Power of the Moon
Chapter 3: Suspicions
Harry leapt onto the Hogwarts Express after Mr Weasley made him swear not to go looking for Sirius Black (But why on earth would I do that?). Harry had told Hermione and Ron about it and Baron seemed to have been listening because a minute later, his voice came into Harry's head, "So, this Sirius Black hunts you?"
Harry very nearly yelled and jumped out of his seat but he felt a hand over his mouth and another on his shoulder to keep him down. Harry glanced sideways. Baron was sitting next to him, looking completely solid. He whispered "Be collected;" Correctly reading Harry's sideways glance at Ron and Hermione who were both ignoring the fact that Baron had appeared, he explained, "let your mind speak to me. Your friends have no awareness of me.Be collected, I say. Now, Black…I have known that name. A family whose pure blood is strict. I liked Black not; he was a villain. Those of Muggle heritage did coldly feel his blunted bigotry."
Yeah, they still have them around now.
Baron sighed, "Its absence was too much to desire."
Hermione then seemed to notice Harry's sudden silence, "Harry, are you okay? Are you thinking about something?"
Harry jumped, becoming flustered as if Hermione had caught him doing something embarrassing, "Er…nothing!" Hermione smiled knowingly and, for a moment, Harry was scared that she could see Baron and knew everything. But she just said,
"It's okay to be scared of Black, Harry. We're scared for you, too. You don't have to be ashamed."
Harry stopped himself from wiping the anxious sweat off his forehead and let out a breath. Why am I keeping this from Hermione and Ron? Harry thought, I've told them about Black, haven't I? I should be okay to tell them about Baron and the Moon Medallion. The Moon Medallion was hidden under his clothes. He raised a hand to pull it out but Baron gripped his wrist to stop him and a warning look made its way onto his face,
But they're my friends…
"Harry; not a whisper must escape. An ill time to do't."
An ill time? Okay, Baron, you've lost me.
"Oh, I do forget. Harry, as we were standing on the platform, I did feel a powerful force. That feeling hast followed me."
Meaning…?
"A very powerful mage does furnish this train. Far powerful than any mortal magic."
A Sorcerer?
"Yes; ist possible. Mark it; evil lingers…"
Before Baron could continue, the compartment door slid open and Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle walked in. The spirit fell silent in a second and gave Malfoy a thoughtful look, as if trying to see right through him. Harry took his gaze off Baron and scowled at Malfoy, who, predictably, was smirking, "Well, look who it is. Potty and the Weasel."
"What do you want, Malfoy?"
"Heard your family finally got their hands on some gold in the summer, Weasley. Did your mother die of shock?"
Baron looked rather scandalised at this point, as if the insult had been directed at him. Harry thought he heard him mutter, "Why, villain…!"
Just then, Ron had made an angry movement towards Malfoy and toppled Crookshanks's cage onto the floor. The noise made the sleeping Professor Lupin in the corner snort. Malfoy looked up, "Who's that?" he asked, eying his patched, frayed and darned robes, which aggravated Baron even further,
"New teacher." Harry said quickly. Anything to stop Baron muttering. Harry was a bit scared that Baron might become so angry he would appear as if from thin air. It would give Ron, Hermione, Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle heart attacks. Well, Harry wasn't so bothered about Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle. But Malfoy wasn't fool enough to pick a fight right under a teacher's nose so he beckoned his cronies out and they all retreated from the compartment,
The spirit next to Harry fumed silently.
Calm down! Calm down! Don't take any rubbish from Malfoy. He's just doing it to get us angry and for us to pick a fight with him.
That seemed to do the trick. Baron leant back in his seat and ran a hand through his hair, "I am aggravated without just cause. School frays must ne'er warrant this. This ecstasy must not repeat. O, so full of fire is my mind, dear friend." For a moment, he sounded old and weary. Harry checked Ron and Hermione weren't looking and patted Baron's shoulder.
It's okay. You've been stuffed in that thing for two hundred years. You're bound to do that sort of thing.
"Hast it been three centuries since flesh clothed me?"
Anyway, what were you saying about something evil here?
"I endeavour not to shock your spirits but not since I lived did I feel such evil in a being. Draco; he doth carry this and sticks these concerns in my heart. How now, Harry! What meaning gives your face?"
Well, I'm not surprised. I mean, it's Malfoy, isn't it? Last year, I thought that it was him who opened the Chamber of Secrets…
"Mean you Slytherin's Chamber that ist told to be quarters of that Muggleborn-razing beast?"
Yeah.
"Didst you not say it had opened?"
Yeah, twice. But the monster's dead now.
"I shall hear't later. Harry, with all of Draco's blunted blades; with all his predispositious daggers, mortal and human is he. Ne'er a mortal or human bears such emphasis of evil as I felt. Draco is not Draco…"
"Harry!" Hermione's voice broke into Baron and Harry's conversation. Harry jumped as if receiving an electric shock, completely forgetting to ask how he knew Malfoy's name. He had half forgotten that Ron and Hermione were still there. He looked at Hermione as Baron fell silent, "You're being very quiet, Harry."
"Yeah and why were you looking at that seat next to you?"
"It looked rather like you could see someone or something there."
Ron then stood up and reached out to where Baron was. Harry glanced sideways and saw Ron's hands go straight through the solid looking spirit. He couldn't help but wince at the sight. Ron then seemed to think there was nothing there.
He made to sit down when the train jolted to a halt, knocking him to the floor. The spirit next to Harry looked rather perplexed, "Hogwarts is not so close." The noise of the pistons fell and the lights flicked off suddenly. Baron kept a hand on Harry's shoulder. He knew something was up.
There was a moment of confusion where a few other people joined them. Baron heard the names Ginny and Neville; yet he couldn't see their faces. Professor Lupin woke up at one point and lit a small fire in his hand. Impressive magic, thought the spirit, ist an accomplished man and yet he unsettles my spirit. He gave Lupin a hard look for a moment and then...oh, my soul...
As soon as he had thought this, a horribly familiar feeling crept up on him. The door slowly slid open and an all-too-familiar hooded figure stood or rather hovered in the doorway. Baron scowled, "Dementor…" This seemed to draw the attention of the beast. It withdrew the slimy hand and looked toward him. The joy-sucking creature could not use its powers on Baron because he was a spirit. Spirits could not be touched by Dementors but he remembered their icy powers all too well.
Baron suddenly felt Harry go rigid next to him, "Harry!" Harry then fell off his seat and began twitching, as if having an epileptic fit. Baron dropped to his knees so quickly that he actually hurt them. He didn't care though. He reached into his host's mind but all he found was coldness like drowning and a woman's screams, "Harry! Harry!" He glanced back at the Dementor. It had drawn itself up to its full height in an almost triumphant way. Lupin then produced a Patronus which chased the Dementor off. Ooh, Dementors burn my heart. The lights flared back on and Harry's friends rushed to his side. Baron stepped away and saw Neville Longbottom, hovering over Harry, looking worried.
He then noticed a red-haired girl curled up on a seat; looking very shaken and upset. He saw her face, noted that she was Ginny Weasley and then did a double take. Why, how much alike…Gabriel, think not upon it. She is dead and gone. He turned his attention back to Harry. He seemed to be coming round. Baron hovered behind Hermione as Harry stood up shakily. Lupin broke up a large slab of chocolate; handing a particularly big piece to Harry. Well versed in remedies too. Perhaps experience taught him.
He sat back down next to Harry and placed an arm round him. He felt shivery; he was quaking all over, "You should eat." The boy took a bite out of the chocolate but still looked rather perplexed.
What happened to me?
"You looked as one epileptic; indeed, a fit. Didst you hear screaming?"
Yeah. Who screamed? Did anyone else pass out?
"Ne'er did they scream. Ne'er did they hear." He turned back to the door where the Dementor had stood, "Dementors are those I do not love to look on."
Harry did not reply. Baron frowned and looked over to his host. Harry avoided the spirit's eye. Baron then understood. Harry thought he was weak by fainting in front of a Dementor when no one else had. Of course, he had seen it before. He placed his hand on the boy's shoulder, "Harry, no delicate are you. Others hast collapse and others shalt have. Alas, the fault is mine. Animosity hath tongue and sword; it speaks and stabs betwixt me and Dementors. I was recognised."
How come you're enemies with Dementors?
"T'was when I was live did the country become sick with bitter war. A conflict between the four Sorcerers of Light and the three Sorcerers of Darkness made summer winter with discontent. The Dementors did bring the Dark wintry chill with their masters."
There were Sorcerers of Darkness?
"Know that there in every place, there is evil's slave. I, the leader of those against, did fight bravely against their slings and arrows. Fortune doth make our toil weightless. 'Tis my worst remorse that hell-kites were oft not merciful. Tis wormwood to my soul. Ne'er was there a more terrible time than when villages were fire's fuel and lives thrown to vultures. Ne'er observing intention, the Ministry, with fires in their minds and thorns in their eyes, banished us all from the populace in first annum, with warnings ne'er to show our faces when casting Sorcery else we be punish'd."
That sounds awful…
"Yea, friend. Their decision laid cold on our hearts. Mother gave fiery protest against't but they were merciless. From our house was she and Father cast and banished with us. Ne'er did absolve the Ministry after that. Said they hostility, even fear, I would, but banishment! My wounds bleed afresh when I think of their injustice. We were forc'd to veil countenance, else we face prosecution. Those Dark Sorcerers fought veiled too, though they feared no punishment. E'er that time, we were known as the Exiled.
"Never were there kindless villains than the Dark Sorcerers. Their skin reflected their blackened hearts. Yea, they curs'd themselves to discard humanity and their skin blacken. Their unharméd souls were little consolation.
"Their leader; never will you meet more a monstrous rogue! So childlike in his acts, yet was ne'er caught. Count Jean de Nekros; no fallible reason had he to take arms against us."
How did you defeat him?
"One fatal error in those villains was that they ne'er became a triple-pillar, united against their foes as did we. Lo, victory sat happily with us!!"
Baron swelled out his chest proudly. That act, along with his horn-rimmed glasses, made him look rather like Percy and Harry suppressed a chuckle. He then realised something.
Er, Baron, didn't you say when I first met you that there were seven Exiled and each had a Moon item?
Baron deflated and looked at him quizzically, "What, ho, Harry?"
Does this mean that the Dark Sorcerers' spirits are locked inside Moon Items too? That they could find their…ah…Chosen Ones and they could come out again?
The spirit suddenly looked worried, "O, Heaven, Harry. Yea, they controlled Moon Items, which, when the timely host doth come, shall announce the spirit within."
Baron, if their souls are in Moon Items, which ones are they?
The young spirit sighed, looking weary again, "My mind doth betray me. Knowledge does not with me sit as did before. I know not. But evil should not unwatch'd go."
The train pulled into Hogsmeade Station as Harry got into a carriage with Hermione, Ron and, of course, Baron. When they reached Hogwarts, Harry and Hermione were pulled aside by Professor McGonagall. Baron followed, walking straight through people to keep up, rather like a solid ghost. He asked Harry who McGonagall was (again, he seemed to know her name without asking). When he told him she was the Transfiguration teacher, he began telling Harry a story about when he had lost his temper with his teacher and thrown all his books out of the window.
McGonagall then had a very grim discussion with them about Harry fainting on the train. Harry privately agreed with Baron's scowls. He hated being questioned, especially by McGonagall and later Madam Pomfrey who called him…
"I'm not delicate!"
Harry whole-heartedly agreed with Baron's scowl, though growing more and more puzzled at Baron's knowledge of names. They were dismissed from McGonagall's office after she had had a word with Hermione and walked into the Great Hall. Baron looked around smiling,
"Ah, my heart doth become warm to see how unchang'd Hogwarts is." He looked toward the staff table and asked Harry to point them out to him. It amused Harry greatly to hear Baron describe Snape as 'one worthy of a bat's slave'.
Dumbledore stood up to make a speech. He first said that the Dementors would be guarding the school. This made Baron scream, "O, hell-kite! Dementors! Hast you no sense?"
BARON! Harry yelled in thought over the other's ranting. Dumbledore doesn't like the Dementors either. It's the Ministry you should be yelling at. So calm down and shut up.
Dumbledore was completely oblivious to Baron's angry outburst as was everyone. He continued to say that Lupin was the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. There was polite applause that Baron joined in with but then he noticed Snape's expression, "Resentment doth sit with Snape,"
That's a bit of an understatement.
"He teaches?"
He teaches Potions but everyone knows that he really wants to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts. He's been after the job for years and he hates me. Because he and my dad were arch-enemies at school.
"O, Jove. No stranger to the Dark Arts is he; ne'er a stranger to Hades. Dark manner doth surround him…"
Baron trailed off thoughtfully. Harry, meanwhile, began to ask how he knew everyone's names but he was distracted by Dumbledore saying that Hagrid was going to be the Care of Magical Creatures teacher. Harry clapped and cheered along with the rest of the Gryffindors. The spirit standing behind Harry applauded too, smiling amusedly at the students, "Ist he popular?"
Yeah! Should have known it would be Hagrid. Who else would give us a biting book?
Baron stiffened, "I beg your pardon? Ist this wherefore I heard tearing of paper?"
Yeah. The Monster Book of Monsters and no one can open it without getting their hands ripped off and…don't start your little rant again. I've just fallen foul of a Dementor and the last thing I need is for you to yell down my ear.
"Oh, yes…forgive me…what man ist Hagrid, can I ask? Familiarity doth come betwixt you."
Yeah, he was the first person who told me about Hogwarts, wizards and all that. He's the gamekeeper.
"Hast he giant lineage but, ne'erth'less a pleasant man."
Oh, yeah, he's great! Mind you, he has befriended giant spiders, bought a three-headed dog and once owned a baby dragon.
Harry decided to stop at this point because Baron looked so scandalised that he was afraid he might start shouting again. Instead, he went over to congratulate Hagrid with Ron and Hermione. When they reached the Gryffindor Tower, Baron smiled in recognition at the Fat Lady and at the Gryffindor Common Room, declaring that it was like he'd never left.
A/N: Okay, I'm just editing the chapters with Baron in them. I'm confident that nothing else needs changing...yet...
