The Inkeeper

Chapter 4

Harry was a very happy boy, he missed momma and daddy at times, and uncle Moony and uncle Padfoot, but he knew he was safe here with the man who had saved him. And who the man who had come to visit him had told him was to be his new guardian.

He guessed guardian was kind of the same as a momma or daddy, just by another name. As he grew older, he tried to call Dimitriv daddy a few times, but the man would just smile sadly at him and shake his head.

"I'm not your father, little one, I will look after you, protect you and nurture you to be the best person as you ever could be, but I can never replace the man who gave his life to protect yours."

It would take years before Harry realised what he meant by that, but he did learn that he could call his guardian Dimi, or Dimitriv as much as he liked.

The same man who had told him that this was the best place for him, kept on popping up too, kept looking for him and telling him stories, teaching him lessons no one else could teach him. Again, he never realised that this was what was happening, but he realised it a lot later, that the man he had taken to calling Uncle Mort, was indeed Death, and the man had chosen him to be his vessel - a true necromancer, as hadn't been seen in ages.

The same way Dimitriv had chosen him as heir to take over the Inn, once he realised what was going on in the building. That people came here to get wounds treated that no one else would look at. To get a meal when they couldn't find anything to eat. Even a bed to rest, when the hardships of life became too much.

Because of what the Inn was, Harry had his first experience with someone dying a lot sooner than anyone else had.

He had been 5, slowly going to a 6 year old, when an older witch had been brought in, her stomach ripped open by spell work, all because of the ancestors she had. She died not 10 minutes after she was brought in. The blood loss is too much even for a Magical. But Harry had been able to talk to her still, as she kept on coming back to him, teaching him all the things she had taught her own children once upon a time.

Which meant that at 5 years old, Harry had found someone who would give him the basics, without using the biased teachings of Hogwarts. A kind of lady, who had been at the wrong place, at the wrong time, but who stuck around the budding necromancer to make sure he wasn't moulded by any Wizarding customs, not when he was so much more than that.

She would always look at the birthmark on his head, which if one connected the dots, would firm the symbol of the Deathly Hallows, and the sign that he was indeed chosen by Death. After all, Death's last chosen had the same birthmark on their person, it became their signature, and later the symbol of their myth.

And while Dimitriv and Ms. Integra couldn't see Mrs. Bones, didn't mean they didn't notice the moments Harry was staring into an open space intently, before he would raise his hand and accomplish a feat of magic they hadn't seen before.

He would tell them Mrs. Bones had shown him, and how she taught him all the things he ought to know as the next Innkeeper.

After all ,Mrs. Bones wanted to prepare him for anything, and as he wouldn't need to go to a wizarding school (seeing as they only taught one kind of magic), she believed in teaching him all kinds. Those she didn't know she found other people to teach him.

So far, after 4 years of teaching, he was proficient at wandless and wordless magic, parselmagic, potions and healing.

Those last two he had been the best in, when after Mrs. Bones died, she told him that had Dimitriv or Ms Integra been able to brew potions, she would have been saved. But certain ingredients reacted to both of their vampiric inheritances (even if Ms. Integra wasn't a full blood like Dimitriv) and made it impossible for the both of them to brew potions.