Joy
As they walked up the slope, Jack asked Sev, "How about your arm?"
"It hurts a lot even though I've taken painkiller potion, but that's not the worst," Sev answered. "I'm already exhausted from talking to so many people, and I've also taken Stimulant, because the painkiller makes me sleepy. It's not my thing, I'm a lonely being. And I have five Time-Turning hours left with Dumbledore."
"So much?" amazed.
"Surely yes, and he, even worse. I bet what you want that he has spent another five with the Gryffs."
"Bring him Stimulant Potion," Jack suggested.
"Yes, that's what I was thinking of doing, let's see if they haven't destroyed my trunk. Otherwise, we will have to stop by where I have the reservation that I prepared for Anthony and me."
"Well, I don't think they dared."
"Ugh… you can expect any stab in the back from those ones," Sev replied. "We have time to stop by the house now, and that way I take them, they fit in my pockets."
"Sure. I'll organize the escort."
Sev thought, At home it is no longer necessary, but hey, that the other malefics get used to seeing me warded around the school. Within thirty seconds he was surrounded by the heart of the Guard. Jack and Anthony flanking me, and behind me, Valerie, Deborah and Andrew. Five good Sly warriors covering my back and flanks. In front I am enough alone. They went up the front stairs.
(Lauren must have stayed outside, watching us walk in. Too bad, I would have loved to see her right in the house, like this morning. What a kiss, just with our lips.)
They went down to the dungeons, to enter the house, in pairs. Jack and Anthony up front, Sev alongside Deborah, and the sixth-year couple bringing up the rear. The Common Room is empty. Everyone that's left was training or was out watching.
They stopped behind the couch in front of the fireplace, the five of them surrounding him. Jack spoke, "We'll inspect, and if they are not there, you can rest for a while even if you are late for lunch."
"Not to mention, we have to get to the Great Hall as soon as possible," Sev said. "We must find a new place at the table, I'll explain why upstairs. Let's go up to the bedroom."
Jack preceded, Sev in the center and behind him Anthony. To the fifth-year boys' dormitory. They entered. It is empty. Two of the usual six trunks remain, intact.
"Great!" Sev exclaimed. "Anthony, for us alone!"
"I think I'm going to move here," Jack was laughing.
"Sure, do it if you want."
They gave each other a threesome hug, laughing out loud.
"What is your bed?" Jack asked.
"The one by the window," Sev replied.
"The best one."
"Of course, I woke up the night of the Sorting, I was already tanned. Come with me."
They both sat on Sev's bed and he conjured the Muffliato. Anthony went to his, the farthest from him and the window, opposite the bathroom door, the worst one.
Sev explained, "Look, Lily and I project to each other, and now I also do it with Dumbledore, so to be in contact with both of them I have to be at a medium distance from both of them."
"Are you going to tell Dumbledore that you know how to project? He will discover Lauren," Jack objected.
"I'm sure he'll offer to teach me, and I can't waste my time pretending I don't know how to do something I do know how to do. I'll tell him what we learned by chance."
"Can that be done?"
"Yes, it's possible. And up to there I can tell you for the moment," Sev cut the topic.
He went to the bathroom, then opened his trunk and took out the two vials of potions. "Come on."
"Don't you wear your robes?" asked Anthony, who was putting on his.
"No way," Sev replied. "Today the whole day, as a warrior. Skip the damn school uniform, I'm only going to wear it for class."
"Okay, so I don't wear it either."
They went down. The girls and Andrew were waiting for them at the bottom of the stairs in the Common Room, which had already filled with people. When they saw them appear, they cheered. "Long live Prince! Long live Sly!"
Sev thought, They have already gone up to the bedrooms and found that at least a third of the trunks have disappeared. (Lauren must have gone straight to the Great Hall, poor girl.)
When Sev reached the bottom of the stairs he was surrounded by people, who wanted to lift him on their shoulders. Booah… what a shame… I'm going to allow them. Party in the dungeons, tonight can be historical too. I'm going to take a nap when I'm done with Albus.
"Goodbye forever, vipers!" they were chanting.
I'm going to let them vent. Total, all the Slys are here, the room is full, almost fifty people. If I tell them that I want to go to the Great Hall, they are capable of taking me like this. Buf... I'm going to have to learn the names of everyone at home, plus the warriors. Let's see if Albus teaches me a spell for that.
Finally they got tired and put him down. He spoke to them in a loud voice for all to hear, "Well, I see that at home I can be safe. Thank you, but around the school I must move with an escort. There are camouflaged malefics, you must already imagine, so make way for us to go to the Great Hall."
"What are you saying? We all shall escort you! Let's see if they dare with fifty!"
Well, well... Let's see how I can escape to Albus's office. Sev was dying of laughter.
"Okay, but only now," he said. "You must let me out of the Great Hall with my Guard. At night we will celebrate it, after dinner. Is it clear?"
"You rule, Prince!"
"That's how I like it!" I'm already Sly's Head.
Only some little ones wore robes, who had been watching, and they also took them off. Ugh… it's already forty past twelve. And I have to be the first to get a seat. "Make way for us!" he ordered.
"Of course, Commander!"
They were let out to the door and followed down the dungeon corridor, up the spiral staircase, and into the entrance hall. Lots of people had missed or half eaten breakfast, so the Great Hall was packed when the fifty Slys flung open the door and poured in, Sev leading the way.
He thought, (Lauren is not here, she must have smelled what was going to happen, she already warned me in the letter, and she is still out or maybe writing to her parents, surely she will not come to lunch today.)
"Long live Sly!" they were shouting.
"Long live!" they responded from the tables.
We have cleared the name of the House. Albus is desperate, poor man. We have to calm this down before the Prophet arrives. Sev ran ahead and jumped up on the Sly table. He screamed, "It's enough! Let's have a quiet lunch! We warriors are starving and we have a lot to plan for! We will celebrate at home at night!"
"You rule, Prince! We will prepare it!"
(Too bad Lauren is going to miss it.) He looked at Jack. (He's thinking the same thing, the one who has worked the most. I'll tell him everything later.)
The tumult stopped. Sev went down to the bench he had climbed on that morning to say goodbye to the vipers, whom he would indeed never see, ever again, and walked along it until he was a similar distance from Albus and Lily.
The Guard followed him, Jack sitting to his right. My second. Ariel to his left. Finally my little one. Sev hugged him. "Do you see? We're together now, honey, we've made it, we've kicked out the bad guys. How well you behaved this morning. Have you seen the training?"
"I have," the boy replied. "I've gone out with all my friends, we've loved it"
"I've met them. They wanted to fight."
"I already told them that you weren't going to allow them, but they didn't listen to me."
"Yeah, I've seen it, they didn't want to obey me either, you have to teach them the Young Warrior's Manual," Sev said.
"I've already done it, Sev, but they don't listen to me, especially Hippolyta."
"Yes, I have already realized that she is the most rebellious. She will be a good warrior, and you will be her commander when you grow up."
"Really, Sev?" Ariel asked.
"Of course. You're almost as good as me as a third-year. In a few years you're going to surpass me."
"Wow… you looked like a real army."
"It's just that we are, the future army that will defeat Voldemort," Sev replied. "In September you'll be able to join and be in charge of teaching your friends."
"Are you going to make me a commander in fourth year?"
"No, honey, we commanders are the oldest, but you will lend a hand to the fourth year commander, you will be his second."
"That's good… I'm looking forward to it," the boy said.
"Come on, let's have lunch, because in the afternoon I still have things to do."
"And you can't be with us?"
"It'll be a little while, and then I'm going to take a nap," Sev explained. "I've been a little sick and I need to recover."
"Yeah, it's true, yesterday you didn't come all day. Jack told me that you had taken ill and that you were in the Infirmary."
"That is. I left this very morning, but I'm almost there to be well. If you want you can go up to my room, the bad guys are gone, you can stay there while I take a nap."
"Do you leave me?" asked Ariel.
"Sure, there are plenty of beds. Bring a book and study to be entertained, or if you want get into bed with me."
"Okay, Sev."
"I love that you keep calling me Sev and not Prince like everyone else."
"I already knew, because Lily calls you like this."
"Sure. Come on, let's eat."
In front of us, Anthony, Deborah, Valerie and Andrew, and next to Jack, his sister, my new family. What a pleasure, to finally be surrounded by the people I love and who love me, today I have been born again. May fifteenth of '76.
(Thank you, Lucius. As soon as your precious injured owl arrives tonight - I'm so sorry for it - you'll know I'm safe and I haven't got you in trouble either.
(By the way, now that I think about it... I hadn't realized. If Voldemort or Bellatrix plot something against me I will find out through him and Lauren's parents. We have a spy on the other side and very well placed. Wow… But I'm not going to tell Albus this at all, Lauren already told me that if he asks me, I don't know anything.
(I'll wait for Albus to project to me to try and do it with Lily from here. Lauren doesn't show up, I'm sure she's gone home to change and to the kitchens for lunch, and then for a walk through the Forest, to the pond.)
Soon Albus projected to him, "Impeccable, Prince, leader material. When you have yourself escorted to my office, have Steed and Beamy come up with you. I'll be there since one o'clock, take your time to have a quiet lunch. It's all for now."
Sev thought, (He already seems tired, and the trouble I'm going to give him this afternoon. Ugh… I have to do it very tactfully.)
He tried to project to Lily from so far away, "Do you hear me, my love?"
"Yeah!"
Good! "Me too. Wonderful. That way I'll catch up with Albus as well."
"Are you going to tell him that you know how to project?" she asked.
"If he offers to teach me, yes."
"He is going to do it. He told us this morning, he even suggested that we change places in the Great Hall. Won't he catch Lauren?"
"I was talking about it with her, her parents learned by chance," he replied. "I'll tell him that you and I also got it that way."
"Oh…"
"This way we avoid work for him and we don't waste time either."
"Sure," Lily agreed.
"What else have you done?"
Lily told him about the teachings.
"Wow… what a gold mine," said Sev. "We have to teach all that to all the warriors, so that they are safe."
"Sure, Sev."
"We won't have time for the seventh-years, because we will also have to teach Occlumency to all those who know the Ancestral Magics. Wow… how much work are we going to have, Lily."
"We will all do it together, as a great team."
Then she told him that Dumbledore planned to take them to the Forest to acquire the power of Druid Magic.
"Then I will also tell him that we already have it," Sev said. "All of us who know it occlude well. Less work for everyone."
"Brilliant. He felt defeated when I told him that he would have to spend another five hours with you."
"Normal. I'll bring him Stimulant potion."
"Of course, Sev, you can take it too if you need it."
"I have already taken it in the morning, to be able to take the painkiller without making me sleepy, but even so, I am very tired."
"Ugh... And your arm, how is it?"
"It hurts, just from shaking hands with so many people," he replied. "When I'm done with Albus I'll go to the Infirmary and get Poppy to give me the painkiller potion again, because it will be been eleven hours since I took it, and then I'll take a good nap if the house folks let me."
"What a great party you are going to have in Sly tonight, I'm sure they'll bring everything, butterbeer, food, elf wine and even firewhiskey. Celebrate it in style."
"Ugh... maybe we'll train tomorrow too."
"Well, sleep with the Time Turner, or take Restorative potion and in peace," Lily suggested.
"Does he already have my Time Turner?"
"That's what he told us. He has given us one too."
"Wow… well, what a party tonight," Sev said.
"A day is a day."
"Lauren has escaped."
"Don't worry, she's fine, we've been projecting to each other during training, she was under the beech tree," she answered.
"I have already seen her, she did not stop looking at me."
"You kissed her this morning, don't you?"
"I did. Has she told you?" asked Sev.
"She hasn't. She only told me that you gave her gasoline."
"Oh... She has written me a letter in which she confesses to me everything she has felt for me since the night of the Sorting, and I didn't know anything."
"Jo, poor girl... Sev, she loves you much more than Jack."
"I know, Lily. I have asked her to wait for me, but she has remained silent, I cannot force her to make that sacrifice, she is very lonely."
"Then offer yourself to be with her again, don't make her wait."
"Lily, she wouldn't know how to contain herself like us."
"That's what she said."
"Then things should continue as they are, I already told you. You are the first."
"I won't get involved anymore, it's up to you," Lily concluded the topic.
She then told him of her concerns about the Map.
"What a mess…" he replied. "She gave me permission to tell Albus, that's why I told Remus. Now let's see how I do it, otherwise she won't even be able to be with Jack. Although if we Disillusion at night and with the Muffliato, we can be in my bedroom, I don't think Albus includes them on the Map, it would be intruding on people's privacy."
"Don't trust a hair in him, he kept reading us to make winks at us. The abbreviations of the Houses, the 'What a stupid question' thing and things like that."
"Yeah, I'm already well warned by Lauren. Good thing we learned to occlude in time. We'll continue at dinner and I'll tell you. I want to talk to Jack for a bit, he's worried for Lauren. I have already told him that we also project to each other."
"Okay, Sev. We'll talk at dinner."
"Or tomorrow at breakfast, maybe they won't let me leave the house when I wake up from a nap, and it's better that way, in case the Prophet comes. And neither should you, grab food from the kitchens to dine at home."
"All right. They adore you."
"Yeah. It seems incredible to me, yesterday they hated me," he said.
"You have been reborn."
"That's what I thought a while ago. I have jumped the abyss. I'm leaving you, I'm going to talk to Jack."
"Okay, my love, see you tomorrow."
Sev turned to Jack and spoke to him, "Jack, cheer up, she's strong and she's happy, she's just waiting for the maelstrom to pass. If she shows up now, maybe they'll try to kick her out again."
"And how will she get home tonight?"
"She can always sleep in the Room of Requirement."
"If anyone else doesn't use it," his friend said.
"No one has done it since they know it, we don't explain that it's the Room of Requirement, they just know that people use it to train and they're not going to start training at night. Don't worry about her, she's very strong, and Lily has spent all training projecting to her."
"They know each other?" surprised.
"Of course," Sev replied. "They are very good friends, like sisters, since Easter. They connected right away, thanks to her we learned Projection, Legilimency and Occlumency. She is the real heroine, and not us." (Let him understand that they are willing to share me.)
"Yeah, and she will never be recognized."
"Do not think that, someday she will. And for the moment what matters to her is that we do it. We must know how to measure up to her, Jack." In the first of the plural, so that he learns that I am not going to give up on her because they are together.)
"You can't sink like that, she needs to see us well," continued Sev. "She always told me that today was going to be the happiest day of her life. And it has been, I assure you. She is enjoying walking through the Forest and remembering everything. She knows how to be alone and well. May it also be one of our happiest days. I also miss her a lot. Tonight she will not be present, but she will be in our hearts." (Let him know that I love her.)
"I can't be with her or with Lily either and I'm fine," Sev went on. (Let him know that we haven't gotten involved and that I love them both. The Magic of the Moon, she also loves us both, let him get used to the idea of sharing her, as she and Lily do with me.)
"But you're made of very stern stuff, Prince, you're tanned," Jack told him. "I've always lived between cotton."
"Well, then it's your turn to learn. We are on the verge of a war, it is going to catch us square. You are already showing patience and courage by waiting for her so long. Resists a little more and meanwhile enjoy the moment, we all need gas. Today I'm thinking of going blind to the world for the first time in my life."
Jack finally smiled.
"So you too. Do not let me down," Sev encouraged him.
"Of course not, Prince. You haven't done it despite what happened to you two days ago."
"That is. To resist what they throw at us."
Sev thought, (He's a softie. He's going to have her maybe in a week and I have to wait for her for months, just like she has for me. Jack isn't up to her.)