A/N: This is written for the Test Your Limits Competition Ⅱand the Pottermore Challenge:
Test Your Limits Competition Ⅱ:
Round One - Lethe
Lethe is the river of Forgetfulness where souls go to be washed clean of memories in preparation for riencarnation. The main theme of your fic will be MEMORY
Bonus Prompts -
Title: Flagrant Abuse of Power
Tagline: And no one was happy with that solution, but they all agreed upon it.
The Pottermore Challenge:
Task One - Gringotts Wizarding Bank
Write about someone gaining something of great value. Alternatively, write about someone losing something of great value.
Journey Through Hogwarts:
Part One - Diagon Alley
f. Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions- Write a fic over 2,000 words.
Flagrant Abuse of Power
HBP (the cave)
Word Count: 2,096
[-]
Albus Dumbledore looked down at the silver basin which was filled with emerald liquid emitting a phosphorescent glow. He stretched out his hand but the tips of his fingers hit an invisible barrier.
"Sir, no, don't touch- !" Harry yelled, edging forward a little, his hands drawn out.
Dumbledore smiled faintly at the dark-haired youth and said, "I cannot touch. See? I cannot approach any nearer that this. You try."
The smile on his face did not falter as he stared at Harry as the boy tried, but failed as he did to touch the potion that Voldemort had pricured for anyone who tried to take away the part of his soul that was hidden within the silver basin.
"Out of the way, please, Harry," Said Dumbledore.
He raised his wand and made complicated movements over the surface of the potion, murmuring soundless words all the while. Nothing happened, except perhaps that the potion glowed a little brighter. Harry remained silent while Dumbledore worked, but after a while he withdrew his wand away, knowing that there was no way that he could use magic to perpetrate though Lord Voldemort's barrier.
Harry looked up to his face and asked rather tentatively, "You think the Horcrux is in there, sir?"
He peered more intensely into the basin and replied to Harry's question, "Oh, yes. But how to reach it? This potion cannot be penetrated by hand, vanished, parted, scooped up or siphoned away, nor can it be transfigured, charmed or otherwise made to change its nature."
Dumbledore lifted his wand and twirled it once in midair. A crystal goblet was caught in his blackened right hand which was conjured out of nowhere.
"I can only conclude that this potion is supposed to be drunk."
"What?" Protested Harry, "No!"
"Yes, I think so: only by drinking it can I empty the basin and see what lies in the depths."
Harry's face was contorted into a look of concern. "But what if- what if it kills you?"
"Oh, I doubt that it would work like that," said Dumbledore, giving Harry a very kind look, his eyes sparkling, "Lord Voldemort would not want to kill the person who reached this island."
"Sir," said Harry, every hint of trying to keep his voice reasonable, "Sir, this is Voldemort we're -"
"I'm sorry Harry. I should have said, he would not want to immediately to kill the person who reached this island. He would want to keep them alive long enough to find out how they managed to penetrate so far through his defences and, most importantly of all, why they were so intent upon emptying the basin. Do not forget that Lord Voldemort believes that he alone knows about his horcruxes."
Dumbledore then fell silent for sometime, obviously thinking hard. "Undoubtedly, this potion must act in a way that will prevent me taking the Horcrux. It might paralyse me, cause me to forget what I am here for, create so much pain I am distracted, or render me incapable in some other way. This being the case, Harry, it will be your job to make sure I keep drinking, even if you have to tip the potion into my protesting mouth. You understand?"
The blue eyes met the startling green eyes of Lily Evans. Dumbledore was sure that Harry was thinking about not doing what he said just now. The only way that he could agree was to remind him of what they had talked about before coming.
"You remember," He said, "the condition on which I brought you with me?"
"But what if-?" Harry hesitated looking down at the potion.
"You swore, did you not, to follow any command I gave you?"
"Yes, but -"
"I warned you, did I not, that there might be danger?"
"Yes," said Harry, "but -"
"Well, then," said Dumbledore, shaking back his sleeves of his robes once more and raising the empty goblet, "you have my orders."
In sheer desperation, Harry asked, "Why can't I drink the potion instead?"
"Because I am much older, much cleverer, and much less valuable," said Dumbledore, entirely truthfully. "Once and for all, Harry, do I have your word that you will do all in you power to make me keep drinking?"
"Couldn't- ?"
"Do I have it?"
"But -"
"Your word, Harry."
"I- all right, but- "
Dumbledore lowered the crystal goblet into the potion before Harry could make any more sounds of protect. Just as he thought it would, the crystal sank into the surface of the potion as nothing else had. When the glass was full to the brim he lifted it to his mouth.
"You're good health, Harry."
The moment that the potion touched his lips, it felt as if his lips where burning. The potion slipped down his throat. It was like trying to drink lava. He closed his eyes, trying to make the pain lessen.
"Professor? How do you feel?" said Harry voice, but it felt as if his voice was coming from a hundred miles away.
[-]
"How are you? What happened?"
Albus looked from his mother to his little sister who was shivering as though she just climbed out of a lake in the south pole and her eyes was big as saucers, those eyes filled with fear. "Th-they w-wanted me t-to tea-teach th-them ma-magic. I-I could-couldn't s-so th-they h-hit me." Her lower lip was trembling.
His younger brother, Aberforth, ran into the room. When Ariana saw him, she burst into tears and threw herself into Aberforth's arms.
"Shhh," His brother tried to comfort the little girl.
"I don't want to go to Hogwarts anymore!" Ariana cried, while burying her face into Aberforth's chest.
"What should we do?" Albus's mother asked the family just as Percival Dumbldldore walked into the room.
"I don't want to go!" Ariana shreiked. "Let's keep her here, if she doesn't want to go, she shouldn't." Aberforth said, looking up towards his mother and father.
Their parents looked down at their feet. "That'll just have to be it then." his mother said sadly.
And no one was happy about that solution, but they all agreed upon it.
[-]
Dumbledore's hand shook as he reached to fill up the third goblet of potion. He staggered a little and fell forward against the basin.
"Professor Dumbledore? Can you hear me?" Harry asked, again, his voice sounded as if it came from long long away. When Dumbledore didn't reply, Harry asked again. "Professor, can you hear me?" His voice echoing around the cavern.
[-]
"We must be careful, Gellart." Albus told the youth beside him. He was handsome and merry faced. With shoulder-length fair hair. "Too much power sometimes means the nearing of failier."
Suddenly, Albus's bedroom door banged open and Aberforth stormed in. Both Albus and Gellart stood frozen to the ground.
Aberforth stomped forward, his footsteps, in his ange, as loud as an elephants'. His face was mingled into a look of outrage, his face was even more redder than a tamato.
He snatched the piece of parchment from which Albus and Gellart was making notes on their future plans. The notes on 'The Greater Good'. His elder brothers' mouth opened and closed like a goldfishes and his brothers best friend simply looked dumbfounded.
Albus was to first to unfreeze. "What do you think you're doing, Aberforth?" His voice was soft but not that soft.
It sounded as though he was on the brink of a raging temper, which Aberforth was already in.
"What I think I'm doing?! You really should be asking yourself the same question. You too!" He shot and Grindelwald, whose face was begining to turn dark red. "You know what you're doing?! This isn't for the 'GREATER GOOD', this is selfishness!
"Albus, you know what mother wanted to do if she- if she DIED. She spent six years making sure that your- that is meaning OUR- sister is happy. Making sure that her powers are kept safe. OUR MOTHER IS DEAD NOW! And look what YOU'RE doing! Planning the 'Greater Good' when our sister is getting more and more out of hands! She needs comfort, not being ignored by her superior BROTHER." Aberforth raged at the top of his lungs.
Gellart's eyes were burning as if a fire had been lit in it. Always a danger sign.
He stepped towards Aberforth, and Aberforth stood his ground.
"You stupid little boy. Don't talk about things that you don't understand."
"Talk about things I don't understand, eh? I don't think so." Every note of sarcasm in his voice.
Gellart raised an eyebrow. "Well, well. Let me teach you a lesson, little boy." He stared down at the boy and yelled,
"CRUCIO!"
He watched in content as the boy who so resembled Albus scream and writh in pain. Albus, who had not uttered a word until now shouted, "NO!"
He raised his wand and the boy who was neeling beside his feet relaxed and stumbled up, facing Gellart.
"Stupify!" Aberforth yelled, but Gellart deflected the curse.
Gellart's eyes opened in anger. "YOU DARE TO CURSE ME! YOU STUPID GOOD-FOR-NOTHING BRUTE! YOU WANT SO MORE! THEN I'LL GIVE YOU A BIT MORE OF MY ANGER!"
Aberforth, who had stumbled up after being hit by the Cruciatus curse, was hit by it again.
"Ahhhh!" He shouted in pain.
"NO!" Albus yelled once again, holding onto Gellart's arm.
Albus forced his best friends wand-arm down. But just as the curse lifted, Aberforth set a Impediment jinx at Gellart. He gave a yell of fury and yelled, "Stu-"
Ariana suddenly appeared in te doorway. "NOOO!" She shouted and ran forward, throwing out her hands, sheilding her brother from further harm.
"CRUC-" Gellart shouted, pointing his wand tip at the young girl.
Albus drew his wand too, pointing it at his best friend, the person he felt equal to and moaned, "I don't want... don't make me... don't like... want to stop...
"No ... I don't want to ... I don't want to ... let me go ..." Albus looked into Gellart's stony eyes which was pitiless.
Once again, Albus heard the terrible scream of agony of the Cruciatous curse.
This scream was a girls. A young girl.
"Make it stop, make it stop," Albus moaned, tears filling his crystal blue eyes. "No, no, no ... no ... I can't ... I can't, don't make me, I don't want to ...
"It's all me fault, all my fault," He sobbed, tears splashing onto his robes. "please make it stop, I know I did wrong, oh, please make it stop an I'll never, never again ..."
His knees buckled and he nelt on the ground. Gellart stopped walking towards Aberforth and Ariana and loomed towards Albus. He cowered a little on the floor, shaking uncontrollably.
Gellart sneered at Albus and raised his wands and pointed it behind him at Albus's siblings.
"Don't hurt them, don't hurt them, please, please, it's all my fault, hurt me instead ..."
Ariana gave a ear-splitting shriek once more. Albus fell forward, screaming again and hammering his fists upon the ground.
"Please, please, please, no ... not that, not that, I'll do anything ... no more, please, no more...
"I want to die! I want to die! Make it stop, make it stop, I want to die!"
Suddenly, there was a chorus of "Avada Kedavra!" from three seperate people in the room. Two jets of green lights collided in mid-air and flew around the room and fell upon Ariana. Her lifeless body fell on the floor with a loud 'thump'.
No ... it can't be. No, not Ariana. Not Ariana!
"KILL ME!"