Hey everyone,
The challenges are flying off the paper and so are my fingers flying over the board in front of me. I actually have to keep an eye on where my fingers are flying off to in order to make sure they don't skip certain letters and make this AN become unreadable. Bloody Hell, this writer is on fire, people, on inspirational fire!
Have fun,
Venquine1990
Challenge #13
Memories Of The Past
To see my eleven year old son, Micheal James, actually get onto the Hogwarts express – a train of which the Platform has been moved shortly before the Millennium Change due to the growing increase of Muggle Security Cameras at King's Cross – is something I never imagined I would be honored to witness.
When in my fourth year at Hogwarts, Voldemort actually used a legendary event not only to trick me into several life-threatening Tasks, but also to kidnap me and murder a fellow Champion, who was shockingly enough the secret boyfriend of my best friend, Hermione, did I believe that my entire youth and life was over.
The man had waged a fight against me where I had been subjected to several Dark Curses, spells, a ritual and even all three of the Unforgivables, one of which I was able to fight off, another that made me fight back on tears and screams of pain and the third that I only got to dodge away from thanks to my honed Seeker Skills.
Still, it had been those same skills that had, somehow miraculously, made me end up near the dead body of Viktor Krum, the Imperiused boy having taken down both Fleur Delacour and Cedric Diggory before – at first strangely enough – leading me to the Cup, taking me to Voldemort and being thanked for this by murder.
I had looked from the dead boy, who's eyes were still glazed over thanks to the last effects of the Imperius Curse having been on him when he was killed to the man before me, the white wand he had aimed at me reminding me of the bright grey and white rocks at the Dragon's stadium and instantly I had responded out of instinct.
I had aimed my wand, not at Voldemort, but at the Tri-Wizard Cup that was miles away from me and before Voldemort could even utter a single word of protest, had I summoned the item like I had summoned my Firebolt against the Horntail and had I, with my hand still on Krum, transported us both back to Hogwarts and safety.
There the sight of me returning with a dead body had almost caused for an International Scandal, yet it had been this same scandal that had allowed me – in a trial that I still think I should not have been subjected to – to speak about Voldemort's return and to warn all of Magical Britain of his plans and how he was immortal.
Everyone in the courtroom had been shocked to hear this, yet I had been granted the leverage of Veritaserum and this had made sure that no one could deny my claims, even if it had caused for some of Voldemort's spies within the Ministry to make another attempt on my life, causing for a huge fight within that same courtroom.
The fight had ended with the Spy caught, me badly injured and shipped off to St. Mungo's and the Wizengamot deciding it needed all the help it could get to defeat Voldemort for once and for all. That had been one of the last times during the war where anyone in Magical England had called on me to save them or their families.
There had still been such cases – as with the Weasleys and Hermione – but when I discovered that the girl only wanted me to protect her because she thought I was responsible for her secret boyfriend's death, had I shouted her hide full, ratted her out to her parents, called her names I will never repeat again and severed all my ties with her.
By now the girl-turned woman is severely trying to get a good job somewhere, yet her reputation as a Bossy-Know-It-All hasn't changed since we broke up as friends and neither has the arrogance that she had gained for dating Krum, making it so that she often annoyed the wrong people at work and got fired from her job all over again.
Ron had, for a short while, been angry at me for causing Hermione so much problems, yet while the redhead and I had agreed that we just disagree on some things had neither of us felt bad over the idea of just staying friends and seeing where else life could lead us, making it so that we actually made friends we never expected.
Ron had become close with Cedric Diggory – another Champion who had become paralyzed from the waist down thanks to Krum's work at the Third Task and the young redhead had actually left school in order to help Cedric getting used to his new injury, living with a wheelchair and – later – inventing items to help those crippled.
By now the redhead is amazingly famous – even more than I once was, crazily enough – for his inventions and is selling products both in the Muggle and Magical World, something that makes his elder father proud every day and that makes his mother – as she often jokes – forgive him for leaving school before graduation.
His brothers and other siblings have also made name for themselves, especially Fred and George, who are living off of their own money and slightly off a fund I put up with my own inheritance and that aids those who wish to pull pranks at Hogwarts or those that wish to – in any way or form – make a career out of Pranks.
This idea had sprouted from my mind after I had donated the Prize Money to the twins as I didn't feel that I could do anything with it and I didn't want to take the risk that it – in the papers – would be used against me before my trial and while the two had wanted to object and make me keep the money, had my motives convinced them.
They had also, before my trial, called in the help of all of their elder siblings and Percy and Bill had been the ones who had helped me get the chance for the Veritaserum, which I had used to speak about Voldemort, the threat of his plans and – while I was at it – the innocence of my Godfather, the notorious mass-murderer.
Everyone, even Bill and Percy, had been shocked to hear what I had to say about the man, yet my statement that it had been Pettigrew who had killed Krum and the autopsy that the Unspeakables had actually performed on the boy confirming this had finally convinced Fudge that I had been speaking the truth the year before.
My godfather had, after this, really quickly found his innocence returned to him, yet he too had been massively injured during the ensuing fight as he had actually been there to silently support me and he had come out of hiding to defend me when the Death Eater spy revealed himself, the fight itself almost making him lose his arm.
The man had not cared for this dangerous injury to his arm, not even when Madam Pomfrey told him how the attack on him had only missed an important vein in his arm by a mere two inches and had only responded as to why he didn't care with the words: "As long as Harry's safe, I'll head for Hades to protect him."
This had sealed the deal on his innocence and while the thought of losing him had nearly traumatized me, had Sirius been given my full-guardianship as a Ministerial apology for all the years he spent in Azkaban. Dumbledore had tried to fight this, but when he got the both of us against him, did the elder man back down from his claims.
I then smile softly as the train starts gathering energy in preparations of leaving and while watching how my young boy is trying to seek a good compartment to sit in, do I remember how it had been Sirius that had given me the chance to seek out my family history and discover all that my ancestry actually had to offer.
It had been more than I could ever imagine and it had taken me the entire summer following my fourth to learn all I had to in order to do my family proud and to take over where they had left off, but afterwards I had become the gentleman Sirius constantly said I would have been from my eleventh birthday had my parents raised me.
I had felt a little bit ashamed that I had been four years late, but the man had constantly made sure to wave away these feelings of insecurity and shame and it was thanks to these lessons, Sirius' amazing guidance and my actual break as friends with Hermione that I had found the wife right now standing beside me.
Lavender Brown had been abhorred with Hermione's behavior, her arrogance and her beliefs and had told her that she herself would make a ten-times better friend to me than Hermione ever could, something the arrogant girl had laughed at, but that had actually led to me finding out that Hermione had not told me everything about Lavender.
Yes, to the outside world Lavender showed herself as the most standard of standard girly-girls, with a love for the mystical, a sceptic eye for fashion and an ever-listening ear for gossip, but the girl showed her true self only to her closest friend Parvati and in the dorm room she shared with the two girls – and what a true self that is.
Kind, caring, ever worried about everyone around her, always trying to make gossip sound positive, never a bad word about anyone unless they have earned it or scorned someone she considers a sister or close friend and with a wit that sometimes even challenges that of my own and the late Professor Severus Snape.
The man had been in one of the final fights of the War and had – shockingly enough – taken a Killing Curse for Sirius, in his will claiming that, were he to save the life of a loved one of my mother, his debt to my father was to be considered repaid, yet the man never realized that he had already done this in my first.
I had been shocked and furious with Dumbledore, who had told me about this fact at the end of my first, but had apparently not done so with Snape in order to ensure that Snape would continue protecting me from the sidelines and the fact that this need to protect had resulted in the man's death had been something I had not accepted.
I had used all of Lavender's ability to connect with the Gossip chain and had connected her – through my titles – with every newspaper that my family either had shares in or owned for a certain percent and I had used the destructive tongue of my girlfriend and the even more destructive quill of Rita Skeeter to let the world know my thoughts.
My thoughts on Dumbledore, on his behavior to the school and me in the – at that time – six years I had attended, on his teaching methods and on how he constantly kept secrets and how he coerced me and my friends in unraveling them to the threat of our lives at several instances and the death of multiple teachers.
None of the parents who had read this had been happy to hear that, in six years time, three teachers had found death inside Hogwarts halls and while Quirrell's association with Voldemort had made the death look just and for the better of the school, had no one liked to see just how many dangerous people had worked at Hogwarts.
Dumbledore had gotten a social and publicly beating like no tomorrow and while he had tried to get me to come back at my words, had I pushed him away with the words: "Why should I be loyal to you if you're not even loyal enough to your own people to protect them?" And the man had reeled back before I had left for class.
In that same year a lot of students had been pulled from Hogwarts, their parents claiming they didn't want them there while the school was in danger of being infiltrated like it had been in past years and it had taken Dumbledore until two years after the Millennium Change before he got everyone convinced that Hogwarts was safe.
That now, is a good 18 years ago, my own graduation of Celestial High – a school Sirius had send me to after hearing firsthand what Dumbledore had caused during my school years – being a good 20 years ago as Celestial actually had several Master Courses following their Seventh year N.E.W.T. level graduation.
I had graduated in N.E.W.T.s a year later than I would have at Hogwarts as I – apparently – had some stuff to catch up on that I actually should have been tested on for my fifth, but that Hogwarts didn't care to put in the O.W.L.s tests and had, after graduation, taken to Spell Crafting and Inventions, learning how to charm new things into existence.
It had been something no one had expected of me, but that I had come to enjoy immensely starting from the first day where I began the course and still my Personal Mentor – as Celestial has over 100 Mentors for their Courses – visits at Potter Parties and brags about my talents whenever he drinks one glass of wine too much.
The talent had definitely been plentiful as I had discovered and my Mentor and I had enjoyed a solid year where we had explored all of the areas in which I could craft new products and items, my new inventions instantly getting the Potter Trademark and getting sold in any of the companies that I had shares or ownership in.
The biggest profiteer of this talent, to this day, remains to be the Weasley Wizarding Wheezes as Fred and George are only too happy to sell my products among their own and even sometimes take inspiration out of creating new products themselves out of the creations that I invent and send their way after trademarking it.
One of my biggest prides in inventions had been a small device that would allow for large areas or spaces to move itself to other locations regardless of the stuff stocked within the area/space or the masses of earth and land upon which this area/space has been build; an invention the Ministry still happily makes use of.
It had been a mayor lifesaver in 2001, when Fudge – who was still Minister despite his errors – started realizing the threat that Muggle Security Cameras and Growing Technology actually formed to the Stature of Secrecy and since then has it become tradition to not station Platform 9 ¾ anywhere until September 1st.
I then take a deep breath and feel the hand that is in mine, that has the wedding ring I chose 22 years ago on it, squeeze my own as the female voice of my wife whispers: "He won't have your life there, love. Remus knows darn well you will have his head if he even allows for the smallest chance of letting that happen."
And this makes me smile as, after Dumbledore's departure to the next life in 2004, Minerva McGonagall actually announced her own retirement, claiming she was only still teaching because she wanted to support her long-time friend and her retirement had meant the start of a whole chain of teachers leaving Hogwarts.
Flitwick, Binns, Trelawney, Hagrid and Sprout had all decided to leave Hogwarts for the next adventure on Earth and it had made sure that Hogwarts had to skip a year of schooling as the Board Of Governors had been drastically trying to find proper people who could take over the left-behind positions of these teachers.
In the end, Charlie Weasley had become the new Care Of Magical Creature's Teacher, Bill had become the New Charms Teacher, Lee Jordan had taken over Divinations, admitting that he actually had the Gift of Sight all along, Emmeline Vance had become History teacher and Neville had taken over Herbology.
Bill had also taken Gryffindor House on his list of Responsibilities, whereas his brother took on Hufflepuff, Neville took to supporting him and helping him pick out those with hidden talents and – to the surprise of many parents – had the Board of Governors decided to make Remus the new headmaster of the School.
Some of the elder Purebloods had demanded to know why and to hear that – in the one year the man had taught – he had actually reduced the level of bullying occurring at Hogwarts and had the record of best O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. results in almost two decades had been a real shock to all of them and had made them accept the decision.
Remus himself had tried to argue against the decision, claiming he didn't deserve such a position and that he would pose a danger to the students, but the Board had been firm and when Remus had taken the Oath Dumbledore had apparently taken as well, did the Wards connect with the werewolf and did he come at peace with the decision.
I then watch, one of my hands holding the hand of my wife and true love, the other softly going through the sweet brownish black hair of my four-year old daughter Emma Lillian Potter-Brown, as the train to Hogwarts leaves the station and think: "Celestial or Hogwarts, he'll have a great life." And that thought makes me smile widely.
Holy merlin! Venquine1990
That was AMAZING! Okay, I know that I keep complementing my own work with every challenge that I put up, but you have to understand that I never expect these stories to come out like this. I think of a certain topic, put my fingers to work and then suddenly – BOOM – something like things springs up at me.
I had no clue what I wanted for this story, just that it had to take place several years after Hogwarts and that it had to include certain changes in the war – such as deaths and the ending year – but other than making sure Harry was paired with someone unusual did I have absolutely nothing to base this Story on.
Enjoy,