Chapter 1
"How are the centaurs tonight?"
Albus sure had a way with sneaking up on people.
"They are very agitated. The signs in the night sky do not look good." Solarea replied moving further away from the Forbidden forest joining the Headmaster on the path.
"I have often wondered how, when sometimes you return from some of the vilest places, you seemed to remain well polished in appearance."
It was true, no matter where she went, even the most filthiest slum, she always looked like a well polished socialite, wearing an attire to make her seem like snobbish pureblood on first appearance. In fact that was the way she acted until she felt more comfortable with the people around her.
"They don't call it magic for nothing; I do have a reputation to uphold."
"Even if no one knows who you are?" Albus asked.
"Even if," Solarea said with a smile, "You are fascinated with muggle candy, I always try to look my best. We all have our little quarks."
"Have you just returned?" Albus asked.
"No" Solarea replied, "I've been back a little more than a week."
"And you have not returned home?"
"I've been gone for three years and I'm always on a need to know basis." Solarea said, "A lot has happened."
"Yes, a lot has happened." Albus echoed. Solarea eyed him carefully.
"Was there something you wanted?" Solarea asked.
"I want to offer you a job…"
*
It was late in the night when she arrived home. Almost everyone was asleep. As she went into the study to put some books that she had brought with her away, she viewed the dark man. Severus Snape was deep into his own book. Solarea's presence did not escape the Potions Master, but neither of them said a word.
As she put some books away in her privet cabinet Solarea sensed something, something dark coming from the man reading. It was the Dark Mark she sensed. She locked and warded her book collections and walked out the door. This man may have Albus Dumbledore's trust, but it would be a long while before Solarea can determine where his loyalties truly lie.
She stopped by the kitchen next. No one would suspect she would keep her weapons stored in the pantry. She grabbed a hold of the doorknob, but instead of opening it she magically changed the doorknobs position to the side where the door's hinges where located. The hinged dissolved and appeared on the other side, and then the door opened. Instead of finding food and the like, the walls were lined with all sorts of weapons. Swords, bows, arrows, staffs, even some muggle weapons. Despite her appearance she was not one to be messed with.
Solarea stopped by Harry's room before going to hers. She remembered when Harry was little she use to go in his room to check on him every night before going to sleep herself. Now he was grown up, coming of age in just a few short days. She was careful not to wake Harry's roommate, the youngest Weasley boy she noted, though it seemed that he could sleep though anything.
She passed other doors on the way to her room sensing the people within them. One door she passed she sensed something, a thirst for knowledge amongst other things. This girl was very special to Harry, perhaps more then Harry realized. Perhaps some special training was in order for this girl, Hermione, as well. She had taught Harry many things, but now that he was older Solarea could help him venture into some more powerful magicks.
Finally she reached her room. It wasn't just her room she noted as she studied the state of the bedroom, in just three years Sirius had made it his as well. Some of her things had remained untouched. She smiled as she viewed him sleeping in the bed, mostly because she knew he would be a free man very soon. Solarea quietly placed her last pack on the floor, and with a snap of her fingers she changed into her sleeping attire.
"You're late," she heard a sleepy voice, Solarea looked towards the bed, "You said you would be back a week ago."
"I arrived exactly when I said I would, mo mhúirnín¹." Solarea replied as she climbed into bed.
"Then where have you been for the last week?" Sirius asked as he put one arm around her allowing them to snuggle close together.
"I've been gone for three years, a lot has happened. I needed to know what." Solarea simply said.
"I could have told you." Sirius said.
"Yes, but then I would need to go and see for myself." Solarea said, "I would have been teasing you, coming back and leaving again."
"Harry's been though a lot. He's been wishing you were here. He looks for you guidance."
"He has done well without me." Solarea replied.
"He feels you will be disappointed with him." Sirius said.
"Whatever for?" Solarea asked shifting her position to look at him.
"He blames himself for everything You-Know-Who is doing."
"What have I told you about his name?" Solarea scolded him.
"I know, I know, it's easy to do it when everyone else does it, and when some one does say it there is a lot of flinching."
"You could always call him by the name on his birth certificate," Solarea said, "Calling him Tom Riddle is more likely to get you killed than saying Voldemort."
"I guess it's like that Beetlejuice character." They both laughed. They talked very little after that, before going to sleep.
*
"Harry, who has access to this cabinet?" Hermione asked. She, Harry, Ron and Remus were in the study they next morning after breakfast.
"Why do you ask?" Harry asked in return.
"There are new wards up, there different than yesterday." Hermione explained.
"Well that explains it." Remus said flipping a page of the Daily Prophet.
"Explains what?" Harry asked.
"Why Sirius hasn't come down at the smell of food." Remus answered.
"So Aunt Sol has come back." Harry said with excitement and a hint of dread.
"It would seem so." Remus said, "Though I wouldn't expect to see them at all today."
"Why not?" Ron asked.
"Aunt Sol and Sirius haven't seen each other in three years," Harry said, "They'll probably be shagging like bunnies all day."
"That's not nice," Hermione scolded.
"Indeed," Remus agreed.
"My ears are ringing," Solarea said as she and Sirius walked through the door, "someone must be talking about us."
The room was in an awkward silence. "Well, are you going to sit there all day or can I get a hug?" Solarea asked. All of Harry's fears melted away upon seeing her. "Look at you, you're as tall as me, perhaps even a bit taller, when did that happen?"
"I'm glad you're back Aunt Sol." Harry said, "I feel a lot safer knowing you're around."
Solarea could practically see the wheels turning in Hermione's head, "Is something on your mind Hermione?"
"Well, it just, the last time I saw you it was before I went to Hogwarts and…" Hermione didn't know how to continue.
"I look exactly the same?" Hermione nodded.
"I was wondering something of the like," Ron said, "I mean, Harry said you raised him since his parents died, but you don't look a day older than my brother Bill."
Solarea smiled, and then turned to close the door and put up a silencing charm around the room.
"What I'm about to tell you must never leave this room, you must never revel this to anyone, for it is my secret alone to tell." Solarea paused for a moment to let the importance sink in.
"I am Immortal." Solarea said, "But not like the Dark Ones or other immortal being of the like, I am a True Immortal. I cannot die from old age or sickness, nor can I die from mortal wounds."
"'Sol' is short for `Solarea' isn't it?" Hermione asked. "You're the Everlasting Daystar."
"Yes, I am." Solarea replied.
"So how old are you?" Ron asked. "Were you here when there were dinosaurs?"
Solarea let out a small laugh, "I have been around for so long, I've learned not to keep track. And I'm not originally from this dimension. So I was elsewhere when dinosaurs roamed the earth. I have spent much time here though."
"Who else knows about you?" Hermione asked.
"Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall and some other Professors at Hogwarts, but not all. But that is soon to change with me being here now. There are some people in the Order that I don't trust just yet." Solarea explained.
"It's Snape isn't it?" Remus guessed. Solarea nodded.
"He bears the Dark Mark. Even if Albus trusts, I cannot do so, so blindly." Solarea said, "I want you three to be careful around him."
"We will Aunt Sol, we always are. I've always had a bad feeling around him." Harry said.
"Anyway, while he's here I'm going to have a little fun." Solarea started, "Has Albus been by this morning?"
"Yes, he had to speak with Snape." Remus said.
"Well, Snape is going to be a nasty person to be around."
"When isn't he?" Ron said.
"His position of Defense Professor was temporary last year, as Professor Dumbledore could not find anyone to fill it, and he certainly didn't want any Ministry Officials." Solarea said, "But this year Professor Dumbledore has asked me to take the Defense position."
"You're going to be our DADA teacher." Ron said, "That's bloody brilliant."
"So Snape is going back to teaching Potions." Harry said.
"That's Professor Snape Harry," Solarea told him, "And yes he will."
"He won't like that."
"Indeed, especially when on first appearance, I am younger than him and couldn't possibly be more qualified than him." Solarea said.
"And what will really tip him off," Sirius said as he grabbed Solarea by the waist from behind, "Is that I am the one who managed to snag you, escaped convicted murder and all."
"Well I think we'll have to settle with falsely accused and imprisoned innocent man." Solarea said with a smirk.
"Well we can't exactly prove that can we?" Sirius said.
"I think I can manage to get a confession out of someone. Besides it is illegal to practice Necromancy." Solarea said still smiling.
"And where is that sneaky little rat?" Sirius asked.
The air around Solarea started to change color, like a silver mist, before she snapped her fingers and a small ball of light appeared. As the light disappeared they saw it was a glass ball. Inside was a rat with a silver paw.
"He can't get out or transform." Solarea explained. "He isn't going anywhere."
"Where did you find him?" Remus asked him.
"Apparently Wormtail has been Snape's charge." Solarea said, "So he was where Snape has been going, Spinner's End."
"And if Wormtail went missing or was caught Voldemort would suspect Professor Snape, his cover could have been blown." Hermione speculated.
"That is, if Voldemort is the suspicious type." Solarea said, "I'm sure the Potion's Master can come up with some excuse."
*
Sirius went upstairs to get ready. Solarea was getting Harry's party ready early because there was also a hearing that afternoon. Solarea had been working around the clock for the past couple days to get Sirius's name cleared without a hitch.
After getting cleaned up Sirius found Solarea in the study.
"What are you doing?" Sirius asked.
"Something that I've never done before." Solarea replied as she sealed a scroll she was writing, "I going to take on three apprentices."
"And what will you be teaching them?"
"They are to be Mages." Solarea replied.
"But that's impossible, they were born wizards." Sirius said.
"True, but I have reason to believe that Harry, Hermione and Ron are `The Three'." Solarea explained, "It was foreseen by a friend of mine, Cassandra, that the Wizarding world would see to the rise of three very powerful mages and that I would teach them. They would be something more than that which they were born to be."
"So what do you mean this is something you have never done before?" Sirius asked.
"I've trained Wizards, I've trained Mages, but never has anyone trained a Wizard to be a Mage." Solarea explained, "But it will be done. We better get going or we will be late."
"I'm scared that if I show up they will simply ambush me, lock me up again and throw away the key." Sirius admitted.
"That will never happen." Solarea reassured him, "Not as long as I am there with you. In fact I dare them to try."
There was a knock at the door and The Three came in.
"Kingsley and Tonks are waiting." Hermione told them.
"Thank you Hermione." Solarea said. "You go on ahead; I have to go see Scrimgeour"
"Why do you have to do that?" Harry asked.
"I'm going to make sure that they won't attempt to pull the wool over our eyes." Solarea explained. And with that she left.
"Well I guess we should get this over with." Sirius said.
*
"You can't simply clear his name," Cornelius Fudge was saying to Rufus Scrimgeour. "He is an escaped convict; you have to think of the public in this matter."
"Do you not think the public should know the truth, that he is innocent? We have a full confession from Peter Pettigrew." Scrimgeour explained.
"If that is ever Peter Pettigrew, these things can be faked." Fudge said. "This hasn't gone public yet and it will create a bad image for the Ministry, putting an innocent man in jail, without a trial. It would be best to just be done with him, and this Peter Pettigrew look alike."
"I suppose you do have a point," Scrimgeour said, "What about the person who brought Pettigrew in?"
"For all we know it could have been Black in disguise." Fudge said.
"PUT SOME TEA ON WIZARD!" they both jumped as a portrait in the office yelled at the top of their lungs.
"Just what we need." Fudge muttered.
"I never noticed that portrait before?" Scrimgeour said.
"It's the Mages portrait, it lets us now when we are about to be visited by someone important, most of the time it's a council representative." Fudge explained.
"Mages?" Scrimgeour exclaimed, "They exist?"
"Yes and they are a higher power then Wizards, we answer to them," Fudge explained, "Call for some tea quickly."
"Why wasn't I told of this before?" Scrimgeour asked as he called for tea.
"No one from the council has sent anyone in sixteen years." Fudge said. "I barely heard of them in passing."
Suddenly they heard something from outside, they listened from outside.
"Miss, you can't go in there," It was Percy Weasley; "The Minister is in a meeting."
"I can assure you Mister Weasley; the current and former Ministers are expecting me."
"They sent a girl?" Scrimgeour said a little surprised. He opened the door, "It's alright Percy."
Percy seemed a little surprised at the `girl's' admittance.
"I'm afraid you've caught us at a bad time miss…?" Scrimgeour said.
"That's alright, I won't to take much of your time" Solarea explained, "And it's Solarea."
"What is it we can do for you?" Fudge asked.
"So glad you asked."
"How so?"
"I am aware if the Sirius Black situation," Solarea continued, "I wanted to make sure today's proceeding will go quickly and smoothly."
"I can assure you that it is exactly what we plan to do." Scrimgeour said.
"Good," Solarea said her expression unchanging, "What do you plan to do for damage control?"
"Sorry?"
"This is going to have a major impact on the ministry," Solarea went on, "The public will want someone to blame for sending an innocent man to jail other than Peter Pettigrew."
There was an awkward pause, Solarea had already known what they were planning to do, but with her presence there they dared not say they would.
"Oh, I see now," Solarea said showing her disappointment, "Somehow I thought Wizards were better than this."
"We were only doing what we thought best for everyone." Fudge said desperately.
"Does it not tug at your conscious that Sirius is an innocent man, that his life has been wasted because of this whole ordeal?" Solarea asked them. "Not to mention the fact that he never received a trial."
Both men said nothing at this, Solarea continued on, "Sirius Black is under my personal protection, he will be cleared of all charges. And it will be publicly known that Peter Pettigrew aided in the murder of Lily and James Potter, faked his own death along with killing muggles, and resurrected the Dark Lord Voldemort. If either one of you has a problem with that, you can take in up with the Council of Mages."
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