Find Yourself

//Meanwhile, on Earth: Grimmauld Place//

Luna Lovegood got some snacks for Teddy, keeping the child occupied, while she observed the spectacle unfolding in the living room. 

“See, Teddy, this is how you should not behave.” She stage-whispered to the young child, pointing at his Grandmother, who was still arguing with the Portrait.

She was not quiet enough, however, and both witches threw her a glare, not happy to be interrupted.

Luna smiled back innocently. “I’m not wrong, Andy. You two have been so busy arguing that you missed dinner. It’s not a problem for Lady Black, seeing how she is but a Portrait echo, but you are still living flesh and blood, you need to take care of yourself and Teddy.” She grinned. “You haven’t had this many nargles around your head in a few years.” 

Her gamble paid off and with a sigh, accompanied by a tired smile, Andromeda came over to take over feeding young Edward, but, of course, not before throwing the Portrait another glare. 

The two witches had just started to relax when the Floo turned green.

The young blonde sighed. “Here comes Molly.” She muttered under her breath. For a moment she wished Harry was still there… for a moment longer she wished she could have had the chance to go with him… before plastering on her familiar mask of a naive spacy airhead and turning towards the Weasley Matriarch, emerging from the flames. 

Andromeda, however, saved her from having to speak first. The Black witch had adopted a mask of her own, one that made her resemble her deceased sister even more. 

The likeness must have been truly uncanny, for Molly actually stumbled and froze in her tracks as she stared at the woman. 

“What brings you to Grimmauld, Molly?” Asked the brunette, tucking a curl of her black hair behind an ear.

“A-andromeda…” There was an honest-to-Merlin stutter in the plump witch’s voice. 

“Indeed.” Missus Tonks must have been feeling rather confrontational, Luna concluded, as she once again took over Teddy-sitting. She took the boy by his hands and carefully maneuvered them until they were close to the sofa. Once there, the girl scooped up the child and plopped herself down onto the couch, holding Teddy to her, making him giggle slightly at their momentary drop. She knew Andromeda would be just fine handling the likes of Molly Weasley on her own.

//a bit later, back with Harry and company, Nevarah: Registration Offices//

Harry was relieved. And confused. And he would admit to feeling a pit of panic. Just a few hours ago he was oh so intent on finding out about the Sparks. Well, now he knew. And he wasn’t one hundred percent sure how to feel about the revelation. He also couldn’t believe that he had been dumb enough to activate the medallion the way he did, but that… Well, it’s been a while since his last ‘Potter Luck’ incident anyway, so perhaps that could be written off as that. 

The young Submissive thought back to all the information that got dumped on him. 

*Flashback*

“Will you tell me where the heck I am?” He was starting to get a bit impatient. It felt like they were avoiding telling him things and to him that was a big red flag.

“Don’t you know?” The white hair man, Riven, Harry learned, sounded incredulous. “You activated a transportation Medallion. Surely you knew where you would end up.”

“Oh.” Harry muttered, the medallion. Right. “So then… this is… Nevarah? It really exists?”

“Of course it exists.” Riven seemed to have about as much patience for what he viewed as ‘dumb questions’ as Snape had, which is just about zero. Harry cringed at that thought, it was just his luck.

The Prince, from his spot next to the Mage, elbowed him in the ribs. “Be nice, you.”

“I AM nice.” Came the prompt, kind of offended retort. 

This caused the other men, the Gheyos, as they called themselves, to roll their eyes. Ash openly snorted, “You call that nice?” 

Their laughter proved to be infectious and soon all the inhabitants of the room were laughing. Or at least chuckling in some cases. Riven looked away from them, nose high up in the air, as the man honest to Merlin pouted. Harry privately thought it was one very impressive rendition of a pouting Draco Malfoy, except of course there was no way Riven even knew who that was. 

It was Raspen who finally calmed down and organized them for further action. They would take him to the Registration Office first, while they were there Hadrian, the dark-eyed brunette with the mask on his hip, would go handle his own errands. Brishen, the one with the almost glowing blue eyes, would go to buy potions that Lewis the Medic told them to get.

*Present*

So that’s what they were currently doing - waiting on the paperwork. Being an Auror, Harry was no stranger to the evil that was paperwork, so he was not really impatient. He spent the time staring at his new Soulmates. 

The notion still boggled his mind. He had six Soulmates. Him, Harry Potter, who had spent four years being married to a girl, who was actually STILL married to a girl, had soulbonds with men. Six of them. How was this his life?

Harry wanted to find a wall and bang his head on it a few times. Just to make sure his brain was in working order and he was not hallucinating. That wall there on the left looked mighty attractive right about now. 

The young man started a bit, when a hand gently landed on his shoulder. He looked up and lost himself in Raspen’s expressive molten-gold eyes. The Prince was looking down at him with a fond amused smile. 

“Are you okay, Harry?”

He couldn’t help blushing a little. It was really unfair just how handsome these men were. Harry opened his mouth, only to snap it shut soon after when a tiny keen left his mouth. 

Raspen’s pupil contracted momentarily, as his look turned hot for a moment, pinning him down where he sat. The hand on his shoulder tightened. Then the man managed to look at Hien, who was leaning against the desk Harry was sitting, his arms crossed over his chest, an impatient frown on his face. Ash was leaning against his side with his head resting on his shoulder. Both of their eyes were also looking at Harry, in fact… all four of the men currently with him were focused on the Submissive, the attention making the young one lean a bit into Raspen’s hand, purring quietly. The gesture seemed completely subconscious however. 

“Seems like his instincts are beginning to wake.” Riven muttered, allowing his own hand to creep forward and play with the hair at the back of Harry’s neck. He smiled, when expressive green eyes stared up at him, they seemed to glow more than before.

Raspen hummed in agreement. “Hien, could you go and hurry them up a little? With Harry like this, we don’t want to spend more time here than absolutely necessary. The Shadow Joker inclined his head and then both him and Ash swiftly moved away, clearly wishing to be back as soon as possible. 

As they waited, Raspen maneuvered his bonded to sit down next to Harry, which in turn prompted the younger man to all but curl up into Riven’s side. The unexpected movement made the Storm Mage stiffen momentarily, before all of the tension bled out of him and he slumped a bit harder against Raspen, who had taken over Hien’s spot leaning against the desk. Harry’s tiny purrs drew quiet rumbles out of both of his Soulmates. It would have been an ideal bonding moment, if one were to discount the fact that they were sitting in a very much not empty Registration Office and were drawing some curious looks to them. 

A few moments later their other two Jokers returned with the papers that Riven snatched up almost immediately. The man wrote quickly, the pen all but flying over the paper. Finally he seemed to be done, as the man gathered up the papers and stood up. “Let’s go talk with whoever’s on duty.”

Harry stayed glued to Raspen’s side, not that the man minded at all. Later he would look back at the scene and wish to die from embarrassment surely, but that was a problem for a future Harry, in the moment he just wanted to be close to his Soulmates. 

The clerk at the desk turned out to be familiar to some of them. 

“Ailsa, never expected to see you at the Gate.” Ash greeted the blonde in front of them. 

“Ashton.” A grumbled reply followed. “What do you have for me today?”

The Joker gestured behind him, in Harry’s general direction. “Our Submissive is new to Nevarah. His Portal broke.”

“Oh, Congratulations.” The woman smiled a little. She was clearly not in a good mood, but being harassed all day at the Gate would do that to even the most patient individuals. “Do you have all the papers filled out then?”

“Yes,” Riven handed over the papers.

Silver-blue eyes scanned the documents with practiced ease. “Everything seems to be in order. Now, just a couple questions and you can be on your way.”

The questions ranged from ones that just confirmed already provided information, to extra new ones, but they were dealt with quickly enough until finally there was only one thing left.

“And now, Harry, if you could change into your preferred Halfling form and step onto the blue square here, we’ll just take your readings and you’ll be done.”

This made Harry warble in confusion. He didn’t know how to do this. He looked up at Raspen with desperate scared green eyes while leaning even more into his side.

// With Hadrian, the Arythmoor Estate//

The Shadow ACE strode down the halls not really paying much attention to his surroundings. Having spent so many years here, he could navigate the house in his sleep if he had to. His mind was busy trying to process the events. He had of course wondered now and then over the years about the possibility of ever bonding into a Circle, but the idea never really stuck around long enough for him to seriously consider it. 

And now. Now things were happening. He could feel the itch of the open soulbond. The further he got away from Harry, the stronger the itch became. The urge to turn around and go back was nigh overpowering. 

But this needed to be done. He had to officially terminate his contract. In fact, Hadrian thought, he was for once in his life very lucky. Had this happened any earlier, he would have had to explain things to his Submissive and ask him to talk with Mariana about releasing his Contract. Luckily, that would not be needed. 

Finally, after what felt like ages of chasing the woman down, he finally found his quarry playing fetch with one of the Hellhounds. Over the last twenty odd years they’ve all more or less gotten used to the sight. No one really knew the Hound’s name, the man could not remember. In fact he spent about ninety percent of the time in his Hound form. Lord Aiden and Jasha assumed that whoever he’d been before, he had a very traumatizing life and simply chose to forget, but there was of course no way to be sure. 

“Mariana!” Hadrian called out, as he approached the Cunningham Submissive. 

She turned to him with a bright expectant smile. She was sure he would renew the Contract, and if not for the recent event, perhaps he would have. “Hadrian, you’re back!” She exclaimed happily. 

“Indeed, I am.”

“Shall I go and fetch a new Contract?” She grinned at him, showing off her fangs. “Or have you finally decided to agree to join the Circle?”

He cleared his throat, not really knowing if this was meant to be a serious question or not. It was certainly not the first time she’s asked, but Jasha seemed to think she was simply being her chaos gremlin self. “That won’t be necessary this time, my Lady.” He sketched a small bow. 

“Oh…” The excitement previously present in her eyes dimmed and Hadrian had to fight with himself to not look away. Soulbond or not, he had spent a long time with the Cunninghams and making her feel bad was never anywhere near his priority list. 

“I see…” She mumbled. “Well then… good luck?”

Seeing the always strong Mariana showing a rare timid side did not sit well with him and he would have loved to stay longer and try to cheer her up, but the still open Soulbond throbbed, urging him on. 

“Thank you, Milady,” He bowed again, more deeply this time. “for everything you and yours have done for me.”

She cleared her throat with a small frown at Hadrian’s bow, grabbed him hand and drew him into a hug. “None of that, you silly ACE. No matter what, you will always be a part of this family.” 

She smiled, though it turned out to be a little on the watery side. “So tell me about them. It must be one special person to tempt you away from my side.” She grinned cheekily and that was a much more ‘Mariana’ expression for sure. 

Hadrian sighed, rubbing at his chest absent-mindedly, making the Submissive’s eyebrows rise a bit. “There was a Portal Break … and a Soul Cry.”

“Never a dull moment with you, is there?” The tiny female ribbed him in amusement. A Soulbond certainly explained things, she thought. 

“Not even remotely,” He groused good-naturedly. 

“So who all responded so far?” Curiosity was eating with her, the former minor upset swept away by the prospect of new and juicy gossip-worthy information.

The Shadow ACE knew full well that as soon as he gave her names, she would be off gossiping, but would that be a bad thing? He was not sure. Thus he decided to not mention any names for now. “The Submissive seems to be Nameless, but the med-check showed signs of Seals, so we can’t be a hundred percent sure at the moment. Beside myself, there is a Mage, a Royal… oh,  and three Jokers.”

Lady Cunningham coughed a few times in her efforts to not laugh at him, which he certainly appreciated. There was a devilish gleam in her eyes that did not bode well at all. “Are you regretting refusing to Rank-Shift?” She asked, fake innocence just oozing out of her sweet voice. 

Hadrian rolled his eyes. For at least five years now, Jasha and Mariana both kept telling him to consider Rank-Shifting. Apparently, he had the potential to be a great Alpha. But he himself did not think it fair to inflict himself… and his variety of luck on a Circle. Now that was a moot point though. He pointedly massaged his chest again, the soulbond was becoming very insistent.

She rolled her eyes and made a shooing gesture with one of dainty hands, “Oh, all right, off with you.” With a click of fingers, his Contract appeared in front of her and the tiny Submissive made it disintegrate. “Enjoy your new Circle, Hadrian. And make sure to bring them home sometime.” 

As he left, Mariana allowed a small bittersweet smile to appear on her face. 

“You knew he would leave one day.” Her Alpha said in a knowing tone, having appeared out of the shadows. 

She snuggled close to him and looked up at him. “Of course I did. Doesn’t mean I couldn’t dream. He’s matured  into an amazing ACE, compared to the basket of trouble we took in.”

Jasha chuckled, running a hand through her hair. “That he did. Now come, you Menace. We’ve got work to do.”

She allowed herself to be led away, grumbling as she went. “Yes, yes. All work and no fun with you.”

//With Brishen, at the Markets//

While Hadrian was tying up his loose ends, Brishen was looking up potions. What seemed a simple fetch task on the surface, turned out to be rather complicated, for as he’d come to realize, he wasn’t familiar with any of them.

The longer it took, the more taunt the invisible cord, tethering him to his new Submissive, became. He now knew why his Immortal was so keen on him waking up. It made him both elated and exasperated. 

“The hell you doing awake?” A not very welcome but sadly incredibly familiar voice came from behind him. Fighting a cringe, he turned around to face his fellow Phoelix. 

“Inanna.” He drawled, no inflection at all in his voice. “What a… lovely surprise.”

She drew her hand down her face, giving him a stink eye. “All this time asleep has done no wonders to your fucking manners, clearly.”

This made his snort despite himself, hearing something about manners from the Phoenix of all people was quite amusing to say the least. He raised an eyebrow, massaging his chest absentmindedly. “Coming from you, that's somehow funny. Manage saying more than a sentence without cursing yet?”

The redhead glared at him something fierce, her eyes glowing brighter. He could only chuckle at the sight. Gheyo she might be, but she was no Dragel, as such Inanna was rather petite compared to many of the same Rank. It was hard for Brishen to take her seriously half the time, especially if one took into consideration their immense age difference. The man was about to turn away, when it occurred to him that unlike himself, the fire Phoelix has been very much awake all these years. She was bound to be more familiar with things. It irked him something fierce to owe her anything, but judging by how more and more insistent the phantom pain was becoming, he did not have all that much time before he really needed to return. He threw a sullen sideways glare at his fellow Gheyo and showed her the potions list without saying a word. 

Staring him for a moment, she took the paper hesitantly and scanned its contents. “What the? Why do you need these? These are some very strong potions.” Even though they never got along particularly well thanks to their contrasting elements, they could still tolerate each other well enough… when in the mood to do so. 

The male Joker bit the inside of his cheek in agitation. It didn’t really feel right to disclose details, no matter that for all intents and purposes this woman might as well be his only family. “It’s for a bondmate.” He said curtly and hoped to all the Gods possible that for once in her life she would not try to dig for more information. 

The way her eyes narrowed and all but drilled into his did not bode well. 

“Ina, what’s taking you so long?” An impatient voice could be heard from outside the store and the redhead immediately glanced at the doors. 

“Coming!” She said loudly. Luckily they were close enough to the exit that she did not not need to shout, not that he would put it past her to do it anyway. 

His eyes followed the direction she looked at and saw a pair of twins. His eyebrows rose. “Huh…” That was all that he said. The idea of Inanna with a Submissive, or two of them as the case might be, boggled his mind. 

The fire Phoelix shook her head slightly. “I’ll tell you about mine, when you tell me about yours.” She pointed towards a shelf they’d just approached. “The potions you want are these. They’re all labeled. This Potions Master is currently the best, so you want to always buy his, if at all possible. Ciao.” She gave him an obnoxious wink and then flounced off.