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Black Shadow Moon
With a towel slung low on his hip, Charlie turned from the bathroom to the dresser tucked into the corner of the room. In no time, he had donned clean clothes and was ready for supper. A soft smile tugged at his lips as he reached for his wand at the top of the dresser. His thumb slid over the willow, and with a practiced flick the dragon-heartstring core sang and dried his long red curled mess.
He holstered his wand and reached over to pocket the emergency portkey galleon Bill gifted him for Christmas two years ago. His fingers grabbed the galleon’s metallic surface, and his heart panicked as the coin burned hot between his fingers. Terror in his heart bled out like ice when he looked down at the italic letters inscribed in it. Family under assault.
With the realisation that his pack wasn’t safe, his wolf roused from slumber, it’s hackles prickled under Charlie’s skin. Without a glance at his room, he whispered the portkey’s activation. The world faded before he uncoiled into utter pandemonium.
“Char!” A dragon tooth scraped along his cheek, ash-covered arms encircled his neck, and the trace of apple pie and sweltering summer nights blanketed him.
“Bill!” Charlie’s soul sang with the ballad of home, as he enfolded his older brother — amidst spell-fire and cracks of magic — tight into broad arms. The war had kept them apart with Charlie’s mission to assure Voldemort would never obtain dominance over dragons and their magic. Often he wished he could come home for a variety of reasons. Now, here he was. In Grimmauld Place, with Bill in his arms and his pack of Weasleys nearby. It was home, or almost was. No matter how unclear the reason for his presence, it was already too short.
The wolf howled and whined for his mate at the thought, but he pressed the beast down. Spell-blows jarred and scraped the outside of the wards, a clear proof they were under attack. He looked at several members of the Order spread out around the room. Everyone looked ragged and drained. Yet they waved their wands in complete concentration and chanted and spelled wards into the stones, floors and windows.
Each impact on the shields raked his senses, and his mind spun from the comfort of family, to morph into an Alpha mindset. His heavy hands landed on Bill’s shoulders and levelled his gaze with him.
“Short rundown,” he said and winced when a black curse crawled against the wards and flayed the inside of his skin.
“The Fidelius broke, Death Eaters are fighting to get in, and we are running out of manpower to secure this place. You once told me about a spell you designed to safeguard the houses at the dragon reserve against the weight and magic of the dragons. I hoped you could help,” Bill’s said. His eyes focused on him, and Charlie’s heart stopped at the belief painted on his brother’s face.
“Bill—”
“Fleur is here, and pregnant with our first child. The house is filled with muggle-borns and deserters. Harry blocked the Floo’s for protection. However, this also means we can’t get people in, nor out. I only just remembered the emergency portkey you carry on you. If the Death Eaters get in—oh, Merlin—it will be a bloodbath. We are cornered, Charlie,” he said, “Anything at this point is more hopeful than what we have.”
Charlie’s senses warred for control.
Pack—I have to protect the pack. Get Mate to our side, his wolf snapped.
Charlie shook his head and tried to focus under the duress of wards that screamed for his help and the cries of his wolf who whined what it had longed for so long.
Bill seemed to perceive his need for space and hauled him further into the kitchen of the house. Evidence of battle was all around. Cracked walls and scorched tapestry still smoked and around the kitchen table as the wood chips of what must have been the chairs littered the floor. It was also empty, the quiet space that Charlie needed to settle himself back into control.
Bill leaned against the kitchen counter and looked at him. Charlie’s ears flattened, even in human form. He didn’t want to let down his pack, but what Bill asked of him would throw many years of hard, painful work into dust.
In his inability to settle, Charlie paced the length of the room like a cornered animal as he considered his options. In a steady stream of growls, he attempted to analyse the situation the Order had thrown him in from all angles. Broken ceramic crunched under his feet and the burned tang of magic itched his nose. Merlin, how he wanted to pull his mate to him and rub off the foul scent of black magic that the house covered him in.
There lies the problem.
His family doesn’t know about the wolf he shares his soul with, and telling them now wasn’t in his plans. However, if this haven were to fall into the Death Eaters’ hands, it would destroy all the work his Mate had done. He could try the spell without him, even though he already knew it would not be powerful enough.
Anything at this point is more hopeful than what we have.
“I could try, but I can’t promise—” the door opened, and he turned to see Ron fly into the room.
“Charlie,” he shouted. The impact of his brother's weight collided with Charlie’s bulk and he felt Ron’s arms wrap around his neck, chin dropped on top of his head. When did his little brother get so tall? Charlie wrapped his arms around the tall man, and buried his nose in the crook of Ron’s neck. The Wolf inhaled the potent scent of broom wax and chocolate that made him chant ‘safe’.
He smiled and opened his eyes to Harry and Hermione covered in soot behind Ron. Hermione’s scent excluded chocolate and broom wax under the faint essence of books and parchment. With a smile, he realised his brother had claimed his mate, though if he realised himself was another question.
“Ron,” Charlie said as he patted his brother on his back. “You have been busy,”
Charlie released his brother and Ron took a step back and rubbed the back of his neck, the same way he did as a child when embarrassed.
“Yes, well, ya know,” he smiled. “I try to do what I can, though it seems we just get our side into more trouble,” and the apples of his cheeks dusted a deep red, as he waved a hand in Harry’s direction. “Mom and Dad are with the others who are either too young—or have no battle experience. It would be great if you could help us figure out how to protect them. We are running on fumes.”
He could not just try, he had to succeed. His pack was here and they could die if he failed. There was no time, no matter what his mate, and him had planned.
“No,” he turned to Bill, “I can do the spell, but you won’t like what I need to do to succeed.”
“Do you think I care at this point Char? I’ll do anything, If you can secure this place.”
“Anything? No questions asked?”
“Anything,” said both Bill and Ron into the destroyed kitchen.
“All right,” Charlie nodded. “I’ll need access to a sizable room, five couples in love—not just married—ten minutes of focus, and everyone’s explicit trust that I know what I’m doing. Most important, I need you to know—” his shoulders slumped.
So many years of secrecy, and this is how it came out.
“I’m a mated werewolf. I must call my mate to my side to do this spell, and I won’t have time to explain why or how until this battle is over. I need you to promise me,” his gaze bore into each person in the kitchen, “that no harm will come to my mate when I call him to me. I need your explicit trust in me, no questions asked.” Charlie said, as his gaze jumped between Bill and Ron.
“Of course!” Bill said, his eyes wide. “You are my brother, Char. I’ll fight by your side always with all I have!” Ron stood to the side, with Hermione clung to his right side and Harry to his left. He nodded in agreement.
Harry shuffled to lean on his other leg and said, “The master bedroom at the top of the house is the largest.”
“Right.” Charlie said and paced the length of the room again as he considered how best to phrase his next comment. “Meet me with the couples on the top floor then,” he said and stalled because he knew this complicated things more, “The spell requires us to be naked. Nothing sexual, but the spell will be more powerful when done without the influence of fabric. We must also clear the room as much as we can.” Charlie looked around. Four sets of wide eyes looked at him, but nodded. The scratched sound of a cutting curse cracked a wall.
“Right,” Hermione said and as she clapped her hands, she pulled the attention towards herself. “Ron, Harry and Bill, you’re in charge of the couples. I’ll take Charlie up to the master bedroom and help him set up.”
Grimmauld shook and moaned as he followed Hermione up the stairs towards the master bedroom. He trailed his hand along the banister and infused soft spikes of his magic with her and asked permission to help. With a lick of magic against his palm, she accepted his help. They entered the room, Hermione whipped out her wand and spelled furniture against the walls. Charlie growled as another sinister curse scraped over the wards, and elongated his fangs.
“Wait,” he said and motioned Hermione to stand behind him. She nodded confused, but moved as he ordered. The moment she was behind him, Charlie gathered his magic within and let the beast prowl to the surface. The tooth cradled against his chest flared as he harvested the magic of the house, the wolves, and his own. The combination snarled and bit at him before he let go.
The room lit up in a flash of magic that nudged him back. The furniture left in the room stood stacked against the wall. The magic settled around him in soft blue sparks. Hermione gasped and pressed to his back, her heart a wild thud.
“I’m not just any Alpha darling,” Charlie wrapped her into a quick hug, before his hand clasped around the tooth and lifted it from his neck. In four steps he moved to the centre of the room and with diligence, carved runes of light into the wooden floor. When done, Charlie placed the tooth back to wait for the rest to arrive.
Hermione’s eyes darted around the room, and Charlie could imagine the cogs in her head. Before he could ask, the door opened and his parents stepped through it. The nearness of his mother and father loosened something in Charlie’s chest. Home and pack feelings reverberated through the room, and even Molly’s hard gaze on him didn’t deter it.
“Charlie,” Molly said as she folded her arms around him. “Why didn’t you tell us? Merlin child, we would have understood.”
Charlie smiled into red and grey pepper curls. “Maybe Mum, but you don’t know the whole story yet.”
She clung onto him, while his father settled beside him, a firm clasped hand on his shoulder. More people entered the room after them and Charlie stood tall when Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy entered, followed by Ron, Bill and Fleur, and the Longbottom and Lovegood heirs. Harry clung to the doorframe, an unsure look on his face and said, "Five couples."
Charlie’s wolf roared as he looked at Fleur. Wide eyed in realisation, he turned to his older brother, “Bill you can’t do this. Fleur is pregnant and I don’t know how this might affect the unborn child. My wolf fights it. She can’t be part of this. Is there any other couple in the house that can take your place?”
The room became silent around him. “This is all we have got,” Bill looked at his family, while Fleur pushed back deep into his embrace.
“I’m sorry Bill, but the wolf’s instincts are incomparable. If it rallies against this, we can’t do this with your wife while she carries. It might not affect the magic of an unborn child, but if the wolf deems it unsafe for unborn cubs, I’ll trust it. This is powerful, uncharted magic I’m about to manipulate. Tisn’t anybody I know else besides my mate and me who can wield it,” he said, and the words soured in his throat. The inability to protect his pack would cripple him, but he knew to trust his wolf.
The air stailed with the odor of suppressed swears, before rushed footsteps echoed the hall moments later, and the door opened. Harry entered and pulled a red-faced Draco Malfoy by the hand. “We could stand in for them!”
“Draco!” Lucius said, but before he could say anything else, Narcissa cleared her throat.
Draco stood tall, bright read and attempted to look nonchalant, but he pulled Harry close and curled an arm around his waist. Fresh newly mated scent clogged Charlie’s nose. Their magic was thick and compatible, his wolf purred. A new powerful couple for his pack made the wolf snap in glee.
“Yes,” he smiled at Harry, “You will do.” He winked before dust that percolated down the ceiling, diverted attention. There was little time left then to call his mate, and he knew that neither the people in this room—nor his Mate—would be happy about it.
An enormous crack echoed through the room and for a second, the wards bent to give out. On instinct, he reached out and planted his hand against the wall to let some of his magic flow from his fingers. It roared and licked its way down his arms as she accepted the small gift and deemed her hold a little longer.
“We have little time left. The house struggles to hold on, she is almost depleted of her magic reserves,” he said and gestured to Bill. “You can stay in the room if you don’t get in the way, but Fleur should leave. I’m sorry,” His gaze settled on Fleur, one edge of his lips in a slight upturn in silent forgiveness. “I’ll see you after, when the wards are up. Fleur, I need you to gather everyone in the house.” Charlie closed his eyes and let his magic reach into the house’s wards, “go to the potions lab in the basement. That is the strongest warded room in the house. If this—” he said and waved a hand around the room, “—fails, we’ll fight them off as long as my Mate needs to secure a Floo.” Charlie could sense the questions dense the room, but true to their word, they didn’t question it.
He swung his arm in a half-moon rotation, “Please stand and face me, coupled with your partner in a half-circle around the runes I drew on the floor. I will key you all into the rune circle I drew, and when I’m done, it’s important you stay there. Under no circumstance can you step off your rune. If the circle brakes, the spell fails, and I won’t be able to build up enough power to do it again before the wards fall.” Another crack boomed and the outer wall fissured from the roof to floor under the impact.
Charlie’s gaze fell on Bill’s panicked one and understood, “Go,” he ordered. “Go into the potions room with them, lock them in, and protect them.”
He witnessed the conflict in his brother’s eyes before resolution hardened them. Bill grabbed Fleur’s wrist and pulled her out of the room. The door closed with a bang and hurried footsteps receded down the stairs.
“Son,” Arthur’s voice reached him and Charlie realised they were all standing at the ready, wand in hand. “Tell us what to do.”
“Right,” he pulled the wolf tooth from his neck and moved to Ron and Hermione who stood closest to him.
“There is so much you don’t know, and I don’t have the time to explain—maybe later if this all works. Long tale short,” he said as he drew runes before the pair. “I possess a unique ability to wield magic. It came about because of my wolf, my mate-bond, and a draught that once spared my life,” he walked to his parents.
“I can access wild magic, both wizard and creature, and direct it to an extent,” he shrugged. The gasps that bloomed the room made his wolf preen. “This spell will pull wild magic from all five elements and weave a shield over the house that I’ll anchor to the heart of the house. This means that only the owner of the house can give people access to the place after this spell roots. The people inside at the time of the spell will be keyed in until they leave.”
He moved to Luna and Neville and began their runes. “For the spell to have the most effect, everything in the rune circle needs to be as bare as possible. This means all participants need to be as naked as they are comfortable with. Anything wizard or muggle made will interfere with the spell. However—” he moved over to Draco and Harry. “If you are uncomfortable, I won’t be able to pull as much magic through you. So only go as far as you can.”
He moved over to Narcissa and Lucius. “Once I call upon elemental magic, it’s too unstable to flow together in one room. That’s why I pull the magic into your magical cores and hold it there until I can harvest it together and pass it into my Mate. He will weave it to a core it and create a magical source to store the core in before he links it to the house’s heart. We are to create a second heart of the house, centred purely on the wards.”
The room was silent as he raised himself and stood back in the circle of his runes. Without question, he divest himself of clothes as the others did the same. When done, he spelled the pile to the wall. To his surprise only his mother and Hermione had left their undergarments on, the rest stood unapologetic and naked before them.
“Good, I’ll be able to summon my mate to my side, but when I do this, my wolf will manifest in some ways. I won’t transform so you are in no danger. Stay where you are though, you need to only let the magic run through you. It won’t hurt, but there is the minor side effect of hoarding a wild string of magic. Your cores will be more charged for a few days, so cast at half power.” By now his mind was almost running on instincts. His voice monotone and movements practiced.
“Charlie?” Luna’s melodic voice pulled him back into reality. “Who is your mate?”
And there it was. The one thing he did not want to say, hoping that when they saw them together they understood. Three series of sharp cracks thundered and shook the house. Time was up.
“You will know soon enough. Be ready. Stand on your rune no matter what! I’ll call my mate now and start the spell as soon as he arrives. It should not take long,” he said and closed his eyes.
He pressed his feet into the groves of the wooden slabs and centred himself to the ground. The fang on the floor vibrated along with magic. A sharp breath let his wolf rise to the surface. The violence of their combined magic burned hot around his core. It snapped and barked. The beast filled his veins, lengthened his bones and forced his fangs out. A steady growl formed in his throat, the resonance and melody formed the call for his mate. The wolf howled in exuberance. It had been so long since they allowed him to touch, to claim.
Charlie’s Wolf magic pulled around himself and he brought his arm in a wide arch and opened his eyes with a sharp whine, to air that shimmered a pale blue before him. The room sparked bright as more Wolf poured into the call. Wind picked up and tousled his hair. His eyes sharpened and the wolf took over. Gold vignetted his vision as the black contour of a person shimmered into the arch that swirled before him. Magic snapped in electric fissures around the air, as his Mate’s magic answered his call. The growl in his throat increased and deafening thunder shuddered the room around him as the silhouette of his Mate became definite in the mass of churned pale blue magic.
Black hungry eyes latched onto his own golden ones. A pale boney face, slightly parted pink lips, and black raven hair appeared as his Mate crystallised into existence. The calling magic fractured in a raucous growl the moment his Mate stood before him. It clicked into silence.
Charlie’s elongated fingers reached out, “Dragostea mea.”
“Ma Moitié,” the black silken whispers escaped in a breath before his mate moved.
They collided in sheaths of magic and limbs, every cell in Charlie’s body mended against the skin of his mate. Their magical cores sang in happiness and kindled in golden sparks so big they swelled the room. Thick golden and black ribbons slid over their skin, fuzing them together again to claim in a cutting force, before it settled in low grunts.
“Severus,” Charlie whined and buried his nose into the fragile skin under his Mate’s ear. He sniffed deep and bit down to mark him. Severus shuddered and tightened his grip around his waist. He wanted to bite his Mate down and rub his scent all over and in him, but there was no time. His wolf growled and severed the inside of his skin in a crescendo of rage.
Charlie released Severus and thrust him an arm’s length away. Hands still on his shoulders he looked Severus in the eye, “I had no choice, Grimmauld is under attack, the Fidelius broke, and we need to ward this place before it falls.”
To help emphasise the need, the house screamed in despair as it held onto its last wisps of magic.
“I understand. We’ll make alternative strategies.”
Severus shifted to face the group in the room. Charlie turned with him, and trailed his hand from shoulder to elbow, not amenable to let go. Every single individual trembled before them, wands pointed straight at Severus. Rage in each set of eyes, a rage his wolf wished to scorch down to ash, and howl to destroy. If only they knew!
“Trust me!” Charlie barked into the room, eyes open in a golden glow. A second the room suspended in silence, but by a screech of the house the bubble bursted and even those who couldn’t communicate with wards shuddered. Charlie’s wolf roared, wands dropped, shoulders straightened, and within seconds raw magic snapped into the room. At once Severus pulled off his black robes, tore his blouse off and dropped shirtless to one knee, head bowed.
Charlie placed a hand on his hair and curled clawed fingers into black stands. The wood under his feet shuddered and as the house bled in pain. Charlie’s magic responded and dove deep into the ground, beyond timber and stone, beyond earth and rocks, farther into the heated core and magic that sustained life. A series of growls chanted and pleaded to urge magic to rush to the surface. The ropes came slow but persistent, and as thick turquoise smoke saturated the room, Charlie harvested it and steered them into the magical cores of Ron and Hermione. They clutched hands between them together and choked. Their eyes lit up aqua blue, but they held still.
A deep, low whine called upon the airs of the soulful lands, and his wolf pleaded for its protection. When it roared, it filled the room with thick white fog. Charlie once again reaped the magic as he grabbed onto the fibres of air magic and directed them into the cores of his parents. They too remained still, except for their hair that blew in a wild mess around them.
Satisfied, Charlie conjured flame into existence with a flip of fingers, and he concentrated on its heat. He reached deep into the core of fire and called upon the fire druïden. The moment it took for them to answer was breathless, but when they did, the full force of fire magic invaded the room, it expanded up in flames that licked cold on skin. With a grunt, he amassed the wild power and commanded them to the cores of Luna and Neville. Their skin danced with red and orange flames, eyes deep red. They too stood still.
His magic sputtered, and the runes blinked. At once, the magic of his Mate rose and slid into his own core. With it he invoked a sphere of water to petition for the support of the water nymphs. The beautiful magic responded by flooding the room in the clearest water that lapped at their legs. With borrowed force, he threw it into the cores of Lucius and Narcissa, whose eyes turned silver, and their bodies leaked water.
Last he called upon the Gods of time and space. He urged his conscience to fly outwards and prayed with the Gods to help them protect these people against evil. When it responded, the room fell into pitch-black, before it lit with every star in the solar system. Charlie harvested the strings and directed its force into the cores of Harry and Draco. Their hands clasped tight together, their body’s leaked light and their eyes turned black as the night. Charlie grunted in appreciation. It was the strongest magic to hold on to, and they stood still.
With the room overflow in magic, it pressed down harsh on all those in it. All ten cores hummed with wild magic and his wolf subdued to coiled itself around his own joint core. Charlie’s hand tensed in his Mate’s hair to let him know he should prepare. He reached out with lashes, seized all the ten strands of magic and pulled.
They jerked and snarled. They seared his lungs and scraped along his bones as he pressed it down his arm and into his Mate. Severus tensed under him and he poured his own magic into his Mate’s core. His teeth gritted, and witnessed space bent outwards, expand to something bulbous and alive, before it snapped back and an orange scaled dragon egg appeared under Severus’s hands.
Magic moved inside his Mate and choked him as he forced himself to centre the wild magic. Charlie sensed Severus weave and shape the strands of magic into one magnificent core. It held, and the moment the last strings weaved together, Severus’s voice reverberated over the fracture of magic,
“Tutus ab omni periculo per robus nexui a lupum!”
The new core of wild magic responded with glee as it rushed into the egg, and left the room bare of light. Then, the pulse of a heart bled into life. The house trembled, relieved when the orange egg lit up and descended into the floor, tethering the new wards to its heart.
The utter silence of the room was numbing. They heard no curses, no sounds, and nobody dared to breathe.
Snape stood. The symbol on his breast burned golden. His eyes—pitch black—shifted to Charlie. In the silence, and under the glares of the group, he raised his hand and slid it over Charlie’s cheek. His forehead came to rest against his, his breaths in wisps over his lips. Charlie pulled him close and breathed him in deeply, elongated fingers sank into damp black strands.
Their lips met in a desperate kiss. The wolf bit and tangled, and his Mate answered with viscous need. Before his wolf could mould his mate to himself, Severus tore away and without a glance at anyone but Charlie, he strode into the Floo.
Charlie saw the lone tear spill onto the pale cheek, and his eyes closed in grief so visceral it shredded along every nerve. Severus threw a handful of Floo powder, cried out his Hogwarts rooms, and disappeared in flames of green.
Charlie’s gaze found the silent people before him.
“Safe,” he whimpered before he crumpled to the floor and let darkness engulf him to take with it the pain.
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Tutus ab omni periculo per robus nexui a lupum!, Latin- Saved from all danger by the force of the link of the wolf.
Ma Moitié, French- My half.
Dragostea mea, Romanien- My love.
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