Chapter 4- A Familiar Discovery
Warnings: beatings, violence, swearing, sexual inferences
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the Harry Potter Universe.
August 2,1994
Augusta Longbottom was walking up to the seventh floor of Longbottom Mansion to her grandson's room. She didn't do it quite often because of her aching knees and bad back. Maybe Neville chose his room because of this. She huffed and puffed her way past the fourth floor and then the fifth and finally after over 10 minutes of dedicated stair climbing, she found herself at the 7th floor. Madame Longbottom knocked on Neville's door and looked around while she waited. Her eyes glanced over the beige curtains and the window. She liked the miniature chandelier that hung in front of Neville's door. His room was the only one in use on the whole floor. She looked at the enchanted wall paper of a tree and her eyes fell on a suspicious looking hole. It was vase-shaped? She looked at the opposite wall and saw another vase shaped hole and when she looked through that hole she saw another and another.
"NEVILLE!" she screamed.
Neville hurriedly opened his door to a very mad grandmother. If looks could kill, she could use her stare instead of Avada Kedavra. He was talking to Violet when she knocked on his door. Violet was currently stuffed into his wardrobe, mewling in discomfort.
"Hello, grandmother." said Neville meekly.
"What is the meaning of this hole?"
Neville suddenly found the carpeting very fascinating. He shuffled his feet and looked every but where his grandmother was.
"I..um...um.. you know...um..."
"Quit your stammering. Tell me what happened, now." demanded Mrs. Longbottom.
"I...um..cast...Expelliarmus...and..it..um..hit the vase...and.. the vase...um...broke through..the wall." said Neville.
Augusta Longbottom was never more furious in her life. Neville dared make holes through the walls of the Longbottom estate which had been here since the start of England and dared lie to her about what he did. Even she would be hard-pressed to punch though a wall with a vase let alone three. She gave Neville another stern look.
"How about the truth, young man?"
Neville looked up in surprise, but he did tell the truth. He started to stammer something along those lines but a crash from behind him saved him from finishing his sentence. He looked back and saw Violet sprawled out on the ground.
"Ow, that hurt. Who's the nice lady, Neville?"
The nice lady on the other hand wasn't feeling very "nice" at the moment. She looked at the leopard-like animal that had come tumbling out of the wardrobe with nothing but shock. The shock soon turned to protectiveness, Frank and Alice didn't sacrifice their minds for Neville to be killed by a nundu. She pulled out her wand and pointed it at the nundu. She quickly grabbed Neville and pulled him behind her. Madame Longbottom cast Expelliarmus and Stupefys at the creature in quick succession. The spells bounced off the nundu's fur. Augusta Longbottom paled and decided to try more destructive spells.
Violet was confused again. She knew she wasn't the brightest Lumos in a wand but she wasn't as dumb as the more destructive nundus who had decided that starting the Black Death among the Muggles was a good idea. The nice woman who seemed to be related to her bonded was throwing spells at her. The spells gave her tingly feelings. The woman seemed even angrier when Violet didn't seem to be affected. More lights flew at her and some them started to tingle a bit more them before. Violet started to move out of the way of some the curses. She dodged left and right until a purple curse hit her leg.
Madame Longbottom smiled in triumph as her special Bone Disintegration curse, Colenso, hit the nundu in the leg. She was aiming for the animal's skull but after most of her spells ricocheted and absorbed by the fur of the nundu she was glad if any spell hit the nundu. Ms. Longbottom lowered her wand towards the nundu and readied the final spell to finish off the nundu.
"AVA-"
Neville watched in shock as his grandmother unleashed spells upon his familiar. He tried to stop her but she was too busy casting spells against the nundu. Neville screamed incoherently when the Colenso curse hit Violet. He batted away his grandmother's restraining hand to kneel by Violet's side. Neville wrapped his arms around Violet. He looked at the green light that was building in his grandmother's wand with the second determined look he ever had, the first was when he tried to stop Harry and co. from going after the Philosopher's Stone.
"DA-KEDAVRA."
Grandmother Longbottom watched in mixture of shock and surprise as the killing curse sped towards Neville. She tried to get her wand arm to somehow block the killing curse. The curse went on its way to Neville's head.
Neville was still determined when the killing curse left the wand. He was less determined after one second. He was about to run off screaming when the curse was halfway there until he looked at Violet who was trying to stand up. Neville gathered up his meager confidence and became more determined to let Violet and him survive this. The curse hit right between's Neville's eyes and flung him back into the wall.
August 2, 1994
Once again, Harry was cursing Fate. He grimaced as he ducked under several projectiles. He twisted and dodged several more. God he was such an idiot. Why did he agree to this? Merlin, or really his magical imprint, wanted to train him. Merlin himself couldn't spar with him or demonstrate anything, but he used the next best thing. Every time he wanted to show Harry something, he showed a fragment of Merlin doing it. Harry learned plenty from the memories, but there was nothing to try them against, especially the dodging techniques he spent the last ten blood filled memories painstakingly learning, until Braze "graciously" volunteered to help with that. Apparently fire salamanders' natural state was on fire, Braze just reined in the fire into his body so he wouldn't burn 4 Privet Drive to the ground. The fire was also their life. Many salamanders died when their fires burned out. The more power a salamander had the lighter color the flames, Braze had a light blue almost bright white flame colors. Fire salamanders could throw fireballs at predators when they were in their natural state. Braze was now demonstrating this talent to a great degree by flinging them at Harry. Harry was to either catch and absorb the fire or dodge it. At least he couldn't get burnt. The trick to dodging was not to jump or dive out of the way but to find a pattern in the projectiles and move slightly out of the way. This way he could dodge and conserve strength for a counter-attack. Braze continued to launch missiles at him as Harry ducked and dodged each one. Merlin waved his hand for Braze to stop. Merlin grinned, Harry had learned wandless magic since his wand was tracked by some kind of a farce government. He was quite powerful with wandless spells even after a day of training, and could do all the old spells he could do with a wand without one now.
"Nice dodging." Merlin chuckled. Braze was grinning as well, he had fun trying to hit Harry. Harry glowered as he wandlessly banished a pillow at Braze. Braze dodged and stuck out his tongue. Harry started to grin and sent more low powered banishers at Braze.
"You're turn."
Braze dodged them by flaming behind Harry. He sent more fireballs at Harry with a flick of his tail. Harry just turned and took them on his chest. The flames hit them to no effect. Harry grinned and stuck out his tongue. This time Braze glowered and flamed onto Harry's shoulder.
"You're no fun"
"I know" replied Harry with a grin.
Merlin discreetly coughed."Your relative is walking up the stairs. She was projecting thoughts about punishing you for sleeping late very loudly. You might want to clean up a bit."
Harry nodded and cast wandless Scourgify at his clothes to clean off the sweat. Braze hid under Harry's shirt as Aunt Petunia unlocked the five bolts and turned the knob.
"Get up and cook breakfast, boy. I'm tired of waiting for you each morning."
Harry lowered his head and nodded as he went downstairs to flip some pancakes.
"I don't know why you put up with that ugly horse-faced women and her family. They're just using you."
Harry sighed, this was the thousandth time Braze brought this up, "I'm fine, really. I don't mind doing a few chores for free food, clothes and board." A few chores meant all the chores, and the free food, clothes and board were all leftovers from the Dursely Family. Braze growled angrily the first time Aunt Petunia shoved a list of chores in Harry's face and smacked him until Harry got started on the first one. Braze was ready to kill the whole family if Harry didn't put the highest power Sticking charm he could manage on Braze when Uncle Vernon and Dudley used Harry as a punching bag. Harry put the Sticking Charm on Braze every time they left his rooms. Braze was pissed off if not homicidal by now. Why did the daft boy insist on being the slave for these... these? Ugh he was so mad he couldn't think straight. Braze spent the rest of the day on Harry's shoulder thinking extremely dark thoughts about the Dursley family.
Harry groaned in pain as he lifted his arm to dust the top shelf. The bruises on his arm and lower back were black and ached. He finished with one shelf and moved on to the other. He spent the morning weeding the garden as well as cleaning the nice cars his relatives owned. In the afternoon he painted the back porch and shed. Harry was close to being done after he finished dusting. Braze hissed in warning, "Harry! Look behind you."
He turned and saw Dudley and his dad walk in after spending a day at the golf course with a potential client. The client was disgusted with the father and son and gladly ran off after the golf game. Of course, Vernon and Dudley took this as a sign that the client couldn't wait to go home and finalize the deal.
"Hello freak" spat Vernon as he looked at Harry in disgust, "Me and my son here spent a day golfing and we're a bit tired. Make us some dessert."
"There's no sugar left." retorted Harry.
Vernon towered over the boy and screamed, "Are you talking back to me?"
"Of course not, you probably won't know the difference even if I did." muttered Harry.
"What was that freak?" yelled Vernon, getting purple, "Are you calling me something?"
"Yea, a walrus." muttered Harry. He knew he should have been quiet but he couldn't help himself.
Vernon turned red, "What did you say to me? After we were so kind to take you in and feed you."
"O look he's hard of hearing too. " Harry mumbled with growing dread as the words slipped out of his mouth.
Vernon turned to Dudley who was watching the scene with glee, "It's about time we practice your boxing skills. Harry here was kind enough to volunteer to be the punching bag, again. " Dudley got up with a grin and walked over to Harry. He clenched his fist and threw the first punch. Harry sidestepped it easily. Dudley started get purple in the face. The freak dodged, how dare he. Dudley threw another punch and Harry took a step back to avoid the punch. Dudley growled in angry and let loose with a flurry of punches. Harry neatly sidestepped all of the blows. Dudley turned a shade of purple and tried to hit the "freak". Harry dodged them.
"Dad, the freak won't stand still."
Vernon had walked behind Harry while Dudley was "whaling" on Harry. Vernon pinned Harry's arms and held him still.
"There you go Dudders , I secured the punching bag for you. Let me test it for you."
Harry doubled over in pain as a ham-sized fist struck his gut, maybe he shouldn't have dodged now it's going to hurt worse. Dudley followed up with a blow to Harry's head. Vernon clucked in shame, "Dudley, I thought you could hit harder. Here let me show you." Vernon punched Harry repeatedly in the stomach as Harry tried to get in the fetal position and gasped for breath.
Braze was now royally pissed. He was still stuck to Harry's shoulder as that whale, Dudley repeatedly punched Harry. Braze muttered profanities as he tried to get free. By the time Vernon was done punching Harry. Harry was barely conscious. Dudley had another go at Harry and Vernon beat him with a belt. Each blow caused Harry to groan in pain and left cuts on his skin. Braze finally had enough, what use was a familiar if they couldn't help their bonded. He broke free of the sticking charm by burning his feet free and crawled out of Harry's shirt.
"Dad what the hell is that?" pointed Dudley. Vernon looked at the little fire salamander, "Must be one Harry's pets. Let's kill it." Dudley raised his fist to squash Braze when Braze launched a fireball at him. Dudley yelped in pain as the fireball gave him a slight burn on his hand.
"Ouch, daddy it hurts." wailed the whale as he collapsed on the ground in tears, clutching the wounded appendage. He assumed the same position as Harry even though the latter had broken ribs and internal bleeding while Dudley had a small burn on his hand.
"How dare the freak hurt my son." screamed Vernon, as he leered at the boy on the ground and the salamander on Harry's shirt. Braze hissed and launched a fireball at Vernon. Vernon yelped as the fireball scorched his skin black. Braze launched another and another until the head of the Dursley household was unconscious from the burns. He stopped the barrage of fireballs as he turned to his bonded wizard. Harry was moaning in pain from the punches and his skin was turning black and blue. Braze looked at Harry with concern. How was he to treat Harry, fire salamanders could do a lot but healing wasn't one of them. Harry wouldn't last the night if he didn't get some kind of treatment. He knew the Dursleys would end up hurting Harry. Braze thought long hard for a while until he found a solution.
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A long time ago, Merlin came to the Krakatau. He went straight to the active volcano and jumped in. The burning coals and lava were at most uncomfortable for the Fire Magus. Braze was watching the interesting person who could stand the heat of an active volcano. Merlin walked up to where Braze was hiding and poked him with his staff.
"Ouch that hurt."
"Sorry. I didn't mean to poke that hard."
Braze was shocked, "Where did you learn Armenian(magical amphibian's language sort of like Parseltongue for amphibians)?"
"Somewhere I guess. I have something to show you." said Merlin. He concentrated for a few seconds and the volcano started to shimmer. The background slowly became a blurry and nondescript. Braze saw four figures accompanied by three smaller figures each. The faces of the four were hidden in shadow except for the one face. He saw a mess of dark hair and startling green eyes that briefly held a vision dancing flames before returning to green. By his side was a dark Mastiff like dog with flames for eyes. On one shoulder was a beautiful Phoenix, it had a crest of red feathers and held herself like royalty, but on the other shoulder was what surprised him. On Harry's other shoulder lay a salamander that was grey almost black and glowed from some inner light or fire. Braze knew that salamander well, after all it was him. All four figures including the boy with green eyes raised their hands and let their magic loose. Braze sniffed the boy's magic. It was tantalizingly, a blend between lilies and the smell right after it rains. He wondered if the boy smelled like that. Braze looked at Merlin after the vision.
"Why did you show me this?"
"The boy you saw. You are to be his familiar. He is the perfect match for you." replied Merlin.
"Why should I?"
Merlin only chuckled at the impetuous tone of the salamander, "It will give you something to look forward to in the future and I have Seen that you will become his trusted friend."
Braze internally agreed. He was small for his age and he wanted nothing more than to have a friend. He had seen his elders die from boredom because their future held nothing of interest to them so they just passed away. Braze reluctantly nodded in agreement.
"Good, remember his face and magic. They'll lead you to him." With that Merlin disappeared in a rush of flame.
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Braze remembered that vision quite well. He had seen the two other familiars. One was some sort of dog and the other was a Phoenix. Braze knew how Phoenix could heal wounds with their tears. He needed those tears to save Harry's life. Not that he would admit it to anybody, but he grew attached to the lithe boy with green eyes. Braze knew how dangerous flaming was without a specific target in mind, but it was worth a shot to save Harry. When he flamed to Harry a few nights before, he had found the origin of the waves of magic before flaming to his side. This was far riskier. Braze closed his eyes. Here goes nothing. Braze disappeared in a flash of fire.
When he opened his eyes, he found a small clearing. This is really quaint. The clearing was beautiful. It was a perfect circle surrounded by maple, oak and yew trees. The branches of the trees intertwined above the clearing leaving the sky visible but the sun filtered through leaving the clearing well-lit with a lattice of shadows. There was a perfect circle at the top of the dome of branches, where the sun came through cleanly. Braze could come here more often. Where was the phoenix?
An angry scream rent the air as a phoenix attacked the fire salamander.
"Oi! Watch it. What are you doing?"
"Attacking you for trespassing on my territory, insolent little salamander."
"Back off, I'm not here for myself. Harry Potter, the kid with black hair and green eyes, he needs your help."
"How did you know where I was? Only the boy was to know after he read the journal of Merlin to find us. He might not be ready for to see me or the other familiar. He can't have a large ego from having three familiars. "
"Screw that shit. He'll die if you don't heal him besides the largest thing he has worth mentioning isn't his ego. (wink wink)"
"Die?" asked the phoenix with a concerned look.
"Yes die, he's suffering from broken bones and internal bleeding and we can't reveal to the Wizarding World our presence yet. There's no one else Harry can trust."
"Fine, only for him." The phoenix swooped down and grabbed Braze in her claws. Braze immediately flamed to the Dursley home. Dumbledore didn't ward the house against flaming and other elemental styles of traveling or even set up an alarm. He had to make sure Fawkes could flame into Harry's room so Dumbledore could have easy access to the boy.
Harry was still moaning in pain on the kitchen floor in a pool of his own blood. His clothes were torn and ripped from the belt lashing and his skin was either black, blue or red from multiple open gashes and cuts. His face was streaked with tears of pain. The walrus was still moaning on the ground covered in burns. Dudley however recovered from his "severe" burn and was kicking Harry. Braze saw red for a few seconds and flamed to intercept the next kick. The kick connected with the fire salamander. There was an ominous crunching sound as Braze's ribs snapped. Braze cried out in pain. Dudley grabbed the salamander and swung the salamander into the wall. Braze gasped and didn't move. Loreal trilled in anger and flamed in front of Dudley. She spread her wings protectively and screeched in warning. Dudley backed up in fear and ran out of the house.
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Harry came into consciousness slowly. Everything hurt. He coughed and something seeped out his mouth. He groaned in pain as he shifted his weight. His body was sticky and hot. He heard a beautiful trill in front him. Harry slowly opened his eyes. He stared into some startlingly green eyes. He looked up in surprise. The phoenix stared at him with amusement.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Loreal .I healed you."
Harry stared down at his body. He was covered in blood and there were multiple patches of bruises. His ribs ached and when he shifted positions they stung. All in all, he had seen better days.
"Where's Braze?"
Loreal looked sympathetic. "He was trying to save you from the fat boy. Braze took a kick for you before I could stop him. The kick fractured five ribs and one piece imbedded into his lung. He'll take quite a while to heal because the injuries were internal. You're confined to bed rest because you suffered fractures in all but two ribs and internal bleeding, there were fractures in your arms. He's on the pillow on the floor."
Harry looked down to the floor ignoring the stabs of pain. There on the ground was lay Braze. He was curled up and his internal fire sputtered weakly. Harry felt guilty. If Braze died it was all his fault. Braze would never forgive him for getting him hurt like that. Loreal trilled gently, trying to lighten his mood. It worked because phoenix trills and songs uplifted the spirits of those with a good soul while others who didn't only flinched and recoiled away from the sound. She decided that Harry needed to take his mind off of Braze, they would both heal in time.
"Harry" she trilled gently.
"How did you know my name? "
"Merlin told me about a dark haired, green-eyed boy named Harry Potter who was to be my bonded wizard. He showed me a vision. It convinced me to wait 13 centuries of your arrival.
"Wow, you're just as beautiful as Fawkes." Loreal stiffened.
"How do you know him?"
"He's the familiar of my headmaster Dumbledore."
Loreal started to cry. Under different circumstances, Harry would be glad to see the tears that could heal wounds but not this time. Harry reached over to stroke her head, gritting his teeth in pain with each movement.
"What's wrong?"
"Fawkes is my mate and has been for over a millennium. He disappeared from our nest a century ago. We were going to build a bigger nest and have chicks and..."
Loreal burst out in more tears and Harry felt slightly guilty when the tears soothed some of the aches in his chest. Once again he comforted Loreal by stroking downy chest feathers while muttered inane soothing words. He stopped and moaned in pain as the pain in his arm became too intense to bear. Loreal stopped crying and trilled in concern.
"Are you okay?"
Harry gritted his teeth. It hurt too much too talk. He couldn't breathe because his ribs hurt too much with each breath, and his arms hurt. Loreal started to panic. She must have waited too long to heal his other fractures. She tentatively slit open his shirt with her claw. When Harry's chest was free of cloth, Loreal cried a few tears in Harry's mouth. Harry immediately felt warm and his chest became less constricted.
"Harry, it might hurt when I try to heal your fractures." Harry nodded. Loreal slowly cut open Harry's chest and exposed the flesh and muscle. Harry gasped in pain and tried to hold in his scream of agony. Loreal cried on each of the rib fractures to heal them. She closed the flesh back together and shed a few tears to close the wound.
"You might have forgot to tell me that you were going to cut me open."
"Sorry there's no time for you to be squeamish. I still have to heal your arm fracture."
Loreal looked sympathetic as she gently sliced open his right arm. She pried away the muscle and cartilage away from the bone as Harry gratefully passed out from the pain. Loreal cried on the fracture and watched to bone mend. She glanced at Harry and quickly drank a drop of blood from the open wound before she closed it with more tears. She bit her claw until the rough skin broke and started to bleed. She waved her wing under Harry's nose until he was about to sneeze. As Harry opened his mouth to sneeze, she let a drop of blood fall into his mouth. There was a flash of light and all of Harry's wound were healed. Hmmm maybe she would have tried the familiar bonding first. O well, it was good practice. She trilled in happiness as she stared at the phoenix tattoo on Harry's forearm.
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August 3,1994
Harry once again came back into consciousness. He still felt blood cover his whole body. He opened his eyes to a pair of golden and a pair of green eyes.
"Hello Harry." trilled Loreal, "Your wounds are all healed so are Braze's. The familiar went deep enough that when your wounds healed, Braze's got a lot better too."
Harry reached over and petted both of the magical animals. As he petted Loreal, he saw a hint of red on his right arm. He turned it and gasped. He has a phoenix tattoo on his arm! What did Braze do while he was unconscious? He scowled at Braze while his familiar grinned again. Loreal snickered.
"I'm afraid that was my doing." trilled Loreal," It was a side-effect of the familiar bonding process."
"What? You're my familiar? When did this happen?"
Loreal smiled, something no bird should do, "I did the bonding process while you were unconsciousness. We are a perfect match just like Merlin predicted. Since you met me, Merlin decided it wouldn't be any worse if your last familiar came here and bonded with you too."
Braze disappeared in a flash of fire. When he came back, he brought somebody with him. A black dog appeared next to the little fire salamander. It looked like a Doberman. The dog looked a lot more intimidating than Padfoot every did. The dog walked up to Harry and held up a bleeding paw.
"Oh are you hurt? Do you need help?"
"Are you daft? Remember how I bonded with you on your 14th birthday. He's trying to bond with you."
Harry nodded in acknowledgement and let a drop of the dog's blood drop into his mouth. The dog nipped Harry's left arm and licked the drop of blood that welled up. There was the customary flash of light that blinded everybody for a few seconds. A tattoo of a dog appeared on his inner forearm. Great, another tattoo. It looked nice though.
(Think of this in a deep male voice.)
"Hello Harry. I am pleased to be your familiar. I am a hellhound. Fire is the element that I was born from and is the one I have an affinity to. I can spit fireballs and I can control fire to a certain degree. Hellhounds can flame and shadow travel."
"You seen very nice." Harry scratched behind the dog's ears. Padfoot liked to be scratched there. The hellhound growled. Harry stopped in fear, did he do something wrong. The hellhound growled again.
"Don't stop. That felt good."
Harry looked up at the animal menagerie in his room. Braze was perched next to his pillow, Loreal was preening her feathers on the bedpost and the Doberman was looking at him expectantly.
"You never told me your name."
"It's Sully."
"Interesting name."
Sully growled. Harry put up his hands in surrender.
"Sorry. Getting beaten and getting two familiars doesn't help anything."
Braze chuckled, "There's more. "
Loreal added, "You're going to have to leave this place. The fat males and the horse-woman could have killed you."
"I can't leave. Dumbledore needs me to be with the Dursleys to keep me safe using blood wards."
Braze muttered profanities. Loreal looked slightly murderous.
"Harry, look outside of your window." trilled Loreal.
Harry gave her a puzzled look as he peered the bars of his window. He didn't see anything.
"What am I supposed to see?"
"You have to use your Mage -sight. Look out of the corner of your eye for the flicker of unusual color. Concentrate on it to activate your Mage-Sight. It'll get easier in time." replied Loreal.
Harry tried it. He gasped in shock, the world seemed a lot of more color. He looked around at the occupants in the room. Loreal's body was surrounded by flecks of gold. Braze had flames surround his body that were white with blue tinges. He looked like he was in his natural state. Sully looked the same.
"Mage-sight doesn't work on those who are damned." Harry looked at Sully questionably but the hellhound didn't add any more information. Harry looked around, his clock that he got from the rubbish pile was surrounded by blue lightning. Everything else was dull and grey.
"This is amazing."
Braze chuckled in agreement.
Harry looked outside his window again. The usual view of perfect square houses and perfectly trimmed shrubs had changed. The house was now covered by a dome of blood-red. He looked at the dome closely. It was paper-thin and wavered. Harry looked shock as the dome blinked out for a second. That was the blood ward. He hoped that wards didn't usually look like that.
"I told you. The wards are fragile at best. The Dursley's might kill you the next time they see. I had to deter the really fat human when he tried to come in with a knife." interjected Braze.
Harry nodded reluctantly. Where was he supposed to go? Dumbledore would escort him back to this "lovely" place if he went to the Weasley family or any other Light family. Dark families would probably send him back to Dumbledore, in a body bag of course.
"Merlin gave me the answer to this, pup." Sully disappeared in a flash of fire and came back with something clutched in his jaws. He dropped it by Harry's hand. Harry picked it up. It was a golden cube. He looked at closer and saw that it was gold from the multiple gold runes that covered in every surface. Hermione would probably know what some of these runes mean. He looked at Sully with a confused look.
"It activates with blood. Let's leave first." said Sully.
Harry nodded and looked down. Maybe after he took a shower, he was still covered in blood.
A/n: Neville's grandmother's response by using the killing curse will be explained in the next chapter. (If you haven't guessed yet, Neville's still alive.) The voting for pairings will end after the next chapter because the pairings are necessary for the story development. I hope that nobody drops this fic because of a slash pairing or Harry/Hermione pairing. Please stay with the story even if the pairings don't go your way.
Harry/Draco: 9
Harry/Hermione: 4
Harry/Luna: 1
Neville/Hermione:5
Neville/Luna : 5
Somebody reviewed and voted for an alternative pairing for the person who wouldn't be paired up with Neville or Harry. I never planned on letting people vote for that but okay.
Alternative Pairings
Luna/Rolf :1
Thanks for the reviews and the suggestions for water familiars. I didn't think I had to say this but I don't like flames especially on the sexual orientation of any character. I'm not going to choose the pairings the readers do.