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Chapter 7: Changes...
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A/N :) Here it is! Finally! Thank you for not killing me, and please refrain from doing so if you don't like Harry's inheritance. What can I say; I got a whopping three votes for it as opposed to one for each of the other two. So, that s what I went with. Can't blame you, after how long I made you guys wait for, well, every chapter, but still... Anyway, enjoy!

Chapter 7: Changes..._

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - A Week Later -

Harry sat in the Library of the massive manor that was the home of about half of the Shadows coven, the rest preferring to live in various, more private homes. It had been a little odd at first, living with so many vampires. Knowing how strong they were and how easily they could take him out, asleep or awake. But as he had gotten to know most of them, he had become more comfortable. One in particular, Harper, had made it his personal goal to befriend Harry. He was hyper and fairly noisy and insisted on drinking 'Sparky Cola' despite being a vampire, but he was friendly and had introduced Harry to practically everyone at the manor upon first arriving.

As he flipped a page in one of the many journals he had found to be useful here (apparently it was tradition for vampire covens to have every member keep a journal to be read by new members to gain a more in depth view of important points in history, so that they could form their own conclusions without the influence of any propaganda), Harry remembered the surprise he had felt when he had been told that Harper had been a muggle who had known almost nothing of the magical world until he had been turned by his mate, Tyr.

Unlike his better, brighter half, Tyr was stand-offish and had spent most of their first meeting glaring at Harry. It wasn't until later that he had learned that it had been because he had been jealous of all the time Harry had spent with Harper. Harper had admitted this to him in private along with the fact that he thought Tyr was unbelievably cute when he was like that. And the little tidbit that he was very possessive and 'even more ferocious in bed, and I mean teeth bearing in an actual fucking growl that sends shivers down my spine and makes me harder than-' at which point a blushing Harry had slapped his hands over his ears and walked away. This had, of course, led to him admitting that he was 100% virgin and just because he liked to look smoking hot, didn't mean that he had gone any further than a few awkward kisses.

He couldn't help but chuckle to himself. It had been anything but funny at the time, but what could he say? Distance made the heart grow fonder... He shook himself out of his thoughts when he realized he had read the same paragraph three times.

"Ugh... Many parts of the personality that he showed at school were fake. Nothing but part of a script, but one thing at least was real: he hated research. He would much rather leave this to Hermione, to sit in front of books for - Three Hours! Jeez. His stomach growling reminded him that it was past time for dinner. 'That s odd,' he thought, 'Usually, someone would have come down to get me if I didn't show in the kitchen before 7...'

He exited the library with a shrug and made his way down the hall, consequently passing Derricks study and noticing the slightly raised voices of the original five vampires he had met, as well as some of his new friends. He hesitated to knock, but remembering Derrick telling him that everything save the private bedchambers were open to him, he went ahead.

"Yes?" He heard Derricks' reply through the polished oak door.

"Um... It's me. Can I come in?"

He could hear someone make a comment, sounded like Telemachus, before being silenced with a sharp retort. "Of course, Harry."

"Sorry to interrupt," he said as he made his way inside and noticed that all eyes were on him. "I just, uh, heard some voices as I passed. Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, kid. Everything's fine. Just a minor - oomph!" Harry winced in sympathy as Kurt gave Telemachus a quick - but no doubt powerful - elbow to the gut. "What?!" he growled at the shorter man. "The last thing he needs is something more to worry about! We'll decline and it will all blow over, no big deal!"

"That s not how this will work and you know it! This is a big deal and he deserves to know."

"What's going on guys?" Harry asked suspiciously.

"Come in and shut the door." Derrick said. He waited for Harry to comply before he continued. "I received an owl earlier today. It appears to be from Riddle." He held up a piece of parchment, "He's... He's requesting and audience."

"...He's going to ask you to join him again isn't he?"

"It's very likely."

"What are you going to say?" Harry would like to think that they were going to decline, but he knew that that could be extremely dangerous. Derrick had to protect his coven. If he refused and Riddle won the war, then he could be forfeiting all their lives. Heck, even if the Light won, they would continue to suffer the prejudice of the Ministry. He kept his eyes locked on Derrick s and tried not to think about what it would mean if they accepted.

Derrick leaned back in his chair, his hands rubbing the tense muscles of his neck. "I don't really know." His eyes shifted to glance at Orin. That familiar far-off look slid onto his face, as it always did when he was remembering something. "Back then... after things took a turn for the worst, he never asked for anything. If he wanted it, he took it. If he wanted an audience with you, he showed up at your house. There was no request. But..."

"But the Riddle we knew was a stickler for etiquette." Kurt finished for him. Derrick nodded thoughtfully. "You can't possibly think that he's miraculously recovered. We tried everything. Nothing worked. Riddle is dead, it's Voldemort that lives."

"I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the possibility." Koga stated from where he was leaning against the Fireplace. "It's possible. We have no way of knowing how that could affect the spell. Hell, we never even found out what spell they used to begin with!"

"Even if any of it did counteract the spell, the experience itself would be enough to drive any man insane, let alone the memories of what he did!" Kurt replied.

"We don't know what going through something like that would do to someone. There isn't exactly precedent for any of this. And we can't be sure that he would actually remember anything."

"Come off it Koga! There's no way -"

Harry, who had been following the conversation with avid interest, jerked his head up to look at the strategist. "That's it!" Everyone turned to look at him in surprise, but he didn't bother explaining. Instead, he turned and ran from the room. There were a few seconds of confused silence before the group moved to follow him.

They found him in the library once again, shifting through one of the many piles of journals on one of 7 tables. Roarke huffed out a breath, "Harry, one of the first things we did when we noticed the change was interview everyone that was present at the ambush. Vampire and wizard. No one heard what curse he used. You're not going to find any clues in their journals."

Harry just shook his head and continued searching. After a few more minutes he held up a book so old that even the preservation charms that had been placed on all the books in the library hadn't been able to prevent the edges of it from browning and becoming slightly tattered. "This isn't from the ambush." He finally said, as he carefully flipped through the pages.

"Then when is it from. It looks ancient!"

"It's from the days when the wizarding councils ruled. I wanted to learn more about it so I got some of the oldest books out."

"I still don t understand how this is supposed to help." Grumbled Roarke.

A few moments more and Harry placed the open book on an empty table and slid it towards the massive man. He and the others leaned over it to read the neat script.

'3rd Day of the twelfth month of 1253

The council met today to discuss possible solutions for our current predicament. While it is much less pressing than having a live dragoness nesting on our meeting grounds, it is one that we all feel deserves our time. It was thanks to a rather ingenious potion that we were able to remove her and her eggs from the premises without harm to either to her or ourselves. However, when we felt the need to reward the individual responsible for it, we found that there were several witches and wizards eager to be acknowledged as the potions creator. Without any intent to impugn the honor of such reputable citizens, it occurred to us that the various acclaimants could not all have had a hand in its birth. However, having no record to suggest the true creator we had to hire several people of a notable reputation to search out this remarkable individual. Having found him - One Quintinius Fox, a man of an advanced age that had not heard of our use of his sleeping draught - we turn now to the issue of assuring that credit is given where credit is due.

At the end of the meeting we had made our decision, and so it is that the Archives for magical creations and discoveries is founded along with the Councils newest mandate stating that all magical beings must report their discoveries and creations to a Council member in order to have it placed on record. These records will be handed to the Archive Master. In the spirit of fairness and security, the duty will be passed off to a different Councilman every 13 months. The only record of the current Archive Master being kept at our Chief Meeting grounds.

With all the chief duties and issues of the day over and done, we began discussing the upcoming celebration for the Councils 2847th year of bringing peace and security to the magical peoples of the world. We can say with great pride that any magical beings that have followed the council s mandates have been free of any harm from muggle administrations.'

"This can help us a lot. You guys told me that the Ministry took over all of the duties of the Council - for Britain at least - But what if the archive itself is still out there? Known only by the descendants of the last archive master?"

"It's a nice idea, kid, but even if the archive did survive, the Council had wizards and magical beings from all over the world. Today, that's hundreds of thousands of people spread out from here to kingdom come. There s no record of the wizards that were on the last council." Telemachus piped in again. Harry liked the guy, really he did, but there were times when he made him so frustrated. Like how he would revert to calling him kid when he thought Harry had done something cute or childish.

"But there IS a record of the last Archive Master."

"Yeah, at the Councils Chief Meeting Grounds. Hate to break it too you, but no one knows where that is."

"I have a good idea about where it might be."

"And how might that be?" asked Derrick, taking a step towards the arguing men.

"I actually got the clue from something I learned in history class at a muggle school. It's a fairly famous place, since no one has been able to say for sure what it was used for and because it has been around for so long."

"...And where is that?" Derrick asked with a frustrated sigh. He wasn't a particularly patient person and Harry knew it. The brat was teasing him!

"Stone Hinge." He looked at each person in the group, pleased to see that Koga was nodding his head, staring intensely at the journal.

"It makes sense Derrick. It says in that they were going to be celebrating the anniversary of the council and the time matches up with when Stone hinge was believed to have been finished." The man said.

"That s some impressive reasoning, Harry." Piped up Axis. Over the last week Harry had been surprised to learn that, contrary to his first impression, Axis wasn't a particularly talkative person unless he was trying to get someone to relax. He often found himself comparing Axis to a centaur because even when he did speak, he could give an hour long lecture without actually SAYING anything. He would have done well in politics.

"Thank you, but it still leaves a lot of work. If the bloodline has died out we're out of luck. And even if it hasn't there could still be hundreds of people that are his descendants. We don't know how long Voldemort is willing to wait."

Derrick nodded. "Yes, and no matter how it sounded in the letter, we must believe that he's still Voldemort. We can't take the risk of assuming that Riddle's back before we know for sure that the curse has been broken. I ll leave Koga in charge of organizing a group to handle the trip to Stone Hinge and the subsequent search. Roarke, Axis, And Telemachus will be handling the research for the group. And all descendants need to be checked out, not just the direct ones. I will Owl Voldemort and try to stall but I don't think I ll be able to hold him off for more than a month, so Koga, any and all members of the coven will be open to you. Just let me know who you need." He chewed on his bottom lip for a moment before giving another quick nod to dismiss everyone.

He reached out to grab Harry's' arm as the wizard tried to follow Koga and the others out. "And where do you think you're going?"

"Um... to help Koga?" He looked Derrick in the eye for a moment before he jerked his arm out of the vampires grasp. He had that guarded determined look in his eye. Derrick recognized it easily enough as the one he had worn when he was asking all those questions on the first day they met. It took him aback a little because he couldn't figure out what he had done wrong. "I'm not a kid Derrick. I discovered this and I want to be part of it. I'm not going to sit on the sidelines while the grown-ups handle everything."

"No! Harry that's not why I'm stopping you."

"Then why?"

With a sigh he explained. "I wasn't lying when I said we need all the help we can get. But you have only a week or so before you come-of-age and we have no way of knowing whether or not you have creature blood that will mature. After I send that owl I'm going to need your help in making a few batches of vitamin supplement and energy restoration potions. If you do have any creature blood, then the changes will take a lot out of you. It's important to have them ready, just in case. After your birthday your free to do what you want, but as of now, I'd really rather you not die from dehydration and malnutrition."

"Oh." And it was a good thing Harry was a boy, because if he hadn't been, the light flush the spread from one cheek to the other would have been too much to resist. Thankfully for both of them, Derrick was a strict ladies man. Gods help whoever got their hands on that ass though. Harry had been a bit wild since he had gotten comfortable at the manor. He had massive amounts of caffeine (Harpers influence no doubt), he'd spent the first few days snacking at odd hours instead of actually eating meals, The very first day he had charmed every item in the room he had been given to change to a random color every fifteen minutes (Telemachus had gone in to try to convince him to eat dinner with them, only to come running out from a room that was decorated in the most hideous shades of yellow brown and pink), had spelled all the faucets to spout nothing but a drink called 'Fruit Punch' for 24 hours, and stayed up for 2 days straight before crashing in the 1st floor lounge. He remembered seeing Tyr carry him up to his room after that.

Not that Derrick and the others didn't understand. From what little they d been able to get from him about his life, he hadn't had much freedom. It was normal for him to want to try out different things. While he had laughed about Koga coming out from taking a shower with the red liquid pouring off him, he hadn't pulled any other pranks, He also hadn't tried to do the whole Hyper and obsessive thing again, and he had finally settled his room into a mix of emerald green, gold, and black. Even so, every now and then he would catch him staring off into space, looking in some direction or other without actually seeing anything. Harry knew what he wanted to do about the war, there was no doubt there, but it was what he wanted to do with himself that was bothering him.

"I'm going to send that owl. You know where the potions lab is?"

"Yeah. I'll get something from the kitchens and then head down to set everything up." They left the library and parted ways in silence.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ July, 30th 11:45 P.M.

"Alright, Koga's team has managed to cut the list down to 8 people and Roarke's group is getting their addresses. So will you please take the potion now?" Harper asked, moving from the doorway to take a seat on the bed.

Harry paced back and forth in front of him. "What about Derrick? Any word yet from Voldy?"

"For the last time, NO!" Harper sighed. "C'mon Harry, it's really important that you're out when that clock hits 12."

Harry chewed on his lip and glanced at the clock. Logically, he knew what would happen. Kurt had tutored him on creature inheritances every night since they had met. He had learned a lot, the guy was a great teacher, but it was still scary.

He sighed, gave his head a quick shake, and started pacing again. He should be able to do this! He had faced so many scary things before: the rooms that guarded the sorcerer's stone, the troll on Halloween, the Chamber of Secrets! Dementors and werewolves and murderers! 'But' he thought, 'even when I went into those situations, I knew what I needed to know: I was either going to live or die. Here, though . I might change into something else entirely and there is no clue as to what it might be. Or who I'll be afterwards.'

Harper flopped back onto the bed. He glanced up when he heard the door open to see Tyr step in. Harpers lover raised a questioning eyebrow, tilting his head in Harry s direction. Harper could only shake his head and give a half-hearted shrug. They both glanced at the clock. 11:50. Not good. Tyr opened the door wider and motioned to Harper to leave. As he passed him, Harper whispered "Better go easy on him. If he gets too upset, the potion won't work anyway and I'll kick your ass."

With his mate out of the room he approached the pacing wizard and cleared his throat. Harry's head jerked up. "Where's Harper?" he asked in confusion.

"I thought it best if I talked to you alone."

"...Why? Talk about what?" Harry asked hesitantly. He was fairly certain that this man didn't like him. His magic had abandon him this morning. Kurt had said that would happen if he was going to go through a change; saving energy to use when it happened. If Tyr tried something, he wouldn't be able to defend himself very well. He was only just starting his hand-to-hand lessons with Mobius.

As soon as the thought crossed his mind, Harry wanted to slap himself. Tyr may seem unapproachable, but if Harper was with him then he couldn't be a bad guy. And Derrick had promised him he would be safe here. They had never given him any reason to doubt them. Dammit! He was just so tense!

"You have nothing to fear from me, boy. Or the change."

"Easy for you to say! Everything I thought I was is about to change! Again! As if it wasn't bad enough when I found out that I was a wizard!"

"That's your problem. You keep thinking of this as a bad thing, but it doesn't have to be. Never compare the present to the past. They are two completely different things. The past is there to teach us and prevent us from making the same mistakes. The present is here to give us a second chance." Tyr looked at him for a moment before motioning towards the bed. He picked up the potion bottle and held it out to him. "I know this has to be uncomfortable for you. But think of it as a pre-emptive war effort slash reward."

Harry shot him a look. "Uhuh, and hows that work?"

"Almost everyone who receives a creature inheritance, also gets a boost in their magic as well. That's not all though. Over half of the Magical species in existence have pre-determined mates and are led to them by instinct."

Harry huffed at him. "It's not certain that I'll receive either of those, and even if I did, I can't see myself being happy over not being able to choose the person that I'll spend the rest of my life with!"

Tyr barely suppressed an irritated snarl. The boy was just stressed, he had to remember that. "No you idiot, You should be happy about the fact that you wont have to spend years searching and wondering if you ll ever find the one for you. Instead, your instincts will lead you right to them. Not someone that's forced on you, but some one who's perfect for you."

"... Oh, I didn't ... I didn't think about it like that." Harry replied. He looked a little stunned, but a lot calmer. That was good. "But its still not sure that I'll get either of those." He reapeated, but this time it sounded sad rather than argumentative.

The vampire smirked. "Please, boy. Since when have you ever done something half-way? Either you'll have both or neither. I'll make you a deal. If you have both, then I take over your training. If you have neither, then I'll help you research the first war." He held out the potion and was pleased when Harry took it and immediately drained the contents. He didn't even have enough time to make a face at the horrible taste before he was out.

Tyr placed the vile on the nightstand and rearranged him on the bed. He paused for a moment before pushing the covers down and just covering him up with a sheet. A quiet knock on the door dragged his attention away from the young mans sleeping form. He turned to see Harper poking his head in. "He finally out?" Tyr nodded. "Whew, not a moment too soon. Only 3 minutes left. Want to wait out here with the rest of us?"

"Yes. But tell me Seamus, what is the point in knocking when you aren't going to wait for an answer before barging in?"

"Why, I m surprised you'd even ask, Uberstud. The answer is obviously because its polite."

Tyr grunted in response. He grabbed a spot in an overly fluffy yellow and neon green armchair decorated with seagulls and sakura flowers. There was no doubt that Axis had conjured it as per Harpers specifications. He was the only one who would do anything concerning magic for Harper ever since the Spring cleaning incident. He chuckled as he remembered the look on Derricks face. And Roarke! Who knew it was possible for the big guy to blush.

"Whats so funny?" His mate asked as he made himself comfortable on his lap.

"The past." That got him a raised eyebrow, but no further comments.

As the silence of the magically expanded corridor wrapped around them and the others that had come to await the inheritance, he wished that Harper had said something back. Their banter had always been a source of amusement and distraction for him. He supposed that, as close as Harper had gotten to Harry, he wasn't feeling up to much. Not that Tyr could blame him. At first, the wizard had been an annoyance, taking up more of his mates precious time. However, as the days and hours passed, he had grown quite fond of him. Brave and precocious and stubborn as hell. All traits that reminded him of his beloved, though he was calmer for the most part, and not as handy with muggle technology. He was quite impressively devious and would make a good leader, though with his attitude towards such things he could not see him staying in any position of power for long. He would toss it all to the winds afore too long. Not the smartest thing, but it made him all the more intriguing.

Harper resisted the overwhelming urge to tap his foot. He glanced down at his watch. 11:58:28 (hr/min/sec). 'Great. 10 minutes had seemed like no time at all when he was trying to get Harry to drink the potion, but now 3 seemed liked forever no sorry, 1 minute. Which reminds him, how did Tyr get him to drink the potion? He d tried for an hour and had zilch to show for it! He better not have threatened him. No, Tyr knew better than that. Another quick glance at his watch. 11:58:47. How long is it going to take?! Jeez. Okay, Zelazney, deep breathes. In, out, in, out. Ok, your doing good. Now just OH MY GOD, WHAT TIME IS IT?! NO! No, no, no. Do. Not. Look. At. Your. Watch. Just .look around instead. Yeah that s it. Harry might want to know who was here when he wakes up. Take a good look around. Lets see everyone that originally brought him to the manor, of course. Koga was particularly attached to him. Kurt too. He had wandered into the lounge many times in the past couple weeks only to find those three debating over this strategy or that move, or just bitching about Fudges latest moronic act.

There was also Telemachus with his mate, Beka. Hakkai was there with his usual odd-but-endearing fashion sense. He was the librarian and so had gotten to know Harry during the boys research.

There were a few others there as well. People that had starting showing up ever since Derrick had called everyone home after Voldemorts letter. Their leader hadn't wanted to leave anyone out in the open in case the dark lord reacted badly to being denied a speedy audience. Not everyone had made it back yet, there were still lots on the way, but they checked in regularly to let him know that they were still alright. Of course, Derrick himself was there. As young as he looked, he was fairly old, even for vampires, and he had taken to treating Harry as his own. He looked calm and collected on the outside, but Harper bet he was freaking out more than even he was.

And why shouldn't he? They could read book after book on the subject, but the truth was that none of them had gone through this. The wizards among them had only been able to be turned because they had no creature blood to interfere in the process. There were only a handful of wizards in the Shadows that hadn't been turned, but none of them had a creature inheritance. Everyone else was either a former muggle or had been born a vampire. They were all here, not just as support, but to reassure themselves after it happened that Harry was alright.'

"Here we go." Someone muttered. He couldn't really tell who, but he did glance at his watch again. 11:59:53. He had the sudden urge to vomit. Onto his watch. Partially out of nervousness and partially in the insane hope that it would make it stop working and therefore stop time. 11:59:57. What if something went wrong? Everything they checked had said that the potion was not only safe for this, but recommended. What if they had messed it up though? What if there was a bad reaction with it and he just stopped breathing instead? What if it wore off too early and he woke up in agony? 11:59:59. Oh god. Whatever happened, it was too late now.

"For whatever its worth, happy birthday Harry." Harper said aloud as his watch finally hit 12:00.

A/N:)okay. I finally took a look at the chappy after getting a few complaints about there not being " to let you know when people were talking. I honestly don't know what happened. My back up of the chapter has " and ' to represent speech and thought but fro some reason the Document manager decided to delete most of them on the upload, apparently. So I repost it in the hopes that it will be easier to read. WDA