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Chapter Five-Medwyn

"I want to talk to you, Potter."

Harry nodded. He knew this boy was older than he was and a Slytherin, but that was all he really knew about him. And the only reason he knew that was because the boy was pretty tall and had a Slytherin tie. "Okay. What do you want to talk about?"

The boy stared at him for a second. Then he glanced back as if to check that his bronze peacock was still at his heels before he faced Harry. "You-you don't start the conversation out in the open like this, Potter!"

Harry didn't think they were in the open. They weren't outside. They were at the top of the staircase that led down to the dungeons. Harry had Potions in a second. "Okay. Then where do you want to talk?"

The boy stared at him again. Harry shifted. He didn't want to make Professor Snape angry, and that was worth a little more to him than not making this boy angry.

Finally, abruptly, the boy nodded. "Okay. Okay." He sounded as if he was talking more to himself, but Harry couldn't do anything about that. "Meet me in the library after your Potions class, okay? I have a free period."

"All right," Harry said, and went down the stairs with Golden crawling next to him.

He ran into Draco at the bottom of the stairs, who scowled at him. Harry blinked. He usually had to do something more than just walk around to get that expression from Draco. "What?"

"Wychard just ordered you around as if you were worth less than the scum on his boots," Draco said flatly. "I want to know why you give in and do what people like that say when you have a golden familiar."

"Of course I want people to be polite to me," Harry said patiently as he made his way towards the Potions classroom. Draco was supposed to turn and go outside to Herbology, but he stubbornly lingered. "But he wasn't ordering me around. And I'm not worth more than other people just because I have Golden. We discussed this, Draco, remember?"

"You're not worth more, but you're not worth less."

"Yes, I know." Harry blinked at him. "What about it?"

"He was-he just acted like..." Draco deflated kind of like a balloon that Dudley had got on his birthday once.

"He acted like he was worth as much as me," Harry said. "Or he acted too arrogant for someone who has a bronze familiar. That's what you were about to say, wasn't it?"

Draco winced. "Yes, all right. His name is Wychard Medwyn, and his familiar is Curtis. At least be careful with him, all right? His family has a reputation for doing whatever they want and leaving other people to pay the price."

"And the Malfoys don't?"

Draco straightened so fast that Harry was surprised his spine didn't crack. "I've never done something like that!"

"But you can see what would happen if someone judged you by your Malfoy ancestors," Harry pointed out mildly, and shook his head a little when Draco sagged. "I'm not going to. I'm just saying that I won't judge Wychard by his Medwyn ancestors until he gives me a reason to make me think he does whatever he wants and leaves other people to pay the price."

"So fair. Bloody Hufflepuff."

"Bloody Slytherin," Harry commented with a small push to Draco's shoulder. Then he went to Potions.

"What did you want to talk to me about, Medwyn?"

Medwyn stared at him and then narrowed his eyes. "That little rat Malfoy told you about me."

"Draco has a dragon, not a rat," Harry corrected him as he sat down at the library table Medwyn was sitting at. It was in the very back of the shelves, surrounded by stacks of books on Alchemy that almost no one ever came to check out. Curtis stood with his tail puffed out next to Medwyn's chair. Golden looped himself around the table leg and watched Curtis curiously.

"You know I was trying to insult him, right?"

"Draco is my friend. Why would you insult him if you want to talk to me?"

Medwyn seemed to struggle with that for a second. Then he tossed his floppy brown hair out of his eyes angrily. "Anyway, it doesn't matter. What matters is that golden familiars are supposed to have talents no one else does."

"Yes. But I won't take advantage of people the way Professor Dumbledore did," Harry reassured Medwyn.

"I'm not talking about that! I'm talking about you being able to do things no one else does! Like find a familiar that's gone missing!"

Harry paused. It seemed that perhaps the problem with Songleaper had come to find him before he could find Songleaper's wizard. "What do you mean?"

"One of my cousins who works in the Ministry has had his familiar go missing. I don't understand it. It's not like one can just wander away! But he hasn't seen his familiar in almost a week. He thought he was just sulking, but now he knows that's not true, and he needs him back!"

Harry took a deep breath. "What's your cousin's name?"

"Logan Medwyn. His familiar is a tin jackrabbit called Songleaper."

No hiding from the truth, then. Harry had to decide what he was going to do, and he needed to talk to Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall. But he needed to find something out first. "Is your cousin sure that he didn't do something that would just make his familiar hide from him? Or that Songleaper isn't hiding in his house or in the Ministry?"

"Of course he's sure, Potter! He's looked everywhere. Familiars don't just hide from their wizards this long even when they're sulking, everyone knows that."

"You didn't answer my first question."

Medwyn blinked several times. "Of course he wouldn't do something to his familiar. You don't do that." For a second, his hand hovered protectively over his familiar's back.

"And he wouldn't have yelled at his children or anything like that? Nothing Songleaper disapproved of?" Harry felt like a hypocrite asking the question. He knew exactly why Songleaper had left his wizard. But he still had to ask.

"No. My cousin is a very gentle man."

Who just happens to be prejudiced against Muggleborn students, it sounds like. But Harry had to lie for right now. He nodded. "Okay. I'll do what I can. But I grew up in the Muggle world, you know. Most of what I did was accidental magic under Golden's control. We might have to work for a little while to find a spell that would locate Songleaper. He might even go home before then."

"My cousin doesn't seem to think so." Medwyn hesitated for a minute. "Thank you, Potter."

"Don't mention it." Harry stood up. He had Charms next, and then lunch, and he didn't know if he would be able to catch his professors then. It might have to wait until this evening. "Golden?"

Golden eased back from some intense staring at Curtis, and nodded to Harry. They left the library and walked and slithered down a corridor. Then Golden spoke softly in Parseltongue. "Curtis is willing to speak to us."

Harry swallowed. Most of the familiars they'd talked to so far had come to talk to them because their wizards or witches were friends with Harry, not the other way around. This sounded like Curtis maybe wanted to get away from Medwyn, too. "Did he say anything about his wizard?"

"He said he would not want his wizard to know."

Harry set his jaw. So, yeah. They would have to talk to Curtis without Medwyn knowing, the way they would need to talk to Songleaper without Logan Medwyn knowing.

And Harry had no idea what to do next. But that was why he was going to talk to the adults, and to Songleaper. Sooner or later, someone other than him had to have ideas.


"Why is that the situations you bring me seem to spiral outwards constantly and become more complex, Mr. Potter?"

"Sorry, Headmistress."

Severus leaned against the wall with his arms folded and watched Minerva look at Harry with a weary expression. But it was still less weary than it had been last year when they were dealing with a disciplinary matter involving Gryffindors and Slytherins. He thought Albus's absence had been good for Minerva in ways that she had not yet noticed.

If nothing else, the one person in the castle who now had a golden familiar would not insist on being told about every single motion of the parties involved, and going over and over things to make sure that no Gryffindor was unfairly punished.

"So you know for sure whose wizard Songleaper is." Minerva looked towards the shadowy corner near the fireplace that had held the jackrabbit when Severus came in, but it was empty now. "All right. And young Mr. Medwyn wants you to find Songleaper for his cousin. And his familiar wants to speak with you privately as well."

"What could be going on, to have two of them from the same family?" Severus asked quietly. Minerva would understand what he meant better than Harry, although from Harry's quietly darting eyes, he was remembering and absorbing as much as he could to take back and ask his friends. "Could they be practicing the Forbidden Arts?"

"Surely they wouldn't ask someone else to find a missing familiar if that was it."

"Missing familiars aren't supposed to be possible. And they might think Mr. Potter too young to understand what he was seeing if he observed the Forbidden Arts."

"What are the Forbidden Arts?" Harry asked, in a voice that made Severus forcibly remember that he was eleven and disliked being ignored even by adults that he had to know were on his side.

Severus watched Shadowstriker coil up in front of the fire and waited for Minerva to answer. He had nearly fallen into the Forbidden Arts himself when he was a Death Eater. The mention of them were still too near his heart for him to sound rational when he spoke of them.

"They are the means of corrupting a familiar," Minerva said at last, and from the sound of her fingers, she was tapping them rapidly on her desk. Then came the soft thump of paws that would be Malkin hurrying over to nuzzle against her hand and stop it from moving. "Using a familiar as a means of growing your power, rather than a partner or a vessel for that power."

"Even using it as a vessel sound pretty horrible, Headmistress."

"Yes, but not as horrible as the Forbidden Arts. And I should not even be speaking of them to a student."

Severus felt well enough to turn back then. "He will need to know about the general concept of them, Minerva. Mr. Potter, you should not accuse the Medwyns of such a thing until we know for sure. It would be highly inappropriate and wildly illegal to make such an accusation without proof. I only suggested it because it is unusual to find two wizards in one family who would make one familiar walk away and the other willing to meet to talk in private without him."

"I understand," Harry said, but his eyes were on fire. "A lot of people see familiars as objects, don't they? Not beings capable of interacting with them. Not people with magic. Not creatures they should treat with respect."

Severus hesitated before he answered. Minerva had said that Harry's ideas spread and spiraled. This would get them all involved in a huge campaign for justice if they were not careful. "That is true in a sense, Mr. Potter. Golden and silver familiars tend to be more respected in their own right. However, even that encourages some people with familiars those colors to offer disrespect to those born tin, copper, and bronze."

"I'll meet with Curtis privately and see what he wants to tell me, sir. Is there something we can do for Songleaper right now? I mean, not find out if his wizard is practicing Forbidden Arts or anything. Just something."

Minerva traded glances with Severus. He could read her impulse in her face. She wanted to go to the Ministry with Songleaper and see exactly what his wizard acted like when he saw his familiar.

But Songleaper had come to Harry for help, and he would not allow them to simply return the jackrabbit to his wizard without opposition. Opposition that Severus, at least, could not offer, not when he was bound to Harry by his oath.

Minerva finally said, "I will continue to protect him and hide him, Harry. In the meantime, I will write a letter to his wizard. There is one thing I could speak with him about without telling him Songleaper is here. Notes that Albus left behind. He knew Mr. Logan Medwyn as he knew most of the wizards and witches in our world. I would like to tell him what those notes say, and see his reaction. We may be able to get an idea, through his responses, of why Songleaper left him."

From the disgusted, weary hollowness in her face as her hand rested on a huge ledger, Severus knew that notes were not all Albus had left behind. But he would be content to wait and let Minerva tell him and Harry her secrets when she had time. He would rather that Minerva deal with Albus's legacy than do it himself.

Even if he suspected that he would eventually have no choice.