Blood Bonds

Chp 8: Who the hell is Malachai?

"My mother did WHAT?" The calm inside Grimmauld place was shattered by a rising, incredulous shout. Inside the living room, Harry stood in front of the chair he'd knocked over, chest heaving, face thunderstruck. Hermione sat calmly on the couch in front of him, re-reading over the results from the heritage potion Harry had used earlier. She shifted her legs, her new silver anklet with its lightning-bolt shaped charm catching briefly on the couch. Beside her, Ron and Neville tried to shrink back into the cushions and disappear.

"She apparently cast a genetic transference spell on you. There's no other way that you could have looked so much like James Potter for so long without it," explained Hermione. "You have no blood connection with him, so..."

"What do you mean, no blood connection? He's my father!"

Hermione looked at him sympathetically. "Oh Harry, no. I'm sorry; he isn't. According to this, a pureblood vampire named Malachai Xavier is. It seems that James Potter adopted you when he married your mother, six months before you were born."

Harry sat down abruptly when his legs gave out. "I ... I don't understand," he admitted. "How could this be? Why didn't anyone tell me?"

"I'm sorry Harry, I don't know what to tell you. There has to be a reason for it all. Perhaps Remus will know? You can ask him next time you see him." Hermione's heart bled for her distraught friend.

Remus? Yes, of course! "Fawkes!" Calling his familiar, Harry leapt up to pace the room restlessly. A burst of flames and the phoenix was settling on his shoulder.

"You summoned me, Master?"

"Yes. I need you to go find Remus Lupin and bring him here. Now. I don't care what he's doing, just bring him to me."

"As you command." With that, Fawkes launched himself from Harry's shoulder and was gone.

"Harry! You can't do that! That's so rude, what will Professor Lupin think? He may not even know any...thing..." The witch trailed off, watching Harry. He was standing as far from the others as he could with his back to the others, leaning his forehead against the wall. From across the room, they could clearly see Harry trembling; fighting for control. With a muffled scream, he slammed his palms against the wall as that control slipped. His wings burst from his back; snapping to their full wingspan, spreading almost the width of the room.

Neville, ever the sensible one, decided that discretion was the better part of valor. "Well, we'll just leave you so you can have a nice talk with Remus," a growl sounded from Harry. "We'll just be in the next room, scream if you need us. Hehe, did I say scream? I meant shout." In a low, urgent tone, he beckoned to Ron and Hermione. "Come on you two, I think Harry needs to be alone right now." The three of them moved quickly out of the room.

In the adjoining room, Ron turned to Hermione with confusion in his eyes. "I've never seen Harry react like that to anything before."

Surprisingly, it was Neville who answered. "Harry's just found out that the man he thought was his father actually isn't, and that there's just one more lie that those who should have caring for him have been keeping from him. Along with his newly-awakened vampire senses, the unfinished bond and the magical surge he got when he came into his inheritance, I'd say he seems to be coping quite well, all things considered. I'm still glad that it's Professor Lupin and not us who are about to get the brunt of his anger." The three friends nodded in a moment of perfect understanding.