A/N: Thanks for the reviews guys, and I'm glad pstibbons like the Ron and Molly bashing (more to come on that front) Ok answers to some questions
Yes Ragnar is descended from Vikings (Will come into the story later on)
Rags will have weaknesses, but I'm trying to create a character that appears strong (very strong) on the surface but underneath he has flaws and weaknesses, still trying to work that in, he won't become a Mary Sue
Harry wishing to take runes? Probably not, but he will realise that in terms of preparing himself that being friends with Ron has been a negative influence. Also he will wish that he followed Hermione's advice more than Ron's in later chapters.
Hermione, as usual had enjoyed the first day of school, her Runes class had been excellent as usual, Defence had been a little bit more of a strain on her, and anyone else not in Slytherin. Snape had made it quite clear that he didn't appreciate having anyone not from his own house knowing the answers in his favourite subject, which immediately set him against Harry, Hermione and strangely enough Ragnar. Hermione had been surprised that she had competition for 'smartest' in the class, in Ancient Runes Rags' hand had gone up almost as many times as her own, often with a similar answer, the same in Defence, those had been their only two classes today, with more tomorrow, she had been right in her assessment that they would be using much of their free time to study and complete their homework.
At the moment they, as in Hermione, Harry, Rags and Ginny were sitting in the Great Hall eating dinner. Ginny was surprised to see that Hermione wasn't the only one at the Gryffindor table that was reading a book while eating dinner, Rags was as well. Except where Hermione's was balanced on a jug of pumpkin juice, Rags was floating in front of him again, something several Gryffindor's had been wondering about. Hermione was reading her Runes text book, as she had told Harry that morning they had been given a lot of work due for the next lesson, Rags was reading his Care of Magical Creatures book, a subject he was thoroughly interested in, especially the bit on Hippogriffs, which caused Hermione and Harry to share a secretive smile.
Ginny looked at her fellow fifth and sixth year Gryffindor's and said "Um Rags, this may be a daft question, but how are you doing that?" she indicated the floating book. Rags looked up from his dinner and said "Not a daft question really, it's something I have been able to do since I was a boy, I am a telekinetic." Everyone looked up at the sound of Hermione's book knocking over the pumpkin juice as she started in her seat. "Your telekinetic?" she asked in amazement, being telekinetic was rare, not as rare as being a parseltonge, but rare enough in it's own right. "Yes it's something that was passed down to me from my father's side of the family" his tone of voice was considerably colder when he discussed his family; it was quite a contrast to how he had so nonchalantly described his 'gift'.
Harry immediately put Rags family on his 'need to discuss privately' agenda, he had been compiling a list of things that he wanted to talk to Rags about at some point in the near future, but for the moment he moved their conversation topic away from Rags' family and his magical abilities and onto a matter very close to his heart, Quidditch. "Rags you're still coming to the tryouts this weekend aren't you?" Rags looked up from his dinner again and grinned "Would I ever hear the end of it if I didn't?" At Ginny and Harry's rather insistent no he quickly affirmed that he would indeed be going to the Quidditch tryouts, probably as a Beater, seeing as he had the wrong body shape and size for any of the other positions.
The days passed and things seemed to almost take on a routine, Snape was still a prat, McGonagall's transfiguration class was becoming more and more difficult, Rag's was slowly becoming more interested in Herbology, even though to be fair he was pretty average at it, and Charms and the other subjects homework had increased dramatically. "Well I've finished the Defence homework that Snape set, what about you two"? Asked Rags midway through the first week of term, Harry and Hermione looked up sharply, they were each looking through a large book on the Dark Arts, Snape's homework had been to write and essay, to rolls of parchment, on a Dark Spell including how to cast, effect, why it was considered dark and several instances where it had been used.
"Rags how can you be finished, Harry and I are still researching the spells we are going to write about, and you say that you have finished your essay." She immediately snatched the parchment from where Rags was sitting, he continued to pretend to write something on the now gone parchment, then acted surprised to find it gone, this action had the unfortunate side effect of making Ginny, who was sitting nearby doing fifth year Charms homework, burst into laughter.
Hermione though was a little shocked; Rags' essay was exceptionally thorough in explaining the spell that he had chosen it was the dark spell Fiendfyre. There was enough detail and evidence presented to get an O from any Defence Teacher, even Snape, there was only one thing that bothered her. She hadn't seen him read a book on the subject, so that left one of two options, either he had been doing a lot of reading in his spare time, meaning during the night, or he knew Dark Magic. This concerned Hermione a great deal, so she decided to breech the subject carefully.
"Rags, where did you get the information for this spell?" Rags seemed to stiffen as she spoke, "Why do you ask?" he replied in a soft voice. Hermione seemed to struggle with herself when she next spoke "It's just that this is a very dark piece of magic, and you didn't seem to research it, you just seemed to know most of the information about it."
Rags seemed to deflate, almost seemed to shrink into himself, shuddering a few times, "I'll tell you what I can, but not here, there are too many people who could listen into our conversation." Harry immediately stood up and said to Hermione and Ginny "The Room of Requirement then" so with that the four of them left the Gryffindor common room, unaware that the glaring eyes of Ronald Bilius Weasley followed their every move.
Rags stared in awe at the Room of Requirement, but his expression soon changed to one of deep thought as things went through his mind one after another and a plan slowly began to form. Shaking himself out of his reprieve he turned to the others and said "Maybe we should be seated for this" he indicated the couches that the room had provided for them. "Ok what did you want to talk to us about?" said Harry, who had become the unofficial spokesperson for the three of them, "It concerns what Hermione said when we were in the Common Room." Rags' took a deep breath "Now like I said before I can't tell you everything, but I will tell you what I can. If you want to ask me something then please ask it after I have finished, because if I stop then I won't finish it." He seemed to steady himself for what was to come; it was in that instance that Hermione felt that she saw him for the first time, he seemed at the same time to be older and a lot more vulnerable at the same time.
"As you know, I was born in Norway, in an area called Hemsko-Ulvfjord, it's in the north, a peaceful place mostly, mountains that stretch towards the sky and lakes and rivers winding their way down to the mighty fjord to the west. I never knew my mother's family, I was raised not in kindness but in hate, my mother died soon after I and my twin sister were born." Hermione gasped, not once had she, or any of them, heard Rags talk about his family, and never mention a sister.
"We were brought up by our father's associates" he almost snarled the parental title, "my father is an exceptionally dark wizard, he is very highly placed among the Death Eaters. You seem surprised, you never wondered why the Aurors never found the Dark Lord here in Britain, before Harry defeated him when he was one? Or even when he was rising to power, and recruiting followers among other European nations, which he was actively doing during his rise to power. Well we were raised by Death Eaters, I was taught magic, both Light and Dark, and other things, things I don't want to talk about right now. When I say that I was taught that is what I mean, my sister...Freya" he said her name like a prayer "was not taught magic, even though she would have been exceptionally gifted."
The three looked like they were seeing Rags for the first time, even though they could easily tell that he was not giving them the whole story. But before any of them were able to ask a question Rags had continued with his tale.
"To say that my childhood was abusive, would be like saying that Harry was adopted by the Dursley's as their own son, and he was given his every desire." Harry gulped at that, he had spoken to Rags about his childhood hoping to get Rags to open up to him but that had failed until now, he had suspected that Rags had been the victim of a bad childhood, but he wasn't sure how bad.
Rags sighed and continued on "Like I said I was taught loads of things, terrible things, and my only real friend and companion was a house elf called Dizzy, she helped me and my sister more than she could ever know. She almost took on the role of a maternal figure to us; she couldn't protect us much because she was bonded to the family where we were raised. When I turned fifteen things got really bad, the teaching was stepped up a notch, the beatings increased; I was pushed harder, trained to give into anger, hate. It didn't work; all that they taught me sort of blew up in their faces, the Death Eater that owned Dizzy was killed by my father for some perceived slight, and that they freed her to help Freya and I."
He steeled himself for the next part as it was the hardest to tell 'I can't tell it all, that forbannet oath is still in effect'
"We tried to escape, long story short, we were able to get out of the estate where we were held, with no small help from Dizzy, but then Freya…Freya was killed. Dizzy got me out of there and I have been living in England ever since." He glanced around and looked Harry, Ginny and Hermione in the eye "Very well if you want to ask me questions go ahead, but I might not answer all of them and you may not like all the answers that you get."
Hermione jumped in first with tears in her eyes "I'm sorry that you had to live through that, and I'm sorry that I grilled you about that stupid essay." Rags just looked at her with tired eyes "Forget about it Hermione, you have a brilliant inquisitive mind and you saw something that didn't add up, so you went and tried to find out more, there is nothing wrong with that." Hermione couldn't help the flush that appeared in her cheeks or the flutter in her belly at his words 'Calm down girl' she thought to herself.
Ginny spoke up next "Rags have you ever used Dark Magic?" Rags gave her one of those 'Stupid Question' looks. "Oh right sorry" she said in a timid voice. "No its fine and the answer is yes, I have used Dark Magic, how do you think we got out of the estate? I know a lot of dark spells; I am not going to go teaching them to anyone, I don't want to turn out like him." They realised that Rags was talking about his father and that it was a bad topic for conversation.
"If it's ok with you three could we leave this conversation there, it's getting late and we need the sleep" Harry nodded and said "Sure Rags, come on you lot lets get back to the common room before Filch and Norris find us and take points away in our first week." Hermione Ginny and Harry moved to leave but found Rags examining the Room of Requirement a bit, seeing what he could make appear and such, "Rags you coming?" asked Hermione, Rags turned around and gave her a small smile "Not at the moment, I'll just look around here a bit more, but before you go is this where you held the DA last year?" Harry nodded his head wondering what rags could possibly be doing in the Room of Requirement when the other three of them were not there. "Don't worry you three I'll still be waiting for you on the couch in the morning like I have been." At that the three of them left the room and headed back to the common room, doing as they had been doing for many years, avoiding Peeves, Filch and Mrs Norris.
'You told them much, but not everything correct?" said the sinister voice in his mind 'You know that I can't tell them everything, the oath mind me for another month.' The voice seemed to cackle in his head 'But still, will you tell them your worst secret or will you continue in friendship under a cloud of lies?' He snarled, his face contorting to a mask of rage 'I do not lie, I will tell them the truth even though it…' the voice was softer now still mocking 'Even though it will break you and break their trust in you.' The only response he could give was 'Yes' from then on there was silence in his mind, he didn't know why this occurred, but the voice was usually correct, he supposed it was his conscience in a manner of speaking. The only thing that scared Ragnar so much about the voice was that it wasn't some mythical demon; it was his own voice speaking to him.
A/N Ok trying to add a bit of a backstory and a bit more depth to Rags' character here. Trying to show that he has flaws and failures, if it doesn't come across too well sorry, but there is a more detailed explanation in an upcoming chapter. Also more on Rags' Telekinetic abilities in the next chapter, along with Quidditch, what's in the box and maybe Harry will discover something about himself, but that's enough spoilers . Thanks Read and Review TBK