Bloodlines
Brooklynight
Sorry this took so long, honestly I have no excuse. I lost interest in writing this for a while, but I have a lot of new ideas and I hope that the next chapter will be out much sooner. I was hopping to get further with this chapter but I didn't want to keep anyone waiting any longer.
Enjoy, your reviews and opinions are always welcome and appreciated.
Hogwarts:
Headmaster Dumbledore was in his office making final preparations for the arrival of the students for the next term which was scheduled to begin in few days. He then heard a knock on hid door.
"Come in" he told Minerva, who he was expecting.
"Good morning Albus"
"To you as well Minerva, tell me what did you manage to find out about the whereabouts of young Mr. Potter?" he asked the deputy headmistress.
Minerva knew that this was the reason behind being summoned to the headmaster's office. Minerva was kept in touch with Harry's muggle relative on Albus's behalf. Last summer Petunia had told her that the family was going on an extended vacation to Poland. This is why Minerva hadn't been concerned when the family was gone for months.
However Albus was starting to worry, Harry had been away from his home for over a year. The integrity of the wards protecting the home was starting to come into question.
"Albus, the last I heard from Harry's aunt Petunia the family was taking their time touring Eastern Europe while Mr. Dursley was occupied with business."
"Did you tell them how critical it is for them to return home as soon as possible?" the headmaster asked pointy.
"I tried Albus, but then last time that I was able to make contact with them was in last December when I was told that the Petunia had been alone with the boys since the summer. I haven't been able to get in touch with them since then."
Albus frowned his brow in concentration, he had been hoping for better news.
"Perhaps if we tried to owl them, it would be worth the risk of arousing the suspicions of whoever they are around."
"I've already tried that, the exhausted owl returned a few days latter still carrying the original letter." said an exasperated Minerva.
That was certainly strange, thought Dumbledore. Muggles didn't have any means of hiding themselves from owls.
"Perhaps a house call is in order?"
"I tried that as well Albus, I was at the house this morning, the car was in the drive, the grass was up to my knees, and there were no signs that they have been home since I had last heard from them." Minerva stopped for a minute to think, "Perhaps its time to contact the eastern ministries, I don't like the idea any more then you do but what other option do we have?"
Albus certainly didn't like the idea; there were two main sects of the magical world, the eastern and the western sects. There wasn't a physical barrier separating them, it was primarily a different in magical as well as political philosophy.
"That would be inadvisable Minerva, the situation is not critical enough for that, I can reset the wards, albeit with some difficultly, letting the world know that England has lost track of Harry Potter would put us into very unfavorable position."
"Are you suggesting that we do nothing and wait until we send him his letter?" asked Minerva shocked.
"Not at all Minerva, we have simply met an obstacle which we must overcome. Let us begin with contacting Mr. Dursley's employers and see what that tells us."
Minerva was satisfied with Albus's plan and left his office and went to her quarters to make a few inquiries into with her muggle associates.
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"Good, try it again, exhale slower this time." Kaz told Harry who over the past year had become his unofficial recruit. Kaz pushed a fresh clip into the Romanian training rifle that Harry had just emptied. Kaz would have preferred to be teaching the boy magic but there really wasn't much that he could teach a child who had just turned seven and was still too young to be fitted for his wands.
The same thing went for physical conditioning. Harry accompanied Kaz on his morning run, well at least the first leg of it. Harry tried to keep up with one of the basic swordsmanship classes Kaz taught at the academy, he managed but Kaz decided to train him independently. He would hold of on introducing the boy to the formal training of the eternals until he was old enough to get his wands, probably a year or two from now.
The range was part of Harry's morning routine, Kaz made Harry get up every morning at five and jog down to the range a bit over two miles away. Once there Kaz had Harry go through 250 rounds of .22 LR ammunition.
Harry raised the rifle to his shoulder and looked down the site. He lined his sights up just like Kaz instructed him on the human shaped target 120 meters away. He aimed for the center of the head. He squeezed the trigger.
CRACK
"Not bad, you barely got the top of his head." Kaz said
CRACK
"In the throat this time"
CRACK
"Left cheek"
CRACK
"Lower lip"
CRACK
"You hit his nose," said Kaz satisfied, as he took the rifle away from Harry, "Keep working on your breathing. You have the shots reasonably centered but you're still too jittery."
Harry smiled at the praise and accepted the rifle which Kaz handed back to him after making sure that it was clear.
"Hey there" a voice called out, Harry turned around to see Dominique standing next to the entrance to the range. Dominique was wearing a fashionable yet thoroughly impractical mink coat, "Hey Dom," called out Harry.
"About ready to get out of here?"
"Yep"
"Let's go then" after getting the okay from Kaz Dom lead Harry back to the lodge. Harry and Dom went up to Harry's room; he had been staying in a small apartment in one of the less populated wings of the ancient castle. Harry's bedroom was comfortably but simply decorated, most of the furnishings were left by the previous owners. Harry got an old blanket out of trunk which sat along one of the walls and laid it on the floor. He set down his rifle and stripped it. Dome threw him a bottle of bench oil and a few rags. Harry started to clean each part of the rifle under the watchful eye of Dominique.
"Missed a spot on the bolt" Dom told Harry looking up from the paper he had pulled out in since Harry began. After his morning shoot Kaz or sometime Dominique watched Harry clean his rifle
Harry looked at the spot Dom was referring to and was that there was in fact a spot a power residue on the metallic bolt. He rubbed his rag over the spot. Once he thought that he was finished he gave the disassembled rifle a final look over before reassembling it. Harry managed to slide the parts of the rifle back together with surprising speed.
Dominique looked over Harry's work and seemed satisfied.
"It's clean, square yourself away and meet me downstairs." He simply told Harry and left the room.
Harry put the rifle away in the trunk from which he pulled out his cleaning supplies earlier and closed. He then walked into the adjourning bathroom. It was small and built in the vampiric style. The entire bathroom, fixtures included seemed to be made out of a solid piece of gray stone. The stone was always warm to the touch and was heated by some sort of magic.
After taking a quick shower and brushing his teeth Harry went over to the dresser and pulled out his clothes for the day. He put on a black turtle neck sweater on top of a white T-shirt along with a pair of jeans. Next he put on a pair of winter boots and made his way downstairs.
He walked out of his bedroom into a small sitting room and then out into a carpeted and torch lit hallway. As he walked down the hallway he passed a series of doors on either side of him. Each of them lead to another apartment similar to his own. At the end of the hallway there was a stair way, Harry walked down it and into the castle's answer to a sitting room. The room was circular and had a series of leather armchairs along the outer wall. In the center there were couches surrounding a hearth with a crackling fire. Along the wall there was also a rather large book case. Harry had no idea what the original purpose of the room was but from what Harry saw he was fairly sure that it wasn't designed to be a sitting room. After every fifth seat there was a tall rack of some sort which looked like it was designed to hold some sort of weapons.
Harry saw Dominique along with his Sister Alex sitting along the wall and walked over to them. "Dressed a little light there Harry, its quite cold out there?" greeted Alex.
"But we're going into the city."
"Still, the boss is going to be pissed of if we let you get yourself sick, get yourself a coat." Alex told him.
"Fuck it, we're running late already, he'll be fine." Dominique told his sister and cut up and walked out of the room, Alex and Harry followed.
Dominique led them deeper into the confines of the castle. They went down a series of corridors and down countless stairs until they stood in front of a heavy wooden door at the end of a dark humid corridor. Harry guessed that they were somewhere in the castle's basement, which had more levels then the castle itself. On either side of the door there was a statue. Harry recognized it from the descriptions he had red in the book he got in the hospital. The black statue was of a soldier in flowing robes who held a long staff with both of his hand in front of his body. The figure's face was concealed by a hood; however a chain lay on the front of its robes with an amulet that signified the identity of the figure. Well it would have if Harry had remembered what the amulet meant but he assumed it was one of the vampiric deities. That one which Lenox had told him was the Vampires' god of peace rather ironically. Harry did remember that the figure was a member of the elite vampiric unit sworn to protect the king of the kingdom which once ruled the area. Their abilities were mythical and never did anyone they were protecting get successfully attacked. Lenox however was quick to remind Harry that the unit was devastated at the battle of the Mathias River in 1352 by the ethernal's second infantry regiment supported by the third Calvary.
"Why are we here?" Harry asked Dominique.
"Old man finally agreed to let us use the direct passage to the muggle world, frankly I got sick of the train ride to the hub" Harry saw that Alex agreed with the reference to their normally rather lengthy daily commute.
Dominique approached the statue to the right a pulled a wooden object out of his coat pocket, he raised it above his head and smashed it against the statue. It made no sound as it made contact but instead melted into the statue and made it glow a dark blue.
"Fascinating spell work" commented Alex appreciatively, she touched it causing the area here she placed her hand to ripple.
"Harry place your hand on the statue" Harry did as he was told and felt a weird cooling sensation go through his body as he touched the statue. Dominique did the same. He then walked over to the door and pulled it open with a considerable amount of effort. On the other side they found an empty room cover floor to ceiling in simple grey building stone. The only feature of the room was at the center. There was a hole about three feet in diameter which was surrounded by foreign runes. The trio encircled the hole and gazed into it to see nothing but darkness.
"So, Lenox tell you how to use this thing?" Alex asked Dom.
"No"
"So"
"We jump in I suppose"
"After you"
With that Dom stepped into the opening without a sound. After minute Alex turned to Harry, "your turn."
Harry stepped up to the edge and gazed down wards into nothingness, after a few seconds he took a breath a jumped forward.
Harry felt like he was falling down an bottomless pit no end in site. An end soon materialized as Harry found himself in the air some eight feet above the ground. He fell awkwardly on the ground.
"Alright there mate?" asked Dom as Harry hit the ground.
Dom walked over and helped Harry up just in time to see Alex tumble out of the sky to land graceful on her two feet .
The three found themselves in the middle of a grassy meadow in an isolated corner of a city park.
"Where are we eating?" asked Alex.
"Same place as yesterday?" Dom suggested.
Alex agreed and the three made there way across the meadow into a small wooded patch and finally onto a paved path. They followed the path until they got to the edge of the park with was still fairly deserted since it was so early in the morning. Once out side of the park Harry followed Alex and Dom a series of narrow coble stone streets until they got to a small cafeteria type restaurant.
Once inside Alex turned to Harry, "what are you eating?"
Harry thought for a moment before replying, there really wasn't much of a selection and settled on eggs.
After their orders were placed Alex lead to group to an empty table. The restaurant was very plainly designed. Except for some generic art which hung on the white washed walls there wasn't anything to distract the diners from their surrounding. Not that any of the customers seemed to care as the majority of them were laborers.
The food eventually arrived and Harry attacked his eggs with a passion. It was his first meal since the previous night.
"How is Kaz treating you Harry?" Alex asked looking up from her coffee.
"Good." Harry answered simply, he really couldn't complain about anything. He was used to getting up early in the morning. At least he got to sleep on a real bed and got a bathroom all to himself. Now that he thought about it not even Dudley had that. He was jealous about how easy Kaz made everything look though. Especially when he made Harry fight him using yard sticks. No matter how hard Harry tried Kaz seemed to fend of Harry's attacks as if they were nothing.
"So, I heard that you're gonna have a chance talk Commander Sapper?" Dom asked, he heard that the Guardian was taking a special interest in the boy, which was rather odd since the guardian rarely dealt with anybody who could offer him something, either scholastically or militarily. Besides the man did command the Guard, 30,000 men had to require a mountain of paper work. Dom wondered if the man would ever appoint a new commander for the eternals, Kaz had retired close to a year ago and his former command was still vacant. But at the same time it seemed like all of the command decisions were coming from Kaz. Dom was baffled why the man would quit a job only to keep on doing it.
"Really?" Harry asked surprised.
Harry had indeed been discreetly told by Kaz that it would do him well to learn what he could about Lennox and the position of the guardian but wasn't told anything about meeting the commander.
"Well" Dom began before lowering his voice, "I'm not supposed to say anything but, I heard that the commander has taken an interest in you."
Harry opened his mouth in disbelief, Kaz told him that the commander was very good with magic and had a very important job., What could the commander want with him, Kaz told him that he wasn't even old enough to do magic.
By the time the three were mid way done with their meals and Harry was about to ask Dom for more Details a black Mercedes had pulled up in front of the restaurant and was beeping its horn.
"Well Harry that seems to be your ride." Dom said.
"But I want to know more about what the commander said?" Harry protested.
"Remember Harry I don't know anything" Dom responded with a grin.
Harry scooped up a fork full of eggs and went out the door. Outside he was greeted by two large men, one of who opened the rear passenger door for Harry who got in without comment.
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Minerva McGonagall sat at her desk in her office at Hogwarts. The room itself was large for an office, measuring some 800 square feet. Minerva however seemed to only occupy the far right corner. There was some reproduction art hung up on the wall behind and a rug was spread out in front of the desk.
Her desk was meticulously organized, with all of her quills in perfect order and important documents were placed into neat stacks. At the moment she was nose deep in the London times looking at the section with the announcements. A search spell had told her that there was something about Harry's relatives in the paper but she was still to find one article which had anything to do with them.
She was about to put the paper aside when she found something. The smile which appeared on her face quickly vanished when she noticed what she had been reading.
Death Notices.
The remains of Mr. Vernon Dursley arrived at Heathrow Airport today at 7am. No cause of death has been identified at the time of this publication. Mr. Dursley leaves behind a wife and child.
Minerva had to re read the announcement to be sure that her eyes weren't deceiving her. It could have been worse, at least it wasn't the aunt.
She put the paper down and pulled out a piece of parchment and began to pen a letter to editor of the paper asking for the Dursley's current address under the pretext of being a concerned relative wishing to pay her condolences.
Once she was don't with the letter she place it a pile with others which she intended to owl latter. She then turned her attention to a large box of muggle paper work which was sitting next to her desk.
They were public records, a lot of them. She pulled the records of all the primary schools in the Dursley's immediate area. Perhaps she would be able to reconstruct more about Harry's life. Albus had admitted that he did a rather poor job keeping track Harry, assuming that his relative were capable of the responsibility.
With a sigh she floated the box onto her desk with a flick of her wand and pulled up the first sheet of computer paper and began to read.
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Neither Harry nor the two other men spoke to each other as they drove through the maze of city streets. Harry felt odd sitting on the empty rear seat with nothing to do. Despite being with the two men almost every day for the past few months, he still didn't know their names. They seemed to have any interest in knowing his nor was he willing to ask theirs.
Just like on any other day the Mercedes rolled to a stop in front of a brick row house. The man sitting on the passenger side got out and opened Harry's door for him letting him out before walking back the car which would pull away.
Harry stood in front of the black wooden door. He took a breath before ringing the bell. He hoped that Ulan wouldn't answer the door. Ulan was almost never home and Harry rarely saw him. The few times that Harry did see Ulan were incredibly awkward. Ulan exchanged greetings with Harry but would say little else, never mentioning their previous meeting. Harry wondered why Ulan so much less friendly then when he first met him on the plane.
"Hello Harry" greeted a friendly voice in Polish.
"Hi" Harry answered in the same language. He had been able to pick up the language easily as every body he met except Kaz, Alex and Dom spoke in it. He never really remembered learning it but he never remembered having any problems either.
The voice belonged to Caroline, Ulan's wife. For the past months Harry had been dropped off here almost daily to be schooled. Kaz had explained that going to a normal school would be as he put it 'unsuitable.'
Harry followed Caroline into the house. After taking off his shoes and leaving them in the foyer Harry walked into the living room. Harry never understood why the house was decorated in the way it was. Everything was very nice and Harry was sure it cost a lot but seemed to stiff. The couches looked like they should be in a museum and Harry was afrid of sitting on them.
"Harry!" exclaimed a girl's voice as she ran up and hugged him. Harry returned the hug, as he did every day.
"Hey Eli," Harry said cheerfully, the girl was just about the only person his own age that Harry had a chance to talk to. Caroline home schooled her daughter as well as Harry. In Eli's case she didn't go simply because it was safer for her at home.
"Go finish you breakfast" Caroline reprimanded her daughter.
"But mom, I'm finished"
"I suppose then you don't mind stating your lessons early" Caroline responded
"But mom" the girl protested.
The look Caroline gave her daughter was enough stop her from saying anything else. Instead she grabbed Harry who was standing on the side, unwilling to get in involved, by the hand and led him into library.
"So, what are we doing today?" Harry asked Eli when they got to the library and sat down at a small rectangular table on stiff dining room chairs. The room wasn't all that large and was probably used as a bedroom at one point. There were fours stacks of books as well as shelves that ran along the walls. In the back there was a reading area with a few old recliners and two small identical tables.
"Mom, says that we have to do more maths, because we haven't been doing them" said Eli who didn't seem at all thrilled about the prospect.
"But its not our fault that your mom loves the Greeks so much" Harry responded
"Yeah, but I though you liked all of that old stuff"
"I do but when your mom talks about it, she can be so boring, I don't want to memorize the names of the allllll the Athenian Archons and know every little thing that they did"
"Well they are more interesting then all the battle we have to memorize" responded Eli cheekily.
"Are not!"
"Yes they are"
Harry could sense that Eli was just saying that to annoy him. He loved history, Kaz told really good stories. Caroline would just make him read books written by boring old guys.
"Well then why can't we do science, that's fun" Harry asked.
"What type of science, making stuff blow up, but I definitely don't want mom to cur open another frog"
"But that was the coolest part"
"Okay, kids who's ready for some algebra" Caroline said as she entered the room only to be greeted with sighs. She gave a algebra practice book to Harry and Eli.
"Can't we do something fun?" Harry asked
"If you weren't set against it Harry then you might actually enjoy it" Caroline reasoned
"No I wouldn't" Harry replied.
"Well that's besides the point since you're going to learn, I know you can do it, Dominique tell me you like maths when he teaches you"
"But he shows me how to use numbers to make money, then I can buy stuff I like , which is fun"
"Well Harry if you become even better then I'll ask him to show you some really cool stuff, so how about you try exercise 5 in chapter 3"
"Fine," said Harry defeated, and started to do the work.
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"So how was it Harry" asked Dominique turning around in the passenger seat. He and Alex had pick up Harry an hour earlier then they usually did.
"Why did you have to tell her that I'm good at maths, I had to do almost the entire book's worth."
Dom snickered in response, "At least I didn't tell her that you actually like dancing with Eli.
Harry blushed, Caroline insisted that Harry know how to dance, and was only too glad to teaching, making him and Eli practice together.
"No I don't" said Harry denying the allegation.
"Then why take longer to get ready then Alex when you know you're going to dance.
"I don't dress nice for her"
Dom just laughed.
"So" Harry began eager to change the topic, "why did you guys pick me up early today."
Dom didn't say anything, "Alex, where are we going?" Harry tried.
"We'll be there soon enough"
"You didn't answer my question."
They drove on in silence for close to half an hour until they were some distance out of the city and the only car on a barely marked forest road. Alex finally pulled the car over onto the shoulder and got out.
"Let go mate, we're here" Dom told Harry as he opened his door.
"Where's here?" Harry asked but Dom had already began to walk into the forest after Alex, Harry followed.
"Where are we going" Harry asked again after several minutes of random wandering.
"Here" Alex finally said coming to a stop in front of a birch tree.
"Huh?'
Alex sighed, "has my brother not taught you anything about arithmacy, and magical construction"
"Sure he has"
"Well then look around and tell me what you see"
Harry looked around him and didn't see much besides forest. Pine trees all around, well except for the one in front of him, there was one just like it to either side of him and two in back.
"There are five birch trees around us." He finally said
"So"
"Five is important"
"Why?"
"Five usually signifies waiting, but what are we waiting for, and what's in this forest" Harry answered still confused.
"Nice to see you remember something, tell me is there anything on the tree"
Harry took a closer look at the trunk and saw that there was indeed a faint rune carved on to it. He didn't know its meaning but it seemed to be flowing, but to where?
"A rune"
"Which makes the five runes around us?"
"A…..Portal?" Harry answered uncertainly."
"Not quite but close enough…its more of a waiting room actually"
"What are we waiting for then?"
Alex didn't answer but glanced at her watch instead. She then looked up and pressed her purse against her side.
Suddenly Harry felt like he was kicked in the chest with a heavy boot. Next thing he knew he was on the floor struggling to breathe. Each time his chest expanded it felt like his ribs were about to pierce his lungs. He opened his eyes to realize that he was face flat on the floor. He struggled to roll onto his back only to meet more pain when his back touched the stone floor. He saw the blurry forms of Alex and Dominique, both in seemingly perfect condition above him.
"You alright there mate?" Dom asked not seemingly over concerned that Harry was barely holding back tears.
"Let me help you up" he said offering his hand, then jerking Harry to his feet.
"Where are we?" Harry asked weakly taking only shallow breaths.
"You have an appointment, do you need a minute to catch your breath, first time can be kinda rough" Alex told him, ignoring the fact that Harry had one hand on the wall, trying not to fall down.
"I'll, I'll be fine." Harry said standing up right and taking a tentative step forward, he was glad to realize that the pain had gone down to a mild throbbing.
Alex and Dom walked up the statue lined hall as Harry struggled to keep up. When they finally reached the large feline guarding the end Alex put a hand on his shoulder and stopped him 15 feet from the statue while Dom walked forward and moved the statue aside to reveal the white wall.
"Just walk right on through that wall Harry, it'll give way"
Harry was uncertain but walked forward, when he finally got to the wall he reached out and touched it. Dominique took it upon him self to help Harry through with a shove.
The pain Harry had previously felt returned greater then before, and he found himself struggling to stand. He raised his head to meet another pair of eyes.
The man's eyes were a mystical mixture of gray and silver that Harry was lost in, he didn't think that he could look away even if he wanted to. His hair was a perfect grey and was tied back in a short pony tail. He was dressed in a simple black robe trimmed in white. Physically he was rather unimpressive, he was tall and skinny and his hands seemed almost boney. Despite this he had something about him which made his physical state seem irrelevant. Dominique seemed like a frail old man in comparison.
"Good evening Harry, my name is Lenox, the guardian, I've been waiting to finally meet you, while I do have many questions, I'm certain you have more."
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Well the next part will be out soon. Harry will finally get some answers and the magical aspect will fully come into play.