Wow, I got a lot of reviews and PMs about how people felt about Harry remaining a gargoyle. Most of them weren't pleased with the decision, but I do want to assure everyone that Harry will NOT remain a gargoyle at all times. I already have a solution to this, and I even hinted at it in a previous chapter. Granted, the hint is minor, and probably went unnoticed, but still. But Harry will remain a gargoyle for a while.
Now I will admit this chapter is mostly filler, but you get to see the thoughts of several characters, and I am finally introducing Harry's future romantic interest. I will explain who she is, and why I chose her, at the end of the chapter.
Chapter 5
After the sun rose, turning Harry into stone once more and Demona back into human form, she sought out Macbeth.
They'd discussed who would teach Harry to fight. And while she would be the better option, being a gargoyle herself, she had to acknowledge Macbeth's point, when he made it, that now that Harry was a gargoyle, he didn't have much he could offer to teach Harry to bond with their son.
She would have to be the one to teach Harry to glide. She was also the best choice to explain to him the physical capabilities of gargoyles, and their culture. And while Macbeth had the same Hogwarts education Demona had (as well as dabbling in it over the years every now and then), except for his life as James Potter, he'd never primarily learned magic. Meanwhile, Demona had, when she wasn't scheming or evading hunters, actively worked to learn new magic's. That made her the best choice to take over Harry's magical education as well.
And with Harry's new gargoyle body, the old Scotsman couldn't exactly take Harry out in an attempt to find something they could bond over.
So she had conceded that Macbeth could handle the start of Harry's training. Though she suspected the former king had some more ideas on how he could spend time with their son. He was subtly cunning like that. And if truth be told, Macbeth would have made an excellent Slytherin if it weren't for his personal code of honor and nobility.
She found Macbeth in the kitchen, making himself a sandwich.
"How'd he do?" she asked without preamble.
"Fine," Macbeth said, before taking a bite of his sandwich. After swallowing he added, "He's still getting used to his wings and tail however. He tripped over his tail three times, and constantly forgot he had wings that he could not only use, but needed to defend." He grinned. "That said, he did better than I expected. Our son is certainly a fighter."
Demona raised an eyebrow. "That surprises you?"
The king chuckled. "Not really," he admitted, before taking another bite.
"Do you think we'll have to adjust our timetable at all?"
Macbeth shrugged. "It's too early to tell," he admitted. "The lad appears to be adjusting well, but until we're sure he's comfortable in his new form, I don't think it's wise to reveal ourselves to the Order and Ministry."
"And neither of us want Harry anywhere near the Quarrymen until he's capable of defending himself," Demona sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose.
They had discussed this already of course. But even after a thousand years, the gargess in human form wasn't one for patience. Sure, she did have it and could use it, but she didn't like it.
Waiting around gave your enemies too much time to get their own shit together, as well as figure out what you were up to. And thus far, the only advantage Demona and Macbeth had over their enemies, specifically those that would harm their son, was their believed deaths (in the case of the Deatheaters) and their lack of knowledge in regards to Harry (the Quarrymen). And Demona knew that, while her son was being hunted by Deatheaters, if Castaway, as that Canmore hunter was calling himself now, ever saw Harry, he would make the obvious connection to her, the Hunter's ultimate enemy. And if that happened, Harry would be right up with her on the man's kill list, simply to hurt her.
The fact Harry would be a gargoyle would simply be a bonus for the man.
Harry's transformation had thrown off their original plans by quite a bit. Originally, they would pick Harry up and bring him back to Manhattan after a few days. After finding out about Voldemort's return, that plan had still seemed the best idea.
But Manhattan was not a great place to be a gargoyle at the moment, especially not an inexperienced adolescent gargoyle still adjusting to his new body.
Thus far, the current plan was to get Harry up to speed on his new form, so that he could escape the Quarrymen if need be, before returning to Manhattan. If it weren't for Sirius' fugitive status they wouldn't even bother with revealing themselves, as Lily and James Potter. She still wasn't sold on the idea, but Macbeth still considered Sirius to have been one of his best friends.
Personally, Demona just wanted to kill her 'old friend' Severus Snape, for leaking the prophecy that lead Voldemort to them, and Pettigrew for betraying his so called 'friends,' before going back to Manhattan and introducing her daughter and son. Sadly, Macbeth had more honor than that.
And that meant more work for Demona, as she had to adjust her original arrangements for running Nightstone in her absence from the company.
"Why can't things ever be simple," the redhead said after a moment, before turning to walk from the room. That was one thing she hated about turning into a human, actually needing sleep. And today, she couldn't get much. She had paperwork from Nightstone, and a few calls as Domonique, to do when she woke up. And she needed to get it done before she and Harry could go out gliding.
If only he'd been born a gargoyle, he'd already be an expert glider by now if that were the case.
As she walked from the room, she didn't hear Macbeth mutter, "When is anything involving us simple?"
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"Any news?" Albus Dumbledore asked the gathered members of the Order of the Phoenix.
The day after Harry's return to the Dursley's, when their shifts to watch over the boy began, the first shift, Alastor Moody himself, noticed Harry wasn't present and his belongings were missing.
Harry's aunt had been less then cooperative when they tried to ask her what happened. In fact, she had slammed the door right into Alastor's nose. And sadly, while the old, and paranoid, ex-Auror was skilled in occlumency, he didn't actually know how to perform legilimancy.
And Albus and Severus had been too busy with their respective duties as a spy and trying to get the Ministry's head out of its ass, to visit Petunia.
Which meant primary investigation of what happened to Harry had fallen to Moody. And the old Auror had reached one conclusion, Harry had left willingly.
This had meant that, in the past two days, the rest of the Order was on alert for any signs of or news from Harry.
And the negative replies from everyone Sirius spoke up. "Albus, I think it's time you paid a visit to Petunia yourself."
Sighing, he old wizard agreed. "You're right Sirius, but I already stopped in to see Petunia earlier today. I'm afraid she wasn't much help, though I may know why Harry left willingly."
"Why?" Molly Weasley asked.
"I'm afraid that some people arrived and told a rather convincing story. But what they claimed was impossible," he admitted. With a grave look he said, "They were impersonating Lily and James."
"They WHAT!?" Sirius demanded, raising from his seat.
"You heard me right Sirius," Dumbledore said. "And they convinced Petunia and Harry they were real."
The silence that followed this statement was rather grave as everyone digested the news.
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Harry smiled as he rubbed Hedwig's feathers.
The past few days had been…well, unbelievable. His parents were not only alive, but millennia old immortals. His father was the real life King Macbeth. His mother was a gargoyle sorceress that changed into a human during the day. And he himself ended up turning into a gargoyle.
And while he understood his parents pushing him to learn all these new things, he needed to know them now, it was nice to just have some time alone to think. And to spend some time with his dearest friend, even if she was an owl.
To be honest, he still wasn't sure how to feel about everything.
Being a gargoyle was different. He felt stronger, and his nose was more sensitive. Not to mention his eyes were more sensitive to light. And gliding…He thought flying a broom was fun, it was nothing to gliding on his own wings, and he could honestly admit that he couldn't wait until he could do some of the things he'd seen his mother do when she demonstrated what she was capable of. But…he'd grown up human. And discovering he was a wizard was one thing, but completely changing species…Not to mention the bits about gargoyle culture that Demona had explained to him.
Though being a gargoyle did explain why his temper ran so hot. According to what his mother had said, Gargoyles tended to be more temperamental, with a few exceptions, than humans. His father had then mentioned that Demona was even more temperamental than an average gargoyle. It was something she didn't deny.
Then there were his parents. On one hand, he'd grown up believing them to be dead, and with an aunt, who wasn't really his aunt, that hated him and passed that hatred to her family. On the other, they didn't remember they were Lily and James, let alone his existence, and when they did, they had come for him. Not to mention that both of them had been excellent parents so far.
Plus, he had to admit, they were both kind of awesome.
But he was still conflicted. Part of him wanted to be angry at them for abandoning him. But he couldn't find any real reason considering the circumstances.
Hedwig butted her head against him affectionately, pulling him out of his thoughts.
He smiled and looked at her, right into her eyes. Amber met green, and Hedwig barked lightly, causing Harry to smile.
"I love you too Hed," he said affectionately.
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Constance sat on the roof of Knight's Spur, the manor the London Clan called home, brooding.
It would be easy to mistake the large gargoyle as fat, she didn't have the most feminine appearance after-all, but that would be a mistake. Constance, was one of the strongest members of her clan. Unlike some gargoyles, who though they had evident muscle, didn't have obvious definition, Coco's muscles could be easily seen. With broad shoulders, thick muscular arms, and (sadly) not such a thin waist, many assumed she was fat upon first glance.
Her boar-like head, tusk, and the tufts of hair on her fore-arms didn't help her feminine appearance any, even with her strawberry-blonde hair pulled into pigtails.
Still, though un-mated, Constance liked to think she was attractive. And amongst gargoyles, with such differing appearances, attractiveness wasn't near as important as it was amongst humans. Constance herself was unique amongst her clan. The rest of the clan all had feathered wings, while she had leathery wings, with three claws at the mid-joint on each wing. Her tail was short and thin, barely hanging to her knees, with a small tuft of fur on the end. And her light brown hide wasn't a glaring color that made her stand out.
At thirty-seven years of age, Constance was physically in what humans would regard as their late teens, due to the slower rate gargoyles aged. She was also, for her position as Clan Second, unusually young. But Una, the Clan Leader, trusted her.
She was brooding because while she wasn't the only single gargoyle in the clan, she'd come to the realization that none of the single males, including her best friend Staghart, appealed to her. She didn't know what it was, but none of them held her interest. Several of her rookery brothers and sisters had already paired up, but she just couldn't find an interest in any of them.
"What are you doing up here all by yourself?" a concerned voice asked.
The gargess turned to find King Arthur himself standing a short distance from her. The legendary king had been awoken from his slumber on Avalon, and after recovering Excalibur, and knighting the gargoyle Griff, a member of her clan, he'd begun a search for his friend and mentor, the wizard Merlin. But the trail had gone cold, and Arthur had, at Griff's suggestion, retreated to Knight's Spur until they could find more clues to the wizard's location.
Arthur had been welcomed by the clan, and had become a friend to many of the gargoyles, Constance included.
Smiling, she admitted, "Brooding."
"About what?" Arthur asked.
"I've always dreamed about finding a mate," she told him. "But I just realized, I won't find one amongst my clan. They…I don't know, none of my Rookery brothers are of any interest to me."
"There are other gargoyle's out there," Arthur assured her. "At the very least there is the clan on Avalon, and Goliath's clan in Manhattan."
"And how am I supposed to meet them?" Constance asked, standing from where she had been sitting. "I mean, no offense, but I heard about what Goliath was going through just to get home from Avalon. And I don't like the idea of that if I don't find a mate amongst them. And from what you and Griff have said of when you met the Manhattan clan, there are only three males without mates, even if I knew of a way to visit Manhattan."
The Once and Future King snorted in amusement. "I never said it would be easy, just that there were others," he said, grinning slightly.
The gargess snorted, "No offense Your Majesty, but you suck at cheering people up."
He shrugged. "I may be a king, but I am only human," he admitted. "I can't be good at everything."
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A few notes then.
Constance, or Coco as she is sometimes called, is a character who first appears in the SLG Gargoyles comic series. These comics were written by Greg Weisman, creator of Gargoyles, as an alternate to the third season of the show, called the Goliath Chronicles, which, aside from the first episode, Weisman had nothing to do with as Disney fired him due to creative differences. I, and many other fans, consider the third season to be mostly subpar to the other two. That said, I am not using the comics timeline, and my story is completely AU as of Hunters Moon.
The reason I chose Constance as Harry's mate is that from the moment I saw her, I loved her. Not only do I like her personality, but Wild Boars, which she resembles in the way Una and Leo resemble a lion and unicorn respectively, are one of my favorite animals. They are destructive violent animals, but I still think they're pretty awesome. So I thought she would be an excellent choice for Harry's future mate. Plus, I don't see many stories involving characters from the comics, and none involving Constance, so it's something different.
Lastly, just as a warning/explanation since I don't want to hear complaints about it, the next chapter involves a time skip. Mostly because the next few weeks involve most of the same thing. Harry learning to be a gargoyle.
Anyway, as always, Pleas Review. Check Out the Challenges in My Forums, and the Stories I have for Adoption Under the Title: Please Adopt Me!
