FicWad

AN: I don't like people complaining about the length of my chapters so here you go: a special treat of 12 pages. Also, I figures I left many people hanging with the previous chapters, I sincerely apologize, but I really don't like being called Illiterate. And thought to leave the story as it was at this site, for that very reason; however, as you may notice, I changed my mind, and will again be posting the rest of the story (which continued on FF.net) up until the chapter where I'm currently stuck, for lack of time for writing.If anyone out there would like to do me a Favor and check the whole story for Grammar & Spelling mistakes I might have overlooked, I'd be glad to hear from them.... I'm sure you can get my e-mail from my profile, or look for my nick in FF.net and send me a Personal Message.
Later kiddos.





:11:

While Drake saw to Michelle, Harry was having quite a serious conversation with himself.

On one hand he had started to notice some subtle, but very intriguing (as well as frightening) facts that apparently resulted from him changing things from the original timeline; however he was still unsure if this was indeed the case. 'I'll have to look more into the theory of time travel, and, if possible, time turners; to see how things would be affected by me meddling with upcoming events.'

Then again, he also had to consider that ever since he arrived into his new life, he had had to council what would be his normal child-persona with his grown-up persona. 'It can get really annoying at times, but I've found that the need to run like mad though the corridor, play with others and make pranks, is not something that only children do...' he looked up at Sirius who was in his dog form, almost literally hanging from Lupin's coat while the other laughed... 'and Drake is not so far off either.'

A small tickle in his Occlumency wards made him look up.

Drake was a top the stairs floating what appeared to be Michelle's trunk. Harry turned to Liz who had also looked up and was staring wide-eyed. The tickling sensation on the back of his head grew to his whole head, yet somehow, he recognized the touch as not-intrusive...amazingly different from what he had experienced before. It felt like the mental equivalent to a soft brush, like it was merely looking for the source of his distress... Harry took a deep breath to calm his emotions, and felt the tendrils disappearing. 'What was that?' Absentmindedly scratching the back of his head, he ran to where the other children were, soon enough to hear Drake's answer to someone's question

"... Michelle will be spending Christmas with his parents, so he will tag along with us for a while."

"Ah" Robert frowned "It's that time of the year already?" Drake nodded at the carefully coded question.

"What time of the year?" Harry asked approaching

"My parents wish to revise my learning experience periodically" The French boy's voice was tainted with something akin to nervousness "Every two years around Christmas Eve, I go back home for it"

"Oh" 'I can understand that.... But then why is he so nervous?' Something must have had reflected on his face because Michelle fidgeted, looked up at Drake who smiled at him.

"I'm the oldest and the only male of my family; as such, my parents have high expectations on my development..." Then it dawned on Harry, they probably expected a little too much of him, and he wasn't particularly feeling up to them. It reminded him of what Dumbledore had trusted him to do after his death... The responsibility to destroy the Horcruxes and then kill Voldemort; but he hadn't had the chance to do anything besides running away and fight a losing battle until he died.

Yeah, he knew about high expectations. He gave Michelle a smack on the back "don't worry, I'm sure you'll do well" He looked around to the others.

"Most definitely" Was Liz's answer, she offered a bright smile that, curiously enough, produced a pang of jealousy in the Bow-Who-Lived.

"Mich, you are brilliant" Rob supported "You'll be alright, you'll see." Finally the blond boy brightened

"Thanks guys" he gave them a demure smile.

"Well then, let's get going" Drake walked to the door of the Hall, where a Maid waited to help him with his coat.

"Umm, Dad?" The man looked around to her daughter's voice, apart from Michelle and Sirius, the rest had been left clueless about their current mission "Why are we all going to France?"

"Christmas Hunting" His words created a wave of smiles around in his companions - and made Liz jump around in joy - except from Lupin and Harry who were not accustomed to the phrasing.

"Christmas hunting?" The two other males asked while following the nobleman as he stepped outside.

"Christmas presents!" answered agrinning Rob "We're going 'hunting'for our Christmas presents" both 'Oh'ed, as realization dawned on them. Harry looked up at his uncle, feeling a true smile tugging at his lips. It appeared that he had finally got one his wished come true...

As the groups hop into the hummers that would take them to the plane, Harry couldn't suppress the smile any more.

'I'm spending Christmas with my family' he thought as a feeling of pure bliss surrounded him as he looked around at the group that had, somehow grown into his heart... 'I'm finally having aChristmas with my family'

--

While they were airborne, Harry extracted himself from the place he had been occupying with the other Kids as they discussed what they wanted for Christmas; the group had met with Lady Silver before going into the plane. As it was, she had been sitting with Drake at the back, talking silently or stealing the small kisses from him; Harry had to tame his child response of disgust when approaching them, as he was doing now.

"Umm" he hesitated, at the look the woman gave him, however Drake smiled his 'reassuring' smile down at him.

"Yes Harry?" he let the woman's hand slip from his as she turned to watch the sky surrounding them.

"I've been wondering something" the man nodded, encouraging him to continue "Well, I know that the Ministry of Magic traces Magic signatures from wands as well as accidental underage magic, so how come we can do magic in the castle without them meddling?" His foster parent smiled.

"The answer to that question is anything but simple, are you OK with that?" it was Harry's turn to nod "First of all, the Faroe Islands is a Independent Territory, making us free to manage ourselves and our resources in the way we see best.

"Secondly, we are a school of sorts, so we have ample permission from the UMN to perform magic-"

"What is the UMN?" the boy interrupted and apologized after realizing what he had done.

"It's the United Magical Nations, much like the United Nations is for the muggle world; They work to maintain peace among all magical citizens, among other missions. As I was saying, Drakengard Training Facility has long been registered as a common ground for both Muggle and Wizard-folk, for training their armies and Tactical Strike Teams without the risk of the secrecy act being broken, which leads to the Third reason. So, Thirdly, since we must be able to Train people from all around the globe, they had to relent on whatever prejudices they held against us, because we could simply threat them to either not train their personnel or keeping the ones we already trained and used for our own benefit... either way they lose."

"Are there Magical strike teams?"the boy asked, with so much interest that Drake couldn't bite back a laugh

"Yes Harry, they are called MER actually, Magical Emergency Response team. They blend magic with the finest muggle weaponry into what could be easily called the most formidable fighting package on the planet" Harry's eyes were glistering "and before you ask, yes, that is what I'm hoping you will become in the following years, along with your brothers and sisters." Harry's jaw fell to the floor. "After talking with Nancy", Drake continued "I understood that you would need to be prepared for whatever could happen, and what better way to accomplish this than transforming you into one of the deadliest weapons the Magical world have seen since the rise of Grindelwald." Harry frowned

"I've heard that name before... wasn't he a Dark Wizard?" now it was time for Drake to frown.

"There is no such thing as Light and Dark wizards, Harry" he patronized "we all hold both good and evil in our hearts, it is our decisions that make us who we are." At that moment, Harry thought that Drake sounded a bit like Dumbledore from his past life "The same thing happens with spells... the so called 'Unforgivable' are not, indeed, Dark. They were actually created with good intentions" Harry blinked in confusion; Drake took this as his cue to continue. "Did you know that the Killing course was created by Helga Hufflepuff almost five decades before the construction of Hogwarts?" the boy shook his head, too appalled to speak "She grew up in afarm, you see, and she loved cooking, but couldn't stand the crude methods they were accustomed to use for killing the animals needed for their meals. As such, she created a 'killing curse' that would rob them of their life without pain. Thus, the Avada Kedavra was born." Drake made a pause to ask the flight attendant for a glass of wine and a milkshake for the boy. He resumed his story after taking a sip from his glass "Then there comes the Imperius, which was actually created further back in history by an unknown man, who turned out to be something akin to a psychiatrist. He had found that - as sacrilegious as the roman church regarded it to be - some men could be coaxed into correcting their ways... now by this I don't meat that people who chose to be bad could be turned around and become good; merely that those who, for instance, found difficult to quit eating in excess - even if their life depended on it - could be provided with a gentle push in the right direction, thus saving their lives. This curse was lately gladly adopted by dentists; who could control the fear of their patients, before putting to work, and later releasing the charm so that the later could walk away with a clean mouth and clean conscience." He took another sip from his wine, while Harry asked for another chocolate milkshake; looking around Drake found himself surrounded by his children, as well as Lupin and Sirius, who, if he remembered correctly, had failed History of magic early on, on their time at Hogwarts. "My my, seems I've drawn an audience" he said with asmile.

Sirius was about to retort but was shushed by Liz, who promptly gave her permission to continue. Drake just smiled.

"Then there comes the cruciatus curse" Harry shivered, remembering very clearly his first experience with it in the cemetery, after Voldemort's return. "This is a tricky one, since it would cause an immense amount of pain if uncontrolled"

"What do you mean with 'uncontrolled'?"Lupin asked

"The cruciatus curse was created somewhere between the 14thand 15th century by a doctor, who, apparently, was sick and tired of people not knowing how to properlyrevive someone that had suffered a heart attack. You see, the true purpose of the curse was to deliver a 'shock' to a patient's heart, in an attempt of reviving said person; however, when it was created they found a sort of 'glitch', an erro, if you will. This being that the caster had to focus on the part of the body he wished to shock, before actually casting it. The problem was that few of those who learnt about the curse knew about the restriction... and after the curse was deemed 'unforgivable', less people were inclined to learn its real use. As it stands, people are completely unaware of the benefit it provides... given that St. Mungo's still uses the Muggle method to give a heart massage to their patients." The whole crowd 'Oh'ed. "now, back to the primary topic: Grindelwald." As if he was giving alecture, Robert raised his hand "Yes Robert?"

"Didn't Dumbledore defeat him by throwing him in jail?" Drake nodded

"Yes and no." Rob frowned, he was sure he had read about it "You see that was the version the Ministry of Magic gave the public, thus protecting the image of their greatest wizard to the date. However, the truth is that Albus killedGrindelwald using a handgun" the group gasped "Poor Dumbledore was never the same after that."

"Why?" Sirius asked "Why use amuggle weapon?" Drake smiled sadly

"Because, he knew that Grindelwald was a better magician than him at the time; and also because he had made an unbreakable vow to never use his magic to harm his lover." Now all jaws fell to the floor"Yes, this was another part that the ministry never told the public. Dumbledore and Grindelwald were lovers, and in fact, used to work together in the up-bringing of the 'new ideology', as they used to call what we now know as pureblood supremacy. Ironically, it was the death of Dumbledore's sister - a half-blood, as himself and his brother - at his lover's hand what made the boy snap back into the 'light', as he calls it."

"Bu-but, how come Grindelwald was stronger than Dumbledore, when we are told that the later is one of the greatest wizards of all time?"

"It wasn't that Grindelwald was stronger per se, but he had a better control of his magic core, opposed to Dumbledore who had an enormous amount of magic, but lacked education."

"How do you know this?" asked Lupin staring at the nobleman through barely open eyelids.

"Because we trained Grindelwald" gasps and pale faces stared at him in disbelief. Even Lupin was taken aback by the truthful response. "Now before you start pointing at my face and shouting 'sacrilege'" his gaze fell on Lupin"Know that Drakengard Training Facility was established over five centuries ago by a man who though that everyonedeserved the opportunity to learn how to become the best they could be, as long as they were willing to pay the price for it - and I'm not only talking about money here.

"Every generation has respected this man's wishes, and so have I. As such, Drakengard has trained a number of muggles and wizards that have made wrong decisions, as well as those that have made good decisions. One of these examples is Grindelwald; we trained him as we did with all the wizards that came to our care, and were marveled by the results. I still believe that my company has done nothing wrong in that respect."Harry's eyebrows rose to his hair as he pondered on the significance of this piece of information; wishing his foster father would say no, he voiced his preoccupation.

"Did you train Voldemort?" Drake knew this question would prop in Harry's mind some time, he had only wished that it did when the memories of his past life were less close to the surface.

"Yes" Harry paled, as did Lupin and Sirius. "What you need to understand is that when he came asking for training, he had only recently left Hogwarts as a student; he had such potential that Iaccepted whim without a second thought... However, he was sacked after his third year" he lowered his gaze at his hands "he had attacked and killed an officer who was only doing his job by correcting Tom. That was the first time I felt sorry for accepting him, and then when I learned about your parents and Voldemort's destruction..." he looked up teary eyed at the boy he now considered his son. "I'm sorry Harry, had I known..." the man pursed his lips, feeling an odd comfort in the small hand that had snaked its way to his, he took a quick glance at it and found it to be one of Silver's.

The remaining marauders looked at each other, actually feeling sorry for the man in front of them. Harry, although angry, understood Drake's predicament; he had done nothing wrong past trusting a man who very few, at the time, knew couldn't be trusted. Fighting back the tears, he climbed into the man's lap and hugged him.

Releasing a strangled cry, Drake embraced his son, silently murmuring an apology to him. To the surprise of all of the children, Lady Silver kneeled in her seat and embraced them both; Liz, and Rob caressed their parent's legs with their small hands, wishing that they could do more to help.

A few moments later Drake recomposed himself, thanking everyone for their support, but assuring them that he was alright. Before Harry could climb down to the ground, however, the man whispered something in his ear, at which the boy answered with a curt and grave nod. The Count then proceeded to hug the other two boys, before hugging Lady Silver and sighing into her hair. "Where was I?"

"You were talking about Grindelwald"purred Silver from her place in his arms; the comment was met by wide eyes on everyone's faces, as no one had seen her as caring like then.

"Ah, yes, Grindelwald. Strange enough Gellert Grindelwald wasn't much of a wizard; he was, rather, aNecromancer."

"Whoa!" Liz gasped "For real?" Drake nodded; Harry, not understanding the relevance of it turned to her with an eyebrow raised. She looked around before answering "Necromancers are adifferent race of humans, pretty much like vampires and Fenris, and like them, they are born with a natural affinity to the supernatural; they command amagical power beyond common wizards, are as strong and fast as Vampires and live amazingly long lives. The difference, however, laysin that they can control and communicate with the 'forces behind the veil', or the dead in common terms. That is why they were given such a name."

"So you're saying that a necromancer is a kind of magical creature?" Michelle asked, participating for the first time.

"NO!" everyone was startled by her shout. Gently, Drake placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Some people view the necromancers as the next step in wizard evolution. Much as the Mutants are for humans in the comics you two use to read" he nodded at Mich & Rob "And pretty much like the comic, the Ministry of Magic has vanished Necromancers from society, claiming that they are evil or dark." Liz, looked up, almost imploringly at her old man "Tell me Harry, so far, what do you think of Necromancers?"

Harry was startled by the question, and it took him several moments to regain his bearings before answering "Well..."he scratched his chin absentmindedly "I think it's pretty much what happens with werewolves; there are some bad and some good. But personally, I think it would be most interesting to meet one, why?" Drake chuckled

"Because it just happens that you already know one" Harry's eyebrow rose.

"Yo-you are-?" Drake shook his head.

"No, I'm... complicated." Liz took astep to the front.

"Iam" everyone but Drake and Lady Silver stared wide eyed at the cute girl in front of them.

"You're joking" Michelle gasped

"Am not."

"You mean-" It was Rob's turn

"Yeas, dear brother; I am a Necromancer." Again Liz looked imploringly at her family. Robert and Harry were smiling as they met her gaze, as were Lupin and Sirius; and she already knew Drake's opinion; but she was abit worried about Michelle, since she knew that he had issued adapting to changes.

"Wicked!"the boys chorused before a 'THUD!' interrupted them, looking about they found Michelle on the floor, out-cold.

"Hope he doesn't get a headache tomorrow" Drake joked, receiving a halfhearted swat at the leg by Liz; but as much as she wanted to dismiss the comment, it had the desired effect... as all the males roared with laughter.

"Males"the girls in the group rolled their eyes before returning to their normal activities.

Harry was letting the information sink, and before he knew it, he found himself alone with Liz.

"So..." he started "a necromancer, huh?" She nodded "How come I never noticed?" he murmured, but the girl's fine tuned hearing picked up on it

"Dad has been helping me to gain control of my abilities ever since we first found out. And while I'm not an expert, I'm proud to say that I can, at least, control myself from crushing the lot of you with a hug" her smile held a pint of smugness.

"Ah. Well" Harry closed on her"That's all good and well, but..."

"But?" she asked leaning closer

"Got ya!"the boy hit her head with a hand and ran off.

"HEY! COME BACK HERE!" with that, war was declared among the children, who began to chase each other around for the rest of the flight.

--

"This is your captain speaking; we'll be arriving at Le BourgetAirport shortly. Please take a seat and fasten your seatbelts, we might experience mild turbulence." Drake stood up and went to the cabin to speak to the captain, leaving the marauders to help the children to their seats. He came back a whole minute later.

"There's a snowstorm in Paris" he clarified "We're in for a though ride." He took a seat and fastened his own seatbelt before helping the woman at his side. "All flights were cancelled, if possible, ours would be too, but fortunately we have one of the best pilots in the world, right John?" the last part he said looking at the open door of the cockpit; his comment has received by laughter.

"Right you are,your highness, right you are." With that they initiated their descent.

--

For Harry, Floo was the second worst way to travel just before portkey, but after landing on Le Bourget, the boy was seriously considering moving it to third place.

"Mildturbulence my ass" He cursed, thanking all that was holy when his feet touched the ground, his face was all green from the ruckus.

"I severe understatement!"Rob fell to his knees.

"LAND!" Sirius shouted kneeling and kissing the snowy ground "Oh blessed land!"

Drake, Liz and Lupin rolled their eyes. Behind them Lady Silver smiled for the first time "A wonderful coast rider, can we go again?" Drake chuckled.

"NO!" bellowed the three males who now lay on the floor making those still on the plane roar in laugher.

After regaining control, Drake stepped out of the plane, finding that there was nobody waiting for them, as they usually did "Strange" he had barely spoken when a shot rang on the field and he was sent backwards.

"Shit!" the pilot gasped and ran to the stairs leading to the ground. "Hurry! Everyone get into the plane!" A pale looking Liz kneeled beside her father, only to watch him stand up in a fraction of a second and pushing her to a side, just as asecond shot impacted on the floor where she stood before.

"Get everyone inside" the nobleman shouted, before jumping out of the plane and grabbing Harry and Robert by the waist and running back into the plane. Sirius scrambled back into the flying vehicle while the pilot had started to raise the stairs; a last shot hit Drake on a shoulder, sending him crashing to the wall and then slide to the floor.

"Flame!" Lady silver shouted as she caught the man before he fell completely.

"Fasten your seatbelts, we're leaving!" John started the engines, while shouting into the radio "Mayday! Mayday! 'White Eagle' requesting help, we're under fire!" his comment has received by static on the radio "Damn!They've cut us off!" He steered the plane towards the ramp, just as another shot was deflected by the plane's armored flanks. He pushed the throttle to full and the plane jumped forward, faster and faster.

"I see them!" Rob shouted from aback seat; Sirius and Harry bolted to the side while the flight attendant aided Lady Silver in bandaging the Count.

Atop a building stood what appeared to be a couple hooded figures clad in pale clothes, one of them was pointing at them. Sirius raised his wand to point at the wings of the plane and shouted "Contego!", the shield for physical attacks, and repeated it for the other wing. Apparently his instincts have been on spot since the shield charm repelled a bullet that was intended to hit the turbines.

"Hang onto something!" the pilot screamed without taking his eyes from the ramp.

The plane shot to the sky at breakneck speed, sending the lot of them tumbling to the ground. "I'll take us to Charles de Gaulle Airport, how's his highness?" He looked back for a moment, receiving a curt nod from Lady Silver; he looked back to the front of the plane"Shit!" He forced the plane to avoid the helicopter that stood in front of them, with blaring chain guns; throwing the others roughly to the side. "Who are these fuckers!?" he shouted before picking up the radio "Mayday! Mayday!Nest, are you there?" Static cracked for a second before a deep male voice answered:

"Raptor one to White Eagle, we're closing on to your left. Hang in there!"

Harry ran to the cockpit, easing himself into the copilot's seat before fastening his belt. There was no way in the world he was going to miss an air battle. John made the plane turn left and right again, barely avoiding the barrage of bullets sent their way.

"Here they come!" announced the experienced pilot pointing at two small dots a that appeared on the radar, before pulling the nose up and pushing the throttle back to full. Everyone was pushed to the back of their seats by the force of the acceleration, still, Harry manager to look to a side while two blurs of metal passed them by the side.

--

The two F/A-18 accelerate to Match 1the moment they received a Mayday call from the passenger plane, the white eagle. It was most fortunate for the freight that they had been testing the new planes over the Gaulle Airport when they got the distress call.

"Bogie on sight, disengage supersonic flight"

The planes reduced their speed in time to see an AH-64 Apache helicopter pursuing the civil plane, and opening fire while the freight did a barrel roll to avoid it.

"Damn! That pilot is good!" Raptor two commented on the radio before turning his plane around.

"Control; Request to open fire on bogie"raptor one called

"Bogie identified as OAS, request granted Raptor; blow the bastard off the sky!" the commanding officer hissed into the radio.

"Acknowledged control, engaging in battle mode." Both Raptors flipped up the safety on their weapons. The F/A-18, Raptor two ended the 180