The Song, Revisited
Grimmauld Place no. 12, 28th December 2003
“I am flattered, Potter.” Zabini’s tone is drier than the desert.
“Huh?” I am taken aback. I asked them to give me tips and perhaps provide a few practise sessions to use the Song, so that I will be able to lead a healing attempt on one of the Jaffa, to see if he can be independent of the prim’ta this way, and this is what they–?
“That you thought me so highly.” The prat completes the statement with a Teal’c-worthy raised eyebrow, breezily – and knowingly, it seems – cutting through my inner rant.
Eh. I’m just more confused. “But you did that on Teal’c! I just tagged along. I didn’t even know I could do that.”
“And what did you think of ‘that’?” The other eyebrow joins the first, high up on the prat’s high brow. What a punchable look….
“Complicated, certainly, and new, and unknown to me, so that’s why I followed you, and that’s why I asked you just now,” I grump, crossing my arms on my chest and leaning against the wall of their self-claimed bedroom at Grimmauld. Dealing with Zabini always makes me tired, exasperated, irritated and confused, all in one, and now is not the exception, unfortunately.
And, instead of answering, they imitate me down to my no-doubt grumpy look, while leaning against the headboard of their bed… and it’s all that I can do to keep myself from stomping a foot childishly, as well as hiding my chagrin and embarrassment. – My, do I look that childish? No wonder they like to tease me so much, and Black treats me like a child…. Huh. I must be careful to display my “lordliness” before the Jaffa or, sent by Teal’c and Fawkes or not, they will figuratively… or perhaps even literally… stomp all over me.
But right now, I’ve got other concerns to pursue.
“All right,” I drawl, hopefully in a more sophisticated way than Malfoy Jr. “At least teach me the basics. I’ll do it my way, then.”
They lose all the air of mocking playfulness, just so.
I straighten up, myself. “So?”
“So, you don’t understand,” they sigh. “No, listen.” They raise a hand before I can speak. “The Song is the words of your soul, Potter. Your very escence, eternal as your life is not. Are you going to just play with your soul? Let alone others’!” They regard me with deadly intensity, then. “The Milaðen have been studying the Song for countless generations, millions of years, but until now they still discover something new… and not always desirable, although it is within their makeup – our makeup – whether understood or not. I took a very, very, very big risk when I helped you, that time, and my father would definitely not approve of what I did… although they might understand why I did it.”
“Our makeup?” I parrot, flabbergasted. My mind snags on that point and lags behind the rest of their passionate statement.
They look scornfully at me, still. “Don’t pretend to be ignorant, Potter. You’re an aweful liar.”
“I really don’t know what you’re talking about!” I snap back, indignant.
They roll their eyes, losing their utter seriousness but diverting their intensity to… something else; something that makes them look totally unreadable. “Change, now, please,” they… request, in a suddenly quiet, level tone.
Creepy. It’s as if there are two of them inside one body.
Creepier than Hermione and Arga, even, and in that madwoman there are indeed two people!
I roll my own eyes. “What for?” I demand warily. “Into what?”
“Your true self.”
“You’re asking awefully much of me, Zabini,” I scowl.
They shake their head. “You, too. That is not the point, though. I…. If you changed, I could prove something almost undeniably, and it might help you as well.”
“You swear?” It’s my turn to stare sharply and intently at them.
And they do swear it, in the same way as they did before healing Teal’c and as they helped make Hermione/Arga promise to be silent about Teal’c and his people.
Well.
I relax my figurative magical muscles, let my whole being flow fluidly back into the shape that it recognises as its foundation, though I stop it before it can shift further and turn me into a little child.
“Happy, now?” I bite out. I haven’t shown my baseline form to Hermione or Neville or Susan, and here I am, showing it to Zabini of all people.
And, as the answer, they perform their weird bow-courtsy again, after looking at me from head to toe for a few seconds.
I sigh. “Just tell me, Zabini, and quit egging me on. I’ve got no time for this.”
And they… comply, while kneeling on the floor and bowing lower, with their head still tilted to expose their throat and their hands linked on the small of their back.
“As ordered, Aslakonnar,” they say, with an almost respectful tone that is quite a far cry from their earlier behaviour towards me. “Aslakonnar might receive a better and more comprehensive answer from Aslakonnar’s mother, Chief of the Milaðen and High Monarch of Ýmirheim, who is reputedly possessed of great healing skills… and armed forces.”
I bury my face in my hands. “Zabini…. Just teach me.”
Black Island, 29th December 2003
“You have studied that subject for only a day, Harry. You should be totally sure about your skills, first, and it is impossible to achieve in only one day!”
“I’m going to attempt a small thing, first, like what Zabini taught me. There’s nobody here but you and I, anyway.”
“So it is why Fawkes flew away with the trunk?”
“Well… you’re made of magic, and he isn’t. ‘Sides, I’ll need him to return to guard Teal’c, soon. He can’t do that if he’s a chick again. And the Jaffa are why I’m doing this in the first place, so they need to be elsewhere for this.”
“So you admit that this is a very bad idea?”
“Umm. Just precaution, Black. Just that. Told you, I’m going to try just a small thing, first.”
“First.”
“Of course. We can try something else after that, if I’m successful.”
“If you are successful.”
“Well, I hope so.”
“Do you remember why I sacrificed so much for this island, including my life?”
“Umm. So that it can be sanctuary for your family, and for other magicals that need it? And maybe some mundanes too if it’s possible?”
“And you are going to ruin it?”
“Ah, no! I’m actually hoping to add my own touch to it… later… with some of Potter family magic and the Song….”
“And you are still learning both.”
“Huff. Told you, Black, it’s later, not now! And I don’t know myself how ‘later’ it is. There are still so many things to do, including this one. And they won’t get done if you keep delaying me.”
“For your own good and the good of this island, Harry, and also the good of your family.”
“I sent the Jaffa and my will to Neville. They, the Residents and the house-elves will be protected under House Longbottom. Already asked Hermione to make more stasis disks for Teal’c, too, and I left a vial of my blood plus instructions with Justin. He’ll take care of the properties if I’m… well, gone. I’m prepared, this time.”
“This time.”
“Yes, this time, Black. Don’t you know? I thought you knew everything in my head.”
“No, Harry. I always try not to pry.”
“Umm, well, all right, thanks, but, fact is, umm, it’s… well, if I died, and it’s an if! Well, if I did, then it wouldn’t be the first time. See, Voldemort accidentally left a piece of his soul in me when he tried to kill me the first time, when I was a year old. A Horcrux, Dumbledore thought, but not like you. He couldn’t die forever if the bit in me wasn’t destroyed, and Dumbledore theorised that I got to die by his hand to achieve that, so… I died. By the Killing Curse. Same like when he tried it the first time. But I didn’t die forever. I just… visited a weird King’s Cross Station.”
“And you were?”
“Umm, seventeen, going on eighteen, if you meant to ask me that. – Hey, Black? Where are you going? You mean me to practise in the forest? Isn’t that more risky than the beach? Black? Hello?”
But the huge, black-skinned semi-living warrior that is my long, long, long, long ago ancestor doesn’t stop stomping towards the forest, and he’s soon swallowed by the shadows under the trees.
I sigh.
“All right! I’m at the beach if you need me for something!” I call to where I last saw his back. “I’m going to practise like I told you! Don’t startle me, okay?”
What a “good” start to my venture into a new magical subject….