The Ones for The Boy Who Lived-Chp13

CHAPTER 13 – CHILDREN OF THE FUTURE

“You haven’t finish reading that comic series yet?”

Rach complained at how slow Jude read her comics that her cousin helped her buy in the Muggle world. Rach had already finished reading her novels she brought from home. Becka became a busybody as she flipped through the comics.

Becka was feeling much better now. She had a great time with Cedric and was thrilled to see that she began to have the same tattoo mark like Cedric. Now she felt as if they were beginning to be more like one. Of course she didn’t say that to her girlfriends. She didn’t want them to worry about dating someone who just came back from the dead.

“Come on, Rach. You have to enjoy the art and explore their dialogues when you read a comic, not go rushy-rushy over it,” Jude remarked, not looking up from her comic. “Besides, reading it slowly lessens the possibility of money wastage.”

Rach grunted in reply.

Quite suddenly, Prof. Dumbledore popped out of nowhere and asked, “That is a very interesting Muggle book you’ve got there, Judith. I hope you don’t intend to read it during classes.”

The trio jumped at the sight of him. Becka was the one to exclaim first, “Sir! You startled us! We almost had a heart attack!”

“Beg your pardon, girls,” Prof. Dumbledore chuckled. “I didn’t mean to scare you. Have you had your dinner, girls?”

“Is it dinner time now?” Rach asked. “I don’t see anyone moving to the Great Hall.”

“It’s not dinner time for them, but it is dinner time for you and Harry. Go on, run along now. Harry is waiting for you girls there. Go now.”

The trio wanted to ask why such an early dinner time but finally decided to follow his instructions. They quickly walked towards the Great Hall. The old Headmaster was right—Harry was there, enjoying his dinner. The portion of food on the table was enough for him and the trio. But he wasn’t there alone. Prof. Snape, Prof. McGonagalle, Prof. Lupin and Prof. Dumbledore were also there. How did the old Headmaster get there before them, the trio didn’t know.

“Glad you could join us, girls. Go on, sit down beside Harry and have your dinner. You have all the time we need.”

The trio went towards Harry and settled down. Though still curious about the whole thing, the trio soon tucked in with him. They looked at Harry who was eating a big piece of fish. He seemed more solemn and…well, a little handsome this time. They were surprised to see him at this state. Without them realizing it, the trio was quite attracted to his sudden change of attitude. Never before have had they felt like this simultaneously towards a guy who they used to know as a friend. Harry realized that they were staring at him.

“What? Is there something wrong with my face? Why are you girls staring at me like that?”

The trio got back to their senses and said almost in unison, “No, no, no! Nothing’s wrong, really!”

Prof. Dumbledore looked at his staff thoughtfully. They nodded, understanding what was going on.

“What exactly are we doing here? We never have dinner early,” Jude asked.

“Yeah! We always have our dinner together with our housemates. Why is it different today?” Becka asked too.

“Because tonight is the night,” Harry replied briefly, his voice a little lower so that the teachers won’t hear.

“What night?” Rach asked.

“The night…” Harry hesitated before saying, “the night where we are going to become one. To create our…heir.”

“What?!” Jude hissed, being careful not to alert the teachers. “It’s tonight?? I didn’t know that!!”

“Hasn’t Snape informed you about this?” Harry asked. “Not even McGonagalle? Lupin?”

The trio shook their heads hard, ultimately sure that they weren’t informed about it.

“Well, I was informed by Dumbledore about it. I guess he forgot to tell your teachers to tell you.”

“Or he deliberately didn’t tell them about it!” Becka hissed, frustrated. “That old geezer!”

“Unfortunately, there’s no running away from it anymore. After dinner, they’ll take us somewhere secret to perform the heir-ceremony.”

“The heir-ceremony? What in world is that?” Rach wrinkled her nose.

“You’ll soon know. Hurry up and eat as much as you can. It’s gonna be a long night.”

They continued to eat in silence. Finally, when all of them had their fill, Prof. Dumbledore stood up and said, “Have you eaten your fill yet, girls, Harry?”

The trio and Harry nodded in unison. The food disappeared from the golden plates. Prof. Dumbledore gestured them to come with him. They obeyed. They followed behind the teachers along a long hallway where there were more spooky pictures that greeted them and shifted their gaze towards them. Although this was normal in the magical world, Jude still found it really creepy. The hallway was lit with only candles on candle stands, which made the place even creepier. The trio did not remember coming to this part of the castle, but then again, this was a castle. There’s bound to be more secret passageways and unexplored places than the ones during their school hours.

They went up a flight of stairs that went really, really, REALLY high up. The trio and Harry practically went almost out of breath and had to stop for a rest once in a while. The trio tried to cheat by flying their way up but stopped by Prof. Snape or Prof. McGonagalle’s stern warning. Finally when they reached the top, they have counted 66 steps altogether.

Again, they went through another long hallway where the paintings were more grotesque than ever. There were paintings of gargoyles, demons, fallen angels and loads of other creepy paintings you definitely do not want to have in your living room. What was even creepier was that the paintings are actually alive, and the Hogwarts ghosts like Nearly Headless Nick and Bloody Baron were hovering around the hallway, their moans and groans echoing throughout the whole hallway. The trio and Harry grabbed a grown-up to hang on to: Harry grabbed Prof. Dumbledore, Becka grabbed Prof. Lupin, Rach grabbed Prof. McGonagalle and Jude, of course, grabbed Prof. Snape.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of,” Prof. Dumbledore chuckled. “It is a little creepy, but they are quite harmless.”

Harry, Rach and Becka eased their grip on the teachers they held, but Jude was another thing. No matter how Prof. Snape pulled or told her to let go, she still hung on tight. She just couldn’t get over the eeriness of the hallway.

Finally, they reached a corridor of rooms. Prof. Dumbledore took them to the last room and unlocked the door. The door creaked as it opened, and it was completely dark. They could scarcely see anything. The teachers lit their wands with the ‘Lumos’ spell and they could see a little clearer. It was a small bedroom which looked like it used to belong to a princess. Although everything was age-old and ancient, it was really clean, as if someone has been cleaning this place regularly. There was a canopy bed and loads of toys a princess should have and a whole lot of other things. The trio oohed at the sight of it all.

“We had Argus Filch to clean this up for us,” Prof. Dumbledore said with a proud tone in his voice. “Now, let’s gather in a line. Harry, you and the girls stand in a line and we’ll stand in another line in front of you.”

They did as they were told. Harry stood in front, followed by the trio. Rach had this uncanny ability to feel someone’s aura and right now, she felt an extra aura among the teachers but she just couldn’t make out whom; it was still too dark. The teachers stood in their line and the heir-ceremony started. Each teacher came one by one to give their blessings by laying their hand onto Harry’s head and chanted some sort of blessing spell. The whole process repeated on Jude, then Becka and finally Rach. All of them felt a cold rush from their head down to their spine as each teacher finished chanting their blessings.

After all said and done, Prof. Dumbledore gave Harry a lit candle and said, “Take your time, children. Send me a messenger when you’re done.”

Messenger? The trio was about to ask who was the messenger but the teachers have already left. For a few moments they stood there looking at each other questioningly until, suddenly, a dog popped out from below the canopy bed. The trio almost shrieked in shock but Harry hushed them.

“Sirius! It’s my godfather Sirius!” Harry exclaimed happily. The dog let out a sort of grin and changed into the wild, handsome Sirius Black. The trio was astounded.

“Sorry, I was late. Dumbledore told me to keep out of sight until they finally leave. I’m here to give my blessings too.”

“I thought I felt an aura!” Rach snapped her fingers.

“Very clever,” Sirius grinned. Now, for my blessings.”

So, one by one, they were being blessed again by Sirius Black. After he was done, he said, “I’ll be outside the door when you’re done. I’m Dumbledore’s messenger.”

So saying, he changed back into a dog and went out of the room. Now the only people in the dark room were Harry and the trio. They looked at each other awkwardly. Never before have they had any close body contact and they surely felt uneasy to actually touching each other’s bare body.

“Right, let’s get started,” Jude let out a sigh of defeat and sat on the canopy bed. “I don’t want to stay in this dark room. I’m quite phobic of the dark, as you can see.”

“Yeah, let’s get this over and done with,” Rach said as she joined Jude onto the bed. “I don’t want to spend another minute here. It’s kinda creepy.”

“Alright, if you say so,” Harry said as he, too, joined them onto the bed. Becka climbed up last. With the candle in between him and the trio, Harry tried to explain, “OK, Dumbledore has briefed me on this, so I want you girls to understand this. Number 1: you don’t have to remove your clothes. You don’t have to go naked all over. Remember, we’re NOT going to have sex. Number 2: be calm at all times. One false move and the child will be gone forever. And lastly, number 3: we’re still going to be friends, OK?”

The trio looked at each other. Rule number 1 and 2 are easy to obey, but to accept rule number 3 (which didn’t seem much of a rule at all) wouldn’t be that easy. Hell, you can’t have a baby with someone and pretend that you and the father are just friends. But what else could they do? They don’t have much of a feeling for Harry, except a normal friend type of feeling. Now a normal friend is going to have a child with them. That really is a very tough decision.

“We’ll try,” the trio finally replied in unison.

“Good,” Harry smiled weakly. “Right, we’ll start the process then. Who wants to go first?”

Again, the trio did their famous ‘pointing at each other’ antic. Harry chuckled. He found it hard to believe that these three childhood friends could be comical at a tense hour like this. Slowly, the trio followed in his laughter. The tense atmosphere was much more relaxed now.

“We can never decide, Harry,” Becka said after laughing herself silly. “You call the shots.”

“OK then. Jude, you go first. You’re the eldest among the three, and it’s logical that the eldest always go first.”

Jude moved herself closer to Harry, being careful not to make the candle fall. Harry ensured Jude that he won’t do anything harmless and told her to take off her robes. After she did it, he unbuttoned the shirt she was wearing and lowered it until halfway down her shoulders, revealing her bare half of her chest. Jude shivered a little out of nervousness but Harry whispered comfortingly, easing her tension.
“It’s alright, I won’t hurt you. This is how it goes. Don’t make any false. It’s alright.”

Slowly he laid his right onto her chest and his left hand on his abdomen. He closed his eyes and started chanting a few spells. Jude widened her eyes when she saw a glow on his left hand. The trio also saw it and gasped. The glow traveled from his hand to his arm to his elbow to his right hand and finally into Jude’s body. Jude gasped slightly as she felt the rush inside her. The small glow of light traveled down into her own abdomen. It felt really warm inside, but Jude didn’t dare to move an inch. She didn’t want to be a child murderess. Harry gradually opened his eyes and said, “You’re done. Do you feel painful or uneasy anywhere?”

Jude shook her head and smiled. Harry nodded and called Becka to come to him. The same process repeated. Rach was the last to go. Three of them felt the same fascinating rush as they touched their abdomen, feeling the child’s aura in them.

“You still cannot move too much, girls,” Harry said as he collected himself. The whole process tired him more than it tired the trio. “Lie down for a moment. You’ll be in for a surprise.”

The trio did as he was told without question. As they lied down, they discussed with each other about the sudden feeling they felt when the glow went into their body.

“That was really cool! I didn’t know conceiving kids spiritually could be so fascinating!”

“Yeah. That rush I felt was really…tantalizing!”

“We don’t get this everyday. I think I might like carrying this little brat around in me.”

Their discussion stopped abruptly when their abdomen glowed once more, this time much brighter than before. The trio gasped as they felt the rush flowing down through their whole body—from the tip of their heads to the tip of their toes. It lasted for a few minutes or so. Although it didn’t hurt them or anything, the trio found that they had to adjust their emotions to the sudden shock they got from this incident. When the glow slowly dimmed, Rach was the first to ask questions.

“What just happened? Why did we suddenly turn into human torch lights?”

“My aura is combining together with your aura. They’re forming themselves into a life form,” Harry said, quite surprised himself.

“So…we’re…pregnant?” Becka asked hesitantly.

“Spiritually, yes. So, are you fit to move?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Jude said as she slowly sat up. Harry nodded and went to the door and told Sirius the dog that they were done. The dog quickly raced off to the other end of the corridor and scraped the door, whining. Prof. Dumbledore came out almost immediately and stroked his head. All the teachers came out of the room. Prof. Snape came out the last, glaring venomously at the dog. Obviously he could see through Sirius’s animagus. Sirius growled back.

Prof. Dumbledore knocked on the door of the room Harry and the trio was in and came in at Harry’s call. The trio put on their robes, blushing a little at the sight of all the grown-ups. Prof. Dumbledore looked at the trio and asked, “Did everything go well?”

“Yes, sir. Everything was going as we expected,” Harry replied. The trio nodded, confirming his answer. The teachers came over and checked by laying their hands on their abdomens. Jude practically blushed when she felt Prof. Snape’s hand on her. All the teachers nodded.

“Good. Very good. Let’s go back down to the main part of the castle and take these girls to bed now, shall we?” Prof. Dumbledore beamed from head to toe.

So, again, they went down the corridor, along the spooky hallway, down the 66 steps, along the less scary hallway and finally back to their familiar Great Hall. The trio bid each other goodnight and went on their separate ways. Harry took Becka’s arm and walked with her back to the Gryffindor dorm, as if he was afraid that Becka would stumble and fall or something. Rach went back to her Ravenclaw dorm and was immediately showered with questions of her whereabouts by her anxious housemates, including Darren. Whether they were really worried about her or they were just worried that they’ll lose Ravenclaw’s only hope, Rach didn’t want to know.

Jude didn’t get the great red carpet treatment from her housemates. None of her girl housemates really care about where she went, let alone the only girl, Pansy, she ever actually talked to. She wasn’t in a mood for sleep, so she sat by the common room fire. Not even Tony, her only friend who was always there to brighten up her day, was there. She only had her dog Max for company.

“He did to you already, didn’t he?”

Jude turned around to see Draco’s unkind gray eyes glaring at her. Jude didn’t answer him. She sighed silently and turned back to the fire. All of a sudden, Draco hugged her tight from behind, his mouth breathing at her neck.

“I know about the prophecy, Light. It must be very hard for you,” Draco whispered. He slowly kissed her bare neck and said, “Don’t worry, Light. I still love you. It’ll be over soon. You are still going to be mine.”

For once, Jude actually cried in Draco’s arms.