So, today is my birthday and so as a treat to you all I'll upload the first chapter of the revised version of Solace in Shadows: The Forgotten Alley. I've gotten the first four chapters written and I'm happy with all but chapter four. But I'll keep editing that until I am. Updates will either be other Sunday but increase to weekly as I get more chapters written and readable.
Without further ado, here is the chapter and let me know your thoughts.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or its characters, I only own Oblitus Alley and its inhabitants (except Reg).
Chapter One
It was Christmas Eve 1987, and Diagon Alley was packed with late shoppers buying last minute Christmas presents. Flourish and Blotts, Quality Quidditch Supplies and Gambol and Japes were the popular shops, with most people going for books, brooms or jokes as presents for others. Raven Blake watched all this as she slowly made her way through the throng to get to the apothecary, Slug and Jiggers. She had been pushed to the side by quite a few people, including one father whose son was desperately trying to drag his mother and father back to the shop they'd just come from, Magical Menagerie. It soon became evident that sticking to the sides of the Alley was a good idea after two frantic witches collided and one was crushed by a stack of books and the other was covered in many questionable substances from the Alley's only joke shop. Avoiding the puddle of combined prank potions she finally ducked into the apothecary, cursing the fact that it was right next to the Leaky Cauldron and nowhere near the entrance to Knockturn Alley, which was where she came from.
"Miss Blake, I hope you're not injured by the raiding parties?" The co-owner of the Apothecary, Mr Jiggers, asked as he emerged from the back room. Mr Jiggers was of average height with a slight belly, but he still would have been mildly attractive if it wasn't for his bald head, which made him look like an overgrown Garden Gnome. One time, when Raven had been quite young, she'd asked him why he kept shaving his head. He merely replied that it was easier to shave it all off rather than keep putting tonics in to stop the fumes from damaging it. Fingering her own unruly black tresses she had decided that tonics were preferable to short hair, at least in her case. "What can I do you for today?"
Can you get these ingredients and weights ready whilst I browse?" At his nod the young woman handed him a piece of parchment and browsed around the shelves. She ignored the section with the Hogwarts starter kits, and stuck to the more expensive section whilst the Apothecary walked around picking up and measuring her order. She found a few rare ingredients that were in fresh which she picked up, then once Mr Jiggers had finished with the shop front and went back to the counter she walked around the main shop to check that she hadn't forgotten to write anything on the list. Once satisfied that she had everything she needed she went back to the counter and waited as Mr Jiggers finished pricing and boxing the ingredients up.
"That is fifty-three galleons, Miss Blake," he said, and Raven moved her cloak out of the way to reach the pouches on her belt. There were quite a few, all bottomless and feather-light. She pulled the required amount of galleons from her money pouch, shrunk the box of ingredients (charmed to keep the ingredients fresh and separate to avoid contamination) and slid it neatly into a different pouch. Mr Jiggers handed her a record of the transaction and she bid him goodbye and Merry Christmas before leaving the shop. On the way back she noticed that Flourish and Blotts was somewhat empty so she made a detour to browse but also to pick an order that she had been informed was ready to collect. There was a family being served at the counter, so she wandered around the shop, picked up a few new texts that she had heard to be informative, and then decided to pick up a newer, revised copy of a Runes textbook she had at home but had been told that the author had made significant developments in the new edition. The counter was empty once she'd finished, so she handed the letter to the assistant at the till and waited as he went into the back room to pick up the Potions, Healing and Charms journals she's pre-ordered. Once they were priced she handed over the money, waited for the assistant to wrap her books up in paper then took the bundle and gently sat it in yet another pouch on her belt. Pulling a timepiece out of a pocket on the inside of her cloak she decided that since it was nearly ten in the evening she would head home. With that decision made she started walking down the Alley until she reached the entrance to Knockturn Alley. Looking around to make sure no-one was looking, she flipped up the hood on her cloak and ducked into Knockturn Alley. She was often seen in Knockturn so many left her alone, but she still kept her hands free and her wand easy to get to in case someone, or something, decided to attack. That way she could get to her wand quickly, easily get a shield up and run. Raven knew her strengths and weaknesses and so knew she wasn't a dueller, although she was good with a sword. But first and foremost she was a Potions Maker, not a fighter. She continued down the Alley until she reached a dark and slightly dingy shop front, and she quickly stepped inside.
"Raven," the shopkeeper said warmly. He had long slender fingers and pale skin. Although most Potion Makers did, Raven mused, looking at her own long pale digits; the paleness came from being in dark Potions labs all the time, and slender fingers help with adding ingredients without getting their hand singed. But Raven easily agreed that Jas' particular paleness could come from the fact that his mother was a vampire. "Have you got another list for me?" He asked laughingly, knowing Raven's habits of listing everything that needed replenishing in her lab. Raven just glared and rolled her eyes before handing the part-vampire a piece of parchment with a list on it. Jas just laughed before he walked out from behind the counter to gather the requested items. The items on this list were a little darker and rarer than the ones she brought in Diagon Alley, and in some cases classed as illegal by the British Ministry of Magic, hence why they had to be brought here rather than in Diagon Alley. As she watched Jas work she heard shuffling behind her at the doorway to the back of the shop, and turned to see a willowy brown-haired woman behind her.
"Olva," Raven said warmly, embracing the older woman.
"Raven," Olva replied with equal warmth. "I haven't seen you in months child, I've missed you." Her warm hazel eyes smiled at Raven even as her lips did the same. "I have something for you," she said happily, and handed Raven two wrapped presents. One was distinctly book-shaped, and the other was soft and of a fairly odd shape. "Only the rectangular one is for you," Olva said happily. "You'll know who the other is for come tomorrow." Raven looked oddly at Olva, who just grinned.
"The disadvantages of knowing a Seer," Jas said from beside Raven, laughter evident in his voice. "Hang on to it though." He handed Raven a box. "I won't be charging. Have a good Christmas," he said with a smile, and Raven's eyes widened. Olva and Jas just smirked identically until Raven shrunk all three items, the box going with the previous box of ingredients and the two presents went into an empty pouch.
"Merry Christmas," Raven said to the Mated pair, and Jas put an arm around Olva's waist as the two said goodbye before disappearing into the back of the shop. Raven merely shook her head and left the shop, thinking about the second present.
Five minute's walk later she was pretty deep into Knockturn and near to her destination. It was a lot darker in here, and as such not many ventured down. Only those that lived in the Alley ever came down this far unless they were running and desperate. An unexpected noise in a nearby side alley roused Raven from her musing, and her wand immediately flicked into her hand. Heading towards the sound, she halted by the alley opening and listened for more noises. After hearing slight sniffling followed by a scared whimper she made up her mind to go and investigate. Raven silently cast a Lumos as she walked, being careful to avoid all the puddles and splashes of various... questionable substances. A few more whimpers later the young woman stopped in front of a bundle of rags and blankets that had just been dumped on the ground. Crouching down, she reached the hand not holding her wand out to move some of the blankets out of the way, and gasped at what she saw.
"Oh Merlin," she breathed in horror. She had moved the topmost blanket to find a child, maximum age of six or seven, sat on the ground crying quietly. "He-hello?" Raven said softly, and the boy's head whipped up and his eyes widened in shock and fear. Raven immediately spread her hands in the universal 'I'm unarmed and not about to harm you' pose. "Hey, it's okay. I'm not going to hurt you. See," she continued in a murmur, slowly and deliberately putting her wand away, making sure to wandlessly maintain the lighting spell. "Not going to hurt you." The young boy slowly uncurled and sat on his knees. "How did you get this far into Knockturn? It's not all that safe in here," she asked, and the boy looked directly up at her for the first time. Now Raven could see his brilliant green eyes, almost as intense a colour as her own startling violet pair, and his mop of messy black hair. However his cheeks weren't sunken and aside from a small layer of grime he was relatively clean, so Raven decided that he wasn't one of the usual homeless urchins that lived in the Alleys.
"I don't remember," the boy said quietly. "I was asleep at home, then I woke up here. I thought it was a bad dream but I never woke up." He showed Raven a series of little red lines on his arm that she recognised as pinch marks. "I tried calling for a house elf but Mum and Dad always told them to never come when I called, because I'm not allowed to distract the house elves from their jobs or looking after Russell." His voice dropped as if he was telling a secret. "But Russell was allowed to call them and the elves had to do everything he said, so he told them to make sure I was given breakfast, lunch, dinner, and lots of water in between." The boy smiled, then shivered violently. Raven then noticed he was dressed in a dark blue pyjama set that seemed to be several sizes too small for him, since the arms and the legs only came halfway down his limbs and not all the way down.
"Is it okay if I cast some warming charms on you?" Raven asked the skittish child, and he slowly nodded. Raven brought her wand out again and cast Warming charms on the shivering child, then cleaned off a few of the blankets and wrapped them around the boy. He watched her suspiciously and relaxed when she pulled away to crouch a metre in front of him again. The two were silent for a moment before Raven thought of a question she had forgotten to ask. "What's your name?" She asked him, and the boy started shaking his head and started to shuffle backwards. "Okay, you don't need to tell me if you don't want to."
"Dad says I'm an embarrassment to the family," he whispered. "And I don't deserve the name P-" He stopped abruptly, but Raven sighed in realisation of the boy's name, and family. After all, not many families begin with P and have twin boys, one of which is called Russell.
There were several more minutes of silence before Raven caved and sighed in tiredness.
"It seems to me that we have a few options here," she told the boy, and he looked at her in curiosity. "You can tell me where you live, and I'll take you back there." As he made to say something Raven shook her head. "You could also stay here in case someone comes looking for you, under many Warming charms and quite a few wards to make sure you're safe. Or I could take you with me and ask the people who raised me what I should do with you. It's your choice."
The boy took his time to think of an answer.
"Well, I still don't know who left me here," he reasoned slowly. "If Mum and Dad really did bring me out here and left me to die, then they won't want me to come back. And Dad always tells Russell that bad people lived in Knockturn Alley that steal little children and use them for potions ingredients or in evil rituals, so maybe I shouldn't stay here." He looked at Raven seriously and Raven stared back, never breaking his gaze. "Why did you call them 'the people who raised you' and not your parents?"
"Because they aren't my parents," Raven replied genially. "When I was a baby my parents thought that they were being hunted, so they asked a group of people to look after me whilst they went into hiding, because they didn't want to bring me with them in case they were found. So the people took me in, and my parents never came back. Quite a few people disappeared, so we thought that maybe they were actually being hunted, and they weren't imagining things." Raven could tell that he had more questions but he didn't voice them.
"I'll go with you," he told her solemnly. Raven nodded before transfiguring a blanket into a child-sized cloak and handing it to the boy. He put it on and did up the clasp, and the cloak hid his too-small pyjamas and ended at his ankles.
"Okay, so whilst people won't use you for potions ingredients they are still dangerous so I have a couple of rules for you to follow until we get to where we're going. Firstly, stay close to me. We'll only be walking for five minutes at most but I don't want you to leave my side. Secondly, don't look anyone in the eyes. Some might take it as a challenge. Do you understand?" The boy nodded, and Raven quickly transfigured some boots out of the remaining blankets. The blankets were old and full of holes so they didn't make good boots, but Raven was confident they'd last for the length of time she needed them to. The boy quickly pulled the shoes on and Raven put a hand on his shoulder and led him out. They passed a group of 5 people in black hooded cloaks, and Raven's hand tensed a little on the boy's shoulder. A quick walk down the Alley and soon Raven led the child into a barely noticeable gap between buildings. It was small, and there was hardly enough space for them to walk side-by-side, so Raven pushed the boy in front of her slightly as they walked. The boy soon stopped as he looked at the dead end in shock. Raven smiled, took her hand off of the boy's shoulder then turned to look at the boy. "I'm going to use my wand to make a cut in my hand and spread the blood over the wall." He nodded slowly and Raven pulled her wand out of the holster on her left wrist and ran it along her left palm, then spread the blood over the bricks. The wall glowed slightly then it shimmered, but then appeared to go back to normal. Raven ran her wand over her palm again to close the cut, then ushered the boy through the wall, careful to make sure that whilst he stayed close he also had to go first, because the doorway would seal shut as soon as she was through. This Alley they were in was well-light, but little balls of light that floated everywhere. They didn't want to use flames or lamps in case they fell on any of the vampires so nearly a century ago a wizard and a couple of demons modified the Lumos spell to light up the Alley at night for those who only had normal eyesight, like Magicals.
"This is called Oblitus Alley," Raven told the boy as they walked. The buildings were all made of stone, and most were either three or four stories high, in order to accommodate the increasing number of people that lived in the Alley. "Oblitus is Latin for Forgotten. About 180 years ago the Wizarding World started hunting down Creatures and killing them because they were 'Dark' and 'evil'. So nine of the strongest Creatures still living created a safe place, a sanctuary, where all the Creatures could hide from the Magicals. Most of the Magicals hunting them were of the so-called 'Light', so the nine put the entrance to the Alley in the one place that the Light would never step foot in; Knockturn Alley. The nine were, over the ages, called the Elders, and they are the governing body of the Alley, as well as keepers of the Wards. They are also my guardians, and I hope some of them are available at this hour." They kept walking until they emerged into a large square courtyard. There were still some people milling about, and Raven got a few 'hello's and nods from them as they passed by. The square was surrounded by shops, and in the light the boy could see a bookshop, a weapon and armour shop and one with all manner of curious objects in the windows. Raven guided them to the north side of the square, and towards a large building made of light stone, although the windows seemed to take up most of the wall. "This is the Hall," Raven said as they walked towards it. "This is where the Council of Elders meet although only three of them actually live there; the others have their own places in the Alley." Raven opened the eight-foot high doors and they both slipped in.
"Raven, what brings you here at this hour? You should be sleeping." A tall woman with honey-blonde hair looked up from a scroll as they entered. "And who's the little one?"
"Sorry 'Ren," Raven said sheepishly at the glare of the Succubus that had mostly been her mother-figure when she was growing up. "I was on my way back to the Alley when I found a boy abandoned in Knockturn." Seren put down the scroll and walked closer. "He assumed that it was his parents that left him there whilst he was sleeping and I couldn't in good conscience leave him there or send him back to those who left him." Seren nodded slowly and walked from the entrance hall to the hall behind. Two minutes later she was back and smiling slightly.
"Carl, Ash and Chase are still here, come on through." With that she walked back into the room, Raven and the child following her. The room was circular and full of light despite the fact that it was nearing midnight. The walls of the room were covered in tapestries, mosaics and paintings showing the history of the Alley, and of the Creatures and Beings and the occasional myth and legend found their way onto a tapestry. In the centre of the room sat nine chairs in a semi-circle facing the door that the three just entered through. In the centre chair sat a pale male with dark hair and eyes. Two seats to his right sat a very muscular and bulky man with hair that looked like it contained all shades of red, orange and yellow and seemed to shimmer like flames. Three seats to the first man's left sat a man with short white hair and bright blue eyes who seemed to give off a prickle of energy that was distinctly non-human.
"Carl is in the centre," Raven murmured to the boy at her side. "He's a vampire, and the eldest of the Elders so the others tend to look at him as the leader. The red-haired man is Ash, not his real name, and he's a Fire demon. The other one is Chase, he's a Weretiger." Seren walked up to the chairs and sat to Carl's left, and Raven said "and that's Seren, a Succubus, one of only three female Elders." The boy nodded and the two looked at the Elders. There was a round of greetings as the Elders said hello to the child they had brought up, then they got down to business.
"You found him in a sidestreet of Knockturn, you said?" Carl asked, and Raven nodded. The vampire looked at the boy and spoke to him. "Did you find out his name?"
"He never told me but he said enough for me to guess that he was Harry Potter," Raven told him, and Carl's eyes widened as the boy shrunk into himself and backed away.
"Is that true?" Seren asked the boy gently, and he nodded slowly and fearfully.
"Then he's a human, he doesn't belong here." The Fire Demon growled.
"What about the human Mates of our inhabitants? Does that mean that they don't belong here either?" Chase said in amusement, as if they'd had this argument before.
"They were chosen by the Fates themselves to be Mates to Creatures, Fate-marked souls are not ordinary Wizards and so they can be given the benefit of the doubt," Ash glared at the Weretiger and then glared at Harry. "But Light Wizards are corrupt and care for nothing but the extermination of our kind."
"But is he not fate-marked?" Raven asked him, and she slowly reached out to brush the terrified boy's hair away from his forehead. There was the mark she had suspected to be there, a lightning bolt scar slightly off-centre to the right. Ash narrowed his eyes at the mark, then stood up and stalked closer to Raven and Harry. Raven kept her hand where it was and soothed the boy as Ash looked at his scar.
"And where is your twin's mark, boy?" He asked, and Harry stammered out a reply.
"O-over hi-his he-heart," he said quickly, and the five others in the room nodded as if it made sense. Ash nodded once to Carl and walked back to his seat.
"He shall stay," Carl decided. "Raven, would you look after the boy as a brother? We can create documents and such to prove that the boy is your blood relative and make sure the Potters never find out." Raven looked at Harry, then at the Elders, then she looked back at Harry and crouched in front of him.
"What do you want to do?" She asked him, and he looked at her in seriousness.
"You aren't human, are you?" He asked her, and she shook her head.
"My father was a Demon, although my mother, his Mate, was a Witch," she told him, and Harry bit his lip as he made his decision.
"Okay then, I'll stay with you then," he said decisively. Raven smiled and looked at the Elders. Seren was walking over to them with a vial in her hand.
"I'll need your blood to key you into the Wards," she told the boy. "You could only come through earlier because you were with Raven, so this will let you come and go on your own, in case you get separated." Harry nodded his consent, and Seren pressed the vial to his arm and waited. Harry tensed as blood seemingly leapt from his arm into the vial, then marvelled at the fact that he didn't feel a thing.
"Come back in three days," Carl told them. "We will have prepared the relevant documents for your younger brother, Corey Blake. And I will still expect you tomorrow at the club for your donations, and we would appreciate it if you would feed Shane and Isa again, they are saying that the bond between you and them is weakening." Raven nodded before leading Harry - apparently now called Corey - out of the hall.
As they left the building Corey yawned and stumbled a little.
"My home is just opposite, above the book shop," Raven told him with a chuckle. "We'll be there and have you in bed in about five minutes." The boy nodded sleepily and Raven bit back another laugh. The bookshop was on a corner so the two Blakes walked around the shop and stood in front of a door. Raven pressed her wand against the door and muttered a quick spell, then let Corey through the open door and set the wards back up again once she closed it. There was a set of stairs in front of them and Corey groaned a little before making his way up them, then he stood swaying by the side of the door in front of him. Raven put her wand away and pressed her hand against this door, said a different charm, then pulled out a key from around her neck and unlocked the door. Once they were both in she locked the door again and the wards around the door automatically sprung up again.
"I'll give you the tour in the morning," Raven said with a smile as she looked at the tired boy. "I don't think you'll hear anything I say at this point." There was a sleepy murmur of agreement and Raven laughed as she guided Corey into her spare room. She lengthened the pyjamas that he was wearing, cleaned them with a spell and tucked him into bed. "Goodnight Corey," she said softly, and left the dozing boy alone as she walked out of the room. The room she was in now was the living room, which was open-plan with a kitchen and dining area to her left. Opposite her was the front door, and to her side there were three other doors apart from the one to what was now Corey's bedroom; one to Raven's bedroom, one to the bathroom and one to Raven's potions lab. She had her own owl-order business, and had a great reputation that brought in more new customers by pure word-of-mouth than any other business she knew about. To her right, in the living room area, were two sofas, one armchair, a coffee table and a fireplace, which she then went to cast a fire in so that she could get warm. No sooner had she done that the flames turned green, and Raven backed away to let the incoming Floo travellers in.
Out of her fireplace stepped a tallish man, about 5 foot eleven tall, with wavy black hair and stormy grey eyes. He had a very slight build, not like the next man who stepped out. He had sandy-blonde hair and warm brown eyes, and was taller and slightly stockier than the first man. He was also paler, with the almost perfect porcelain-coloured skin of the Vampire race. They were each carrying a large cardboard box, and Seth had a slightly bemused look on his face whilst his Mate was smirking slightly.
"Hey Reg, Seth," Raven said tiredly as she curled up in her armchair, still in her outside cloak and with her pouch belt still on her hips. "What brings you guys here?"
"Checking up on our little sister," Reg, the first man, said as he placed his box on the floor before hugging Raven. "And the Elders told us to bring these over to you, said that you'd need them." He gestured to the boxes then glared at Raven. "What's this I hear of a new brother? You aren't replacing us already?"
"It seems that the Boy-Who-Lived's little brother was abandoned by his parents in Knockturn Alley," Raven told him. "Literally just picked up out of his bedroom whilst he was asleep and left in a sidestreet pretty deep into Knockturn. He was probably pretty disorientated when he woke up, and he started crying. I heard the crying, brought him to the Elders who then asked me if I could adopt him as my brother. So now I have a little brother named Corey." Raven made a pulling gesture with her hand and the box that Reg had carried through slid over to her. She opened it up and found a basic wardrobe for a little boy, including pyjamas, underwear, tops, trousers, robes, cloaks and shoes. She then pulled out her wand, the earlier piece of wandless magic having made her even more tired, and magically wrapped the box in sparkly blue wrapping paper and putting it under her 5-foot tall Christmas tree, which was decorated with royal blue tinsel and the occasion bronze coloured strand of tinsel, along with silver and gold baubles dangling off the branches. Raven pulled the second box to her, and looked at the books and toys that the Elders had picked out. There was even a miniature toy potions set, and Reg laughed when Raven showed that to him. Reg then waved his wand before Raven got to it and the box was wrapped in Slytherin green and silver, and he levitated it over to the tree where it sat on the opposite side to the other box. Raven then remembered the two presents Olva gave her, and placed the book and what she now strongly suspected was a soft plushie, under the tree with the rest. Reg then smirked at her and brought out more presents from a Never-Ending pocket in his cloak and then went to arrange them under the tree. Raven just shook her head and went to place the potions ingredients in her lab and the books and journals in the bookcase in the living room.
When she got back to the living room the two Mates had gotten bored and so were making out on the larger of her two sofas. Raven just smiled, cast a protection and a repelling charm on her sofa and then dowsed the two with freezing cold water that burst from her wand. There were a series of yelps as the frigid liquid made contact with its targets and Raven chuckled as she sat back down in her armchair.
"And merry Yule to you too," Reg grumbled as he pushed his wet hair out of his face. Raven laughed at the sight of a Pureblood son of a Noble and Most Ancient House pouting until he remembered that he too had Magic and after two flicks of his wand both he and his Mate were completely dry. He checked the sofa and made sure it was dry before looking over at Raven. "Does my brother know that his second godson is missing?" He asked seriously. Raven shrugged her shoulders and sighed.
"It is most likely Sirius will only discover it tomorrow when he attempts to drop off presents and finds himself to be one godson short," Raven said sadly, and then looked at her timepiece. "I'm off to bed, are you staying or leaving?"
"Staying," Reg said after a silent conversation with Seth, and Raven yawned and nodded. "'kay then, you can transfigure yourself a bed, just don't forget to put it back to normal once you've finished. And no physical activities please, don't forget it is my sofa." Raven took Reg's laugh and Seth's amused smile as agreement and, after using the bathroom to clean her teeth, she went to bed.