"The Choice"


Discovery

The leaves were starting to fall as the cold winter wind blew through the grounds of Hogwarts. A small group of friends were slowly walking up the path to the school, trying to shield themselves from the cold with their cloaks. Over the summer, Harry had every intention of leaving to finish off his quest for the horcurxes. His only mishap had been that his friends, Ron and Hermione, had been keeping an exceptionality strong eye on him since the end of last term. It had been expected that he would try to shake off his friends to protect them from harm, as only Harry would go to such lengths. Since that time, Harry had been keeping to himself, hardly talking to anyone anymore. Hermione had tried coaxing him to talk to them, but the only one to get through the thick shield had been Ginny. After their breakup at Dumbledore's funeral, Ginny had kept her distance as well for a while. She had known that what Harry had said had been true, she could be used to get to him, she also knew how much he cared for her as did everyone else. Sirius Black had been used to bring Harry and his friends to the Ministry of Magic, only to find that it had been a trap by Lord Voldemort to lure Harry there. Sirius had died that night protecting Harry, this only caused Harry to close himself off even more from the world.


Looking back, Ginny was glad that Harry had decided to open up to her after a bit, to trust her with his deepest fears and secrets. Although, his secrets had shaken her to the core, she always stood by him. Harry had told her that after Dumbledore's death, he had been having more dreams as well as waking to find himself almost floating over his bed, the room shaking, or a glow surrounding him. These events had ended up getting him kicked out of his relative's house almost immediately after returning home for his last summer. Nobody could explain those events, not even the Ministry of Magic. Blame had been cast onto Voldemort and his death eaters, for a seventeen year old boy could never do such magic according to the Ministry. After some extensive testing, the conclusions had been that Harry was not being controlled obviously. But the final verdict from the Minster had been as unresolved and unexplained. The simple truth had been too hard to comprehend or explain for Minister Scrimgeour .


After returning to Hogwarts with a sullen Harry in tow, the seventh year had begun. Advanced magic was now performed in all lessons, and unspoken spells were mandatory at all times, no exceptions. Kingsley Shacklebolt had become the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and Tonks had decided to become the new Transfiguration teacher; much to the delight of Harry and his friends. The homework was again overwhelming, and little time could be spent on planning the trip to Godric's Hollow or defeating Voldemort these days.

Many students had not returned, especially since the magic protecting Hogwarts had begun to dwindle. Since Dumbledore's death, many things had begun to occur, for one, the Death Eaters seemed unstoppable now. There were considerably more deaths and attacks in the paper now, the werewolf population had also grown as did the Inferis. The atmosphere of the magical community had hit an all time low, even the muggle population had taken noticed with all of the unsolved crimes popping up.

At times, Ron and Hermione were surprised that Harry could hold up at all, such was the pressure on him to defeat this evil. Sometimes, they had almost seemed to glimpse a change in him. A confidence that they couldn't understand, but it would disappear almost immediately and Harry would become quiet and moody once again. The only one who could even get a smile out of him was Ginny, it was obvious that Harry still cared for her deeply.

On the first day of winter everything changed. The Death Eaters had attacked Hogsmeade and Snape had been rumored to be leading the group. Zonkos and The Three Broomsticks were completely destroyed, and most of the homes were left abandoned by the time help arrived. The students had been led into the Great Hall to be watched by the prefects and some staff while the teachers joined the aurors in Hogsmeade.

Ron, Harry, and Hermione were in a corner discussing the attack, when a white faced Ginny raced up to them. "Harry, McGonagall wanted me to come get you! She wants you to join them out there!"

"What! Why?" Harry was shocked, Ron and Hermione had to drag him to his feet for anything to register. He had never been allowed to go or do anything dangerous before, every attempt had been made to keep him safe from harm's way. The group quickly made their way through the crowded hall as McGonagall was spotted heading their way.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Grab your invisibility cloak and follow me Potter." She waited impatiently while Harry ran up to his dorm room for his father's silvery cloak. Upon his return, she started walked briskly towards Hogsmeade with an anxious Harry trailing behind.

"Professor, why do you want me to come? I have never been allowed to even attend the meetings for the Order." Harry asked as he struggled to keep pace with McGonagall's long strides.

"Harry, there is something that you will need to hear from someone. Now I want you to control yourself when you speak to him... we captured Draco Malfoy." She added hesitantly.

"What! You got him, where is the bloody git?" Harry exclaimed angrily as he unconsciously sped up in rage

"Now Harry, I need you to stay calm, you saw him on top of the tower that night, you said that he wasn't the one to kill.. Dumbledore. He said that he has something that he wants to tell you." McGonagall stopped in her tracks to look up at Harry, as he had grown quite a bit over the summer. "He specifically asked to speak to you, no other. And I need to tell you as well, he is injured badly. He is being looked after by Madam Pomfrey, but he should recover in a few weeks time."

The rest of the way to Hogsmeade, Harry tried to control the rage boiling within him. All attempts were wasted upon seeing Malfoy, as he had lunged at the smaller boy and had to be held back by two aurors.

"Still the hero are you, Potter" Malfoy sneered weakly. He had been cut badly by falling debris, upon inspection it had been discovered that he had tried to enter one of the houses to see what he could loot on orders from Voldemort. Unfortunately for him, the house had crumbled while he was still inside.

"I ought to rip you to shreds, Malfoy! You are the reason that Dumbledore is dead!" Harry lunged again, but was pulled back yet again.

A fleeting shadow in Malfoy's eyes showed how much regret he had for those actions, he sincerely looked like he regretted his decisions. "I wanted to tell you... I didn't mean for all of this to happen. The Dark Lord said that he would kill me and my family if I didn't follow through on his orders. Only a small group was supposed to come through. We were supposed to grab a sword from Dumbledore's study, but, everything went wrong. The Werewolf, Greyback, wasn't supposed to be there."

"What...why are you telling me this?" Harry was stunned, he had never expected his nemesis to ever break down like this.

"The Dark Lord is mad, he will kill me, but I don't care anymore, not after all I have seen. My father is in prison and my mother was killed last week." Malfoy actually started to cry. "I've lost everyone. If it is the last thing I do, I will get my revenge… I am going to tell you everything I can. "

Harry stared down at this new Malfoy in shock, even McGonagall looked surprised by this revelation. "Professor, let's get him up to Hogwarts, he is telling the truth, I don't know how, but I know that he is truly different somehow. It would be better to have him at the school than in Azkaban, Voldemort would only end up killing him faster that way."

On the way back up to the school, Harry realized that he had taken control of the situation on instinct. Professor McGonagall did not seem to take offence though, it seemed almost as if she expected it of him. Filing these thoughts away for a later time, he concentrated on the situation on hand. Once Malfoy was taken to the infirmary with a few aurors, McGonagall gave permission for Ron, Hermione, and Ginny to join Harry in the questioning. Upon seeing who was in the bed, Ron instantly lunged at Malfoy as well. "Malfoy! How dare you show your ugly face here, I aughta..." With some difficulty, Ron was pulled off of Malfoy before serious damage could be inflicted.

"Ron, Malfoy has something that he wants to tell us all, just calm down." Harry yelled as Ron tried to wrestle out of everyone's grasp.


"How can you say that, after everything he has put us through. You of all people, I would think, wouldn't listen to him. You are the one that was the first to always blame Malfoy for everything!" Ron yelled angrily.

"Just listen to what he has to say, will you!" Harry stomped over to Malfoy's bed. "Tell us what you know, or I won't think twice about letting Ron having a shot at you."


An exhausted Malfoy was just finishing his explanation, when Madam Pomfrey pushed everyone out the door so he could get some rest. McGonagall was unnerved at the revelations that had been revealed, but went briskly back to business. "Alright everyone, off to bed, you all have had a lot to think about tonight. Do try and get some sleep though."

On their way back to the common room, Harry was deep in thought, as though debating something in his mind. Finally, before they reached the Fat Lady's portrait, he pulled everyone back. "I have something that I think you should know, something that has been bothering me for a while now. Lately I have been wondering whether to tell anyone, even you. Meet me in the common room in a few minutes, I left my cloak in the infirmary.

When Harry had returned a few minutes later, he had to wait until the last stragglers wandered of to bed, leaving just the four friends around the fire. Sighing, he leaned back in his chair for a moment before beginning. "You all know what happened over the summer, what with the dreams and everything." Everyone nodded slowly. "Well, I have been.. umm... experimenting with some new powers. Ever since Dumbledore's death I have been getting these weird dreams, and what I dream really seems to happen.

McGonagall found a letter to me from Dumbledore, it was supposed to be opened after his death. In the letter it said that when I was a baby, I had shown strange powers, even as an newborn infant. I could move things across the room, I even started... well... levitating in my crib. My parents were getting worried, I guess this had happened in my dad's family a lot, but it had only lasted a few hours and then it wouldn't happen anymore. My situation was extreme, it didn't just go away like the others, I even started to create shields when strangers came over. My parents asked Dumbledore to bind my special abilities until I was older. After they were killed, he kept them bound to protect me. But, since his death I have been getting these abilities back, they are so strong it is hard to control them at times. I think this is the power that the prophesy talked about, Voldemort may not have known about the protection that my mother gave me when she died, but he has that same power in his blood now. This would be a completely different power, one he would most definitely not know of."

The room was silent for a few minutes as everyone let this new revelation soak in. Hermione was the first to speak up, "So, um... what kind of new powers do you have? You can speak Parsel Tongue, and you can do complicated spells that most of us can't, what else can you do?" Hermione was looking hesitant but excited.

Harry smiled, he had known that Hermione would be fascinated by these new powers, he just hoped that Ron and Ginny would still accept him. He looked over at them to see Ron's jaw hanging open staring blankly back at him, Ginny on the other hand didn't seem too surprised. He had a feeling that she had been catching on when he told her what had happened over the summer, he had told Ginny some things that he had not told anyone else.

"Ron, are you ok?" Harry asked, he was getting a little worried since Ron's jaw was still hanging open. This seemed to snap him out of his stupor though.


"Yeah." Ron said in a small voice, "I knew something was going on, but I thought that You-Know-Who was doing that to you. I've never heard of anyone able to do that before."

"I have... it was in 'Hogwarts, a History'." At the dumb looks on Ron and Ginny's face she sighed, "honestly, I am getting sick of this. There was a wizard with that power, the only one ever recorded in history to have those powers. He was a founding father of Hogwarts, the most powerful of the four, it was Godric Gryffindor."

Everyone looked at Harry in surprise. "That was another thing, my dad and his mother had been the last descendants to Gryffindor. As he had only had one son, the Gryffindore name died out when his granddaughter married into the Potter family. After centuries, the line dwindled down to my grandparents and my father. And then Voldemort murdered my grandparents while my father was still in school here, the rest you know.

The room was silent as everyone digested the new side of Harry. Hermione was the first to stir from her catatonic state. "Harry, I am so sorry, we never knew… But, can I ask you something? Do you have his other power as well? You know, his specialty?" Hermione asked

Harry sighed, "Hermione, I have never read that book, and probably never will read that book, you know that. You probably know more about my powers than I do."

"Godric Gryffindor's special power was the ability to control magic with his mind, he didn't need a wand. Can you do that?" Hermione leaned forward expectantly.

"Yes, that was the first one I received, after that was the power to levitate. All in all, I have three that I can somewhat control, I can glow when I really concentrate on it. The only one I can't control is when I make the ground shake, that usually happens when I get really angry. That night at my uncle's house, Dudley had gotten into my trunk and had stolen my invisibility cloak, it seems funny now, but at the time I was irate. He had put it on only to discover that he had disappeared, he threw the cloak off and told Uncle Vernon that I had cast some spell on him. I got a real beating for that one, it was also the night that the 'earthquake' happened."