Heart of the Eclipse, Book one: Ascent
Chapter 3
Terra Arcana, Unnamed residential realm
Although it was only a night before the three children woke up again, that one night was sufficient to change the lives of the Potter family forever.
James Potter and his friends were buried in an unnamed grave, disgraced by their final deed. Despite two of them coming from major families, their funeral was simple, and the longest speech given was Lily's recital of the dissociation rite, which was used whenever people wanted to publicly distance themselves from someone they felt had done wrong:
"May water wash away your names and fire burn them to fine ashes, to be carried far away by wind and buried in deep earth."
Part of the rite was giving up any connection one shared with the disgraced person, which, in Lily's case, meant giving up the Potter name. She retook her maiden name and allowed her children to do the same. Hermione also took the last name of Evans, preferring to do this instead of being reminded of the car crash and her parents' death whenever somebody spoke her last name.
Following the funeral, the children were very quiet and withdrawn. They often spent hours just sitting somewhere and cuddling, shying away from anybody else. Lily could approach them and even touch them for a while, but they did not draw any comfort from her. Their amplified and shared magic seemed to sing a soothing song when all three were somehow touching, but it seemed to dislike anybody else touching them.
While Hermione and Flora slowly recovered, Harry, who had been more directly affected by the event, had stopped speaking altogether. He was the most withdrawn, shying away from all adult men. Being surrounded by four men and strapped to a stone altar had traumatized him, especially after they used some kind of unknown, but obviously powerful and dangerous magic on him.
Several very long moons passed before the next lunar eclipse approached, some of them lasting nearly a hundred days instead of the average twenty eight. During this time, Harry's hair lightened from black to the same red as that of his sister. He started speaking again, but only when he was alone with "his sisters", and only barely above a whisper. Both girls became quite protective of "their" brother.
Lily, meanwhile, used the stretched time to teach Hermione as much about life on Terra Arcana as she could, which Harry and Flora, being born and raised there, already knew.
"So, basically, parents only raise their children until their fifteenth eclipse?"
"Traditionally, yes. The three of you don't have godparents, though, and for those who were born on Terra Origina, the godparenting is done by the family which takes you in when you arrive here. Godparenting is the time from your fifteenth to your twenty-second eclipse, which we find out with a spell for those like you and me. During that time, children live with their godparents, usually separated from their parents, so they learn not to depend on their parents. In that time, the godparents are also supposed to teach the children everything they are supposed to know when they enter school. I will do that for all three of you, of course."
"So, since a cycle of two eclipses roughly equals a year on Terra Origina, on average at least, that means this begins sometime at age seven to seven-and-a-half, and ends at ten-and-a-half to eleven years old? And magical school begins on that day or, if it is a lunar eclipse, on the following solar eclipse?"
"Exactly. There are several school realms, but most of them specialize in something – like Durmstrang, which emphasizes combat relevant magic, or Beauxbatons, which leans more towards art and enchantments. For a balanced education in all areas, Hogwarts Realm of Magical Education is the best choice."
Hermione nodded, signalling that she understood. They ended their little lesson at that point, because Harry had come in and gently tugged Hermione towards the living room. Flora stood behind him.
"It's been nearly two hours without you, Hermione. He's growing restless again."
Lily sighed. Harry was never alone, except for a few minutes in the bathroom. Both girls being absent nearly always made him panic and do some kind of accidental magic, but he could tolerate one of them leaving for a while. Part of it was because he had seen them and felt their presence before falling unconscious that night, but a far greater part seemed to be the magic they shared. There was some kind of bond between all three of them, but Harry was the centrepiece.
The children went outside, going to a sandy bay surrounded by thick trees close to the house, which was unofficially theirs. Even the few water spirits knew not to go there, since they felt the strange magic of the "siblings" when they were close to them in the water.
Once the passed the tree line and stepped onto the sand, all three just dropped their clothes and ran towards the lake, foregoing swimwear and just enjoying the clear and warm water. They weren't the least bit shy around each other – Harry's panic when not around them meant that one or both girls always took showers or baths with him, anyway. All of them had washed each other often enough by now to not be embarrassed by their nudity.
After a few hours of swimming, splashing each other and building sandcastles, they spread the blanket they had brought and lay down, cuddling for a while. They had done this several times already, quite often actually, but this time, for the first time since that night, Harry actually smiled at them.
Their magic would always isolate them from the rest of the world. The more it kept others away, though, the more it seemed to draw them together. He would always have these two at his side.
The lunar eclipse had come and passed, and the solar eclipse was approaching. Hermione knew as much as Harry and Flora by now, and all three of them had become so good at reading and writing, Lily had started teaching them the basics of rune drawing.
Harry had started smiling more, but he still stayed in the background when others were around, preferring to leave the room when there were men around. He was able to stay calm when the girls left him, although he still disliked it.
This led to Lily sitting them down in the living room one day.
"This talk would normally come near the end of your godparenting, and we will have a more detailed conversation then. I'm not doing this now because I suspect anything, or because I want you to stop being so close – I'm telling you so you know what others might start suspecting in a few years, and so you know what some of them will be talking about."
That was the start of a rather generic (due to the age of the children) talk about the differences between boys and girls, procreation and sexuality.
"Again, I'm not telling you this to embarrass you or keep you apart. If you prefer staying together, do so – I think it's good for all three of you. I just want you to be prepared when others learn that you sleep, shower and bath together and start suspecting that you might be doing more than that."
Still, all three kept blushing for the next few days – most of it caused by the fact that the talk wouldn't keep them from going on as before, but made them notice the differences she had talked about more than before. More than anything else, washing each other in the shower led to intense blushes.
In the end, though, it ended up making them feel even closer. Surprisingly, it was Harry who figured it out first and told the girls one evening several days later, when they lay in bed together.
"I wasn't embarrassed by my body, or I would have tried to hide it. I trust you, though. Once I figured that out, and that you obviously trust me enough to see, and even touch, yours, too, I just couldn't find a reason to be embarrassed any longer. Thank you for trusting me like that, though."
After that, the blushes were replaced by appreciative smiles.
