Summery: Now sixteen years of age, Harry is in mourning over Sirius's death. On the night of his birthday, Dumbledore and Remus come to take him back to Hogwarts, but Harry gets another visitor as well. Mystra, Goddess of Magic. X-over with Harry Potter and Forgotten Realms
Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to Harry Potter or Forgotten Realms. They belong to their respective creator's, namely J. K. Rowling and Ed Greenwood, I am just borrowing them for a while.
Elminster, Storm Silverhand, Sylune, and Lhaeo were all sitting in Elminster's tower in Shadowdale having tea. Chatting about the current status of the Harpers, a large yet mostly hidden group of people working towards the betterment of the realm. They remained hidden for there were many who didn't like what they stood for, peace and freedom for all beings in the realm.
"The Harpers are all well and good Chosen, but something new has come up." A voice said from seemingly everywhere and nowhere in the room with the four tea drinkers. "And just what is this new thing Lord Azuth?" Elminster asked. The others were looking at him with raised eyebrows by now. Strange and Devine things always seemed to happen around the Old Mage, and though conversing with the God of Spells himself was new, they were all quite used to the unexpected by now.
"You are to train one of the Lady's Chosen from another realm. In everything. Be ready, he will arrive tonight." Azuth said.
Everything was quiet for a short while. The four sitting around the table looked at one another. "What did he mean 'A Chosen from another realm'?" Storm asked. "Just that I would expect." Elminster replied. "It seems strange though. Wouldn't this Chosen have people to teach him in his own realm? Why would he need to come here to learn?" Lhaeo asked. Sylune looked at him, "Perhaps it is unsafe for him there, or he is more powerful than those teaching him and needs training that they cannot provide. We won't know until he arrives." In his office Dumbledore was preparing to leave for number Four Privet Drive. He knew Harry Potter wasn't doing well. After all, his only remaining family had just died. Passing through the actual veil between the living world and the world of the dead. He wouldn't be returning.
Harry knew that members of the Order of the Phoenix were always watching his house. But because of all the dinners and get-togethers they were having because of his uncle's work he was unable to even go outside. He hated it. He hardly got any food. And was unable to send anything besides his regular letters every three days. He would put some of the situation into his letters but not much. Just the reasons he was unable to go outside. Otherwise he knew that if one of his friends in the Order were on duty they would try to get in touch with him if they never saw him. The only good thing was that he could occasionally talk to them from his bedroom window. Usually Tonks. She always seemed to be up in the tree outside his window chatting with him. It was one of the few things he was enjoying over the summer.
With all of the dinners he was unwelcome at, he rarely got to eat. And when his Aunt and Uncle did allow him to eat it was not much. Harry was getting thin. Too thin. He knew this but didn't know what to do. He couldn't get anything from downstairs. That would require him to actually go down there and come into contact with his hated relatives. Something he really dreaded. He also didn't want to tell anyone in the Order. They would all make so much fuss about it. Especially Mrs. Weasley. Harry really didn't want to worry her. Besides he didn't think it was really that bad.
The Order members had kept a close eye on Harry, even though he was unable to come outside. This is how Dumbledore new that he wasn't doing well. All of Harry's guards could see it. He had gone into depression. He would talk to a few of those guarding him some times. But nothing seemed to help. He also wasn't eating nearly as much as he should be. Besides that no one had even seen him in the window for over a week. The letters came, but no sight of Harry by the Order member on guard at the times Hedwig flew out of the window went with them.
So back in his office, Dumbledore was getting ready to leave. He was going to take Harry away from his relatives and bring him back to Hogwarts, once and for all. He never should have sent Harry back after Sirius' death. He had though, the blood protection created when Harry's mother had died for him and held together by Harry staying with his mother's sister was important to keep Harry alive. But he wasn't really alive when he was suffering so much all alone. Tonight was the best time to do it, for tonight, a minute after midnight, Harry would be sixteen.
Dumbledore looked at his watch. It was time to go. "Well I'm off Fawkes." The phoenix thrilled at him and flew off his perch and onto Dumbledore's shoulder. "Did you want to come with me?" Dumbledore asked as he looked at the phoenix. Fawkes thrilled again. "Then let us be on our way."
He picked up a small pebble and an old top hat and disappeared from the room with Fawkes on his shoulder. The two of them reappeared just outside of the wards surrounding number Four Privet Drive. Dumbledore dropped the top hat. It had served its purpose as a portkey; the stone would take them back to his office in Hogwarts.
A man with graying brown hair stepped forward to great the Headmaster. "Professor, He has been up in his room all day. And I can't get into the house and see him because of those bloody muggle relatives of his." The man said getting angry.
"Calm down Remus. Lets go and get Harry. Hopefully seeing you will cheer him up some." Dumbledore said. The two of them walked up to the front door and let themselves in using the 'Alohamora' spell to unlock the front door. They quietly went up the stairs to Harry's bedroom. Before entering Dumbledore cast a silencing charm on the entire room. Nothing from inside would be heard.
The two men and the phoenix entered the room and found Harry sitting on his bed, leaning against the wall. His eyes were closed, and he seemed to be sleeping. "Harry?" Remus said quietly. "We've come to take you back to Hogwarts." There was no movement from the form on the bed. "Harry?"
"Remus?" Harry asked in a strained voice. Dumbledore decided then to turn on the light now that Harry was awake and the two men finally got a good look at him. They both stood there shocked. Fawkes immediately flew over to Harry and landed on his lap, looking up at him as if offering comfort and protection to the young man. Harry was thin, beyond thin, he was nearly skin and bones. His cheeks were hollow, and his arms were like sticks. Remus guessed that if he hadn't been wearing the oversized shirt he had on that he would be able to see all of Harry's ribs. "Oh God Harry! You're so thin. Those bloody muggles have been starving you nearly to death!"
Harry barely moved. He didn't seem to have the energy to do much more that open his eyes. Dumbledore looked around at the room and started packing everything into Harry's trunk while Harry and Remus talked. Or rather while Remus talked and tried to get Harry to drink a strengthening potion he had started carrying ever since he had heard about Harry's limited amount of food.
"God Harry. I had really hoped this wouldn't be needed. Come on open up. Stupid bottle." Harry gave a little horse laugh at Remus's predicament. "It may help if you try it more slowly Remus." He said still slightly laughing. Remus took a deep breath to calm himself and tried again to pull out the cork. This time it worked and he helped Harry swallow it all.
When they had finished with the potion Dumbledore was finished with putting all of Harry's possessions into his trunk with Hedwig's cage resting on top of it. The owl herself was perched on the back of the only chair in the room, which itself was situated at the desk in front of the window and next to Harry's bed. They needed to let the potion take effect before they could move so Dumbledore and Remus sat down with Harry and Fawkes on the bed.
Harry looked over to Remus, "I miss him Remus. How do you cope with something like this? Does it ever get better?" He asked, the look in his eyes pleading for Remus to give him a positive answer. "I miss him too Harry. All the time. It hurts and it's not something that just goes away over time. The loss of your parents still hurts. It always will I'm afraid. But it does get better..."
Suddenly there was a flash of bright light. And a woman seeming to glow with an intense silver light and radiating enormous amounts of pure magical energy appeared in the room with the three of them
"My young Chosen. It is time for your full power to be unleashed. And you must be trained." She smiled at the stunned and awed expressions on all of their faces, Dumbledore's included. "Wh-who are you?" Harry asked the woman breathlessly
She laughed. The sound being so mystical that it enchanted them. "I am the Lady of Mysteries, the Goddess of Magic, Mystra." She said to him. Harry and Remus looked over at Dumbledore, even he seemed surprised by the woman. But he had regained a little of the twinkle in his eyes. "Great Lady. It is our honor to meet you." Dumbledore said to her. Mystra smiled.
"Harry you are to be trained for one year in Faerûn, the land of Forgotten Realms, by my Chosen. You are sixteen now and it is time that the strength buried by Voldemort when he first attacked you be reawakened." By this time Harry had lost all ability to talk, being too stunned by what this woman, the Goddess of Magic herself, was saying to him.
Mystra beckoned Harry to come to the middle of the room. He numbly obeyed, and Fawkes went with him. Coming to rest on the shoulders of the silver glowing Goddess. She took his head in her hands and suddenly Harry felt warm, then hot, almost as if he was on fire. It burns! Harry thought, his back arched as he went through the pain, mouth open to let out a scream, but not once did he make a sound. This fact pleased Mystra. She was happy that he had grown up strong willed. He would do many great things in his life. When she was done and the burning was gone Harry slumped to the ground. The effects of the strengthening potion used up.
Remus and Dumbledore looked on with amazement when Harry had gone to Mystra in the center of the room. He had started to glow, softly in the beginning when she had first laid her hands on the side of his face. Beginning as a soft silver and growing nearly as bright as the Goddess herself for a split second before she released him. It was completely gone by the time he slumped to the ground and they could not find any difference with Harry than there had been before. But they instinctively knew that there was one. No one who had not been in the room would be able to tell though. They knew that for sure as well.
"Now Harry, I have one gift for you." Mystra said as she walked a few steps away from him over to Hedwig, Fawkes still on her shoulder. "You two are linked with your souls. So I will give this as a joint gift between the two of you." Again she put her hands around a face, though this time it was that of the owl Hedwig. Hedwig too began to glow, a soft snowy white light. "You and Hedwig will always be connected now. Not only through your souls but through you're minds as well. You will be able to speak to her and she to you. She can also regenerate and be reborn, much in the same way as a phoenix can," She said looking at Fawkes on her shoulder while still cupping her hands around Hedwig's face, "though not through fire but through snow. She will be able to change into a cloud of snow at will and travel through and between the realms. And no the snowy form of Hedwig will never melt. No matter what. This way you will be able to keep in contact with your friends and family in this realm thought you will be training in another."
Harry just looked at Mystra. Still in shock at what he had felt when she had touched him. When she had awakened his full strength in magical energies, even if he didn't feel any different. And now all this with Hedwig, he didn't know what to say. She seemed to know this, and smiled. Mystra looked directly into Harry's eyes as the clock ticked over to one minute past midnight. The exact time Harry was born sixteen years ago. "It is time now. Those who will train you are waiting. Learn well my young Chosen. Oh and one other thing." She said to Harry, the smile still on her face. "He is not dead. There is a way for you to rescue him. But you must find this. Ask El for help." The Goddess of Magic nodded to Harry, still smilingly and suddenly Harry, Hedwig, and his trunk bearing all his belongings vanished from the room in a flash of light.
Mystra looked back to Dumbledore and Remus still sitting shocked on the bed. As Fawkes returned to Dumbledore's shoulder she smiled at them. Then she too disappeared. The two men were still a little stunned by all that had happened as they stood up to leave the room and number Four Privet Drive altogether.
Remus looked over at Dumbledore. "Professor, what just happened?" "I believe that our young Harry Potter has the favor of the Goddess of Magic herself. And she sent him to get training from her other Chosen in their realm. It is a good thing I think." Dumbledore replied. "I suppose. It is good for Harry to have something positive happen in his life." Remus said.
They remained quiet while they walked to the edge of the wards. "What do you think she meant by 'He is not dead. There is a way for you to rescue him'?" Dumbledore mused. Remus looked at the Headmaster with a straight and determined look in his eyes and automatically answered, "Sirius."
The two men said no more as they apparrated away, leaving behind the house and family that had unknowingly played host to the Goddess of Magic.