Pradeep, cateagle, Jason, dmp, happy reader 1 Thank you and all the others who read this story so far and have posted reviews as well.

Harry Potter – the Power Unknown

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Chapter – 9

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Snape and McGonagall left Hogwarts on the same day as the students. Albus was glad to see them go as he had become sick of Minerva's concern over Harry, and whenever she would raise it in front of Snape (it was far too often in his opinion) it always ended in an argument that made him unable to work properly for the rest of the day.

Snape and Minerva went straight to Potter castle and were greeted by a shout of glee and a hug. They had not seen Harry since the spring holidays and they were amazed at his growth. He had grown taller and was looking smart.

"So Harry how are you?" asked Minerva as Harry released her and latched on to Snape. Still hanging on to his arm, Harry grinned back at her, "Fine aunty Minerva. And both of you, how have you been? It's been ages you know. Why couldn't you even come over for a day I don't know?" he ended on a plaintive note.

"Harry, I told you this would be our busiest time, as exams and grading go on at full strength. Otherwise do you think, both of us want to spend any more time with Bumbles, than we are doing now?" asked Snape with a smile at Harry's pitifully falsely mournful voice.

Minerva smiled as well patting his arm and turning to greet Sirius and Remus, who had come to greet them as well.

Snape scowled at them, they scowled right back at him and all were satisfied. Harry started giggling at the scowls all the three wore and was told off sternly by Sirius.

"Hey! This is a serious thing, you know. We take pride in scowling and sniping at each other. I'll have you know not to mock at it, young man," and spoilt it by grinning and ruffling Harry's hair.

Snape scowled even more and muttering about silly dogs and infantile pups with no breeding to speak of and went on to his room to refresh himself.

Sirius scowled at that and shooting him a very obscene gesture with his fingers yelped when Minerva smartly smacked him on his head.

"You know Sirius, just because we are not at Hogwarts, you need not think I will not come down on you. I can and might be persuaded to give you a detention right here and tell you to help Severus clean cauldrons, without magic." She ended with a glare at him, glancing at Harry, "That goes for you too young man. No dirty talking and no rude gestures. You have been warned."

Both of them gulped audibly and resolved not to do anything to offend her. Sirius consoled himself saying he could always lie low for a few days before irritating Snape. That was one of the joys in his life and he was dammed if he would allow Min-Min to stop it. The problem was she seemed to know exactly what he was thinking and was looking through him and at him rather speculatively.

Snape re-entered at that moment and all of them went to have some tea and biscuits as they brought each other up to date.

Remus and Sirius told them about all they had been teaching Harry and it was quite a lot. He was up to third year now and he was astounding when it came to grasping the theory and beyond comparison when it came to the practical.

Snape decided to teach him the Dark Arts as Albus would use them ruthlessly to press his advantage. If he could place a blood call spell on a baby he was capable of doing quite anything.

Harry was now wearing the Black ring along with the Potter rings. Snape was quite correct when he assumed the two rings to be that of Griffindor and Slytherin. They would help and make sure Harry could never be placed under any kind of spell without his full consent.

That meant obtaining his consent under the influence of a dark spell or an unforgivable like the imperious would not work on him. Plus the Black ring would also protect him against a majority of dark curses.

The Potter rings were also other things. They served as portkeys that would bring him automatically to the castle if he wanted to escape, any bind or spell would not stop it.

Both the rings were created by all the four founders who weaved their own protections on it. As a result they were formidable protections in themselves.

But Harry would need the knowledge of the dark arts and many other obscure branches of magic if he wanted to defeat this very clever man who followed no rules and no boundaries that he would not cross and no levels he would not stoop to, to achieve what he wanted.

Snape also wanted to teach him potions, Occlumency and Legilimency. Minerva would take him through fourth year syllabus in transfiguration and along with it he would start his classes in Arithmancy and Runes.

So that holidays went by with Harry getting a start on these new subjects.

The easiest was Occlumency and Legilimency as Snape created a mental link with him and taught him to build up the walls. He also told Harry to improvise and make it stronger. Then he would teach him to recognize mental probes and to ward off attacks.

Runes fascinated him. He even went to the extent of researching advanced books on runes for his basic runic problems. He found Arithmancy a bit dry, but realized it would help him in the area of accurate spell casting.

The summer vacation went by swiftly and Snape for the first time decided to come everyday in the evening for an hour or two to continue the classes on the dark arts.

The eyes that were ever present assured Snape the next day with a note as usual, he could do so and they would make sure his absence would not be detected.

As a precaution, though, the eyes had told Snape his ring would burn strongly, if he was needed and Snape should leave everything at that time and rush back to the school.

All too soon it was time to go and Harry urged Minerva to also come by sometimes. Snape and Sirius scowled at each other and the two professors left for yet another year at Hogwarts.

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They left at different times, Snape leaving in the morning before breakfast and Minerva before lunch. Snape had met Albus briefly before going to the dungeons to prepare for the coming year that would start in three days.

Minerva came just before lunch and she went straight to her rooms to refresh herself, before unpacking and going straight to the Great Hall to meet with Albus and the others.

All of them were sitting there and they greeted each other cordially and the usual start of term conversation went around.

After about ten minutes of inane chatter, Minerva turned to ask Albus about Harry. She took great pleasure in asking him time and again as she would have in normal times out of concern, and watching him frown at his failure to get to Harry, for more than a year now.

Well if she had anything to do with it he would never get his filthy hand on the child ever, she thought grimly.

"Albus, you have been trying to get Harry's whereabouts haven't you? Have you had any success?" she frowned. "How can a small boy refuse a call like he has?"

Albus would have dearly liked to know as well. In fact he would have given anything to know the answer to that particular query.

For the second time in fifteen months he had spent two months searching high and low for the bloody boy. If he got his hands on him, well first a nice imperius, a truth spell, and he would know how Harry escaped the call and then some of the nice imperius potion that he had prepared, courtesy of knowing Black magic and Harry would be putty in his hands.

He had made a terrible mistake in leaving Harry with his relatives thinking the blood call and the other curse spells he had placed would do the trick.

He clenched his hands in an anger he was not quite able to conceal. Harry was too important for him apart from the Potter vaults. He had a secret not even Arthur or Pettigrew knew about and Harry was central to that. He had to have Harry and he needed Harry as his puppet and he needed Harry as his sacrifice and he needed Harry to save himself.

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Snape was leaving Hogwarts everyday to go to Potter castle to teach Harry the basics of the dark arts and also at the same time gave him an insight into Black magic and how to recognize it and if attacked with, then how to counter it.

He also checked on Harry's Occlumency by probing his mind at different times, without warning. Harry had developed a unique way to prevent intrusion. He had shrouded his mind with a fog that made you flounder about before actually seeing anything. By that time an automatic parcel tongue curse created to attack, would fly towards the alien presence and would forcibly eject him from Harry's mind.

The first time the spell worked, Snape was thrown ten feet away. From the next time he was careful to look out for the curse that was on auto pilot and had to get out quickly when he saw the hex approaching.

But that meant Snape could never peep into Harry's mind and Harry's Occlumency lessons were complete. From then on he was only tested at random times by everyone and invariably at odd times someone would be thrown a few feet away, because they forgot to keep track of his throw out hex as they took to calling it.

Harry was also coming on nicely in his other studies. When you were studying as much as he was it was difficult not to learn so much in so short a while. Besides Harry had a purpose that made him serious to a fault.

Above all he wanted to deal with this quickly and get along with his life. Now he had a glimpse of happiness and freedom he wanted all of it, all the time.

For that he had to deal with this Albus, who had killed his parents and forced him into a life of such sadness. Knowing as much as he did now about magic he understood and was horrified by the spells that Snape and the others had removed from him more than a year ago.

To achieve this he had to become stronger than Albus and he had to have an enormous amount of good intent. He had had it dinned and rammed into his head on almost a daily basis about the equation between intent and magic.

Magic he was taught was just that, magic. It was the intent that made it good, bad or evil. To win over anything bad or evil you had to use an enormous amount of the magic that would act as the counter for the bad or evil magical deed.

To win over the evil man you had to defeat him with an intent that was slightly more than the exact opposite of his mental status. It was all in the mind as he was told repeatedly.

The actions originated there and if you would achieve anything at all it would be because you were strong in your mind first, complemented by your body.

Albus, aunty Minerva had told him, was evil as was Voldemort and his death eaters and Wormtail and Arthur Weasley.

To counter all these men as it was in his lot to do so he had to equip himself with enormous knowledge and enormous fair and decent intent and a mind that would not judge and that would not infringe or force itself upon others.

Any other person would have given up by now as they looked at the task before them that was as high as the mountains and as deep as the seas. Not Harry. He had experienced happiness and love after nine years and as far as he was concerned, for the first time in his living memory and he would be dammed if he let it all go.

He would fight for himself and for all these loving people who were doing so much for him to win. He would not fail. He could not afford to.

That year went by as well and as summer of the second year approached Harry was starting on NEWT level lessons. He could cast simultaneously and silently. He was on his way to become very proficient in the dark arts. Dueling was another area that exhilarated him.

He loved fighting with all of them though he had to yet beat them on a regular basis. He had defeated Sirius three times and Remus once so far. Snape and Minerva were still trashing him on a daily basis.

At the start of Harry's third summer all of them sat down together to decide on his schooling as he would receive a letter any day to the school.

Snape had written to the voice about it as well and now all of them were in the dining room debating it. Harry himself was silent as he was in two minds. One part of him wanted to go another part of him wanted to stay right here.

All of them were slightly scared as Harry would come under the eyes and control of Albus and none of them could categorically say Harry could take care of it. He was only eleven years after all.

The eyes decide to intervene. They left a note that appeared on the table suddenly shocking everyone and making all of them including Harry to draw his wand, an action that did not go unnoticed and was very much applauded by all.

Hello everyone,

We still think Harry is not fully prepared to deal with Albus. Give him another year and all of us can decide then. In the meantime teach Harry more about spell detection, dark arts and dueling. Severus and Minerva can also sift through the first years and check on the students, their minds and their attitudes.

We have other plans for Sirius, Remus and Severus as well, that will take a little time to put in to place. Once that is done the Harry may attend Hogwarts from September next year.

Of course we will meet you in person at that time and inform you all about well, everything.

That effectively put everyone into silence, and then almost immediately an exited chatter broke out as all of them were tremendously exited to meet the lovely Voice and her husband.

That note also decided Harry's agenda for the next year and huge speculation of what was in store for Sirius, Snape and Remus broke out among them. While all of them questioned incessantly, the eyes laughed silently, before blinking out.

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Albus Dumbledore waited and waited for a response from one student that he did not get. Harry's letter had reached its destination, but there was no reply accepting the invitation to attend Hogwarts. Albus could have cried.

Minerva was writing almost everyday asking him if Harry's letter had been received and he was frustrated to the point that he decided to place a dark spell on her for her to keep quiet forever.

This was the third summer in a row he had spent hunting for Harry bloody ….. …… Potter. Really! The way Harry had vanished was eating into him. He started sending worried and grandfatherly letters once a week asking Harry to return and he promised wonderful things in exchange.

Nothing worked. Harry simply kept away. No replies and no clues as to where he was and how he was managing.

Albus kept on trying all through the year.

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The next year saw Harry completing his NEWTS and at twelve he was a master in the dark arts, mind magic and all the courses Hogwarts had to offer.

He had become tall, he was still thin, and no amount of eating seemed to add to his weight. He had brilliant reflexes of the mind as well as the body and the running he did everyday in the morning helped to keep his body fit and fine.

Snape and Minerva came to Potter castle as usual one day after school broke out and you could actually see the suppressed excitement of all of them as this summer they would meet the Voice.

Harry was also feeling exited as this year he would leave for Hogwarts for the first phase to bring down Albus.

There had been no news from the Voice for quite a while and so they really did not know when she would come. Though it did not stop them speculating about it.

All of them continued their lessons as before and on the thirty first of July, they received a note from the Voice inviting all of them to spend the rest of the holidays with her and her husband.

The excitement was running high as all five young and not so young members of that household couldn't get themselves to sit still as they bantered back and forth about whom it could be and just what was planned for them.

They waited impatiently the next day and at lunch another note with the words 'will activate in one hour, please bring the memories of Lily with you' written on it.

They had all packed and for another hour they sat around the note doing absolutely nothing. Snape had thought only for a moment before he had packed the memories to take it with him.

They had not shown the memories to Harry as they were scared the memories could be viewed by Albus's probing. Snape did not want to show it till he was satisfied Harry could deal with Albus and keep the secrets he had so far about Potter castle and all of them training him before Harry would be ready to view these memories.

His argument had been, if Snape and Minerva had been found out they could just floo out of Hogwarts and be in hiding, while Harry's rings would bring him to safety, but if Albus got hold of the memories, that would mean disaster and no one had been able to disagree with that.

At the appointed hour they held on to the note and were whisked away to the beautiful woods that Snape and Remus had retrieved Sirius from.

A second later a very beautiful woman and a handsome man, both of them, very old, came out of the woods and smiled at them.

"Hello. My name is Nicholas Flammel and this is my wife Perenelle and it is we who, I am afraid were so mysterious and troubling all these years."

All of them instinctively bowed. The Flammels' bowed back and led the way into their castle, keying in all of them to the wards.

Soon all of them gathered around in the lovely drawing room of the small castle that was in the middle of the woods. The trees were all as old as, if not older than the Flammels themselves.

There were trees of every kind, old, and huge with their strong branches and leaves dancing to the tunes of the stronger wind that was whistling lovely tunes through them.

There were small lakes here and there and birds of all types were chirping and singing. There were tiny streams flowing alongside with them chattering to them as they went along. They fell gracefully from here to there, with careless abandon, creating small waterfalls that added to the beauty of the streams and the woods.

There were so many phoenixes that were trilling softly, griffins, chimeras and the shocking them were a few basilisks and so many creatures Harry could not identify.

All of them seemed to exist in harmony and were at total peace with themselves and the world around them, not knowing and not caring about the vicious world outside of these woods. The stare of the basilisk did not seem to kill and Snape, as they were led to the house made a mental note to inquire about it when he got a chance.

Harry and the others felt a strange peace descend upon them as they followed the old and yet very powerful couple who could bring the phoenixes and the basilisks along with the chimeras and the griffins to coexist peacefully.

As they settled down in the drawing room that seemed to be an extension of the woods outside in reflecting the peace and harmony right inside the small castle, all of them were seized with a sudden excitement as they looked the couple who were also settling down to talk and lay out everything they knew in the open.

It was Nicholas who started his story and he was prompted by his wife when ever she felt she had to add something more.

"It was many years ago that Albus came to me to learn about alchemy. While his aura did not impress me his eagerness and dedication to the subject did. Nell did warn me she is very intuitive, but I disregarded her advice and that is why I am now doing my utmost to bring down a man I helped to create without knowing at that time and because I was too foolish to listen to Nell.

"As I told you he came to learn alchemy, but slowly he wormed his way into my affections and expressed his awe and spoke of his inspiration to understand the process of creating the Philosopher's stone.

"I never reacted initially, and I was afraid to teach him anything about the stone, but he kept bringing various theories at regular intervals that wore me down. His enthusiasm and hard work I am afraid, blinded me to the man he was and is, a ruthless man prepared and willing to wait for years before he could pounce and devour.

"He literally waited years before I gave him the process of making the stone, the only clever thing I did was not to give him the whole process, but only a slight variation.

"He was adequately grateful and he has always maintained the same relationship even after he got the information. There are two ways of making the stone.

"While I was foolish to be taken in by his enthusiasm and his dedication, I am eternally grateful to Nell to demand a promise of me, that I am afraid at the time I did not see the need for, that I would not reveal the second type to anyone without her consent. That was the only thing that stopped me from giving him the second method of preparing the stone.

"The first type is known as the basic type and it allows the drinker to live as long as he takes the stone. The drinker of the stone can be killed and is mortal and he will die of natural causes if he stops taking the stone.

"The second type is known as the true type and it bestows immortality and perfect health on the drinker. Both of us have taken the true type and that is why we have lived so long.

"After sometime, Nell dragged me to Knockturn alley one day. We made ourselves invisible, another effect of the stone and she pointed to an ordinary man and to my horror I saw it was Albus. I have the aura sight and it was the same aura that had dogged me for days, pleasing me and making me give the secrets of the stone to him.

"There after I started following him and I found such terrible things about him. He is truly a dark lord. He was Joseph Heifer the assassin who helped Grindelwald with the more insane ideas and it was he who killed Grindelwald in cold blood, took his entire things morphed into a tired, hurt and a victorious Albus and accepted all the laurels."

He bowed his head choked with emotion as all the others gasped. Albus was the assassin. It was too much to take and Minerva felt a lone tear run down her cheek as she thought of the man she had worshipped.

Perenelle took up the story, "That was not all we found. We found so much more. Riddle who is actually Voldemort," there were more gasps, "But he studied with me." Said Minerva wondering just what horrors she would learn today.

"Yes, Minerva, he had very good thoughts for the Wizarding world though they were very twisted as he wanted immense powers for himself. He covered his insatiable desire for power very well though and gathered many pure-blood followers and marked them as his." Snape blushed in shame.

Perenelle continued as Nicholas stayed with his head bowed and his shoulders shaking, "Albus trained him briefly with Grindelwald and was tremendously interested in him. Killing Grindelwald gave him a taste of power and adoration from the public that was addictive and he wanted more.

"He sought out Riddle as Heifer and put him under a stunner and fed him with an imperious potion and extracted all information about the five horcruxes Riddle had made and the knowledge of the mark he had placed on his followers.

"He then made him drink the deep sleep potion in huge quantities that would make him sleep for more than a year. He then went after the horcruxes and destroyed them and came back and killed Voldemort even as he was sleeping.

"He became Voldemort assuming a fearful potion given form that was different from Riddle's, but as that form was so fearsome, everyone assumed he had performed many rituals that had changed his body.

"When the prophecy was revealed by Trelawney he knew it was about him and he was desperate to kill you Harry. But there his greed got in his way. He also wanted the treasures of the Potter vault.

"So he decided to kill all the Potters except Harry and place Harry under his control and supervision and proceeded to do the same. Peter killed your grandparents and his golem masquerading as Voldemort killed James while he killed Lily and took you away and placed with your aunt, whom he placed under a mild hating charm so that you would not grow up content and would look upon him as your savior.

"But your mother was too clever for him. She had Severus and if he would not then the goblins take care of you. Otherwise we were planning to kidnap you on your eleventh birthday.

"You may wonder why Harry? Till Severus examined Fawkes we had no idea of the protections placed by Lily and we were not aware of how much she had deduced and prepared. As far as we knew Albus was your legal guardian and he could call you back and we would not be able to do a thing till you turned eleven.

"When you turn eleven, if your parents are not alive, you could assume the position of the Head of your family. So we were eagerly waiting for you to turn eleven. We had planned to train you and help you to defeat that monster we once called a friend.

"For the past two years he has been desperate, as every day you are not found means he is vulnerable to that extent. The prophecy could actually come true." She finally finished to a devastating silence all around her, shattering the world of Snape, Minerva, Sirius and Remus and breaking Harry's heart as he listened to his parents' deaths.

End of Chapter – 9

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