Chapter 10 – Harry's Childhood Friend
What if Harry Potter gained a friend and protector as a young child; a protector who takes any threats to the youthful wizard very seriously?
OoOoOoOo
Little Harry Potter barely remembers the time before living with Aunt Petunee and Unca Vern'n. At only four years old, his Aunt told him to pull a chair up to the stove and watch her prepare eggs, bacon and toast, and then told him he was responsible for it from that day forward. Harshly spanked with a wooden spoon for burning the breakfast, he was denied food until he could make the meal without ruining anything. However, he was still required to scrub the bathrooms and fetch and carry for his Aunt all day. After almost a week without food, the child had no energy left and was drifting in and out of consciousness. Coldness settled about him and a suffocating sense of power floated around him.
"Mine!" he heard before the blackness claimed him.
OoOoOoOo
Vernon Dursley had a very bad day at work. He had been overlooked for a promotion and a woman had been promoted to the job that should have been his. He was angry when he arrived home, although he accepted the kiss on the cheek from his wife, Petunia and said hello to his four year old son Dudley, who was watching TV. Unfortunately, he also had to face his wife's nephew, Harry Potter, a freak of a child that had been dumped on their doorstep, upsetting their lovely family. The brat had the audacity to drop a bowl of potatoes on the floor, breaking the bowl and wasting the potatoes. He ignored the fact that the filled dish was much too heavy for a four year old child to carry.
He reached out to strike the child, but found himself flung against a wall with what felt like ice-cold fingers around his throat as the shadows in the room began twisting and the temperature descended into a glacial chill. The shadows coalesced into a tall skeletal figure in a hooded black robe who was slowly choking the life out of Vernon Dursley. Petunia Dursley screamed and backed away from the looming figure, then grabbed her son, when he came into the room and kept him behind her.
As black spots danced before Vernon's eyes, his detested nephew tugged on the robe of the menacing figure strangling him. "You can let him go," the boy said in a calm voice. "I don't think he'll try to hit me again."
The figure looked down at the child and then back to Vernon. Slowly the bony fingers released their hold on Vernon's throat and he gulped air as quickly as he could. He looked up at the ominous presence in horror; if it held a scythe, it would be the traditional manifestation of Death, his mind told him.
The figure wrapped both arms around the little freak and stroked his chest in an affectionate manner before it pointed a bony finger threateningly at him.
"No, I won't touch him," gasped Vernon, trembling before the frightening character.
The figure nodded its acceptance of the pledge and embraced the freak again before it dissolved into the shadows.
After that day, the Dursleys learned to not only leave Harry alone, but to feed and clothe him well. The first time Petunia tried to give him only a slice of stale bread and a piece of dry cheese for lunch, the shadows began to darken in the room and the temperature dropped. She immediately made him a regular sandwich, an apple and a glass of milk for his lunch, for which he thanked her politely. Once the plate was in his hands, the shadows dispersed and the temperature warmed.
When she tried to give the boy the ragged castoffs of her much heavier son, the room temperature again began to drop and she promptly took the boys to a second-hand store, where she bought the little freak his own clothing. Fortunately, as long as they were in his size, she was permitted to buy gently used clothing.
After realizing that the little freak was under the protection of a very powerful presence, instead of trying to stamp the abnormalities out of the child, they told him about magic and said he would receive a letter to go to a magic school when he was eleven. While Harry was excited for the invitation, his relatives were both impatient and anxious to get the boy and his frightening companion out of their house. In July of his eleventh year, an owl tapped at the kitchen window while the family was eating breakfast.
"Go open the window and let the bird in before the neighbors notice, Harry," his aunt said, almost thankful to see such an abnormal phenomenon. Once the window was opened, the bird hopped to the back of Harry's chair and extended its leg, around which were tied two pieces of parchment.
"It's the invitation to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," Harry said as he scanned the first page. "The second page is a list of the books and equipment I need to have."
"Write 'I accept' on the first page and give it back to the bird," Petunia ordered. Harry complied, rolled the first page up and tied it back on the owl's leg with the same ribbon. The owl hooted and immediately took off through the open window.
"Where do I find these supplies," Harry asked calmly, looking up from the handwritten page.
"I remember where my sister had to go," his aunt responded. "We'll go on Saturday and make a day of it. You can go purchase your supplies, and the rest of us will visit a museum." When Dudley whined about a museum being boring, she added, "Or perhaps the Tower of London, Dudders. You would like that."
That Saturday, the Dursleys gave him fifty pounds and dropped him off at Charing Cross Road close to where Petunia remembered the "freak" pub being located. "We will be back by three o'clock," she said. "Be sure to be done by then. Take the money to their bank to be changed. I remember that they don't use real money." The family then drove away leaving the boy behind on the sidewalk.
"I guess we go through that pub," Harry said, pointing at the odd building that everyone seemed to ignore. He walked placidly to the pub and moved into the dark interior, allowing a moment for his eyes to adjust. He felt a cold hand on his back apply slight pressure, so he allowed it to guide him to the back of the pub and out another door into a small courtyard. He looked at his companion questioningly as there was no other exit from the area.
His escort tapped a bony finger on a brick wall, and Harry was surprised when it opened to display a dated cobblestone street lined with old-fashioned shops. Harry followed his companion down the street to a large white stone building. The witches and wizards strolling down the street didn't seem to see the frightening figure, but shuddered as he passed by. As they approached the white building, his companion allowed Harry to take the lead. Two uniformed short figures with pointed ears and long fingers stood guard outside the entrance doors. As Harry approached, he nodded his head politely. They looked at him impassively and then their eyes moved over his shoulder. Their eyes widened and they both appeared to forget how to breathe for a moment. Harry gave a mental shrug, and proceeded into the bank.
As he waited for an open teller, the various goblins assisting customers gradually ceased their actions and gaped at Harry's companion. The witches and wizards in the bank looked around to see what drew their attention, but saw only a young boy and not the ominous manifestation behind him.
Harry moved to an open teller, who seemed to want to back away the closer the young wizard came. Only years of training kept him in place, although his claws dug gouges into the counter in front of him.
"Good morning," Harry said courteously. "I have pound notes that need to be exchanged." He started to reach into his pocket to remove the notes, when a skeletal hand reached over his shoulder and snapped its fingers. A small gold key dropped down on the desk.
Harry looked at the key and then up at his companion. He shrugged and then added, "Apparently I have a key for you as well."
The teller picked up the key and noticed that it was so cold that it hurt his fingers. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out. Clearing his throat, he tried again. "Name?"
"Harry Potter," the boy answered quietly.
The goblin's eyes widened, but at a movement from the shadowy figure behind the boy, he stopped before saying anything. "This vault key is confirmed. Do you wish to convert money, or simply withdraw from your account?"
Harry blinked in surprise and looked over his shoulder. "I have an account?" The shadowy figure nodded once and the goblin tried not to shudder. Harry turned back and said, "Right, I will withdraw money from the account if there's enough. How much is in there?"
"Your total is currently at 427,689 galleons," the goblin said after pressing the key onto a piece of parchment.
Harry blinked in surprise. "Okay, what is a galleon?"
The goblin started to frown in annoyance at the question, but the shadowy figure glided a half step forward and he quickly reconsidered and responded, "There are three coins; bronze knuts, silver sickles, and gold galleons. Twenty-nine knuts to a sickle, seventeen sickles to a galleon. The current conversion rate is five British pounds for one galleon."
Harry calculated quickly and realized that he had over two million pounds in this bank. "Um, yes, I would like to take some out, please."
"Griphook," the teller called, as he returned the young wizard's key. The named goblin stared over Harry's shoulder and came forward reluctantly. "Take Mister Potter…and his companion…to Vault 687." When the trio moved out, the teller shuddered, and then closed his station to report to the Day Manager. This was far above his position. Later in the day, after confirmation from the other goblins on the floor who saw the hooded figure as well as the Griphook who took the boy to his vault, the Potter account was marked for preferential service as a precaution for the safety and security of the Goblin Nation.
Following two exciting cart rides, Harry left Gringotts with a bag of gold coins, and a handful of the silver and bronze coins. It wasn't as convenient as folding money in his wallet, but he would get used to it, he supposed.
Over the course of several hours, Harry with his companion bought the required supplies, as well as a number of additional books that looked interesting to him. The elderly man in the wand shop seemed to be the only wizard that noticed his peculiar escort, and the man was obviously extremely distracted by the figure, practically pushing Harry out of the door as soon as an acceptable wand was found.
Harry purchased everything on the list by three o'clock, except the optional pet. He already knew from experience that animals were terrified of his friend, so he didn't even look for one.
OoOoOoOo
The Dursleys were quite happy to drop Harry off at the train station on September 1st. His invisible companion led the way through the station and indicated the disillusioned entryway as he carried Harry's trunk for the boy. Once on the platform, no one seemed to notice that the caged cats and owls of the other students tended to whimper and tremble as Harry walked by. The messy-haired boy climbed on to the train, and walked along until he found an empty compartment. His companion positioned his trunk on the seat opposite the boy. For some reason, no other students entered the compartment. Although some thought of it, they experienced a sense of nearly overwhelming dread if they reached for the door handle, and they quickly changed their mind. Harry enjoyed the quiet ride and read one of his extra books for the duration of the journey.
Inside the castle, Harry waited his turn to try on the Hat. "What do we have here," murmured a voice in his mind. "Oh my! I didn't expect this! Well, if it weren't for your guardian, Slytherin might help you find greatness, but I would fear for the lives of others in the House if you went there. While you're intelligent, you don't live for learning, so Ravenclaw isn't quite right. You are certainly willing to work hard, but your loyalty is quite difficult to earn, so Hufflepuff is out. You are brave enough, but I worry that rash Gryffindors may aggravate your guardian. However, it's the best choice for you, so it better be Gryffindor!"
Harry ignored the students that stared at him as he ate his dinner. One ill-mannered red-headed boy actually asked to see the faded scar on his forehead. Harry frowned at the other boy who felt a chill run down his spine, and quickly decided that his dinner was more important than seeing a famous scar. The dark-haired boy hoped that learning magic made all the staring and prying questions worthwhile.
After dinner was done and the students were sent to their dorms, Albus Dumbledore sat quietly in his office. Harry Potter didn't appear to have suffered with his muggle relatives; the boy had been calm and held himself with confidence during the sorting and the meal. "Albus," the Hat said to the Headmaster's surprise. "You should leave Harry Potter alone. Don't try to involve him in any schemes. The boy is protected."
"What do you mean," the elderly wizard asked. The Sorting Hat rarely offered any comments on the students.
"Just that. You know I can't say more about what I learned in the Sorting. Just leave that boy alone."
The Headmaster was perplexed, but decided that he would find out what the Hat meant as he observed the boy over the course of the school year.
Once Harry pulled the curtains around his bed, Death materialized and silently held out his hands. In one hand, was a fifteen inch long wand made of elder wood. In the other hand, was a folded silvery cloak. "What are these," Harry asked curiously as he accepted the gifts. His companion simply faded back into the shadows. Harry shrugged and tucked the two items under his pillow for the night, then locked them away in his trunk in the morning, promptly forgetting about them.
The following morning, Albus Dumbledore discovered that the elder wand he had confiscated from Gellert Grindlewald nearly half a century earlier was missing. He searched the castle, casting a summoning charm using his original wand with no results. Troubled by the sudden disappearance, he asked the house elves and the ghosts to look for it and notify him immediately if they saw it. What he didn't know was that the house elves were well aware who took it, and were quite content to ignore the fact that it was now in Harry Potter's trunk.
On Harry's second day in the school, Ron Weasley's pet rat found himself trembling with terror at the aura in the Gryffindor dorm room and promptly abandoned the redheaded boy and looked for safer accommodations. The dark-haired boy made the appropriate expressions of sympathy for the other boy's loss.
Harry found the classes interesting with two exceptions. The first was the History of Magic. To his surprise, it was taught by a ghost. The befuddled spirit rarely paid attention to the students, even while lecturing. That changed the day Harry Potter entered. The others noticed that Binns actually recoiled from the boy when he entered the room, and that he seemed to remember the First Year's name, unlike any others. While he still lectured in a monotonous tone, the ghost constantly looked up from his book when speaking, as if to be certain the Gryffindor boy hadn't moved. When Harry entered or left the class after the first day, Binns made sure to be at the furthest point away from the boy and only returned to the lectern after the bell rang.
The other class that was disappointing was Potions. Professor Snape was a tall pale man with shoulder length black hair, greasy from potions fumes. The First Year Gryffindors had already been warned by older students that the man despised their House and took points whenever possible. After sneeringly calling Harry, "our new celebrity", and asking him questions he didn't know, the man scoffed "clearly fame isn't everything." Harry didn't understand the man's hostility and thought he was just as unfair as Uncle Vernon used to be.
When Neville Longbottom missed a step in the brewing instructions and wound up with painful boils, the Potions professor actually deducted points from Harry, who wasn't even working with the boy. As the other students left the classroom, he felt cold fingers on his shoulder and obediently stayed in place.
"What are you still doing here, Potter? Get out!" the professor demanded irritably. To his surprise, the class room door shut on its own followed by the temperature in the room dropping so dramatically that the man could see his breath. At the same time, the shadows in the room twisted and shifted to a point directly behind the boy. An unexpected wave of weakness ran through the Potions Master, and he stumbled for a moment.
"Professor, what you just felt was you losing a week of life," the dark-haired boy stated calmly. "If you continue to treat me unfairly, the next time you will lose a month." The boy looked over his shoulder at the shadows behind him and nodded as if in acknowledgement. "If it happens a third time, you will lose a year of your life."
"Are you threatening me, boy" whispered the former Death Eater with malevolence dripping from his words.
"Me? No sir," the boy said in surprise. "I have no ability to remove life. I'm only eleven years old. However, my guardian does. If you continue to act unfairly beyond those three warnings, he will reap your soul to remove you permanently." The shadows in the room coalesced into a seven foot tall hooded figure, holding a nine-foot long scythe with a blade so dark it hurt to look at it. An aura of soul-wrenching terror filled the room.
"He doesn't like people treating me unfairly and is very protective," continued Harry. "If I earn a punishment, that's fine, and I'll pay the consequences without complaining. But he doesn't tolerate anyone bullying me." He stood and picked up his book bag. "I just wanted to give you a fair warning." He opened the door and walked out, but the specter glided to within a few feet of the Potions Master. Snape's limbs trembled as he felt his doom approach and he gripped his desk to keep from falling. After a few long moments while the professor felt he was being judged, the figure and the feeling of terror disappeared, and the temperature rose. The man's legs gave out and he sat heavily on his desk, breathing laboriously. He looked at his trembling hands and gripped them together tightly. Perhaps it was time to reconsider his teaching methods.
The teachers gathered at the end of the week for the first staff meeting of the term. Albus beamed at the teachers as they settled. "So how was our first week? What about our new First Years?"
"One of mine appears to have an eidetic memory," replied Minerva McGonagall, Head of Gryffindor. "Unfortunately, she is socially inept, so is struggling to find her place. If she can make friends, she will likely give Filius' students some competition for points."
The Ravenclaw Head of House smiled brightly. "You must be speaking of Miss Granger. Intelligent, but tends to overwhelm the other students. My first years are doing well, no real homesickness this year. They all seem to have a love of learning."
"My First Year badgers are also doing well. We had a little homesickness, but the prefects and the other students made sure to make the young ones feel at home," said Professor Sprout with a smile.
"Young Draco Malfoy shows a predisposition towards brewing," Snape acknowledged. "The rest of them are dunderheads."
"What about Mr. Potter," asked Albus genially. He failed to notice Cuthbert Binns shudder and fade away from the staff meeting. The ghost rarely spoke anyways.
"He appears polite and on a par with the other First Years," responded Minerva.
"Definitely courteous," agreed Filius. "I saw Mr. Malfoy insult the boy, but he just shrugged it off." Snape seemed to stiffen in his seat and made a mental note to talk to Draco Malfoy. The Ravenclaw Head of House didn't mention the foreboding aura that seemed to follow the boy everywhere; his goblin blood was diluted and he couldn't see that which was hidden as easily as his brethren, although he felt something he couldn't define.
"He's on time to class, his first assignment was done on time and he's polite," concurred Pomona. "But he seems…indifferent. Don't get me wrong, he did what I asked of the class, but he doesn't really smile. He doesn't seem happy."
"It could be because most of the school stares at him or whispers as he walks by," suggested Filius. "But I noticed that he ignores that just as he ignores taunts and insults."
"What about you, Severus," asked the Headmaster.
"I have no comments on Mister Potter," the man sneered. He then crossed his arms and refused to look at anyone around the table.
The topic moved on to the other years, but Albus felt a twinge of concern. An indifferent or apathetic Boy-Who-Lived wasn't what the Wizarding world needed.
The oddest thing that happened in the year was that their stuttering DADA professor, one Quirinus Quirrell, died the second week of the school term. Rumor had it that he had been possessed and died when the possessing spirit abruptly departed, but who could believe that. A retired Auror was brought in to replace him a week after Quirrell's death.
As the Yule holiday approached, Dumbledore searched for James Potter's invisibility cloak that he had borrowed eleven years ago, planning to return it to Harry in the guise of a gift. To his surprise, he couldn't find it. He searched his quarters thoroughly and had no idea what could have happened to it. He was certain that he would find it at a later date when he had more time to search, so put it out of his mind.
At the end of the year, Dumbledore found Flamel's stone was not in the mirror where he had placed it for safekeeping, but none of the traps had been disturbed. If he had been able to ask, he would have learned that Harry's guardian considered the stone a "cheat" and confiscated it. Dumbledore wondered how he would explain it to Nicholas and Perenelle.
Ron Weasley's rat reappeared after Harry had left the dorm room with his trunk for the journey home.
OoOoOoOo
A house elf appeared in the Harry Potter's bedroom during the summer, as the Dursleys were downstairs entertaining a business guest of Uncle Vernon. The battered little elf greeted Harry excitedly, but then stared in abject horror at the shadowy form behind the boy.
"Dobby is sorry for intruding," he gasped. "Dobby didn't know the great Harry Potter had such a strong and scary protector!"
Harry smiled at the little elf. "What brings you here," he asked.
"Dobby thought Harry Potter, sir, would be in danger at Hogwarts. There is a plot, sir. A terrible plot. But Dobby didn't know about…" he nervously indicated the figure behind the twelve year old. "Will Harry Potter be in any danger, even if something bad happens at Hogswarty?"
The shadowy figure snorted in amusement, and the house elf nodded in acknowledgement and suddenly seemed to smile almost maliciously before bowing and departing.
The author Gilderoy Lockhart tried to grab Harry in the bookstore, but something bitterly cold prevented him from touching the boy accompanied by a sensation of overwhelming terror. He apologized to Harry and moved back to his stack of books and then did his utmost to ignore the boy who inspired such soul-wrenching horror. He wondered if he should re-think the teaching assignment, but decided he would just stay away from the Potter boy.
On the first day of school, Scabbers again seemed to be terrified of Harry, and disappeared the first night.
Harry chose not to attend the dueling club. It wasn't mandatory, and he found Lockhart too incompetent to spend more time in his presence than necessary.
Two month's into the school year, Filch's cat was found hanging by its tail, petrified. Harry and his protector disappeared for several hours. His vault at Gringotts increased significantly several months later, and he sported impressive new snakeskin boots for the new school year. A purged book lay mouldering in a chamber far underground while the youngest Weasley suddenly seemed to settle in to school and showed appreciable improvement in her assignments. Mrs. Norris was revived with a potion made by Professor Snape once the mandrakes matured enough for harvesting.
Scabbers reappeared as Ron was getting ready to board the train home at the end of the year.
OoOoOoOo
A notorious prisoner escaped from the wizard's prison in the summer before Harry's Third Year. He saw the Weasleys in Diagon Alley, and Ron's father seemed to be certain that the fugitive was after Harry and warned him not to seek the dangerous criminal out. Harry thanked the Weasley patriarch and assured him he wasn't going to actively seek out a deranged criminal.
The Hogwarts train was stopped by dementors; tall humanoids with gray skin, like a decaying corpse. Harry first heard a rattling breath as the temperature dropped, and then the door to his compartment was opened by a tall robed shape supposedly there to search for the escaped prisoner. The dementor froze in the doorway and then turned to flee, but Harry's companion swung his scythe through it and released a number of souls to the afterlife, leaving only a few tattered scraps of fabric behind.
At the welcoming feast, the students learned that dementors were stationed around the school to protect them from the escaped fugitive. Scabbers again disappeared the first night. Harry was irritated when his Head of House refused to accept the permission slip Aunt Petunia had signed, and told him it was too dangerous for him to visit Hogsmeade with the other Third Years. Harry wondered how safe it could be for the other students if it wasn't safe for him. He didn't appreciate double standards.
The new DADA teacher, Remus Lupin, reported in the weekly staff meeting that the boggart recoiled from Potter, returned to the cupboard and refused to come out again. He had no explanation for the phenomenon, although privately he was aware that Moony shuddered when too close to Harry.
Harry met a very large and skinny black dog near the end of the year on the school grounds. Although the dog transformed into an emaciated man who was the escapee, Harry's guardian didn't find him a threat, so Harry was willing to listen to the man.
"I'm your godfather, Harry," the man rasped. "I was supposed to take care of you if anything happened to your parents. But Hagrid got there first and wouldn't give you to me, so I thought if you were safe at Hogwarts, I could go after the traitor, Peter Pettigrew. He cast an explosive spell that blew up a muggle gas line and killed a dozen muggles, then escaped, leaving me to take the blame."
After further discussion, Harry was shocked to learn that the Ministry threw the man in prison without a trial. As they talked, scores of dementors left their assigned positions and swarmed the two, causing the dog-man to collapse and moan. Before they could get too close to either boy or man, Harry's companion manifested and destroyed them all as they tried to flee, freeing their captured souls to the afterlife.
"What the…how…who…" Sirius stammered as he recovered, trying to stand between the imposing specter and his godson.
"This is Death," Harry introduced the two, as he moved next to the older man. "He's been looking after me since I was four years old. My relatives almost killed me, and he didn't approve. He says I'm his Master…or will be…it's hard to tell because time, space and distance all seem a bit flexible to Death."
"Your relatives almost killed you? Those dirty miserable…" he stopped abruptly, remembering his godson and bit his tongue. "Th…thank you for watching him when I couldn't," Sirius stammered with a bow towards the seven foot tall looming figure. Looking down at Harry, he added, "If I can catch Pettigrew and prove my innocence, you're welcome to come live with me, if you want."
"Really? I would love to! I don't take up much space." He paused and added, "You wouldn't mind if Death comes too, right?"
"As long as I'm not next on his list, that's fine with me," Sirius eventually replied, bravely hiding a shudder that ran down his spine. "But until I can prove my innocence, I better get out of here," he announced as he noticed the staff exiting the school and heading towards them. He changed back into a dog, and bounded away.
The Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, attempted to blame Dumbledore for the loss of the dementors. Dumbledore in turn reminded him that the dementors were under Ministry control, and that he was assured they would never enter the school grounds. "Are you now saying that the Ministry didn't have control over the dementors, Cornelius? Is that the message you're going to give to all those parents?"
The man left in a huff. Dumbledore subsequently introduced a bill to the Wizengamot that money be appropriated for paid guards for Azkaban, since there were so few dementors left at the prison.
For the first time, Scabbers didn't return to Ron as he boarded the train home at the end of the year.
OoOoOoOo
Two months into his Fourth Year, Harry sat at the Gryffindor table as the names were drawn for the Tri-Wizard Tournament. He calmly applauded with the rest of the school for Cedric Diggory as the Hogwarts champion. To everyone's surprise, after Cedric left the Great Hall to join the other champions, the Goblet spit out another name.
Albus Dumbledore caught the parchment and looked at it, then out at the watching students. "Harry Potter," he announced somberly.
Harry stood up as the students began muttering. "How could my name come out of the Goblet when I didn't enter it and I didn't ask anyone else to enter it for me?"
"It doesn't matter, Mister Potter," replied the Headmaster. "The Goblet has chosen you as a champion. Therefore, you are under a magical contract to participate or lose your magic. Please join the other champions," he added and pointed towards the door at the end of the Great Hall.
"I am not a Champion," Harry asserted. "Cedric Diggory is the Hogwarts Champion. I ask all Hogwarts students to support him." The anger showing on the Hufflepuff students drained away and they again looked proud at that statement. "The only thing I am is a very unwilling participant who you're forcing into this charade! So much for the protection around the Goblet." He stalked into the indicated room, apologized to the true champions and then folded his arms and glared at the officials as they came through the door. The temperature in the room dropped noticeably.
At the weighing of the wands ceremony two weeks later, reporter Rita Skeeter suffered what appeared to be a fatal heart failure when she attempted to drag Harry Potter off for a "private" interview. It was assumed she was too excited about the event, which led to her unfortunate demise. The wand ceremony was held two hours later after the removal of the body and was a very subdued event.
As Harry approached the nesting Hungarian Horntail, she began backing up nervously. The Gryffindor bowed once, took the golden egg from the nest and then turned and left the arena. The Horntail slunk back to her nest and curled around her true eggs trembling. When others demanded to know how he made the dragon back down, he replied dismissively, "It's irrelevant. I'm not a champion, only an indentured victim."
When his Head of House told he had to attend the Yule Ball with a date, Harry politely refused. "I am not a champion," he repeated, "and don't understand why the 'responsible adults' here at Hogwarts refuse to acknowledge that. You may be able to force me to risk my life because of that thrice-cursed Goblet, but attending a Ball was not part of the magical contract." When McGonagall or Dumbledore tried to persuade him otherwise, he stopped attending class or eating in the Great Hall. A house elf showed the teen where the Come-and-Go room was, and he moved into it. The elf was happy to bring him meals there as well. As Tournament participants were not required to actually attend classes (in order to prepare for each event), there was little that Dumbledore or McGonagall could do.
The day of the second task, something so terrorized the merpeople that they met the champions one hundred yards off shore and pushed the hostages to them. Everyone returned within ten minutes with no injuries and received full points. Harry had no discernable close friends and didn't attend the Ball, so Dumbledore randomly assigned one of his dorm mates to be Harry's hostage. When Malfoy gleefully pointed out that what he would miss most was another boy, Harry just shrugged and said he waited until the real champions selected a hostage and then "rescued" the remaining one.
The last task was a maze with ten foot moving hedges. Death led Harry through the maze and the teen wasn't surprised when the creatures all fled at his approach, even the sentient sphinx. Harry wanted to let one of the real champions take the Cup, but Death insisted he touch it. He was surprised to feel as if someone had attached a hook behind his navel and tugged. After feeling like he had been turned inside out, Harry stumbled and realized he was now in a dark graveyard where a huge cauldron was set up. A red light flew towards him, but Death stepped in front of the teen and the light hit him and dissipated.
Harry cast a Stupefy at the pudgy man who tried to stun him and watched him fall down to the ground. Death stalked up to a small bundle laying on the ground by the stunned man, which desperately tried to crawl away from the approaching and horrifying specter. "Noooo," Harry heard as Death swung his scythe.
Across the country, there were multiple disturbances. In a bank vault, a cup seemed to scream before a black wisp was pulled from the cup. In a dilapidated mansion, a locket opened and began wailing, before a black wisp was pulled away. A half-mad house elf rejoiced. In a ramshackle hovel, a shriek faded away and a skeletal hand retrieved a ring with a large black stone. In a hidden room at Hogwarts, a horrifying screech came from a woman's diadem, and was then silent.
In the meantime, Harry Potter returned to the Tournament with the Cup, a bundle of cloth containing the remains of an ugly creature and a stunned man. "Just because you forced a fourth student to participate in this farce, did you have to make a fourth task to surprise us," he asked after casting a subtle Sonorous on himself. "Well, we always had to retrieve something, so here's the construct and the man that tried to stun me." The sleeve on the stunned man was abruptly tore off, showing a clearly visible dark mark on the forearm.
Although Amelia Bones had to threaten Cornelius Fudge into acknowledging that the stunned man was Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black was finally tried, found not guilty, and awarded a settlement for his illegal captivity.
OoOoOoOo
Dumbledore sighed heavily and looked sorrowfully at the freed Sirius Black and his godson, Harry Potter. "I am very sorry to have to tell you this, but Voldemort is not truly dead. He followed an exceptionally heinous series of rituals and split his soul, saving it in different objects. As long as those objects exists, his wraith can always be summoned and restored into a new body."
Harry and Sirius looked at one another, then Harry looked just over his shoulder. "A journal in my second year, a cup, a locket, a diadem, and a ring, plus the soul in the construct. There had been a small portion of his soul that leached off my magic, but that was removed when I was four years old. He was going to use my death in the graveyard to create another, but didn't survive the attempt. There are no pieces of him left, Headmaster."
Dumbledore stared at the teenager as he identified all of the alleged items. How could he know that unless he shared Voldemort's consciousness? "Can you tell me how you know these things, my boy?"
"When I was four years old, the Dursleys nearly killed me through starvation and overwork. Death came for me. However, time is rather…fluid…for Death. He recognized that I was what he called "the Master of Death". He claimed me and became my companion and protector. He removed the leach when I was four, he terminated the journal in my Second Year, he destroyed the dementors in Third Year, and when Riddle died this year, he also reaped all of Riddle's soul pieces."
Dumbledore stared at the teenager and would have thought that Sirius had prompted the dark-haired teen to pull a prank if not for the man looking far too grim. The poor boy wasn't quite sane, Dumbledore decided and fingered his wand, trying to decide how to restrain him without causing Sirius Black to curse him.
Even as he considered his options, the shadows in the room twisted and warped as the temperature dropped so low, the elderly wizard could see his breath. "I think your doubt and suspicion is irritating Death, Headmaster", Harry stated with a polite half-smile.
The shadows continued writhing and the pressure in the room became suffocating. "Show-off," Harry declared affectionately. The shadows coalesced into a seven foot tall skeletal form wearing a hooded black cloak and carrying a nine foot scythe. It laid a hand on Harry's shoulder, and ice crystals formed around the bony hand.
"I now have all of the Deathly Hallows," Harry continued civilly. "The wand, the resurrection stone, and the invisibility cloak. As Death predicted, I successfully united them. He considers me the Master of Death. Since he is the expert on all things dead or dying, I think it is safe to say that Riddle is well and truly gone and will not return. Unless you decide to attempt to harm me, it will be a few years before you see Death again. Good day, Headmaster."
Harry, Sirius and the ominous specter of Death departed the office, leaving a trembling wizard gasping for breath and trying to calm his racing heart.
"I told you the boy was protected," reminded the Hat smugly from its shelf.
OoOoOoOo