Helios’s Awakening 06

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Helios’s Awakening

Part the Sixth—
Coldest with a kiss, so he call me ice cream, catch me in the fridge right where the ice be.
—“Ice Cream,” Blackpink feat. Selena Gomez

Helios was nervous and it was definitely showing. 

Andromeda was standing in front of his closet and considering.  “I think you look best in the black and the purple,” she decided.  “Draco doesn’t favor purple so you won’t match.  It will also bring out the blue in your eyes.”

“Draco said that he thought Nymphadora was blonde like Aunt Narcissa.”

Andromeda smiled to herself.  “No, that’s not quite true.  Bellatrix and I had the dark curls.  Nymphadora had this mousy brown hair color.  It was quite unremarkable.  When she was six, she would turn her hair bubblegum pink, just the tips, but I hear she changes her hair into simply awful colors now.  It’s outrageous.”  She looked into the mirror with her blue-grey gaze and met his eyes, which were the exact same shade.  “She has our eyes, though, unless she’s changed them.”

She reached into the closet and pulled out the black and purple tunic and white shirtsleeves. 

“This will look quite well.”

Helios took them and put them on the bed.  He already had his trousers laid out, his socks, and his nice shoes.  All he needed was a summer cloak, which he’d let his mother choose.  She was more nervous than he was about him going and visiting the Auror department.

“I’ll let you get changed,” she murmured, placing her hand on his shoulder and squeezing.  “You’ll floo over to Malfoy Manor and from there go to the Ministry with your uncle and cousin.”

“All right,” he agreed.

She leaned up and hugged him quickly, grasping to him for only a moment, before she let go and exited the room.

Helios dressed quickly, only taking a moment to look at his branded tattoo in the mirror, curving along his spine.  Sometimes he checked to make sure it was still there.  This summer all seemed like a dream to him.

He came downstairs for breakfast and Andromeda smoothed his hair away from his forehead to show off his unmarred skin as Kreacher served him a dish of tea the way he liked it.  Regulus was sitting on the other side of the table, reading The Daily Prophet, which had a large picture of Viktor Krum on the cover.

“Oh, is he being charged?” Helios asked.

Regulus looked up from behind the paper and folded it so he could look at the front page.  “Krum?  Yes, for reckless endangerment.  They’ll probably add charges of manslaughter of the thirty-two dead wizards.”

“The count went up?” Andromeda asked as she took a bite of her crumpet.

“Hmm,” Regulus agreed as he reopened the paper.  “Some died at St. Mungo’s from their injuries.  Not only will he never play quidditch again, but he may be facing the Death Penalty.”

“Europe doesn’t have the Death Penalty,” Helios mentioned carefully.

“England is talking about bringing it back just for him if he’s charged with ‘mass murder’,” Regulus told him.  “And serves him right.”

Helios sat back.  He remembered Krum from when his name got pulled from the Goblet of Fire.  He’d been surly but he also hadn’t been judgmental.  Helios wasn’t sure he wanted him to be executed.  The thought just didn’t sit well with him.

He went back to buttering his toast.

Andromeda saw him to the floo.  She was still worrying over him, but he took her smaller hand in his and squeezed.  “All will be well,” he promised.  “The worst she can do is ignore us.  She can’t make a scene.”

“No, no, I suppose she can’t,” Andromeda agreed.  “It is her place of employment.”  She looked him over one more time.  “You look quite the pureblood heir.”

He gave his mother a small smile.  “Then that’s all set then.”

Draco and Lucius were waiting for them and they all flooed to the Ministry together.  There were several fireplaces all lined up that wizards were flooing into and Lucius quickly guided Helios and Draco out of the way.  They had to register their wands and Helios carefully handed over his wand, but he realized he shouldn’t have been worried.  It turned out when Regulus had taken off the trace, he had also reregistered it, so that it no longer belonged to ‘Harry Potter’ but now was registered to ‘Helios Black.’

The Auror Department was up several flights of stairs and they waited at a desk for their tour guide to fetch them.

“I better not overwhelm Auror Tonks,” Lucius said as they waited.  “I’ll be here in an hour to pick you up.  If anything goes wrong, I’ll be up on the eighth floor.”  He laid a hand on Draco’s shoulder and nodded to Helios before he walked away.

“What’s on the eighth floor?” Helios asked.

“Administrative offices,” Draco responded.  “Minister Fudge will be up there.”

“Hmm.”

It was obvious when Nymphadora arrived.  Her hair was a shocking neon blue and cut short to her head in a pixie cut in the most outrageous fashion. It clashed horribly with her red Auror robes.  She was petite, which was odd given how tall Andromeda was, and she had a bounce in her step.  Pausing when her eyes landed on Helios and Draco, she walked up to the desk and said, “Wotcher!  Can I have the files?”

“Of course, Auror Tonks.”  Two thin files were produced.

Nymphadora flicked through them and handed them back.  Her gaze, the same blue-grey of the Blacks, shone out of her face.  “Mr. Black, Mr. Malfoy, it seems I’m to give you a tour.”

Helios opened his mouth to speak, but Draco leaned over and touched his wrist.

“Thank you, Auror,” he said with a pleasantly sly smile.  “We appreciate it.”

Her eyes rested on Helios for a long second before she turned and indicated that they should follow her.  “This is the administrative floor.  This is where we have our desks.  We are broken down into groups of two.  Every Auror has a partner, a senior and a junior partner.  I am the junior partner—”

Helios looked around in curiosity.  There were indeed desks lined up everywhere in clumps of two.

Nymphadora’s desk, which she showed them, was stacked high with files that were half falling over.  Helios wondered how she ever got anything done.

“Were you in Slytherin like the rest of the Blacks?” Helios asked when she took a breath to change the subject.  “You graduated by the time we came to Hogwarts.”

“I take it you’re in Slytherin,” she asked back.

“I’m being resorted.”  He’d gotten an owl from Uncle Lucius just the other day.  They’d sort him a week before he went back to Hogwarts. 

She raised a blue eyebrow, but didn’t say anything to that.  “This way is our interrogation rooms.  We have a suspect in custody at the moment and you have permission to view her interrogation given the level of press this case has gotten.”

Helios and Draco exchanged a look. 

Draco was just an inch taller than Helios.  With his swan’s neck it wasn’t really that much of a surprise, but Helios could just glance over and immediately catch Draco’s gaze, blue-grey to blue-grey.

They went down a level to a row of glass windows, the hallway dark except for individual lights in front of each glass, glowing dimly.

They walked up to one glass and Nymphadora pressed the glass with her wand and walls came up around them and there was suddenly sound inside the new room they inhabited.

“No.  I told you,” the voice of Hermione Granger informed her interrogators, filling the room.

Helios looked around and, gazing through the glass wall, he saw Hermione on the other side sitting at a table across from two Aurors.  She was wearing a pink polo shirt and white cut off shorts and had her arms crossed under her breasts.  Her hair was wild and free and bushy around her tear-stained face. 

“Darius called me a ‘filthy Mudblood,’ Viktor drew his wand, and I didn’t see who threw the first curse.”

“You’re now saying it wasn’t Viktor Krum,” a witch with her hair in a long braid was saying, shuffling papers.  “In your original statement—”

“I was confused in my original statement,” Hermione gasped.  “It all happened so fast.”

“You could be held for obstruction of justice,” her partner said, a solid black wizard.  “If you’re now trying to protect your boyfriend—”

“I’m not trying to protect anyone.  Darius called me a ‘Mudblood,’ Viktor drew his wand, and then there were curses flying.”

The two aurors exchanged looks.  The witch with a braid shuffled through her parchments.  “And I quote.  ‘It was all so horrible.  There were curses everywhere.  There was Darius.  He was Team Captain.  He said that Viktor was a race traitor for dating a ‘filthy mudblood’ and Viktor drew his wand and threw a curse at him.  Darius retaliated and soon there were curses everywhere.’  Do you see why we have a problem, Miss Granger?”

Hermione was running a hand down her face.  “I haven’t slept.  I’m so tired.”

“You won’t sleep until you have this sorted, Miss Granger,” the wizard was now telling her.  “Who threw the first curse?  Did you draw your wand to protect yourself?”

“What?” Hermione gasped, her hand at her throat.  “No!”

Nymphadora inserted her wand into the glass again and the walls drew away and the room went silent.  “As you can see, we interrogate suspects here.  There is some question as to whether or not Hermione Granger was involved in the riot, but she’s backtracking on her story now.”

“Helios knows Hermione Granger quite well.”  Draco’s steady gaze was firmly fixed on Nymphadora.

Nymphadora looked at Helios oddly.  “Aren’t you a blood purist?”

“Not entirely.”

“We’re training him up,” Draco promised, grabbing him around the neck and pulling Helios toward him.

Not looking amused, Nymphadora just glanced between them.  “I see.  To continue, when we go out into the field—” She walked away down the line of glass windows and Helios, glancing at Draco, quickly left his grasp and followed after his half-sister. 

Looking at the protective gear was interesting and Helios and Draco were even allowed to try some of it on.  That was a lot of fun, and Helios thought he saw a bit of thawing in Nymphadora’s eyes as they put on their helmets and had a mock battle without throwing any spells at each other. 

When they came back up to the lobby, Hermione Granger was just being released and when she saw Helios, she gasped and rushed over to him.  “Harry,” she breathed.  “I’ve been writing and writing—”

“And he’s been sending back blank letters,” Draco interrupted, getting between them.  “Can’t you take a hint, Granger?”

She looked up at Draco, confused, and then over his shoulder at Helios.  “Where did your scar go?”

“It was a glamour.  His mother took it off,” Draco explained away.  “Now.  You’re a suspect in mass homicide.  Shoo—”  He made shooing movements with his hands. 

Helios was quite content to hide behind his cousin, not wanting a confrontation.

“Harry is my friend,” Hermione argued, pulling herself together.

“Wrong,” Draco argued, his voice loud and clear.  “You dropped him when he put his name in the Goblet of Fire.  You can’t suddenly pick him up again now that you feel like it.  And his name is Helios—Helios Black.  Get it right.  You’re supposed to be the clever one.”

Hermione crossed her arms under her breasts again, making them seem larger than they were.  “If you only let me talk to him—”

“I don’t want to talk to you,” Helios said from behind Draco, walking around his cousin and looking at his former friend.  “I’ve been quite clear.”

“But Harry—”

“Helios.  Black, rather.”

Her eyes filled up with tears.  “I really need a friend.”

His heart felt nothing for her.  It had been hardened after the past year.  “Well, I needed a friend last year and you weren’t there.  We’ve been finished since November.  You made your choices.  Try crawling back to Ron.”

“He’ll have nothing to do with me—”

“Well, neither will I.  Go talk to Fay and Lavender.  Didn’t you gossip about boys and do your nails together before the Yule Ball?”

She looked uncomfortable.  “Once or twice.”

“There you go then.”

He looked over at the desk and saw that Nymphadora was signing them out.  He ignored Hermione and rushed over to his half-sister.  “Now that we’ve met—”

Hermione made to follow him, but Draco held her back.

“Very cunning of you,” Nymphadora all but complimented him.  “The Minister for Magic personally requested me.  You really must be in Slytherin.”

“Do you like ice cream?  We could go to Florean Fortescue’s.  We could leave Mother completely out of it, if you wanted.  Or we could go anywhere you like.  Just name the time and the place and I’ll be there.”

She looked at him warily.

“I’m your little brother.  Whatever—happened—and I know a lot happened, it’s not my fault.  My only sin is being born.”

She sighed and turned fully toward him.  “You’ll leave your cousin behind.”

“If that’s what you want,” he promised.  “Draco is terribly curious about you.”

“I want nothing to do with the Blacks,” she told him.  “And you’re pure Black.  Just look at you, but you are my little brother.  What kind of Christian would I be if I didn’t at least hear you out?”

“So you’ll see me?”

She looked like she was completely torn with herself.  “I’ll look at my schedule and owl you.  You go back September the First?”

“Yes.”

“Okay then,” she agreed.  “I don’t send any regards to Andromeda.”

This caused Helios’s stomach to churn a little, but he accepted it.  “I understand.  Thank you, Nymphadora.”

“Tonks,” she corrected.

He made a slight face.  “I’m not going to call you ‘Tonks.’—Dora,” he compromised.

“Fine.  Dora, but only because you’re an innocent in all of this and you probably would have ended up calling me something like that anyway.”

She handed back the time sheet and nodded to him.  “Say ‘goodbye’ to Malfoy for me.  He seems to look out for you.  It’s nice that you have that.”  And with that, she turned around and walked away.

Helios tried to contain his excitement as he walked over to Draco, but a large smile was plastered on his face.  “She’s agreed to see me before I go back to Hogwarts as long as it’s just me.”

“Brilliant!” Draco agreed.  “Then we can sneak me in over Christmas or Easter break.”  They turned to walk over to the visitor benches where they would wait for Uncle Lucius.  “Funny thing about Granger.  Do you think she was part of the riot?”

“No,” Helios stated.  “She never uses offensive magic.  Anything she would have used wouldn’t have been stronger than an expelliarmus.  That could hardly contribute to a riot.”

“They must be under a lot of pressure to make charges stick.  Maybe they’re having a difficult time making the charges against all the Bulgarians stick for some reason.”

Helios shrugged.  “I’m not a law wizard.”  He watched as people just passed them by, giving them the odd glance, their attention more on Draco than on him.  “It’s weird not being the recognizable Harry Potter.”

“A good ‘weird’?”

“Definitely a ‘good weird’.”

Over the next few days, all the recommendations were written, the law papers were drawn up, and Helios was legally recognized as the true born son of Andromeda Black Tonks, father unknown. 

Sirius even turned up in the middle of the night to sign the papers as Head of the House of Black.  He didn’t even stay until morning to see Helios, but disappeared again into the night.

Helios wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about that.

He took the floo to Professor Dumbledore’s office and found that he was the last to appear.  His Uncle Lucius was already there, along with Professors Snape and McGonagall.  Dumbledore was sitting regally at his desk.

“I renew my objections,” Professor McGonagall now said, this currently directed to Uncle Lucius who was representing the governors of the school.  “Mr. Black has not been adopted.”

“All but,” he disagreed.  “The papers are all in order.  He has been returned to his mother from his—Muggle guardians, his name has been changed, glamours have been removed, he is an entirely new legal entity.”

“Minerva,” Headmaster Dumbledore said, as if this argument had already been had, “the governors have agreed unanimously.  There is nothing we can do.”

Andromeda’s hand curled over Helios’s shoulder in comfort. 

“Mr. Black,” Dumbledore greeted.  “How well you look.  And Madam Tonks, I haven’t seen you since you were last at Hogwarts yourself for your sixth year.  You are welcomed back most heartily.”

“Thank you,” she confirmed graciously.  “I hope very much my son will follow me into Slytherin.”

“Yes,” Dumbledore agreed carefully.  “Your daughter did not, if I remember.”

“Nymphadora was raised by her father,” she explained away.  “Come, Helios.”  She indicated a chair that was set up in the middle of the room.  “I am sorry you have such a large audience.”

“I’m used to it,” he assured her, reaching up and squeezing her hand. 

He approached the chair and sat in it carefully, waiting for someone to put the Sorting Hat onto his head.  Uncle Lucius had the honor, and it did not quite cover his eyes so completely as it did when he was a first year.

“Ah,” the Hat said inside his head.  “I remember you.  You called yourself ‘Helios’ when the world called you ‘Harry Potter.’  It seems you had the right of it.  A resorting.  Haven’t had one of those in decades.  Well, last time I said you were destined to be great and Slytherin would help you on that path to greatness.  Are you ready to travel that path, young Helios?  Ah, I see that you’re not sure but you want to go there anyway.  A romance?  You young ones are all the same.  Well, then, I stand by my original assessment.  BETTER BE SLYTHERIN!”

Helios didn’t sag but continued to sit up straight and looked directly into his mother’s happy eyes, which were filled with tears.

“There,” Lucius said.  “The hat has spoken.  Slytherin.”

“I’ll have the fifth year dorms prepared,” Professor Snape was now saying, “as we will need an extra bed.” 

Helios glanced in Dumbledore’s direction.  He looked disappointed.

He was set to meet Nymphadora August the thirtieth at Florean Fortescue’s at two in the afternoon.  He told his mother where he was going as he didn’t want to lie, and she nodded her head and told him to try to enjoy himself.  “She is your half-sister, after all.  She was always a fun loving child.”

He went in simple pureblood black, not wanting to alienate her, and was there a full fifteen minutes early in his nervousness.

She was ten minutes late.

He stood when she arrived.  “What would you like?” he asked.  “I’d be happy to get our flavors.”

“Is Mother flush?” she asked carefully.

“My guardians were wealthy and left me a fortune,” he admitted.  “The law wizards have been all over it, and they wrote their will in such a way that I get to keep it.  I can afford a couple of ices.”  He shrugged.

“Fairy lavender,” she requested, and he went up to the counter, getting her a large and requesting a dragon’s blood for himself.

He came back to the table and tried not to fidget.  Nymphadora was looking him over carefully.  “You really do look like Mother.  Who’s your father?”

He shrugged.  “I have no idea.  A pureblood.  That’s all I’ve been told.”

She nodded carefully as their ice creams were served. 

“Ted Tonks was a good man,” she told him straight out.  “He worked very hard to get me everything I needed.”

“I’m sure he was,” Helios agreed, taking a bite of his ice cream.  “Was?”

“He died a few years ago.  He never got to see me graduate from Auror Academy.”

Ted Tonks was dead?  Andromeda was a widow?  Did she have any idea?  Helios kept this information carefully from not showing on his face and took another scoop of his ice cream. 

“That must have been difficult,” he agreed.  “Both of my guardians died when I was a toddler.  I’ve been living with Muggles.”

Her eyebrows raised.  “Andromeda allowed that?”

“She didn’t have a say.”

“She didn’t—”  Nymphadora looked pensive.  “How—strange.”  She went back to her ice cream.  “So, you’re in Slytherin?”

“I just got resorted this week.”

She rolled her eyes good naturedly.  “All Blacks are in Slytherin except for Uncle Sirius.  Never met the man.”

“He is on the run,” Helios agreed.  “I’ve met him once or twice, but I didn’t even see him when he came and signed my Act of Legitimation as Head of the House of Black.”

She hummed.  “Quidditch?”

“Yes,” he agreed.  “Seeker.”

“What’s your favorite course?”

“Defense against the Dark Arts?”

“You’re going into your fourth year?  Fifth year?” she asked curiously.

“Fifth.”

“They’ll ask you what you’ll want to do with your career this year.  Have any thoughts?”

“Er—”  Helios flushed.

She looked up at him.

“I had thought an Auror.  I never considered doing anything else but fighting dark wizards.  I guess you beat me to it.”

She laughed outright.  “Poor Andromeda!  Two children becoming Aurors.”  She chuckled into her ice cream.  Her bright blue hair shivered into a creamy yellow. 

Helios stared.  He’d never actually seen a metamorphose take place.  His all took place in his sleep.  He guessed he needed to start really practicing.

He regarded his sister for a long moment and thought about her work and how she had given him and Draco a tour.  “I suppose we’ll talk to Professor Snape about it.”

“Yes,” Nymphadora agreed.  “You will.”

“Well, he’s known me for four years.  He can point me toward other possible careers he might think I’m good at.  My charms work is quite good.  Who knows.”  He shrugged.  “Mother doesn’t seem to have a job.”

“No,” Nymphadora agreed carefully.  “She had a job in a shop when I was a child, but that’s beneath a Black.  I believe Lucius Malfoy supports her.”  There was a derision in her voice.

Helios thought about that.  “Uncle Regulus might support her, too.  She does also have a dowry.”

“Nothing to speak of.”  Nymphadora finished her ice cream.  “Well, thanks for this, Helios.  Really must rush off.”  She stood and Helios quickly stood with her.

“Must you really be off?”  Helios looked at his watch.  It showed where everyone in the family was.  Regulus was at the club and Mother was at home.  Sirius was elsewhere, like he always was.  “It’s not even two-thirty.”

“No, must be gone,” she declared, pushing back her chair.  “As I said, thanks.”  Then she was gone, without saying if she would write or if they would do this again.

Helios looked down at his melting dragon’s blood.  It looked like a dark purple mess.

He made his way home and told his mother it had gone, “so-so.”  “She just left,” he admitted.  “She found out I was in Slytherin, might want to be an Auror, and left.  I don’t know what I said.”

“Oh, sweetheart,” Andromeda sighed, pulling him into a hug and allowing him to rest his head against her shoulder.  “She’s probably just as confused as you are.”

“Do you think?” Helios asked hopefully.

“I am sure of it.”

Helios rested like that for a few moments before standing up to his full height.  Looking into his mother’s eyes, he asked her, “Did you know you were a widow?”

“Pardon?”

“Nymphadora said her father died a few years ago.”

“I never got any notification.”  She paused and looked thoughtful.  “I better write to the law wizards.”

“Yes,” Helios agreed.  He released his mother and watched her walk to the tapestry room where there was a secretaire and stationary. 

He sighed and walked up to his room.  It was still early in the day, but all he wanted to do was go to sleep.  Taking off his shoes, he flopped down on the bed and drew the curtains.  Closing his eyes, he let sleep overtake him, knowing that Kreacher would come find him for dinner.