Early morning, Harry was woken up by a slight change of wildlife sounds in the vicinity, as per usual. What he found unusual was the fact that he was lying in-between George and Harriet, trapped in their tangled limbs. More strangely, he felt warm and content about the unguarded, intimate gesture, as if he had experienced it before.
But he had, had he not? The blue stone…
George shifted in his sleep, cocooning closer against his wife and the boy in their midst, practically squeezing Harry against his front and framing him with the man's limbs. Worse (or better, Harry could not decide) Harriet reciprocated, as if it was a well-known, well-koreographed dance to the deeply-asleep couple. – A kiss on his head, a caress on his hair, and Harry tumbled back into the dreamland with not even a chance to be surprised.
Around the globe he travelled with odd people, doing odd things and going to odd places – a childhood hope blurring into dream, and he woke up refreshed with sunlight beaming down on him from an open window nearby. George was gazing down at him with a peculiar expression, and in his hand was the stone Harry had briefly wondered about earlier in the morning.
He felt confused now, awkward and a little uneasy. the unexpected experience before… No, he would not think of it, at least not now. A big event was approaching, and he could not afford to be distracted. He did not know what it—
Ah, Hogwarts; departure to Hogwarts, tomorrow morning. And just then George at last chose to speak up. "A belated welcome to our… unusual… family, Harry, and a pleasant morning to you as well. My daughters have told me all about you and your training, and we thought up a proposal for you while you were asleep." His tone was no less peculiar; and why such a formal conduct and weighty issue when he had just awaken? To think that he had had a nice dream…
"Ana talked briefly about your vow."
That clinched it, turning Harry's mood and attention around from his half-hearted grousing. What did the head of the family think about their admittedly rushed and harebrained vow? What did it have to do with the blue stone anyway? (George was proffering it to him, and Harry was momentarily distracted with the reflection and refraction of sunlight from the stone.)
"Do you want to really be a part of us, Harry?"
Strange that he had always imagined such a proposal to be spoken… well, elsewhere; certainly not while they were all dressed in pyjamas and sitting haphazardly on a very large, unmade bedding, and bringing the peculiar stone of Ardila's into it too. But the gist of the words was the same: undeniable, desireable, but frightening. He did not want – but he wanted – but…
The warmth, the protection, the strange camaraderie—
"Yes."
The stone was dropped into his hand, warming at once and warming him in kind – warm as blood.