A Time to Renew II

Disclaimer: This story takes place in the Harry Potter universe, with characters from that universe. All rights over the universe and the characters therein are owned by J. . This work is an otherwise original piece of fiction, with no claims to, or expectation of, gaining advantage, financial or any other, from the use of the copyrighted material.

Four.

Harry snorted. Then let out the start of a laugh, but it trailed off. Lucius Malfoy had on one of those grown-up's expressions. Not the I'm-really-angry kind, and not the I'm-really-disappointed kind, or that disapproving look that the Dursley's always wore. This was one that included honesty, pleading, sadness, and a certain amount of desperation. Harry couldn't quite pick what it was that made him stop laughing, or what made him believe Lucius Malfoy absolutely at that exact moment.

"You … you are being serious," stammered Harry slowly, "aren't you?"

"Yes, Harry," Lucius stated quite deliberately. "I am very serious. And I have no reason to lie about this matter."

Harry's mind was barely keeping up with events, and statements made, over just the past few minutes. He understood all the words that were said all right, but could not make them fit into what he already knew about the world, and magic, and the Houses of Hogwarts, and how the Malfoy family had treated him and other students. Or as it would turn out, what he thought he knew.

Lucius Malfoy had turned back toward the large stone cylinder in the centre of the room and was gazing, unseeing, at it.

"Mr Malfoy," Harry asked, "what is this?"

At first it appeared that Lucius hadn't heard the question, but his head turned slowly and he said "What? Pardon? Oh, I'm sorry. This is a pensieve. You know, for reviewing saved memories at one's leisure. A most useful device, and another inclusion on my part for the room." Lucius was now absent-mindedly drawing a finger through the water in the depression at the top of the stone cylinder. He seemed to almost be talking to himself. "It's like home movies. So personal. You are right in there with them. Just like being there …" Lucius trailed off.

Harry watched, now a little afraid of what might be next, as Lucius sighed deeply then drew himself to his full height, threw back his long white hair, and straightened his gown.

"A very useful device for receiving messages and orders in an uncorrupted form, exactly as intended."

Lucius Malfoy returned to his chair and sat down. "Now, where to begin, Harry?"

Harry walked slowly back to the other chair and carefully sat down. He waited for a little bit and asked "Was that a question for me, or you?"

"Perhaps a little bit of both, Harry, a bit of both."

Five.

"OK," Harry began, "can I start with the Houses? How are they aligned? I thought that Slytherin got kicked out after Hogwarts was founded?"

"Ah yes, that. Well the whole good guys versus bad guys thing is a useful fiction. The history of Hogwarts is taught conventionally that Salazar, Godric, Helga and Rowena founded the first and best magical college late in the 10th century. All was fine and running well until there was a falling out over the enrolment of muggles, where primarily Salazar only wanted pure bloods admitted. Godric was the most vocal opponent – all that male on male bravado and testosterone – and so Salazar left after some building alterations. This is of course mostly false. It is all so pat and predictable, and it keeps up the necessary tension between Houses for competition, and conveniently produces sympathy for the wider population of muggles."

"What?" blurted Harry. "Why?"

"Well it is reasonably obvious that without some checks and balances that the magical world would simply enslave the muggle world. I mean you see how seriously the ludicrous 'Ministry of Magic'," Lucius making air-quotes and using a baby voice for the phrase, "frowns on magic used in the muggle world?"

"But … that just … if we … uhhh," Harry spat. The words were not linked, there was no coherency, and he could not make a sentence. "How does that explain an alliance between Gryffindor and Slytherin?"

"As I have already stated, the approved history is mostly false. Both Salazar and Godric understood how magic works. They both understood what is required to maintain it. And they were both complicit in ensuring that the necessary steps were taken to ensure our ways." Lucius paused here and looked toward Harry, who sat listening intently, with his mouth just a little open.

"So the whole pureblood and muggle thing is wrong? So you don't really hate muggles?" Harry asked sheepishly.

"Muggles? Me? Can't stand them. Neither could Salazar, and neither do those who respect what magic represents! No, Salazar understood that to keep the magic pure he needed to exclude the muggles and mudbloods. It really is for their own protection. You see, magic as we know it is a limited resource, and to keep it flowing properly and plentifully, purebloods need to die. The others can benefit from the practices of magic but they do not need to make the sacrifices."

Harry's jaw dropped, before he snapped his mouth shut.

"Maybe we purebloods are just being selfish. We do all the work, we have to pay the price, we should keep the benefits for ourselves. Oh there have been experiments by the great riftomancers of history using muggles and mudbloods, but they just do not regulate the energy in a predictable and manageable manner. They are quite useless. Yes, quite useless.

"No," snorted Lucius, "we are not selfish. However our ecosystem will only support a certain amount of purebloods, and I hypothesise that a take-over of the muggle world would be a bloody and ultimately pointless exercise."

"What does any of this have to do with me?" Harry finally said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Riftomancy my dear Mr Potter, riftomancy. You have it, and we need to use it!"

Six.

Lucius Malfoy stood up quite quickly and walked around to Harry's side of the table. He held out his left hand and said "Harry?"

While Harry was not sure what the gesture meant, he took hold of Lucius' hand with his right hand. At that instant they both apparated. Harry hated apparition; it always made him feel squeezed and squished and a little nauseous. As he looked around, all he could see were scattered stunted trees and low dark coloured grass. The land was slightly hilly, the sky was light blue with some scattered clouds but the air had a cold sting.

"Where are we?"

"Oh the middle of nowhere," replied Lucius as he searched in his gown for something. "Here, take this," he said, holding out a plain looking wand to Harry.

Harry took the wand and examined it in his hands. It looked very plain and he couldn't tell if it had a core element. "No Harry," Lucius said, almost reading Harry's mind, "just plain oak, good aged oak though, with no extras. Should work well enough for this demonstration. Can you give me a little patronus would you, please? Light show only."

Harry nodded dumbly, turned toward some open space, and tried to invoke the patronus charm. It was very weak and was more light bulb and less light show.

"Come on now dear boy, can't you do better than that?" Lucius taunted.

Harry tried again but the result was the same – disappointing.

"Now while the wand is not especially tuned to you, it is of average training wand quality and one would expect at least an average result. Don't you think?"

"This is a piece of junk. How can anyone expect to do good magic with it?" Harry complained.

Lucius teased "Indeed. Or maybe there is more to this than just the wand or the wielder?"

Harry pursed his lips and screwed up his face but said nothing. Lucius held out his left hand to Harry and asked "Again?"

Harry and Lucius apparated a second time.

As soon as Harry was aware of his surroundings, he started feeling sick. Harry was getting the waking nightmare feeling of a dementor somewhere nearby. He fell to his knees, shut his eyes and held his hands over the side of his head.

"Argh! Where are we?" Harry shouted. "I can feel dementors! Get me out of here!"

As Harry screamed and shouted, writhing on his knees, Lucius allowed himself a smile. "He certainly has the knack for this sort of thing, doesn't he?" Lucius placed a hand on Harry's shoulder and calmly said "There is nothing here, Harry."

Harry quieted down and started to control his breathing.

"That's good," Lucius cooed, "keep calm, there is nothing here, and no one but the two of us."

Harry blinked his eyes open and sheepishly looked around. He was kneeling in an open grassy field, low stone walls several hundred yards away, a copse of trees, and nothing much else. Again the sky was light blue, still with the scattered clouds, but the air felt warm and dry. What remained however was that uneasy feeling inside that spoke of painful memories and deep seated fear.

"I feel sick," Harry gurgled, still kneeling in the field.

"I know. It's the effect this has on you. Now can you manage another patronus, or do you need a little rest?"

Harry slowly got to his feet and looked on the ground for the training wand that he dropped sometime earlier. He quickly found it and held it at arm's length. The effect was immediate and much greater than his last effort.

"Woah!" Harry cried. "What happened? Did you do something to me? Why does it work properly now? Is this even the same wand?"

Lucius was clapping his hands slowly and grinning. "Very impressive. So tell me, what is different now, Mr Potter?"

"OK, so if I'm the same person, and the wand is the same one, and you haven't cursed me, then …"

"Yes Harry, yes, all yes. Go on."

"Then we are in a different place and I feel sick."

"Correct. We are in a different place. Not a very different place, but it is much closer to a rift. Here the flow and strength of energy we manipulate as magic is stronger. On that drearier hillside earlier we were far from any rifts and the energy we had available was weak and intermittent; not the best for casting a strong spell wouldn't you agree?"

"I do not have the faintest idea what you are talking about now, Mr Malfoy," Harry admitted.

"Energy, Harry. Energy is neither created nor destroyed but can be transformed. Magic as we practice it is simply the conversion of some energy via a focus, or machine or container, into useful work we wish to have done. If we used the energy of this world to perform our magical work, it would quickly have become used up and life as we know it would no longer be viable. The rifts are the links to the places where we draw the energy we require from. We drain those places on the other end of the rifts, and the riftomancers maintain the rifts and the necessary flows of energy for magic to even work. But, open a window and things can travel in both directions. The dementors as you know them are the inter-dimensional shadows of things we do not fully understand from the other side of these rifts."

Harry's head was already spinning with too much information when Lucius Malfoy apparated them again, this time back to Malfoy Manor.