Author's Notes:
We're approaching the finish line!
I won't be available to post our final chapter for another three weeks, as I'll be out of state with family and as much as I love you all and this story, I can't guarantee an internet connection, nor do I want to give up time with family (words no one who has ever spent long periods of time with their family have ever said, I'm sure).
Since I won't be posting, I likely also won't be writing.
Goblet of Fire is still two and a half chapters from being completed and while I might get some writing done while I'm away, I don't want to promise that and have it fall through. As this is closer than what I'd anticipated several weeks ago when the Valerians insisted on being difficult about their journey with the Triwizard Tournament, I might make my usual deadline, but might still need those two weeks after Prisoner of Azkaban is completed to finish it and get it up for your enjoyment.
Neither this story nor Goblet of Fire is being abandoned or put on indefinite hiatus, that much, I can promise.
Now that I've totally ruined any semblance of anticipation you've had for this chapter :) , please enjoy
Harry Potter, the Valerians, and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Chapter Twenty-Two: Resignations and Amends
Remus is outed as a werewolf to the students of Hogwarts, Harry and Draco appear to end the school year with a vicious fight, and Harry takes up a property.
Ivory brought the three teens down to the second floor, his sharp ears helping to keep them from the eyes of anyone still wandering the corridors.
Hermione had been relentlessly checking her watch and whispering frantic warnings that they were going to miss their only window back into the infirmary, much to the irritation of Harry.
The brunette had been in a rather foul mood since he had watched Buckbeak and Sirius leave the West Tower, reminded once again of what had been taken from him the night his parents had died.
Though he didn't know Sirius, it had been clear to him that he well and truly wished that he had done something different, so that he could have raised Harry as it should have been.
Blaise and Hermione left him alone, aside from Hermione's worrying, letting him deal with the emotions on his own.
Ivory didn't much care.
"Try and keep yourselves out of any further trouble tonight, yeah?" the leopard sneered good-naturedly. "I'll be a little too busy now to try and bail you out a fourth time."
"Thanks, Ivory," Blaise murmured and the Lightbringer disappeared around a corner with a sharp flick of his tail.
Around the other corner, they could hear Dumbledore speaking as he opened the door to leave the infirmary.
With a hand on his wrist, Blaise dragged Harry after Hermione.
Dumbledore tilted his head as he looked down at the trio. "Well?" he asked.
Hermione nodded firmly. "We did it," she said quickly. "Sirius is gone. Buckbeak too."
Dumbledore gave the teens another once over, frowning when Harry met his gaze for the briefest of moments, concerned by the rage that dwelled there.
"Harry?" he asked gently. "Are you alright?"
"Fine," Harry said shortly, gesturing to the door and tugging his wrist free from Blaise's grip. "Can we go back in yet?"
'It's safe,' Yoko told them.
Blaise sighed in relief as he reopened himself to his guardian and slipped through the door.
'Lock it securely, Headmaster,' Tarana told the man.
Arcana tilted his head with a smirk. 'Perhaps a ward to inform you when the doors are opened wouldn't go amiss either.'
Dumbledore smiled and bowed his head. "As you say, Your Majesty, though it won't be particularly powerful."
"What won't be powerful?" Draco asked, appearing at the Headmaster's side.
He didn't look all that pleased himself and he scowled at the fact that the Headmaster was blocking the only open door.
Dumbledore turned so the blonde could slip by him and, bowing again to the Collective, closed and locked the door.
"Everything alright?" Blaise asked, eyeing him worriedly.
"I've just been grilled by my father and godfather - like Severus hadn't been there the whole bloody time," Draco sneered. "They were particularly interested in what happened after we left the Shrieking Shack," he directed the comment more toward Fallen, and it was clear from the expression on his face that he wasn't at all pleased with having been left alone for that conversation.
"What did you tell him?" Neville asked cautiously.
"Severus?" Draco asked. "Not a blessed bloody thing. I refused to talk to Father while he was in the room after what he'd told the Minister." He glanced at Harry. "Father did explain why he did what he did though-"
The door slammed open, and the Valerians got to their paws quickly.
Severus stood, framed in the doorway, with his chest heaving and arms outstretched by the doors as he glared into the room with such blatant fury on his face that it made even Draco take a step back from him.
Harry, however, met his gaze and returned it with a fury of his own, standing alone in the middle of the infirmary and surrounded by the Valerians, who were relaxing in stages the longer Severus stood there and did nothing but glare at them.
"Are you satisfied?" Lucius asked from behind him, grey eyes wandering over the teens as Pomfrey stormed out of her office.
"Severus Snape!" she snapped. "What in the heavens are you doing?!"
Severus exhaled sharply through his nose and turned on his heel, not saying a word.
"Problem, Lord Malfoy?" Tarana asked though she sounded more amused than upset that there might be one.
Lucius eyed the assembled students and Valerians before planting his cane and folding his hands over the snakehead.
He didn't look at all as though he'd just rushed after Severus through much of the lower castle.
"The Minister and his executioner currently appear to be in quite the snit. It seems, at first glance, that Sirius Black has escaped confinement. Should I ask about the whereabouts of your Twins, Lord Arcana?"
Arcana gave him a slow, lazy blink. "Ivory requested Ebony's assistance with something regarding Remus Lupin.
"Is that so?" Lucius asked silkily.
Fallen stepped heavily on Harry's foot as the brunette bristled beside him. "I hope you're not implying Lupin helped Black escape, Lucius. The man's got a bigger problem on his hands tonight and couldn't have possibly found the time."
Yoko snorted. "Besides, it was rather foolish to think that Hogwarts would hold him when an island surrounded by dementors couldn't." he pointed out.
"We are all aware that Lord Black had assistance in getting free of Azkaban," Lucius pointed out. "If you could pass a warning on to Professor," he sneered the title, "Lupin that he best have a very good alibi. Severus will be pointing the Ministry in his direction soon enough."
The Valerians looked at one another as Lucius let the door close behind him.
Severus would be doing no such thing.
With the full moon high in the sky above them and hours still before it was to set, the Ministry would know that Remus wasn't currently capable of assisting in Sirius' escape.
A comment that pointed in Remus' direction would only cloud anything else Severus had told the Ministry tonight.
Arcana and Tarana rose as soon as the door had closed behind the Lord, stretching.
"Harry, sit down," the panther told her charge, with a touch more than a hint of warning.
"He's-"
"Safer where he is than where he was," Tarana interrupted.
"And he won't be in that position if it wasn't for what Severus said about him!"
Tarana's eyes narrowed warningly. "Do not be so narrow-minded as to think that Severus didn't very carefully think about the consequences of speaking to the Minister. I'll speak to him before I make judgment."
Harry scoffed, but turned sharply on his heel and dropped onto the bed he'd left hours ago – or minutes ago, depending on how one looked at it he supposed. Blaise was right, time-traveling was confusing – and ran his hands over his face.
Draco was glaring at him and opened his mouth to argue with him.
'Not now,' Fallen cautioned him, glancing at the door where Madam Pomfrey was pouring over paperwork in her office. 'It will do neither of us any good if the argument draws her out. Wait until he's released in the morning.'
Draco's expression twisted and he turned to drop onto a bed farthest away from Harry, awaiting the moment when they would be released to go back to the dorms.
Not a moment later, the door opened again, this time emitting a frustrated-looking McGonagall.
"Apologies for disturbing you after the evening you've all had," McGonagall said, knuckles white on the doorknob, "but I've been sent by the Minister to ask that the King and Queen join him in the Headmaster's office."
"I'm fairly certain you're being kind, McGonagall," Fallen snorted.
McGonagall hummed noncommittally, which in and of itself was an answer.
It was clear to the professor, however, that the Crown had anticipated the demand because they were already standing, clearly ready to leave.
She bowed her head respectfully as they passed her in the doorway. "Thank you," she murmured.
Tarana tilted her head.
"Though he got away, it relieves me to know the truth of what happened to Lily and James," McGonagall explained.
Tarana's lip curled. 'I'm glad it relieves someone,' she told the woman, 'because the day has still ended with a good friend of mine and my brother on the run from your Ministry.'
McGonagall closed the door and fisted one side of her robes so she could move swiftly down the corridor. "I'm sure, Your Highness, that you or Ebony has already come up with a plan for this encounter. And you did so before I walked into the infirmary."
It was Tarana's turn to hum noncommittally, but she was smiling mysteriously when she did so.
XX
Fudge was screaming at Albus when the Crown was let into the man's office.
"There must have been help from here at the castle!" the Minister roared, a hand cutting in the direction of the door, very likely at Tarana and Arcana themselves.
"And I can assure you, Cornelius," Albus replied, sitting calmly at his desk, fingers interlocked before his mouth – likely to hide any hint of a smile – evenly, cutting a glance in the Crown's direction.
A glance at Minerva dismissed her.
Arcana snorted as the door closed behind them. "You think help came from this staff, Minister?" he asked, his words amused, but his tone nothing of the sort. "Do you have any idea how much of a pain in the ass it was, simply to ensure that we were told of any sightings in and around Hogwarts?"
"It was sheer luck that Black's every attempt was on Gryffindor Tower, where we would know about it, or its aftermath, immediately," Tarana added, her blue eyes coldly boring into Albus' own.
"And you can be sure that neither Ebony nor Ivory assisted the convict in his escape?" Fudge sneered, spinning to glare at them.
Albus sat back in his chair, seemingly happy to allow the Valerians to deal with his increasingly difficult visitor.
Arcana eyed him warningly, but it was Tarana who answered. "We can. Ivory hasn't set foot inside the castle since moonrise. Remus Lupin is understandably upset by the reappearance of two of his pack members and then the loss of one of them. I imagine Ivory requested Ebony's assistance once Black fled the castle and they've been in the Forest for over an hour. Prior to that, Ebony was locked in the infirmary with the rest of us."
Fudge's fingers twitched. "I want him punished," he said fiercely, glaring at the two Valerians. "I want Ebony punished for his blatant assistance of a known convict of Azkaban in his escape and evasion of the Ministry!"
"That will happen over my cooling corpse, Minister," Tarana informed him bluntly. "And over the ashes of our alliance. Ebony was protecting his charge well within the letter of the laws your Ministry wrote."
"Then I want assurances that he will stand down! That he will not seek Black out again and disappear!"
"No," Arcana informed him, stepping forward. "On two counts. The first being that Sirius Black is still Ebony's Bonded and therefore his actions are still protected by our contract with the Ministry. Secondly, you have made it perfectly clear that the needs of the Collective do not matter to you. As of this moment, we are no longer comfortable allowing you any access to my collaborator. Sirius Black is, in our eyes, no convict and will be treated as someone of importance being hunted by a third party."
Fudge looked as though Arcana had struck him before his expression twisted to rage.
Albus sat forward, putting a hand on his desk, and appeared, for the first time, as though he had something to say. "What could Sirius possibly have for the Collective to warrant such a response?" he asked. "He's been in Azkaban for over a decade!"
"Sirius brought forward information this evening, regarding something that I've been looking for, for quite some time," Tarana informed him vaguely.
"And considering that Black managed to get the most significant lead any of my Collective and their collaborators have gathered in over a decade from prison, I saw no reason why it didn't benefit us to protect him while he further investigated and delivered what we want into our proverbial hands."
"You-you-you can't interfere in the arrest of a wanted felon!" Fudge sputtered.
"I'm aware of the laws, Minister," Arcana snapped sharply. "I, unlike you, was there when they were agreed upon. Should any of your Aurors manage to attempt an arrest on Sirius Black, then only Ebony, by Rite of Bond, would interfere. My Collective, however, has orders to hide, protect, and generally make any search you make in our vicinity difficult."
Fudge and Albus both looked stunned.
While it wasn't the first time that the Valerians helped to hide a target of the Ministry, it had been generations since any had last felt the need, and centuries since the Collective as a whole had made such a stand.
Given the vast territories of the Valerians, and how spread out they were, their 'vicinities' covered almost a third of England.
Fudge, for the first time, turned to Albus for assistance, but the Headmaster had none to give at this point in the conversation.
The edict of the Crown was out into the air already and the Ministry's stance on Sirius was clear.
Both would refuse to budge and thus, this was the only available outcome now.
Puffing himself up, the Minister stormed out of the office, the door slamming shut behind him.
Albus tapped a finger on his desk. "I do believe he's gotten over his fear of your kind," he told them mildly. "Any influence you may have had in forcing an alliance with you has been lost."
Tarana shrugged, unconcerned. "He's going to be the first of many we'll be making enemies of this evening," she informed him. "Why was there no investigation into the murder of the twelve muggles and Peter Pettigrew?"
"There was no evidence that Peter had survived his encounter with Sirius," Albus told them promptly, obviously expecting the question. "There was no need for any extra investigating when the remaining witnesses all pointed to Sirius as the castor."
Arcana clicked his tongue, a difficult maneuver for a big cat, but no less mocking for it. "You may have managed to fool the Marauders into believing that they had kept their animagi forms a secret, but you can't fool Ebony, Albus."
"We've managed to have quite the conversation with the Shade this evening, Headmaster," Tarana informed him. "And he tells us that, though you may have allowed Remus Lupin entrance as a student, you didn't disregard the threat he could potentially pose as an adolescent werewolf. Ebony noticed your eyes in the Great Hall and a variety of other periods during our stay here twenty years ago. You kept an even closer eye when the Marauders began to spend time with Lupin in his transformed state, not trusting their safety to my brothers and myself."
Albus' expression was curiously blank as he stared at the Queen.
"The Ministry may have been unaware of Peter's Animagus form," Arcana said slowly, testing each word and reading Albus' reaction to them. "But you weren't. So, I ask again, Headmaster, why did Sirius Black not receive so much as a trial, when you had information on hand that may have prompted a wider-reaching investigation? An investigation that may have found Peter Pettigrew years ago."
Albus was clearly thinking over his response, so Tarana pressed their advantage.
"You were a man of great influence and power at the end of the war," she said. "Enough so that you managed to keep an actual Death Eater out of Azkaban entirely, though his assistance could only have come after the death of the Potters. Why then, couldn't that same influence have been used to save a man that you knew and knew well? A man that you worked with for years in the Order and had to at least suspect to have some level of innocence. You didn't even attempt to get him a trial."
Albus sighed. "You must understand, Your Highness," he said. "And you must both remember just how difficult things were at the end of the war and even before its unfortunate conclusion. You, my Lady, remember that the Potters had known that someone close to them was no longer loyal to them. Of the three, Sirius seemed the most suspicious."
Tarana shook her head and scoffed. "I do remember, Albus," she sneered. "I remember the fears and concerns coming from Sirius. He was worried that one of his friends may have turned to the dark and he had expressed concerns as to how to handle the situation to both myself and Ebony because he owed this friend a debt."
Arcana tilted his head. "Remus?"
Tarana nodded. "And if he was suspicious of Remus, Headmaster, why then did Sirius suddenly change his mind and go after Peter Pettigrew and why did you not find that strange enough to warrant investigation on its own?"
"By all accounts, it had been Peter taking the death of his friends badly and going after Sirius," Albus pointed out.
Tarana and Arcana stared at him for a long minute, but Albus didn't appear to pick up on the sheer oddity of the statement for himself.
"Albus," Arcana said slowly, treating the Headmaster as he felt he rightly should - like an idiot. "Peter Pettigrew was the least likely to seek out confrontation in the entirety of the Order at the time that I'd served with him. It was something I picked up even with the rare contact I had with him. Why then, if you and Tarana had more contact with him, as closer friends of the Potters than the Gideon and Fabian, could I manage to find the fact that Pettigrew 'went after' Sirius as out of character and this fact never seems to have occurred to you?"
Albus' expression went blank and it was clear that he had no answer that would sufficiently please the Crown before him – though he clearly had one - and thus didn't try.
Tarana shook her head. "Let this be a warning to you, Albus," she said, soundingly oddly disappointed given her usual distaste for the man. "Ebony has, thus far, allowed the Crown to handle this matter. Going forward, I warn you to tread very carefully. My Shade is proud and will not handle the disrespect you've shown him and his charge, disrespect from a human no less, by anything less than a duel by our standards. A duel by Blade and Element."
XX
Draco managed to wait until Harry had been released and they were back in the Tower before confronting him on his feelings for his godfather.
The resultant fight between the two was so vicious that it had drawn others out of bed – and promptly sent them right back to it – and eventually required physical separation before it got completely out of hand.
It was that fight that Tarana and Arcana walked back into the common room to following their meeting with Dumbledore.
"What is going on?" Tarana demanded to know.
"He," Draco snapped, gesturing to Harry sharply from where Ron and Fred were keeping him away from the other teen, "won't listen to reason!"
"What reason?!" Harry sneered in return, pushing against George's restraining hand on his chest. "He lied! He lied and look where Sirius is now!"
"Enough!" Fallen roared, and not for the first time because he put a paw firmly on the ground and the air around him was rippling. "To bed. Both of you. I don't want to hear another word out of either of you!"
Tarana glanced at her General. 'Is it wise to let them go off without settling this?' she asked he and Yoko as the twins forcefully escorted the boys up to their dorms.
'Undoubtedly,' the Assassin responded grimly, following to ensure that the silence between the two was kept. 'Their emotions regarding their respective godfathers are too high. Neither is willing to listen to the other right now.'
Tarana sighed. "Draco-"
Draco spun on his heel, a move so startling that he avoided Fred's grip entirely and he pointed at her viciously. "Don't," he hissed at her. "Don't you dare tell me not to take it personally! Severus has never done something that hurt one of us without good reason and he just won't listen to it! How is that not personal?!
There was a muffled shout above them, followed by a sharp reprimand from Yoko and silence again.
Tarana and Draco stared at one another before, surprisingly, Tarana averted her gaze. "You're right," she sighed. "He should be more open-minded about your godfather's motives and he will be eventually. Give him time."
Draco sneered. "Yeah," he snorted. "I'll give him time."
Fred jumped aside when the blond blew past him to avoid being knocked over.
Tarana glanced at Fallen.
"I'm aware that Severus is perfectly capable of fighting his own battles, Tarana," the direwolf said shortly. "But Harry has spent a matter of hours with his godfather. He can't know him. Can't miss him or have any true emotional attachment to him. This defense of him is unnatural and his words about Severus were uncalled for. Draco has grown up with Severus. You can't ask one to defend their godfather with such little knowledge and the other to not with a lifetime of it."
XX
The situation with Draco and Harry had only gotten worse over the next two days, with any forced interaction between the two ending in a screaming match.
Despite nearly three years of solid friendship, the two seemed to swiftly be moving toward an explosive end over their respective godfathers, and any attempts on Tarana's part to mediate generally end with the Malfoy heir turning on her, which causes an entirely new round of arguing between the two.
"Get. Out." Yoko eventually growled, getting fed up with the yelling and the effect it was having on his own charge, who was likewise struggling to both mediate and stay out of it to avoid having to choose a side.
When the boys turned to glare at him, Yoko picked them up in a couple of vines and physically threw them through the portrait hole. "I don't want them back in here until curfew, Madam," the fox told the portrait, before turning on his tail and dismissing them.
Neither Fallen nor Tarana followed them out, which said a great deal about how fed up their own guardians were getting.
"This is your fault," Draco hissed at Harry.
"Mine?" Harry growled; fists clenched at his sides as he glared at the other teen.
"Don't you two think about starting that malarkey here, either." the Fat Lady said, waving a stern finger at them. "Move along," she shooed. "Go."
With a final glare at one another, the two teens went their separate ways.
XX
There wasn't much for Harry to use as a distraction, given that they were leaving Hogwarts in barely a week and they were simply waiting on the results of their exams and the train back to London to officially end the school year.
He was still muttering horrid little nothings about Draco when he nearly collided with Theodore Nott in the Entrance Hall.
Nott gave the brunette a once over, aware as the rest of the school was of the 'tiff' between Harry and his friend. "I was wondering if I would see you, Potter," the Slytherin said.
Harry clenched a fist, eager for a more physical fight. "Here to defend Draco's honor?" he asked.
Nott's sneer got, if possible, more derisive. "Plebian," he sneered, disgusted at the very idea of a physical altercation.
Like he would participate in some low-class bar brawl.
"I was merely wondering if you'd known about Lupin's lycanthropy before he was outed. You know he's resigning because of it, don't you?"
Harry's fingers went slack, and he stared at the taller teen. "What?"
Nott snorted. "Pretty much common knowledge by this point," he pointed out, though, given Harry's problems with Draco at the moment, Nott knew that he was sharing this information because of that problem.
He didn't enjoy it, but he could be petty when it suited him.
"Though I suppose you would only be able to focus on one altercation at a time, wouldn't you?"
Harry spun on his heel and darted up the marble staircase. "Thank you!" he called back absently.
Nott was left standing there, highly confused by the smaller teen's response.
"Draco really has made you a confused mess, hasn't he," he murmured to the empty Hall, before shaking his head and continuing on his way to the kitchens for tea as he'd originally planned.
XX
Harry didn't bother to give more than a single knock on the door – in deference to his manners – before slipping in without waiting on a response.
Remus was by his desk, placing books and scrolls into a box and Ivory was nowhere to be seen.
Two trunks were open, and a traveling wardrobe was full of the man's second-hand robes. Two additional boxes, almost mirror images of the one he was filling now, were stacked by the low table.
"You're really leaving," he murmured, looking around at the mostly empty office.
"Mm," Remus hummed, finishing what he was doing before turning to give Harry his attention. "Given the rumors, Ivory and I decided it was time."
"But you can't!" Harry protested. "You're the best teacher we've had and-"
"Harry," Remus said firmly, cutting the teen off. "I can see that you haven't spoken to Tarana over the last few days, but I can assure you that this wasn't forced. I actually asked Severus to inform his Slytherins of my affliction, knowing what the outcome would be."
Harry's mouth worked but no sound would come out.
"I think," Remus said slowly, "that given your current level of hatred for Severus, that you've forgotten something important. Something that you told me. Sometimes, you have to work for your forgiveness. Whatever you think we did to Severus; I assure you it was worse. The treatment we've received from Severus, including what happened in the Shack, we've earned tenfold."
"But he lied! He told Fudge that Sirius had brainwashed us! If he'd just-"
"Just what?" Remus interrupted knowingly. "Told the truth? What then?"
Harry frowned.
"There was no sign of Peter in the Shack, Harry. It would have been the word of a felon and six underage students against the records of the Ministry. To save face alone, they would have branded you accomplices at worst, brainwashed at best. Severus told the Ministry what it wanted to hear. That Sirius was trying to convince the youth of Hogwarts that he was a martyr. That he was trying to convince you to let him go out and find Voldemort."
"But that wasn't what happened!" Harry cried, frustrated.
"I know," Remus agreed. "But this way, the Ministry isn't looking at you. At any of you. He's effectively turned the hour you spent with Sirius into something not worth looking at. Which is a good thing, because you would have Aurors on you every moment of every day if the Ministry thought he would come for or use you to an end."
Harry fought to hold onto his anger at Severus, but it was fading quickly.
"Harry," Remus said, putting a hand on his shoulder, "if you hadn't been so busy fighting with Draco these last couple of days, Tarana would have told you that it's not as bad as you seem to think it is. Severus' actions have helped us, though it doesn't seem like it now."
The tension and anger fell from Harry's shoulders. "It's what he does, isn't it?" he whispered.
"So you've told me," Remus reminded him. "I think you owe them both an apology, don't you?"
Harry nodded, though it was sullen and displeased.
Remus moved away. "I am glad you stopped by, Harry," he said, picking a pile of parchment up off his desk and turning back to the teen. "I believe this belongs to you. As the only descendant of its makers, it seems rightfully yours."
The door opened as Harry took the Marauder's Map from Moony, who winked at him, before turning to the new visitors.
"Harry?" Tarana asked, tilting her head, and eyeing her charge. "Everything alright?"
Harry nodded, tucking the map into his back pocket. "Remus says I should talk to you."
Tarana's eyes danced. "I think you've missed quite a bit over the last couple of days," she agreed. "Funny how that happens, when you're only focused on one aspect of the problem."
Harry flushed at the gentle reprimand.
Dumbledore watched the two from the doorway, before looking at Remus. "Ready to go?" he asked pleasantly.
Remus smiled and flicked his wand, closing the trunks and boxes. "Yes," he said enigmatically.
'Good luck, Moony,' Tarana told the Marauder. 'We'll see you soon.'
Remus paused in his approach of the Headmaster and dropped to one knee before the Queen, placing one hand over the opposite shoulder. "As always, Your Highness, it's been an honor serving you."
Tarana put a paw on his bent knee and her muzzle to his forehead. "I hope your future is bright, Remus Lupin," she told him.
"Getting brighter every day," Remus replied, getting to his feet again with a smile.
XX
Dumbledore escorted Remus from the room, leaving Tarana and Harry alone.
The teen was staring down at the Marauder's Map, spread open as far as his hands would allow.
Tilting her head, the Queen wondered, "What are you looking for, cub?"
Jumping, startled, Harry quickly folded the map and ended the active magic on it with the phrase 'mischief managed'. "I don't think I'm going to find it on this parchment." He said, smiling sadly as he tucked it back into his pocket.
Tarana eyed her charge, wondering if it was the time to ask about the words and tone, but decided to wait and see if the teen would come to her first.
"Come," she said instead, "it's nearly lunchtime and you missed breakfast." She eyed the teen as he passed her. "And I suggest you don't speak to Draco. I do believe that it's time the two of you stopped behaving so childishly. If you don't have anything nice to say to one another-" she left the phrase open for Harry to finish, who did so with a weary sigh.
"Don't say anything at all."
"Something I do believe that you've managed to forget over the last few days," Tarana informed him, a touch sharply. "Your feelings on what Severus did or did not accomplish with his stance with the Ministry are yours. You have no business pushing them on Draco now, any more than you did when you accused the man of attempting to steal the Philosopher's Stone."
Harry flinched.
It wasn't the first time that Tarana had likened the two incidents, though following so quickly on Remus' explanation – and his continued alliance with the man who had sent Sirius on the run again – it seemed to actually sink in where he hadn't allowed it to before.
"I've been a bit of an arse to them both, haven't I?" he murmured.
"Yes," Tarana said bluntly. "Severus has, thus far in your time with him, never given you reason to doubt him. For you to do so now leaves a hole in my heart. It makes me wonder where my teachings failed, that you would allow this one act to poison you against him."
"It wasn't you," Harry rushed to assure her. "I just…" he gritted his teeth in frustration, not sure how to voice his problem.
Tarana waited him out.
"I almost had a real family," he finally murmured. "A family who would love me. Who could tell me stories about my parents and teach me about this world. You're great but…."
"But I'm not human," Tarana murmured, thankful for the fact that the two of them weren't currently Bonded because Harry's feelings on the matter hurt, for all that they were rather valid. "Despite my centuries among them."
"Yeah," Harry sighed.
"Harry, you've had that." Tarana tilted her head. "It may not have been in the traditional way of things, but when you've had a question, Draco or Blaise or Ron have answered it. They've taught you the basics of navigating this world."
She hesitated, however, because when it came to speaking of James and Lily Potter, she was always a bit less than forthcoming about some things. Thankfully, she now had a way around that.
"Why don't we take the long way to the Great Hall," she said. "I think there are some things you'd like to know about before we leave Hogwarts' halls behind."
Harry, remembering Remus' words about speaking with Tarana, followed the panther from the room with mixed curiosity.
The door to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, where he had first met and gotten to know a friend of his father's, closed silently behind them.
XX
Tarana and Harry's conversation lasted much of the walk down to lunch that day and into the early evening, which had the additional benefit of keeping Harry and Draco apart from one another.
Harry may now understand, consciously, that Severus only had his best interests at heart, but it was another thing entirely to make that understanding affect his feelings on the loss of what Sirius Black represented.
And he did, now, realize that it was a representation.
He didn't know Sirius Black.
He couldn't know Sirius Black.
His loss as a person meant very little to the teen, but the freedom - the freedom of his aunt and uncle's borderline and outright hatred respectively, and the freedom to be a wizard, twenty-four-seven – that loss was all-encompassing.
After Tarana had revealed her plans to her charge, however, much of that loss had dissipated and he realized that, truly, he should have known better.
Tarana had always had his best interests at heart and even if this plan was a little unorthodox, it was geared toward giving him a modicum of that freedom he thought he'd lost with Sirius' flight from the wizarding world.
It was a slow process, his change in feelings on the matter, but it was changing.
The long conversation with the Queen couldn't have come at a more precise time, either.
The following afternoon, just after lunch – where their exam results had finally been delivered to them, much to their pleasure, as every one of them had passed, some barely, but they'd passed – Dumbledore asked Harry and Tarana to walk the grounds with him.
Outside, the Headmaster tilted his head back, face to the approaching summer's sun, and folded his hands behind his back. "Ah," he sighed blissfully. "I wish I hadn't squandered the time I once had to enjoy this in my youth," he told the teen and his guardian. "It seems I've traded it for parchment."
Harry stared at the Headmaster, the man's good-natured comment going answered with a single blink as he sunk his hand into the dense fur at the base of Tarana's neck.
"What can we do for you, Headmaster?" he asked when it seemed as though Dumbledore was content to simply wander the sunlit grounds and not say a word. "Not to press, but I still have some packing left to do before we leave."
"To the point," Dumbledore said with a smile. "I wanted to speak with you about your summer holidays, in fact."
Harry's fingers barely flexed in Tarana's fur and the panther kept her silence, though her entire demeanor said she wasn't too happy with the Headmaster's interference in the matter.
"I had actually just spoken with Remus the day he left," Harry lied. "He and Tarana have spent the last month or so opening up my grandparent's property. Remus plans to have it ready for him, Tarana, Ivory, and I to move in by the time we return to London."
Dumbledore blinked slowly, clearly struggling to pinpoint which of the few properties he might have known the Potters owned Harry was planning to move to.
"Cornwall Cottage," Tarana said with careful neutrality. "The Ministry may not like it, but his status as a Bonded wizard trumps his lycanthropy, particularly when the wills of Lily and James Potter list him as one of those Harry is to be sent to in the event of their deaths, but only in so long as he has a property to call his own on English soil."
"And as Lord Potter," Harry added, "I have three. Apparently, so long as I have a graduated wizard living with me, I can live on my own with Tarana acting as my legal guardian until I turn seventeen."
"I'm afraid that's not possible," Dumbledore said grimly. "Harry, you must return to your relatives' home in Surrey."
"I will not subject my charge to the hatred and bigotry of that home, Albus, simply because you set it up. Against, as it turns out, the wishes of his parents."
The Headmaster was unmoved, glancing at Harry. "Your Highness, there are additional circumstances that must be considered. Harry must spend time with his mother's blood relatives."
Tarana's lip curled. 'You think me unaware of those circumstances?' she asked coldly. 'The boy hears his mother screaming all of his First Year, begging for the life of her son. I was around when that type of sacrificial magic was still popular.'
Dumbledore frowned. "Then you should understand, Your Highness, why it is vital that he return."
Tarana's head raised slightly, dislodging Harry's grip, and forcing it to her back instead. "I stand with the entire Collective behind me for the first time in centuries, Albus Dumbledore. I no longer have need of that additional protection, when my Bond with them flourishes with every additional day and adds protection to my Bond with Harry."
"What," Harry asked, tightening his grip on Tarana, "circumstances could possibly require that I return to a family that doesn't even like me most days?"
Dumbledore glanced at the Queen, who tilted her head in the boy's direction, wordlessly granting him permission.
"When your mother died, Harry," he said slowly, choosing his words with care. "She did so protecting you. That kind of sacrifice leaves a mark, if you will, but only if fueled by the blood of who did the sacrificing. Your mother's blood and, in turn, your aunt and cousin's blood. That protection is what, I believe, allowed you to survive the night your home was attacked."
"That protection isn't worth shite, of course, if the family kills you in the process," Tarana added sourly.
Harry was silent for several minutes before speaking again. "You said it protected me the night I was attacked, Headmaster," he looked up with narrowed green eyes at the old wizard. "May I ask which time?"
Dumbledore's brow furrowed.
"Was it the time my aunt nearly hit me with a frying pan because I wasn't moving fast enough with the mopping? Or perhaps when my uncle nearly burned the skin from my palms because I'd nearly burned the kitchen down at five because Aunt Petunia had left me with little instruction as to how to 'keep an eye on the bacon'?"
Dumbledore's expression went curiously blank as the Dursley's treatment, laid out in a rather inaccurate fashion – because while the Dursleys had done these things, they were rare occurrences. Neglect over abuse was more their form, particularly when Tarana had gotten involved - was put before him.
"Or perhaps it was more recent," Harry continued, almost casually. "Like when Dark and Arcana attacked the Dursleys summer before last and Tarana was the only reason we survived at all." Harry shook his head. "Thank you for your concern, Headmaster, but I think I'd prefer to live at the Cottage with Remus. There, Ivory and Tarana can more effectively protect me from the dangers you seem to think I'll face outside of Hogwarts."
The teen bowed slightly, before turning. "Have a good afternoon, Headmaster," Harry said. "Thank you for the walk. It was enjoyable to get outside for a bit, but I should return to the Tower and continue searching for some of the things that I may have left in the common room. I'm sure you remember what it's like."
Tarana's tail lashed as she turned and followed her charge up to the castle, leaving the Headmaster to stand there and watch as Harry took on a little more of the Lord Potter title and mannerisms.
XX
'Are you sure this is something you wish to do now?' Tarana asked, following Harry down the stairs into the dungeons.
"If I don't, I probably won't have the nerve. Severus scares me," Harry admitted.
Tarana knew the teen wasn't referring to the fear physically.
Severus was the only one who made his displeasure about the way Harry had dealt with his own safety, and the safety of his friends, clearly known from the onset, regardless of what Harry himself thought of him.
That way of handling him had left Harry with a vast respect for Severus and his opinion of Harry meant something to the teen.
It wasn't simply Harry's pride that had made apologizing to Severus so difficult, it was the fact that he was afraid of what Severus would think of him, given the teen's highly unsubtle opinion of the potions master.
'So, you'll ride the pride of having outmaneuvered the Headmaster,' Tarana pointed out, sounding amused.
"Well, it probably won't happen again," Harry agreed, smiling brightly and knocking on the door.
The smile was wiped away when Draco, not Severus, answered the door.
Draco's expression twisted into a sneer and he gave the brunette a once over. "What?"
Harry bit back his initial response to the tone and looked over Draco's shoulder, pretending he wasn't there. "I'm here to apologize," he said, glancing at Draco's ear. "But not to you."
Draco growled.
"Draco," Fallen snapped sharply, appearing behind his charge and eyeing Harry through the gap of the blonde's body. "You're here to make things right to the right person?" he asked Harry.
Harry looked down at the direwolf and nodded.
"I don't recall giving either of you leave to open my door for me," Severus sneered from the darkness beyond them. "Nor do I recall asking for protection I don't need. Let Potter in to continue making a fool of himself."
Harry flushed and ducked his head as he slipped past Draco with the bare minimum amount of space the other teen gave him.
This was why he'd avoided Severus for the last few days.
Head high, however, he gave no sign of his discomfort and he came to stand before Severus' desk and bowed at the waist.
The unexpected act, considering it had been one of Draco's first lessons to Harry - that a Lord does not show weakness or subservience to anyone, not even another Lord - startled Severus and Draco both.
"I wanted to apologize, Professor, for acting like an immature brat and not giving you the thanks required for what you did for me and my friends the other night. You lied to the Minister of Magic to keep us out of significantly more trouble than we could have ended up in, despite the dangers you could have suffered if you were found to have let Sirius go."
"Harry," Draco hissed, looking equally pleased and distressed.
Harry remained in the bow for another few seconds before straightening. "I know I don't deserve to ask, but I was wondering if you had a few minutes alone. I need some advice."
Severus stared at Harry for a few moments before flicking his wrist at Draco and Fallen. "Out," he ordered.
"But-"
"I'm certain I can handle Mr. Potter just fine on my own, Draco," Severus said warningly.
Draco subsided and allowed Fallen to nudge him out of the room, though it was clear that he was complaining about it through the Bond with his guardian.
"Please, Tarana?" Harry added, not looking away from Severus.
The request that the panther leave the room as well startled the potions master further.
Tarana tilted her head but turned and left the room without a word.
There was silence in the aftermath of the closing door.
"What can I do for the Lord Potter?" Severus asked, sitting behind his desk, recognizing the teen's attempt to make himself more respectable, to distance himself from his role as a student.
"I'm spending the summer with Remus Lupin at my grandparents' cottage," Harry informed him promptly. "I realize that it's a necessary move, given the situation at the Dursleys', but he's still someone I don't know or trust. I was wondering if, since I would be more firmly entrenched in the wizarding world this summer, there was a safe way for me to communicate with you, a man I do trust but can't stay with."
Severus laced his fingers together, letting the fact that Harry still trusted him fall to the side for the moment. "I was aware you were moving in with Lupin," he revealed. "He mentioned it when he came to me with the idea of quickly getting him out of Hogwarts. Part of the subsequent arrangement between the two of us was that he continue to take the Wolfsbane Potion every month like clockwork, for the safety of those around him. To that end, there will be a level of contact between our residences."
Harry, still standing as he hadn't been invited to sit, frowned. "Arrangement?"
Severus tapped his index fingers together and looked at the teen over his interlaced fingers. "Do you think that low of me, that I would release Lupin's affliction," he sneered the word, "out of spite?"
Harry gave the question the moment of thought he hadn't given the revelation in the infirmary earlier, before answering. "In a perfect world, I'd like to say that you were a better man than that," he admitted. "But once I got my head out of my arse, I realized that I'd kind of understand if you had felt the need." Severus' lips twitched at his wording. "My father and his friends weren't nice to you when you were in school together."
Severus snorted and lay a hand flat on the desk, close to the wand that lie there. "Lupin came to me the morning after that disastrous attempt you all made to keep Pettigrew contained and asked me for a way to get him quickly and firmly escorted off school grounds. I had your new guardian's full backing when I revealed he was a werewolf to Theodore Nott and a select few others of my House."
Harry tilted his head. "Can I ask if the idea had come to you after some thought or did you already have plans for it?" Severus' curled lip was all the answer Harry needed and he grinned. "I'm glad. I told Remus once that I thought it was right that you made him work for any ounce of forgiveness you decided to give him, knowing that he'd probably never get it. To see you two working together was a little weird. I'm glad that you haven't changed that much."
Severus waved his still airborne hand dismissively and Harry sobered, belatedly realizing that he'd all but given the older wizard permission to make him work for the professor's forgiveness.
"I don't want to tell Tarana, but I did read the chapter on werewolves you asked us to do that day you covered for him in Defense. Knowing that he can be capable of all that…I'm having mixed feelings about living with him. I know he's a nice enough man, but…his history says that he has a cruel streak to him. He allowed you to be blatantly bullied and picked on and was fully prepared to kill Peter in the Shrieking Shack the other night."
Severus looked at Harry. "Moments like this, Potter, make me wonder what possesses you to do inane and foolish acts like going into the Forbidden Forest in search of acromantulas and hunting down murderous convicts in those same woods. You clearly have a decent head on your shoulders and are perfectly capable of sound and responsible reasoning, and yet you pull stupid stunts and can barely pass marks in my class."
Harry flushed at the mixed compliment. "Thank you," he murmured, not sure if he should.
Severus waved a dismissive hand again. "Regarding your original question, however, I don't believe that you and I having any sort of correspondence beyond these walls is a wise idea. Now, more than ever, I need to be careful of what I say and do for you in public. If Pettigrew ever finds or returns to the Dark Lord, my position there will be in question. I haven't made any move to explain my actions to you because one, I don't feel the need, and two, this clear and renewed hatred you have for me only works in my favor going forward.
"That said, I understand your reservations. I advise you to fix your relationship with Draco. I make frequent stops at the Manor over the holidays," neither mentioned the reason Severus likely made those stops was because of Narcissa's Affliction with the Madness, "and if you feel unsafe or unable to communicate those feelings to Ivory or Tarana, you can send a letter to Draco to have delivered to me in turn. The Malfoys and I can, from there, extract you, temporarily, from the situation."
Harry brightened.
It hadn't occurred to him that, being more firmly in the wizarding world this summer, he would have access to all his friends in a more physical sense.
It likely would have occurred to Draco, if the teen hadn't been so angry with him.
"I also advise you to speak to Tarana again," Severus told him evenly. "If not about these concerns of yours then about the additional plans she's made for you going forward. I think you'll find the drive to fix this mess you've created with my godson a bit faster once she informs you of one of your vacation trips this summer."
Harry's brow furrowed and he tilted his head.
Severus, however, was through speaking to him and he gestured to the door. "I have things of my own to be doing if I wish to get away from this bloody castle in the near future."
Harry bowed again. "I am sorry, Professor," he said again. "I shouldn't have let my emotions rule me so much that I forgot you were always on our side. Whether we wanted you to be or not."
Severus neither rejected nor accepted the apology and Harry realized that, though Severus wasn't saying anything to protect his cover and his pride, Harry had hurt the man with how quickly he'd turned on him.
He'd just have to figure out a way to make it up to him.
Subtly.
XX
With less than twelve hours to go before they were to return home, Tarana found herself hunting for her charge.
She found him where she expected him, but not doing what he should have been doing, which was packing.
Instead, he had planted himself on, what most of the Tower considered to be, his window seat, feet propped up and his sketchpad opened on his bent knees.
'You've gotten better with your new classes,' she complimented as she approached, surprising herself because it wasn't what she'd meant to say.
"My father's animagus form was a stag, wasn't it?" Harry asked, ignoring the compliment.
Tarana sighed and dropped to the ground beneath the window. 'He was,' she admitted.
Harry smiled, a twisted and wistful abomination of the expression. "I thought, in the Forest, that my dad had somehow survived. That he'd went into hiding to protect me or something and had come back to save us." He scoffed derisively. "Like some stupid muggle superhero. I felt like such an idiot when I realized…."
Tarana remained silent, though she did wonder if this was part of the reason the teen had been so difficult to be near since that night, exasperating all other problems by fueling those emotions with his rage and disappointment.
"I feel stupider now. I thought…I thought it was almost worth it, letting Pettigrew escape. Stopping you all from killing him, if I got my dad back in the exchange. Instead, he's out there, searching for Voldemort. How long before one finds the other now?"
'I still find it worth it,' Tarana told him. 'I'd forgotten, lost in the rage and the fact that he was there. I finally had answers of my own, that I needed him alive. He may be lost. And odds are higher than not that he is searching for his master and that the search for Voldemort will bring him to Dark before long, but he's alive. Alive and capable of being caught again. He can't hide from Ebony and Sirius forever. And, if it's all the same to you, I'd rather not murder him in front of you.'
"Is it murder if it's justice?" Harry mused, having clearly been thinking about this for days. He shook his head, not really looking for an answer from the Queen. Instead, he dropped the sketchpad so she could see the picture he'd been staring at.
It was, in a slightly edited form, the exact scene from September First.
The children weren't present, but the extra space had been taken up by Ebony, the only addition to the picture, an aloof and amused presence near but apart from his two siblings.
Though the lines and details of the Hogwarts Express weren't present, it was clear to anyone who had been there that the various levels the Valerians laid on were the compartments and floors.
Harry had always been a great artist, having learned early in his life that if he wanted to capture the most important scenes of his life – which at the time all happened during his Walks with Tarana – he needed to put them on paper.
The sheer life that had been given to this picture, however, was new and it said a great deal about how much he still had left to learn.
Tarana must have made a sound because her charge awkwardly flipped the page and she choked on a wet laugh.
The spell was weak, proving that Harry hadn't quite mastered it yet, but the centered stag still reared and the massive dog and werewolf on either side of it raised their heads to the top of the page, before freezing, the spell losing its potency.
The scene flickered, returning to its starting point, and repeated a few seconds later.
'One of your greatest works yet,' she said, watching it repeat a third time.
XX
The Valerians weren't in the Great Hall for the Leaving Feast.
Fallen and Yoko had disappeared early in the evening, taking advantage of their last few hours together, and it had been clear that Arcana had wished much the same.
Tarana, however, found herself alone on the Astronomy Tower, looking up at the sky instead of with her hicari.
She wasn't a centaur nor was she well versed in reading the future in the stars as they were.
Somehow though, she felt like they were warning her.
Telling her that the rapid series of events that had been the last few years meant something.
"I know we didn't do well this year, fighting as we were," Arcana murmured, sliding out of the shadowy doorway behind her. "But we are going to do this together. And if we can manage this generation right, we'll never be as fractured as we were."
Yoko scoffed from the ramparts beside the Tower, a little lower to the Crown. 'Don't be foolish, Arcana,' he said. 'Fractured will be the least of our problems if things continue in this vein.'
Fallen chuckled, a dark and foreboding thing. 'War is on the horizon, Your Majesty. Can you taste it?'
Tarana tilted her head, watching her hicari and waiting for his response.
Arcana raised his head to the moon above them, thinking of Dark's attack on Yoko over the summer, and of Pettigrew's flight into the night, presumably back to his master.
He thought of Cornelius Fudge and the moves he was likely already planning to try and limit what little protections the Collective had against the Ministry and of the strange mix of enemy and ally Albus was proving to be as he worked simultaneously with and against them.
He looked back on the seemingly random series of events that had culminated in bringing the Collective back together.
"Yes," he said decisively. "Like a tide. Inevitable."
'We'll weather it as we always have,' Fallen said, almost sounding anticipatory about the coming battles.
"The question isn't whether we'll weather it," Tarana corrected. "But what state those under our care will be in when we see the other side."
The comment bled some of the enthusiasm from the Valerians, but not enough to curb their desire for blood.
To fight and kill in defense of what was building around them.
Valerian and human alike.
