Chapter 6

Hermione and Harry arrived back at the house to a highly charged, tense atmosphere. Tori was sitting morosely on the couch, looking absolutely miserable. When the two walked in, she jumped up and started talking. "Ringraziare gli dei! Harry, I am so so sorry. I don't know what got into me! I shouldn't have said those things-at least not how I said them-but my mouth just took control of itself, and I-"

"Tori, stop," Harry cut her off. He half-smiled to show he truly wasn't all that upset anymore. "Forget it, alright? We'll just pretend it never happened." The petite witch opened her mouth to continue apologizing, but an eruption for the fireplace stopped her.

Two men stepped out of the fire and dusted themselves off. "Sorry we're late, but Remmy was being difficult." The werewolf shot his dark-haired friend a disgruntled Look but didn't comment. Then they finally faced the mini-crowd, Harry was the first to be addressed. "Hey, kid, how're you doing?"

"Sirius?" A well-who-else-would-you-be-expecting roll of dark eyes immediately launched Harry into his godfather's arms. "No one told me you were coming. What are you doing here?" The young wizard's voice was muffled through the folds of Sirius's robes, but most of the words came through.

Sirius laughed, a sound all people in the room agreed didn't come often enough from him. "Are you kidding? You think I'd miss my first real opportunity to spend my godson's birthday with him?" Harry's only reply was a tightening of his hold on the closest thing to real family he knew. The older wizard simply smiled then carefully maneuvered both of them to an empty spot on the couch.

Tori walked out of the living room into the kitchen, listening to the chatter going on behind her. She was re-arranging the gifts with her back to the door that led to the back yard when it slowly opened. It wasn't until she felt the uncomfortable pressure between her shoulder blades that she spun around. "Dei sopra! What in the name of the Lady are you two doing here?"

The tall, white-haired girl smiled. "Is that any way to treat your two most favorite people, little one? Shouldn't you at least be inviting us in or, even better, bowing and groveling?"

Her dark-haired companion rolled his eyes at the same time Tori snorted in amusement. "Bowing and groveling my foot. But you might as well get your butts into this house. We've got a bit of a party going on, but this group is always up for more company."

Tristina and Rylan stepped into the kitchen, letting the door close softly behind them. "Truthfully, Tor, we didn't just stop by for some casual visit." Rylan completely ignored Tristina's 'shut-up, now' glare and cut directly to the chase. "The Border is being a bit. . . problematic. We seem to need your help with it."

"Well of course you do," Tori cheerfully informed them. The two exchanged glances as Tori bustled around, preparing for a birthday party while calmly discussing Realm-changing major subjects. "Let me guess. It recognized you as two very distinct Lives and kicked you out. You two may be two halves of a whole, but not even that can fool the Border into accepting you as one."

The Sofye, still adjusting to this new Realm, shared another surprised look. "Oh, don't look so shocked," Tori admonished without so much as turning to look at them. "I just tend to get a bit cranky when the Border is Crossed then not closed again. As soon as I snapped at Harry earlier, I realized what was going on and took necessary actions. The problem was solved before you even made the decision to come here."

The pair sunk simultaneously into chairs at the table, the same over-whelmed expressions decorating their exceptionally similar faces. And though she hadn't asked yet, both knew Tori was wondering what exactly they were doing Crossing in the first place. "We're supposed to become Death Eaters, spies for our Realm," Tristina informed the younger Sofis.

Tori brightened considerably at this information. "Oh, is that all? Well, Drac can help you with that, nessuno problema. And you could, I suppose, meet everyone while you're here. I'm sure you're especially interested in our Chosen?" She latched onto both Crossers, dragging them into the living room to face the surprised group. "Hey all, these are a couple friends of mine, Tristina and Rylan. Tris, Ry, these are a whole bunch of people you can figure out on your own as you go along."

Later that night, after all festivities were over and everyone had gone home, Harry and Draco were again curled together in Harry's bed. Draco was spooning Harry, gently holding the smaller boy as they talked. "You seemed really excited to see Black here today."

Harry smiled at this simple reminder of his godfather. If Draco hadn't known better, he'd have been rather jealous. "He's all the family I have. He can tell me things about my parents I never would know otherwise. Up until Hogwarts, I never believed it was even possible to have people who cared about me. My only regret now is that he's still on the run."

Instead of answering with fumbled words that wouldn't do enough, Draco kissed Harry's head and stroked the soft, dark hair. Harry reveled in the gentle ministrations, grateful for the comforting presence of someone who cared. "This is just a weird situation with the two of us, isn't it? But I can't exactly say that's a bad thing. Thanks, Dra."

"Dra? That's a new one."

Harry twisted to face the blond, worry flashing across his face. "I won't call you it anymore if you don't want me to. I just thought, well, it was stupid really. No one else calls you anything but Draco, so why should I think-"

He was hushed suddenly by Draco's hand covering his mouth. "Harry, hon, quiet. I love it, seriously." Seeing some of the doubt still shining in the emerald eyes, Draco did the only thing that came to mind; resting a hand on the other boy's cheek, he softly pressed his lips to Harry's.

"Everything is moving so much faster than we'd originally anticipated. Everything, Tori. Our timelines were never faulty before, but now we could probably ignore the timeline completely as it's so far off from actual events." Tristina studied the worried-thoughtful look on the other girl's face. Tori's eyes darted around to areas only she could see as she considered every piece of information available to her.

Finally, her eyes came to a rest, and Tori nodded resolutely. "The only thing that seems to make sense, given the whole situation in perspective, is that the power of the people we're watching seems to throw off time. Not actual time, of course, but the concept of time we See compared to actual time. Somehow, the sense of time in the things we See gets shifted so we can See exactly what's going to happen but not when or how quickly it'll happen."

Rylan seemed to accept this, but Tristina still seemed doubtful. "We've watched over powerful people before without these complications. Why is it so different this time?"

"You have to consider the comparative power of the people currently involved, not to mention the number. Usually we'll watch one, maybe two, powerful wizards at the same time. Now we have four. Albus Dumbledore and Lord Voldemort are two of the most powerful wizards of just about any time, and there's a reason Harry and Draco are called the Chosen. Very soon, no one will be able to stand against them. Not even the Council if they wanted to."

Tristina and Rylan were both stunned at this news. The Sofye had all been informed the Chosen were going to be strong, but none had seemed to think of the possibility that two human boys could be stronger than the Council. "I didn't even know that was possible," Rylan muttered, voicing both opinions.

Sighing, Tori rolled her eyes at the simple ignorance the Council instilled. "Well, of course it's possible. Despite what they'd like us to believe, our Council is not infallible. They've got a good handle on everything they need to, but something comes along every once in a great while that could throw everything off. Luckily, Harry and Draco will be happy to defeat Voldemort then lead a quiet life together."

"What would have happened if they wouldn't have been happy with that? What if, when we originally found them, we'd Seen that they wanted all the power or that they were going to someday take control of the Council?"

Tori closed her eyes in a silent thanks that this hadn't happened. "If the scenario had taken place, one or both of them would have been taken out of the equation as a child. Probably killed in a 'tragic accident'. It has happened before, and it will happen again. That's what the Council is for, to See and protect against things like that. Harry and Draco aren't exactly the first Chosen, after all."