Chapter Two: Surprise
One Month Later
Harry sat in the cramped confines of the cupboard under the stairs curled in on himself as he heard the slight shuffling of his aunt coming down from her room for a late-night drink of water. His bright, avada-green eyes glowed in the darkness as he shifted to look out the vent on the door and a faint hint of madness began swirling in their depths. He moved his legs a bit, exposing the slight bulge to his stomach as he placed his badly-broken right hand over the spot where his child was just starting to grow and listened for any other sounds in the house besides his aunt. 'Those disgusting pigs are still asleep,' he thinks before reaching under his mattress to grab his wand and pushing it into the waistband of his pants. Glancing at the clock on the table just outside the door to his cupboard, he gave a small smirk. 'Thirty more minutes and I'm free of this hell hole, just have to wait for Aunt Petunia to go back to sleep.' He pulled back from the vent on the cupboard just as she shuffled past to head back upstairs and pulled open the latch on the cupboard door as she walked by. "Thank you, Aunt Petunia," he whispers and he heard her give a quiet sob as she began heading up the stairs. 'I have twenty-three minutes to get out of here before the Order and Dumbledore shows up and five before the portkey to Gringott's activates.' Slipping out of the cupboard, Harry made his way into the kitchen, almost tripping over his trunk which had been sat just inside the doorway and he grabbed it, ignoring the pain from using his hand and pulled it out the back door. He walked around to the front yard after throwing his cloak over him and his trunk before heading towards the edge of the wards around the house. Once he had passed through them, he pulled out the letter Gringott's had sent him yesterday, the letter was a portkey that would take him directly to the bank as soon as it activated at six minutes to midnight.
There were several faint pops of Apparition as the portkey activated, pulling him away from Privet Drive and the people that wanted to hurt his baby. He landed on his knees in the Infirmary at Gringott's and was trying really hard not to lose what little food Aunt Petunia had been able to sneak to him. "Shh, Lord Potter-Black, the nausea will pass," a gravelly, feminine voice coos as a small, clawed hand moved through his hair. "Let's get him up onto a bed before his Inheritance begins." The small female Goblin who'd been comforting the young lord stepped away as two of the bigger Goblins helped lift him off the floor and placed him on one of the empty beds. "Thank you."
"Goldenhair, Lord Slytherin has been notified and is on his way here," another Goblin, bigger than the others, says striding down the aisle towards them.
The female Goblin sneered, as she continued to run a comforting hand through the small lord's hair. "You've explained to him that if Lord Potter-Black goes through a Creature Inheritance that the Creature part of him will destroy the baby if it isn't from their mate, Bloodclaw?" she asks and the older, male Goblin growls at her before he looked over the half-awake Lord Potter-Black.
"I didn't think it was a good idea to upset him even more, considering he doesn't remember the conception of the babe to begin with," he murmurs and she chuckles, continuing to run her clawed fingers through the young Lord's hair, trying to keep him as calm as possible before his Inheritance began as it would most likely be painful in his present condition. The doors to the Infirmary opened and a tall, brown-haired man with scarlet eyes began walking towards them at an even, unhurried stride. "Lord Slytherin, you're just in time."
"Why am I here?" he asks eyes barely flicking to the small, malnourished form on the bed before he looked back at the Goblin. Harry, who was partially-awake, felt a tingle of pain shoot up and down his spine and groaned, shifting enough that the blanket covering him tightened over the small bulge of his stomach and his hair fell away from his scar. "Potter?" he hisses reaching for a wand he didn't have because the Goblin outside the Infirmary had to hold it while he was in here.
The teen whimpered, writhing on the bed in pain as his skin began to glow with a faint, green light that turned a dark green around his abdomen. "Hurts," he whimpers as the darker concentration of color took Voldemort's attention from his face to the small bulge in his stomach.
"He's pregnant?" he murmurs as a calculating look entered his eyes. "Is it mine?"
"Why else do you think you'd be here, Lord Slytherin?" the female Goblin sneers moving around the bed to prepare for the young Lord's coming Inheritance.
He raised an eyebrow at the Goblin female before his gaze went back to the writhing teen, a longing in his eyes before they hardened in anger. "I know that if he has a Creature Inheritance, the baby will die," he growls and Harry lets out a whine as he turns to face away from Voldemort and curls into a ball.
"No," he whines out and Voldemort watches as Harry's hands move to cover his stomach with a raised eyebrow, wondering why the teen would want to keep his child. "The baby is the only reason I remember what happened, I don't want to forget."
"What's he talking about?" Voldemort asks and both of the Goblin's in the room looked at him.
Bloodclaw glanced at the teen writhing in bed and then back to Lord Slytherin. "Do you remember how your child was conceived?" he asks and Voldemort raised an eyebrow, a look of disbelief in his eyes as he shook his head. "You'll have to wait until after he's done because even I don't know the whole story, just what he could fit in a short letter and nothing that could hurt him if it had been intercepted by Dumbledore."
Suddenly, Harry screamed in pain as his body arched off the bed and the glow coming off his skin intensified as bones snapped and reset. Voldemort watched as bones became straight before a look of fury came over his face when Harry's form shimmered before a Glamour broke, revealing the scars all over him. His rage became worse the more he studied the scars all over the boy's body before his eyes stopped on the word 'Whore' branded right above the swell of his stomach and he growled softly. Harry screamed again as his magic lifted him off the bed and the green glow became brighter, swirling around him. His face and body changed, becoming more feminine and Voldemort vaguely noted that he didn't look anything like either of his parents now, actually, he looked more like Regulus Black, just feminine.
Harry's hair became silky with a bit of a wave to it and grew out to his waist, the tops of his ears tapering off to points. Small, scales the color of antiqued silver appeared in a complex pattern all over his body and a pair of large, wings the same color as the scales ripped free of his back, causing another pained scream from the green-eyed teen. For some reason, the noise disturbed Voldemort, it made him want to protect the boy and he would've moved closer had the Goblins not seen him and shook their heads. 'Mate,' something inside his mind hisses before unimaginable pain ripped through his skull, causing him to fall to his knees and press his hands on either side of his head. Images flashed through his mind before everything went black and he fell into unconsciousness.
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Harry felt warm and protected as he slowly made his way into consciousness, which was a first because he'd never felt both of those emotions at the same time, especially not while waking. He gave a small smile and snuggled closer to the hard, warm pillow under his head, intent on going back when his pillow moved. Freezing, Harry opened his eyes, looking up to see Voldemort sleeping beside him, his chest serving as a pillow for Harry with an arm wrapped around Harry's waist. Harry shifted, trying to get free of the arm as he started to panic and Voldemort's arm tightened, pulling him closer as blood-red eyes opened to look down at him. "Shh, Harry," he murmurs loosening his hold as he seemed to figure that that was the reason for Harry's freak-out and closed his eyes. "Go back to sleep."
Voldemort's reaction confused him slightly before he remembered and settled against his side, laying his head on the man's shoulder. Harry gave a small, content smile once he felt the small wriggle of magic at the back of his mind that he knew was his child before placing his hands on his stomach, barely able to feel the slight bulge now that he didn't feel like a walking skeleton. A dark chuckle from above his head caught his attention and he lifted his head to look up at Voldemort. "I thought I said to go back to sleep," he breathes and Harry giggles before cuddling closer to Voldemort's side, closing his eyes as he lays his head back down.
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Severus Snape was sitting in his office at Hogwarts doing research for a potion that Lord Voldemort needed and keeping the Headmaster out of his rooms and away from his things. There was a tapping sound from the small porthole window in his office above the water level of the Black Lake and he turned his head to see a silver and black Gringott's owl. "Hmm... I wonder what they want?" he murmurs standing from his desk and walking over to the window to let the owl in. The owl flew into the room, circled a few times, dropped the envelope it held to him and flew back out the window, causing him to raise an eyebrow before pushing the window closed again. 'Lord Snape-Prince,' he reads before turning the envelope over and ripping the envelope open to pull out the folded sheet of parchment.
'Lord Prince, we would like to inform you that your son, Cerberus Sevelin Black-Prince, has come into his Inheritance as of this morning, August 1st, 1997. You, his bearer, Regulus Black, his godfather, Sirius Black, and his godmother, Narcissa Malfoy nee Black, are required to come witness as he takes up the mantle as Heir of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black, Heir to the Most Ancient and Royal House of Prince and Lord of the Most Ancient and Honorable House of Potter.'
"What..." he breathes as he retakes his seat at the desk, staring down at the letter in his hand. As he reread the letter, his eyes stopped where it mentioned Regulus and Sirius as only the living were to be present, and he knew that both Blacks were deceased. "What does this mean, Reg?" he whispers to the empty room before standing and making his way out of the castle.
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In a castle, in one of the coldest parts of Russia, a man with long, wavey, black hair sat in front of a large fireplace, staring into the flames as a small, crystal Hebridean Black moved around it's stand on the table next to him. The flames quieted a moment before turning green and the man raised an eyebrow as his soft, grey eyes flicked to the Dragon on the table before he waved his hand at the fireplace, silently answering the floo call. "Lord Black," the Goblin that stepped out of the fire says, bowing his head to the man that remained seated.
"Ragnok, to what do I owe the pleasure of your company?" asks the seated man as he turned his attention to the swirling, world of white outside the windows.
"Your son, Cerberus, has come into his Inheritance," the Goblin says and Regulus turned his attention back to him at the mention of his son.
The anger in those grey eyes as he stared at the Goblin was only stemmied by the sorrow there, as well and Regulus stood from his chair, glaring down at the Goblin. "How dare you?" he snarls as smoke begins to curl from his nostrils. "My son was killed by Dumbledore the same night he tried to kill me."
Ragnok stared up into those stormy-grey eyes and squared his shoulders as the shape of the pupils changed to slits. "No, Lord Black, apparently, Dumbledore gave your son to the Potters after the real Hadrian James Potter died a few months after his birth," he says and the man froze before he began to shiver, not from the cold, but from anger. "We didn't know until recently and, apparently, neither did the Potters."
Regulus stared at the Goblin as silver and black scales began to cover his skin before glancing at the fireplace. "Let's return to Gringott's, shall we, Ragnok?" he murmurs and the Goblin nodded, wanting to get out of the Dragon's domain and back to his.
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Voldemort woke to find himself on a bed in the Infirmary at Gringott's with an armful of sleeping Harry Potter and laid staring up at the ceiling before glancing down at the happily, sleeping figure cuddled into his side. The golden-haired, female Goblin appeared through the curtains surrounding the bed and bustled around the bed for a few minutes before looking up, a flash of surprise moving through her eyes when she realized he was awake. "Good Morning, Lord Slytherin," she says giving a polite bow of her head before checking up on Harry with a quick spell.
"Is he okay?" Voldemort asks staring down at Harry who had cuddled closer when the Goblin had used magic on him, like he could sense it.
She nodded before casting another spell and she gave a small smile. "They are perfectly fine, Lord Slytherin," she breathes before bowing her head and leaving to go check on her other patients.
Once she'd left, Voldemort stared down at Harry's face, which was nestled against his chest as one arm was flung over his stomach and Voldemort gave a soft smile, tightening the arm he'd had wrapped around behind Harry's back. "Harry," he murmurs getting a twitch from one long, pointed ear and an irritated huff before Harry nestled closer against him. "Harry," he tries again, adding a small shake to the word to get him to wake up.
"Go away," he hisses in his sleep, rolling in Voldemort's arm and curling into a ball around said arm, wrapping his arms around it as Voldemort got a face-full of leathery, silver wing. Voldemort shook him again and Harry sat up, hit him with a pillow and laid back down."Let me sssleep, Tom."
A quiet chuckle caught his attention and Voldemort turned his surprised look to the person the noise had come from to see Severus standing just inside the curtain. "Has something happened, Severus?" he asks and the dark-haired man shook his head, looking at the other figure in the bed.
"The Goblins informed me that my son, who's been supposedly dead since he was two months old received his Inheritance some time this morning," he says and Voldemort glanced at Harry before looking back at his Potions Master.
A loud growl echoed through the room as the curtain was ripped open and a man neither of them had seen in almost seventeen years stepped forward, followed by Ragnok, the Head Goblin of Gringott's. "Get away from my son," Regulus snarls and Voldemort raised an eyebrow before the teen next to him was suddenly rolling off the bed to the floor, a growl vibrating from where he'd just disappeared.
"Your son is my mate," Voldemort says calmly as he slid off the bed, muttering a quick spell to straighten the wrinkles out of his clothes and stared at Regulus. "I wouldn't willingly hurt him, especially now that my mind is my own again."
Regulus snarled at him again before making his way around the bed to where Harry had disappeared and Voldemort startled when the teen rolled out from under the bed to wrap his arms around his waist and hide behind him from the rest of the room. "Cerberus," Regulus murmurs softly with just a hint of pain in his voice and Severus made his way over to his mate who he'd thought was dead. "Sev?"
"He still thinks he's Harry Potter and he probably thinks you're some kind of ghost of Sirius," Severus breathes as he watched Voldemort try to comfort him and get him to come out from behind him.
Ragnok, who'd been watching the scene, coughed politely to get everyone's attention. "If the three of you would follow me, Mister Potter needs to dress and then we can get started," he says and the three adults glance at each other before the two parents head for the door and Voldemort turns in Harry's arms to talk to him.
Voldemort stared down at the top if Harry's head as he tightens the arms he has around his waist and buries his face against his ribs. "Harry, you have to let go so you can get dressed and we still have to speak to the Goblins," he whispers hugging him back and Harry shivers, moving his head a bit so he could stare up at Voldemort with mismatched eyes. One was hazel, emerald-green with flecks of bronze and gold in there while the other was silver around the pupil, blend into a smokey-grey and then ending in onyx around the outside.
"I'm scared," he murmurs playing with the hem of the sleepshirt the Goblins had put him in. "And I don't understand why Severus is here and that ghost of Sirius. You said their son was your mate, does that mean I lost the baby?"
"Shh, Harry," Voldemort breathes running a hand through Harry's long, wavey hair. "That man you think is the ghost of Sirius is actually his brother, Regulus, Severus amd Regulus had a baby at around the same day the Potters did, August 1st, 1980. The Goblins informed them that their son didn't die this morning after you were done coming into your Inheritance." Harry stayed quiet, staring up at Voldemort with blank eyes but he could tell that Harry was thinking. "Harry, you're their son, your real name is Cerberus Sevelin Black-Prince and our baby is perfectly fine."
Harry pressed his hand against his stomach and Voldemort felt the teen's magic flex before a soft, green glow lit up Harry's stomach, making the teen smile. "I'm going to get dressed now," he murmurs pulling away from Voldemort and moving over to the trunk against the wall by the bed. Voldemort gave the teen's back a soft smile before blanking his face and stepping out from the curtains, giving him privacy to get dressed.
As he stepped outside the curtain, he froze at the two angry, penetrating stares of his mate's parents and raised an eyebrow at the two of them before Regulus turned to glare at Severus. "Did you know our son was pregnant before Dumbledore sent him back to that damned house?" he snarls at his mate and Severus shook his head as his onyx eyes darkened even more.
"Do you honestly think that, even if the boy was Harry Potter, that I would let Dumbledore put the boy in an abusive household had I known about it?" Severus growled back and Voldemort watched as the two began arguing.
"Well, you were pissed off that Hadrian lived when Cerberus didn't, even going so far as to fight with his parents again," Regulus hisses crossing his arms over his stomach.
A barking laugh came from farther into the Infirmary, behind another curtain and Severus paled for a moment before a Goblin exited the curtains that were the farthest from them, followed by a healthy-looking Sirius Black. "Already fighting like one of you wasn't dead for the last sixteen years," he snickers and Voldemort chuckles.
"That was a mean, nasty trick, Sirius Black," a quiet voice spoke from behind Voldemort who turned to see Harry had come out from behind the curtain around his bed.
The Goblin walking ahead of Sirius snickered and ran his claws through his black hair. "Wasn't a trick, Lord Potter, Mister Black really did fall through the Veil and it spat him out in the Ritual Room here at Gringott's," the Goblin says and Harry steps even with Voldemort, a little closer than his parents approved of. "Because the rest of the world believes him dead, we let them continue believing so, didn't stop him from trying to contact you, but we needed you to believe he was dead, as well so we could get everything in order."
"Sirius Orion Black, Regulus Arcturus Black," a female voice screeches and both Black men's heads whip in the direction of the screeching female as everyone else turned to see Narcissa Malfoy storming down the center aisle with a murderous look on her face. "The two of you are in so much trouble when I get over there because when I'm through with the two of you, you will wish you were dead."
Sirius and Regulus looked at each other before both moved to run away, only to find that their feet had been stuck to the floor with a sticking charm. A soft chuckle brought their attention to the teen standing next to Voldemort and both men stared at him in horror. "Just wait, Sirius, you're in line for whole lot of pranks when she's done with you," Harry snickers before both of the older Blacks turned to stare at the quickly approaching Malfoy Lady with fear. The two yelped as Stinging Hexes hit them and Harry gave a soft laugh as Narcissa went for Sirius first and grabbed his ear, yanking his head down so she could hiss threats into his ear. Threats which caused him to pale the longer she hissed into his abused ear before she finally let go and narrowed her eyes at Regulus as she stalked towards him.
Regulus' hands were suddenly up and covering his ears to protect them from her. "I'm sorry, Cissy," he whines as she comes to a stop just in front of him. "I thought Dumbledore had just killed my baby and he thought he'd killed me so I disappeared so that he didn't come after me again."
"It's not so much your disappearing act that I'm angry about," Narcissa growls. "I'm angry that you told no one you were still alive and where you were going."
Regulus gave her a sad look before glancing towards his son with sorrowful, grey eyes. "And tell who, the Master who thought I was a traitor when I was trying to move and rehide the locket Horcrux because Dumbledore knows where they are or the husband everyone believed was a spy?" he murmurs moving closer to Severus' side. "I didn't tell anyone because I didn't want to tell the wrong person and have to deal with Dumbledore finding me."
Harry let out a quiet huff that sounded like a small laugh amd brought everyone's attention to him. "The old man has the Gaunt ring, he was trying to find a way to get rid of the Horcrux in it," he snickers running a hand through his black hair and looking up at Voldemort. "Let's hope he gave in to temptation and put it on."
Voldemort snickered, knowing what Harry was talking about while the others stared at the two of them in confusion. "There's a Curse of Decay on the Gaunt Ring to ensure that any person who puts it on will die eventually, normally before they realize that it is something entirely different than just another cursed ring," he explains causing the others to glance at the still-laughing Harry standing next to him. "Am I to assume then that you don't care what happens to him, Harry?"
"That bastard knew I was pregnant and sent me back to that Hellhole anyway," the teen growls as his laughter suddenly stops and he slides a little closer to Voldemort's side.
Voldemort looked like he wanted to kill something and his magic filled the air around them, forming an empty bubble around Harry so he couldn't feel it. "The new brand above your stomach?" he asks and Harry nodded, wrapping his arms around his stomach like he was shielding the baby growing there.
"Yeah, right after Dumbledore Imperiused my Aunt Petunia to not feed me anything but the normal scraps and be just as bad as her husband and son. Once she was Imperiused and wouldn't do anything to help me, he told the two whales about the baby, said he'd pay them extra at the end of the summer if I lost it," he breathes staring down at the floor with glazed-over, mismatched eyes. "Aunt Petunia finally broke the Imperius about two weeks after summer began, started sneaking me actual food in the middle of the night while the other two were sleeping."
He wrapped his wings around himself and Regulus moved over to him, charcoal-grey wings appearing from his back, wrapping around his son's cocooned form. "It's okay, little one," he murmurs wrapping his arms around his son and closing his eyes to keep a tight hold on the rage that wanted him to find Harry's male relatives and rip them limb from limb as he comforted his son.
Once Harry was no longer frozen and stuck in his memories he returned Regulus' embrace, burrowing his face against Regulus' chest. Regulus opened his eyes to glance at his mate and Sev could see the all-consuming rage swirling in his grey eyes, an unasked question in their dark depths as well. Sev took a deep breath, content in the knowledge that Regulus would stay with Harry for the next few days, giving the others in the room the time to get the two whales in the dungeon and Petunia settled into a room so she could be with Harry. "I think we should get Harry, or do you want to go by Cerberus, up to Ragnok so they can get everything done and we can get the poor boy to Slytherin Manor," Narcissa murmurs and everyone nods as Regulus steps away from his son, allowing his Lord to wrap an arm around the teen's waist.
