HP chpt 1

Harry Potter and the Four Elements. Part 1

Pre-synopsis,

It is twenty-five years after the fall of Voldemort, and Harry Potter now aged forty-two and head of the Auror department has continued his hunt of the illustrious criminal wizard known as "the Element"

Closing Hunt

Harry kneeled beside one of the many thousands of shallow pools that had formed in the sodden, sandy earth. He dipped his good hand into the water splashing it over his filthy and bearded face as his wand arm rested limply on the ground, the tips of his fingers had turned an unhealthy green. Somewhere in the distance a crow called, Harry looked up staring blankly at the sun which was slowly setting beneath the sand ridden plains that stretched out as far as the eye could see. Though the sodden sand might have looked appropriate for an English beach while the tide was out, for the New Valley in Egypt, a place which was supposed to be a desolate dune filled desert the picture was quite surreal.

A splashing noise behind him signalled movement, quickly Harry spun on his heel sliding Hagrid's crossbow free from a strap attached to his shoulders and pointed it in the direction of the noise.

Harry's breathing was heavy and difficult, his panting causing a rippling effect on the residues of water clinging to his beards whiskers. With his tired sunken eyes he scanned the horizon, he saw nothing.

'Accio!'

Hagrid's crossbow wrenched itself free of Harry's hands and was caught by an apparently suspended hand that had suddenly appeared.

'Potter, Potter,' said a cool, calm voice that seemed to radiate from the same place as the floating hand.

Percy Weasley pulled the cloak from himself smiling down at the pitiful looking Harry hunched forward. Percy had changed so much, his thick glasses that had once rivalled Harry's were gone, his hair was shoulder length and had turned a very dark red. The freckles and spots that had once plagued his face had been replaced by a single scar that ran down his left cheek marking his otherwise unblemished skin. Dressed in a deep purple coloured robe he replaced his wand within an inner pocket, he examined the crossbow.

'This doesn't belong to you,' said Percy gesturing to Hagrid's crossbow that he held loosely in his hand, with one powerful thrust he sent it to the ground making the weapon snap in two.

'Percy,' wheezed Harry still breathing heavily clutching his chest with his good hand, 'I know you…I know you don't…'

'Save it please Harry,' said Percy idly, 'you fought a good fight, you came close, but you lost, you never know when to quit this is your greatest downfall. Instead of accepting your defeat you run around the desert for five days dragging it out and delaying me.'

'I did not make you hunt me,' growled Harry.

'Nor I you,' reminded Percy, 'but then you're rather like a weed, unless you kill it, it has a nasty habit of coming back to ruin your garden once more.'

'Kill me and you shall never find it,' wheezed Harry.

'Please,' scoffed Percy diving into his robes again, though this time retrieving a different wand to his own, 'I think this will assist me, not the mention the notes and routes you left behind at your home.'

Harry looked in dismay at the wand held so gently by Percy's finger tips, finally accepting defeat he slumped onto the ground making a loud plopping noise as his backside collided with the wet sand.

'You should never have returned this to Dumbledore's tomb,' said Percy shaking his head, 'anyone with half the ability to do a little research would have worked out that the elder wand recognised you as its master, and how hard is it really to look inside a tomb to see if a wand is there?'

'You were a Griffindor,' wheezed Harry weakly, 'This is not something you should do…'

'I always thought I was poorly placed in Griffindor,' remarked Percy cutting Harry off mid sentence, 'I always thought I was better suited to Slytherin until one day I realised something, Griffindor values, courage, daring and nerve, all qualities that are required of a man seeking to do what I seek to do.'

'And chivalry,' called back Harry in a hoarse voice, 'Did you forget that one?'

'Chivalry?' repeated Percy looking confused, 'Oh I am sorry Harry, was our last encounter un-fair? Did I bring cronies with me, did we gang up on you, and were you disadvantaged in some way? Was Ron, or Neville, or Kingsley or Viktor Krum disadvantaged? Or were all of those duals fair fights, because as I remember it I won each of them on merit? The bad man can be chivalrous too Harry, not to say that I am the bad man.'

'What kind of a man kills his own brother!' growled Harry clutching his chest, his breathing growing heavier.

'The sort whose brother has major insecurities from being shadowed all of his life and has a whore of a wife who sleeps with his best friend,' retorted Percy anger residing in his tone. 'Did I want to kill Ron, of course not he was my brother, would he have killed me? In a heartbeat, because he believed that I, like you, was sleeping with his wife. The only difference being that in my case I was not. So do not play that Griffindor is good nonsense with me, you're hardly a shining knight yourself.'

'I have done things that I am not proud of Percy,' wheezed Harry, 'But that does not mean I think them right.'

'No, but can you live with them?' asked Percy returning the Elder wand to his robes and redrawing his own.

'Yes,' wheezed Harry, 'yes I can and have lived with them.'

'So can I,' concluded Percy coldly, 'Avada Kadavra!'

A green light reflected off the puddles of water as the lifeless body of the infamous Harry Potter rolled face first into the shallow pool he had washed in minutes earlier.

'You did your best Harry,' remarked Percy, 'You were a worthy rival, I shall miss that about you.'

Albus woke with a start his body bolting into an upright position only to slam his head into the supporting beam of the bunk above him. Falling back down onto his bed he rubbed his forehead cursing himself for wanting a bunk bed in his room when he didn't share it with anyone. He heard his sister Lily call his mother from the room next to his.

'Mum! Albus is making funny noises again!'

'Kreacher,' he heard his mothers muffled voice say from downstairs, 'go check on Albus,'

Albus heard the faint croaky noise of Kreacher speaking before a crack echoed in his room and the ancient Houseelf stared respectfully at him.

'Mistress…'

'I know thank you Kreacher,' said Albus lifting himself upright and putting on his slippers that were left by the bed, he leaned forward to whisper to Kreacher, 'did you manage it?'

Kreacher's ancient and wrinkled face formed a large and out of place grin as he pulled a rolled up scroll from the clean pillowcase he wore.

'Kreacher copied every detail master,' he said with his sinister looking smile as he handed the scroll to Albus who opened it seeing the Marauders map on the fresh white scroll paper.

'Perfect,' he said watching a set of footsteps labelled, 'headmistress Minerva" make their way to the school library. Laughing in happy excitement he jumped from his bed hugging the startled Kreacher and rushed over to the corner of his room where he carefully placed the new map within a thick wad of scroll paper. He picked up a frail brown scroll next to this fresh wad.

'What would I do without you Kreacher?' asked Albus smiling.

'Master would be in more trouble Kreacher should imagine,' remarked the houself grinning before he vanished again with a loud crack.

Albus heard the muffled talking of a man downstairs, excitement rushed through him, was it his father, had he finally returned from his assignment?

Albus with the old map in hand dressed in his pyjamas and dressing gown raced out of his room nearly knocking over Lily as she walked drearily across the landing to the bathroom, her toothbrush cleaning her teeth as her hands hung lazily by her side. Tearing past her he made his way down the stairs skipping every other step to speed up his journey. He tore through the hall nearly knocking over Fawks who squawked angrily on his perch and tumbled through the kitchen door catching himself on the table in front of him. He looked up seeing a dark haired wizard in his early twenties stare humouredly back at him.

'Oh, it's the Slytherin,' remarked the young wizard.

'Shut up James,' grumbled Albus disappointed that it was not their father he had heard.

'Are you looking forward to going back to Hogwarts?'

'Of course,' said Albus sitting in the chair opposite him, 'I might be made Head Boy,'

'Lucky you,' said James sneering behind his coffee.

'Mock him all you want,' snapped their mother at James slamming a plate of toast in front of him her flaming red hair bouncing as angrily as her voice, 'but he is a dammed harder working student than you ever were!'

'I know, I know,' said James pushing a piece of toast that had half fallen off the plate back on, 'As dad says he lives up to his name, he is just like Albus Dumbledore was at his age.'

'Only not so selfish,' mumbled Albus through a mouthful of toast spitting bits over the table as he spoke.

'Ah, the intellectual wealth of tomorrow,' remarked James looking at the half chewed pieces of toast on the table. 'Still no word from Dad?' he asked looking at his mother, Ginny shook her head worriedly.

'Twelve days now, he has never gone this long without sending some sort of word out, nothing from Kingsley or Viktor, I am terrified that something bad has happened.'

'Relax mum,' said Albus swallowing the last of his mouthful, 'Dad will be fine, he always is, he is the boy who lives remember?'

'Boy who lived,' corrected James.

'Well either way that title is null and void he isn't a boy anymore,' remarked their mother as she heatedly sliced up pieces of bacon.

Light thuds sounded from above signalling that Lily was coming downstairs.

'Ah,' said James looking disapprovingly as he saw his sister walking though the hall towards the kitchen, 'here comes my jailbait sister wearing a ridiculously short nighty,'

'James don't talk about your sister like that she's fifteen,' scolded his mother.

'Which is why I called her jailbait,' he replied shrugging, unsure why he had been shouted at.

'And you!' snapped their mother at Albus, 'don't think I have forgotten that you have the Marauders map!'

'I have it right here for you,' said Albus politely handing it over to his mother who took the tattered old paper suspiciously.

'That was easy,' she remarked, 'why so willing?'

'What is the point of putting off the inevitable?' he asked shrugging, 'after last years antics I knew you wouldn't let me keep old of it.'

'Then you should have made a copy or something, you're supposed to be a genius' remarked James spilling his coffee slightly, apparently outraged that the map had been taken from his brothers hands.

'This map nearly got him caught stealing from the potions master!' hissed Ginny slapping Albus across the head with it.

'I maintain that it probably prevented me getting caught,' said Albus helping himself to another piece of toast watching as he mother inspected the parchment making sure that it was the Marauders map.

'So Lily, planning on getting any more of my old teachers fired?' asked James before downing the last of his coffee.

'That's not funny!' snarled Lily, 'Professor Flitwick was looking up my dress!'

'The man's about two foot four I don't think he can help but look up people's dresses, everything is taller than him!'

Lily made a snarling growl of a noise then stood up out of her chair her plate of toast in hand.

'Mother I am eating this in my room!' she snapped before marching through the hall darting back screaming in surprise and anger as Fawk stole a piece of her toast from her plate.

'So how is work going with Uncle George?' asked Albus taking hold of a cup of tea that had floated to him.

'Alright I suppose,' said James unenthusiastically, 'he doesn't really spend much time out on the shop floor, he is a lot less fun than he used to be, these days he is cooped up in his office. He saw a picture of that Van Gough the other day, thought Muggles were mocking him or something, but other than that there hasn't been much of a laugh coming from him.' A strange whirling sound signalled the arrival of someone by apparition, Teddy Lupin walked into the room from the hall his inherited metamorphmagus ability from his mother allowed him to transform at will into any new appearance that he desired, in this case he had assumed long black hair and light blue eyes nestled into a pale skinned face, he was all together handsome, but then of course, he could choose to be.

'Ted,' said Ginny happily as she wiped her hands on a table cloth and went to hug him.

'The Don still not back?' asked Teddy.

'No,' said Ginny shaking her head worriedly, 'but that's all we seem to talk about these last few days, where's Victoire?'

'In France with Fleur de phlegm visiting her grandparents,' said Ted grumpily.

'Are things still not going well with her mother?' asked Ginny disappointedly noticing the "de phlegm" he had added after Fleur.

'I think she just dislikes the fact that I can transform into a person more beautiful than her,' remarked Ted coldly as he slumped into the chair next to Albus rustling his hair before picking up a piece of toast from his plate.

'So what brings you here?' asked James looking curiously at Ted.

'Just thought I would pop in and say hello before my shift at the ministry starts, and of course to see if the Don had returned.'

'Why do you call him the Don?' asked Albus.

'Because he is my Godfather,' answered Ted who still received a blank look from Albus, Ted turned to James in disbelief 'has he never watched the Godfather?'

'Albus is too busy with his studies to waste time on Muggle entertainment,' remarked James smirking. Fawk's let out a loud cry startled as someone banged on the front door.

'Oh no don't bother yourselves I'll get it,' snapped Ginny sarcastically to the three boys as she squeezed past them into the hall. She waved her hand angrily at Fawk's making him flap his wings aggressively in retaliation. She peered though the peephole and gasped.

'Percy!'

At the sound of the name the three boys filtered quickly into the hall to see Ginny hugging her brother hard who silently and sadly hugged her back. Ginny pulled away from him sensing the bad news.

'What is it?' she asked her hand clawing at the clothes around her heart.

'I have bad news,' he said gravely, his face was etched with grief, 'very bad news.'