A/N: Still going and going.....Thanks to Lady Starlight for her work on this chapter it is appreciated. As
usual I own nothing really.
Chapter 35: Farwell to Thee
******************************Hogwarts**********************************
February 25, 2016
4:00 pm
The cry of a species unseen since the Miocene era in these longitudes carried over the grounds and sky of Hogwarts. A thousand feet above the frozen waters of the Black Lake, a dark dot circled, flapping huge wings occasionally to regain altitude as golden eyes scanned across the ice, hoping for a break in the white floe.
He wheeled in the air, and tucked his wings, dropping at an insane velocity, straight at a slim, black-haired girl standing on the shore. The eagle's wings flared only feet from her, to pull up with just the tips of his yellow talons ghosting through the nimbus of her raven hair.
She rolled her eyes and tucked her hands deeper into the handwarmer pockets of a dark grey Muggle parka festooned with many more pockets. A velcro'ed patch on one sleeve displayed a silver sword held vertically over crossed black wands, with a silver and grey American flag attached over that. Soft clouds rose from her nose as she let dark blue eyes track the progress of her Familiar through the sky, as he swooped and rose, crying out again with a faint complaining note.
It's not my fault, I can't exactly control the weather, she shot upwards, only to receive an almost...huff. Ignoring Skree as he complained again, Rain looked back over her shoulder as another black-haired girl joined her. "Hey."
Emilia nodded, and huddled in her own parka, "What's wrong with him?" she nodded towards the bald eagle still circling. She shrugged, "He still thinks he should be able to sleep in your room, cause if its that, Harriet and I don't care, and Cassie can just sod off, she's never there anyway."
"No," Rain sighed, "though that will make him happy...He's spoiled." She glanced up as a sense of disagreement retorted along her Familiar link, "Yes, you are," she snapped into the air. She looked back to Emilia, "No, he doesn't want rabbit or squirrel or something...he wants fish. It never freezes over at home, or at least not totally, usually. So he can get fish year round." Her hand blurred to the sheath riding her thigh and a blue bolt snapped out to impact the ice two hundred meters from the shore, sending chunks of ice and water skyward.
A brown and white dart ripped downwards from the heavens before the last of the chunks had finished falling, and wings flared as talons flashed, before they beat heavily, lifting the nearly eight-foot wingspan back into the air with a struggling salmon in its grasp.
"Rain--"
"Yeah, I know," she replied, shaking her head, "I'm his enabler." She rolled her eyes as her eagle dropped the large fish on the snow in front of her, and settled on her shoulder with a gentleness that would have amazed any Muggle. Emilia had more than once watched the bald eagle, who was a larger than most of his kind, settle on Rain's shoulder with only a thin t-shirt between the deadly talons and her flesh, or even if it was during the summer, only bare skin under his feet. Rain reached up and ruffled the white feathers on his head, "Yeah, I love you, now go eat, dufus, I'm cold."
He launched from her shoulder, and landed next to the struggling fish, which stopped struggling with one quick swipe of a yellow beak.
"How are you, Rain," Emilia asked as they both watched the bird eat. She paused, "How's Justin?"
Rain looked over at her, and shrugged helplessly. "Honestly?"
Emilia nodded.
"I'm fine, it's not that I don't feel terrible about it. I mean I do for him, but I wasn't exactly the closest to her. I didn't want her dead of course, or even hurt in any way, but she never exactly went out of her way to even so much as make me feel welcome, not really. I guess she didn't think I was good enough for her grandson."
Emilia frowned, "Was she really that bad to you?"
Rain sighed and shrugged, "More that she was cold, never wanted to even seem to consider that might actually care for Justin as opposed to just being there cause I thought he was cute...and his dad was rich. Shit, Em, I don't give a fuck about if Draco has managed to rebuild their fortunes, Dad and Mom aren't exactly hurting for money, and even if they were...It wouldn't matter." She closed her eyes, "I'm a bitch, aren't I?"
"No, you are just a very honest person...sometimes too much so, but I love you anyway," Emilia replied reaching over to hug her taller best friend. She tightened her arms as Rain shook slightly under her arms, though Rain made no sound otherwise. She took a step back, watching as Rain silently composed herself and glanced away for an instant.
"Are you going to the Burrow tonight or tomorrow?" Emilia went on after a minute, letting Rain re-summon Skree to her shoulder and start to pet him.
"I'm going to Portkey to Justin's house tonight along with Anna, they are staying there tonight...too many people at the Burrow, I guess. I was just feeding the glutton here," she stroked Skree's feathers affectionately, as he squawked at her, "I guess I'll see you tomorrow, sis?"
Em nodded, and Rain gave her a tired smile and kissed her cheek, before walking slowly back towards the castle and the Portkey to her grieving other half waiting on her.
*****************************Burrow************************************
10:00 pm
A door opened in the front of the ramshackle dwelling, spilling heat and light onto the cold, white snow. A single, thin shape, bundled in a white, furred cloak stepped out onto the lawn with a faint crunch of the snow under her boots and headed out, aimlessly, moving over the blue-lit snow.
She did not notice, or did not take notice of the pair of grey eyes that followed her from a window; before the curtain flopped back down to obscure the view. A whistle from pink lips, unadorned as was her usual, by any enhancement carried over the lawn and a large white four-legged shadow appeared at her side between breaths.
Harriet glanced down at Gaheris, and scratched him behind his ears. He had been her near-constant companion since she was four, when Luna had found the single, pure-white cub moving timidly along the base of the damaged Ravenclaw Tower of a castle a thousand kilometers and a universe away. Somehow, her mother had known that the wolf was meant to be her daughter's Familiar, and she had presented the animal to the then quite happy little girl.
I love you, Gaheris, Harriet said softly, and he rubbed up against her leg before he bounded ahead in the snow, stopping several dozen meters away, to wait for her. She followed, striding through the mid-calf deep snow to him, and glancing back towards the house to find that the spot the wolf had chosen was out of direct sight of the house.
Harriet bent from the waist to kiss his fur between his ears before straightening and pulling out a folding mirror from her pocket. She flipped it open and hit one on the small inset keypad below, and waited as a moiré pattern filled the small surface.
Thirty seconds passed, and with Harriet becoming more nervous by the minute, before a head of disheveled black locks filled the screen, and lightened her heart. Sirius blinked slowly, his eye unshielded by glasses, looking directly into hers from across space and she suddenly forgot how to breathe. She gasped through her teeth as she felt herself responding to him, before she tamped down the reaction guiltily.
Sirius slipped on his glasses, he had been napping from what she could see of the background of his headboard. A hand brushed his fringe out of his eyes, "Something wrong, love?" he asked, quickly.
Harriet shook her head and shrugged, "I...just wanted to see you," she explained quietly.
"Are you alright, Harriet?" Sirius asked, and glanced around the room he was in, "I can..."
"No," she said, "I just needed to know that you were ok." She bit her lip, "I'm sorry, I'm being silly."
"I want to be with you too, Harriet," Sirius replied, "If I could get Mum and Dad's trick of Apparating at Hogwarts...I would be."
"Really?"
"Give me ten minutes to be free of the wards-"
"No," Harriet said shaking her head, "If you did...we'd end up going too far. You were right the other night, it's just a bit longer...I just want you in my head, all the time."
Sirius snorted, "I don't know that I want me in my head all the time...but yeah, I know what you mean."
Harriet slowly brought the mirror up and kissed the cold glass, before pulling back to find Sirius' amused expression, "I am wearing that little, tiny red set, Sirius."
He groaned, "Damn it, woman." He flopped back on his bed and rolled to his side, positioning the mirror on the pillow next to him, the one that in his mind, his soul, that Harriet should be occupying every night instead of the occasional evening. "They'll all know what I'm doing when I close these curtains."
"We agreed," Harriet pouted, "none of that unless I'm helping." She shrugged again, "Besides, I'm sleeping with mum and dad."
"That sounds so wrong," Sirius laughed and then his expression softened, "Are you really alright, Harriet? I will be there, we can get a sleeping bag and kip out on the floor, we don't have to do anything, I..."
"No," she shook her head helplessly, "that would risk being plagued by estases all day, since I'm sure mum's aura will flare because dad's near, and it would cross ours, and then we could just have a disaster."
He nodded, and reached over to stroke the edge of the mirror as if it were her cheek, "The offer stands, any time, any place, Harriet. I will come to you." He swallowed, "No matter what."
She nodded, and closed her eyes, "I know, my Prince. I'll see you in my dreams tonight, I love you, Sirius."
"You too, good night, Harriet." His image vanished as he closed his mirror slowly, reluctantly, and Harriet let out a huge sigh before walking back into the bleakness that she had fled minutes before.
**************************Burrow***********************************
February 26, 2016
10:00 am
The sun shone off unbroken fields of snow surrounding the old house. A series of folding chairs where arrayed in several rows on either side of a carpeted aisle. The chairs were already half filled with an array of wizards and witches, dressed nearly uniformly in black, as a patch of air wavered to one side behind the chairs, to solidify into five black cloaked figures.
At least a dozen Aurors spun instantly before they lifted their wands and continued looking around the area randomly, ignoring the Potters as they slowly disbursed.
Sirius, and Emilia hugged their parents and Sirius slipped off to find Harriet, while Xander slipped his hand into Emilia's automatically.
Hermione looked up and back as Harry's hand shook in hers, and his eyes closed as flickers of memories, of Dumbledore's premature service, of Hagrid's and Moody's services. Of the desperate fighting to hold off Voldemort as he attacked Charlie's funeral on the top of a wind-swept mountain. He looked towards the unlit wooden bier set at the far end of the aisle; She didn't deserve this, Hermione.
Most people don't, Harry, Hermione whispered and squeezed his hand, starting to pull him towards seats reserved for them in the second row directly behind most of the Weasleys. She waited for him to sit, directly behind Ron, who turned and gave them a tired, melancholy smile. Then she sat, letting her head fall to Harry's shoulder as his arm wrapped around her waist. They only nodded as Dumbledore stepped past, his robes for once, a deep shimmering black, before Hermione sighed softly. Do you think that Ron will be, alright, Harry?
Eventually, Harry muttered, turning his head to kiss her hair. They watched as Luna whispered something to Ron; her appearance was as tightly controlled as Dumbledore's today, her long hair piled into a severe bun on her head with her black robes making her look tiny next to Ron. He glanced up as Justin and Rain sat a few seats over from Hermione.
Rain gave them a nod, and sat absently straightening the small Black family crest on the left side of her black robes, before she took Justin's hand again, setting it on her lap. A bit of twisted silver and black glinted from her left ring finger and Hermione just pointed the promise ring out with a mental pointer and no further comment.
Emilia and Xander sat down next to Hermione between the other pair, and a faint, quiet sound came from Em's lips. She leaned over and said something in Rain's ear; Rain shrugged and gave her a single nod, receiving a kiss on the cheek in turn from Emilia.
Harriet and Sirius sat down on Harry's left, with Harriet closing her eyes tightly as she fought against the waves of sorrow battering her mind.
Arthur finally walked into the front row and leaned over to Ron, who nodded and kissed Luna, before standing and following his father back out of sight. A sudden silence fell, broken by only the faint murmur of occasional whispers as Dumbledore slowly walked to the front to stop next to a dark, oak podium subtly carved with the image of a phoenix in flight.
Dozens of flowered wreaths were set next to the empty bier, wishes from other Ministers and officials, along with those from family and friends, though only a relative few mourners were here, family and friends of such. Arthur and the rest had not wanted to deal with the near-state funeral that his status might have otherwise afforded.
Dumbledore looked down the central aisle and nodded, and as one, everyone rose as the four surviving Weasley boys walked past with a shrouded body on their shoulders.
Harry closed his eyes for a beat as a flash of Charlie's service, with the same four men carrying a slightly larger bundle.
Arthur followed the four a few paces back, his robes carrying both the Weasley family crest and a small version of his seal of office.
The boys lifted their mother to the plain wood without a sound and slowly filtered back to their seats, settling next to their spouses as Dumbledore waved the mourners to their seats.
Arthur settled between Ginny and Ron, and nodded to Dumbledore.
Before he gripped the podium, Dumbledore took a breath and looked out over the crowd, catching sight of McGonagall, of Flitwick, of the majority of the Hogwarts professors and the surviving members of the Order of the Phoenix, along with the Weasleys and their extended family. "Molly Weasley was, ever since I first met her almost fifty years ago as a first year, a person who believed strongly in family and the Wizarding world-"
Harry, as he had for so many others, let his mind drift as Dumbledore started to enumerate Molly's life, of her seven beloved children, and of the ever-growing number of grandchildren, of her and her family's devotion to the light. No one ever mentioned Percy's mistake. Harry instead let the words flow over him as Hermione settled closer to him, the pair falling automatically into the unconscious defense that had kept them sane through so many others.
Distantly, he heard the soft snuffles of several of the women and a couple of the men in the crowd, even as he watched Arthur sitting stoically in the front, his spine straight and unbowed, even now as several others came to the podium, to stand next to Dumbledore and relate tales of Molly's life. Harry slowly faded back in, after the last spoke and stepped away, as Arthur rose stiffly from his seat and walked towards the bier.
"Incendio," he said quietly, and a jet of fire licked out, catching the dried wood instantly. The deep red flames grew quickly, shielding the shrouded body from view.
Ginny cried out something and quieted almost instantly as Draco pulled her into his shoulder, and white smoke lifted to the heavens from behind the flames.
The bier burned away totally in the span of another few minutes, before it vanished in a whirl of contained magic leaving the ground bare and untouched. A small white marble headstone appeared a beat later with a flash and Arthur slowly turned away, his hands shaking slightly.
The rest of the crowd took that as an ending and started to slowly move away, gradually drifting towards the Burrow and the reception inside.
Harry watched as the kids slowly clustered together, talking lowly and as Arthur walked past with a faint nod, and Bill's arm around his shoulder with Fleur holding his other hand.
Ron walked up, his hands in his pockets and Harry stepped forward to pull him into a hug. Hermione wrapped her arms around them both, and a beat later; Luna joined them as Ron started to shake silently.
He pulled away a minute later and took a deep breath, "Thanks."
"Sure," Harry replied, even as Hermione and Luna shared a look and huddled together. They all watched as the large group of teens slowly meandered towards the house, mostly in couples with a few singletons hanging about the periphery. Anna nibbled on her lip as she glanced over to Hermione, before dropping her head back to Nathan's shoulder and letting him lead her away along with the rest.
"Are you alright, Ron?" Hermione asked quietly as their children vanished into the house.
"No, not really."
**************************Hogwarts*************************************
March 1, 2016
3:35 am
"Umm...that's nice;" Rain muttered breathlessly as she squirmed under the brightly colored blanket that her mother had sent for Christmas, along with a large packet of deer jerky for her and Skree to share. She moaned quietly as fingers that were only in her dreams started to dance along her sides, and up under the loose sweatshirt that she had tossed on earlier. "Ahh....a little lower, Justin..." A gasp and she shuddered, her breathing speeding up drastically under invisible ministrations.
Across the room, Gaheris yawned and dropped his head back down to lie across his mistress's stomach. He wiggled it back and forth until he pushed up the hem of her shirt enough to rest his chin on bare skin and settled down. The rest of the room was quiet, aside from Rain's dreams, and lit only by a softly glowing orb on one dresser that slowly cycled through the rainbow.
Rain whimpered loudly and fell silent, her breathing slowing gradually.
As if Rain's release was a signal, Harriet whimpered, but the sound was somehow much darker than her 'sister's'. It was tinged with fear and not ecstasy, and she started to worm about as if under the pressure of a spell.
Gaheris lifted his head, and watched as she muttered something unheard.
Flashes of green and yellow spellfire filled closed grey eyes, as she watched dark, cloaked figures striding through a dark night, lit oddly green. A tall, red-eyed figure filled her vision, and laughed, before striding away, drawing a wand as he moved with an inhuman grace towards a terribly familiar dark-haired pair.
Harriet cried out as Emilia took a canary spell and crumpled, screaming and writhing on the ground. Harriet tried to move, to go to her friend but couldn't-not before a green flash lit the night, and the sound of a thousand horses filled her ears.
"EM!" she screamed, thrashing on her bed and causing Rain to awake with a start, rolling out of bed and diving for her wand.
Harriet never heard her; as to her, the only sight and sounds were the sudden crash and clash of spells and blades as Sirius desperately tried to fight his way past the red-eyed-one to her, only to be driven back time and again. She screamed at him to leave, her voice echoing in both her head and in the bedroom, only to watch as her entireties fell on deaf ears.
Sirius seemed to stumble and a black blade flashed...A spray of red shot up and she screamed again as he collapsed. The emerald eyes-that she had fantasized about for so long, and that held her every thought for every instant that she was in the same room as him-went dull.
"Too bad," the tall, cloaked figure laughed, as he turned back to her, leaving the bodies of Emilia and Sirius lying in the dust. "Now that that is settled, shall we continue, my lovely-"
Harriet's body arched up off the bed and her eyes snapped open, unseeing as a wave of biting, stinging cold raced out from her, dropping Rain to her knees as her heart seemed to stop for a long moment as the pain of a thousand deaths washed over her.
Yards away, Sirius tumbled out of bed, not quite seeing the way as he staggered to the doorway of his room. His glasses followed him in mid-air, as he nearly bounded down the stairs, bringing the world into focus, unnoticed as they caught up with him at the bottom of the stairs. Calls of dismay from several of the other Gryffindors distantly met his ears as he sprinted towards the girls' stairs, and started up them at a run. He reached the sixth stair and his feet dropped away from him in a rush as he slid back down into the common room on his face.
"Sirius," Emilia snapped, as she appeared at the base of the boys' stairs, looking to him as he wiped away a bit of blood from his nose and charged again.
His feet barely seemed to touch the ground as he bounded up, and then again, and again, bouncing from side to side of the circular stairwell until he reached a landing.
Behind him, the stairs reset as Anna came from her room and muttered a password at them, but Sirius never heard as he vanished into a blur, following the trace of fear resonating from somewhere deep inside.
Rain looked up, having just reached Harriet, as the door to their room burst open and Sirius sprinted in. She backed away as he dove at Harriet's bed, moving straight for it despite never having been in the room before.
Sirius shivered as he picked her up, falling back onto her bed in the same motion even as she instinctively cuddled against him.
Emilia trailed him a moment later, followed by Anna. The pair stopped at the door and stared, as Harriet seemed to fight something before going utterly limp in his arms.
Sirius bent down and kissed her, pulling her tighter against him with one arm as he reached down automatically pull a blanket up to cover her bare legs. He looked up at his sister, and shook his head.
"What happened?" Anna asked, even as she stepped into the room and closed the door behind her, cutting off gawkers.
Sirius looked back up at Emilia and then over at his aunt, "I don't know. She drew on me a bit, I could feel it, but I don't really question any more, she's entitled to whatever she wants..." He trailed away as Harriet muttered his name, before moving on his lap slowly.
"Sirius," she whispered, almost wondrously, as her eyes fluttered open and she looked up at him. "I don't remember going to bed with you, I'm glad I did though."
Rain crooked an eyebrow and looked over at the other two, who shrugged.
"You didn't, Love;" Sirius replied gently, "We're in your room."
She cocked her head, considering, "What day is it?"
"Tuesday," he replied, then after a moment, "the first."
"Then why are you here? We still have to wait thirty eight days," she replied with a shrug. Her hands started roaming, slowly working their way to the waistband of his pajamas, as she licked her lips unconsciously, "But since you are here, we can do..." Emilia coughed, loudly and Harriet languidly pulled her head up, and seemingly noticed the other girls for the first time. "Hello, Emilia, Anna, I am surprised to see you here. I would have thought that you would have been shagging. Excuse us," she reached up to pull shut the hangings around her bed that the girls normally never closed.
"Umm, Harriet," Anna said into the silence, "don't you remember? You just woke up the whole tower with...whatever that was."
"I did?" she asked, and looked back up at Sirius, "that's odd." She frowned slightly and trailed her fingers up and down his t-shirt. "Did I wake you up, Sirius?"
"Yeah."
"I'm sorry," she whispered, "I didn't mean to...I know how much you need your sleep."
"It's ok, Harriet, I know you didn't mean it. Do you remember what happened?"
She shook her head, "No..." she muttered, shaking slightly as she tried to force herself to remember. "Just...red eyes....red eyes."
Emilia shared a look with her brother over Harriet's shoulder, as flashes of stories, half-remembered, filled their minds. She swallowed, "Are you...s....sure...."
Harriet shrugged, and moved off Sirius' lap, she slid off the bed and looked down, at her shirt, and fluttered the damp fabric a few times before pacing to her trunk at the foot of her bed. She set aside Fall of the Dark Lord and Rise of the House Potter, the title of which Emilia noted with an almost grin, before opening the trunk and beginning to root around in it.
Finding what she wanted, she grabbed, Sirius' old Quidditch jersey from last year and closed the lid. She pulled off her shirt, casually, before pulling Sirius' jersey on over torso and shaking out her hair.
Emilia sniggered slightly at the expression on Sirius' face, though it passed as Harriet crawled over her trunk, unto the bed and along the rumpled covers until she could lie down on top of them next to Sirius' leg.
Harriet rolled over away from the other girls to rest her head on his lap, "I'm going back to sleep now," she announced, and closed her eyes.
Anna sighed, and looked around the room as Sirius started to pet Harriet's hair, looking back towards the Head Girl as if daring her to dislodge him. "If you two don't care," she said, looking between Emilia and Rain, who just shrugged. "Fine, just don't make a habit of it." She left muttering something under her breath about the drawbacks of Kedavra-ing relatives.
"I'll stay here for the rest of the night," Emilia announced as she dropped into her bed, facing Harriet, and waved her hand dimming the lights. Rain followed her example, and Emilia yawned, "Just sleep, Sirius."
"Sure, Mum," he replied, as he more or less held Harriet in place as he wiggled down on the bed to get comfortable.
Harriet rolled into him automatically, moving until he had to force down a groan to the accompaniment of the sniggers of the others in the room, before she settled down with her body intertwined with his.
******************************Background notes**************************
A/N:There you go....Now, because I keep getting asked this, here is the explaination for the
16-year-old thing. I normally don't post this stuff but since every keeps asking....here you go...
General social mores, at least in the younger generations, those born during and after the Voldemort Wars are quite close to those of modern Muggle values, with some exceptions. The older generations may often show attitudes with seemingly Victorian Era values, and this difference has caused some visible rifts.
a) Sexuality/Relationships.
As has become more and more prevalent in Mundane society, same-sex relationships are generally accepted within the
younger generation. It is not unusual to find, especially in Hogwarts-age near-adults to adults, temporary to permanent
same-sex partnerships/marriages (note: there are some spots on the globe that do not recognize these relationships
formally.)
Contributing factors to these relationships, at least the formation of them at ages 14-16, are the dual circumstances that a) the typical anti-pregnancy charm does not work effectively with males under 16, (this is both the background to the age of consent, and is not coincidentally the approximate age at which full adult powers are gained). B) Witches under the age of seventeen have a progressively higher risk in an inverse correlation to their age, if they become pregnant, of contracting Gwinella's syndrome, a progressive condition that may and often does reduce a witch's magical potential to that of a squib. Only a handful of witches have been cured of this condition, which can result from the fetus draining the magical core of the witch while trying to establish its own. This condition has only been formally recognized in the last forty years, as before that, the prevailing mores generally treated it as a "just desert" for immorality.
From this, it is not atypical for a witch to experience some degree of relationship with agemates of a "non-platonic" bent, though the vast majority, do in the end marry males. Males may also establish similar relationships, though generally rarer, and they are typically much less permanent. Current studies (as of 2015) state that the segment of the female population (Witch) that admits some degree of experimentation is at ~25%, though some estimates put the segment at closer to ~50%. A recent report by Gilderoy Fledercarb of Berkley College of Sorcery puts this number at ~80%, but the exact poling of his population is very much in doubt (San Francisco). The male population is generally stated at ~5% in most studies, though once again due to historical mores, not much study has been done on this segment.
Due to various social and magical factors, typically most wizards and witches marry in their late teens to early twenties, unlike Muggles where the age may be into the thirties. The typical marriage/arrangement for magic users is the "normal" male/female, though there are scattered instances of polygamous marriages/relationships. Examples: Neville, Parvati and Lavender (deceased) Longbottom, and Gabrielle Delacour, Anita Dell and Micah Blake.
The drive to marry is also exasperated by the "Marriage Bond" a bond that provides anywhere from slight empathetic feelings to ones partner to outright telepathy and cross-body control across bonded pairs (occasionally multiplicities.) This bond may form "spontaneously" or can be invoked with several spells, some of which are used in traditional Wizarding weddings/joinings. Arch-Mage class wizards will typically form such a bond automatically with a "True" match upon coitus or extreme stress.