbelief. “Your sister’s family had dark objects in their possession?” Robards questioned. Harry nodded. “And, if her family could have such things, there is no telling as to what other families—even light ones—will have. Thank you, Auror Potter.”

“Of course, sir,” Harry said. Robards motioned for him to leave, but Harry did not budge. “Sir, there is one more thing of note.” Apollonia’s secret was in jeopardy with this transgression. Delaney Prince’s choice to house dark magic within her own home put Apollonia’s choice to hide her title in danger. Robards was not in the know and Harry was unsure of whether or not to tell him. I think I have to tell him, Harry decided.

“What might that be, Auror Potter?”

“You see, sir, it’s like this…”

***

A hooded figure apparated into Shell Cottage. He breathed a sigh of relief in knowing that the owners were nowhere to be found. It would make his job that much easier. Any interference would ruin his plan. Through process of elimination, the figure was able to locate the room he was looking for. Upon locating the room, the figure walked in, heading straight for the three boxes shoved under the bed. It was the box labeled Lily, in which the figure pulled out, digging around until he came to a small wooden box. Yes, this was what he was looking for.

Gingerly, he lifted the box’s lid and was immediately rewarded with being able to locate the item he was searching for; a small gold band. Yes, this would work for his purposes. With the ring clenched tightly in one hand, the box was put away and shoved back under the bed. He quickly apparated away, ready to make his plans. Thanks to this trip, he had the final component needed to enact his plan. There was only one thing left for him to do now.