Author's Note:
Just in case this bothers people, there's a description here of a rather bloody scene, though nothing that I haven't put you all through in the past, consisting of wound description.
Having warned you of this, please enjoy
Harry Potter, the Valerians, and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Chapter Three: Flight to London
Vernon takes things a step too far, Harry takes a stand, and the Gryffindors get their first foray into first aid. Afterward, Tarana introduces Harry, Draco, and Blaise to the Knight Bus, much to Fallen's irritation, and Tarana and Fallen have a disagreement as to how much of a threat Sirius Black could become.
Fallen and Tarana were lounging in the shadows of the trees that surrounded the park when the wolf suddenly became ramrod straight.
Tarana, reacting to her General, got to her paws without a moment's thought, searching for the threat.
Fallen ignored her, and the two teens that had abandoned their ball and drawn their wands, even though neither one of them was capable of using them, given that they were underage and therefore unable to use magic under the law against Underage Magic.
Just as Fallen joined Tarana on her paws, the two Valerians pacing in opposite directions around the jungle gym that separated them from their charges, there was an array of many multi-colored lights by the swing set.
Tarana and Fallen turned their attention to it immediately and the wolf was there before the two figures had finished coalescing in reality again.
It took him a moment, but Draco was the first to recognize Blaise's unconscious form and he took several steps forward, concern written on his face.
Tarana stepped between him and his target and he scowled down at her.
"Let Fallen look first," Tarana told them, voice thin as she watched the wolf pull the bundle of blood-soaked fabric from Blaise's nearly lax grip. "He's saturated in Yoko's blood."
Draco took a step to the side to properly see around his guardian but didn't move to join him again and thought he recognized the style and texture of the fabric to be a tapestry of some kind.
Despite how gentle he'd been, the bundle unraveled a little as Fallen moved it and there was a flash of bloody silver before Fallen shifted and hid it as he, more urgently now, used his muzzle and paws to pull the fabric away from Yoko.
"I need hands," Fallen barked, stepping away.
Draco and Harry didn't hesitate, Harry, dropping to his knees between Yoko and Blaise, hesitant as to which one was worse off because both were covered in blood and Harry couldn't see a source on Blaise.
Yoko, however, was obvious.
Draco and Harry were both very, very green as they got their first look at the silver fox in months.
His entire neck was bare of fur and layers of skin, revealing what the boys thought could be muscle. His entire muzzle was encased in a slimy, dark metal muzzle that was flecked with blood around the cage and soaked with it around the opening, which was clearly too tight, digging deeply into his flesh, as though the wound had tried to heal around the metal and been unable.
There were multiple cuts and tears along his flank and his paws were covered in blood, but it was the jagged cut that opened up his gut to their eyes that gave them flashbacks not only to those dreadful days where Yoko lie, more comatose than not, as basilisk venom vied against his Valerian healing and nearly won, but also to their first year, where an ill-thought-out duel with Draco's cousin, Katelyn, had brought the boys and several of their friends out of bed at midnight and into their first contact with the then Thralled Arcana.
"He's alive," Fallen assured them both. "And he appears to be deeply in the Trance. It may be our greatest form of healing and regeneration, but it has limits. Draco, your hands will likely be steadier, I need to take the tapestry and press hard on that evisceration cut. Harder," he ordered as he stepped around Yoko with great difficulty, to join Harry in hovering over Blaise.
"Much of this blood smells to be Yoko's," Fallen told Harry. "Lift his shirt for me."
Harry's hands were remarkably steady, he thought, as he lifted Blaise's drenched, and shredded t-shirt and bared him to Fallen's gaze.
Blaise's dark-skin was mottled with even darker bruises and several of the same, minor cuts that Yoko bore.
Fallen leaned closer to the fabric in Harry's hand and sniffed, muzzle curling as though offended by the smell.
"The Moors," he growled, glancing behind him at Yoko. "They've been in the waters of the Moors."
"Is that bad?" Harry asked nervously.
"The waters of the Moors are not what one would call freshwater," Tarana told them, tone rather detached. "Corpses, among other things, are said to be in those waters, and diseases run rampant in them. If their wounds don't kill them, it's entirely possible that infection might."
Fallen ran another eye over Blaise. "The boy seems to be alright, though unconscious. That could be any number of things, however, and if he doesn't wake soon, we'll assume it was spell work and act accordingly. For now, we'll focus on Yoko and wait for him to come back on his own."
Harry swallowed. "What can we do?"
Fallen cursed quietly. "We don't have enough hands," he admitted angrily. "I need cloth and clean water, especially if they've been in the Moors, but can't spare Draco to go with you and help carry it because it will release the pressure keeping Yoko's innards where they belong as the Trance tries to heal them."
Harry staggered to his feet. "We'll make do," he assured the wolf, before gesturing to Tarana and the two bolted from the park.
XX
The door to the Dursley home burst open with a burst of telekinetic power from Tarana, seconds before Harry hit it and the boy lost very little of his momentum as he tore through the house and into the kitchen, where he immediately began to dig through the cupboards and cabinets for Petunia's largest stew pot, the one that rarely saw the light of day.
Tarana, meanwhile, darted up to grab Harry's ragged backpack and to raid Petunia's linen closet of her hand towels and several bath towels. When she returned to the first floor, her rage at having not been there when Yoko was attacked had a very convenient outlet.
Harry had found the pot he was looking for, and while waiting for it to fill with hot water from the sink, he had been cornered by Vernon, a fist clenched in the teen's shirt, and shoved against the edge of the counter.
"-had an agreement, boy," Vernon growled low and threatening.
It had nothing on the sound that echoed in the kitchen as Tarana dropped the haphazardly packed bag to the ground and moved forward with deliberate intent to do serious harm.
Thankfully for Harry, Vernon had stepped back when Tarana had growled, trying to put the new threat into focus, and thus he was barely staggered when Tarana grabbed Vernon by the calf and pulled, tearing flesh and muscle and dropping him to the ground, screaming and in agony.
"Focus on your task, Harry," Tarana rumbled, blood-soaked fangs bared. "Vernon and I apparently need to have another talk about laying hands on that which doesn't belong to him."
"Ripper, attack!"
"No!" Harry yelled, extending both arms in the doorway where Marge stood, pointing at Tarana.
Ripper was torn off the floor and flung over Tarana. The bulldog bounced off the kitchen doorway and lie, whimpering and possibly broken on the hall floor.
Tarana looked over her shoulder at Harry, panting, and hands still extended toward Marge in the doorway.
The air was still crackling with active, wild magic and she found its source in Marge.
The woman was swelling like a balloon, clawing at her throat as she struggled to scream.
Harry's face was twisted into such hate that Tarana had never seen it on her charge's face before and his fingers twitched as though he wanted to clench a fist and wasn't sure if he should.
"She is not worth your first life, Harry," Tarana assured him.
She was surprised when Dudley ducked under his aunt and hurried across the kitchen, pulling the massive pot out of the sink, leaving the water running.
His approach startled Harry out of his haze, and he dropped his arms, eyeing his cousin warily.
"Is it Draco?" Dudley asked. "Fallen?"
Harry's hands were shaking, and it had nothing to do with the blood on them from Blaise's superficial wounds and everything to do with the fact that he'd nearly killed Marge.
"Another friend," he said, staring at Dudley. "From school. He's in a really bad way."
"Don't dawdle, boys," Tarana said, darting across the kitchen, grabbing the bag she'd dropped mid-step, and led the two teens out of the house entirely.
They ignored Petunia's tearful cries to come back.
XX
Fallen was grateful for the extra hands and lamented the loss of his own.
"I hate that this falls on you three," he rumbled, pacing tightly as he watched Harry and Draco diligently work on Yoko's Tranced form.
Already the water they had brought was tinged with the murky grey-green of the water from the Moors, and Harry had gone through four of the hand towels they'd brought, while Draco pressed as hard as he dared with one of the bath towels.
"We want to help," Harry told him. "Yoko and Blaise are our friends, too."
Fallen looked at the large muggle Tarana was pressed against, though her eyes were steady on Yoko.
Dudley's hands shook and his nose was wrinkled against the stench of the stagnant water on Blaise's clothes, flesh, and hair, but he attentively went through the motions of cleaning the cuts on Blaise's exposed arms, neck, and cheeks.
"What's that smell?" he finally asked, wringing out the filth-covered cloth and bringing it back to another cut.
"Zabini Mansion is deep in the English Moors," Draco said absently. "Legend has it that the family spelled the water there to come alive and eat intruders. In reality, the stench alone in the summer would probably kill a lesser man, but the Moors probably would come alive and eat you if you got too close to the Mansion."
Dudley's hands faltered. "Eat you?"
"Yoko's Element is that of the Earth," Tarana told him. "And he has had centuries to work the Moors. Draco's guess is likely not far off. The land would likely defend against unwanted intruders if Yoko tapped the Wards on the property to do so."
Draco glanced down at the wound he was trying to both clean and keep the pressure on. "Is this Dark?"
'Dark certainly has the creativity to be this brutal,' Fallen agreed, 'And he was, at one point, going to be our Chief Interrogator, only in part because of his Talent. That wound you're working on, however, leads me to fear it was perhaps Desmond's work. It was definitely caused by a metal blade.'
Draco's lips pursed.
"What the hell happened out there?" he whispered angrily. "How did we not know this was happening to them?"
Fallen's claws dug into the dirt and his steps got a little heavier as he paced, watching the three humans. "Unfortunately, until Blaise wakes, we won't even know what 'this' was."
'How did your project fare over the summer, General?' Tarana asked grimly.
Fallen dug an angry trench in the dirt. 'I wish I'd spent more time on it!'
'We still wouldn't have been able to safely ensure that he received it, Fallen, or even been sure that it would work at such a distance.'
Fallen snapped his fangs at her. 'At least it would have been something! And if it had worked, he wouldn't be in this condition right now!'
'Beating yourself up about it isn't going to change the fact that he was tortured, Fallen!' Tarana snapped. 'I don't need to remind you of the mindset he's going to be in when he wakes. Get yourself together before then because it won't be me he turns to!'
XX
Blaise came to with a scream, lashing out violently at Dudley, who, stunned, turned with the blow to his face and scrambled to his feet.
Blaise rolled onto his front and frantically began patting the ground as he tried to make his limbs cooperate enough to get to his own feet, sobbing and hyperventilating.
Tarana twisted to her own paws and used her shoulder to roll him onto his side, pressing one paw on his shoulder and lowering her head to meet frantic brown eyes.
"Blaise!" she roared, pressing harder on his shoulder, though she was off balance and it didn't weigh him down much. "Enough, you're safe, child. You're in the hands of the Crown and Collective."
Blaise froze, still panting and crying, but they were different tears now, relieved tears.
He raised one shaking hand and pressed it to Tarana's chest, feeling fur, muscle, and heart.
"I did it," he wheezed around his sobs. "I got him out."
'Keep working on those cuts, Dudley,' Tarana told the muggle.
"You did so well, Blaise," Tarana assured the dark-skinned teen, rubbing her muzzle against his cheek. "I'm so proud of you for getting both of you out of that hellhole. You're so strong. So brave, little one. Rest, you've earned it."
"Dark," Blaise babbled. "Dark was at the Mansion."
"The story can wait, Blaise," Tarana assured him, shaking her head. "Rest."
Blaise shook his head. "Dark came looking for Yoko. He needs help breaking an Urn. Yoko won't let him have it. He's gonna come back!"
\/\/\/
Yoko's lip had curled where he sat, firmly in control, where the border of the Zabini Moors met the rest of the land. "You're out of your mind, Traitor, if you think you can come here and request my aid in breaking that."
The massive black wolf had narrowed gold eyes on the silver Thief. "Mind your manners, Assassin," the Traitor rumbled.
"My manners are well intact," Yoko had sneered. "I do question the remains of your sanity to bring such a foolish request to the Collective."
"Oh, it's not insanity so much as necessity," Dark had chuckled, tilting his head. "You were the best Thief on Valeria, if your boast was true. Now, you're simply the only Thief from Valeria. There is no one else I can call on to break this for me. And considering that it was you who lost me my Thrall, I figured it only fair that the Collective repay me for it."
Yoko had sneered at him and the world between them had pulsed with the power of the Zabini Family, the Wards on the Mansion responding easily and willingly to his touch.
"We recovered what was stolen from us, Traitor. I see no reason to repay for a theft that was never committed." He had smirked as the trees on either side of Dark pulled themselves from the ground and began a slow, determined walk toward the black wolf, who had backed away warily, eyeing the new threat. "And say we did steal Arcana from you. As you've already pointed out, I am the Thief of the Crown. In what part of that cracked skull of yours does it sound like I would return something I've taken?"
Dark had growled, low and threatening, as he backed away from the still approaching trees and the Wards that now shimmered between him and Yoko.
"This was the easy way, Yoko," Dark had assured him. "There is more than one way to secure your cooperation."
Yoko had scoffed and turned on his tail, dismissing the threat that Dark had posed to him at all. "We'll talk when you can make it past my Wards, Dark," he had taunted.
XX
It took three days for Yoko and Blaise to hear from Dark again, and the wolf had been busy in that time.
Desmond had walked through the doors earlier and ignored the two of them in the dining room, an unusual occurrence, but it was the fact that, considering he'd been gone for three days and was remarkably sober, that had set Yoko's teeth on edge and he'd been urging Blaise to finish what he was eating, as they were heading to the back garden, Yoko's last line of defense if the Mansion was breached, when he had collapsed and begun to scream.
Blaise, as blood kin to those that had Weaved the Wards and future Lord of the Mansion, could feel them rippling and writhing as they tore themselves from Yoko's own core.
The wards, for the first time since their creation, were being torn from Yoko's control.
"Yoko," Blaise had said frantically, hands running over the heaving flesh of his guardian. "Yoko, what do I do?"
'Run,' Yoko had rasped.
Blaise moved to pick up his guardian, but the fox weakly shoved him away with his hind paws.
'Run, Blaise,' Yoko had ordered.
"Not without you," Blaise had insisted. "It's just a few miles to the Lines, we can get beyond them and use the bracelet."
Yoko had blinked dazedly at him before shoving himself shakily to his paws while Blaise had hovered, hands wavering over the silver fox.
'Go and get one of the others, Blaise. Fallen is preferable as he can still enter. I will hold them here as long as I can.'
Again, Blaise had shaken his head. "I won't leave you here!"
The doors had burst open then, and Dark had stepped through them, a triumphant grin on his face.
"Good evening, Yoko," Dark had greeted, more amused than anything to see the small fox standing on shaking paws, fur standing on end. "What say we have that conversation again, hm? I think this time, you'll give me a very different answer."
Yoko's body had quivered, the shaking had disappeared as though it had never been.
Then he lunged.
/\/\/\
Blaise was breathless when he paused, clutching at his side.
"Move your hand," Fallen ordered.
"It's broken," Blaise said, wincing when Fallen's paw brushed the aforementioned rib.
"Wait until we can get you to a proper first aid kit," Fallen told him. "I don't need you puncturing a lung beforehand."
Blaise winced, but relaxed into Tarana's pressure on his shoulder, letting her push him onto his back on the ground. "Yoko?"
"Tranced," Fallen told him. "He's healing well and will wake in safety. Well done."
Blaise gave him a smile that was mostly grit teeth. "It was the bracelet. It brought us to safety."
Tarana nuzzled his cheek with her own. "Yes, it did. Rest. You've been through a more thorough ordeal than your normal summer holiday."
"Do you think this means we won't have a life or death situation at the end of the school year?" Draco asked casually, trying to distract them all from what amounted to battlefield triage. "I mean, we've averaged one a year, so this one should count, right? We're set?"
Blaise laughed, then winced when it jarred his ribs. "When are we ever that lucky?" he asked.
Draco pointed a bloody finger in his direction. "You're a spoilsport, Zabini."
"Tarana, where are we going to take them now?" Harry asked, looking up at Tarana worriedly.
Fallen looked down at Tarana, who shifted guiltily. "Harry and I left the house by force," she told him. "We'll be unlikely to find long-term assistance there any longer."
"Force?"
Tarana's eyes were blue ice when she looked up at the General. "Vernon Dursley attempted to lay hand on my charge for breaking our agreement. I responded with due force."
Fallen stomped a paw to the ground. "There's nowhere else that we can take them."
"Why not just take 'em to a vet?" Dudley asked.
Draco's lip curled. "Vet?"
"It's a muggle doctor who works on animals," Harry told Draco, before turning to Dudley. "Yoko's injuries are too severe. Any vet with a conscience will put him down because it's the humane thing to do to an animal suffering and we wouldn't be able to explain to one that he's healing and just needs care."
Dudley bit his lip.
"The only place that's had a history of treating any of you is Hogwarts," Draco pointed out. "And we can't wait days for a response. Even if Fallen Crafted an Illusion to hide us all, I wouldn't survive living it rough."
"And an Illusion that would need to flex with time is difficult to sustain," Fallen told them. "It's not something I would recommend doing unless there were no other options or I had someone to trade off with to rest."
"The only ones I would trust to put hands on Yoko would be Severus, perhaps Hagrid," Tarana said. "What are the odds that he's at Hogwarts?"
"Three and a half weeks out from the school year? Non-existent," Draco said. "He doesn't show up until the teachers get summoned a week before school, though there are probably others there. It wouldn't matter though. I know where he spends the summer holidays."
"If we can get to Diagon Alley, the closest wizarding community, we can Floo call him to join us there and work on Yoko," Fallen admitted. "But Yoko would need to be at least healed enough that gentle jostling, like walking, isn't going to spill something where it doesn't belong."
Blaise attempted to sit up. "Did I hurt him more? I was running through the Moors."
Fallen shook his head. "Different circumstances," he told him. "No extra damage you could or did do to him would have been any worse than putting him back beneath the Traitor's blade or that of his Thrall. Getting him to safety was more important than keeping his guts inside where they belonged."
"If the Dursleys are still trying to bring Marge to the ground or Vernon to the A&E, we might be able to get into the house for a brief period of time. Enough to pack up the trunks at the house and get Blaise into fresh clothes."
"I'm fine."
"You're not," Tarana told him. "I've never been in direct contact with the water of the Moors, but if the rumors of what is in them and what's been done to them are even half true, the basic flush Dudley's done of your wounds isn't thorough enough. You'll need to scrub them. Soap and water at the very least."
"And, on a side note mate, you reek."
"Draco," Harry hissed, though it was half-hearted at best.
XX
The ambulance hadn't arrived by the time Harry, Tarana, Dudley, and Blaise arrived back at Privet Drive, so they were treated to the dubious welcome of Vernon screaming at them to fix his sister as he bled all over the floors hobbling at them with a rather impressive display of determination, given the pain he must be in.
"YOU PUT HER RIGHT!" he roared.
Tarana planted herself between the man and the two children, urging them up the stairs without her. "She is as much a bag of wind now as she was when she arrived, Dursley," they heard her sneer. "I fail to see a difference."
Harry stopped when he opened the door to his room, because his aunt was already there, his trunk and chest of drawers open as she shoved things into it.
Draco's, thankfully, was untouched, though Harry wasn't entirely sure if that was because Petunia had more propriety than trying to get into a stranger's trunk, or if she'd tried and been unable to open it.
"Aunt Petunia?"
Petunia didn't look up at him. "He'll never let you stay. Either of you." She said to the shirt she was folding with sharp movements. "You can get to somewhere in your world?"
Harry swallowed. "Y-yeah." He muttered.
He'd never liked returning to the Dursleys after school, but it was still home. A home that he was just now coming to realize he likely would never be able to set foot in again and not simply because of Vernon.
The stutter in his voice, or the stunned tone he used, brought Petunia's attention back to him, and the other two teens that flanked him, or as good as given Dudley's bulk.
Her nose wrinkled as she took in Blaise's appearance, but she doesn't bother to comment, instead turning to the trunk beside her and collecting a pile of clothes for him, she doesn't approach him, forcing him to come to her.
"Thank you," he mumbled.
"Show him to the shower, Dudley," Petunia told her son. "Then go to your room. Stay out of your father's way."
Dudley nodded slowly, looking at the open trunk as though he'd just come to the same realization as his cousin.
"Aunt Petunia…."
"I don't know if you remember," she said, going back to folding the clothes from his dresser and dropping them into his already full trunk. "But you received a warning from your school last summer after your…outburst. I assume she will take care of you in that respect?"
"I don't know," Harry said numbly. "I think she did."
Petunia nodded sharply and the two lapsed into silence as they swiftly packed the rest of Harry's meager belongings, at least until they ran out of room in the trunk.
Harry's lip wobbled as he closed and latched it, thinking of the rest of the things he was likely leaving behind forever.
"I will try and keep him out," Petunia murmured to him. "Though I can make no promises."
Harry nodded.
"You will be safe? Where you're going?"
"I, uh, I think so," Harry said, wiping his damp palms on his pants. "Fallen says we're going to Diagon Alley, it's the shopping district that we buy our school supplies from. He wants to call one of our professors to look at Yoko."
Petunia's lips press together, having asked for none of the information and not knowing who this 'Yoko' was.
"Thank you, Aunt Petunia."
Petunia looked down at her nephew.
"I did not want you here," she admitted; and winced when the boy did, as though both had known it, neither had ever spoken of it aloud. "I disliked everything you would become. Tarana was the only reason you did not go to an orphanage as Marge suggested. I…I don't deserve the thanks you keep giving me."
Harry shrugged. "But…it's mine to give, right?"
Petunia's eyes watered and she dropped to her knees to hug him. "She raised you better than I ever could," she whispered into his ear.
Harry clung to her. "And you kept me safe when she couldn't. I didn't miss it," he told her. "How often you put yourself between Uncle Vernon and me."
There were sirens in the distance and aunt and nephew pulled apart, just in time for Blaise to stumble wearily out of the bathroom, filthy clothes in hand.
"Leave them there," Petunia gestured, wiping her eyes with one hand. "They are lost."
Blaise fiddled with what was clearly Draco's button-up shirt, though the wrinkles made it a worn button-up. "Thank you, Mrs. Dursley."
Petunia nodded sharply and Tarana appeared in the doorway.
"We need to leave before the ambulance arrives," she told them. "Blaise, are you well enough to drag Draco's trunk, at least as far as the park?"
Blaise hefted the trunk with a little difficulty. "I think so."
Harry, whose trunk was larger and much heavier now than it had been for any school year before, had a great deal more trouble with his, but with both hands, he managed to lift it enough to drag it along the floor.
"You can move it, can't you?" Petunia asked Tarana.
"Not without seriously damaging the house," Tarana told her.
Petunia grimaced. "If you could do as little as possible. They will not be able to be gone before the ambulance arrives otherwise."
Tarana gave her a mirthless smile. "I will add another ding or two, to the one I've just used to give your husband a concussion."
Petunia paled.
Tarana paused in the doorway, looking back at Petunia. 'You and Dudley will be well with Vernon?'
Petunia nodded. "Once he is settled in the hospital, I believe he and I shall take a holiday. A weekend or so should suffice."
'And if things get worse without us?'
"He is my son," Petunia said fiercely.
Tarana's lip curled up in a half-smile. 'And he is turning into a well-adjusted young man as of late. He helped Fallen with basic first aid this afternoon.'
Petunia's eyes watered again. "We both know that his change wasn't because of me, Your Highness."
'Don't sell yourself so short, Petunia,' Tarana told her, turning away. 'You love your son. You will do right by him in the long run.'
XX
Though there were now three large dents in the hallway wall and a cracked wooden plank of the hall floor, Tarana and the boys managed to get the trunks out of the house just as the ambulance was pulling onto the street.
They huddled beneath one of Tarana's most well-used charms, a Notice-Me-Not spell that she had, supposedly, lifted from the wizards she lived among, not the Valerians she had in the past, to keep out of sight.
The medics made quick work of getting Vernon on the board and out of the house, though his bulk and weight didn't make it easy on them and despite their professionalism, Tarana heard one of them mutter to the other about putting a note down for the doctors about a weight loss recommendation, which caused her a brief moment of amusement in an otherwise shitty day.
Even once the ambulance, with its patient and Petunia in tow, had pulled away, Tarana didn't drop the spell.
"We live in a rather nosy neighborhood," Harry revealed to Blaise as they dragged Draco's trunk down the street.
Tarana continuously shoved Harry's with sharp, controlled bursts of telekinetic power, that would tire her out before long, but was faster than Harry trying to drag it on the uneven sidewalks.
The unfortunate downside was that the uneven sidewalks quickly became broken sidewalks, but Tarana wasn't in much state to care and the two boys were too exhausted to try.
They'd only made it a block when Tarana felt eyes on them even with the Notice-Me-Not spell in place.
She paused and looked around, but there was no one visible to be watching them.
Hunching her shoulders and shifting her weight, she continued after the boys.
XX
Their stalker was still present when they finally made it to the park nearly half an hour later.
The park appeared empty of Draco and the two Valerians they'd left him with, but the Illusion was an obvious one, as there was no bloodstain in the sand where Yoko had lain.
'Fallen,' Tarana called.
The Illusion shimmered and disappeared as soon as she'd spoken.
'We can't stay here much longer,' Fallen told her. 'There have been three groups of children by already and I am running out of ideas to tempt them with.'
"Draco?" Tarana asked.
"He went to the bathroom to try and wash Yoko's blood off his hands," Fallen said. "Perhaps you could bring him a change of clothes boys?"
Harry knelt to unlatch Draco's trunk, but it creaked open with a flare of Fallen's Element before he could touch it.
Tarana and Fallen waited until Blaise and Harry were on their way to the bathroom before they looked down at Yoko.
Fallen had curled himself as close as he dared to the silver fox and, ignoring Tarana, dragged his tongue along the Assassin's muzzle.
Tarana shifted.
It wasn't unusual to see Yoko and Fallen being affectionate with one another, given that they'd been apart for centuries, but to see Yoko so unresponsive to the General was heartbreaking.
"The Knight Bus will be our best bet at getting to Diagon Alley," Tarana murmured, lying down a meter or so away from the pair.
Fallen curled a lip.
"Your displeasure is noted," Tarana said drily.
"I'm aware our options are limited," Fallen told her. "But Lucius will never let this go, that I've allowed his son on something as mundane as public transport."
"The odds of getting a message to Lucius and Severus before we arrive there?" Tarana asked.
Fallen shook his head. "Not without Archimedes or Hedwig."
Tarana frowned and looked at the entrance to the park.
"You have an idea?"
Tarana nodded. "Arabella Figg still lives nearby. She was the squib whose owl I used to send you that first owl two years ago. I can send a letter to the Leaky Cauldron and have Tom get in contact with Severus and Lucius."
"I will watch the children," Fallen told her, laying his head gingerly over Yoko's neck.
"We're being watched in turn," Tarana warned him. "They're keeping themselves well hidden so the odds of it being anyone but Sirius or Ebony are slim."
Fallen rumbled quietly. "Be swift," he told her.
Tarana turned and bolted, no more than a black blur.
Fallen closed his eyes and let the Illusion of an empty part close over him again.
XX
Draco wasn't phased by the Illusion and led Harry and Blaise right through it.
"How is he?"
"Healing," Fallen told him. "There doesn't appear to be any poison in his system, but we'll know for sure when Severus can test his blood for us, or he wakes and tells us himself."
Harry looked around, frowning. "Where's Tarana?"
"Borrowing an owl," Fallen said.
"How does the Ministry find out about magic when we're not in school?" Harry asked, flexing the fingers on one hand.
Draco tilted his head, frowning. "Your wand, usually, though they also monitor the registered residence. Why?"
"I blew up Aunt Marge."
Fallen's jaw dropped slightly.
"Blew up?!" Draco repeated, aghast.
"Like a balloon!" Harry reassured them, waving his hands wildly.
Fallen dropped his head and sighed. "Seriously, Potter, don't we have enough issues at the moment?"
"She sent Ripper to attack Tarana," Harry told him flatly. "Tarana was already dealing with Uncle Vernon and after everything she'd said about my parents this week, I guess I just…snapped."
Fallen's lip curled. "Boy, you had me sold when you said she'd ordered an attack on my Queen. Well done."
Harry ducked his head, accepting the praise with a half-smile.
The three teens sat in a semi-circle around the wolf and fox.
"As soon as Tarana returns, we'll be moving. The Knight Bus will take us as far as the Leaky Cauldron where hopefully Tom will have passed along our messages to Lucius and Severus and things will be in motion. I wish I'd known about this incident with the muggle beforehand, as it would have been nice to have Lucius begin damage control for you."
"Tarana knew about it," Harry told him.
"Then we may be worrying needlessly," Fallen told him.
XX
The sun was beginning to set when Tarana returned, slipping into the park again.
'Our watcher is still out there,' she told Fallen as she approached, brushing her cheek against Harry's in a wordless greeting. 'I took a lap around the yards nearby, but I'm not nearly as stealthy as Yoko and if it is Ebony, he is of the ak-esh.'
Fallen nodded. "Did your squib send the message?"
"She did," Tarana replied. "I have no doubts, however, that she will shortly be in contact with Albus. We'll need to leave quickly. There's a less populated area, in comparison, a couple of blocks away we can use to summon the Bus."
Fallen looked down at Yoko, tilting his head as he tried to work out logistics.
"Harry and I can take turns carrying him," Draco told him. "Can you lighten our trunks?"
"Of course," Fallen said, gaining his paws. "How's your rib, Blaise?"
"Hurts," Blaise admitted wearily. "Broken."
Fallen's lip curled in amusement at his dry tone.
XX
'Harry told me about the incident at the Dursleys,' Fallen said, sounding not a little accusatory as they walked down the street, hidden beneath Tarana's Notice-Me-Not spell.
'And?'
'You're not concerned about what will happen when we arrive at the Leaky Cauldron, given his history with underage magic?'
'No,' Tarana told him. 'I have every intention of dealing with Fudge if the man feels the need. Given that Harry used magic in defense of me, I don't foresee there being a problem.'
Personally, Fallen thought it was a rather flimsy way of dealing with the problem, but between the two, Fudge and Tarana did have the more equal relationship, so perhaps for her, it was simply that easy.
'You seemed rather sure that it was Black and Ebony following us.'
Tarana's tail twitched. 'It's the only thing I can think of for who would be able to remain out of view. Given the state we're all in right now, Dark would have attacked us already. I just don't understand why, if they're so close, Ebony hasn't reached out.'
'Given what Black was accused of, perhaps Ebony isn't as loyal to you as you believe him to be.'
'There's no evidence to prove that either one of them is disloyal to us,' Tarana pointed out.
'Black just spent twelve years in Azkaban, Tarana, are you looking for a signed confession from him?'
Tarana didn't have an answer for that just yet and kept silent.
Behind them, there was a crash as the metal lid of a trashcan hit the ground, followed by a hiss.
A dog barked and there was the clear sound of a dog fight.
Above them, three of the streetlights flickered and went out.
In the seconds it took the fight to start and end, Tarana and Fallen had placed themselves before the teens, Fallen's eyes bleeding black as the air, unseen in the gloom, took on a dark red tint behind them, shielding them from a rear assault.
Nothing happened.
There were many seconds of silence before the shadows shifted, a darker shadow appearing amidst them.
Tarana and Fallen lowered themselves to the ground, a low growl rippling through the air, though the teens couldn't place which Valerian had uttered it.
BANG
Tarana, the closest to the street, darted out of the way just in time to avoid being run down by the massive, triple-decker bus that appeared out of thin air.
When she looked back to where the dark shape had been, it was gone.
She frowned and glanced behind her.
None of the teens had their wand in hand.
And she was relatively certain that neither she nor Fallen had mentioned how to summon the Knight Bus, and yet, here, in all its purple glory, was the vehicle in question.
A glance at Fallen saw him equally as perplexed, but his eyes returned to their natural red state and he flicked a glance toward where the children were relaxing.
Quickly, Tarana pulled her Notice-Me-Not charm off the boys, leaving herself and Fallen hidden beneath it.
For good measure, Fallen cloaked them in his Disillusionment Charm, the slick, oily feeling slipping down her spine
'Don't use your real names,' Fallen warned them as the doors came open. 'Who knows what they'll report to the papers if they find out any of you were on this bus in a muggle neighborhood.'
Draco snorted. "Pretty sure we're all a little too recognizable for that, Fallen."
'You doubt me, boy?' Fallen asked him.
Draco eyed where he imagined the wolf would be and glanced behind him.
Where Harry and Blaise had each once stood, were two very forgettable wizards.
Draco shook his head and pulled a pouch out of his pocket, interrupting what he was sure was a very riveting monologue regarding the services of the bus. "Three to the Leaky Cauldron," he told the older teen and moved past the conductor as though he wasn't there beyond that.
Blaise, a hand on his ribs to try and dull the pain, dragged Draco's lighter and smaller trunk on after the once-blond, likewise giving no more mind to the man than Draco had.
Harry, still holding Yoko beneath the illusion that he wasn't, was the last to board the bus and he took each stair with deliberate care, not only so he wouldn't drop his cargo or bang him on anything as he entered the bus, but also so that Tarana and Fallen could get on as well.
Once the three teens were all ensconced on the second floor of the bus, Tarana and Fallen dropped the spells keeping them hidden, instead taking up residence by the two entrances so they could hear when someone approached.
Fallen waited until Harry had laid Yoko in Blaise's shaking arms before moving forward to give the fox a once over.
The Assassin was still Tranced, but the wound on his stomach was looking far better than it had when he'd arrived in Surrey, his healing doing its job. It would still be anywhere between several hours or several days before he would come out of the Trance, of course, given that it always took longer to heal an injury where the organs needed to either be regrown or readjusted.
'How are you feeling?' Fallen asked Blaise, planting his front paws on the bed to get a closer look at the teen.
His complexion left much to be desired and Fallen would feel much better when they could get him into hands capable of actual first aid.
"Hurts," Blaise murmured, hesitating before admitting. "I don't want to sleep."
'I don't blame you,' Tarana told him. 'You need the rest though. I doubt we'll be on the bus long enough for you to dream, and when we arrive at Diagon Alley, I'll Walk with you tonight.'
Blaise swallowed and tried to make himself as comfortable as possible.
'We'll wake you if you dream,' Fallen assured him, though he agreed with Tarana that it was unlikely that Blaise would drift off deep enough before they arrived at the Leaky Cauldron.
XX
It was no great surprise to either Valerian that the boys were asleep within minutes of putting their heads on the pillows, though none of the sleep was particularly restful.
"I am getting very sick of these boys being unable to properly process their trauma," Tarana rumbled quietly.
Fallen didn't immediately answer, and when he did speak, it was to change the subject.
"Tarana, what do you plan to do about Black?"
Tarana eyed him but didn't answer, which, for Fallen, was really answer enough.
"You can't have forgotten that he was the reason they're dead."
Tarana glanced at Harry, as though checking he was deeply asleep. "We can't know that," she said evenly. "The Secret Keeper was kept even from me, for all that I had been a part of the spell itself."
Fallen's lip curled. "Don't let your attachment get in the way of seeing what kind of threat he is, or can become, Your Highness."
"I have forgotten nothing, General, of that I can assure you," she snapped sharply. "Sirius Black is no threat to me or mine, not yet."
Fallen scoffed. "You let affection blind you to his fault," he sneered, but turned sharply on his tail and disappeared down the stairs, avoiding her answer.
Tarana lay her head down with a thump and a sigh. What are you two doing? She wondered.
XX
Fallen had little care for the Knight Bus, its driver, or conductor, yet when he stepped onto the lowest level of the bus, his attention was immediately drawn there, as they were speaking of the Azkaban outbreak and the murder that had supposedly landed Black in the prison in the first place.
"-cornered 'im in the middle of a street full of Muggles an' Black took out 'is wand and 'e blasted 'alf the street apart, an' a wizard got 'it, an' so did a dozen Muggles what got in the way."
There was a witch with a half-conscious look on her face staring in the conductor's general direction, likely his 'attentive' audience.
Fallen shook his head and rolled his eyes. Teenagers.
The rumor that Sirius Black had killed thirteen people with one curse was not a new one to the General, nor was it one that he subscribed to.
For Black to have killed that many people with the blasting curse, he would have needed to have chosen and scouted out the location of the attack well-beforehand, allowing him knowledge of a muggle area that wasn't frequented by much of any of the wizarding world.
To Fallen's knowledge, Black had been cornered there, he hadn't been found there. While Black was definitely one of the more dangerous and magically powerful of his generation, especially given the training and knowledge he received as an Auror, Fallen was relatively certain that he wasn't powerful enough to cast a Blasting Curse with a wide enough radius to kill thirteen people, one of whom was a wizard.
And he didn't run afterward.
That one curse was the only one he cast, and it wasn't even against the Aurors coming to collect him.
Gritting his teeth, Fallen turned out the window to see Angle-sea passing them by, as soon as he registered it, however, they came to an abrupt stop and the conductor approached the stairs.
Fallen slipped up ahead of him, resolving to have eyes and ears inside the investigation regarding Black, both his escape and where he might be heading, though given the fact that he had, by all appearances, showed up in Little Whinging, it didn't take much to figure out who his likely target was going to be.
Tarana might be too close to the problem to keep a proper eye on things but Fallen was not. He'd ensure that the threat was watched, at least until Yoko could talk sense into her.
XX
After multiple stops and starts, which made the already restless teens' sleep worse, as they jolted awake each time the bus came to a stop, sometimes only minutes after having fallen asleep again, the giant purple monstrosity pulled up outside the Leaky Cauldron.
"Never again," Draco hissed at Fallen. "I will slit my own throat before we do this again."
Fallen blinked calmly back at his charge, aware that Draco would do no such thing.
The Leaky Cauldron served as the most frequented of wizarding drinking establishments in London, as well as the entrance to the most famous of the London market places, Diagon Alley.
It was run by an old wizard, Tom, who despite his age and habit of associating with 'lower' classes of people, was on rather good terms with the Malfoy family, perhaps because of his good business sense and the fact that he was the greatest source of information Lucius Malfoy had ever come across.
Tarana, of course, couldn't have known that when she'd brought up sending messages to Severus and Lucius through the landlord, but Fallen had been counting on the fact that Lucius and Tom had a rather cordial relationship as the reason Lucius would listen to the man at all, particularly given the time of day.
Unfortunately, it was neither Severus nor Lucius that met them inside the Leaky Cauldron.
As soon as the Knight Bus had disappeared, Fallen's illusion had evaporated and the two spells keeping the Valerians out of sight had likewise fallen away.
"There you are, Harry!"
Fallen's lip curled and he glanced at Tarana who straightened her spine, all signs of her exhaustion falling away, as she stepped before Harry and intercepted the Minister of Magic.
"Minister Fudge," she greeted coolly. "To what do we owe the pleasure?"
Cornelius Fudge was a large man - though given that he'd now met Vernon Dursley, Fallen may need to change his opinion on what constituted a large 'man' - though short enough to give him a more 'portly' appearance as opposed to straight-up 'fat'. He was currently dressed in a rather offensive bottle-green suit with his pinstriped cloak over it. He swept his lime-green bowler had off his head to bow to Tarana.
"Your Highness, so glad to see you again," he glanced worriedly at Fallen, who tilted his head with false curiosity.
The General was well aware of why Fudge was wary of him.
The last time they'd been in the same room together, Fallen had walked a fine line of threatening the Ministry and declaring war on it when they attempted to arrest Rubeus Hagrid while Yoko lay dying in the Hospital Wing.
Given the close relationship between Hagrid and Yoko, as well as the fact that being a half-giant made him hardier than anyone else at Hogwarts, Fallen felt that Hagrid was of better use at Hogwarts, where he could be on call to aid them if necessary, than sitting in a cell in Azkaban.
He still wasn't sorry.
"Tom, I assume you have rooms for the boys?" Tarana said, turning her head slightly to show she was talking to the innkeeper, who had appeared from a door behind the bar, without taking her eyes off Fudge, who fiddled with his hat but didn't interrupt.
"Yes, Your Highness, I'll take them up right away."
"And the actual guests I requested?"
Tom blinked, glancing between Tarana and the Minister. "Ah, both have been contacted. One arrived not ten minutes ago, Your Highness."
Tarana nodded sharply but didn't ask which had arrived.
It wouldn't do for Fudge to know just who they were currently in contact with yet.
It said a great deal about the exhaustion the children were feeling that they didn't complain when Tom gestured for them to precede him up the stairs to the second floor.
XX
Tom opened the door to Room Eleven and stepped aside to allow the boys to enter the room.
"Severus," Draco breathed, rushing forward.
Severus Snape, the Hogwarts Potions Professor, and Draco's godfather; turned at the sound of the door opening, and caught Draco with one arm around the teen's shoulders.
There was an obvious difference between the professor during the school year and the potions master outside it, lighter-weight clothes for one.
Severus lived in the dungeons at Hogwarts, which, being underground, was often one of the coolest places at the school and the potions master wore clothing appropriate for the climate.
In deference to the August heat, his shoulder-length black hair was pulled back, away from his neck and shoulders, and his pale skin was flushed with it.
Behind him, there were rows upon rows of needles and vials on one half of the desk and the second half was taken up with his large potions kit.
Severus gave them all a once over before turning to Tom.
"I'll be needing another table, Tom," he told the innkeeper. "And you do remember you're being paid for your discretion?"
Tom bowed to him. "Of course, Professor. No one knows you're here."
"See that it stays that way."
Tom bowed again as he stepped out of the room, closing the door behind him.
Severus put a hand on Draco's shoulder as he moved past him.
"Lift your shirt, Mr. Zabini," the man said. "Off entirely if you're comfortable." He turned to Harry, who had taken Yoko again. "Can you hold him until the table arrives?"
Harry nodded with grim determination, even though his arms were shaking with the effort of holding the thirty-or-forty-pound dead weight of the fox.
Severus nodded shortly and ignored him, turning his attention to Blaise, who had unbuttoned the shirt he wore but didn't remove it.
As Fallen had in the park, Severus ran the fingers of one hand over the Gryffindor's ribs, careful of the bruising there.
"Draco, bring him the pain vial. Zabini, don't drink it until I've determined how many of your bones are broken."
"Just the rib," Blaise mumbled.
Draco sucked his teeth, hovering at his godfather's elbow as the potions master moved over each of Blaise's ribs in turn, finding no more broken ones.
Severus flicked his fingers in Draco's direction and the blond handed it over to Blaise, who drained it in two swift swallows.
There was a sharp knock on the door and Severus flicked his wand at it to open it, keeping one hand lightly on the broken rib so he didn't lose it. "One the side there, Tom, Potter, put the fox on it before you drop him."
"I've a pot of tea brewing, Professor," Tom said, hovering by the door and watching the man murmur a spell under his breath.
Blaise hissed sharply, jerking away from Severus as the rib popped back into place and mended itself.
"A clean break," Severus said, getting to his feet. "Tea will be fine." He told Tom, flicking his hand in his direction dismissively.
He waited until the door had closed before pointing toward the two armchairs in the corner. "Sit," he told them, sweeping past to give Yoko his full attention.
Harry and Draco dropped into them gratefully, but Blaise hovered at the far end of the table, watching every move Severus made as he went over Yoko with wand and hand.
"What happened?" Severus asked.
Harry and Draco glanced at one another.
"Harry invited me and Fallen to stay with him for a couple of weeks," Draco started.
Severus didn't roll his eyes, but it was obviously a near thing.
"Begin after the parts I know of, Draco," he said. "You mentioned that invitation for nearly the entire two days you were with me."
Draco flushed and ducked his head.
Harry eyed him, confused, but picked up the story, telling him about Marge, his and Tarana's history with her, and the reason that Tarana had been willing to bring a pureblood like Draco into the Dursleys' home.
"By the end of the visit we weren't really staying in the house much. I mean, Aunt Marge wanted us to stay there, she's always liked having eyes on me, but Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia always made a show of sending us out, so we weren't underfoot all the time. There's a park a few blocks down from the Dursleys, off Mongolia Crescent, that we'd spend most of the days because Fallen and Tarana could disappear into the trees around there and didn't have to hide under Fallen's illusions-"
"Glamours," Severus corrected. "An Illusion is a scene he Crafts, a glamour is cast on a particular person, or Valerian, to hide what they look like."
Harry blinked, absorbing the information silently, before continuing with the story.
"We were there this afternoon when Blaise just…appeared."
Severus cut a glance at Blaise. "And you?"
Blaise's color was off, and his hands were shaking, fingers twitching.
"Dark," he rasped, before clearing his throat. "Dark showed up a couple of weeks into the summer. He and Yoko argued about something by the wards and Yoko sent him away. A week or so later Desmond came back to the Mansion and wrenched the wards from Yoko."
Draco hissed out a breath between his teeth but wisely didn't interrupt.
"I don't, I don't know how long, exactly, we were there but…he and Dark, they did things to Yoko. They wanted him to do something and he wouldn't do it, so they'd hurt him." Blaise sniffled, wiping his eyes with sharp, jerking movements. "Is he going to be okay?"
Severus, who had moved away from searching for any injuries magically and was now swirling a vial of off-white liquid with Yoko's blood, took a moment before answering.
"He doesn't appear to be poisoned, though this test is only good for a handful of the common ones and none of those on Valeria. I've flushed the wound on his stomach, and from what I can tell, he's healing well. Fallen doesn't enter the Trance often and thus, I'm no expert on it, but I imagine once it's through doing what it will, he'll wake." Severus eyed Blaise for a moment before gesturing him forward and putting one of the teen's hands on the fox's side. "Feel his breathing?"
Blaise nodded, relaxing. "It's different."
"He's not dying," Severus told him. "He's healing and will wake when he's ready."
Blaise nodded, ducking his head, but Severus was close enough to the boy to see two tears slip through his defenses.
He left Blaise's hand pressed against the fox's side while he drew two vials of blood.
"Fallen and Tarana will likely be up shortly. I suggest the three of you change for bed. Do you need anything?"
Harry and Draco were watching Blaise, the blond leaning forward with his fingers laced between his knees, but both shook their heads.
Severus figured they would answer as such but slipped out to find the still missing Valerians before deciding whether the boys needed more assistance.
XX
Downstairs, Fudge had led Tarana and Fallen to the room behind the bar, where a trolley for tea had been set up.
Fudge, with shaking hands, poured himself a cup and sat, a flick of his wand moved the armchair across from him and Tarana took the spot with practiced ease, Fallen coming to her right as though they weren't currently at odds.
A united front.
"I assume you have been to the Dursleys already, Minister?" Tarana said, making herself comfortable.
"We have," he assured her. "Two members of the Accidental Magic Reversal Department were dispatched to puncture Marjorie Dursley and modify her memory."
Tarana didn't mention the fact that Harry's wandless magic had been very much not accidental, for multiple reasons, not the least being that deliberate assault on a muggle was frowned upon, though the fact that he had done so in defense of, by the Ministry's standards, his Queen and Bonded meant that the punishment would be much reduced if there was any at all.
The other being that it was deliberate wandless magic, though she doubted that Harry had meant to blow Marge up like a balloon.
"Wonderful," Tarana said instead. "Do you plan to attempt to press charges?"
"Of course not," Fudge said, seeming very much offended at the very idea that they'd do so.
Fallen's lip curled. "I see Dumbledore's promise of dealing with the warning at the Dursleys last year was upheld. I suppose, Minister, that the only thing left to wonder is…why are you here?"
Fudge shifted awkwardly
"Indeed, Minister," Tarana said, tilting her head. "I admit that while your presence does serve me well in that I don't need to search you out for answers myself, why are you here at all? Surely you have more important things to be doing than searching for several underage wizards, regardless of their parentage."
"Especially because of their parentage," Fallen said. "Lucius trusts me to take care of his son when he is not present, so I don't see why he would have sent you out to find him."
Fudge flushed. "Ah, General, that is-"
"What threat do you believe Sirius Black poses to my charge, Minister?" Tarana interrupted coolly.
"Well, the guards, they say that Black was ah, muttering I suppose you could call it, in his cell. He kept saying 'he's at Hogwarts'."
"That's no secret, Minister," Tarana said coolly. "Sirius was there the night that Harry was born. He's very aware of when my charge's birthday is and thus, knows the year that he was to begin Hogwarts."
Fallen shifted, drawing Fudge's attention, but the wolf's gaze was half-lidded and on Tarana and the Minister quickly returned it to the Queen.
"You understand our concern, of course, Your Highness? You and Mr.-"
"Lord," Fallen purred, glancing at the wizard.
"-Lord Potter were missing for several years. Black may not have been aware of your return-"
"And what evidence do you bring forward that says he knows it now?" Tarana asked.
Fudge shifted but didn't have an answer.
"I will remind you and your Ministry, Cornelius, that Harry Potter is still my charge. My responsibility long before he was your 'Boy-Who-Lived'. While your concern is heartwarming, truly, it is unnecessary."
Fudge nodded. "Of course, Your Highness," he said. "I'm happy to find you all well."
Tarana regaled tipped her head to him. "And you as well, Minister. If you don't mind, Fallen and I would like to check on Yoko and the boys."
"Of course, of course," Fudge said, jumping to his feet as Tarana took to her paws.
Tarana moved past him, Fallen pacing behind her, as Fudge bowed to her.
"Have a good day, Your Highness, General."
"You as well, Minister."
XX
Fallen waited until the door had closed behind them before turning to Tarana.
'What plans do you have against Black, Your Highness? Evidence continues to stack that he's searching for Harry.'
Tarana stalked toward the stairs and didn't answer.
