Choosing Darkness

Diagon Alley wasn\'t too much different from the Muggle section of London she\'d visited those many years ago. There was still a rustling of people and the dull roar of conversation-or course it had it\'s seedier sides, but that was all a part of humanity, and Arista took it all in stride. Thankfully, Albus had the presence of mind to list the shops where she would find her items without looking completely like an idiot. She had learned enough to know that everyone started out with a wand at a young age, so having the new DADA professor go announcing that she needed a wand was not a good idea. Arista figured that having wands broken during battle was a good enough excuse for the shopkeeper.

Arista studied the sign over the shop door. \"Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C.\" Singing to herself, she stepped inside. Dank and dusty, she stepped to what appeared to be a very cramped center for the store. There was nothing but boxes lined on every wall, covering nearly every square inch of the place. It was almost like an abandoned shoe shop.

There was a whisper off to her left, and she swerved, startling the shopkeeper. His pale eyes flew open in suprise when he saw the woman turn as if she had been warned. His suprisement was quickly hidden as he pressed his hands together. \"Hello. Is there something I can help you with?\"

\"I am in the market for a new wand,\" Arista replied smoothly as she looked out at all the boxes.

\"I see....hmmm...you didn\'t purchase your original wand here. I would have remembered you,\" he mused, his eyes darting over her form. \"Where did you purchase--\"

\"I didn\'t. Made it myself. It was damaged during a particularly nasty fight,\" she declared, making no further moves to explain more. \"I was told that this was the best place to purchase a wand.\"

\"The only place to purchase fine wands,\" Mr Ollivander came back into his \'field\' and filled Arista in to how the wands were specifically made and that the cores were from magical animals and the wonders of having a wand choose you. \"I\'m pleased to have made your aquaintence, miss--\"

\"Arista,\" she answered with a smile. \"So, the wand chooses you?\"

\"Yes. I remember when Harry Potter came in six years ago searching for his wand,\" his eyes glazed a little when he went back into the memory. \"It was the most fun three hours I\'ve had in a long time, holly and phoenix feather--\"

\"Purple Heart, Nine inches,\" Arista interrupted softly, \"With the hair of a black unicorn.\"

The reminiscing halted and silver eyes met steel grey. \"What?\"

\"That\'s my wand. You do have it here, right?\"

Mr Ollivander could only gape at her. \"How do YOU know--\"

\"I almost forgot. There should be a cabechon gem on the end. A round garnet at the base.\" Arista\'s eyes twinkled in merriment as the shopkeeper stood there with his mouth hanging open. \"How much?\"

\"I-I\'m sorry?\"

\"The wand.\"

He disppeared and many moments later, came back with a black velvet box. He also looked much paler than before. \"Are you all right, sir?\"

\"Yes...yes I am. It\'s just that no one has come *knowing( their wand.\" He opened the box and the deep purple wand gleamed from within. He lifted it carefully and handed it to her. Arista grasped the handle and the tip immediately sparked purple and silver. Ollivander looked as if he was about to faint. \"Oh. Oh my.\"

\"Something amiss?\"

\"Well...the unicorn, the black one, you were correct, was never seen again after it offered the hair. And no one asks for purple heart, anymore. It\'s took stiff and inflexible.\"

\"Only in the wrong hands,\" Arista murmured quietly as she admired her new acquisition. \"I\'m not in the business of simple charms and hexes.\"

\"Auror, then? Not easy work, these days.\" Ollivander said and he watched her out of the side of his vision while he wrote up the receipt. \"May I ask...how did you know it was here?\"

\"A little bird told me,\" she answered with a cryptic smile as she paid handsomely for the wand.

\"Good luck, then, Miss Arista.\"

\"Dragon\'s path, Mr Ollivander.\"

**

By noon, Arista had aquired all the things she needed and was heading up to the Leaky Cauldron. The visit to the apothecary had unnerved her somewhat, seeing the bucket of unicorn horns there for sale like they were nothing better than the beetles eyes. Her purchases were already on their way to the castle, and would be there by nightfall. All she had to do now was pick up Snape and get out of London.

However, there was a slight obstacle at the doorway. Tall and dark with nearly white hair streaming down his back, it attempted to break down Arista\'s wards while not attracting attention to himself. Arista\'s eyes narrowed as she stepped forward with more conviction. \"Is there something I can help you with?\"

The man looked up and then straightened himself with an over flourish of dignity. \"Why is that door locked?\"

\"Because I locked it,\" Arista replied. Her alarms shot through the roof when he narrowed his gaze at her.

\"Unlock it.\"

\"Excuse me?\"

\"Well, you work here, I pay you to do your job.\"

\"I don\'t think so. This isn\'t your room.\"

The door opened and a glowering Snape appeared in the doorway. Arista tossed a critical eye on him. He looked better, but not by much. \"Do you know this man--\"

\"-this tart?\" Both blonde stranger and Arista asked the same questions. Arista glared at the stranger.

\"Lucius,\" Snape rasped a little, \"this is Professor Arista Starfyr. She is the new DADA at the school.\"

The man\'s ice blue eyes flickered. \"Professor Starfyr. My, my, I didn\'t think that Albus had it in him.\" Arista stood her ground as the eyes raked over her form in a lurid manner. \"Out to teach the students that beauty will distract the enemy and render them harmless, I see. Better yet, out to pick up straggling teachers.\"

Arista nodded her head to Snape. \"You\'re looking better. I think we should get the hell out of dodge, then.\" She then brought her eyes to this smug man named Lucius and patted her left hand on his cheek. \"Pity you can\'t afford this \'tart\', sir. I have a student body to teach.\" As she brought her hand down and turned, she felt it taken and twisted upwards.

Lucius\' eyes gleamed with delight as if he found a treasure. \"What\'s this mark? A blue unicorn? Honestly, do you think it\'s proper for a lady to carry such defaming ink upon their bodies?\"

Arista had lifted her right hand when she\'d been grabbed, but it was held steady by Snape. She could feel him shake his head no as she glared at Lucius. \"No worse a mark than your own, sirrah.\" She snatched her hand out of the cold slimy grasp and defiantly wiped it on her cloak. Arista didn\'t notice Lucius\' eyes grow wide with suprise and then narrow in Snape\'s direction. Severus himself was shocked; he didn\'t think that she had unclothed him, thusly revealing the Mark, much less put two and two together and affiliate Malfoy with himself.

\"Glad to see you recovering in the \'tender\' ministrations of this woman, Severus,\" Lucius called back. \"I\'m certain that next time will be as useful as last night was.\"

Snape closed his eye the the remark, cringing slightly in his skin. Arista didn\'t seem to notice the hidden meanings. \"How did you know he was marked?\"

\"Don\'t tell me you can\'t see it, Severus. The darkness on his soul is palpable,\" she responded, gently squeezing his arm as she looped her hand through his elbow. \"Who was he, anyway?\"

\"One of the wizarding world\'s most wealthy wizards.\" Snape held his tongue on the other question he most dearly wanted to ask. Did she see the same darkness upon his soul too?