Chapter 12
"-and I swear to Merlin if I never have to step foot in another police station, it will be too soon!" Severus grumbled as they entered Malfoy's manor.
Hermione looked up from the paper she was writing on. "It went well I take it?"
"We were interrogated for hours!" Severus complained. "If they didn't get the damn answer they wanted the first time, why did the expect it to change the fifty other times they asked?"
"A tactic to make sure you aren't lying." She said, returning her attention to the paper. "Look over this, and Charlie and the others are here." She informed them, pushing a few papers and a map over to them.
Harry took the map and studied it, seeing the circles, lines, and holes in it where Hermione had marked the area that she thought Preece to be hiding. "How's Teddy?" He asked.
"Fine last I heard. They got him back to sleep about thirty minutes ago." Hermione mumbled.
"Why were you talking to muggle aurors?" Alden asked, entering the room.
Severus set in to inform the boy of what had went on in as short of terms as possible.
"I'm going to leave out early tomorrow morning to get the hunt done and over with as soon as possible." Harry told Hermione, referring to the weekly Sunday romp with the werewolves. "That way I should be back before anything big happens."
"Alright, I'll keep you off the schedule until noon." She offered.
"Schedule? We have a schedule?"
She finally looked up from the paper she was working on. "Yes Harry, we have a schedule. How else do you think I've been putting together all of this information while we were working with the Weasleys trying to figure this out? In case you've forgotten, I have a school career that I'm taking time off of to be here, not to mention several of the Weasleys are taking off of their jobs. The only reason we haven't pushed for you two to do the same if you're going to help is because we understand how hard it is to find a good DADA sub who won't mess up the curriculum, and a Potions sub that Severus might actually approve of."
"Geeze, I'm sorry, alright? I keep forgetting that." Harry snapped.
"So I've noticed." Hermione snapped right back, then returned her attention to her papers.
"Hey Severus?" Alden asked. "What's wrong with those two?"
"Harry's worried about Teddy and tired from the investigation. Ms. Granger's had a hard time getting everyone on task and doing what they need to do in order to find this Preece guy. They're both a little on edge right now." Snape explained.
"Don't you feel the same as Harry then? 'Cause you are in the same boat."
"Yes, but I've had years of practice at calming myself down and holding my tongue." He replied.
"I heard that." Harry called out.
"I'm sure you did." Severus called back. "Come on, you need to get started on your weekend assignment from charms. You're also going to have to start staying at the school more."
"What? Why?" Alden asked, assured he'd gotten in trouble for something.
"Because it's unfair to the other students that you get to spend so much time off of the school grounds and they don't." The man told him. "It's just like if they all got a feast for supper and all you got was half of a bowl of soup. It's been a very long time since any of the staff have had children visit, much less children that actually went to Hogwarts, so there are no real regulations on it, but I will be talking with Minerva about that at a later date." Alden grumpily went to do his weekend assignment and Severus went back to the main room where Harry and Hermione were still bickering. "Would you two kindly shut up and stop mucking about? Harry, you need to go by the burrow and speak with Bill to see if you can get any more suitable information from him."
(¯`·. Hp/Ss .·´¯)
"We've got a general area for the Preece guy, we're just trying to figure out if we should attempt another spell for location, or if we should search him out the muggle way." Harry said with a sigh.
Bill nodded slowly.
"I have a question, and I want you to answer honestly... Were you sent to find Cygnus Preece?"
"No... but I would have been eventually." Bill told him.
"Why?"
"He's planning on-" The young man had a coughing fit, but quickly righted himself. "He's planning on killing someone, and I would have been sent to get him before he could do any damage."
"Who?"
"I can't tell you, it's classified..." Another cough sounded. "But you'll probably wind up finding out anyway, you're their last resort."
"Bill? Who do you work for?" Harry asked in a concerned manner.
"Now now little Harry, if I told you that you'd immediately know who Preece was-" More coughing. He really needed to stop talking so much, it was hurting his throat which wasn't even healed yet from all of the choking he'd endured. "-trying to kill."
"Why won't you tell me?"
"Because if I told you that would put you in danger, and I don't want my family suffering for my mistakes." Bill said solemnly.
That sounded like something the young man had said time and time again. It sounded like something he was downright tired of saying. "This is why you and Fluer broke up, isn't it?" Bill simply nodded. "When I kill Preece, will you tell her what was going on?"
"No... I have to wait for permission from my boss before I can do that, and permission would mean I was no longer working."
Harry sighed. It looked like the only thing he could do now was go and find Preece, and this time he wouldn't let a little lack of knowledge stand in his way.
Harry bid his goodbyes and made his way back to Malfoy Manor. It had basically become their central base of operation. Charlie had left again, presumably back to the burrow, and Severus had taken Alden back to the school, much to the child's displeasure. It wasn't that Alden didn't like the school, he just didn't like being left out of the loop of things that were happening.
Instead of going back to Hermione after he'd been updated, Harry went to the edge of the property line and began roaming the small wooded area. Imagine his surprise when he found a magical creature that he thought only stayed in the Forbidden Forest.
A silver head tilted to the side and the horn brushed up against a leaf. The unicorn foal lifted one of her hooves and stared at Harry intently, having never seen a human who wasn't trying to catch her before. She was poised and ready to run should he seem like he might attack.
"You're just a young one." Harry muttered. He reached out a hand, but the creature backed up sharply, disallowing him to touch it. "Well you're a very pretty unicorn." Harry said, folding his hands in his lap. "What are you doing all of the way out here? You must be lost." He mused.
The unicorn huffed and quickly moved its head downward. The only reason she was staying was he might be able to help...
Harry wondered about the motion and if it were trying to say that it was lost. He knew unicorns to be semi-sentient, but he didn't know how much, and whether or not they could understand humans. "Where is your herd?"
The unicorn walked in a circle and laid down on the ground, resting its head on its front hooves and closing its eyes, then got back up and resumed staring at him.
Okay... it was definitely trying to tell him something. "They're asleep?"
It snorted.
"They're hurt?"
It repeated the circle and resting movement.
Harry furrowed his brow and tried to understand what he was being told, but it didn't seem to be sinking in. "They're dead?"
Another snort.
"I don't speak unicorn." Harry told the creature.
The unicorn stepped back from the human and bit at a tree branch, snapping it off. She set it on the ground nearly 15 feet away from him, then trotted back near to him. A neigh to grab his attention, and she took off running toward the branch. Once she reached it, she bent her front legs to rest on them as if kneeling, walked around to the other side of the branch, looked up to the sky and around her, then did the circle thing again.
Harry blinked in confusion. "They were running..." A sharp head movement that Harry had taken to mean yes. "-then they fell..."Another 'yes'. "-then they walked around in circles and-" She snorted and shook her head, her mane going everywhere. Really, wasn't this human listening? Harry really wished he had Firenze here to be the go-between, after all, he was half horse, shouldn't he be able to tell what it meant? "I don't know what you're trying to tell me."
The unicorn was exasperated! Not that Harry realized it. She bit on to his robe's sleeve and started dragging him with her. Harry was a bit surprised, as normally unicorns weren't so aggressive, not to mention they normally wouldn't touch a human unless they were children or the unicorn had been raised in captivity. He followed along, not that he had much choice. It was either go with her, or leave his robe hanging from her mouth.
A few minutes later, they came to a rather large hole in the ground. She let him go, and laid down at the hole with her head peering in. Harry couldn't see a thing as it was beyond dark. He cast a quick lumos and sent it into the hole.
Eight unicorns all lifted their head from the hole at the bright light. Harry gasped. "They're trapped." The foal did the 'yes' movement with its head again and neighed something, to which two of the trapped unicorns neighed back. "How am I going to get them out?" Harry wondered aloud. He cast a patronus and sent a message back to the others. "I'm in the woods out behind the manor, there's a giant hole and eight trapped unicorns. Come help me get them out, follow the stag." He stated, sending it on its way.
The foal looked at him curiously.
"That will get help." He explained. Oh great, he was talking to a unicorn like it was a human. He shook his head and sat down on the ground. Minutes later, several neighs of panic sounded, as did hissing. He sent another lumos and saw several snakes slithering around two of the unicorns' hooves. What are you doing? He demanded of the snakes.
Thessse creaturesss invaded out nessst! One of the snakes hissed back.
We are protecting out younglingsss! Another said.
These creatures are trapped and do not mean to be here. Your younglings are safe. Harry tried to tell them.
Four of the snakes stopped but kept staring at the unicorns, while one slithered up to Harry. You are a ssspeaker... we have not ssseen one of you for over two yearsss. Why are thessse creaturesss here?
I do not know. They want to leave, they do not wish to be there. Harry told them. This young one came for help. He said, motioning towards the foal that was now hiding behind him.
The snake eyed the small unicorn and lifted 1/3 of its body from the ground. Just as it was about to say something, Hermione's voice shouted. "Harry move out of the way! Incendio!"
"Aguamenti! Hermione, why in the hell did you do that?" Harry demanded, stepping in front of the snake.
"It's an adder! It's poisonous!" She protested, running up to him and trying to point her wand at the creature.
"I'm a parselmouth!" Harry reminded her. "He wasn't going to bite me, we were talking."
Hermione backed off for a second then shook her head. "I forgot you could talk to them."
"Yes well, try to remember it, okay?" He said semi-teasingly. It was nice to see she was worried about him.
What isss the meaning of thisss? The snake demanded angrily.
It was a mistake. We will get the unicorns from your nest now so you may live in peace. Harry told it. "Now what do we do to get the unicorns out?" He asked Hermione.
"Well we could try Mobilicorpus, but I don't think it will work on magical creatures, I'm fairly certain that's a spell that only affects humans. If all else fails, a good old Wingardium Leviosa should do the trick, but it'll take more energy." She said with a nod.
"You try the first, I'll try the second. Ready? Wingardium Leviosa!"
"Mobilicorpus!"
"Hey they both worked!"
"Concentrate!" Hermione chided.
Three more sets of Mobilicorpus later and all eight of the unicorns were out of the pit. The snakes slithered back down without so much as a 'thank you', and the unicorns looked absolutely frazzled... or, as frazzled as a horse with a horn might look.
Hermione smiled to herself. Harry might be hella strong, able to hear anyone sneaking up on him, and really good at fighting, but he was still clueless when it came to using the spells he'd learned to help out in odd situations like this. Perhaps he should spend a year with the medi-wizards to counterbalance that. She thought with a grin.
By the time they made it back to the Manor, Hermione had realized she forgot to inform Harry of her findings. "Oh Harry!" She said as they entered into the main sitting room. "I've narrowed it down to three locations where Preece might be. We're going to go search it out tomorrow after you come back from your hunt."
"Good. Now maybe we'll be able to catch this guy and see what the hell his problem is." Harry said. He was kind of uneasy, he hadn't told anyone about what Bill had said earlier about his 'boss'. He wasn't sure what to make of the whole situation, or if it was even legal.
(¯`·. Hp/Ss .·´¯)
Sunday rolled over, and Harry hunted, successfully getting the lust to kill from his system... for the time being anyway. The group split into teams to search the three locations, none of them even remotely successful. It was determined that Preece had fled London, and the various people looking for him needed to get back to their jobs and schools. Hunting down the man would have to wait, as life was intruding.
Bill was less than pleased with this news, but he accepted the situation, albeit grudgingly. Charlie and Draco started making preparations for their own wedding, which they had held off on until Harry got back at Charlie's insistence. They finally settled on a date; January 6th, nearly 2 months away.
The nightmares did not get worse, nor did they get better. They stayed at the same rate of nearly every night, alternating between Harry, Severus, Alden, and Teddy. Firenze continued to watch Harry intently, which was beginning to bug the young man. It wasn't that he didn't like the centaur, he just wasn't very appreciative of being watched like a child.
After dinner the following Thursday, Harry had finally had enough of it. He went to the divination classroom and sought out Firenze. "Why do you keep watching me?"
"To assess your subconscious." The centaur said to him.
"Why do you keep inquiring about my subconscious?" Harry demanded.
"My brother fears for it." Firenze answered.
"Yes, so you've said. Why does he fear for it?"
"That is an answer I do not have." He stated with a slight bow of his head.
Harry growled. "Where in the Ministry is he? I'm going to go have a talk with him to see if I can't figure out what all of this is you guys keep being so vague about."
Firenze smiled, something which he did nearly as rarely as Snape used to. "Third floor, second corridor on the right, three doors down, and to the left."
Harry blinked, very nearly stunned. He hadn't expected such a straight answer. "Thank you." He said suspiciously. Were they trying to make him visit the other centaur? Speaking of which... "What is your brother's name?"
"Badbane." Firenze replied.
"Right... thanks."
Harry made his way to the Ministry, leaving a note for Severus. Let's see, second floor, third corridor... or was it the other way around? Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was third floor second corridor. Which corridor? He wondered, looking at the two on the right and on the left. He tried the second corridor on the left, which led him to a store room, so he went on to try the one on the right. Okay more doors... Third! Firenze said the third door on the... left?
Harry went through the door and sighed in relief. "Are you Badbane?"
The centaur looked up from the desk he was standing at. "Yes. Welcome savior."
Harry shifted his eyes. "Please, just call me Harry."
"Very well." The centaur nodded. "Why have you come, Harry?"
"Because your brother won't stop telling me you fear for my subconscious." The young man said. "I came by because I want to know why, and why he's being so vague about everything."
Badbane smirked. "Our species tends to be vague about many things. It helps keep down inaccurate predictions."
Harry raised an eyebrow. This certainly wasn't behavior he had expected from a centaur. "Right... but what about the whole f-"
"Fearing for your subconscious is how he put it?" Badbane shook his head. "It's not your subconscious I fear for, it's your entire consciousness."
"But why?"
"Because you are tearing yourself in two." The centaur told him, walking from his side of the desk, closer to Harry. "You have an extraordinary amount of power, and you are ripping your mind and soul apart trying to separate one part of you from the rest of you. Also be warned, I will not stop sending the dreams until you learn to to accept who you are."
"The dreams... wait.. YOU'RE the one who's been giving us all nightmares?"
"Yes." Badbane replied. "One of the gifts of our race."
"Stop it! My family doesn't need to be affected by that, if you're determined to punish someone for not accepting a foreign part of themselves, then punish the person specifically, don't punish their family! They don't need to be affected!" Harry protested vehemently. He would be damned if he would allow some centaur with a god complex to fuck with his family.
"There is no punishment. What you choose not to see is how your inability to accept something that is just as much a part of you as your hair and eyes affects them." The centaur stepped closer, causing Harry to back up. "You pretend that the power you gained, which is 100% yours and under no other living or dead being's control, is only hurting you when you lose that control, when in reality it is hurting everyone around you, but mostly your immediate family." Badbane walked him up against a wall. "The effects of which can be seen most in your mate who draws you out of it. Do you not remember how you learned that others could draw you out? Do you not remember how your eldest son was affected before that memory was wiped from his mind?" The centaurs voice was raising slightly. "Unless you learn to control this power, one day your youngest will be curious and he too will find out exactly what happens when daddy loses control and papa isn't there to pull daddy out of it because daddy took off his bracelet. I sent those dreams so you would realize that your choice to not learn to properly control the power gifted to you is having a negative effect on your family because you refused to see it any other way!"
Harry had angry tears in his eyes. "How dare you! That was an accident and the only reason my bracelet was off was because I was taking a shower at the time! How do you even know that?"
"Because I am a centaur and we are gifted with the sight. I saw it when it happened savior. Perhaps you should relive that memory." Badbane placed his hand on Harry's forehead and the young man's eyes rolled back in his head.
Harry was just finishing up a shower about a week before he had left for the Liridon clan. His bracelet was lying on the sink while he put on his clothes. "DON'T TOUCH ME!" Alden's voice rang through.
Harry bolted from the bathroom to find the boy being pulled out of the Potter/Snape private chambers by another student, a Gryffindor 4th year named Evan Moriattus. What the boy had been doing following Alden in the staff's wing of the school was anybody's guess. "Let go of him!" Harry demanded.
"Buzz off Professor Potter! This is between him and me!" Evan shouted.
"Let me GO you bastard!" Alden screamed. "Incendio!"
"Aguamenti! Redactum Skullus!" Evan countered.
"Engorgio Skullus!" Harry shouted. "Petrificus Totalus!" He bound both boys to the floor. "Why are you attacking each other?" He demanded.
"That little bastard started it!" Evan spoke up.
"I did not! You're the one who said that Professor Snape was a Death Eater who just got lucky." Alden protested.
"Yeah, and you punched me for it! I'm allowed to have my own opinions!" Moriattus argued back.
"Opinions sure, but calling him a Death Eater is like me calling you a mudblood because you're muggle born!" Alden yelled.
Evan growled, completely missing the boy's point. "How dare you call me that! When I get my hands on you, you're dead!"
Harry narrowed his eyes. "Stop it! Moriattus, he didn't call you that, he used the word as an example. Parker, we've been over this before, you are supposed to ignore things like that."
Harry's attempt at reconciling the boys didn't go over well, and when his attention was drawn to Teddy crying in the other room, Evan broke his bonds and ran over to Alden, throwing him to the floor and choking him. Alden was kicking and fighting back with all of his might, and the ruckus drew Harry's attention again.
What Harry didn't take into consideration was that Alden was partially to blame for the situation, as he had been making snide remarks before Evan broke his bonds, and Harry only saw the boy attacking his son who was flailing about.
Harry lost it. His eyes went red and he threw the child off of Alden with one hell of a wordless and wandless wingardium leviosa. Alden knew that Harry might wind up actually doing more harm than good, and looked around hoping that Severus might pop in. While he and Evan didn't exactly get along very well, that is to say not at all, he didn't want the boy hospitalized because of a fight that didn't even put his own life in danger.
When Harry threw the child to the ground and Severus still showed no sign of appearing, Alden looked to Harry's wrist and noticed he wasn't wearing the bracelet. "Shit..." The boy muttered. "Harry stop it! You'll get in trouble with Minerva!" He tried. Harry didn't seem to hear him. Alden went up to the young man and tugged on his sleeve, an action that got him a one-way trip to the other wall. "Harry!" He screamed, scrambling to get up. His foot was twisted and it hurt, but he couldn't let Harry do real damage to the other kid.
He ran up to Harry and pushed him down to the floor, to which Harry responded by casting a cutting hex at him. When Harry heard Alden crying, he looked down to the boy and his eyes widened. He had cut his son. Alden was bleeding on the floor because of him. "Oh god oh god oh god oh god!" Harry chanted, tears forming in his eyes while the red lines seemed to bleed out. Evan was unconscious on the ground. "What did I do? Oh god oh god, Alden, are you alright?"
Alden looked up at the man and gulped. "Is th-this what S-Severus feels every t-time?" He asked through broken sobs.
Harry was very nearly hyperventilating and trying to figure out what to do. "Obliviate!" Came Severus' voice from behind Harry. The spell shot past the young man and straight to Alden. Harry looked up with a tear-stained face. Severus glanced down with a look somewhere between furious and frightened.
Badbane released his grip on the young man who was sobbing on the floor. "Your training has helped in controlling your power immensely, but it has not given you complete control." The centaur said in a voice softer than it was before. "Just because your son can not remember, does not mean that it didn't happen. If you refuse to accept that this gift is as much a part of you as your own soul and learn to control it properly, then that scenario will happen again with any number of people."
Harry didn't respond, only laid on the floor with his body shaking and eyes leaking like faucets turned all the way on. After nearly 20 minutes of this, Harry finally had a reply. "It's not a gift." He said taking a hitched breath. "It's a curse."
"It is the gift of pure power, nothing else on this planet can even come close to such a thing." Badbane corrected. "As long as you treat it like an enemy, you will continue to rip yourself and those around you apart."
"It's NOT A GIFT!" Harry yelled.
Badbane shook his head and went back to his desk. He opened one of the drawers and pulled out a necklace which he took over to Harry who was just sitting up. "Take this, wear it, and visit your dragon friend. Perhaps she may explain what I have been unable to."
Harry sniffled and hiccuped. "I can't understand dragons, they're not serpents."
"With that you can. Think of it as a translator, you can understand what any being; human, creature, magical creature, or otherwise is saying while you wear it. It does not work on plants though, only things with vocal cords." The centaur explained. "By the way, Mr. Preece is in New Zealand."
(¯`·. Hp/Ss .·´¯)
Harry went back to the manor looking like something the cat dragged in. "Harry? What happened to you?" Severus asked.
"I paid a visit to Badbane, Firenze's brother. Preece is in New Zealand and I need to visit Norberta."
"Wasn't she sent to Romania?" Severus asked, looking over the young man.
"Yeah, but she flew back to Hogwarts to be with Hagrid." Harry replied.
"How did Badbane know where Preece was?"
"'The Sight', so he said."
"And why do you look like hell?"
"The bastard made me relive what I did to Alden that day when I wasn't wearing the bracelet..."
Severus' eyebrows found their way into an oblique position and he pulled Harry down on to the couch with him, wrapping his arms around him. "That was an accident."
"I still did it..."
"You were gone over the edge, it wasn't you."
"Yes it was..."
"No it-"
"Yes it was!" Harry protested, looking up at the man. "The power is mine, all mine. The Dark Lord isn't controlling it from beyond the grave, it's not inherently evil, it's power in its purest form and I am the one in control of it!"
"But you weren't in control of it at the time."
"That's my point!" Harry said, exasperated. "It's in my control, whether I can actually control it or not, therefore it was me! That's my... that's... my..." He felt like hitting his head up against something. "That was Badbane's point."
"What was?" Severus asked, completely missing that Harry had referred to Voldemort as 'the Dark Lord' yet again.
"If it was me who did that, then the power is very much a part of me whether I like it or not..." Harry muttered. He fingered at the necklace he was wearing. "That was his point."
"Where did you get that?" Severus asked, noting the neckwear.
"Badbane..." Harry replied. Perhaps now he didn't need to visit Norberta.
"Daddy..." Teddy said, wobbling into the room.
"What is it?" Harry asked, picking the boy up when he got to the couch.
"It huwts." Teddy replied, rubbing his mouth.
"Open wide and let daddy see." Harry instructed. The boy opened his mouth and Harry cast a small lumos. What he saw surprised him.
(¯`·. Hp/Ss .·´¯)
A/N: With Norberta, I'm following both the books and the movies. It's a she, as described in the books, but she's also friendly instead of violent, as described in the movies. Hope this helps avoid confusion. Also, thank you Alysisaacs17 for the necklace idea, and the Badbane idea. I swear, I might as well put you as a co-author. *giggles*