And now we have a brand new chapter! ^^ Yayness!
Anyway, I would like to thank everyone for their reviews. They definitely made me feel like continuing this story. So please enjoy the new chapter!
Disclaimer: I own Ricky, Damien, and the other kids in the club as well as Alexander. Everyone else are Harry Potter characters, and I don't own Harry Potter. I just play with them, but I need to put them back when I'm done with this.
Though warned about the number of scars, the doctors were shocked when they saw Leon's. They had removed burn scars that covered backs before, but this teenager was covered in scars from shoulders to feet. When they suggested doing little at a time, such as both arms at once and his back at another time and anywhere else at different times, both Leon and Ricky agreed. Leon's arms were first.
Damien said nothing about the thin layer of bandages around Leon's arms when he and Ricky came back, but he did ask to talk to Ricky privately. What caught Leon's attention was that Damien said 'Richard' and not 'Ricky'. Everyone here called him 'Ricky'. Damien only called him 'Richard' when the subject was important.
"Should I stay or go back to my room?" Leon asked, looking back and forth between the two older men, both important to him.
"Go ahead and get some rest," Damien suggested with a smile. "You're had a busy day. You need the rest."
"Alright," Leon replied, giving Ricky a quick hug before Damien then left the two.
"Is there something wrong?" Ricky asked, looking towards Damien when the man sighed.
"There's a lot of things going on right now," Damien replied with a small shake of his head. "Let's go to my study and talk. There's a lot we need to talk about."
Ricky nodded before the two walk through the emptying club. During the day, it was more like a bar where the older teens did the work while the younger were hidden away. The children that weren't even teens did what they normally did, except for cooking. The younger teens did that, and were talented about it. Nighttime was when it changed.
"I have a feeling that we are going to involve Leon in this discussion," Ricky said as soon as the study door was closed.
Damien nodded. "He is the center of it," he stated, going to his chair. "First off, I take it he already told you of his origins."
"That he was abandoned, beaten, starved, raped, and scarred," Ricky sighed, leaning against the back of the chair he seated himself in.
"You could just say yes," Damien chuckled with a shake of his head. But the smirk that came with the chuckle fell. "Those people that came in here earlier were his parents, brother, and the two younger men were his uncles. I don't know who the old man was, but I don't think he really matters. No matter how hard we try to fight them and keep Leon with us, they are his parents, just as he is their son by blood."
"I could always hire a few lawyers should this go to court," Ricky commented with a wave of his hand. "They are unfit to be parents if they abandoned him in an abusive household and knew there was a probability of him being abused."
"They can turn that around," Damien sighed, rubbing his temple. "What we do here won't be welcomed very easily in court. These are underage teenagers prostituting, and I don't stop them. Hell, I'd be seen as the pimp here and all them are my whores. That's what the general public and the court would see."
Ricky sighed gently. "True," he agreed. "But you are a more fit guardian than them. You know how to handle him. You know how scarred he mentally is."
"So do you," Damien pointed out with a smirk. "Richard, I have been seeing a lot of things lately. And with this going on, we may need to take care of a few things."
"I'm not sure I understand you, Damien," Ricky said.
"You never came in here before that night when Leon first started waiter duty, and I noticed that night, you had no interest in anything but drinks that night," Damien started off. "Then you met Leon and came in every night, sitting at the same table, and he was always the one to come to you. That entire time, you never touched or stared at any of the others, only him.
"Then he starts dancing. Again, you come in every night to watch him, and don't think I don't know who was sending all those roses to him or who was sending him that expensive jewelry. Then when he decided to try out sex for money, you paid 1,500 pounds for him. No one has even paid over 600 for anyone here. I would like to point this out one more time: you never shown interest in anyone but him.
"I'm not blind nor stupid, Richard. I know you fancy Leon, probably even love him. I see the way you smile at him and I see the way he just brightens up whenever he sees you. And I think it goes without mentioning that what you are doing for him now just proves how much you care."
"I won't deny there are some feelings towards him," Richard said, running a hand through his hair. "There is no denying or argument that could be made."
Damien smirked then let out a soft chuckle. "Will you still have those feelings should you learn the truth about our little Leon?" he asked.
"Yes," Richard answered honestly. "Leon is Leon, no matter his past or heritage."
The other man sighed silently. "Then I suppose you should know the whole truth about him." He started telling Ricky about when he first found Leon. That he was originally named Harry James Potter, but changed his name a couple years later. He told him of all the things he saw Leon doing of his own will or by accident, such as blowing up vases or fixing the foundation to save a bit of money for them. How he figured out he could hide his scars with these strange powers he possessed and about the werewolf that told him what Leon was.
Ricky was silent through the entire explanation, arms crossed and head down. It would explain quite a few things about Leon, such as how he was always able to hide his scars. Ricky just thought he used a lot of make-up and the sex caused him to sweat enough for it to eventually clear it off enough to reveal his scarred body. Not to mention the few other oddities that he often caught Leon doing and only allowed those oddities to fly over his head.
"So now that you know the truth, do you still accept him?" Damien asked.
"Yes," Ricky answered truthfully.
Damien smiled gently. "Then I have a request for you," he stated.
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"So you basically got a needle digging into your skin around these scars repeatedly and after a few days, you go back and they wipe away whatever dead skin they can get off?" Ginger asked, holding Leon's bandaged arm in her hands.
"Why not just wipe that skin off right away afterwards?" Dustin commented, crossing his arms over his chest.
His twin copied his action. "Yeah, the skin would only recover and try to reattach itself to you if you wait a few days," Justin pointed out.
"They said it wouldn't because the skin would be dead, but it takes a while for my body to actually acknowledge the skin is dead and then let it shed right off," Leon explained patiently. "The next appointment, after they remove my dead skin, they'll check over the progress and try the whole thing again. After my arms, they said they'll do my back and whatever else they can."
"Then you'll finally be free from the scars of your past," Allison giggled. "This is great!"
Leon nodded with a bright smile before it fell into a sad one. "Yeah, but some of my scars would probably be a hopeless case," he said, unconsciously rubbing his shoulder blades with his free hand, where his FREAK scar rested. "Some of my scars were carved so deep, they went into my muscle. They may never disappear."
Ginger took the hand rubbing his shoulder and held both of his hands in hers. "Then they just signify what you survived," she said.
"What doesn't kill us, makes us stronger," the twin stated in unison.
Allison reached over and rubbed his back gently. "Let's see how faded they can make it, at the least," she assured. "If you're lucky, they'll be able to make it so faded that no one would actually see it unless they're looking for it."
"Hopefully," Leon sighed.
"So change in subject, who were those people in Damien's study?" Justin asked, earning a punch to his shoulder from Dustin. "What? You wanna know, too!"
"What people?" Ginger asked.
"There were some people in Damien's study when we went in there to talk to him," Dustin explained. "We also saw Damien sitting on the floor with Leon crying his eyes out in Damien's lap. There were three men, one woman, a teen about Leon's age, and an old man that looks like he never shaved a day in his life."
Leon sighed heavily. "I really don't wanna talk about it…" he started.
"Then don't," Allison advised. "We don't need to hear it."
"But I wanna tell you guys," Leon said firmly. "The two men against the wall were my uncles, not related of course. Remus Lupin and Sirius Black. Siri was my godfather and Remy was Alex's. Alexander, the teenager, is my twin brother and the two adults that were on both sides of him were my parents. The old man, I barely know, but I remember that he was the one who convinced my parents to abandon me and placed me with the Dursleys."
The twins cracked their knuckles as Ginger and Allison glared in random direction. "And they just listened to him?" Ginger spat out. "No argument?"
Leon shook his head. "Siri and Remy tried to take me in, but Lily and James Potter wouldn't let them," he said.
"So what now?" Justin snapped, punching one of his hands with the other curled in a fist. "They think they can leave you then waltz right back into your life fifteen or sixteen years later and think everything will be okay?"
"What kind of bullshit is that?" Dustin added. "Wait, how can you remember them so easily?"
Leon gave him a look. "I have really strong memory," he replied. "And yes, Justin, that's exactly what they were thinking." He sighed heavily. "I don't know what they want with me now, after leaving me alone for so many years, not even bothering to write or visit just to make sure I was alright. I can honestly say, I don't care what they want with me. I refuse to go with them! Anywhere!"
"Well we won't let them take you anyway!" the girls simultaneously declared. The boys crossed their arms and nodded in agreement.
"No one is going to let them take him away," someone said from the doorway, making the five teens jump before looking to see Damien and Ricky with smirks. "But we can't have a full-scale investigation going on here. Charles may let this fly, but if things get out of hand, we're in deep trouble. I mean me in jail and all of you in orphanages or foster homes that have no idea how to handle you."
"So you're going to do what?" Dustin and Justin exclaimed. "You can't be thinking about letting Leon go!"
"Not to them," Damien assured. "Look, there are very few people who know how to handle Leon, and Leon, you are tough to handle at times." Leon smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. Damien looked over to Ricky then to Leon. He sighed heavily. "This is a tough decision, Leon, but it is one you are going to have to make."
"I'm not going back to them!" Leon shouted, the smile vanishing from his face to change into a frown as his eyes narrowed into a glare.
"I wasn't going to say that, let me finish," Damien sighed.
Ricky shook his head slowly with a smirk on his lips, placing a hand on Damien's shoulder. "Let me," he offered. Damien nodded and gave a slight wave of his hand. Ricky went into the room and sat on the bed near Leon, on a spot that the other four teens had cleared. "Leon, this is your choice, but I would like it if you would come stay with me. At the least until this all blows over, but if you come stay with me, you can stay as long as you like."
Leon's eyes grew wide. "I don't know, I might just be a burden," he said, lowering his head.
"No you won't," Ricky told him. "Look," he sighed. "As I said, this is your choice. We won't make you, but I would like it if you came to live with me."
Leon chewed on his bottom lip nervously. "Can I think about it for a while?" he asked.
"Of course," Ricky answered with a soft smile. "I understand. You think however long you need to."
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Everyone was allowed to leave the building during the night, whenever they wanted. The only rules were to travel together and no one under ten years of age travels without at least two teenagers with them. Currently, Leon was walking down the street with both Dustin and Justin, both who he loved as his older brothers. Normally, he would also have Ginger or Allison with him, or even a few of the others he had created bonds with. But right now, he only wanted the twins with him.
"What's there to think about?" Dustin asked him, shrugging his shoulder.
"Yeah, I mean," Justin agreed. "It's not like Ricky will keep you from us. We can still drop by for a visit."
"Or you can drop by for one," Dustin added with a grin.
Leon was silent. It wasn't that he was afraid of Richard keeping him from the others. He knew that the man would never keep him from those he considered family. It was just… he didn't want to be a burden. Richard can say that he isn't all he wants, but Leon just felt like he was. He was just another mouth to feed, another body to clothe, another being to support.
Richard spoiled him enough as it was. All those expensive things he keeps getting him and these appointments to remove his scars. Richard didn't need to do all this for him and now he was offering to take him in.
"Hey, Leon, you okay?" Justin asked him, placing a hand on his shoulder while Dustin wrapped an arm around his waist.
"I'm nothing more than a burden," Leon said lowly.
Both twins froze, stopping in their tracks. Leon stopped as well when he didn't feel them move another step. He looked up towards them to see them giving him hard stares. "I wanna know what makes you think that," Dustin spat in anger. Why would Leon call himself a burden? He hasn't done that in years! Dustin and his twin both mentally blamed those people from earlier for Leon's relapse.
"If I never existed, none of this would have ever happened," Leon stated, looking down to his black tennis shoes. "Ricky wouldn't be wasting his money. Damien wouldn't be in trouble because of what we do. No one would have to worry about me."
"That's nonsense!" Justin exclaimed, pulling his hand away from the younger teen before throwing his arms into the air. "Can you even hear yourself, Leon? Who said Damien's in trouble? Who said Ricky's wasting money trying to help you heal from your past? Who says we mind worrying about you?"
"You're another brother, Leon," Dustin told him, raising his arm to place his hand on Leon's shoulder then squeezing gently. "Leon, if you didn't exist, what would our lives be now? We would be in trouble. The roof above our heads would always be crumbling and falling. Damien wouldn't be able to take care of all of us because he would be spending money trying to keep the place together. And our lives would be dull, dark, and pointless."
"You don't need me as much as you're trying to make me think," Leon said, not lifting his head any.
"Yes we do," Dustin assured.
"Leon, without you, we wouldn't have any brightness," Justin commented. "We've all had hard lives. Dustin and I were left to die by our own parents! When we were five! Left on the street with nothing more than the clothes on our backs! We have a hard time trying to find the point to life every day, still think dark thoughts about our parents. We used to want to make them suffer.
"But you had it harder than us. You went through worse, so much worse. Yet you still smile every day. You still make real laughs. You still accept anyone who comes through the doors. You comfort anyone who needs it. You're the sun in our lives. You show us what life is for, why we should live day to day."
"You show us that we are loved," Dustin continued for his brother. "Our parents didn't want us. No one did before Damien picked us up. And even then, no one other than Damien showed us affection, occasionally a few others. But then you came along and you showed us that we are loved. You showed everyone. You're just a bundle of joy that brightens everyone's day and makes us all smile. We'd be lost with you."
Leon choked back a sob before curling into a ball on the sidewalk and crying into his knees. Dustin and Justin kneeled at his sides and wrapped their arms around him, comforting him as much as they could.
"You're not a freak," Justin said.
"You do deserve love," Dustin added.
"And you have it."
"We love you."
"And so does Damien.
"And Ginger.
"And Allison."
"And everyone else."
"And especially Richard."
"How can anyone not love you?"
Leon only sobbed a little harder.
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A low sigh escaped him as he stared at the phone. Most of his things were already packed. His jewelry and casual clothing. A few sexy articles of clothing were packed away as well, but he left most of it in his closet.
After his episode on the sidewalk, the twins picked him up and led him back. They dropped him off in his room, spoke to Damien who had followed them when they came back to make sure Leon was okay, and then spent over an hour with him while he debated with himself. The girls came in sometime during that hour. He finally came to his decision and told them. They only smiled and supported the decision then helped him pack whatever he felt he would need and keep.
Now he was arguing with himself again. He was alone in his room and he was starting to doubt his choice. He felt like one of those little girls plucking flower petals off while saying, "He loves me. He loves me not."
He loves me.
He loves me not.
Live with Ricky.
Don't live with Ricky.
Live with Ricky.
Don't live with Ricky.
And he didn't even have a flower to pluck. He sighed again before reaching over to the phone and picking it up. He dialed Ricky's phone number by memory. It wasn't too late, so he should still be up. The phone rang once… twice… thrice…
"Hello, Richard Jackson speaking," that familiar voice greeted.
"Ricky," Leon greeted back. "It's Leon."
"Leon?" Ricky repeated. "I'm surprised you're calling at this hour."
"I'm sorry, should I call again in the morning?" Leon asked.
"No, no it's fine," Ricky reassured him. "Is there something wrong?"
Leon chewed on his bottom lip. "Is your offer to live with you still open?"
"It will always be open for you," the man answered.
"Then… may I live with you?"
Ricky was silent for three seconds. "I would love for you to live with me," he said, and Leon could practically hear the smile he knew was on the man's lips. "Shall I pick you up now?"
"How about in the morning?" Leon suggested. "One more night with everyone."
"I understand."
"Thank you, Ricky. Good night."
"Good night, Leon. And you are welcome."
Leon smiled softly before placing the phone back down.
"Well then," he heard someone speak from his doorway, making his jump in surprise. He looked over to see Damien leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed over his chest and a smile on his lips. "I suppose I should close down the place for tonight and we'll throw you one hell of a 'Good-Bye Party'."
"You don't have to," Leon tried to argue.
"But I'm sure everyone here wants to," Damien cut him off as he entered the room and sat down on the bed next to the teen. He wrapped an arm around Leon's shoulders and pulled him to his chest, placing his chin on top of the boy's head. "Try to visit us. We'll all miss you."
"I'll miss everyone here, too," the teen said, burying his face into Damien's shirt and letting a few tears escape him. "Thank you, Damien. For giving me a home and a family. For everything you've done for me."
Damien ran his hands through Leon's hair. "Don't thank me," he said. "I just did what I could."
"Still. Thank you."
Next chapter we will tune into the Potter family and see what they are attempting to do for a brief moment then we go back to Leon and see how the change is effecting him. For now, I hope this chapter will suffice and ask politely for some reviews.
Review!