Chapter 11- Matches met

Aralas stretched out his back as he waited in front of the door that led to the Archmage quarters, letting out a deep sigh of contentment as his back popped a little and the tension was relieved. Idly he tugged at his clothes to straighten the familiar wool and leather of his robes and ran a hand through his hair to tuck any escapees back into line.

When the door opened he smiled warmly at his mother who stood in her Archmage robes with the hood down and the front undone showing the undyed cotton of her shirt. "Aralas" she greeted with a smile and he bowed hiding a small grin "Archmage the Terran wizards have completed their first day. I am sorry to report that there were no fatalities" he reported as solemnly as he could.

Silandra blinked then mock scowled "damn, we'll just have to try harder." She then leaned forward and caught the back of his robes and pulled him up with a strength that was belayed by her small frame. He hung in her grip limply as she held him rather like a mother saber cat would with her kitten as she carried him into the room.

"Enough of that, Aralas I would like to introduce you to Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. They have something to tell you." She told him, depositing him in front of two human men.

One was the chaperone for Gryffindors, an imperial of medium height with shoulder length black hair, a roguish smile and mischievous grey eyes. Those eyes were now focused on him like those of a hawk and the smile hidden behind an expression of careful neutrality.

The second man was much taller and thinner Breton who looked downright malnourished in brown patched and threadbare robes with short sandy brown hair that was liberally littered with grey hairs. Small scars littered his face, some looking years old and he carried himself with a slightly stooped posture as if he was trying to make himself appear smaller than he was, almost like a wolf when it as submissive. His light brown eyes watched Aralas with an almost desperate hope.

"Aralas, you know you were adopted, these two were friends to your original parents." Silandra supplied when the two men remained silent.

Sirius stepped forward and knelt down in front of him. "I am your godfather. Your parents' names were James and Lily Potter. Your name before you came here was Harry. Remus and I were best friends with your father at Hogwarts." He paused and licked his lips and looked down. "We were hoping we could be a part of your life pup" he said quietly.

Aralas stared at the man, then up at the other, Remus Lupin he reminded himself. Remus looked like he wanted to hope so desperately but was afraid to. Aralas cocked his head to the side and stared at the two men, his eyes flicking between the two of them. "Are they telling the truth Mama?" he asked seriously, his gaze never wavering.

"They are" Silandra replied from behind him.

"Do they want to take me away from my home and you?" he asked again and he saw a flash of fear in Sirius's eyes.

"No we don't" Remus said quietly, kneeling down to the same level as Sirius.

"Do the names Mooney and Padfoot ring any bells? Sirius asked him curiously, still not moving. Aralas cocked his head to the side again and considered them, digging through his memories from when he was young. His nightmare of the green flash was the closest thing he could remember.

"Sorry no, my earliest memory is of a scream and a green flash" he told them quietly.

Sirius sat back with a small intake of breath and Remus flinched before looking at him with slightly teary eyes.

"The killing curse. That's what the green flash was. It kills instantly, no reprieve, no counter curse." The tall Breton told Aralas, his voice a little thick. Aralas considered the two of them, thinking through what they had told him before turning to look back at his mother.

Silandra stood a few paces from him, her face grave as she watched the scene before her. "It's your choice Aralas, if you want to get to know them then we will invite them over during the winter break. If not then they will not be joining us" she told him, her face calm but serious.

Aralas turned back to them and considered for several more minutes before he nodded once "I would like to get to know you both" he decided. The pair blinked as what the boy had said sank in. "you do?" Sirius asked and Aralas nodded again.

Sirius let out a joyous whoop and lunged forward to pull the boy into a bear hug. Standing and swinging the boy around. Aralas was a little startled but he was used to more physical hugs from his aunts and uncles in the companions. Farkas in particular liked to swing him around as if he were little more than a Bosmer shaped sword. Remus was smiling happily, as if the New life festival had come early. Once Sirius put him down they went and sat near the fire.

The men telling him stories of their Hogwarts years. It was perhaps an hour later when another knock sounded at the door and at a shout from Silandra opened to reveal Serana. "Sil I didn't know you were entertaining. Should I come back later?" she asked uncertainly. Silandra looked scandalised but before she could say anything Aralas had already darted forward and dragged the vampire over to his seat, pushing her into it before jumping into her lap and curling up against her cool frame.

"Sirius, Remus may I introduce Serana Volkihar, my sister and Aralas's Godsmother. Serana, Sirius and Remus were friends with Aralas's original parents." Silandra introduced, her lips twitching as she watched her son slowly begin to drowse in the vampire's arms. It had truly been a long day for the young elf. Serana smiled down at her Godschild and began to stroke his hair, eliciting a soft purring noise before she turned her sharp orange eyes to the pair.

"Really" she mused staring them up and down, Sirius and Remus shuffled a little under her piercing stare, each trying valiantly to look unaffected. Serana hummed softly to herself as if she had confirmed something before turning her eyes to Silandra "I think that you owe me a story or three Sil" she declared after a moment, still petting Aralas's hair.

Silandra grinned and began to recount the situation to the amused vampire who had begun to hum a soft tune to the now sleeping figure in her lap. When it was finished the vampire turned her attention to the elfling before standing smoothly. "I think we can continue this in a little while. I'm going to take him to his bed." She declared to the nods of her companions.

She cradled the limp frame in one arm as she opened the door that led to the Arcanum, intending to do a final sweep for younger students on her way down.

She was met by a rather irked Urag. "I don't care what you have to do but get her out of here so I can close and clean." He demanded pointing to where a bushy haired figure was passed out on a book, her form nearly hidden by the stacks that surrounded her.

Serana sighed and stalked over to where Hermione was ensconced, wrapping an arm around the young girl's waist and gently heaved the girl up, cradling her in her other arm and shifting the pair until they were balanced on her hips. If she hadn't been a vampire she wouldn't have been able to support an eleven year old in each arm, but she managed.

She bid good night to the foul tempered orc who muttered to himself about oil stains on parchment as the door closed behind her. She stepped lightly down the stairs and nudged open the door to the hall of elements with her foot. The hall was empty and the candles were out, leaving only the center magelight to illuminate her way. Not that she needed it. She pushed open the front doors with her shoulder and kicked it shut behind her as she strode across the empty courtyard, humming a soft lullaby to her charges.

The door to tenacity hall was a little harder as it needed to be pulled open. She stared at the door, her fangs worrying her bottom lip as she pondered the problem, and then she had an idea. She shifted Aralas a little so her hand was free and used a telekinesis spell to open the door. Smiling smugly she slid through the open door and into the warm hall. There was a frantic looking red haired woman who came rushing over to the entryway.

She sighed in relief seeing the two missing children but froze as she noticed Serana holding them. "Good evening Mistress Weasely" Serana greeted calmly, striding smoothly past the woman, taking the children to their rooms. "Aralas passed out talking with his mother and I and I found Miss Granger in the Arcanum. Poor girl passed out from exhaustion if you believe it." She told the matron calmly as she placed Hermione in her bed and then leapt into the lift to step off at the third floor, from there she when to the small room and slid Aralas into his bed and pressing a kiss to his forehead, he mumbled a bit and turned on his side before settling.

She smiled at him before she turned and simply jumped off the balcony and landed lightly in the well before she strode calmly to the door, pretending not to notice that the matron was checking the necks of her charges for bite marks. She paused for a moment to allow her eyes to adjust to the dark courtyard before she stalked back to the hall of elements and the small gathering in the Archmage's quarters. Settling back into her chair and turning her gaze to her friend. "Now about that story" she purred watching her fiery eyes turning to fixate on the two wizards.

Malfoy was not happy. In fact he was a far from happy as it was physically possible to be. He lay in his bed and moaned at the pain in his side where one of the college students had landed a heavy blow with a training staff. Though truth be told his entire body was in similar condition, bruises littered his body and a small cut was still on his cheek below a truly magnificent black eye. The instructors had refused to heal the injuries as they deemed them "minor" and told him that if he couldn't heal them himself then he would have to wait for nature to do its work.

He would have sneered at that thought if his black eye and split lip would have allowed it. He was humiliated and unhappy, every exercise set to them he had failed miserably at, from the alchemy to the poetry. He thought back to the letter his father had sent him before this nightmare began, urging him to show the barbarians the measure of the house of Malfoy, to not allow himself to be bested by those of lesser blood. Instead he had been beaten soundly by a cat who had merely shrugged at the end of their bout, a look of satisfaction on its face before it had walked away to tell the instructor that Draco was unable to continue.

After that mutters of Milk drinker had followed him through the halls, even members of his own house looked at him with uncertain expressions, though they too were in similar shape. The second day had been no better, the morning exercise was even more hellish than the day before due to his aching muscles and the classes continued along the vein of magic that he didn't understand. He had been too exhausted to complain about the food or protest in the baths, not to mention the looks he was receiving from all the college members was pitying and just a little hostile. He stifled a small sniffle that might have belonged to a sob. For the first time in his life Draco Malfoy was being treated like he was nothing, and he didn't like this feeling. He turned over gingerly and closed his eyes, praying sleep would take away the pain.

There was a sound in the doorway but he ignored it hoping that whoever this person was would leave him to his misery. "Hey" a quiet voice called from the door, it was male and had the same accent he associated with the majority of the students. "Are you all right?" the voice asked again and there was the soft sound of footsteps coming closer.

"Leave me alone" he mumbled, his eyes still tightly closed and hoping he would leave.

The side of his bed dipped as someone sat down next to him. A hand was gently laid on his shoulder and the voice spoke again. "If you continue like this you won't make it much longer. Take it from someone who knows."

This caused the Malfoy scion to open his eyes and look at his visitor. He was tall and thin, looking to be about seventeen, his skin was pale and his dark brown hair brushed his shoulders. A pair of concerned brown eyes looked at him and a sympathetic expression sat on his face. "Why do you care?" he asked in a thick voice and the boy sighed.

"You remind me of my little brother. I don't want what happened to him to happen to you." The older boy admitted, a flash of grief passing over his face.

"what happened to him?" Draco asked quietly, uncertain if he should ask.

"he thought that since our father was the jarl no one would dare get on his bad side. And in town it was true, but the bandits came through, they didn't care who he was and cut him down where he stood." The older boy told him, his eyes watching Draco closely.

Draco swallowed in slight fear as the boy continued "you need to learn that your blood means nothing if you don't do you share. It gives you nothing beyond your appearance. It will achieve you nothing if you do not fight for it. You claim that your ancestry makes you superior, but know this: we all have ancient ancestry. We all have families that go back generations. They wouldn't be families otherwise. You are not special because your family knows the names of those hundreds of years ago, the only way that you can achieve is if you are willing to bleed for it, to fight for it. To die for it." The older boy fixed his serious eyes on Draco's steel evident in his gaze.

"No opinion should matter but your own. If you only spout the words of others, then you are their slave, they then own you as long as you speak their words. Remember that little one." With that chilling speech the boy stood and walked to the door, turning at the threshold and adding "right now you are a slave to your father. Until you learn and speak for yourself you will be the worst kind of slave, the one who wants to be enslaved. Goodnight." With that he turned and left the room.

Draco felt the words ring in his ears you are a slave he shook his head, trying to drive those words from his mind but the stayed, echoing with dreadful overtones. He felt tears well up in his eyes and stream down his face and he fell back onto his bed, curling into a small ball clutching his pillow as he buried his face in it and heaved great gulping sobs into its muffling embrace, eventually falling into a restless slumber that was filled with shadowy dreams where he toiled away in a gleaming house wearing only a ratty pillow case as massive beings shouted unintelligible words at him angrily.

Remus Lupin shuffled nervously and fidgeted with the strangely decorated dark brown leather armour the soft fur lining and the heavy grey fur cloak warded off the chill of the cold morning. A pair of tall fur lined boots with thick soles guarded his feet and warm fur gloves covered his hands to the elbow.

A thick tooled leather belt encircled his waist and from that hung a simple steel sword and dagger. His wand was slid into a slim sheath that sat on the inside of his right boot like a dagger and a fur lined leather hood sat on his shoulders, ready to shield his ears. Wrapped around his throat was a woollen scarf that was stitched into a circle and could be pulled up over his face to protect it from the icy winds that blew off the sea.

The entire outfit felt strange but comforting at the same time, as if they were the opening words to a new chapter he desperately wanted to read. He, Silandra and Sirius were standing in the dark courtyard waiting for someone to arrive, on the whole the Archmage had been very quiet, speaking of his condition not at all, merely telling him that he would go to stay with experts on all things werewolf and extricating a promise that he would listen to them, not that she needed to. The promise of a way out of the nightmare of his existence, whether through a cure or through mastering his curse was too much for him to not give his complete and undivided efforts. He had no idea where the students were but he knew they were preparing for a field trip to somewhere outside the campus and as a result the courtyard was dead quiet with only the faint sound of wind in the leaves to break the silence.

A hand fell on his shoulder and he looked over a Sirius gratefully as the shorter man who he viewed as his brother smiled at him gently. "It'll be fine Moony, they can help you" the dark haired man reassured and Remus nodded, taking deep cleansing breaths.

The sound of hard boot claimed his attention as a trio strode through the gate. It was a woman and two identical men. The woman wore leather and metal armour that hid little and hugged her form tightly and over that a russet furred cloak to ward against the chill. She had long auburn hair decorated with a few braids but what drew his attention was the three long slashes made of emerald green paint that decorated her face, icy blue-grey eyes stared out from their green background and gleamed with a wild light. The two men behind her were obviously twins though one had his dark hair short and wore dark grey armour with a wolf motif.

The other had long hair filled with braids and dressed in heavy metal plate with brown fur around the edges, showing the insulation. His wolf informed him that they were from the same pack as Silandra, with the red head being her beta. The trio stalked toward them and inclined their head to Silandra before the woman stepped forward and hugged the Archmage. The pair exchanged a few whispered words before she turned her pale eyes on Remus, eyeing him carefully and seeming to dissect him down to his very soul.

"I see what you mean Sil, he looks terrible" she remarked before striding over to him and grabbing his chin, forcing him to meet her eyes.

He made an attempt to free his face but was silenced when she growled at him. She turned his face this way and that, examining the scars that littered it and gave a huff, releasing him and looking back at Silandra "This will take a while" she informed the elf who nodded "but it can be repaired." The red head assured before turning back to Remus.

"I'm Aela, this is Vilkas and Farkas" she indicated her companions "We're from the Jorrvaskr pack, you're coming with us and we'll get your wolf sorted out." She told him briskly and he nodded, almost in shock. The woman turned on her heel and walked back out through the gate "well? You coming or what new blood?" she demanded over her shoulder. He shook his head to clear it and hurried to follow her out into the cold, snow laden air.

"This is Saarthal, the capital city of the seventh empire of the Nords. Its destruction led to Ysgamor mustering the five hundred companions and leading them in war against the snow elves. This is where twelve years ago Master Tolfdir and then apprentice Stillglade found the eye of Magnus and set off the chain of events that would lead to her becoming the arch mage during the incident that we discussed yesterday" the blond man told the assembled Hogwarts students as he lead them through the dusty and partially restored archeological site.

The children looked around with wide eyes at the ornate dragon heads that loomed over them in the massive atrium and some of the girls grew wide eyed as they walked over the scaffolding to the entrance of the passage that lead to the chamber that held the eye.

"What's that smell?" asked a young girl from the Slytherin group, wrinkling her nose at the scent of balsam, dust, rotting wood, rust and an almost sickly sweet odor that permeated the tunnel.

"That Ms. Greengrass is the smell of a Nordic burial chamber, the wrappings they used to preserve the bodies after burial have a very distinct smell due to the oils that they soaked in to keep them from rotting. This is combined with the oils used on the corpse's skin and the herbs packed into the abdomen to prevent the dead from rising as Drauger. The slight smell of smoke is from the Drauger that Archmage Silandra had to burn through to clear this path." The teacher answered jovially, ignoring the slightly green complexions of his charges as he continued.

"We now believe that it was the practice of the time to leave a few strategically placed bodies untreated but still mummified. These would be left to guard the tombs in their afterlife." One of the Ravenclaw girls screamed as they rounded a corner to see a desiccated husk of a corpse propped against the walls, its hands clutching a sword and its face set in a terrifying leer.

"Though some of the guards never turned it seems" the teacher added as he continued to walk confidently through the halls, leading the shivering students onward into the earth.

As they walked Aralas quietly pointed out things he recognised from his mother's story and smirked when Weasely touched one of the Drauger on a dare from Dean only for the corpse's sword to fall with a clang onto the boy's foot. He had given an almighty yell but had quickly stopped when the eyes of everyone turned to him. The instructor had simply given Ron a stare that could have ignited wood and turned away, leaving the embarrassed boy to shuffle along with a bruised foot for the rest of the trip.

Lucius Malfoy, pureblood of wizarding Britain, acknowadged third richest man in the same area, member of the dark lord's inner circle and the man who practically owned the minister for magic Cornelius Fuge sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose whilst his other hand spun an expensive crystal tumbler filled with Ogden's finest reserve.

His lucky star seemed to have waned since the day he had lost his money pouch in Diagon alley whilst shopping for his son's school equipment. Almost overnight his world had shifted, all because of the arrival of one being: Silandra Stillglade. In one fell swoop she had shattered years' worth of work, strolling into the atrium of the ministry with a dozen heavily armoured soldiers and holding a document that contained a message from the Empress of an until then unheard of empire in a newly discovered world and delivered by a woman who claimed to be a wood elf from the realm of Valenwood.

The fact that the Empress herself had eventually stopped by to verify the truth of this statement had truly thrown the Wizengamot into turmoil that hadn't been seen since the statute of secrecy had been placed into effect. The fact that the world of Nirn had no muggles had only deepened the chaos that now gripped the wizarding government. He took a deep swallow of his Firewhiskey and closed his eyes as the comforting burn slid down his throat. His son had not made matters better, alienating the ambassador's son who had chosen to attend Hogwarts as a sign of goodwill.

He cursed his son's stupidity again, if Draco had befriended the boy it would have opened up a literal new world for the house Malfoy to expand their wealth and influence. Instead the boy now had a dim view towards all things Malfoy and by a larger extent all things pureblood, though his friendship with the Longbottom scion was a small ray of hope in the agenda of pureblood supremacy.

There was the soft tapping at the window indicating an owl and he placed his glass down with a sigh before he heaved himself up from his deep leather chair and strode to the window. A sleek barn owl rested on the sill and regarded him with regal black eyes. It held out its leg and he took the crisp white envelope from its ties with practiced ease, slitting it open as the owl ruffled its feathers once and swooped away into the night. He looked at the letter and breathed deeply through his nose to preserve his calm, the letter was from his account manager at Gringotts.

Dear Mr. Malfoy

It is my duty to inform you that your attempted purchase of the discussed retail locations in Diagon Ally was refused as they have already been purchased by incoming Nirnian merchants and are currently being managed by the recent Stillglade account. As such I regret to inform you that your projected profits for the next fiscal year will be greatly reduced. This in itself has resulted in your family no longer holding the prestigious place as the wealthiest active account in wizarding Britain. You have our condolences and we await your reply to set an appointment to discuss what action you wish to take.

Sincerely,

Fangrot

Malfoy account manager

Lucius stared at the page in disbelief. Curse those goblins! He though as he crumpled the letter with a snarl and threw it into the fire. This was why he didn't let the sneaky little bastards to manage his accounts without his permission, they were incompetent and useless.

He threw himself back into his chair and grabbed his glass once more, tossing back the amber liquid and pouring another measure before he turned his gaze back to the fireplace and stared into the flames cursing the goblins, the Nirnians, and especially cursing Stillglade.

A/N

SURPRISE! I am in fact alive, my summer was a hectic time and I rarely even saw my computer so I hope that now I am back the story shall continue. Hope you all had a lovely story and thank you so much for keeping with me even through the silence.

Travel safe! Trojan Seeress