Child of the Forest in the Ocean

Chapter 2

Harry stared at his mother, his eyes wide and his mouth hanging open. Her words replayed over and over in his mind. "And that dream you've been having, is of your death."

"What do you mean?" He asked blinking, the egg in front of him lying cold and forgotten.

Pamela or Lily stared back at him, tears glistening in her emerald eyes. "It's better," she said a quiver in her voice, "if I showed you."

Rising to her feet, she smoothed out her pale pink bathrobe. Her bare feet glided across the cool white tiles of the kitchen. She stopped beside the bar that separated the kitchen and living room.

Three stools sat on the other side facing the living room. Running a finger along a rune inlaid with gold etched into the counter, the space between the bar and wall that led into the living room shimmered like water.

When the shimmering stopped, the living room was gone. In its place was a large stone room. Bookshelves packed with thick leather bound books, most with their pages weathered lined half the wall. Between the spaces of the bookshelves, golden runes glimmered on the thick gray bricks that made up the walls.

Off to the left more shelves took up wall space. Bottles of creature parts, and other potion ingredients reflected the light.

Tables sat around a golden runic circle etched into the center of the concrete floor. Burners, small black cauldrons, tongs, and other equipment neatly lined their surfaces.

Turning to her son, Lily beckoned him with a curl of her fingers. Her eyes were hard, not betraying any of the nervousness churning in her gut. "Come, Harry. It's time you knew the truth."

Rising from his chair, Harry stepped forward. His legs felt like lead, each step was an effort. Deep in his bones, he knew whatever happened next was going to change his life forever.

Pushing those thoughts away, he locked his eyes onto the room. He allowed nostalgic memories of learning magic with his mother to wash through him.

Sitting cross-legged in the center of the golden runes carved into the floor. He learned at a mere five years old how to bend the laws of reality to his will.

It appears he was about to enter the room once more, and learn about his past.

Walking past the tables, Harry sat in the runes. With the ease of long practice he crossed his legs and formed a circle out of his hands. The golden runes flickered in the candlelight of the chandelier hanging above him.

Flicking his thumbs together, his eyes flitted about the room. His mother danced around the room, pulling ingredients from the shelves.

Vines held all the ingredients as she wandered over to one of the tables. With a flick of her fingers, the burner under a small iron bowl burst into life.

With practiced ease and grace, she poured the ingredients into the bowl. A bright red light shone up from the bowl, painting her face crimson.

Ignoring the heat of the bowl, she balanced it on her palm and approached the circle. She pressed the pointer finger of her free hand against her temple. Withdrawing it, thin threads of silver pulled free of her head. "I'm putting in my memories of the night you died, along with the intervening years, and your resurrection."

Sitting down cross-legged across from her son, Lily squared her shoulders. "Tonight, you will be viewing my memories of the past. I just hope when it's over you don't judge me too harshly."

Leaning forward, she set the bowl on the runes. Keeping both hands on either side of the bowl, she chanted words of power. The ingredients in the bowl shone a brilliant white before exploding out in an orb the size of a basketball.

The orb swirled around Harry, becoming thinner with each revolution. A tornado spun around him as the light drew closer with each circuit of the runes, its wind pulling at his clothes.

Taking a deep breath, the scent of old leather and parchment filled his nose and lungs. He closed his eyes just as the white light engulfed him.

XX –

Blinking, Harry found himself in a shining green void. His mother knelt before him, the pale white nightgown she wore in his dreams shredded, revealing unblemished pale skin. Green veins bulged beneath the skin, pulsing with the rhythm of her heartbeat.

Energy coalesced off to the left, forming into a humanoid shape made of what look like moss. The creatures red eyes regarded his mother. Kneeling down, it gripped her chin with its thumb and pointer finger and lifted her head.

Glazed over pale green glowing eyes stared into deep crimson. The creature's mossy lips twitched, revealing dark brown wooden teeth.

A chuckle rumbled up from its broad chest, snapping Lily out of her days.

She blinked, her eyes coming back into focus. A gasp exploded from her throat. She crawled backwards, the pale green energy around her surprisingly solid.

When she was about a foot away, her eyes hardened. She rose to her feet, her slender pale hands clenching into fists, causing the glowing green veins to stand out against her skin.

"Who are you? Where am I? Where is my son?"

The creature tilted its head down. "My name is Alec Holland, but the world knows me as Swamp thing. You are in the very life energy of the earth, known as the green."

Thanks to the ritual, as Harry watched his mother he could hear her thoughts and feel her emotions.

She had heard of the Swamp thing before, almost everyone in the world had heard of the man, or to be more precise the creature connected to the earth. He was supposedly an eternal guardian, a man chosen and transformed by the earth itself to protect all plant life.

Slowly, Lily's head tilted to the side. "Okay, what am I doing here?"

Alec took a step forward, his ten foot frame dwarfing her five foot seven. "The ritual you used connected you with the very essence of the earth, in other words the green. When you failed to complete it, it pulled you into the earth, transforming you into its newest protector."

"Congratulations Lily Potter, you are the newest emissary of the green. You now have incredible abilities, use them well."

Lily didn't hear any of this. Her eyes were locked forward, oblivious of her surroundings. Alec's words Reverberating in her mind. 'When the ritual failed.'

Her eyes snapped towards Alec. "My son, what happened to my son?"

XX –

The scene shifted, Harry found himself standing on leaf covered ground. A large crater burrowed into the earth at his back, pale streamers of white smoke drifted out from it and bits of wood and glass rain down.

Jagged bits of concrete jutted up from the ground like teeth. The front door of the house still stood in the dirt, now leading nowhere. The rest of the house rain down from the sky filling in the crater.

A sudden shifting of earth drew his attention. A pale hand burst up from the ground, the veins in the slender appendage shining a bright green that lit up the night.

He watched as his mother clawed her way out of the earth.

In the back of his mind, he could feel the earth on her skin, he could smell its richness with each lungful of air she took.

When she got her arms free the earth seemed to buckle pushing her out as if giving birth to her. Mud clung to her pale skin, clumping together in her crimson hair.

She stumbled forward delirious, her muddy night gown trailing the ground at her feet.

Sweeping her crimson hair out of her face, she stared at the crater. She fell to her knees at its edge, tears streaming down her face.

Gripping the earth, she released a howl like a wounded animal. A sound filled with sorrow, rage, but most of all loss, the loss of her husband and her child.

Harry's knees went weak at the sound, the connection with his mother allowing him to feel her pain. Tears glistened in his eyes. He grabbed his chest. Each beat of his heart increased his pain. For a moment, he lost sense of where he was. He just wanted the pain to stop, he just wanted to die.

However, underneath the loss, he could feel something else, determination. It dulled the pain, slowly allowing him to come back to reality.

He focused on the new emotion, drawing strength from it.

It was this moment, his mother changed forever. He could feel his mother's sanity fraying, but the determination stood strong even amongst the madness. The determination to get back the son she lost by any means necessary.

XX –

The world blurred.

Harry watched as his mother learned she could no longer have a child by natural means. He drowned in the sorrow and loss that consumed her knowing she would never again fill a life growing inside her.

He sensed her determination, and watched throughout the years as she spent the fortune of her deceased husband, gaining degrees in botany, chemistry, and any magic that could help her complete her goals.

Within ten long years, Pamela Isley, the new name his mother had taken after her family's death gained degrees in her fields, becoming one of the world's foremost botanist and magic experts.

Time slowed down, he watched as his mother began her experiments. Experiments that resulted in the creation of a plant that could give birth to human plant hybrids, which eventually led to the birth of triplets, Hazel, Thorn, and Rose.

He soared in his mother's happiness at their birth, her sadness as they aged too quickly, and her frustration when they rebelled whenever she tried to protect them.

Harry's hands clenched into fists as he witnessed the betrayal of a man his mother worked for. He screamed in rage when the man revealed his plans to dissect his sisters and use their DNA to cure his cancer, and he felt a sense of loss when they left after the battle to find their own place in the world.

Time sped up again.

His mother resumed her experiments, this time being even more selective with the DNA. This time, she chose the DNA of those who also had a connection to the earth in hopes that it would stabilize the next child.

XX –

The scene changed, his mother stood atop one of the tallest buildings in Metropolis, watching water sweep through the streets. The screams of the dying pounded in her ears, and the smell of salt water filled her nose, but her eyes stayed locked on the men emerging from the ocean.

She watched hidden in the shadows, her long red hair flowing behind her, as the justice league did battle with the Atlanteans.

When it was over, it was the easiest thing in the world to send a vine snaking down a building to snatch an Atlantean body.

Harry reveled in his mother's thrill at the results of the experiments on the body. It appeared all Atlantean's had a deep connection with the ocean. When combining the blood with her DNA, the resulting mutation stabilized and allowed the organism to grow at a normal rate.

It was just unfortunate that shortly after death Atlantean's blood began to decay, so she would need to find a living Atlantean, but thanks to the news she knew just where one was.

Lily Potter a.k.a. Pamela Isley ran her slender hand down an oval-shaped rose in the center of a circle of golden runes.

Her fingers trailed along the table size leaves sprouting from its bottom. "Soon my son," she whispered to the plant, "we will be together again."

Harry recognized the runes as the same ones he would train with in the future. It appears his mother didn't hide her magic use until after he was reborn.

Looking at the plant, Harry noticed that green vines about the size of his pointer finger emerged from each one of the golden runes, forming together in the center of the circle to create a large trunk the size of a man's leg.

The scene blurred again.

XX –

Harry found himself standing in a hallway made of thick gray walls. Heated air flowed into the space from vents set into the black tiles of the ceiling. Dark red lights were equally spaced along the ceiling in between the vents, casting everything in a hellish glow.

Through his connection with his mother, he could feel the heat on his skin and smell the pungent salty scent of sweat in the air.

Guards in combat fatigues lay in a circle around them. U.S. Army patches stood out proudly on the combat fatigues just above the right breast. On the left breast in the same position was the name of the soldier.

Pamela flicked her wrist, making the last guard struggling in the vines before her flyaway.

Walking over to a nearby computer, she used a soldiers name to deactivate the motion sensors in the prison.

Harry drifted behind her a silent specter as she walked down the hallway. Tendrils of pink mist flowed off her body as she walked. It drifted through the iron gates lining each side of the hallway.

The men inside slumped forward, or fell to the ground in a boneless heap. Their chest slowly rose and fell while their eyes moved back and forth behind closed lids.

Every couple of feet a video camera turned in her direction, only for a vine to emerge from the wall and wrap around it, sending bits of black plastic and glass raining to the floor.

She stopped before a cell and wrapped on one of the thick bars with a slender finger. Her pointed nail sent a ting, ting sound echoing down the hallway.

A pair of brown eyes locked on to Lily from within the darkness. "Who are you surface dweller?"

Lily ran her hands down the smooth silk clinging to her curvaceous hips.

Harry grimaced at the sensual act. It was definitely not something he wanted to see his mother do.

"Who I am is not important." she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. A wall of pink mist flooded into the cell, sending the solitary lightbulb in the cells swinging back and forth.

It slammed into the man, causing his brown eyes to glaze over. It was in that moment that Harry realized the pink mist he was seeing was actually pheromones produced by his mother. It was his mind's way of showing him something that couldn't be seen with the naked eye

Lily leaned against the bars, thick green fungus grew on the shining metal, dampening the electricity flowing through it. "What is important, is that you have something I need, Orm, King of Atlantis."

Walking out of the darkness, Orm snorted. "What could you need from a disgraced King?" He asked stopping before the bars and crossing his arms over the chest of his orange jumpsuit.

More pheromones flooded into the cell, making Orm's eyes glaze over for a moment.

"Your blood of course."

Orm's handsome tan face twisted and his brown eyes narrowed. "What in the seven seas would a surface dweller want with my blood? Even better, why by Poseidon's hairy balls would I give my blood to a surface dweller?"

Lily wrinkled her nose at the vulgarity, while Harry raised an eyebrow.

The man had enough pheromones coursing through his blood to enthrall twenty men, but he still had all his faculties. He definitely had the spirit of a royal, a spirit of someone who would never bow to another.

Air exploded past Lily's lips as she tucked a strand of her crimson hair behind her ear.

Through their connection, Harry could feel his mother contemplating what to do next now that her attempt to enthrall him had failed. He watched her shoulders straighten and her eyes harden. Over the next ten minutes, Lily told Orm about the loss of her son and her desire to resurrect him.

When she finished, Orm looked down for a moment before raising his eyes to meet hers. "I feel for you, woman. I really do, I too know how it feels to lose someone you love, but it is impossible to bring back the dead."

"It's not," Lily snapped with a fevered certainty that made Orm take a step back. She leaned her face through the bars, ignoring the electricity coursing over her skin.

"I have spent the past fourteen years studying magic and science. I have finally developed a way to resurrect my son, but I need your blood to stabilize the process. Will you help me?"

Orm stared into Lily's desperate eyes. Harry could see the battle waging within the man. He could see the bitterness of losing a war he thought was right and being imprisoned by those he saw as his enemy.

He could also see empathy. Orm knew how it felt to lose someone he loved and desperately want them back, but most of all he could see hope. The hope that even if these people killed him, a part of him would live on.

Orm inclined his head. "Alright, I will help you. Even though I think this is a foolish idea and that it will fail, but you have to do something for me first."

The scene wavered.

XX –

Harry found himself standing in the family ritual room. A man in a dark cloak knelt before the giant rose. His hook nose protruded from beneath his hood. Vines wrapped around his arms, pinning them to his side.

Information flooded his mind from the connection with his mother. The man before him was Severus Snape, the man who gave Voldemort the prophecy, which led to her family's death.

His mother stood before one of the tables and circling the rose. Two vials of blood clutched in her slender hands. With reverence, she poured the two vials into a larger one made of clay. Black runes painted on the cylindrical surface glowed.

According to his mother's memories of her experiments with Orm's blood, the blood of the former Atlantean king would stabilize the new child's growth rate better than any other Atlantean.

Holding the clay vial gingerly, Lily stepped over the runic circle and gently pushed the tube into the rose. Small thin red tentacles came out of the rose. They wrapped around the clay cylinder and pulled it inside. Green and white light shone from inside the rose.

Even though it was a memory, Harry felt the connection to the earth and something else sing in his blood. Any doubt he had that he wasn't the child his mother was trying to create died in that moment.

He watched with trepidation as she stepped out of the circle, and threw back the hood of Severus's cloak, revealing a narrow face half hidden by greasy black hair.

His mother ran a finger along the man's forehead, his body glowed a light blue as the sleeping spell he was under shattered. Long black eyelashes fluttered.

"Lily," the man rasped, his beetle black eyes raking over her form. They flicked to the glowing rose. He struggled to move, but wooden tendrils sprouted up from the wooden floor, pinning his ankles.

"What's going on?"

Through their connection, Harry could feel his mother's rage at this moment. Her hands clenched into fists and a shudder ran through her body. She looked down at the man, barely contained hatred shining in her glowing emerald eyes.

She gently cupped his face, her pointed nails poised to dig into his skin. "My dear Severus, fifteen years ago you took something precious from me. Now, you are going to help me get it back."

Severus's eyes widened. "Lily, that was a mistake I never meant for any of it to happen."

Lily clutched his head in both hands, squeezing with surprising strength. His veins began to bulge as Poison seeped out of her skin and into his body.

"You're damn right it was a mistake," she hissed with a crazed look in her eye, "that night cost me everything."

Releasing his head, she took a step back, the poison coursing through his body now making it impossible for him to move.

"And don't tell me it was a mistake, while you were unconscious I read your mind. You didn't care whether Harry or James died that night. You only wanted me to live as some kind of sick prize in a juvenile competition between yourself and James"

Nerves churned in Harry's gut as he watched his mother pick up an ornate knife and run her thumb along the curved blade. "However, we're going to set all that right tonight."

Striding forward, she grabbed Severus's head by his greasy black hair and tilted it back, exposing his pulsating jugular.

Sweat beaded on his skin, and his black eyes darted around the room. "Lily, please," he pleaded.

"The time for pleading is over."

"Blood of the Earth mother form a new body for a murdered child's soul," she intoned, "blood of the Ocean father, connect your son to this world."

Power swept through the room ruffling Severus's cloak and sending Lily's hair dancing. Pale gray clouds formed above the rose red lightning crackling around their edges.

Even in the memory, Harry could feel the power pulsing in the room. It tingled along his arms, making every hair on his body stand on end.

His mother glanced down at the man in her grasp with cold eyes. "Blood of the traitor forcibly taken pull your victim's soul back from the pure world."

With a violent jerk, she slashed Severus's throat. The crimson liquid spewed from the gash and crawled along the floor like a spider. It sunk into the runes, causing them to blaze a brilliant white.

As Severus's body withered to dust in her grasp, Lily watched a hole open up in the clouds above the rose. Tendrils of pale vapor flowed out of it sliding into the bright red flesh of the plant. Just like that. The power pulsing throughout the room snapped off.

Lily walked forward, her eyes locked on the ball of light gently pulsing inside the giant rose. She placed her hand on the large bright red petals, splaying out her fingers. "Hello Harry," she choked tears streaming down her face, "it's so nice to have you back."

She fell to her knees, her arms wrapped around the stem of the rose weeping uncontrollably. The relief she experienced at her task finally being completed flooded hers in Harry's body.

Harry stood there staring at his mother. Not knowing what to feel. On one hand his mother killed someone to bring him back to life. On the other hand she loved him so much to kill someone to bring him back to life.

This also explained why she was so protective of him. Why she made sure he could defend himself with his powers even before he could speak properly.

While he was still trying to deal with his emotions the scene sped forward. Nine months passed in the blink of an eye. The rose grew fat and the pulsing white light inside formed into a child.

Harry watched his mother move throughout the apartment at superspeed as the months passed, but she would always return in the evening. As the sun went down she would sit against the stem of the rose, reading him stories.

A lot of times she would sleep at the base of the rose, curled into a ball with a blanket of moss covering her.

Time slowed down, and anticipation flooded Harry's being.

His mother stood before the rose. A light green gown hugged her body, accentuating her curves. Her crimson hair flowed down her back in the form of a braided ponytail. Her bright green eyes stayed locked on to the rose as the glow inside dimmed and spread open, the tips of its large red petals brushing the floor.

She lunged forward on instinct, catching the dark-haired child as it rolled out. Retrieving a towel from a nearby table she gently wiped a clear viscous fluid from his skin.

With a tender pat on his back, a cry exploded from his small mouth and brilliant emerald eyes snapped open before squeezing shut as fat tears rolled down his cheeks.

With tears streaming from her eyes, his mother rocked him in her arms. "Shh, Harry. It's okay you're back with mama now."

"What have you done, Lily Potter?"

Lily turned, cradling her newly revived son in her arms.

Alec Holland strode forward. His head brushed the chandelier as he stopped before her. His mossy muscular arms crossed over his chest. Long thin shadows danced across his fuzzy green form.

Lily ignored him.

She laid her son down on one of the tables surrounding the runic circle. She wrapped him in a dark green blanket.

He reached up, one of his tiny hands grabbing a fistful of Lily's crimson hair.

Running a slender finger down his face, a soft watery smile tugged her lips upward.

"Answer me," Alec demanded.

Forest green energy exploded around Lily. She spun around cradling Harry to her body. "I have done what was needed to revive my son."

"You've done more than that?"

Pulling Harry closer to her body, Lily stared at Alec with narrowed eyes. The forest green energy flowing around her body like fire winked out. "What do you mean?"

"Not only have you violated the laws of nature by resurrecting the dead, but you've also created a child with a connection to the green and the clear."

"The clear?"

"The clear is the mystical connection that connects all water and the life in it in the universe."

Lily smiled down at her son, "You are going to be a powerful little boy aren't you," she cooed rubbing her nose against his.

Infant giggles reverberated throughout the room.

Alec huffed. Turning away, he made his way back over to a flowerpot in the corner. As he sunk back into the dirt his red eyes locked with Lily's. "Raise him well Lily Potter, I have a feeling your son will change the world."

The world around Harry faded to white. Blinking his eyes open, he found himself staring into the worried eyes of his mother.