Final Confrontation: Prologue-Part 3
The Whole Story~Edited 1
By WeasleyTwin2
Oh my friends, my friends………
Don't ask me what your sacrifice was for
Empty chairs at empty tables ……..
Where my friends will sing no more.
From Les Miserables
"No! Not him…Let him go!"
My mind screamed in fear as the scene below us unfolded. What had gone wrong? Was this the end of all we once held dear? Where all our hopes and dreams now shattered like so much crystal glass.
I stretched out my hand trying to ward off the danger below but the gesture was futile.
"It's no use," said my companion, invisible behind me though I could feel him place a hand on my shoulder.
"Come. We must go."
"We should tell them…warn them…" I said indicating the sleeping school below that lay surrounded by a spell of silence.
"What good would it do? We've tried all year to do so and not once were we heeded."
I bowed my head remembering all the warnings we'd tried to pass on to the others using any means open to us. Only Harry and a few others had realized what they meant but most chose to ignore them.
"The fools…" I thought bitterly.
"But don't you think…" I began again.
"They'll know soon enough. Remember the security measures?"
I nodded not knowing what else to say.
"Still we must follow the boy, I think and save him if we can."
I felt rather then saw the look of determination my companion wore.
"We are his only remaining guardians. The others…"
"Have been put out of reach," he finished for me.
"What if we cannot save him? " I had to ask, fearing the answer.
"We must! But if we cannot then we shall take him with us to a place where he will be safe forever and wait for rebirth," he said softly.
"And all will go to him," I said, gesturing after the dark cloaked figure retreating over the wall and into the night.
"Only for a time not all time. Come."
We followed and I wondered if things would ever be the same again.
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It was Harry's final year at Hogwarts and we who had set guardians around him waited anxiously. Everyone knew that a final confrontation between Harry and Voldemort was coming. It could be felt in the air, like a thunderstorm, making everyone tense and nervous. Some time this year things would change though for good or ill no one knew.
For six long years, while other guardians watched over him, we two searched for something, which would remove the terror of Voldemort from our lives forever. We had no more luck finding the answer then the many others before us. The answer, it seemed, lay within Harry and only he would be able end the terror by defeating Voldemort for all time.
For these past six years others had protected our last hope without him ever being aware of such protection. We had chosen his guardians for that reason. Dumbledore, McGonagall, Hagrid and even Snape agreed to take up the guardianship (though Snape loathed the idea). Even the Dursley's had a part to play though they knew nothing of it for if they had they would have refused. Voldemort could not find Harry or do him harm while he was at #4 Privet Drive.
Sirius Black was his final guardian though he guarded Harry from a distance. Though he had been cleared of the crime he'd been charged with and the Ministry was no longer after him, he still shunned people for the most part because most of them shunned him. Still he would do all he could for Harry and now he returned to Hogwarts several weeks before the start of term in his animagi form of a huge black dog. He hid himself deep in the Forbidden Forest and told no one except Hagrid that he was there. He had lived in fear for so long that it was hard to let it go even now.
We to return to guard Harry for we could watch him at all times, even while the others slept. Everything was in place and now we waited. Everyone could feel the tension in the air but tried to ignore it as the start of the term passed without incident.
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Harry was as happy as he had ever been in his life. He was Headboy and captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. His grades were looking good even though Professor Snape's potions class was called "a regular torture session" by almost the whole school, except the Slytherins. Gryffindor had completely trounced Slytherin in their first Quidditch match and were in the lead with 350 House Points. Friends surrounded him and we were so proud of him. What parents wouldn't be proud of such a son. We hovered nearby, invisible to all, happily watching over him and hoping we were all wrong about what was to come. The first sign that something was wrong happened during the Halloween feast a few weeks after the match with Slytherin. At first it seemed like it was nothing more then a prank on the part of some angry Slytherins, furious over their team's loss.
The Halloween feast in the Great Hall was in full swing. The Hall was decorated with orange and black streamers floating in midair. The ceiling showed a sky sprinkled with stars. Large pumpkins sat in piles glowing with an eerie red light. Everyone was talking loudly, calling back and forth between tables in excited voices. The most animated table was the Gryffindor table. Harry sat with his friends, Ron and Hermione, having a lively discussion with them. Several younger Gryffindors gazed at him with admiration, respect and not a little adoration for they all looked up to him. He was their hero, a white knight, who drove their fears away. Years had added a little height and had refined his features somewhat but he was still the same boy who had entered Hogwarts six years previous. His eyes were still bright green and they snapped and sparkled with life. His black hair was still untidy but now it looked as if it was that way on purpose. The lightening bolt scar, instead of fading with the passage of time as all scars do, reminded the same. It was a reminder to all that Harry had been the one who had broken Voldemort's power and that he was the one, some said, who could defeat the Dark Lord for all time.
The house ghosts were flying around and Dumbledore was just rising from his seat to give a speech when all the torches in the Great Hall and indeed all of Hogwarts were blown out by an intensely cold wind. The hall became pitch black in an instant. A few first years began to scream and cry while Dumbledore told everyone to remain calm. Around the room several prefects and Harry and Hermione murmured "lumos" and their wand cast a dim light around the cavernous room. About this time all the torches flickered for an instant and then glowed brightly once more. The Slytherins sat at their table smirking at the others as if they knew something about the whole thing but everyone else sighed with relief and went back to the feast.
Only three people in the room noticed that before the torches became fully lit they had for a moment burned black. As Dumbledore, Harry and Hermione looked at each other over the crowd information seemed to pass between them. Of the three, only Harry thought he knew what it meant. Just before the torches were relit he thought he heard someone say, "I return" and felt for an instant a sharp pain radiate from his scar. Voldemort was somewhere nearby. Harry spent the remainder of the feast keeping careful watch but he saw nothing.
Several weeks' later messages began to appear on the walls all over Hogwarts. They were all variations on the same theme and where painted in some strange silver substance that could not be removed no matter how much magical cleaning solution was applied by Filch. The messages reminded everyone of the messages left by the Heir of Slytherin in Harry's second year. They were even written in the same silver substance as those messages. Dumbledore, Harry, Ron and Hermione agreed that their source was the same, namely Voldemort. This "rumor' was turned to fact when the most threatening message appeared within Harry own dormitory. The message dabbed on the ceiling above Harry's bed had appeared overnight as the five seventh year boys slept. It read:
THE HEIR RETURNS
TO CLAIM HIS OWN
BEWARE POTTER
YOUR DAY IS DONE
No one could figure out how the messages appeared or how someone had even gotten into Gryffindor Tower to write that last. Gryffindor House was in an uproar and new security measures were instituted, as they had been five years previous.
It swiftly became impossible for anyone to concentrate. New and more threatening messages appeared around the castle. For every 24-hour period about 20 new messages would appear. Everyone carried fear in their hearts but tried not to show it. Students and teachers huddled in groups talking quietly and traveled the halls between classrooms in nervous groups. Teachers and prefects patrolled the halls, Harry among them, trying to instill a sense of security and to restore order. Yet despite all this Voldemort's messages were having the desired effect. Everyone became so afraid they could barely move. They began to look to Harry all the more. His courage shone like a beacon in the night. He seemed to be unafraid in the face of a possible attack from Voldemort. He went about his normal duties as if nothing was wrong, though inwardly he was deeply afraid. The others began to take heart from this display and everything returned to normal. Things remained calm all through the Christmas holidays and everyone returned with stronger spirits then when they had left. When several weeks went by without incident, everyone began to relax and even Harry heaved a sigh of relief. His scar was giving him no indication that Voldemort was still in the school.
"We should have never relaxed our guard, " I thought as we followed the shadow before us.
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One morning Harry woke up to a searing pain in his scar and a feeling of dread in his heart. He leapt from his bed, barely able to stumble down the stairs of his dormitory. He exited the tower and was making his way down the passage when he heard a strangled scream and low moaning. He sprinted down the hall, around a corner and skidded to a halt. His scar burned in his head causing his vision to blur. He grabbed the wall and closed his eyes a moment trying to clear his head. When his vision cleared he saw Prof. McGonagall slumped over a still, white-haired form.
"Dumbledore? No…" said Harry, not quite daring to believe what his eyes were showing him.
He stumbled closer and fell to the floor at Dumbledore's side. McGonagall lifted a tearstained face to Harry. They stared at each other in pained silence for several minuets before she tried to speak.
"He… He thought someone was after him… He asked me… to put protective spells on him… I checked his own spells and told him they were fine. Now… he's gone," she said in a broken voice, tears streaming down her face.
"No!" Harry whispered. "It can be… Why him… Why not…"
McGonagall shook her head and Harry understood she had no answers to his unvoiced questions. With tears still falling from her eyes, she rose and lifted her wand to cast the spell to conjure a stretcher to carry the body of Dumbledore. Just as she did so Harry gasp and pointed to the wall behind where the body lay. McGonagall turned to see a new message scrawled on it in the same silver substance as before. It read:
THE HEIR HAS KILLED
ONE DEAR TO ALL
AND WITH THAT DEATH
ALL HOPE SHALL FALL
A voice began to whisper in Harry's mind. An evil, mocking voice that seemed familiar to him.
"Join me and live. Join them and die."
"I will not turn! Do you hear me Voldemort! I'll never join you!"
High, evil laughter resounded in his mind. He beat the floor while his eyes streamed tears that he could no longer hold back. He became aware of nothing but pain and grief and had cried for so long that he lost all track of time.
"Come Harry," he heard a voice say and looking up he saw Hermione and Ron looking at him with tearstained faces and red-rimmed eyes.
Harry allowed himself to be lead away by them. They were halfway down the hall when Harry hear that voice in his head again.
"Alone," it whispered "You will die alone."
The voice slithered through his mind and he tried to ignore it as they moved farther down the hall but it kept repeating "alone". Then a searing pain shot through his scar, a blinding white light seared his vision and he slumped to the floor.
Several days later, when he awoke from his unconsciousness he learned several more messages been scrawled on walls all around Hogwarts, each worse then the last. Everyone's fear had returned tenfold and that fear now stalked Hogwart's halls. Students and teachers huddled together for protection against what was to come. Without Dumbledore everyone became paralyzed with fear and classes were canceled, as professors tried in vain to prepare for an attack they now knew was coming. Harry patrolled the halls with the school prefects again trying to calm everyone but the fear had taken over, crushing everyone's spirit. Even Harry's courage was failing him but he was determined not to fall prey to his fear even though Voldemort's voice taunted him every step of the way.
"See how they fear me. Fear is my weapon Potter. You cannot hope to oppose me. Soon I will come for you.''
"I will not fear you and I do not fear you," Harry thought fiercely and Voldemort's voice left him then.
Though Harry didn't believe for a moment that Voldemort had truly left him, he felt the faintest stirrings of hope. He continued to patrol the halls very often alone with only his two shadows to guard him. Everyone around him began to notice his courageous actions and it slowly began to restore the own courage. Soon the fear they had lived with daily began to subside and school resumed with everything restored to normal.
The fear of Voldemort's return once more began to ebb and everyone began to relax once more and to enjoy the remaining games of the Quidditch season. The final game of the year featured Gryffindor against Slytherin and, after a long game in which the two teams tried to bludger each other to death, Gryffindor won by a score of 280 to 150 securing both the House and Quidditch Cups for Gryffindor.
It was the night after this victory that Voldemort struck at the very pillar on which everyone's courage rested. No one knew or could even begin to figure out how Voldemort managed to spirit Harry away without setting off the alarms protecting the school. Their last hope, captured by Voldemort. The school discovered it soon after he left the grounds bearing away Harry. The alarms sounded and the glimmer of wand light picked out the message Voldemort left behind.
ALL HOPE IS GONE
POTTER WILL JOIN ME
OR HE WILL DIE
EITHER WAY I RISE AGAIN
" What will become of us now, " murmured McGonagall.
"What hope have we now ……."
We continued to follow Voldemort as he bore Harry farther and farther away from all that was familiar. Finally a dark, foreboding castle became visible through the ever-present fog that hung in the sky. It was made of slimy black granite. Lightening laced the sky above the castle walls, nearly striking them. We dodged several bolts of it before entering Voldemort's castle scant seconds after he had. He dumped Harry unceremoniously to the ground and called for a guard who brought him several instruments of torture.
I shuddered to think what Voldemort might be planning to do to Harry with them. My companion put his arms around me but I shook them off. My face grew hard and cold.
"We must do something to help him," I said starting to move forward.
"Lily, please. Let Harry handle it himself. He's not seven anymore, he's seventeen. He can deal with it."
"What if he can't, James? What if we loss him? Have you ever thought about the consequences?"
"Yes I have and all I'm asking is for you to trust me and him."
I inclined my head and watched as Harry began to stir.
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Harry heard the sound of robes sweeping the ground quite nearby and smelled a funny smell that he couldn't place but somehow seemed familiar. As he came more awake and realized that he was not in a bed but on a cold, hard stone floor. He lay there in a daze, wondering how he had ended up on the floor. His mind was still trying to process this information when he heard a voice that made him sit up at once.
"Ah! Awake are we. Good. I've waited so long for this day, Potter."
Harry thought for a moment that he was dreaming but as he looked around the empty room the truth of his situation struck him. He was captured by Voldemort. He leapt to his feet and reached for his wand, only to discover it was not in his belt like it should have been. Where was it? Harry looked up at Voldemort and saw him twirling a wand in his hand. He smiled down at Harry and pointed the wand at him. Harry's heart was beating fast and, without realizing what he was doing, he charged Voldemort.
"If I can get that wand I'll have a chance."
Voldemort merely stood there looking calm and quite unconcerned. In a moment Harry learned why as he slammed into a glowing magic wall. Looking around he noticed that it completely surrounded him. Harry strained against the nearly invisible barrier and the inside of it began to glow as Harry attempted to use his magic to force the barrier back or to create an opening through which he could pass. Voldemort watched with an amused look on his face, his arms folded across his chest, still calm.
"That's no use, you know," said Voldemort lazily "the barrier's impenetrable. I've tested it most thoroughly before using it on you."
Harry looked at Voldemort defiantly but said nothing in reply. He racked his brain, trying desperately to remember the counter spell to the one Voldemort had cast around him. The answer was somewhere inside himself; if only he could remember. Fear assailed him but he clamped down on it.
"Your afraid," said Voldemort nonchalantly.
Harry put a tighter reign on his emotions and suddenly calmness filled him, blocking out his fear.
"How like your father… Pity he died so quickly. He was utterly alone Harry, shouting my name…begging for mercy. With his dying breath he cried out your name," Voldemort said maliciously.
Harry's face drained of all color and his scar began to burn.
"What a waste of power. Now I will give you the same choice I once gave him. Will you join me? Add your power to my own and you will live."
The room around Harry turned red and rage such as he had never known surged through his fragile calmness. His green eyes became alight with an inner fire and he trembled. His eyes narrowed and he glared at Voldemort with barely suppressed fury glimmering in their depths.
"Ah. Anger, rage and fear. My weapons, Harry. Ones I can use to turn you. Stay angry, Harry and soon you and the power you have stolen will be mine."
"Never!" cried Harry who grabbed the power and wrapped it about himself like a shimmering cloak.
"Then you will die Potter but not quickly like your parents. I will draw the power from you and add it to my own. Once your powers join mine there will be nothing left of you. It will be painful. You will die an inch at a time. You will beg me for mercy but will receive none. Maybe I'll leave you in that state forever as payback for all the times you've defeated me. Think on it and know you power will be mine and with it I shall take the world."
Voldemort swept from the room, his evil laughter echoing off the stone. The guard followed locking the door behind him. Harry slumped to the floor; all color draining from his face once more. The rage poured out of him like water, leaving him weak and shaken. He trembled with fear as thoughts flinted through his mind. 'What was it like to die?' By the glow of his magic Lily and James could see that tears were tumbling freely down his face. Quietly Harry cried, his head in his hands.
I turned to James and saw he was gazing at Harry forlornly. There were tears glistening on his cheeks and I realized that he too missed our son at least as much as I did. We had giving our lives so that Harry would live. Still I wondered, even after all this time, what would have happened if we had been allowed to live our lives in peace. I watched Harry as he struggled to regain control over himself. He wiped his tears on his robes and a new resolve seemed to fill him. I stretched my hand toward him and murmured:
"Your can do it Harry. Look for the answer inside of yourself."
Harry thought he heard a voice cut through his confusion, a quiet steady female voice telling him he could do it. He had no idea whose voice it was but he resolved to try. He finished wiping his tears on his robes, rose and began to study the situation before him. A magic barrier surrounded him, the door before him was locked and he was in the hands of….
"Don't think of that," he told himself sternly as he was about to give up hope.
To take his mind off his situation he studied the barrier around him pretending it was a lesson set by one of his teachers. He had seen barriers like this before of course though nothing as strong as this one. He tested the walls with his hands and mind but not his magic. They did indeed appear to be impenetrable. He sat down again and studied the wall some more It had to have a weakness somewhere. A wrinkle furrowed his brow as he cast about in his mind for what he knew of magical wall. He'd seen or heard of something like this recently and he was not head of the school for nothing. His scar was livid in the pale light. Harry ran his hands through his hair and rubbed his scar as he sometimes did when deep in thought. His scar was warm as it always was when he preformed magic and strangely he felt comforted by it. His parents seemed nearer to him whenever he touched it. Harry smiled briefly then he returned to the problem at hand never realizing his parents were very close at hand.
"First this barrier, then the door," he thought as he went back to studying it.
We floated above helpless to do anything but watch. Harry continued to study the barrier and we also studied it but could no more find its weakness from the outside then Harry could from within it. When he thought of us and smiled, warmth spread through us and we hovered as close as we could to him. He lapsed back into thought and I was strongly reminded of his father who often wore the same expression when pondering some problem or other.
"So like James," I thought.
The glow of magic intensified within the barrier until the light shone like a small sun. Harry was unaware of the change but we snapped to attention as it's meaning became clear. Harry's magic was now at full strength. It had chosen this most dire of moments to come into it's own. Harry, though he knew it not, was a full wizard at last. James and I looked at the power radiating form Harry and saw he was at least as powerful as Voldemort, if not more so.
"He's Voldemort's equal now," James said bemused, as I nodded.
A silvery white light laced with scarlet bathed Harry in its glow, surrounding him in a shield of protection stronger even than the protection spell we had cast upon him. Harry sat totally unaware of all this though, lost in his own thoughts.
"He's the Chosen One," continued James, a fierce look in his eyes.
I gasped realizing he was right. While still students at Hogwarts we had read of the Chosen One- the one who would put an end to Voldemort's reign forever. The legend ran that as Godric Gryffindor lay dying, he told those around him that a great darkness was going to cast itself over the land but at the height of it's power, when all seemed lost, the Chosen One would rise to destroy the darkness with purest light.
"He shall be known by these signs," Godric had said in those ancient days.
"He shall be of Gryffindor's house as his fathers before him."
"My sword shall come to aid him in time of greatest need."
"Lightening shall be on his brow and power shall make itself manifest in his darkest hour."
"He shall face the Great Darkness time and time again and triumph though he knows not how."
"He is the Heir of my blood and my powers will be granted him in times of need."
"Watch and remember. In him lays the hope of the Light."
Saying this Godric Gryffindor died and this legend was handed to everyone who passed through the portals of Gryffindor tower.
James had once thought he was the Chosen One, the very Heir of Gryffindor himself. His family's history could be traced back in unbroken succession to Godric Gryffindor and this was where his confidence had come from even as Voldemort made war on the Potters. He had thought this was why Voldemort was after him, but he had only discovered that evening that it was not he but Harry who was the Heir. We had posted an owl to Dumbledore telling him of our suspicions just before we were killed and Harry was made a hero and orphan. It was this secret that Dumbledore was going to tell Harry as soon as he graduated, but that secret had died with him untold to anyone. Now the time at last had come. The Heir had come into his own and the Chosen One had risen to claim what rightfully belong to him.
"There's only one problem, ' I said glumly. "He is still unaware of it. Unless he learns of this his new powers will be useless. They will lay inactive and unable to be used."
"Then we must help him, somehow, " said James as hew floated around the barrier imprisoning Harry.
"But how…" I began.
"Now let me see…"
The barrier around Harry pulsed with energy. The patterns in it shifted and the longer he studied it the more impossible his escape looked. Courage, which had thus far sustained him, began to die and his hope to dim with it. Harry closed his eyes and two tears slide down his cheeks to splash on the floor. Fear grew within him, rendering him unable to move or to concentrate on his escape plan. Harry looked the instruments of torture that Voldemort had left behind and began to shiver. Soon Voldemort would return to do whatever and Harry was powerless to prevent it. He hated feeling helpless. Anger burned the fear away and he threw himself at the barrier, willing it to give but it didn't. He pounded his fists against it and even once attempted to send a lightening bolt into it but to no avail. The barrier around him remained stubbornly there.
The fear returned redoubled and Harry began to hear something he hadn't heard in years: the sound of his mother's final moments. The last time he had heard that was when he was set upon by dementors in his third year at Hogwarts.
"That's not possible," Harry thought "Voldemort wouldn't … couldn't have one in his service."
"Ah, but I do Potter. There is one in my service. You've even meet once before. Remember…"
And Harry did remember that night four years past. The dementor had tried to administer the Kiss on him. He still had nightmare replays of that incident at least once a week. He saw it again in his mind. The dementor with it's hood lowered … the scab covered eyes and the huge mouth ready to clamp down on his. Harry shuddered and all hope fled from him as the dementor's familiar coldness filled him and the screaming grew louder in his mind.
"Don't worry Potter. I'll not let him Kiss you but I will leave him right outside here."
The door opened and for a moment a black hooded dementor stood framed in the doorway. Harry's eyes grew wide and he trembled violently. He tried to hold back the fear but it was impossible, as his mother's screams grew still louder in his mind.
"I'll leave him here, shall I. He will remain here until you join me or until you are drained of all memory. Either way I will then have your powers."
Harry's mind screamed "No!" and Voldemort laughed.
"No one crosses me and lives long, Potter. You of all people should know that. Oh, and I wouldn't try to escape. If you try the dementor will finish what he started four years ago.
The voice slid away and the door closed. Harry tried to remember the spell to ward off dementors but the screaming in his head had grown even clearer and louder until it drove everything else out of his mind. His vision swam and he felt the dementor begin the feed on his happy memories, which were so few. He tried to block the dementor by putting a shield around his mind but still it kept taking and taking.
"Mum… Dad… Somebody… help me… please!" he cried (or thought he did) as the darkness consumed his spirit and he fainted into blackness
"James, we must hurry," I cried.
James floated in front of Harry and stretched a hand toward the barrier but as soon as his hand touched the barrier, the power in the barrier flared and sent him flying into a wall. He stopped his spirally flight just before he went sailing through the wall. James brushed himself off and shook his head.
"Smart idea, Potter," he mumbled.
He began to float around the barrier again until he came to the spot where I sat or rather hovered.
"He can't hold out against a dementor for long. You know that. No one can and be the same," I said looking up at him.
"I know! I know! We'll be able to get him passed the dementor and into another part of the castle but this barrier's the problem. There must be a way to break it. Every spell can be broken. I've just need to figure it out how."
He smiled faintly and I looked imploringly at him, tears shining in my eyes like silver.
"Don't worry, Lily. We'll find a way. Though I do wish Remus was here. He was always better at Dark Arts spell breaking then I."
"What if we can't break it?" I asked.
"Ah but we will. A more accurate question is 'will we be given enough time to?'"
I shivered at the thought but nodded. James sat down and put his chin in his hand. His eyes turned inward and I knew that he was deep in thought. Knowing he didn't want to be disturbed, I floated to sit closer to Harry. He lay with his head pillowed in his arms and he was shaking violently, though with mortal fear or the cold I couldn't tell. Looking down I saw a line of power running from Harry to the dementor and knew he was leeching every good memory away from Harry. I also saw a second line trying to be established to Harry and it bore Voldemort's signature. Thus far it had been unable to connect because the protective shield was fending it off. As long as the shield remained Voldemort would never gain access to Harry's power. But if Harry remained long in the presence of a dementor, the shield would weaken and then collapse or Harry might just give himself to Voldemort just to get rid of the dementor. Voldemort would never honor his side of the bargain but it wouldn't matter to Harry by that point.
I got as close to the barrier as I dared, remembering what had happened to James, and I watched Harry.
"Fight it…" I thought fiercely at him. "Fight it. Remember my love protects you. Remember what you've said so often: I will not fear. I will not join Voldemort. He has no power over me."
I sat outside the barrier, looking in and hoped with all my heart. I hoped for a miracle.
Harry's sleeping mind was being assailed on every side by darkness. It held fast to him and everywhere he ran it surrounded him. He couldn't escape and was unable to remember a time when there had been anything but the darkness and the high, cruel laughter of someone whose name he couldn't remember. Somewhere a woman was pleading and begging.
"Not Harry… Please not Harry…"
He didn't understand it at all. He just wanted to hide in some hole somewhere and never come out. Something terrifying was following him but he could not remember who or what it was now.
"Who was he? How long had he been here? Why was he here?"
These were the unanswered questions that chased each other around in his head. He awoke to find himself surrounded by pulsating energy.
"That doesn't make sense," he thought as he reached out a hand to touch the wall. It felt warm and alive but it didn't move when he pushed on it.
It was then that he noticed the woman sitting next to him on the other side of the energy wall. She looked familiar to him but he couldn't place her. She was a pearly gray color and had sad eyes. She was looking at him with a mixture of love, sadness and longing that he didn't understand. Just as he began to reach toward this figure, the fear began its assault on his mind again as he relived every bad memory he had within him, even ones he couldn't or didn't remember. The ghostly woman faded from his vision and a pain seared across his scar.
"Don't leave me alone," he cried as he slipped once more into dark dreams.
Somehow Harry had seen me. I was sure of this. He had reached out for me and looked right where I was. Maybe I could use this tool to rescue him or at least to shield him from the dementor. I rested my back against the wall, shut my eyes and concentrated.
Harry was running down a dark dungeon corridor. The torches were all lit with black flames which cast very little light on the floor before him. He could hear running footsteps behind him.
"I can't let him catch me. I can't…" the word were thought to the beating his heart.
"I'll never turn! Never join the Dark. You'll have to kill me first!" he thought defiantly.
"Ah! But I can turn you anytime I want to," said a hissing voice in his mind. "You even now bare my mark upon your magic. Anything you do with it will be forever tainted by my dark power."
"I'll hide,…" he thought.
"You can't. Wherever you go, I'll find you. Magic will call to magic and you care within you part of my power too. You are mine Potter and always will be."
"NEVER!" Harry hissed through clenched teeth.
Just then Harry, looking back, saw Voldemort's red, mad eyes a few feet behind him. Harry put on an extra burst of speed and tripped over something on the floor. Suddenly Harry found himself back in the room he was trying to escape from. He was pinned to the wall by Devil's Snare and quite unable to move.
"I always win," Voldemort's voice hissed in his mind. "Remember that, Potter."
The Devil's Snare held him tighter and his head slumped forward. There was no hope left in him. No chance that he might escape and no reason to go on fighting a hopeless battle he was doomed to lose. The dementor's spell was just too powerful. It had taken everything from him, leaving him with nothing but the darkness that clouded his vision and haunted his dreams.
The real world echoed Harry's dream world as his spirit surrendered to the inevitable.
"I have you now Potter!" Voldemort's voice shouted in triumph as Harry's soul shouted "Nooooo!"
A searing pain flooded through Harry, blocking out even the fear cast by a dementor. Harry felt as if his very soul was afire and he felt his magic being slowly drained. He screamed as wave after wave of white-hot pain seared through him until all he knew was the pain. He had no defense against this attack and couldn't have concentrated even if he had known the proper counter spell.
"You cannot have him!" he heard a silvery voice call. "He is protected from you forever."
He felt a soothing coolness envelope his body and soft familiar music floated around him, blocking out the pain, fear, the screams and that high, terrible laughter.
"This seems familiar," he thought to himself. "Almost like I've been through this before."
He kept his eyes closed, afraid to open them and find it was all a dream. The Devil's Snare in his dream released its hold and he slide to the floor. He lay there for several minuets, unable to move. Warmth and happiness flooded through him once more and he reveled in the feelings. His courage returned and his hope was restored. A smile played across his lips and he opened his eyes to find himself staring at what could only be a ghost. She smiled back and stretched out her hand toward him. He responded by stretching out his own hand. Harry looked into her face; something about it was familiar to him. He studied her as they sat there with their hands not quite touching. For a moment the pearly white ghost wore another aspect, that of a young, red-haired woman with bright green eyes.
"Mum… is it you?" he asked, hardly daring to believe it.
She nodded and he heard a soft, quiet and very familiar voice in his head.
"Come, Harry. Walk toward me. Look only at me. There is nothing and no one else here but you and me. Come, please."
Harry got to his feet, keeping a careful eye on his mothers face. She smiled at him encouragingly and he moved slowly toward her. Slowly because his scar was sending lances of pain through his head and he felt extremely weak. Soon he had reached her side and, looking up, he saw tears glimmering in her eyes.
"Oh, Harry," she said hugging him to her.
Her felt her arms wrap themselves around him and they were warm, not cold. He found himself crying too, trying to tell his mother everything at once. He knew it was just a dream but still he needed to tell her, let her know how much he still missed her.
"Where's Dad?" he asked looking around the room knowing that wherever one of his parents was the other would surely be nearby.
Then Harry saw him floating about five feet off the chamber floor, a look of deep concentration on his face. James opened his eyes and saw Harry looking up at him, his eyes full of tears of joy. James floated to the floor then, to hug his son for the first time in years and to hear all Harry had to say. Harry was now the happiest boy in the world and he hoped he would never waken from this dream.
The reunion with our son was cause for great rejoicing, even in the dire circumstances we were in. For several minuets we were allowed to be together and our hearts soared together. We explained that we had guarded him all this time but all to soon the trouble at hand intruded into out idyllic scene.
The image of Harry's parents began to waver in and out. They began to fade from his dreaming mind and at last he woke up. He looked around and called out to them but if they were there, they were no longer visible to him. He looked carefully around but there was nothing in the room except the barrier surrounding him.
"Wait a minute."
Harry's eyes grew round, for he now stood outside the barrier with his wand clutched in his right hand. He couldn't remember having cast the spell that released him nor could he remember how he had gotten his wand but here he was free again with wand in hand. Quite suddenly he realized that he couldn't feel the dementor even though it was right outside the door. Someone was blocking the fear, protecting his mind so that he could think clearly once more.
"Thank you!" he called out to the air around him. He could not see his parent's ghosts but he knew they were there somewhere.
Harry paced the room, trying to figure a way out of it. The door was out, of course, after all he really didn't want to face a dementor or its Kiss right now. He looked out the only window but wasn't sure he could levitate that far down. (Besides he was here to put an end to Voldemort's evil, not to run from his destiny.) That only left one spell, Apparation. He had learned the spell but had never tried it yet. All 7th years had, although he had known the spell since his 5th year. (He had learned it with Dumbledore's permission in case Voldemort should ever try to take him again.) He had never had occasion to use the spell, not even to test it. Harry stopped pacing and stood still, deep in thought. After a few minutes he decided to try it but just as he was about to he remembered something. A witch or wizard could only Apparate to locations familiar to them. They needed to have a clear picture of where they wanted to go before they could go there. Harry didn't have any clue as to what any other rooms in this castle looked like except for this room.
"Now what do I do? Go back to Hogwarts? No I must finish this here and now. I might never get a better chance."
Harry sat down and went back to thinking of another way out of his situation. He'd been deep in though for some time when the image of a room appeared as if by magic into his mind. It was a great hall with the arms of Slytherin on the wall above a dark, throne-like seat. There were statues all around the room and a roaring fire in the large fireplace.
The room looked to be enveloped in a fog, the image indistinct.
"Voldemort will come there, Harry. Apparate there," he heard a voice say.
Harry studied the room in his mind's eye trying to will it into becoming clearer. Suddenly the image became crystal clear until even the statues became detailed.
"I should be able to hide behind one of those,' he thought as he studied a particularly gruesome looking one with a warty nose and humped back.
He was just about to Apparate when he caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye. It was one of the ghosts he had seen earlier, his mother's ghost. She stretched out her hand and mouthed words that he could just barely make out.
"I will be careful, Mum. I promise," he said smiling up at her.
She looked down at him and mouthed, "Good luck."
Just then a light so bright that it almost blinded Harry filled the room and stepping out of the scarlet and gold light was another ghost that Harry recognized at once.
"Godric Gryffindor…" he whispered, awed by the sight of one of the Hogwarts four standing before him.
"Yes, Harry. The founder of your house and your ancestor through you father's side."
Harry's eyes grew round with surprise but he said nothing.
"You are my right and trueborn Heir. As token of this I now grant you my power and return to you my sword. Use both wisely."
Harry felt himself filling with power. It hummed in his mind and felt warm in his veins. Power such as he had never felt coursed through him and he now realized for the first time that he was a full wizard at last. Gryffindor gave over to him the ruby encrusted silver sword Harry remembered from five years previous. It shimmered in the light cast by Harry's new power.
"May luck shine upon you, Heir of Gryffindor," said Godric with a grin as he disappeared from the room leaving Harry standing alone in the dimly lit chamber.
Harry was stunned by the information. He stood there some moments after the ghost had left staring at the sword in his hands.
"I'm the Heir of Gryffindor?" he mused.
Everything about his life began to make sense to him now. This was why Voldemort wanted to kill him and why he had been watched over so carefully by everyone.
"Heir of Gryffindor…"
Harry shook his head to clear it. Heir of Gryffindor or not, he still needed to escape from this prison. He looked around the room one last time, making sure he hadn't left any escape route out then, with a grin of his own, he spoke the words of the Apparation spell and disappeared from his prison.
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James and I followed Harry hoping that he would find the Great Hall empty. Voldemort was sure to feel someone Apparate into it he happened to be in the room. Fortunately no one was in the room and Harry was able to hide behind the hump-backed statue without incident. Now the long wait began. We floated around the room trying to locate danger but, finding none, we moved to hover above Harry. He was so close to me, that I could have reached out and touched him but I didn't dare. He was deep in thought, readying for the fight ahead.
Harry's heart was pounding in his chest until he thought Voldemort must hear it, wherever he was. He sat down between the statue and the wall to prepare himself for battle. He laid the sword and his wand on the floor and mentally went over every spell he knew or had ever heard of. He was as ready mentally and magically as he was likely to be, even if he was physically weaken by his imprisonment.
"I'm as ready as I'll ever be. Now if Voldemort would come…" he thought as he began to still the wild beating of his heart so his tense body would relax.
He sat with his back to the wall and began to relax somewhat. There was no way anyone would see him hiding there as long as he remained quiet. For a fleeting moment he wished for his invisibility cloak to hide under but then thought better of it as Voldemort probably could have even have seen him with it on.
"I wonder how the others are and how much time has passed outside?" he thought. He was sure they were all frantic with worry and probably looking for him even now. He relaxed farther and then slipped into slumber, clutching his wand and sword