Disclaimer: I'm sure you all know Harry Potter doesn't belong to me. I'm going to stop writing it after this chapter.

A/N: I am so sorry for the late update but I simply couldn't find time. Nut this chapters's almost 6000 words to compensate. The next update is also going to be pretty long in coming but I'll do my best to make it a long one.

Thank you everyone who answered my plea for reviews. I'm at a grand total of 119.

Thank you Miss Nailia, Lemrinth, Gemini Peverell, MaiKanon, SpaceHead3, yuiop, Nachtnelke, , The Dark One Rising, Serge, jay, Edmund, Cherrie-san, Zlatka, aliengirlguy, TheGrimmChaos, sandcate, KK, Barranca, Shire Fey, AkiEn for reviewing.

I hope you like this chapter as much as the previous one. Someone asked if Ceph would still be a seer. yes. also, the Harry in Ceph's reality is going to be different from the Harry in his head. they'll probably merge a few years later. I've even thought up how it's going to start. though Hogwarts is going to be some time in coming since I've got quite a few important incidents to cover.

Just to clarify, Harry's around his 50s, Cepheus around 1.

Also, while Cepheus' mind is quite developed due to prolonged contact with Harry and his habit of pulling knowledge from Harry, his body and language skills aren't that good. Harry focused their magic on growing his teeth because he believed being able to articulate spells would be better first since he isn't that good at wandless magic in something not focused inside himself.

CHAPTER 11

It's bad enough when you don't really know your godfather. It's worse when you haven't ever heard of your godmother but the spirit living in your head has. When your mother starts screaming like a banshee when she thinks she's alone? It's horrible.

-An Excerpt from the journal of Cepheus Pollux Black

"I want him gone!" Walburga said in anger, nearly screaming in frustration as she lay on the bed.

Orion looked at her worriedly before asking hesitantly, "You don't mean it in the getting rid of him sense do you?"

Walburga took in a deep breath and slowly started to let it out in the hopes of calming herself but lost the desire before she could get rid of more than half of the air and she said scornfully, "I mean send him to the Outer Hebrides type of getting rid of him! I don't mind if he gets sent to a ranch in the Colonies or something! I JUST WANT HIM GONE! "

"That's good because if you did think of doing anything else, no doubt he' do something really horrible to you." Orion cautioned.

Walburga felt like pulling at her hair, she would have in fact if it didn't mean lifting her aching arms. "Why must you men always be so foolish that you make me want to box your ears? Didn't you just hear me say that I just want him gone? I don't care what he does as long as he does it somewhere far away from me!"

"It would be easier to move away ourselves than attempt to have him moved!" Orion said pessimistically.

Walburga opened her mouth to shout at him but just then the door to their bedchamber opened and her jaws shut with a snap. It was Sirius, she saw. The sight of the boy filled her with wrath and she screech at him, "Get out! If I wanted to have a no good, useless brat rushing here just when I didn't need him to, I assure you, I would have called!"

Sirius looked hurt at her scathing words but he stumbled on slowly "I heard you shouting."

Walburga gave an angry bark of laughter at that before she said, "Oh, so now you care about the fact that I'm screaming whereas when I actually need your help, you were nowhere to be found!"

Sirius looked ready to cry as he said in a downtrodden voice, "I'm sorry"

"Sorry," she shouted. "Do you think that makes things better? Do you think this s something that I can repair with just a wave of my wand? Just go away for now!"

She looked at the tears slowly dripping down the young boy's face and she relented and said in a softer voice, "Go bother one of the elves for now."

After the door shut behind the tearful countenance of their son, Orion said reproachfully, "You shouldn't have done that."

The softness disappeared instantly as she turned on her husband and shouted at him, "He heard me screaming and just because he was busy playing, he didn't even bother to find out what was happening! At least he could've called an elf or someone! They could have gone to call you or even your parents on seeing their mistress get cursed. But no He simply lay there and the elves never even realised anything was wrong as I had Kreacher bond with the children instead of me and no sound penetrates the kitchens unless the wards have been adjusted to allow that! I could have been saved!"

"And what if he had come to see what was going on? Would you rather he have been caught in what was going on too?" Orion was starting to let out his own anger, it was hard to stay cool in the face of such accusation towards his son.

Walburga laughed cruelly at that before saying mockingly, "Is that what you think Riddle is? Even I know better than that and I'm finding out I know next to nothing about him. He wouldn't hurt the Heir of House Black in the house of Black. The only reason he managed to torture me was because we both stand in an equal position in front of the house."

She laughed a little crazily at that before asking, "Me! Can you imagine that? Me, equal with him?"

Orion looked on worriedly, maybe the Cruciatuses had had more of an effect on her mind than he had at first assumed.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?" If mysterious imaginary people inside his mind could shout, that was what Harry was doing. He had woken up after Cepheus had poked and prodded him insistently after Lord Voldemort had left. He had been scared and Mummy hadn't even comforted him! He had hoped that Harry would make it better, but the moment Harry had realised what had been happening in his absence, the man had seemed to swell up till finally, he burst with a shout.

Cepheus sniffed, didn't anyone ever realise that he didn't like it when they screamed at him? Why couldn't everyone speak softly to him like Mummy and daddy did? A tear fell out of his left eye and he wiped it off with his fist, not liking the tickling sensation it caused while sliding down his cheek.

Harry seemed to rein in his temper as he said in a relatively softer tone, but one that was still too close to a shout to be any comfort to Cepheus, "Didn't you ever think that now that Voldemort knows what's going to happen, he's going to make sure that it doesn't?"

"But that good, isn't it?" Cepheus asked with an even stronger sniff.

"No, it's not" Harry shouted in frustration.

Cepheus started whimpering as he asked, "But Jam and Lily won't die?"

Harry seemed liable to start crying any moment as he asked, "Now what are you talking about? We are talking about something very serious right now and jam and lilies is an awful thing to eat anyway."

"No eat," Cepheus explained. "Your Mummy and daddy"

Harry seemed stupefied for a moment before he finally asked, "do you mean James and Lily?"

Cepheus gave a satisfied sigh at that as he thought, "So that's what it was."

"Wait," Harry sounded excited as he asked, "So do you mean to say that you didn't actually tell Voldemort about who were my parents?"

Cepheus felt quite offended at that question and he let it be known by letting out a ringing cry and mental kicking at Harry's presence. It evidently met its mark as Harry let out a cry of what he fancied to be of some considerable pain.

"Of course you didn't lie," Harry said in a conciliatory tone. "You simply couldn't remember the proper name and so said Jam and Lily instead of James and Lily."

Since all this was said rather fast and Cepheus' understanding of the spoken language was precarious at best, this went all over his head and he was left to stare at his own eyelids in befuddlement.

Harry took no notice by it. In fact, he took no notice of anything whatsoever as he started saying excitedly, "We could work with this! I bet he's going to come over every so often to get the right names out of you. All we really need to do is make sure that you are never alone with him. He's bound to try to get you alone, unless he really wants everyone to find out exactly who they need to take care of to get rid of him. I bet there are scores simply waiting to get the chance to do away with him. I certainly know I am one of them!" the last part was said vindictively.

"Buh…" Cepheus replied back, an instinctive response to things he couldn't make heads or tails out of.

Harry seemed to think of it as encouragement as he became even more excited and started muttering, "We'll have to really plan it right. Your parents don't seem that inclined to deny him things, can't say I blame them after what happened to Walburga. We'll have to see about getting some anti portkey wards put. I wish we could simply get him banned from being around you."

Cepheus' head was spinning from the fast thought processes happening inside it but even then he was aware of the contemplative gaze of the denizen inside him. It sent shivers up his spine, not the nice ones he got when he was been given a nice warm bath but the type he got when something bad was about to happen. He wasn't wrong as Harry said, "If there is one thing that is common between all cultures, it's this, they never allow perverts near children."

Harry sounded quite gleeful as he continued, "And what does it matter if he isn't actually like that? If I know anything about him, he is a very obsessed kind of person. He'll chase you, try to catch you at inopportune times, why, he might even charm your toys into portkeys. We are bound to find some reason to get him away from you."

Cepheus was conscious of a feeling of inadequacy, not that he realised that was what it was. He was coming to realise that he might have been let out of the glass cage but the world outside wasn't anything too nice either.

19 December 1964

"Hurry up!" Walburga said hurriedly. It was the day they were going to carry out the ritual that would match the person whose magic most complemented Cepheus' and was at an age to look after him were something to happen to them. Of course, she didn't actually expect anything to happen to all the Blacks that would have to die for him to land up with his godparents, it was simply a status symbol. There was a reason most rituals were banned by the ministry. As the centuries passed and the Light Wizards started gaining power, marrying with magical creatures started becoming unfavourable if one wanted to maintain their position in society, an as a result, the power concentration in the younger generations started decreasing.

The dark purebloods manage to hold onto most of their magical might due to marrying within the Pureblood circles, but as marrying magical creatures in to the family passed out of vogue, the effects of inbreeding started showing up. The really powerful families didn't suffer as much but the weaker ones were left with no recourse but to marry Full Bloods and in the worst cases, Half Bloods. This further diluted the magical blood within the families as the Muggle blood worked to mute the magical properties of the families.

Now-a-days, very few people were left who could boast of a strong enough blood so as to attempt a ritual. It was one of the main reasons the Blacks had always been firmly entrenched into the rulemaking an upholding portion of the ministry. Everyone knew that if something bad really happen, chances were they would need a black to get them out of trouble. The Blacks were one of the only ones who were strong enough to attempt the higher workings of magic. Doing it in front of an audience simply served to drive it in that they knew they wouldn't fail.

Walburga wasn't doing it just because she wanted to show off though. The incident with Sirius that she was confident was actually an assassination attempt had served to remind her why she had gone through with the ritual with her eldest son in the first place. Parents could do a lot of things, but a relation made by magic itself and not simply as a result of an accident of birth would always be stronger than any other relation conceived of a non-magical means.

The entire family was currently camped out at the Black Manor in Norway. Arcturus had been a bit displeased at having people roam around the house but when Melania had assure him that they wouldn't bother him, he had become resigned to it. Walburga might not like her mother- in-law very much but even she had to admit that the woman could certainly get things one. Anyone who was anyone had been invited and such was the political clout of the Blacks that no one ha are refuse. It was moments like these that made her glad that she had chosen to marry into her own proud family. The preparations for the ritual happening that evening were going very well. She had wanted to hold it in the morning, or even during daylight at least, but Orion ha assure her that nightfall, the time of dusk in fact, would be the best time for making a new relation.

Evidently, the ay was too bright for such a fragile connection to prosper and the night would nurture it. It all sound like a lot of balderdash to her but then again, both she and Alphard had always been more interested in history than stars and ritual alignments. The proud smile on Melania's face ha clue her into who her husband ha inherited his interests from. As far as she was aware, her father-in-law was also interested in the historical aspects of spells much more than the spells his people discovered.

Melania had also put her entire staff of house elves at Walburga's disposal, something g that had made her very suspicious until she was told that Melania an Orion would be carrying out the ritual. It had made her fume but was nothing more than she ha expected. But giving people their reactions they expect le to being underestimate a person should always have an area they are underestimate at. It was the Slytherin way.

She watched in pleasure and a slight hint of anxiety as the elves scurried to follow her orders. She wanted everything perfect for that evening. They were carrying out the ritual in the ballroom, a very strange place to carry out a magical ritual in her opinion, but it would look beautiful in the candlelight and would fit all the guests and that was enough for her. It was as she watched the elves attach wildflowers to the columns forming sort of alcoves for the guests to take a respite in form the dancing and sprinkle sweet smelling herbs all over the floor that she felt someone approach her an turning back, she saw Arcturus Black coming over to her. Coming to stand right behind her, he asked, "Herbs from our greenhouse?"

Walburga curtsied as she said, "Yes," and was pleased to watch him no approvingly. She was confuse though when he said, "That will make the runes even stronger, earth powered as they are."

She worked hard to keep the confusion out of her face, she had had the elves decorate the place with natural flowers and herbs to show that they were so rich that they could afford to grow wildflowers in their greenhouse an herbs that weren't even use in the foo they ate. She hadn't ha any idea about their making the earth base runes any stronger. Come to think of it, she didn't even know what earth base runes h was talking about. Nonetheless, she said composedly, "I hope there is enough place for the guests to stand in when the runes are uncovered, it wouldn't do to make them stay out in the cool."

Arcturus chuckled as he said, "You haven't seen our ballroom runes in work yet, have you?" he didn't wait for an answer as he continue, "Never mind, I'll give you a demonstration in my pensieve. It wouldn't do to ruin your hard work right now and it certainly wouldn't do to have you look shocked in front of an audience."

His part said, the man turned and strode off. Walburga debated over staying and keeping an eye on the elves or following Lord Black. Naturally, she chose to follow him in the end.

Cepheus grabbed hold of his mother's robes as she started walking with him in her arms. He'd been stuffed into clothes that made breathing difficult and no amount of wailing had made her remove them. That was why even though his mother had spent the last few minutes chattering nonstop he resolutely refuse to respond to her. He was ignoring her and if she thought that prattling at the top of her lungs right into his ears would make him look more kindly at her, she was very mistaken.

They, that is to say she walked through the unfamiliar hallways of the house that they had been living in for the past few days. They were panelled in black and silver and made him feel as if he ought to shiver in col. Conversely, the house was warmer than their previous house. He still hoped that they went back home soon, the place might be cold and dark but there was still something about it that made him feel safe. Whenever he woke up at night at home, he could have sworn that the house made creaking noises in a certain pattern in order to put him back to sleep. He never told Harry that though. Harry took a very dim view of their home in Grimmauld Place even though it was the nicest place in Cepheus' opinion. Harry was very fond of Black Manor however. Cepheus took that to mean that harry was a fool. Cepheus was coming to realise that most adults were fools.

They finally came to a bend in the hall after which he saw light shining out of a room on turning his head. His bad mood worsened as he realised that he had been made so uncomfortable for showing off. He put on a surly expression on his face as his mother straightened up, ran a hand through his hair and held him a bit farther away from her boy to smooth down her dress. Cepheus glared at her though he doubted she noticed. The way she was holding him put a lot of pressure on his armpits and made him want to let out an angry yowl but he had been drilled on proper behaviour in public ever since they realised that he could understand what was being said. He restrained himself to just glaring at her. She took no notice of it and simply settled him in a decorative but uncomfortable position in front of her.

He kicked her lightly as she continued her walk towards the door and she had the temerity to make a shushing noise at him! He was pouting by the time they entered the gigantic room that was full of people and little twinkling lights flitting all over the high ceiling. The moment he realise there were glowing balls of golden light above him, he lost all his ill-temperedness pointed a finger up and said gleefully, "Mine!"

His mother said indulgently, "Of course it is."

He beamed at her, forgetting that moments ago he had been kicking at her in anger. He upturned his face and traced the flitting lights all over the place. His mother didn't let him watch the lights for long though and soon he was back to staring at the people around him. He didn't mind very much as he had realised a very strange thing. "Mama?" he asked. She hummed at him distractedly, smiling and moving towards where he could see daddy. "Twinky wave at me."

His mother shot he a surprised look before her face cleared and she said with amusement, "They're not magical lights, they're fairies we've hired for the night."

"Faiwy fly?" He asked excitedly. She nodded at him and then seeing that he had no more questions for her, turned back to meeting the eye of everyone who made to talk to her. Most of the time, Cepheus noticed, she managed to avoid sharing more than a few words with everyone but finally, she was waylaid by someone she couldn't get rid of and stopped. Cepheus looked at the man who had stopped them with wide eyes. So many buttons! And they all shone so much! He felt the urge to bite the silver buttons and reached out with one hand to grab them. His mother batted his hand aside and he looked at her reproachfully. He wouldn't have actually put them in his mouth, Harry wouldn't have let him!

The grey haired man looked at him sourly as he said, "Are you done making a fool of yourself yet? Because I assure you that you won't be graced with my presence for much longer at the rate you're growing."

"I might have spent my formative years traipsing through your house but that doesn't give you the right to treat me so casually." His mother told the man tartly.

"You didn't traipse through my house, you tore through the carpets and broke precious antiquities till I had to put aside a part of the house just for you misbegotten pieces of hell. I couldn't invite anyone over for weeks at a time," the man retorted.

"That would have sounded so much more convincing if you actually ever invited people other than me around." His mother had a strange expression on her face. He couldn't make much sense of it till Harry finally grew tired of his ruminations and told him, "She's annoyed at him but also used to it and so didn't actually expect anything else. Moreover, I dare say she's actually quite fond of him and that's why he's here at all. He doesn't look like the sort of person who would be invited to such a small and august gathering."

Cepheus didn't actually know what august meant but he nodded mentally anyway since he was very hungry and the sooner they got moving, the sooner he would get fed.

Harry sighed at that before saying in an unfamiliar tone, "I had a friend whose first priority was always his stomach too."

Cepheus would have answered but just then his mother said, "Come, Cepheus. Let's get this done with so that you can get what you want most, food."

Turning to the grey haired man, she told him cordially, "Well, if you must go, at least eat something first. I'm sure Kreacher still recognises you and calling on him would do the job, Lepidus. Though, I am sure that everyone other than you would be perfectly capable of lasting a few hours on the refreshments being served."

"If I wanted to starve myself, I'd tell my elf to not cook anything." Lepidus said with a glare.

His mother just shook her head before walking away and finally reaching his father and grandparents. His grandmother promptly took him into her arms and asked him in the same way he and Harry talked, "And how is my dear grandson?"

He beamed at her and replied in the same way, "Fine but hungry!"

She chuckled softy before saying, "Now, while the other set up the ritual premises, why don't we play a little game? We'll smell something and say what it is and the other will have to find where it's coming from, okay?"

Cepheus nodded eagerly. He loved playing with his grandmother and Harry never even gave off that feeling that he was bored and wanted to do something else. It was also the only time that Harry kept quiet when he wasn't sleeping. Cepheus had a feeling that it was because both Harry and his grandmother talked in the same way. He stopped thinking about this when his grandmother winked at him and asked, "I smell…Lemon."

Cepheus screwed up his face, thinking hard about where he could find it. Just when he was about to start crying because he couldn't think of anything since there wasn't any lemon in the food, his grandfather butted in, "Why don't you actually try to smell something?"

Cepheus looked at his grandfather in awe. He hadn't realised that he could talk like this too. He hadn't even realised when he had come over. His grandmother seemed to realise what was going on through his mind as she mock scolded his grandfather out loud, "Now, now. Don't go around implying such things." She looked at Cepheus then, as she said, "He just took advantage of the marriage bond we have to talk to you in the same way we were talking."

Cepheus tilted his head to the side, he couldn't figure out what that had to do with anything. Before he could say anything though, his grandfather again butted in and gave the answer to the game Cepheus had been playing with his grandmother, "Rosier's wearing it. The female one who thinks she actually knows runes."

His grandmother stifled a laugh before saying, "She's a Black now, you know."

"If marriage changed birth, our son would have married Meliflua." The man retorted.

His grandmother got a delicate little frown on her face as she asked, "Isn't she the one who's trying to get a resolution passed to make Muggle hunting legal?"

His grandfather nodded his black-with-slight-streaks-of-silver-haired head before changing the subject by asking, "I smell sage. Where from?"

His grandmother, whose hair was still golden and whose eyes flashed the same viridian Cepheus' did, smirked and answered, "It's stuck to Orion's shoe."

"That wasn't what I meant, and you know it," Arcturus Black scolded but all Melania Black did was smile mischievously before asking her own question, "Lavender."

Cepheus grandfather also smirked as he answered, "The curtains."

His grandmother pursed her lips before starting a session of one of the funniest what-do-I-smell contests Cepheus had ever seen. She won the contest catnip which was coming from someone called Figg. Cepheus could feel Harry wondering something but he didn't pay any attention to it, choosing instead to clap enthusiastically. His grandmother beamed at him, or at least what passed for a beam in such a social setting.

He yelled decorously, "Me too!"

His grandfather told him with a fond expression on his face, "I'm afraid we'll have to postpone another game, delightful though it will be. Orion's ready for you two."

He then proceeded to cast a spell and Cepheus felt a strange sensation wash over his skin, almost as if warm water was trickling down. It made him realise that some sort of ward had been put up between them and the others, which was the only reason they had been so casual. He was carried over to almost the centre of the room, where a sort of circle had been formed by the assembled guests. Peering down from his grandmother's arms, he saw that there was an actual circle on the floor, made by the marble itself.

It was a giant red circle with strange shapes made just inside it. He had a feeling that Harry knew what it was, even if he didn't know what exactly it meant. There was a circular space inside the big circle and there was an unlit black candle right in the centre of it. Looking around, Cepheus saw that similar circles were made all over the floor and that somehow, all the guests had managed to squeeze themselves them till the only people left out were his immediate family.

Sirius and Regulus weren't there but he could see his aunts and uncles in one circle and the older cousins who could be trusted to stay where told to in another one. Harry knew them, which struck Cepheus as something quite wrong, they were his family, weren't they? How come Harry knew them when even he didn't?

He didn't get much time to ponder about the unfairness of life, which was a good thing as he would have complained to Harry about it, something that he was strictly forbidden to do in the presence of his grandmother. He couldn't even pretend he didn't know what 'forbid' meant this time as the first time he had used that excuse, Harry had quite explicitly explained to him just what it meant and why. He really didn't want to be boiled in hot tar, even though it might be healable. It seemed like a singularly unpleasant experience.

While he was thinking of this, his grandmother had proceeded to set him own right behind the black candle. He only realised what had happened when he felt the cold stone floor beneath him. He let out an indignant squawk of protest but it was ignored and he puffed out his cheeks. He would have folded his arms as well but they weren't really moveable, confined as they were by his clothes. A pity in his opinion, since he always got what he wanted more easily when the pose was perfect.

"Now listen. I'm going to do some magic right now. It might feel strange and will try to make a link with you. Don't fight and let it. When I tell you to, blow out the candle and that's all you have to do. Okay?" His grandmother used their very own secret way to talk to him. He always got thrilled whenever they spoke like that, as if they were sharing a secret that no one else knew.

Cepheus nodded mutely. He loved to see magic.

After that, it became very confusing for him. Harry wasn't of much use either as he had seen nothing like this happen before. First, his parents and grandparents took turns making a round around the circle they had put him in. after that, they took positions at four points of the circle so as to make a square. Cepheus was very proud to be able to figure out the shape on his own without any help from Harry.

Slowly and melodramatically, they each took out a candle from their robes and after speaking a few nonsensical words, that Harry told him were actually another language, Greek perhaps since the words sounded somewhat like it, slowly lit the candle they each held in a clockwise manner. Or it might have been anticlockwise, he couldn't read a clock yet. He sucked in a breath when the ordinary flame grew in brilliance till it blazed as big as his entire face. He couldn't feel any heat though and could see though the flames perfectly well. He let it out in a gasp when the light all around them went out till the candles were the only source of illumination.

But no! he realised. The circle he was in was also glowing, to be exact, the writing that he now realised were runes were doing the glowing. His own wasn't the only one glowing either, all the circles were doing so. That must mean that all the shapes were inscribed with runes! It must have taken so much time because runes couldn't be made with magic unless they were meant to be one time use only.

He returned his attention back to the four people around him as he heard his grandfather start to speak. "Latin," Harry murmured in his head.

"What does it mean?" Cepheus asked in curiosity.

"I can't be sure because every family's is different, but I think he's raising the wards except it doesn't sound like any raising I've heard of." Harry finally said after a few moments.

"So you don't know?" Cepheus asked for clarification.

Harry sounded irritated as he answered curtly, "No I don't. Now keep quiet and pay attention."

Cepheus would have sniggered but he had a feeling that neither the person inside his head, nor the people outside it, would be too happy with him if he did so. So he stifled the laughter bursting to come out and restrained himself to a mere wiggle. It still earned him a look from his father but he didn't say anything, seemingly waiting for something. Cepheus realised what a few moments later when his grandfather stopped speaking. There were a few gasps of surprise. It took him a few seconds but he finally found what had caused the surprise, the air directly over each circle of runes was glittering as if a ray of sunlight had just hit it, except it was still night and the shiny particles were starting to come together.

Cepheus reached out an arm to touch the slowly forming cylinder around him but Harry cried out a panicked, "Don't!"

Cepheus stopped, Harry sounded very worried, and maybe a little scared? Cepheus didn't know what it was but he didn't feel like being scolded at that moment so he did as told, though not before a muttered, "I get something for this."

"Yes, fine." Harry said without any protest. It made Cepheus think that maybe he should have for some things instead of just one thing.

There was a decided pout on his face as he watched a translucent golden wall come up all around him. He didn't know if the same had happened for every circle, he could barely make out the shapes of his parents and grandparents. Just as he was going to ask Harry whether something was supposed to happen, his grandmother made contact with him mentally and said, "Something is going to touch your magic now, let it."

That seemed like a very dodgy thing to do to him but as it appeared to be the only reason all this had been done, he thought that he might as well give it a try. It took a little while of waiting impatiently for something to touch hiss magic before he realised that the strange buzzing he could feel at the edge of his mind was what had been meant. He felt a sense of amusement waft through him that he knew wasn't Harry's. He knew it because he could feel the terror that Harry was steadily trying and failing to hide.

Cepheus scratched his head, it was getting really warm and he could feel himself starting to sweat though it felt like a reaction to something other than warmth. He just hoped that whatever it was went away quickly because he really hated the feeling of sweat trickling down his scalp. He hadn't even known that he could sweat there!

There was another sense of amusement before the buzzing slowly faded and then completely disappeared. His grandmother shakily told him a few minutes later, "Blow out the candle, love."

Cepheus shrugged before blowing out the flame that had shrunk back to its original size. To his shock and delight, the black colour lightened till the topmost part of it became grey. The rest of the candle lightened in different shades, one a deep emerald green, the other a dark blue.

"It's almost like a Flag," Harry mused. "You ought to ask to keep it. Grey, green and blue. Strange but it fits somehow."

Cepheus pounded his fist on the floor angrily, yelling, "But I want food! I can't eat a CANDLE!"

Harry chuckled but didn't say anything as the golden shield curtaining them from the rest of the ballroom dropped down and his father stepped forward to pick him up.

Orion looked a little strained but Cepheus paid it no attention, saying instead plaintively, "Food!"

Orion gave him a fake smile but didn't say anything, calling a house elf over instead and telling it to bring some food for Little Master Cepheus.

As Augusta Longbottom told her husband when she saw him later, "You could have heard a pin drop on the floor if you had been there. There we all were, each hoping that the ritual had failed when something suddenly just brushed our mind, completely bypassing out mental shields."

When he asked worriedly, "Did something go wrong?" she gave him a small smirk as she answered, "Godfather and godmother, Tom Marvolo Riddle and Cedrella Lysandra Weasley. A Half-blood and a Blood- Traitor. You could practically feel Walburga wailing."

A/N: Please review!