A little side-note before I start with the new chapter: up till now Harry hasn't changed a single thing about the time-line! Everything he has done was already done in the past before he went back.

Isn't it nice of me to update so fast?

Back to the future: 25

Marcello greeted Harry's change in evening-drink with a praising nod but didn't acknowledge it otherwise. As there were no classes the next day for which Harry had to be attentive he decided that it would be best to start Harry's education the same evening – or rather night.

"Soon you will start your own family and as your elder it is therefor my duty to pass all the knowledge I have about your bloodlines on to you. Your fathers line, the house of Andrews, while old and quite wealthy and at times even quite powerful, has no hidden secrets, no none-human blood and also no none-magical blood. It is about your mothers blood-lines I have to talk to you."

Marcello gave absolutely no indication that he had seen Harry's questioning frown as he sipped on his whiskey before continuing.

"We Borgia are proud and noble, sly and cunning, we thirst for knowledge, we crave it and we are loyal to a fault, if we ever went to Hogwarts the Sorting-hat would be hard pressed to come to a decision on where to place us. Our family is old, one of the oldest in the Magical World as well as the none-magical. We have been there when both worlds were built and we will be there when they end.

The name Borgia stands for money, for influence, for murder, betrayal and deceit, in our history brothers have killed their sisters and sisters their brothers. Parents have murdered their children and children their parents. The name Borgia is feared by all those who do not understand. In the none-magical world our family has been called the first crime-family ever recorded and they right but they are also completely wrong.

A Borgia does not hesitate to spill blood, that of family or of strangers - but only twice in the history of our family has a Borgia spilled the blood of an innocent.

The blood of the Borgia is the purest blood found among humans. Not in the sense the Malfoy or Black take the word but in the sense of Magic. Even in the none-magical line of our family flows magic that is purer than that in those lines that call themselves pure-blooded. We are not fully human. Every other generation a Borgia finds himself unable to withstand the pull that lays in our blood and has been passed down from the beginning of our line, not humans founded our house but one of the Eldar. It is their blood that gives us our strength, our purity – but also our weakness."

Hearing this Harry was no longer able to hold onto himself and blurted out:

"You mean like the Elves in Tolkien's books? Immortal and with pointed ears?"

A low chuckle escaped Marcello at the incredulous voice of the young man, still smiling he answered Harry's question:

"Yes, like those Elves though they prefer to be called Eldar as they call themselves. Tolkien was a historian who discovered some of the old texts. Yet when he published them none in the none-magical world took them for something else than fiction. Of course hardly anyone magical read them...

As I was saying before you interrupted me, our family has been tied to the Eldar since its very beginning and while it was not founded by one of the Ancients it is still quite old. Our house survived empires and wars, every imaginable gift has been found in our house as you can see at your self and my oldest son.

In you the blood flows stronger than in most of our house as you have inherited through both my sister and her husband. My mother was one of the Eldar and very young for her race, younger in fact than the husband of my sister, your grandmother...

Many generations before, one of our ancestors killed an Eldar, believing him responsible for the death of his youngest child, a death that had been, as was later found out, an accident in which the Eldar had tried to help and save the life of the child. Yet that was discovered only after the Eldar had been killed. His brother came to revenge his death, challenging our ancestor to a duel which was lost to our house as was our ancestor. As a warning this tragedy was passed on through history as was the name of the surviving brother.

When Imogene was eighteen she fell in love – with the very same Eldar who had killed our ancestor. Our father forbid her a marriage with Narwa, even going so far as to ordering her to never see him again. Not long after that Imogene ran away. Only twice after she left our home have I seen her, once at her wedding and once when she called me that our father had found them and mortally wounded Narwa. It was on that occasion that she bound her powers and the powers of her unborn child, in fact I helped her bind them. Dying Narwa spoke an ancient blessing of his people, securing his powers in his blood till the day a child would be born to his family that resembled him, either in appearance or in mannerism but always in the purity of their soul. While you do not have the fiery red hair of Narwa you have his mannerism and you have his pure soul. This blessing can be passed on to your children when you die protecting them. It will not redirect curses but everyone who intends harm will be unable to touch your child on the penalty of their own death.

Many a powerful wizard and witch has tried themselves on so called Blood-Wards and Blood-Protection but nothing a human wizard or witch can cast comes even close to the power a blessing of the Eldar such as Narwa's invokes. At its weakest no one who wants harm to the ...focus... of such a blessing can enter a warded area, at its strongest even the thought of doing harm to the focus will cause the attacker great pain. The blessing grows stronger with every positive feeling someone who is related by blood to the person who gave the blessing, directs at the focus. If the focus is loved by those who share the blood of the giver, every positive feeling directed towards him or her will fuel the blessing. The only way for the blessing too loose its effect would be if the focus was harmed by his or her blood in such a severe way that he or she would be no longer able to bear the thought of being related to them by blood.

Where that ever to be the case than the blessing would turn into a curse to those who should have provided the love and protection, killing them slowly with every harmful though or action they direct at the focus.

The blessing Narwa bestowed on his children is the greatest gift one of his race could possibly give. If he hadn't already been dying this blessing would have taken his life, no matter how healthy he would have been, his immortality as well as his life would have been spend. He gave his life, his soul, his very essence in this blessing that will be carried on as long as his blood-line exists and the criteria of the blessing are met."

Shocked Harry stared at Marcello, if what his great-grandfather had just told him was true – and he had no doubt that it was – he wouldn't have had any problems with Voldemort or the Ministry, or Malfoy and Snape for that matter, if his aunt had loved him! His mind told him that it shouldn't surprise him that his aunt had felt absolutely no love for him, that it shouldn't hurt as much as it did but the pain he was feeling at that thought was almost physical. Was the only reason his aunt, uncle and cousin hadn't gone any further in their abuse because they knew what repercussions it would have for them when he was no longer able to call them their family? Did they really hate him so much that it didn't matter to them if he lived or died, was the only reason why they had not found a way to dispose of him because they feared for their own life's? He was not sure if he even wanted to know the answer to that question, if he wanted the prove to what he already knew. Yet he knew that someday he would ask his aunt why she had such a hatred towards him and his mother.

With worry Marcello observed as Harry grew continuously paler, the more he spoke of the blessing of the Eldar. He was able to see the exact moment when Harry started to feel physical pain and started immediately to call him by his name. Only after a few minutes did Harry react, his eyes darkened with pain and confusion.

"Take deep breaths, Harry. Let go of all of your emotions, may they be positive or negative, clear your mind of all thoughts and just concentrate on my voice. Let everything go and just listen to me. I don't know what caused this reaction in you but I know what kind of reaction it is. No matter what you are thinking about, I am certain that it is not worth the pain you feel!

You experience one of the curses, of the weaknesses that come with our blood. When you look at our family history you will find that every single Borgia followed his or her spouse only days later to their death. It is not a conscious decision we make, it is in our blood. When our other half dies we are no longer able to live – or if we do we will have lost half of our-selves. We fade from grief, your life-force will simply flee our body. Strong emotional pain has the same effect on us as you seem to find out at this moment. Yet what you are now experiencing is just a fraction of the pain you will feel in the first moments of your spouses death.

When my mother found out what my father had done to Imogene, which pain he had caused her she started to fade and nothing could stop her death. She knew what pain my sister was feeling at the death of her beloved Narwa and that she was unable to fade because she was with child. It was this knowledge and the knowledge that it was her own husband, my father that had caused his daughter that pain that took her life. Only a month later my father had followed her to death.

I can see that the pain is leaving you, allow yourself to feel again, to think again but keep in mind that whatever caused you the pain is not worth dying for. Only your children or your spouse might be worth your life. Never allow guilt to consume you, it could and most likely will kill you.

An other weakness that flows in our veins is the anger. It takes much to anger an Eldar but once their anger is awakened nothing can stop the boiling hatred, the thirst for revenge even the blood of the one who caused the anger. It was our family that caused the term "seeing red", if we allow our anger to rule ourselves blood will flow.

On a lighter note our curiosity is also a family-trait as is our nearly unending ability to love. For those we love we will do everything, if it is dying or killing."

The chime of a clock interrupted Marcello and after a quick glance at his own pocket-watch he declared that it was too late to speak of anything else and that Harry might want to go to bed as he had to be present for breakfast even though it was weekend. As it was already so late Harry invited him to spend the night and the next day at the castle, knowing quite well that that would not be well received by the headmaster but he did not have the strength to care.

Laying in his bed Harry realised for the first time what had happened to him after Sirius had died. Till the headmaster had visited him he had continuously felt weaker with each passing day. Every breath he had taken had hurt, every heartbeat had been agony. Uncle Albus had told him later that he had feared to be to late, that Harry was dying, that he was simply giving up. Was that what fading was like? Would he have really died from the grief and guilt about Sirius death?

Albus Dumbledore was not amused, far from it, when two elegant men entered the Great Hall before breakfast even started. Had he thought that the visit of Marcello VIII was bad he had not counted on Harry bringing the patriarch of the Borgia to Hogwarts, even worse at a time the school was in session and all students were able to see him. Marcello VII looked much like his son, only his hair had a few grey streaks in it. Both of the men, Harry as well as Marcello were clad in identical dark grey robes that left no doubt about their wealth. Yet while Marcello wore his hair open Harry was for once sporting a teachers-braid, something that was in no way able to conceal his true status in the Wizarding world.

Most students noticed the stranger immediately as they entered, some paling briefly as they recognised just who the guest was that was talking quietly with their Defence Professor. It were four young Gryffindor students, first years, who broke the stifling silence that hung over the hall when they hurried into the hall, as usually as one of the last. At first they did not seem to notice that a guest was present till young Peter Pettigrew glanced up at the Head Table and saw a foreign face among his professors. With a few words and nudges he altered his three dorm-mates and friends to the stranger. A single word, spoken by a boy with unruly black hair shattered the silence and invoked a whisper that would carry for weeks to come through the school:

"Grandpapa!"

Harry had to suppress a smile at James outburst that was so seldom seen in a Borgia – but than he was also a Potter. Marcello only gave a nod and smile to his daughters son and continued eating as if nothing unusual had happened. He ignored all the awed, fearful, scorning and even jealous whispers of the students, knowing that that was something James had to handle for himself as he was the one who had invoked that feelings with his outburst. There was no doubt within him that by the evening everyone within the school and most of Wizarding Britain would remember that his daughter had married the head of the House of Potter and in a few more days they would also learn that Harry Andrews was his great nephew. Once again the name Borgia would be talked about in the Wizarding World, their history would be remembered and the fear of them renewed. Yet there would be no useless gossip, no one would dare to talk that way about them, no, the fear would hinder them. In a few weeks, months at the most the wizarding world would move on to new topics, even if it was only out of the fear of drawing the attention of the Borgia to them.

With amusement the professors and some of the older students watched as James was barely able to keep seated after he had seen that his grandfather was at the school. Many of them stayed even after they had eaten to see what would happen, how their guest would act around the young Gryffindor. As if sensing their curiosity the head of the house of Borgia remained in his seat long after he had finished his meal, slowly drinking a cup of coffee. Finally it was their youngest Professor who made an end to the waiting as he stood up and waited for his guest to follow his lead. Together they walked over to the Gryffindor table where James was waiting for them. While Marcello remained at the Gryffindor table Harry walked over to the Slytherins seeking his young fiancée out.

"Miss Black, would you be so kind to come to my office today at five thirty?"

Only when Bellatrix had accepted his invitation did Harry walk over to his two relatives and walked together with them and James three dorm-mates out of the Great Hall, the whispering flaring up as soon as they had passed the doors.