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Free of Danger
A Feeling of Forever
by beachbeagle
“Guess what class we have today?” said Irene as she and Kevyn left the Great Hall. For a rare moment she sounded less than thrilled.
“Please don't tell me we've got Defense,” Kevyn pleaded.
“Do I have permission to lie?”
Kevyn turned to Irene and grimaced. The new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Dyllus had a nasty habit of getting off topic in class discussions, making them last longer than would have been necessary. Both Kevyn and Irene had taken a dislike to him because very little got done in class.
“I swear,” said Kevyn, “sometimes I wonder how he got the job.”
“He must have impressed Professor McGonagall, or she wouldn't have hired him. There must have been very good qualities she liked,” said Irene.
“It must have been a very good show if she saw past how he can't stick to the topic without telling a personal story related to everything we say.”
“Look, all you have to do is make it through class. The homework is never that hard.”
“What homework? He hardly every gives any out.”
Irene grumbled. With Kevyn in a mood like this it promised to be a long class.
“You know, I have a theory that Hitler was actually a vampire.”
Here we go, thought Kevyn, another journey into the off topic mind of Professor Dyllus.
“Think about it,” continued the professor, “he was insane, evil, calculating, and liked killing. Also he took poison and shot himself when he committed suicide, which indicates a necessity for unconventional means of death.”
Kevyn glanced at his watch wishing time would go by faster. They had been talking about vampires and the means of defeating them, now Professor Dyllus was off on a random tangent as usual.
Kevyn's mind began to wander off towards the play practice that would be occurring tonight. They were already two weeks into rehearsals and Kevyn was finding he really liked theatre. When he told Irene that, she'd given him a look that said, ‘I knew you would.’ Irene seemed to know a lot about people that they didn't, and Kevyn had to wonder why that was.
After a few minutes of unsuccessfully trying to figure out Irene's secret he let his thoughts return to the classroom and found that Professor Dyllus had drifted from talk of Hitler, to WWII, and then onto the magical involvement in the war.
As class ended the Professor called, “As we haven't finished our discussion we will continue it next class, no homework today.”
Not that that's and different from every other class we've had, thought Kevyn, but mostly he was simply glad to be out of there. I don't know how I'm going to stand having him as a teacher all year.
“Ducklings, Ugly, Bullfrog, Queenie, Lowbutt, geese, and swan family, we're working on Poultry Tale first today so you have some free time right now,” said Aletha as they walked into the Great Hall for practice that night.
Nadia found herself, Kevyn, and most of her relatives sitting at a table a short ways from where everyone was rehearsing. Poultry Tale was the opening song, and the ducklings didn't hatch until the next one. Ugly hatched another song after them, so Marcus wasn't needed either. The swans, Bullfrog, Queenie, Lowbutt, and the geese weren't members of the farmyard community Ida and Drake lived in so that took them out of the opening scene too.
She found herself staring at Kevyn who was talking animatedly with Irene, David, and Esther. It was October; a whole month since they'd met the twins and just about as long since they'd met Kat. Why did they still keep secrets from those three? Louis didn't seem like such a big issue because he spent less time with the group, but Kevyn, Kat, and Keerah spent all their free time with the cubs.
“A penny for your thoughts,” said Marcus from next to her.
“Esther's Penny, I'm Fluff,” she said. It was a pathetic attempt at humor. She turned to see Marcus giving her a look that said, ‘I was trying to be serious,’ and sighed. “It's Kevyn, Keerah, and Kat. It's October now, so we've known them for a month.”
“Yes, so what about that is bugging you?”
“It's the Hogwarts den,” she said, “They've become our best friends in the school….”
“Best friends?”
“They're certainly not our only ones, but they're far closer to us than anyone else.”
“I get it,” said Marcus, “you think we should share the secret with them now. Show them the den and effectively make them a part of our Pride.”
“In a way, yes,” said Nadia, “only we really aren't a Pride aside from being the children of the original Pride and the Pack. We've never sworn the oath.”
“We've never needed to,” said Marcus, “because we've always been really close. Besides which we don't know the oath.”
“Well I guess that's the difference between Padfoot and Moony and Uncle Ron. Uncle Ron has a bigger mouth and accidentally told all of us kids once. The rest of the Pride wasn't too happy, but we do know it now.”
“Those of you that have good enough memories of the incident…,” started Marcus.
“That's still enough to teach it to the rest so we could swear it if we wanted to,” said Nadia, “not that I think we're ready for that.”
“Ducklings, we're moving on to Joy of Motherhood,” called Aletha.
“You need to get up there. We'll talk to the others about this in the den tonight. I'll tell Esther, you tell Irene and David,” Marcus said as she stood up.
“I'll tell them if I can, but considering we still don't have a decision on whether to tell Kevyn yet I might not be able to. Hard to get three ducklings of four in one place when we're supposed to stick together on stage.”
The she turned and joined the other three heading to stage.
“So what do you think?” asked Nadia. She and Marcus had just finished telling the other three about their conversation at practice.
“I think maybe we should do it,” said Irene, “They can always choose not to be part of the Pride, but they'd keep our secret even if they didn't choose to.”
“When do we do it?” asked Esther.
“On a den night,” said David. “Show them all of it at once. Show them the Pride, but make it obvious what being Pride means to us and what it could mean for them.”
“Halloween,” said Irene, “that's always been a special den night. It's one of the nights that eventually led to the creation of the Pack. A perfect one for showing them that den nights are to remind us of how we came to be where we are.”
“The bad memories will be a prominent thing that night,” said Nadia, “since it's the whole reason I never met one set of my grandparents.”
“That's the thing though,” said Marcus, “being Pride and Pack was never just about remembering the good things that brought us to where we are.”
Nadia glanced around the room at the rest. They all seemed to agree that Halloween would be the right night. It did seem appropriate to her, to introduce them to den on that night. “Right then,” she said, “so we're all agreed on Kevyn, Keerah, and Kat coming to the den on Halloween.”
“Come on tell me,” pleaded Kevyn. Irene had just told him she and her cousins had a surprise in store for Halloween night, but wouldn't tell him what.
“Nope, it's a surprise. Besides that, you might figure it out even with hints being a Ravenclaw,” she said, smiling what could almost be called a smirk.
“So you're going to tell me and make me wait a month to find out?”
“Yep,” she turned and started towards their first class. Kevyn got up and was on her heels immediately, begging her to tell him.
“That isn't fair! You're making me wonder what's going on for a full month,” he whined.
“You were the one who asked why I was smiling,” she said.
She did have a point, he had asked. “But I wouldn't have if I'd known.”
“But you didn't know, hence you asked, hence you know, and I'm still not telling. You have nothing to blame but your own curiosity.”
Thankfully for Kevyn classes, homework, and practice for the play made the rest of the month go by quickly. Time was consumed by these things and what little free time he had was spent with his friends. Now he sat at the Ravenclaw table for the Halloween feast and wasn't even thinking about what was supposed to happen that night.
“Ready for tonight?” asked Irene.
“I hadn't even been thinking about it,” he said, surprised he could forget. Suddenly his curiosity about this ‘surprise’ was in the front of his mind. “Are you going to tell me what's going on?”
“Nope,” she replied with a smile, “you'll learn everything when you need to know it. Might not be me telling you it either.”
“Come again?”
“I might not be the one to explain things to you.”
“But you and your cousins are the only ones in on this…” he started, then a look crossed his face, “How are your cousins going to be involved in this if they're in Gryffindor?”
“That's something for you, Keerah, and Kat to find out.”
“Kat? Kat's in Hufflepuff. How can she be part of this?” Irene's silence was really starting to worry him. There was no way to involve their whole group in something after hours without breaking rules. It would mean all of them being out of their dormitories wandering the halls at night. They'd be caught by Filch for sure.
Irene seemed to find his confusions funny as he said, “Irene, we'll get in trouble if we're out in the halls at night.”
“We're not going to be in the halls,” said Irene as if this point were obvious. Kevyn looked even more dumbfounded at this statement and Irene took his open mouth as a chance to direct a spoonful of potatoes into his mouth. This was her typical response when Kevyn's mouth was hanging open, stick food in it.
When he glared at her with his mouth full, as he usually did after one of these incidents, she only said, “Eat the food, Kevyn. Nothing is going to happen until after the feast anyways.”
As Kat was leaving the Great Hall Nadia motioned her aside. Joining the redheaded girl in standing by the hallway wall so as to not be swept away by traffic Kat asked, “What is it?”
Nadia glanced around like she didn't want anyone to hear, then leaned in and whispered, “Don't sleep in the dormitory tonight. Just change, close the curtains so people can't tell you're not there, and bring bedding and anything else you need to sleep down to the common room. Go to the right side of the fireplace and say, ‘Stealth mode. Thank you Helga.’ It will open a passageway. Repeat the password after climbing in. We'll meet you where the passage ends.”
After she finished the other girl turned and was lost in a sea of students.
Keerah followed Nadia and Esther down the stairs from the girls’ dormitory into the Gryffindor common room. They'd just changed into their pajamas and closed the curtains on their beds so no one would know they weren't there. Now as they carried bedding and stuffed animals downstairs Keerah wondered what was going on. They were only giving her directions as they went, so she knew nothing of what was going on.
They reached the common room and went to the right side of the fireplace where David and Marcus joined them. Keerah heard Nadia say something that sounded like, “Stealth mode, thank you Godric,” and a hole opened in the wall.
Nadia slid down first and a little bit later Keerah heard her call, “Clear.”
Esther motioned for Keerah to go next, so she climbed into the passageway and slid down into the darkness.
Kevyn found himself suddenly dropping out of the dark passageway and landing on something soft. He looked around himself and discovered a bedroom decorated all in blue. His landing pad was apparently the bed.
He climbed off and, remembering Irene's instructions, called, “Clear,” so she'd know he was out of the way. A few moments later she landed on the bed he'd just vacated. When she'd climbed off and recollected her slightly scattered bundle of bedding she began to head for the door.
Kevyn suspected he was supposed to follow her, and when they exited the blue bedroom he found himself in an octagonal room. Kat was being led by Nadia into the main room from one of two doors with a yellow banner and Keerah was standing with Esther, David, and Marcus near the door of one of two rooms with red banners. Two more rooms had green banners above the doors and one had a blue banner.
He turned around and noted that the door he'd just exited had a blue banner above it as well. Each door was located in one of the eight walls. The center room was spacious and currently empty, and the floor felt very squishy and comfortable.
Nadia, David, Irene, Marcus, and Esther began arranging their bedding in spots on the floor in a rough circle, but there was obviously space in the circle for three more people. Kevyn moved forward, Kat and Keerah doing the same, and arranged himself next to Irene, spreading his blankets out and then sprawling down with his pillow and stuffed Snoopy.
When everyone had gotten comfortable Nadia spoke saying, “Be welcome all to this den night. We are Pride now. Pride together.”
The others chorused, “Pride forever,” Kevyn, Keerah, and Kat following a slightly after the other four.
Next David spoke, “Who will tell us a story? Who will remind us what it is to be Pride?”
There wasn't a response for a while. Then Kat said, “What does it mean to be Pride? What is Pride?”
“Well,” said Irene, “that's a story in itself. Since three people here don't know it, it's a fitting one to tell at our den night.”
“Right,” said Esther, “especially since a lot of it began on Halloween night 29 years ago.”
So the story was told, each of the five Pride children taking turns in the telling. The story began at the deaths of Nadia's grandparents, Lily and James Potter, at the hand of Lord Voldemort. Roughly a year later David and Rose Granger, Esther and David's maternal grandparents, were killed by death eaters. This eventually lead to Gertrude “Danger” Granger babysitting a little Harry Potter while caring for her little sister Hermione, which also led to meeting Remus “Moony” Lupin.
As it turned out Danger was a witch with latent magic and now had the ability to tame werewolves, Remus was a werewolf. Danger had been having prophetic visions and when she and Remus went over it again they solved it. This led to reuniting with an old friend of both named Aletha Freeman and eventually to kidnapping Harry and freeing Sirius “Padfoot” Black, Harry's godfather and Aletha's lover, from Azkaban.
The four adults and two children lived in a duplex that Aletha had previously lived in, all but Aletha using false identities outside of the house. Eventually six became eight. First Meghan Black was born to Aletha and Sirius. Next, after an incident that almost gave away the group now known as the “Pack,” they legally adopted Draco Black, formerly Draco Malfoy.
Eventually the Pack had to stand trial for the crimes Sirius was falsely accused of and for freeing him and kidnapping Harry. Before being split up for a whole night, one where they didn't know if they'd ever be a family again after it, they swore an oath of love that forever bound them together.
“That oath,” said Irene “is what we call the Pack oath. The Pride came along later and consisted of the four Pack children, or the cubs, and their four closest friends. Those friends were Luna Lovegood, Neville Longbottom, Ginny Weasley, and Ron Weasley”
“Those are your parents, aren't they?” said Keerah.
“The connection didn't take much to make, did it?” said Nadia.
“Well, that sort of answers my question of the Pride is, it sounds like it's the same as Pack, but a group containing all similar age people. Pack has children and adults,” said Kat. “It still doesn't answer my question of what it means to be Pride or Pack.”
“Well,” said Marcus, “Danger once said that Pack is hands that are always holding yours, not matter how close or far apart you may be. Pack is having someone who is always there and will always, always care. Pack is a feeling of forever in the heart. The same could be applied to Pride.”
“I was wondering something,” said Kevyn. The others motioned for him to continue. “Well, you five are technically Pride by birth since that was your parents, but Keerah, Kat, and I really aren't. We've never sworn the oath so we can't really call ourselves Pride.”
“Well, the first times our parents swore the oath before creating the Pride they didn't do more than say the words,” said Esther “We could do that. Be warned that it is magically binding though.”
“Well, what do we do?” said Keerah.
“Since we're in a circle we only need to sit up,” said Marcus. The eight children did so, and then sat that way in silence while Nadia whispered to Marcus. Finally Marcus turned and spoke again. ““We now will swear an oath. Hear me speak it first, and then look around you. If there is anyone here to whom you cannot swear this, depart now, for this oath is binding by magic, and the one who breaks it will never find rest, by day or by night, in life or in death. Hear me now—
“My hand in yours,
“My wand with yours,
“My life for yours,
“Now and always.
“Is there any here who does not wish to swear?”
No one said anything.
Marcus continued, “Then join hands, and speak the oath with me, three times, to make it truly binding upon us all.”
They joined hands and began to repeat the oath.
“My hand in yours,
“My wand with yours,
“My life for yours,
“Now and always.”
The first time was shaky, people weren't together. The second time was more together and louder. The third time was the loudest and this time they were all in unison.
The silence after the oath had a very comfortable and safe feeling. For a while after it no one spoke and Kevyn simply let the feeling wash over and through him.
“Now,” Nadia said finally, “we are officially a Pride.”
“Minus the pendants,” said Esther, “but those can come later if ever.”
“Should we end the den night now?” asked David.
“One more question first,” said Keerah, “what is the significance of den nights, how did they start?”
“Well,” said Irene, “den nights started as an every night thing for the sakes of Harry and Padfoot and then were brought back when Draco was adopted. They were meant to make them feel safe in the new environment, especially from the things that scared them about their old lives. Eventually they became something that happened only on the full moon and special nights…”
“The full moon being monthly and having to do with Moony being a werewolf,” Marcus added quickly.
“…Yes,” Irene continued “The importance of den nights stands in reminding us of how we got to where we are, through both the good and bad things that brought us here.”
“Halloween is one of the special nights,” said Nadia, “originally because of my grandparents; also, now, because Halloween was when our parents defeated Voldemort.”
“It's a time of beginnings and ends,” said Irene, “the beginning of the Pack story and the end of the war.”
“And now the beginning of our Pride group as well,” said Esther.
“That's kind of neat really,” said Kat, “we made a special night even more special.”
Esther spoke now saying, “Now we'll end the den night. I bid you good night and fair dreams. May this coming night rest us all, and may we rise in the morning stronger for it.”
The rest responded, “May it be so.” Again Kevyn, Kat, and Keerah were slower at responding, but it didn't matter. Kevyn suspected the next den night they went to they would be together with the others, and the ones that came after that as being Pride promised many more den nights to come.
As he lay down to go to sleep Irene whispered, “Hold my hand.”
“Why?” he asked.
“Our den night may have been ended, but we have one more surprise for you. Being in the same room as us, especially this one, and having sworn the oath may be enough to bring you with, but it never hurt to be overly cautious.”
“Okay.”
He took her hand and lay down, finding sleeping in this odd room surprisingly easy. It had an air of comfort and safety, and the presence of friends amplified that.
As he drifted off to sleep his last thought was, I could get used to this.
Keerah knew she was sleeping in the octagonal room where they had denned, but found she was now standing with the other eight members of her Pride out on the Hogwarts grounds. The sun was shining, the leaves were green, and it was much warmer than it should be for October.
My Pride, she thought, I like the sound of that.
Her mind returned to the present as they were joined in the scene by a group of twelve adults - four of which were older than the other eight - and several children.
The children ran forward and began hugging Irene, Nadia, David, Esther, and Marcus, leaving Kevyn, Kat, and Keerah standing alone.
The adults motioned them over and Kevyn smiled at one, the older of the two dark-skinned ladies, saying “Hi Mrs. Freeman-Black.”
“Please, Kevyn, I've told you before you can call me Letha as my grandchildren and son do,” said Letha.
“I know, it just seems… weird.”
“Well,” said one of the men, “I suppose not everyone is used to calling their friends’ parents by nicknames.” Keerah studied him. He had black hair, green eyes, glasses, and his bangs blew aside in the light breeze to reveal a lightning bolt scar on his forehead.
“You're Nadia's dad, Harry Potter, right?” she and Kevyn asked simultaneously. The two of them always had been observant.
“Oi,” said a red-headed man who looked like an older version of David, “we've got another set of twins here.” Two adults chuckled at this comment, a brunette woman who resembled Esther and a pale-blonde man.
“Well,” said the woman Kevyn had been told to call Letha, “we should make a round of introduction for you three. You don't know us and we don't know you, except in the case of Kevyn and me.”
“Very well,” said the pale-blonde man, “I'll go first. We should introduce the adults then the children rather than everyone at once. It will be less confusing.” After a nod from one of the older men he continued, “I'm Draco Black, Irene's father.”
“And I am her mother, Luna Black,” said a woman. She too had blonde hair and Keerah noticed both Irene's parents had silver-grey eyes. It was impossible to tell who she resembled more.
The red-haired man spoke next, “I'm Ron Weasley, David and Esther's father.”
“And I'm their mother, Hermione Weasley,” said the brunette woman.
“You already know who I am,” said Harry, “Nadia's father.”
“And I am her mother, Ginny Potter,” said a woman who looked much like an older version of Nadia.
“The remainder of the Pride would be myself,” said the younger dark-skinned woman, “and my husband. I am Meghan Longbottom. You haven't met either of my children yet, but Marcus is my younger brother.”
“And I am Neville Longbottom, though the rest call me Captain.” Keerah studied the man, brunette and rather average.
Now the four older adults stepped forward as did Kevyn.
“Don't do introductions,” Kevyn said, “we were told the story of the Pack tonight in den and I want to try and guess.” The four adults motioned for him to continue so he said, “Since I already know Letha, you must be Danger Granger-Lupin.” He indicated a woman who resembled both Hermione and Esther, which made sense with sisters or an aunt and niece.
Kevyn turned to the men. “Padfoot, or Sirius Black would be you,” he indicated a man with longish black hair and a mustache, “leaving you to be Remus ‘Moony’ Lupin.” This time he pointed at the other man, a brunette with eyes a mixture of blue and brown.
“Well then,” said Danger, “If you get to guess then so do I. From the letters the cubs have been writing it shouldn't be too hard.”
She turned to Kevyn, “You are logical and intelligent.
You are also the only boy we haven't met, which means you're Kevyn
Hollens…..” Next she turned to Keerah,
“….Ron's comment about twins leaves you to be Keerah
Hollens, though appearances would have given it away
too….” Lastly she turned to Kat, “Which
leaves you being Kat Hart. We are pleased to meet all three of
you.”
Should we call the cubs over?” asked Draco.
“No,” said Danger, “these three have some questions that will be best answered without the chaos.”
“How did you know….,” started Kevyn, but then he stopped. He seemed to think for a minute before saying, “Wait, it was a prophetic vision wasn't it?”
“Yes,” said Danger, “I only get them once a year now, but I'm not the only one who does. This was one of Luna's. It didn't say much really -
On this night of beginnings and ends
You shall meet three special friends.
Questions answered they shall need
For the future they shall lead.
For now the tiger, coon, and horse
Have been started on their course.”
“What does that mean?” asked Keerah.
“Well,” said Danger, “the first four lines simply told us of meeting you and to answer your questions. The final two refer to a prophecy I had earlier this year - my usual yearly one - as the tiger, coon, and horse were in there. I take it this is saying those parts of the prophecy referred to you three.”
“So,” said Letha, “what questions do you have?”
“First, what is this?” said Kat.
“This is called a dreamsculpting,” said Danger, “It's a form of lucid dreaming. A magical dreamsculpter can direct the path of a dream, what they do in it, and what the place looks like with more control over setting, and can also pull anyone they like into the dream with them, as long as that person is sleeping and they have a connection of some sort. Typically the power is most common in muggle-born witches and wizards. I'd be happy to teach you if you'd like, Kat.”
“Wow…. You really think I can do it?” Kat sounded stunned and far away.
“The only way to find out would be to try. I think the best time for that would be Christmas as we were planning on visiting Hogwarts for it this year,” answered Danger.
“So, who's directing this dreamsculpt?” asked Kevyn.
“Actually, because of the number of people, Danger, Hermione, and I are sharing the control,” said Draco.
After a few more questions the children were called over and more introductions were made. First came Irene's biological siblings, Jacob and Cissy, and her adoptive sibling Bobby. They were told Bobby was also biologically related, but more distantly. Then Nadia's brothers Noah and James. Next were Brian and Tim, the Weasley twins’ younger brothers. Then were the Longbottom children Liam and Amy, Liam the eldest was still two years from going to Hogwarts. Then there was Marcus's little brother Jason. Lastly were the Granger-Lupin kids, Abby and John.
“Wow,” said Kevyn, “I thought the family was big just hearing about it…”
“But seeing it is something else,” Keerah finished.
Ron groaned, never having gotten used to twins finishing each other's sentences, and everyone laughed. Then the cubs and friends dispersed, leaving the adults free to talk. For Keerah, the rest of the evening was spent playing games and having fun on the summery Hogwarts lawn of the dreamsculpt.