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Nalian heard the approaching footsteps long before the owner walked out onto the top of the tower.
There was a slight gasp of surprise as the person noticed him lying still on the stone floor.
"Nalian?" Hermione’s voice asked hesitantly. "Are you... Are you all right?"
Nalian turned his head to look up at the Ravenclaw. "I’m fine. Just couldn’t sleep, so I went for a little walk around the castle. Ended up here."
"You know you’ll get in trouble for being out after curfew." Hermione said, sitting down next to him. She leaned back on her hands, tilting her head up to look at the sky.
"You’re not supposed to be out here either." Nalian pointed out mildly. "Besides, I’ve no intention of getting caught."
"Just because you’ve no intention to get caught doesn’t mean you won’t." She grumbled.
"So why are you out so late tonight?" He changed the subject.
"I was reading," Hermione smiled slightly at Nalian’s chuckle, "and came across some constellations, ones that aren’t recognized today. I wanted to see if I could spot them." It wasn’t a complete lie.
"Really? I love looking for constellations. If you tell me what they’re supposed to look like maybe I could help you find them."
Hermione shook her head, thinking fast, "it’d be best to see the map, and I left it in my room. Maybe some other time?"
Nalian smiled, "that’d be nice."
"So is that what you’re doing out here? Looking for constellations?"
"Yeah." He glanced at his friend, "it’s relaxing to me. Something familiar. My father and I used to do it all the time. Family tradition, you could say."
Hermione gave Nalian a thoughtful look as he returned his attention to the stars. "I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring up-I mean- I-I didn’t mean to remind you of their deaths..."
"It’s all right. I like thinking about my parents, like remembering them."
"Still, th-they only died fairly recently. It must be really hard on you and your uncle." Hermione whispered.
Nalian sat up and patted her hand. "You know what it feels like." He kissed her cheek. "I didn’t mean to remind you of your own loss, Hermione. I’m sorry."
She wiped her eyes with a quick swipe of her sleeve. "It was nearly three years ago now." Hermione shrugged as she stood up. "I’ll be fine. I think I’ll look for those constellations some other time."
Nalian gave her a sorrowful smile, "goodnight, Hermione."
"Goodnight." Hermione made her way back down the tower, unable to stop thinking about her mother and the son-of-a-bitch death eater that had murdered her. Hermione’s father had never quite recovered from the attack on their home either; stuck in a wheelchair, grieving his dead wife and never really accepting what had happened.
Her aunt wrote he acted like the living dead.
Reaching her room, Hermione settled on her bed, staring blankly at the cover of the latest book she was reading.
She hated the fact that she was stuck at school, unable to be there for her family.
Hermione flipped the book open, resolving to continue her studies and stop thinking of the painful subject. Still unable to concentrate on her reading her mind wandered back to Nalian, wondering how he had lost his parents. Or if he even really lost his parents in the first place.
-------
He listened as the footsteps faded away to nothing. ‘The stars are certainly bright tonight.’ Nalian settled back down on the floor, pushing thoughts of Hermione to the back of his mind. He returned to the previous conversation he had been having with himself before Hermione had come along.
Snape. What was he going to do about him? The man knew more than Nalian was comfortable with, especially since Nalian didn’t trust him, even if Draco did.
Nalian didn’t have the resources or privacy to cast a spell to keep Snape’s silence. Assassination was certainly out of the question: one, Draco would not be at all thrilled; two, Draco would know who’d killed his godfather; three, it would put the Hogwarts occupants under suspicion, probably especially Nalian himself if Sirius Black’s feelings about him were any indication; and four, he didn’t actually want to kill the man. As annoying as Snape was towards him, the man had an intelligence and quirky sense of humor that Nalian appreciated. Putting all that aside, Nalian didn’t trust him, but there had to be something behind Draco’s trust in the man.
Perhaps he should wait and consult with Draco on the matter. After all, Draco did know Snape best.
Settling the matter of Snape for the moment, Nalian turned to the other man occupying his thoughts.
Lucius Malfoy. Nalian was pretty sure no one had any right to be that attractive.
‘And what right do you have to even think he’s attractive?’ A voice demanded in his head. ‘Keep your mind on the objectives. You’re hardly in a position to be contemplating romance!’ Nalian mentally winced at the voice that sounded too similar to Geno, teacher extraordinaire and a huge pain in any mischief-maker’s ass.
Professor Malfoy was attractive though. The man’s looks combined with his personality made him like sin. There really was no point in denying that fact.
Besides, he had to think about the man, didn’t he? It was no good to ignore something, or someone, that could potentially be a risk.
Lucius flustered him; that was certainly proven during Nalian’s last lesson with him. That was a definite risk.
Nalian had flirted with him. Okay, it was slightly accidental, but he had still flirted. A very important fact Nalian noticed was that Lucius hadn’t objected. Maybe he even flirted back in the smallest bit?
‘Or maybe you’re imagining things.’ Geno’s voice rang out in his mind. ‘Don’t delude yourself, Nalian. If he had been flirting, what would you do? For all you know, any interest that he may or may not have could be because he is part ice demon and you’re part elf, not because he has any interest in you as a person.’
The Geno voice had a point. Lucius didn’t even know who Nalian really was. Could a relationship even be built from lies?
Since when was he contemplating a relationship exactly?
Nalian worried his lip. Lucius had no idea who he was, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t get to know Nalian. He didn’t need to know what Nalian’s real identity was to know who he is. That idea was a definite risk too.
Either way, Lucius was a risk, and Nalian would prefer to take the fun risk rather than the depressing one.
Darian was going to kill him when he found out about this.
It was a good thing Nalian had weeks in the very least before Darian found out. Nalian smirked. The elf lord was going to be furious at him.
Nalian pulled himself off the floor, eyeing the lawns as he dusted off his robes.
It truly was a beautiful night. Hogwarts’ grounds were covered in shadow and pale moonlight. The snow glittered like so many diamonds under the light of the night sky. He couldn’t really appreciate the sight as his mind kept running through his mental list of to do’s.
‘And why the hell does the name ‘Malfoy’ keep niggling at my mind?’ Nalian sighed as he trudged inside the castle. He suspected he’d find no sleep tonight.
-------
Nalian shifted in his seat for the thousandth time as he waited for Lucius Malfoy to arrive. The man made an issue of him being on time and ended up being late himself! He couldn’t help but wonder if it was a power play. Those types of games were played often enough back home.
‘This isn’t back home. And why would he even play power games with you anyway? He doesn’t even think you’re anyone but another student.’ A snide voice said in the back of his mind. ‘...well, maybe not just a student.’
Lucius entered the room, thankfully ending Nalian’s silent conversation with himself before it could even start. There was a small trunk trailing behind him.
"Good, you’re here." Lucius flicked his wand towards the trunk, which immediately stopped moving as he popped the lid open. The trunk was full of bottles and bowls containing some substance or another. "Be careful with these. Some of them are magic sensitive." Lucius ordered. He was gently placing the containers on a desk.
"May I ask what we’ll be doing?" Nalian said.
"It’s a test, Mr. Morthen." Lucius explained, "You will be identifying each substance. Some you will be able to look at, and for others you will be blindfolded."
Nalian sighed, "I suppose that’s better than making me identify each one in food."
"I tried to go that direction, but Dumbledore intervened." Lucius smirked.
"How comforting."
"Let’s begin. The first," Lucius set a small bowl in front of him.
In the bowl was a dark, bluish paste with a hint of odor to it. "Deadly nightshade." Nalian said. "Also known as belladonna. It can cause shock and paralysis."
"Correct. And this?"
Nalian was given long, flat leaves this time. The center was light but turned a darker green nearer the edge. "This is diffenbachia. It’s harmless unless one eats it. If one does eat the plant it causes burning and swelling, and even choking." Nalian bit back a smirk. He remembered the time when he slipped some into his friend’s salad. He’d just started learning poisons and had been curious if it would really work. Melnos had recovered quickly with the right antidote, but their teacher Farra had still nearly skinned Nalian alive next time he saw her.
"This one is alihotsy." Nalian said for the third item. "When you eat the leaves it causes hysteria. The fluid of a Glumbumble is used as an antidote, since its fluid causes melancholy."
The next item was set in front of him, and so it went on. Nalian detected the poison of a basilisk right away, reigning in his curious questions on where Lucius had procured such a rare and valuable liquid. Others turned out to be bloodroot, thorn apple, bryony, and water dropwort. The Lobalug’s poison confused him completely; he had never even heard of such a creature, let alone seen one or known it had a poison sac.
After twenty minutes of looking at various substances, Lucius pulled out a blindfold. "The other half of this test is, can you identify poisons without seeing them?"
"This is why I should write my will." Nalian said. "My teachers are intent on killing me. Really, I’m surprised there are so many students willing to attend Hogwarts."
Lucius’ chuckle expelled a breath across the back of Nalian’s neck, sending a shiver down his spine. He shivered again as Lucius’ fingers slid slowly down the back of his neck once he had finished tying the blindfold on. There could be no way that was done on accident.
"Here’s the first." He caught Nalian’s hand and guided it to the bottle. "We don’t want any accidental spills."
Nalian nearly choked as he sniffed at the bottle, jerking it away from him. "That’s the Draught of Living Death. Not dangerous unless ingested, but an absolutely foul smell. It’s hard to hide in food or drinks, because of it’s odor."
The next was poppy, followed by two types of spider venom, one of which Nalian didn’t recognize.
"You’re nearly done. There’s two left."
"This one is the venom of a copperhead snake." Nalian said. "It causes a whole slew of problems: swelling, weakness, shock, numbness."
"And the last?" Lucius asked, returning the venom to the trunk before setting the last vial in front of Nalian and carefully guiding him to it.
Nalian sniffed it slightly before recapping the vial and holding it out to Lucius. "Hemlock. A deadly plant, causing numbness and a feeling of coldness. Once ingested, it works it’s way up; you start feeling numb in the feet, then the legs, and so on. When it reaches your heart you die. The process only takes a few hours."
"Very good, Mr. Morthen." Lucius said as Nalian tugged off the blindfold. "You knew most of them. Quite impressive. Severus would hate that."
"Thank you." Nalian hesitated, "may I ask... Where did you get so many valuable poisons? Some of them are quite common, but I know the venoms aren’t easily obtained, particularly the basilisk venom."
"Most of the plants, as you said, are common, and Severus was kind enough to lend me the others." His professor said.
"Even the basilisk’s venom?" Nalian asked doubtfully.
"Yes, even the venom." Lucius smiled.
"He must’ve paid a fortune."
"He has quite a few friends in the apothecary business."
"Still." Nalian said. "Basilisks are so rare. And when someone does come across one, they’re not likely to survive the encounter."
"Where the basilisk came from, you’ll have to ask Severus yourself." Lucius said. "Meanwhile, might I suggest some reading? You don’t seem that familiar with poisons from animals, aside from snakes." Lucius wrote something on a slip of paper and handed it to him.
"‘Creatures’ Poisons and Why We Love Them’, sir?" He asked. Lucius smirked. Nalian would’ve sworn his teacher was pure evil in that moment.
"Yes. The library doesn’t have that book, even in the restricted section, but Professor Snape does. Since he knows what you’re studying with me I’m sure he’ll lend it to you."
His teacher was pure evil.
That little masochistic streak in him loved it.
-------
"Draco, what should we do about Snape?" Nalian asked. "What do you think he would do with the information he has about me?" He propped himself against a pillow on Draco’s bed. They had decided putting up privacy spells on Draco’s bed would be the safest bet on having a private, undisturbed conversation.
Draco stared thoughtfully at his drapes. "I’m not really sure. Sev definitely won’t go running to the Potters, if that’s what you’re wondering. He’ll consider telling the Potters I’m sure, but he tends to keep other people’s secrets until he wants to call in a favor."
Nalian’s lips twitched. "How very Slytherin of him. Of course, there is the chance I will tell James and Lily before he wants some favor from me. The question is, would Snape realize that and what would he do if he did realize that?"
Draco rolled his eyes, "you’re making everything complicated."
"It’s in my nature," Nalian smiled cheekily.
"Severus may consider that aspect, but he doesn’t know what any of your motives are. So with that in mind I bet he would wait until he knows more about why you’re here." Draco paused. "If worse comes to worst- if we suspect he’s going to act on what he knows- I can always tell him I know who you are and ask him to keep quiet."
"You know as well as I that that won’t assuage his curiosity." Nalian muttered. "He’ll want to know how you know that, if I know you know, and why you’re keeping my secret."
Draco nodded, "and if I tell him that I know, he’ll know immediately that I know more about you than I’m letting on. I may have a natural inclination to trust you, but Sev knows I wouldn’t just accept the fact that you’re the long-lost son of the Potters without some sort of explanation."
"And he’ll want to know what you know." Nalian said. "Perhaps Snape could somehow find out that Dumbledore knows who I am?"
"Severus has probably already figured that out." Draco smirked. "Look, they may be on the same side, and my father and Sev may even work for Dumbledore at this point in time, but neither trust him or his motives. They don’t even hold the same goals, but all agree that Voldemort needs to go down."
Nalian laughed at that, "I knew I liked those two. What sensible person would trust Dumbledore, a man who manipulates with such ease and holds so much influence over everyone?"
Draco gave him a look, "yet you’re trusting him with your secret. You’re smaller secret, sure, but your secret nonetheless."
He scowled, "Rub it in, why don’t you? I never really had much say in this matter, did I, Dray? Dumbledore knew who I was even before I did. What am I supposed to do?"
"Tell the Potters and get it out of the way." Was Draco’s flat out answer. He continued, ignoring Nalian’s glare, "Don’t look at me like that. It’s a solution, isn’t it? They’re going to find out sooner or later, and frankly I don’t know when it’s better to tell them, but you need to tell them. Imagine if they heard it from Sev or, worse, Dumbledore?"
Nalian sighed, "I’m going back to the Potters after dinner tonight, to continue my translation work. I’ll feel out the situation then."
"Good idea."
"You don’t suppose they already know?"
"I suspect if they knew who you were they would storm the dungeons to find you." Draco commented dryly.
"Good point."
-------
Nalian knocked softly on the office door. "James?" There was no answer. Quickly sticking his head inside the door, Nalian discovered the office was empty.
The sitting room was empty too, as was the kitchen. Maybe if he just slipped upstairs for a moment? It would’ve been nice to go straight down to the basement to work, but he needed Lily’s or James’ magical signature to get into the room, Nalian had discovered that the hard way. Being blasted twelve feet away from a warded door wasn’t the most pleasant of experiences.
Nalian made a decision and headed up the stairs to the second floor. There were several rooms along the hallway, all with their doors closed. He sighed before stopping at the first door and knocking. "Lily? James? Are either of you up here anywhere?" He called before heading for the second door. Things proceeded in this manner until Nalian heard a soft noise behind the fifth door and called out again. There was no answer so he slowly eased the door open. It was small study. A small study empty of any living being. Nalian entered anyway, his curiosity peaked.
His attention was caught by the photos hanging on every bit of wall that didn’t have a bookcase in front of it. He recognized Lily, James, and Black in many of the pictures, of when they were a lot younger; probably from when they’d attended Hogwarts, or right after their graduation. There were two other faces in these photos that Nalian didn’t recognize. The first was a fairly tall, wiry man with blond hair, curious amber eyes, and a face that looked far too weary for a man in his late teens or early twenties. The second was shorter, blue eyes half hidden by dark blond hair as he laughed at something Sirius Black was saying.
"Those are two old school friends of ours." James spoke softly from behind him. Nalian’s only reaction at being snuck up on was a small jerk of his head. "The short one is Peter Pettigrew, a turncoat who died serving his master." There was an bitter, angry note that faded into sadness as he moved on to the other man. "And he is Remus Lupin. Remy died fourteen years ago by an angry and scared mob."
Nalian looked surprised. "Why? Was he trampled?"
James sighed, "nothing so accidental. Our people were panicking about more and more dark creatures turning to Voldemort’s side. It didn’t help that there seemed to be spies of Voldemort’s everywhere, even in the most loyal circles. Remus was more loyal to the light than most, but he was also a werewolf. The mob attacked him in the middle of Diagon Alley."
"Bloody hell." Nalian hissed. "That’s awful. You’d think people would have more sense than that." James stayed silent. Unsure of what to say, Nalian moved on to other photos, feeling James’ eyes watching him.
The next series of photos contained the same five people, occasionally with another new face, but there was one other addition. In every photo there was a tiny, green-eyed infant with a tuft of black hair being cradled in one of the adults’ arms.
Nalian reached out, gently tracing the air over the baby boy’s face. That was him, resting sleepily in the arms of his mother.
James took a deep breath behind him. "That was...is my son."
It was Nalian’s turn to stay silent as he watched the smiling adults in the photograph. What was one supposed to say to that? Nalian doubted it was something James enjoyed discussing and Nalian could hardly turn around and declare he was their long-lost son.
He heard soft footsteps enter the room a few minutes before Lily spoke. "His name is Harry." There were tears in her voice. "He was kidnapped before his first birthday."
Nalian turned around, squashing his desire to study the photos some more. He was faced with his two heartbroken parents. "I... I’m sorry." Nalian said. He hated feeling helpless and that feeling was slowly making its way into his mind. "I shouldn’t have come here."
Of course they didn’t know what he meant by those seven words. Nalian wasn’t sure he even knew himself. Maybe he should never have come to the wizarding world at all. Maybe it would’ve been better to have never found out about any of these people and their lives, their problems and heartaches.
Things would be so much easier. No worrying about his parents, about his place in their world, about the manipulative, nosy headmaster, about the maniac Voldemort, about his mission, about his stupid feelings for Malfoy- both of them, since Draco seemed almost like a brother to him. If he’d never come here... He wouldn’t have to worry about all of them being killed.
Nalian silently scorned himself. Since when did he hold with maintaining ignorance? Never. He wasn’t going to start that philosophy now either. Mentally shrugging off his emotions, filing them away to deal with later, he gave the Potters an apologetic smile.
"I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come barging in here like this." He said while edging around the two. "I should leave. I-I can come back later. Tomorrow maybe?"
"No, don’t go! I mean..." Lily trailed off.
"She means it’s hardly your fault we have pictures on our walls." James said, smiling slightly. "We’re just used to people already knowing our family history."
"Oh. Isn’t that annoying?" Nalian asked. "Everyone always knowing your business?"
"You get used to it." Lily said. "You can ask, you know."
"Ask what?"
"About Harry. Most people who don’t know always have questions." James explained.
Nalian looked back and forth between the two. "I don’t want to upset you or anything." Lily waved him off. "I- er- what- I mean, how... Do you think he’s out there? Living a happy life and everything?"
Lily’s eyes lit up, "I know he is. He’s well and happy. Someday we hope to find him again."
Nalian gave her a startled look. "You know?"
"I can feel it." Lily nodded. "Call it mother’s instinct or having a bit of Seer in me or whatever you want to call it, but I know."
"I heard Voldemort was, or rather is, after your family? You don’t think it was him?" This was a touchy subject, one Nalian wasn’t sure he should bring up, but he wanted to know if Voldemort was still after them.
James was giving him an odd look.
"What?"
He shook his head. "I must admit I’m a little surprised you knew about that, though it’s not entirely correct."
"What do you mean?" Nalian asked, keeping the frown off of his face and out of his voice.
"Voldemort was never after us, Nalian." Lily said. "He was after Harry."
For one of the few times in his life Nalian did a double take. "What? He was after Harry? Why? Harry was just a baby!"
"Harry’s a threat." James said. "As an adult Harry will rival Voldemort in power."
"So... You mean Voldemort was never after you two specifically?"
"No."
"Well, then wouldn’t he have kept searching for Harry all this time?"
James shook his head, "when Harry was kidnapped his magical signature vanished. That doesn’t mean he died, but only a few powerful spells would hide a wizard’s magical signature, and they’re hard to maintain. After nearly a year of finding no trace of Harry, Voldemort, along with most of the rest of the wizarding world, assumed he died."
Nalian frowned, "how do you know Voldemort gave up?"
"We have had several spies in Voldemort’s ranks since the beginning, until recently."
"Recently," Lily added, "Dumbledore thought it wise to pull our spies out before they were caught."
"Are there spies in Hogwarts still?" Nalian asked. He’d bet anything there were at least a few. Personally he thought Dumbledore was an idiot for pulling out planted spies. Any information was useful.
"There are probably some." James gave a wolfish grin, "but we’re weeding them out."
"But we’ve gotten off track, and I’m sure we all have things to do today." Lily pointed out with a smile, "any last questions, Nalian?"
He thought for a few seconds, bringing his mind back to the topic of the conversation. "Do your other children know about Harry?" Nalian couldn’t help but feel a bit curious about this. If Lily was so adamant that her firstborn was well, did they tell their children about him?
"They know." James smiled, "it’d be a bit hard to hide the pictures from that nosy lot."
"From my understanding they’re only nosy for scientific purposes." Nalian said. Lily and James doubled over with laughter. He felt absurdly proud of making them laugh. ‘Oh gods above me,’ Nalian mentally winced, ‘I’ve grown attached to them.’
Finally getting himself under control, James grinned, saying. "If those are all of your questions, there is something you could help with, if you don’t mind putting aside the translating for a couple hours."
"I don’t know. What was it you had in mind?" Nalian asked.
Lily nodded towards the large bay window. "James and some others are training new recruits in the backyard. We’ve heard through the Hogwarts’ grapevine that you’ve got some impressive knowledge in the area of self defense."
Nalian gave her a wary look before heading over to the window. Lily hadn’t exaggerated, they had set up a rough training area right outside the house in the backyard. There were at least forty people down there, doing workouts or putting on mock fights. He watched as Sirius Black threw some twenty-year-old over his shoulder. The man crashed to the ground and apparently decided it was safer to stay there than try to getting back up. Black bent down, asking him something.
"I didn’t hear anything on my way in." Nalian frowned. He should have too. There was no way that lot down there could be working anywhere near as quietly as they would need to be for Nalian not to hear them.
"We have charms set up so we don’t disturb others." James said.
Nalian turned around to look at James, "so you’re asking a seventeen-year-old to train men and women who are all at least three years older than he is, when you also have to have several veterans working down there already."
"Not all of them are older than you." Lily said immediately, as if she had expected him to argue. "Some of them are years younger than you are in fact. Katherine, our youngest, has had lessons since she was six."
"It’s said you have quite a talent with a sword too," James gave a cheerful smile, "among other styles of fighting."
Nalian sighed. He knew he should have never let anyone watch him practice. "All right. I’ll try it out, but I’m not promising anything."
They dragged him downstairs. It wasn’t really fair to say ‘dragged’, Nalian had consented after all, but he wanted to put off as long as possible what was sure to end up a spectacle. He just knew that some of the aurors were going to make a big deal out of him helping out: partly because he was seventeen, partly because he was a parselmouth and an unknown transfer student, and partly because Sirius ‘I Will Expose Morthen For The Fraud He Has To Be’ Black was down there.
Sirius Black wasn’t mean towards him, exactly; Lily made him toe the line. He was polite at the best of times, and rude most of the time. The man had a strong opinion, bordering on prejudice, against Nalian. He believed Nalian was an impostor working for Voldemort. Well, one out of two wasn’t too bad.
James nudged him out the back door and down the three steps of the porch. He was led over to a group of seven all holding wooden swords. Nalian bit back a snort of amusement.
James motioned for them to gather around. "This," he told the group, "is Nalian Morthen, an accomplished swordsman." Someone snickered.
A second person, a woman with strawberry blond hair, asked, "isn’t that the boy who speaks parseltongue? How does he know how to use a sword?"
Nalian spoke before James could. "Contrary to what you might believe, a person can both wield a sword and be a parselmouth." He eyed the blond woman and the man who snickered. "I’ve studied sword fighting for years." ‘Since I was old enough to hold one.’ He added silently. "If you doubt my ability I’m willing to face off with one of you- a sword fight only of course, no magic or other weapons allowed."
"I’ll fight you." A cheerful voice called to their right. "After all, if you’re as good as you say you’d have an unfair advantage over the others."
Nalian smiled at the approaching man. "Why Mr. Black. I had no idea you had an interest in swordplay."
"Likewise."
James looked between the two and sighed. "All right, clear an area for the match everyone." He turned to Nalian and Sirius. "This is a clean fight, you two. No tricks."
They agreed and took their stances as they were each handed a sword. Real swords, but they were blunt.
‘They’re made of good metal and have a nice weight.’ Nalian thought in appreciation. They certainly knew a well-made weapon from shoddy workmanship.
They circled each other slowly before Sirius darted in for an attack.
‘Damn, the man’s faster than he looks.’ Nalian thought, easily dodging before making his own move to hit the back of the man’s legs. Black blocked, looking slightly surprised. ‘He probably thought I was lying about being able to fight.’ Nalian smirked.
Sirius swung the sword to slice across Nalian’s left arm, Nalian blocking it quickly before making a strike of his own. The fight went on back and forth for twenty minutes, each attacking and blocking the other’s move. Nalian spotted an opening. He feinted left then slid his sword in toward it’s target, knocking his opponent’s weapon from his hand. He smoothly went in for the kill, placing the blade against Black’s neck.
"I yield." Black said after a moment, and Nalian was surprised to find something close to respect in his eyes. Maybe there was still hope for some sort of working relationship.
"You’re a good fighter," Nalian said. "I haven’t had a challenge like that in ages."
"Then maybe we can square off again sometime." Black smirked. "You won’t get me next time."
Nalian rolled his eyes, allowing a smile to escape, "those are big words coming from a man who just had his ego bludgeoned a minute ago."
"I was going easy on you." He declared.
"Sure you were, Sirius." James grinned. "Now if the two of you have gotten that out of your systems? I would like Nalian to help out our fellow Hogsmeadeans."
Nalian and Sirius stared at him. "‘Hogsmeadeans’, James?" Sirius said.
"Shut up." James poked him in the ribs. "And stop interrupting things. Nalian, if you would?" He nodded towards the waiting group of aurors-in-training.
Nalian heard James drag Sirius away as he headed over to the group and got them to spread out in a line. "OK, if everyone’s ready to start? To begin, your grip on your weapon is very important. Half of you are holding it wrong. You want to hold the sword like this..." The next few hours continued similarly as Nalian taught them several moves and a simple exercise pattern.
-------
Night had fallen by the time Nalian left the Potters’ house. Nalian rolled his shoulders to ease the tension as he started the long walk back to the castle. ‘Staying hunched over a book for hours at a time really fucks with a person’s back.’ Nalian thought. It didn’t help that before he started reading he had spent a few hours tossing a bunch of aurors on their asses.
Someone slammed into Nalian, sending both tumbling to the ground.
"Sorry." The someone groaned on his left. "I didn’t see you there. Perhaps you might invest in wearing something not black?" The voice added reproachfully.
"I’m not the one who was running from Hogwarts like the hounds of hell were on his heels." Nalian said. He dragged himself off the ground and offered the other man a hand up.
"Ah, yes. Well. I am in a bit of a hurry." Charlie looked up at his student before accepting the hand. "In a hurry to find you, actually, Mr. Morthen."
"Me?"
"Yeah." Charlie motioned for Nalian to follow him. "It’s the runespoors. They’re acting odd. I wanted you to take a look, ask them what’s wrong."
"Me?"
Charlie gave him an amused look. "You’re the only parselmouth at Hogwarts that I know. If you know any others feel free to share; it never hurts to have a few hidden resources."
Nalian snorted, "How very Slytherin of you, Professor."
"I do try." Charlie said, eyes dancing with mischief. "I have to keep students on their toes in my class after all."
They reached the habitat the runespoors lived in. The serpents were such a vibrant shade of orange that they seemed to glow in the dark. There was something off about them as well. They flitted around their cage as if they were nervous or anticipating something.
What troubles you? Nalian asked with a frown. You move about endlessly as if you expect to run into a predator around the next corner.
We do expect that, Snake-speaker. The critical head of one of the snakes spoke. How can you not sense it!
Nalian imagined if a snake could sneer, that one would be sneering at him. I sense nothing, though an attack is expected to happen soon.
Have you no care for anything but yourselves? The critic of another runespoor hissed. How many of us will die in this attack, when you’ve made no attempt to keep us safe?
Why not let us go. The dreamer head added.
It is not my place to go around freeing all the creatures in Hogwarts. Nalian said. Tell me what you sense.
We have no time for conversation, we must plan. The first runespoor’s planner head spoke.
We are already speaking. Explaining things to me can’t possibly take as long as trying to get me to leave.
The dark one is coming. Something will happen soon. The critic explained waspishly.
Can you define ‘soon’? Nalian asked urgently. Will it be days? Hours?
Days. The leader said. Not many days. He waits in the forest now, hungry. Always hungry.
How do you know this?
We sense it. Others have confirmed it when they passed this way.
Thank you. Nalian said before standing. Charlie was watching him with fascination. "They say they feel danger near." He really didn’t feel like going into details. The Order already knew about the attack, already knew it was going to happen soon. They were prepared for anything at any moment. Nalian could see it in the way the aurors stood, and the way the adults prowled around Hogwarts and Hogsmeade, as if expecting the bogey monster to jump from around every tree but willing to fight that monster with everything they had. "They say they think something will happen soon."
"How soon?" Charlie asked.
"Days." Nalian said. "You might want to inform the headmaster. I don’t know how many people are going to believe a few runespoors, but if anyone will look into it it will be the headmaster."
Charlie nodded. "I’ll walk you back to the castle, since I’m off to see the headmaster."
"Thanks." They made their way in silence, before going their separate ways with quiet goodbyes.
Nalian heaved a sigh before heading for his Head of House’s office. He really didn’t feel like putting up with Snape’s suspicious glare, but he had a book to borrow.
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