Chapter 5:……………………and family!
"Next morning, Lex's room"
/It's so great to be here, Xan seemed so happy to see us, at least, last night, he did. We made a smashing entrance in his living room fireplace. And when I say smashing, I mean smash as in my cute little butt landing on the floor and Spike falling on top of my knees. I blushed deep red and the big bad cursed all the saint in heaven, in languages that even Giles must never have heared. For a moment, I've thought we were going to be hexed to death when I saw his father wand in hand ready to throw some spells on us. Spike immediately reacted, shielding me with his body, shifting to game face, and preparing himself to go for the kill, when Xan erupted into the room, it took him only a quick glance before stopping his father and crushing us both in a bear hug. Spike had protested that he was, and I quote 'the big bad, don't need to be hugged by a bloody soddin' whelp, so get your hands of me and don't give me your bleedin' puppy dog eyes……………… BLOODY HELL! Pet when did you get that eye of yours back ?', it was really funny, because in all the time Spike took to say that he never let go of Xan once, as to make sure that he was real, like if he let go Xan would suddenly disappear. When they finally let go of each other, Xan got us out of the fireplace to introduce us to his Dad. He's kind of freaky, all tall and dark, but not in a ' I've my soul again and I must brood until the end of the world, because my soulless alter ego tortured and killed innocent people and my family' kind a way like Angel. No, it's more a 'I have power and I know how to use it, so don't mess with me' attitude, but when he looks at Xan, love shines in his eyes. I don't think Xander ever had that kind of unconditional love before, so that makes him ok, I guess. After that, Xan's Dad took a good look at Spike's condition and dragged us all in to the infirmary, where Poppy Pomfrey decided to stun him after the twenty 'bugger this woman!' and a couple of 'why can't I leave this antechamber of hell already, I'm a master vampire not a bleedin' toddler for crying out loud!'. After she finished with his assorted injuries, she insisted on examining me too. When she finished up, she had a long talk with Xan's Dad, Severus (he asked us to call him that), before letting us go back to their quarters, insisting that Spike needed to rest. So bed for everyone for now and conversation in the morning. Xan went to sleep with his snake in Severus' bedroom and gave us his own room, so Spike could rest properly in a good bed. We took our usual spots. Spike on his back and me with my head on his chest close to his unbeating heart and went to sleep./
Dawn woke up for a little while sometime later, sensing something crawling on her body, she opened her eyes to see two beautiful grey snakes. There was one on Spike and one on her, twisting to curl around their necks. They strangely made her feel more secure and she decided to let them be and fall back asleep, figuring that they were most likely Xander's other pet snakes. She had seen the terrarium where they were asleep, before going to bed. She had a nice, refreshing sleep before she waking up almost thirty minutes ago, a little snake with a green key mark on his back caressing her skin very tenderly and licking her neck, like she was kissing her. A moment later, Spike began to shift around as he woke up. He lay still for a moment before asking
"You awake, Niblet?"
"I guess so. Why?" said Dawn, yawning at the same time.
"Wanted to know, s'all... M'I dreaming or is there a snake around my neck?"
"Nope, not dreaming, it's a snake. I think it's one of Xander's pets. I have one on me too; he has a lovely green key on him. Hey! Yours has the same scar, you have on your eyebrow!"
"A snake, s' an ok pet for the big bad and his pup, don't you think Niblet?"
"I think they're cool. Do you think Xan would let me keep this one?"
"Don't know, we'll ask when we see him at breakfast. It's pretty early pet, why don't we go and sleep 'til then?"
"M'kay!"
And with that Dawn cuddled Spike some more and fell asleep to the light-shushing purr Spike made, falling in a healing sleep for the second time.
"Same time Severus's bedroom"
Lex stretched out as he woke up, getting out all the kinks of sleep, moving like a snake would have done after a summer afternoon nap and opened his eyes to find his father up and ready for a little trip to his private laboratory.
"You're awake early today, Daddy."
"One day Lex, I'll make you regret that 'daddy'!" said Severus with a smile "I've some work to do before breakfast and I want to test a theory, that Poppy and I discussed last night."
"That's what you two where discussing before we left?" asked Lex, as he got up and out of bed; Neutralis found her place around his neck instantly.
"Hello, masssssssssster. We mussssst disssscussssssssse ssssomething, I have interessssssting newssssssss!" said the snake.
"Good morning to you too, Neutralis. We can talk as soon as my father is gone," answered Lex caressing his pet's skin tenderly.
"Lex, what did you plan to do until your friends wake up?" asked Severus.
"Neutralis needs to speak with me, and after that I think I'm going to train with Eline in the training room at the end of the corridor. You know the one behind the portrait where Salazar Slytherin and Goderick Gryffindor's portraits go to snuggle in the lavender flowers. They're so cute and Salazar curses like nobody I've ever know when they're, umm… in the middle of something and you interrupt them. It's really hilarious to see him react like a knight in shinning armour defending his poor damsel in distress. But I think that the better part is seeing Godric chasing him with a sword, because trust me, that guy hate playing the girly part of the couple, " Lex finished with an enormous grin on his face.
Severus was taken aback by his son last revelation and gave a small nod with his head before leaving, promising himself a little trip to the end of the hall sometime soon. He only had three hours before breakfast now to prepare the potion he had in mind. The day promised to be interesting.
After seeing his dad leave the room, Lex put Neutralis on the bed and went to the bathroom to take a shower. Fifteen minutes later, he was heading out to the training room, listening to his snake's joyous voice.
"I wassss awake with the sssssssun my masssssssster and I wanted to sssssee how my massssster'ssss mate and daughter where. Sssso I dessscided to go in our bedroom, they where assssleep my masssster, but when I climbed up on the bed, I could sssssee that they where not alone my masssster," said Neutralis with an excited voice, which was hissing more than usual.
"Not alone?"
"No, my massssster. My mate and my daughter were curled around them."
"They wake up while you were there?"
"Yesssss my massssster, they opened their eyesssss when I approached, I am ssssso happy, my masssster, sssso happy! They ssssaid that their new masssterssss energy had awakened them lassssst night, like yoursssss had awaked me."
"Hmm?"
"What issss it, massster?"
"Just thinking 'Lis, that's all."
"And what are you thinking of, my masssster?"
"It's strange, after a thousand years or so, I found you and your family asleep, but as soon as you felt my energy, you woke up. Then, the ones I consider my daughter and my mate come, and your daughter and your mate woke up to find that they have new masters, on top of that, your name is Neutralis who means neutral and I'm supposed to be the only neutral wizard in the world."
"Yessss, it'ssss ssssssstrange but………"
"Wait a minute that's only the beginning, your daughter's name is Clavis, that means key and my daughter is a dimensional key in human form. Next , your mate Sanguis, meaning blood and my mate Spike, William the Bloody, a vamp whose whole life revolves around blood. Your family, my family! I think that each one of you is destined to a member of my family; it's the logical connection! A family made the spell that ended the first war of the wizarding world; a family with the same characteristics needs to end the last war of the wizarding world! So, if I'm right, my father represents the darkness of the family and Obscuritas is his, Luminis would be for his mate when he finally finds the right one." At that moment, Lex had forgotten all training and his brain was thinking so fast it was hard to keep up! It was like the entire jigsaw puzzle was beginning to take form for the first time since his discussion with the sorting hat. "So, let me think a minute, you said that before the spell, Obscuritas was fighting for the dark side and Luminis for the light side, that put them in the place of the warriors of light and darkness when you made the spell, right?"
"Yessss, my masssster. The ssssspell required five participantsssss from the sssssame family, a neutral wizard, a dark and a light one, a neutral who leaned more to the light and finally a neutral who leaned more to the dark."
"OK, ok, ok! I get it know, I'm the neutral, Dawn is the neutral-light, Spike is the neutral-dark and Dad is the new warrior of darkness the founders wanted me to find. If I'm right when I give Obscuritas to Dad after breakfast, he's going to wake up and then we only need to find the warrior of light and give him Luminis. When all the pieces are in place, I can begin their training and we can prepare for what's going to come to us."
"Yesssss, I think it'sssssss correct my massssster, but to accessssss their full power the warriorsssss musssst bond together, assss you mussssst do with your mate too, and technically, your daughter mussssst be from your blood. How she woke Clavissssss, without being from your blood issss an enigma you mussssst resssolve abssssssolutely before the war beginssss openly, and if you need our help we're going to need to forge a blood-bond between your family and mine. Oh, if Obscuritassssss wakessss up, I think that he would be able to sssssenssse hissss massssster'ssss real mate and sssso help ussss to find the misssssssing warrior."
"Good, good!" said Lex, his eyes full of twinkles. "So, objective one: the Dawn/blood enigma thing, objective two: daddy's new mate, that's going to be fun, because he can be a real pain in the ass when he wants to and let me tell you, he's not going to agree without a fight. Objective three: make sure that mister 'do you want a lemon drop, veritaserum flavoured, my dear? So, I can fuck with your mind in peace!" doesn't find out about what we're doing until we're ready. Four: begin Spike seduction, five: find a spell to regenerate my blood, so he can drink my blood and not some cow shit, six:………………um…………is there a six?"
"Ssssssix: it'sssssssss time for breakfassssst, my masssssster!"
Lex stopped his planning, to quickly cast a clock spell, and after seeing that he was almost late, took off in the direction of Snape's living room. The table was set and everyone was sitting. At the sound of the door closing, his father turned his head and said,
"Lex, come here, I need your blood before the potion cools!"