Royalty (demigods at Hogwarts)

golden blood

Absolutely everything was unraveling at Piper's fingertips and she hadn't a clue how to stop it.

Piper had felt sick to her stomach after they'd 'shadow-travelled' with the harpy. Hazel had thought that this was all just part of the Wizarding World, but she hadn't had the energy to explain that it was something much, much worse.

Long ago, demigods ruled the Wizarding World. It was a dark and terrible history that only the oldest families knew of, and that the oldest families would do anything to have again. So much power was entrusted into a single demigod that they could crush massive amounts of population with their sheer force of will. A lot of those demigods' descendants became families like the Malfoys, the Greengrasses, the Blacks, the Ravenclaws, the Parkinsons... and the Potters. Old wizarding families had fought secretly under the cover of bribes and illegal dealings to restore the demigod families back into power again, but they'd had no success so far.

Until now.

Piper feared what her family would do if they found out that anyone else not from a Wizarding family was a demigod. She knew exactly what they enforced in situations where muggleborns had somehow been lucky enough to be half-god. They would do anything to keep the ichor running through pureblood veins only, and that included exterminating Hazel.

But before that... Piper shuddered. They'd do much more horrible things to her first before they killed her. In fact, after they finished, Hazel would be begging for death. It would be merciful to grant the sweet release of leaving the mortal world to her. To keep her alive would only be crueller.

Ichor was in high demand all throughout the thriving magical black market, and Hazel didn't have the high pureblood status to protect herself from being kidnapped and having the ichor that bled through her veins literally extracted from her and put into a pureblood child more worthy of having the golden blood of the gods' running through their veins. They had ways, special, creative, sick and twisted ways to get that precious golden blood of which they so craved, and Hazel would be left with nothing but a husk of a body once filled with life.

Piper had nothing to fear. She was a Black and a Greengrass, and if anyone dared touch a hair on her head, they risked inciting the wrath of both those powerful pureblood families using every resource to hunt them down. To spill pure blood when there was so little left was a very serious crime.

But Hazel wasn't a pureblood. And Piper knew that no one would come for her.

And she looked at Hazel's wide, golden eyes as they neared the chasm from the living world to the dead on the harpy's back, and knew that she had to be there for her if no one else would.

-

Piper felt absolutely sick to her stomach after they crossed the chasm, and she was nauseous all the way after until they got to a garden with pomegranate trees. This place was not for a child of Aphrodite, Piper thought miserably. There was no love or hope in the air... at least until they reached the garden.

The harpy flapped its wings suddenly, throwing both Hazel and Piper off its back. 'You can find your way from here,' it said venomously, as if repulsed by the mere sight of them. It gave them a nasty little smile before it flew off.

'That's right, bugger off,' spat Piper, glaring at the harpy's retreating figure, and lent a hand to help Hazel get off the ground. They walked deeper into the path that the harpy had pointed out for them- and then Piper felt it.

Strong, romantic love, like warm cookies on a cold night, surrounded Piper and instantly cheered her up. It was tangible in the air, its warm aroma snaking around her and making her feel safer, warmer, more powerful. Love was here, comforting her when no one else was.