Chapter 08

The many mates arrive

Harry's POV

The next morning I walk down from my bed and wonder how Sirius will react when he hears what I've been through this time, but when I enter the common room, is my arm grabbed and am I pulled onto a small chair next to a square-framed table, where Fred, George and Lee are sitting on the other three sides.
I look from one to the other, all of them looking at me worriedly and then feel something wet lying on my pants. Looking down, my eyes widen at the sight of a large black dog with wild fur and I whisper at the twins: "Are you two mad?" But the twins whisper: "We were at his place when we received the letter, we had no choice."

I nod and absent-mindedly start to pet Sirius' fur, while I whisper: "Dobby, move Umbridge to her office and lock her there, I don't want her anywhere near the students, not after last night." And I can almost hear the elf whispering through the wind: "Yes, my liege." Making me shake my head before smiling slightly.
Then George says: "Well, Harry, we heard of your vision." And Fred goes on: "And of your near-death experience." And Lee ends: "So tell us." Before they all chorus: "What happened." And George whispers: "And don't worry, we already placed notice me not spells on the table and chairs before you came down."

I nod and say: "First of all, it was in no way a near-death experience." This makes the three boys look at me with a raised eyebrow and I say: "Fine." Before I tell them everything. About the dream, how I convinced Ron and the others of it, how we wanted to check at Grimmauld if Sirius was there and how we were caught.
I then go into detail about Umbridge and how she looked as I tell them about our time in her office, how Hermione led her to Gwarp and the Centaurs and again go into detail on how she looked when she begged me for help how she looked after I gave her away to the Centaurs, using her own words against her.

I then explain about Luna and what she told me, about the sword and the ancient heritage of my mum, before telling them of our Thestrall flight to the Ministry, our journey to the Hall of Prophesies and Luna made my friends, the Death Eaters and me know that the Prophesy was a fake before I told the Death Eaters of my heritage.
Then I finally end: "And then the Death Eaters brought us back to Hogwarts, I went to see Professor Snape, discovered about my other Ancient Heritages and that my mother married me off to Daphne Greengrass and finally I send Ancient Potter Mate Circlets to 7 different people to bond them to my many lines.
I escorted Daphne to the Slytherin common room, came here, talked with Lee and went to bed. And that is the whole story. So other than Umbridge trying to end my line like she's apparently been trying since the Prophesy, nothing dangerous happened as Luna and I had everything under control the whole time, alright?"

I sigh and stop, while the twins look at me shocked and one of them says: "And that whole story." And the other goes on: "Was told to us." And they chorus: "As if we're discussing yesterday's weather." Making me hit myself on the head, before I stand up and say: "If you'll excuse me, I want to know if my mates arrived yet."
And I leave the three men behind, walking out of the portrait hole and down the staircase, pretty soon followed by Ron, who asks: "The twins wanted to know what happened?" And I nod before he asks: "You do know Snuffel is following us, right?" And I stop instantly, turning around on my axe and seeing the dog walking over.

Again I want to hit myself on the head, but then I take a deep breath and whisper: "At least Umbridge is locked up in her office. She can't do a thing right now. That's at least something." Ron nods in agreement and with Hermione and Neville joining us, Neville looking at the dog weirdly, do we walk further down the staircases.
"So Harry, are you going to pick up Daphne before you head for breakfast?" Neville asks and I smile as I say: "Yes I will, and I really hope my mates will be at breakfast too." The boy smiles at me and Ron says: "I still don't understand why 8 circlets were made, when you only have 5 lines to hold up." But I shrug, not knowing either.

Daphne's POV

Waking up to the shocked eyes of my best friend Tracy Davis, who seems to stare at my forehead is a good way to remember that I am now bonded to marry my fiancé, Harry Potter, the future king of England. Still it's quite annoying and I ask: "Did you really think he would never want to marry me, or something?"
And the girl retaliates as she realizes that I'm awake before she says: "It's just amazing that you wear it now, when everyone knows that Potter went on another dangerous adventure last night. You know, after that whole thing with the vision he supposedly had?" I nod and get out of my bed, getting ready and as I do, I say:
"I know, he visited Professor Snape afterwards. Did a Heritage Potion on recommendations of Malfoy senior. It was followed by me getting this and several others shooting up into the Night sky. I imagine they went to worlds outside this Universe or something." The girl nods and we leave our dorm and after that the common room.

Only, when we have passed the wall hiding our common room, do I get a pleasant surprise, as Harry is leaning against the opposite wall, smiling as he sees me and walking over, bowing like he did last night and kissing my hand as he says: "Good morning, Lady Greengrass, Lady Davis." He greets Tracy with a nod.
My friend is shocked silent at Harry's royal behavior and I personally can't be happier at how well Harry adepts to being our future king. He then stands next to me and asks: "Care for a shared breakfast?" Making me laugh as it's an informal invitation of a young lord asking his fiancé and or partner, still quite traditional sounding.
I nod and happily lie my hand on the inside of his elbow, Harry lifting it a little in invitation and we happily leave the dungeons, Malfoy the only one not almost catching flies by their mouths falling open when I pass them and I whisper: "I'm not sure I want to know how the other Houses will respond." But Harry shrugs and says:

"No matter what they do, I'm a Lord of five families now and anyone touching you will get my Ancient Lines on their neck. And – I have back-up." And he sends a smile over his shoulder, causing me to look behind me and making me see a large bear-sized black-furred dog following us only a few paces away.
Realizing that Sirius Black will step in if anyone harms us, I whisper: "Is it even safe to have him here?" And Harry whispers: "It is as long as Umbridge stays locked in her office like I told Dobby to do." Making me giggle before we enter the hall. Here Harry looks from Slytherin to Gryffindor table and then at me.

I smile as I realize he wonders where to walk with me and that he wants me to make the choice and decide to give him some leeway as I know I will be better accepted by his friends than he will be by mine and so I softly motion him for the red and gold table, Harry smiling and escorting me to where Granger and Weasley are seated.
Longbottom is opposite them and Harry sits opposite Weasley as I sit beside him. The dog then climbs over the seat and lies his head on Harry's lap as Harry lies some meat on his plate, together with some food he quickly starts preparing for himself. We then start eating, but while we do, do I suddenly notice 2 strange things.
One is that Harry is secretly feeding the dog the meat and beef he takes from the table and has grabbed an extra goblet, which he fills with water and uses to give Black some water and the other is that he seems distracted, looking around the table and over to the doors to the Great Hall almost every other bite of his meal or so.

Lea's POV

The next morning, after hearing that horrendous tale from that diary of that poor, poor man named Salazar, I wake up early, feeling the need to get to Hogwarts and meet the one who gave me the circlet still around my forehead. I wake up and see that, while it's still early, I'm not the only one early woken by the need.
All my other mates are also awake and only Merlin is still asleep, even if the pain written clearly across his face breaks my heart and makes me know he either didn't get enough sleep or had a good night sleep. Still, by the sound of moving and rustling, coming from the female part of the room, I can tell he is the only one still asleep.

Hating myself, but knowing he would want to meet Harry as much as we do, I softly wake Merlin and we all get dressed. We then softly go to wake Madam Rosmerta, but she seems to already be awake and working down in her tavern. When she sees us entering the place, she quickly runs over to one of her fellow workers.
I hear her saying the younger woman has control over the tavern while she goes upstairs to fetch something and smile at the devotion the woman seems to feel for us. Ten minutes later we are walking up the path to the amazing castle, Merlin keeping Godric's diary close to his heart and his bright eyes dawned with pain and grief.

I sigh as I look at him and whisper to Ventus: "I really hope meeting Harry will cheer Merlin up a bit." Ventus nods and Terra says: "I personally can't wait until we can tell that You-know-who guy that he's befouling his ancestors name. Will be nice payback for him killing our mate's parents." And I have to agree with the man.
We then enter the grounds, passing a pair of gates with statues on both sides of the gates and crossing a large set of grounds to an open field surrounded by gigantic stones set in a large circle. Seeing these stones set here seems to bring a fond smile to Merlin's face and Aqua asks: "Does this look familiar to you, Merlin?"
The man nods and says: "This is where Hogwarts started. The plan of making a school here, started with courses Arthur allowed Godric and the others to hold here and when Arthur moved away he allowed those four to change the castle and make it what you see here today. But it started all with this Stone Circle."

This makes us smile, glad that Merlin still has something of this castle to remind him of the better times and we enter a large, bridge made of wood with open windows and a torch hanging from the wall in-between every few windows. Walking through it, over a gigantic rock and cliff-filled ravine, we enter a large courtyard.
In front of us is a gigantic wall, with a huge clock at the top floor and in the middle of the courtyard there is a square-structured fountain with a statue in every corner, the statue representing a raven holding a serpent in his beak. Merlin seems shocked at this and asks: "When on earth was that added to this courtyard?"
"Why? What does it mean, Merlin?" Aerith asks and Merlin says: "The Raven stands for one of the four Houses, Rowena's and the snake stands for Salazar's House, Slytherin. I just don't understand why they would build a statue representing the two of them fighting as Rowena was Salazar's mistress and – some believed – 2nd wife."

This shocks us and Even says: "It seems not only the history between Gryffindor and Slytherin has been twisted." Making Merlin sigh before he says: "I really have my work cut out for me." Before he leads us into the tower and over to a portrait of a fat woman dressed in a black dress and sitting in a grapevine filled garden.
Merlin smiles at the woman and says: "Ah how wonderful, you're still here, fair, fair Elisabeth." The woman seems shocked, while I can barely believe that the portrait is actually moving and she says: "Only one person can still know my name after all these centuries. Merlin, is that you? Have you really returned?"
Merlin nods and while starting to cry does the portrait move and I see a long, but small hallway appear behind her portrait frame. Merlin smiles and says: "Helga made this and a few other secret passageways when we got our fourth rank of First years arriving at Hogwarts. It was to help them get around easier."

He then leads us through the hallway, patting the portrait on her painted shoulder as she cries and when we pass through the other side, I look around at the highest, biggest room with more staircase around than I can count. "And I thought Where nothing Gathers was a big room." Ienzo whispers and I agree with him.
Merlin smiles and says: "The Grand Staircase. My own creation to Hogwarts. How wonderful to know this is still here too. Ah, now I recognize that exceedingly large hall I mentioned yesterday, it must be the Great Hall. Godric founded it there to stay there until they had found their nursery/orphanage for the younger years."

To this, not wanting the man to think back on the tale of last night, I say: "Then lets head there. It's probably where Harry is, right?" Merlin nods and we take three sets of staircases, structured in half a square for each floor, down to a small staircase on the right, which leads to a large hall, while there is another set of stairs on our left.
We turn right and into the hallway, which has a large golden statue in front of us, stationed in front of a large stained-glass window, with a large set of wooden doors on our left leading to another stone courtyard and another set of wooden doors on our right leading to a large stone hall with high stained glass windows and bustling with noise.

We turn to the hall and look around, while we all know that there is no way we can recognize our mate even if we see him. Instead I decide to gather some intell on the situation at hand and see students sitting at four tables, all wearing black cloaks, yet each table seems to have their own color added to the trim.
The table on the far left has a green trim and I see a serpent embroidered on the chest of a young man sitting there. The table next to it has a blue trim attached to the cloaks and a raven embroidered on the chest, red on the cloaks sitting at the table next to it, a lion on the chest and yellow trims on the far right, with a badger on the chest.
Then suddenly I notice a green trim sitting in between the red at the third table and looking closer, I see that the cloak is worn by a girl – who wears the same circlet as we all do. I look shocked and look at her friends. Opposite of her is a brown haired girl, next to the brunette is a red-head and next to the circlet wearing girl is …