The Half-Blood Princess

A Sirius Situation

Quidditch World Cup. That was not exactly the way Harley wanted to spend her last weekend before school started, but everyone was so caught up in the excitement, she felt it would be rude to refuse the invitation.

The excitement was contagious, and she found herself quite enjoying the game, though she admitted she had no clue what was going on half the time, She also had no idea what everyone liked so much about Viktor Krum. Seemed like a bigheaded jock to her.

The real event happened after the game ended, when the Muggles who had been hanging around were attacked by a group of wizards in black cloaks, masks, and hoods, and a large sign was over the whole field, a skull with a snake from its maw.

"The Dark Mark!" She heard Mr. Weasley saying. He ordered the kids to take cover, and Harley tried taking the best care she could of her younger brother, Ron, and Hermione. She was trying to glean as much information from passing wizards as she could.

By the end of the furtive night, she had found out that those wizards had been Death Eaters, and that they were followers of Voldemort. The symbol was called the Dark Mark, the thing that signified allegiance to the Dark Lord and that his work had been committed by his followers in the place the Mark appeared. Every single Muggle they had had trapped had been murdered with the Killing Curse.

The Mark, she thought, panicking. Could that be the Mark my mother talked about my father taking? She was almost too scared to think it, but if her father had been a half-blood, how could he also be a Death Eater? They were supposed to be pureblood supremacists. Unless he lied about his bloodline...

The talk at Hogwarts was, surprisingly enough, not about the Death Eaters' appearance after years of dormancy, but about the Triwizard Tournament, to be played with two other European Wizarding academies. Harley had just hit the proper age to enter her name in the Goblet of Fire, not that she was very keen to be a part of this.

Having been prefect, she was only just able to ignore Fred and George working on an ageing potion that would make them just a few months older than they were, knowing that it wouldn't work anyway.

"If you guys paid half this much attention in Potions, you both would have passed your OWLs," she told them. Only Fred passed. "You are brilliant, but you never apply yourselves."

Watching them turn eighty years old from the barrier Dumbledore had around the Goblet made even Harley, who had had a lot on her mind since the World Cup, burst into laughter. "Fred, I thought we were supposed to grow old together," she teased, still giggling.

Before the names had been announced for who was competing in the Tournament, the announcements for the Yule Ball and the cancellation of Quidditch were made, and very few people were pleased with having no Quidditch all year long.

"How will we get points?" Ron demanded angrily.

"Perhaps you will behave yourselves and do well in classes in order to earn your House points," Snape suggested sarcastically.

The Slytherin table laughed, and Harley hid her grin after a dirty look from Hermione.

The night Harry was chosen to participate in the Cup, despite his being underage and having not entered, he wanted a distraction.

"Harley, tell me about your father," he said.

"Why?" Harley asked, not prepared for his sudden interest in the man his mother had cheated on his father with.

"I have an idea," was all he would say.

Harley prattled on about her father, leaving out a few things. She talked about his appearance, his skills, and left some things out, like the fact that he was half Muggle, and his mother's name.