The Third Time is a Charm

Posted: 20 February 2010

Chapter 76 Ladies of Magic

The meeting of the Ladies Social Club was in session for the month of December. It would be the first time that Lily Potter and Alice Longbottom were to infiltrate the lives of the other women. Some of these people had been on the wrong side of the war, in their opinion, and now had called a truce to help others. Ladies Potter and Longbottom approached the room with trepidation. There was enough power in there to take over Gringotts if they wished.

The first one to greet them was the former Lady Longbottom, standing in the entrance way while speaking to a young woman. Upon seeing the woman Lily was instantly put at ease, almost as if she should know her from somewhere. When the young woman turned to look, Lily saw the most incredible green eyes to go along with the silky black hair; a luxurious raven black turned to a navy blue color in the light. Instantly Lily held out her hand to greet her while Augusta Longbottom made the introductions.

“Ah, Lily, I am so glad you made it. I want you to meet Becca Prince.” The older woman then turned to Becca, “This is Lady Lily Potter. She is a friend of my daughter-in-law’s, Alice Longbottom.” As she said Alice’s name she indicated her hand in a gesture to show she was talking about the woman next to Lily.

“Welcome ladies. Is this your first time to one of our meetings?” Becca already knew the answer, but didn’t want to come across to the others as if she kept tabs on everyone. “I have missed the last few meetings while I was in the last stages of pregnancy and giving birth.”

“We both just had children too!” said Alice Longbottom as she laughed with the younger woman.

"Actually" Becca smirked and informed them with a conspiratorial whisper, "several of the women here are pregnant or just had babies. There seems to be a lot of that going around."

She turned to their hostess "Please excuse me, Mrs. Longbottom, may I introduce these guests to some of the others?"

"Of course dear. I have a few more ladies arriving and can't leave my post at the moment." The wizened older woman turned to her son's wife, "Would that be acceptable to you, Alice dear?"

"Of course, Mother, that would be quite acceptable and I believe I already know a few people here, but Lily may need a few more introductions."

Lily looked about the room that had over twenty pureblood women in it. She realized this was a room full of the 'cream of the crop'. These women were the ones of the pureblood society that she was rarely allowed into. Alice had grown up in this elite society, but Lily had been branded a 'mudblood' from the very beginning of entering the wizarding world and she was nervous about meeting some of these people.

Becca was a natural, head held high as if she had been born to be a leader of the elite. Her posture was perfect, chin up, shoulders back, voice with the perfect pitch and her eloquence was also evident every time she opened her mouth. She spoke their ‘language’ and not for the first time today, Lily wondered where she had come from. The Prince family was a mystery and she wondered what Becca’s affiliation with the Prince Conglomerate organization was. She would ask Moony when she had a chance.

All of these women hung on Becca's every word, but she was not pretentious. She would answer a question and make sure the person understood the answer before going on to the next question. Lily thought she would make a wonderful teacher. No matter how many times the same question was asked, she answered politely and completely then moved on.

It was the strangest social club Lily had ever seen.

Lily followed the young woman with her eyes as she went around the room and then as the meeting came to order. Today they were not only going over some of the uses for the ‘family magic imbued crest’, but how to create one for the younger families that may not be the Lords but the younger brothers or sisters that had smaller homes and lived outside the family manor. Becca impressed upon the women about following the old ways of creating these crests.

Lily was told how the house elves were protected by the family magic and needed the strength to survive the hundreds of years they actually lived. Becca was teaching a new subject today on creating the blood magic family crests with the help of the old family elves. It was quite the ceremony. The reason they had come to Augusta Longbottom’s home was because she had abdicated the Longbottom Manor to her son and moved out to give the young family privacy. The current home she was residing in had no family crest in the foundations. Today they were learning the importance of it and how to activate it. The process, however, would take several meetings to learn.

After the meeting was concluded, Lily and Alice got ready to leave, but at the last minute Lily sought out Becca to have a private word with her.

"Why do I have the feeling we have met somewhere before?" she asked the woman.

"I do not believe we have met, but we may be related." Becca answered cryptically. "I am of the direct line of Rowena Ravenclaw and I feel that you may be the same."

"Yes, but no one knows that." Lily said perplexed.

"If you continue to come to the meetings, you will learn how to access the spiritual side of your magic and know things that others would not expect you to. The women in the family are always the spiritual foundation. It is why most seers are women. When the couple is same sex based, the carrier of the children develops this sense. It is part of the old pureblood magic."

"I have always been taught that the old ways were confining and dark and evil and to be avoided. I have never seen these teachings before."

"I know. The teaching of the old ways has always been within the family and was labeled dark because it delves into the blood magic of the family. There are some books that you can get to read with this information."

"I already have a book that I recently acquired that may contain some of the old rituals. I haven't read much of it lately. Newborns can be quite demanding." Lily gave a soft tinkling laugh.

"Yes, the son I carried was born at the end of July and he is just getting to the point of sleeping all night."

"I also have a son born at the end of July, on the last day of the month. He is sleeping all night now, but there for a while I thought I was never going to get a full night’s sleep.”

The two women were soon joined by a third and all three talked about newborns and all having sons born on the same day. Becca didn't take the time to explain she wasn't Evan's real mother.

When Lily returned back home with Alice in tow, James looked up and smiled at his adorable wife. “Honey! Just the person I was hoping to see. Little Harry is due for a feed soon and I was afraid I was going to have to use the emergency bottle before you returned.”

“Is the baby awake yet?” Lily answered back, knowing what the answer would be. If he had been awake and wanting fed, he would be crying about now.

“No, not yet, but I have been keeping a close eye on him.”

“Yes, I’m sure you have. I want to show Alice the book I retrieved from Gringotts. I want to see if it has a few of the old pureblood spells in it that were spoken about at the meeting.” She turned and grabbed Alice’s hand. “Come on, the book is in our room.”

As they ran upstairs, little Harry must have sensed his mother nearby, for he let out a wail, announcing that he was hungry and most likely wet too. Lily soon got him sorted out and brought him to her room to feed him as Alice looked at the book.

“Lily, I have never seen some of these rituals before. It’s no wonder the ministry labeled them dark, they don’t require a wand that tracks our spells but they do require blood. Family blood, but look at the results. The protection spells alone are worth the risk.”

Alice and Lily found the ritual family magic spell for the family crest that Becca had been teaching about at the meeting and a few others as well. She would have to speak with James about it, but wanted to try at least one or two in the house they were in now. Lily and Alice spent the rest of the afternoon looking at the book and it was long after baby Harry fell back to sleep that they parted for the day and Alice promised to come back the next day. She would be on maternity leave for a few more weeks and wanted to learn as much as possible before going back to work.

Back at Prince Manor…

Becca had just returned to Prince Manor, when Harry came from the nursery after feeding the children. She knew she had been away longer than anyone anticipated and she didn’t want to worry them any more than she already had.

“Hi Harry” she said as he walked into the room. “How was your day?”

“Where have you been?” Harry said in a loud furious whisper. Obviously he had just gotten the little ones to sleep and he didn’t want to wake them.

“The meeting ran long and there were some unexpected visitors there.” Becca replied.

“What do you mean by ‘unexpected’?” the young man asked with concern. His mind started racing with the idea that Death Eaters had infiltrated the ladies group.

“Oh, not in a bad way” Becca assured him. “Lily Potter was there today and I was not expecting her. I didn’t realize that she and Alice Longbottom were such good friends. I guess I should have expected it, but somehow missed the idea they would both be there, even if we were at Mrs. Longbottom’s house.”

“My mother?” Harry asked as his face blanched. “How was she?”

“Oh, Harry, I am sorry if I distressed you. She was fine and we spoke today about the family crests and what they mean in relationship to protection rituals. It was a good meeting and I have no doubt she will read more of the book that she got from Gringotts to see what else she could use to protect Little Harry.”

“No, I’m not distressed, I was surprised and would really like to see her.” Harry said with a frown on his face. “I wonder if I ever will, even though I can never let her know who I am.”

“Don’t worry about it Harry, you never know what fate may have in store for you.” Becca replied while taking a seat and stretching out her legs on the sofa.

“We heard from Lucius Malfoy today.” Harry said conversationally.

“Really? How are Narcissa and the children? Are they still in France? When will they come for a visit?” Becca ran out of breath at this point.

Harry laughed at her. “You sound just like me when I get excited about something.” He thought about her questions, “Yes, really. Narcissa and the kids are fine. Yes, they are still in France. They don’t want to leave just yet, but we have been invited to go and visit with them for Christmas.” Harry was the one who paused for breath this time. “I hadn’t really noticed how close we are to Christmas. It’s only a few weeks away!”

They sat and talked about what to get Severus and where they would go shopping. How they would manage the children or if they should just leave them home. It was about ninety minutes later when Severus walked into the room with Salazar that they become conscious of having nearly missed their dinner. An elf came into the room at about the same time to announce that their meal was served.

At dinner Becca decided it would be as good a time as any to approach the next idea she had. She knew they were not going to like it, but it was a really good idea.

“Hey guys, I was thinking about venturing into Diagon Alley and doing a book signing at Flourish and Blotts. What do you think?” she asked in an almost too cheerful voice.

“Not on your life.” Severus said.

“Not happening.” Said Harry at the same time.

“I don’t like the idea.” Came from Sal as the other two were talking at the same time.

“So glad you agree with me, I am going to set it up first thing tomorrow. It will increase the sales of the children’s books and also let people see that we are not some figment of everyone’s imagination.” Becca smirked. “I got the idea today while talking to one of the ladies about Christmas presents for the kids and she asked me to autograph a book she had bought at the book store for her five year old.”

“We did not agree with you.” Salazar interrupted.

“Oh? I really could have sworn with all that noise you were making that I heard ‘happening idea’ in there somewhere.” Becca smirked again. “It made me think that you had finally gotten in touch with your inner child and made a joke about it.”

“That is not what we said and you know it.” Severus retorted.

“Perhaps, but it is a good idea. If it weren’t for the fact that it was ME wanting to go, you would agree to it.”

Harry was the one to speak up when he noticed the expression on the woman’s face. He recognized that expression as the same one he used when he was solidly stubborn about something. “You will have to have at least three guards stationed around you. You will have to bring Seventh Born and keep him with you at all times. We can use an invisibility charm on her. You will not go milling with the crowd, but stay in one place.”

Becca wasn’t happy about this list that was continuing to grow, but she would abide by what ever reasonable rules they came up with to be allowed to do this.

One week later…

Flourish and Blotts was packed with people. This did not make the guards happy; however it made Becca and the Mr. Flourish ecstatic. People from every level of society and walk of life were represented in the store. Some of the ladies from ‘the club’ had come to make sure Becca was going to be alright and of course to get her to sign their books.

Mr. Flourish had not been one hundred percent agreeable to all the security measures, but Severus and Salazar had come to visit with the man, making sure that he understood why the measures were necessary. Of course, the real reason the shop owner had agreed, might have been the fact that Severus had said under no circumstances was Becca going to make an appearance without every one of their safety procedures in place.

A vampire was in the shadows watching the people. He had been chosen because of his great speed and ability to ‘read’ other people in a crowd. Becca was set up at a table with stacks of books behind her. The idea was for the customer to come to the table for the children’s book they wanted. Becca would sign the book and hand it to the customer. At absolutely no time was Becca to take a book from someone to sign. It could have been changed into a portkey or worse have some kind of poison on it.

Sentry Dobby was stationed at the table with Becca, in the guise of helping her. He was actually making sure no one approached and threw any foreign object at her that could be dangerous.

Becca, herself was dressed in a Prince Conglomerate uniform robe with a basilisk skin smock under her robe. It would still ward off spells of any kind, but was hidden from sight. Seventh Born was indeed invisible and wrapped around Becca. If anyone attacked, the snake could still look into their eyes and instantly kill them.

Becca had been warned, countless times, that any one that she knew, could be polyjuiced and may not be the real person. She was warned about accepting anything from anyone even if she thought she knew them.

Salazar was also in the place; he and Severus had been working on a long acting polyjuice and had perfected it somewhat. He would remain in his other form for about three hours instead of just the one hour. All he had to do was head to the loo and take another dose to remain disguised.

Although there were several people that had brought their own books to be signed, they had to be left at the door and they were not allowed to bring them into the shop. Ostensibly this was to prevent theft or at the very least the books getting confused with the ones for sale. They were told that Becca would sign them later and they would be returned. Actually they were checked for safety, then signed and returned. Mr. Flourish had a back room where several Prince Employees were to check the books.

It wasn’t until halfway through the morning, when an elf popped in from Prince Manor with Becca’s lunch that things got interesting.

When Molly Weasley came into the shop, she had all of her children with her. Now, no matter how well behaved her kids were; six children and four of them age four and under can be quite unruly. She proceeded past the people at the door that were collecting presold books to be signed and walked into the shop.

Becca saw Molly Weasley from across the room, just before she made her way over to the table with all the children. Molly smiled at Becca and greeted her exuberantly.

“Hi Becca, it has been so long since we have seen you. The children love the books you gave us and have asked for their own copy each. I hope you don’t mind that we came. I was wondering,” her she took a book out of her pocket, “if you could sign this one too. Bill just loves this book.” When she put it down on the table, everything started happening at once.

Seventh Born hissed, Dobby cried “NO!” and started to grab for it just as Salazar, who was sitting at the table keeping a tally of the sales, grabbed for it at the same time. Only he reached it first and disappeared. The vampire had grabbed for Becca and pulled her in her chair back away from the table.

“Oh, dearie me,” the older woman said. “I didn’t mean to cause such a ruckus. I wonder where that man went with my book?”

“I am sure he will be back soon” Becca said, trying to stay calm. Salazar wouldn’t leave her here like that without a good reason. She didn’t notice Sentry Dobby call for another house elf to deliver a message to Severus about Salazar vanishing

At Prince Manor…

“What do you mean he vanished?” Severus howled at the elf. He immediately went to the floo and called in reinforcements. He was not taking any chances with the woman he loved like a daughter. He wanted to know what was going on. Harry was taking a nap with the children and he chose not to wake him. He had been up half the night with Lillian and needed some sleep. Instead he left a message with the house elf on what to tell him should he awaken before they were back.

Ten minutes later Severus, Regulus, and Moony were arriving at Diagon Alley. It only took another three minutes for them to get to the famous bookstore and see that there was still some chaos inside the store.

Becca was in the corner, arguing with the Vampire and Sentry Dobby about not wanting to leave. Molly Weasley was standing with her brood as the store owner would not let her leave; since it was her book that caused the trouble and it was not left at the door for signing. There was another woman; one Severus could have sworn he had seen before, standing off to the side watching the area, in a nonchalant sort of way.

Severus nodded to the woman, he now recognized as being one of the ladies from the club. He made his way over to the Vampire and Sentry Dobby, who were still arguing with Becca about leaving and said the password. “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

They then nodded at the onyx eyed man who addressed the young woman, “I take it this argument is about you not wanting to leave?”

“I don’t feel it would do any good to run scared. Especially when we don’t know what happened.” Becca replied.

After everything had been explained, Severus said “Then I will stay and let Reg and Moony search for Salazar. He did not come back to the manor so we can only assume the book had been turned into a portkey. I very much doubt that Molly Weasley would admit to it though so there is no way to know for sure.”

He then went over to Mr. Flourish to smooth things over and to tell Molly Weasley to go home. After he spoke with Regulus and Moony about finding Sal, he took the founder’s place at the table and they continued to greet the public.

That afternoon, Becca was reading to the children that had come to the store for a story hour. She read several stories including the one Severus had heard her telling his children. It was a great way to introduce them to a new way of thinking instead of fighting about light and dark.

The only thing on everyone’s mind at this point was ‘Where was Salazar Slytherin?’