DISCLAIMER: Not mine. Never will be. No we are not going to be discussing if fanfics are legal or not. I have a headache already.
WARNING: Slightly beta-ed. Thanks to Grey for pointing me to a site that translates foreign words. That's French, Portuguese, and Italian.
K. Hikari: Yes everyone…it's me. I'm alive. I've updated after more than a year now I was buried in office paper work and bills to pay that I have to claw my way up the paper pile. I'm not particularly thrilled with this chapter but I was squeezing this between office stuff and real life angst and I did say I was going to finish this and I never go back on my word so here you go and hope you enjoy this. I have the next chapter ready after a few weeks. (crosses her fingers) I hope this chapter made sense or else I'm going have to work on it again…
Word Watch:
Gehenna– Lower levels of Hell according to folklore
Muggle – Okay to brush up on the Harry Potter lingo-these are folks with no magic.
Chapter 16: Sunday Driving
"Pourquoi l'enfer vous a manqué!"
(Why the hell did you miss!)
"Mim! Você deixou-o ir!"
(Me! You let him go!)
"Idiots! Sta ottenendo via!"
(Idiots! He's getting away!)
He ran across in the endless mists, pursued by shadowy figures and their ghostly voices. One minute he was fighting his Deatheater of a cousin...the next he was falling through mists and endless void. He'd heard a soothing voice call out to him but he didn't trust that tone. He kept falling. The voice was joined by others-calling to him, cajoling, asking him to trust them until suddenly there seemed to be a tinge of annoyance in the accents then outright anger and frustration followed by threats at his refusal to heed them. Soon the mists cleared and he found himself on a wasteland.
What the...?
A hand burst out of the dusty ground to grab his ankle. He yelped and jumped back, pulling the rest of the body that was attached to the hand. He howled in terror as a skeletal figure grinned back at him and spoke in a voice so hollow and cold...
"Come down...come down...all are welcome here...all are welcome in Gehennaaaaaaa..."
Oh Merlin...!
Other hands reached out from the dusty ground and the dead started rising up to scramble towards him. In his fright, he kicked the head of the first figure and watches as it rolled off then disintegrated to dust in the wind. He choked and gagged at the grit that blew into his face. It burned his skin.
"Life...precious..."
"Give it...give it..."
"...Thirsssss...ty..."
He screamed as the undead crowded over him.
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"SIRIUS!"
Thud.
Ow.
Blink.
Blink again.
Wha...?
More blinking through blurry eyes.
"Here...," someone said, handing him his glasses. The voice was distinctly feminine and seemed amused at him. He put his glasses on and the room came into focus. He yelped. The owner of the voice had her forehead press to his and the nearness surprised him. He scrambled back blushing furiously when he saw how pretty the girl was.
"Ano...his fever has broken!" The girl smiled gleefully reminding him so much of a cat.
Speaking of cat...
"Yeaarrghhh!" Harry found himself pressed painfully back the wall as a huge feline head dropped out of nowhere and examined his face closely.
"Suppi-chan..." Another feminine voice chided softly. The black feline withdrew back and settled on the bed that Harry had fallen off moments ago. Huge bed…he might add. No…enormous might be the right word.
"I was only checking if Akizuki was correct in her assessment," the black cat harrumphed indignantly, tail swishing in the air.
"What!" the first girl got up and glowered at the...Harry blinked again...talking...black panther...? With...with...butterfly wings...!
"Are you accusing me of lying you...you...!"
"Aki-chan..." This time Harry turned to the other speaker. More or less the same age as him and the girl called Aki...Aki...something...Man his head was still foggy...wait a minute...
"My headache is gone..."
"You sound bewildered," Akizuki grinned at him, forgetting the cat and probably heeding the subtle warning in the other girl's voice.
"Who…who are you...?"
The door opened and Mrs. Weasley, Ron and Hermione rushed in a flurry of robes, apron, and mitts and engulfed him in a warm hug. "Oh...my goodness...Harry...Harry...you had us so worried...," Mrs. Weasley repeated over and over again as she hugged and stroke his head soothingly. Ron was patting his back quite painfully and Hermione was standing right beside the yet unnamed girl and smiling at him widely. His gaze flicked back to the dark haired girl in curiosity. She returned his look with a polite nod and the barest hint of a smile.
"Mrs. Weasley...? Where...am I?"
"We'll leave you both and let him get his bearings," the girl said. A subtle nod on her head indicated for the strange cat and Aki...Aki...oh heck, he'll remember it next time...hopefully; to follow her. They promptly did and in a way that reminded Harry of how teachers seemed to defer to Dumbledore.
"Now...," Ron said with a big grin. "Let's tell you all the awesome things that happened while you were with the muggles!"
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It had taken a while for Harry to get accustomed to the new place or rather castle...or so it seemed to him. He'd been corrected by the strange cat, "Its manor...not castle...there's a difference." Right. Sure. Difference. He'd also been warned to stay within its perimeters or leave it accompanied by the girl Akizuki and or the black cat. Hermione was cooped up in the library most of the time with the quiet girl- her name was Miriya-by the way. Sometimes, the beautiful lady who every one calls Ms. Mizuki would join them in the library. Ron on the other hand felt awkward when Akizuki tagged along and they'd tried a few times unsuccessfully to lose their chaperone. Akizuki always found them or got there first. The cat tagged along too when Akizuki wasn't around- but more subtly, only the occasional rustle that let Harry knew he was being followed.
This was all baloney as far as he and Ron were concerned. I mean...the place was HUGE. They'd been trying to find the boundaries of the estate to no avail. It seemed even bigger than Hogwarts. What they found both unsettling was that...at first glance...it all seemed so...normal. Well okay...normal as in no magic was involved-unlike Hogwarts and the other curiosities Harry found in the Magical world. Actually, now that he thought about it-2nd, 3rd glances...heck...if it weren't for the strange cat and the fact the Order of the Phoenix had their meetings here once a week-he could swear it was a muggle house.
Except...muggle houses don't have wild cats with butterfly wings and a small orange talking plush toy. Or a 16 year old master with old eyes-talking to an angel in the light of the full moon at one of the turrets. He'd drag Ron out of his bed to point out the angel and the angel was there one minute, gone the next...making them both rubbed their eyes in disbelief. Occasionally he'd catch Eriol...the young master looking at him with a mysterious smile on his face. There were also 2 Asian young men. One had dark hair and eyes and seemed never to smile, though his expression would soften at the sight of Miriya, Mizuki or the other young man-a pale, frail looking man who looked no older than they are. If he recalled the names correctly, the dark haired one was called Touya Kinimoto, the other one was Yukito Tsukishiro...or something…He was bad enough at name recall now he had to twist his tongue around foreign names too.
Hermione had gone on to explain that these people were onmyoujitsu-wizards and witches from the East. Their magic was a bit different from that being taught in Hogwarts though how exactly Hermione couldn't explain but instead pointed them out to their books for the coming school year which he and Ron hadn't bothered to touch yet. I mean hello...school year hasn't started yet. Mrs. Weasley was running the household happily, with Ms. Mizuki or Miriya helping along or Akizuki if they catch her around. Occasionally, the twins would drop by and try to set up pranks and tricks but somehow the onmyoujitsus could smell it out and avoid the tricks all together. There was one time though that Harry could swear that the stern looking Touya knew there was a trap but knowingly stepped on it anyway. The man ended up slimed all the way to his eyeballs. Yukito was laughing softly while Akizuki was fluttering and flirting with Touya shamelessly in the pretext of trying to clean him up. And yet for some reason, Touya managed to get the rowdy twins to clean up their mess-something that Harry didn't thought possible. But there he was, watching over them with his jaw set and the twins mumbling their apologies while cleaning up. When Harry asked why they didn't try to get away all the twins said was that the man was scary.
On a fine Sunday afternoon, Miriya approached him and asked if he wanted to accompany her outside. Ron was with Hermione so he was all alone that time. Not wanting to be rude and the fact that he'd wanted to go out, he agreed.
"So uh...where are we going?"
"To the city for groceries." Her tone was light and cheery. "We have a lot of people over and some of them have huge appetites."
No kidding. Harry thought morosely. Yukito had the biggest appetite of them all. Wait...or was that the orange plush toy...? He'd done a double take when he saw that animated toy wolf down a piece of cake more than twice its size. Ron had laughed at his expression.
She smiled when she saw his look. "You okay? It's been 3 days and you're still walking around with a dazed expression on your face."
"Oh...I thought I was doing a good job hiding it," he laughed lamely.
"No worries."
They came to the garage with the collection of cars that had his eyes bugging out the first time he saw them. The twins had tried to cast a spell on one of the cars but for some reason the spell just bounced off. She got behind the wheel of the white Aston Martin convertible. The sheer luxury of the place overwhelmed him and here were these people who acted like it was all perfectly normal.
"Eriol inherited this estate from his ancestors. That and his keen business sense made this place the way it is now," Miriya answered the question that was apparent on his face.
"At 16? Wow."
"He's a genius." She was trying to hide a grin as if there was something she knew that she didn't want him to know…yet.
"He's creepy." The minute the words escaped his mouth, Harry wished he hadn't said that. They were pulling out of the garage and into the drive way. "Oh shoot...Miriya...I didn't mean..."
"No...relax. It's okay."
Silence.
"Miriya...uhm...I didn't..."
"Harry..."
They both spoke at the same time. They shot each other a quick glance before laughter broke the ice.
"Oh geeze..." he scratched his head, embarrassed.
"No problem. Let's just start all over again. My name is Miriya Hiirigazawa and you are?" She joked as the car made its way towards the iron gates which marked not the boundary of the estate yet but merely the house grounds...no...correction...manor.
"Miriya, I'm Harry...nice to meet you."
"I'd shake your hand but they're occupied now."
"I can always magic the car to drive itself."
"No thank you. You're not up to that level yet." she teased.
"Ouch. Hermione has been telling you things again?"
"Oh yes. I have to know who my classmates are and what to expect."
"I hope she told you about Neville Longbottom."
"Yup. Mental note, protection shield just in case..."
Harry laughed. He found it surprisingly easily to talk to her once he got over her...rather...formal air to say the least.
"Feeling better now Harry?"
"Much. Thanks. I'm sorry about the comment about your cousin though...but...he does creep me out...or was that waaaay too candid?"
Laughter. The wind was picking up as they sped up, leaving the gates and into the country road.
"What do you expect? He's living by himself for most of his life with only Akizuki and Suppi for companions. That's enough to drive anyone a bit loony."
"Suppi..? Oh you mean Spinel Sun..?"
"Yeah. Besides, Eriol's also a 50 plus year old gentleman trapped in a 16 year old body."
For a minute, Harry wasn't sure if he heard correctly, "You're...joking...right...?"
"Nope."
Silence except for the even hum of the car as they leisurely drove in the English country side.
"What...do...you...mean by that?"
"I meant exactly what I said, Harry."
"How...?"
"Magic."
"He wants to be young forever?" He could hear the disbelief in his voice. He'd know magicians have notoriously long life spans compared to normal people but eternal youth?
"Actually he wants to grow old like the rest of us but at that time he can't."
"Wait...back up... I'm confused..."
"Our...kind of magic works a bit differently from the West...there are similarities but there are also differences. One of the side effects caused him to remain in the form of a 10 year old for years till he found a way to break free from it."
"Ten?" He could imagine his bug-eyed look at that which he was sure matched his squeaky voice just now.
"He's been aging normally now for the last 6 years so he looks 16."
"But in reality he's older? Wait...what about you? Are you very old too?"
Laughter again. "Goodness...no. Turning 16 this year. Yukito and I have the same birthday. And just in case you are curious...we're all aging normally...only Eriol is off by a few decades or so..." Well…normal depends on what you are really…but then again…no sense saying that for now, she thought to herself.
"Those...happen often?"
"Nope. He's the only extreme case so far." Unless you throw in demons, elementals, etc not to mention immortals…except she didn't add that part. No use distressing him with more facts. Lucky really. Magic users…but shielded mostly from the reality of what it meant to wield magic. But not for long if the Commandments fell apart…
"Whoa." He was thinking. " So uhm...what's the deal with this not wandering out of the estate and always being accompanied by either Akizuki or Spinel...?"
"Hmm..? That? Oh. Simple. We don't want your head exploding."
Blinks.
"Say what again, Miriya?"
"We don't want your head to explode, Harry."
"Okay I know the headaches were bad but isn't that a tad extreme?"
"You still have those headaches ever since you got brought to the house?"
"Uhm...no...not anymore." Truth to tell, all he could remember then was passing out in the arms of Ms. Mizuki while in his Aunt's house then waking up later in his new room. Later on the headaches sort of slipped his mind while trying to get use to the place and the new people.
"Well there you go."
"Are you saying Akizuki or Spinel's presence can take the pain away..?"
"Yes. So is staying within the estate."
"Why?"
"Your magic is growing. You can't control it yet. Your kundalini or energy, since you are more familiar with that term, is spiraling out of control. Unchecked, it can literally blow your head apart."
He could feel his heart thumping fast, "So what does staying in or having chaperones got to do with it?"
"In case you hadn't notice, Harry-your magic is closer to ours than theirs. The house has a calming effect on your energy so you are not plagued by your headaches. The presence of Akizuki or anyone of us also has the same effect. Until you learn to control it yourself like I have...the headaches will continue to escalate before finally killing you."
It was a sobering realization, "You said...like you...?"
"Yes."
"You have it too...?"
"You got it from me in some roundabout way when you absorbed his own powers..."
"Huh?"
"Why do you think Voldemort even survived you when his spell back lashed?"
"Cause he's one lucky son of a..."
"Cause he powered up first by killing many parents and leaving many kids orphaned... till he finally found what it was he was looking for in my parents…came to our house and killed them for it. I told you...our magic is different from the West...how...? Well...soon enough we can see just how...see...this year is going to be a bit different from last year..." Her voice was carefully neutral as if holding back a dam full of emotions.
His voice sounded tired and defeated, "Are more people going to die this year...?"
"Yes...if he gets his way..."
Silence.
"I dreamt of my uncle…being chased by something…does it mean anything…?"
"Maybe. There's a meeting tonight with the Order. We're invited this time..."
Harry nodded, eyes staring straight ahead. Invited into the secret meetings at last. Was that a good or bad sign?
TBC
K. H. I'm not sure the tying up of the HP and CCS world went well here but it's all I can come up for now that is even remotely in line with my plot sketch. Oh yeah…to those who submitted their characters…you'll see them soon. Now help me pray that evil bosses won't bury me in office work because that is one big reason for writer's block. That way if the bosses are being nice…the soon will be a few weeks or days…instead of months ;;; (starts praying while writing down the outlines for the next chapter) By the way…thanks to Ghost Whisper for including me in her C2 community.
