Season of Change by: Elsbeth There were only a few things in Harry Potter's life that never changed, he was the son of Lily and James Potter and that he was born a male. What happens when he discovers the truth.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, all of it belong to J.K Rowling, I am just playing in her sandbox for a while.

Authors Note: AU: Its not my first fanfic but its my first Harry Potter, so I hope you enjoy it. The story starts at the end of the 5th Book.

Nymphadora, Tonks along with four of her teammates, Apparated into the streets, on the north side of Diagon Alley, near Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor. Finding the shop already swarming with Aurors, she stepped inside, reporting to the Senior Auror in charge.

“Wotcher, Savage, what happened?”

“We are still taking dispositions but looks like five Death Eaters tried to kidnap Mr. Fortescue.”

“For what, the man sells ice-cream.” Tonks looked around noticing the smashed windows and holes in the walls. “Looks like he put up a hell of a fight.”

“Wasn’t him actually, he was stunned for most of it. The young lady in the blue robes over in the corner managed to take care of them.”

“What all five…I know her.” Tonks' eyes opened wide, recognizing her as the girl who she had seen at Privet Drive.

“You do?”

“Well, we haven’t been formally introduced,” Tonks explained.

“I see, well that young Witch is Alya Cassiopeia Black, from what I heard she is now Head of House Black.”

“Head of House?” Tonks whispered. She had been told Harry Potter had been made Sirius’ Heir, so who was this girl? “So what happened?”

“According to Mr. Fortescue, five men entered his store, stunning him after proclaiming that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named required his presence. According to witnesses, the five Death Eaters immediately turned their wands on the two women. After dodging several AKs and transfiguring a couple of tables to block the ones aimed at Miss Malkin, Miss Black cast a Bombardia on the store room door.”

“Did she miss?”

The Auror laughed. “Doubtful, the resulting explosion injured two assailants rather seriously, a third fatally when a piece of wood nicked an artery in his neck. The man simply bled out before he hit the floor. The last two attackers were taken down with bone-breakers, although one of them also had a rather nasty looking knife wound to the leg.”

“Knife wound?”

“Miss Black threw a knife across the room hitting him in the thigh when he attempted to attack Miss Malkin.”

“Her mother must have taught her that,” Tonks said while looking at the young woman.

“Her mother?” Auror Savage said surprised.

“Black women usually have a knife or two on them.” Tonks knew her mother favored a long handled Scottish sgian-dubh that she kept in her boot. “Keeps away unwanted suitors.”

“Right.” Savage chuckled.

Grinning, she pointed to the two girls. “Do you mind…?”

“No, not at all, Tonks. Keep em’ company if you will. It’s hard enough having to deal with an investigation while trying to keep a Head of House happy.”

As she drew closer, the pink haired Auror watched a very happy looking shop owner join them.

“Please Mr. Fortescue, no more; it’s going to come out of our ears.” Margret Malkin laughed as a large bowl of ice cream was set down in front of them.

“That’s fine, child, but keep your money.” He smiled at the two gratefully. “Come on by anytime, my treat.” Mr. Fortescue nodded to Tonks as he went back to cleaning his shop.

“That’s very sweet of him, Margret,” Alya said before acknowledging the pink hair. “Madam Auror, is it possible for my friend to go home?”

Taking pity on the girl who looked uncomfortable sitting in the middle of the destroyed ice-cream parlor, Tonks smiled. “I don’t see a problem, as long as she’s available to speak to one of our Aurors if they have any more questions.”

“Thank you.”

Tonks nodded then turned to Alya. “I’m sorry Miss, but I believe that you will have to remain.”

“That’s not a problem, just let me see my friend off.”

As the two walked towards the door, Margret leaned forward hugging the raven-haired beauty. She seemed surprised for a moment, before returning the embrace.

“Thank you for saving my life.” Margret sniffed while holding on to her young friend.

Nodding, Alya whispered. “Floo me if you want to talk, OK. I’ll come right on over.”

Margret gave a smile, before Apparating away.

As she returned to the shop, Alya wondered when fighting for one’s life became so commonplace. She knew Margret hadn’t taken almost being murdered well, but to Alya, it was just another day in Diagon Alley.

“Do you mind if I have a seat, Miss?”

“No please.” Pointing to a spoon, Alya said. “As you can see we have plenty of ice-cream left over if you’re interested.”

“No thank you. I’m sorry, I haven’t formally introduced myself. My name is Nymphadora Tonks.”

“Alya Cassiopeia Black, but I believe you knew that already. So what can I do for you, cousin?”

Smiling, knowing the young girl would obviously know of their family connection, she leaned forward to whisper. “I saw you at….”

Suddenly, Tonks reached for her wand but relaxed as Alya cast some privacy wards around the two of them.

“Now what were we talking about again?”

“Sorry…yes…I saw you at Privet Drive.”

“I see?” Alya reached for her spoon taking a small bite of ice cream into her mouth.

“It was you, wasn’t it?” When Alya didn’t reply, Tonks continued. “Miss, please tell me where Harry went? We’re all really worried about him.”

Ayla took one late bite of the peanut butter and chocolate ice cream before setting down the spoon. “After the last couple of years, he has his doubts.”

Tonks looked confused not understanding what she meant about that.

“Anyway, cousin, I assure you, he is perfectly safe.”

“That damn invisibility cloak of his, he walked right past me when you left Privet Drive, didn’t he.” Nymphadora groaned. She realized she should have stopped the two of them before they stepped onto the Knight Bus.

Alya just shrugged, taking another small bite of ice cream. She couldn’t believe it. After escaping from Privet Drive, she still ended up dueling Death Eaters and interrogated by an Order member.

“12 Grimmauld Place” Tonks began.

“Nymphadora, as much as Harry likes you, I suggest you keep that thought to yourself,” Alya said somewhat testily but wanted to laugh at Tonk’s face, as she struggled at hearing her hated name. “You and your friends will find the wards of my home are not as welcoming as they once were.”

Alya didn’t think they would test them, but it didn’t matter as she planned to reapply the Fidelius Charm when she got the chance.

Tonks frowned unhappily before looking down at Ayla’s hand. “Even if you are Bellatrix’s daughter, you wouldn’t be Head of House.”

Alya laughed. “I am not Aunt Bellatrix’s daughter, Nymphadora.”

Tonks made a face again but didn’t correct her. “Then who? Regulus?”

Banishing the privacy wards around them, Alya still didn’t reply as a handful of Aurors approached. “I hope everything went well.”

Auror Savage smiled congenially. “Yes Miss, witnesses easily corroborated your story, although we might have some more questions at another time. Also, if it wouldn’t be an imposition, may we look at that dagger of yours?”

As Head of House, Tonks knew that Alya had the right to refuse so was surprised when she simply nodded. Slapping her hand on her thigh, several of Tonk’s colleagues jumped back as the knife suddenly appeared in the young girl’s hand.

“Thank you, Miss.” An older Auror stepped forward, not bothering to hold the blade himself. “Auror Savage, it’s as I expected. The wound contained lingering bits of magic that match the blade. It’s most definitely enchanted but not dark. It’s a beautiful knife, Egyptian if I am not mistaken.”

“Yes, I believe so,” Alya answered remembering all the interesting items inside the Black family vault, including a pair of beautifully crafted Egyptian daggers.

According to Bogrod, the knives were a gift from Septrum Black, who brought them back from the Fourth Crusade and given them to his wife Isabelle on their wedding day. For some reason, Alya had felt drawn to the pair.

Sliding the blade into her boot, Alya mused about one of the nice things about being a Head of House; the Aurors couldn’t search her without her consent. If they did, they would have been surprised to find that she also carried two more blades and her old wand.

Even with it on her, however, she didn’t know how much use it would be. With her old wand becoming harder to use since leaving Privet Drive, Alya had been lucky to pick up a new one before today.

Although Ash seemed ordinary enough wood, she had been surprised at her new wand’s core, never hearing of one with hair from an Egyptian flying cat. Looking at the hole in the wall that used to be a door, one couldn’t deny the results though.

“Thank you for remaining once more. If we have any questions, we will be sure to Owl you.”

Aya smiled. “I’m glad everything turned out as well as it did, Auror Savage.”

“Miss Alya can we…?” Tonks stepped forward.

“I’m sorry cousin, perhaps another time.” Alya gave her best smile before calling Kreacher who touched her hand before the two vanished, leaving a very frustrated Tonks behind.

+++++++

“Evening, Nanna.” Alya smiled at the portrait of Walburga Black before taking a seat on an old Victorian love seat.

“Good evening child, I’m surprised you didn’t Apparate yourself.” The voice of Walburga Black said warmly, which would have surprised those who had stood in front of her portrait before.

“I still get a little sick. My instructor told me that might happen as I took the abbreviated course.”

“Well keep practicing, I remember Bellatrix getting ill regularly when she first started to learn how to Apparate.”

Alya nodded, she had been happy to discover, as Head of House, she could get her Apparating license early. The Black Family account manager even managed to get her a spot in the next class, taught at the Department of Magical Transportation the next morning.

The image of Walburga Black could see that something else was bothering her granddaughter. “Did you not have a good time with your friend? You had been looked forward spending the day with her.”

Alya nodded and then sighed. “I killed a man today.”

The portrait made an anxious face for a moment. “Explain.”

Taking a deep breath, Alya began describing the fight in the ice-cream parlor.

Her reintroduction to Walburga Black had been memorable, to say the least. Like Kreacher, Walburga Black believed at first that she was a young Bellatrix Black. When Alya told the woman that she was Sirius’ daughter and Head of House she expected the witch to start screaming. Instead, the two of them had a conversation long into the night.

Her grandmother had been devastated to learn that all of her children and most of her house were now dead at the hands of Voldemort. It was about that point Alya broke down. It was too much, the transformation, the truth about her parents and the death of Sirius. Once she could breathe again, Alya told her grandmother everything. Starting with the death of James and Lilly Potter, her years with the Dursleys and her school year experiences, she left nothing out.

Daughter of Pollux Black and Irma Crabbe, Walburga Black was taught at a young age to look down on anyone but a Pureblood Witch or Wizard; she had been both horrified and amazed as she listened to her granddaughter. Part of her could not understand how a half-blood had claimed the Head of House until she listened further. As Alya told her story, Walburga knew the child was a Black. There was a hint of iron in her eyes which, even with all that had happen, remained strong. However, even iron would become brittle when too much heat was applied.

She knew that the Black family magic that permeated the walls had already welcomed Alya Black, becoming part of her as much as she was becoming part of it. It was at that moment; Walburga Black vowed to help her grandchild. To give her the tools to which she could become one of the greatest Heads of House and in turn, revenge themselves upon those who had come to harm the Black family.

“I am very proud of you, my dear.” Walburga Black spoke kindly to the young girl who sat there nervously, expecting that her newfound grandmother would start hating her.

‘Really…I thought.” Alya sat back hiding her tears.

“You did not set out to kill that man. No, you protected yourself and your friend. Frankly, I do not understand what Mr. Fortescue did to warrant the Dark Lords attention…”

“He sells ice-cream.”

“Indeed child and because of you, he can go home to his family. Now, why don’t you take a bath and I’ll have Kreacher bring you some hot chocolate and biscuits for afterward.”

“Thank you, Nanna.” With a half-smile, Alya grabbed a small red book before heading upstairs.

The bribe of hot chocolate and cookies had somewhat become a joke between the two of them although at the start it wasn't particularly funny. After the meeting with the Goblins, the chances of it all being a prank was obviously non-existent. In turn, it meant Harry Potter was actually a girl.

She didn’t realize it, but she had compartmentalized it all. Part of her enjoyed the thought of running away, of a new adventure, the other more rational part believed it to be an elaborate gag and in the end, she would end up spending the rest of her summer at the Burrow as Harry.

The next morning, those walls came tumbling down. For most boys, getting a glimpse of a naked girl would be the high point of their day. For Alya, it was a slap of reality. With that, she refused to change clothes, bathe and if possible not use the toilet. That, of course, proved impossible, nature dictated otherwise. However, she did it in the dark.

Her grandmother had other ideas, allowing Alya to wallow in her own filth for a couple of days before she acted. Alya was stubborn, Walburga Black was just as stubborn and poor Kreacher was stuck in the middle. In the end, Alya saw reason, mostly because it was rather disgusting.

Now Walburga Black helped Alya on what it meant to be a woman of the Black family, how to dress, how to behave in certain situations and the other million and one things that girls already knew by her age. Still, on occasion, Alya felt like a voyeur when looking in a mirror.

During the time she refused to bathe, Ayla discovered the little red book hidden away in the Black Library. Inside, it talked about a ritual called the Mutatio-femina. An obscure bit of Black family magic created in the middle ages as a result of the Black Death. According to family history, with so many men of the family falling to the plague, Gaxcrux Black created the little bit of magic to make sure that all of his heirs would be males.

Beyond the whole aspect of Sirius having an affair with her mother, neither she nor her grandmother understood why he performed the ritual or how Alya ended up with the Potters.

Nor did it answer the ultimate question, why did she suddenly turn from Harry Potter back into Alya Black. A failed ritual would more often kill the fetus, not suddenly change the baby fifteen years later back into a girl.

*Edited 4/14/17 Eslebth*