A Baby Wizard and His Cousin Harry- The Symbol in the Envelop
Ronald Weasley was furious in his Halloween Ball. It was true that his ball turned out to be a huge success, everyone enjoyed themselves. However, he was angry that neither of his best friends showed up. He bet that the pair of them must be snuggling up in the Llyr and forgotten totally about this ball he had organized. They are going to get it! Ron thought angrily as he marched around the ball. I'll tear up their room. I'll punch them till they fall. I'll...
"Ronald?" a small voice called to him from a dark corner. It was the voice of the Looney Lovegood. "What are you doing wondering about? Come here."
Ron forced a smile and faced Luna. "Hello, Luna. Why are you here alone? You should be dancing."
Luna shrugged and gazed at Ron dreamily. "I've always been alone and no one ever asks me to dance. What about you? Why are you alone? You look rather angry to me. Would you tell me of your problems?"
Ron looked into Luna's dreamy eyes. Somehow he found himself unable to resist her eyes and began to tell her of his misery. He told her about working so hard to organize this surprise ball for every one. He told her about how difficult to decorate the Great Hall. He also told her how disappointed he was that neither of his friends were there to appreciate his work. Unbeknownst to himself, Ron had poured out his heart and soul to Luna Lovegood.
"They must have their reasons," said Luna with sympathy. "Maybe they finally saw a Crumple-Horned Snorkack and just had to go after it. They wouldn't miss your ball on purpose. I'm sure they'll appreciate your work if they had seen it. I think you've done a wonderful job here. This place is lovely tonight."
Ron was shocked that Luna loved his hard work. He never thought that anyone apart from his best friends would pay him any compliments. "I...."
"Hush, Ronald," Luna moved closer to him and gazed up into his shocked eyes. "There's no need to say anything. Now, don't be bitter and spoil tonight. Let your friends enjoy themselves and so we should too. Would you dance with me?"
Without a word, Ron wrapped his arms around Luna's skinny waist. They danced in the dark corner of the Hall, enjoying the presence of each other. For all that time, Ron had momentarily forgotten about his grudges against his best friends and lost himself in Luna's spell.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Meanwhile, in Llyr, Ron's best friends were having a totally different sort of time. Harry and Hermione had set up their wooden table and had a relaxing dinner while Duncan lay in the baby carriage nearby, chewing the the Baby Chew they bought earlier. Dobby wasn't around. He decided to take this day off and spend it with his friend, Winky.
After dinner, Hermione began to read again as Harry lay on the loveseat. Harry gazed at the girl before him with an emotion he had never felt before. Just looking at the innocent, studious face before him, Harry had an urge stronger than before to take the girl in his arms, caress her and to kiss her. He vaguely remembered that he felt something roughly like this earlier that day.
Duncan began to gurgle in his carriage in attempts to draw some attention back to himself, seeing that Hermione was engrossed with her book and Harry's eyes were clearly fixed on Hermione.
"Why, little Duncan boy, what's the matter? Do you feel the pain of being neglected now? Trust me, your famous cousin here would tell you that he'd swap with you any day." Hermione put down her book immediately and went over to see what Duncan wanted. By this time, Hermione had grown much too fond of Duncan, although she didn't even know that Duncan was like a son to her. She picked the baby boy, who beamed widely at her, up from his carriage.
That is exactly what I'd wanted in life, thought Harry. A nice little house, a loving family, a beautiful wife who knows me more than anyone on the planet and a son so adorable that no one will be able to resist his charm. It would only be more than perfect if I could go up to them and hug Hermione and Duncan with my arms. Wait, Harry, you must drive those insane thoughts out of your head! How could you even think like that? You are going to lose your best friend if you keep going like this! Harry shook his hat involuntarily. It was wrong to think of Hermione like that, he was sure. These thoughts prevented Harry from getting to his feet and move closer to the people he so wanted to hug. Difficult though it was, Harry managed to keep himself in his seat.
"Look at Duncan, isn't he growing bigger everyday? I swear he was at least 0.5 cm shorter than he is now this morning." Hermione said as she examine Duncan's body with pride. How could she not be when she knew this was the boy she helped bringing up and he turned out to be so fine and healthy.
Harry laughed. "You can tell, can't you? I'd say your eyes must be sharper than owls now. I could never tell, but I will agree that Duncan is getting bigger."
Hermione opened the window to let a bit of fresh air in. She than sat down in the loveseat with Duncan in her arms, pushing Harry aside. "Have I told you how adorable your cousin is? He's the cutest and the least naughty baby I've ever seen in my life. If I am going to have a baby someday, I want it to be just like him."
"What? With those emerald eyes?" Harry pretended not to get Hermione totally. Of course, Harry told himself that it was just a tease anyway. "You know, not many people have that kind of eyes. Or maybe you're hinting that you'd like to have my baby? Tell you what, I wouldn't mind at all."
"Right," Hermione rolled her eyes. "You joke too much and too often, Harry. You ought to stop that. Someday you are going to make a girl blush so much that she'd faint."
I wasn't joking, thought Harry. I was telling the truth when I said that I won't mind. Heck, actually I think I'd be more than happy if you were to be the mother of my child.
Harry looked up and saw Hermione staring at him in disbelief. "Wh... what did you say? You... you weren't... joking?" whispered Hermione uncertainly. She seemed to be in the state of shock. Her hand had stopped patting Duncan's back. In fact, her whole body seemed to be frozen. Duncan wriggled in her arms and looked up and her quizzically as if asking her why she had stopped.
Oh dear, must have said it out aloud. Harry was immediately in panic. He whacked himself on the head really and as he thought of an explanation. "I... I didn't mean to. Oh dear, I'm terribly sorry. I don't know what came over me. I... I... I...." Harry mumbled nonsense as he whacked his head and slapped his mouth. He couldn't believe he just made such a fool of himself. How could he say that aloud? Imagine what Hermione must be thinking of him now. The even stronger emotion than embarrassment was anxiety. Harry worry most that Hermione would cease to be friend with him. He couldn't possibly stand that. It would be all too unbearable. He stared blankly at the floor and avoided Hermione's eyes.
"I... wouldn't mind being your babies' mother either," Hermione's soft and timid voice jerked Harry's head right up. Her face was flushed and her eyes twinkled with... was it really love, or was Harry mistaken about the odd look in Hermione's eyes?
No word was exchanged between the two. They gazed into each other's eyes and understood each other's mind. For a moment, the two friends forgotten everything that was around them- Hogwarts, Voldemort, the possibly angry Ron for they didn't show up in the Feast, the suite of Llyr, even the baby Duncan laying between them had been forgotten. Harry began to lean towards Hermione. Slowly, he closed up the distance between them. When he was only one centimeter away from sharing his first kiss with Hermione, an owl hooted loudly in Harry's ears.
It was an unknown brown owl with an envelope attached to its leg. Never once in Harry's life had he found the owl post annoying at he did that moment. That owl just disturbed the most beautiful and emotional moment of his life. Harry grumbled as he pulled the envelop off the bird and opened it. The moment Harry tore open the envelop, a mist of black gas enveloped the whole suit.
"Arragh!" Harry screamed in pain as the dark gas filled the room. "What the hell?" he swore. His scar was once more burning, this time more painful than it had ever been. He dropped on the floor and rolled on his stomach. At that moment, the pain was so great that Harry would rather die than to endure such pain. Despite of his discomfort, Harry's mind was still on the other two occupants of the room. Although he was half blind with the pain, Harry still strived to check whether Hermione and Duncan were al right. All his efforts were invalid as he couldn't battle the pain.
A minute or two later, the black mist drifted out of the open window. It was then when the pain on Harry's forehead reduced and finally able to stand up again. His first priority was to make sure the ones he loved were all right. He looked towards the loveseat and discovered, to his horror, that both Hermione and Duncan lay unconscious on it.
"Hermione! Hermione!" Harry shook his friend but received no response from her. He panicked momentarily. Scenes from the Department of Mystery incident flashed before his eyes. Harry somehow managed to hold himself together and put a finger on Hermione's wrist. Much to his relief, he found a weak but definitely moving pulse. Harry then moved on the check on Duncan. He was also very glade when he found that his baby cousin, though weak and knocked out like Hermione, was also still alive. Just barely.
Who would send him such a curse? Could it just be some Harry-Potter-hater? Or was it someone worse? Why would they want to curse him anyway? If this gas was supposed to knock him unconscious like Hermione and Duncan, why was he still up and totally fresh minded? Could this have something to do with the Dark Lord? After all, his scar only hurts when the Dark Lord was about.
Harry searched the floor and found the envelop he had dropped. It wasn't big. Harry looked over it and found nothing but a weird looking symbol inside- 天. It definitely wasn't English, nor did it look like the Runes in Hermione's text book. It looked a bit like Chinese or Japanese, but Harry wasn't sure. He pocketed it and went back to Hermione and Duncan on the loveseat. Harry picked Duncan up and levitated Hermione into the air.
"You guys will be fine. I'll take you to the Hospital Wing. I won't let anything else happen to you," Harry whispered softly to the still unconcious Hermione and Duncan. It was comforting to know that Madam Pomfrey can fix anything, as long as the patients are still alive.
These two are going to see Madam Promfrey and Dumbledore's about to see me.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"This is a very interesting piece of paper," remarked Dumbledore as he turned the mysterious envelop in his hand. "This is indeed a Chinese character. I can see that it's no ordinary writing, but it had been enchanted by very Dark magic. It is the sort of Dark magic Chinese had developed thousands of years ago. Hardly anyone use it anymore these days. It is a very powerful type of magic. Miss Granger and young Mr. Dursley are lucky to survive. From their survival, we can see that whoever sent you this hasn't mastered the art totally or else both of them would've died there and then. It's interesting that you shouldn't be affected apart from the burning of your scar."
Harry paced in Dumbledore's office in anguish as Dumbledore examined the envelop. "Is it from Voldemort? Who else would wish me harm and send powerful Dark magic through the mail? Did he know how to use this Chinese magic?" Although Harry didn't know the curse nor its potential, but he could recognize its power.
"Could be," Dumbledore's answer wasn't positive nor negative. His face was totally blank throughout the session. His expression unreadable. Nothing was given away to betray what he really felt at the time. "I'm not aware that he had ever studied Chinese magic, but it is possible that he had gained this new knowledge over the years he had disappeared. From what I know, this particular brand of magic is unique and hard to master. I have an impression that it works in a chain of letters. Even I know nothing of its exact working. I suspect that more of these would be coming. Do not open any more of them. Bring them to me straight away. I'll keep them here and study them. Meanwhile, I would suggest that you return to your room. Madam Promfrey insisted on keeping Miss Granger and Mr. Dursley there for tonight, so I guess your room would be rather lonely. Have a good night sleep. Never fear, this would be sorted soon, I hope."
Harry looked as if he still wanted to say something else. However, after an after thought, Harry nodded and left obediently.
As soon as Harry was out of ear shot, Dumbledore walked by his window and gazed at the lake outside and sighed, "This is exactly what I fear. Voldemort had finally found the lost recipe of the legendary Chinese dark magic. He hasn't quite mastered the skill yet, but it would only be a matter of time before he gets everything right and starts to kill. I do hope that Harry could bring him down before he brought this skill to perfection. If he did, I doubt that even Harry would be able to stop him. Then, we are all doomed."
A/N: I guess you guys were wondering why I ever categorized this story as action/adventure. In the previous chapters, there were nothing of that sort anywhere. I have to say that the dark side of this fic is starting to surface. Please be patient and wait for the action side of the plot unfold. Never fear, Duncan will still be a part of it. He won't be given for the Dobby to look after or anything. He is, after all, the son-but-not-really of Harry and Hermione. Consider his family background, with his uncle and aunt killed by Voldemort and his primary parental figures being Harry and Hermione, Duncan's destined to lead a life different from most normal babies jam packed with action and angst.