Of Shadow, Shine, and Shades

Ch.8 Another World

When he arrived all three other occupants of the house were waiting for him; Kreacher with a cup of tea ready, Syl coiled on the table and watching him intently and Citala in her nest on top of the cold box. The tension in the room was tangible but Caelum still took the time to shake off his muggle coat and take a sip of the tea after scanning it for poisons.

"I felt two personsss when you arrived. You were agitated." Citala cried silently and Kreacher's pale blue eyes were watchful.

"There is a new human here. His name is Harry and he is... related to me. He is taking a bath right now. Kreacher." The elf perked up. "I don't want you to go near him before I introduce you. He has lived in the muggle world for nine years and doesn't know anything about magic. I don't want to scare him any more than I already have."

"Thisss isss the youngling?"

"You can understand English?" Caelum did not know why but he found this to be pretty significant.

"Of courssse I can." Syl sounded insulted and the mage quickly dropped the subject.

"Okay." He turned to the hawk. "Citala, can you please go to my bedroom and guide him here after he's done? I don't want him getting lost in the upper floors." With a few beats of her wings the hawk took flight and vanished into the hallway after circling once around Caelum's head. He turned to look at the elf, who seemed be restraining himself from asking questions. "The boy is a halfblood, Kreacher," Caelum said. "But so am I. I'll put him into Sirius' room, is that alright? And again, I'm sorry about earlier. I didn't mean to leave without telling."

"Master has apologised." The elf hesitated and Caelum wondered what would cause him not to speak his mind. "Will Kreacher prepare the room? Leave the filthy things in place?"

The mage hid his surprise and wondered what Kreacher might mean. "Please strip it clean of Sirius' things. But please put them all in the attic. I will try to go through them and see what's worth saving." He paused. "Oh, and I'll be leaving with him when he's ready. Just so... you know."

"Krecher thanks the Master. Kreacher will do as Master wishes." The elf popped away without a single insulting word or look. Caelum's thoughts were drawn away from this small miracle when Syl asked, "The youngling will ssstay?"

"Yesss," hissed Caelum his reply. He flopped down on the chair and rubbed his eyes. It was only ten in the morning and he was feeling the effect of the sleepless night as if it was fifteen extra years on his age. He raised a glamour to hide the signs of exhaustion, put up wards to alert him and laid his head on the table, opting to rest for a while before thinking about introducing the magical world to the Boy-Who-Lived. It seemed only a second passed when the ward rang and he snapped his head up, only to lay his eyes on the black haired boy fidgeting in his new clothes and pulling on the hem of his shirt. His messy black hair was still wet and was dripping water on his shoulders.

Citala – who had travelled on Harry's shoulder – cried proudly and flew over to perch on her wizard's shoulder and tucked him on a free hair strand before returning to her nest. Syl had apparently claimed his favourite place while the mage slept.

"The clothes fit?" Caelum could see Harry really wasn't comfortable in the new attire.

"I... Yes. Thank you." He sounded unsure and Caelum knew why.

"We can pick some other clothes as soon as the stores open, and I know you might be used to wearing too large garments and I admit I might have guessed the size wrongly." He ran his eyes over the attire appraisingly but averted his gaze as soon as he realized the boy was uncomfortable under his inspection. Shit, if the whale had touched the boy in any way... He coughed to get past the uncomfortable moment and thrust the murderous thoughts to the back of his mind. "So... did you think about it?"