The cave
When Sev and Jack arrived at Slytherin house, the Common Room was quiet as usual, although those in it, including the rest of their escort, tried to give them a good scolding for leaving like that, to which Sev responded with disdain, "I will not allow you to control me. I am the one who assumes the risk, I have the right to have a life outside of all the mess and I plan to continue doing it whenever I feel like it, so you can get used to it." (Tomorrow I'll run away again, I have to educate them. They are Sly and they will understand perfectly.)
Jack said, "Today the spirits are not enough to plan the revenge."
"Not at all, we'll left it for the weekend," Sev replied. "I'll go to the bedroom to get my notebook and I'll show you the songs I wrote down. Do you fancy?"
"Of course."
They sat together in Sev's corner. They found that they had the same musical taste in modern music, especially The Beatles, Bowie and Queen, and Jack told him more names of soloists and bands which Sev wrote down as well.
"When we go clubbing in London we'll also go to concerts, there are many taverns where they do them," Jack told him. "And maybe Queen will give one this summer, because they released the album in December, I'll be aware. I will write to my uncle to inform me in time."
Wow… we could take Petunia too. She usually goes out in London, I'm sure she knows places too, Sev thought. "Great, Jack, I've never been to a concert."
"You can also come with my parents and me to some of the classical ones. I haven't said anything in front of Cecile because those are very expensive, in big theaters, you know, select audiences. But you and Lily are invited."
"That won't be necessary, Jack. I will work and I will have money."
"Save your money, Prince," said his friend. "You've run out of a scholarship and St. Mungo's isn't going to give you that much. You want to go on holiday with Lily and you will need to buy everything for next year, and also save some for the future, you don't know yet if you will still be in St. Mungo's after the summer. I have too much money."
Sev went to bed at eleven and the next day he spoke to Lily again about Lauren at breakfast.
"Last night she told me that she wanted to study and she cut it off," she told him.
"She keeps thinking about it."
"Yes, Sev, don't be insistent."
After breakfast he used the Time-Turner three hours back to go with Dumbledore to the cave. Ugh… I'm surprised that we need so much time. Going to and from Hogsmeade takes less than an hour and another should come to Apparate and do the ritual in the cave. I don't know, maybe I'll get another Riddle memory.
He went to the Headmaster's office. When he went upstairs he knocked on the door and it opened.
"Surprise!" Cecile yelled.
"The Gryffs!" Sev yelled.
Remus, Cecile and Lily were waiting for him in the office with the old man, who was looking at them with deep emotion. (Nobody has said anything to me, not Albus, not Cecile last night, not Lily today at breakfast. How wonderful, almost three hours with them.)
Lily flung herself into his arms and he lifted her up, giving her a passionate kiss of his own, in full view of the other three. (Albus must be delighted, the greatermatchmaker. Remus and Cecile are laughing.)
The kiss was long. (What does it matter now. What Jack was saying last night, I have to be brave.)
When they separated he hugged Remus too, a very long hug. (I haven't seen or spoken to him since before the mess. We are both almost crying with emotion.) "Friend… I miss you."
"And I you, Sev. We will meet in summer."
He turned to look at Dumbledore and the girls. (Everyone is crying, these Gryffs are softies.) He hugged Cecile too, even though they had met the day before. (A bit to hide it, as I haven't told Albus anything about my piano lessons with her and I don't intend to at the moment, lest he censure me for using the Room of Requirement for that.)
The Headmaster told them, "Before the summer I am going to Bond the four of you also as a Clanship. I should have thought of doing it today, but three hours won't be enough for everything, and the ritual in the cave seems more urgent to me."
"Thank you, Albus, it doesn't matter, that way we'll see each other one more day," Sev said.
"Of course, Prince, you're going to keep seeing each other, count on it."
(I get the impression that he is referring to training, but they are not going to tell me anything. Another surprise tomorrow.)
They went to the Room of Requirement, through the passage to Hogsmeade, and Apparated in the caves of Puzzlewood forest. They entered one of them, with Dumbledore' Lumos. They did the entire journey chatting animatedly among the four of them.
(Albus is delighted to join us and share this experience with us. We are discovering to him, at his ninety years of age, a new world, what friendship is. He only had one friend in his life and he turned out to be a foe. Poor man.)
When they reached the back of the cave, they became serious. (We must enter the appropriate state to carry out the meditation that each one of us has prepared. About the past, the life lived by each one, as a base on which to build the future.)
They did the individual rituals in turns. Sev let the Gryffs go first. They would take a few steps back and Dumbledore would turn off the Lumos so that whoever was meditating would be in complete silence, solitude and darkness, since that was how it should be done.
The first was Cecile, then Remus. (His much longer. A very difficult life, perhaps even more difficult than mine.)
Then it was Lily's turn, who mused, (Universe, thank you for the life I have led up to now. I was extremely lucky to be born into a family in which my parents have always loved and supported me, and also, and not least, to have done so with the amazing gift of magic against all odds.
(Although not everything that this gift has brought me has been good, because the other children gave me a hard time at school as a child, and especially my older sister, jealous of me, did it for ten years, my parents also accepted it and they encouraged me, and thanks to it I met Sev when we were still kids and he fell in love with me. And I also met his Mum, who has been like a second mother to me ever since.
(He is the person who has influenced my life the most, without him I would not be who I am, perhaps I would never have developed as a witch. And he was able to do everything he's done for me since our best friends relationship, never putting his own feelings ahead of mine, patiently waiting for over six years for me to fall in love with him, never forcing anything on me.
(Fortunately for me, I finally did, and that feeling has completely transformed me. I am no longer the naive girl I was a year ago, I have suddenly become a woman. Thanks to him I have known love, desire and its satisfaction, and I have begun to be aware of my own place and commitment in the world, to be with him for everything he requires, since his destiny is decisive in that of the whole Wizarding World and I am his main support, therefore mine is too.
(I must keep myself safe for him, never fail him, and for this I am training as a warrior, since because of my blood status and because I am his partner, I am also in serious danger, which will be exacerbated when in the future, I hope not too distant, we can finally show ourselves together in front the world.
(Both before and after that moment, I will have the necessary courage to withstand whatever comes our way and always be by his side, keeping myself afloat for him. I must survive him, for without me he would be broken perhaps for years, his life even darker and more miserable than he has been until recently.
(To this end I will do whatever is required of me in the future, which is why I want to train as a Potions teacher as well, so that I can be safe from the imminent war, close to Albus and him when he in turn become a Dueling teacher.
(Thank you again, Universe, for the life I have had, have and will have.)
Then it was Sev's turn, (I have to meditate on the difficult life I have had, but I do not want it to be interpreted as a complaint about it, nor to convey a feeling of discomfort for it, because I do not have it. If it had not been like that, perhaps now I would not be ready for what is required of me.
(My father abused me since I was a baby, and also Mum for trying to defend me. He ruined any chance of a normal childhood for me by not accepting the fact that my mother and I were witches.
(She, although she was not able to separate from him to avoid that hell for both of us, tried to compensate in her own way for the abuse and misery to which we were subjected, giving me all the love and attention she could and working to get us ahead.)
Sev was crying.
(That made me a person capable of loving and having a great desire that my future life would not be like that, so when I finally found ways out of that situation I knew how to take advantage of them.
(The first great stroke of luck in my life was meeting Lily in Cokeworth park. A witch my own age, in my Muggle town and also isolated like me. I fell first surrendered to her beauty and her talent, and when I finally met her and we became friends, to her enormous capacity for affection and acceptance.
(She has been and continues to be the most important person to me ever since. I would never have made it without her, and although I have grown much stronger now due to all the difficulties I am going through, I doubt that I would be able to face what awaits me without her by my side.
(That's why her life is more important than mine. Without her I would sink, and I can't allow it myself, since the entire fate of the Wizarding World and probably the Muggle world as well depends on me at this moment. So my first mission in life is to keep her safe from all evil.
(My second big stroke of luck, which perhaps because it was too expected ended up being the way it shouldn't have been, was going to the wizarding school. Already the first night we fell into disgrace, being assigned to enemy Houses, and from then on things became more and more complicated over the course of four long years.
(On the one hand, the constant harassment of the Gryff quartet, which seems to have had fortunate consequences in the end, since it made me famous throughout the school and urged me to learn Defense and Dark Arts, and my mastery of both will be decisive for the instruction of the Army we are creating.
(On the other hand, my approach to the Dark side, which was about to make me fall into an unfathomable abyss, which I have been able to jump with a lot of help that has come from the most unexpected people.
(These relationships have also had a favorable aspect, since I have partly known the enemy from the inside and I am in a position to inform the side to which I now belong.
(Despite these two serious difficulties and due to my great ambition to escape abuse and misery, I have been able to develop my innate talents to the fullest, dedicating all these years to thoroughly train myself to achieve excellence as a wizard.
(I have only recently become aware that I have neglected large aspects of my education as a complete human being. I barely know anything about the Muggle world, it's a gap that eats me away and I hope to be able to correct it in the near future.
(My third big stroke of luck was that Lily fell in love with me last summer. If that hadn't been the case, I'd have been at the bottom of the abyss since January, I would have stuck to my decision to become a Death Eater, I would have responded to Lucius differently at Christmas, and I would probably have been summoned that same January, so at sixteen recently turned years old and still a virgin, I would have fallen into the hands of Bellatrix, the worst of vipers, and would have been subjected to her for four months.)
Sev trembled, took a deep breath to calm himself.
(My fourth stroke of luck was to find the book of the Celtic Horoscope last summer. Through it I discovered Druid Magic, I took advantage of it and transmitted it to the sorcerers closest to me, and the investigation of it allowed me to discover other Ancestral Magics.
(My fifth stroke of luck was meeting Ariel at Christmas. Without him I would never have entered the Guard nor would I have had allies to lean on to disassociate myself from the vipers. He is also very important to me, and I hope to stay by his side and keep him safe as much as possible.
(My sixth stroke of luck was that Lauren decided to reveal her true face to me that same month of January, which without Lily would have been fateful. Both she and her family risked everything to help me, she has been dedicated to me since she met me, almost five years. She has watched over me all this time without my knowing anything and I will do everything in my power to correspond to her complete dedication, because I love her as much as I love Lily, and although I will never put her before Lily, she is also sacred to me.
(My seventh stroke of luck was that Lucius sided with me when he realized that he didn't want me to join Voldemort. This is lucky not only for me, but for the entire Wizarding World. We have a spy who is being duly trained as such, very well placed on the opposite side, and I am an essential part of the link with him. Therefore, another of my primary objectives is to stay alive.
(My eighth stroke of luck was to discover at Easter that there were more Ancestral Magics, both for my personal development, since the Magic of the Moon is allowing me to love two women at the same time and the Red Magic will constitute a guide to do it correctly, as well as for the instruction of the Wizarding Army that we are forming.
(Otherwise, perhaps these beneficial magics and many others would have been lost forever, gathering dust in the cabinets of the Room of Requirement, and thus they will serve to save lives and have a clear advantage against the enemy as long as Voldemort does not die.
(My ninth stroke of luck was listening to the radio at Easter. I discovered that I love music and I want it to be an essential part of my life from now on.
(My tenth stroke of luck was finding the book hidden by Slughorn in the Room of Requirement, discovering how Voldemort has become immortal and how to destroy him. Another of my vital tasks.
(My eleventh stroke of luck was that Remus told Poppy about the Restorative Potion and she put me in contact with Professor Damocles Belby, offering me the possibility of having an alternative profession to Defense, much more constructive and interesting in times of peace, which I hope come one day for me.
(My last stroke of luck was the historical reception that the Guard's initiative had last Saturday, among all of Sly, among all of Hogwarts, so that we managed to expel the malefics from the school and create the seed of the Army that is going to fight the Death Eaters.
(Thanks, Universe. Twelve strokes of luck are a lot, and they more than make up for all the difficulties I have had to overcome and those that await me.)
Ugh... I'm exhausted. "Turn on the Lumos, Albus, that's it. It's your turn."
The Headmaster's Lumos ignited and Sev strode towards it, joining the other four.
He and Lily hugged and stayed that way while Dumbledore went through his own meditation. (Very long, he told us earlier that he performed the first and only decades ago. Much to ponder.)
They moved on to joint rituals. "Albus, do it with us," Sev told him.
"Sure, Albus, all five of us together," Cecile told him.
"No, guys, there's time. Just the four of you do it first, I don't want to interfere. The five of us will do a second together."
"Alright."
They four held hands by facing couples. They meditated on the ties that had united them since that trip on the Express in which the three Gryffs had sealed their pact of eternal friendship with Sev. They felt the magic of each other invade them and a deep understanding of the life paths of each other, as they knew them.
Sev thought, (How wonderful. It has been even better than in the fir tree, because now we know each other much better and we are more united.)
Then they did it with Albus, who positioned himself between Sev and Remus. (Shorter, since our relationship with him is much more recent, barely a week. But he doesn't interfere, the same communion is still felt. And he has placed himself between Remus and me because we are the ones he has had the most relationship with.)
When finished he told them, "It's been incredible, guys, I've never felt anything like this. You are wonderful."
He looked at his watch. "It's not eight o'clock yet. We have to arrive at school at twenty to nine, when everyone is having breakfast. It's enough we are in Hogsmeade at quarter past eight. Do you want to do it by couples or do you prefer to take a short walk?"
(Ugh… Lily and I as a couple have to meditate for hours. I prefer the walk, we'll be back when we can Apparate,) Sev thought. "You two do it if you want," he said to Cecile and Remus, "Lily and I would take a long time."
"Then none of us will do it," Cecile said. "We'll be back next year, now we know the place. We better go for a walk and talk a while longer. What do you say, Remus?"
"Sure, Sev," Remus answered. "You've been locked up in the castle for almost a month now."
(He's absolutely right. I haven't been outside in nearly a month except Tuesday when we went to Little Hungleton to look for the Horcrux, and it wasn't exactly a joy.) "Okay then. Let's take the walk."
They left the cave and walked around for a while, then they Apparated again in Hog's Head, returned through the passageway and each one went to their house, to change their clothes to go to class, while the rest of the school had breakfast.
Sev thought, Today the three extra hours that my day is going to have were worth it, and since we'll finish earlier this afternoon, I'll take a nap. I'll invite Ariel to my room, like last Saturday. I'll tell him that I've been with them and ask him to get into bed with me to hug me.
Being with the Gryffs has made me realize how needy I am of affection and how healing it is, and since I can't have any of my girls, I will have my little one.