A/N: Once more into the breach...
I feel it only fair to warn you, this is filler, setting things up for the next chapter. I have been accused of bending the story to fit the book, so here I'm showing what the world is like because Raven is how he is…
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Harry Potter: Raven
by Shadow Crystal Mage
Chapter 3: Stones, Chambers, Prisoners...
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Teen Titans. Would I be writing here if I did? Hmm, probably...
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Raven stood patiently amidst the crowd of first years, waiting to be sorted. He did not fidget, did not whisper nervously with other first years, did not look apprehensively at the hat as it Sorted someone else. He just stood there and waited for his name to be called, ignoring the fact that he was something of a topic of conversation.
He had been completely impassive during the ride through the lake, merely glancing at the castle before turning towards their apparent destination. In the little chamber off the hall, he hadn't so much as batted an eyelash when the ghosts had appeared. He hadn't been amazed at the enchanted ceiling, or any of the other things a first time visitor to Hogwarts usually reacted to. Those around him would have had to be blind not to notice.
When 'Perks, Sally-Anne' was sorted, McGonagall called from the scroll in her hands. "Potter, Harry!"
He ignored the whispers that broke out in the Hall as he made his way to the front, ignoring the little tidbits he heard.
"Potter, did she say?"
"The Harry Potter?"
"I thought he was dead?"
"Didn't he kill those relatives of his?"
That last caused Harry's hand to clench ever-so-slightly, and a few of the floating candles above him went out. Control. There was only control…
Placing the Hat on his head, he waited.
"Hmm," a small voice said. "So tense, for one so young. Let's see…"
With the strength of all his years of meditation, Raven blocked the voice out of his head.
"There now, that won't do," the voice said, sounding slightly miffed. "I can't sort you properly if you keep me out of your mind."
What you find stays between us, Raven thought at him, relaxing his block slightly to show the hat the image of it being ripped to shreds then incinerated.
"Of course, of course," the hat said, sounding like he was used to it.
I warn you, Raven thought, loosening his block
"Dear boy, I doubt anything you have in there would- Oh my!" the Sorting Hat exclaimed.
Well?
The Sorting Hat sounded shaken. "Well, after living through that, I see there is only one place for you to go."
Where?
"GRYFFINDOR!"
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The following days at Hogwarts were pretty normal, by that school's standards. Once everyone had gotten over the shock of having a supposedly dead famous person in their midst, everyone was surprised at how mild-mannered Harry was. He never snapped at the people who would stare at him. When Snape tried to bait him, he managed to answer perfectly, in such a way that not even Snape could claim he was being cheeky. He turned down Malfoy's challenge of a duel after he told McGonagall about what Malfoy did to Neville's Remembrall. Of course, that meant he didn't get into the Quidditch team, but he really didn't care.
He spent his time with Hermione, Ron, and sometimes Hagrid, for the simple reason because they were the only ones- besides the twins, who were incredibly hard to miss, even if you were trying, and Neville, who was still nervous about him- he bothered to know. Initially, he stuck with them because they were the only ones he knew, so they were the only ones he was comfortable asking for help from. Hermione and Ron tended to spark, but generally, the three of them got along.
Still, it wasn't until Halloween they realized how well they get along…
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Raven really didn't get the big deal over Halloween. It was supposed to be a festival honoring the dead, yet people were seemed more interested in having what they called a 'good' time. You'd think the ghosts would be insulted or something, but they seemed to feel the same way. He really didn't understand. How were you supposed to tell a 'good' time from a 'bad' time? He tried asking a friend of his a long time ago, but Tara had only given him a strange look and seemed to think he should know. That had been the first time he'd told someone about his powers. A few weeks later, he'd left her company in the middle of the night after nearly killing her in a rockslide.
He supposed this sort of subjective-ness regarding time was an emotional matter that he really wasn't meant to understand. That and the necessity for the live bats and the pumpkins with candles inside them. He found it difficult to understand humans, even after living on Earth for the past three years. He had heard there was a condition called autism that supposedly disrupted a person's ability to feel emotion. Was this how those people lived? Lacking understanding of what others considered the simplest things?
As Ron sat down next to Raven, the red-haired boy looked around. "Where's Hermione?"
"She will be here momentarily," Raven said, sitting patiently as he waited for the food to appear, in stark contrast to the other people around him. Really, one would think they hadn't eaten in days, the way they were so restless. "Hermione had to deal with certain bodily functions."
Ron blushed. "Oh," he managed, looking uncomfortable.
Raven discretely observed Ron. He knew that he and Hermione sometimes didn't get along, although it seemed to be over an illogical emotional matter. The disharmony seemed to stem from Hermione's performance in academics, which was considerably better than many of her peers, and matched only by Raven. Strangely, although Ron seemed to bear resentment towards Hermione because of this, he did not seem to bear any ill will towards Raven, whose performance matched and occasionally exceeded Hermione's. Raven could not understand it. Nor could he understand why Hermione felt the need to constantly remind them of the amount of her knowledge, telling them information they did not really require, nor ask for. It was during these times that the two ceased to be agreeable with the other.
His thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of the food. Everyone around him sighed like starving men at their first sight of a super market. Raven felt tempted to sigh, and actually let loose a small breath before he caught himself, face suddenly impassive. He'd been doing that a lot lately, giving in to his emotional impulses (by his standards, anyway). He knew he should be meditating more, but the academics required much of his time, and it would be impolite to ignore Ron or Hermione when they talked to him, which was a lot of the time. So much of the time, he was controlling his emotions without the aid of meditation, as in using purely will and self-control.
No sooner had they begun to eat, however, when they were evacuated because there was a troll in the dungeon. As they walked, Raven ignored the chatter and speculation of the people around him, although for once he was thinking exactly as they were, if not so vocal or illogical. How had the troll gotten in? He did not believe the twins would allow it inside: even they could appreciate how dangerous it was to use as a prank. Peeves seemed unlikely, as his method of creating chaos was centered on the disruptions he could cause directly, not a secondary part or agent. He wondered what Hermione's opinion of the situation would be…?
Then Raven paused, the equivalent of another person stiffening. Despite his less frequent meditation, his emotional control was much better than any other person in the castle.
"Ron," Raven said, "where's Hermione?"
Ron's eyes widened. "Bloody HELL!"
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It was, in hindsight, an incredibly stupid thing to do. McGonagall practically said so, and they themselves agreed. Still, it was decided it was all for the best. After all, no one was hurt (something that surprised the teachers, who thought that they should have at least a bruise), so no harm done. At least, not that anyone knew.
The same could not be said for the troll.
The story went like this: Harry and Ron, noticing that Hermione was missing, decided to go look for her. Well, Harry wanted to just tell Percy, but Ron insisted they go and look themselves. Apparently, he had been feeling guilty about something he had said to Hermione, and wanted to look for her himself so he could make up for it. Harry had reluctantly agreed to go along with it, but before they found her, they had spotted the troll go into through a door. Ron had been all for locking the troll in there when Harry suddenly realized that was the girls bathroom Hermione was in. They'd gone in to see the troll advancing on Hermione. Ron, acting more on instinct than anything else, had jumped on to the trolls back, while Harry had run around the troll while it was distracted and tried to drag Hermione to the door. She had been too scared to move, however.
What followed was based solely on Harry's narrative. Ron had apparently been thrown off by the troll and got knocked out when he hit the wall. Hermione, seemingly snapped out of her trance when she saw this happen, had run towards him, only to be struck a glancing blow from the troll's club and also knocked unconscious. Harry, deciding his friends were in more danger than he was, had distracted the troll and managed to anger it enough that it had charged headlong at him. It had missed, however, crashing into the wall mirrors, and conveniently crushing it's own skull. The force had destroyed all the mirrors on the wall and all the sinks as well.
Whereupon Harry had begun rousing his unconscious classmates, who miraculously did not have a scratch on them. At that point, the teachers had found them and they had been sent back to their dormitory after being given a cursory examination by Madame Pomfrey.
At least, that's what everyone thought happened…
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Raven ate quietly in his corner with Ron and Hermione. The two didn't know how lucky they were. Ron by rights should be dead by now with a crushed skull, among other things, and Hermione long before, from severe damage to her ribcage and lots of damage to nearly all her internal organs. In fact, Hermione had been clinically dead for all of two seconds before Raven managed to do anything.
Raven was incredibly lucky that the blows that had nearly killed the two people he was sitting with had also removed their short-term memory. If they remembered how hard they had actually been struck, there was no way he could have managed to explain away their condition.
When the troll had struck Hermione, Raven was suddenly taken back to the time of Azar's death, when his second mother had lain on her bed and quietly died while Raven had desperately tried to heal her. He saw Lily Potter's death, what he remembered of it, of a green light that killed, and red, slitted eyes. He saw Tara, his first friend on this world, being engulfed by a hail of stones as he tried to reach her, while at the same time being struck by rocks himself.
He acted on instinct, not even saying his focusing words. All he saw were the two deaths, that he had not been able to prevent, and another that he nearly caused. A wave of his hand was all it took to send the troll crashing into the far wall with a wet, sickening sound as Raven made his way towards Hermione, his own unique magic glowing in his hands as he knelt by her side. Three women had already died because of him; he would not add a fourth.
After devoting his considerable power to healing Hermione, he turned to Ron. The boy was a complete and utter mess. His hair was matted with blood, and elbow bent the wrong way, and his neck was at an unnatural angle. One side of his face looked caved in, yet astonishingly, he was still breathing. Suppressing an emotional shiver, he set about to doing for Ron what he had done for Hermione…
Afterwards, he cleaned them as best as he could, to remove all evidence of what had happened. Now, barely half an hour later, they sat there, eating as if nothing had happened, never knowing how close they had come to Death…
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They became better friends after that. Still, after a while Ron and Hermione began feeling... not exactly put off, but rather, frustrated at Harry's near-omnipresent tranquility. After a while, Hermione asked him why he had to be such an ice king, to which he had replied: "It's who I am, Hermione. I cannot change."
So the two began doing what they could to get some kind of rise from the unflappable boy. No matter what they tried, however, the closest thing to a reaction they'd get was an even stare that they eventually interpreted as annoyance. Of course, it was only because of their association with Harry that they were able to understand it at all. In the whole castle, only the two of them seemed to be able to read his non-existent moods.
They abandoned it after a while when they thought something like anger was starting to be present in those looks, and would only do it sometimes when they felt they could surprise Harry. After that, he would just give them his blank-annoyed gaze, and let it go, seeming to understand that it had become more of a tradition than anything else.
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It was purest dumb luck.
They had been making their weekly visit to Hagrid, whom Raven had felt a slight kinship to since he could tell the man wasn't purely human- anyone with eyes could tell- they'd caught him trying to hatch a dragon egg. Raven had been very close to informing school authorities, but eventually agreed to keep it secret. Or at least, try to.
Keeping a fire-breathing dragon secret was not easy, even in that school. Raven, Ron and Hermione knew it was only a matter of time before someone found out, and eventually someone did. It was then suggested that the dragon, Norbert, be sent off to Romania to Ron's brother, Charlie, and Hagrid eventually agreed.
Raven had agreed to help feed Norbert because he had realized the possibility that Norbert was poisonous, or at least, loaded with enough germs to give someone an infection. Not wanting to frighten his friends about this, he had kept his reasons to himself, and it only took a little bit of insistence to get them to lay to rest their weak objections. He reasoned that his half-demon blood would be more resistant than their human blood, and he could just easily heal himself if bitten, something Norbert liked to do a lot. And indeed, he was bitten and cut a few times, but managed to conceal it with his healing magic and the simple device of hiding the injured part in his robes.
During this time, he got to know Hagrid a lot better and was able to make a few observations about the man. It was obvious that Hagrid had grown up alone, given how he never mentioned his mother, or the fact that he had once implicitly stated his father was dead. Raven hypothesized that Hagrid filled this emotional void humans seemed to need filled by devoting himself to the care of the creatures under his care and becoming emotionally attached to them. He could think of no reason why Hagrid seemed to be insistent that the creatures be large and highly dangerous, however.
Their only mistake had been when they finally been about to send Norbert to Charlie. Malfoy, the one who had found out about Norbert, Hermione, Ron and himself had all been found out of bounds. The former had been caught by Filch, while the latter three had been caught because, they had neglected to wear the invisibility cloak Raven had been given that Christmas on the way down.
It had been during the detention that Raven felt something wrong. He was with Hagrid and Hermione when he felt someone else close by. He wasn't able to identify it, however, because Hagrid, having heard something pushed him and Hermione behind a tree for safety. By the time they were allowed to move, the feeling had gone and another had taken its place, a different, unfamiliar one. Ronan.
He felt it again later, however, when he and Malfoy had found the dead unicorn. Even as Malfoy and Fang ran in terror, even as he pulled out his wand as his scar began to hurt, he managed to finally identify the feeling as Professor Quirell. And something else, a feeling that seemed half-familiar, yet he couldn't quite place it, one that been emanating around Quirell all year, yet never this strongly…
Firenze drove Quirell away, and explained about the properties of unicorn blood, before hinting at something in the school that was more effective, as well as who might be in need of those potions.
It left Raven with much to think about, and ultimately lead him to the third floor corridor, and what lay beneath…
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Raven looked over the lake from his position from a parapet. The water was mirror-smooth, hardly rippling in the wind. It had been an eventful year, all in all.
Quirrell. Voldemort. Just thinking about them made Raven want to shake, although he controlled himself tightly. He had not been doing his meditations as often as he should lately because of the exams, and it was starting to show. Still, he managed to control his powers, so it wasn't really a problem. He'd even started displaying some emotion, although it mostly manifested as sarcasm.
So close. One of the beings who had ruined his life had been so close, and he hadn't even known it.
Not for the first time, Raven wondered what would have happened if he hadn't decided to not use hid powers when confronting the two. Would he have been able to destroy Voldemort? He had done it once before. But the way Dumbledore had explained it, that had happened only because Voldemort's own spell had rebounded on him, protected as Raven was by Lily Potter's sacrifice. Her love of him must have been powerful, Dumbledore had said, if it would protect one not of her blood. For an instant, Raven had been reminded of Azar.
A cry intruded on his reveries, and he looked up to see Azar flying towards him. After nearly a year, Azar was no longer the little runt he had bought. Perching on his finger was no longer an option. She could perch on Hagrid's finger, maybe, but definitely not his. Still, she was smaller than other's of her kind, still a runt, in a way. Raven held out his arm , but Azar ignored it, perching on the wall before him. She was a moody one, but loyal to Raven. How Raven could know that, he had no idea, but he'd stake his life on it.
"I'm fine," Raven said, stroking the bird. She was giving him that look that made him so close too self-conscious. It was the same look Hermione had whenever he'd just meditated and was completely blank, the one that said she thought something was wrong because he seemed a bit different. It was disturbing how the two could use the same look. "I'm not injured. Will you please stop looking at me like that?"
Azar gave him one last look before doing something that looked suspiciously like the bird equivalent of a shrug, before starting to preen her feathers.
It was true. He was uninjured. His own constitution and the remarkable healing properties of his demon blood, not to mention his own healing magic, had led to Madam Pomfrey letting him out earlier than she expected. He'd been lying low lately, avoiding the other students as much as possible. He almost missed the days when they ostracized him for loosing all those house points. Almost. While he didn't mind being held in low regard, he hadn't liked the abuse Hermione and Ron had taken for it.
"Harry," a voice said, breaking his reverie yet again.
Raven turned. Albus Dumbledore was striding towards him, the usual serene smile on his face. If there was one thing Raven admired about the Headmaster, it was his ability to maintain control of his emotions- outwardly, at least.
"Yes, professor?" Raven said, still stroking Azar. After nearly a year, he'd gotten used to answering to that name.
"I wished to talk to you about where you would be staying over the summer," Dumbledore said as he came close. "It slipped my mind in the hospital wing. I gather from our discussion last summer that the lady whom you used to reside with is no longer living, so I doubt you will be returning there. If I may ask, where do you intend to go?"
Raven shrugged, a gesture he had added to his repertoire when both Ron and Hermione insisted his nodding was getting annoying. "I will go where the wind takes me. There is much in the world I have not seen yet, and some I would like to see again."
"You plan to backpack across England?" Dumbledore said.
Raven shrugged again. "As I said, wherever the wind takes me."
For a moment, Dumbledore looked troubled. "Perhaps it would be best if you stay with one of your classmates until the start of next term? I believe Ron Weasley and his family would be more than glad to lodge you."
Raven shook his head. "I will be fine, Headmaster. If it's my safety on the road you're worried about, I can take care of myself without having to resort to my wand. I have been doing this since I was eight years old, after all."
"Since you were eight?" Dumbledore said, surprised.
Raven nodded. "Yes. So do not be concerned for my safety. I am sure that the owl you send with next year's requirements will find me. It did last time."
Raven waited for the Headmaster to say something more, but the old man was silent. Taking that as leave to go, he left, Azar following in his wake.
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Eight years old, thought Dumbledore. He's been alone since he was eight years old.
This wasn't something the old man had considered. When the year had ended, he had started planning preparations for Harry's welfare, since it was obvious he no longer had a permanent residence, but he really hadn't considered how the boy had lived all these years. His discreet inquiries had revealed Harry seldom spoke unless spoken directly to, and that he almost never volunteered any information about himself. His only friends seemed to be Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, although he maintained a passing acquaintance with the Weasley twins and Neville Longbottom. In general, he was all business, and, while not rude, his manner was not exactly sociable.
His little discussion with the boy had garnered him more information about him than all his inquiries all year. Not that he was in any way out to manipulate the boy. He was dearly concerned for the boy's safety, something stemming from his many years as a teacher, and he felt he owed the boy for putting him in with the Dursleys all those years ago. He felt partly responsible for what had happened then. If he hadn't put Harry there, he wouldn't have accidentally killed them.
For the moment, he resolved to let Harry have his way. Voldemort had been curbed for a time, and no Death Eaters seemed about to crawl out of the woodwork, so it seemed safe to leave him to his devices. After all, if he could survive for three years on his own in this increasingly dangerous world- Muggle or Magical- then it seemed he could take care of himself.
Although privately, Dumbledore hoped he wasn't writing the boy's epitaph…
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The minute Harry Potter stepped out of King's Cross station, he disappeared completely. No one, not the Ministry or Albus Dumbledore, could find him. Ron Weasley was unaware of this until he heard his father talking about it one day and said he maintained a correspondence with Harry. Try as they might, however, Harry would volunteer no information of where he was, and tracing the owl who made the deliveries did no good, as she seemed capable of vanishing into nothingness.
Finally, the Ministry for all intents and purposes gave up trying to trace him, and Ron returned to having a normal correspondence with Harry.
A month before the start of school, Harry Potter showed up at the Burrow.
He just appeared one day out of the blue. The Weasleys were having breakfast when there was a knock on the door. Ron went to open it and lo and behold, there was Harry, wearing a worn pair of jeans and an equally worn shirt, carrying nothing but a backpack.
"Hello," he had said. "May I come in?"
The Burrow was a whirlwind of activity that day, with calls to the Ministry that Harry was there and Mrs. Weasley going nuts about having a guest. Although Harry had only planned to make a short visit, he was somehow convinced to stay until September, when they were due to return to school.
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Raven eyed Ginny's cauldron. Lucius Malfoy had put something in it when he had returned her Transfiguration book in, but he wasn't sure what. All he knew was that it possessed incredible magical power, too much to be safe.
"Ginny," he said while no one else was looking, "may I see your books for a moment?"
The youngest Weasley blushed, but nodded, not sure what to say. Raven took out all the books that he hadn't given her, examining them one by one, skillfully transferring the book inside the Transfiguration book under his jacket without her seeing, before handing all the books back to her. "Thank you," he said, walking away and leaving one very confused Weasley.
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It turned out to be a horcrux. Surprisingly, Raven knew of this method of protecting one's life. He knew exactly what it was, and a general idea of how one was made, for the simple reason a being called Klarion had once bothered to tell him. Thus, he was not inclined to entertain the possibility of mercy as he interrogated the 'memory', before ultimately destroying it in the privacy of the mindscape found through his meditation mirror. He carefully wrapped the diary and sent it secretly to Albus Dumbledore, along with a note explaining what it was. On the very night he returned to Hogwarts, he descended to the Chamber of Secrets and slew the Basilisk.
That year was the most normal year Hogwarts would have in a decade…
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Harry once more disappeared that summer, and wasn't seen until September. Ron and Hermione spotted their friend on Platform 9 ¾, and were amazed at how different he was. Although the 'ice king' of old wasn't completely gone, it seemed to have melted slightly. Gone was the omni-present neutral face. Now, small smiles and frowns dared grace 'the gray one's' face, although it was only occasionally. He had a more pronounced sense of irony, and was prone to being a bit more sarcastic.
Everyone was instantly in a frenzy when they saw him. Sirius Black was loose, after all…
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- To be continued...
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A/N: Sorting was cheap, but it was a cliché.
The rest is also cheap, but I figure, we all know how the cliché years turn out, and the books are better done, so why bother? Things more-or-less follows the books. It's easier this way, really. For me, I mean. XD
The death of the Dursley's is a sore point with Raven. That's why he tends to loose control slightly when it comes up.
Harry, not a Seeker? NO! Say it isn't so!
Raven's perception of autism is incorrect because he picked it up on his travels. It is intentional.
He also has a soft spot for women, because of Azar and Lily.
The Komodo dragon, a giant lizardian specie, is very poisonous, not because of venom, but because of the large amounts of deadly bacteria on its body, particularly the teeth and claws. I figured dragons would have something similar. That's why Ron's wound became infected in the book.
Raven managed to hide the cloak before Filch saw it.
What happened to Harry between second and third year? -secretive smile- Read 'Keeper of the Dark Heart' to eventually find out…
To many reviewers to reply to personally- what a wonderful problem- so I'll just thank you all for reviewing: Blue Werewolf Boy, anti-thule, Purple Artichokes from Mars, damon blade, korrd, wana10, Sarah R Potter, Ran Hoshino, WOA-WOLFPACK, goddessa39, kinguofdoragons, HevenSentHellBroken, hittocerebattosai, Firehedgehog, animefan4life2, xyvortex, Gin-N-Angel, AzureSky123, Junky, Crimson Cloaked Figure, Mikito, oblivionknight7, and XyBulmaXy. WOA-WOLFPACK, thank you for pointing out that little oversight. Don't worry, I didn't consider it a flame. I'm actually very thankful you pointed it out. Wouldn't want to lose my credibility, would I?
On another note, I won't be concentrating on this much. I like the concept, but my plan requires CCH to be much further along. So I need to post about five CCH chapter for every one of these. There's a reason, trust me. If I think of something for this, I'll post it, but for now, be prepared for month long waits. Sorry… TToTT
Still I will post, that will never change. At least I'll still do better than some out there…
Please review, C&C welcome. Flames will be used to burn those who thought the second Teen Titans comics series was a good idea. Seriously, the Atom And a bunch of genetically engineered nobodies? When they had Robin, Superboy and Impulse to use! Sinful.
Until next time, this is Shadow, signing off.