Serving the Balance

Chapter 2

Albus Dumbledore sat at his place in the centre of the high table, it was the welcoming feast for yet another year at Hogwarts. A year that should have been Harry Potter's Owl year. He planted a genteel smile on his face, to hide the pain that thought brought up for him, as he watched the Sorting. There wasn't a day that passed that he didn't blame himself for not checking up on the boy. When Harry didn't come for his first year, Albus visited the Dursleys only to be informed that boy had disappeared six years previously. The also proved that Albus really should have listened to Minerva years before, due to the fact they called Albus and Harry a freak to his face and screamed at him until he left. At least Albus knew that Harry was alive as all magic he used to find the boy revealed that even though he couldn't be located he was still alive.

Without Harry's presence at Hogwarts the Philosopher's Stone was not needed and was returned to the Flamels. Strangely Quirinus had been found dead the next morning. But what was even stranger was later that year Sirius Black had escaped from Azkaban and the subsequent discovery of him being innocent and never having a trial. Nothing had been Albus feel older than the realisation that he'd failed two young men. It had taken a lot of his political clout to get Sirius cleared of all charges.

But the next year the opening of the Chamber of Secrets the following year and the disappearance of the Ginevra Weasley brought yet more sadness as it had never resolved as the attacks suddenly stopped and young Ginevra was never found. Thankfully the next year had been quiet.

With the Twi-wizard tournament the following year Albus saw a chance to find Harry once again, as the Goblet of Fire was a very powerful artefact had had been known in the past to bring constraints to the to the tasks if they had been prevented from coming against their will. In hindsight he should have known that it was an unwise thing to, as it could have rendered Harry a Squib as it was likely that Harry didn't even know about magic or was able to consent to the transportation that the Goblet would use. But as it was nothing happened as the Goblet flared red and shook for several minutes and it seemed like it was going to break apart before finally choosing Cedric Diggory as the Hogwarts Champion.

Now this year the Minister of Magic had got it into his head that Albus was plotting against him, and had sent a Ministry employee, a one Dolores Umbridge to teach DADA for the year. Albus had to repress a sigh as Dolores interrupts his speech to talk about unimportant ministry propaganda.

So Albus was almost relieved Dolores's speech was n turn interrupted by the appearance of a grey billowing curtain in front of the doors of the Great Hall. At once Albus was on his feet and heading around the table towards the object that looked disturbingly like the Veil that was hidden in the Department of the Mysteries. He was aware that Minerva and Severus were following him, and the children that were closest to the object were scrambling to get away from it. But before they could get halfway down the Hall the curtain billowed again and a figure flew from it.

The man, as it was clear that it was a man, performed a perfect roll and turned in one smooth motion to face the veil. He pushed his right hand forward and a steam of red smoke steamed towards the veil which simply shuddered and disappeared. Albus paused at this, he'd never seen a spell like that before. He looked at the stranger, the first thing he noticed was that the man was wearing armour, just not as heavy as the knights of old, but the most worrying thing that caused him to draw his wand and approach the figure warily was that the armour was covered with carved skulls and bones and there was a hand scythe strapped to hip. It was clear that this was not a light wizard.

'Who are you, and why have you come to my school?' he asked him.

The figure straightened and turned to face them. Albus stared at the face the greeted him and he heard Minerva gasp of shock beside him. It was a face that while he'd never seen before was instantly recognisable. With the killing curse green eyes and blend of features of two old students of his. Yes, the severe expression and the pale skin tone were very different to either James or Lily, but it was obvious who this was even if the lightning bolt scar was not clearly visible on the man's brow. The man just stared at him without seemingly willing to say anything.

'Harry, is that truly you?' Minerva asked. The green eyes focused on her before he spoke for the first time.

'I don't know who you think I am but am not them, I am a Priest of Rathma, my name is Harikesh.'

So there you the next chapter.

Let me know what you think. It's 3am and I'm going to bed.

SSG