Disclaimer: I own the plot, I apologize if it's been done before. Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling.
AN: Hi! Real AN at the end! Enjoy!
Consanguina
by Jess S
Chapter 6: Training, Tracking, and Mail
"Not bad," Vivian nodded, lowering her sword; a forty-inch, false-edged practice blade, and watching her brother do the same with a similar sword. "We'll make a swordsman out of you, yet." She smiled.
Harry shrugged, sheathing his own practice sword carefully, as he'd been taught. It wasn't that this particular sword was dangerous, but they were working up to his being able to work with swords that could take off his hand or foot if he missed.
"Your skill is improving," Vivian approved, sheathing the sword she'd been using easily, with speed and grace bought by experience, but no less caution than her younger sibling.
"Thank you," Harry replied, smiling. He could still remember when the Auror General had first handed him a sword, several weeks past... to say he'd been a little clumsy would be an incredibly kind statement. His sister praise meant a lot, seeing as she never gave any that wasn't deserved; outside of politics, that is.
"Why don't we practice hand to hand combat?"
Harry nodded, falling back into a defensive stance.
[AN: WARNING: I have absolutely no training in martial arts, all of the terms I used here I got out of a dictionary online. So I don't think this scene will really be any good, so don't read it if you think you may not like it...]
Vivian immediately began with a strike to his stomach, he jumped out of the way and went to grab her wrist, but she'd already withdrawn and begun a step punch, he reacted with inside strike, which she dodged by ducking.
Harry jumped, fully expecting the kick she aimed at his legs, and somersaulted to the side, to land and step around, striking downward at her head. She caught his hand, and used his speed to toss him over her shoulder while she rose back to her feet. He landed easily, all too used to being thrown around after weeks of practicing with her.
They watched each other carefully.
After a moment, Vivian raised an eyebrow and fell back into a defensive position. "Attack me," she ordered.
Harry nodded, quickly inching forward until he was in range to do so, while still holding a defensive posture, and then obeyed; attacking with a sideward strike and pulling back as she stepped around it, just missing a sleeve grab.
Not pausing, Vivian launched a kick at his stomach. Harry caught it with two hands, and pushed her upwards. She quickly responded by kicking his hands with her other foot and using the momentum to flip backwards, push off the mat with her hands, and land on her feet again, quickly falling into a defensive position once again.
Harry was already moving forward, and quickly launched a step-punch at her neck.
She caught him and pushed downwards, twisting his wrist slightly so that he was forced to follow the move. Once he was half kneeling on the floor, he made a grab for her left foot, but she sidestepped it, still holding his wrist, and leaned down, pressing to fingers two one of the pressure points on his neck.
Harry froze, knowing he'd lost... again.
Vivian smiled, releasing stepping back. "Very good, Harry."
~ * ~
A few hours later, Vivian had left to supposedly research his disappearance at the Ministry, and Harry himself was wandering around the Potter Manor. After a few weeks here, he had indeed begun to feel at home.
It had helped that the Manor itself seemed to be built in the same fashion as Hogwarts, with some of its own characteristics here and there. He suspected that the only reason he wasn't (too) overwhelmed by the thought of this massive building being his home was because he'd grown used to thinking of Hogwarts as his home.
The only problems he now had with the Manor were one; he still got lost occasionally. Two; he'd only found twelve of the secret passages (Vivian had told him that there were more than a hundred of them).... Three; He wished Vivian would tell him more of whatever was happening... she rarely let him read the Daily Prophet, and she didn't talk much about work; out of habit, he supposed. And four;...he wished his friends were here, to make it feel more homelike, less... empty....
~ * ~
"Why the long faces, dears?" Mrs. Weasley asked, eyeing her youngest son and his best friend (one of them, anyway,) worriedly.
Both Ron and Hermione sighed.
The occupants of the Headmasters office watched them with concern.
"I may be wrong," Vivian offered, taking a sip of the tea one of the Hogwarts house elves had just brought her, "but I suspected their sudden depression has something to do with the date."
Almost all of the others in the office looked at her.
"What's wrong with the date?" Percy asked.
"Tomorrow is July thirty-first," Vivian replied, taking another sip of tea. "Mr. Potter's birthday, is it not?"
"Yes," Ron and Hermione answered simultaneously.
"Oh dear," Mrs. Weasley shook her head, her eyes bright.
Professor McGonagall sighed, "I've been wondering if I should send his admissions letter out, as well. I usually send it today."
Suddenly, Vivian snapped her fingers, drawing all attention back to her. "I think that perhaps you should, Minerva," she smiled, and then glanced at the two fifteen-year olds. "And I suppose you have gifts for him as well?" she asked.
Both nodded.
"But how are we supposed to have them deliv–" Ron started, but Vivian cut him off.
"Owls are truly delightful creatures," the Auror smiled. "We may be lucky enough that wherever Mr. Potter is, is not guarded against owls. Not many people know that you have to put specific wards up against postal owls."
"Mr. Potter's kidnapper has shown a wide range of knowledge in similar circumstances," Professor Snape pointed out. "What makes you think they haven't thought of this?"
Vivian shrugged, "It's worth a try... we can put trackers on the owls so that we may follow them if they do manage to find him...." She shook her head, "And there is still the possibility that Mr. Potter was not kidnapped," she murmured. "After all, what else can Miss Evans divorce papers imply? And there has been little evidence to the contrary." She then glanced at Ron, Hermione, and their House Head, "Write your letters and whatnot, I will provide the owls."
"Why?" Hermione asked.
Vivian held her gaze, her emerald eyes serious, "Just because there is the chance that Mr. Potter can be found, doesn't mean it's certain. His... host may do any number of things to prevent it, if they did indeed kidnap him. My owls are trained for such circumstances," she shrugged, "and I would rather not have the deaths of someone else's pets on my conscious."
~ * ~
The grandfather clock, located down in the entrance hall before the main staircase, rang noon, the heavy 'dong, dong, dong...' echoing through the Manor's halls.
Harry looked up. He was used to the clock by now, it only rang eight times a day, but it didn't bother anyone at night. Vivian had told him that was because of the charms placed on all of the bedroom walls and doors.
With a sigh, the young wizard closed the old tome he'd been reading from, and set it down on the table. He rose to his feet, stretching slightly, before making his way out of the library and down to the sunroom, where he'd promised to meet his aunt for lunch.
~ * ~
"Are you sure this a good idea?" Hermione asked, while taking one of the eagle owls that Vivian had summoned and tying her parcel to its right talon, watching as Ron and Professor McGonagall did the same.
There were collars around all three birds' necks, which contained the tracking devices.
"Do you have a better one?" Vivian asked, her tone kind. "Because I confess, I'm running out of them."
Hermione sighed, shaking her head. After a moment she asked, "How long do you think it will take them?"
"To find him?" Vivian replied, and shrugged. "Who knows? If they are able to find him, it could take anywhere from a day to a week... If they can't; they'll bring the packages back here. Ready?" she asked, glancing at all three.
All of them nodded, stepping back.
Vivian pointed her wand at the red gem on each of the owls' collars. None of the well-trained birds' flinched, or even blinked, as she activated the trackers. She then pointed her wand at the map of Wizarding Europe, which had all of the (plottable) Wizarding areas marked on it, and muttered something under her breath. A glowing, medium-size, red dot appeared on the map where Hogwarts was located. Once that was done, Vivian whistled loudly, and all three messengers took flight.
They watched for a few moments while the red dot hovered around Hogwarts, until it then went south.
"They know where he is!" Hermione cried happily.
Vivian shook her head, "Not necessarily, they may be looking for awhile. Until then," she said, rolling the map up and handing it to Professor Dumbledore, who placed it in one of his desk drawers. "I suggest we get back to looking for another route to finding the boy."
~ * ~
Not far from the Hogwarts grounds, but still out of sight of Hogsmeade, a slender witch stood, watching the approaching three owls. The hood of her deep blue cloak shadowed her features, and only one strand of her reddish-blonde hair wasn't concealed within the hood.
Just before they passed overhead, she raised her wand, and waved it three times, pointing at each of the owls as she did so and murmuring a spell under her breath. Three beams of blackish-purple light shot out of the end of the wand.
The owls did not try to dodge the spells, so the beams hit the glowing red jewels on their collars, the red lights darkened slightly, gaining a purplish tint, before returning to their original shade.
Shaking her head slightly, the witch Apparated away.
~ * ~
The next day, Harry looked up as not two, but five owls flew into the breakfast parlor and landed on five of the twelve perches that were set up there. There were the normal tawny owls that delivered the post; The Daily Prophet and Le Journal Magique, and there were three eagle owls with collars that bore glowing red gems. Two of the eagle owls bore parcels, another held what looked like a Hogwarts letter.
"Vivian?" he called in inquiry.
She entered a moment later, her ministry robes sweeping behind her. The Auror smiled slightly, taking the newspapers from the messengers, giving each a treat and dropping a sickle in each of the bags. She said, "thank you," to one and, "merci" to the other.
Both owls hooted in reply, after finishing their treats, and then took off.
Vivian glanced at the other three, then nodded to her brother. "Well go on then, they're for you."
Harry blinked, stopping with his fork, which bore a bite-size piece of his waffles, half way to his open mouth. Several large drops of syrup dripped off the breakfast food, before he set the fork back on his plate. "What?" he asked. He'd been at the Manor all summer and had never once received any mail for himself.
Vivian smiled, taking another parcel out of her robes and putting on the table. "Happy Birthday, Harry." She said, placing an affectionate kiss on his brow, before rising up again, "I am sorry that I can't spend the day with you. Why don't we make it up tomorrow?"
Harry blinked, and looked at the calendar; 'July 31st', and blinked again. This was the first time in a long time that he'd been that oblivious to the date, which was rather strange; considering he would actually probably have a real birthday today.
"Aunt Petunia's been in the kitchen for a while now," Vivian told him, while pouring some tea into a stainless steal travel-mug. "She threw the house elves out an hour before dawn." She shook her head, adding milk and sugar to the mug before screwing the top on. "I think she'd prefer to be left alone, at least for the morning and early afternoon," she said, "I have the house elves working in the other kitchen, so we'll have a feast set out for supper, alright?" she asked with a smile.
Harry nodded mutely, rising from his seat and making his way over to the owls, while Vivian headed for the door. Upon seeing the Hogwarts seal on the letter, he blinked again, and quickly spun around toward the door, "Vivian!"
She stopped and turned around, raising an eyebrow, "Yes?"
"How am I supposed to reply to these?" he asked, frowning. "One's from Hogwarts and the other two are probably from Ron and Hermione, I can't just... not answer them!"
Vivian smiled reassuringly, "Don't worry about it. That's all taken care of. Just write your reply and send them off, soon." She instructed. "You can say that you're safe and happy and whatnot, but try not to give any clues as to where you are. Refer to me as 'family ' or something along those lines, and yes," she answered his unasked question, "you will be returning to Hogwarts this year."
Harry nodded, "Ok..."
His sister smiled again, before spinning on her heel and hurrying from the room, a moment later he heard the Floo and then silence once again.
Harry shook his head before returning his attention to his mail.
~ * ~
"Where is she?" Ginny asked for the fifth time.
Arabella sighed, "I don't know, dear. She's a very busy lady," she shook her head. "Honestly, it's a wonder she chose to take this case, considering she's been even more busy than usual–"
She was cut off by the sound of the Floo suddenly bursting to life, as Vivian herself stepped through.
"Good morning," Vivian smiled at all of them, receiving nods from everyone and a "morning!" from Ginny.
"Why're you so late?" Ginny asked after a moments silence, before her hands flew up to her mouth as she realized how insulting that question could be.
Vivian merely smiled reassuringly, "I am sorry, I was... held up for awhile at the Ministry," she shook her head, a faintly disgusted look crossing her features before they returned to her normal 'pleasantly neutral' expression.
"What happened?" Hermione asked, curious.
The Auror glanced at her while taking the only vacant seat. After a moment she replied. "Have you read the Prophet recently?" she asked.
"What? – ah, no," Hermione shook her head, "I haven't... why?"
"Anyone?" Vivian asked, looking around.
Everyone glanced at each other before all shook their heads.
"I'm afraid we've all been a bit preoccupied," Professor McGonagall replied.
"Oh, quite right," Vivian nodded, not sounding the least bit surprised.
"What was in the paper?" Ron asked.
Vivian shook her head, pulling a rolled up copy of the Daily Prophet out of an inside pocket of her robes. She handed it to the headmaster over his desk. "The Minister," she began as Dumbledore unrolled the Wizarding paper, "has begun a new campaign, and it would seem," she nodded to the paper, "that Mr. Potter is being viewed as... either delusional, mad, a 'fame seeker', or all of the above."
The Headmaster nodded in agreement, frowning at the paper as he turned the page. He shook his head, but before he could say anything, Hermione let out a shriek.
"Look!" she cried, jumping to her feet and pointing out the window.
They all turned to look. For a moment none of them were sure of what they were looking for, but it quickly became apparent that the sight of the three eagle owls they'd set off the day before was the cause of her concern.
~ * ~
"Is something wrong, Harry?"
Harry looked up, "Hmm...? What? Oh - no! No... not at all..." he replied, while rubbing his forehead, "just a headache..." As his aunt nodded, sparing him a concerned glance before turning back to her fruit salad, he frowned, 'More like a scar ache...' he shook his head, sighing while rubbing his scar again, hoping the prickling would go away on its own.
"You should tell Vivian about it."
"What...?" He looked up again, a piece of melon balanced on his fork, halfway up from his plate.
"If you're scar is bothering you... it might be important..." Aunt Petunia replied, looking very nervous.
"Well... yeah... I suppose..." Harry nodded, then frowned. "Wait... how do you...?"
"You're mother told me... a long time ago... that curse scars are different from normal scars... and that the more powerful the curse was, the more powerful the scar is..." she shook her head, before meeting his eyes with her own, over-bright blue ones, "The curse that gave you that scar killed both of your parents, their murderer and..." she sniffled, "it... it even brought their townhouse down..." she shook her head, "and now that... he's back... it could be important..."
After a moment, Harry nodded.
~ * ~
Vivian shook her head as she took the letters from her owls and handed it to the addressees, who simply clutched the letters hopefully, before turning to the headmaster.
Dumbledore, it seemed, was already ahead of them, for he had unrolled the map, and was frowning at it.
"What is it, Albus?" Professor McGonagall asked, looking worried.
The Headmaster sighed, after a moment, he looked at Vivian, "How, may I ask, does the tracking spell work, Vivian?"
Vivian frowned, apparently startled. "It's... a tracking spell. The map shows where the owls flew.... Doesn't it?" she asked.
"I was afraid of that," he sighed, before setting the map down on his desk, for all to see.
Everyone stared at the map.
Instead of one steady, red line leading away from Hogwarts, there were hundreds of purple ones, all leading way from Hogwarts, traveling the same distance and looking back around.
"What... what happened?" Mrs. Weasley asked, shaking her head.
"The tracking collars were tampered with," Vivian sighed, shaking her head. "I'll have my department look them over. It could have happened anywhere throughout the journey.... But if we're lucky, they were changed by Mr. Potters keeper, wherever they are, and that'll be at least one clue." She spun toward the fire, and tossed a few glittering, miniscule jewels in, before turning back to them. "In the mean time," she continued, looking at the map. "We can always search these areas."
"What do you mean?" Madame Hooch asked, "wherever they went, they covered at least a hundred miles, they could be anywhere."
"No," Vivian shook her head, "wherever they went, they covered one hundred miles... the map shows that much."
There was a burst of green flame from the fireplace, as a young Auror stepped through, before the flames died down.
Everyone turned to look at the newcomer; a young witch in Ministry robes much like Vivian's, with reddish-blonde hair and bright sky-blue eyes.
"Ria'," Vivian smiled, nodding. "Thank you for coming so quickly." She nodded to the three owls that were resting on the perches by the window. "I need you to check the trackers for tampering." As Ria' nodded, making her way over to the owls, Vivian turned back to the others. "Everyone, may I introduce my friend and colleague, Riatanya Willow?"
Everyone nodded greeting to her, introducing themselves.
After a moment, everyone turned back to the map.
"What is it?" Professor McGonagall asked, noticing the barely present frown on Vivian's face.
"What?" Vivian asked, looking up and blinking quickly.
The reaction made both Ron and Hermione frown; for some reason it reminded them of Harry... Ron glanced at Hermione, but she shook her head. It was, after all, Harry's birthday, and he was missing; they were bound to be reminded of him.
"Oh," the Auror shook her head, frowning more deeply as she returned her attention to the map. "I may be wrong, but... Ria'?"
A moment later, the other Auror reached her side, two of the tracking collars in hand, with the third owl perched on her arm. "Yes?"
Vivian pointed at an area on the map, running her finger along an area of the hundred-mile-radius of Hogwarts. "Don't these lands belong to the Malfoys?"
Everyone blinked at that.
Miss Willow leaned in more closely, scrutinizing the map, before nodding. "Yes, I think that's exactly where the Malfoy Manor is located..."
End of Chapter 6.
Translations:
Consanguina - related by blood (Latin)
AN: Well, that's it for Chapter 6! I know... awful short, but it seemed like a good place to stop, so... :-D
In response to reviews;
Xirleb70 – LOL, that's good to hear. I'm glad you're enjoying it. ^_^
LOL... yeah... I kinda like the mature Harry, so that's not likely... although he may have his moments...
I hope you enjoyed this chapter too!
Thank you. ^_^
Rachel A. Prongs – Umm... I honestly have no idea, because I've always thought a "Mary-Sue" is an OC based off the author, and I'm nothing like Vivian... she had my sense of humor and she majored in the two Wizarding classes that I like the most. That's about it. I said in the first chapter that Vivian is extremely important to the plot, and she is, and so is Harry, but neither one rules it....
*Sigh* Honestly, I've just been trying to introduce how Vivian got to be where she is at this point in the story, because many parts of it are important later on. A chapter can only be so long, so, yes, the last one did focus on Vivian and how she interacted with the Malfoys a lot. But it also had almost all of the other characters involved, and it had Harry & Draco interacting. So I don't think it really suggested the story is about Vivian, but I suppose that's a matter of opinion.
Thank you for reading and reviewing. I appreciate it.
Jaded*Secrets – Hi, Jade, glad to hear it.
I updated LS a little while ago, V-Star and I are working on the next chapter.
Sorry for the wait. ^_^
Endless-luv – Thank you, I'm glad to hear it. I'm sorry about the wait.
Thanks for reviewing! ^_^
Pheonixrising – Thank you. ^_^
LOL, yes, that would have been interesting, and rather difficult for our hero...
Hmm... LOL, sorry, I can't tell you that... you'll have to wait. ^_^
Sorry for the wait.
Thanks for reviewing!!!
Out of curiosity, what did everyone think of Book 5?
PLEASE REVIEW!!!
Pretty, pretty, pretty, (many, many more pretty's) PLEEEEAAASSEE!!!
REVIEW!!!
Bye! ^_^
~ Jess S