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Big shout out to the following:

panther73110

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clomps

CHAPTER 14: Secrets and Stories

Harry was pacing the floor of the Common Room when Ron awoke and fumbled down the steps to see him.

"Harry! Thank God we were so worried!" He stopped short when he saw the face of his friend.

Ever since Halloween, Ron and Hermione both, looked at their three friends in a different light than most. They were quiet around them, merely there for support and research and sometimes a game of chess or two not because they weren't friends but because Ron and Hermione were slightly uncomfortable with the bound between the three.

Harry, Draco and Dante had grown up together, and while they fought, it was never a serious fight, only practice or picking on one another. That night, when Ron and Hermione had seen them fight, the two had realized that the reason for this was a team like theirs, had to be in complete trust and harmony. Each live was entrusted to the other two partners. That kind of trust could not be duplicated. So it was a shock to see Harry sit down with him, but more of a shock was the teen's face. Harry hadn't even grimaced while killing the troll so the tortured look on his face scared Ron.

"Ron, what I'm about to tell you goes no father than these ears." Ron nodded surprised. With that Harry retold everything, from what had happened in the first seven years of his childhood to what he had seen in the mirror to what had happened that night.

"I wanted to Ron. I was so tempted by the though of having that kind of power it wasn't till I was close enough to smell his garlicky breath that I snapped out of it." He pulled his hands through his hair giving it three inches of extra height. His eyes had large black bags under them and while Ron didn't want to draw attention to it, Harry had giant red and gold wings protruding from his back.

"I can't tell my brother or my cousin. I can't tell anyone but you. This desire to kill, I've been trained to do it but never of my own free will. If I were attacked, then I would retaliate, if it got to the point that I was in danger I would kill. If it was someone worth killing, I'd still wait till they attacked to kill."

Harry had walked over to his trunk, from which he pulled out a silver facemask that covered everything but the eyes.

"Even then I can't bare to be seen by anything that could name me as the killer, even in death."

Ron looked at him agog.

"Thank you Ron, all I needed was to tell you. I needed to tell someone. It's been driving me nuts all this time."

"This man, he was drinking unicorn blood right?"

Harry nodded, settling back against Ron's bed.

"It must have been pretty desperate."

Harry cocked his head to the side, a questioning gaze in his eyes.

"Unicorns blood, leads to immortality but at a half life, incomplete and cursed."

Harry looked out into the grounds, brightening with the warmth of spring.

"Voldemort."

Ron shuddered but said nothing.

"He's around. He's watching me."

"If he comes back, do you think he'd try to kill you again?" Ron asked worriedly.

"He'd have tried to kill me tonight if he wasn't intent on me helping him back to his body."

"How would you be able to help him?" Ron asked, shadows from the window making him look older…much older.

"The Philosopher's stone." Harry whispered, everything coming to light. How he loved talking to Ron, it was like he was a trampoline for all of Harry's questions, only sending answers back to him instead of questions.

"Someone in the school is helping You-Know-Who get to the stone!" Ron nearly cried out.

"Yeah."

Silence stretched out between them, one only the crackle of dying embers filled.

"Ron, would you join Draco, Dante and I at our morning practices?"

Ron was surprised by the sudden offer but was quick to except, having seen the teens only a few times on the fields, sparring either two-on-one or one-on-one-on-one. He had longed since the day Dante had shown him the basics to join them and learn more. He had secretly been practicing his moves everyday and mimicking the trio's moves which he could see from the window in the early morning when he practiced.

"I'd love too! You have no idea how long I've been waiting to join you guys. I want to learn to defend myself like you guys do!"

He was ecstatic and it made Harry smile, that he could bring so much joy with such a selfish request like that on. The truth was, he wanted Ron and even Hermione if he work Dante into agreeing, to be fully prepared to fight.

"I hope to get you up to speed on hand-to-hand before second year is out, and start you on weapons then. I'd really like to start you know but right now we have exams to worry about."

Ron groaned and Harry laughed clapping him on the back before the two climbed back into bed.

The next morning Ron joined Draco and Harry at their lessons with Dante. The werewolf taught Ron some of the more advanced moves after assuring himself that Ron had mastered the one's he'd sown him at Christmas. Harry and Draco sparred avidly, neither backing down despite the sweat that began to soak their t-shirts and shorts. After a quick breakfast all four showered and changed, Draco and Harry complimenting Ron on how fast he'd caught on, and inviting him to more of their early morning practices.

It was only then that Dante slapped himself in the forehead with the heel of his hand. "Hermione! I told her we'd study for the exams today!" All four ran to meet Hermione, praying that the bushy brunette wasn't too displeased with them.

"Well he's chipper."

Dante turned his gaze from his books to Hermione to where she was looking, surprised that something had taken her hawk's gaze off her book.

They were sitting under a tree, books spread out around them, snacks mingled amongst the hard covers, exploding snap card and chess boards sitting on the side of the bank, calling out to the teens who continued to fight the erg.

Hermione was looking across the lake to where Harry was laughing and wrestling with Dante's cousin. Dante smiled as he watched Draco pin Harry to the ground, making the boy laugh hard and loud, sending birds flying.

"I wonder what changed." She whispered.

Dante smiled and was about to return to his book when he spotted Ron. Ron was smiling knowingly with a worried glint to his eyes which hovering just above the book, obviously watching Harry while trying to appear otherwise occupied.

Dante looked to Hermione saw she was back in her book and nudged her pointing to Ron when she glanced up.

"What do you suppose he knows that we don't?"

Hermione shrugged then returned to her book. Dante followed suit though his own eyes wandered up to Ron's more than once though the hours they continued to look up at Ron, to find his eyes never moved unless it was too deepen in worry. "What's wrong Ron?"

The boy snapped his head around to face the werewolf. "What?"

Hermione snorted and began too pack her books away. Dante snorted only to set himself off on a coughing fit. Hermione patted him on the back, looking down at him worriedly.

"I'm okay. Might just be coming down with something. My background gives me a worse immune system than Harry's. Poor kid. He's got such a weak body. Never was the same after those bloody muggles got a hold of him." He smiled and only realized the consequence of his words when his next coughing fit seized him.

"I…didn't…mean…that!" He managed to cough out. Hermione looked at him oddly but Ron was on his feet and was making his way up to the castle. Hermione hauled herself to his feet and tried to help Dante up, but he brushed her off and ran after Ron, cough all the way.

Dante was caught up by his failing energy. He had been avoiding the hospital wing for the three days leading up to the full moon to keep up his studies and pretenses around Hermione and Ron who seemed a bit suspicious. However, his barriers, built up after so many years, seemed to crumble and crash to the ground.

"I'm sorry Harry."

Harry and Draco had headed up a while ago, to shower and change before the change that night. Harry had challenged the blonde to a spar, hoping to work some of the tension that had been building up off. He had kicked the blonde arse, naturally, one of the only upsides to the day. The other one was that Quirrell had been avoiding him. While passing in the courtyard, he'd looked away and toward the ground.

However, that peace was ruined quickly.

Harry was toweling off and about to replace his eye when the door burst open. Harry's magic seized him and he disillusioned him.

"HARRY!"

Harry saw Ron standing in the doorway with Draco behind him clad only in a pair of jeans.

Harry moved out, bushing Draco as he went to tell the boy he was moving and pulled on clothes before revealing himself to the red head.

"Ron! Don't sneak up on me like that."

"I'm sorry Harry I just thought you should know…"

And so the story came forth. Needless to say, Harry was devastated. Dante had blabbed in front of his two friends, both of which weren't supposed to know though one did through his own choice.

Draco looked surprised at his cousin who came bashing through the door.

Harry quickly played it off like he'd never told Ron anything. The bright boy was quick enough to catch on and listened to an abridged version of the story Harry had told him, surprised by the details he'd left out.

Through the story Dante had his eyes down cast, the setting sun casting disconcerting shadows over his young face. Harry watched him, aware of how little the boy knew and how haunted he was by it. Even before he could fully comprehend the dire nature of Harry's rescue that one night, the boy had been hurt that his parent's godchild had been hurt in such a way.

Flashback

Dante rocketed into wakefulness at the first crack of a scream.

He raced down the hall and nearly crashed into Draco as they slid to a stop in front of the new kid's door.

Harry had been with them a week, but most of it had been spent in a sickbed. He hadn't said a word and somehow managed to throw both Dante's parents as well as his uncle and Aunt. The only person Harry hadn't forcefully ejected from the room was Eva. She was still in there, though why wasn't she calling out scared Dante more than what the boy was screaming about.

Grabbing the door by the handle, Dante ripped it off its hinges and threw it into the other wall.

Harry sat straight up right on the floor, mouth open in a horrible scream.

Eva sat next to him on the floor, tears streaming down her pretty face. She was holding Harry, her small six year old body cuddled up to his only slightly larger seven year old one.

"Help him!" She wailed.

Dante lifted Harry into his arms and his surging powers caught hold of the boy's flailing memories.

A small cupboard, a moldy piece of cheese on an even moldier piece of bread, a pile of huge clothes sitting on a threadbare camp bed. All these things flashed through his mind. The final image was a large belt coming down on a small boy, messy black hair caked in blood, his shirt in tatters.

Dante returned to his room to find Harry had stopped screaming, only his silent sobs racking his frame, tears gushing down his face. Dante's own face was wet and while he couldn't understand exactly how Harry had cried out to only the children of the house, or why the boy had shown him those images, he knew that first thing in the morning he would ask about moving into the room next to Harry's and he'd never tell a soul what he saw.

Eva was back in Harry's arms, only this time it was Harry hugging her, with Draco hugging the pair of them. Dante jumped on the hug wagon and the four fell asleep on the floor in each other's arms and after that, were more family than Dante and Remus.

Harry smiled at his brother. "I don't blame you Dante. I know you're just worked up because of your monthly situation."

That broke the tension. The three boys snorted and Hermione bit her lip to stop her laugh. Dante knew that the two new members of their group where to distracted by the odd manner in which Harry had phrased his sentence to really hear what he was saying. It was also Harry's way of getting back at him.

After that, only mild tension filled the room. They returned to their studying in the common room but Harry found his eyes wandering about the room.

First years, like them, were spazing over old notes and essays, clinging to the notes scrawled over them by teachers, mortified by the new experience. Second years were more laidback, flicking the wands around and muttering under their breath. Third years, taking two new classes not given to first or second years, where a bit more vigorous in their studies. They were bent over books or scribbling on parchment in addition to practicing their wand movements and racking their brains for and catalog potions ingredients.

The fourth years were much like the second years, having settled into all of their classes and learned exactly how their professors wanted their work. Fifth years, however, were a wreck. They could be seen spread over large tables, books around, ink stains on their faces and broken quills, crumpled parchment and mugs of coffee supplied by the house elfs barricading them from the world as if a sign had been hung up saying "Unless you want to die, stay back three meters from the table and don't speak."

The seventh years were in much the same position, only most had marks on their faces from where they had fallen asleep on their books and gotten red imprints in return while the sixth years mimicked the fourth years only without mouthing their spells.

Harry let his eyes return to his own book. He already knew all this. It was programmed into the back of his brain and had been for a long time. He put his book down and looked out the window. This time tomorrow he'd be in the testing room and that night he would join Dante and Draco in the forest for a bit of tag.

He smiled to himself and looked at Dante once more to see the boy was frowning at his book and biting his lip. Harry smiled. He was still mad at himself for letting Harry's secret out, and was refusing to let his werewolf part take the blame for the blunder. Harry reached over and gently unhinged Dante's jaw before replacing it, something Remus did all the time to prevent his pup from self-mutilation after he made a mistake. Instead of a painful wound, the gesture had become one of forgiveness that no words could recreate.

Dante smiled sadly up at his brother.

'Drop it. It's not your fault.' Harry signed.

'I need to work on my stamina. If something like not sitting on my arse for three days before the full moon can bring down barriers like these, then I need more practice.'

Dante was an avid signer, having gone through a stage where his human and wolf forms had battled out for dominance within his body and had been unable to speak.

'Stop. I was going to tell them anyway. It's about time we got more members of the pack. In third year we'll start teaching them to become animagius.'

Dante smiled and nodded.

And such was the apology of brother, one that was deeper than most, and too far less time.