Enemies

by P.A.R

A look at the history of the Unspeakable Orion Black.

31. Chapter Twentythree: The Power

A/N: Oh, sit down! I already know what you have to say.

Yes, I promised to post more. But folks, taking care of people right out of surgery is a lot more complicated than I anticipated.

Indeed, things went well, and my mother is progressing nicely.

But she's also mobile. Or at least she wants to be. But she can't be if someone isn't with her, but she doesn't feel that should stop her going where she wants. Which puts a lot on my father trying to keep up with her. Which I try to take the slack up on whenever I can to give him a break. So most of my free time is spent at my parents house trying to help out.

So posting more didn't quite work out as I planned.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

And allow me to say there was a very good reason this chapter is sort of late. I mean, I have managed, barring computer problems and sites not letting me log in (Hello, Xing!), being fairly consistent every Sunday night. But I'm here to tell you that this chapter was a Bear, folks. Most of what you have been asking about comes together in this chapter. It took me close to three months to write it and rework it and I am still not happy with it completely. But all the problems with it are not solely within this chapter, but within others (Can you say 'Continuity error'?). So yes, go and have the time of your lives finding them, the continuity errors abound.

And this is extra long. So maybe that makes up for me not being able to post more like I said I would, hey? Hey!?

Next? Boy, did I screw up here.(Continuity error 1.)

You remember the last chapter? I left a whole section out of that that there is just no way for me to correct but to repost. I suggest you re-read it before trying this chapter, folks. The change is small, but important, and if it helps, near the end.

And as always,

Enjoy.

Disclaimer: Yes, it was a tough chapter. The whole story is challenging any thoughts I ever had of being a writer. But, like raising a difficult child, it's still mine, folks. (With the exception of anything related to Harry Potter, which would be the related material of JK 'HA! It ain't all fun and games now is it, Snoockums?' Rowling and her ever mercenary publishers.)

Chapter Twenty-three: The Power

Not long after Katlin moved in, Orion was desperately asking himself why he hadn't done this sooner. Life with Katlin there was paradise to him. Every morning he woke up she was peacefully sleeping next to him. Instead of the day beginning with Tets bringing him breakfast and the paper, he started it with a long, warm cuddle under the sheets with this woman he was so madly in love with.

No longer did the large house seem so empty. When he walked into a room, there was no guessing if it would be empty or not. More often than not he would find his lover comfortably curled up with a book in a large arm chair or on the sofa. And most often the book was resting in her lap as she slept comfortably curled up on the cushions and leaning against a pile of pillows.

Since her pregnancy started, Orion noticed that Katlin seemed able to drop off just about anywhere. While her growing exhaustion concerned him a bit, and he practically begged her to see a doctor just to make sure things were all right, Katlin constantly waylaid his worries with telling him that being tired all the time was just part of being pregnant. And she constantly warned him against her seeing a doctor due to the possibility that someone may take the news to Voldemort, and she wasn't ready to face that yet. She wasn't sure what the dark lord would think of the news, or how he would take it. And so not to start any arguments, Orion often backed down and let the matter go for the time being.

But despite her overall desire it seemed to do little more than sleep, Orion never missed the chance to try and persuade her to go places with him. Something he seemed to enjoy more than anything else. And so often Katlin gave into him and would quickly find herself seated in the little roadster next to him as he drove off to some place that was usually kept secret until they arrived.

The wait was always well worth the trip. Sometimes they would end up stopped along the highway where he would arrange a small picnic for them overlooking the ocean. Or he would take her for an overnight trip to a small country bed and breakfast just to get her out of the house for a short spell. Or, as was the case that particular morning, he ended up driving them up the coast to a small country township for brunch at a local pub. Over all, the day had been a pleasant one. And now, late in the afternoon, Katlin was enjoying letting the wind whip her auburn tinged hair about behind her as Orion drove the little roadster along the winding path that led along the coast line. With a contented sigh she rested a hand over her stomach and settled back in the seat with closed eyes.

"Baby kicking?" The voice beside her ask.

Katlin chuckled at him. "Orion, I'm just over a month pregnant. The baby hasn't got anything to kick with."

"Ah, but he's a Black. He'll find a way. Even if it's just to be bouncing around in there, driving Mum nuts."

Katlin chuckled again. "Well, for your information, your son, or daughter, isn't doing anything right now but being a proper little parasite. I'm just stuffed, is all."

"Well, that's good." Orion encouraged her. "You need to gain weight."

Katlin gave him an evil stare.

"For the baby!" He specified, pulling back in mock terror from her stare. "Mothers need to gain weight when they're pregnant."

Katlin let her stare dissolve into a happy smile as she settled back in the seat again. "Can we just get home." She sighed. "I'm right ready for bed."

Orion reached over and lovingly brushed a bit of hair out of her face. "You can apparate if you'd like. Go on to bed. I'll bring the car about in a bit."

But Katlin shook her head. "No, I love the smell of the sea air. And the drive will just lull me to sleep anyway. Just don't trip carrying me in."

Orion smiled as his lover shifted again in her seat until she was leaning comfortably against him.

He turned and place a gentle kiss on her head. "Have a nice nap, Love." A small 'Mmmmm' answered him.

A few miles outside of the town the road began to get a bit more difficult and Orion pressed down lightly on the brake as the car sped about a particularly sharp curve. A sudden shot of adrenalin went through his body as he pressed the brake peddle all the way to the floor without results.

"Merlin's Beard!" He whispered, gripping the steering wheel tighter as he fought to keep the roadster in the proper lane. They had crested a hill just before the curve and the little car was picking up speed at a rapid rate.

A second sharp turn jolted Katlin out of her sleep. "Orion?" She mumbled groggily. "What's wrong?"

"Apparate!" Orion shouted at her. "Now!"

Katlin shot up in her seat as Orion swerved the car back into their lane. "What!?"

"Get out!" Orion shouted at her. "We've lost the brakes. Get out of the car, Katlin!"

"But what about you!?"

"I'm right behind you. Just go!"

Katlin shot him a worried glance, then concentrated on the foyer at the house.

Nothing happened.

"Katlin!" Orion pressed.

"Something's wrong!" She replied, a slight panic in her voice. "I can't apparate!"

Orion tried to watch the road as he turned briefly to Katlin, a dozen reasons and a dozen solutions running through his mind. He turned quickly back to the road. A ninety degree turn was a few hundred yards in front of them. At the speed the roadster was traveling he would never be able to make it.

Thinking as quickly as he could, Orion focused everything he had in him on his growing fear and on Katlin. On what would happen if his plan didn't work. Reaching over he took Katlin's hand.

"Hold onto me tightly." He shouted at her. "Don't let go for anything."
Katlin grabbed his hand, barely noticing how painfully tight his grip was as she watched the curve approach them. She knew they weren't going to make it. Orion wasn't even trying. All he seemed to be doing was keeping the car in their lane. As they headed for the guard rail of the curve, Katlin swore she had never felt such fear in all her life. The car never turned. She heard the front of the roadster hit the guard rail.

And then silence.

Katlin suddenly fell forward. She had expected to feel herself falling as the car went over the cliff's edge, and her body simply followed her expectations. But a second later she hit something hard and she was on her hands and knees, one arm wrenched behind her as she still held tightly onto Orion's hand.

Opening her eyes and looking about quickly, Katlin found herself kneeling in the foyer of Orion's house. A pair of arms were suddenly around her, lifting her into a tight embrace.

"Thank heaven!" Orion cried. "I wasn't sure! I wasn't sure it would work! But you're safe! You're all right!"

Katlin quickly pulled back from him, her eyes wide with fear and confusion.

"Orion!" She practically screamed at him in a panic. "What happened?! How did we get here!?"

But Orion just laughed as he pulled her to him again, crying over and over again that she was safe and unharmed and thanking someone for it with each sentence. But he never said who.

Katlin settled into his embrace and just let him rant on. She wasn't going to get any answers until he calmed down. A fact that frightened her all the more. Orion was rarely out of control. He was always the more level headed of the two of them. The one who thought things through to the last possible variable. But now, as he stood holding her, she would swear he was near hysterics.

Slowly, but steadily, Katlin could feel the tension begin to leave his body as he relaxed into simply holding her gently now in his arms. But finally she carefully pulled him back and fixed her gaze on him.

"Orion," she ask softly, "what happened back there? I couldn't apparate myself out, let alone someone else. How could you do this?"

Katlin watched the fear slowly creep back into his eyes as he met her gaze, then finally, turning to the floor as he shook his head, he took her hand and led her to one of the benches in the foyer and sat down, tugging at her hand for her to join him. Katlin slowly sat down next to him, a worried stare focused on the man next to her.

"Love, we need to have a talk." He said in a quiet, slow voice.

"About what?" Katlin asked, her own anxiety now growing.

Orion sat in silence for what seemed to Katlin to be an impossibly long time. But finally he spoke again.

"There's something about my family.....about me.....that I should have....I should have told you, Katlin. I should have told you a long time ago."

Katlin's anxiety grew even stronger now.

Orion took a long, deep breath before continuing. "A very long time ago, My great-great-great grandfather worked a spell. It was a very difficult spell. And a very dangerous one. In it, he made a bargain......with.....call it a Power. I have no other name for it and I was never given one. The bargain stated.....that as long as our family line 'housed' this Power....gave it a form to exist in, it would share its power with our family.

And it lived up to it's part of the bargain. Because of the 'Power', and part of what it brought to my family, we rose in status and power within the wizarding community. 'Black' became a name not only well-known and to a point, respected, but feared as well. No one in their right mind crossed any member of my family.

But, in order for the Power to continue, rules had to be followed. One's my great-great-great grandfather felt were small prices to pay for the power our family gained by following them. Among these rules, each generation was only to produced one offspring."

"Why only one?" Katlin asked carefully.

"The Power was passed from parent to child. If more than one child was born, the Power divided, and it weakened. It didn't want that. So it mandated that there was to only be one child for each generation. The last was my father.

But...he broke the rule."

Katlin thought for a moment. "You have a brother." She whispered quietly.

Orion nodded. "My father saw the Power as becoming a curse to our family, not a blessing. My grandfather.....used the Power. He was a very powerful, very respected wizard in his day. And while our family was powerful at the time, he wanted it to be still more so. And so he used the Power as a method to maintain and build on our family's status. Bringing it to what it is today. Very well known, and very feared, for it's power.

But my grandfather........he died nearly insane. In his later years we had to keep him shut away from the public. He lived in his house mostly and rarely went out. The Power fed off of him. The more he relied on it, the stronger it became in him. The more 'like' him it became until you couldn't tell one from the other. They weren't two separate entities anymore. My father use to tell me he never saw the Power more clearly than when he looked into the eyes of my grandfather."

"But...you said the Power passes from parent to child. Why was it still with your grandfather while your father was alive?"

"The Power passes on to the next host by one of two ways. When the original host allows it, or the original host is in danger of death. But when it came to my father, he had seen what it had done to his own father. So, while the Power stayed with the man who used it, who gave it a greater existence than anyone before him, it never saw the child who watched it destroying someone he loved.

And my father grew to hate it."

"Then why not just leave it where it was?" Katlin asked. "Let it die with it's host?"

"Because the original spell was set up to never allow that to happen." Orion answered. "If the original host is going to die, the Power is allowed to leave that host and go to the next on its own.

But when the Power did pass to him, my father was prepared for it in a way the Power never expected. He had devised spells and charms that allowed him to control the Power while it was in him.

From the day it came to him, he refused to let it out. He never tapped into it. Never used it. Never let it see the light of day. He buried it within himself and kept it there. And all the while formulating a plan to rid our family of it once and for all."

Katlin thought for a moment. "He had two son's."

Orion nodded. "That was the start of his plan. The Power, by the parameters of the original spell, was forced to divide between the children if more than one was born into the family. My father hoped that by doing so it would weaken it enough to finally rid our family and the world of it."

Katlin stared at her lover. "How?" She ask in a flat tone.

"By ending the family line." Orion answered in the same flat tone. "The rest of the spell's parameters stated that should the family line die out, so would the Power."

Katlin sat for a moment thinking over what Orion was telling her. "You were never suppose to have children." Her voice was devoid of any emotion now.

Orion shook his head. "No."

"Or your brother."

"And Sirius lived up to his part of things. Without even knowing it." Orion added with a small laugh.

Katlin's eyes widened in understanding. "He doesn't know?"

Orion shook his head. "Our father felt the best way to keep a host from using the Power was if they never even knew they had it access to it."

"But what if........what if he had had a child?"
Orion shrugged. "We were raised with some very strict principals." He explained. "And we were always taught to be careful."

Katlin frowned at him, turned to her own still flat, firm abdomen, then turned back to him. "Accidents happen?"

Orion looked over at her, following the path her eyes took before looking back up at her. "Accidents happen."

"So this 'Power' will pass to our child?"

"I don't know, Katlin. And if it does, it is my own stupidity and arrogance that allowed it."

"How?"

"You guessed that part of the way my father planned to destroy the power was by having two children. By forcing the Power to divide itself. But he came up with an even more fiendish plan than that. He didn't want the Power. He didn't want it to be a part of him or any part of his family. That even though it would be divided, it would still exist. It would still touch his own children. And he didn't want that.

And so my father took to studying the original spell. To see if there wasn't some way to end our 'family curse' once and for all. And one night he felt he had found what he was looking for. By the parameters of the original spell, the Power had to have a host. But that was all the spell specified. 'A host'. A family 'member'.

"What difference does wording make?"

"In regards to this particular spell, it made a great deal of difference. Apparently my great-great-great grandfather wasn't just some power hungry fool of a wizard. He was quite clever about how he went about getting that power. And in the original spell he left a safety net for his family. A way to rid the family of the Power if the need so arose.

In the original wording of the spell, the Power only required a family member as a host."

"So?"

"It never specified a 'blood' family member."

"That's just semantics."

"Certainly that was a possibility. But it was one my father was willing to gamble with. Should he fail, the only person who would pay would be him."

And so he set out finding a new host for the Power. Late into the night he would sit in the den by himself, trying to think of a way to perfect his plan. Going over the smallest details of it until he felt there was no error in it.

But a new host.

That was the part that eluded him the longest. It had to be one that was.....for the most part....harmless. One that had little more than the mind of a child, was easily controlled, and that would live long past Sirius or I, so there was no danger of it trying to come back to our family."

Katlin thought for a moment, but then slowly turned her eyes back to Orion. "Who?" She asked slowly as understanding began to dawn on her.

"You've seen him." Orion replied.

"Bo." She replied in a low whisper. "Your father transferred this....this 'Power' into the boggart."

Orion gave a half-hearted sort of smile. "I told you he wasn't your average boggart."

"And this 'Power'....it saved us." Katlin asked as she turned her attention back to the present. "But how could it have done that if it lives in Bo now? Bo was here. At the house. How could he even know......?"

Orion gave a deep sigh. "When I was still very young," he answered, "I was, as my mother used to say, too curious for my own good. I used to see my father go down into the cellar every so often, but no one else in the house was allowed down there. And so, I reasoned, whatever was down there had to be something worth investigating. And so one day, when my father was away on a mission and my mother was in the kitchen cooking up some potion that would take some time, I snuck down into the cellar.

Almost immediately I ran into a barrier. But it wasn't one I could understand. The barrier was there. I could feel it. But it didn't stop me from going through it in either direction.

Well, not caring past that, I continued down into the cellar. It was so dark I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. But suddenly a green, glowing light appeared in the far corner. Well, I was a curious child, as I said. So I followed it. But suddenly the light disappeared, and I distinctly heard a door open and close. I ran to where I last saw the light and searched the wall I found there until I found the door. I opened it and found myself now facing a long, carpeted, lit hallway, lined with doors. I was mesmerized. A whole corridor of unanswered questions. That was all I saw. And so I began to explore.

I opened the several doors, only to find, to my growing disappointment, nothing at all behind them. But several doors down, I opened one and a horrible, scaly creature emerged, lunging at me.

I don't think I ever screamed so loud in all my life. But as soon as I screamed, the creature retreated. At first I thought maybe it was as afraid of me as I was of it. But I quickly realized it was my scream that alarmed it. It quickly backed away from me, its hands held out, frantically shaking its head. I abruptly stopped screaming, and to my amazement, the creature vanished. In its place now stood a figure in dark robes. Sort of specter looking thing really. I stood for the longest time just looking at it. I had no idea what this new creature was. But it wasn't attacking me, and so I thought perhaps I could talk to it. I asked it if it could talk. The creature shook its head. Well, that was going to be a problem.

I was trying to figure out a way to communicate with it when the creature prodded me in the shoulder. I looked up and it directed me down the corridor with the wave of a thin white hand. I looked down the corridor to what it was indicating, and before I knew it, the door slammed shut in front of me and I was alone in the corridor again.

I decided the only thing to do was go see what the creature wanted me to look at.

Well, a few feet down the corridor, another door suddenly flew open in front of me and the same scaly creature leapt out at me. But this time, as soon as I got over the initial shock, I began to laugh. So the creature wanted to play a game. I was willing to go for that. And it seemed pleased that I liked the new game. It quickly disappeared behind the door and I continued down the corridor.

A few more feet and another door flew open. This time a werewolf leapt out at me. I jumped at first, but then laughed again. This time I congratulated my opponent on being able to give me a good scare, and warned him it wouldn't be so easy next time.

A few more feet down the corridor a ghost jumped out at me. I huffed this one off. We had ghosts in the house and they didn't frighten me in the least and I told the creature this.

The next time it was a ghoul, then a hag, then a vampire. And so the game continued until I checked my watch and realized my mother was going to be done with her potion soon. I told the creature I had to leave, which obviously disappointed him as he stood before me with slumped shoulders. But I promised I would come back as soon as I could.

And I did. Every chance I got I went down into the cellar to play with my new found friend. We had great times together."

"But he was a boggart." Katlin stated. "How much fun was there in something that keeps trying to scare you?"

"Bo, that was what I came to call him, wasn't your average boggart. He didn't always try to scare me. Sometimes he turned out to be an exceptionally good listener. He was someone to talk to, someone to play with, and something of a mentor for my magic. Bo knew some basic spells, and helped me develop my own emerging magical abilities. I found out Bo could talk if he assumed the shape of something that could speak. A person for instance. But it was like having a piano and not knowing how to play. He could speak, but he didn't know the language. Well, not a lot of it, anyway. He could repeat things he had heard, and speak in basic words and phrases. Over all, it wasn't very easy to understand him. And so instead, over time we developed a system of signals to communicate. Something like 'Charades'. But every move and gesture meant something specific to me and I could understand him quite well. I worked over the years to teach him the language I spoke to him, but he still preferred the sign language we had developed in the end.

From him I learned part of our family's history with him. That he wasn't just a boggart, but a type of symbiotic spirit, trapped by my father in the body of a boggart. When I asked him why my father had done this, he said he didn't know."

"He never told you the truth." Katlin quickly interjected in a harsh tone.

"I don't honestly think he knew it, Katlin. I think the 'Power', for all it may be, isn't really that sophisticated. It was brought into a world it didn't understand. The only contact to that world it had was through its host. It fed off of its host's feelings and emotions. It became that person. My grandfather was a very....ambitious man. As was his father before him. They wanted our family name to mean something. And they would devise any means to accomplish that. That was what brought the 'Power' into being to begin with. My family created it, Katlin. And now that it had done what we wanted of it, we kept it locked away in a dark cellar.

Learning things from Bo's side of the story, I could see things clearer than my father."

"He never told you the truth." Katlin repeated.

"He told me what he understood of it." Orion replied. "He was locked in a cellar and he didn't know why."

"Surely your father told him."

"My father never communicated with him or even tried back then. He only saw or knew Bo as one thing. The thing that had destroyed his own father."

"But...," Katlin stated slowly, remembering something Orion had once told her, "you said that your father and the boggart used to play tricks on you."

"Still do." Orion interjected quickly.

"But when he appeared as your father in the cellar, you said that was a trick they used to play on you."

"Still do." Orion admitted, this time a bit more forlornly.

"But....why would Bo....play tricks...with a man who kept him locked away in a cellar for years? He must hate him."

"Bo doesn't 'hate' anyone, Katlin. I don't think he really understands the concept of 'hate'. Granted, he likes some people more than others. And some he's down right indifferent to. I guess that's as close to 'hate' as he can come."

"But your father.....surely he wouldn't participate in such a thing with a creature he's afraid of."

"Well, first off, my father isn't 'afraid' of Bo. He just didn't like or trust him for his own reasons. And...secondly, he's mellowed a bit towards him in the past few years. Gotten to know him through me. Begun to understand him a little more. He's even learned a bit of how to communicate with him.

My father is still a bit weary of Bo. But he isn't, nor has he ever been, afraid of him.

But earlier on, when my father kept him in the cellar, Bo told me, he didn't care to communicate with the boggart, or try to get to know anything about it past what his hatred told him of it. When he went down into the cellar, Bo said my father did little more when he was down there then to check the barrier, which I learned was to keep Bo in the cellar, and then leave.

He was lonely, Katlin. Even as a child I understood loneliness. He was a living thing, locked away from any contact in a world that he didn't understand."

"He was playing to your sympathy."

"Perhaps. But we both benefited from it. Bo never tried once to really hurt me. He was always patient and listened to me. He was a comfort, a confident, and a friend."

"He was a boggart that wanted out of that cellar." Katlin stated firmly.

"Again, perhaps. And I did try to free him.

As the time approached that I would be going away to Hogwart's for the first time, I already began to miss my friend.

And as the time got closer, whenever I went down into the cellar, I guess Bo began to noticed my change in demeanor and asked what was wrong.

So I told him.

I told him I didn't want to go to school. I wanted to stay there. I wanted to stay with him. At school everything would be new and different. It was the first time I would have ever been away from home for any extended period without some member of the family with me.

And I hated the idea.

Bo asked me if someone could go with me, would that make it easier for me? Less frightening." Orion gave a small laugh. "Imagine that. A boggart wanting to make something less frightening for someone."

"And what was his suggestion?" Katlin asked.

"Bo said that it was possible that 'he' could go with me. That he could come with me to Hogwarts and no one would ever know."

"How? He was trapped in the cellar."

"Bo had lived with a wizarding family for a very long time. Been part of some of the most powerful wizards of their day." Orion explained. "I guess in that time he learned a thing or two. He had, after all, been helping me with my own emerging magical abilities for years.

So weeks before I was to leave for Hogwarts, he began teaching me spells. I didn't know their purposes entirely, and I didn't care at the time. All I knew was that Bo promised if I learned them right, he could come with me to Hogwarts.

I was in the cellar every chance I got. Which wasn't easy. My parent's weren't always about, being at work. But my little brother was. And like most little brothers, mine followed me about incessantly. And so I had to learn fast since I didn't have unlimited time with my teacher. As soon as my parents left for work, I would ditch Sirius as quickly as I could, sneak past the house-elves and go into the cellar, where I spent as much time as I could learning my spells. Of course, I had to put in some appearances in the house from time to time. But as much time as I could get away with, I spent in the cellar. And eventually my hard work paid off.

Bo had tried to teach me two things. One was to break my father's barrier. The other was to, as he told me, allow him to come into me. To be his host until we got to Hogwarts so he could be snuck in without anyone knowing."

"But if he knew the spell to break the barrier your father put up, why didn't he use it himself?"

"He said he couldn't. That was part of the spell. He couldn't use it himself. Someone else had to perform the spell. And so, right before I was to leave for Hogwarts, I went down into the cellar one morning and did everything just as Bo had taught me. And not to just a little of my amazement, the first spell worked. I broke through the barrier and Bo was free."

"Free to wreck vengeance on the family that put him there."

Orion shook his head. "I don't think Bo would have hurt anyone on his own. But that's a question I'll never know the answer to. Since things didn't go quite as we had planned"

Orion paused for a few moments as he turned again to the floor. "As soon as the barrier came down, I performed the second spell that allowed Bo to come into me. Mind you, I didn't really understand at the time what that meant. I was never told about the 'Power'. About its potential, its danger, or anything else. I only saw it as 'Bo'.

But as soon as Bo came into me, I......I had never felt anything like that in my life. The sheer power of his presence was absolutely intoxicating. I had never felt my magic so strong within me as I did at that moment. It was the most wonderful feeling in the world to me. And one I never wanted to lose.

But suddenly, another barrier came up behind the first. One I couldn't get through.

At first I didn't understand why I couldn't get through the barrier. It was the same as the one that had been there before. But suddenly it dawned on me that Bo was now a part of me, and he could never get through the barrier. As long as he was with me, I couldn't get out of the cellar any more than he could.

My father had laid a trap I hadn't suspected. Apparently in case Bo himself ever managed to get through the first barrier or someone were to try and help Bo escape

I had....never....seen my father so angry as he was when he saw who his trap had caught. I was quite certain I was one dead little wizard.

But that anger quickly turned to fear as he came to realize why I was the one caught in his trap.

My father slowly came down the steps. To me it seemed each one was punctuated with a question. Why was I down here? How long had I been coming down here? What had I done?"

The last part was said so softly Katlin barely heard him.

But Orion quickly went on. "I answered every question as best I could. As I understood things. And to me I was defending my friend as much as myself. I thought it was wrong of my father to keep Bo locked in the cellar. And I told him so.

I was told I didn't understand the situation. How dangerous it was. My father began to tell me about the 'Power'. But every time he started, I would finish for him. Everything he wanted to tell me, I already knew. But I told things from Bo's point of view. One my father had never heard.

When he asked me how I knew what I did, I told him. And like you, he said Bo was just manipulating me to get free of the cellar. I said I didn't believe that, and how could he be so certain about the intentions of a creature he had never really gotten to know past what he saw. Bo had simply done the best he could with what he was given. His intention had never been to harm anyone. He didn't understand that what he was doing through his host was harming them.

My father grew very quite after that. I will never forget those minutes, my father standing on those stairs looking down at me like I was something.........something he...he just didn't know what to do with. But finally he came down the few remaining steps until he was standing just on the other side of the barrier from me.

And then he addressed me like I was someone else. He told me that if I wasn't all he believed, if I was harmless, and if I meant no harm, to let his son go. I don't think even seconds past before my father suddenly pulled his wand out.

Something inside of me pulled back at the sight of it. Of what felt like their own accord, my arms came up in front of me, as thought to ward off a blow that was coming, and a word formed itself in my brain and came out of my mouth in a cry of despair.

'No'.

That was all Bo had the time to say before my father pointed his wand at me and spoke a powerful spell to drive him out."

"And?" Katlin asked.

Orion sat for a few moments in silence, staring forlornly at the floor. "I have never felt such an emptiness in me as when the Power left me and returned to the creature that it had left at the base of the stairs. It was like losing a part of myself I never even knew was there.

But I didn't have long to think about it. My father grabbed my arm and pulled me through the barrier and up the stairs after him. With the 'Power' gone, I could now pass through the barrier.

Once out of the cellar my father placed another spell on the door similar to the one that had trapped me. Then I was taken to my room and given the lecture of my life. One that involved a lot of yelling as I recall. Didn't I understand family responsibility? Hadn't I been told not to go into the cellar? Didn't I ever listen to my parents? Over and over he said the same things. And then..........then I saw my father do something I hadn't seen him do in all my short life. He cried. Right in front of me he broke into tears and grabbed me in a tight embrace. He rambled on about how he had never wanted this to happen. It was what he had tried so hard to prevent. To save me from. And it had happened anyway. Despite his efforts, his precautions, his plans......., the 'Power' had now come to me. It had touched me and now would be a part of me until I died.

My mother had come into the room during the lecture part, making sure my father didn't kill me I supposed, as I was almost sure he was going to. I turned my gaze to her, and saw tears in her eyes as well.

I simply didn't understand what everyone was so upset about.

Well, I wasn't given long to wallow in my blissful ignorance. That very day my father began teaching me the spells and charms he had learned to control the Power.

He kept calling it that. 'The Power'.

I kept calling it 'Bo'.

And that became a bit of a power struggle between us right off the bat.

He felt I was personalizing it too much. Making it like a pet. Not seeing the danger of it.

I tried to remind him that 'Bo' hadn't harmed me when he had had the chance. He said he had had to force the Power out of me.

I argued he never gave Bo a chance to leave me.

And so we argued on. But despite my misgivings about the situation, I still learned the spells he taught me. After learning so many protection spells and charms before I even started school, I guess that was what made me so good at them. By the time school started, I was almost an expert at them already."

"So you went to school alone after all." Katlin said softly.

"I went to school." Orion agreed. "The 'alone' part is a bit questionable."

"What do you mean?"

"My father went with me to school, along with my mother. They were a very prominent witch and wizard. Both had graduated from Hogwarts themselves. And now their son was going to the same school. They wanted to be there for the sorting. My father said it was a type of family tradition. To see each child's sorting. And, despite what had happened just prior, my father felt that the whole incident had also served to show what potential I had in me to become a great wizard."

"My, but couldn't he find the silver lining on that cloud?"

"Always could. And to him, this was the one circling the events that had happened in the cellar. It simply showed that I was already showing great promise.

But, regardless of how much silver he painted around that cloud, it was bound and determined to remain a cloud not matter what."

"Meaning?"

"The sorting.....didn't go quite as my father expected it would."

"How so?"

"All my family was sorted into Gryffindor. My mother, my father, my grandfather..., as far back as anyone could remember. So naturally I was expected to go to Gryffindor as well."

"And you didn't?"

"The hat sat for a very long time on my head saying nothing, 'hmmming' to itself. It sat there longer than for anyone else.

But finally, it made it's choice."

"And that was?"

"Slytherin."

"But what was wrong with that?" Katlin stated indignantly. "Slytherin is a fine house. The ambitious and the cunning are usually sorted there. And you had already showed yourself to be both with what you did in the cellar."

"Yes, but most people don't associate those traits with decent people."

"It depends how you use them." Katlin replied with a slight frown. "Ambition and cunning can be very useful for promoting what people think of as 'good' as well as evil."

"True enough. But my father most definitely did not see it that way.

He held his ground, but I could see the anger in his eyes. I could feel it like a wave rolling through the great hall.

When the sorting was over, I was taken by my father immediately to the headmaster's office.

Poor Dumbledore. My father came into that office like a tidal wave. But the headmaster met his fury like the beach meets that tidal wave. He just let him wash right over him, never so much as lifting an eyebrow.

And in the end, the wave was gone and the beach remains.

When my father had spent out the majority of his fury, Dumbledore quietly asked him what he wanted him to do about the situation. I had been sorted. The hat never lied. My father demanded that I be resorted. The hat had made an error, he said. There were...circumstances.....that hadn't been taken into consideration the first time.

Dumbledore got up from his desk and crossed over to where the hat sat on its shelf. They conversed quietly for a few minutes, and then finally the headmaster took the hat off the shelf and walked back over to where my father and I stood.

The hat agreed to resort me, he told my father. But, it warned my father quite directly, he would have to accept its decision this time. It would accept no further protests from my father on the matter."

"But....but that's unheard of!" Katlin stated in shock. "No one is ever sorted twice. It isn't done."

"Well, this time it was. And so the hat was sat on my head again right there in the headmaster's office. Again the hat thought for an unbearably long time.

When it finally spoke, it didn't simply call out a house, nor did it speak to me, nor to the headmaster. Instead it shuffled about on my head until it was facing my father. And then it spoke.

It said that in my nature I had all the traits that I would be able to develop well in Slytherin house. For good or for evil, that was my choice. But Slytherin was where I belonged....in part."

"In part?"

"The hat went on to tell my father that in me it quite clearly sensed a dual nature. Almost as though I were two people. That was why it had taken the hat so long to sort me the first time. It was trying, it told my father, to decide which 'person' it was to sort. One most definitely belonged in Slytherin. That part of me was ambitious, cunning, and very powerful.

The other side was a bit fool-hearty, but tempered it with a brave nature and a keen intelligence as well. And so the hat stated that while it stood by the original sorting, it now declared me to be a Gryffindor.

Well, you can imagine the scene when the three of us returned to the great hall and I was placed at the Gryffindor table. The Slytherins were outraged. The Gryffidors as well. The Slytherins felt that they had unjustly lost one of their house members. The Gryffindors felt a wolf had been dropped in their midst. And for me? I felt like a person who had no home at all. I didn't really belong in either house.

The other Gryffindors were cordial enough to me, but their suspicion was always there. And the Slytherins felt I belonged with them, and it was an insult to their house that I was re-sorted into Gryffindor. Which caused even more stress between the two houses. Which I was blamed for by the Gryffindors."

"Why didn't you just tell them what happened?"

"I wasn't allowed. I was strictly told by the headmaster I was never to mention what went on in his office, or anything that the hat had said. Not to my mother, my brother....no one. The houses would just have to accept what was.

Through my school years I had very few friends. I was alone mostly. I became known for being sullen and a loner and most learned to stay away from me.

When I went home, I had two friends. Charly and Bo. But my father forbade me to go anywhere near Bo. And so my only other friend was now taken from me.

During the summers I spent a great deal of time with Charly. But until my fifth year even that time wasn't much of a comfort to me. I wasn't allowed to tell Charly the truth about myself. That I was a wizard. And when my parents finally agreed to let me tell him, I couldn't tell him the whole truth. In fact, I was strictly forbidden to tell anyone about Bo or anything of what had taken place concerning him. Even Sirius. But at least being able to share one secret about myself with one of my two friends was some comfort."

"Wait a minute!" Katlin stopped him abruptly. "Your partner.....Charly Misser.....he's a muggle!?"

"Surprise?"

"But.....we've seen him use magic." She stated firmly. "He's a wizard!"

"He's a muggle."

"That's not possible!"

"It's very possible. And if you'll just give me a minute, Katlin. I'll get to that part." Orion told her.

He paused for a moment, then went on. "In my sixth year, everything changed, and I wish I could say it was for the better.

When I returned to Hogwart's that year, a lot of things started to happen I couldn't explain. Something was strengthening in me. In my lessons with my father, I had been warned to be weary of this. Of the feeling that my magic was suddenly expanding. Growing stronger. That it wasn't my own innate magic. It was my magic being corrupted by the Power.

It was time for me to employ the lessons my father had tried to teach me for so many years to control the force that was now a part of me."

"And you did?"

Orion gave a small laugh. "Are you nuts!? I was a teenager.

Suddenly I realized I had an ability to do things no one else could do. I was stronger.....better than the rest. I was on top of the world as far as I was concerned.

But that also came to a abrupt end."

"Your father found out?"

Orion nodded. "I was called to the Headmaster's office one day a few months later.

There was my father, looking angrier than I had seen him that day in the cellar. And I got the second lecture of my life. About family loyalty. About listening to your parents. About self-control. Everything and anything he could cram into that hour that he stood there trying to make me understand.

And in the end, it all came down to one thing. He told me that if the 'Power' grew strong enough, it wouldn't be divided anymore."

"What did that mean?"

"Remember that the 'Power' currently was only half of it's whole ability and strength because my father had two sons. So the 'Power' was, in fact, divided. Bo only encompassed half of the whole of the 'Power'."

"But then the 'Power'.....it was already in your brother."

"Not really in him. It was more like...it was in a limbo. It had no where to go. Part of it was in me. Part was in Bo. But those two parts were part of the one half. From the moment Sirius was born, the Power was divided whether it wanted to be or not. It had to give up part of itself to satisfy the parameters of the original spell. The other half was...dormant. Unused and weak. And while it wasn't actually 'part' of Sirius, he had only to call on it to bring it to life.

But my father warned me that as I used the 'Power', it grew stronger, and it would eventually find its other half. It would find Sirius. And it would, by the strength I had given it, begin to grow in him as well. And it would destroy him, or one of us, if it had to to rejoin itself."

"And what happened?"

"I stopped. That very day, I worked to cut myself off from the 'Power'.

But...it was like stopping a drug. A very powerful one. Thankfully, the Headmaster took the situation in hand and assigned me to special teachers. Ones who helped me relearn all my father had tried to teach me as a child. And I learned all over again how to control what had almost controlled me."

"But what about your brother?"

Orion paused for a moment. "I never saw any hint in Sirius that he was using the 'Power', or that he even knew about it. I tried to subtly warn him. To make him remember all the things our father had tried to teach us when we were both young to keep the 'Power' in him at bay. Things we thought of as just learning basic spells, and never saw the real reason for.

When I left Hogwarts, I met up with my only other friend again, Charly Misser. We started working for the muggle law enforcement, and eventually I was approached to work as an Auror. With a lot of finagling, I got Charly admitted to the Ministry as well."

"And how did you manage that? A muggle working for the Ministry of Magic?"

"I didn't want to join up with the Ministry if it meant leaving my partner behind. Charly and I talked about it a lot during the nights I struggled with the decision. He told me to do what I felt was right. That he didn't hold it against me.

But then one night he said something that open a door. One I hadn't thought of before, and I didn't know why. I told Charly the reason I had been asked to join the Ministry was because of Voldemort's growing power. That they needed wizards to help fight him. Charly said he always felt some part of the wizarding community, and wished there was something he could do to help. Wishing that he could 'tap' into magic as well and help in the fight.

I sat for a moment just staring at him. Charly had never expressed an interest in such a thing before. I don't know if he just never thought of it, or just didn't think it was possible.

I asked him if he was serious. If I could fix it so he could use magic as well, would he want to?

Charly jumped at the chance. He was absolutely thrilled with the idea of being a wizard. Even just in part.

So I started trying to put our plan into action. I tried several spells, a lot of charms, everything I could think of. But nothing worked.

And so finally, not knowing who else to turn to, I went back to my childhood friend."

"Bo?"

"My father would have scoffed at the idea. A muggle using magic. It was unheard of. But the idea intrigued Bo. I was staying at the house part-time. Had been for some months. My mother and father were retired now and traveled almost constantly and were rarely home. So I took to looking after the house for them. For a long time I never went near the cellar. In part a little out of fear. In part because I didn't know how Bo would react to me. I hadn't seen him in perhaps three years. I was sure he would hate me. Feel I had abandon him. Was treating him like my father had.

But when I opened the cellar door, Bo practically flew up the stairs, running smack into the barrier that was still in place. He acted like a little puppy whose owner was coming home after a very long day. He was simply happy to see me. Happy to see his friend again. He literally danced about on the stairs, going through a series of gestures as he told me how happy he was I was back.

I had never felt so low in my life before that. Here I had abandoned him out of fear. Locked him in that cellar and done all I could to just forget he even existed. Just like my father. And there he stood, acting like those three years had never happened and just happy to see me again. All the excitement and joy he always showed at the sight of me coming down the stairs."

"Sounds a bit simplistic for such a dreaded power."

"Well, Bo is, for all intents and purposes, a very powerful force trapped in the mind of a child. It was my father's greatest way to control the Power.

But Bo started in with a whole list of questions. Where had I been? Why had I stayed away so long? Was I going to stay?

A hundred questions.

And then....the one I dreaded the most.

Was I going to let him out of the cellar?

I stood before my old friend for a long time saying nothing. I watched as all the excitement and joy in him died down and finally faded.

He looked up at me and slowly gestured 'No'. He understood my silence better than any words could have conveyed.

He started back down the stairs, looking sadder then I ever remembered. I called out to him and coaxed him back up the stairs. I sat down on the steps, and I tried to explain things to him. What had happened since he last saw me. I told him.....I felt he had lied to me about himself. He hadn't told me the truth. He had tried to trap me. To trick me into letting him out of the cellar. To becoming his new host. How did he think I could ever trust him now?

Bo stood for a long time on the stairs making no move. But finally he looked up at me again, and began a series of gestures. He told me he thought having him a part of me was what I wanted. That no one would be able to separate us then.

I told him 'no'. The people he became a part of he destroyed, and I didn't want that.

The statement seemed to genuinely surprise him. And again I didn't think Bo honestly understood what he did to his hosts.

And so I explained things to him, the way my father had explained them to me.

In the end, I told Bo that things weren't the same between us anymore. I wasn't a naive little child who believed everything he was told. He had lied to me. Manipulated me. And that I would not forgive.

But I also told him I didn't believe everything that had happened between him and my family was his fault. He simply had never understood and no one had ever bothered to explain or try to communicate with him.

He had used us and we had used him. A simple exchange.

But I felt Bo deserved something from our family...and from me. We had all abandoned him in one way or another for our own reasons. And so concessions were made on both sides. I would allow him out of the cellar, but he couldn't leave the estate unless I allowed it. And since he claimed he was bored in the cellar, I gave him a job to do. He was to protect the house. He could go where he wanted in the house and around the grounds, but no further.

If he proved I could trust him, I would allow him out past the estate sometimes, but only if I was with him. But that was not as punishment as I explained to him. He simply didn't understand the world enough to be out in it alone.

Bo agreed to all my terms, since in them he was getting the one thing he craved above any other. His freedom. Even if it was still a cage he was in, it was a slightly larger one than the one he was currently in. And it had the potential for fun."

"Like scaring me?" Katlin asked with a frown.

Orion shrugged with a slight sigh. "You. Me. The house-elves. He doesn't care. As long as he has fun. It's like constantly having a perpetual, over-active three year old on your hands. All he wants to do is scare someone. He thinks it's great fun. Sometimes I purposefully leave the house open so someone will try to break in." Orion smiled at the thought. "Merlin's Beard! How he loves that."

"So where did Charly fit into all this?" Katlin asked.

Orion sighed again as he thought back to where he had left off in his story. "I told you Bo knew a great deal about magic. He had learned from his previous hosts. And so I figured he was sort of a living encyclopedia of knowledge about obscure magic.

But I quickly found out he wasn't just an encyclopedia, he was a whole library of the stuff. A seemingly endless fountain of charms, spells, curses, and hexes he had no idea the purpose of. He just knew them. And over the years he's been very useful in that regard.

And so I asked him if he knew any way that I could allow a muggle to use magic. Where a muggle could actually use a wand and do spells.

Bo thought for a very long time. He finally told me he would have to think about it and I was to come back tomorrow.

Well, I had known him too long to be taken in by this act. The truth was, he knew the answer. I just wasn't going to like it. When I was young, and I asked him things, he did this same thing. What he wanted was time to present the answer in the most favorable light.

But it had been a long day and I wasn't in the mood to fight with him, so I left.

The next morning I awoke to find a black-robed figure standing at the foot of my bed. It took me a few minutes to recognize my childhood friend. I asked him what he was doing there? How could he be out of the cellar?

Bo explained that I had given permission for him to leave the cellar. My word was all that was necessary to bring down the barrier and set him free.

I told him I gave that permission if he proved I could trust him.

Bo didn't say anything, but simply continued to stand at the foot of my bed. Then it dawned on me that proving himself was exactly what he was doing. He was out of the cellar and he was 'behaving' according to our agreement.

I asked him if he did something 'bad', what would happen. Bo told me that as surely as our agreement had set him free, violating it would imprison him again. I felt that was adequate motivation to ensure he would behave himself.

And so I turned my attention to other matters. I remained him he said he would answer my question today.

Bo agreed.

He told me that 'yes', there was a way that a muggle could do genuine magic, even though they have no innate magical ability in them. But the cost to the wizard was not a small one.

Bo told me that I could enable Charly to do magic by, in essence, allowing him to draw off of my innate magical ability. But in order for him to do so, he had to have some physical connection, not to me, but to my magic.

Bo said to accomplish what I wanted, I had to give Charly my wand."

Katlin's eyes widened in disbelief. "You didn't!"

Orion sat for a moment in silence, staring at the floor before him. "I thought about it for a very long time. My wand....was more a part of me than anything else I had. It was, to me, what made me a wizard. What made me who I was. What I was. It was absolutely the last thing I ever thought of. To part with it. To give it to someone else.

But in the end, I did what Bo said. I gave Charly my wand. I performed the spells Bo taught me to make the wand respond to Charly through me.

But there were two things we couldn't circumvent, no matter how hard we tried."

"And they were?"

"We couldn't arrange a way for Charly to apparate unless I was with him. He had to have direct physical contact with me for that."

"And the other?"

"He can't fly a broom. That requires a direct innate magical ability. Something Charly simply doesn't have."

"So you created a wizard out of a muggle."

Orion could hear the sinicism laced throughout the comment. "Charly is every bit as much a wizard as I am, Katlin. The only difference is he wasn't born one."

"Oh, there's sound reasoning." Katlin pointed out with the same sarcasm in her voice as before. "He isn't a wizard at all, Orion. He's a muggle doing magic tricks, that's all. It's the ultimate 'smoke and mirrors'. Without you, he's just a muggle. Nothing more. Nothing less."

"Try him in a fight. I think you'll come out believing very differently."

"He is a muggle." Katlin emphasized each word.

Orion sighed to himself. He wasn't in the mood to argue moot points at the moment.
"Call him whatever you want." He replied. "But the man handles magic as well as any wizard I know."

Katlin sat for some time in silence as she turned her mind back to the more pressing questions there. "What does this 'Power' do?" She asked finally in a quiet voice.

"You saw what it can do." Orion answered her. "It broke through a spell that wasn't allowing us to apparate out of danger, and it apparated us both here. And I assure you, that was only a very small fraction of it's ability."

Katlin paused for a moment before posing her next question. "What does it want?"

"To live. To exist."

Katlin stared at him for a moment. "What does it do to it's 'host'?"

Orion sighed as he turned to the floor. "I told you that."

"If you use it......," she said softly as she recalled his words, "...it will drive you insane."

"Possibly. Keep in mind that my grandfather used it almost constantly." Orion replied, still staring at the ground before him. "I rarely use it. And only when I have to."

"How?" She asked quietly. "How do you use it?"

"I found out early on it needs something to feed off of. Fear. Anger. Excitement. It seems to be the emotion that calls it. And the more powerful the emotion, the more powerful it is. In the car, I used my own fear to tap into the 'Power'. I used yours in the hope it would latch onto it and apparate us as one."

Katlin drew back with a soft gasp. "This thing has touched me? Touched my child?"

Orion didn't look at her. "I don't know." He answered in a whisper.

"And yet you did this anyway?"

"What was my choice?" He asked.

Katlin started to answer, but then stopped. He hadn't had one really. Not one even she would have questioned his choice in.

"You have to understand." He said softly. "This 'Power' wants to live, Katlin. That's all. And it has always protected me."

"It's protecting itself." She fired back.

"No. It could always go to Sirius in the event of my death." Orion turned back to her. "I never want that to happen to my little brother. I never want him to have to feel this thing inside of him. I'll do whatever I have to to keep him safe from it."

"You say this thing is your great protector, and yet you talk about it like it is some evil."

"For good or ill, Katlin, it is a part of me. I am the one it chose to manifest itself in. Not Sirius."

"Maybe he was a little too 'good' for it."

"Maybe. Maybe it sensed a darker side to me than my brother. Maybe it's because I was born first. I don't know."

A sudden thought crossed Katlin's expression. "The car accident." She asked carefully. "That....that wasn't this...this 'Power'...was it? Trying to harm you?"

Orion laughed softly as he looked about the foyer, his focus finally settling on the door to the garage. A frown settled across his face. "No. I told you, the 'Power' has never tried to harm me. If anything, it does everything it can to keep me safe. Sometimes I think I drive it a little crazy myself, taking some of the risks I do. No, this was something far more sinister, I think."

"For instance?" Katlin asked.

"I had that car looked at just a month ago." Orion said. "They said it was fine. And I had spells on it to make sure that I would know if something weren't right with the car. But when I tried to slow the car down, the brakes had failed completely. And yet they were fine just before we left the village. It wasn't something that happened over time. It was almost instantaneous."

"Could someone have countered your spells?" Katlin asked. "Done something to the car to make the brakes go out just when they wanted them to?"

Orion frowned. "It's possible. But it had to have been someone who has been doing an awful lot of homework."

"Meaning?"

"This person, whoever they are, had to know about the spells to begin with. Then they had to have known that we were going on this trip."

"Well, who did you tell then?"

Orion's frown deepened as he sat in silence for several seconds, staring blankly ahead of him. "I only told one person." He said finally.

Katlin watched him carefully. "Who?"

Orion turned slowly to her. "Charly."

Katlin drew back slightly. "Orion, he's your partner. Why in magic's name would he try to kill you? That makes no sense."

"He might have told someone else." Orion replied. "Even just in passing. The point is, someone else did find out. Or it may have been a case of someone tailing us just looking for opportunity. Which I think is a much more likely scenario than Charly suddenly deciding to end our partnership."

"Well, I would suggest you find out." Katlin pointed out with a touch of venom in her voice. "Because the life of your child might just depend on your discovering exactly where your partner's loyalties lie."

Q&A

Next time, folks. I'm still working on the time issue. Bear with me.

And remember;

Age is just a number...and mine is unlisted.