-8-
"What the hell were you thinking?" Fontaine demanded as soon as they got back to the Ilvermorny zeppelin. The Headmaster had been keeping quiet during the walk towards the airship; like a kettle set to boil, Fontaine had been slowly reaching his boiling point, and he exploded as soon as they got to his office on the airship and after he had cast privacy and silencing wards. "Do you know what you've just done? You've humiliated Ilvermorny in front of everyone, including the Headmasters of three of the largest and oldest magical schools! What were you thinking?"
Harry raised a brow. "Potter was the one who started the fight," he said calmly. "It's not my fault his parents didn't bother showing him any kind of restraint."
Fontaine rubbed his eyes and sighed. It hadn't escaped the former Horned Serpent's notice that Harry had referred to his sibling as if he were a different person. "You can't do things like that, threatening other students, injuring them. If you weren't a Champion, I would suspend you, but since this matter is out of my hands, you will be in detention after the First Task."
"Why not now?"
"Because I want you to succeed in the First Task. I don't know if you're aware of this, Mr Potter, but the First Task is usually the most vicious and dangerous of all the Tasks; it involves a dangerous, untameable magical animal that would kill wizards with three times your age and experience. If I were to put you in detention, your ability to successfully take part would be over," Fontaine explained.
Harry thought that the punishment seemed fair enough…
But Fontaine was not finished. "I know of your relationship with Miss Picquerry," that was an understatement as the couple had not even taken steps to hide it, "and as part of your punishment, she will not be allowed to have sexual relations with you until after the First Task," he said bluntly as he wasn't the type to mix words and he wasn't usually the tactful sort when he was furious.
Harry blushed red with anger and embarrassment at the punishment, but he decided not to press Fontaine, knowing the older man well enough to know he would likely follow up with something much worse. He knew what was worse.
-8-
"James, calm down," Lily urged while she and James sat in the background while Madam Pomfrey worked on healing their son. James's pacing was driving her mad. He had been like an injured Griffin ever since the attack on Charlus.
"Calm down?" James repeated angrily. "I won't be calm. I'm going to make him pay for this, Lily."
Lily was starting to get worried for her husband's mental well-being. She and her husband rarely, if ever, spoke about their son and daughter, the same son and daughter they'd abandoned. Shortly after that surprising and unpleasant reunion in Gringotts, Lily had tried to work up the courage to write to Harry and Holly in the hopes she could make up, but Holly's parting words still haunted her.
"Why? Why did you have kids if you didn't want them? You just dropped Harry and me with the Dursleys, and you never cared about us? Why? Why would you do that? Why would you then turn around, only when Harry and I showed up, and Harry showed you his magic? I've seen him use it my whole life. Why would you want us back now, when you have never wanted us? Would you have done it again if you got us back, and threw us away like our toys like the ones Dudley discarded because they broke or he got tired of them? Are you going to do the same to Charlie, too?"
The worst part of it was, her daughter was right. They had dropped them both off with her sister, without considering the long-term consequences of their actions. What made it worse was when she had gone around to Privet Drive, Lily had learnt Vernon and his sister had been crippled, forcing Petunia to try to look for employment; her sister had taken it badly when Lily had offered to help and told her to get out.
A polite way of saying 'We don't need freaks like you offering us charity.'
"James, stop it. If you go after Harry for this, you will just make things worse. We abandoned them; I know that every day we'll say we'll make it better, that we'll make it up to them, despite trying to keep Charlie safe and trained before he has to deal with Voldemort again but doing this is just going to make things worse. And besides," Lily went on, hoping some degree of her logic was making its way into her husband's head, "d'you think Harry will care? Or Miranda? Or any of the others?"
"He shouldn't get away with this, Lils."
"I know, but I'm tired of this whole mess, James. I hate we can't even make it up to our children, that we'll only make it up when Voldemort's gone for good."
"You're right," James ran a hand through his messy hair tiredly. "I wish we were never involved."
"Me too."
-8-
"YOU DID WHAT, AND FONTAINE DID WHAT?" Melissa screamed when he explained what happened with Charlus earlier.
"Charlus was the one who started the fight, Mel," Harry sighed.
He had already given her the full details of the fight, including how he had actually kicked his twin brother in the face, and how he'd threatened Charlus if he so much as thought of bothering Melissa. He wasn't worried about that, knowing that his girlfriend would be perfectly fine; Melissa and he were Horned Serpents, but like him, she had studied a lot of magic, and she had an impressive repertoire. On top of that, she had gotten into Duelling, thanks to him.
Ilvermorny's yearly competitions included a wide variety of subjects which tested and helped grow a student's spell repertoire. Melissa had only gotten into the Duelling competitions after seeing how well her boyfriend used charms and transfiguration spells in his own defence and offence spell chains, and it worked wonders for her when she joined.
And she had mastered dozens of spells; like her great aunt, Melissa's wand had a Rougaru hair as its core, meaning it was extremely well adjusted for using Dark Magic. Secretly Harry had taught her some basic but still painful dark spells. While at first she was worried, Melissa found the spells would be great to give her an edge, especially against a wizard good at duelling.
"You shouldn't have been fighting at all," she pointed out before she let the anger bleed away when she saw his expression. She sighed and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. "How long will it last, the punishment?"
"I don't know, but I'm more worried about what will happen after the First Task."
"Why, what happens then?"
"Fontaine will begin putting me in detention; I only hope my performance in the task makes up for what I just did," Harry added hopefully, but he wasn't going to put all of his hopes into it. Fontaine had a long memory, and he was extremely good at following on with his promises.
Melissa scowled. "What about your brother, what happened to him?"
"I don't know, I haven't seen him."
Melissa cuddled into him. "Why is he doing this? Why did he start the fight?"
"I don't know, 'Lissa, and to be honest I don't care," Harry sighed as he rewound the few minutes he'd spent in the anteroom with Charlus and the other champions. "They only spared me a look, 'Lissa."
"Who did?" Melissa blinked in surprise at what he'd just said.
Harry sighed, "My parents. They were more interested in their precious saviour to care about me. My mother deliberately avoided looking at me, and whenever she lifted her head, she made sure I wasn't in her vision, not even a hint."
How could anyone treat their son like this? Melissa demanded angrily in her mind.
"And my father…well, he was not like my mother; whenever he lifted his gaze, I saw he was angry, but whether it was me he was angry with…I don't know, and I don't care."
"And your brother?"
"He was the more emotional of the family. He wouldn't stop glaring at me, I don't think that he heard anything anybody had to hear."
"What?" Melissa said incredulously as she pictured Dumbledore and the other judges talking about the competition, highlighting how dangerous it was, while Charlus Potter paid more attention to his long lost twin. "Does he have a death wish?"
"I don't know," Harry replied.
-8-
Charlus was released out of the hospital wing for dinner. When he walked into the Great Hall, escorted by his friend Hermione Granger, who was following him in exasperation, he paid her only half an ear.
"You shouldn't have been fighting with your brother in the first place," she'd said, but he'd ignored her in favour of finding his twin. Harry and the dark-skinned girl he was with were sitting at the Ravenclaw table, chatting with a group of Ilvermorny students he guessed were Harry's friends. He saw them speaking to a few Ravenclaws and a few Beauxbatons' students.
Hermione grabbed his arm. "Don't do anything stupid, Charlie!" She snarled.
Hermione dragged him to the Gryffindor table, and he let her. All the time he promised himself to make his brother pay.
