Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter series or anything associated with it. The Harry Potter franchise belongs to J.K. Rowling. I am doing this purely for my own amusement and at no profit.


"The Earth began to bellow, trees to dance

And howling dogs in glimmering light

advance

Ere Hekate came."

The Aeneid, book VL. Virgil


Chapter 2 – And from the Ashes…

The wind swayed and crooned sweet nothings into the night. The very earth itself trembled. Whether in fear or excitement, it is unknown. Otherworldly cries and howls rose and fell mingling with the wind's constant rumblings. The dull thump of solid objects meeting the ground rang through the air. Blurred shapes could be seen emerging from the forest at the edge of the field and ghostly apparitions yowled in pleasure at the moon.

Huge hulking dogs with coats of silky black fur that seemed to suck the light out from around them trembled in excitement. They threw their massive heads back and sang to the silver orb in the sky. The beasts were inhumanly large, almost bear-like in their size.

Golden eyes shifted around with the gaze of a predator. They pawed at the ground restlessly glancing to and fro as if waiting for someone or something.

Suddenly the dogs ceased their fidgeting and turned as one toward the forest. Dark tendrils began to form. The shadows darkened and seemed to come alive. Any lingering light shied away from the writhing shadows. Slowly the darkness curled and lengthened forming a column of pure darkness. The mass twisted in one sharp move and dissipated.

A woman slowly emerged, her strides brimming with animalistic grace. The air rippled around her and pure power rolled off her in gentle waves. Raven hair fell in a soft waterfall down her back. Her lithe body swayed to an unknown melody as she stepped closer to the panting beasts that awaited her.

"Chairetismata." She murmured softly to the dogs. Her obsidian eyes shone with affection as she looked upon them.

"It's been so long…so long…" she sighed and the dogs whined at their mistress's displeasure.

Twisting her neck, she focused on the drab field that stretched out before her. Dark eyes widened in shock and pleasure when she spied the beaten dirt road that lied at the heart of the field. She threw her head back and let out a laugh of pure delight.

"It has been long since someone has practiced the old ways." She remarked to her companions as she walked toward the crossroads.

Entwining her fingers through the dying stalks, she pushed and a path appeared leading to the roads. She put her slender fingers to her lips and gave a sharp whistle. The animals barreled to her at the noise. Nodding her head, she continued on, the dogs following in her wake. Despite the muddy earth, none of the muck touched her body and she remained as clean as she was when she arrived.

She came to a sudden halt when she reached the crossroads, her eyes darkened in a terrible fury. The features of her face morphed into something distinctly inhuman. Her eyes narrowed as she stared intensely had the broken body of the child. As suddenly as her anger had come it was gone. It slid off her face like water on glass.

"'Tis a pity, such a pity." She shook her black mane regretfully. Folding her legs she settled down next to the child. Delicately, she brushed the stringy, matted hair out of his face to get a better look. With a snap of her fingers all the blood, dirt, and bodily fluids were removed from the child's body.

"There that's much better, can't have you walking into the Fields of Asphodel looking like tha—" she broke off with a sharp gasp of shock. She pressed closer staring in awe.

"By Zeus…" she breathed tracing the now visible lighting shaped scar with her fingertips. Scrunching up her nose slightly in concentration she pressed her index finger roughly to his cold scar. She tensed for several seconds and then broke away. With a considering gaze she studied him. A look of determination and a quick flash of greed crossed her beautiful face. "Oh he'd be ever so pleased…"

"No, no this won't due at all." She said to herself. She tilted her head up to the sky and stared at the full moon. Looking confident, she turned to the dogs that had gathered around the boy, one of the pups snuffled curiously at his hair, a smile curled at her lips. Thrusting back her shoulders, she took a deep breath and slipped her eyes shut. With an inhumanly fast movement she slammed her palm down on the dead child's uniquely shaped scar and laughed with wicked delight.


"Screams…No! Not Harry

please…

please…me instead

Insane laughter …a man with long raven hair…black dog…

pain…freak…

a chalky grinning face looming before him with crimson eyes…

Sight. Sound. Touch. Taste. A myriad of senses blurred together, warping and twisting themselves along his sensitive nerves. Whirlwinds of sensations rushed through his body. Pain. Pleasure. Lust. Hatred. Love. Harry's back arched off the ground like a taut bow. Bones snapped into place with sickening squelches and crunches only to disintegrate one by one. Each bone was reformed in an instant, far stronger than they were previously.

Internal organs melted and dissolved and then regenerated. Brand new cells forming, splitting, and interconnecting with others at an inconceivable rate. Muscle and skin melted and slid away from the bones and were re grown flawlessly.

All physical deficiencies were painfully erased. Diseases, allergies, physical flaws were all wiped away leaving a clean slate. The emerald eyes that Aunt Petunia had so envied were regenerated back to their original state. His poor eyesight repaired.

At last the pain came to a stop, his back relaxed and lowered to the ground. Lips were still parted in a silent scream. Gradually the tremors that racked his body slowed and his breathing settled to soft gasps. Harry blinked slowly and knocked his head back to the soft earth gently. Now that the torture had ended confusion ran rampant through his brain. Befuddlement and fear warred for dominance in his head as the world swam into focus.

The first thing he noticed was that everything was impossible clear. A ladybug crawling lazily on a leaf several meters away, the bark of a sickly tree on the side of the road, and the individual splintered ends of a broken stalk of wheat swaying gently with the breeze. Harry's eyes widened in amazement. Every thing was so…so different. He sucked in a breath in awe everything was so intense. And the colors! They were so pretty. Poignant and blindly sharp.

Slowly he pushed himself up on his elbows to sit up. A soft groan of pain escaped him as his weary muscles and bones shifted. He felt raw, like all his nerve endings were exposed to the slightest touch. With a grimace he took a proper look at his surroundings and was met with the gaze of the most terrifying woman he had ever seen. She wasn't ugly, far from it in fact, but there was something about her presence that inspired fear. The woman turned her penetrating gaze toward him a sly smile playing at her full lips. She was made even more fearsome by the huge animals that circled her protectively.

"Greetings, my child." Her voice rang musically. There was some unidentifiable emotion in her eyes as her dark eyes met his green ones.

Frightened, he scrambled away from her. When he had put a couple of meters between himself and the strange woman he called out with false bravado:

"Who're you?" and without pausing for an answer he continued on " And where am I? You better tell me 'cause my mum and dad are gonna come lookin' for me."

The woman chuckled lightly," Which parents do you speak of?"

"The James and Lily Potter who lie rotting beneath the earth as we speak? Or perhaps you're loving Aunt who left you here to die?" her mocking voice cause him to flinch violently back. Memories of his Aunt Petunia's cruel face and her insane ramblings rushed though his head. He remembered now how he had came to be here, his head shook in futile denial.

"NO! You're a liar!" he shouted, but even as the words passed his lips he knew it was true. Petunia Dursley had killed him, or tried to kill him. Fat tears of misery dripped down his face. She had tried to kill him.

"You know I speak the truth my child," she said unmoved by his verbal assault. "She killed you." She crept closer to him as if approaching a wild animal. Lowering herself to his level, she threaded her slender fingers through his hair and despite himself he couldn't stop himself from leaning into her touch. She tugged him closer to lean against her bosom and pressed her mouth to the shell of his ear.

"And I saved you…" she whispered, her breath hot against his ear. He shivered at the sensation. Then her words caught up with him. "Killed me?" Then how was he alive? It was impossible it defied logic. No one could bring back to dead. He gasped slightly as her arms tightened around him in a vice grip, almost possessively.

" I brought you back from the realms of death itself. I created and destroyed you; flesh to dust; dust to bone." She crooned into his ear. Her long hair tickled his face as she spoke.

"Do you wish to live?" she questioned him softly. He remembered the gut wrenching agony of his death and then the utter peace that settled upon him as he sunk into the abyss. No pain, worries, feelings, disappointment…just nothing. And for a moment he hesitated. The allure of escape and freedom was almost too strong to resist. And then he remembered…

"Yes, I want to live." He said strongly. Petunia's face contorted in malicious glee and she brought the studded belt down on his back over and over seared through his retinas. The seeds of hatred sunk into his conscience. He'd show them, those stupid gits who ignored his cries for help. The Dursleys who took his love and threw it back in his face and mocked him, he'd make them sorry.

"Very well." She said simply, but her eyes betrayed her glee. She gave him a knowing look. His head throbbed uncomfortably and his limbs still felt like jelly, but in spite of this a sense of something burned through his body. It buzzed just beneath his skin, through his nervous system, and settled heavily in the pit of Harry's stomach like a cat settling down for a nap. As if she had sensed Harry's restlessness she released him from the confines of her arms and spoke.

"You are a special case. Did you know? So much potential, yes…" she murmured as she gave him a once over with apparent self-satisfaction. He stared wide-eyed at her, still unsure what was going on.

"I have done you a great favor and as all favors must not go unpaid, I will ask you for something in return." She continued. A spike of anxiousness struck him at her remark.

"You see I have a problem…"


"So do we have a deal?" she inquired, eyes flashing with an alien emotion.

"Y-yes." Harry said with a slight waver of hesitation as he thought back to their earlier conversation. "Yeah, we have a deal."

She smiled in dark delight at his answer. "Good.Good"

"You shall be the best, a perfect warrior in every way." She said quietly. Harry couldn't tell if she was talking to herself or him. He studied her with keen eyes as she paced.

"But first you must prove you worth. For what's a warrior without experience?" she said, flipping her long tresses with a no-nonsense attitude. She flicked her wrist and Harry turned to see a shadowy substance detach itself from a near by tree and zoomed towards him. It twisted and curled around his left bicep almost as if it was alive. He watched it mesmerized, the dark mass separating and connecting until it formed a band of indecipherable runes on his arm that seemed to repel light. He gaped at it. He looked up with a sharp jerk only to see the woman and ghostly dogs had disappeared. Then he heard her melodious voice both terrible and beautiful at once.

"Like all mortals you have proven you can die…

…But can you live?"

And then she was gone.


Several hours later, Location: Deep inside an unknown forest

Harry stumbled over a gnarled tree root and his arms flailed comically before he regained his balance. "Now that's true grace," he thought, "to be able to catch yourself before you fall." With a foolish grin plastered on his face he continued onward. He pondered all the things he had learned. Droplets of water sprinkled on his head from the leaves on the trees and mud was caked to his clothes. He couldn't believe it, it seemed too impossible to be real but he could not ignore the facts. Magic was real. He felt giddy just thinking about it. The possibilities, the things he could do. When he had thought about getting revenge on Petunia he had assumed he would do it with a knife, poison, or maybe a gun if he could get a hold of one. There were times when he had sat beaten in the confines of his cupboard that he had allowed himself to bring all the hatred, pain, and hurt to the surface. It was in those times, in the cold hours of the night that he would fantasize about the things he could do to them for every punch and cruel word ever spoken to him.

But in the day he forced himself to become their meek stupid servant who was incapable of higher thought. The façade had saved him from many ah…sticky situations. But now, now that he had magic…oh the things he could do. The woman had told him that he was a part of a select part of the population that had the power to do seemingly impossible things. Usually, children displayed magic early in childhood but according to the woman his magic had been bound. Fury surged through his veins, hot and unrelenting. When he found out who did it he would make them regret it. He'd have to find the wizards first. Apparently they lived hidden away from the normal people, why though he had no idea. If they could do all these feats why did they hide away?

All the normal people, or muggles he thought the woman called them, didn't deserve to run amuck. And now that he thought of it, neither did the wizards, if they were so cowardly that they hid away from beings obviously inferior to themselves they didn't deserve that power. He would be different he thought to himself. All that knowledge to be gained, Harry Potter wouldn't stop until he was second to none.

A spiky vine wrapped around his ankle startling him out of his musings. The trees were thinning out and light was beginning to seep through the branches. Up ahead he could see a clearing with a sparkling pond in the middle of it. He couldn't believe he had traveled so far, he barely felt tired. Jogging toward the pond he quickly closed the distance. Harry pushed his fringe out of his eyes and knelt down to get a drink of water. He was quite parched. "Dying will do that to you." he thought sardonically. Harry looked down and then jumped back with a strangled yell. Eyes wide with shock he edged closer to look at his reflection.

He peered at himself in the pond astonished. It was him yet it was not. His features looked vaguely the same, but his face looked as if an artist had enhanced and shifted his features until they reached perfection. He cocked his head to the side taking in his ethereally beautiful looks. Suddenly a memory came to mind from his earlier conversation with the woman.

"There will be side effects to our little agreement." She smirked. "After all you are to be a living weapon. And a weapon is useless if it does not draw its prey to itself like bees' to honey." She twisted around to look at him appraisingly as she absently fingered the silver dagger strapped to her hip.

Perhaps this was what she meant? Harry leaned over to get a better look but his foot slipped on the wet rocks and he fell headfirst into the surprisingly deep pond. The cold shocked his system and he instinctively started kicking his legs until he reached the surface. He tossed his head back and took a deep breath of air and shook his head vigorously like a dog. Harry's eyes swept around, taking in his environment only to find himself in a completely different place.

He stood dumbfounded in a pond near the edge of a bustling town square. Creatures of all shapes and sizes pushed and shoved each other as they passed. Huge towering structures of obsidian, stone, and wood dotted the land. A strange red vine like plant was embedded into the stone roads and creeped up the sides of the massive buildings. In the distance he could see something that looked like the colosseum he read about in school. Different languages filtered through his ears as the human and non-humans bartered and argued.

"Wicked…" Harry breathed. There was so much to see. Everywhere he turned there was some new fascinating object or person to observe. With a hungry grin, Harry Potter dashed into the crowed and vanished.