Disclaimer: I got som'mat I need ter tell ya now, This be me first story ever writtenandIf'en after ya read this story ya still think I'm Ms Rowling then I'll eat Buckbeak. Only ink being used, and not a knut in payment. That be earned with readers and reviews.
Drivin' on the wrong side
Chapter One: A Blanket were Born
I had just come inside me hut from the shed out back. See, I'd been out there polishin' Sirius' bike and Fang were actin' his fool hound self as usual, woofin' loud, an' lower'an a dragon's growl. Made me wonder how ol' Norbert were doin'. Never can think back ter watchin' the baby dragon hatch without seein' 'Arry's green eyes lookin' bright with wonder. The combination of those things; Sirius' bike, a hound dog makin' dragon noises and 'Arry's eyes sent me into a memory as I waited fer the kettle ter boil.
Lookin' back now to the first night I flew little 'Arry on that same motorcycle I were so worried I'm surprised I remembered any of the fancy things Sirius told me about his motorbike. How it would chance sizes ter fit the rider, how ter make it fly, turn invisible, soundless, with anti-fall charms… Oh, he could go on. Maybe he noticed how shook up I was from the scene inside James and Lily's house. He told me he didn't need his bike anymore an' asked me to hold it fer him. I took one more look at the cut on little 'Arry's forehead and we headed straight for Madame Pomphrey.
Try as she might, the school matron couldn't really close that ligh'nin' shaped cut. She wanted ter keep him in the hospital ward but I told her that I had me orders from Dumbledore himself an' he told me not to let little 'Arry outta me sight till I gave him back to the professor. I took him down ter me hut and made up a little bed on one of me pillows fer him. He seemed ter like chewin' on the dried strips of dragon meat I enjoy during me walks into the forest. I settled 'Arry down ter sleep an' I were tidi'n up from changing his nappies when I heard an odd hoof like knock low down on me back door.
I moved right quick ter answer the door as I didn't want ter have little 'Arry woken up so soon after fallin asleep. When the door opened I saw som'mat I never thought I'd see: A Bowtruckle riding on the back of a Unicorn. Gobsmacked, I think is what you'd call the expression on me face. The Bowtruckle laughed in a tiny little voice as the Unicorn stepped inside me hut. I rushed ter clean up right quick as the Unicorn shuffled over an' the Bowtruckle, who I by then recognized as Willen, slipped off her back onto the table. He marched as only a Bowtruckle can, to the center of the table where he placed one pincer shaped hand on me pepper grinder and the other on the salt shaker. Couldn't understand a thing he asked, but what he got was a nice table and chair, in his own size. Once settled he watched as I filled a shallow bucket with water and found a shout-glass I had been gifted, and made tea.
With a bowl of water on the table for Zoe and tea in the shout-glass for Willen, my new guest's needs were met. I looked sideways at me bed, checkin' on little 'Arry when Willen said "Harry Potter is the reason for our visit." My mug o' tea hit the table, I were that shocked. Willen sipped his tea and the Unicorn whin'eed in a laughing sort of way. Reckon my glance weren't so sly as I thought. Willen then started what seemed ter be a pre-planned speech. "We have been in meetings since we felt Harry Potter stop the evil. It was decided that Zoe and I would be sent to help you this night." He went on till I stopped his list making' so that I could get parchment and quill. He laughed and told me I could have his list when he were done speachifyin'. His list were too small fer me even to know if it had writin' on it at all. His speachifyin' apparently ruined, he held up his list and started chantin' as parchment flowed from his fingertip, until a list were written big enough on it fer even me ta see easily. First thing on this list was fer me ter call a certain house elf.
"Duffy!" I called out, forgettin' that little 'Arry were asleep, and got two house elves fer the call of one. Duffy was shushin' me an' the other elf was already rockin' little 'Arry back ter sleep. "Treehugger can not be waking the great Mister Harry Potter Sir as he is needing his sleep" he said. "Ellie will be tending to Mister Harry Potter Sir as I can see your list is being rather longish, and you will be needing all the help you can gets" The other elf, Ellie, had 'Arry back asleep and she were cleaning up me whole hut, like I didn't do a good enough job when it got done. Duffy climbed up into one of me chairs, and kept climbin' as the chair grew under him so he ended up sittin' with the rest of us. It were an odd group that settled into work.
The creatures of the forest had decided they would help 'Arry as they could. When Duffy and Ellie got involved, the design was altered, but the plan remained the same, make a blanket to protect Harry Potter. I have a fair few tail hairs from Unicorns that I find in the forest, caught on branches and bushes mostly, snagged as one of the lovely creatures trotted past. When I offered my collection Willen told me that Zoe was being honored by donatin' her tail to the effort. Let me repeat that, Her Entire tail !. With that much magic woven into a blanket none at the table could imagine the final outcome.
One thing yer gotta say about house elves; they know how to weave! The elf were told there weren't much time so she snapped her fingers and the little blue blanket that 'Arry were wrapped in floated over and began to unravel into a single strand. Zoe suggested through Willen, as her go between, that I use a sharp cleaver and just 'give 'er a bob'. Willen seemed to think that she was trying to start a new fashion in the forest by being the first Unicorn with a bob'd tail. As Ellie the elf was poppin' out ter get her spinnin' wheel an' weavin' frame, Willen was some how making the ends of hair connect with just one other end, making the longest known spool of Unicorn tail hair ever seen.
As the evening progressed others from the forest visited, leavin' their own contributions fer the cause. A few of Aarragog's children dropped off a large ball of their silky webbing, not offerin' to stay. They know most folks don't even try to understand them let alone spending time inside me little hut with them. The thestrals stopped by with long strips of old torn wing leather, to be used as a border to sense when Little 'Arry needed the blanket to help protect him and heal him. Willen was soon using his pincer like hands to punch runes in the wing leather to activate when little 'Arry's blood had been spilt.
A wildly happy rouge of nifflers rolled several dozen glass jars onto the table and Duffy thought he could grind down the different colored powders in the jars fine enough to make dye and he and Ellie could weave a little bit of elf magic into the project as well as giving the blanket a brighter, more colourful look. A look only Duffy seemed to think was not jarring enough to make you stumble when you saw it.
Cooler heads prevailed and a rainbow was woven into one of the corners using the strong silk thread from the arachnids. Duffy's little patch of magic would act to make sure 'Arry and his clothes were kept clean and his extra magic was stored within the blanket to be kept hidden. With as much magic as the little tyke was encircled in he was going to be a strong wizard. Duffy's rainbow would soak up almost all of 'Arry's excess magic as it flowed outwards from his core. As house elves rely on their Master's magic to keep them strong, this rainbow would feed 'Arry's magic back to him in times of need. The Centaurs were represented by two young fillies who stitched the points of the compass into the corners. Duffy's rainbow became the North Point making his magic even stronger.
As miss Ellie started weaving the strand from 'Arry's old blanket the Unicorn hair strand was woven on a diagonal pattern makin' the blanket look almost like a cloud, blue and white and shiftin' and changin' an' the neighbors in the forest sang and cried out into the night, adding to the power of the plan, the blanket.
There's a lotta creatures that live in the forest, mostly just misunderstood to my way of thinkin', but nothin' Evil. An' I can tell yer right now that each and every one of them knew what happened, and when it happened, and that is were "Arry Potter that done it. The Dark Side had not been kind to the residents of the forest. They had seen early on that many promises were made, but the only lasting truth was one of pain for serving that nightmare of a mad-man.
The magic was flowing strong and thick around the table as more and more items were blended into the blanket. As it was weaving it took on a look like a hallow-gram, each piece separate, floating, waiting for all the effects and efforts to be joined at once. It was colourful and mezmorizing and only little 'Arry cryin' in his sleep moved anyone's eyes from the magical display. Miss Ellie the elf were changing 'Arry's bandage on his forehead when Zoe started stompin', snortin' and finally leaned around and bit herself hard enough to draw blood. I don't know if Willen even touched the table top he moved so fast to catch the willingly given Unicorn blood to aid 'Arry. Fawkes swooped in at that point and healed Zoe's bite mark with a single tear. He sent an image of mixing 'Arry's scar blood with Zoe's blood to Willen. When Willen magiced my shout-glass clean and had mixed the tears together Fawkes leaned over the mixture and cried two tears, one from each eye. Pearly and thick, the tears blended with the silver and red blood in a tri-coloured swirl. This swirl then hovered in place over the blanket, pulsing and waiting with the rest for the time of sealing.
A tiny heart shape floated in one of the open windows. The trail of fairies following explained that the heart was made of moke fur. This would ensure that nobody or nothing could take the blanket away from little 'Arry. My fireplace flared green and tiny Professor Flitwick rolled out onto the floor. He was rolling because the spool of Golden thread in his arms was nearly as round as Fillius was tall. Fillius squeaked out his explanation. "Since I am of Goblin blood, and that I teach here, the Goblins asked me to deliver their gift: providing your secret plan with enough gold to ensure that any runes being used would be able to be stitched in gold." Duffy had slipped from his chair and silently guided the charms genius to a sitting position as he spoke. The design that would be used started with the Golden thread at the center of the blood and tears swirl. After finishin' its journey the thread would tie back into the swirl at its outer edge, completing the circle. Being tied together using the blood, tears, gold and magic from all those contributing would make a set of runes powerful enough to glow in the dark for decades to come.
Moaning Myrtle brought a gift of hair from the Merpeople. She had been told to have a trident stitched at the West Point on the compass. As it was cold, dark, and most of all wet where the Merfolks lived, they had told Myrtle it would help protect 'Arry from those conditions. It would also help with 'Arry's night vision. As more gifts arrived everyone realized that alone, none of these "things" would do much, but together the magics all just seemed to work together and create a truly magical artifact.
Dawn crept in through the east window as we were all catching a bite to eat. House elves had been popping in and out all night making sure there was no one was needing a freshen up for their tea. A ray of sunlight pierced the floating construct at the Eastern Point of the compass and after a flash of light there above the blanket floated a small sun, with every colour of any sunrise roiling within the center.
As we chatted about that last gift, we began guessing what would let us know it needed to become the South Point on the compass. Duffy's rainbow was woven in before the centaurs showed up, and the other points had powers known to the ones giving the gift, but not to any of us at the time. Truth be told, we were all just resting, building up our magic so we could all add to the final casting, the sealing.
Little 'Arry had been awake for a while before even Miss Ellie the house elf noticed. He were laying in his pillow bed and watching everything that moved in the crowded hut. His eyes had still been a bit puffy from cryin' the night before, but an even brighter color green then is mums. Maybe Duffy's original colour scheme could keep up with 'Arry's emerald gaze, but nothing else short of Albus' ropes stood a chance as bein' near as bright.
After being fed and splashed, the little critter climbed up the same chair that Duffy had, and he used the same house elf approach to the problem. He sat down directly on top of Willen. Willen moved so fast he was resting up before 'Arry landed on the unoccupied table top. As Bowtruckles are wont to do, he had been kneeling down, talking in his own way, to the table top its self. He saw a nappy rushing at him from behind in the reflection of the table as the top blushed from an unexpected compliment, and had bum rushed his way outta the way before he was landed on.
'Arry was fascinated by Willen. At fifteen months old, almost everything fascinated him. He tilted his head and looked at Willen. He had a look on his face like he was asking a question, and Willen answered a question none of us heard, by saying "Yes Harry, I was asking after the health of the furniture. How did you know?" Well, that being said out loud made poor Zoe snort water up her nostrils and sneeze into my beard. Little 'Arry bounced up and down, clapping his tiny hands together, happy to have been answered by someone he had never met before. I looked down, wiping me beard with a towel and saw Fillius' reflection looking at me with eyes that were huge with interest and understanding.
At some point in me past, after I were expelled from the school, I might have asked the little'est Professor if he could make me an umbrella frame with some would I would provide. I requested that each little spoke be removable separately. He gave me a funny look and started a long charm that had me head spinnin' before he were done. The spokes spun and the Handle was formed without it looking like transfiguration. As the charm settled, he asked me for my snapped wand parts. With a flick of his wrist, two of the spokes unscrewed themselves from the frame and twisted together to form the tip and point of the frame. My broken wand halves spun into the frame, secured tightly in the frame, a frame of wand quality wood. Fillius never asked why I wanted the brolly made, I think he always knew my plan was to hide the broken pieces inside me brolly. He also never asked why I would bring him the wood instead of asking Minerva to transfigure him one from any old branch.
As the kneazle was amongst the pixies now, I put me hand on the faithful pink bumpershoot and looked at Willen. When I looked back to the professor, ya could've knocked him over with one of his flight lesson feathers. Any ol' schmo can carve a stick to look like a wand, but if the wood came from a tree that wasn't being guarded by a Bowtruckle, then all you had was a stick. Sure, it might look like a wand, but it would always only be a stick. Fillius knew my biggest well known secret. Now three of us knew the real secret. Willen and now Fillius, along with me. When the parts from my wand fit into the oak top star, they reconnected with each other, being oak as well. The handle for my invented wand is right close to being a meter in length, gives me great aim, and no trace can be found as I'm not actually touching my wand. And let that be a lesson to any young uns out there. The trace never breaks, if your wand does.
Ready and rested, we all stood in a circle around the floating collection of gifts. We had decided to each direct our thoughts and well wishes toward any gift in any sequence so each gift would feel us individually and help strengthen the bonds of our magic. By following different paths, our magic would lay down more crossing layers into the weave. At midmorning the hut was fairly well humming with magic and love. The fairies were sliding down the diagonal thread of Unicorn tail hair making the colour patterns change. The moke fur heart was pulsing in time to the music that was building in the air. The sound of waves crashing onto a beach under the Western Point helped draw notice of everyone as the Golden thread powered up the runes on the trident. Duffy's rainbow was flushed with ever changing colours at the Northern Point. The sunrise was flaring out in the Eastern Point. Little 'Arry sat watching, his eyes alight with magic. He reached up to touch the empty Southern Point of the compass when the squibs hit the skids, so ter speak.
The kitchen window exploded inwards, shattered by a diving falcon's beak. The bird passed little 'Arry's forehead at top speed, talons lashed out and grasped a thick dark mass of evil that was escaping from the scar. One flap of its wings took it clean through the blanket as the magic snapped into place, the falcon vanished leaving the Southern Point of the compass with a mark exactly the same shape as the scar on 'Arry's forehead. Arry slowly leaned back and toppled over, asleep ter the world.
'Arry slept while Fillius ran scan after scan on him, every one of em showing the tyke to be asleep, takin' a kip, havin' a snooze, catchin' some Zeds. Nothing more. Just a tired baby accordin' to the blanket anyway. As the falcon had flared out, the blanket had come alive, surrounding 'Arry. Runes flashed and blinked, the compass points flared and spun in place. The blanket was soaking up 'Arry's overflowing magic, charging the elfen runes like a muggle battery to be spent as needed to keep 'Arry clean and healthy. Healing powers were being directed to the scar by the thestral's gift. The little rascal slept through it all.
I couldn't take me eyes from Fillius's face, he had a look on it of terror understood. "Fillius" I started "whatever did you see?" His gaze wondered toward mine, his sharp mind be-booting. "horcrux" was all he muttered. His answer left most of still looking for the answer while Willen and Zoe now had the look of horrible understanding on their faces. Fillius picked little 'Arry up and sat him down on his lap. I couldn't help but laugh, seeing little 'Arry on the tiny professor's lap were just too cute. I stopped laughing soon enough when Fillius told us what a horcrux is and how one were made. The darkest magic. A cold blooded murder to create a rip in your soul, a container made ready before hand, and the tearing off and placement of the bit of soul into the container and it was believed that you would always be tied to this mortal plane. Immortality, plain and simple.
The professor would only be satisfied with an oath from us all to not disclose what we had just learned, and seen with anyone else. He figured it must have been you-know-whose horcrux, and that we now had an advantage we didn't even know was possible. "Voldemort's soul has been ripped from his body, and he thinks he is safe due to his incomplete horcrux, but only WE know that his nasty piece of magic was cleansed from Harry by the fast falcon" Fillius reasoned. "I imagine that he will float as a waif for many more years than he expects" he continued. The school's smallest teacher went on to teach us enough about them nasty pieces of dark magic to make us understand that one could make as many horcruz as one pleased, but after the first split your soul simple stopped functioning if you attempted more splits. You would short circuit the plan and be He with no mo' horcruz real quick like. First or fifteenth, you only got one split, after that you were just trimming dead wood from a fallen branch.
"It seems to me" I began, a thought bubbling up from me core "that what was just pulled from little 'Arry's scar was not one of them horcruxes, but old Voldy's original remaining soul piece." Stunned silence was the response. I carried on "Now wait for it. He didn't have time ter make no vessel to hold a horcrunch in, and there was nothing left lying round in little 'Arry's nursery neither, such as a body." "if'en old Tom lost his body then his soul musta made the jump to possess 'Arry when the spell bounced off the tyke." "The poor lad spent the night with an evil dark wizard trapped in his head." Tears leaked down my face as I knew I had failed. Failed Dumbledore, failed Lily and James, failed little 'Arry. I can't stand it!
My tears were stopped with a Whoop from Willen. He was staring up at me like we had never met. I guess he didn't know I could think that deep or som'mat. He was frozen in place, thinking fast, and looking like a large brown Praying Mantis. He whooped again and jumped up, calling me of all people Brilliant. "Don't you see?" he asked, turning in a circle, looking at us all. "He who must not be named just became he who can not come back." His soul is gone, not destroyed, but simply Gone!" "Any horcrux is left on the wrong plane. If he can call that bit of nasty to him, then he will be reborn on another plane, another world, away from US."
Little 'Arry got the party started at that point by climbing down from the professor's lap and sitting on the table next to Willen. He then spun around looking very much like Willen had done, his eyes popped open in laughter as he spun faster and faster, his magic free to play. When his speed was so fast the little tyke was beginning to blur, Willen held up one of his hands and slowly pulled the speed off, leaving little 'Arry to topple over, too dizzy and giddy to remain upright.
I was not nearly as concerned about flying Sirius' motorbike later that evening as I wrapped up little 'Arry in his blanket of protection and tucked him inside me moleskin coat. The big bike started up and we rolled up ter speed for takeoff with all our friends laughing and waving and we lifted off and we was off to Surrey. We was gone.