Welcome one and all to another chapter of Bad Moon Rising.
In which, we return to Hogwarts, catch up with Delphini, and meet an old face.
On with the show!
Harry Potter, January, Hogwarts Express.
The trip from Kings Cross to Hogsmeade station was as normal as a trip could be for Harry, but where once it was only Harry, Ron, and Hermione that sat in the last compartment on the left, it was now full of other people. Luna and Ginny were the first ones to show up after the trio had settled in with Luna passing Harry a platter of crescent moon cakes with Christmas sprinkles on top with one of her dreamy smiles.
"They're for you and your magical harem, I baked them myself," Luna said with a smile. Harry was ninety percent sure that Luna had kept up her bit of him having a harem to mess with him and from the smile on her face it didn't seem like she was going to drop it anytime soon. So Harry just rolled his eyes before offering everyone a cake, which Luna took one with her smile never changing.
Neville showed up about an hour after the train started moving. Showing off a small rowan cutting he got from Faúmnach. Apparently, she wanted to see if he had a natural inclination to druidic magic as Theodore did. The tree was a test of some sort to see if he could grow it with wandless magic and, being that it started as a twig, Harry was pretty sure Neville had it in the bag. Hermione, Ron, Ginny, and Luna all passed along their condolences about his loss and Neville nodded and thanked them for their kind words.
After Hermione and Ron left to go do their rounds as prefects, Harry leaned back in his seat, intent on catching a nap when it was disturbed by a knock at the compartment door. Harry had kept his eyes closed to not deal with it, and lucky enough, Ginny had stood up to answer it. As soon as Ginny opened the door, an almost overpowering scent of perfume-smelling flowers and honey which was covering up another scent he couldn't quite place.
"Can I help you?" Harry hears Ginny ask a bit hotly to whoever had knocked.
"Is Harry Potter here-" a new voice said.
"-We were sent by Professor Slughorn-" another voice says, picking up where the other left off.
"-With an invitation for him-"
"-To join us for lunch," both the voices say together.
Harry could almost picture the look of confusion on Ginny's face as the voices spoke before the redhead sighed. "I was really hoping you two wouldn't do that, my older brothers do that enough," Ginny says with pain in her voice. "But as you can see, Harry is napping and I doubt he'd want to be wakened up for something like this, trust me, he doesn't even like the parties in Gryffindor," Ginny says, and with the rustle of fabric, Harry could see her crossing her arms to glare at whoever was at the compartment door.
"Oh, we see-"
"-But we were also hoping-"
"-to talk to him-"
"-about something more personal as well,"
"Oh, and what's that?" Ginny asks, clearly annoyed at the back and forth of the two voices.
"A blood debt!" both the voices said cheerily and Harry couldn't help the groan that escaped him.
"Oh, great. Whose dad did I kill this time?" Harry says as he opens his eyes to see who is at the compartment door. They were twins, both taller than Ginny, and wearing green and silver trimmed robes, they had identical doll-like features that were more than a little off-putting to Harry, reminding him of a pair of mannequins from a clothing store. They had the same smile under soft and delicate-looking cheekbones with the same blue eyes and honey-blonde hair worked into tight buns. The only thing that was different about the two girls was how they parted their hair, one was to the right with her bun held together with a flower hair clip. While the other's hair was parted to the left and held in place with a butterfly hair clip.
"Not our father-" one of them says.
"-But our grandfather," the other says with a smile. "But you didn't kill him, just cut off his arm," her smile was off and Harry couldn't figure out how it was.
"Oh," Harry says as he shuffles in his seat with a frown. "Carrow, right?" He asks as the twins smile as one and Harry fights the want to shiver at the sight.
"Yes, that would be-"
"-Our last name. Would you like to talk-"
"-About the blood debt-
"-in a more private setting?" They talk together as they tilt their heads toward one another after finishing each other's sentences back and forth.
"Er, are you sure about trying this?" Harry asks as he narrows his eyes at the pair of creepy twins. "Because Theodore only got me to go along with it last time it came up because he didn't really care, he was just keeping up appearances," Harry tells the twins before they both look at one another, the one on the right smiling as the one on the left was frowning. The one on the left then reaches into her pocket and pulls out a Sickle before handing it over to the one on the right.
The one on the right slips the coin into her pocket before they both look back to Harry. "I do believe we may have suggested we were going to fulfill the blood debt-" the one on the left says.
"-When that couldn't be further from the truth," the one on the right finishes.
Harry relaxes a bit at the off-putting twin's words but he doesn't allow himself to relax completely. "Okay, so what do you two want then?" he asks them with a raised brow as they both turn to look at each other, they seem to have some silent conversation with one another before turning back to Harry.
"Well, if you're sure you wish to talk about-"
"-the blood debt in front of other people,"
The twins say before pausing so Harry can answer them. Harry frowns before looking between Neville who is watching the twins out of the corner of his eye, to Ginny who is openly glaring at the twins, to Luna who is reading a book and petting Cait Sith. Harry looks back at the twins and shrugs at them, "It's not a big deal," Harry says and watches as the twins look at each other and nod as one before turning back to Harry.
"It's not us who are looking to fulfill the debt-" the twin on the right says.
"-We honestly don't care all that much-" the twin of the left says with a shrug.
"-Grandpa was a bit of a bastard, to be honest-"
"-We didn't like him all too much-"
"-It's just a shame you didn't save his arm-"
"-They make the best gloves when they can be treated correctly-"
"-And moisturized properly-"
"-Oh my yes! Very important, that part-"
"Ahhhhh," Harry says as his eyes shift back and forth between the twins, now not only was feeling very off-center by the twins but now he was just confused. The twins blink, for what feels like the first time, and look at one another.
"Perhaps we are getting a bit distracted, Hestia," The one on the left says.
"I agree, Flora. We should get back to the blood debt," the one on the right says with a nod before turning back to Harry.
"We felt it was only fair to warn you about it-" the twin called Hestia says to Harry.
"-Because our aunt and uncle are going after you-" the one named Flora says, jumping in once more.
"-Our uncle has been most articulate about cutting off your own arm-"
-But we all know that he won't do that because-" Hestia says before both at the same raise their right arms and tap the inside of their arms with their left hands.
"-But better to be forewarned about a threat than never know about it at all," Hestia says with a plastic shark-like smile that makes the hair on the back of Harry's neck stand up. "But are you sure you don't want to come to the Slug Club with us? Professor Slughorn's lunches are to die for," she says with a smile.
"No," Harry says, maybe a bit too quickly from the twins' widening smiles. Harry coughs into his hand, trying to shake off the uncanny feeling that clawed at his mind. "Sorry, but, ah, no. I'm good. Like Ginny said, I don't do crowds," Harry says with a slightly awkward smile and the twins just nod at him silently.
Hestia smiles at him while narrowing her eyes a bit before Harry blinks, and for a moment that seems to last an eternity, Harry could have sworn he heard the sound of an organ or a calliope beginning to play the first few notes of a song. He felt as if he was spinning in a circle going around and around and around with flashing lights and giggling laughter surrounding him. Who he'll be when it stops, no one knows. When the Hunt growls in his mind, he fully opens his eyes, and he notices something off about the twins. They seemingly switched where they were standing but now Flora was smiling at him. Hestia elbows Flora in the side, causing the other girl to look at her twin. Hestia glares softly at Flora before Flora rolls her eyes and shrugs, Hestia's glare becomes Harder as Flora sighs and turns back to Harry.
"We understand, Harry, so we-"
"-Will leave you to your lonesome."
"Have a pleasant trip!" They both say as they turn and leave without making another sound. Harry watches Ginny shiver a bit before shutting the compartment door with a relieved sigh before sitting back down.
Harry let out a breath he didn't know he was holding before looking around the compartment, Ginny had her eyes pressed into her hands as if she was fighting off a headache. Neville looked dazed as if he didn't know where or who he was. Luna, however, sat as if there wasn't a thing wrong with the world as she turned the page of her book with only her thumb as she continued to stroke Cait Sith who purred happily in her lap.
"Okay," Harry says as he rubs his eyes. "Did anyone else find them as creepy as I did?" he asks everyone.
"Yes,"
"Huh?"
"The Stranger does that to one, yes"
"Meow."
Harry Potter, Hogwarts, January.
Arriving back at Hogwarts was like coming home after a long vacation away. Harry smiled at the sight of the high towers and sloping arches of the ancient castle, the returning students were greeted by the great black hound that was Cu lying at the front door, dozing lightly in the cold evening air as the student body shuffled into the castle. A few brave students had stopped at Cu's side to pet him or give him a scratch behind his ears, one had even brought him a huge bone with a ribbon wrapped around it that he immediately began to gnaw upon. Harry didn't know how to feel about the Hound of Ulster, it was an odd feeling, like a faint memory of wanting to know him but colored with a taste of sorrow on his tongue that kept him away from the hound. He knew the Hound only knew him as Scáthach's newest student and not as the reincarnation of his son, Connla.
And Harry was more than willing to let sleeping dogs lie, so he avoided the hound for the most part.
Harry was welcomed back to the great hall by Delphini all but crashing into him for a hug and kissing him. Harry happily kissed back as he swung her around in a circle before the two separated with a smile, and hand in hand, walked over to the Gryffindor table together with Ron and Hermione. After a small speech from Dumbledore welcoming back everyone and hoping they had a good holiday, Delphini caught him, Ron, and Hermione on everything that happened at Hogwarts over the holidays. For one, Professor Trelawney had been sacked by Umbridge.
That had not been that big of a surprise to Harry, but he did kinda feel bad for the old seer. While she wasn't the best teacher in the world, she was still a seer and a true one at that. Harry had learned from Atalanta and Scáthach that most seers either started crazy or the visions would drive them crazy in one form or another. Only being a host to a divine power could stabilize them, and seeing that the Gaelic Gods didn't have an oracle like the Greek ones did, Trelawney was stuck being a few beans short of every flavor.
Fudge and Umbridge had then tried to set the toad back up as the new Divination teacher in Hogwarts, but that was quickly routed by Scáthach turning up in the middle of the whole debacle with someone else from the Circle of the Fianna who took over the position.
A man by the name of Ecne Sé-Súile. Delphini pointed him out at the High table and Harry had to immediately clamp down on the Hunt before it went ballistic at the sight of the man, for Ecne was fae. Even sitting down at the table he looked taller than most others sitting with him. He looked old, older than any fae Harry had met or heard about, with crow's feet and wrinkles that sagged his face down. His gray hair looked to have lost its volume but not its luster as he had it combed back, his eyes were sharp and shined like two topaz in the low-touch light of the great hall. He was dressed in white and black robes that looked to be dusted with snowflakes and ivy, and a scarf of blue and bronze hung loosely around his neck with a pin like the one Harry wore on it. But the thing that caught Harry's attention was the circlet that sat upon his brow. Twisted gold wires were set with topaz that were like the fae's eyes, singling him out as one of the Dé Danann.
As Harry sat studying the fae, he turned and looked across the great hall with a smile before his eyes landed on Harry. And for a moment Harry felt as if the man wasn't just peering at him, but truly looking at who he was, who he is, and who he will be. Ence's smile turned a bit sharper before looking away from Harry and leaning over to whisper to Scáthach whom he was sitting next to. Harry's teacher listened to the man's words before nodding her head and Ence turned to Harry one last time before raising his goblet to him with a wink.
Ence turned away and Delphini went on to tell them about the "Educational Decrees" that the Ministry tried to impose on the school, but apparently none of the teachers cared all that much to enforce them so they had been mostly ignored by everyone.
After the feast had come to a close, all the students were freed to go back to their houses to relax before curfew. Delphini, however, had other ideas and dragged him away from Ron and Hermione so they could go off alone together. Delphini and Harry promised the bookworm to be back before curfew so they wouldn't get into any trouble as Ron told them to have fun in the broom cupboard, which had gotten him a slap to the back of the head from Hermione. It wasn't a broom cupboard that the two mistreated teenagers found themselves in, but the owlery where they had shared their first kiss. Delphini had planned it seeing that there was already a big scarlet and gold blanket folded and waiting for them, and with a few warming charms, the two teens snuggled against one another on the cold January night.
They didn't talk much at first, Delphini leaned into Harry with her head on his shoulder, and both looked over the grounds of Hogwarts as they basked in the quiet that was denied to them in their younger years.
"So, other than the normal crazy Hogwarts stuff, how was your holiday?" Harry was the first to ask, drawing Delphini closer as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder.
"Lonely for the most part," Delphini said in an exasperated tone, that caused Harry to smirk. "There was hardly anyone left in the school, so I got to explore it a bit more, got to have tea with Professor Árd-Greimne, and met Fawkes," she says with a content sigh. "How was yours?" she asks without looking at him.
"Other than how it started, pretty good. Atalanta got healed up, my m-I mean, Diana and a few of her hunters came by for a few days, went on a hunt," Harry said and almost bit his tongue over his slip up, but if Delphini noticed anything she didn't say anything about it. But it also reminded him of what happened at the start of the holiday, how the Hunt had returned in full force, and his charge at Delphini. "Hey, Delphini?" Harry said, only getting a soft hum from her in return to show that she was paying attention. "I'm, ah, I'm sorry," Harry said quietly, causing Delphini to lift her head and look at him confused.
"About what Pot-Head?" she asked with a raised brow, sounding honestly lost.
"About, you know, how I-how I almost attacked you," Harry said in a whisper as he looked away from her, ashamed at his loss of control at that moment. Delphini is silent for a moment before raising her hand and turning Harry's head to look at her once more.
"It's fine, Harry," Delphini said with a soft smile. "Anyone could tell you weren't yourself at that moment, I don't think you recognized anyone. Not me, not Professor Árd-Greinme, not even Ron or Hermione, you were running on pure instinct," she said in a soft tone before kissing him just as softly. "I forgive you," she said as she broke away from him.
"Thanks," Harry said with his own smile before Delphini went back to leaning on his shoulder.
"Besides, it was kinda hot," Delphini admitted, causing Harry to blush and sputter at her words.
"Wha-what in Hades does that mean?" Harry quickly asked as Delphini giggled before shrugging.
"It means it was hot," She says without looking at Harry, but he could hear the teasing smile in her voice. "You had this look on your face like some… desperate, howling demon, you growled and roared, you moved like some-some predator leaping onto its prey. And how you felt at that moment, like a swirling, whirling, storm of magic, fang, and claw so much so your eyes were glowing," Delphini whispered, almost in awe as she picked up her head and leaned in till her lips were almost pressed against Harry's ear. "Do it again," she whispers with her voice dripping with want.
As the Hunt growled in his mind, so full of want and hunger, Harry felt his eyes morph as his hand clamped down on Delphini's shoulder as she let out an excited gasp that spurred Harry on. The next thing Harry knew he was on top of Delphini, his teeth sinking into the soft supple flesh of her throat with her hands pinned down at her side and her legs wrapped around his waist. Delphini gasped and moaned as he bit across her collarbone, almost as if she was egging him on, he felt her grind on him, but unlike Fleur which had unnerved him more than anything due to the opposing natures of them both. This time the Hunt and his own hormones were both screaming at him to do the same thing, to rip and tear, to dominate and take, to-
The door to the owlery opens at the most aggravating of times, spilling wand light over Delphini and Harry. "Oh, shit! Sorry!" a voice calls out, snapping Harry out of it. Both he and Delphini turn to the door just in time to see a sixth-year Ravenclaw turn on his heel and begin to leave, closing the door behind him. Harry grips his head and quickly slams the cupboard door shut in his mind, locking out the Hunt with a sigh as his mind clears of emotion.
"Witch-Father's arse crack! Fuck you, Danny! You fucking cockblock!" Delphini screams at the retreating Ravenclaw when she sees Harry's face and feels the wild magic surging through him die down. Before leaning her head back with a sigh as Harry pushes himself up to his knees. "I'm so cursing that arsehole after this," Harry hears Delphini mutter under her breath as she glares at the door. She turned her head to look back at Harry, and in his eyes, she was stunningly, hauntingly, beautiful. Her silver blonde hair was spilled around her head as she lay on the blanket looking up at him with hooded dark blue eyes that screamed at him in want as a wickedly evil smile grew across her pale face illuminated by the moonlight above.
Her head turned ever so slightly as she looked up at him, her smile never leaving her face. "Looks like we'll have to wait for another time for this Pot-Head, and maybe find a more private place," she said, her smirk growing even more wicked as Harry saw plots and plans form behind her eyes.
Harry lets out a small laugh. "How the hell are you in Gryffindor?" Harry asked her, not really expecting an answer.
"I asked the hat to put me there," She said with a shrug, causing Harry to start laughing like a madman.
January.
Sadly, Harry and Delphini never found time to be alone much during the remainder of the month. The few times they did Harry was far too mentally burned out to do anything, for the month was a storm of homework and long study sessions with Hermione and Ron as the teachers began to pile on more and more homework for their upcoming OWLs. Delphini was a rare sight to see during those weeks, they only got to hang out twice. Once for Delphini to get Harry's Christmas present out of him, literally.
Delphini had asked to, for a lack of better words, stab Harry with one of her bone needles to make a poppet of him. Something Harry was very reluctant to do at first till Delphini explained that so long as the needle wasn't in Harry, any magic she could cast on the poppet wouldn't affect him. So, he let her.
It hurt a bit as she slid the needle deep enough into his forearm to make him bleed before pulling out the bone knife to cut her thumb as she muttered the spell under her breath. Harry had watched the blood lift from Delphini's wound in a single drop before the blood quickly began to spiderweb out and take the form of a large plush doll. It was amazing how much it looked like Harry that it was almost creepy, from the bird's nest-like black hair to emerald green button eyes, the doll even had a perfect replica of his jacket, ancient Greek lettering on its back, and everything.
As the poppet fell from floating in midair into the waiting arms of Delphini, who snuggled it against her chest, all Harry had to say about it was "I do not look that grumpy!" to the scowl and tilted eyebrows of the plush doll that had Delphini cackling like mad. The only other time they spent together was a short Saturday afternoon when she had complained about how the maps of the school they gave to the first years sucked when you were looking for something. Harry had then offered up his map for her to use, and after explaining what he meant and extracting her word to be careful with it he let Delphini borrow it to do whatever she was planning to do. She had refused to tell him, saying it was a surprise for him.
The rest of his time during the month was spent with his nose buried in a book, so much so it had cut into training time with his teacher. Only to meet up with Scáthach once a week and only for two hours, if that. Their time together was mostly spent going over spellwork and tactics for an hour before she tutored Harry in his other classes she felt he was falling behind in, which was everything to her standards.
Charms, Transfiguration, Divination, and Potions. Scáthach ruthlessly ripped into everything Harry had learned over his first four years at Hogwarts before reinforcing the basics and building upon them as best she could. While Scáthach's standards were brutal, she had an innate sense when her students couldn't do something, not for lack of skills or smarts but because "Some are just more capable in certain fields than others, Greaca, we will just have to stick to your strengths." The only combat practice they had done over the month was a quick spar in a recreation of corridors and stairways of Hogwarts with Hermione and Ron.
But that wasn't the only thing on Harry's plate he dealt with this month, Scáthach had put him in charge of building and training the Gryffindor dueling team for the upcoming tournament in the spring. So far all he had for the team was Ginny, Delphini (whom he asked during one of their meetups), and Neville. He hadn't even got a chance to look for anyone else as he was buried under so much work this month.
The only other interesting things that happened was learning Divination under Professor Sé-Súile and his "remedial potions lessons" with Snape.
Professor Sé-Súile had moved the Divination classroom to the third floor, just outside the Charms corridor. The new Professor had made the classroom his own as it now looked like a recreation of the innermost ring of Stonehenge with a moving map of the night sky on the ceiling. He had welcomed the class with a quick introduction of himself before telling them all he was only teaching at Hogwarts for the rest of the year or until the irritant was removed. This was only made better by Umbridge attending the class and he had said this while looking directly at her.
He said he had gone over the lesson plan and notes of the last professor and was incredibly confused by them. Trelawney apparently had done everything right in the first year of Divination by trying to root out if there were any True Seers among them (there weren't any) before moving on to simple predictions, the second year was fine as well as they moved on to interpretations of signs of the far future via astrology, dreams, and other such methods. But what stumped the man was the lack of something he called scrying, the art of remote viewing, divining the past, and other methods to see the present and the past. So, Professor Sé-Súile went about teaching them that with the warning of:
"I've already alerted the head of Hogwarts of what I'll be teaching in this class and they have set up wards to prevent any scaying in, let's say, sensitive areas, so let's not try something foolish in or out of this classroom, hmm?" though the Professor said this with a coy smile that seemed to promise a bit of mischief would be forgiven. Professor Sé-Súile had first shown them how to scry into the past for, "What has already passed is far easier to see than what is to come," and had them focus on something each student had done in the past before passing out silver bowls and clear mountain spring water to pour into them.
Much to Harry's surprise, he had gotten it down on his first try. It was rather odd to watch himself fight the basilisk from thirty feet off the ground, but he was able to see his mum's face in shock as she found out he was still alive which got a laugh out of him. Professor Sé-Súile wasn't at all surprised when Harry had succeeded but still awarded him points for successfully doing it, but it wasn't fun and games for everyone. Lavender had tried to peek at the founding of Hogwarts, but seeing the four founders coming to the valley wasn't what she saw.
No, what she saw was the sacking of Dún Scaith.
She had pulled her face from the silver bowl with a scream before toppling over and out of her seat as she continued to cry and babbled about soldiers and blood. Professor Sé-Súile was quick to react, gathering Lavender up in his arms before dismissing the class and taking her to the Hospital Wing. Lavender spent two days in the hospital wing recovering from the shock of what she saw, afterwards whenever she saw Cu in Defensive Arts or the Great Hall she would look at the hound with a faraway look, as if she had recognized him from somewhere but could not place. Professor Sé-Súile had strictly forbidden anyone from looking so far into the past after that.
"It can happen to anyone, but everyone here is new to the art so you don't know or understand the dangers of it. Some things you're not ready for nor are you meant to see, so please children, practice restraint and only focus on the now or yourselves in the past," he warned them the next time he had them in his class.
Harry's "remedial potions lessons" with Snape started the day after Harry had returned to Hogwarts with a note from the Headmaster telling him to report to Snape's office on the following Friday for lessons in Occlumancy. Snape had told him to tell everyone he was receiving remedial potions lessons from him if anyone was to ask, which was a cover for what they were really doing.
Funny enough. The lessons had only lasted a single night.
Harry Potter, Snape's office, January 8th.
Harry stood outside of the door to Snape's office, a frown set on his face. He didn't want to be here and disliked the thought of knocking on the door more than anything at the moment. He was exhausted and mentally spent from the last week of classes, homework, and dealing with people. But still, Harry raised his hand and knocked on the door before waiting.
He didn't have to wait long as he heard the low and snide voice of his most hated teacher speak just loud enough for Harry to hear. "Enter," was the single-worded command and Harry rolled his eyes before entering the room. It hadn't changed much from the last time he had been in the room, bottles of pickled and preserved animal parts lined the shelves on the wall, and small bookshelves that came up to waist height lined the circular room. Snape, the great big dungeon bat, wasn't hanging upside down like Harry originally imagined he would be, but instead sat at the large dark-stained desk, not even looking up at him as he graded a stack of parchment.
"Sit," Snape says without looking up but gestures with the quill in his hand to the chair right across from him. Harry inwardly sighed before moving to the seat and sitting down as he looked around the room, trying to spot any part of the Basilisk that he, Atalanta, and Snape had broken down two years ago. After a few minutes, Snape gets done with the last piece of parchment and places it to the side before looking at Harry and leaning back in his chair, his hands laying on the scrolled arms of the high-back throne-looking chair. "Do you know why you are here, Potter?" Snape asks as he watches Harry's head snap back and forth around the room.
He waits for a moment for Harry to answer before a frown works its way onto his face as Harry doesn't seem to be paying him any attention. "Potter!?" Snape snaps, raising his voice and causing Harry to jump a bit before his head snaps to the Potion Master.
"Huh?" Harry says before he blinks twice, the last few seconds finally catching up with him. "Oh, right! Yeah, Occlumancy lessons, yeah?" Harry says, his voice coming out tired and strained as his leg bounced up and down where he sat.
"Yes," Snape says, fighting back the quip about the boy's intelligence that was on the tip of his tongue. "What do you know of the art form?" He says, cutting straight to the point.
"Er, it's like reverse mind reading?" Harry says, unsure if that was an app description of Occlumancy. By the way Snape frowns at him, Harry doesn't think it is.
"The mind can not be read, Potter. It can not be looked at and perused at will like some book on the library shelf, and the art of Occlumancy is certainly not the reverse of it," Snape says in a way that makes Harry think he insulated the Professor in some way as he scowls at him.
"Oh," Harry says as his eyes flick away to look at some pickled (or what he thought were) bat wings. "Ah, it's the magical way of, er, protecting one's mind against people mucking about in it?" Harry offers again as he looks back at Snape whose scowl was replaced with a raised brow.
"An oversimplification of the art, but essentially correct," Snape says with a flat tone of voice. "Have you had any practice with it, Potter?" he asks and Harry nods.
"Yeah, I heard that it could help with emotional outbursts, so I looked into it, after-after what happened with Malfoy," Harry admits, his eyes flicking away from Snape as the man scowls at the memory.
"Putting aside calling you almost beating another student to death an emotional outburst for another day, how far have you gotten with the art?" Snape inquires with a raised brow.
"Ah, not very far to be honest," Harry admits as his leg bounces even faster. "I can detect abnormal emotions and shut them away, but that's all," Harry says with a shrug.
Snape doesn't say anything at first, his face perfectly still before he lets out a small sigh. "So, you've yet to build any shields or imagery?" he asks.
"Well, ah, no? I think," Harry says, his face twisting in confusion.
"Explain," Snape says plainly.
"Well, I-I have something, it's just not done?" Harry tells him, his face never changing as he spoke. "But I've been more focused on the emotional control aspect of it, to keep my temper in check," Harry admits, looking away from the professor briefly as Snape frowns at him.
Once again Snape doesn't say anything before standing from his chair and flicking his wand at Harry's seat to turn it to face away from his desk. "Well, now is a good time to test to see where your skill in the art stands. I will try to invade your mind, and you will attempt to stop me, while I doubt you have the mental discipline to stop me fully it will give me a good idea of where you are in terms of skill," Snape tells him as he walks around his desk before turning to face Harry.
"Wait, I don't think that's-" Harry tries to tell Snape, but the Potion Master has already raised his wand to point at Harry.
"Legilimens," Snape says coldly and callously as he forces his way into Harry's mind to pull out the boy's deepest fears. It was a hard lesson to be taught and a crude one in how to protect his mind, but for the brat to learn, Snape needed to give the boy motivation to do so.
Hazy images overlay Snape's vision, he can still see the brat sitting in his office but his memories of his deepest fears and greatest pains begin to come into focus like static on a telly.
Darkness surrounded him, and hunger gnawed at his stomach as a small, weak voice began to plead to those who would never listen. "Please," the voice of a child spoke, "I didn't know, I'll stop, please, I don't want to be in here, please-"
The vision shifts, going from suffocating darkness to the bright reds and golds of McGonagall's office. "There were no survivors," she tells him, her voice low and remorseful as the hate began to choke him like a rope around his neck. The unfairness of it, they didn't deserve that, they were his prey, a war of emotions and words raging in his mind.
"DEEPER!" the monster roars as the nails dig deeper into his mind in the mire that was drowning him. He was back there, the place hated the most, and was his greatest protection. The isolation and loneliness settled on his heart like an immovable weight as hot tears began to slide down his cheeks as he begged not to be alone again until the stairs above creaked as someone stepped on them.
"-I'll always be here for you," a voice says as cold hands brush through his hair. "No matter what, My Har-" the vision stutters and stops as something shifts, angry, possessive, and absolute.
Snape feels something cold wrap around his heart before with a sharp yank he feels himself pulled somewhere he has never been. It was a forest in midwinter, snow-covered everything but no footprints or tracks could be seen. It was as if it was devoid of all living things, further up the path he found himself on he could barely make out a muggle home that stood in the center of it all with the number four hanging over the door. Before he could get his bearing on what had happened, the sounds of something large taking a step behind him stopped him as fear began to creep up his spine.
Snape swiftly turned to see a wolf three times bigger than any he had laid eyes on, its fur was an ever-shifting pallet of colors, and hundreds of eyes covered it all looking at him. The sounds of rattling broken chains could be heard as it stalked forward, the maw of the beast split open and nearly split its body in two for how large it was before charging Snape to swallow him in one bite.
"Ahhh!" Snape screams before stumbling and jerking backward, tripping over the hem of his robe and landing on his ass with his eyes wide in fear before clutching his head in pain.
Harry leaned forward in the leather seat taking in large and deep breaths, sweat dripping from his forehead as he looked over at Snape with yellow-gold eyes. "I-I tried to-to tell you," Harry says in between his breaths as Snape just stared at him with wide eyes. "The Hunt really doesn't like someone mucking around in my head," he says with a vicious smile.
Snape had given Harry a primer on Occlumency before telling him no further lessons were needed.
Delphini, Hogwarts grounds, February 1st.
Delphini may have lied about her winter break to Harry, not about staying at Hogwarts, not about what had happened either. She had just… left out a small detail, and that was her mail, specifically a letter from her mother and one she had sent to her sperm donor.
They weren't delivered by owl or even Tycho as her letters normally were, but by a small garden snake that made its way into the castle searching for her. The letter was shrunk down and magically stuck to the small snake with a sticking charm, it hadn't triggered the wards or alerted anyone, so Delphini was sure no one had found out as she read the letter late into the night by wand light. Delphini didn't know what to expect from the letter, what she had hoped for was acknowledgement, words of love and comfort, a hope to see her soon, or maybe even her mother wishing her a happy Christmas.
But what she got was mad ramblings in barely legible chicken scratch.
The words mud-bloods and blood traitors were used a lot in it, as well as her mother hoping that Delphini was being useful to "Their Lord". Delphini was sure it was just from all the long years in Azkaban muddling her mind. Harry had told her weeks before that Sirius wasn't all there after he escaped and she was sure that was the same problem that her mother was having. Delphini was now very thankful for thinking up her excuse for staying at Hogwarts over the holidays when she had sent her update to her sperm donor. It wasn't very in-depth, just a broad overview of what had happened over the last few months. How she had tricked her way into the house of lions, how she had wormed her way into Harry's group of friends, how they had started dating, and how she was slowly wrapping him around her finger.
And the worst thing? She didn't know if that last part was even true. Not because she wasn't trying, it was more that she didn't know if she wanted to anymore.
And that scared her.
She felt like she was walking a tightrope, trying to precariously balance herself so as not to fall off of it. The worst part was that she knew if she did, there was a net waiting just below to catch her in strong arms to protect her. Delphini had asked many times why she was trying at all, and not just let herself fall into the net. She never had a good answer to that question and hated it.
She had sent the letter off with Tycho the day after she burned her mother's letter so no one else could find it. She had written her excuse for not returning (she didn't want to because it may blow her cover when Harry asked questions about it,) and with a list of things she noticed about Harry, his strengths and Weaknesses she had seen (some true, but most were lies, and she didn't know why she wrote the lies at all,).
It was after she sent Tycho off that she met the Headmaster for the first time the second time, this time under the name of Lestrange instead of Rowle. Dumbledore was having an early morning walk while his phoenix, Fawkes, was flying about. He wished her a good morning and a happy Christmas before asking how she was settling into Hogwarts. They spoke about her interest in classical witchcraft and ritual magic, things that were considered dark and dangerous by the Ministry of Magic, Dumbledore even admitted to finding the subject fascinating from a completely academic standpoint with a not-so-thinly-veiled warning that so long as no students came to harm she was free to pursue her studies as she wished.
It was when Fawkes landed on the headmaster's shoulder as they headed inside did Dumbledore create a privacy ward and drop a bomb on her.
"This may come as a surprise to you, Miss Lestrange, but I knew your grandfather, Cygnus Black as well as the last head of the family, Arcturus."
"You got on with them?"
"Oh, heavens no. Whenever we were in the same room an argument was sure to break out between us. No, but we had mutual respect for one another, which is why in the spring of 1980 I was invited over to Grimmauld Place for a spot of tea. After I collected a bezoar and headed over for what I thought to be an argument over politics again, I was surprised to find the real reason why they called me over,"
"Which was?"
"The birth of a child between Bellatrix and a man by the name of Tom Riddle,"
The way that the headmaster had looked over his half-moon spectacles had pierced her heart and sent a wave of fear coursing through her. Dumbledore knew and had known for years who her father was, but in the end, hadn't threatened her to stay away from Harry nor demanded anything from her, but instead offered her something. A single feather from Fawkes, "No matter where you are, no matter what is happening, if you ever feel unsafe all you need to do is burn the feather and Fawkes will come to whisk you away,"
The feather sat heavy in Delphini's pocket even now as she walked hand in hand with Harry through the woods around sunset as they wanted to do from time to time. She still had no idea why the Headmaster had offered her the escape but she decided to keep her hands on it, just in case. The path through the forest was muddy and ice from the melting snow of the coming spring, but neither Harry nor Delphini cared much, thick boots protected them both from the elements as they enjoyed their first time alone in some many weeks.
Harry had been bogged down with OWL prep and his private lessons with Professor Árd-Grimne on top of putting together a dueling team for the spring tournament coming up in a few weeks. She had agreed to be on the team just for a chance to have a bit of fun batting around some of the other students and learning a few tricks from Harry himself. Hopefully, with her being on the team she and Harry would have more chances to hang out, especially after what she had planned for Valentine's Day this year, and the biggest problem with that was finding somewhere private. But Harry had fixed that beautifully when he let her borrow the map his dad and his friends created when they were in Hogwarts, the map was a thing of magical beauty to Delphini when she first saw it.
What surprised her the most was how her name appeared on the map, it wasn't Lestrange as she expected, nor was it Riddle as she feared. But it showed up as Delphini Black and she honestly didn't know what to feel about that.
But as the sun began to droop below the horizon and the cold of the night began to roll in, she and Harry had decided to head back to the school under the cover of Harry's Invisibility Cloak. Delphini found the thing creepy in the worst possible way when she was under it, like being stuck under cold water with someone watching you drown but had never mentioned it to Harry seeing that it was originally his dad's (something she also didn't mention in her letter to the sperm donor.) They had tracked a long way off the paths that the teachers had laid down to avoid anyone who may have noticed Harry wandering around during his probation and were on the other side of the Black Lake where the Thestrals were kept.
They were halfway back when Harry started to cough and sneeze under the Cloak. "Pot-Head, you're gonna get caught if you keep that up, blow your nose or something," Delphini hisses at Harry as they stop in the middle of the woods.
"Don't you smell that?" Harry asks, his eyes watering right before he begins to cough again. "It's like… peppers, really hot peppers or something. Feels like I got maced," Harry complains as he covers his nose and mouth with the crook of his arms.
Delphini sniffs the air and feels a slight tingle in her nose that makes her face scrunch up in distaste. She never liked spicy food, but the scent, while odd, wasn't as off-putting as Harry was making it out to be. "Well then, let's get downwind of it and head back to the castle," Delphini says, chalking it up to another odd thing about her Pot-Head as she tries to nudge him down the path. But to her surprise, Harry steps out from under his cloak and snaps his wand to his hand before waving it in front of his face with a small sigh of relief before he starts to stalk off the path.
"Pot-Head, what the hell are you doing?" Delphini hisses at Harry as she pulls the cloak off of her head. "We need to get back before dark and people start noticing you're gone," she reminds him.
"It will only take a minute, I just want to check out what that scent is," Harry says before pushing past the underbrush and low-hanging tree limbs of the forest.
"Harry Potter! I swear you have the self-preservation instincts of a lemming!" Delphini snaps at him before following after.
"I do not," Harry argues without looking back at her. "It's probably harmless but it's near the Thestrals so I want to make sure they're safe," Harry tells her as he leads the way with his wand out. Delphini sighed again, Harry visited the Thestrals every time they went on a walk like this. Always wanting to check on them for one reason or another. If it wasn't for Hedwig, Delphini would be reasonably sure the creepy murder horses would be Harry's favorite animal.
"Fine, but we need to do this quickly because I don't want you to get expelled over this," Delphini tells him as she ducks her head to follow behind and avoids the low-handling branches with just her head floating just behind him.
Harry chuckles at her words. "Well, it is worse than-" he says before pausing, he stops in the middle of the woods and tilts his head as if he was listening to something. Delphini was confused at what he was doing, but before she could say a thing, she heard it too.
Someone was singing.
"-Then reap the corn, leave where I was born. Cut a stout of blackthorn to banish ghosts and goblins-"
The voice sang and rhymed with perfect rhythm to a band only it could hear. The melody cut through the woods like a knife bringing with it a feeling of forlorn weariness from traveling so long and so far away from home.
"-That's the Paddy's cure whenever he's on drinking. To see the lassies smile, laughing all the while at me curious style-"
Harry and Delphini push deeper into the long and looming branches of the forest, following the angelic melody to its source. All the while listening as the voice continued to sing, becoming lighter and more hopeful as it went.
"-One two three four five,
Hunt the Hare and turn her down the rocky road and all the way to-"
They finally stepped into the clearing the song was coming from, and as Harry had said, it was coming from the clearing that was set up for the Thestrals. Delphini nearly runs into Harry as he abruptly stops at the edge of the clearing, looking at the person singing. Delphini peeks over his shoulder to get a look at the person and her breath hitches in her throat.
She was short, no taller than Harry but made up the fact with high heel boots that came up to her midcalf. She wore black from head to toe, from her boots to her leather pants that hugged her hips in all the right ways, to the baggy leather jacket she wore that hung off her thin frame. On the back of her jacket was a design that Delphini vaguely recognized from some of the books she had read back in Durmstrang, sewn into the black leather with white thread was a heart with its point sitting on a triangle with lines running through it all that turned into crosses at the stopping points with stars surrounding it. Delphini thought that the symbol was called a veve or something like that, but couldn't recall which one it was. Sitting up top of the girl's head was a top hat with a single red band wrapping around it and a feather from a crow or raven sticking out from the band on the side. On her hip rested two things, first was a wicked-looking dagger that seemed to match Delphini's own, and a large hip flask that sloshed as she swung her hips back and forth as if she was dancing to her song.
Curly dark red hair fell past her ears and stopped halfway past her pale neck as her head was tilted back looking up at the Thestral she was petting and singing to. Her small and delicate-looking hand with black painted fingernails softly strokes the skull of the Thestral as she sings to it. But it wasn't just one of the Thestrals that surrounded her, it was the whole herd of them, they all seemed to sway back and forth to her song as enraptured as she and Harry were.
But as soon as Harry steps into the clearing, like always, every single Thestral turns its head to look at him in greeting and the girl stops singing. The song dying in her throat as the Thestrals move as one. "Ah," The girl whispered without turning around, "There you are…"
The girl turns to them then, her face is a picture of beauty that is etched with joy and surprise. Freckles were splashed across her pale face as she smiled a wickedly, haunting, and breathtaking smile as her eyes landed on Harry. But as Harry takes a step forward, Delphini takes a step back trying and failing to drag Harry with her. The girl's eyes weren't human in any way, shape, or form. They were bottomless pits of pure echoing and empty darkness, much like the void between the stars that sent shivers up Delphini's spine and goosebumps across her body.
"Harry," the girl says, that haunting smile never leaving her face as her fathomless black eyes twinkle with mad glee.
"You," Delphini hears Harry say breathlessly and in recognition of who the girl was.
Chapter Done!
As always this chapter was edited by my good friend Politically Problematic Prose Pundit.
Can you believe this chapter was only going to be 5k words? But has now doubled in size.
I really have no control anymore.
Anyway, moving on.
So, the Carrow twins. I honestly just wanted someone to go ask for Harry to come to the Slug Club and seeing what happened with their grandpa, Flora and Hestia made the best choice so I could also deal with the probable blood debt.
Then things got weird and they took on a life of their own as many things do. So, the Carrow Twins aren't fully…human, their demi-monsters born from a union of a lesser fomorian and their mortal mother. They don't really care about normal human things and, well let's just say they have other things they like. The reason they don't ping on the monster ridar for Harry is because they're mostly human. Let's just say their father was once human before being torn to bits and remade into a monster.
Moving on, shall I?
I'm not saying Harry isn't into Primal play, but I'm also not saying he isn't. It seems that Delphini may be into it as well.
Did anyone pick up on that Addams Family reference?
Lol, Snape got a peek at something he wasn't entitled too and almost got fed to the hunt for it. As to why he wasn't immediately attacked by it is a testament to the mans skill in shielding his mind from others, because unless the Hunt is forced into his mind by a god he could hold it a bay for a short amount of time, but like everyone, he would be chased as well given enough time.
Delphini is having seconds thoughts about leading Harry on but she doesn't know why yet, give it, oh, idk, 13 days? She'll figure it out.
Oh shit, who is this?
Could this be…
Has she finally shown up?
Well, you'll just have to find out next chapter.
Kingsaxcul, out!