Disclaimer: Usually I write out a very specific disclaimer explaining exactly what it is I don't own but I find myself not really interested in doing so this time as it is very tedious. Suffice it to say I own nothing that was created by anyone else and I am not making any money off of this story or any of the other stories I have written.
AN: This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance.
Chapter 49: Marching Forward
Over the course of the next three weeks, Harry spent his mornings working on getting the castle repaired, his afternoons running the creature reserve (which usually involved meetings with various people and wading through large mounds of paperwork), and his evenings with Dorothy as they explored their budding relationship. He probably would have been able to get more work done if not for the frequent interruptions from various individuals that wished to speak with him about everything that had been revealed during the tour.
The five Gundam scientists were actually his most persistent visitors as they endlessly peppered him with questions about the suits he'd protected and modified with magic; most especially the former Wing Zero and the Epyon. They also tried to get him to give them a detailed accounting of how he was going to protect their personal gadgets from his magic; something he adamantly refused to reveal. He didn't trust them and he hadn't forgotten the fact that his brothers had been exploited by the five men to a certain extent.
The other distraction that took up quite a bit of time was putting together a list of things that he felt could be safely delegated to the group of refugees that wished to repay him the debt they felt they owed him. Quatre and Duo proved most helpful in that endeavor as they helped him prioritize the various projects and tasks that still needed to be started or in the case of an ongoing project, finished. Those items included helping Dorothy, Patricia, and Hilde compile the magical creature and being database, adding to the magical plant database that Wufei had helped him start, cataloging all of the potions and potion ingredients that Harry had on hand, finding teachers to take over the mundane education of the children living in Hogwarts, and building furniture to replace all that was lost when the castle was razed.
On the weekends, Harry would head out in Wolfstar alongside his squad to visit the various ley line nexuses to search for magical creatures or magical buildings that might have survived the purges. They started at the northern most point of Scotland and worked their way south. At each location, they gathered up the remains of any magical creature they found, collected the live creatures to relocate them back to the reserve, and catalogued the contents of any magical house or business they found. The last thing they did was mark down the exact locations of each find in the map database of the Command Center so that it could be found again and verify whether or not the location was one of those that could be found on the list of addresses that he'd recovered from the ruins of the Ministry of Magic.
The number of living creatures they found was far lower than Harry had hoped but at the same time more than he had expected since he hadn't been sure that any animals had survived outside of those that had made their way to the Forbidden Forest. Most of the magical creatures he did find were small pests (such as garden gnomes, pixies, and doxies), kneazles, crups, and a small number of bowtruckles (some of the latter refusing to leave the trees they guarded; which necessitated the transplantation of said trees to Crystal Valley in order to protect both tree and tree guardians – an undertaking that would help bring life back to the magical forests within the valley).
Magical buildings on the other hand were practically a dime a dozen, though some of them were in rather poor condition since their wards had fallen well over a century or two earlier. They still found a few magical items worth salvaging (most notably books and wands) in nearly every building and occasionally they found the remains of the witches and wizards that had lived or worked in the buildings. Everything found was meticulously cataloged and taken back to Hogwarts where it was placed in storage until Harry could find the time to sort through it all.
The remains of the witches, wizards, magical creatures, and beings were turned over to Dr. Watanabe's assistants so that D.N.A. samples could be taken from them before the human remains were interred in the graveyard that Harry had built, the magical being remains were set aside to be buried in specific locations (per the traditions of each species), and the creature remains were placed in storage for the time being.
The eight former classrooms on the ground floor of the castle (three of which had been buried when the western section of the castle collapsed) were completely gutted during this time and large sections of the dividing walls between them were torn down to create two series of interconnected rooms. The four rooms on the right hand side of the corridor would one day hold the world's largest magical fossil museum and the old staff room would become the curator's office as it sat directly beside the new museum.
Directly across from the future museum, three of the four the remaining classrooms were converted into a medical facility (which had formerly sat up on the fourth floor of the castle), the fourth room was then set aside for a medical lab attached to the new Infirmary, and Filch's old office converted into a consultation or reception room. The reasons for relocating the Infirmary was so that it would be easier to find, easier to evacuate in the event of an emergency, and easier to expand outwards (without compromising the structure of the castle or depending entirely upon expansion spells) should they need more room at some point in the future since it now sat at ground level.
The former classrooms on the first floor directly above the new museum and infirmary were similarly gutted, expanded, and converted into a series of labs. One lab would eventually house the magical human genetics lab since the current lab out in the Veterinary Clinic was getting rather crowded. Right beside that lab would be the magical being genetics lab which would handle those magical beings and creatures that were sentient (such as mermaids, centaurs, satyrs, goblins, and sphinxes).
Directly across from the two future genetics labs would be a large technology lab where incoming computer and medical equipment could be taken apart and warded to protect the inner circuitry from magic. The last three labs on the western wing would be dedicated to dealing with magical plants, magical substances (such as rocks, minerals, metals, and gemstones), and potions once things progressed to that level.
To the disgruntlement of the many children currently living within the castle (both among the refuges and the families of Harry's employees), the second and third floor classrooms were being gutted, repaired, and refurnished as functional classrooms now that instructors had been found amongst the refugees (individuals that had taught various subjects at Relena's private school or at the public schools within the capital); so the children could continue their mundane studies.
On the opposite side of the castle from the classrooms on the second and third floor, situated in the eastern wing of the castle, was the original library; which would be renovated and refurbished before being restocked with books. Because Harry planned to add a large selection of mundane books in addition to the magical books that had originally been housed in the library, he added another two floors to the library; taking a portion of the first and fourth floors directly above and below the original library.
The first and second floors of the expanded library would then house the non-magical books while the third and fourth floors would house the magical texts. Most of the books that had originally been kept in restricted section of the original Hogwarts Library and any potentially dangerous books found at the various magical sites Harry was excavating would be housed in a separate library that would eventually be set up in the former Headmaster's office. His reasons for moving those books were to prevent non-magicals and young magicals from getting a hold of dangerous books, limit the number of people that could access those books, protect the books from theft, and to protect the books from those that might be tempted to destroy them.
The fourth and fifth levels of the west wing would eventually become another series of classrooms for various magical studies once the young wizards and witches were old enough to start learning how to control their magic (something that was still a good eleven or twelve years away). The north and south wings of the first five levels of the castle were currently sealed off as they were being used for temporary storage to hold the building supplies needed for the castle repairs, the relocated artifacts and furniture from the refurbished rooms, the remains of the creatures and beings that would need to be dealt with, and all of the items that Harry and his squad were collecting from the various ruins they visited.
The entirety of the sixth floor would be left untouched for the time being, though it would most likely end up housing several more classrooms, additional storage rooms, and either student dorms or guest suites depending on future needs. The unused portions of the seventh floor (not counting the Room of Requirement and the various towers) would be turned into additional family suites and more guest suites. Finally, the rest of the various towers were set aside for future housing for employees and students or to be converted into temporary storage rooms (as needed) except for the old astronomy tower and the original Owlry; both of which would be used for their original purposes once they were cleaned up and repaired.
At the end of those first three weeks, Harry and a select number of individuals (including Obduro) were called to the Veterinary Clinic to witness the birth of the first house elves in over four hundred and fifty years. It was a defining moment for the new Wizarding Nation, one that Harry had spent many hours preparing for with the help of the portraits of the former Headmasters and Headmistresses.
While the hatching of the two phoenixes had been a big deal, the birth of the first pair of cloned sentient magical beings far surpassed that joyous first hatching as they had officially brought one species of sentient magical beings back from extinction. Within ten minutes of the two new elf babes being wrapped in swaddling, Harry had used the bonding ritual to bind the two elves to his magical core so that they might thrive and christened them Dobby and Winky in honor of the only two house elves Harry had personally known (though he knew Dobby far better than he had known Winky).
The addition of the two new bonds necessitated a trip into his mindscape in order to make a few adjustments to the room that represented his magical core. What he found when he entered the center of his inner mind was a jumbled mess of different sized threads leading away from the overflow reserves and Harry frowned at the disorganized clutter because he worried that it would cause problems later down the road when he bonded the additional house elves that he'd asked to be cloned.
After considering the best way to clean up the various links, Harry began organizing the mess by purposefully modifying his core for the second time; surrounding the entire pool that represented his magical core with a four foot high wall made out of white marble (effectively adding another four feet to the total depth of his core). To better control any overflow of magic, he removed a six inch deep and twelve inch wide section from the top of the wall to create a spillway through which the excess magic could flow into the reservoir. He then grabbed hold of the link that connected him to the earth (which happened to be the weakest bond currently attached to his core) and moved it directly to his core so that if he ever drained the overflow reserves the bond would not be interrupted.
Next, he changed it from an unprotected thread of magic to a sturdy pipe and increased the diameter of the pipe to a full two inches so that he was providing a steady stream of magic to the world around him instead of the mere thread he was previously. It was a change that was immediately felt by all of the magical creatures and beings currently living within Crystal Valley since the influx of magic Harry was providing to the earth more than tripled. The next two bonds Harry dealt with were the links he had formed with the two sentient suits and he placed those just a few inches to the left of his bond with the earth and converted them into pipes that were one centimeter in diameter as the suits only needed enough magic to maintain their consciousness when he wasn't flying them.
After that he moved the newly established house elf bonds which had been turned from simple threads into one inch pipes (that would increase in size over time as the elves matured and required more magic to sustain themselves) on the opposite side of the fountain from his link to the earth with plenty of room beside them to accommodate the future elves he would need to bond with over the coming months and years. Once those two were set, he focused on altering the links to the eight young magicals that were due to be born over the next several months; affixing their pipes to his core halfway between his earth bond and the elf bonds and to the left of the overflow spillway.
Those pipes he kept bundled fairly close and doubled in size so that they were roughly three inches in diameter since he knew the young witches and wizards needed more magic than the elves did because they would need enough magic to sustain them once the links were broken when they were born. As he turned to deal with the last of the links, which were the various bonds he had with the other beings and creatures currently being cloned, Harry never noticed the ninth pipe shimmer into being right next to the cluster of the original eight bonds.
Once he finished organizing the last of the various links, Harry took the time to extend all of the newly created pipes so that the intake mouths of the pipes were located at the bottom of the pool instead of at the top, created small windows in each pipe where they connected to the wall so the flow of magic through them could be monitored, and labeled the pipes so that he could determine the origin of each link with naught but a glance in the event that he ever discovered a problem with any given link.
The increased flow of magic leaving his core cut down on the amount of overflow his magical core produced but not enough to make that much of a difference in the long run. In fact, after a few days spent adjusting to the new demands upon his magic, his core would once again make adjustments to the amount of magic it produced as it had been trained to do throughout his lifetime.
Over the course of the first week after the two elves were born it wasn't uncommon for Harry to be seen walking around with the two tiny beings cradled in a sling on his chest. During that time he cared for them much as one would care for a human baby and fed them goat's milk mixed with a special nutritional potion that he'd learned to make from Headmaster Fortescue. When they turned five days old, he began teaching them English as it was easy to see that the two elves were developing at a far faster rate than any human child (not completely unexpected since they were beings of pure magic – one of the reasons they had been the first species lost after the purges). About that same time he started them on solid food which consisted of thin gruels (made from oat, rice, or barely) mixed with the nutritional potion and mashed fruits.
By their second week of life, the two elves were walking and running on their own and often could be found teaching themselves how to clean with magic through deeply ingrained instincts. Harry would have liked to help them but he didn't really know the first thing about using elfin magic. Instead, Harry encouraged them to practice and kept them in his sight at all times to make certain that they didn't overtax themselves while they were still so young. They were also feeding themselves at this point though they did allow Harry to prepare their food for them while the two elves paid extra close attention to the entire process required to make each dish.
That same week saw the two phoenixes being moved out of Harry's bedroom and up into the phoenix aerie that he'd made for them months earlier as they'd finally begun flying and foraging on their own, though they would never refuse to accept handouts (especially from Harry or Obduro). Just a few days after the phoenixes were moved into the aerie, Harry finally got revenge on Heero and Duo for locking him and Dorothy in his bedroom. Heero spent the day dressed in a pink and purple clown suit with his hair died an eye-blinding electric blue while Duo wore a lime green tutu and had been charmed bald for the day; a mild punishment in light of how angry Harry had originally been.
At the end of the third week the two house elves were demanding to be assigned chores and Harry reluctantly assigned Winky to clean the various nursery rooms (she'd eventually be tasked with helping him to care for the children as well), the sitting room, and making his breakfast. Dobby on the other hand was given the task of cleaning and maintaining the snake habitats and the phoenix aerie (including making certain that there was plenty of fresh fruit and nuts available for the phoenixes at all times) and making his lunch. He also gave them permission to dust the public portions of the castle that were in use in case they ever grew bored and needed something to do.
Once they learned how to pop themselves from one location to the next, it was commonplace to see one or both of the elves popping up unexpectedly to vanish the dust, polish the stones, and clear out any cobwebs or trash before popping off to the next room or corridor. Three days after the elves had demanded and been granted their independence, Harry was back in the clinic witnessing the birth of his son (on the twenty-first of July). This time the only three people present aside from himself were Dr. Watanabe, one of the doctor's assistants, and Obduro though most of the residents and guests in the castle were aware of what was happening.
Twenty minutes after he was born and five minutes after he'd been given a thorough check-up, Harry held his son for the first time. He spent close to an hour simply standing there studying the wee babe, counting toes and happily noting that the baby had been born without wings or hollow bones (though there was still a possibility that he could end up with them at some point in the future if placed under enough stress since the genetic markers for both traits were present in his D.N.A.). Obduro was allowed to hold the baby next so the ancient centaur could bless the child as Harry christened him James Odin Bard (after his father and Heero).
When Harry finally managed to wander back into the Great Hall carrying the new little bundle of joy, those who saw him couldn't help but smile in amusement over the fact that he was obviously besotted with the tiny babe. After careful consideration, Harry asked Quatre to be his first son's godfather in honor of the connection he'd felt to the blonde teen from the moment they first met. Heero was gob smacked when he learned that Harry had named the child after him as it really brought home just how much their relationship had changed since that first fateful meeting.
When asked if he'd chosen a godmother for James, Harry replied that wizarding tradition only allowed for one godparent per child with all wizards having a godfather while all witches had a godmother. The reason for that had to do with limiting the number of magical bonds that the newborn child formed since a child typically could handle no more than three bonds (not counting the bond that would form with the Earth upon his or her first birthday when his or her core stabilized) before it overwhelmed his core and his parents usually (but not always) accounted for the first two.
As little James made the rounds between Harry's friends and family, Harry's eyes never left his son. He didn't exactly hover over the child but at the same time he never let him out of his sight. Those who remembered Harry's earlier disquiet over having been cloned were happy to see that he was exhibiting none of his earlier reticence when it came to the child. Eventually the little green-eyed, black-haired babe made his way back to his father's arms and Harry carried him up to the old Headmaster's office to present him to the portraits so that they could meet the first true wizard born in over four centuries.
After that, he took him up to his rooms where he introduced him to the portraits of Fred and George, the Fat Lady, and Sir Cadogan before allowing the two elves to greet him for the first time. The two young elves were absolutely enthralled with little James; both of them constantly wanting to hold the child and eager to help take care of him. Wolfstar and Grimstar (the newly renamed Epyon – named for the grim circumstances under which it had been brought to life and not after the first three-headed dog Harry had met since Fluffystar sounded far too weird) both showed interest in the new babe.
Despite being curious, Grimstar never left the hearth of the fireplace where he'd taken to sleeping since the night Harry shrank him down to the size of a cocker spaniel. Wolfstar, on the other hand, showed considerable interest because of the heightened pack mentality that the lupine suit had developed since his failed take-over attempt. By the end of that first day, a cot had been set up for James in Harry's bedroom because he didn't want to leave the small babe up in the nursery all alone.
Like when the two elves had been born, Harry spent the first two weeks carrying his new son around in a sling; rarely ever allowing the child out of his sight. His weekend forays to various nexuses were postponed indefinitely because he didn't wish to abandon his son or the other children that would be born over the coming months while they were so young and he had no desire to risk their lives or health by dragging them along with him to potentially dangerous sites.
During that time, Harry read through close to three hundred applications and interviewed close to a hundred men and women that had answered the ad he'd asked Quatre to place for a minimum of five nannies. He ended up hiring three women and figured he could hire another two or three nannies later down the road once the first few children were a little older. The first woman was a forty year old American, one Laura Anne LaWinte, who was raising her five year old granddaughter after she lost her son and daughter-in-law a few years earlier. She had a rather pleasant disposition and used to work in a preschool until she quit shortly after she took over care for her granddaughter and she had jumped at the chance to work with young children in an environment that would allow her to keep her granddaughter close as well.
The second woman that Harry hired was a thirty-one year old Englishwoman by the name of Rebecca Thatcher that had been a governess to a pair of boys for the past eight years but had recently been let go because both boys were now adults. The final woman that Harry hired was a twenty-five year old Japanese woman that was six months pregnant with her first child. Additionally, both the young woman and her husband (Ayame and Naruto Sarutobi) were Newtypes with the ability to use telepathy and most likely squibs, much like Harry's five brothers. Their unborn child formed a link with Harry just a few days after they moved into the castle and would be the first true witch born that was not cloned from the D.N.A. of the lost generations.
Both husband and wife were more than a little surprised when Harry was able to communicate with them telepathically on occasion (thanks to his solid grasp of Mind Magics) and the only one who could completely block them out of his mind if he chose to. Harry promised to help them learn Occlumency so that they could learn to control their telepathic abilities better and learn to block out the thoughts of those around them (both of them only having rudimentary control over their gift).
Accommodations were created for all three women and their families in the first three levels of the nursery of Harry's tower. Each room was a complete apartment with two bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen, study, and sitting room. The fourth, fifth, and sixth floors also had a nanny suite added on so that he wouldn't have to worry about putting them in later. The suites on the third through sixth floors all were accessed from the landing beside the stairs while the ones on the first and second floor opened directly into the two nurseries. All six suites also had a second entrance that led to a private staircase that opened up several feet away from the main entrance to the tower in order to allow them to come and go as they pleased and at the same time allowed Harry retain a measure of privacy (negating the necessity for his new employees to invade his personal space just to leave the tower).
With the arrival of the three nannies, Harry moved his study from the former common room into a new room that he added onto the tower (between Wolfstar's kennel and the entrance) so there was no chance of his things being disturbed by curious children. A door opening directly into the hall outside of the tower, in addition to the one leading into the former common room, added yet another layer of privacy as he no longer needed to allow the people coming to meet with him access to an area that was quickly becoming a private retreat. That also made it possible for Harry to ward the entire tower against hostile intrusions in order to further protect the children since there would no longer be a need to invite strangers into his personal rooms to conduct business. The former common room was then turned into a proper sitting room.
The last of the changes made to the tower was the addition of a room for the two elves that was built beneath the main stairs leading up to the upper levels after the two elves argued with Harry for two days solid as he'd tried to get them to take one of the empty floors where the girls' dorms used to be. The only reason he'd argued with them was because of the unpleasant memories he had of being forced to live in the cupboard under the stairs. Once the room was built, he had to admit that if his cupboard had been as nice and roomy as the elves' new room he wouldn't have minded it so much.
The birth of the second magical child and first witch twenty-one days after James's birth was attended by a slightly larger crowd. Harry was once again the second person to hold the newborn babe before he passed the little girl to Obduro for her blessing. This time instead of naming her himself, he cast the identification spell that would tell him the name of the person she'd been cloned from (which had been one of the many children that had been found buried beneath the western wing of the castle) so that the name of the lost child would live on. He hadn't been able to use that spell on the remains of those that had been found beneath the ruined section of the castle because it only worked on the living. There were spells to identify the dead but Harry hadn't learned them until long after he'd pulled the skeletons out from beneath the rubble and subsequently reburied them in the new graveyard.
Harry doted on the young witch but not to the same extent that he doted on James; something that was to be expected due to the fact that James was essentially his son. He did make it a point to carry her around for several hours each day and feed her at least one meal a day while leaving the rest of her care in the hands of one of the nannies. He wanted to build a rapport with all of the young witches and wizards and was fully prepared to be a father figure to them all but his son held a special place in his heart and it showed. He would forever make time for all of the children but his children would have just a little more of him as would his brother, sisters, nieces, and nephews once they were born (the latter two groups of children how he saw those children that would be cloned from the self-adopted family he'd been forced to leave behind in the past).
Dorothy still spent her nights with Harry though the long nights of passion that marked those first three weeks together had been curtailed after James's birth simply because newborns were a lot of work. She didn't mind though because Harry was actually opening up to her a little more each night as they took turns watching over little James. In fact, shortly after the forth baby was born around two months after James's birth, Harry finally consented to discussing their relationship as he verbally acknowledged that they shared something more than just a mutual physical attraction. They didn't actually manage to define what their relationship entailed and what label it should be given but Harry had at least acknowledged that they were in a relationship.
Two days after that particular discussion, Harry was blindsided with a few revelations that would have a large impact on his future and trigger a series of events that would greatly affect the fledgling magical nation.
The day had started out like any other day, with Harry spending the morning sorting through several crates of magical books checking for curses or other defensive spells and wards that could potentially harm anyone handling them. It was one of the rare moments when he allowed James to spend time with one of the nannies because he didn't want to risk exposing his son (or any of the other children) to any dark magic. He'd spent three hours scanning close to three hundred books so far and had uncovered a dozen books that would need to be striped of dangerous wards and/or hexes and curses before he could allow anyone else to handle them.
Needing a break from the tedious task, Harry secured the dangerous books in special crate where they wouldn't be disturbed before he levitated the crates holding the harmless books up to the third floor of the library where they would be cleaned, cataloged, and shelved in the appropriate section. Pleased that he'd managed to get through such a large number of books, Harry cast a spell over himself that would remove any lingering traces of dark magic and headed up to his tower to collect his son and one of the other three children.
He was whistling a jaunty tune as he walked by one of the empty rooms on the fourth floor heading towards the main staircase when he happened to overhear what sounded like someone crying. Concerned, Harry quietly opened the door and felt a strong sense of déjà vu sweep through him as his eyes fell on Winky bawling her eyes out as she rocked back and forth. Shaking away the half forgotten memory of the tiny elf's namesake bawling in the Hogwarts kitchen, Harry moved into the room and crouched down beside the distraught elf.
"Winky, what's wrong sweetheart?" Harry asked in a soft voice so as not to startle the elf.
"Winky bad elf," Winky sobbed as she peered up at Harry with the bright green eyes that she inherited from the original Dobby. "And Master Taliesin will not want Winky when Master Taliesin learns how bad Winky has been."
"I am positive that there is nothing you could have done to make me not want you, Winky dear; you're part of my family now and you are important to me. Everyone makes mistakes, even me."
"But Winky be making Master Taliesin's Missus Dorothy sick."
Harry took a minute to make certain he heard what he thought he heard. While the two young elves were far easier to understand than the other house elves he'd met, he still had trouble following their odd method of speech that seemed to include an ingrained need to refer to themselves in the third person, a steadfast refusal to use few (if any) pronouns, and an almost fanatical need to catalog the majority of individuals that they interacted with by their relationship to him. Once he had worked out the meaning of Winky's short speech, Harry carefully asked, "What makes you think that you are responsible for Dorothy being sick?"
"Master Taliesin's Missus Dorothy be sicking up every morning after Master Taliesin's Missus Dorothy be eating the breakfast that Winky makes for Master Taliesin's Missus Dorothy. Master Taliesin's Missus Dorothy sometimes gets sick when Master Taliesin's Missus Dorothy eats the lunches that Winky makes too. Winky be a terrible cook and Winky's terrible cooking be making Master Taliesin's Missus Dorothy sick."
"Was it just this morning that Dorothy was sick?" Harry asked as he furrowed his brow and tried to recall if Dorothy had recently mentioned that she wasn't feeling well but kept drawing a blank. "And did Dorothy tell you that her food made her sick?"
"Master Taliesin's Missus Dorothy has been sick since before Master Taliesin brought home the newest little wizard. First Master Taliesin's Missus Dorothy just feels sick after eating but now Master Taliesin's Missus Dorothy sicks up after eating. Master Taliesin's Missus Dorothy tells Winky that it be a stomach bug but Winky knows that stomach bugs only last for three days, not nine days. Winky be making Master Taliesin's Missus Dorothy sick but Master Taliesin's Missus Dorothy be too nice to tell Winky that Winky's cooking be making Master Taliesin's Missus Dorothy sick."
Harry gathered the little elf into his arms and cradled her much as he had when she was first born and simply held her while she bawled. As he gently rocked the elf, making soft shushing sounds much as one would to a fussy infant suffering from a case of colic, Harry pondered possible explanations for why Dorothy could be sick and why she hadn't said anything. It took a while, but eventually Winky calmed down enough that Harry was certain she'd listen to reason.
"Winky, I don't think that it is your cooking that is making Dorothy sick because otherwise I would be getting sick when I eat what you make for me and that hasn't happened. I happen to think that you are a wonderful cook and I look forward to breakfast each morning. It is a concern that Dorothy is not feeling well though and I will speak to her today to see if she's spoken to Dr. Winner about the stomach bug she believes she has. You are a very good elf and I don't know what I'd ever do without you and your brother, sweetheart. So the next time that you are feeling upset, I want you to come find me and tell what is wrong so I can help you fix it instead of hiding yourself away and crying all alone."
"Winky understand, Master Taliesin," Winky replied with a soft sniffle as she slowly extracted herself from Harry's arms and dried her face on the tea-towel dress that she had made for herself to wear from the large selection of towels, pillow cases, and other fabrics he'd set aside for the elves to use for their uniforms. "Winky needs to get back to work now."
"Alright, if you feel up to it, I just placed three crates of old, dusty books in the library and they could use a good cleaning before the men and women who are helping me keep track of all the books start digging through the boxes," Harry offered, knowing that giving the elves extra work was the equivalent of giving a human child their favorite treat or a brand new toy.
Winky's eyes grew wide as she gave a squeak of excitement before disappearing with a loud crack and Harry smiled fondly as the diminutive elf's behavior reminded him poignantly of Dobby the First. His smile disappeared a moment later as his thoughts were drawn back to the reason the little elf had been upset in the first place. It bothered him that Dorothy hadn't let him know that she was sick because of the chance that one of the children would catch whatever it was she had since she spent nearly as much time with the four babies as he did. It bothered him even more that he hadn't noticed that she was sick because of how busy he'd been lately.
That made him wonder briefly if she'd gotten sick because of how much she'd been helping him put together the magical databases combined with the loss of sleep because of their nighttime activities and James's rather sporadic sleeping schedule.
Two minutes later, he was moving through the castle once more, his stride clipped as he moved with a single-minded purpose and those who saw him walking by didn't dare delay him least they earn his ire (not that Harry would have snapped at any of them even if they had stopped him). As he walked, he sent a patronus message to the nanny on duty to inform her that he would be late picking up James and that if something came up and she needed to get a hold of him, to call for Winky so the elf could fetch him. Once he'd done that, he'd used a locator spell to determine where Dorothy currently was in the castle and took the quickest route there. It took him about twenty minutes to cross the castle and he had just reached out to knock on the door to announce his presence when the sound of voices raised in argument stilled his hand.
"Be reasonable, Dorothy. You've already ruined yourself by allowing that… that demon to seduce you with his strange powers. Can you not see that he is only using you in order to get revenge on your grandfather?"
"You're wrong! You don't even know him; he's not that kind of person."
"I know him better than you do! I have seen what he is capable of and the moment that he learns that you are carrying his issue he will either throw you out or he will kill you. Damn it, Dorothy, I'm trying to help you salvage something of your future here. You don't have to carry it to term and no one will speak of your indiscretion if you just accept the contract your grandfather is arranging for you."
"Are you suggesting…? How dare you! How dare you waltz in here thinking you have any right to dictate my life to me! How dare you stand there and accuse Taliesin of such lies when you yourself have done things far worse over the course of your life! How dare you stand there and tell me the man I love isn't worth my time! A man that you owe your very life to."
"So you're satisfied being his whore?"
The sound of flesh hitting flesh cut through the room an instant before Dorothy's reply of, "Fuck you, Treize."
Harry had heard more than enough to know he didn't like what he was hearing and he was more than a little upset at what Treize was implying. His magic slammed the door open with enough force that it cracked the door in half as it crashed into the wall causing both Treize and Dorothy to jump. It only took him a split second to take in the angry flush of Dorothy's face, Treize's hand gripping Dorothy's left wrist tightly, and the bright red handprint on Treize's left cheek where Dorothy had slapped him with her right hand. Harry narrowed his eyes and stalked across the room with deadly grace; his eyes locked on Treize and promising pain.
"Leave her alone; you've done enough damage already," Treize ordered angrily as the older man foolishly attempted to pull Dorothy behind his back, as if to protect her from him.
"I will give you five seconds to let her go before I gut you where you stand, you festering pile of rotting boggart shite," Harry hissed angrily; his eyes glowing red and gold as he pulled on his connection to Wolfstar for the first time since he'd merged his link with the Zero interface with Wolfstar's consciousness.
"I won't allow you to…"
"Shut up, Treize," Dorothy growled as she kicked the man in the ankle as hard as she could and freed herself from his grasp before giving him a wide berth as she made her way over to where Harry was standing.
"Are you alright?" Harry asked softly as he pulled her close without taking his eyes off Treize.
"I'm fine; my cousin was just being an idiot."
"So I heard."
"How much did you…?"
"We'll discuss it later; amongst other things," Harry interrupted before Dorothy could finish the question. "I'd like for you to wait for me in my tower. I have a few things I need to take care of before I join you there."
"Taliesin, please don't do anything you'll regret; he isn't worth it."
"I won't."
Harry waited for the sound of her footsteps to fade off down the hall before he used two spells; one to repair the door he'd broken when he entered the room and the second to seal the room to prevent anyone from interrupting them and to prevent Treize from leaving the room. The man drew his sword and fell into a defensive stance that Harry recognized from watching Dorothy fence with Heero a couple of times over the past eight months or so that she'd been living in the castle with him. Harry snorted and transfigured the man's sword into a vine covered with sharp spikes with the flick of his wand before smirking when Treize let out a sharp cry and dropped the vine only for it to revert back into a sword the moment it hit the ground.
"Let me be perfectly frank with you, Khushrenada; I don't like you. I have no respect for people like you. In my mind, hypocrites like you are the worst of scum and it was cold-hearted bastards like you that destroyed the magical society over four hundred years ago. The only reason that I told Wolfstar to drag your pathetic ass out of that prison cell on the Libra was because you'd attempted to help me escape. I would have been just as happy to have left you to rot out there like the rest of the garbage but unfortunately I am required by my magic to repay my debts and so I repaid the favor you attempted."
"And then you went on to ruin my little cousin and whether she'll admit it or not you've destroyed her future because you forced yourself on her or used your damn magic to make her believe that was what she wanted and now she's carrying your spawn and no decent man will have her the moment they learn what you've done! If it's the last thing I do I will be certain she aborts the demon you planted inside of her!"
Harry wings exploded with flames as his rage spun out of his control, destroying the simple over shirt he'd been wearing to protect them and keep them out of the way while he was working (the searing flames quickly overpowering the protective runes woven into the shirt). He jabbed his wand at Treize and sent the man crashing into the wall behind him with a silent banishing charm before storming up to him and grabbing the front of his shirt with both hands so he could physically slam him into the wall a second time.
As he stood there holding Treize against the wall, Harry felt a familiar taint that he hadn't felt in well over four years and he froze for just an instant before he shook off the foreboding feeling it generated as he focused on the man in front of him. The entire castle rumbled ominously as the amount of magic swirling around Harry multiplied by the second as he got right up in Treize's face.
"First of all, you scrotum sucking scumbag; I'm nothing like you and that bitch you've been leading about by the nose. I have never forced myself upon anyone because my magic would kill me the moment I tried because it goes against my nature to humiliate another the way that I was humiliated for four years. Second of all, in order for me to control another person I'd have to resort to dark magic which would have twisted my soul and should I have done that, the other magical creatures would have struck me down the moment they sensed the corruption in my magic."
"And finally, if I even think you've thought about harming Dorothy for whatever perverted reason you think justifies your sick and twisted sense of order; I will peel the flesh from your body, coat you in rock salt, roast you over an open flame, and offer you to the acromantula colony that lives in the forest so I can listen to your screams as they devour you alive inch by inch, feet first." Harry let his eyes bore into Treize's as he paused a moment; letting the man see the promise written within the glow of his connection to Wolfstar.
He then leaned forward to hiss in a soft voice that was ten times more threatening than the growl he'd used just a moment earlier, "She gave herself to me freely and my magic bound her to me as my wife in all but name and I'll be damned if you think I'll tolerate you threatening me and mine. Touch her again and by all that's unholy you will wish for a slow death before I am finished with you. Harm one single non-existent hair on the child growing in her womb and I will destroy everything that you hold dear before I make you beg for death for an eternity."
He'd just finished delivering his promise when the door exploded inwards under the combined assault of Heero, Duo, Wufei, and Wolfstar. Harry willingly released Treize without any prompting from his brothers as he stepped back and continued to simply stare at the man who was in turn staring up at Harry with hate, horror, and what Harry thought suspiciously looked like triumph. Needing to get away from the man before he was tempted to follow through on any one of his threats, Harry wrapped the magical flames his wings had generated around him (thinking it would extinguish said flames) and unexpectedly vanished from the room. He reappeared above the tallest tower of the castle and landed heavily as traveling through the flames without any warning had taken his breath away.
If he could have, he would have screamed out to the heavens in helpless rage as he kept hearing again and again the words Treize had spat at him. Letting out a hissing growl, Harry dropped down to his knees and buried his face in his hands and he tried to push back his anger and think rationally. He froze a second later as he finally registered exactly what had Treize so upset, his anger previously blocking understanding beyond the instinctual need to protect his 'mate' and his 'offspring' from the threat Treize had uttered.
Dorothy had been sick for over a week… she wasn't sick with the flu and it wasn't the food that was making her sick… she was pregnant; pregnant with his child. He'd gotten her pregnant. He hadn't even considered the possibility during the weeks since that first night they'd made love after Heero and Duo had locked them in his room for close to twenty-four hours. Not once had he even thought about using muggle or magical protection to prevent her from getting pregnant; not that he even knew how to cast those spells or where to purchase the muggle equivalent.
The last of his rage fled in an instant as the concept of having another child, one born of the growing bond he shared with Dorothy and not through the clinical process of cloning, blindsided him. A dopey smile slid across his face and a sense of wonder filled him as he recalled the first time he held James and he couldn't help but wonder who his unborn child would take after; him or Dorothy. Would he or she have blonde hair or black? Violet eyes or green? Visions of greened eyed, blonde haired boys and violet eyed, black haired girls danced through his mind for a few seconds before reality crashed down around him as old insecurities made themselves known.
He had no idea what Dorothy was thinking; if she was angry with him for getting her pregnant, if she even wanted to have his child, or if she believed as Treize did and wished to rid herself of the 'demon spawn'. Abject fear coursed through him and he forcibly cut the connection he shared with Wolfstar least the sentient suit sense his fear and attempt to take control once more. Fear that Dorothy hated him now, fear that she would want nothing more to do with him, and fear that she'd disappear from his life and take their baby with her or worse abort the baby before it could be born. Harry let out a keening whine of distress at the thought of loosing one or both of them and he nearly tumbled off the small, conical roof he was perched on as he floundered.
Like he had told Treize, his magic had bound him to Dorothy (though he hadn't actually realized it until now). It wasn't some sort of mythical soul bond that had been destined to bring them together since before they were born or anything quite as unbelievable as that. It was simply a connection that had formed during the many hours they'd spent in each other's arms. The emotional bond that had begun developing between them after Harry had stopped actively pushing Dorothy away had only reinforced that connection.
The bond also meant that they were now technically married in the eyes of magic due to his magic acknowledging Dorothy as his wife. It was not a marriage in the conventional sense though and those couples that formed such bonds before they were legally married would not be acknowledged as husband and wife until they were properly married. At the same time, a marriage between such a couple would just be a formality that would give the woman the man's name and give her legal entitlement to his property upon his death.
The reason for that had to do with the nature of the bond and the level of physical and emotional intimacy that allowed the bond to form; since magic was sentient enough to recognize and act upon the intent of its witch or wizard regardless of the legalities involved. It was the type of bond that usually developed between a man and a woman (providing at least one of them had a magical core) after they were married and after they had formed a lasting emotional attachment to one another. While the former wasn't necessary to establish the bond, the latter was; since it was the emotions of the witch or wizard involved that dictated whether or not their magic sought to bond them to their partner.
An inquisitive bark snapped Harry out of his downward spiral and he glanced up to see the shrunken Grimstar hovering just inches from his face, all three heads watching him intently. Sighing, Harry reached out the scratch the middle head beneath the chin as the hound suit settled onto his lap and let his eyes roam over the castle and accompanying grounds. After just sitting there for another half an hour, Harry lifted the tiny suit off his lap and stood up to stretch out cramped muscles. He then stepped off the roof and used his wings to lower himself until he reached the first window. A quick unlocking spell opened the window and he crawled inside only to unexpectedly come face to face with a smug Wolfstar and a concerned Heero.
"I want him gone before the sun sets," Harry stated in a weary voice as he sat down on the window sill. "I'll pull out one of the new confidentiality contracts that I wrote up a few weeks ago and one of you can have him sign it before throwing him off my land. Either he signs it or I kill him. In the mean time, he is not allowed to wander freely around the castle any longer and I want his room and belongings to be thoroughly searched to ensure that he hasn't purloined any magical artifacts or books."
"What exactly happened?" Heero inquired softly as he searched Harry's face intently.
Harry dropped down to the floor and glanced down the hall for a moment before he glanced back at Heero with eyes that were hard as diamonds, cold as ice, and filled with pure fury before he rasped, "He threatened to kill my unborn child."
Harry walked away at that point, needing and wanting to be alone in order to find the courage to face Dorothy now that he knew what he'd done. The rage he felt when he recalled what Treize had said paled in comparison to the utter hopelessness he felt at the mere thought that Dorothy would hate him now (a rather startling about face in his feelings for the often confrontational blonde). Letting his shoulders slump; Harry dropped his eyes to the ground as he wandered through the castle aimlessly with Wolfstar and Grimstar trotting along at his heel. He was so wrapped up in his fears that he never even noticed that he had picked up a pair of shadows that were trailing him out of concern.
It was inevitable that he ended up outside of his tower and he stared at the door for a long minute before he stood up straighter, buried all of his emotions, and walked inside.
AN: I'm not exactly happy with this chapter… specifically with parts that deal with the bond that formed between Harry and Dorothy. It was a bond I've had planned since I first decided on a pairing for this story but trying to convey the type of bond formed was a hassle since I don't want people to assume that this is a soul bond fic – it's not. This bond would have formed with any woman that Harry formed a romantic attachment to or between any other magical or partially magical couple since I see it as a physical (or magical) manifestation of the emotional bond that forms between a man and a woman.
Cleaning up that section was what held this chapter up for so long. That and I had to rework the section on the bond in the next chapter at the same time so that there are no contradictions between the information provided in them. The good news is that the next chapter is therefore already prepped and ready for posting. =) ~ Jenn