Black Magic ─── Percy Weasley ¹.

01. For The Love Of Seven Siblings.

"Hence why I do not listen to them!"

"Aadhya, the Beatles invented Indie rock in the sixties—!"

But it was too late, and the echo of a bedroom door slamming immediately caused Alita to flinch away in surprise, a look of shock etched across her face as she found herself face to face with the closed door of Aadhya's bedroom.

With an exasperated sigh and a quick roll of her eyes, Alita turned on her heel and descended the winding staircase in a light jog, squinting slightly in the bright morning rays that shone through the room's large windows.

However bothersome, Alita had grown used to her sister's antics. Aadhya was entering her first year at Hogwarts and was full of what she had branded as 'smarter sibling syndrome' —except Aadhya really was smarter than the rest of her siblings, and made sure each of them knew it in often the most subtle of ways. Alita had concluded it all may have had something to do with Aadhya being the youngest out of eight kids, seven of them girls, but it was just a hunch.

Now, as Alita entered the dining area, her eyes landed on the large mound of black and white fur that laid stretched across the kitchen counter basking in the available sun. A small smile came to her lips, and she left a gentle scratch on the head of her cat, Tallulah, as she passed. Tallulah let out a gentle meow as she stretched her limbs, her head immediately popping up as if to tell Alita that the single pat on the head hadn't been enough for her liking.

"Spoilt brat," Alita scoffed, propping her elbows on the edge of the countertop. Tallulah simply mewed back in annoyance before defeatedly dropping her head back onto the warm tile surface.

Alita let out a low chuckle as her fingers curled around the warmth of the coffee mug she'd prepared earlier that morning, and she cocked an eyebrow at the pampered feline before moving to stand before the kitchen window.

The country landscape of Ottery St. Catchpole shimmered in the mid-morning sun, its surface all but radiating the joy of the start of summer. Just beyond the treeline, Alita could make out the more populated area of the Wizarding village, where she could see the tiny figures of the townspeople just beginning their daily routines.

A familiar golden photo frame hung just beside the window sill caught her eye as it glistened in the sun's rays, and a knowing smirk came to Alita's lips as she read the lengthy parchment paper trapped beneath the glass layers. The edition of the Daily Prophet, dated July 1980, was a punchline in the Byrnes household — a young, emboldened Rita Skeeter, who had been on a hunt for justice when she'd just begun her gossip column career, had coincidentally stumbled across an old newspaper clipping, condemning a woman by the name of Persephone Byrnes (who just so happened to be Alita's great-grandmother) to a lifetime in Azkaban prison for the practicing of dark magic. Little Rita Skeeter had then proceeded to do a bit of library research, discovering the Byrnes family history, and boom! she'd published her first ever gossip column story. Of course, no one at the time took her side seriously, which was why the story was often brought up for a good laugh at dinners. Alita's mother had found the clipping in her own mother's belongings and had, with good belief, framed it proudly for the family home.

Alita's family had moved to the hillside village a little under two decades prior, and for good reason - definitely not because the Ministry had insisted the family settle somewhere they could keep an eye on them - no, definitely not. The family was indeed infamous for their dark magical abilities, and though Alita would nonchalantly pass the fact off, the truth was, their abilities weren't a commonplace thing (as her mother had been forced to remind her on various occasions).