Tales of the Past
*****
“Charlie,” a voice penetrated his sleep. “Come on, Charlie, time to wake up.”
“Just pour some water on his face,” a distinctively mischievous voice teased.
“And deal with the sputtering anger of a dragon handler? Not bloody likely, Fred, but nice try.”
Charlie groaned as he allowed himself to wake. The night didn’t seem long enough to chase away the lingering ache of exhaustion that haunted the group, as days awake in concern for others seemed to do a number of his normally deep reserves. And he knew his brothers suffered from similar reserves, for various reasons.
“Shut it,” he grumbled, trying to push the voices away and roll over so he could go back to sleep.
The cleanses they’d all suffered through yesterday had drained them all dry of whatever reserves they may have had, and the healers had warned of some personality changes now that the blocks and spells were gone. Since they’d gone in stages, he’d gotten the chance to see Remus before he’d followed his healer. It was strange watching the man come alive from his own cleanses, shrugging off the deep air of sadness that had surrounded him since Charlie’d been introduced to the shifter earlier in the week. Even playing around with Arianna hadn’t managed to lift it, but when he’d come out of the ritual room with Eir, it was a night and day difference. He smiled so easily, the stress lines around his face almost disappearing and allowing the laughter lines to be that much more pronounced.
Sirius had been still been sleeping when Charlie had returned, recovering from the cleanse and healing session the goblins had instantly called for after to deal with some of the consequences of his stint in Azkaban. According to Eir, the cleanse made it quite clear he’d never been treated for the prolonged exposure to Dementors, nor accurately healed from the frostbite and malnutrition he’d suffered. The time he’d spent on the run hadn’t helped, as he’d gone from constantly stationary to running all over Britain to keep ahead of Aurors, neither allowing him to eat sufficiently. He had taken the longest of the five of them and Charlie did not envy Lord Black the headache he’d have when he finally woke. Eir made it seem like he’d be wishing for a duel with a dragon instead.
As for himself, he barely remembered the end of his cleanse. The healers had been kind and gentle, but it had still hurt as they tore through the old blocks and compulsions on him. And Charlie had to admit, he didn’t want to see how he’d changed, wasn’t sure he wanted to try and figure out what parts of his personality were potion driven at the moment. Not yet, anyway.
“But Charlie!” his younger brother whined, interrupting his hazy thoughts. He was too asleep to really care which twin it was right now.
“Allow me,” a feminine voice said airily.
He flailed when he was suddenly breathless with a solid weight on his chest. But he was awake and may not need a cup of strong tea to chase away the lingering tendrils of sleep.
“Ow,” he protested.
“Oh, good, you’re awake,” Arianna drawled from her position sitting on him. “Time for not so fun discussions for me! Now that you’re all cleansed and Sirius has pulled his head out of his arse and is finally awake himself. We’re letting Harry sleep some,” she continued, not moving a muscle but giving him a smirk when he tried to shift her off.
“Tea,” he grumbled, flopping back when it was apparent she wasn’t to be moved until she was ready to be.
“And breakfast, yes,” she agreed, gesturing to a table full of steaming foods and a pot of tea with various accompaniments.
“Off,” he whined, making grabby hands towards the teapot.
She laughed, but relinquished her spot so he could flop off the bed and shamble to the breakfast table that sat in the middle of the healing ward, as if it was a regular occurrence that a group was large enough to warrant a ward to themselves and may be in need of a permanent table. He didn’t really want to contemplate how much this little vacation in Goblin lands was costing or who was paying.
“So, let’s get started, as I still haven’t heard all your stories,” Arianna ordered as she settled herself in a chair next to Charlie and promptly kicked her feet into his lap. He glared down at the offending limbs while he buttered his bread, but said nothing.
They were quite cute feet, if he had to judge them.
“That kinda happens,” Fred started,
“when you end up sleeping,”
“through all our cleansings,”
“and another ten hours on top,” George ended, smirking at the woman.
“I cannot help that I needed some time!” she protested, voice edging into a whine. “You try apparating through two sets of wards after spending years in a magical coma with your mind locked away.”
Remus whimpered at the reminder, but Sirius rubbed a hand over his back in reassurance while the twins looked properly chastised.
“So, tell me about yourselves first!” she ordered, poking Charlie’s thigh and pointing at the twins. “Harry’s history is gonna need to go last as I have a feeling I’m going to lose my temper with that.”
“If all you lose is your temper, we’ll be lucky,” Sirius grumbled. The sharp look he got was fleeting before she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and prompted them to get on with it.
Charlie smirked but launched into his life and profession. It was a nice break from the depressing thoughts their inheritance tests brought up and the ramifications they hadn’t even begun to talk about yet. And he loved talking about his family. Breakfast was a calm hour of hearing about the Weasleys. And, when the Twins took over, the Twins’ antics at school. Once they explained their plans for their shop, admitting sheepishly that Harry had given them his winnings from the Tri-Wizard Tournament, the Marauders and Twins were instantly ensnared in plots and plans for pranks and possible products.
“So, we’ve lost them,” Arianna commented dryly when there wasn’t a break for breath in over five minutes.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen my brothers that excited,” Charlie agreed. “To be honest, I’m not sure if I should be more thrilled they’ve found people with similar thought processes or terrified of the four of them working together.”
“Terrified,” four voices said in unison, only to divert right back to their plans.
“I’d be more concerned with whoever earns their ire,” Arianna muttered. “If they survive, it’ll be a miracle.”
“I’ve no doubt they’ll survive,” Charlie denied, pulling Arianna fully into his lap now that she was done with her meal. “It’s not worth the pranking if they’re dead. Can’t fully feel the punishment.”
“It’s frightening that the logic in that statement stands,” she muttered. “Let’s just hope they don’t figure out how to prank someone remotely.” She gave a shudder at that.
“I give it a year, tops,” Charlie said with a laugh.
“No bet,” she said instantly. “So, dragon handler, huh?” she asked.
He nodded and the smile he earned was blinding.
“How’s that going?” she asked.
He launched into tales of the preserve he worked for, telling her about the wonders of the dragons he cared for. When her eyes didn’t glaze over after the first ten minutes, he felt the strange urge to kiss her. It wasn’t the first time that he’d felt similar around the woman, either. Very few didn’t find his lectures on dragon care boring and, if anything, she seemed more interested, not less, the more he spoke. But there was a gleam to her gaze he had to wonder about. As if it was familiar information and she was thrilled someone else knew it. Finally, he ran out of things to talk about without getting into privileged information or encroaching on information only dragon handlers could really understand.
“It’s time, isn’t it?” Sirius asked to the calm silence.
“Unfortunately,” Arianna agreed. “As none of us really know what went on, we’ll have to do some deductions to determine the reality. I can already tell it’s bad, just from some of his reactions, but I don’t want to push him to tell us. I figure we can share our observations, or any stories he’s told that stood out as wrong, and then just have him confirm when he wakes up. That way, he doesn’t have to say anything and we’ll still know.”
“Sounds good.”
So they launched into the bits and pieces of Harry Potter’s home life they’d gleaned from the boy. Charlie was of no help whatsoever, having never actually spoken to the boy before this little trip. He had his theories, just from some of the teen’s reactions over the last few days, but he couldn’t tell if it was due to his history or just the stress of the last few days. So, he volunteered to be the scribe for the group. They’d need a comprehensive list of events and suspicions if they were to untangle the mess of the boy’s life afterwards.
Sirius and Remus ran out of information to contribute fairly quickly, as they’d only really known Harry for two years, and Harry had spent much of the first year either keeping secrets from his professor or avoiding the betrayer of his family. It was really only in the last year the best friends of his parents were able to talk to the boy and start to build a relationship with him, but even that was sporadic, as Sirius was on the run and Remus was searching for Pettigrew to clear his packmate’s name. Needless to say, Arianna was not well pleased with the tale of their lives. But they were here. They were safe. They were getting help. If she crawled into Sirius’ lap and sprawled over the two Marauders when she found out about the almost Kiss he’d received, no one said anything.
Then it was the twins’ turn.
“We noticed after his summer between first and second year how he spends weeks after returning flinching from everyone and not able to eat much before he adjusts again,” George started. “We figured it was a fluke brought on by starting Hogwarts when he was an ikle firstie. Once we realized that it wasn’t, we started keeping an eye on him. He never goes home for breaks. He was supposed to have been raised in the lap of luxury as the ‘Savior of the Wizarding World’, but he seemed quite confused by a lot of the traditions and common knowledge of wizards. So we figured out pretty quick he was muggle raised. It never made sense to us, but we didn’t exactly know how to help, other than explain as we went along.”
“He writes two of every assignment,” Fred continued. “He takes his time on one, then he waits until his classmates are done and writes another that is just slightly worse than the best. We figure he’s wicked intelligent but afraid to show up his peers. He’s incredibly small for his age. Thought he was a half-goblin the first year, he was so much smaller than his yearmates.”
“He never seems to like how everyone compares him to his parents,” George said, eyeing the scowling Potter redhead warily but unwilling to not take this chance to help Harry. “He also never seems to want to trouble anyone. He’s more likely to do something on his own, even if it terrifies him, than risk inconveniencing anyone, even though I know our brother Ron would do anything to help him.”
Then they got into the tales of the ‘Golden Trio’s trials and tribulations over the last four years, having been told by both Ron and, more recently, Harry himself just before they’d left for the summer. Even Sirius and Remus were horrified by the stories. Protections on the Philosopher’s stone, shades of the Dark Lord, basilisk, dementor attacks on the Express and the Quidditch pitch… Charlie was actually glad the poor boy had some Weasleys looking out for him. Then they started detailing the last year and Charlie instantly put down his quill to gather Arianna in his arms. He somehow knew she would need the comfort.
*****
“Good thing you’re a dragon handler,” Arianna growled, even as she pushed Charlie away. “Keep them back,” she snapped before thrashing and snarling whenever someone tried to touch her.
She had never actually taken her form, but she knew she couldn’t hold it back anymore, especially since the binds were partially broken. Thanks to an accident when she was just learning this magic, she at least knew what form she’d take, but she’d been too young to do so without risking serious consequences or damage to her under-developed core. But the tales she had spent the last two hours listening to had overwritten her concerns and she was quickly losing control of the transformation.
Hearing from her future brothers-in-law what had been happening to her precious little brother had been hard, even hearing that the twins had had to break him out of bars prior to his second year, but what finally broke her calm was the news that he’d faced a newly returned Voldemort not even a month ago and no one had thought to get him help for the trauma. Or acknowledged that he’d just seen a classmate killed. That he’d then faced an imposter professor that tried to kill him. That her godfathers hadn’t even been told what happened during Harry’s schooling, in the graveyard only a few weeks ago, or after in the school that was supposed to be safe.
To hear it all from the twins as Harry slept was a shock. It meant the boy had felt comfortable enough with the pair and confided everything to the twins but hadn’t decided on trusting his godfather or former teacher before returning to the nightmare that was the Dursleys. That he’d taken four years to trust the twins enough to tell them all the ridiculous dangers he’d faced said a lot. The fact that the twins knew of the abuse said more about the twins’ observation skills, though. From what little she’d seen of her brother, he was usually better able to hide the tells of abuse and few actually questioned him about it.
And to hear that immediately after the last horrible year, he’d gone back to the Dursleys, only to be beaten almost dead by Vernon? That only a lucky sequence of events were responsible for the boy still being alive? If the boys hadn’t sneaked away to check on him, directly against Dumbledore’s orders, and if Sirius hadn’t decided to risk capture by doing similar, Harry would have died last week. And she would never have met him. She never would have made it out of her hidden prison.
She was seething.
So, it really wasn’t a surprise that she allowed her Animagus transformation to take over so she could have the necessary claws to rip Vernon Dursley and Albus Dumbledore to shreds for daring to touch her precious brother. She snarled at the uncomfortable feeling of the change, the sound quickly deepening and turning harsh as her body started expanding. It didn’t hurt but she wasn’t sure if that was because she had lost feeling completely or it wasn’t supposed to. It just felt like her skin was too tight and she had to shift to relieve the pressure. Not that she minded. Her current body was too small to contain her fury and she couldn’t risk Harry or prison. She felt her wings rip out of her spine, shredding the bland tunic she was wearing instead of allowing it to morph with her. Not that she cared about the offending fabric that had covered her for the years of her coma. The bastard had spelled it on her when she’d outgrown the uniform she’d been wearing when he’d stuffed her in the coffin, just in case anyone ever found her and freed her. Finally, the change took over completely and it wasn’t minutes later that she lay panting in a curled up ball of scales and fury and fire, an iridescent shimmering visible in the firelight and reflecting on the walls around her.
*****
The room had expanded to allow her space and she sniffed the occupants of the room. Her little clutchmate was sleeping fitfully and she snatched him to her, ignoring the squawks of protest from the little firelings. She gave an experimental sniff at them and rumbled in pleasure. Their scent was a mixture of each other and of her clutchmate, the scents mingling pleasantly and marking them as his mates. They were powerful and would protect her little clutchmate when they grew up. She could smell the sky fire on one and the earth fire on the other, but right now, she needed to protect him. She was the only one that could be trusted to. She knew the firelings had tried their best and furry ones hadn’t known to protect him before. She knew that from the memories she held from her smaller form, but her instincts were screaming at her that it didn’t matter. They hadn’t and therefore couldn’t be trusted right now.
Her own mate was forgiven. Her little clutchmate didn’t smell of him at all and she caught only very faint traces of her clutchmate on him so he spent little to no time around her precious younger clutchmate. She could not expect him to protect when he was unknown to her clutchmate.
But everyone else would burn. She could not stand that her clutchmate had been endangered, been injured, almost died before she could protect him, and she screamed her fury to the heavens. It didn’t matter that they were far in the Goblin nest. Her voice echoed in the magic around her, sending her displeasure far and wide at her request. Those responsible would pay. And pay dearly. And this was the only warning they would get of her ire. She almost hoped they’d run, so she could hunt the filth down and fully enjoy her kills. No one touched those she claimed.
*****
On the other side of the country, far from the deep well-loved cave of a proud nation in turmoil from the familiar roar of an angry dragon, the castle of Hogwarts shuddered at the anger in the sound. Albus Dumbledore paused in his paperwork to wonder at the phenomenon. Then shrugged and went back to the list of upcoming students, crossing off a name occasionally as he went. And ignorant of the fuming a particular black-haired former Headmaster.