A/N: Haeden finally confronts Ginny here and I hope I've managed to convey both their reactions properly. It's a little short but i hope the little secene at the end more than makes up for the lack of chapter length.
And readers, please review, i was utterly shocked at the number of readers who reviewed for the last chapter. Was there something bad with it or hhas my writing turn for the worst after a long hiatus? I need feedback guys, who am I to know if you guys still want to read about this little universe I've created with JKR's work?
Disclaimer: Obviously I'm not blonde nor a Brit!
The Adopted One
The morning dawned bright over the mountains that surrounded their ancestral home, a land that sits on a plane of its own. Once upon a time it had been the home of the most influential Warlock family in all of the Clandestine Plane. But after the downfall of one of its scion, the entire family and their land had been banished away, never to be a part of any planes until the family redeemed itself to eyes of the Council. And right now the last chance they had of redeeming themselves and to finally be welcomed back into their plane laid on the shoulders of her only son.
Being isolated in a world between two worlds takes a lot out of a person and if it were not for the fact that the Queen would take time to pass through the Gates just to keep her company, she would have gone mad years ago for living in the stone manor all alone for the majority of the year. For this particular day, she had been up before the crack of dawn to tend to her blooming plants. In the years of her son's absence, it kept her calm and sane to be able to cater to her plants and watch them blossom when she could not do so for her son. It made her feel less of a horrible mother for leaving her son but now that her son had returned to them, gardening had become more of a way to keep herself occupied than a penance for her actions. Now she could truly enjoy and see the beauty of the flowers and plants she had planted out of longing for her son.
"You're Magnolias are growing well, my childe."
Lily wiped her hands clean on her overalls and turned to face the newcomer. "Cassiopeia, I'm so glad that you could make it today. Sev and I were rather worried when you failed to drop by last week."
"I'm very sorry about that dear, our people have recently suffered a huge blow and I had to reassure them that we are doing all we can to find William." said the Queen, reaching out to help her daughter-in-law get back on her feet.
"Yes, I did hear about the Head of the Perseus clan going missing. Tell me, have you made any headway as to where he could be?" asked Lily, retrieving her cane from the nearby rock she'd placed it on.
"None what so ever." replied the Queen, dejected. "And I fear a riot would soon ensue if we can't even keep the clan heads safe from Dumbledore's reach."
For a woman walking with the aid of a cane, Lily walked, albeit slower, with the same regal grace that the Queen was exhibiting. The two walked around the perimeter of her garden, enjoying the delights of the morning air and regaling each other of tales that had nothing to do with the war that has turned all their lives on its head before heading back inside the manor for a cup of tea.
"Tell me dear, how's it going with my grandson?" asked the Queen, fixing tea for the both of them.
"It's been slow." confessed Lily, taking the proffered tea from the Vampyre Queen. "But Sev contacted me last night telling me that Haeden's finally allowed us a second chance. Cassiopeia I wouldn't have known what to do if my son continued to hate my guts."
"Oh childe," cried the Queen, reaching out to comfort her daughter-in-law. "Your son is blessed with both yours and my Severus' strong mind, of course it will take time but I know in my heart that he longs for the two of you too, if not more than how much you long for him. If as you say that he has agreed to open himself to the two of you, then it won't be long now before we are all family once more. You just have to stay strong Lily."
"I know. I know." said Lily, getting up on her feet and ambling towards the window. "Just that some days I find it difficult to stay strong."
"I know what you mean, dear." replied the Queen, placing her cup back on the tray and following her daughter-in-law by the bay window. "But you are one of the strongest women I know. You have survived time and time again and I am certain you will survive this hurdle as well. You were not made a Sedaire for nothing childe, and though you have lost a lot in the process, you more than made up for it for going on with your life despite it all. Keep strong Lily, the end is near, I have Seen it."
Lily turned to look at the youthful visage of the age-old queen and said, "I hope so too," before facing the large stretch of white and blue above them. It was a very beautiful morning.
For the remainder of the day the two women talked of nothing more pertaining to the war. It was an unspoken rule between them that discussion of the war was limited only at the beginning of the visit – for a day between mothers and daughters should not be tainted with the tragedies of war. According to them, that as first hand victims of the old man's cruelty that they deserved a day when they could momentarily forget the travesties of those around them. It was a means to stay sane in a world in a world filled with madness.
sSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSs
The reflection that stared before him every morning was calming at times but more often than not, he hated looking at the face of the man that had a hand in ruining his farce of a life. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, last night had been a big wake up call for him and for the first time he wanted to lay eyes on the face of Haeden Ares Snape, the face of that little boy who wanted nothing more to grab his father's long fingers. He traced the edge of his jaw with his finger and it felt so wrong not to be able to discern the strong jaw line he remembered seeing in the summer and the sharp aristocratic features that made Harry Potter's face look like a weak and meek little boy.
Staring at the mask he had to don for the unforeseeable future, Haeden took the face towel that hung beside the mirror and wiped his face clean. He was the first to rise that morning and immediately took advantage of the still empty lavatories before later risers like Weasley rushed in to be at least presentable for their first period of the day. By the time he'd completed his morning ablutions and dressed for the day, his roommates were only beginning to stir and he quickly grabbed his book bag from his trunk and headed out before they could notice him.
Considering it was still rather early in the morning he hoped to get some alone time in the Great Hall since there were very few early risers in the castle and indeed when he got there, there were only a handful of students present either having their meals or studying, most of which were Ravenclaws. However Haeden found that he was not the first Gryffindor to rise early that day and proceeded to sit across the only other Gryffindor in the Great Hall.
"Ginny," greeted Haeden flatly, staring the witch in the eye, his voice dripping with accusation.
"Harry," replied Ginny, levelling Haeden's intense gaze, though her voice was calm and understanding.
"Since when?" Haeden demanded under his breath.
"First year," replied Ginny, casually going about her breakfast as if she was not being interrogated by a pissed off Vampyre.
Haeden spluttered on his pumpkin juice and cried out, "What?"
Ginny glared at Haeden and looked around, glad that the Vampyre's exclamation had not attracted the attention of those in the Great Hall. "You heard me!" she hissed lowly under her breath. "And this is not a conversation that should be held in the Great Hall."
Haeden around the Great Hall and though no one was paying them any attention, students were slowly piling into the Hall and they would soon be surrounded by pesky eavesdroppers. "Meet me by the lake after the morning classes and then you will tell me everything." whispered Haeden so that only she could hear.
Ginny gave a diminutive nod and Haeden relaxed his stance but then his ears picked up the sounds of his year mates approaching the Great Hall. Haeden turned to looked towards Ginny and she mouthed, "Go!"
Haeden was not ready to face Granger and Weasley after last night's events and did not need to be told twice to leave. He grabbed two strips of bacon from the pile on the table and dashed out of the Great Hall just as the fifth year Gryffindors came around the corner. After escaping the company of his fellow Gryffindors, Haeden spent whatever was left of breakfast waiting outside the Defence classroom and was inevitably the first to enter five minutes before the bell was suppose to ring.
Monroe was yet to be in the classroom when the doors opened and Haeden made a beeline for his seat at the back of the room and waited patiently for the class to begin. He'd barely been waiting for a few minutes when a deep voice caught him completely by surprise, causing him to jump slightly out of his seat.
"Mr Potter, just the person I was looking for!"
Haeden spun around from his seat and found their Defence professor walking towards him. "Professor!" he intoned in surprise, internally wondering why he wasn't able to hear the man coming beforehand.
"Mr. Potter I have just come into a package of rare Defence text that I would love to share with you," said Monroe excitedly.
"With me sir?" asked Haeden, curious. "Why?"
"Well," began Monroe, crossing his arms before his chest and leaning against the desk. "According to all of your previous DADA professors' charts, you are the best Defence student here and I thought you would appreciate my offer very much. Most of the books I've managed to pry off private collections are first edition copies and were written during the Founders' time."
Haeden stared widely at his professor, unable to believe that he was being given a chance to browse ancient Defence text and best of all, it was offered to him, and not the resident know-it-all. "I'm honoured sir!" he said, genuinely so.
"So are you up for it?" said Monroe, raising his brows gamely. "I might even teach a spell or two. But of course this is only between the two of us."
"I understand sir," said Haeden.
"Good!" cried Monroe, clapping his hands. "I'll send you an owl to tell you when you can come to my office."
With the prospect of learning ancient spells, Haeden felt his early dreary mood vanish to be replaced by eager anticipation. That is however until, out of the blue, Monroe blurted out. "You know, I could never really see it in the papers, but now that I've gotten to have a good look at you, you look exactly like James Potter, except for your eyes."
Haeden looked down as he felt the man's eyes on him and frowned at the statement. Wasn't it just this morning that he looked at the mirror and hated what he saw? However for the sake of charade he looked up curiously and asked through gritted teeth, "Did you know my father, sir?"
Monroe stood up straight and puffed out at the question. "Why of course! James and I were rather close during Auror training. I tell you your father was the best duellist I've ever had the chance of duelling against. That man has reflexes that you would never believe!"
"Really?" said Haeden in interest.
"Why yes, Harry! Great man James was. It was a sad day for our word when he died." uttered Monroe quiet passionately.
"It's such a shame I never got to know him." said Haeden in a voice he hoped conveyed both longing and sadness.
In a surprise move from the man, Monroe cut down the space between them and gave his shoulder a firm squeeze. "I'm sure wherever your father is, he is proud of you and all of your accomplishments."
"I sure hope so," replied Haeden quietly.
Fortunately the awkward moment was interrupted by the arrival of his missing classmates and Monroe quickly removed his hands off of his shoulders and took his place behind the professor's desk. But before he could ponder further on is professor's gesture, he sensed the approach of his once-friends and prepared himself for the coming confrontation.
"You weren't at breakfast." Hermione stated in a disapproving manner.
Haeden watched Granger's face anxiously for any signs of last night's estrangement but it seemed that whatever Selene had asked Ginny to do had done the job. He then turned to his other side and saw not a scratch on Weasley's otherwise freckled face. However he had to ask to make sure.
"Do you remember what happened last night?" he asked tentatively.
"Last night?" repeated Ron in confusion. "Why what happened last night? I knew I should have gone back to the common room than accompany 'Mione in the library the whole night."
"If I recall properly, you were pretty content at keeping me company in the library last night!" retorted the bushy-haired witch snappishly causing Weasley's face to turn as red as his hair.
Haeden mentally cringed at the image of the two beside him making out in the library and that drove the wedge between the three of them further as Granger and Weasley failed to tell him of their relationship, for it was so damn obvious that there was something going on between the resident bookworm and the youngest Weasley boy.
"Well," Haeden started, coming up with a lie that would fit into his sudden question and hoping to disperse the tension he had unwittingly put himself in between of. "I woke up rather disoriented today and couldn't for the life of me remember what I did last the night before. And instead of trying to go back to sleep, I decided to just have an early breakfast."
"But why didn't you go see Madam Pomfrey?" demanded Granger, worry and panic colouring her brown eyes.
"Why would I go see Madam Pomfrey?" asked Haeden, brows furrowed at the girl's reaction. But before the witch could reply, Monroe had called the class' attention and all discussion ceased though not before Haeden caught the exchange of looks that went between Weasley and Granger. For the length of the period, Monroe stressed the importance of control in the execution of the more powerful spells and quizzed them all on their knowledge of the many curses and counter-curses. Whether it was by intention or not, Haeden pretty much didn't care, Monroe kept calling him out to answer his question, completely ignoring a put-out Granger.
By the end of the class, the good mood he'd acquired however was not enough for him to tolerate a ranting Granger who was utterly vexed that a professor had ignored her. Haeden also wasn't oblivious to the dirty looks she was throwing him and if he could only get away with it, he would have slapped her to kingdom come, the obnoxious bint! But for the sake of the promise he'd made to Snape last night, shocking as that was, he played ignorant to it all and plastered a ridiculously happy face as he and Weasley escorted her to her next class and then proceeded to have a game of chess in the common for their free period.
Haeden found it extremely frustrating that with all the new great abilities he'd regained after rediscovering who he truly was, he was still horrible in the simple game of chess. He had to go through three crashing losses and talked himself away from having to endure a fourth, saying to Weasley that he had to go research something in the library. Checking his watch to make sure he had amble time before the afternoon bell rang, Haeden made his way down the Grand Staircase and out to the lake. He chose the most secluded spot he could find, a huge rock that could hide three people comfortably, and waited for Ginny to arrive.
As soon as he heard the bell ring in the distance, he didn't have wait long for Ginny to appear and grace him with her presence. He didn't know whether it was due to the fact that he now knew she was somehow a Clandestine or he had just been blind to it before now, but he could clearly sense her Magyck now and he could tell that she was quite powerful.
"Hello Harry," uttered Ginny, sitting beside him on the ground, their backs against the smooth surface of the rock.
Haeden watched her, scrutinizing every inch of her and trying to find any more signs he'd missed that would have told him earlier of her Clandestine nature. The Ginny Weasley he remembered was small and timid, never daring to meet him straight in the eyes and blushed horribly at the sight of him. However as he was looking at her now, really looking at her, he realized that the Ginny imbedded in his head was that of a Ginny he'd met in his second year and six years had passed since then. Ginny had now blossomed into a young lady and somewhere between all of that, regained Clandestine abilities that have been stripped from her ancestors.
"Done yet, Mr Potter?" intoned Ginny, an amused smirk on her face.
Haeden blushed slightly at having been caught staring and cleared his throat before looking up at her with a serious look on his face. "Why didn't you tell me?"
Ginny caught the tone of his voice and said, "You know why Harry. It's extremely dangerous for us to be revealing ourselves."
"Even to be me, your friend?" Haeden couldn't help but shout at the girl.
"Most especially you!" exclaimed Ginny but regretted it immediately as soon as she saw the hurt in Haeden's face. "Harry what I meant was that for years you were controlled by the Headmaster and none of us, not even your parents could approach you without him finding out about us. I know you know the dangers Harry, please try to understand."
"Is that why I'm only sensing you now?" asked Haeden brusquely.
"Yes." said Ginny. "There was no use cloaking my aura from you anymore once you found out about me. I didn't like keeping things from you Harry, especially when I found out that you were different like me."
Haeden deeply wanted to remain angry with the youngest Weasley child but the sincerity he could feel in her voice was too much for him to be able to maintain his rage for long – sometimes Vampyric sense was just not what you needed when you want to block out all emotion. "Fine, I understand. But what I don't is how you managed to become a Clandestine when I know for a fact that your family is deep inside Dumbledore's pocket."
Ginny looked uneasy at the question and Haeden was afraid that she would not answer and he would be forced to pry it off of her. But then she stood from where they were both hidden from view and walked towards the lake. "When it happened I was both thrilled and petrified."
"You said earlier it happened during your first year. But all I recall is… well you know it better than I do." said Haeden, unsure on how to approach the topic.
Ginny nodded her head. "Yes. I was eleven when it happened. It was more of an accident than anything else. As you know Tom possessed me, asked me to open the chamber and then you came and rescued me from him. After that incident I kept mostly to myself, I was too young then and I'd felt violated. My mother kept behaving weirdly around me, treating me as if I was made of glass and it was slowly suffocating me. None of them understood me, they keep insisting that I was still me and that nothing had changed." She then turned from the lake to look at him, her face hardened by suppressed emotions. "But Harry, everything changed. I'd poured all of me to Tom and destroying that diary could not bring back my innocence. I was already a different girl even before you came to find me in the Chamber."
"What do you mean Ginny?" asked Haeden, fearing the things he would hear.
"There's a reason why possession is considered dangerous. It requires strength of both the body and the mind and unfortunately Tom had neither of those things at that time. When he possessed me, a part of Tom stayed within me and the longer I was taken under his will, more of him remained inside of me until such time came when you destroyed the link between the two of us, more than half of me was Tom." said Ginny.
Haeden could not believe what he was hearing, but before he would speak a word in edgewise, Ginny had ploughed on, seemingly wanting to get on with her story as quickly as possible. "It wasn't hard to figure out that half of me was Tom since I was viewing memories that were not mine, events that had happened prior to my own birth. At first the memories would flash at odd moments, leaving me disoriented. But halfway through the year I'd learned to control them and I was soon viewing Tom's life and everything I thought I knew about him changed."
"Like what? That he felt guilty for all the killings he's done?" spat Haeden, unable to help himself. "He might have been young then but he was no less cruel than he is now."
Ginny smiled at his reaction and said. "I knew you would say that and I felt the same as you do now but then I researched that whatever is transferred during a possession cannot be altered. That's why it is so dangerous, you could leave a huge part of yourself in another person and there is nothing you can do about it and so I started to believe what I was seeing. And before long I began to understand the circumstances that led him to do everything that he's done."
"Are you trying to justify to me the evils he's done?" said Haeden incredulously.
"I didn't say that." said Ginny with a frown. "I said I began to understand, which then makes it easier for me, at least now I know why he did what he did."
"And why did he do all that he did?" cried Haeden in a patronizing voice. "Tell me Ginny, what reason could there have been for him to kill innocent lives?"
"You know, for all the fervour you have at hating him, you and him are not at all dissimilar." said Ginny.
"Don't you dare compare me to that madman!"
Ginny ignored his indignant cries, merely smiling in a way that told Haeden that she knew more than him and it unsettled him. "You very well know that the Headmaster is far from the holier-than-thou leader he wants the public to know him as, so why can't the same be applied to the Dark Lord?"
Haeden found himself speechless at that, he'd never though of it that way. True he knew that it was Dumbledore and not Voldemort that had come to the nursery that faithful night, could it be possible that all he knew of Voldemort had been fabricated as well? However despite that fact Voldemort was still an evil Dark Lord that over the years had performed heinous acts to the wizarding public.
And then the little facts he'd found out about Voldemort hit him. According to Selene he was related to Voldemort which meant that Voldemort was a Clandestine as well, and if that were true then all that he'd done couldn't have been an act of selfish cruelty, couldn't it? Not if he was a Clandestine fighting for his people, and he was certain that Selene had mentioned that Voldemort had been a Sedaire too once upon a time.
Ginny watched as the cogs turned in the young Vampyre's mind. She knew that one of the ways the Headmaster controlled Haeden was by telling him lies and fabricating past events so that he would perpetually look good in the eyes of the then impressionable youth. Slowly but surely they had peeled away all the layers of lies, to the wild indignation of the said young man, but this one truth about the Dark Lord would not be easy to digest.
"Where was I?" Ginny began again. "Ah yes, I'd began to understand him once I'd learnt to control his memories and began viewing them in more or less a chronological order. I saw his youth and how he had to grow up unloved in an orphanage. I saw how Dumbledore made an impression on him when he was an eleven year old boy. I saw his anguish at finding out his mother's hidden heritage and I saw his anger when he realized that the Headmaster wanted nothing more than use him and his powers to enslave his mother's people. Doesn't that sound familiar?"
Haeden turned away from the pointed look Ginny was sending him and he heard her sigh heavily before continuing. "I am not asking you to forgive or even like the Dark Lord, Harry, I am merely giving you the explanation you wanted from me. It may not be what you wanted to hear but it's the truth."
Ginny saw his rigid back sag a little and she knew she was getting through to him. "By the time I'd gained complete control over the Dark Lord' memories I thought that that was the bulk of the things he'd unwittingly transferred to me but then powers I never had began to manifest. I began to be more sensitive to my surroundings and the magic around me. But when by accident I'd managed to control my mother as if I'd cast an Imperious on her to during one of times she was trying to get me to open up to her that I realized that I needed help in controlling these abilities. I had no more knowledge of my new abilities other than the memories of Tom and so I sought after the only man in his memories that I knew he trusted and luckily for me, the most accessible of all the Clandestines. Before Christmas of my second year I sought out your father."
"But then I had no idea he was your father for I had not yet reached that point of time in Tom's memories. And so I told him everything that went on between the Dark Lord and me. At first he didn't believe me since it was unheard of for the Magyck the Council stripped from every witch and wizard to suddenly manifest in a single witch centuries later. But then I told him that I, unlike my ancestors and majority of the present wizarding world, did not fear Magyck and that I hated what the Headmaster was doing under all of his godly acts of kindness. From the moment I wrote in that diary I was already a different person, I was no longer Ginny Weasley, the pride of the Weasley family, another dutiful pawn in the Headmaster's scheme. My eyes had been opened to the lies of the wizarding world and the dirt in their past. Magyck, I told your father was something to respect and not hate for favouring certain creatures. It's an untameable entity that by chance could be wielded much easier by some, thus is the nature of Magyck; you can't steal it or demand it just because you think you are worthy. Being a Vampyre he of course knew I was telling the truth and from then on he helped train me."
"Professor Snape told me all of the pros and cons of wielding Magyck but instead of fearing it and wanting to put it under my complete command so that it would do all that I want, I began to love it even more. It was wild and untameable that you first have to learn to fear it but once you've done that, respect for it comes and then it protects you like nothing else." said Ginny softly, eyes closed as if she was imagining her Magyck wrapping itself around her. "But even as the professor trained me to control my abilities, I still felt incomplete. I wanted to be recognized by the Council as a true Clandestine. I no longer wanted to be considered a witch whose ancestors ruined the lives of thousands; I wanted to embrace a right that was stripped from me by the foolishness of those before me. But not even that desire for acceptance was enough for me. I wanted my Tom back."
Haeden's head snapped back to face the red haired girl at that, he just could not believe his ears. "Your Tom?"
Ginny's eyes widened at the insinuation and shook her head laughing before correcting the misunderstanding. "Not in that way Harry. Having learnt everything I did about the Dark Lord, the hatred my parents wanted me to have against all things Dark began to fade and I began to see him in a different life. Perhaps you could say it's the part of Tom that is still in me that is making me think like this, but part of me is still me and that part of me longs for Tom too."
"Ginny I'm not getting you." said Haeden softly.
"You see Harry, Tom never really harmed me. He possessed me, yes, but other than losing my innocence at a much younger age, what further harm did he do to? I was bound to lose it anyway. He was kind Harry, when he possessed me never did he force me to do anything; it was all me, merely listening to what he wanted me to do. He answered all of the questions my parents refused to answer and he truly was my first friend. He showed me that I didn't have to imprison myself to what my family wanted me to become, that I could be my own person if I worked hard on what I believed in. To be honest I hated you at first when you freed me of him because I was devastated that I'd loss my friend and confidant. But when I got back to the Burrow, I realized that I still had a bit of Tom in me and that's when my hate for you vanished and I focused all of my energy into knowing more about him."
"In the summer before my third year I found out all about you and what the Headmaster had done. I wanted to approach you so badly because then I wouldn't be alone in all of this, that I would have someone my age to talk to about everything that I'd learnt. But the professor forbid me to express even the slightest idea that I knew something about Clandestines to you, citing that the Headmaster would know and that I would be in grave danger. Then just before term began I met your mother and sister and I slowly began to understand just how big of a threat the Headmaster really is to the Clandestines and just how much danger we would all be in if he found out that we were all planning to take you away from him."
"Once I'd learnt everything I could from your mother and sister we began to device a plan to resurrect the Dark Lord, for truly he was the only one left beside you who had a chance of bringing the Headmaster down. And contrary to what happened in the graveyard during your Final Task, I was the key element, and not you, that brought the Dark Lord back." said Ginny proudly.
"What are you talking about Ginny? I felt it when Pettigrew cut my arm and used my blood to resurrect Voldemort and I never saw you there." cried Haeden.
"You see you had to believe that you were the one that brought back the Dark Lord so that Dumbledore would believe it. The Headmaster went to a lot of trouble to make it seem to you that the Dark Lord was your enemy, but he went to even greater lengths to make it seem to the Dark Lord that you were the one that had defeated him. So if the time ever came for the two of you to fight, you would destroy the only Sedaire that he failed to get his hands on, that way no one would have a chance at stopping him anymore. He thinks your mother to be dead and now that he has the last of the Grindenwald line under his complete control, the only one that stands in his way was the one that got away."
"It took awhile for your parents to prove their loyalty to the Dark Lord had never wavered and for them to remove whatever enchantment the Headmaster placed on the Dark Lord before he was vanquished to make him believe that he was betrayed. But once that was done we orchestrated an elaborate ritual to make it seem that the Dark Lord had to dig into the depths of Magyck to revive himself using your blood when in reality he'd already been revived by my blood months before. The unexpected connection that we had made it much easier to revive the Dark Lord and imagine my joy when the first thing he asked for was where his Airu was." said Ginny, a bright smile on her face.
"Airu?" questioned Haeden, surprised that the Rumnic had rolled of his tongue easily.
"It means 'the adopted one'," explained Ginny happily. "Long before the Dark Lord was even resurrected, I'd already thought of him as more of a father figure to me than Arthur Weasley had ever been. He was the one to open my eyes to the world but most of all he understood me better than anyone else; I can't even say that much about my family. And to know that he considers me as his daughter made all the decisions I'd made worthwhile. "
"So you're telling me that you're the adopted daughter of Voldemort?" intoned Haeden darkly, "What does that make you then, the Dark Heir? Poised to take over once he's dead?"
Ginny glared at Haeden's tone of voice and said in a crisp, cold voice Haeden had never heard of before. "No. I am the Airu, the adopted one and I am not considered as one of you. I may have gotten some of Tom's Magyck through some weird twist of events but for the Council that is not enough to accept me. And until Dumbledore is defeated, my pleas for acceptance is the least of their concerns!"
There were many times, when he and Ron were still friends, that the red-headed boy had told him that an angry Ginny was a sight to behold, and he could now see why. It was nearing winter and the air was dry but despite that, some force of nature was blowing the young woman's red hair into a frenzy. Her once warm chocolate brown eyes were ablaze with such fire that Haeden felt if he stared long enough he would burn in their intensity. And throughout all of this he could feel her trying her best to prevent her Magyck from lashing out at him. He then wondered what would become of him if she had not been quick to reign in her power because right now even without that factor, he was scared and at the same time worried for her.
But before he could even reach out to calm the redheaded temptress, the unnatural wind had dissipated and Ginny eyes had toned down to their natural warmth. For a moment the girl look disoriented however upon seeing the look of worry tinged with fear on the young Vampyre's face, Ginny's frame sagged in exhaustion.
"Forgive me, Harry, that was completely uncalled for." she expressed, ashamed.
Still stunned from the short moment he'd seen his friend's anger unleashed, it took awhile for Haeden to comprehend that she was apologizing to him.
"What was that all about?" exclaimed Haeden, adrenalin slowly receding from his body.
Ginny walked back towards the boulder like rock and sat beside the young Vampyre, very much aware that her friend was currently wary of her. "I apologize for that outburst, Harry. The Council's indifference to my pleas just gets to me the most."
"Why do you want so much to be accepted by them?" Haeden couldn't help but ask.
"Because I have no where else to go!" exclaimed Ginny.
"You have your family, Gin." stated Haeden, but at the sharp look on the girl's face he knew he'd said the wrong thing.
"That's a load of crap Harry, and you know it!" snapped Ginny. "How can I ever go back to a family that listens more to the voice of a barmy old man than to the voice of their own daughter? Plus I've never fitted in the Weasley family, before and after the events in the Chamber. I'm too different from them. They believe that if one is not in the side of the Light, then they are immediately Dark and evil. They're a bunch of simple-minded fools being led asunder by a wolf in sheep's clothing. Did you know that prior to this school year they ordered me to seduce you? What kind of parents would do that to their daughter? And then I found out it was all because of Dumbledore! Would you still want to live in a family that is willing to sell out their daughter so as to get ahead and please their leader?"
'Ginny," began Haeden only to be stopped by her sudden cutting look.
"Harry, I don't belong here. I don't think I was ever meant to live here. I want to be accepted in the Plane. I want to be acknowledged as the daughter of the Dark Lord. I want to go where I will not be different, where Magyck is diverse and all around. Did you even know that Vampyres and Lycans interact in a daily basis inside the Plane? Where can you find it here that a vampire will not tear a werewolf to shreds upon first whiff of their scent? I want that kind of world Harry; a peaceful world. But I am not allowed because I was born to a jealous race."
"I understand Ginny," said Haeden finally, pulling the girl into his arms and allowing her to cry onto his broad shoulders. Ginny cried until she was spent and Haeden hadn't the heart to argue with her anymore. He was far from sold on her explanation about Voldemort, perhaps he would ask Selene's opinion on the matter before he came to any decision but for now both him Ginny were emotionally spent.
They continued to sit on the ground wrapped in each other's arms, seeking for both comfort and acceptance, until the bell rang once more in the distance and Haeden heard Ginny giggling in his ear.
"We've missed lunch," said Ginny, pulling away from her friend's arm.
"I no longer care for what they serve in the castle," replied Haeden nonchalantly, shaking the tingling feeling of little pinpricks on his leg as he slowly stood from the ground.
"Oh!" cried Ginny, clapping her hand over her mouth. "I'd completely forgotten." She then proceeded to rummage her robe pockets. Haeden watched in interest as she fished out three vials of glistening red liquid from her robes and tossed them at him.
Haeden caught the vials with ease and stared at Ginny in confusion. "What are these for?"
"They're peace offerings from Selene. She told me to give them to you as an apology for treating the way she treated you last night." explained Ginny, smoothening out her robes as she prepared to make a reappearance in the castle.
Haeden could only stare at the three, blood filled vials in his hands before pocketing the two and downing the other one – he did miss lunch. "It's warm!" he said in surprise, looking at Ginny's bemused face. "Tell her apology accepted." He then crushed the empty glass vial into dust and scattered it around the place.
And then silence fell between them, both staring at each other and pondering of what to say next after an emotional outburst. When it seemed that Ginny would not be the one to say the next thing, Haeden felt compelled to at least express to the girl that she still had family left other than the Dark Lord.
"Ginny, for as much as it's worth, I truly do understand your plight. I will not lie to you and say that I agree with all that you've said about Voldemort, I will need more than your opinion for me to make a decision. But do know that even if you feel that the Weasleys are no longer your family and that Voldemort is all that you have left, I am still here. I may be Haeden Snape, but the aspects of Harry Potter that I know are real, like his ability to be compassionate, are still with me. I will always be here for you. If Voldemort is the father Arthur Weasley failed at, then I will be the brother that all six of your brothers failed at." And before Haeden could even prepare himself, he found his face once again filled with flaming red hair.
"Thank you, Haeden," Ginny whispered softly to his ears, using his real name for the first time.
"I've always thought of you as a sister, Gin." said Haeden, giving the young woman a tight hug before letting her go. "And now I have two, lucky me!"
Ginny gave him a playful smack in the head for his last comment moment and had to laugh at how he was bent on remaining angry with the girl before this whole thing started, and now here he was, having just told the girl that he would be her brother. It was happening quiet often, Haeden noticed, that situations he'd had all planned out in his head don't always end up the way he wants them to. He didn't know whether to be glad or frustrated at these turn of events. One thing was for sure though; he absolutely hated having these things sprung upon him and was now determined to ask as many questions as humanly possible to lessen them.
sSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSs
It was way past office hours in the Ministry, but even so the halls beneath the Ministry were never thriving with people in any hour of day. However a man dressed in robes so red they looked black was marching through the dark halls, a freshly rolled parchment clutch tightly in his hands, and it was only the pureblood decorum that had been ingrained at him since infancy that prevented the man from running towards his destination. Finally after endless twist and turns he arrived in front of a door void of any handle and the mad placed his right hand on a golden plaque right where the handle should have been. A brief flash of light later and the man withdrew his hand from the plaque and walked straight through the wooden door.
The room was circular and sparsely furnished by a desk, three chairs, a filing cabinet and an ornate coat stand, and illuminated by a stark light that seem to come from above. Behind the desk sat a portly dressed in a similar fashion as his late night visitor, a solid letter U was stitched on the robe above both men's left breast.
"I gave great news, Alpha, sir!" stated the visitor.
The portly man perked up at once and asked, "What have you found, Boar?"
The man, Boar, eagerly cut the distance to the desk and handed d rolled up parchment to the man who was undoubtedly his boss. "The Tag Witches have located the barman in the village where Grindenwald was defeated."
The man called Alpha by those who worked in the bowels of the Ministry mumbled softly to himself, "Is that so?" before turning to ask Boar. "He is the only sane one left?"
"I wouldn't call him sane, Alpha." replied Boar. "Everyone in that damned village old enough to really know what happened or witnessed the duel is either dead or knocked incurably in the head. However according to Silva the barman was in his twenties when the confrontation occurred and has somehow maintained basic mental faculties despite being caught in the wash of the spell."
"So he's the least insane we could find." concluded Alpha miserably.
"I'm afraid that is the case, sir." confirmed Boar. "But he is the best that we have."
Alpha then unfurled the parchment and surveyed the information they had on the barman. "It says here he's lived all alone in a town five miles away from Hogsmeade since Grindenwald's defeat." read Alpha, a frown forming on his lips.
"Yes sir,"
"Rather convenient don't you think?" said Alpha darkly, storing the parchment in the filing cabinet behind his desk. "That the only coherent survivor of that night is within Dumbledore's apparating range?"
Boar did not answer. He had notice that fact as well and was certain that this time the person they had would have the information they needed.
"But you are right Boar," said Alpha, his stout form leaning forwards on his desk. "As of now he is the only lead we've got and by the looks of things, he just might have all the information we are looking for."
"I will send a couple of Field Unspeakables right away, sir!"
"No," said Alpha, shaking his head and walking away from his desk. "I will personally see to this barman. I have waited months for this and I will not have a rookie mess this up for me." Alpha transfigured his robes to something less conspicuous and pulled off a lime green bowler hat from the coat stand. Both men exited the circular room.
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