Saturday, August 10, 1996
11:10 p.m.
"I thought your name was down for Eton," Rian said stupidly. Nothing could have prepared him for running into someone he'd known before his entire world turned upside down.
Justin blushed and his tail twitched a few times, the light from glowing orbs that dotted the stone walls glancing off his shimmering green scales.
"I'm not Muggleborn," Justin said, looking for all the world as if Rian had just whacked a Bludger at his head and landed the hit.
"Yes, I'd gathered that much," Rian said dryly. Justin was clearly a native of Lyonesse if the tail was anything to go by. What's more, he was apparently a member of the Guard. What was someone like him doing at Hogwarts?
Another Mer, this one with a very Weasley-esque shock of red hair and a deep, royal blue coloured tail looked back and forth between them, clearly confused. "You two know each other?" he asked.
"We go to Hogwarts together," Justin explained,
Before they could get too deep in conversation, Marius pulled Rian and Iulia further into the single-room sentry station and sat them down at a roughly hewn stone table, probably carved from the same material that made up the steep walls surrounding them.
Rian looked around the room as Justin and the Mer that was presumably Aren joined them. There were two pallets shoved against the far wall, a heap of blankets piled on top of each one. An inordinate number of weapons were strewn about on the floor and propped up against the wall — daggers, spears, Rian even saw a couple broadswords in the corner.
Justin curled his tail beneath him and began drumming his fingers on the table for lack of a wand to fiddle with. "A few years before we started at Hogwarts, the King and the Guard realized that you'd likely end up at a magical institution to learn how to control your magic," Justin said, tension underlining every word that left his mouth. "It's impossible to bind a wizard's magical core entirely and accidental magic would be very hard to hide. Whoever kidnapped you would probably want to take advantage of your power and not go through the trouble of binding it all," he continued.
It was sound logic, Rian agreed, but how had they known that Hogwarts was the school he'd end up at? Rian was about to ask, but then Justin continued talking.
"We had to get into the mind of your kidnapper. The only way they would've targeted you specifically is if they knew who you truly are and your connection to Lyonesse. Therefore, once they had you they would want to keep you close by, in order to influence you or use you for ransom — we still don't know what their goal was. We didn't think they'd flee the continent entirely since Lyonesse is the largest Mer kingdom that's remotely close to European land, so we focused our search on Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. That's where I came in," Justin said, tapping his chest, "Myself and two other kids were sent to those three schools to search for you."
"But you were just a kid!" Rian protested. He still remembered how tiny all of his year mates had been at their sorting. Justin had been even shorter than him, which was saying something. That was no longer true of course, around fourth year all of the boys had grown like weeds.
"Yes," Justin leaned forward, looking more serious than Rian had ever seen him, "But we knew what we had to do. Trying to post a Mer as a teacher at each school would have drawn more attention than three Muggleborn first-years consciously trying to fly under the radar. All three of us have parents in the Guard and we received extra training when we were chosen for this mission," Justin expertly tossed a dagger from hand to hand to prove his point. "We return home on breaks, so it's not like we were permanently stranded Above until you were found," he added.
Rian felt slightly mollified, but he was still angry at the situation that caused three children to give up their childhoods in pursuit of him.
"I came straight back to Lyonesse once I heard that you'd been found. I thought Linnea or Anders had found you, I didn't expect to find out that I'd spent five years sharing classes with the Lost Prince and didn't even suspect it," Justin scowled and the dagger in his hands twirled faster and faster.
"Speaking of which, how did you recognize him? He doesn't look like Harry Potter at all," Iulia interrupted. Rian was taken aback, he hadn't even thought of that. He tended to forget that everything that he'd grown accustomed to looking at in a mirror had fundamentally changed.
Justin snorted self-deprecatingly and said, "His voice. Even if I didn't think Harry was Hadrian, I still took note of him. He's famous, and that's exactly why I didn't focus my search on him. His backstory is something not easily fabricated. How would the child of the rulers of Lyonesse have ended up with Lily and James Potter and been targeted by Voldemort? No, if Hadrian was at Hogwarts at all I assumed he'd be a Muggleborn with an easily falsifiable story."
"It's not your fault," Rian said quietly. He didn't know Justin all that well, even after five years, but he could tell that Justin was beating himself up over this.
"Thanks Har — Rian," Justin said, a sad smile on his lips, "That's unnecessary, but thank you."
Rian looked over at Marius, who looked supremely uncomfortable watching the byplay between Rian and Justin. Catching Rian's look, Marius spoke up, "I thank you for your hospitality, Aren, Justin, but we really must get going."
"Anytime," Aren said, "I hope the next time we meet is in better circumstances."
"I'll see you around, Rian," Justin said, shaking Rian's hand and moving back to Aren's side.
Marius grabbed Rian and Iulia's arms and the trio formed a triangle of sorts in the corner of the room.
"One last port," Marius said with a crooked smile, "Ready?"
Rian didn't get a chance to respond before the room blurred and peeled away from his vision.
11:30 p.m.
The world slowly rematerialized around them and Rian realized that they were in a sentry station nearly identical to the one they had just left.
"Marius!" A startled voice rang out. Rian looked around for the source and saw a woman swimming closer to them, a spear clutched in her right hand.
"Aeris!" Marius said happily, hugging the woman. "I didn't know you had a shift this weekend."
"I switched with Benedict, he had a conflict. Something about his mother, I didn't pay much attention," she said teasingly, "You know what he's like."
"Unfortunately, I do," Marius grumbled, touching his dagger. "Is Flora here too?"
"She's sleeping," Aeris said, pointing at the far end of the room. All that could be seen beneath a mass of blankets was a red tail fin poking out.
"Iulia's here too, what a nice surprise," Aeris pulled Iulia in for a hug and Iulia had no choice but to go along with it, shooting Rian a glare out of the corner of her eye.
Aeris then turned to Rian and lifted an eyebrow, looking back at Marius. "And who's this?" she asked.
Marius cleared his throat and moved closer to Rian's side, as if he thought he might have to protect Rian from Aeris' next actions. "Aeris Fields, allow me to introduce you to Hadrian Valens Aurelius," he said formally.
Rian rather enjoyed the way Aeris' eyes widened and she grabbed onto Marius' arm as if she was about to sink to the floor without something to hold her up. It might've been entertaining once, Rian mused, but he would prefer to not cause people to faint wherever he went.
"Truly?" she whispered. "I've heard the rumors of course, but I wasn't sure whether to believe them."
"They were true," Marius admitted, "But we didn't want it getting out that we'd found him until we were sure that we could bring him back."
"That's fantastic!" Aeris cried, facing Rian and sweeping into a deep bow. "Welcome home, my Prince."
"You really don't have to bow," Rian mumbled, feeling very awkward. He thought he'd gotten used to the hero worship he faced in the wizarding world when the public was in a good mood, but being bowed to was on a different level entirely.
"You'd better get used to it," Iulia whispered in his ear, "You're royalty."
Rian glared at Iulia, but left it alone for now. He'd have plenty of chances to discuss this later.
"Thank you," he said louder, forcing a smile.
"We're really just stopping by," Marius told Aeris, swimming closer to the wall, "the Royals are waiting up for us."
"Yes, of course," Aeris said, flicking her tail in excitement, "Tell me how it went during the next sparring session!"
"I'll do what I can," Marius said, inclining his head respectfully.
With that, Iulia took Rian's hand and pulled him toward Marius. Rian wondered what was so special about this stretch of wall. He took a closer look and realized that there was a thin black line running in jagged angles up and down the stone. Maybe this was the exit?
Without warning, Marius dove through the wall, answering Rian's unspoken question. Rian glanced at Iulia, who motioned him on. Taking an unnecessary deep breath, Rian swam straight through the solid stone and was greeted by Marius on the other side.
Marius' grin could not hold his attention though, for there was the city of Lyonesse spread out before him. Rian gaped in wonder, this was where he was from?
A spider's web of streets crisscrossing the ocean floor laid out a network of buildings, all made of some shimmering blue stone that Rian could not name. Veins of gold ran through the streets themselves, encircling each cobblestone laid on the path. Small, squat buildings that Rian assumed were homes laid on the side of the city closest to the trio.
Rian mundanely wondered why the streets were paved if no one could walk on them before wrenching his mind back to the present. As Rian's eyes followed the line of the largest street through the city, the buildings grew larger and larger, up until the street came to an abrupt end against a huge rock face. From what Rian could observe, the rock was smooth and sheer, no imperfections to be found on the jet black stone. On top of the strange pile of bedrock sat a grandiose palace. Columns lined the outer courtyard and the biggest pair of double doors Rian had ever seen, including the ones at the entrance to Hogwarts, marked the main entrance. The entire palace was made of the same strange blue stone that made up the buildings in the main city.
Rian's jaw hung open as the implications hit him: that was where he would be expected to live. That was where the rest of his family was right now, awaiting his return.
Tearing his gaze away from the palace, Rian took a closer look at the clusters of homes, noting the teeming animal life. Small, rounded creatures with two spindly legs that tapered off in webbed feet waddles along on the ocean floor, poking at the floor every now and then.
Plimpies, Rian recalled. Hagrid had spent one memorable Care of Magical Creatures lesson demonstrating the defensive capabilities of underwater creatures such as Plimpies and Lolabugs. A few Hippocampi lazily swam through the streets, grazing on patches of seaweed they found here and there.
Fully entranced, Rian swam closer to examine the city more thoroughly.
"Stop!" Marius shouted, causing Rian to stop abruptly.
"Why?" Rian asked.
"Did you forget about the wards?" asked Marius.
A light warmth suffused Rian's cheeks as he recalled all of Marius' warnings about the extensive wards of Lyonesse. "Er…I might've," he said.
"We can get closer, just stop when I tell you," Marius sighed, gesturing for Iulia and Rian to join him.
The sentry station had been posted on a section of rock face that over looked the city, so the trio had to swim down toward the streets to enter Lyonesse.
"Right here," Marius said, pulling up and hovering over a seemingly random section of the city.
"Why here?" Rian asked.
"This is where the wards begin," he explained, "Do you see that faint shine?" Marius poked at nothing.
Leaning closer to where Marius was pointing, a small ripple caught Rian's eye. A small section of the water itself was glittering. Now that Rian knew what to look for, he realized that a gargantuan dome of shining water encompassed the whole of Lyonesse.
"The only way to test if the wards will let you through is for you to touch them," Marius said, sharing a tension filled look with Iulia.
"And if they don't acknowledge me?" Rian asked apprehensively.
"You'll get shocked," Marius shrugged. "There are different levels of punishment depending on how hard one tries to breach the wards. You poking at them should only lead to a minor shock."
"Should?"
"It's not like this situation has happened before," Marius said, "If the wards won't let you in I'll have to call for one of our ward masters."
"And if I'm still keyed in?" Rian asked.
"Then you'll go straight through the wards with no adverse affects," Marius shrugged.
"Right," Rian muttered, facing the ward boundary. No time like the present.
Rian reached out and prodded the wards with a single finger. A feeling of warmth greeted him, and in a moment of sheer Gryffindor boldness, Rian stuck his whole hand through the wards. Nothing except a strong sense of belonging overtook him.
Rian decided that if that wasn't a good sign, nothing was, and swam straight through the ward and emerged on the other side.
"Yes!" Iulia cheered. She sliced through the water, through the wards, and threw her arms around Rian.
Rian laughed and hugged her back. That was one obstacle done with.
"Fantastic!" Marius exclaimed, and Rian looked up to find that Marius had joined them on the inside of the wards.
"Let's get going, then. Everyone's waiting," Iulia said, and struck out through the open water above the city. Marius and Rian looked at each other in amusement and followed her.
It was distinctly weird to see the buildings below him flashing by in a perspective Rian never saw unless he was on a broom. It was a heady feeling, and Rian nearly laughed aloud in enjoyment. He had never enjoyed swimming, not when Dudley tried to drown him every time he got near a sufficiently deep body of water, but this was a different experience altogether. He felt powerful in a way he never did unless he was in the thick of battle.
A small creature suddenly crossed Rian's field of vision and he started, craning his neck to take a closer look. It was a seahorse, casually bobbing around. It looked exactly like the seahorses he'd seen pictures of in primary school. The only difference was the delicate pair of wings protruding from its back, fluttering rapidly. It was really quite beautiful and Rian wanted to keep observing it, but Marius shouted for Rian to keep up and he had to abandon the ethereal creature.
Rian was startled when he saw the enormous courtyard he'd seen earlier drawing closer, had they swum that fast?
Marius dodged the columns that lined the edge of rock face and gracefully swept into the center of the courtyard. Iulia copied him and Rian followed, only managing to not side swipe a column because of his Quidditch training.
"Who's there?" a deep voice called out.
"You're telling me you don't recognize your favorite nephew?" Marius responded lightly, swimming toward the castle doors and Rian scrambled to catch up.
"Ah, Marius!" the same voice that had been low and intimidating just a moment ago turned cheerful and jovial at Marius' words.
The shadows that had concealed the presence of two Mers guarding the doors parted and Rian saw Marius hugging the one posted on the left.
"It's nice to see you, Uncle Marcellus," Marius said, patting the man's shoulder.
Uncle Marcellus? The Captain of the Guard that Marius hadn't stopped complaining about for the past week was his uncle? Rian didn't know whether to be terrified or entertained by that fact.
"You too, nephew," Marcellus boomed with a smile. "I assume your mission was a success?"
"It was, Uncle," Marius said, dragging Rian further under the underhang that covered the door and the Guards.
Rian had thought it impossible, but Marcellus' smile widened upon seeing Rian. "Ah, it does this old heart a world of good to see you back home, Prince Hadrian," he said.
"Thank you," Rian said, just glad that the man hadn't bowed to him.
"We'll debrief you later, Captain Mercator, but for now we'd like to get Rian back to our parents," Iulia piped up.
"Of course, of course," Marcellus said, turning and placing his hand on the wall next to the doors. The Guard on the opposite side of the doors did the same thing. With a soft creak, the doors swung inward, revealing the most opulent entrance hall Rian had ever laid eyes upon.
11:55 p.m.
"The doors always require two people to open, it's one of the security measures," Iulia told him, but Rian was hardly paying attention to her as he drifted into the interior of the palace.
More of the blue stone greeted him, but there were strands of an unknown white material overlaid on top of it, artfully arranged in spiraling arches and whorls across the walls and ceiling. A double staircase with a golden bannister arched over the far wall and an open hallway stood on either side of the stairs. Multiple plinths were placed alongside each wall, golden artifacts displayed on top. A taller, wider version of those plinths stood in the center of the room, two more guards placed beside it. The top platform, however, was bare. Marius and Iulia came up on either side of Rian and joined him in his observance of the room.
"That's where the tracking stone was when it started glowing like a supernova," Marius said, pointing at the empty plinth. "Scared the hell out of me."
Rian could very well imagine what that had looked like and he chuckled a bit, getting louder when he noticed Marius' offended look.
"Laugh it up, kid, I'll get you back," Marius said, but the hint of amusement in his voice took all of the edge out.
"I'm only a year younger than you," Rian shot back.
"Boys, stop squabbling and let's go," Iulia said in a long suffering tone. She started swimming toward the right hand hallway and didn't look back.
Iulia led them through the maze of hallways until Rian was well and truly lost. How did anyone memorize the layout of this place? It was on par with Hogwarts, and it had taken Rian the better part of a month to be comfortable walking around Hogwarts on his own.
Lost in thought, Rian nearly swam right past Iulia when she stopped in front of an thoroughly nondescript brown door, one of a dozen others like it in that hallway alone.
"This is the door to our private dining room," Iulia said quietly, her warm blue eyes seeking out Rian's green. "We agreed to meet here when we brought you back.
The moment smacked Rian with a sense of sheer finality. A single door stood between him and his family, everything he'd been wanting since he was five and finally old enough to understand that family was something that he'd never have.
A cold pit of nausea made an unwelcome appearance in his stomach. What would they be like? What would their reactions be? Iulia had told him plenty of stories in the ten days leading up to his birthday, but he didn't really know their family the way she did. He'd had a scant year with them before his unceremonious kidnapping.
Rian took a few deep breaths, trying to calm his roiling stomach. He'd gotten through a myriad number of events worse than this in the last five years of his life. This was nothing.
"Are you okay?" Iulia asked, taking her hand off of the ornate golden doorknob and putting it on Rian's shoulder.
"I'm fine," Rian said.
"They would love you even if you had five fins and three eyes," Iulia whispered bracingly, "Just be yourself. That's who they want. Just you. I know you already and I love you, little brother. Don't worry."
Strangely, Iulia's little speech helped to settle Rian's nausea. He usually objected to such sickeningly heartfelt words, but this was his sister. It was different from Ron or Hermione telling him the same thing.
Rian nodded for Iulia to open the door and she did so as silently as she could, Rian and Marius entering mutely behind her.
The private dining room was much cozier than Rian had expected. The dining table in the center of the room had seven chairs around it, all made of a dark brown material that Rian would've assumed was wood if he didn't know that they were currently underwater.
Pictures lined the walls, varying in size, but they were all of the same seven people. None of them held Rian's attention though, no, that honor went to the five people sitting at the table in an uneasy silence.
A girl sat at the head of the table, stroking the mane of a hippocampus that was relaxing at her side. Her vivid blonde hair told Harry that this was Cassia, his younger sister. Two boys sat at the far side of the table, heads bent together as if in conversation, but no sound escaped their mouths. The one on the left was Marcus, Rian thought, if his mop of untamed black hair so like his own, back when he'd been Harry, was anything to go by. That meant that the boy next to Marcus must be Trajan, the resident troublemaker, and a flash of red from beneath his chair confirmed Rian's theory. Two people were sitting with their backs to Rian; his parents, then.
Rian's mouth went dry and he nervously licked his lips. None of them had noticed the trio entering the room and he did not want to be the one to break the tense silence.
As it turned out, Rian didn't have to. Marcus suddenly lifted his head and looked toward the door in a manner that told Rian that Marcus had been performing that action all night. Marcus' eyes widened when he saw Rian hovering uncertainly by the door and he sat bolt upright. His movement caused everyone else to turn toward the door to see what had prompted Marcus' behavior.
Five pairs of disbelieving eyes landed on Rian. Nobody spoke for a long moment. Rian's eyes darted between them, drinking in their faces. He was thrilled that he could now see them outside of the pictures in Iulia's locket. He'd memorized those pictures by now; he knew every line of their faces. The people before him now were older though. More stress wrinkles were present on Callum and Lucia's faces and his siblings had grown up in the intervening years since the pictures were taken.
Marcus and Trajan looked utterly stunned, like they thought the vision before them was a dream. Cassia had merely cocked her head to the side, looking at Rian curiously. His parents weren't much better than their sons, both looked to be on the verge of crying.
The spell was broken when Marcus rose up and dove over the table, his chair clattering to the floor behind him. He made a beeline for Rian and Iulia and Marius moved further away to accommodate Marcus.
Rian winced and opened his arms just before Marcus slammed into him, nearly sending them both hurtling into the wall. Marcus' arms encircled Rian like a vice and it was all Rian could do to hug back.
"I missed you," Marcus said brokenly. He pulled Rian closer to him as if Rian would disappear if Marcus stopped touching him.
Trajan reached them next, flinging his arms around both of his brothers. He said nothing, simply leaning his head against Rian's shoulder. Cassia then wormed her way into the group hug, taking advantage of her small size to pop up in the middle of the mess of arms. Iulia chuckled at them, but joined in. Out of the corner of his eye, Rian saw Marius slip back out of the room.
Rian then found himself pressed up against someone, and he turned his head as much as he was able. His father's face smiled down at him, pearlescent tears falling down his cheeks.
"Hi, Dad," Rian croaked. His throat closed up and Rian cleared his throat in an attempt to recover his normal voice.
"Hadrian," a musical voice sounded, and Rian looked back over the group of heads at his mother, looking back at him from between Trajan and Cassia. She was crying as well and Rian smiled at her, still untrusting of his voice.
The seven of them sank to the floor in a twisted tangle of limbs. Rian bowed his head and held onto Marcus tighter. The love that surrounded him was palpable and he felt a few warm tears escape his eyes. He was back where he belonged.
"Welcome home, Rian," Iulia said.