Chapter 9
Jon snow was happy. For the first time in his life he was content. Yesterday a missive came from his uncle Ned stating that he would visit him in as soon as possible. The last time Ned Stark had been in Moat Cailin was when the construction of the castle and town had started. It was a ruin back then but now Moat Cailin was a proud castle standing twenty towers tall and Griffin Hollow was a prospering town which was still expanding. It had been five years since the city had been completed and people had started settling in the city, today the population of the city was over two hundred thousand people living here and thousands of people came here for trade. Jon had set up inns all over the city which were maintained and run by the castle for all the merchants who travelled for trade.
Sers Dayne and Hightower disguised as his caretakers helped him in running the city. Moat was becoming the city for major trade. They traded rice, jewelry and spices along with weapons and clothing made of silk, cotton and fur. Jon and Rayne had big plans for the Moat. They had decided that after two years they would start the production of glass in their lands. Glass was a treasured commodity that was only produced in Myr. Jon had seen how common glass was in Rayne's world and the variety of things it could be used for. Jon knew that the next few years would be very busy for him.
Rayne was busy. She had not expected the time and care it took to raise two dragons. After coming home for the holidays she had finished her homework in a week and the rest of the break was spent taking care of Lilyanna and Rayegal. She spent all her free time to practice her magic. Being naturally gifted was not enough as she knew that sooner or later she would have to face Lord Voldemort and fight for her life. The goblins at Gringotts had spent the entire year searching for objects that radiated the same magic as the soul piece from her scar. They had found five places that radiated the same magic but they could only get their hands on three objects; a diary found hidden in Lucius's father study, a cup in Bellatrix Lestarnge's vault which Narcissa gave the permission to take out and a ring which belonged to the Peverell family hidden in an abandoned shack. The goblins promptly destroyed they soul pieces in the three objects, the process destroyed the diary but the cup and stone of the ring remained whole. The goblins presented both of them to Rayne; the stone belonging to the Peverell family was again set into a ring and was now on Rayne's finger. The cup was said to have healing properties so Rayne took it with her in the off chance that she might need it in Westeros. The two Horcrux they could not get were hidden in Hogwarts and the Black ancestral house. Narcissa was a Black by marriage but she was not the heir and the heir was in Azkaban, Sirius Black was thrown into jail without a trial on Barty Crouch's order after he was charged with the murder of Peter Pettigrew and twelve muggles. He was not even given a trail. When Rayne asked Narcissa about her godfather she was surprised to hear about a brilliant Auror who had captured many death eaters and had walked out on his family instead of upholding their views on blood bigotry. Armed with this knowledge she asked her uncle Vernon and Lucius to ask for a trial for Sirius in the next Wizengamot meeting. So on thirteen June during the Wizengamot session Lucius called for a trail of Sirius Black. He explained how he had never been given a trial and how Rayne after hearing about him wanted to find the truth about his betrayal. Using Rayne's name was a cheap shot but that convinced the members to finally bring Sirius to the chamber. Dumbledore was absent from the session as he was busy interviewing candidates for the new professor for DADA. The man who entered was weak and gaunt, his eyes hollow and his stare glassy. He was tied to the chair and given Veritaserum, the effect was immediate. The minister, Cornelius Fudge was acting as Chief Warlock for today and he asked the questions.
'What is your name?'
'Sirius Orion Black' He replied in a raspy voice.
'State your date of birth'
'3 November 1959.'
'Were you the secret keeper for James Potter, Lily Potter and Rayne Potter?'
'No'
At his reply the entire hall gasped. They had not anticipated this. Gathering his wits Fudge continued.
'Who was the secret keeper for the potters?'
'Peter Pettigrew' at this the members started talking in hushed tones, meanwhile Lucius felt quite pleased by the revelation.
'Are you a death eater? Show us your arms.'
At this Black rolls over his tattered shirt sleeves and presents his unblemished arms devoid of any dark mark to the Wizengamot while letting out another no.
'Did you kill Peter Pettigrew and the Muggles on 31 October 1981?'
'No'
At this the entire room explodes into an array of shouts. They realize that the heir and Lord of the Most Ancient and Noble house of Black had been imprisoned for eleven years without any trial or proof. After the antidote was administered Sirius stays in his chair unbound by the chains realizing that for the first time in eleven years he can be a free man. Cornelius Fudge being the consummate politician blamed this grave injustice on his predecessor and took credit for the release of Sirius. Lucius let Cornelius his fame, he along with Vernon took Sirius to Gringotts where he was promptly sworn in as Lord Black and was asked to call for his elf. Kreacher was an old elf, the goblins wasted no time and asked the elf about any object in the Black house that did not have any magic of the Blacks and was indestructible. Kreacher popped away and came back with a huge golden locket with an S engraved on it. The goblins poured basilisk venom on it. Black mist rose form it and letting out a scream it died away. The locket was handed to Vernon to be given to Rayne. The two men then took Sirius to Evans manor where Narcissa, Petunia along with three children was waiting in the living room. Seeing Sirius Narcissa hugged him letting out a few tears but Sirius had his eyes on Rayne. He knelt and hugged her crying and apologizing.
It will take time for Sirius to heal completely; he would stay in the Black cottage in Scotland with his fiend Remus Lupin.
All of Voldemort's soul pieces were destroyed except one which was in Hogwarts. Rayne had told all this to Severus who had been stunned hearing all this information. He promised to help Rayne in her quest of finding the missing soul container. Rayne told Severus about her world travelling abilities and took him to see the dragons. She even took him along with her to Westeros. Jon was scared of Severus and he took delight in Jon's fear. When Severus found about Jon's heritage and his ambition to sit on the Iron Throne and have Rayne as his queen, needless to say Severus's glare was enough to make Jon pale with fear but he still gave him many potion recipes and alternate ingredients for herbs that might be good substitutes as well as seeds of many magical plants that Jon grew in his private garden.
Rayne's disappearance from the house was noticed by Petunia who was worried and shared her concerns with Vernon not knowing that the two Slytherin boys were hearing everything. They stealthy made their way to Rayne's room and found it empty. Dudley suggested checking the Dragon reserve. They called Dudley's elf Hoppy and asked him to take them to the reserve.
Rayne had taken Jon to the Dragon reserve to meet Lilyanna and Rayegal, Jon was always mesmerized by the huge dragons flying around the reserve, during one such trip Jon got too close to a nesting Hungarian Horntail, she nudged Jon with her tail breaking him out from his daze and blew warm breadth over him accepting her near her children. Jon sat in the nest holding a dragon egg in his arms feeling its warmth under his palm. He could feel the Dragon inside the shell. It was an out of body experience like he and the dragons were one. He shared this relation with all the dragons. He was lost in the sight of dragons flying around him that he did not notice the egg cracking in his hands. When he felt a sudden wetness in his hands from the egg liquid leaking and the baby Dragon breaking the egg shell, he baby Dragon breaks out from the black and red shell making his way into the world and the first thing she sees is Jon, getting out of the egg she climbs into Jon's arms and rests there with her head on his heart. The entire reservation is silent and when Jon looks up he sees all the adult dragons in a circle around him bowing to him and the baby dragons in front them trying to get near him but were stopped by Lilyanna and Rayegal as they were bigger than almost all the hatchlings. Rayne was staring at him wide eyed and behind Rayne Jon could see two boys who if his suspicion was correct could see him as was evident by their expression. Jon looked at them surprised, seeing the expression on Jon's face Rayne turn back and sees Dudley and Draco.
'So this where you hide out dear cousin and who is that the dragons are treating like he is one of them.' Dudley asked Rayne.
Shocked to see that Dudley and Draco could see Jon Rayne decided to be honest with them. She told them both about her first meeting with Jon, how she had healed him and how the next day when she saw him it was like years had passed but he had remembered her. She told them about the strange world she had visited and about Jon's status as a future King in the said world. She also told them about Jon's Dragonlord ancestors, how they would ride dragons and control them. It was not very hard for them to believe Rayne as they could see the way dragons were responding to him.
Draco and Dudley welcomed Jon warmly and shared with him their ideas of how he could change his world. Draco was taught about estate management from childhood and he knew the importance of having right information to use against the right people at the right time, so he suggested him to have a spy network in the kingdom. He suggested him to use house elves; Draco knew where to buy new elves from and shared that information with them. Rayne agreed with this plans as the magic of house elves would be of great aid to them in the future.
Where Draco was a consummate politician Dudley was a general. His mind picked up patterns and trends more quickly than anyone else. All those years he had spent playing chess and online strategy games aided him in making plans and ensuring their success with multiple back up plans.
Determined to see Westeros as soon as possible they decided to meet Jon the next day.
Draco was spending the weekend with Dudley and Rayne in Evans manor, at night the three children lied in front of the fireplace in the library on a rug. Rayne transported the along with her to Jon's room. He was already waiting for them together they ventured outside. Jon took them to the highest tower; from there they could see the Griffin Hollow. They went into the Godswood; there were weirwood trees all around with red sap leaking from their eyes. All four of them could feel magic from those trees. They took a tour of the city and were impressed by the management and the hard lives people of this era led.
When Draco, Dudley and Rayne got back they immediately started in fulfilling their plans to implement spies into Westeros so they bought twenty house elves and took them to Moat Cailin. They appeared in the Godswood with them, Jon was waiting there for her. As soon as the elves appeared in the Godswood they cried and fell down, their little bodies started glowing and their features altered to resemble humans. They grew taller with their faces like humans but their ears remained a little pointy. They grew hair and stood taller than all four of them. The oldest of them resembled a fully grown human male, he knew the stories of their past so he explained it to them.
The house elves were cursed descendants of the children of forest who were nowadays just legends. They had lived in Westeros thousands of years ago but after the birth of the Other they started losing their magic. So in desperation a few of them travelled to a new world where its people had magic. The world travel had severally damaged their magic cores so they bound themselves to the power of the wizards and witches in order to repair their core but in doing so they cursed themselves to slavery as they and their descendants could only function magically if they were bound to a witch or wizard. Their coming to Westeros had broken the curse and the weirwood trees were where they got their powers from. All twenty of the house elves looked like normal human beings of different ages and they vowed to help Rayne and Jon their quest to rule Westeros. They could do magic but they still needed to be bound to a magical person as their anchor because the weirwood trees were cut down in most of Westeros as people followed the new Gods.
Swearing loyalty to Rayne all of them went to different parts of the seven kingdoms. They now had spies in kings Landing, Casterly Rock, Red Keep, Vale, Dorne, Reach, and Winterfell and even at the Castle Black. He sent few of them to Essos to find about Jon's remaining family. A few of them were solely to spy on the King, Queen and the members of the small council especially Varys who is the Master of Whispers and Petyr Baelish who is the Master of Coin. All of them were given a small mirror through which they could contact each other and as they still had their powers they could pop near Jon with any information they had.
With the spy network done the next thing they decided to do was to expand their military base. For this Dudley had a brilliant idea as most of Jon's small folk were people who did daily work, he developed a rally system through which Jon was to train his soldiers. They men were trained for a year and then a next batch of people was trained and so on till all able men were able to fight. The men were paid for their year of service and then were to be sent home and then again after a few years are called again until they were unable to fight anymore.
Another thing Jon wanted was to develop another city, Griffin Hollow was built by his uncle's recommendations and it was already becoming overcrowded. The new town was to be exclusive to the craftsmen, the plans were drawn up, all the people who produced silk, fur, cotton and jewelry was to set up their shop there. The new town was to be built only three leagues away. The objective of that town was to make it a shopping district where things from all over the world would be available. Draco and Dudley had gathered book on glass making and had given them to Jon, Jon had shared the books with Maester Myrddin and the two of them had discreetly made plans to start production of glass. They would wait for a few years to start glass production as Draco had suggested they ward their factory so no one could leak the secret of glass making.
It took Jon and Rayne two years with the help of Draco and Dudley to make Moat Cailin the place for trade in the Westeros. Jon made provisions for Riverrunn so they could sell their grain in Essos thus strengthening his relations with the Tullys.
In these two years Rayegal and Lilyanna were the same size as the Hungarian Horntail adult Dragon. Jon the ultimate favorite of all the Dragons in the reserve, whenever he would come there all the dragons would flock him trying to get his attention. Jon's favorite was to ride on Rayegal's back along with Rayne on Lilyanna's back together they both soared the skies, Draco and Dudley were envious of their relation with the two Westerosi dragons, Dudley being the Evans heir had the potential to become a Dragon rider as it was a bloodline gift one day Draco and Dudley without anyone's knowledge made a bloodpact to become brothers. This pact shared Dudley's bloodline gift with Draco and Draco's Metamorphmagus gift with Dudley. The four adults were furious with the two of them, as they both sat shamefaced on the couch Rayne and Jon snickered at their discomfort.
The three Hogwarts students were now ready to enter their fourth year. The three fourteen year olds were excited for the New Year. The three of them had used the last two peaceful years to strength their magic and master the curriculum of all seven years. They all were naturally gifted with magical strength, their elemental control was exceptional, and Dudley had found different ways of using his element, he can make barren land bear life again, make dying trees and plants full of color and most importantly he could mold soil and make huge golems that obeyed his every command. Draco's element air gave him the ability to fly unaided, he could control air literally, once when he was angry he nearly absorbed all the air of the room making other suffocated fortunately Dudley was able to stun him on time. He also had affinity towards flying creatures, eagles, owls, ravens and even a Hippogriff. They would circle him and try to be near him.
Rayne on the other hand was a power house. At the end of third year she was called to Dumbledore's office, when she reached there, the office was empty so she looked around, the phoenix on the stand nudged her face and sang to her, it flew around the office and landed on Dumbledore's table, on the table there laid a wand, it was ornate with runes on it. Rayne picked it up and got a familiar feeling of magic wash over her. She felt the Peverell ring heat up and glow, she felt her chest itch. Dropping the wand back she sat at the table. When Dumbledore came back he asked about her day and gave her a package stating it was her father's and he had forgotten to return it to her before. Taking the parcel she walks back to the dungeons. Going into her room she opens it and sees a cloak, standing in front of the mirror she drapes it around her and to her surprise she vanishes completely. Letting out a delighted whoop she shows the cloak to Dudley and Draco. That night Rayne was roaming around the halls when she felt two arms lift her up and move into an abandoned classroom. Lighting her wand she saw that it was the Weasley twins. They showed her a curious sheet of parchment which showed the entirety of Hogwarts and its secret corridors. It belonged to the Marauders, same group of people who had hidden the Animagus books in the library.
Over the past two years Rayne had developed strong control over her magic, her control over the elements and weather had developed very well, with little concentration she could change the weather from pouring rain to a cloudless breeze. Her control over the elements was exceptional, she had particular affinity for fire and water, along with Draco and Dudley the three of them had total control of the four elements.
Another thing the three teenagers had done was to expanded the Dragon reserve to include hippogriffs, Griffins and Thunderbirds, in the Slytherin chamber she had found Basilisk eggs along with Shira's help Rayne was trying to hatch those eggs, Salazar had given her a spell which rendered the snake's deadly sight obsolete which could she use with a simple incantation in Parseltongue.
Their second and third years at Hogwarts were filled with classes and the three students trying to absorb every little piece of magic they could. Rayne had involved Draco and Dudley with her in Animagus training, after continuous meditation over the holidays they would try transformation.
Rayne had grown to be a beautiful girl with long flowing black hair, green eyes that glimmered like Emeralds and skin as white as snow she was the object of envy of many girls, boys had started taking notice of her but immediately backed off when they saw Draco and Dudley's frowns. She was petite with doll like features and resembled her mother a lot. Severus was overly protective of her and along with Sirius he had found a middle ground to end their feud and concentrate on Rayne's wellbeing. Another welcome addition to her life was Sirius he had been given a clean bill of health and now had overtaken the responsibilities of Lord Black; he had named Draco his heir till he has a child of his own.
It was the summer after third year and the three children were in the library reading about confidentiality agreements when Draco asked Rayne a question she had no answer of.
'Rayne, will you be Jon's queen if he becomes the king?'
Rayne was speechless as she had no expected such a direct question from him so she simple nodded but Draco was not finished asking uncomfortable questions.
'But won't the Lords object? You would be a simpleton there with no ties to any Lord there; you might as well be a bastard there. The lords would not accept a Queen they don't have any information about.'
Rayne did not say anything but she silently agreed with Draco. She knew how archaic the Westerosi were, if she were to arrive with Jon there with the surname Potter the Lords and Ladies of the seven kingdoms would assume her to be some commoner and would not let her marry Jon or let her be Queen. Rayne had researched a lot about the seven kingdoms and she knew how much sway the religious leaders had over the King. Draco's question made her think about her debut into Westeros. She did not answer Draco but she did think about his question.
A few days later after breakfast she sat down with Sirius and Severus along with Dudley and Draco in the library and told the two adults everything, the first time she met Jon, how she healed him and how they forged a bond that was beyond what anyone understands. She told them about him being a prince in disguise and his peculiar relationship with dragons. The dragons when she told them how she had spent almost three years in Slytherin's chamber along with his pet basilisk raising two baby dragons and baby basilisks both Sirius and Severus turned white. They gaped at her staring wide-eyed trying to form words. Surprisingly it was Severus who lost his temper first, being the ever calm Slytherin it was surprising to see him explode in such a Gryffindor manner. She hugged her in his arms and did not let her go all the while reprimanding her about the dangers of monsters.
Rayne then told them about her vision and Jon's wish to marry her when he was King. This prompted another explosion of emotions as the two Godfathers thought her to be too young to consider boys. When she told them about her wish to be his Queen, they settled down trying to form some sort of objection. She told them all about the King Robert and Tywin Lannister and their brutality against Jon's half brother and sister and step mother. She told them how his uncle had hid him as his own bastard, how he was ostracized by his wife and how he now had become a Lord of his own castle with Rayne's help how he had transformed from a bastard with so little prospects into a Lord in whose city people wanted to live in.
They remained silent all through her explanation after she was finished she stared at them. Sirius asked her then,
'I know you have reason for telling us this. I think you have encountered a problem that you cannot hope to solve on your own. So tell me Rayne what is it?'
Then Rayne told them about Draco's question. She told them about her concerns as she knew that Westeros would not accept a foreign Queen, as she had no ties to any of the Nobel houses she would be accepted and would be deemed a commoner. She had no lands in that world, no family to support her only Jon.
Seeing Rayne distraught Severus and Sirius realized just how serious she was for that boy and her life in that world. They asked the children to leave them alone while they contemplate what to do next.
It was after dinner when Sirius sent for the children to meet him in the library. Vernon and Petunia were on vacation leaving them in Severus and Sirius's care. They reached the library and sat on the couch while Sirius and Severus stood in front of them and then they told them what they had decided.
The two of them had made plans based on what Rayne had told them about Westeros. They had decided that Sirius would go into that world and live there assuming the name Gryffindor, he would establish himself as a wealthy merchant and with the help of elves and his magic he would quickly name a name for himself and when the time comes he would support Jon's claim for the throne. Sirius would try to overtake the Essosi kingdoms and unite them under his name he had decided to start with Astapor. It trained Unsullied who were eunuch soldiers that were essentially slaves first of their masters that trained them then of their owner for whom they bled. Being the citizens of modern world Sirius abhorred slavery so he had decided to start from Astapor and make his way west from there conquering the continent city by city. He had decided to present Rayne as his daughter to that world.
Hearing this Rayne had tears in her eyes. She hugged Sirius and felt hopeful for her future in Westeros.
Tom Riddle was not happy. Thirteen years spent as a wandering wraith did nothing to quell his anger. He lacked a corporeal form but still he had managed to influence minions to do his bidding. One such minion was Bertha Jorkins; she was a ministry worker in the Department of Magical Games and Sports, she was under Imperius by Peter Pettigrew. Pettigrew is one of his deatheaters, he had evaded authorities by being in his Animagus form for over eleven years, and he found him while he was in Albania hiding after his failure to steal the Philosopher's stone. After over a decade he would be able to get a body. His plan was foolproof. His minions were in place, all that was left to do was to wait.
He would have his revenge. After thirteen years he will finally kill the bane of his existence. He will end Rayne Potter. The wraith flashed a pair of red eyes before possessing the man Pettigrew had bought to him stunned.
He opens his eyes and looks at himself and frowns. As they say beggars can't be choosers. For now Alastor Moody's body would be his. This time he will not fail.
