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Tom Marvolo Riddle slowly bled the lifeforce out of Ginny Weasley. While he would have preferred speed in this case there was something delectable about feeling stronger every moment while she grew weaker. He had no idea that by slowly killing her he would end up tripping a critical protection with just enough time left to dissolve three critical seals on her magic. After taunting Harry Potter that he was too late to save Ginny, that she had been left so vulnerable and easy to manipulate, Tom paid no further attention to the young girl he had used for his ongoing resurrection. Tom was far too busy commanding the basilisk, now blind, ordering it this way and that to try to kill Harry Potter.
He didn’t feel anything until after Harry had killed his monster, though the lifeforce moving towards him had increased again instead of slowing to nothing as it should.
Then Ginny screamed. It rippled through his fragmented soul. He didn’t know what this was, but he knew it would disrupt his plans. Tom turned and rushed back towards her.
Harry felt Ginny’s scream too, deep inside him. He didn’t know what it meant but her scream gave Harry the distraction he needed to stab Riddle’s diary with one of the basilisk’s fangs. The effect was almost immediate, the diary wept ink and Riddle’s form, so close to corporeal again, began to fade. Harry fell back to the ground, and his own scream echoed Ginny’s in pain and need. Fawkes dropped one more tear into his open wound. The phoenix made eye contact with Tom’s spirit as he faded once more. Damn bird, was Tom’s final thought.
Worlds away, Yarrow Evanson was pulled from court. Thankfully nobody worth knowing would be insulted that he left suddenly, he was pulled away by a soulscream after all. He landed still in his court finery and did a quick switching spell as he looked around. There were several children on the floor of a damp cavernous room and one child, a very young inherited dragel, protecting several of the fallen. Yarrow felt a need to protect all of the children, of course, but he noticed that the pull his soul felt was towards the girl that was off to one side.
Yarrow moved towards her and received a growl from the conscious child, who appeared to be a very young alpha. Yarrow growled back, keeping one eye on the boy and one on his submissive. When he was comfortable enough with his location, he decided to see if the other alpha was capable of speech. “She is my submissive. I came to answer her cry. My name is Yarrow Evanson. Were you called by your own submissive?”
The boy nodded. It took him a moment to find his words. “Harry is my submissive. Ginny is yours.”
“Ginny.” Yarrow said, looking fully at her for a moment. He was reassured that the boy was not totally feral. “And who are they?” He gestured to the two red headed boys on the floor next to Harry. They looked like Ginny.
“Mine.” The boy answered.
Yarrow sighed. Before he could pry further several of the bonded for both circles arrived. Over the course of a minute another nearly two dozen bodies filled the large room. The other alpha growled at several of them, seemingly indiscriminately. Yarrow was also having some difficulty figuring out who would be in his circle. He didn’t feel comfortable with so many people near Ginny while she was so pale.
“All newcomers please make your way to a wall!” Yarrow called out. “Take the wall closest to the submissive you feel a draw towards.”
The other alpha grunted and gave a nod. Most of the newcomers listened, although some of them seemed to take positions near the various openings in the walls. Gheyo, probably. Yarrow couldn’t blame them for feeling uneasy.
One newcomer held up a hand and cast words into the air. I am a healer, may I please examine all of the wounded now?
“You may examine Ginny.” Yarrow told him. Yarrow looked at the other alpha. “Can he examine Harry and your twins?”
“Yes, he can.” A voice came from the wall before the alpha could respond. The man had hair similar in color to Ginny and the twins. “My name is Charlie Weasley, these three” he pointed out the redheads. “Are my siblings. And we consider Harry to be a member of the family.”
Harry’s alpha grumbled but nodded. The healer immediately moved towards Ginny and began casting. When he moved towards Harry and the twins Charlie moved too. “Alpha, my brothers were sealed three times. They’ll need a runemaster to unseal them before their inheritances can come out. If you’ll allow me to summon one here, I will not fight you for dominance.”
Yarrow and the alpha both growled at that. A thrice sealed inheritance? “Call them.” The alpha growled.
“Thank you, Alpha.” Charlie bowed his head. “You’re a Nott, right? What is your first name, Alpha?”
“Theodore.” The alpha said, sounding a little calmer. At his voice, Harry opened his eyes for a moment and Yarrow caught a flash of brilliant green. Harry’s eyes closed again quickly as the healer stepped towards him and began to scan. A phoenix, which Yarrow had missed in all of the commotion, flew towards the healer, landing on his shoulder. The healer yelped but then seemed to converse with the bird. It was all very interesting but Yarrow couldn’t help but fixate on Harry’s green eyes. They looked just like his Sire’s. His sire who had been missing for almost the entirety of his life. Without more thought Yarrow tugged on all of his parental bonds, hard.
He didn’t say anything but one of the newcomers who had come to stand by the wall on Ginny’s side approached him.
“Alpha.” She said, cautiously. “Is there still danger? Should we have the gheyo scout beyond the corpse of the monster?”
Yarrow shook himself internally. Monster? He looked around and a few meters behind Harry, blocked mostly by a large support pillar, was a basilisk. He had been too distracted by Ginny and Theodore, then Harry, to properly take in his surroundings. Some alpha he was.
Yarrow looked at the beta who had come over to him. Clearly his circle had felt it best to mirror Theodore’s. It was a good idea. Two soulscream formed circles in a tight area could get messy with emotions running high. Yarrow himself was used to dealing with high emotions, he blamed that on his focus on people rather than the basilisk. “That’s a good idea, thank you my beta.”
She smiled back at him and bowed. It seemed both betas were wise enough to avoid a fight at this stage. “We seem to each have an ace. Perhaps they could come up with a defense plan while the healer works and then we can begin introductions.” She had spoken quietly, but Yarrow decided to reply loud enough for all to hear clearly.
“Ah. I’ve already summoned my parental circle for assistance. Perhaps I should have waited until the gheyo had determined the level of risk, but my family are part of death’s hunt.” Yarrow admitted. There were a few raised eyebrows but no bonded of either circle seemed concerned. “Ace.” He called out and saw an appropriately strong looking gheyo step towards him. “If Theodore will allow, please coordinate your patrol and ensure we are safe. Then anyone in our circle who feels they can summon useful assistance should come to see me.”
Charlie stood behind Theo and whispered for a moment into his ear. Theo closed his eyes for a long moment and then spoke. “Ace.” Yarrow was surprised to recognize Hadrian Maruke as he moved towards Theo. “We are in the chamber of secrets in Hogwarts, a school for wixen on Earth. Dragel are considered extinct in this world, so please act carefully. I don’t know how Harry found his way here so I don’t know how to get out.”
The healer spelled out another few words into the air Fawkes says that there are many passages in and out of the chamber. He can show you one that leads to another child in need.
Maruke and the other ace looked to the phoenix who took off immediately. They followed the bird towards some rubble. Hadrian used his shadows to find an opening through and let the other ace know he would return with the child. It was only a matter of a moment before he was back with a confused and angry fifth red head.
“Ginny! Harry!” The boy cried out when he was brought into the room. He rushed towards his fallen sister and cradled her in his arms. When one of the gheyo growled without thinking the boy growled back. It wasn’t even a proper dragel growl, just retaliation and instinct.
“This is my sister!” The boy called out. “Is she going to be okay?”
The healer began to spell speak again and Yarrow read it aloud. “She will be okay. She should recover in another hour or two. Her life force was being siphoned away by something but it was restored. She gave a soulscream while unconscious. She’ll be very tired and likely cranky when she wakes up.”
The boy snorted. “Nothing new there. What about Harry?” He looked around and did a double take at his older brother. “Charlie? What are you doing here?”
Charlie looked to Theodore before he walked over to kneel by his youngest brother. “Ron. What happened? Harry and Ginny both gave soulscreams. Is the chamber closed?”
“If that’s a dead basilisk over there, then it looks like it.” Ron said. “And what’s a soulscream, Charlie? What’s wrong with Ginny and Harry?” Ron gave a closer look to Harry and noticed two tufts of red hair on either side of him. “Why are Fred and George here? How did they get hurt?”
“They arrived just after I did.” Theodore said. “And then immediately collapsed on either side of Harry.”
It seemed no one had all of the pieces of the puzzle except perhaps for Harry and Ginny, who were in no place to give answers yet. Charlie had enough of the basics though. Ron, Harry, and Ginny had come to the Chamber of Secrets. There had been a fight with a basilisk. Ginny didn’t seem to have been involved as she was neither petrified nor dead. Harry though had a large red wound on his arm and a fang in his hand.
Charlie was about to speak to everyone gathered, which was both circles minus a few gheyo who had begun to spread out to find the various entrances and exits that Fawkes mentioned. But then there was a portal. Two people arrived, one of whom looked far too much like a torvak for any dragel’s comfort. The other one looked almost familiar too . . .
“Mera?” Yarrow said, not quite believing it. “Mera Jun?”
The woman looked at him head to toe. “Yarrow?” She asked, tears welling up in her eyes. “My baby boy?”
“Not for a while now.” He told her. It hurt. He’d called for her so many times before. Pulled and pulled at their bond. But if she could come any time, he was glad she came now. “Mera, do you feel any bonds here besides ours?”
His mera looked at him strangely. “Who else is here, Yarrow?” She felt around for bonds and noticed a new one. She followed it across the room to the unconscious submissive boy. “Who is he?” He felt like one of hers. “Did, did my circle have another child while I was gone?” She let out a sob that began to spiral. “I should have been here to protect him!”
Theodore stepped in front of her. “What did you say your name was?”
“Jun Evanson. Please, young alpha, let me see my son.”
Theodore shook his head. “Harry’s mother was named Lily. And she’s been dead for a decade. But” he looked at Charlie who nodded from his place beside Ron. “You do look rather a lot like her, once Harry is awake and we can confirm it, I’ll let you see him.”
“I feel the bond.” Jun insisted. “You said his mother’s name was Lily? That makes Harry Yarrow’s nephew.”
She turned to look at Yarrow. “How did Lily die?”
Yarrow didn't know how to respond. Jun repeated herself. It had been decades but Yarrow still remembered what his Mera's emotions felt like when they were beginning to overwhelm their bond like they were right now. She asked him again. Yarrow didn't know what else he could say but, "Who is Lily?"