A/N: Oh! You found it! Good!

And as always,

Enjoy.

Disclaimer: Go back and read the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before this one.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX PART B: INTRODUCTIONS

"So now we meet the real welcoming party." Voldemort commented to the man beside him.

Orion quickly turned to several more popping noises behind them, only to see a dozen more of the robed figures appear.

"And it seems he sent out plenty of invitations." Orion replied. "You take the front, I'll take the rear. Arabella and Lupin will guard Harry."

Orion wasn't the least bit surprised how quickly Voldemort went on the attack. 'Defense' simply wasn't part of the man's vocabulary, it seemed. You were either attacking or attacking harder with him. There was no other battle tactic he seemed particularly interested in.

Satisfied Voldemort would take care of the front line of attack, Orion quickly established himself to guard the rear.

"All right, Bo." He whispered, pulling out his wand, "let's show the blighters what they're really up against."

Drawing on the 'Power', Orion set about doing just that. In the time he and Voldemort had set up their own plan of attack, several dozen more of the wizards people had joined their comrades and where quickly falling into their own attack strategy.

If Harry had thought Voldemort had shown amazingly fast attack skills during their lessons, it appeared as nothing next to his uncle's own level of skill. Harry could hardly even follow the speed of Orion's attack. It seemed half the robed attackers were already on the ground and the other half fighting to stay off of it by the time he caught up to the action. His own wand out and keen to help defend the group, Harry found himself being actively deterred by his godmother, who kept a hand wrapped tightly around his wrist.

"Don't interfere." She stated. "This is what Orion is trained for, Harry. But he needs to know that you're safe with Lupin and me."

Harry didn't much like the order, but he could also see the point of it. Indeed, Orion appeared to fight with a single-minded concentration to what seemed like the exclusion of everything else around him. And just as before, when he had watched the Unspeakables fighting off the Deatheaters in the field when they had attacked he, Arabella, and Sirius, Harry almost began to feel sorry for the wizards people. Even against only two, they were fighting hard just to hold their own and appeared to constantly be calling up reinforcements as their numbers were cut down over and over again by the two men they were facing.

But in a single instant the tide appeared on the verge of changing. A spell cut by Voldemort, just missing him as he dodged out of the way.

"Black!"

The warning came a second too late as the spell caught Orion in the side. With a cry that was more irritation than pain, Orion fell to his knees, tightly holding onto his left side. But as the man went down, a second figure seemed to take his place. One Harry knew all too well as he backed slightly into his godmother.

"Why is Bo here?" He ask in barely a whisper.

Even if they had heard him, no one would have had time to answer. The boggart gave one anguished cry as it knelt over its fallen friend, wrapping it's robes about the body.

For those few brief moments, even the wizard's people seemed unsure of what to do. But they didn't have a lot of time to ponder their next move either. With a sound that to Harry resembled a large dog snarling at an opponent, the boggart got back to its feet and launched itself at the attackers, the body that had been laying at its feet now vanished.

As though a single entity, the wizard's people drew back from this new opponent, several managing to take a few steps in retreat before the others. These seemed to be the ones the boggart focused on first. Within seconds pandemonium broke out among the remaining attackers as they tried to flee to safety. Harry watched as without so much as the preamble of the flash of a spell being fired off, the bodies of the wizard's people began to collapse to the ground, and within the space of a few seconds, the fight was over.

No one in the small group moved until the boggart suddenly appeared back before them, Orion's body now held in its arms as it seemed to survey the four people before it. A low, sad thrill came from it as it concentrated its attention on Harry and nudged the body in its arms towards him.

Voldemort was the first person to react, raising his wand, which immediately got the boggart's attention shifted to him as he pulled his channeler's body back against him.

Harry quickly grabbed Voldemort's wand and pulled it back down. "No!" He cried. "Don't attack him. That'll just make things worse."

Before anyone else could decide what to do, Orion stirred in Bo's arms, a hand rising slowly to rub his forehead.

"Son of a..." Orion opened his eyes and, rapidly assessing the scene, turned back to the boggart still holding him in its arms. "Bo. Put me down." He stated as firmly as he could manage.

The boggart thrilled softly at him.

"I'm fine. Just a really nasty bitc...a really bad headache. Put me down."

With as much solicitation as possible, Bo slowly lowered Orion to his feet, keeping so little space between them even as the Unspeakable regained his feet that you likely couldn't have slid a piece of paper between them.

"Will you lay off." Orion stated a bit firmer this time, waving the boggart back. "I'm fine. It wasn't anything serious."

"Your friend seems to disagree."

Orion turned to find Voldemort watching the scene unfold with more interest than the Unspeakable was comfortable with.

"Well, the last time I checked, he lacked a medical degree."

"Possibly." The dark wizard replied. "But perhaps his talents lie elsewhere. Perhaps your Mr. Bale would like to consider recruiting him, since he seems to know how to fight."

"Bo doesn't fight." Orion snapped back a bit stronger than he knew he should have. "He defends. And that's all he was doing."

"Those on the receiving end of his 'defense' might not agree with that assessment. I have Deatheaters that don't fight as well as your friend."

"And I have a thirteen year old who fights better than your Deatheaters. What does that prove?"

Voldemort frowned back at him and broke off any further discussion on the matter, which is exactly what Orion wanted him to do. The dark lord was asking far to many questions and was making way too many assumptions for his liking.

A flurry of gestures next to him drew Orion's attention.

"Yes, you did very well." Orion replied, smiling at Bo. "They sure didn't care for facing you, did they?"

The boggart thrilled softly, then launched into a new flurry of excited gestures.

"Doesn't he talk?" Voldemort ask, again turning to observe the exchange between Orion and the dark robed creature before him.

"Do you know many boggarts that do?" Orion answered. His attention divided between trying to interpret Bo's excited gesturing, Voldemort's question, and the pain still coursing through every cell in his body, Orion bit the words back a second too late.

But Voldemort's expression, while previously one of fading interest, sparked to a new life at the information.

"A boggart?!" He questioned, staring at the creature who had now stopped its gesturing and stared back at him. "This creature is a boggart?!"

Orion quickly stepped in front of his friend. "Bo is more of a family pet. He's been with my family for years and we tend to think of him just as a member of the family now." He replied with the standard answer the family had always given to explain Bo to anyone who came across him, accidentally or otherwise.

Orion didn't care one bit for the way Voldemort was staring at Bo, as though trying to assess something just on his appearance and action. The best thing, he figured, was to get Bo away from Voldemort as soon as possible.

"All right, Bo. Time to go." Orion stated, trying to keep things as vague as possible while he tried to sort out exactly where to send Bo for the time being. Or if he could even send him anywhere past the conduit's walls.

"Where has he been exactly?" Came the question Orion had been trying to avoid the most.

Turning to the dark lord, Orion regarded him without answering.

"He didn't come with us." Voldemort observed casually, as though sorting through a puzzle in his mind. "But he showed up the moment you were injured. Interesting, that your 'family pet' has such a keen sense of intuition as to when he is needed."

"Bo is very sensitive." Orion replied. "And as that he was one of my closest friends growing up, he's very highly tuned to me."

"And where does he go now?"

Orion was starting to lose sight of daylight from the bottom of the hole he was currently standing in. Problem was, no matter what he did, it was going to get deeper in about three seconds.

He didn't want to have to explain to Voldemort that Bo was, in fact, traveling with him. But nor could he leave Bo out in the open on his own. He was already distracted enough watching after Harry and trying to keep an eye on Voldemort. The last thing he needed was to have to look after a hyperactive three year old as well.

"He's going back where he was." Orion started firmly, seeing no other way to explain where Bo had been. A question he was sure was coming nonetheless.

"Which is?"

Bingo! Some people were just so predictable.

Orion gave the man a mirthless smile over his shoulder as he turned to the boggart who stood waiting patiently to see what his channeler want to do.

"Come on, Bo." Orion stated. "Time to leave."

Instantly the boggart leapt forward like an overeager black mastiff greeting its owner at the end of a long day apart. But just before one would expect to see the mass of black robes collide into the man before it, it swung gracefully back up into the air before him and, as gently as a swath of silk, wrapped itself about his body and disappeared.

Orion turned back to the man who was regarding him with a look of both curiosity and surprise.

"Bo stays with me." Orion stated without the slightest hint of any expression visible in his features or his voice. Turning back to the others, he set his gaze on Harry. "Which way then, Harry?"

Without a word, Harry pointed back towards the gates of the castle.

"All right then." Orion said. "Lets go see what other surprises our host has waiting for us."

Q&A

CelticHeiressFiona:

Awesome chapters! They were great. By the way have I told you how much I love your little saying at the very end everytime? Because they are great!

Well, thank you, Dear. I was actually beginning to wonder if anyone ever even saw those. Nice to know at least person finds them.

MasterLupin:

Well that was an interesting and revealing chapter, looks like Orion can be expecting some backstab from his partner in the near future. Oh well for my predictions, I thought I had a good one there.

How much backstabbing there will be remains to be seen. Remember though, Charly is still very loyal to his best friend. He is not in this to hurt Orion or for any self gain. His sole goal, unlike Treaks, is to keep Orion alive.

Dear, that was, without a doubt, one of the best thought out theories to date. I have no doubt some serious time went into that one. And I would have loved to have incorporated some of it into the story. Problem is, the story line is already laid out and deviating from it, due to how carefully everything has to fit together, would make a lot of trouble for me and a lot of confusion for my readers.

You still worry me though. Every time I see a theory from you I think 'is the one where MasterLupin finally outguesses me'?

You keep me on my toes, no doubt about it.

Skahducy:

So...basically Voldemort asked Treaks to make this spell, but Treaks is loyal to the wizard in the north. Does that mean the spell may not even lead to the wizard in the north in the end? Does the wizard have control over which direction Harry feels pulled in? Please update soon!

You know, I'm going to be really nice here and lay this out for you because you're so darned close anyway. Problem is, you've got a lot of 'right' mixed in with a lot of 'wrong'. And trying to redirect you in the points where you go off track would take a lot more time than just giving you the whole layout of this situation straight out.

So here it is;

Voldemort did ask Treaks to come up with a spell that would allow Harry to basically act as a four-point spell to the wizard in the north since he is, in fact, the wizard's secretkeeper. However, the spell Treaks gave Voldemort was carefully constructed by the wizard himself to do what he wanted it to do.

Now. spells, in my opinion (that would be the world according to PAR, folks) are funny things. You can only make a spell do so much. The rest you have to adept your circumstances to to make it work for you.

In the wizard in the North's case, he constructed a spell that would indeed lead Harry to him. No deception there. However, he also now has control of 1) when they leave, 2) what path they take, and 3) everything that will happen to them along the way.

The whole point here is that the wizard in the North is by no means going to be surprised by anyone showing up on his doorstep. He knows exactly where the group is and what they are up to as long as they are in the conduit he constructed.

But mind you, Orion, Voldemort, and the rest aren't naive either. They are well aware they are likely being watched very carefully and know full well this won't be a surprise attack.

Oh, and by the way, 'Treaks is loyal to the wizard in the North'? Don't you believe it, babycakes.

Silverfox:

Gr first forgets to send out its alerts, then it messes up the order. ... Gah! Suddenly I'm very worried of what might happen to Bo if Voldemort finds out about him. Either he or Sirius are going to need a new body sometime and Bo's might look like an easy and very useful, especially if Voldemort is not aware of the srings attatched to Bo's abilities. ... Of course Waldi posessing Bo would hava a lot of poptential for embarassment. ...
That story was called Does He Have A Heart by Eloria. A Neville/Draco slash fic, but not at all what you'd expect from that description. It really dealt with homosexuality and rape, which is why it needed the NC 17 rating. Definitely not something I'd want a child exposed to, no, but all those idiots casually writing about rape should read it. I've looked on every site I could find and ever tried a few search engines. I think she just gave it up.

FFN has been a bit on the strange side lately. First off, I don't understand why anyone would configure their own server to delete any reference to themselves. It doesn't matter how you refer to the site or its keepers (FFN, ffn, or just fanfiction), the server deletes it out of the text (usually).

Well, you can stop worrying, Dear. Because Voldemort now knows about our favorite boggart. Or at least that he exists. Stay tuned to later chapters as he starts putting more and more pieces together as he sees exactly what Orion's 'family pet' is capable of.

Ummmm..., interesting thought. And Voldemort may not necessarily need a new body. That has yet to be determined. Now, even I sometimes forget that Bo's link to the Black family isn't strictly genetic. remember that one of Orion's concerns with Sirius adopting Harry was that Bo would see the boy as a potential host as Sirius' 'son'. Also, Talon was able to get the 'Power' into the boggart in the first place simply by allying it with the family. So apparently all anyone in the family has to do is acknowledge someone as a member of the family to make them a potential 'target' for Bo. (I hate to use that word, but I don't have a better one right now.)

Why would Voldemort care about the strings attached to Bo's abilities? He's already crazy as a June bug without Sirius' influence.

Voldemort possessing Bo has a lot of potential for DISASTER, Dear. Think of Voldemort in possession of a force that is basically pure magic without limitations or conscience. And along those lines I am sure Voldemort would see Bo as very easy and useful.

However, the likelihood of that happening is not very great. Remember that the 'Power' can only have one host at a time. And while Orion is a channeler for the 'power', his father is its current host. Something Voldemort is not likely to find out any time soon.

Actually, Dear, homosexuality and rape is exactly what I would have expected that story to deal with, since that is what all pairings of those two characters tend to deal with.

All reviews are as of 01/13/2007.

And remember;

Scrabble. It's your word against mine.