New update and the mandatory heads up. My finals are starting so it's highly likely there won't be an update for the next month or so as I need to study.
Let me assure you that my muse is still going strong and I have the rough outline including fourth year done. I know where I want to go with this and how to get there.
Disclaimer: You know the drill!
The Convict
Plans always seem to have a way of not working out. Then again I've always tried to go through with them anyway. Just forge on ahead you know? At least when they concerned my time with the girls, and this naturally includes my sister Rose.
The ritual went off without a hitch, a simple blood sacrifice of a small number of magical as well as non magicals creatures too mundane to detail. With that, my break was actually going well. Relaxing and all. That changed when the WWN streamed it's nationwide alert that the convicted secret keeper of the Potters, Peter Pettigrew had escaped from Azkaban... alright, I'll freely admit I lost it... slightly.
Nothing to it really, when incompetence reaches a certain level and people start escaping from the inescapable... all you can do is throw your hands in the air and say fuck this. I raged and completely dismantled my room. I knew that the only place I could let off some steam was the training room so that's where I went.
About two dozen training dummies and more than a few of the darker curses later I was a 'bit' out of breath. "Hadrian?" I looked back and found Daphne standing in the door frame wearing a white sundress her dirt blonde hair leisurely hanging in ponytail from her back. Oh thank god for small miracles, I thought. I marched over and gathered her in my arms, like my very own personal life line. I was so angry, there was so much rage and hatred. I'd never known I still had until that day.
In that moment I could clearly see Nips standing in front of me with his arms crossed. All the confidence my Grandfathers magic had given him clearly on display, declaring: "You is not harming the young Masters." My memories from so far back aren't always perfectly clear but right then they were. It was as though it happened yesterday. The elf was connected to me that night. With everyone out of the house he latched on to the most powerful Potter present. Which as I said had been me. I see the pale visage of the Dark Lord smirk in his victory...
Just how had that night even happened? I'll tell you how, blind trust. And because 1 wizard with an inferiority complex couldn't quite cut it in life. So he betrayed the only friends he'd ever had and sold my family out to Riddle.
I needed this, I needed to feel something other than rage and Daphne provided a range of them. Trust, friendship, love, arousal. The ice in my chest was quickly pushed back by something warmer. Something better.
"I know." Was all she said as soon she had reversed my grip and was now the one holding me. And since I'd tired myself out she had little problem with manoeuvring me towards my room where we lied down in my bed together and I slept it off.
The idea of Pettigrew being out and about... able to hurt my family and friends was one that had me seethe with rage and admittedly no small amount of fear for their safety. But with her... holding me as she did, it was different. There was hope that everything was going to be just fine. I saw less of Nips... less of the snake faced dark wanker pointing his wand at me.
"Feeling better?" The blonde with the sapphire eyes asked me when I finally woke up.
"Thank you for being here." I just told her. She smiled at me, kissed my jawline as her hand drew lines across my stomach and chest.
"I knew you'd probably blow a fuse something vicious. But I'm going to be honest with you, what I saw in your eyes there... was still scary." She told me snuggling up closer to me. I held her tighter. If at any point in the close or far future I was to have any say in the matter, then this was not going to end well for Pettigrew. I'd make him pay a hundred fold for everything he'd done.
"Can you stay here tonight?" Daphne has always been radiant. At least to me. Her smile was reserved for family and I had been lucky enough to be counted among them.
"Only if I get to sleep in your bed, and your mum keeps her comments to herself." I chuckled.
"The first won't be a problem, I can't promise the second. You know how she is." I let out a sigh. "So how long was I out?"
"2 hours." She quickly answered. Not as bad as I'd feared.
"That means dinner is about to be served and Dobby hates me being late." She grinned and got up.
"Dresscode?" I looked her over in what I assume was a lecherous look.
"Naked if you want to." I suggested.
"I'm fairly certain your mother wouldn't like that very much." I shrugged. It's not like she wouldn't have appreciated it, but she would have most certainly felt weird doing it. Daphne was my age after all and a family friend.
"Beautiful, is beautiful, my dear Daphne." Our lips met again and soon we'd fallen back onto the bed with me undoing her bra and her skirt. She was just about to tug on my boxers when a knock on the door interrupted us.
"Extremely sorry to be cock blocking you son, but you might want to come to the living room." My mother declared in a much too happy voice. She was absolutely enjoying this. Meanwhile Daphne just looked up to me and mouthed the words: 'Cock blocking' In disbelief about my mother using language like that.
"You're at my home now and you're considered family. She doesn't need to play the 'Lady Black' the way she does in public." I told her happily kissing both of her nipples before I got up. The blonde groaned in disappointment.
"Do you have any idea how frustrated this makes me?"
"If it makes you feel any better I'm no different." She blushed seeing the bulge but sighed as I had.
She quickly went looking through my things. "You need more Quidditch Jerseys." Daphne commented lightly.
"Here." I pulled a jersey from Puddlemere United and threw it to her. "It's my favourite so please be careful with it." Yeah, yeah... I have a fetish for sexy witches in Quidditch Jerseys... go away.
I quickly put on some jogging pants myself and went down towards the living room where my mother was waiting and grinning from ear to ear seeing the blonde next to me in nothing than the shirt I'd just provided her. And me with nothing but the pants I'd hurriedly put on. I immediately noted a head that didn't belong in my home.
"Lily?" I asked looking to the active fire place.
"Harry!" Daphne's body tensed immediately at what she clearly perceived as an insult but I simply squeezed her hand to calm her. My closest friends and my sister where usually the only people who were allowed to call me that. Many of them didn't out of respect for me and the mother who'd raised me. Right then, there was no point in getting angry over this. Lily was at least trying most of the time but she seemed a bit disturbed at the moment. So I'd let it slide. "I can't find Rosy anywhere, is she with you?"
"No, when'd she disappear?"
"I...I'm not sure."
"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN YOU AREN'T SURE?!" The fire flared up and the windows rattled from the sudden release of magic. It was lucky for her that in that exact moment a small crackle of lightning pulled my attention away from the fire and instead to Mia my trusted lightning bird familiar who was now perching on Daphnes shoulder.
"Hey girl, what do you got there?" Daphne asked picking up the letter from the perfectly still bird as she gently stroked Mia's beak. Her eyes quickly read over the piece of paper before she handed it to me. "Rosy is with her friend Haley. Sirius was supposed to pick them up and get them to Potter Manor. Apparently your husband approved this." With Peter out and about... if she was hurt...
"I'll go pick her up, you wait at the manor." I told Lily turning around for my room to get dressed. Daphne and I threw on some robes as quickly as we could.
"Be careful!" My mother called after me as I held out my hand to Dobby.
"Dobby be knowing where to go Master." He'd looked up the address while we were getting dressed.
We arrived in a mostly empty street. Under the street light I could clearly make out two girls sitting on some lugguage. For a moment I angrily turned to Dobby... before smoothing out the scowl into more of a neutral expression. This wasn't his fault. "We'll be taking the Night bus over to Potter manor. It shouldn't be more than half an hour until we're there. Until that time, I unshackle the chains that bind you and unleash your magic. Now go... and find me Sirius Black." As Dobby filled out quickly and gained a more muscled body, his skin turned a tinge of green. I'd never seen anything like it, nor had I known that this would happen. Although it seemed like it had happened before. I was experiencing a deja vu of sorts.
"By the time you arrive back home Master... the traitor shall be waiting." And with those last words, the house elf flickered for a moment, before disappearing into the night.
"What are you going to do to him?" Daphne asked curiously now walking towards the girls with me while holding my hand. She was more worried for my sanity than for Sirius's health.
"It's time someone took the time to re-teach him the family motto. The concept of family always comes first seems to still escape his grasp."
"As long as you don't kill him." I chuckled darkly. Only if Rose had really gotten hurt over this. In which case I wouldn't kill him... the Black family is a bit more inventive with their ways of punishing stray family members. So he'd live... for quite a while. I answered her once both girls smiled at us.
"No... only a strong talk. Nothing happened." She smiled, see? I was growing.
"Harry!" Rosy yelled instantly jumping up and into my arms.
"Heya there Rose. How've you been Haley?" The girl was blushing and just like last time kept staring at Daphne. Who rolled her eyes but still hugged the much younger girl.
"Very good, t-thank you." She stuttered cutely while hugging Daphne back. Rose was soon in Daphne's arms too and grinning brightly.
"Thanks for coming!" Rubbing her head I then held out my wand arm together with the wand. Tilting it slightly I intoned:
"Tempus." In case anyone was wondering... I was still emancipated thanks to my little stunt of acquiring the lord ship of the house of Black. "You're my little sister, there's no way I wouldn't come whenever you ask me for help. Now the Night bus will be here in 7 minutes how about you tell me why you two are here alone?"
It was Haley who answered: "My family is visiting my uncle overseas, so I asked if I could stay with the Potters for a little while. Rosy's dad said yes but he couldn't pick us up."
"Uncle Siri volunteered." Rose added darkly with Haley nodding.
"He was supposed to come here 30 minutes ago, when he didn't Rose called for your bird." I sighed hugged Rosy again and told her I was proud of her for calling me. It wasn't long before the Night bus came around the street corner and came to a hold in front of us. Without saying much I gave the man... Stan Shunpike as he'd shortly tell me, the necessary payment and told him where to take us.
Both Haley and Rose seemed to think the ride was great fun as they slid around on their seats enjoying it as though they were riding a light roller coaster, making Daphne laugh once in a while as she held on to me. Now the night bus isn't as bad as some of the coasters I've ridden. But it's certainly not a bad comparison.
"Worse than a broom." She whispered calmly. I had wrapped one arm around her while the other was holding on to an iron bar next to me. I was just grinning when the sound of something akin to a canon shot made me flinch.
Things were suddenly slowing down... time for some overtime of the brain...
The bus was the wrong side up and my feet were no longer attached to the ground. Daphne was falling she seemed to have hit her head somewhere. My mind was now running on runes and thus I calculating, charms... runes, transfigurations.
First I would need to secure the passengers back to their seats. So I threaded a rune cluster for a simple sticking charm, together with a prank charm for spraying someone with goo. That would be enough to capture everyone. The last rune would need to pull them back onto a seat.
I saw the rat faced man as we all but sailed past him slowly. The bad teeth exposed in a feral smirk. His expression one of extreme pride...
I'd wipe that expression off... or rather in that moment... I was sure someone else would have to do it. Because I couldn't take the risk.
What else was I supposed to do? If something were to happen, and he were to attempt to move inside... I needed to protect my sister and Daphne. And so following the first cluster, more runes travelled from my arms to the two iron bars my hands had found to hold as I was floating there with my mind working overtime on a solution to this... problem.
Rosy's forehead glowed as a lightning bolt burned itself exactly where my runes first appeared... exactly were Daniels scar was. But I wasn't done, if we crash landed like this muggles could get hurt. And I wasn't having that either.
Kinetic runes... threaded through energy conversion, they would now surround the bus, one rune after the other would blast a low pulse of energy, like thrusters on a rocket. And so the bus turned steadily and made it to a perfect landing. Ern... the driver of the Nightbus, couldn't keep control and so we veered out of one side of the road into the other.
My knuckles turned white, that's how tightly I was holding the iron bars. I was kneeling on the floor as once more runes travelled down my arms unto the metal and from there to cover the bus. A simpler cluster, one that would be all that was needed for the inevitable crash that was about to follow. We'd feel it even through the cushioning charm, be rattled, a couple of people might get some scrapes and scratches. But it was all I was able to do in that moment.
The bus came to hold with a heavy thump as people were thrown to the floor violently. I stared towards the door, waiting for him to come inside. In that moment, perhaps more than any other in my life. I'd made peace. I was ready to take the choice that Nips the elf took so long ago from Lily Potter. "Hadrian!" A voice yelled frantically. I knew it well.
"Avada.."
"Suffoca!" I saw blonde hair slip through one of the open and shattered windows. "I'm may not be a Li. And I may not be even a good duelist. But you... you I can take any day of the week rat face. You wanna know why?" The blast of magic got me out of my confusion. "Caligo Scindo!" Daphne yelled.
Peter had been ringing for breath since his attempt at the killing curse a moment ago, when the blackness came for him he realised that this wasn't a fight he could win. He'd squandered this opportunity and hadn't been prepared for anyone fighting back. Wizards... usually didn't do that. The unforgivables don't just win you any duel. If you're fast, if you're smart and if you know even a sliver of Battle Conjuration. Then you'll be fine. Daphne fulfilled all those criteria.
As always however... the Sheeple inside the bus were captivated. I didn't blame them then, when coming face to face with a goddess these things happen. There were scratches, and even some blood from the original impact of what I now know to be a siege spell. The street behind us was nothing more than a crater.
Although... if just one of them had felt like casting something like the Impedimenta, or the Incarcerous hex, our friend Ratface would have been back in Azkaban before dinner. 'Get up.' I hissed at myself. I couldn't just leave her fighting alone. So with some difficulty I started to move.
Wormtail screamed in pain as the black obsidian dug it's way through his right arm. The moment I came out of the bus, following Daphne through the window she'd taken earlier, to separate Peter's head from the rest of his body, he cast a ribbon cutter curse at his own shoulder before leaping for the sewers turning back into his Animagus rat form.
I didn't cast a siege or explosive curse myself for one simple reason... the bus was right behind me. And whatever I did or cast would immediately impact anyone in there including my sister and her best friend. For a moment my wand lit up, for a moment my hatred got the better of me. That was also the moment I fell to my knees. I'd never constructed so many rune clusters at once. And I'd most certainly never interwoven them as I'd done here. I was magically exhausted and there was nothing I could do about any of this now.
"Alright people." Daphne's yelled loudly to everyone present demanding their attention. "You owe this man a life debt and I bind you to it, by my own magic you are not to speak of who saved you or even how he did it." No one would have dared question her, not after she'd just impaled a guy's arm and made him cut it off. So they gave nods and confirmations.
We were nearly at Potter Manor... so we walked. Daphne cast a featherlight charm on Haley's luggage so the kids could carry it while I was walking tiredly beside her with one arm around her shoulder. "Listen, you should call Mia and go back to the Manor. I can get these girls to the Potters faster without you. I promise you on everything we've ever shared. Nothing will happen to them." I looked at her with glassy eyes but finally stepped back. Rosy tackled me, and squeezed me tightly. I held back the pained hiss and just smiled.
"Listen to Daphne, both of you." They smiled at me.
"We will."
"Promise." Haley said brightly. I took a breath and simply let it out breathing the name of my thunderbird companion.
"Mia." The lightning took me and before I knew it I fell unto the carpet in front of the Black Manors fire place.
Black Manor
"DORI!" I heard my Grandfather thunder from his portrait. Footsteps and soon my mother was upon me. "Check his arms." They were burned of course, every last rune I'd used was a burn mark on my skin. The burning was part of my magic. The prize I pay for my runes. It would all heal naturally, but I wouldn't have minded some healing and perhaps a pain relief potion.
"What the hell did you do?" Her voice was laced with worry but soon became distant, I wanted to answer and put her at ease. But the more adrenalin left my body, the clearer it became that remaining conscious was not an option.
Meanwhile, Night Bus Crashsite
James Potter lit himself a cigarette, he hadn't seen anything like this since the last war. The street was blown open, half a dozen Muggles injured though surprisingly none were dead. The street around them, was smoking as though a fire had raged here not too long ago, it was like all the rubble had somehow been drawn back to the ground instead of being thrown outwards by the blast, a couple of runes were still pulsing on the ground, dimming to a final close. It was like magic had come alive around here. He swiped his hand along the runes and quickly jerked it back at a sudden discharge of power and heat. This wasn't possible. He stood in the middle of a street where something... that was impossible had happened.
"Potter!" Kingsley Shacklebolt yelled gaining his attention. All witches and wizards seemed fine, none were injured with more than a couple of small injuries and the shock of the impact. The closer he came to the bus, the clearer it was that the street and it's runes were just the beginning. The entire thing was throwing smoke like the engine had just blown. It was covered in rune remains from top to bottom. "In here." The dark skinned man said poking out his head. James ducked inside, the first thing to catch his attention was the lightning bolt carved straight into the metal under one of the seats. The second... was the crushed and bend iron bars. "What is this?" Shack asked. James new that Peter couldn't do this. Blow up the streets? Sure. But not even on his best day would he be capable of wielding runes to pull this off.
"You ever hear about the Massacre of Walpurgis?" James asked looking at the remains around.
"Yeah, everyone has. Your father right?" He gave his superior a nod.
"Only Runemage ever powerful enough to weave rune clusters with pure magic. I saw the memory of that day... and this...? This is without a doubt the work of someone employing the same type of magic he did back then."
"Whoever it was... he bound the witnesses by their life debt. So no one will talk. All we know is that it was Pettigrew who threw the first spell." Shack told him sighing heavily. James stepped up to the end of the bus slowly, swiping his hand over the last glowing imprint on the wall. It was small, but clearly there. He would know this coat of arms anywhere. There was a crowned dragon, with spread wings holding a staff in front of itself, ready to attack.
"Lux in Tenebris." Shack raised an eyebrow at James and waited. "This is the motto and Coat of Arms of the Royal special operations Unit previously known as the Queens Marauders." Regardless of who or how... somehow, James was sure. His father had been here today but how could that possibly be true?
