Chapter 9

Summary: The ritual and other shenanigans .

Notes: So, I know I said it's holiday and I said that I would be able to write more, but it turns out that loadshedding is still on and making a newsletter for a school takes up more time than I had originally planned (which I should know by now). We now also have to guard granny at night because she walks around and gets lost in the house and she starts screaming like a banshee when she sits somewhere and the power goes out, even though she is supposed to be in bed. So yeah, fun times.

Good thing I like spooky things because apparently there is a tall man in the house that refuses to leave her alone and she raged at him like crazy over my shoulder last night.

Anyway, enjoy .

Harry

Harry felt his power race through him and suddenly he wondered whether this was such a good idea. Sure he wanted to heal the man, but what would be the cost of it?

His thoughts jumped back to Nick's earlier questions and he fiercely stomped down the emotions that came with it. He would dwell on that later. For now, he had a Zauberbiest to heal and he could only hope that this entire thing didn't come back to bite him in the arse.

Sean

He sat still and closed his eyes as Harry instructed him, but it felt like his senses were all over the place. The power in the air called to something inside of him but he kept a tight grip on it, knowing that it would probably disrupt the ritual if he slacked off on his control.

Sure, everyone could claim that they had a beast inside them, but his was unfortunately just a bit more literal than the rest and he often wondered whether it was a byproduct of being born a bastard.

The energy in the air thickened and Sean suddenly found it hard to keep track of his thoughts. Pinpricks of electricity started dancing over his skin and he found the sensation pleasant and heady, that is, until they intensified and his body started feeling as if tiny needles were now piercing every inch of his skin.

He tried to move, to open his eyes and see what was going on around him, but instead, he found that he couldn't move, or at least, not the way he wanted to. His body refused to listen to him and the sensation intensified.

Panic started settling in, but he forced it down as he forced his mind to focus and evaluate the situation carefully. Harry had stated that it would hurt, and Sean had seen the worry in the man's eyes as he'd said it, but Sean hadn't listened and he was starting to regret his nonchalance over the warning.

Yet, he found the ever-increasing pain a worthy price to pay if it would make him whole once more, so he refused to scream even as it reached a new threshold, and still kept climbing.

…-…-…

It carried on until he finally felt like he was on the verge of begging for it to stop, but he bit his lip with the limited amount of movement the ritual allowed him, and held on.

…-…-…

He didn't know how much time had passed. Minutes, hours, days, weeks, months? The little logic he had left told him that nobody would be able to perform a ritual for so long, but the thought faded as the agony just continued to climb until, finally, it didn't.

If Sean were in his right mind he would've admonished himself for being relieved that the pain hadn't escalated once more, for that would've meant that he accepted the current pain, but he didn't, for that would be another weakness and he was never a masochist.

The pain steadily started decreasing, but Sean felt mostly numb to it even as he struggled to recall why he was in pain in the first place. Finally, his mind seemed to regain its train of thought and he immediately opened his eyes to focus on the one that had performed the ritual in the first place.

Only…Harry…wasn't there.

Sean tried to turn, but his body still refused to fully cooperate so he decided to rely on his ears instead. The room was quiet and it didn't feel like there was anyone else in the room with him.

Years of mistrust had him immediately wondering whether his brother had already gotten to Harry and whether the ritual was simply a ploy to put him out of commission for a while, but that wasn't the way his brother did things so he shoved the thought away.

Finally, after about ten minutes of frantic thoughts running through his mind, Sean managed to half turn around so that he could see behind him and a feeling of relief swept through his chest as he spotted Harry sitting with Nick.

The mostly-transparent barrier had been removed and yet he couldn't hear a sound from them, but it seemed as if Harry was instructing the Grimm on how to meditate.

Sean's mind backtracked a bit and his eyes widened and he jerked back in shock. What if the ritual had caused him to lose his sense of hearing?! But his worries were for naught as a low groan escaped from him as his body protested the quick movement, so he reasoned that blocking out sound in a certain area might be another thing that the original Wesen had been able to do.

Nick and Harry immediately turned toward him at the sound and he saw Harry's eyes widen slightly.

Sean wondered whether his appearance had changed due to the amount of shock he saw on the other man's face, but he didn't pay much mind to it at the moment. Instead, he tried to determine whether the ritual had worked or not, and to his confusion, he didn't sense the energy that he usually had to fight to keep at bay.

He reached for his inner beast, but instead, he found a gaping hole the feeling had him searching throughout his inner being for a spark of the energy he had been able to use previously, but it was all in vain.

He jumped up despite the painful protests of his body and surged forward in anger before grabbing Harry's shirt as he stumbled, though he made sure not to put too much pressure into his grip as a part of him sensed that it would be the last thing he ever did. He took comfort in that thought, as it meant that he hadn't completely lost all of his abilities, so he weakened his grasp even further, though it wasn't by much, "What did you do to me?! Why can't I feel my energy?"

Sean noted distractedly that, for once, Nick didn't interfere, and he seemed to be looking around in wonder, but his attention fully jumped back to Harry as the young man grasped his hands in a surprisingly strong grip before he spoke, "You wouldn't feel your old energy anymore if the ritual worked. You will now have to get used to using a new type of energy, but I would first have to determine whether it had fully healed you or not."

Sean felt his temper rise even further at the words and a warmth seemed to spring forth from the area just below his navel, "Why didn't you warn me that I could lose my powers completely?!"

Nick called his name in an effort to calm him down, but Sean refused to listen as he stepped threateningly closer to Harry. Suddenly, Nick stepped in between them with a scowl on his face that he aimed at Sean before he gestured all around them. His words became lost in translation as the roaring in Sean's ears escalated, but it distracted Sean enough to reign in his anger.

Sean glanced around, searching for a hidden danger, and found numerous floating pieces of glass instead, and every single one of them was aimed threateningly at Harry, as well as Nick.

The shock of the sight made him release Harry and he took a step back, which caused the glass shards to fall. But they disappeared instead of shattering. He turned to Harry to ask what had happened but was taken aback when he found that the closed expression from earlier had returned, and this time it was directed at him.

He wanted to question why, but then he winced internally as he realized that he had grabbed the other man by the shirt in his anger after Harry had just performed a ritual that must have sapped quite a bit of energy from an heirloom necklace. He'd made the same mistake that Nick had in simply reacting instead of trusting, though he could still argue that it was very hard for him to trust anyone.

Harry gripped the necklace, and it was the only sign that showed that he had reached the limit of his patience, "Well, I guess that answers that, now I suggest that you see yourselves home." With that, a sickening feeling gripped that strange area below his navel and the next thing he knew, both he and Nick were standing next to his car, which had also somehow been placed on a familiar road that led back to Portland.

He glanced at Nick and the Grimm grimaced, "Rosalee is so going to kill us."

Harry

Harry's gaze stayed on the point from which he had just forcefully apparated the two men. It frustrated him that they still mistrusted him, but from personal experience, he knew what it was like to have one's trust shattered one too many times so he couldn't fault Sean for reacting the way he did.

In fact, if he were honest with himself, he had merely used the outburst as an excuse to remove the two men from his home when the memories that he had so far managed to lock away, threatened to resurface after Nick's earlier probing and because of the flashes he received from his own experience under the combined ritual.

He wanted to kick himself for the weakness, but even though he had distracted himself by helping Nick with techniques to improve his senses, his mind had refused to keep the experience locked away, and now he could only do what he usually did, face his problems head-on.

He exited the ritual room, making sure to lock it securely once more before even placing a few repelling charms on it.

He couldn't help but be paranoid due to the recent reminder that, even if the world and its people had changed quite a bit, there was always a power-hungry moron that tried to reign over the rest, and he had to guard the artifacts and heirlooms in his possession.

Just like before.

He made his way to his library and approached a plain-looking wall. A single hissed word allowed the wall to slide open, and he made his way inside.

The room held a few tomes and books that were too dangerous to carry around due to the aura they gave off, and it also held the only penceive he had in his possession. He'd found it while searching the castle for any artifacts and objects that might harm the muggles that came to fix up the place and it had been the perfect room for the darker tomes that he had in his possession.

His body paused on its own as the penceive came into view, and Harry smiled wryly as he found that he was unable to walk any further.

No matter how many times he tried, his body still refused to open that particular box of memories and he was starting to wonder whether it was possible to cast an Imperius on one's self.

It wasn't like he wanted to relive the past, but Severus had once sat him down after the war and the man had forced him to talk about the Dursleys and numerous other things that had unconsciously bothered him. The man had apparently made copies of his memories after every Occlumency lesson they had, and though it hadn't looked like it during their lessons, he'd been furious to see the things he'd been through, and yet he'd also been powerless to stop it.

That was the day that Harry learned about how Severus had been trying to protect him from the shadows, even as the professor tried to make him stronger by becoming a target for Harry to hate and focus his anger on. It was probably one of the few reasons that stopped him from losing his mind during those times.

Though naturally, the incident that he was now trying to face happened after Severus' death, in fact, it even happened after he lost most of his friends to a terrorist attack. As if someone had been smart enough to wait until he was at his lowest.

Nick

He knew the moment Sean crossed the line as Harry's face went blank, and for a moment he was distracted by Sean's unconscious display of his new powers before he got in between the two men, hoping to stave off another argument.

He tensed at Harry's words as he saw him gripping the necklace and then, suddenly, they found themselves on the side of the road about 10 minutes away from Portland.

His mind struggled to comprehend that they had just been teleported almost 100 kilometers away, so he turned to Sean and said the first thing that popped into his mind, "Rosalee is so going to kill us."

The other man seemed to be in a similar state of shock as he simply grimaced and nodded, before lifting his hands to study them as if they had completely changed.

Nick couldn't really blame him. He didn't know the extent of what a full Zauberbiest could do, but he knew that Sean's abilities had been quite limited when compared to what Adalind could do.

He watched Sean for a moment or two more, but it was clear that the man was in too much shock to actually drive, so he led him to the passenger side before getting into the driver's side himself once he'd managed to retrieve the keys from Sean's pocket.

Nick started the car and moved to place the car into drive but a hand on his arm stopped him and he turned to Sean. The man had a deep frown on his face as he sank back into the car seat and closed his eyes, "I fucked up big, didn't I?"

Nick didn't know what to say to that, but he knew the Captain wouldn't appreciate an empty reassurance so instead, he simply nodded and suppressed a grin at Sean's answering groan.

His ears may not be thanking him once Rosalee learns of this latest incident, but it was worth it to see proof that the infallible Captain Renard, could be human after all.