::: ::: parseltongue...sorry but I can't seem to get other symbols to work on ff. net
Choice – Chapter 8: Puzzles
Harry looked at the fire space apprehensively; his friends would come anytime now. And, as if on cue, the fire roared, and out stumbled Hermione and Neville. "Harry!" Hermione called happily and launched herself at him. Then, in a more menacing tone, she asked, "What were you thinking? We were so worried; I can't believe that you didn't tell me about the Stone!"
"Ahem… I'll leave you kids alone now; have fun." Snickering, Remus retreated from the room, ignoring Harry's glares.
After explaining again and again that he could only find Ron and Neville at the time and there was no time to waste, Hermione was finally somewhat pacified. "Still, you could have gotten yourself killed…I can't believe you went charging after You-Know-Who just like that."
"I am surprised, too," Harry mumbled, "Well, how's your summer been? And where is Ron?"
"Ron's family are visiting in Egypt, you should get an owl from him soon. Well, my summer's been the usual; I finished all my homework… (Neville winced) but I wish I had more books to read, though, you know how hard it is to get my hands on wizarding books at home with my parents being Muggles and all."
Harry nodded in understanding, "Well, you can always borrow some books from here, I'm sure Sirius wouldn't mind."
"Really? That would be wonderful!" Hermione's eyes lit up. Even Neville looked a little excited at the mention of Sirius' name; he asked shyly, "Harry, when will Mr. Black be back from Ministry business? Can I, er, meet him sometime?"
"Sirius should be back in a week or so…just don't let him hear that he had little fans of his own; imagine what this can do to his already over-large head."
Next two hours were spent in the library, with Hermione absorbed in one book after another. When she was finally done picking, she had an armful. "I wish we could do magic in summer, I could really use a shrinking charm," she murmured contentedly.
Harry and Neville looked at each other. "Well, Hermione, actually, you can," Harry told her.
"What? But I thought…"
"Well," Neville spoke up, "I know this is not fair, but most of the long-standing wizard families have many protection charms around their houses or manors. This is especially true with pure-blood families like Blacks…so, er, our under-age magic is sort of shielded from Ministry detection when we are in the manor."
"Oh…" Hermione said, not completely convinced. She cautiously uttered the timed shrinking charm, and waited. No owl from the Ministry came. She let go of the breath she was holding, "How nice! Just imagine all the practice spells we can do!"
"It's summer, Hermione!" Neville whined.
"Hey, actually it's not that bad an idea. I hadn't been able to touch my wand for weeks, with Sirius and Remus treating me like a glass doll and all. I really want to test my magic ability, since Madam Pomfery warned that there might be some setbacks on my magic because of that curse," Harry said.
"Are you sure you're up to it? Please be careful, maybe you should try a minor one first," his friends looked a bit worried.
"I know…I'm thinking of the levitation spell we learned beginning of the year." Harry took out his wand; cautiously pointing his wand at a book, he uttered the incarnation, "Wingardium Leviosa."
As soon as the spell left his mouth, Harry knew something was wrong. When he first touched his wand, there was no warm recognition; yet he had thought it was because of the fact he hadn't used his wand for a while. But right now he could feel outright repulsion as sparks flew and the book remained untouched. He cried out in surprise when he received the shocks and dropped his wand. Neville and Hermione were on him in a second, alarms on their faces, "Are you alright? We shouldn't have let you try magic so soon…"
"I'm alright, really…but it's strange," Harry picked up his wand and looked at it closely, "It is almost as if my wand doesn't recognize me anymore…"
"But that's not possible… And even if your wand really doesn't recognize you, it should be no different than using another's wand..." Hermione's brows furrowed as she considered the matter.
"Well, I guess I'm just still worn from the attack," Harry suggested and was pleased to see that she bought the explanation. He himself wasn't so convinced, though; and he would have to look things up.
Harry threw the book down in exasperation. He had gone back to the library as soon as his friends left, yet he was no closer in his research. He had tried to use spells twice after the levitation charm – with progressively worse results. So now he had a throbbing headache and no more idea of what might have caused this turn of events. One thing was sure, though, that he was not going to be able to use his wand for a while. This greatly frustrated him; without a working wand in the wizarding world could be quite dangerous. Perhaps he should borrow one of those extra wands of Sirius or Remus? Well, they would sure make a big fuss of it once they learned of this. Thus Harry had decided to ask for their help when Sirius returned home next week if he still hadn't found a cure by then. Meanwhile, though, it seemed that he would have to resort to reading and researching.
Yet however much he enjoyed reading, Harry had had enough with books when he put down the heavy dome he was reading. It was an ancient text and was written in a very dry tone with many unfamiliar words. He had come across many recorded incidents where wands had malfunctioned and the ways to deal with them – yet his many tires resulted only in electric shocks. Obviously his wasn't any of the situations described in the books so far. This was really getting on his nerves; besides, he desperately wanted to check his magic; something had felt different ever since that incident with the Dark Lord. And he wanted to know why.
Suddenly his eyes lit up as he thought of an idea. He ran back to his room, searched frantically through his drawers, and finally found what he was looking for. The practice wand he used when he was much younger. It was rather small, and held much less power than a real wand. However, it should fit his purpose now. Cautiously he held it and whispered the levitation spell again – yet another shock made him drop the wand. Harry suddenly had the unpleasant thought that maybe all the wands were going to reject him.
Defeated, Harry put the wand away once again and decided to take a break. Black Manor had an excellent library, and if he couldn't find any book here, he could only think of about four other places in Britain that might have the right book – none of which was accessible for him right now. Four other places? Harry often wondered how on earth did he gain all those knowledge flooding out of his mind when he couldn't even seem to remember simple facts of his own life.
Yes, he had come to the conclusion that he never really did remember his past before he was eight. He knew the events that happened, or rather the events Remus had told him. But knowing was not remembering: he associated that time period with words, yet no feelings backed those up. What was more disturbing was that Harry felt that he was almost afraid to remember. Many a time something was triggered and he felt himself on the verge of remembering; yet he had always panicked and backed down. His past was surely not pleasant, judging by Remus' words, but how terrible could it be that he purposely wanted to forget it?
Harry rubbed his temples, how did he end up thinking about his memory problem again? He was supposed to be finding out solutions about his wand for Merlin's sake! And hadn't he told himself countless times already that it didn't matter that he couldn't remember? He knew the important parts and was spared the horror of the true memories, what more could he possibly ask for?
Feeling vaguely hungry, Harry looked up and found it was time for dinner. Wondering why hadn't Remus sent a house elf for him already, he went downstairs. An empty room greeted him. Food was placed carefully on the table, yet there was no Remus in sight.
Harry frowned; it wasn't like Remus at all. "Toddy?" he called for the head house elf.
With a pop Toddy appeared out of thin air, he bowed eagerly and asked, "Harry, sir, called Toddy?"
"Where is Remus?"
"Master Lupin had business to attend to, sir. Master Lupin said Tobby is to look after young Master," the elf replied, not without a tad of pride that he was entrusted with such a task.
Harry reassured the over-zealous elf that he could look after himself indeed and managed to send it away. Something fishy was going on; Remus was acting most strangely. The older man rarely left Harry all by himself in the Manor, even though Harry had shown himself more than capable of staying out of trouble. Besides, Harry had this nagging feeling that Remus was hiding something, both from him and Sirius. Harry pondered the matter as he finished eating. Perhaps he could use the opportunity to do some more outside research? A quick trip to Diagon Alley definitely wouldn't hurt; he had three more hours before the stores close, and he was sure Mr. Ollivander would know what to do with his wand. Plus this way he could fix his wand problem without Remus and Sirius knowing. Yes, the plan looked wonderful indeed.
That was, of course, before an unexpected smoke made him choke out his destination and his finding himself came crushing down onto some cold stone floor. Harry quickly rolled into a corner and kept perfectly still despite being temporarily disoriented; he could tell he was in an unfamiliar place, and he had no intention of being discovered in his current state.
After his head stopped spinning, he cautiously looked around. He appeared to be in a dark, wizard shop of some sort (the light was too dim for him to see much else); yet he was definitely not in Diagon Alley – for the assortments on sale were obviously that of Dark Arts. This was not good, not good at all. Heck, he was probably at Knockturn Alley out of all places, a few hours before the sun set, unable to use his wand. Oh, this really was not good; Sirius was going to skin him alive if he somehow manages to get out of this mess.
Harry supposed waiting in a corner of an unknown dark shop would not do. Yet without ways to disguise himself, it would hardly improve his present situation if he simply walked out of the shop. Defenseless children were easy targets at places like the Knockturn Alley.
"I wish I could just mutter 'lumos' and have a light!" he muttered under his breath. And "pop," a small light appeared on his finger tip. Harry almost yelled in surprise and hastily tried a "nox." The light disappeared as quickly as it came. Harry looked around the room and was relived that no one came. He looked down at his hands in puzzlement. What, I found myself unable to use a wand, and all of a sudden I can do wandless magic?
Deciding that he couldn't really complain about this turn of events and that he better get moving, Harry muttered an invisibility spell on himself and slipped out of the door. He still kept to the shadows just in case the spell failed and walked in what he hoped to be the way out of the alley. As he worked his way out, careful not to bump into other people, he heard an angry hiss, :::Fool! :::
Startled, Harry looked around; the hiss had a strange ring in it. No one was particularly near him at the time, and the two wizards on the other side of the road definitely weren't talking. Puzzled, Harry pricked his ears for anymore sound. And sound it came, all spoken with such venom that it was almost inhuman.
:::Fool…traitor! I shall rip open their throats for Massster!:::
Somehow Harry knew that the threat was for real and shuddered at the thought; he was definitely glad that it was not directed at him. He braced himself lower to the ground; the hissing had come from that general direction. To his surprise, he found a black, glowing snake sliding away into an unused small alley at his right. Getting over the initial shock that he could understand the snake language, Harry followed the snake as quietly as he could manage. He knew that he was only looking for trouble, yet something won over his Slytherin instinct and rational thought and drew him near to the alley. In his state he did not have time to ponder why he hadn't known his ability to understand snakes before now.
Two figures were standing in the end of the dead alley; there was no shop here, so whatever they were doing, it mustn't be good. Harry crawled closer.
"…are you sure we should talk about it here?" the man sounded a little apprehensive.
"I have already spelled the alley so that no one would think of entering it. And now is definitely the time to discuss this," the other man replied. His face was hidden in the hood, yet his silver eyes and his drawling voice gave him away. Lucius Malfoy! Harry could remember no account when he'd met the man, yet he was sure Malfoy was the hooded man. What puzzled him even more was that the name somehow sent an irrational fear down his spine. Malfoy proceeded to talk, "We are here to gather the necessary supplies, and after this, there would be no turning back. Are you sure that he is…"
The other man sounded grave, "I had hoped that it were not true myself. But he is indeed beyond our reach now, Lucius. Didn't you say that he would only thank us for doing him this favor?"
There was a stretched silence, but Malfoy must have given a sigh of consent, for the two men proceeded to walking out of the alley. It was then the snake he heard earlier attacked the two men. For a moment Harry almost thought it had them, then, quicker than lightening, an unnatural green light struck the serpent and it fell down on the floor with a sickening "thud."
Malfoy put his wand back into his pocket almost gracefully; his voice however betrayed a slight hint of doubt, "A serpent? Do you think…"
"No, it is probably just a random snake, escaped out of a pet store," the other stranger replied smoothly, and they walked out of the alley without so much as a glance at the dead snake.
Harry stared at the snake, shocked. It all happened so sudden…and what were the other men up to? Breaking out of his trance, he realized the men were already out of the alley and hurried to catch up.
Apparently his good luck had run out, for he crushed into a man who happened to walk out of a store just as he made his turn. Harry kept perfectly still, hoping the other man would just let it go. Unfortunately for him, the man looked about suspiciously and muttered, "Finite Incantatum!"
Harry rolled away as his invisible charm was lifted and found himself face to face with one Potions Master. The shock was mutual.
"Mr. Potter! What on earth is a boy like you doing in Knockturn Alley, out of all places? I hardly think that mutt of your godfather would have allowed you to enter a place with so much dark influence?"
"It was an accident…and as you can see, I was trying to make my way out of here without any disturbance…"
"Indeed…" Snape sneered, "Consider yourself lucky that you ran into me and not some lunatics that aren't so rare in this alley who attack everything that strikes them." However scathing his words maybe, he helped Harry up and placed an invisibility spell on the boy again. "Nice invisibility charm, though."
Harry was too shock over the fact that Snape had just made a compliment to speak. There was little hope of finding the Malfoy and the stranger now, so he let Snape guide him out of the gloomy place and flooed, this time correctly, back to Black Manor.
Harry just had time to hope that he'd found the manor still empty as the world around him span. He stumbled out of the fire place into a quiet sitting room. Maybe the day wasn't so bad after all –
"You better explain yourself, Harry. You really do," Remus said in a menacingly low tone. Oh, hell, Harry winced, this was going to be a very long day indeed…
Harry considered his options and decided that he should probably skip the Malfoy part. When he finished his tale, he looked up at Remus, bracing himself for another stern speech.
Yet when the older man spoke, his voice was filled with self-reproach, "Harry, I shouldn't have left you alone at home. If I could've helped I wouldn't have… Knockturn Alley! Anything could have happened to you!" After checking Harry all over to make sure the boy was alright, he asked, "But why did you want to go to Diagon Alley all by yourself? You know I would have brought you there if you asked."
"I, well, had a little problem with my wand and I thought Mr. Ollivander'd be able to help me…I didn't want you guys get all worried you see…" seeing the other man's face, he quickly added, "It's really not that much of a problem, and I've got it under control now!" Remus opened his mouth to ask; Harry beat him to it, "But, Remus, where have you been? And don't tell me Ministry business again; I know you'd rather not have anything to do with it."
Remus seemed startled and a bit amused at the reversing of roles, yet when he spoke his voice was grave, "Harry, I... will you be okay if I were to move away?"
"What? Why?" Harry was dumbstruck. Remus was a wonderful wizard, but because of his werewolf statues, he hadn't been able to find a job since he graduated. Sirius had offered Remus a home at Black Manor, although Remus refused to live a life depended on anyone. Thus he helped Sirius with his Ministry works and did more than could be asked of him. In fact, Harry couldn't imagine a Sirius without Remus to deal with all those tiresome paper work. Black Manor had always been the second home for Remus, and Harry could not think of a day when Remus voluntarily asked to leave.
"No…I'm not moving away or anything…nothing is certain right now…it's just…" the older man seemed flustered despite his usual calm self.
Harry folded his arms and spoke in a tone faintly resembling that of Remus' earlier, "Remus, you have some explaining to do."
An hour later found both of them sitting on the balcony, swinging their legs and gazing into the night sky.
"He'll know soon, you know," Harry pointed out, "He does work for the Ministry, however oblivious he might be."
Remus sighed, "Yes, I know that."
"What are you going to do then? You can't just leave it to the last day…"
"Well, I suppose not. I…I knew the chances were slim but I thought I'd wait until after today's, er, interview. I thought…I hoped that there might be a chance that I'd be deemed "safe." After all, I have been around the Ministry for a while now."
"I don't think those idiots would care to make an exception for you. How did those laws get passed anyways?"
"It is not passed yet, Harry – "
"Oh, come on, you know as well as I do that it is just a matter of announcing it to the public. They probably are doing it after they had already dealt with those 'dangerous creatures' so even if there are people who want to protest, it'd be too late."
Remus was startled to note the bitterness in Harry's voice, this definitely was not normal for an eleven-year old, "I'm sorry that you have to go through all this, Harry." He stroke Harry's hair gently.
"This is not your fault. If I ever find out who that Umbridge woman is…"
"You'll do nothing against her."
"Remus! Oh fine! But for Merlin's sake she wants to expel you out of the country or send you to camps! Like some animal!"
Remus flinched at the words and gave Harry a wry smile, "It's not that bad actually. I'd be with my kind, and I'll actually be doing something useful. I never had the heart to leave Britain, but now I have the chance to join the Society and try to promote magical creature's rights."
Harry knew the chance of promoting magical creature's right was slim, yet he refrained himself from voicing this and resorted to pouting instead. "Sirius will not just sit and let this happen, you know," he spoke again after a moment of silence.
"I know…but even his stubbornness cannot stop this from happening."
Review Responses:
Miss Blizzard: Thank you for reviewing! You shall find out what happened to Peter in due time, heeheehee.
Shadowface: Thanks! Harry's memory loss actually wasn'tDD's doing this time. He simply took advantage of the situation.
darkdragonlover2000: Thanks! Harry probably will not end up being light, so don't worry. And yes, he does have a lot of things to worry about. Pity I'll have to wait for a while before I can bring Voldie back.
Crissy Potter: Thank you!
sami1010220: Thanks for reviewing! Here's the next chappie! I'll probably put most of the stuff in this one story instead of a story per year; otherwise the title wouldn't make much sense.
Allyanna: I'm glad you liked it! Thanks!
A.Potter: Thank you! Don't worry, Harry will get his memory back sometime this year - when he is ready to accept it
ManicReversed: Thanks! I like Lord Voldemort a lot, too, heehee.
DARKMARK33LV: Thank you! I figured for a fic about Harry and Voldie, the Dark Lord really makes far too little appearance in my fic. So I'll try to bring him up more from now on.
HoshiHikari4ever: Thanks for reviewing! Harry remember most of the things, but he doesn't remember anything to do with Voldemort.
Mikito: Thanks, here's the update!
