She woke up extra early today full of excitement and nerves. Today was the day she and Barty would go to Hogsmeade together! Her first ever date! She was too excited to sleep any longer. Though Hogsmeade wouldn't be until the afternoon... she could still spend some time prepping for it. By the time she finished showering, getting dressed for the day and choosing what outfit to wear later, it was time for breakfast. Beaming, she made her way down, joining James, Sirius and Remus who were waiting for her at the exit of the common room. 'Morning!' she sing-songed to the boys, who stared back at her amused and curious. 'What's with you today?' snickered Sirius. 'Nothing! Just a good day is all, shall we?' Quickly she looped her arms with James and Sirius before leading them all out, putting an instant stop to any more of Sirius's inquiring questions. Though it didn't stop them all from exchanging amused glances with one another, which she promptly ignored.
The group finally made it to the Great Hall and took their usual seats, where they then began dishing themselves some breakfast. The loud screeches of the owls began as they came to deliver the morning mail, looking up and around, Ara quickly paused in eating her breakfast. 'Why are there so many this morning?' she asked, baffled. The boys paused and looked up at her confused, before they too began looking around at all the owls. 'A lot of them seem to be going towards the Slytherin table,' mumbled Remus, observantly. 'Letters...' mumbled James, 'Was there an event of some sort?' Sirius watched the Slytherin's closely as they opened their letters from their families, 'News... of some kind, it looks like.' Ara quickly spotted that Lucius had a letter as well, 'Lucius has one! We can figure out what's going on later.' she answered, smiling. 'Lucius?' James mouthed silently in question to Sirius. Though her smile suddenly fell when another owl came swooping in, dropping a letter for Regulus and soaring over to them to drop a letter to Sirius and... herself? Her and Sirius quickly exchanged bewildered glances before looking to Regulus who was mirroring them.
The three then looked down at their letter, 'It has the Black family seal...' mumbled Sirius. 'Why did Ara get one?' asked James, confused. Ara looked at him sheepishly, 'Well, um... you remember how Siri and Reg sort of... made up with their father...?' 'Uh-huh.' 'Well, I might have also... became the Black family .... ward...' she mumbled the last part, extra quietly. 'WHAT!' he shouted, shell shocked. Damn his Animagus hearing! She cursed in her head as she quickly clamped a hand over his mouth, smiling apologetically at the people who turned their heads towards them. 'It had to be done! Ori kne-' 'Ori?' questioned Remus and James at once, though she ignored them and continued. 'Ori knew about my... whereabouts and I had to improvise with Dumbles. So I became his ward.' 'Bloody hell!' Sirius whispered, cutting James off from his reply. The three turned their heads to see Sirius staring down at the now opened letter. 'What is it?' asked Remus, trying to lean over and peek. Sirius looked up at them, 'Dad had a meeting with a bunch of the other families yesterday, he told them about you-know-who and his origins!' he whispered to them. 'So the letters must be...' she trailed off as all of them looked back at the Slytherin table, coming to the same conclusion. It appears Tom is about to lose a lot of his followers...
Alice and Dorcas found her down by the Black lake with the boys. They came running up to her with huge smiles on their faces, 'It's time to get ready Ara!' cheered Alice. Ara was completely bewildered as the two of them looped their arm with hers and led her back to the dorm. 'H-how did.. -' 'Did you really think we wouldn't know about your date with Barty today!?' smirked Dorcas. 'The whole school is practically talking about it!' stated Alice, beaming. 'A Slytherin and Gryffindor, how romantically forbidden of you!' swooned Dorcas. 'How did the school find out?' questioned Ara, trying not to laugh at Dorcas and her mock fanning of herself. 'Nothing stays secret long at Hogwarts!' stated Alice, as if it was law. Ara snorted and couldn't help but think of how they'd react if they ever discovered, just how much managed to stay a secret! After being made to change several times, the two of them curling her hair and convincing her to try a little bit of makeup, she was finally all ready. Nervously she made her way down to the front gates, Barty was already waiting for her when she arrived. 'Were you waiting long?' Barty smirked, 'Would you call arriving five minutes earlier out of nervous excitement, long?' She let out a small laugh, 'Yes, I would.' 'You look beautiful, as always.' he whispered, while joining their hands. She didn't need a mirror to see she was blushing. 'And you look quite handsome, as always.' she responded with a small smirk, as the two began to walk.
The two of them started by going to Honeydukes because Duh! Who doesn't love sweets? Are you insane? She had fun trying all the candy that was so familiar yet very different compared to her time. Barty ended up secretly buying a few of each item that she loved and made her a little treat basket. In return she ended up buying him a good amount of his favorite exploding bonbons! It didn't take long for them to spot the Marauders or his group of friends that had been trying to covertly follow them. It was hard for them not to burst out laughing when Sirius tried to hide behind one of the carriages, only for it to move, making him fall into a puddle. It was on their way to the Three Broomsticks that something felt... off. Not with Barty or the date, but with the air around them. She noticed that the only Slytherin's around were Barty and his friends, then she spotted the father's of Mulciber, Lestrange, Avery... the harder she looked the more she saw. They weren't in their usual pureblood suits but... It's an attack! 'Ara? What's wrong?' Barty asked, as she came to a sudden stop. What does she do? Quickly she grabbed Barty's hand and dragged him over to their group of friends, before leading them to a secluded alleyway. Before anyone had time to ask anything, she called for Mimzy. 'What can Mimzy do's for you?' asked the happy little elf.
'I need you to get the other elves and immediately evacuate Hogsmeade! -' 'What?' cut in Remus. 'Evacuate?' asked Regulus, 'What's going on Ara?' questioned James. Her focus remained on the elf, 'It's an attack! We need to evacuate Mimzy! Like we discussed before, it's a code emerald. You know what to do! Please be careful!' The group tensed as they began looking around them worriedly, Mimzy nodded her head frantically before popping away to do as asked. 'Code emerald?' asked an anxious Barty, though his question remained unanswered. Ara sent off a patronus to Orion before kneeling down and untying a blue ribbon from her ankle. 'What's that?' asked Severus, eyeing the ribbon curiously as the group all subtly pulled out their wands. She quickly stood up, 'Illegal portkey, I created it when I decided to stay. Grab on!' They all hesitated for a second before doing as she asked, she smiled at them, spoke the password and let go as they all vanished from the spot. They can be mad at her later, right now... she had to make sure everyone else got out. The elves quickly began popping in and out taking the students with them back to Hogwarts. The Death Eaters seemed to have clued in and decided to speed up their attack, as suddenly loud bangs began to go off and people began to scream. Immediately she pulled out her wand and rushed into action. Spell after spell, she did her best to help anyone she could, though she couldn't unfortunately be everywhere at once.
A gross and grimy magical aura began to surround the place... an aura she was all too familiar with. Her eyes scanned the dimming crowd of fleeing people and popping elves landing on a man standing in the middle of the road, a grim and menacing smile on his face as he watched the people panic. Tom Marvolo Riddle. Her heart was pounding in her ears, the world around her seemed to suddenly shift to slow motion and she could feel the magic from within her. This attack didn't happen in her original timeline, the amount of changes that could happen if someone were to die today... She closed her eyes and pushed out her magic, the screaming faded into a silence. When she opened her eyes it was only her, the Death Eaters and Tom left. She didn't know how she apparated everyone away from Hogsmeade but all that mattered was that they were now somewhere safe. Subtly glancing around she counted how many there were before looking up and making eye contact with him. He tried to look into her mind, she could feel him push against her defenses only to be shoved back out forcefully. 'Who do we have here?' he asked intrigued. She let out a little snort, it was just so weird to have him not know who she was. He literally spent her whole childhood trying to kill her!
'Good question, Tom.' He narrowed his eyes and clenched his jaw angrily the second she said his real name, 'But unfortunately you won't get those answers today!' she continued, smugly. 'Who told you that name!?' he hissed out venomously. She smirked back at him defiantly, ~I know a lot more than just your name~ Tom's eyes widened in disbelief as she finished speaking to him in parseltongue. She took a few steps closer to him as she continued her taunting ~How does it feel to lose a majority of your followers? Now you're left with nothing but the depraved!~ It seems she pushed the right button as he suddenly shot out a Crucio towards her. She felt it hit her and faltered slightly, it hurt for a split second before everything went numb. Her eyes began to glow as the air around them began to cool and Tom ended his Crucio at once, a slight fear reflected in his eyes for a moment. Simultaneously, they both shot out a spell and began to duel. The Death Eaters watched on unsure whether to join in or not, few eventually tried only to instantly lose. It was a fierce, tiresome and powerful duel, they didn't even notice when the Aurors arrived and the Death Eaters began fleeing. The street and buildings around them both were completely ripped apart from their fight, and it was only as Dumbledore made his arrival that Tom finally apparated away.
Out of breath, bruised and cut up but she held her own. Boy, was she tired! Apparating all those people most definitely didn't help! But at least they were safe and hopefully no one died or got too injured. She could see Dumbledore walking towards her, but from behind him she suddenly spotted Orion. Quickly she ran towards him, ignoring Dumbledore and hopping straight into Ori's arms. He quickly scanned over her injuries, before hugging her back just as tight. 'The boys are pissed at you.' he mumbled to her. She looked up sheepishly, 'I know... but I came back to save them. I couldn't let them get hurt or killed!' she whispered back. He let out a little sigh, 'This is my fault... I-' he began only to be cut off by Ara, 'He was gonna retaliate one way or another eventually, but I think things might change now...' Orion pulled back to look at her quizzically, 'What do you mean?' 'There was a reason I stayed behind..., Tom gets obsessive. In my time he did the least amount of damage when he was focused on -' 'You.' Orion finished, coming to the realization. 'You made yourself a target...' She nodded slightly, 'I have to finish this. I can't wait anymore...' she whispered sadly, tears pooling in her eyes. 'I thought I could do it, that I could experience some normalcy but I can't. It'll only just get worse. You were right, the faster I leave won't make it hurt any less but - but the longer I stay the more painful it will be.' The tears began sliding down her cheeks and she stepped out of Orion's reach, 'I'm sorry, but I can't keep my promise this time. It's time for it to end.' she croaked out before apparating away. 'Ara! Wai-' Orion stood there staring at the spot she stood moments ago.