A Bond for the Ages

Chapter 36

Translations:

[English text] Paidí = [Greek text] Παιδί = Child

[English text] Rebenok = [Russian text] Ребенок = Child

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Harry and Draco glanced at each other as they entered the Room of Requirement and found both Leif and Alexei. The two immortals were talking quietly, making a variety of hand gestures as they discussed. Harry and Draco dropped their bags by the door and approached their mentors.

"Excellent," Leif said, turning to them. "Are you ready for today's training?"

"Sure, but why are we both here?" Harry said.

"It would seem you are ready to begin joint training," Alexei said. "That shield you created after the Quidditch match means your magic has taken the next step and can now fully connect."

"I thought we always could?" Draco said. "I've been interacting with his since summer."

"Interacting, yes, and becoming familiar," Leif said. "Magic reacts to emotion and intent. Your magic has recognized a change between you and is responding."

"Is that what happened with you two?" Harry asked.

"Yes, but without the Life Bond influence," Alexei said.

"How did you two even meet?" Draco asked, realizing they had never learned that part of their past.

"Wasn't it in Italy when you met Snape?" Harry said.

"Actually, no," Alexei said. "We were in Italy with Severus a year apart. Just missed each other there."

"We technically met years earlier, though it was still in Italy," Leif said and the look he gave Alexei was questioning.

Draco frowned when Alexei sighed as though resigned and nodded.

"I was recruited after World War Two and Grindelwald's war due to my skill at fighting and hunting specific targets, skills I had demonstrated during the wars," Leif said and Draco noticed how tight the man's face had become. "The vampire populations in Europe had skyrocketed during the wars. Turning people was used as a method of torture and a punishment for prisoners of war with many becoming weapons for the war effort."

The way Leif spoke and the way a shadow came over his normally light green eyes made Draco wonder what role Leif seemed to have played in this vampire strategy.

"I was recruited by the Italian Ministry of Magic and ended up on a task force that hunted feral vampire clans in Italy," Leif said.

"I was a part of one of those clans," Alexei said and Draco looked at the vampire in surprise, as did Harry. Alexei had been feral? It was hard to believe. He was so calm and kind. "It was a dark world then and I was lost for a long time after Grigori's death."

"I hunted down his clan and we fought. Had I not been immortal, I surely would have died," Leif said. "Then, decades later, we met again."

"This time with us on the same side," Alexei said. "I decided to change my ways after that fight with Leif in Italy, and eventually worked my way through various countries and ministries and institutions. I ended up in Germany at the same time as Leif. We were both working for the German Creature Control Department in nineteen eighty-five. We hunted vampire clans together and wrote legislation. We became friends there once we recognized each other and I apologized profusely for nearly killing him back in Italy. I explained myself and offered to leave, not only the Ministry, but Germany entirely. He convinced me to stay."