A/N Thanks to all the people who favorite and reviewed! It's giving me renewed confidence. Now that I've set down a plot, the real first chapter is here! I will keep chapters around 5,000 words, for a comfortable read. I'd like to thank some of my favorite authors, cloneserpents and Rorschach's blot. Check out their stories. Onwards, dear reader! Note: This chapter is at the end of sixth year.
Rhodella: The story is placed at end of sixth year, they just had an argument about harry going on the Horcrux hunt. This chapter takes place right before the ending feast. Sorry about any confusion. Also, your other question is explained in this chapter.
Harry was angry. He, Ron and Hermione refused to talk to each other after their horrible argument between the three of them. Angrily, he stood up from his bed, which released a small 'squeak' as he released his weight from it, and he proceeded to kick at the floorboards in frustration. "Why don't they understand? It's for their own good!"He proceeded to grumble at himself, while not holding up on his merciless assault of the floorboards.
Noting the scratched lacquer on the floorboards, he slowly knelt down to look at the scratches caused by his shoe. Smoothing it over with his finger, he heard a creak come from the floor. He quickly stood up and looked around, swiveling his head back and forth. Sighing, he sat down on the floor. The floorboard continued its harsh squeaking with abandon.
"That is IT!" he screamed inside his mind. Deftly taking out his wand, he shouted "REDUCTO!" with all his might. As the red colored hex came out from his wand, he noted out of the corner that an ashen faced Ron came shuffling up the stairwell.
The floorboard exploded in a mess of shattered wood, nails, a yell from Harry, and a strained expression from Ron. Not bothering to even look at him, he stared at the hole in the ground for a good half minute. Finally regaining his senses, he stood up from his seat on his bed. Ron stood, ashen-faced, and swallowed before speaking.
"Listen mate, you probably know why I'm here."
"Yeah."
"It was really wrong of me to try to convince you-"
"Mate, I should be the one apologizing. I was being a berk and we both know it. Apology accepted?"
"Course." Ron grinned, but then looked down at the hole in the floor. Wordlessly, he peered into the dark, circular hole.
"Mate?" he asked.
"Yeah?"
"Take a look, here, help me get this out."
Harry and Ron both knelt down on opposite sides of the hole. Harry immediately saw what Ron was talking about. The small edge of a blue, tattered book stuck out from the burned edges of his rage. Gently, he tugged the book free. It was covered in sawdust. A wordless wave of his wand cleaned the mottled, empty cover of the book. It was a black, worn cover, with a foreign, gold printed handwriting on the top. They sat down on the bed, and opened to the first page. It was a thick sheet of almost papyrus-quality paper, yellowish, thick, and heavy in the hand. The writing is in dark, black, almost perfect handwriting. In incredibly detailed calligraphy, there were four words scrawled across in large print, followed by several smaller signatures below it.
"The Power of Merlin, by Myrddin Emrys, Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin" Harry read out loud.
"Blimey mate, is this real?" Ron stuttered.
Harry turned to the next page, which consisted of a neatly printed Table of Contents.
Advanced Charms
Advanced Hexes and Jinxes
Advanced Transfiguration
Miscellaneous Spells, and Enchantments
Curse Breaking
Ward Creation and Breaking
Rituals
Animagus Transformations
Druid Magic
Gryffindor
Hufflepuff
Ravenclaw
Slytherin
Illegal and Dark Magics
Harry was intrigued, so he began by flipping to the corresponding page of Gryffindor. When he flipped the page, it was blank, except for a small page number scribbled into the bottom corner. Puzzled, he took out his wand and tapped it on the paper. It started glowing red, and then faded. Words began to write themselves onto the page.
"It's blank?" lamented Ron.
"What are you talking about, I can see the words clearly right on the page?" said Harry.
"Harry, you must be seeing things. Are your glasses strong enough?" Ron looked at Harry quizzically.
Harry glanced at his friend. "I can read it perfectly. Here, the first line."
"The following people may read this book.:
Myrrdin Emrys
Godric Gryffindor
Albus Dumbledore
Minerva McGonnagall
Harry Potter
If you wish for anyone else to read this, simply write their name and have them tap their wand on the page."
Harry stared for a second at the blank page, wondering exactly how much magic could accomplish, before deftly grabbing a quill, and signing the names Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. He paused for a second, and looked up. Then, he added the names Luna Lovegood and Ginny Weasley.
During all this, Ron thought Harry was mental, and was ever so convinced after he grabbed his arm and thrust the wand onto the page. A second later, the book glowed softly. Ron let out an audible gasp and noticed the list of names scrawled onto the first page. The whole time, Harry was grinning wildly at Ron. Grabbing the book, he bent down and tried to discern the list of names.
"Holy crap Harry." Were the only words he could stumble out. "You realize this book could help us defeat Moldywart once and for all?"
"We should check out some of the other chapters."Ron decided.
Harry flipped back to the first chapter. "Advanced Charms," he read out loud.
"The most basic charms include the Levitation spell. In here, we will demonstrate several variants. The first variant is the Teleportation Charm. The basic wand movements are the same, and the incantation is as follows." Harry read out loud. "Winguardius aperire ianuas! This spell causes the object to teleport directly to the target location. However, you cannot manipulate the movement of the object, which leads to our next spell.
"The next variant is the Flying Spell. When enchanted, the object of your choosing will follow the commands of your wand. The benefits compared to the levitation spell are that this spell uses much less energy, and someone can easily cast the spell wandlessly. Wingardium fugere! Now, another benefit of this spell is that after casting, you can manipulate the object with your hands. For example, if you cast the charm on a book, you could hold the charm and 'flip' through the book with ease. This effect will not work on wands."
Picking up his wand, he and Ron stood up simultaneously. They each chose an object, and spoke the first spell clearly. Both of the books ended up on the other's head, which caused them to laugh uproariously. Then, they cast the next spell.
"Wingardium Fugere!"
Both books floated off their heads, and imagining flipping through the book, they managed to flip through it using hand gestures. They heard a sound coming from the common room. A familiar, soft voice called out to them.
"Harry, Ron? What are you two doing up there?"
Harry grinned, closed the book, and stood up from the bed with a creak. "We had better show this to Hermione."
"Yeah, she would kill us if we knew something she didn't."
The old friends grinned, and slowly walked out of the common room, not noticing the small slip of paper dropped on the floor.
Albus Dumbledore felt like crap. The venered headmaster was floating, floating in eternal blackness. He could not see anything, hear anything, feel anything, or move. Pondering the last moments of his life, he reviewed them slowly. How long this took, no one knew. Finishing with his last thoughts and last muttered words before the green light of the killing curse swept over him, he thought about his decision. Was it right to continue this, after he should have been long gone? Without having time to finish this thought, a deep, booming voice resonated through his head.
"Albus…Dumbledore….." the voice intoned. "You are not done yet. While reviewing the history of your life, we stumbled upon a man named Tom Riddle. He has exceeded his stay in the mortal world, and it would… help us if you 'returned' him to his rightful place. You must not let people know you are alive. Go!"
About 2 seconds later, Albus Dumbledore found himself sitting at his old desk, with all of his old papers and books neatly arranged. He began to write. He barely had time to think before he heard a voice coming from the bottom of his stairs.
After explaining the situation to Hermione, her looks drew from surprised to shocked to appalled until for once, Hermione Granger, Gryffindor Prefect, found herself with her mouth agape, staring at the two obviously insane boys in front of her.
"I don't want to know what you two have been smoking, but I think we should get you two to Madame Pomfrey as soon as possible." Hermione stated grimly.
Harry and Ron glanced at each other, and started laughing uproariously. Not knowing the reason for their laughing, Hermione looked at them crossly and said "What's so funny?" Having finally calmed down, Harry thrust the book at her. She fainted not 20 seconds later.
"She'll be up soon." Harry stated.
True to word, Hermione woke up about two minutes later. Picking up the book, she sat down without a word. Now the other two looked at her. "Hermione?" they chorused.
"Dumbledore…his name is on this list. Along with Professor McGonnagall! Do you think we should go see her?" she asked.
"Probably a good idea, since Dumbledore…" Harry trailed off.
Attempting to break the silence, Ron said "Harry look! Fawkes!" He pointed at the window. A majestic, red and gold bird gracefully flew through the window. He stared at Harry, and tossed his message to him. He promptly left.
"What is this?" Harry asked.
"Well, it must be safe if Fawkes delivered it, right? He wouldn't want to hurt us…"Ron concluded.
Tearing the letter open, he saw slanted, slightly familiar handwriting.
Harry,
The battle is not over yet. Go to Minerva and tell her that the Iron Headmaster wishes to see her.
-Wulfric
A/N Brownie points to whoever guesses who I stole Iron Headmaster from.
Harry glanced at the letter, and firmly enunciated: "Reveal your secrets." The letter did nothing. Shrugging, Harry picked up the letter, which promptly dissolved into ash.
Gasping, he dropped the pile of ash in his hand on the ground. He turned around.
"I'm sane, right?" he asked.
"I think so mate, unless we're all going crazy." Ron replied shakily.
"Well, let's go." Hermione replied curtly, and strode towards the door.
"Wulfric, where have I heard that name before?"Harry mused while striding out of the Gryffindor common room.
Walking up to the gargoyle, they realized that they didn't know the password.
"Damn," Harry murmured. He stuck his head behind the gargoyle's stone wing and yelled "Hello? Anybody up there?" He withdrew his head and waited for a few seconds, before the telltale screeching of the gargoyle moving told him he was to pass. Wordlessly, the three friends walked up the stairs into the Headmistress' Office.
Albus Dumbledore gasped at the voice he heard at the bottom of the stairwell. "Think, man think! I can't let Minerva or Severus see me!" Quickly, he grabbed onto Fawkes just in time to see the three people he wanted to see most stagger up from the stone gargoyle. A flash of fire, and he was gone.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione climbed into the office to see a flash of light and a whirl of paper. Sprinting to the place where they saw the light, all the three saw was ash on the carpet. Sighing, Harry passed by Fawkes' empty cage and over to the portrait of Dumbledore. (A/N I don't know whether you can find Dumbledore in his portrait now that he's alive-ish, but I'm going to assume that he is still there because he was dead for about 20 minutes. Meh.)
Harry hesitantly walked over to Dumbledore's portrait. He was snoozing in his chair, surrounded by gizmos and gadgets whirring around. In the iconic setting of his office, you could faintly see indiscriminate Quidditch players zooming around in the clear blue skies of his window. Glancing out the real window, Harry saw storm clouds looming over the horizon. Grimly, he put his hand toward the portrait when he was interrupted by the tell-tale sound of a door creaking open. Ron, Hermione, and Harry froze.
A/N: I love stopping at cliffhangers. It annoys you, huh?
Albus Dumbledore landed roughly on the steps in front of a large, clanking metal gate. The gate was rusting steel, with chips of black paint, but the wards on it were so strong, you could literally see the power crackling. Holding his wand out, and gripping the old, worn handle firmly, he enunciated "I, Albus Dumbledore, Scion of the Ancient Emrys Line wish for permission to enter this manor." Upon his word, the gates creaked open of their own accord. Smiling, he pocketed his wand and walked toward the house.
I'll update early, since I feel generous. I should be coming out with a longer chapter next time. Sorry if updates take a while.
