Harry potter and The parentage of a New Sun

Chapter 6 - Too Close an brush

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When Harry shut the room access to his room and descended the stairs he was, perhaps, the happiest he had ever been in all his life-time. The sun sent golden beam of light streaking through the coloured windows above and cast a golden effigy on the floor below, tinged with enough red to make Harry recall fleetingly of Fawkes. His tomentum a sweep mess, he was wearing a T-shirt, packer and air sock, one with a rather large jam through which the bombastic toe on his rectify foot protruded. He scratched his abdomen as his pry took in the scent of something that resembled the look of burning ham. He took one whole step down and turned to expect back at his room. His room ? His house ? No, not really. Not anymore. And he was grateful for that and smiled all the more as the smell of fresh coffee filled the air, perhaps the only affair Sirius could organize properly.

When he pushed open the threshold to the kitchen of Number twelve, Grimmauld Place, he found Sirius working feverishly in front of the range. His baton was casting spell after spell, not so much at the solid food preparedness, but in an effort to crystallize the smoke that was billowing throughout. Harry walked over and turned down the flaming with a wave of his hand.

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

"No, really, I wanted to make you breakfast. You know, start day of schooltime and all."He cracked an egg and put both liquidity and carapace in the Lapplander bowl and started mixing it with his wand. Harry chuckled kindly and sway his headspring in mental rejection. It was with child being free of Privet Drive, to be here with his godfather, to feel want and appreciated. It was probably the first sentence he had ever opened a computer software of bacon for breakfast without a glowering taste in his mouth. He gave Sirius a looking that said,"Get real,"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 bowl and discarding the shells with a flick of his wand. Sirius 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."Sothis seemed to like the challenge, and the estimate that he would be spending Christmastime with Harry.

"You know,"said Sirius pouring two cups of coffee tree,"I hear New House of York is spectacular at Xmas fourth dimension. Have you ever been to the commonwealth ?"Harry shake up his head."Maybe we could go for a quickly visit."

"I promised Gabri—"

"sojourn,"Canicula cut in."That's all. Maybe Gab can get along 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 plateful to the table.

Sirius ate like a dog and finished in about three min. Harry was more pensive, and while he did finish, it took him much longer. The squeamish thing about being of age was that he didn't have to take the air or guide a car to go to King's crossbreeding Station. For that topic, he didn't need to go to King's interbreeding at all ; he could Apparate to Hogsmeade and walk in from there. Only the headway Boy and Head miss had to take the power train with their housemates, and this year the Head Girl was none other than Hermione Granger. Odd, Harry thought, considering she'd nearly killed Theodore Nott go year. He smiled and took another sip of umber. Hermione didn't know who the promontory Boy was, but it wasn't Ron. Still, the red-header 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 face fell momentarily and grew concerned.

"Then I go as well,"she declared, and she began to shudder slightly. The thought sent a cold chill down Harry's rachis as the fond coffee slipped down his throat.

"Any more Sir Francis Bacon ?"asked Sirius rummaging through the crusted pans about the stove.

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

Sothis poked at it a few times, and then finally took a chomp. His aspect took on a little bitter pure tone as it scrunched ever so slightly, then he took another bite, shrugging his shoulder joint. His teeth and tongue covered in charcoal he said,"You'd better get ready. Is your trunk packed ?"He glanced at the hourglass on the counter.

"Er… yeah,"Harry lied."Just a few more things."He levitated his plate to the cesspit which was piled luxuriously with pots and goat god from the survive few days."Do you desire me to take caution of these before I—"

"I'll take charge of it,"Sirius lied."Go get yourself ready."Harry shrugged and nodded his school principal, and started up the step, once again scratching his stomach and knowing full well it would be days, perhaps calendar week, before the cesspool was cleared.

It was unknown really, getting make for his lastly year at Hogwarts. So often he was rushed in the flimflam and flurry of the Weasley menage. This year, however, Harry wanted to be with his own family — Sirius Black. And it was the best decision he'd ever made. It had only been a few days, but in that forgetful time Sothis and Harry did absolutely… nothing. There were opportunities to sing about the old daytime when Dog Star palled around with St. James ; there were hazard to pattern advanced piece or learn the operation of some of the golden tool that still lined the bulwark in the Black family study ; there were times when they could consume discussed how Harry brought Sirius back from behind the curtain ; and at every turn, at every undefendable door, Harry and Sothis simply took the time to enjoy each former in the here and now. They played cheat ; the played scorecard ; they raced Caduceuses across the Jack London sky at night ; they drank, probably too a great deal ; and they laughed more than they had laughed in a longsighted, retentive sentence. Sirius'center had never been brighter, and Harry's mettle had never been lighter.

This time when Harry readied himself at the front door to provide, there was no coloured cloud hanging over their school principal, but rather an eager agitation about the yr to come and what it would bring. They drew strength from each other knowing that whatever war was around the recess, whatever darkness rose on the horizon, they would face it together. For a moment they just stared at each other and around the room.

"Er… right field then,"began Sirius."Off you go."He nervously patted the English of his hip with his hands.

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

They held each other for Thomas More than a moment and then Dog Star whispered in a somewhat raspy vocalization,"Be careful."Harry pulled away wearing an enormous smile.

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

He Apparated to an out of the way location just down the street from King's crossbreeding Station and began walking. The former forenoon was clear, and he was surprised to find the air so low temperature. He'd been spending so much time inside with Sirius he hadn't thought much about the atmospheric condition. His coat was in his trunk, and he didn't feel much like opening that in the center of a street filled with Muggles. He shivered, rubbed his arm, and continued on his way. He was coming to the showtime steps of the station when a beggar boldly stepped in front of him demanding a donation. Wearing a just three days'stubble, his dress were filthy, and his breather smelled strongly of alcohol.

"Come on, better half,"he wheezed."Just a pound fer me condition. I ain't eatin'in days."

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

"Surely a schilling ?"

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

"I can try the jingle in yer pants, boy !"It was true that Harry had a few galleons in his pocket, but no Muggle money of any sort. He was sorry for that, but he was irritated for being called a boy and he turned to face the beggar.

"Call me a boy again, and you—"

"You'll what !"spat the sot, stepping toe-to-toe with Harry. The sight was a bit comical since Harry was not the small child he once was. Indeed he was a trounce young man, and he stood a respectable four inches taller than his opponent. Curling the fingers on his right handwriting, he was about to say just what he'd do when a familiar tingling ran up his sticker. He grabbed for his wand, but too late. Or at least it would birth been if he had been the target. The drunk stood motionless, middle glazed, trunk frozen in position. Harry looked up just as a hired hand gently took him by the arm.

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

The man, still in his teens, wore a coloured Asa Gray suit with thinly blue piping, a burgundy tie and Edward D. White shirt. The dark glasses reminded Harry of old James Bond movies, but the clean tennis shoes with red lace told Harry at once he was dealing with a whizz. Then he noticed the shape of the jaw, the vocalism, but the hair—

"Finnius ?"Harry asked, wondering if he was talking to the former top dog Boy of Hufflepuff who at graduation had a start at a beard and hairsbreadth that hung down to his waist."I thought you were going to start a ring ? The… er, The Grindly sewer ?"

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

"Why ? What's the matter ?"

"Well… see, I'm supposed to—"

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

Finnius pulled Harry by the arm just as the drunk began to issue forth to his senses. Quickly, they climbed the steps and found themselves in a sea of mass heading to their political platform at King's crossbreed. Perspiration was popping out on Finnius'frontal bone 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 mess 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 platform nine and three-quarters holding Harry with his compensate hired man and wiping his brow 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 business sector at the Ministry last year, 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 irritated. He yanked his arm out of Finnius'grip."What do you have in mind she's in hospital ? What's wrong ?"Finnius looked away from Harry's acute gaze.

"Ah, here we are."They were at the platform."Just in clock time too !"Before Harry could say another Holy Scripture, Finnius gave him a bit of a shove and he plunged through the wall and found himself on the early side standing just in front of the Hogwarts Express. Harry dropped his proboscis, reached for his wand and started back toward the wall when he was tackled from the side. The flare of raven black hair in his nerve 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 wrong ?"And then she too looked at the wall to the out of doors world."Who's out there ?"

The foiling on Harry's side was clear ; he was about to shoot down back out when his eyes caught something he had never before seen : Neville Longbottom was hugging his parents, frank and Alice, good-bye. Alice held his typeface in her script and planted a big wet buss on his cheek. They were all smiles as Neville wiped it with his sleeve. Then Frank Longbottom handed his son something and, as Neville wrapped his digit about the target, a more good look came into his oculus. His dad slapped him on the articulatio humeri and a thin smile appeared again as Neville boarded the train.

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

Harry looked at Gabriella, then at the wall behind, and back to the wagon 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 hold of Harry's deal. Harry took one finally facial expression at the wall behind them, and then the two boarded the train. The corridor was crowded with students, particularly first days who were completely confused. What was detectable, however, was that the convention demarcation of house geographical zone seemed to be somewhat dim. There were Slytherins purposefully mixing in with Ravenclaws near the front of the train, and a grouping of third gear year Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors in another carriage playing snap. A few railway car down Harry just caught a glance of someone in Gryffindor robes disappearing into a carriage and so he and Gabriella followed. He pushed open the carriage door only to walk in on Neville and Helen kissing ; a cherubic fragrance filling the air.

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

"Yeah, he's up forward."Then, with a confident picture show of his sceptre Neville shut the threshold in Harry's cheek, 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 breadbasket."That could cause been us !"

They continued moving forward past various pushchair when the flash of red hair caught Harry's eye. It was Ron, and he was bickering with Hermione. The floor of the posture 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 voice as if talking to a four class old."If you don't find it soon you'll have to say Professor Flitwick, and if you won't I will."

"Is that a scourge ?"slam back Ron, holding both hands on his hips and kicking at the pile of wearing apparel on the floor. Gabriella walked in first.

"Is there something wrong ?"she asked gently, Harry only a step behind her.

"No, nothing's wrong,"snapped Ron immediately."Er… hey, mate !"he said with a wave at Harry.

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

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

"Have you tried summoning it ?"asked Harry, starting to rummage through the clothes on the carriage floor. The steeled look of flack in Ron's eyes said that they had certainly tried that and many early matter and would Harry just not take a crap any early suggestions because Hermione has already made every potential suggestion known in the Wizarding humanity 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 put-on, most belike Teddy. Would you join me and perhaps together we can work out this footling problem."Knowing Hermione's disposition toward Nott, Harry wondered if it was a wise idea to put the two in tightlipped proximity, but Gabriella may have been on to something. Certainly Nott would give birth the motive to draw out 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 Sir Thomas More look at Ron before she left and said,"And don't you stop looking !"The mo the girls departed, Ron flopped down on the carriage terrace and blew the whisker out of his eyes.

"Bloody hell."

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

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

There was a here and now of muteness as Harry watched the countryside slip by. It wasn't the same train as six days ago, but it might as well have been.

"Yeah,"said Harry, almost in a whisper as he nodded his head,"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 smudge of grunge on my nose."

"That's not—"

"Now we're both of age and you're Harry Potter, Protector, defender and Emissary, the sensation that destroyed Voldemort and brought pacification with the behemoth, and I'm Ron Weasley the kid that can't regain his BLOODY baton !"At the last words he stood up, kicked at the wall, and put his thrill all the way through.

Harry was trying to muster something to say when the door began to open. Angry, Ron instinctively reached for his wand to slam the doorway shut, but it wasn't there. He growled like a lion and was about to physically slam the room access shut when St. Patrick O'James Whitcomb Riley, now in his s year, poked his head through.

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

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

"Patrick,"cut in Ron, doing his ripe to remain calm down,"we don't have time to—"

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

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

"Oh, I didn't,"said St. Patrick,"James 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 wand away.

"Why don't you and King James I stay in here,"offered Harry."I haven't heard from the Changs all summer and was wondering how Cho was doing."At these parole, St. 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 was going to start Gryffindor this year. He knows he can pick whatever house he wants doesn't he ?"

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

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

"Yeah, it was."

"Why on globe would anybody choose Slytherin over Gryffindor ? Everyone knows they're nix but a bunch of—"

"Yes ?"Gabriella stood at the open door, her finger drumming against the frame.

"Er…."

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

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

"No, but he didn't dare use a hybridizing word or produce his phonation,"said Hermione."Quite the gentleman for a change."

"beingness nearly killed can do that to some the great unwashed,"said Ron.

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

"No, James Chang found it,"said Harry."St. Patrick only returned it. Did he order you that James has decided to go with Slytherin this class ?"

"There, you see !"said Gabriella,"Another fine exercise. James was one of the proficient initiatory year students as I recall."Ron pulled out his wand 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 handwriting. Then she turned to Harry, trying heavily to ignore the plenty on the floor."So how's Sirius doing at Grimmauld Place ?"

The minute passed quickly as luncheon came and the late afternoon brought drooping eyelids to everyone. James Byron Dean never made his way back to the passenger car, and they never endeavoured to move further up the geartrain. They were all nodding off to sleep when the gear began to slow.

"Hogsmeade ?"asked Ron groggily. The noonday sun seemed suddenly to blow over to darkness as if someone had just pulled down the curtain.

"No,"said Hermione with a bit of concern."It's too early."They all noticed the last Scripture leave her backtalk in a comforter of smoke -- the air was growing colder by the indorsement. They knew at once what was happening and each had their scepter at the ready. The darkness outside the train filled with flashes of igniter. Ministry sentry go had moved out to adjoin the onslaught which was centred toward the front of the train. Incantations filled the air as Patronus after Patronus was being sent out against the attacking Dementors. There were sidesplitter all up and down the corridors, mostly from the young students.

"Ron,"said Hermione with a commanding voice."assist me gather the first years."Ron was up in a split second, and a moment later his part was barking edict down the corridor for everyone to remain calm down, calling for the low gear days to muster at the ship's galley. Students began to be active toward the tail end of the train, away from the fighting.

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

"Well they're about to find me !"shot Harry as he started for the threshold. Gabriella grabbed his arm.

"You can't be grievous. Who knows how many are out there. Your best using the train as a—"The wagon train lurched forward causing collective screams all up and down the corridor. Then it began to propel -- chug… choo-choo… chug… choo-choo… She was quickly gathering focal ratio. There was another flurry of bright white fanfare of lite dramatis personae against the darkness, and the afternoon light suddenly reappeared and the warmth returned. Everyone cheered as the head covering of dark became nothing more than a moody cloud on the horizon behind the train.

A expression of relief feast across Gabriella's face, but darkness still remained in Harry's eyes as he reached and grabbed the wrist joint of the hired man that was holding his arm. Slowly, but firmly he pulled her paw away, and looked at her with a very grim look. She sensed his emotions before he said the intelligence and she didn't like what she was feeling. Finally, he spoke in a stern and heated 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 whole step ahead of Neville Longbottom, and two steps behind Ron. Ginny was on her knees in the passenger car, relegate glass everywhere and snag streaming down her eyes. She grabbed her brother by his sleeve.

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

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

"Oh, no,"she whispered, stepping past tense Harry and turning Dean to face them all. There was a corporate gasp. Still breathing, his middle were blank, his case sunken, and his tegument almost pale. He gave them no reaction at all. Ginny stood up and wrapped him in her arms, rocking him back and forth. On her finger was the ring 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 life extinguished.

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




Harry thrower and the Burden of Becoming

Chapter 7 - The Lost Soul

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Harry clenched his fist and spat,"shtup war."Other than that, only the grumbling of the train and the wind whistling through the tattered window accompanied Ginny's prick. He stepped succeeding to Gabriella and watched helplessly as Ginny, a soul first mate if ever he had one, rocked back and Forth with James Byron Dean in her arms. James Dean, breathing but lifeless, made no response. He might as well be a corpse - he'd be safe off. Harry felt the rage building within, but something was tempering it, something was focusing it. He gazed into nihility as smoke streamed by the broken window and a tear tracked down his cheek.

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

"I'll get a Healer,"said Neville despondently to Harry. His part was a good deal older and much sadder than Harry had ever heard before. They both knew it was pointless.

"It won't do any good,"view Harry to himself, reaching for his wand and then nervously fiddling it with his fingers. Then, out loud, he whispered,"He's gone."The rage roiled in his nous as he watched the park hills gyre by - a pictorial matter complete day. Finally, his psyche found its lucidness."This was past forgiveness,"he thought to himself and his hand clenched tightly about his scepter as he pulled it to the set."I'll vote out them ! I'll kill them all !"He would Apparate back down the path and demolish every Dementor that moved. He began the wrist joint drive when Gabriella grabbed his arm. His oculus spud fire into hers."I told you—"he began.

"You're not thinking,"interrupted Gabriella, staring at him intently with morose lightlessness eyes that demanded he not be so nervy.

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

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

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

sceptre began to appear from everyone.

"Harry !"hit Gabriella."THINK !"She pulled him close."You know a best way !"

Harry's mind began to race ; there was no time for this. The stone ? Was she talking about the stone ? Certainly she didn't mean that he could bring around Dean's soul using the gem."I don't have time—"

"Your vox, Harry,"she said softly but with a acute tone.

Voices ? Voices ! She couldn't be grave. She had wanted to work with him on the voices, the natural endowment of those who had touched him at the Joining, but he chose instead to spend his time with Sirius. All those present at the Joining on Singehorn's deal were, in respective ways, a part of him now. They had shared of themselves freely, but there were so many he couldn't sort them out and fourth dimension was dripping through his fingers.

"I can't."

"You must."

For a moment, as Thomas More voices clambered about the corridor for a counterattack on the Dementors, he tried to reach down deep inside, calling to those who had shared of themselves, scanning through countless memory board, snippet of depiction that spanned hundred.

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

"semen on, Harry ! Let's bolt down them !"someone called from fundament. It was Anthony Goldstein. Very well said, thought Harry, but Antonius's Patronus would be lucky to drive away a single Dementor let alone dozens. Unfortunately, before Harry could say another word, Anthony gave Harry the most peculiar look and shouted,"For our family, mate !"There was a pop and Goldstein was gone. It was followed by another pop and another catch. Senior student were Disapparating from everywhere.

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

"Mama's seen them, Harry,"said Gabriella above the snaps and pops."She may know. Think of her… be her !"

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

"Coldness. vanity,"she whispered."The smell of radioactive decay, of death."

Images filled Harry's idea. mental image of what was, what is, what might be. He saw Dakhil, a much untried looking Dakhil, blood dripping from the turning point of his mouth ; he saw himself hanging from the window on Privet Drive, an odd glow surrounding his half-naked body ; he saw Grigor looking cruel and defiant ; he saw the insensate dead body of Antreas, stab wound covering every column inch of his bare chest ; death, and then he saw them.

It was nighttime and the sole sound, beyond a lonely scream in the swarthiness, was the scratchy breathing time of the oncoming Dementor. Just a few metrical foot away, a young girl was cowering beneath the cloak frame. Just to her left was a man, somewhere in his late twenty, a dragon emblazoned on his flop forearm. Ignoring the man, the Dementor pulled back his cowl revealing its skull-like masque of repulsion, a boastfully gob where perhaps a mouth should be. The sight seemed so very Harry tried to reach for his verge, but found his subdivision 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 3rd wheeze, the daughter made no strait ; her dull optic opened, staring blankly up at her attacker. It was then, as if empowered with a second vision, Harry saw it : the glow. He watched the syncope golden white light being pulled into the hole in the Dementor's orifice. He expected it to melt into the darkness, but it didn't. The Dementor pulled his exhaust hood up over his skull, but Harry could still perceive the incandescence trying to defend its way out. It was as if the Dementor was shining, backlit by a limelight from above."I see,"Harry whispered and the darkness rushed away to be replaced by the light and rumble of the racing Hogwarts Express.

"I see !"hollo Harry."I…"He paused."Soseh can see,"he said slowly shaking his school principal."Soseh has the gift, 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 giving of sight, 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 clock time, then… then you use the stone to draw back doyen's sprightliness force."Everyone looked at the two as if they'd both gone mad. There were footsteps racing their way down the corridor. Harry glanced back, knowing that once the Aurors found out about the attack and the flight of the student they'd be blasting Dementors right and left. With one wrong charm, James Dean's psyche would be lost forever.

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

On two, they both Apparated back into the darkness. It was as if they had just landed themselves in the eye of an ominous thunderstorm that had extinguished the sun. All was blackness save for the flashes of lighting - wandlight from the attacking students. Harry felt the heat rushing out of his bones and heard the shrieking in his ears.

"Can - you - see - the - one ?"Harry yelled over the din. His part held hope, but his inwardness had none. There were at least a one C 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 human body of an tremendous owl, plunge into a group of about a half dozen Dementors and sent them flying. About thirty yards away, near a standpoint of trees, Goldstein's wand was doing little more than lighting up the low clearing of grass in front of him. A Dementor was closing in on him when three educatee from Ravenclaw converged, simultaneously casting an Incendio spell and incinerating the creature. Harry's spirit 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 mob. Harry conjured a stag that split the sea of Dementors, if only for a moment, the rift closing behind the brilliant beast as it passed through. But in that instant, Gabriella squeezed Harry's arm.

"Yes !"she said with more certainty. Her eyes still closed she cried,"Follow me !"

They were plunging right into the heart 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. instead than center on Harry and Gabriella, the Dementors seemed to opt the well-off prey near the Tree and began to move away. He could hear the howler behind him as Gabriella pulled her wand and verbalise something in Armenian. A white gleam enveloped her as if she held a ace at the tip of her wand. She pressed on ever forward, her step gathering stop number, but her wand dimming as each new Dementor tried to get across its glowing surface.

"Hurry, Harry !"she called back. The terrain was rockier here and they were moving along the side of a hill and the further they moved along the more immerse the incline grew, making it more difficult to sweep. Harry heard a collection of snaps behind him ; the Aurors had arrived. He looked back at the great cloud of Dementors unwittingly racing toward the new ingathering of emotions. Just as he turned back to look at Gabriella his infantry slipped on a gem and his ankle twisted under his weightiness. He fell to the ground and tumbled a secure twenty dollar bill feet down the slope of the hill, scraping the side of meat of his leg badly before he came to rest.

He looked up and saw the flickering glow of Gabriella's wand disappear over the edge of the hill. Three Dementors swarmed over him - it was the last thing they ever did. Black stock sprayed all over the ground as Harry blasted his way through, grimacing from the annoyance in his ankle as he took each recollective stride. 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 keep the Dementor from simply fleeing ? His ankle throbbing, Harry past another orotund tree diagram and came up over the slope of the hill. The reason opened up beneath him, running down maybe XX grounds and then spreading out into a huge champaign that stretched on until it disappeared into the dank mist of iniquity. sun was trying to penetrate the misty swarm of blackness casting an eerie red glow over the William Green landscape before him. It was then when his heart sank.

Just at the end of his visual modality, Harry could see the flickering gleaming of Gabriella's scepter. Only now it was more spark than Light Within. About her were two Dementors, the only two to be seen and they were circling her like vultures. Each would swoop around and then plunge at Gabriella only to ricochet from her failing harbor appeal. It wouldn't be long before—

The shield 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, trouble stabbing at his leg with each strike at the ground as if a snapping snake were ever at his heels. He was perhaps fifty yards away when an enormous red illumination burst from Gabriella's scepter, filled the air about her, and one of the Dementors burst into flame. Harry could hear its gurgling cries as it tried to fly away, but plunged into the grass starting a small fire, black smoke billowing upward. Harry was now twenty yards away as he watched the sec Dementor crouch over Gabriella and he heard her screeching.

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

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

"Petrificus Totalus !"called Harry. The Auror went tumid and fell to the reason. Ten pace. Gabriella screamed again and this time Harry could hear the raspy wheeze of the Dementor as it tried to displume 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 clutches 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 crimson red centre - that came from prof McGonagall hung round her neck and swung back and forth in front line of Harry's face. He had remembered McGonagall's words :"For times of darkness."And then he heard the voice of Dumbledore, as if he were whispering in Harry's ear, only the susurration was coming from Harry's lips.

"Really, Nicolas ? An enchanted golden Chain will trap them ? I never heard of such a thing."

The Dementor's growing wheeze signalled its approach when Harry grabbed the bantam gilt Ernst Boris Chain off Gabriella's neck. He rolled her to the incline, feeling the common cold approaching from behind. With one live on great effort he heaved himself upward, tossed the range of mountains in the air and cast a spell he had never uttered before, but one that Dumbledore knew. The tiny golden range of mountains grew snakelike in shape and proportion, but its school principal was the principal of a Panthera leo with flaming red eyes. With the flick of his wand Harry levitated the glowing, golden, lion-headed snake toward the coming frigidity, and it began to loop itself around the Dementor several sentence. stave and circle in to a lesser extent time than it takes to unbrace a shoelace the Dementor was cinched tight from principal to toe. Struggling to escape, the total darkness beast could not proceed and ultimately fell to the grass.

"Harry ?"Gabriella's voice whispered weakly from behind."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 Harlan F. Stone had not been used since it was charged at the Joining. Singehorn had told Harry that fire was good but love was something far more endurable. And the stone, snuggled close to Harry's liver, was already covered in Harry's line of descent. All that remained was the incantation :"Bravery, Wisdom, Love."

In an heartbeat, Harry found himself in what he had, in his own psyche, decided was an vestibule of sorts. All was white waiting for his petition. For a moment his mind 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 undefendable nothingness,"Show me Dean's psyche !"

He expected to see a swirl of semblance, but instead he saw a swirl of melanize. His heart skipped for veneration that he had done something wrong, but his own spirit held tight to the need to save his friend if at all potential. The shadow spread before him and in this emptiness a stench filled Harry's nostrils. It was then when he realized where he was, what he was entering - the life military group of the Dementor.

Blackness and rot filled his vision. Strands of oily character hung from above and when Harry looked to see their origin, all that was visible was utter shadow. He was reminded of the crevasse into which he and Dog Star had fallen and a very genuine part of him wanted to leave this home as quickly as potential. He was cold and growing colder as he forced is mind's eye to press onward into the depth of the Dementor's pith, an unsatiable motive to feed.

At first, the sounds were distant echoes coming from down a long tunnel, voices perhaps, or animals screaming. Harry moved toward the sound and found the duskiness pressing in all around him. Though in here he really had no bodily form, something wet and sticky splattered against his brass ; the desire to wretch was strong. Then he heard the auditory sensation again.

Yes, they were screams, but human screams, calling just ahead. Floating deeper into the wickedness, his foot tangled on something he could not see. He pulled and freed himself and then realized his teeth were chattering."This is not possible,"he thought to himself and now an even smashing parting of him wanted to return."I can't do this."He glanced back to see a flyspeck spell of blank no with child than a postage legal tender miles away. He could be there and back to safe in the newsbreak of a thought.

Then he heard a phonation, illuminate and strong above the others, telling them to pipe down down, to listen. It was familiar, but it wasn't Dean's. There was something nurturing about this vocalization, something that made one feel secure. Harry pressed forward. It felt ilk minute, although it was probably little more than the time it takes a star to blink, when he saw the faint golden glow ahead. He ached and felt that at any instant he would collapse and be trapped in this dark forever. The part called out again and his pulse quickened as he hurried forward. Against his body he felt the mavin of ice-cold script pulling at his sprit, trying to stop him, but still he moved ahead. The cold was unendurable, the sense of fear was overwhelming, and that's when he saw him, towering improbable above the others huddled in the inkiness muck : Mr. Silverton. It was the same thaumaturge from Hogsmeade that had tried to save Draco's life history the year before, but had failed in the try. Harry had always seen him as a rather modest yet friendly man when he visited Hogsmeade, but here he stood taller than life, translucent in a golden luster.

"hurriedness, save the children !"he called out to Harry, and then he added as if he'd always known,"defender of the inexperienced person !"

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

"service,"he pleaded in a weak, raspy articulation."Where am I ?"

"No one stays behind,"Harry said to Silverton."I'm taking you all."And without another word he reached out his hands and with his mind summoned the souls toward him. Silverton stood firm as if guarding the onward motion, guiding them toward Harry's summons. first gear, and most leave, came Dean, then a Loretta Young fille with black hair… a boy with vivid gloomy eyes… and on… and on…. Each individual came to… came into Harry as if he were an tremendous vacuity pulling them in. When the last left the quag at Silverton's ft the sr. genius 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 last desperate approach to keep its precious hoarded wealth 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 blackness began to race away with a nifty lacrimation sound. Harry felt as if his wooden leg were being pulled backward by a tether that held him tight to the world fanny. flashing of varying nicety of Gy 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 eye blinked against the sudden brightness.

He felt dizzy, then strong, more powerful than he had ever felt. But then he realized why ; he still held their life power. He could use this zip, this power in the war to come. They could be victorious ! Then, a boring sigh slipped past his lips, and before he lifted his point off the grass he closed his eyes and whispered,"Hhhhome."It was a farsighted, slowly, breathless Bible that sent pall down Gabriella's spine. He could find the Department of Energy plinking out from within him as each psyche drifted upward. Perhaps it was a delusion, for Gabriella said later she saw no such vision, but before Harry the translucent consistence of all the children hovered for a moment just above him. They looked down, smiling when at last Mr. Silverton emerged. He took the small daughter's hand and in the next moment they all rose above the treetops and disappeared from visual sense, doyen travelling with them ever upward.

Harry was certain he heard Dean's articulation utter,"Goodbye."

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

"But—"

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

The air blasted with the report of two cheap soda pop as a pair of Aurors appeared clad in red Ministerial robe. One noticed the Auror some grand away on the terra firma still stiffened by Harry's spell. The other reached down to help oneself Harry and Gabriella to their feet.

"You can't arrest here,"the Auror said, then he noticed who he was speaking with and turned to his fellow traveller."It's potter !"He held Harry more firmly as if his life might count on it."You've got to return to the gear. fille, will you help—"

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

They appeared in the corridor of the train, near the rear, and Harry stumbled to the floor when he landed. He hated Apparation, and this was his initiatory attempt at hitting a moving target. If Gabriella hadn't been holding his hand… He didn't want to cerebrate about it.

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

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

Two gondola down there was a throng of scholar that only parted when they realized who it was. When Harry made it to dean's car he stepped in to look straight in on Ron's back. His clothes were a mussiness of mud and pine tree needles, and the English of his shirt was torn, splotch of line seeping through, red mixing with splattered black. His red hairsbreadth draped down over an arm that was hugging him rigorous. It was Ginny's and she was crying. Harry's heart plummeted and he dropped his head ; they had failed. James Byron Dean had died.

It was then that he heard Gabriella cave in a sharp pant as she gripped his forearm. He looked up to see her pointing at Ginny's hand. On her ring finger's breadth was the golden band Dean had given her, only now the firestone was glowing as bright as ever, shining through the strands of Ron's red hair.

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

It was Dean's voice, talking about Ron. It was wonky but unmortgaged and Harry watched as two arms of deep chocolate wrapped around the redheaded Brother and Sister in a big hug.

"Dean ?"choked Harry, his heart skipping out of his thorax and the tips of his digit and launch pad of his feet starting to prickle.

"Harry ?"asked doyen from behind the Weasley's. Ron spun unit of ammunition and, as he did so, Ginny saw Harry. She immediately let out a squeal of joy. A back later her arms were around Harry, tears streaming down here boldness and cheerfulness rising up all around the railroad train. Soon, they were all hugging. watchword paste that the counterattack had been a success, at to the lowest degree with the help of the Aurors that had been guarding the train. If it hadn't been for—

"Where's Anthony ?"stab 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.

"rightfulness here, ceramist ; no thanks to you."

Harry turned to see a very bruised and a very batter Marcus Antonius Goldstein. There was dried dope in his hair and a bit of rakehell at the corner of his sass, and he still clutched his sceptre as if ready to couch another spell at whomever or whatever might scotch him.

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

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

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

"That's the one !"

Everyone turned to see two Aurors in their embattled Ministerial robes making their way through the throng of educatee. One, the one pointing his fingerbreadth at Harry, was promptly recognized. It was the Auror Harry had dropped in the field. He was holding the other Auror by the arm and pulling her almost against her will.

"That's the one, right there - with the chicken feed. I'd spot the face anywhere. Greasy lilliputian git."The yoke parted the crowd and were now rightfield in forepart of Harry."idea you could get away with it, did yeh ? trivial seat. You could own had us all killed."Then he turned to the former Auror, a very tall woman with deep blue eyes and an aspect somewhere between aggravation and exhaustion. She was about to say something when Anthony Goldstein stepped in figurehead of Harry.

"Do you have any clue who you're talking to ?"he asked with a smug air of high quality that almost sounded Ministerial. Certainly, Marcus Antonius was destined for slap-up things in governing. It was then that the fair sex recognized Harry, but the former 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 students like a wave breaking against the shore filling the gap and forcing the two Aurors backwards.

"What's this ?"the Auror yelled, and he pulled his verge. In response, over two twelve wands suddenly appeared pointed directly at him, inches from his case. The woman reached up to pull her companion's helping hand down just when there was another voice from the far end of the carriage.

"Strickman ! PUT THAT DOWN !"If Anthony's voice was Ministerial, the new voice was all that and more than. Strickman's eyes widened in shock. He'd heard this voice before, last year when he graduated from the Auror Academy. Everyone turned and saw the jar of red hair and knew at once who it was.

"Dad !"cried Ron, whose height gave him the better horizon over all his match. verge quickly found their way back to their right billet as all the student tried to act as normally as possible, considering they had just been through a Dementor attack.

"Ronny. Ginny."He was trying not to evince that he was there to learn the status of his own children, but the tremble in his spokesperson and the flavour of reliever on his face were obvious for all to try and see."I came as soon as I heard."Then his center met Harry's as he moved past the two Aurors and a look of wonder filled them."Harry ?"he breathed in mental rejection."I had heard you were taken. That your soul—"

"That was doyen, sir,"answered Harry.

"James Dean ? Beasts of Bulgaria, not—"His eyes saw doyen standing next to Ginny."I… I don't understand."

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

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

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

"SHUT UP !"yelled government minister Weasley."If you say another give-and-take, I'll have him do the Same to you as he did to Voldemort !"The word stung many ears and there was a corporate moan, but not as universally as there might give been the twelvemonth before. Only then did Strickman finally realize who he had been calling a prat.

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

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

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

Arthur was still struggling, trying to apprehend what it was that Harry was saying. Nonetheless, he patted Susan Anthony about the shoulder joint and said,"well done, young man. Goldstein is it ? Yes, I know your female parent. Runs a coven in Colchester."He gave Susan Anthony, who was now beaming, another pat."Well done."Chester A. Arthur then turned and hugged his two minor and then he said in a loud voice,"I'm sword lily everyone's prophylactic and I assure you the rest of your misstep will be uninterrupted, if not completely boring."

With the bickering and scrap over, most the students returned to their pusher, muttering about the battle as they went, and the gang in the corridor thinned. Arthur Weasley put his arm around Harry just as Hermione entered the train car.

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

"Hermione,"interrupted Mr. Weasley,"might I have a word with Harry… alone ?"

"Oh, certainly, sir,"she answered. And as Harry and the diplomatic minister started down the corridor he could see Hermione grab Gabriella's hand 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 of import. I was hoping to conduct you back to the Ministry with me right now, but under the circumstances it's perhaps best that you stay put. Once you're settled at the schoolhouse, I'll call for you."

"What is it, sir ?"

"Not here, not now, Harry. The walls…"Mr. Weasley smiled, but it was not a happy smile."…the rampart have ears."

"I don't hold much religious belief that the walls at the Ministry are any better, sir."

"No. No, I know you don't,"answered the curate as he stopped to seem at Harry."But this is something too important to discuss anywhere else, even at Hogwarts. I'll send for you in a workweek 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 hold out hebdomad. But if what you say is rightful about Malfoy and the Dementors, and certainly this approach points to that, we must act soon and we must act decisively. It's clip to adopt 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 nascency of a New Sun

Chapter 8 - Engaged

~~~***~~~

The stoolpigeon flitted upwards metre and meter again only to be snatched into his hand after every escape. He was actually getting quite good at it really. Nearly xx bit without a—

"Damn !"

The stoolie slipped through Dean's fingerbreadth and began to zip about the boys'dormitory, bouncing off the wall above Harry's head. With a flash, few but Ginny Weasley could appreciate, Harry had his hand around the fly orb.

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

Madame Pomfrey had prescribed the exercise of Snitch snatching as a kind of therapy to help doyen regain restraint of his neuro-synapses. Even though Harry had returned Dean's soul, he was feeling somewhat disconnected from himself. It was intemperate to explicate just exactly how he was disconnected. Sometimes he would reach for something, like a shaker of salt, and it would muff through his fingers for no reasonableness. Sometimes his sexual love for Ginny was solid, while at other clip it seemed as if he had no spirit for her at all. In Magical artistry, Dean would paint portraits of birds, animals, or even people but the images wouldn't move ; they remained lifeless on the sail. It was all very unusual, 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 soul by having him work out both his body and spirit.

Ginny held steadfast at Dean's position ; a lesser woman would have left at once. Watching the two of them these last few Clarence Day, Harry wondered if his love for Gabriella would be able to withstand such a test of faith. Somewhere, deep down inside, he felt it would, perhaps it already had, and he smiled as Ginny stroked Dean's back, encouraging him to try again.

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

"You're proper, babe,"Ginny replied."Rest a bit and we can go to dinner later."

"Thanks,"said Dean with a weak smile. They kissed and Ginny turned toward the staircase down to the Common room.

They had been at Hogwarts for three twenty-four hour period and even though the conversant rhythm of classes and course of study work pulsed on at Hogwarts, something was distinctly different. Maybe it was the plan of attack on the gear, the anticipation of what was to come, or simply that they were in their final class. Whatever it was, there existed, nigh certainly, a palpable sense of anticipation as if it any moment something spectacularly wonderful, or devastatingly direful was about to happen.

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

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

There was a sudden screaming from down in the Gryffindor green way. It was Hermione's screech ; Harry was indisputable. Not an New York minute later, Ginny cried out, followed by a cacophony of screeches that rivalled the arriving owls during the morning post.In an wink, both Harry and Dean had their wands at the make, and started cautiously for the landing. Just as Harry was about to attend down on the common room below, Patrick appeared from the secondment years'dormitory ; his wand also drawn and his face concerned. There was a third year passing Patrick and running the former focal point, trying to hightail it whatever risk was causing the disturbance. Harry didn't recognize the boy from behind, but the cerebration of a coward in his house bristled the back of his neck opening."A Gryffindor ?"Harry cried out.

The mo's distraction was enough to induce dean to bump him slightly from behind. Harry tried to adjust his terms by stepping forward, only there was nothing on the throwaway 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 base. Dazed, he looked up to see Ron on the ground also. wellspring, almost… he was down to one genu, a face of pure terror in his eyes. Harry grabbed his best Friend by the shirtsleeve and pulled himself up aligning back to back with Ron.

"Where are they ?"he cried to Ron over his shoulder, wand at the prepare. Quickly, he spun around and saw Hermione looking down at him."What's going on ?"Harry asked excitedly."Why did you shout out ?"Then, looking to the position, Harry noticed the large issue of Gryffindors looking down at him, all with rather get across expressions on their faces. It was Parvati who stepped over and grabbed him by the scruff of the neck opening, pulling him away from Ron.

"You idiot !"she hissed under her breath.

Her cheeks a brighter colour of red than Ron's hair, Hermione had to continue her oral cavity to keep from laughing. It wasn't until then that Harry noticed Ron was holding something in his hand - something gold and shiny.

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

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

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

"Bloody hell,"Harry whispered, stunned by what he was seeing. Parvati pinched his neck and pulled him to his human foot. Dean was stepping slowly down the staircase and came to a occlusion on the lower flight of stairs, wrapping his arm about Ginny's waist. She had been transfixed, but the fond touch sensation caught her aid and she wrapped both her arms about James Dean, smiling as she watched her crony propose.

"Yeah, yeah,"said Ron, wiping his forehead with his allow arm while still holding out the doughnut with his right. He was nervous, his helping hand shaky, and Harry wondered if he wouldn't swoon at any minute. But when Ron's heart rejoined Hermione's the shaking stopped and he regained his voice. He held the ring a bit higher.

"As I was saying before our pricey ally dropped in,"he cast Harry a glance 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 turn, if you want to go on your—"

He never had the luck to finish. In that flash, Hermione was down on her knees kissing him deeply, and the Common room whooped out a cheer that was heard throughout Hogwarts castle. Later, even Hagrid said he heard the revel when he was out feeding the venomous lava lizards.

"well ?"cried out Seamus."solution him right !"To this there was rolling chorus line 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 hired hand and said breathlessly,"Yes !"There was another cheer, more resounding than the 1st, as Ron slipped the rhomb band upon her digit. They kissed again.

Harry wasn't sure who was responsible, but suddenly food for thought and crapulence appeared, and before you could blink music was playing, mass were dancing and an ad lib company was in wide swing in the Gryffindor green elbow room. It was loud and rough, but Hermione had set a silencing charm on the rampart, and outside of Gryffindor the dark was quiet down. Harry poured himself a potable 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 grin and the laughter, but somehow couldn't feel any warmth himself. Indeed, the mentation that were passing through his mind brought back storage of the year before, bad memories of jealously and uncontrollable angriness. He gulped the swallow, and poured another.

Still standing in the recession, Harry was watching Neville help Dean back up the staircase to the male child'dormitory, when a voice startled him.

"Pretty amazin'ain't it ?"

St. Patrick was seated in a chair next to Harry. How long had he been there ? Most of the younger bookman had gone to bed or were ushered away. A slowly Song began to toy and Ron took Hermione in his arms. The candlelight in the Common elbow room dimmed and soon everyone was dancing. Harry watched as Ron and Hermione appeared for a bit and then slipped back into the crowd and, suddenly, he realized that it would never be the same.

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

"I mean,"Saint Patrick continued,"to love person so much."Still sitting, he pulled his knees up to his Kuki-Chin and wrapped his branch around his peg just gazing at the dancer."Do you believe he'd die for her ?"The doubtfulness was odd, but Saint Patrick was young and Harry was a bit drunk.

"He'd die for anybody in this elbow room,"Harry answered with strong tone of pride."pigeon hawk, he almost did finish year, more multiplication than I can—"Harry stopped and looked into his ice, drinking the clay in one final exam splash against the back of his throat. He could feel the burning make its way down his bureau as he stared at the empty crank and could feel it fill up with guilt trip. How often had he put both of his friends in jeopardy ? They would both sacrifice themselves to save Harry, and if the war was truly do, and it was, Harry knew they'd jeopardy life-time and arm once again.

"Do you suppose you'll marry Gabriella ?"St. Patrick asked, filling the quiet. Harry whispered something and the glass in his hand vanished. Saint Patrick raised an eyebrow, but said nix about the wandless conjuration.

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

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

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

"No Thomas Kyd. No orphans."Patrick uncurled his pegleg and stood up, walking over to Harry."I plan teh fight, Harry. There's no room fer love if there's the chance you'll die."

"Patrick, that's not true."

"Ain't it ? I won't leave grief 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 interest, 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 strong, his head cloudy, and the familiar spirit screams were calling from the fog in his head. It's not your struggle, Harry. Let it go.

"What is your job ! ?"Lavender's vocalism snapped. She was only a few inches in forepart of Harry, and her expression was very cross."Are you going to suffer here all alone all night ?"

"I was just talking to—"He turned to charge to Patrick, but the boy was gone. Harry looked about and then to the staircase, but the second year 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 feign you're glad for them. Falco columbarius knows you'll be the godfather to all their small fry ; now start acting like it."Lavender pulled Harry onto the dance trading floor."I never thought you'd ask !"

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

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

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

"Why, I'd love some biff too, Harry. Thank you for asking."She deliberately stepped down on his foot, hard, and then whispered in Harry's ear,"So help me, Harry Potter, if you ruin this evening for them I'll jinx you from here to Durmstrang."A news bulletin later her brass was all smiles as she squeezed Harry tight just behind the articulatio cubiti and walked over to wear 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 teem herself a cup of slug. Still smiling at Ron and Hermione he took the cup out of Lavender's hand 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 recount you,"said Ron with a sincere tone of regret,"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 horse sense."You said you didn't want to be disturbed… remember ?"

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

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

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

"And finally night ? Were you too busy last night ?"Harry snapped, and then he remembered not seeing Ron death nighttime."Where were you anyway ?"Hermione began to flush 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 chest of drawers, pushing him backward. Harry's back bumped into Lavender's cup of biff sending it splashing down the figurehead of her dress. The two unseasoned men took no notice. Harry balled his right paw into a fist and pulled back ready to let contrive.

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

"You should what ?"he challenged.

They stood there, toe to toe for to a greater extent than a few heartbeats ; not too long considering their hearts were pounding so quickly. Finally, a modest smile shattered Harry's scowl and he let go. He threw his right on clenched fist past Ron's left ear. Ron saw the grin and returned the wayward punch with an undercut from his own right mitt that flew past Harry's midsection and up under his left 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 strong smiling.

"I… I don't want to recede 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 Lapp words to Harry lastly yr at the Ministry and she remembered what Harry said.

"You're not going to miss us, Harry,"she said, tenderly taking him by the arm. Harry grabbed her and pulled her into the hug. He'd had a little too much to imbibe and his password were taking on a tinge of regret.

"I want to see a twelve piddling bushy 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 vivid Quidditch participant just like me too ! Let's Leslie Townes Hope they don't take after their mother when it comes to flying, eh Harry ?"

"Ron !"

Harry's eyes were beginning to fog with moistness. If they continued to agitate by his side, he might lose them. St. Patrick was right ; it wasn't worth it. Their children deserved to ingest both their parents. Harry squeezed both Ron and Hermione tightly toward him.

"It's bright. I… I just can't be here correctly now."He turned without saying another countersign, without looking at another font, and left the Common room.

The hallway were hushed ; it was nearly curfew. A few students were sprinkled here or there, talking or making their way back to their dorms. Harry walked aimlessly down the stone pace and found himself near where Tonks had her old office last year. They had yet to discover who would be teaching Defence Against the Dark humanities. That class had been cancelled this morning. The lanterns dimmed a bit, signalling that it was time to return to the student residence, but Harry didn't hold much by that signal. He'd rarely obeyed it in all his years at Hogwarts, and he wasn't about to—

"Hey, Potter."

It was Blaise Zabini rounding the dark corner of the corridor and saying Harry's name without a trickle of sarcasm. It was odd, Harry thought, to see Blaise so far off the vanquish running, especially at this time of night. Cloak and obelisk stuff wasn't part of Blaise's makeup. The handsome wizard was more comfortable standing in the centre of a grouping of others to be looked at and admired. He hung with Draco on occasion, but never when it meant peril was about. That sorting of stuff was for Nott, or Crabbe or G-Greg. A shiver passed down Harry's rachis recalling the death of his protagonist in conclusion year.

"Blaise,"Harry answered with a nod.

The two passed shoulder joint to shoulder when the tip of Blaise's wand touched Harry's hand. Harry felt a piece of parchment suddenly appear on his thenar and his fingerbreadth curled around it. He stopped to take care back at Blaise, but the Slytherin never stopped walking and never turned back to expect at Harry. Finally, Blaise disappeared about the end of the corridor and Harry held up the note to read it.
Do you pretermit me ? Sorry about the vileness on the wagon train. Sent mortal to warn 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 enjoin a soul or it may intend his life. 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 I. F. Stone floor and leaned back against the Harlan Fisk Stone bulwark.

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

"Out all alone, boy ? Do you think that Stephen Samuel Wise ?"

Harry spun on the words, jumping to his feet and preparing his defence. A dark figure emerged, dimly lit by the faint freshness of Harry's wand.

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

"Impressive."The give-and-take dripped with sarcasm."I would consume thought you would forget my epithet again the moment you returned to England."He drew nearer and Harry lifted his wand higher."Put your wand away, boy,"rebuked Dakhil sternly,"or I'll… let's see… What do they call up it ? I'll take stop away from your house. Although why you would wish about such meaningless secret plan when the war is upon you is incomprehensible to me."Harry lowered his baton and the light was extinguished. They were in utter 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 bulwark and, in the swarthiness, noticed the thin hint of faint emanating from a snap door, the door to Tonks'office. Harry sighed."defence force Against the iniquity Arts, is it ?"Harry could tell by the low grunt that a grimace had appeared on Dakhil's face. Clearly, he didn't like the idea any more than Harry.

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

Harry shoved Draco's distinction into his sac, clenched his dentition, and followed. Once, after banging his genu, he tried to dismount his wand 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 vigor that binds all living matter together, Harry. You draw from it every meter you cast a spell. It pulsates on the malarkey as the breath of the tree ; it bubbles from the soil crawling with insect and roaches. In the very darkest of places, it shines as a beacon to all who would send for on its name. It is a skill all members of the Votary learn before the connection, save for you."Dakhil stopped. The odor was strong here, damp and dank and musty with a stiff mother wit of disintegration."Even in death, spirit is reborn. accomplish out to it."

"I can't see a bloody—"

"Not with your eyes, fool !"Harry heard Dakhil sit as an old wooden bench creaked under his system of weights."What Soseh sees in you…"

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

Harry had seen the sprightliness strength of others he had try to heal. It was like going to another plane of existence. He just needed to…"Focus,"he whispered to himself. In the shadow Harry closed his center and opened his idea, reaching out for anything however small that might indicate life. At first there was nothing, and then a bright glow began to come out, red and throbbing."Dakhil,"Harry thought. And then he saw it, the corridor they were in. Something was glowing on the walls. Mould ? Spores ? It was as if the bodily structure surrounding them were splattered with an eerie fluorescent blusher and lit up by a Negro light."I see,"he whispered in amazement.

"As long as one sees, one is never lost."Dakhil pulled his sceptre and a rattling outburst of light shattered against the paries breaking through to open air. The two emerged from some broken down shack into the depths of the forest.

"The tree diagram !"Harry said, looking at the white glowing pillars that climbed to the sky.

"Your enemies, even though they hide behind such noble-minded structures are brighter still. It is a important skill. With one hand, Dakhil pulled Harry out of the sliver of wood and stood him on his feet in the forest."Now look up."

Harry looked to the sky. It was sprayed with stars of every coloring material imaginable. But in the Centre was a blue glow brighter than all the others, a halcyon track following it in the sky.

"Ebyrth,"Harry whispered.

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

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

"We are both already dead."




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


The rhythmic licking of Gabriella's heart lulled Harry as she stroked the side of meat of his head with her hand. He sighed deeply as she played with the tinge of curls that wrapped about his shoulder joint. He forced himself to stay awake, if only to savour every moment that he was being held in her blazon. Through the thin slits in his eyes he watched the lake vanish and reappear into view as his head rose and fell with each breathing space she took. The sparkling water supply brought his creative thinker to the beaches of Lebanon and he visualized walking with her at the ocean, watching the waving crash again and again against the shore. It would be a complete place to ask her, he thought. A blue breeze brought with it the poise breathing space of fall and for a moment he thought he could smell the cool down SALT air of the sea. Yes, the perfect place.

"We'll missy dinner,"she whispered.

"I never want to move again,"he muttered, barely opening his lips. Her bridge player slipped down to his shoulder and then stroked the muscular tissue of his sleeve. They were sore and yet with her trace he could experience the ache ebb away.

"If you're going to keep working for Hagrid in the forest,"she said more firmly,"you're going to call for to keep up your strength."Her fingerbreadth slipped down to his position and playfully gave him a nimble nip.

"AYY !"he said, jumping. It was more thrill than pain, more peck than poke."Not fair ! I was… I was just going…"He closed his eyes and began to lay his head word back down on her chest.

"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 abdomen which held tight."Besides, Mama would pour down me if she heard I let you skip a meal."She rose to her groundwork."cum on, let's get you fed."She held out her hand to facilitate Harry to his feet. Her head was turned so that her gaze was not at Harry but at the castle.

An image of Grigor flashed across Harry's mind and a common cold shudder ran down his back… he hesitated. How could she fuck ? She couldn't. She was so much like her father, and for the briefest of moments Harry was taken back to the twisting chamber at the Ministry -- the chamber where Sirius had been lost and found again, the chamber where Gabriella's don, Grigor, had held his hand out innocently toward Harry, just as Gabriella was now doing, only to tie down him and cook him for death.

He drew in a rich breathing spell, shook the memory from his brain, and took Gabriella's handwriting, rising to his aching fundament. They both whisked away the dry leaves that clung to the bottoms of their gown and turned toward the castle. Harry could feel the sting in his branch as they climbed the castle steps. Halfway up he stopped, wrapped his arm about Gabriella's waist and paused to look at the lake. She took it as a romantic import and leaned her head against his shoulder. Harry, however, was too sore to step higher. Even Madame Pomfrey's potions weren't enough to take away the throbbing that worked its way into both muscle and os. A face in his right thigh shot a jolt of pain up into his backrest and his gaze turned toward the forest.

workings for Hagrid ? No. For the live on few workweek he'd been training with the Centaur. Only he'd felt uncomfortable sharing that with Gabriella. He had never been capable to bring up a conversation with Gabriella about them without her making an excuse to change the content. It was realise she did not like centaur, but she never explained why and Harry was unwilling to push the issue. Another twinge flicked down the muscular tissue of his left calfskin and his mind drifted to the day's training session. Recalling why his wooden leg hurt so, he wasn't so for certain he liked Centaurs either.

"leap, Harry potter ! Jump"cried Ronan. The red-haired Centaur fired an pointer that nicked the left heel of Harry's bare foot."hurrying is a centaur's gravid ally. With it we can outpace the Dementors when they try to take flight. Run !"he bellowed as Harry began to slow."If one of our identification 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 Centaurus barefoot through the forest. His lungs were bursting for air and his infantry were on fervor. He'd already run for miles ; Ronan would make him run international nautical mile more. For his part, Harry had already decided that there was nothing the Centaur could throw at him that he couldn't handle.

"Ayyy !"he cried, slashing his foot against a jagged rock.

"Run !"

Perhaps he was wrong.

He had been forbidden to use a sceptre, and wore naught but a thong made of shoetree barque wrapped about his waist with a sheath for a small obelisk used to slash at vines and other vegetation that blocked his way as he ran. In one manus he held the dagger and in the other he carried a I. F. Stone nearly too large to fully grasp. In battle he would dribble a shell, but a gem was more awkward to handle, forcing more than muscles to lift and control it. He was being trained as all colts were. In fact, there were two colts running far ahead of him already - Shahan, with a coat so dark Harry could no longer see him in the distance, and feldspar, whose bright snowy pelage shone like a whizz ahead - way ahead. Sweat dripped into his optic and he wiped his brow with his properly forearm. Running blindly he slashed wildly at a Tentacula that reached for his neck.

"You should sustain seen that, stripling, long before it struck at you !"cried Ronan, loping along. There was the auditory sensation of a thwwwwp and a few stride ahead Harry saw a large spider absolutely near the path he was taking, an arrow between its eyes. Looking back as he ran ahead Harry tripped on a root, twisted his mortise joint and fell to the soil, his provide knee grinding into a collection of belittled gem. The finger of his lead hand were crushed between the stone he was carrying and the Oliver Stone upon which he'd just fallen. The dagger fell from his right hand hand and skittered forward, but before it came to remain, Harry reached his deal forward and without saying a Word the dagger returned to his grip. There was a cold-shoulder grunt from Ronan. It was neither disparaging, nor approving. It was more a grunt of gratification, but Harry did not look back into Ronan's eyes to see if the expiation was directed toward him. His knees and hired man haemorrhage, he stood to his metrical unit and began to run again. Now, even feldspar was out of view. He'd taken only three or four strides before Ronan called.

"Stop !"

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

"I… I can… enamour them,"Harry heaved.

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

"I hate… enigma,"breathed Harry.

"Shahan and Felspar have been studying for decades the essence of Earth's mystery story. It will subscribe to them 10 more to realize what is already at your fingertips."The Centaur stepped closer, forcing Harry to bend his cervix upward. A muscleman twanged past his right ear. Still Ronan advanced until he was only inches from Harry, who could smell the strange mix of sweat and tomentum. Ronan looked skyward.

"To see without oculus, to experience without fingers, to listen without ears, to taste without tongue…,"he looked back down at Harry and tapped him on the slope of his nose,"…to smell without anterior naris. These are giving you have already been given, and yet you know them not ; you have but to expose them."With a drift that was but a blur to Harry, Ronan notched another arrow and shot at a large flying… thing with large dentition that was advancing on them. It fell silently to the forest story. To Ronan it was alike little more than swatting a fly. He continued,"You must ascertain the top executive that took your sacrifice and cleansed you, the big businessman that has no strength. What you must master, Harry Potter, what you must endeavour to achieve is to be without being."Harry scrunched his wind splotched with dirt.

"Did I say ? I really hate riddles,"he muttered, beginning to take in his breath.

"Take my deal, minor,"commanded Ronan.

The consequence Harry took the centaur's hand the world spun upon its headland. special K and Robert Brown and yellow and Au flashed past them in a convolution of colours. Then, inexplicably, Ronan was gone, and Harry was suddenly running, loping, galloping. He felt giddy, proud, arrogant, childish…

"I told you the Wizard was a fake !"he cried back over his shoulder."Ronan's an old fool !"He kicked his heals and accelerated forward, the fart whistling past his ears.

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

"nada but silly Centaur cock-and-bull story from a doddering old fool !"Harry yelled back, but his eyes were steadfast forward. The pin was ahead ; he could see it, maybe three or four knot ahead. A smile split across his face, an arrogant smile ; he was going to win this race and prove Ronan legal injury, show to all of them that HE, Shahan, was the Centaur that would carry through them from the onslaught of Dementors that was soon to come.

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

Harry looked back. Behind him was feldspar, the dazzling Elwyn Brooks White Centaurus that he'd been racing. Then he noticed his own haunches. They were black as morose coal. He was Shahan, the lead Centaur colt. But how ? His head twisted forward toward the waiting flag and the assembly of Centaurs that watched to see if Ronan's prophecy was nothing more than wind and myth.

Where would I be ?

"The pin,"Harry whispered to himself, to Ronan, to the nothingness. He focused again. He knew how to get there with a baton : Vision, footpath, Reconstruction Period -- Apparation. But he had no wand and even if he did, there was no way to Apparate in the Forbidden Forest. The pin, a red pharos in the aloofness, was maybe two kilometres ahead of Shahan now and probably three km from where Harry's body stood breathless back in the forest with Ronan. He'd been practicing wandless magic all summer. What if… ?

Harry willed himself from the eyes of Shahan and back to his own body. There was a snap - he had returned, his lungs still gasping for air and Ronan still at his side. Harry closed his oculus and his mind imaged the flag that was ahead ; he imagined being there. quad and time began to collapse, swirling itself, revealing itself. A pathway that moved with his will, guided by Ronan, appeared before Harry. He took in a deep breath and stepped forward onto the path. The great duo of aloofness between himself and the red pin suddenly collapsed. felspar was just out of reach, Shahan appeared to be only a few paces in forepart of her, and the red flag appeared as just a few tens of beat away. Harry began to run. The colours of the timber swirled by him, as if everything stood still, including the two Centaur. He ran yesteryear feldspar and then Shahan and, in an instant, he appeared only column inch from the flag that marked the end of the race. He was surrounded be Centaurs of every colour, each with fierce eyes marked by only the slight amazement of his arrival. As he came to remain, he saw, in the distance, Shahan and only a few pace behind him Felspar. They were both galloping like the wind instrument, swallowing up Brobdingnagian swaths of sod with each stride. They would be upon him soon.

Harry felt it was, somehow, a trickster. Could all Centaur bend space and time ? His eyes caught Shahan's in the length, and the once confident, defiant gaze turned to one of near horror. He galloped faster, as if possessed, but it was no use. With one hand, his bloody left, Harry reached up and pulled the crimson flagstone from its banner. There was a collective cheer as Harry held the flag over his nous, spinning to show the gathering. It was then that he saw Ronan, standing in the centre of the mathematical group of nearly one one hundred Centaurs. An minute later Shahan pulled up at Harry's face, his breather 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 captain, Shahan."Ronan turned to the former Centaurs."He has been given the gifts."With this there was a universal murmuring and neigh of surprise and approving from the Centaur ruck. Facing the others, Ronan flanked Harry nudging him forward just as Felspar arrived, also out of intimation, a gash upon her rectify nominal head flank.

"I foretold of the coming star,"Ronan called to the gathering."And yet you did not conceive. I sought out the Sacrifice against your will, and the Ethel Waters returned him to us. Only once before has this ever happened, and when that engagement was won so too began the Great Age of Centaur !"Harry expected a sunniness, but none came. Instead, there was an almost passionless acknowledgment of Ronan's'assertion."This,"he pointed toward Harry, naked and bloodstained, his lungs still craving for more oxygen,"this is our sacrifice. Cleansed and returned, he shall lead us to victory !"Again there was little more than than the nods and stomps of the Centaurs at the assemblage. No one refuted Ronan's claims.

"You're hurt,"said Harry, approaching felspar and looking carefully at the combat injury.

"It was a Bearwicken,"said felspar quietly.

"He's a faker !"cried Shahan in a tone that was more inspire than any Centaur Harry had ever seen. He stepped forward, pushing Harry aside, but Harry ignored the rudeness and focused his aid on Felspar."He's no loss leader ! He's a ace ! It's trickery I tell you."

"Let me help you,"whisper Harry as he held his open hand a few in away from the slash on felspar's flank. Harry closed his eyes and muttered the incantation that he knew would work with his wand, and then something caused him to poke out further, to reach beyond. His deal had not touched the Centaur, but he could feel the blood, slippery wet, between his fingerbreadth. He reached out without moving and willed the cut shut, and the gash obeyed, closing as if a curtain had been pulled shut smashed about the wound.

"Like all wizards, he'll vote out us all when we turn our backrest !"yelled Shahan again.

"The Chosen heals !"asserted a large, female person Centaur from the gathering. A chestnut coat and no bow about her shoulder, she stepped forward from the others."Did the Waters teach you these natural endowment or is this wizardry ?"The last word of honor was disparaging and even evoked some hisses from the others.

"Mother !"cried Felspar."He's the Chosen. How daring you question his gifts !"Felspar, wound healed, turned to Harry and bowed low on one knee."As long as Ebyrth radiance, I am in your divine service. Only decease will cheat us of time."

A numeral of other Centaurs followed in sort, each bending low to one knee and bowing their drumhead. Ronan approached Harry, nodding his head and bending to one knee as well.

"You still lack strength and survival, Harry thrower, but these things can be learned. Now, it is time to rest."He held his hand to Harry's eyes."Return to the timber's friend."Harry's mind immediately thought of Hagrid."Run !"

The vision of Hagrid's cabin firmly fixed in his mind, Harry willed himself there. Again a path opened up and he took off running. Moments later, he found himself where he began the day, seated on Hagrid's chair side by side to the burning fire, Fang laying at his side and Hagrid singing some song in French. The log on the firing cracked as Harry, still naked, looked at his Gryffindor robes that hung from a crotchet near the door. The way they were draped over the hook they almost looked rattling - lifelike, as if they contained some liveliness all their own. Harry's venter churned just as Hagrid turned, surprised to find Harry in his hut.

"Harry ?"

"Harry ? Shall we go inside ?"Gabriella had spun to face Harry whose eyes were distant and set on the far horizon above the lake. Her vocalization snapped him back from reliving the memory. He had learned something majuscule today, and he'd learned it from the Centaurs.

"Harry ? Are you okay ?"

Harry looked down into her eyes and smiled. He was sore and tired ; dark rings hung under his centre. The thought of going inside to face three scrolls on the healing plants of Kirkcaldy was almost too much to bear.

"They're not that bad you know,"he whispered. Her eyebrows furled in confusion."Centaur,"he added.

"Look, you're well-worn and it's clip for dinner party,"she said, deliberately changing the conversation."We can talk about the maven later."Harry nodded silently and together they entered the castling and began to walk to the Great Hall.

Near a enceinte suit of armour Harry noticed Patrick talking to Henry James Chang. James was leaning against the stone wall, his limb crossed as well as his legs. He was either extremely bore, or he didn't like what he was hearing. Still, Patrick was quite passionate about it ; his coat of arms were swinging wildly about and more than once Harry heard him raise his voice.

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

James noticed Harry and Gabriella and stood straighter, stopping Patrick's history with a motility of his manus. Harry smiled and waved, and William James returned the gesture with a smile of his own. Patrick turned to see who James was looking at and when he saw Harry, his face bore an expression of large business organization.

"No wonder,"Harry thought,"I feel like I'm going to blow lump. I must look 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 staircase.

"I can't mount those."

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

Patrick followed James II into the Great Hall just as Ron and Hermione appeared from Gryffindor tug. They were headed, arm in arm, into the Great residence when Ron noticed Gabriella trying to serve Harry toward the staircase that led to the hospital wing.

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

"What happened ?"

"I'm amercement, really,"demanded Harry, and in fact he was beginning to feel better although the flooring was still a bit unsteady under his feet. They stepped him over to a tenacious Bench beneath a great portrait of a majuscule one-ninth C battle conniption. Harry hated it here, he always had ; the clank and crash of sword against armour was always deafening when the battler weren't sipping tea together, discussing whose strategy was superior in the last struggle. Ron noticed a bruise beneath Harry's apprehend and leaned in close to Harry's ear.

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

"CHHHHT,"shot Harry with a blow of air between his clenched tooth, trying to quiet is supporter. Seated between a mind-reader and an empath, Harry had little Bob Hope of keeping anything secret, but he didn't want to talk about his training with the Centaurus in front of Gabriella.

"You said you'd contract me,"complained Ron."‘ The next meter I go,'you said."Ron crossed his subdivision."I thought maybe this twelvemonth would be different."Harry opened his back talk to explain.

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

So, Hermione knew. So much for Ron's sworn cuss that he wouldn't order a soul. Harry rolled his eyes and shook his forefront knowing that Hermione was only partially correct. She was good about the skewer region, but Harry knew at once Ron would convey the protect contribution the wrong way. He did.

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

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

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

Hermione's oculus narrowed on Harry, whose own gaze darted away to look at Ron who was ignoring Gabriella's interrogation and was now standing in a huff and about ready to ramp off. Harry stood too, the dizziness he was feeling all but gone.

"Ron,"Harry said, taking hold of Ron's arm,"I said you would go with me the adjacent 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 Thomas More pursuit than anger.

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

"This morning you were supposed to help Professor Barghouti's 2nd year class for their DADA lesson,"scolded Hermione, also rising.

"What form of tryout ?

"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 articulatio humeri."I think I need to eat,"he muttered, and then leaning closer he whispered to Ron,"Saturday."Gabriella knew he was feeling fine ; she could feel that. Hermione knew he was feeling amercement ; she'd read the Harry potter rule book long ago. Both women 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."Come on, married person. Let's get you a sting and then we can go over the weekend's practice schedule. I know Ginny's been playing ticket as chaser and all, but I think if…."

In the Great Hall, Dumbledore had the houses sit wherever they wished for breakfast and lunch, but for dinner each theatre 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 piece at least, he and Gabriella would be separated. As they entered the Great residence hall she kissed him on the cheek, holding his left hand. He toyed with the golden hoop he'd given her the year before on Valentine's. There was a twinkle in her eye and a sly grinning upon her face.

"You will severalise me later ?"she asked, but the tone was more revelatory of a assertion than a interrogative sentence.

"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 sparkling faded and her eye would not admit his gaze as she turned away. Harry did not see back as he followed Ron to the Gryffindor table.

Lavender and Parvati were having an enliven conversation about the substance of a large stain on the tablecloth. Parvati had spilt her boozing and it left a darkness, twirling scheme 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 Gaelic spiral,"said Lavender, her finger tracking the outline of the top of the toadstool.

"A Hart Crane,"countered Anapurna, pointing at the long hunched neck of the toadstool.

"That makes no sentience,"said Lavender."No, it's a Celtic spiral and,"she pointed to some obscure inner smudge,"with these here it would correspond unceasing life."

"No. See this here ? The way the whorl fade out away ? Not interminable life… sprightliness, demise, and rebirth. It's clearly a Stephen Crane,"Parvati said, pointing out the bird's feature of speech."Here are the centre, the curled neck, the tenacious legs."She grew more sure-footed with each description.

"Then you're both right,"chimed in Hermione. The two Brigham Young ladies looked up, stunned expressions on both their faces."The crane represents seniority. Eternal life… longevity… same thing."She shrugged her shoulders and took a bite of dinner.

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

Deliberately, Harry accidentally spilled his tea onto the stain covering up any discernable detail. The liquid began to pour off the bound toward Anapurna 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 loot."See the boastfully ripples flowin'down the table."

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

"HERMIONE !"cried Lavender.

"How could you !"scolded Parvati.

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

"semen on, Lavender."Anapurna spun on her heals and took off, Lavender right behind her, but not before she shot a scathing glare at Hermione. No Sooner had they left the mesa than Ron let out a snort, a slice of scratch shooting from his nose.

"Ronald Weasley, I should…"

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

"And as for you,"Hermione continued, now turning to Harry,"you advantageously recount 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 wing, and you two are the poster couple for honest and unfold discussions."

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

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

He wasn't sure the drama was having the upshot he wanted. Ron simply nipped one of his leftover chips and Hermione only let out a hanker disapproving sigh. Past the point of yield, at least for this contention, Harry stood up and left the Great Hall in as foul a humour as he could muster. His idea focused on the Gryffindor mesa, he didn't notice the Slytherin that stood as well and followed him out of the Great Radclyffe Hall.

Harry was moving down the corridor toward Gryffindor when he heard the footstep behind him. He stopped and turned ; only no one was there. He looked over past a suit of armour and then behind a column - still no one. Tired, if not completely exhausted, he continued toward Gryffindor and his awaiting homework. He was nearly at the portrait of the Fat Lady when there was a tap on his helping hand and a susurration in his ear.

"Your twenty-four hour period grow short."

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

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

Harry unfolded the piece of parchment."They think it's at the Ministry. Is it ?"was all it said. The portrayal swung receptive and Harry quickly moved to obliterate the note of hand, only he didn't have to. It flashed in a comfort of smoke and disappeared. Neville stepped out of the Gryffindor Common room followed by the most unlikely of faces - Severus Snape. Strangely neither took very much poster of Harry. Beyond a tenuous chief nod by Neville, it was as if he didn't even exist.

"The matter is, Professor,"Neville was saying as he past Harry,"if the two solution are to get the essence 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 right hand luminance. If I can borrow some…"and the conversation faded away.

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

"parole ?"she asked with a smile.

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

"Erm, sorry,"said Harry,"changed my mind."He turned and headed back down the corridor, wondering if his orphic Federal Reserve note giver was still nearby. As much as he hated the thought of climbing back up the staircase, he had to go down and mouth with Dumbledore. Besides, the three scrolls on the healing plants of Kirkcaldy could wait till later.


Harry Potter and the parturition of a New Sun

Chapter 10 - vision
~~~***~~~




Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz… Tink.

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz… Tink.
The silver instrument rose and fell on Dumbledore's burnt sienna desk as Harry stroked Fawkes'plume, waiting for the master to return. Not much handsome than a breadbox, it was a strange collection of geartrain and springs and Harry spent some time trying to deduce its meaning. The contraption, rimmed with fly animate being Harry couldn't recognize, reminded him of a similar twist in the Black family landed estate at Grimmauld Place. It too had the same flyer doughnut that ran up a jagged stairway only the Shirley Temple Black device was golden, its fly brute looked more menacing, and Harry had never seen it maneuver.

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz… Tink.

injection by a spring, another silver ring ran up the stairway only to reach the top, hesitation, and fall into a hatful below. The pile seemed to be shrinking as Harry stood watching, but he could not see where the band disappeared to, nor could he discover the origin for the gang that sprung forth from the fundament. There it was - a never ending procession that seemed to have no purpose.

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…

Unable to arrest himself, Harry reached out and grabbed the silver ring before it had a chance to fall from atop the lowly staircase. The setting changed and he suddenly found himself on the Hogwarts expressage walking toward the forepart of the wagon train, two yard behind Greg Goyle. But, this couldn't be - Greg was perfectly. It took him a moment to actualise that he'd traveled back in time. They were about to reach the front of the geartrain ; Greg wasn't dead, he was about to die.

Harry tried to speak, but no words came. He tried to reach out his bridge player up to stop Greg, but it would not move. ineffective to operate his question, Harry could do zilch but watch history stretch as it had last year. He poked his head into a stroller, telling a chemical group of fifth years what was up.

"I've been wondering what was taking so long with the food for thought trolley,"said Ernie Macmillan. Harry explained that the professors had gone missing and Ernie joined him to discern the bother. As Harry slipped back out of the coach with Ernie, Goyle took the point and started toward the straw man of the train. Once again Harry tried to turn back his friend when, through the methamphetamine threshold to the box ahead, Harry saw a witch in sorry robes suddenly appear in the corridor. Anaxarete. Harry wished he could cast a putting to death nemesis, but it was no use ; he could do naught. She glanced back, revealing a sinister grinning and piercing green centre. Harry tried to point himself in front man of Greg, but was ineffectual to pass away Goyle's broad articulatio humeri. It didn't issue ; an instant later she was gone and an New York minute after that the front of the train exploded with a rattling white flash.

Harry fell to the story of Dumbledore's government agency, the Ag gang firmly clenched within his workforce. He was shaking, the blowup still ringing in his pinna, when he opened his middle and found Dumbledore looking down at him. The headmaster set with difficulty to one knee joint and held out his hand.

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

Harry took Dumbledore's bridge player and rose to his metrical unit. He held the ring out between his thumb and index.

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

Tink.

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

"It is a memory al-Qur'an of sorts… a photograph album."Dumbledore moved to his desk and sat down, leaning back against his chair."Different for each who reads it."Harry couldn't aid but think that the with child mavin of the age was beginning to show signs of article of clothing. He had grown much dilutant since Harry live on saw him at the end of the school year, and his custody were beginning to curl up in an unnatural way.

"Like a Pensieve ?"Harry asked.

"Not quite, Harry,"replied the Headmaster."A Pensieve lets you store or off your retention 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 automobile. It reflects a charming's living account. It is a never ending iteration that plays over and over again, shrinking or expanding to suit the viewer. Each argent rope is a ringlet of a portion of your life. While the rings play in order, there is no way, unfortunately, to decide which memory, which aliveness experience you will visit."

A shiver past by Harry again, and for a mo he thought he felt the breath of expiry 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 string ; when I was with Greg, just when… just when…"

"I understand."Dumbledore sighed. He stood and walked back to the device. He waived his wand and uttered an incantation and the pack stopped running up the staircase, and fell wherever they were in the cycle."I wish your memories could be happier, Harry. I would hate to see you as a tottering old man, sitting down in a dusty office wondering if you could risk reliving the catastrophe that grasping a few annulus might work. Fawkes quietly vocalized his agreement, as Dumbledore slipped his scepter away and placed his hand on Harry's shoulder."I know you have been chosen, Harry. But you need not set 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 bright blue sky eyes,"it's the paths 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 decently affair to do. Lucius Malfoy is going to use this to try and sweep the dark back across this demesne, and I won't let him."Harry's own eyes were cutthroat with decision and defiance."I've been training with Ronan."Harry paused."Are Centaurs wizard ?"

"Very much so, Harry,"said Dumbledore with a smile."It is folly for adept to conceive they are the most muscular creatures on this earth. You know, of trend, centaur have keen sight and are skilled with a bow, but these things are forcible skills that many wizards dismiss. Ahh… not so, Harry… not so. Why do you call back a centaur never misses his target ?"Harry shrugged."Because a skilled Centaur can follow the arrow all the way to its name and address, nudging its flight along the way. They can bend space and time, Harry. Even while wiz are unable to Apparate on Hogwarts grounds, Ronan can disappear and reappear wherever he pleases simply by using his mind."

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

Dumbledore said zippo. Harry could separate by his expression that he was impressed, or surprised, but the old whiz made no word of it. Instead he stood from his chair and walked over to his scope.

"They are lots better shop steward of such skill than wizards would ever be,"the age wizard whispered, looking down into the lens of the telescope. The instrument was fixed on the luck of the sky through which the comet Ebyrth was now passing. Harry no longer needed a telescope to see the comet's bright ass.

"It is not your war, Harry,"said Dumbledore still looking into the genus Lens."The Ministry can handle the likes of Lucius and his ilk."He adjusted the centering."They have no strength in turn, no allies for support, no sanctuary in which to hide. It's only a matter of time."

"Then why oasis't they been caught ?"asked Harry."It's been months, and nothing."

"Lucius is no fool,"answered Dumbledore."He'll remain hidden for as long as possible and only hit when he thinks he can win."The wizard looked up."He can't win, Harry."But Harry wasn't so certainly. He turned his vertebral column on Dumbledore and walked over to Guy Fawkes, stroking the bird's plume. Harry didn't love how to bring in it up, but he had to ask.

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

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

"A… A Horcrux."

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

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

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

Dumbledore finally quieted them all by threatening to take down a sheet of darkness. His font was tomb, almost pale and the feel of his spokesperson was filled with great business. Harry knew at once that whatever a Horcrux was, it was dark magic, but then… did he gestate otherwise ?

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

"Well… I… I heard that…"He stalled and then turned back to human face Dumbledore. How could he bed how one employed a Horcrux if he didn't even live what one was ?"prof, what is a Horcrux ?"Dumbledore walked back to the silver car that was now silence on the table. He tapped it with his verge and the silver mob began to roll again. He took a ring and held it in his hand for but a moment when he laughed and placed it back along its way.

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

"prof ?"

"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 orderliness of the Phoenix soon after. Since then, she's been our warm ally against the darkness."This new news had Harry's forefront spinning just a bit. He'd always assumed…. Dumbledore turned back to the silver car."Can you think what it would be like if professor McGonagall did not induce the remembering of the murder of her husband ?"

"I… I suppose she'd be happy."

"But she is happy, Harry. Certainly, if you were to ask, she would care that he was still at her side, but she is very happy."Dumbledore's mitt squeezed the wooden table and he drew in a deep breath. When he turned to reckon back into Harry's eyes, his human face was life-threatening and his own optic derriere."What I'm about to tell you, Harry, is not supposed to leave this room."Harry glanced toward the door as if there might be someone there."Harry, I know with whom you would care to share. You should make love that it is proscribe. I would not even speak of it with you, had you not brought it up first. Do I accept your word ?"

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

"Imagine for a moment that I could split up you into three people. Not copies mind you, but three distinct portion of your very essence… your person. One would stay with the body you now possess ; the other two would be put away for storage you might say. If you, the parting of you that inhabits the body you now have, were to die, one of the early portion would look for out another consistency to inhabit… to control. You, percentage of you, would populate again."

"portion of me ?"

"The portion that you hid away."Again Dumbledore turned to the machine on the table."The mess of hoop that you see in front man of me here, Harry, is orotund than your was. Why ?"

"You have more memories, more experiences."

"Precisely ! But a rip soul would only study with it portions, apparition of the memories the original somebody carried. Imagine, my boy, if you had to choose… what helping of your soul would you carve away ? What character of you would remain ? There are many choice. You could chip at out the bad memories, perhaps the death of Greg Goyle, and go on believing that he had never died ? But then, what would happen if you were to die, and the Horcrux storing only the bad memory board was released ? What sort of sour somebody would stay on ?

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

"And it's not just computer storage, Harry. It's also the marrow of who we are, what we have become, both good and malevolent, darkness and light. A genius must decide how to separate each slice of joy and sorrow into tiny man, sprinkling a little bit of everything into each lot of your soul, splintering all you ever were into shard of obnubilate glass that can never really be made whole again. Tell me, Harry, what choice would you cause ?"

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

"No, Harry, nor would I."Dumbledore's shoulder joint drooped slightly as if a bombastic weight sat straight upon them."Thankfully, most wizards and witches would refuse to choose as well. Fewer still know that there is such a path one can learn ; and only the most powerful of those would be able to film it."Suddenly looking quite tired, Dumbledore returned to the chair behind his desk and let out a trench suspiration, closing his middle."The Horcrux is simply the reposition 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 long pause. Harry could hear a telephone number of the portraiture on the wall mumbling to themselves. Clearly they were distressed with the instruction of the conversation, particularly Phineas.

"The diary ?"Harry answered finally, his voice more certain than uncertain, and with each new question the uncertainty vanished."Tom Riddle's diary ? 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 dominate 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 Secrets. I had always assumed he had divided himself in two. Who would risk fracturing themselves more than once ?"Dumbledore chuckled to himself grimly."Who indeed ?"Then he turned back to Harry."This news palls the horizon with a new darkness. secern me, Harry, why you believe that somebody is employing a Horcrux because, if someone 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 think what he had felt all summer, what he had felt since returning to Hogwarts, that Voldemort was somehow still alive. But where ? How ? Harry, his oculus sincere, looked back at Dumbledore.

"Sir, I… I can't. I gave my word."Dumbledore's heart 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 be,"Harry said anxiously,"we have to come up it before it's too late."

"Harry,"said Dumbledore with grave concern,"such waters are filled with Grindylows and Inferi."Harry looked at Dumbledore, confused.

"Inf— ?"

"It's far too unsafe for you to begin some journey to research the man for a Horcrux. Voldemort's been to the edge of the globe and beyond ; it could be anywhere. More probably, 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 indigence to implicate your involvement. In fact, it's more to our advantage to keep your epithet completely out of the picture."

Dumbledore breathed in deeply and closed his eyes as he slowly let out his hint."Yes, I think I understand. He didn't just split himself in two. He may not have stopped at three. There's no telling."He walked over and stroked Fawkes'feathering, clearly uncomfortable with what he was about to say."I despise secrets, Harry, but if Voldemort has reanimated he may, once again, have agent working within the school paries. I'm sure enough Lucius does. That we know another Horcrux might exist gives us an sharpness we dare not mislay. Do you have got any idea—"The gong of the great clock struck twice.

"Oh beloved,"said Dumbledore."I've made you late for class."He paused, struggling for the abbreviated of second about what to say next."You honest 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 books and started for category. Just as he was about to wave his hand across the expectant organization doorknob, Dumbledore stopped him.

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

"But that means—"

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

As Harry walked down the corridors toward Defence Against the Dark Arts class, his mind was spinning with the new information and trying to digest everything that Dumbledore has shared with him. Within the walls of Gryffindor. Even though this year scholarly person were free to get into the common Room of any star sign into which they were invited, Harry knew exactly what Dumbledore meant ; he shouldn't trust Gabriella. He pondered how he would hold open Gabriella out of any discussion he might experience with Ron or Hermione concerning the Horcrux. Maybe he was secure off not saying anything to anybody. His concerns about Gabriella faded quickly, however, when arrived late to class and prof Barghouti took ten distributor point 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 category so that he could sit in back. He like the majority of the class wanted to sit in as far away from prof Barghouti as possible. For well-nigh students it was because their prof was a vampire ; Harry simply didn't like him. Every metre Harry looked into his heart he felt that he had to prove himself worthy ; that he was somehow lacking when it came to the Votary. Now, having arrived to division late, Harry had to sit in figurehead next to the only other scholarly person 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 fourth dimension direction.

"Now, as I was saying,"said professor Barghouti with a bit of a drawl that reminded Harry all too often of a cross between Snape and Malfoy,"before we were so rudely interrupted… Occlumency is more art than learned, more nature than fostering. Nonetheless, even the most inept wizard,"he looked at Harry,"can learn to repel at least rudimentary attempts to sink in the mind. Fortunately, about 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 effort to penetrate his partner's mental defences the other will use the proficiency you described in death dark's homework assignment. For those of you who found the assignment to tedious and choose instead to practice Quidditch,"again he looked at Harry,"expect to drop the evening with Madame Pomfrey as she treats your headache."

"But, prof,"complained Hermione while raising her mitt.

"Yes, Ms sodbuster ?"

"What if hoi polloi don't want to have their creative thinker read ? It is, after all, a violation of personal space."

"True, Ms. sodbuster ; it is a violation. But then, so is the Killing scourge and we've learned to fight back ourselves, as best we can, against such an attack. Would you prefer to take in your thinking read freely by Lucius Malfoy's spies ? Have them know your design so that they can drink down you or your jazz unity when you least expect it ?"

"But—"

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

Hermione's lip pursed as she crossed her subdivision. Harry knew that look before. Still, he didn't think that it was such a big flock. 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 arena. 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 directly row of bright, pearly teeth.

Harry turned his desk about and sat diametrical Gabriella. He had let her into his mind many times before. There was something playful, almost erotic about how they would communicate in this way. While she had become quite maven at curling herself around Harry's thoughts, she never went rich than Harry offered. For his percentage, he had never been able to see her opinion unless he opened his own first. They always had to represent in Harry's judgement, and he had never tried to push her away. She was smiling at him, a light in her eyes, as she took his paw in hers. It wasn't until their hired hand touched that his heart skipped. Foremost in his intellect was something he couldn't let her see — his conversation with Dumbledore. His hired hand pulled away ; he couldn't hold back her from sensing his emotions, but he could check her from reading his nous.

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

"Erm… N-nothing,"he answered evasively."I… I mean we already know you can get into my straits. How ‘ tear I try to get into yours first ?"She said naught, trying to put his words in coalition with the touch 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 give it a go without contact."

"You know you can't."

"I can try,"he shot back with a bit of defiance. His voice was heated for no expert reasonableness, and he knew she'd horse sense that as well. If he stayed flustered, she'd be right ; there would be no way for him to arrive close to reading her mind.

Around the class some bookman were having right success than others. Most attempts were fairly hebdomad and were being met by quick repulsions. This resulted in more than a few educatee being knocked backwards out of their electric chair. Ron was popping down on to the ground more sentence than you could throw off a wand at and Barghouti was taking great satisfaction in being able to repel Ron's overture. Just behind Harry, Hermione had teamed with Neville who, at the bit, was trying to penetrate her mind. Avoiding Gabriella's center, Harry took a deep intimation.

"Ready ?"he asked.

"Go tiger,"said Gabriella with a smile.

Harry began to pore as best he could on Gabriella's thoughts, but all he was sensing was the back of his eyelid. Squeezing his eyes closed more firmly, he heard another large thump that he took to be Ron's can once again striking the slating floor. It felt like an eternity, but at some point he could hear Gabriella calling his epithet. Not with her sassing, but with her thinker. Instead of pushing him back, she was trying to coax him in. Even with the help he was finding it extremely difficult to labor his way through the iniquity to her thought process. Not aware that he was now grabbing the edge of the desk with his manus, he redoubled, tripled his travail to push his way in.

Suddenly, there was a jar from behind. 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 mentation and still focused mentally to penetrate Gabriella with all his mightiness, he reached out toward her. She grabbed his hands and when she did the prospect in Harry's mind changed. The auditory sensation was sucked out of the room and all was swarthiness. He had penetrated Gabriella's nous ; but what was this… her memory or something Thomas More ?

The commotion of the class had disappeared and an eery secretiveness surrounded him. He heard first, a hurry of water supply, a drip-drip-drip, a rustling of leaves and then crying… Then the air filled with a musty, wet scent of pine tree and loam… The Forbidden Forest, he knew at once. Slowly, a luminance began to open up before him and he realized that the weeping came from the baby he was holding in his arms. This was no memory ; Harry was himself in this visual sense. He found that his robes were soaked. Both he and the young tike, still less than a year old, looked as if they'd just come from the lake. The babe, glistening wet, was wrapped in dour folds of damp cloth, dripping on his boots. A handwriting touched his shoulder from prat.

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

A boot of fearfulness began to pour itself over Harry. He was cold, shivering, teeth chatter, the child in his sleeve continued to cry out for its mother, but Harry knew that it was a cry that would never be answered. He wanted to scream, to run, but when the baby looked at him his marrow warmed and his resolution strengthened. Slowly Harry's finger brushed the fry's cheek.

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


Harry thrower and the Birth of a New Sun

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

freshwater bass throb, drawing string reverberating, the lot was trashy and Harry was not feeling all that well. He slumped back, sinking into the turgid, overstuffed chairman and rubbed his synagogue. Why did he let Ron and James Byron Dean challenge him into a drinking duel upstairs ? The Quidditch compeer against Hufflepuff was tomorrow and he swore he wouldn't take a sip. But then Ron convinced him that they were two-hundred gunpoint ducky over their Sister house and why not celebrate… a little ? It was Halloween after all ; their finish at Hogwarts.

Feeling a bit drunk, he then had let Neville convince him to eat far too much during the feast. Why not ? It was, after all, their last Halloween together. And then when he had stepped outside for some bracing 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 vocalisation was more charitable than chiding as she set her hand upon his shoulder. She had tried this approach 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 bed. That was just what Hermione did. She wanted to solve a problem that she didn't understand and not knowing the resolution was driving her mad. Nonetheless, after her protestations, Harry had simply rolled his eyes and shrugged his articulatio humeri.

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

"You need to distinguish her what you saw,"Hermione had said, stepping in more closely to Harry, but his mind had grown foggier than ever. Instead of being refreshed by the Nox air, he was just cold and drunk. He shook his oral sex, disagreeing with Hermione, unceremoniously pushing her entitle hand away, and had wandered, stumbling a bit, back into the dancing, where he had found the decent cushy death chair he now was melting into. Frustrated, Hermione had left his side before he entered the Great mansion, and he was thankful for that. Rubbing his temples, Harry considered the new birdsong. Yes, the band was very trashy, but everyone was having a swell time.

The Great Hall was dark save for the spots that bathed the band in an eery orange and imperial luminance. Now and then a row of candles burning at the front line of the point would flash bright, sparkling into the air. It was the exclusively time you could make much of anything out, except when a professor's sceptre grew shiny, lighting up two snogging students typically in a darkened street corner covered by the fog that floated some three feet off the story.

Harry was surprised to see Patrick dancing with a thirdly year little girl from Slytherin, if you could name his gyrations dancing. The lad was flailing his weapon system and pounding his foundation ; Harry expected to see him smiling, but Patrick didn't seem too pleased with it. Ron was nowhere to be seen, which put a momentaneous smirk on Harry's face, for it was Harry who had won their former bet. He smiled even more broadly, thinking that Ron would receive to go three nighttime straight without wearing any windsock. There was another bright flash and he caught sight of Gabriella passing by James II Chang as she entered the Great Hall. heart blurred, Harry thought she had been carrying something, but couldn't make out what it was before the way went blue again. His breadbasket churned ; he did not feel well at all. A moment later she was at his English with a Harlan Stone mug in her hand, steam boiling out the top and rolling down over her hired 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 intelligence she was saying, and squished in next to him on the oversize cushion. Harry took a tentative sip. Feeling her warmth next to his, Harry was sure she had been praising him for drinking Ron and dean under the table. There was another flash of flicker and he noticed a few of the younger educatee including James I and St. Patrick were leaving. He looked back down into his mug, mustered up the braveness and swallowed down the rest. The effect was nearly immediate. The nausea passed and his visual modality began to make. He was feeling better, but he was growing tired. When he set the mug down, Gabriella took him by the hands.

"You did a wonderful job helping Professor Flitwick with the decorations. The Hydra that kept swallowing first old age was quite creative."

"A Slytherin inspired me,"replied Harry, smiling back at her now that the ringing was leaving his ear. He glanced over at the Hydra that was over in the nook of the Great Hall. The few first year educatee that remained were still lining up to be swallowed by the vauntingly, grayish creature with fierce xanthous middle. Once swallowed, students were transported to the nominal head of the point where the stria was playing. It was the only when way the jr. students could make their way to the front end of the legion that crushed up against the microscope stage. If they were lucky, they got to sing with the isthmus. If they weren't, the older students would toss them to the spinal column of the crowd. This late, it became more a game than anything else with first years finding some sorting of treat or concoction from Fred and George II's shop in their pockets by the clock time they were flung out of the crowd.

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

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

Harry was suddenly spooky, remembering where he was and what he had done last year at Allhallows Eve. At first he tried to look away, but he could sense Gabriella's Shirley Temple Black oculus penetrating his feelings, so he turned to her and stress to change the subject to something he knew she wouldn't want to mouth about, especially not here.

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

At best it was difficult to take heed, and with the longsighted pause and total lack of reaction on Gabriella's part, Harry wondered if she'd even heard him. He tried to reiterate himself.

"I said, Hermione thinks—"

"I know what Hermione thinks,"Gabriella snapped."AND I know what YOU think."She let go of Harry's hands and crossed her sleeve and peg. Her oculus were not angry, they were sad, almost frightened.

"I didn't mean to—"

"You just don't understand, Harry."Her jaw was set as they watched another number one year go flying off the stage and be thrown to the back of the Great manor hall, 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 other ! ?"

Harry was taken aback. He didn't expect that she'd want to peach at all about it. His middle darted toward the antechamber off the Great Hall. No one could get in there save professors ; yet prof Dumbledore had taken Harry there the twelvemonth before and he remembered how to get in. Still he hesitated, but then his pith began to race a bit, thought process of the hypothesis. It was dark ; if they stayed close to the rampart no one would see them err behind the stage.

"Well ?"Gabriella called out.

Harry took her head and nodded for her to follow. It wasn't easy making it to the wall, but the crowd was focused on a particularly scream song by the lead singer with basso promissory note that pounded the story and tossed tribe off their feet. Undetected, Gabriella and Harry slipped into the side room and the euphony instantly fell away. The hall was dimly lit by the fond glowing of the open fireplace and a handful of lit candela. Beyond that there wasn't another spliff of furniture in the place. Harry paused, thinking about the right field 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 mind, but being in this particular room on this finical Nox caused retention of Cho to cannonball along over him. His emotions were combine between excitement and business. He hadn't heard from Cho since schoolhouse let out and when Gabriella offered to visit Cho at her domicile, Mrs. Chang Jiang said that she had gone to the United States Department of State and wouldn't be back for the rest of summertime. The only 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 respectable and well-chosen and that they'd be seeing a lot more of each other after he graduated.

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

"Who ?"asked Gabriella, a bit confused.

"Cho. Only Anthony seems to have intercourse 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 concern for Cho was odd, out of stead. Why here ? Why now ? Still, it was somehow heart-warming, and she took his work force again as they sat down together by the fire.

"If something was damage, we would have heard,"she said comfortingly."If anything, Anthony's filled with pride and happiness. I can sense it. He feels as if he's doing something tremendously important. Is it so bad if he won't part ? Why ?"She smiled devilishly."Are you jealous ?"Gabriella pinched Harry's side and made him yip.

Harry put on his best Bogart impersonation."These eyes are only super acid for you, sweetheart."

He leaned over and kissed Gabriella hard against the lips. It had been ages since they had been truly alone together, and she pressed her lips firmly back against his. Her blazonry wrapped around his back and she pulled him slopped to her breast. His hands slipped to the warm, soft flesh of her paunch. persuasion of Centaur visions slipped past both their minds in favour of former, more pleasurable, activities.

Later, as Harry was tying up the lacing of his trainer, he realized how artfully Gabriella had managed to keep him from asking her about the vision they'd seen. She kissed him one last time as he reached for the knob on the door that led back out to the Great Hall. There was still a throng 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 movement of the castle. It was well past tense midnight, but there were still a few dyad huddled together, watching the night sky. It was the most spectacular Halloween Harry could remember. The asterisk were brainy, but then he saw it. His gaze froze and his smile fell.

"What ? What's the subject, Harry ?"Gabriella placed her hand against the side of Harry's face 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 and patted his back, saying zip. Harry sighed deeply."I… I just don't get it."

"What ?"

"I don't see how it can turn practically brighter. I see it during the day now."

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

"Where's the war ? I don't know why things haven't started already,"said Harry, but then a deep, scratchy spokesperson broke the dark's lifelessness.

"What makes you think they haven't ?"

Both Gabriella and Harry jumped. It was prof Barghouti. The minute the other brace saw him they began to scramble up the fronts steps of the castling, constantly casting backward coup d'oeil to make sure he wasn't following them, and occasionally reaching for their neck as if to reassure themselves that they hadn't been bitten. Harry forced himself to recover 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 sojourn with a werewolf,"he answered."Only fitting, don't you think ?"He laughed at his own caper and while Gabriella laughed as well, Harry was having none of it.

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

"Harry !"Gabriella snapped.

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

"Dakhil !"chided Gabriella. Barghouti merely chuckled again and the teeth became straight and pearly gabardine.

"You may not see it, boy,"said Barghouti, tapping Harry across the aspect with his large hand,"but your war has begun. Does that shit you feel better ?"Harry's centre were incredulous.

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

"The Centaur of the Great Forest are not the sole Centaurs in the world, boy. And, as a lot as you might wish to believe that England is the centre of the world, it is but a very small part 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 long grimace now ?"

"Because, oh chosen one,"Barghouti sneered,"your Friend Lucius Malfoy has enlisted the assist of vampires and hence his pick of first smasher - the Carpathians. Only they're not just killing Centaur, they're wiping out anything and anyone in their path - all of them Muggles. A whole village was destroyed. The Muggle papers are reporting that the devastation was due to a gas explosion."A burst of air popped between his lips."I must take back to Singehorn for a few days. I fear my old friend may move to intervene and reprize old mistake. professor Dumbledore has been informed and professor Lupin will take aid of my classes."

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

"You wish to redeem the world, boy ?"Barghouti snapped, spinning back upon Harry. He was clearly angry, as if Harry had started the unit thing ; as if Harry had placed the comet in the heavens himself."Why don't you try saving this school first ? Why don't you try saving THEM ?"His hand shot out toward the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree that surrounded the school ; all was darkness. Harry squinted, which only made Barghouti all the more worsen.

"rich person you learned NOTHING ?"he cried. There was a small squeal from one of the remaining scholar near the castle doors who quickly ran inside, slamming the room access behind her."Can you not SEE ?"

Harry looked again into the darkness, squinting. Then he remembered. He took a bass breath and closed his centre. Then, he reached out with his judgment toward the timber. As Dakhil had shown him before, all livelihood things began to appear before him - the grass, pubic hair, and Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree all glowed brightly. He scanned further out and then saw it : a Centaur some ten K into the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, bow in hand. gesture to the right caught his visual sense again - another Centaur, another bow. Harry continued to scan. Every thirty to fifty thousand another Centaur stood guard, watching over the shoal 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 Centaurs can smell the iniquity, fool. It is already upon you. You would be Wise to get hold its source before it swallows you whole."In a convolution he disappeared before Harry had a luck to say another give-and-take. The sound of flapping wing, faded to nothingness. What he noticed, after the detritus settled, was that Gabriella's fingers were digging into the mild 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 Centaur. She took a step behind Harry, almost as if using him as a carapace against the dark, and then pulled him toward that castling doors.

"Let's go inside,"she breathed.

"They're protecting us, Gab,"said Harry, trying to calm her nerve."They won't hurt you. They would never hurt you."Her eyes never left the forest and, if anything, the veneration that filled the black puddle of her centre slipped toward wrath.

"Now."

Harry sighed and nodded his heading."Alright,"he acquiesced, and followed her up the stairs, noting that she was ever certain to proceed his body between her and the darkness of the forest. When the door finally closed behind them, he could see the weight lift from her shoulder and the rilievo feast across her face. She leaned back against the doors, placing her workforce over her look. Harry stepped near, touching her shoulder joint softly.

"infant, what is it ?"he asked."What's faulty ?"The hands upon her facial expression began to tremble and tears began to streak down her cheeks, one by one, but she would not cry, not out tawdry. Slowly, her eyes turned to the side to look at Harry. He'd seen that look when Gabriella lost her begetter, Grigor. It was a look of doubtfulness, of reverence, of death. Without saying a word, she shook her principal and turned to walk away. She'd gone only a few paces before Harry called her to block up, but she wouldn't listen. She past the Edward Durell Stone column and began to head down to the keep, to the entering of Slytherin. Her foot did not make the first of all 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 unloosen script came up under Harry's cervix and he was out coldness 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 move, in some room, well lit by Aaron's rod. The walls were Stone, and along their top was a crown-moulding made of oak. Along its face, every few ft, was engraved a ophidian's head.

"Slytherin,"Harry hissed.

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

"how-do-you-do, Teddy,"Harry said, knowing Nott hated the name. Harry was not surprised to find Crabbe at Nott's side."Taken to abduct now ? A gradation up from watching murder I suppose."

"Just gathering road-kill, Potty,"Nott retorted."A trivial bird told me you'd been drinking… a bit too lots. conceive of my surprise when I found you passed out on the steps to Slytherin."Nott stepped stuffy."Were you trying to find oneself your dead on target love ?"Harry said nothing."I can find you a mirror if you'd like."

"I see you found yours,"Harry smirked, tossing his promontory in Crabbe's counseling. Crabbe took more offence than Nott and kicked Harry in the side. The blow was arduous and a fit of air barb from Harry's mouthpiece.

"Why don't you untie me Crabbe, and then let's see how brave you are ?"Harry's eye were on attack. 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 worldly concern will do without its torpedo. How ever will we get on… once you're dead ?"Harry's eyes narrowed on Nott. Crabbe's center darted nervously toward Nott.

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

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

"Did you screw ?"asked Nott, ignoring Harry's doubtfulness and Crabbe's awe."Malfoy's enlisted over two dozen lamia and Sir Thomas More are joining every day. They're crushing everything in their path, 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."Funny thing, vampire. When they're pierced, their vampire shell sheds away and for a second they're who they once were, the rabies gone."Harry looked up at the green ceiling."I like to think that in that moment, goodness had a chance to rush in and fill their mortal once more. They have a chance to be saved."

"Rubbish,"gibe Nott, believing more than than disbelieving.

"Yes,"said Harry still looking upward."Vampires, at least, have a second chance."He turned to front Nott."You on the other hand… I suppose you'll rot for all eternity."Crabbe's face was white, but Nott's was flushed with anger and frustration. It was his turn to kick Harry hard in the gut. It was all Harry could do not to vomit.

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

"Bloody hell ! I knew it !"

A flash of red whisker told Harry at once who had just entered the room. Ron was breathing hard, his wand drawn, but his paw was shaking noticeably, not because he was scared or winded, but because he'd had too much to drink. Harry could make out a flash of special K gown behind him ; he assumed it was Gabriella which, with Ron in his present precondition, he was thankful for. Both Nott and Crabbe turned toward Ron still standing at the room access, wands drawn.

"How'd you find this spot, Weasley ?"spat Nott.

"A little bird told him,"said the voice behind Ron. It wasn't Gabriella, it was James Chang Jiang ; Harry's apprehension began to raise once more. There wasn't much of a probability if Ron couldn't wrench it together… and quickly. The second yr who had freely chosen to be in Slytherin this semester stepped in front line of Ron with his verge drawn.

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

"Obliviate !"chanted James, casting a magical spell well beyond his years. A fusillade of orange visible radiation erupted from his baton throwing both Nott and Crabbe against the bulwark, knocking them unconscious, and wiping their head of late memories. The strength of the Obliviate spell determined how much computer memory was removed. Normally, a s class wouldn't even be able to cast the while, but Harry was sure that the gist would be lasting.

Ron released Harry from his ties while James bound his two house Brother."They'll be the ones missing the mate tomorrow,"he whispered with a smile pursing his lips.

Rising to his feet, Harry felt a little dizzy, the nausea once again returning, and had to lean on Ron for support. He looked over at James, wanting to thank him for his avail, but more funny about the charm.

"St. 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 blazon.

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

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

They made their way up a contract row of Harlan Fiske Stone steps that opened out on the Slytherin common room. Harry hadn't been here since he was a first gear year. James and St. Patrick nonchalantly split away from the mathematical group to speak to some former second days that had just returned from the even's party while Gabriella walked Harry and Ron out. The three began their trek up to the Gryffindor tower. By the sentence they made it to the tower, Harry was feeling much serious and it was Ron that was leaning on Harry and Gabriella.

"I hope James blasted Nott's memory to the Oliver Stone Age,"said Ron.

"No you don't,"answered Harry coolly, recalling his conversation with Dumbledore about the Horcruxes."Two age ago I think he might have taken this probability to kill me, just to prove himself to his Father of the Church and the other Death Eaters. Tonight, he was just a bag wide-cut 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 change state you over to them… to the Death feeder. He might not induce delivered the blow, Harry, but he still would have been dancin'on your grave."

"James told you that ?"asked Gabriella."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 castling surrounded."

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

"Ron,"she said,"you go on in. I need to mouth 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 ?"

"Toffee dip,"said Harry and the painting swung spread out and Ron stumbled through. Before it shut, he looked back at the two, pointing his finger in no particular direction and excite it."But not too long, P-Potter. It'sss game night !"

A few moments 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 walls and floor were now immaculate, he never liked sitting here, remembering the Dementors that had nearly killed Professor McGonagall the year before. There was a sentience of dying in the air and for a second Harry felt a poise flush swim up his spikelet, whispering death's name. Gabriella held his hand, but would not concur his regard. Instead, she watched their fingerbreadth intertwined and mingling.

"mom has the heap,"she began."You know that, Harry. Me… I can only sense the emotions of others. I can't see the threshold and windowpane that open on to the former planes."

"But—"

"Shhhh."She put one bridge player gently across his sass."Since I was offspring, before I ever went to Al Bsahri, I have had one sight. Sometimes years would fade before it would return, the same scene, over and over. Since we've returned to Hogwarts this twelvemonth, it comes to me nearly every day."She leaned her head against Harry's shoulder."Yesterday, I asked mammy what happened when you and Hermione plunged into the scene that has been playing in my mind without you for so many years."There was a long pause, and Harry could pick up laughter coming from way down the staircases below ; it died away.

"And ?"he asked, nudging Gabriella along.

"A vision from another plane is like a finely cut jewel, a diamond with many facet. One can face in and see different paradigm from all slant. You and Hermione became part of my vision and somehow shared it from your own position. We all saw the Saame thing, but all differently. And what we each saw can mean different things."

"Then why don't you want to—"

"No visual modality is perfect, Harry ; and, like time-turners, there are also formula about looking into the hereafter. Most would make alteration based on the imperfect knowledge they see, often changes that lead to more devastating event. Only the best, those like mommy, have any Hope of moving the Amandine Aurore Lucie Dupin of sentence to shape the issue of the other airplane. Others go mad trying to vary what n-never was to c-come."She began to tremble as she delivered the last discussion and in the silence that followed Harry felt a teardrop drop onto his forearm. He put his arm around her and held her blind drunk.

"Gabriella,"he asked,"what is it ? You need to lift this weighting from off your person. I swear I won't do anything to alter the future."Her heart met his ; she did not consider him, so he repeated himself more forcefully."I swear on my parents that I won't do anything to interchange the time to come. Please, secernate me what you saw."Again there was another silence, and then Gabriella squeezed Harry's deal. Finally, not looking into Harry's oculus, she began to whisper.

"It begins with a flash of light, a fervour erupting from a glistening emerald lake. We are surrounded by them. There is a scream and then silence. And then there is me… face down in the tall grass. I… I am dead, Harry. Buried deep in my back is the long wooden pointer of a Centaur."


Harry Potter and the Birth of a New Sun

Chapter 12 - Blind Fortune
~~~***~~~

The air was warm for fall, yet the sky was a laboured gray. Flying with the charms of his Caduceus P2 off, Harry could palpate the wetness in the air. He knew it would rain soon and that, more than anything else, focused his energies on finding the stoolie. It had been hard concentrating. Last year, Ron had lost Harry's Calluna vulgaris when he had been attacked flying into the Burrow. So this year he was riding the tardy model of Caduceus, the new P2, P for thrower. Cleansweep was paying him a little fortune to use his name for their new broom, monies that Harry was using to help the families who had lost loved 1 in the war. That didn't seem to count much. Even his own theatre was ribbing him for the stigmatisation of his figure and it didn't assist that smack in the center of the visitors stand was a ten foot by twenty foot crystalline portraiture of Harry flying the new broom and waving at the crowd. Every so often run-in would appear : The Caduceus P2. So flying it'll blow the competition away. It was a swordplay on the story run by the Daily oracle about Harry's licking of Voldemort. The story said that the spell Harry cast was so knock-down, 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 nihility that remained after the floor of the decease sleeping room fell away, swallowing unharmed the Curtain of Phenolem and the dais upon which it stood. Harry glanced again at the huge sheet of quartz, his own double smiling back at him and waiving, and shook his read/write head to clear his thoughts.

He'd been distracted all day and most folks thought it had to do with first game jitter. He was Gryffindor's Quidditch Captain this year and nearly everyone believed it a folly determination. Since the attack on the train, the whole shoal knew that he was going to be fighting the Dementors when the war with the Centaurs came. How could anyone focus on training their team with a burden like that on their shoulders ? Indeed, even Professor McGonagall thought that Ron Weasley might draw the honest choice ; she told Harry so.

"If I can't have got your head on the biz, you're no use to the team, Mr. Potter,"she had said in trust."Ron Weasley bleeds Quidditch and his mind is sharp when it comes to analyzing the other team'weaknesses."Harry had nodded and had turned to leave 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 doubt is — can you keep 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 bettor in northern Britain when it comes to keeping a Quaffle from skewering the rings. Dennis Creevey is the fast in all Hogwarts and is starting to come up with plays I could never daydream of. Jack Sloper's put on XXX punt since last class and he can knock a fairy off a fencepost at fifty time. Slytherin was the just team that had a prayer to outfox us, but with Malfoy gone they don't have a luck. The team doesn't need me to lead them ma'am. Anyone can channelise us to the cup."McGonagall looked at Harry over the top of her meth.

"Is that so ?"she had asked."Well then, Mr. potter, I suppose you'll do then. I want the team roster, to let in the role player replacing Katie at pursuer, and the hebdomadally recitation schedule by tomorrow first light. And, to observe you motivated since this will be such an well-fixed year, let's say that if we don't win every game by more than one-hundred fifty spot, you'll be back in my office on Sundays for detention."

"But—"

"Three time of day, each week. Good-day, Mr. Potter."

Harry had thought the challenge simple enough, but sorting out the team proved more hard than he expected. They couldn't find a trade good pursuer and when jemmy Peakes tried out for Beater he played ferociously, unseating Hooper from the team. Finally, Harry selected Demelza Robins as pursuer, if for no former rationality than she was particularly expert at dodging Bludgers. The shambling caused a lot of growing pains and hurt flavour, but after three workweek of practice Harry was positive once again that the team could not be defeated.

Now, flying high over the pitch, Harry wasn't so indisputable. Trying to ignore his own face, he glanced at the scoreboard to get Gryffindor up by forty which, as far as Harry was concerned, was pathetic. They should deliver been clobbering Hufflepuff from the outset, but Ron was letting nearly every Quaffle through. Having heard that the coach of the Magpies, Bernard Bennegin, was coming specifically to reconnoiter Ron's performance he was a nervous wreck. To relieve oneself affair forged he was suffering from a hangover and was having difficulty seeing the Quaffle, let alone stopping it. The only in force news was that jimmy and jackfruit were keeping the Bludgers off the team while Dennis and Demelza were scoring nearly at will. Ginny could have been too, but she was so engaged yelling at Ron for being such a git she hadn't scored a single end.

Harry scanned the skies once more, searching for the fink. 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 make lost. It was then Harry turned off the charms of his Calluna vulgaris, hoping that he might better smell the Snitch's localisation. Suddenly, the yellow side of meat of the rake erupted in cheer ; Hufflepuff had scored. Harry forced himself not to look at the scoreboard. He had to remain alert, but before you could say snicklfritz the crew erupted again - another score for Hufflepuff. Finally, Harry called timeout.

The team gathered over by Ron whose pinna were flaming red with overplus. Ginny began to shoot down into her sidekick.

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

"hang on !"Harry interrupted."We're not here to defend with each early ; we're here to find a way to win."

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

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

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

"Ron, they're constantly feinting right and shooting left. If you move eminent in the air and keep place just a little long, you'll stop them. Ginny, we could use a lilliputian to a greater extent of your attention on the Hufflepuff slope of the field. Dem, they're starting to overtake on to Harry's first few plays."His middle dotted to Harry who nodded in agreement."I think we should move on to what he was showing us in conclusion weekend."

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

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

"Jack, Jimmy, you guys have been unflawed. Just keep the Bludgers off our rear and we'll score for sure."Then Dennis looked at Harry."Harry, I don't blame 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 need the canary today, and if Summerby sees it again we've lost. Are you with us ?"

Harry had to smile at the new general on the field."Our own little Napoleon,"he thought. Madame hootch blew the pennywhistle for play to resume. Hufflepuff broke their scrummage and began to fly into position. Harry looked down on the pitching below. There was nothing he loved more in the Earth than flying.

"I'm with you,"he said with confidence."Summerby won't have a chance. I swear."Harry guess into locating 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 pursue the appealingness of his broom.

Dennis had been right. Over the following XL arcminute or so, Ron had blocked six straight Hufflepuff try while the Gryffindor Chasers had scored four time. Still, they would need the Snitch. He flew over by the Slytherin tie-up and get a line a handful of snort, and one cheer.

Harry could think of few Hogwarts women besides Gabriella Darbinyan able to withstand the taunts and jeers of Slytherin for being Harry's lady friend. Of course of instruction, there were no taunts or scoff, because all of Slytherin was deathly afraid of Gabriella. Perhaps because she came from a school known for its wickedness magic, but more because any comment usually meant the commenter had a one-way slate to the hospital flank. 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's breadth. The gesture and the gasp of the crew told him at once that the stool pigeon had been seen. He spun to see Summerby plunging toward the sward at the north end of the sales pitch. Below him was a glint of gold, racing low and heading toward the visitors'base. Summerby was ahead by at least 50 beat when Harry began to file.

"You bloody imbecile !"Harry cursed at himself as he clenched his teeth."You flobberworm sucking idiot !"The wind roared furiously at his human face. The fink was flying low to the turf and Harry could see that it would have to wrench or rise once it hit the viewpoint on the opposite slope of the pitch. Even as in effect a handbill as Summerby was, he would not reach the stoolpigeon until it hit the bulwark. Harry leaned forward, accelerating his Scots heather."It will grow,"Harry whispered to himself, focusing wholly on the Au world that was coming closer."It will rise."He chose to fly the straight line to intercept the Snitch where he thought it would be. If the sneak turned left or right at the wall, Summerby would give it before Harry could react. If the canary flew up… Harry groaned. At this focal ratio it was still inconceivable. Harry poured all his energy into making his broom accelerate. The tails of his robe began to tatter in the condemnable malarky and his goggles were pressing hard against his aspect. The press tunnelled his visual sense, but he didn't guardianship. He could still see the golden glint growing larger before him."Faster ! shit it ! Faster !"

The delivery below him was a fog ; the stands faded to dark and all that Harry could see was the lucky Snitch and the trail of yellowness that followed it -- the track of yellow that Harry was passing. Faster ! A sheet of majestic — the visitor'stands. The prosperous snitch flying upward. Yes !
Harry's fingers pressed firmly against the fly Snitch when he heard the shriek of terror. They conflicted with his own sentience of joy.

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

Waking, and still feeling a bit foggy, the commencement affair Harry recognized was the sound of plastic being unwrapped, torn and then crumpled. The rhythmic mastication that followed told him at once that Ron was nearby. Harry smiled. He tried to spread out his middle, but couldn't. He leaned to his right-hand side and felt a dull ached that ran up the remaining half of his body. With his veracious paw he felt the sheets about his breast, the pillow behind his head, the bandages that wrapped his face.

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

"Hey, spouse,"Ron added before Harry could answer."Erm.. don't worry ; Madame Pomfrey will let you back to new in… in no time."The interpreter had a bit of a tremor in it and it wasn't because a chocolate frog found its way down the wrong organ pipe.

"That's right,"added Hermione with a stiff and unnatural tonicity. And then vocalisation, heaps of vocalism it seemed to Harry, added their agreement.

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

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

A number of folks touched Harry's thoroughly arm. He felt of few kiss against his cheek. He heard a few cheery auf wiedersehen 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 handwriting once more. With his sore arm Harry reached up to pry off the bandage that wrapped about his face, just to hold a peak.

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

okay. So he had been growing more and more apprehensive since he first became witting. And the bandages were starting to freak him out… just a bit. Something in the cover of his mind had said the countersign, but he had pushed it back down. Only job was… the iniquity recess of Harry's idea were shouting now.

"See again ?"he asked."What the perdition does that think ? I… I'm subterfuge ?"he asked weakly. Madame Pomfrey let out a tremendous sigh.

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

"It was the lechatelierite portraiture, Harry,"Gabriella said sadly."You slammed right through it, sending splinters of glass everywhere. They shattered your goggles and your… your…"

"Your heart were shredded, Mr. ceramist,"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 days, Harry,"said Gabriella, another shudder of sadness cracked her voice. Harry reached up and touched the bandages wrapping his face.

"Mr. potter,"snapped Madame Pomfrey."If you keep touching your wrapper you'll assuredly disturb their charms ! I will not have you go blind ! Do you get word me ! If you keep moving your arms I will immobilize them."Her representative was husky. She'd been crying ; Harry could tell. The sadness in the way was almost flood out. Finally, he turned his forefront in the centering of Gabriella.

"Did we win ?"he asked.

"What ?"she replied, still dazed.

"Did we win ?"he repeated."I did watch 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 outburst open.

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

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

"Blimey, Harry,"he began,"it was amazing. There you two were, screaming across the rake 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 ground, his robes flicking up dehydrated grass and tossing it into the air. The blowing dust made it appear as if his broom was on flame.

"I thought for sure we'd lost, when you spun over and started closing in from on high. The snitcher was flying just to my right and I could ingest sworn there were electric arc flying out the fundament of your broom. It was glowing red. Heading toward the point of view, it was clear you were going to pass Summerby, but you were too high ; everyone could see that. But it didn't topic. No one has ever seen someone fly that fast at Hogwarts… ever ! Crimey, maybe in all Great Britain !

"When you passed Summerby, I thought you'd dive to deflect the stands, to grab the fink that was still screaming low to the ground. But you didn't ; you stayed straight on. When the Snitch darted up toward you…"Ron sighed in ecstasy."It was a miracle, mate. Like you were calling out to it and it obeyed. Pop ! rightfulness into your mitt."There was a prospicient pause."It's when everyone's eyes popped up with the Snitch we saw what was going to bump. That's when the wow began."Ron walked over next to Harry's bed."Summerby smashed into the funding down low. Broke his leg and lost a span teeth. He got out of the hospital yesterday. You… you…"Ron swallowed hard.

"You held on, Paraguay tea. Yeah, we won, alright."Ron patted Harry on the chest of drawers."Best damn seeker in all Britain."

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

"Well, now,"Ron answered,"I know you've had your fair parcel, Harry, but I still think Victor can wield a shot to the foreland with a Bludger better than you."

"That's because there's naught up there to anguish,"added Gabriella.

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

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

When the room access 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 consecrate them sentence to heal. The wrapper will stay on for at least three hebdomad. Your lids will be sealed longer still. Even when you can open your optic, Harry, I don't defendant you'll see Sir Thomas More than shades of Light Within and iniquity. Once we know what you can and can't see, healer Sventstein can get down making the proper corrections. You'll have to be affected role, my dear, very patient."

He could hear her folding some composition, putting shabu away he thought, and then she stepped over to the side of the room and swarm something into a spyglass or goblet.

"I need you to booze this,"she said, helping him sit up and enclose his hands around the cup. He winced when she held his give arm."Yes, the unanimous left side of your body was pretty often ground beef kernel. We've summoned out all the ice shards we can. There may be a few that aren't responding. I'll work on that more tomorrow."She sounded tired, so Harry decided not to argue about the drink and swallowed it down in one foresightful draught. The pain running down his side ebbed away and the apprehension about his vision faded. Soon he was asleep.

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

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

"Sothis ?"Harry asked to the darkness, reaching out and touching Sirius'face.

"Afraid so,"Harry's godfather responded."I was in the area ; thought I'd halt in."Harry began to prompt forward.

"Hold on ! Hold on !"Dog Star stopped Harry from running into the taper hovering at his bedside."Let's er… let's get you back in bed."Sirius helped Harry climb into bed and pulled the sheets back over him."There, that's better."He patted Harry's serious leg and remained standing at his bedside.

"What time is it ?"Harry asked.

"Not quite three in the morning."

"Three in the morning ?"He paused, rising up on his articulatio cubiti and looking about the room."Anyone else here ?"

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

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

"Yeah,"agreed Sirius smartly."That's what I hear."Harry could hear Sothis slump back into his chair and sigh."I have to admit, Harry, that was the fastest I've ever seen a broom fly, and I've seen a few Quidditch matches in my day. When you hit that damn portrait with your picture on it, the thing exploded. It was like a giant lechatelierite firework. And that you still held onto the Snitch… well, it's been all over the papers. virtually figure you broke the record, but the family from Cleansweep want you to come up out and perform a fly-off against Comet — twenty G galleons to the winner's charity."Harry turned on his incline, his back toward Sothis.

"Like that's ever going to pass,"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 screen and I'm… I'm going to stick around blind."

"That's not true, Harry,"began Sirius."Madame Pomfrey—"Harry spun and faced Sirius. Dog Star didn't need to see Harry's eyes to know the facial expression he was getting right now. He sighed."Ten percentage is not nada percentage,"he whispered.

"Yeah, right,"Harry replied and dropped back down again. Likewise, Sirius sunk back into his death chair, crossing his blazon and searching for what to say. There wasn't much he could say. Harry, after all, was rectify. Once a witch or whizz lost their centre there was often petty that could be done—eyes simply prevail too a good deal magic. healer could re-grow many things, but the eyes… the centre, particularly of a mightily beldame or mavin, were nearly impossible to repair. Sirius let out a low groan as the silence stretched between them. After that, the waver of candlelight was the alone noise that accompanied their breathing. At last, it was Sirius who began again, not sure as shooting if Harry was even still wake up. His voice was unsteady, recalling a contribution of his past he had never shared with Harry.

"When I… when I was in Azkaban, there was nothing to see but darkness, nothing to smell but the foetor of death, nothing to get word but the war cry of threnody, cipher to taste but the end of tear that had longsighted since died away, and the only matter one felt was the inhuman breath of despair. What intellectual nourishment they gave us was more like black gruel with a consistency somewhere between mud and slime."Sirius chuckled grimly to himself."When the Dementors departed, leaving this Negroid sludge behind, I would smile. It was the only joy I had, sensing their deviation, knowing that however awful the food was, the vacuum that screamed from my belly would soon be staved for another day. That crusty arena of crap and my pure hatred for Peter Pettigrew were all that kept me alive.

"I never dreamed that one day…"Canicula'voice halted and he had to swallow to foregather himself."That one day… the son of my dearest booster would parlay my ten-percent of zip and carry through me… not from the Dementors of Azkaban… not from the Curtain of Phenolem, but… from myself. I was used up inside, Harry ; a shell of a magician and less a man. You've shown me, even now as swarthiness rushes in toward us, how to live again… how to love again. I'm amazed that today, I once again walk the mansion house of Hogwarts—a free man, not because I'm unloose of the horrors of Azkaban, but because I'm free of the darkness and hatred that once consumed my soulfulness. Because of you, I'm exempt to taste the delicious fruits of lifetime once again."

"Erm, surely you're not referring to your cookery ?"asked Harry, turning back to font Canicula. Because I think you could start your own eatery for Black sludge."

"If I could smack you, I would,"inject Canicula, kicking the place of Harry's bed with his foot, a tear sliding down the face 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 position."I can take you with both eyes tied behind my back !"Harry was smiling as Sirius rose to his animal foot. The older wizard wiped his eyes and then, gently, took Harry's hand in his own.

"You just have to believe that it'll get dependable, Harry. It will. I know it will."The smiling on Harry's face drooped.

"Canicula, if I can't see, I can't battle… I can't fly… I can't…."Harry shook his psyche and then looked toward where he knew Dog Star 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 sentence Dog Star'part was heated."I still wake in the middle of the night grasping for my sail, fearing that it has all been a dream, wondering if in the malarkey of night I'm really still trapped behind the Curtain of Phenolem. One day the nightmare will end ; I know so, because I believe they will. Until they do, I will go to catch some Z's at dark, searching for those dream that will carry me through till dawning.

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

"Yeah, but—"

"And more than that,"Sirius interrupted,"until the day comes when your vision retort, you'll have to encounter a way to see through your blindness."Harry's immediate reaction was to let a salvo of air push through his lips in scoffing dismissal of Sirius'words. He began to fall back into his pillow when he stopped himself and held fast to Sirius'script. To see through sightlessness ? Might it still be possible ?

Not sure what to expect, Harry reached out with his mind as Dakhil had shown him — to see without seeing. Why hadn't he thought of it before ? Almost immediately he could make out the brightness of Sirius before him. It wasn't an image so much as an aura of light that shown bright. Harry leaned forward in his bed. Reaching out further he began to choose in the dim glow of the organic fertiliser life that clung to the walls, roof and floor. Without saying a word he let go of Sirius'hired man and rose out of bed.

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

What Harry was ‘ seeing'wasn't so very much an image as an imprint of all that was around him. It would aim meter to decipher the shapes, chromaticity and intensities. There was a glow coming toward them. Harry pointed at the door.

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

"Harry thrower !"she cried."Get back in bed this instant !"Harry smiled as she reached over to help him, but he moved out of the way before she could reach him.

"I should have got known it was you by your colour,"he said happily."Bright spicy — the color of a healer's spell."He looked back at his godfather."Sothis, you're a bit orange right now. You were brighter a instant ago. What's wrong ?"

"My god,"whispered Dog Star."You can see."


Harry Potter and the Birth of a New Sun

Chapter 13 - The New Addition
~~~***~~~

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

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

"Jump !"

Ronan didn't need to tell him. Harry had already started the leap.

It had been bitterly cold all day, but with all the running Harry was beginning to regret his decision to assume clothes. They were pushing the limit between physical and magical exertion and Harry's base, well clad in a pair of trainer, were on blast. The get off jacket and drawers he was wearing were suffocating and felt like they weighed a thousand Cypriot pound.

Once again he was training with Shahan and feldspar. Over the last few twenty-four hour period, the three had been put though their paces by Ronan, Firenze and others — running, lifting, and shooting arrows from one face of the Forbidden forest to the other. Harry was exhausted — a tactual sensation he was beginning to enjoy. If anything, he preferred to be out in nature.

Still blind, he was developing his limited power to arrive at out and sense the aura of life around him. While he could make stamp about where affair were at Hogwarts, occasionally very clean objects would miss his tending. A group of Slytherin quarter long time had discovered this about a week after Harry had returned from hospital and had taken to conjuring marbles in arena where they knew Harry would be walking. Harry, in act, developed a few spells that helped clear his way. The tinkling of marbles usually meant that a Slytherin was nearby, waiting to catch Harry tumble. But since Harry could respect soul's aura, even through walls, the culprit was usually found fastened to the wall with their underclothing on their forefront and nothing else. It was a page out of what Nott and C. Northcote Parkinson had done to Ron hold up yr and Harry didn't thinker a little playful retribution.

In the forest, however, Harry felt as if his vision was unspoilt than having sight. Everything was alive and vivacious. Trees and vegetation, the magnanimous animals and the smallest spores, Harry could see it all as if he'd never been blind.

Shahan had cleared the watercourse ahead and was already pulling away. Felspar came a bit short and she splashed water into the air. Harry, just a step behind Felspar, was brusque still, landing a full meter away from the bank's edge. His human foot landed firmly in the water system and he struggled to keep his balance so as not to hang into the icy water completely. He'd only taken three steps when he noticed the coolness around his base. When he focused his attention downward he could sense clearly that his trainers were gone, the bottoms of his pants in tatters. Where the splash from Felspar hit the front end of his jersey it had dissolved away as if it had been burned by pane, 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 running water. For the initiatory clock time he noticed that its colour was dissimilar than the other streams he'd seen through the wood. The get off emanating from this water was whiter, more crystalline, more pure. With a cracking jump off Ronan, who had been following, jumped from bank to bank with relaxation. Harry expected to be chastised for stopping, yelled at for falling bottom, but Ronan said nothing. Harry noticed that the whitish-gray of Ronan's gloriole warmed a bit. He'd learned, at least with his friends, that such a change meant a smile. He wondered what it meant with a Centaur.

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

"Is something wrong ?"Felspar asked.

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

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

"You are your own Centaur, feldspar ! You have passed these H2O so often, and yet you still can not see ?"Felspar stepped tight to the stream, staring down at its rippling.

"Not with your oculus, foolish one !"snapped Ronan. feldspar stepped back and closed her middle. A moment passed before she rose up on her buns ramification and spun toward them.

"The free fall !"she cried with excitement."The flow that feeds the falls !"Then felspar stepped over to Harry, noticing his bare infantry and ankle."Harry ceramist, your fetlock joint are bare."She stepped closer."But the flesh is unharmed. If ever I held dubiousness in the chosen, they have forever washed away."feldspar nodded with a slight bow. Harry nodded in getting even and the smiled as he saw felspar own fetlocks.

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

"The boy is decent, Felspar,"said Ronan."Your own fetlocks have grown brighter. Like the elect, you now wear socks."He laughed as felspar looked down to see that indeed her Edward Douglas White Jr. coat was glistening More brightly from the knee and hock down.

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

"No,"said Felspar immediately, backing away from the water."I would not pose the innocence of my heart at such a banner. Indeed, if I had known these were the very waters…"

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

"Shahan will not be pleased,"felspar said to the background.

"As I am not,"retorted Ronan."For three straight days Shahan has failed to comprehend the object lesson. Firenze says Shahan did not even put out to research for Ebyrth. The Centaur is of no use to the heard if he refuses to check our room. I care not that he is young."Then Ronan stepped confining to Felspar ; his posture becoming rigid."You would be wise not to mind to Shahan's sentiment, feldspar. That your coat should change semblance at all is not a respectable mark. Your mother has raised you better."Then Ronan's conduct changed back to one of teacher.

"Focus your thinker on where you need to be, Felspar."He said nothing more, but feldspar turned toward the portion of the woodland through which Shahan had disappeared. A here and now later in a stripe of white she was gone.

"Is that not an Apparation ?"Harry asked.

"One can not Apparate on these solid ground, Harry ceramicist. The earth is too filled with deception. The Centaur can bend space and slow time so that distance travelled can be covered far more quickly than on hoof alone. You have accomplished this already. What's more you have learned to pass on your soul physical structure and change of location with the other living hard liquor of the forest."

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

"Yes,"answered Ronan."But I need not show you again ; these skills are yours to command. Do you feel the Bowtruckle staring at us from across the stream ? Perhaps he can help you see what you've thirsted for. get to out to the creature's mind."

When Harry did hand out, he found it far well-to-do than he first expected. The energy of the woods seemed to imbue him with added insight, guiding his sentiment as he became focused on the wight, leaving his own self, releasing his corporeal form behind and melding into the essence of a stick. In a heartbeat he was one with the woody Bowtruckle. His eyes blinked. Ahead, across the current were a Centaur and youthful man with tattered pants and no shoe. Harry tried to step forward, but the creature would not respond. It was as if he were simply eavesdropping. Suddenly, he felt quite athirst. Instead of looking ahead at the two across the flow, Harry found himself looking down. There was a rather large stink worm wriggling its bulbous header between two leave-taking. He bent down, sniffed the foul matter at pulled it up out of the grunge grinding gut and worldly concern between his teeth.

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

"well done, Harry thrower. It has been to a lesser extent than a year since the Cleansing, and already you have learned the Centaur art. It will exact much more time to master them and many age to understand their unfeigned nature. It is…"Ronan paused looking toward the western sky."…unfortunate that we have so little time."His hoof clawed at the ground."It does not go well for our brothers in Eastern EU. wizard have joined the Dementors and brought a new ally to the war."These last words were spoken with the most emotion Harry had ever heard from a Centaur—contempt.

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

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

Harry could find darkness falling, and for the first sentence he was beginning to sense coldness. Ronan sensed this at once.

"It is time for you to give to the castle, Harry Potter. I have been training you far too hard and far too dissipated, I'm afraid. So it is with Shahan and felspar. You are all learning before your ability to comprehend. If we were not bad in number…"Ronan let out a long suspiration as Harry turned to face him.

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

"That is not a question for the centaur, Harry ceramist,"said Ronan defiantly."It is a interrogation for the Dementors. It is not our war ; it is theirs. It is not the Centaur herds that are destroying the village of Eastern EU. That is the work of the Dementors and their ilk. They are the ones swayed by Ebyrth's restoration ; we are simply defending ourselves."

"I read that in the fight of the twenty percent Age the Centaur herd nearly obliterated Dementors from the face of the earth."

"Would that we had,"said Ronan coolly."Their wickedness has no function other than end. Near the end of that war, only a handful escaped into the swamp and bog through which we could not travel. It was there they learned to fly ; it was there they developed their hungriness for individual. Now, from a illogical few, their issue have multiplied. They outnumber the Centaurus two to one. For that we can thank the Wizarding human beings and the world of man whose greed has consumed the earth and produced sustenance on which the Dementors provender.

"No, Harry Potter, you fight on the side of righteousness, as the centaur have for centuries. But, I am afraid, virtue alone will not be enough to chair us to victory. We will need your intensity and more."

"It doesn't assist that I'll never see again,"said Harry, rubbing his coat of arms with his hands to bring some warmheartedness to them.

"It is the will of Ebyrth. There is a reason and you will discover it. Already your sightlessness 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 spot everyone's detail hue."

"It is a window to the spirit that lies within. This sight you have goes beyond international appearance and penetrates the centre of the creature before you. My masses hold their emotions well, so they appear gray or white. Have you noticed that star sign elves are nearly always—"

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

"hob, whose natures are always furious, are almost always flush with red. While wizards and witches carry the coloring material that suit their nature, colours the civilize centaur intellect can discern. It does not take long to recognize the given hue."

"Or hues,"added Harry.

"Excuse me ?"asked Ronan."What do you mean ?"

"Well, when they have more than one colour. You know, say light-green that sometimes turns blue."Ronan was staring blankly at Harry."You know, the guy's variety of blue sometimes, kind of park former times… right ?"

"Unless there is a phenomenal translation, a life carries but one hue, Harry ceramicist. It may lighten or darken, but the hue remains the like. Unless…"

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

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

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

"There are room you might see two hues, Harry potter. Some whizz or witches are known Animagi. The creature inside can present a dissimilar hue, although even among the Animagi it is uncommon. Usually, the creature reflects the nature of the beldam or wizard."There was a long suspension.

"And the other ?"asked Harry.

"It can be the work of a fractured look, someone who is really two mass, or possibly under the controller of another."

"The Imperius swearword ?"Harry asked.

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

"Erm, no… not really,"Harry lied."I've got to go, Ronan. Thank you for your instruction today."Harry's psyche was clicking of the tilt of epithet. He focused on bending the quad 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 movement door. He'd covered the distance, some miles, in little Sir Thomas More than the wink of an eye. Still, in so doing he'd exhausted what little resource of lastingness he had left. His clothes shredded, he was about to rap on Hagrid's door when he sensed that individual 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 technique taught him by the Centaurs and for the fleetest of mo Harry thought he'd prefer a serrate pointer right about now.

Stealthily, Harry moved closer. The digit, with a shining emerald green aura, didn't movement. Its position continued to perch against the tree diagram. Just a few curtilage away Harry's nostrils took in the spirit of smoke, a distinctively redolent smoke.

"Draco !"Harry hissed quiet and low. This close, Harry could see the soma, still leaning motionless against the Tree, bring his hand to his lip. He was taking another drag on his cigarette. Harry could find out the exhale, long and slow.

"Damn, Potter,"Draco said, pulling himself away from the Tree and turning to cheek Harry."I thought you'd never get here."genus Draco took a stair closer."pigeon hawk, what the perdition happened to you ?"

"Draco, you can't be here. Do you have it away what will happen if—"

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

In the darkness from far up the hill Harry could find out the front end doors of the castling open with their feature crack. What he didn't expect to discover next was Ron Weasley's vox.

"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 than time 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 other two were Ron and prof Dumbledore.

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

"Yeh should have got been here an hour ago !"he called from inside."I don't caution what Ronan tells yeh ; the forest ain't good after dar—. Er… prof Dumbledore, sir. Erm… government 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 Centaurs ?"A moment later and the door shut leaving Harry alone with Draco once again.

"What's going on, Draco ?"said Harry not holding the right line of quite a little with Draco's eyes."I thought you were going to use Blaise to—"

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

"You can read !"said Harry dismissively."It's been in every newspaper publisher I can believe of."Draco ignored the crack, reached up and touched the side of Harry's expression.

"Does it offend ?"

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

"Blaise has been… compromised. He and I have a charming arrest phrase that we use to ensure the former is mentally free from any… meddling. For the shoemaker's last two weeks, Blaise has tried to meet me without using that phrase. He's someone else's now."Draco took another long puff on his cigaret."How father found out… I don't know."His word of honor were deeply troubled. It was an emotional break in Dragon that Harry had rarely seen."We were careful ; Sir Thomas More than careful. You need to know that there's a spy in the castle. I thought maybe Nott, but he doesn't have the skill to cast the Imperius."

"You're r-risking your life to tell me there's a spy ?"asked Harry incredulously."There's p-probably a dozen !"His teeth were beginning to prattle as the cold set in.

"And you're supposed to be our Good Shepherd ? We're screwed."Draco flicked his fag into the air and it vanished."Here."He passed Harry his cloak and wrapped it around his shoulder joint."You know, aside from being scratched bloody, having essentially no apparel, and looking like you were just run over by the Hogwarts Express, you're in pretty respectable configuration. Maybe if you stopped running around the forest posterior naked—"

"T-Training,"Harry interrupted.

"right field, like that's going to save your sorry ass. I don't know what potions you've been taking, but you better wake up and see what's going on around here."

"I don't know where the hell 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 Noel. Did you know that ? A clandestine wedding."

"What ? What are you talking about ?"

"I've been here since day one,"Dragon mocked Harry."Yes, you're so in melodic line, so enlightened. pit, Harry, that's not even the occupy news."

"Married ? Goldstein ?"

"Not even her little comrade 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 oracle of the blind have insight to that."Harry said zippo, but sat down next to Draco crossing his arms and branch under Draco's cloak.

"Come on, Potter,"drawled Draco once again."Surely you can guess why Cho and Goldstein would want to… nay… would need to get married secretly."Again there was a long interruption and Harry pulled genus Draco's cloak tighter about his shoulder joint. He was feeling a pang of green-eyed monster and he had no right wing to. He had loved Cho and he would always love her, but their paths were never meant to travel together. His track was and would forever be entangled with Gabriella. It wasn't perfect but the attraction was potent and the love firm and the uncertainness of any given day that kept Harry forever on sharpness tickled a very Slytherin portion of his spirit that wriggled deeply 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."

"Anatole France,"answered Draco with a sly grinning."Don't William Tell anyone, Harry, but Goldstein's protector may be their chaperon by day, but at night he's a demise eater in my father's avail. It's a tryst of little issue to my father and it pays the bills for Henry, the chaperone, but I knew you might sustain a special interest."

"I never thought that Goldstein and Cho would—"

"Oh, but I'm not done, Harry. Cho Yangtze Kiang spends her days in France, in a niggling villa just north of marseille, a township called La Mure. She and the—"

"When's she due ?"Harry asked."Do you know how far along she is ?"At this Dragon smiled.

"hag can blot out that fact until the very day of saving, Harry. Have you ever seen a pregnant Wiccan ?"For a present moment, Harry pondered the estimate. No, he hadn't ever seen a pregnant crone. 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 threshold to Hagrid's cabin opened and the giant stepped out for just a moment looking toward the forest."Should be any import, 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 public figure are yeh ?"Harry began to endure, but Dragon pulled him back down. For a flashing, Harry was irritated, but caught himself.

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

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

"Then why are you risking your life right now ? It's not to gossip on about some missy and guy you couldn't leave a shucks about. What's so of import that—"

"They've found it,"genus Draco interrupted."calendar month ago I asked you to regain it first, and you didn't even try. Now they have it."He flicked a branchlet into Harry's typeface."Blaise risked his biography and you did zilch. Now he's been found out."genus Draco leaned over and grabbed the cloak about Harry's neck. Harry could experience the cloth tighten, not by Draco's hired hand, but another force."You're going to get it back, pricy, or I'll putting to death you myself."The cloth tightened further. Harry reached for his baton, but found the cloak held his hired man tight.

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

"Save it for person who gives a damn."He leaned over Harry who was gasping for breath now."funny remark thing… magical cloaks. They can moderate so many enchantments."He pressed Harry firmly against the sod as the Gryffindor desperately tried to pile up air."Understand, Harry, I don't want it and I sure as infernal region don't want my founder 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 lots air as he could. Draco took to his metrical foot and wrapped the Joseph Black cloak about his shoulders, his long blonde hair's-breadth starkly Edward White in contrast. Still coughing, Harry stumbled to his animal foot and pulled his scepter. Draco ignored the motion and turned to pass on. But then he stopped as if suddenly remembering a forgotten thought. The doorway to the Hagrid's hut opened and Ron stepped out. He'd heard the sound of Harry's cough.

"Harry ? !"Ron called to the darkness.

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

"Harry !"Ron called again. This metre, by the tone in Ron's part, 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 emptiness. The sound of footsteps came charging up from behind and Harry could hear the commotion on the front porch of Hagrid's hut. A hand touched Harry's shoulder.

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

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

"Harry ? Is that you my boy ?"King 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,"naught to worry about. get in and let's refinement our tea."

"My god, Albus !"cried Chester A. Arthur as Harry and Ron returned to the cabin."Look at the boy !"Harry was still barefoot, what remained of his apparel in tag end, his cheek covered in mud and now a thin red line that wrapped about his neck shown through the dirt. As he climbed the whole tone with Ron's assistance his teeth once again began to chat.

"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 cogitate about ?"Harry just nodded and walked through the doorway."Well, it's not going to get any easier, untried man."

"Get o'er by the fire, lad,"said Hagrid, offering a blanket. But before Harry had a prospect to accept, Dumbledore pulled his wand and tapped Harry's shoulder. The soil disappeared and a Hogwarts gown covered his trunk. The melt off red blood about his cervix and the aching muscles, however, remained.

"Hagrid,"said Dumbledore,"perhaps some tea and some…"Harry tried to arrest Dumbledore's heart to tell him to cease, but found, as it had been since his accident, he could no longer effectively intercommunicate silently with his oculus."…stone cakes."

Warming his muscles by the firing, sipping a bit of tea, and pretending to enjoy Hagrid's rock-hard stone cakes, Harry was beginning to feel himself again. He assured Arthur Weasley that he was all right and that his tousled coming into court was all in a day's work, training with the Centaurs in the forest ; but the minister of religion was none too convinced.

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

"Just a piffling oeuvre with Devil's Snare is all, sir,"answered Harry, rubbing his neck with his forget mitt and sipping some more tea with the other. If they could see his eyes, they would have intercourse he wasn't listening to a word they were saying. Dragon probably thought his niggling show would concentrate Harry's mind fully on some Horcrux that the Ministry had no dubiety just found, but Harry's idea was anything but centred. After a bit more banter about shoal, regrets about Harry being blind, and news about the battles raging in Eastern Europe, Chester Alan Arthur Weasley finally got down to the intent of his visit.

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

"What ?"Harry exclaimed."Why ?"

"Well, to try to recover the bodies, Harry,"answered Mr. Weasley, surprised somewhat at Harry's reaction."Many Aurors lost their lives that evening and their soundbox have never been found — at to the lowest degree, not until last week. Since the collapse we tried for calendar month to find the bottom with no winner. We encountered one wizardly portal after another, and the workers were none too inclined to accidentally stumble across the curtain itself."

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

"No, Ron,"interrupted Dumbledore,"the Curtain and the dais were destroyed in the declivity. No, just the organic structure, bodies from both sides, have been returned to their loved ones."

"wellspring, yes, Albus,"added Chester A. Arthur with some nervousness."virtually of them, anyway. We have yet to detect Dragon Malfoy's remains."Ron began to cough.

"Hagrid,"he asked, clearing his throat once again,"do you have any more stone cake ?"

"Why sure, Ron,"said Hagrid with glee."Come 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. seaport't I ? There's another shadow we need to stave off, isn't there ?"

"Yes, yes, absolutely, Harry, absolutely."Arthur patted Harry's lap."But there was one other retrieval at the very profoundness of the gaping fissure."All at once, Mr. Weasley's aura faded and Harry knew the pursue wrangle were a lie."They pulled it up today, just before lunch. I looked for you earliest, Harry, but you'd already left for the forest."Arthur Weasley stood from his professorship and looked out the windowpane facing the castle, the semblance returned to his gloriole."I was thinking we could have a dedication of sorts. You could come to the Ministry as we put it on exhibit. It would certainly remind the people in these colored metre that we can beat darkness."

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

"Oh, yes, I'm sorry, Harry,"answered President Arthur."I've wanted to discuss our search since you and I spoke on the train. I never knew taking care of the Ministry would consume so much of my time."His optic wandered for a consequence and then returned to match Harry's."No matter,"he whispered."In our lookup, we recovered the cloak. The black cloak of… You-Know-Who. The solely end 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 damn affair. Destroy it !"

"I knew you might finger this way, Harry,"said Arthur with understanding."That's why I came myself. You must gain what an icon you've become in the Wizarding worldly concern. Just one mental picture of you, perhaps wand drawn, next to the cloak of the evil 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 harangue."I think it would be wise for you to take some time to regard what all the implications are. Time to debate what's well for… everyone involved."Harry expected to see the warmth of anger bod in Dumbledore's nimbus, but if anything his light dimmed with a coldness of 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 yell me—"

"Excuse me, sir. I need to go. It's just… I'm really tired is all."Harry reached out his hand to shake, and King Arthur Weasley took it."Let me get my head together, and I'll get back to you. Just a day or two."

"Certainly, Harry, I understand. Until then, we'll keep it secure ; I can check you."Harry started for the door."Here, let me walk you to the castle."

"I got it dad,"said Ron, dropping one of the stone cakes on the board with a clump."finishing your tea and have some more… er, cakes."Ron ran to the door next to Harry's side of meat. Staring at the patty and then Hagrid, Chester Alan Arthur was about to say something when Dumbledore spoke out instead.

"Excellent idea, Mr. Weasley,"he said to the younger redhead."Please find Harry safely back to the castle."

"Goodnight, Hagrid,"said Harry to the giant still in the kitchen, baking up another clutch of cake for his invitee."Thanks !"

"Sure thing, Harry,"called Hagrid."Anytime."Then he turned to Mr. Weasley just as Harry began to shut the door."Minister, try another one, hot out of the oven !"

By the time Harry and Ron were at the castle stairs, Harry had answered most of Ron's enquiry.

"I just don't get it, Harry,"said Ron shaking his question."It's just a piece of music of cloth. You killed him."

"Ron, you saw my clothes tonight. They were burnt away because I fell into the wizardly current that feeds the spill. call up when you fell in last class ?"

"Pulled in you mean,"said Ron, rubbing his ripe articulatio radiocarpea."Yeah, I remember. My wearing apparel disappeared."

"They didn't disappear,"corrected Harry."They were burnt away. Clothes are impure. They can't survive the honor of the water."

"That's a Centaur story,"said Ron dismissively.

"tarradiddle or not, the water destroys cloth. I doused Voldemort in nearly ten gallons of the stuff. It was enough to dissolve every evil pearl in his body, but the cloak… Damn ! I should have known when I saw it then. The cloak survived. But why ?"

"So you think it's the…"Ron's voice dipped low,"…the Horcrux Draco was talking about ?"

"I don't see how it can be,"answered Harry."If it's part of Voldemort, it should hold been destroyed."Harry sighed."Maybe Hermione will know."Ron shrugged and nodded in concord as he reached to open up the castle doors. Ron heaved on the grueling handgrip just as Harry's hired hand stopped him and shut out them again.

"Ron ?"he asked."You have a lot of comrade and Sister. Erm… how prospicient does it get to… er… for a hag to… you know… experience a baby, after… you know."For a second, Ron just stared at Harry, and then reaching ever so slightly to the thoughts on the tip of Harry's head he understood.

"Oh ! How long does it take for a baby to be born after concept ?"he asked.

"Yeah… yeah, that's it."

"wellspring my mum's always going on how I took longer than most… ‘ Forty two hebdomad, and in the middle of the war !'she'd say.

"So… figurin'my birthday, what would you say… you know… for my folks to…er—"

"Do the nasty ?"said Ron with a smile. Harry simply nodded. Well, Ron thought for a minute, touched his finger and counted backwards, and then a glow of a grinning crossed his face once again.

"Pretty damn near to Halloween, Harry."He poked Harry in the costa."Do you call up they were wearing costumes ?"Harry didn't react in the way Ron expected. Instead, he leaned his back against the castling doors and slid down to a sit on the stone landing place.

"Oh, Merlin,"he whispered in a seedy sort of spokesperson."Oh, bloody, shag, Merlin."

"What ? What is it, Harry ?"

"Ron… I think… I think I'm a father."


Harry Potter and the nascence of a New Sun

Chapter 14 - hymeneals Plans ~~~***~~~

When Harry and Ron passed through the portrait of the Fat dame, Harry found the Gryffindor common room, lovesome than normal. Near the fireplace sat the auras of Parvati, Lavender, Gabriella, Hermione, Ginny and James Dean. Towards the back, Neville was helping Saint Patrick and a few others, Harry had yet to recognize, fix for their Herbology test. Evidently, the exam involved a burning plant of some sort, perhaps fireseed, Harry thought, since there was a billowing swarm of sess that hung over the group and nobody seemed to listen.

Harry, his mind fractured at the consequence, brought his attending on Patrick. The sens was clouding his ability to see the auras of those at the back table, but the filtered spark emanating from Patrick was the same as it had been since Harry first met him after the accident - bluing and green. Each colour waxed and waned, growing more super acid whenever he was excited or near Harry.

"St. Patrick ?"Harry thought silently to himself, but the persuasion was short lived.

"Harry ! Ron !"cried James Dean. His phonation brought Harry's attending back to the group about the fireplace. The phone call sounded like a plea for assist, as if Dean felt, at the import, like a trapped rat in a snake's John Cage. He began to place upright when Ginny grabbed his arm.

"Oh, Dean,"she said breathlessly,"isn't it beautiful ?"Hermione was projecting an image of a Lester Willis Young woman in a Patrick Victor Martindale White nuptials apparel. The girl stood, suspended in the middle of the five scholarly person and modelled the dress she was wearing, slowly turning in all centering so that everyone could see, everyone that is except Harry.

"Er… yeah, gravid,"muttered doyen miserably, sinking back into the lounge.

"I don't know, Gin,"said Lavender cautiously."I think the train's a slight long."

"Lavender's right, Hermione,"added Parvati."You don't want to take with all that dragging behind you even if it's levitated."

"You could stimulate fairy's carry it."

"I kind of like it,"Hermione said as she held her bridge player to her Kuki and tapped her cheek with one finger."But I think the second…"doyen let out an audible groan, but the girl ignored him while Hermione began to flash through model after good example, dress after dress, as if thumbing Thomas Nelson Page of a book. It was only then when she noticed that Ron and Harry had entered the common room.

"Ron !"she exclaimed."You're just in time."Dean's oculus grew wide and he shook his headway 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 nerve."What's wrong ?"

Gabriella stood and came over to Harry."You both look like someone died. Did Filch enamour you sneaking into the kitchens again ? Out with it… what happened ?"Ron looked at Harry, and Harry looked blankly above the girls.

"Nothing,"they said simultaneously.

Gabriella patted Harry's cheek.

"Nothing ?"she said, sensing the swirling swarm of emotions that must have shown like a radio beacon 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 student from other household in the vulgar room, he had completely forgotten that the missy were going to get together this even to discuss Hermione's wedding program for the summertime."I need to get ready for the Potions exam 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 wood today, we could have gotten at least three hours on the pitch."

"I was in the woods today !"Harry exclaimed."Besides, you know I can't Seak. Not like this."He waved his hand in front of his middle.

"You're the squad captain ! It's you're responsibility to—"

"These aren't your robes,"interrupted Gabriella, rubbing the cloth in her finger's breadth."These are new."

"Dumbledore cleaned him up,"offered Ron. This was followed by a Greek chorus.

"Dumbledore ?"

"fountainhead, 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 circle Harry and Ron.

"fountainhead, he only had a moment,"said Ron, stepping cheeseparing to his sis. She had risen to her feet and James Byron Dean took the opportunity to quickly flash away and head toward the helical stairway to the boys'dormitory."And he needed to see Harry, so I took him over to—"

"So he saw you, but he didn't have clip to see his lonesome daughter ?"

Less than a import later everyone was talking at once. Ron and Harry were being bombarded with doubt about everything from the pastor's sojourn, to why Dumbledore needed to conjure Harry new robes, to what model Ron thought would be skillful for the new People's Republic of China.

Unexpectedly, there was a loud explosion from the backrest of the room that caused everyone to shriek. A rather large powerhouse spewed Forth from the tabular array where Neville and the others were working. It was Neville who stopped it from lighting the whole post on fervidness by casting a slop charm.

"Damn it, Patrick,"Neville said irritably, while a few of the other students laughed,"I told you not to mix fireseeds with dittany powder ! If you do that in the test tomorrow, Professor Sprout will fail you for sure."

The kerfuffle that had surrounded Harry, quickly gathered about the cover table and the scorched faces that stood there. Harry took the opportunity to observe Dean's step up the stairway. Near the top he heard a rather dejected Patrick apologize, but what he saw was a bluish atmosphere beaming with pride. Then Harry noticed Patrick flash him a thumbs-up from within the long sleeve of his robe, a signal that no one could see.

"Sorry, Neville,"said Patrick with a shrug of his shoulder joint."I'm just no undecomposed at this kind of stuff. I'll be prosperous to make it to the third year at this rate."

Gabriella looked back toward the open fireplace to find Harry and before she could detect where he was Harry disappeared into the son'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 good 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 Nationalist China pattern."He looked back at the Book and turned the Thomas Nelson 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 varlet ; clearly not having read the last."So… last-place year… yeah, maybe. But that's your fault."Dean looked up, pointing a fingerbreadth at Harry.

"Me ?"

"Well, I mean, I was in a battle — fighting you for her. You know. That variety of thing, well… it gets a guy in the humour. But this stuff downstairs… wedding wearing apparel, and coloring material of table clothes, and…"Dean sighed."Talk about deflating."Without looking back down to the rule book, he turned another page. Then, quite suddenly, Dean groaned and turned over on his bed, placing the open account book over his chest."merlin, I love her."There was silence and he sighed again."She's been my world. She brought me back after the accident."Dean held his paw up, flexing the fingers in nominal head of his face. His psyche 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 school robes and putting on a wanton twain of jeans."face it, Dean, you're her man too."

"I just don't want to be thinking about spousal relationship while I'm still in school,"answered Dean, sitting up on the border of his bed and facing Harry."There's enough to be getting on about without having to worry about in-laws… Cathay patterns…"

"…children,"added Harry quietly.

"Merlin, no,"shot dean."I can't even imagine. But then Ginny's handy with a sheathing charm. We're careful… you know ?"Harry nodded as a knot twisted in his stomach."Can you believe Neville and Helen of Troy ?"continued Dean."Neither one of them used any protective covering their first of all few times. Hermione found out and had a fit."

"Hermione ?"queried Harry.

"well, 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 missy in Hogsmeade last year and wound up with a suit of runespoor warts. Had to go to St. Mungo's to get them removed. Can you believe it ? Yeesh."Lee covered his crotch with his hand and grimaced.

"But why Hermione ?"

"If you want to know any spell, appeal, or hex to get the job done, Harry, who do you go to ? Hermione."Harry looked a bit dissatisfied and crossed his coat of arms. dean sensed Harry's pride and added,"After all, everyone knew she and Ron were together since the fall of finish year. She knew how to be prophylactic, and Neville surely wasn't going to talk to Ginny."

Harry wasn't certain how to take up that. He didn't have a clue until last Christmas that Ron and Hermione were together. Yet, everyone else seemed to make love. Further, he was pretty for sure that last yr Tonks had used her Metamorphosis skills to take on on the appearance of Helen so that she could pussyfoot into Gryffindor tower with Neville. It brought up memories… bad memories. Suddenly, going to verbalise to Hermione about anything didn't seem like such a good musical theme. Harry began to mug up his desk with his finger, then crossed his limb and just looked down at the floor. He could see the nimbus's of the living organisms that his Ilex paraguariensis had tracked in under their shoes. Maybe Aunt Petunia wasn't such a demented bat after all - at least as far as wiping one's feet at the door was concerned.

"What's up, Harry ?"asked dean."Why are you so curve up anyway ?"

Barefoot and shirtless, Harry walked over to the window. Yule was a calendar week away and, sadly, no C. P. Snow had fallen. The priming coat below and the surrounding woodland glistened brightly in Harry's blindness. He placed his left mitt on his chest, just above Asha's mettle, the stone that even now sat hidden within him. Focusing high gear above the treetops he found naught but blackness. previous in the evening, clouds had moved in, covering all in a dark blanket through which no ace shone. He peered at the same quadrant of sky in which he knew Ebyrth hung, growing ever closer. He closed his eyes and dropped his chief heavily against the glass window.

Voldemort's cloak should accept been destroyed by the water from the falls, but it wasn't. Why ? Was it the Horcrux genus Draco thought it was, or simply an object of great power 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 expiry eater's swaggering curse. Who was the spy ? Could they have turned 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 shaver. Could it really be his ? That was a unintelligent query. Of course it could be ; the timing was near perfect and they had been… well, stupid. It was just before the Hallowe'en feast. Harry was going to tell apart Cho about Gabriella… let Cho experience that they couldn't be together, that Gabriella was the one he truly loved. But then she touched his arm… the look in her eyes. Even now, the computer storage sent a thrill down his spinal column and made his inside quiver. Neither of them was in the right frame of mind, but they both knew what they wanted. Now they were both paying for it. At least Cho was. Harry began to wonder… if the child was Harry's, did Mark Anthony know, or was Cho simply using him ?

Harry shook his head, trying to clear his muddled intellection. Maybe he was making a big deal of nothing. Maybe Antony was the father. But the vision… Gabriella's vision that both he and Hermione shared. He'd seen a child. Gabriella saw her own demise and yet Harry saw lifetime. He thought it was their child, his and Gabriella's. Now, Harry wasn't so sure.

The window was inhuman and a shiver ran across his consistence. He turned and walked over to his storage pectus, opening the lid and feeling around for a shirt.

"Harry ?"James 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 drogue.

"Yes ?"

"Ah…"Harry held up two socks."Do these match ?"

"Kinda,"answered Dean, looking at black and maybe a dark US Navy amobarbital sodium.

"Good… sound,"replied Harry and he slipped the shirt and socks on. He sat back on his bed and slipped on his boots without saying a word.

"Harry ?"asked Dean probing."Where are you going ?"

"Accio cloak !"Harry called with his right handwriting in the air, fingers outstretched for a collar. 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.

"doyen,"he said,"please give my apologies to Professor Snape. I'll miss the exam tomorrow I'm afraid. It's sad really. Since the connection, I think I had a pretty honorable opportunity of acing it. Severus, after all, shared a bit of himself with me that night."Harry rubbed the cicatrice on his in good order arm.

"Slow down, spouse,"said James Dean, taking to his feet."You can't just go off—"

"Whew ! I made it !"cried Ron, jumping into their room."I never thought I'd get Hermione's tending. I finally had to go in through the back entrance, if you know what I mean."He tapped his head."She'll be up in a… Whoa. Where are you going ?"he asked Harry.

"Actually Ron,"began Harry,"I was just telling Dean that—"

"What's all this about the Horcrux ?"asked Hermione as she entered the room.

"Shhhh !"cried Ron and Harry simultaneously, ushering her interior.

"You found it ?"she asked in a near whispering.

"Maybe… if you can conceive Malfoy,"answered Ron.

"Malfoy ?"asked James 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 wall near the door, began tapping it nervously with his finger's breadth. He glared at Ron."Great programme, mate."

"fountainhead,"said Ron,"I tried to—"Harry held up one finger to his backtalk and Ron lowered his voice."I tried to—"Harry shook his finger at Ron. There was a bit of a grumbling and Ginny burst through the threshold.

"What's up ?"she asked. Then she noticed Harry."What's with the cloak ?"Harry crossed his arms.

"Bloody hell,"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 interrogation she didn't expect and it caught her off guard. Her heart shot immediately to Ron and the face gave her away at once.

"You did !"cried Dean."How could you not tell me ? Did you all know ?"Harry could see the flak construction in dean's emotions. Nobody said a discussion."How long have you known ?"

"Get over it, James Byron Dean !"Harry snapped."Draco wanted it hugger-mugger and we're keeping it that way. We know because we were there. Ginny knows because her blood brother has a big fat mouth."Harry gestured at Ron without looking his way."Dragon's pump is here at Hogwarts, Dean. Until we can shed light on his epithet we can't make him out as a fugitive."

"clear his name ?"said James Dean."He was… he is a Death Eater."

"He saved my life, James Byron Dean,"interjected Ron."That you do know. That I've told everyone. But my word isn't decent to preserve him out of Azkaban. I should know, the Minister's my Dad and, no, he doesn't know about Draco either."

These words cooled James Byron Dean's firing, if only a smidge, and his hands found his air hole. There was a moment of silence and then he turned to Ginny reached out and took her hand.

"You know, Gin,"Dean said gently,"if we're going to drop the ease of our animation together, we can't be keeping secrets from one another. Secrets… they… they sour souls and twist trust. If you'd have just told me to hold on mum, you know I would consume. All you had to do is ask. You know that… don't you ?"Ginny reached her handwriting to doyen's face and kissed him.

"I know,"she said softly. Then she held him tightly in her weapon system."I'm sorry."

"Well… good,"said Harry uncomfortably."Erm… Ron, tell your Dad that we can have the ceremonial with Voldemort's cloak this Saturday after exams."

"But that's three 24-hour interval, Harry,"Ron said,"isn't that too long to—"

"right,"cut in Harry,"so that's why you… all,"he waved toward the radical,"can image out how we get the cloak tomorrow dark. I'll meet you at the entry to the Ministry at midnight. Have the design ready 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 spine of Harry's cloak, stopping him in his tracks.

"What do you mean ? Where are you going ? Your Potions exam is tomorrow."Harry turned back, his face rear but his eyes 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 hands to pipe down his friends,"that needs to be kept… at least for now."Again he took Gabriella's arm."seminal fluid on."Everyone turned to Ron as Gabriella and Harry left the room. Almost immediately, Gabriella began to ask questions, but Harry held a finger to his sass.

"Not here… not now,"he whispered.

They were about to discharge out through the portrayal 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 gossipy coup d'oeil toward Anapurna.

"Men,"said Parvati flatly. Gabriella simply nodded, taking Harry by the arm and walking out of the Gryffindor vernacular room.

The two didn't speak until they reached the staircases. It was muted with only a few students roaming about. nearly were likely studying for tomorrow's exam. The others were either heading toward or returning from the library. The two found themselves alone on the staircase as it slowly began to slew into place. Finally, Harry gathered the courage.

"Did you know… ?"he began cautiously."Did you know about Cho ?"

"Cho Chang ?"Gabriella asked blankly.

"Yes, Cho Chang !"Harry snapped."How could you not sleep with ? You two were inseparable at the end of last year. She helped you through exams. Falco columbarius, you spent to a greater extent time with her than with me. How could you not know ?"

The stone staircase came to catch one's breath against the paries. The two climbed off that one and onto another that began to slue into yet another direction.

"So we're going to see Antony,"Gabriella said knowingly. Harry said aught, wishing only that the staircases would incite more quickly."Tell me Harry, are you still so envious ?"

"Jealous ?"Harry asked angrily."jealousy has null to do with this. I have a right to know !"His last words were loud and reverberated off the stone walls.

"They have a right to their privateness, Harry,"Gabriella replied with an sharpness in her voice."They have a rightfulness to celebrate the Daily prophesier out of their lives. Frankly, I don't see how it's any of your business. It's clean-cut 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 make their way up to Ravenclaw tug. A third base yr Ravenclaw joined them on the moving compositor's case upward. Harry moved close to Gabriella failing miserably at keeping his voice hushed.

"None of my commercial enterprise ? None of my byplay ? !"

"Yes ! None of your patronage ! They were stupid, Harry,"Gabriella said struggling to maintain her equanimity in front of the third base year, although Harry could smell out 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 good affair by caring for what will soon be his family ?"

At this, the third base class Ravenclaw looked back over his shoulder at Harry and Gabriella. Gabriella flashed him a flavour that put the boy's nose back into the Koran he was reading. The Oliver Stone staircase came to a halt and the boy stepped off followed by Harry, but Gabriella grabbed his arm.

"What do you think to do ?"she asked."Confront him ? Hex him for getting your… your schoolmistress 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 Father of the Church. He stopped and leaned against the banister. The delay was just long enough that the staircase began to move again.

"She was not my mistress,"Harry said quietly to the darkness."I… I was not myself last year. You know—"Gabriella put her hands about Harry's shoulder.

"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 out. She kissed him gently on the cheek and pulled him close. They held each former that way for some time and when the staircase came to a stop Gabriella moved to get off, but Harry stood still.

"I'm not covetous because of Anthony,"spoke Harry to the spread out air before him."It's just that… I could be the father,"he said softly.

"What ?"

"I could be the Fatherhood,"he repeated, stepping close to her."It wasn't Anthony that was the pillock one ; it was me - Halloween of hold up twelvemonth. Cho's child… it could be mine."

Harry waited to see the reaction, but none came. The tidings had no effect on Gabriella's aura. Either she knew already, or had suspected all along, or the intelligence simply didn't effect 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 soul who's not supposed to know anything, you know quite a bit already. You know there's a nestling. You know she's in France."

"La Mure,"added Harry.

"Then you know all there is to know, Harry. The town's not that orotund 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 dangerous for you to lead the rook alone. Besides, prof Snape has already released me from tomorrow's exam for—"

"—for luxuriously brand,"interrupted Harry."Yeah, I know. I know."He paused for a few moments and then agitate his caput. But before Harry could say a word Gabriella began.

"Harry,"she said gently, holding her hand to his human face,"I don't care how well you can see what others can not."She took his deal."You're screen. It makes a difference. You can't go somewhere you've never been, talk to people you've never met and think that it's no big deal."There was another yearn 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 right. I probably wouldn't get a chance to see her… not without help."He squeezed Gabriella's hired man."Besides, you need to be there. I need you to be there."

It took twenty mo to get what they needed before they could sneak out through the hidden tunnel to Hogsmeade. It took half that meter to induce it to Le Mure. Gabriella was right, Harry would have been lost without her. It was bad enough trying to remember his Daniel Chester French ; it was worse trying to picture out what manus motion or facial look went along with it. blind, he could detect none of it, but Gabriella was nearly perfect tense. In fact, Harry began to wonder if she had known the way all along. Finally, knowing that Cho's apartment was just around the block, the two decided to spend the night at a small inn and wait until good 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 warmheartedness to her touch that meant Thomas More to him than anything in the unhurt cosmos. That dark he laid his someone bare, telling her everything he knew, everything she'd listen to, including Draco's theory about Voldemort's cloak. Only when he touched on his grooming with the Centaurs, would she noticeably change the subject. He fell asleep in her arms and woke the following morning the same way. The sun was just breaking into the windowpane as he stroked her long black haircloth, wondering with some fear what the future would impart.

After breakfast, they walked down the back street toward the small apartment social organization that the host had described to Gabriella. When they finally arrived, Harry covered himself with the invisibility cloak. Gabriella knocked at the room access and the door opened, held exposed by an one-time man with Zane Grey haircloth and a tired look on his face. There were introductions and Gabriella slipped inside. The room access shut before Harry could follow. There was a moment of quiet and then squeals of joy. Harry knew the sound ; Cho was inside. A few moments later the man left, jingling coins in his pocket. Harry's plan had worked - Gabriella, handing the man a span 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 cinch 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 doorway opened and Gabriella ushered him inside.

All the spell, Harry had seen the aura of the two young women and the sr. 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 visual sense and he noted with interest group the sudden burst of push that accompanied it. But more than anything else his attention was focused on one matter above all - a dim reddish gleam that glimmered from the book binding of the apartment. Through all the walls it could have 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 nothingness before her. Cho stood only a few feet away. Harry sensed warmth merge with apprehension. As for himself, he could experience the sweat of his ribbon as he reached up and slipped off the cloak.

"Cho ?"he asked to the glow before him. The aura didn't move, the mortal didn't speak, but the colour began to blanch almost immediately. Then her hand went to her face, covering her sass.

"Oh, Harry,"she croaked."Tony told me about the chance event, about…"Slowly she walked over to him.

"This ?"Harry asked, holding his hand near his temples."It's nothing. Just a bit of glass. operating theater's scheduled for next month ; should consume me good as new."Cho took his hand and then touched his face.

"I'm so dreary,"she whispered."I should have come to visit."She took him in her subdivision and held him tight. He could experience her shakiness in his arms."I couldn't… I couldn't bear to see you again."

"Great,"Harry drawled."Always good to know you're idea of kindly."

"Harry !"snapped Gabriella shortly. She took Cho gently by the arm and said,"Cho, can we number in and stimulate a sit ?"Cho loosened her grip on Harry and wiped her face with her manpower.

"Oh, yes,"she said, sniffing,"of course."

The place was gravid than Harry expected, compared to what it looked like from the outdoor, but it was sparsely furnished and what furnishings there were appeared old and tatterdemalion. As they entered the kitchen he noted a few Ravenclaw memorabilia here and there. He even recognized a broom, the Scots heather he bought her last year, was propped up in the quoin. Cho offered them some coffee, they accepted and together they sat at a lowly table in the kitchen. There was a trivial talk about the weather and school.

"Are your exams over ?"Cho asked."Tony has Arithmancy tomorrow."

"Tony,"muttered Harry through gritted tooth. Maybe he was a bit envious of Susan Brownell Anthony."Er… yeah. Gab and I are done for the semester."

"That's not bad,"said Cho softly. There was an ill-chosen silence, and then, finally, Harry could await no longer.

"I heard… I heard you and, er, Tony were going to tie the knot… get married. I told Gab we should hail by and find out when. Ask what you might need to, erm…"He looked around at the shabby piece of furniture."… spruce the home up."

"Soon,"answered Cho without hesitating."But we're not telling anyone until after the schoolhouse year. Not even my house. They think I'm here studying art."

"I also heard,"continued Harry, not really listening to Cho's words,"that you two had a small fry ; a sister boy is it ?"Before Cho could answer Gabriella took her by the hand.

"It's so exciting, Cho !"she said joyfully."I'm sure you're a wonderful mother. The baby is so lucky to hold two such fantastic 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 hesitating.

"Well,"added Harry,"I can't see him, but I have a pretty good idea 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, right thing. It certainly would be capital, at to the lowest degree for Gabriella, to see him. Just a bloom ?"

"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 minuscule red jumper. He smiled and muttered a few sounds as she sat him in his chair, offering him a biscuit to manducate on. The dull fog of Harry's eyes were focused somewhere above the boy's drumhead, but his mind's eye was captivated on the aureate red glow before him. It was vivid, almost blinding, and Harry wondered if the light of the incandescence was because he was a infant or something to a greater extent. The biscuit snapped out of Cho's hand and flew into the waiting grasp of the babe's.

"feeling at that ! So soon ?"cooed Gabriella."He's just perfect."And then she began to blither baby talk to the child.

"Yes, he's pretty special,"answered Cho.

Harry could feel that she was looking at him, centred on his reaction, but he was at a loss. To know 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 stab the sister with a stick to see what it would do.

"Has he,"Harry began,"shown any former signs of legerdemain ?"

"No. Not really,"answered Cho cautiously."But he can stand with help 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 figure ?"asked Gabriella.

"Jamie,"answered Cho.

"After your Brother ?"

"We just liked the name,"Cho said, not committing.

"I have to admit,"said Gabriella,"that he's the splitting persona of you. And that's a practiced thing ; you're much better looking than Anthony."She laughed and Cho did too. It sounded as if it had been the first fourth dimension Cho had laughed in quite some time. But then the tone in Gabriella's voice changed.

"In fact, he doesn't look much like a Goldstein at all. You're both so dark, and Jamie's skin is so pale."

"He… he doesn't get out much,"said Cho, growing queasy.

"Cho, you know I love you like a sis. Don't you ?"Gabriella asked gently."Well, I think Harry has a right hand to know. You see, he told me that you two slept together at Hogwarts - just once, on Halloween. Caught in the heat of the moment, I guess."Gabriella took a breath, gathering her military strength."I don't concern why it happened. And it doesn't bother me anymore that it happened. The fact is it happened… nine month before little Jamie here was born."

"Well—"

"Cho,"Gabriella interrupted."Harry may get his suspiciousness, but he can't see what I can, and the middle never lie. You and Antony, you both have brown eyes. Both your parents each have brown eyes. It would take a powerful wizard to produce a boy with anything early than brown eyes and the magic would most certainly be to turn the vividness of the eyes to his own."Cho said nothing. Harry said nothing."It's true, Jamie is the split up image of his beautiful mother. But the eyes… I think he has his don's eyes."Cho remained soundless. Once again, Harry watched as her aura blanched.

"What do you mean ?"asked Harry blindly. Gabriella took his hand.

"They're leafy vegetable, Harry,"she said quietly."Prunus dulcis shaped and brilliantly greens. Just like yours."


Harry ceramist and the nativity of a New Sun

Chapter 15 - Another Potter
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Beyond the babbles of the child sitting beside Harry, there was silence. Perhaps, if one were to take heed closely, the sound of a bird chirping or a aloof bus creaking to a freeze could be heard, breaking the hush of the morning. Then Cho's infantry began to nervously tap against the side of meat of the table. In battlefront of Harry, she had been confronted by Gabriella with the Truth, but still she would not, or could not verbalise. Harry had known before they came to Anatole France that the child would be his, and though he had not heard the words from Cho's sassing, he wasn't about to become tempestuous ; it was hard enough not to show how frightened he was feeling. No, if anything, he needed some time himself to get over the sinking intuitive feeling in his tum, as if he'd just fallen off his broom. He would wait for Cho to be prepare. He breathed deeply the perfume of his coffee tree, took a sip, set the cup down and put out his finger's breadth, with which the little boy began to prick toothlessly.

"Jamie ?"Harry said tenderly."I… I like that name."

He smiled and put his hand on the boy's head.

"Oh, my. What a head of haircloth ! Is it Negroid ?"This unproblematic 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 deglutition.

"Thank Merlin he's got his mother's looks,"Harry said with a chortle. He took another sip of umber.

"You'll see him one day, Harry,"said Gabriella with an encouraging tone. Harry tilted his headspring down and didder it slowly.

"I don't think so,"he said quietly, his brim still turned in a slight smile.

"What do you mean ?"asked Cho, surprised."Surely they can—"

"I was just examined by Madame Pomfrey,"interrupted Harry."The imaginativeness charms aren't knitting. There's still too a great deal glass."

"But couldn't they just—"

"There are oodles of petite shards - too many and too lowly to vanish without vanishing man of my middle and if they summon them out they'll shred whatever sound eye tissue that's left."Cho gasped.

"I… I didn't know. I thought—"

"No thing,"said Harry taking to his understructure."I can see the flack in his soul, even if I can't see their coloring of his eyes."He went to the coffee pot to pour himself one more cup. On the way, he tripped on a small toy that had fallen on the floor and what liquid that was in his cup spilt.

"Woops,"said Harry. Cho stood to clean the spill, but Harry had it off the priming nearly before it landed with a wide-eyed wave of his hand. Since losing his sight, his abilities without a wand, abilities he rarely used in front end of others, had strengthened. Without skipping a metre, he poured himself another cup, but rather than turn he continued to look the cabinetry. Yes, he could see the fervidness in the boy's aura, but he would give anything to have his eyesight back… to see his small fry, his son. He began to tremble. For the offset time in months he was cold with fear, and it wasn't awe of a Dementor or demise Eater. It was fright for his shaver and his child's mother, fright for a future that was already so uncertain, so sorry. It felt as if all the air in the room was being sucked away.

"At least,"he said, holding the tender cup in his hands,"Anthony won't need to… to await into my eyes and wonder. I… I wouldn't want that."Cho stepped up behind Harry and placed her script on his berm.

"Anthony Goldstein, Ravenclaw Prefect at Hogwarts schooltime for witchcraft and genius ?"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 gens. Your f-father's name."She placed her hired hand at the side of Harry's typeface."He knew that too. I… I didn't."With these word of honor, Cho began to cry. She held Harry by the front of his shirt and pulled him close, sobbing into his pectus. 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 little Jamie who broke up the triplet as he began to cry.

"Oh… he's hungry,"said Cho blotting her eyes. She picked the boy up into her blazonry and ushered them all into the front room where the fireplace sat dusty, but the slightly tattered chairwoman were more comfortable. Even without the flame, Harry watched with wonder the warmth that filled the room. He could tell she loved the boy deeply. Nor, was the emotion lost on Gabriella, sitting at Harry's side, who was gathering a gleaming herself as she took in the room's emotions of love. He took Gabriella's paw and for the first meter in a long prison term Harry tried to slack, letting the swirling fears of the future tense slice from his mind. It was Cho that started the conversation as Jamie continued to suckle.

"I wanted to keep on this cloak-and-dagger, Harry - secret from my parents, secret from my comrade, hole-and-corner from you. At initiatory I was ashamed and then—"

"But—"

"Let me finish,"asked Cho."I need to finish, or I may never be able-bodied to."Harry nodded."stopping point year you wanted to tell me about Gabriella."Cho looked at Gab."He did so want to push me away, to assure me of the Muggle girl he had met back home."Her optic returned to Harry."But I could see that, just under the peel, there was a fire of desire and I… I wanted… my broken in eubstance wanted to be desired."

"He was cross-hexed by my parents,"said Gabriella. The Holy Writ were meant to be explanatory, but Harry noted a touch of jaundice or sorrow.

"I know that now,"answered Cho."Maybe I knew it then, at least that he wasn't in his rightfulness mind. I could have used a sheathing good luck charm. I thought about it. I even reached for my wand before it happened Allhallows Eve night behind the Great Hall."Gabriella blastoff Harry a glimpse 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 font I died ?"asked Harry."Like Cedric ?"Without speechmaking, 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 maternity and I hid Jamie."She put the baby over her articulatio humeri and began to pat its back."I thought that after You-Know-Who had been destroyed I could narrate you, but then I heard about the new war… that Malfoy's Death Eaters were out to kill you. What would they do if they knew you had a son ?"She shook her head."This summertime, I travelled to the United States with Anthony… Tony. One dark, I fell asleep in his arm and when I woke up the adjacent morning the befuddling magical spell had warn off. I was pregnant for all to see. In that instant I panicked, horrified by what he might think, what he might do, and in the succeeding I felt Tony's touch, warm and caressing on my stomach. He stayed at my side and he's never left."Jamie let out a rather impressive burp and everyone smiled.

grinning, 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 morning meal,"to watch over Jamie and I, while he finishes school day. It's costing him every Cnut he has. Once we're married we'll qualify for welfare from the Ministry. They offer living accommodations and, maybe, we can find a gracious space to—"

"benefit ?"spat Harry, his spikelet snapping strict."From the Ministry ? You can't be unplayful ! You're not going to postulate a dime from the Ministry. As far as I'm concerned there all a bunch of felon !"

"Harry !"called Gabriella.

"Well, Ron's dad. But the rest period of the lot ? Crooks !"He took to his infantry."And as far as aliveness in Ministry housing… never ! I won't allow it."

"What do you imply you won't allow it ?"said Cho a bit heatedly."You have no say in the matter."Harry ignored her.

"You'll halt at the castle. It's far enough away from what's happening… yes, you'll be safe there."

"We're safe here,"said Cho, standing herself, the baby held snugly in both blazon.

"safe ! Are you kidding me !"holler Harry."What's his name… William Chambers ? He's a Death 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 benignity in his sum. He hardly makes plenty money to get by on."

"So he moonlights for Lucius Malfoy as a end feeder !"exclaimed Harry."At least he doesn't know that the boy is mine. Thank Merlin for that."Cho's face dropped with surprise at these actor's line.

"How could you possible know that we haven't told him ?"she asked. Now Gabriella stood, stroked Jamie's impudence and took him in her own arms, patting his back as he rested against her shoulder.

"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 berm."You small prevaricator. You looked me straight in the eye and told me he fell into the abyss."Harry turned his spinal column.

"Don't you look away from me !"Cho yelled."Let me see your face."Harry acquiesced. When he faced her, any anger he felt evaporated and his shoulder joint slumped.

"This is pointless,"he breathed."He'll be back here any moment. Maybe he's a kindly old doddered just trying to score a buck any way he can. Cho, you can't take a chance."He placed his hands on her shoulders."I have money and it's my responsibility. Let me at to the lowest degree help pay the government note until Susan B. Anthony alumna. Let me at to the lowest degree give you a roof over your brain where the fireplace works and you'll know you'll be safe."

"It's beautiful there,"added Gabriella."Green fields… azure seas… cute Greek son with bare chests."She winked and kissed Jamie on the head. Cho crossed her arms and walked over to the open fireplace that had no fuel for the fire.

"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 network ? I miss the family so, and we are going to severalize them… after Tony graduates."

"That's one matter the Ministry can do,"said Harry, suddenly glad Cho was changing her judgment."But you can tell Tony later. First, we need to—"There was a snap and an instant later the front door opened. Gabriella motioned for Harry to hide out. He had just enough time to dash under his cloak and gather himself into the corner before Chalmers walked through the front line doorway.

The elderly man was too fragile and not often taller than Cho. When he entered he took his coat off and hung it against the bulwark with a sticking charm.

"Beautiful day today, young lady Yangtze,"he said with a toothy grin."Beautiful Day !"He stepped over and gave Gabriella a nod."And thank you missy for the okay meal."He paused."It's been a while since…"His face grew wistful, but then he shook his head."No matter."He slapped his manus together and pulled his wand."Let me clear these beauty for you."Harry stood silently against the wall as Chalmers walked with a bit of a hitch into the kitchen. There was a trenchant rhythm to the cadence of his walk of life that Harry, two calendar month ago, would not otherwise have noticed. It was then that Harry saw a change in Gabriella's gloriole ; something was wrongfulness.

"Oh,"said Chalmers with a tone of surprisal in his representative."Three cups. Did you have another visitant today ?"Without waiting for an answer he levitated the dishes into the sump where the scrub brush began to wash them. Cho was fixed, but Gabriella stepped over without hesitation.

"Yes,"she said quite calmly,"a girl of ours, also from Hogwarts. She had to leave early to get back for her afternoon exam."Chalmers nonchalantly straightened the president.

"Well, you know how Mr. Goldstein feels about visitant, Miss Chang."He settled himself into one of the cushioned chairs and began to unfold the newspaper, still scanning the way with the optic."At least strangers."Harry could severalise that the old man was on guard, sensing something that was not aright."Just tryin'to keep you and the babe safe he is."

Baby Jamie babbled something and then pointed at Harry hidden beneath the cloak. The motion was enough to cause Chalmers to wrick and take care back into the far recess at the cracked and empty bulwark. Jamie babbled again and gave a light laughter. Chalmers smiled.

"fountainhead, wee Jamie is well-chosen enough to have guests."He held up the forepart page."What's your friend's epithet, fille ?"

"Hermione… Hermione Granger,"answered Gabriella. There was the thin break and she added,"And I should be on my way as well."She gave Cho a hug and kissed Jamie's impertinence."Thanks so much for letting us visit. He's just endearing and you're a fantastic mother."

"Thank you, Gabriella,"answered Cho, kissing Gab's cheek."I couldn't ask for a kinder, heater Friend. Please come visit after the marriage ceremony. I think I'll feel more well-fixed then - Mrs. Goldstein."

"Oh ! That reminds me,"said Gabriella suddenly."Mr. Chalmers is it ?"Chalmers set his paper in his lap.

"Just Chalmers, missy."

"Cho was showing me the nursery and I noticed the binding window. We had discussed placing a waterproofing good luck charm, but I wasn't for certain if—"

"Yes, missy,"cut in Chalmers proudly."The unit sign of the zodiac is sealed tight. No one can get in without license. It's a Bucinum charm."

"Oh dear,"said Gabriella."A Bucinum good luck charm ?"Chalmers nodded his forefront."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 person tries to dampen in the Bucinum appeal blows them up. That could harm the child. Do you cogitate you could show me where you set the charms ? Together we can make the replacement."

"Oh, please do, Chalmers,"asked Cho pleadingly."Gabriella's a first class crone. She studied at Al Bsahri you know."

"Did she now,"said Chalmers with interestingness as he took to his feet."I've heard they reopened the school this year."

"Yes,"said Gabriella,"it's quite lovely."

"Well, let's have a look 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 look door beneath his invisibility cloak, Jamie followed him with his gaze, pointing with his mitt. Cho walked to the doorway and opened it.

"When… when do you marry Gold— Anthony ?"Harry asked.

"Christmastime,"Cho answered. She tried to make the word sound exciting and vibrant, but it fell flat.

"Cho, you don't have to—"

"Don't I ?"Cho snapped."Don't I ? Tony loves me for all the world. He'd risk his life 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 happy,"said Harry quietly."You deserve ..."but Harry's words failed him."I'm so sorry."Cho ushered Harry outside to the nominal head stoop and shut the threshold behind her. She lifted his cloak to expose 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 lips, and then draped the cloak back over him."I'll ask him about your offering. He's a proud man, Harry, and a bit refractory. You should be able to value 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 on his digit. The door opened and Gabriella appeared followed closely by Chalmers.

"Ah, here you are,"said Gabriella. The sun was warm on her face as she put her arms out and gave Gabriella a hug."The apartment is sealed tight."Cho took in a deep breather.

"Good, thank you,"she said."I was just giving Jamie a little sun."

"Which he can get through the window, my dear,"said Chalmers herding Cho back into the theatre."Now come inside."He seemed quite protective, but Harry wondered if it wasn't something more."A pleasure to meet you, Miss Darbinyan, was it ?"

"Yes, and a pleasure it was to run across you,"Gabriella replied."It's ripe to see my friends in such all right hands. Cho, I'll be by before hanker with those endowment I promised."

"giving ?"Cho asked."Oh, yes, giving. Yes, yes, anytime. Be safe ; there's a quiet distance to Apparate just behind that grayish construction over there."They kissed good-bye and Gabriella began to walk down the street, Harry at her side. Chalmers stood for some prison term after Cho had gone inside, watching from the stoop. Gabriella waved one last time as she turned the nook out of batch. Harry was about to pull up 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 aureole of two diminished figures. They hadn't been there a minute before.

"Did you see them ?"Harry asked."I didn't hear an Apparation."

"theatre elves,"Gabriella whispered,"at least one of them. The other… I can't tell."

"But there weren't any theater elves at the house,"said Harry.

"I know,"she replied."They must belong to somebody else, or one's with its master."

"Who ?"

Gabriella just shrugged.

"How did he be intimate your public figure ?"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 pike as me ? It was foolishness !"

"He'd have found out soon enough,"said Gabriella with a sigh as the two turned another corner. The street was deserted save for two vernal male child playing football near the end by a chain-link fence. Gabriella pulled her scepter. She was going to assault the two that were nearing the recession, 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 twelve, Grimmauld home. They waited to see if they might give been followed, then checked that the streets were clear. Finally, Harry uncloaked and walked up the footmark to the door, knocking twice. The door opened of its own accord and the two walked in. There was a rustle, a thud, and then Sirius appeared atop the stairway wearing boxers and a tee shirt. sceptre drawn he pointed it blindly toward the room access.

"Freeze !"he screamed."Or I'll obliterate you !"

"I hope not,"answered Harry."I'm kinda hungry."

"Harry ?"Canicula said, blinking his eyes."Harry what the hell… Gabriella ?"Canicula made an attempt at slicking back his hairsbreadth and started down the stairs.

"It's after midday,"Harry said."Don't recount me you were still sleeping."

"I was up late hold up night. Remus finished grading papers and we— Hey, isn't your Potions exam today ?"Sothis'eye guessing to the door."And why didn't you use the floo ? What's going on ?"

"Erm… can we eat first,"asked Harry.

"What,"shot Sirius 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 black optic caught a soft-spot in Dog Star'bark."Well… okay."

The three moved into the kitchen and Sirius started toward the stove. He grabbed a spatula and summoned some sausage when Gabriella took his hand.

"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. ptyalize it out."Harry tried, but he couldn't hold his godfather's gaze.

"I… I, erm…"He sucked in a large gulp of air and exhaled."Igoterpregnant."

"What ?"Sirius asked."What was that ?"

"I… I got her pregnant."

"What !"Sirius stood and birl towards Gabriella."You're meaning ?"Gabriella turned the sausages with her wand."How could you—"

"Let him wind up,"she replied, floating three plate out onto the table.

"Not Gabriella,"Harry said. Sothis turned back to face Harry."Cho… Cho Chang."Sirius fell back into his death chair.

"Are you sure ?"asked Sirius with a disbelieving tone."Because sometimes witches can—"

"Oh,"cut in Gabriella sharply."He's sure."

"Falco columbarius,"he whispered, scratching his chin."Harry, you should know 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 pregnant ?"Expressionless, Gabriella placed the sausage balloon on the home plate and added some warmed beans.

"It was last year,"she answered sitting down and handing Canicula a fork.

"The baby was born in July,"said Harry."On my birthday. His name is Jamie."

Dog Star'crotch fell with a clank onto the plate, splattering red beans 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 mogul. So, I offered to bear them stay at your rook. You know… until Susan B. Anthony alum. Merlin lay aside his soul if he ever—"

"My castling ? Antony ? Who's Anthony."

"Goldstein. Well Cho calls him Tone. How cheesy is that ? Anyhow, the thing is…."

It was well into the evening before Harry had set Sirius straight on all the detail, uncertain as they were. Sirius then began a address that lasted for nearly thirty minutes and included a few reference work to Harry's parents. But when Harry began to dig into deeper Sirius changed the subject. After venting about Harry's imbecility, he had agreed to use up Anthony, Cho and Jamie in and aid in any way he could.

The sausage balloon Cho cooked little Thomas More than a memory, Sothis grew thirsty again and he convinced them to go to a Thai eatery that he had found just a few blocks away. When they arrived, Harry discovered that it was run by an old Muggle, but frequented by a number of witches and thaumaturge. The occasional heartbeat of magic that occurred never seemed to faze the old man. Sirius called him a learned person, a Muggle in tune with the thaumaturgy of the instinctive globe 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 bit.

"What's that, Harry ?"asked Sirius. Harry looked up into Sirius'eyes ; they were smiling. Harry's cecity didn't allow him to see that the crinkle that had once drawn the sides of Sirius'oculus down were now curling upward. But he could sense the brightness of the aura in his godfather's expression. For a present moment, Harry considered telling Sothis of their architectural plan at the Ministry. Gabriella touched his script.

"More tea ?"the waiter asked, and all three nodded. Harry continued to bet toward Canicula who was as happy as ever. The thought of asking Sothis to assist them, particularly at the Ministry, curdled the curry in Harry's tummy.

"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 bite."It's a bit zesty tonight."

"Yeah… yeah that's it,"Harry answered. He wiped his oral fissure with his napkin and set it on the mesa."Erm… Actually, I think I intimately be—"

"Harry,"interrupted Gabriella,"I have to go before it gets past midnight."

"Is it getting that late ?"asked Canicula, his sassing one-half full. Harry shot her a glimpse ; his mouth frowned. He didn't want her at the Ministry any more than he wanted Canicula. There were too many memories—bad computer memory. Then she said something that surprised even Harry.

"I need to see Jamie,"she said,"just for a second. I should give taken care of it this morning, but I forgot. I've not been in strain with the old ways for some meter. Mama would be disappointed in me."Unconsciously, Harry began to rub the firedrake cicatrice that was emblazoned on his veracious forearm.

He remembered what Gabriella's mother, Soseh, had said at the end of finish school year."The thanksgiving is inscribed on the males of each generation by the adult female of the generation before. It will be Gabriella's responsibility to pass the thanksgiving to your sons."Once it was clear 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 bowlful of yellowness and gold. Then his mute eyes looked toward hers."It's too severe,"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 Canicula.

"We were followed after we left Cho's flat,"said Gabriella."But it makes no difference. By honour, I have no choice. It must be done, and the Sooner it's done the corking the tycoon of Jamie's blessing, of his protection. He'll pauperization Asha's help in these times of darkness."

"You mentioned the dying Eater bodyguard, but you didn't cite that you were followed,"said Sirius, his heart turning toward Harry with a more serious spotlight.

"Dragon said that Chalmers doesn't work nighttime, at least not for Goldstein. Sirius, you need to go with her, retain her safe. That way you can see Jamie and pass on the news program, maybe convince Cho to displace into the castle tonight while Chalmers is away."

"And you ?"Canicula asked.

"I'll just question back to Hogwarts. If the two were a mates of Lucius'thugs out to get me it'd be better if I wasn't there."Sothis sighed, looking longingly at an unmoved barbeque spare 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 enchantress and mavin to Apparate. Sirius took Harry by the arm and looked him in the heart, but Harry turned away to look down the street as a car past by.

"heterosexual to Hogwarts,"said Canicula 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 open-eyed and say, ‘ Hi !'to Ron and Hermione for me."She pulled her wand as did Dog Star."Oh, and don't worry ; Jamie will be mulct. I'll make sure that no evil harms your child."Harry tried to muster a smile.

"Did I ever tell you how a lot I loved you ?"he asked and then they kissed."I'll see you at school day in the morning. keep her safe, Sirius."There was a snap and both Gabriella and Sirius had vanished. Harry focused his vision to another part of Jack London and in the adjacent second found himself at a telephone box above the entrance to the Ministry. As off-putting as Apparating was for Harry, he was ill prepared for what happened next.

"Stupefy !"The flak of red Inner Light hit Harry squarely in the thorax, knocking him backward some ten to twenty ft, his wand tumbling from his hand."There, Harrington,"a with child cloaked figure said with a rather blustery voice, picking up Harry's verge,"and you were about ready to wet your pants. He is a boy, after all."Still on his spine Harry could sense them stepping toward him.

"I… am not… a… boy !"he rasped. This made the closest genius laugh, but the smaller man behind him said nothing.

"Well, I've got your wand, niggling man. I doubt you'll—"

"Diffindo !"Harry hissed, stretching his correctly arm forward. Orange light erupted from the shoulder down and extended out and beyond Harry's fingertips.

The front of the destruction eater's cloak looked as if a great saber had just slashed across it, tearing material and flesh alike up and outward. Harry could feel the blood spatter his face. The Death Eater screamed falling to his knee joint. Unsteadily, Harry stood. The unscathed place seemed to be spinning. He was featherbrained and a garner champion of nausea was building inside.

"Accio wand !"he cried, wrenching his wand from the dying Eater's clench and in to his own handwriting. Limping forward he yelled"BOY ?"Then he placed his wand on the forehead of his foe."BOY ?"descent continued to trickle from beneath the crouching destruction Eater's ribs and between the hands that clutched his pectus."Who do you work for ?"Harry asked, already knowing the solution.

Harry had focused so often aid on the with child Death feeder, he had neglected the smaller one that had retreated to the phantasma.

"I said WHO - DO - YOU - WORK FOR !"Standing over his cowering dupe, it was then that he noticed the lights - lots of lights. Five more than auras had Apparated ; he was surrounded. Seemingly emboldened by the new arrivals, the lowly death eater emerged from the shadows and held out his wand.

"Expel—"There were three spells cast almost simultaneously that stopped the wizard before he had a chance to finish.

"Stupefy !"“ Diffindo !"and Harry's shield charm,"Contego !"

Only, Harry didn't need the shield charm… for himself. The first gear tour came from one of the approaching auras Harry presumed to be to a greater extent Death feeder. The bolt, not the unattackable Harry had ever seen, knocked the diminished wizard backward, albeit only a few animal foot. Fearing for his spirit, and rightfully so, the diminutive end eater Disapparated. The endorsement magic spell came from yet another aura, lowly yet intense. It was directed at the crippled wizard crouching before Harry. The result was frightful and instantaneous ; the Death Eater's caput fell to the gravelled pavement and his torso slumped forward, draining blood at Harry's feet, a boiling pool of ignitor like lave erupting from a volcano.

Harry spun to face the five wizard approaching him, holding his verge high. Two showed hints of both red and green in their nimbus as they drew nearer."prideful Curse ?"Harry wondered. And then a vocalism came to him that startled him more than that of the former expiry feeder.

"Bloody underworld, James ! What in merlin's epithet did you do that for ?"

The gloss, the canter, the tone… Harry knew at once it was Ron Weasley.


Harry Potter and the birthing of a New Sun

Chapter 16 - The incumbrance Calls
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"He was reaching for his wand,"said James IV, pointing at the decapitated dying eater at Harry's foot."He was going to shoot down Harry !"

"He was on his articulatio genus,"snapped Hermione."Harry had him firmly in control."

"He didn'have the… that little guy in control,"countered Patrick."I had teh take him down."

"You're just lucky he was as frightened as a molamar in water,"said Anthony Goldstein with a rather swaggering voice.

"Goldstein ?"asked Harry in surprise as the grouping converged on him.

"Damn, Potter,"said Goldstein,"you're a bloody mess. And I do entail bloody. Scourgify !"The sputter covering the front of Harry's face, shirt and trouser vanished, though the pool on the pavement remained."There, that's better."

"Who in Hades told Goldstein ?"cried Harry.

"Actually, ceramist,"replied Goldstein,"I stumbled on this merry troupe as they tried to filch out. Seemed like a salutary DA mission.

"Are you kidding ?"snapped Harry, gazing at the aura of the man who'd be his son's father. There was a pureness about it, but Harry was to ignite to debate 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 rakehell, pooling at his feet. Hermione ran over to him and hugged him.

"Who were they ?"she asked."nonentity's supposed to have sex we're here."

"That's what I thought,"answered Harry."I was trying to get an answer when St. James the Apostle here decided to playact the butcher."Harry turned to the 2d twelvemonth."The next time I need your help Chang, I'll ask for it."Harry sensed at once the angriness construction within the pocket-size wizard, but then it subsided almost as quickly as it came.

"I… I was just trying too intemperate I guess,"answered James."It was scary."

"And why are you two,"Harry pointed to both James and Patrick,"here in the get-go post ? Stumble across the troupe as well ?"He shot Ron a glance and wished he could get eyes of expiry.

"Patrick overheard our plans and said he'd tell on if we didn't bring ‘ em along,"answered Ron."It was supposed to be tranquillize ; I didn't pattern we'd run into end Eaters."

"If that's what they were,"said Harry, still holding his wand at the set."They acted more like hired thugs than Death Eaters."

The night air was cold and quiet. He could feel the dampness of a melt off mist wrap about his face, sending chill down his spine. For a moment he thought of Dementors, but the frigidness, this chilled clamminess was something else, something more intuitive. The whispers of death were swirling ; somehow Harry knew that. And not for the man that had just been slain, the voicelessness were telling Harry that Thomas More would soon join the short man at his feet. But who ?

"Goldstein,"Harry said suddenly,"Anthony, really you… you have to—"

"Well, we're here now,"said James."Dispatchio !"The dead virtuoso and the consortium of blood beneath him vanished."Let's say we get in, get the cloak and get out before anymore… er, dark wizards show up. Wouldn't want Luci—"

"Where'd you learn that spell ?"queried Hermione."That's fifth year."James II shrugged his shoulders.

"My sister I guess,"he said."She's the smart one in the family."

"Yeah… I see,"said Harry, noticing James IV'aura fade from leafy vegetable to red then back from red to green. For the initiative fourth dimension, he thought Henry James might not really be an ally."Ron, maybe you should take—"

"William James is right,"interrupted Anthony."Best if we get down into the Ministry before another dozen Death eater Apparate in."

"But—"

"Harry,"interrupted Hermione,"let's just get downstairs. We can tattle then."Harry heaved a sigh and the group squeezed into the earpiece booth. Ron said the password his Father had told him and a facile orb appeared, scanning Ron in a poorly white light. Then, with a jar, the elevator began to plummet. Harry tried to look at Ron and suggest to the carrottop that he should say Harry's mind, but his eyes were clean and Ron didn't discern the facial nerve expression as he once would have. Harry silently cursed his cecity.

Harry's heart began to speed. If the two indorsement years were under the Imperious cuss, they were likely in Lucius Malfoy's ascendence. He was feeling strongly like he wanted to wretch onto the dressed marble floors just as the doors opened onto the resplendent ingress hall of the Ministry of legerdemain. The six stepped out, verge drawn.

After only a few tread, they all saw where the cloak was to be displayed - it was obvious. A with child glass shell had already been erected. On a pole was the torso of a manikin and adjacent to that a halcyon statue of Harry with his wand drawn. They all stepped tight. There was no cloak, but there was a memorial tablet. It read,"This site commemorates the defeat of the shadow ace Voldemort by the grand mavin Harry ceramicist, fiat of pigeon hawk, starting time family, who faced his foe wand-to-wand and struck him down."
"Order of merlin ?"asked Goldstein surprised."I didn't know—"

"Neither did I,"cut in Harry.

"They'll probably award it to you during the ceremony tomorrow,"said Hermione brightly. Harry turned to her.

"If we do this right, there won't be any ceremony,"said Harry shortly."No Dark cloak, no rejoinder of Voldemort, no observance. Ron, do you have any idea where—"

There was a resonance coming from down the Granville Stanley Hall and a swoon freshness that was growing nearer. It sounded as if someone were humming. The mathematical group began to pull back, away from the display shell ; all, that is, except Saint James. Harry went to snap up his sleeve, but the boy wouldn't movement.

"Is this it ?"he asked, still staring at the re-enactment before him."Is this how it happened ? You struck him down ? Nobody could tell apart me for sure, not even Gabriella."Harry held more tightly to James'robes and began to pull him bodily across the floor.

"King James,"Harry said, huffing between his dentition,"there are some matter you can't believe. start, never believe a word Trelawney says unless she sounds like a hob on fire whisky. secondment, never believe a word written in the Dailey Prophet, unless it's written by Luna Lovegood. And finally, never… ever believe anything the Ministry says - ever !"He continued dragging James by the rachis of his shoe collar until they were hidden between two marble columns.

"boldface Christian Bible, Harry,"continued James passively."But I never believed you could bunk Lord Voldemort wand-to-wand. Tell me, is there still a voice of the nighttime Godhead that courses through your nervure ? That could be useful, if—"

"Shhh."All was tacit, keep open for the occasional cracking coal from one of the hearth that surrounded the grand entrance hall and the humming that was growing louder by the second. Again Harry tried to gather Ron's attention, but he was fussy whispering something in Hermione's ear as they clung together behind a suit of armour opposite the outflow of Magical Brethren. At another pillar just behind Harry and James, Patrick and Susan Brownell Anthony crouched. The voicelessness of dying were growing louder. So trashy, in fact, that Harry turned to see if perhaps a ghost or something more were at his right hand side. Only Jesse James was there, kneeling quietly on the level.

The light grew brighter and then the hag appeared. Harry could create out her aura, a shimmering gold, but not her lineament at this distance. In front of her was a cloak levitated some two feet off the ground. She was approaching the display instance when James began to wriggle under Harry's script.

"Hold still,"he whispered, but the marble walls took in the sound, echoed them about, amplifying the disturbance such that it was audible to the witch at the exhibit causa. Harry noticed the hesitation. He expected her to turn, but she did not. Instead, she levitated the cloak onto the body within the exhibit caseful and closed the shabu threshold. She cast a charm with her scepter and then turned as if to leave. In turning, she revealed her case to the others, but Harry was still unable to spot who the enchantress was. From the faint gasp from across the hall it was brighten that Hermione, for one, knew who it was. The witch stepped toward the fountain and took something out of her sac, perhaps a coin, Harry couldn't tell. In a movement that was as graceful and as cunning as any Harry had ever seen, she flipped the target into the outpouring. It spun in high spirits into the air and, just as it crested in its arc, her former hand pointed her verge toward it and cast the spell.

"Immobulus !"Harry recognized the part at once ; it was mollie Weasley, Ron's mother.

Half of the light leaving her wand passed the coin cleanly and struck the witch and wizard by the wooing of armour. The other half, however, glinted off the coin, reflecting toward and blasting the two wizards next to the chromatography column behind Harry. With one spell she had immobilized Ron, Hermione, Marcus Antonius and Patrick. Again, James wriggled under Harry's grasp and again Harry held him fast.

"I know you're there,"Mrs Weasley said with a vox that held no fear."I'm afraid it's well after time of day. If you're lost, I'm sure I can help you retrieve your way. Come out from behind the pillar and let's see where you belong. Shall we ?"

Again Saint James the Apostle pushed against the weight unit of Harry who was pressing him hard against the marble floor. Finally, Harry had had enough. He couldn't risk of infection what Saint James might do.

"Incarcerous !"he called. Ropes sprung from his scepter and began to wind themselves about Henry James.

"Sectumsempra !"cried James, slashing the ropes with his wand and pushing Harry away. Then he pointed his scepter at Mrs Weasley."Avada Ked— !"
"Stupefy !"she called, her charm interrupting the boy's. The red lightness nearly strike James River who deflected it at the live moment, sending the shaft into the ceiling above, showering them all with pieces of marble and splinters of walnut tree. This was no second year wizard.

Harry jumped to his infantry and cast his own stunning spell, but again James deflected it. It was then that mollie Weasley noticed who he was.

"Harry ?"she called.

"fell, Mrs. Weasley !"he cried in homecoming."hide !"

Jesse James cast a jet of red light Harry's way. Harry focused on where he needed to be—out of the shaft of light's path. Suddenly, everything slowed and he found himself running to the right, toward the spring, just as the bolt of red passed his left elbow. William James smiled.

"Impressssive, Harry,"James hissed in a much higher, frigid voice, a voice that shook Harry to the core. It couldn't be."You've learned well from the centaur. I did as well ; although I suspect my method acting of extracting the noesis I required were somewhat different than yours."There was another bolt, dark-green, and again Harry disappeared and reappeared into another share of the wondrous hall.

"Diffindo !"called Mrs. Weasley. Her spell affect Saint James on the leave behind shoulder, leaving a nasty slash. James spun on the Wiccan.

"Avada Kedavra !"

This time the common light source sailed toward molly Weasley. Harry began to levitate a marble bench into the beam's route, but quickly realized the bench was too heavy and would not travel fast enough. Instead he ran, slowing time and bending the space between them tightly together. He grabbed her by the articulatio humeri and pushed her to the ground just as the flack past the duet, smashing into the wall behind and showering them with dust and tilt. Harry landed on his back 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 short breath of air."In… James."Without questioning further, Mrs. Weasley's back went rigid and she rose to face St. 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 foot in front of her.

"leave-taking the boy, Voldemort,"she commanded, brandishing her wand."He can't possibly be of any use to you, now we know the truth."

"Truth ?"queried Jesse James as his oculus shot toward the shadow cloak still protected behind the sealed glass. Harry rose to his articulatio genus, trying to play air back into his lungs."The truth is that there are only two things in this room I want… and you're not one of them."His verge rose in unison with Harry's, only Harry was unable to gasp the spell.

"Avada Kedavra !"

Placing himself between Mrs. Weasley and Voldemort, Harry tried to grow up in front of the jet of commons but the killing cuss would win the race this time ; he knew that. For her division, mollie Weasley cast a shield appealingness about them both, hoping to deflect the turn, but they all knew it wouldn't work. In her last instant of life-time her hands gripped Harry by the shoulders and she cast a coup d'oeil down into his subterfuge oculus, a glimpse that held love and compassion, a glance that was filled with concern not for herself but for the boy before her… a glimpse he couldn't see. She fell dead to the base.

"NO !"blazon out Harry as he spun and cast another slashing spell against James who deflected it with relief."You're being controlled, James ! fighting back !"King James I only laughed.

"YOU stood face-to-face with the Great Dark Lord Voldemort and defeated him ?"King James mocked."What a gag !"

With Mrs. Weasley stagnant, the while she cast on the other four wizards began to endure off. Slowly, they were coming to there senses, working to regain command of their motion. James walked over to a groaning Patrick who was still prone on the floor. He grabbed Saint Patrick's haircloth and pulled his head off the ground.

"This one here,"called St. James, his voice echoing off the walls,"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 instruction. Shall I kill him following ?"

"Expelliarmus !"Harry cried, but once again Epistle of James deflected the patch.

"Haven't you figured it out yet, Potter ? Even with the attainment of the centaur, you're as slow up as your short parents. Nonetheless, you could be utilitarian ; the Malfoy boy suggested as much. I heard, perhaps, he's not as dead as everyone thinks."He released Patrick whose head cracked against the I. F. Stone floor. But instead of striking at Harry, William James held his wand to the glass display type."Diffindo !"The bang of lighting struck the glass, but held firm as if swallowing the get-up-and-go of the blast, the glass began to glow. For the first time, the smile on James Chang's face disappeared."Diffindo !"he called again, and again the Department of Energy was absorbed and the glassful grew brighter still.

"You've bolt down your alone fortune for opening the pillowcase,"Harry sneered."But then… I always heard that that was one of your corking weaknesses… TOM… being dullard !"

Another blast of light slam toward Harry ; it was red not green, not a killing expletive. Once more, Harry slipped out of its way. This meter he moved quickly around and behind St. James reappearing with his baton drawn.

"Stupefy !"Harry cried, sending a bam of red at James'back, but again the maven deflected the tour as if swatting a fly and then turned back toward the display case."You're not trying to defeat 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 babe. Soon, I will be—"Suddenly two more spells came from beyond the fountain. Ron and Hermione had revived themselves plenty to push, but barely.

"No ! Get out of here !"Harry screamed."It's Voldemort ! Run !"

"I don't have fourth dimension for this,"cried William James, sending three More blasts of light at the glass case. On the one-third dash the glass cracked, but only just. Harry could recount that the spells that James had cast over the utmost few second were draining him. He looked exhaust, almost vulnerable. At the same mo the ardor ringing the sublime hall roared to life.

"Finally,"Harry whispered,"some help."sensation after wizard appeared at each hearth, brandishing their wands."Whatever clip you thought you had has just expired, Tom."

The room erupted in red visible light. Seven blasts came at the small wizard by the show slip. Two struck on-key while the others struck the glowing glass, shattering it completely. The large drinking glass shards that scattered the floor, however, were still glowing as brightly as ever. There were Thomas More bang of red directed at Harry.

"It's me !"he yelled."Harry Potter !"

"Harry !"cried Hermione from the far side of the hall."It's not the Ministry ! It's—"A blast of red dropped her to the reason.

"Hermione !"cried Ron."He cast a spell knocking the wizard by Hermione backward into the wall with a loud crack. He pointed towards another hotshot and ran at him."Leave her alone, you bloody—"There was a bam of purpleness and he too fell to the floor.

"We're scholarly person !"Harry yelled, but it only focused the aid of another barrage of red bolt his way. Harry cast a shield charm and sent them flying in every conceivable focussing. The attack weakened him."Are you sick ? ! We're—"And then he noticed it - the unmistakably bright emerald green aureole of Draco Malfoy, stepping from the flaming of one of the fireplaces. He had warned Harry and now it was too late.

Simultaneously, ropes began to swirl about Ron, Hermione, Patrick, and to the highest degree importantly James who was still motionless on the level. Somehow Mark Antony had managed an escape and stood at Harry's side. There were nearly a dozen death eater moving in on them.

"demand the cloak, Draco,"drawled a tall wizard in dark black robes with crimson liner.

"Lucius ?"Harry sneered in the adept's direction."Is that you ? I should have known by the sickening scandalmongering colour."The whizz said aught, trying to discount Harry."Now that I'm blind, you're much better looking in — bang that. No you're not. You're still as often a pig as you always were. Still, somehow… missing an arm suits you. How'd you lose it again ?"The goading worked.

"Big give-and-take for a screen boy, ceramist,"he snapped.

"Now, now… marijuana cigarette and stones…. But then I guess six month with Dementors and stupe will curdle anyone's conversational capabilities."Harry could see that Dragon was moving over the glowing chalk and into the case to retrieve the robe. Harry turned to face him.

"Hey ! blonde son of a bitch ! I wouldn't go in there if I were—"

"What's this ?"Draco cried out. He had come to molly Weasley's eubstance. The colour of his nimbus blanched."I gave specific parliamentary law ! Who cast a killing curse ?"Harry could distinguish immediately that Draco was livid.

"gather the cloak !"yelled Lucius.

"But father—"

"NOW !"

"Don't do it !"yelled Harry.

Draco moved forward toward the case. Suddenly, the shatter glass that was still glowing with the vim it had absorbed exploded in a brilliant Edward White news bulletin. Draco flew up into the air, nearly striking the cap, and then landed with a sickening compaction against the marble level.

"Draco !"cried Lucius. Goldstein took the distraction as his opportunity. His wand erupted with bright blueish light, but instead of being directed at one of the Death Eaters, it was directed toward one of the portrait hanging mellow on the wall of the grand hall. The portrait sparked, zapping the elderly wizard that had, so far, slept through the ruckus.

"Hey,"the wizard in the portrait yelped."No need for—"

"Get assistant you idiot !"yelled Goldstein. The star in the portrait, seeing the destruction, disappeared instantly."It won't be long now,"Goldstein muttered, staring at the empty portraiture.

There was another fusillade of piece headed at the two wizards and together they fended them off, but Harry was growing rickety by the minute. Lucius ignored Goldstein's call for aid, he ignored the battle of verge, and he ignored the crumpled heap on the story that was his son. Instead, unwilling to bear upon 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 demise Eater approached the fatal cloth and grabbed it just as James, still bound by circle, began to come to his senses. With lust-filled eyes, Lucius only half glanced at Draco, still motionless on the floor, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. Instead, he focused fully on the black robes held before him.

"Luciusss,"uttered James breathlessly,"you fool."

Malfoy wrenched the textile out of the decease eater's men. Quickly, he slipped it on and waited as if anticipating something to materialise.

"You expected, maybe, a enthronization ?"Harry sneered."Perhaps a diadem and yellow pitcher plant as we all bow down to kiss your fundament ? It's a stupid piece of fabric !"

"kill him,"Malfoy drawled, pointing with his dear arm toward Harry."killing HIM !"Harry grabbed Anthony by the arm as the bolts of green approached and in an instant they were on the other side of the resplendent residence that now appeared more like a war zone than the showpiece of the Ministry. Looking back, they saw that the patch where they once stood was nothing now but a crater. Goldstein grabbed Harry's arm.

"How did you do—"

"You are NOT going to pretermit the marriage,"Harry snapped. He took in a deep breathing place, reaching out with his head to pick any magic he could from the humans around him. He let out a long, slacken exhale and pointed his wand at the base.

"Festio !"he cried, ripping dozens of marble tile upward and sending them toward his opposer. The dying eater tried to shatter the tile with magic spell, but the activeness only served to make thousands of tiny missile all headed in their steering. A few cast shield charms in time, but most were struck. Above the din of riot, Harry could hear James cursing Lucius.

"Release 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 snaps began to satisfy the room. Auror after Auror was Apparating within the grand dormitory. In an heartbeat, spells were flying everywhere. Blast after fire of sparkle, cutting down wizard after wizard, witch after witch. The room was filled with utter mayhem and Harry, his shoulders slumped with weariness, moved to enter the fray. Before Harry could take a wide-cut step, Goldstein grabbed him by the shoulder.

"You're no good to anybody beat,"he whispered."We need you, Harry. Me… I'm not much Thomas More than canon fodder."And then he charged forward ahead of Harry, taking down two Death Eaters before he too was stunned and fell to the ground. It was then that Harry noticed James. He was beginning to slue release of the bail that held him. Lucius, on the other hand, had abandoned everyone, including his son, and was racing to the floo. A bolt of orange easy struck the bulwark behind Harry, casting Harlan Fisk Stone and dust down his rachis. Lucius was about ready to scat. Harry focused on where he needed to be and before Lucius had taken another stone's throw, Harry was standing in front end of him, blocking the entrance to the fireplace.

"Silencio !"Harry whispered, holding his hired man between the cloak's sheep pen of mordant textile and directly against Malfoy's dresser. The champion tried to swan a spell, but was mute."Now, what with the sporty arm and all… that's what I call an improvement. You should remember to button up before you step out, Lucius. Now, take off the cloak before I blast it off."Malfoy's eyes glowed with pure hatred and he raised his wand."Expelliarmus !"Harry whispered again and Malfoy's sceptre flew from his manus. There was an formulation of surprisal in Malfoy's eye 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 base. It was then that Harry noticed that King James I had freed himself and now, forgoing the use of a wand, had his men around Malfoy's throat, squeezing… squeezing. He was in a frenzy of pure hatred and wrath.

"Do you cognize who I am ?"cried King James I."aspect into my eyes !"

Lucius, even Harry, saw the flaming of red light in James'eyes.

"N-Not pos-sible,"he gasped, unable to breathe."D-Dead."Then the full realization struck him."I-I never knew."

"You know now,"James River spat between gritted teeth."And now is sssoon enough."A flak of red ignitor came from the far bulwark and struck James in the face, but before he released his grip on Lucius, a dark acrid smoke issued from his mouth and nostrils. To Harry, it was a stream of green evil leaving the red behind. James'clutch on Lucius released and the blond sensation gasped for air, but instead of air he sucked in nothing but skunk. Voldemort had penetrated him. Stunned, Harry saw the green surround the yellow and snuff it out. Lucius took to his ft as a attack of red struck him in the rear. Nothing happened. It bounced off him, off the cloak he was wearing, like water off a duck's back. Before Harry could oppose, Lucius, Voldemort and the cloak had vanished in a swirl of green fire.

There were a duo more bam, a couple more ginger nut, and a couple more screams of pain, but finally the room fell silent. Only the phone of Rock scraping against the trading floor, as the remaining Aurors stepped across the junk, broke the silence.

"parson, over here. It's your… over here, sir. Please."For the inaugural meter, 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 font, while the Auror that called him levitated a wooden beam that had fallen over mollie Weasley up and out of the way. It landed with a dull clump.

"mollie ?"he uttered as if trying to gently wake up someone from a deep sleep."molly,"he said again only louder."MOLLY !"He grabbed his wife in his weaponry, pulling her up out of the dust ; pebbles cascaded to the floor."Oh my god, no. No… no… no… no… NOOO !"he screamed. The wondrous hall rumbled, shaking trench mortar loose from the wall onto the flooring below as Mr. Weasley buried his caput into the corner of his wife's cervix. He continued to heave cracking bastard as Harry looked down at William James, prone on the storey, arms outstretched toward the hearth. The green was gone ; only blue remained, but the twinkle was weak and flickered. He was near death. The second year began to grown, slowly looking up to bump Harry.

"H-Harry ? H-Help… I… I can't…."And he collapsed to the floor. Harry looked around at the destruction. King James I was not the only if one near death. Instinctively, he pulled his wand to summon the inwardness of Asha, but before he could spew the spell, piece of cake after snap began to fulfill the hall ; Healers were appearing. In a subject of indorsement nearly a dozen therapist had Apparated into the Ministry. One, an old thaumaturge with bushy gabardine hair's-breadth, was at James'side almost instantly. Scanning the boy with his baton he turned to Harry.

"You're the ceramicist boy, aren't you ?"Without waiting for an answer 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—"

"hoot it !"Harry screamed."His spirit's been sundered ! It probably has been all yr. Voldemort just left him to take on another horde. If you don't hurry, he'll die."For only a secondly, the healer tried to read the expression of Harry's cheek. He was old enough to know 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 feet and a flash lamp of tremendous purple light left his sceptre bathing St. James in its luminescence from headway to toe.

Harry stepped back, twisting his ankle on a Rock beneath his foot. He cursed. Other than the hoi polloi swarming about the hall, it was difficult to realise anything out. His vision was truly failing him in the rocky mess. He could see Mr. Weasley and heard his shortness of breath, and tried to piece his way through the junk as Auror and therapist 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. He needed to help… he needed to tail after Lucius, after Voldemort… he needed to —"

"minister of religion !"someone cried out."diplomatic minister ! It's your son !"Harry turned his attention on a radiance that lay prone on the floor near an Auror's feet.

"My god, Percy ? !"cried Mr. Weasley still reeling from the loss of his wife.

"No, sir,"the Auror replied."It's your youngest boy, Ron. Looks like a peach is all."

"That's not possible,"whispered Chester Alan 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 in good order arm was starting to prick with pain."Voldemort's back."

"What ?"

"A Horcrux,"Harry whispered nonsensically, stumbling closer to Mr. Malfoy and rubbing his justly forearm with his left-hand handwriting. It itched."There must sustain been Sir Thomas More than one. We… we came for the cloak."

"Jonah,"called another Healer to the old man that was working on James,"I need your help. It's the Malfoy boy. What's his epithet, Dragon ?"

"I thought he was absolutely ?"the old man called back. The younger Healer 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 storey."You knew they were coming ?"

Harry was feeling dazed. He looked toward Draco, toward Arthur Weasley. His right arm was aching. He had reached Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and his heart 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 ft.

"She loved you like a son !"he yelled and slapped Harry hard across the aspect."AND THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY HER !"

The reverse knocked Harry backwards and he slipped on the let loose stones that scattered the floor. Rising to one elbow he could taste the blood that was dripping from his cut lip, and then he noticed his mighty forearm - it was glowing. A thin etch of a runic letter had appeared, the Viswa Vajra. Harry had always wondered when it would happen, in what way 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 alternative but to obey.

The minister of Magic who had loved Harry as his own son was demanding solvent, answers Harry desperately wanted to establish. Draco and James I lay near death, and Harry had it in his power to easily economize them both. Voldemort had escaped with a new body and another piece of music of his soulfulness, and Harry anxiously needed to tail after them - the Wizarding world was again at risk. Once more, death began to whisper in his ear and he began to shudder.

In nastiness of that, none of it mattered. He had sworn an swearing ; it was a burden all members of the Votary carried. He was being summoned and so, clutching his scepter, he focused on where he needed to be. He felt a mild touch on his shoulder joint and see Hermione call up his figure. He looked up at her, wishing he could impart the sadness weighing on his soul.

"Harry…"

He was gone.


Harry ceramicist and the birthing of a New Sun

Chapter 17 - The evocation
~~~***~~~

When Dakhil left Harry at the stone steps leading to the front doors of Hogwarts castle, Harry had pleaded that he too fight the outpouring of Dementors and Death feeder raging against Dakhil's native land in the Carpathian Mountains. The vampire should have been gone for only a few twenty-four hour period, but it had been weeks and Dakhil had not returned nor had he sent word of the condition of the struggle. The Daily Prophet had been worthless, only reporting the difficultness that the versatile European Ministries were having trying to mask the numerous atrocities as innate calamity. More worrying was that Antreas had left shortly after Dakhil and had not been heard from since. Everyone who had left to fight seemed to vanish into a great swirl of malarky.

Before he disappeared, Dakhil had told Harry that his job was to protect Hogwarts, to protect the centaur of the Great timber from a darkness within the schoolhouse. Harry brushed the notion of swarthiness inside the palace walls aside, believing it was a backhanded vilification toward Harry, but now he was paying for it. Maybe that's why they were summoning him, he had failed in his one mission. Voldemort had not only escaped, but he had captured his Horcrux and was make to return to ability. Or was he ?

Voldemort had said he needed only two affair in the marvellous Charles Martin Hall of the Ministry - his old Black cloak and Harry. He had asked earlier if there was still function of the Dark Lord that coursed through Harry's mineral vein. What James, what Voldemort didn't know was that the dark, Voldemort's dirt, had been washed away by the Cleansing of the downfall in the Great forest. Perhaps, Voldemort was too frail without this other region of himself, perhaps—

It was hot, painfully hot - the first thing Harry noticed when he finally appeared at the summoning internet site - hot and dark. Not benighted in the common sense that there was no easy, although it was that too ; a want of loose wouldn't thing to a blind man. No, it was dark in the sentience that Harry saw null. There was no life here, no animation in any counseling, just heat, an intense, blistering heat that appeared, to Harry, like a tone down daze as he looked to the night sky and saw Ebyrth shining as bright as ever.

He had been able to Apparate across the Channel. From there he had tried once more, but couldn't make it across Germany. He was drained, ineffectual to upchuck another spell, and the richness of the earth's vim, normally plentiful in this area, was parched like an arid desert. There was nothing for Harry to draw on to replenish what wizard vigour he could spew. Instead, he used the powers of the Centaurs to bend space and tedious time, and he ran. He ran until his shoes wore through and fell away ; he ran over rivers that supported his free weight as if they were frozen hearty ; he ran past flying shuttle that hovered in the air like floating balloons. He ran for what felt the likes of mean solar day, stopping only to drink from the occasional current or brook. At one full stop, just out-of-door Vienna, he had grabbed half of a sandwich from the hand of a passerby who might as well have been a statue frozen in fourth dimension. His legs ached, his lungs wanted to explode and all he could see was the articulation of Ronan compelling him forward, not to meet the call of the Centaurus, but to answer the evocation of the tartar.

By the sentence he had begun the final rising, his mind was blurred with fatigue. He had paid no notice to the mount he had been climbing. Sweat burning his screen optic, he had ignored the screeching and the firing 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 bad again, even as the utmost drops of strength left his being.

This… this was the spot ; he was trusted. Huge draft of air splashed down his burning lungs unable to quench his thirst for O. His bare feet burned. Almost forgetfully, he held out his baton, hand shaking from exhaustion and mind knowing that he would not be able to cast a magic spell even if he wanted to. swither dripped down his forehead ; the heat was unbearable. He stood for a moment, baton outstretched, squinting with flunk eyes into the darkness. Merlin, it was hot. He moved to take a step forward, an acrid odour filling his anterior naris, when his left leg cramped and he fell look first hard into the stony basis. He didn't have the energy to pull out away from the scorching rock, nor could he spit out the backbone and tiny pebbles that filled his mouth and burned his tongue.

"Maybe,"he thought,"if I rest for just—"He passed out, dropping his baton at his side.

Unconscious on the sweltering earth, swirls of bullet and light coalesced in his psyche forming a scene of darkness and despair. Even in his dream the smell of burning pulp was unbearable. Yet, in his dream he could see - his vision, his sight was as good as ever. The smoke and the olfactory sensation cleared and he found himself at the falls, the pin where Gabriella lay face down in the tall grass, an pointer sunk deep into her back. In the air was sadness. No… Thomas More than lugubriousness - there was anger. It was Ron, screaming, screaming….

"NOOOOOOO !"

The globe shook.

"issue him ! convey him now ! Hurry !"

The scene changed. He was flying… flying in the air. Bounce. On a Hippogriff. bounciness. Harry felt a jarring pain against the incline of his ribs. He blinked. The blindness had returned, but he could sense that there was a faint beneath him. leap. A person.

"Hurry !"

The voice… he knew that interpreter. The darkness was clearing from his judgement. He was waking. He was being carried. A chemical group of five was climbing up the side of the batch. One had Harry over his shoulder. Weakly, Harry began to struggle to free himself.

"Easy, Harry,"the young man holding him said gently, but with some urgency in his voice."When we get you back to the stronghold, we'll consider a look at the suntan. Praise Asha you're a member of the Votary, or you'd be dead."

"An-Antreas ?"Harry muttered. He hadn't heard the voice of Gabriella's brother since the summer, but there was still no mistaking the undeniable intonation that was the exact replica of Antreas'Fatherhood, Grigor."What… What's going on ?"

"There will be sentence for answers later !"cried another vox."Run !"Harry knew at once the other man speech production. He also recognized the aura ; it was Dakhil. Troubling was the horse sense of concern, even fright in Dakhil's representative. He'd never heard that before, even when they were being attacked by vampires final summer. What was more disturb, however, was something that had bothered Harry since his last 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 personas present in his aura. For the first fourth dimension since he'd arrived at the Mountain of Singehorn, Harry felt cold.

They continued to rush along up the plenty. Occasionally, Dakhil or one of the others would shed enchantment back in the direction from which they came. Harry could not see, nor could he sense what it was they were firing upon. Curiously, there were no go cast in coming back. Soon, he began to notice Tree, botany, lifetime. After a few arcminute more, the band came to a orotund stone wall. One of the men cast a magical spell and an entranceway appeared. They passed through and the scuttle in the stone sealed behind them. The entire troupe sighed with substitute once they entered the chemical compound.

"What… what's going on ?"Harry asked weakly."Where are we ? Who were you firing at ? What— ?"

"Slow down. Slow down,"cut in Antreas."Let me see your face."Antreas lifted Harry's chin up and examined the left incline, the same side that fell unconscious into the scorching terra firma. He reached up and pulled the glasses from Harry's side, glasses he continued to wear in the promise, or perhaps as a symbolic representation to others, that one day he might see again. There was an plain tearing strait, and Harry could feel the charge plate lip pull away from the tegument on his face. When he reached to contract the glasses out of Antreas'hired hand, he could narrate that the left half of the inning was nearly melted away. He didn't want to think what his face must expect like. It didn't hurt. Harry moved to touch it but Antreas grabbed his hand.

"No !"he snapped, one-half trying to quell the distress in his own voice. He chuckled, but not convincingly."It… it's zero, Harry. It's just best if you don't—"

"See that he has his own Healer's tent at once !"ordered Dakhil to one of the other men that were in the group. The man began to slowly limp away."Hurry,"Dakhil yelled."rush before there's nothing left of his expression to put back together !"If Antreas had tried to calm Harry's nervus, Dakhil had served to dismember them."You two,"Dakhil continued pointing at two men they had passed as they entered into the compound."assistant carry the boy into the cave. I won't drop off another one tonight !"

With Antreas'assistance, they carried Harry further up the mountain. Dakhil followed, but was unwilling to assist. Typical, Harry thought. There was a small outcrop of rock and roll off to the incline and they turned toward it as Dakhil continued upward. Antreas stopped.

"If Singehorn is ineffectual to bid the others in meter,"he said,"we'll have to charge for the Centaur you spoke of."

"You were brave today, my son,"said Dakhil warmly."It is clear your Padre is with you. Your female parent would be proud. Keep the boy safe and see what the Healer can do with what remains."He turned to continue upward then stopped."Singehorn, I'm afraid, was not capable to call for our friends, not tonight."He sighed with a deep mournful breathing space."Still we must stay with the plan ; it's our solely Leslie Townes Hope. More may arrive before the moonlight's rise tomorrow."

Facing a stone wall, one of the men carrying Harry said something in a words he thought might be Russian and again an arch appeared where before was only rock and stone. Just before the rock face closed behind them Antreas called back to Dakhil who had followed them most of the way

"And the Centaur ?"he called.

"He's in your arms,"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 scepter at his neck 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 heated interpreter,"I'm sure no one would miss you. The next time you speak of the Votary, take care to choose the words carefully. I may give birth to excise the offending tongue."The Russian said null as Antreas pulled the wand back and the grip on Harry became more sure. They turned a corner and the cave opened out into a great hall filled with injured. To Harry, it looked as if a century lights had been spread across the floor. Almost immediately a murmur rippled across the tumid cavern.

"Is that him ?"“ The Chosen !"“ My god what happened to his font ?"“ Dragons."“ It's just a boy."“ That's not him ; some Muggle must deliver been caught in the crossfire."“ He's the Chosen !"
"Marek !"cried Dakhil."Marek ! This is a priority !"Harry noticed an orange coloring on the far position rise up from the ground. Marek was in use treating another patient and as he stood, Harry could narrate that he was a tumid man.

"They're ALL priorities !"he called back."Have one of the others—"

"damn it ! NOW !"yelled Antreas. This was not the Same Antreas that had waved good-bye to Harry and Gabriella as they began their summertime vacation. That Antreas was still trying to perfect his wand work, and his confidence interacting with people was shaky at best. While he made a passable neighbour on Privet Drive, he was an out-and-out mess around early sensation. This Antreas, however, the one standing before Harry, was more than just a foot soldier in this mountain struggle. He was clearly someone of importee.

Disgruntled, but acquiescing, Marek began to get over the vestibule as the three moved Harry into one of the tent that were set up along the side of the vauntingly chamber. He was placed on a bed, firm, but more prosperous than a blanket on the stone base outside. Once he was down, the two men left Antreas alone with Harry. For some time neither spoke and Harry noted his supporter's uncomfortableness.

"What is it Antreas ?"Harry asked. As he spoke, Harry noticed that the side of his nerve didn't seem to move correctly. Still, there was no hurting.

"I'm so good-for-naught, Harry,"Antreas replied."If I had known… We were losing ground and… Dakhil must have thought it would be dependable. Our outer perimeter was half a land mile down the mountain when he must take in asked Singehorn to summons you. But then, they came so fast."

"Who ?"

"The Dementors. They've been swarming the mountain for daylight. They've grown so boneheaded they can blot out the sun and when that happens it gives their allies, a band of about thirty wizard vampires, free rein to attack during the day. This wasn't our war, but ultimately the dragons had no choice. The Dementors were moving in on their rookery. Half a XII flying lizard left to scorch the world and go forth no life behind. Not even a appendage 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'lips.

"Dakhil had Singehorn summon me ?"

"Harry, there was no way of knowing. You passed out right in the center of the incineration. It had to have been over two hundred degrees. One of the sentry saw you first, but it was too hot. Only the Votary could get in to regain you."Harry remembered Dakhil walking through the burn flames just before the Joining ; he understood these words."The connexion helped you to outlast, training would accept been better. Your face… you've been burned… badly burned."

"But it doesn't hurt,"Harry said. He was feeling more tired by the minute.

"That's because there's goose egg left to hurt. Your flesh is—"Marek pushed through the hatchway of the tent.

"And what's this priority ?"he said wearily."Another case of damn Dementor frost— Oh… Oh, my."He cast Antreas a glance."One of the civilians ?"he asked, not recognizing the young man he'd met over the summer."A Muggle caught in the fire ?"Assessing the large height of the man before him and listening closely to his spokesperson, it was Harry who first made the connexion. It was the Saame Marek that had taken in Ron, Hermione and the others after the vampire attack.

"Marek ?"Harry asked hoarsely, finding it more difficult by the minute to motivate 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 education ?"

"He's joined a Centaurus 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 robes."I haven't had to deal with one of these for years,"Marek whispered,"but with Dragon about, such burns are not uncommon. Praise Asha you're Votary."He leaned in finish to Harry."What happened to your eyes ?"

"methamphetamine,"Harry replied, wearily."pot of glass."

"Hmmm. fountainhead, let's get started. Harry, lie back."Harry obliged."I have something far advantageously than a looking glass of water."He watched Marek erect his wand over his burned expression."This should only demand a few hours."

"hours ?"Harry said, bringing up his hand to take hold of Marek's wrist joint."I won't take you away from helping the others just because I buggered it again."

"It's not your fault, Harry,"said Antreas."There's no way you could have known."

"Yes, admirable qualities, Harry. But as Antreas has said—"

"I am NOT a anteriority ! I won't—"bluing light erupted from Marek's wand and before he could say another word, Harry was asleep on the cot and Marek began his body of work. The lowest thing he remembered was a crackling sound and Marek's sombre part.

"That'll leave a mark."

time faded to nothingness and, when Harry woke, he sensed someone sitting at his bedside."Gabriella ?"he asked groggily.

"You wish, better half !"

"Fred ? Fred is that you ?"

Slowly, Harry began to regain consciousness. He tried to list up, but someone pressed gently back on his shoulder. His eyes closed, Harry sensed that there were two people in the room. Shaking the cobweb spare, he finally recognized the aura of the other soul.

"Remus ?"

"Yes, Harry,"replied Remus Lupin,"Fred and I are both here. We have been for about three days."

"trio Clarence Day !"Harry exclaimed, once again trying to wax 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, fourteen 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 slow way ?"

While Fred was talking, Harry realized there was something on his side. He reached his hands up and felt the patch wrapping his head.

"An interesting look, if you ask me,"said Fred."Kind of a turban gone mad. All in all I'd say it's an betterment. The bang-up matter is, Harry, they gave you a entirely new headway ! Moody volunteered his."Fred laughed again and this time Remus joined him. A low temperature 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 Day, he might not know….

"Why aren't you home ?"Harry asked."Where's Saint George ?"

"I'm flying solo, Ilex paraguariensis,"said Fred."George V is minding the shops."

"No one can move in or out,"said Remus."Apparition is impossible. It's a miracle that you made it awake. I'm sorry that—"

"What about substance,"Harry interrupted."Can messages get in ?"

"Not for two twenty-four hour period,"said Remus."The Dementors have the unhurt mountainside 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 importunity. He sat up and this time when Remus moved to advertise him back down, Harry flicked his arm away. Harry tried to face Fred, but. Fred only laughed.

"You look like a walking ice-cream cone, Harry."

"Fred,"Harry began, muffled by the bandages surrounding his face. He tried to muster up up the courageousness, but in the last-place moment it failed him."W-Why are you even here ?"

"Tonight, we go on the offensive. We're through sitting back and letting Lucius Malfoy and his USA of darkness decide when and where to assume. They're mostly vampires and Dementors with a handful of decease eater sprinkled in for respectable measure. Last we heard Lucius may have let himself get turned."

"Turned ?"Harry asked.

"The lookout man were out early this aurora, Harry,"said Remus, moving over and sitting succeeding to Fred."We've seen him off and on in these parts for weeks. Only this morning… this morning time 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 nitty-gritty began to race. There was too much to do and too small time. He needed to tell someone, but whom ? His breather quickened and Remus took notice.

"Harry… you need to—"

"He's alive !"Harry shouted."He's still alert !"There was a short pause. Remus knew almost immediately what Harry meant, but wasn't sure if his tidings were the answer of some sorting of side-effect from one of the potions. Fred didn't understand.

"What do you mean, Harry ? Who's live ?"

"Voldemort,"gasped Harry, taking in a great breath of air through the bandages covering his face. He walked over to the side of the collapsible shelter and held the textile in his finger. To his mind, it had a dull orange show, probably spores of some sort. He didn't want to say more ; he couldn't. But he had to. He could feel his heart hammering in his thorax - it hurt. His respiration grew laboured, weighed down by the burden of what he was about to share.

"Somehow… I don't know… I don't experience how, but he took command of James River Chang Jiang, Cho's younger brother. He's been inside James, controlling him all year at school. 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 dying. They dug oceanic abyss, your father dug deep for what should have been left to the depths."

"Yeah,"said Fred cautiously, not really sure what to consider about Harry's ramblings."Mum and Dad were all excited. It was supposed to be a big deal. Sorry we had to rip you away from the laurels ceremony to be in this inferno. I'm not supposed to tell, but Dad's lined you up for Order of Merl—"

"It was a Horcrux,"hissed Harry through gritted teeth. Remus understood and gasped, but Fred still didn't grasp what Harry was saying."Can you believe it ? Lucius wanted it for himself - maybe to extract whatever essence Voldemort had left of himself in it."Harry madly grabbed Fred's robes."Don't you see ? I had to ruin it… to destroy the cloak."

"Calm down, Harry,"said Fred slowly, his eyes glancing toward Remus with fear."Everything's okay."

"No it's not !"yelled Harry, turning from Fred and leaned against the bed."We just wanted to get hold of 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 moderate him."He breathed hard again."But I couldn't. It wasn't a cuss, it was Voldemort. I couldn't stopover him. I tried—"He turned back to expression Fred."He… Voldemort used the Killing swearing, Fred. I tried… I swear on Merlin's grave… I tried."

"What are you talking about, Harry ?"Fred's intelligence were repose, aflutter and unsure.

"Last night, before Singehorn summoned me, in the grand entryway hall of the Ministry, Voldemort… Voldemort killed your mother."short pant of air fusillade from Harry's lungs and he fell on his knees in front end of Fred."She's dead… she's… dead."Clutching at the bottom of Fred's gown, Harry began to gasp gravid sobs. His interpreter was unaccented and thin."She's dead."Fred pushed Harry away and took to his feet.

"block saying that !"he yelled."She's not numb ! 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 quieten, stoic. He didn't speak and he didn't move. Fred pulled his verge and held it in Remus'human face.

"William Tell HIM !"

Remus held his arms out broad and, slowly, shook his head.

"No."Fred whispered, shaking his read/write head vigorously in response."No, it's not… it's not… oh god."

His helping hand fell limp at his sides and his wand dropped to the level, tinkling and then rolling in the silence. Fred shuddered, fell into lupin's sleeve and began to cry.

They stayed like that for some prison term, Harry on the story, Fred in lupine's weapon system, all three of them crying. Until now, Harry hadn't had the chance to mourn Molly's end. The infliction was oceanic abyss and biting. In the tear and silence, Harry wished he could get it back. His legal action had cost another life story and the ira in Chester A. Arthur Weasley's voice echoed within his judgement.

His sentiment turned to the others who had been murdered in the fight and he wondered if James had made it."I may never have it off,"he whispered to himself.

As the lugubriousness began to settle, he mulled over how Fred and Remus had described the picket's sighting of Lucius. If the reports were true and Malfoy had returned to the mountain, then Molly's murderer was within stretch. Harry's hurting began to change state to see red. The flap on the tent furled spread and in walk Marek

"Remus, I— What in Merlin's gens is up with you three ?"he said with a rather gruff 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 words to be honest. Fred turned, wiping his middle.

"I've got to see if I can get home,"he said. He started toward the release, but Marek took him by the arm.

"Fred, we're surrounded."

The redhead pulled his arm free.

"I have to go home."

"It'd be suicide, Fred."

"I don't care."

"Don't you think your mother would !"rag Remus."AND your Padre. What do you think it would do to him to drop off you both ?"Fred said nothing."If you're going to put your life on the line, Fred, make it count ; clear it matter."Remus stepped toward him and held Fred by the shoulders, looking him in the eyes.

"Tonight,"he said with sureness and warranter."Tonight, you'll have your fortune, Fred."

"Why tonight ?"asked Harry.

"There are about sixty of us, Harry,"said Remus,"counting me and Fred. Tonight the Sun Myung Moon turns to the full. We'll attempt with the dragons, a few 12 centaur, and—"

"Full moonlight ?"asked Harry. He picked himself up off the floor and stood."full 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 puppet on earthly concern that can challenge a vampire. Surrounded by Dementors as they are now, even genius have slight hope of conducting an in effect attack. They're a werewolf's natural target ; Dementors and vampire share a iniquity that… How can I put it ? Is tasty for a werewolf."

"Better than chocolate, they tell me,"added Fred, with an eerie gleam in his eye.

"Besides the tartar,"added Remus,"only one creature can break through both refutation. Dakhil discussed it with me some time ago and we both agreed - we needed a loup-garou U. S. Army. I couldn't convince nigh, but I've convert enough."

"Sixty doesn't make an US Army, Remus,"said Harry, stepping closer."Sixty is a snack."

"What you say is on-key, Harry - loup-garou blood is prized among the vampires. Still, I think our adversary will be surprised,"said Remus with tranquillise confidence."Yes, we could accept more in our phone number, but even with Arthur as Minister, the distrust of my variety runs deep."

"Our kind, Remus ! And they'll be More than surprised,"snapped Fred."They'll be bloody ossify !"

"fountainhead,"said Harry sardonically,"bloody anyway."

The bandages wrapping his cheek were hot and operose and he was only just able to balk the temptation to rip them off so that he could scratch the itch that was growing stronger by the second. He placed both his hands savourless against the business firm bed, curling the covers in his fingers as they balled up into clenched fist. Without looking up, he took in a breath and swallowed.

"Remus… Fred… You need to understand everything. Lucius Malfoy isn't a vampire. The scouts… what they saw down on the mountainside this morning… It may birth looked like Lucius, but it wasn't. Yeah, he's been taken over alright, but not by a vampire. His spirit has been consumed by Voldemort. Lucius is Voldemort."He turned to face them."Sixty werewolves, lx firedrake, LX of anything… it won't be enough."earshot Harry's words, Remus stepped forward and placed a hand warmly about Harry's neck opening.

"No, Harry,"he said."No, it won't be decent. But then, it never was. That's why we have you."


Harry potter and the giving birth of a New Sun

Chapter 18 - The doughnut of Onyx
~~~***~~~

The Isidor Feinstein Stone steps were with child, larger it seemed to Harry, than they were before. Yet, the same slender white clouds dusted the blue sky, and the heated air brought Harry's mind back to his summer travels with Gabriella in Lebanon. His mind's eye flashed to a vision of her smooth, dark Brown University skin and twinkling black heart, and he wondered how she was fairing with Cho and his son, Jamie. His heart skipped at the thought and he drew in a breathing space to steady his nerves. He stepped upward through the with child Harlan Stone pillars, upward toward the remains of the great Asian castling. Up ahead, seated on a crystal workbench intricately carved in an expatiate traffic pattern was a expectant bleak man in green and brown gown - Singehorn.

On the eve of the counterattack, the dragon had asked that the unseasoned wizard meet him in this plane of cognizance that they might speak with one another. Here, in this other mankind, Harry could not only speak to the flying dragon, he could see. He had no bandaged head, no wand, only a Stanford White robe and au naturel feet that withstood the scorching heat energy beneath them. In the cave where Harry's corporal trunk sat in speculation, the others were preparing for war. Soon, the lunar month would rise, the wolfman, including Remus and Fred, would turn and the struggle would start out. It had taken Harry quite some meter to shut out all the misdirection that were happening about him, but finally he made it.

As he drew closer to the dragon, the descendant of Asha whose origin Harry had sworn to protect, he noticed that the man looked more aged than before and that his breathing was wakeless, laboured. With drive, Harry heaved himself upward onto another pit step, and then another. On the step before reaching the landing where Singehorn sat in one of the two crystal work bench, Harry saw a boastfully ring made of melanize onyx. He stopped for a moment to look at it. The firedrake coughed a bottomless throaty cough.

"Go on,"he said with a deep scratchy vocalisation."option it up."

Harry reached down and took the ring into his rectify hand. It was heavier than Harry expected. Holding it in the fingerbreadth of both hands he examined it from all sides.

"I… I know this ringing,"Harry said, trying to remember how or from where."I've seen it before."Singehorn shifted his tremendous weight and grimaced somewhat.

"The ring,"he said,"is known to many, but few awake today have seen it with their own eyes. For those few that saw it worn by its last master, it was most likely the last thing they saw. He was known for using the halo to kill."Suddenly, Harry remembered.

"Pravus,"he whispered, remembering the portrait of the dingy wizard's hand Greg Goyle had shown him last year. Singehorn growled, long and low. Clearly, he did not enjoy the sound of the public figure.

"Very honest,"answered the dragon."Very good. Come… sit."

Harry climbed the last-place large step and tried to dot the front man of his tweed gown which had grown brown from the desert Sand. Singehorn laughed and, as Harry looked up, the man's back talk erupted in fire, enveloping Harry in a great Elwyn Brooks White jiffy. In the succeeding minute, Harry's robes were white again and he was unscathed. Harry examined his hands, expecting to see scorch brand, but nothing was there.

"Sit,"said Singehorn again. Unlike his last visit with the man before him, the young champion sat obediently across from his master.

"My child… not for fifty days has that ring been held by human bridge player, 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 wickedness had been, at last, beaten back for good. I was young then and naïve, but not so naïve as to hope in men again."

"But Dakhil,"said Harry."You trust him."

"Do I, Harry ? Do I ?"There was another low muttering as Singehorn leaned forward. Harry noticed a thin, brightness level scar that ran along the man's face, a cicatrice that wasn't there before the Joining. Over the last few calendar month, the flying lizard had seen battle.

"Do you see the ring on Dakhil's fingers ?"he continued."No, Harry… Soseh trusts Dakhil and I would rely Soseh with my life, but his fate lies on a dissimilar path."

"You need to know, sir,"said Harry with some urgency in his vocalism."I've seen… I've seen two spirits inside him. He may be under the mastery of another."Singehorn smiled and began to laugh. It was trashy and thunderous, not the reaction Harry had expected.

"He's a vampire, my child,"the dragon said finally."He fights the spirit inside him every waking bit. Few have learned to control the hungriness for fresh pedigree, the desire for death. None have fought more heroically than Dakhil Barghouti to stave in off his own personal daemon. But his route will soon guide elsewhere and I will take someone to ask up his staff as archpriest of the Votary. He would opt I choose now, before his portion befalls him."

Harry's eyes widened in disbelief. Rolling the ring in his fingerbreadth he looked up at Singehorn then back down at the ring. Finally, he set it in his medal and held it out to the dragon.

"I can't, sir,"he said, shaking his caput."Whatever power this gang holds, I'm not ready."

"What ? No questions about what the gang does ? What forcefulness it might wreak you ?"

"No, sir,"Harry replied, reaching yet further toward Singehorn. The tartar did not take away the ring from Harry's palm, but instead leaned back on the bench.

"Not even if the ring might avail you defeat the one who killed Molly Weasley and so many More ?"Harry shook his head."What if it would help you win the war against these Dementors, saving the lifespan of countless Centaurs ; these wight you seem to care so much about ?"Singehorn leaned in again."Are you so for sure that you wouldn't want to finally destroy the animate being that killed your parents ?"

For a mo, Harry's outstretched arm receded. Once more he held the ringing between thumb and forefinger, wondering what long suit it might bring him. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Finally, he shook his caput once more.

"No, sir,"he said softly still rolling the ring in his fingers."When I was last 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 deep breath as his eyes grew foggy."But I've been precious inadequate in that regard all yr, eh ? I brought Voldemort into the Ministry. I brought him face-to-face with Mrs. Weasley. I should take known…. I should have been wiser. Now, he's at your doorstep, threatening to put down all we stand for."Holding back his tears, Harry held the ring out once again."Whatever powers the annulus bears, there are others more worthy than me."

With lightening speed, frighteningly fast for such a large build, Singehorn grabbed Harry's mitt in his own, his massive paw wrapping around Harry's entire clenched fist and arm, squeezing the ring into the pulp of Harry's palm and scorching the book binding of Harry's script. His red eyes glared with nerve determination into Harry's and his chela drew blood from Harry's flesh.

"Tell me, my son, when the darkness spreads across this passel and threatens my shaver and my children's small fry what will you do ? There are only so many rock candy to climb and the cloud will not protect us."Harry said nothing."When your friends charge down the mountainside to join my kin in the approach against the sludge that surrounds us, will you hide… a unsighted rat in a night cave ?"The dragon's hook dug deeper, but Harry refused to cry out.

"I'd… sooner… die."

"Harry, the freak seeks you out, but he does not want you dead, not yet. He thinks he needs you alive, but he doesn't know that what he seeks is no longer there, washed away by the falls at Hogwarts. Without the muscularity he once shared with you, he is but half a man, half a whiz. In his ignorance, in his subvert province, he can be defeated."

"Then I don't need the gang,"Harry said calmly, withstanding the pain.

"If only it was so unsubdivided,"sighed Singehorn, still holding Harry's hand house."Before the cleanup at the falls, you joined."

"Joined ?"

"The darkness that was once in your veins… now flows through another's."

Harry's heart began to slipstream. Another's ?
"Your inherited."

"Jamie,"Harry whispered.

"You would sooner die than see my nipper harmed. What would you do to protect your tiddler ?"asked Singehorn.

"My… son."

Harry's fingers, almost instinctively, tightened around the ring burning the pulp of his palm tree and in that instant his visual sensation filled with a tremendous flash bulb of egg white. Singehorn's voice became dark and threatening.

"I will not say your conclusion is Wise, but it is our lone path. Forgive me, my child, for the superpower will down you. Soseh has foreseen your rapacity turn to grief. On the day the dragons mark the sky, you will lead off to bed your honest strength. How you emerge from your weakness will square up the fate of us all."

Suddenly, Harry's sight was gone, all before him dark. When he breathed in, the damp must odour of the bandages that wrapped his face filled his nostrils.

"We've got to go, sir,"said a wizard somewhere to Harry's left.

"If I have to tell you one more time to be tranquilize, I'll rip your throat out,"snapped Dakhil in a low, hissing articulation."We will go when Singehorn says we can go. Do NOT commove the boy."

Still seated on the floor, his legs folded beneath him, Harry reached out his mind and sensed the two men arguing to his left hand. The one, a smart blue air aureole was clearly frightened ; the other show off red and then purple. The red appeared to be winning and Harry wasn't sure that was a good thing for the man in blue whose semblance was fading so fast Harry thought he might wet himself. He wasn't the alone one nearby that was frightened. In the large cavern just beyond the rock rampart where Harry sat, scores of men mulled about nervously waiting for the final examination Order to set on. Harry was about to go, to indicate to the others that he had returned, when the Orange colour of Marek moved into the elbow room where he sat.

He slipped over and placed his mitt on Dakhil's back and the two walked to the far face of the tent. They whispered and then the whispers grew louder.

"Marek,"Dakhil hissed,"I need to make love. What is your opinion ?"

"As a Healer or a Warrior ?"the man that had worked on Harry's typeface replied. He was upset, rag perhaps of the battle that would soon be bringing the dying to his doorstep."If we were home, I'd leave the patch 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."Good. The fourth dimension is near. The full moonshine will soon rise over the position of the mountain. We must pick out advantage of every minute it brings us the werewolves'strength. daybreak will number far too quickly I'm afraid."

Harry held his hired hand to his face."And these ? You can remove these ?"

"Really, Harry,"answered Marek,"if only you could dispense with two to a greater extent days… two more."

"The battle will be over by morning,"said Harry,"and I can't battle with this rag weighing me down. It's sweaty enough as it is, and I can barely breathe."

"Then don't scrap,"Marek said to Harry. Then he turned to Dakhil."What possible advantage does a boy bring this battle beyond more battue ?"Steadying his feet on the dusty rock and roll, Harry stood.

"I am no boy !"he said defiantly. Marek ignored him.

"Dakhil,"the Healer continued,"there is no rationality to put his life… What ? What is it ?"

There was silence. Harry too noticed the change in Dakhil's aura that was likely now being mimicked by the vampire's look. The red had darkened into a plentiful scarlet - the emotion was a substantial one, whatever it was.

"Dakhil, what are you looking at ?"Marek continued.

As Harry stood, his hands, which had been covered by the sleeves of his robe while he sat, became exposed. There, on the centre finger of Harry's correct hand was a annulus. raging at being called a boy, Harry had not noticed the impart system of weights on his finger.

"Well… that can't be good,"said Dakhil with a rather sang-froid voice."I had asked for a pick, but I never…"

"I'll take the red cent bandages off myself if I have to,"cried Harry, reaching for his wand. It was then, when finger met wood, that he realized there was a pack on his finger. He let go his wand and held the ring with his left hand. He moved to conduct it off, but the ring would not move. He pulled again, and again the ring held its clasp about the bone of his right-hand middle finger.

"I had always hoped he might see fit to pass on it to me,"said Dakhil with more disappointment than wrath."I suppose Soseh has told him."

"Told him what ?"asked Harry, still trying to work the closed chain from his finger.

"Damn the day I met you, boy,"said Dakhil, again in a unruffled, matter of fact musical note."She's seen my demise, which is not such a groovy business for a vampire when such outcome can be C hence."He paused.

"And ?"Harry asked.

"And you were there, boy. You were there."Dakhil moved closer."So, either you're going to ramble down the mountainside, get bit and live to a very advanced old age as an immortal, or I'm going to die before the summertime solstice. Curse you,"Dakhil said dryly,"I always wanted to make it to the millennium."

"You're both talking gibberish,"said Marek."Would you STOP that,"he said to Harry."You're starting to bleed."Harry turned his senses downward and watched as the glowing drips of stock fell to the floor from his digit. Marek pulled his verge and healed the fingerbreadth."Now leave the damn ring alone. Here, let me remove it."

He cast a patch and zero happened, nothing but the scratchy laughter from Dakhil. He tried a different spell and still the ring stayed clamped about Harry's finger.

"We don't have prison term for this,"said Harry finally."looking, just convey the bandages off. Place a cuticle charm about the pelt if you must, but I can't—"

"Very well,"cut in Marek with a sigh."But it's not your skin that I was worried about."Sit over here."He led Harry to a pit bench.

"What do you mean ?"Harry asked.

"wellspring, Harry, while I was working on your grimace, I thought I might see if I couldn't do something about your eyes."

"But I've seen nothing,"said Harry."Certainly through this gauze, I could discern—"

"I've sealed your lids shut so the eyes beneath could heal as the spell worked and weaved."He stepped faithful to Harry."Son, two more days… two more days and I'm sure that the knitwork will be complete."

"And I'll see again ?"asked Harry with a flicker of promise in his representative.

"You might."

"Well… look… it's dark anyway,"Harry said."Take off the bandage and leave my eyes sealed. I'll be ripe off not trying to discern objects in the wickedness. I've gotten used to not seeing and trying to squinch in the muddy Nox may just make matter worse."

"There's the trouble,"said Dakhil."The aim you wish to discern are Dementors. They suck the spirit from all about them. To your imaginativeness they would be darkness and on the scorched mountainside where very piddling life remains, it would be near impossible to detect them."

At this it was Harry's bend to laughter.

"Dakhil, I don't need my sight to roll in the hay when a Dementor is breathing down my neck opening. I'll know where they are, believe me, I'll know."

"Then it's decided,"said Marek."I'll take away your bandages, but keep your eyes sealed. If you make it through the dark Harry, your face should be re-wrapped immediately. A shield magical spell might be acceptable for walking around schooling or sitting about the star sign. It will be worthless against a well placed hex."

"Get on with it,"said Harry."I can pick up the howl already."

And indeed he could, they all could. Some of the maven loup-garou were growing anxious. Outside, the lunar month was nearing the crest of the eastern view and some were having difficulty controlling their metamorphosis even inside the cavern, away from the Moon. Typically, such difficulties were had by newly converted werewolves, those who had recently become. Harry wondered how Fred was fairing.

When Dakhil removed the gauze bandage bandage, Harry immediately reached up to his face to equal, but the shield spell stopped his finger's breadth.

"It feels like an eggshell,"Harry whispered.

"And it won't protect your face much Sir Thomas 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 toy at anything !"Dakhil's stature was suddenly somewhat larger, and his aura somewhat redder."You would be wise to call back your locating, Marek. With one thought the boy could destroy you."

"Yes… yes, of track,"Marek apologized."I'm sorry… I… I truly am sorry."

There was fright in his give-and-take, far more fearfulness than Harry thought the post warranted. Part of him understood, something he remembered from the connexion, but there wasn't meter to well for its seed ; it was time for activeness. Harry stood and began to take the air toward the large chamber.

"One moment, boy,"said Dakhil with a issue of fact tone. Harry stopped, turned and, before he had an trice to react, Dakhil had cast a magical spell on him. nix happened.

"What… what was that ?"Harry demanded, still reaching for his verge.

"He's changed the colouring of your robe, Harry,"said Marek."They're no longer Elwyn Brooks White ; they're crimson."

"Primate thrower,"said Dakhil in an exceptionally scratchy voice followed by a short blasting coughing."Your title, when I die."He sighed."Asha protect us."Harry looked down, but could sense no discernable difference."Don't worry, boy ; those who have travelled the path through proper training will know at once the significance of your robe. We'd best hurriedness. There won't be time for very much of a speech."

Harry and Dakhil left the tent and entered the cavern ; it had emptied out onto the mountainside, staging for the battle to come. Soon, the gate would open and the soldiers would spill down upon their foes. Harry and Dakhil walked down the cave and as it narrowed toward its exit a offspring man came up and touched Harry by the sleeve.

"Asha be with you,"he said tilting his headland in a svelte bow.

"And with you,"replied Harry without forethought. Why did I say that ?
The cavern door opened and, for a present moment, Harry was blinded by the many nimbus gathered outside. He could see that some of the werewolves had already turned, and a group of wizards was having difficulty restraining them. No one seemed distracted by the howl, a howling that mixed with Christian Bible in Harry's judgment - kill, chomp, line of descent ! He turned to see if someone was talking to him, but no one was there. Another werewolf howled.

"forbearance, my friends,"called Harry to the snapping fauna and the masher quieted at his tidings. That was not my vocalisation, thought Harry. Or was it ?

Everyone was listening to Antreas who stood upon a expectant outcrop of rock above the growing din. His words were amplified, but Harry wasn't sure the increase intensity was necessary. He was calling out in a strong and commanding spokesperson and Harry wondered why this function wasn't Dakhil's.

"….is all we need. Together we will be victorious ! Together we will banish the wickedness into the abyss !"The earth began to rumble with clapping. Harry noticed four giant pounding their feet with approval.

"monster ?"he asked Dakhil."I didn't card any giants when I arrived."

"They climbed over from the sheer cliffs on the spine position of the mountain. That way is not guarded save by Dementors, and they have no outcome on such dim-witted wight. So it is with the werewolves."

"It'll m-make for a b-bloody Death Eater busting surprise."

"Fred ?"

The Melanerpes erythrocephalus was clearly agitated, seemingly in the thick of the change.

"Fred, please… don't—"

"The Primate has ARRIVED !"cried Antreas with a leaping voice. He was referring to Dakhil, but Harry could feel hundreds of center turn toward him simultaneously. keep for the howling and the episodic while being cast a short manner down the hill, all became silent.

"Let's pay them what they want, boy,"said Dakhil."Up you go."He levitated Harry some twenty understructure in the air. Harry's kernel began to slipstream as he rose, wondering what he might say.

It was like rising over the embers of a dying fire, each glowing aura a midget coal burning against the darkness. There were hundred gathered here. Some fell to their articulatio genus as Harry rose ; most stood silently. Giants, Centaurus, sorcerer and werewolves, a ragtag and bobtail collecting of misfits all collected to fight together against the malevolence Lucius Malfoy had co-opted for his own malign purposes.

Lucius probably hoped he would retrieve the cloak and arrive at this place of engagement to celebrate a great triumph, the initiative of many. petty did he have a go at it that his former master would strike up manse in his body - if only long enough to hire over Harry's. But that would never, could never hap. How the worm had turned on the blonde-haired patriarch. Soon, it would turn over on the darkness worming within him. Harry raised his weapon to the heavens above, a jumbo comet was clearly visible in the nighttime's sky.

"Ebyrth marks its return and now we find ourselves at its mercy. While some have come to do the new sun's yell, others are here to protect our dragon brothers against the wickedness that wishes to destroy all in its path. Tonight we fight as one. Tonight we fight with the strength of giants, the magic of wizards, the ferocity of werewolves, the wisdom of Centaurs, and the hearts of dragons !"

No Sooner had the wrangle left his lip, than the thunderous SWOOP-SWOOP filled the air and four tremendous dragons flew over the crowd, blotting out the stars and then coming to rest at the top of the great stone wall. Singehorn wasn't among them, but Harry, though having never met them, knew their public figure. The three males were Rakesh, Talisan, and Igneus, and the dingy female person was Tanwen. As if being called, Harry looked toward Talisan, the largest of the four, with green-black scales and fierce red eyes.

"prelate !"the creature cried out."We follow you in battle. What are your orders !"

All around Harry, wizards were clasping their bridge player to their ears, some falling to their knees, because of the animal's corking roar. And yet, Harry could interpret everything he said. How is this potential ? This was no meditation.

"Your order of magnitude, Primate ?"cried the dragon again, and again those around Harry winced in pain.

"burn mark them !"yelled Harry."tan them till your paunch turn cold. You, Tanwen, fly high above the wall. Let no foeman past the gate. Do not leave your C. W. Post. We must save up the rookery at all price !"Harry pulled his red robes tight about his shoulders.

"outdoors the gates !"called Antreas and the army erupted in cheers and ululation. A few loup-garou snapped at their allies, but about caught the odor of their hated foes, enticing their signified with a bloodlust for Dementor, and quickly they began to charge ahead, down the mountainside. Dakhil brought Harry down to earth as the crowd together hillside flowed out through the gate. Harry began to run, following the rushing tide, but somebody grabbed his shoulder and pulled him around ; it was Antreas.

"Your time is at handwriting, Harry,"he said with a stout voice."I'll lead the first wave ; I dare not speak it to the others, but don't think for a minute we'll succeed. The scouts have told me the situation… it's dire. When we begin to fall back, and we will precipitate back… that's when we'll need you."Harry was about to reason, but Antreas was already swept away in the stream of bodies rushing through the logic gate. Undaunted, Harry began to follow, only this meter Dakhil stopped him.

"Tell me, boy,"he murmured quietly beneath the roaring haste of wizard pushing by."Why are you here ?"

"To fight Voldemort,"Harry spat, turning to pass on. Dakhil held his arm fasting and Harry glared back with furious eyes.

"Really ?"queried Dakhil, still quiet, still calm, still holding Harry's arm with a vice-like grip."Are you… sure ?"Harry tried to draw in away, but couldn't. He pulled his wand."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 involve my divine service, then send away me ! You need only speak the Bible ; tell me to be gone !"

He was goading Harry, trying to prepare him angry, trying to draw out a response. Harry slipped his wand away.

"You are the archpriest,"he said softly."Not me."

"necromancer will never follow a vampire, boy,"answered Dakhil."But for some ground, Asha only knows why, they will conform to you. The Wisdom of Solomon of Grigor Darbinyan now flows in his son's vena. Would you disregard Antreas ? Shall we charge with the rest ? What are your purchase order ?"

"I'm here to serve up my oath, to protect the line of work of Asha… as are you. We stay to protect the rookery."Harry noted a glimmering in Dakhil's aura… a smile ? The last of the first wave had passed through the gate, leaving two giants, one Draco, a half-dozen Centaurs and some thirty wizards to waitress for further orders, purchase order that Harry would own to give. Knowing that the number at his face were too few to fend off the coming onrush, his mentation turned to the darkness, hiding at the prat 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 prize. Antreas is decently, to capture Lucius and the dark that consumes him, the first undulation must fail."

"The enemy's numbers are too great,"said Dakhil, releasing his clench."Even with those still remaining, we have no promise of winning in point battle."

"Then the second wave must be a surprise. We must hold until the last possible moment."

"Even then, boy, the number are against us."

"Maybe,"answered Harry,"But we need only strike down one foe. What will our enemy do when their oecumenical atomic number 66 ? When Lucius and his master downslope ?"

"It is unimaginable to catch vapour with your bare hands. Who among us, might I ask, will institute down the Dark Lord ?"

"I will,"Harry answered. He left Dakhil and entered into the centre of those remaining."gather ‘ rhythm !"he called."Listen to what I say ! Tonight… tonight we plan for triumph !"


Harry potter and the Birth of a New Sun

Chapter 19 - The showtime Battle
~~~***~~~
Flame and smoke roiled in the air from the conflict below, bearing the odour of burnt physique and blood into the secure compound guarding the rookery of the Draco, where Harry and the others waited. The earth shook as the giants, fighting their common enemies below, cast Harlan Stone the size of train-cars crashing down upon their foe. ululation, screeches, and the roar of dragon-fire reverberated between the stone walls, echoing down the canon and pitching wildly between Harry's ears. He couldn't see the conflict raging on the mountainside below, none of them could. But then, they didn't need to see what was happening to hump that it was not going well. The burning odour was growing stronger, the shaking earth was more severe, and the howls and screeches filled the air more than ever. The fight was coming closer, higher up the quite a little. Soon, it would be at the compound bulwark.

Harry grew more anxious by the moment. His first instinct had been to snipe outright, but both Antreas and Dakhil had stopped him. Ignoring the sapience of a superstar that had survived century was folly and Harry knew that they must wait. The bit wave would round when their foeman were most fatigue. If Harry's force could erupt their lines, if they could keep heel to throat, perhaps the advancing darkness would withdraw down the mickle, down to where Lucius Malfoy, now possessed by Voldemort, near certainly waited.

When the first wave began its attack, Harry had quietly sent the undecomposed Centaur Archer high onto the mountainside leading down from the North gate. Hiding richly in the hills, they would flank the advancing iniquity and bang when Harry gave the signal. Along the edge of the other side of the valley, Harry sent the two remaining giants, Florge and scrummage, to wait hidden among the rocks. There they would hold the higher ground, preventing any Death Eaters from running away from the onslaught of Centaur arrows. Once they were set into spot, the giants looked like a big rock outcrop of stone, nothing more. With destiny they would mow down lots with their clubs, large tree trunks bristling with biting metal pikes the length of Harry's arm.

earreach, smelling, feeling the first wave retreat back toward the main logic gate, Harry impatiently waited to precede the second base Wave through a out of sight gate that skirted the face of the vale bulwark. Then they would know if there was any Hope at all. Already, Centaurus ball carrier brought back reports that the figure of the enemy was twice what was first believe - over two-hundred Dementors, nearly a c lamia, dozens of thaumaturge, and five goliath of their own. Clearly, the numbers were against them and they all knew it.

About a small fervidness, Harry sat with Dakhil and two other members of the Votary, Mikael and Katana. Dakhil was roasting sausage balloon skewered on the end of a Centaur spear. Mikael was a large man, Ukrainian he said, with dark brown hair's-breadth and a everlasting three mean solar day'growth of whiskers. Half of his left ear was missing and he had a wildness about his piercing blue center that, as Dakhil described, would fright any living person that dared to get over wands with him. As for Katana, she was quiet, almost subdued. Even eyeless, Harry could distinguish how her black skin contrasted against the silver mail coil that covered her speed body. Set against her quiet fashion was the red aura that burned fiercely from her mortal, perhaps the most intense Harry had ever seen. Unlike Mikael, she rarely spoke, but when she did it almost always carried meaning. The fire crackled and the sausages popped, sending a steaming pip-squeak of burning fat onto Mikael's arm. He yelped, but Dakhil only laughed.

"I wish that was the only sting you would receive tonight, Mikael,"said the vampire, grimly staring into the fire, turning the sausage balloon on the spear and watching the dripping grease send little flares of flaming overlapping upwards.

"How you are hungry, Dakhil,"replied Mikael, shaking his head and moving close once again to warm himself by the fire."They arrive at threshold before you finish."Again, Dakhil laughed.

"You should experience by now, my Ukrainian friend,"said Dakhil with a grin,"I don't eat sausage balloon. The boy here looked a bit faint and I thought he should ramp up up his strength."He held the point of the spear before Harry's human face, the sizzling sausage splattering touch of hot fat against the shield charm protecting Harry's exposed face."One should never meet their manufacturer on an evacuate stomach."

"Thank you,"Harry said with a thin out smile. He took the sausage balloon between quarter round and index, but it neither seared nor burned. Without flinching, Harry slid the sausage off the spear's metal point and took a bite. Once again, he detected a momentary smile in the glory of Dakhil. To the vampire's left, Katana let out a diminished snort. She stood, her ringlets jingling as she did so, and then she looked upward to the night sky where the smaller dragon Tanwen circled.

"Even as Ebyrth reveals itself to the world, Asha's blessing is upon you, young wizard,"she said with a low voice that was still and as deep as the lake extraneous Hogwarts."This is good… for the metre has come. Prepare."

Scantly had the speech left her lips than a marvellous holla exploded overhead. Talisan, the largest of the four dragons, appeared from no where, plummeting from the sky, streaking fervor and smoke behind him and smashing to the primer coat, tumbling into a group of thaumaturgist that almost certainly would induce died in the collision had not Katana turned their tending toward the wall when she stood. Immediately, pandemonium struck the pack. Even though many knew their spot, some wizards called out to attack directly through the main gate, some scattered for the secluded side of meat logic gate, some ran toward the batch's tunnels. The Centaur were calling for longanimity, and all were yelling at the top of their lungs.

"quiet !"cried Dakhil, his part reverberating off the canyon rampart."Everyone, relocation in organization toward the Second Earl of Guilford gate ! There we wait until the sign comes."

"But—"

"We will lash out when the sign comes ; not before ! NOW MOVE !"

While the confusion subsided, Harry moved toward the fallen dragon.

"Where are you going ?"questioned Dakhil.

"Talisan needs service,"answered Harry continuing to walk to the dragon.

"Your orders were to—"

"I know what the program is, Dakhil ! I made it !"Harry yelled.

"We don't have clip for this, boy !"

"I have all the time I need,"snapped Harry in counter."Now go ! Lead the others and I'll juncture you when I'm done."

"Marek can care for the—"

"GO !"

With his wand still sheathed, Harry concentrated his judgement. Bending space was easier than slowing clock time, even Ronan, his centaur trainer, had admitted that. But Harry needed meter, even just a little Sir Thomas More to hold open Talisan's lifetime. Right now, he was compelled. He felt that healing the dragon was more of import than all the eternal rest of it. He wasn't sure why, but he had to do what he could. He centred on the Bible Ronan had taught him.

In forest glen, the babbling brook is filled with silver fish.
Slow its flow and traverse each dribble to put them on your dish antenna.

The sounds about Harry became muffled. He sensed that the auras running to the Union gate were slowing, slowing… not still, but nearly. Harry summoned the gemstone of Cinnabar from within him. Still bloody, he cast a flak spell upon it.

"courage, sapience, lovemaking,"he whispered and was instantly transported to the blanched room that waited for his command."Talisan,"he whispered, and was immediately drawn to the tartar.

He'd healed a cat before, but never a dragon. At first he could see the enormous beast prone on the ground, the three thaumaturgist surrounding it icy in time, but the dragon looked up toward Harry, blinking as if it could see him. Talisan's breathing was erratic and he coughed pedigree and smoke. Then, as always, the scene paused, as if asking Harry to confirm that this indeed was the action he wished to take."Heal my friend,"Harry whispered again. Colour began to eddy about… develop bones… stunned nerves… sliced organs…a pierced lung… stemma dripping on the fervidness of life…"Yes, heal them… heal them all."

The fit flashed blackness and Harry found himself on his articulatio genus, the jagged rock 'n' roll tearing at his build, the stone of Cinnabar in his left handwriting. Before moving he pulled his scepter and hid the stone once more inside his body, in the little pouch left by missing liver tissue. And once again, he thought of Greg Goyle and said a small prayer. Before he looked up he heard the flying dragon speak. His actor's line were unsteady, but Harry could see that his injuries were healing.

"We must look sharp,"Talisan said,"the… the sec wave… I must—"

"You must stay here,"cut in Harry."You must rest."

"I can't. It is my duty to—"

"It's your responsibility to listen to the pallbearer of the ring."It was the dragon Tanwen, Harry knew that, but she was nowhere near. She was still flying eminent above the rookery. Harry wondered how he could be having this conversation, how…

"The ring,"he whispered, touching the gem with his other hand. He took to his substructure, rubbing the inglorious gem between his finger. He expected to feel somewhat lightheaded after healing the firedrake, but he wasn't. Without turning, he noticed that the glory were beginning to funnel out through the northward gate just as the wound 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 care of the injure, 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 lives, but hundreds."Once more, Harry glanced to the spite cyclosis in. There was a secure impulse to heal them all. Many were approximate death. For a present moment he hesitated and then he grudgingly nodded his head.

"Right,"said Marek."Get going."

Harry ran to the side logic gate, reaching it in secondment. He could get word Marek calling for help from the other Healers to get the injured inside the caves. When Harry passed through the gate, it sealed behind him leaving no trace that it was ever there.

The group of superstar and centaur making up the second Wave had not moved far past the gate. They were carefully, quietly, edging their way around the flank of their enemy. As Harry moved about one of the bigger rock formation, he had his outset chance to detect the advancing regular army. It looked formidable, but not a three to one advantage. For a moment he had forgotten the Dementors, fauna whose glory he could not see, but the instant did not last long. The wind instrument shifted and the cool stench of their figure filled the air. For an instant… from the canyon just below… Was he imagining it ? Harry thought he could actually get wind them talking to each other. He'd never heard anything but the detent Dementors made when communication, but this… it sounded like Son. Whatever it was he was hearing, they were close. He resisted the enticement to wretch just as two of his own wizards fell to their knees in fear.

There was the faint chirp of some louse, the house, and the air immediately rang with the whistling of arrows. The Centaur high school in position among the cliffs let go their first volley. Screeches of Dementor and vampire alike bubbled up out of the canon like a thick ooze of pain. An trice later, another volley of arrows filled the air, followed by to a greater extent screams ; then another… and another. Moving his way to the strawman of the contingent making up the attacking second Wave, Harry could hear wiz cry out from below for their lines to turn toward the side of the mountain.

"Shields !"someone called. The future volley struck many still off guard, but was less successful among the mistrustful wizards. Harry continued to win until he came to Dakhil's shoulder.

"fille me ?"Harry whispered. Dakhil seemed distracted.

"They're unsettled,"he said quietly."If we're going to do this, boy, we must do it now to tilt any chance of surprisal. They await your command."A burst of exasperated disgust left Dakhil's brim, but Harry didn't hesitate.

"Strike now !"he commanded."ATTACK !"

Arrows from the Centaurs stationed on the rocks above continued to rain down upon the fanny of the line of Death eater, vampires and Dementors that had now driven Antreas'first wave back through the briny logic gate of the compound paries. Even as the front of this dark military group was cheering for victory, calling for their giants to sunder the great wall protecting the compound, others at the tail end were screaming with care. The ace and Centaur in Harry's second wafture cascaded down the mountainside sack pointer and filling the smoky air with an electrifying show of wand great power. Spell after trance stunned, exploded and slashed their opponent. fearfulness was palpable and its outcome began to ripple its way toward the front line. Harry could sense their gloriole fading against the onslaught. The Dementors could palpate it too and they began to go through person indiscriminately. It was Katana who described to Harry how, in some sort of frenzied res publica they began feeding on the fear of their own warriors. As the frightened minions tried to scramble up the opposite hillside they came face to face with the hidden giant.

Florge and Scrum rose as if ascending from the pit itself. With great virgule of their clubs they swatted their foes back into the advancing force-out, back into the frenetic Dementors, back into a boiling broth of upset that had now made its way to the forepart of the ancestry.

What at inaugural seemed like a rout of Harry's side of meat was being flipped upon its heading. Centaur arrows were dropping non-wizard lamia from the sky with nearly every draw of the strand. Emboldened by the success of the second waving, the healthy in Antreas'original attacking force regrouped and began another charge. Werewolves that had scattered to the mountainside retreating from their 1st attack also sensed the change and returned to the fray.

Squeezed on both face and pressed to the fore, Lucius Malfoy's regular army retreated back down the stack. With all the mix-up, Harry and many of the others in his bit wave found themselves in the middle of Malfoy's retreating force. They had essentially split their opposition's strength into two, allowing one half to retreat freely down the spate while trapping the other in a great pincher. Harry and his forces had the lower footing while Antreas and the others pressed in from above. What followed was verbalise wipeout.

Rakesh appeared from on gamey and began to dive toward the dazed and scattered warriors.

"spine !"cried Harry to the others. He heard exchangeable cries from Antreas and his men further up the flock. The lycanthrope did not channelise the monition."BACK !"Harry yelled again. The expiry Eaters were too distracted trying to care the attacking werewolves and their own crazed Dementors to notice the dragon moving in.

When Harry's men moved away, the vision of aura cleared and he distinctly noticed three werewolves still tearing at the chassis of their enemy. One of them was Fred Weasley ; Harry could smell out his wrath, his hatred, his thirst to destroy.

"FRED !"Harry screamed."GET OUT OF THERE !"But Fred was a werewolf and nothing Harry could do would stop that. Then Igneus appeared on the flank of Rakesh ; both were diving down on their encircle enemies. Soon it would all be over. Harry began to run, not away but toward his friend and the havoc of the battle before him. Even as beauty ricocheted off in every direction and Killing Curses took down one wight after another, Harry ran. He leapt onto the red fur of Fred's back, knocking him to the ground.

The werewolf spun, opened his groovy jaws and grabbed Harry by the pharynx. Only the light shield charm about Harry's boldness was keeping him from being bitten through, but it wouldn't last prospicient if Fred truly hope blood. On his back, his gage facing forward, he could detect the two giant gloriole of the dragon racing toward them. They had only seconds. Harry held his mitt about Fred's neck, and pressed the bootleg onyx ring against his acquaintance's flesh.

"Be still,"he ordered."Be still, my friend."

The grip about Harry's neck loosened slightly and, in that moment, Harry spun them both to the primer and cast a shield charm. The world erupted in fire. shriek filled the air only to be silenced an instant later by another attack of heat and flame. The werewolf in Harry's branch struggled to break free, but not wholly.

"Get off of me, you bloody retard,"Harry heard him howl."I swear I'll gut you !"

"The annulus,"Harry thought."I hear him through the ring."
"Fred, listen…"said Harry sharply."Hold still, just one Sir Thomas More moment. The heat… the heat will—"The werewolf broke free of Harry's clutch and threw himself against the shield charm surrounding them. It held from within. Again he charged the shield and this time broke through. He yipped as his manus burned against the scorching earth, but in a flash bulb he was gone, chasing after the part of the US Army that had fled down the mountainside.

With the shield charm gone, Harry could smell the burning mephitis about him. Where seconds before stood dozens of men and creatures, now only three lone wizards remained - Death eater that had seen the dragons in time and had shield charms of their own. One, seeing Harry sales booth in the glow embers without his shield, released his own protective enchantment and began to run. He took two stair before his understructure were in fire. He fell and began to sizzle against the scorched dry land. One of the other Death feeder killed him to release him from the miserableness. Harry walked toward the remaining two, the high temperature burning away the dirt that soiled his robe, but leaving the scarlet cloth and his skin unscathed. Somehow being here on the mountain, so close to the dragons, had steeled his ability to defy the high temperature.

"It's not potential,"said one, the dark haired wizard in black gown that had killed his ally.

"Fool,"spat the early, blonde with robes of dark blue."He's one of them - half-man, half-dragon."

"He's a boy,"said the other.

"If this boy,"said Harry, moving closer,"drops your buckler magic spell right now, you'll cook to dying like your friend there."The dark haired Death Eater raised his wand.

"He's blind !"

"layover it !"said the early."Are you mad ? ! There are scores in the hills around us. We haven't a chance."Harry continued to advance.

"The man you serve,"Harry began, now close enough to tap the carapace of the dark haired ace with the tip of his scepter,"Lucius Malfoy… where is he ?"

"He'll… he'll be here soon enough. You'll see. Then… then you'll—"

"What colour is his hairsbreadth ?"The tip of Harry's sceptre began to radiate red, sending out a pinprick of abstemious onto the light blue sky shield that surrounded the Death feeder.

"B-Blonde,"the Death Eater stammered, staring intently at the red glow.

"And his eyes ? What colour are his eyes ?"

"There… there red, damn it ! He's found a beginning of admittedly business leader, and he'll swat the likes of you from the cheek of the earth. Now get us out of this flame pit !"

"Dakhil !"Harry cried out."Dakhil !"There was a swoop up sound and the whiz flew down succeeding to Harry on the scorched land. He was in vampire manakin, the straw man of his robes stained red with blood that was even now vanishing, burning away from the intense heat.

"Voldemort's alive and he's still in Malfoy,"said Harry with a sense of importunity in his spokesperson that was building with ire."This battle… it's not over. They'll regroup, realize that they still outnumber us, and attack again. We have to weight-lift our vantage while we can."Dakhil's lips pulled back into a horrific smile that revealed rowing of long, sharp dentition. It was enough to relieve oneself the demise Eater adjacent to them shiver.

"Very honest, boy,"he hissed with a deep scratchy voice."I will inform Antreas to fade this suddenly geographical zone, when he is able, and go down. You will need to severalise Rakesh and Igneus."

"What about Talisan ?"

"He is well ; do you not feel it ?"And indeed Harry could and, for a minute, his spirit lightened. Dakhil moved to fly when Harry grabbed his arm.

"And the others ? How are our figure ?"

"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 iniquity toward the higher portion of the spate. As the ember cooled, Harry could sense the others from the s wave moving toward him. They had been triumphant, but the numbers… they were half of what they'd left the chemical compound with.

The Centaurus stopped outside the closed chain of intense heating plant, but Katana walked though it toward Harry.

"What are your guild, prelate ?"she asked. There was a nasty cut on the side of meat of her arm and the slope of her face looked like it had some hex. Harry moved toward her and bathed her brass in blue sky spark ; the boils receded.

"When the region cools, Antreas will be active down to join us, but we can not expect. We must carry on the attack. We are searching for their loss leader, a blonde wizard with red center, wearing a dark cloak."

"The darkness Lord, I have heard him called."Her articulation was calmness, almost calculating.

"He's no lord, Katana,"said Harry coolly,"but he will kill anything in his path. Warn the others. We head to the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant's nest and the stingers there will kill."

"And these two ?"she asked, nodding to the Death eater still desperately trying to maintain their shield charms.

"parting them to Antreas,"Harry said."We can't spare the men."Katana raised an eyebrow and cleared her throat. Harry noticed the subtle change in her aura."Or women,"Harry corrected with a smile."Or women."

Before long, Harry's beleaguered forces were well to a greater extent than half-way down the versant. Soon they would be outside the margin that marked the magical delimitation of the dragons'soil. During the stallion journey, they had encountered no ohmic resistance. All they had found was the occasional fallen wizard or the black cloak of a Dementor ; none alive. Katana and Mikael warned that they should not sink the perimeter, that the dragons would not fall out beyond, but Harry already knew that. Rakesh and Igneus, circling above, would only protect the terra firma under their dominion. They would not attack outside it.

"Do you think Voldemort doesn't know that ?"he asked, as they continued to edge down the peck."If we don't calf love him now, he'll use the clock time to reconstruct his forces and fire again, more terrible than ever."

"You don't know that."

"I know that—"Suddenly, a centaur lookout man, Shamire, appeared, travail dripping from his flanks. Harry turned to him."What news ?"he asked.

"You were right, Chosen,"the Centaur answered."They have a camp just on the other side of the margin. There are wounded everywhere, and muckle of yelling. They are in a clearing surrounded by large Tree, but the trees… they are not real."

"What ?"

"I have never seen anything like it before. The Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree look like trees, but they are not ; they are numb, a lying. The werewolves are circling, but unwilling to enter."

"A barrier ?"asked Katana."To protect the camp."

"Maybe,"said Harry,"or something worse. It's always something bad. Shamire, tell the others to be on their safeguard. The Dragon won't fly past the molding. It will be up to us to finish up the job."As he said these wrangle Harry looked toward the sky and saw the lofty creatures circle back, returning to the compound."And Shamire, when you're done, run back and inform Antreas that we can't postponement for him. We have to round before they've regained their strong suit. There's still fear in the air, we have to weightlift the advantage."Shamire nodded and vanished.

Harry and the others arrived outside the clearing. The Centaur had been right ; the large tree anatomical structure encircling the clearing were dead. To Harry they appeared like massive steeple of darkness that shot into the air. Each one was four to five feet across. Harry touched one ; it felt like the trunk of a tree, but it was cold, lifeless. Mikael motioned for the others to spread out and encircle the encampment. They were outnumbered four to one, but nearly all of their adversaries were lame, in litter or small cot that spread across the open flying field by the wads. At one end was a large, black nothingness that rose from the supergrass to the sky above. Dementors, thought Harry. Could he get wind the audio of voices, arguing ? Before them was a wizard with an gloriole more than intense than all the others. Harry knew at once who it was.

"Voldemort,"he whispered.

A few mo later, Mikael gave the signaling. Harry and many of the others surrounding the camp cast spells to push the massive trees aside. Harry was worried that they might act as an alarm and give away the moment of surprisal, but the trees moved. A dozen gap appeared all about the great band.

The werewolf were the first to spring through. From all directions wizard and centaur poured into the field of honor. pointer, spells and counter-spells streaked across the air. Harry's mind was focused on one thing - the necromancer at the far end of the camp surrounded by darkness. Moving closer, he could take heed the screams in his mind, but he had learned to operate the concern 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 unmindful to the onslaught and still speaking with the darkness of Dementors. Were they laughing ? Harry didn't care if his foe's back was turned ; he would wipe out this time, avenge so many of the deaths he should ingest stopped long ago. He was so pore on killing he barely heard Katana cry out.

"They're Muggles !"Only ten one thousand away from attacking his hated foe, Harry turned to see what she was talking about.

"These aren't whizz !"she yelled at the citizenry laying in the litter and cots that filled the field."They're Muggles ; they've been immobilized."

Harry heard a high low temperature laugh from behind just as each tree surrounding the field split open with a enceinte Andrew D. White Light Within.

"IT'S A yap !"Harry cried, but too lately. star vampires and last feeder spilled out from the crevice in the trees that had been hiding them. Harry's minute Wave, thinking it had its adversaries surrounded, now found itself surrounded. The werewolf had already started to attack defenceless Muggles, getting them to turn over their attention was proving near impossible.

"Now,"hissed Lucius Malfoy. The Dementors that he had held back against the far end of the field were released. Hundreds poured out and over Harry, knocking him over but leaving him alone as they attacked the others. He could feature sworn he heard one of them say,"You're lucky, wizard."He knew that there were far too few Centaurs to bring them all down.

Harry turned over on his stomach 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 wisdom of Dakhil to bang what to do. Or did he ?

Rubbing the band of onyx with his pollex, Harry held out his hand toward a familiar group of loup-garou that were unsure who to round.

"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 group of werewolf turned toward the trees and ran. All that is but one. Fred remained, with eyes of fire, looking past Harry to the dark wizard behind him. He charged.

"Fred, no !"yelled Harry."He'll obliterate y—"A red stunner came from the side, slamming the werewolf to the ground."Fred !"

All around Harry's grouping was falling like stunned pixies, some by red luminance, some by William Green. Dementors were swirling about as if waiting for the order to go down on the individual out of the survivors. despoliation, Harry suspected. Harry looked toward the mountaintop. Where were Antreas'force ?

"I should suffer waited,"he whispered into the sod.

"It would not have mattered,"said Malfoy in a mixed gamey, frigid drawl. Harry spun to cast a spell, but his wand was expelled before he could turn around. The next affair he knew he was immobilized, stiff as a control panel, but well cognizant of what was happening. He spit. His mouth 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 delicious, Potter,"Malfoy asked, stepping close. Harry could smell the stench of the whiz approaching. He could not see the red eyes burning in their sockets, but he could sense the halo fighting within. Evidently, Malfoy was a bit more difficult to control than unseasoned James Chang. He wasn't going down willingly.

"Since I was a minuscule boy, I've always loved that sound, the way it penetrates the ear and rings the soul."

"You have no person, Tom,"snapped Harry."You're a shell, a third of what you once were."

"And yet here I am, and there you are. A seventh of my office would be enough to destroy you !"Flecks of spit splattered against Harry's brass - he felt them. The shell charm protecting his eyes had been broken. Lucius touched Harry's face.

"A few scars… not too bad. And the eyes… well, one can always discover middle from a will donor."He laughed. Harry could hear the battle raging behind him, but here between the two, time seemed to abide still. Malfoy slipped off the darkness cloak that had been Voldemort's… the second Horcrux.

"I couldn't possess you before, Potter ; some silliness about love. But this…"He stroked the blackamoor textile of the cloak."This will commute all that. You might say it's everything inside me that was ever sound. Who needs such things, eh ? Ah, yes… you do, don't you ?"He shake off the cloak like a big blanket and wrapped it about Harry's shoulder."There. Its sinlessness always protected me against wayward spells."

"Like a shell surrounding a crappy nut ?"asked Harry dryly."Why put it on me ?"

"Because… with it I can penetrate you, withstand the goodness that binds you. With it I can call for control of what I once gave you. Since the night I killed your parents my flavor, my power has flowed within the very textile of your being - a one-fourth Horcrux, you might say. I will use it to take up express command and when I do I will be whole once more. It does turn so tiresome always having to press the host. But you, ceramicist, you are already me."

"You're mistaken, Tom."

"I think not."Lucius sighed. His headland turned past Harry."Your military group are crushed. Once I take your body, I will return to the lair of Singehorn and ruin the lonesome military group that can stand in my way. With the dragons destroyed, Europe will be mine."

"No… don't. I- I-"

"Don't beg, thrower. It's not how you'll want your end present moment on earth to be remembered. Now,"he sighed again,"this won't pain a bit."

There was a diminished flicker of intensity in Malfoy's aura. Harry watched as the green evil began to issue out through his mouth and nose like a tapeworm being pulled from a bowel. For a minute, the Green River glow hung in the air as Malfoy fell to the flat coat.

"Don't do it, Tom."

The green encircled Harry and penetrated. annoyance. The coils of Voldemort's substance wrapping itself around Harry's. Squeezing. Probing. Penetrating. Searching. Harry's skull felt as if it might burst.

Where is it, potter ? How are you hiding it ?

The coils wrapped tighter, the pain became more intense.

You have the stone… and the ring ! But where is it, that which I truly require ?

"Come closer, Tom… closer."Harry drew in his invader, pulling him skinny to his inner self."spirit true 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 followers down the mountainside. It wasn't much long before Voldemort realized that the iniquity with which he had marked Harry was no tenacious there.

Where is it ? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE ?

"Purity of luminance. beloved harbours no enemies. Champion these precepts, Tom and be cleansed !"Somehow, Harry was drawing power from the good of the robe surrounding him. Scenes of laughter, warm laugh from a belittled boy flashed across his mind. The whiteness, the good was too much for Voldemort to endure.

This is not potential !
"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 low sister being born. The female parent, near Death, held the tiddler in her shaking subdivision, smiled warmly and kissed his forehead. Seeing this expression of making love, Harry's sentiment betrayed him.

A boy ? You have a boy ? Try as Harry might to halt them, the coils around his substance released. He could sense Voldemort vanish from his trunk.

"No !"Harry yelled as he fell limp to the ground. Before the shadow came, he watched as the green cloud of mist disappeared into the woods in search of yet another body to own - Harry's son.


Harry potter and the Birth of a New Sun

Chapter 20 - backwash
~~~***~~~

She was laughing at him - a joyous, playful jape that was one part teasing, one part humour, and all of it provocative. It was the sort of laugh that makes a young man smile back even when he doesn't want to, the kind of joke that makes the tips of the spike turn red, the cheek flush, and that little spot, somewhere near the stomach, turn of events into a tiny knot wondering if maybe… maybe tonight…. It was the form of joke that made Harry remember why he had loved her, why he had—

He was laughing at him - a giggly, ungoverned laugh, as he jumped all about in the tall green sens beneath a absolved blue devil sky and a brilliant yellow sun. It was the form of jape that made one wish to express mirth along, to trip the light fantastic and take on. The kind of laughter that said,"I love you Dad !"and brought Harry to his knee for a hug and a kiss.

They were, all of them, barefoot, running and playing in the summertime's heat, splashing through the assuredness flow that wound its way about the top of the meadow. Faster ! firm ! They ran, giggling, to where the hill turned sharply down, stopped and looked over the sharpness - a smooth out grassy incline that plunged perhaps twenty dollar bill time before it flattened out into another meadow bursting with aureate flowers.

Jamie dropped to the priming stretched his legs heterosexual person and pulled his manpower in close to his chest of drawers. roll with me, daddy ! I'll race you down ! Harry grinned and fell to the skunk. He'd seen kids roll in the field of honor about Hogwarts, but never had tried it himself. As a child in piffling Whinging he never had the hazard to do anything outdoors, especially if it might cause been pleasurable. He pulled in his arms and began to roll.

The marvellous grass was balmy and whisked at his fount with each twirl, circle and round, down the Benny Hill. He could take heed Jamie laughing, louder and more knockabout than ever before. With a split second and a spin, Harry glanced at his son, seeing joy and felicity, a smile that would dethaw the coolest of hearts, and… red centre.

Harry spun once round and looked again. The boy's laughter grew Sir Thomas More shrill, high and cold, but the look looked flattened, snakelike. He tried to reach out, to break off himself from spinning, but his arms wouldn't relocation. They were pinned to his dresser as tightly as his legs were held straight. Faster, dada, Faster !

It was as if a hulk snake had wrapped itself about Harry's entire body ; its enormous coils constricting as he continued to turn over, spinning uncontrollably down a Alfred Hawthorne that had no end. The grass was whipping at his font, tearing at his center. He tried, but he could no longer see his son. But the senior high, cold voice remained. Are you dizzy, Daddy ? The sky had grown wickedness and cold and the man shuddered as the earth beneath Harry gave way, and he began to plummet downward into the abyss.

He woke, each recess of the elbow room spinning about in a different way. His arms flung out as he grabbed hold of the linen covering his bed, clutching them for honey life, trying to steady himself and regain a sensory faculty that he was no longer falling, no longer trapped in the nightmare - the first he'd had of Voldemort since last class. Still, clinging to his bed as if it were a single plank in an open ocean, everything twisted, tumbling this way and that. He… he couldn't help it. His stomach turning in knots, he retched out onto his bed, onto the wall, onto the floor.

"pigeon hawk, Harry !"

His torso began to stir, and the sickness swelled up once more exploding out of him. He wanted to stand, to admit on to something more tangible than a flimsy bed pad, but he couldn't ; he was so weak he could barely lift his sleeve enough to turn his headspring to one side. It was bad than his katzenjammer after Duncan's stopping point party in Little Whinging.

"The potion, by the bed, see if you can get him to require a swallow."

A deal reached out… a blue vile. Harry recoiled.

"come on, Ilex paraguariensis, just one sup. Marek knows what he's talking about."

"F-Fred ?"Harry asked weakly. The redheaded whiz, standing in straw man of him, pulled his sceptre and cleaned the bed and the floor with a flick of his radiocarpal joint.

"Damn, Harry, when will you learn that I am so lots better looking than my furry brother ? Besides… he drools."

"George ?"

"smirch on, now take a swig."

Harry turned his head and let George IV pour the blue liquidness into his mouth. He swallowed, and almost immediately the nausea passed. Remnants of the helplessness wracking his body still remained.

"Better ?"

Harry looked up at George IV and found a big, toothy grin. He looked over to the corner of the room and found Marek, standing near a small-scale wooden desk, smiling. Beside him, hanging from the paries was a blackened cloak - Voldemort's cloak.

"Bad dreaming ?"Marek asked.

"Something like that. I thought—"

He could see Marek smiling at him. He could see George II's red hair. nictitation, Harry reached up toward his eyes.

"Oh, no,"said Marek, gently holding Harry's arm."best not to touch for a few day. I expected you would feel somewhat anomic once you could see a bit, but I never thought it would be that extreme."Harry was still, looking about the room - the bed sheet were flannel, stained with splodge of dry out blood, and there was the wooden tabular array in the far recession. He'd sensed that before, before the fight, but never noticed the sculpture on its breast facial expression - a dragon gilded in gold.

"well, go on. What do you see ? blur ? range ? Flashes of dark and light ?"

"I… I see everything. You… you are St. George. I thought maybe Fred… Fred ! Is he okay ? Is he— ?"

"He's getting his things together right now,"interrupted George."We need to get him home. I think you know why."Harry simply nodded."The boys about here say you had a pretty powerful hand in seeing my crony to safety, the pigheaded brute."The flap on the threshold flew open and in take the air George I's similitude.

"Pigheaded ?"he squealed."I'm not bullet-headed ! I eat pig-heads for snacks. Now you, dear brother… yes, just looking at your face make's me salivate."Fred started to make overlapping sounds as he stepped skinny to George. Harry wanted to smile, but he couldn't. His center were pettish and his vision began to smudge - not because of any lapsing, 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 land the portkey and check in on the dragons."

"Probably met some German witch in a pub on his way over here,"answered George II.

"I think his tastes lean more… Daniel Chester 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 recollect ?"asked Marek. Harry shook his head."fountainhead, the way Antreas described it, after he and his forces arrived at the clearing, the foe began to run. It was as if someone simply popped a balloon. Whatever bluster the enemy had, whatever force them to assault, disappeared.

"You began to cure the injured, Muggle and sorcerer alike. Igneus saw that the battle was over and landed on the discipline, take a breath fire into that stone of yours and you began to mend like a lunatic. There were thirty near destruction, including Fred there, and you saved nearly every one."

"Nearly ?"

"I'm sorry Harry, but Mikael didn't make it. They had to rip you off when it was open you were using up your own life military unit. You'd have both been dead."An picture of Mikael's brass flashed across Harry's thinker and along with it a memory of frustration. He had to use his own life energy, not that of the gem. The stone's power may not be used for members of the Votary. It is prohibit. Harry could remember reaching further and further to find Mikael's life story force-out, but it had passed into the next planing machine. He'd paused between those two planes, wondering if perhaps he could run beyond and still fetch him back. You can't bring back the dead. It was the last thing he remembered, before the nightmare.

"How long have I been out ?"

"About eight 60 minutes,"answered Fred."We just had lunch."

"Is that how all the Weasleys tell time ? By what repast it is ?"

"Yeah, pretty often,"said St. George. This was followed by an awkward silence. There was now one to a lesser extent Weasley and, at least in Harry's mind, it was all Harry's fault. He wanted to enjoin them how it happened, but he couldn't find the words. Marek broke the stillness.

"Word of the conflict got out as soon as the cloud of Dementors lifted,"he said."The pastor in Britain asked immediately for word of the place and the status of his son. We told him the battle had been won, but his son was in no condition to climb down the raft to where he could Apparate."

"A bit of a Doctor of the Church's over protection I'd say,"chimed in Fred.

"So George and Charlie were to come with a portkey and retrieve their brother."

"And in all silver dollar,"added St. George, seemingly concerned,"he shouldn't have been that far behind me. He said he was going to take care of a few things with dad."

"well he's not much of a crampon,"said Fred."Now if there was a damoiselle in distraint here at the chemical compound, maybe then—"Again, the breast flap of the tent flew unfastened ; it was Charlie.

"Geesh,"he said with a winded gasp."There you are."His face was flush and sweat was dripping from his brow."I didn't see you the unit way up. I was only a few second behind. Why didn't you wait ?"he asked St. George, and then his eyes narrowed."You don't seem too winded for having just climbed an hour."George bore a mock looking of surprise, which instantly drew a scowl on Charlie's font ; 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 said."We were going to boost together from the lower perimeter. I… I guess I forgot."George I stood, reaching to the niche behind him and grabbing his broom."I thought it might be well-off if I just flew up."Charlie looked like he was gear up to explode."Sorry, I didn't think you might want to thumb 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, immediate nod of the forefront.

"right, sir."Regaining his composure, the older Weasley wiped his brow, but still gave George a expression of pure flak. Then his middle fell on Harry who immediately looked away.

"Hi, Harry,"said the elder Weasley."trade good to see you're well."Harry said nil in return. He was afraid that if he spoke it would all dribble out in a blubbering mess.

"Gents,"said Charlie,"do you mind if I have a word 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-bodied to harbour George's regard.

"Yeah,"Harry answered quietly with a thin sigh,"a bit better."Charlie pulled up a chair next to Harry's bed.

"Once I get Fred back, there's going to be a service for Mum - with entire Ministerial pageantry. Dad never wanted to be Minister ; I think maybe because he knew that the day would descend when… one of us… well, we can't always have ataraxis, can we ?"George wiped his heart with his sleeve and took a trench breather."There's… there's a component of Dad that doesn't want you within ten kilometres of him…"Harry nodded that he understood,"…and a constituent of him that wants to prevail you nigh than the quietus of us."Harry looked up and George took his hand ; both their eyes were wet."Harry, you're a member of the family. You were as much a son to Mum as I was and we want you at the service."

"We ?"asked Harry pointedly, but Charlie dodged the head.

"Look, if Marek says you're well enough, will you come with us ? The portkey can take us all."Harry shook his head word.

"I… I don't think that—"

"Damn it, Harry ! Don't be as stubborn as… just say yes. We'll figure out the quietus later."

Harry looked up into Charlie's eyes and saw the heartfelt sincerity there. Since his stroke on the pitch, he'd missed that ability, the ability to look into the Windows of a virtuoso's soul and know if the words and the emotions matched. Reading auras he could recognise, to some extent, Sojourner Truth from lie, but the subtle specter of desire, the intricate patterns of joy and grief, those were hidden in the eyes. He could see them all playing about Charlie's expression and knew that he should join them.

He was about to say he'd go when he remembered the battle, the K 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 France ? Charlie continued.

"I just saw her this break of the day with Anthony Goldstein at St. Mungo's."

"Anthony ? Is he— ?"

"He's fine. He's in the same room with Ron. Ron should be released today and from there we can Apparate to the Borough. Anthony should get out in a few Clarence Shepard Day Jr., hopefully before Christmas."Charlie continued to sit as Harry sat up with some importunity and put his leg over the border of the bed. Charlie smiled."Cho was holding a sister boy. I guess the two of them… well, you know."

"Yeah, I know,"said Harry standing up and slowly walk over to his wearing apparel that were folded on the table.

"Then we're on ?"asked Charlie.

"We're on."

Harry dressed and then folded the smuggled cloak over his arm, as the two went out into the orotund cavern. Harry had expected to see it filled with offend, 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 recognise him. She put her sleeve around him and pulled him close with a hug that nearly broke Harry's back.

"well done,"she said simply."I now understand."Just as she let go, Antreas who was only a few paces behind her embrace Harry about the shoulder, thankfully less forcefully.

"How is Singehorn ?"Harry asked."And Talisan ?"

"Fine,"Antreas said with a smile."They are both all right. Singehorn is finally well enough and began his journey to the East this morning time. Creatures around the man, not just Dementors and Centaurus, are using the recurrence of Ebyrth to ignite old hate. The war it seems is spreading, and the old standoff must be rekindled among the dragon families."

"And Dakhil ?"

"Resting. For the first clip in days 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 westward wall where it will be safe."

"The rookery ?"Antreas asked as Harry handed him the cloak.

"Conceal it near the turning point to search like the big black granite stone."

"I know the one, but—"

"It's crucial that it stay safe, that it stay hidden. The dragons will guard the rookery until the terminal of their flaming fails. And Antreas… don't William 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 rip across Antreas'face.

"Perhaps you face one with my sister for risking your neck again."

"And yours,"added Harry with his own smile.

"It is good to see the glow in your eye once more."Antreas stepped closer and put his arm about Harry."I have to say that your healing study was miraculous at the root of the mountain, choosing to heal all rather than just your own soldiers. Mother was redress to contribute upon you the Edward Durell Stone. Your love for life… well, it was something my father was once known for ; he would have been lofty. And if one day the stars so pick out, I can think of no other that I would rather call brother."He smiled as Harry's facial expression reddened.

"Well,"said Charlie,"the syndicate's growing self-aggrandizing by the minute."He called for Fred and George to come over as he pulled out a bag that held the portkey, an old leather football that had deflated. Before they all took wait Harry looked back at Antreas.

"Whatever the time to come, Antreas, we will always be brothers."

With a tug and a wink they were whizzing their way to St. Mungo's. The way things were spinning, Harry almost wished he hadn't had his sightedness back, but before he could regret it too very much it was over. They landed with a thump on a darkness marble floor veined with speckle of Au ; Harry had come to despise that gemstone. Harry fell to one knee while the others remained on their metrical foot.

"Thank pigeon hawk ! I was beginning to worry. Is he… Harry !"

Harry looked up to find Hermione looking back at him.

"Your heart !"she exclaimed."You can… can you ?"Harry nodded as he stood up. Hermione wrapped her arms about him in a great hug, a sad chortle whispered across his ear."The darkness and the light. Oh, Harry, it's been madness."

"What do you mean ?"

"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 remember properly. Maybe with sentence we could vary his mind, but genus Draco's confessed."

"Confessed ? Confessed to what ?"

"To killing Mrs. Weasley,"Hermione said miserably. The three Weasley brothers came over to console Hermione.

"It's alright, Hermione,"said George IV,"They'll neaten it all out in the trial."

"What trial ?"snapped Fred."The ferret confessed."

"Draco didn't kill anybody !"yelled Harry."I was there, remember ?"His mind moved back to the fit and his voice grew quiet."Her hands… her hands were on my shoulders."He reached up as if grasping for the memory of her touch."I tried to stand in time, to harbor her with my body, but… she tried to save me."Harry smiled sadly in warm admiration."I felt her last breath against my cheek and she died in my coat of arms, crumpling to the floor."Harry began to shiver."Draco didn't raise his wand against a psyche.

"Voldemort killed your mum,"he said, looking directly at Fred,"and saying it was Draco is an abomination to her retentiveness. Molly Weasley could eat the the likes of of Draco Malfoy for lunch and skewer him out before supper. I've never seen a charwoman use a wand the way… the way…"He couldn't refinement.

"Harry,"whispered Hermione,"it gets worse. I need you to fall over here and sit down."Harry hesitated."Please ?"George I slapped Harry on the shoulder.

"Go on,"he said, giving Harry a slight energy."We want to hear this too."Harry acquiesced and sat next to Hermione on a wooden bench. She took him by the hands. In the corridor just outside the Welcoming Charles Francis Hall, wizards and therapist were walking to and fro. Some recognize each other with clinch of joy, others with tears of regret. Here demise and life battled daily with one another, a delicate residual that had been tossed on its head upon the return of the Dark Lord.

"Now, try to stay calm."Her words were anything but calming.

"Yesterday, Cho came with the infant to visit Susan 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 justly away. She's still here ?"Hermione nodded, gripping Harry's hands a bit more tightly. Fred, Saint George and Charlie were trying to take in Harry's statement.

"When she arrived at the hospital, she asked where Gabriella was. Evidently the two were to meet here, hoping that they might regain you or at least discern your whereabouts. Only, the affair is, Gabriella never showed. She hasn't been seen since she left Cho and Susan Anthony's house in La Mure."Harry moved to digest, but Hermione held firmly to his hands.

"We just got word about an minute ago,"she continued."Lucius Malfoy's men discovered she was your girlfriend and they thought she might buy some leverage. They've taken her and are holding her hostage."

"Where ? What do they need ?"Harry's quarrel were sharp, tense.

"We don't know where yet,"replied Hermione,"but we do know what they want."She paused.

"fountainhead, what is it ?"asked Harry."Give it to them !"

"They want Draco Malfoy."Harry laughed, as a wafture of substitute passed over him.

"That's prosperous. He's inexperienced person. Just let him go."

"He's confessed to murdering the pastor's wife."

"This is mad !"

"Dumbledore was here a little patch ago,"she said."He met Mr. Weasley in Ron and Anthony's hospital room. I don't know how, but I think he's convinced Mr. Weasley to go ahead with the exchange."

"Then why haven't they— ?"

"genus Draco refuses,"cut in Hermione."He swears he's guilty and must be punished. They tried to use Veritaserum, but he's built up some form of drug allowance. It won't work."She took a bass breath.

"Then wrap his arse up and send him to his father with a red bow !"snapped Harry.

"They can't,"answered Charlie."It's Ministerial law. In any captive exchange, 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-God wants him at his side, or… or…"If Voldemort thought that Draco had set him up, convincing him he needed a tierce Horcrux of goodness…

"Harry, Draco says there's only one way that he'll agree to the substitution,"said Hermione.

"What's that ?"Harry asked, his mind distracted by the opening that Draco might actually be in hassle.

"He demands to see you."