Monster Lord

Chapter 7: Family of all kinds


Summary: Dumbledore informs the birdwatching club of the current situation. Moody thinks they're all boned. There are emotional conversations. A dedicated owl is dedicated.


Sirius relaxed in his chair, a little pale and clearly barely hanging onto consciousness, yet splitting his face with a shiteating grin the likes of which had never been seen. And he called himself "Padfoot, bird tamer," which had elicited a few chuckles, as he still had feathers in his hair, giving people the wrong impression of what he'd been doing for the past hour and a half.

He blatantly ignored the odd look his friend Remus gave him when he took a few sniffs of the air, as well as the situation update that Dumbledore gave his fellow Order of Turkey Stuffers members.

Everything was going according to plan. He'd had time to talk to Harry during dinner, and his plan for the night was already in motion. He'd settle a score that had been bugging him for a while already tonight.

Moody stopped Dumbledore as he rounded out the tale, looking gravely and taking in the disturbed faces that the bird watchers were making. "So... let me get this straight. The 'Boy Who Lived' is no longer a boy, and in his place, there is now a teenaged demi-goddess. Not content with her massive physical strength and her command of the elements, she also has high level Mystic Eyes as well as magical resistance on par with a basilisk, if not better. Am I correct, so far?"

Dumbledore nodded. "Unfortunately, it's prudent to assume that, as he took young Harry's blood in his resurrection, Voldemort might find himself possessing more power than he ever held before."

"Still, we have the Monster Lord on our side. The very goddess that every dark witch or wizard who takes themselves seriously worships. That should be a pretty gigantic hit on Voldemort's popularity with them, given that he is directly oppossing her," someone interrupted.

"It's not enough. Most of Voldemort's followers have forgotten the old ways. That's actually part of the reason the Blacks refused to join him and only the dumber members of our family, that being cousin Bella, brother Reggie and mummy dearest, expressed an interest in joining him," Sirius said, leaning back and resting his arms behind his head, looking at the ceiling of the dinning room, where the meeting was being held, after it'd already been cleaned by Kreacher. "They never were very smart."

Snape sneered. "You're not much better yourself, mutt," he commented.

"I'm not the one with a Dark Mark on my arm, now am I?" Sirius retorted, raising an eyebrow and pointedly looking at the arm that Snape unconsciously held closer to his body. Snape was a firm believer in keeping your allies close, and your enemies closer, and Sirius knew this very well.

Snape glared at him.

"Stop bickering like children for a minute and concentrate. Sirius, you're, of us, the one who has the most lore on the Darkness and its worship. I know I ask you to abandon the beliefs that brought you to the light, but-"

"Light?" Sirius asked, raising an eyebrow. "I'm a Black. I can't escape the Darkness any more than James could escape the Light. No, I never turned to the light. Voldemort's always been an insult to everything I was raised to believe in, and he openly flaunted his betrayal by speaking parseltongue. This war never was Light Versus Dark, it's always been reasonable people against a lunatic madman and his moronic followers," Sirius explained, shrugging.

"That's... awfully surprising. I'd always thought-" McGonnagal began, frowning slightly, before she was interrupted.

"While we're on it, I've also got ties to the Dark," commented one of the Order's aurors, Emmeline Vance, "I've... never been proud of them, since they were connected to the 'Dark' Lord, and, well, he goes against everything I was taught the Dark was supposed to be."

"And what, exactly, is the Dark supposed to be, according to you lads?" asked Moody, narrowing his natural eye while his other eye spun around madly.

"Nurturing. Protecting. The Dark was meant to give life, and protecting it... Voldemort's ideals never matched up to the ones my parents taught me," Emmeline said, in a small voice.

"Slytherin was once a great Dark Wizard," Dumbledore began, looking at the table. "However, of the founders four, he was the sole representant of the Dark, and his house became the breeding ground for morally bankrupt wizards, as those were the ones willing to do whatever it took to achieve their ends, which meant they often didn't represent the traits of the other three houses. Eventually, people began to hate his house, and himself, for this, blaming him, and with him, the Darkness. Its meaning mutated into what it is today due to this. Slytherin himself went insane from the prosecution he faced from those who misunderstood him. The Dark itself hasn't changed, but the people now misinterpret who is dark. Light and Darkness have nothing to do with your morals, as only the balance of Light and Darkness keeps the world spinning," he continued, closing his eyes just before he finished his speech. "The Black Library has some fantastic tomes on the subject, and they are surprisingly less biased than I'd expected. As an aside, Serpentarius Black was a fantastic storyteller, and it's a shame his books never got the widespread recognition they deserve."

Snape nodded, seeming almost ashamed to admit that someone of Sirius' family had a talent for something not destruction-related. "That was Founders' Folly, was it not?"

"Indeed," Emmeline commented. "I have that tome, myself. Though I hadn't known that the two hours between dinner and now would've been enough to gain that much knowledge..."

"I've been studying the tomes in the Black Library, and cross referencing it with the Forbidden Section of Hogwarts' Library, ever since Harry's status was made aware to me," Dumbledore corrected.

"We're digressing," Moody commented. "The theme we ought to treat here is that we have a teenaged demigoddess on our hand. One who has NEVER had to deal with one of her own periods before."

Sirius blinked. "Shite, I hadn't thought of that!" he cried. "Oh, crap..."

"Whaddaya mean?" Mundungus 'Dung' Fletcher asked, as he discreetly tried to pocket a silvery bauble that rested on a counter behind him, stopping once a stinging hex from Sirius caught him in the wrist. That was some amazing accuracy, he privately admitted.

"We haven't really put Harry's control to the test, so far... What I mean is, we don't know how strong he... well, she, really is. So far, I've seen her punch through magically reinforced walls, use freezing charms so powerful they're impervious to anything we tried to do to undo them and I've seen her take a stunner to the back of the head without even noticing it. I also tried to have the wards kick her out once and she didn't even twitch when they attempted to eject her. Meaning, we've got an indestructible lamia with unknown strength and magic power who could potentially fly off the handle at the slightest trigger during her time of the month, and we can't do crap to stop her," Sirius commented.

"Well, then we just have to keep her in a good mood, right?" asked Daedalus Diggle, looking somewhat concerned.

"And if Harry wasn't Alipheese the Seventeenth, that would be a much simpler task. The Monster Lord was famous for her mercurial temper, at the best of times," Emmeline commented. "Let's just hope we can calm Harry the same way Serpentarius described the last Monster Lord was calmed. This is gonna be murder on the order's budget, though."

The order of Bird Watching Weirdos blinked in confusion. "Explain," Moody commanded, with the authority a master Auror had cultivated over the ages.

"Well, Alipheese the Sixteenth was usually calmed, when she was in one of her moods... by ingesting lots and lots of food. Fortunately, she's a very high level monster, so I don't think Harry will be eating any humans any time soon,"

"Tough luck, guys, given that I know how monsters feed on humans," Sirius commented with a grin, interrupting Emmeline, who glared at him in return.

"Anyway, the point is, we need to stock up on piles and piles of food..."

Molly Weasley suddenly felt that all her years enslaving herself to a stove had finally paid off. "Harry has always loved my cooking," she commented.

"About that... you're probably going to have to move here permanently. If Harry acts the way I expect her to when her period comes, then you'll most likely be forced to accept assistance from a house elf or two, or you just won't be able to keep up," Dumbledore said, his voice kind though his tone was final. "Alas, the hour grows late. We shall meet again, three days from now, and hopefully, I will have a plan to deal with our rather less than ideal situation then. I will be accepting suggestions on how to utilize our newest asset-"

"Oi, don't refer to Harry like that!" Sirius said, almost growling.

"-in the best way possible," Dumbledore finished, sparing a glance at Sirius. "Regardless of the terminology I use to refer to him... her, do remember that despite the body she now possesses, Harry is still a teenager in mind, and I will be forced to veto certain plans that would could possibly traumatize her. The last thing we want is the Monster Lord being traumatized in an unpredictable way," he added, surveying the room through his half-moon specs, noting how Moody seemed to deflate slightly. "Until then, meeting adjourned!"

As the members began to leave, Sirius turned to Remus, who had been seated next to him. "You've been quiet today," he remarked, looking past him at Tonks, who was beginning to get up from the chair, and waving at her.

Remus flushed. "I... might've had my ha- minds- mind elsewhere," he said.

"Moony, you're my friend and all, but this really has to stop. Just go, catch her before she leaves and bring her up to one of the second floor rooms before she blueballs you to death!" Sirius said, letting out a barklike laugh as he stood up. "Seriously, I know you're still worried about what happened to that girl in fifth year, but I'm preeeetty sure Tonks is a lot sturdier."

"You're pimping out your cousin, you know?" Moony retaliated, glaring at Sirius.

"Second cousin," Sirius corrected. Then he stroked his chin for a minute. "I think. Crap, I can't remember. Anyway, I'm not pimping her out, I'm trying to help her help you help yourself to her! Plus, I slept with both of your female cousins, and I've been exchanging letters with Annie," and at that point Remus frowned at the mention of the younger of said cousins, "and she's willing to share a bed with me again, so I'd be more than a bit hypocritical if I grilled you for this," Sirius commented.

"Yeah, but they were older than you! I'd be robbing the cradle here! You're not supposed to be okay with this!" Moony said, his face colored red.

"Pish posh, she's over the age of consent, she's fair game," Sirius said. "She wants you, you want her, and if you fear hurting her, well, she's a trained auror and an adult who knows what she's getting into, so she'd be perfectly capable of defending herself if she has to," he said.

Moony sighed, and began to prepare a retort, when suddenly the door swung open.

"I got tired of waiting for my cue, so I'm just doing this right now," informed a female voice that Moony took a second to recognize as the sole child of any of the marauders, who looked at him in the eye.

All of Moony's problems promptly went away as he stood up.

"That's a good boy," Harry cooed, patting him on the head, "now, tell me why you're really keeping away from her," he said, crossing his arms under his breasts and bringing them up slightly. It was instinctive.

"... I'm afraid I won't measure up to her... She's just so cheerful, full of life and deserves so much better than me that I-"

"Okay, stop there," Harry said, lifting a finger, making a come hither motion towards the table.

Nymphadora 'Don't Call Me Gift of the Nymphs' Tonks walked through the door, smiling widely. "You're such an idiot, Remus. Even if there were any better, I don't want that. I want you. I don't care if you're a werewolf or even if you're a Frenchman in disguise!" she said, walking up to him and being forced to look up to him as she invaded his personal space. "It makes no difference to me, because what I want is not the shell, I want this," she said, poking Remus in the chest, and then smiling, saying "and this," before she reached up and poked him in the forehead. "I want the kind hearted, witty and funny Moony of the Marauders, I want the fiercely protective Remus Lupin that would rather die than harm a hair on my head, I want everything that you are!" she said, throwing her arms around his torso and hugging him tightly.

"Tonks, I- I don't know what to say," Remus said, blushing to the roots of his hair as he awkwardly tried to find a way out of this situation that had him so against the ropes.

"How about 'I'll pick you up this saturday at seven and we'll go out for dinner at a fancy restaurant of your choice, courtesy of my good friend Padfoot who would love to spend his family's money on something that would infuriate them so I don't have to complain about receiving charity'?" Sirius suggested.

"Hm... You run into that problem, too?" Harry asked, looking at his godfather.

"Like you wouldn't believe. It was hard as hell for me and Prongs to convince Moony and Wormtail to let us pay for them. Prongs' family was proud he was using his family money to help his friends, and I've always been fond of flaunting my dislike for my family by spending their money in ways they'd object to," Sirius confirmed.

Remus had, meanwhile, repeated the words Sirius had spoken, too embarrassed to change a word of it, and Tonks smiled widely. "Sounds great!" she chirped.

"Don't worry, Tonksie, we'll get him on some robes that won't embarrass you!" Sirius said, throwing an arm over Remus' shoulders.

Harry smiled and did the same. "Yep! If I had to endure being a dress-up doll, you'll suffer the same as me!"

"Hm... you don't have a complete wardrobe yet, Harry," Remus commented, "and I have it on good authority that Tonks does have a good eye for fashion..."

"My very own dress up doll! How did you know it's what I've always wanted?" Tonks joked.

Harry pouted.

"Actually, with your body type and your natural poise, I really want to see what kind of super elaborate dresses you can make look even better than they already do. I've never been able to pull off one of those puffed out XIXth century dresses, but I think you could pull them off perfectly..." Tonks said, her hair perking up and brightening a little as she thought of it. "Yeah, you'd look great in Black..."

Sirius smiled. "Well, I was planning on adopting you into the family, and looking good in black is kind of a family tradition," Sirius joked.

Harry blinked, then looked up at him. For some reason he seemed so impossibly tall. "Padfoot?" he asked, his voice trembling, and feeling fragile all of a sudden.

"I know I'll never replace Prongs or everyone's favorite Tiger Lily, but I'd be honored if you'd let me adopt you as soon as I'm able to, Harry," he said, placing a hand on top of Harry's head and looking down upon him, a kind smile on his face.

Harry's eyes filled with tears.

Moony and Tonks politely, and quietly, excused themselves as Harry tackled Sirius to the ground.


"What do I do, Hedwig?" Harry asked, looking at his wagging tail as it flicked from side to side. It was an effort to try to increase the level of dexterity he could move it with, and he was seemingly improving by the second, gaining a greater grasp of the instinctive movements and moving his tail in unexpected ways that defied what little he knew of snake biology, including lengthening and shortening it at will instead of the tail doing so automatically, and even making it thinner or thicker, with a bit more effort.

"About what, your Highness?" Hedwig asked.

"About this whole thing. The Monster Lord thing, I mean. Can I really be the Monster Lord?" he asked, looking at the ceiling for a minute, where he imagined a ceiling fan should've been. "Can I really rule over all monsters? I'm just Harry... I'm no one special. The one thing everyone thinks I did was my mother's handiwork, and my own triumphs have been the stroke of consistent good luck," he said, frowning at the words that should've come easily, but he instead had to wrack his brain for. "I can't even craft a decent sentence like that without stopping to think about it! How can I be a good Monster Lord if I can't even do something like this?! King Gnarl was wrong... I can't be the Monster Lord..."

Hedwig leaped from her seat on the floor next to Harry's bed, landing onto the King Sized bed and making Harry bounce slightly. She crawled up to Harry and then sat on top of Harry's stomach, directly over his navel. "Your highness... master... I KNOW that you can be a good Monster Lord," Hedwig said, reaching with her wings to caress Harry's cheeks. "I know because I know you. I know that you're a kind and caring person, and that you'll put the safety of all your subjects and loved ones before your own. I know that you will never betray our trust in you, and that your heart has enough love for all of your children, direct or indirect," she said, leaning down so they were almost nose to nose, their eyes locked together. "If nothing else, then trust in me. Trust in me to know that you are right for the throne. Believe in me, for I believe in you, and so will my children and their children, and all harpies descended from my line, from now until forevermore! This I swear to you, my queen!" she said, her voice firm and solemn.

"Hedwig, I-" Harry began, gulping, "am I even worthy of such trust from you?"

"Yes, you are!" Hedwig said, leaning back slightly. "I knew... I knew from the first time I saw you. I could feel the power brimming beneath the surface. I could feel your kind heart when you gave up what little food you had so I would not starve in your relatives' home, when I was locked up in that silly cage! I could feel your pain, your sorrow and guilt over something that you could not help! I KNOW that you are worthy, Master! Why won't you see this!?" she nearly yelled in frustration.

"It's just-"

"And you were complaining about the werewolf's lack of self esteem!? Master, I don't know what I must do to convince you... but I implore you, take my word for it! You are great! You just need to allow yourself a chance to prove it!" Hedwig said. "Your courage, your kindness, your strength- Those aren't flukes! Nobody possessed or forced you to put yourself at risk to avert others' suffering! Nobody would've gone forward even though the path they trod upon was long, dark and filled with spike pits! It's not your lucky victories that define you, Master, but what you endured to achieve them!"

Harry was silent, before he abruptly sat up to meet Hedwig halfway and embraced his owl, turned into a Harpy, resting his head on the harpy's shoulder, tightening his hug as he began to sob. "Thank you, Hedwig," he murmured through the sobs that wracked his body.

"I'm always here for you, Master. Always have, always will be," she explained.

"I'm sorry I haven't always been the best owner," Harry began, his tone apologetic.

Hedwig shushed him. "You're all I've ever wanted, Master..." she muttered, stroking Harry's silver hair as she did. "And you're the best Monster Lord I could ask for..."

Harry just continued to sob, as Hedwig began to rub soothing circles on his back. Harry leaned back a bit, to look at Hedwig in the face, and opened his mouth to speak, "I-"

"Hush," Hedwig interrupted him, smiling and letting Harry's weight slowly carry them down so they both rested on the bed. Hedwig twisted and turned until Harry's head rested halfway on her chest, a position that would've been uncomfortable to someone not with the innate increased strength and durability of a monster girl. "You've been through a lot these past few days, Master... It's okay to rest for a while. Tomorrow's gonna be another day, but for now, you can rest. You've more than earned it," she said, smiling benignly at Harry, who nodded sleepily and began to doze off in Hedwig's arms.

It didn't take very long for Harry to finally succumb to his emotional exhaustion, as he finally left the realm of the conscious.

"Hm... how I've longed for this day, Master," Hedwig muttered, running her hands through Harry's silky tresses. "It's gonna be okay, I promise master... even if I have to kill every last one of those sons of bitches and pave the road below you with their blood and bones, I swear I will defend you until the day death do us part!"

Harry sleepily moaned in contentment at the raw feelings he perceived, his mind too far gone to truly hear the words.