Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the Harry Potter universe. I actually hardly own anything from the other universe as well!
note This started as a project to increase the quality of my English writing which I find very constructive for my studies (paper writing and all but that's something totally different). However I do hope the story and writing hasn't suffered too much from the actual learning curve and of course that which I have yet to learn!
I played around with the darn enter key
Turmoil's rule
Chapter 1
The rain stung his face as it poured down from the clouded sky. The strong wind kept throwing leaves and small branches at him relentlessly.
"Well this ought keep them of my trail for a while" He muttered to himself as it dawned upon him that could not have chosen a better day then this to disappear. The drizzle of the afternoon had turned into a raging storm. The news had warned everyone to stay inside saying that it was just too dangerous to go out. "Oh like this little added excitement will kill me" he thought. Two small lights appearing on the horizon caught his attention.
"A car? Or perhaps it's… " He decided that he couldn't risk sticking to the roads. In spite of the weather warning a number of cars had already passed him and he really didn't want anyone to see him. As the lights grew larger he chose to enter the forest that had been growing denser since it had joined the skyline about an hour ago. He made a motion with the wooden stick in his hands. The darkness was absolute. The clouds where blocking the moonlight so the only illumination came from the occasional lightning bolt harassing the countryside in the distance. He carefully stepped forward trying to reach for some tree branches but without the light he had just extinguished he couldn't see a thing.
"Wrong order, I'm going to need my wand again." He smirked at himself.
"Great you're even making a fool out of yourself with no one around Potter!" His hands reached back into the long coat his fingers probing for the wooden device.
"Not there?" He felt his hand go right through the pocket. It had ripped open and a gaping hole now occupied it's the former location. He tried to reach in his other pockets but the ground was slippery and he had to balance himself.
"Oh no" The ground beneath his right leg was slipping away. He tried to lean forward to stabilize himself but that only made it worse. His entire body was sent into a freefall.
"Should have checked for that" He was surprised at how indifferent he felt about plummeting to his death. It seemed to last ages. He saw the light passing above and then the world went black.
"Well that's just absurd! We can't let him do this, we have to find him!" She was nearly yelling waving her hands fanatically as she tried to prove her point.
"I can't believe he wrote that letter himself or that Dumbledore would even let him do this! We have to stop him!" The argument had nearly taken three hours. The plumb women standing near the door was the only one who dared to go against her at this point.
"We can't dear! I know this must be very hard on you" she turned towards the redheaded boy in the opposite chair.
"For both of you. But this is beyond our control"
"How can you say that? He needs our help! It's too dangerous it doesn't make sense!" She turned her head to the boy.
"Common Ron help me with this!" His face clearly showed the doubt in his mind, either help her or and go against his mother or play it the other way around, he could not decide which of the two options was the better one. Just as he opened his mouth to say something she intervened.
"Should I spell it out for you! He's going to die if we do not help him! Die as in dead! A corpse! He'll be gone do you even care about that!" The red haired women turned towards her
"Hermoine! That's enough!" Her eyes contained a strange mixture of shock and anger at the girl in front of her. After a few moments her face softened to it's usual self. She let out a long drawn sigh
"You two ought to have been in bed hours ago. We can continue this in the morning but right now you need your sleep!" Hermoine's expressions remained determined through all this but she softened after a few seconds.
"Your right Misses Weasley. I'm sorry. Ron I didn't mean it like that, it's just we have to help him." He didn't look directly at her when he answered
"It's okay".
She lifted herself from the chair and headed for the nearest door.
"Sleep well dear" Misses Weasley said. Hermoine turned her head and smiled she then closed the door behind her and went up the stairs. Slow footsteps from the direction of the kitchen announced that Ron's father Arthur had decided it was safe to enter again.
"Do you think she's really going to bed?" Arthur had wisely not intervened in the discussion in fear of getting caught between two rather dangerous forces. Namely that of his wife and the witch prodigy of Hogwarts.
"I'm not sure" Misses Weasley answered. She thought about it for a few moments. Ron observed her closely as she locked eyes with her husband.
"Either way we've got the alarm installed haven't we? " Arthur gave her a faint nod and then sat down in the chair Hermoine had left vacant.
Harry was lying on his back as he felt a cold draught moving past his legs. His head was pounding in a way that could life up to the worse he had experienced in his life although the source was not quite the same as usual.
"Either I'm not dead or heaven is not what it's supposed to be!" He slowly opened his eyes. The room was dark except for a small candle on a table opposite of the bed he was in. It burned with little vigor and hardly any warmth came of it. His chest was covered under a blanket while his legs had partially fallen out of the bed on top of each other. He placed his right leg back on the bed and then tried to do the same with the left leg but he was shocked to find out he couldn't move it.
"Is it broken? Paralyzed?" Harry was racing all sorts of horrible conditions through his mind but relief struck him as he felt blood racing back through the veins.
"Or you've been lying on top of it" He thought to himself. Despite the relief Harry was in a outright horrible condition his body felt like a soar lump. He closed his eyes again. His mind was tired and craving for some rest to process the events of the past two days. Before he knew it he fell back to sleep.
She entered her bedroom in a hurry.
"Now where are you?" She mumbled while her eyes scanned the room for a small black wooden box. "Ah!" She picked it up and placed it in her rucksack. Hermoine then turned to the closet, grabbed some random clothes and put them in the rucksack as well. She noticed a few of her new schoolbooks on the nightstand, her usual 'light' reading,
"Oh guys I really wish I could take you but there's just no space!" she whispered to them as she added the last basic requirements to the bag. Heading back to the door she noticed a figure near the window. "Crookshanks" Hermoine sighed.
"Do not give me that look you know that this needs to be done!" The cat gave her a questioning expression "Oh what do you know you're just a cat!" Offended by this degradation Crookshanks turned around to show his back as a voice of protest.
"Oh really Molly! Just stay here and stop fretting about Hermoine!" Arthur demanded. Demanding was his last resort although it had never actually worked.
"What do you mean I can't?" She retorted.
"There we go" he thought to himself. "Look dear we…" He was cut off by a sudden loud ringing that came from outside.
"Is that?" Molly asked with a hint of disbelieve in her voice.
"She can't possibly be trying to…" The second Ron realized what was going on he jumped up from his chair and darted of towards the door. Pulling it open he ran outside his long legs carrying him with a great speed. He looked around and spotted a young women caught up in between what seemed glowing ropes. A large bell was ringing above her head announcing that the trap had worked. He speeded off to free her. As he got closer Ron noticed how frantically Hermoine was trying to get out.
"Couldn't she see there was no point to it?" He reached out to remove some ropes that had gotten caught up near her throat.
"Hermoine calm down will you!" He poked his right arm through the network of robes that where slowly entangling her.
"Just calm down the more you struggle like that the more… ouch!" Ron quickly pulled his hands back as he felt a piercing pain in his hand.
"What the? Have you gone totally bonkers?" Two large bite marks where visible on his hand. Luckily she had not really damage it but the mental shock was rather large. His father had finally caught up with him. Arthur gave him a questing look as he noticed the bite marks.
"She's gone mad!" Ron said his eyes wide. Hermoine let out a hiss in response.
"See! Mad!" Arthur took a closer look at the entangled girl.
"No Ron's she's not" He took out his wand and tabbed it on her twice. Hermoine's figure started to drastically reshape.
"Crookshanks!" Ron blurted out.
"She got away" Arthur smirked "Of course she had!".
"They will all abandon you!" Harry turned around he was standing in the middle of a long road flanked by tall dark bushes. Only the moon partially hidden by light clouds shed some light on where he was.
"My wand!" He reached in his pockets.
"It's not here! Blast!" Looking around Harry could not find a single point of recognition.
"They will all abandon you!" The shrill voice chilled his bones but what was even more disturbing he had no idea where it came from.
"Who are you!?" He demanded to know but the voice replied:
"It's too late they will all abandon you!" Harry felt cold as if his very body was frozen in place. He had to move somewhere so he decided to head in the direction of the moon, the light, but he struggled to keep to his feet. A hollow laugh erupted.
"Who's laughing?" he stopped moving. The bushes where only taking him in one direction. It seemed as if he was getting absolutely nowhere. The laughing kept getting louder almost as if it was taking over his body. Anger started to rise within him.
"Who are you!" He demanded again but once more Harry didn't get the reply he wanted.
"They will all abandon you! Just like they abandoned me! All of them!" It sounded like a women but her voice was filled with hatred that could be felt in every tone as it vibrated through the night sky. He started to move again lumping forward. The laughing was driving him mad. He needed it out of his head.
"Stop that! Stop laughing!" He reached for his temple with his hands.
"Stop it! Stop it now!" He wanted nothing more then to grab his brain and shake the laughing out of his body. "Stop it!" He moved his hands lower and he felt the strange contours of his lips.
"I am the one laughing? Why am I laughing! Stop it!" He felt as if he was loosing control of his own body. Harry fell to the ground unable to move any further. He fought to regain some control over his muscles. The laughing at this point was simply hysterical. The voice was in the air again.
"Why did they abandon me?" He crawled around in muddy soil unable to do anything he felt his mind slipping into insanity.
"Why did you do it? Why Harry?" He jerked his head up towards the sky at the mention of his name
"I don't know who you are!" He shouted. The voice let out a long girlish giggle but with the same cold touch.
"You'll remember soon enough! You always do!" Harry felt the laughing in his head receding. He could move his own limbs again. The voice seemed to have disappeared along with the hysteria he was going through. Before he could catch his breath he started to move again desperate to get away from wherever he was.
"What's that?" An opening seemed to appear in the distance. As he got closer he could clearly distinguish the form of a kneeling man near a fountain of some sort.
"Sir?" He asked when he finally got there.
"Hello?" The figure did not respond. He appeared to be sobbing. Harry moved forward and placed his hand on the man's shoulder. The cowering figure turned around slowly. When their eyes locked he felt a great shock surging through him.
"No this can't be!"
There was only one place she could start looking for Harry, Privet drive. Unfortunately the Weasley's and with them the entire wizarding world knew this as well. Hermoine still had problems understanding why they had tried to stop her to such an extreme as using magical barriers. It could just be that Molly was overprotective but the trap had not been exactly gentle to Crookshanks. However that puzzle would have to wait finding Harry was her priority.
She approached number 4 Privet drive carefully. Hermoine assumed quite correctly that the house would be littered with magical barriers as well. That ruled out the use of her wand. A church tower in the distance announced that the new day was two hours young. She crossed the lawn and walked up to the wall underneath Harry's bedroom window.
"I can't believe I'm considering this!" She though to herself. The only way for her to get close to it was by climbing up the wall. Fortunately it was stylishly decorated with all sorts of plants that would give her something to hold on to but she did not fancy the idea nevertheless. Not to mention that although the storm had somewhat withdrawn the wind's could still be considered strong.
Hermoine took out the small wooden box in her rucksack and placed it in her pocket. She then hid the rucksack behind a small bush and reached for the first branch pulling herself up while probing the wall with her feet for support. When she finally settled in a somewhat stable position she looked down hoping to see a great distance between herself and ground. She had in fact managed to climb about ten inches. Somewhat disappointed she continued her way upwards.
When Hermoine was about halfway there her arms started to ache under the stress of her body. Although she wasn't heavy her muscle's where not made for long climbs and by the time she had gotten to the window her body was sending painful signals that it wasn't all to happy with the sudden outburst of physical activity.
"We've gone over this a thousand time's there's no evidence that he didn't plan to go to the Hollow lying around here!" A muffled voice came from Harry's bedroom. Hermoine faintly recognized it but she couldn't come up with a name to match it.
"There is! If your not comfortable with helping me out here head back to the order's hunt!" A female voice spoke.
"Look I understand that you trust Remus completely in the matter but if they find out we abandoned the manhunt!" The man persisted.
"They will grow suspicious of us if we do not return soon." The women let out a long sigh
"Your right. Look let's just check this corner one more time and then we can head back to the portkey. Okay?" Hermoine's arms where nearly giving out but she had to hang on. It bothered her that she could not remember the names of the two wizards in the room above and needles to say their conversation was quickly adding more questions to her need-to-know list. If she could just hang out a little longer!
Her arms where starting to tremble and the two figures had not spoken for almost a minute. She desperately wanted to know the location of the portkey they mentioned as it would most likely provide her with a direct link to Harry's last known whereabouts.
She had reached her limit though. Hermoine lifted her right hand to start the descend but the sudden change in balance put to much strain on her weary left arm and she started to slip. She fought to regain some grip but her arms did not have enough strength left in them to stop her uncontrolled descent from speeding up. It was over before she could even think about it. Hermoine had fortunately landed in a small bush that broke her fall but not before making a thunderous roar of breaking twigs and rattled leaves.
The two wizards had of course not missed the ruckus Hermoine made. Their eyes locked each daring the other to go and check it out. The female wizard was the first to work up the courage and she made her way to the window slowly but above all as silent as possible. They had used potions on the Dursley's to assure they would not wake up and interrupt their search but if someone had been spying on them playing safe was always the better option. She opened the window carefully and then stuck her head out in the same fashion. The plants where ravaged and the signs that someone had fallen down where apparent. But whoever it was had disappeared.
Hermoine's heart was bouncing around in her chest. Not only had she fallen down from a height that was far greater then she usually dared to go but she had also managed to scramble to her feet and run around the corner just in time to avoid being spotted. She was leaning against the wall trying to catch her breath but she knew that they would come down and look for her. Hermoine looked around the corner
"Still clear!" Deciding that it was now or never she started to run across the garden into safety.
"Just a yard or two!" Hermoine thought to herself.
"Just a few more steps!" She had failed to notice a small garden gnome though that was standing out just high enough to make sure her foot would hit it causing her to trip.
"Oh please!" Her irritation at this ludicrous obstacle was rising but then she felt a familiar sensation as the portkey did its magic.
Harry stood in shock as he stared at the scar that marked the old man in front of him.
"This can't be!" he repeated in disbelief. The man quickly used one of his hands to cover up the lighting bolt shape on his forehead. He had long thin silver hair that partially hid his face. The eyes however where his most shocking feature. They seemed empty as if the soul itself had simply departed from the body but it was evident that he had been crying.
"Who are you!?" Harry demanded to know from him.
"No! no! no! you should run! Run while you still can or else she'll find you! Run! We failed! We couldn't stop him we failed!" The old man kept repeating himself continually trying to persuade Harry they had both failed.
"Who did we fail?" He tried to ask but that resulted in nothing. Harry stood up and walked to the fountain trying to make sense of what was going on. He looked at the water, the moon's reflection was clear but when he looked at this own the empty eyes of the old man where staring at him.
"Impossible!" He turned around and grabbed the man by his shoulders and lifted him up.
"How did we fail!" He shouted as he tried to shake it out of him but the man would only attempt to convince Harry he already knew.
"Who was that voice?" He tried next but this triggered a anxious chuckle.
"She's lonely! Very lonely! Can't rest you see. Can't find peace! No sir can't find peace!" Then he locked eyes with Harry his face turning serious.
"We failed her" After that the chuckling started again. Clouds started to cover the moon's light completely and a cold breeze suddenly swept past them. When he looked at the fountain he could clearly see a shadow forming behind him. He quickly turned but saw nothing. It was getting darker as less moonlight managed to break through the clouds. The old man was whimpering and trying to make himself as small as possible. "What's wrong?" he asked but the man no longer responded.
"Hey what's go…." Harry's eyes widened as they passed the fountains reflection again. A pale image of a girl he recognized all to well was standing right next to him but when he turned his head he could not see her. But she was there in the reflection. Her mouth was moving but no sound came from it.
"Hermoine!..." His mind could not keep up with the rapidly succeeding events and he simply failed to produce a thought. The image of Hermoine was still talking and he realized all to well the misery and sadness in her pale face. Realization struck him.
"Did I fail you?" He asked as tears started to form.
"How Hermoine? How did you… Did he do this to you?" He felt the hysterical emotions welling up inside of him again. Hermoine lifted her right hand and reached out to him through the water. He did the same.
"No! no! no!" The old man started to mumble but Harry was too preoccupied with touching the reflection to notice him. When his hand made contact with the ice cold water he saw Hermoine breaking a smile. Not one of happiness but madness. Every muscle in his body abandoned him again and with a great splash he fell in the water face down.
He lost control over his own mind as it started to present him with series of images. Hermoine hit by a green flash of light. Harry kneeling down next to her body while she tried frantically to warn him about Voldermort's presence. How he completely ignored her. How she could not touch him. How Harry himself got hit by the green light and finally he looked down on his own body. The eyes still open portrayed those he had seen in the old man.
"Memories?" He thought to himself. "But how is that possible?" One emotion become dominant through this all, sadness. It filled his heart to such and extend that he simply lost the will to struggle against the growing darkness as he sank deeper in the water. He felt it filling his mouth. It was ice cold and made him feel as if a thousand knives where stinging him from the inside as it progressed through his body. Then for the third time in one evening the world around him turned black. He embraced it and then lost consciousness.
Hermoine had never been a particular fan of portkey travel and today's trip was certainly not about to change her opinion. When she finally touched down her mind had formed a determination not to use any magically induced forms of transportation for the coming weeks. If at all possible. Reminding herself of why she had taken the portkey in the first place she looked around trying to get an impression of the surrounding.
Two lights where jumping around in distance but otherwise the area was totally deprived of light but the abundant sound of rustling leaves made it evident. The portkey had taken her to a forest. She took out her wand but then decided it was a bit to tricky to use magic before knowing what she had exactly ended up in. Fortunately her patience was not put to the test. The two lights had moved towards her and she could now clearly hear voices accompanying them. She decided to hide a bit deeper in the forest incase the figures would spot her.
"There's no way I'm going to check Hermit's Lodge Tulles!" One of the voices complained.
"I could not agree more mate! There's no point in getting ourselves killed of so soon. But you know what Lupin said if we can not confirm Potters location to the dark lord within two day's the deal's off." The mention of Lupin's name caused pang of discomfort with Hermoine. She had not missed it at Privet drive but there was no reason to assume what she was hearing now.
Could the order have struck a deal with You-Know-Who involving Harry? It made little sense but for the moment the safest option would be to avoid all contact whatsoever until she had figured out what was going on.
"Shame there's no trace of him though" The voices continued.
"True but we did our best." Then they where silent for a few seconds. Hermoine could not see what they where doing but when she heard two loud pop's it was clear they where gone. At least she had found a new place to look for him. This so called Hermit's Lodge did not ring a bell and true she had no idea where it was but it was something.
"Lumos" The tip of her wand lighted up and a small dirt path became visible. Having no real alternative Hermoine decided to follow it. The ground was muddy and progress was slow. The storm had now completely settled but the traces it left had far from faded. After about an hour of working her way through the mud she had nearly given up on finding anything that even resembled human life. Then a light passed above her and she could clearly distinguish the difference in height between herself and the light source above. But that was not all.
A large coat she recognized at once was stuck on a rock on a slope. A plain stroke of luck but Hermoine was not about to deprive herself of the joy of finding at least some clue that Harry had been there. But that same joy left her when she realized he had most likely fallen down. She traced the course his fall would have taken him on with her wand. Stones, small tree trunks all together it looked extremely painful if not deadly.
"Oh?" A small wooden stick was lying at the base of the slope. Not a very uncommon sighting in a forest but the shape indicated it was manmade. She picked it up.
"Harry's wand!" The thought of him deprived of his wand added new resolve to find him. Looking around Hermoine spotted that besides her own footsteps there was a single trail leading deeper into the forest and away from the muddy path. Following it she was getting soaked by the trees and the water filling her shoes was becoming most irritable. After about fifteen minutes a small wooden lodge appeared amidst the dark forest.
"It's here!" Hermoine thought while excitement filled her strained body relieving it of the pain in her aching muscles. The only place the wizards had not dared to look and thus if he was still in the forest the only place Harry could be hiding. The lodge was old. The windows where no longer in place except for the frames. The sturdy wooden door was battered by the wind. She approached carefully the wood crackling underneath her feet as the door opened slowly.
The lodge was nothing more then a single room with another door in the back. It looked as if no one had set foot inside for many years. The furniture did not appear to have aged that much but it had not been moved judging from the dust buildup. It also appeared to be modern by wizarding standards which was odd. There was one thing that struck her. Imprints in the dust on the bed and on the floor before it. She traced the dusty lines in the bed with her eyes to confirm what she already knew. A person had recently slept there. Hermoine moved towards the bed for a closer look. Splash!
The loud sound startled her. It came from the back of the lodge and sounded exactly as if….. She charged towards the backdoor but it was locked. At the same time a gust of wind had closed the front door and shut it in place.
"The windows" She thought to herself remembering that they where no longer in place
"How….?" Hermoine was staring at her own reflection in what seemed to be a rather old glass window barred with wood from the outside.
"Impossible!" She battered the door with her hands but it did not seem to care very much for her rigorous attempt to convince it to open. Neither did the windows when she tried to smash them using one of the chairs. It simply bounced off the glass.
The wind outside was picking up and making a eerie high-pitched howl where the edges of the lodge cut it. There was only one more thing to try. Hermoine grabbed her wand and started to mutter a spell. The tip of the wand lighted up with a bright red flare that left a trail in the air. It hit the door with full force and launched it off right into the forest.
Unfortunately the impact was too much for the old shed as it's large support beams started to fall out of place taking down the entire roof with them. In danger of getting caught underneath the roof Hermoine dashed towards the exit. Just as she nearly got out one of the beams came falling down. An old nail sticking out of it missed her skin by a hairs width but unfortunately it did entangle itself in her coat almost throwing her back in the collapsing shed.
Resisting the force she tried to launch herself forward but when the coat slipped of and she tumbled face down into the forest soil.
"NO!" The small black box was still in the coat's pocket and was in danger of being crushed underneath the falling woodwork. The rest of the roof was still crackling and it would not be long before the entire thing would collapse. She got up quickly and turned around grabbing the piece of her coat that was sticking out underneath the wooden beam. The beam that caught it was too heavy and it still had the nail stuck in it which pierced her coat. It would not allow it to move.
She raised the wand that was still in her hand. Just as Hermoine had started the incantation to remove the beam the entire roof came crushing down. When another large piece of wood hit the beam a small blue explosion occurred.
"No dammed!" She knew only too well what the explosion had meant. The device inside the box was destroyed. Panic started to fill her mind distracting her by presenting variables and possibilities of what it's destruction might do. As she became increasingly consumed by the doomsday scenario's in her head one thought turned it back to reality. The splash!
She ran around the back of the shed quickly spotting a large pool of water. The wrinkles in it had just died out as she reached it but it was clear something or someone had fallen down. She brought her wand close to the surface the light at it's tip illuminating the pools depth's
"Harry!" Hermoine saw his body floating about halfway to the surface. Still in range of her arms reach she pulled him out. His face felt cold as she touched it with her hands. He was only wearing his pants and a ripped shirt. Bruises and cuts, most likely from his fall of the slope, where visible on his entire body. But that was not the most fearful aspect of the young man she held closely in her arms.
The one thing that made her tremble in fear was the lack of movement in his chest. Harry had stopped breathing.
