The boy and the girl were enveloped in silence for a long moment. Then Ariana spoke ssoftly, "We can't tell you anything substancial until your mind-shielding is excellent, Harry. Father's 'Lord' title isn't a meaningless pomp. He does have people to protect, aside from ourselves. But some people would… try to terminate us, if we weren't careful. That's also if some information falls into the wrong hands."
Harry gulped and took a deep, shaky breath. His heart was gripped mercilessly in an icy, barbful knot. Her quiet declaration was chilling and quite to-the-point, and he could not help shuddering. The unnecessary – and dreadful – loss of lives was not worth satisfying his mere curiosity.
Before he could apologise to her and rescind his questioning, however, Ariana spoke again in a tone even more solemn than before. "You might receive more information if we bound you from telling anything related to us to outsiders." Then she mumbled something in a language Harry had never known, before adding, "We shan't force you, Harry, and that's why I'm letting you choose now. You'd get the short end of the bargain if you accepted it, 'cause we can't risk any important information. Such binding can be broken by a skilled mind-mage, and we aren't foolish enough to arrogantly claim that we're alone the best of all."
He respected her caution and warnings; but really, it was not that necessary. They had been helping him without pay, or so much as a peep about it. In this way he would get to know at least a little about the family who had been sheltering and nurturing him in this best part of his life. Well, and he was mightily curious anyhow.
"How d'we do that?"
She turned her face to his, and Harry tried his best to hide his feeling of unnerve behind his mind-shield. (That vacant, unfocused stare always disquieted him for some reason, although he knew it was like that because she could not see anything normally.) But then he got the feeling that something was touching him without touching his body, and he was truly frightened now. The alien touch somehow felt like Ariana, and it was… like scanning his soul.
His suspicion was confirmed when Ariana arched up a grim smile. "Your being, Harry, not your name, and I'll do the same."
After a week of highly-educative lectures and reading sessions, Harry knew what she meant. Yet still, dry facts on texts or explanations given while they were otherwise lounging around were totally different from the cold hit of experience. Anchoring the binding on his entire being instead of his mind was a smart move for Ariana, but was it so for him? Was the information worth this most thorough enslavement of free will?
"You can say no, Harry. Do not be hesitant or grudging in the giving, or you'll harm the both of us."
Would he chicken out?
Would she harm him knowingly?
The answer was certain, deep in his heart.