Children of Aries
This is just some thing that came from an Omake fro m Rorschach's Blot.
"Ready to die Tom?" Harry hissed. It had taken years of fighting and constant sacrifice, but he was finally on the verge of defeating his arch nemesis.
"One thing before you end it Potter," Voldemort replied. "Do you know what day it is? It's April fools day."
"What's that have to do with anything?"
"April fools," James called out as he came out of his hiding place. "Surprise son."
"What?"
"You should see the look on your face," Lily laughed.
"Mum?"
"Who else could it be Harry?" Sirius asked.
"I . . ."
"Why don't you all explain what's happening?" Dumbledore suggested.
"Well," James began. "We were all sitting around one day and I said, you know what guys . . . why don't we prank the hell out of Harry before he's had a chance to do anything to us. Something so good that he'll never top it."
"It took some doing, but we managed to convince the entire wizarding world to go along with it." Sirius added. "Do you know how much work it is to fake all those history books?"
"It would have all unraveled if we hadn't kept you locked up all summer," Dumbledore added proudly. "That was my doing."
"But . . . I . . ."
"Admit it Harry," James said. "We got you."
The was laughter from the adults as Harry stared uncomprehending with a look of horrified pain etched on his features, it took several moments for the someone of the group to notice that he was silent.
"Harry, whats wrong?" Lily asked reaching out to her baby boy.
He backed away from her out reached hand and into his two best friends who were wearing the same look of betrayal in their eyes as he was. Surrounding him was his war council shaking with the force of the betrayal that was heaped on them. Looking around the adults noticed that none of the children in the fight were laughing, no matter what the side they were all looking at their parents with Horror and pain, unable to fully understand that all that they believed in was a joke.
"Come on, it was just a joke, lighten up" James Potter said and to the mass of children who were silent and and in shock this was the last straw. The little sanity that was left in these war hardened children fled before the storm of emotion the events brought about.
"Just a joke" shrilled Harry hysterically "The beatings, the training, the sacrifices and you say it was just a joke. Three of my friends, my comrades in arms will never walk again and you say it was just a joke. So many dead and more that wish they were and you are laughing."
"No need to worry Harry those things can be fixed, there is no harm done None of the spells cast were meant to harm" Dumbledore said soothing.
"No Harm" Scoffed Draco Malfoy, "Every spell I cast was designed to cause harm, I killed and tortured my classmates because of a creed that my parents taught me meant more than my own life and I find out that it was a joke, tell that to the people I killed, tell that to the blood that drips from my hands" Draco and all the children that could move made their way to stand beside the Trio as more spoke up.
"I held my best friend as she choked on her own blood and died, fix that headmaster" Cho Chang spat out still covered in blood.
"I trained myself to shoot a cutting curse before I tried to stun someone, undo that paranoia" Colin Creevey Said
"If there was no harm meant than how come I can see Thestrals, huh?"Denis Creevey asked despairingly.
More stories poured out toward the adults from the mass of broken children, murdering, raping, and torturing to satisfy their parents from some, from other it was holding their dying friends suffering untold tortures and killing people. And still the adults didn't get it they believed that it could be fixed all they saw was the joke. Eventually the mostly silent trio spoke up staring at the people who they had admired and cried for. Harry's voice could be heard clearly above the rest and it had taken on a strange quality to it.
"We're leaving, what was done can never be undone. May one day you will find justice at our hands. Dobby"
"Yes, Mister Harry Potter Sir"
"Take us to the place that we discussed"
"Yes Sir, Mister Harry Potter Sir"
Over the next several months there was effort made to find the children but it was unsuccessful, Molly Weasley fretted on whether they had enough to eat and Dumbledore along with the rest was convinced that they need time to see the humor but other than that life moved on and soon it was the new school year and there was a much smaller population of Hogwarts, everyone over third year was gone and several of the younger years as well. There was a new worry arriving on the scenes as well several higher up adults on both the light and dark side has been found murdered or severely injured in their own homes. People such as Lucius Malfoy and Amelia Bones had been murdered, the Zambini's had also been found bleeding sluggishly from their pores in the middle of Hogsmead and are currently in a coma. Alice Longbottom was missing and presumed dead and Frank was found severely beaten and cursed almost to the point of insanity, all he could say of his attackers were that they called themselves the children of Aries. The order of the Phoenix was reassembled to combat this new threat with several faces that were opposition before. They currently held meeting in the great hall of Hogwarts because of the Number of people who were in the Order.
"Now what do we know about these 'Children of Aries'?" Dumbledore asked those assembled.
After a few moments of silence Remus spoke up "We know much, other than they have assassinated several people in a highly efficient manner and have injured several. We have no clues as to their identity no way to find them."
"They don't seem to be affiliated with either the light or the dark" Tom riddle said
"I can only hope that they haven't gotten a hold of those poor children" Molly Weasley spoke up worriedly.
"Yes who knows what they would do to children with what they are capable of doing to adults" Dumbledore agreed gravely
"What makes you think we would do anything to children?" Asked a slightly Familiar voice from the shadows. The Order looked around and realized that some how they were surrounded on all sides with cloaked figures. Though they were wearing wizarding cloaks that hid their faces underneath they wore muggle clothing.
"We heard you discussing us so we thought it best to drop in, maybe offer you some pointers, Dumbledore" The leader, who sounded like a male, said. He had a deep voice with a strange quality that most of the order didn't identify, this quality madness of a sort, it was a rational or moral madness.
"It is quite impolite that you know my name and I do not know yours"
"Polite is all in the eye of the beholder, but I suppose it is harder to gossip with out a name, so" he paused as several order members looked put out at being called gossips, " I am Titan of the children of Aries, to my right is the lovely Athena and to my left is the Tricky Thonatos The names of the others are of no consequence to you. We have decided to play a game, should you agree you may actually survive us."
"And if we refuse" Now Snape decides to speak up.
"Then we will slaughter you all where you sit"
"You speak of death very casually" Dumbledore pointed out.
"We are what we have been trained to be" That information, Dumbledore decided file away for later.
"What is your game?" Lily Potter asked.
"We will give you three weeks, and only three, to find who we are, during that time no more blood shall be shed. Should you win the game we will leave and never return" Spoke Athena.
"And if we lose?" Dumbledore couldn't stop himself from asking
"Then you will have twenty-four hours to gather together the people who's names we shall give you. These people will be summarily executed" there was a murmur from the order, "Remember you have three weeks" The strangers began to pop away silently before Titan left Dumbledore asked a single question.
"Are there no clues?"
Titan paused and said, "Many but here is your only obvious you make assumptions to easily." With that he was gone.
"We have three weeks people, how do we go about this?" Dumbledore asked
"Well first we should try to figure out what we already know"
"Well I don't think that they gave us their real names" Sirius said and most of the order looked at him like he was stupid.
"We know that they are 'trained' to be casual about death" James mentioned.
"They seemed to be wary of hurting children" Another Order member offered
"They said that there should be many clues about who they are"
"Perhaps it is in the names that we will find our answers" Remus offered and there was a murmur of agreement.
"What they call have as a group name as well" Tom added
"We also have to figure out their clue, and their targets could tell us something" Snape said.
"I suggest that we have several different groups one for each potential clue, as well as one that shall go over all the memories that we have of them to see if we missed any clues" Dumbledore suggested and as the other agreed and began to divide themselves up they never noticed three figures watching from the dark their eyes glittering with madness, a madness shared by all of them.
"Do you think they will figure it out, Titan" Athena asked
"Doesn't really matter if they do or not, we'll still have our revenge, Athena"
"Right you are Thanatos, now come on the others are waiting for us" Said Titan
One week past and no more attacks were committed and now the order was meeting again to compare notes on their clues.
"Alright who would like to go first?" Dumbledore asked
"I suppose we can" Said Lily, "We have been working on the names they chose for themselves all of them are either Greek or Roman names for the gods Lets Start off with Titan which is the name for the race of gods that ruled before the Olympian ones. The second name that he gave is Athena goddess of wisdom, she is also considered to be a warrior goddess. The third is Thanatos who is the Greek go of Death. I am afraid that is as far as we've gotten."
"Thats fine and who would like to go next"
Tom stood "We are working on their group name they call themselves the children of Aries and Aries is the Greek god of war so there is a connection between that and their names. They are in effect calling themselves the children of war but beyond that, nothing"
Next Hestia Jones stood up "We are still looking for the connection between their victims but so far there is only the most vague and weak connection, they were on opposite sides of the 'war' and nothing else sticks out"
Then Cornelius Fudge stood. "We have been looking into the disappearance of children, since we believe that one or more of these 'Children of Aries' to actually be children hence their hesitance in hurting other children. There is only one group of children who disappeared in sufficient enough numbers recently, but we have discounted them."
"Who are they and why have they been discounted?" Lily asked
"They are the group that was lead by your son Lily, and no matter how angry he got I do not see him as the type to execute anyone." There were murmur of agreement though some of the fringe members seemed doubtful.
No one from the group looking for more clues had found anything more.
Finally Dumbledore himself, "Our so called easiest clue may shape out to be the hardest yet, we have made no progress with what assumption about them that was too easily made" There was a brief silence then, "if there are no more suggestions then we shall... Yes" One of the farther women had stood up timidly.
"Perhaps it is not what we made about them but about who they are not"
That caused several people to stop considering the possibilities. "You may be right my dear I will look into the possibility personally"
By the second weeks no more had been found out about their names. However Hestia's group had found that all the victims were parents from the missing kids and the ones looking for more clues had observed that they knew how to get to headquarters. Several of the fringe members now believed that the children who were led by Harry Potter were also the 'Children of Aries' but most still believed it to not be possible.
It was nearing the endgame and people who were getting frantic, the day before an Order meaning was called and one of the fringe members stood up. "I think that we have to accept the fact..."
"We are not giving up" Sirius called angrily and others glared at the standing member.
"While I'm sure that somewhere at sometime that is relevant it is no where near what I was going to say", at Sirius's sheepish look he continued, "Well as I was saying we have to accept the fact that Harry Potter is Titan of the Children of Aries and those that follow him are the ones that left with him".
"Will you explain you reasoning to me?" Dumbledore asked over the angry murmurs of denial.
"Very Well, First all of the victims were the parents or guardians one of these children with no other connections between them"
"That purely circumstantial" Tom dismissed.
"Second the group is calling themselves the Children of Aries, Aries being the God of War they are in essence calling themselves the children of war. Another way of looking at that they are saying that they were forged in war as children, like these missing kids."
"That war didn't exist!" James Exclaimed
"To you perhaps, but to them? When did you clue them in. From what I could see aftera very real war had alreay been fought, to them. Now the next point is the names we are given; Titan, Athena, and Thanatos. Titan who I believe to be Harry, was the name of the precursor to the Olympic Gods and were fabled to wield the elements as weapons, most prominently the lighting bolt. Athena is a warrior goddess of Wisdom and anybody who had seen Hermione Granger, who is widely regard as the smartest or wisest witch of the age, on the battle field knows that the woman is a warrior. They called Thanatos Tricky in his introduction and I've heard some of Ron Weasley's strategies and if any had been allowed to come to fruitation thousands of those on the other side from him would have died not to mention how tricky he could be at chess. These three especially would have known where headquarters was located and the most damming piece of evidence was the 'easiest clue' telling us that we assumed thing far to easily and as soon as it was a possibility it was put out of most people's heads, while they said things like 'they would never do a thing like that'." While the members of the combined Order were considering this The was an applause from around them as the Familiar voice spoke.
"Very good,I didn't think any of you would have pulled you heads from your collective asses long enough to figure out who Aries was let alone the rest" Everyone turned to see only the three who spoke before; Athena, Thanatos and in between them Titan. As on they lowered their hoods and they could finally see Harry's Green eyes.
"Harry?" Lily again reached out to her only child.
"Call me Titan, Harry is taking an extended vacation I'm afraid as are the others. What, did you think that they would not have been effected by your Prank?" He Sneered the word, " Did you think that any of them would react well to having their lives torn apart, that every memory and mentor they ever had were based on a lie. No through the war that they lived through they all connected and through your betrayal they all shattered, we are what is left of the children you used for your own sick games and so we used you for are own games and you won. Before we bid you adieu we shall even give you a gift." The three waved their hands and a gaunt Alice Longbottom, "Be hold the only one to repent and pay the penance. She has spent the last sixteen weeks in the state she pretended to be in for the last sixteen years. Had you lost she alone would have been spared, and now it is time for us to leave."
"Wait you can't go" Lily pleaded
"Was that not our agreement, If we won we would present to you a list for execution and if you won we would leave and never return, you won."
"But we can make a new agreement, you need your family" Remus said.
"An agreement is an Agreement, besides do you actually think that any of us would want anything to do with the people who destroyed a part of us"
By this point Alice had woken up and as they disappeared she whispered "I will continue the penance for what we have done, may you find whatever piece is left for you in this world." She looked around at the adults and said simply, "There were so many dead eyes" and with that she wandered out of the room and the rest were left to stare after either her or at the spot where the golden trio vanished from.
Well, How was that. This came to me from one of Rorschach Blot's Omakes, which is in bold italics right at the top. I know she probably meant for amusing fics to from the Omake but this is instantly what I thought of. I mean what would you do if you found out your entire life and everything you know just about was a prank. If you feel the need to right a companion or a sequel to this please do and let me read it.
-EOS