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Chapter Seven - Delio and Cariola

What the Hammed? What the Chain?
In what furnace was they brain?
What the Anvil? What dead grasp?
Dare it's deadly terror clasp?
The Tyger - William Blake (Songs of Experience)

When we last left Harry he was going to a meeting in Dumbledore's office with his family. We will now go and eavesdrop on said meeting and find out what we can about Harry's family and maybe some new secrets about Harry himself.

*

The group of five followed Dumbledore out of the Great Hall and into the entrance hall where Harry's adoptive brother was waiting for them already with two women, another older man and a young girl only about five. When she saw Harry she smiled and then ran over to him and threw herself at him.

"Sal!" she shrieked, and then ran to him, where he picked her up and hugged her.

SS Hey little one. How have you been? SS the little girl began hissing, obviously trying to copy her older 'brother' and making Harry and the rest of the family laugh in the process.

"I've been thsad! You left me!! You thsaid that you would take me wiv you to the next fowethst." She said, with an obvious lisp. Harry nodded sadly and then hugged her again.

SS You had Delio. SS

"Yeah but Delio ithsn't any fun! He won't thspeak with the thsnakes and let me play wiv his beastie fwiendths."

"Charming! I'm boring! Hmph. I always knew you favoured Sal. That's so not fair, you never make him play dolls." The young man, Delio said, sulkily, but still smiling. Harry laughed and then walked over to his family with the young girl still in his arms. When he reached them, he was engulfed in a large hug by the older of the two woman and then hugged again by the younger.

"Don't leave us again Bruv!! It was pretty dull without you, and you know now that this has happened mum is never going to let you go visit any other forests again." The younger woman said, when the group looked at her, they realised that she only looked about nineteen.

The whole family were similar in looks and it was only their hair and eyes that was really different. The older woman had long jet-black hair like the rest of the family, but where Delio's was red, hers was a piercing blue, as were her eyes. The little girl in Harry's arms had black ringlets and yellow eyes, the older man had red hair and eyes like his younger son and the young woman had green hair and eyes that were a similar colour to Harry's eyes.

Harry turned around after hissing something to his family and looked at Dumbledore.

"Ma Famille." He said, motioning to the people standing behind him. "Mon Geôlier*." He then said, indicating to Dumbledore for his family.

"Well Mr Dumbledore, if you would like to lead us to your office and then I can introduce my family to you properly." The man, who was obviously Harry's father, said. Dumbledore nodded his head once and then lead the now significantly larger group up the stairs and down several passages and stairways until they reached a large stone Gryphon and muttered the password. The statue then swung open to show a set of stone steps leading up to a door. Dumbledore walked up it and the group followed, Harry and family leading.

Once they were all seated comfortably Dumbledore spoke up.

"So, you said you would like to introduce you delightful family." He said, smiling at them, though receiving no smiles back and the little girl stuck her tongue out at him, which made Harry snigger.

"Well I will leave the introductions to Harry, seeing as he knows everyone in the room." The man said, looking at Harry, who stopped sniggering and looked at him with pleading eyes.

"Well, we would allow that normally, but it seems only you can understand Parseltongue and not everyone in this room speaks French or German." Dumbledore said, the twinkle dimming in his eyes. The whole family turned to look at a sheepish Harry.

"You have spoke nothing but parseltongue and French this whole time? Did I not teach you manners?" Harry shrugged and if possible, looked even more shamed. The rest of the group were looking at him in confusion, whereas his three siblings were all sniggering. "Hmm. Well you can now explain." And too the shock of the room, besides Harry's family of course, Harry spoke. In English.

"I wanted them to let me go home. I thought that if they thought they couldn't understand me, then they would release me. you can't keep a wild animal caged!!! They will die!!" he yelled at Dumbledore, making the old man flinch and look down at his lap.

"Is this true? You kept him here of his own free will?"

"They charmed all entrances to the castle so that he couldn't escape father." Delio said. Their father looked mutinously at Dumbledore and then sighed.

"You must understand. We need him, we are slowly losing the war against Voldemort (Hermione and Padma gasped at this fact) and he is the only one who can defeat him." Dumbledore said, hoping to sway the situation in his favour.

"And so you decide to kidnap a sixteen year old and keep him here without your permission!!! How ethical is that? You want a sixteen year old child to fight your own battles? I hope that Johnno doesn't hear about this, or he will rip your throat out old man."

"Johnno's here? Really?"

"Yeah! He came here when he heard about it from a Remus Lupin?" his older sister said. Remus shrank in his chair as everyone who knew him swivelled around in their own chairs and looked at him.

"You looked sad and were constantly trapped and then about three weeks ago, Silas asked me to find someone to help the snake-child. He could sense your distress and so I did. I found that Johnno man that you mentioned a fw times and well... yeah." He finished with a shrug. Sirius beamed at him and patted him on the back.

"Thanks." Harry said with a small smile.

"Yeah, well Johnno was furious, I mean by that time we knew that you were missing but we didn't know where. And so when Johnno came he told us and then said that we weren't going without him, so he's here. Antonio is bickering with him now." Delio added with a snigger. Harry laughed as well and then turned to his father.

"Shall I introduce everyone then?" he asked. His father nodded and Harry sighed.

"Everyone, this is Sirius Black, my Godfather, real one that is, not like Antonio, he knew my parents and is the last of one half of the Marauders. Remus Lupin, I know what you are thinking but he is alright, like Johnno and is the other one of the Marauders. Hermione Granger, she was frist friend here who was my age and didn't judge me by my er... ability. Padma Patil, she was introduced to me by Hermione and we have all become good friends and no Cariola don't say it," his older sister 'hmph'ed, "And Albus Dumbledore. Enough said." He said idicating to each as he said something about them. Harry then turned to his family.

"This is my family, my father Ferdinand, My mother Julia, my older sister Cariola, my brother, who is like a twin and is the same age as me Delio and this little horror on my lap if Lyca. Her name doesn't follow the Shakespearean theme but I liked it when I mentioned it and so they took it. This is my family, they took me in when I was ten." He said, shifting Lyca a little to get more comfortable.

"Hello. So there is no way to ask thi so I will just ask it, what are you?"

"We are an ancient race. Most think we are myth, but as you can see we are not. We are the ancient Elemental Elvin clan."

"What? Like you said, I thought it was myth. And if you don't mind my saying, I thought that you were a vampire."

"Well my grandfather was a Vampire and so we all, except my wife, have some Vampire blood in us, as, now does Salazar."

"Who? Oh Harry!" Padma said, and then blushed when she realised she had said it aloud. Hermione giggled beside her and the Lyca turned to Harry.

"Why did she call you Hawwy?"

"Lyca, you know that is my name here. You have heard all the stories abut the Boy-Who-Lived and you knew that was me. Here everyone calls me Harry."

"Oh."

"Quite. I have a problem understanding this. What do you mean Harry has vampiric blood in his veins?" Dumbledore asked, his face looking every bit his age.

"When we adopted him, we adopted him by blood. Meaning that we magically... well I suppose you would say, gave him a blood transfusion. He is in every way, my son. Though he still has some of his old bloodline in him. We could not take away the Slytherin, Gryffindor or Potter truly out of him. He was ten when we took him in." Sirius looked pale at that news, but didn't say anything when Remus shook his head at him.

"So then Harry is still the rightful heir of Gryffindor and Slytherin?"

"Yes. Well if that is everything, I wish to take my son back home. As you can see he was missed, he does not belong here, but if his friends would like, then they are welcome to visit. And of course you two are honorary members of the clan." he said, indicating to Remus and Sirius, who both looked shocked at the prospect.

"No I cannot allow that. He is to stay here and finish his apprenticeship under Professor Black. He may leave when that has finished."

"Then we will stay as well. Delio will stay here with Salazar and we, along with Johnno and the rest of the clan will live in the forest. Be warned however, if you upset either of my sons, then we will take him home, permission or not. It is believed that Elves are peace loving beings, but it is not so when family is threatened. You have been warned." Ferdinand said and then he stood up but stopped when Julia asked something.

"I would like to know, Dumbledore. How safe is your castle?"

"It is the safest place around, save maybe Gringotts. Why?"

"I would like for Lyca to stay. She is not to be trusted in the forest and I have heard that you have acromantulas in the forest as well."

"Well that would be fine, but I do not think you will have to worry about the acromantulas."

"I would. Anyway, it is not here safety that I was worried about. It was the acromantulas sanity. The last time we visited a nest to gain support in our forest. She tried to play dolls with them. They were not impressed." Julia said, ignoring the snorting and sniggering coming from her three oldest children. "Plus she only seems to listen to what Salazar asks, and she is currently being helped by both Delio and Salazar to control her element. She is the first Lightning elemental we have had in the clan for many centuries now and as I said, she only listens to Sal. When Sal is in lessons she can stay with Delio, but I would like for her to stay here in the castle."

"That will be fine. I will add two rooms to the quarters where Harry is staying and they can both live there for now. Have they got everything that they will need?"

"Yes, their trunks should be in their pockets, if not, Lyca has more clothes with me, so just send someone to collect them."

"Okay, is there anything else?"

"Yes. Would you please take down the charms. I would like it so that Sal can visit us whenever he pleases."

"That will be fine. You must understand they were only set up as a precaution. Now, if that is all."

"I have a question. May we have a Quidditch team?" Harry asked suddenly. Startling lyca who had been sleeping against him.

"Er... well who would be on it?"

"Me, Lyca, Delio, Cariola and three other people from the clan. they are about my age, so it wouldn't be as though they are too old." He asked. Dumbledore, seeing a way to gain favour with the odd family, nodded and was rewarded with a genuine smile from Harry and Delio.

"You will have to provide your own brooms of course and someone will tell you when your first match will be and who it will be against. I have one query though. Lyca, how old is she?"

"Five. But she is one hell of a beater. She will be fine, especially with Cariola watching her back." Harry said, looking at Cariola for backup and got it when she nodded.

"Well that is fine then. Harry if you want to show your brother and sister their rooms, I would like to have a word with your parents, Sirius and Remus. Miss Granger, Miss Patil. If you would like to go back to your common room." They both nodded and all four stood up, Harry still carrying a now sleeping Lyca.

When they reached the gargoyle again they all stopped to speak to each to her briefly. Harry shifted Lyca over his left shoulder and smiled at Hermione and Padma sheepishly.

"You could speak English?" Hermione asked, hurt flashing over her face.

"Come on 'Mione it wasn't his fault. Don't worry Harry we understand. We will talk to you tomorrow, all of you come and sit with us in the morning and don't forget your Arithmancy essay." Padma said. Then she and Hermione walked back to the Ravenclaw common room, bickering quietly. Harry watched them sniggering and then turned to face Delio.

"Shall we go then? Pea's getting a bit heavy." He said, referring to his little sister.

"Yep. Lead the way. God I can't believe we have found you. You have no idea what we have been going through. Then Johnno comes, all frantic with worry about his little cub and tells us you had been taken here."

"Yeah I can't believe Remus was the one who told him. it must have taken a lot, coz I think they see me as a sort of link to their past. You know my mum and dad."

"Yeah I can believe that. So is this it?"

"Yep. We changed the password to 'freedom' to annoy Dumbledore. I don't know if it has worked though." Harry said, walking through the entrance hole. Delio followed and looked around the room. Harry noticed two more doors around the room, which had also been enlarged as there were now seven doors leading to different rooms along the walls of the round living room.

"So which ones mine?"

"Dunno. Take you pick out of those two. Then I can take Lyca to the other one and we can talk."

"Okay. I take that one." He said, and then he walked over to the room on the left of Harry's, leaving the room on the other side for Lyca. Harry shuffled Lyca again and then took her into the room. He then placed her on the bed and tucked her in.

"Sal?"

"Yeah pea? You're in a room next to mine at Hogwarts. Mum says you can stay here for a while okay? And you will be eating breakfast and dinner and such in the Great Hall with all the other students here, Delio and me. Does that sound okay?"

"Yeah. Will you be teaching me again?" she asked sleepily.

"Yep. Me and Delio will continue your studies and you can attend Sirius' lessons if you are good, but only if you behave. Come on now. Time to go to bed for you. It has been a bit of a hectic day for you I bet."

"Yeah. Night night Sal." She said, falling asleep almost immediately.

"Night night Pea." Harry whispered and then he walked out of her room.

"She sleeping?"

"Yep. So, how was everyone really. You know when I was gone? You won't understand what I was going through here. They tied me up at first and then Dumbledore forced me here. They took nearly all of my weapons away and only let me keep my daggers.

"That's mean. So you had no choice whatsoever? That's a bit harsh isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"God Sal. It is so good to see that you are alive. I mean of course we knew you were, what with your orb still glowing and all, but about two weeks before you had to come back the orb started to glow bright red and vibrate. We knew then that something was wrong, but we decided to wait. You know just in case it was because you had irritated a centaur again."

"That was when I was taken here. I was so angry that I lost control and made the green flames surround me. I think I burnt Sirius, but at the time I didn't care. Del, I was terrified. I had no idea what they were going to do to me, and you know that when I get scared I revert into talking parseltongue. And well I saw how nervous they were of me, when I spoke it, so I just decided that if they were going to keep me here, I would make sure that they regretted it. It was quite funny when I handed all of my homework in in parseltongue.

"Then about three weeks ago I met Hermione and Padma. They were great and didn't judge me because I spoke parseltongue, which everyone else did, especially Ron Weasley. Gah! Well anyway these two actually wanted to get to know me. not the boy who lived. Me! so I decided to let them know that I could speak French. And we are really good friends now. I'll introduce you to them properly tomorrow."

"Cool. I'm glad that while you were here you still had friends. Do they know about your monthly problem? That's a point! How did you survive and you know, not kill yourself!"

"Sirius and Remus. Sirius is a dog animagus and the wolf inside of me sees Remus as the pack leader. So last month I was fine, though a bit bruised in the morning. I'm glad that you're here though, and that I am allowed outside again!!"

"I'm glad we've found you. I think we should continue this story tomorrow though, I'm knackered now. See you in the morning." Delio said and then he walked back into his new room and closed the door behind him.

Harry waited for about half an hour more until Remus and Sirius both walked in, looking tired, but relieved.

"What did he want to say?"

"Nothing much. I think it was really just to make sure that he was killed in his sleep tonight." Sirius said with a laugh.

"How are Delio and er... is it Lyca?"

"Yeah. They're fine. Bit tired but fine. Though I don't think Lyca is going to let me out of her sight ever again."

"I'm really happy that you found a family Harry. And if we knew we wouldn't have taken you away." Remus said, sadly. Sirius nodded, suddenly becoming more serious.

"I know. Look, Remus. Thank you for telling Johnno. And both of you thank you for accepting that I have a family."

"It's the least we both could've done. We forced you to stay here against you own free will and ignored what you wrote about your family."

"It's all water under the bridge. My family are here now and that's all that matters. I'm going to bed now. Night."

"Night." They both said, and watched him retreat into his room.

"We really stuffed this up moony. He was happy and we dragged him away from them. We are worse that Voldemort."

"No we're not. We thought we were doing what was best for him. come on Padfoot, neither of us were really sure what he meant by family."

"Yeah. Well I'm going to bed. We have lessons in the morning, with Gryffindor and Slytherin seventh years as well. We need all the sleep we can get." Sirius said with a lopsided smiled. Remus nodded and they both went their separated ways into their rooms.

*

The next morning all five awoke at around the same time. Well no that's a lie. Lyca woke at five in the morning and proceeded to wake the rest of the residents of the DADA living quarters by jumping on their beds, staring with Harry, who encouraged her, along with Delio to wake up Remus and Sirius. Starting with Remus. Who also encouraged her to wake up Sirius and even provided the bucket of ice cold water. And so it was with a loud shout followed by giggling and Lyca scurrying to hide behind Harry's legs, that everyone woke up the next morning.

"Shall we go down to breakfast and leave before Sirius has time to get his own back?" Remus asked, fearfully glancing at the door to Sirius' room.

"I agree with that. Come on." Harry said, picking Lyca up and walking out the room hurriedly, followed quickly by Remus and Delio.

The walk down to the Great Hall was fairly uneventful, if you ignored the fact that they were delayed by five minutes because Delio sneezed, made Lyca jump and cased lightning to strike the banister, causing it to be set on fire and Harry having to put it out. But besides that they made it to the Great Hall without any other disasters happening. Harry held Lyca's hand and chatted to Delio when he walked into the Great Hall and then sat down at the Ravenclaw table when he saw where Hermione and Padma were sitting.

"Hey Harry. Did you remember to bring your Arithmancy essay?"

"Yeah, though it is about two inches over, that shouldn't matter though. So, Padma, Hermione, this is Delio and Lyca. My brother and sister. Delio, Lyca, this is Hermione and Padma, they are my friends here."

"Hey. I'm Delio, as my brother here just said. I'll be looking after the little horror when Harry has lessons with you."

"Hey, I'm Hermione." Hermione smiled at Delio, and Harry raised an eyebrow at them, a plan forming in his mind.

"Why is everyone on the Ravenclaw table staring at us?" Delio asked, looking up and down the table. Lyca giggled and then stopped when she realised that everyone in the hall was looking at them.

"Er... I think it's because no one knew that Harry could talk English. Oh look!! Post's here." Padma said, looking for anything to distract everyone in the hall. A large brown owl dropped a newspaper in front of Hermione, which she paid and then opened it and gasped.

"What?" Harry asked, leaning forward and grabbing the paper. He gasped as well when he saw the headline.

/You-Know-Who Attacks Muggle Villages and Towns. Thousands Killed./

Yesterday at around nine at night, You-Know-Who's followers, Death Eaters attacked several different villages and small towns, all over Britain at the same time. At this time, officials say that there are no survivors, muggle or wizard.

An insider to the ministry told The Daily Prophet/ that ministry Aurors and officials went to as many villages as possible to /obliviate any muggle survivors but all teams came back with the same story. 'There was no one left.'

Another group of Aurors went to the larger towns to see if they could help, and try to capture or stop the Death Eaters, but it seemed that the informant came to late and all help arrived five minutes too late. All of the Death Eaters had already left. Leaving the dark mark floating in the sky.

Officials are saying that the total fatalities in this disaster is over a hundred thousand. As was said before there were no survivors. The minister of magic has visited the Prime Minister, and it is now being said that it was terrorists. We at the Daily Prophet however want to know what the next attack is going to be and when. It is official; He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is back and in full force.

For a list of all the towns and villages involved turn to page 3

"Oh god. What are the towns Harry?"

"Er... oh god... I have to go, excuse me." Harry said, dropping the paper and running out of the hall. Sirius and Remus watched him and then both stood up and left the teachers table to follow him, soon to be copied by Delio and Lyca.

"Harry!! What's wrong?" Sirius asked, having reached where Harry was sitting on the edge of the forest first.

"Did you see the places that were hit?"

"No, why?"

"Delio, one of them was the village on the edge of our forest."

"What? Oh god. What else?"

"No one else seems to have spotted the pattern, they were all villages or towns next to dark forests."

"What?! How could he know? Why now?" Remus asked, sitting down heavily next to Harry.

"That's not all. Little Whinging was on the top of the list, being the largest town that was attacked. The Dursley's are dead. Dudley is an orphan."

"Why, wasn't he at home?"

"He goes to a boarding school in London. He wouldn't have been at home. I wonder what is going to happen to him now?"

"Do you really care?"

"It wasn't Dudley's fault what they did to me. He is the same age as me, so he didn't really know what they were doing."

"True. I wonder if he remembers you."

"He doesn't."

"How do you know?"

"I used to visit Byrne forest frequently, that being the place that Johnno lives. One year I visited Johnno when I was thirteen and bumped into my fat cousin

*flashback*

Harry wandered through the first forest that he was truly welcomed, knowing every snake, tree and creature that was in it, and knowing the dangers, which didn't really apply to him now that the forest really had accepted him. right now he was just wandering through the forest, wanting to reacquaint himself with some of the new creatures that may have come to the forest.

He had been wandering for a while, greeting some of the creatures that remembered him, he had stumbled across a large black snake, that introduced himself as Silas and said that he was a southern something or other, the reason he was in the forest apparently was because a muggle from the town next to the forest had brought him over from America and had become scared by his, er... more unusual powers, so he had left him in the forest. Harry had liked the snake from the start and so decided to let him stay in his small haven for magical creatures in Harry's trunk.

When he had almost reached the edge of the forest he heard voices, they sounded young as well. Harry frowned, knowing that people only came in this forest when they were desperate, like himself, or dared. In which case, they would do damage to either themselves or his forest, and he couldn't let that happen.

He followed the voices and worked out that there were about five of them. It also seemed that the leader of the group was someone who Harry vaguely knew.

"Dudley Dursley." He hissed under his breath. The fat oaf was bound to hurt his forest and they were heading straight for the young niffler nest, he knew that the mother, having just given birth, would not be able to defend herself. Harry hurried up abit and then when he found the right time, jumped out of the trees in front of the group.

"What are you doing in this forest? You do not belong here." Harry asked, eyeing the five boys warily, remembering suddenly the games that his fat cousin used to play all those years ago.

"We came in for fire wood, not that it's any of you business. Why are you here?"

"I live here. You will not be taking any fire wood unless the forest willingly gives it over. It is not advised o stray to deep into this forest unless you are welcomed by it. The trees are telling me that you are not welcome." He said, listening to the creaks and groans being issued by the trees surrounding the group.

"You're a freak. What do you think you are? Tree hugging hippy?" Dudley said, making his brainless followers guffaw at his 'oh so intelligent wit.' Pfft yeah right, and Harry was a Hufflepuff.

"I am a boy who was abandoned in here a long time ago. I believe you have rumours and stories about this forest. If I were you, I would start to believe them." Harry said, stepping forward towards them threateningly. The group collectively gasped as Silas came into view over his shoulder and hissed threateningly. The final straw in the boys eyes was when Harry turned and replied. With a high pitched shriek Dudley was running back out of the forest, closely followed by the rest of his small gang.

*end flashback*

"I followed them back to the estate to make sure that they reached home safely, I was quite amused when Dudley mentioned the 'strange wild boy' living in the forest to his parents. When he gave a description of me to them, Aunt Petunia went pale and fainted and Uncle Vernon bellowed at Dudley to go to his room. Quite comical-" Harry was interrupted by a large gonging noise coming from the castle. Lyca whimpered in fear and climbed onto Harry's lap, while Harry looked at Remus in confusion, having never heard anything like that before.

"That's Hogwarts defensive horn. It rings when the headmaster needs to make an announcement or when Hogwarts is under attack. Let us hope that it is the first of those two options." Sirius said, standing up and helping Remus and Harry to stand. Harry looked at Delio and he nodded and ran into the forest.

"Where's he going?" Remus asked Harry, who was now trying to calm Lyca down.

"Er... he's gone to warn the clan that Hogwarts may be under attack. I will send off a message if it isn't." Harry said, hugging Lyca closely to him and following Sirius as they made their way quickly up to the castle. He hurriedly glanced behind himself one last time as the doors closed with a loud bang.

"Come on, we should go to the teachers table. You as well Harry."

"Okay. It's gonna be okay Lyca. It will just be an announcement, and in any case, I won't let anyone harm you, and neither will Delio or dad." He whispered to a whimpering Lyca. She nodded and looked around her as the rest of the school sat down at their tables. Harry hurried the rest of the way to the teachers table and sat down, still hugging Lyca.

"Students! Teachers! I have an announcement to make. I realise that you will now be very worried, but be assured, Hogwarts is not under attack. I have changed the alarm slightly if it is. You will know if the time comes to defend the castle. However I do have an important announcement to make.

"For the last three years, since Voldemort's return, I have headed a secret organisation to stop Voldemort. I am now openly admitting to the Order of the Phoenix and may Voldemort begin to get worried!" Dumbledore said, his loud voice carrying easily through the unusually silent hall. At that announcement the whole hall erupted into cheers, though Harry noticed several of the students looked less than happy at the throughout of the downfall of Voldemort. And they were not just in Slytherin.

* Mon Geôlier - My Captor

A/N - Wow look how long this chapter is!! Brownie points to me! Well the Order is out in the open and is no longer a secret, but will Dumbledore allow his 'weapon' to join? And if not, what will the repercussions be? What are Harry's family going to do about their forest's surrounding villages being targeted? Will they stay in Hogwarts grounds? And if they do leave will Lyca and Delio have to leave their beloved brother again? Hmm so many questions and not all to be answered in the next chapter!!! Hahaha!! How evil am I!!!