Chapter 32: Still Waters

Malfoy Manor, Wiltshire, England

November 10, 1986

"Master Rosai's class was more intense last night," Theo said as they traipsed over the cold lawn of Malfoy Manor. They were heading closer to the pond as the four boys talked.

Leonis had willingly chosen to visit with Draco, Theo, and Blaise today since his Aunt Cassie had to be present for a meeting with Lord Black. Usually for such meetings, Leonis would have gone with her and then spent time with his Great-Grandmother Melania, but today Melania had an appointment with her mother-in-law, Hesper Black nee Gamp, and the other two of what Leonis and the others dubbed as the "Great Three." The Great Three consisted of Hesper Black nee Gamp, Violetta Black nee Bulstrode, and Lysandra Black nee Yaxley. Hesper was Leonis's Great-Great-Grandmother. Violetta was the mother of Uncle Pollux, Aunt Cassie, Uncle Marius, and his late Aunt Dorea. So, both Dudley and Harry were descendants of Violetta. Lysandra was the mother of Cousin Callidora, Cousin Cedrella, and his late Cousin Charis. Neville was one of her descendants. He did idly wonder why his Grandma Melania had been summoned to meet with the Great Three but he was sure he could pry the information from her later.

"Neville and I messed up our footing again," Blaise said with a soft sigh.

"You got it right by the end of the night though," Leonis reminded the other boy. "You and Neville shouldn't beat yourselves up so much."

"Yeah, it takes the fun away from the rest of us having a go at you," Draco snarked, a smirk curving his lips.

Blaise's lips curved into an answering smirk. "Maybe that's why I do it, so that I beat you to it."

Draco raised an eyebrow in a good imitation of their Potions Master Severus Snape. "I'll just have to be more cunning then."

Theo chuckled as the two continued for a few moments to exchange barbs. Then he asked Leonis, "Has your father learned that you are now a proud Apprentice of Lord Prince?"

Leonis winced as he thought back on the last time he had spoken to his father. He was not sure that he and Sirius were on speaking terms any longer. He had written to his father about his excitement over his Apprenticeship. He had revealed all that he had learned thus far and of course he had praised his master for his genius and for the way he taught them. Sirius's response had not been what he had expected. He had expected his father, despite the man's past animosity with Lord Prince, to find it in himself to be happy for him. Instead he had received a howler from Sirius. The man had yelled at him for accepting the Apprenticeship with "Snivellous" and had said that he would speak to Lord Black about it and demand that he leave the Potions Master's service.

When it was finally over, Leonis had stared at the scraps of the Howler for several moments before he burst into tears. Kryn had rocked him and even Kreacher had popped over from Grimmauld Place because he had "Felt Master's distress." Aunt Cassiopeia had heard every word of the Howler and she had calmly asked him if he wished to leave the Apprenticeship. He had told her the truth, he was enjoying learning. He liked it. He didn't want to leave his Apprenticeship. He understood that it was quite the honor that he was given and that considering his Master's past with his father, it was amazing that Master Snape chose to give him this great opportunity. He wanted to continue and didn't want his father to make him quit. She had calmed him then and told him that only Lord Black could make him quit and she promised to speak to Lord Black about his continuing despite Sirius's wishes. He was both relieved and saddened. Why couldn't his father have tried to be happy for him?

"He sent me a howler," he admitted softly. This silenced Draco and Blaise and they stared at him with wide eyes.

"A howler?" Draco asked. His silvery-gray eyes staring at him curiously.

"Yeah," Leonis answered simply.

"How tasteless," Draco said with a slight look of revulsion. "Anyone can send a howler. I have heard that the Weasley woman sends Howlers to Hogwarts when her oldest children misbehave. At the least your father should have sent you a strongly worded note showing his displeasure instead of a Howler."

Leonis chuckled then as he listened to Draco continue in a diatribe about just how low class it was to send someone a howler. Leave it to his cousin to find a way to make him feel better. Perhaps this was why he always felt so close to Draco. Their magic performed a harmony for the other, Aunt Cassie had admitted that if this continued then one day they might be perfect candidates for the Ardenvraar Rites.

"He knows you are magically sensitive, doesn't he?" Theo asked of him.

"Yes, he has been informed that I am," Leonis said though he knew that he and Sirius had never really spoken about it much. The closest they had gotten was Sirius mentioning that Regulus was a magical sensitive as well, and then Sirius had clammed up about it and swiftly changed the subject wishing to talk with Harry about James Potter. Leonis had listened intently, happy to hear about Harry's father, but his feelings had been hurt a little. Sirius seemed to get along with Harry better than he did him. He paid a great deal of attention to Harry when the two of them visited Sirius at Belvedere. Perhaps he should go without Harry? He had worried about that though. He feared that Sirius would not want to spend much time with him, and without Harry there as a buffer then Leonis was sure he would end up heart-broken. It was easier to pretend that Sirius cared about him but was just too busy insuring that Harry knew about his own father when Harry was there as well.

"Then there is no excuse for him sending you the Howler!" Theo exclaimed. It was surprising to see the blond-haired boy so indignant. Theo was usually quiet, observant, studious, and only occasionally gave a fierce opinion of any kind. He had often seen him fiercely protective of Draco and Blaise, like a coiled snake ready to strike or a wolf protecting den mates, but this was the first time that Leonis felt like he was part of the nest, part of the den.

"Theo is right, as usual," Draco added the last with an air of fondness. "Sirius shouldn't have sent the howler. Let me guess, you cried when it was finished?"

Leonis nodded his head though he was loathed to admit it. He knew that these three would not mock him for it though. Draco rarely mocked anyone, not in a way that would truly harm. Theo was very much like Draco in that regard. The only time he had heard Theo mock anyone with the intent to harm them was to Royce Spungen and the older boy had certainly had it coming to him. Blaise was too sensitive, in large part due to his own family situation, to mock him.

"You are a magical sensitive, not only is a howler loud and obnoxious but it is a foreign magical object coming into your sphere and forcing its magic upon you," Theo explained.

"In short, he forced both his magic and that of the howler's paper upon you and he knew better because you are sensitive," Draco added to Theo's explanation.

Leonis felt the sting of tears then. "So, you think, do you think he was trying to hurt me on purpose?" The idea made his heart ache. He could feel it as though it were a physical manifestation in his chest. Did Sirius not love him?

Draco put an arm around him and hugged him close to his side. "No, I actually don't," he said with a slight frown. He was silent for a moment choosing his words carefully. "The Sirius that I have met, he's still recovering from what Azkaban did to him. He has little to no control of his life and the important things in it and he is a proud person. I think he wants to exert some control, take back his life so to speak."

"Which would be alright if it wasn't at the cost of Leo's own," Blaise grumbled.

Leonis nodded his agreement with Blaise. What Draco said made a lot of sense. Most of the shots for Sirius since he had come out of Azkaban had been called by others. Lord Black insisted he remain at Belvedere until he was deemed truly healed. His healers had been hand-picked by the elders of the House of Black, his clothing had been bought for him by Narcissa and House-Elves laid out what he would wear each day. Visitations between Sirius and Harry and Sirius and himself were always carefully monitored. He could understand why Sirius would want to reclaim his own life, but he was not willing to sacrifice his own future happiness for the man to feel more secure. Sirius would have to find another way. He would also have to get used to the fact that Leonis was an Apprentice to Master Snape.

"Come on, we should practice," Theo said and Blaise groaned in protest. Theo just pulled him along and soon enough all four boys found themselves near the pond as they began to practice all the movements that they had begun to learn from Master Rosai's classes. Their last class had dealt with incorporating wands in a battle. He told them that chain spells were wonderful to use in combat and that the ancient Dark Wizards had a reputation for singing as they battled. Rosai had then said that of course it was just a rumor for surely no Wixen sang as they fought. Draco and Leonis knew that they had though, their libraries had books of those Dark Wixen and they had sung as they did combat. Those songs were spells and he and Draco were determined to learn them. They had watched a sparring match between Severus and Lucius and both men had started off with simple spells but soon enough their sparring had developed into song.

Leonis had been awed and yet it had felt familiar. He had felt as though he knew the song, knew how to make his magic turn into song and his spells would be powerful. He didn't understand how he knew but he did, it felt just out of reach beneath the surface as though, as though it were trapped under water, under water with ice on the surface.

He glanced at the pond and frowned as he found himself staring at the cool grayish-blue surface of the water. He unconsciously moved closer to the pond's edge and stared into the depths. Images flashed before his eyes. Darkness with witchlight alone illuminating a dark cave, water all around him as he stood on a platform of jagged rocks. Beneath the surface of the dark water there was movement but it was not the normal creatures that lurked in the depths of water. A hand, a hand had moved under the water and he scrambled back falling. He pulled his knees into his chest and he began to shake uncontrollably. There were monsters in the depths. Monsters that were going to come to get him because of what he had done, because of what he had taken. He wanted his big-brother, but no. No! Sirius had abandoned him long ago. He had preferred that other person to him, had referred to the other as his beloved brother, had stopped loving him. He could scream and cry out for Siri but it would do no good. He wouldn't come to save him. No one would save him from the monsters, but he had known that. He had known that this would be his ending.

"Leo!" A voice cried behind him and then he felt arms around him and for a moment he fought until he heard the voice speak again. "I've got you, I've got you and I won't let you be hurt. I am here, and I'll always be by your side."

Leonis blinked a few times and only then did he notice the tears trailing down his cheeks. He was still shaking but Draco, his beloved cousin, held him fast in a tight embrace keeping him with him, grounding him and anchoring him.

What had just happened to him? He was frightened, oh so frightened of whatever had just happened to him. He remembered feeling like monsters were beneath the water waiting to hurt him, waiting to tug him under and then he remembered wanting his older brother Siri, but he didn't have an older brother. He was the first born child of Sirius Orion Black, at least that they knew of. The man had a reputation as a playboy so perhaps Sirius did have other children. Leonis had heard Aunt Cassie say that she would not put it past him, whatever that had meant.

"Leonis!" the voice of his cousin, Narcissa cried and Leo slowly turned his head to meet her gaze. She dropped to her knees before him and her hand came up to cup his cheek. "Look at me darling, let me see those pretty eyes," she urged him.

Leonis saw no reason not to obey her and he watched her for several moments as she seemed to catalogue him from head to toe. "I don't know what happened," he whispered. "One moment, one moment I was practicing with the others and then I was staring at the pond and then suddenly my mind thought of some sort of dark lake and it had monsters just under the water and I wanted help," he withheld the last, that he had wanted Sirius but he had thought that Sirius was somehow his brother. Was this again due to his strange connection to Regulus Black? It had been a long time since he had suffered any strange dreams that he could blame on Regulus Black. But this hadn't been a dream, had it? It was a waking vision, or memory would be the better term since Regulus was dead. What was it that Regulus had taken? Regulus felt he would be punished by the monsters due to something he had taken.

It can't be real! He tried to tell himself this but he was not really buying it anymore, if he ever had. Somehow magic had formed a connection between himself and Regulus Black. Was it because Regulus had died on the same day that Leonis was born? Was Regulus there in that cave dying as Leonis was being born? If they were not in the same location, then how could the connection have been formed? He had never heard of such a thing before.

"Poor darling," Narcissa said as she soothed some of his dark hair back from his forehead. "Do you know of anything that could have caused you to have such a strange episode?"

"His father sent him a Howler due to his Apprenticeship with Master Snape," Theo told her then as she cradled Leonis to her. He reveled in the comfort she offered him.

"Sirius sent Leonis a Howler?" she asked aghast. "Why that miserable little," she didn't finish the sentence, clearly having remembered in time that there were four impressionable boys listening to her every word. "I will be having a talk with Sirius Black," she promised them and her three boys smiled in triumph at that. Leonis merely burrowed closer to Narcissa, unconsciously wanting her comfort.

He felt a featherlight charm flow over him and then she lifted him into her arms. "Come boys, there has been enough excitement outdoors today." It was a testament to his cousins and friends worries that they didn't complain. They followed dutifully after Narcissa and Leonis was grateful for their lack of protestation.

Soon enough, Leo found himself settled on one of the comfortable sofas in the lounge just down the hall from the boy's playroom. A soft blanket that was charmed to warm him, but not overheat him, was tucked around him, but his arms were left free so that he could accept a mug of hot chocolate from Narcissa's House-Elf, Miffy. He took a few sips of the warmed chocolate before he tasted the other thing that was put in his mug. 'Calming Draught' his mind supplied. He didn't know how he knew that. He didn't know the taste of a Calming Draught and yet he was so certain.

Narcissa smiled at the boys as she took up a book that she had clearly been reading the boys. "I shall read to you for the rest of the afternoon," she told them and all of the boys, Leonis included, agreed that her reading to them sounded very nice. Draco, true to form, could not just sit still and listen to Narcissa read. He went to the table in the corner before the windows and he began to work on a building project of some kind. It was too early for Leonis to tell what the structure was that he was building. He knew only that it was a great estate of some sort. Perhaps it was Malfoy Manor.

Blaise did not enjoy sitting still for long either and soon he had joined Draco at the table and began working on a project of his own. Leonis didn't dare to guess what the project was. Theo remained curled into a high-backed chair, listening intently to Narcissa's every word, the cadence and flow. It was rather enchanting.

She had a good voice for the singing spells, the songs of Dark Wixen. She had done it once when he was young, at Hogwarts. She had woven the spells over him and around him. They felt like they had sunk into his skin like the warmth of the sun in summer.

Wait, no! Narcissa had never woven spells over him, had she? Maybe she had when he was a bit younger and he simply remembered it now? But then why had he thought that they were at Hogwarts at the time?

His mind felt like a jumbled mess and it didn't make sense. He wanted to forget the confusing thoughts. Just forget them for a while. He forced himself to focus upon what Narcissa was reading and focused on her words and the cadence of her voice. He refused to think about anything else other than Narcissa's story for the rest of the afternoon and early evening.


I hope everyone enjoyed more glimpses into Leonis's memories of his life as Regulus. Next Chapter: Lavender Brown visits Neville Longbottom.