4 Childhood Part 2: Onyx's new friend

The last few years had been tough for the New-Blood Project. Fear had spread across Britain and people didn't know where to find hope and solace. Some actually looked to Jasper for help and although he was powerful, he had no way of swaying other powerful people.

Dumbledore, for example, refused to work with him due to his affiliation with Grindelwald. His old friends, the Potters, were all but dead. Only the proud and insolent James Potter still lived with his heir. Jasper's organization was filled with talented magicals but most of them were not from England and therefore didn't want to get involved until it breached a border to another country.

And so, it was a difficult time. Very few gatherings and the few that happened had very few members showing up. During one of those meetings they were attacked by deatheaters. It was a meeting with only thirty members, all from England. As they were all talented witches and wizards, Jasper never actually got scared they'd be defeated.

It was at times like those that he was happy for Grindelwald assisting him in his youth. He shouted "Protego Diabolica" and walked around his members. It was a spell none around had seen performed and most hadn't even heard of.

A circle of azure fire spread across the room and the deatheaters soon found out they had underestimated those "mere mudbloods". Jasper formed some of the fire the the circle into a gigantic owl which flew straight towards the group of black cloaked terrorists.

At that time none of the other members had ever seen Jasper fight and was stumped. They could only watch as he burned the followers of Voldemort to a crisp. A couple of minutes later there was barely anything left of them. Jasper knew one or two had gotten away but didn't want to chase after them.

After that encounter, Jasper was the one most muggleborn had as first contact in case of trouble. Whenever a family encountered large problems he'd offer to bring them to the farmhouse in Old Alresford for protection.

Many either moved out of the country, which Jasper also helped them with by taking them over to France using some contacts, or refused to leave their house. The house of Grey did eventually take in four muggleborn and their families.

They all lived on the top floor and had plenty of room to move about. Although they weren't allowed to leave the premises, they did help Darren with the forestry as well as they could.

The families appeared to be alright for the time they spent protected. Now, however, they were going to move out again. The war was over. Voldemort had been defeated by a small boy. Their houses had been burnt to the ground and the families had grown attached to Darren and Agate so they decided to stay in the area.

One of the pairs even gave birth during their time in hiding. Darren, who grew attached to the families aswell hoped that one day that child would manifest some magic and be a good friend for little Emma.

October 8th 1983

The years went by and it was now Onyx's fifth birthday. The little boy had lived a nice calm life. He wasn't made aware of any troubles or any struggles behind the scenes. He wasn't aware of the business, house and tome created in his name. He was but a young boy who hadn't even had any bursts of accidental magic. His parents, however, weren't worried that he was a squib.

They had seen him out in the forest with the magical trees. Somehow it seemed like he could feel which ones could be used for wand cores. Even the bowtruckles appeared to like him.

It was still early in the day so the celebrations hadn't begun yet. Onyx was simply leaning up against one of the cherry trees. As they were on magical ground, and they were magical trees themselves, they had grown very fast. It was the first one his father had planted and it was enormous. Onyx was used to spending his days relaxing under this tree in particular.

There was something about this one and the walnut tree that drew him towards it. He looked over towards the dark walnut tree and suddenly heard something that sounded like a whimper.

Onyx was a young child and didn't know any better so he knew no fear and walked over to where he heard it. When he rounded the big dark tree he saw the animal which made the sound. It was a fox, such a beautiful creature but Onyx was terribly sad when he saw that it was barely moving. The fox was lying, balled up around a small brownish cub. When the mother noticed Onyx she simply stared at him.

Why she hadn't run away, Onyx would never figure out but she simply stared at him as he moved closer and closer. Onyx reached out his hand towards the little one and as soon as his hand met its head he felt the mother licking his hand.

That's when he felt it. It was the same feeling he got from the cherry and walnut tree but much stronger. He felt connected to the little cub. Its eyes met his and while they were stuck in eye-contact, he missed the fact that the mother had taken her final breaths.

Onyx decided to pick up the dead mother and bring her back to his mother Agate. Maybe she could do something for her. He did after all feel connected to this family of foxes and wanted to do something for her. He ran back to the house, the little one chasing after him as fast as he could. Once he got back to the house he met his mother in the garden "Mum! Help me! She's bleeding you have to do something!"

Agate looked up to see her son carrying a fox and freaked out. A fox could be a dangerous animal for a young boy! What was he doing carrying a fully adult one?! "Put that down! It might hurt you!" She ordered her son and he gently placed the fox on the ground in front of her. Onyx's eyes met Agate and with a tremble in his voice he pleaded to her "Please mum, can't you do something?" It was at this moment she noticed that a young fox cub had been hiding behind Onyx and was stroking against his feet as if to comfort him.

'He couldn't possibly..' She thought. Perhaps her son had bonded with this animal, what other reason would a young cub follow him around instead of sticking to its mother which is lying right in front of it. This thought calmed her down and she looked at the fox mother. She had obviously run into trouble. Her stomach was half open and whatever it was that she encountered obviously wasn't very caring of her life.

She knew that the fox was already dead and did the only thing she could to calm his boy down, "I'm sorry Onny, she's already gone." She put her arms around the crying boy to try and soothe him.

"We'll bury her in the yard, do you think she had a name we can write to remember her?" Without hesitation Onyx answered "Bella." Agate smiled at him "Okay then. Let's make a beautiful little grave over there by the greenhouses."

Agate floated the corpse over and begun to dig, handing a small shovel to Onyx. A little while later they had a small hole to place her in. During this whole time, the young cub had sat next to Onyx inspecting what he was doing.

As Agate wrapped the corpse in a fine cloth and lowered her down into the hole. The cub walked up in front and started to fill in the hole himself. Onyx looked on as the little one tried his best for a small while before deciding to help him. Once they were done they placed a flat rock on top and Agate started inscribing.

'Here lies Bella. A fine mother, protecting her cub until her final breath. May she live on through her cub.' And below that was a small fox drawing of a mother lying wrapped around her cub.

The cub seemed to know it was over as he lied down on top of the rock and Onyx started petting him. Agate asked him "And what about this little one? How will he live without a mother?" Onyx didn't even hesitate "He's my friend now. His name is Rufus. We'll take him in won't we? We took in people who needed help before!"

Onyx looked to his mother pleadingly, but he didn't have to. She already thought that her son had bonded with the cub Rufus and couldn't bring herself to separate them anyway. She simply nodded and that's when she noticed that their guests had arrived. Darren had led them outside.