November 22, 1976 – Serena PoV
I yawned lazily as I walked back to the common room early in the morning with Bellatrix by my side and Cia sleeping inside one of my pockets that Aria had created for her, I could take away the sleep with my bronzemind, but I didn't like the fact of going from practically unconsciousness to completely awake in a few seconds, I liked the slight grogginess and laziness that came with just waking up after a good night's sleep, so I didn't use my bronzemind to wake myself up completely, maybe after breakfast if I wasn't awake yet.
The night before I had sneaked into the common room and into the seventh year boys' dormitories under Aria's invisibility and my copper clouds, though it was entirely useless since the Lestranges weren't there.
Then I remembered the burns and the broken rib I had inflicted on them and groaned in frustration before heading to the infirmary, it was easy to find Lestrange's bed, it was the only one with the curtains closed, I tried to get in and was… disappointed, really disappointed, closing the curtain with magic and a simple alarm? Was that the only defense Lestrange had come up with? It was pathetically easy to get in and seal it before I left.
Company Stamp, which could be applied with a thumb-sized ink stamp provided by The Company, serves to capture targets, placing a permanent magical tattoo on them that infuses mental effects on the person guaranteeing loyalty, friendship, and romantic and sexual interest towards the contractor, that is, towards me.
But the other part was that she was now my slave in all but name, and I could sell her to the company for credits, which is what I was going to do.
I needed to place the seal in person and press it for 3 seconds and it took 72 hours to take effect, once completed Lestrange would be mine to do with as I wished.
As soon as I walked down the stairs from the entrance to the common room I wanted to roll my eyes, it was a weekday right before breakfast so there were already several people ready to start the day, all of whom had fallen silent as they looked at me with fear in their eyes, some quickly looked away when I noticed them, others looked in my direction before looking away.
"Serena!" I braced myself for the hug missile that was Narcissa.
" - ofh !" I felt Narcissa hug me even more tightly "N-Narcissa! I-I still need to breathe!" I said quickly when I felt my lungs completely compressed.
"Oh thank you Salazar, I was so worried!" Narcissa squeezed me tighter, I decanted my cadmium mind so I wouldn't have to breathe, who would have thought that would serve to avoid being killed by Narcissa's hug.
"Narcissa, dear, I think you should let her go, she doesn't seem to be breathing anymore" I heard Lucius look at me worriedly.
"I'm fine" was what I tried to say, but nothing came out of my mouth, I rolled my eyes, fun fact, you need air in your lungs to be able to form words, I gave Lucius a thumbs up, who just sighed in relief.
"Serena, I hope everything is okay," I nodded in response before wincing as I felt my rib crack, okay, this was ridiculous, I snapped my mindstone, grabbed Narcissa's wrists and pulled her away from the hug, taking a deep breath, it was weird not having been breathing for even a few seconds without feeling like I was suffocating.
"Blessed air that gives me life" I sighed in relief before looking at Narcissa who was pouting, I rolled my eyes "I'm fine Narcissa, really" she tried to calm down but I could see tears forming in her eyes, I sighed and hugged her again, she wrapped me up once again, this time more gently "we still have to go to breakfast, we still have classes" I said softly, I could feel her nod but she made no effort to pull away and I looked at Lucius pleading for help, the bastard just had a smile, I glared at him "the faster we go and the end of classes"
"Fine, but don't leave my side all day" I rolled my eyes.
"There would be no difference with the rest of the days" I replied "Now... I think I owe you an explanation... I will explain it to you after class, in fact, I will explain everything to you" I saw the trio's eyes open widely, and rightly so, really, they knew I was keeping things from them, but still they never said anything, well, less Bellatrix who demanded to know everything, but that was simply because she wanted to know what I could do and how I could do it and not really my secrets.
But I had been thinking about it for a few weeks now, I really wanted them to know, I wanted to invite them with me, so I had to take a chance on them.
"I'll be waiting for you," Bellatrix said with her eyes half closed. I sighed, but nodded.
"By the way, Lestrange and his group of misfits?" I asked Lucius, although I already knew their whereabouts.
"The infirmary, I sent them there for the burns, I made it clear that if they didn't report that it was a potions accident there would be... consequences" I could see him smile sadistically, I nodded.
"You should have burned them to ashes," Narcissa hissed hatefully. Lucius and I both stared at her in disbelief. Bellatrix let out a laugh. Narcissa finally pulled away from me and raised her chin haughtily. "I'm a Black," she said as if that explained everything, and I hated that it did. "Come on, we need to get ready for the day." Narcissa grabbed my wrist and began to drag me along. I sighed tiredly, but let myself be led to our room.
"Before I forget, we'll meet after the last class at you know where," I said to Lucius over my shoulder, I saw him nod before turning his gaze to everyone else in the room.
"Be more subtle for the love of Salazar, you're Slytherins !" I chuckled at Lucius's reprimand as I began to hear the bustle in the common room.
Classes were normal, the only thing different was Narcissa, normally we sat together in all classes, but now she practically dragged me from one side to the other, never separating for too long, more than once I wanted to tell her to let go of me but I bit my tongue and let Narcissa continue acting however she wanted, she really wasn't any bother so far, except that time she wanted to enter the same stall as me in the bathroom, there I drew the line firmly, it's okay that she was worried about last night's confrontation, but she hadn't been hurt in any way, but I guess seeing an unforgivable curse worried her.
Now we were finally on the seventh floor, the Room of Requirement behind us as we stood with Lucius and Bellatrix who... there they were, I watched them arrive as they glared at each other as they walked with a space of two meters between them, I sighed tiredly, they really didn't get along at all.
"Well, they're finally here, let's go in" I interrupted their staring contest as I opened the door, there was a living room set up like a cozy room, a fireplace and next to it a table with four seats with some snacks on it "Well, what do you want to know?" I asked as I sat down and had a chocolate snack.
"Everything" Bellatrix replied as she wrinkled her nose at the table but sat down anyway, Lucius and Narcissa following shortly after, I just hummed lightly as I considered it before sighing.
----
The trio had remained silent looking at me, I had told them everything, it was something I had been thinking about for a while, so I didn't hold anything back, about my fusion with Serena's memories, everything about The Company and all my powers, it wasn't a really long talk, but it was confusing.
"…are you Serena?" Narcissa asked firmly, I grimaced and nodded.
"As much as I can, I simply am… more, I am both Serena and my new set of memories and personality, or the result of combining both even though the latter are mostly the dominant ones" I sighed tiredly and they fell silent again.
"You... changed, over the summer," I grimaced again, "but... you're Serena, it's hard to explain, you changed, there's no doubt about it, you're very different from last year, but... you're still Serena." Narcissa seemed frustrated, mostly because she couldn't explain herself properly, I sighed in relief.
" Yeah, I know," I said in agreement, "I'll be the first to say that my… attitude was never the best in the past, it's easy to see now, I want to believe it was for the better," I laughed self-deprecatingly.
"And it was," Bellatrix said without hesitation, ouch, true, but ouch, "and I don't care, the only Serena I ever knew was you, so I don't care," she shrugged.
"And… so have we," Lucius said, referring to him and Narcissa. "Until this year, you always kept us at a distance. It was easy to tell that it was because you didn't really consider us friends or we hadn't made ourselves clear, so… we've really been getting to know you in depth this year. Knowing this doesn't change anything." Narcissa nodded and smiled at both of them.
"Now, the rest…" I licked my lips.
"You're a slaver, there's nothing wrong with that," she shrugged as if she didn't care, "I'm more interested in the other worlds and accumulating powers part," Bellatrix's eyes sparkled with excitement, "I want proof," she demanded, I looked at Lucius and Bellatrix, they both shrugged.
"We don't really care, we're purebloods Serena, Slytherins among them, really, if it doesn't involve us or if we can't make a profit, we don't care" Lucius explained and I rolled my eyes, of course.
"Sex slaves though? Are you planning on having several of your own?" Narcissa asked mockingly and I grimaced.
"I forbid it," Bellatrix said simply, and I gave her an indignant look.
"You forbid me?! I'll have as many sex slaves as I want!" I replied in her direction, she raised an eyebrow at me, I crossed my arms "Besides, are you thinking that you'll be part of my journey when I go to other worlds?"
"In the hypothetical case that they really do exist, of course they do, I already told you, you are mine, no one else's, but now." Bellatrix said possessively, I rolled my eyes.
"If you want to accompany me, on the contrary, you will become my possession, the only way to accompany me is to become my slave." I said mockingly, she frowned.
"Wait what? We need to become your slaves no matter what?" Lucius asked with a frown, I made a face.
"Yes, I… I want you to come with me, if you want obviously, it's not mandatory! But… I have to mark you as my possession, the only thing I can change is how you would see me, would you be family, partner or devotee, all the bonds that are created guarantee loyalty and friendship, and for partner the romantic and sexual interest towards me and the other partners that you have." I explained, the trio grimaced.
"You're not doing a very good job of selling the idea to us," Lucius said dryly, and I grimaced.
"I don't want to lie to any of you... but the seal is necessary if you want to accompany me and benefit from The Company and its talents and defenses, if not, it's not necessary, I won't blame you, would I like you to accompany me? Yes, but it's not like I can't keep coming to this world to visit you if you decide not to." I explained calmly, the trio fell silent again.
"Talents and defenses, tell me about them, you mentioned a couple before but you didn't explain." Bellatrix said with a calculating look, I hummed.
"The talents and defenses I can share are quite a few, they basically cover everything you can think of, you would be a prodigy in any area you want, but… there is one that is the most important, Everlasting Talent, eternal youth, you will age until you are 25 and it will stop there, you can still die, make no mistake, but not because of age." The trio looked at me in disbelief with wide eyes.
" Y -you're kidding." Narcissa said shakily, I shook my head.
"Actually, it's the most… basic thing that The Company's talents can do, the following are… accumulating powers, copying the powers of other people from other worlds, some are… so powerful that they are able to casually destroy worlds."
"I don't believe you," Bellatrix said immediately, and I grimaced. It was hard to imagine that level of power scale, especially when you had lived with magic and 'knew' the limits a witch or wizard could reach.
"I'm not saying you can get to that point overnight, it would take... work, but it's very possible," I told her, Bellatrix continued to stare at me without blinking.
"Mark me, I want proof." Bellatrix demanded and my eyes widened, I really wasn't expecting her to demand it so suddenly.
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