Blessed With Iridescent Wings

-----

When Harry Potter had arrived late that night, Lianna had been bustling about the kitchen. Mrs. Weasley had kindly asked her to keep dinner going and because Lianna did enough behind the woman’s back, she could never find it in herself to say no. Molly had been pleased and had rushed off after giving her a number of orders on what to keep heated and what to finish cooking.

The humidity of the day hadn’t seemed to die down regardless of the time and as Lianna lazily stirred the stew with a long spoon, she could still feel bits of sweat slipping down her face. Thank Merlin the kitchen floor was stone or the lack of relief she would have be given would’ve probably set her over the edge. Lianna had spent most of the day passed out on the floor, or at least, after they finished cleaning. She felt it safer and far more comfortable than staying awake to deal with Hermione’s questioning and the bloody heat that wouldn’t let up.

Flagwin, who had realized long ago that Molly wouldn’t be cooking tonight, sat happily upon Lianna’s shoulder as she quietly moved from the bubbling brew and towards a couple vegetables Mrs. Weasley had left out for her to chop. The tiny Faerie was breathing against her ear with short puffs of smoke that tickled every so often.

“You do know you’re not getting any of this, right?” Lianna asked. Flagwin shifted about her bare shoulder, his sharp claws careful not to dig into her skin, “There’s so many people here tonight. It’s ridiculous.”

Flagwin snorted. He didn’t exactly care how many people were where and continued to wait quite patiently. Lianna scoffed at him, moving the sharp knife smoothly through the rather large carrot. Flagwin had the same flaw as his Mistress, a determined curiosity that always seemed to get the better of him. It had technically been the reason he found himself in debt to the pale eyed girl.

Flagwin, who was eyeballing the bubbling stew just across the room, could care less. He was quite happy with Lianna, far happier than he had ever been before.

“Why don’t you go see the twins, buddy?”

The snort of warm smoke against her bare shoulder told her no. If loyalty was to be judged between her Faeries, Lianna was certain Flagwin held the most. This had only been because Lianna was all he really knew, only because Lianna had saved the hungry little dragon’s life. Like the Walden girl, Flagwin was the ‘runt’ of his species, the odd one out who didn’t have enough strength to prove to his clan he was worthy of living.

Lianna had found him broken and beaten near the entrance to his fiery home and gathered him in her hand before she could’ve thought otherwise. Flagwin had followed her since, his chipper attitude always shining regardless of what occurred in his past.

“How about Ron? You like Ron, don’t you?”

The Faerie continued to breathe down her shirt until she released a loud, obnoxious sigh like this actually pain her to do it and dug for some small chunk of meat in Molly’s wonderfully smelling stew. When Flagwin nearly bit her finger off trying to snap for it she snarled he was to sit down at the table. Carefully gathering a few carrots and chunks of pork out of the large pot, she placed them down on a plate and dropped it in front of her Faerie.

Flagwin looked up with an innocent gaze but a rather pleased one that made the girl roll her eyes.

“Now no more for you, got it?”

A happy purr rolled out of the dragon’s mouth and in almost 5 seconds flat the meal had been demolished. Lianna hadn’t even had time to turn around and had been too enthralled by the ravenous eating to blink. Disgust hung off her lips until a rather adorable burp rolled out of the creature’s mouth. She couldn’t help but smile, watching as the tiny dragon than curled up in a tight ball, fast asleep.

For awhile Lianna busied herself about the kitchen, until she heard the soft chatter of the Order members in the front entrance. At first she had debated creeping up the stairs and maybe sneak a peek but the second her bare toes hit the stairway it cried in agony. Another step and another loud cry. She gave up when she heard Mrs. Weasley let out a roar of a yell at her twin boys. Both came barrelling down the stairs, laughing loudly just as Walburga Black’s portrait began to scream.

“Hey!” Lianna cried, trying to quickly move out of the way of the large redheaded boys. George grasped her shoulders with tight hands the moment she seemed to slip backwards.

“Watch yourself,” said George, winking as she gathered her startled breath.

“Smells good in here, Anna,” Fred called, throwing himself into a seat across the table. Flagwin was sitting in front of him, the spotless plate gleaming in the dim candle light. Lianna watched as Fred picked up the wee dragon, placing him upon his dinner plate and setting the creature upon the china cabinet behind them. The dragon snorted, never once noticing he had been moved.

Lianna smiled and gathered the cutting board filled with bread, tossing it upon the dining table in front of the hungry twins. They moved to reach for it when Lianna’s quick hands slapped them on either side of their heads.

“Don’t touch.”

Down the stairs, with barely a sound, came her mother. She sashayed in with a brilliant mauve robe draped along her body and her silvery hair fluttering about her shoulders. Lianna’s father, tall and smiling, was covered in a red robe she was certain her mother had picked out for him days before they left for London.

“Lianna, it smells wonderful, dear,” called her father, the grey glow of his Faerie sitting stiffly upon his shoulder. James Walden came over for a better look, sticking his nose right over top of the pot.

“Mrs. Weasley cooked it, Dad,” Lianna explained, laughing as her father gathered the long ladle to try and scoop some meat.

“Non! It is not time, James!” screeched Cheri, hurrying over to smack her husband’s hand. James dropped the spoon instantly, beaming as his wife began to shoo him, “Go sit down with ze twins. Lianna, mon petit lapin, please get ze plates.”

“Right away, Mama,” She muttered, moving to the cupboard containing the plain white plates Molly always used at dinner. Ginny appeared beside her in a near instant and with a grin offered to help by grabbing the cutlery from the drawer below.

“We warned Harry about your mum,” Ginny muttered as they began to walk about the table. Lianna placed plate after plate down while Ginny followed with a fork and a dull looking knife. They paused at the twins, both turning their heads to see Harry come down the stairs.

“Good,” Lianna murmured in reply, “Who knows what the hell that woman’s going to say to the poor kid.”

Sure enough, not even seconds after Harry had wandered down the steps Cheri Walden had honed in on the boy, a near flawless smile across her lips. James followed behind, slower than his wife and a lot more distracted. He kept trying to steal a piece of bread or a piece of meat when Molly Weasley carried the heavy pot towards the table. Lianna kept shooting her father a sharp look that the happy man found quite humorous but in turn, turned back to speak with young Harry Potter.

“Ah you must be ‘arry!” said Cheri. Harry look tired but was quite surprised to see the she-bat Ginny had talked about was actually very pretty. Behind her loomed a smiling man with thinning brown hair.

“Harry,” James spoke, “This is my wife, Cheri and I’m James Walden. We’ve been looking forward to meeting you. Good flight over I hope?”

“Alright,” Harry answered, eyeing the bright glowing orbs hovering about the couple. He figured the silver one was made of metal with wings that creaked and a face with glowing red eyes. The green one, well the green one made Harry confused as to how such an untouchable woman would be stuck with something so hideous.

“Zhis is Corgot,” Cheri explained, “‘e is my Faerie and zhis if Megari, my ‘usband’s Faerie. Zhey don’t speak much but you must be so ‘ungry! Come, come, sit over ‘ere.”

Harry followed her lead but it was hard not to with the thin woman forcing him towards a seat near his godfather. Lianna, who was just placing a plate down in front of Arthur Weasley, smiled brightly at the boy. Her mother had gone over to help Molly with a large tankard of Butterbeer.

“Hi Harry,” Lianna breathed. A plate was placed in front of Sirius who thanked her softly, “I’m Lianna. It’d be best to just ignore my mother.”

“Hey,” He muttered in reply and began to look around for a ball of light following the tall girl. There was none so he settled on peering at her. Lianna was nice to look at, just like her mother, but seemed softer with a gentle smile hanging off his lips. Ron had mentioned he was certain something was going on between her and his older brother, Fred.

The dinner table had been filled to the brim with people, each having their own variety of conversations as food was being passed around. One of the more entertaining had been with Mundungus Fletcher down near the twins. He had been telling them, Lianna and Ron about one of his endeavours that had involved the stealing toads off a man and selling them right back at an overly high price. Lianna found her face plastered against Ron’s shoulder, tears pouring from her eyes as she shook with laughter. Ron mimicked the motion, his head tossed back as he sniggered loudly in the hot kitchen air. The twins were trying to muffle their rather wild chuckles with their goblets filled with Butterbeer. George only managed to choke on the liquid.

Cheri had interrupted the felon’s story before Molly had the chance and snarled at the grungy criminal that her innocent daughter’s ears weren’t to be tainted by such filth. Lianna had managed to snort loudly in reply, enough that her mother hissed for her to be quiet. Lianna wasn’t quite capable of managing that but tried her hardest by covering her beaming lips with her napkin.

Flagwin, who had finally awaken by the loud laughter, was flittering about the room, stealing food every so often from Remus Lupin and snatching rather large pieces of bread James Walden would toss into the air. James had always found it amusing how the tiny creature could eat a chunk of food the size of its own head in one bite.

Lianna was certain the little dragon was going to get fat before the summer ended.

Tonks, across the table, with bubblegum pink hair was doing her typically meal time entertainment. Both Ginny and Hermione were rather big fans which had their own favourites Tonks would happily recreate whenever either girl asked. Ginny was asking for the pig nose while Hermione seemed to enjoy the duck beak.

When dinner had come to an end and dessert fit for a queen had been served, Lianna fell back into her chair with a loud sigh of contentment. With her hands on top of what she promptly called her food baby, Lianna was nearly certain the button on her jean shorts was about to fly off at any moment. Meal time always seemed to leave her in a state where moving never seemed quite possible.

“This is very, very peculiar,” Arthur Weasley spoke from down the table, “It seems that your hearing at the ministry is to be before the entire wizard court!”

Harry looked confused, angry, worried, “I don’t understand. What does the Ministry of Magic got against me?”

Mad-Eye, who had been giving Lianna and the twins the stink eye most of the night, was standing near the fire. The fire had flickered out long ago when Lianna was certain her skin was starting to melt off. It sat empty and quiet behind Sirius.

“Show him,” said the gruff Auror, “He’ll find out soon enough.”

Above Mad-Eye floated Turnox, the Faerie with large ram horns, skin so blue is was as though no blood moved through his build and black, vine like tattoos that ran along his body. His eyes, his entire eyes were black as night and regardless if it were Lianna or anyone else peering into them, they all seemed to face the same cold shiver down their spine. The dark glow, his leathery wings flapping, appeared displeased as he floated silently above Alastor Moody.

Kingsley, the Auror in brilliant blues, handed off a copy of the Daily Prophet. Lianna had caught a glimpse of it earlier in the day. The newspaper had been smearing Harry for a while now, Dumbledore as well, and Mrs. Weasley had promptly stopped reading it. That had given the twins ability to put an ad out for their products which both were quite thrilled about.

“He’s been attacking Dumbledore as well,” said Sirius.

Lianna peered over Ron to see her mother frowning. Molly was the mirror image of her. Both had tried to keep as much information away from their children. It was their attempt at protecting them but it seemed that neither of the children wanted such protection.

Sirius continued, “Fudge is using all his power, including his influence on the Daily Profit to sneer anyone who claims the Dark Lord has returned.”

“Why?” Harry asked.

Remus sighed, “The Minister thinks Dumbledore is after his job.”

“But that’s insane,” cried Harry, crinkling the paper in his hands, “No one in their right mind could believe that Dumbledore -”

“Exactly the point,” Lupin explained, “Fudge isn’t in his right mind. It’s been twisted and warped by fear. Now fear makes people do terrible things, Harry. The last time Voldemort had power he almost destroyed everything we hold most dear. Now he’s returned and I’m afraid the Minister will do almost anything to avoid facing that terrible truth.”

“No more!” Cheri Walden hissed, glaring down at the men at the far end of the table, “Zhey are children and zhey do not need to ‘ear anymore!”

“Mom,” Lianna called, “We’re old enough -”

“You are not!”

Molly nodded in agreement, the only agreement Cheri and her ever held, “That’s enough. All of you - up to bed.”

“You can’t tell us what to do, Mum,” George called.

“Watch me!” Mrs. Weasley hissed, her voice shrill, her eyes sharp. Neither of the twins replied but the frustrated looks on their face were answer enough. Lianna held a similar look, an angrier one that glared across the table at her mother. Cheri ignored her.

“Molly,” Arthur’s soft voice spoke, “Fred and George are of age. Legally -”

“Lianna!” Cheri cut the man off, “Up to bed.”

“Bed?” her daughter scoffed, “I’m 17, Mom. There’s nothing you can do.”

“Lianna!”

“Cheri,” James cut in, “She’s 17.”

The silvery mess of hair seemed too crackled with fire while her thin arms flailed about, the sleeves of her robes dropped to her elbows, “Non! Non! I will ‘ave none of this! Lianna, you are a child -”

“Send me to bed, Mom, watch how fast these two tell me what happened.”

The twins nodded in agreement, both holding a cocky grin that Cheri snarled at. Finally, a huff of air came from the woman’s lips and she fell back into her seat, defeated. Her mouth opened again, went to snap for those twins to wipe that look off their face but James had placed a strong hand on her knee, keeping his wife silent.

“Lianna, you may stay, dear,” said her father, smiling as the girl happily turned back to peer down the table. Fred had sent her a wink, one that made her stomach flutter but she hid it fairly well as she was far too happy to have technically won an argument against her mother.

Ron and Hermione were put through the same trial with Mrs. Weasley but when Harry said he’d tell them everything, the woman gave up. Ginny was the only one sent off to bed and left with such a furious pounding she awoke Walburga Black. Remus Lupin had to rush off to silence the portrait. When he had returned, Sirius spoke grimly.

“We think Voldemort wants to build up his army again,” explained the dark haired man. All eyes were on him. Cheri was snarling, glaring and they all seemed to ignore her as she stalked off and upstairs.

Sirius continued, “Fourteen years ago he had huge numbers at his command. Not just witches and wizards but all manner of dark creatures. He’s been recruiting heavily and we’ve been attempting to do the same but gathering followers isn’t the only thing he’s interested in. We believe Voldemort may be after something.”

This was new, Lianna thought. They had gotten most of this information with the twins’ extendable ears. They had been listening throughout the summer but most of the time an Imperturbable Charm was placed upon the door when anything interesting was thought to arose.

“Sirius,” Moody warned but the wild eyed Black man ignored him.

“Something he didn’t have last time.”

“You mean like a weapon?” Harry asked.

Molly cut them off, “No, that’s enough. He’s just a boy.” She had hurried over and snatched the newspaper away, folding it and shoving it under her arm, “You say much more and you might as well induct him into the Order straight away.”

“Good! I want to join,” Harry declared, “If Voldemort’s raising an army than I want to fight.”

“No,” Lupin was the one to speak, “The Order is comprised only of overage wizards -” Fred, George and Lianna all opened their mouths, “Wizards who have left school.”

There was a mumbling of groans between the three. Molly finally took over.

“I want you in bed, now. All of you.”

“You can’t boss us - ” Fred bit but Molly shot him a very, very dark look that sent all 6 of them scampering up the stairs. Lianna and Hermione bid the boys a goodnight as they disappeared into their room.

Ginny was wide awake, as assumed, with a tired looking Flagwin on her lap. Lianna hadn’t noticed when the Fire Faerie had disappeared but figured it had probably been the time when the yelling had started. He had never been much of a fan of yelling. Hermione was quick to fill the Weasley girl in, though there wasn’t much for the girls to explain. Ginny wanted to talk about it, to discuss the use of a weapon but there was the sound of footsteps outside the door and they knew Mrs. Weasley was listening in.

Lianna gave up with a loud yawn as she dropped down upon her bed, calling Flagwin to flutter over. Moments later the footsteps continued on up the stairs, moving to listen in on Ron and Harry.

-----

Early in the morning, before Molly could even pull herself out of bed, Lianna was shuffling about the kitchen with tired eyes and sloppy feet. She was still in her pyjamas but her messy bed head had been tamed and sat high in a tight ponytail. Upon the counter laid a small chocolate cake and a bowl filled to the brim with icing. She had rushed through it and had accidently added a little more chocolate than had been needed. It resulted in a rather large abundance of icing.

A loud yawn echoed about the cool room and she thanked Merlin it was too early for that sweltering heat. Her mother better appreciate this, Lianna thought as she lazily stirred the hardening chocolate and those twins better be pleased she got up so early so they could rescues their extendable ears. Mrs. Weasley hadn’t seemed to notice the boxes were gone and her eldest boys seemed to be more cautious when it came to using them. Well, as cautious as a Weasley twin could be.

Two pairs of feet came heavily down the stairs, their owners yawning as they reached the kitchen. It smelt of fresh baking and a heavy scent of chocolate.

“Aren’t you up early,” sang the twins.

“No thanks to you two,” laughed Lianna, her back to them as she continued to mix the settling icing. There was far too much and she would’ve liked to finished her cake now but steam was still rising and she wasn’t going to risk ruining it, “You know you both owe me one, right?”

“Owe you?” laughed George and he had crept over to the chocolate cake cooling down on the counter. His hand moved forward to sneak a piece, to rip it off the side but Lianna smacked his knuckles with a quick reflex, “Ouch.”

“I don’t think we owe you anything, love,” Fred continued with a beam, peering over her shoulder as she tried to whip the hardening icing with a thick spoon, her eyes glaring at George. Fred’s finger had slipped towards the bowl.

“Get out of there,” Lianna snarled, and she moved to hit Fred with her hand. In that moment George had gone back to touch the cake, “For Merlin’s sake! Did you two just come down here to bother me?”

“No,” Fred propped his chin upon Lianna’s shoulder. She could feel her heart begin to pump wildly, the blood rushing to her cheeks, “We’re just hungry.”

“Hungry, eh?”She scoffed, “Fine, I’ll get you food. Just go sit down.”

“Really?” George asked with a beam.

“Yes, if you two can just go sit down and leave me alone for a like five minutes than I will get you food.”

So they did to Lianna’s surprise and she took that time to pretend to bustle about the kitchen. The twins quite happily chatting to themselves, their back turn to her as she moved towards her thick, gooey icing. Carefully she dipped both hands inside, gathering a rather large amount in each. Lianna walked over to the twins, as silent as possible, and quickly reached her hands around their heads, slamming the chocolate goo into their faces.

“Oi!” Fred cried, the sound muffled by the rather large amount of icing. Lianna just giggled wildly, wiping bits of it off on their necks until she turned back to her dessert and grabbed the spare towel sitting next to the sink.

“That wasn’t very nice Walden,” George said with a grin, licking his mouth clean.

Fred nodded, “Though gotta admit, its pretty good icing.”

“Why thank you!”

“But we are going to have to make you pay,” they both said.

“Pay?” She snorted, “Do your worst you silly boys.”

“Oh Anna,” Fred breathed, “You really shouldn’t have said that.”

She turned, a bright grin on her face and a messy towel in hand, “Just no trying to kill me, you got it?”

George looked appalled, “We would never!”

“How could you say something like that?” Fred cried.

She simply smiled, giggling to herself. It was hard to take them seriously with a mess of chocolate smeared over their noses, cheeks and mouth. Fred had some hanging off his chin and George was batting a bit away from his ears.

“Just you wait Lianna Walden,” spoke Fred but before he could finish his ‘threat’ Molly Weasley came bustling down into the kitchen in a rush. She said Lianna’s cake looked wonderful and then sharply sent the boys upstairs to go clean themselves off. Lianna was left snickering as she turned to the sink to try and clean up the couple bowls she had used earlier that morning.

Breakfast went by fast only because Molly’s plan for the day was to destroy the doxy infestation in one of the rooms. The woman had assumed it would take most of the morning and had been quite right. Lianna had spent until lunch standing beside Hermione and Ginny, a black spray bottle in hand as she happily shot the buzzing creatures in the face. Hordes of Doxies filled bucket after bucket and out of the corner of her eye, Lianna saw the twins pocket a few.

When Molly disappeared to gather sandwiches for lunch part of Lianna suddenly went on edge. She could feel her nerves rise, especially when she peered over at the twins and they were both grinning quite deviously at her. She ended up sticking her tongue out at them.

It probably hadn’t been the best idea to challenge the Kings of Pranks. Lianna could already feel herself jumping at nearly every noise and she was certain they were thriving off of it. She wasn’t positive what was coming her way and part of her said nothing would as the two of them were getting enough kicks out of her suddenly jumpy nature.

For the rest of the day Lianna was scot free as they were all far too busy cleaning that one room. Sirius had wandered in frequently to help motion what was to be pitched and it seemed, from Lianna’s perspective, he wanted everything and anything with the Black name on it gone.

After dinner Lianna felt her eyes dropping but the dust and sweat in her hair was enough that she muttered to the girls she’d take a shower. Gathering her shampoo from her room, Lianna hurried down the hall with a fluffy white towel in hand. Paranoia wasn’t as high as it had been during the afternoon but she still peeked into the shower to make sure something or someone wasn’t about to jump her. When everything looked normal she stripped and slid on inside.

The warm water clashed over her build, dripping down her skin in waves. It was a peaceful feeling, one that Lianna had always enjoyed. She had alone time in the shower, time to sit with her thoughts and wonder what the next day would be like. Harry, the new arrival, seemed to keep to himself. He barely talked much to Lianna, even when she specifically talked to him but she figured it was a trust issue and wasn’t to bothered. She had enough chatter from the twins and Ginny’s excitement for the new school year to keep her busy. Ginny really wanted to see which house she was going to be tossed into.

Lianna slopped a handful of her shampoo into her hand, tossing it up into her hair.

As for her issue, the issue Lianna couldn’t ignore anymore, she wasn’t quite certain what she wanted to do about it. She enjoyed Fred, he, Ron and George all knew that but she had nerves that he didn’t enjoy her as much as she did him. At least now, Lianna grasped why she liked him, well part of why anyway. He was wonderful to look at, enough that Lianna could stare at him all day if she had too. She was certain his passion for his jokes gave her thrills and the way he seemed to look out for her, regardless of what it was, made her heart swooned. George stood out too but something about Fred, and maybe she’d never understand what it was, just pulled her to him.

After a good twenty minutes of water wasting, Lianna stepped out of the shower, rinsed and wrapped tightly in a towel. A few soap suds stung her eyes but she brushed them away, peering in the mirror. Pale green eyes peered back, pale green eyes that suddenly widened to near horrifying extents. For a silent moment she wasn’t sure what to do and with no other reaction coming to mind, Lianna released a rather horrified scream.

Down on the main floor Walburga Black’s portrait began to screech about mudbloods and traitors and thieves.