Chapter 7

Summary:

Harry should really make up his mind on whether he really wants to lay low or not.

Notes:

Sorry for the very late update, had a horrible week trying to get all the reports done for the holidays...and now it's holiday time but load-shedding is kicking our asses for 2 hours, 3 times a day. It's like really if you go down a stage, shouldn't the number of times you get load-shedding go down too? I seriously believe that the people from Eskom need to go back to school for Math remedial classes.

On the plus side though, IT'S HOLIDAY TIME! And I can now write updates whenever it isn't load-shedding and whenever we aren't working on the house :)

So far many of you have voted for the Sean, Nick, and Harry pairing. Which would be fun to write, though I don't want to let down the other readers who only wanted the Sean and Harry pairing. Lol, that will teach me to never ask such a question again, but it was interesting to find out how many of you saw the way they would fit together.

Nick

Nick watched the moving needle with trepidation before his gaze shifted to Harry, who had seemingly fallen into a peaceful sleep. His senses told him that there was a lot more to the young man, something more than just the history of his family.

It was like glancing through a well-preserved book, for even though the book looked new, there were always signs that revealed its age, and in this case, it was Harry's eyes that spoke of a weariness that shouldn't be present in one so young.

He did not know whether he should be relieved or worried that the young man slept so peacefully because surely he wouldn't be so calm if he were leading them into a trap, but then again, anyone would be peaceful if they had the complete surety that they would triumph. Over what, he did not yet know. He knew he'd become a lot more cynical with everything that had happened after he became a Grimm, but in most cases, it helped him to be prepared.

An hour later, it took only a few more moments as the needle stilled to realize that they must have reached their destination, but an empty field was the only thing that met them and Nick warily caught Sean's eye in the rearview mirror.

Harry's voice suddenly sounded from the front seat and Nick had to mentally restrain himself from jumping as his voice broke the tense atmosphere that had crept into the car, "Just follow the road, it may look empty, but you will find my future residence at the end of it."

Nick wanted to caution Sean as he tried to judge the truthfulness of the words, but a feeling similar to what he'd felt at Harry's apartment crept over him and he forced himself to stay silent.

A few moments later a strangely-shaped mountain came into view in the darkness and Nick had a brief moment to wonder whether it had a tunnel that would allow them to pass through it, but then he froze as they neared and he finally realized that it wasn't a mountain, but a castle.

It looked quite foreboding as it trailed towards the sky with its dark stone towers, but as they drove even closer, Nick noticed wide windows that made the castle look more inviting as strange floating lights appeared one-by-one to light up the view.

Nick noticed that the castle had a slight gothic style mixed in with the older Scottish-style, but somehow the architects had managed to blend the two perfectly. He hadn't known that such structures existed so close to Portland. Surely someone would have mentioned it before?

The car came to a stop and they slowly got out, with Harry clearly being more amused than anything else as he watched their reactions.

Harry then motioned for them to follow him as he walked up the stairs towards the front door. The door swung open barely a moment later and they walked into a grand entranceway, and it was like stepping into another world entirely.

The gothic theme seemed to flow from the exterior to the interior of the castle, but it was somehow softened by multiple accents that seemed to draw the eye away as it broke the heaviness that the darker tones set. It made him feel as if he stepped back in time.

For some reason, it suited Harry perfectly, but Nick did not yet know how to explain why he thought that.

Sean

Sean's instincts had been screaming the moment the needle started moving, but years of training kept him from revealing anything to the other two men in the car.

He knew that some type of energy had been used to drive the needle, but he'd never experienced anything like it before. Unless, of course, you counted the feeling that seemed to linger around Harry's apartment.

He ignored his senses in favor of following his gut, and his gut told him that he would regret it if he didn't take the other man up on his offer to view his home. Not that he had any other ulterior motives mind you, as the Captain of Portland PD, and due to the main culprit being his brother, it was his duty to ensure that the young man had a safe place to lay low for a while. Or at least that was what he told himself.

And so, he simply locked his senses away in a mental soundproof room until they managed to reach an open field. Though by then, his instincts had already managed to break through the soundproof barrier and they were blaring louder than ever.

He caught Nick's worried gaze in the mirror, but Harry seemed to sense their doubts as he guided them further, and Sean couldn't simply refuse because they had been the ones to insist on the escort, not him.

A bit further down the road, a tall building came into view and Sean had to admit that it caught him completely off-guard, though the other two luckily weren't watching him as he lost his composure for a second or two, nothing more.

They climbed out of the car and entered the castle, where Harry showed them the East wing that was still being fixed up. Compared to the pristine exterior, the disrepair of the East wing's interior clearly showed the age of the castle. Sean suspected that Harry must have wanted the exterior fixed first, simply to ensure that homeless people, drug addicts, and whatever else, didn't decide to move in while he was gone.

Harry slowly guided them through the castle, taking care to hover slightly longer at the library. By then, both Sean and Nick couldn't figure out what floor they were on, never mind where they were in the castle, so they made sure to follow Harry closely through the maze of twists and turns and ups and downs.

They reached a dark, heavy door and Harry slowly pushed it open as if to cause quite a bit of suspense. Both Nick and Sean leaned closer to try and see through the darkness and that is when he made his move.

Sean found himself pushed into the room as he heard a dungeon door slam and he vaguely noted that Nick was trapped in the room with him as he turned around with a snarl and grabbed for his gun, only to find nothing.

Nick let out a curse next to him and Sean realized that his gun must also have been taken during the time that they were wandering through the halls, but Sean barely had time to pull enough breath into his lungs to demand that Harry release them before the door swung open, revealing a grinning Harry.

Sean grabbed Nick's arm as the Grimm stepped forward in anger, but Harry didn't seem to be fazed at all.

The oddness of the situation had Sean glancing around, only for lights to come on to reveal a library much larger than the one that they had seen somewhere on the floors above, but as he stepped closer, he found that some of the books kept swopping between titles as if they were trying to fool someone into thinking they were something else.

Sean slowly released Nick, but the Grimm was merely staring at Harry in confusion.

He turned back to Harry and found the man grinning at them with an apologetic smile before he spoke, "Sorry, the two of you have just been very tense during the trip and I couldn't resist pranking you. I know I didn't make the best impression either at first, so I led you here because I might be able to help you with something."

Sean saw Harry looking directly at him as he said this and he resisted the urge to frown. Other than his brother being a pain in the neck, as well as a few other minor problems, he didn't think there was something that Harry could help him with unless it was simply by giving him more information about the keys.

He watched carefully as Harry removed a book from his pocket, which shouldn't have been able to fit in the first place (but he would worry about it later). Harry seemed careful to only show him the pages that he had opened the book at, and nothing more, as if the book contained many other secrets.

He ignored it for now and turned his attention to the contents of the book, only to look at Harry in confusion, "These look like rituals that haven't been seen in thousands of years, but how would they be able to help me? You would need to be one of the original Wesen that led to the creation of the Hexenbeast to do these."

Harry simply nodded, though he looked a little taken aback by the information about the Hexenbeasts as if he hadn't known that fact, "I have a way that would enable me to perform it as if I were one of the original Wesen."

Sean froze and his eyes narrowed as he finally showed his suspicious nature, "Show me first." Mentally he was reeling as his mind kept repeating Harry's words over and over again. He wasn't ashamed of what his voge looked like, but it is a constant reminder that he doesn't fully fit into either world.

If Harry was really able to harness the energy of the original Wesen, then he might also receive a power boost from the rituals.