Soul Carrier

SOUL CARRIER -
CHAPTER ONE

An ear-splitting cry usually rent the air when a babe was born, but on the stormy night of the thirty-first of July at 11:59:58, in the Maternity Ward on the Sixth of St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries in the heart of London, mere moments from midnight, only a few whimpers issued from the babe's mouth before he calmed. (A/N: It HAS to have a Maternity Ward. It's a HOSPITAL for crying out loud!)

As grandfather clocks all across the United Kingdom chimed, signalling that it was twelve midnight, Lillian Seraphym Potter nee Evans, known mostly as Lily Potter, even in her tired and still slightly drugged state, was worried. "Why is my babe so quiet? What's wrong with my babe?!" she cried.

The Healer, a man with sun-kissed skin and brown hair and eyes by the name of William Turner, who looked like he was only a couple years older than Lily herself, at most, calmed her with a soothing hand on her arm as another Healer took her into the corner of the room to be cleaned up. "It's okay. You're a first time parent, so it's only assumed that you'd think babes cry when they are born, from what you've heard, and the fact that your body isn't used to not needing this many hormones anymore, it being so soon after your labour and all didn't help your reaction any. The crying thing is true for some babes, but others just whimper a bit, as your little boy did, and others don't make any noise at all."

Lily nodded, relieved that her babe was fine and that this Healer hadn't talked down to her as others had. Her mind had latched onto what he had said, a fact that she had very nearly overlooked. "Wait! I had a boy?!"

"Yes, and he is simply darling!" Healer Turner said, having finished cleaning his elder patient up, squealing a bit as he turned and gently settled the babe boy into the new mother's arms with now ungloved hands. The mother took a long, slow look at her son.

The little tufts of hair he had on his head and could be seen from under the hospital's cap were a blackish blue with an auburn sheen, and Lily could have sworn that she could see a few streaks of pink here and there. Slowly, his eyes cracked open and she could see that they were her emerald green, if not a bit brighter.

The babe looked as if he was yawning, his mouth opening and stretching to the side as if reaching for something. This was one thing that she had learned, in many a passing glance in the billions of pregnancy books she had read; she knew that if the babe actually started crying for food, the caregiver had already missed many signs, the one the babe was currently doing being one of the first of them. So she undid one of the two buttons that held the section of the gown covering her chest closed, and brought her babe to her now uncovered breast. He immediately latched onto the nipple presented to him and began sucking. She winced at the slight pressure on her still tender extremity as Healer Turner gave her a blanket, rather like the one her babe was wrapped in, allowing her a bit of privacy.

"You know," Healer Turner began, sitting on the edge of the bed and rubbing his hand on the babe's head, "you might know my little step-sister."

"And who might your little step-sister be?" Lily asked calmly, the lower body numbing potion coming back into affect as it dwindled to nothingness, dulling her emotions a bit.

"I believe that when you left school, she was in her Fifth Year. Elizabeth Swann?"

"'LizzieBird' is your cousin?!" Lily squealed, sitting up quickly and keeping a hold on both her son and the blanket at the same time. (A/N: Did anybody get the joke? 'Lizzie' = 'eLIZabeth', 'Bird' = 'SWANn'? Yes, I know it's a really bad pun.) "Thick as thieves, we are. Were. Have been. Before." (A/N: There's another PotC reference.) Her voice lost its energetic quality as she spoke, and by the end, she was leaning back onto the pillows, her voice barely above a whisper. "Now that I think about it, she and I haven't really been communicating as much as we used to."

The Healer that had been cleaning everything up set the things in her arms onto the cart in front of her and turned around. "Yes, Lils. I am. And I don't mind that you didn't owl me or fire call me that often; if you remember, I only did so about once a month as well."

Lily nodded in agreement. "True. Anyway, you're a Healer?"

"No, I'm still a medi-witch in training," she said, pointing to the insignia on the upper left side of her chest; the tips of the bone and the wand were touching, not crossed like a Healer's were. "I've only got about another year of study thought, and it's all practical, which is the easy part, so as long as nothing goes terribly wrong, by this time next year, this wand and this bone will be crossed."

"Is there any other secret that you had many chances to tell me about, yet only now you deem me fit to hear them?" Lily asked sarcastically, eyebrow raised.

Elizabeth exchanged a look with William and sat on the edge of the bed between the patient and her babe and the patient's Healer. "You know how about halfway through my Third Year, I said that my older brother had finally knocked some sense into the bloke that he had been chasing after for about three years with virtually no luck and a lot of unresolved sexual tension? And don't look at me like that, Will; just because you happen to be a prude doesn't mean that I can't be blunt and speak my mind. (A/N: I'm not the only one that noticed that about the movies, did I?) Anyway, that man was Jack Sparrow."

"You mean 'Captain Jack Sparrow'?! (A/N: It's infectious. He's uber hott. I'm a fan-girl. I had to.) The Keeper and leader of the Puddlemere United Quidditch team?!" Lily gasped.

"Er, yes," William blushed.

Lily made an appreciative noise. "Nice catch."

"Thanks," William murmured, blushing a deeper shade of red that made the women coo, which only made the Healer blush an even deeper shade of red.

A generally comfortable silence fell between the three, during which William's face returned to its usual colour and temperature, and Lily buttoned her gown back up and burper her babe before che settled him comfortably in the crook of her arm and wrapped her childe in both blankets.

As the babe fell asleep, lulled by the slight rocking motion that Lily was unconsciously making, Elizabeth decided to gently and quietly break the silence, so as not to wake up the babe.

"Lils, we all know James, and it doesn't take a Parentage Potion to realize that your son, who is also supposed to be his son, looks nothing like him in any way, and is therefor not his childe."

Lily looked around the Maternity Ward. Even though this was the Maternity Ward at St. Mungo's and thus the only magical Maternity Ward for miles around, it was still past midnight, and therefore the Maternity Ward was emptiy except for the four of them. If she looked out the window on the door to the ward, there was a faint light coming far from the left, signalling that the only light on for a while was far down the hall, probably coming from where the lift was,

"Can one of you cast a Silencing Ward? Just around the bed?" Lily asked, as it is dangerous for the health of the babe if pregnant people (A/N: Yes, people. I love MPreg!) use their own magic in the second half of the pregnancy, or during the first six months of nursing, and then continued when she felt the slight pressure of the Silencing Ward taking affect; the feeling soon wore off as she and the others got used to it. "Well, I trust you two, so I'll tell you something that I've only told a half a handful of people before." She took a deep breath and looked to her son for strength. He was no longer asleep and his gaze was calming yet unnerving at the same time, seemingly more knowledgeable than it should be. He slipped a tiny hand from the blankets and put it around her little finger in what seemed to be a soothing manner. Lily took the motion as such, and was reassured enough for her to continue.

"Before you start, I have to get these birth certificates finished; one for you to keep that you can frame and hang on the wall of the nursery or whatever you want to do with it, and one for St. Mungo's to keep, to go into the files," William said, suddenly remembering. "So, the sooner you give me a name, the sooner I can get the birth certificates done, and the sooner the two of you can sleep," he finished, dipping a quill into the ink on the table next to him, and then raising it to the parchment on the clipboard he held.

"His name is Hadrian," Lily said immediately, not entirely knowing where the name came from, but somehow having a feeling that it was utterly perfect for her childe. "Hadrian Ruri Evans," she hugged her son gently to her chest, and smiled when she saw her childe smile as if in approval of his name.

"The reason that his last name is Evans," Lily began, catching the other adults' attentions before they could say anything, as William finished filling out the birth certificates and set them to the side out of the way so the ink could dry, "is because James isn't really Hadrian's father; in fact, James and I weren't even ever really married. And before I go any further, I need you two to swear to me that you won't tell anybody about what I just said, or what I am going to say," she looked pleadingly from one to the other.

William and Elizabeth raised their wand hands, wands in them. "I, William Alexander Turner/Elizabeth Kera Swann, do hereby swear on my magic, that I will not repeat to anybody, in any way, what Lillian Seraphym Evans has said or will say to me concerning the true parentage of Hadrian Ruri Evans, unless she has already told him or her."

"Okay," Lily nodded in satisfaction at the oath, and then continued, her eyes gaining a slightly glazed over look as the memories came back. "I met Hadrian's real other parent when I was in my Third Year. We became real fast friends, sharing everything with each other. Over that summer, we still kept in touch, sending letters and pictures back and forth every few days, kind of like you and I did, Liz. You know I still have all those letters, right?"

Elizabeth nodded. "I still have all of mine, too," she smiled fondly. "Those were some good times, weren't they?"

"Yes, they were," she smiled, too. "Anyway, in Fourth Year, we started going out. The way I got asked out that firdt time was so sweet. We were studying in the library, and I ahd just come back from the lavatory. I was reaching into my bag under my chair for my Potions book, and my hand touched something tiny and furry. I lifted it up, and it was a little kitten!"

She smiled as Elizabeth and William cooed. "It was a dark chocolate brown, and its paws, muzzle, one of its ears, and a ring around its right eye were caramel brown; it literally looked cute enough to eat. In its mouth, there was an origami rose. I took it out of the kitten's mouth, and the rose unravelled itself with a smell of, what else, roses; on the inside, in the curliest, most fancy writing I'd ever seen, it said, 'Will you go to Hogsmeade with me this Saturday? L.'" (A/N: To any 'Death Note' fans, that wasn't a reference to the Raito/L or L/Raito ships, or any ship with L, although you can use the style of the asking out bit as a plot bunny or in your fics if you wish, just give me and this fic some credit. And even if you don't like or know what 'Death Note' is, you can use the style as a plot bunny as well; I and this fic still want credit, though.)

William and Elizabeth 'aww'ed. "During that year and Fifth Year, we went out. The Marauders and Severus found out then, and on the night before the Graduation Ceremony, Hadrian was made. The five of them helped, James especially; by covering that L (A/N: Tee hee.) and I were together with James pretending to be with me so it looked like Hadrian was James, as you can only keep Glamours on while you are with childe for so long, as you two know," she inclined her head and Elizabeth and William nodded. (A/N: I sort of mentioned it earlier, but, while a magical (creature or otherwise) person (I do love MPreg, ya know!) is pregnant, they can only use their own magic until half way through the pregnancy. I apply that to magic that is used on them, whether they did it or someone else did it, as well; any Glamours that they have or happen to have on them, whether consciously or not, they have to be off by four and a half months through the pregnancy, for the safety of the childe(ren).)

"There was one thing that I didn't know about L. I never knew her family; I knew about it, yes, but I never knew them. And yes, I said 'her'," she smiled at the amazed look on William's and Elizabeth's faces; the fact about her and L 'making' Hadrian obviously hadn't gotten by them. "I knew everything about Lorilai, except her last name and what her father did."

Elizabeth and William shared a look, which didn't go unnoticed by Lily. "What? What is it?"

"We may know what Lorilai's last name is," Elizabeth began, looking at her hands.

"What? What is it?" Lily repeated, this time a tiny bit more frantic.

"I was running down the hall one day, hoping I wasn't going to be late for Care of Magical Creatures. I heard some of her Ravenclaw housemates who had their free period then gossiping about her as I was rushing by. I didn't really think of it at the time, as I didn't know anybody by the name of Lorilai at the time. They were saying that her last name wasn't really Lleweyn; they were saying that she was actually Lorilai Riddle."

"You mean that she's the daughter of Lord Voldemort?" Lily gasped. (A/N: Only Grey/Dark families know that Tommy is Voldie. Lily's family and William and Elizabeth's family are both Grey.)

"Yes, I am," a disembodied female voice said, and a humanoid figure stepped our of a shadowy corner of the Maternity Ward, the one closest to Lily's bed, slowly walking forward until it reached the soft light of the lamps on either side of the headboard of the bed. "Although, I usually call him 'Father', and, when I really want to get him pissed off, I call him 'Voldie'."

Lillian Seraphym Evans did something that she hadn't done since she found out that she was pregnant.

She fainted.

Lorilai looked at William and Elizabeth. "I've got other names for him that'll piss him off, too; I actually made a list once, when I was really bored. Would you like to see it?"

(A/N: Points to whoever can guess what that last bit was a sort of tribute to. I'll give you three hints: 1.) It's a sci-fi tv show. 2.) It was a very emotional episode, especially the end, which was happy, then sad, then downright depressing, and at the very end, there was a bit of comic relief that essentially ruined the emotional bit. 3. It's British, even though it shows in the U.S.)