Back at Hogwarts for her second year in the modern world, equipped with a brilliant group of friends and a boy who loves her dearly, Azalea Hogwarts, protector and shield of the school itself, could not be happier, despite the war raging on around h...
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Azalea sighed softly to herself, Harry leaning beside her. Together, she and Harry had disposed of the potions book in the Room of Requirement. Though, even with the culprit of the Draco incident gone, Harry carried with him a guilt at causing pain to another. It didn't matter how many times people assured him that all was well, the pain of it stayed with him. Azalea had spent a lot of time with the Malfoy boy in recent days and although she was getting closer to him, Harry didn't mind. He could not blame Malfoy for anything any longer, not after what he had done.
Harry slowly uncorked the small vial of liquid luck, the group around him watching as he poured the entire thing straight into his mouth. Ron watched on in amazement from the floor as a bright grin split across Harry's face.
"Well" Hermione prompted after a long pause of silence. "How do you feel?"
"Excellent" Harry beamed, standing up, his voice sounding overrun with joy and jubilation. "Really excellent"
"Remember" Hermione prompted as if talking to a child. "Slughorn usually eats early, takes a walk and then returns to his office."
"Right" Harry beamed brightly, happier than they had collectively ever seen him. "I'm going down to Hagrids" he decided.
"What?" Hermione demanded, watching in shock as the Chosen one turned to Azalea, deeply pressing his lips to hers in instant passion and she jumped slightly as his tongue danced across his lips. When he inevitably pulled back with a bright grin, he winked.
"We'll save that for later," he whispered badly and Ron laughed audibly.
"Harry, you've got to go and speak to Slughorn" Hermione persisted again as the boy with the lightning scar grabbed his coat from where it was resting on the back on an armchair. "We have a plan."
"I know" Harry nodded. "But.... I've got a really good feeling about Hagrids. I feel it's ... it's the place to be tonight. Do you know what I mean?" He beamed and Azalea and Ron exchanged amused glances.
"No" they answered as a group.
"Right well, trust me. I know what I'm doing" he nodded. "Or Felix does" he laughed and toddled away, leaving the group in a state of confusion.
"He's off his rocker," Ron shook his head, laughing as he stared at where Harry had vanished off to.
"Well" Hermione sighed, the three of them falling back into the sofa again, crushed close to one another before the fire. "There is one thing for certain" Hermione continued. "He's happier than I've ever seen him."
"Yeah, just took a felix drug haze to get him that way." Ron chortled and she smiled at him.
"Have you spoken to him Lea? ... about Draco?" Hermione questioned sadly, instantly dampening the mood and Azalea sighed, glancing deeply into the flames.
"I have." She smiled softly, sadly. "He's harbouring a lot of guilt about it and it worries me."
"Why?" Ron questioned, frowning.
"Because Ron, we're at war and Harry is at the centre of it. That may be the first real malicious blood that Harry has shed but it most definitely will not be the last if he has any intention of surviving this war. He cannot get so upset about this, the blood that was dropped because in this case, at least, all was fine. But, there will come a time when Harry has to commit murder. There is at least one person we all know he must kill." She spoke calmly.
"How can you speak so calmly of killing people?" Ron frowned.
"Ron, imagine if someone hurt Ginny. Would you want to hurt them?"
"Well, yeah but-" she cut him off then.
"This school is my world. It is my home, my family and my purpose. I've vowed a hundred times to protect each and every student within those walls no matter how they behave. If I allow even a drop of innocent blood to be shed here, I have already failed. I cannot let anyone die. And I will kill the opponents to make that happen. I'm a solider, whether you choose to believe it or not." She informed sadly.
"How old were you Lea? When you killed your first person?" Hermione wondered softly. She held no hatred for the girl for what she had done. Even if Azalea took guilt and responsibility for her actions, Hermione could not view her in a bad light because she was not to blame, she didn't choose that life, it was merely forced upon her.
"I was nine"
"Nine?" Ron demndad. "Blimey, I was listening to my mum read Babbitty rabbity and the cackling stump and you were out being a badass witch." He shook his head and she just chuckled, sighing softly.
"The man, he was evil. Through and through. Even before Voldemort, evil existed in this world. He had my mother, Helga" she informed softly. "He was going to kill her and... I hesitated."
"Azalea. You were ten. I'm not surprised that you hesitated in killing someone" Hermione frowned.
"That one second of hesitation" azalea began to elaborate. "It almost got my mother killed. And after that, my mindset changed. In battle, you have to do first and think later. You've got no time to plan or practise. You're there and you're only chance of winning, is the speed in which you can react" she shrugged and Hermione and Ron listened eagerly. They knew that eventually, they would understand that feeling for themselves.
Harry was lucky that night and he finally got the memory from Slughorn. But that memory, only set in motion more pain and anguish....
