A/N: Here is the long awaited third chapter for Brothers of the Flame. I'm so sorry that this took so long, i had Uni to go back to, and i also wanted to show a little history about where our mysterious other brother comes from. But, any ways, this is the introduction of my OC, the aforementioned mysterious other brother. Hope you like him, and please tell me if you like his description.
I have my reasons for him looking nothing like the others.
Drago Cygnus eyed the woman in front of him sceptically. All he had been told his whole life was that he had been an orphan with no siblings. Apparently, the orphan part was still true, but he now had three brothers that he would soon meet. The woman, Lucy Summers, was a tall, thin woman who ran the orphanage he had lived in his whole life. She was currently sitting behind her thick, oak wood desk, typing details into her computer, wearing black skinny jeans, a white dress shirt, and a dark blue blazer over the shirt. The cold of the middle of winter in Melbourne was quite evident, along with the gloom of the possible rain hanging over their heads.
"Drago, I know this is delightful news for you-" he had to agree with her, he had always wanted siblings "- but you will have to keep the fact that you are a wizard a secret" she said, indicating the wand in his breast pocket. "That is, you will if you're the only one. Otherwise, it must stay confidential at all costs."
"Yes ma'am" he replied quickly, knowing how strict she could be.
"Now, your uncle will be arriving with one of them tomorrow, so make sure you are ready" she said quickly, a happy smirk on her face. "He will be taking custody of you, and taking you to Japan there. Whatever happens then is none of my concern, right boy?"
"Yes ma'am" Drago replied quickly again. "I'll go and get my stuff ready, if that's okay with you, ma'am."
"Yes, yes, do what you must" she said dismissively. "I've got work to do, so be quick."
Drago stood from the uncomfortable chair, and left the room as quickly, yet as politely as he could. His tall – or at least, tall for his age – frame breezed through the halls, his shoulder length, golden blond hair held tail at the base of his neck. Vivid, purple eyes scanned everything he passed, while his enhanced hearing picked up even the slightest of sounds, his sharp, slanted nose picking up the faintest of scents. Of course, being a metamorphmagus was useful when he was running from potential threats, but this was the form he often chose to be seen as. Though, that didn't mean he was always mature about it.
Drago walked through the halls of the orphanage, not paying attention to the other orphans around him. Children darted around him, laughing, carrying cricket bats and balls, foot balls and soccer balls, all asking him if he wanted to play, while he politely refused, moving to his room. Though he had lived in the orphanage his whole life, he hadn't bothered making friends, or even making the slightest of attachments to the other children in the building. He always knew that they would eventually get adopted, leaving him to the mercies of the orphanage. It had happened too many times when he was younger for him to do it again.
He made it to his room, flopping down on the only bed in the room, looking around, recounting the memories he had of the place. There weren't many. He had been in this very room since he was five, and had started going to school. Though he hated the place, he still had to admire the luxury a simple orphanage was granted. Unlike other countries around the world, orphanages in Australia were heavily funded by the government and other wealthy benefactors, going towards the maintenance and care of the children, along with supplying them with the latest in technology and gizmos for their schooling and usual enjoyment.
He moved over to the desk sitting in front of his window, looking over the Royal Botanical Gardens lying in the heart of the city. Grabbing his laptop, he logged into it, looking out longingly towards the river running through the gardens. Checking his emails, he quickly emailed his professors at the school, the Sydney Institute of Magic, informing them of his current circumstances and how he was leaving the country, probably never to return. Which wasn't really that much of a loss, to be honest.
A little known fact about Australia was that the entire country was populated by witches, wizards and magical creatures, with not a muggle in site. This was due to the settlement of Australia, as the convicts that had been sent to the new country had been political prisoners of the Ministry of Magic of the time, along with various muggle prisoners who had been sent by the muggle government due to their crimes. When the prisoners had arrived, the magical prisoners had quickly revolted, overthrowing any muggles in power at the time, and allowing the muggles to coexist with the wizards, as the wizards far outnumbered the muggles, which was a definite first for the wizarding world.
As the years had passed, muggles no longer lived on the continent, either becoming werewolves or vampires, or having married into wizarding families and producing magical children. By the time the muggle World War Two had happened, as well as the war with Grindelwald and his magical Nazi's, the wizarding community of Australia had realized how archaic their world was compared to the muggle world, and the government quickly decided to follow up with their ancestors wishes, of merging the magical and muggle worlds together, and quickly set up trade and research agreements with other countries around the world, both magical and muggle, in order to follow through with these wishes. The greatest minds of every country around the world, except for magical Britain, poured countless hours into research and development of technology, until the nineties, where they had finally cracked the problem of magic cancelling out electronic devices. It was a simple matter of using runes to make the devices run off of the ambient magic in the environment, and the magic that rolled off of many powerful wizards too, and rather than being cancelled out by the EMP effect of magic.
Of course, by this time, the British Nazi's, as the rest of the world had dubbed the Death Eaters, had started causing havoc across the isles, until it had suddenly stopped with the death of their leader, Lord Voldemort. Wizarding Britain, being the snobbish people they were, refused to ask for help, believing they could deal with their own affairs by themselves. No one bothered arguing with them. At least, those outside of Britain didn't. Every international diplomat simply laughed in the faces of the British diplomats who had refused to call Voldemort by his name, merely referring to him as You-Know-Who, or He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Grindelwald, now that was a name to be feared.
Drago sighed, standing from his chair and closing his laptop, putting it into his back pack as he shuffled around his room, putting his most personal effects and belongings into the bag, before piling up his sizable collection of books. Opening his trunk, he shifted the dial on the side to the library setting, and quickly climbed in, levitating the three piles of books he had behind him, and quickly moved around his personal library, putting the various books away on the appropriate shelf, before he climbed back out of the library, and did the same for his potions equipment, making sure everything was correctly labelled and ordered in his personal potions lab, and then got to packing the rest of his things, pulling down posters of his favourite videogames, his various drawings of either fan-art or just drawings of his random thoughts. His clothes went next, neatly folded or hanging in the full walk in robe he had, and then various odds and ends in an all-purpose part of the case, whether that be his broom, duelling armour or his favoured gladius, which he wrapped in a silk cloth and set at the bottom of the compartment. Finished with his packing, he changed into some loose, yet warm clothes and informed the head of the Orphanage that he was going for a run through the gardens.
By the time he returned from his run, it was just before dinner, so he made his way to the showers to quickly refresh himself, then made his way down for dinner, with steak and chops, and an assortment of boiled vegetables and roasted potatoes. Pouring a generous amount of gravy over the meat and potatoes, he dug in to the delicious meal. As desert was passed around by the house-elves that helped run the orphanage, Miss Summers stood up from the head table and cleared her throat, gaining the attention of every child in the room.
"Good evening all" she announced to the whole dining hall. "It is time for the adoption announcements. Firstly, however, this Sunday will be our last open day before the school holidays begins, and I want this whole building looking like it was opened yesterday. I will be coming to inspect your rooms myself to insure the rooms are spotless. And no using house elves, either, you must do it yourself.
"Now, back to the adoptions. We have only one to announce, and it is of long-time resident, Drago, who has been adopted by an uncle of his in Japan. We wish him the best of luck for his coming departure and warm wishes for a wonderful home." There was applause all around the room as everyone cheered. It wasn't every day that the full timers got adopted.
Drago's golden locks turned green slightly in embarrassment before changing back once it had passed, and dug quickly into his desert of self-saucing chocolate cake and ice cream. Once finished he excused himself from the hall, making his way back to his room, for the last time he realised. Changing into his pyjama's, he pulled his laptop from his bag, and began playing games until the call for lights out was announced over the PA system. Sighing, Drago shut down the laptop and crawled into bed, wondering what his new life would be like when his uncle picked him up tomorrow.
-Line-Break-
His uncle didn't arrive until after school the next day, which he was thankfully exempted from for the day. Something about long delays and shoddy workmanship at the airport had held up his uncle from getting him, as well as previous engagements he had been tied up in. Drago had been jumpy all day, waiting anxiously for his uncle to show, almost losing hope when he hadn't arrived by lunch. By then, he had been informed about the delays, and had been reinvigorated and had run through the gardens to get rid of any excess energy he may have had.
When he was called to Miss Summers office again, he was still jumpy and excited, as if he had downed ten cups of full strength coffee, and almost ran into her office with his things in tow, his wand hidden in its holster under his long, emerald green sleeves, as a precautionary measure if his uncle knew nothing about his magic.
When he got to the office, he knocked and entered after getting a curt "Enter" from Miss Summers, and was shocked at the sight that awaited him, which turned his hair pink with shock.
A tall man, dressed in an elegant, white suit and a long, billowing white cloak, with a dark purple inside. His pants, an equally blinding white as his jacket, looked like that of a jester, with pointed shoes, also reminiscent of a jester. He carried a ratty, bright purple umbrella, which was patched with an odd assortment of coloured materials, all sewn on haphazardly. His hair was a deep shade of purple, as if mixed with black, while his dark, green eyes showed the amusement that was also clearly plastered over his angular face, clearly holding back a laugh at the state of his hair.
"Well hello there" the man called in a sing-song voice. "I am assuming that you are my dear nephew, Drago." At Drago's nod of the head, the man quickly continued. "I am your uncle Johann Faust, twice removed from the family. Up until now, my hands have been tied in trying to be your guardian, so my apologies." He turned to Miss Summers and asked "I'm assuming that that is all of the paperwork done, Miss Summers?"
"Yes, Lord Faust" Miss Summers said in her usual crisp, business like voice. "Everything is in order. I have even arranged his passport and dual citizenship for Japan as well, my Lord."
Lord? Drago thought. My uncle is a Lord? Well this is going to be interesting.
"Well, I guess since this is all sorted out, we can leave" Johann said in his sing-song voice. "Come on, Drago, I have a present for you and someone for you to meet." He turned swiftly on his foot, and left the room, shouting goodbyes to Miss Summers over his shoulder. Hurriedly saying his thanks and goodbyes, Drago rushed up to his uncle, dragging his trunk behind him, thankful for the feather weight charms placed on it.
Once they had made it to the car – read limo – Drago was shocked at the spaciousness of the inside, and immediately thought that magic must be involved. His suspicions were confirmed moments later when his uncle spoke up.
"Yes magic is involved, and there is no need to hide your wand, or your abilities" Johann said once he had caught sight of Drago's questioning gaze. "Your brothers are also wizards too, so there is no need to hide. Also, I have this for you, I have been told that you would help you greatly." He pulled a slim, rectangular package wrapped in brown paper and twine from the insides of his robes and passed it to Drago.
He immediately knew it was a book due to its size, and quickly undid the string and pulled off the paper to reveal the title. The Do's and Don'ts of Animagus Training by Bryce Tolstoy stamped in gold stared up from a leather cover with a dogs paw, wolf's head and deer antlers worked into the aged leather underneath the title. A quick flick through showed that its slim size was deceiving, as it had an undetectable extension charm on it, allowing it to hold more pages than was seen.
"Thank you, Uncle" Drago breathed out, clutching the book longingly, his hair turning bright blue in excitement. He so desperately wanted to read it, but waited for his uncle to finish talking.
"It is my pleasure, Drago" Johann said cheerily. His face quickly turned serious, however, when he next spoke. "Now, I need to explain some things to you, before we meet your brother. I am not your uncle, to begin with, and my name is not Johann Faust." He held up a hand as Drago opened his mouth to speak. "I am actually you half-brother, on your father's side, and my name is Mephisto Pheles. My alter ego, Johann Faust, is merely an image for the Headmaster of True Cross academy. Now I have been unable to tell our brother about this, as he has been asleep the whole plane ride over here from England, though he does know he has siblings, just not how many. Though please, I would like to wait until the four of you have been reunited before I answer any heavy questions."
Drago merely nodded, his hair having turned to pink and purple polka dots as a sign of his confusion, as he tried to process this information. Finally regaining his voice, Drago asked "So, Mephisto, when will we be arriving at the airport?"
"I would say that we have about ten minutes from where we are now, but we won't be on the plane for another twenty. So I wouldn't get comfortable with the book anytime soon" Mephisto replied.
The drive was fairly quick, making it to the airport in exactly ten minutes, and again exactly ten more until they were on the plane. He had never been on an airplane before, or even been in an airport, but the speed at which he had gone through the massive metal building was a lot quicker than he had been told. When he stepped on the plane, he was again shocked at the size of the inside, considering the size of the plane itself, which was a small, private jet. The inside could have easily dwarfed the dining hall of the orphanage, it was that large.
Large, overstuffed, purple leather clad couches sat around a large, flat screen TV that was mounted to the wall, currently playing Pixar's Monster's University. Drapes of dark blues and purples hung from the walls as a fire crackled in the fireplace, how that was there Drago could only guess. Thick, crimson carpet that looked soft to the touch met his feet, while a long, mahogany table stretched across the remainder of the room, with eight, thick wooden chairs placed neatly around it.
On the couch directly in front of the TV, sat a slim boy who looked no older than twelve with an unruly mop of pitch black hair. From what Drago could see, he wore a deep, blood red, long sleeved shirt with gold stitching around the collar and wrist cuffs, noticeable from the hands clasped behind his head. At the sound of footsteps, the boy turned to reveal bright, emerald green eyes hidden behind round framed glasses that showed wild, unbound excitement and a grin plastered on his face. Jumping up from the couch, he ran over to Mephisto, hugging him excitedly. Drago quickly noticed the tail the wagged excitedly behind the boy as he continued to hug his brother.
"Hello, little Hadrian" Mephisto said calmly and excitedly, hugging the excitable boy back, before holding him at arms-length, eyeing him with a quizzical gaze. "I see you like the new clothes I got you. I thought you might like Gryffindor colours, after all." Gryffindor? Drago thought, as the boy nodded excitedly and thanked Mephisto profusely. "And I see that you got my message about watching whatever you wanted. Good choice, I must say. How are you liking it?"
"It's great, thank you. I've never seen a movie before, the Dursley's never even let me watch TV" the boy said quickly, before he noticed the extra member in the room. He held out his hand and said "Hi there, it's nice to meet you. I'm Hadrian, Hadrian Potter. My friends just call me Harry."
Grasping the hand in a firm shake, Drago replied "Hi, it's nice to meet you too. My name's Drago, Drago Cygnus. My friends usually call me Dragon."
"Why ´Dragon´?" Harry asked, before he quickly clamped his mouth shut, his hand covering his mouth. "Sorry, I shouldn't have asked that" he muttered into his hand, voice full of despair, and what sounded oddly like fear. Why was that?
"No, no, don't worry, Harry" Drago said quickly, calming the boy considerably. "It's a perfectly normal question. Anyway, the reason is because my name spells Dragon perfectly, except for the N. So my friends always called me Dragon for fun, though it could never get them to stop when it got annoying."
"Now, boys I'd like your attention please" Mephisto said again in his cheery, sing-song voice. "Hadrian, I would like you to meet your brother, Drago. Drago, this is your brother, Hadrian. Or, one of them at least." This last part was said just barely loud enough for Drago's enhanced hearing, seeing the wink that was aimed his way, as they sat down to watch the rest of their movie, and awaited their flight to Japan.