Chapter 19
"You said you would tell us last night!" Hermione said indignantly.
Blaise stifled a laugh at Harrison's irritated expression. "I miscalculated how long the Magical Exhaustion Charm would keep me unconscious."
"It only kept you unconscious for twelve hours?!" Draco exclaimed. "You're eleven! It should have taken a week!"
"It's Harrikins," Harley, Fred, and George chorused. Draco grumbled, causing Ron and Blaise to snicker. Prime rolled his eyes.
"Why am I here?" Prime asked Harrison curiously. "I would assume you only wanted to tell your... friends."
Blaise knew the word he wasn't saying was 'followers.'
"You need to know, Prime, so you can decide what to tell the rest of Slytherin," Harrison replied. "I would prefer to keep the alliance between myself and Lord Voldemort-" Ron, Neville, and Draco flinched, Prime tensed, and Hermione looked alarmed "-quiet, for now."
Prime's eyes widened slightly. "Yes, of course."
Harrison leaned back against his pillow, and everyone else got comfortable -- except the Weasley twins and Harley, who decided that hanging upside-down off of Harley's bed was 'comfortable.'
"Harley, Demons," Harrison said sharply, and they quickly sat up, pouting. Blaise, Draco, and Ron sniggered quietly, Hermione and Prime rolled their eyes and Neville giggled.
"Hermione, Neville," the elder Potter-Black twin said quietly, "I want it to be your choice whether you join me or not. I know that Lady Longbottom is friends with the headmaster, Neville, and you aren't comfortable with the Dark side, Hermione."
"I don't agree with my gran," Neville said nervously, and Blaise saw the fear he was hiding. Had that woman hurt the sweet little puff? "O-or my Great-Uncle Algae. I want to follow you, Harrison."
Harrison smiled slightly, but Blaise could tell that he'd noticed Neville's fear. "You will always be safe with us, Neville," he said calmly. Prime and Draco looked faintly alarmed and glanced between the two of them. Fred, George, and Harley suddenly got slightly protective expressions on their faces. Ron was oblivious to all this.
"I don't know if I am uncomfortable or not," Hermione admitted. "Can I have some time to think about it?"
"Of course," Harrison agreed. "Take as long as you need."
"If I don't want to be in an alliance with You-Know-Who," Hermione added, "I can be neutral. I don't trust the headmaster quite as much as I used to."
"Good." Harrison cleared his throat. "The first thing you should know -- and I have permission to tell you all of this -- is that Professor Quirrell has been possessed by Lord Voldemort for most of the year."
Again, everyone but Blaise, Harley, Hermione, and the twins reacted to the name.
"Wait, what?" Draco yelped, once he'd recovered. Ron was muttering under his breath in panic, and Neville was gray.
"He came here to retrieve an item that would restore his body," Harrison continued sleekly. "Not the Sorcerer's Stone," he added when Hermione looked startled, "that was a fake, a trap set by the headmaster.
"He couldn't immediately retrieve the item, of course," said Harrison, "because the headmaster would get suspicious, and he had other reasons to be at Hogwarts, one of which was to study me."
"He wanted to know how much of a threat you were to him," Prime guessed shrewdly.
"Yes," Harrison agreed.
"Lord Voldemort's plan was to retrieve the item right at the end of the year, then have Quirrell retire," said Harrison. "He had plans to retrieve four other similar items from different areas of Britain, but wanted to get this item first, as it was right under the headmaster's nose.
"Harley and I had figured out that he had a spy in the school, but hadn't discovered who it was. I also wanted to know where Lord Voldemort was, and if he was a threat to me. With the help of Uncle Severus, we decided that Lord Voldemort was hiding in the forest of Albania. I sent Harley to find him.
"There, he met Nagini, a Maledictus who was already permanently a snake: a reticulated python, to be precise. She told Harley that Lord Voldemort was possessing someone at Hogwarts, but didn't know the man's name, and hadn't seen him long enough to remember his appearance. Harley took her to the Shrieking Shack, and we began to look for the possessed man.
"It didn't take long; Quirrell, while only slightly different from when he was the Muggle Studies Professor, had somehow gained the ability to see the qualities of abuse in children." Everyone except Harley looked shocked. "That is something you either learn over several years (and sometimes, that doesn't work), or if you yourself were abused."
"The Dark Lord was..." Draco swallowed.
"I don't have permission to talk about that with you," Harrison said patiently, but his eyes were full of fire. "Just the fact that it happened.
"We didn't know for sure until Lord Voldemort, posing as Quirrell, swore on his magic to never reveal our secrets without our permission, and his magic was Dark but fractured, not neutral and whole.
"Once we decided that we weren't threats to the other, and that we both despised and distrusted the headmaster," Harrison smirked, "we became allies. Harley went to retrieve one of the objects not at Hogwarts, the one that was in the second-most danger of being discovered. One of them is in Bellatrix Lestrange's vault-" Draco blanched, and Neville looked pained "-one is with Lord Malfoy, and the third was supposed to be in a cave protected by Inferi, but it was missing."
Everyone but Hermione looked horrified. She looked confused at worried. "What's an Inferi?" she asked cautiously.
"It's the wizzy version of a zombie," Harley chirped. She looked alarmed. "Although you don't get turned into one if you get bitten, they just eat you-"
"Harley, shut up, you're scaring Neville," Harrison said sleekly, eyes on the green-faced boy. Harley shut his mouth at once. "Instead of the object Harley was supposed to retrieve, there was a letter from Regulus Potter-Black, stating he had taken the object somewhere."
Blaise noticed that he didn't mention the "and had plans to destroy it" part.
"Lord Voldemort assumes that his house-elf, Kreacher, knows-"
Before Harrison could finish speaking, a house-elf cracked into the room. Everyone except Blaise jumped; he just twitched in surprise.
He was very, very old, wearing a raggedy, dirty pillowcase and a scowl. His expression became shocked when he saw Harrison. "You is being like Master Regulus," he rasped.
Hermione was looking more and more shocked and angry.
"You are Kreacher?" Harrison asked coolly. The house-elf nodded nervously, twisting the pillowcase in his hands. "My name is Harrison Potter-Black. I am one of your old master's sons."
Kreacher's eyes widened. "Master Regulus was being telling the truth? He is being with Potter and Evans?"
"Yes," Harrison answered.
"Hi, Kreacher!" Harley chirped, and the elf jumped, staring at the boy. "I'm Harlequin, Harrison's twin."
"Young Master Harlequin," Kreacher said nervously.
"Kreacher-" the elf turned back to Harrison "-before Father died, he left you something important. I need it, please."
The elf swallowed. "Of course, Young Master Harrison." He Disapparated.
"I would prefer that none of you see what the object is," Harrison added. "Other than Blaise and Harley, who already know what it is."
Blaise watched everyone close their eyes or turn away. A moment later, Kreacher returned with another loud crack! He was carrying a heavy, silver locket with an s on the front.
He handed the locket to Harrison, who put it in his bag. "Thank you, Kreacher. I will call you if I need you again."
"Yes, Young Master Harrison." The elf disappeared again.
"Are house-elves slaves?" Hermione exploded indignantly, as soon as he'd gone.
"Wixen don't know the stories of American slavery, Hermione," Blaise said, and the Purebloods looked at him in surprise. "And house-elves are only bound to serve wixen because their ancestors were punished in that way. They're brainwashed into thinking they can't have the same rights as other wixen, and many of their owners abuse them, because it's bloody legal to. Some, of course, treat them like employees, although they can only pay them in things the elves collect -- like buttons or seashells -- because house-elves aren't allowed to own any money."
Hermione looked even more indignant and horrified.
"Part of Lord Voldemort's mission is to give all wixen equal rights," Harrison told her. "It will take a few years to change both the owners' and the house-elves' behaviors and beliefs, but it's worth the effort."
The girl relaxed.
"If that's what his mission was," Ron said slowly, "why were he and his followers just attacking everyone?"
"He made a mistake with Soul Magic," Harrison said. Everyone but Hermione, Harley, Ron, and Blaise looked shocked. "I'll explain later," he added to Hermione and Ron.
"We also agreed that the headmaster was up to something," Harrison continued, "and part of my plan is to get the headmaster to trust myself and Harley, and make him believe we trust him. I sent Harley to talk to Alistair, the Sorting Hat, about what the old man was up to, as well as to ask them what students would aid me in my plans or be a danger to me.
"Alistair couldn't answer the second question, because they made a vow not to tell any students' secrets, even to the headmaster. As for the first question, they believe that the old man wants to turn Harley or I into a weapon against Lord Voldemort."
Fred and George growled protectively, while Ron and Draco looked indignant. Prime, Hermione, and Nevile were alarmed.
"His plan was to lure Lord Voldemort into the trapdoor below the Cerberus on the third floor corridor and have Harley and I prevent the fake Sorcerer's Stone from falling into his hands. He didn't suspect Quirrell of being possessed, and believed Lord Voldemort was spying another way.
"Harley had already gone to the third floor-corridor on my orders, as I always tell him to scout out anywhere we'd be staying for longer than a day, and had completed almost all of the obstacles. There was one he couldn't get past, as Uncle Severus made that one," he drawled. Harley pouted, earning snickers. "So I already knew what we would have to get past.
"The only test the headmaster believed Lord Voldemort didn't know how to get past was the Cerberus," said Harrison, "because like regular dogs, each has a different way to be calmed or tamed. This one was owned by Hagrid, and he was the only one beside the headmaster who knew how to calm the three-headed canine."
"Is that why Harley shouted about wanting a Cerberus in front of Hagrid?" Ron asked dryly. Harley cackled, and Harrison nodded with an eye-roll.
"The three of us -- well, four," Harrison amended, glancing at Blaise, "decided that we would pretend to follow the headmaster's plan, so that he would believe Harley and I were on his side. Lord Voldemort disguised Quirrell as a retired Death Eater named Barnaby Thomas, and went to talk to a very drunk Hagrid at the Three Broomsticks.
"Through a bit of cunning and having Hagrid 'win' a Fire Crab egg in a game of poker, Lord Voldemort got the man to tell him how to calm Fluffy. The next day was when Harley blurted about wanting a Cerberus in front of the man, and we 'discovered' that someone had tricked him into telling them about how to calm Fluffy."
"Playing music," Draco realized. "There was a harp playing in the room with it," he told Prime, Neville, and Hermione.
"Him! He's not an 'it'!" Harley protested indignantly, earning laughter and another eye-roll from Harrison.
"Harley and I ran into Professor McGonagall on the way to Uncle Severus' office," Harrison scowled, "because we were going to pretend to warn him about the Stone, as Uncle Severus, Quirrell, and Lord Voldemort are the only adults we trust."
Prime raised an eyebrow.
"You're barely seventeen, Prime, and we don't trust you as much as Severus and Lord Voldemort," Harrison drawled. Prime snorted, and Harrison continued.
"I wasn't going to take either of you on this mission," Harrison told Hermione and Neville, "because you are a stickler for the rules-" Hermione blushed "-and Neville is-"
"-a tiny baby smol bean!" Harley chirped, earning laughter and an indignant blush from the Hufflepuff.
Harrison rolled his eyes again. "Essentially. I wouldn't have brought Ron, either, but he would have been put out to miss the giant chess set."
Ron went red.
"I wouldn't have let you past that room even if you had been able to go on," Harrison added in a darkly protective tone, "given that the troll that attacked you was unconscious in the next room." Ron went gray, and Draco wrapped an arm around his shoulder.
"A troll?" Prime demanded. "A giant chess set? A Cerberus? Why would the headmaster put something so dangerous in a school?! And there are supposed to be wards keeping trolls and Cerberus dogs out of Hogwarts!"
Harrison froze. Then, slowly, a look of dark fury came over his face, causing everyone in the room, except Harley, to shudder in fear. "He took it down so Lord Voldemort could get in," Harrison said quietly, "because he assumed that the man would want to hurt children. The Killing Curse is painless and immediate," he added when most of them looked incredulous.
"I will tell Hermione the tests later, as I assume she's interested," Harrison said when he'd calmed down. Hermione nodded, still a little shaky from Harrison's anger. "Harley and I were the only ones who went forward after Uncle Severus' test, which was a riddle and seven different potions," he added when Draco gave him a look of interest. "Beyond that was an antechamber, where a disguised Quirrell and the Mirror of Erised were."
"What's the Mirror of Erised?" Ron asked with a frown.
"It's a mirror that shows your deepest desire," Harrison responded.
"Mine was chaos and Darkness and screams and death," Harley cackled, earning alarmed looks.
"Harley, stop frightening our friends," Harrison said irritably.
"Don't tell me yours wasn't Darkness and-!" Harley said indignantly.
"Shut up." Harley quickly obeyed.
"After a lot of acting," Harrison continued coolly, ignoring the slightly wary looks from everyone but Blaise and Harley, "I had retrieved the fake Stone from the mirror, Harley was unconscious because he'd called Lord Voldemort's glamoured face ugly-" Blaise laughed "-and Quirrell had transfigured a shoe into a pile of human ash. The headmaster will believe it's because of the Blood Protection Ward that was placed by our mother."
"It was ugly," Harley protested when everyone's eyes widened. "He looked like a vampire fucked a snake!"
"Harley!" Draco spluttered in horrified disgust, over the cackles from Fred and George and the snicker from Blaise. Hermione gave the boy a pale, scolding look, and the color had drained out of Neville's face.
"Your brother is insane," Prime told Harrison.
"He inherited the Black Madness," Harrison replied dryly, "and I am well aware." Ron choked.
"So, the headmaster believes that you took the fake Stone before the Dark Lord could get it?" Draco said carefully, still staring at Harley with wild disbelief. "And that Thomas is dead, but the Dark Lord escaped?"
"Yes," Harrison agreed. "During the summer, Lord Voldemort is going to reverse the mistake he made with Soul Magic, after he retrieves the other two objects from Gringotts and Lord Malfoy."
"Is it that diary I wasn't allowed to touch?" Draco asked curiously. When Harrison raised an eyebrow at him, Draco said, "He has this black diary locked in a cupboard in his office. I tried to get it when I was about five, and Father looked like he was going to have a heart attack. He made me stay in my room the rest of the day, with our house-elf bringing me lunch and dinner. I don't mistreat Dobby," he added reassuringly to Hermione when she looked angry. "I'm pretty sure Father would, though, if Mother didn't threaten to castrate him if he did."
Fred, George, and Harley cackled, and Ron and Neville automatically moved to cover their crotch area, blanching.
"I might want to meet your mother," Harrison told Draco with interest.
"She wants to meet you, too," Draco smirked.
"The diary is one of the objects, yes," Harrison said. "I'm not going to tell you the others, as I don't have permission."
"Is that everything?" Prime asked Harrison, after glancing at his watch. "I have to get back to studying."
"Yes, I think so," Harrison replied slowly. "If I think of anything else, I'll contact you."
Prime nodded and left.
"Harrison," Neville said quietly, nervously, and the boy turned to him. "Are... are you a Dark Lord?"
Ron's eyes widened. Hermione didn't look surprised, which made Blaise choke off a laugh.
"According to my Magical Aura Test, yes," Harrison said after a pause.
"Why am I the last to know?" Ron grumbled, earning snickers from his older brothers. "Oh, shut up, brats."
"We prefer-"
"-Harrison's Demons," the twins said brightly. Blaise snorted, and Hermione raised an eyebrow.
"You don't have to be one of my followers, Neville," Harrison said calmly, and the boy relaxed. "I was thinking about having a council as my inner circle, anyway; I consider most of you more friends than followers."
"I don't know a lot about Dark Lords," Hermione remarked, "because the Hogwarts library is sorely lacking."
"Uncle Severus, Lord Black, and Signora Zabini agreed to let Harley, Hermione and I stay the summer with Blaise's family, until Lord Black can fix up his home to a point where children can live in it," Harrison said dryly. "With your parents' permission, of course, Hermione."
"I'll write them a letter," Hermione said thoughtfully.
"We don't have to go back to the assholes?!" Harley cried with joy.
"No," Harrison purred, "which is fortunate for the 'assholes.'"
Everyone but Harley and Blaise shuddered at the tone.
"I'm glad you're coming," Blaise admitted quietly. "My mother is getting remarried in May."
Only Harley and Harrison really knew what he was talking about, but they got the gist when Harrison's expression darkened and Harley muttered something about torture.
"Your mother..." Hermione said worriedly.
"My mum is amazing," Blaise corrected. "She, ah... doesn't have the best taste in men."
He couldn't really tell them she was an assassin.
"We'll ask Dad-"
"-and Grandfather-"
"-if all of you-"
"-can come visit-"
"-Weasley Manor."
"My father will be okay with everyone except Hermione and the Weasleys visiting," Draco said with a sigh. "Well, unless I ask Mum," he smirked. The redheaded twins cackled.
"Gran hasn't written since I got Hufflepuff," Neville admitted, "but I think only Hermione would be invited anyway. She doesn't like Slytherins, and Fred and George are a bit..."
"Chaotic?" suggested Fred innocently.
"Insane?" George added.
"Both, probably," Neville said wryly. "She likes her house to be clean and organized. I have to ask our house-elf to clean me before I go inside, or she gets mad." He paled a little.
"Perhaps," Harrison said in a very calm voice, "you should introduce her to Harley."
"No, I'm fine, Harrison," Neville said quickly, but Blaise could tell he was lying. He changed the subject. "What about you, Hermione? I think it'd be interesting to meet Muggles, and Gran might only let me come visit you."
"My parents aren't home all that often," Hermione admitted. "They're very popular dentists, so they work a lot. It's usually just my nanny, and she's very strict. Not like Neville's Gran," she added when several of them looked worried. "She's very gentle physically, and doesn't insult me. Actually, she thinks I'm pretty intelligent for my age. She doesn't know I'm a witch."
There was a knock at the door, interrupting the conversation. "Who is it?" Harrison asked.
"It's Severus. I have a letter from Arthur Weasley."
Ron, Fred, and George looked worried.
Harrison seemed to think that no one would be stupid enough to impersonate Snape, so he let the man in. The Potions Master opened the door and handed the letter to Ron.
"The Mutt wants to meet you," he drawled to Harrison and Harley. "He's waiting in my office, with a friend."
"Lupin?" Harrison guessed. Blaise had no idea who that was, and judging by the confused expressions on everyone but Harley's faces, neither did anyone except the Potter-Black twins.
"Yes. He was having issues with the full moon two days ago, so he's exhausted."
It appeared that Neville was the only one who didn't realize that Lupin was a werewolf. Blaise figured Harrison would tell him later.
"We'll see you later," Harrison told them. "Harley, come on -- and don't annoy Lupin."
"Fiiiiiiine." The door shut behind them.
Fred and George plopped behind Ron to read the letter over his shoulder, making Draco and Ron almost fall off Ron's bed. Hermione rolled her eyes, making Neville giggle and almost collapse onto Blaise.
The three Weasleys and Draco yelped in alarm.
"What's wrong?" Blaise demanded.
"Mum's been arrested," Ron said faintly. "It was a few months ago, but the Ministry forgot to tell Dad, and he was worried she was up to something. She..."
"She put Charlie and Bill under blocks and compulsions," Fred said angrily. Neville gasped, and Blaise growled.
"They only found out because someone cast an unknown spell on Charlie and Bill has to take a monthly Magical Aura Test to make sure nothing's inhibiting his magic," George added. "Bill works for Gringotts."
"Dad's coming to take her other kids to Gringotts to make sure she hasn't done anything to us," Ron said anxiously.
"She probably has, if she put your brothers under blocks and compulsions," Blaise said stiffly.
"What are blocks and compulsions?" Hermione asked in concern.
"We have to go give this to Percy," Fred said as he and George leapt up.
"Nobody leave until Harrison gets back," George added sharply, "we don't know if the headmaster helped with this." They left.
Neville went over to Hermione and began quietly explaining to her what blocks and compulsions were. Draco squeezed his arm a little more tightly around Ron, and the boy went slightly pink.
Blaise decided to keep watch over his friends, just in case....