Chapter One Hundred and Seventeen of 'A Brother to Basilisks'- Fathers, Godfathers, Guardians
Chapter One Hundred and Sixteen.
Title: A Brother to Basilisks (117/?)
Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling and associates own these characters. I am writing this story for fun and not profit.
Pairings: Eventual Harry/Draco and Ron/Hermione
Warnings: Angst, violence, some gore, AU from Prisoner of Azkaban onwards
Rating: R
Summary: AU of PoA. Harry wakes in the night to a voice calling him from somewhere in the castle-and when he follows it, everything changes. Updated every Friday.
Author’s Notes: This is a canon-divergent AU that starts after Chapter 7 of Prisoner of Azkaban. It will probably run to at least the mid-point of The Half-Blood Prince. It will also be long.
Chapter One.
Thank you again for all the reviews!
Chapter One Hundred and Seventeen-Fathers, Godfathers, Guardians
“You’re willing to teach this magic to anyone who asks?”
Lucius nodded and fought back a shiver as he watched Sanguini pacing slowly around his drawing room. The tame face the vampire showed at Ministry parties was entirely gone. His fingers had much longer nails than were visible most of the time, and his fangs rested on his lower lip.
“What is the price?”
“To be willing to fight loyally beside Harry Potter and the forces he is mustering,” Lucius said. He stuck to simple wording. It was always best, with the way that vampires loved to twist things.
Sanguini shot him a look that was more than startled. “What? I expected you to be teaching this magic and raising this force in your own name.”
Lucius shook his head. “My reputation is tarnished enough that I couldn’t achieve everything needed to oppose the Dark Lord by myself. And, well. I have a complicated relationship with Potter.” He supposed that, after what Narcissa had told him about the letter from Draco the other day-addressed only to her, not to both of them-that one of those relationships might be “father-in-law.” But he needn’t say that now. “Those relationships press me into alliance.”
“Press you? Then perhaps I should refuse, lest I become similarly-pressed.”
Lucius shrugged a little. “You will have your spies at Hogwarts, as I do. What kind of person are they telling you that Harry Potter is?”
Sanguini sat off on another restless tour of Lucius’s study. Lucius rested his hand on his wand in his pocket, and said nothing. He knew a few spells that would subdue vampires. Nothing that would kill one, but that didn’t matter. If he broke Sanguini’s fangs or his jaw, both of which were exquisitely sensitive, then the pain would distract him long enough for Lucius to cast a powerful enough Stunner or get out of the room.
“I have heard that he doesn’t mind consorting with Dark creatures,” said Sanguini abruptly. “That he has a basilisk that follows him around, and no one tries to stop them. Which is absurd, but he’s achieved it.”
“He has a bond with the creature. There were people who were uneasy about it, of course, and I believe that a few parents pulled their children out of Hogwarts last year out of fear that the basilisk might gaze at them. But the bond, and the fact that Potter is a Parselmouth, is guarantee enough for some people.”
“Some Parselmouths have been Dark creatures. They have altered themselves to better fit in with us.”
“I don’t think Potter has any intention of doing that. But it is true that he doesn’t make the same distinction between Light and Dark creatures that the Ministry does-or even between humans and other creatures. I know that the half-giant groundskeeper at Hogwarts is one of his best friends.”
Sanguini blinked for a moment. Then he said, “Hagrid is known to us. And he is simple-minded. Does the boy look for such in his allies?”
Lucius had to laugh. Honestly, he agreed with that assessment of the groundskeeper. But he also knew that Harry wouldn’t, so he sought for a way to convince the vampire. “Potter is…not simple. He can appreciate people the rest of us would never see depth in. No one else could have bonded with a basilisk and controlled him without controlling him, I think.”
“What does that mean? Control him without controlling him?”
Lucius nodded. He had used those words because he honestly thought they were the right ones, but he should have foreseen how Sanguini would pounce on them. “Think about the bond that a basilisk might form with someone. Would it be less than fierce and proud?”
Sanguini had stopped pacing and stood leaning against the mantel with that boneless grace that Lucius both admired and envied in vampires. “No. On the other hand, I do not think I know basilisks well enough to comment.”
Lucius shrugged. “I am learning to know Potter’s Dash-”
“That ridiculous name.”
“It is an English translation of the Parseltongue name that the basilisk decided on for himself.”
Sanguini paused for a moment. Then he gestured for Lucius to go on.
Lucius did, not trying to hide his smug smile. He had known that respect for the wishes of a Dark creature would catch Sanguini’s attention, and Sanguini knew he knew, which meant that he could express it without dancing around the subject. “I am learning to know him. Harry often translates what the basilisk says, although not always and, I am sure, not with the original emphasis. Dash is brutal, opinionated, and honest. He would have no respect for someone who tried to enforce his will over his.”
“Which probably couldn’t be done in the first place,” Sanguini muttered, a deep frown forming on his face. It made his teeth look sharper.
Lucius inclined his head. “But what Potter does is stand up to Dash and explain that what Dash wants might hurt one or both of them. And he’s not against letting Dash loose when it counts, such as against Dumbledore.”
“I am glad that Albus Dumbledore is dead.”
“So am I.” It wasn’t a sentiment that Lucius would have expressed to most of his allies, even Severus, who still harbored complicated feelings about Dumbledore. But he and Sanguini were perfectly in tune for that moment.
Sanguini ruined the moment deliberately. “So they-”
“Negotiate. Form a partnership. A bond can be like that, the old books say, but it can also form with a creature who is intelligent but glad to bend to the human’s will.” Lucius spread his hands. “Potter-he does not think he has the right to take over someone’s will. I think he would be a very poor caster of the Imperius Curse, unless he was convinced that the person he cast it upon would threaten those he cared for.”
“An interesting stance.”
“Yes.”
Sanguini gave a tight, pacing circle of the room, faster than Lucius’s eyes could actually follow. Lucius casually curled his fingers around his wand. He was reluctant to do something permanent unless he had to, but he had never seen Sanguini this abruptly agitated.
“What makes you think that someone like that would agree to ally with us, and give us the victims we must have to survive?”
Lucius let out a slow breath, and relaxed his hand a little. That was an understandable concern, and one that he would not have expected to be phrased in such a reasonable way. “There is a certain ruthlessness to Mr. Potter, as well.”
“I wonder in which way that would be true. The boy you have been describing to me does not sound ruthless.”
“He accepted the death of Dumbledore. If he mourned, he did not show it to anyone. He was primarily responsible for that death, since he did not attempt to control his basilisk-”
“From the reports I have heard of what happened, he would not have been able to control the basilisk.”
“Perhaps,” Lucius said evenly, meeting Sanguini’s unblinking, blood-colored eyes without flinching. The whole point of this exercise was to show that he could be a strong, useful liaison between Harry and the vampires. It would be useless if he kept wincing and acting as if he wanted to shield himself. “But what else I have said still remains true. You would have expected a true Gryffindor to tear himself apart from guilt. But I have not heard Potter speak of it since then.”
Sanguini paused for a second, his fingernails scratching grooves into the marble of the mantel. Lucius remained calm. The house-elves could polish them out later. “You have a certain way of phrasing things I find pleasing, Lucius.”
“There will be a meeting at the next full moon,” Lucius said. And there would. He hadn’t yet told Harry and Severus of it, but that didn’t matter. The important thing was that he would set it up and carry it out, and then neither Harry nor Severus-perhaps more to the point, Severus-would have doubts about his value in the future. “I intend to have other non-human allies there. You will meet Potter. Will you consent to attend the meeting?”
Sanguini looked at him and then opened his mouth in a soundless laugh, baring his fangs. “You smell afraid, Lucius. I do wonder if all your human allies know of this meeting.”
Lucius maintained a bland stare. He had long since given up trying to cover his scent. He had found no spells that would work well, given that he couldn’t judge the results for himself. And someone who did not fear a vampire and a basilisk both was a fool. “They will in time.”
“This promises to be amusing. Then I will be there, with two of my lieutenants.” Sanguini moved abruptly forwards the next time Lucius opened his mouth to speak, his fingers curved and poised. His fingernails gleamed black. “This does not mean that I am agreeing to be an ally. Merely to attend the meeting.”
“Even that is a step forwards.”
Sanguini’s smile flashed again. “Yes, it is. Thank you for the cup of human blood earlier, Lucius. Your own?”
“My wife also contributed.”
“You do take your hospitality seriously,” Sanguini murmured, and then turned and strode towards the far corner of the room. A black radiance formed there, outlining a door, the same way he had entered earlier. Sanguini turned his head, and his eyes picked up the radiance, looking like a mixture of dried and living blood. “Tell your lord to do the same.”
“My l-”
Sanguini stepped through the door, some magic that none but the vampires knew how to make, and vanished. Lucius was left to stare frowningly at his back and wonder if the vampire had failed to realize that Lucius no longer followed the Dark Lord.
Then Lucius rolled his eyes and sneered. The obnoxious creature was referring to Harry. As if he thought that Harry would bind Lucius with the same kind of ties that the Dark Lord had done. The mere thought was ridiculous.
Perhaps Sanguini did not listen closely enough when I said that Harry preferred not to overcome someone else’s will with the Imperius Curse, Lucius thought, shaking his head as he paced over to the door to tell Narcissa what had happened. I hope that he will still add value to the alliance, if he insists on ignoring the obvious.
*
Sirius sighed and read through the last letter Harry had sent him. They’d been exchanging cautious owls for what felt like forever. Of course, it was only three months since he’d arrived back in Britain.
But every hour away from Harry feels like forever since I escaped Azkaban.
Dear Sirius,
Severus says that he won’t read every letter I write to you for all time, just these first ones, until he’s satisfied that I’m not saying something stupid. I don’t know what stupid thing I could say. I know that you and I still need to heal and talk about things before I would be ready to live with you again.
There was a long, jarring scratch under those last words. Sirius gave the ink streak a blank look before he envisioned Snape grabbing Harry’s hand because he was reading over his shoulder and wanted to stop him from writing. Sirius chuckled and skipped down to the next paragraph.
But I do want to meet you again. Thank you for-the house in Hogsmeade. That was unexpected, but I do want to live there again. I just feel too much in danger right now. That attack happened in Hogsmeade on my birthday.
“And the sooner you can stop Voldemort, the better, pup,” Sirius said aloud, leaning back against the chair, and wrinkling his nose as a huge cloud of dust rose from it. No matter how many times he cast spells to clean it or shouted at Kreacher to do it, the chair remained stubbornly dusty.
But I also want to be really sure that you aren’t going to say anything against Slytherins. My guardian is a Slytherin. So is my boyfriend. So please don’t. You can get upset about Death Eaters who attack me and that kind of thing all you like, but it’s not going to be the same as blaming the House.
I love you and I can’t wait to see you again.
Harry.
Sirius spent a moment contemplating the ceiling. It was probably going to be hardest to adhere to not blaming Snivellus whenever he got a chance, because that was automatic by now. And the man had taken Harry from him.
It was probably a good thing.
Sirius winced. Yes, it had been. He hadn’t been treating Harry well, and he’d been so worried about the Horcrux that he hadn’t thought about his godson. But he still resented the way Snape had done it, sneaking about behind his back and never even asking Harry if he wanted to live with him. Harry might have said no, and then what would Snivellus have done?
Sirius felt the smile drop off his face when he realized what name he was thinking. That was exactly the kind of thing Lughborn had worked on with him. He couldn’t think it, or eventually he would open his mouth and that name would come out of it without him thinking.
And then they would have a problem with seeing each other again, because Snape would take Harry away.
Sirius leaned back and began to practice some of the meditation techniques that he had learned with the Lughborns. His name is Snape, his name is Snape, his name is Snape. I don’t have to like him, I just have to be polite to him because he’s Harry guardian for right now. His name is Snape…
*
“Hello, Harry.”
Harry jumped and turned around. He was just coming back from a meeting of the Defense club that Professor McGonagall had been teaching, and the shadowy figure had surprised him when it stepped out of a side corridor. For a second he’d thought it was Nott.
Then the figure flung back his hood and grinned, and Harry smiled back. It was Remus. Harry wondered why he hadn’t sent an owl to say that he was coming, but then again, he might have thought it was less easy to send an owl when he was staying with werewolves.
“Have you learned what you can from Whitepaw?” he asked, craning his neck back so that he could look Remus in the eyes. At least he wasn’t having to do that as often as he had been in the past. He was growing a little.
“Yes.” Remus settled his cloak around his shoulders and glanced to the side. “Dash isn’t with you?”
“He’s just out of sight,” Harry said, and turned his head, although he could only see a flash of purple shadow as Dash slipped away again. “He thinks staying with me all the time makes our enemies more cautious.”
“And he wants to lure them into the open and kill them?” Remus’s voice was disapproving, but not as much as it could have been.
Harry shrugged. “He wants to see what they do. If they attack me, then he’ll attack them. He really does try not to kill them if I ask him not to.” He focused back on Remus again. “Do you think you can teach the discipline you learned to other werewolves? Or does Whitepaw want to teach them?”
“Merlin, no.” Remus shuddered a little. “The woman is impressive, but she doesn’t want to be around other people, even other werewolves, and I don’t want to be around her. It would be best if I could break free of her pack altogether, but some of them might want to be involved. I’ve asked, and they’re thinking on it. For now, yes, I can teach others.”
“Good.” Harry’s mind was racing. Lucius had sent him and Severus that letter the other day about the vampires being ready to stand in alliance with them, or at least some of the ones Sanguini led would, and the full moon would be a good time to meet them. And they had “Susana’s people,” although Harry wasn’t entirely sure what Susana’s people were.
“Do you want me to reach out to the ones Greyback leads?”
“Do you know names?” Harry asked, coming back to the present. “That would be most useful right now. The only names of werewolves Severus could find were the already arrested ones or the ones registered with the Ministry, and of course those people aren’t going to be part of Greyback’s pack anyway.”
“For now, starting with registered werewolves might actually be a good idea.” Remus looked thoughtful. “I can show them and the public that they’re less dangerous on the full moon, and they’ll be less hard to convince than some of those who follow Greyback. And eventually word will trickle to Greyback’s followers.”
“So you don’t know the names of a lot of the people in his current pack.”
Remus blinked at him, as if surprised that Harry had noticed he hadn’t answered the question. “You’ve changed since I last saw you.”
“I don’t have much choice when people are trying to kill me and other people need a political leader.”
“And you aren’t afraid of absolute power corrupting you absolutely, the way it happened with Albus? I’m happy to help you, Harry, but I think all leaders need to be aware of that, and afraid of it.”
Not this again, said Dash, abruptly enough down the bond that Harry jumped. I only just got you convinced that you don’t have to worry for the freedom of every person following you, and now-
You didn’t know what I was going to answer.
Oh. Oh. I can feel the shape of the answer in your mind now. This is good, Harry. Go ahead and poke him with it.
Harry grinned at Dash and turned to Remus. “I used to be afraid of that,” he said. “And then Dash pointed out that I was insulting my allies by assuming that they were like small children and didn’t know the consequences of their own actions.”
Remus blinked. “What?”
“That no one could possibly follow me for a good reason. That I must be corrupt for even asking people if they wanted to ally with me. And some of them do want to be allies and help a little and nothing more. But if someone is looking for a strong leader and someone to save them from Voldemort and I can save them…why not do it?”
“Power corrupted Dumbledore.”
“I’m not an old man with delusions of grandeur.”
Remus spent a moment with his mouth open, as if he was going to comment on that. Then he shut his mouth and looked very hard at Harry. “Is this you talking, or is it Dash?”
Of course it must be me whenever you say something which is not perfectly in accord with the werewolf’s philosophy of life. Dash slid out of the shadows and quietly up to Harry’s side, but Remus didn’t look around. Harry had to admit that he was more impressed by that than by Remus asking the question in the first place. Please do answer and put his silly fears to rest.
“It’s me talking,” Harry said. “But Dash woke me up after I had concerns similar to yours.”
“Being concerned about power is always a good thing.”
Harry stroked Dash’s head and sighed. Is this how tiresome you found me? He didn’t need the image of a fervently nodding head to understand, but Dash sent one. “It’s going to happen anyway,” he said quietly. “The war, people trying to put me in power. There were all those newspaper articles last year that implied I was stupid and a show-off for entering the Tournament but also assuming I’d win anyway, because people think I’m sort of super-wizard. The best thing I can do is control it and make sure that people who want to fight Voldemort with me can do so.”
“You’re not old enough-”
Dash hissed. Remus froze abruptly and stared at him with wide eyes. Harry nudged Dash’s plume harder to the side than he usually did when stroking his head. Was that necessary?
Yes. He’s not only going to knock you out of the mindset you need to win this war and ruin all my hard work, he’s bringing up even newer and stupider arguments!
Harry didn’t need help to see why they were stupid, at least. That would really have exasperated Dash. He turned back to Remus and shook his head. “I wasn’t too young to be the Heir of Slytherin. I’m not too young to be loved and hated. Severus is making sure that I do have adults who can take care of me and protect me. But I’m in this war. And I’m not going to stop being involved because it would make you feel better.”
Remus seemed to age in front of his eyes. “I’m sorry, Harry,” he murmured. “I just-I think of the ways that I could have turned your life upside-down by biting you, and I want you safe from here going forwards.”
Make sure he can do some work to keep you safe. Preferably far away from you.
Harry inclined his head, also making sure to keep his face serene, and looked up at Remus. “It would help if you could come up with some names of registered werewolves, and then we can start from there.”
Remus immediately perked up and began naming off werewolves. Harry listened and nodded, and walked most of the way back to Gryffindor Tower with him putting together a plan for him to approach those werewolves and start spreading the rumors of learning to control their inner beasts that Greyback’s pack would hopefully hear in the future.
Sometimes I think I’m such a disappointment to Father’s old friends, Harry told Dash as they slipped into the Tower.
You are never a disappointment to the ones who matter, Dash said, and nudged him almost hard enough to take him off his feet. Then he extended his neck forwards, and Harry turned curiously with him, to see Severus waiting in the common room.
“Who told you the password?” Harry muttered, knowing from the look on Severus’s face that he would want to know why it had taken so long for Harry to get back.
“Listening to portraits chatter when they don’t think you can overhear them is useful,” Severus said, and stood. “Now. I want you to tell me…”
Harry bowed his head and answered some of the same questions that he had with Remus, but he didn’t mind doing this with Severus. It occurred to him that he should be surprised about that, and maybe a little resentful…
Not when you know that Severus loves and cares for you, while the wolf might only see you as your father still.
And that answer, unlike many of the ones he’d given or been given tonight, satisfied Harry entirely.
Chapter One Hundred and Eighteen.
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