Harry Potter: Prince of Amber

Yay! New chapter!

Thanks of the reviews.

I'm not that happy with the pervious chapter and may rewrite it sometime in the future.

Thank you Calileane: It's reviews like that, that keep Fanfiction authors going. There are no pairs planned, and don't worry Harry/Ginny will never appear in any of my works! (Sorry and fans out there

Right if your new to this story don't bother reading this.

I feel that I must clarify what I wrote in the A/N.

I didn't mean to 'hold the story of ransom' I simply was saying that it helps to get me focused.

I'm sorry for upsetting anyone that wasn't my intention. However I must say that flaming other people's work is pointless, as people that write Fanfiction are not getting anything for their work and reviews are our payment, flames are waste of the reviewers time, the authors time and the readers time.

Now I've got that off my chest.

On with the story!

Wow that's the longest A/N I've ever written! lol :)

Chapter 4: Freedom from the Past

As soon as the portal closed behind him, Harry missed what Corwin said as it suddenly felt like his head was being split in half. He fell to his knees, unaware of anything but the pain, it was worse than when Voldemort touched him, worse then the Cruciatus. A scream managed to rip itself from his throat, before the pain vanished as suddenly as it began, leaving him with a massive headache. Even with that, Harry felt like a weight, that he'd not even been aware had been there, had been lifted off his shoulders. He felt better than he'd ever felt in his life. Harry rubbed his forehead, he felt the wet feeling of blood, his scar had been bleeding again. He sighed, rubbed his forehead again and froze. He couldn't feel his scar anymore, it was gone! A smile spread across his face at the idea, no more visions, not more Voldemort, no more prophecy!

Corwin responded to all this by simply watching him, with a blank expression. Harry strangely liked this seemingly lack of interest better than the attention he got at Hogwarts when his scar had hurt. He'd never liked pity. Corwin offered him some cloth. Harry took it, and stared at it. Corwin simply waved a hand at his face. Harry nodded and wiped his face with it.

"Thanks." Harry said. Corwin snorted, as if the idea of thanks was repulsive. He turned away.

"Come, we need to get to the castle, it is getting late." He said. Harry looked up and noticed that the sun was indeed getting low in the sky. Harry had to almost jog to keep up with the pace that Corwin was setting with his strides. Harry struggled and Corwin only noticed when Harry had to stop.

"Does it still hurt?" Corwin asked. Harry nodded. Corwin pulled out, from his cloak, and tossed Harry a flask. Harry caught it with Seekers reflexes. "It will help." Thinking it was some kind of healing potion, Harry took a gulp and spluttered, coughing like mad as it burnt his throat. He shot Corwin an accusing look, he just looked highly amused.

"What...was that?" Harry whizzed.

"Whisky." Corwin said. "Benedict swears by it, numbs the pain he says." Harry stared at him.

"You do know I'm only sixteen, right?" Harry asked. Corwin returned his stare, his bored expression, saying he failed to see Harry's point.

"It worked, did it not?" He said. Harry scowled.

"Yeah, my throat hurts so much now that I can't even think about my head." Corwin let out a bark of laughter at that. Then turned and continued down the road towards the castle without another word, however at a slightly slower pace. Harry hurried to catch up.

The silence stretched and Harry took the opportunity to examine the forest they were walking though. Vaguely he wondered why the portal hadn't taken them straight to the castle it's self. But then he wouldn't have be able to enjoy the beauty of the forest as he walked. The sky was a deeper blue then he'd ever seen, but then the sky in Britain rarely made it past blue-grey. Where as the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts, always had a foreboding feel to it, this forest was light and inviting. Harry felt an itch to explore, get lost and discover all about it. The air here was so pure, Harry felt that his lungs were being cleaned just by breathing it. Corwin's voice suddenly cut though Harry's thoughts.

"What was that all about?" He asked

"Huh?" Harry said vaguely. Corwin chuckled.

"Your scar." Harry's eyes darkened.

"A curse rebounded off my when I was little." He said, not really wanting to talk about that, at the moment. He was just enjoying it not being there anymore.

"So it was magical?" Corwin asked. Harry nodded, and Corwin smirked knowingly. Harry's eyes widened.

"Is that why it disappeared?"

"Magic doesn't work in Amber." Corwin said simply. Harry was about to say something more, when a hunting horn sounded from somewhere off to their left, deep in the forest, followed by howls which were eerily like Moony's. Corwin's head whipped round in it's direction, and he tensed. Hatred twisted his face into a scowl, as he silently pulled Harry behind him.

"Stay behind me and don't say anything." He hissed at him, before turning his full attention to the forest just as three enormous hounds appeared out of the forest. All of them were at least twice the size of Padfoot, and none of them looked in the least bit friendly. Harry unconsciously shrunk away from them. Out of the forest in front of them came the biggest horse Harry had ever seen. It's coat grey with hooves the colour of steel. Harry ripped his eyes from the horse to look at the rider. He was wearing plated amour of pure white. When Harry looked at his face it was like looking at a dark haired Malfoy. He looked down at Harry with cold blue eyes and Harry couldn't help shivering. He smirked and looked at Corwin, he said something in a different language. Corwin responded in the same language. This continued for some time, and Harry couldn't help feeling a little left out. He could tell that they didn't get on. The was hatred rolling off Corwin and disdain from the other man. Soon the man looked back at Harry.

"Welcome to the family." He said, before directing the horse back into the forest, the hounds following close behind. Harry couldn't decide if that had been a greeting or a threat. When it became clear that the man was not going to return, Corwin relaxed slightly.

"Sociopathic bastard." Corwin muttered to himself.

"Who was that?" Harry asked.

"That was my brother, Julian." Corwin spat the name as if it were poison. He glanced at Harry. "Keep away from him, he'll sooner kill you then look at you." Harry shivered unconsciously, he had no doubt of that, his eyes had been cold and dangerous.

"And the language you were speaking?" Harry asked.

"That was Thari, the language of Amber." He said, then glanced at Harry. "You'll have to learn it, our family will speak English, but the servants only speak Thari." Harry almost came to a stop.

"Servants? As in humans?" He asked. Corwin looked amused at that.

"Of course, what else?" He asked. Bloody hell! Seeing Harry shock Corwin sighed. "Everyone that's not of our family is below you. You'll have to learn that fast if you want to live much longer."

Harry had heard enough, that had sounded just like something Voldemort would say, and he couldn't hold his tongue any longer.

"That's wrong!" He seethed. "No one's better than anyone else. It's arrogant, stupid...." Harry was cut off by a vicious backhand from Corwin which sent him to the ground. Harry's hand shot up to the side of his face where Corwin had hit him. He winced slightly at the pain, and he could taste blood. He wouldn't be surprised if it had loosened a few teeth. He looked up to see a furious Corwin glaring at him.

"How dare you speak that way!" He said calmly, belaying the obvious anger behind his eyes. "Do you think this is a game? You are above every Shadow-being simply by existing. You are an Amberite, and you learn to act as one. Or you will be dead before you first century." Without giving Harry a chance to take that in, Corwin yanked him to his feet. "Now I don't want to hear another word from you until we reach the castle." With that Corwin stalked away towards the castle without even looking to see if Harry was following. Harry stared in shock at the retreating form of his grandfather for sometime, before cautiously following him. After all he didn't want to run into Julian again. But he couldn't help wondering what the hell he'd gotten himself into this time.

I know I said that we'd met Random this chapter, but it just didn't work out that way.

Please review!