Chapter Eight: Strike One
Harry and Blaise are kept at Hogwarts for the first Hogsmeade weekend but still manage to keep themselves occupied. Tarana loses her temper.
The red wolf paused at the entrance to Severus' rooms, before turning and disappearing into the shadows a little further down the hall, into a room that was hidden by the, very carefully placed, torches throwing shadows over its door.
The room was the private potions lab of the Hogwarts Potions Professor.
It was used, by Severus at least, to experiment with new ingredients to make existing potions more potent and to create new potions, something that Severus was exceedingly adept at, given his young age and, in relation to some others of the field, newness to being a master of the art.
"You're early," Severus drawled, not looking up from the brew in the cauldron before him.
Fallen's nostrils flared as he slipped around the door, snorting when he was nearly overwhelmed by the scent of aconite. "Please tell me you're not planning to poison the 'wolf," the General drawled. "I'm sure you can survive one year without killing him right under the Headmaster's nose." He said, ignoring Severus' original question for the moment.
He didn't particularly want to tell the man that there was tension between himself and the King regarding the continued search for Black within the walls of Hogwarts and the surrounding area.
Severus threw him a sneer that said he was questioning the 'wolf's intelligence. "It's the Wolfsbane Potion," he told him, letting the slipped question go.
Fallen circled the room carefully.
He rarely stepped foot inside the Potions Lab, regardless of where Severus was currently working, because if the students of Hogwarts thought the man was harsh in his classroom, they'd never been under his unimpressed glare in his own domain.
Draco, with no little glee and excitement – likely because he was one of the few that Severus allowed inside it under the age of forty – called him a dictator within these four walls.
"You're a better man than me," the General commented wryly. "Given the level of complexity and the price of the ingredients, I would never have brewed it for someone who had hurt me as Lupin did you."
"Given the choice, I can't say I would be," Severus answered shortly. "Unfortunately, when the Ministry learned of Albus' choice in professor for the Defense Against the Dark Arts this year, they tried to have him replaced. Albus refused and promised to have him under the Wolfsbane Potion for every full moon he was employed here."
"Liar," Fallen said, amused rather than offended.
Severus tilted his head in the direwolf's direction, not taking his eyes off the potion in the cauldron.
"Oh, I'm not saying that Dumbledore didn't do all those things," Fallen assured him, smirking. "Merely that you aren't brewing this thing correctly because of those reasons. At least not alone. You have an angle?"
"Tell me you haven't already thought of it, General," Severus replied. "It certainly won't be the dementors that catch Black breaking into the school and Ebony can hide from all of you at the height of his power. If anyone will find him, it'll be Lupin."
"I have had those thoughts," Fallen agreed. "I'm rather sure that I've mentioned it once or twice." He paused thoughtfully. "Arcana believes that Ebony is working an angle of his own, but that neither Black nor Ebony have turned against us."
"You disagree."
"I can't see another outcome with the information available to me, and until I receive more of it, I won't put Harry, and thus my charge, in more danger by not treating him as the threat he is."
Severus eyed the potion in the cauldron with a critical eye and was silent for a while as he worked on it, giving it his full attention.
The Wolfsbane Potion was dangerous to brew because it could, as Fallen implied, very easily turn into a poison.
And as Fallen had also pointed out, Lupin was currently necessary.
"We'll need to keep a rather covert eye on Lupin and Ivory both," the potions master murmured, as though afraid that one of the others might, at that very moment, be outside listening to what, for Fallen, could very easily become treason if it so much as twitched in the wrong direction.
Fallen's ear flicked.
"Odds are in our favor," Fallen said quietly, looking toward the wall that, though there were no windows, pointed toward the front of the school. "There aren't all that many people that Black and Ebony can trust right now. If I were Ebony, I'd test the waters of my Kin before fully approaching them."
Fallen grit his teeth even as he was speaking.
The problem was that he was the closest strategist of Ebony's caliber in all the Collective, so much so that he'd been elevated to the General of Valeria's Army.
But he'd only gotten it because Ebony refused it.
There was no doubt that Ebony had a plan the rest of them couldn't see.
And though Fallen was rather certain that Ebony would approach, he wasn't sure if it would be to see which of the Crown and Collective he could trust with whatever yarn he was spinning or to find out what sort of protections the Crown, Collective, Ministry, and Hogwarts staff had layered around Harry and his friends.
And their trump card was pretending there wasn't a fucking problem.
"We'll be waiting," Severus said, reading the frustration, but not the cause, in the 'wolf.
"We'll have to be," Fallen murmured, shaking his head. Because I don't know if anyone else will be.
XX
Tension in the Valerians, subtle though it was, went mostly unnoticed while September faded into October.
For Harry and Draco, they were too busy struggling to find a balance between having an additional class each than most of their friends, while also beginning quidditch practice.
Quidditch was the most popular sport at both Hogwarts and in the wizarding world and both boys played on the Gryffindor team, Harry as a seeker and Draco as a chaser.
The current captain of the team, Oliver Wood, was graduating at the end of this year and Gryffindor hadn't won the Inter-House Cup in years.
Given how much pressure he had put on them over the years to win, more than once telling them what they already know (which was that they were the best team currently attending the school. Circumstances had, thus far, unfortunately, kept them from proving it), the team was bringing their A-game to the table and everyone seemed resolved to make this last year for Oliver 'The Year'.
Oliver himself hadn't lost his passion or his drive, however, and was giving Draco far more responsibility than any other.
Not that Draco was complaining.
In his first game the year before, he had, in a matter of weeks, come up with a series of plays that had kept Gryffindor neck and neck with Slytherin in the first match of the year, despite Slytherin's seven players all having faster and better brooms, Nimbus 2001s, even going on to win the game by the skin of their teeth, considering a cursed Bludger – a ball that darted around the stadium trying to bash, break, and crush the players – had nearly taken Harry from the mortal coil let alone out of the game.
The match had cemented a strange bond in Oliver and Draco, and some of their more successful plays in the subsequent games had included input and advice from Draco, particularly anything that involved himself and the other two chasers.
The kicker, however, was that Draco's knowledge of the House teams had all come from watching the teams play – and Gryffindor train Harry – over the course of the year before, and any information he could dig up about games from previous years in his spare time (which was remarkable because much of their free time in their First Year was spent trying to identify and protect an artifact Dumbledore had protected on Hogwarts' property. Ron and Hermione called it insane – Ron because Draco was spending more time in the library than Hermione, and Hermione because Draco was 'wasting his talent' on a sports game).
As far as the Gryffindor team was concerned, despite his young age, Draco and Oliver co-led the team already, so the obvious time that Oliver spent with Draco off to the side, teaching him the other aspects of being the team captain, the ones that didn't involve being on the pitch, wasn't questioned.
For them, it was an obvious choice.
Fallen, for his part, was simply happy that Draco had something that didn't involve doing it to please, protect, or serve his friends in any way.
It was solely for his own benefit.
"Are you certain the boy isn't spreading himself too thin?" Arcana asked one night, watching Draco and Oliver lean over the newest play for the Gryffindor team, the blonde's Arithmancy homework sitting abandoned to one side.
Fallen raised his head to see what Arcana was referring to, before dropping it back down with an amused snort. "You'll see it soon enough, Your Majesty," the 'wolf assured him. "Draco's simply not happy if he's not winning. So long as he's on that team, he'll sacrifice his Potion's grade before he risks losing a game."
Fred drapes himself over the back of the armchair, grinning. "He sulks pretty when Ron beats his arse in chess, too."
Arcana's lips parted on a silent huff of amusement. "That I'm pretty sure I've witnessed."
Draco, unamused by their teasing, flipped them two fingers over Oliver's shoulder, without raising his head from the play graphs on the table between them.
Arcana tilted his head, blinking at the muggle 'sign', and frowned harder when the twins started laughing, slapping their palms together with glee.
Fallen closed his eyes.
He'd give them the praise that was due.
They'd taught Draco Malfoy a muggle gesture, told him it was a muggle gesture, and the teen still used it.
XX
Harry was a bag of mixed feelings as the end of October slipped ever closer.
A week out from Halloween, the brunette was already saving the scraps off the bottoms of his essays for his favorite of the Pureblood Rites, the Burning.
When the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead were at their thinnest – the witching hour of Samhain – Purebloods would burn notes containing anything from the latest goings-on in their lives to requests for guidance. The smoke would then take those messages to their loved ones beyond the Veil.
For Harry, he very much felt that he was speaking to his parents at those times, even though they couldn't speak back to him in the same manner.
Halloween also hosted the best of the Hogwarts Feasts, though Harry hadn't finished one yet. His First Year feast had been interrupted by a troll infiltration and his second had been attending the Gryffindor Ghost, Sir Nick's, Death Day Party. He was seriously hoping for a reasonable one, where he could enjoy the food and entertainment this time.
Furthering his anticipation, was the Gryffindor-Slytherin match at the beginning of November.
He and Katelyn Malfoy had flown against one another the year before, and Harry was eager for a rematch, as the year before he had also been trying to outmaneuver a piece of equipment bound and determine to put him back on the ground, regardless of the hundreds of feet between him and the ground at the time.
Attacks at Hogwarts had prevented what, to the Gryffindors, had been an inevitable rematch.
It wasn't all roses, however.
Halloween happened to fall on a Saturday and would be the first trip to Hogsmeade of the year.
And Tarana had refused to let him go.
Harry had pressed and pressed for days before he'd even gotten an answer out of the Queen.
\/\/\/
"I told you on the train, Harry, that you would only go once I had gauged the threat Sirius and Ebony posed to you beyond the walls of Hogwarts. There has yet to be an opportunity to do so, and as such, you won't be leaving."
"But-"
"No."
"But the odds are in your favor if he goes, aren't they?" Draco had pointed out. "I mean, it's just numbers. You and Ivory will be the only ones at Hogwarts with him if something did happen. At least in Hogsmeade, there are more witnesses and more Valerians."
Tarana had turned on the blonde viciously for his interference, and he had made a swift exit, leaving Harry and the Queen alone.
Closing her eyes, Tarana had reined in her temper, growing ever more volatile the more pressure her Kin put on her to choose between her charge and her brother.
"Instead of Hogsmeade, perhaps you and I can visit Remus," she had told Harry. "He is likely the closest thing to both your father and mother, as he was close to both as opposed to Bonded to one and friendly with the other. I'm sure there are things he knows about James that James would rather I didn't know."
Harry had hesitated.
The number of students staying at Hogwarts during the Hogsmeade trip could be counted on one hand, and they were only staying by choice.
On the other hand, Harry was eager to learn more about his parents, things that, as Tarana had pointed out, they likely wouldn't have told or shown Tarana because of the parent-like manner she treated her charges with.
"I don't know…I don't want to make Severus upset," he had murmured, startling Tarana, who had been prepared for further arguing in favor of him going to Hogsmeade.
"Upset him?"
Harry had bit his lip. "Ivory wasn't nice to him in the hallway. Remus…he bullied Severus too, didn't he?"
Tarana had weighed her words carefully. "Ivory and Severus very much don't have a good relationship. As much as I love him, my brother has no middle ground. He either likes you, or he hates you. The same can be said in reverse, you either like him or you hate him." She had hesitated before revealing more, perhaps more than Severus would have wanted her to share. "Part of the dislike between the Marauders and Severus was that Severus was what muggles would call a bookworm, not unlike Hermione. Unfortunately for Severus, he did not have a group of friends like you around to make that kind of genius less lonely. If, however, there were any of the Marauders that Severus got even remotely along with, it was Remus. He was always the more studious of the group."
She wisely hadn't mentioned that any sort of pleasant feelings, would have changed completely when Sirius had set him up to be attacked, saved only by James, Tarana, and Ivory's rather timely intervention.
"Regardless of that history, their problems are not yours. You don't need to choose between the adults in your life, Harry," Tarana had told him. "If you wish to visit both Severus and Remus while you're at school this year, I doubt either will stop you."
Harry had still hesitated. "Can we go visit Severus, too?"
Tarana had smiled. "Of course. I don't wish you to be out of our circle right now, but I won't prevent you from visiting the adults you've gained in your life. I trust them, though perhaps, not as much as I trust myself, with keeping you safe."
/\/\/\
Harry couldn't say he was happy with the compromise he'd struck with his guardian, seeing as she still wasn't letting him join his friends at Hogsmeade, but maybe he could get some more stories out of Ivory now that Remus was awake enough to give input.
He'd also realized, later that night, that it was the perfect opportunity to ask Remus a question that had been bugging him for almost three months.
XX
Harry and Tarana walked into chaos.
It wasn't even the first time this week, either.
Arcana had Crookshanks pinned beneath a massive paw and all eyes were on the screaming Ron and Hermione.
"-ep that cat away from him!"
"Crookshanks doesn't know it's wrong!" Hermione cried, taking a step, apparently not the first, toward Arcana and her cat. "All cats chase rats!"
"That offends me," Arcana rumbled warningly. "You have clearly shown that you cannot control the cat, Granger. It has attacked my charge, and gotten away with it, far more often than I will allow to stand."
The girl looked ready to cry.
"Release it," Tarana commanded, stepping through the throngs of Gryffindors, who parted easily to let her pass.
Arcana glanced at her, before eyeing the cat, weighing the pros and cons of letting the cat go after it had, again, attacked his charge.
"You will not kill it in front of her, Arcana," Tarana warned him.
Crookshanks immediately darted for Hermione, climbing the girl's robes until she had him clutched in her grip.
"He doesn't mean anything by it," Hermione said softly, looking at the cat. "He's just being a cat."
"Then it is your job to teach it to not go after pets, Hermione. It is your pet. Your responsibility," Tarana said, her tone not changing from the way she'd spoken to Arcana. "If it goes after Ron or Scabbers again, I will have it removed from the castle indefinitely. Are we clear?"
Hermione looked mutinous for a moment, glaring at Ron as though it was his fault.
"Don't look at him," Tarana said sharply, causing all eyes to suddenly find somewhere other than the spectacle to be. It was a tone they were familiar with, though they'd only ever heard it from Fallen, who watched with cool red eyes as the task was, hopefully, dealt with. "He's not your concern, I am. And my concern is the sanctity of my charge's study place. Ron's pet is not interrupting the common room on a weekly basis. Yours is. I ask you again, Hermione, do you understand?"
"Yes, Your Highness," Hermione murmured, eyes already red with the beginnings of tears.
"Scatter," Fallen barked sharply. "The scene is over, and the matter dealt with. Find somewhere else to be."
The common room quickly emptied, with only the students settled at tables to study and work on their homework remained.
Ron and Hermione disappeared up into their respective dorm rooms, where the doors slammed shut almost simultaneously.
Harry sighed as he put a hand between Tarana's shoulders. "Again?" He asked Draco and Neville.
Draco snorted. "I would have dropped that cat out the tower window a long time ago," he muttered, unamused.
"Ron's right though," Neville pointed out. "Doesn't anyone else find it really weird that Crookshanks always seems to know where Scabbers is?"
Draco hid a yawn with the back of his hand as Harry lay the book he'd gone to the library to retrieve on the table. "He's a cat," the blond said dismissively.
The three quickly went back to their homework, as Tarana turned sharp blue eyes in their direction, wordlessly warning them to do so.
"Blaise didn't come back with you?" Neville asked in a whisper.
Harry shook his head. "He was asking Madam Pomfrey a bunch of questions about the law section of Hogwarts." He glanced at Draco, but he was hiding his face by looking down at the parchment, far closer than he necessarily needed to in order to do the work.
Two weeks prior, Hagrid had finally been served papers, officially informing him that Percival Parkinson was suing him for damages to Pansy and pushing for the execution of the 'beast' responsible for it.
It was likely one of the reasons that Hermione was currently so emotional – even though she was taking the most classes of them all, she was still leading the charge in researching his defense, and was apparently doing much of the work, despite being aided by Neville and Blaise.
As the librarian, Madam Pince, had mentioned to Blaise, however, the library wasn't really set up for legal defense, only the education of it. It was slow going even with their combined efforts.
Blaise slipped back into the common room, shaking his head at Neville's questioning look.
Harry put a hand on his arm as the dark-skinned Gryffindor looked around the common room, his tense shoulders becoming more so until Harry squeezed, reassuring him. "He's still down at Hagrid's," he told his friend. "Fallen said Ivory was wandering the grounds, so he's still safe."
Blaise craned his neck to see out the nearest window, though there was no visible sign of the leopard on the grounds.
"He's fine," Draco said without looking up.
Blaise barely spared the blond a glance, causing Neville and Harry to look worriedly at one another.
Things weren't just tense between Ron and Hermione.
Draco and Blaise had an understanding when they were in the Tower, and the two never appeared to do more than teasingly rib one another, though their friends knew that they, like any friends, had disagreements.
Their current disagreement, not that most of the rest of the Tower knew it, had them appearing rather curt with one another, and hiding that by simply not really talking to each other.
It had been almost four days since Blaise had asked for Draco's help getting books from Malfoy Manor to help defend Blaise's friend from the Parkinsons.
He'd gotten a bland response and an assurance that Lucius would send his son nothing to help defend Hagrid, as he was likely already handing Percival everything he needed to win.
That Draco wouldn't even try had pissed Blaise off, and a new status quo was born between the usually rather close group of Gryffindors.
"Any luck with Professor McGonagall, Harry?" Neville asked, changing the subject.
Harry dropped his eyes to the book on techniques he'd been recommended by Professor Salema, his Art professor. "No," he murmured, causing Blaise and Draco both to look sympathetically at him. Asking McGonagall for permission to go to Hogsmeade had been a last-ditch effort suggested by Ron the day before. "She said as long as Tarana wasn't going to allow me to go, she wasn't going to overstep."
"And she won't say why she is so instant that you stay here at Hogwarts?" Draco asked.
Harry shook his head. "Just that she was weighing the threat of Ebony and Sirius Black," he scowled. "But you guys are all free to go and none of the others are worried about you going either."
Neville glanced nervously at the panther. "I'm sure she has her reasons, Harry," he said.
Harry flipped the book open with a sharp flick of his wrist. "Wish she'd share it," he mumbled.
"I'm certain you boys have other things to be working on than gossip," Fallen said. "If you wish to see Hogsmeade on Halloween, you have your end of a bargain to meet, Draco."
The boys all quickly went back to work.
XX
Harry found Blaise in the armchair in front of the fire that usually held Fallen.
Fallen, the only Valerian in the room, didn't appear to be all that put out with Blaise having taken his seat, nor did he appear interested in trying to force the dark-skinned Gryffindor to bed and had simply settled down by the fire to keep an eye on the teen.
"You guys have to have been through almost every book in the library by now," Harry said, dropping tiredly into the other armchair. "Aren't you tired of looking at words yet?"
Blaise blinked up at him as though he wasn't sure why he was there.
Which was stupid, because Harry, Neville, and Draco had been taking it in turns to come down and sit with Blaise when their friend refused to head up to bed until Yoko returned to the common room, which, with Yoko unofficially helping to teach Hagrid's classes – at least in the planning aspect of the 'professor' job - was often well after the teens should have been in bed.
Harry couldn't be sure, but he believed that Yoko's planning of Hagrid's lessons was the reason that the half-giant hadn't brought anything quite as interesting as the hippogriffs since.
He was still on the fence as to whether he was happy about that or not.
Despite the end of the lesson, the hippogriffs had been neat.
"Books don't hurt," Blaise said evenly, thumbing down the unread pages of his book.
Remembering both the Monster Book of Monsters and the various other, seriously minor, injuries Harry had received from other books, the brunette wasn't inclined to agree but he didn't say so. "Any luck?"
Blaise shrugged. "Hermione has this…idea, in her head based on some of the things we've found, but…." He shook his head and sighed. "I wish we had access to better sources," he admitted. "The Parkinsons are very successful and they didn't buy their way to get that way. And Yoko's always so busy with keeping Hagrid from giving them any more fodder to use, and the others are so worried about Black and Ebony," he glanced at Fallen, who resolutely kept his eyes shut and face turned away from them both. He and Draco had made their opinions on Hagrid's case rather clear. "I can't…there's no one to ask for help…."
"I have faith in you guys," Harry said, his yawn undermining his conviction a bit midway through. "You got through Severus' logic puzzle. And Hermione found the Philosopher's Stone. You guys didn't need the Valerians for that."
Blaise smiled at him, but it was a weak one. "You don't have to keep coming down here with me, Harry."
"Why not?" Harry countered easily. "You did for me."
Blaise blinked at him, before flushing and going back to his book.
There had been more than one night that Harry, suffering from nightmares, had been unable to sleep the year before and would, as Blaise was doing now, slip down to the common room to avoid waking the rest of the dorm.
Draco and Blaise usually joined him eventually.
Blaise, even now, couldn't tell anyone what had pulled him out of bed, unable to sleep, while Harry and Draco weren't nearby last year.
Harry tilted his head toward the couch, as though reading his mind. "Give your eyes a rest?" he offered.
Blaise stared at the page but didn't see the words. Sighing, he closed it and slipped it into the bag at the base of the chair, getting to his feet.
Fallen watched as the two teens, too grown now to curl together as they had the last two years, settled on either end of the couch and, due to space constraints, tangled their legs together so they wouldn't hang off the edge.
He'd bet money that they were out in the next hour.
XX
Though Tarana and Arcana had left the common room together, ostensibly to patrol the school for Ebony, they didn't do so together as was likewise implied.
In those making that assumptions' defense, they had originally patrolled together, but following the Care of Magical Creatures attack, and Yoko's distraction on that front, Arcana had gotten more and more frustrated with the Scout's inability to be in two places at once, and likewise, the choice he made in choosing Hagrid's upcoming lawsuit over Arcana's order to get a better, more in-depth, layout of the school for him.
\/\/\/
"I'd been counting on him to spot Ebony or Black before the rest of the staff," Arcana had vented to Tarana weeks earlier. "He can't do that from across the fucking grounds."
Tarana hadn't been amused. "Hagrid has been a friend to Yoko for several years, Arcana, you can't begrudge him his concern."
"I can when the Collective is in danger," Arcana had shot back.
"As far as I can tell, we're not the ones in danger," Tarana had countered. "Sirius has been free since July and there's been no serious sign of him or Ebony, for that matter, and certainly no hint of who his target is."
"But we know where his target is and that should be enough to prepare us for his arrival," Arcana had reminded her.
"We have some whispered delusion from a man who has spent a third of his life in Azkaban surrounded by what the Ministry considers guards," Tarana had sneered. "We have nothing on the reason Sirius decided now was a good time to break out of a prison we shouldn't have proven we can break someone out of."
Arcana had grimaced.
The Valerians, though they aren't immune to the dementors' chill, often pretended that they weren't capable of breaking through the defenses of some of the Wizarding community's most powerful and defended places.
It was a pretense that went both ways because the Ministry, though they kept up the same pretense, was very aware that they probably could, and their Families were definitely aware that they could.
"There has to be a reason that Ebony tipped his hand, Tarana, you know that he wouldn't have done so otherwise."
"I know that you're operating under the assumption that Sirius and Ebony are coming after Harry. Why?"
"Harry's his godson," Arcana had answered easily if a bit evasively. "What other reason could he need?"
Tarana had circled the King, eyeing him with one eye. "I have reason to believe that Sirius already laid eyes on Harry and is aware that he's in good, cared for hands. He has no other reason to return here. Not for Harry. For Ivory perhaps, but not Harry."
Arcana growled, raising his head. "You've seen him?"
"I suspect that he's seen us," Tarana had replied evenly. "There was a sighting of Sirius in Surrey around the time that we escaped," she had reminded him. "I think he was there the night we did so. I think I heard him fight off a family dog. He's already assured himself that Harry is well. Why do you insist that he's coming after him, especially when you don't appear to have any suspicions that he or Ebony have turned against the Crown?"
Arcana had gone still, thinking over his answers, before sagging and averting his gaze.
"I don't know," he had admitted. "And the only way to get those answers is to ask them." He had stomped a paw forcefully on the ground, anger renewed. "And I can't get them if Yoko and Fallen are refusing to do their part."
Tarana's lip had curled. "'Their part'?" she had asked. "Or follow your orders?"
"Both," Arcana had barked.
Tarana had snorted, turning away from the King. "And that's the real problem," she had murmured, fight and drive leaving her again. "Neither side is willing to get to a middle ground."
"Tarana, you know this is the right path. Sirius and Ebony wouldn't turn on Harry. On us."
Tarana had met his gaze evenly. "Arcana," she had said softly, "I don't know that. So far, the only plan I've sanctioned is the one to get to Sirius and Ebony before the staff and Ministry. And I've only done that because I need answers. I don't agree with either of you. I don't have the information for that kind of decision."
"He's your brother, Tarana, he wouldn't turn-"
"And he's done so already," Tarana had reminded him sharply, turning to glare at him. "I don't pretend not to know Ebony's faults, Arcana. Neither should you."
The Queen turned on her tail and continued down the hall, leaving the king behind, now more frustrated than ever that not even his hicari had total faith in their race.
/\/\/\
The Valerians weren't coming together as they implied in public and Tarana knew it.
Arcana was pressing Yoko and Fallen to put themselves against the wizarding community in favor of Sirius and Ebony, which Tarana would absolutely back if she wasn't so confused as to whether or not Sirius and Ebony deserved their support at the risk of their tentative alliance with the Ministry.
The panther paused and looked out the window.
On the one hand, she wanted, desperately, to believe that Sirius and Ebony knew of a threat that the rest of them didn't, probably picked up within the walls of Azkaban, though how they could possibly know that she couldn't say.
On the other, she could still remember the quiet nights where James sat on the porch of their home, hands pressed together, agonizing over the decision to hide away from the war. A war that was rapidly coming to include his son.
\/\/\/
"I'm surprised you're still awake," Tarana had murmured one evening, slipping out onto the porch.
James had smiled at her, pushing himself more upright as the panther came up beside him, and he had run a hand down her back. "You knew I was awake."
Tarana had pressed her head against his knee. "I heard you walk past Harry's room over an hour and a half ago. I figured you would have come back in already."
James had shaken his head. "Can't wrap my head around Dumbledore's warning."
"The prophecy?"
James had nodded. "Do you think he's really going to come after us?"
"I believe that Dark would use any excuse to come after us," Tarana had hedged. "So, I suppose it depends on how seriously Voldemort plans on taking that prophecy." The panther had tilted her head, bringing her then charge into firmer focus. "But that part of it isn't what's keeping you awake," she had said knowingly.
James looked over his shoulder at the house. "Lily and Harry, they're my family, but they aren't my only family. If we do this, if we go into hiding, I'm leaving Peter and Remus and Sirius behind. Ivory and Ebony behind."
Tarana had raised her head to the moon, only a quarter full in the sky above them. "I've thought of it," she had admitted. "Though I suppose for me it's far easier than it is for you. My Kin and I have come together and separated so often over the centuries this isn't really as final as it seems to you." She had looked back to James. "In the end, it really is only temporary."
"This war has been going on for months, Tarana," James had told her, tiredly. "We're no closer now than we were when it started. If anything, it's getting worse." He had frowned, a thought apparently flittering on the edge of his mind, but he couldn't grasp it long enough to bring it through to their Bond for them to share it.
He had shaken his head and sighed. "I feel torn," he had admitted, as though Tarana didn't already know it. "Part of me wants to agree with Dumbledore, bundle Harry and Lily up and disappear under the Fidelus. The rest of me wants to wrap them up in the Fidelus and stand with my brothers. Protect them."
Tarana had been quiet for a while, soaking up the tension and the fear in her then charge. "The Marauders are prepared, as Ebony, Ivory, and Arcana are, to hold fast the line and protect you and your family, James. That isn't a sacrifice I would diminish by putting yourself on the line with them. There are only two ways to totally protect this family you've built your blood around. One, is to put them under the spell, but you could not be its anchor, to ensure that you don't accidentally give it away to the wrong person, the person Sirius is so certain is among the Order. That means that you can't be told where they're hiding your family, because you would never be able to leave the area they're in."
James opened his mouth to protest, but Tarana waved a paw. "I have known you your entire life, James," Tarana had reminded him. "I know you, in most ways, better than you know yourself. If you know where Lily and Harry go into hiding, you will ensure that you are always nearby to be a line of defense for them, even though the smartest thing you can do is to stay away from them. Anyone with an ounce of sense or magic will be able to sense the spells around the place you go to visit."
James had grimaced.
She hadn't been referring to wizards.
Not even Voldemort had the power to see through the Fidelus Charm.
Dark, on the other hand, was an unknown. The Valerians had never had the need to try and sense or see through something hidden by the spell. It was entirely likely that though it would be hidden from them in the general sense of the term if they happened to stumble upon it, they'd be able to sense the magic that hid it.
It was why none of the Valerians, other than Tarana who would be going into hiding with them, was going to know where James and his family went into hiding, Fidelus Charm or not.
"And the other?"
"Ensure that, if something does go wrong, you and I will be the last line of defense. We go beneath the spell with Lily and Harry and protect them if something happens."
James had sighed, leaned his elbows on his knees, and pressed the edges of his hands against his lips, still as troubled as when Tarana had stepped outside with him.
Tarana had watched him in silence for a while before James had shaken his head and gotten to his feet.
The tension and the troubled look on his face to Tarana that James hadn't found any of the answers he was looking to the moon for, and she was certain that she'd find him outside again in the not so distant future.
/\/\/\
Tarana shook the memory from her mind.
Looking back on it, she was sure that the advice she'd given James hadn't been anything he didn't already know and hadn't thought of.
She was torn, now, as to whether it might have been better if James had not gone into hiding with Lily and Harry all those years ago.
Perhaps if he had stayed with the Marauders and assisted in muddying the waters for Lily and Harry, her current charge would still have a parent.
Tarana tilted her head as Ivory slipped around the corner, tail and head both low in deference to her obvious desire to not be around the other Valerians.
The fur on the back of her neck came up with her irritation.
"I will make you bleed, brother, if you are here to try and convince me one way or the other of Ebony's potential betrayal."
Ivory shook his head. "Nah," he muttered, oddly subdued. "Just couldn't sleep. Remus n' I both get restless round Halloween, makes the bond more restless when neither of us c'n anchor the other."
Tarana nodded her understanding.
The Tower wasn't much better, though not necessarily for the same reason.
The closer to Halloween it got, the tenser the more 'veteran' of the Valerians and their charges became.
Not a year had gone by yet that something hadn't been triggered by the end of October, Quirrell's first attempt on the stone two years ago, and the first attack by the basilisk the year before.
For all that they were hoping for an easy year, three times is a pattern, and they were all holding their breath waiting to see whether this would be the third year where Hogwarts attempted to harm their charges.
"What's keeping you up?" Ivory asked, rubbing his cheek along her neck.
"Memories," Tarana told him, though she didn't elaborate, even as Ivory let the silence draw out to encourage her to do so.
"Fucking bitch, aren't they?" Ivory huffed, thumping to the ground at the Queen's feet, crossing his forepaws to lay his head on them.
Tarana returned her gaze to the stars, with Ivory keeping silent vigil beside her.
XX
The purebloods of Gryffindor Tower didn't rise with the dawn on Halloween because most of them, and a few that weren't purebloods, were already awake.
The Valerians could no longer physically press against their charges as they participated in the Burning, as the number of 'attendants' had grown since that first year.
Instead, they pressed as close as their Bonds would allow, as the teens wrote to their dead, pressed as close to the fireplace as they could safely get.
For Fred and George, it was a vast difference from the year before, watching Harry lean forward to toss a roll of parchment into the fire, probably for one of his parents, when exactly a year ago, he had needed emotional and physical support to even look at the fire, let alone get close enough to toss anything into it.
The twins glanced at Tarana, watching through half-lidded blue eyes from the far end of the couch, and marveled at the difference the Bond between the Queen and their more-brother-than-not made.
Sensing their gaze, Tarana rolled her neck and opened one eye to look at them in return.
Fred and George glanced at one another before pushing to their feet and dropping onto the couch beside her, George taking the arm for lack of anywhere else to go.
'Something bothering you?' she asked.
Fred put a tentative hand on the back of her neck and the skin and muscle there rolled, as though the panther couldn't decide if she should remain relaxed or tense up, and he leaned close to whisper into her ear.
"I know this threat doesn't mean much to you," he said, "but don't pull that shit again, yeah?"
George had to prop himself up on the back of the couch to not fall on her as he leaned close as well. "Harry's ours now as much as he is yours. You hurt him again and we'll have to do something about it."
Tarana raised her head, forcing the twins to move theirs or get hit.
'I have no intention of repeating what I did to Harry,' the panther assured them, with none of the rage that either of the twins had expected from having been threatened. 'If for no other reason than because there is no longer a need. It warms me, however, that he has family to protect him, even from me if necessary.' Her lips twitched. 'Almost like an honor guard.'
Fred and George looked at one another, more than a little confused.
'It's a compliment,' Tarana assured them. 'Not teasing. It was never a question for me, whether his friends would support him or not. I'd had their promise before I ever left Hogwarts. And the relief my Kin and Harry feel has turned their anger into a secondary emotion. You two, however, are still angry enough to threaten me about it, even weeks after our reunion. Angry enough to ensure that it never happens again.'
Fred squeezed the back of her neck. "Just as long as we're all on the same page and all."
Tarana twitched her head just enough to dislodge his hand. 'We are,' she assured him, her gratitude obvious to the Fifth Years. 'Finish the Burning. I'm sure the two of you have things planned in Hogsmeade this afternoon.'
XX
Breakfast was a subdued affair, as Harry was suddenly even more morose about Tarana's refusal to allow him off the grounds now that the day was finally there.
Yoko's revelation that Blaise wouldn't be leaving the property as everyone went back to bed for a few more hours that morning, had, however, made it better.
After breakfast, the group headed to the Entrance Hall, where Argus Filch, the school caretaker, was standing by the doors, looking larger than his true lanky frame in a large sweater to ward off the autumn chill.
His hateful cat, Mrs. Norris, sat at his feet and stared with the same, unnerving and suspicious intent, at the line of students that were flowing past him and out the door.
Blaise and Harry stayed with the others in line – with Harry struggling not to show how much their enthusiasm about the trip into Hogsmeade bothered him – until they reached the door and Filch.
The caretaker sneered but was prevented from saying a word by the quiet rumble from Tarana.
"Blaise is not going into Hogsmeade, Argus," Yoko assured the caretaker. "We're on our way down to see Hagrid and Pomona."
That wasn't necessarily a surprise to anyone, Yoko had been spending a great deal of time with Hagrid since the attack in September, and Pomona Sprout, one of the Herbology professors, was by far one of the fox's favorite people on the staff.
Filch grunted, gaze fixated on Harry, who was likewise not going to appear on the list of students the man carried in his hand.
"While Harry isn't leaving the castle," Tarana said coolly, "I'd appreciate it if you didn't treat him like he was going to slaughter a pig in the Great Hall any moment, Filch."
The panther rolled her eyes when Filch ignored her and simply passed his suspicious gaze over the next student.
Harry's stomach flipped as the others left.
'Harry?'
Harry shook himself. "Sorry," he mumbled. "Are we still going to see Remus and Ivory?"
Tarana eyed him for a moment. "And after lunch, you and Blaise had plans to visit Severus." She said slowly, as though worried the teen had forgotten.
If anything, the future visit with Severus brightened the brunette in ways that the upcoming one with Remus didn't.
XX
Remus was a mess.
He'd pulled his best robes out of the wardrobe, only to put them back inside, deciding his muggle clothes would suffice.
He'd had tea and biscuits brought up from the kitchen but was now fussing over whether Harry was going to like the options or not.
He was obsessively looking at his watch and the door, and it was driving Ivory insane.
"Will you calm down?" Ivory huffed, irritated.
Neither he nor Remus had slept well over the last week, and Remus had been a nervous ball of energy on top of that.
Remus grimaced, putting his wand carefully on the edge of the table in his quarters, where he'd apparently planned to adjust the fire to change the temperature of the room.
"I don't know what he knows," Remus said softly. "I don't know what Tarana's told him about his father. What Severus might have told him."
Ivory snorted and rolled his eyes.
Honestly, why is everyone so concerned with what the man is saying and feeling? He wondered darkly.
Remus flinched as his dark mood passed through the bond.
Ivory didn't bother to try and push the feeling away.
"Who cares what he knows?" the leopard asked. "He's coming to visit, isn't he? Let him ask the questions and answer them. Not complicated."
Remus sighed. "Ivory-"
"Treat him like you would have if James didn't die, Moony," Ivory cut in. "Regardless of anything else, he's still your nephew in all but blood."
Remus twitched.
The leopard didn't understand that humans didn't work that way. He couldn't treat Harry as though the teen had known they'd known one another Harry's entire life, because they hadn't. Neither knew anything about the other.
Remus didn't even know if Tarana had mentioned his condition to the boy.
"If you're not going to be helpful go find somewhere else to be," he sighed, waving a hand.
Ivory pushed himself to his paws, almost eager to be away from the depressing ball of flesh.
He finds Tarana and Harry almost as soon as the door closes behind him, but declined to tell Remus that they were approaching, a little of his own for having put up with the man for the last two hours.
"Ivory," Tarana greeted, tilting her head curiously. "Leaving already?"
"Remus is losing his mind over tea right now, Your Highness," Ivory drawled, rolling his eyes. "If I stay in there with him, I might put him out of his misery for the both of us."
Tarana chuckled quietly, but Ivory's attention had already moved on to Harry.
Remus believed that Ivory didn't understand the reason that he was so worked up about this first meeting, but he was wrong.
Harry would be the closest thing to a child that Remus would ever have, and for all that Remus and Ivory had disappeared into the supernatural world of America, they'd never immersed themselves in it.
Remus was still, even a decade later, dealing with the missing bonds of his lost pack, both living and dead, and Harry was the only tie he had to the dead.
Harry and Ivory were all he had.
"Be gentle," Ivory murmured to the teen. "He genuinely wants you to like him."
Harry blinked at him, not unaware of the power that Ivory was giving him by telling him this.
Before the teen could answer Ivory moved around him, any sign of that gentleness disappearing. "I'm going hunting," he called over his shoulder. "Try and keep Remus from being too stiff, Tarana!"
Tarana rolled her eyes. Don't give me the difficult job or anything, Ivory. She drawled to herself, following Harry toward the door Ivory had just left, too fast to close it, apparently, because it drifted open when the boy knocked.
Remus was standing, remarkably at ease considering Ivory's thoughts on the meeting, when the door swung open.
The only tension on the professor was around his eyes. "Good morning, Harry," he said, smiling.
Harry gave him a small one in return, part of him still wishing he was going out to Hogsmeade with the others.
"Tea?" Remus asked, gesturing to the table and couch.
Harry dropped carefully onto the couch and took the cup offered to him, while Tarana stretched out by the door, watching them.
Remus' eyes flickered to the Queen for a moment and his shoulders relaxed.
The visit, after that initial awkwardness, went well.
No matter what question Harry asked, Remus remained truthful and, especially when it came to the antics of the Marauders that Ivory had mentioned on the train, in good humor.
Harry allowed the man to repeat those stories while he gathered the courage to ask the question he'd really came to get an answer to.
"Why didn't you let me face the boggart in our first lesson?"
Remus, who had been reaching for his cup, paused and then leaned back without it.
Tarana raised her head.
Harry stared at Remus while the professor seemed to gather his thoughts together.
"I wasn't sure, at first," Remus admitted, before meeting Harry's gaze. "It was instinct," his gaze flicked, briefly, to Tarana. "Later, I figured out that I didn't want Voldemort or Dark to appear in class with us. It wasn't something anyone needed to see."
"Oh," Harry nibbled his lip. "I wasn't even thinking about them," he admitted quietly, more to himself than Remus or Tarana. "Dark and Voldemort…we've beaten them before. I've seen them bleed. They make me mad but…they don't scare me. Not like…."
Remus leaned forward slightly. "Like?" he prompted.
"On the train," Harry said, slowly, like the words were being torn from someone else. "I'd never felt anything like it." He looked up at Remus. "I was thinking of the dementors. I didn't even have a chance to try and fight back. Even if Dark finds amusement in it, I at least got the chance to hit him last year."
Tarana's grin was more grimace at the reminder that Harry at twelve had felt the need to hit the Traitor.
Though, in hindsight, watching the black direwolf get hit with an umbrella was amusing.
Remus eyed Harry carefully, a half-smile on his lips. "You're a lot like him," he said, tilting his head.
"Like who?" Harry asked, brow furrowed. "My father?"
Remus blinked like he was coming out of a fog.
For a moment, Harry was sure he saw guilt in Remus' eyes before it disappeared between one blink and the next.
"Yes," he said, perhaps a touch too fast, glancing at Tarana, again with that there-and-gone guilt in his eyes.
"He was a brave man. Not unlike you, I imagine, considering what you fear."
Harry's brow furrowed. "The dementor?"
"Mm," Remus hummed, averting his gaze by reaching for his cup again. "It suggests that what you fear most, is fear itself."
Tarana's eyes followed the professor, but she didn't say a word.
"Has it been bothering you?" Remus asked, looking back up at the teen, the wistfulness and the guilt both wiped from his face.
Harry frowned at him, wondering if he wanted to press about those emotions, but sensing that, as open as Remus had been thus far with him, it wasn't likely that he would be that open.
Remus appeared to take the frown for a different kind of confusion and elaborated. "That I wouldn't let you face the boggart."
Harry mentally shook himself. "I suppose," he said slowly. "It just…felt like you didn't think I was capable."
"Given what I have learned about you since returning back to Hogwarts, Harry, I don't doubt you're capable," Remus assured him.
Harry frowned. "What does that mean?"
"It means you have a reputation among the staff," Tarana drawled, some sort of cross between amused and irritated. "Your adventures over the last two years haven't been forgotten."
Harry grimaced. "Tell me about it," he mumbled. "The only thing worse than my nightmares are the flashbacks."
Remus frowned. "Flashbacks?"
Harry glanced at Tarana, but the panther only blinked blue eyes back at him, leaving how much he revealed about his flashbacks up to him.
"Sometimes, when I got too close to Voldemort, and when I first heard Dark, I get flashbacks about what happened when my parents died."
Remus looked alarmed, glancing sharply at Tarana.
'As far as I know, he doesn't see anything,' Tarana told him. 'But what he hears is almost worse.'
Harry spun his mostly empty cup on the saucer and missed the byplay between the professor and panther. "I heard my mom screaming. Dark was hunting her, I think. And…on the train, I heard-"
Mentally, Tarana cursed Severus' timing.
Several seconds before he knocked on the door, she'd caught his footsteps approaching and nearly warned him not to enter.
She could smell the potion he carried, however, and Fallen's information as to its identity was enough not to make him wait.
Remus would likewise have heard him coming and to warn him away would only cause the Defense professor to become more concerned about the reason she wanted Harry to speak.
Particularly when her Bond to him should have alerted her to the fact that the one on the train was different, based on any information that would have unintentionally been shared when they'd been too weak to not be reaching for one another.
"Come in," Remus called, not looking away from Harry, watching as his walls carefully reconstructed themselves and wondering when the teen had begun to drop them because he hadn't realized they were there until they were being rebuilt.
Only when Severus had closed the door behind him, expression carefully blank, did Remus look up at the other man and smile.
It was a guilty, hopeful thing that died a slow death because he knew that Severus would likely never return it.
There was too much history there for that.
Severus blinked down at Harry as the teen turned to look at him. "Afternoon, Professor," Harry said, smiling half-heartedly at him.
Severus' expression didn't change, though Harry thought he saw the man's black eyes dart between Remus and himself.
There was a goblet in the potions master's hand that was so fresh off the cauldron that it was still smoking, and Harry eyed it curiously as the man set it down by Remus.
"Thank you, Severus," Remus said, reaching for it.
Severus nodded sharply and turned, just as sharply, to leave.
"Professor," Harry called before he could reach the door. "I was wondering if you were going to be in your office later. Blaise and I needed some help with our essay and Draco's in Hogsmeade. We were planning to come down after lunch."
Remus and Severus both stared at the teen, Remus because it was so casually asked, given Severus' obvious favoritism and general dislike of any Gryffindors; and Severus because it was so openly asked.
Severus recovered first, hopefully before Remus thought to look at whatever was written on his face. "My office hours remain the same, Potter," he sneered, turning sharply to continue on his way out.
"Thank you," Harry called after him, just as the door was shutting.
He blinked innocently under Remus' curious inspection.
"Are you and Severus close?" Remus asked, grimacing as he tried – and mostly succeeded – in downing the potion Severus had left him in once swallow. It wasn't something he wanted to subject his tastebuds to more than once.
Harry tilted his head, obviously weighing his response. He may have agreed to come and visit with Remus, but he hadn't forgotten the way Ivory had spoken to Severus in the corridor last month and he wasn't sure if Remus had the same feelings Ivory obviously did.
"He's Draco's godfather," he eventually said. "Once in a while, he has extra office hours to help his Slytherins with homework. Draco's allowed to use them, but sometimes Professor Snape lets us tag along. So long as we don't distract Draco or ask stupid questions, we're allowed to stay."
Remus ran a finger over the rim of the goblet before setting it back down on the table, letting the response run through his mind.
"That's…very kind of him."
Harry shrugged. "I don't know," he said, as though admitting something he didn't want someone else to hear. "Sometimes he makes it harder to understand what he was talking about in class and Draco has to clarify it again for us later."
Tarana put her head back down on her paws, hiding her smile.
Nearly all of that was true, except Severus had infinitely more patience for the Gryffindors when they were in his office than he did when they were all in a classroom together.
Something about the fact that they searched out those extra lessons in the hopes of learning something, changed the entire way the man taught.
XX
Tarana left Harry in the Entrance Hall.
"Don't do anything that will cause me to want to do serious bodily harm, Harry," she warned him.
Harry held up both hands, smiling sheepishly. "I never do anything on purpose."
Tarana snorted. They were both aware that there was plenty that Harry and his friends, Draco in particular, had done on purpose that had driven the Valerians to want to murder them, not necessarily in their sleep.
"What are you up to for the rest of the afternoon?" Harry asked curiously.
"If you and Blaise can keep yourselves out of trouble for a few hours, I plan on kidnapping Yoko and getting him into the woods. Perhaps we'll meet up with Ivory if he hasn't already finished his hunt." Tarana looked up at Harry and Harry nodded.
"I'll look after him," he assured her.
"He can look after himself," Tarana said, tilting her head. "He's proved that to himself now. Just stay close."
Harry nodded again and waved as she disappeared out the Entrance Hall doors. The teen blinked at the giant doors for a few minutes, wondering – not for the first time - at the level of sentiency to the castle, because it just occurred to him, watching the door open and close for the Queen, that they rarely needed to ask anyone to turn the doorknobs of the castle for them.
They just did.
XX
Blaise showed up to lunch several minutes later than Harry had expected him to, but he was wearing a different outfit than when he'd left the castle and his hair was still slightly damp around the nape of his neck, where he hadn't quite finished drying it.
"Messy morning?" Harry asked, grinning at him.
Blaise nudged him for his teasing, but he smiled when he did it. "I promised Yoko I wouldn't say," he told him. "But he says he's pretty sure that they've managed to find a happy medium and we might finally be able to move past stuff like puffskeins and flobberworms soon."
Harry's eyes lit up.
Hagrid hadn't brought anything like hippogriffs to class again, and by all accounts, he had appeared to lose a great deal of his confidence and it was Yoko's influence alone that had kept them from being stuck with flobberworms for the last month.
A lot of the animals were kind of boring, though the puffskeins were cute and didn't really seem to care what, if anything, you did to them.
XX
After lunch, Harry and Blaise went back to the Tower to retrieve warmer cloaks, as the dungeons were always colder than the rest of the school (which got colder the further into winter they got, the fires struggling to keep it warm enough that no one froze), and went down to knock on Severus' office door.
"Does he know we're coming?" Blaise asked, pulling his cloak tighter around himself.
Harry nodded. "I asked when he came to drop off a potion for Professor Lupin," he said, knocking sharply on the door. "He said his office hours were the same as they always were."
Blaise blinked. "He doesn't have office hours on the weekend. Fallen claims that he has enough of the students during the week and doesn't want to be bothered."
It wasn't exactly what Fallen had said about the Potions professor's lack of office hours, but the gist of that conversation was as such. None of them were quite ready to repeat what Fallen had said about the Potions students.
"Enter," Severus barked from behind the door.
Harry smirked. "Exactly." He said, opening the door.
"Afternoon, Severus," Harry and Blaise greeted, closing the door behind them.
Severus eyed them as they came to sit in the chairs across from his desk.
Harry thought, for a second, the man seemed almost surprised to see them, which confused the teen, because he'd asked permission in Remus' office a few hours earlier.
"I'm surprised neither of you are off causing mayhem and havoc somewhere," Severus said, putting his quill aside and interlacing his fingers.
Blaise flushed and Harry ducked his head.
"We didn't cause trouble last year!" Harry protested, half-heartedly.
Severus snorted but didn't contest it.
Though Harry, Ron, and Draco had ended up in the Chamber of Secrets with himself and Fallen, they had managed to stay mostly out of trouble during the entire debacle.
"I assume you're not here for assistance with your essays," Severus said, eyeing them. "So, I'll ask you both how you're holding up after your respective summers."
It took Harry a moment to realize that Severus wasn't referring to this summer, but the one before it, where he'd watched Tarana get her throat torn out by Arcana.
"It's weird," he admitted, glancing at the door like he expected one of the Valerians to walk through the door and hear him. "Sometimes I forget that he's not one of Dark's Thralls anymore and he's not going to hurt us."
Severus gestured with one hand for him to continue.
"I still think it's weird that they forgave him so fast," Harry said, one of his fists clenching. "It isn't like he killed a pet or something, he killed Tarana."
"It would be odder," Severus said slowly, choosing his words with care, "if you forgave him as easily as you seem to think they did. You obviously remember that the Valerian custom regarding Thralls is different from how we humans see it, otherwise, you would be asking these questions directly to your guardian."
"Yeah," Harry said with a sigh, before looking at Severus. "You don't think they've forgiven him?"
"I think they've forgiven him for anything he did while he was Thralled by Dark," Severus told him. "But it would be foolish to assume that there aren't struggles in power as they attempt to bring themselves together." The professor tapped his fingers together, wondering how much of his theory he should share with the teens, before deciding that none of it currently mattered. "Have you mentioned your concerns to Tarana?"
Harry shook his head. "She seems to have a lot going on right now and I don't want to make it worse," he admitted. "And I don't hate Arcana, sometimes he just…being so close to him scares me a little, and then I remember that he's not Dark's minion anymore and I can forget again for a while."
"It will likely take time," Severus told him. "Your first introduction, unlike many of the others who know him, was when he tried to kill you."
"And first impressions are important," Blaise said.
Severus tilted his head, acknowledging the wisdom. "And are you having similar problems with the King?"
Blaise shook his head. "Not really," he admitted. "But then, I didn't see the same kinds of things that Harry's seen him do. It's easier to forget about them when you've only heard about them. And…I saw what Dark can make people do."
Harry reached out and squeezed the dark-skinned Gryffindor's arm, reassuring him.
"How are your sessions with Healer Silva?" Severus asked.
Blaise shrugged, fiddling with the edge of his cloak with his free hand. "She's nice."
Severus waited him out.
"I just," Blaise started a few seconds later, "I guess it's hard to trust her. I saw what Dark can turn people into now and he can do that with anyone. What if I tell her something and he finds her?"
Severus gestured to the room around them. "What if he comes after me?" he asked in return.
Blaise looked doubtful. "You?" he scoffed.
Harry looked just as skeptical. "Dark can't touch you," he said with confidence. "You fought him in the Chamber last year."
Severus' lips twitched at the confidence the teens had in his abilities, confidence he shared. "My experience with fighting the Valerians didn't actually come from fighting Dark," he admitted but didn't elaborate. "But you trust in my ability to defend myself and my mind, and thus you share things in this space."
Blaise shifted.
"A Healer and Mind Healer both require different levels of trust," Severus told them. "A Healer will only deal with your physical problems, but a Mind Healer has more intimate access and requires a great deal more trust to share those moments."
"Draco thinks it's silly," Harry said, glancing at Blaise.
"Draco is his father's son," Severus said evenly. "And Lucius has many secrets in his head that should never see the light of day, not even to a Mind Healer because the cost to himself and his freedom will be too great. You are too young to have those problems," he told Blaise. "Though it may take some time for you to trust her enough to share your greatest worries, I do encourage you to continue to see Silva. She has a great deal more insight into the human mind and psychology than the Valerians do and will likely be able to help you overcome some of those worries in the long run."
Blaise smiled weakly at him.
It meant a great deal that Severus thought that he should continue to see Silva, as the potions master often seemed to have just as many secrets and triggers as he claimed Lucius did.
Aware that Blaise was becoming overwhelmed with the attention, Severus turned his attention back to Harry.
"You had tea with Lupin this afternoon," he prompted carefully. "How did it go?"
Harry tilted his head, reading something in the professor's tone that he wasn't sure he liked.
"He seemed to be a lot nicer than Ivory," Harry told him.
Severus blinked, the only sign that Harry's statement had startled him.
Ivory was often considered to be one of the most personable and well-liked of the Valerians.
Harry gave him a mirthless smile. "He was fun on the train," he admitted carefully. "But he wasn't fun in the hallway with you. Tarana said that my dad and his friends did and said horrible things while they were at Hogwarts," he glanced at Blaise before looking back at Severus, "and Ivory seemed to forget he wasn't at school with a student anymore."
Severus' lips pressed together, and he feared for a moment, what kind of wizard Harry would grow up to be if he was this perceptive at thirteen.
Like a thrown switch, the grim expression on the boy disappeared and he smiled brightly. "Have I said thank you yet?" he asked, changing the subject abruptly. "For helping me to pick my electives last year. Salema is an amazing artist and her class is just as interesting-"
Severus leaned further back into his chair and studied the two beaten, but far from broken, teens in his office as Harry and Blaise discussed their various electives with little input needed from the professor.
XX
Eventually, Severus kicked the two boys out of his office, citing that he still had work of his own to complete before the Feast later that night, and suggested that the two finish some of their own homework in the interim.
"Library or common room?" Harry asked as they ascended the stairs toward the rest of the school.
"We've got to leave the cloaks in the Tower anyway," Blaise pointed out. "Might as well stay there."
Harry, who only had an essay or two to finish and didn't care where he did them, followed the other Gryffindor up to the Tower.
Creevey, who hadn't really lost any of the hero worship that he attributed to Harry, waved eagerly when the teens entered the common room, but Harry pretended not to see him and slipped up to the dorms to gather his books and notes for Art and Transfiguration, already knowing that he was going to keep putting off the Transfiguration essay until Draco or Hermione forced him to finish it, but Blaise would be suspicious if he didn't at least bring it down.
The teens settled as far away from the First Years' game of Exploding Snap as they could, spreading their work out on the corner of a table.
Harry frowned at Unfogging the Future.
"You didn't say much about your Divination class downstairs," he said, glancing around the common room. It had been repeatedly mentioned that they weren't to mention how close they were with Severus in the public view, and they tried to abide by it unless they were with Draco, who could get away with it because he'd all but been raised by the man. "Do you not like it? Hermione seems to think it's pretty useless."
Blaise traced the letters on the cover absently as he used his other hand to flip through his notes to the more recent ones. "I'm not really sold on it being one or the other yet," he admitted. "I don't think its hogwash like Hermione does, sometimes I think I see things in the tea leaves and stuff we're working with, but Professor Trelawney makes it really hard to take the subject seriously when all she does is predict the horrible ways I'm going to die."
Harry grimaced; rather sorry he'd brought it up.
XX
It was close to dinner when Harry and Blaise were interrupted from their essays (Blaise had pulled a Hermione and insisted that Harry at least start the Transfiguration essay when he'd finished his Art essay in just over an hour), by the return of their friends and the not subtle dumping of several bags with the Honeydukes logo on them onto their books and notes.
"We got you each one of everything," Ron said, glancing at Draco who had likely done the actually buying. "This way you can tell us what you like, and we can pick it out on the next trip."
Harry looked over Ron's shoulder at Neville and Hermione because that logic had those two written all over it. "Thanks," he said, standing so he could dig through the bags.
"I wouldn't start on it now," Arcana suggested. "If it's still the same as I remember it, you'll be eating it for a while. Best to wait until after the Feast so it doesn't spoil your appetite."
"Don't wait too long though," Draco added. "All this candy and you'll only have until around the end of November. Mid-November once Ron gets his hands on it."
The group laughed, the tension they'd all apparently shared with one another before the visit to Hogsmeade forgotten, at least for the moment, and Ron shoved Draco good-naturedly for his teasing.
Fallen tilted his head. "Where're Yoko and Tarana?"
"Hunting," Harry said, moving the bags off his notes so he could collect them with one hand while pointing out the window with the other. "They've been out with Ivory since around lunch. They'll probably be back soon."
Fallen's gaze swung to Harry sharply. "They left you alone here?"
Blaise waved a dismissive hand and dropped the stack of notes onto his book. "We've been with professors for most of the day," he told them. "We just got back from visiting Severus a couple of hours ago."
Draco scowled. "You went to see Severus without me?" he asked. "Why?"
Blaise gave a pointed look to the common room behind him, while Harry gestured to the bags of chocolate before them.
"We didn't have much else to do given that the rest of you were in Hogsmeade," Harry replied, a touch sharply.
Blaise tugged pointedly on his Divination essay. "Get this stuff off my essay before it melts," he told them. "I just spent an hour on it, and I refuse to redo it."
Draco rolled his eyes, but he and Neville carried it all up to their dorm and were still separating the contents between Harry and Blaise's bed - while Ron picked through it for what he liked much to Draco's irritation - when the two teens in question followed with their books, notes, and essays.
Between the five of them, it took another ten minutes to completely separate the contents of the sweets shop between the two beds, and join the others back in the common room in time to head down for the Halloween Feast.
XX
The Feast had barely begun when the hunting Valerians returned to the castle, and they didn't make it into the Great Hall before they were accosted by Fallen and Arcana.
Tarana, after a rather relaxing day with her friend and her brother, was fit to have none of their idiocy.
"Do not," she hissed viciously, "talk to be me about my responsibilities, General, as though you have the standing to back that up. And you have some serious balls, Arcana, to try and pull rank on me given what I've done for you. Get. Out. Hunt, spar, do something that puts you outside the walls of this castle and have a far better disposition and tone when you return or I swear to you both you will burn."
Fallen and Arcana hesitated, glancing between the two of them, and Ivory and Yoko both wisely took several steps away from the Queen when her eyes flickered black and her fur sparked ominously.
"You are testing my patience on a day that I have very little of it," Tarana growled, fangs bared. "GET OUT!"
The panther's roar echoed in the Entrance Hall – and likely the Great Hall if the stutter in music was any indication – but the echoing bang of the doors slamming closed behind the fleeing Valerians seemed even louder in the silence that followed it.
Ivory laughed, rubbing the length of himself along his sister's side, before darting into the Great Hall, her snapping fangs barely missing his tail.
Yoko remained a short distance away from the Queen while she got herself back under control. 'Are you well, Tarana?'
'I had succeeded in pretending that today wasn't the day that I lost my hicari and my Bonded in the same breath,' Tarana replied shortly. 'I was better twenty minutes ago.'
Yoko ducked under her neck and, reassured when she dropped it, nuzzled her. 'Arcana is returned to you,' he told her. 'Ivory is within reach. Harry is safe and surrounded by the Collective. Ten years ago, this day was hell for you. Today it is a pleasure.'
Tarana sighed and the tension seemed to bleed from her. "You're right," she said. "Shall we see what entertainment Albus has acquired for the evening?"
Yoko smirked and slipped to her left as they entered the Great Hall, the music and cheer once again filtering out the half-open doors.
For a few hours, everyone forgot the tension between them and simply enjoyed the good food, friends, and entertainment provided by the Hogwarts ghosts.
XX
Reality returned, however, when Gryffindor returned to the Tower.
The portrait of the Fat Lady that guarded the entrance to the common room was in tatters, the occupant nowhere to be seen.
Peeves the Poltergeist gleefully reported the culprit.
"Nasty temper he's got," he cackled. "That Sirius Black."
Tarana rumbled quietly as Yoko turned sharply to look at her.