Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men

By A.S. Gryffindor

Author's Note: I do not own Harry Potter. He belongs to JKR and Warner Brothers. If there are any questions about happening in the story just put it in your review and I'll answer them.

Chapter One: Rebirth of Light

"The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing" Edmund Burke

"Born and reborn in a time of darkness

Born on the Day of Death

Born as the infant Hero fell

The Chosen One shall rise again

Slain by Darkness and reborn into purest Light

He shall return in the hour of gravest need

Protected by his first mother's love

Granted the Power He knows not

The Light that has been kept hidden shall burn anew

The fused soul shall reveal it's powers

One the Shield, the other the Sword

They shall break the Dark Power at last

And Light shall be renewed again..."

The silvery form of Sybil Trelawny fell back into the stone pensieve and Albus Dumbledore glared at the softly glowing silver substance with a frown. For the last several years he'd been trying to figure out the meaning of the Final Prophecy that the dying Seer had utter right before her death from wound sustained in the Third Battle of Hogsmead: a battle which had sent several hundred young witches and wizards to a premature grave. He looked around his study as if it could offer answers to the riddle but the room remained silent. He shook his head and sighed heavily before he rose and began pacing the room. Occasionally he would look out across the war ravaged Hogwarts grounds but for the most part his eyes looked at the threadbare and dusty rug under his feet. Everywhere he walked the eyes of former Headmasters and Headmistresses watched. They had not seen him so agitated since the night Voldemort had been reborn and the terror that the Infant Hero, Harry Potter had died defeating returned stronger than ever.

It had been seventeen long and difficult years since the night the Potter had died and the last ten has seen the return of Voldemort and the almost total destruction of much of the wizarding and muggle worlds in England. Only Hogwarts and one or two more isolated and protected villages remained safe and secure under various shields and protective charms.

"But how long before these few places fall as well?" Dumbledore wondered as he watched the sun setting in a blaze of red/gold light bathing the grounds before him in light. "Everyday we grow weaker and he stronger. Without the 'Chosen One' we have no chance; no hope at all. We needed you, Harry."

The despair of this fact almost overwhelmed him for he had loved Harry like the grandson he'd never been blessed with and Lily and James where like a daughter and son. Somewhere in the back of his mind he still blamed himself for not seeing to the Potter's protection, for not checking the wards daily like he'd promised to and for not seeing that Peter Pettigrew was the traitor within the Order's ranks. He returned to his chair and tried to calm himself though his despair was just as strong now as it had been the night the Potters died especially since the news from war front was not good. Almost half of the Light's remaining forces had just been involved in a pitched battle with a larger force of Death Eaters. There were heavy causalities this time and of the several hundred Light witches and wizards only about a third survived. Every since the return of Voldemort ten years ago, ever since the day that it had become clear that the Prophecy that once connected Harry Potter and Voldemort was not fulfilled, Dumbledore had been trying to keep up a brave front in public. He wanted to keep their hope alive even if his own had died long ago. He was the only one left alive that knew the full contents of that first prophecy and thus the only one who knew that their fight was ultimately hopeless. He had told no one of it at first figuring the terms of it had already been met on that fateful October night but when Voldemort was reborn he knew the truth. The Prophecy was active still. Now they were in their darkest hour and there was no hope, no miracle that would save them.

He put his head in his hands and wept. There was nothing he could to to defeat Voldemort. He could hold him off, yes, but never could he defeat the most powerful Dark Lord to ever exist. That was not his destiny. He had not been granted that power, only Harry had but he was dead as well. "My fault, all my fault." Even if they could find the one the Final Prophecy spoke of it would be to late. The child would have to be trained if he hadn't been already and there was a very real possibility that he that this child was long dead. Dumbledore sat with his head in his hands, lost in his own despair, long after the room had gone dark. He was totally unaware that hundreds of mile away under the protection of one of the few towns still intact the very person he was seeking was in fact very much alive and within him lay the very powers the forces of Light needed to win the war. Within him lay the soul of the first 'Chosen One'.

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Galen was running full tilt across the training field behind his parent's manor house, dodging spells and curses that were being flung at him from all directions. His blood was pumping loudly in his ears and he felt a surge of adrenaline move through him even as he rotated on the spot to fire silent spells back at his 'attackers' while also throwing up the strongest shield he had so that it covered him completely.

"Stupify! Reducto! Lacarnum Inflamaria! Incarcerous! Lumos Maxima!"

The five spells, all aimed in seperate directions, moved across the field at lightening speed. The first knocked down a man mid-cast and, as the man fell his partner tripped over his fallen body. The second caused the branch two more were standing on to disintegrate to dust causing them to fall to the ground winded. The third cause a bush three more were hiding behind to burst into controlled flames causing their spells to misfire and the wizards to retreat. The fourth bound two more who were going for a physical rather than a magical attack at his back and the fifth blinded three others completely while causing the rest to wince and squint at the sudden brightness.

Galen grinned and started to move again just as twin daggers impacted his shield and the magically enhanced blades weakened it enough to allow a simple Tripping Jinx to get through. Seconds later, Galen found himself in a Full Body Bind, looking up at the angry face of his primary war mage trainer, Alanna McDohl.

"Never let your guard down, Galen. Had I been an assassin you would be dead now," she growled at him as she released him from the spell and helped him to his feet. "You must be very aware of everything around you and you must never stay in one place to long otherwise your enemy will have the chance to strike."

"I know Master Alanna. Seems I've been training all my life. I can't remember a time when I didn't have a wand or weapon in my hand. Mother swears that the first words I uttered were a spell and that it shattered all the windows in the nursery." Galen sighed and began rebraiding his long, dark black hair, his brilliant purple eyes sparkling with energy.

Alanna chuckled at her student and smiled down at him. For a brief moment Galen thought he saw another woman standing there: a beautiful, red-haired woman with sad eyes who had haunted his dreams for all of his life but when he blinked the image was gone again. Galen sighed and sat down on the grass, studying the grounds before him.

"I just wish I knew what all this was about. I've been training all my life but I don't understand why it's so important for me to do so," he looked over at Alanna a moment before turning his gaze to the sky. "It's not as if anyone can attack me here."

Alanna looked down at her young student and then sat down on the ground next to him but said nothing to him. She knew the reasons for the training and the secret the Llewellyns were protecting, everyone who had contact with Galen did. Galen was a very special child, a very important and powerful child. The spirits of Light gathered to him like no other before him, draw by his pure heart and the strength of his Light magic. The power that dwelled within him was vast and his magic core was strong and unending. All this was possible because of the soul that had come to share his body. The soul of the slain Savior of the Wizarding World had blessed Galen with His touch and their twin souls made him stronger. The soul of Harry Potter dwelled with him though Galen was unaware of this fact. They could not afford to have him slip up and reveal this so they had never told him the full truth. He knew he was in training as a war mage and that his magic was the most powerful anyone in the village had ever seen. He knew about the wizarding war that was being fought in the world outside the magically shielded town he grew up in and that he would one day be called upon to join it. He also knew there was something different about him.

"You'll understand soon, Galen. Very soon."

Galen whipped his head around and gave her a piercing stare, his vibrant purple eyes, so unlike his parents dark ones, glowing with power. After a few minutes staring at his teacher he turned away again and looked at the clouds overhead. "Will it explain everything: the training, why I'm so powerful, the dreams and visions...," his voice trailed off at the mention of them.

For as long as Galen could remember he'd been having strange nightmares full of green flashing lights, the fluttering of what sounded like a thousand wings, a high, cold laugh, a woman's pleading voice and burning red eyes. No one had ever been able to explain them to him and whenever he had one or even mentioned them his parents' faces would pale and they would always divert his questions to something else. It had always frustrated him more than he cared to admit even to himself. Everyone around him knew something about it and could tell him but they had always kept silent no matter how often he'd asked about it. He leaned back in grass again and folded his arms under his head, staring up at the sky and watching the clouds as they moved across his field of vision. For a moment he saw the red-haired woman again and she seemed to be smiling and waving at him.

"Will it explain the Lady, Alanna?" His voice was tense with an emotion he could not put a name to. Having no other name for her, he had started calling her the Lady.

Alanna looked sideways at him. "Yes, it will all be explained to you. On your sixteenth birthday when the Llewellyns officially recognize you as their sole heir."

Galen sat up and gave her another piercing stare. "I thought you only had to declare someone Heir to a family if there were no other living, direct line blood heirs?"

Alanna shook her head. "Your case if different for reasons I can't tell you right now. You are the right born Heir to the Llewellyns but there is a complication. The rest will be explained to you in two days. Now I believe Master Lin is waiting for you."

Galen growled and muttered something about not living to see his sixteenth birthday because the potions master was going to poison him. Alanna laughed and clapped him on the back before pushing him toward the side door of the manor and his next lesson.

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Galen stood stiffly at the head of the table next to his father, Angus. His long, full silver robes and athletic build were a comforting presence to the older generation of Llewellyns whose line almost died out completely during the last war against Dark Lord Gridelwald. Galen longed for this formality to be over so that he could get out of his dress robes and into something more comfortable but he stood quietly without moving as was expected of him. His extended family and a few of his friends were gathered at the long, dark table in the Llewellyn's opulent dining room. Candles flickered along the walls, their light filling the room by a clever use of spelled mirrors even though it wasn't quit sunset. The room was decorated for Halloween with great glowing jack-o-lanterns laying in groups in corners with smaller ones on tables and the fireplace mantle. There were also live bats fluttering overhead and even smaller pumpkins floating there. Galen watch his mother, Kathryn, as she walked toward him carrying a small ornate box with the Llewellyn crest of a crossed sword and wand.

Angus motioned for silence and the large group stilled, though one or two of Galen's friends grinned at him. Angus glance up and down the table catching the eyes of all who were present. He smiled at him all and then looked over at Galen. Galen looked out over the group to but said nothing, his mind was occupied with other things. Sometime tonight he would finally understand. Sometime tonight he would finally know the truth.

"Tonight marks my son's sixteenth autumn. We have all watched him grow from a baby into the fine young man you see before you. Today is the day he becomes my Heir in Right and Truth."

Kathryn opened the box and withdrew from within it a silver signet ring with the Llewellyn family crest on it. She motioned Galen closer and placed the ring on the ring finger of his left hand. It glowed for a few moments recognizing him as the one true heir and then there was a cheer from the people gathered around him. He looked down at the ring a moment and then smiled at them all.

"Now, with that formality out of the way, let the festivities begin."

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Several hours later, very near the time of Galen's actual birth, he and his parents were sitting in his father's study, the party long over and the guest having returned to their homes. Complete silence enveloped the room as Galen stared into the fire, watching the dancing flames as if they knew what secrets were about to be revealed to him this night. His thoughts lingered on the dream he'd had last night. The beautiful but sad Lady and her equally sad Lord were speaking to him but he could not hear the words nor could he make them out.

"Galen?" his mother's soft voice snapped him out of his musings.

"I'm fine, Mother. Just thinking," she smiled gently at him and took his hand in hers looking deeply into his eyes.

"You gave always been an unusual child, Galen. I'm sure by now you've realised this."

He looked down at the lightening shaped birthmark on his left hand that was normally covered with a glove a moment and then at his father. He nodded and rubbed his hands together. "I've known that for awhile. Something has always been different about me."

"You are a very special young man," his father picked up the conversation. "From the moment you were born we knew this but it took a few years for us to realise just what that meant."

"You see the night you were born, the very minute you were born in fact, something happened. An event of such importance to the wizarding world..."

Galen looked between them, confusion written clearly on his face. "I know that was the night that Harry Potter died defeating the Dark Lord fulfilling the Prophecy that connected the two, but what does that have to do with me?"

Kathryn watched her son's face and wondered what was going on behind those expressive eyes that had darkened to a deep purple. She was still unsure whether they should tell him what they'd been told years ago but she'd also always known they would have to tell him someday.

"Let's start at the beginning," Angus gestured at his wife who took a seat next to him with Galen facing them.

"The night you were born Harry Potter and his parents were killed by Lord Voldemort in a bid for power. It was said that young Harry was destined to be the only one who could defeat the Dark Lord. When he died it was believed that the terms of the Prophecy he was under had been met for Voldemort himself was also slain."

Galen nodded and his mother continued the thread of the story.

"But the terms had not been fulfilled at that time for Voldemort was not dead but merely exiled for a time. After seven years of peace he returned and to protect you we went into hiding here at Ashgrove."

Galen well remembered the move. It had caused him great pain to leave the mountains and fields of his first home and all the friends he'd had there.

"We knew then that we had to protect you at all cost for if the Dark Lord knew of your existence he would no doubt attempt to kill you as well."

Galen's eyebrows disappeared into his fringe and he blinked slowly, surprise and confusion warring in his face. Kathryn looked at her son and shifted her vision so that she could see his magical aura. The red/gold light pulsed strongly and quietly around him seeming to illuminate him from within, casting his face into sharp relief. It was the same light she'd seen as he was born and which had flown over her head as she lay there panting for breath. This same light had settled itself over and around her still and silent newborn child as he lay motionless in the midwife's arms. Then the pale child had moved and given a lusty cry and Kathryn herself had wept at the gift the gods of magic had granted them.

Galen fiddled with the lightening shaped birthmark in his left wrist, running a finger over it's slightly raised surface, his eyes turned inward and deep in thought.

"Why would Voldemort come after me and what does Harry Potter have to do with me?" He was looking at his parents again, his purple eyes mirroring the confusion he felt.

"Because you are connected to both, Galen Evan Lucas Llewellyn," said a soft voice and Galen turned to see the speaker was one of the aged village Seers. "You are connected by the curse that failed and by the Prophecy unfulfilled. You are the 'Chosen One' reborn."

Galen's eyes widened a fraction and he shook his head violently. "No. That doesn't make sense. I...I'm not..."

His voice trailed away as something within him surfaced. The room before him and the people within it seemed to dim to be replaced by a foggy whiteness that moved sluggishly all around him. He could see nothing nor could he hear anything except the frantic beating of his own heart. His violet eyes scanned the fog around him but he could only make out vague shapes some distance away and flashes of light that turned the fog around him surreal shades of color. Faintly he could hear voices and felt himself drawn to them.

A few seconds later, or it could have been hours since time had no real meaning in this place, Galen became aware of the sound of a second heartbeat and faint footsteps behind him. His hand moved toward his wand as he turned quickly toward the sound only to discover that both his wand and it's holster were gone. Panic crossed his face for a brief instant until he realised his 'attacker' was not visible to him. He stopped in his tracks and looked carefully around him, trying to calm his racing heart. Surely whatever or whoever was following him could have already killed him if that's what they intended.

"I know someone is there. Come out and we'll talk," he said in the bravest voice he could muster while his heart was pounding in his ears.

A figure materialized a half a meter to his left with a grin. Galen found himself staring into a face similar to his own and his eyes widened again. The transparent and ghostly boy before him was shorter than him and extremely skinny. His messy black hair seemed to wave in a nonexistent wind and his pale green eyes studied Galen closely. The strange ghostly boy ran a pale hand through his hair causing his fringe to stand on end revealing the pale lightening shaped mark on his forehead the twin of the birthmark Galen bore on his left wrist.

"It's good to finally meet you, Galen. I've watched and waited for sixteen years for this moment."

"Who are you?" Galen's eyes were wide and somewhat fearful.

"I think you already know or maybe suspect," the spirit boy made a motion with his hand and the fog around them lifted to reveal a large, tree-lined park. "Come sit. We have much to talk about."

A bench appeared in the shade of a large cherry tree whose blossoms were falling gently around them like snow. The ghostly boy sat down with a sigh and looked up at Galen with a small but sad smile.

"I'm not going to hurt you, you know." The voice sounded sad and lonely and Galen jumped guiltily at the sound.

He was not scared anymore for clearly the spirit was lonely. After a few seconds he sat down, staring openly at the boy in awe as it dawned on him who he was sitting next to. "You're Harry Potter but you're dead."

Harry nodded and for a moment everything stood still. Harry closed his eyes and silver tears fell from them though he made no sound. Galen turned away from the sight of Harry's deep, unending grief and waited patiently for him to speak again. After a few moments Harry calmed himself and spoke again, though his eyes remained closed.

"I am dead yet I live on in you, Galen. My death was a tragic mistake. I was supposed to survive the attack on my parents and become the 'Chosen One' the Prophecy spoke of," he rubbed his face with his hand. "Instead I foolishly confronted the one who had murdered my family instead of allowing my mother's sacrifice to protect me from the Killing Curse and the connection between my body and soul was broken before my time was expired. I was only able to grant the world seven years respite from the darkest wizard ever known. I have failed to do my duty."

Harry slumped a little on the bench and more tears made their way down his face. Galen put an arm around the smaller boy to comfort him and was surprised when his arm met warm flesh and not ghostly coldness. Harry leaned back a little his shoulders shaking. "I left the world to the Darkness and I can't forgive myself for that."

"It's not your fault. Voldemort is a the most powerful Dark Wizard ever seen. No one can stand against him and survive or so rumors say. Only Dumbledore himself has ever survived a duel with him but even the most powerful Light Wizard is powerless against him. He's simply to strong," Galen's mind was racing trying to find a way that anyone could win against such power but he couldn't seem to find a strategy that would work.

Harry looked up at Galen for a moment, a strange look on his face. "Together, with our souls and powers joined we are strong enough to defeat him."

"I don't think so, Harry," Galen looked doubtful.

"We ARE, Galen. Fate has given the Light side one last desperate chance at victory." Harry's voice was emphatic and carried such certainty that Galen was surprised. "You are very powerful and were destined to be from the start as the Llewellyn line is one of the two the purest Light Wizarding lines in existence. The other was the Potter line, which died with me. When our twin souls merged our powers likewise merged making you more powerful still. You can do things that no other wizard or witch can do, Galen. You are the new 'Chosen One': the only one 'with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord'.