Chapter Text
In the month after Umbridge’s arrest the school had been quiet, Aries had been working overtime in the Hospital Wing as students came to him for sleeping solutions and calming draughts, all clearly shaken up by the situation. The school was almost a walking advertisement for calming draughts at the moment, his uncle was brewing frantically and they had Mage Potioneer apprentices selling brews for reduced rates to the Hospital wing. Aries had facilitated it as a Mage themselves but the situation was worrying, the Feline Mind Healers were snowed under with students suffering from various trauma symptoms and they’d had more than one incident of psychosis and a few PTSD episodes as a result. The whole school seemed to be in shock that such an event had occurred: but honestly? Aries wasn’t surprised, Dumbledore had gotten sloppy; he was so consumed with Britian and Voldemort that he had forgotten about the International Magical Community centred on Avalon. It hadn’t occurred to him to look outside the borders for a DADA teacher despite the large international event last year; in his close-mindedness he had endangered his students and damaged his reputation. Sure, he could recover from it but… nobody was going to look at him quite the same, they wouldn’t intrinsically trust his wisdom anymore. Aries was thrilled, anything that dragged the bastard down was good in his book; he just wished that it hadn’t taken the literal torture of children to do so.
Still, all was well that ended well, Umbridge had been arrested and was currently being held in the Ministry holding cells, Aries could only hope that she remained there, she was a shoe in for Voldemort’s Death Eaters, the exact sort of twisted depravity that thing thrived on. However, Aries was continuing, he was attending his lessons even though DADA had yet to be reinstated with a permanent teacher.
There were also whispers around the school that the curse had struck early, Aries didn’t want to say that it had, but without a cursebreaker? There was nothing to say that it hadn’t. If they got a new defence teacher after the winter break then they might be safe but nobody could say for sure.
Despite the situation Fudge, for once, didn’t seem to have his head buried in the sand, maybe Master Lu had gotten through to him, as it seemed there were whispers of unbanning several illegal crafts, even so soon after the event. It wasn’t a big step but it was a step in the correct direction, if the rumours were to be believed. From Master Lu he knew that a contingent of British Parsel Healers and Feline Mind Healers had been dispatched to St Mungos, there was also a few British Ravens setting up in the Diagon Library and a few signing up with local law firms. Some of the Mers had even moved into Peverell Park in Plymouth: which was the UK centre for Magical Maritime Trade and Commerce. Mages were being welcomed back into Britain for the first time in almost fifty years, who knows if Necromancers or other ‘unseemly’ talents would be next, perhaps the talented Blood Witches who originally had a Coven in the northern isles of Scotland or even the Alchemists, who had largely sequestered themselves away after Nicholas Flamel’s Philosophers stone became more common knowledge about a hundred years ago. The Alchemists had been so hounded by the British public for the secrets of immortality that they had withdrawn from society, then the government at the time told them to release their secrets or be exiled from Britain, the Alchemists had no option to choose exile, and the practice of alchemy was lost in Britain and subsequently banned.
While the Dragons and Canines hadn’t made a move yet, and seemed to be playing the situation by ear; Fudge was endearing himself to the international community. With the firm backing he gave the Mages Association, and the slow trickle of Mages past the border, things were, for once since Voldemort came back, looking up.
Aries, upon permission from Master Lu, Master Shiki, Uncle Sev and his dad, had gotten himself a set of green Parsel robes and was openly working as Parsel Healer in the Hospital Wing. He had students interested in his craft, most of them were just interested in him as he was different, a novelty, but everyone remembered what he did for the students and how powerful he was so nobody strayed into rudeness at least. He had several young Slytherins come up and ask him to speak Parseltongue to them, he had indulged them, smiling all the while as the children excitedly hissed nonsense to each other.
For a while, at Hogwarts, things were going well too, there was a rotation of Aurors coming from the Ministry to teach DADA, and while it wasn’t sustainable in the long run, it would work until a new teacher started after the winter holidays.
In his ‘Harry’ guise Aries had continued to attend lessons and do his homework, he continued to avoid Ron and Hermione who were both still quite withdrawn over the whole blood quill situation. Dumbledore had called them to the office once and they had returned white-faced and shaking. The old bastard had likely shouted at them as they hadn’t pre-warned the old chess master about the situation and so he hadn’t been able to spin it into good press. Skeeter had written a scathing article about the man, using quotes from several parents who couldn’t believe that he had even allowed such a black artifact onto the Hogwarts grounds.
This article had a snowballing effect, parents were riling each other up, and they were angry, livid really. They wanted the wards checked as they had let through a black artifact, several in fact.
Aries had been sitting at lunch with Luna when all of a sudden, she had gone glassy eyed, Aries had stood up and leaped across the Gryffindor table, ready to do something to help her, before she shook herself out of whatever funk she had been in. “You okay, Luna?”
“They are testing the wards today, Aries.” She spoke in her normal floaty voice; she also used his real name which she wasn’t supposed to know! It had him on edge, checking the surroundings with his magic to ensure that nobody but the twins had been close enough to hear it.
“Luna?” Fred reached over the table and grasped her hand, “what’s going on? Do we need to take you to the Hospital Wing?”
“No, I’m okay. The Goblins are inspecting the wards today, all of the nargle infested items are going to be… ejected.”
“Ejected?” George who was sat next to his brother asked, carefully.
“Mmm, ejected, removed, spat out.” The girl replied
“I think we get it, Luna,” Aries said, patting her head gently, for a moment her eyes unfocused before they settled on his.
“You should go, it’s about to happen.” That was all the warning Aries got before a loud boom had echoed through the castle walls. Aries stood up, magic flaring once again as he searched for the cause of the boom. That’s when he felt it, he hadn’t escaped the dreaded Halloween curse this year after all.
“A little more warning would have been great, Luna!” He murmured, before turning on his heel and running. He couldn’t have one year, just one year of peace, this year he had already battled a dark apparition and uncovered a torturing teacher, could he not just have a few months without chaos before the next world-shattering revelation hit?
Aries hurried, running down into the dungeon, he couldn’t teleport as the corridors were too crowded and he didn’t have time to find somewhere safe. He barged into his uncle’s quarters, where Uncle Sev and Septima were having a sedate lunch, clearly having not heard the bang that had just exploded through the castle. “Uncle!”
“Bloody hell, brat!” his uncle exclaimed, not jumping but slightly startled as he put his cutlery down. “What on earth could have you storming into my quarters in such a fashion?”
“I felt one.” He knew he’d felt one, the cold feeling he had now felt twice before.
“Felt what exactly?”
“A horcrux.” Aries then quickly explained the bang and that according to Luna they were examining the wards today.
“Fuck.” His uncle swore, standing up and summoning his robes from the hook on the door. “Get changed, I am going to the gate, I’ll send you a patronus when I get there, go to Avalon and grab Shiki.”
Aries acquiesced, getting changed into the black robes that he always carried on his person, wand sheathed on his belt and spear on his thigh. He also looped his veil over his head; he hadn’t been able to wear it as his glamour couldn’t cover the fabric without making his head misshapen. He pulled off his glasses, tucking them into his ritual bag with the rest of his Hogwarts Uniform that he had just stripped off in a hurry. He then pulled on his magic, slipping into the veil and to the anchor on Avalon. He couldn’t teleport directly to his master as there were anti-teleportation wards around Dead End, so he would need to run.
He landed by the monolith and bolted, settling into a sprint as he weaved through crowds of wixen all on their way to work, at work or returning from work. It took him ten minutes from the time he alerted his uncle to the time he bashed on Master Shiki’s door, hands on his head, opening his lungs and breathing heavily so he could explain to his master why exactly he had just pounded on his door.
The door was opened by Aurora who was dressed in her Raven uniform, minus her outer robe, with her veil looped over her head. “Aer?”
“Hi Rora, let me in, please? I need to talk to Master.” his sister stepped back to allow Aries into the house before shutting the door behind him.
“Aurora, dear, who is it?” Aries heard his Auntie Mile’s voice sound out from somewhere on the ground floor.
“Aries! They need to talk to Uncle Shiki!” Rora called back into the house and a moment later, from where Aries assumed the kitchen might be, his master came out, sans cloak but with his veil, drying what looked like a dinner plate.
“Heard my name?” the man then paused for a moment and looked Aries up and down, “What happened? You’re wearing your ‘we’re screwed’ face.”
“I am not!” Aries was certain he didn’t have a ‘we’re screwed’ face but… he’s getting distracted! “I found another, a Horcrux, I felt one at school, Uncle Sev is going to send a patronus if he senses it and…”
“See, we’re screwed.” His brother chimed in from halfway up the stairs.
“Okay, who wants a trip to Hogwarts?” Master Shiki said, cheerfully depositing his tea towel back into the kitchen and summoning his cloak. The rest of his Necromancy family was quick to follow, putting on outer layers and in the case of Lexi, a thermal base layer to go under his kama and tabards to keep out the autumnal chill of Scotland.
In only a few minutes the entire family was ready and out of the doors, Guides popping into being as they jogged down Dead End to the end of the wards that prevented teleportation. Not even thirty seconds after having left the wards a doe patronus slipped out of the veil in front of Aries and came to a stop. “Item confirmed, Dumbledore doesn’t want help, come anyway.” The magic dissipated and Aries prepared to teleport, his auntie, uncle and Master had markers in his hairpins, as did his siblings so all he needed to do was teleport to his Uncle Sev and the others would follow.
Aries emerged from the veil at his uncle’s side, Uncle Sev was in the middle of a loud argument with Dumbledore who was also sending disappointed stares at a group of warders who had come from Gringotts to assess the wards. “Uncle Sev?”
“Aries, nice to see you again, is Shiki coming?” his uncle asked, entirely ignoring Dumbledore who was clearing his throat, likely to get his attention once more. Aries didn’t answer, he just smirked, a moment later his entire Necromancy family, all twelve of them were assembled on the path at the gates of Hogwarts.
“Severus?!” Dumbledore called out, he looked like he had once again bitten directly into a lemon.
“Good afternoon, Headmaster Dumbledore, we were alerted that a Horcrux had been found during a sweep of the wards.” Master Shiki was as smooth as silk as he cut through the old man’s rant and took control.
“Master Necrothys, Apprentice Hallow, associates, how nice to see you again.” Dumbledore bit out each word like it had personally offended him.
“Right, please allow me to introduce Master Void and her charge, Apprentice Nightingale, and Master Scarath and his charge, Apprentice Hadalia.” Master Shiki introduced each of them, gesturing to them in turn, the spirits weren’t bothering with the humans and were already picking through the large pile of dangerous artifacts that the wards had ejected when they had been tightened. “Shall we get to it then?”
With his orders from his master Aries pulled out his spear, extending it before using the butt to poke through the pile, looking for the Horcrux. Alexis had meanwhile pulled a wand-sized silver stick from a thigh holster and extended it into a trident, also using it to search the pile. Aurora had just shrugged, “I don’t have a pole arm and I am not using my sling or my knife.”
“Fair enough.” Aries shrugged, moving aside a stack of books that was radiating uncomfortable feelings. A few metres over Master Shiki was using his short sword, Auntie Mile a rapier and Uncle Rigel a hand-and-a-half sword to poke through the piles, the spirits weren’t in danger from any of the artifacts and were already elbow deep into the pile, the younger spirits under the supervision of the elder.
“Anything?” Auntie Mile asked after almost half an hour of looking, clearing another pile and allowing her guide, Astreaus or Astra as they preferred to be called, to deposit the pile in front of a team of Gringotts Cursebreakers who were cataloguing each item and boxing it up before they were sent on portkey shipments back to the bank in London.
“Nope!” Aurora replied, Felaria, her guide, joining her teacher with another armful of stuff.
“I’ve got a Necromancy book here but that’s about it.” Estella called over as she plucked a book from the pile, it was quite clearly cursed and exuding a sinister aura.
“Not here either,” Alexis called from his own pile he was looking through.
“We can feel it.” Rhea said, helping Sylvester clear a large cabinet away. The pair of them hefting it before walking it over to the Cursebreakers.
“Yeah, I think we’re close over here, definitely feels like the rot from before.” Aries added, grimacing at the thought. He was looking through some smaller items, turning each one this way and that with his spear, eyes glowing silver with his Soul Sight.
“Wait! Got it!” Uncle Rigel said, scooping what looked like a crown onto the end of his sword. He was stood only a few paces to Aries’ right, having just uncovered what looked like a… bust? Whatever it was, it was ugly, dusty and more than likely very cursed, there was an area of clean marble at the top, so the crown had likely been sat atop the bust.
Aries paused in his search to take a large Sealed Curse Box from his ritual bag, allowing Uncle Rigel to lower the crown into it. At that moment Dumbledore came over, peering into the box that Aries held, “This looks like the Diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw, lost by her daughter Helena Ravenclaw and last seen in Albania about a hundred years ago. To think it was in the castle the whole time, although that means that Tom found it…”
“We’ll get this off to the Guild and then finish helping sort the items for Gringotts.” Uncle Rigel said, taking the box, nodding at his spouses and then teleporting off, presumably to Avalon to hand in the item. Aries was slightly worried about classes but once lunch had ended it became very clear that they had been cancelled when a large crowd formed at the gates and stayed, despite the lesson bell ringing, every student in the school must have been there, from the smallest first years to the teachers.
The professors were doing their best to keep people quiet and away from the gate so that his family could work but there was a low-level hum of chatter, many people seemed interested in the black clothed and veiled forms that his family took on the sacred day for them that was Veiling Day.
“Aries, Aurora, Alexis, talk to the kids? They’re probably scared, just say that we’re a team from Gringotts and Avalon who came to investigate the cursed objects, Rhea, Felaria, Estella if you could please help Antares, Astreaus and Sylvester continue to move the artefacts that would be great.” Master Shiki quickly gave out orders to him, his siblings and their guides. Aries was quickly dragged along by Aurora who had snagged Alexis’ arm as she ran by.
“Hi! It’s nice to meet you! I’m Apprentice Aurora Nightingale, these are my siblings, Aries Hallow and Alexis Hadalia.” Rora had bounced over to the gate and addressed Minnie who was stood chatting to Uncle Sev who was on the outside of the gate with them.
“Apprentice Hallow, nice to see you again, and lovely to meet your siblings,” Minnie smiled, “I am Master Minerva McGonagall, I am the Transfiguration Professor here and the Deputy Head.”
“Hello Master McGonagall.” Aries ducked his head in greeting; he couldn’t call her by her nickname though as this was supposedly the second time they had met.
“Master sent us over to answer any questions,” Rora bounced on her toes for a moment before the crowd erupted in noise and she took a step back, “I- I can only answer one question at a time, sorry.”
“You are quite alright, Apprentice Nightingale, if anyone has a question then please wait for me to call on you, it is a rare experience that we get wixen down from Avalon who do this sort of job.” She then selected a student who called out their question.
“What job do you do?”
“Ah, we’re members of a guild on Avalon but we can’t reveal which one, however the three of us are also Mages and we are here on behalf of Gringotts who are taking all of these cursed artefacts back for inspection.”
“What sort of Mages are you?” McGonagall selected another student from the crowd who called out their question.
“I am a Mer Mage, so I can do Sea Magic, this includes things like Siren’s Song which is vocal magic based around singing as well as Hydromancy which is the manipulation of water molecules. I can also sail really well; I have gills for swimming and can talk to most sealife. My specialties are Sailor and Shielder which means I work above the water and can make shields, I can do magic shields and water shields from my hydromancy.” Alexis answered first.
“I am a Raven Mage, we’re scholars who work as librarians, solicitors and researchers, we are really good with magic circles and I, myself am good with wards and potions. Being a Raven Mage also means I can speak to birds. I can also, as a result of being a Raven Mage, speak most other non-magical languages and a few that are magical but don’t have species or affinity requirements. Since I am a Potioneer, any potions that are brewed with avian ingredients are triply powerful.” Aurora answered next, “I believe there was a Raven Mage in the group that came here a month ago, Grandmaster Greene, he is a top-level solicitor and he will be representing you guys at the trial.”
“Hi, I’m a Parsel Mage, I know that you have one working at the castle at the moment but I am a Healer and a Shielder which means I can heal wounds and I can protect people, I can speak to most reptiles as well as Wyverns, those are the western dragons that breathe fire and fly using wings. I am also able to sense wounds and to a lesser extent, people. Healing potions made by Parsel Mages are also triply powerful, ‘cause they include serpent ingredients.”
“Are there other types of Mages?”
“Yeah, there are three more which are Feline Mages, or Mind Mages, these guys are your mind healers, seers and prophets, most of them are also empaths and are great at mind magics, they’re also good with mind potions, they tend to include feline ingredients so most of the orders you guys are getting is from the Feline Potioneer Apprentices. Then you have Dragon Mages, these are your elementals and they can manipulate the traditional four elements and they can fly, unaided, it’s really cool. They speak to eastern dragons or Drakes; those look like flying serpents with tiny wings and they can manipulate the elements too. The final group are the Canine Mages, these guys are the opposite of the Felines, they’re all about attack, physical attack, they can become spellswords and use magic through weapons differently to us, most of them can imbue their weapon with a spell or an element if they have the correct magic circles inscribed, plus if you put a weapon in their hands they instinctively know how to use it, super cool. They can also tame beasts and have them help them; these guys also talk to anything that falls into the canine family so dogs and wolves particularly.”
There was murmuring as Aurora finished her speech as everyone digested the information, the questioning went on for a while, people asking about the various cursed objects and why one was taken away in a box, they had carefully skirted around that one and just said that it was particularly dangerous and that it needed special attention. It was actually nice, Aries was enjoying answering the student’s questions, it was a pleasant distraction from the fact that it was Halloween and that he was going to have his first Veiling Day that evening where he might be able to get in contact with his parents. To find out what they thought of his choices so far, he was terrified that they were going to think he had done the wrong thing, that he wasn’t worthy…
He was snapped out of his thoughts by Lexi placing a hand on his arm, “You okay Aer?”
“Yeah, sorry, just… Veiling Day and…” he trailed off, he was really likely to burst into tears if he vocalised his thoughts.
“Nah, you’re good, I think the Masters are done anyway.” Rora replied, as if on cue Auntie Mile’s voice sounded over the space between the now empty driveway of Hogwarts and the three of them who were stood just outside the gate.
“Kids! We’re all done and we’re heading back to Avalon!” Aries breathed a sigh of relief, he could escape. In that moment his uncle came over, he didn’t lean down but murmured.
“If anyone asks, Minnie will say you are in your dorm, in bed, you want space.” Aries nodded at the information and since he couldn’t hug the man in front of all these people he settled for a quick pat on his arm before his uncle engaged Master Shiki in a quick conversation to distract from the words he had spoken to Aries. Aries nodded in thanks before the group of them teleported off to Avalon.
Once they landed on Avalon it was almost half past four in the afternoon, the ritual was set to occur at six that evening when the sun went down so they were cutting it rather fine. Once there, they had reported to the Necromancy Guildmaster, a seemingly young woman with blonde hair and dark green eyes.
“Guildmaster?!” Master Shiki fell into step beside the woman who was leading a large group of necromancers to the Ritual Circle for that evening’s Veiling Day Ceremony
“Master Necrothys?” She didn’t pause her walk but turned slightly to look at Master Shiki.
“We recovered another of the British Dark Lord’s horcruxes today, my apprentice sensed it while at school.” The woman sighed in response, picking imaginary lint off the sleeve of her robe.
“Why am I not surprised you found one of those abominations in a school…” she let out another put upon sigh, “The Research Team believes they have nearly put together a tracking device for the remaining, what? Four pieces?”
“Indeed, we believe it is four more, if the man made six intentional horcruxes and the accidental ripped horcrux that was the result of the killing curse backfiring. For an eight-part soul.” Master Shiki explained, placing a hand on Aries’ head as they continued their walk to the ritual circle.
“I am also led to believe that the man recently obtained a body? Do we know what ritual he used?” By this point they had arrived at the ritual circle and the Keeper, after taking a look at the Guildmaster, began to coordinate the necromancers in drawing the circle and laying out the hundreds of candles ready for the ritual.
“Aries?” Master Shiki called his name, right, he never told Master what ritual Snake-Face used as he was still repressing the memories.
“H-He used the ‘bone of the father, unknowingly given, flesh of the servant, willingly given and blood of the enemy, forcibly taken’ ritual, I was the enemy, Peter Pettegrew was the servant and a bone from Tom Riddle Senior’s grave was taken. There were also a few other ingredients including snake’s blood and snake eyes. The result was a snake-human homunculus with bright red eyes, no nose and white skin.” Aries explained the ritual to the best of his ability, he still didn’t like thinking about the memory but at least now he wasn’t getting recurring night terrors every time he closed his eyes, they were now less often, although not by much, they were however less vivid with the wards over his bed, it wasn’t perfect but it was better than before.
“There shouldn’t be snake parts in that ritual, of course the entire ritual is an offence to Necromancy but it should use a Homunculus base containing all the necessary elements required for life, in the precise amounts, the three catalysts and then the soul of the intended.”
“Uncle Sev, err rather Master Prince, the Potion’s Master who normally attends to things like that said that he wasn’t the one who brewed the base. It is highly likely that Pettegrew brewed it and his subpar brewing skills necessitated the need for extra ingredients, or, as we know, he’s just an idiot who can’t read a recipe.” Aries explained, attempting to keep his voice as even as possible, he hated Pettegrew, he was a coward and a liar, he also got his Mum and Da killed so he wasn’t best pleased with him.
“You really don’t like this Pettegrew character, huh?” The Guildmaster looked on over the circle drawing with hard eyes.
“No, Guildmaster, he got two of my parents killed and the other thrown in Azkaban without a trial.”
“Fair enough then.” The woman shrugged, bid them farewell and went to help the keeper supervise the ritual preparations. There was already a crowd of people forming at the edges of the circle, many holding onto artefacts and items from loved ones. There was a group of Feline Mind Healers nearby as well as several necromancers who were talking the crowd through the ritual and explaining the necessary safety precautions. Aries could feel the marker he had left in his dad’s circlet in the group; he knew that his dad would be here today and he was hoping to talk to him after the ritual had finished.
Eventually, Master Shiki called him over to complete his part of the claiming in the section of the circle that they would be standing in. The giant pentagram took up the entire space available, there were hundreds of candles, each along the lines of the pentagram, none were lit yet though.
Once everyone had finished their claiming the necromancers took their position, evenly spaced with necromancer and then guide around the circle, any apprentices were stood in front of their masters, able to contribute to the circle but under the protection of their masters and teachers. For the next ten minutes necromancers and guides helped each other apply the charcoal, some didn’t bother, having the markings already tattooed on their faces and arms, but for Aries and Rhea they both needed to complete the markings on their face and forearms to carry out the ritual.
“Are you ready, apprentice?” Master Shiki asked, laying his hands on Aries’ shoulders as they waited for the members of the public to get into the circle in the gap between the inner circle and the outer circle. The Necromancers were stood on the lines of the inner circle, they would be the catalysts for the circle and help to construct the barrier between the living and the dead, to ensure that everyone remained on their own side of the veil. The people attending the ritual would be able to see and talk to their loved ones but not touch them, the closest they could get would be to touch with the barrier still in-between them.
“Yes, Master.” Aries nodded in response to Master Shiki’s question, he felt the man lay his arms around Aries’ shoulders as he was pulled back to lean against him. Just as he did so the sun began to sink below the horizon, he opened his mouth to add to the voices that would begin the chant.
“““Lord Death, Guardian of the Great Beyond and Keeper of the Veil of Souls. Your children reach out to you on this Veiling Day where the barrier between worlds is at its thinnest, we seek to soothe the wounds left in the souls of those who still roam this Earth, who have lost loved ones to your embrace. We ask your permission to open this gateway so that mortals and a-mortals may interact for this one night.”””
To Aries who could both understand the words and was joining in with the chant, the noise was thunderous, two hundred voices speaking in perfect synchronicity as they all appealed to Lord Death for his permission to open the Gateway. To the ordinary wixen stood in the circle, it was an eerie whispering that swirled around the circle like the wind.
A moment later the candles around the pentagram burst into flickering flames, bathing the veiled necromancers in an orange glow. Aries watched as the markings on each Necromancer flickered for a moment before glowing silver, not even a moment later every single necromancer fell to the floor, all having been forcefully pulled out of their bodies and into their astral forms. There were murmurs from the crowd as a hundred people fell to the floor but they were soon drowned out by the rush of magic as two dome-like barriers burst into being. One centred on the necromancers who were glowing silver in their astral forms, markings a bright white against their astral skin, at the inner circle and another around the ritual goers who were between the inner and outer circles.
Then, at the centre of the circle a shade descended, appearing at the apex of the dome before floating down and settling in the centre of the circle. They were fifteen feet tall and wore a ratted robe with a long cloak that pooled to the floor beneath them, resting against their shoulder was a long scythe with a blade made of pure moonlight. Aries felt the Cloak of Invisibility flutter around his shoulders, it hadn’t fallen to the floor with his body, it also wasn’t an astral copy, no it was the real thing. It pushed joy into the bond between them and gave what was the cloaks equivalent of a giant hug to Aries.
“My children, you have my permission.” With those words spoken the being raised their arms, allowing their wide sleeves to fall free, casting long shadows that spirits began to bubble out of, each spirit was wearing a simple white robe and holding a copy of the item that they had used to pull themselves over. Aries could see young and old wixen, there were a few adults that were holding children, all dressed in the same ghostly robes.
Aries could see his Mum and Da, he knew that Sirius was stood next to them in the gap between himself and Rhea. Aries locked eyes with Sirius as he raised the two rings, he had asked Aries to pull from the vault for this exact occasion. Aries could see his Mum, her soul had no colour but her hair spilled around her shoulders in loose waves, her eyes were golden and Aries could see his features in her face. His Da on the other hand was taller than the 5’3’’ of his mother, standing at 6’2’’, his hair was messy, but in the artfully windswept way, he too had golden eyes and features that Aries recognised.
“Sirius…” Aries heard his da’s voice, it had a strange tinny quality to it, like someone was speaking through a sheet of metal.
“James!” Sirius was in tears as he placed his hand against the barrier, Da did the same thing. His mum however had broken away from his da and was standing in front of him.
“Harry, it’s wonderful to see you again.” Aries cringed, he had hoped that Mum and Da might know he had changed his name but it seemed not.
“I… I go by Aries now.” He replied
“Aries then, still, you have grown up so well.” Aries had a bit of an advantage compared to normal wixen, so long as his Master was touching his astral form, anchoring him to the circle, he could touch the spirits summoned. For the first time in fourteen years, exactly, Aries melted into the arms of his mum. Aries felt his Master’s arms tighten just slightly as his dad came over from Sirius and joined the hug, Sirius was hovering just behind Master Shiki, hand placed on the barrier but not moving. There were tears all around as Aries continued to hug them. Eventually Master Shiki jostled the hug, gently but firmly pushing his mum and da away. While Aries could hug them, considering that his astral form was radiating Soul Magic, he couldn’t touch the spirits for too long, it would weaken his soul and make it more likely for him to end up following the spirits back beyond the veil.
“Oh, kiddo, you have no idea how proud of you we are.” His da’s eyes were teary as he ruffled Aries’ hair, “you’d better be looking after our Prongslet, Padfoot.”
“What do you take me for Prongs?” Sirius joked through tears, “Aries is a fine young man, he’s learning to be a Necromancer under Master Shiki here and he is becoming a Parsel Healer under Madam Pomfrey and Guildmaster Fydi.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, I am Shiki Necrothys Grey, I promise to continue to teach young Aries, he is my student, and my spouse’s apprentices his siblings.” Shiki then tapped his fist to his chest in a salute and nodded his head.
“Please do, Little Rhea has hovered near sometimes, but they never approached, I hope they will now they know.” His mum smiled and looked over at Rhea who grinned and waved. “We are so proud of you, kiddo, keep being you.”
“We all love you, there are about seven generations of Potters waiting on this side of the veil to meet you, but take your time, we don’t want to see you over here for another century at least, okay?” His dad added, Aries just teared up again and nodded.
“I love you; I’ll try to send messages with Rhea but… not often, I don’t want to abuse the privilege.” Aries spoke through tears and a wobbly smile, he was happy, his parents were proud of him, they and the rest of his magical family were waiting for him.
Aries watched as Mum and Da moved back towards Death, they bowed to the being and then stepped into his shadows. It was better this way; by choosing to go they spared Aries and his dad the pain of having to watch them be dragged away. The various necromancers in the circle were all urging people to say their goodbyes, the connection could only be maintained for ten minutes with this sort of mass summoning, once the sun had moved too far away from the horizon and the last dregs of dusk swept away by the night the veil began to get thicker again, it became harder to keep the mass gate open.
Eventually most of the spirits had returned to the embrace of death and the being only had to pull a couple of stubborn spirits back using their shadows. Once the final spirit was gone, Death was supposed to depart and then they could close the circle; but the being shrunk down to about half of their former height and began to approach. Aries wasn’t sure why the being of death would be walking to their part of the circle but the only season that Aries could think of was Rhea, being a literal Child of Death rather than a metaphorical one like Necromancers were.
“My child,” Death brushed their hand over the braids on Rhea’s head, “I am glad to see you doing well.”
“Thank you, father.” Rhea bowed, as much as they could with Teacher Syl still holding onto their shoulders.
“Guide Sylvester, please continue to look after my child.” Death turned their faceless visage to Teacher Syl.
“Of course, my lord.” He replied, nodding his head. Death returned the nod and swept over to Aries.
“Take good care of my cloak, Little Hallow, perhaps one day I may find a friend in you.” Strangely enough, Aries wasn’t terrified, the literal personification of Death was staring at him, talking to him, but it wasn’t scary. It was like talking to an uncle, someone you didn’t really know but had been vouched for by your parents. Aries nodded.
“Yes sir,” he smiled, the being radiated peace into the magic of the circle and nodded, returning to the centre.
“Now then, until next time my children.” Death spoke those final words and allowed themselves to grow to fifteen feet tall again. Once more they spread their arms and dissolved into shadows, ending the ritual. As was normal with the end of a ritual, the barriers shattered with a harmonic ringing sound and the silver particles of the Necromancer’s markings rose into the sky with the barrier particles, Turning the once cloudy night sky into a sea of stars. The Necromancers all rejoined their bodies, sitting up still in place to watch the particles rise.
In the aftermath of the ritual Aries shared a meal in a restaurant with his Necromancy family and his dad who had joined them after the circle.
“You okay pup?” He asked.
“Yeah, I’m okay, just very glad I got to meet them properly.” Aries smiled, today had been good.
“Call me tomorrow morning, I want to check on you again.” Aries knew that his dad was a worrier so he nodded.
Eventually the group of them parted ways, Dad back to Grimauld Place after confirming with Master Shiki that he would be along next weekend to shift over the Fidelius, Aries was headed back to Hogwarts via a crystal left in the curtains of his bed and the rest of his Necromancy family back to their home in Dead End.
----- Severus’s PoV -----
Once Aries and his family had left the castle, heading for Avalon Severus turned to Dumbledore, who looked ready to blow his top, “why would you undermine me? Do you not know your place? The work I had to do to keep you?” The man hissed, while he had cast an anti-eavesdropping spell, he was still confronting Severus in public, right outside the gates.
“Do you know how many letters me and the other heads of houses got in response to the Umbridge Debacle? Thousands. Every parent sent several, we almost had a Ministerial Declaration forcing us to go through this process, if they had found out you’d undermined the efforts to keep the school safe then you would have been lynched.” Severus wasn’t mincing his words, Dumbledore needed to understand the severity of the actions he had been ignoring and refusing to complete. “They found a Horcrux, in this school!” Severus hissed, “I know you don’t want them to become common knowledge but those things are dangerous! Look at what one did two and a half years ago! We had a basilisk on the loose!”
“I see,” the man clearly couldn’t see but that was beside the point, “we will move this conversation to my office, I will meet you there with the other heads of houses.” With that Dumbledore cancelled the spell and apparated away. Severus sighed, opening the smaller gate built into the large gate and slipped inside, assisting Minnie with dispersing the children back to their common rooms. At the same time, he flagged down both Pomona and Filius, informing them of the planned meeting shortly. Once the children were all on their way to the castle he joined up with his fellow heads of house and cast another anti-eavesdropping charm.
“Dumbledore doesn’t know how close her skirted to being arrested for his mismanagement,” despite the spell he spoke softly, keeping his expression as neutral as possible, he heard Minnie sigh.
“I’m not entirely sure why we are surprised that this is the outcome,” Minnie confessed, “he seems so focused on the war and the bigger picture that he has forgotten that people he sees as pawns are indeed people too, they don’t like being pushed around at the whims of a chess master.”
“The number of letters I got from concerned family members is astonishing; I don’t even think that Dumbledore knows that we lost about twenty students who transferred to other schools.” Pomona sighed, she had her wand out and was fiddling with it, possibly a nervous impulse.
“Indeed, the goblins were less than pleased with the mismanagement of items they are sworn to manage, if that toad wasn’t in ministry custody with a full trial hanging over her head, then she would have been snapped up by us and sentenced to a lifetime in the mines.” Fillius was fingering a dagger they had pulled out from their sleeve; their voice had the slightest amount of growl to it; it seemed that Dumbledore had succeeded in pissing of his supposed closest allies.
“He is on the hunt for young talent, he seems to realise that his precious Boy-Who-Lived might be pulling away from him, I was interrogated the other day because of his new lesson choices, even then the old bastard doesn’t know about his extracurriculars or that he is wise to the man’s manipulations.” Severus had been summoned to the man’s office and interrogated for hours, he had been put under ligilimency by the man several times, it was only his skill as an occlumens, and the pre-warning Aries had given, that had allowed him to adjust the memories he had shown him, even then he had walked away from the meeting with a severe headache and persistent nausea that had followed him for the next two days. “Twice he has tried, unknowingly, to poach my nephew from their teachers, in front of their teachers, might I add. I am not sure if his faculties are leaving him but he seems to be losing all decorum that is expected of the headmaster, he might not be a noble but I know he was educated as one, his parents had enough money to afford it.”
“You’re right, I saw him try and poach the young apprentice who rather masterfully, might I add, fought off a Black Apparition, I am not sure who was more disgusted by it, he certainly didn’t endear himself to the international wixen there that day.” Filius had moved from just fingering the dagger and was now actively throwing it up and down, catching it by the hilt and the blade alternately. “He is lucky that Battlemaster Astoc didn’t decapitate him then and there for the slight.”
“That is very true, he also recently alienated the Order of the Pheonix by attempting to poach the same apprentice from his Necromancy Master, hence why they are here under a glamour and pseudonym. I should add that we will hopefully be ousting the man soon so feel free to sign up, we will be taking a much more proactive approach once the man is out of the way.” Minnie’s eyes glowed for a moment as her magic boiled within her.
“Well then, until then, we will continue to protect the students,” Pomona was firm, fist clenched around her wand, “even if it means we have to defy him.” Severus was glad, he had real allies in his fellow heads of house, he knew that with their assistance he would be able to protect the students of Hogwarts until such a time as the headmaster was relieved of his position.