Child of Night: The Whispers

Book I in my Child of Night series

Full summary: It's been eleven years since the birth of Astera Malfoy, and now she's off to Hogwarts with her best friends Tris Potter and Izzy Weasley. But soon after she arrives, strange things start happening. A dark, lurking feeling haunts her wherever she goes and strange, recurring dreams occur in her now fitful sleep. There's a reason behind all of this, of course, and her mother Hermione fears she knows what it is. What with Astera's constant adventures, a strange, whispered prophecy, and the lurking of a truth that might tear the family of four apart, this is sure to be an action-packed emotional roller coaster ride of a Hogwarts school year.

The next generation and their families:

The Malfoy Family: Draco, Hermione, Astera (11), Anza (4)

The Potter Family: Harry, Ginny, Tristina (11), James (5), Albus (5)

The Weasley Family: Ron, Lavender, Isabelle (11), Sera (9), Luna (7), Lupa (7), Thea (6), Nereida (4), Leo (1)

This series follows the canon HP timeline. It also follows this timeline for PJO/HoO:

2004: The Lightning Thief

2005: The Sea of Monsters

2005: The Titan's Curse

2006: The Battle of the Labyrinth

2007: The Last Olympian

2008: The Lost Hero

2009: Rest of the Heroes of Olympus

Keep in mind that it is currently 2010, this story starting in August before the three girls' first Hogwarts school year.

NOTE: This series, of course, ignores the Cursed Child. It also ignores the Trials of Apollo. There are some major changes between the actual series and how history went in this series:

MY CHANGES (major spoilers for the hp series): Draco is caught and joins the order. Harry and Draco teamed up against the Dark Lord to kill him, since they shared the power of the Elder wand, as Draco was only partially Disarmed. Hermione falls in love with Draco, causing Ron to get back with Lavender, who's changed quite a bit after the Battle. Minerva remains the Transfiguration teacher as well as being Headmistress. Flitwick is Deputy Headmaster. Narcissa moves over to the "good side" along with her son. Fred does not die, but loses his wand arm. Lupin and Tonks do not die. Percy Weasley dies, throwing himself on top of Fred to protect him from the explosion (he was forgiven!). Lucius Malfoy dies. Bellatrix Lestrange does not die, but goes missing after the Battle of Hogwarts.

A/N: The first few chapters of this story may be slightly boring. This is planned to be a very long haul sort of fic, and this is simply the beginning of how this story will start out, and trust me, it gets exciting :) (my outline says so) I've recently updated this first chapter to get rid of some things I didn't like, and this plotline is active again, so I hope you'll give it a try!

Child of Night: The Whispers

Chapter One

A sigh escaped Draco Malfoy as he sat at his paper strewn table, staring at the one paper that rose above them all: a sealed envelope made from heavy parchment, sealed with wax, holding a life changing letter—a letter that would take away his darling Ast for good. Take her away, off to a faraway castle where who-knows-what could happen. Off she went.

The time had truly flown by, the young man thought as he stared absentmindedly at the heavy envelope. He sighed (again). Eleven years. It had been eleven years since dear Astera had been born, and the time had flown by much too fast for his taste.

No matter how much he liked to pretend that she was still a child, that he still had time with her before she went out of his protecting arms to that scary world that was much too big for her (in Draco's opinion, at least), it wasn't true. She was growing up, though perhaps not in height, but in mind to be a frighteningly mature and knowledgeable young lady. At least they still had little Anza, who was only four years old as of the moment.

His train of thought was abruptly cut off by the sudden banging open of the large oak doors to Draco's workroom (a much more airier and cheerful place than his dark study) from the main house of Malfoy Manor.

The frenzied whirlwind that had banged open the old oak doors was Astera Narcissa Malfoy, a blur of eleven-year-old that was in constant movement. How she was going to manage sitting still in her classes for all that time (especially History of Magic, Draco thought to himself with a small chuckle) was going to be some kind of miracle that Draco didn't know.

Short, lean, and with a permanent sly expression on her face, one would be well to think to be careful around the little blur of energy. Astera Malfoy was born for mischief-making: with her father a fantastically evil and cunning wizard and her mother a fantastically brave and smart witch, the circumstances made way for a fantastical mischief-maker to be born. Sure, she was fantastically smart as well, but, as put by her much more rule-following best friend Tris Potter, she was more apt to be found 'dossing around' with her other best friend, Izzy Weasley.

The two parents could not have been more proud of their firstborn daughter — well, Hermione could have been, her daughter being after all quite the mischief maker, which didn't sit quite well with the former Gryffindor prefect.

"Has it come? Dad, did it come?!" Large brown excited eyes stared up at him from the pale and childishly rounded out face of Astera Malfoy. Locks of curly black hair tumbled down across her shoulders and around her excited face.

Behind her, her two best friends in the whole entire wide, wide world (as put by the young Malfoy herself) followed her in. They were cousins, but looked absolutely nothing like it. Tristina Potter was tall and slender with the dark hair and the bright green eyes of her father and grandmother before her. Isabelle Weasley, on the other hand, was the shortest of the three and had the iconic flaming red hair and freckled face from her Weasley heritage. She had a permanent feisty grin on her face, which differed greatly from the much more serious demeanor of her cousin Tristina.

It was obvious what Astera was asking for: her Hogwarts letter. For the past half year, Astera had practically talked her parents' ears off with all her excitement for Hogwarts. That excitement had not waned in the past three months.

"What, this?" Draco plucked the envelope from the top of the paper-and-parchment pile, holding it up tauntingly.

A grin instantly spread across the young girl's face at the sight of the letter. As fast as lightning (the tiny girl really could be quite fast when she wanted to, she'd won many a race at the Burrow), the girl sped across the room, plucked the letter right from her father's hand, and raced back to her friends' sides, joining them in a ridiculously silly victory dance before Draco had the chance to even blink.

"What's all this commotion about down here?" Hermione said as she entered the room, a smile adorning her beautiful face.

"I've got my letter, I've got my letter, I've got my letter," Astera chanted as she danced around with her two best friends. It was truly an effort for Draco not to burst out with an uncontrollable fit of laughter.

Hermione, it seemed, had the same sentiments, her eyes sparkling with joyous, loving laughter. Draco remembered all the times when he had caused that same sparkle to appear, and he smiled, caught in the whirlwind ride of memory as he had been so many countless times before.

"Hey, Dad, can we go over to Tris'?" Astera's voice drew the young man from his stupor and he blinked in confusion for a moment.

Hermione laughed. "Your Auror capabilities are truly fading away, Draco." Draco has quit his job as an Auror shortly after Astera had been conceived, not wanting to leave his little princess fatherless. (Since then, he'd worked an at-home desk job for the Ministry.)

"Oh, sod off," Draco grumbled fondly. "And sure, but mark my words, that Potter-Weasley family of yours is going to take all my children away, what with Anza spending most of her time at Ron's with those trouble-making twins."

"Agreed, they suck," Izzy laughed, still a tad out of breath from their little victory dance. Draco wondered if they would get tired after doing it three times. At each of their respective houses. "Bloody harp —"

"—players," Tris finished, giving Izzy a warning look. Tris, for some reason, took great offense to the word that Izzy so commonly used, though neither of the other two best friends knew why. It may have been the actual definition of the word, which Lavender often used.

Astera grinned. "Sod off, both of you."

The three of them linked arms and skipped off to the biggest fireplace in the house, the one they used for Flooing, singing some part of a Muggle musical—"We're off to see the wizard!"

Draco bemusedly stared after them. "'The wizard?'"

Perhaps that Muggle movie reference was a bit more magical than most.

/\/\/\

Two more victory dances and a lot of yelling later, Astera reappeared in the fireplace, a grin etched on her face. It would no doubt remain on her pretty face for the rest of the day, and perhaps much longer than that.

"Dad, Uncle Harry and Uncle Ron say that we can go get our supplies today, maybe we can all go together? Pleaseee?"

Draco sighed, glancing back to the pile of papers on his desk. "I'm not sure, sweetie, I've got a lot of paperwork to deal with an —"

"The paperwork can wait, darling," Hermione cut him off. "I'm sure you have time for one little day trip?" Her raised eyebrows and stern look spoke plainly that Hermione was not to be argued with on this particular matter.

Draco sighed again, looking back to his daughter's forlorn expression. "Yes, it can wait."

Astera's face burst back into its previous wide grin. "Thank you Dad! Yay! They said to meet them down at the Leaky Cauldron in twenty minutes."

The walk from the city entrance to Malfoy Manor down to the Leaky Cauldron was a mere brisk ten minute walk, but due to Astera's bounding ahead and back and so on as well as the slow ambling of her parents caused the walk to take almost twenty minutes: making them right on time with Ginny, who had two excited and joyous youngsters on her hands. Harry and Ron had both gone ahead from work to meet up at the Cauldron, and during the wait for the rest of them, had enjoyed a few glasses of exploding brandy.

"Draco! I haven't seen you outside of that dark work room in that manor of yours for ages! What's possessed you to come out into the sunlight?" Ron said, his cheeks red from the alcohol.

"Seriously, I've been wondering, are you a vampire?" Harry added.

Draco rolled his eyes. "Very funny, Potter."

"But seriously, though, it's not fun being a recluse. You should come out, hang with us more often, you know?"

"Well, it has its benefits," Draco said with a small smile creeping onto his face. "For starters, I don't have to hang out with you morons."

"He makes me feel so special inside," Ron said in a tearful tone, one hand over his heart and one hand dramatically flung into the air. Harry sniggered at his theatrics.

"So, where's Lavender?" Draco changed the subject as the large group of Weasleys-Potters-Malfoys stepped out into the courtyard behind the Leaky Cauldron, the taller members of the group ducking to avoid hitting their heads on the doorframe.

"Taking after the brood, Ginny's dropped her two twins back at our's," Ron replied as he tapped the bricks in the correct sequence to open the archway to Diagon Alley. The bricks rearranged themselves in a series of clunks until the archway was there, the sign Diagon Alley written above it.

"Hey, no running off now," Draco's commanding voice rang out, and the three youngsters who'd been excitedly bounding off to Quality Quidditch Supplies to ogle the newest brooms slunk back to the group of parents.

"I wish I held that much power," Ron sighed. "How do you do it, Malfoy?"

"For one, I'm not an annoying redhead Weasley," Draco replied, cheerfully. "Now come on, you lot. Let's get your school robes. First years aren't even allowed brooms, remember?"

"But I've got one," Astera complained as the large group began to move through the marketplace. "Why can't I bring that to school?"

"Rules," Hermione laughed, as she and Ginny headed off to Flourish and Blott's.

"I hate rules," Astera grumbled.

The pouting look on her face was soon remedied when they reached Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, and at seeing the Hogwarts emblem on the plain black robes, the young girl's excitement was reignited and she bounded off inside the shop, a childish grin on her face.

"Well, well, is it that time already?" the aging witch said with a smile as she looked down on Astera's glowing face. "Hogwarts, right?" Astera nodded. "Come on, then. I'll be with you in a minute," she called back to Harry and Ron, who just entered the shop with their equally excited daughters.

Astera bounded after the witch with uncontainable excitement, leaving her father to slowly walk in, so that by the time that Draco reached the fitting room, Astera was already in the famed Hogwarts robes, an ear-splitting grin on her face. The old witch was currently making the suitable measurements and readjustments to her robes, and Astera grinned even wider at seeing her father come in after her.

Seeing his tiny little daughter in those giant robes, too big for her, the father thought, much too big, made Draco's heart ache, for he knew that this meant that his pretending would no longer ever be valid: Astera was growing up, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

"Dad! How do I look?" she asked excitedly.

Draco smiled, pushing away the pain in his heart as he looked upon his daughter. "Short."

"Oh, sod off," she complained, smiling.

"There you are, now," Madam Malkin said as she pulled the robes from Astera. "All done. I'll be making the readjustments, now, come back in twenty minutes or so and they'll be done: I've got other customers."

"Alright, well, we can go get your school supplies while we wait, then."

As Draco led Astera down the hallway back to Diagon Alley, they were almost knocked over by an excitable Izzy. "Dad, hurry up! Oh, hi, Ast, yay, I'm so exciteeed!" Izzy sang as she bounded past.

"We'll meet you lot at Flourish and Blotts," Draco said to Harry and Ron as they passed. "Saves time for us having to wait for the robes."

A few minutes later Astera was bounding into Ollivander's, her excitement having reached fever pitch — she was doing quite a lot of bounding today, Draco thought with a chuckle — as Draco came in behind her. The whirlwind of excitement burst into the shop, causing a pile of dust to burst into the air. This particular fact made Draco sneeze more than he really had to.

"Good afternoon," a mysterious voice came from the darkness of the shop. "Astera and Draco Malfoy, isn't it? I never thought I'd ever see another Malfoy walk the floors of this shop again."

The old wandmaker's words made Draco shiver, and it was all he could do to stop himself from marching over to the aging wizard and make him swear on his life never to tell his tweenage daughter about his past misdoings.

The young man would fight tooth and nail to make sure that Astera never found out what he'd done all those years ago. He would make sure that his young daughter never hated him. Ever.

Thankfully, the girl was too full of excitement and awe at the shop and the mysterious voice to worry about what the old man was saying, and she grinned, bounding through the shop. "Hello Mr. Ollivander! Good morning!" she called out, hoping to get the old man to come out so she could see how he looked, and if the man looked as mysterious and whimsical as his voice sounded.

"So like your father, I see… hmm… try this. Elm wood, dragon heartstring core, 11 inches. Unbending flexibility." The old man came out from behind the stacks of wands, and Astera was so busy studying the old man in complete awe that she didn't notice the wand being held out to her in its ornate box.

"Ast? Ast, your wand."

"Huh?" Astera blinked.

"Take the wand, you silly little girl," Draco laughed.

Astera smiled sheepishly and took the wand.

"Give it a wave," the whimsical voice said.

Astera waved the wand and the dust in the shop became a whirlwind, hitting Draco in the face, causing him to sneeze again and again.

"Oh! Sorry, Dad, Mr. Ollivander," Astera said. "I guess that's not for me."

"Right you are, young lady," Ollivander said. "You are much like your mother, as well… try this. Hornbeam wood, unicorn tail hair core, 12 and three quarters of an inch, unbending flexibility."

Again the dust in the shop became a whirlwind, and Draco was overcome by sneezing again. He was going to have dust trauma by the end of today, the young man thought tiredly.

"But of course, you are a combination of both, and your own unique personality and spirit lies within your heart. So here, try this one. Beech wood with a phoenix feather core, 13 inches in length, and unbending flexibility."

Astera felt an affinity to the wand as soon as she set her eyes upon it, so it came as no surprise to her — though it did cause quite a lot excitement — when she grabbed hold of it, gave it a wave, and a golden stream of sparkles surrounded her body then flew away, hovering in midair for a moment before they disappeared.

"Ah, wonderful! Third time's a charm, I must say," Ollivander said, smiling. Astera was given the box encasing the wand to hold as Draco paid and the pair waltzed out the shop.

The father and daughter went through the shops, that excitedness never leaving Astera as she bounded from one shop to another. It was all Draco could do to keep track of the little whirlwind. After getting everything the young girl needed, they went back to Madam Malkin's to get Astera's robes.

Finally, they were done with their supply shopping, and the two headed to Flourish and Blotts to get their books and meet up with the others. Laden with packages, the young Malfoy's excitement was starting to wane when she saw her two best friends, and her excitement was immediately rekindled.

"Dad, can we go to the Magical Menagerie now?" Astera pestered as the pair ambled down the street to the bookshop.

"After," was all Draco said in reply as he led the youngster inside the bookshop. "Now, let's get your books and meet up with everyone."

Astera sighed. "Fine." The girl bounded off to gather the books she needed.

After much pestering and paying later, the large party was off to the menagerie. While Tris had her heart set on an owl ("Why do you need an owl? You've got Hedwig and her adorable little children."), while Izzy and Astera both didn't know what they wanted yet ("See, this is why you two are absolutely impossible.")

It took Astera a grand total of exactly seven seconds — and yes, someone counted — to decide which little fluffy animal companion she wanted. As the trio bounded into the shop, a tiny whirlwind of black fur bounded onto Astera, racing up her arm and settling itself onto her shoulder. This little whirlwind was a little black kitten with large, bluish-silver eyes. Astera wasted no time in making her choice. The mischief making kitten and the mischief making girl were a match made in heaven.

"Oh, dear! Shadevine, come here right this second! Oh, I'm so sorry, Shadevine's such a bother," A harried looking woman rushed over to pluck the little kitten away, who had no intention of obeying the woman. Mewing, it bounded into Astera's arms, and she cradled the little kitten, grinning.

"Can I have this one, Dad?" she said excitedly.

"What, this little furball? Tiny like you, eh?"

"Dad!" Astera complained as the kitten growled.

"Alright, alright, you can have her," Draco laughed.

"The two of you are going to make quite a lot of trouble, aren't you," Hermione said, coming over with a smile on her face.

With a wide grin and a wink at her mother, Astera turned back to the woman. "How much?"

The woman eyed the kitten warily, as if it was about to turn into some feral monster. "I'm not sure if you want that one. It tried to tear someone's hair off before." And kind of succeeded, she added to herself privately.

Astera grinned. "I don't think that's a problem. How much?"

"Five Galleons," the woman said. "I'll throw in a bag of cat food and a cage to get that thing off my hands. No returns. At all."

Astera cuddled the adorable kitten as Draco paid, while Tris got a silvery screech owl named Artemis and Izzy cuddled the equally adorable bunny rabbit that she'd promptly named Hestia, which the bunny seemed to approve of.

"Now, Shadevine, I'm going to call you Shade for short, alright?" Astera said. The kitten mewed its approval, and Astera grinned. "Alrighty then!"

"Hey, look over there," Tris said, pointing over across the other end of the large shop to where a handsome young boy stood with his parents, rather awkwardly standing with his parents. All three had an element of surprise and awe about them, as if they were completely bemused by everything around them.

"Muggles," Izzy laughed amusedly.

"He looks like he'll be in our year, maybe he'll be in the same House as us. He seems cool," Astera remarked.

"He looks strange. And weird. He's all pale with like jet black hair and stuff," Tris countered.

"What's wrong with being pale and having black hair?" Astera replied, feigning offence.

Tris turned bright red. "Nothing! Your skin and hair, it's lovely!"

The trio were consumed by fits of laughter for a bit, until the mirth in them finally died down.

"I'm going to go introduce myself to him," Astera announced, and charged over to the boy with her new cat perched on her head.

"Hi! Are you a Muggle?"

The boy blinked in confusion. "A what?"

"Cool! I've almost never seen Muggles down Diagon Alley before, then again, we never come around this time, that's when all the Muggles come because of school supplies and such, right? Anyway, I'm Astera, Astera Malfoy. Nice to meet you! You seem cool. Oh, and over there, those are my best friends Izzy Weasley and Tris Potter. Tris got an owl, even though she already has some: well they're her parents', but same thing. You're new at Hogwarts, right? What's your name?" Astera said at lightning speed, eyes bright.

The boy blinked again, trying to process everything the confidant girl had just said at lightning speed. "Yeah," he merely managed with an embarrassed grin. "I'm Kel Maldon," he added in response to the girl's question. "Is that your cat?"

"Cool! And yeah, this is Shade. I just got her. Anyway, see you at school, I guess. My parents and my friends' parents are probably going now. It was nice meeting you! Bye!" The girl ran off, waving back at the boy, leaving him reeling with bewilderment.

The group slowly ambled back to the archway outside back in Diagon Alley, their money pouches considerably lighter than before.

"Can we go home now?" Draco said, between sneezes.

Hermione laughed. "Alright then. Let's hope you don't sneeze all your papers away."

As a matter of fact, Draco did have quite a problem with his papers getting blown away by his bouts of sneezing that night, but even as he cursed Ollivanders for his stupid dusty run-down shop, a smile was on his face. He'd made his little girl happy. And that was worth it.

(No matter how much trouble it caused for him.)

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

A/N: Well, that was fun.

Anyway, as I said, this chapter was only filler, introduction to the characters and whatnot, etc. It may seem like any other Hogwarts fanfiction out there, but it's not! It only gets better from here, trust me :)

Sorry if I got any British spellings wrong or any of the slang and stuff. I'm American. Not British.

Please review, guys! Give me incentive to keep writing this! You can do it if you're a guest, you know… it doesn't have to be long. Just a one or two word review makes authors so happy :)

Next Chapter: The Hogwarts Express, the Sorting, and the making of some new friends!