Chapter Eleven: Of Missions and Firebolts
Tarana decides to put her Crown back on, Fallen pushes a button he shouldn't have, and Harry receives a very expensive gift.
Despite the rage of his guardian, Harry remained stubbornly angry over the betrayal of his father's best friend straight through to the beginning of the week.
That anger is fueled by the fact that Tarana hasn't returned by Monday, and had, in fact, sent both Fallen and Yoko back with vicious injuries that had taken hours to heal when they'd tried on Monday night and Arcana had returned with third-degree burns on his flank, two broken ribs, and a fractured paw when he'd tried his own hand on Wednesday.
By Friday, as the school was preparing to leave for the holidays, the division between the Valerians was known school-wide, and the tension between the remaining four Valerians was clear even to the untrained eye.
Gryffindor Tower, in particular, was stuck in a level of tension and silence as it hadn't been since the attacks on muggle-borns the year before.
"You know," Ron whispered Saturday as they all spread their books out in the library, "for the first time in generations the Valerians are all together in the same place, but…."
Draco clenched his jaw. "They're breaking further apart than before they came together," he finished.
Harry pushed himself roughly to his feet and stormed off into the stacks without a word.
XX
Fallen nosed through Severus' office door, frustrated and exhausted.
"You look like shit," the potions master informed him, sneering down his nose. "And you're bleeding on my rug."
Fallen's tongue stretched as far as he could get it, trying to lick the gash on his muzzle to help stem the bleeding, but it was a lost cause.
"I assume Her Highness gave you that," Severus stated.
"She's being bloody unreasonable," Fallen rumbled, tiredly. "It's been over a week and she refuses to return to the castle until we all decide to support Black and this idiocy that he's no threat. He's been in this castle twice and has attempted to get into the Tower. Who else could he bloody fucking be after? Weasley?"
"You're asking the wrong person," Severus informed him. "Black and I have history, as you're well aware. I cannot give you unbiased advice."
Fallen huffed, pushing himself violently back to all four paws and pacing. "She's so fucking stubborn," he hissed, apparently ignorant of the fact that Severus had just told him he couldn't advise him on how to help the fracture building between the Valerians. "She's so fucking fixated on the fact that he wouldn't have betrayed the only person who stood with him when his 'family tried to break him' that she won't even entertain any other possibility!"
Severus' head shot up to fix the red wolf with a penetrating stare.
A stare the 'wolf ignored.
"Black was physically abused? By his parents?"
Fallen waved a dismissive paw. "It's what Tarana's implied. She claims that Potter the eldest was the only one who stuck with him when his family threatened to disown him when he wouldn't buckle down and adhere to the family rules and beliefs."
"Sirius Black saw James Potter as a savior?" Severus pushed, placing a hand on his desk as though to rise.
Fallen rolled his eyes. "I suppose it's possible," he said. "Though by the time Black split from his family, he and Potter had been friends for years already. The link is probably similar to the rest of the Marauders."
Severus shook his head. "Not even a bit," he informed the General. "A bond like what you're describing between Black and Potter isn't that different from the one between Lucius and myself," he told him. "You're aware that, given what he's done for me, there isn't much I won't do for Lucius." Severus had no problems admitting this to the wolf, in a way that he wouldn't have ever dared to the man in question because Fallen was already aware of the lengths that Severus would go to for Lucius. "I'm not saying I'm ever going to be fond of either of the idiots, but that one piece of knowledge tells me how seriously unlikely it would be for Black to want his friend dead."
Fallen peeled a lip from his fangs in a feral sneer. "Simply because he didn't wish the man dead doesn't mean that he couldn't have assisted in making it a reality. After all, you didn't mean for Lily to die-" Fallen immediately fell silent, any rage or indignation fleeing him as he spun to look at his friend.
Severus' expression had turned to stone as he looked down at the wolf.
"Severus, I-"
Severus pushed himself slowly to his feet. "I see the intricacies of the human race are still beyond you, General," Severus told him coldly. "I'm afraid I still have a great deal to do, with the holidays approaching, I'd like for you to leave me to finish them."
Fallen slunk toward the door, tail dragging. "I am sorry, my friend," he muttered, before slipping around the door and leaving Severus alone.
The man waited until he was sure the wolf was long gone, before throwing the inkpot on his desk at the wall with a snarl.
XX
By the second Monday, with still no sign of Tarana's return to the castle, Arcana, sporting a fresh new burn on his shoulder, went in search of the only Valerian that hadn't attempted to coax his hicari back into Hogwarts.
"What can we do for you, Your Majesty?" Remus asked neutrally.
Arcana raised his head, but the man's expression was as veiled as his tone. "I was hoping Ivory could provide some insight on how to convince his sister to return to the castle."
Ivory rolled his neck as though to crack it. "What in the Heavens would I do that for?" he asked bluntly. "I certainly haven't been asking her to make the impossible choice between her blood and her charge."
Arcana sighed. "You have to see it from their point of view-"
"No," Ivory interrupted, "I don't. Ebony, for all that he's often considered an outsider to the rest of you, is our brother. And we've proven, to you, if no one else, that no matter what the Collective thinks of him, we won't abandon him. Fallen and Yoko are making assumptions they can't back up with evidence, despite Tarana and I both trying to point out that the same bond that prevents her and I from abandoning Ebony, likewise would have prevented Sirius from doing what they claim he has. Given her own conflict on the matter, shouldn't it have been you, as her King and hicari, who put your foot down and ended this before it got to this point?"
"The self-exile of the Queen aside, Arcana," Remus said quietly, leaning forward. "I've been running under the assumption that Harry already knew that some people, myself included for a time, believed that Sirius had, for some reason, betrayed his brother in all but blood. I can't believe that any of you, Tarana included, let him find out through a gossip session with the Minister of Magic! Complete strangers with no interest in, or knowledge of, Sirius! I would have told him if I'd been aware!"
Arcana grit his teeth, because while it went against every instinct he had to be spoken to this way, they weren't wrong.
They had done Harry a disservice in allowing him to find out about Sirius being both his father's betrayer and the reason he was forced to reside with the Dursleys in one conversation.
Ivory got to his paws. "I'll go speak with my sister, Arcana, but I can't guarantee that it will go any better than yours clearly has," the leopard told him, jabbing a paw toward him sharply. "But you better get the rest of this shitstorm under control because the next time one of them says shit about Ebony or Sirius, there will be blood, and I'm not talking the red kind. I'll side with Ebony and Tarana every fucking time no matter who is caught in the crossfire."
Arcana bowed his head. "My thanks," he said with as much gratefulness as he could muster.
Ivory sneered at him and tossed his head. "Get out."
Remus stood as soon as Arcana closed the door behind himself. "This is how you want to play this?"
"This is how I should have played this," Ivory said shortly. "Arcana's got his head so far stuck up his fucking crown he's forgotten the basic vows between him and my sister. And I certainly never should have let you stop me from knocking Fallen's fucking teeth down his throat."
Remus nodded, picking his wand up from the desk. "I'll see to Harry while you're seeing to Tarana."
Ivory nodded and the two separated to complete their self-given missions.
XX
Remus found Harry in the entrance hall, the teen having gone down to the Hagrid's with Neville, Blaise, and Hermione could help the half-giant prepare for his case with the information they'd managed to gain from the Hogwarts library.
Yoko hunched his shoulders, eyeing the man warily. "Remus," he greeted cautiously.
Remus didn't so much as look at him. "Harry, I'd like to see you in my office, if you have a moment."
His tone indicated that Harry had better have a moment.
Harry glanced at Blaise - who shrugged - and stepped after the professor, who was half-turned to let Harry take the lead to his office. "Yeah," he huffed, sounding very put out for someone who had the rest of the evening with only homework waiting for him. "I guess."
Neither professor nor student said a word until they were behind the door of his office and Remus had made a pot of tea – with tea bags, and thus, nothing like what the house elves could put together – and had settled beside Harry as opposed to across from him.
"You heard about what happened with Tarana," Harry said, tilting the cup slightly so the tea inside it would sway.
"I heard about it the day it happened," Remus told him. "Neither of you were exactly discreet."
Harry's expression twisted and it wasn't in remorse. "She should have told me," he said.
"I agree," Remus told him. "Likewise, you should have stayed on the grounds. Your disappearance scared more than one person, Harry. We thought Sirius had taken you."
Harry snorted. "You maybe, but she doesn't even think he killed my parents."
Remus laced his fingers together and chewed his tongue thoughtfully.
"Harry," he finally said, leaning forward, "we've told you a great deal about the Marauders while we were here at Hogwarts together, haven't we? How close James and Sirius were?"
"Yeah."
"Has anyone ever told you about Sirius' family?"
Harry frowned, not sure where Remus was going with the sudden change in topic but shook his head.
"The Black family is, as I'm sure you're aware, one of the Ancient and Noble Houses, and Sirius is, to put it simply for the sake of our current conversation, the Heir to it. That left him with a number of responsibilities even before he came here to Hogwarts, and a reputation, not unlike Draco's, that he was supposed to uphold. Like Draco, Sirius was the first member of his family not sorted into Slytherin, but his parents didn't take it nearly as well as Lucius Malfoy has."
Harry's brow furrowed. "They abused him?"
"Yes, eventually. You're aware that your father and Sirius were inseparable from the moment they met on the train, correct?"
Harry nodded.
"Sirius' parents did everything they could think of to try and bring him back 'into the fold', but with every year he spent away at school, the more independent he became and the closer his family drove him to the rest of us. I was…I was not well while we were here, Harry, and I was sometimes not a great friend to any of them, but Sirius was, for a long time, someone I merely put up with and there was almost a full year where I wouldn't even look at him in the hall. Your father, however, he stuck by Sirius no matter what his parents did to him because he loved Sirius and it was the right thing to do. And when Sirius eventually got tired of being beaten and left home, James convinced his parents, your grandparents, to adopt him until he could get himself on his feet. It was something Sirius never forgot."
Harry stared down into his tea.
He wasn't unfamiliar with the types of abuse purebloods – and just humans in general – were capable of even against their own flesh and blood, and to hear that Sirius Black had suffered like that and been saved by his dad made something – pride, maybe – swell for the man he would never get the chance to personally know.
"But…if he owed him that much…how could he betray him?"
"That, Harry," Remus said with a sad smile, "is what makes the betrayal both hard to believe and so very painful, particularly for myself and probably Tarana, too."
Harry pressed his lips together at the mention of the queen.
"Has anyone told you how dangerous it is, being fully Bonded to Ebony and Ivory?" Remus asked him.
Harry shook his head.
"Ivory doesn't have a full familial Bond, like the others do, with anyone, because Ebony bonded to the Black family first and it was almost immediately apparent that such a Bond wasn't safe, though by that point it was too late to try and safely unravel it. Being Bonded to Ebony so tightly has a major side effect: he makes them sick."
"Sick?"
"Mentally," Remus told him. "The Black family is one of the few pureblood families that have a history of mental illness, that has nothing to do with inbreeding, and everything to do with the power that spills over to Ebony's Bonded and, after so many centuries of such spill-over, to the family as a whole. People nowadays call it the 'Black Madness'."
Harry's brow furrowed as he tried to remember why that sounded so familiar.
"I believe," Remus said, looking out the window, "that Sirius wasn't in his right mind when he told Voldemort what he did. And getting an answer to that question is one of the reasons that Ivory and I agreed to come teach at Hogwarts."
Silence fell between the two of them, while Harry mulled over what Remus had shared.
"You think Black is suffering from that Madness thing?"
"We do."
Harry looked up at the professor. "But why couldn't Tarana just tell me that? Why didn't anyone tell me that someone my parents trusted had betrayed them like that?"
Remus stared at the angry teen. "Harry," he said evenly. "You're a seriously bright child, so I'm sure that Tarana did imply it, even if she didn't come out and say it. She must have mentioned, given the years you've been with her, that your family was well-protected after they'd gone into hiding. You must have realized that, given the level of protection someone of Dumbledore and Tarana's collective power and influence are capable of, the only way they could have been found was if someone in the know had told the Dark Lord where to do so."
Thinking back, Harry bit his lip.
There had been times where Tarana had mentioned his parents had been betrayed, but she'd also been mentioning her own mistaken trust at the time and, considering he'd met Arcana so shortly afterward, he'd always assumed it was Arcana's betrayal.
The revelation must have been written on his face because Remus tilted his head and sat back. "Perhaps," he said softly, "it isn't you who needs the apology."
XX
Ivory was rather surprised at how far he'd needed to go before he found Tarana's 'cave' - if one could call a fallen log and several leaves a cave - going nearly as far as the Shrieking Shack in Hogsmeade.
"I will send you back just as bloody as I did the others, Ivory," Tarana said from the shadows, not bothering to rise from her curled position.
Ivory was unmoved.
"You always have hit first when someone found a weak spot," he told her, slowing but not stopping, his approach. "I've just never made an easy target. I always preferred retaliation."
Tarana snorted, blowing leaves with her breath. "Some of our worst fights as children were when you just couldn't leave well enough alone," she grumbled.
"And I'm not planning on starting now," Ivory told her, sitting by her head and pushing it with a paw. "I'm not Ebony. I'm not going to let you sit out here, miserable, while you figure your shit out on your own."
Tarana sighed, tucking her head further toward her chest so Ivory would leave her alone. "There's nothing to figure out," she admitted. "I'm aware that the odds aren't in my favor. Because the others are right, there's no one else in the world that James would have trusted to protect his family more than Sirius. It was never even a question. I just…I've been having trouble reconciling the boy I watched grow into a man, with this…this reckless fugitive that seems hell-bent on putting children at risk."
Ivory lay over his sister, tucking his head beside hers. "Remus has been operating under the assumption that Sirius was Afflicted," he revealed to her quietly.
"You disagree."
Ivory hummed his agreement. "At the time, Sirius was still having pretty regular contact with the rest of us, he was securely grounded, and I was with him at least once a month at the Order meetings."
Tarana tilted her head, pressing it against Ivory's own. "The Madness does seem rather unlikely," she sighed. "Blackmail?"
"Not a chance," Ivory countered. "If James and Harry were on the line, he would have come forward with whatever it was himself before letting Voldemort and Dark near them."
Tarana's tail beat the ground in frustration and she huffed. "This would be so much easier if Ebony would fucking come forward and just tell us what happened that night. He's the only one who was there pretty much from start to finish. I don't understand why he's keeping quiet about it."
"I don't know either," Ivory said, "but I trust him. He's got to have had a reason; he always does. If Sirius wasn't Afflicted before, he must be now, and Ebony still took the time to lead me on a merry little chase through Hogwarts to warn us that there was a traitor in the Tower. That tells me he's still working for the Collective, even if we can't see the picture he does. I have faith that he's trying to better our chances."
"That non-strategy is what's making it so difficult for Fallen to believe that Ebony is still on our side," Tarana told him. "Fallen's a traditional strategist, but Ebony just seems to know things are going to happen a certain way. He's always friggin' four or five steps ahead of the rest of us."
Ivory snickered.
"Yoko's worked beside Ebony in the past though and even he isn't sure where Ebony's allegiance lies. How do I know that I'm not putting the rest of us at risk? Again."
Ivory sat up, putting a paw on his sister's head and pushing it firmly into the dirt. "Ebony is my brother first and always," he said firmly. "If he feels that he's needed, no matter what the reason, outside the Collective, then I'll do whatever I have to, to make sure he's safe from attackers both inside and outside of the Collective while he does it."
Tarana braced herself and pushed up against Ivory's paw, forcing it to move or unbalance the leopard. "It's our duty as siblings," she agreed.
Ivory nudged her before she could properly regain her paws, making her stumble. "Doubly so for you," he pointed out. "Are you, or are you not, the Shadow Queen of the Alkai Eskehl?"
XX
Tarana and Ivory remained away from the castle for another day after Ivory's trip to the Forest, and the holidays were now in full swing, with most of the students back home.
As such, her return was witnessed only by a few students within the common room, and a sharp command from the queen to find somewhere else to be for the next few hours sent them quickly on their way.
Bonded and Valerian both, however, quickly got to their feet when she entered and remained rooted there even after the rest of the Gryffindors had filed out.
"As of last week, I will no longer be tolerating or facilitating this…divide," Tarana said, staring down her muzzle at the rest of the room. "From this point forward, any concerns you have regarding Ebony's loyalty are to be either kept to yourself or spoken of with Arcana outside of my earshot, because I will bleed you if I hear it."
There was a tense silence following her edict, but she wasn't through yet.
"Arcana, I am moving the ak-esh to immediately begin gathering what allies I can assemble against Dumbledore and the Ministry, to back the next move Ebony and Sirius make, in-so long as it doesn't immediately endanger our children." Her gaze flicked to Yoko, who ducked his head and slunk to her side. "You, Yoko, will begin working immediately. I want a list by day's end of what professors were here during Sirius and James' years, from there, we will begin to convince them that Sirius is either ill or falsely imprisoned, whatever will turn them to our own cause. As far as we are aware from this point onward, Sirius is an agent of Ebony, and therefore operating in support of the Collective."
Yoko buckled a leg and put his nose to the carpet before her. "Yes, Your Highness. I'll begin with Flitwick and McGonagall."
"But we can't prove that as truth," Fallen argued.
Yoko shook his head. "It doesn't matter if it's true or not, just that we imply the possibility. For Sirius to be a collaborator of Ebony, and for us to continue to acknowledge Ebony as a member of the Collective, means that we're operating under information we have but aren't sharing with the wizarding public or government."
"It will also, in a way, grant him sort of dual citizenship," Arcana pointed out. "If he's working for us, then he is of us. It won't change his legal status in the wizarding world-"
"Which is a fucking convict," Fallen said bitterly.
"-but it will make the public hesitate. No civilian wants a full-out war with us and to anyone who doesn't know better, the idea will give them pause before they report any sighting of him to the Ministry." Tarana finished.
"Backing Sirius is only half the battle," Ivory pointed out, looking at Arcana, "we'll still need to know where he is in order to be in any physical position to do so."
Arcana nodded. "Which is why from this point forward, the three of us will begin circling areas that Ebony and Sirius are the most likely to bunk down in."
"Haven't you guys been searching for weeks though?" Ron asked, skeptically. "Wouldn't you have found him by now if he was going to be found like that?"
"We aren't searching with the intent to flush them out," Arcana told him. "If we can locate where they are, but be clear that we've got no plans to approach them and potentially break whatever cover they've managed to gain for themselves, we'll be in a position to do something if they need us."
Ron frowned, not sure if the logic made sense to him, but willing to accept it for the moment.
"I still want to know how Voldemort and Dark became aware of Godric's Hollow because if I remember correctly the property was bought specifically for the Potters to go into hiding." Arcana continued, looking at Tarana, who nodded. "So, if Ebony or Sirius do surface, those questions need answers, but we will not hunt with the intent to detain, and if we can get some of those answers without them we might be one step closer to bridging the information divide between us and them."
"Severus was my primary contact in the Death Eaters after the Dark Lord's 'demise', and he doesn't know of anyone, at the time, who had come forward with that kind of information," Fallen said, shaking his head.
Draco raised his head. "But Sev isn't the only former Death Eater you know," he pointed out. "My parents are both marked. Did you ever ask them?"
Fallen blinked slowly, which was answer enough.
Ivory grinned viciously around his sister at the wolf. "I can ask them if you like," he offered.
Fallen snorted. "Your skills aren't needed in this instance. Draco, go pack your things. You and I are returning to the Manor for the remainder of the holidays."
"But-"
Fallen shot him a narrow-eyed glare and his charge fell silent, though he certainly made his feelings on it known as he swept from the room to begin packing.
"I'll inform McGonagall that something's come up at home for him and he needs to return immediately," Tarana told the wolf.
"Keep us informed," Arcana added.
Fallen nodded and moved toward the portrait hole, hesitating only a moment as he realized that he'd need to find a different professor who could fire-call the Manor for him, given that Severus was still giving him the cold shoulder, though he wasn't quite ignoring him.
Yoko hesitated, glancing between Ivory and Tarana, as the portrait swung closed behind the General. "Have you…have either of you seen him again?" he asked. "I mean your surety that he's an ally seems pretty sudden."
Tarana and Ivory exchanged a glance. "It's hard to explain to someone who doesn't have siblings," the leopard said slowly.
"We just…we know Ebony. We know that he'd never knowingly turn on the Crown," Tarana added.
"And that he's too fucking clever to not know if some halfwit tried to manipulate him," Ivory smirked.
XX
Harry had remained hunched in a corner while the Valerians discussed and received their orders, half hoping that Tarana wouldn't notice he was there.
Once they had been sent on their way, however, her eyes found his.
"Come with me," she ordered.
Clenching a fist, Harry followed the panther queen from the common room and through the school, neither of them speaking until they reached the Astronomy classroom, abandoned as all others currently were for the holidays.
And far enough away that if she planned on keeping to her threat, there weren't all that many people around to hear him screaming.
The thought made him shiver.
"I hope, given how adamant you were about not being one, that you've used the last week to think about the conversation we had on the lawn instead of sulking like a child," Tarana told him, looking out one of the massive windows at the afternoon sky.
Harry flinched. "Remus talked to me," he told her. "He told me about the sickness Ebony makes. Why couldn't you tell me that?"
"Because you have so much on your plate already," Tarana told him, turning to look at him. "Just because I can't feel it or I'm not there, doesn't mean that I don't know you've spent at least two nights a week in the common room with Blaise while he avoids sleep. On top of that, I keep pressure on you to maintain your grades, and you have nightmares of your own when you do sleep." Harry averted his gaze. "I've been bonded to you for most of your life, Harry, I know you better than you do most days and that doesn't change simply because the Bond isn't fully formed yet."
Harry still refused to look at her.
"Having said that, I am sorry that you found out the details, even if they may not be true or complete, from people who stand on the sidelines and had never truly known your family."
Harry looked up at her through his lashes and sighed. "It's not like you didn't tell me," he muttered. "I mean, you didn't use names or anything, but you mentioned over and over since we met that my family had been betrayed. I just…I guess I thought it was Arcana. In hindsight though, Arcana wouldn't have been close enough to betray my parents, would he? It would have had to be a human," he paused, "or Ebony, I guess." He shrugged. "I'm sorry I screamed at you."
"As well you should be," Tarana told him. "Beyond blood, I raised you. You had some serious balls raising your voice to me the way you did. And when we return to the common room, you will apologize to Arcana for the tone you took with him because that wasn't called for either."
"Does this mean I'm still grounded?"
"Absolutely," Tarana informed him. "That had nothing to do with what you'd found out, Harry, and everything to do with the fact that, again, you'd broken my trust and done something I'd expressly asked you not to. I think a week for the trip into Hogsmeade and a week for that tantrum you threw on the lawn is perfectly reasonable."
"But it's the holidays!"
"And you should have thought of those holidays when you broke the rules. I'll also be keeping the Cloak."
Harry groaned and was clearly gearing up to argue.
"Keeping in mind that I had no problem putting you through a month of detention with two of the worst members of this staff, Harry, perhaps you might want to think this decision of yours through a little first," Tarana warned him.
Harry closed his mouth but clearly didn't look happy about it.
Tarana tilted her head toward the door. "Come, if we hurry you can help Draco pack some things for his trip back to the Manor."
Harry followed her out the door. "Does Draco have to go back to the Manor? Why can't Fallen go by himself?" he asked, closing the door behind them.
Tarana side-eyed him and wondered if this had anything to do with the flashes of 'crush' she'd seen in her charge or if it was simply because Draco was one of the things that tethered him when his emotions and thoughts got too much.
Rolling her eyes, she decided not to engage him, letting his complaints wash over her.
XX
That night, Harry tossed and turned, unable to find a comfortable spot on his bed, despite having never had the problem in the past.
With a frustrated sigh, he got back out of bed and, after a moment's hesitation, grabbed the photo album he'd never put back into his trunk after his supposedly secret trip into Hogsmeade.
Arcana was the only one in the common room, lying across the opening to the portrait hole, and he watched as the teen stepped with confidence and near-total silence toward the fireplace.
"You're up late," the King commented once the boy was settled. "Nightmare?"
Harry shook his head, flipping through the first couple of pages, searching for that one picture. "Couldn't sleep," he muttered.
Arcana tilted his head, acknowledging the unspoken request to be left alone, though he kept an eye on the boy regardless, half waiting for Blaise to suddenly join the teen as he'd noticed had become habit when one of the three Heirs came down to the common room in the middle of the night.
"Is Tarana talking to Professor McGonagall?" Harry asked, breaking the silence.
"She left shortly after you all went to bed," Arcana replied, though it didn't really answer Harry's question.
Silence fell between the tiger and the teen again.
"I hated you," Harry mumbled after a while, making Arcana turn to blink at him.
"Me?"
Harry nodded, trailing his fingers over his father's features and watching the Marauders laugh soundlessly.
"Not at first," Harry amended. "When I first heard what had happened to you, I felt sorry for you. I had the utmost faith in Tarana's ability to do anything and I just knew that she'd find a way to fix you."
Arcana remained silent, waiting for Harry to continue.
"And then, when you and Dark came to the Dursleys' last year…I hated you. She'd loved you and she died with your bloody fangs in her neck." Harry clenched a fist over the page.
Arcana grimaced.
The taste of her lifeblood on his tongue, the feeling of her pulse stuttering to a stop around his fangs, had been what jarred Dark's formerly iron control over him.
"But it wasn't just you, was it? I had told her that she'd find a way to free you from Dark and she did. At cost. I realized after the Chamber that it was as much my faith in her as it was your actions that got her killed. She had planned her death because I told her she'd find a way."
"Harry," Arcana rumbled. "Nothing you did got Tarana killed that night. In fact, I seem to remember you swinging an umbrella at my traitorous little brother's head. I can't imagine all that many twelve-year-olds with the balls to go after a wolf larger than they are, with only an umbrella as a weapon."
Harry flushed. "I had a stick too," he mumbled self-consciously.
"But it was a warrior's choice, Harry. You went after him with the full intent to do whatever was necessary to protect those close to you. And I can assure you that I saw both your father and Tarana in you that night."
Harry glanced over at the tiger.
Arcana waved a paw. "Surely you've noticed that Tarana is far from the type of queen who sits back and allows the 'men' to do all the work." Harry huffed, smirking. "She's a fighter. A protector. She's been that way as long as I've known her, and I knew her before I decided she was the one I wanted at my side. She would have found her way to the decision she made last year whether you had a part in it or not. And that isn't even counting the fact that you were in that house. Make no mistake, Harry, as much as she will live to continue to protect you, she will just as easily make the decision to die to do the same."
Silence fell again.
"I'm sorry I yelled at you in Hogsmeade. You didn't do anything then to deserve it."
Arcana heaved himself to his paws and Harry tensed. "Your words imply that you think I deserved it at another time," he pointed out.
Harry avoided looking at him as he approached. "Severus told me that the Valerians don't see someone under Dark's Thrall as responsible for their actions and I've been trying to remember that you weren't, but…."
"But you still see me tearing into her flesh."
Harry flinched so violently the album in his lap shifted.
"Let me tell you a secret Harry and then I'm going to ask you for a favor that I hope will remain between you and I."
Harry raised his gaze to meet the amber of the King as he came to stand before him.
"I have tasted Tarana's blood every moment of every day since I killed her. I can't taste anything else, regardless of what I eat or drink. That singular moment haunts me more than the loss of my home, of my people. Of finding out my brother is a parasite that needs to be put in a box and left out in the sun to dry and out and burn.
"You're absolutely right. Fallen, Yoko, Ivory, Tarana. None of them see what I did as my fault. But you and I are different. We feel differently, don't we."
Harry noticed that it wasn't a question, so he didn't dignify it with a response.
Arcana smiled mirthlessly. "Which is why I'm going to ask you to do something that I know they will not approve of. I want you to keep blaming me. Keep hating me. Keep reminding me that I've done more unspeakable things in the last decade than I ever did on the throne."
Harry shook his head. "I can't do that," he told him. Arcana frowned and opened his mouth, but Harry rushed to continue. "I don't know what you did while Dark had you under his Thrall. I can't hate you for something I don't know you did. But I'll remember you ripping out the throat of the only person who loved me regardless of what I was or what I did. Who loved me enough to teach me and guide me. I can hate you for killing Tarana."
Arcana smiled. "You keep that hate, Harry, and I'll forgive you for yelling at me in a highly emotional moment for you."
Harry nodded.
"You should go to bed, Harry," Arcana told him, turning away. "It wouldn't do for either of us if Tarana returns and you're still awake."
XX
The castle slowly released the tension that Tarana's absence had built, beginning with Yoko finally putting a paw down and refusing to let Blaise or Hermione anywhere in the same wing as the library.
"If you two don't slow down and take a break, odds are high that you'll burn out and become totally useless," the fox told them firmly, routing them back toward the Tower and away from the library. "I don't want to see either of you back over here for the rest of the holiday."
XX
Christmas approached with a great deal of complaining coming out of Malfoy Manor, despite the ease that was returning to the Tower.
Draco had no interest in the social scene that popped up around the holidays, and he hadn't been invited into the talks between Fallen and his father, which only furthered his irritation at having been dragged back to the Manor pretty much against his will.
He was taking perhaps a bit too much pleasure in the fact that Fallen was getting more and more frustrated with every closed-door meeting between him and his former charge.
The Valerians, however, were wondering if Fallen's growing frustration was because Lucius knew something and wasn't saying, or if he didn't know a damn thing and Fallen was beating a dead horse trying to get it to talk.
XX
Yoko paused at the top of the stairs and turned to look out into the darkness of the castle, normally lit by hundreds of candles and torches.
Under the guise of trying to learn more about Sirius Black, Yoko had spent the last week and a half getting staff that had taught here in the seventies to tell him stories of the man.
He shouldn't be surprised by how many of those stories included James Potter, but he somehow found himself exactly that.
Even if Pettigrew or Lupin were absent in those plots and pranks, the two had been practically tied at the hip and more than one professor had commented on the fact that, though they'd only met on the train their First Year, it was like they'd grown up together, so in tune with one another were they.
In a rare show of emotion, McGonagall had even tearfully mentioned that it was like the two could read one another's mind.
To anyone but the Valerians, it would seem like lip service, but though Yoko had never even met the Marauders - during or after Hogwarts, as Delia had left three years before they had entered – he had seen something eerily similar to what McGonagall was talking about in James Potter and Lucius Malfoy's sons, and Fallen, who had spent a year with the Marauders before he and Lucius had graduated, claimed that it was somehow more than that between the older wizards.
Sighing in the darkness, he leaned forward and rubbed the side of his face against the banister. "The secrets you hide," he whispered to the castle. "What do you think? Could Sirius Black have betrayed his brother?"
There was, predictably because it was a building, no answer from Hogwarts.
Shaking his head, Yoko darted into the darkness, slipping away before Mrs. Norris slinked around the corner to investigate the quiet noise he'd made by sitting there.
XX
Christmas morning dawned early, with Ron throwing a pillow to wake Harry.
The Valerians, as was their private tradition, kept to the common room while the teens opened their gifts.
Tarana and Arcana kept their affection to a minimum in deference to Yoko, whose own lover was at Malfoy Manor, even though it was only their second Christmas together in a decade.
The peace of the morning was split by Ron.
"Bloody hell, Harry!"
Tarana's attention was immediately drawn to the stairs and the three Valerians took them swiftly.
Harry, Ron, and Blaise were standing around a broom, hovering at the perfect mounting height – about midway between the hip and the knee – beside Harry's bed.
They all took their eyes off the broom when the door slammed open beneath Yoko's weight.
Tarana recognized it immediately because Harry and Draco had spent weeks drooling over it in Diagon Alley.
"Someone sent it to me for Christmas!" Harry said, delighted.
Yoko was a bit more suspicious and he slunk toward it carefully, eyeing the Net that encompassed the broom.
There was nothing that leapt out at him from his once over and he ducked beneath the broom to eye it from another angle.
Hermione, having heard the Valerians heading up the stairs, followed them in, Crookshanks clutched tight in her hands. "What happened?" she trailed off and stared at the broom. "Oh, Harry!" she breathed, dropping the cat as she joined the others around the broom, nearly tripping over Arcana because she couldn't take her eyes off the unbelievably expensive Christmas gift. "Who sent you that?" she looked at Tarana, who shook her head.
"We don't know," Ron said. "And don't bring him in here!"
The redhead scrambled for Scabbers, dropping the rat into his pajama pocket.
Hermione ignored him. "You're not going to keep it are you?"
Ron scowled at her. "What's he gonna do with it? Sweep the floor?"
"What if Sirius Black sent it to you?!" she cried.
Arcana tilted his head in Tarana's direction.
It wasn't necessarily outside of the realm of possibility, as the Black family was as wealthy as the Malfoys were, if not more so since the interest had fourteen years to accumulate without a knut spent.
It still begged the question of how, of course, seeing as Sirius was the most wanted man in England right now.
"If I compiled a list," Tarana acknowledged, "he would be in the top five. He's Harry's godfather."
Harry blinked, startled, at the admission, and Hermione looked validated.
Before the witch could push her apparent advantage, however, chaos reigned in the dorm again.
Crookshanks leapt from Seamus' bed, where Hermione had dropped him, and clung to Ron's chest while the redhead roared and struggled to pull the beat off him, falling backward onto his own bed.
It was several minutes before Harry and Ron could peel the cat off her target, with Blaise lunging across the floor to scoop Scabbers' fleeing form into his hands and backing well away from the mess.
Harry all but threw the flailing feline at his owner, over-balancing as he tripped over the still hovering broomstick.
In his attempt to catch himself, with Yoko darting out of the way to avoid being squished by him, he knocked his trunk forward and over.
A high-pitched screech echoed in the dorm, as the pocket Sneakoscope, Ron's birthday gift to Harry from months earlier, slipped and skid across the wood floor, spinning and shrieking.
"Shut it up!" Arcana growled, pinning one ear to his skull with a paw and glaring at it.
Harry quickly shoved the spinning top into the sock it had been in, while Blaise, with some help from Tarana once it was high enough for her to wedge her shoulder under it, pulled the trunk back up.
Once the shrieking stopped, Tarana turned her attention to eyeing the room, wondering what had set the device off.
"Stupid, defunct piece of shit," Ron hissed, fingering the hole Crookshanks had torn in his pajama shirt, glaring at the cat clutched tightly in Hermione's arms.
"Ron-"
"I will have a cage delivered to your room as soon as I can speak with a professor," Tarana interrupted coolly. "I warned you against attacks by that cat, Hermione, and you still thought it wise to bring it into the only refuge Scabbers had. For such a clever girl, that was remarkably stupid."
Hermione's eyes watered and she lowered her gaze.
"As soon as the holidays are over, you will send word to your parents. I want it out, by your hand or someone else's."
Hermione sniffled and bolted from the room.
Ron sneered, clearly happy with the exile of his nemesis.
"That rat stays in this room, Ronald," Tarana told him sharply. "And don't you dare make this harder for her than it already is."
Ron's sneer was wiped away instantly.
Blaise reached out and handed Scabbers back to Ron, glancing at Yoko.
"She's going to run straight to McGonagall and try and get her to prevent Tarana from getting rid of Crookshanks," he informed his guardian.
'That's a battle that is out of my hands,' Yoko replied, wanting nothing to do with it.
Harry sighed and plucked the Firebolt he'd tripped on out of the air, twirling it with an idle smile.
"Hermione's fears aren't totally unfounded," Yoko murmured to Tarana. "By your leave, I'd like to at least look over the Net, make sure that it wasn't tampered with. We're running under the assumption that only Black would spend such an amount of money on Harry, but it's just as possible that it wasn't paid for in cash."
Tarana frowned at him.
It wasn't likely that anyone had stolen the Firebolt, given that it was the newest, not-technically-on-the-market broom currently out there, and she doubted that anyone that worked in or around the manufacturing and selling of the broom owed someone a favor of that magnitude.
Still, she had to bend a little if she planned on keeping Yoko on her side.
"Very well," she told him. "You can take the Firebolt and go over it."
There was immediate displeasure from Ron and Harry
"Barring any problems, true problems, I want it returned to him before his next match," she finished, a little louder to be heard over the two boys.
Yoko bowed his head. "Of course, Your Highness. Perhaps I'll even find a hint as to who bought it for him. A little proof never hurts."
Tarana hummed noncommittally before a wicked look flickered in her eyes and she turned her head to look at her charge. "So," Harry blinked, startled by the abrupt change in emotion. "Do you think this gift will make sure Slytherin has reason to stop gloating?" she asked wickedly.
Harry is so startled by the sudden interest in the Inter-House Cup, and her desire to see Slytherin lose, that he drops to the bed, half bent over and laughing.
XX
The good mood that had left the boys' dorm and, eventually, continued into the common room – although Hermione never came out of her own dorm – lasts until dinner that night, when it is revealed why the girl had never come down.
She'd never been in it.
At least not by the time the Valerians and their charges had come down from the boys' dorm.
The group had barely entered the Great Hall when they were stopped by McGonagall, with Hermione trailing behind and wringing her hands together.
"While I'm sure there is something else you and I need to speak of, Your Highness," she said, bowing her head in deference to Tarana, as she always did when they were in a one-on-one setting. "I've been informed that Mr. Potter was sent a broomstick for the holidays?"
"He was," Tarana said evenly. Her tail was flicking like a metronome behind her, but she wasn't looking at McGonagall, she was watching Hermione, who wouldn't look at her.
McGonagall half-stepped to the side to block her view of the girl.
"And there was no note or message attached to it?" McGonagall questioned, having the good sense to keep her voice low.
Tarana lazily raised her gaze to meet the Head of Gryffindor's. "I believe you've been ill-informed, Minerva," the panther said coolly. "Not surprising considering I have just informed Ms. Granger," Hermione flinched, "this morning that I wanted her infernal feline removed from the Tower, on the grounds that more than one Valerian charge has been injured by it in the last three months since they arrived at school."
McGonagall arched an unimpressed brow. "Which you don't have the authority to demand," she said, voice equally as cool.
Arcana's smile was bland. "She does when the alternative is that I tear it apart in the common room, in full view of, not only the owner, but half a dozen First Years. Which, considering my charge is the one most often attacked, would be within my rights." He informed the professor.
McGonagall glanced to the side, though Hermione was too far behind her to be in her line of sight that way.
"Boys go get something to eat," Tarana said, sitting and not looking at all bothered by the interruption.
Harry, Ron, and Blaise exchanged nervous looks but ducked around the group to head toward the single table that remained in the Great Hall, where the students and staff that had remained at the castle were seated.
If there was ever a confrontation they didn't want to be around for, it was one between Tarana and McGonagall.
XX
"Ms. Granger's cat aside," McGonagall said with the tone of voice that told people they would be speaking about the topic again, causing Hermione to flush behind her. "There is still the matter of Mr. Potter's Firebolt."
Tarana's lip curled. "I'm sure there is," she said flatly.
"You understand that it's only in the sense of ensuring his safety, Lady," McGonagall said, though neither of them had mentioned exactly what the action was going to be.
"You and I seem to have the conversation at least once a year I'm in attendance, Minerva," Tarana said. "You're underestimating me again."
McGonagall frowned and glanced over the Crown again, before blinking.
Tarana hummed, appearing amused, though no such emotion met her blue eyes.
"Yoko has requested the assistance of Remus and Rolanda in ensuring that it wasn't tampered with before its arrival here. Not," she said smoothly, "that I believe Sirius would be foolish enough to attempt such a thing, given that he sent it here rather than waiting until Harry was outside the castle and, therefore, away from anyone who I could request to do such a thing."
The tension in McGonagall's shoulders eased and she bowed her head again. "Apologies, Your Highness. You understand the stress that we're all under, given how many times he's breached the defenses of the school. We merely wish to keep him safe."
"Safe, Minerva, would have not been informing my charge that his godfather murdered his parents, when as you're aware, I, myself, have doubts. I appreciate your concern, and your attempts to keep Harry safe, but my soft spot for Sirius Black has not, in any way, made me a fool."
Tarana turned her attention to Hermione, still hidden by McGonagall's taller form. "I'll leave you and Arcana to speak about Ms. Granger's pet, Minerva. I do believe I'm washing my paws of the situation."
Arcana and McGonagall both, this time, bowed their heads as Tarana slipped toward the table, where Harry was tentatively pulling on a Christmas cracker with Dumbledore.
