Disclaimer:
"Harry Potter" and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I own nothing but the original characters I create.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 161: The Brand
"Astoria! You are awake!" Daphne had an unusually wide grin on her face.
"Daph…" Astoria tried to speak more, but her eyes started to close again.
"It's okay, my love," Selene told her. "You must be very tired. Rest now."
Astoria moved her head a bit as if trying to nod, and then her eyes closed again.
"She is going to be okay now," Sebastian looked at Harry. "Is the curse gone?"
'If the curse wasn't gone, she would be dead already,' Harry decided not to say that.
"Yes, the curse is gone. But her body and magic will need time to recover. I'm sure you have many potions to help speed up her recovery…" Harry stood back up with difficulty.
"Dobby, my shirt."
The elf hurried up to bring him his clothes.
Harry glanced at his left arm....the pain was almost gone. The brand was very faint now that the gate had been closed and that 'entity' was far away, but it was still visible.
'It's never going to disappear completely now…' He knew this for sure.
Harry had hoped that after waking up in a different timeline with a different body, he would not have to worry about this brand again, but he was wrong.
'It must be attached to my soul… In that case, it will follow me always.'
He had already considered this possibility but now he had the confirmation.
"No use complaining now…" He told himself in a whisper while putting his shirt back on.
"Mister Potter…" Sebastian approached him.
"I believe you can call me Harry at this point. We can drop the formalities a bit after this," he told the Lord.
Sebastian nodded in agreement. "Harry… you saved my daughter… my family owes you a great debt."
Harry noted how Lord Greengrass had worded that. The debt was to 'him,' and not to his family.
He was leaving the Potters out of this matter because Harry had told him to keep silent about what happened on this day.
"I'm sure there will come a time when you can repay that debt. For now, I'll just ask you to remain silent about everything you saw here today. That includes the rest of my family," Harry told the Lord.
He had no plans of demanding anything outrageous from this family. And he would not have minded brushing off this debt, but to a pure-blood Lord like this one, that would have been a great insult. Like telling him that his daughter's life was worthless to him.
"I understand," Sebastian said, and then Harry saw the man smile for the first time. "Thank you."
Harry put his robes back on and looked back at Sebastian, who was still standing in the same place.
"Is there something you want to say?"
The Lord looked troubled. "You don't have to answer me, but… about that brand on your arm. I couldn't help but see it… it's…"
"You are familiar with these types of brands," Harry stated matter-of-factly. Already knowing what brand had this man seen before.
"My brother was foolish enough to join him… the Dark Lord…" Sebastian lamented.
"Dear…" Selene spoke softly. She knew how little he liked to talk about his younger brother.
"He paid for that with his life already. But… I saw that brand on his arm a few times. I remember well the feeling it gave off…"
"And it reminded you of this one," Harry pointed at his left arm.
Harry saw the Lord nod.
"If you're worrying about me being involved with Voldemort…"
"Of course not!" Sebastian interrupted him. "That was not my intention."
Harry shrugged. "That's fine. You are not wrong… the brands have many similarities."
Sebastian was surprised that Harry admitted this much.
"Of course… mine has nothing to do with Voldemort. It was given to me by someone else… someone much more dangerous…"
"More dangerous than…" Sebastian looked at the empty space that the demonic gate had occupied a moment ago. He recalled the gate doing something strange when Harry was clutching at his arm. 'Then there was that voice… who was that?!, what did it want?!' Sebastian thought.
Harry saw his expression change and knew what he was thinking.
"It's best if you forget about that… many have gone insane just for thinking too much about it."
Harry looked at the bed where Astoria, Daphne, and Selene were.
"You have your family back together. Enjoy the moment."
'Who knows how long it will last this time?' He thought to himself.
Harry walked to where the elf was standing.
He turned around and waved his wand.
The stone platform lifted in the air for a moment before returning to its original shape and size and placing itself back on the wall.
The knife returned to the box, as well as all the shards of glass left behind by the potion Dobby broke.
"We are done here," Harry declared once the room was clean again.
"Wow…" Selene stared at the display of magic.
"He can clean too?!" Daphne looked shocked.
No one would be able to tell what happened here today by just looking at it.
"Come on, Dobby, we are leaving," Harry told the elf and this one picked up the metal box.
"Yes, Master!"
"Wait, Harry!" Daphne called for him as he opened the door to leave.
"Huh?" Harry turned around and for a moment was reminded of his little sister Holly. As Daphne threw herself at him in the same way, except she was much bigger….
"Thank you so much!" Daphne exclaimed.
Harry's body was extremely exhausted by the ritual and by having his brand reactivated...so when a girl his own age jumped at him in such a way…
"Daphne… heavy…" he managed to say before collapsing on the ground under her.
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