Chapter 1
Location: Earth Realm, Weasley Burrow Ruins
Harlow frowned as she stared at the scene before her. Everything was barren. Long gone was the green grass and the trees and left in its place was nothing but dust and dirt. It was as if humanity had never stepped foot on this land, and nature had given up on it. To Harlow, it was a sad sight.
Harlow and her twin brother, Harry, had thought that everything would be okay after they had killed Voldemort. They had thought things would get better. Not that the two had any idea what better was, seeing how they had been abused all their lives and then were thrown into a war at the age of eleven when their Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor had tried to kill them with Voldemort on the back of his head. But they seriously thought the Wixen World would get better. Instead, things only got worse.
The two of them were praised as heroes for defeating the worst Dark Lord since Grindelwald. Forced right back into the spotlight that neither of them wanted. Forced to go to parties and make speeches when the two of them wanted nothing more than to crawl into a hole and die as they blamed the deaths of everyone on themselves. The depression and despair had settled in on them... And maybe that was why they didn't see the changes that the Wixen World, not just in Britain but across the world, began to make.
It had started off slowly, at least that was what Harlow remembered but she hadn't been in the best state of mind as she let her body go through the motions. Harry had agreed with her that it started off slowly though when they talked about it late at night in the sanctuary they had made.
The sanctions had come first. Sanctions against every magical creature that had fought for Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Harlow and Harry had been shocked out of their fugue state when they were forced to watch as the Ministry of Magic had torn the dementors to pieces with a ritual they had apparently known for years. It only shocked them because they couldn't understand why the Ministry hadn't done it much sooner. Perhaps before their third year when they had almost been kissed by the dementors on several occasions. Or even before then when the dementors had joined Voldemort the first time. But no, the Ministry had only decided then that the dementors must be eliminated.
Then came the mass executions of magical creatures. The moment they had started a lot of Harlow and Harry's friends just disappeared. One day they were there with Hermione begging them to do something about what was going on with the Ministry, not that the twins knew what on Earth they were supposed to do about it, and the next day they all had just vanished. As if they hadn't existed at all. Hermione, the entire Weasley family, Neville, Luna, and many other friends the two Potter twins had made in their time at Hogwarts had just up and vanished. Tonk's mother Andromeda had disappeared too, leaving Teddy in their custody without even so much as a goodbye to the little boy who had lost both his parents in the war.
Each time Harlow and Harry had been forced to attend the public executions, with the rest of the Wixen World who hadn't disappeared, a little piece of them broke inside. Even though some of these magical creatures had joined Voldemort, that didn't mean every one of that species deserved to die. Yet those who couldn't escape and were caught were killed. And those who tried to hide their friends and family were also killed.
Try to hide friends and family who were magical creatures, you were killed. Try to speak up about the cruel treatment of the Wixen World and you would disappear. Sometimes those people came back but they were only a shell of the person they once were. But most of the time, they wound up dead a couple weeks to a month later.
Honestly, it was only a matter of time before the muggles found out about magic at the rate they were going but despite Harlow and Harry's warnings, they were ignored. And when the muggles found out... Well, Harlow and Harry had never thought anything could get worse than the lock down on magical creatures and any type of magic deemed evil, which was a growing list at the time restricting most magics by the time they were found out.
The muggles reacted exactly like Harlow and Harry had thought they would. With vicious malicious contempt and weapons of war more powerful than their magic shields could stop.
And things only got worse as the Wixen World clashed with the Muggle World. Muggles were fast to adapt their weaponry as they shot off bombs and rockets at magical areas, and it was a straight up massacre as the Wixen tried to defend themselves. And then, when the Potter Twins truly thought nothing could get worse, the war had started off World War Three.
Now, those who survived, those that the Potter Twins had managed to save in their sanctuary, and some others around the world, were left with this barren shell of the world they once knew.
Harlow tried to shake off the feeling of hopelessness that was choking her. Tried to ignore the fact that her hands were still dyed red in the blood of the muggles she had killed in the war. The stain of blood was never able to be washed off, no matter how much she tried. She had become numb to killing in the first war. The one against the Death Eaters. It had actually brought issues to her when people started saying she was to become the next Dark Lady, but Harry had managed to convince them all that there was no way that would happen. And he had still believed there was good inside her even when he watched her back as she twisted and tore into the muggles who were farther killing their world, with almost a bloodlust glee.
"The magic pinged here." Harlow frowned as she searched the area around them, glancing at Harry who as always was a step behind her also looking around the area for whatever had caused the magic ping. A call for help. The Potter Twins had laid down the searching wards as far as they could, tying them to the magic that rested almost stagnantly into the earth itself. Despite the destruction of magical society before the muggle war, the twins always looked after their own. Once they had managed to come out of the fugue state they had been in as they once again were forced to become War Generals against a new enemy, one that had always been their enemy though. Now whenever anyone used magic outside a sanctuary, Harlow and Harry went out to see who it was and if they needed help. It was the least they could do after all the blood and death that had been caused by their own hands.
The world was mostly barren here though. You could see the destruction that was left in the wake of what Harlow and Harry were trying to ignore had once been the Weasley Family Burrow. Long gone was the misshaped house that had only been held up by magic and sheer audacity, though you could see the remnants of it in broken stone and decomposing wood. All those memories of spending summers at the Burrow had been destroyed when the Weasley family had left the Potter twins without a single goodbye, but still they couldn't help but feel a sense of loss and sadness for what had once been. The family they had thought of as their own, but obviously didn't think the same about them.
But their thoughts were interrupted by a sudden movement in the shadows. Almost instantly, Harlow's wand was in her hand as it turned into the sharp deadly claws covered in red blood stains, silver-peach with hints of red and gold scales covering her from head to toe as her vibrant green eyes slitted into dragon ones. Harry was a half step behind her, although his dragon, or dragel as they had figured out, features didn't pop out immediately. He never needed them as Harlow always used her own body to protect him whenever he needed it.
"You should come out now if you'd rather us think before shooting off spells." Harlow hissed, a hair-trigger away from casting a rather nasty curse at whoever was hiding in the ruins of the old Weasley home.
Almost immediately a figure stepped out of the darkness, hands raised in surrender. Harlow frowned as she lowered her wand just slightly seeing that it was a young girl, no older than sixteen, and with tears streaming down her face to boot. Still, Harry placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, as if warning her this wasn't an enemy which made Harlow huff as she moved from where she was guarding her younger twin, allowing him to step forward with a kind smile. It wasn't like Harlow was going to attack the child unless they did something to provoke her.
"What are you doing here, child?" Harry asked, his voice quiet and welcoming as Harlow forced her dragel features to hide themselves away again. Harlow sent her magic out wider to search for anyone else behind the ruins, and felt two others, hiding and shaking, but neither were adults, and were probably younger than the girl in front of them so she concluded this wasn't an ambush. Those happened a lot in the beginning of the end of the world. Muggles would find a magical wixen or creature in their midst and have them perform magic to call for help and then they would slaughter whatever unsuspecting person who was kind enough to help.
The girl was skinny and covered in dirt and cuts. Her hair was an absolute bird's nest, and the clothes on her back were thread barren and torn. It was obvious that she was on the run and since she had magic, Harlow could only assume her parents had been ones of the stupid wixen who had pretended to be muggles themselves only to eventually be found out.
"Please, help me," she cried out, her voice trembling with fear. "They're coming for me. The muggles. They found out about us, and they're going to kill me."
"Us?" Harry asked, his voice taking on a darker tone. Harlow was the one to grab Harry's shoulder this time, shaking her head when his now slitted green eyes met hers. She smiled slightly as he relaxed under her fingertips and turned back to the child. "Who is us? What exactly happened?"
"I was only ten when the war with the muggles broke out. My parents thought it was best if we just pretended to be like them, and things were fine... But a week ago I found a girl. She was blue and obviously a magical creature, just a toddler, and they took her... What they did… It was awful, and I couldn't take it. My magic exploded and.." The girl trailed off. Harlow and Harry watched with interest as green and gold scales formed on her skin and claws took over her hands before two dragon wings came from her back in the same green and gold color. They glimmered in the sunset, looking as if they were covered in glitter or something else that shimmered.
"Dragel." Harlow and Harry stated at the same time, sharing a knowing look. With how the Wixen World had treated magical creatures before the war with the Muggles started, and how they treated dragels even before the war against Voldemort ended, they honestly couldn't blame the girl's parents for thinking the muggles were the safer option. Not that the Wixen World cared about magical creatures and destroying them when the Muggles found out and started dropping bombs on them left and right. No, the magical creatures became their unwilling warriors, just like Harlow and Harry had become their unwilling War Generals again.
"Y-You know what I am?" The girl asked, shock and hope clear in her voice. They nodded solemnly. "When my magic exploded, I ended up in front of the child and then my parents with my younger brother showed up. My parents died fighting so we could escape."
"Which one of you used magic recently?" Harlow asked, more out of curiosity than actually caring who it was. If they were magical creatures, hell even if they weren't, the Potter Twins would help them. It was just what they did. Hermione always told them they had some kind of messed up hero complex. Always willing to run and put their lives in danger to save others.
"The toddler did. She said she needed water and we couldn't find any, and then suddenly." The girl waved her hand to the right of the Burrow ruins. Harlow's eyes widened as she saw the lake actually had water in it. The last time they had been here to search through the ruins for anything useful it had been completely barren of all water but now clear blue water filled the crater hole. Harlow had never seen water so pure looking in her life. Not even the Black Lake was that clear.
"Merrow." Harlow noted with a hum. She had recently found a book about the Aqua-kin'e Dragels. Dragels with Water Elements who were so different from Land Dragels but still the same. "How did a Merrow child get here though?" She questioned with a frown.
The book talked about Nevarah. Another Realm that the dragels had fled to when they were being hunted on Earth by the Wixen and Torvaks, black bird magical creatures who hunted other magical creatures for sport. The Torvaks had actually been a major reason why the Wixen World had started killing magical creatures. Only they weren’t the creatures being killed, they were the creatures killing and spreading their hate-filled rhetoric which was on-par for the muggles dictator known as Adolf Hitler. Harlow had had so much fun ripping the Torvaks to pieces when they joined the Muggles, with their hate filled words now directed at anyone with magic besides themselves obviously.
"Merrow?" Harry questioned, but Harlow simply shook her head giving him a look that told him they would talk later and gave a gesture around, silently telling him this wasn't the time nor place to speak about such things. "Right... We are the leaders of a magical sanctuary. If you, your sibling, and the toddler come with us, you'll be safe. We accept anyone and everyone so long as they understand and follow our rules." Harry told the girl.
"Really?" The hope that immediately shone in the girl's eyes, and singed in the shared empathy magic that both Harlow and Harry had, made Harlow flinch back slightly. The girl was so innocent, and Harlow herself couldn't even remember a time when she was.
"Of course, child. So long as you mean no harm to anyone, you will be welcome. You'll have to do your part, but considering your age that would mostly mean schoolwork." Harlow answered. From what Harlow's magic was telling her, the girl didn't even have a wand. But that made sense since she said she was only ten when the war against Muggles broke out. She wasn't of age to get a wand, and even if she had been, the wand would have been confiscated over the summer to make sure underage magic didn't happen. That had been a rule change when the Ministry had taken over by martial law. All wands of underage children had to be kept at Hogwarts and the muggles had found out about them during summer holidays. "My name is Harlow, and this is my twin, Harry. And you are?" She asked, her eyes darting over to where the other two children were now peeking out from behind the ruins.
"Harlow, and Harry? Like Harlow and Harry Potter?" The girl's eyes grew wide. This time both the Potter twins winced at the emotions that zinged through the air from the girl. Hope, admiration, and fear. A lot of fear. The fear one hit Harlow the hardest. No doubt the girl had heard all about the chaos, disaster and death that was always left in the wake of the Potter twins, mostly at Harlow's own hands. Harry was only ever there to keep her safe and from completely going feral. "I'm Samara, and this is my brother Yael. And this is... Well, I don't know what her actual name is but I got the name Kai out of her so that's what I've been calling her." The girl, Samara, answered after she waved the two children over.
Yael was younger than Samara, perhaps maybe ten or eleven. He was in just as bad of shape as Samara was. Thin and small which brought up bad memories of the Potter twins' own childhood. He had dirty brown hair and hazel eyes that stared up at them cautiously, mostly eyeing the wands which were still grasped tightly in Harlow and Harry's hand.
Kai was just a toddler as Samara had stated. Harlow didn't think she was older than three or four at the very most. The toddler had clear blue-silvery-green eyes that stared up at Harlow and Harry with curiosity and fear. Her skin was blue, but a light pale blue which had dots of darker blue and purple scales highlighting her features, and fluted ears that looked more human than the ones the book said Merrow had. And her hair was long and wild, black in color as it curled down her back. She was covered in bruises and cuts, some of which Samara had obviously tried to cover up to keep from being infected.
Something nudged at the back of Harlow's mind. The girl looked oddly familiar but Harlow couldn't put her finger on why. She didn't even need to look at her twin to know he was feeling the same, that Kai looked familiar but obviously he couldn't place why that was either.
"Are you willing to come to the sanctuary with us?" Harry asked, looking each child in the eyes as he did. Kai must have seen something in his eyes and Harlow's eyes because suddenly she was clutching Harlow's leg tightly, tiny clawed nails digging into the armor she wore.
"Mera! Mera! I'm so scared." She cried, her tongue lisping in that baby voice all children had before they started to really learn how to speak. The words sounded off though, in a similar way to whenever Harlow spoke Parseltongue or heard it spoken to her when speaking with Harry or the snakes. The girl sounded so young and innocent though, like a baby, and it tugged painfully at Harlow's heartstrings, what little she had left, reminding her of when Teddy was just a child and he would run into her room begging her to scare away the monsters under his bed and in his closet.
Harlow's instincts demanded her to help the small child, and she was immediately knelt down to Kai's level, gently prying her off her leg and holding her close. A quiet, reassuring purr leaving her lips as her magic washed over the girl, soothing and comforting the toddler's fears. The girl almost immediately went limp in her arms after wrapping her smaller ones around Harlow's neck, holding tightly.
"It's okay, little one. We won't let anything hurt you. We're here to protect you," Harlow reassured her, rocking her gently back and forth, ignoring the fact that her own words seemed to change to form the language Kai spoke, whatever that was. Some Merrow language, Harlow was sure about that.
Kai sniffled, burying her face in Harlow's shoulder. "Promise?"
"I promise," Harlow replied, lifting the light-weight girl up as she stood back up and looked back at the other two children who were now much calmer and feeling less afraid of her than before. "What about you two? Are you willing to come with us?" Her instincts also wanted to take the older two children but, Samara was sixteen which meant in dragel terms, she was an adult. Harlow couldn't force her to come with them, but she wouldn't let Samara take this toddler away from her. Not when everything in Harlow demanded her to protect the younger child... Almost like her instincts demanded her to protect Harry as her younger twin brother.
Samara and Yael looked at each other before nodding. "We don't have anywhere else to go." Samara said softly.
"Then let's go." Harry said. He shared a look with Harlow who nodded before he stepped in between the siblings, grabbing them tightly. With a warning about apparating, Harry was off with a twist and a loud cracking sound that reverberated through the silent world around them.
Harlow stayed standing there for a couple minutes more, frowning when she heard the sounds of dogs barking and growling and the yells of muggles who had obviously been tracking the children as they ran. It was what muggles were known for, and what they were disgustingly good at. But they couldn't track magic apparition. Still Harlow was quick to wipe Harry's magical signature from the area before she followed, knowing her own magic would be undetectable as it had been since she inherited as a dragel.
Location: Earth Realm, Hogwarts
It was only fitting in Harlow's mind that Hogwarts was once again acting as a sanctuary against muggles, just like it had when the Hogwarts Five Founders had created it. Not that anyone had known that there were five Founders of Hogwarts until such a time when Harlow and Harry had wrestled control of the castle out of the hands of the corrupted Torvaks and Ministry officials, Harlow slaughtering anyone who tried to stop them. It hadn't been fair that they had an entire large castle with wards that kept them mostly protected from the bombings and airstrikes all to themselves while they let innocent men, women and children be slaughtered in the streets like common criminals. And Harlow had long since stopped caring about getting her hands dirty.
Still, just like back when the Potter twins were students at the school, you couldn't apparate directly into the wards that now also surround the town of Hogsmeade. Instead Harlow landed around a mile or so off from the Hogarth Sanctuary inside a cave system that had its own wards to keep any muggles from finding it or blasting it to bits with weapons of war. Harry was comforting Samara and Yael who were both on their knees, coughing and spitting from their first apparition trip.
Harlow glanced down at Kai but the girl seemed unbothered, quietly sleeping on her shoulder. The poor girl was obviously drained and exhausted from whatever she had been through and Harlow made a mental note to get her checked out by either Severus or Harry once they made it safely back to the sanctuary. The Muggles had taken to doing awful experimentation on anyone with magic the moment they learned about it and caught people. It didn't matter to them if the person was an old woman or even a baby. And most of those who survived when Harlow and Harry would destroy these facilities were in even worse shape than whatever the Ministry had done to those who spoke out against them long ago. Not for the first time, Harlow wondered if maybe Grindelwald and Voldemort weren't right in wanting to get rid of the muggles.
She frowned, shaking those thoughts away as she moved off the apparition spot. On the off chance anyone came through, she didn't want them accidentally hurting the child who called her mother in her native tongue. "Are you two okay?" Harlow asked, keeping her voice quiet and hopefully not her normal monotoned, dead voice that scared half the people in the sanctuary.
"Just first apparition issues, Lows." Harry explained with a smile. Once Samara and Yael had pulled themselves together, Harry cleaned them up to the best of his ability before the three of them stood up. "Best to be off now. We have quite a ways to go. Harlow, you'll do the cloaking right?"
Harlow hummed, giving a single nod as she headed towards the entrance of the cave. Harry pushed Samara and Yael to follow closely behind her with him taking the rear. Typically Harlow would have given the toddler in her arms over to Harry. He was best at protecting, after all. But her instincts rebelled at the single thought of releasing the child out of her protective grasp. If anything happened, she would give Kai to Harry and then attack whatever attacked them, but not a second sooner.
Thin, dark webs of magic stretched out from Harlow and for a moment she was invisible to the children and Harry before those webs moved around them as the silent spell Harlow cast engulfed them. The webs of magic undulated under her grasp, blending the small group into the surrounding environment as they exited the cave. Harlow had long since mastered her own cloaking magic, a talent she was sure came about with her dragel inheritance much like the Empathy that she shared with Harry, and Harry's own ability to see magic. Of course, Harlow only called it cloaking magic but it was much more than that. Just as easily as she could cloak herself, or others, to match the surroundings, making them little more than ghosts, invisible to anyone who couldn't see magic fully like her twin, she could explode that magic out of her. Creating images and even full out sounds that didn't exist. Images and sounds that could become real if Harlow put enough of her magic into it.
While Harlow's magic cloaked itself and could create mirages that could become real, Harry's magic was always present, even when he was trying to keep it covered. His presence could never be missed like Harlow's could. It was heavy and heeding. The way he could manipulate the magic he could see around them, even just the ambient magic that the Earth emanated, was awe-inspiring. It was only between the two of them that the Hogarth Sanctuary had become a truly safe place to live for all beings, so long as they followed the rules.
Immediately as they exited the cave system they were hit with a gust of cold, damp air. It was dark out now, a few stars twinkling in the sky above. Harlow had to force herself to not look at them and start naming them like she had gotten into the habit of doing when Sirius, their Godfather, their Third, was still alive and the three of them would sneak away in the middle of the night during the summer before their fifth year to lay on the roof. Sirius would recount the stories of the stars that he remembered being told when he was a child.
"Are you going to tell him, or are you going to make me?" Harlow asked, keeping her eyes darting around their surroundings as she headed in the winding path that made no sense to the two awake children. Harlow didn't need to see magic like her twin to know the various spells and curses, runic traps that surrounded the Hogarth Sanctuary miles out from where it actually was. She had the entire map of everything stuck in her head for these journeys, and her magic did give her a warning about it whenever they strayed too close to one.
Harlow wasn't talking about Sirius. Their Third had been dead and gone long, long ago, something that still pained and haunted the twins. No, Harlow was talking about Percy Weasley, the only member of the Weasley Family who didn't disappear. The redhead who had to suffer for his family up and disappearing so much that he ended up coming into his own inheritance as a dragel. If it hadn't been for Harlow and Harry who had been the ones visiting him in the prison the Ministry had stuck him in because they thought Percy was disloyal to them, Percy would have died. Harry had made a Percy-look-alike with his magic, and Harlow had cloaked the real Percy and the three of them had safely made it out. He had been in extremely rough shape when they got him to their home, the Evanson Manor that now laid in ruins itself.
When Harlow and Harry had gotten the alert of magic being performed in the area where the Burrow once stood, Percy had been equal parts hopeful and angry at the thought of his family coming back from wherever they had disappeared to. She wasn't sure what state Percy would be in when they got back to the Hogarth Sanctuary, nor how he would react when he learned that it was just children and not his family, but Harlow thought that Harry should deal with it. Percy was, after all, more of Harry's bonded than he was hers. And although they did share the same circle with Severus Snape, surprisingly enough, as their soul bonded Mage, and Vesper Hogarth, another surprise they found when going through the Chamber of Secrets, as their shared soul bonded Beta, it didn't mean Harlow necessarily wanted to deal with the Gheyic Pareya having a complete meltdown. Sure, if he wanted to fight out his feelings, Harlow would be all for that since Harry hated fighting, but otherwise she didn't want to deal with his emotional outburst. Not when she was still pondering why Kai had taken one look at the color of their eyes and decided Harlow was her mother.
"I'll deal with him until he wants to fight, and then you can deal with him." Harry sighed. Harlow's lips twitched into a small smirk at the thought of fighting with Percy. For the Perfect Percy who always played by the rules when they were in school, he certainly loved to play dirty when it came to them fighting. And Harlow supposed she could admit to herself that his flames were an absolutely breathtaking color of blue, and dangerous in their own right. It was always wonderful to fight against him.
"I'll agree to that, I suppose," Harlow tried to come off as nonchalant but she was sure that her twin could detect the excitement in her voice at the mere thought of a fight with the Fire Dragel. And she was sure Harry was mentally battling with himself over the thought of how bloody the fight would get if Percy had worked himself up into a feral frenzy.
They continued in relative silence, the only sounds around them were the howls of the wind, the rustling of leaves, and Samara and Yael quietly talking amongst each other. Unlike the barren wasteland that had become of the Burrow, here there were trees and sparse grass. The magic rich environment allowed such wildlife to grow, not that the muggles had realized that. Harlow and Harry had done their best to make the magic allow regrowth in other areas, closer to where the muggle camps were so they didn't move any closer to where their Sanctuary was. It certainly irked Harlow to no end to have to do that, but the needs of their people outweighed her want for blood.
They stopped a couple of times, mainly for Samara and Yael to catch their breath and rest their weary legs. They weren't in the best physical shape and there was no telling how long they had been on the run from the muggles hunting them. It was obvious that they hadn't had much to eat in months though so it was no hardship for Harlow and Harry to stop for their sake, even if it set Harlow's instincts on edge with them being out in the open. Even with her magic cloaking them from being seen.
After a two hours of walking, they finally reached the outskirts of the Hogarth Sanctuary, otherwise known as Hogsmeade. There were several guards on watch, those who were able-bodied and had the magic prowess to deal with any threats that might find their way here. Harlow slowly dropped her magic knowing better than to drop it all at once, lest the guards start shooting off spells first and ask the questions later.
"Harlow, Harry, we were getting worried." One of the guards, Louis Dubois, a French Wizard who had come to their sanctuary four years ago after the fall of the one he ran with his wife. Sadly his wife hadn't made it out alive, though his children had.
"We haven't been gone that long." Harlow stated, with a frown, her arms tightening slightly on Kai in her arms. She ignored the obvious curious looks the other guards sent her way seeing her holding a child that was still wrapped in her cloaking magic so they couldn't make out any of Kai's features. Although this Sanctuary didn't discriminate if you were a magical creature or just a Wixen, or even some who were muggles, Harlow felt extremely protective of Kai.
"Aye, but there was an incident." Louis stated, a grimace on his face and pain in his eyes. Harlow sucked in a sharp breath at the emotions of loss, pain and remembrance that came from all the guards who had come to greet them. "Vesper is waiting in the castle to update you." He told them after he casted a Patronus charm to inform Vesper that the twins were back and unharmed. As was normal whenever the Potter's left and came back.
Harry gently wrapped his arms around Samara and Yael, corralling them into the safety of Hogsmeade. "An incident in our Sanctuary or outside it?" He asked, his voice tight and serious, much different from the kind voice he used to speak with the siblings.
"Technically both. Your bonded, Percy, kind of went feral when you two left." Another guard, this one they knew and trusted, Viktor Krum, answered. Harlow and Harry's eyes grew wide but Viktor held his hands up stopping them from rushing towards the castle. "Calm now, no one was injured. Snape was able to spell him asleep, but it did frighten some of the children nearby."
"The Appalachian Sanctuary has been attacked. From what we've heard no one's certain if there are any survivors." Louis finished.
Harlow growled low in her throat, stopping abruptly when Kai whined and shifted in her arms, a reassuring rumble leaving her lips seconds later to calm the sleeping Merrow child. "Are you okay with getting them settled? I want to get Kai checked out by Severus." She asked Harry who frowned. "I'll check on Percy while I'm there but I'm sure that he's still out. Severus' sleeping spells are no joke, and he probably won't lift it until you get there."
"Stay with him until I get there?" He asked. Harlow instantly nodded in agreement with his request before she headed off knowing that Harry had to deal with paperwork for the siblings, and for Kai. Everyone had paperwork that needed to be done when they entered the Sanctuary to keep track of who was where.
Harlow quickly turned on her heel and headed towards the other side of Hogsmeade until she arrived where the carriages were. Pushing back the memories of going to Hogsmeade with their ex-friends, she absentmindedly patted the snout of the Thestral, smiling slightly as it licked her finger in greeting before she carefully jumped into the carriage with Kai still tucked in her arms. The Thestrals loved Harlow, as did most of Lady Death's creatures. After settling into the carriage, the Thestral took off immediately towards Hogwarts Castle.
Harlow sighed as she sank into the plush seat, closing her eyes as she leaned her head back against it. Kai's soft breathes and quiet purrs of contentment had a sense of confused relief wash over her as her instincts realized that she was safe. That the Merrow child, probably half-Merrow child in reality, was safe. It was still confusing though because Harlow couldn't figure out why her instincts had latched on the child so much. It seriously reminded her of her protective instincts for her twin and Lyte Submissive. It was like the protective instincts of an older sibling but Harlow knew that couldn't be right at all. Her and Harry's parents had died long ago when they were younger than Kai was now. There was simply no way that this little half-Merrow child was their sibling.
Harlow hummed a quiet song that she barely remembered from when her mum was alive and frowned when Kai seemed to sink deeper into her arms muttering the word mera in her sleep.
The Gheyric Submissive pushed those thoughts away from her mind as the carriage came to a stop and the door was almost instantly pulled open. Harlow hissed quietly as Vesper pulled her out of the carriage and into a hug, breathing against the skin on the other side of her neck deeply to reassure himself that she was alright. "Ves, come on. I'm fine. Harry's fine too, he's just doing paperwork in Hogsmeade." She stated, even as she sunk into her Beta's arms though Harlow was careful not to squish Kai in between them.
"When Perc freaked out, we thought something bad had happened." Vesper muttered in her ear. "And then word about the other Sanctuary falling came to us, and you weren't answering our calls."
Harlow frowned as she pulled back just enough that she could see his undeniably handsome face. Vesper was in his male form, as he typically was, but he was even paler than when they had found him. Obvious stress lines were on his face that Harlow was quick to reach up and smooth out. His normal, bright deep purple eyes were fully black but slowly starting to come back to that purple color Harlow loved so much. She let her fingers dance on the dark purple, blue, and black scales that were highlighting his facial features with a pained smile on her face.
"I think Perc's freak out more had to do with Hars and I not being there to deal with the emotions he was going through. Sometimes he leans on us more than he should." Harlow pointed out. Not that she could really blame Percy for leaning on them for emotional support. He still had yet to tell them everything that he had gone through at the hands of the Ministry due to his entire family disappearing, but the face that Sev had made when they came back with him tucked between them and had run his healer diagnostics over him had been telling enough. And if it had been anything like what she herself had gone through multiple times at the hands of the Ministry before Harry came to get her released, it wasn't anything good.
"Who is this little one?" Vesper suddenly asked, looking down at the toddler held by Harlow. Harlow frowned as she looked down at her as well.
"It was three kids who set off the alarms. A sixteen year old, a ten year old, and this youngling. All dragel or Merrow in her case." Harlow started as she headed towards the castle. She wanted to get the girl to Severus as soon as possible before she went to sit with Percy. It was obvious the young child needed help. "Actually, it was her who set them off. She only speaks what I am assuming is some Merrow dialect that I can understand. She called me Mera when she saw me though."
"How did a half-Merrow child end up in this wasteland realm?" Vesper questioned quietly to himself but Harlow still heard him.
She sighed deeply, shaking her head. "No idea, honestly. From what I've learned from the sixteen year old, Samara, she was found by her and the muggles took her immediately. When Samara found out what they were doing to the child, she inherited, probably breaking the seals her parents placed on her. Samara's parents died getting her, her brother and this child, Kai or something along those lines, out of the muggle encampment." A low growl left Harlow at the thought about those disgusting muggles. They had hurt the half-merrow child so badly that even now Harlow's scales and claws itched under her skin with a desire for blood of their own. Harlow was already making up plans to leave the Sanctuary to track those monsters down like they had the children. She wondered briefly if they would enjoy being treated like the animals they were, hunted down and slaughtered just like the muggles had all the magical beings they could find. Harlow abruptly shook her head hoping that would help the bloodlust growing in her veins. "Where's Severus?" She asked instead of voicing her darker thoughts and instincts.
Vesper still noticed them though, if the way he tightened his grasp around her shoulder was any indication. Harlow knew she was probably unintentionally projecting her emotions through their bond. “Our rooms, keeping an eye on the troublemaker of the day.” Vesper answered immediately.
“And it wasn’t even Hars and I this time.” Harlow teased, leaning heavier into her Changeling Beta, making the two of them chuckle. Typically it was Harlow and Harry who the rest of their circle called troublemakers. More Harry than Harlow though since he never intentionally ended up causing trouble while all of them knew Harlow thrived on chaos and always had.
Despite how big the castle of Hogwarts was, it didn’t take long for Vesper and Harlow to get to the Founder’s Tower which the circle of five had claimed as their own, leaving Headmaster Flitwick to have the Headmaster Suite. Vesper was quick to open the door allowing Harlow to step inside and almost immediately Severus was in front of her with a gust of wind telling her that he had used his Air Element to reach them quickly. “What have we here?” Severus drawled out in his normal deep tone that had more than once lulled Harlow to sleep on her more difficult nights as he read to her. “And where is Harry?” His eyes flickered from the toddler within Harlow’s arms, to Harlow herself, and then at Vesper and the closed door behind them looking for Harry.
“He had to stay back and do the paperwork. This is Kai, one of the three people we found at the… Burrow …” The word was spat with much disdain as Harlow moved past Severus and gently laid Kai on the nearest couch, cooing softly at the half-merrow child until she let go. Harlow didn’t move far from her, choosing to sit down on the floor while Severus and Vesper watched her with eyes darkening with some kind of emotion Harlow had no want to figure out. “Half-Merrow child from my estimations, like Hars and I, she was left at the mercy of the muggles until the sixteen year old who found her saw what was happening to Kai and inherited as a dragel to stop them. Hars is with Samara and her younger brother to do paperwork. Both are of age to join the school for training so he’ll probably bring them to Hogwarts when they are done.” Harlow stated, hating using the word training instead of learning. They were just children. They shouldn’t have to train to protect their lives but that was the world they lived in today. Harlow was even more bitter about it because her and Harry had also grown up as child soldiers just like the children of today were. No child should have to fight in a war. They just shouldn’t.
“Well let me take a look at her and see what the damage is.” Severus said, his silky voice easily hiding the anger and disgust he truly felt.
Harlow couldn’t help but smile at her old Professor as he began to run diagnostic spells over the half-merrow child. He had changed so much from when he was their professor, though he had never lost that silver tongue and snarky attitude. Especially not when he was teaching the school children potions. Still, towards Harry and her, Severus had changed. He was softer at times, kinder at times. Though only when they were in the safety of the Founder’s Tower. Severus Snape would probably kill himself before anyone outside their circle saw him being soft.
It was strange to both Harry and Harlow when they found themselves slowly falling for the Professor that they hated when they were in school. It happened slowly, over time. After the Battle of Hogwarts, Harlow had been the one to go back to gather Severus’s dead body. After everything that the snarky Professor had done for the war efforts, he was just as much of a hero as Harry and her were in Harlow’s eyes. It had been a shock to find that Severus was alive, and also a dragel. It hadn’t been easy sneaking the Professor out of Hogwarts but with her own dragel magic, and Harry making excuses, Harlow had managed to get Severus to the Potter Manor. The Potter twins had then spent weeks nursing Severus back to health. The witty banter and snarky comments were shot back and forth the three of them throughout the entire time Severus was healing. He certainly wasn’t happy being forced to stay in bed for days.
Then the Ministry started rounding up Death Eaters who had fled the battle, magical creatures who had joined Voldemort, and mass executing them. Since Severus’s body had not been accounted for, he was number one on the list to find as Voldemort’s known right hand man. That had made it impossible for Severus to leave the safety of the Potter Manor, much to his chagrin. It was only when Harlow and Harry had moved the three of them into another Manor, one that was surprisingly left to them by their mum from some Evanson Family they were a part of, that Severus started to change around them. And by the time the muggles had found out about the magical world, the three of them, with the addition of Percy, were a soulbonded circle.
“Harlow.” Severus spoke up. Harlow’s head snapped up to look at him and frowned when she saw the look on his face. It was a tight, pained look that Harlow knew was him about to tear apart her entire reality. “This child… She’s your younger sister.”
Harlow froze. Her eyes staring up at Severus like a deer in the headlights as every single part of her revolted at the information he had just imparted on her. The words repeated in her head over and over again but it wasn’t possible. It couldn’t possibly be possible. Lily and James Potter were Harry and her parents. Sirius Black was their Third. And they were all dead. Lily and James were gone before the twins were even aware of the world around them, and Sirius had died because of their own actions. But they were dead. Dead. Dead. Dead!
“She’s the daughter of Lily, James, and Sirius. I’m so sorry, Lows.” Severus told her, his eyes looking as heartbroken as Harlow felt in that moment.
Slowly, Harlow turned her head to look at the little girl who called her Mera, tracing every single feature of the girl slowly and carefully. Mentally she thought of the pictures that Hagrid, oh poor poor Hagrid, had given her and Harry for Christmas in their first year at Hogwarts. Back when things were better. Slowly, it came together and she could see it. Kai had Sirius's hair, curly, with the wildness that came from the Potter line. Those high cheekbones were also all Sirius. That cute up-turned nose was all Lily, and the shape of her eyes certainly came from James. Not to mention the knobby knees that both Harlow and Harry inherited from their sire.
Harlow felt like she was falling… Dropping… Spinning out of control with nothing around to catch herself. She could hear the howl of her magic in her ears just barely under the heavy beating sound of her heart rushing blood throughout her veins. If Kai was her sister… A three year old toddler… That meant her parents were alive. Lily. James. Sirius. They were alive but they weren’t on Earth. That meant they were alive and they had left Harry and herself on Earth alone. Alone. Alone. So very very alone. To suffer and die at the hands of Voldemort. To suffer and die at the hands of the Puppet made by Dumbledore, someone they had trusted. Someone they had looked up to as a mentor. That meant their parents never wanted them. Didn’t want them. Had another more perfect child than Harlow and Harry to replace them. Because that was all the Potter twins were to anyone. Replaceable. And the truth hurt so much. Even more than Harlow’s instincts that refused to let her hate the girl one bit for being born and loved and cherished by the parents who had willingly let go of her and her twin. It hurt so, so very much.