Silver and Harry continued to spend the day together. At the moment, they were walking on a dirt path through a nearby forest. The sun's rays filtered past the green leaves and cast a gentle glow around them. The wind whispered through the trees as it rustled the leaves. Nearby birds sung their mornings songs while they flitted from oak to birch to maple, creating a gentle ambience of the forest.
The soft, brown dirt quietly shifted under their feet with each step they took. Dappled sunlight across the forest floor guided the two children's way and created an ethereal and majestic view. Harry found it quite relaxing.
As they walked, Silver would occasionally stop and pick the wildflowers that grew within the forest. She'd press them to her face, breathe in the different scents, and then smile a content smile full of teeth. There was the tiny purple flower―prunella vulgaris―she called it, that is edible and lowers blood sugar levels naturally.
"You have to make it into a tea first though. After you pick the flowers you need to rinse them off with cold water. Then, in order to make it into a tea, you have to do what's called a 'cold infusion' where you let the flowers steep in water for two days straight. No boiling needed. Then you drink and what the natural medicine do its job." She spoke while picking more of these flowers and placing them into her bag.
"The whole flower goes into the water?" Harry couldn't help but ask. He almost recoiled from the action until Silver casted a gaze of softness at Harry that eased his nerves immediately.
She nodded her head. "The whole flower." Silver answered. She picked up two each of a rhododendron, wild coneflower, and geranium. Silver then tied the small bouquet of flowers together with a piece of twine she pulled off of a nearby tree.
"Why those specific flowers?" Harry asked with more confidence, his curious mind showing past the constant cloud of the Dursley's now irrelevant rules.
"Good question, Harry." Said boy perked up a little at the happy tone Silver used. "This one here is called a rhododendron. It symbolizes strength while this one," she points to a weird looking daisy, "a coneflower, means health. This last one is a geranium and it means sincerity."
Harry gained a thoughtful look upon his face. "So when you put them all together they mean that you sincerely wish someone strength and health?"
Silver couldn't help but chuckle merrily at Harry's conclusion. Her eyes closed and their corners crinkled in her merriment. The sound of her laugh and the sight of her smile seemed to have some kind of effect on the forest. Harry watched and listened as the sun shone brighter and the birds sung with Silver's laugh. The air began to buzz with an energy that made him stop walking immediately.
Silver had only made it a few steps further before she realized Harry wasn't following her. She turned to face back to where he was and noticed his bewildered look that he didn't bother to hide even a little bit. "Is something wrong, Harry?" Her inquiry went ignored for the briefest of moments until Harry asked, "Do you feel that?"
"Feel what?"
"That…that buzzing energy. It feels like electricity I think. It also feels warm like the sun on a hot day, but not hot enough to burn." He scrunched his nose as he spoke with furrowed eyebrows.
"Ah, you mean this." The scarlette girl stretched her magic that had spread throughout the air and brought it towards where she could feel Harry's own magic. The dark-haired boy had flinched at the first contact, not knowing what it was that had just occurred. She let her magic dance along with his and rejuvenate him until the light returned to his eyes and his injuries healed ever further until they were merely faded bruises.
Amazement decorated Harry's features as he felt all the residual pain go away. He watched as those same pain inducing wounds healed until they were nothing more than those bruises that barely discolored his too pale skin.
"What is that?"
"Magic, Harry." The young brunette's eyes blew wide in disbelief. Magic didn't exist. His Aunt and Uncle made sure that he understood that fact very well. Magic did not exist.
"But my Aunt―" He whispered as if he feared his Aunt would jump out of the bushes and hit him over the head for talking about such a topic.
"Your Aunt lied to you. Magic is real and it flows through you. It is racing through your veins and coursing in your blood. It is in you, in me, in the trees, in the grass, and in every living thing that breathes. It is life that we can bend to our will and do things not normally possible to others who know not how to harness such power." Silver explained. She brought her hand up to eye level and cupped her hand as if she were holding a delicate flower and a ball of flames erupted and hovered above the palm of her hand. The flames condensed until she was holding a tiny, pearl-sized ball of light resembling that of a miniature sun.
"Amazing." Harry whispered in awe. This time, no fear latched onto his words as he spoke them. His wonder filled eyes watched the dancing light that warmed his face until the girl closed her hand into a fist and snuffed out the pocket-sized sun.
"Will I be able to do that?" He asked. The girl smiled fondly at Harry. She recalled a time when she was just as amazed when one of the wizards who knew some wandless magic showed her this little trick. The said man works in a day-care and he's great at entertaining the kids.
"One day, but not right now." Harry became dejected at this statement. Silver couldn't help the smirk that crossed her face. "You need to learn the basics first."
Harry's head snapped up when she stepped forward to press her hand against his chest. "I want you to feel for something right here. This feeling is unique to you, like your personality. Actually, it is more akin to your soul than anything, but I digress."
The green-eyed boy covered the emeralds with his eyelids. He focused on where Silver's hand was pressed against and did his best to feel whatever it was she wanted him to feel. With each breathe that he took, he could feel his diaphragm contract. The sensation of his lungs expand as they fill with the brisk air of the―now― later afternoon. He could feel his heartbeat when he focused hard enough.
"My…heart?" Silver shook her head with a hum in response to his confused question. She saw his brows furrow again in confusion.
"No," She continued, "You are searching for something a little bit more intangible than your heart. You felt mine earlier. Now I want you to find yours."
Harry opened his eyes. "My magic?" His eyes lit up like fireworks at her nod as she smiled.
His vigor was renewed at this and continued searching for his magic. Harry closed his eyes and focused harder, squeezing his eyes as he went. He was close to giving up when he still couldn't find his magic.
(He couldn't disappoint his first friend. Not the first person to care and show him affection, please.)
And suddenly―as if by magic, ironically―he could feel it. His own had an airy quality to it, he observed. It buzzed the same way that Silver's did, but did not have that sun-like quality. As he thought before, his own magic felt more like air than anything.
Silver recognized the moment he found his magic. Putting her hand back down to her side she asked, "What does it feel like?"
"It feels like air, but it buzzes in the same way that yours does." Harry answered, yet again in awe. "Why does it feel so different like that?"
She hummed and thought about it for a moment. "From what I have observed, whatever anyone's magic feels like tends to be the type of magic that they have an affinity for. Magic that comes easier to the user." She explained.
"And yours feels like the sun."
"I have always found that spells having to deal with fire or light tend to be easier for me to perform compared to other spells or enchantments. Since yours is like air, an intangible thing to most, I believe that spells with such intangible concepts will come easy to you."
'Like flying and that Patronus spell you learned in a matter of days. Also the disarming spell you spam every goddamned second.' She couldn't help but think.
"How do you now what all this feels like?" The inquiry by the boy made her chuckle again.
"I know because I am sensitive to magic just like you. It is how you were able to feel mine when I let it loose."
"Oh. Is every wizard able to sense magic?"
"No. Not right off the bat. Anyone can learn it overtime, though, it takes years and years. Then there are people like us who are sensitive to the feel of it. This, I believe, may be due to something in our blood that is connected to something with a stronger or deeper connection to nature itself. It's only a theory though." Silver rambled. She does not truly know why she and her brother are able to fell magic so distinctly.
Harry noticed that it was quickly getting dark and he flinched.
"What's wrong?" Silver asked in worry.
"I need to get back to my Aunt Petunia's before…" He trailed off not able to finish the last if it. Though, he really didn't need to as the scarlette headed girl knew exactly what he was alluding to. Suddenly, tear sprung into his eyes and began spilling down his pale, thin cheeks and dripping down to the ground.
He turned and looked at Silver through his already vision made worse by the tears. "I don't want to go back, Silver. I can't. I'm―I'm terrified. Silver, please I―"
Silver did not wait for him to finish what he was saying. She grabbed onto his shoulders and looked directly into his eyes with the most serious expression she had ever had.
"Then you won't."
Harry immediately looked so taken aback. "W―what?"
"Then you won't go back." She stated again. "I refuse to let you go back to such a place. Is there anything that you need to get?"
Harry was about to say 'no' that he didn't have a single thing to his name, but something came to mind last second. He weakly nodded his head as he tried to rub the tears clean from his face. Silver pulled his hands away and gently cleaned his face herself.
"There's this blanket…" He began saying before trailing off his words. Harry was unsure on whether or not he should tell her, but after she gave him an understanding smile which encouraged him to continue his thought.
"There's this blanket that I found, and I just know that it was my parents'. There is one other thing but…"
"They are important to you, no?" She asked.
Harry was taken aback. "Well, yes." Silver nodded her head. That was all she needed.
"Then we'll go and grab them, say your goodbyes to officially close that terrible door in your life, and move on. How does that sound?" Harry had stopped walking―when did they start walking again back towards the Dursley's?―and Silver had to stop before she lost him. How did that sound? Harry didn't even need to think about it. It sounded like a dream.
"Amazing," He decided on. "It sounds amazing."
It wasn't long until they arrived at the doorstep of the Dursley household. Silver took the first move and knocked on the door. Through the door she could hear cursing from a not well-balanced man and the eardrum rupturing, high pitched, nasally voice of Harry's aunt saying, "Who could be possibly at the door?"
"I don't know, Pet." Silver and Harry looked at each other as the footsteps approached the door. This was the moment. It was time. Silver nudged Harry out of the way protectively as the door opened.
"Hello, Petunia."
The horse-necked woman had a near heart attack when she saw the little girl in front of her. She shrieked at the top of her lungs and slammed her hand to her heart. Petunia also leapt back and away in continued fear. Silver's back was to the setting sun lighting up her dim silhouette to the point of outlining the red red hair that she had.
"Lily." Petunia gasped out, her voice wavering and shaking in every way a voice could. Her legs felt as if they would give out on her at any moment. Harry was about to correct her, that is, until Silver motioned for him to keep quiet with her hand. She'll roll with it.
"Harry will be coming with me now. We just came to get a few of his belongings." She stated flatly, her posture perfect and her tone of voice perfectly controlled.
"O―of course. Come on in." Petunia said as she stepped out of the way. Silver made a big show of walking past the threshold by dramatically lifting her foot and stepping in. Harry followed her inside, though not the same way and far more timidly, a few moments after her.
Vernon the Vermin tried to protest but he was quickly shushed by his wife before he could even get a word out. She looked as if she'd seen a ghost. Her face was getting paler by the second. Her little sister had come back to haunt her due to her treatment of Harry.
(Silver was cackling away in her head at the very notion that anyone would think that. Whatever floats your boat, Petunia.)
While Silver was intimidating the two adults to keep them away from Harry, the said boy ran to his cupboard and retrieved an embroidered baby blanket and a little plushie of a black dog. Silver made sure to yet again make a show of seeing this fact and raising her eyebrow at the Dursley couple. They paled tremendously they could have been pieces of paper if she didn't know any better.
Harry came back over, "I'm done." He whispered to his savior. She nodded and swiftly turned around so fast that her hair went flying around her and brushed Petunia's face causing her to scream bloody murder and run upstairs, most likely to her bedroom. Vernon followed her soon after.
With the door left wide open, Silver looked at her―younger? Older? ―ward and gestured to the door.
"Are you ready to go?" She asked, ready to be the first one to walk out, but the young boy surprised her. Harry took a deep breathe and stepped outside on his own.
"Absolutely." He said with conviction.
They walked to a nearby alleyway where no one would see them, and Silver proceeded to tap the metal band on her wrist. Harry's brows furrowed until they looked as if they were one unit. He didn't get to even begin to make a sound when a dim light started spiraling. It was small at first until and grew bigger to the point where a grown person could walk through easily. Silver walked through it after a quick glance back at Harry telling him it was alright. He walked through as well.
He had didn't know that he had closed his eyes until Silver told him teasingly that he won't be able to see with them closed. Once he did open his eyes, Harry couldn't help the gaping mouth nor the wide eyes that was his expression. The young scarlette haired girl gently pushed his jaw closed only for it to fall open again.
"What is this place." He couldn't help but to ask. With a grandeur sweep of her arm as she faced Harry at first, she walked through the giant gate made of some kind of white stone with sage green and gold embellishments. What made his eyes widen further was not the fact that there were two waterfalls on either side of the gate, but the fact that they were flowing in reverse. Meaning, the crystal water was flowing up into the air from the ground, towards the top of the gate and probably back down on the other side.
"Welcome to the Sanctuary." The water didn't come back down on the other side. In fact, it did the same thing as the entrance. As they walked, people all around would wave at Silver, ask how she was doing, ask how some guy named Terra was doing at school. Some said they hoped she wasn't over working herself and she always reassured that she was managing her time well. She made sure to talk to everyone and give each of them her undivided attention. Finally, she turned back to Harry and started explaining much to his extreme relief.
"We've got runes and enchantments etched on the inner walls of the gate. Those runes and enchantments are pulling the water from an underground water source like a well. The water goes into the inside top of the walls and is then distributed while being filtered naturally for healthy drinking."
Harry felt like he did not have enough eyes. His heart was a balloon becoming overfilled with this warm, good feeling. It tingled throughout him and the people walking and the flowers and plants and―
It was everywhere. It was in everything. Is this what life feels like? What Silver was trying to tell him? It felt…lively. There was no other word for it, but it was truly nice. He knows he's felt this before, but he simply didn't know what it was that he was feeling.
The streets were white with quartz―Silver had to tell him because really who would know at first glance―and the homes looked like they came right out of a fairy tale with the sturdy brick outsides, the white plaster, and the wooden beams crossing each other on the outside. However, they all had their own touches and differences that made each house unique.
There were also these floating balls in the air that lined the street periodically. He didn't know they were lights until they lit up with a tranquil glow as the sun actually set and he was sure that he had stepped into a different world.
People were returning to their homes greeting family members at the door excitedly. Some parents that were coming home even performed feats of magic for their children. Others were eccentric and loud with celebration. Everything was so undursleyish that Harry couldn't help but feel immensely smug.
He walked with Silver passed a statue of the girl with two other boys. One looked a lot like her and she told him that was her older brother. The other one, she just gave him a very strange smile where the edges trembled and her eyes did not crinkle in the corners.
They finally arrived at a house that had a front porch boarded with stone fencing and stone pillars. It had rustic brown, wooden swing; some potted plants of varying colors that did not clash in the slightest somehow sat on the sills of the porch; another pair of chairs on the opposite side of the swing had a small table in between the two. Some potted flowers hung from hooks in the ceiling borders creating a somewhat private feeling to the porch.
After walking past the sage green painted front door, Harry couldn't help but look around in curiosity. The foyer was the first room he stepped into that had a staircase leading to the second floor over to the left corner of the room. The foyer really just had a rug in the center of the light cedar wooden floor; hooks in the wall for coats; a long padded bench with a three tier shoe rack built under it; there was also a metal bin for umbrellas to go.
The living room was to the left with bookcases lining the walls. A desk sat in the far left wall away from the two large leather sofas that faced each other. A glass coffee table was placed in between the couches. It looked like a good place to read, Harry decided.
What did throw him for a loop, though, was that not all the rooms followed this decorating theme. The dining room to the right of the foyer had a chandelier of fishing nets. The room actually looked like it would be bright with sunlight in the morning. The chairs were white wood with sand brown padding and the table was white with a woven twine runner. Against the wall was a cedar China cabinet that displayed model ships with large white sails, and glass cylinders full of different kinds of shells and sea glass.
The kitchen was North of the dining room and decorated exactly the same way except with stainless steel kitchen appliances. The sheer size of the kitchen would make Petunia absolutely green with envy. The backsplash was made of sea glass and little knickknacks here and there made it feel like Harry walked into a coastal vacation home.
The family room to the East of the kitchen and dining room was much like the living room, but did not have a desk or bookcases. Rather, it had a stone fireplace that took up the majority of the right-most wall, a pool table that could become a ping-pong table or air hockey or foosball. There was also a lot more seating with little table near the seat for drink use. On another wall there was a place for bottles of wine and other such alcohol to be on display, but it only had sparkling fruit juices.
There was a master suite on this floor that Silver said was actually not in use since it was not fair for either of them to get it so they each had one of the three bedrooms upstairs. There were two bathrooms upstairs other than the bedrooms along with a bonus room that Silver called her 'studio. She led Harry to a decent sized bedroom that was neutrally decorated with a full-sized plush bed that had two fluffy pillows and a thick comforter, a three-drawer dresser, nightstand, and a closet.
"I know it's not much right now, but we can decorate it the way you want and we can get clothes filling up that dresser and closet in no time." Silver said as she scratched the back of her neck sheepishly.
"Not much?!" Harry couldn't help but to exclaim. "Silver, this is more than I've ever had in my life." He stressed.
"Well, anyway," She continued awkwardly, waving her hands and arms around like she didn't know what to do with them. She even kept shifting her feet.
"I can grab some spare pajamas from my brother's room that you can use for the night. You'll also be sharing a bathroom with him since you're both boys and you can use his shower stuff. I have a spare toothbrush in my bathroom that I can get you…I think that's everything? Is there anything else you need? Oh! Food! I'll make something small for us to eat while you go and shower. Everything you'll need should be in there so don't hesitate to dig around and look…"
Silver continued to ramble on as she set Harry's two things on his new bed―he's going to have to get used to that―she gently guided him towards the bathroom and handed him a towel she quickly snatched out of the nearby linen closet.
"Take your time and enjoy the hot water!" She shouted as she ran down the stairs with a wave. Harry's eyes followed her incredulously and had to shake himself out of his shocked stupor. As he shut the door to take that shower, he heard a pan being set on the stove and cooking spray being sprayed quickly on the surface of it. With that, he got everything he needed and took that well deserved hot shower.
The hot water felt nice as the pressure massaged the muscles in his back and the steam made it feel like what he'd imagine a relaxing sauna to be like. Life was certainly looking up for him and he promised he'd do everything in his power to protect this new life and Silver. Harry had the passing thought about the Dursleys and how their life is without them to do all the chores now.
It wouldn't be until the next morning while he and Silver sat at the table and she had explained all that she did here in relative terms alongside her brother (basically the rundown every newcomer gets) that he would find out what happened to them after he had left.
The screaming from a frightened Petunia alerted the neighbors and the cops were called. The woman, so terrified out of her right mind, rambled all that she and her family had done to the poor in fear that the ghost of her sister would haunt her forever. Justice was served quite quickly and Silver made sure everything was swept under the rug and didn't go public. She was going to make sure that any information on Dumblebitch's Golden Child was not given to him. In other words, the Scarlet was going to damn well protect Harry in everyway she could and knew how.
Prophecy be damned.
So Harry carried on with his lovely shower, not knowing that with this single decision to go with Silver had changed the entire future. Most importantly: his own. However, he will carry on through the fall having a crash course in magic; flourishing in regular schooling without Dudley breathing down his neck; and learning about their culture including the Feast of Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles. The winter was more relaxed, but he got to meet Terra when he came home for the winter break and he celebrated Hannukah with everyone.
And no, it's not about the "Miracle of Lights" it was really about a family that was tortured to death by a tyrant because the family wouldn't eat pork or go against their own ways. They knew they were going to be somewhere far better after death, they knew they were going to be fine. They held such faith in the face of such horror and pain.
The spring came around and then he learned Passover, Unleavened Bread, and First fruits. Silver had her eleventh birthday. Then it was summer and Terra came home. Harry learned about the Feast of Pentecost. He wasn't entirely sure what the two believed in and nearly everyone in the Sanctuary until he got a gift for his birthday from Silver that put the answer right in his face.
She got him a Star of David necklace. It was very similar to the ones that they wore around their neck constantly. It was then that he asked them why they believed so firmly and they had answered.
"When you have nothing. When you are going through your most trying times. When you feel as if there is no one to turn to and no where to go, without fail, there was always one place we had. We would pray and we would follow His Statues and soon we found that our previous impossible situations were possible and we made it through them. Our lands began flourishing more and more. Less were getting sick every year after year. We were being blessed in so many ways. Our people did not find it hard to have the children they so longed for anymore and now we are the society we are today. Yes, we worked hard too, but none of this would truly be possible without Him."
"And we're grateful every day, because we know it could be so much worse." The weight those words carried worried Harry, but the smiles the two sent his way calmed his racing heart and then he was fine again.
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