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After Hogwarts finished Raven finally took the Muggle exams that had been set up for her the year before. After the week of the exams she spent about a week looking herself in a room that she had been given to stay in. After a while she pulled herself back together and threw herself back to a place she usually got a summer job and started saving the money that she earned so that she could try and find a place in the year after, she did her best to stay out of McGonagall's way, only seeing her properly when they sat together for food when neither were busy, whether studying or at work for Raven or Order business and Hogwarts preparation for McGonagall.
After a while she had a letter turn up with her results, and for a little while she forgot about the sadness and grinned at her passing grade and ran to talk to her Aunt Minnie talking at a fast rate happily about passing the exams she gained to do the courses she'd have to do to get the medical courses next in the Muggle education system, sixth form.
McGonagall smiled happily listening to her as she spoke happily till the words, "Dad'll be so proud!" Passed Ravens lips and she suddenly stopped talking and looked down in silence. And McGonagall moved to her pulling her into a careful hug which raven accepted for a moment before pulling back and giving her a forced smile and saying she was going to write to Remus and a couple of friends. And leaving the room.
Raven sat and wrote letter to Mooney and the twins with usual starting, informing them of her gained grades and asking how they were in return wanting to make sure they were safe, or as safe as they could be.
When she got a reply, it came in one envelope Remus's being simplistic and short congratulating her, but telling her he couldn't talk much and the twins were more talkative in their letter congratulations and mocking the grades she'd gained and seemingly leaving a black space at the bottom of the letter blank. And she frowned a moment before moving and lighting a candle placing the letter in front of it and lettering appeared explaining in very few details that they'd be going on an order mission to get Harry to a safe place and they'd send message once everything was over and safe. She paused and took a slow breath at the words before standing and taking the letter and candle to the bathroom and setting the letter alight watching it burn till she dropped it in the sink, incase their was more info coded that she'd missed that could get any of them hurt.
She spent the next couple of days throwing herself into research for her muggle education and waiting on the twins letter to come. Ending with a lost of course and places for her to be able to go to learn and how she'd be able to continue on her chosen path.
She finally got a letter from them and she relaxed even laughing at the stupid joke made about George loosing his ear. Smiling at the invitation to the wedding and pausing and blinking returning a letter to the pair question how she'd get there and whether she'd be expected to where a dress. In return they told her the invitation would get her their and sent a dramatic frilly pink dress which she just stared at in disgust for a while and picked up the note attached.
' You HAVE to at least try this on, we bought it for you, its a gift don't be rude!'
And she groaned and picked up the dress and sighed trying the dress on without much hope that she like it. Once on she moved to the mirror and wrinkled her nose at the look and then the dress shimmered lightly and the pink faded to a dark green colour and the ruffles fell into a more simple dress and she spun carefully and smiled and chuckled at the small silver snake design moving up the side and the subtle blue tint that showed when she moved.
She sent back a letter in thanks back to the pair calling them out on a good prank and telling them they'd need to teach her the spell at some point, before heading back to her desk reading through books for hogwarts and setting things up ready to go to the wedding.
As the wedding day arrived she got herself into a dress and put on minimal makeup, nude lipstick with a dark green eyeshadow and black liner, and pulled on a pair of shoes that matched as best that she could find, and as time time hit she picked up her invitation and was pulled to the location and she fell forward barely stopping herself from hitting the floor as she caught her hand on someones arm. She took a slow breath and looked up and flushed slightly as the man she seemed to be holding onto and pulled back and heard laughing from behind her and she rushed an apology out to the man, who shrugged it off and raised an eyebrow ''Have we met?'' he asked and she shrugged, '' Im unsure, I'm a friend of those idiots,'' she said bashfully pointing over her shoulders at the laughing twins ''My names Raven. Sorry for falling on you.''
The man chuckled lightly, ''Charlie Weasley.'' the older man introduced himself, '' Those two probably did this on purpose. Dont worry about it.'' He told her simply before heading towards other of his family and Raven turned towards the twins with a glare. Who just grinned and shrugged acting innocent as if they'd done nothing wrong.
Raven wandered with the pair and joked around for a while greeting Hermione for a short moment. And everything seemed to be going fine the only issue was the slight distrust from Ron as he recognised her as a Slytherin, but he didn't really seem to focus on her enough distracted more by the more important events that were going on around her. Everyone was relaxed, having fun and generally relaxed through the event until the patronus appeared in warning and death eaters started to appear, she and Ginny being two of the only underage people there they were taken from the area because it wasn't safe for them to help or be there because they wouldn't be able to use their magic without the ministry knowing they were there and being found anyway, so the twins apperated them to safety.
The lead up to having to get the train to Hogwarts was more stressful then previous years, she knew things where going to be bad this time, and who knew what would be the reaction from the others who would be there, students and what the lessons would be like now that They had control of the school. It was all she could do to finally force herself onto the train and find a seat and wait for the journey to start.
As Raven sat on the train to go to Hogwarts she wasn't sure how the year would go, and she was.. she was scared. She knew most of the other Slytherin's didn't like her anyway, and now it would likely be worse then previous years. She couldn't concentrate enough on the way to the school to even to read like she usually did, and most of the students were avoiding the different houses, well mostly they were avoiding the Slytherin's. She could understand in someway that the friends she thought she had were avoiding her but mostly she was was mostly upset that they decided to side with the idea that all of the Slytherin's were suddenly Death Eaters and that just didn't seem right to her, and she readied herself to be alone through the year.
Sixth year, is like prison, even as it starts.
At the feast they were informed that her Fath- Snape was in charge and the Carrows were incharge of punishments, now the Carrows jumped at the chance to hurt any none pure blood student possible, and she was the only none pure blood Slytherin left, so they really didn't like her. And she probably didn't help when she refused to do as told an talked back against stupid rules and ideals they had. About a month in she changed her hair to her natural red it was easier to hide if you phrase into the background, and the reminder of her mother helped her keep herself fighting and strong, it didn't stop the attacks but it lessened them.
The lions seemed to start trusting her when she a hit for Neville when they tried to get him again when he was down and bleeding, and continued by helping get the first years, placing herself in their place whenever possible. It may have helped that when the DA started meeting she returned as well as herself, rather then a random Ravenclaw, and had stop leaving the Room of Requirement other then to go to lessons if at all possible, the other Slytherin's where usually informed to test spells, potions and such on her due to her lower status and obvious stand against their Lord when possible but better her then some innocent first year. She couldn't enter the Slytherin common room anymore, for obvious reasons.
When December she did something she did something unusual for her she set up their meeting room up for the holiday and her and a few of the others worked a way to make sure everyone got /something/ for the holiday to hopefully brighten the time for them best they could. She also snuck to the Library and got new medical books so that she could add to her simple spells and potions she could make to help the others teaching a couple of the others how to do the spells as well, Luna, Ginny, Lavander and Lee were the main ones to get the spells down so that they could heal each other through the year.
As Christmas hit one or two of the house elves helped set up a small feast for the group to sit and happily enjoy each other and swap small stories of the christmases that they'd had with their families in years past and the day passed well over all and everyone had gained a small trinket/gift each and were all rather happy with them even if they were all simple, small gifts.
Raven at a later time as the day started to wind down slowly stood and picked up a bag with a couple of things in and went into the halls taking a short cut to McGonagall's office and carefully knocked on the frame of the portrait and leaving the bag with a book and box of chocolates infront and moved away from the door and turned and saw a grinning peeves and froze before frowning and saw him go to shout and she turned sprinting in the opposite direction heading to myrtles bathroom and paused as she heard steps come closer and groaned before moving to the sink and hissing out the password and dropping down the tunnel quickly hearing it close again as she got to the bottom of the drop and relaxed she was alone in the dark and pulled out her wand and lit up the place and cast lumos walking around towards the snake skeleton and tilted her head lightly moving her hand over the jaw of it gently. '' Shame you were trained to kill you were a beautiful snake.'' she mumbled lightly before tilting her head lightly and reaching for one of the fangs pulling it from the skeleton and placed it in the pocket of the robes she had on and moved back to the shedded skin collecting a small section of it placing it with the fang. Once she finished and was happy enough that no one would still be looking for her at this point she headed back out walking a couple more halls over before she moved into another shortcut of a hall ending at the steps that head to the headmasters office and she took a second to place a rare potions book and a small letter on the first step as it headed up with a small charm over it so that only Snape could see it. before she headed back towards the room of requirement herself.
as she got back she placed the fang and shedded skin with her potions ingredients and made a small label for them before finally sleeping for the night hearing a small goodnight be called from Neville as she fell asleep.
Over the next months Aberforth started helping them more, she still not sure how on earth the dug the tunnel to his home but she's still impressed, Neville's the one who always travels between the places coming back with information, updates and occasionally not so great food but it was god to know there was someone else on their side on the outside. And Lee Jordan started PotterWatch and things started pulling together a bit better then they'd been previously and people pulled together more. People still got hurt but everyone seemed to hold together stronger with their routines and it helped them all keep moving on and continuing things. They practiced Defense in the time they could and Raven helped teach the younger years the basics in charms and such that were now being skipped over by the Dark Lords insistence.
Soon the news came that Harry had been spotted in Hogsmead and Raven didn't know she could feel so relieved at knowing that he was safe, but she was happy and pushed herself into her learning of healing spells and making more potions to stock up for the worst that could happen when they return, because if they knew Harry was close, and perhaps coming back to Hogwart's then likely the others would have a way to find out as well. So Healing potions as a helping hand isn't exactly a bad idea, pessimistic? perhaps but Harry returning would be a big thing, those in charge of the school aren't exactly fans of his, and could possibly send news to the rest that they had Harry and that wouldn't be the best.
On one of Neville's trips to Aberforths when he returned they were finally joined by Harry, Ron and Hermione and everyone erupted in cheers and excitement as they joined them once more. Lee sent out a message on his broadcast to the order to let him know that Harry had returned as Harry informed the group that there was an item in hogwarts that they needed to fin but they didn't know where or what, only that it may be connected to Ravenclaw. Everyone just seemed confused but Luna finally gave a suggestion, which seemed like a good one in Ravens opinion a diadem that has been lost and presumed gone? Seems like a good thing to use of you want it to be kept safe. and the conversation didn't really get any further when Ginny appeared and after a moment of her getting lost as she saw harry she finally informed them that Snape knew and people stayed quiet for a moment before many people split and dressed in there robes as they were requested to meet in the main hall. Raven hung back handing Harry a Gryffindor tie and a spare robe they had as he mentioned the plan of going with them as she pulled a Ravenclaw tie around her own neck changing her to a black bob and finally grabbing the satchel with the collection of potions in them before heading with the ravenclaws that walked and hid within the group carefully.
As they all stood in groups she watched her father talk and they all stayed silent as he finally asked for someone to step forward and everything stayed mostly silent until steps were heard and their was a gasp and Harry stepped forward and spoke up, Raven closed her eyes with a silent sigh, it seemed all of her family enjoyed dramatic and and finally opened her eyes continued to watch as the order and the rest of the DA joined them all in the great hall and Raven smiles and pulls the blue tie from her neck hair returning to its natural red as she did. Harry continued to talk and she watched Snape break at the final words pulling out his wand pointing it at Harry causing her to reach for her own wand about to move forward but was beat by McGonagall and the students as a whole backed away and she watched the moment of pain in her fathers eyes and the slight hesitation from McGonagall before she started to throw spells forward and Snape simply defended throwing each of the blasts away from him before he finally hit the last to and left before McGonagall could actually beat him properly, thankfully the twi Carrows had been knocked out by the blasts Knocked away from Snape.
As the the students and some of the teachers cheered as her father left and moved back to spread through the hall and then everyone seemed to freeze, and /that/ voice spoke up and a scream cut through the hall and it continued and ended with Voldermort asking for Harry to be handed over in return for the others not to be hurt. Harry stood in the middle of the hall and the students are silent for a while and then the silence broke with a call from Pansy, the slytherin in the year above her, for someone to grab Harry and Ginny had moved infront of Harry and Raven mirrored her wand in hand eyes locked on the girl as she did and the others move around Harry as well.
The group continued to surround Harry until Filch ran into the Great Hall yelling about students being out of bed. and McGonagall cut him off and the words, McGonagall then did something that while most others seemed to be impressed with, cheering and clapping, Raven felt rather uncomfortable and moved over to the side as she watched as McGonagall ordered Filch to take the Slytherin's to the dungeons, Raven as annoyed as she was just shook it off and sighed and simply continued to stick with the DA.
The first thing that was decided on was the bridge, McGonagall suggested to Neville to blow up the bridge and to get Seamus to help and Raven moved to go with them easily, '' I enjoy making things go boom, let me help?'' she said simply not really not giving them an option as she walked with them. This was a more interesting start to a fight then shed expected, and of course Neville and Seamus were rather accident prone so having extra hands isn't exactly going to hurt them. a group ended up working together working together to get the whole of the bridge rigged up to go and Neville decided to finish off the the end of the bridge as he saw the group waiting at the other side. Everyone else waited at the other end of the bridge and gave amused laughs as they heard him shout towards the /army/ of men waiting but stood waiting for the other to get back especially once they saw the shield break. Panic flashed over Raven as she saw the bridge fall from where Neville had been standing and breathed a sigh of relief as he threw his wand up to get better grip and moved with ginny to help pull him up from the edge with a smile.
As they headed back to the others death eaters the Carrows appeared and started throwing spells and Raven blocked and threw spells in return as she stood Neville stood with her as others headed on fighting of others as they did. Her and Neville soon got into an easy rhythm of throwing and blocking curses respectfully the relief that flooded her when she finally got a spell to hit the sister and joined Neville defending against the brother till he backed off enough to apperate himself and his sister from the battle field, presumably to heal her. the pair grinned at each other and grinned and nodded and blinked with a mumble of "I should find Luna." and Raven laughed out a good luck before heading back towards the castle with him.
They got to the castle and Neville ran into the castle to find Luna as Raven stubbornly rejoined the fight with some of the weasleys, after a while herself and George split slightly attempt to cover the back of percy and Fred so that they couldn't get a attacked from behind. All seemed fine they even heard Percy and Fred joking between themselves, that was till something exploded and as they turned they heard Percy call out and George turned and ran back towards his brothers and gave a cry and Raven turned walking to them and froze seeing the brothers crying over a too still Fred and stayed at a distance and turned to keep the advancing death eaters away from the grieving family blocking them as best as possible and held back tears at the loss as she hit back against the death eaters until Voldermort's voice crossed the battle field, calling his death eaters back and to leave. Faking some kind of regret and compassion and once again called again for Harry to come to him.
As the Death Eaters apperated away from the battle Raven fell back against the closest wall and stayed there for a short moment before Percy carefully found a way to convince his brother that they had to bring Fred to the main hall, Take him to the rest of the family and she moved carefully with them moving to help a passing injured student walk as she did. Helping them find a seat in the destroyed hall and pulled a small potion from her bag passing it to her, "Drink it'll help, I promise." She told them simply and walked towards George for a moment before freezing as she saw Remus laying beside Tonks and gave a small shakey cry falling back to sit against the wreckage as she cover he face with dirtied hands and her shoulders shook with silent cries.
After a while, she's not sure exactly how long but Luna stood infront of her for a couple of moments before talking to her gently until Ravens breathing evened out and she stood back up and Luna gave a slightly sad smile, " Come on you're our best healer Birdy." and Raven gave a watery laugh,
"Maybe of the students Lioness," she started and took a breath and looked around, "where am I needed i have potions with me anyone need them?" she asked and Luna smiled taking her first to Madame Pomphrey who she passed her potions to as before starting to help heal those who needed it without really paying attention to the adults shocked reactions as the students who had been part of the DA moved to her easily enough with their injuries to be healed or to get the potions. She even moved to a silent Draco and rolled her eyes at his suprise as she grabbed his hands healing the burn that where there with a careful movement of her wand and a barely there whisper of "Not all of us are proud of choices we make." before moving to the next injured person bandages and small pain potions and as people finally relaxed and she looked over to note Neville standing his injuries rather obvious she moved over to him but he simply waved her off.
Most people were as healed as they could be and people sat grieving and thanking gods and merlin that they still had their families with them. Raven sat with a couple of the younger years talking to them gently as they panicked and where there alone, their parents gone, and she did her best to keep them as calm and mind off the bad outcomes as possible. Using the need to care for the younger children as away to push off her own grief and to make her keep moving. After a while she saw Neville head to the door and then heard the footsteps approaching, and she stood and turned to the younger children "stick together okay?" she told them simply and headed towards the door after Neville, when she finally got out of the door she heard Neville's call of pain drop of and saw the Sorting hat burning on his head just before it went out and she ran to his side wand in hand, just incase and help the older boy to his feet as the others finally came out of the door and heard Ginny's call of asking who was in Hagrid's arms and Ravens eyes finally moved to the figure and felt her heart freeze for a moment and Neville pressed his hand to her shoulder and subtly motioned for her to step back and she did so stepping back to be just behind him. barely holding herself from moving as Voldermort's words called across the grounds.
"Harry Potter is Dead!"
The laughing that followed the words from the opposition. She had never felt such rage and she looked across at the people standing and frowned not being able to see her father standing amongst them but pushed away the thoughts as Voldermort asked others to join his side for the students and teachers to join them, and no one moved. And she was momentarily of them all and the grounds were silent til the Malfoys called for their son and Draco finally caved walking across to them, to his mother everyone was again quiet til Neville took to steps forward and they laughed at him until Neville interrupted him and called out to them and Voldermort laughed at his deceleration until Harry pushed himself out of Hagrid's arms and Draco threw himself forward as he saw the action throwing Harry the wand in his hand with a fast shout of "Potter!" and Harry caught it throwing a spell towards the Snake and ran off towards shelter.
There was a call of splattered laughter from some in relief that Harry was alive. They where the suddenly joined on the battle field by more Wizards and the centaurs turn up to join the battle with them, Death Eaters then started disappearing Raven watched Mrs Malfoy wrap her arm around her sons shoulder and move away from the battle casually and she took a moment to smile before turning heading towards the castle ready to stand in defense of the younger years and fight with the others, that was until Neville was blasted back into the castle and didn't get back up she moved over to stand with him incase another death eater came after him or he needed more help but he soon woke picking the sword back up and lunging forward taking the head off of the snake as it went to bite another student. And Raven took stock of the fighting that was occuring, Voldermort was trapped in battle with professor McGonagall, Slughorn and Kingsley while Bellatrix went against Hermione, Luna and Ginny. The battle was an unsure thing but when ginny was almost hit by a spell thrown by Bellatrix Mrs Weasley moved forward taking over the battle with a flare shed never seen to protect her Daughter and a spell hitting the dark witches heart ended it. This end had gained Voldermort's attention as he turned to throw the killing curse at her only to have the spell blocked by a shield cast by harry who had once again revealed himself pulling the battle away from the others as he started the fight.
When she saw him return calm no one following, the battle over she finally relaxed and fell against a wall finally letting some tension fall from her shoulders. The rest of the people also relaxed gathered into there families and friends and to comfort one another and people started being brought drinks and food house elves bringing them from the kitchen to those who needed it. She herself waved off the drink from the house elf as it was offered with a gentle thank you but pointed them towards the younger students before she looked around the hall searching for any kind of sign of her father and she didnt even notice when she began moving from her spot to search the halls and the wreckage of a place that hogwarts had been left. She called out for him and search, she didnt know if he hated her or not but she had to see him, she hadnt seen him since he left the hall and she needed to know if he was safe. She needed to know he was Alive, he was her father and she still loved him it was when she was standing unsure of where to look next that Harry appeared at her side and she jumped slightly, he looked at her with a pity that shed never seen in his eyes before and she stepped back slightly.
" Im so sorry." he said simply to start and her eyebrows drew together in confusion and she shook her head and he sighed softly and spoke gently telling her what happened that her father had given him his memories and hed seen her, not alot of it but enough to know of her and who her mother was and Raven was silent for a few moments eyes on the ground.
"Hes... Dead?" she barely choked out and he nodded simply repeated his apology and she shook her head eyes moving up pressing into her eyes trying to hold back the tears but wasnt able to properly and he shoulders started to shake before her whole body lost energy and her knees dropped almost hit the floor harry catching her slightly awkwardly making the fall softer as he dropped with her for a moment and she leaned into him as the cries past her lips and Harry slowly moved his arms around her in an unsure attemot at comfort as.
She lost everything and everyone she thought she had left and he hadn't even talked to her in almost two years. She had needed him, she still needed a Father and he chose Dumbledore's idiotic Gryffindor plan over her. He left her. Her left her and she couldn't follow him, and she couldnt even do anything to help him. She was alone again. after a while she pushed away from Harry with an apology and left as fast as she could without running. She didnt know what she would do now.
She found her way to a part of the castle that was still in better shape and fell back aginst the wall carefully rubbing her eyes and looking around herself and saw the potraits around her and smiled walking to one and nodding to lady who nodded back in silence but turned to the small snake painted beside her and hissed softly in conversation asking a gentle question and getting an answer in return and the snake slowly started to move thrugh the paintings disapearing for a while and came back and hissed for her to follow them and she did moving through the halls and climbing over fallen rubble until they finally got to the headmasters office, which seemed in better condition then she'd expected it to be. She looked up at Dumbledore's portrait then hissed a thank you to the snake who disapeared off again and she turned moving to sit on the desk and talked to Dumbledore avoiding the topic of her father at first just, talking to him like she used to as a younger child, when he used to make things feel lighter but then she finally got to her father, " You got him killed as well you know, Voldermort killed him. You knew he would didnt you? Your wand right? Thats why isnt it?" she asked softly not actually looking at him and he didnt reply straight away but after a moment he did.
"I knew it was a possiblity, yes it was most likely for the elder wand. It was likely also to make sure young Mr Malfoy wouldnt have gained the same fate from Tom. I am Sorry Raven. But this was a war we needed to win and your father was a needed part of it."
"I dont CARE if you think he was a needed knight in your war! He is... He was my Father and because of your stupid plan I lost him for almost two years before he even died, I needed him. I still need him." She spoke in return shouting dropping to a quite anger as the words continued, "And Malfoy is safe, pretty sure his mother would do anything to have kept him away from that fate, He had people to protect him. My Dad didn't." she continued, " You were family, and youre the one who helped tear us apart. And I miss you, but right now I kind of hate you for this." She said ending in a sad whisper and took a slow breath, " Im going to medicine by the way. Muggle and Witchcraft versions of course, because that seems just as important, which to many magic users forget theres times we cant always rely on magic. And I still want to get my potions mastery.. Do you think dad would of liked that?" she asked wanting to get an answer she knew would be honest.
"Your father would always be proud of you Dear Girl." he said simply, "Especially if you were able to outdo him in his own craft, even if may of got competetive." Dumbledore told her with a small smile and Raven gave a small sad laugh and nodded and thanked him and Harry walked in and Raven gave him a small smile.
" Thanks Old man, I'll leave you to talk to Potter." she said with a wave and harry paused her for a moment,
"Harry, call me Harry, We're ..Family right?" he tried seeming almost unsure and Raven raised an eyebrow,
"We can try to be , Call me Raven then. See you around Harry." She told him and headed to the door heading back towards the hall, taking a clearer route this time.
She found her way back to the hall, looked around and moved towards the fire sitting infront of it smiling as a house elf appeared and held out a cup of hot chocolate and she took it with a thank you and the house elf smiled giving a nod and disappeared letting herself warm up and drinking the drink as she relaxed waiting for the day to be over.