Chapter 1: The mark and the changes
Harry woke up in a different room in a different place. It took him a few minutes to realize that he was in fact at 12 Grimmauld Place instead of the Dursley's. How he had gotten there of course, was a mystery to the young boy. Harry shrugged, deciding it wasn't important enough for him to worry; pulled off his covers, and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. Hearing a rustle behind him, Harry stilled. He turned his head slightly to the right and screamed at the giant feathery appendage that seemed to have sprouted from his back. Of course, in his confusion and panic, Harry fell off the bed and landed with a 'thump' on the cold floor. He could hear footsteps racing up the stairs, but chose to ignore the sounds coming from outside the door in favor of finding out what other changes had happened over night.
Slowly and with graceful deliberation, Harry stood up and walked over to the full length mirror that was placed in the corner of the room. He stared in shock, his emerald green eyes widening, as he looked over his new and improved body. His skin was flawlessly smooth, with a healthy sun kissed glow that made him look like he had just come home from a day at the beach; which couldn't be true seeing as Harry had never been anywhere near the ocean in his life. He ran a hand through his silk black hair, which now reached the middle of his back, and then turned his attention towards his hands. They were smooth like they have never seen a hard day's work and his body...well his body just look great! Not only did he look better, but he also had more muscles and was ever a few inches taller, making him around 5'10 or 5'11. Harry's attention then turned to the two large wings with smooth feathers as black as the night sky that had sprouted from his back.
"Harry? Harry, are you alright cub? Open the door!" a voice yelled as a pounding came from the other side of the door.
"Open this door right now, Potter!" a snarky voice that could only belong to Professor Snape called out.
Harry, who didn't even notice that the door was locked in the first place, moved his hand to the side and the lock clicked open. At the action, everyone in the Order of the Phoenix tumbled into the room, having been pressed against the door. Harry stared at his hands; did he just do wandless magic? The black haired boy looked at the adults as they all eyed him warily, mostly looking at the two black wings sprouted from his back.
"What am I?" Harry asked, clearly on the verge of hysterics.
"Harry, my boy, let's go to the kitchen and calm down." The headmaster told Harry in a calm voice, a twinkle in his eye.
Harry nodded and walked out of the room with the adults, only to get stuck in the doorway because of his wings. He frowned and his wings slowly folded to his sides, allowing him to leave the room. As he walked down the stairs, he realized that none of his friends were in the house, just him and the Order members. He walked into the kitchen and a plate of food was pushed in front of him as he sat down at the table. Everyone pulled out chairs around him and watched as he shoveled food into his mouth at an alarmingly fast rate.
"Mmmm… so good Mrs. Weasley." Harry complimented his surrogate mother.
"You're… you're welcome, sweetie." She replied, her usually strong voice shaking.
Harry frowned and looked up at the red headed woman, "are you alright?" he asked.
She nodded once and looked at Dumbledore. At her glance, the old man nodded and turned towards Harry.
"How are you feeling Harry?" he asked.
Harry was silent for a long time. How was he feeling? He was very confused that was for sure, he also felt kind of relaxed for some odd reason.
"I'm… I'm not sure. What am I, headmaster?" Harry asked, looked up at the older man.
Dumbledore, for once in his life, did not know the answer, "I'm sorry my boy. I can't be sure. You're a magical creature, but the Potter's and the Evans' don't have any creature blood in their families."
At this statement, Harry's eyebrows furrowed in concern; Dumbledore assured him, "don't worry, Harry, my boy, we'll be looking into it. In the meantime though, do you wish to contact your friends?"
Harry nodded, not really looking at the man. "Yeah," he mumbled. "That sounds good."
Dumbledore smiled and stood up, going to find Ron and Hermione, who were currently walking around Diagon alley.
Disoriented by everything that seemed to be happening so fast, Harry stared at his fingers when something under his shirt caught his sight. He gripped his shift sleeve and rolled it up, gasping at the symbol on his arm.
"Remus." Harry whimpered, his voice cracking.
Remus looked at the dark haired boy and saw the panic begin to set into his eyes, "what's wrong cub?"
Harry held up his arm and showed Remus, "Look!" he shouted, fear sounding throughout his voice.
Remus frowned at the strange mark on his godson's arm. It was like nothing he had ever seen, it looked like a pair of wings and in the middle where the wings met was the Celtic triquetra mark, "that is strange." he muttered.
Harry was about to comment when suddenly, he was attacked by a blur of brown, which caused him and the blur to fall onto the floor.
"Oh Harry! I was so worried about you! Why didn't you write us? Didn't you get our messages?" Half vampire Hermione Granger shrieked as she hugged her friend, her brown eyes wet with unshed tears.
"'Mione, you're gonna strangle him! Let go!" Ron Weasley yelled at the bushy haired teen as he watched poor Harry try to unlatch himself from the half breed's arms.
"Oh! I'm sorry Harry." She blushed as she unlatched her arms from their death grip around Harry. Standing out, she held out a well-manicured hand to her friend.
Harry accepted the hand and smiled, "it's alright Hermione. I missed you!" he told her as he pulled her into a hug.
Hermione smiled and wrapped her arms around him, "we were really worried." She said, her face pressed into his shoulder.
"Yeah mate, why didn't you message us?" Ron asked, patting Harry on the back before sitting down.
Harry frowned, "I'm sorry you guys, Vernon locked Hedwig in her cage and made sure I couldn't write you." He told them as he sat down, pulling Hermione on his lap.
Hermione growled in a very animalistic way, "those filthy muggles! I can't believe they would treat you so poorly! They give other muggles a bad name that is for sure. They are so lucky they were arrested by aurors or else I would have ripped them into little pieces." She huffed, her anger increasing, as her eyes turned a bloody red and her fangs exteneded.
"Relax, Hermione, you getting angry won't do any good." Ron told her softly, trying to calm her down as he stroked her shoulder.
"Ron is right 'Mione just relax, the Ministry has them now." Harry said softly, knowing how easy Hermione was angered these days.
The half vampire in question sighed and snuggled closer to her friend, relaxing in his warmth. Ever since her 17th birthday, she had become more protective of her two friends to a point that she was like a mother wolf protecting her cubs. It took all of Severus's strength to keep the woman in her house after she heard how her friend was being treated by his "family" so she wouldn't go over to the ministry and kill the muggles. Harry smiled at her and ran a hand through her wild brown hair as he spoke with Ron.
"So, they have no idea what you are or why you have wings?" Ron asked.
The boy who lived shook his head, "no, all we know is that I'm a creature; though I'm really curious about this mark on my arm." He held out his arm to his friends and they looked at it for a bit.
"Well, that certainly is something. I'll have to check the library upstairs and at Hogwarts, when we go back, to see what the wings mean, but I know the knot right there in the middle is the Celtic triquetra knot." Harry and Ron smiled at one another as she spoke about doing research, after all that was the Hermione way. When in doubt, go to the library!
"What is the triquetra knot anyway?" Harry inquired.
"The triquetra knot was usually used for Celtic trinity crosses during the early Christian age but it was used for a lot more than that in different cultures throughout the world." Hermione explained. "The symbol can mean many things and usually each knot used has three meanings, one meaning for each corner, though the common meanings for the knots are: Spirit, Mind, Body/ Father, Son, Holy Ghost/ Mother, Father, Child/ Past, Present, Future/ Power, Intellect, Love/ Creator, Destroyer, Sustainer/ Creation, Preservation, Destruction/ Thought, Feeling, Emotion/ Mother, Maiden, Crone/ Other world, Mortal world, and Celestial world." The bushy haired girl continued. "I'm not quite sure what the knot on your arm means, or why it is in your arm in the first place. The wings around the knot can possibly stand for the wings that have sprouted from your back. The Celtic symbol for trinity may also pertain to the three Bridgits. Bridgit is one powerful goddess who embodies three aspects; art, healing, and metalsmithing." She explained.
Harry and Ron stared at their extremely smart friend for a minute before shaking their heads; she never ceased to amaze them.
"Well, that explains a little bit, but not much...I suggest that we forget this for a bit and relax for as long as we can, seeing as we're going back to school in a few weeks." Ron suggested as he stood up and went into the living room.
Harry groaned, he had totally forgotten about school starting soon. How he was supposed to go back to school with these huge wings?
Hermione, seeing her friend's distress swiftly consoled him, "don't worry Harry! I'm sure Severus will teach you how to put your wings away, and I'll teach you how to fly! Plus, if it seems that you can't be around people I sure the headmaster will keep you from your classes for a while." She grinned.
Harry smiled slightly, remembering that vampires could fly as well. They had giant bat wings that allowed them to fly, though Hermione preferred apperating instead. He nodded, "you're right. Do you think they will let me go to the Ministry before school starts to take my apperating test?" he asked as he walked into the living room with one of his best friends.
Hermione smiled and nodded eagerly before taking her seat next to Ron on the couch. Even though they broke up last year, the two of them were still very close. Ron smiled at his friends as they entered the living room. Harry settled down next to the red head and smiled; even when his life seemed to be spiraling out of control he could always trust his friends to act like everything is normal. And that is how the adults found the three friends, settled on the couch and laughing at something on the telly. It brought a smile to all their faces as they watched the young lions. It then occurred to them that for just a moment, everything was perfect. Well...as perfect as it could get in a world threated by a crazy dark wizard named Tom Riddle.
I WANT TO SAY THANK YOU TO THE FIRST FIVE PEOPLE TO REVIEW MY STORY! THANK YOU: hotflower901, littlesprout, TearfullPixie, sparkspirate, slytheringrl17! I'm also surprised about how many people put this story on their alerts/favorites! i mean...omg! i cant believe anyone lived this story at all, its just my little project that im doing as a break from my other stories. xD thank you again i love everyone of you. ALSO I WANT TO THANK MY WONDERFUL BEATA: SPARKSPIRATE
Harry's Mark: http : / / hiding in wonder land . tumblr . com / post / 2949664686
