Ritual
Harry looked at the runes and sigils placed around the room. He suddenly wished he hadn't agreed to follow Ron into an easy O in divination if it meant he could understand even a bit of the picture he was viewing.
The new blue man, Heroy Laguna, was a runesmaster and Harry knew if Hermione was there she'd be picking the man's brain for every piece of knowledge he'd be willing to share. But Hermione wasn't there. Harry wasn't even on Earth. The feeling of being so far from home and with no allies in sight was killing a part of Harry.
Voldemort was acting strange. He was almost being nice and protective. It was weird. Nagini, the giant snake, was being nice to him but that wasn't so strange. All snakes were nice to Harry.
And then there was the otherworldly beautiful blue people. Levi with his fluffy sky blue mop, Koama with her magenta-purple long flowing locks, and Heroy with his deep blue green short hair. All with varying shades of blue skin and fluted ears. It was weird.
In fact, everything about this day was weird. Ever since Voldemort stepped out of the cauldron nothing was making sense.
And then the worst sentence Harry had ever heard came from the healer.
“Congratulations, it's a boy.”
As in, in regards to Harry. As if Harry was Voldemort's son. It was insane. Harry was the son of Lily and James Potter and Voldemort had nothing to do with it! Harry wasn't even a dragel!
But the adults, as always, refused to listen to Harry's complaints and continued on as if he wasn't there. And now they want him to participate in some ritual.
Harry was lost.
He wanted to fight. He wanted to throw a fit and refuse to cooperate. But something inside him knew how powerful these strange adults were and Harry was nowhere close to being able to hold his own.
So he complied.
Unwillingly and with obvious petulance, but he still complied.
And then power began to build in the room as Heroy began chanting and the runes lit up the slightly dark room.
Harry felt like he was suffocating, and not just because he was underwater.
It was as if the magic in the room was flooding his insides and Harry couldn't breathe.
Everything was too much, too quick, and his heart was beating erratically.
Harry thought he was surely going to pass out until--
Something broke.
Harry didn't know what it was exactly, the seals the healers had spoke of maybe, but something inside him broke and suddenly he felt like weeping in relief.
And a strange keening noise escaped his lips as he collapsed on his knees in the middle of the ritual circle.
Harry could see Voldemort fighting off Levi to try to come towards Harry but the blue man held him down strong.
Harry felt bereft-- lost at sea, almost.
His last thoughts as he gazed into Voldemort's eyes was that he was scared. So scared. But not nearly as much of Voldemort as he had been only hours previous.
And then he lost consciousness.
Tom was about to tear Levi to shreds when he saw Potter land on the floor harshly as he passed out.
Couldn't he see the distress the boy was in? Sure, Tom still wasn't a hundred percent sure why he was so concerned about the boy, but he still was. The healer's words about him being his son still echoed in his ears tauntingly.
Tom hadn't ever particularly wanted children but he wasn't as opposed to them as some (Dumbledore) might believe.
It was a fact of the pureblood culture that he tried to fit into his whole life that heirs were important, and he had even been in talk with a few witches on perhaps fathering an heir. He had certainly never expected Harry Potter, the toddler with the bright green intelligent eyes that he tried to kill to be his, but it seemed Tom wasn't purely human as he thought and magic did strange things.
If the healers were right, and his instincts pointed towards them being so, Harry Potter was his son. His son who he had tried to kill twice.
A part of Tom rebelled at the thought. The very thought of hurting the boy at all went completely against his new dragel instincts and he felt actual guilt while thinking about the previous times he had hurt the child.
And considering the amount of potions the healer had thrown at the boy, he was already being hurt in some way.
When Levi finally let go of him, Tom darted towards the unconscious teen and scooped him up in his arms. Harry looked pained and small and scared and a noise that was some version of a concerned croon left him.
These damn dragel instincts were a powerful drug.
“He should be fine. I was only able to break his inheritance seal and the seals on his soul and magic. Anymore would have killed him, but those three had to go immediately,” Heroy, the runemaster, stated.
“Whoever placed such seals on a dragel child deserves death,” the healer muttered darkly.
Levi stepped up behind Tom and nodded.
“Once the royals have reviewed the case, hunts for both my student and his son can begin. Until then, I think it would be best if I take them to my home to rest. Today has been long already,” Levi said quietly.
Tom wasn't against visiting his supposed mentor's home. He'd like to wring as much information from the man as he could and in a place where the man felt comfortable, it would be easier to drain him dry.
Refusing to put the boy down, Tom stood with the small teen clutched to his chest.
He looked towards his mentor and nodded imperiously.
“If you have some place safe for the boy to rest, I would appreciate it,” he admitted grudgingly.
His instincts would kill him if he left his heir in a suboptimal resting place after passing out from a magical ritual.
“I do,” Levi said smiling, before starting his portal chant again.
“Hyenda Portalis, Ulyian estate, entrance chamber.”