Runaway Mate

Author's Note: I read my reviews and tried to answer some of the questions that people had, especially Shinji.

Harry woke to a horrible familiar pain in his arm and leg. Screaming he tried to clutch as his arm, only to find he was being held by Lucius. Whimpering he looked up at the elder man through his tears and was amazed to see that Lucius was looking as if he could feel Harry’s pain.

“Severus looked over your injuries.” Lucius whispered. “Your arm and leg... since they weren’t set right they had to be regrown.”

“Skelegrow...” Harry whimpered.

“Yes.” Lucius nodded. “Severus should be back up with something for the pain... he invented it a few months ago.” Harry closed his eyes, trying to fight back tears as Lucius slowly ran his hand down his side. “Want to tell me about them?” Lucius asked.

“About who?” Harry asked.

“Your relatives.” Lucius clarified. “Like when they started hurting you...”

“The first time I remember them beating me was when I was when I was four.” Harry said, his voice turning hard and deadly. “I had a blanket... I think it was what I was wrapped on when Dumbledore dropped me off.” Harry blinked, a tear making it’s way down his cheek. “My cousin had ripped it... or spilled something on it. I got mad... I hit him back. Not even enough to hurt, I wasn’t strong enough...” A shudder passed through Harry’s body. “My uncle hit me so hard I flew back and hit the wall... I passed out... didn’t wake up for three days.”

“He didn’t take you to a hospital.” It wasn’t a question.

“I’ve only gone to a hospital twice. Once because my cousin hit me at school. The second time was because my relatives were having a party and my Uncle pushed me down the stairs.” Harry coughed and nuzzled back into Lucius’s arms as Severus entered the room with a vial of some potion.

“This tastes horrible, but you’ll stop feeling the skelegrow.” Severus said, helping Harry to swallow the potion, which he did almost throw up... it kinda tasted like a cross between vomit, blood and cookies... and it was the toss in of cookies to the flavor mix that made it really really made it bad.

Harry coughed as Lucius patted his back, but the pain was gone from the skelegrow. Harry shivered and noticed that Severus was pulling out some other vials of different colored potions. “What... what are those?” Harry asked.

“Your relatives have abused you for most if not all of you life.” Severus stated, his voice flat, with no emotion. “You have scars and wounds from years of abuse and most of them have left some trace on your body.” Severus started to check the different vials, holding them up to the light. “Also you’ve been starved for long amounts of time.” Seeing that Harry wasn’t denying anything, Severus went on. “These potions will either heal that or set you on the road to recovery.”

“So... why are you and Voldemort taking care of me?” Harry asked, looking over at Lucius.

“Harry...” Severus asked, crossing his arms. “What house was your mother in?”

“Gryffindor.”

“No...” Lucius said, looking over at Severus. “She was with us, in Slytherin.”

“But... but everyone in Slytherin is a pure blood!” Harry protested.

“No, not everyone.” Severus stepped forward and sat down on the edge of the bed. “I’m half-blood. My mother ran away with a muggle.” Severus laughed softly. “One thing Slytherins love is power... and Lilly was very, very powerful... that was why they accepted a muggle-born.”

“She was our friend...” Lucius smiled in remembrance. “She came to my house one Christmas and that’s how she met Tom, he was already out of school. When she married James... it was as if she dropped off the face of the earth.”

“We didn’t hear from her... only from Sirius and Remus.” Severus added on.

“I thought they hated you and you hated them?” Harry blinked.

“They pretended to... James was a traditionalist. He was a Gryffindor all the way and Gryffindors don’t so much as touch Slytherins.” Lucius explained. “He also didn’t’ associate with ‘fags’. That’s why Sirius and Remus needed our help.”

“They pretended to be dating two Slytherins — in order to use them and break their hearts.” Severus explained. “That kind of thing was okay with James... we helped them cover so they could be together.”

“Sirius and Remeus?” Harry blinked and tried to think about it and shuddered when he thought about Sirius being in Azkaban. “So Voldemort didn’t kill my parents?”

“No. I didn’t.” Tom said, walking into the room, his hands in his pocket. “Or at least, I didn’t kill Lilly..”

“What do you mean?” Harry whispered, a shiver going down his body.

“A little while after you were born, Lilly asked Sirius and Remus to contact us.” Tom closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “James had hit her... because you were crying at night.” Harry felt his blood run cold. “Sirius and Remus went back, told her we were coming to pick you two up.”

“Oh god...” Harry gasped, leaning back on Lucius. “James... he... ” Harry trailed off as fresh tears flowed down his face.

“He heard them... waited until Sirius and Remus were gone... and then he started to beat her... when Lilly was about to pass out he’d heal her, then start beating her again.” Lucius shivered as he spoke. “Luckily she managed to cast a silencing charm on you... or he would have done the same to you.”

“I went to the house to get her... he heard me coming... and killed her.” Tom explained. “I heard him shout the killing curse and ran up... using Parsletounge magic I managed to save you from the same curse... it rebounded and killed James.”

“Sirius arrived with Remeus and I arrived with Severus.” Lucius continued the story. “We found Tom, standing there with you in his arms, the silencing charm wore off and you were screaming... we were going to run with you when we heard Hagrid show up. We put you in the crib and ran, Sirius staying behind.”

“And then Peter...”

“Framed Severus the next day.” Tom answered. “He was never with me, just wanted to be the big bad guy... He came to me and I killed him. I killed him for what he’d done to Remeus and Sirius... and you.” Tom answered Harry’s question.

Harry lay back against Lucius, unable to speak. “Dumbledore...he said James was a model for me to live up to.” He gasped. “Oh god... he knew didn’t he?”

“I’m pretty sure he did... Dumbledore would have done the checks on Lilly and James’ wands.” Tom smiled sadly. “Dumbledore was also the person who first suggested I was involved in their murder...”

Harry turned his face so he was nuzzling into Lucius’ shirt. “I wish I wasn’t his son.” He whispered.

“It doesn’t matter. You may have a bad father... but you had a perfect mother, who would have done anything she could to protect you.” Lucius told his mate, kissing the top of his head. “And now , you have me as your mate.” He smiled down at Harry. “And I promise that I won’t allow anything to hurt you ever again.”

Harry found himself falling asleep in Lucius’ arms... warm, comfortable and feeling safe for the first time in his life.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Harry woke alone in the room. He could tell the potions had done their job... he felt better then ever. Figuring out that he wasn’t going to fall asleep again, Harry slowly sat up and looked over his body, raising an eyebrow when he found he was only wearing a pair of black silk sleep pants. But he was amazed to see that all of his scars (save for the lightning bolt one on his head) were completely healed.

Harry stood, wondering what do to, when he noticed that Tom was leaning against the door. Harry looked over at the man. “How.... how did you find me?” He asked, leaning back to sit on the edge of the bed as Tom slowly walked into the room.

“I payed for information.” Tom answered, rolling up his sleeve slightly so that the Celtic knot was showing.

Harry stared at the tattoo. “Knot of London.” he whispered, looking up at Tom. “I heard about it... but I’ve never seen anyone with it.”

Tom smiled sadly. “The Knot has some sort of magic tied up in it... makes it hard to pass on to other kids.” He stepped closer and took Harry’s hand, clutching at his wrist. “But I believe you have earned it.”

There was a small flash of light and a rush of heat on Harry’s wrist... and when Tom pulled back, there was a Celtic knot tattoo on Harry’s wrist.

Harry stared at the tattoo and smiled. “Thank you.” He whispered.

“You survived.” Tom smiled softly. “Lucius got you a bunch of cloths, that closet over there.” he pointed to a close door. “Feel free to wander the mansion, the portraits will help you if you get lost.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Meanwhile, the letters for Hogwarts had gone out... and one had come back. Dumbledore and several other teachers, including Remus Lupin, were talking in the Main Hall when a single owl started soaring down from the ceiling, clutching a white letter.

Dumbledore stood, a look of worry on his face. If a letter couldn’t be delivered it meant either that the person was dead or didn’t want to be found by Hogwarts... or perhaps Dumbledore himself.

Remus looked at the letter and froze as it fell into Dumbledore’s hands, he looked at the other teachers and said a single name. “Harry Potter.”

As soon a Remus could he was out of Hogwarts and picking up Sirius before heading to the one place he thought he’d never go again... Slytherin Mansion.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Harry was walking the halls of the mansion when he found himself at a huge pair of what he assumed to be main doors. He’d just decided not to go out them when they opened, revealing his god-parents, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin.

The three froze for a few seconds before Harry jumped into their arms, overjoyed to see them again.

“Harry... what are you doing here?” Sirius asked, looking over the boy, making sure he was okay... then he noticed the tattoo. “What are you doing with the Knot of London?” He asked.

“You know about—” Harry was cut off by Sirius and Remus revealing the same tattoo on their wrists.

“After Hogwarts I was thrown out of my family... and Remus was a werewolf with no money.” Sirius explained. “We lived with Tom’s...” he sighed. “Well ‘gang’ for lack of a better word. We both got the Knot just before we managed to get off the streets.”

“How’d you do that?” Harry asked as the other two lead them through the mansion.

“Finally accepted a loan from Lucius.” Remus smiled. “Sirius is a good investor in the muggle world.”

“Sirius! Remus!” Tom smiled. He was sitting at a desk, with several papers spread out in front of him, Severus practically lying on top of him and Lucius sitting on a table next to him.

Sirius raised an eyebrow when he saw how Severus and Tom were acting. “What’s with you and Sev?” he asked as he sat down on a nearby couch with Remus and Harry.

“We're mates.” Tom explained and laughed at the expression on Sirius and Remus’ faces.

“But why didn’t you figure that out when we met you for the first time?” Sirius asked.

“We met you in third year?” Tom nodded and Remus went on. “So.... why didn’t you know Severus was your mate then?”

“I’ll answer this one.” Lucius sighed. “I spent about three months trying to figure that out.” He sat up straighter. “In very... very rare cases, where a person is extremely powerful the power of their magic overwhelms the call of that person’s mate.”

“Tom is very powerful as a wizard, so his power crushed the call from Severus and basically blocked the link with the equivalent of static.” Severus picked up where Lucius left off.

“So Severus ‘grew up’ and his magic started banging on the static block. Eventually it broke through and... well there you go.” Tom looked up at Severus.

“A bad side effect is they act like horny teenagers... it’s something to do with making up for lost time.” Lucius sighed, rolling his eyes and drawing a chuckle from Harry, Sirius and Remus.

“And why is Harry here?” Remus asked and Lucius blushed.

“Harry just came into his mate-majority.” Lucius explained as he and Harry started to shift in their seats. “Meaning that he just got old enough to sense his mate and for his mate to sense him...” Lucius trailed off.

“Lucius is Harry’s mate and vice versa.” Tom finished for his friend.

“Lilly was right.” Sirius whispered, leaning back in his chair and instantly attracting the attention of everyone in the room.

“What do you mean?” Harry asked, looking over at Sirius.

“A couple of days after you were born I was visiting Lilly while neither Remus nor James was there. You were sleeping and she was looking down at you...” Sirius stopped for a moment, and Harry could tell he was trying to hold back tears. “You started to cry, like a nightmare or something... she started whispering to you. I asked her what she was saying. She was telling you a story.”

“A story about Lucius?” Harry asked and Sirius nodded.

“She said she dreamed of your mate... and knew he would come and save you.” Sirius closed his eyes. “She said ‘no matter what happens... Harry will live.’ Lilly knew she’d never get away alive... so she made sure you would.”

TBC