James and Lily are killed along with Charlus Potter during an attack on Potter Manor when Dahlia is only a few months old. Dorea Potter takes custody of little Dahlia Potter and goes into hiding at one of the many Black manors in France. There she is raised to be the perfect Pureblood Heiress despite her own blood status. How will Wizarding Britain react when Dahlia Potter-Black, heiress to the Potter and Black fortune, returns to Britain just in time for the Triwizard Tournament? More importantly, how will Dahlia react when she realizes there is more to life than being the perfect heiress?

Tags: Pureblood culture, sexism, misogyny, old fashioned beliefs, female!Harry, BWL!Neville, unrequited love, possible cross-generation romance later.

Pairings: undecided for now. As Dahlia is only 14, this is not likely to stay static.

Author's Note: Thanks for all of the reviews! Next chapter should see Dahlia at Hogwarts. I thought to put her there this chapter, but with the World Cup and its aftermath, I thought better of it. I'm still contemplating possible pairings (though I have an idea of where I'd like this to go) and houses, so if you have any suggestions feel free to let me know via review or PM. I should continue to update regularly, but I am a PhD student so my workload, even in the summer, is fairly heavy. Just a warning of sorts.

Chapter Two

The game was everything Dahlia had thought it would be and more. She had never seen a professional game before and had only attended a handful of Quidditch games at Beauxbatons as her schedule simply didn't allow for such frivolities. From the mascots' performances to the riveting match itself to the late night festivities following the match, Dahlia could not think of a time when she had had as much fun as she had that night—even if her company left much to be desired. Her anger towards Sirius had not abated though it had cooled over the course of the night. By the time they arrived back at the tents, Dahlia's mind was ablaze with the evening's events and her body was pleasantly exhausted. None of this ceased her ferocious blushing when she realized that Bill Weasley would be sharing their tent.

She had been drinking a cup of hot chocolate and discussing the magical and medicinal benefits of chocolates with Remus who had turned out to be a chocoholic much to Dahlia's delight when there was a knock at the door of the tent. Sirius hadn't even paused before ushering the eldest Weasley child into the tent.

"Are you sure you don't mind me kipping on the couch?" Bill asked Sirius. He shifted nervously from foot to foot as his eyes flittered from Sirius to where Dahlia and Remus were sitting.

Sirius shook his head. "We've plenty of room, Bill! No need for you to sleep on the couch, either. There's an empty room next to Lia's you can use for as long as you need."

"Thanks—I'll just go let Dad know and grab my things," he said before ducking out of the door.

Dahlia had taken the opportunity to head to her bedroom to ready herself for bed. It seemed that no sooner had her head hit the pillow she was being shaken awake by a calloused hand. She blinked sleepily as she tried to focus on the unfamiliar face looking down at her. But it wasn't so unfamiliar… it was Bill. Standing in her bedroom. In the middle of the night!

Before her mind had fully processed what was going on, she was being pulled from her bed and a dressing robe was pushed into her arms.

"Get dressed. There's been an attack," Bill told her before calling out to Sirius, "I've got her."

In the distance, Dahlia could hear a cacophony of screams. She stood shock still for a moment, her mind still befuddled by sleep, before she put two and two together. She pulled on the dressing robe and slipped on a pair of house slippers before following—rather, being pulled by—Bill out of the room.

"We're heading out to see if we can be of any use. You take Lia and head to the forest," Sirius said when he saw the two of them. "Don't let her out of your sight."

Bill nodded, pulling his wand out of a pocket. "I'll stop and get the kids from next door, and we'll all go to the forest. She'll be safe with me."

When they emerged from the tent, it was to mass chaos. Wizards and witches ran to and fro and spells flew all over the place. She watched as Sirius and Remus headed towards what appeared to be the source of the chaos while she and Bill were met with the rest of the Weasley family. The next few minutes flew by in a rush of activity that Dahlia would scarcely be able to remember later.

She knew that they all began running towards the direction of the woods together. She remembered distinctly being pushed toward the Weasley girl, Ginny, and the twins when Bill had begun exchanging spells with a man in a black cloak wearing a terrifying mask. She also, vaguely, remembered watching as Ron, Hermione, and Neville slipped away in the confusion. She remembered watching horrified as several Muggles were levitated in the air by a group of cloak wearing wizards. After that, it was a bit of a blur. She was nearly to a small wooded area when she tripped over a root and fell to the ground. The impact with the ground knocked the breath out of her and shocked her momentarily. She did not linger on the ground long, however, instead pushing herself up. She gasped loudly when she applied weight onto her ankle and caused a bolt of pain to go through her body and tears to sting her eyes.

When she finally did arrive at the wooded area, she was a mess. She was no mediwizard or healer, but she knew that she must have broken her ankle as she could scarcely put any weight on it, and it had swollen to at least twice its size. Her dressing robe was torn and dirty, thanks to her fall, and her hair, which had been down as it always was at night, was disheveled. Not to mention the fact that she had somehow managed to, once again, get separated from the group.

She was not alone, however. When her breathing finally returned to normal, she took the opportunity to look at her surroundings only to find Draco Malfoy leaning against a tree. Unlike her, he seemed perfectly content and not a bit disheveled as if he was merely passing the time. He quirked an eyebrow when their eyes met.

"If it isn't Dahlia Potter-Black," he mused, "all alone. I must say, I am surprised at that. Didn't think that godfather of yours would let you out at night all alone—especially when there are… unsavory characters afoot. How ever did you manage to escape him?"

There was something in his haughty tone or perhaps in the way his eyes swept over her, paying particular attention to her collarbone or the bare skin at her midsection, that both unsettled Dahlia and caused her face to flush in anger. She pulled her torn dressing robe closed, which only seemed to amuse the Malfoy heir.

"If you must know, he didn't let me out alone. I was with Bill Weasley when I…got separated from my group," she admitted in a bit of a huff.

Actually, it had been rather easy for her to get separated, as Bill had not been paying particular attention to her like Sirius had asked. Although Dahlia could understand his concern over his own family, he had seemed quite eager to join the fray and foist Dahlia over to someone else's less than capable hands. She wasn't sure how she felt about that. While Bill Weasley was almost a complete stranger to her, he had promised Sirius that he would look out for her… and he definitely had not done that. Her mind reasoned that there were circumstances that could not be helped, such as being attacked or the chaos and confusion of the grounds, but however angry she was with Sirius, she knew she would be have been safe with him.

Perhaps Britain wasn't the safest place to be… what with masked men wreaking havoc on Muggles and the conversation she had overheard previously. She had never been attacked once in France growing up nor had she been in any sort of danger. She wondered how her grand-mere would feel about her presence at this attack. She made a mental note to write to her at her earliest convenience.

Draco Malfoy did not seem to be too keen on conversing with Dahlia. His eyes were fixed on the continued action at the campground, though every so often, they flittered back to the small tree stump that Dahlia was currently sitting on.

After a few minutes, Dahlia finally broke their continued silence. "Those men… wearing masks," she began. "Do you know who they are? What they are?"

Draco shrugged elegantly looking utterly nonplussed. "Hard to say given they are masked… but I suppose, if pressed, I might wager a guess that they are Death Eaters." At Dahlia's look of confusion, he continued in an incredulous tone. "Servants of the Dark Lord. You must have heard of them, Miss Potter-Black, or do they have no history books in France?"

Dahlia flushed in anger. "Of course I've heard of them!"

Heard of them was a bit of an exaggeration, all things considered. She had read about the Dark Lord Voldemort in her history lessons, and she did remember some mention of his followers, but they had not been named. She remembered asking her grand-mere about them once in relation to the death of her parents, but she had reacted so badly that Dahlia never brought it up again. She knew that her parents had been killed in an attack, but neither her grand-mere nor Sirius had offered any other information regarding that. Perhaps it was time for Dahlia to investigate their deaths…

Before she could think on this further, Bill Weasley and another of his brothers, Charlie, showed up looking much worse for wear. His face, which had looked relieved on first seeing Dahlia, now showed signs of panic when he realized she was alone.

"Dahlia! You're all right. Where are the others?"

"All right?" Draco questioned. "No thanks to you, Weasley. Need I remind you of the dangers that could befall a young girl unattended, especially one of Miss Potter-Black's beauty and status…if I were a less honorable man, of course. She was lucky to have stumbled across me instead of some of the more uncouth men about."

Dahlia thought that was a bit rich, coming from him, as he hadn't seemed too keen on her safety or welfare or anything like that. If anything, all he had done so far had been to antagonize her. Though, she supposed, it could have been much worse, all things considered.

"I'm not sure where they are," she finally told Bill. "We started out together, but with everything going on, it was easy to lose them, and then I tripped and fell. By the time I was upright once more, I couldn't find anyone. I had hoped that I would run into them here, but no one else but Mister Malfoy was here"

Bill looked very much like he wanted to exchange words with the Malfoy heir but then thought better of it. Instead, he nodded towards Charlie who then helped Dahlia to her feet. "Charlie'll take you back to the tent. Sirius said he'd meet us there. I'm going to keep looking for the others."

The process of hobbling back to the tent was more painful than Dahlia had thought it would be.

"Wish I could help you with that ankle of yours," Charlie Weasley admitted at one point. "I'm pants at healing charms, though. Remus'll set you to rights soon as he sees you though. He's brilliant at those sorts of charms."

Charlie was right. Remus had healed her ankle at once when they arrived at the tent. This did not stop him from fussing over Dahlia or hovering outside her door as she changed clothes, pulled her hair hastily, and gave Tippy instructions on packing her belongs and delivering them back to Grimmauld Place. This was only exacerbated by Sirius' continued absence.

"I'm sure he is fine," Remus repeated once more, for his sake more than hers, it seemed. "He's an excellent Auror."

They were now safely within the wards of Grimmauld Place having Apparated away from the campgrounds as soon as Dahlia had given the orders to Tippy.

Sirius did turn up at Grimmauld Place the next afternoon while Remus and Dahlia were having brunch. He slammed a copy of the Daily Prophet down on the table in front of Remus and pointed viciously at the headline above a startling picture of what appeared to be a snake coming out of a skull: "SCENES OF TERROR AT THE QUIDDITCH WORLD CUP."

"Can you believe it, Moony? We found the Dark Mark conjured, but no one has any idea who might have done it, and the Minister has decided to be a right berk about the whole thing and is convinced it has nothing to do with You-Know-Who at all!"

Dahlia watched as Remus skimmed the rest of the article, a look of disgust on his face. "Who would write such rubbish?" He paused. "Ah, Rita Skeeter, of course," he murmured. "I should have known."

"I'll give her a 'Ministry Blunder!'" Sirius snarled, throwing himself down into a chair and then spearing several nearby pancakes. He did calm down a bit after Remus pushed a cup of coffee his way, though he was practically inhaling both the coffee and his food.

"I've got to go back in. Dunno how long I'll be. Things are a right mess at the Ministry as you can imagine," he stated when he was done eating. "Oh, before I forget. I collected this for you, Lia. Maybe you and Remus can go to Diagon Alley and pick up your supplies while I'm gone."

He handed a thick envelope to Dahlia that had a strange coat of arms and Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry written in emerald green ink on it above a green wax seal.

The letter read thusly:

Dear Miss Potter-Black,

We have received your transcripts from Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, and after careful perusal, we are happy to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed within a list of all necessary books and equipment. Due to the differing curriculum between the two schools, however, you will find a number of differences in the necessary books as well as a few missing altogether. Madame Maxine has extended the offer of allowing you to continue the courses missing from the Hogwarts curriculum via Owl Post. If you are interested, please let both Madame Maxine and myself know, so that provisions can be made in your schedule.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress

Well, there it was. Printed proof that she would not be returning to the school she loved. Her only consolation was that she would be allowed to continue in all of her classes. She worried, albeit briefly, about being behind but a quick look at the book list told her she would not be. If anything, she was likely to be ahead as she was familiar with a number of the books on the list seeing as her tutors prior to entering school had used them. She suppressed a sigh when she noticed both Remus and Sirius watching her expectedly.

"I'll just go double check my belongings. I think I have a number of these things—potion supplies and the like—with me. Then, I suppose it would be rather nice to visit Diagon Alley once again."

Dahlia would have liked to continue to protest her change of schooling, but to what avail? It seemed silly to be obstinate when it could change nothing. Plus, she had to admit that she was rather curious about what she might learn at Hogwarts regarding the death of her parents. Loathe though she was to admit it, she was rather certain that Draco Malfoy was likely to be a continued source of information.

Diagon Alley had a rather quaint look to it. Rustic even, if Dahlia was honest. It was not necessarily a bad thing, but Dahlia was used to the more elegant shopping districts of Paris, Berlin, and Rome. Diagon Alley left much to be desired. Still, shopping had always served to calm her down in the past, and it had a similar effect on her during their trip.

They spent a lot of time in Flourish and Blott's, the bookstore in Diagon Alley. There were several subject areas that seemed skimpy when compared to their French counterpart. Dahlia was able to find all of the books she needed for her new Hogwarts classes as well as those needed to continue her classes at Beauxbatons. The next shop they spent a large amount of time at was Twilfitt and Tatting's. Remus had initially suggested Madam Malkin's but one look at her selection let Dahlia know that it wasn't the sort of store she wanted to frequent.

Their last stop of the day, after a quick trip to replenish her potion ingredients, was the local pet shop, Magical Menagerie much to Dahlia's initial confusion and then joy and complete delight. Her grand-mere had never allowed her to have a pet. She didn't think it would a good use of Dahlia's time to care for a pet.

"Sirius says you are to pick any sort of pet you want," Remus hesitated as he noticed a display of venomous snakes in the reptilian area. "Within reason, of course, as Hogwarts has strict rules regarding pets."

Dahlia nodded absently as she glanced over the school list again. They could only bring a cat, a toad, or an owl. She was sure that a toad certainly wouldn't do and an owl… well, Dahlia liked owls well enough, though she was much more fond of the doves that delivered post at Beauxbatons. No, a cat would do very well. Decision made, she headed towards the cat enclosures. After a few minutes of peering into the cases, she was drawn to a small black kitten tucked away in the corner, eyeing the others with what Dahlia was sure was disdain. However, at second glance, she noticed the kitten was not a kitten at all but a Kneazle if the shape of her ears and tail were anything to go by.

"This one, if you please," Dahlia said, directing the clerk to the kitten.

The clerk gave her an uncertain look. "You sure?"

"Would I have said otherwise if that was the case?" She responded coolly.

The clerk still seemed skeptical, but he reached in and, barely missing the Kneazle's sharp claws, managed to pick the kitten up by the scruff of his neck. After a short struggle, he dropped the perturbed kitten into Dahlia's arms. The two—Dahlia and the Kneazle, that is—had a staring competition before the kitten finally sniffed at her and settled down in the crook made by her arms and her chest.

"Splendid!" Remus said.

He went to get a closer look at the kitten but before he could, the kitten opened one eye and let out a fierce hiss. Remus lifted his arms in surrender and stepped back. Well, well, then. It seems her new pet was going to be an exacting fellow.

"I'll just go get the supplies then, shall I?" Remus said and disappeared with the clerk who seemed to be happy to be well rid of both the Kneazle and Dahlia.

The two—and the newly acquired but as of yet unnamed kitten—rounded out their visit to Diagon Alley with a trip to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor where Dahlia ate what felt to be her weight in chocolate hazelnut ice cream. The unnamed kitten scowled at the confection when Dahlia offered him a taste before hissing once more at Remus.

"Any idea of a name for this little guy yet?" Remus asked lightly.

Dahlia nodded. "I'm thinking of Severus. Just see how stern and severe he looks!"

Remus nearly choked on his double chocolate with chocolate chip ice cream. "Pardon me?"

"Severus, you know… it is Latin for stern. I suppose I could call him Sévère, the French version, but seeing as I will be primarily speaking English now, this seems to suit him much better."

Remus chuckled weakly. "Promise me one thing, Dahlia?"

Confused, Dahlia nodded. "Anything."

"Let me be there when you tell Sirius his name."

It seemed like a reasonable request, especially considering how amusing Remus found her new pet's name, so she nodded. "As you wish."