Chapter 10 Anchors

Harry was curled up on the big chair in the living room petting Kiki nervously. He chewed his lip anxiously and glanced around the room for the dozenth time in two minutes. Prince was out running errands. He did this occasionally, but so far it had been at night while Harry was sleeping. This was the first time Prince had really left him alone and aware of it.

"Where is he Kiki?" he muttered nuzzling her fur.

"Hey Ree, relax. Prince will be back soon, I promise. Nothing is going to happen to us. We're safe here. … You know he wouldn't leave if there was any danger." Dudley startled him as he walked into the room with Benny.

"Yeah Little Bit. Ya know Prince is fuckin' brilliant at what he does. You just need to let him do his thing." Benny smiled and winked. "Let's watch a movie!"

Harry clung to Kiki as the cat purred reassuringly and managed to nod at the boys. He didn't pay any attention to the movie as it played and instead worked to curl himself into as close of a ball as his injuries would allow.

When the front door opened twenty minutes later, Harry bolted upright completely focused on the entering person. He relaxed as soon as he registered the platinum hair. Prince met his eyes and smiled briefly.

"How has your morning been?"

"Fine" Harry replied automatically before blushing.

"Reverting already? I've only been gone for two hours!" Prince spoke in a joking voice, but Harry could feel the waves of concern and reassuring feelings rolling off the older boy.

Harry fought internally for a moment before scooting out of the chair and moving over to wrap his arms around the other. He felt his anxiety slipping away as he reveled in the concern and reassurance offered. He vaguely heard Dudley and Benny speaking as he felt the spike of surprise and worry in the blond. He felt no anger so allowed himself a moment to relax, smiling as Prince smoothed his hair.

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Prince was shocked when Harry latched on to him. So far the younger boy had never initiated any type of physical contact. He wrapped one arm around Harry before turning his eyes to Dudley for an explanation.

"He's been anxious all morning. We had to drag him out of the kitchen to stop him from cleaning, and then make him promise not to keep cleaning out here. He finally settled in that chair with his cat and hasn't moved since."

"Yeah man. He's been all jumpy like and kept looking for you and watchin the doors an windows an stuff. Real nervous like. We told him it'd be fine, but he just kept on. I got him to watch a movie finally."

Prince stroked calico hair as he thought. This wasn't a bad thing, it fit nicely with his current plan, and he had to admit a small part of him relished in the younger boy's attachment. I have to admit no such thing. Damn internal monologue. He murmured a thanks to the other boys and pulled gently away from Harry's grip.

"Hey Ree. Let's go to your room. You look exhausted. I got you a present…"

"Really?" he tipped his head to the side and obediently followed behind the blond.

Prince ushered the smaller boy into the room and tucked him into bed propped up with pillows. When Harry was settled and Prince had finished fussing. The blond pulled out a small package from his backpack.

"I realize your birthday isn't for another three days, but considering everything, I think you can open this a bit early."

"You didn't have to… How'd you know? You shouldn't have."

"Just open it!" Prince laughed at the awestruck expression on his face.

Harry pealed at the tape keeping the small cardboard box closed and opened it. He gasped. Sitting in the white paper was a miniature of the dream-catcher he had. He pulled it carefully out examining it.

"It was made by the same friend who made me the first. It's holly from the same tree and hair from the same unicorn. The only real difference is the feathers. Mine is made with dove feathers but Iris said this is made with phoenix down. I know you like to keep it near, so I had one made that you can wear." Prince gently took the catcher from the stunned teen and clasped it around his neck so that it hung just loose enough around his throat to not choke him. Prince stroked his multi colored hair as Harry babbled his thanks. "It has a special layer of protection so that you don't need to worry about breaking it."

"I thought adding magic to one of these could make it work funny." Green eyes peered up at him as Harry fingered his gift.

"Adding magic to a magical item will lower its potency, but this was designed with the protection integrated into the spell work."

"Oh. Thank you, thank you thank you thank you!" Harry beamed, his cheeks flushed.

"You're welcome. Rest a bit. I know you had a rough morning. We can talk more when you wake up." He readjusted the pillows ignoring the weak protests and tucked Harry in more securely.

As Harry settled into a reluctant rest, Prince watched him and slowly resumed stroking his hair. He looked so vulnerable in his sleep Prince just wanted to cuddle- no I do not do CUDDLING!

XXXxxx

Prince put down his laptop as Ree began to stir. He watched the younger boy blink groggily at nothing before green eyes darted around the room taking in the surroundings. "Morning Little One. Did you sleep well?"

"Very. How long..?"

"You were only out for two hours it isn't even time for lunch yet. Are you feeling better?"

"Yeah, I don't know why I was so anxious with you gone. I mean I trust your security and all, I just freaked out." The younger boy ran fingers through his hair and nibbled at his lip.

"I want you to be completely honest with me Ree, and I want you to really think before you answer this, okay?" Prince waited for a nod before continuing. "I want to know if you were just nervous about being left alone and worried about security, or if you were feeling something else." He watched as the wizardling frowned and absorbed his words, they both sat silent for a moment.

"…I don't really know. I just felt stressed and tense after you left. The whole building felt different without you there. It was like I couldn't breathe properly, but I was breathing just fine. It wasn't like I had a panic attack or anything, I wasn't gasping for breath, I just…" the teen struggled for words "it was like my chest hurt and I couldn't do things properly. Everything was foggy, but not. I don't know; it was weird."

"That's good Ree, relax." Prince cut him off with concern as Harry became increasingly distressed. "I expected something like that after your greeting. Tell me, have you read anything about anchors?"

"Not really. I remember that word from the journal you got me. It said that choosing an anchor was even more complicated than setting mental shields. I remember reading that part and wondering about it. See the writer couldn't visit another empath because that empath was young and hadn't chosen an anchor yet and two empaths in one place would be a big target even if they were both anchored, so they became pen-pals, or at least they sent each other owls a lot. I meant to ask you about that. Why would an empath be a target? What kind of target and who was targeting them? Why would anyone care so much? What is an anchor any why does it make such a difference?"

"Slow down Little One. Let's stick to anchors right now and we'll see about your other questions you have later. Okay?

"Now I know I've said this before, but I am no expert on empaths; I have never needed to study empaths before, and I am learning just like you are. That said, what I did know about empaths before I met you came from studying wizard law. One law in particular stood out to me enough to be remembered in that it actually predated Merlin. Most law was reworked during his time, or after, if you didn't know. But this particular law was written before Merlin, yet carried an affirmation by him. That is, Merlin himself had the law passed a second time in its original form with absolutely no changes. This was one of only two laws that ever happened to.

"This law is about empaths and their anchors. When an empath chooses an anchor and binds themselves to that person through blood and magic, that anchor can never be forced to separate from the empath for any reason be it marriage, family, politics, even other laws. The bond between an empath and a bound anchor is for all intents and purposes sacred and unbreakable."

"Wow. So an anchor is a person?" the other grasped on to the most relevant piece of information. "What do they do? Why are they so important?"

"I'm getting there." Prince smiled. "From what I understand, an empath uses an anchor to provide a buffer between themselves and other people's emotions by focusing in on their anchor's emotions. This is when an empath is young and not used to shielding. A bonded anchor does more than that. I don't understand it all, but somehow an anchor helps control their empath's magic and improves health. An anchor's key duty is to protect their empath and take care of their needs."

"Kinda like you do for me." Harry interjected in a joking tone. Prince watched as the teen's green eyes widened and knew it was clicking in his head.

"Kind of exactly like that. I was worried when I first read about the description, but I didn't think you were that attached to me. I was reading while you slept and I can see why it happened. It is natural for empaths to seek out anchors. That is no doubt how you survived Hogwarts and being surrounded by so many people. You probably latched on to somebody instinctively and used them as an anchor, probably one of your friends, someone you spend a lot of time with."

"Ron, or Hermione. But I thought empaths had only one anchor?"

"One bonded anchor. There is a magic rite that must be performed for that. After an empath is bonded they don't have un-bonded anchors, but you aren't bonded…I do want you to consider it though. I have become rather fond of you in the past three weeks and I am reluctant to let you go without making sure you are safe. As your anchor, nobody could stop me from coming with you to Hogwarts or even sitting in on your classes." He held up his hand as Harry moved to speak. "We won't make any decisions now. This is a big commitment and not one to rush in to. I want to find out more details about this ritual and what the bonding means really. At any rate, even if this is something we decide to do we will wait until the last possible moment to perform it. You have another month of summer to consider this while we look for more information.

"And before you even start to think it, I will go to Hogwarts with you either way. It may not be as easy, but there are other options I still have open to me. You will be protected."

"I…um…this is a lot. Thank you." Big green eyes studied him for a long time.

"I- I have a book coming that should explain more. It was hell trying to cover my tracks or I could have gotten it here much sooner."

"Why are you covering your tracks? Do you think-"

"No" Prince cut him off. "Honestly Ree. I promised that no one would know about you. That means even my boss thinks I'm watching over muggles right now. I couldn't let him or anyone else notice that I have been looking into empaths. They would want to know why. Empaths are so rare…It would attract unwanted attention."

"Oh. I didn't realize…"

"Lunch is ready!" Benny shouted from the kitchen, interrupting.

"It's nothing Wizardling. Let's go eat, and after that maybe you can get out of those pajamas and into real clothes for the day." He was pleased to see the faint blush and he stretched easily and strolled out of the room.

XXXxxx

"You should be asleep."

"I napped this afternoon."

"It's three o'clock in the morning. You only napped for a few hours. Why are you still awake?.. You didn't have nightmares did you?"

"No, no. I have two dream-catchers now; I'm hardly worried about bad dreams. I just- this afternoon was a lot to take in. I mean, all that about anchors and bonding, it's so much I don't even know where to start." Green eyes looked up to meet his.

"You can start by getting some rest. You need sleep to finish healing and you won't get that thinking yourself into circles like this. Just relax. We have four full weeks to think about this and we should be getting more information soon. I am not going anywhere." He reached over and gently tucked the other boy in securely. I am going to make a habit of this if it continues.

Green eyes peeked up through multi-colored hair as Prince pulled the silver frames off and set them on the night stand. "Tell me a story."

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A/N: Please review! I love it when you ask questions. Some things are meant to be vague others I just don't clarify properly. If you don't ask, I don't know!