Chapter 5: Coming to terms, or His new life.
Sometime during the night Harry woke up with a start and looked around thinking to himself. This isn't my cupboard. As he examined the small room he found himself in memories of the day came drifting back into his mind. At least here is better than being yelled at by Aunt Petunia.
Sitting up he looked over at the small wood stove that was still banked for the night. A smokey oil lamp cast a warm glow from the far corner. His memories of his relatives seemed faded more distant. He could remember being locked in the dark cupboard under the stairs but the feelings of fear and panic he had associated with those memories felt more distant somehow less painful than before.
When he pushed back into his memories he was startled and pleased to find memories of his parents clear and powerful. The love they felt for him before they died strong even now through a memory. They made him oddly happy and at the same time filled him with sorrow that they would never return.
Finally able to remember what he had lost, and freed from the mistreatment and reproach of his aunt and uncle, his emotions took him. Sitting up, arms around his legs he silently cried into his knees.
Sian woke to the small child's strangled sobs, his tears streaking down his face. She moved as quickly and quietly as possible to sit next to him. She could feel his emotions running wild and knew he needed this. As much as she wanted to pull him into her arms and hold him, his body was still trained to flinch away from touch, and that might prevent him from coming to terms with the memories and emotions he was dealing with.
She would wait until his emotions calmed before doing anything beyond sitting there and whispering encouragement. She had not expected him to reach this point until much later. She wondered if there was more to how she found him than what she could see. It was odd him being right in her path and the strange clothing he had worn that was far too large.
While she was puzzling this all out, Harry had started to return from his emotional storm. He noticed she was there through tear filled eyes and in a move completely unexpected for both of them crawled into her lap. She wrapped her arms around him, just holding him for what felt like an eternity, she lay back down him already fast asleep curled up in her arms.
Sian was first awake in the morning slowly untangling her arms from the sleeping child. Outside the sun was breaking over the eastern horizon lighting the horizon. She stirred up the coals coaxing the fire back to life pushing the chill out of the morning air placing a pan on the stove top that stood over the fireplace.. As quietly as she could she picked up a water jug and went outside to the well pump. After letting the water flow until it was clear she filled the jug and went back inside.
By the time she had finished mixing the batter for the pancakes the fire had warmed the stove enough to cook on she used some dried fruit from the storage adding them crumbled into the batter before expertly pouring some into the hot pan.
She was flipping the second cake over when the bundle of blankets on the cot stirred. The messy black hair showing first, followed by bleary sleep filled emerald green eyes. He yawned blinking way sleep and the dried remnants of last nights tears.
She poured the rest of the batter for the third and final cake, then placing one on a plate she motioning for him to take it and begin eating. He took it without complaint setting it on the fold up table and sat down quietly, waiting for her to finish and sit down before eating.
He is far too quiet and reserved for how old he looks. He must be half starved, yet he waits for me to finish cooking before eating himself. Sian thought to herself as she moved the last pancake from the stove to her plate moving to set down.
Part 2: To catch the rat: continued.
Arwen stepped up to the front door of the burrow and knocked.
"Just a minute!" Mrs. Weasley yelled. A short time later indistinct yelling could be heard from within something about spiders and then two red headed twins pulled open the door. Shouting a breathless hello before pushing past him and disappearing around the house towards the backyard.
A few moments later Mrs. Weasley appeared at the door, face flushed, and a little breathless, muttering something about those two ruffians. She smoothed back her hair and smiled.
"Sorry about that, How can I help you Mr...?"
"Arwin VanDreren, sorry about dropping in like this."
"Ah and how can I help you Mr. VanDreren?"
"I own a magical creature emporium in germany. Always fascinated about new creatures, yes. One of my grand nephews I forget which one, have too many nowaday, mentioned your son Charlie had told him about a rat that your son Percy found."
"Yes, I believe he found it shortly after halloween nineteen-eighty-one." Molly looked puzzled as she thought about this.
"Usually I'm not interested in such creatures, but my nephew had mentioned in his letter that the rat had been with you going on four years now. You understand most domesticated rats live on average between three and four years, and their counterparts in the wild live much shorter lives. It's not a matter of the care they receive, it's simply in their nature to have such an incredibly short existence. Anyway given the rat was already an adult when your boy found it, and since I was in the area I was merely curious if you would consent to a few magical scans of the thing."
Molly was rather curious now herself given the information on how long rats, even magical ones, were expected to live. "Oh, dear why don't you come in and have a seat I'll go see if Percy is willing to consent to having his pet examined. For its health of course." She motioned him inside asking, "Would you like some tea while you wait?"
"I think a glass of tea would be delightful Mrs. Weasley."
She went to the kitchen and returned a few moments later with the tea set. Then headed up the stairs to Percy's room.
While she was up there Arwen took in the room he found himself in. The living room of the Weasley home was a rather crowded, cosy room, with a sofa and armchairs. There was a large fireplace, a wooden wireless set, and the family clock. Along the wall was a large bookcase with what passed for wizarding fiction on one shelf, a few books by the latest defense sensation Gilderoy Lockhart. Even had he not known the man was a fraud he still would have considered the books complete fiction. Above that were a few tattered and worn family copies of the household book of spells, and 1001 cleaning charms for the busy witch. He had just finished browsing the selection of titles available when Mrs. Weasley came down the stairs holding a mid-sized cage with a scraggly common grey rat. Percy weasley following closely after her with a concerned expression.
Mrs. Weasley set the rat on the coffee table next to the tea set in front of the sofa, before motioning for percy to sit. Arwen walked around the table and crouched in front of the cage. Nodding to Mrs. Weasley he pulled out his wand and started casting the standard veterinarian charms while at the same time reaching out with his mind to paralyze the rat. He had cast the fifth or sixth charm before they started bringing up disturbing results written in silvery lettering above the cage. He cast a silencing charm around the cage to block out noise, and stood up.
"Mrs. Weasley this rat is not a normal rat. My last spell there told me it was an Animagus."
"What - but how?" Mrs. Weasley's face went white. "I'm sure this must be some joke of the twins."
"I assure you Mrs. Weasley there are no spells but mine on the rat. If you would firecall the Madame Bones, I'm sure she would like to know why an unregistered animagus has been pretending to be your sons pet rat for the past four years."
Percy looked like he was in shock. Mrs. Weasley gave the briefest of nods, "Percy go on upstairs," she commanded her son before throwing a pinch of floo powder into the fireplace and calling out the address for Madame Bones office at the ministry. A few minutes later she stepped back from the fireplace and a severe looking woman with greying hair and a monocle stepped out.
"I'm not sure what is going on here but this had better be important, I just received a note from St. Mungo's telling me they had signs of improvement in the Longbottoms. Paperwork for their safety while recovering is going to be a nightmare." Madame Bones grumbled.
"I'm Arwen VanDreren visiting for business reasons, If you would cast the animagus revealing spell Madame Bones." Arwen said as he moved the cage to the floor and transfigured it to be large enough for a grown man.
"Of course." Madame Bones pulled her wand from her sleeve and whispered an incantation through the bars at the grey rat, which promptly changed into Peter Pettigrew. She gave a gasp as she recognized the supposedly dead wizard.
Arwen quickly cast the herald truth spell that called a vrondi air elemental to the person in question wrapping them in a soft blue glow around the head and shoulders.
"I'm holding a truth spell my family discovered on him. Works better than veritaserum, after I remove the silencing spell from around the cage ask him why he's here and anything else you want to know." Arwen calmly told her as he removed the spell from around the cage. He sent a second spell to permanently lock Peter's animagus abillity.
She set out a parchment and standard dicta-quil to record.
"What is your name?"
"Peter Pettigrew"
"Why were you pretending to be a rat."
"I was hiding from vol-voldemort supporters who were freed."
"Why did Sirius Black try to kill you?"
"I was..." He fought the truth spell stuttering before gasping out, "potter's secret-ke-keeper."
"Did you give the potter's location to you-know-who?"
He fought against the truth spell before saying,"Yes"
"Are you a death eater."
Sweat poured from his brow as he answered, "Yes"
"How long?"
"Since sixth year, though I.. s..sp..spied for him on dumbledore f...fifth year."
Madame Bones was seething now. A gleam filling her eyes as she asked one more question.
"Name the marked supporters of You-Know-Who."
There was no resistance this time. "Avery Sr, Alecto and Amycus Carrow, Crabbe, Barty Crouch Jr., Antonin Dolohov, Gibbon, Goyle, Fenrir Greyback, Jugson, Igor Karkaroff, Bellatrix, Rabastan and Rodolphus Lestrange, Walden Macnair, Lucius Malfoy, Mulciber, Nott, Augustus Rookwood, Selwyn, Severus Snape, Thorfinn Rowle, Travers, and Yaxley" He dutifully listed off each of the known death eaters that were still alive, including karkaroff because of his betrayal of the rest for a lighter sentence in the hope that karkaroff would be retried.
Amelia Bones nodded at each name on the list frowning and muttering, "that won't stick" at the mention of Malfoy's name. She looked up at Arwen after the list finished. Arwen released the truth spell.
"I'll need you to stick around in case we need you as a witness."
"Of course, I'll be staying at the Leaky Cauldron for the next few weeks for business."
"So, Mr. VanDreren. Any chance I could convince you to teach me that truth spell?"
"I might be persuaded to but its a family spell and I would need some assurance that you would not spread the knowledge of it around. Nothing so binding as an oath I assure you."
Madame Bones shook her head slightly gathering up her things, "This is going to be a nightmare."
"You know it, before you go Madame Bones, forgive me for saying so but the clean up after the last war was a bit of a curiosity of mine, and I discovered that Mr. Black never received a trial."
"That is going to ruffle some feathers. I'm going to need to arrange his transfer to one of the holding cells at the Department." With that she turned the whole cage into a portkey straight into one of the highest security cells and activating it.
"Now if you don't mind I need to use the floo back to my office." She told them before disappearing into the fireplace.
"Mrs. Weasley my apologies about your sons' pet. If I may I would consider it a matter of honor to replace it for him."
Mrs. Weasley sat in her favorite recliner, a little dazed over the events of the last hour. She gave a nod to acknowledge his words.
Arwen stepped to the door and gave a brief whistle holding up an arm that was now covered in a leather gauntlet. A slightly larger than normal Little Grey Owl that was definitely not as little as its name implied landed on his closed glove. :Cinereus, I know a boy who just lost his friend, he could do with a friend like you.:
The little grey blinked slowly at him. :Introduce me and I will see:
"Mrs. Weasley Cinereus here has decided he would like to see if he can get along with your son. Would you lead the way?"
Mrs. Weasley still slightly befuddled nodded slowly pushing herself to her feet before walking to the stairs. Arwen followed behind her as she led him up the stairs to Percy's room. She knocked on the door. Percy called from within and a few moments later the door opened. His eyes were puffy and looked as if he had been crying. Arwen tossed him a glove and told him to put it on.
Percy did as he was told and before he could do much more Arwen tossed the bird into the young lads arm. The owl looked into his eyes for what felt to Percy like a very long time before turning his head to Arwen, :He is trainable: Cinereus sent with a hint of humor.
Arwen chuckled to himself as he left thinking, With luck Cinereus would pull the boy out of his shell and he would give those twins a run on their pranks.
Part 3: Chosen
Harry still didn't know quite where he was, He did know that he was happier than he'd ever been. After breakfast, Sian and him had played a bit of a word game, pointing at things and listing words that related to the object her in the common tongue of Valdemar, and him in English. They used mind-speech to clarify words when confused.
Sian was pleased with the progress he was making in being more open. He seemed confused by the washtub and the little stone basin that held a lightly scented soap water that was for washing their hands. They had packed and cleaned up after themselves leaving the waystation clean. Venturing outside on Nolan's back they headed up the road back towards Haven the capital of Valdemar continuing with their game by pointing out plants to each other.
Near midday they paused for a meal of trail rations. Sian wanted to make the next waystation before dark. Alastrine would be waiting there and she wanted Harry to have as much time with her as he could getting to know her before falling asleep.
Harry welcomed the break, his legs wobbly from sitting in the saddle for so long. He stretched as instructed, allowing some feeling to return to his aching muscles. They finished their meal and climbed back onto Nolan's broad back.
Harry wasn't board yet with their game but he had started to ask questions about everything around him enjoying the chance to learn and be inquisitive.
:Sian, what are shadows made of?:
Sian tried explaining switching to mind speech whenever he faltered on a word. "Shadows are what happens when an object blocks the direct path of light from the sun or a candle." she said holding her hand over the back of the horse to demonstrate.
"Why is the :sky: blue?" Harry faltered on the word for sky having to mind speak it.
"I'm not sure, but I think it has to do with how light from the sun passes through the air. I'm sure one of the artificers at the collegium know the answer."
"Sian? Where does the sky end?"
The questions went on between their game of naming all the things that came into their path. He would spend a few minutes thinking about her response, and then thinking up the next question.
Finally, almost time for the evening meal they neared the waystation, a beautiful white companion with unusual blue-green eyes met them as they pulled up. She held back as they dismounted before walking up to harry and putting her head up to his.
:I am Alastrine, and I choose you: Harry stared into her eyes, he filled with warmth and love, tears falling down his cheeks he knew with those words she wouldn't leave him. The strangle hold his aunt and uncle had around his heart lost its last grip and fell away. He felt himself sink into her side, and poured all his feelings out, telling her all that had happened from his time with his aunt and uncle to the moment she chose him.
When he finished the sun had set and Sian was waiting with a pot of stew she had kept warm for him. He took the bowl she dished out and tiredly ate before collapsing onto the cot she had set out for him.
AN: see review for this chapter.