Chapter 3
Hey everyone. I have the first 6 chapters of the story already written, and now three up and posted. After the first 6 chapters, the updates will most likely be about once or twice every 2 weeks, myabe twice in the first week, or only once every two. It depends on what happens in my schedule. Hope you all enjoy the third chpater of my story, this ones a big one ;)
-A break-in-
Harry could hardly believe his eyes, for there, lying motionless, was Hermione's most beloved pet, practically swimming in its own blood.
For 20 or so years, this ginger cat had always been around, always rubbing himself against Harry's leg when he visited Ron and Hermione's house, always playing with lily and Rose, always meowing loudly to get attention, and food.
And now he was gone.
Once again, unwillingly, it reminded Harry of how Cedric's life had been taken by Voldemort, cast aside as nothing more than a mere obstacle, an irrelevant mistake. Barely a thought given to any life, only his own. It was scary to think that there were people like that in the world, who'd only do things for their personal benefit, especially within the wizarding world, though the death-eaters were of a similar strand.
One thing Harry noticed as he examined the dulled, lifeless body of Crookshanks was that the spell used was different, unlike anything he had ever seen. There was a tiny, but noticeably deep, hole in the centre of Crookshanks chest, which incredibly seemed to be where the large pool of blood all seemed to be coming from. He looked around, expecting some disfigured monster to come jumping out of the shadows towards him, spewing all sorts of crooked, twisted sounds, but what he heard chilled him more than any monster could've.
"Hand it over, Potter"
The voice seemed to be coming from behind him, a young feminine voice little over puberty, a voice reminding him of that of Dolores Umbridge, the sweet-spoken devilish under-secretary to the minister and later Hogwarts teacher and 'High Inquisitor', Hogwarts' first and last. Kingsley Shacklebolt, the newly instated Minister of magic, had made sure to abolish all the educational decrees from when Cornelius Fudge was Minister.
Harry slowly turned, expecting some former death eater, and some others behind them too, waiting to cruciatus him, or maybe the Avada Kedavra. Surprisingly, standing there solitary on the edge of his light, was a tall, blond haired girl, around 20, aiming her wand at Harry's chest.
"Hand over your wand, or you'll be the same as your cat over there", her body language didn't portray her as the most threatening of people, though looks could deceive. She was almost tense, as if waiting for Harry to pull a fast one on her.
"Who are y-"
"That is none of your concern, now hand your wand over!"
Harry most definitely did not want to hand over his wand, cause if he did, he would surely be dead or tortured, and there would be no was to defend himself. There were still a fair amount of people resentful to the significant changes at the Ministry of Magic, some who would even attempt to kill Harry or others, if they had the chance.
"Last chance, Potter"
Harry wondered if he would be fast enough to block her spell, as he had not a doubt in mind that she would probably use the same spell she used on Crookshanks if she had the chance, or worse, and he hadn't been in a proper duel in some time, maybe a couple of months, or maybe a couple of years. Nowadays he tried to stay out of all the action, chasing and fighting. He'd had enough of that already.
"Hand over your wand!"
She was getting agitated at him now, not ready for his defiance, though now she seemed hesitant to use a spell against Harry, though he didn't know why, if she had been a death-eater, he probably would've been tortured or dead by now.
Maybe it was because he was an important Ministry official?
No, not that. Voldemort didn't care about picking off people at the Ministry, and if this girl was any the same, she wouldn't mind, too.
"What do you want?"
Harry boldly spoke, quite loudly too, in the hope of waking up Ginny to help him, the one time he wanted his wife awake at 2AM in the morning. He hoped Lily wouldn't come to investigate the sound instead. He didn't think it would be easy to protect both him and his 9 year-old daughter from the relentless attacks of what looked like a dangerous wizard, she had gotten past his wards, after all.
He remembered that Voldemort had become quite dangerous at a young age, too.
"Give me your wand now, or I will kill you!"
She was yelling now, and Ginny had definitely heard. Harry heard her get up and walk down the hall, then the stairs,
"Harry, what's going o-"
Ginny's question was cut short as the girl swivelled towards the staircase with rapid instinct, shooting a powerful burst of something, possibly a fireball, at it, leaving a large crater a mere half-metre from where Ginny was standing.
"Ginny!"
Harry fired a spell at the girl, who deflected it with a deft flick of her wand.
"Come on Potter! Your meant to be the 'Boy who Lived', the head of the Aurors, is that all you can do?!", she edged him on.
Harry heard the sound of Ginny running to get her wand, then shouting at Lily,
"Stay in your room! Whatever you hear, do NOT come out!"
Ginny put a basic lock and shield spell on the door, then ran, practically leaped, down the stairs to help him. Harry loved the bravery of his wife, she would help him even if it meant putting herself in danger. It was one of the reasons he married her in the first place, her selfless attitude.
The girl threw something from a pouch around her neck at Harry. Whatever it was, it was large.
Then it started to move.
After a few seconds, the thing had doubled in size, and now vaguely resembled a hippogriff. Whatever it was, it was dangerous, Harry could tell from the bulging muscles at every angle of its body, its thick hide that looked like it had taken a beating, and the assortment of huge claws and teeth the creature brandished.
Harry gulped, this was going to be hard. But, hey, hadn't he faced hardship enough?
Albus hadn't realised how long it would take to get to Hogwarts, and he was getting impatient. He stared out the window, at the floor, at some mind-numbingly boring and long books, and now he resorted to trying to sleep.
This task, though, was a hard one to accomplish, what with Scorpius making a racket by practising spells, the hubbub of conversation from all the other students, and his own thoughts running wild.
Albus had thought that once you make a decision, you didn't have to think about it any more. That's why you make decisions, isn't it? But he could not for the life of him stop thinking about himself becoming a dark wizard, killing people and committing horrendous acts to others and above all, disappointing his family.
"Its my decision, its my decision, its my decision..." he muttered to himself over and over again. He knew that he was going to be put in Slytherin, though it didn't make the anxiety and anticipation any better.
Did he want to be in Slytherin?
Yes, surely, he had felt so resolve and confident an hour ago, but second-thoughts were coming. But Albus also knew that he was doing this to prove to his family, once and for all, he was not a Potter.
Meanwhile Harry, who had watched Ginny chase the girl into the dining room, had an almost near-death experience as the creature slightly unruffled it's wings, which also ,unsurprisingly, had claws. It seemed that any area of this creatures body it could move, it had claws or teeth.
Hell, even its skin had claw-like spikes.
Harry started peppering the creature with spells, though nothing even showed the slightest indication of affecting the creature in the way it should have. A stun here, a hex there, and soon he was swimming in sweat.
Who knew casting magic made you sweaty?
After what seemed like ages, with Harry feeling like he'd casted every spell on the earth, he had now resorted to dodging the beast, occasionally hitting it with a chair leg from the clusters of damaged and destroyed furniture.
To Harry, this beast looked a gruesome mixture of what seemed to be a mutated Hippogriff and a dragon, a winged, scaled creature standing taller than him, and wider too. It perched on its hind legs, and had slanted eyes, a short, stubby neck, and to top it off, curved horns that could easily impale 5 people.
This was definitely not a normal magical creature .
Harry had heard of the few witches and wizards that used certain spells to create mutations of creatures, though he didn't know much, as it wasn't his department after all.
All his spells seemed to deflect off of the creatures skin, merely bouncing around the house, into the flor, walls, furniture, the ceiling, aswell as Harry.
He ended up havng to dodge his own spells, something he'd never heard of before.
The monster all the while was trying its very best to grab Harry with it's clawed feet, that happened to be the length of Harry's forearms.
It would, without a doubt, kill him with minimal effort and the slightest of touches. It's deadly claws sometimes came within inches of Harry's face, and he dodged it, and he just kept on dodging and firing spells, dodging and firing. It became a sort of circle dance, with the creature in the middle of the room and Harry trying to get to the door by circling round and round the creature.
He then heard a scream. He had almost forgotten about Ginny and the other witch, but as he paused to listen, the monster tried to once again claw at him with its feet, but instead pushed Harry very hard into the wall behind him. So hard, in fact, that Harry could see the crack in the wall where he had hit it.
Harry grunted with pain as he looked up, and noticed something strange.
There, underneath the creatures chin, was an amulet, which sparkled red. It seemed strange to Harry that an animal would need to wear jewellery.
Maybe it was a weakness?
Harry prayed it was, it gave him a chance, albeit a very risky and dangerous one.
Again, Harry committed himself to his deadly dance with the creature, this time with an eye for only one thing, the amulet.
But as he tried to get remotely near the amulet, the creature flared up, kicking and screeching. It seemed to know the importance of it, and would protect it.
Harry had not one clue in how to get the amulet.
If only Hermione was here, he thought, she'd have a spell faster than you could ask her.
He heard the sounds of a scuffle in the kitchen, and he knew he had to kill this creature quickly.
Then, he had a stroke of genius, Hermione-genius.
He raised his wand, pointed it at the creature, and simply said, "Accio Amulet!"
The Amulet tore itself from the creature's neck and flew towards Harry, who deftly caught it.
Sometimes, the best spells were the simplest.
Harry thought he would get someone to come examine the creature, but then it vanished, before his very eyes.
He couldn't believe it.
But, he knew he couldn't get distracted, he would have to come back later. He turned and ran towards the fray, and he could hear many plates and utensils smashing to the ground, most likely along with the antique set of goblin cutlery he had acquired from Sirius' house. Coming into the room, he saw Ginny on the floor, injured.
He ran to her, before seeing the girl come from behind a counter.
"Har-"
"Sectumsempra!", Harry cried.
The girl fell to the floor, bleeding, but Harry did not care at that point.
He turned back to Ginny, and saw her smile.
"Ginny are you OK-"
She kept smiling, before moving her wand to Harry and blasting him back in the chest, not before she reached up and grabbed both the amulet in his hand, and the necklace around his neck.
He groaned as he sat up, and he saw the girl standing there with the amulet and necklace, smiling that same smile.
"Goodbye Potter, but I'll see you soon!" she smiled sweetly before disapparating.
So his non-apparation ward didn't work, either.
He turned to the bleeding girl next to him, who's face was now resembling Ginny.
Harry's heart hit the floor.
He had just hit his own wife with a spell. He, Harry Potter, had just attacked the love of his life.
How could this happen? Wasn't she that other girl, but a moment ago?
She was going to die, and it was him who did it.
"No, no, no, no...please dear Merlin, no!", he tried to heal her, but nothing worked.
"Please Ginny, stay with me..."
Ginny was getting greyer by the second, while the pool of blood around her kept increasing.
Tears poured out of Harry's eyes as he sat by his wife, realising he could do nothing to save her.
But wasn't there a spell Snape had done, when Harry had used the spell on Draco Malfoy?
Harry immediately pressed his wand to his head, summoning the memory to the front of his mind.
He watched in his mind Snape running into the bathroom, pushing past Harry and kneeling by Malfoy. Harry heard the words and saw the wand movements he did.
He hoped beyond anything that this would work. H muttered the words, and moved his wand in the way Severus had done that day.
To Harry's greatest relief, the wounds that scarred Ginny began sealing, and the blood around her began flowing back into her body.
She wasn't going to die.
"But she wouldn't have died if you hadn't done that" Harry knew he would never forgive himself. He had done that.
He wasn't even sure if Ginny would forgive him. He had attacked her, and she knew it.
"Ginny...", he began.
How could he do that?
She wouldn't believe for a second that he saw her as the other witch. She would think he wanted to kill her.
That he had tried to kill her.
She moaned, but otherwise didn't move.
Harry gingerly picked her up, carrying her upstairs.
He was met by a teary-faced Lily, who was standing in the hall, her wand hanging in her hand.
"I-is the e-evil witch gone, d-daddy?", she stuttered.
"Yes, darling, but your Mother...she got hurt", he choked out those last few words, tears brimming his eyes, guilt and shame burning his heart.
"Will she be alright?", Lily looked at her mother, who was unconscious in Harry's arms.
"She just needs to rest up", Harry moved down the hall to his and Ginny's bedroom, and laid her on the bed before covering her with a blanket.
This was his fault.
He went back over to Lily, "darling, did you get hurt?". She shook her head, tears still in her eyes.
"I'm scared, daddy"
"It's OK, the dangers gone. We're safe now", he couldn't tell Lily what he had done to her mother.
Not yet. She was only nine.
But what about Sirius and Albus?
Nobody would forgive him for what he had done.
He took Lily's hand and lead her to their room, and helped her onto the bed, where she laid done next to Ginny.
Harry moved towards the door, "Daddy, where are you going?", he turned back to see Lily sitting up, looking at him.
"Nowhere", he replied, " I'll be just downstairs."
Harry closed the door behind him, locking it. He then cast multiple charms on and around the room, he was not taking any chances.
He went down the stairs, repairing them to the best of his abilities, before moving to the living room, where the vanishing creature was.
"Revelio!", he said.
Nothing. So It really had gone.
Next, he moved to the kitchen, moving all the broken shards of ceramic to the bin.
He stopped by where the imposter Ginny had lain. What spell had she used, making him believe that Ginny was that witch?
His hand went to his throat, where the necklace had been.
Then necklace which that girl had stolen...
"Oh no...", he thought.
That neklace was extremely valuable.
It held something that was of great importance, something which he thought no-one apart from his family, Hermione and Ron, and the Minister knew about.
That necklace held the Resurrection Stone.
