Author's Note: 'Sup readers. I'd appreciate it if you dismissed the thoughts that HP books 5-7 existed. Harry and the HP gang are currently in their fifth year and I'm kind of rearranging facts for my own use (like the reason Voldemort was after Harry and the reason Harry stopped Voldemort). Okay, thanks.
"That was odd," Harry said.
He felt along the walls of the dark passageway. Even with the light by the wands he needed help steadying himself. Plus, with the shocker they all had just received, he needed something stable to hold onto. Hermione too. He looked back at his two friends both with dazed expressions on their faces. No one knew what to believe. Had those last hour been real? Or had someone slipped something into their pumpkin juice? Harry hoped it was the former. He watched Hermione clutch her manual to her chest, and he realized that she was wishing the same thing.
He looked to Ron to see how he was taking the news. Of course it was in true Ron fashion. Complete and utter disbelief. Ron looked like a great war raged in his head. They were just on the moon-- but that wasn't real, it couldn't happen-- but it did. Ron didn't know what to believe. But that was okay, because Harry was confused himself.
"Yes, it was." Hermione said. From the tone of her voice Harry could tell that she meant odd in a good way.
"Yes, it was." Ron said. From the tone of his voice Harry could tell that he meant odd in a bad way.
Harry sighed. He didn't know what type of odd it was, good or bad. He really didn't want to have to decide that night. It was getting late, and with all of the weird things that had just happened, he just wanted to go to sleep and give into his subconsciousness.
But that wouldn't be happening soon.
The three wizards made it to the end of the secret passageway. Once they were all out they quickly sealed it up. Luckily, the entrance was sealed roughyl five seconds before Snape caught them.
Why was it always Snape?
Harry groaned inwardly, and resisted the urge to smack his professor when he saw the flicker of the smile that appeared on Snape's face.
"Mr. Potter. Mr. Weasley. Miss Granger." Snape surrounded them like one lion surveying his prey. "What are you doing after hours?"
No one was going to answer him. Not that Snape was looking for an answer. He immediately told them all to march to the Headmaster's office, the look of glee unmistakable on his face.
"Chocolate frog," Snape ordered the gargoyle. It began turning and twisting and when it was finished, Snape led them up the stairs.
Ron was looking at Harry to see how they were going to handle this. On the one hand, Dumbledore was smart. He might know what was going on with Nita and Kit and the difference in magic. On the other hand, should they get their new "friends" in trouble?
Harry didn't have a lot of time to think about it, for soon they stood in front of the Headmaster's desk.
"It's eleven thirty at night, Severus." Dumbledore said. Harry couldn't help cracking a smile at Dumbledore and his jammies. He even wore a nightcap, something that Harry thought bore a strange resemblance to Mickey Mouse's wizard hat. But Harry suppressed his smile when he saw that Snape was looking at him.
"Out, yet again, after hours and no where near the Gryffindor common room. I gave all three of them detention."
The three young wizards winced. Snape hadn't told them what their punishment was going to be, but it was just as they feared. Detention. Harry and Ron took this news better than Hermione. In an effort to save herself she cried, "But we had a good reason!"
Snape laughed bitterly. "And what reason is that?" he asked nastily. It was now that Snape noticed the book in Hermione's hands. In a swift movement the book was in Snape's hands and he was leafing through it with zeal, eager to find something dirty on Harry, Ron or Hermione. "Trying to master an evil spell, huh? Brewing a forbidden potion? I bet this book was in the Restricted Section!"
"No, sir!" Hermione pleaded. "The book... the book is mine!"
Snape kept turning the pages, but each time he tuned down the enthusiasm. Soon he was looking at the book with disgust. He threw it back to Hermione who caught it and grasped it even tighter to her chest. "It's nothing, Headmaster." Snape said rather disappointed. "It's some children's fairytale."
Harry and Ron looked toward each other. Both of them knew that the book was not a fairytale, but in actuality a complex spell book. So this book had the ability to change its appearance at will, much like the Maurader's Map. That would be useful.
"What is the book called?" Dumbledore asked curiously.
"'A Tale of Two Powers'." Snape said, "But the name of the book, or the reason they were out after hours doesn't really matter when you consider the fact that they were still breaking the rules." Snape seemed over eager to get them all in trouble, but Dumbledore looked like he couldn't care less. He lifted one wrinkled hand and told Severus that he should go back to his room, Dumbledore would handle it from here. Snape looked at Harry like he really wanted to stick his tongue out at him. But being the mature professor in this situation and not a third grader, Snape left swiftly.
Once it was just the Headmaster and the students, Dumbledore extended his hand. "Miss Granger, the book, please?"
Hermione shot Harry a worried look, but handed Professor Dumbledore the book. Harry wondered what the book would show for Dumbledore. To Hermione it had been a spell book, to Snape a fairytale. Maybe Dumbledore would see it as one of the two, or something completely different. Either way, there was something really weird about that book.
Dumbledore held the book gently in one hand, and in the other hand he slowly turned the pages. He possessed none of the vigor that Snape had, but all of the curiosity.
"Where did you get this book, Miss Granger?" Dumbledore asked, still turning the pages.
"Er..." Hermione looked to Ron for an answer, but Ron just shrugged. She turned to Harry who didn't know what to do either. Finally she settled on answering that she got it from the school's library.
"Why, Hermione, did you feel the need to go out at eleven thirty at night, with a children's book? Did you not feel that the common room would be a suitable place for reading it?"
Harry could see that Hermione was nervous. Harry was too. Dumbledore just kept turning the pages, not revealing anything but simple curiosity. They didn't know if they were in trouble, or what. Hermione didn't know how to respond to that question so she said the first, and dumbest, thing that came to her mind.
"When we left it was ten."
"Ah," was all Dumbledore left them with.
There was silence as Dumbledore kept turning the pages. Harry wondered who was going to be the one to break the silence, and then settled on himself. "Professor," When he saw that he had the headmaster's attention, Harry continued, "I got a note on the Quidditch field yesterday." Harry felt around in his jeans pockets until he produced the note. He handed it out to the headmaster who made no attempt to get it. Feeling stupid, Harry lowered his hand and let it fall to his side. He went on. "Um, it said to get someplace safe, someplace we couldn't be disturbed. I chose the Three Broomsticks, and we left. It was... weird because we met--"
Dumbledore was holding his hand out now. Finished with the book, he held it closed in one hand. With the other he asked for Harry's note. Harry gave it to him. Dumbledore unfolded the note and the read it.
"Hmm." Dumbledore sighed. "Harry, I must comment that it was very foolish of you to go. While they said they were here to help, a Death Eater would have said the same thing in order to lure you to a place where it would be easy to end your life." Dumbledore raised an eyebrow. "However I have to say I am curious as to what happened during your meeting."
"We went to the moon." Ron offered.
Harry imagined what Dumbledore was feeling when Ron said that. What Ron was saying was pretty ridiculous. The moon? Harry eyed Dumbledore and wondered if he believed them. But Dumbledore, as usual, gave nothing away.
"The moon?" he asked casually.
"Erm, yes, Professor." Hermione said. By the sheepish look on her face, she too recognized the ridiculousness of the statement. "We had a very odd night. The people we met, the ones who gave Harry the note, they weren't... rather they were... it's hard to explain."
"They weren't normal." Ron said. Hermione gave Ron a look, but Ron turned to Professor Dumbledore. "They didn't wear robes. They didn't have wands, instead they carried books. They had no clue what butter-beer was. They hadn't even heard of You-Know-Who or Death Eaters. They were almost as nutters as Loony Lovegood in Ravenclaw--" Suddenly Ron realized he'd just made fun of a student in front of the headmaster and he shut his mouth. He gave Harry a look, asking him to finish. Harry took a deep breath.
"They said that Hermione could have their kind of magic --they called it wizardry-- too, because she had that book." Harry motioned to the book Dumbledore was still holding, "All she had to do was take an Oath. Hermione didn't believe them, none of us did really, so they asked us if we wanted a demonstration. And then, they took us to the moon."
Harry, Ron and Hermione grew silent as they remembered their experience on the moon. If anything of that night, Harry hoped that the experience hadn't been just a dream. What he saw up there compared to nothing on Earth. He didn't want that memory to be because of a potion slipped in their morning juice. Dumbledore interrupted Harry's thoughts.
"That sounds like quite a night." Dumbledore said thoughtfully thinking to himself.
"It was." Harry agreed.
They were silent again, watching the old man think. Dumbledore snapped from his reverie and retreated to his desk. He sat in his chair placing Harry's note and Hermione's book on one side of his desk. From a drawer somewhere Dumbeldore produced a paper and a quill and some ink. He began writing, the three students before him going unnoticed until he finished his writing. "What are the names of the children you met?"
Harry told him. "Nita Callahan and Kit Rodreiguez,"
Dumbledore nodded twice and continued writing.
"Why do you need their names, Professor?"
Professor Dumbledore rubbed the side of his chin thoughtfully with his quill before answering. "I am inviting them to dinner. Hopefully some of the questions you have will be answered, and I have some questions myself."
"Do we still get detention?" Ron asked. Dumbledore nodded and Ron moaned.
"I am afraid that you still broke the rules. Even if you did uncover something great. Now, you must get to bed. Tomorrow is an important day."
"The Bright One knew that one day the Great War would rise up again with a wizard representing her on one side and a wizard representing the Lone One on the other. She only hoped that she had given her children the right weapons to defeat the evil once again."
For a long time Nita stared at the book. It hadn't really hit her yet that thiswas what she had come to Great Britain to do.She was thinking, Hmm nice story, and didn't make the connection while reading it. But now it dawned on her. The Great War would rise up again, it said. One wizard representing the Bright One and another representing the Lone One. So Nita was in the middle of the Second Great War. Or was it only the beginning?
Kit had finished reading also. He closed his manual solemnly and looked Tom square in the eye. "This is what we've come here to do?" Kit asked, "Fight in this Second Great War?"
Tom had known it all along. This was the secret that he and Carl had been keeping from them. Obviously they hadn't wanted Nita and Kit to get involved, even though they knew it would happen eventually. Something had made them reveal their secret. Was it urgency? The fact that time was too little? Or had something gone wrong like Nita had suspected?
"Kind of," Tom said. He leaned back in his chair looking a little relieved. Now the burden was spread between the four of them. That didn't make it any easier, Nita thought noting the stress lines still on Tom's face. "It's not our war to fight. I think Nita had that dream so we could find the Harborer of the Bright One and then help him build an army of Britain's wizards. And if that isour job over here then we've already done part of it. We've found the Harborer in the Boy Who Lived. Harry Potter."
Nita wasn't surprised. She had already made her guess while Tom was talking, and Tom saying it had just confirmed her theory. It all made sense. How else could a tiny infant have defeated the most powerful wizards in Great Britain? The only thing that could evade the Killing Curse would have been a Power, it only made sense that the Bright One was working through Harry.
"The other part, the building the army part? Is that what you and Carl were having trouble with?" Nita asked.
Tom looked a bit defensive but that quickly passed over. "No, but that part won't be easy. What we need is the entire magical community of Great Britain to fight alongside Harry Potter. But we took a trip into a well known wizarding city and picked up a newspaper, The Daily Prophet." Tom smiled weakly, "Propaganda is all most of it was. Apparently there was a big scandal last year when Harry declared that Voldemort was back. Most people didn't believe him, even with all of these deaths popping up everywhere. Wanting to live in ignorance, the Minister of Magic says in every interview he does with the Daily Prophet, that Harry Potter was lying and that he shouldn't be trusted. Most people think that Harry's crazy."
"So if we go around asking people to sign up for an army to fight an evil wizard who apparently doesn't exist they are going to think that we're crazy." Kit said dryly.
Tom nodded. "It's Carl's job to focus on the 'war' aspect, how exactly we are going to fight Voldemort and his Death Eaters. It's my job to gather together an army. Hopefully Harry has some supporters out there, but I don't want to rely on only those. It all depends on if everything goes as planned tomorrow."
"What's happening tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow I visit the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge."
Tom didn't know how this man, this fidgety nervous thing, had become Minister of Magic. He didn't look like he could do anything for himself, and he kept looking around as if half expecting an assassin to jump out at him. Tom realized that his news probably wouldn't make the man any more relaxed, but he had to get the word out.
"So..." Tom was about to ask about the weather, but the Minister obviously wasn't in a mood for small talk.
"Say what you want," Fudge said in a way that might have been menacing if his teeth weren't chattering, "And then leave. I have... er, urgent matters to attend to."
Tom knew that Fudge only wanted him out of the Minister's office, and that the urgent matters probably included a nap. He realized that this man wasn't likely to be someone he'd become good friends with, but that didn't matter. That wasn't why he was here. Meeting the Minister and using his connections was something that needed to happen in order of the Army of the Bright One to reach its full potential. Tom had seen how the Daily Prophethad greatly influenced the minds of Britain's wizarding community, and if he and Carl could spin that power for their cause, Voldemort would have no chance.
"Minister Fudge, sir, I've seen your interviews in the Daily Prophet. The ones about Harry Potter and You-Know-Who returning," Tom paused there. The look of utter horrification on Fudge's face would have stopped anyone. Tom shouldn't have paused because now he was having second thoughts about coming here at all.
"Yes?" Fudge asked. He didn't try to mask his total disgust for the subject.
"You seem to have gotten the wrong information," Tom said trying to make Fudge's ignorance on the subject into just a misinformation to get on his good side, "Volde- You-Know-Who is back. And the thing is, you need to admit this to yourself--"
Fudge had stood up and slammed his fist on the desk so loudly that Tom's voice trailed off. "'Admit this to myself'? You sound exactly like Dumbledore is that-- are you in league with Dumbledore?" Tom hadn't a clue who Dumbledore was, but apparently being friends with him was taboo around Fudge. "You-Know-Who is not back," Fudge hissed.
Denial, Tom thought. Lucky for me it's my job to change his mind."Yes, he is. Tom Riddle, Voldemort, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named isback, and we all need to admit it to ourselves if we have any chance in defeating him." Fudge flinched when Tom said Voldemort's name, but Tom continued anyway. It was like trying to convince a stubborn child, and once again Tom couldn't figure out how this was the leader of the magical community. "And I need your help and your connection with the Daily Prophet to gather an army so that we can fight against You-Know-Who--"
"And I suppose the person who would lead this army would be Harry Potter?" Fudge spit out.
Something told Tom that both Harry and Dumbledore's names were not to be said in front of the Minister, and that he shouldn't answer the question truthfully with a 'yes'.
"We'd all be fighting against an evil that has threatened the wizarding community. Minister, this goes far deeper than a murderous wizard out to destroy a fifteen yr. old boy--"
"I'm telling you he's not back," Fudge argued. Tom chose to ignore this and continued, bringing out his manual.
"Voldemort's motives are broader. Take a look at the families he's been killing." Fudge's eyes had widened and Tom let a little of his impatience show, "What? you didn't think that all of the Pemberton's had died of natural causes? No, the Pemberton's had a little girl of around 11 yrs. old. About the age a child gets offered to learn of the art of wizardry in your world. But in our world a wizard as young as that would have bountiful power. If Voldemort came to her with a proposition to join his army, and she refused, he wouldn't be happy about that would he? He certainly wouldn't want her to join our side. Why not kill them all?"
Fudge's mouth was set in a firm line. Tom couldn't tell if Fudge was taking it all in or not, so he opened his mouth to start again. Fudge interrupted him before he could get a word out. "What do you mean your world?"
Tom sighed. Explaining things to Nita and Kit had been simple, or at least less complicated than he knew things were about to get. "It all comes back to the reason whyYou-Know-Who is after Harry Potter and the Pemberton's child." Tom whispered the page he wanted to his manual and it flipped to the story, A Tale of Two Powers. He stood up and walked over to Fudge's desk. Fudge was hesitant, but in the end reached out his hand for the book.
Tom sat back down in the visitor's chair and waited. It shouldn't be long now, Tom thought, before Fudge realized that he would have to face the facts that Voldemort was back. He would put down the book, nod his head, and immediately start calling --or whatever Britain wizard's version of it was-- the Daily Prophetto post a flyer calling for wizards willing to create an army. He expected these events to unfold, what he did not expect was Fudge to close the book abruptly and then throw it into the fireplace.
"You're mad!" Fudge yelled.
Tom's eyes darted back and forth from his manual that was slowly burning in the fire to the distraught Minister who was now shaking. "He is notback! He vanished, disappeared, vamoose! from the face of the earth. Both you and Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter are all bloody nuts if you believe that. And then you go a spin this kind of... fairy tale expecting me to believe it. Pah. The Lone Power? The Bright One? Next you'll be telling me that Potter is some kind of god."
Tom wasn't about to correct him and say, 'Not a god, a Power' because he was still watching in disbelief as his manual burned. It wasn't the manual being used as firewood that bothered him. It would just reappear in a different form, completely unharmed. It was Fudge's complete ignoranceto the fact that all of their lives were in danger. It was the fact that, as the Minister it was his job to protect all of Britain's magical community, but instead he was ignoring every piece of evidence Tom flashed in his face. And all right, the story was a bit of a stretch, but Fudge was acting childish and being naive. And it was his naïveté that would kill thousands of young eleven and twelve year olds and their families in an attempt to wipe out all of the natural wizards in Britain. Tom was furious, but managed to keep his cool. That is until Fudge had several aurors drag Tom out.
The aurors weren't necessary. They pointed their wands at Tom as though he were a threat to the entire Ministry, even though Tom was walking calmly beside them. Well, calmly all except for his hands. They were shaking. If he wasn't a Senior and if Nita and Kit didn't look up to him (and, oh yeah, if the fate of Great Britain and the rest of the world weren't in his hands) he would have found a spell to take down the aurors and gone back to strangle Fudge. Now, because of Fudge's nescience things had not gone at all well. Tom would have to build an entire army for the Bright One without the help of the media or the Minister's stamp of approval. He would attempt to find all the natural born wizards old enough to find their wizardry, and somehow get them ready, and somehow...
Tom groaned in frustration and the wands at his neck dug in harder, as though a 'groan' were a signal for Tom's cronies to attack. Because of course, thanks to Fudge, they all thought he was crazy. Okay, he could live with that. Right now he had bigger problems. For instance, building an army of eleven year olds. Or finding a decent weapon for the Harborer to use in facing against Voldemort. Or stopping an evil wizard with almost limitless power from destroying the world.
"This is agony," Kit wailed sprawled on Nita's bed. Nita could only nod her head in agreement, flip the channel, and check the manual's listing. She had flipped to the 'G' page and was not flipping anywhere else for anything. She could use Kit's manual for reading on the story, but her manual always had to be glued to that one page. As soon as Hermione became a wizard, she would know and she'd send them a message for another meeting. But she agreed with Kit, the waiting was torture. They had given Hermione two hours after normal wake-up time to get her act together and maybe eat breakfast. But now it was noon and they had yet to see Hermione's name flash under the listing. Nita had given in to her boredom and decided to feed it by watching hours of endless television. They had some of the same shows as in the U.S., but that didn't make the quality of those shows any better.
"I swear if I have to see one more clichéd episode of one more stupid sitcom I'll..." Kit demonstrated what he'd do by making a couple of growling noises. Nita found this mildly amusing, but then the amusement wore off and she checked her manual again. It hadn't changed since last minute when she'd checked, and she sighed.
Kit was now lying on his back, tracing the ceiling patterns with his fingers. Tom had left a few hours ago in search of the Minister of Magic, and Carl had gone out shopping so that Nita, Kit and the Seniors could "blend".
"Hey, Neets?" Kit asked monotonously. Nita gave a grunt in response that told Kit to keep talking. "How exactly are we going to tell Harry that he holds inside of him the spirit of a Power, and that it's his destiny to face the Power who invented Death?"
Nita stopped cold. She smiled nervously at the way Kit had put it. "Uh, it's not something we can just ease into the conversation, is it?"
It was just like before when Nita had thought of how she could tell Harry that he was being sought after by an evil wizard. Only that had turned out to be something he already knew. Nita was pretty sure that Harry had no idea one of the beings that created the Universe was no resting in his body.
Luckily she was saved from having to think of the awkward conversation because Carl came in. He was holding a big pile of black cloth in one hand and some small boxes in the other. Kit shifted his position on the bed to make room for Carl's purchases. Carl laid down the black cloth which Nita could see was really four robes, like the ones Harry Ron and Hermione had been wearing. Two large and two medium.
"Fashion show," Carl said dryly.
Just because she was bored Nita stood up and walked over to the bed to take a look at the robes. Hers were a shimmery black/purple. She picked them up and held them against herself. Nita looked around for a mirror. When she finally found one she cocked her head and examined what she might look like dressed in robes.
"We don't have to wear them in the hotel, only when we go out into Britain's wizarding world. We don't want to stand out as American Muggle Tourists." Carl said slipping his own robes on.
Nita followed his example and slipped the robes over her tee and jeans. When she had situated the robes to where they didn't feel completely odd, she looked at herself in the mirror.
"Looks great," Kit said softly looking at her reflection too. Nita's face flashed bright red, and she ducked under her robes before Kit could see it. Kit did see the blush, but he pretended as though he hadn't asking Carl about the small boxes.
"Chocolate frogs," Carl said grinning. He tossed a couple to Kit. "My new favorite sweet. Be careful the frogs don't hop away," Carl added heading out the door.
Nita and Kit had no clue what he meant, until Kit opened a chocolate frog box, paused to inspect it and fell down when the frog jumped out of the box on its own.
Nita grinned. "Catch the Frog?" she asked, inventing a new game on the spot.
Kit shrugged and smiled along with her. "Better than tracing the ceiling or watching one more episode of Hannah Montana." Nita agreed and they started their game.
She was just about to grab hold of the frog when something in the window caught her eye. She glanced at the window, missing her chance to grab the frog, but not really caring when she saw what it was.
A beautiful snowy owl had landed in the window frame. Her head was twitching in that way that owls do, and one of her legs was sticking out. It held a note. For Nita? She wondered...
Suddenly a second owl perched at the window, its leg stuck out too. Nita didn't think that owls were so common in this part of Great Britain. And two very different species of owls made it all together more mysterious.
The snowy one seemed to be getting impatient. She jumped off her perch and outstretched her wings, heading straight for Nita. On her flight to Nita she barely missed Kit who had caught the chocolate frog.
"Wha...?" he asked looking from the window to the gliding bird inside their hotel room.
When the white owl was directly in front of Nita, she hovered in the air. Nita guessed what the bird was waiting for and held out her hands as a cup. The note that the owl had been clutching fell from its claws and landed in Nita's hand. Following the example of the snowy owl, the brown one in the window flew into the room. Once Nita had both papers the two owls exited the room, first the snowy owl and then the brown one.
Nita and Kit stood staring at each other for a few minutes afterward. Kit smiled with a hint of confusion. "What kind of world have we entered?"
Nita returned the bemused smile. They both sat on the bed, Kit chewing on his prize for catching the frog, and Nita fingering the papers. One was a small note, folded into quarters. Scrawled on the back was the name Harry Potter. The other was an official looking envelope. It read that it was from Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
"Open Harry's first," Kit said, "It might have news about Hermione." Both sets of eyes turned to the manual that was still open on the floor. But Hermione Granger's name had not appeared. So what could this note be about?
Nita mentally shrugged as she unfolded the note. "Nita and Kit," she read, "I hope Hedwig found you. I'm not sure if this is bad news or good news, but we got caught last night. We told them about you. Actually we told Professor Dumbledore, our headmaster. We wanted some things cleared up, and although we are still in the dark about most everything, Professor Dumbledore wants to meet you. He's going to send you an owl with an official invitation, but we just wanted to warn you. Hermione says hi. -Harry."
Nita wasted no time in opening the other envelope. Harry was right, it was just an official invitation to dinner that night, telling them to bring their guardians.
Kit read over Nita's shoulder, and scrunched his face up. "Should we go?" he asked her, returning to his original position on the bed.
"We have to, right?" Nita said. She folded Harry's note and the note from the headmaster and placing them both in the envelope. "I mean, we have to tell Harry about the Power and the story. And the Second Great War of course. We just have to ask Tom and Carl."
"Yeah. Perfect opportunity for building an army." Kit grinned, "Plus we'll have an excuse to wear those ever-stylish robes."
Nita laughed. "Perfect for every occasion, including telling a fifteen year old boy that the fate of the world lies in his hands," she said heading for the Senior's hotel room. "Come on, let's ask Carl."
Author's Note: Bye. See you in about a month, because that's how long it's going to take for another chapter to come up. Sorry, not your fault, testing is coming.
-lys