Categories > Books > Harry Potter > Serpent Souls, Merged as One
Chapter Three: Meeting the Third, Sealing the Trio
12 reviewsThe third member of the bond is revealed.
5Original
Chapter Three: Meeting the Third, Sealing the Trio
(A/N: Ok, I had originally intended to introduce the third bonded on the Hogwarts Express, but in the end I decided that that was a little too far ahead, considering some of my plans for before Hogwarts. This meant I had to introduce the third bonded A.S.A.P, which is what this chapter is for. Oh, and the reason for the little miscalculation last chapter timewise, it has now been corrected. An explanation for why Daphne fell asleep just after breakfast will be released in this chapter. Enjoy!)
Hermione Granger lay in bed, dreaming. It was a pleasant dream; she had finally managed to complete her library containing first editions of every book ever written. She smiled around at the endless shelves. However, she was not content. There was something missing, no, two somethings. No, not somethings, someones. She looked around frantically; searching for what was missing, wondering what it was. Then she heard laughs behind her and turned, her heart rising. Behind her, hurrying towards her, were two people; a boy, with messy jet-black hair and emerald green eyes behind round glasses, and a girl with long wavy black hair and azure eyes.
She was interrupted from her dream by her body clock deciding it was time to say rise and shine, buttercup. She sat up and looked around, before becoming suddenly aware of her gorge rising. In one movement, Hermione vaulted off her bed and bolted for the bedroom door. Throwing it open, she hoofed it down the corridor into the bathroom, where she flipped the toilet lid and emptied the entire contents of her stomach into the bowl.
Harry and Daphne both woke up in the same moment. They had been enjoying a dream involving the two of them and a young girl of their age with chocolate-brown eyes and soft, wavy brown hair. They turned to each other for a second before each started feeling ill. “Not again…” they both moaned before sprinting for the door.
As before, though Hermione had no notion of such, the next two weeks were much like the fortnight Harry and Daphne had had to suffer through previously. This time, it was only half as bad as it had been, as this time they had each other. In contrast, Hermione suffered twice as much.
Harry and Daphne told Michael the whole story. He quickly spoke to a friend who worked in the same department as him. That friend allowed him to look in an ancient tome which listed all the bonds in the past. It was enchanted to update itself whenever a new bond appeared. When Michael looked into the book, he quickly found the bond he needed. As he was both surprised and unsurprised to discover, Harry and Daphne were two members of a triad soul bond. Such a thing was unprecedented. As such, the book had a most odd way to displaying it. Usually, soul bonds forged between one man and one woman. The display usually showed the male’s name, with the female’s underneath. This time, it showed Harry’s name twice.
Name: Harry James Potter
Bonded With: Daphne Elizabeth Greengrass
Michael nodded thoughtfully; that was all in order. The second entry showed:
Name: Harry James Potter
Bonded With: Hermione Jean Granger
Michael nodded again and murmured, “So that’s why Daphne fell asleep just after breakfast yesterday…” before stepping away and back towards his friend.
“Need anything else?” he asked.
Michael nodded, “Yes, Jennings. I need to get the home address of a girl, ten years old, the name’s Hermione Granger.”
Jennings stared at him in surprise for a moment, before stating, “I can answer that without having to say anything. Bode’s been a little edgy the last couple of days; his instruments have been picking up a steadily expanding magical field over the last few days. Somewhere just northwest from the Leaky Cauldron from what he was saying. We checked the address and any witches or wizards that might be living there. We struck gold; one Hermione Jean Granger, eleven years old, birthday two months ago on the 19th of September.”
Michael thought, “I don’t remember any Wizarding family by the name of Granger. I’ll have to look.”
Jennings shook his head, “You won’t find one. Miss Granger is a Muggleborn.”
Michael groaned, “Oh, that’s all we need. Complications…”
Jennings raised an eyebrow in consternation and confusion, “Excuse me? Complications?”
Michael turned to him, “How are we going to explain to her parents that she has become involved in a triad soul bond and therefore must be removed from their care?”
Jennings shook his head. “Croaker, there isn’t any problem. The address we found her at is an orphanage. The girl’s parents were killed three years ago in when one of those self-propelled Muggle contraptions, what do they call them, curs, smashed into a tree.”
Michael laughed, “I think you mean car.”
Jennings shook his hand dismissively, “Whatever it’s called. Anyway, you won’t have any kind of problem with her family. She’s stuck in an orphanage just waiting for a family who can take her home. All you have to do is persuade your sister-in-law to adopt her, and the problem is solved.”
Hermione Granger lay in her bed feeling absolutely terrible. She had been checked over by the orphanage doctor, whom had not been able to locate the source of the mystery illness. Hermione’s room had been put into quarantine to make sure that nobody else was exposed to her potential contagion. For Hermione, things were turning into a total nightmare, and she didn’t even know the reason.
Michael came home through the Floo that evening so fast he seemed to just run straight out of the Floo without stopping. “Christopher! Elizabeth! Melissa! I need you to get Harry, Daphne and Astoria and come with me as quickly as possible!”
Christopher came out of the dining room, “What’s the problem?”
Michael smiled, “I found the third bonded. She’s eleven years old as of two months ago, her name is Hermione, and she lives at an orphanage in the middle of London.”
They all tumbled out of the Floo in the Leaky Cauldron, and quickly moved around the corner at the top of the road onto Shaftesbury Avenue. From there, it was easy to find the orphanage; a towering grey building directly in the middle of the street and surrounded by Victorian-style cast iron fencing. They all hastened over to it and went inside. The first thing they saw was a woman sitting at a desk smoking a cigarette and reading a dog-eared tabloid. She looked up as they approached, put down the tabloid and ground the cigarette into an overflowing ashtray to her right, “You guys here to drop off the brats? Or get a new one?” she said.
Elizabeth went red with anger; she disapproved of people treating children like this. It was only her husband’s hand on her arm that prevented her from leaping across the desk and shoving the woman’s tabloid down her throat, “No, we’re here to adopt.”
The woman sighed and stood up. Harry shivered and drew closer to Daphne; something about the building and this woman chilled his blood.
“You got any one in mind?” said the woman.
Christopher rolled his eyes, “Of course. A friend was in here last week and noticed a little girl whom seemed to be a bit of a bookworm. He knows that my wife and I are both mad about reading as well, so he thought she might be good for us.”
The woman stared at him as if he were mad, “We’ve only got one girl like that. She’s a bit… odd, plus she’s in quarantine at the moment. She’s ill.”
Elizabeth quickly said, “Well, can we still see her? I’d like to know what she’s like, so we can see if we’d like to adopt her when she recovers.”
The woman stared at them for another minute before sighing and saying, “Fine. Come on.”
The woman led them up the stairs behind her desk to the second floor, where she knocked on a door and opened it, “Granger, you’ve got a visitor, or seven of them.”
Harry and Daphne looked around the adults in the doorway. Lying on the bed was a girl. There was a half-full bucket of vomit beside the barely comfortable-looking bed, and the girl was pale and wan. Her brown hair was straggly and unkempt, while her eyes looked dull and lifeless as she turned her head towards the doorway. Christopher turned to the woman, “We’ll be fine. You can go.” The woman left, and Michael shut the door behind her.
Harry and Daphne slowly walked over to the bed, carefully avoiding the areas where Hermione had missed the bucket. Reaching over, they each took one of her hands and held it tightly. Hermione’s eyes slowly turned to each of them in turn, and each was comforted to see a small spark of life returning to them. The girl had evidently been hit very hard by the bond’s searching for her bonded.
The four adults and one seven-year-old watched from across the room as the two ten-year-olds gazed at the eleven-year-old on the bed. Astoria was the only one to see the magical glow forming around the three of them.
Hermione lay in her bed, holding hands with the two people from her dream. Even as she lay there, she felt a deep-seated contentment within herself which served, coupled with that fact that her mystery illness seemed to be clearing up even as she lay there, to make her begin to feel as though she was on top of the world. Slowly, as if testing out her legs for the first time, she shuffled across the bed so that she was sitting on the edge, and stood up. He stumbled almost immediately, before the two people from her dream caught her. She looked up to see five other people standing on the other side of the room; a man with greying hair and dark blue eyes, with a scar down one cheek, another man with black hair and grey eyes, a woman with silvery-blonde hair and azure eyes, another woman with honey-blonde hair and bright blue eyes, and a girl of about seven who resembled the girl from her dream.
The woman with silvery-blonde hair and azure eyes smiled at Hermione, “Hermione, I’m Elizabeth Greengrass, the mother of Daphne,” she pointed to the girl holding Hermione’s right hand, “and Astoria.” The little seven-year-old smiled and waved. I’m also adopted mother to Harry…” she nodded at the boy holding onto Hermione’s left hand. Hermione looked from Harry to Daphne and back before turning back to Elizabeth.
“So, why…?” started Hermione.
Christopher smiled, slipping an arm around Elizabeth’s shoulder, “I’m Christopher, Elizabeth’s husband. We’re going to adopt you, Hermione.” Hermione stared from Christopher to Elizabeth to Harry to Daphne and back again before giving a faint squeal of joy and throwing herself on Harry and Daphne. Both ten year olds hugged Hermione. Harry felt dampness on his shoulder. It was only then that he realized that Hermione was crying into his shoulder.
The adoption process went reasonably quickly. By mid-afternoon, Hermione had been successfully adopted and was a member of the family. While she, Harry and Daphne slept, however, Christopher and Michael were getting ready to set out for the Dursleys’ house. Harry had given them the address before going to sleep. With a smirk, they both stepped through the front door, into the night.
The Dursleys woke up as usual the next day, Petunia first. She sleepily walked downstairs, cast a glance at the cupboard where, until recently, her nephew had slept, then walked into the kitchen.
Vernon and Dudley Dursley were both dreaming when they heard a deafening scream from downstairs. Getting out of bed, they ran for the stairs and thundered down them. That was when their troubles started; the stairs couldn’t take both massive weights at once and collapsed. Both Dursley males tumbled to the bottom where they lay in a heap. Thrashing for a moment, they finally managed to extricate themselves, get up and run (well, waddle) to the kitchen.
Petunia Dursley was standing in the kitchen, staring at the wall. Written there in glistening crimson liquid were the words:
SO HAVE YE WREAKED, SO SHALL YE RECEIVE
“Th…that’s…b…blood!” stammered Dudley.
It was at this moment that everything really began to go horribly wrong for the Dursley family. The fridge and freezer began spewing food onto the floor, eggs being guided with near laser precision to hit the Dursleys in their faces. The message seemed to spread around the room until the phrase shone in dripping blood from every wall. The windows darkened, thunder rolled and lightning cracked outside. Then Petunia uttered a hair-raising screech. There were rodents and insects everywhere. A mouse skittered up Dudley’s leg and he screamed in terror as it disappeared into his pyjama shorts.
Christopher and Michael returned from Harry’s relatives’ house laughing. They had not harmed anyone; the whole thing was just an elaborate illusion. All five senses would be affected by the illusion; the Dursleys would suffer for hours.
Harry woke up lying on Hermione’s left, with Daphne on her right. Harry and Daphne were reaching across Hermione lying between them to hold hands. Because Harry and Daphne’s bond had been settling for two weeks already, they were fine without skin contact provided they stayed close to each other. Hermione, on the other hand, had only been bonded for about forty-eight hours, so she had to remain in skin contact with Harry and Daphne as much as possible for the next few days.
Said next few days passed without event. The triad bond settled without any problems, while Michael questioned the three of them to find out how the bond was developing. By late November, it had grown to the point where they could speak to each other in their minds. This gave them an extensive understanding of each other. By the start of December, the three of them brought whole new levels of meaning to the word “harmony”.
Daphne’s birthday and Christmas quickly rolled around the corner, meaning that everyone went out to Diagon Alley one afternoon to buy presents. Before they went to buy presents, however, they wandered along to Gringotts to see a goblin about the Potter’s vaults.
It took only five minutes inside the bank to identify a slight problem. They did not have Harry’s key.
When they voiced this concern to the goblin, the goblin raised an eyebrow and scowled, “You assume that we are just going to give you a key to the vaults belonging to our oldest clients. You are mistaken. Mr Potter here, if it really is Mr Potter,” he jabbed a sharp fingernail at Harry, whom stood between Hermione and Daphne, “will have to give some blood so that we can verify it is really him before we will make him a new key.”
Harry sighed and stepped away from Hermione and Daphne towards the goblin, whom reached under the desk and withdrew a small knife. He handed it to Harry, whom steeled himself before gently slitting his hand. Behind him, Daphne and Hermione winced and rubbed their hands over the point where Harry had cut his. The goblin noticed this, and addressed Harry, “Are you bonded?”
Harry bit his lip before replying, “Yes, I am… Why?”
At that moment, everybody experienced something truly terrifying; namely the goblin grinning, “Well, you will still need to provide the blood to prove your identity, but the fact that you are bonded means that you can be emancipated, as can your bondmates.”
Harry frowned and turned to Christopher, “What does ‘mans-pated’ mean?”
Christopher chuckled, “Emancipated, Harry. It means you’ll be free to practice magic outside school. Which will be good; it means you three can get even better at using your magic.”
The goblin nodded, “Quite. If you like, we could also do an inheritance test to see what else he will receive.”
Christopher smiled at the goblin, careful not to show any teeth which could be construed as a dire insult in the goblin culture, “That would be helpful. I’m a businessman myself and I know how difficult things like this can be.”
The goblin smiled back, a sight that was truly disconcerting for all of them, “Very well, Mr Potter must drop a piece into this stone bowl,” he said, as he placed one on the desk. Harry held out his hand and squeezed the cut so as to drip some blood into the bowl. Then he held out his hand to Melissa, whom healed the cut.
The goblin waved a hand over the bowl, which shone the same colour as the liquid within. A small piece of parchment spooled out of the base, which the goblin bent down to read. His eyes bulged and he lifted the parchment with a shaking hand.
There was a moment’s silence, broken by Harry saying, “What?”
The goblin set the parchment down and swivelled it so they could all read it.
Harry James Potter
Father: James Charles Potter
Mother: Lily Marie Evans
Inheritances: Potter, Slytherin
Special Skills: Parseltongue, Parsel Magic
Notes: In a triad soul bond.
Charles turned to his adopted son with an air of total surprise, “Harry… you’re a Parselmage.”
(A/N: Ok, sorry for the cliffhanger, but it seemed a good place to cut it off. Anyway, I’ve introduced the third bonded, (sorry to all those of you who insisted that I didn’t make the third bonded Hermione, but what can I say; I have preferences) and I’ve laid the foundation for the special abilities Harry and his girls will have. I hope you’ve enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it, and GOODNIGHT!)
(A/N: Ok, I had originally intended to introduce the third bonded on the Hogwarts Express, but in the end I decided that that was a little too far ahead, considering some of my plans for before Hogwarts. This meant I had to introduce the third bonded A.S.A.P, which is what this chapter is for. Oh, and the reason for the little miscalculation last chapter timewise, it has now been corrected. An explanation for why Daphne fell asleep just after breakfast will be released in this chapter. Enjoy!)
Hermione Granger lay in bed, dreaming. It was a pleasant dream; she had finally managed to complete her library containing first editions of every book ever written. She smiled around at the endless shelves. However, she was not content. There was something missing, no, two somethings. No, not somethings, someones. She looked around frantically; searching for what was missing, wondering what it was. Then she heard laughs behind her and turned, her heart rising. Behind her, hurrying towards her, were two people; a boy, with messy jet-black hair and emerald green eyes behind round glasses, and a girl with long wavy black hair and azure eyes.
She was interrupted from her dream by her body clock deciding it was time to say rise and shine, buttercup. She sat up and looked around, before becoming suddenly aware of her gorge rising. In one movement, Hermione vaulted off her bed and bolted for the bedroom door. Throwing it open, she hoofed it down the corridor into the bathroom, where she flipped the toilet lid and emptied the entire contents of her stomach into the bowl.
Harry and Daphne both woke up in the same moment. They had been enjoying a dream involving the two of them and a young girl of their age with chocolate-brown eyes and soft, wavy brown hair. They turned to each other for a second before each started feeling ill. “Not again…” they both moaned before sprinting for the door.
As before, though Hermione had no notion of such, the next two weeks were much like the fortnight Harry and Daphne had had to suffer through previously. This time, it was only half as bad as it had been, as this time they had each other. In contrast, Hermione suffered twice as much.
Harry and Daphne told Michael the whole story. He quickly spoke to a friend who worked in the same department as him. That friend allowed him to look in an ancient tome which listed all the bonds in the past. It was enchanted to update itself whenever a new bond appeared. When Michael looked into the book, he quickly found the bond he needed. As he was both surprised and unsurprised to discover, Harry and Daphne were two members of a triad soul bond. Such a thing was unprecedented. As such, the book had a most odd way to displaying it. Usually, soul bonds forged between one man and one woman. The display usually showed the male’s name, with the female’s underneath. This time, it showed Harry’s name twice.
Name: Harry James Potter
Bonded With: Daphne Elizabeth Greengrass
Michael nodded thoughtfully; that was all in order. The second entry showed:
Name: Harry James Potter
Bonded With: Hermione Jean Granger
Michael nodded again and murmured, “So that’s why Daphne fell asleep just after breakfast yesterday…” before stepping away and back towards his friend.
“Need anything else?” he asked.
Michael nodded, “Yes, Jennings. I need to get the home address of a girl, ten years old, the name’s Hermione Granger.”
Jennings stared at him in surprise for a moment, before stating, “I can answer that without having to say anything. Bode’s been a little edgy the last couple of days; his instruments have been picking up a steadily expanding magical field over the last few days. Somewhere just northwest from the Leaky Cauldron from what he was saying. We checked the address and any witches or wizards that might be living there. We struck gold; one Hermione Jean Granger, eleven years old, birthday two months ago on the 19th of September.”
Michael thought, “I don’t remember any Wizarding family by the name of Granger. I’ll have to look.”
Jennings shook his head, “You won’t find one. Miss Granger is a Muggleborn.”
Michael groaned, “Oh, that’s all we need. Complications…”
Jennings raised an eyebrow in consternation and confusion, “Excuse me? Complications?”
Michael turned to him, “How are we going to explain to her parents that she has become involved in a triad soul bond and therefore must be removed from their care?”
Jennings shook his head. “Croaker, there isn’t any problem. The address we found her at is an orphanage. The girl’s parents were killed three years ago in when one of those self-propelled Muggle contraptions, what do they call them, curs, smashed into a tree.”
Michael laughed, “I think you mean car.”
Jennings shook his hand dismissively, “Whatever it’s called. Anyway, you won’t have any kind of problem with her family. She’s stuck in an orphanage just waiting for a family who can take her home. All you have to do is persuade your sister-in-law to adopt her, and the problem is solved.”
Hermione Granger lay in her bed feeling absolutely terrible. She had been checked over by the orphanage doctor, whom had not been able to locate the source of the mystery illness. Hermione’s room had been put into quarantine to make sure that nobody else was exposed to her potential contagion. For Hermione, things were turning into a total nightmare, and she didn’t even know the reason.
Michael came home through the Floo that evening so fast he seemed to just run straight out of the Floo without stopping. “Christopher! Elizabeth! Melissa! I need you to get Harry, Daphne and Astoria and come with me as quickly as possible!”
Christopher came out of the dining room, “What’s the problem?”
Michael smiled, “I found the third bonded. She’s eleven years old as of two months ago, her name is Hermione, and she lives at an orphanage in the middle of London.”
They all tumbled out of the Floo in the Leaky Cauldron, and quickly moved around the corner at the top of the road onto Shaftesbury Avenue. From there, it was easy to find the orphanage; a towering grey building directly in the middle of the street and surrounded by Victorian-style cast iron fencing. They all hastened over to it and went inside. The first thing they saw was a woman sitting at a desk smoking a cigarette and reading a dog-eared tabloid. She looked up as they approached, put down the tabloid and ground the cigarette into an overflowing ashtray to her right, “You guys here to drop off the brats? Or get a new one?” she said.
Elizabeth went red with anger; she disapproved of people treating children like this. It was only her husband’s hand on her arm that prevented her from leaping across the desk and shoving the woman’s tabloid down her throat, “No, we’re here to adopt.”
The woman sighed and stood up. Harry shivered and drew closer to Daphne; something about the building and this woman chilled his blood.
“You got any one in mind?” said the woman.
Christopher rolled his eyes, “Of course. A friend was in here last week and noticed a little girl whom seemed to be a bit of a bookworm. He knows that my wife and I are both mad about reading as well, so he thought she might be good for us.”
The woman stared at him as if he were mad, “We’ve only got one girl like that. She’s a bit… odd, plus she’s in quarantine at the moment. She’s ill.”
Elizabeth quickly said, “Well, can we still see her? I’d like to know what she’s like, so we can see if we’d like to adopt her when she recovers.”
The woman stared at them for another minute before sighing and saying, “Fine. Come on.”
The woman led them up the stairs behind her desk to the second floor, where she knocked on a door and opened it, “Granger, you’ve got a visitor, or seven of them.”
Harry and Daphne looked around the adults in the doorway. Lying on the bed was a girl. There was a half-full bucket of vomit beside the barely comfortable-looking bed, and the girl was pale and wan. Her brown hair was straggly and unkempt, while her eyes looked dull and lifeless as she turned her head towards the doorway. Christopher turned to the woman, “We’ll be fine. You can go.” The woman left, and Michael shut the door behind her.
Harry and Daphne slowly walked over to the bed, carefully avoiding the areas where Hermione had missed the bucket. Reaching over, they each took one of her hands and held it tightly. Hermione’s eyes slowly turned to each of them in turn, and each was comforted to see a small spark of life returning to them. The girl had evidently been hit very hard by the bond’s searching for her bonded.
The four adults and one seven-year-old watched from across the room as the two ten-year-olds gazed at the eleven-year-old on the bed. Astoria was the only one to see the magical glow forming around the three of them.
Hermione lay in her bed, holding hands with the two people from her dream. Even as she lay there, she felt a deep-seated contentment within herself which served, coupled with that fact that her mystery illness seemed to be clearing up even as she lay there, to make her begin to feel as though she was on top of the world. Slowly, as if testing out her legs for the first time, she shuffled across the bed so that she was sitting on the edge, and stood up. He stumbled almost immediately, before the two people from her dream caught her. She looked up to see five other people standing on the other side of the room; a man with greying hair and dark blue eyes, with a scar down one cheek, another man with black hair and grey eyes, a woman with silvery-blonde hair and azure eyes, another woman with honey-blonde hair and bright blue eyes, and a girl of about seven who resembled the girl from her dream.
The woman with silvery-blonde hair and azure eyes smiled at Hermione, “Hermione, I’m Elizabeth Greengrass, the mother of Daphne,” she pointed to the girl holding Hermione’s right hand, “and Astoria.” The little seven-year-old smiled and waved. I’m also adopted mother to Harry…” she nodded at the boy holding onto Hermione’s left hand. Hermione looked from Harry to Daphne and back before turning back to Elizabeth.
“So, why…?” started Hermione.
Christopher smiled, slipping an arm around Elizabeth’s shoulder, “I’m Christopher, Elizabeth’s husband. We’re going to adopt you, Hermione.” Hermione stared from Christopher to Elizabeth to Harry to Daphne and back again before giving a faint squeal of joy and throwing herself on Harry and Daphne. Both ten year olds hugged Hermione. Harry felt dampness on his shoulder. It was only then that he realized that Hermione was crying into his shoulder.
The adoption process went reasonably quickly. By mid-afternoon, Hermione had been successfully adopted and was a member of the family. While she, Harry and Daphne slept, however, Christopher and Michael were getting ready to set out for the Dursleys’ house. Harry had given them the address before going to sleep. With a smirk, they both stepped through the front door, into the night.
The Dursleys woke up as usual the next day, Petunia first. She sleepily walked downstairs, cast a glance at the cupboard where, until recently, her nephew had slept, then walked into the kitchen.
Vernon and Dudley Dursley were both dreaming when they heard a deafening scream from downstairs. Getting out of bed, they ran for the stairs and thundered down them. That was when their troubles started; the stairs couldn’t take both massive weights at once and collapsed. Both Dursley males tumbled to the bottom where they lay in a heap. Thrashing for a moment, they finally managed to extricate themselves, get up and run (well, waddle) to the kitchen.
Petunia Dursley was standing in the kitchen, staring at the wall. Written there in glistening crimson liquid were the words:
SO HAVE YE WREAKED, SO SHALL YE RECEIVE
“Th…that’s…b…blood!” stammered Dudley.
It was at this moment that everything really began to go horribly wrong for the Dursley family. The fridge and freezer began spewing food onto the floor, eggs being guided with near laser precision to hit the Dursleys in their faces. The message seemed to spread around the room until the phrase shone in dripping blood from every wall. The windows darkened, thunder rolled and lightning cracked outside. Then Petunia uttered a hair-raising screech. There were rodents and insects everywhere. A mouse skittered up Dudley’s leg and he screamed in terror as it disappeared into his pyjama shorts.
Christopher and Michael returned from Harry’s relatives’ house laughing. They had not harmed anyone; the whole thing was just an elaborate illusion. All five senses would be affected by the illusion; the Dursleys would suffer for hours.
Harry woke up lying on Hermione’s left, with Daphne on her right. Harry and Daphne were reaching across Hermione lying between them to hold hands. Because Harry and Daphne’s bond had been settling for two weeks already, they were fine without skin contact provided they stayed close to each other. Hermione, on the other hand, had only been bonded for about forty-eight hours, so she had to remain in skin contact with Harry and Daphne as much as possible for the next few days.
Said next few days passed without event. The triad bond settled without any problems, while Michael questioned the three of them to find out how the bond was developing. By late November, it had grown to the point where they could speak to each other in their minds. This gave them an extensive understanding of each other. By the start of December, the three of them brought whole new levels of meaning to the word “harmony”.
Daphne’s birthday and Christmas quickly rolled around the corner, meaning that everyone went out to Diagon Alley one afternoon to buy presents. Before they went to buy presents, however, they wandered along to Gringotts to see a goblin about the Potter’s vaults.
It took only five minutes inside the bank to identify a slight problem. They did not have Harry’s key.
When they voiced this concern to the goblin, the goblin raised an eyebrow and scowled, “You assume that we are just going to give you a key to the vaults belonging to our oldest clients. You are mistaken. Mr Potter here, if it really is Mr Potter,” he jabbed a sharp fingernail at Harry, whom stood between Hermione and Daphne, “will have to give some blood so that we can verify it is really him before we will make him a new key.”
Harry sighed and stepped away from Hermione and Daphne towards the goblin, whom reached under the desk and withdrew a small knife. He handed it to Harry, whom steeled himself before gently slitting his hand. Behind him, Daphne and Hermione winced and rubbed their hands over the point where Harry had cut his. The goblin noticed this, and addressed Harry, “Are you bonded?”
Harry bit his lip before replying, “Yes, I am… Why?”
At that moment, everybody experienced something truly terrifying; namely the goblin grinning, “Well, you will still need to provide the blood to prove your identity, but the fact that you are bonded means that you can be emancipated, as can your bondmates.”
Harry frowned and turned to Christopher, “What does ‘mans-pated’ mean?”
Christopher chuckled, “Emancipated, Harry. It means you’ll be free to practice magic outside school. Which will be good; it means you three can get even better at using your magic.”
The goblin nodded, “Quite. If you like, we could also do an inheritance test to see what else he will receive.”
Christopher smiled at the goblin, careful not to show any teeth which could be construed as a dire insult in the goblin culture, “That would be helpful. I’m a businessman myself and I know how difficult things like this can be.”
The goblin smiled back, a sight that was truly disconcerting for all of them, “Very well, Mr Potter must drop a piece into this stone bowl,” he said, as he placed one on the desk. Harry held out his hand and squeezed the cut so as to drip some blood into the bowl. Then he held out his hand to Melissa, whom healed the cut.
The goblin waved a hand over the bowl, which shone the same colour as the liquid within. A small piece of parchment spooled out of the base, which the goblin bent down to read. His eyes bulged and he lifted the parchment with a shaking hand.
There was a moment’s silence, broken by Harry saying, “What?”
The goblin set the parchment down and swivelled it so they could all read it.
Harry James Potter
Father: James Charles Potter
Mother: Lily Marie Evans
Inheritances: Potter, Slytherin
Special Skills: Parseltongue, Parsel Magic
Notes: In a triad soul bond.
Charles turned to his adopted son with an air of total surprise, “Harry… you’re a Parselmage.”
(A/N: Ok, sorry for the cliffhanger, but it seemed a good place to cut it off. Anyway, I’ve introduced the third bonded, (sorry to all those of you who insisted that I didn’t make the third bonded Hermione, but what can I say; I have preferences) and I’ve laid the foundation for the special abilities Harry and his girls will have. I hope you’ve enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it, and GOODNIGHT!)
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