New Digs

Title: Into the Darkness
Author: JoeHundredaire (joehundredaire@tthfanfic.com)
Rating: R/FR18.
Pairings: None
Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling is the dictator of all things Harry Potter. Never quite figured out who owns the Buffyverse, but I know for a fact that it's not me…
Joe's Note: Still not quite sure where this is going… but it's going anyways. Also, to sync things up with little bits I've already established (like Order of the Phoenix being available to read), Season 2 will be taking place in the present day. Honestly, neither Buffy nor Angel ever really referenced current events… so does it really matter?

********************

     Cordelia sighed as she sat Indian-style on the bed, Aura kneeling behind her as the girl brushed her long black hair for her. Her hands were too occupied to do it herself, though, as Theresa put her beautician ambitions to work giving Cordelia a manicure. 'I could do this in two or three spells myself,' she mused, 'but why use magic when you can make a muggle do it for you?'

     The thought made her pause momentarily, but she shook it off. Halloween had left more marks on her, it would seem, than on anyone else who'd been transformed into their costume. Well, except for the four Harry Potters she'd killed, of course. A few discreet Eavesdropping Charms that had been left in the library had informed her that while Xander and Buffy had some fading memories of their Halloween personas, neither had been affected to the degree she had. Namely, full memories and access to the costume's power.

     Not that she thought she was Bellatrix Lestrange née Black or something. While the memories WERE in the first person, she knew that they were of Bellatrix's life and not something she'd done herself. Mostly because they ended before the year in which she was born. And she'd never have worn robes or some of the old-fashioned stuff Bellatrix had enjoyed when she actually did dress up. Ugh. The nineteenth century was long dead, and witches and wizards really needed to realize that. Really, robes and noblewomen-esque dresses? So not cool.

     Still, she'd somehow ended up with a complete and unfading set of memories when everyone else hadn't. And it had changed her outlook on life… for the better? She wasn't sure. Then again, now that some of her memories belonged to a woman who had spent her adult life fighting on the 'wrong' side of a war, good versus evil and better versus worse were a bit more fluid in her mind than they probably were for most people.

     Most people would be horrified at how she'd effectively enslaved her friends… but they had already pretty much agreed to serve her anyways, right? The Cordettes had been her minions since she entered high school, so what harm was there in making them into better minions? Like using the Imperius Curse to 'convince' them to take martial arts classes. Now they were stronger and more flexible, which helped with cheerleading too, as well as being safer when they ventured out at night. And Jenny was much happier now.

     Cordelia looked to her left, where the minion in question was sprawled out on her stomach next to her on the bed. While not particularly skilled in either of the mental arts, Bellatrix had a passing familiarity with Legilimency. Muggle minds were incredibly easy to mine for information, and so Cordelia had taken a quick skim through each girl's mind to find any secrets or desires that could be useful. After all, happy minions were productive minions. Much like Cordelia's secret love of Harry Potter, Jenny was addicted to online roleplaying games. A few magically-enhanced nudges had gotten Jenny to trade in Invisaligns and contacts for conventional braces and glasses, and she'd become the new poster girl for "geek is chic" in the school… allowing Cordelia to make inroads with the nerds that she'd tormented so viciously in the past.

     'See,' she thought. 'I am being a better person. I'm helping push my friends to stop hiding who they really are and just be happy while being true to themselves. Nothing wrong with that. That, and if one of those losers goes all Columbine, at least they won't kill me now. Also a plus.'

     Theresa finished with her nails and grinned up at Cordelia before handing the girl her sleek black wand. Cordelia raised an eyebrow as the girl turned over her right forearm to expose the inside of her elbow and lowered her head submissively. Tracing the tip of her wand over the dull black mark there, Cordelia grinned. Rather than anything as gaudy and bizarre as a skull and a snake, she'd chosen a pair of interlocked Cs similar to the Gucci logo. And after some rather careful trial and error over the last month, she'd realized that the Dark Mark was capable of far more than the Dark Lord ever used it for… or she had discovered new uses that even he was unaware of.

     While her girls were unable to apparate to her, being muggles and all, touching the mark of one while focusing on a desire for them to gather would provide each girl with a mental flash of where Cordelia was. There was no pain for anyone with the mark either, unless she specifically chose to inflict pain on one of her girls as a punishment. It was far easier to do than the Cruciatus, and could even be cast remotely by touching one girl's mark and focusing on punishing another. On the flip side, what could cause pain could also cause pleasure…

     In their seventh year, the Slytherin girls had passed around a few… useful… spells for dealing with the arranged marriages that they were all facing. After all, pureblood wizards who didn't like their wives could easily cheat, but woe be the witch who was found out to be committing adultery. It was far easier for all involved to utilize a few spells to take care of things themselves. Focusing on the pleasure she'd derived from her own wand the night before, Cordelia pressed her wand into Theresa's mark and pushed her magic outward.

     The interlocking Cs flared purple and Theresa's eyes rolled back into her head. Letting out a throaty moan, she began to tip backwards until Cordelia's free hand wrapped around her wrist and held on tightly. Jenny looked up from her laptop briefly before returning her attention to whatever she was working on. After all, Cordelia often rewarded them all by pushing through one girl's mark and you really lost all inhibitions about sexual pleasure when you regularly got off with five other girls in the room.

     "Wow, you really did a good job on my nails," Cordelia remarked, releasing her grasp on Theresa's wrist. The girl tipped backwards onto the bed and panted softly as she stared blankly up at the ceiling. Holding her hand close to her face, Cordelia inspected her nails. "Seriously, this is better than the girl I normally pay big money for. You're going to be working on the rich and famous some day, mark my words."

     Theresa smiled from her spot on the bed. "Thank you, Mistress," she replied, still panting softly. "Making you happy is what makes me happy."

     That caused her to wince a bit. While they acted normally in public, the girls seemed to revert more into mindless minions when they were at home. While it was a little annoying, she had to admit that she enjoyed having a group of maids to wait on her hand and foot. 'Maybe Imperius is influenced by my subconscious?' she mused. 'If I had to choose between useful servants and well-spoken servants, I'd choose useful. So maybe that's why they act like that? Eh, who cares. Until they manage to start rebelling, it's not a problem.'

     As Aura finished brushing her hair, Cordelia leaned over to look at Jenny's laptop. "How are things going?" she asked.

     "Good, good," Jenny said idly. "I gave Warren the info you had about all your father's off-shore accounts and the money's on its way through the… eighth transit account right now. Within an hour or two, you'll be in control of another… six million dollars. After Warren's cut, of course."

     This was another prime example of grey morality, just like the mansion they were now living in. Really, it was only the home to a vampire… she was doing the city a favor by having Warren manipulate things so she could buy it for pennies on the dollar. After all, she would be paying proper taxes… unlike Angel. And her father had stolen the money from all kinds of people… so there was nothing wrong with taking it from him and spending it. Right? After all, some of the money she spent on new clothes and furnishings for herself and her minions went to pay workers and help them live too. 'Steal from the evil and use it to make your life better,' she mused. 'I should write a book about that. Call it 'Cordynomics' or something…'

     Looking over her shoulder, she shook her head at Aura and the white-haired girl nodded in understanding. The hair brushing was a nightly routine that ended in one of two ways: either Aura would weave her hair into a French braid or, like tonight, it would be left down. Aura set the brush down on the bed and hesitantly extended her right arm, getting a bit more sure of herself when Cordelia smiled at her.

     A quick press of her wandtip reduced Aura to a quivering lump on the bed… that happened to be laying halfway across Jenny. The girl scowled and poked Aura a few times, trying to convince the girl to stop laying across her butt, but gave up when the girl remained even more braindead than usual. Cordelia laughed before levitating Aura to another part of the bed and standing up. That was another benefit to the seven of them living in a house together: she could use her magic freely on the girls for whatever purpose she desired (from something as simple as what she'd just done, to hair and eye color changes, to soft tissue transfiguration) without having to worry about who was up and around the house.

     "Time for bed, girls," she announced. Jenny closed her laptop and slid it into the messenger bag resting by the side of the bed, while Theresa poked Aura in the ribs a few times. Aura whined but rolled over the side of the bed and climbed to her feet. Not that she imposed a bedtime for her girls; they were old enough to decide when they wanted to go to sleep. But… "Theresa," Cordelia announced.

     Theresa let out a little cheer and bounced out of the room, while Jenny and Aura grumbled and trailed behind slowly. This was another bit of strangeness that Bellatrix's mind had imposed upon Cordelia's life. While logically she knew she'd never shared a bed with ANYONE, after Bellatrix spent a decade or so married cohabitating with her husband, Cordelia just felt… uncomfortable… while alone in bed. And so every night, she picked one of the girls to serve as a human pillow. There was absolutely nothing sexual about the arrangement, as Cordelia pleasured herself during her nightly shower if she needed to, but it did give them a half an hour or so at night and an hour in the morning where each girl could try to lean on Cordelia to support any purchase (for the house or personal desires) or plot they had rattling around in their head.

     After she'd shucked the large t-shirt she'd donned after her shower, Cordelia looked around the room. Her school books were still scattered across the desk, but a simple wave of her wand corrected that. Nothing else seemed out of place, so she turned off all the lights except the one on her nightstand and slid into bed to wait. After a few minutes, Theresa slipped back into the room. Without saying a word, she lifted her own shirt over her head before sliding into the bed and turning off the light.

     Cordelia grinned as she rolled over and snuggled up against Theresa. Out of all six girls, Theresa was her favorite pillow. She was the only girl taller than Cordelia herself, which made her more familiar to the Bellatrix fragment that inspired the behavior, and also was the only one who slept in as little clothing as Cordelia did. The feeling of warm skin against hers was comforting, even if it was the too-soft skin of another girl.

     Comparative size and warm skin were pros. Cordelia was reminded of a con as she tried to find a comfortable position for her head on Theresa's chest. Cordelia herself was busty… Theresa was just obscene. Scowling, she wiggled a bit but just couldn't manage to find a good way to lay. Either she had her head on a breast, or her head on Theresa's shoulder and her own breasts would press against Theresa's. Finally, she slid down and rested her head on Theresa's stomach. Much better.

     Theresa just let out a soft laugh at her actions but then the room fell silent as Cordelia closed her eyes and relaxed. After an indeterminite time without a word spoken by either, Cordelia drifted off to sleep.

********************

     Buffy scowled as Cordelia entered the cafeteria, trailed by her flock of friends. Her normal hatred of the girl had escalated to new heights ever since Halloween. The newly raven-haired girl had begun forcing new ideals into the upper cliques of the school, effectively banding the majority of the school together as one mostly-agreeable group… that excluded her, Willow, and Xander. And she'd bought Angel's mansion out from under him, throwing him out on the street for a week or so before the vampire had managed to find an apartment. On top of that, her general fashion sense was offended by… "Since when was the creepy goth look in?" she wondered idly.

     "About the time geek became in," Willow replied, glaring at the glasses-wearing member of Cordelia's crowd. Evidently, when faced with the choice of hanging out with Willow or talking with cheerleader Jenny McConnell, the intellectually-inclined members of the school chose Jenny. Probably because Jenny was smart AND hot, while Willow was smart and… well, kinda dumpy looking. Which… well, Willow didn't really have them as friends to lose, but it shrunk the pool of people she actually talked to down to Buffy and Xander.

     Tilting his head to the side, Xander's eyes glazed over as he observed the hot goth chick parade. "I don't see a problem with either," he informed them. "I hear they all live together too in that big house Cordelia bought out from under Deadboy. Imagine what they get up to in there…" He went silent and Buffy shook her head. He probably wouldn't be back from that fantasy trip until lunch was over.

     "Actually, Xander might be on to something," Willow said and Buffy's attention snapped to the redhead. "I saw her talking to Amy Madison today. In public. Which… isn't all that incriminating, but if you remember that Amy's mom was a dark witch and Amy probably was raised to do magic before her mom stole her body, could be the start of something bad. That, and I keep catching Amy staring at me in a really creepy way, which means she could be a lesbian and Cordelia's going to add a witch AND a new bed-squeaking buddy at the same time, and I'm not sure which possibility is worse but I kinda think it's the 'Cordelia and Amy naked' bit because that just gives me mental images that are wiggy."

     Buffy nodded. And Cordelia had even decided to dissolve the cheerleading squad, announcing that they didn't go to competitions and she had too much self-worth to shake her body for high school guys to drool over. 'Cordelia doesn't want to be a cheerleader anymore? Definitely the end of the world.' If something demonic was happening with Cordelia and her friends, it was her job to investigate it and stop it. It had absolutely NOTHING to do with what Cordelia had done to Angel.

     Really.

     Nothing.