Harry Potter and the Riasc Stone

Chapter Two: Spontaneous Magic

"You knew our father?" Adara asked, breaking the silence that had engulfed them after Remus' statement. Rigel was unable to speak, and no one had for quite a long time.

"Yes, I did," Remus replied. "Very well in fact. He was a very good friend and a very good man."

"Well, our father is in prison," Rigel replied. "Couldn't have been that good of a man if he blew up a city block."

"Actually, your facts on that are a bit out of date, Mr. Black," Professor Dumbledore said. "But we will have time to discuss all of this later."

"Later?" Adara asked. "Are we going somewhere with you?"

"The entire story is a bit long and complicated," Professor Dumbledore said. "But, yes, you two will be accompanying us back to England."

"Why are we going to England?" Rigel asked.

Professor Dumbledore exchanged a look with Remus and then looked at Headmaster Quick.

"Herald, they are your students, so I will let you tell them what has happened," Professor Dumbledore said.

A pained expression crossed Headmaster Quick's face and he turned to the twin teens.

"There was an attack in a wizarding part of London," Headmaster Quick began. "Right now England is in the beginning of a war against a dark wizard, and some of his henchmen attacked Diagon Alley. Your mother was there and... well... she didn't make it. Your mother instructed Mr. Lupin to take care of you. When you began school here years ago, unbeknownst to anyone but me, Mr. Lupin was put down on your school documents as your emergency guardian if anything were to happen to your mother."

"Mom's dead?" Adara asked and Rigel put his arm around her. She turned and cried into his shoulder and silent tears fell down Rigel's face.

"This can't be true," he said, a little above a whisper. "This can't be happening."

"I am very sorry for your loss," Headmaster Quick said.

"So we have to move to England?" Rigel asked, his temper beginning to flare. "Leave everything we know behind, just because mother appointed him our guardian? We don't even know them! How are you certain this story of theirs is true?"

"I have known Professor Dumbledore since our school days," Headmaster Quick replied. "He would not fabricate such a story."

"I can't believe this is happening," Adara said, turning away from her brother. "I can't believe you are making us leave."

"You will spend the summer at your family home in London," Professor Dumbledore said.

"We don't have a family home in London," Rigel snapped. "Mother was our family. We have no others."

"Please control your temper, Mr. Black," Headmaster Quick said.

"Actually, you do have family," Tonks spoke up. "I was your father's cousin, so that makes me your cousin as well. And the Weasleys are cousins twice removed. Or is it three times removed?"

"You will find that there will be many people willing to bring you into their family," Remus said. "And another orphan that might be willing to give you company. At least

I know he'd be intrigued to meet you."

Rigel looked at his sister. Both their tears had stopped falling from their identical gray eyes and Adara looked as tired as Rigel felt.

"When would we have to leave?" Rigel asked, looking back at the British wizards.

"Unfortunately as soon as possible," Professor Dumbledore replied. "Like Headmaster Quick explained, we are in the beginning of a war and times are not safe. We wish to get you to the secured location as soon as possible, without arising too much suspicion of our absence."

"You are already packed, are you not?" Headmaster Quick asked. Adara and Rigel nodded and the headmaster continued. "Well, I'll have your trunks brought here. I must insist that you three join us at our Leaving Feast, Albus. Traveling on an empty stomach is never good for the soul."

"I suppose we can spare an hour or so, Herald," Professor Dumbledore replied.

"Rigel, Adara, would you please show Mr. Lupin and Miss Tonks to the Dining Hall?" Headmaster Quick asked. "I have a few more things to discuss with Professor Dumbledore and he needs copies of your transcripts."

"Yes, Headmaster," Rigel and Adara replied and lead the way out of the headmaster's office.

- - - - - - -

Harry stretched as the early morning light began to creep into his bedroom. Three whole days had gone by and no Aunt Petunia and no Uncle Vernon. Harry got up and quickly changed into shorts and a Gryffindor tee shirt. Grabbing his trainers, he crept down the hall and down the stairs careful not to wake Dudley.

He had gone for a run since the first morning after he had returned from school. At first it was an impulse, something to clear his head, and once he was actually running he found he rather enjoyed it. It wasn't up to par with flying, but the cool morning air in his face was refreshing.

Harry jogged in place outside of the front door. After he felt warmed up and felt the blood start to flow through his body again, he took off at a steady pace up Privet Drive. He had run the same way each morning, up Privet Drive, across the park, down Magnolia Road, up Wisteria Walk and then back down Privet Drive. He found the entire thing took a little over an hour and was a nice warm up for the day ahead.

This particular morning did not go as Harry had planned. When crossing the park, he got the eerie feeling that he was being watched. He knew that this guard was around somewhere, but the feeling he was getting wasn't that of potential danger. Harry made a sudden stop and turned around, his hand going for his wand tucked under his shirt.

"Dudley?" Harry asked, seeing his overweight cousin trotting along behind him, breathing very heavily. "What in Merlin's name are you doing?"

"Following you," Dudley replied and collapsed onto the ground. "I saw you leave two mornings ago and then again yesterday morning. So today I decided to follow you. You run awfully fast, Potter."

"I was just having a morning run, Dud," Harry replied.

"But if you were getting out of that dreadful house than I was too," Dudley said.

Harry couldn't help but grin. His cousin's attitude towards their list of chores had been negative, but he did them none the less.

"What did you do, Dudley?" Harry asked and sat down beside his cousin. "To make Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon so mad at you."

Dudley's face went a bit red. "I, uh, got the boot from my school."

"You got expelled from school?" Harry exclaimed and Dudley nodded. "How did you manage that?"

"Got into a fight with Piers," Dudley replied. "Pier's mother threw a fit and insisted legal action be taken."

"You got in trouble with the police?" Harry asked. "For fighting?"

"Well, it got blown out of proportion and Mum and Dad wouldn't hear my side of it," Dudley replied. "Dad was more embarrassed for himself than for me. Said he's gotten into fights all the time at school and no one ever took notice. Said there must be something about me that the school didn't like, and of course that's my fault."

Harry frowned. "What's your side, then?"

Dudley glanced at him before looking back at the grass. "Piers was, erm, tormenting a girl in our year. He was being really rough and, uh, inappropriate with her. So I told him to stop, and we got into it. After everything, he said it was me who'd been hassling Angelica. And Angelica was too afraid of both of us to say anything. She just cried and didn't talk. So everyone thought it was me, and I got out of hand and then the police got involved." Dudley paused and Harry could not believe what he was hearing. Dudley was standing up for some girl against his own mate, and he got expelled for it.

"Mum and Dad had to come pick me up from school two weeks early," Dudley continued. "They'd never yelled at me like that. I mean, I've hear Dad go off on you, but they never actually yelled at me."

"The best way to get through those," Harry said, trying to lighten his cousin's mood, "is to think about something else. Like when Aunt Marge was here a couple summers ago, when ever she would start on me, I would think of my broom servicing kit, and remember exactly what it said, and replay it all in my head. Worked pretty well." Till you blew up your aunt.

"Broom?" Dudley asked. "You have a broom?"

"Yeah," Harry replied hesitantly. "You know to fly on."

"You actually fly on a broom?" Dudley asked. Harry wasn't sure if his cousin's tone was mockery or curiosity.

"Yeah," Harry repeated. "We have a sport, called Quidditch. I'm on my house team, have been since first year."

"Is the broom at the house?" Dudley asked and Harry shook his head.

"I got into a fight last year, and the broom was confiscated."

"You got into a fight?" Dudley asked and Harry nodded. Dudley was quite for a few more moments. "Do you... er... have anything else, you know, like you that I could see?"

"You mean anything magical?" Harry asked, surprised that his cousin was showing a genuine interest in Harry's magical life.

"I mean, I could beat it out of you, but you'd have to show me eventually," Dudley replied. "Might be easier for you if you just show me that way it saves me the time of rearranging your face."

Harry grinned, and tried not to laugh. His cousin was teasing him, actually teasing him.

"Sure thing, Dud," Harry replied and stood up. A mixture of emotions crossed over Dudley's face including worry, intrigue and last of all excitement.

"Don't tell Dad, though," Dudley said.

"I wouldn't dare," Harry replied. "Besides, then I'd have to tell him that there are magical things in his house."

Dudley agreed and they walked back to the house.

- - - - - - -

Molly Weasley was busy moving about her kitchen, careful not to let the bacon burn. She had been up for a few hours, careful not to wake her children. Though Ron and Ginny are hardly children anymore, she thought. With Bill and Charlie, and now George and Fred, all working for the Order, she felt she had to keep herself busy just to keep her mind off of things. And then there was Harry, he was just something different all together. He would always have a special place in her heart.

"Morning, Mum," Ginny said, coming into the kitchen.

"Good morning, dear," Molly said to her youngest child, handing her a cup of tea. "How did you sleep?"

Ginny gave a small grunt, which Molly took to mean that she hadn't slept well. Molly turned back to the bacon and eggs cooking on the stove, each murmuring small sizzles and pops are they cooked. Ginny looked much like she had when she was fifteen. Or almost fifteen, Molly thought. Molly would come down for breakfast, usually she was first to the table, but sometimes her brother Fabian would beat her there. Gideon was always late to wake in the morning.

Molly stiffened as her memory raced back. It had been in the morning when she had got that terrible fire call. The one that told her that her beloved brother's had died during the night.

"Molly Weasley!" a voice roared and she jumped at the sight of Professor Dumbledore's head in her fire. Her breath caught and she couldn't speak. Not again, not one of my boys. Please not Bill or Charlie or...

"Yes, Professor Dumbledore?" Ginny said to the headmaster's green head. She glanced at her mother, understanding about the fear that just flared in her brown eyes. "Mum's here."

"I have an enormous favor to ask of you, Molly," Professor Dumbledore began and Molly felt herself relax. He wasn't brining news of someone's death.

"Yes of course, Albus," Molly replied, finding her voice as her muscles unclenched around her lungs.

"There are two students that need to stay someplace," Professor Dumbledore continued. "They have recently been orphaned, and after this morning's events, I have no one to stay with them, and truth be told, they need a friendly face."

"Of course, Albus, send them along," Molly said.

"They are two fifteen year olds, Rigel and Adara," Dumbledore said, his mouth twitching at the corners. "Their mother continued the family tradition of naming them after night stars. You knew their father."

"How long can we expect them for?" Molly asked.

"Hopefully not longer than a day," he replied. "Once I pull two more orphans out of their current situation, we will all be able to go to Headquarters. All of us, Molly. I would like it if we could get you and Arthur and Ron and Ginny there as well."

"Yes, of course, Albus," Molly said.

"You should expect them along shortly," he said. "By portkey near the front garden. Say fifteen minutes?"

"We'll be here for them," Molly said. "Oh, Albus, who is their father?"

Professor Dumbledore's mouth twitched again. "Sirius Black."

- - - - -

"Wow," Dudley said. Harry grinned like a fool, watching his cousin flip through his copy of Quidditch Through the Ages. "And you can do this? Fly on a broom like this?"

"Yeah," Harry replied. "It's not that hard. Well, at least not for me. Quidditch talent is apparently in my blood, and I've always been able to do it."

"And they always move like this? It's like watching a little movie!"

Harry handed him his photo album after Dudley was finished with the Quidditch book. Dudley went through the pages slowly, listening as Harry commentated.

"That giant fellow gave this to me after my first year," Harry said. "Look, here's your mum. That was at my parents wedding."

"My mum was in their wedding?" Dudley murmured, more to himself than Harry. "Is that your mum?"

Harry nodded. "And my dad, and his friends."

"She's so pretty," Dudley replied. "I've never seen her before. I guess she'd be my Aunt then."

"Aunt Lily," Harry replied, "and Uncle James." If only Voldemort hadn't messed everything up.

"Who are these people?"

Harry looked at the new page. "Those are my best friends, Ron and Hermione. That was after a Quidditch match... And this one was during fourth year, after one of the Triwizard Tournament Challenges. I was one of the champions... This was Ron and I dressed up for the Yule Ball... Oh! This one is during the DA, that's the underground defense club we started last year. That is Ron' sister, Ginny hexing her boyfriend..." Harry's eye caught on another picture of Ginny and himself. She was smiling at him, and he was grinning back at her, it must have been when Ron made Keeper, because Ron was in the background talking to Katie Bell. It was one of the few color photographs Colin had made that year, and Harry noticed how beautiful her hair was. Long red hair, slowly turning to a deep auburn with maturity, yet the strawberry highlights the summer sun had brought out were slowly fading back into their deep red. Ginny looked so happy, Harry thought. She looked so beautiful.

Whoa, where did that thought come from? Harry asked himself. He glanced at Dudley, who had not been able to hear Harry's thoughts.

"You said this was your mate's sister?" Dudley asked.

"Yeah, Ron had just made the Quidditch team," Harry replied. "We were both happy for him."

"Does he know you look at his sister that way?"

Harry snapped his head up. "In what way?"

Dudley shrugged. "I dunno. Like that. You look like you really like her."

"I do like her," Harry replied. "She's a friend of mine."

"Not like that," Dudley said. "I mean like you like her more than a friend."

"That's absurd, Dudley," Harry replied, though he was not so sure of the truth to his words. Did he like Ginny Weasley? "Ginny is a friend." And she's loyal, and funny, and trust worthy, and brave and a hell of a flyer. "And she has a boyfriend." What was that Potter? Are you making up excuses why you can't be attracted to Ginny Weasley?

"If you say so, Potter," Dudley replied, and looked back at the pictures. Harry watched him flip through a couple more pages, and gave his input where appropriate, but his mind was now wrapped around the thought of Ginny Weasley.

"Potter, what was that?" Dudley asked and Harry looked up at him.

"What was what?"

"There was a noise downstairs," Dudley said. Alarm bells went off in Harry's head and he jumped to his feat.

Thump!

This time he heard it. There was no mistaking it, there was someone downstairs.

Harry grabbed his wand from the bedside table and moved quietly to the stairs.

"Stay here, Dudley," Harry whispered. He crept down the stairs and nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard Professor Dumbledore's voice calling his name.

"Ah, there you are, Harry," Professor Dumbledore said. The sight of his headmaster was not something Harry was eager to see, and he strived to keep his temper down. His last encounter with the headmaster had not been a pleasant one.

"I was upstairs," Harry said shortly. "What do you need Professor?"

"I'd like a word with you and your cousin, actually," Professor Dumbledore replied, realizing Harry was still cross with him.

"I'll get him," Harry said and went back to his room. "It's my headmaster, Dudley. He wants to speak to both of us."

"Is he a wiz... a wiz..."

"A wizard?" Harry supplied. "Yes, and he won't do anything to you. Come downstairs, and you'll see that he's all right."

Dudley looked skeptical.

"Trust me, Dudley," Harry replied. Dudley eyed his cousin for a long time before nodding and following Harry down the stairs.

Professor Dumbledore was seated at the table, three cups of steaming tea waiting for them.

"Dudley, this is my headmaster, Professor Dumbledore," Harry said and Dudley nodded.

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Dursley," Professor Dumbledore said. "I take it you've have nice summer?"

"Hardy, sir," Dudley replied, and clenched his knobby fingers around his cup of tea.

"Well, I'm not to make it any better," Professor Dumbledore said. "Harry and Dudley, I have some bad news for the both of you."

Harry's heart fell. If it was for the both of them, then surly that must mean...

"Harry, have you received the Daily Prophet yet?" Professor Dumbledore asked.

"That load of rubbish?" Harry asked, almost amused that Professor Dumbledore would think he would read it. "After everything they printed about me last year? No, sir, I don't read that paper."

"That is a pity," Professor Dumbledore replied and handed him the paper. "Let me know what you think about the cover story."

Harry glanced at the front page.

Fifty Muggle Deaths in South France- Suspected Death Eater Involvement

Muggles at a conference murdered in massive attack in Languedoc Roussillon

Harry looked up at Professor Dumbledore and then at Dudley. Harry didn't need the headmaster to say it. There would be no other reason he would be here, talking to both Harry and Dudley if it weren't true.

Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia were dead.

"When?" Harry asked.

"Very early this morning," Professor Dumbledore replied.

"When what?" Dudley asked. "What's happened?"

"Do you remember last summer when I told your mum and dad that Lord Voldemort had returned?" Harry asked and Dudley nodded. "Well, he is still out there. And this morning there was a huge attack on some Muggles that were at a conference, and Lord Voldemort was behind this attack. It was in south France, Dudley."

"No," Dudley said his face going white. "No, it can't be true."

"It is unfortunately true, Dudley," Professor Dumbledore said. "I am very sorry, but both your mother and father were killed. Their hotel was burnt to the ground."

"Stop it!" Dudley cried. "Stop saying this! I won't believe it!"

"It's true, Dudley," Harry said.

"No! No, its not! They are coming home in a week and a half and you'll see! You'll both see!"

"No, Dudley, they won't," Harry said.

"No! Be quiet! You'll see! Stop talking about it! Stop saying it! They're not dead! They're not dead!" Dudley was working himself into a frenzy now, and Harry glanced at Professor Dumbledore, not sure what to do. Professor Dumbledore didn't move.

"Dudley, please clam down," Harry began.

"No! Stop talking! Be quiet! Be quiet! Silence!"

For a moment Harry wondered if he had cast a spell, and decided that he hadn't even thought it and looked at Professor Dumbledore. The look on Professor Dumbledore's face indicated that he hadn't cast the spell either. The headmaster's eyes were wide in shock.

Somehow all the noise in the room had stopped. Dudley's mouth was moving but there were no sounds coming from him. There was no hum of electricity that was normally background noise in their lives. No sounds from the street, or the clock, or Dudley's chair as it fell. Dudley was frantically yelling something, but with no sound it was not clear what he was saying.

Harry stared at his cousin in shock and amazement. That was before the irony of the situation occurred to him and he doubled over in silent laughter.

Dudley Dursley had just cast a spontaneous Silencing Charm.

.