Chapter 7

Come sunset, Macbeth and Demona waited on the rooftop for their son to wake from his stone sleep.

Once Harry had awoken, and Demona had changed back into a gargoyle, Macbeth asked, "What did you mean when you said you met King Arthur?"

Harry grinned. "I met him, and a whole clan of gargoyles…"

"What?" Demona asked, a bit shocked. "You found a clan?"

The young gargoyle nodded. "Yes."

"I think you'd best start at the beginning lad," Macbeth told him.

"While I was out gliding, I met two gargoyles. They invited me to meet their clan…"

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Flashback

Harry and Hedwig followed Constance and Staghart as they glided towards the outskirts of London. They reached a large tract of land, a large estate. At the center of the estate was a large manor, surrounded by trees.

Constance looked back at him. With a smile, she said, "Welcome to Knight's Spur."

Landing on the roof next to the other two gargoyles, Harry noticed several others, who were watching him with interest. Each and every one of the gargoyles resembled an animal in some way.

"There are so many," Harry said stunned. "After the stories Mother told me, I never thought there would be a clan this big."

"These are just a fraction of the clan," Staghart said to him. "Most of the clan is actually inside the manor, and there are probably a few that decided to go out for a glide like I and Coco had."

"Coco?" Harry questioned, looking over at the large female.

"It's a nickname," she explained. "Only Staghart, and a few other's use it." She grinned and looked over at the white gargoyle. "But at least there are those who call me by it. Probably because it's a better name than Amp."

Staghart just huffed.

Harry then asked another question. "I…what's that smell?"

"What do you mean?" Constance asked.

Harry paused. He considered ignoring the females question so that he could instead ask his mother. She was doing her best to teach him about gargoyles, and the intricacies of being one. But every now and then, Harry had a question about something she had forgotten to explain. Being a gargoyle herself, Demona didn't always realize Harry wouldn't know something. Especially as she grew up as one and couldn't remember not knowing some of the more subtle intricacies of gargoyle life that Harry was completely unaware of. But considering it was still a few hours until dawn, he might forget his question before he could ask it, he decided to rely on the gargoyle he'd just met. "Some of the gargoyles, they smell similar to others?"

The two looked at him stunned. "You don't know what that means?" Constance asked clearly shocked.

Harry shrugged. "The only other gargoyle I've met is my mother. She's been doing her best to ensure I know what it means to be a gargoyle, but being just the two of us, she sometimes forget that I haven't grown up surrounded by clan."

The two gargoyles shared a look, before Staghart spoke. "I guess that makes sense. I don't remember anyone explaining what that smell meant to us, we just knew because we grew up with it and saw what it meant, even if we didn't understand the cause until we were older."

Constance nodded. "You're right." She turned to Harry and explained, "Those gargoyles that smell similar are mated pairs. When a pair decide to be mates, they begin to smell like one another. After a few couplings, the smell becomes stronger and longer lasting. About the only time the scent disappears if one of the pair bond dies, or in extremely rare cases separates."

"Or if a male ends up angering his female long enough," Staghart commented lightly.

Harry nodded his understanding. His mother had tried to explain gargoyle mating to him. And while in many ways is was simpler than human dating, it was more complex in other ways. About the only things he could remember were that courting gifts were usually small and easily carried in a pouch so as not to encumber one while gliding and that there was no real social expectation for either the male or female to approach the other. He knew that males approached females differently than females approached males, and that gargoyles typically only laid three eggs in their lifetime, every twenty years on the breeders moon (of which the current one wasn't due for a little over a decade yet) but that was about the extent of what he could remember regarding gargoyle mating.

To be fair, Demona had kind of glossed over that facet, more concerned with having Harry know about gargoyle physiology than gargoyle customs.

"Oh," Harry responded. "Thank you for explaining."

"No problem," Constance assured him. "Come on, I'll introduce you to our Clan Leader, Una."

Harry looked at the owl, which had perched on his shoulder. "Will you be alright out here?"

Hedwig bobbed her head in a nod, before jumping up and heading for the trees surrounding the manor.

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Constance and Staghart led Harry to a decently sized room, which contained a small table and a board with various things on it. In the room were two more gargoyles, a female with white coloring that had blonde hair and resembled a unicorn and a male with green coloring that not only resembled an eagle, but reminded Harry of a stereotypical biker. With them was a man with greying brown hair and beard, who strangely enough had a sword slung on the back of his chair.

"Constance, Staghart, who is our guest?" the female asked, authority in her voice.

"This is Harry," Constance introduced. "Harry, this is our Clan Leader Una." She then gestured to the male, "He is Sir Griff. And the human is King Arthur Pendragon."

"It's a pleasure to meet you all," Harry said, before asking, "King Arthur Pendragon, as in Merlin and Excalibur Kings Arthur?"

"Yes," the man responded standing from his seat. Gesturing to the sword he said, "In fact this blade is Excalibur." He gave Harry a curious look before asking, "You wouldn't happen to know a gargoyle called Demona would you?"

"You know my mother?" Harry asked, shocked.

"I've met her, and she wouldn't remember me."

"If you're really King Arthur, and I can't imagining this whole clan going alone with a fraud, I can't imagine my mother forgetting you."

"Yes well, she didn't know I was King Arthur when we fought. Not to mention her memories of the time were wiped from her."

Harry stood taller. "More memories were taken from her?" Harry questioned, standing a bit taller as his eyes began to take on a white glow.

"Peace," Arthur said holding up his hands. "I am unsure what you mean by more memories, but I she was under another's control. And she was being forced to attack the children of her previous clan on Avalon, including your sister. I doubt she would want to remember those times. Even then, it was not my decision to take her and Macbeth's memories."

"Macbeth?" Harry asked, shocked and a bit worried that his father also had some missing memories.

Arthur obviously misread his shock and explained, "Yes, and he's much nicer and much more honorable than what Shakespeare portrayed him as. How he's still alive I couldn't tell you. But after leaving Avalon I encountered him again, and though we were opponents in the race for Excalibur, I found him to be a good man. I even offered him a place as one of my knights, though he respectfully declined it."

"He never mentioned that," Harry said, more to himself, but the others still heard it.

"You know him?" Arthur asked.

Harry smiled. "I do. Though I doubt you would believe how."

"What do you mean?" Una asked, curiously.

"He's my father."

"Impossible," Griff broke in. "Gargoyles and humans can't have children together."

"Perhaps you should tell us how this came about?" Una interjected, sending a reproachful look at the male for his outburst.

"I'm not sure I can sum it up briefly," Harry admitted.

"Then perhaps you can start at the beginning," Arthur prompted.

Harry shook his head. "I wouldn't want to interrupt whatever you're doing."

"I think the search for Merlin can be put on hold for a few more hours," Una said, looking briefly at Arthur. Turning back to Harry she added, "If you're comfortable telling us the story that is."

Harry paused for a moment, before beginning with what he knew of how he came into being. He then covered his parents 'death' and how he was left with the Dursley's. He briefly touched upon his years on Hogwarts, and then his parents finding him. He then mentioned how he became a gargoyle, and at Una's prompting explained what Macbeth and Demona were teaching him.

In the end he spoke until he realized he'd need to leave soon if he would return home before dawn. Una, Arthur, and Constance escorted him to the rooftop, where Una invited him to ask his parents to come and visit the clan with him. Constance said she really hoped he'd be willing to give her some tips on flying when they saw each other again. And Arthur asked him to pass a message to his father that his offer to be one of his knights was still open if he wished it.

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As Harry left, he didn't notice Constance watching him.

"He interest you," Una stated, drawing the younger gargoyles attention to her.

"He does," Constance said, not denying the statement. "Obviously a lot has happened in his life, yet he seems to adjust to it. I mean, he grew up a regular human orphan. Then he discovered magic was real and he could wield it. Then he discovers his parents are alive, and shortly afterward he becomes a gargoyle himself. Yet despite it being only a few weeks, he can already glide better than any other gargoyle in our clan."

"Really?" Una asked, clearly intrigued.

"When Staghart and I saw him, he was racing through the I-beams of a construction site, and pulling maneuvers I can't see any of our clan pulling at those speeds."

"It would take a lot of dedication to get to that skill level in that short a time," Una admitted.

"It would," Constance said a bit distractedly.

This caused Una to look at her in a new light.

Gargoyles didn't really care for physical appearance. Sure, there was an element of physical appeal in their mating habits, but it wasn't as big an importance as it was with humans. What Gargoyles looked for in mates were certain traits. These desired traits varied from gargoyle to gargoyle. Some gargoyles looked for physical strength, fighting ability. Others looked for compassion or patience. The list of traits gargoyles looked for varied as much as the stars in the sky. And apparently this new male was displaying traits that caught Constance's interest.

Una knew it was a bit personal, but Constance was not only her second in the clan, but she'd like to consider the younger gargoyle as a daughter of sorts. "What is it that draws your interest?"

Constance looked over at her Leader, and paused a moment, but answered. "He's an amazing glider, obviously able to be dedicated to something, and has endured a lot yet seems to have adjusted to it all quite well." She paused for a moment. "Considering how little he mentioned the humans who raised him, I imagine there is much more that he endured that he hasn't told us."

"Be careful not to jump into anything," Una warned her. "I would hate for you to rush things only to find out he is not what he seems. Not to mention until recently he thought of himself as human."

"Relax," Constance said with a grin. "He has my interest, but I don't know him enough to try pursuing him. I don't even know if he'd be open to my pursuit."

End Flashback

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After finishing his story, and passing on Arthur's offer to Macbeth, Harry waited for his parent's reactions.

Demona was a bit upset that she still had memories missing, but was pleased that there was apparently a large clan left in the world. She found herself actually looking forward to meeting the clan, and hoping she got along with them.

Macbeth's thoughts drifted instead to Arthur. Just off of his son's words, he was positive this was the real Arthur. And if that was the case, perhaps he had an ally here in England. And if he had an ally, perhaps there was another way to go about dealing with Voldemort and the Ministry.

"I for one would be glad to see Arthur again," Macbeth said after a moment, before looking over at Demona for her thoughts.

The redhead nodded. "I'm more interested in meeting this clan," she said. Looking back at Macbeth she asked, "Do you want me or Harry to carry you?"

Macbeth grumbled about needing to be carried briefly, before settling on Demona. Harry would be leading the way after all.

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Sorry about the late update, to be honest, things kept happening and I forgot I needed to upload this, even when I logged on and read a few stories. I was actually about to do some work on a different story, and noticed this in my que of saved stories, reminding me to post it.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy, especially with my brief explanation of gargoyle attraction. Please Review, Check Out the Challenges in My Forums, and the Stories I have up for Adoption Under the Title: Please Adopt Me!