~ Waterbound ~
3. Like Tea Leaves on Water (We Float, Then Sink)
Following the crack of the apparition that echoed through the Malfoy library, three stunned wizards stared at the spot one Potions Master had previously occupied.
"Did he just..." Rabastan sputtered incredulously, being the first one to gather his thoughts after the man's departure.
"I think he did," Lucius replied even as he wondered at his friend's audacity himself. "I assume he will be back shortly."
"But why did he leave so suddenly?" Rabastan continued his questioning, reeling from the situation still. "Wouldn't it have been logical to take back-up? Or even say where he was going? If the creature is protected by wards it will take more than one person to tear them down, won't it? Even breaching them would be a problem. And what about the person or people who put them up?"
"Maybe that is exactly why he took no one." Lord Voldemort finally regained his composure, inserting himself into the conversation.
The alarm still beeped lazily, consistent in its less urgent tone.
"Think for a moment. It is a student of Hogwarts we are likely searching for. If Severus knows of the location of the creature, then it is someone he has frequent contact with over the school year. Not Slytherin, most likely, as he would be surer of their birthdates. A child from one of the other houses then. We already ruled out muggleborns. The only way one would become a creature has nothing to do with creature inheritance. So at least a half-blood. It has to be someone strong enough to not only have come into an inheritance but also to have caught some attention as well, for them to be so well-warded. Guarded by the best who are available, yet not someone we know of. It is a child born in the middle of the summer guarded by someone from the Light side because Dark-inclined families have their wards recognised by the Net."
"I see." Lucius Malfoy sighed all but voicelessly. How could they have not thought of him?
"I still don't get it. I wish you could just tell me who it was."
"And I wish Azkaban had done less damage on your brain, however little it had done to harm your devotion to our cause." Red eyes bored into those of the younger Lestrange brother. "But we can't all have what we want."
"I apologize, my Lord."
"Apology accepted. Now think! What child would the Light ward so heavily that not even the whole map can pinpoint it clearer than just "in London"?"
"Well, there's Potter obviously, but... Oh."
"And here it comes."
"But what type of creature would Potter be? It would have to be from his father's side, obviously, but since the late 1800's the Potters only ever presented as Light Elves - and those come into their inheritance at fifteen - or Pixies, but those are only women. Who knows what they had in their lines before that, but are there any latent creature inheritances that pop up after more than a century? So maybe some of the creatures from those who married into the line? There are the women from the House of Black, of course, the Fleamonts and..."
"Breathe, Rabastan." Lucius Malfoy could not help but chuckle as the younger wizard prattled on. It wasn't hard to see that reviewing wizarding genealogy had been Rabastan's go-to method on how to stay at least somewhat sane during his stay at Azkaban.
Taking the blonde's advice into account, it took Rabastan a little while before he started speaking again. Of course, when he did, it was obvious that he was only continuing the line of thought he managed to refine in the interim.
"Neither of those families would make much sense though. None of the most probable inheritances should be dangerous to him."
It was visibly upsetting the youngest of the three that he didn't have a hypothesis to offer, even though it had all to do with his life's calling.
"It might be a dormant inheritance brought to life, you know how volatile those can be. If Severus does find Potter to be the creature we are searching for then we shall see what we are dealing with soon enough."
...
The Privet Drive looked - in the humble opinion of one Severus Snape - like a result of one too many Geminios cast on the entire street. Which was to say that it was a wonder anyone knew which house was theirs.
Under different circumstances, he might have had a hard time identifying which house was the correct one as well, even with reluctantly having stood "Potter watch" several times. But not that July night for certain.
As it were Severus was all but dragged involuntarily towards the source of magic one particular house exuded. A side effect of being a bearer of the Dark Mark, given that the Dark Lord's magic was woven intricately into the Net.
Be it as it may, it was the moment Severus turned the corner onto the Privet Drive that he knew his hunch had been correct.
Harry Potter had indeed just gone through a creature inheritance.
...
The first-floor bathroom of 4 Privet Drive was a silent witness to a strange exchange at the time.
"Dudley?" the wizard, who was newly a creature as well, asked receiving only silence in response. "Dudley!"
It seemed no matter how many times Harry called his cousin, he was too shocked having a minor meltdown as a result of the adrenaline crash.
"I know you're shocked Dudley, I didn't exactly expect or plan for this either, but when are your parents coming back? Can you imagine what your father will do if he finds us like this? If he finds me like this?"
Apparently, more incentive was needed for a return back to the present.
"Dudley I swear I'm going to slap you with the tail if you don't snap out of it!"
"..."
"I'm serious."
"... Ouch-! Potter are you raving mad?!"
"Finally!" Harry rolled his eyes. "Also, I'm bloody splendid if you have to know. You know, what with the tail and choking whenever I try to pull my head anywhere above the water you know."
"..."
"No, no, no, no, NO! Don't you go back to that goddamnit!"
...
The door, though closed, was unlocked and there was a bag of sports equipment haphazardly thrown just past the threshold. It seemed that whoever entered the house last was in a hurry to get further inside.
'The source of the change of tone, maybe?' Severus couldn't help but wonder even as he stepped over the bag and into what seemed to be a kitchen. A perfectly mundane room with photographs showing no trace of there being four occupants of the house. A room with zero people in it.
'But where is-'
A sound of water splash cut off the Potion Master's thoughts, answering the question he did not get to fully form.
'Water creature? What, in the name of Merlin's scraggly beard, did Potter turn into?'
...
The soft thump of the front door closing brought them both out of the standstill.
"Do you think-?"
"They shouldn't be back for at least a few hours still, but if it's not them, then who would it be?"
Hearing the soft echoes of someone ascending the stairs, Harry's heart started beating a touch faster, hope welling in his chest. Maybe they had come after all? But surely they would have called out? Harry was almost positive that they would have.
"Dudley? I think you're not going to like what I'm going to ask, but..."
"You want me to check it out?" The youngest Dursley seemed rather unimpressed with his cousin's idea.
"That would be great, yeah, but I'd rather you didn't face whoever it is head-on if they're not friendly. So, could you bring me my wand? It's on my bedside table." Harry chose not to mention, that ever since the ministry he slept with it underneath his pillow.
"I don't want to touch your magic stick. No wait, that came out wrong. Just- argh! Is this some karmic revenge?"
He did go get the wand, though. It was a better line of defence than just his boxing skills, after all.
...
Hearing movement from the upper floor, Severus Snape that it was needless to stick to the ground level any longer. The occasional sound of water could still be heard and whoever was supposedly helping Potter returned back within a matter of a minute.
'After the last year, Potter would be reluctant to use magic at home even in self-defence, but if he sees the other person threatened, he might decide to use it regardless. Hadn't even the incident involved someone? The cousin, maybe? What if the person with him isn't allied?'
Weighing his options, the teacher decided that the best course of action would have to be the most heavy-handed one.
"Potter?" he called out, advancing up the stairs.
The quiet murmur of voices cut-off abruptly for a second, but then...
"Professor Snape?"
'Not dead then, good.' In all truth, he wouldn't be surprised if Potter lived forever to torment him.
With that resolve, the man entered the room, he heard his student call from. And of course, just as he thought that the Gryffindor could not surprise him any longer, he went and did just that.
"Slytherin's slippers, Potter?"
"Hello. Ahem, sir."
Trust the Gryffindor's golden child to acquire one of the most obscure - and Dark - inheritances there were. The Dark Lord was going to be pleased. That, however, meant that the Light side was more than likely to not be so.
They had to leave.
...
"We shouldn't just be sitting here. Not today."
It seemed like a random conversation starter, but Sirius Black would damn well hope that his mate knew that it was his godson - their godson, really - that he was talking about.
"Yes," the other man replied passively, sitting by the fireplace, as he had been doing the majority of the summer. Silent. Barely responsive. Occasionally sipping some tea he got from who knows where. At least the coffee he got for him seemed palatable.
Quite often Sirius wondered whether the werewolf was listening to anything he said.
"Goddamnit, he's sixteen today and what are we doing here?"
It was a frustrating him to no end, that unresponsiveness. But what could he do? He couldn't even cast a screening charm without being thrown back to Azkaban, because of the trace put on his magic.
"Waiting."
"But waiting for what? For a miracle? For the Minister himself to come knocking and pardon me? For Albus freaking Dumbledore to okay us to go pick Harry up?" the animagus grit his teeth. "You're no fool, Moony. You know just as well as I do that out of those three the last is the least likely to happen."
"I owe Dumbledore my life."
"No, you damn well don't! Whatever debt you may have had to him, you had already repaid! Many times over! Those little excursions he sends you on? Those are suicide missions! He's been using you for years! Where had he been when I needed help? Before Azkaban? Before Ministry? Sitting in his chair and preparing Veritaserum-enhanced sherbet lemons to offer to the next gullible fool, most likely. And you know why? Because he didn't have any use for me!"
"What could he have done? The evidence seemed so damning..."
"Evidence?! Dumbledore was one of the very few people that could have pushed for a trial for me. But. He. Didn't! He's sitting on his high horse and doesn't care what happens to the chess pieces on his board as long as there are enough to topple the opposing side. Merlin-forsaken Snivellus had come for us and helped. I don't trust that snake, you know I don't, but if there's one person I know he would have looked out for it's Harry. Because he promised Lily he would. And he had said that he informed Dumbledore. And where was Dumbledore when the Ministry was riddled with Death Eaters?"
"He's a busy man, surely had he known..."
"It was at bloody three o'clock in the morning! He had the knowledge and the means to come and he didn't. He had our pup battle the Death Eaters alone because he couldn't have been bothered to come and help. Because he's starting to see that Harry won't just bend to his will the way he wants him to. What if he had come to the Ministry himself?"
"But he hadn't come."
"You're missing the point, Moony! You-Know-Who wasn't there, thank Merlin. But all signs pointed towards him coming. Almost every year, he goes after Harry, in one form or another. And instead of helping, Dumbledore had spent the majority of the year who knows where and then only appears for long enough to send Harry back to Dursleys. Don't you see anything wrong with that? Why do you keep excusing what he had done? To me? To you? To Harry for Merlin's sake?"
The werewolf stayed silent, looking at the angry animagus pacing in front of the inactive fireplace. There was so much wrong with that image. Sirius had always been a man of motion, but it seemed that ever since he had escaped Azkaban the majority of his movements was fueled by anger. Why were they having this argument again?
'Again?'
"I..."
"How many times do I have to rehash everything to get into your thick skull? Dumbledore is not some saviour of the wizarding world he's just an arse who-"
Remus knew that Sirius was still talking, but he simply couldn't force himself to concentrate.
'Again? When?' Everything seemed so muddled. He knew that Sirius was right, he knew it. Why was it so hard to hold onto that knowledge though?
The two of them, they were walking in the shadows. But where he hid in them, Sirius used them to strike out of. It had always been like that, when did their natures start to clash so badly?
'Why?'
Bringing the half-forgotten cup to his lips, Remus froze. His eyes zeroed in on the tea. That stupid tea.
The tea he hadn't drunk the previous day, because Sirius had dragged him into preparing the gift for Harry's birthday.
It's a calming tea, he had said. You have to drink it around the same time every day or the effect is not as strong, he had said. Why don't you drink some right now, Remus? he had said.
Sirius is a man of a different temper, Remus. Why don't you take him this lovely coffee blend instead? Dumbledore had said.
He was such a fool.
"I think you're wrong, Siri."
The animagus stopped mid-rant, surprised as he was by his lover's sudden movement.
"What?"
"I think you're wrong," Remus repeated. "He wasn't preparing sherbet lemons."
"What?"
"He was making tea."
Two updates in the same week? Is the world ending? (On different fics, admittedly, but I'm just so happy about finishing this one as well, that I simply had to share.)
A/N: As you may have noticed I'm changing things. This is 6th year, but while the battle at the Ministry happened it was different. Feel free to ask/complain, if anything is unclear!
See ya ( "-.-)/