Chapter 7-
Ricky got up early and still in his pajamas, He found the kitchen with ease. Large windows overlooked Euphemia's gardens and the distant hills. He got to watch the sun rise over the horizon as he prepared breakfast.
Bith Harry and Ricky knew there way around a kitchen, for Harry it was due to the Dursley's. For Rick however it was for survival, he started working in a kitchen during his senior year of high school, and as soon as he was done with basic training they stuck him right back in one.
Ricky smiled remembering the army kitchen staff, they were a bunch of oddballs, while reminiscing he had the frying pans washed and the table set by the time Fleamont and Euphemia entered the grand kitchen as Ricky thought of it and its adjoining dining room.
His grandparents/parents were left gaping at him, the table, then back to him again.
"You did this?" Euphemia asked.
Ricky nodded, "I like to cook." Well, he liked to cook when no one was threatening him with head trauma and foul dogs.
Fleamont's eyes narrowed, "You look like my dad but I am starting to believe you two are extremely different people."
Ricjy Ricky blinked a few times before replying, "That's because we are. Wait isthat a good thing?"
Euphemia, with all the grace and energy of a woman half her age, went to the table and snatched a slice of bacon. Her expression was pure bliss, "If it means you cook like a professional chef, yes, it's a good thing."
"Come sit, Masterchef," Fleamont said waving Ricky over to the table, "come eat with us."
Ricky smiled and hurriedly took his seat beside Harry's grandfather and across from his grandmother, Well now they will be his parents.
"Thank you, Ricky," Euphemia said.
Fleamont echoed her, only with a mouth full of bacon.
Another man wandered into the kitchen and Ricky jumped out of his seat.
"Sorry," he said, "I didn't realize there was anyone else here."
"No need to apologize, my dear boy," the man said and held out his hand for a firm handshake.
The man was old, his hair a shock of white on his hair, but he looked like he was in shape, and his pale brown eyes were bright. In fact, Ricky thought he looked more athletic than Fleamont, definitely bulkier with broader shoulders.
"Euphemia," he said in a chiding voice, "why didn't you tell me you had twins? One that looks like a younger version of me?"
She rolled her eyes at him, "Ricky, this Henry Potter, Fleamont's father, Henry, this is Rickard Potter."
She waved her wand and another plate prepared itself, Ricky and Henry took their seats.
"So, Ricky," Henry said with a smile, "-they call me Harry back in the days, by the way, tell me about yourself."
"Um," Harry said, elegantly. But he silently casted the 'time stop' spell, and followed that by 'Alter memory'. He quickly added an scene from an old movie he had watched, where a man goes to a bar to drown his sorrows and ended up meeting a woman who was doing the same.
And in they're inebriated selfies, they ended up having a one night stand. The next day when they woke up, hung over and all they attempted to explain that this was only a one time thing and that it would never repeat itself.
But in the process the woman dropped her wand, after picking it up she tried to pass it as a random object, much the delight of the man. He proceeded to tell her that he to was a wizard.
He introduced himself as Henry Potter of the Noble and most ancient house Potter, She followed suit. Her name was Clementine Lilyana Raeven, of the bible and most ancient House Raeven from Gibraltar.
They went they're separate ways and never saw each other again.
In reality the scene was from a cop movie were the man was an undercover cop while the woman was from the FBI, and the wands were they're badges.
Feeling good about his work he quickly canceled the spells and before he could speak however a voice said.
"Harry was sorted into Ravenclaw," Euphemia answered for him, seeing his apprehension.
"Fleamont and I told you Ricy's story last night, no need to get into his full history at the table."
"Ravenclaw!" Henry exclaimed, "No Potter has ever been sorted into anything but Gryffindor before, that is if they attended Hogwarts. Although Ravenclaw is a respectable -if an underrated, house. My darling Clarissa was a Ravenclaw."
"I myself was guilty of being sorted into Ravenclaw," Euphemia whispered.
"Clarissa," Henry said as if he hadn't heard Euphemia, which perhaps he hadn't, judging by how loud he was speaking. "She was the kindest girl on the planet. Kindness, my boy, there is no strength in this world so undervalued as kindness in this lost and scrupulous world."
Henry began to regale them with stories of his youth, of his Clari, Ricky's great-grandmother who had been a midwife. Fleamont gave Ricky an apologetic look, but Ricky was enthralled.
This was his family, this was his great-grandfather telling him about his life and Ricky's family.
It was by far the best breakfast Ricky had ever had.
As the conversation went on Henry suddenly stopped talking for a moment, he proceeded stared at Ricky with an intense look on his face.
Every occupants in the room were immediately on edge, waiting for his next action.
Henry cupped Ricky's face with both hands, after staring at his eyes for a few seconds before bursting out in a full belly laugh. It took him a few moments to calm himself down before he was able to speak.
"I should have known, you have your mother's eyes you know. specially that annoyed eye roll, Yes, without a doubt your Clementine and i's son. Ha I bet she was not pleased you inherited my black hair instead of her flaming red."
Fleamont and Euphemia casted axquickly look at each other before shaking their heads and smiling at Henry.
Ricky just shrugged at this, after all he knew that the memories he was recalling were fake.
Breakfast went on for a while until, Fleamont, Euphemia, and Ricky decided to getvready for the trip to diagon alley.
...
Diagon Alley was… it was more and less than it would be in the future. There were more shops and people. The storefronts were polished and orderly, without the rustic and somewhat beaten exteriors that Ricky had come to expect.
On the other hand, despite the greater number of shoppers, they seemed more secretive and wary of one another. Ricky was afraid to either spill his own secrets or say something that might alienate his new family so he remained mostly quiet. However, his clear interest in his surroundings and in what his grandparents/parents were saying kept the conversation flowing.
Sure, Ricky knew about the wizarding world, but he had received only a crash course from both Harry and Voldemort's memories. Add in the few bits picked up little pieces along the way with the Weasleys, who had just assumed he knew about the world. Fleamont and Euphemia were more detailed and less exasperated by Ricky's questions.
Ricky let Euphemia pick out his clothes. Harry Potter didn't have much of a preference as long he fit in with his peers. Standing out, except for on the Quidditch pitch was never his favorite thing.
While Voldemort was a drama queen, even he would not dare fight a woman on the subject of fashion.
Fleamont bought Him one present, a new broom. He had let Him pick it out and Ricky had not chosen the most expensive, he chose the one that had the most build up of speed and least stabilization.
Ricky was glad that Fleamont didn't let Euphemia see the broom's low safety score. But he didn't want safe. He wanted fast. Besides with Harry's skill and memories he was sure he'd be a good enough flier that he could keep his own balance in the sky. As much as he liked the Firebolt, in some respects, some of the older school brooms had been faster in a dive.
Speaking of old brooms he will have to go through the pile and study the runes and enchantments laid down on them soon, after all he was trying to create his own brand.
He was brought back from his thoughts when Euphemia came back. They picked James up from the station before lunch. and Ricky watched the semi-familiar faces pass bye.
His heart skipped a beat when he spotted the Black sisters, all three of them. Andromeda and Bellatrix looked alike. Andromeda was perhaps the most beautiful person Harry had ever laid eyes on. Even at a distance, her brown eyes were warm and intelligent, her hair a waterfall of chestnut waves. Bellatrix was a colder, darker version of her sister.
Her black hair was held back in a sleek ponytail, her eyes hard as granite and when they met Ricky's gaze of the ground he didn't see the insanity from her image on the Daily Prophet, he saw a dangerous, cold intellect. Like staring into the eyes of an eagle, predator and inhuman, but not mad.
Ricky didn't look away, and Bellatrix soon dismissed him.
She walked with a stiffness that was at odds with her sisters' liquid grace.
Narcissa must have been a year or so younger than Ricky was now, she was a petite blonde, and if it wasn't for her attitude he would not have believed the three of them were related. But her expression was a cross between Bellatrix's coldness and Andromeda's elegance.
It was almost sad to know one day they would be separated, they walked in a unit that was apart from the crowd.
Sirius caught up with them after waving goodbye James, a mini Sirius, Ricky assumed was Regulus following at his heel. The five Blacks disappeared into a fireplace that was set up on the wizarding side of the station.
"Ricky!" James called as approached them.
"Hi, James," Harry said with a smile.
"How'd you like the family manor?" James asked.
Ricky's smile widened, "I love it, you were certainly lucky to be born with such a family."
James laughed, "I don't think being born is decided by luck, weirdo."
"No name calling," Euphemia chided.
"Where are we going now?" James asked, as Fleamont shrunk and pocketed James' luggage. He spotted someone over Ricky's shoulder and shouted, "Bye Lily Evans! Have a spectacular summer!"
The red head ignored him. Ricky spotted Snape who shot James a taunting smirk as he walked with Lily shoulder to shoulder as they went through the barrier.
James deflated, "Would does it take to get her attention?"
"Maybe you should try to stop yelling at her," Ricky suggested.
James gave Ricky a skeptical look, "But I want her to notice me."
Ricky swung an arm around James's shoulder as they walked out of the station, "The thing I think you're missing is the difference between positive and negative attention."
James tilted his head, and asked with a heaping serving of drama.
"Go on, wise one."
Ricky tried to explain color to the blind with a patience that some would call saint worthy.
"Yep," Fleamont said to his wife, "I don't think our two boys could be any more different if they tried."
Euphemia took her husband's hand, smiling up at him she said joyously, "Our sons."
Fleamont smiled back at her, he had always regretted not being able to give her more children, and Ricky, well, Ricky was more than they could have wished for.
After lunch, the Potter family, excluding Henry who was still at home reading his books, went to the beach. A small cove near London with a little stretch of beach, that didn't have have any other visitors, considering the beach was mostly rocks.
Ricky and James didn't mind the rocks. They kept their shoes on and removed their shirts, soaking up some much needed vitamin D.
They searched for odd reflective stones and played tag as the waves crashed into them. Fleamont and Euphemia stayed closer to shore walking along the shoreline like newlyweds. The love between tangible and unfaltering.
As Ricky paused to watch them he noticed the strange formation of rocks that met the water. There wasn't anything he could point a finger at as being out of place but he thought the cave…
He shook his head. Cave? There was no cave in those stones, or at least no way for him to know that there was or wasn't a cave there. So why did he have the third sense that there was something there? Something familiar? Something-
"Ricky!"
Ricky turned to see James waving his arms in the air as he ran towards him.
Ricky frowned and waved back.
When James got closer Ricky saw the horror and panic on his father's face through the droplets of water on his glasses.
"Run! Ricky, Ru-"
The warning came too late. Something with sharp teeth bit into his leg and pulled him under the water.
Even through the waves, he heard the muffled sound of feminine screaming.
Ricky reached for his wand and tried not to thrash against the thing that had a death grip on his left calf. He never reached his wand as another set of teeth latched onto his right forearm.
By some miracle, his glasses stayed on and even as he breathed in lung fulls of burning salt water. He was able to get a glimpse of the creatures set on murdering him.
Black horses, at least their front half, and fishtails for their rear half. Unlike real horses, their teeth were razor sharp, and they were carnivorous.
Ricky knew that they drowned their prey before consuming them and that fending them off by magical means wasn't exactly hard to do, that is if he had his wand and was not suffocating.
Knowing the incantation Ricky shouted the spell, pushing his power through his hand even as his lungs screamed and black dots clouded his version.
The charm worked, or at least Ricky's power got the Kelpie to release him. Ricky pointed his hand at the other Kelpie, and throw his energy into it again, the water horse released him.
Ricky was left to float under the waves, his body cramping with the lack of oxygen, his wounds bleeding crimson to pink into the water around him. Before he could summon the thought to swim up, he was caught in a current.
Like a lifeless bit of debris, he was rolled in the waves and slammed against sharp stones. His skull connecting with a distinctive clunk.
For the briefest moments, Ricky envisioned a golden cup and silver, somehow sibilant locket in a crystalline cave. The locket hissed at him and then the moment was over and blackness consumed him.
Rickard Potter knew no more, as he succumbed in the embrace of darkness.
When next he woke next, it was to the relieved and wane face of Euphemia gazing down at him.
"Oh, Ricky," she said, voice breaking as tears trailed down her face. "You're awake, you're finally awake. The healers said you would make a full recovery but when you didn't wake up…" She shook her head and wept silently holding onto his hand in an almost painful grip.
Ricky was not surprised or all that worried about another near death experience within the jaws of yet another unexpected magical creature. However, he did have one pressing question, how long had he been unconscious?
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