PLEASE READ THE A/N!
A/N: Hey guys! I know it's been a longgggg long time since I updated (almost a year in fact). I'm really sorry about that but I was - and still am - very busy. I won't get to properly sit and write out my stories until December starts this year so I just wanted to ask those who have been waiting for posts to wait for them a few more months. Please.
This chapter 19 is not my completed version for it but I thought perhaps I should just post it as it is now since there hasn't been anything updated for so long and drafting up this first part itself like took so long since I didn't get time to sit and type away without something breaking my flow. I apologise for it being shorter than usual and the plot not exactly moving forward. But I hope reading it still makes yall a bit happy.
Stay safe and happy reading.
Axel Vermicular would admit that it would be a lie for him to claim that his heart – all four dead chambers of it that have not been beating in centuries – held no care for the Potter family. He only knew the little Potter scion and his godfather Black for less than two days. Yet, there has been something about both of them that has charmed him over successfully.
Axel was aware of the signs.
He was well aware, thank you very much.
He had heard before how when bonds were cut or shattered, it left the surviving members vulnerable.
And he knew part of the reason he had gotten so attached to Harrison and Black was due to this vulnerability.
But Axel was not stupid.
He knew how to raise up his Occlumency shields. He knew the rituals and potions needed to help him grieve over a loss as great as that of his family's death. Granted, the methods wouldn't erase the emotions. His love for his family had been true after all. He had loved his Sire and mother and all three of his little siblings very much. No magic could erase the emptiness that filled his heart now that they were dead.
But magic could help ensure the searing pain in his very soul – where the ties to his family members had previously existed – healed. That despite the abrupt loss, he would heal.
It would ensure he would no longer be vulnerable to attaching himself to the first few people that had shown him kindness immediately after the tragedy that he lived through while he grieved. No matter how sincere the two people who showed him such kindness were in reality.
It was a weakness, no matter how he looked at it. And Axel could not afford it in himself to harbour weakness. Not if he wanted to complete his revenge. Not if he wanted to remain a free being who could focus on rebuilding his family once he successfully eliminated those who had betrayed him.
So really, imagine his surprise, when the first thing he notices when he stopped by Harrison's quaint cottage, intent to bid proper farewell to his rescuers before he set off hunting down his traitor proper, that he still found one Sirius Black's blood to be smelling divine.
Here he was, back from his secret estate, shattered bonds healed by ritual and mind cleansed from all outside influences. And yet, Sirius bloody Black's blood smelled like it was made of heavenly ambrosial.
Axel Vermiculo really was at a loss in his life. Truly. Even dying had not been this confusing. Dying and being reborn as a vampire had been a very simple matter, truth to be told.
He had been certain, when he had first stepped out of his ritual room, that what he had been feeling at the Potter child's home had merely been the result of his vulnerability.
Vampires, for all their dead status, were creatures of emotions. They mated for eternity, till true death really did them part, just like most magical creatures really. But they were also extremely sensitive empaths.
It was ironic, really. That a creature that was supposedly dead according to science and logic, held the greatest affinity for emotions which were matters tightly intertwined with the living. It was what gave vampires most of their other powers too, save for their enhanced strength and speed. (Those were trained). Their ability to read, control and manipulate minds of other beings, particularly humans, greatly derived from this empath ability of theirs.
But great strengths also lead to great weaknesses.
And it was perhaps to balance this strength for emotion that vampires were also designed by nature to be extremely emotional creatures. No vampire that wasn't a rogue was without strong bonds. Be it to family, spouse or child. Vampires thrived in the relationships that they surrounded themselves with.
It is partly why rebellions were mostly unheard of within vampire empires. The bonds held between their kin were simply too tightly knit to create friction that would warrant serious fights. The only time vampires went to war was with other creatures – and that was usually to guard their own territories and rights.
So naturally, when bonds as tight and united as these were severed, it left a vampire extremely, extremely vulnerable. The gaping hole that they would feel in their soul – and yes, they had souls despite being dead – would frankly consume their minds. (It was why rogue vampires were so dangerous to all societies including the vampire societies. Rogue vampires held no bonds. No grounding.) It would demand immediate repair. So much so that if fate were unkind, the broken vampire might latch onto his or her attacker of all people to heal their bonds.
Axel had lost count of the numerous cases that his Sire had recounted to him of the past, where human magicals had done exactly that to gain control over a vampire. The reason behind such cruelty had often been power. Many of those humans had been desperate for the kind of power they would have to have a personal mind bender within their control.
It was sickening. Vile. (And humans had the audacity to call vampires the monsters).
But to come back to the matter at hand, Axel seriously had believed his reactions and attractions towards one Sirius Black had been due to a similar case.
Not that he was accusing the man to have manipulated him over. Axel had witnessed enough through his interactions with the man and his ward that neither had ill-intentions towards him. But that didn't mean his own broken and overwhelmed soul had not created a connection towards the little Potter's guardian out of an instinctual survival reflex. Had Black not been there, Axel would not put his past himself to have created a bond with the little Potter himself instead. Granted, the bond would have been more inclined towards that of Sire-child relations instead of the current very-potentially-my-mate situation he found himself in with Black.
But the point was, he had been certain it was merely the shattered bonds and survival needs in him doing all that.
Now that he had undergone the healing ritual – and thank the Sanguine line for creating that – he had been expecting merely the expected gratitude he should feel for his two rescuers and at most perhaps a life debt to the young Potter child.
But no.
Here he was, still finding Sirius Black wafting the most divine scent in all his memories. Seriously. The man was not even before him. He was still in another room – the kitchen Axel reckoned from what he knew of the house's layout – and yet he could sense the gaunt man's presence. The man's blood was taunting him with that scent at this point.
Axel exhaled quietly when he felt footsteps approaching him. It was easy to ascertain who was coming when he found himself warped in a familiar and comforting magical signature.
Play it cool Vermiculo. Play it cool.
For Le Fay's sake he was a good few centuries old despite looking only twenty-six summers young. Why was this difficult again?
Axel watched as Black finally stepped into his line of vision. A startled expression flickered across the man's face before his smile returned.
"Well, hello there. I certainly did not expect you so soon. How is the hunt going?"
Black, Axel noted, was not bad-looking. He could see the toll Azkaban had made on the man. Though not unhealthily skinny, there was a boniness in the man's figure that Axel knew came from twelve years of malnutrition and exposure to Dementors. And whether Black knew it or not, there were moments where a darkness haunted his eyes. Axel didn't doubt that those moments likely held horrible flashbacks for the Azkaban escapee. Moments where the man forgot he was no longer imprisoned in a dark cell with terrible creatures for company. But despite all that, the man was not terrible looking.
Buried beneath that gaunt visage, Axel could see the handsome features the man still retained from his youthful times. And even right now, Axel found something appealing with the man's appearance.
Sirius Black was attractive no matter how much he wished to deny it. And Axel was not sure if he should indulge in this strange bond he found himself with the still-very-much-a-stranger-despite-being-his-rescuer man. It wasn't exactly helping that for a potential bond, the yet-to-be-established bond between them was somehow very powerful. Axel hardly could restrain his own magic from pouncing onto the man whenever he was near him. He supposed it had to do with the fact that he was still emotionally healing from his previous family bonds' deaths.
Wait, Black asked me a question, Axel belatedly realised.
"Very painfully," he replied with a smirk, playing off the slight delay in his response as though he had purposefully done it just because he could (and certainly not because he was checking out the man before him), "For the hunters of course."
He let his smirk widen.
"I've managed to figure out who betrayed my family."
And now this was true. It had been relatively easy to find out too. Ripping apart those stupid hunters' minds had been easy. Those bastards had barely any form of mental shields. Plus, they had no oaths helping them hide the identity of their informant either. Idiots.
Overconfident. The lot of them had been way too overconfident. From the betrayer to those stupid hunters, each and every one of them had been certain the ambush they had laid out for Axel's family would succeed spectacularly. And considering how well their plan had been going really before little Harrison and Black had shown up, Axel supposed the bastards were not exactly wrong to have been so cocky with their plans, no matter how much his blood raged at their cruelty and actions.
He forced himself to think of the silver lining. Their cockiness gave him an easy way to figure out the back-stabber who led his family to death.
Now he could exact revenge and that two-faced traitor wouldn't even know what hit him. That was what mattered.
He sauntered over to Black after ridding himself of the soot that clung onto him from his Floo ride with some simple wandless magic, not that he needed a wand in the first place since he was a vampire. He felt Black getting slightly irritated at him, if his scent was any indication, and grinned to himself.
Ah he'd almost forgotten.
The man was so easy to rile up.
He loved it.
"I'm set to leave the country for the foreseeable future," Axel continued, lips still quirked up in amusement as he watched Black's emotions, "to hunt said traitor down and teach him a lesson."
He watched the man intently, hoping slightly for some sort of reaction. Would Black feel even a little sad at him having to leave? They did not know each other well, that was true. But surely the man must feel some sort of influence from their potential bond?
Axel forced his mind to calm. He had to remind himself that Black was still a human magical.
Vampires were highly attuned to their own magic. Recognising bonds were as easy as draining a prey dry for his kind. But other human magicals, Axel knew, were more varied when it came to sensing magic. There were those who could see the essence of the energy within everything and anything around them while some lived without even connecting to their cores completely despite being magicals.
He didn't know which category Black fell in. It was likely that the man probably was not even aware how to reach his whole core properly what with the Azkaban experience likely having damaged the man's mental state somehow. (And just thinking of the matter made Axel's blood boil. Potential mate or not, it was absolutely barbaric to leave an innocent man to rot in that hellhole! What was wrong with wizarding Britain seriously? Sure it was wartimes, but certainly they could have cleaned up properly after the Dark Lord had been vanquished?) So perhaps he was not yet in a position to feel the bond between them.
Then again, Black was not entirely unhinged for a man who had supposedly spent twelve years in that horrid prison. And he was attuned with his core enough to change into his spirit animal, which was not something a magical could achieve without being able to access their core. So, the damage done must have been either reversed or was healing well under the goblins' care. Which really meant that Black had to feel something in Axel's presence, however minute.
But Black hardly seemed to show anything when in his presence. It was rather disheartening.
Axel was slightly afraid that perhaps Black simply was not interested.
(He hid the grimace that threatened to form on his face at that mere thought.)
"But I thought I'd come by and say farewell before that. It is only polite," he told Black, trying vehemently to distract his mind from depressing thoughts. For Morgana's sake he already lost his family. He didn't need to think how losing his not-mate-but-could-be-mate yet. "You and your godson did save me from death, after all."
Black had been staring at him rather intensely for a while now. Axel would have felt hopeful about the action had it not been for the obvious way the man's magic was probing at his aura, seemingly amazed at how strong they still were. Judging from Black's lack of embarrassment, he was not aware of what he was doing. So Axel let him be.
Besides, he did feel rather content at having the man's magic dance around him so freely. It was soothing. And it managed to fill the emptiness in him in a way that even the healing ritual could not do.
Axel repressed the urge to let out a sigh.
Well at least such actions made him more certain of the fact that Black had yet to figure out about the bond.
A change in the man's scent distracted him from his thoughts.
"Well, if that's the case, do join us for dinner before you vanish off on your vengeance quest," Black started, a sweet smile on his lips.
Axel felt his own smile widen at how the seemingly pleasant expression contrasted jarringly with the discontentment that tainted the man's scent.
"I'm sure you would love to have my godson clinging to you like a koala bear for a good couple of hours. You must get a good dose of attention to feed that ego of yours, now don't you? You won't be getting it anytime soon once you're off doing your vampiric business."
Oh, did he say the discontentment had merely tainted Black's scent? His bad. It was positively coming off the man in waves now.
"Are you jealous now Black?"
Axel repressed a laugh at how the man tried to play off his embarrassment at being called out so directly with a roll of his eyes. Internally, he was taken aback too when the man openly checked him out however.
Of course, Black's next words did put out any hope he had.
"What's there to be jealous of exactly?"
Right. He was dealing with an oblivious man Axel reminded himself. An oblivious man that got jealous at him for supposedly taking up time with his godson when it was clear to even a blind man that the Potter heir loved his godfather to the moon and back.
The fates really hated him, they did.
Ah well. All the more reason to up his ante with the flirting, Axel supposed. He smirked wider as the thought settled in his brain.
He ran towards Black a moment later, delighting in how the man startled at his speed. Ah the perks of being a matured vampire. He almost pouted however when Black took a step back in his shock though. But the up-close view of the man's eyes distracted him. Despite the slightly off presence in them, Black's eyes were beautiful. Stormy silver and grey that shifted to black hues whenever the man was excited and flustered. They were very expressive. Just like the man.
"You are very handsome," Axel told the man upfront.
He drank in the expressions flitting through Black's face. This close to the man, his magic grew restless, reaching out from him to flit around the Azkaban escapee. It was both a blessing and curse that Black remained oblivious to the action. Axel forced himself to calm his excited magic.
Really. He was getting too ahead. Black was only a potential mate. Here he was thinking the man was his already.
With an internal sigh, he decided to call off his flirting. Perhaps baby steps were better.
Black did have a lot on his plate if what he heard from the goblins was true. No need to overwhelm him yet.
He had waited centuries for the possibility of a true mate. He could wait some more years.
Staring at the man before him, Axel realised Black's expression had shifted into a wary one. The man was expecting him to follow his compliment up with a bard or tease. Axel sighed internally and went along with what was expected.
"But your personality begs for more, darling. So, it's no surprise your godson prefers me over you in the end."
He regretted his words almost immediately when a feeling of despair shrouded over Black's scent. Despite the care-free appearance Black still maintained, Axel realised that the man was insecure.
Morgana! He had gone and put his foot in the mouth now. He didn't really know much about the Potter-Black family but he had not thought Black and his godson had any problems in their relationship.
On hindsight, that was a very stupid assumption.
Black having spent twelve years in Azkaban meant that for twelve years one Harry Potter had not likely interacted with his godfather. Judging by the way the goblins cared for the boy and the distinct lack of other adult human company the child kept (other than Black), it was likely that little Harrison did not grow up with the comfort of a proper family either.
Axel fought away a frown as that thought started to boil his blood. He vaguely remembered reading somewhere that the boy had been cared for according to the Light's leader. He was not surprised the man had somehow likely messed that up but since knowing Harrison, he had gotten protective of the boy.
Sure, he knew the boy for one night and half a day. But Harrison was rather loveable. His mischievous nature coupled with his utter lack of judgement for different magicals had won over Axel in a couple of hours, no matter how much Axel wished to deny it. It was hard not to be charmed by the little squirt really.
But all in all, he was stupid to not have read the situation completely.
He should have known that for all the rose-tinted picture, there were many hidden cracks in the Potter-Black family. Not necessarily there by Harrison and Black's choice, but still there due to circumstances.
Axel wracked his mind to say something – anything really – to distract Black from the anxiety and fear clouding his scent. But Black beat him to it, spouting words shrouded in false confidence to (likely) distract Axel from noticing how he truly felt about the situation.
"Whatever moron. Tell me this when you end up being the one living with said child under the same roof, instead of being a mere entertainer who loses the boy's interest as soon as the next thing happens."
Axel would hand it to the man. Had it not been for his ability to tell Black was lying through his scent, he would have completely bought the flippant attitude that was directed towards him. He stared at the man as he sauntered away, mind whirling on a million thoughts a minute. He should probably let the matter go. Black would not want to talk about his insecurity to anyone at the moment, much less a stranger, which was what Axel was to him. (He fought to keep the grimace off his face for that) But he could not leave the matter. He had hurt the man, albeit unintentionally. But –
"Stop standing there and sit your dead arse down at the table for dinner," Black's voice called out to him from the kitchen, pulling him out of his thoughts. "I'm going to go call Harry down –"
Black didn't finish. The sound of the very ward he had been speaking screaming in agony cut him off. Axel found himself breaking into a sprint as quickly as Black who was already turning around to run. He barely registered the old House Elf Black joining Black and him in running. He was about to use his vampire speed to whisk both himself and Black towards young Harrison's room in a second when the man vanished before him in a whirl of light.
Axel would have panicked if his senses did not detect the pop of apparition coming from the room nearby. That obviously had to be Hadrian's room, he surmised as he reached the top of the stairs. Without saying a word, he grabbed the elf – Kreacher if he remembered correctly – and sped them both over to the room in a burst of speed.
The sight that met them when they burst through the doors was not pretty.
Frightened. Sirius was frightened beyond his wits. In front of him lay his godson – his pup; the last family he truly had – convulsing as though he was being possessed. Screams of pain and anguish occasionally left the child's lips now and then, tugging at Sirius' heart as he stood there helpless. None of his efforts so far had brought relief to his pup nor managed to wake the boy from whatever agonising trance he was in his.
He knew it was some trance. Harry's eyes were unseeing despite being wide open. Tears were relentlessly pouring down his godson's cheeks and Sirius had figured out by now that there was no point in trying to dry them. Fresh waves of tears simply replaced the old ones continuously.
"Wake up pup, please," Sirius muttered helplessly as he continued cradling the boy's head in his lap, not caring for how Harry's involuntary spasm left him with cuts along his arms and legs as the boy lashed out at invisible monsters.
Don't leave me. You promised we would be family.
Memories that he had hoped to leave behind at Azkaban rose up in Sirius' mind.
James lay dead in the middle of the living room, arms bent at odd angles, as though he was a puppet whose strings had been cut off.
Lily's hair was splayed around her like blood. Her eyes were dull and unseeing as she stared up towards the ceiling. An expression of anguish etched forever into her face.
Just like his pup's face was morphed in pain right now.
He was going to lose his pup.
NO.
He couldn't lose his pup. Not again.
He would not lose his pup. Not like Lily and James.
Unbeknownst to him, the medallion hidden underneath his robe – an anchor issued by the goblins to help support his mind with Occlumency shields – cracked, a deep line cutting across its various runes under the pressure of his memories and emotions.
A glint entered Sirius' eyes. His hands tightened their grips on Harry's bony shoulders.
The skin was warm, he forced himself to remember. Harry was alive. In pain but alive. And he would stay alive. He would. Sirius would make sure. He would find a way to make it better for his pup. He would. That's what he had promised. That's what he would do.
Griphook resisted the urge to smack his forehead against the wall.
A mess. This was all honestly a mess. Just one gigantic, chaotic mess.
He was never going to catch a break, was he?
"For mother Earth's sake, I should have taken sculpture-making while I had the chance," he grumbled.
Beside him, Jadeclaw snorted.
"You would have quit three minutes in, my friend," the Healer told him with a roll of his eyes. "And that was if the day would have been a good day."
Griphook sulked.
"Now do quit moping and go find that mutt before he does something stupid."
Griphook grit his teeth.
"I do not mope," he snarled at his colleague.
But he walked towards the door anyways. (He wasn't stupid enough to not follow the orders of a goblin healer. He'd sooner disobey a direct order from the Goblin King himself before that.) Right before he exited the room however, he sent a last backward glance towards the young human laying on the slab of stone raised in the middle of the ritual room.
"Earth bring us luck, I hope I will bear good news when the child awakes," he thought grimly.
Griphook refused to think of the possibility of Harrison not awakening.
That could not happen.
That was not allowed to happen.
He had not spent almost the whole summer taking care of the little wizard brat for him to die on Griphook like that. Absolutely not.
Harrison would awake. And when he did wake up, Griphook would tear him a new one for whatever stupidity the boy had done to force Jadeclaw into putting him in a magical sleep. (Griphook was willing to go against Jadeclaw's future orders to do that)
With a sigh, he closed the door to the ritual room softly.
"Now, where did that half-fish's mutt go?"
Axel would admit that he knew very little of the Potter-Black family. After all, he barely knew either of the two members that made up said Potter-Black family well, despite his…attractions per say, towards Black in particular.
That being said, Axel thought he wasn't exactly wrong to be doing what he was now.
"Let me go, you – you bloodsucker!"
Axel raised his eyebrows at the man pinned before him.
"Wow, I haven't been called that in a couple of centuries really," he told Black calmly.
The Azkaban escapee hardly seemed to care for his answer however. The man was still struggling to twist around to snarl up at the vampire properly, while simultaneously trying to free himself from the relentless grip that Axel had him in so that he could – from what Axel could guess – to run off somewhere.
It was quite painful to watch the whole struggle, if Axel were to be honest. He was rather confused about which direction exactly Black was trying to move towards. It seemed the man himself was not yet certain on the decision.
"Let go of me Vermiculo!"
Axel sighed as he stared at the man's still snarling face. He was not really against feisty mates. Really, he wasn't. Heck, he wished this had happened back in the cottage, when he had been subtly flirting with the man. But then, Black had not even given off any signs to hint that he reciprocated the feelings. Any signs that he too felt the way the magic within him buzzed when Axel was near his presence, just like how Axel has been feeling when he was near the man's vicinity. But nope. Black had barely reacted then. Either the man was an excellent Occlumens despite his years in the horrid wizard prison or – here Axel grimaced – Black simply was not interested. (Axel's dead heart clenched in pain at the mere thought of that and he hated it) Really, it was a pity that the first time he was getting so much reaction from Black was when the man was unhinged.
And unhinged he was.
If it had not been clear from the way Black had been mumbling under his breath in a very deranged manner, then the crazed, not—exactly-present look he had sported in his eyes left no doubt for the matter. Axel was certain the only reason he had noticed the man's breakdown and eventual sneaking out was due to the fact that he had become painfully hyper aware of Black's presence. And because the goblins were too engrossed in their worry over the screaming Potter scion.
At least, little Harrison had been screaming the last Axel and Black had seen him. He hoped the boy was better now. There had been some serious magic surrounding the boy when he and Black had found him spasming on his bedroom floor just a couple of hours back.
A futile kick to his shin brought Axel back to his current situation.
Harrison's condition was another problem all on its own. Axel pushed it to the back of his mind for the moment, knowing he was of no help to the matter right then. He had to take care of the little one's godfather first. Before said godfather ran off to magic knows where.
" – said let go you ancient fleabag!"
Axel rolled his eyes.
"You're much cleverer with your insults when you're sane, you realise?"
Black simply snarled again.
Honestly. This was getting ridiculous. The man was obviously trying to test Axel's patience, snarling up at him like that. It was already hard enough that Axel had to hold Black close. The physical contact, despite the lack of intimate intentions, was driving his inner magic insane. Axel certainly did not approve of its distracting flares. And the occasional thought of Black's tense form feeling nice was not helping him either.
Before you blame him, he would like to kindly remind again that vampires were highly emotional creatures which includes them being sensual creatures.
Axel's kin were no sex-starving clan. Not really. But they did enjoy it a lot with their intendeds. Sex magic originated from vampires for a reason – even though wizard-kind had explored and invented in the area too.
"Do that again Black and I cannot be held responsible for what I may do next," Axel growled into the man's ear as Black squirmed against him in his struggle for the ninth time.
Axel was pleased that Black stilled almost immediately and he found the realisation that flooded the man's eyes about three seconds later extremely amusing. He was glad too that all this while Black had been twisting his neck to snarl up at him for it gave him the chance to witness all the blood rushing up the man's tan skin now. The sight was simply adorable. Not that he would admit that to Black.
Seriously. Had he really needed to be this forward before Black got a clue at how much flirting he was doing –
Warm lips covering his startled all thoughts out of his mind.
Axel's eyes widened in surprise. And perhaps exactly because of that, he caught sight of the calculated gleam running through Black's eyes.
But unfortunately, he had to hand it to the partially deranged convict.
The man was cunning. And fast. The split second in which Axel unknowingly loosened his hold on his quarry in shock was seized by Black without delay. The next thing Axel knew, he was almost seeing stars from how violently he had been pushed off into the wall.
And the alleyway he had cornered Black in was empty save for him and a stray cat.
Axel cursed.
He would admit he knew very little of the Potter-Black family. But something in his gut told him that Black's escape was going to spell some very bad things for the Potter-Black family.
Griphook's violent swearing in his native tongue when he found Axel alone in the alleyway simply cemented the feeling further.
A/N: Hope u liked it! :)
