His Twenty-Eighth life

16. A Black Owl

"Jonathan, I really want you to go to Hogwarts when your letter comes."

"But why, Harry? I can protect you better if I'm close."

Harry winced, as he always did when Jonathan started talking like that, but he managed to stay perched at the table, on a chair that was already taller than it had been just a few weeks ago. He'd started growing, now that he was eight, as if to make up for lost time. Meanwhile, Jonathan was staring at him.

Harry hated having to use this tactic, but he'd started to suspect there was no other way to do it. "But how can you protect me if you stay by my side with only the training that Mr. Dumbledore gave you?" he asked, and smiled when Jonathan frowned thoughtfully. "He doesn't show you all that many spells. If you go to Hogwarts and learn more of them, then you can defend me better when the time comes."

Jonathan tapped his fingers on the side of his cereal bowl. Lily was finally trusting both of them to fix their own meals most of the time, and she and James had both ventured out from under the wards lately. Harry approved highly. There was no sign that Voldemort had started to move, and they had to live their lives.

Dumbledore disapproved. Harry had come to fear the times they clashed more and more. This was exactly why he had never told the full truth to anyone in his lives before. They simply couldn't handle the thought of what he was.

"I know what you're doing."

Harry jerked back to himself, and grinned a little at Jonathan. "Do you?"

"Yes. You just want me to go to Hogwarts. You don't care as much about the fact that I could protect you better."

"Well, that's true," Harry admitted, abandoning the attempt to manipulate Jonathan with some relief. "I do want you to go to Hogwarts. I had so much fun the times I was there." Well, some of the times he was there, but he saw no need to burden Jonathan with trials like how hard it was to get up steps as a snake. "And I want you to be able to live your life without always staying around me."

"Hmmm."

Jonathan was stubborn to a fault, but that sounded encouraging. Harry ate a little more of his own cornflakes, studying his brother hopefully. Jonathan finally snorted and poured some milk into his bowl.

"We have almost a year to think about it, anyway." Jonathan's eleventh birthday was next June, and he'd only turned ten two months ago. Harry sighed and nodded, and waited until Jonathan left the table to go take a shower before he turned and glanced out the window.

He'd seen a black owl circling there some minutes ago, but it had only passed the window each time. Still, a wild owl wouldn't circle obsessively like that. Harry suspected this was a message for him.

He even thought he knew who it was from.

Voldemort had been quiet for over three years. That was unprecedented in any of Harry's lives. He thought it might mean Voldemort was setting up some dangerous Dark ritual that would take half a decade to complete, and he was going to taunt Harry now, but he still admitted to a bit of curiosity when he opened the window and the owl flew in and alighted in the middle of the table.

"Told only to find me if I was alone," Harry muttered, and the owl gave him a haughty look. The wards would still have reacted if someone sent a letter with evil intent. That intrigued Harry more than anything else as he took the message.

Plain parchment, too, now the fancy shit that Harry thought Voldemort might have gone through to announce a real magical experiment. He raised an eyebrow as he opened it.

Just the salutation was almost enough to make him drop the letter on the floor.

Dear Harry,