Harry thrower and The parentage of a New Sun

Chapter 6 - Too finis an Encounter

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When Harry shut the door to his room and descended the stairs he was, perhaps, the happiest he had ever been in all his aliveness. The sun sent favourable electron beam streaking through the dark-skinned windowpane above and cast a golden image on the floor below, tinged with enough red to make Harry cogitate fleetingly of Fawkes. His tomentum a snarl mess, he was wearing a jersey, boxer and windsock, one with a rather boastfully kettle of fish through which the large toe on his decently foot protruded. He scratched his stomach as his nose took in the scent of something that resembled the smell of burning ham. He took one measure down and turned to look back at his elbow room. His room ? His house ? No, not really. Not anymore. And he was grateful for that and smiled all the more as the aroma of fresh coffee filled the air, perhaps the only affair Sirius could prepare properly.

When he pushed open the doors to the kitchen of issue dozen, Grimmauld Place, he found Sirius working feverishly in front end of the stove. His baton was casting spell after spell, not so much at the intellectual nourishment preparation, but in an feat to light up the smoke that was billowing throughout. Harry walked over and turned down the flame with a waving of his hand.

"Here,"he said gently,"let me help."His godfather looked wounded.

"No, really, I wanted to cook you breakfast. You know, first-class honours degree day of schooltime and all."He cracked an egg and put both liquid and shell in the same bowl and started mixing it with his wand. Harry chuckled kindly and excite his head in disbelief. It was cracking being free of Privet driveway, to be here with his godfather, to find wanted and appreciated. It was probably the number one meter he had ever opened a software system of bacon for breakfast without a sour taste in his mouth. He gave Dog Star a look that said,"Get substantial,"and then positioned himself squarely in front of the stove.

"I'm not bad at this,"offered Harry, cracking four eggs at once into a bowlful and discarding the shells with a film of his wand. Dog Star shrugged and started to sit, but Harry stopped him."Oh no you don't. You need to see how this is done, and when I come back for Christmas it'll be your turn."Sirius seemed to like the challenge, and the idea that he would be spending Yule with Harry.

"You know,"said Sirius pouring two cups of coffee,"I hear New York is spectacular at Christmas time. Have you ever been to the States ?"Harry shook his head."Maybe we could go for a ready visit."

"I promised Gabri—"

"visit,"Sirius cut in."That's all. Maybe Gab can derive along."

"If we're not at war,"said Harry glumly.

"Or if the war's over by then,"suggested Sirius with more optimism. Harry nodded plating the food and levitating the plates to the table.

Sirius ate like a dog and finished in about three minutes. Harry was more brooding, and while he did finish, it took him much longer. The nicest thing about being of age was that he didn't have to walk or deal a car to go to King's Cross Station. For that matter, he didn't need to go to King's hybridization at all ; he could Apparate to Hogsmeade and walk in from there. Only the straits Boy and Head Girl had to take the gearing with their housemates, and this yr the Head Girl was none other than Hermione husbandman. Odd, Harry thought, considering she'd nearly killed Theodore Nott last year. He smiled and took another sip of chocolate. Hermione didn't know who the chief Boy was, but it wasn't Ron. Still, the redhead and his girlfriend were inseparable and so Harry would be travelling too. When Harry told Gabriella he would be going to Hogwarts by train, her font fell momentarily and grew concerned.

"Then I go as well,"she declared, and she began to shiver slightly. The mentation sent a common cold chill down Harry's pricker as the warm coffee slipped down his throat.

"Any Thomas More bacon ?"asked Canicula rummaging through the crust pans about the stove.

"That black stuff and nonsense you fried up over there on the face is bacon ; at least it used to be."

Canicula poked at it a few meter, and then finally took a collation. His boldness took on a little bitter quality as it scrunched ever so slightly, then he took another bite, shrugging his shoulders. His dentition and tongue covered in charcoal he said,"You'd honorable get gear up. Is your trunk packed ?"He glanced at the hourglass on the counter.

"Er… yeah,"Harry lied."Just a few Thomas More things."He levitated his plate to the cesspit which was piled high school with potbelly and Pan from the last few days."Do you want me to take precaution of these before I—"

"I'll take guardianship of it,"Dog Star lied."Go get yourself ready."Harry shrugged and nodded his head, and started up the stairs, once again scratching his stomach and knowing full well it would be daytime, perhaps calendar week, before the sinkhole was cleared.

It was strange really, getting ready for his live on yr at Hogwarts. So often he was rushed in the hustle and fuss of the Weasley family. This year, however, Harry wanted to be with his own family — Sirius pitch blackness. And it was the best decision he'd ever made. It had only been a few daytime, but in that unretentive time Sirius and Harry did absolutely… nil. There were opportunities to babble out about the old days when Sothis palled around with James ; there were chances to practice forward-looking spells or learn the operation of some of the golden legal instrument that still lined the paries in the Black phratry study ; there were metre when they could have discussed how Harry brought Dog Star back from behind the mantle ; and at every turn, at every unfold door, Harry and Sothis simply took the metre to bask each other in the here and now. They played chess game ; the played add-in ; they raced Caduceuses across the John Griffith Chaney sky at night ; they drank, probably too lots ; and they laughed Sir Thomas More than they had laughed in a retentive, long time. Sirius'centre had never been brighter, and Harry's nitty-gritty had never been lighter.

This time when Harry readied himself at the front threshold to leave, there was no dingy swarm hanging over their brain, but rather an eager excitement about the twelvemonth to come and what it would bring. They drew strength from each other knowing that whatever war was around the street corner, whatever darkness rose on the skyline, they would face it together. For a moment they just stared at each other and around the room.

"Er… Right then,"began Canicula."Off you go."He nervously patted the position of his hips with his hands.

"I'll… I'll owl you when I get in,"replied Harry. Sirius nodded. Silence."Right, then."There was another tenacious intermission."Bloody hell,"Harry cursed and he walked over and pulled Sirius to him tightly with a grand hug. Canicula responded in kind.

They held each other for more than a moment and then Sirius whispered in a somewhat scratchy voice,"Be careful."Harry pulled away wearing an enormous smile.

"I've never been anything but !"He winked, there was a cleft, and he was gone.

He Apparated to an out of the way emplacement just down the street from King's interbreeding station and began walking. The late morning was clear, and he was surprised to detect the air so cold. He'd been spending so much time inside with Sothis he hadn't thought much about the weather condition. His pelage was in his trunk, and he didn't feel much like opening that in the middle of a street filled with Muggles. He shivered, rubbed his arms, and continued on his way. He was coming to the first stair of the place when a beggar boldly stepped in front of him demanding a donation. Wearing a good three days'chaff, his apparel were filthy, and his breath smelled strongly of alcohol.

"Come on, fellow,"he wheezed."Just a pound fer me shape. I ain't eatin'in days."

"Sorry,"said Harry earnestly,"I don't have a pound."

"Surely a schilling ?"

Harry kept walking trying to ignore the intruder."Really,"he said over his berm,"I don't have any money."The man grabbed Harry by the arm.

"I can listen the jingle in yer knickers, boy !"It was avowedly that Harry had a few galleons in his pocket, but no Muggle money of any variety. He was sorry for that, but he was irritated for being called a boy and he turned to front the beggar.

"vociferation me a boy again, and you—"

"You'll what !"spat the drunk, stepping toe-to-toe with Harry. The sight was a bit comical since Harry was not the little child he once was. Indeed he was a buirdly Cy Young man, and he stood a trade good four inches taller than his adversary. Curling the fingers on his correct hand, he was about to say just what he'd do when a intimate tingling ran up his spine. He grabbed for his scepter, but too late. Or at least it would ingest been if he had been the target. The wino stood motionless, eyes glazed, physical structure frozen in position. Harry looked up just as a hired man gently took him by the arm.

"Sorry about that, sir,"said a vernal man not much quondam than Harry."I… er… I wasn't paying attending. Won't happen again, I promise."

The man, still in his teen, wore a dark gray suit with slender blueness pipage, a burgundy tie and white shirt. The sorry glasses reminded Harry of old James bond paper picture, but the white tennis shoes with red laces told Harry at once he was dealing with a wizard. Then he noticed the shape of the jaw, the voice, but the hair—

"Finnius ?"Harry asked, wondering if he was talking to the former Head Boy of Hufflepuff who at graduation had a start at a face fungus and hair that hung down to his waist."I thought you were going to commence a dance orchestra ? The… er, The Grindly toilet ?"

"Erm,"said Finnius, looking around nervously,"can we save going ?"

"Why ? What's the thing ?"

"Well… see, I'm supposed to—"

"Not you ?"Harry exclaimed in mental rejection."Surely the Ministry—"

Finnius pulled Harry by the arm just as the drunk began to come to his sentience. Quickly, they climbed the steps and found themselves in a sea of masses heading to their political platform at Riley B King's crisscross. Perspiration was popping out on Finnius'forehead and Harry wondered if he hadn't wet himself he looked so nervous."It's just… well, I promised Tonks and already I've made a muddle of things."

"You work with Tonks ?"Harry asked with a bit more excitement and interest. He hadn't heard from her all summer, and she wasn't at the Joining with Singehorn."Is she okay ? Where is she ?"Finnius continued to usher Harry toward political program nine and three-fourths holding Harry with his right hired man and wiping his forehead with his left.

"Yeah, well, she's the one that convinced me I could be an Auror. Said she'd train me, see… herself. But since that line at the Ministry net class, she's been in and out of hospital and… well, now she's in and… well, she made me promise. See ?"

Harry didn't see, and he was getting a bit nettle. He yanked his arm out of Finnius'grip."What do you mean she's in infirmary ? What's wrongly ?"Finnius looked away from Harry's intense gaze.

"Ah, here we are."They were at the weapons platform."Just in time too !"Before Harry could say another word, Finnius gave him a bit of a shove and he plunged through the rampart and found himself on the former side standing just in front of the Hogwarts Express. Harry dropped his trunk, reached for his scepter and started back toward the paries when he was tackled from the side of meat. The twinkling of raven melanize hair in his face told him at once it was Gabriella.

"You made it !"she cried."I was beginning to think—"She stopped, sensing at once that Harry's emotions were in turmoil."What's awry ?"And then she too looked at the wall to the outside man."Who's out there ?"

The foiling on Harry's grimace was sack ; he was about to charge back out when his eyes caught something he had never before seen : Neville Longbottom was hugging his parents, dog and Alice, so long. Alice held his facial expression in her hands and planted a big wet candy kiss on his impertinence. They were all smiling as Neville wiped it with his sleeve. Then wiener Longbottom handed his son something and, as Neville wrapped his fingers about the object, a more serious expression came into his oculus. His dad slapped him on the shoulder and a thin smile appeared again as Neville boarded the train.

"He's principal Boy,"Gabriella said warmly.

Harry looked at Gabriella, then at the paries behind, and back to the train, then back to the wall."come on, let's—"

"ALL ABOARD !"the conductor called.

"dean said he'd save us a spot,"said Gabriella, taking delay of Harry's hand. Harry took one last look at the wall behind them, and then the two boarded the railroad train. The corridor was crowded with students, particularly first geezerhood who were completely confused. What was noticeable, however, was that the normal demarcation of house zone seemed to be somewhat blurred. There were Slytherins purposefully mixing in with Ravenclaws near the strawman of the power train, and a mathematical group of third class Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors in another carriage playing centering. A few cars down Harry just caught a coup d'oeil of person in Gryffindor robes disappearing into a bearing and so he and Gabriella followed. He pushed open the carriage door only to walk in on Neville and Helen kissing ; a fresh fragrance filling the air.

"Oh,"said Harry."Sorry."Neville had Helen up against the paries and there was some sort of vine with soft pink flowers wrapping itself around her arm and abdomen. She was wearing a smiling and blushing slightly."Er… seen Dean ?"Neville who seemed about three inches taller than when Harry last saw him which was only a few workweek ago spoke through a beaming smile.

"Yeah, he's up forward."Then, with a surefooted flick of his wand Neville shut the door in Harry's face, following that with a charm that sealed it tight. Gabriella just raised her eyebrows and smiled.

"See what happens when you're late."She smacked Harry's tummy."That could have been us !"

They continued moving forward past various carriages when the flash of red hair caught Harry's eye. It was Ron, and he was bickering with Hermione. The floor of the carriage they were in was littered with clothes, books and various things Harry knew to be Ron's, most notably by the overabundance of socks.

"Honestly, Ronald,"said Hermione in a scolding articulation as if talking to a four year old."If you don't find it soon you'll have to tell Professor Flitwick, and if you won't I will."

"Is that a threat ?"shot back Ron, holding both work force on his hip joint and kicking at the batch of clothes on the floor. Gabriella walked in first.

"Is there something damage ?"she asked gently, Harry only a gradation behind her.

"No, cipher's faulty,"snapped Ron immediately."Er… hey, mate !"he said with a wafture at Harry.

"He's lost his wand,"exclaimed Hermione.

"I haven't lost anything,"retorted Ron in defiance."I've just… er…"

"Have you tried summoning it ?"asked Harry, starting to rummage through the clothes on the baby buggy level. The steeled face of fire in Ron's eyes said that they had certainly tried that and many other matter and would molest just not hold any early trace because Hermione has already made every possible hint known in the Wizarding mankind and none of them have worked.

"Hermione,"said Gabriella with a tone that Harry had come to know all too well, and yet was still new to Hermione."Perhaps one of my Slytherin housemates is playing a trick, most likely Teddy. Would you join me and perhaps together we can solve this little problem."Knowing Hermione's temperament toward Nott, Harry wondered if it was a wise estimate to put the two in end law of proximity, but Gabriella may stimulate been on to something. Certainly Nott would have the motive to rend a stunt like this, but perhaps Gabriella just wanted to get Hermione away from Ron for a bit. He smiled to himself realizing that it was probably both.

"Sure,"said Hermione. She cast one more aspect at Ron before she left and said,"And don't you stop looking !"The import the girls departed, Ron flopped down on the carriage Bench and blew the hair out of his eyes.

"Bloody hell."

"Well, Fred or George can certainly get you a new wand,"offered Harry, sitting down across from Ron."Or maybe we can creep out this weekend and Apparate to Ollivanders."Unfortunately, Ron's face did not brighten at the suggestion.

"Look at us, Harry,"said Ron with a whimsical look on his face, tinged with a bit of sourness."We were here six age ago, you and me. Do you think of ?"

There was a moment of secretiveness as Harry watched the countryside faux pas by. It wasn't the Saame train as six twelvemonth ago, but it might as well ingest been.

"Yeah,"said Harry, almost in a whisper as he nodded his caput,"I remember."

"affair haven't changed much."

"They've changed loads."Harry reached forward and pulled on the small goatee now sprouting from Ron's chin.

"Really ?"asked Ron with a snicker."Back then you were Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived, and I was Ron Weasley with a spot of dirt on my nose."

"That's not—"

"Now we're both of age and you're Harry ceramist, defender, defender and emissary, the wizard that destroyed Voldemort and brought public security with the colossus, and I'm Ron Weasley the kid that can't encounter his BLOODY WAND !"At the concluding Bible he stood up, kicked at the paries, and put his bang all the way through.

Harry was trying to muster something to say when the door began to afford. Angry, Ron instinctively reached for his wand to slam the threshold shut, but it wasn't there. He growled like a lion and was about to physically bang the door shut when Saint Patrick O'James Whitcomb Riley, now in his irregular yr, poked his head word through.

"Was that you, Ron ?"asked Patrick brightly, nodding his head toward the hole that now protruded into the corridor. Then he noticed Harry."Hey, Harry ! Dean said you were going to be up in his carriage."

"Later,"answered Harry."Right now I'm just—"

"St. Patrick,"cut in Ron, doing his best to remain quiet,"we don't have time to—"

"Prob'ly mad ‘ bout losin'this,"interrupted Patrick, and he held up Ron's wand. For a moment Ron sputtered, unable to speak. Finally, he grabbed the wand and pulled it close, cradling it like a baby as a wave of rilievo passed over his body.

"Where'd you find it ?"asked Harry.

"Oh, I didn't,"said St. Patrick,"King James I did. When he showed it teh me, I knew at once whose it was. He was on his way teh take it teh Flitwick, but I told him I'd get it teh yeh."

"Er… thanks,"answered Ron."You're okay, kid."At last Ron smiled as he slipped his sceptre away.

"Why don't you and James stay in here,"offered Harry."I haven't heard from the Changjiang all summer and was wondering how Cho was doing."At these quarrel, Patrick became noticeably uncomfortable.

"Gee, Harry,"he answered, looking back down the corridor,"we're already hangin'out with the Slytherins."

"Slytherins ?"asked Harry."I thought James River was going to start Gryffindor this yr. He knows he can pick whatever business firm he wants doesn't he ?"

"Yeah, well, he changed his nous o'er the summertime, I guess."Again he glanced nervously down the hall."Well… see yeh !"He smiled and disappeared down the corridor to the binding of the train.

"That was a bit odd,"said Ron, sweeping away a few dyad of socks with his deal and sitting down on the bench.

"Yeah, it was."

"Why on globe would anybody choose Slytherin over Gryffindor ? Everyone knows they're nothing but a bunch up of—"

"Yes ?"Gabriella stood at the open air doorway, her finger's breadth drumming against the frame.

"Er…."

"…Sweethearts !"chimed Hermione gaily as she stepped into the posture with Gabriella."Except maybe… Teddy."She flopped down adjacent to Ron.

"He didn't conduct it too well when we asked if he'd stolen Ron's wand,"continued Gabriella as she sat next to Harry. Hermione took Ron's hand and pulled him fold to her.

"No, but he didn't dare use a hybridisation Holy Writ or call down his phonation,"said Hermione."Quite the gentleman for a change."

"organism nearly killed can do that to some citizenry,"said Ron.

"I could sense right away he was telling the accuracy,"said Gabriella,"so we decided to come up back. Saint Patrick told us he found your wand."

"No, James Changjiang found it,"said Harry."Patrick only returned it. Did he separate you that James has decided to go with Slytherin this year ?"

"There, you see !"said Gabriella,"Another fine example. Saint James was one of the respectable first class students as I recall."Ron pulled out his scepter and looked at it closely.

"I should probably have it examined,"he said."Maybe Nott put him up to it."

"Oh, don't be ridiculous,"said Hermione, slapping his hand. Then she turned to Harry, trying hard to ignore the lot on the floor."So how's Dog Star doing at Grimmauld property ?"

The hours passed quickly as tiffin came and the late afternoon brought drooping eyelids to everyone. doyen never made his way back to the baby buggy, and they never endeavoured to move further up the train. They were all nodding off to log Z's when the train began to slow.

"Hogsmeade ?"asked Ron groggily. The high noon sun seemed suddenly to fade to darkness as if somebody had just pulled down the curtain.

"No,"said Hermione with a bit of business."It's too early."They all noticed the death word leave her lips in a pouf of smoke -- the air was growing colder by the second. They knew at once what was happening and each had their scepter at the set. The iniquity outside the train filled with heartbeat of brightness level. Ministry guards had moved out to meet the onslaught which was centred toward the front of the power train. Incantations filled the air as Patronus after Patronus was being sent out against the attacking Dementors. There were howler all up and down the corridors, mostly from the youthful students.

"Ron,"said Hermione with a control voice."Help me accumulate the first years."Ron was up in a flash, and a moment later his part was barking orders down the corridor for everyone to stay equanimity, calling for the starting time years to muster at the galley. Students began to run toward the posterior of the power train, away from the fighting.

"They're looking for you, Harry,"said Gabriella, holding her wand at the window. She cast a spell at the glass, protecting it from attack, just as other windows began to shatter about the train.

"Well they're about to rule me !"iridescent Harry as he started for the doorway. Gabriella grabbed his arm.

"You can't be serious. Who knows how many are out there. Your serious using the string as a—"The string lurched forward causing collective screams all up and down the corridor. Then it began to displace -- chug… choo-choo… chug… choo-choo… She was quickly gathering f number. There was another flurry of bright Edward Douglas White Jr. trice of scant cast against the shadow, and the afternoon light suddenly reappeared and the warmth returned. Everyone cheered as the veil of darkness became cypher more than a moody swarm on the apparent horizon behind the train.

A look of rest period spread across Gabriella's typeface, but shadow still remained in Harry's eyes as he reached and grabbed the wrist of the bridge player that was holding his arm. Slowly, but firmly he pulled her hand away, and looked at her with a very grim verbalism. She sensed his emotions before he said the Bible and she didn't like what she was feeling. Finally, he spoke in a stern and ignite voice.

"Don't EVER do that again."

"But—"

There was a scream that Harry knew at once to be Ginny's. In a flash he was out the threshold and down the corridor, only a measure ahead of Neville Longbottom, and two steps behind Ron. Ginny was on her knees in the carriage, broken glass everywhere and bust streaming down her heart. She grabbed her brother by his sleeve.

"Do something, Ron !"she cried out."They've taken him. They've taken James Byron Dean !"

"But… but he's right here, Gin"answered Ron, looking at Dean who was still seated on his chairman, but looking out the window at the rural background running past. It was Gabriella who noticed first.

"Oh, no,"she whispered, stepping by Harry and turning Dean to face them all. There was a collective gasp. Still breathing, his center were white, his face sunken, and his hide almost pale. He gave them no reaction at all. Ginny stood up and wrapped him in her weapons system, rocking him back and Forth River. On her finger was the band James Byron Dean had given her the year before. The firestone with which it was set had lost its brilliant glow, its fire, its love extinguished.

"They've taken him,"she cried again."They've taken his soul."




Harry Potter and the core of Becoming

Chapter 7 - The Lost mortal

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Harry clenched his fists and bicker,"Fucking war."former than that, only the grumble of the geartrain and the steer whistling through the tattered windowpane accompanied Ginny's sobs. He stepped adjacent to Gabriella and watched helplessly as Ginny, a mortal mate if ever he had one, rocked back and Forth River with Dean in her weaponry. James Dean, breathing but lifeless, made no response. He might as well be a corpse - he'd be better off. Harry felt the rage building within, but something was tempering it, something was focusing it. He gazed into nothingness as smoke streamed by the broken window and a tear tracked down his cheek.

"Ginny,"Gabriella whispered, then louder,"Ginny."The redhead, her cheek wet, looked up at Gabriella."May I see him ?"Ginny sniffed, wiped her face and nodded silently. Someone, a girl, screamed at the door and then ran down the corridor yelling for help.

"I'll get a healer,"said Neville despondently to Harry. His voice was much older and much lamentable than Harry had ever heard before. They both knew it was pointless.

"It won't do any good,"thought Harry to himself, reaching for his wand and then nervously fiddling it with his fingers. Then, out loud, he whispered,"He's gone."The madness roiled in his mind as he watched the super C James Jerome Hill roll by - a word-painting perfect day. Finally, his mind found its clarity."This was past forgiveness,"he thought to himself and his hand clenched tightly about his wand as he pulled it to the ready."I'll kill them ! I'll pour down them all !"He would Apparate back down the tracks and destroy every Dementor that moved. He began the wrist movement when Gabriella grabbed his arm. His eye guess fire into hers."I told you—"he began.

"You're not thinking,"interrupted Gabriella, staring at him intently with dark fateful optic that demanded he not be so brash.

"I don't care how many of them there are !"cried Harry.

"I'm with you, Harry !"yelled Ron."We'll kill ‘ em all !"

"YEAH !"cried others."LET'S GO !"

wand began to appear from everyone.

"Harry !"blastoff Gabriella."THINK !"She pulled him close."You know a better way !"

Harry's mind began to race ; there was no sentence for this. The Harlan Fiske Stone ? Was she talking about the rock ? Certainly she didn't mean that he could heal dean's soul using the stone."I don't have time—"

"Your vocalisation, Harry,"she said softly but with a acuate tone.

Voices ? Voices ! She couldn't be life-threatening. She had wanted to work with him on the spokesperson, the endowment of those who had touched him at the connexion, but he chose instead to spend his time with Sirius. All those present at the Joining on Singehorn's mountain were, in various ways, a theatrical role of him now. They had shared of themselves freely, but there were so many he couldn't screen out them out and clock time was dripping through his finger's breadth.

"I can't."

"You must."

For a moment, as to a greater extent voices clambered about the corridor for a counterattack on the Dementors, he tried to touch down deep inside, calling to those who had shared of themselves, scanning through numberless memories, snip of pictures that spanned centuries.

"This is unsufferable,"he said with a sigh.

"Come on, Harry ! Let's vote down them !"someone called from behind. It was Anthony Goldstein. Very well said, thought Harry, but Mark Antony's Patronus would be lucky to tug away a single Dementor let alone dozens. Unfortunately, before Harry could say another word, Antonius gave Harry the most rummy look and shouted,"For our family, match !"There was a pop and Goldstein was gone. It was followed by another pop and another pushover. elder students were Disapparating from everywhere.

"Wait ! STOP"Harry yelled."You're… you're not ready !"

"momma's seen them, Harry,"said Gabriella above the centering and pa."She may know. Think of her… be her !"

Harry closed his eyes once again and focused on Soseh. His mind dwelt on the warmheartedness of her hospitality and the aroma of her kitchen, but Gabriella turned his mind.

"Coldness. vacuum,"she whispered."The smell of decay, of death."

prototype filled Harry's mind. Images of what was, what is, what might be. He saw Dakhil, a much younger looking Dakhil, blood dripping from the niche of his backtalk ; he saw himself hanging from the window on Privet thrust, an odd glow surrounding his half-naked dead body ; he saw Grigor looking cruel and defiant ; he saw the inhuman short body of Antreas, thrust combat injury covering every inch of his bare chest of drawers ; end, and then he saw them.

It was night and the only sound, beyond a lonesome scream in the shadow, was the raspy breath of the oncoming Dementor. Just a few feet away, a Lester Willis Young missy was cowering beneath the draped figure. Just to her left was a man, somewhere in his late twenties, a flying lizard emblazoned on his properly forearm. Ignoring the man, the Dementor pulled back his hood revealing its skull-like masque of revulsion, a large maw where perhaps a rima oris should be. The vision seemed so genuine Harry tried to reach for his scepter, but found his arms shackled to a stone wall.

The girl screamed as the Dementor drew in its breath in a great wheeze. Another scream… another wheeze. On the third gear wheeze, the girl made no strait ; her dull eyes opened, staring blankly up at her attacker. It was then, as if empowered with a s sight, Harry saw it : the glow. He watched the faint halcyon White light being pulled into the hole in the Dementor's porta. He expected it to go away into the darkness, but it didn't. The Dementor pulled his exhaust hood up over his skull, but Harry could still comprehend the glow trying to fight back its way out. It was as if the Dementor was shining, backlit by a spot from above."I see,"Harry whispered and the shadow rushed away to be replaced by the lights and rumblings of the racing Hogwarts Express.

"I see !"cried Harry."I…"He paused."Soseh can see,"he said slowly shaking his headland."Soseh has the giving, I don't, at least not yet. I haven't tried. There's no way I can—"Gabriella's eyes were fixed on his. He knew she bore her mother's gift of mickle, and her eyes were telling him that she too must go."No,"he said flatly."You're staying here."

"It's the only way, Harry,"she said, still holding his arm."If we find the one in metre, then… then you use the Stone to draw back Dean's life force."Everyone looked at the two as if they'd both gone mad. There were footfall racing their way down the corridor. Harry glanced back, knowing that once the Aurors found out about the onrush and the flight of the students they'd be blasting Dementors right and left. With one wrongfulness go, Dean's soul would be lost forever.

"We must go now,"she insisted. Harry held the hand clutching his arm and nodded his assent.

On two, they both Apparated back into the darkness. It was as if they had just landed themselves in the midsection of an sinister electrical storm that had extinguished the sun. All was pitch blackness save for the flashes of lighting - wandlight from the attacking educatee. Harry felt the heat rushing out of his off-white and heard the screams in his ears.

"Can - you - see - the - one ?"Harry yelled over the din. His spokesperson held hope, but his heart had none. There were at to the lowest degree a hundred Dementors swarming about, skimming across the hillside, trying to decide if the recently arrived thaumaturge were to be feared or consumed. Harry saw a Patronus, the shape of an enormous owl, dip into a grouping of about a one-half dozen Dementors and sent them flying. About thirty one thousand away, near a stand of Tree, Goldstein's wand was doing little more than lighting up the lowly clearing of sens in front end of him. A Dementor was closing in on him when three students from Ravenclaw converged, simultaneously casting an Incendio go and incinerating the creature. Harry's heart skipped. Could that have been—

"This way !"hailed Gabriella, pulling on Harry's arm as she held her eyes shut. She was pulling them closer into the face pack. Harry conjured a hart that split the sea of Dementors, if only for a bit, the breach closing behind the bright beast as it passed through. But in that moment, Gabriella squeezed Harry's arm.

"Yes !"she said with more sure thing. Her eye still closed she cried,"Follow me !"

They were plunging right into the fondness of the horde of blackness. Gabriella was moving more swiftly. She let go of Harry's arm and began to jog ahead. Harry followed sending another Patronus ahead of her and splitting them away. Rather than sharpen on Harry and Gabriella, the Dementors seemed to prefer the loose fair game near the tree and began to motivate away. He could see the screaming behind him as Gabriella pulled her wand and uttered something in Armenian language. A White person glow enveloped her as if she held a star at the tip of her verge. She pressed on ever forward, her yard gathering swiftness, but her wand dimming as each new Dementor tried to diffuse its glowing surface.

"hastiness, Harry !"she called back. The terrain was rockier here and they were moving along the face of a hill and the promote they moved along the more steep the incline grew, making it more unmanageable to traverse. Harry heard a appeal of snaps behind him ; the Aurors had arrived. He looked back at the great cloud of Dementors unwittingly racing toward the new aggregation of emotions. Just as he turned back to look at Gabriella his fundament slipped on a Oliver Stone and his articulatio talocruralis twisted under his weight. He fell to the ground and tumbled a skillful XX feet down the side of the mound, scraping the English of his leg badly before he came to rest.

He looked up and saw the flickering radiance of Gabriella's sceptre disappear over the edge of the Hill. Three Dementors swarmed over him - it was the go thing they ever did. Black blood sprayed all over the ground as Harry blasted his way through, grimacing from the nuisance in his articulatio talocruralis as he took each long pace. It was then that he realized he hadn't a clue what to do when he came upon the Dementor they wanted. Gabriella had said to use the stone, but how ? And how would he proceed the Dementor from simply fleeing ? His ankle pounding, Harry past another bombastic tree and came up over the side of the hill. The land opened up beneath him, running down maybe twenty K and then spreading out into a vast plain that stretched on until it disappeared into the dank mist of wickedness. sunlight was trying to penetrate the misty swarm of blackness casting an eerie red gleam over the green landscape before him. It was then when his middle sank.

Just at the end of his vision, Harry could see the flickering glow of Gabriella's wand. Only now it was more flutter than sparkle. About her were two Dementors, the only two to be seen and they were circling her corresponding predator. Each would swoop around and then plunge at Gabriella only to spring from her failing shield charm. It wouldn't be recollective before—

The shell failed, and Harry heard her scream. He was too far away to do anything but run, and that's just what he did. He ran with all his might, anguish stabbing at his leg with each smash at the ground as if a snapping snake were ever at his heel. He was perhaps 50 yards away when an enormous red igniter burst from Gabriella's wand, filled the air about her, and one of the Dementors burst into flame. Harry could find out its gurgling call as it tried to fly away, but plunged into the skunk starting a modest fervor, Black fume billowing upward. Harry was now xx yards away as he watched the s Dementor crouch over Gabriella and he heard her screams.

There was a pop just off to his right wing. An Auror appeared, wand drawn.

"No !"Harry cried. The Auror looked only briefly at Harry then set to cast a spell at the Dementor hovering over Gabriella.

"Petrificus Totalus !"called Harry. The Auror went erect and fell to the dry land. Ten cubic yard. Gabriella screamed again and this time Harry could hear the raspy wheeze of the Dementor as it tried to pull away her someone. With a great leap Harry jumped forward, wrapped his arm around Gabriella and the two of them rolled away from beneath the grasp of the Dementor. When they came to rest, Gabriella was on top of him ; the golden necklace he had given her with the Gryffindor signet - a lion baring two ruby red eyes - that came from professor McGonagall hung round her neck and swung back and forth in front end of Harry's side. He had remembered McGonagall's words :"For prison term of darkness."And then he heard the representative of Dumbledore, as if he were whispering in Harry's ear, only the whisper was coming from Harry's lips.

"Really, Nicolas ? An capture golden chemical chain will trap them ? I never heard of such a thing."

The Dementor's growing wheeze signalled its feeler when Harry grabbed the midget golden chain off Gabriella's cervix. He rolled her to the side, feeling the moth-eaten approaching from behind. With one conclusion great effort he heaved himself upward, tossed the string in the air and cast a spell he had never uttered before, but one that Dumbledore knew. The tiny golden mountain range grew snakelike in shape and dimension, but its head teacher was the head teacher of a Leo with flaming red eyes. With the flick of his wand Harry levitated the radiance, golden, lion-headed snake toward the coming frigidity, and it began to gyrate itself around the Dementor various metre. Round and round in to a lesser extent time than it takes to loosen a shoelace the Dementor was cinched tight from pass to toe. Struggling to escape, the black beast could not travel and ultimately fell to the locoweed.

"Harry ?"Gabriella's vox whispered weakly from stern."Harry ?"

He knelt down by her side at once."Are you okay ?"he asked.

"The stone. Use the Stone before the others come."

The vivificus gemstone had not been used since it was charged at the connection. Singehorn had told Harry that fervour was dependable but love was something far more endurable. And the stone, snuggled close to Harry's liver, was already covered in Harry's origin. All that remained was the incantation :"Bravery, Wisdom, Love."

In an heartbeat, Harry found himself in what he had, in his own judgment, decided was an antechamber of sorts. All was white waiting for his asking. For a moment his nous hovered on Gabriella, but he knew he was forbidden on using it to the advantage of another in the Votary. Instead, he called to the open nothingness,"Show me Dean's soul !"

He expected to see a vortex of colour, but instead he saw a vortex of blacken. His pump skipped for fearfulness that he had done something wrongfulness, but his own life held closely to the pauperism to save his friend if at all possible. The darkness spread before him and in this void a stench filled Harry's anterior naris. It was then when he realized where he was, what he was entering - the life force of the Dementor.

total darkness and rot filled his vision. strand of oily fibre hung from above and when Harry looked to see their source, all that was visible was consummate dark. He was reminded of the crevasse into which he and Sothis had fallen and a very real part of him wanted to leave this blank space as quickly as possible. He was cold and growing colder as he forced is mind's eye to campaign onward into the depth of the Dementor's heart, an insatiable need to feed.

At first, the sounds were removed Echo coming from down a yearn tunnel, vocalization perhaps, or animals screaming. Harry moved toward the sound and found the darkness pressing in all around him. Though in here he really had no corporeal physical body, something wet and sticky splattered against his face ; the desire to wretch was stiff. Then he heard the sounds again.

Yes, they were howler, but homo shriek, calling just ahead. Floating deeper into the darkness, his base tangled on something he could not see. He pulled and freed himself and then realized his dentition were chattering."This is not potential,"he thought to himself and now an even greater contribution of him wanted to return."I can't do this."He glanced back to see a tiny temporary hookup of blank no enceinte than a postage revenue stamp geographical mile away. He could be there and back to refuge in the flash of a thought.

Then he heard a part, straighten out and solid above the others, telling them to quiet down down, to mind. It was comrade, but it wasn't James Dean's. There was something nurturing about this representative, something that made one feel dependable. Harry pressed forward. It felt the likes of hours, although it was probably little more than the time it takes a star to flash, when he saw the faint favorable glowing ahead. He ached and felt that at any moment he would give and be trapped in this wickedness forever. The spokesperson called out again and his pulse quickened as he hurried forward. Against his organic structure he felt the sensation of ice-cold work force pulling at his sprit, trying to block up him, but still he moved ahead. The cold was unendurable, the sentience of reverence was overwhelming, and that's when he saw him, towering tall above the others huddled in the black muck : Mr. Silverton. It was the Saami wizard from Hogsmeade that had tried to pull through Draco's life the yr before, but had failed in the try. Harry had always seen him as a rather meek yet friendly man when he visited Hogsmeade, but here he stood taller than life, translucent in a lucky splendour.

"precipitation, save the children !"he called out to Harry, and then he added as if he'd always known,"Protector of the innocent !"

Harry looked down to see those huddled at Silverton's feet. They were there, nearly a dozen mortal, children mostly. Each was translucent, each glowed undimmed, though some more than others. The brightest of these was the young black wiz, who seemed utterly lost. doyen looked straight at Harry, but did not recognize him.

"assist,"he pleaded in a weak, gravelly spokesperson."Where am I ?"

"No one stays behind,"Harry said to Silverton."I'm taking you all."And without another Logos he reached out his work force and with his mind summoned the individual toward him. Silverton stood business firm as if guarding the forward motion, guiding them toward Harry's bidding. commencement, and most willing, came doyen, then a Pres Young girl with black hair… a boy with bright blue eyes… and on… and on…. Each individual came to… came into Harry as if he were an enormous vacuity pulling them in. When the finale left the quagmire at Silverton's human foot the old thaumaturgist smiled.

"You have done well,"he said warmly."Release us now, and I will lead them home."

The cold was pressing in on Harry once again, fighting one final stage do-or-die attack to keep open its precious gem as Silverton floated toward Harry.

"H-Home ?"Harry asked through chattering teeth."H-Heaven ? D-Dean needs t-to—"

"Release us, Harry,"breathed Silverton as he became one with Harry.

"Home."

The lightlessness began to rush away with a capital tearing sound. Harry felt as if his legs were being pulled backward by a tether that held him tight to the populace behind. flash lamp of varying ghost of gray screamed past, and then with a tremendous wooosh Harry found himself back in his body on the grassy field looking upward at the milky-blue sky.

"Harry !"Gabriella cried as his eyes blinked against the sudden brightness.

He felt dizzy, then unattackable, more herculean than he had ever felt. But then he realized why ; he still held their life force play. He could use this energy, this major power in the war to issue forth. They could be triumphant ! Then, a wearisome sigh slipped past his lips, and before he lifted his head off the grass he closed his oculus and whispered,"Hhhhome."It was a long, obtuse, breathless Good Book that sent chills down Gabriella's spine. He could feel the energy plinking out from within him as each soul drifted upward. Perhaps it was a hallucination, for Gabriella said later she saw no such vision, but before Harry the semitransparent eubstance of all the children hovered for a moment just above him. They looked down, smiling when at last Mr. Silverton emerged. He took the low girl's script and in the next moment they all rose above the treetops and disappeared from spate, Dean travelling with them ever upward.

Harry was sure he heard Dean's voice utter,"Goodbye."

A lone tear spilt from his eye when Gabriella reached down and lifted his head into her lap. Harry raised his hand and summoned the golden chain that surrounded the Dementor."This is yours I think,"he said softly.

"But—"

"It's deadened,"Harry answered before she could ask. And indeed the Dementor lay lifeless on the ground, deflated somewhat, as if it had been decaying there for calendar month.

The air blasted with the report of two loud pops as a pair of Aurors appeared clad in red Ministerial robe. One noticed the Auror some yards away on the ground still stiffened by Harry's spell. The other reached down to aid Harry and Gabriella to their feet.

"You can't stay here,"the Auror said, then he noticed who he was speaking with and turned to his companion."It's Potter !"He held Harry more firmly as if his life might depend on it."You've got to return to the train. Miss, will you help—"

"Hey ! He fired on—"the Auror that had been petrified began, but in that clamant both Harry and Gabriella had Apparated back to the train.

They appeared in the corridor of the geartrain, near the rump, and Harry stumbled to the floor when he landed. He hated Apparation, and this was his number one attempt at hitting a moving fair game. If Gabriella hadn't been holding his hand… He didn't want to think about it.

He was a bit dizzy and disorientate, but he grabbed a go-cart doorway handle and pulled himself up to his feet, taking a shaky step forward."Dean,"he muttered."I've got to see if…"He began to crumple to the floor when Gabriella grabbed his arm. He looked at her clenched mitt and then at her eyes and smiled."Thank you,"he said softly."Did I ever tell you that I thought you were brilliant ?"Her face did not smile back. Her nerves were too wracked with concern as her eyes darted up the corridor.

"Yes, yes,"said Harry."Let's go."

Two cars down there was a multitude of student that only parted when they realized who it was. When Harry made it to James Dean's car he stepped in to see straight in on Ron's back. His clothes were a mess of mud and pine needles, and the side of his shirt was torn, splotch of blood seeping through, red mixing with splash bleak. His red hair draped down over an arm that was hugging him tight. It was Ginny's and she was crying. Harry's nub plummeted and he dropped his head ; they had failed. Dean had died.

It was then that he heard Gabriella give a knifelike gasp as she gripped his forearm. He looked up to see her pointing at Ginny's mitt. On her hoop finger was the halcyon banding Dean had given her, only now the firestone was glowing as bright as ever, shining through the fibril of Ron's red hair.

"He's fine Gin ; Madame Pomfrey will take in him patched up in no time."

It was Dean's voice, talking about Ron. It was shaky but clear and Harry watched as two arms of deep chocolate wrapped around the redheaded brother and sister in a large hug.

"James Dean ?"choked Harry, his heart skipping out of his chest and the hint of his finger's breadth and launchpad of his understructure starting to prickle.

"Harry ?"asked Dean from behind the Weasley's. Ron spun turn and, as he did so, Ginny saw Harry. She immediately let out a squeal of joy. A instant later her weapon were around Harry, tears streaming down here cheeks and cheers rising up all around the wagon train. Soon, they were all smooching. Word gap that the counterattack had been a success, at least with the help of the Aurors that had been guarding the train. If it hadn't been for—

"Where's Anthony ?"guesswork Harry, realizing that the last he saw was what could only be called a herd of Dementors stampeding away from Harry and toward the Ravenclaw.

"Right here, Potter ; no thanks to you."

Harry turned to see a very offend and a very battered Anthony Goldstein. There was dried grass in his hair and a bit of bloodline at the corner of his mouthpiece, and he still clutched his wand as if ready to drift another enchantment at whomever or whatever might intersect him.

"Merlin's beard,"said Harry, stunned."You're alive."

"Cho said you weren't that smart,"sneered Susan Anthony with somewhat of a buffalo chip on his shoulder,"but I don't think she realized just how daft you really are."He was itching for a fighting, but Harry simply smiled.

"You were brilliant out there today, Goldstein,"said Harry gaudy enough so everyone could hear."If it hadn't been for you—"

"That's the one !"

Everyone turned to see two Aurors in their battlemented Ministerial gown making their way through the throng of pupil. One, the one pointing his finger at Harry, was promptly recognized. It was the Auror Harry had dropped in the study. He was holding the former Auror by the sleeve and pulling her almost against her will.

"That's the one, right there - with the field glass. I'd recognize the expression anywhere. Greasy little git."The pair parted the gang and were now right in movement of Harry."cerebration you could get away with it, did yeh ? Little fundament. You could birth had us all killed."Then he turned to the other Auror, a very tall woman with cryptic dismal eyes and an expression somewhere between exasperation and exhaustion. She was about to say something when Anthony Goldstein stepped in straw man of Harry.

"Do you have any clue who you're talking to ?"he asked with a smug air of favorable position that almost sounded Ministerial. Certainly, Marcus Antonius was destined for peachy things in government. It was then that the charwoman recognized Harry, but the other Auror was having none of it.

"Get out of my way, you !"he shoved Anthony to the side, and almost at once there was a rush of bookman like a wave break against the shoring filling the gap and forcing the two Aurors backwards.

"What's this ?"the Auror yelled, and he pulled his wand. In reception, over two dozen wand suddenly appeared pointed directly at him, inch from his face. The woman reached up to deplumate her companion's paw down just when there was another part from the far end of the carriage.

"Strickman ! PUT THAT DOWN !"If Anthony's voice was Ministerial, the new vocalism was all that and Sir Thomas More. Strickman's eyes widened in seismic disturbance. He'd heard this spokesperson before, last year when he graduated from the Auror Academy. Everyone turned and saw the electrical shock of red pilus and knew at once who it was.

"Dad !"cried Ron, whose height gave him the better thought over all his peers. baton quickly found their way back to their proper positions as all the pupil tried to act as normally as possible, considering they had just been through a Dementor attack.

"Ronny. Ginny."He was trying not to show that he was there to learn the condition of his own children, but the tremble in his interpreter and the looking of rest period on his aspect were obvious for all to get word and see."I came as soon as I heard."Then his centre met Harry's as he moved past the two Aurors and a spirit of wonderment filled them."Harry ?"he breathed in disbelief."I had heard you were taken. That your soul—"

"That was dean, sir,"answered Harry.

"James Dean ? wolf of Bulgaria, not—"His heart saw dean standing next to Ginny."I… I don't understand."

"Harry brought him back, Dad,"Ginny answered her father's questioning eyes."He brought his mortal back."Chester A. Arthur Weasley looked at his daughter and saw that she was sincere. Then he looked back at Harry.

"That… that's not possible,"he whispered."Not even Dumbledore—"

"That's right, Minister,"spat Strickman."It's not possible ! This lilliputian prat—"

"SHUT UP !"yelled Minister Weasley."If you say another word, I'll have him do the Saami to you as he did to Voldemort !"The Bible stung many pinna and there was a corporate moan, but not as universally as there might let been the year before. Only then did Strickman finally recognise who he had been calling a fundament.

"P-P-Potter ?"He began to apologize, not to diplomatic minister Weasley, but to Harry ; he never had a prospect.

"You're dismissed,"shot the diplomatic minister,"both of you."It was the female person Auror who was now doing the grabbing and dragging as she pulled Strickman by the back of his cloak and tossed him into the forward carriage.

"Here's your hero, sir,"said Harry, pulling the grimy Goldstein forward."He led the counterplay. If it hadn't been for him, I'd have never reached the Dementor that had Dean's soul."

Chester A. Arthur was still struggling, trying to cover what it was that Harry was saying. Nonetheless, he patted Anthony about the berm and said,"wellspring done, Whitney Young man. Goldstein is it ? Yes, I know your female parent. Runs a coven in Colchester."He gave Anthony, who was now beaming, another pat."Well done."Arthur then turned and hugged his two children and then he said in a tacky spokesperson,"I'm sword lily everyone's good and I assure you the rest of your trip will be uninterrupted, if not completely boring."

With the fuss and combat over, most the scholarly person returned to their carriages, muttering about the engagement as they went, and the crew in the corridor thinned. Arthur Weasley put his arm around Harry just as Hermione entered the gear car.

"Harry, you're safe !"she cried."They're saying you captured a—"

"Hermione,"interrupted Mr. Weasley,"might I have a give-and-take with Harry… alone ?"

"Oh, certainly, sir,"she answered. And as Harry and the Minister started down the corridor he could see Hermione take hold of Gabriella's script and heard her ask what had happened as they disappeared into the carriage with dean, Ginny and Ron.

"Harry,"began Mr. Weasley,"I need to speak with you about something very important. I was hoping to take you back to the Ministry with me right now, but under the circumstances it's perhaps just that you stay put. Once you're settled at the school, I'll outcry for you."

"What is it, sir ?"

"Not here, not now, Harry. The walls…"Mr. Weasley smiled, but it was not a felicitous smiling."…the bulwark have ears."

"I don't hold much faith that the rampart at the Ministry are any secure, sir."

"No. No, I know you don't,"answered the Minister as he stopped to look at Harry."But this is something too important to discuss anywhere else, even at Hogwarts. I'll send for you in a week or so, okay ?"Harry nodded."And don't worry, Harry. Where we're going no one knows about. Not even I knew about it until just last week. But if what you say is genuine about Malfoy and the Dementors, and certainly this approach points to that, we must act soon and we must act decisively. It's time to take the offensive."

"You know I'll do whatever it takes,"answered Harry.

"I know you will, son,"answered Arthur."I know you will. That's what frightens me."


Harry Potter and the Birth of a New Sun

Chapter 8 - Engaged

~~~***~~~

The Snitch flitted upward metre and sentence again only to be snatched into his manus after every escape cock. He was actually getting quite good at it really. Nearly XX mo without a—

"Damn !"

The Snitch slipped through Dean's fingers and began to zip about the son'dormitory, bouncing off the wall above Harry's head. With a flashbulb, few but Ginny Weasley could revalue, Harry had his hand around the fly orb.

"That was great, Dean !"said Harry earnestly, handing the Snitch to Ginny who was sitting next to Dean on his bed. While Dean was practicing, Harry had been reading a tale headlined Miracle at St. Mungo's which described how nearly a dozen patient, all victims of Dementor attacks, had suddenly and inexplicably awakened - their souls intact. He turned the page with a grinning as Dean continued to practice.

Madame Pomfrey had prescribed the practice of fink snatching as a sort of therapy to help James Dean regain control of his neuro-synapses. Even though Harry had returned James Dean's soulfulness, he was feeling somewhat disconnected from himself. It was operose to explicate just exactly how he was disconnected. Sometimes he would reach for something, like a shaker of saltiness, and it would foul up through his finger for no reason. Sometimes his honey for Ginny was strong, while at other clip it seemed as if he had no flavor for her at all. In sorcerous artistic production, doyen would paint portrayal of hiss, animate being, or even people but the prototype wouldn't move ; they remained lifeless on the canvass. It was all very foreign, and no one, not even dame Pomfrey, knew exactly what to do.

"No one's ever had their soul reattached,"Madame Pomfrey had said shortly after they had arrived at Hogwarts castle. Her solution was to try to re-stitch Dean's somebody by having him do both his eubstance and feel.

Ginny held steadfast at James Byron Dean's side ; a lesser cleaning lady would have left at once. Watching the two of them these death few mean solar day, Harry wondered if his love for Gabriella would be able to withstand such a psychometric test of faith. Somewhere, deep down inside, he felt it would, perhaps it already had, and he smiled as Ginny stroked doyen's back, encouraging him to try again.

"Nah, Gin,"answered Dean, truly exhaust."I'm… a bit tired."

"You're right hand, babe,"Ginny replied."relief a bit and we can go to dinner later."

"Thanks,"said Dean with a debile smile. They kissed and Ginny turned toward the staircase down to the green way.

They had been at Hogwarts for three twenty-four hours and even though the companion rhythm method of birth control of division and course work pulsed on at Hogwarts, something was distinctly different. Maybe it was the attack on the power train, the anticipation of what was to occur, or simply that they were in their concluding twelvemonth. Whatever it was, there existed, near certainly, a tangible sense of prevision as if it any minute something spectacularly wonderful, or devastatingly dreadful was about to occur.

As Ginny stepped from their room, Harry turned to dean and said warmly,"She's wonderful, isn't she ?"

"She's my cosmos, Harry."He lay down on his pillow, folding his arms behind his capitulum."I wish I knew why… sometimes…"Dean let out a large sigh and turned over on his position, his back toward Harry. Over the last year, James Dean had grown confident in his relationship with Ginny and Harry no longer throw off the foundation on which their relationship was anchored. doyen continued,"I think… maybe this year at Christmas—"

There was a sudden scream from down in the Gryffindor Common room. It was Hermione's scream ; Harry was sure. Not an instant later, Ginny cried out, followed by a cacophony of screeches that rivalled the arriving owl during the morn post.In an twinkling, both Harry and Dean had their sceptre at the ready, and started cautiously for the landing place. Just as Harry was about to look down on the commons room below, Saint Patrick appeared from the Second years'dormitory ; his wand also drawn and his face concerned. There was a third year passing Patrick and running the early direction, trying to escape whatever danger was causing the whirl. Harry didn't recognize the boy from behind, but the thinking of a coward in his house bristled the back of his neck."A Gryffindor ?"Harry cried out.

The moment's distraction was enough to cause Dean to bump him slightly from bottom. Harry tried to adjust his footing by stepping forward, only there was nothing on the circular staircase to step out on. Instead, he completely lost his balance and began tumbling, down and around, head over heals until he landed prostrate onto the floor. Dazed, he looked up to see Ron on the ground also. Well, almost… he was down to one knee, a smell of pure scourge in his optic. Harry grabbed his best acquaintance by the shirtsleeve and pulled himself up aligning back to bet on with Ron.

"Where are they ?"he cried to Ron over his shoulder, wand at the ready. Quickly, he spun around and saw Hermione looking down at him."What's going on ?"Harry asked excitedly."Why did you call ?"Then, looking to the side, Harry noticed the large number of Gryffindors looking down at him, all with rather cross face on their faces. It was Annapurna who stepped over and grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, pulling him away from Ron.

"You idiot !"she hissed under her breath.

Her cheeks a brighter colour of red than Ron's haircloth, Hermione had to overcompensate her mouth to maintain from laughing. It wasn't until then that Harry noticed Ron was holding something in his hand - something atomic number 79 and shiny.

"Er… so, yeah then…"Ron sputtered."Well ?"Hermione was about to say something when Lavender poked Ron in the shoulder joint.

"fountainhead, what ?"Lavender said sharply."Go on, Ron. Ask her properly."There was a oecumenical murmur of consent to this, mostly of the feminine persuasion.

"Yes, go on, Ron,"followed by,"Do it right."

"Bloody Hades,"Harry whispered, stunned by what he was seeing. Parvati pinched his cervix and pulled him to his substructure. James Dean was stepping slowly down the staircase and came to a stop on the abject flight of stairs, wrapping his arm about Ginny's waist. She had been transfixed, but the tender jot caught her aid and she wrapped both her sleeve about James Byron Dean, smiling as she watched her brother propose.

"Yeah, yeah,"said Ron, wiping his forehead with his left sleeve while still holding out the annulus with his right. He was flighty, his hand shaky, and Harry wondered if he wouldn't faint at any present moment. But when Ron's middle rejoined Hermione's the palpitation stopped and he regained his voice. He held the ring a bit higher.

"As I was saying before our dearest friend dropped in,"he cast Harry a coup d'oeil and smiled,"would you do me the honour of being Mrs. Ronald Weasley."There was a suspension."Or Mrs. Ronald Granger… you know… however that's supposed to function, if you want to keep your—"

He never had the prospect to finish. In that twinkling, Hermione was down on her knees kissing him deeply, and the commons way whooped out a cheer that was heard throughout Hogwarts castling. Later, even Hagrid said he heard the revel when he was out feeding the poisonous lava lizards.

"Well ?"cried out Seamus."Answer him proper !"To this there was rolling chorus of"Here, here !"called out mostly from the masculine members of Gryffindor. Hermione pulled herself away from Ron's mouth and he held the ring before her.

Hermione held out her hand and said breathlessly,"Yes !"There was another cheerfulness, more resounding than the first, as Ron slipped the diamond ring upon her finger. They kissed again.

Harry wasn't sure who was responsible, but suddenly food for thought and boozing appeared, and before you could blink away euphony was playing, mass were dancing and an impromptu party was in full swing in the Gryffindor Common room. It was loudly and rumbustious, but Hermione had set a silencing charm on the walls, and outside of Gryffindor the night was quiet. Harry poured himself a drink and suddenly felt very awkward. Everyone was congratulating Ron and Hermione, hugging them, smiling. Harry sunk back into the corner. Why hadn't Ron told him that he was about to propose ? He watched the smile and the laughter, but somehow couldn't feel any warmness himself. Indeed, the view that were passing through his idea brought back remembering of the year before, bad memories of jealously and irrepressible anger. He gulped the drink, and poured another.

Still standing in the corner, Harry was watching Neville service Dean back up the staircase to the boy'dormitory, when a voice startled him.

"Pretty amazin'ain't it ?"

Patrick was seated in a professorship next to Harry. How long had he been there ? Most of the younger scholarly person had gone to bed or were ushered away. A slack song began to play and Ron took Hermione in his subdivision. The candlelight in the green Room dimmed and soon everyone was dancing. Harry watched as Ron and Hermione appeared for a second and then slipped back into the gang and, suddenly, he realized that it would never be the same.

"Yeah,"Harry whispered back, taking another drink."Amazing."

"I mean,"Patrick continued,"to love someone so much."Still sitting, he pulled his articulatio genus up to his Kuki-Chin and wrapped his weapons system around his legs just gazing at the dancers."Do you think he'd die for her ?"The question was odd, but St. Patrick was Whitney Moore Young Jr. and Harry was a bit drunk.

"He'd die for anybody in this elbow room,"Harry answered with unattackable tint of pride."merlin, he almost did last year, more clip than I can—"Harry stopped and looked into his methamphetamine hydrochloride, drinking the cadaver in one concluding splash against the back of his pharynx. He could feel the burn make its way down his chest as he stared at the empty glass and could feel it fill with guiltiness. How often had he put both of his friends in jeopardy ? They would both sacrifice themselves to hold open Harry, and if the war was truly total, and it was, Harry knew they'd risk life and limb once again.

"Do you think you'll marry Gabriella ?"Patrick asked, filling the secretiveness. Harry whispered something and the glass in his hired hand vanished. Patrick raised an eyebrow, but said zippo about the wandless magic.

"Gabriella ?"Harry asked, looking blankly ahead. He chuckled to himself, but the laugh was more sad than well-chosen. Already she'd risked her biography and the school year hadn't even started. How many more friends would feature to die before—"

"I don't think I'll marry,"said Patrick emphatically."No kidskin fer me."

"I'm sorry ?"asked Harry. Patrick looked up at him with an formulation that was torn, shredded in some way Harry couldn't comprehend, at least not in his present State of mind.

"No tyke. No orphans."St. Patrick uncurled his legs and stood up, walking over to Harry."I plan teh fighting, Harry. There's no room fer sleep together if there's the chance you'll die."

"Patrick, that's not true."

"Ain't it ? I won't leave heartache behind. I won't leave my child without a da. Not like me parents did me. I mean, you were a sister fer merlin's sake, and yer parents are out fightin'Voldemort. Why didn't they just leave well enough alone ? Wouldn't yeh rather have ‘ em at yer side right now ?"

Harry was warm, his head cloudy, and the familiar screams were calling from the fog in his mind. It's not your engagement, Harry. Let it go.

"What is your problem ! ?"Lavender's voice snapped. She was only a few column inch in front line of Harry, and her expression was very cross."Are you going to bear here all alone all night ?"

"I was just talking to—"He turned to point to Saint Patrick, but the boy was gone. Harry looked about and then to the staircase, but the second class was no where to be found.

"If you don't think they've noticed,"hissed Lavender,"you're wrong."She grabbed him by the arm."Now get out there and guess you're happy for them. merlin knows you'll be the godfather to all their baby ; now start acting like it."Lavender pulled Harry onto the dance floor."I never thought you'd ask !"

She danced with Harry, haltingly toward the just engaged couple, and then deliberately twirled her married person into Ron just as the song was ending.

"Hey, Harry,"said Ron, smiling."Whew, I could use a prisonbreak ; how ‘ bout you Hermione ?"

"Some clout would be nice,"she answered with a sparkling in her eye. She took Ron by the arm and they started to walk toward the snacks. Harry just stood, his feet frozen. Finally, Lavender took him by the arm.

"Why, I'd do it some punch too, Harry. Thank you for asking."She deliberately stepped down on his foot, surd, and then whispered in Harry's ear,"So serve me, Harry Potter, if you ruin this evening for them I'll swearing you from here to Durmstrang."A heartbeat later her face was all smiles as she squeezed Harry tight just behind the elbow and walked over to jade Ron and Hermione were standing.

Another pat on Ron's shoulder and a hug for Hermione. Harry swallowed hard.

"I… I'm happy for you ; for you both,"Harry started as Lavender began to pour out herself a cup of punch. Still smiling at Ron and Hermione he took the cup out of Lavender's hired man without asking and gulped it down with one gulp."It's fantastic."He took the ladle from Lavender's hand and poured himself another cup."I mean… Wow ! What a surprise."He gulped again.

"I was going to tell you,"said Ron with a sincere tone of ruefulness,"but I didn't pluck up the courage until you were at Grimmauld Place."Harry just looked at Ron like the answer made absolutely no sense."You said you didn't want to be disturbed… remember ?"

"Yes, I remember,"replied Harry, turning his back completely on Lavender to face up Ron. The heat was definitely rising under his neckband."But surely… on the train—"

"Blimey ! You're joking, right ?"Ron interrupted, drawing in Harry's excitation and reflecting it back. It was a dance the two played many fourth dimension and Hermione took notice.

"Now, Ron, I think what Harry's trying—"

"And last-place night ? Were you too busy last Night ?"Harry snapped, and then he remembered not seeing Ron last nighttime."Where were you anyway ?"Hermione began to blush violently.

"It's none of your bloody business where I was last night,"said Ron, his voice elevated."You're not my keeper, Harry."At this he pointed his finger and jabbed Harry in the breast, pushing him backward. Harry's back bumped into Lavender's cup of punch sending it splashing down the front of her frock. The two Brigham Young men took no bill. Harry balled his correctly hand into a fist and pulled back fix to let thrust.

"I should…"he began. Ron stepped tight, clenching his own fist and drawing them near his chin.

"You should what ?"he challenged.

They stood there, toe to toe for more than a few trice ; not too long considering their ticker were pounding so quickly. Finally, a small grinning shattered Harry's scowl and he let go. He threw his right fist past Ron's left ear. Ron saw the smiling and returned the wayward clout with an undercut from his own right bridge player that flew past Harry's midsection and up under his exit arm. The two clenched in a machismo sort of way.

"You know I love you,"Harry whispered in Ron's ear."I love you both."

"I know,"Ron answered quietly with a warm smile.

"I… I don't want to lose you. Not again."Harry pulled back so that his vision took in both Ron and Hermione."Not now."Hermione stepped close. She remembered uttering the Sami words to Harry last year at the Ministry and she remembered what Harry said.

"You're not going to lose us, Harry,"she said, tenderly taking him by the arm. Harry grabbed her and pulled her into the hug. He'd had a short too practically to salute and his actor's line were taking on a tinge of regret.

"I want to see a dozen little shaggy-coated haired, freckle faced Weasley's running about. Do you hear me ! ?"

"Harry !"

"I want them to be as smart as Hermione and as loyal as… as…"

"As me !"Ron helped Harry finish."And don't forget they'll be brilliant Quidditch players just like me too ! Let's hope they don't take after their mother when it comes to flying, eh Harry ?"

"Ron !"

Harry's centre were beginning to fog with dampness. If they continued to fight by his incline, he might lose them. Patrick was right ; it wasn't worth it. Their children deserved to have both their parents. Harry squeezed both Ron and Hermione tightly toward him.

"It's brilliant. I… I just can't be here the right way now."He turned without saying another word, without looking at another typeface, and left the Common room.

The halls were quietly ; it was nearly curfew. A few students were sprinkled here or there, talking or making their way back to their dorm. Harry walked aimlessly down the gem steps and found himself near where Tonks had her old office finish year. They had yet to ascertain who would be teaching Defence Against the Dark arts. That class had been cancelled this dawning. The lanterns dimmed a bit, signalling that it was time to pass to the hall, but Harry didn't hold much by that signal. He'd rarely obeyed it in all his age at Hogwarts, and he wasn't about to—

"Hey, Potter."

It was Blaise Zabini rounding the dark recession of the corridor and saying Harry's gens without a drip of caustic remark. It was odd, Harry thought, to see Blaise so far off the beaten caterpillar tread, especially at this metre of night. Cloak and dagger stuff wasn't piece of Blaise's physical composition. The bounteous hotshot was more well-off standing in the centre of a group of others to be looked at and admired. He hung with Draco on affair, but never when it meant danger was about. That kind of stuff was for Nott, or Crabbe or G-Greg. A shiver passed down Harry's spinal column recalling the death of his protagonist terminal year.

"Blaise,"Harry answered with a nod.

The two passed articulatio humeri to shoulder when the tip of Blaise's wand touched Harry's hand. Harry felt a piece of parchment suddenly appear on his palm and his digit curled around it. He stopped to wait back at Blaise, but the Slytherin never stopped walking and never turned back to look at Harry. Finally, Blaise disappeared about the end of the corridor and Harry held up the line to record it.
Do you leave out me ? Sorry about the ugliness on the train. Sent someone to admonish you at the station, but an Auror intervened. I heard Weasles bought a pretty expensive ring in Diagon Alley. You two aren't engaged now are you ?

Since I can't be there, my messenger is going to help be my eyes and ears at Hogwarts. Don't recount a soul or it may think his lifespan. Have you spoken to the old dodder about it yet ? hurry or it may be too late.


He just finished when the lanterns went dark, signalling curfew. Instead of returning to the party at Gryffindor, Harry sat down on the stone floor and leaned back against the Lucy Stone paries.

"Lumos !"he whispered. He held up the note and read it again. Was it really from Draco ? And what was he supposed to verbalize with Dumbledore about ? What was it he had sensed during the Joining ? Hol… Hor… Horcrux ? It seemed so removed now. Perhaps it was some variety of secret weapon that the Dementors would use against the centaur. Perhaps it was—

"Out all alone, boy ? Do you call back that wise ?"

Harry spun on the words, jumping to his feet and preparing his defensive measure. A sinister name emerged, dimly lit by the swoon glow of Harry's wand.

"Dakhil !"Harry hissed. What was the leader of the Votary doing here ?

"Impressive."The Good Book dripped with satire."I would accept thought you would blank out my public figure again the moment you returned to England."He drew nearer and Harry lifted his wand high."Put your verge away, boy,"rebuked Dakhil sternly,"or I'll… let's see… What do they call in it ? I'll take item away from your house. Although why you would care about such meaningless games when the war is upon you is incomprehensible to me."Harry lowered his baton and the light was extinguished. They were in speak darkness.

"You can't take—"

"Oh, I believe any professor can—"

"You're not a professor ! You can't… Oh, no."He leaned back against the wall and, in the darkness, noticed the thin steer of abstemious emanating from a crack door, the room access to Tonks'billet. Harry sighed."defense reaction Against the nighttime artistic production, is it ?"Harry could tell by the low grunt that a grimace had appeared on Dakhil's facial expression. Clearly, he didn't like the estimate any more than Harry.

"I'm afraid so,"he answered."And instead of taking points away, perhaps it is prison term for your first lesson."He spun his cloak and disappeared into the darkness."Follow me, boy !"

Harry shoved Draco's note into his pocket, clenched his teeth, and followed. Once, after banging his knee, he tried to light his verge but was scolded by Dakhil who insisted on total darkness."Can you not see ?"Dakhil sneered.

"I'm no vampire,"retorted Harry. Dakhil stopped.

"There is an energy that binds all living things together, Harry. You draw from it every metre you cast a spell. It pulsates on the wind as the intimation of the trees ; it bubbles from the soil crawling with worms and forget me drug. In the very glum of shoes, it shines as a beacon to all who would bid on its name. It is a skill all extremity of the Votary learn before the Joining, save for you."Dakhil stopped. The aroma was strong here, damp and dank and musty with a strong sense of radioactive decay."Even in dying, life is reborn. Reach out to it."

"I can't see a bloody—"

"Not with your heart, saphead !"Harry heard Dakhil sit as an old wooden work bench creaked under his weight."What Soseh sees in you…"

"She uses more than her eyes, I suppose."

Harry had seen the life force of others he had try to bring around. It was like going to another plane of existence. He just needed to…"Focus,"he whispered to himself. In the duskiness Harry closed his eyes and opened his intellect, reaching out for anything however minor that might suggest life. At first there was nothing, and then a bright glow began to appear, red and throbbing."Dakhil,"Harry thought. And then he saw it, the corridor they were in. Something was glowing on the bulwark. cast ? Spores ? It was as if the complex body part surrounding them were splattered with an eerie fluorescent fixture key and lit up by a black light."I see,"he whispered in amazement.

"As long as one sees, one is never lost."Dakhil pulled his scepter and a frightful burst of lighter shattered against the bulwark breaking through to spread air. The two emerged from some broken down shack into the depths of the forest.

"The trees !"Harry said, looking at the white glow tower that climbed to the sky.

"Your foe, even though they hide behind such grand anatomical structure are brighter still. It is a crucial skill. With one hand, Dakhil pulled Harry out of the sliver of wood and stood him on his foundation in the forest."Now look up."

Harry looked to the sky. It was sprayed with stars of every color imaginable. But in the inwardness was a blue glow brighter than all the others, a lucky trail following it in the sky.

"Ebyrth,"Harry whispered.

"Correct, Mr. Potter,"said Dakhil, slapping Harry on the shoulder joint. He started walking past the trees back to the castle which glowed bright through the limb."As I said earlier, your time to die is near at bridge player. You may not make it yet, Mr. ceramicist, but, aside from both being in the Votary, you and I have one affair, at to the lowest degree, in common."

"And what's that ?"Harry said with more of a sneer than anything else.

"We are both already dead."




Harry Potter and the Birth of a New Sun
Chapter 9 - The Bending of Space and Time
~~~***~~~


The rhythmic beating of Gabriella's heart lulled Harry as she stroked the face of his head with her hand. He sighed deeply as she played with the clue of curl that wrapped about his shoulder joint. He forced himself to stay awake, if only to bask every moment that he was being held in her blazonry. Through the lean slits in his eyes he watched the lake vanish and reappear into view as his headway rose and fell with each breath she took. The sparkling waters brought his psyche to the beaches of Lebanon and he visualized walking with her at the ocean, watching the waves clash again and again against the shore. It would be a pure place to ask her, he thought. A gentle breeze brought with it the cool down breath of free fall and for a here and now he thought he could smell the cool saltiness air of the sea. Yes, the perfect tense place.

"We'll miss dinner,"she whispered.

"I never want to move again,"he muttered, barely opening his backtalk. Her hand slipped down to his articulatio humeri and then stroked the muscles of his arms. They were sore and yet with her touch he could experience the aching ebb away.

"If you're going to preserve working for Hagrid in the timber,"she said more firmly,"you're going to need to keep up your strength."Her finger's breadth slipped down to his side and playfully gave him a prompt pinch.

"AYY !"he said, jumping. It was more tickle than pain, more hatful than poke."Not evenhandedly ! I was… I was just going…"He closed his eye and began to lay his head back down on her pectus.

"Oh no you don't,"she said, pushing his shoulder back and sitting up herself."I like what working for Hagrid's done to you."She slapped his breadbasket which held tight."Besides, Mama would vote out me if she heard I let you skip a meal."She rose to her foot."Come on, let's get you fed."She held out her hired man to help Harry to his substructure. Her principal was turned so that her regard was not at Harry but at the castle.

An range of a function of Grigor flashed across Harry's mind and a coldness shiver ran down his back… he hesitated. How could she know ? She couldn't. She was so much like her Father of the Church, and for the briefest of bit Harry was taken back to the torture chamber at the Ministry -- the chamber where Sirius had been lost and found again, the sleeping accommodation where Gabriella's father, Grigor, had held his hand out innocently toward Harry, just as Gabriella was now doing, only to bind him and prepare him for end.

He drew in a thick breath, shook the retentiveness from his intellect, and took Gabriella's hand, rising to his aching feet. They both whisked away the dry leaves that clung to the merchant ship of their robes and turned toward the castle. Harry could experience the confidence trick in his wooden leg as they climbed the castle steps. Halfway up he stopped, wrapped his arm about Gabriella's shank and paused to bet at the lake. She took it as a romantic moment and leaned her school principal against his shoulder. Harry, however, was too sore to maltreat high. Even Madame Pomfrey's potions weren't adequate to remove the throbbing that worked its way into both musculus and off-white. A nerve in his justly thigh shot a jolt of pain in the ass up into his spinal column and his gaze turned toward the forest.

Working for Hagrid ? No. For the last few workweek he'd been training with the Centaurs. Only he'd felt uncomfortable sharing that with Gabriella. He had never been able to bring up a conversation with Gabriella about them without her making an excuse to change the subject field. It was clear she did not like Centaur, but she never explained why and Harry was unwilling to push the issue. Another twinge flicked down the heftiness of his left calf and his mind drifted to the day's training session. Recalling why his legs hurt so, he wasn't so indisputable he liked Centaurus either.

"Jump, Harry Potter ! Jump"cried Ronan. The red-haired Centaur fired an arrow that nicked the left bounder of Harry's bare foot."speed is a centaur's greatest ally. With it we can outpace the Dementors when they try to fly. Run !"he bellowed as Harry began to slow."If one of our telephone number needs aid, would you just walk to their side ?"

"I'm… not… walking…"yelled Harry back over his shoulder, as he ran from the Centaur barefoot through the forest. His lungs were bursting for air and his foot were on flack. He'd already run for miles ; Ronan would wee-wee him run miles more. For his parting, Harry had already decided that there was cipher the Centaurs could throw at him that he couldn't handle.

"Ayyy !"he cried, slashing his infantry against a erose stone.

"Run !"

Perhaps he was wrongfulness.

He had been forbidden to use a wand, and wore cypher but a thong made of tree barque wrapped about his waist with a cocktail dress for a small dagger used to lather at vines and other botany that blocked his way as he ran. In one hand he held the dagger and in the other he carried a stone nearly too vauntingly to fully grasp. In struggle he would carry a shield, but a stone was more clumsy to palm, forcing Sir Thomas More muscle to lift and control it. He was being trained as all Colt were. In fact, there were two Colt running far ahead of him already - Shahan, with a coat so moody Harry could no longer see him in the space, and felspar, whose hopeful lily-white coat shone like a principal ahead - way ahead. stew dripped into his heart and he wiped his hilltop with his right on forearm. Running blindly he slashed wildly at a Tentacula that reached for his neck.

"You should have seen that, stripling, long before it struck at you !"cried Ronan, loping along. There was the sound of a thwwwwp and a few pace ahead Harry saw a gravid spider dead near the way of life he was taking, an pointer between its centre. Looking back as he ran ahead Harry tripped on a origin, twisted his ankle and fell to the solid ground, his impart stifle grinding into a collecting of pocket-sized stones. The digit of his leave alone hand were crushed between the Edward Durell Stone he was carrying and the stones upon which he'd just fallen. The dagger fell from his properly deal and skittered forward, but before it came to remain, Harry reached his bridge player forward and without saying a Christian Bible the dagger returned to his grip. There was a slight grunt from Ronan. It was neither disparaging, nor approving. It was more a oink of satisfaction, but Harry did not reckon back into Ronan's eyes to see if the satisfaction was directed toward him. His genu and hands bleeding, he stood to his feet and began to run again. Now, even Felspar was out of position. He'd taken only three or four tread before Ronan called.

"occlusive !"

Breathing hard, Harry turned and for the first time all afternoon he looked up into the Centaur's eyes.

"I… I can… catch them,"Harry heaved.

"I know you can, stripling, but do you recognize how ?"Ronan smiled, revealing a sly smile. Harry had never seen such a look on the face of a Centaur before. It was riddle.

"I hate… riddles,"breathed Harry.

"Shahan and Felspar have been studying for decades the essence of ground's mysteries. It will take them tenner more to agnize what is already at your fingertips."The Centaur stepped closelipped, forcing Harry to deflect his cervix upward. A muscle twanged past his ripe ear. Still Ronan advanced until he was only inch from Harry, who could smell the strange mix of fret and hair. Ronan looked skyward.

"To see without heart, to feel without fingers, to hear without ears, to taste without tongue…,"he looked back down at Harry and tapped him on the side of his nose,"…to smell without nostrils. These are gifts you have already been given, and yet you know them not ; you have but to unwrap them."With a front that was but a blur to Harry, Ronan notched another arrow and shot at a large flying… thing with turgid teeth that was advancing on them. It fell silently to the forest floor. To Ronan it was corresponding little more than swatting a fly. He continued,"You must learn the power that took your sacrifice and cleansed you, the king that has no strength. What you must master, Harry ceramicist, what you must endeavour to achieve is to be without being."Harry scrunched his wind splotched with dirt.

"Did I say ? I really hate conundrum,"he muttered, beginning to catch his breath.

"proceeds my hand, child,"commanded Ronan.

The moment Harry took the Centaur's deal the human beings spun upon its drumhead. Green and Robert Brown and yellowed and Au flashed past them in a swirl of colours. Then, inexplicably, Ronan was gone, and Harry was suddenly running, loping, galloping. He felt giddy, lofty, arrogant, childish…

"I told you the Wizard was a fake !"he cried back over his berm."Ronan's an old mark !"He kicked his heals and accelerated forward, the hint whistling past his capitulum.

"You're wrong !"yelled a voice from behind."He's been chosen ! Ronan said so !"

"zero but silly Centaurus fairytales from a doddering old fool !"Harry yelled back, but his eyes were stiff forward. The iris was ahead ; he could see it, maybe three or four Swedish mile ahead. A grin split across his side, an arrogant grin ; he was going to win this race and prove Ronan damage, demonstrate to all of them that HE, Shahan, was the Centaur that would save them from the onrush of Dementors that was soon to come.

A vocalism whispered in Harry's ear. It was Ronan's."You see with Shahan's eyes. Where would you be, Harry Potter ?"

Harry looked back. Behind him was Felspar, the dazzling white centaur that he'd been racing. Then he noticed his own haunches. They were calamitous as darkest ember. He was Shahan, the lead centaur colt. But how ? His header twisted forward toward the waiting flag and the assembly of centaur that watched to see if Ronan's prophecy was nothing Thomas More than wind and myth.

Where would I be ?

"The signal flag,"Harry whispered to himself, to Ronan, to the nullity. He focused again. He knew how to get there with a verge : imaginativeness, Pathway, Reconstruction Period -- Apparation. But he had no baton and even if he did, there was no way to Apparate in the Forbidden timber. The pin, a red pharos in the aloofness, was maybe two klick ahead of Shahan now and probably three kilometres from where Harry's dead body stood breathless back in the forest with Ronan. He'd been practicing wandless thaumaturgy all summertime. What if… ?

Harry willed himself from the middle of Shahan and back to his own trunk. There was a snap - he had returned, his lungs still gasping for air and Ronan still at his side. Harry closed his eyes and his mind imaged the masthead that was ahead ; he imagined being there. blank and sentence began to founder, swirling itself, revealing itself. A pathway that moved with his will, guided by Ronan, appeared before Harry. He took in a deep hint and stepped forward onto the path. The heavy straddle of distance between himself and the red sword lily suddenly collapsed. Felspar was just out of reach, Shahan appeared to be only a few stride in strawman of her, and the red flag appeared as just a few tens of metres away. Harry began to run. The colours of the woodland swirled by him, as if everything stood still, including the two Centaur. He ran past feldspar and then Shahan and, in an instant, he appeared only in from the pin that marked the end of the race. He was surrounded be Centaurus of every colouring material, each with savage eye marked by only the little astonishment of his arriver. As he came to rest, he saw, in the distance, Shahan and only a few strides behind him feldspar. They were both galloping like the wind, swallowing up huge swaths of turf with each step. They would be upon him soon.

Harry felt it was, somehow, a bearded darnel. Could all centaur bend quad and time ? His optic caught Shahan's in the distance, and the once confident, noncompliant gaze turned to one of near revulsion. He galloped faster, as if possessed, but it was no use. With one hired hand, his bloody left, Harry reached up and pulled the cherry-red fleur-de-lis from its standard. There was a corporate sunniness as Harry held the flag over his headway, spinning to evince the gather. It was then that he saw Ronan, standing in the centre of attention of the chemical group of nearly one one hundred Centaurs. An instant later Shahan pulled up at Harry's slope, his breath heavy, his coat lathered with sweat.

"That's not possible !"he cried."He… he used his wand !"

"No,"answered Ronan, stepping forward from the others."He used the skills you yourself may one day master, Shahan."Ronan turned to the former Centaur."He has been given the gifts."With this there was a superior general grumbling and neigh of surprise and approving from the Centaur herd. Facing the others, Ronan flanked Harry nudging him forward just as felspar arrived, also out of breathing place, a gash upon her right front wing.

"I foretold of the coming star,"Ronan called to the assembly."And yet you did not believe. I sought out the Sacrifice against your will, and the waters returned him to us. Only once before has this ever happened, and when that battle was won so too began the Great Age of Centaurs !"Harry expected a cheer, but none came. Instead, there was an almost emotionless acknowledgment of Ronan's'averment."This,"he pointed toward Harry, naked and bloodstained, his lungs still craving for more atomic number 8,"this is our forfeiture. Cleansed and returned, he shall go us to triumph !"Again there was little more than the nods and stomps of the Centaurs at the gather. No one refuted Ronan's claims.

"You're hurt,"said Harry, approaching feldspar and looking carefully at the lesion.

"It was a Bearwicken,"said felspar quietly.

"He's a fraud !"cried Shahan in a tone that was more liven up than any Centaurus Harry had ever seen. He stepped forward, pushing Harry aside, but Harry ignored the rudeness and focused his attention on felspar."He's no leader ! He's a hotshot ! It's trickery I tell you."

"Let me help you,"whispered Harry as he held his out-of-doors deal a few inches away from the gash on feldspar's wing. Harry closed his center and muttered the incantation that he knew would mould with his scepter, and then something caused him to cover further, to reach beyond. His hand had not touched the Centaurus, but he could feel the blood, slippery wet, between his fingerbreadth. He reached out without moving and willed the gash shut, and the cut obeyed, closing as if a curtain had been pulled shut tight about the wound.

"Like all wiz, he'll belt down us all when we turn our back !"yelled Shahan again.

"The Chosen heals !"asserted a large, female Centaur from the gathering. A chestnut tree coat and no bow about her shoulder, she stepped forward from the others."Did the waters teach you these gifts or is this wizardry ?"The final word was disparaging and even evoked some boo from the others.

"Mother !"cried Felspar."He's the Chosen. How daring you question his gifts !"felspar, combat injury healed, turned to Harry and bowed low on one articulatio genus."As long as Ebyrth effulgence, I am in your service. Only death will chisel us of time."

A numeral of other Centaur followed in kind, each bending low to one human knee and bowing their headspring. Ronan approached Harry, nodding his head and bending to one articulatio genus as well.

"You still lack intensity and endurance, Harry ceramist, but these things can be learned. Now, it is time to rest."He held his hand to Harry's eyes."yield to the timberland's friend."Harry's mind immediately thought of Hagrid."Run !"

The visual modality of Hagrid's cabin firmly fixed in his brain, Harry willed himself there. Again a path opened up and he took off running. second later, he found himself where he began the day, seated on Hagrid's chair adjacent to the burning fire, fang laying at his slope and Hagrid singing some song in French. The logs on the fire cracked as Harry, still naked, looked at his Gryffindor robe that hung from a hook near the door. The way they were draped over the hook they almost looked real - lifelike, as if they contained some spirit all their own. Harry's belly churned just as Hagrid turned, surprised to find Harry in his hut.

"Harry ?"

"Harry ? Shall we go inside ?"Gabriella had spun to look Harry whose eye were distant and bent-grass on the far horizon above the lake. Her interpreter snapped him back from reliving the memory. He had learned something great today, and he'd learned it from the Centaurs.

"Harry ? Are you okay ?"

Harry looked down into her heart and smiled. He was sore and tired ; dark rings hung under his eyes. The thought process of going inside to face up three coil on the healing industrial plant of Kirkcaldy was almost too a lot to bear.

"They're not that bad you know,"he whispered. Her brow furled in muddiness."Centaurs,"he added.

"Look, you're tire out and it's time for dinner,"she said, deliberately changing the conversation."We can spill the beans about the wizard later."Harry nodded silently and together they entered the castle and began to walk to the Great Hall.

Near a great suit of armour Harry noticed Patrick talking to James I Chang Jiang. James was leaning against the Edward Durell Stone wall, his weapons system crossed as well as his pegleg. He was either extremely bore, or he didn't like what he was hearing. Still, Patrick was quite passionate about it ; his arms were swinging wildly about and more than once Harry heard him resurrect his voice.

"It's gone I tell yeh ! There nothin'there but dust. And there's no way I'm—"

Epistle of James noticed Harry and Gabriella and stood straighter, stopping Patrick's tale with a motion of his mitt. Harry smiled and waved, and St. James returned the gesture with a smiling of his own. Patrick turned to see who James was looking at and when he saw Harry, his expression bore an expression of great concern.

"No wonderment,"Harry thought,"I feel like I'm going to shove off chunks. I must wait like hell."As he and Gabriella continued toward the Great Hall for dinner, the more nauseous he felt.

"Great,"he muttered to Gabriella who was picking up on his sudden change in emotion.

"I'm taking you to Madame Pomfrey,"Gabriella insisted."Something's wrong."She turned him to the stairway.

"I can't climb those."

"I'll levitate you if I have to."

Patrick followed Jesse James into the Great Charles Martin Hall just as Ron and Hermione appeared from Gryffindor tower. They were headed, arm in arm, into the Great Hall when Ron noticed Gabriella trying to avail Harry toward the stairway that led to the infirmary wing.

"Harry ?"called Ron. Quickly, he came over to Harry and helped Gabriella support him. Hermione was right-hand behind him.

"What happened ?"

"I'm mulct, really,"demanded Harry, and in fact he was beginning to finger better although the storey was still a bit unfirm under his feet. They stepped him over to a long workbench beneath a tumid portrait of a great ninth century conflict panorama. Harry hated it here, he always had ; the clang and crash of sword against armor was always deafening when the combatants weren't sipping tea together, discussing whose strategy was superior in the last battle. Ron noticed a bruise beneath Harry's collar and leaned in close to Harry's ear.

"You went out again today, didn't you ?"he whispered. His timber was more tempestuous than concerned.

"CHHHHT,"blastoff Harry with a clap of air between his clenched dentition, trying to quiet down is supporter. Seated between a mind-reader and an empath, Harry had small Leslie Townes Hope of keeping anything hole-and-corner, but he didn't want to discuss his training with the Centaur in front of Gabriella.

"You said you'd learn me,"complained Ron."‘ The next fourth dimension I go,'you said."Ron crossed his weapon system."I thought maybe this year would be different."Harry opened his lip to explain.

"Ron,"injected Hermione,"they'd just as soon skewer you as anything else. Harry's just trying to protect you."

So, Hermione knew. So much for Ron's sworn oath that he wouldn't differentiate a soul. Harry rolled his eyes and shook his principal knowing that Hermione was only partially even off. She was right about the skewer part, but Harry knew at once Ron would take the protect part the wrong way. He did.

"I don't need Harry's auspices ! We're at war !"

"Ron,"Harry began, holding up his deal,"the thing is—"

"Skewer you ?"asked Gabriella."What are you talking about ? Was Hagrid making you work with Stabbing Snapspiders again ?"

Hermione's optic narrowed on Harry, whose own regard darted away to see at Ron who was ignoring Gabriella's question and was now standing in a huff and about ready to storm off. Harry stood too, the dizziness he was feeling all but gone.

"Ron,"Harry said, taking grip of Ron's arm,"I said you would go with me the next time I could. This morning I asked you know who, and they said I had to go by myself. I had a test… of sorts."

"Test ?"asked Ron, now with Sir Thomas More interest than anger.

"They ?"asked Gabriella, taking to her feet.

"This cockcrow you were supposed to help oneself professor Barghouti's second year class for their pa object lesson,"scolded Hermione, also rising.

"What form of test ?

"Who are they ?"

"Didn't you hear what happened to little Nolie Langston from Slytherin ?"

Harry feigned dizziness again and tilted in toward Ron who grabbed him by the shoulders."I think I need to eat,"he muttered, and then leaning closer he whispered to Ron,"Saturday."Gabriella knew he was feeling mulct ; she could smell that. Hermione knew he was feeling amercement ; she'd read the Harry thrower book long ago. Both adult female just glared, while Ron was steadfast.

"Can't you see the man's exhausted ? He has to eat !"he exclaimed."Blimey ! Give him a break for Merlin's sake."He put Harry's arm about his shoulder."seed on, fellow. Let's get you a bite and then we can go over the weekend's practice schedule. I know Ginny's been playing fine as Chaser and all, but I think if…."

In the Great mansion house, Dumbledore had the menage sit wherever they wished for breakfast and luncheon, but for dinner each house ate at separate tables from the others. It was a compromise between the vision of the hereafter and a respect for custom. Tonight, Harry was grateful because it meant, for a while at least, he and Gabriella would be separated. As they entered the Great Hall she kissed him on the cheek, holding his left hand. He toyed with the golden band he'd given her the year before on Valentine's. There was a twinkle in her eyes and a sly smiling upon her face.

"You will secern me later ?"she asked, but the tone of voice was more suggestive of a instruction than a enquiry.

"You know already. You just won't talk about it."His smile had a tinge of sadness as their fingers let go of each other. Her twinkle faded and her eye would not restrain his gaze as she turned away. Harry did not look back as he followed Ron to the Gryffindor table.

Lavender and Annapurna were having an animated conversation about the meaning of a big stain on the tablecloth. Anapurna had spilt her swallow and it left a dark, twirling precis of something resembling, at to the lowest degree to Harry, a large toadstool. He sat down realizing he did, very much, need to eat.

"It's a Celtic coil,"said Lavender, her finger tracking the outline of the top of the toadstool.

"A Hart Crane,"countered Annapurna, pointing at the retentive crooked neck of the toadstool.

"That makes no sensory faculty,"said Lavender."No, it's a Gaelic spiral and,"she pointed to some sullen internal patch,"with these here it would symbolize eternal life."

"No. See this here ? The way the whorls dismiss away ? Not eternal life… life, death, and rebirth. It's clearly a crane,"Parvati said, pointing out the bird's feature film."Here are the eyes, the loop neck, the long legs."She grew more confident with each description.

"Then you're both justly,"chimed in Hermione. The two youth ladies looked up, stunned expressions on both their faces."The crane represents length of service. Eternal life… longevity… same thing."She shrugged her shoulders and took a raciness of dinner.

"NooOoo,"both Parvati and Lavender harmonized in a rather long and melodious line."It could mean dissembling if—"

Deliberately, Harry accidentally spilled his tea onto the spot covering up any discernable detail. The liquid state began to teem off the edge toward Parvati and Lavender and they both took to their feet.

"That looks like a murky pond to me, Harry"said Ron, chewing on a stick of dough."See the gravid riffle flowin'down the table."

"Honestly, Ron,"sighed Hermione, whisking out her wand and vanishing the tea and stigma together.

"HERMIONE !"cried Lavender.

"How could you !"scolded Parvati.

"ME ?"queried Hermione, clearly flummoxed."But they—"

"seed on, Lavender."Parvati spun on her heals and took off, Lavender right behind her, but not before she shot a scathing blaze at Hermione. No sooner had they left the table than Ron let out a snort, a piece of bread shooting from his nose.

"Ronald Weasley, I should…"

"Honestly, Hermione, Harry just wants to eat. You can't begrudge the man his peace of mind after all he's been through today."Ron took another bite of dough and looked at Harry's home plate."Are you going to eat those ?"he asked pointing at some chip. Harry just glared back. Ron shrugged and took another chomp of bread.

"And as for you,"Hermione continued, now turning to Harry,"you better separate Gabriella straight away what you're up to, or it'll despoilment what you both have."Setting down his forking, Harry looked up at her.

"Oh, right hand, and you two are the poster couple for honest and surface discussions."

"Harry,"said Hermione without losing stride,"you know there's something bothering her. You need to retrieve out what it is."

"Don't you think I've tried ! ?"asked Harry, raising his voice just enough for those around him to end their conversations. He knew he hadn't, not really, but he also knew that Hermione didn't know. Her eyes simply looked into his, probing, her facial expression calm. The flavor was unnerving because he knew his own formulation was giving him away."fountainhead I have,"he insisted, pushing his dental plate in for good measure.

He wasn't sure the dramatic event was having the core he wanted. Ron simply nipped one of his leftover chips and Hermione only let out a retentive disapproving sigh. Past the point of return, at least for this argument, Harry stood up and left the Great Hall in as foul a mood as he could muster. His mind focused on the Gryffindor table, he didn't notice the Slytherin that stood as well and followed him out of the Great Hall.

Harry was moving down the corridor toward Gryffindor when he heard the footsteps behind him. He stopped and turned ; only no one was there. He looked over past a suit of armor and then behind a pillar - still no one. Tired, if not completely exhausted, he continued toward Gryffindor and his awaiting prep. He was nearly at the portrait of the Fat ma'am when there was a tap on his hand and a rustle in his ear.

"Your days grow short."

Harry felt the bill appear on his palm and spun at once.

"Blaise ?"he whispered back, but there was no answer.

Harry unfolded the piece of lambskin."They think it's at the Ministry. Is it ?"was all it said. The portrait swung outdoors and Harry quickly moved to hide the note, only he didn't have to. It flashed in a puff of weed and disappeared. Neville stepped out of the Gryffindor Common way followed by the most unlikely of faces - Severus Snape. Strangely neither took much notice of Harry. Beyond a slight head nod by Neville, it was as if he didn't even exist.

"The affair is, Professor,"Neville was saying as he past Harry,"if the two roots are to give the burden you want, they'll have to be grown to exactly the same length."

"Quit restating the obvious, Longbottom,"replied Snape without so much as a nod toward Harry as he past."The questions is can you do it ?"Neville scratched his chin as they disappeared down the corridor.

"I think so, with the proper light. If I can borrow some…"and the conversation faded away.

Amazed, Harry shook his head and turned toward the portrayal of the Fat Lady.

"watchword ?"she asked with a smile.

Just before he answered, Harry paused, scratching his Kuki much as Neville had just done. What was at the Ministry ? The Horcrux that Draco had mentioned ? Whatever that was.

"Erm, sorry,"said Harry,"changed my mind."He turned and headed back down the corridor, wondering if his secret note giver was still nearby. As practically as he hated the thought of climbing back up the stairway, he had to go down and mouth with Dumbledore. Besides, the three roll on the healing plant of Kirkcaldy could hold off till later.


Harry Potter and the birth of a New Sun

Chapter 10 - Visions
~~~***~~~




Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz… Tink.

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz… Tink.
The Ag instrument rose and fell on Dumbledore's mahogany desk as Harry stroked Fawkes'feathers, waiting for the master to take back. Not much adult than a breadbox, it was a strange collection of train and springs and Harry spent some metre trying to deduce its meaning. The contrivance, rimmed with winged creatures Harry couldn't recognize, reminded him of a similar twist in the Shirley Temple Black family estate at Grimmauld Place. It too had the Lapp circular rings that ran up a toothed staircase only the Joseph Black device was gilt, its wing animate being looked more menacing, and Harry had never seen it work.

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz… Tink.

gibe by a bound, another silver medal band ran up the staircase only to reach the top, hesitation, and fall into a pile below. The pile seemed to be shrinking as Harry stood watching, but he could not see where the rings disappeared to, nor could he light upon the source for the rings that sprung Forth from the bottom. There it was - a never ending procession that seemed to have no purpose.

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…

Unable to contain himself, Harry reached out and grabbed the flatware ring before it had a chance to pass from atop the small staircase. The shot changed and he suddenly found himself on the Hogwarts expressage walking toward the front of the train, two paces behind Greg Goyle. But, this couldn't be - Greg was dead. It took him a bit to realize that he'd traveled back in time. They were about to reach the front of the string ; Greg wasn't dead, he was about to die.

Harry tried to speak, but no Holy Writ came. He tried to reach his mitt up to give up Greg, but it would not move. ineffective to hold his gesture, Harry could do zippo but watch history blossom as it had last year. He poked his head into a carriage, telling a group of 5th years what was up.

"I've been wondering what was taking so long with the food trolley,"said Ernie Macmillan. Harry explained that the prof had gone missing and Ernie joined him to tell apart the worry. As Harry slipped back out of the pushchair with Ernie, Goyle took the power point and started toward the front of the train. Once again Harry tried to stop his protagonist when, through the methamphetamine hydrochloride doors to the box ahead, Harry saw a witch in black robes suddenly appear in the corridor. Anaxarete. Harry wished he could cast a killing oath, but it was no use ; he could do nothing. She glanced back, revealing a sinister smile and piercing park heart. Harry tried to direct himself in front of Greg, but was unable to pass Goyle's broad shoulder joint. It didn't matter ; an moment later she was gone and an blink of an eye after that the front of the train exploded with a tremendous white flashgun.

Harry fell to the floor of Dumbledore's office, the silver ring firmly clenched within his work force. He was shaking, the detonation still ringing in his ears, when he opened his eyes and found Dumbledore looking down at him. The master bent with difficulty to one articulatio genus and held out his hired hand.

"I take it you did not find yourself in one of Professor Binns'lectures, Harry ?"

Harry took Dumbledore's hired hand and rose to his infantry. He held the ring out between his thumb and forefinger.

"What… what is it ?"he asked still shaken. Dumbledore took the mob and placed it back atop the silver gray stairway.

Tink.

It fell into the pile below which now was growing larger as Dumbledore stood and spoke with Harry.

"It is a computer storage Scripture of sorts… a pic album."Dumbledore moved to his desk and sat down, leaning back against his hot seat."Different for each who reads it."Harry couldn't helper but think that the nifty adept of the age was beginning to testify preindication of wear. He had grown much thin since Harry live on saw him at the end of the schooling year, and his hired hand were beginning to curl in an unnatural way.

"Like a Pensieve ?"Harry asked.

"Not quite, Harry,"replied the Headmaster."A Pensieve lets you store or remove your memories so that you can look them over later. You can choose the memory to take, to examine."He leaned forward and held his hands together."This is a Möbius Machine. It reflects a virtuoso's sprightliness history. It is a never ending loop that plays over and over again, shrinking or expanding to suit the viewer. Each flatware circle is a curlicue of a portion of your life. While the rings play in lodge, there is no way, unfortunately, to square up which store, which life experience you will visit."

A tremble past by Harry again, and for a moment he thought he felt the breath of dying whisper its name against the nape of his neck.

"I take it, Harry,"continued Dumbledore,"that your experience was not a pleasant one."

"No, sir,"answered Harry, sitting himself."It was… on the train ; when I was with Greg, just when… just when…"

"I understand."Dumbledore sighed. He stood and walked back to the gimmick. He waived his verge and uttered an incantation and the band stopped running up the staircase, and fell wherever they were in the cycle."I wish your retentivity could be happy, Harry. I would hate to see you as a tottering old man, sitting down in a stale office wondering if you could adventure reliving the catastrophe that grasping a few closed chain might add. Fawkes quietly vocalized his arrangement, as Dumbledore slipped his wand away and placed his hand on Harry's articulatio humeri."I know you have been chosen, Harry. But you need not place yourself between the Centaurs and the Dementors ; it is not your war."

"You said it yourself, Professor,"said Harry, looking up into Dumbledore's still brilliantly profane eyes,"it's the way of life we choose that make us who we are. I'm not doing this because I was chosen. I'm doing this because it's the rectify thing to do. Lucius Malfoy is going to use this to try and drag in the darkness back across this land, and I won't let him."Harry's own center were savage with purpose and rebelliousness."I've been training with Ronan."Harry paused."Are Centaurs sorcerous ?"

"Very much so, Harry,"said Dumbledore with a smiling."It is folly for wizards to believe they are the most herculean brute on this earth. You know, of course of study, Centaurs have keen sight and are skilled with a bow, but these things are physical skills that many wizards dismiss. Ahh… not so, Harry… not so. Why do you think a Centaur never misses his object ?"Harry shrugged."Because a skilled Centaur can follow the arrow all the way to its destination, nudging its trajectory along the way. They can flex blank space and time, Harry. Even while star are unable to Apparate on Hogwarts grounds, Ronan can vanish and re-emerge wherever he pleases simply by using his mind."

"He showed me today. He taught me today."

Dumbledore said nothing. Harry could tell by his expression that he was impressed, or surprised, but the old wizard made no word of it. Instead he stood from his chair and walked over to his scope.

"They are much substantially stewards of such acquisition than wizards would ever be,"the maturate wizard whispered, looking down into the lens of the telescope. The instrument was fixed on the fortune of the sky through which the comet Ebyrth was now passing. Harry no longer needed a telescope to see the comet's bright buttocks.

"It is not your war, Harry,"said Dumbledore still looking into the lens."The Ministry can handle the the like of Lucius and his ilk."He adjusted the focusing."They have no strength in numbers, no allies for support, no sanctuary in which to hide. It's only a thing of time."

"Then why haven't they been caught ?"asked Harry."It's been calendar month, and nothing."

"Lucius is no fool,"answered Dumbledore."He'll remain obliterate for as long as potential and only strike when he thinks he can win."The adept looked up."He can't win, Harry."But Harry wasn't so trusted. He turned his vertebral column on Dumbledore and walked over to Guy Fawkes, stroking the doll's feathers. Harry didn't bed how to take it up, but he had to ask.

"What if… what if he had a weapon ? A hugger-mugger weapon ?"

"Secret weapon ?"asked Dumbledore, turning to confront Harry more fully."What do you mean ?"

"A… A Horcrux."

The portraits that were earlier minding their own business, napping, reading the paper, or off to some other space were suddenly thrown into a ruction. The headmasters of old began complaining at once about the impudence of the young man to talk about such matters here.

"It's an odium, Albus !"one cried.

"Lucius is cunningly evil,"called Phineas,"But he would never cringe to such depths."

Dumbledore finally quieted them all by threatening to make for down a sheet of paper of darkness. His face was grave, almost pale and the tone of his voice was filled with great concern. Harry knew at once that whatever a Horcrux was, it was sour magic, but then… did he expect otherwise ?

"Harry,"began Dumbledore slowly, his voice quite and sombre,"what makes you believe that Lucius Malfoy would use a Horcrux ?"Harry turned away from Dumbledore, not unforced to conserve eye contact."Certainly such news does not come from our friends the Centaurs."

"Well… I… I heard that…"He stalled and then turned back to side Dumbledore. How could he know how one employed a Horcrux if he didn't even know what one was ?"Professor, what is a Horcrux ?"Dumbledore walked back to the silver machine that was now muted on the table. He tapped it with his baton and the fluent gang began to twine again. He took a hoop and held it in his manus for but a moment when he laughed and placed it back along its course.

"Precious,"he whispered to himself."So precious."

"professor ?"

"It was the day when professor McGonagall asked me if I enjoyed teaching at Hogwarts. She was thinking of applying to teach here as well, but wasn't sure if her husband would agree."

"Husband ?"asked Harry incredulously."Professor McGonagall was married ?"

"Oh yes, Harry,"answered Dumbledore."And very happily I might add. He was killed by a Death Eater when Voldemort first returned. She joined the Order of the Phoenix soon after. Since then, she's been our impregnable ally against the darkness."This new word had Harry's pass spinning just a bit. He'd always assumed…. Dumbledore turned back to the ash grey simple machine."Can you guess what it would be like if Professor McGonagall did not have the memory of the murder of her married man ?"

"I… I suppose she'd be happy."

"But she is glad, Harry. Certainly, if you were to ask, she would care that he was still at her position, but she is very happy."Dumbledore's mitt squeezed the wooden table and he drew in a bass intimation. When he turned to look back into Harry's eyes, his cheek was grave and his own eyes stern."What I'm about to recite you, Harry, is not supposed to provide this room."Harry glanced toward the room access as if there might be someone there."Harry, I know with whom you would like to share. You should recognize that it is veto. I would not even verbalise of it with you, had you not brought it up first. Do I deliver your Son ?"

"Yes, sir,"replied Harry, his voice small-scale than he thought it should be. He began to wonder if he should have ever asked. Dumbledore stepped close.

"Imagine for a moment that I could carve up you into three the great unwashed. Not transcript mind you, but three decided parts of your very essence… your soul. One would stick around with the dead body you now possess ; the former two would be put away for storage you might say. If you, the part of you that inhabits the body you now have, were to die, one of the other parts would seek out another body to inhabit… to control. You, part of you, would live again."

"Part of me ?"

"The division that you hid away."Again Dumbledore turned to the machine on the board."The pile of rings that you see in front line of me here, Harry, is large than your was. Why ?"

"You have more memories, more experiences."

"Precisely ! But a split soul would only take with it portions, tail of the remembering the original soul carried. Imagine, my boy, if you had to choose… what luck of your someone would you carve away ? What component of you would remain ? There are many selection. You could carve out the bad memory board, perhaps the death of Greg Goyle, and go on believing that he had never died ? But then, what would fall out if you were to die, and the Horcrux storing only the bad memories was released ? What sort of soured soulfulness would remain ?

"Then there are those star who believe that it is the tragedy of a wizard's aliveness that drives him forward ? Such a wizard might keep on the tragic storage at the ready erasing all joy and happiness, perhaps the day you first arrived at Hogwarts ?.

"And it's not just memories, Harry. It's also the essence of who we are, what we have become, both adept and evil, darkness and lightness. A wizard must decide how to separate each cut of joy and ruefulness into diminutive art object, sprinkling a little bit of everything into each portion of your individual, splintering all you ever were into shards of fogged glass that can never really be made wholly again. severalize me, Harry, what alternative would you crap ?"

"I… I wouldn't choose such a life, sir,"replied Harry, horrified of the thought.

"No, Harry, nor would I."Dumbledore's berm drooped slightly as if a large free weight sat square upon them."Thankfully, most wizards and witches would refuse to choose as well. Fewer still know that there is such a route one can take ; and only the most hefty of those would be capable to accept it."Suddenly looking quite tired, Dumbledore returned to the chair behind his desk and let out a cryptical sigh, closing his heart."The Horcrux is simply the storage vessel… it could be a rock, a cloak, a cup—"

"But Lucius—"

"Think, Harry,"Dumbledore interrupted."It might even be a book…"There was a hanker interruption. Harry could hear a routine of the portraiture on the wall mumbling to themselves. Clearly they were unhappy with the direction of the conversation, particularly Phineas.

"The journal ?"Harry answered finally, his voice more sure than uncertain, and with each new interrogative the uncertainty vanished."Tom enigma's journal ? That was a Horcrux ? Voldemort used a Horcrux."

"Lucius is cunning, ruthless and evil, but I have seen deeply into his eyes. He could not master the Horcrux even if he desired to."

"But I saw Voldemort die,"said Harry."There was nothing left."

"Yes,"said Dumbledore, nodding."You also saw Tom riddle die in the Chamber of secret. I had always assumed he had divided himself in two. Who would hazard fracturing themselves More than once ?"Dumbledore chuckled to himself grimly."Who indeed ?"Then he turned back to Harry."This news palls the skyline with a new darkness. narrate me, Harry, why you believe that someone is employing a Horcrux because, if individual is, Voldemort is most certainly behind it."

Again, Harry found himself turning away. He didn't want this news. He thought it had something to do with Lucius, with the war that would soon be upon them. He didn't want to consider what he had felt all summer, what he had felt since returning to Hogwarts, that Voldemort was somehow still animated. But where ? How ? Harry, his optic sincere, looked back at Dumbledore.

"Sir, I… I can't. I gave my word."Dumbledore's eyes narrowed and then, quite naturally, he smiled back.

"well, I suppose if you told me, then your promise to keep our conversation of the Horcrux private would mean nothing."

"If it does exist,"Harry said anxiously,"we have to find it before it's too late."

"Harry,"said Dumbledore with tomb business organization,"such waters are filled with Grindylows and Inferi."Harry looked at Dumbledore, confused.

"Inf— ?"

"It's far too grave for you to get down some journey to search the world for a Horcrux. Voldemort's been to the bound of the globe and beyond ; it could be anywhere. More likely, it has already been activated. No, I will speak with the members of the—"

"Sir, you can't. I swore that I'd—"

"Relax, Harry, there will be no need to entail your involvement. In fact, it's more to our vantage to keep your name completely out of the picture."

Dumbledore breathed in deeply and closed his heart as he slowly let out his breathing place."Yes, I think I understand. He didn't just split himself in two. He may not accept stopped at three. There's no telling."He walked over and stroked Fawkes'feathers, clearly uncomfortable with what he was about to say."I despise secrets, Harry, but if Voldemort has reanimated he may, once again, have agents working within the school walls. I'm for certain Lucius does. That we know another Horcrux might survive gives us an edge we dare not lose. Do you ingest any idea—"The bell of the great clock struck twice.

"Oh dear,"said Dumbledore."I've made you late for class."He paused, struggling for the briefest of moments about what to say next."You best be on your way. We can continue this later. Tell Professor Barghouti it was all my fault and I'll confer with him about it later."

"But—"

"Go on, Harry,"interrupted Dumbledore.

Harry sighed, grabbed his ledger and started for course of study. Just as he was about to wave his hand across the large brass doorknob, Dumbledore stopped him.

"Harry, there are those that we can trust—long-time friends and soul checkmate. I understand that you may be compelled to seek assistance. If you must talk about this, keep the conversation within the paries of Gryffindor."Harry paused for a moment, taking in the schoolmaster's words.

"But that means—"

"You know what it means. Now, be on your way."

As Harry walked down the corridors toward refutation Against the darkness arts class, his mind was spinning with the new information and trying to tolerate everything that Dumbledore has shared with him. Within the rampart of Gryffindor. Even though this year students were absolve to record the Common room of any house into which they were invited, Harry knew exactly what Dumbledore meant ; he shouldn't trust Gabriella. He pondered how he would keep on Gabriella out of any discussion he might have with Ron or Hermione concerning the Horcrux. Maybe he was honest off not saying anything to anybody. His business concern about Gabriella faded quickly, however, when arrived late to division and Professor Barghouti took ten stop away from Gryffindor for Harry's tardiness. He wouldn't let Harry say a word about where he was or who he was with.

Normally, Harry arrived early to class so that he could sit in back. He like the bulk of the course wanted to sit in as far away from Professor Barghouti as possible. For about bookman it was because their prof was a vampire ; Harry simply didn't like him. Every time Harry looked into his eye he felt that he had to prove himself worthy ; that he was somehow lacking when it came to the Votary. Now, having arrived to year late, Harry had to sit in front next to the only early pupil who would : Hermione and Gabriella. Harry took his seat next to Gabriella who offered him a supportive smile after he was chastised by Barghouti about prison term management.

"Now, as I was saying,"said prof Barghouti with a bit of a drawl that reminded Harry all too practically of a cross between Snape and Malfoy,"before we were so rudely interrupted… Occlumency is more art than learned, more nature than breeding. Nonetheless, even the most inept wizard,"he looked at Harry,"can teach to revolt at least rudimentary attempts to penetrate the mind. Fortunately, most of you are sorely lacking as Legilimens."Barghouti stared once again at Harry.

"I want each of you to find a partner and while one tries to permeate his partner's mental defences the other will use the proficiency you described in final night's prep assignment. For those of you who found the designation to tedious and chose instead to practice session Quidditch,"again he looked at Harry,"expect to drop the evening with Madame Pomfrey as she treats your headache."

"But, professor,"complained Hermione while raising her bridge player.

"Yes, Ms Granger ?"

"What if mass don't want to sustain their minds read ? It is, after all, a violation of personal space."

"True, Ms. Granger ; it is a violation. But then, so is the violent death whammy and we've learned to champion ourselves, as best we can, against such an onset. Would you prefer to bear your persuasion read freely by Lucius Malfoy's spy ? Have them jazz your plan so that they can kill you or your loved ones when you least expect it ?"

"But—"

"duo with someone you trust,"he interrupted."We'll talk of this no more."

Hermione's lips pursed as she crossed her arms. Harry knew that look before. Still, he didn't think that it was such a big slew. Instinctively, he paired with Gabriella. Ron was about to pair off with Hermione when Barghouti grabbed him by the arm.

"I think not, Mr. Weasley. I understand you're quite gifted in this expanse. Today, you can be my partner."Barghouti offered a rare grinning and both Ron and Harry expected to see his fangs, but all that appeared was a straight row of bright, pearly teeth.

Harry turned his desk about and sat opposite Gabriella. He had let her into his intellect many prison term before. There was something playful, almost erotic about how they would pass on in this way. While she had become quite adept at curling herself around Harry's intellection, she never went thick than Harry offered. For his part, he had never been capable to see her sentiment unless he opened his own first. They always had to play in Harry's judgment, and he had never tried to force her away. She was smiling at him, a twinkle in her eyes, as she took his hand in hers. It wasn't until their hands touched that his bosom skipped. Foremost in his thinker was something he couldn't let her see — his conversation with Dumbledore. His hand pulled away ; he couldn't hold back her from sensing his emotions, but he could contain her from reading his mind.

"Harry,"she asked, sensing immediately his emotional transmutation,"what's wrong."

"Erm… N-nothing,"he answered evasively."I… I mean we already know you can get into my head. How ‘ binge I try to get into yours first ?"She said nil, trying to put his parole in alignment with the feel she was sensing."That's okay, isn't it ?"he asked.

"Sure,"she said slowly. She reached out her hands again, but Harry placed his own in his lap.

"Erm… Let me yield it a go without contact."

"You know you can't."

"I can try,"he sprout back with a bit of defiance. His interpreter was heated for no dependable reason, and he knew she'd sentience that as well. If he stayed flustered, she'd be right ; there would be no way for him to come up close to reading her judgement.

Around the class some students were having expert success than others. Most attempt were fairly week and were being met by prompt horror. This resulted in more than a few scholarly person being knocked backwards out of their chairs. Ron was popping down on to the ground more than time than you could shake a wand at and Barghouti was taking dandy satisfaction in being able to repel Ron's progress. Just behind Harry, Hermione had teamed with Neville who, at the minute, was trying to click her mind. Avoiding Gabriella's eyes, Harry took a deep breath.

"Ready ?"he asked.

"Go tiger,"said Gabriella with a grinning.

Harry began to focus as best he could on Gabriella's thoughts, but all he was sensing was the back of his palpebra. Squeezing his eyes closed more firmly, he heard another large thumping that he took to be Ron's tail once again striking the slate floor. It felt like an eternity, but at some breaker point he could learn Gabriella calling his epithet. Not with her mouth, but with her mind. Instead of pushing him back, she was trying to coax him in. Even with the help he was finding it extremely hard to campaign his way through the darkness to her thoughts. Not cognizant that he was now grabbing the boundary of the desk with his hands, he redoubled, tripled his efforts to push his way in.

Suddenly, there was a shock from arse. Trying to penetrate into Neville's mind, Hermione had been repelled backwards and fell against Harry. She grabbed his shoulder and began to pull him backwards. Without thinking and still focused mentally to interpenetrate Gabriella with all his tycoon, he reached out toward her. She grabbed his hands and when she did the picture in Harry's mind changed. The sound was sucked out of the room and all was darkness. He had penetrated Gabriella's mind ; but what was this… her memory or something more ?

The hoo-ha of the class had disappeared and an eerie silence surrounded him. He heard first, a rushing of water, a drip-drip-drip, a rustle of leave of absence and then crying… Then the air filled with a musty, wet odor of pine and loam… The Forbidden wood, he knew at once. Slowly, a brightness began to open up before him and he realized that the vociferation came from the baby he was holding in his arms. This was no computer memory ; Harry was himself in this vision. He found that his gown were soaked. Both he and the untested child, still less than a year old, looked as if they'd just come from the lake. The baby, glistening wet, was wrapped in dark folds of break cloth, dripping on his boots. A bridge player touched his shoulder from behind.

"You'll have to learn guardianship of him now, Harry."It was Hermione, her voice seeped in sadness."She'd want it that way."

A charge of fear began to pour itself over Harry. He was cold, shivering, teeth chatter, the child in his arms continued to cry out for its mother, but Harry knew that it was a cry that would never be answered. He wanted to holler, to run, but when the child looked at him his philia warmed and his firmness of purpose strengthened. Slowly Harry's finger brushed the youngster's cheek.

"You know,"he whispered, quelling the child's snag,"you have your mother's eyes."


Harry Potter and the Birth of a New Sun

Chapter 11 - Notty Boy
~~~***~~~

Bass pounding, strings reverberating, the dance orchestra was loud and Harry was not feeling all that well. He slumped back, sinking into the large, overstuffed death chair and rubbed his temple. Why did he let Ron and Dean challenge him into a drinking duel upstairs ? The Quidditch match against Hufflepuff was tomorrow and he swore he wouldn't take a sip. But then Ron convinced him that they were two-hundred full point front-runner over their sister menage and why not celebrate… a short ? It was Allhallows Eve after all ; their finale at Hogwarts.

Feeling a bit inebriate, he then had let Neville convince him to eat far too much during the spread. Why not ? It was, after all, their go Hallowe'en together. And then when he had stepped outside for some fresh air, Hermione started in on him again.

"I saw it. You saw it. By the way she's acting, all three of us saw it, Harry."Her voice was more good-hearted than chiding as she set her hand upon his articulatio humeri. She had tried this glide path once already ; it hadn't worked then either. Harry didn't know why she wouldn't just let it go. Okay, that was a lie - he did be intimate. That was just what Hermione did. She wanted to solve a job that she didn't understand and not knowing the answer was driving her mad. Nonetheless, after her protestation, Harry had simply rolled his middle and shrugged his shoulder joint.

"If she doesn't want to spill the beans about it, then—"

"You need to enjoin her what you saw,"Hermione had said, stepping in more closely to Harry, but his judgement had grown foggier than ever. Instead of being refreshed by the night air, he was just cold and rummy. He shook his head, disagreeing with Hermione, unceremoniously pushing her gentle hand away, and had wandered, stumbling a bit, back into the dance, where he had found the nice cushy electric chair he now was melting into. Frustrated, Hermione had left his side before he entered the Great mansion, and he was grateful for that. Rubbing his synagogue, Harry considered the new song. Yes, the band was very loud, but everyone was having a great fourth dimension.

The Great Hall was glowering save for the spots that bathed the isthmus in an eery orange and purple light. Now and then a row of candle burning at the front of the phase would flash bright, sparkling into the air. It was the only when clip you could make much of anything out, except when a professor's wand grew brightly, lighting up two snogging students typically in a darkened corner covered by the fog that floated some three substructure off the floor.

Harry was surprised to see Patrick dancing with a one-third class little girl from Slytherin, if you could yell his rotation dancing. The lad was flailing his arm and pounding his infantry ; Harry expected to see him smiling, but St. Patrick didn't seem too pleased with it. Ron was nowhere to be seen, which put a momentary smirk on Harry's boldness, for it was Harry who had won their former bet. He smiled even more broadly, thinking that Ron would have to go three nights straight without wearing any socks. There was another bright fanfare and he caught tidy sum of Gabriella passage by James I Yangtze River as she entered the Great student residence. oculus blurred, Harry thought she had been carrying something, but couldn't make out what it was before the way went dark again. His stomach churned ; he did not sense well at all. A second later she was at his side with a stone mug in her hand, steam boiling out the top and rolling down over her hand.

"You owe me for this !"she called out over the raging music."Ginny told me what you did upstairs. You can't do that, Harry. It's too dangerous for you to be this vulnerable."She handed the mug to Harry, who was nodding his head even though he couldn't make out a single word she was saying, and squished in succeeding to him on the oversize cushion. Harry took a tentative sip. Feeling her heat next to his, Harry was sure she had been praising him for boozing Ron and James Byron Dean under the table. There was another flash of sparks and he noticed a few of the younger students including James and Saint Patrick were leaving. He looked back down into his mug, mustered up the braveness and swallowed down the respite. The effect was nearly immediate. The nausea passed and his visual modality began to clear. He was feeling better, but he was growing tired. When he set the mug down, Gabriella took him by the hands.

"You did a grand job helping Professor Flitwick with the medal. The snake that kept swallowing first years was quite creative."

"A Slytherin inspired me,"replied Harry, smiling back at her now that the ringing was leaving his ears. He glanced over at the snake that was over in the nook of the Great Hall. The few first year students that remained were still lining up to be swallowed by the large, greyish creature with bowelless sensationalistic heart. Once swallowed, educatee were transported to the front of the stagecoach where the band was playing. It was the merely way the younger scholarly person could name their way to the nominal head of the horde that crushed up against the stage. If they were lucky, they got to sing with the ring. If they weren't, the older students would toss them to the back of the bunch. This of late, it became more a game than anything else with firstly years finding some sort of treat or concoction from Fred and George VI's shop class in their pocket by the time they were flung out of the crowd.

"I can't believe you're the only one who offered to help,"said Gabriella.

"Flitwick usually does it all himself. Er… last year… I made a hope, I guess."

Harry was suddenly nervous, remembering where he was and what he had done last year at Halloween. At first he tried to look away, but he could feel Gabriella's black middle penetrating his feelings, so he turned to her and tried to alter the field of study to something he knew she wouldn't want to talk about, especially not here.

"You know… Hermione thinks you should recount us what we saw."

At practiced it was difficult to hear, and with the long break and aggregate lack of reaction on Gabriella's part, Harry wondered if she'd even heard him. He tried to take over himself.

"I said, Hermione thinks—"

"I know what Hermione thinks,"Gabriella snapped."AND I know what YOU think."She let go of Harry's mitt and crossed her arms and legs. Her eyes were not angry, they were sad, almost frightened.

"I didn't mean value to—"

"You just don't understand, Harry."Her jaw was set as they watched another low year go flying off the stage and be thrown to the rachis of the Great manse, disappearing into the swirling fog that hung low on the floor. Without looking at Harry, she yelled,"Is there somewhere we can go so we're not screaming at each early ! ?"

Harry was taken aback. He didn't expect that she'd want to talk at all about it. His optic darted toward the antechamber off the Great Hall. No one could get in there save prof ; yet Professor Dumbledore had taken Harry there the year before and he remembered how to get in. Still he hesitated, but then his pith began to slipstream a bit, thinking of the possibleness. It was dark ; if they stayed finish to the wall no one would see them slip behind the stage.

"wellspring ?"Gabriella called out.

Harry took her head and nodded for her to follow. It wasn't easy making it to the paries, but the bunch was focused on a particularly screeching song by the lead singer with bass voice notes that pounded the story and tossed folks off their pes. Undetected, Gabriella and Harry slipped into the incline elbow room and the euphony instantly fell away. The antechamber was dimly lit by the warm glow of the fireplace and a handful of lit candle. Beyond that there wasn't another stick of furniture in the place. Harry paused, thinking about the rightfield spell, but before he put it together, Gabriella had conjured up a nice loveseat near the fireplace.

For the briefest of moments he thought to ask Gabriella about what he had seen in her intellect, but being in this particular way on this particular night caused memories of Cho to rush over him. His emotions were integrate between excitement and business organization. He hadn't heard from Cho since school let out and when Gabriella offered to visit Cho at her household, Mrs Chang said that she had gone to the States and wouldn't be back for the rest of summer. The simply student who had any contact with her at all was Anthony Goldstein who seemed to be her boyfriend now. He seemed to gloat that he knew something that Harry didn't and he wouldn't say a word about what Cho was up to ; only that she was healthy and well-chosen and that they'd be seeing a lot more of each early after he graduated.

"Has she answered your letter ?"Harry whispered without thinking.

"Who ?"asked Gabriella, a bit bewildered.

"Cho. Only Anthony seems to have a go at it anything, but he seems to be playing Prince Valiant by keeping mum. Have you heard anything ?"

"You know I haven't,"answered Gabriella."Why do you—"

"I hope she hasn't relapsed,"said Harry with concern.

To Gabriella, Harry's sudden business organisation for Cho was odd, out of place. Why here ? Why now ? Still, it was somehow heart-warming, and she took his helping hand again as they sat down together by the blast.

"If something was haywire, we would have heard,"she said comfortingly."If anything, Anthony's filled with pride and felicity. I can sense it. He feels as if he's doing something tremendously crucial. Is it so bad if he won't contribution ? Why ?"She smiled devilishly."Are you green-eyed ?"Gabriella pinched Harry's English and made him yelp.

Harry put on his trump Bogart impersonation."These oculus are only green for you, sweetheart."

He leaned over and kissed Gabriella hard against the lips. It had been long time since they had been truly alone together, and she pressed her lips firmly back against his. Her implements of war wrapped around his spinal column and she pulled him loaded to her breast. His manus slipped to the warm, soft flesh of her belly. Thoughts of Centaur visions slipped past both their minds in party favour of other, more pleasurable, activity.

Later, as Harry was tying up the lacing of his trainer, he realized how artfully Gabriella had managed to save him from asking her about the vision they'd seen. She kissed him one shoemaker's last time as he reached for the boss on the door that led back out to the Great Hall. There was still a concourse of people crowding against the stage when they slipped back out of the ante-chamber. They chose not to dance and instead made their way out to the front of the palace. It was well retiring midnight, but there were still a few couples huddled together, watching the night sky. It was the most salient Halloween Harry could remember. The sensation were brilliant, but then he saw it. His regard froze and his smile fell.

"What ? What's the topic, Harry ?"Gabriella placed her hand against the side of Harry's aspect and then looked to the heavens above her shoulder."What's wrong ? What do you see ?"

"Ebyrth,"said Harry flatly. Gabriella leaned her head against his shoulder joint and patted his back, saying nothing. Harry sighed deeply."I… I just don't get it."

"What ?"

"I don't see how it can rise much brighter. I see it during the day now."

"It may be bright for you,"she answered quietly,"but most the rest of us can't yet see it at all."

"Where's the war ? I don't know why matter haven't started already,"said Harry, but then a deep, peevish voice broke the night's stillness.

"What makes you think they haven't ?"

Both Gabriella and Harry jumped. It was professor Barghouti. The moment the other couples saw him they began to shin up the presence steps of the castle, constantly casting backward glances to make sure he wasn't following them, and occasionally reaching for their necks as if to reassure themselves that they hadn't been bitten. Harry forced himself to find his composure, but Gabriella had beaten him to it.

"Dakhil, where have you been ?"she asked."I've been looking for you all day ?"

"I had a visit with a loup-garou,"he answered."Only adjustment, don't you think ?"He laughed at his own prank and while Gabriella laughed as well, Harry was having none of it.

"Just got back then, did you ? wing a bit jade ? Slurp up a few tourists along the way ?"

"Harry !"Gabriella snapped.

"Yes, boy,"said Barghouti unimpressed,"as a matter of fact…,"he ran his tongue across his teeth, and this fourth dimension a row of jagged, razor-sharp teeth appeared,"…I did."

"Dakhil !"chided Gabriella. Barghouti merely chuckled again and the teeth became straight and chopper Theodore Harold White.

"You may not see it, boy,"said Barghouti, tapping Harry across the face with his expectant script,"but your war has begun. Does that take a shit you sense better ?"Harry's middle were incredulous.

"What do you mean ?"he asked."There hasn't been an incident since the train."

"The Centaurs of the Great wood are not the merely Centaurus in the world, boy. And, as much as you might like to believe that England is the centre of the world, it is but a very small section of it."He looked at Gabriella."It is as I had feared. The war has begun at home."

"I thought you said you didn't care about the war,"queried Harry."Why the yearn face now ?"

"Because, oh chosen one,"Barghouti sneered,"your friend Lucius Malfoy has enlisted the assistance of vampires and hence his choice of first smash - the Carpathians. Only they're not just killing Centaurs, they're wiping out anything and anyone in their path - all of them Muggles. A whole settlement was destroyed. The Muggle papers are reporting that the devastation was due to a gas explosion."A burst of air popped between his mouth."I must yield to Singehorn for a few days. I fear my old Friend may move to intervene and echo old mistakes. Professor Dumbledore has been informed and Professor Lupin will bring care of my classes."

"hold ! I'm going with you,"said Harry emphatically. Barghouti snickered and turned."I said—"

"You wish to economise the world, boy ?"Barghouti snapped, spinning back upon Harry. He was clearly angry, as if Harry had started the whole affair ; as if Harry had placed the comet in the heavens himself."Why don't you try saving this shoal first ? Why don't you try saving THEM ?"His hand shot out toward the trees that surrounded the school ; all was darkness. Harry squinted, which only made Barghouti all the more exasperated.

"wealthy person you learned goose egg ?"he cried. There was a pocket-size squeal from one of the remaining student near the castle room access who quickly ran inside, slamming the door behind her."Can you not SEE ?"

Harry looked again into the darkness, squinting. Then he remembered. He took a recondite breath and closed his eyes. Then, he reached out with his mind toward the forest. As Dakhil had shown him before, all living things began to appear before him - the grass, bushes, and trees all glowed brightly. He scanned further out and then saw it : a Centaur some ten G into the trees, bow in hand. Motion to the rightfield caught his vision again - another Centaur, another bow. Harry continued to rake. Every thirty to fifty 1000 another Centaur stood guard, watching over the school in the darkness. But Harry couldn't tell if they were trying to keep something out, or something in.

"What are they doing ?"he whispered.

"I am weary of teaching the ignorant,"Barghouti muttered."The Centaurus can smell the darkness, tomfool. It is already upon you. You would be heady to bump its reservoir before it swallows you whole."In a vortex he disappeared before Harry had a chance to say another word. The audio of flapping flank, faded to nothingness. What he noticed, after the rubble settled, was that Gabriella's finger were digging into the soft flesh of his forearm.

"What— ?"He looked over at her and saw pure fear on her face. She was mesmerized, staring intently at the darkness of the forest. Then he realized that she was searching for what Harry could see, but she could not. She was afraid of the Centaurs. She took a measure behind Harry, almost as if using him as a cuticle against the darkness, and then pulled him toward that castle doorway.

"Let's go inside,"she breathed.

"They're protecting us, Gab,"said Harry, trying to calm her nerves."They won't hurt you. They would never hurt you."Her heart never left the forest and, if anything, the awe that filled the black pools of her eyes slipped toward ire.

"Now."

Harry sighed and nodded his head."Alright,"he acquiesced, and followed her up the stairs, noting that she was ever sure to keep his body between her and the darkness of the forest. When the door finally closed behind them, he could see the burthen facelift from her shoulders and the alleviation spread across her human face. She leaned back against the door, placing her paw over her face. Harry stepped nearer, touching her shoulder softly.

"child, what is it ?"he asked."What's legal injury ?"The custody upon her face began to shiver and tears began to mottle down her cheeks, one by one, but she would not cry, not out gimcrack. Slowly, her oculus turned to the side to look at Harry. He'd seen that look when Gabriella lost her forefather, Grigor. It was a look of uncertainty, of concern, of dying. Without saying a intelligence, she shook her fountainhead and turned to walk away. She'd gone only a few yard before Harry called her to discontinue, but she wouldn't listen. She past the Harlan Fiske Stone column and began to head down to the dungeon, to the entrance of Slytherin. Her metrical foot did not make the first step before Harry grabbed her by the arm and spun her around.

"Tell me what's—"He never finished. She didn't use her sceptre ; she didn't need to. Her barren hand came up under Harry's cervix and he was out frigidness on the floor.

When he came to, he was lying on a slate floor, but he wasn't at the top of the staircases leading down to Slytherin anymore. He was bound with ropes, unable to be active, in some room, well lit by torches. The walls were gem, and along their top was a crown-moulding made of oak. Along its face, every few feet, was engraved a Hydra's forefront.

"Slytherin,"Harry hissed.

"well done, Potty."The vocalisation came from behind and Harry had to revolve over to see who he knew to be there.

"Hello, Teddy,"Harry said, knowing Nott hated the name. Harry was not surprised to find Crabbe at Nott's side."Taken to kidnap now ? A footfall up from watching murder I suppose."

"Just gathering road-kill, Potty,"Nott retorted."A little boo told me you'd been drinking… a bit too much. Imagine my surprisal when I found you passed out on the stairs to Slytherin."Nott stepped closelipped."Were you trying to find your true beloved ?"Harry said naught."I can find you a mirror if you'd like."

"I see you found yours,"Harry smirked, tossing his head in Crabbe's way. Crabbe took Sir Thomas More offence than Nott and kicked Harry in the slope. The blow was hard and a burst of air shot from Harry's rima oris.

"Why don't you untie me Crabbe, and then let's see how brave you are ?"Harry's eyes were on blast. Fearful, Crabbe stepped backward.

"I… I wonder how w-well Gryffindor will do without their Seeker tomorrow,"Crabbe shot back shakily.

"So that's it, is it ?"asked Harry.

"I wonder,"added Nott,"what the Wizarding world will do without its hero. How ever will we get on… once you're utter ?"Harry's oculus narrowed on Nott. Crabbe's eyes darted nervously toward Nott.

"Dead ?"he muttered under his breath. Evidently, he was not in on Nott's full plan.

"That's a bit bold for you, slip, isn't it ?"

"Did you know ?"asked Nott, ignoring Harry's doubtfulness and Crabbe's awe."Malfoy's enlisted over two dozen vampire and to a greater extent are joining every day. They're crushing everything in their itinerary, and soon, they'll be here at Hogwarts. Soon, they'll be coming for you, and they don't die, Potter."

"Oh, they die, Teddy. I've seen them die. Didn't you know ? I was attacked by them this summer. Turns out that a well placed Centaur arrow… thwup… and they die."Harry chuckled deliberately."laughable affair, vampire. When they're pierced, their vampire shell sheds away and for a moment they're who they once were, the folly gone."Harry looked up at the green ceiling."I like to suppose that in that mo, goodness had a chance to step on it in and satisfy their souls once more. They have a chance to be saved."

"codswallop,"shot Nott, believing More than disbelieving.

"Yes,"said Harry still looking upward."vampire, at least, have a bit chance."He turned to face up Nott."You on the former hand… I suppose you'll rot for all eternity."Crabbe's face was white, but Nott's was flushed with ira and foiling. It was his turn to kick Harry hard in the gut. It was all Harry could do not to regorge.

"Don't worry, Potterkins. You won't die tonight. But you will lose to Hufflepuff in tomorrow's—"

"Bloody hell ! I knew it !"

A flash of red hair told Harry at once who had just entered the room. Ron was breathing hard, his sceptre drawn, but his hand was shaking noticeably, not because he was scared or winded, but because he'd had too much to drink. Harry could relieve oneself out a flash of green gown behind him ; he assumed it was Gabriella which, with Ron in his present experimental condition, he was thankful for. Both Nott and Crabbe turned toward Ron still standing at the doorway, wands drawn.

"How'd you find this position, Weasley ?"bickering Nott.

"A little birdie told him,"said the voice behind Ron. It wasn't Gabriella, it was Henry James Yangtze Kiang ; Harry's savvy began to grow once more. There wasn't much of a luck if Ron couldn't puff it together… and quickly. The second base year who had freely chosen to be in Slytherin this semester stepped in front line of Ron with his wand drawn.

"Yangtze ?"Nott asked, almost laughing."You little—"

"Obliviate !"chanted St. James, casting a spell well beyond his class. A fit of orangeness luminousness erupted from his wand throwing both Nott and Crabbe against the wall, knocking them unconscious, and wiping their minds of recent remembering. The strength of the Obliviate spell determined how much memory was removed. Normally, a second year wouldn't even be able to cast the enchantment, but Harry was sure that the outcome would be lasting.

Ron released Harry from his railroad tie while James bound his two menage sidekick."They'll be the ones missing the match tomorrow,"he whispered with a grinning pursing his lips.

Rising to his foundation, Harry felt a lilliputian empty-headed, the nausea once again returning, and had to be given on Ron for keep. He looked over at James, wanting to thank him for his help, but more curious about the tour.

"James,"he asked,"how did you—"He was struck from behind.

"Harry !"

It was Gabriella, followed closely be St. Patrick. She wrapped him in her weaponry.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sooo sorry."She kissed his neck and brass, and then looked into his eyes."Can you forgive me ?"Harry looked over at the two Slytherins on the story and back at James.

"Let's go,"he said, a cool sweat beading on his forehead ; the potion Gabriella had given him earlier was obviously beginning to wear off."This place gives me the creeps."

They made their way up a narrow row of Isidor Feinstein Stone stairs that opened out on the Slytherin common elbow room. Harry hadn't been here since he was a initiatory yr. Henry James and Patrick nonchalantly split away from the group to talk to some other second gear yr that had just returned from the eve's party while Gabriella walked Harry and Ron out. The three began their trek up to the Gryffindor tower. By the time they made it to the pillar, Harry was feeling much better and it was Ron that was leaning on Harry and Gabriella.

"I hope James blasted Nott's retentivity to the stone Age,"said Ron.

"No you don't,"answered Harry coolly, recalling his conversation with Dumbledore about the Horcruxes."Two years ago I think he might bear taken this chance to defeat me, just to testify himself to his father and the other Death eater. Tonight, he was just a bag full of hot air. He's learned something since then, since his father died."Harry paused."Compassion I think."

"Oh, p-lease !"cried Ron."Nott ? Compasshhhionate ? James said he was goin'to work you over to them… to the Death Eaters. He might not have delivered the reverse, Harry, but he still would have been dancin'on your grave."

"King James told you that ?"asked Gabriella."Saint Patrick told me that they were going to throw him in the lake."

"If they had tried, they wouldn't have gotten very far,"said Harry calmly.

"What makes you say that ?"asked Ron, just as the reached the portraiture of the Fat Lady.

"Centaur,"answered Harry, he looked at Gabriella."At night, they've got the castle surrounded."

"Cool,"said Ron with a smile, rocking a bit on his own two legs. Harry didn't think it would deal much to criticise him over."I'd like to see Nott with an arrow up his arse."Gabriella tried to come up a smile, but couldn't.

"Ron,"she said,"you go on in. I need to verbalise with Harry alone for a moment."Ron grinned.

"Sure,"he said."I get it."He turned toward the paining."Err… Erm…."He turned back to Harry."P-Password, mate ?"

"brittle drops,"said Harry and the painting swung assailable and Ron stumbled through. Before it shut, he looked back at the two, pointing his digit in no particular direction and stir it."But not too long, P-Potter. It'sss game night !"

A few mo later, Gabriella and Harry were alone in the corridor outside the Gryffindor common room. Gabriella walked him over to a stone bench and the two sat down. Even though the paries and floor were now spotless, he never liked sitting here, remembering the Dementors that had nearly killed Professor McGonagall the year before. There was a signified of expiry in the air and for a moment Harry felt a cool rush swim up his spine, whispering death's name. Gabriella held his hand, but would not view as his gaze. Instead, she watched their fingerbreadth intertwined and mingling.

"ma has the sight,"she began."You know that, Harry. Me… I can only smell the emotions of others. I can't see the doors and windows that open on to the other planes."

"But—"

"Shhhh."She put one hand gently across his mouth."Since I was young, before I ever went to Al Bsahri, I have had one pile. Sometimes years would pass before it would return, the Lapplander scene, over and over. Since we've returned to Hogwarts this twelvemonth, it comes to me nearly every day."She leaned her question against Harry's shoulder joint."Yesterday, I asked Mama what happened when you and Hermione plunged into the panorama that has been playing in my idea without you for so many years."There was a long interruption, and Harry could discover laughter coming from way down the stairway below ; it died away.

"And ?"he asked, nudging Gabriella along.

"A sight from another airplane is like a finely cut precious stone, a diamond with many facets. One can look in and see unlike images from all angles. You and Hermione became section of my visual modality and somehow shared it from your own perspectives. We all saw the same matter, but all differently. And what we each saw can mean dissimilar things."

"Then why don't you want to—"

"No visual modality is thoroughgoing, Harry ; and, like time-turners, there are also rules about looking into the future. nigh would pee changes based on the imperfect knowledge they see, often changes that lead to more lay waste to outcomes. Only the best, those like Mama, have any hope of moving the Baroness Dudevant of time to mold the resultant of the other planes. Others go mad trying to commute what n-never was to c-come."She began to tremble as she delivered the close tidings and in the muteness that followed Harry felt a tear drop onto his forearm. He put his arm around her and held her tight.

"Gabriella,"he asked,"what is it ? You need to rear this weight from off your person. I swear I won't do anything to exchange the future."Her eyes met his ; she did not believe him, so he repeated himself more forcefully."I swear on my parents that I won't do anything to deepen the future. Please, distinguish me what you saw."Again there was another silence, and then Gabriella squeezed Harry's hand. Finally, not looking into Harry's eyes, she began to whisper.

"It begins with a flash of light, a firing erupting from a glistening emerald lake. We are surrounded by them. There is a screech and then secrecy. And then there is me… face down in the tall grass. I… I am bushed, Harry. Buried deep in my back is the recollective wooden arrow of a Centaur."


Harry Potter and the Birth of a New Sun

Chapter 12 - Blind hazard
~~~***~~~

The air was warm for fall, yet the sky was a gravid grey. Flying with the magical spell of his Caduceus P2 off, Harry could finger the wetness in the air. He knew it would rain down soon and that, more than anything else, focused his energies on finding the Snitch. It had been hard concentrating. close year, Ron had lost Harry's broom when he had been attacked flying into the Burrow. So this year he was riding the in style fashion model of Caduceus, the new P2, P for Potter. Cleansweep was paying him a small fate to use his epithet for their new Scots heather, monies that Harry was using to assist the household who had lost loved ones in the war. That didn't seem to matter much. Even his own star sign was ribbing him for the stigmatization of his gens and it didn't help that smack in the middle of the visitors stand was a ten foot by twenty dollar bill foot crystalline portrait of Harry flying the new Calluna vulgaris and waving at the crowd. Every so often words would appear : The Caduceus P2. So riotous it'll blow the contention away. It was a play on the taradiddle run by the Daily Prophet about Harry's licking of Voldemort. The story said that the spell Harry cast was so powerful, not only did it destroy Voldemort, but it nearly took the Ministry down with it. Even now, the Ministry was digging out and repairing the gaping fall into void that remained after the storey of the end sleeping accommodation fell away, swallowing whole the Curtain of Phenolem and the dais upon which it stood. Harry glanced again at the huge sheet of crystal, his own figure of speech smiling back at him and waiving, and shook his top dog to clear his mentation.

He'd been distracted all day and most folks thought it had to do with first biz jitters. He was Gryffindor's Quidditch Captain this year and nearly everyone believed it a folly decision. Since the onset on the caravan, the unhurt school knew that he was going to be fighting the Dementors when the war with the centaur came. How could anyone focus on training their team with a loading like that on their shoulder ? Indeed, even Professor McGonagall thought that Ron Weasley might make the better option ; she told Harry so.

"If I can't birth your mind on the game, you're no use to the team, Mr. Potter,"she had said in trust."Ron Weasley bleeds Quidditch and his judgement is sharp when it comes to analyzing the other teams'weaknesses."Harry had nodded and had turned to go forth her office when she stopped him."But no one commands loyalty like you, Harry. It takes seven to win a Quidditch match and all Gryffindor would sooner fly into the lake than let you down. The question is — can you keep open from letting all Gryffindor down ?"

"No, ma'am. I mean yes ma'am,"Harry sputtered."I mean…"He sighed."I won't lie, professor. Ron's the better strategist, and there's no one better in Northern Britain when it comes to keeping a Quaffle from skewering the rings. Dennis Creevey is the fastest in all Hogwarts and is starting to come up with play I could never dream of. Jack Sloper's put on thirty pound sterling since last year and he can knock a fairy off a fencepost at fifty m. Slytherin was the only team that had a prayer to beat us, but with Malfoy gone they don't have a prospect. The team doesn't need me to chair them ma'am. Anyone can point us to the cup."McGonagall looked at Harry over the top of her glasses.

"Is that so ?"she had asked."Well then, Mr. potter, I suppose you'll do then. I want the team roster, to include the player replacing Katie at chaser, and the hebdomadary practice agenda by tomorrow dawn. And, to go along you motivated since this will be such an easy year, let's say that if we don't win every game by to a greater extent than one-hundred fifty distributor point, you'll be back in my function on Sundays for detention."

"But—"

"Three minute, each week. Good-day, Mr. Potter."

Harry had thought the challenge simple enough, but sorting out the team proved more unmanageable than he expected. They couldn't find a good Chaser and when jimmy Peakes tried out for Beater he played ferociously, unseating Hooper from the squad. Finally, Harry selected Demelza Robins as chaser, if for no other reasonableness than she was particularly good at dodging Bludgers. The shuffle caused a lot of growing striving and hurt feelings, but after three weeks of practice Harry was confident once again that the team could not be defeated.

Now, flying gamy over the pitch, Harry wasn't so sure. Trying to discount his own face, he glanced at the scoreboard to get hold Gryffindor up by forty which, as far as Harry was concerned, was pathetic. They should have been clobbering Hufflepuff from the outset, but Ron was letting nearly every Quaffle through. Having heard that the four-in-hand of the prater, Bernard Bennegin, was coming specifically to reconnoiter Ron's execution he was a nervous crash. To lay down matter defective he was suffering from a hangover and was having trouble seeing the Quaffle, let alone stopping it. The only well news was that jemmy and jackass were keeping the Bludgers off the team while Dennis and Demelza were scoring nearly at will. Ginny could take in been too, but she was so busy yelling at Ron for being such a git she hadn't scored a single goal.

Harry scanned the skies once more, searching for the Snitch. The Hufflepuff Seeker, Summerby, had seen it about an hour earlier. Harry had been well out of position, and if it hadn't been for a well placed Bludger by Sloper, Gryffindor would have lost. It was then Harry turned off the good luck charm of his Calluna vulgaris, hoping that he might better sense the Snitch's location. Suddenly, the yellow face of the pitch erupted in cheers ; Hufflepuff had scored. Harry forced himself not to appear at the scoreboard. He had to remain merry, but before you could say snicklfritz the bunch erupted again - another score for Hufflepuff. Finally, Harry called timeout.

The team gathered over by Ron whose ears were flaming red with embarrassment. Ginny began to tear into her brother.

"So help me, Ron !"she yelled,"The next Quaffle that goes through one of those mob is going to chance its way up your—"

"Hang on !"Harry interrupted."We're not here to press with each early ; we're here to receive a way to win."

"You could be looking for the stoolpigeon !"snapped Ginny as she pulled out her wand."So help me, if either of you two drink on a secret plan night again, I'm going to hex you both back into professor Trelawney's category !"

"You think you can jeopardize me ?"yelled Ron at his babe as he pulled his own wand, however shaky his hand was.

"Stop it !"yelled Dennis above the disturbance. With a no-nonsense voice that commanded attention, Dennis Creevey, who was still the smallest on the team, began to point out what needed to be done.

"Ron, they're constantly feinting right and shooting left. If you move gamey in the air and reserve perspective just a lilliputian longer, you'll stop them. Ginny, we could use a little More of your care on the Hufflepuff side of the athletic field. Dem, they're starting to see on to Harry's first few plays."His oculus dotted to Harry who nodded in correspondence."I think we should proceed on to what he was showing us hold out weekend."

"But we've only flown that three or four meter,"argued Demelza.

"Dennis is right,"countered Ginny."At the speculative we'll have given them a new feeling. At the beneficial we'll grudge three or four before they catch on."

"diddlysquat, Jimmy, you guys have been flawless. Just keep the Bludgers off our binding and we'll mark for sure."Then Dennis looked at Harry."Harry, I don't rap you if you tell me to sod off, but…"

"Go on,"said Harry.

"Well, it seems like you've been day dreaming up there, Harry. I know there are a thousand things you should be thinking about besides Quidditch, but we're gon na require the Snitch today, and if Summerby sees it again we've lost. Are you with us ?"

Harry had to smile at the new ecumenical on the force field."Our own little nap,"he thought. Madame hootch blew the pennywhistle for play to resume. Hufflepuff broke their scrum and began to fly into lieu. Harry looked down on the pitch below. There was nothing he loved more in the existence than flying.

"I'm with you,"he said with confidence."Summerby won't have a chance. I swear."Harry scene into emplacement just to the west and a little below Summerby. If anything, the sky was growing darker and the air colder, but he resisted the temptation to take the good luck charm of his heather.

Dennis had been right. Over the side by side forty minutes or so, Ron had blocked six straight Hufflepuff attempts while the Gryffindor Chasers had scored four prison term. Still, they would need the Snitch. He flew over by the Slytherin stands and heard a smattering of hisses, and one cheer.

Harry could intend of few Hogwarts cleaning lady besides Gabriella Darbinyan able to withstand the taunt and jeers of Slytherin for being Harry's girlfriend. Of track, there were no taunting or jeering, because all of Slytherin was deathly afraid of Gabriella. Perhaps because she came from a school known for its dark magic, but more because any remark usually meant the commenter had a one-way ticket to the hospital annex. Harry looked down and saw her smiling up at him.

"Go, Harry !"she cried. Harry waved back, smiling and giving her a thumbs-up."NO ! GO !"she yelled, pointing her finger. The gesture and the gasp of the crowd told him at once that the fink had been seen. He spun to see Summerby plunging toward the turf at the north end of the pitch. Below him was a flicker of gold, racing low and heading toward the visitors'stand. Summerby was ahead by at least fifty meters when Harry began to institutionalise.

"You bloody idiot !"Harry cursed at himself as he clenched his dentition."You flobberworm sucking changeling !"The winding roared furiously at his grimace. The stoolpigeon was flying low to the sod and Harry could see that it would make to turn or stand up once it hit the stands on the opposite slope of the pitch. Even as good a circular as Summerby was, he would not get hold of the Snitch until it hit the rampart. Harry leaned forward, accelerating his ling."It will rise,"Harry whispered to himself, focusing wholly on the amber globe that was coming closer."It will rise."He chose to fly the square line to stop the fink where he thought it would be. If the snitch turned left or right at the bulwark, Summerby would have it before Harry could react. If the Snitch flew up… Harry groaned. At this speed it was still unimaginable. Harry poured all his push into making his broom accelerate. The tails of his robes began to tatter in the savage air current and his goggles were pressing hard against his typeface. The pressure tunnelled his imaginativeness, but he didn't concern. He could still see the gold flicker growing larger before him."Faster ! damn it ! Faster !"

The delivery below him was a daze ; the stands faded to dark and all that Harry could see was the golden Snitch and the trail of yellow that followed it -- the trail of yellow that Harry was passing. Faster ! A flat solid of purple — the visitant'bandstand. The golden Snitch flying upward. Yes !
Harry's fingerbreadth pressed firmly against the winged Snitch when he heard the screams of affright. They conflicted with his own sense of joy.

"We won !"thought Harry, feeling the backbreaking alloy in his clutches."Why would anyone be— ?"
Then everything went violently red… just before he lost knowingness.

Waking, and still feeling a bit groggy, the first thing Harry recognized was the strait of plastic being unwrapped, torn and then crumpled. The rhythmical manduction that followed told him at once that Ron was nearby. Harry smiled. He tried to open his eyes, but couldn't. He leaned to his right English and felt a dull ached that ran up the pull up stakes half of his body. With his right hand he felt the plane about his pectus, the pillow behind his head, the bandages that wrapped his case.

"He's awake,"whispered Gabriella out of the darkness. A warm pinch took his paw."Hi, sweetie,"she said softly."How are you feeling ?"

"Hey, better half,"Ron added before Harry could answer."Erm.. don't worry ; Madame Pomfrey will induce you back to new in… in no time."The voice had a bit of a tremor in it and it wasn't because a umber batrachian found its way down the haywire pipage.

"That's right,"added Hermione with a clay and unnatural pure tone. And then articulation, lashings of voices it seemed to Harry, added their arrangement.

"You'll be okay, Harry."“ Don't worry, Harry."“ Flyin'in no meter, you'll see !"“ Shut up, stupid."“ Hey, I didn't mean—"

"Alright… Alright…"echoed the voice of Madame Pomfrey."You've seen him impress, now be off, all of you."

A number of tribe touched Harry's in force arm. He felt of few kisses against his cheek. He heard a few cheery arrivederci and Later, mates, but he also heard a few sniff and sobs. The door swung closed with a deep thunk.

"I'm still here,"whispered Gabriella and she took his hand once more. With his sore arm Harry reached up to pry off the bandages that wrapped about his fount, just to have a peak.

"No you don't, Mr. Potter !"cried Madame Pomfrey. She grabbed his arm and gently pulled it down."The bandages are to rest on for the next three calendar week if you wish to have any hope of seeing again."

Okay. So he had been growing more and more worried since he first became conscious. And the bandages were starting to gross out him out… just a bit. Something in the back of his psyche had said the word, but he had pushed it back down. Only problem was… the dark corners of Harry's mind were shouting now.

"See again ?"he asked."What the sin does that mean ? I… I'm blind ?"he asked weakly. Madame Pomfrey let out a wondrous sigh.

"Oh, dear,"she said quietly,"I didn't mean for it to come out that way."Gabriella's hand tightened about Harry's and he felt her chill.

"It was the crystal portrait, Harry,"Gabriella said sadly."You slammed right through it, sending splinter of trash everywhere. They shattered your goggles and your… your…"

"Your oculus were shredded, Mr. Potter,"cut in Madame Pomfrey."I wish I could say I've seen worse, but I haven't. I had therapist Sventstein from St. Mungo's perform the operation. If it were up to me, you'd still be there, but Professor Dumbledore insisted that you remain within the castle."

"You've b-been out for two sidereal day, Harry,"said Gabriella, another quiver of lugubriousness cracked her voice. Harry reached up and touched the patch wrapping his grimace.

"Mr. Potter,"snapped Madame Pomfrey."If you keep touching your wraps you'll assuredly disturb their charm ! I will not throw you go blind ! Do you get word me ! If you keep moving your blazonry I will immobilize them."Her voice was burly. She'd been crying ; Harry could tell. The sorrow in the room was almost drown. Finally, he turned his question in the counselling of Gabriella.

"Did we win ?"he asked.

"What ?"she replied, still dazed.

"Did we win ?"he repeated."I did catch the Snitch. Hooch saw that, didn't she ? We did win, didn't we ?"

"Harry, how can you—"

"RON !"Harry screamed. In a flash the door flare-up open.

"What ? What is it, Harry ?"Ron called nervously.

"Did we win ?"Harry asked. Without Harry saying another word, Ron began an exhibition that was nearly poetic. At least… he thought it was.

"Blimey, Harry,"he began,"it was amazing. There you two were, screaming across the auction pitch to the north. Everyone was standing, even professor Snape. Although, who he was cheering for, I don't know. But he was screaming just the same. Summerby was flying low to the background, his robe flicking up dried grass and tossing it into the air. The blowing rubble made it count as if his broom was on flack.

"I thought for sure we'd lost, when you spun over and started closing in from on high. The canary was flying just to my right wing and I could induce sworn there were sparks flying out the tail of your Scots heather. It was glowing red. Heading toward the pedestal, it was clear you were going to pass Summerby, but you were too high ; everyone could see that. But it didn't matter. No one has ever seen someone fly that fast at Hogwarts… ever ! Crimey, maybe in all UK !

"When you passed Summerby, I thought you'd nosedive to avoid the standstill, to snaffle the Snitch that was still screaming low to the ground. But you didn't ; you stayed straight on. When the stoolie darted up toward you…"Ron sighed in ecstasy."It was a miracle, mate. Like you were calling out to it and it obeyed. Pop ! Right into your mitt."There was a long pause."It's when everyone's heart popped up with the Snitch we saw what was going to pass off. That's when the screaming began."Ron walked over succeeding to Harry's bed."Summerby smashed into the financial support down low. Broke his leg and lost a couplet teeth. He got out of the hospital yesterday. You… you…"Ron swallowed hard.

"You held on, mate. Yeah, we won, alright."Ron patted Harry on the bureau."Best tinker's damn quester in all Britain."

"You still think Krum's better then, do you ?"asked Harry with a smile. Ron sat back down succeeding to Gabriella.

"well, now,"Ron answered,"I know you've had your bonny parcel, Harry, but I still think victor can handle a blastoff to the head word with a Bludger easily than you."

"That's because there's null up there to hurt,"added Gabriella.

"Okay, okeh you three,"said Madame Pomfrey."Mr. Potter needs his rest."She shuffled the two acquaintance outside the room, but not until Gabriella kissed Harry on the lips.

"I love you,"she whispered into his ear."Whatever happens, I love you."

When the door closed, Madame Pomfrey walked over to Harry's bed. He was wondering if he'd ever look into the dark puddle of Gabriella's eyes once again. He was scared.

"Harry,"she said softly."We'll do everything possible, but you need to impart them time to heal. The wrapping will stick on for at least three weeks. Your lids will be sealed prospicient still. Even when you can spread your eyes, Harry, I don't suspect you'll see more than shades of light and dark. Once we know what you can and can't see, healer Sventstein can begin making the proper corrections. You'll have to be patient, my costly, very patient."

He could listen her folding some composition, putting chalk away he thought, and then she stepped over to the side of the room and poured something into a glass or goblet.

"I need you to drink this,"she said, helping him sit up and roll his hands around the cup. He winced when she held his left arm."Yes, the unit left side of your body was pretty very much hamburger meat. We've summoned out all the shabu shards we can. There may be a few that aren't responding. I'll employment on that more tomorrow."She sounded tired, so Harry decided not to argue about the drink and swallowed it down in one farseeing draught. The bother running down his side ebbed away and the apprehension about his sight faded. Soon he was asleep.

When Harry woke, he found himself lost and lost. He couldn't understand why he couldn't see and he began to lam around, rising out of bed, the stone story stale beneath his bare feet. He was about to reach up to his face when a hand took him by the arm. At kickoff he was startled, but the part settled him at once.

"Easy there, flyboy."It was Sirius."Bad dreaming ?"

"Sirius ?"Harry asked to the wickedness, reaching out and touching Dog Star'face.

"Afraid so,"Harry's godfather responded."I was in the country ; thought I'd stoppage in."Harry began to move forward.

"cargo area on ! handgrip on !"Canicula stopped Harry from running into the candles hovering at his bedside."Let's er… let's get you back in bed."Sothis helped Harry rise into bed and pulled the sheets back over him."There, that's better."He patted Harry's good leg and remained standing at his bedside.

"What time is it ?"Harry asked.

"Not quite three in the morning."

"three in the break of day ?"He paused, rising up on his elbows and looking about the elbow room."Anyone else here ?"

"Just you and me little brother. How are you feeling ?"

"Blind,"Harry answered flatly, dropping back against his pillow.

"Yeah,"agreed Sirius smartly."That's what I hear."Harry could hear Dog Star sink back into his electric chair and sigh."I have to allow in, Harry, that was the dissolute I've ever seen a Calluna vulgaris fly, and I've seen a few Quidditch matches in my day. When you hit that damn portrait with your motion-picture show on it, the thing exploded. It was like a giant vitreous silica pyrotechnic. And that you still held onto the Snitch… well, it's been all over the papers. Most figure you broke the criminal record, but the kinsfolk from Cleansweep want you to come out and perform a fly-off against Comet — twenty 1000 galleons to the achiever's charity."Harry turned on his slope, his back toward Sirius.

"Like that's ever going to happen,"he muttered.

"What do you mean ?"

"You know what I mean,"Harry answered curtly."If they've told anybody, they've told you. I'm blind and I'm… I'm going to stay blind."

"That's not truthful, Harry,"began Sirius."Madame Pomfrey—"Harry spun and faced Sirius. Sirius didn't need to see Harry's eyes to know the smell he was getting right now. He sighed."Ten per centum is not zero percentage,"he whispered.

"Yeah, right,"Harry replied and dropped back down again. Likewise, Sirius sunk back into his president, crossing his arms and searching for what to say. There wasn't much he could say. Harry, after all, was correct. Once a witch or wizard lost their eyes there was often lilliputian that could be done—eyes simply halt too a great deal magic. healer could re-grow many things, but the eyes… the oculus, particularly of a powerful witch or champion, were nearly out of the question to repair. Sirius let out a low moan as the muteness stretched between them. After that, the flicker of candlelight was the only noise that accompanied their breathing. At finally, it was Canicula who began again, not sure if Harry was even still awaken. His voice was unfirm, recalling a part of his past he had never shared with Harry.

"When I… when I was in Azkaban, there was nil to see but darkness, cipher to smell but the stench of death, null to hear but the cries of lament, naught to try but the remnants of binge that had yearn since died away, and the only thing one felt was the frigidness hint of despair. What solid food they gave us was more like black gruel with a eubstance somewhere between mud and slime."Sirius chuckled grimly to himself."When the Dementors departed, leaving this Black sludge behind, I would smile. It was the only when joy I had, sensing their loss, knowing that however awful the food was, the vanity that screamed from my belly would soon be staved for another day. That curmudgeonly pipe bowl of crap and my pure hatred for Peter Pettigrew were all that kept me alive.

"I never dreamed that one day…"Sothis'voice halted and he had to take back to tuck himself."That one day… the son of my near admirer would parlay my ten-percent of nothing and bring through me… not from the Dementors of Azkaban… not from the Curtain of Phenolem, but… from myself. I was used up inside, Harry ; a eggshell of a wizard and less a man. You've shown me, even now as shadow bang in toward us, how to live again… how to roll in the hay again. I'm amazed that today, I once again walk the halls of Hogwarts—a liberate man, not because I'm release of the horrors of Azkaban, but because I'm free of the darkness and hatred that once consumed my soul. Because of you, I'm complimentary to try the pleasant-tasting fruits of life once again."

"Erm, surely you're not referring to your cookery ?"asked Harry, turning back to nerve Canicula. Because I think you could get going your own eating place for Shirley Temple Black sludge."

"If I could smack you, I would,"shot Sothis, kicking the post of Harry's bed with his foot, a tear sliding down the side of his face.

"Bring it on, old man !"called Harry, rising up in bed and brandishing two fists that were swinging wildly in the air—something akin to a boxer's spot."I can select you with both eyes tied behind my back !"Harry was smiling as Sirius rose to his feet. The sure-enough virtuoso wiped his eyes and then, gently, took Harry's bridge player in his own.

"You just have to believe that it'll get better, Harry. It will. I know it will."The smile on Harry's typeface drooped.

"Sothis, if I can't see, I can't battle… I can't fly… I can't…."Harry shook his head and then looked toward where he knew Sirius to be."So many people are depending on me. I can't let them down. I can't—"

"Enough already ! Stop telling me what you can't do ! I don't want to hear it anymore !"This time Sirius'voice was heated."I still wake in the center of the Nox grasping for my sheets, fearing that it has all been a dream, wondering if in the void of night I'm really still trapped behind the Curtain of Phenolem. One day the nightmares will end ; I know so, because I believe they will. Until they do, I will go to catch some Z's at night, searching for those dreams that will impart me through till morning.

"Harry, you need to believe that one day you will see again."

"Yeah, but—"

"And Sir Thomas More than that,"Sirius interrupted,"until the day comes when your imaginativeness recurrence, you'll have to detect a way to see through your blindness."Harry's immediate reaction was to let a flare-up of air push through his lips in scoffing dismissal of Sirius'words. He began to decrease back into his pillow when he stopped himself and held fast to Sirius'bridge player. To see through sightlessness ? Might it still be potential ?

Not certain what to expect, Harry reached out with his nous as Dakhil had shown him — to see without seeing. Why hadn't he thought of it before ? Almost immediately he could recognize the brightness of Sirius before him. It wasn't an look-alike so much as an nimbus of light that shown bright. Harry leaned forward in his bed. Reaching out further he began to aim in the dim glow of the constitutional aliveness that clung to the wall, ceiling and floor. Without saying a Holy Scripture he let go of Sirius'mitt and rose out of bed.

"Harry, I don't think—"But Harry held up his manus and his godfather simply watched.

What Harry was ‘ seeing'wasn't so much an image as an imprint of all that was around him. It would ingest time to decipher the soma, hue and intensities. There was a glow coming toward them. Harry pointed at the threshold.

"somebody's coming,"he said. Sirius spun, confused. An moment later, Madame Pomfrey walked through the door.

"Harry Potter !"she cried."Get back in bed this New York minute !"Harry smiled as she reached over to assist him, but he moved out of the way before she could reach him.

"I should take in known it was you by your colour,"he said happily."Bright blue — the gloss of a healer's spell."He looked back at his godfather."Sirius, you're a bit Orange River right now. You were hopeful a moment ago. What's untimely ?"

"My god,"whispered Sirius."You can see."


Harry ceramicist and the Birth of a New Sun

Chapter 13 - The New improver
~~~***~~~

"The flow. The stream ! Do you see the stream ?"

"Ye… yes, Ro… Ronan. I… I see… the bloody… stream."

"Jump !"

Ronan didn't want to distinguish him. Harry had already started the saltation.

It had been bitterly low temperature all day, but with all the running Harry was beginning to repent his decision to wear clothes. They were pushing the terminal point between physical and magical exertion and Harry's groundwork, well clad in a pair of trainers, were on fervency. The weak jacket and pants he was wearing were suffocating and felt like they weighed a thousand Syrian pound.

Once again he was training with Shahan and Felspar. Over the hold up few 24-hour interval, the three had been put though their tempo by Ronan, Firenze and others — running, lifting, and shooting arrow from one side of the Forbidden Forest to the other. Harry was exhausted — a intuitive feeling he was beginning to enjoy. If anything, he preferred to be out in nature.

Still blind, he was developing his restrain power to reach out and smell out the aura of life around him. While he could attain impressions about where things were at Hogwarts, occasionally very uncontaminating physical object would lose his attention. A chemical group of Slytherin fourth years had discovered this about a week after Harry had returned from hospital and had taken to conjuring marbles in areas where they knew Harry would be walking. Harry, in turn, developed a few spells that helped net his way. The tinkling of marble usually meant that a Slytherin was nearby, waiting to watch Harry tumble. But since Harry could keep someone's aura, even through walls, the culprit was usually found fastened to the wall with their underclothing on their straits and zip else. It was a page out of what Nott and Parkinson had done to Ron last twelvemonth and Harry didn't mind a little playful payback.

In the forest, however, Harry felt as if his vision was in effect than having sight. Everything was alive and vibrant. Trees and flora, the largest beast and the smallest spores, Harry could see it all as if he'd never been blind.

Shahan had cleared the stream ahead and was already pulling away. feldspar came a bit unforesightful and she splashed pee into the air. Harry, just a step behind Felspar, was shorter still, landing a full measure away from the bank's edge. His feet landed firmly in the water and he struggled to hold on his balance so as not to fall into the icy water completely. He'd only taken three steps when he noticed the coolness around his metrical foot. When he focused his attention downward he could smell out clearly that his trainers were gone, the freighter of his bloomers in tatters. Where the spattering from Felspar hit the front of his Garden State it had dissolved away as if it had been burned by acid, the aura of his bare skin underneath beaming through.

Stepping backward as he moved out of and away from the stream, Harry focused at the work water. For the inaugural time he noticed that its colour was different than the former streams he'd seen through the forest. The light emanating from this piddle was whiter, more crystalline, more pure. With a gravid jump off Ronan, who had been following, jumped from coin bank to banking company with ease. Harry expected to be chastised for stopping, yelled at for falling behind, but Ronan said zilch. Harry noticed that the whitish-gray of Ronan's aura warmed a bit. He'd learned, at least with his friends, that such a change meant a grin. He wondered what it meant with a Centaur.

Shahan had long disappeared in the underbrush ahead, but felspar stopped little of the thickening tree and returned to Harry and Ronan.

"Is something legal injury ?"felspar asked.

"Only one of the three has seen it,"answered Ronan coolly."I asked you not to depend on your website and to make out with your vision."

"But Shahan said—"Felspar began, but Ronan cut him off.

"You are your own Centaurus, felspar ! You have passed these waters so often, and yet you still can not see ?"Felspar stepped closer to the stream, staring down at its ripples.

"Not with your middle, foolish one !"snapped Ronan. Felspar stepped back and closed her eyes. A bit passed before she rose up on her rear legs and spun toward them.

"The descent !"she cried with excitement."The stream that feeds the falls !"Then feldspar stepped over to Harry, noticing his bare infantry and ankles."Harry Potter, your fetlock are bare."She stepped closer."But the anatomy is unharmed. If ever I held doubt in the Chosen, they have forever washed away."felspar nodded with a svelte bow. Harry nodded in return and the smiled as he saw Felspar own fetlock joint.

"And I thought you couldn't be any whiter,"Harry said, grinning.

"The boy is flop, feldspar,"said Ronan."Your own fetlock have grown brighter. Like the chosen, you now wear socks."He laughed as feldspar looked down to see that indeed her whitened coat was glistening Thomas More brightly from the knee and pawn down.

"Perhaps you should skip over in wholly,"suggested Harry.

"No,"said felspar immediately, backing away from the water."I would not place the pureness of my center at such a standard. Indeed, if I had known these were the very waters…"

"feldspar,"said Ronan,"catch up to Shahan if you can and severalise him that we are done for the day. He has, once again, failed the test. You are fortunate that you stopped to deliver. In these times we must commemorate to think of the ruck before our own interests."Felspar bowed.

"Shahan will not be pleased,"feldspar said to the reason.

"As I am not,"retorted Ronan."For three straight daylight Shahan has failed to savvy the lesson. Firenze says Shahan did not even bother to search for Ebyrth. The Centaur is of no use to the heard if he refuses to learn our ways. I care not that he is young."Then Ronan stepped closer to Felspar ; his posture becoming strict."You would be wise not to listen to Shahan's thoughts, Felspar. That your coat should switch colour at all is not a good mark. Your mother has raised you better."Then Ronan's demeanour changed back to one of instructor.

"Focus your mind on where you need to be, Felspar."He said naught more, but Felspar turned toward the share of the forest through which Shahan had disappeared. A moment later in a stripe of white she was gone.

"Is that not an Apparation ?"Harry asked.

"One can not Apparate on these grounds, Harry Potter. The globe is too filled with magic. The centaur can bend distance and slack prison term so that aloofness travelled can be covered far more quickly than on hoof alone. You have accomplished this already. What's more you have learned to leave your mortal physical structure and travel with the other living spirits of the forest."

"You helped me… when I was with Shahan."

"Yes,"answered Ronan."But I need not bear witness you again ; these skills are yours to control. Do you feel the Bowtruckle staring at us from across the current ? Perhaps he can facilitate you see what you've thirsted for. Reach out to the creature's mind."

When Harry did reach out, he found it far easier than he first expected. The energy of the timber seemed to riddle him with added insight, guiding his sentiment as he became focused on the creature, leaving his own self, releasing his corporeal human body behind and melding into the essence of a stick. In a photoflash he was one with the woody Bowtruckle. His eyes blinked. Ahead, across the current were a Centaurus and young man with tattered gasp and no shoes. Harry tried to mistreat forward, but the creature would not respond. It was as if he were simply eavesdropping. Suddenly, he felt quite hungry. Instead of looking ahead at the two across the stream, Harry found himself looking down. There was a rather large stink worm wriggling its bulbous head between two leaves. He bent down, sniffed the foul-smelling thing at pulled it up out of the soil grinding gut and earth between his dentition.

"Yack !"said Harry, returning to his own body and spitting out what wasn't there. Ronan remained expressionless.

"fountainhead done, Harry Potter. It has been lupus erythematosus than a year since the cleansing, and already you have learned the Centaur Arts. It will take much to a greater extent metre to master them and many years to realize their true nature. It is…"Ronan paused looking toward the western sky."…unfortunate that we have so little time."His hoof clawed at the dry land."It does not go well for our buddy in Eastern European Economic Community. Wizards have joined the Dementors and brought a new friend to the war."These last row were spoken with the most emotion Harry had ever heard from a Centaur—contempt.

"Vampires,"said Harry quietly."It's the work of Lucius Malfoy."

"It is the employment of Ebyrth. Malfoy is but its tool."

Harry could feel wickedness falling, and for the first time he was beginning to sense moth-eaten. Ronan sensed this at once.

"It is time for you to return to the castle, Harry potter. I have been training you far too hard and far too fast, I'm afraid. So it is with Shahan and felspar. You are all learning before your ability to comprehend. If we were heavy in number…"Ronan let out a foresightful sigh as Harry turned to face him.

"Why wage war,"asked Harry,"simply because Ebyrth has returned to the heavens ? How is it that this solstice is any different than last ?"

"That is not a dubiousness for the Centaurus, Harry Potter,"said Ronan defiantly."It is a interrogative for the Dementors. It is not our war ; it is theirs. It is not the Centaur herd that are destroying the hamlet of Eastern European Community. That is the work of the Dementors and their ilk. They are the ones swayed by Ebyrth's return ; we are simply defending ourselves."

"I read that in the struggle of the Fifth Age the Centaur ruck nearly obliterated Dementors from the face of the earth."

"Would that we had,"said Ronan coolly."Their duskiness has no role other than destruction. Near the end of that war, only a smattering escaped into the swamps and peat bog through which we could not travel. It was there they learned to fly ; it was there they developed their thirst for soul. Now, from a disperse few, their offspring have multiplied. They outnumber the Centaurs two to one. For that we can thank the Wizarding world and the world of man whose greed has consumed the earth and produced sustenance on which the Dementors feed.

"No, Harry ceramist, you fight on the side of righteousness, as the Centaurs have for centuries. But, I am afraid, virtue alone will not be enough to contribute us to victory. We will ask your strength and more."

"It doesn't supporter that I'll never see again,"said Harry, rubbing his arms with his hired hand to bring some warmness to them.

"It is the will of Ebyrth. There is a reason and you will discover it. Already your blindness has taught you to see many things."

"Yeah, right,"said Harry a bit sarcastically."I see that everyone's their own pretty colour. If I had a few centuries I might be capable to know everyone's exceptional hue."

"It is a windowpane to the feeling that lies within. This vision you have goes beyond external appearance and penetrates the marrow of the animate being before you. My hoi polloi hold their emotions well, so they appear gray or white. Have you noticed that house elves are nearly always—"

"green. Er… greenish. Yeah, I noticed."

"Goblins, whose natures are always tempestuous, are almost always scour with red. While wizards and beldame carry the colours that suit their nature, colours the aim centaur creative thinker can spot. It does not take long to recognize the given hue."

"Or hues,"added Harry.

"self-justification me ?"asked Ronan."What do you have in mind ?"

"fountainhead, when they have more than one colour. You know, say leafy vegetable that sometimes turns blue."Ronan was staring blankly at Harry."You know, the guy's form of blue sometimes, kind of jet former times… right ?"

"Unless there is a phenomenal transformation, a emotional state carries but one hue, Harry potter. It may lighten up or darken, but the hue remains the same. Unless…"

"Unless what ?"asked Harry. Ronan stepped back from Harry and scanned the forest about them.

"Do you see this in many ?"he asked cautiously. Harry had to think for a instant.

"No, not really. Now that I think of it. Just a handful… in the school."Ronan stepped closer.

"There are ways you might see two hue, Harry Potter. Some sensation or witches are known Animagi. The fauna inside can defend a different hue, although even among the Animagi it is rare. Usually, the creature reflects the nature of the witch or wizard."There was a long pause.

"And the other ?"asked Harry.

"It can be the work of a fracture spirit, mortal who is really two people, or possibly under the control of another."

"The Imperius whammy ?"Harry asked.

"Perhaps. Such is the way of wizards and my knowledge falters there. I hope this is not someone close. Someone in your confidence ?"

"Erm, no… not really,"Harry lied."I've got to go, Ronan. Thank you for your teaching today."Harry's thinker was clicking of the list of names. He focused on bending the space between where he was and Hagrid's hut."I think I can find—"Before he finished his sentence, Harry had warped time and found himself outside Hagrid's front door. He'd covered the space, some miles, in little more than than the nictation of an eye. Still, in so doing he'd exhausted what little resources of strength he had left. His clothes shredded, he was about to knock on Hagrid's room access when he sensed that someone was hidden in the trees behind the garden. Harry reached for his wand and held it at the ready. Barefoot, he began to step silently toward the spy. It was one proficiency taught him by the Centaurs and for the fleetest of import Harry thought he'd prefer a notch arrow right about now.

Stealthily, Harry moved closer. The bod, with a bright emerald green aura, didn't move. Its position continued to rest against the tree. Just a few thou away Harry's nostril took in the smell of heater, a distinctively aromatic Mary Jane.

"Dragon !"Harry hissed quiet and low. This close, Harry could see the trope, still leaning motionless against the tree, bring his hand to his mouth. He was taking another drag on his cigarette. Harry could pick up the exhale, long and slow.

"hoot, Potter,"Draco said, pulling himself away from the tree and turning to face Harry."I thought you'd never get here."Draco took a step closer."Falco columbarius, what the hell happened to you ?"

"Dragon, you can't be here. Do you cognize what will happen if—"

"You don't know yet, do you ?"said genus Draco in a long low drawl. He liked knowing Thomas More than Harry and didn't judgement showing it, if only for a moment."How farsighted have you been in the timberland ? All day ?"

In the darkness from far up the hill Harry could see the front man door of the castle unfastened with their characteristic tornado. What he didn't expect to hear next was Ron Weasley's voice.

"He should be there by now, I'm sure."

Followed by his father's.

"I should hope so, Ron. I don't have much more metre and this is quite important."

Harry spun to see three figures walking their way down to Hagrid's hut. One he didn't recognize, but was sure was Mr. Weasley. The former two were Ron and Professor Dumbledore.

"I thought the old man would be dead by now,"said Draco with a issue of fact look as he pulled what was left of Harry's jersey toward some thicker underbrush. Harry acquiesced and the two withdrew deeper into the forest as Ron, Dumbledore and Mr. Weasley made their way to Hagrid's hut. When Hagrid answered the knock he was livid.

"Yeh should sustain been here an minute ago !"he called from inside."I don't tutelage what Ronan tells yeh ; the forest ain't safe after dar—. Er… Professor Dumbledore, sir. Erm… Minister. I… er… I wasn't expectin'company."

"I take it,"said Dumbledore, making his way into the hut,"that Harry has not yet returned from his time with the centaur ?"A minute later and the door shut leaving Harry alone with Dragon once again.

"What's going on, genus Draco ?"said Harry not holding the proper product line of stack with Draco's eyes."I thought you were going to use Blaise to—"

"So it's true,"said Draco, waving his hand in front of Harry's face."You're blind."Able to see the gleaming from the life-forms that clung there, Harry grabbed genus Draco's arm.

"You can study !"said Harry dismissively."It's been in every theme I can opine of."Dragon ignored the fracture, reached up and touched the face of Harry's aspect.

"Does it smart ?"

"I'm too cold to feel anything right now,"said Harry rubbing his blazon again."What's up with Blaise ?"

"Blaise has been… compromised. He and I have a magical gimmick phrase that we use to ensure the other is mentally free from any… tampering. For the last two calendar week, Blaise has tried to meet me without using that phrase. He's someone else's now."Dragon took another long retarding force on his coffin nail."How Father found out… I don't know."His words were deeply troubled. It was an emotional switching in Dragon that Harry had rarely seen."We were deliberate ; more than careful. You need to get laid that there's a spy in the castle. I thought maybe Nott, but he doesn't have the acquisition to purge the Imperius."

"You're r-risking your sprightliness to narrate me there's a spy ?"asked Harry incredulously."There's p-probably a twelve !"His dentition were beginning to confabulate as the cold set in.

"And you're supposed to be our saviour ? We're screwed."genus Draco flicked his cigaret into the air and it vanished."Here."He passed Harry his cloak and wrapped it around his shoulder."You know, aside from being scratched bloody, having essentially no clothes, and looking like you were just run over by the Hogwarts expressage, you're in pretty goodness shape. Maybe if you stopped running around the woodland butt naked—"

"T-Training,"Harry interrupted.

"rightfulness, like that's going to make unnecessary your sorry ass. I don't know what potions you've been taking, but you undecomposed fire up up and see what's going on around here."

"I don't know where the Hades you've been, Draco, but I've been here since day one. I think I know what's going—"

"Cho and Goldstein are going to be married over Christmas. Did you know that ? A secret wedding."

"What ? What are you talking about ?"

"I've been here since day one,"Dragon mocked Harry."Yes, you're so in tune, so straighten out. Hell, Harry, that's not even the interesting news."

"Married ? Goldstein ?"

"Not even her footling brother knows they're getting married. Quite scandalous."Draco chuckled to himself and then sat cross-legged on the ground."But I suppose you, all knowing prophet of the blind have insight to that."Harry said zip, but sat down side by side to Draco crossing his arms and peg under Draco's cloak.

"seed on, ceramist,"drawled Dragon once again."Surely you can guess why Cho and Goldstein would want to… nay… would need to get marry secretly."Again there was a hanker pause and Harry pulled genus Draco's cloak tighter about his shoulders. He was feeling a pang of jealousy and he had no right to. He had loved Cho and he would always love her, but their way were never meant to travel together. His way of life was and would forever be entangled with Gabriella. It wasn't perfect but the attraction was unattackable and the love firm and the doubt of any given day that kept Harry forever on edge tickled a very Slytherin region of his intent that wriggled deep inside him. Finally, Harry breathed.

"Cho's pregnant,"Harry whispered."That explains why they've been meeting secretly for months. Goldstein won't say where."

"French Republic,"answered Draco with a sly smile."Don't tell anyone, Harry, but Goldstein's guardian may be their chaperone by day, but at Night he's a Death eater in my father's help. It's a tryst of minuscule consequence to my father and it pays the bills for H, the chaperone, but I knew you might give a limited interest."

"I never thought that Goldstein and Cho would—"

"Oh, but I'm not done, Harry. Cho Yangtze Kiang spends her twenty-four hours in France, in a petty villa just north of Marseille, a town called La Mure. She and the—"

"When's she due ?"Harry asked."Do you recognise how far along she is ?"At this genus Draco smiled.

"Witches can hide that fact until the very day of bringing, Harry. Have you ever seen a pregnant witch ?"For a moment, Harry pondered the estimation. No, he hadn't ever seen a pregnant witch. And then he remembered that he'd seen Geoffrey Hooper's mother just a few weeks before her baby was born and she looked no different than the year before.

The door to Hagrid's cabin opened and the monster stepped out for just a consequence looking toward the forest."Should be any moment, sir,"he said to the folks inside."Any moment."Then more quietly to himself before he went back in he whispered to the forest,"Harry, where in Singehorn's name are yeh ?"Harry began to stand, but genus Draco pulled him back down. For a flash, Harry was irritated, but caught himself.

"You know, Draco,"Harry said gently,"if we walked in there right now, together, Dumbledore and the Minister would take you back. You'd be—"

"Dead in about two days,"cut in Draco."Not by the Ministry's hired man, but by its dark underbelly."

"Then why are you risking your life right now ? It's not to dish the dirt on about some girl and guy you couldn't pass a shucks about. What's so important that—"

"They've found it,"Dragon interrupted."month ago I asked you to find it first, and you didn't even try. Now they have it."He flicked a twig into Harry's face."Blaise risked his life and you did nothing. Now he's been found out."Dragon leaned over and grabbed the cloak about Harry's neck opening. Harry could feel the material tighten, not by Draco's mitt, but another forcefulness."You're going to get it back, dearest, or I'll kill you myself."The textile tightened further. Harry reached for his baton, but found the cloak held his manpower tight.

"Draco,"he gasped,"I don't know what you're—"

"Save it for individual who gives a damn."He leaned over Harry who was gasping for breathing place now."Funny thing… magical cloaks. They can hold so many enchantments."He pressed Harry firmly against the sod as the Gryffindor desperately tried to gather air."Understand, Harry, I don't want it and I sure as the pits don't want my father to get his hands on it. But he will if they have their way. Get it out of the Ministry before it's too late."

All of a sudden, the cloak released Harry and he began to cough, heaving in as often air as he could. Draco took to his feet and wrapped the black cloak about his shoulder, his long blond hair's-breadth starkly whiten in direct contrast. Still coughing, Harry stumbled to his feet and pulled his scepter. Dragon ignored the gesture and turned to leave. But then he stopped as if suddenly remembering a forgotten thought. The room access to the Hagrid's hut opened and Ron stepped out. He'd heard the sound of Harry's coughing.

"Harry ? !"Ron called to the iniquity.

"Oh, and Harry,"Dragon said, looking Harry in the eyes even if the glance was not returned."Cho isn't pregnant."He turned to leave."It's a neonate baby boy. fountainhead, not so a good deal newborn any more. You'll never guess the birthday… it's the same day as yours."

"Harry !"Ron called again. This time, by the tone in Ron's voice, Harry knew they'd been seen. He focused back toward the hut, but when he turned back to Draco, the Slytherin was gone.

"That's not possible,"he whispered at the vanity. The sound of pace came charging up from behind and Harry could hear the commotion on the front porch of Hagrid's hut. A hand touched Harry's berm.

"Was that who I think it was ?"Ron asked quietly. Harry simply nodded."That can't be good,"Ron muttered.

"No. No, Ron, it's not."

"Harry ? Is that you my boy ?"Arthur Weasley called from the hut."Harry, come inside. Get out of the cold."

"I told you, Arthur,"Dumbledore said gently from within the hut,"aught to worry about. Come in and let's finish our tea."

"My god, Albus !"cried Chester Alan Arthur as Harry and Ron returned to the cabin."Look at the boy !"Harry was still barefoot, what remained of his wearing apparel in tatters, his side covered in mud and now a thin red line that wrapped about his neck shown through the grime. As he climbed the footmark with Ron's assistance his tooth once again began to chatter.

"Yes, yes,"said Dumbledore, dispassionately."I see they've been working you rather hard today, Harry."The statement was More question than anything."A lot to think about ?"Harry just nodded and walked through the door."Well, it's not going to get any promiscuous, young man."

"Get o'er by the fire, lad,"said Hagrid, offering a blanket. But before Harry had a chance to accept, Dumbledore pulled his wand and tapped Harry's shoulder. The grunge disappeared and a Hogwarts robe covered his body. The tenuous red line about his cervix and the aching muscles, however, remained.

"Hagrid,"said Dumbledore,"perhaps some tea and some…"Harry tried to catch Dumbledore's eyes to evidence him to stop, but found, as it had been since his accident, he could no longer effectively communicate silently with his oculus."…stone cakes."

Warming his musculus by the fervour, sipping a bit of tea, and pretending to enjoy Hagrid's rock-hard Lucy Stone cakes, Harry was beginning to feel himself again. He assured Arthur Weasley that he was fine and that his dishevelled appearance was all in a day's employment, training with the Centaur in the forest ; but the Minister was none too convinced.

"Your clothes were in tatters, Harry, and it still looks as if you've been strangled."

"Just a little workplace with devil's Snare is all, sir,"answered Harry, rubbing his cervix with his impart deal and sipping some more tea with the other. If they could see his eyes, they would know he wasn't listening to a word they were saying. Draco probably thought his short show would rivet Harry's mind fully on some Horcrux that the Ministry had no doubt just found, but Harry's mind was anything but centred. After a bit more raillery about school, regrets about Harry being screen, and news about the battles raging in Eastern Common Market, Chester Alan Arthur Weasley finally got down to the purpose of his visit.

"You know, I'm sure,"he began,"that we have been excavating the collapse that occurred at the Ministry last yr, beneath the… erm, chamber."

"What ?"Harry exclaimed."Why ?"

"well, to try to recoup the bodies, Harry,"answered Mr. Weasley, surprised somewhat at Harry's reaction."Many Aurors lost their lives that evening and their physical structure have never been found — at least, not until stopping point week. Since the flop we tried for calendar month to find the bottom with no achiever. We encountered one magical portal vein after another, and the workers were none too fain to accidentally stumble across the Curtain itself."

"You recovered the drapery of Phenolem ?"cried Ron."Why ? Why in bloody—"

"No, Ron,"interrupted Dumbledore,"the curtain and the stump were destroyed in the nightfall. No, just the consistency, bodies from both slope, have been returned to their loved ones."

"well, yes, Albus,"added Arthur with some nervousness."near of them, anyway. We have yet to get Dragon Malfoy's remains."Ron began to cough.

"Hagrid,"he asked, clearing his throat once again,"do you take in any more stone bar ?"

"Why sure, Ron,"said Hagrid with mirthfulness."seminal fluid on in teh the kitchen."Ron stood and followed Hagrid, patting Harry's shoulder on the way.

"I don't really see what any of this has to do with me, sir,"said Harry."I mean… well, I've put that behind me now. harbour't I ? There's another darkness we need to stave off, isn't there ?"

"Yes, yes, absolutely, Harry, absolutely."Arthur patted Harry's lap."But there was one other recovery at the very depths of the gaping fissure."All at once, Mr. Weasley's aura faded and Harry knew the following intelligence were a lie."They pulled it up today, just before lunch. I looked for you earlier, Harry, but you'd already left for the forest."President Arthur Weasley stood from his hot seat and looked out the window facing the castle, the colour returned to his aura."I was thinking we could ingest a dedication of sorts. You could come to the Ministry as we put it on display. It would certainly remind the hoi polloi in these dark times that we can beat out darkness."

"I'm sorry, sir, but what did you recover ?"

"Oh, yes, I'm sorry, Harry,"answered Arthur."I've wanted to discuss our hunting since you and I spoke on the train. I never knew taking care of the Ministry would consume so much of my time."His eyes wandered for a moment and then returned to meet Harry's."No thing,"he whispered."In our search, we recovered the cloak. The black-market cloak of… You-Know-Who. The only remnant of his darkness and a symbol to all of his defeat."

"Voldemort ?"snapped Harry."You have Voldemort's cloak ?"Harry turned in his chair."Burn the blasted thing. destroy it !"

"I knew you might finger this way, Harry,"said Arthur with understanding."That's why I came myself. You must agnize what an image you've become in the Wizarding domain. Just one picture of you, perhaps wand drawn, adjacent to the cloak of the wickedness you destroyed would mean so much to—"

"It's insane !"said Harry, rising to his feet."Do you know what that might be ? It could—"

"Harry,"said Dumbledore sternly, silencing Harry's rant."I think it would be Stephen Samuel Wise for you to take some time to debate what all the implications are. Time to view what's best for… everyone involved."Harry expected to see the fondness of anger human body in Dumbledore's aura, but if anything his luminosity dimmed with a coolness of business concern.

"I… I'm sorry, sir,"said Harry, cooling his own temperament."Yes, that's what I need Minister… time."

"Please, Harry, you needn't birdsong me—"

"Excuse me, sir. I need to go. It's just… I'm really tired is all."Harry reached out his hand to stir, and Arthur Weasley took it."Let me get my headspring together, and I'll get back to you. Just a day or two."

"Certainly, Harry, I understand. Until then, we'll retain it safe ; I can secure you."Harry started for the door."Here, let me walk you to the castle."

"I got it dad,"said Ron, dropping one of the pit cakes on the table with a thud."Finish your tea and have some more… er, cakes."Ron ran to the door next to Harry's side. Staring at the cake and then Hagrid, Arthur was about to say something when Dumbledore spoke out instead.

"Excellent idea, Mr. Weasley,"he said to the younger redhead."Please happen Harry safely back to the castle."

"Goodnight, Hagrid,"said Harry to the behemoth still in the kitchen, baking up another spate of cake for his guests."Thanks !"

"Sure matter, Harry,"called Hagrid."Anytime."Then he turned to Mr. Weasley just as Harry began to close the threshold."Minister, try another one, hot out of the oven !"

By the time Harry and Ron were at the rook steps, Harry had answered nearly of Ron's inquiry.

"I just don't get it, Harry,"said Ron shaking his head."It's just a piece of cloth. You killed him."

"Ron, you saw my wearing apparel tonight. They were burnt away because I fell into the magical current that feeds the downslope. commemorate when you fell in finale year ?"

"Pulled in you mean,"said Ron, rubbing his in good order wrist."Yeah, I remember. My clothes disappeared."

"They didn't disappear,"corrected Harry."They were burnt away. apparel are impure. They can't survive the purity of the water."

"That's a Centaur taradiddle,"said Ron dismissively.

"tarradiddle or not, the water destroys material. I doused Voldemort in nearly ten gallons of the stuff. It was enough to thaw every evil off-white in his eubstance, but the cloak… red cent ! I should have known when I saw it then. The cloak survived. But why ?"

"So you think it's the…"Ron's vocalism dipped low,"…the Horcrux Draco was talking about ?"

"I don't see how it can be,"suffice Harry."If it's part of Voldemort, it should have been destroyed."Harry sighed."Maybe Hermione will know."Ron shrugged and nodded in agreement as he reached to spread out the rook doors. Ron heaved on the lumbering handgrip just as Harry's hand stopped him and exclude them again.

"Ron ?"he asked."You have a lot of brother and babe. Erm… how long does it take to… er… for a witch to… you know… bear a sister, after… you know."For a second gear, Ron just stared at Harry, and then reaching ever so slightly to the thoughts on the tip of Harry's mind he understood.

"Oh ! How long does it take up for a baby to be born after conception ?"he asked.

"Yeah… yeah, that's it."

"well my mum's always going on how I took longer than most… ‘ Forty two weeks, and in the middle of the war !'she'd say.

"So… figurin'my birthday, what would you say… you know… for my kinsfolk to…er—"

"Do the nasty ?"said Ron with a smile. Harry simply nodded. Well, Ron thought for a second, touched his fingerbreadth and counted backwards, and then a radiance of a grin crossed his face once again.

"Pretty darn near to Allhallows Eve, Harry."He poked Harry in the ribs."Do you think they were wearing costumes ?"Harry didn't react in the way Ron expected. Instead, he leaned his back against the castle room access and slid down to a sit on the stone landing place.

"Oh, Merlin,"he whispered in a unwell form of voice."Oh, bloody, fucking, Merlin."

"What ? What is it, Harry ?"

"Ron… I think… I think I'm a father."


Harry ceramicist and the giving birth of a New Sun

Chapter 14 - Wedding Plans ~~~***~~~

When Harry and Ron passed through the portrait of the Fat lady, Harry found the Gryffindor plebeian room, tender than normal. Near the fireplace sat the auras of Annapurna, Lavender, Gabriella, Hermione, Ginny and Dean. Towards the dorsum, Neville was helping Patrick and a few others, Harry had yet to make out, groom for their Herbology exams. Evidently, the test involved a electrocution plant of some sort, perhaps fireseed, Harry thought, since there was a billowing cloud of bullet that hung over the radical and nobody seemed to heed.

Harry, his mind fractured at the consequence, brought his attention on Patrick. The smoke was clouding his ability to see the auras of those at the backbone mesa, but the trickle light emanating from Patrick was the same as it had been since Harry first met him after the accident - blue air and super acid. Each colour waxed and waned, growing more park whenever he was excited or near Harry.

"Patrick ?"Harry thought silently to himself, but the cerebration was brusque lived.

"Harry ! Ron !"cried Dean. His voice brought Harry's attending back to the group about the fireplace. The margin call sounded like a plea for assistance, as if doyen felt, at the present moment, like a trapped rat in a serpent's cage. He began to tolerate when Ginny grabbed his arm.

"Oh, Dean,"she said breathlessly,"isn't it beautiful ?"Hermione was projecting an look-alike of a young woman in a Edward Douglas White Jr. marriage ceremony garb. The girl stood, suspended in the centre of the five scholar and modelled the dress she was wearing, slowly turning in all directions so that everyone could see, everyone that is except Harry.

"Er… yeah, great,"muttered James Dean miserably, sinking back into the couch.

"I don't know, Gin,"said Lavender cautiously."I think the wagon train's a little long."

"Lavender's right, Hermione,"added Annapurna."You don't want to dish out with all that dragging behind you even if it's levitated."

"You could have fairy's carry it."

"I variety of like it,"Hermione said as she held her hand to her chin and tapped her cheek with one fingerbreadth."But I think the second…"doyen let out an audible groan, but the girls ignored him while Hermione began to flash through mannikin after manikin, dress after dress, as if thumbing Sir Frederick Handley Page of a book. It was only then when she noticed that Ron and Harry had entered the common elbow room.

"Ron !"she exclaimed."You're just in time."dean's eyes grew wide and he shook his head as nondescriptly as he could to ward them off. Ron caught it, but Harry did not."We were just looking over dresses when—"She stopped herself mid-sentence, noticing the expression on Ron's face."What's wrong ?"

Gabriella stood and came over to Harry."You both look like someone died. Did Filch catch you sneaking into the kitchens again ? Out with it… what happened ?"Ron looked at Harry, and Harry looked blankly above the young lady.

"Nothing,"they said simultaneously.

Gabriella patted Harry's cheek.

"naught ?"she said, sensing the swirling swarm of emotions that must possess shown like a beacon light for everyone to see."Would you like to join us ?"she asked."We were just—"

"No thanks,"interjected Harry. While he had grown accustomed to seeing scholar from other home in the common room, he had completely forgotten that the little girl were going to get together this even to discuss Hermione's wedding architectural plan for the summer."I need to get prepare for the Potions examination tomorrow."Ginny stood, looking at Harry.

"I thought you were supposed to be out training all day today,"she said, questioningly.

"I was."

"But you're squeaky clean,"she replied sceptically."You know, if you weren't working out in the forest today, we could have gotten at least three hour on the pitch."

"I was in the forest today !"Harry exclaimed."Besides, you know I can't Seak. Not like this."He waved his hand in front of his oculus.

"You're the team captain ! It's you're obligation to—"

"These aren't your gown,"interrupted Gabriella, rubbing the textile in her fingerbreadth."These are new."

"Dumbledore cleaned him up,"offered Ron. This was followed by a chorus.

"Dumbledore ?"

"wellspring, er… he and Dad were at Hagrid's and—"

"Dad ?"asked Ginny."Dad's here ? Why didn't he say he was coming to school ? Where is he ?"It felt, suddenly, as if sharks were beginning to encircle Harry and Ron.

"Well, he only had a minute of arc,"said Ron, stepping nearer to his sister. She had risen to her base and James Byron Dean took the chance to quickly flash away and head toward the helical staircase to the boy'dormitory."And he needed to see Harry, so I took him over to—"

"So he saw you, but he didn't have metre to see his just girl ?"

LE than a moment later everyone was talking at once. Ron and Harry were being bombarded with questions about everything from the Minister's visit, to why Dumbledore needed to conjure Harry new gown, to what model Ron thought would be nice for the new Cathay.

Unexpectedly, there was a loud plosion from the back of the room that caused everyone to pipe. A rather large powerhouse spewed forth from the table where Neville and the others were working. It was Neville who stopped it from lighting the entirely place on fire by casting a mash charm.

"Damn it, Patrick,"Neville said irritably, while a few of the other students laughed,"I told you not to mix fireseeds with burning bush powder ! If you do that in the exam tomorrow, professor Sprout will fail you for sure."

The commotion that had surrounded Harry, quickly gathered about the back table and the baked faces that stood there. Harry took the opportunity to watch Dean's footsteps up the staircase. Near the top he heard a rather dejected St. Patrick apologize, but what he saw was a blue glory beaming with pride. Then Harry noticed Patrick flash him a thumbs-up from within the long sleeve of his robe, a signaling that no one could see.

"Sorry, Neville,"said Patrick with a shrug of his shoulder joint."I'm just no good at this kind of stuff. I'll be lucky to defecate it to the third base class at this rate."

Gabriella looked back toward the open fireplace to find Harry and before she could encounter where he was Harry disappeared into the boys'residence hall. Inside he found Dean, belly down on his bed, reading a book about Quidditch. He loved the game so, it was a shame he wasn't any effective at it. He looked up as Harry entered.

"Are they gone ?"he asked."Did you have to blow them all up ?"

"Well, I—"

"Because that'd be fine by me, Harry. I was about to blow myself up if I had to look at one more china pattern."He looked back at the book and turned the page."talk about pressure… blimey."He turned another page."I mean… I love Ginny and all, but does she actually think I'm going to ask her to marry me ?"He turned another page ; clearly not having read the hold out."So… last year… yeah, maybe. But that's your fault."Dean looked up, pointing a finger at Harry.

"Me ?"

"wellspring, I mean, I was in a conflict — fighting you for her. You know. That sort of affair, well… it gets a guy in the climate. But this material downstairs… wedding clothes, and color of board clothes, and…"Dean sighed."talk of the town about deflating."Without looking back down to the book, he turned another page. Then, quite suddenly, James Dean groaned and turned over on his bed, placing the open up record over his chest."Merlin, I love her."There was silence and he sighed again."She's been my populace. She brought me back after the accident."Dean held his bridge player up, flexing the fingers in front of his aspect. His soul had been reconnected to his corporeal form and Ginny had been there every step of the way."She didn't need to do that."

"She loves you,"said Harry, walking over to his bed, taking off his new schooling robes and putting on a loose pair of jeans."grimace it, Dean, you're her reality too."

"I just don't want to be thinking about man and wife while I'm still in schooltime,"answered Dean, sitting up on the boundary of his bed and facing Harry."There's enough to be getting on about without having to worry about in-laws… china patterns…"

"…children,"added Harry quietly.

"Merlin, no,"shot Dean."I can't even imagine. But then Ginny's William Christopher Handy with a sheathing charm. We're careful… you know ?"Harry nodded as a air mile twisted in his venter."Can you believe Neville and Helen of Troy ?"continued doyen."Neither one of them used any protection their start few times. Hermione found out and had a fit."

"Hermione ?"queried Harry.

"fountainhead, I told Neville that he was being an idiot. I told him how Lee Jordon told me that Fred told him that George hooked up with some miss in Hogsmeade in conclusion twelvemonth and wound up with a case of runespoor wart. Had to go to St. Mungo's to get them removed. Can you consider it ? Yeesh."Lee covered his crotch with his hired man and grimaced.

"But why Hermione ?"

"If you want to know any spell, magical spell, or hex to get the job done, Harry, who do you go to ? Hermione."Harry looked a bit disgruntled and crossed his weapons system. Dean sensed Harry's pride and added,"After all, everyone knew she and Ron were together since the Fall of end class. She knew how to be safe, and Neville sure wasn't going to tattle to Ginny."

Harry wasn't sure how to take that. He didn't have a hint until last Christmastime that Ron and Hermione were together. Yet, everyone else seemed to know. Further, he was pretty indisputable that finale year Tonks had used her Metamorphosis skills to take on the appearance of Helen so that she could sneak into Gryffindor tower with Neville. It brought up memories… bad retention. Suddenly, going to talk to Hermione about anything didn't seem like such a full melodic theme. Harry began to drum his desk with his finger, then crossed his munition and just looked down at the floor. He could see the halo's of the living organisms that his mates had tracked in under their shoes. Maybe Aunt Petunia wasn't such a crazy bat after all - at to the lowest degree as far as wiping one's feet at the doorway was concerned.

"What's up, Harry ?"asked dean."Why are you so wound up anyway ?"

Barefoot and shirtless, Harry walked over to the window. Yuletide was a week away and, sadly, no snow had fallen. The grounds below and the surrounding forest glistened brightly in Harry's blindness. He placed his left handwriting on his chest, just above Asha's marrow, the Stone that even now sat hidden within him. Focusing high above the treetop he found nix but blackness. later in the evening, cloud had moved in, covering all in a iniquity blanket through which no asterisk shone. He peered at the Saame quadrant of sky in which he knew Ebyrth hung, growing ever closer. He closed his eyes and dropped his head heavily against the shabu window.

Voldemort's cloak should have been destroyed by the water from the falls, but it wasn't. Why ? Was it the Horcrux Draco thought it was, or simply an physical object of top executive that Lucius craved ? There was a spy in the palace, probably within Gryffindor or Slytherin that had given up Blaise. He was now under a Death Eater's Imperious swearing. Who was the spy ? Could they have turned St. Patrick too ?

It wasn't enough that war was raging in Eastern Europe and would soon grace the forest about Hogwarts, if not the castle itself. Now there was a baby. Could it really be his ? That was a unintelligent dubiousness. Of grade it could be ; the timing was near arrant and they had been… well, stupid. It was just before the Halloween fete. Harry was going to secern Cho about Gabriella… let Cho sleep with that they couldn't be together, that Gabriella was the one he truly loved. But then she touched his arm… the look in her centre. Even now, the memory board sent a tingle down his vertebral column and made his interior quiver. Neither of them was in the right frame of creative thinker, but they both knew what they wanted. Now they were both paying for it. At to the lowest degree Cho was. Harry began to wonder… if the child was Harry's, did Anthony know, or was Cho simply using him ?

Harry shook his head, trying to brighten his puddle persuasion. Maybe he was making a big muckle of nothing. Maybe Marcus Antonius was the father. But the vision… Gabriella's imagination that both he and Hermione shared. He'd seen a shaver. Gabriella saw her own demise and yet Harry saw spirit. He thought it was their child, his and Gabriella's. Now, Harry wasn't so certainly.

The window was cold and a thrill ran across his trunk. He turned and walked over to his store breast, opening the lid and feeling around for a shirt.

"Harry ?"Dean asked."I know something's bothering you. What is it ?"

"Tell me, Dean,"said Harry as he found a shirt. He began to fumble about for a pair of socks.

"Yes ?"

"Ah…"Harry held up two wind cone."Do these play off ?"

"Kinda,"answered doyen, looking at black and maybe a drear navy blue.

"Good… soundly,"replied Harry and he slipped the shirt and windsock on. He sat back on his bed and slipped on his rush without saying a word.

"Harry ?"asked James Dean probing."Where are you going ?"

"Accio cloak !"Harry called with his right hand in the air, fingers outstretched for a haul. His cloak flew into his face."Almost,"Harry muttered. He stood and put on the cloak on and then slipped his wand into his sleeve and stepped toward the door.

"James Dean,"he said,"please afford my apologies to professor Snape. I'll miss the examination tomorrow I'm afraid. It's sad really. Since the joining, I think I had a pretty good chance of acing it. Severus, after all, shared a bit of himself with me that night."Harry rubbed the scar on his right arm.

"Slow down, partner,"said Dean, taking to his substructure."You can't just go off—"

"Whew ! I made it !"cried Ron, jumping into their elbow room."I never thought I'd get Hermione's attention. I finally had to go in through the backdoor, if you know what I mean."He tapped his headspring."She'll be up in a… Whoa. Where are you going ?"he asked Harry.

"Actually Ron,"began Harry,"I was just telling James Byron Dean that—"

"What's all this about the Horcrux ?"asked Hermione as she entered the room.

"Shhhh !"cried Ron and Harry simultaneously, ushering her inside.

"You found it ?"she asked in a near whisper.

"Maybe… if you can believe Malfoy,"answered Ron.

"Malfoy ?"asked Dean."Not Draco ? I thought he was—"Gabriella entered the elbow room.

"What's going on ?"she asked. Then looking at Harry she queried,"Where are you going ?"

Harry, who had leaned up against the rampart near the doorway, began tapping it nervously with his fingers. He glared at Ron."Great design, mate."

"Well,"said Ron,"I tried to—"Harry held up one digit to his lip and Ron lowered his voice."I tried to—"Harry shook his finger at Ron. There was a bit of a rumbling and Ginny burst through the doorway.

"What's up ?"she asked. Then she noticed Harry."What's with the cloak ?"Harry crossed his weapon.

"Bloody pit,"he whispered.

"Is that what's got you so agitated Harry ?"Dean asked as Ginny slipped into his arms. Then he turned to her."Did you know Draco was alive ?"It was a motion she didn't expect and it caught her off sentry go. Her center shot immediately to Ron and the look gave her away at once.

"You did !"cried Dean."How could you not tell me ? Did you all jazz ?"Harry could see the blast building in James Byron Dean's emotions. cipher said a Good Book."How long have you known ?"

"Get over it, doyen !"Harry snapped."Draco wanted it secret and we're keeping it that way. We know because we were there. Ginny knows because her brother has a big fat mouth."Harry gestured at Ron without looking his way."genus Draco's heart is here at Hogwarts, Dean. Until we can clear his name we can't make him out as a fugitive."

"Clear his name ?"said James Byron Dean."He was… he is a Death Eater."

"He saved my life, Dean,"interjected Ron."That you do roll in the hay. That I've told everyone. But my password isn't enough to keep him out of Azkaban. I should have it away, the pastor's my Dad and, no, he doesn't know about Draco either."

These words cooled Dean's flaming, if only a scintilla, and his hands found his air pocket. There was a mo of secrecy and then he turned to Ginny reached out and took her handwriting.

"You know, Gin,"dean said gently,"if we're going to pass the eternal rest of our lives together, we can't be keeping secret from one another. Secrets… they… they sour somebody and eddy cartel. If you'd have just told me to preserve mum, you know I would induce. All you had to do is ask. You know that… don't you ?"Ginny reached her hand to James Byron Dean's cheek and kissed him.

"I know,"she said softly. Then she held him tightly in her blazon."I'm sorry."

"Well… well,"said Harry uncomfortably."Erm… Ron, tell your Dad that we can give birth the ceremony with Voldemort's cloak this Sabbatum after exams."

"But that's three days, Harry,"Ron said,"isn't that too long to—"

"Right,"cut in Harry,"so that's why you… all,"he waved toward the grouping,"can figure out how we get the cloak tomorrow dark. I'll meet you at the ingress to the Ministry at midnight. Have the architectural plan fix and I'll help you however I can."He grabbed Gabriella's hand."Come with me."They started for the door when Hermione grabbed the back of Harry's cloak, stopping him in his cartroad.

"What do you mean ? Where are you going ? Your Potions exam is tomorrow."Harry turned back, his face stern but his oculus blank.

"First, I'm going to see a friend of mine in Ravenclaw, and then… then I'm going to France."

There was a collective,"What ! ?"from everyone but Ron.

"It's one secret I'm afraid,"said Harry, raising his bridge player to quiet his Quaker,"that needs to be kept… at least for now."Again he took Gabriella's arm."Come on."Everyone turned to Ron as Gabriella and Harry left the room. Almost immediately, Gabriella began to ask questions, but Harry held a fingerbreadth to his sass.

"Not here… not now,"he whispered.

They were about to pull in out through the portraiture of the Fat Lady when Lavender stopped them near the fireplace.

"So I guess Hermione's done looking at dresses for the Nox ?"she asked.

"I think she and Ron might be having a bit of a row,"said Gabriella insightfully."She's definitely done for the night."

"Ooooh,"hummed Lavender as she cast a chatty glimpse toward Anapurna.

"Men,"said Parvati flatly. Gabriella simply nodded, taking Harry by the arm and walking out of the Gryffindor common room.

The two didn't speak until they reached the staircases. It was tranquil with only a few students roaming about. near were belike studying for tomorrow's exam. The others were either heading toward or returning from the library. The two found themselves alone on the stairway as it slowly began to slew into spot. Finally, Harry gathered the bravery.

"Did you know… ?"he began cautiously."Did you know about Cho ?"

"Cho Chang ?"Gabriella asked blankly.

"Yes, Cho Yangtze River !"Harry snapped."How could you not live ? You two were inseparable at the end of utmost year. She helped you through exams. Merlin, you spent more time with her than with me. How could you not know ?"

The gem staircase came to rest against the wall. The two climbed off that one and onto another that began to slip into yet another direction.

"So we're going to see Susan B. Anthony,"Gabriella said knowingly. Harry said nothing, wishing only that the staircases would strike more quickly."William Tell me Harry, are you still so jealous ?"

"Jealous ?"Harry asked angrily."Jealousy has nil to do with this. I have a right field to know !"His last language were loud and reverberated off the Harlan F. Stone paries.

"They have a rightfield to their secrecy, Harry,"Gabriella replied with an sharpness in her voice."They have a right to keep the Daily seer out of their lives. Frankly, I don't see how it's any of your business. It's clear Cho knew what she was talking about when she asked that I keep this from you. She said you'd react this way."

They turned and began to pretend their way up to Ravenclaw tower. A third base class Ravenclaw joined them on the moving event upward. Harry moved close to Gabriella failing miserably at keeping his voice hushed.

"None of my business ? None of my byplay ? !"

"Yes ! None of your clientele ! They were dolt, Harry,"Gabriella said struggling to uphold her composure in front of the third year, although Harry could feel the anger building within her."It was a mistake, a mistake that Anthony's wizard enough to set straight. Can't you see that he's trying to do the compensate thing by caring for what will soon be his syndicate ?"

At this, the third base year Ravenclaw looked back over his shoulder at Harry and Gabriella. Gabriella flashed him a look that put the boy's nose back into the book he was reading. The Oliver Stone staircase came to a check and the boy stepped off followed by Harry, but Gabriella grabbed his arm.

"What do you intend to do ?"she asked."Confront him ? Hex him for getting your… your mistress pregnant ? If that's what she was. You hardly carry the more noble ground."

Suddenly Harry realized that Gabriella knew, but didn't know. She knew that Cho had had a child, but she didn't know that Harry could be the Church Father. He stopped and leaned against the balustrade. The postponement was just long enough that the stairway began to move again.

"She was not my fancy woman,"Harry said quietly to the darkness."I… I was not myself last year. You know—"Gabriella put her hands about Harry's shoulder joint.

"I know,"she whispered sadly. Harry turned to look her.

"I've only ever loved you,"he said.

"I know that too,"she said with a smile that Harry could not see but could smell. She kissed him gently on the cheek and pulled him close. They held each other that way for some prison term and when the staircase came to a stay Gabriella moved to get off, but Harry stood still.

"I'm not covetous because of Anthony,"spoke Harry to the open air before him."It's just that… I could be the begetter,"he said softly.

"What ?"

"I could be the father,"he repeated, stepping close to her."It wasn't Mark Antony that was the stupid one ; it was me - Halloween of last class. Cho's child… it could be mine."

Harry waited to see the reaction, but none came. The news had no effect on Gabriella's aura. Either she knew already, or had suspected all along, or the tidings simply didn't upshot her emotions.

"I see,"she finally whispered."That muddies things a bit, doesn't it ?"

"I need to ask Anthony where she is,"he said firmly."I need to see her ; I need to know."

"It seems to me,"Gabriella said slyly,"that, for someone who's not supposed to cognize anything, you know quite a bit already. You know there's a child. You know she's in France."

"La Mure,"added Harry.

"Then you know all there is to know, Harry. The town's not that large and a few well placed questions will get us to where we need to go."

"Us ?"Harry asked.

"Don't be silly,"answered Gabriella."It's far too life-threatening for you to leave the castle alone. Besides, Professor Snape has already released me from tomorrow's exam for—"

"—for high marks,"interrupted Harry."Yeah, I know. I know."He paused for a few import and then rock his top dog. But before Harry could say a Good Book Gabriella began.

"Harry,"she said gently, holding her hired man to his brass,"I don't care how well you can see what others can not."She took his hand."You're screen. It makes a dispute. You can't go somewhere you've never been, sing to people you've never met and think that it's no big deal."There was another tenacious pause.

"Cho's escort is a Death Eater,"Harry said, more to himself than to Gabriella.

"You're joking, right ?"

"He's not much of one, but Cho's bodyguard is a end Eater."He paused, churning the trace in his mind. Finally he said,"You're justly. I probably wouldn't get a chance to see her… not without help."He squeezed Gabriella's hand."Besides, you need to be there. I need you to be there."

It took twenty minutes to get what they needed before they could swipe out through the cover burrow to Hogsmeade. It took half that time to clear it to Le Mure. Gabriella was right, Harry would birth been lost without her. It was bad enough trying to remember his Gallic ; it was worse trying to estimate out what hand gesture or facial construction went along with it. blind, he could observe none of it, but Gabriella was nearly perfect. In fact, Harry began to wonder if she had known the way all along. Finally, knowing that Cho's apartment was just around the city block, the two decided to expend the night at a lowly inn and waiting until morning. It was the first they'd been truly alone since the summer.

Harry offered to sleep on the floor, but Gabriella pulled him close to her. There was a passion to her trace that meant Thomas More to him than anything in the whole globe. That nighttime he laid his soul bare, telling her everything he knew, everything she'd listen to, including Draco's possibility about Voldemort's cloak. Only when he touched on his breeding with the Centaurs, would she noticeably change the subject. He fell asleep in her arms and woke the adjacent morning the Same way. The sun was just breaking into the window as he stroked her foresighted pitch-black hair, wondering with some fear what the futurity would bring.

After breakfast, they walked down the alley toward the belittled apartment body structure that the boniface had described to Gabriella. When they finally arrived, Harry covered himself with the invisibility cloak. Gabriella knocked at the door and the door opened, held open by an older man with gray pilus and a stock flavour on his face. There were intromission and Gabriella slipped inside. The door shut before Harry could follow. There was a moment of silence and then squeals of joy. Harry knew the phone ; Cho was inside. A few moments later the man left, jingling coins in his sac. Harry's program had worked - Gabriella, handing the man a copulate galleons, suggested he go to the corner pub for a bite and a beer or two. He wasn't to the sidewalk before there was a snap fastener and he had Disapparated. Then the murmurs began ; louder, then lenient, then louder again. Finally, Harry heard,"Don't be silly."A moment after that, the door opened and Gabriella ushered him inside.

All the while, Harry had seen the aureole of the two young cleaning woman and the older man. He watched as they moved back and forth, and as Gabriella hugged what he figured to be Cho. It had been the first metre he had observed a Disapparation without his sight and he noted with stake the sudden burst of energy that accompanied it. But more than anything else his attention was focused on one thing above all - a dim reddish gleaming that glimmered from the back of the apartment. Through all the walls it could possess been anything - a cat, a dog. But Harry knew, by how well its colours blended with Cho's, what was there.

"Harry ?"Gabriella asked to the idle words before her. Cho stood only a few feet away. Harry sensed warmth assorted with apprehension. As for himself, he could find the sweat of his palms as he reached up and slipped off the cloak.

"Cho ?"he asked to the glow before him. The air didn't move, the soul didn't speak, but the people of colour began to blanch almost immediately. Then her hired man went to her face, covering her mouth.

"Oh, Harry,"she croaked."Tony told me about the accident, about…"Slowly she walked over to him.

"This ?"Harry asked, holding his hand near his temple."It's nothing. Just a bit of glass. surgery's scheduled for next calendar month ; should have me honest as new."Cho took his hand and then touched his brass.

"I'm so sorry,"she whispered."I should have come to visit."She took him in her arms and held him tight. He could feel her quivering in his arms."I couldn't… I couldn't bear to see you again."

"Great,"Harry drawled."Always near to acknowledge you're thought of kindly."

"Harry !"snapped Gabriella shortly. She took Cho gently by the arm and said,"Cho, can we come in and have a sit ?"Cho loosened her traveling bag on Harry and wiped her face with her hired hand.

"Oh, yes,"she said, sniffing,"of course."

The place was gravid than Harry expected, compared to what it looked like from the outside, but it was sparsely furnished and what furnishings there were appeared old and tattered. As they entered the kitchen he noted a few Ravenclaw memorabilia here and there. He even recognized a broom, the Calluna vulgaris he bought her last twelvemonth, was propped up in the corner. Cho offered them some coffee berry, they accepted and together they sat at a pocket-sized table in the kitchen. There was a little talk about the conditions and school day.

"Are your exams over ?"Cho asked."Tony has Arithmancy tomorrow."

"Tony,"muttered Harry through gritted teeth. Maybe he was a bit jealous of Anthony."Er… yeah. Gab and I are done for the semester."

"That's great,"said Cho softly. There was an awkward muteness, and then, finally, Harry could wait no longer.

"I heard… I heard you and, er, Tony were going to tie the knot… get married. I told Gab we should come by and find out when. Ask what you might need to, erm…"He looked around at the shabby furniture."… spruce the place up."

"Soon,"answered Cho without hesitating."But we're not telling anyone until after the school class. Not even my family. They think I'm here studying art."

"I also heard,"continued Harry, not really listening to Cho's watchword,"that you two had a shaver ; a baby boy is it ?"Before Cho could answer Gabriella took her by the mitt.

"It's so exciting, Cho !"she said joyfully."I'm sure you're a wonderful mother. The sister is so golden to have two such terrific parents. Both Ravenclaws !"

"Thank you, Gab,"said Cho warmly."T-Tony's been great."

"Can we see him ?"asked Gabriella excitedly."I've wanted to see him so."Cho was hesitant.

"Well,"added Harry,"I can't see him, but I have a pretty good mind that he's right through there, isn't he ?"He pointed to the back room and swallowed."I think it's great that you and… er, Tony are doing the… er, veracious matter. It sure would be with child, at least for Gabriella, to see him. Just a vizor ?"

"He is due to eat breakfast soon,"Cho said cautiously."Perhaps… just for a moment."

When she returned to the kitchen, Cho was carrying a baby boy dressed in a humble red jumper. He smiled and muttered a few sounds as she sat him in his professorship, offering him a biscuit to chew on. The benumb fog of Harry's eyes were focused somewhere above the boy's head, but his mind's eye was captivated on the golden red glow before him. It was brilliant, almost blinding, and Harry wondered if the brightness level of the glow was because he was a baby or something more. The cooky snapped out of Cho's hired man and flew into the waiting grasp of the baby's.

"Look at that ! So soon ?"cooed Gabriella."He's just perfect."And then she began to babble baby talk to the child.

"Yes, he's pretty exceptional,"answered Cho.

Harry could sense that she was looking at him, centred on his chemical reaction, but he was at a red ink. To get laid for sure he would have to ask straight out. Now, here they were, and Harry didn't know what to do. He half wanted to poke the baby with a stick to see what it would do.

"Has he,"Harry began,"shown any former star sign of magic ?"

"No. Not really,"answered Cho cautiously."But he can stand with service and he's already tried to walk."She paused."I think, maybe, he'll be in Hufflepuff,"she added wistfully."He loves it when I take him to the zoo."

"What's his name ?"asked Gabriella.

"Jamie,"answered Cho.

"After your buddy ?"

"We just liked the gens,"Cho said, not committing.

"I have to hold,"said Gabriella,"that he's the break image of you. And that's a beneficial matter ; you're much better looking than Anthony."She laughed and Cho did too. It sounded as if it had been the first off clock time Cho had laughed in quite some prison term. But then the tone in Gabriella's vocalization changed.

"In fact, he doesn't look much like a Goldstein at all. You're both so sinister, and Jamie's hide is so pale."

"He… he doesn't get out much,"said Cho, growing nervous.

"Cho, you know I love you like a sister. Don't you ?"Gabriella asked gently."wellspring, I think Harry has a right wing to know. You see, he told me that you two slept together at Hogwarts - just once, on Halloween. Caught in the heat of the bit, I guess."Gabriella took a breath, gathering her strength."I don't guardianship why it happened. And it doesn't bother me anymore that it happened. The fact is it happened… nine months before little Jamie here was born."

"Well—"

"Cho,"Gabriella interrupted."Harry may cause his suspicions, but he can't see what I can, and the eyes never lie. You and Susan Anthony, you both have brown eyes. Both your parents each have brown eyes. It would take a powerful wizard to produce a boy with anything other than brown eyes and the magic would most certainly be to turn the colour of the eyes to his own."Cho said zippo. Harry said aught."It's true, Jamie is the split image of his beautiful mother. But the eyes… I think he has his Padre's eyes."Cho remained silent. Once again, Harry watched as her glory blanched.

"What do you mean ?"asked Harry blindly. Gabriella took his hand.

"They're green, Harry,"she said quietly."Prunus dulcis shaped and brilliantly green. Just like yours."


Harry ceramist and the nascency of a New Sun

Chapter 15 - Another Potter
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Beyond the babbling of the baby sitting beside Harry, there was secrecy. Perhaps, if one were to take heed closely, the speech sound of a shuttlecock chirping or a distant bus creaking to a halt could be heard, breaking the windlessness of the morning. Then Cho's foot began to nervously tap against the incline of the board. In front end of Harry, she had been confronted by Gabriella with the truth, but still she would not, or could not talk. Harry had known before they came to France that the child would be his, and though he had not heard the countersign from Cho's lips, he wasn't about to become wild ; it was hard enough not to show how frightened he was feeling. No, if anything, he needed some metre himself to get over the sinking feeling in his breadbasket, as if he'd just fallen off his broom. He would wait for Cho to be prepare. He breathed deeply the odor of his coffee bean, took a sip, set the cup down and put out his finger, with which the little boy began to bite toothlessly.

"Jamie ?"Harry said tenderly."I… I like that name."

He smiled and put his paw on the boy's psyche.

"Oh, my. What a head of hairsbreadth ! Is it black ?"This simple question was purposefully directed at Cho. There was the beat of a pause before she answered.

"Yes,"she said quietly, with a bit of a crack in the word. Harry could hear her swallow.

"Thank Merlin he's got his mother's looks,"Harry said with a chuckle. He took another sip of coffee.

"You'll see him one day, Harry,"said Gabriella with an encouraging tone. Harry tilted his head down and judder it slowly.

"I don't think so,"he said quietly, his lips still turned in a thin smiling.

"What do you mean ?"asked Cho, surprised."Surely they can—"

"I was just examined by Madame Pomfrey,"interrupted Harry."The vision charms aren't knitting. There's still too much glass."

"But couldn't they just—"

"There are dozens of tiny shard - too many and too small to vaporize without vanishing pieces of my eyes and if they summon them out they'll shred whatever healthy eye tissue that's left."Cho gasped.

"I… I didn't know. I thought—"

"No topic,"said Harry taking to his feet."I can see the fervor in his soul, even if I can't see their colour of his eyes."He went to the coffee pot to swarm himself one more cup. On the way, he tripped on a lowly toy that had fallen on the flooring and what liquid that was in his cup spilt.

"Woops,"said Harry. Cho stood to clean the spill, but Harry had it off the solid ground nearly before it landed with a simple Wave of his handwriting. Since losing his stack, his power without a wand, abilities he rarely used in forepart of others, had strengthened. Without skipping a beat, he poured himself another cup, but rather than rick he continued to face the cabinetwork. Yes, he could see the fire in the boy's aura, but he would give anything to cause his eyesight back… to see his tyke, his son. He began to tremble. For the initiative clock time in month he was cold with fear, and it wasn't fear of a Dementor or dying Eater. It was veneration for his tiddler and his child's mother, fear for a future that was already so uncertain, so glum. It felt as if all the air in the room was being sucked away.

"At least,"he said, holding the warm cup in his hands,"Antony won't need to… to depend into my eyes and wonder. I… I wouldn't want that."Cho stepped up behind Harry and placed her hired hand on his articulatio humeri.

"Anthony Goldstein, Ravenclaw Prefect at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry ?"asked Cho."He might be a bit proud at times, but he's no fool, Harry. He knows."She turned Harry to face her."He's always known that… that Jamie is your son. He came up with the name. Your f-father's name."She placed her handwriting at the side of meat of Harry's facial expression."He knew that too. I… I didn't."With these words, Cho began to cry. She held Harry by the straw man of his shirt and pulled him close, sobbing into his chest. Gabriella left her chair and the three hugged for some time while Cho repeated over and over how sorry she was, and Harry repeated over and over that it was okay, that he was the one who was sorry. It was fiddling Jamie who broke up the troika as he began to cry.

"Oh… he's hungry,"said Cho blotting her eyes. She picked the boy up into her arms and ushered them all into the front room where the fireplace sat cold, but the slightly tattered chairwoman were more comfortable. Even without the firing, Harry watched with wonder the fondness that filled the elbow room. He could tell she loved the boy deeply. Nor, was the emotion lost on Gabriella, sitting at Harry's English, who was gathering a luminescence herself as she took in the way's emotions of erotic love. He took Gabriella's helping hand and for the first metre in a long time Harry tried to relax, letting the swirling fears of the future fade from his head. It was Cho that started the conversation as Jamie continued to suckle.

"I wanted to keep this secret, Harry - secret from my parents, secret from my brother, underground from you. At first I was ashamed and then—"

"But—"

"Let me finish,"asked Cho."I need to finish, or I may never be capable to."Harry nodded."conclusion year you wanted to tell me about Gabriella."Cho looked at Gab."He did so desire to push me away, to severalize me of the Muggle miss he had met back home."Her middle returned to Harry."But I could see that, just under the skin, there was a fire of desire and I… I wanted… my broken torso wanted to be desired."

"He was cross-hexed by my parents,"said Gabriella. The words were meant to be explanatory, but Harry noted a tinge of bitterness or sadness.

"I know that now,"answered Cho."Maybe I knew it then, at least that he wasn't in his decent mind. I could have used a overlay charm. I thought about it. I even reached for my wand before it happened Hallowe'en Nox behind the Great Hall."Gabriella crack Harry a glance that he could not see."But then I stopped. I wanted this."Cho looked down at Jamie."I wanted to have something in case… in case…"

"In case I died ?"asked Harry."Like Cedric ?"Without speaking, Cho simply nodded.

"I was being stupid. As if I could ever… And then, when I found out about Gabriella, when we actually spoke…."Cho smiled."I was so happy for you, Harry, and you were so sad."She sighed, shaking her head."So I hid it - I hid my pregnancy and I hid Jamie."She put the baby over her shoulder and began to pat its cover."I thought that after You-Know-Who had been destroyed I could tell you, but then I heard about the new war… that Malfoy's end eater were out to pour down you. What would they do if they knew you had a son ?"She shook her head."This summer, I travelled to the United States with Anthony… Tony. One night, I fell asleep in his weapon system and when I woke up the next morning the befuddling appeal had warn off. I was fraught for all to see. In that twinkling I panicked, horrified by what he might suppose, what he might do, and in the adjacent I felt Tony's touch, warm and caressing on my stomach. He stayed at my position and he's never left."Jamie let out a rather impressive burp and everyone smiled.

grin, Cho held Jamie in her lap and said something in Chinese as she wiped the milk from his chin.

"Tony's hired Chalmers"said Cho, referring to the guard that was probably now close to finishing his morn meal,"to watch over Jamie and I, while he finishes school. It's costing him every knut he has. Once we're married we'll qualify for benefit from the Ministry. They offer trapping and, maybe, we can find a nicer plaza to—"

"welfare ?"spat Harry, his vertebral column snapping strict."From the Ministry ? You can't be grievous ! You're not going to take a dime from the Ministry. As far as I'm concerned there all a bunch of crooks !"

"Harry !"called Gabriella.

"well, Ron's dad. But the rest of the lot ? Crooks !"He took to his animal foot."And as far as bread and butter in Ministry housing… never ! I won't allow it."

"What do you mean you won't allow it ?"said Cho a bit heatedly."You have no say in the matter."Harry ignored her.

"You'll stay at the palace. It's far enough away from what's happening… yes, you'll be safe there."

"We're condom here,"said Cho, standing herself, the child held snugly in both arm.

"Safe ! Are you kidding me !"cry Harry."What's his name… bedroom ? He's a end Eater !"

"Oh,"Cho chuckled,"now you're just being ridiculous. Chalmers wouldn't hurt a fly. He's only working for Tony because of the forgivingness in his heart. He hardly makes enough money to get by on."

"So he moonlights for Lucius Malfoy as a Death Eater !"exclaimed Harry."At least he doesn't know that the boy is mine. Thank Falco columbarius for that."Cho's expression dropped with surprise at these Good Book.

"How could you possible know that we haven't told him ?"she asked. Now Gabriella stood, stroked Jamie's cheek and took him in her own blazon, patting his back as he rested against her articulatio humeri.

"Because,"Gabriella said softly with a melodious voice as if she were singing to the baby,"if Chalmers knew, Lucius would know. And if Lucius knew, his son would know."

"Draco ?"breathed Cho."I thought Draco was…"Her voice quieted and she strode over to Harry and slapped him on the shoulder."You little prevaricator. You looked me straight in the eye and told me he fell into the abyss."Harry turned his back.

"Don't you look away from me !"Cho yelled."Let me see your face."Harry acquiesced. When he faced her, any ire he felt evaporated and his shoulder slumped.

"This is unpointed,"he breathed."He'll be back here any consequence. Maybe he's a kindly old doddered just trying to take a shit a buck any way he can. Cho, you can't take a chance."He placed his men on her shoulder."I have money and it's my duty. Let me at least help pay the bills until Anthony graduate. Let me at least commit you a roof over your headland where the fireplace works and you'll know you'll be safe."

"It's beautiful there,"added Gabriella."Green fields… lazuline seas… cute Greek boys with bare chests."She winked and kissed Jamie on the straits. Cho crossed her coat of arms and walked over to the open fireplace that had no fuel for the flack.

"I… I'll have to ask Tony,"answered Cho."Do you think… I know it's difficult overseas, but do you think we could plug into to the floo meshing ? I miss the family so, and we are going to assure them… after Tony graduates."

"That's one thing the Ministry can do,"said Harry, suddenly well-chosen Cho was changing her nous."But you can secernate Tony later. first base, we need to—"There was a snap and an instant later the front room access opened. Gabriella motioned for Harry to hide. He had just sufficiency time to flit under his cloak and gather himself into the recess before Chalmers walked through the front door.

The older man was too thin and not often taller than Cho. When he entered he took his coat off and hung it against the wall with a sticking charm.

"Beautiful day today, Miss Chang,"he said with a toothy grin."Beautiful Day !"He stepped over and gave Gabriella a nod."And thank you missy for the amercement meal."He paused."It's been a while since…"His face grew wistful, but then he shook his headway."No matter."He slapped his hands together and pulled his wand."Let me decipherable these dishes for you."Harry stood silently against the rampart as Chalmers walked with a bit of a limp into the kitchen. There was a distinct musical rhythm to the cadence of his base on balls that Harry, two calendar month ago, would not otherwise have noticed. It was then that Harry saw a change in Gabriella's aura ; something was wrong.

"Oh,"said Chalmers with a tone of voice of surprisal in his voice."Three cups. Did you have another visitor today ?"Without waiting for an response he levitated the mantrap into the sinkhole where the scrubber began to wash them. Cho was freeze down, but Gabriella stepped over without hesitancy.

"Yes,"she said quite sedately,"a girlfriend of ours, also from Hogwarts. She had to leave betimes to get back for her good afternoon exam."Chalmers nonchalantly straightened the professorship.

"fountainhead, you know how Mr. Goldstein feels about visitors, missy Chang."He settled himself into one of the cushioned chairwoman and began to unfold the newspaper, still scanning the room with the eyes."At to the lowest degree strangers."Harry could tell that the old man was on safeguard, sensing something that was not decently."Just tryin'to observe you and the baby safe he is."

child Jamie babbled something and then pointed at Harry hidden beneath the cloak. The motion was enough to stimulate Chalmers to turn and look back into the far quoin at the cracked and empty wall. Jamie babbled again and gave a light laugh. Chalmers smiled.

"well, wee Jamie is happy enough to accept guests."He held up the strawman page."What's your booster's epithet, missy ?"

"Hermione… Hermione farmer,"answered Gabriella. There was the svelte pause and she added,"And I should be on my way as well."She gave Cho a hug and kissed Jamie's cheek."Thanks so much for letting us visit. He's just adorable and you're a wonderful mother."

"Thank you, Gabriella,"answered Cho, kissing Gab's boldness."I couldn't ask for a kinder, strong ally. Please total sojourn after the marriage. I think I'll feel more well-to-do then - Mrs. Goldstein."

"Oh ! That reminds me,"said Gabriella suddenly."Mr. Chalmers is it ?"Chalmers set his report in his lap.

"Just Chalmers, missy."

"Cho was showing me the baby's room and I noticed the dorsum window. We had discussed placing a sealing appeal, but I wasn't certainly if—"

"Yes, fille,"cut in Chalmers proudly."The whole house is sealed tight. No one can get in without permission. It's a Bucinum charm."

"Oh dear,"said Gabriella."A Bucinum charm ?"Chalmers nodded his head."I think a Trepidus charm would be safer."

"Trepidus charm ?"asked Chalmers blankly.

"Oh yes,"added Cho."A Trepidus charm would be ideal."

"Certainly,"continued Gabriella,"I mean, if someone tries to break in in the Bucinum charm blows them up. That could harm the baby. Do you think you could bear witness me where you set the charms ? Together we can make the replacement."

"Oh, please do, Chalmers,"asked Cho pleadingly."Gabriella's a kickoff category enchantress. She studied at Al Bsahri you know."

"Did she now,"said Chalmers with interest as he took to his metrical unit."I've heard they reopened the school this year."

"Yes,"said Gabriella,"it's quite lovely."

"Well, let's have a facial expression around and see what we can do."Together, Chalmers and Gabriella made their way to the back of the house, leaving Cho and Jamie alone with Harry. Even as Harry moved toward the front door beneath his invisibility cloak, Jamie followed him with his regard, pointing with his hired hand. Cho walked to the door and opened it.

"When… when do you hook up with Gold— Anthony ?"Harry asked.

"Christmas,"Cho answered. She tried to make the word audio exciting and vibrant, but it fell matt.

"Cho, you don't have to—"

"Don't I ?"Cho snapped."Don't I ? Tony loves me for all the creation. He'd risk his liveliness to protect me… and your son. He's honest, hardworking, and… and… and I'm marrying him on Christmas."Jamie wriggled in her arms, both hands outstretched toward Harry.

"You deserve to be felicitous,"said Harry quietly."You deserve ..."but Harry's words failed him."I'm so sorry."Cho ushered Harry outside to the battlefront stoop and shut the door behind her. She lifted his cloak to reveal his face.

"Harry,"she said."Tony… he looks at me… he looks at me the way you look at Gabriella. What girl wouldn't want that ?"She leaned over and kissed him on the backtalk, and then draped the cloak back over him."I'll ask him about your offering. He's a proud man, Harry, and a bit stubborn. You should be able-bodied to revalue that."

"I love you, Cho. If there's ever anything you need… anything at all, let me know and it's yours. I'll see to it, I swear."Cho smiled, but her eyes were sad. Jamie began to suck up on his fingers. The threshold opened and Gabriella appeared followed closely by Chalmers.

"Ah, here you are,"said Gabriella. The sun was warm on her boldness as she put her arms out and gave Gabriella a hug."The apartment is sealed tight."Cho took in a rich breath.

"Good, thank you,"she said."I was just giving Jamie a short sun."

"Which he can get through the window, my dear,"said Chalmers herding Cho back into the house."Now come inside."He seemed quite protective, but Harry wondered if it wasn't something more."A pleasance to meet you, Miss Darbinyan, was it ?"

"Yes, and a delight it was to meet you,"Gabriella replied."It's practiced to see my friends in such very well hands. Cho, I'll be by before long with those gift I promised."

"Gifts ?"Cho asked."Oh, yes, gifts. Yes, yes, anytime. Be condom ; there's a restrained space to Apparate just behind that gray construction over there."They kissed good-bye and Gabriella began to walk down the street, Harry at her side of meat. Chalmers stood for some meter after Cho had gone inside, watching from the stoop. Gabriella waved one last metre as she turned the corner out of sight. Harry was about to take out off the cloak when she stopped him.

"Stay hidden,"Gabriella whispered."We're being followed."Harry spun and there behind the construction they'd just passed were the auras of two small build. They hadn't been there a minute before.

"Did you see them ?"Harry asked."I didn't hear an Apparation."

"home elves,"Gabriella whispered,"at least one of them. The other… I can't tell."

"But there weren't any sign of the zodiac elves at the house,"said Harry.

"I know,"she replied."They must belong to person else, or one's with its master."

"Who ?"

Gabriella just shrugged.

"How did he fuck your name ?"asked Harry.

"It just slipped out. But I don't think—"

"You don't think Lucius would just as soon see you up on a state highway as me ? It was stupidity !"

"He'd have found out soon enough,"said Gabriella with a sigh as the two turned another recess. The street was deserted save for two Lester Willis Young son playing football near the end by a chain-link fencing. Gabriella pulled her wand. She was going to assault the two that were nearing the recess, but Harry stayed her hand.

"Gab, no,"he whispered."Grimmauld Place."

"But—"

"Now !"

A moment later they found themselves on the streets of London, just outside of number 12, Grimmauld Place. They waited to see if they might give birth been followed, then checked that the streets were clear. Finally, Harry uncloaked and walked up the dance step to the threshold, knocking twice. The door opened of its own pact and the two walked in. There was a whispering, a thumping, and then Sirius appeared atop the staircase wearing boxers and a T-shirt. wand drawn he pointed it blindly toward the doorway.

"freezing !"he screamed."Or I'll obliterate you !"

"I hope not,"answered Harry."I'm kinda hungry."

"Harry ?"Dog Star said, blinking his eyes."Harry what the hell… Gabriella ?"Sirius made an attempt at slicking back his tomentum and started down the step.

"It's after noon,"Harry said."Don't state me you were still sleeping."

"I was up late utmost night. Remus finished grading paper and we— Hey, isn't your Potions exam today ?"Dog Star'eyes shot to the door."And why didn't you use the floo ? What's going on ?"

"Erm… can we eat first,"asked Harry.

"What,"shot Canicula in a singularly insistent tone,"is… going… on ? !"

"Canicula,"said Gabriella softly,"I think it best if we sit down."

"You do, do you ?"snipped Sirius, but Gabriella's blackness eyes caught a soft-spot in Sirius'bark."Well… okay."

The three moved into the kitchen and Sirius started toward the cooking stove. He grabbed a spatula and summoned some sausage balloon when Gabriella took his paw.

"Here,"she said softly,"let me do that. You sit with Harry."Sirius moved to the table and sat opposite his godson.

"Well ?"Sirius queried."It's obvious something's afoot. Spit it out."Harry tried, but he couldn't reserve his godfather's gaze.

"I… I, erm…"He sucked in a vauntingly gulp of air and exhaled."Igoterpregnant."

"What ?"Sirius asked."What was that ?"

"I… I got her pregnant."

"What !"Dog Star stood and whirl towards Gabriella."You're pregnant ?"Gabriella turned the sausages with her sceptre."How could you—"

"Let him finish,"she replied, floating three plates out onto the table.

"Not Gabriella,"Harry said. Sirius turned back to typeface Harry."Cho… Cho Chang."Dog Star fell back into his chair.

"Are you sure ?"asked Sirius with a disbelieving tint."Because sometimes witch can—"

"Oh,"cut in Gabriella sharply."He's sure."

"Merlin,"he whispered, scratching his Kuki-Chin."Harry, you should cognise better."

"I know. I know I should know better."

"And you,"Sirius said, turning back to Gabriella,"why are you here with this cheating scum if Cho's running around significant ?"Expressionless, Gabriella placed the sausage on the plate and added some warmed bonce.

"It was utmost yr,"she answered sitting down and handing Sothis a forking.

"The baby was born in July,"said Harry."On my birthday. His name is Jamie."

Dog Star'fork fell with a crash onto the plate, splattering red bean onto his white-ish t-shirt.

"A b-boy ? Jamie ?"

"They're living in a dump,"said Harry quickly,"and I can't have my son living like that. I won't have another thrower live with dust and spiders, not as long as it's in my power. So, I offered to have them stay at your castle. You know… until Mark Anthony alum. Merlin write his mortal if he ever—"

"My castle ? Anthony ? Who's Anthony."

"Goldstein. fountainhead Cho calls him tonus. How cheesy is that ? Anyhow, the matter is…."

It was well into the evening before Harry had set Sothis straight on all the contingent, uncertain as they were. Sirius then began a speech that lasted for nearly thirty proceedings and included a few quotation to Harry's parents. But when Harry began to probe thick Sirius changed the subject field. After venting about Harry's stupidity, he had agreed to take Antonius, Cho and Jamie in and help in any way he could.

The sausage Cho cooked little more than a memory, Sirius grew hungry again and he convinced them to go to a Tai restaurant that he had found just a few stoppage away. When they arrived, Harry discovered that it was run by an old Muggle, but frequented by a number of witches and wizards. The occasional news bulletin of magic that occurred never seemed to faze the old man. Dog Star called him a learned person, a Muggle in tune with the magic of the natural cosmos but possessing no skill his own. Harry was half-way through his Panang Curry when he realized that tonight he was to meet Ron and Hermione at the Ministry.

"The cloak,"he muttered suddenly to himself, before taking another bite.

"What's that, Harry ?"asked Sirius. Harry looked up into Sirius'heart ; they were smiling. Harry's blindness didn't allow him to see that the creases that had once drawn the side of Sirius'oculus down were now curling upward. But he could sense the luminance of the aura in his godfather's locution. For a mo, Harry considered telling Sirius of their design at the Ministry. Gabriella touched his mitt.

"Thomas More tea ?"the waiter asked, and all three nodded. Harry continued to look toward Sothis who was as happy as ever. The thought of asking Canicula to facilitate them, particularly at the Ministry, curdled the curry in Harry's stomach.

"I said I almost choked,"Harry said with a cough.

"You're eating too fast,"said Gabriella knowingly, rubbing his arm and grin."It's not a race."

"Probably the curry,"said Sirius, taking another insect bite."It's a bit spicy tonight."

"Yeah… yeah that's it,"Harry answered. He wiped his sassing with his napkin and set it on the mesa."Erm… Actually, I think I right be—"

"Harry,"interrupted Gabriella,"I have to go before it gets past midnight."

"Is it getting that late ?"asked Sirius, his mouth half wax. Harry shot her a glance ; his mouth frowned. He didn't want her at the Ministry any more than than he wanted Sirius. There were too many memories—bad memories. Then she said something that surprised even Harry.

"I need to see Jamie,"she said,"just for a here and now. I should get taken charge of it this forenoon, but I forgot. I've not been in tune with the old style for some prison term. Mama would be disappointed in me."Unconsciously, Harry began to rub the dragon scratch that was emblazoned on his right forearm.

He remembered what Gabriella's mother, Soseh, had said at the end of last school year."The blessing is inscribed on the Male of each generation by the adult female of the genesis before. It will be Gabriella's duty to buy the farm the boon to your sons."Once it was discharge that Harry would accept Jamie as his son, it was Gabriella's duty, by oath, that she pass to him the grace of Asha.

"The Votary,"Harry whispered quietly, staring down at the roll of yellow and gold. Then his dull eyes looked toward hers."It's too life-threatening,"he said sharply."What if Chalmers has told them. What if he knew all along ? What if they're still there ?"

"They ? They who ?"asked Sirius.

"We were followed after we left Cho's flat,"said Gabriella."But it makes no difference. By laurels, I have no pick. It must be done, and the Sooner it's done the enceinte the big businessman of Jamie's blessing, of his auspices. He'll pauperism Asha's aid in these metre of darkness."

"You mentioned the death eater bodyguard, but you didn't mention that you were followed,"said Sirius, his eyes turning toward Harry with a more serious glare.

"Draco said that Chalmers doesn't work nights, at to the lowest degree not for Goldstein. Sirius, you need to go with her, keep her secure. That way you can see Jamie and pass on the news, maybe convince Cho to run into the rook tonight while Chalmers is away."

"And you ?"Sothis asked.

"I'll just oral sex back to Hogwarts. If the two were a dyad of Lucius'thugs out to get me it'd be better if I wasn't there."Dog Star sighed, looking longingly at an untasted barbecue superfluous rib. He licked his lips and pushed his plate forward.

"Very well, let's go."They paid and made their way outside and down the street, finding a more remote alley often used by the visiting witches and wizards to Apparate. Sirius took Harry by the arm and looked him in the centre, but Harry turned away to look down the street as a car past by.

"Straight to Hogwarts,"said Sirius sternly,"okay, Harry ?"

"Straight to Hogwarts,"Harry agreed. Gabriella kissed him on the cheek.

"I can see your emotions roiling,"she whispered in his ear."Be vigilant and say, ‘ Hi !'to Ron and Hermione for me."She pulled her sceptre as did Dog Star."Oh, and don't worry ; Jamie will be fine. I'll make for sure that no evil harms your child."Harry tried to come up a grinning.

"Did I ever tell you how much I loved you ?"he asked and then they kissed."I'll see you at school day in the sunrise. celebrate her safe, Sirius."There was a snap and both Gabriella and Sirius had vanished. Harry focused his imagination to another part of London and in the next consequence found himself at a telephone set box above the entrance to the Ministry. As off-putting as Apparating was for Harry, he was ill prepared for what happened succeeding.

"Stupefy !"The flak of red light hit Harry squarely in the chest, knocking him backward some ten to twenty feet, his wand tumbling from his hand."There, Harrington,"a large cloaked figure said with a rather blustering voice, picking up Harry's wand,"and you were about make to wet your bloomers. He is a boy, after all."Still on his back Harry could sense them stepping toward him.

"I… am not… a… boy !"he rasped. This made the close wizard jape, but the smaller man behind him said nix.

"Well, I've got your wand, little man. I doubt you'll—"

"Diffindo !"Harry hissed, stretching his right arm forward. Orange light erupted from the berm down and extended out and beyond Harry's fingertips.

The front of the Death Eater's cloak looked as if a large cavalry sword had just slashed across it, tearing textile and physical body alike up and outward. Harry could feel the blood line splashing his face. The Death Eater screamed falling to his knees. Unsteadily, Harry stood. The whole place seemed to be spinning. He was dizzy and a collect wiz of nausea was building inside.

"Accio wand !"he cried, wrenching his wand from the Death eater's grasp and in to his own hand. Limping forward he yelled"BOY ?"Then he placed his sceptre on the forehead of his foe."BOY ?"rakehell continued to trickle from beneath the crouching Death Eater's costa and between the hands that clutched his dresser."Who do you put to work for ?"Harry asked, already knowing the solvent.

Harry had focused so much attention on the large expiry feeder, he had neglected the diminished one that had retreated to the phantasm.

"I said WHO - DO - YOU - employment FOR !"Standing over his cowering victim, it was then that he noticed the illumination - good deal of lights. Five more than air had Apparated ; he was surrounded. Seemingly emboldened by the new arrivals, the smaller Death eater emerged from the shadow and held out his verge.

"Expel—"There were three spells cast almost simultaneously that stopped the sensation before he had a probability to finish.

"Stupefy !"“ Diffindo !"and Harry's harbor charm,"Contego !"

Only, Harry didn't need the shell charm… for himself. The first patch came from one of the approaching glory Harry presumed to be more than last feeder. The thunderbolt, not the unattackable Harry had ever seen, knocked the pocket-sized wizard backward, albeit only a few fundament. Fearing for his life, and rightfully so, the diminutive Death eater Disapparated. The second magical spell came from yet another aura, small yet intense. It was directed at the lame wizard crouching before Harry. The issue was frightful and instant ; the Death Eater's brain fell to the gravelled paving and his torso slumped forward, draining blood at Harry's understructure, a boiling pool of light like lave erupting from a vent.

Harry spun to face the five whiz approaching him, holding his wand high. Two showed intimation of both red and unripe in their auras as they drew nearer."Imperious Curse ?"Harry wondered. And then a vocalization came to him that startled him more than that of the previous Death eater.

"Bloody inferno, Saint James ! What in Falco columbarius's name did you do that for ?"

The vividness, the canter, the tone… Harry knew at once it was Ron Weasley.


Harry Potter and the Birth of a New Sun

Chapter 16 - The Burden Calls
~~~***~~~

"He was reaching for his wand,"said James I, pointing at the decapitated Death feeder at Harry's substructure."He was going to kill Harry !"

"He was on his knees,"snapped Hermione."Harry had him firmly in control."

"He didn'have the… that little guy in ascendance,"countered Saint Patrick."I had teh take him down."

"You're just golden he was as frightened as a molamar in water supply,"said Antony Goldstein with a rather imperious voice.

"Goldstein ?"asked Harry in surprise as the grouping converged on him.

"Damn, thrower,"said Goldstein,"you're a bloody mess. And I do mean bloody. Scourgify !"The splatters covering the front of Harry's face, shirt and pant vanished, though the pool on the pavement remained."There, that's better."

"Who in infernal region told Goldstein ?"cried Harry.

"Actually, ceramicist,"replied Goldstein,"I stumbled on this merry company as they tried to creep out. Seemed like a practiced DA mission.

"Are you kidding ?"snapped Harry, gazing at the gloriole of the man who'd be his son's father. There was a whiteness about it, but Harry was to inflamed to believe it."You… you can't be here. It's too dangerous."

"Yes, I see that,"said Goldstein with a rather sarcastic tone. Gingerly, Harry stepped out of the line of descent, pooling at his feet. Hermione ran over to him and hugged him.

"Who were they ?"she asked."nobody's supposed to fuck we're here."

"That's what I thought,"answered Harry."I was trying to get an response when James River here decided to make for the butcher."Harry turned to the second yr."The next time I need your supporter Chang, I'll ask for it."Harry sensed at once the anger building within the smaller wizard, but then it subsided almost as quickly as it came.

"I… I was just trying too toilsome I guess,"answered James River."It was scary."

"And why are you two,"Harry pointed to both James and Patrick,"here in the first place ? Stumble across the troupe as well ?"He shot Ron a glance and wished he could convey eyes of Death.

"Patrick overheard our architectural plan and said he'd snitch if we didn't bring ‘ em along,"answered Ron."It was supposed to be muted ; I didn't figure we'd run into demise Eaters."

"If that's what they were,"said Harry, still holding his baton at the ready."They acted more like hired punk than demise Eaters."

The nighttime air was low temperature and tranquility. He could feel the moistness of a dilute mist wrapper about his face, sending thrill down his spine. For a moment he thought of Dementors, but the nervelessness, this chilled clamminess was something else, something more visceral. The whispering of demise were swirling ; somehow Harry knew that. And not for the man that had just been slain, the rustling were telling Harry that more would soon join the suddenly man at his base. But who ?

"Goldstein,"Harry said suddenly,"Marcus Antonius, really you… you have to—"

"Well, we're here now,"said James."Dispatchio !"The all in adept and the pool of profligate beneath him vanished."Let's say we get in, get the cloak and get out before anymore… er, dark whiz show up. Wouldn't want Luci—"

"Where'd you learn that spell ?"queried Hermione."That's twenty percent year."James shrugged his berm.

"My babe I guess,"he said."She's the sassy one in the family."

"Yeah… I see,"said Harry, noticing James'aura fade from green to red then back from red to green. For the number 1 time, he thought James II might not really be an friend."Ron, maybe you should take—"

"James is compensate,"interrupted Anthony."ripe if we get down into the Ministry before another XII Death Eaters Apparate in."

"But—"

"Harry,"interrupted Hermione,"let's just get downstairs. We can talk then."Harry heaved a sigh and the mathematical group squeezed into the phone booth. Ron said the password his Father of the Church had told him and a silver orb appeared, scanning Ron in a sickly white light. Then, with a jar, the elevator began to plummet. Harry tried to search at Ron and suggest to the Aythya americana that he should read Harry's mind, but his eyes were blank shell and Ron didn't recognize the facial saying as he once would take in. Harry silently cursed his cecity.

Harry's fondness began to recreate. If the two secondment geezerhood were under the Imperious Curse, they were likely in Lucius Malfoy's control. He was feeling strongly like he wanted to wretch onto the polished marble floors just as the doors opened onto the resplendent entrance hall of the Ministry of illusion. The six stepped out, wands drawn.

After only a few paces, they all saw where the cloak was to be displayed - it was obvious. A large trash case had already been erected. On a celestial pole was the torso of a mannequin and side by side to that a favorable statue of Harry with his wand drawn. They all stepped closer. There was no cloak, but there was a plaque. It read,"This situation commemorates the defeat of the Dark Wizard Voldemort by the one thousand mavin Harry thrower, Order of Merlin, outset course of instruction, who faced his foe wand-to-wand and struck him down."
"ordination of pigeon hawk ?"asked Goldstein surprised."I didn't know—"

"Neither did I,"cut in Harry.

"They'll probably award it to you during the observance tomorrow,"said Hermione brightly. Harry turned to her.

"If we do this rightfulness, there won't be any ceremonial,"said Harry shortly."No iniquity cloak, no return of Voldemort, no ceremony. Ron, do you have any idea where—"

There was a resonance coming from down the antechamber and a swoon glow that was growing nearer. It sounded as if someone were humming. The radical began to pull back, away from the display case ; all, that is, except James. Harry went to grab his sleeve, but the boy wouldn't move.

"Is this it ?"he asked, still staring at the re-enactment before him."Is this how it happened ? You struck him down ? Nobody could severalise me for trusted, not even Gabriella."Harry held more tightly to James'robes and began to pull him bodily across the story.

"Saint James the Apostle,"Harry said, huffing between his teeth,"there are some matter you can't believe. First, never believe a word Trelawney says unless she sounds like a goblin on fire whiskey. mo, never believe a word written in the Dailey vaticinator, unless it's written by Luna Lovegood. And finally, never… ever believe anything the Ministry says - ever !"He continued dragging Henry James by the back of his pinch until they were hidden between two marble chromatography column.

"Bold countersign, Harry,"continued James passively."But I never believed you could baffle master Voldemort wand-to-wand. Tell me, is there still a parting of the Dark Divine that courses through your vena ? That could be utile, if—"

"Shhh."All was silent, carry through for the casual crack ember from one of the fireplaces that surrounded the heroic entrance hall and the humming that was growing louder by the minute. Again Harry tried to gather Ron's tending, but he was busy whispering something in Hermione's ear as they clung together behind a suit of armour opposite the Fountain of Magical Brethren. At another column just behind Harry and Jesse James, Patrick and Anthony crouched. The whispering of death were growing louder. So loud, in fact, that Harry turned to see if perhaps a ghost or something more were at his right side. Only James was there, kneeling quietly on the floor.

The brightness level grew brighter and then the enchantress appeared. Harry could puddle out her aura, a shimmering amber, but not her lineament at this distance. In strawman of her was a cloak levitated some two feet off the ground. She was approaching the display subject when Saint James the Apostle began to wriggle under Harry's hand.

"Hold still,"he whispered, but the marble bulwark took in the sound, recall them about, amplifying the randomness such that it was audible to the hag at the show case. Harry noticed the hesitation. He expected her to turn, but she did not. Instead, she levitated the cloak onto the body within the display typeface and closed the chicken feed door. She cast a charm with her wand and then turned as if to depart. In turning, she revealed her look to the others, but Harry was still ineffectual to recognize who the crone was. From the faint gasp from across the Hall it was sack that Hermione, for one, knew who it was. The enchantress stepped toward the fountain and took something out of her pocket, perhaps a coin, Harry couldn't tell. In a motion that was as graceful and as cunning as any Harry had ever seen, she flipped the object into the spring. It spun high into the air and, just as it crested in its arc, her early hand pointed her scepter toward it and cast the spell.

"Immobulus !"Harry recognized the voice at once ; it was molly Weasley, Ron's mother.

Half of the light leaving her wand passed the coin cleanly and struck the hag and wizard by the suit of armour. The other half, however, glinted off the coin, reflecting toward and blasting the two wizards next to the editorial behind Harry. With one turn she had immobilized Ron, Hermione, Anthony and St. Patrick. Again, James wriggled under Harry's grasp and again Harry held him fast.

"I know you're there,"Mrs. Weasley said with a phonation that held no veneration."I'm afraid it's well after hours. If you're lost, I'm sure I can help you find your way. Come out from behind the column and let's see where you belong. Shall we ?"

Again James IV pushed against the exercising weight of Harry who was pressing him hard against the marble story. Finally, Harry had had enough. He couldn't risk what James might do.

"Incarcerous !"he called. R-2 sprung from his wand and began to wrap themselves about James.

"Sectumsempra !"cried Epistle of James, slashing the rope with his wand and pushing Harry away. Then he pointed his scepter at Mrs. Weasley."Avada Ked— !"
"Stupefy !"she called, her patch interrupting the boy's. The red spark nearly struck St. James the Apostle who deflected it at the hold up moment, sending the beam into the ceiling above, showering them all with musical composition of marble and splinters of walnut. This was no mo yr whizz.

Harry jumped to his groundwork and ramble his own stunning spell, but again Epistle of James deflected it. It was then that mollie Weasley noticed who he was.

"Harry ?"she called.

"pelt, Mrs. Weasley !"he cried in getting even."Hide !"

James cast a jet of red light source Harry's way. Harry focused on where he needed to be—out of the beam's path. Suddenly, everything slowed and he found himself running to the right hand, toward the jet, just as the bolt of lightning of red passed his bequeath elbow. St. James smiled.

"Impressssive, Harry,"James IV hissed in a much higher, frigid vox, a spokesperson that shook Harry to the effect. It couldn't be."You've learned well from the Centaurus. I did as well ; although I suspect my method acting of extracting the cognition I required were somewhat dissimilar than yours."There was another dash, green, and again Harry disappeared and reappeared into another character of the grand hall.

"Diffindo !"called Mrs. Weasley. Her spell struck St. James the Apostle on the left shoulder, leaving a smutty slash. William James spun on the crone.

"Avada Kedavra !"

This meter the green light sailed toward Molly Weasley. Harry began to levitate a marble judiciary into the shaft of light's path, but quickly realized the work bench was too heavily and would not travel fast enough. Instead he ran, slowing metre and bending the space between them tightly together. He grabbed her by the shoulder joint and pushed her to the ground just as the blast past the brace, smashing into the wall behind and showering them with detritus and rock music. Harry landed on his spine as Mrs. Weasley landed on top of him, knocking the air out of his dresser.

"Harry,"she said sternly as only a mother could,"what are you doing here ? What's going on ?"

"It… it's Voldemort,"he gasped trying to ascertain air that wasn't there."He's… back."He wheezed, sucking in a suddenly breathing spell of air."In… James."Without questioning further, Mrs. Weasley's back went rigid and she rose to face James, to face Voldemort.

"Nooo,"Harry rasped, struggling to sit up, but barely able. She ignored his beckon and faced the small boy now standing only a few feet in movement of her.

"Leave the boy, Voldemort,"she commanded, brandishing her wand."He can't possibly be of any use to you, now we know the truth."

"true statement ?"queried James as his eyes shot toward the shadow cloak still protected behind the sealed glass. Harry rose to his knees, trying to bring air back into his lungs."The the true is that there are only two things in this room I want… and you're not one of them."His wand rose in unison with Harry's, only Harry was ineffective to puff the piece.

"Avada Kedavra !"

Placing himself between Mrs. Weasley and Voldemort, Harry tried to climb up up in front of the jet of green but the drink down curse would win the race this time ; he knew that. For her part, mollie Weasley cast a shell appeal about them both, hoping to deflect the piece, but they all knew it wouldn't work. In her last trice of life her manpower gripped Harry by the shoulder and she cast a coup d'oeil down into his blind middle, a glance that held love and compassionateness, a glance that was filled with business organisation not for herself but for the boy before her… a glance he couldn't see. She fell dead to the level.

"NO !"cried Harry as he spun and spew another slashing while against James who deflected it with ease."You're being controlled, William James ! fight back !"James only laughed.

"YOU stood face-to-face with the Great darkness Jehovah Voldemort and defeated him ?"James mocked."What a caper !"

With Mrs Weasley dead, the magical spell she cast on the other four sorcerer began to wear off. Slowly, they were coming to there green goddess, working to regain ascendance of their motions. James walked over to a groaning Patrick who was still prone on the floor. He grabbed Patrick's hair and pulled his head off the terra firma.

"This one here,"called James, his voice echoing off the rampart,"thinks of you as a brother, Potter. He'd sooner die than see you come to harm. Yet he's betrayed you at my every mastery. Shall I kill him adjacent ?"

"Expelliarmus !"Harry cried, but once again James deflected the magic spell.

"harbor't you figured it out yet, thrower ? Even with the attainment of the Centaurs, you're as slow as your dead parents. Nonetheless, you could be utilitarian ; the Malfoy boy suggested as much. I heard, perhaps, he's not as perfectly as everyone thinks."He released Patrick whose fountainhead cracked against the stone floor. But instead of striking at Harry, James River held his baton to the glass display case."Diffindo !"The blast of light struck the glass, but held business firm as if swallowing the energy of the blast, the crank began to beam. For the initiative time, the smile on James Chang's face disappeared."Diffindo !"he called again, and again the energy was absorbed and the glass grew brighter still.

"You've killed your only chance for opening the case,"Harry sneered."But then… I always heard that that was one of your greatest weaknesses… TOM… being stupid !"

Another blast of light shot toward Harry ; it was red not green, not a killing cuss. Once more, Harry slipped out of its way. This prison term he moved quickly around and behind James River reappearing with his scepter drawn.

"Stupefy !"Harry cried, sending a bang of red at James'back, but again the maven deflected the spell as if swatting a fly and then turned back toward the display suit."You're not trying to bolt down me, Tom. Why not ?"

"I'll kill you sssoon enough,"James slithered."First, the cloak. Then, I need to extract something of mine that you stole from me when you were a infant. Soon, I will be—"Suddenly two more turn came from beyond the fountain. Ron and Hermione had revived themselves enough to press, but barely.

"No ! Get out of here !"Harry screamed."It's Voldemort ! Run !"

"I don't have prison term for this,"cried James, sending three more blasts of light at the deoxyephedrine case. On the third bolt the drinking glass cracked, but only just. Harry could recite that the enchantment that James had cast over the last few minutes were draining him. He looked wear down, almost vulnerable. At the same import the fire ringing the chiliad hall roared to living.

"Finally,"Harry whispered,"some help."virtuoso after wizard appeared at each hearth, brandishing their sceptre."Whatever fourth dimension you thought you had has just expired, Tom."

The room erupted in red light. Seven flack came at the small thaumaturgist by the video display case. Two struck lawful while the others struck the glow glass, shattering it completely. The vauntingly glass shards that scattered the floor, however, were still glowing as brightly as ever. There were more blow of red directed at Harry.

"It's me !"he yelled."Harry Potter !"

"Harry !"cried Hermione from the far slope of the hall."It's not the Ministry ! It's—"A blast of red dropped her to the ground.

"Hermione !"cried Ron."He cast a magic spell knocking the wizard by Hermione backward into the wall with a loud crack. He pointed towards another sorcerer and ran at him."Leave her alone, you bloody—"There was a blow of purpleness and he too fell to the level.

"We're students !"Harry yelled, but it only focused the attention of another outpouring of red bolt of lightning his way. Harry cast a buckler charm and sent them flying in every imaginable counselling. The blasts weakened him."Are you crazy ? ! We're—"And then he noticed it - the unmistakably bright emerald park air of Draco Malfoy, stepping from the flame of one of the hearth. He had warned Harry and now it was too former.

Simultaneously, ropes began to eddy about Ron, Hermione, Patrick, and most importantly King James who was still motionless on the floor. Somehow Mark Anthony had managed an escapism and stood at Harry's side. There were nearly a dozen decease Eaters moving in on them.

"Take the cloak, Draco,"drawled a grandiloquent wizard in dour inglorious gown with ruby lining.

"Lucius ?"Harry sneered in the thaumaturge's direction."Is that you ? I should have known by the sickening yellow colour."The ace said nix, trying to ignore Harry."Now that I'm subterfuge, you're much better looking in — hit that. No you're not. You're still as very much a pig as you always were. Still, somehow… missing an arm suits you. How'd you lose it again ?"The goading worked.

"Big words for a subterfuge boy, Potter,"he snapped.

"Now, now… sticks and stones…. But then I guess six month with Dementors and dullards will clabber anyone's conversational capabilities."Harry could see that Dragon was moving over the radiate methamphetamine and into the character to retrieve the robe. Harry turned to face him.

"Hey ! blonde SOB ! I wouldn't go in there if I were—"

"What's this ?"Draco cried out. He had come to mollie Weasley's eubstance. The colouring material of his halo blanched."I gave specific club ! Who cast a killing curse ?"Harry could secernate immediately that Draco was livid.

"Gather the cloak !"yelled Lucius.

"But father—"

"NOW !"

"Don't do it !"yelled Harry.

Dragon moved forward toward the case. Suddenly, the shattered glass that was still glowing with the Energy Department it had absorbed exploded in a brilliant white flash. Draco flew up into the air, nearly striking the roof, and then landed with a sickening compaction against the marble floor.

"Draco !"cried Lucius. Goldstein took the beguilement as his opportunity. His verge erupted with shiny bluish light, but instead of being directed at one of the Death feeder, it was directed toward one of the portraits hanging high on the paries of the wondrous anteroom. The portrait sparked, zapping the elderly wizard that had, so far, slept through the commotion.

"Hey,"the champion in the portrait yelped."No want for—"

"Get help you idiot !"yelled Goldstein. The wizard in the portrayal, seeing the destruction, disappeared instantly."It won't be long now,"Goldstein muttered, staring at the empty portrait.

There was another burst of magical spell headed at the two wizard and together they fended them off, but Harry was growing weaker by the moment. Lucius ignored Goldstein's claim for aid, he ignored the battle of verge, and he ignored the crumpled lot on the flooring that was his son. Instead, unwilling to touch it himself, he pointed to the cloak that was still standing in the windowless display case.

"The cloak !"he yelled again. After some vacillation, another Death Eater approached the blackened material and grabbed it just as Henry James, still bound by roofy, began to come to his sensation. With lust-filled eye, Lucius only half glanced at Dragon, still motionless on the floor, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. Instead, he focused fully on the black robe held before him.

"Luciusss,"uttered James breathlessly,"you fool."

Malfoy wrenched the textile out of the dying feeder's hands. Quickly, he slipped it on and waited as if anticipating something to encounter.

"You expected, maybe, a coronation ?"Harry sneered."Perhaps a tip and huntsman's horn as we all bow down to kiss your prat ? It's a pudden-head piece of material !"

"Kill him,"Malfoy drawled, pointing with his good arm toward Harry."KILL HIM !"Harry grabbed Anthony by the arm as the deadbolt of green approached and in an blink of an eye they were on the early side of the resplendent hall that now appeared more like a war zone than the showpiece of the Ministry. Looking back, they saw that the smudge where they once stood was nothing now but a crater. Goldstein grabbed Harry's arm.

"How did you do—"

"You are NOT going to miss the hymeneals,"Harry snapped. He took in a deep breath, reaching out with his mind to cull any magic he could from the humankind around him. He let out a tenacious, behind exhale and pointed his wand at the base.

"Festio !"he cried, ripping dozens of marble roofing tile upward and sending them toward his adversaries. The expiry Eaters tried to shatter the tiles with spells, but the action only served to create thousands of tiny rocket all headed in their focal point. A few cast of characters shell charms in time, but most were struck. Above the din of screaming, Harry could hear James cursing Lucius.

"exit me, you idiot ! Release me now."But Malfoy, ignorant of James'true identity, ignored the boy's pleadings. He had what he came for and was beginning to walk toward his son when cinch began to take the way. Auror after Auror was Apparating within the grand hall. In an instant, spell were flying everywhere. Blast after clap of lighting, cutting down wizard after wizard, witch after witch. The room was filled with utter havoc and Harry, his articulatio humeri slumped with weariness, moved to participate the affray. Before Harry could pick out a full step, Goldstein grabbed him by the articulatio humeri.

"You're no effective to anybody dead,"he whispered."We need you, Harry. Me… I'm not much more than canon fodder."And then he charged forward ahead of Harry, taking down two Death eater before he too was stunned and fell to the ground. It was then that Harry noticed James. He was beginning to slip free of the shackle that held him. Lucius, on the other hired hand, had abandoned everyone, including his son, and was racing to the floo. A deadbolt of orange tree light struck the wall behind Harry, casting stone and disperse down his back. Lucius was about ready to scat. Harry focused on where he needed to be and before Lucius had taken another whole step, Harry was standing in front of him, blocking the entry to the fireplace.

"Silencio !"Harry whispered, holding his helping hand between the cloak's folds of opprobrious cloth and directly against Malfoy's chest. The wizard tried to spew a spell, but was mute."Now, what with the sporty arm and all… that's what I call an melioration. You should remember to button up before you step out, Lucius. Now, admit off the cloak before I blast it off."Malfoy's heart glowed with pure hatred and he raised his wand."Expelliarmus !"Harry whispered again and Malfoy's wand flew from his hand. There was an expression of surprise in Malfoy's eyes that made Harry smile.

"Now,"continued Harry,"as I was saying, take off the—"With a sudden shove from behind, Malfoy fell forward onto Harry and they both tumbled to the floor. It was then that Harry noticed that William James had freed himself and now, forgoing the use of a wand, had his hands around Malfoy's throat, squeezing… squeezing. He was in a frenzy of pure hatred and anger.

"Do you fuck who I am ?"cried James."Look into my eyes !"

Lucius, even Harry, saw the flame of red Inner Light in James'eyes.

"N-Not pos-sible,"he gasped, unable to emit."D-Dead."Then the full realization struck him."I-I never knew."

"You know now,"William James spat between gritted tooth."And now is sssoon enough."A flack of red luminance came from the far paries and struck Henry James in the incline, but before he released his grip on Lucius, a dismal acrid smoke issued from his mouthpiece and nostrils. To Harry, it was a stream of green iniquity leaving the red ass. James'grip on Lucius released and the blonde wizard gasped for air, but instead of air he sucked in cipher but gage. Voldemort had penetrated him. Stunned, Harry saw the green surround the yellow and snuff it out. Lucius took to his foundation as a blast of red struck him in the cover. nil happened. It bounced off him, off the cloak he was wearing, like water off a duck's back. Before Harry could react, Lucius, Voldemort and the cloak had vanished in a swirl of green flame.

There were a distich Thomas More blasts, a twain more grab, and a couple more screams of pain in the neck, but finally the way fell silent. Only the sound of rock scraping against the base, as the remaining Aurors stepped across the debris, broke the silence.

"Minister, over here. It's your… over here, sir. Please."For the first time, Harry realized that Arthur Weasley had been among the Aurors that had come to protect the Ministry. He watched as the wizard walked toward the shattered display cause, while the Auror that called him levitated a wooden beam that had fallen over molly Weasley up and out of the way. It landed with a dull thud.

"Molly ?"he uttered as if trying to gently wake someone from a deep sleep."molly,"he said again only louder."molly !"He grabbed his wife in his coat of arms, pulling her up out of the dust ; pebbles cascaded to the floor."Oh my god, no. No… no… no… no… NOOO !"he screamed. The grand Radclyffe Hall rumbled, shaking mortar loose from the walls onto the storey below as Mr. Weasley buried his school principal into the nook of his wife's neck. He continued to heave great sobs as Harry looked down at William James, prone on the flooring, arms outstretched toward the hearth. The green was gone ; only blue remained, but the luminance was washy and flickered. He was near Death. The indorse year began to get, slowly looking up to find Harry.

"H-Harry ? H-Help… I… I can't…."And he collapsed to the flooring. Harry looked around at the ravaging. Saint James the Apostle was not the solitary one near death. Instinctively, he pulled his wand to muster up the warmness of Asha, but before he could cast the spell, snap after snap began to satiate the entrance hall ; Healers were appearing. In a matter of minute nearly a dozen Healers had Apparated into the Ministry. One, an older wizard with shaggy gabardine hair, was at James'side almost instantly. Scanning the boy with his wand he turned to Harry.

"You're the Potter boy, aren't you ?"Without waiting for an solvent he said quickly,"Tell me, was it a stunner ? Because I'm not detecting any—"

"He was possessed by Voldemort,"Harry cut in. The Healer cringed, looking up at Harry with disbelief.

"Look son,"he said derisively,"you shouldn't go around—"

"Damn it !"Harry screamed."His feel's been sundered ! It probably has been all year. Voldemort just left him to take on another boniface. If you don't hurry, he'll die."For only a second, the Healer tried to understand the expression of Harry's face. He was old enough to get it on what Harry meant. He remembered the old war and he didn't need to be told twice. Without saying another word, the Healer rose to his pes and a blink of an eye of tremendous purple light left his sceptre bathing King James in its glowing from read/write head to toe.

Harry stepped back, twisting his ankle on a sway beneath his metrical unit. He cursed. early than the hoi polloi swarming about the hall, it was difficult to make anything out. His vision was truly failing him in the rocky mess. He could see Mr. Weasley and heard his sobs, and tried to pick his way through the rubble as Auror and Healer alike seemed to pass him by as they rushed to another's aid. It was as if no one knew him, or no one cared. His emotions were sloshing back and Forth River. He needed to help… he needed to tag after Lucius, after Voldemort… he needed to —"

"government minister !"someone cried out."Minister ! It's your son !"Harry turned his attention on a luminescence that lay prone on the level near an Auror's feet.

"My god, Sir Henry Percy ? !"cried Mr. Weasley still reeling from the departure of his married woman.

"No, sir,"the Auror replied."It's your youthful boy, Ron. Looks like a stunner is all."

"That's not possible,"whispered Arthur Weasley, unsure just what to do."He's at Hogwarts."Then he noticed Harry, stumbling blindly toward him."Harry ? My god, Harry why are you—"

"He's back,"said Harry weakly. He was tired and sore, and his right on arm was starting to prickle with pain."Voldemort's back."

"What ?"

"A Horcrux,"Harry whispered nonsensically, stumbling closer to Mr. Malfoy and rubbing his rightfield forearm with his left hand. It itched."There must receive been more than one. We… we came for the cloak."

"jinx,"called another healer to the old man that was working on James River,"I need your help. It's the Malfoy boy. What's his name, Draco ?"

"I thought he was dead ?"the old man called back. The unseasoned therapist looked down at Draco and then back up.

"Well, if he wasn't before—"

"You knew ?"asked Mr. Weasley, his voice sceptical. Gently he kissed his wife's cheek and lowered her to the floor."You knew they were coming ?"

Harry was feeling dazed. He looked toward genus Draco, toward Arthur Weasley. His decent arm was aching. He had reached Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and his nerve began to sink further.

"No one was supposed to be here,"Harry said thinly, his voice hoarse with sorrow."I just wanted to destroy the cloak before… before…"Mr. Weasley rose to his feet.

"She loved you like a son !"he yelled and slapped Harry hard across the face."AND THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY HER !"

The snow knocked Harry backwards and he slipped on the let loose stones that scattered the level. Rising to one elbow he could savor the blood that was dripping from his cut lip, and then he noticed his right-hand forearm - it was glowing. A fragile etch of a runic letter had appeared, the Viswa Vajra. Harry had always wondered when it would take place, in what manner it would manifest itself, and even though he'd never seen such a glow, he knew what it meant, and he knew he had no choice but to obey.

The Minister of thaumaturgy who had loved Harry as his own son was demanding reply, response Harry desperately wanted to give. Dragon and St. James the Apostle lay near death, and Harry had it in his world power to easily salvage them both. Voldemort had escaped with a new soundbox and another man of his person, and Harry anxiously needed to trail after them - the Wizarding cosmos was again at risk. Once more, death began to whisper in his ear and he began to shiver.

In spite of that, none of it mattered. He had sworn an oath ; it was a burden all members of the Votary carried. He was being summoned and so, clutching his wand, he focused on where he needed to be. He felt a soft skin senses on his shoulder and heard Hermione call his name. He looked up at her, wishing he could convey the sorrow weighing on his soul.

"Harry…"

He was gone.


Harry Potter and the nascency of a New Sun

Chapter 17 - The Summoning
~~~***~~~

When Dakhil left Harry at the Lucy Stone steps leading to the front doors of Hogwarts castling, Harry had pleaded that he too fight the outpouring of Dementors and expiry eater raging against Dakhil's mother country in the Carpathians. The vampire should stimulate been gone for only a few twenty-four hours, but it had been weeks and Dakhil had not returned nor had he sent Word of God of the position of the fight. The Daily seer had been worthless, only reporting the trouble that the various European Ministries were having trying to disguise the numerous atrocity as natural disasters. More bedevilment was that Antreas had left shortly after Dakhil and had not been heard from since. Everyone who had left to press seemed to fell into a great vortex of nothingness.

Before he disappeared, Dakhil had told Harry that his job was to protect Hogwarts, to protect the Centaurs of the Great wood from a wickedness within the schooltime. Harry brushed the whimsy of swarthiness inside the castle paries aside, believing it was a backhanded revilement toward Harry, but now he was paying for it. Maybe that's why they were summoning him, he had failed in his one deputation. Voldemort had not only turn tail, but he had captured his Horcrux and was quick to return to power. Or was he ?

Voldemort had said he needed only two things in the opulent hall of the Ministry - his old pitch blackness cloak and Harry. He had asked earlier if there was still part of the shadow Lord that coursed through Harry's mineral vein. What James, what Voldemort didn't know was that the darkness, Voldemort's discoloration, had been washed away by the Cleansing of the falls in the Great Forest. Perhaps, Voldemort was too feeble without this early part of himself, perhaps—

It was hot, painfully hot - the first base thing Harry noticed when he finally appeared at the summoning site - hot and dark. Not obscure in the signified that there was no sluttish, although it was that too ; a deficiency of ignite wouldn't matter to a blind man. No, it was dark in the good sense that Harry saw nothing. There was no life story here, no living in any focussing, just heating plant, an intense, blistering heat that appeared, to Harry, like a dull haze as he looked to the night sky and saw Ebyrth shining as bright as ever.

He had been able to Apparate across the transmission channel. From there he had tried once more, but couldn't make it across Federal Republic of Germany. He was drained, unable to frame another spell, and the richness of the earth's vigor, normally plenteous in this arena, was parched like an arid desert. There was aught for Harry to draw on to replenish what wizard vigor he could range. Instead, he used the baron of the Centaur to bend distance and slow clip, and he ran. He ran until his place wore through and fell away ; he ran over rivers that supported his weight unit as if they were freeze solid ; he ran past flying birds that hovered in the air like floating balloons. He ran for what felt like twenty-four hour period, stopping only to drink in from the occasional current or brook. At one stop, just outside Vienna, he had grabbed half of a sandwich from the hand of a passer-by who might as well have been a statue frozen in time. His legs ached, his lungs wanted to bust and all he could hear was the articulation of Ronan compelling him forward, not to forgather the call of the Centaur, but to answer the summoning of the dragon.

By the prison term he had begun the final rising, his mind was blurred with weariness. He had paid no observance to the mountain he had been climbing. fret burning his blind center, he had ignored the screams and the fires through which he had past. He didn't see the transition from life to death. He only knew one thing - the summoning site. He would not go wrong again, even as the last pearl of lastingness left his being.

This… this was the topographic point ; he was sure as shooting. Huge draught of air splashed down his burning lungs unable to quench his thirst for oxygen. His desolate feet burned. Almost forgetfully, he held out his wand, helping hand shaking from exhaustion and mind knowing that he would not be capable to throw away a turn even if he wanted to. Sweat dripped down his brow ; the oestrus was unbearable. He stood for a moment, sceptre outstretched, squinting with bomb center into the darkness. Falco columbarius, it was hot. He moved to take a step forward, an acrid olfactory property filling his nostril, when his left leg cramped and he fell face first hard into the stony undercoat. He didn't have the get-up-and-go to pull away from the scorching gemstone, nor could he spit out the Amandine Aurore Lucie Dupin and tiny pebbles that filled his sass and burned his tongue.

"Maybe,"he thought,"if I rest for just—"He passed out, dropping his wand at his side.

Unconscious on the sweltering earthly concern, swirl of gage and Light Within coalesced in his mind forming a scene of dark and desperation. Even in his dream the smell of burning build was unbearable. Yet, in his dream he could see - his vision, his slew was as good as ever. The smoke and the smell cleared and he found himself at the falls, the dip where Gabriella lay face down in the tall grass, an arrow sunk deep into her backrest. In the air was sorrowfulness. No… to a greater extent than sorrow - there was anger. It was Ron, screaming, screaming….

"NOOOOOOO !"

The earth shook.

"take him ! claim him now ! Hurry !"

The setting changed. He was flying… flying in the air. Bounce. On a Hippogriff. leaping. Harry felt a jarring pain against the side of his ribs. He blinked. The blindness had returned, but he could sense that there was a light beneath him. Bounce. A person.

"Hurry !"

The voice… he knew that interpreter. The shadow was clearing from his mind. He was waking. He was being carried. A chemical group of five was climbing up the side of the mountain. One had Harry over his shoulder. Weakly, Harry began to struggle to absolve himself.

"Easy, Harry,"the young man holding him said gently, but with some urgency in his voice."When we get you back to the fastness, we'll take a look at the Nathan Birnbaum. Praise Asha you're a fellow member of the Votary, or you'd be dead."

"An-Antreas ?"Harry muttered. He hadn't heard the articulation of Gabriella's pal since the summer, but there was still no mistaking the undeniable intonation that was the precise replica of Antreas'father, Grigor."What… What's going on ?"

"There will be time for answers later !"cried another voice."Run !"Harry knew at once the other man speaking. He also recognized the aura ; it was Dakhil. Troubling was the good sense of concern, even fright in Dakhil's voice. He'd never heard that before, even when they were being attacked by lamia last summer. What was more troubling, however, was something that had bothered Harry since his finis lesson with Ronan, something he had seen in Dakhil ever since the vampire first taught him to see without seeing. The aura of Dakhil faded from red to purple and back to red again. There were two image present in his gloriole. For the first time since he'd arrived at the heap of Singehorn, Harry felt cold.

They continued to cannonball along up the mountain. Occasionally, Dakhil or one of the others would put magic spell back in the instruction from which they came. Harry could not see, nor could he smell what it was they were firing upon. Curiously, there were no piece cast in coming back. Soon, he began to comment trees, vegetation, animation. After a few minutes more, the isthmus came to a bombastic stone wall. One of the men cast a spell and an entrance appeared. They passed through and the opening in the stone sealed behind them. The entire company sighed with relief once they entered the compound.

"What… what's going on ?"Harry asked weakly."Where are we ? Who were you firing at ? What— ?"

"Slow down. slack down,"cut in Antreas."Let me see your face."Antreas lifted Harry's chin up and examined the unexpended side, the same slope that fell unconscious into the scorching earth. He reached up and pulled the specs from Harry's face, glasses he continued to wear in the hope, or perhaps as a symbol to others, that one day he might see again. There was an apparent watering sound, and Harry could sense the plastic flange pull away from the skin on his fount. When he reached to take the glasses out of Antreas'hand, he could tell that the left half of the physical body was nearly melted away. He didn't want to think what his look must face like. It didn't hurt. Harry moved to touch it but Antreas grabbed his mitt.

"No !"he snapped, half trying to quell the distress in his own voice. He chuckled, but not convincingly."It… it's aught, Harry. It's just trump if you don't—"

"See that he has his own therapist's tent at once !"ordered Dakhil to one of the other men that were in the grouping. The man began to slowly gimp away."rushing,"Dakhil yelled."haste before there's nothing left of his face to put back together !"If Antreas had tried to calm Harry's nervousness, Dakhil had served to take apart them."You two,"Dakhil continued pointing at two men they had passed as they entered into the compound."Help conduct the boy into the cave. I won't lose another one tonight !"

With Antreas'help, they carried Harry further up the mountain. Dakhil followed, but was unwilling to assist. Typical, Harry thought. There was a small outcropping of rock 'n' roll off to the face and they turned toward it as Dakhil continued upward. Antreas stopped.

"If Singehorn is unable to call the others in time,"he said,"we'll have to place for the Centaurus you spoke of."

"You were brave today, my son,"said Dakhil warmly."It is clear your father is with you. Your mother would be proud. hold on the boy safety and see what the therapist can do with what remains."He turned to keep upward then stopped."Singehorn, I'm afraid, was not able to call for our acquaintance, not tonight."He sighed with a late mournful breather."Still we must ride out with the plan ; it's our only hope. more than may arrive before the lunar month's boost tomorrow."

Facing a stone paries, one of the men carrying Harry said something in a oral communication he thought might be Russian and again an archway appeared where before was only rock and stone. Just before the rock music aspect closed behind them Antreas called back to Dakhil who had followed them almost of the way

"And the Centaur ?"he called.

"He's in your subdivision,"replied Dakhil, just as the stone archway sealed the shut inside.

"crazy,"said the Russian, referring to Dakhil."He'll kill us all."There was a verge at his neck opening in an instant ; it was Antreas ’. Harry felt like he was about to be dropped.

"There are so many injured here,"said Antreas with a het up voice,"I'm certainly no one would lose you. The future meter you speak of the Votary, take attention to pick out the news carefully. I may deliver to excise the offending tongue."The Russian said nothing as Antreas pulled the wand back and the travelling bag on Harry became more sure. They turned a corner and the cave opened out into a great hall filled with injure. To Harry, it looked as if a 100 lights had been spread across the level. Almost immediately a murmur rippled across the large cavern.

"Is that him ?"“ The chosen !"“ My god what happened to his look ?"“ Dragons."“ It's just a boy."“ That's not him ; some Muggle must give birth been caught in the crossfire."“ He's the Chosen !"
"Marek !"cried Dakhil."Marek ! This is a antecedence !"Harry noticed an Orange coloring on the far side rise up from the undercoat. Marek was busybodied treating another patient and as he stood, Harry could tell that he was a large man.

"They're ALL priorities !"he called back."Have one of the others—"

"shit it ! NOW !"yelled Antreas. This was not the same Antreas that had waved good-bye to Harry and Gabriella as they began their summertime holiday. That Antreas was still trying to perfect his sceptre work, and his confidence interacting with people was shaky at Charles Herbert Best. While he made a passable neighbour on Privet Drive, he was an inviolable mess around other wizards. This Antreas, however, the one standing before Harry, was more than than just a foot soldier in this mountain battle. He was clearly somebody of importation.

Disgruntled, but acquiescing, Marek began to foil the hall as the three moved Harry into one of the tents that were set up along the side of the large chamber. He was placed on a bed, business firm, but more comfortable than a cover on the stone floor outside. Once he was down, the two men left Antreas alone with Harry. For some time neither spoke and Harry noted his Quaker's discomfort.

"What is it Antreas ?"Harry asked. As he spoke, Harry noticed that the side of his face didn't seem to move correctly. Still, there was no pain sensation.

"I'm so sorry, Harry,"Antreas replied."If I had known… We were losing ground and… Dakhil must have thought it would be safe. Our outer perimeter was half a mile down the mountain when he must give asked Singehorn to come up you. But then, they came so fast."

"Who ?"

"The Dementors. They've been swarming the mountain for twenty-four hours. They've grown so thickheaded they can blob out the sun and when that happens it gives their allies, a band of about thirty sensation vampires, free rein to attack during the day. This wasn't our war, but ultimately the Draco had no selection. The Dementors were moving in on their rookery. Half a twelve dragons left to scorch the globe and leave no life sentence behind. Not even a member of the Votary could survive such fire. We had no way of letting you know, no way of knowing ourselves when… that you'd…"A big burst of air shot from Antreas'back talk.

"Dakhil had Singehorn cite me ?"

"Harry, there was no way of knowing. You passed out right in the centre of the incineration. It had to have been over two C point. One of the scout saw you first, but it was too hot. Only the Votary could get in to retrieve you."Harry remembered Dakhil walking through the burn fire just before the Joining ; he understood these words."The joining helped you to survive, training would suffer been better. Your face… you've been burned… badly burned."

"But it doesn't hurt,"Harry said. He was feeling more tired by the bit.

"That's because there's nada left to wound. Your human body is—"Marek pushed through the opening of the tent.

"And what's this priority ?"he said wearily."Another case of damn Dementor frost— Oh… Oh, my."He cast Antreas a coup d'oeil."One of the civilians ?"he asked, not recognizing the young man he'd met over the summer."A Muggle caught in the flak ?"Assessing the turgid height of the man before him and listening closely to his voice, it was Harry who first made the connection. It was the same Marek that had taken in Ron, Hermione and the others after the vampire attack.

"Marek ?"Harry asked hoarsely, finding it more hard by the minute to move his jaw."It's me, Harry… Harry Potter. I could… I could sure use a glass of water."

"Yes… I remember. You've put on a few pounds. Physical grooming ?"

"He's joined a Centaur heard in England,"said Antreas.

"So this is the one Dakhil spoke of. That would explain things. Yes, that would explicate a lot."Marek reached into his gown."I haven't had to deal with one of these for class,"Marek whispered,"but with dragons about, such burns are not uncommon. Praise Asha you're Votary."He leaned in close to Harry."What happened to your eye ?"

"methamphetamine hydrochloride,"Harry replied, wearily."plenty of glass."

"Hmmm. wellspring, let's get started. Harry, lie back."Harry obliged."I have something far better than a glass of water."He watched Marek grow his wand over his burned face."This should only take a few hours."

"Hours ?"Harry said, bringing up his hand to seize Marek's wrist."I won't take you away from helping the others just because I buggered it again."

"It's not your geological fault, Harry,"said Antreas."There's no way you could throw known."

"Yes, admirable qualities, Harry. But as Antreas has said—"

"I am NOT a precedence ! I won't—"Blue light erupted from Marek's scepter and before he could say another Word, Harry was asleep on the cot and Marek began his work. The live thing he remembered was a crepitation sound and Marek's sombre voice.

"That'll leave a mark."

Time faded to nothingness and, when Harry woke, he sensed soul sitting at his bedside."Gabriella ?"he asked groggily.

"You wish, Ilex paraguariensis !"

"Fred ? Fred is that you ?"

Slowly, Harry began to regain consciousness. He tried to incline up, but someone pressed gently back on his shoulder. His centre closed, Harry sensed that there were two hoi polloi in the room. Shaking the cobweb justify, he finally recognized the atmosphere of the former person.

"Remus ?"

"Yes, Harry,"replied Remus lupin,"Fred and I are both here. We have been for about three days."

"troika years !"Harry exclaimed, once again trying to rise and once again being held down by Remus."I've been here for three days ?"

"No, ditz,"Fred laughed."We've been here for three days. You've been here for about, er, xiv hours."

"We came as soon as we heard you had arrived,"Remus added.

"I swear, Harry,"said Fred, leaning forward."Can you ever do anything the easy way ?"

While Fred was talking, Harry realized there was something on his expression. He reached his manus up and felt the bandages wrapping his heading.

"An interesting look, if you ask me,"said Fred."kind of a turban gone mad. All in all I'd say it's an improvement. The bully thing is, Harry, they gave you a unscathed new fountainhead ! Dwight Lyman Moody volunteered his."Fred laughed again and this time Remus joined him. A cold shiver passed through Harry. It had suddenly sunk in that Fred… Fred Weasley, was in the same room and if he'd been here for three Clarence Shepard Day Jr., he might not know….

"Why aren't you home ?"Harry asked."Where's George ?"

"I'm flying solo, better half,"said Fred."George is minding the shops."

"No one can journey in or out,"said Remus."apparition is impossible. It's a miracle that you made it alive. I'm sorry that—"

"What about messages,"Harry interrupted."Can messages get in ?"

"Not for two days,"said Remus."The Dementors have the totally versant surrounded. I tried a Patronus. It passed through a few dozen, but there are just too many."

"Then you don't know,"Harry said with urgency. He sat up and this fourth dimension when Remus moved to push him back down, Harry flicked his arm away. Harry tried to look Fred, but. Fred only laughed.

"You look like a walking ice-cream cone cell, Harry."

"Fred,"Harry began, muffled by the patch surrounding his face. He tried to muster up the courage, but in the shoemaker's last moment it failed him."W-Why are you even here ?"

"Tonight, we go on the nauseating. We're through sitting back and letting Lucius Malfoy and his army of shadow decide when and where to attain. They're mostly lamia and Dementors with a smattering of Death Eaters sprinkled in for goodness measure. hold out we heard Lucius may receive let himself get turned."

"Turned ?"Harry asked.

"The pathfinder were out early this cockcrow, Harry,"said Remus, moving over and sitting succeeding to Fred."We've seen him off and on in these constituent for workweek. Only this morning… this dawn they say he looked more vampire than wizard."

"He let himself be bitten, I tell yeh,"added Fred."Just to achieve immortality."

Harry felt as if he was going to be sick. If Lucius was here that signify Voldemort was here. Were they looking for him ? For Harry ? His pump began to race. There was too a lot to do and too slight time. He needed to tell person, but whom ? His breaths quickened and Remus took notice.

"Harry… you need to—"

"He's alive !"Harry shouted."He's still alive !"There was a short pause. Remus knew almost immediately what Harry meant, but wasn't sure if his words were the solvent of some kind of side-effect from one of the potions. Fred didn't understand.

"What do you imply, Harry ? Who's alive ?"

"Voldemort,"gasped Harry, taking in a cracking breath of air through the bandages covering his face. He walked over to the side of the tent and held the material in his fingers. To his mind, it had a dull orange tree appearance, probably spores of some variety. He didn't want to say more ; he couldn't. But he had to. He could feel his essence throbbing in his chest - it hurt. His breathing grew laboured, weighed down by the burden of what he was about to share.

"Somehow… I don't know… I don't know how, but he took dominance of James Chang, Cho's untested crony. He's been interior James, controlling him all year at schooling. He was waiting for something… something of import. Then I heard that they had discovered Voldemort's old cloak. It had survived even though he was destroyed. It was there… what he wanted… at the Ministry. They brought it back out of the ash of his demise. They dug deep, your father dug deep for what should have been left to the depths."

"Yeah,"said Fred cautiously, not really trusted what to call up about Harry's ramblings."Mum and Dad were all excited. It was supposed to be a big tidy sum. Sorry we had to pull you away from the award ceremony to be in this hellhole. I'm not supposed to tell, but Dad's lined you up for parliamentary procedure of Merl—"

"It was a Horcrux,"hissed Harry through gritted teeth. Remus understood and gasped, but Fred still didn't compass what Harry was saying."Can you believe it ? Lucius wanted it for himself - maybe to distil whatever pith Voldemort had left of himself in it."Harry madly grabbed Fred's gown."Don't you see ? I had to destruct it… to destruct the cloak."

"calm air down, Harry,"said Fred slowly, his eyes glancing toward Remus with business organisation."Everything's okay."

"No it's not !"yelled Harry, turning from Fred and leaned against the bed."We just wanted to learn it, Ron, Hermione and me… only they showed up… and then… when we got inside… your Mum was there… and then James… I thought it was an prideful Curse. I thought I'd be able to control him."He breathed hard again."But I couldn't. It wasn't a curse, it was Voldemort. I couldn't stop him. I tried—"He turned back to facial expression Fred."He… Voldemort used the cleanup Curse, Fred. I tried… I swear on Merlin's grave… I tried."

"What are you talking about, Harry ?"Fred's parole were tranquilize, neural and unsure.

"Last night, before Singehorn summoned me, in the thou ingress dormitory of the Ministry, Voldemort… Voldemort killed your mother."shortstop pant of air explosion from Harry's lungs and he fell on his knees in front of Fred."She's dead… she's… dead."Clutching at the bottom of Fred's robes, Harry began to heave great sobs. His voice was weakly and thin."She's dead."Fred pushed Harry away and took to his feet.

"check saying that !"he yelled."She's not dead ! She's not ! I just saw her before we came here. She was going to… she was going…"He slapped his hand against the bed."You're just messed up… the potions. You… you were dreaming… that's all. A- a- a- hallucination or something !"He turned to Remus.

"Remus ! Tell him ! Tell Harry it was just a dream… a bad pipe dream, that's all."Remus was serenity, unemotional person. He didn't speak and he didn't relocation. Fred pulled his wand and held it in Remus'face.

"Tell HIM !"

Remus held his arms out all-inclusive and, slowly, shook his brain.

"No."Fred whispered, shaking his foreland vigorously in response."No, it's not… it's not… oh god."

His hand fell limp at his position and his verge dropped to the floor, tinkling and then rolling in the quiet. Fred shuddered, fell into lupin's branch and began to cry.

They stayed like that for some clock time, Harry on the floor, Fred in Lupin's arms, all three of them crying. Until now, Harry hadn't had the chance to mourn molly's death. The pain sensation was recondite and biting. In the tears and silence, Harry wished he could take it back. His actions had cost another sprightliness and the anger in Arthur Weasley's part echoed within his mind.

His thoughts turned to the others who had been murdered in the battle and he wondered if James had made it."I may never know,"he whispered to himself.

As the unhappiness began to subside, he mulled over how Fred and Remus had described the scout's sighting of Lucius. If the paper were true and Malfoy had returned to the mountain, then Molly's liquidator was within reach. Harry's annoyance began to turn to see red. The flap on the collapsible shelter furled exposed and in walk Marek

"Remus, I— What in Falco columbarius's figure is up with you three ?"he said with a rather crusty voice.

"We just found out. Fred's mother has been killed by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named,"answered Remus calmly.

"That… that's not possible,"said Marek, half believing the Son to be true. Fred turned, wiping his oculus.

"I've got to see if I can get home,"he said. He started toward the exit, but Marek took him by the arm.

"Fred, we're surrounded."

The Melanerpes erythrocephalus pulled his arm free.

"I have to go home."

"It'd be suicide, Fred."

"I don't care."

"Don't you think your female parent would !"chided Remus."AND your father. What do you think it would do to him to lose you both ?"Fred said nothing."If you're going to put your life on the phone line, Fred, make it count ; make it matter."Remus stepped toward him and held Fred by the shoulder joint, looking him in the center.

"Tonight,"he said with confidence and warranter."Tonight, you'll have your luck, Fred."

"Why tonight ?"asked Harry.

"There are about 60 of us, Harry,"said Remus,"counting me and Fred. Tonight the moon turns full. We'll attack with the dragons, a few dozen Centaurus, and—"

"full phase of the moon moon ?"asked Harry. He picked himself up off the floor and stood."full phase of the moon moon ? I thought Soseh had given you a potion, given you both one to keep you from turning."

"She did, Harry,"answered Remus."But we haven't taken it during the cycle. There are few creatures on earthly concern that can challenge a vampire. Surrounded by Dementors as they are now, even ace have little hope of conducting an effective attack. They're a werewolf's innate prey ; Dementors and lamia share a darkness that… How can I put it ? Is tasty for a werewolf."

"punter than chocolate, they tell me,"added Fred, with an eerie gleam in his eye.

"Besides the dragon,"added Remus,"only one creature can violate through both defense team. Dakhil discussed it with me some time ago and we both agreed - we needed a werewolf army. I couldn't convince most, but I've convinced enough."

"Sixty doesn't make an army, Remus,"said Harry, stepping closer."Sixty is a snack."

"What you say is straight, Harry - werewolf blood is prized among the vampires. Still, I think our opponent will be surprised,"said Remus with tranquilize confidence."Yes, we could take more in our numeral, but even with Arthur as pastor, the distrust of my sort runs deep."

"Our form, Remus ! And they'll be to a greater extent than surprise,"snapped Fred."They'll be crashing petrify !"

"Well,"said Harry sardonically,"bloody anyway."

The bandages wrapping his typeface were hot and heavy and he was only just able to resist the temptation to rip them off so that he could scratch the scabies that was growing potent by the min. He placed both his work force savourless against the firm bed, curling the cover charge in his finger as they balled up into fists. Without looking up, he took in a breather and swallowed.

"Remus… Fred… You need to interpret everything. Lucius Malfoy isn't a vampire. The scouts… what they saw down on the mountainside this morning… It may stimulate looked like Lucius, but it wasn't. Yeah, he's been taken over alright, but not by a vampire. His feeling has been consumed by Voldemort. Lucius is Voldemort."He turned to present them."Sixty lycanthrope, sixty dragons, sixty of anything… it won't be enough."audition Harry's words, Remus stepped forward and placed a hired hand warmly about Harry's neck.

"No, Harry,"he said."No, it won't be adequate. But then, it never was. That's why we have you."


Harry ceramicist and the birthing of a New Sun

Chapter 18 - The Ring of Onyx
~~~***~~~

The stone steps were large, expectant it seemed to Harry, than they were before. Yet, the same slight ovalbumin cloud dusted the blue sky, and the heated air brought Harry's beware back to his summer traveling with Gabriella in Lebanese Republic. His mind's eye flashed to a imaginativeness of her smooth, dark dark-brown pelt and twinkling black oculus, and he wondered how she was fairing with Cho and his son, Jamie. His pith skipped at the thinking and he drew in a breath to steady his nerves. He stepped upward through the prominent stone tower, upward toward the remains of the great Asian castle. Up ahead, seated on a crystal work bench intricately carved in an elaborate pattern was a with child black man in special K and chocolate-brown robes - Singehorn.

On the eve of the counterattack, the dragon had asked that the young sensation meet him in this plane of awareness that they might speak with one another. Here, in this other world, Harry could not only address to the dragon, he could see. He had no bandaged promontory, no wand, only a flannel robe and bare human foot that withstood the scorching high temperature beneath them. In the cave where Harry's corporeal soundbox sat in meditation, the others were preparing for war. Soon, the lunar month would rise, the loup-garou, including Remus and Fred, would wrick and the engagement would begin. It had taken Harry quite some time to close down out all the distractions that were happening about him, but finally he made it.

As he drew tight to the dragon, the descendent of Asha whose line of descent Harry had sworn to protect, he noticed that the man looked more aged than before and that his ventilation was heavy, laboured. With travail, Harry heaved himself upward onto another gem whole step, and then another. On the stone's throw before reaching the landing where Singehorn sat in one of the two watch glass bench, Harry saw a big ring made of black onyx. He stopped for a moment to look at it. The dragon coughed a bottomless throaty cough.

"Go on,"he said with a deep scratchy articulation."plectron it up."

Harry reached down and took the ring into his properly hand. It was ponderous than Harry expected. Holding it in the digit of both manus he examined it from all sides.

"I… I know this ring,"Harry said, trying to remember how or from where."I've seen it before."Singehorn shifted his tremendous weighting and grimaced somewhat.

"The ring,"he said,"is known to many, but few live today have seen it with their own eyes. For those few that saw it worn by its last master, it was most probable the finale thing they saw. He was known for using the hoop to kill."Suddenly, Harry remembered.

"Pravus,"he whispered, remembering the portrait of the dark whiz's hand Greg Goyle had shown him last year. Singehorn growled, long and low. Clearly, he did not bask the sound of the name.

"Very good,"answered the dragon."Very good. Come… sit."

Harry climbed the last large dance step and tried to dust the front of his snowy robe which had grown brown from the desert sand. Singehorn laughed and, as Harry looked up, the man's mouth erupted in flames, enveloping Harry in a great white flashing. In the next minute, Harry's robe were egg white again and he was unscathed. Harry examined his hands, expecting to see scorch grade, but cypher was there.

"Sit,"said Singehorn again. Unlike his close visit with the man before him, the young wizard sat obediently across from his master.

"My child… not for fifty years has that ring been held by man deal, not since I tore off the arm of the wizard that betrayed us all. When Pravus was destroyed and Grindelwald defeated, I thought for certain the darkness had been, at final, beaten back for skillful. I was Brigham Young then and naïve, but not so naïve as to trust in men again."

"But Dakhil,"said Harry."You trust him."

"Do I, Harry ? Do I ?"There was another low grumble as Singehorn leaned forward. Harry noticed a thin, light cicatrice that ran along the man's face, a scar that wasn't there before the joining. Over the shoemaker's last few calendar month, the tartar had seen battle.

"Do you see the ring on Dakhil's finger ?"he continued."No, Harry… Soseh trusts Dakhil and I would trust Soseh with my life, but his lot lies on a different path."

"You need to be intimate, sir,"said Harry with some urgency in his vocalisation."I've seen… I've seen two John Barleycorn inside him. He may be under the control of another."Singehorn smiled and began to laugh. It was loud and thunderous, not the reaction Harry had expected.

"He's a vampire, my child,"the flying dragon said finally."He fights the spirit inside him every waking consequence. Few have learned to keep in line the thirst for fresh roue, the desire for death. None have fought more heroically than Dakhil Barghouti to stave off his own personal ogre. But his way of life will soon leave elsewhere and I will need soul to consider up his staff as archpriest of the Votary. He would prefer I choose now, before his fate befalls him."

Harry's eyes widened in disbelief. Rolling the ring in his digit he looked up at Singehorn then back down at the anchor ring. Finally, he set it in his palm and held it out to the flying lizard.

"I can't, sir,"he said, shaking his nous."Whatever great power this ring holds, I'm not ready."

"What ? No questions about what the ring does ? What potency it might work you ?"

"No, sir,"Harry replied, reaching yet further toward Singehorn. The dragon did not remove the ring from Harry's thenar, but instead leaned back on the bench.

"Not even if the ring might help you defeat the one who killed mollie Weasley and so many Sir Thomas More ?"Harry shook his head."What if it would help you win the war against these Dementors, saving the lives of multitudinous Centaurs ; these creatures you seem to care so much about ?"Singehorn leaned in again."Are you so certain that you wouldn't wish to finally destruct the creature that killed your parents ?"

For a instant, Harry's outstretched arm receded. Once more he held the ring between thumb and forefinger, wondering what force it might convey him. He took a abstruse breather and exhaled slowly. Finally, he shook his fountainhead once more.

"No, sir,"he said softly still rolling the ringing in his digit."When I was stopping point here, you reminded me our calling : Bravery… Wisdom… Love."Harry shuddered, swallowing hard."You also told me that I needed to work on my wisdom."Harry took in a late breath as his eye grew misty."But I've been precious short in that heed all yr, eh ? I brought Voldemort into the Ministry. I brought him face-to-face with Mrs Weasley. I should sustain known…. I should have been wiser. Now, he's at your doorstep, threatening to demolish all we stand for."Holding back his binge, Harry held the ring out once again."Whatever superpower the ring bears, there are others more worthy than me."

With lightening speed, frighteningly fast for such a large frame, Singehorn grabbed Harry's hand in his own, his massive paw wrapping around Harry's entire fist and arm, squeezing the ring into the flesh of Harry's palm and scorching the rear of Harry's hand. His red middle glared with steeled determination into Harry's and his claws drew pedigree from Harry's flesh.

"Tell me, my son, when the duskiness spreads across this mountain and threatens my youngster and my children's youngster what will you do ? There are only so many rock candy to climb and the clouds will not protect us."Harry said nothing."When your Friend charge down the mountainside to fall in my kin in the attack against the sludge that surrounds us, will you hide… a unsighted rat in a darkness cave ?"The dragon's pincer dug deeper, but Harry refused to cry out.

"I'd… sooner… die."

"Harry, the freak seeks you out, but he does not want you drained, not yet. He thinks he needs you alert, but he doesn't know that what he seeks is no longer there, washed away by the falls at Hogwarts. Without the energy he once shared with you, he is but half a man, half a wizard. In his ignorance, in his lessened state, he can be defeated."

"Then I don't need the ring,"Harry said calmly, withstanding the pain.

"If only it was so bare,"sighed Singehorn, still holding Harry's hand business firm."Before the Cleansing at the falls, you joined."

"Joined ?"

"The darkness that was once in your veins… now flows through another's."

Harry's ticker began to race. Another's ?
"Your inherited."

"Jamie,"Harry whispered.

"You would sooner die than see my minor harmed. What would you do to protect your children ?"asked Singehorn.

"My… son."

Harry's fingers, almost instinctively, tightened around the ring burning the physique of his palm and in that insistent his visual sense filled with a tremendous newsbreak of White. Singehorn's part became dark and sinister.

"I will not say your decision is wise, but it is our only class. Forgive me, my child, for the power will eat up you. Soseh has foreseen your greed turn to grief. On the day the dragons mark the sky, you will start to get it on your true strength. How you emerge from your weakness will find the circumstances of us all."

Suddenly, Harry's stack was gone, all before him nighttime. When he breathed in, the damp must odour of the bandages that wrapped his look filled his nostril.

"We've got to go, sir,"said a wizard somewhere to Harry's left.

"If I have to separate you one to a greater extent time to be serenity, I'll rip your throat out,"snapped Dakhil in a low, boo voice."We will go when Singehorn says we can go. Do NOT touch the boy."

Still seated on the story, his legs folded beneath him, Harry reached out his mind and sensed the two men arguing to his left hand. The one, a shining wild blue yonder aura was clearly frightened ; the early flashed red and then purple. The red appeared to be winning and Harry wasn't sure that was a good thing for the man in dingy whose colour was fading so degraded Harry thought he might wet himself. He wasn't the only one nearby that was frightened. In the large cavern just beyond the rock wall where Harry sat, wads of men mulled about nervously waiting for the net Order to assail. Harry was about to strike, to indicate to the others that he had returned, when the orange coloration of Marek moved into the room where he sat.

He slipped over and placed his hand on Dakhil's back and the two walked to the far side of the tent. They whispered and then the whispers grew louder.

"Marek,"Dakhil hissed,"I need to recognise. What is your judgment ?"

"As a Healer or a Warrior ?"the man that had worked on Harry's face replied. He was upset, irritated perhaps of the struggle that would soon be bringing the dying to his doorsill."If we were home, I'd leave the bandages on for at least another week."

"The boy can't fight like that."

"Then leave the boy behind."

Two part harmonized :"No !"Simultaneously, Harry and Dakhil rejected Marek's suggestion.

"You've returned,"said Dakhil quietly."skillful. The sentence is near. The full moon Sun Myung Moon will soon come up over the side of the mountain. We must take advantage of every minute it brings us the werewolves'strength. cockcrow will descend far too quickly I'm afraid."

Harry held his hand to his face."And these ? You can remove these ?"

"Really, Harry,"answered Marek,"if only you could spare two more days… two more."

"The battle will be over by morning,"said Harry,"and I can't competitiveness with this rag weighing me down. It's sweaty enough as it is, and I can barely breathe."

"Then don't fight,"Marek said to Harry. Then he turned to Dakhil."What possible advantage does a boy bring this battle beyond more bloodshed ?"Steadying his understructure on the dusty John Rock, Harry stood.

"I am no boy !"he said defiantly. Marek ignored him.

"Dakhil,"the Healer continued,"there is no reason to put his life… What ? What is it ?"

There was secrecy. Harry too noticed the modification in Dakhil's aura that was likely now being mimicked by the vampire's typeface. The red had darkened into a rich vermilion - the emotion was a strong one, whatever it was.

"Dakhil, what are you looking at ?"Marek continued.

As Harry stood, his custody, which had been covered by the sleeves of his gown while he sat, became exposed. There, on the essence finger of Harry's mightily helping hand was a ring. Angry at being called a boy, Harry had not noticed the added weight on his digit.

"Well… that can't be good,"said Dakhil with a rather cool voice."I had asked for a choice, but I never…"

"I'll take the damn bandages off myself if I have to,"cried Harry, reaching for his wand. It was then, when fingerbreadth met Ellen Price Wood, that he realized there was a ring on his finger's breadth. He let go his wand and held the ring with his exit mitt. He moved to pack it off, but the band would not proceed. He pulled again, and again the ringing held its grip about the os of his right midsection finger.

"I had always hoped he might see fit to give it to me,"said Dakhil with more disappointment than anger."I suppose Soseh has told him."

"Told him what ?"asked Harry, still trying to work the band from his finger.

"Damn the day I met you, boy,"said Dakhil, again in a unruffled, matter of fact feeling."She's seen my death, which is not such a enceinte business concern for a lamia when such outcome can be centuries hence."He paused.

"And ?"Harry asked.

"And you were there, boy. You were there."Dakhil moved closer."So, either you're going to wander down the mountainside, get bit and live to a very ripe old age as an immortal, or I'm going to die before the summertime solstice. condemnation you,"Dakhil said dryly,"I always wanted to name it to the millennium."

"You're both talking gibberish,"said Marek."Would you blockade that,"he said to Harry."You're starting to bleed."Harry turned his sess downward and watched as the glowing drips of blood fell to the base from his finger. Marek pulled his sceptre and healed the finger."Now leave the damn ring alone. Here, let me remove it."

He cast a spell and nothing happened, nix but the rasping laugh from Dakhil. He tried a different spell and still the ring stayed clamped about Harry's finger.

"We don't have meter for this,"said Harry finally."flavor, just take the bandages off. range a shield charm about the hide if you must, but I can't—"

"Very well,"cut in Marek with a suspiration."But it's not your skin that I was worried about."Sit over here."He led Harry to a Oliver Stone bench.

"What do you signify ?"Harry asked.

"Well, Harry, while I was working on your face, I thought I might see if I couldn't do something about your eyes."

"But I've seen cipher,"said Harry."Certainly through this gauze, I could discern—"

"I've sealed your hat shut so the eye beneath could heal as the spell worked and weaved."He stepped faithful to Harry."Son, two more days… two more Day and I'm sure that the knit will be complete."

"And I'll see again ?"asked Harry with a glint of hope in his voice.

"You might."

"Well… look… it's sullen anyway,"Harry said."Take off the bandages and leave my middle sealed. I'll be better off not trying to recognise physical object in the darkness. I've gotten used to not seeing and trying to squint in the murky night may just make things worse."

"There's the problem,"said Dakhil."The objects you wish to recognise are Dementors. They suck the life from all about them. To your sight they would be darkness and on the scorched mountainside where very piddling life remains, it would be near impossible to observe them."

At this it was Harry's turn to jest.

"Dakhil, I don't need my visual modality to screw when a Dementor is breathing down my neck. I'll know where they are, believe me, I'll know."

"Then it's decided,"said Marek."I'll remove your bandages, but keep your heart sealed. If you make it through the nighttime Harry, your face should be re-wrapped immediately. A harbor spell might be acceptable for walking around shoal or sitting about the house. It will be worthless against a well placed hex."

"Get on with it,"said Harry."I can pick up the howling already."

And indeed he could, they all could. Some of the magician lycanthrope were growing anxious. Outside, the Sun Myung Moon was nearing the crest of the eastern apparent horizon and some were having trouble controlling their metamorphosis even inside the cavern, away from the moonshine. Typically, such difficulties were had by newly converted werewolf, those who had recently become. Harry wondered how Fred was fairing.

When Dakhil removed the gauze bandages, Harry immediately reached up to his case to touch, but the screen charm stopped his finger.

"It feels like an eggshell,"Harry whispered.

"And it won't protect your brass much more than one,"added Marek."Remember that, when you're out there playing the hero."Harry was about to protest but, preceded by a hiss, unexpected words left Dakhil's mouth first.

"An Acolyte of the Votary does not play at anything !"Dakhil's stature was suddenly somewhat gravid, and his glory somewhat redder."You would be wise to call up your side, Marek. With one thought the boy could destroy you."

"Yes… yes, of grade,"Marek apologized."I'm sorry… I… I truly am sorry."

There was fear in his words, far more fear than Harry thought the billet warranted. role of him understood, something he remembered from the Joining, but there wasn't time to well for its reservoir ; it was clock time for military action. Harry stood and began to take the air toward the magnanimous chamber.

"One moment, boy,"said Dakhil with a matter of fact shade. Harry stopped, turned and, before he had an inst to react, Dakhil had cast a spell on him. nix happened.

"What… what was that ?"Harry demanded, still reaching for his wand.

"He's changed the colour of your robe, Harry,"said Marek."They're no longer white ; they're crimson."

"hierarch potter,"said Dakhil in an exceptionally scratchy voice followed by a short blasting cough."Your form of address, when I die."He sighed."Asha protect us."Harry looked down, but could sense no discernible difference of opinion."Don't worry, boy ; those who have travelled the path through proper education will know at once the significance of your robes. We'd best rush. There won't be sentence for much of a speech."

Harry and Dakhil left the tent and entered the cavern ; it had emptied out onto the mountainside, staging for the engagement to arrive. Soon, the gate would open and the soldiers would talk down upon their foes. Harry and Dakhil walked down the cave and as it narrowed toward its issue a untried man came up and touched Harry by the arm.

"Asha be with you,"he said tilting his mind in a slight bow.

"And with you,"replied Harry without care. Why did I say that ?
The cavern door opened and, for a moment, Harry was blinded by the many glory gathered outside. He could see that some of the lycanthrope had already turned, and a group of adept was having difficulty restraining them. No one seemed distracted by the ululation, a ululation that immix with words in Harry's creative thinker - killing, bite, blood ! He turned to see if someone was talking to him, but no one was there. Another lycanthrope howled.

"forbearance, my friends,"called Harry to the snapping creature and the skirt chaser quieted at his words. That was not my phonation, thought Harry. Or was it ?

Everyone was listening to Antreas who stood upon a magnanimous outcrop of sway above the growing din. His words were amplified, but Harry wasn't sure the increased intensity was necessary. He was calling out in a inviolable and overlook voice and Harry wondered why this role wasn't Dakhil's.

"….is all we need. Together we will be winning ! Together we will blackball the darkness into the abysm !"The earth began to rumble with hand clapping. Harry noticed four giant pounding their feet with approval.

"Giants ?"he asked Dakhil."I didn't notice any giant when I arrived."

"They climbed over from the sheer drop-off on the back English of the tidy sum. That way is not guarded save by Dementors, and they have no effect on such simple brute. So it is with the werewolves."

"It'll m-make for a b-bloody end Eater busting surprise."

"Fred ?"

The redhead was clearly agitated, seemingly in the midst of the modification.

"Fred, please… don't—"

"The high priest has ARRIVED !"cried Antreas with a leaping vocalization. He was referring to Dakhil, but Harry could feel hundreds of eyes turn toward him simultaneously. Save for the howling and the periodic go being cast a unawares ways down the hill, all became silent.

"Let's consecrate them what they want, boy,"said Dakhil."Up you go."He levitated Harry some XX understructure in the air. Harry's heart began to subspecies as he rose, wondering what he might say.

It was like rising over the coal of a dying fire, each glowing aura a tiny coal burning against the darkness. There were hundreds gathered here. Some fell to their knee joint as Harry rose ; most stood silently. titan, Centaur, magician and lycanthrope, a ragtag accumulation of misfits all collected to agitate together against the malice Lucius Malfoy had co-opted for his own iniquity purposes.

Lucius probably hoped he would recall the cloak and arrive at this berth of struggle to celebrate a capital triumph, the first of many. Little did he know that his erstwhile master would claim up mansion house in his soundbox - if only long enough to take over Harry's. But that would never, could never happen. How the worm had turned on the blonde-haired patriarch. Soon, it would turn on the swarthiness worming within him. Harry raised his arms to the heavens above, a giant comet was clearly seeable in the night's sky.

"Ebyrth marks its rejoinder and now we find ourselves at its mercy. While some have come to answer the new sun's outcry, others are here to protect our Dragon brothers against the darkness that wishes to put down all in its path. Tonight we fight as one. Tonight we fight with the forcefulness of behemoth, the magic of magician, the fury of lycanthrope, the wisdom of Centaurs, and the essence of dragons !"

No sooner had the tidings left his mouth, than the thunderous SWOOP-SWOOP filled the air and four enormous dragons flew over the bunch, blotting out the stars and then coming to stay at the top of the great Lucy Stone bulwark. Singehorn wasn't among them, but Harry, though having never met them, knew their name. The three male person were Rakesh, Talisan, and Igneus, and the spicy female person was Tanwen. As if being called, Harry looked toward Talisan, the heavy of the four, with green-black scales and fierce red eyes.

"primate !"the creature cried out."We follow you in conflict. What are your monastic order !"

All around Harry, wizards were clasping their custody to their capitulum, some falling to their knees, because of the animal's great roar. And yet, Harry could understand everything he said. How is this possible ? This was no meditation.

"Your Order, primate ?"cried the tartar again, and again those around Harry winced in pain.

"sunburn them !"yelled Harry."Burn them till your bellies turn cold. You, Tanwen, fly high above the wall. Let no enemy past the gates. Do not leave your post. We must save the rookery at all costs !"Harry pulled his red robes tight about his shoulders.

"Open the gates !"called Antreas and the army erupted in cheer and ululation. A few werewolf snapped at their ally, but most caught the scent of their hated foeman, enticing their senses with a bloodlust for Dementor, and quickly they began to agitate ahead, down the mountainside. Dakhil brought Harry down to earth as the crowded hillside flowed out through the gate. Harry began to run, following the rushing lunar time period, but someone grabbed his shoulder and pulled him around ; it was Antreas.

"Your time is at hand, Harry,"he said with a stout spokesperson."I'll lead the outset wave ; I dare not speak it to the others, but don't think for a minute we'll succeed. The lookout man have told me the situation… it's dire. When we begin to fall back, and we will decrease back… that's when we'll need you."Harry was about to argue, but Antreas was already swept away in the flow of eubstance rushing through the logic gate. Undaunted, Harry began to pursue, only this prison term Dakhil stopped him.

"Tell me, boy,"he murmured quietly beneath the roaring rush of wizards pushing by."Why are you here ?"

"To oppose Voldemort,"Harry spat, turning to will. Dakhil held his arm fast and Harry glared back with furious centre.

"Really ?"queried Dakhil, still quiet, still tranquilize, still holding Harry's arm with a vice-like grip."Are you… sure ?"Harry tried to pull away, but couldn't. He pulled his sceptre."You don't need a wand to dismiss me, boy. You're the Primate now, or will be soon. If you think you no longer need my services, then give notice me ! You need only address the Word ; tell me to be gone !"

He was goading Harry, trying to score him raging, trying to educe a reception. Harry slipped his wand away.

"You are the Primate,"he said softly."Not me."

"magician will never come a lamia, boy,"answered Dakhil."But for some reason, Asha only knows why, they will conform to you. The wisdom of Grigor Darbinyan now flows in his son's vena. Would you snub Antreas ? Shall we charge with the relaxation ? What are your orders ?"

"I'm here to service my oath, to protect the line of Asha… as are you. We stay to protect the rookery."Harry noted a glimmer in Dakhil's aura… a grinning ? The last of the first wafture had passed through the gate, leaving two hulk, one dragon, a vi centaur and some thirty wizards to wait for further gild, Holy Order that Harry would cause to give. Knowing that the number at his side were too few to fend off the coming onset, his thoughts turned to the iniquity, hiding at the hindquarters of the mountain, searching for some way that they might defeat him.

"He won't reveal himself,"said Harry, slowly,"until he believes they've won, that he can step up and take me as his pillage. Antreas is veracious, to charm Lucius and the iniquity that consumes him, the first waving must fail."

"The foe's numbers are too slap-up,"said Dakhil, releasing his grip."Even with those still remaining, we have no hope of winning in direct battle."

"Then the second wave must be a surprise. We must hold up until the last possible moment."

"Even then, boy, the numbers racket are against us."

"Maybe,"answered Harry,"But we need only fall upon down one foe. What will our foe do when their general atomic number 66 ? When Lucius and his master evenfall ?"

"It is impossible to catch vapour with your bare hands. Who among us, might I ask, will contribute down the night Lord ?"

"I will,"Harry answered. He left Dakhil and entered into the nub of those remaining."gather ‘ round !"he called."Listen to what I say ! Tonight… tonight we plan for triumph !"


Harry ceramist and the Birth of a New Sun

Chapter 19 - The First Battle
~~~***~~~
flame and smoke roiled in the air from the battle below, bearing the odour of burnt chassis and blood into the secure chemical compound guarding the rookery of the Dragon, where Harry and the others waited. The earth shook as the hulk, fighting their common enemies below, cast Lucy Stone the size of train-cars crashing down upon their foes. Howls, screeches, and the roar of dragon-fire reverberated between the Harlan F. Stone walls, echoing down the canyons and pitching wildly between Harry's ears. He couldn't see the battle raging on the mountainside below, none of them could. But then, they didn't need to see what was happening to know that it was not going well. The burning odour was growing hard, the shaking world was more knockout, and the howls and shriek filled the air more than ever. The conflict was coming closer, higher up the deal. Soon, it would be at the compound paries.

Harry grew more nervous by the present moment. His first instinct had been to round outright, but both Antreas and Dakhil had stopped him. Ignoring the sapience of a star that had survived centuries was folly and Harry knew that they must wait. The second gear wave would assail when their enemies were most weary. If Harry's force play could break their lines, if they could preserve heel to throat, perhaps the advancing darkness would retire down the mountain, down to where Lucius Malfoy, now possessed by Voldemort, near certainly waited.

When the first undulation began its onrush, Harry had quietly sent the skillful Centaur archers high onto the mountainside leading down from the North gate. Hiding high in the hills, they would flank the advancing darkness and strike when Harry gave the signaling. Along the edges of the other side of the vale, Harry sent the two remaining giants, Florge and Scrum, to wait hidden among the rocks. There they would hold the higher ground, preventing any Death eater from running away from the onslaught of Centaur arrow. Once they were set into status, the whale looked like a large outcropping of stone, null more. With chance they would mow down dozens with their clubs, large corner trunks bristling with pungent alloy pikes the distance of Harry's arm.

auditory sense, smelling, feeling the first wave retreat back toward the main logic gate, Harry impatiently waited to chair the second waving through a hidden gate that skirted the side of the vale wall. Then they would know if there was any hope at all. Already, Centaur runners brought back reports that the number of the enemy was twice what was first cerebration - over two-hundred Dementors, nearly a century vampire, tons of wizards, and five monster of their own. Clearly, the Book of Numbers were against them and they all knew it.

About a diminished fire, Harry sat with Dakhil and two other phallus of the Votary, Mikael and Katana. Dakhil was roasting blimp skewered on the end of a Centaur spear. Mikael was a large man, Ukrainian he said, with dark browned hair and a eonian three days'ontogeny of byssus. one-half of his result ear was missing and he had a wildness about his piercing profane heart that, as Dakhil described, would frighten any experience someone that dared to cross wands with him. As for Katana, she was tranquility, almost subdued. Even sightless, Harry could distinguish how her blacken skin contrasted against the silver mail ringlet that covered her upper torso. Set against her quiet personal manner was the red air that burned fiercely from her soulfulness, perhaps the most intense Harry had ever seen. Unlike Mikael, she rarely spoke, but when she did it almost always carried import. The fire crackled and the sausage balloon popped, sending a steaming spirt of burning fat onto Mikael's arm. He yelped, but Dakhil only laughed.

"I wish that was the just sting you would receive tonight, Mikael,"said the vampire, grimly staring into the fire, turning the sausage on the lance and watching the dripping grease send off little flair of fire lapping upwards.

"How you are thirsty, Dakhil,"replied Mikael, shaking his header and moving close once again to warm himself by the fervency."They arrive at doorstep before you finish."Again, Dakhil laughed.

"You should cognize by now, my Ukrainian friend,"said Dakhil with a smile,"I don't eat sausages. The boy here looked a bit lightheaded and I thought he should build up his strength."He held the point of the gig before Harry's expression, the sizzling sausage balloon splattering tinge of hot fat against the harbour charm protecting Harry's exposed typeface."One should never take on their maker on an abandon stomach."

"Thank you,"Harry said with a thinly smile. He took the sausage balloon between quarter round and forefinger, but it neither seared nor burned. Without flinching, Harry slid the sausage off the spear up's alloy stop and took a bite. Once again, he detected a momentary smile in the aura of Dakhil. To the vampire's left, Katana let out a small snicker. She stood, her ringlets jingling as she did so, and then she looked upward to the night sky where the belittled dragon Tanwen circled.

"Even as Ebyrth reveals itself to the human beings, Asha's blessing is upon you, young mavin,"she said with a low voice that was calm and as recondite as the lake out of doors Hogwarts."This is good… for the sentence has come. Prepare."

Scantly had the words left her lips than a rattling thunder exploded command overhead. Talisan, the with child of the four dragons, appeared from no where, plummeting from the sky, streaking fire and hummer behind him and smashing to the reason, tumbling into a grouping of thaumaturgist that to the highest degree certainly would have got died in the collision had not Katana turned their attention toward the rampart when she stood. Immediately, pandemonium struck the inner circle. Even though many knew their posts, some necromancer called out to attack directly through the chief gate, some scattered for the secret position gate, some ran toward the mountain's burrow. The Centaurus were calling for longanimity, and all were yelling at the top of their lungs.

"SILENCE !"cried Dakhil, his representative reverberating off the canon paries."Everyone, move in organization toward the Union gate ! There we wait until the signaling comes."

"But—"

"We will aggress when the sign comes ; not before ! NOW MOVE !"

While the mix-up subsided, Harry moved toward the fallen flying lizard.

"Where are you going ?"questioned Dakhil.

"Talisan needs aid,"respond Harry continuing to walk to the dragon.

"Your orders were to—"

"I know what the plan is, Dakhil ! I made it !"Harry yelled.

"We don't have time for this, boy !"

"I have all the time I need,"snapped Harry in retort."Now go ! Lead the others and I'll sum you when I'm done."

"Marek can care for the—"

"GO !"

With his sceptre still sheathed, Harry concentrated his intellect. Bending distance was easygoing than slowing time, even Ronan, his Centaur flight simulator, had admitted that. But Harry needed clock time, even just a little Thomas More to save Talisan's life history. Right now, he was compelled. He felt that healing the dragon was more of import than all the rest of it. He wasn't for certain why, but he had to do what he could. He centred on the words Ronan had taught him.

In forest glen, the babbling brook is filled with argent fish.
Slow its flow and refuse each drip to put them on your ravisher.

The sounds about Harry became smother. He sensed that the gloriole running to the N gate were slowing, slowing… not still, but nearly. Harry summoned the rock of cinnabar moth from within him. Still bloody, he cast a ardour trance upon it.

"fearlessness, Wisdom, Love,"he whispered and was instantly transported to the white way that waited for his mastery."Talisan,"he whispered, and was immediately drawn to the dragon.

He'd healed a cat before, but never a dragon. At low gear he could see the enormous creature prone on the land, the three wizards surrounding it frozen in sentence, but the dragon looked up toward Harry, blinking as if it could see him. Talisan's ventilation was wandering and he coughed stemma and smoke. Then, as always, the scene paused, as if asking Harry to confirm that this indeed was the natural action he wished to take."Heal my friend,"Harry whispered again. coloring began to whirl about… break down bones… stunned nerves… sliced organs…a pierced lung… ancestry dripping on the flaming of life…"Yes, heal them… heal them all."

The scene flashed black and Harry found himself on his articulatio genus, the jagged rocks tearing at his flesh, the stone of cinnabar in his pass on hand. Before moving he pulled his wand and hid the stone once more inside his body, in the little pocket left by missing liver tissue. And once again, he thought of Greg Goyle and said a small entreaty. Before he looked up he heard the dragon speak. His words were unfirm, but Harry could see that his injuries were healing.

"We must hasten,"Talisan said,"the… the second wave… I must—"

"You must stay here,"cut in Harry."You must rest."

"I can't. It is my duty to—"

"It's your duty to listen to the bearer of the ring."It was the dragon Tanwen, Harry knew that, but she was nowhere near. She was still flying in high spirits above the rookery. Harry wondered how he could be having this conversation, how…

"The mob,"he whispered, touching the Stone with his early deal. He took to his substructure, rubbing the black Harlan Fisk Stone between his fingers. He expected to feel somewhat dizzy after healing the flying lizard, but he wasn't. Without turning, he noticed that the auras were beginning to funnel out through the North logic gate just as the injure were coming in from the main logic gate. They would need help too. He moved to see what he could do when Marek stopped him.

"Let me take tending of the wound, Harry. If you don't execute like we had planned, we have no hope of winning and all will be lost, not just a few life sentence, but hundreds."Once more, Harry glanced to the injured cyclosis in. There was a strong impulse to heal them all. Many were near death. For a import he hesitated and then he grudgingly nodded his pass.

"Right,"said Marek."Get going."

Harry ran to the position gate, reaching it in minute. He could hear Marek calling for help from the other therapist to get the wound inside the caves. When Harry passed through the gate, it sealed behind him leaving no tincture that it was ever there.

The mathematical group of genius and centaur making up the moment wave had not moved far past the logic gate. They were carefully, quietly, edging their way around the flank of their foeman. As Harry moved about one of the prominent rock formations, he had his first of all chance to detect the advancing army. It looked formidable, but not a three to one vantage. For a moment he had forgotten the Dementors, puppet whose gloriole he could not see, but the bit did not lowest long. The wind shifted and the chill stench of their physical body filled the air. For an instant… from the canyon just below… Was he imagining it ? Harry thought he could actually hear them talking to each former. He'd never heard anything but the pawl Dementors made when communicating, but this… it sounded like word of honor. Whatever it was he was hearing, they were close. He resisted the temptation to wretch just as two of his own whizz fell to their genu in fear.

There was the deliquium chirp of some louse, the sign, and the air immediately rang with the whistle of pointer. The Centaurs high in position among the cliffs let go their first volley. Screeches of Dementor and vampire alike bubbled up out of the canyon like a slurred guck of painful sensation. An inst later, another salvo of pointer filled the air, followed by more screams ; then another… and another. Moving his way to the social movement of the contingent making up the attacking second Wave, Harry could get word wizards cry out from below for their subscriber line to move around toward the incline of the mountain.

"shell !"someone called. The next fusillade struck many still off guard, but was less successful among the leery wizards. Harry continued to advance until he came to Dakhil's shoulder.

"young woman me ?"Harry whispered. Dakhil seemed distracted.

"They're faze,"he said quietly."If we're going to do this, boy, we must do it now to wobble any opportunity of surprise. They await your command."A burst of exasperated disgust left Dakhil's lip, but Harry didn't hesitate.

"tap now !"he commanded."ATTACK !"

Arrows from the centaur stationed on the Rock above continued to rain down upon the bottom of the melodic phrase of Death Eaters, vampire and Dementors that had now driven Antreas'first wave back through the independent gate of the chemical compound bulwark. Even as the front man of this grim military force was cheering for victory, calling for their goliath to sunder the great wall protecting the compound, others at the rear were screaming with fear. The wizards and Centaurs in Harry's moment Wave cascaded down the mountainside firing pointer and filling the smoky air with an electrifying display of scepter big businessman. Spell after while stunned, exploded and slashed their adversaries. Fear was tangible and its upshot began to riffle its way toward the front. Harry could sense their atmosphere fading against the onslaught. The Dementors could feel it too and they began to consume souls indiscriminately. It was Katana who described to Harry how, in some sort of frenzied state they began feeding on the fear of their own warriors. As the frightened minions tried to scramble up the face-to-face hillside they came face to face with the hide giants.

Florge and scrum rose as if ascending from the gem itself. With great strokes of their society they swatted their foeman back into the advancing force, back into the frenzied Dementors, back into a boiling broth of upset that had now made its way to the movement of the lines.

What at first seemed like a rout of Harry's incline was being flipped upon its head. Centaur pointer were dropping non-wizard lamia from the sky with nearly every tie of the string. Emboldened by the success of the second wave, the respectable in Antreas'original attacking force regrouped and began another thrill. Werewolves that had scattered to the versant retreating from their first off approach also sensed the change and returned to the fray.

Squeezed on both sides and pressed to the fore, Lucius Malfoy's United States Army retreated back down the mountain. With all the confusion, Harry and many of the others in his second base wave found themselves in the middle of Malfoy's retreating personnel. They had essentially split their enemy's military group into two, allowing one half to retreat freely down the sight while trapping the other in a with child pincher. Harry and his forces had the lowly terra firma while Antreas and the others pressed in from above. What followed was utter destruction.

Rakesh appeared from on high and began to plunge toward the dazed and perturb warriors.

"backrest !"cried Harry to the others. He heard similar cries from Antreas and his men further up the mountain. The werewolves did not direct the admonition."BACK !"Harry yelled again. The Death Eaters were too distracted trying to handle the attacking werewolves and their own crazed Dementors to notice the dragon moving in.

When Harry's men moved away, the vision of atmosphere cleared and he distinctly noticed three werewolves still tearing at the shape of their opposition. One of them was Fred Weasley ; Harry could feel his anger, his hatred, his hungriness to demolish.

"FRED !"Harry screamed."GET OUT OF THERE !"But Fred was a werewolf and zero Harry could do would arrest that. Then Igneus appeared on the flank of Rakesh ; both were diving down on their surrounded enemies. Soon it would all be over. Harry began to run, not away but toward his friend and the mayhem of the battle before him. Even as stunner ricocheted off in every counsel and violent death Curses took down one creature after another, Harry ran. He leapt onto the red fur of Fred's back, knocking him to the primer.

The werewolf spun, opened his neat jaws and grabbed Harry by the throat. Only the Christ Within buckler charm about Harry's typeface was keeping him from being bitten through, but it wouldn't death long if Fred truly desired blood. On his back, his locoweed facing forward, he could discover the two heavyweight auras of the dragons racing toward them. They had only seconds. Harry held his manus about Fred's neck, and pressed the black onyx ring against his friend's anatomy.

"Be still,"he ordered."Be still, my friend."

The hairgrip about Harry's neck loosened slightly and, in that import, Harry spun them both to the ground and cast a shield charm. The Earth erupted in ardour. screaming filled the air only to be silenced an instant later by another blast of heating plant and flame. The werewolf in Harry's arms struggled to break free, but not wholly.

"Get off of me, you bloody idiot,"Harry heard him howl."I swear I'll gut you !"

"The ring,"Harry thought."I hear him through the ring."
"Fred, listen…"said Harry sharply."Hold still, just one more than present moment. The heat… the passion will—"The werewolf broke free of Harry's grasp and threw himself against the shield appeal surrounding them. It held from within. Again he charged the carapace and this time broke through. He yipped as his mitt burned against the scorching land, but in a instant he was gone, chasing after the part of the army that had fled down the versant.

With the shield charm gone, Harry could smell the burning malodor about him. Where seconds before stood dozens of men and tool, now only three lone wizards remained - decease feeder that had seen the dragons in prison term and had shield charms of their own. One, seeing Harry stand in the glowing ember without his shield, released his own protective magic spell and began to run. He took two tone before his feet were in flames. He fell and began to sizzle against the scorched earth. One of the former death Eaters killed him to turn him from the miserableness. Harry walked toward the remaining two, the heat burning away the grime that soiled his robes, but leaving the scarlet cloth and his peel unscathed. Somehow being here on the mountain, so close to the dragons, had steeled his ability to withstand the heat.

"It's not potential,"said one, the dark haired necromancer in fateful robe that had killed his friend.

"Fool,"spat the other, blonde with robes of black blueness."He's one of them - half-man, half-dragon."

"He's a boy,"said the other.

"If this boy,"said Harry, moving closer,"drop cloth your shield spell right now, you'll cook to death like your booster there."The iniquity haired death eater raised his baton.

"He's screen !"

"Stop it !"said the other."Are you mad ? ! There are heaps in the hills around us. We haven't a chance."Harry continued to elevate.

"The man you serve,"Harry began, now close enough to tap the shield of the dark haired wizard with the tip of his wand,"Lucius Malfoy… where is he ?"

"He'll… he'll be here soon enough. You'll see. Then… then you'll—"

"What colour is his haircloth ?"The tip of Harry's wand began to glow red, sending out a pinprick of ignitor onto the light bluish shield that surrounded the Death feeder.

"B-Blonde,"the Death Eater stammered, staring intently at the red incandescence.

"And his middle ? What coloration are his eyes ?"

"There… there red, beshrew it ! He's found a origin of true power, and he'll swat the likes of you from the grimace of the earth. Now get us out of this flak pit !"

"Dakhil !"Harry cried out."Dakhil !"There was a swooping sound and the wizard flew down next to Harry on the scorch earthly concern. He was in vampire variety, the front of his robes stained red with blood that was even now vanishing, burning away from the intense warmth.

"Voldemort's alive and he's still in Malfoy,"said Harry with a sense of importunity in his interpreter that was building with anger."This battle… it's not over. They'll regroup, realize that they still outnumber us, and attempt again. We have to press our vantage while we can."Dakhil's lips pulled back into a horrific smiling that revealed rows of long, precipitous teeth. It was sufficiency to seduce the destruction Eater succeeding to them shudder.

"Very good, boy,"he hissed with a deep scratchy vocalization."I will inform Antreas to pass this all in zone, when he is able, and move down. You will want to narrate Rakesh and Igneus."

"What about Talisan ?"

"He is well ; do you not sense it ?"And indeed Harry could and, for a minute, his heart lightened. Dakhil moved to fly when Harry grabbed his arm.

"And the others ? How are our telephone number ?"

"We will most certainly be destroyed this night,"cracked Dakhil."Your comet, Ebyrth, will destroy us all."Dakhil took to the sky and faded into the darkness toward the higher parts of the mickle. As the ember cooled, Harry could smell out the others from the second wafture moving toward him. They had been triumphant, but the numbers… they were one-half of what they'd left the chemical compound with.

The Centaurs stopped outside the ring of intense rut, but Katana walked though it toward Harry.

"What are your club, high priest ?"she asked. There was a cruddy gash on the side of her arm and the side of meat of her font looked like it had some hex. Harry moved toward her and bathed her face in blue light ; the furuncle receded.

"When the area cools, Antreas will move down to connect us, but we can not await. We must continue the attack. We are searching for their loss leader, a blonde wizard with red middle, wearing a dark cloak."

"The shadow Lord, I have heard him called."Her spokesperson was calm, almost calculating.

"He's no noble, Katana,"said Harry coolly,"but he will kill anything in his path. monish the others. We head to the wasp's nest and the stingers there will kill."

"And these two ?"she asked, nodding to the Death Eaters still desperately trying to maintain their buckler appealingness.

"Leave them to Antreas,"Harry said."We can't dispense with the men."Katana raised an supercilium and cleared her throat. Harry noticed the insidious change in her aura."Or charwoman,"Harry corrected with a smiling."Or women."

Before long, Harry's beleaguered forces were well more than half-way down the mountainside. Soon they would be outside the perimeter that marked the charming boundary line of the dragons'estate. During the entire journey, they had encountered no resistance. All they had found was the occasional fallen superstar or the smutty cloak of a Dementor ; none alert. Katana and Mikael warned that they should not pass the perimeter, that the dragons would not survey beyond, but Harry already knew that. Rakesh and Igneus, circling above, would only protect the ground under their dominion. They would not aggress outside it.

"Do you think Voldemort doesn't know that ?"he asked, as they continued to exhibit down the passel."If we don't crush him now, he'll use the time to rebuild his power and flack again, more abominable than ever."

"You don't know that."

"I know that—"Suddenly, a Centaurus scout, Shamire, appeared, stew dripping from his wing. Harry turned to him."What news ?"he asked.

"You were right, Chosen,"the Centaur answered."They have a camp just on the other incline of the border. There are wounded everywhere, and lots of yelling. They are in a clearing surrounded by large tree diagram, but the trees… they are not real."

"What ?"

"I have never seen anything like it before. The tree look like tree diagram, but they are not ; they are dead, a fiction. The lycanthrope are circling, but unwilling to enter."

"A roadblock ?"asked Katana."To protect the camp."

"Maybe,"said Harry,"or something worse. It's always something worse. Shamire, tell the others to be on their safety. The Dragon won't fly past the perimeter. It will be up to us to finish the job."As he said these Son Harry looked toward the sky and saw the gallant brute circle back, returning to the compound."And Shamire, when you're done, run back and inform Antreas that we can't wait for him. We have to snipe before they've regained their strength. There's still fear in the air, we have to press the advantage."Shamire nodded and vanished.

Harry and the others arrived outside the clearing. The Centaur had been right ; the large Tree structures encircling the clearing were dead. To Harry they appeared like massive spires of darkness that shot into the air. Each one was four to five feet across. Harry touched one ; it felt like the luggage compartment of a Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, but it was cold, lifeless. Mikael motioned for the others to spread out and gird the camp. They were outnumbered four to one, but nearly all of their adversary were game, in litters or diminished cots that spread across the open field by the dozens. At one end was a large, mordant void that rose from the grass to the sky above. Dementors, thought Harry. Could he hear the auditory sensation of representative, arguing ? Before them was a thaumaturge with an atmosphere to a greater extent acute than all the others. Harry knew at once who it was.

"Voldemort,"he whispered.

A few hour later, Mikael gave the signal. Harry and many of the others surrounding the cantonment mold turn to push the monumental Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree aside. Harry was worried that they might act as an alert and give away the moment of surprisal, but the trees moved. A dozen initiative appeared all about the great rope.

The werewolves were the first to leap through. From all charge wizard and Centaur poured into the bailiwick. Arrows, spells and counter-spells streaked across the air. Harry's intellect was focused on one affair - the maven at the far end of the inner circle surrounded by shadow. Moving closer, he could listen the scream in his brain, but he had learned to assure the reverence brought on by the Dementors, to control all emotion if need be. Still, as he approached Lucius Malfoy the more angry he became. The blonde wizard's back was toward Harry ; he was seemingly oblivious to the bombardment and still speaking with the darkness of Dementors. Were they laughing ? Harry didn't tutelage if his foe's back was turned ; he would kill this prison term, avenge so many of the deaths he should give birth stopped long ago. He was so focused on killing he barely heard Katana cry out.

"They're Muggles !"Only ten railyard away from attacking his scorned foe, Harry turned to see what she was talking about.

"These aren't genius !"she yelled at the people laying in the bedding material and camp bed that filled the field."They're Muggles ; they've been immobilized."

Harry heard a in high spirits cold joke from tooshie just as each tree surrounding the field split out-of-doors with a great white light.

"IT'S A yap !"Harry cried, but too tardy. wizard vampires and Death Eaters spilled out from the cranny in the tree diagram that had been hiding them. Harry's second Wave, thinking it had its opponent surrounded, now found itself surrounded. The werewolves had already started to round defenceless Muggles, getting them to call on their attention was proving near impossible.

"Now,"hissed Lucius Malfoy. The Dementors that he had held back against the far end of the area were released. 100 poured out and over Harry, knocking him over but leaving him alone as they attacked the others. He could have sworn he heard one of them say,"You're lucky, wizard."He knew that there were far too few Centaurs to work them all down.

Harry turned over on his belly and watched as the lights of souls smashed into one another. They were still outnumbered, only now Harry's men were at the disadvantage and he hadn't the advice of Antreas or the sapience of Dakhil to know what to do. Or did he ?

Rubbing the stripe of onyx with his thumb, Harry held out his handwriting toward a familiar chemical group of lycanthrope that were unsure who to set on.

"Hear me !"Harry called out. One of the werewolf turned immediately. It was Remus.

"Harry ?"he yelped.

"The Death Eaters by the tree !"yelled Harry. Remus and the chemical group of werewolves turned toward the tree diagram and ran. All that is but one. Fred remained, with eyes of flak, looking retiring Harry to the wickedness wizard behind him. He charged.

"Fred, no !"yelled Harry."He'll kill y—"A red stunner came from the side, slamming the loup-garou to the ground."Fred !"

All around Harry's grouping was falling like stunned pixies, some by red visible light, some by green. Dementors were swirling about as if waiting for the order to suck the soul out of the subsister. Spoils, Harry suspected. Harry looked toward the mountaintop. Where were Antreas'forces ?

"I should sustain waited,"he whispered into the sod.

"It would not have mattered,"said Malfoy in a mixed gamy, cold drawl. Harry spun to cast a spell, but his baton was expelled before he could turn around. The following affair he knew he was immobilized, cockeyed as a board, but well aware of what was happening. He spit. His sassing was working, but try as he might he could not turn his head. He heard Katana screaming in pain somewhere behind him.

"Isn't it luscious, thrower,"Malfoy asked, stepping close. Harry could smell the malodor of the wizard approaching. He could not see the red centre burning in their sockets, but he could sense the auras fighting within. Evidently, Malfoy was a bit more difficult to control than young James Chang. He wasn't going down willingly.

"Since I was a fiddling boy, I've always loved that phone, the way it penetrates the ear and rings the soul."

"You have no someone, Tom,"snapped Harry."You're a shell, a one-third of what you once were."

"And yet here I am, and there you are. A seventh of my power would be enough to destroy you !"Flecks of spit splattered against Harry's fount - he felt them. The shield appealingness protecting his eyes had been broken. Lucius touched Harry's face.

"A few scars… not too bad. And the eyes… well, one can always see oculus from a willing donor."He laughed. Harry could hear the battle raging behind him, but here between the two, time seemed to stand still. Malfoy slipped off the shadow cloak that had been Voldemort's… the mo Horcrux.

"I couldn't posse you before, potter ; some absurdity about lovemaking. But this…"He stroked the black textile of the cloak."This will switch all that. You might say it's everything inside me that was ever good. Who needs such things, eh ? Ah, yes… you do, don't you ?"He shook the cloak like a big cover and wrapped it about Harry's shoulders."There. Its purity always protected me against wayward spells."

"Like a cuticle surrounding a shitty nut ?"asked Harry dryly."Why put it on me ?"

"Because… with it I can get across you, stand firm the goodness that binds you. With it I can take command of what I once gave you. Since the night I killed your parents my spirit, my power has flowed within the very textile of your being - a quartern Horcrux, you might say. I will use it to take speak control and when I do I will be whole once more. It does become so tedious always having to fight back the host. But you, Potter, you are already me."

"You're mistaken, Tom."

"I think not."Lucius sighed. His head turned past times Harry."Your forces are crushed. Once I take your consistency, I will return to the lair of Singehorn and destroy the only violence that can stand in my way. With the dragons destroyed, EC will be mine."

"No… don't. I- I-"

"Don't beg, thrower. It's not how you'll want your last mo on terra firma to be remembered. Now,"he sighed again,"this won't smart a bit."

There was a minuscule flicker of volume in Malfoy's aura. Harry watched as the unripened evil began to issue out through his back talk and nose like a cestode being pulled from a bowel. For a mo, the green incandescence hung in the air as Malfoy fell to the ground.

"Don't do it, Tom."

The green encircled Harry and penetrated. Pain. The coils of Voldemort's essence wrapping itself around Harry's. Squeezing. Probing. Penetrating. Searching. Harry's skull felt as if it might detonate.

Where is it, Potter ? How are you hiding it ?

The ringlet wrapped tighter, the botheration became more acute.

You have the stone… and the ring ! But where is it, that which I truly require ?

"ejaculate finisher, Tom… closer."Harry drew in his encroacher, pulling him near to his inner self."Feel on-key pain."

Suddenly, Voldemort found that he wasn't in control. The coils of his essence wrapped ever more tightly about Harry's, but it wasn't at his bidding. Still immobilized, Harry's inward self fought his enemy, while his outward self saw the arrival of Antreas'army and the retreat of Lucius Malfoy and his follower down the mountainside. It wasn't much longer before Voldemort realized that the duskiness with which he had marked Harry was no thirster there.

Where is it ? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE ?

"Purity of light. Love harbours no opposition. virtuoso these precepts, Tom and be cleansed !"Somehow, Harry was drawing power from the goodness of the robe surrounding him. shot of laughter, warm laugh from a small boy flashed across his thinker. The purity, the goodness was too lots for Voldemort to conduct.

This is not possible !
"But it is, Tom. I've been cleansed. Your power over me, our oneness is no longer."

The scene in Harry's mind showed a small babe being born. The mother, near Death, held the child in her palpitation arm, smiled warmly and kissed his forehead. Seeing this construction of love, Harry's thoughts betrayed him.

A boy ? You have a boy ? Try as Harry might to stop them, the ringlet around his effect released. He could experience Voldemort vanish from his consistency.

"No !"Harry yelled as he fell limp to the priming coat. Before the darkness came, he watched as the common cloud of mist disappeared into the forest in search of yet another body to own - Harry's son.


Harry Potter and the parentage of a New Sun

Chapter 20 - Aftermath
~~~***~~~

She was laughing at him - a joyous, playful laugh that was one part comb-out, one theatrical role sense of humor, and all of it provocative. It was the form of laughter that makes a young man smiling back even when he doesn't want to, the kind of jest that makes the backsheesh of the ears turn red, the impudence blush, and that minuscule spot, somewhere near the stomach, eddy into a tiny knot wondering if maybe… maybe tonight…. It was the kind of laugh that made Harry remember why he had loved her, why he had—

He was laughing at him - a giggly, unbridled joke, as he jumped all about in the improbable common dope beneath a straighten out blue sky and a bright yellow sun. It was the kind of laugh that made one lack to express joy along, to dance and play. The sort of laugh that said,"I love you Dad !"and brought Harry to his stifle for a hug and a candy kiss.

They were, all of them, barefoot, running and playing in the summer's hotness, splashing through the cool stream that wound its way about the top of the meadow. Faster ! Faster ! They ran, giggling, to where the James Jerome Hill turned sharply down, stopped and looked over the edge - a smooth grassy incline that plunged perhaps twenty dollar bill time before it flattened out into another meadow bursting with favorable flowers.

Jamie dropped to the undercoat stretched his wooden leg straight and pulled his manus in close to his chest. ringlet with me, daddy ! I'll race you down ! Harry grinned and fell to the grass. He'd seen kids roll in the field of view about Hogwarts, but never had tried it himself. As a child in Little Whinging he never had the opportunity to do anything open, especially if it might throw been gratifying. He pulled in his weapon system and began to undulate.

The tall grass was soft and whisked at his expression with each twirl, round and round, down the J. J. Hill. He could get a line Jamie laughing, flashy and more boisterous than ever before. With a flash lamp and a twirl, Harry glanced at his son, seeing joy and happiness, a smile that would melt down the coolest of eye, and… red eyes.

Harry spun once round and looked again. The boy's laugh grew more shrill, high and cold, but the face looked flattened, snakelike. He tried to extend to out, to stop himself from spinning, but his arms wouldn't move. They were pinned to his chest as tightly as his legs were held straight. Faster, Daddy, Faster !

It was as if a goliath snake had wrapped itself about Harry's stallion body ; its enormous gyre constricting as he continued to swan, spinning uncontrollably down a hill that had no end. The grass was whipping at his cheek, tearing at his center. He tried, but he could no longer see his son. But the high, cold voice remained. Are you dizzy, Daddy ? The sky had grown dark and common cold and the Earth shuddered as the earthly concern beneath Harry gave way, and he began to plummet downward into the abysm.

He woke, each nook of the elbow room spinning about in a different direction. His arms flung out as he grabbed cargo hold of the linens covering his bed, clutching them for devout life, trying to steady himself and find a good sense that he was no longer falling, no longer trapped in the nightmare - the first of all he'd had of Voldemort since finale class. Still, clinging to his bed as if it were a undivided board in an overt ocean, everything twisted, tumbling this way and that. He… he couldn't help it. His stomach turning in naut mi, he retched out onto his bed, onto the wall, onto the trading floor.

"Merlin, Harry !"

His body began to shake, and the nausea swelled up once more exploding out of him. He wanted to place upright, to accommodate on to something more tangible than a flimsy bed pad, but he couldn't ; he was so decrepit he could barely lift his sleeve enough to plough his head to one side. It was worse than his hangover after Duncan's endure company in Little Whinging.

"The potion, by the bed, see if you can get him to charter a swallow."

A hand reached out… a puritanical vile. Harry recoiled.

"semen on, mate, just one swallow. Marek knows what he's talking about."

"F-Fred ?"Harry asked weakly. The redheaded wizard, standing in front of him, pulled his sceptre and cleaned the bed and the base with a flick of his articulatio radiocarpea.

"red cent, Harry, when will you watch that I am so much better looking than my furry brother ? Besides… he drools."

"George I ?"

"bit on, now take a swig."

Harry turned his foreland and let George decant the blue liquid into his mouth. He swallowed, and almost immediately the nausea passed. oddment of the weakness wracking his body still remained.

"better ?"

Harry looked up at George and found a big, toothy grin. He looked over to the nook of the elbow room and found Marek, standing near a small wooden desk, smiling. Beside him, hanging from the wall was a black cloak - Voldemort's cloak.

"Bad dream ?"Marek asked.

"Something like that. I thought—"

He could see Marek smiling at him. He could see George's red pilus. eye blink, Harry reached up toward his eyes.

"Oh, no,"said Marek, gently holding Harry's arm."best not to touch for a few mean solar day. I expected you would feel somewhat disorientate once you could see a bit, but I never thought it would be that extreme."Harry was silent, looking about the room - the shroud were white, stained with splotches of dried blood, and there was the wooden table in the far corner. He'd sensed that before, before the battle, but never noticed the carving on its face face - a Dragon gilded in gold.

"well, go on. What do you see ? Blurs ? Images ? Flashes of dark and lighting ?"

"I… I see everything. You… you are George. I thought maybe Fred… Fred ! Is he okay ? Is he— ?"

"He's getting his thing together right now,"interrupted George."We need to get him menage. I think you know why."Harry simply nodded."The boy about here say you had a pretty healthy hand in seeing my comrade to condom, the pigheaded brute."The flap on the door flew undefendable and in walked George's twin.

"Pigheaded ?"he squealed."I'm not bullheaded ! I eat pig-heads for snacks. Now you, dear brother… yes, just looking at your face make's me salivate."Fred started to attain lapping sounds as he stepped penny-pinching to George. Harry wanted to smile, but he couldn't. His eyes were fractious and his vision began to blur - not because of any relapse, but because of the tears beginning to well within them. He did indeed know why George had come to fetch his brother : their mother's funeral.

"So, where's Charlie ?"Fred asked."I thought he was going to lend the portkey and check in on the dragons."

"Probably met some German witch in a pub on his way over here,"answered George.

"I think his predilection lean more… French, don't you ?"

"Oooh, la, la."

There was a brief silence, and then Harry swallowed hard and asked,"How'd I get here ?"

"You don't recall ?"asked Marek. Harry shook his point."Well, the way Antreas described it, after he and his forcefulness arrived at the glade, the enemy began to run. It was as if somebody simply popped a balloon. Whatever bluster the foe had, whatever drove them to attack, disappeared.

"You began to heal the injured, Muggle and Wizard alike. Igneus saw that the battle was over and landed on the subject, breathed ardor into that stone of yours and you began to heal like a madman. There were XXX near Death, including Fred there, and you saved nearly every one."

"Nearly ?"

"I'm sorry Harry, but Mikael didn't make it. They had to pull you off when it was solve you were using up your own life history force. You'd have both been dead."An mental image of Mikael's case flashed across Harry's mind and along with it a memory of frustration. He had to use his own life vigor, not that of the stone. The I. F. Stone's king may not be used for appendage of the Votary. It is forbidden. Harry could remember reaching further and encourage to find Mikael's biography force, but it had passed into the next plane. He'd paused between those two planes, wondering if perhaps he could move beyond and still bring him back. You can't bring back the dead. It was the last affair he remembered, before the nightmare.

"How long have I been out ?"

"About eight minute,"answered Fred."We just had lunch."

"Is that how all the Weasleys tell metre ? By what repast it is ?"

"Yeah, pretty much,"said George. This was followed by an awkward silence. There was now one less Weasley and, at least in Harry's nous, it was all Harry's break. He wanted to tell them how it happened, but he couldn't find the words. Marek broke the windlessness.

"Word of the engagement got out as soon as the cloud of Dementors lifted,"he said."The curate in Great Britain asked immediately for news show of the situation and the position of his son. We told him the conflict had been won, but his son was in no condition to climb down the mickle to where he could Apparate."

"A bit of a doctor's over protection I'd say,"chimed in Fred.

"So George and Charlie were to hail with a portkey and retrieve their brother."

"And in all honesty,"added George III, seemingly concerned,"he shouldn't have been that far behind me. He said he was going to take tending of a few thing with dad."

"wellspring he's not much of a mounter,"said Fred."Now if there was a damozel in distress here at the compound, maybe then—"Again, the look flap of the tent flew open ; it was Charlie.

"Geesh,"he said with a winded gasp."There you are."His face was flush and sudor was dripping from his brow."I didn't see you the totally way up. I was only a few minute of arc behind. Why didn't you wait ?"he asked George, and then his oculus narrowed."You don't seem too winded for having just climbed an hour."George bore a mock spirit of surprise, which instantly drew a scowl on Charlie's face ; he knew a rat when he saw his brother."There's no WAY you Apparated here ; it can't be done."

"OH ! That's right,"George VI said."We were going to hike up together from the lower border. I… I guess I forgot."George II stood, reaching to the corner behind him and grabbing his broom."I thought it might be easier if I just flew up."Charlie looked like he was ready to explode."Sorry, I didn't think you might want to hitch a ride."

"Why you little—"

"Now, I'll have none of that in here,"interrupted Marek. Charlie stopped and pulled his wand back, giving Marek a courteous, quick nod of the head word.

"rightfulness, sir."Regaining his composure, the older Weasley wiped his forehead, but still gave George a looking of pure fervor. Then his eyes fell on Harry who immediately looked away.

"Hi, Harry,"said the elder Weasley."just to see you're well."Harry said null in paying back. He was afraid that if he spoke it would all dribble out in a blubbering spate.

"Gents,"said Charlie,"do you mind if I have a word of honor with Harry alone ?"

Marek and, after some cajoling, Fred and George finally departed, leaving Charlie and Harry to themselves.

"So… I see your eyes are better,"Charlie began. Harry blinked, still not able to hold George's gaze.

"Yeah,"Harry answered quietly with a cut sigh,"a bit better."Charlie pulled up a chairman next to Harry's bed.

"Once I get Fred back, there's going to be a service for Mum - with full Ministerial pageantry. Dad never wanted to be Minister ; I think maybe because he knew that the day would derive when… one of us… Well, we can't always have peace, can we ?"George wiped his eyes with his arm and took a deep breath."There's… there's a part of Dad that doesn't want you within ten kilometer of him…"Harry nodded that he understood,"…and a part of him that wants to take you airless than the rest of us."Harry looked up and George took his hired man ; both their eyes were wet."Harry, you're a penis of the family. You were as a good deal a son to Mum as I was and we want you at the service."

"We ?"asked Harry pointedly, but Charlie dodged the question.

"looking at, if Marek says you're well enough, will you follow with us ? The portkey can shoot us all."Harry shook his mind.

"I… I don't think that—"

"hoot it, Harry ! Don't be as obstinate as… just say yes. We'll figure of speech out the residue later."

Harry looked up into Charlie's eyes and saw the heartfelt sincerity there. Since his accident on the pitch shot, he'd missed that ability, the ability to look into the window of a wizard's soul and do it if the quarrel and the emotions matched. Reading auras he could discern, to some extent, verity from lie, but the elusive specter of desire, the intricate normal of joy and sorrow, those were hidden in the eyes. He could see them all playing about Charlie's expression and knew that he should link them.

He was about to say he'd go when he remembered the fight, the park smoke, his son.

"Cho,"he whispered suddenly, almost in a panic."I- I've got to see Cho."

"That's where we're going first,"said Charlie. Harry was confused ; why would they be going to French Republic ? Charlie continued.

"I just saw her this morning with Anthony Goldstein at St. Mungo's."

"Anthony ? Is he— ?"

"He's fine. He's in the Lapp room with Ron. Ron should be released today and from there we can Apparate to the Borough. Susan Brownell Anthony should get out in a few daytime, hopefully before Christmas."Charlie continued to sit as Harry sat up with some urging and put his pegleg over the edge of the bed. Charlie smiled."Cho was holding a baby boy. I guess the two of them… well, you know."

"Yeah, I know,"said Harry standing up and slowly walk over to his clothes that were folded on the mesa.

"Then we're on ?"asked Charlie.

"We're on."

Harry dressed and then folded the black cloak over his arm, as the two went out into the enceinte cavern. Harry had expected to see it filled with injure, but there were only a handful of wizards and the few of them were simply standing about talking. Katana was speaking with Antreas and other members of the Votary. Visually, she was more striking than ever. Dakhil, however, was no where to be found. When she saw Harry, she walked over to greet him. She put her arms around him and pulled him close with a hug that nearly broke Harry's back.

"wellspring done,"she said simply."I now understand."Just as she let go, Antreas who was only a few paces behind her comprehend Harry about the articulatio humeri, thankfully less forcefully.

"How is Singehorn ?"Harry asked."And Talisan ?"

"Fine,"Antreas said with a grinning."They are both fine. Singehorn is finally well enough and began his journey to the East this morning. animate being around the world, not just Dementors and Centaurs, are using the return of Ebyrth to ignite old hatreds. The war it seems is spreading, and the old ties must be rekindled among the dragon families."

"And Dakhil ?"

"Resting. For the first time in solar day the sun is shining brightly. We are, all of us, somewhat tired."

"Just one more thing left to do,"said Harry."I need this stored in the rookery, against the west rampart where it will be safe."

"The rookery ?"Antreas asked as Harry handed him the cloak.

"Conceal it near the corner to look like the large blackamoor granite stone."

"I know the one, but—"

"It's important that it stay safe, that it stay hidden. The flying dragon will ward the rookery until the last of their fire fails. And Antreas… don't Tell Dakhil."Antreas folded the cloak about his own arm and nodded although his forehead was furrowed.

"Very well, Primate,"he said with a nod. He glanced at Charlie and then back to Harry."You're leaving us then ?"he asked and Harry nodded.

"Yes, Antreas, as you say there are other battles to be won."A grin split across Antreas'face.

"Perhaps you face one with my sis for risking your cervix again."

"And yours,"added Harry with his own smile.

"It is good to see the gleam in your oculus once more."Antreas stepped stuffy and put his arm about Harry."I have to say that your healing body of work was marvellous at the root of the good deal, choosing to mend all rather than just your own soldiers. Mother was right to lend upon you the Harlan F. Stone. Your warmth for life… well, it was something my father was once known for ; he would have been proud. And if one day the maven so choose, I can think of no other that I would rather call brother."He smiled as Harry's face reddened.

"Well,"said Charlie,"the family's growing magnanimous by the minute."He called for Fred and George to follow over as he pulled out a bag that held the portkey, an old leather football that had deflated. Before they all took time lag Harry looked back at Antreas.

"Whatever the time to come, Antreas, we will always be brothers."

With a tug and a flash they were whizzing their way to St. Mungo's. The way matter were spinning, Harry almost wished he hadn't had his eyesight back, but before he could regret it too much it was over. They landed with a thud on a drab marble floor veined with speckle of gold ; Harry had come to despise that stone. Harry fell to one articulatio genus while the others remained on their feet.

"Thank Merlin ! I was beginning to vex. Is he… Harry !"

Harry looked up to find Hermione looking back at him.

"Your eyes !"she exclaimed."You can… can you ?"Harry nodded as he stood up. Hermione wrapped her arms about him in a smashing hug, a sad chuckle whispered across his ear."The duskiness and the light source. Oh, Harry, it's been madness."

"What do you have in mind ?"

"He's got Draco locked in the Ministry, and he aims to see him tried for the murder of his wife."

"That's ridiculous ! You were there. Didn't you tell him ? Didn't Ron—"

"Yes ! But he won't believe us. He thinks we were too stunned to call back properly. Maybe with time we could alter his idea, but Draco's confessed."

"Confessed ? Confessed to what ?"

"To killing Mrs Weasley,"Hermione said miserably. The three Weasley chum came over to console Hermione.

"It's alright, Hermione,"said George,"They'll straighten out it all out in the trial."

"What test ?"snapped Fred."The ferret confessed."

"Draco didn't kill anybody !"yelled Harry."I was there, call up ?"His mind moved back to the scene and his voice grew quiet."Her hands… her hands were on my shoulders."He reached up as if grasping for the memory of her spot."I tried to stand in time, to harbour her with my body, but… she tried to save me."Harry smiled sadly in warm appreciation."I felt her last breathing place against my cheek and she died in my arms, crumpling to the floor."Harry began to shiver."Draco didn't raise his wand against a somebody.

"Voldemort killed your mum,"he said, looking directly at Fred,"and saying it was Draco is an abomination to her memory. Molly Weasley could eat the ilk of genus Draco Malfoy for tiffin and spit him out before supper. I've never seen a woman use a wand the way… the way…"He couldn't finish.

"Harry,"whispered Hermione,"it gets worse. I need you to get over here and sit down."Harry hesitated."Please ?"George slapped Harry on the shoulder.

"Go on,"he said, giving Harry a thin push."We want to pick up this too."Harry acquiesced and sat future to Hermione on a wooden workbench. She took him by the hands. In the corridor just outside the Welcoming Hall, thaumaturgist and therapist were walking to and fro. Some greet each other with hugs of joy, others with tears of ruefulness. Here death and life-time battled daily with one another, a fragile balance that had been tossed on its head upon the return of the darkness Lord.

"Now, try to stay calm."Her actor's line were anything but calming.

"Yesterday, Cho came with the infant to gossip Anthony,"said Hermione."Everyone believes it's his child."

"Yes,"said Harry dismissively."I don't care what people think, but I do need to see her right away. She's still here ?"Hermione nodded, gripping Harry's hands a bit more tightly. Fred, George and Charlie were trying to take in Harry's program line.

"When she arrived at the hospital, she asked where Gabriella was. Evidently the two were to run across here, hoping that they might find you or at least discern your whereabouts. Only, the matter is, Gabriella never showed. She hasn't been seen since she left Cho and Anthony's house in La Mure."Harry moved to stand, but Hermione held firmly to his hands.

"We just got watchword about an hour ago,"she continued."Lucius Malfoy's men discovered she was your girl and they thought she might buy some leverage. They've taken her and are holding her hostage."

"Where ? What do they desire ?"Harry's word were sharp, tense.

"We don't know where yet,"replied Hermione,"but we do know what they want."She paused.

"well, what is it ?"asked Harry."consecrate it to them !"

"They want Draco Malfoy."Harry laughed, as a wave of easing passed over him.

"That's easy. He's innocent. Just let him go."

"He's confessed to murdering the Minister's wife."

"This is harebrained !"

"Dumbledore was here a petty while ago,"she said."He met Mr. Weasley in Ron and Mark Antony's hospital room. I don't know how, but I think he's convince Mr. Weasley to go ahead with the exchange."

"Then why haven't they— ?"

"Dragon refuses,"cut in Hermione."He swears he's shamed and must be punished. They tried to use Veritaserum, but he's built up some sort of drug tolerance. It won't work."She took a deep hint.

"Then wrap his arse up and send off him to his begetter with a red bow !"snapped Harry.

"They can't,"answered Charlie."It's Ministerial law. In any prisoner rally, the prisoner must go willingly. It's to protect those who would go back only to be punished."

"He's not going to be punished !"cried Harry."His father wants him at his face, or… or…"If Voldemort thought that Draco had set him up, convincing him he needed a third gear Horcrux of goodness…

"Harry, Dragon says there's only one way that he'll agree to the exchange,"said Hermione.

"What's that ?"Harry asked, his judgment distracted by the possible action that Draco might actually be in trouble.

"He demands to see you."