52Chapter 45
Harry was about halfway through the parchment when he remembered he had forgotten to ask Snape about Voldemort and Lucius.
"Professor?" He said, looking up at the man who was still glaring at students essays behind his desk. The dark haired man looked up at him, "Yes?"
Harry swallowed. "Do you know anything about how Voldemort survived...me? Or whatever happened that night?" The man leaned back in his chair and sighed.
"I do not. I know the death eaters all have theories but the Dark Lord refuses to answer any of them."
"Do you think Mister Malfoy would know anything?"
The dark haired man lifted an eyebrow. "He may, though if he does he hasn't mentioned anything to me. I'll speak to him about it when I have a chance."
"Thank you, sir."
When Harry was finished Snape had told him to go to bed and to try to avoid anymore fights with his old friends. He had snorted and walked out of the man's classroom. He didn't make it more than a few feet before he felt a pull in his abdomen that he felt he had to follow.
It didn't take him long to figure out he was being directed to the Room of Requirements and he smiled. He thought about the room he wanted and muttered the password when the door appeared. He slipped inside to see the bed that Draco had called once before was present and the blonde Slytherin was laying in the center. Harry tried to be quiet as he put his bag on the floor, but Draco stirred and sat up.
"Hey," the slytherin said, smiling at him.
"Hey," Harry said back trying not to grin like an idiot because that smile on Draco's face did something to him and now all Harry wanted to do was crawl onto the bed and press himself as close as he could to his mate. It wasn't sexual, he knew that, but it was a need to be close.
Going on instinct he took off his robes and kicked off his shoes and then he got onto the bed. Draco must have been feeling something similar because the other boy laid on his side and pulled Harry close against him as soon as he could. With Draco at his back, the blonde's arm over his stomach Harry took his mate's hand and closed his eyes. He felt happy, content and safe. As he drifted off to sleep he swore the Malfoy heir was purring behind him.
Bill POV
I probably shouldn't have told Charlie to get lost, he thought with a chuckle as he looked around the hallway outside the living room. He hadn't meant it literally but it seemed his little brother had wandered off inside the Manor and now Bill couldn't find him.
"Charlie!" he called out as he bypassed a number of open doors. He had already shouted his brother's name a couple times and if Charlie had been in any of those rooms, he would have responded. A knot of unease grew in his stomach. He headed for the north staircase. They hadn't reached this far into the house yet, and if Charlie had wandered off in this direction, Bill had no idea what he would have stumbled upon.
When he got no response he carefully started his way up the stairs. At the last stair he pulled out his wand and muttered a Point me spell. The knot in his stomach grew as the wand spun and spun in his hand. Bill cancelled the spell. It seemed the Potter's had wards set up inside the house as well as the ones outside it. He cursed under his breath and called out his brother's name again.
Bill had been searching over the house for days now and while they hadn't found anything particularly dangerous, they had found a number of dark objects and a couple of questionable rooms. That should have made him feel better, knowing that his brother should be okay, but 'should' didn't mean 'was'. Trying not to let his imagination run wild, he opened the first door he saw. It was a beautiful bedroom, but Charlie wasn't in it, so he closed the door and moved across the hall to the next one.
As he opened the door, he tried not to think about the fact he hadn't heard from his brother in close to two hours. He cursed himself, how had he gotten so sidetracked he had failed to notice how long Charlie had been gone.
"My fault," he muttered as he looked over another bedroom. If he hadn't told his brother to get lost then he wouldn't have wandered off. If something happened to Charlie because of him, he'd never forgive himself. Not the mention the only reason Charlie was in the house was because Bill had demanded he come instead of the twins. Bill loved his little brothers but a few days alone with them in a potentially dangerous area was exhausting. They never stayed still and they had to touch everything. They also had an annoying habit of walking into rooms without checking them over first, one would think that Fred almost getting fried by a rogue fireplace would have made his brothers more careful, but nope they just kept on as they wanted.
He had been at the end of his patience that morning and ordered Charlie to come with him instead of the twins. Everything had been fine at first. Charlie had a natural curiosity and fascination with magical objects that rivaled Bill's. But then Charlie had found an old bag, inside a number of Dragon bones.
He didn't feel it at first, the power the bones held. Not until Charlie was halfway through his rant about how the Dragon's death 'had better have been from natural causes'. Then there was a ripple in the air and he turned to see Charlie had pulled out one of the bones. Charlie had frozen in place his entire focus on the bone. Even from where he stood Bill could feel the power pouring from them.
Scared, Bill called out his name. At first nothing happened but after a couple of tries, Charlie raised his head slowly. Bill's breath caught in his throat. Charlie's eyes glowed like molten lava and he seemed to be dazed or at least confused. Close to terrified, Bill had panicked and used his wand to throw his brother as far away from the bag as he could. He might have used a bit too much power as his brother flew across the room. Then he quickly levitated the bone back into the bag and spelled the thing shut. He told himself he would have to take a look at them later, or better yet ask the Goblins to.
Afterwards Charlie had apologized and stayed at his side. He had wondered if his brother had been as freaked out as he had been, and maybe that's why he stayed so close. But after a while, Charlie's hovering had started to get on his nerves. Finally about an hour later he told his brother to get lost. It had been a joke, a frustrated one but still a joke. But now that he couldn't find Charlie he felt guilty and worried.
"Charlie!" He shouted out again, this time amplifying his voice with his wand.
"Fuck, Bill, no need to shout!" His brother cursed from a room not far ahead of him. Relieved Bill rushed in and stopped. It was a library, a tiny one but still a library. What had given him pause was they had already found two others inside the Manor. Two was about normal for a place this big, three was unusual.
"Another one?" He asked as he moved to stand next to his brother. Charlie barely nodded his head as he turned the page of the book he was looking at.
"What have you got?" He asked, trying not to think about the bones and how Charlie had been drawn to them.
"I think," his brother said carefully looking up at him with an awed expression, "what old Dumbles is after." Charlie closed the book and handed it to him.
It was a large leather bound book with Peverell, across the cover.
"Holy-" He gasped and opened it. He only skimmed a few pages before he understood why Charlie was so sure this was what the headmaster was after.
Old families like the Potters, Malfoys, Black, Avery, even Crouch and Longbottoms had family Grimoires. Their father even had one. They all studied from it before going to Hogwarts. They were spell books mostly but they held family potions recipes or inheritance information, anything that was helpful to their children and grandchildren. Outsiders were never supposed to see them. Most families kept them safe and hidden only allowing their children to study them once they are old enough to know to keep it a secret.
But the really old families, the ancient ones, the ones that have all but died out like the Peverell, Slytherian, Gyriffondor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, those family Grimoires were all said to be gone, destroyed with their bloodlines.
If Dumbledore suspected that this Grimoire had survived and had been passed down to Harry, surely he would do anything to get his hands on it. With the forgotten spells inside, the headmaster could do untold damage.
"We have to tell Harry," he said, handing the book back to his brother, who turned and put it back on the shelf where he must have found it.
Charlie Pov
"Agreed," Charlie replied without looking away from the book he had just put back.
When he had stumbled across the small library he hadn't known what to expect but he had felt a pull towards the book and the urge to touch it didn't go away until he had it in his hands.
When Bill announced that they should go and that he wanted to tell Sirius and Remus as soon as possible, Charlie was relieved. He wasn't sure he could stay inside the Manor much longer. Even with the distance between them, he could still feel the Dragon bones calling out to him.
He was no stranger to the urges to find or hold things. It was a curse of his Dragon Kin inheritance. One of several gifts he received when he came of age at 16. But the bones had been different from anything else he had ever come across. He hadn't been able to stop himself.
He had felt them the second he entered the room and he had to see them, touch them. He hadn't even registered walking across the room or opening the bag. He only realized what he was doing when he started reaching into the bag, ignoring the small voice in his mind telling him this was dangerous. The second his fingers wrapped around the long bone, fire raced through his veins and he could feel the magic in the air. He could feel it in everything, the bones, the bag, the wards in the room and even the buildup of power from Bill right before he was thrown across the room.
Once the bone was gone, it was like Charlie had been tossed into an ice cold lake, all the fire and heat was gone. It left him feeling cold and off balance. A little freaked out he stayed close to Bill, using his brother's presence as a reassurance that everything was okay.
That was until his brother got annoyed, not that Charlie blamed him he had been hovering, and told him to beat it. So he had wandered off.
Not only because Bill had snapped, if it had been he could have just sat somewhere in the room and waited until his brother finished. But he could still feel the bones and the idea of putting some distance between him and them seemed like a good idea.
He found a staircase and walked up to it not paying attention to anything other than the bones getting farther and farther away. When he entered the library and he couldn't feel them anymore he had been relieved, right up until the urge to grab the book kicked in. Thankfully it wasn't all consuming like the dragon bones and he knew he could have ignored it if he had wanted, which given his curious nature he didn't.
When he had pulled it off and saw what it was he had been floored. He couldn't believe it. That he was holding the Peverell family's grimoire. The spells inside had to be impressive and powerful. He was wondering, how the hell had it survived and how did the headmaster know about it? When he heard his brother shout.
Afterwards when Bill was talking about going to see Remus and Sirius, Charlie told him to have fun and that he was going home. Bill had looked a little disappointed but wished him a goodnight and apperated away.
Leaving Charlie to apparate inside his living room. Feeling worn and a little jumpy he searched for the bottle of fire whiskey he kept stored for when the twins visited, and poured himself a glass.
He had lost control tonight, that thought kept bouncing around inside his head. He hadn't lost control of his abilities since he was 16. It was the day after his birthday and he had been frustrated about something and he had set his room on fire. Not intentionally, he hadn't even known what was happening, other than his arms were suddenly ablaze. He had started screaming.
His mother had rushed in panicked and waving her wand at the blue and orange flames slowly working their way further up Charlie's arms. The flames had burned everything they touched other than him and he remembered being terrified, his heart beating so fast he couldn't breath and tears running down his cheeks.
Somehow his mother had been able to calm him down, talking to him in a careful low voice. Charlie had watched bewildered as the flames dwindled down to nothing. He still hadn't a clue what was going on but he was so happy and grateful they were gone that he rushed to his feet to hug his mother. He froze when he saw her face. Her fear and panic was gone, replaced with disgust.
His heart had sank, what could have he possibly done to make her look at him like that? When he finally found his voice, he begged her to tell him what was going on. She simply told him that it was a fluke, a freak accident, and that it was never to happen again! Her voice had gotten cold and stern and it scared him. She insisted that he never speak of it to anyone, not even his father. She had made him swear. Young, confused, and still shaking from fear, he had agreed.
After that he tried his best to never let the flames return, but no matter how he willed them to stay gone, he found they returned whenever he was scared or angry. He kept them hidden, learning that his skin often itched before the flames appeared and would leave the room making sure that no one saw them. He had tried meditation and calming droughts whenever things got overwhelming and he was close to losing control but they only worked so well.
For a year he had fought against what he was, it left him jumpy, crankie, and exhausted.
He had been at the point that despite the promise he had made, he was thinking about going to his father or Bill. Maybe they would be able to help him, or atleast give him someone to talk to about it.
He had been debating which to talk to one day, while shopping for a new pair of dragon hide gloves in Romania. He hadn't been paying much attention as he started past a bookstore. But suddenly there was this tug at the center of his chest and he had to follow it.
He ended up inside the bookstore standing in front of a section of books about Kin.
Charlie had learned a little about them in school. But the only one he had remembered were Werewolves, he remembered the Defense against the Dark Arts lecturing about them for days and days on end. But it had been research for his essay where he learned that Kin were classified as a wizard with certain creature blood inside them. His professor never covered it in class. He also never covered the fact that Vampires weren't part of the kin classification for some reason, though there were plenty of people that believed they should have been. Charlie hadn't even known one could be born a vampire before he stumbled across the books. He only learned about it when he started skimming through them that day.
At the end of the day, he had bought close to a dozen books using up all of his savings. It turned out to be one of the best investments in his life.
That summer he finally learned what he was and how to control it.
Kin weren't just werewolves, they were a classification that covered several different mixed blooded creatures, like shapeshifters, griffins, mermaids, Fae and Dragons. He learned that not all Dragons were like the ones he wanted to work with in Romania when he graduated.
Some were wizards born with the abilities of Dragons, like his burning arms or like his abilities to find things or the desire to own and possess shiny or treasured items. He learned that werewolves were the only creatures on the list that were cursed, not that anyone knew why.
The myths around how the Kin came into being were murky and vague at best. Like most origin stories he would later realize. There were two commonly accepted theories. The first was that some wizards way back then were gifted with certain abilities from the Dragons, Griffins, Fae, or Mermaids. The other more crass theory claimed mixed breeding between wizards and the creatures. Charlie felt those people were the ones that hated creatures like him and didn't pay them any mind.
Life was better after he found that bookstore.
Maybe it was the knowledge of what he was. Or the fact that he had learned better ways to control his new abilities and desires.
Even with that burden lifted he found things would never be the same between him and his mother. After all a Kin wasn't just something that happened, it was in his blood, something passed down from his ancestors. Which meant his mother had known all along what he was and had lied and tried to get him to ignore it.
He had watched his siblings throughout his last year of school, trying to see if any of them showed signs of emerging. Bill he figured was too old and if his brother had ever gained any abilities he had hidden them well. He never saw anything in Percy or the twins that hinted at them being like him. At first he felt saddened and alone, but then he remembered how his mother had looked at him and he was grateful his brothers or Ginny would never have to see that same disgusted look.
Eventually life happened, he graduated and got to move away from his disapproving mother. He found that he was happiest among that dragons and that the other trainers knew what he was and never spoke ill of him. In fact they loved having him around as he could handle the dragons better than the others. The large beasts knew him. They never attacked or burnt him, though more than once they had pinned him down to stop him from leaving or nudged him out of their way, when they wanted to get past him. Their treatment might have seemed a little rough but Charlie knew the dragons were trying to be gentle with him, and it was only Charlie that they manhandled. The dragons never treated the other trainers that same way.
Ric, his mentor, told him that they sensed the dragon in him and that they tended to treat him like a hatchling, which the others found amusing as hell.
The distance didn't stop Charlie from keeping an eye on his siblings, though it made it harder. Every Holiday and break he was home, he tried to spot if any of them had come into their inheritances. He wasn't sure about Percy, but something in the twins had changed around their 16th birthday. He didn't think anyone else noticed so he never mentioned it, just gave them a pile of books he stumbled across that he thought they might like. More than one of the different creatures or Kin.
The books were never mentioned again, but he did notice his mother had never found them either. So maybe just maybe they had done the twins some good and they were smart enough to keep them hidden.
Sitting there drinking firewhiskey, he wondered if it had been the right move. Or if maybe he should have pulled his siblings aside one at a time and told them the truth about him, and the possibility they could be like him. He sighed and put his glass down, who was he kidding, he knew why he never told them. The fear of seeing that look on any of their faces had kept his mouth shut.
Maybe it was time to change that. These last few weeks had shown him that his mother wasn't the woman she pretended to be and that his brothers were stronger and more resilient than he ever imagined. With everything going on maybe it was time to tell the others the truth, after all his abilities had led him to the book, and those bones, maybe there were other things his skills could help with.