Severus rubbed his face with his hand. "Yes and no. It is hard to explain. Necromancy is the darkest magic known to man. Sacrificial magic is just as awful so I suppose it might depend on who you ask and the perspective of the opinion. The dead aren't meant to come back alive. There is a reason they are dead to begin with. Breaching the veil and disturbing their slumber in the afterlife is no easy feat. Only select few can even master that. Which is why they are incredibly rare. Necromancy isn't a good thing, people on both sides of the magical spectrum are wary of it. Light, Dark and even Grey don't mess with necromancy. The people who dabble in that type of magic are in their own little category. The Dark Lord had used the only necromancer that he could find and we already told you how low level the guy was when it came to necromancy." Severus paused for a moment and Lucius picked up the thread of conversation.
"But what the Flamels were doing isn't something that I would classify as normal necromancy. They aren't bringing the dead back. With Ethan's ritual, they were sacrificing lives by putting their victim's life force inside the Sorcerer's stone. That is a tricky category. Because Ethan wasn't dead at the start of the ritual but did end up dying to make the stone. So, it is a tiny sliver on the Necromancy scale of things. I am quite disappointed with myself for not making this connection sooner." He said wrinkling his nose.
"How are we supposed to fight against necromancers?" Draco asked in frustration.
Severus arched a brow. "Who said that they were necromancers? Just because they can perform this small branch off of the necromancer magic does not mean that they are actual necromancers. I am not saying that they aren't because we have nothing to go off of but don't just assume that they are."
"But wouldn't the use of the language of the dead be proof that they are necromancers?" Harry asked curiously. He wasn't sure if they were necromancers or not but they sure were creepy enough to be ones.
Lucius tilted his head considering the question. "I don't know. It would mean that they either are some form of a necromancer or they learned this from one. Even 700 years ago necromancy wasn't something that people openly admitted doing. The only time the ministry sanctioned the use of one was when they implemented the dementors into Azkaban."
Harry wheezed. "Are you telling me that dementors were once people?" His voice came out hysterical. He had always just thought that dementors were some obscure magical creature that liked being under the control of wizards, like house elves.
Severus shot Harry an unimpressed look. "Harry they eat souls to sustain their existence. You can't kill a dementor once it has been created. Dementors are a level above Inferi but not by a whole lot. One glaring difference is that inferi have to maintain a constant supply of magic to keep them going. Which is not the case with a dementor. Every single dementor at one point had been a dead body, just like an inferi. They were reanimated and twisted by the dark magic. I can't really say that there is a point to dementors. They were created by a necromancer who wanted to wreak havoc on the world. Dementors aren't completely mindless like an inferi. Inferi can't think for themselves. They only do their masters bidding and that is it. There is some conscious thought among dementors. Most people think that the ministry has them under control but that is the furthest thing from the truth. The dementors only guard Azkaban because they want to."
"Because of the supply of happy memories that they suck out of the prisoners?" Harry supplied.
Lucius snorted. "No. Hogwarts really needs to up their syllabus." Remus agreed, the Ministry had implemented select courses that were 'no go' lessons. There were things that they were not allowed to teach the students. A lot of the lessons were common sense, things that parents should be teaching if they wished. But there was a lot that the students should be learning but the teachers just weren't allowed to teach them.
"That is a common misunderstanding. A dementor doesn't suck the happy memories out of you because they like it. They suck the happy memories out of you because they thrive on the darkness that is left over once the memories are gone. Do you think that even after a couple months of being in Azkaban that a prisoner would be able to have any memories left for the dementors to take? No. The prisoners wallow in their depressing memories because that is what actually feeds the dementors. They stay and guard the prison because it is a large supply of unhappy memories but they frequently go elsewhere as well. What the ministry won't tell you is that there is absolutely no way to control a dementor. They can be repelled with a patronus but that is a temporary fix. They can easily waltz into any city or town and feast on the population. Which they do, the Ministry just covers that up. There aren't as many of them as you would think. They can't reproduce and the only way to have more of them is a necromancer." Severus explained.
Harry furrowed his brows. He had always known that dementors were deadly and dangerous but the more he was learning about them, the more worried he grew. He didn't like the fact that they couldn't die.
"You said that they need souls to sustain life. Why? Are the depressing memories not enough to feed off of?" Harry asked.
Lucius squinted trying to come up with the words to explain. "It would be like if you were to only ever eat once a day and a very small portion. That would keep you alive but it isn't all of the nutrients that you need to survive. Doing so will leave you unhealthy. The depressing memories that they feed off are like the small portion. They need souls to keep them going. I suppose the earlier statement of not being able to kill one is false. If you were to starve a dementor it might die. To be honest, I am not sure what would happen."
Harry scrunched up his face as he thought about what he was saying. That made sense in a way. "Where are they getting the souls that they need? I highly doubt the Ministry is providing enough criminals that need to be kissed."
Severus arched a brow and looked at him pointedly. Harry gasped in horror. "You mean they are just swooping into towns and sucking souls out of people?"
Severus and Lucius nodded together. "Mainly muggle towns. A soul is a soul. It matters none to them if the soul is magical or not. They are smart enough not to get caught by going to wizard towns. If they did, it might start a war. One that I am not sure we would win." Severus said honestly. Not everyone can perform a patronus. Dark wizards by nature have a hard time performing the spell. Not because they don't have any happy memories but because of how light the spell is. Their magic doesn't automatically bend to it like a light wizard might. So starting a war against the dementors would cause huge casualties.
"But if they are doing this then wouldn't the muggles get suspicious? I mean they are going to notice a shell of a person. They would be alive but not aware of anything." Harry piped up with furrowed brows.
Remus shook his head. "Harry think of all the people who are in a vegetative state or deep comas."
Harry's mouth dropped open. His whole world just shifted slightly. "Woah woah wait. Are you telling me that all people in comas and vegetative states are dementor attacks? What about those stories that you hear about someone waking up from a coma years later?"
Severus rolled. "No. Not all of them. But a large portion of them are. Strokes that people never recover from. Accidents that seemed to happen with no direct cause that leaves the driver in a coma. How some people can be perfectly fine one day and then the next have succumbed to some infection that attacked the brain. And the people that wake up from a coma are not victims of a dementor attack. You will never be able to recover from having your soul sucked out of you. So yes, there ware thousands of dementor attacks that go unnoticed by the muggle world."
Harry was having a hard time processing this. He wondered how many dementor victims there really were. All those families out there hoping that their loved one will one day wake up and they never would. His heart went out to anyone that was going through that. If only there was a way to help them.
"I am confused." Draco said with a frown. Severus and Lucius arched a brow. They knew that Draco knew about all of this. What was there to be confused about?
"What do vegetables have to do with muggles and dementors?"
Harry and Remus busted out laughing. Severus covered his face with his hand and his body was shaking from trying not to laugh. Harry laughed so hard that he almost fell off of Draco's lap. If it wasn't for Draco's hands around his waist he might have done just that.
Draco pouted and looked to his mother and father. Lucius shrugged. He had no idea either, but his lips were twitching as he watched the three half-bloods lose it.
Severus was the first one to recover. His mouth was still twitching but otherwise he was fine. He rolled his eyes when Harry was still chuckling. "It has nothing to do with vegetables." Draco scrunched up his face. Then why was did it have vegetable in it?
"It means a state of inactivity. Someone in a vegetative state will still maintain their respiration and their cardiac function but they will have no cognitive function or awareness. There is no awareness of themselves or their environment and they cannot interact with people. Occasionally a limb may move but there is no conscious response being the cause."
Draco hummed in thought. He understood what Severus was saying but it didn't explain why muggles called it vegetative. Muggles were weird. He supposed that was a good enough reason. He just nodded his head and pretended that it all made sense.
Harry could still feel the lingering confusion and he smiled softly before leaning back and giving Draco a chaste kiss. Draco hummed again but this time in pleasure at the kiss and lifted a hand to stop Harry from pulling away.
A couple coughs jarred them apart. "Sorry." Harry said sheepishly. "I'm not." Draco said unrepentantly with a cheeky grin. Lucius shook his head at his son. Of course he wasn't sorry. That would be asking for too much, wouldn't it? Narcissa rolled her eyes at her husband. She honestly thought that Draco and Harry were adorable.
"Hey." Harry said slowly when he focused back on what they were discussing. "Do you think that dementors can speak the language of the dead?"
Severus and Lucius shared a considering look. "I don't know." Lucius finally said. "They don't talk. I am not saying that they can't but they certainly don't talk to us if they can. Even when I was in Azkaban I never heard them say anything. Sometimes they would let out these breathy noises to one another but that could have been just a coincidence. They might communicate to each other in other ways that we don't know about."
Harry frowned. "Were they created at the same time or was it slowly over time?"
Lucius shook his head. "The Ministry only allowed the one-time use. There might have been necromancers that made more over time but if so it was never announced. So the ones that we have guarding Azkaban were all made at one time. Why?" He wondered as he took on the expression on Harry's face.
"I was just wondering if maybe they behaved in a hive mentality. Maybe they don't communicate out loud because they have a collective consciousness."
Lucius blinked rapidly. "I love the way your mind works." He repeated the same words that Severus had said earlier. He had no idea if that statement was true or not considering the dementors weren't releasing that knowledge. But it was an intriguing idea.
Draco grinned down at Harry and kissed the side of his temple. Harry flushed but he couldn't help but be pleased. Part of him wondered if there was a way to test out the theory but that could be an experiment done later on, after the darkness was taken care of.
Severus was impressed. He wished Harry had thought like this during school. It would have made teaching him much more enjoyable. He opened his mouth to input his thoughts but Lucius held up a hand. "Severus later." He begged. He really didn't need to start another side conversation. They were getting off track. Plus he knew that look, Severus would talk his ear off about god knows what for the next hour if he let him. Severus scowled and glared at his friend darkly.
"How are we going to know what they were saying in the ritual if none of us can speak the language of the dead? Can we attempt to reverse the ritual without the chanting?" Remus wondered.
Lucius and Severus frowned. "I think it would be unwise to attempt to reverse it without knowing what they were saying." Severus said continuing to frown. Lucius nodded in agreement. "I agree. You can't counteract what you don't know."
"I wish we could talk to the dead." Draco said in frustration before he shook his head. No, actually that did not sound appealing.
Harry blinked a couple times before his eyes widened. "Merlin's shriveled up ball sack!" Harry swore as he breathed heavily.
Draco and Remus snorted. Lucius looked a little offended at the genital discussion. What was with them bringing up such things in polite conversation? Narcissa and Severus just stared at Harry with a curious expression.
"I thought the left was in an accident?" Draco asked as his mouth kept twitching. Harry leaned back trying understand what Draco was talking about before he understood.
Harry laughed. "He got a generous transplant. It was good as new until they shriveled up." He tried to keep a straight face but Draco's humor was making that difficult.
"I think he needs to see a healer about this. His privates are having a really bad time of things." Draco said before he and Harry cracked up laughing.
"What are you five?" Severus asked with resignation.
Draco and Harry both scoffed. "No. That is quite rude of you." Draco said with a pout. Harry nodded. "Yeah, we are at least six." Harry added with a mock glare. Everyone but Severus broke out in laughter.
Severus looked up to the ceiling. "Why do I even bother with you lot?" The question was directed to himself more than to anyone else.
"I have no idea. I don't think I could put up with us either." Draco said with a smirk. "You must be just as insane as us. Birds of a feather and all that." Harry added smiling.
Remus quickly spoke up before Severus could say anything, the man looked insulted. "What was the thought process that brought up your... er... interesting choice of expletives?"
Harry nearly smacked himself for getting side tracked. "It's just that I have spoken to the dead."
Silence. The type of uncomfortable silence that makes you squirm in your seat and wonder if someone had just died. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, his seat happened to be Draco's lap.
"Harry!" Draco squeaked and stilled Harry's moving hips. Harry tilted his head back and gave him an apologetic smile.
"Explain." Severus said with an odd glint to his eyes. Harry was still looking at Draco. He wasn't sure how best to go about this. He wasn't sure he wanted to tell them about the Hallows.
Harry started fiddling with Draco's fingers that were still wrapped around him. "What do you guys know about the Hallows?"
More silence. Harry was really started to get irritated with the silences. Lucius raised both brows and shot a stunned look to Severus who had his mouth opened slightly. Remus had his brows furrowed. "But that is just a story."
Severus, Lucius and Narcissa all looked at Remus incredulously. "No it's not." Lucius argued.
Draco narrowed his eyes. "Hey! You told me that it was just a myth for people who never grew up." Draco accused to his father.
Lucius winced and then glared when Severus snorted. "You were fascinated by the story Draco, I had to tell you that or who knows how long you would have obsessed over them." Draco's eyes were still narrowed. He wasn't sure he thought that was a good enough excuse to be lied to.
"There is no way they are real." Remus said with a hint of awe in voice. Harry scoffed. "Are you calling me a liar? I have seen them all."
Severus, Remus, Lucius and Narcissa all gaped openly at him, making Harry squirm again. Draco smacked his stomach lightly trying to tell him to knock that off. He couldn't help his body from reacting to Harry's movements and he really didn't need things to get more uncomfortable than they already were.
"In person?" Narcissa asked with wide eyes. Her mind was working in overdrive. She couldn't even imagine seeing them. They were stories that have been passed down from one generation to the next. She had wondered if they had been wrong considering no one had over come out and admitted that they had one of them. Not that she blamed them, that would have made them a target for sure.
"Mhm." Harry said as he nodded his head. "I owned all three for a brief moment." He decided to just go all in. If you can't trust your family, then who can you trust?"
"What?" Remus breathed. His mind was drawing a blank. He had always thought that the Hallows were just a story. Sirius and James had believed in them but he didn't. He could still remember the adventure that Sirius wanted to go on to find the Hallows once they graduated. Remus had flat out refused to go on such a silly trip. James had wanted to go but then he got engaged to Lily and the trip fell through. He would love to have seen their faces if they got confirmation that they were real.
"How? When?" Lucius said in wonder. Merlin, to think that all three of them had been found and united. That was something that hadn't happened since the creation of the Hallows.
"It is a really long story. I will just say that the resurrection stone was given to me by Dumbledore." Severus made a surprised noise in the back of his throat.
"Dumbledore owned a Hallow?" Severus questioned. "He owned more than just one but yes." The man let out a little whimper of shock.
"What did you do with it?" Remus said as his stomach turned. He didn't like the sound of the stone. Anything that can bring the dead back even in a ghostly form didn't sit well with him.
Harry looked down at his lap and frowned. Draco sent him a wave of comfort and reassurance through the bond, which he was grateful for.
"Right before I walked into the forest to face off against Voldemort I used the stone to talk to my parents and Sirius. I- I thought that I was going to die. I just wanted to see them before it happened." Harry blinked back tears as he remembered that they had said that they had been proud of him. He can remember just wanting to get it all over with so that he could go and see them. So that he could actually meet his parents. With them by his side it had made it possible to walk to his death.
Remus closed his eyes tightly at the wave of despair that hit him. He couldn't even imagine what Harry had been going through. The sheer determination and lack of fear was mind blowing. To think that Harry would have been okay after talking to his parents enough to confront Voldemort. That was how you use the stone. He hadn't liked the idea to use it to disturb someone's rest but to use it the way Harry had made him admire him even more than he already did.
Severus sucked in a sharp breath. Harry had spoken to Lily. He couldn't fathom what that would have been like. He himself had lost his mother early on but at least he had gotten to know his mother. He was still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that Dumbledore had been the one to give Harry the resurrection stone. Goodness, that was... he wasn't exactly sure what that was.
Narcissa's heart ached for Harry. The mother in her couldn't imagine what that would be like. To think that that was the last conversation that Harry had had before walking off to this death. She just wanted to reach out and pull him into a hug. Oh, her heart hurt.
Lucius thought back to the moment that Harry had walked into the clearing that night and he couldn't remember any indication that Harry had just had a life changing moment. That seemed like an emotional moment that he wasn't sure how Harry had been able to just bounce back from.
Draco nuzzled the top of Harry's head. "I love you." He whispered into his ear. "It's alright." He reassured him as he sent all the love that he could through the bond.
Harry turned his head until it was buried in Draco's neck. "I love you too." He choked out. Draco ran his hands up and down Harry's spine.
"It's alright." Draco whispered again. "I've got you."
Harry stayed wrapped up in Draco's embrace until he was able to cope again. He tried not to think about that conversation too much, seeing Sirius had been the hardest part. He loved his parents, he really did but he didn't know them. He had no real connection to them. It had been wonderful seeing them and hearing them speak to him, other than the night in the graveyard but Sirius had been the one he had really longed to see again.
Lucius cleared his throat and Harry tilted till he could see him. "The resurrection stone is not the same as necromancy. So even though you were able to speak to them it isn't the same language that the Flamels were using. The language of the dead isn't actually speaking to dead people. Does that make sense?" He asked softly.
Harry shrugged his shoulders. "Not really." He admitted. Why call it the language of the dead if you aren't speaking to the dead?
Severus hummed. "The name is misleading. Really it is more the language of necromancers. They call it that because essentially the necromancers are speaking to the dead when they reanimate their corpses."
Harry frowned. Why didn't they say that in the beginning? Muggles weren't the only ones to do things weird. Now he understood what Draco must have been feeling.
"So until we can find a way to translate it there is nothing that we can do?" Harry questioned.
Lucius sighed. "Unfortunately no. We can still do work on the runes and spells and prepare for when we can translate the language. Instead of researching, I can try and find a necromancer."
Harry and Draco shared uneasy feelings through the bond. "I don't know about that." Draco finally said with a queasy look. "I don't think it would be wise to bring in a necromancer. Not to mention the negative attention you will receive if word gets out."
Harry didn't like this idea. He didn't want to be in the same presence as a necromancer. No thank you. Not to mention that if the Flamels got wind of Lucius looking up obscure rituals and wanting a necromancer, that just sounded suspicious. It could bring attention to what they were doing and they did not need that at the moment.
"What if we looked for necromancer books instead of an actual necromancer?" Severus offered.
Lucius considered this with a small inclination of his head. "That won't be easy. It will still draw attention to me no matter how discreet I am. I can try and search under an alias but if I want to use any of my social standing then I will need to show who I am. Either way we could get found out."
Harry grumbled. This was more complicated than he had first thought it would be. "What if we put that aspect of it on hold. We can work through everything else together and then search for the books as a group as well. If there is ten people looking for necromancy books than it might be easier. If we all spread out and ask around, then it won't be so suspicious as a lone guy wanting to know. Hide out in numbers."
Lucius didn't really like that idea either but they didn't have a whole lot of options. It didn't have to be decided right now. It could still be discussed at a later date.
"Alright. For now that will work." Lucius conceded. "Let's get to work on the runes."
The group spent the rest of the day working on runes and discussing theories on the meanings behind them. There had been a tense moment when Severus and Lucius disagreed on whether exhaurdire meant to drain blood or to drain life. Harry had worried that they were about to enter a duel. He couldn't remember the last time he had seen either one of them so angry.
"I will bet you a back rub that Sev wins." Draco whispered into his ear. Harry scoffed. "Back rub? How boring. I think your father will win. If he loses than later tonight I will get you off with only using my tongue." Draco had wheezed in surprise before choking back a groan at the mental picture. Turns out they weren't as quiet as they thought they were because when they had turned to see how the argument was going, Narcissa and Remus wouldn't meet their eyes and Severus and Lucius were looking a very unhealthy shade of green.
"At that thoroughly horrific thought process I think it is time to call it a day." Severus declared. Merlin what was wrong with those two? He would say it was their young age but he couldn't ever remember acting like that.
"I think that is the only thing we have agreed upon in the last hour." Lucius told him with disgust in his tone. He wasn't sure which one of his children were more perverted. He was tempted to throw them away and start over. But for some reason they had grown on him. He must be getting ill.
Harry stood up quickly and grabbed Draco's hand. "Well if that is all Draco and I... have somewhere to be." Harry said as he pulled Draco to the floo, who was smirking in delight.
Remus and Severus snorted. "Yeah I bet you do." Lucius said under his breath. The two boys disappeared without even a goodbye.
Remus started collecting his things. "I should be going to. I need to pick up Teddy from Andromeda's."
Severus stood up with him. "I will see you out." He offered. Remus shot him a small smile as they both made their way to the floo.
Once the two of them were gone Narcissa turned to her husband. "I wish they would just get together already." She said in a disappointed voice. "They are the only ones in the family that are alone."
Lucius rolled his eyes. "There is no use in complaining love. Severus will probably dance around Remus for another solid three months, most likely."
Narcissa frowned. "Oh no, that is not good enough. I can't take the suspense of three more months. What if we sped things along?"
Lucius snorted. "Merlin, you sound like a meddling child. I can guarantee you that the children have already thought of this. Let's just let them come together on their own."
Narcissa scowled at being described as a child. She thought back to the children's odd huddle moments that she would sometimes catch them in. She wondered if Lucius was right. If they were planning anything than they were going to need some experienced help. "Sure love." She readily agreed even though she meant the opposite.
"I have some wedding planning to get to. I will see you shortly for dinner." Narcissa told him before kissing him on the cheek.
Lucius smiled softly as she walked out of the room. "Just don't go overboard on the matchmaking." He called after her. He knew his wife enough to know that she wasn't going to drop this. Her beautiful laughter filled the hallway making his smile grow. Merlin, he adored her.
He tapped his fingers on the table repeatedly before he cursed and went up the stairs. He knew that his wife was most likely in the bedroom so he knew that he would be undisturbed. He stopped in front of Draco's old room and breathed heavily before pushing it open. This room used to be his when was younger. While Draco had been living in it, it hadn't resembled anything close to the way he had organized it as a child. But now that the room was empty and bare he couldn't help but picture the way it used to look. He looked to the bed and swallowed before waving his wand and sliding the bed over.
The hole in the wall was still there. He never did throw away the old drawings. He knelt down on the floor and pulled them out. The parchment was old and fading in spots but he could still make out the outlines of his work. He ran a finger across the pages delicately as the rush of drawing came back into his mind. He wasn't aware that he had shed any tears until they dropped on the edge of the paper.
Lucius wasn't sure what he was crying for, whether it was a dream unfinished or for his sister who never got a chance to live. Either way he didn't bother trying to stop them. He lost count of how long he sat there staring at his art. He grieved for the baby that never got to live but maybe an hour. He grieved for the life that she could've had. He grieved for the moments that had been robbed from him. He grieved the loss of never getting to be the big brother that he had always dreamed of. He grieved for the dream of being an artist. He grieved for all of the things that he had refused to show emotion for in his life. He grieved for it all. He grieved for everything.
He wasn't aware that Narcissa had entered the room until he was suddenly embraced in her warmth. She didn't say anything. Words weren't needed. She just held her husband and let him work through his emotions on his own. This had been a long time coming and she would make sure to be there for him. Just like she always had been.
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Authors Notes:
Thoughts on this chapter?
I would like to hear some thoughts on if you guys think the Flamels are necromancers or just know the language of the dead and the small branch off of necromancy.
What did you think of the dementors being a necromancy ritual? I find it interesting. I like to look at necromancy in levels. The lowest form being inferi and then comes the dementors and other things that have yet to be mentioned. ;P
Okay, I am not making light of anyone that has known or have loved ones that have been in a coma or a vegetative state. No offense was intended. This was just a way my imagination was going and I hope you all see that.
I love the friendship that Lucius and Severus have. Poor Sev, no one ever lets him geek out his thoughts. I think Lucius is slightly prudish but I find it endearing. I can see how discussing sexual things in polite conversations would be a no go in their pureblood training.
Now when it comes to Harry discussing the Hallows. I didn't want him to go into detail like he had once done with Draco. I don't think that they needed to know that he held one in his possession or that he broke the elder wand. I think the less it gets discussed the better.
Did anyone else catch how Lucius thought of the both of them as his children? Swoon moment.
Uh oh. Narcissa joining Operation: Get Severus a man? Sounds like trouble. Haha.
Let me know your thoughts on this chapter.
-XxTheDarkLordxX