The Other Side
Jack had always been a prankster at heart, but he had also been a nurturing person even more. He made sure there was always firewood chopped and ready and never asked for seconds if he knew his sister or his mother was hungry. He could always hold it for later and he never complained, he simply went off and did what needed to be done.
He’s never had to deal with a partner hurting. Aster is listless and has been prone to sleeping for long hours. Jack heard about the last time Aster slept and he hoped it wouldn’t be that again. Jack had wanted to give Aster hope and space, so he cooked meals and painted googies and tended to the gardens and directed the snow and cold and cleaned and missed Harry. Jack hadn’t been mourning. He couldn’t stop, couldn’t stand to see Aster so low and couldn’t put himself so low. Things wouldn’t get done.
If Aster couldn’t, he would. He had to.
North had stopped by, leaving plates of cookies and fixing whatever needed fixing. The door to Harry’s room was squeaking so the man had set to replace the screws. Aster had freaked out, nearly taking his head with a boomerang.
“Don’! Touch! It!”
Aster had physically thrown North out, using vines and then for added measure, Jack had been flung out as well. Rocky had stood guard and no amount of bribing worked.
North and Jack had been forced to wait outside until Rocky had been given the order to move. Tooth and Sandy had joined them at some point as well.
“Jack, do you think he’s going to sleep again?” Tooth asked, eyes never leaving Rocky.
“I…don’t know, Tooth, I’m trying to keep this place going but I-I can’t. I can’t keep it up anymore, MiM help me! Damnit!” Jack stood suddenly, punching the nearest tree, encasing it in solid ice.
“Jack!” North exclaimed, “bunny iz hurting and you are too, but not excuse to hurt Warren!”
Tooth gingerly placed her hand on Jack’s shoulder, “We all miss him,”
Jack screamed in pain, punching the tree over and over again. It wasn’t fair! Harry belonged with them! He was their kit! He was their family! Jack roared, the winds picking up, clumps of dirt and loose leaves rushing by. Jack reared up and punched the tree again, the ice cracking underneath his fist. His hand came away bloody.
“We’ve gotta stop him, North!”
Sandy raised his hand, pausing Tooth from moving. He motioned over to the sentient guardian and the door. Rocky stepped away and the door to the hut all but bounced off its hinges. Aster stepped out, his fur was a mess and North could smell the distinct peach odor of his famous schnapps. North knew that Aster wasn’t drunk; it took a few barrels and a piece of chocolate to get him drunk. Aster had been drinking to numb the pain.
Without looking, Aster twirled his hand, catching Jack in a complex root system, leaving him struggling and suspended in midair.
“Aye wan’ ye ta leave me Warren. I’ll come up to ye soon enough,”
North, Sandy, and Tooth looked at each other, taking off almost immediately. Aster sounded far too calm, far too broken. Aster whistled once and the root system broke off and followed him inside. The door slammed shut.
Jack was bleeding, Aster was hurting and they were both angry. Aster let the roots fall away from Jack, sinking back into the earth, before he stood up to make some tea.
“Appreciate it if ya didn’ kill my Warren,”
“Whatever, Bunny,”
Aster didn’t reply, instead smoothly grinding down some herbs and fixed two cups of steaming tea in no time at all. He placed one before Jack and took the other and sat down across from him. Neither of them spoke for a long time.
“Jackie, I’m sorry,”
Jack looked at Aster, waiting for more. Aster sighed, scrubbed his face and shook out his fur. “Buying time, Bunny?”
“‘Course I am, now hush, ya drongo,”
Jack leaned back in his chair, slowly frosting over the cup until it became cooler for him to drink. Aster watched as the man before him slowly weaved small snowflakes in between his fingers, watching it play across his long digits. Aster but his lip, knowing well that while Jack was calm now, it wouldn’t last forever and he would have to speak at some point.
He took a breath and then a large gulp of tea, for courage. “Jackie, I-I haven’ been the best fer ye. Losin’ Harry it’s almost like losin’ Easter forever and aye, ye didn’ need me messin’ up like that! I didn’ wanna lose ye too. So I-I-I drank n walked round. I didn’ wanna face ye or the others, not like this. Not now.”
Aster downed the rest of tea, hands shaking and unconsciously opening and closing. Jack reached across for them, but Aster pulled away. “‘M not good fer ye. Not good fer anyone, Ja-“
“ Don’t you dare finish that sentence, Edelweiss!”
Aster reared back in shock-Jack never called him Edelweiss. “Jackie,” he reached out to grab his hand, to ground himself for a moment at least. Jack held his ground and Aster’s eyes. Neither moved for a moment, before Aster raced from the room, leaving Jack alone.
“Hey! You dick! You can’t just run away because you want to break up with me! Come back here!” Jack flew off after him, nearly colliding with him as he came out of his room.
“Ye think I wanna break up with you?! Did ye even mean this?!” Aster shoved the frozen flower at Jack, pushing him back. His chest was heaving and his eyes were red with hot tears. Jack was crying, tears freezing on his cheeks as he held the delicate flower close to him. He had the sudden urge to throw the flower, to watch it break into a thousand pieces, but held himself back.
He had to.
Aster hadn’t moved, he simply knelt down in front of Jack, head bent, his large paws gripping his wrists, nose pressed against his stomach. “Don’ leave, Jackie, please don’ leave, let me..let me do this,”
Jack stood stock still, literally frozen. He’d never heard Aster beg. Aster still wouldn’t look at him, he kept his head bent low, against Jack’s stomach. Jack felt like his insides were twisting up and untwisting and he never wanted to jump out of his skin more than he did now.
A full body shuddered racked through Aster’s bent form as the lagomorph moved his hands up from his wrists, to his forearms, grasping the flower in both hands. Jack took a step back, afraid of what Aster would do.
Instead, Aster cradled the flower to his chest and spoke a string of words in his natural tongue of Pookan. Jack had never heard anything more beautiful and Tooth spoke every language on Earth.
The ice which he’d encased the flower in melted away and Jack watched as the flower bloomed spectacularly, in a multitude of colors, each more vibrant than the last. First a paled blue, which was followed by a deep purple, then a vibrant pink, a shining yellow and finally the most beautiful perfect red he’d ever seen.
Aster continued speaking until eventually the flower stopped blooming at red. Then and only then, did he rise slowly to his feet, holding the red flower out to Jack.
“In all my life, I ‘ave neva’ met anyone like ye, Jackie. I meant what I said ‘fore, ye don’ deserve me-aye don’ deserve ye. Jackie, aye may neva’ deserve ye, but aye won’ stop ever tryin’. Jackie, will ye accept this and consider me as yours?”
Jack couldn’t speak, still too shocked to say anything and found himself nodding dumbly. Neither knew who moved first, but soon Aster had Jack in his arms, kissing him furiously.
“You…stupid..dumb…”
“They mean the same thing, Jackie,”
“Stupid….ignorant…half…drunk…bad with words-“
Jack found himself pressed against the wall, instead of in Aster’s arms as he had been. Aster had one leg between Jack’s legs, arms pinned to the wall. He chuckled, licking a strip of flesh from his shoulder to his neck.
(When did he lose his sweater?)
“Let me show ye how bad with words I can be,” aster replied darkly, pressing his thigh against Jack’s crotch. The younger male moaned, “Give it your best shot, BunBun.”
—————————————————————
“No! A young lord must enunciate his words! He must be heard from every angle of the room!”
Harry wanted to bash his head in and probably would’ve done it too if his tutor hadn’t stuck him to a chair with a sticking charm for good measure. Apparently Miss Hopton had made it a point to tell Madam Rosmerta who told Olivander who told Tutor Meyers that Harry was impossible to work with. When Tutor Meyers came, Harry had been levitated and stuck to a chair almost immediately.
Harry, incensed beyond belief had proceeded to yell, “You rat bag bastard son of bitch! Yer nothin’ than a two bit race pony! Pommey Bastard no good fer anythin’ other than fuckin’ over a table and-“
“Silencio!” Sirius had been rather quick to cast a silencing charm with shame. Tutor Meyers thanked the man and pulled Harry into the next room.
The first day, Tutor Meyers had left the Black Cottage in near tears with Harry looking quite smug. Sirius hoped the man would stay on. The second day, Tutor Meyers lasted considerably longer but still left in sniffles. Hedwig beamed at herself, while Harry ate a bowl of berries as a snack. The third day, Tutor Meyers came back wearing a tactical suit for muggle police dog bite work and somehow still left after the first hour. Sirius noticed that Hedwig had a large swatch of fabric from the suit in her talons.
Tutor Meyers returned after a week of absence, the man calmly erected anti raptor wards and used a sticking charm for Harry. Hedwig was not pleased and instead took to depositing freshly killed badgers on Sirius’ bed. Sirius was not pleased at all.
—————————————————————
“Come now Heir Potter-Black! You must speak clearly! Again! How now brown cow!”
Harry was determined to stay quiet but that damned stinging hex was too annoying. Resigned to his fate, “‘ow no’ brown cow”. He could at least have fun with the man.
Tutor Meyers sighed and began to collect his things. Harry chuckled, he had been here for only thirty minutes.
“Leavin’ so soon?”
“Heir Potter-Black, I am resigning. You are a deplorable student and a waste of my time and resources, regardless of what Lord Black is paying me! You and that bird have cost me my health and sanity! Good day!”
The man dismantled the wards and the charms and left in a rush, Hedwig ushering him along with sharp talons and beak clicks. Sirius sighed, rubbing his hands down his face.
Harry had to respect someone, at this point, anyone! He would even grovel to Snivelius if it would make Harry a proper lord someday!
Sirius pouted; he knew James would turn over in his grave if he knew what he was about to do. Lily would certainly hang him from the rafters. He only hoped that they understood why he was doing this.
Snatching a piece of parchment and some ink, Sirius began a letter.
—————————————————————
Katherine sighed; the story hadn’t changed but at least little green was giving them a run for their money. Ombric watched Katherine from the doorway, hoping that at least seeing her beloved might make a difference. He had already stopped her from burning her library twice in the last two weeks and had to reapply the return to shelf magick on her books when he began to find them in the trash bins.
“Excuse me, Ombric?”
Thank MiM, Daphne was right on time. He turned, seeing the young woman carrying a large basket under her arm. “I’m thinking a picnic will help lighten her mood a bit?”
Ombric smiled, “Seeing you will be enough to clear the clouds within Katherine’s heart. Thank you for coming.”
He stepped aside, giving her entrance into Katherine’s bedroom. Seeing Lord Greengrass at the bottom of the stairs, Ombric went to meet him.
“Well day to you, Lord Greengrass, what news do you bring to this old man?”
“Nothing that bodes well, dear friend,”
“Then let us sit over tea and discuss matters,”
Lord Greengrass followed Ombric towards the study, letting the girls be.
—————————————————————
“Galleon for your thoughts, dearest?”
Katherine, who had been ready with a knife hack away at a particular book, looked up at Daphne and nearly wept with relief. Hurriedly, she rushed up, enveloping the other girl in her arms.
“Darling! Where have-that is, why are you-oh! Never mind that, I’m so very happy to see you!”
Daphne hugged Katherine tightly, relishing in the feeling. It had been far too long since they’d last been together. It was rarer still for them to be alone together. Daphne led her beloved back to her small library where two very comfy chairs awaited them.
A quick levitation charm and some minor transfigurations and the girls had their chairs side by side with a tray filled with scones and tea. Daphne had shifted the small library to resemble the outdoors with small baubles of fairy lights strewn about the room.
“I love magick,” Katherine smiled, softly.
“Has Ombric been teaching you?”
“Mmh not yet, my own natural magick is still being managed by the histories of the guardians and little green, I think? Has there been any news?”
Daphne sighed, before meeting Katherine’s honey brown eyes, “Sirius has got Harry on such a schedule, it’s nearly impossible to see him, let alone get him away for any span of time. He’s been scaring away his tutors and it’s only a matter of time before Sirius brings in someone he can’t scare off. Plus he’ll be expected to start courting Ginny soon! Theo, Blaise, and Draco are trying to put forth their own bethroals but only the Weasleys are considered valid because it was done by the late Lord Potter. This is all a mess!”
Katherine blinked, “a marriage contract? Is that all it would take to get Little Green away from Sirius?”
“Well, technically, yes in theory that is. Sirius is Lord Black and Harry being his heir apparent has no say in the contracts themselves, only that he must honor them. The contract would only go into full effect on his seventeenth birthday or unless he became emancipated.”
Katherine walked towards her desk, rifling through paperwork and files. “I really wish you’d let me clean that for you, how you find anything is beyond me.”
“I’m looking for ours, if I can make a copy contract and rewrite the terms to suit little green, it might save him from Sirius.”
“You can do that?!”
Katherine smiled truly for the first time at her beloved, “I am Mother Goose,” she threw in a friendly wink and Daphne laughed before helping her search for the copy.
—————————————————————
“It was entirely too easy for Sirius to gain control like that,” Lord Greengrass stated, trying hard to not slam the tea cup down. He was beyond angry, they all were. “The wizengamot said that the trial was to be conducted over three periods, only deciding after the finale where Harry was supposed to go. How can this be, Ombric?”
Ombric, at least to Lord Greengrass, looked as though he had aged rapidly in moments, as he answered, “That is unfortunately one of our problems. Mother Nature gave her final word, I’m afraid and she’s quite upset with the Bunnymund clan.”
Ombric sighed, “The bring you know as Mother Nature is one of ours, an original guardian, as was the plan. You see, Jack Frost was only ever supposed to be the next Old Man Winter. Mother Nature, when I knew her, was still called Emily Jane, the sole daughter of Pitch Black. Back then, Emily had much more power, but after her refusal to go against her own father, MiM stripped her to the very base of her abilities. She is no longer the court of seasons; her power was split and the season of Spring belongs to Aster. That however is not the cause of her rage. No, the cause of her rage is that the Pookan Planet where Aster and several other Pookans hail from was the final standpoint between Pitch’s armies of darkness and Earth. I do not know what happened, but Pitch was sealed up, falling to earth as a black meteorite in the Arctic. He remained sealed up for many of your ages, until something broke him out. I can not say what it was only that shortly after that, the guardians changed. Emily Jane was stripped and sent to be keeper of the greens; she is only Mother Nature to the few who believe. The only natural gift she has kept is the gift of the final word. Once she claims her final word, it can not be altered, not by me or MiM. Katherine has tried but Harry's book remains unchanged, even by her own hand.”
Lord Greengrass sat back, mouth open, “what must we do?”
“We must do as we have always done, believe in the guardians and in the hope that springs forth. There will come a way, we must wait.”
—————————————————————
The doorbell rang only once, as Harry opened it slowly, Hedwig at his back ready. He was surprised to find both Professor Lupin and Professor Snape at the entryway. A third person stood behind them, a man that Harry could only describe as Frankenstein’s monster in human form.
“Alastor Moody, head of Auror specialized task force and former hit wizard.” The man briskly pushed his way inside, Hedwig giving an indignant cry, scowling at the man.
“Please come in,” Harry deadpanned, stepping out of the way.
“Sirius Orion Black! Where are you?!” Alastor bellowed, his cane thrashing about in the foyer. There was a crash from upstairs and Sirius ran out, wand brandished, ready for a fight.
“At what age did I join the Auror corps?!”
“Eighteen to enter and twenty one was yer first field job,”
“What is my patronus?”
“A lion you dunce!”
Sirius broke out into a mad grin, almost jumping over the banister to greet his old boss. Remus sighed heavily and made his way to sit down, a weary look on his face. Severus scowled darkly, crossing his arms in defiance.
Lucius owed him big time for this.
Still, it was worth it to see that Harry still looked like his Harry. Draco would be beyond delighted to know that his hair was just as colorful as ever. Severus relaxed a bit, uncrossing his arms, letting them hang down. Hedwig flew over to him, clicking her beak in nostalgia and carefully groomed the man.
Sirius balked, “Even the bird is a traitor!” Alastor growled at Sirius and the two continued their conversation.
Remus watched everything from his position on the couch. He hadn’t told Harry that he was his other godfather; he simply was getting to know him as his professor. Harry was a lot like Lily in many ways; he wrote small like her and was often seen with a book in his hands. Harry was kind like Lily, the genuine kindness that gave other hope and inspired nations. Harry had no malice unless provoked, and fought for everyone, despite their house. Another, Harry had quite a sailor’s mouth, when he got going. Usually this was directed at Ronald Weasley and so far, Remus only had to break up one fight. (Draco and Blaise had to restrain Harry at the time)
Remus had seen just how Harry had been raised and frankly, Aster did a much better job than Sirius was. Harry was thinner now, his skin lacked a distinct tan and he was angry. Remus could taste it in the air.
He almost felt sorry for Sirius.
Severus shoved Harry in back of him, whipping out his wand and firing three blasting hexes in the cottage. Hedwig cried out and flew out of the roof and through the barrier. Harry’s mouth hung open.
“Snape?! What the fuck?” Sirius arched his wand, firing back a cutting hex. Severus erected a shield, quickly firing off a smog spell. Harry had no time to react, feeling his body being lifted up and squeezed through a tube.