SANITY IS OVERRATED by Wes Lane
Warnings: contain character death and slash in later chapters. Will not be HBP neither or DH combatable.
Disclaimer: I own none of Potterverse. It's all owned by the wonderful Ms. J. K. Rowling.
Feedback would be much appreciated. Please don't archive without my permission.
Summary: A wizards coming of age is a very important ritual in the wizarding world. So when Harry's came along, naturally everything went wrong.
Chapter one: Coming of Age
Harry looked around the solemn ceremony chamber. The walls were painted in obscure runes and the floating candles only managed to highlight the room's dark corners and gloomy atmosphere. The room only had one set of doors and no windows. Even to get to the inner chamber you'd have to first go through another windowless room. Harry wasn't sure he wanted to spend ten minutes in this dark room, let alone the night. The ritual's need for its subject's total isolation wasn't endearing this peculiar wizarding custom to him one bit.
A coming of age ceremony was the night of a wizard's or, of course a witch's 17th birthday. They were secluded for a night and a wizard came to his powers during that night. Some experienced a power surge, some gained new powers and some just got a little tingle in their left pinkie. Harry had been rather surprised to learn of the ritual at the start of his sixth year. Wizarding teens were told of the ceremony as soon as they entered puberty and even most muggleborn had heard of the custom before their O.W.L.s. Ron and Hermione had both experienced a power surge in their magical power and Dumbledore thought that Harry might get the mysterious power to defeat Voldemort from his coming of age. Both of his best friends had assured Harry that it would be a snap, well Ron had assured him and Hermione had lectured Harry on the importance and historical significance of the ritual. Harry had stopped listening when she pulled out pie charts of the percentages of people experiencing power surges in their year. It had apparently been an unnaturally high number. Why, no one knew.
Legally the coming of age ceremony gave a child his status as an adult. He was allowed to marry and sign legally binding documents. Old families even had their own traditions and beliefs tied to the night in question. Usually old blood kept their children at home in their own private ceremony rooms, but the Potter Manor had burned down during the First War when Voldemort had attacked Harry's grandparents home killing them and forcing James Potter to use Hogwarts' instead. Some of the Order had tried to find another ceremony chamber for Harry's use instead of Hogwarts worried about security. Even Grimmauld Place was suggested until Remus remembered Sirius complaining to him about the room's tendency to kill every non-pureblood Black, even some suspected half-blood Blacks were rumoured to have died there.
Harry looked over his shoulder at Remus who he'd chosen for playing the parent's role in the ritual. The role was purely ceremonial and had no actual use in the ritual, but tradition dictated that someone wait for the child in the outer room and welcome him as an adult in the morning. As a werewolf Remus was usually forbidden from participating in magical rituals as his magic was tainted by the curse he carried which could carry over into the other participants in any magical ritual Remus took part in.
"Are you sure about this?" Harry asked.
Remus grinned down at him amused by Harry's dread.
"It's nothing to worry about. Every wizard and witch goes through this thing. Nothing is going to go wrong, Harry."
"Yeah, but not every witch and wizard is me. Bloody Boy-Who-Lived-And-Has-Everything-Go-Weird-When-He's-Involved, that Boy-Who-Lived." muttered Harry rather resentful for getting his worries dismissed so easily.
A short silence followed.
"Ah, yes. Quite." Remus remembered uneasily. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. Some coming of age rituals were rather spectacular and when had Harry been anything less than spectacular.
"Now, none of that." Dumbledore placated them both having heard the conversation on entering the outer room of the ceremony chamber.
"Everything will go alright. Let's just get it over with; before you know it it'll be morning." Dumbledore chided them before closing the doors to the outer room leaving Remus in the outer room and Harry in the inner chamber with its spooky runes and flickering candlelight.
"Well, this is it I guess…"
"Yeah"
"Good luck!" Remus said rather feebly while closing the inner doors leaving Harry alone.
"Now what am I suppose to do all night?" Harry muttered to himself feeling a little abandoned. Finally he decided to take a small nap in the centre of the chamber. The ritual wouldn't start until night fell, but it was traditional for a teen to be left alone to contemplate their future before hand.
Slowly as the candles burned half way down and true night started to fall, Harry started to feel a gentle tingle in his feet.
"That's it?" Harry thought surprised. "This isn't so bad." No sooner had the thought entered his mind when the chambers runes start glowing like miniature suns blinding him with their light. A shock wave of magic started at the walls and snuffed the room's candles enveloping Harry in a suffocating pressure of magic. Magic concentrated on his blind form as Harry tried to shield his eyes from the light and remain conscious in the suffocating feel of magic. He heard dozens of different voices, some whispering some shouting, all speaking in a language he couldn't understand. The voices crashed into his mind and sudden thoughts and memories not his own were overwhelming him in minutes. Nothing made sense, he tasted colours, heard a pulsing beat of a drum over it all. It all was all too much for Harry to handle and with relief he slipped into unconsciousness.
TBC…
Author Notes: I told myself I wouldn't post this before it was complete, but I've managed to hit a snag on the over all plot and haven't really gotten anywhere for three months so I'm posting this in it's incomplete role in hopes that it'll shame me into continuing with something at least. Probably not. To my new readers a word of caution: My previous fic Twist of fate has been incomplete for the better part of a year and doesn't seem to be going anywhere so be prepared for me to never finish this one either. For this fic I've only got one and a half chapters written so not so much of a let down as you'd expect. I've got the whole outline for the fic, just haven't really got around some of the plot impossibilities. Enjoy all the same.