Chapter Text
Harry woke to the darkness of his bedroom at Grimmauld Place knowing something was wrong. There had been no nightmares, no visions of torture or murder to disturb his slumber, but he'd startled himself awake all the same as a creaking step sounded in the hall just beyond his door. Reaching for his glasses, he slipped them on and fumbled for his wand under his pillow where he kept it in case of emergency.
He'd been staying with Sirius and random Order members during the last few weeks before school started, rescued from the Dursleys just in time as Vernon was gearing up to have Harry give the house a nice new coat of paint. Ron and Hermione hadn't been able to come and stay with him, but they'd traded letters back and forth. This was their seventh and final year together at school and that fact alone had kept Harry on edge all summer, unable to stop himself from worrying about what his fate would be after Hogwarts. It seemed a little premature to be worrying about a life beyond Hogwarts when he still had Voldemort to deal with, but Harry refused to let the bleakness of his future keep him from making plans.
It was his determination to meet every obstacle head-on that had him creeping to his door and pressing his ear to the wood, his body tensed for a fight as he listened to the soft footsteps that grew closer and closer. Something inside him, some deep-down gut instinct, told him that whoever or whatever was lurking around in the hallway was not just Sirius walking off his frustrations or Moody being 'constantly vigilant.'
"Back to bed, Little Brother," came the sudden and shockingly close command. Harry stumbled back from the door as he realized that the person he was listening for had been standing right on the other side. It was a woman's voice, sweet and lighthearted, but with a velvety undertone that reminded Harry strangely of Snape. Of course, he wasn't used to hearing such a rich, melodic voice when it wasn't hurling insults at him or taking away house points, so he wondered how he'd made the comparison at all.
Sultry voice or not, Harry wasn't about to be ordered to bed by a stranger, so he stubbornly opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. No one was there. Another blink of his eyes did nothing to rectify the baffling situation and he quickly looked left and right, seeing only darkness.
"Lumos," he whispered, but even bringing a little light into the hallway didn't reveal anybody.
Not only was he puzzled by the disappearance of his nocturnal visitor, Harry was also afraid that the voice he'd heard had been only in his head and not coming from the other side of the door as he'd thought. Hearing voices had never brought him anything but trouble. He resolved to find Sirius and ask him if any new Order members were currently staying at Grimmauld Place. If the answer was no, he'd let Sirius hear all about the strange voice, but if there was a reasonable explanation then Harry didn't want to upset anyone. He'd just pass the voice off as being the new houseguest and get back to that nice, dreamless sleep he'd been having.
He kept a tight grip on his wand as he approached the bedroom Sirius currently occupied, doing his best to sidestep the squeakiest of the floorboards. He was halfway to the door when he heard the voice coming from behind him, now with a hint of winter in the tone, only magnifying Harry's initial opinion that this voice had a lot in common with that of his Potions professor, though obviously feminine.
"He's downstairs, shouting at Severus."
Harry spun around, his wand trained on a woman half-cloaked in shadows, the beautiful contrast of her pale skin and dark hair reminding Harry of moonlight against the night sky. She was dressed in black leather pants and a black camisole that were practically painted onto her generous curves, and when she tilted her head to the side, studying Harry as intently as he studied her, he could see that her silky black hair fell far below her waist and was tipped in crimson.
"Who's downstairs?" Harry didn't lower his wand, though he could see that the woman wasn't carrying one herself. That didn't mean she couldn't do wandless magic, though, and he hadn't escaped death so many times only to let his guard down now.
"Sirius." The woman took a step closer and Harry could see that her eyes were a brilliant shade of purple that glowed in the muted light coming from his wand. She was repeating her words to him slowly, as if he were a child incapable of understanding. "He's downstairs, shouting at Severus. Has been for nearly an hour. Not that Severus isn't doing his share of shouting back." And here, a slow, wicked smile spread across her lips. Harry shivered.
"I don't hear anything," he said, wondering why he even bothered talking to this very strange and unsettling person when he should just stun first and ask questions later.
"They've put up silencing charms," she answered with a shrug. The smile returned, just as wicked as before. "Doesn't stop me from hearing, though. Silly wizards."
Now Harry was really panicking. Keeping his wand as the barrier between them, he quickly edged around the woman until his back was to the stairs. "Just who are you, anyway?" She sounded crazier than Bellatrix, and that was saying something.
"All in good time, Little Brother," she watched him with mirth dancing in her lavender eyes.
"Why do you keep calling me that?" Harry lowered his wand an inch or so, suddenly reminded of Dumbledore instead of Snape in the way the woman's eyes twinkled and the knowing smile that curved her lips.
Out of nowhere there was the sound of voices in the room below them and Harry decided he'd get his answers from Sirius instead. He bolted down the stairs, not caring that he was clad only in his pajama bottoms. He'd worry about his modesty later.
"Bite me again, Black, and I'll make you wish you were back in Azkaban," he heard Snape snarl, pleased to note that his observations were correct and whatever hint of winter was in the strange woman's voice existed tenfold in that of his unpleasant professor.
"The taste you left in my mouth was punishment enough, Snivellus," Sirius retorted, and Harry decided he'd better make his entrance quick or the silencing charms would go up again and he'd have to wait out another battle to get a word in with his godfather. He walked into the kitchen where the two men and Dumbledore were congregated, taking in the tense scene with far less panic and agitation in his bright green eyes. The familiarity of the bickering going on in the room had settled Harry's nerves somewhat, and he even managed a cheeky grin at his godfather.
"Letting your inner beast out again, Sirius?" It was common knowledge that confining himself to his animagus form during his imprisonment at Azkaban had left Sirius with more than a few quirks, not the least of which was his recent tendency to 'go wild' during an especially heated argument and transform into Padfoot.
"Ah, Harry," Albus Dumbledore greeted his student with a fond smile and the usual twinkle in his eyes. "What brings you down here at such a late hour?"
"Nightmares?" Sirius leapt to the most likely conclusion, his anger dissipating into worry for his godson.
"Weak silencing charms?" Snape followed up nastily, earning a glare from Sirius who was obviously the perpetrator of said charms.
Harry remembered with a jolt just why he'd come down and quickly stepped away from the open doorway leading into the kitchen, choosing an empty seat at the dining table across from Dumbledore. He felt better sitting down where he could see every doorway in case the woman had followed him down.
"Is there a new member of the Order staying here?" he asked casually, placing his wand on the table now that he didn't feel threatened.
"How would that be any business of yours, Potter?" Snape narrowed his eyes at the half-dressed youth, though Harry could have sworn he felt that piercing gaze wander a bit before it was boring into his own defiant green gaze with an intensity that felt a step away from legilimency.
"It's my business when there's some crazy woman lurking around outside my room," Harry snapped, more riled up by Snape's penetrating gaze than the memory of his interaction with the dark-haired stranger. In his sixth year he'd finally admitted to himself, as well as his two best friends, that he preferred men to women, but not until this summer had he even dared to believe that his animosity towards Snape was anything but well-deserved enmity for a man who'd made his school life as miserable as possible. Being on the receiving end of the man's inky black stare at this moment made him think there was something more to their volatile relationship, at least on Harry's side of things.
"I prefer eccentric to crazy." The disembodied voice at the door startled Harry into breaking from Snape's hypnotic gaze and he turned to watch as the mysterious woman's figure was revealed from the shadows.
"Stalking your prey, Aiya?" Snape drawled, looking bored now.
"Nothing so blatant, Severus," she replied, and this time the smile she presented to Harry was all warmth, full of the same lighthearted sweetness he'd heard in her voice the first time she spoke.
"Harry, let me present Aiyana Graham. She will be teaching at Hogwarts this year." Dumbledore waved his wand and a chair pulled out for Aiya.
"If our previous discussion is concluded, I will take my leave." Snape stood up as soon as Aiya had sat down, nodding his farewells before turning with a flurry of dark robes and exiting the kitchen.
"Doesn't like you very much, does he?" Sirius murmured in Aiya's ear and she giggled, making Harry take a longer look at the woman who'd seemed a lot more sinister in the shadows of the upstairs hallway. She appeared to be only a few years older than Harry himself, perhaps twenty or so.
"I should be going as well," Dumbledore stood with a smile, and to Harry's surprise he patted Aiya on the head as one would a small child. "I will see you two at school," he said to both Harry and Aiya, then turned to Sirius with a twist of his head, "and I trust you will take the necessary steps in seeing that Harry is well prepared for his last year at Hogwarts?"
Sirius slumped into a chair next to Harry and aquiesced with a weary nod and a sigh. "Of course. Remus is coming to take Harry to Diagon Alley to get his books, but other than that I have things well in hand."
Another twinkle in those clear blue eyes and Dumbledore nodded in satisfaction. "Good, good. Then I will bid you all good night. Sirius, Harry, Miss Graham," he inclined his head to each then was gone.
"You tend to clear a room, Aiya," Sirius said as he waved his wand to refill his coffee mug.
"My irresistable charm is to blame, I'm sure," she replied drily before settling her sights on Harry. "I told you 'all in good time,' Harry. Patience isn't one of your virtues, is it." It was a statement, not a question, but it didn't irritate Harry the way it might have if someone else had said it.
"I don't like being kept in the dark," he replied with a shrug.
That comment seemed to amuse Aiya and she chuckled. "Don't you? Oh well, I'm sure I can teach you to like it, if even just a little, in the future."
Harry stared at her in confusion. Sirius laughed and clapped his hand on Harry's shoulder, "Aiya's a morwen and as such she lives and breathes darkness. So naturally she likes being kept in the dark, literally if not figuratively."
A morwen? He'd never heard of them before. No doubt Hermione would know something. He wasn't counting on Aiya being very forthcoming with information since her answers to his previous questions had been vague at best, but she showed an uncanny ability to read his thoughts as she addressed his unspoken inquiry.
"Page 73 of Culpepper's Catalogue of Extinct Magical Creatures," Aiya rattled off a surprisingly concise answer that brought only more questions to Harry's mind, such as how the blazes Aiya could be a morwen if they were extinct. "It will tell you all about the Mori - a morwen is the female of the species - and manages not to be too prejudiced against us. Most of the other texts are full of half-truths or outright lies."
"Couldn't you just tell me all about the … the Mori," Harry said, not pleased at being given homework before school even started. "I mean, since you are one and all."
"Cheeky little brat, aren't you?" Aiya said, appearing positively delighted at the revelation.
"Takes after his father," Sirius chimed in.
"And his godfather," Harry added, dodging Sirius's playful smack.
Aiya grinned and pulled a thin deck of cards from her pocket, though Harry didn't see how it was possible seeing how tight her jeans were. For the first time he realized Aiya dressed very much like a muggle, and he wondered if she had any wizarding blood in her at all or if she was just a magical creature in human disguise.
"Yes, Sirius," Aiya was saying, shuffling the cards at the same time, "you certainly are partly to blame for how Harry turned out. I'm sure James would be proud."
"Did you know my dad?" Harry watched as Aiya masterfully shuffled the cards, wondering if she meant for them all to play a game or if she just needed to keep her hands busy.
"I was a student at Hogwarts at the same time as Sirius and your dad," Aiya said, suddenly slapping the deck down in front of Sirius who rolled his eyes and cut it twice before handing it back to Aiya. "And Remus and Lily and Severus and -" but she cut herself off, the cheerful glimmer in her lavender eyes hardening for a moment, but in the next instant she was smiling again. "Only for a couple of years, though. I was … shall we say, a problem child?"
"A hellion is more accurate," Sirius muttered.
"Wow, did you get expelled?" Harry had been faced with expulsion himself before, but he hadn't heard of many cases where it actually happened, except for that time with Hagrid.
"No, it was voluntary," Aiya said, sticking her tongue out at Sirius who looked as if he wanted to argue the point. She spread out the cards on the table in front of her in one long, fanning chain, and Harry realized the cards all had a strange symbol emblazoned on their backs that looked hand-painted, a dark reddish-brown against a white background. "The environment didn't suit me as well as my family thought it would."
Well, at least Harry knew Aiya had some wizarding blood in her. He couldn't believe Aiya was old enough to be his mom; she barely looked twenty-one. "What was your House?"
Aiya chuckled. "Slytherin, of course. I was much too deceptive and sneaky for anywhere else. My mum about died when she heard; she'd been a Gryffindor."
"The sweetest, most innocent-looking Slytherin in the history of Hogwarts." Sirius sipped at his coffee, a big grin breaking out on his face in rememberance. "Though you had a habit of lurking in the shadows and scaring first years out of their wits."
"I didn't mean to scare anybody," Aiya scowled at her old schoolmate, then an entirely wicked smile curved her lips and Harry was reminded of why he'd been so intimidated by the woman when he'd first met her upstairs. The effect of the smile was somewhat lessened in the light of the kitchen, but it still sent a shiver through Harry. "Except that little trick I played right before leaving. That one I meant with all my heart."
Sirius raised a brow. "Which is why all of us are terrified of you at times." But he didn't say anything more on the subject, leaving Harry wondering just what Aiya had done to terrorize Hogwarts before making her exit. He didn't get a chance to ask, that line of conversation coming to a halt as Aiya plucked a card from those laid out in front of her, brandishing it in front of Sirius like a weapon.
"I'm harmless," she cooed as Sirius snatched the card from her hand, looking at it with wide eyes before tossing it back at her.
"Yeah, and Snape is my best friend," he said with a smirk. Harry caught a glimpse of the card before Aiya had tucked it away again, intrigued to see a picture of an animal on the card instead of suits and numbers. He could've sworn the animal on that particular card was a big, black dog.
"He could be," Aiya turned serious, and the somber expression seemed to show itself most in the way her laughing lavender eyes cooled into twin pools of dark indigo. "You two have been at war with each for long enough. I think a truce is in order, if not an alliance."
Harry leaned back in his chair and listened with interest. It wasn't the first time someone had told Sirius to bury the hatchet where Snape as concerned, but this time his godfather was actually listening to what was being said and not just growling out how he hated Snape and how he was having enough trouble just tolerating him to even contemplate befriending him.
Sirius sighed and ran a hand through his shaggy hair. "Will you read for me, Aiya?" he finally said, wearily, as if the late hour had just now caught up with him.
She smiled sadly and drew three cards from the long line spread before her, keeping them face down at first. "You might not like what I tell you. Severus didn't."
"My best friend is dead and my godson is being hunted by the same madman who killed his father," Sirius said with sigh. "I'm no stranger to bad news."
Aiya glanced at Harry, as if judging whether it was wise to continue with Harry watching, but soon enough she smiled and nodded and turned the three cards over one at a time, slowly drinking in the sight of each one with her peculiar but beautiful eyes. The silence that settled over the kitchen became oppressive to Harry and he fidgeted in his seat, not understanding the significance of the cards except that each showed a different animal, expertly drawn in black ink upon the white cards.
"I don't have to tell you what the raven signifies," Aiya finally said, speaking only to Sirius though she did not bother to lower her voice or in any other way exclude Harry from the conversation. "It is his fate to always be trapped between two worlds and there is little you can do to change that. You yourself are torn at times, the beast inside pulling one way while the man wishes to go the opposite, so you can understand the raven - and in understanding his struggle, you can ease it by not forcing yet another choice upon him that would tear him in two."
Sirius grew very pale, but then he nodded sharply in acknowledgement of her words and gestured for her to go on.
"Scorpion … hmmm, well at any other time I would say the spirits are telling you to get laid," she joked, raising her eyebrows at Sirius and earning a snicker from Harry. "Though scorpion's passion comes with an element of danger … you never know when you might get stung." She narrowed her eyes, concentrating harder on the center card, cocking her head to the side every now and then, as if listening to some far-away voice. "No, as much as you obviously need a release, I think scorpion has come to tell you that you are wasting energy. Save your attacks for the time when you need to protect something - yourself or those you love - and stop wasting your strength on meaningless skirmishes. Scorpion's sting is a defensive attack. Don't be the aggressor, it will only lead to harm for yourself or for someone you love."
"I think I prefer the idea of getting laid." Sirius rested his elbows on the table and steepled his hands under his chin, calmer now with the color returning to his face.
Aiya rolled her eyes. "Men." She concentrated on the final card, a softer smile gracing her lips. "You're in luck, Siri. The crane means you're going to finally have some peace in the future. And not the 'rest in peace' kind of peace. The spirits are practically buzzing in my ear over how happy you're going to be. Not without some trials, of course, which is where raven and scorpion come in, but it'll be well worth it, believe me."
Harry beamed at his godfather, not sure he believed in what Aiya was doing but pleased to hear her giving Sirius some hope for the future. Good news, even if it came in the form of Aiya's animal cards, was still good news, and if it put Sirius in a better mood then Aiya's reading was a godsend.
Sirius had a goofy smile on his face, the weariness falling away from his expression, and with almost childlike exuberance he flipped the cards over and pushed them back towards Aiya. "Okay, now read for Harry."
Aiya laughed and gathered her cards up. "No, no … two readings in one night is all I can do without a darker room than this and a bottle of vodka."
"It's okay," Harry said, feeling a little relieved since he didn't want to hear all about how Voldemort was going to kill him or anything like that. He'd had his death predicted enough by Trelawney to last him his supposedly short lifetime. "I'm not much for predictions and spirits anyway."
"Oh, I'll be reading for you soon," Aiya promised darkly, that frighteningly devious smile back on her lips. "Though in time I think you could contact the spirits just as well as I can. Better, even. Once you've been tur - "
"Off to bed, then," Sirius interrupted Aiya, shooting her a glare before he all but shoved Harry out of his seat and towards the kitchen doorway, pausing only to snatch Harry's wand off the table and hand it to him. "Remus is coming tomorrow and you'll want to make an early start of it, I'm sure."
Harry grinned. Sirius was not the most subtle of guardians, but at least Harry always knew where he stood with the man. "Alright, alright, I'm going. No need to push." He was more than happy to leave off the mystery of Aiya for now and go back to his first restful sleep in months. "Good night, Sirius. 'Night, Aiya."
"Pleasant dreams," Aiya said, that knowing twinkle back in her eyes, but this time Harry did not see it and he continued on up the stairs to his bedroom without another thought to the new houseguest.