The Circle Around the Fire
Chapter 10 – A Troll and a Horcrux
Disclaimer: See Chapter One
Harry stood at the door of the girls' toilet on the ground floor, looking out into the corridor. The last of the students headed for the Halloween Feast filed past.
"Hermione…" Harry called as he walked cautiously to the cubicle door, "will you come out now? They're all at the feast…"
There was silence from behind the door for a moment, before Harry heard the bolt being drawn across and the door opened.
"Oh, Harry!" cried Hermione as she threw her arms around Harry.
Harry patted her back and tried to console her.
"But… why would he be so mean?"
"I don't know Hermione," said Harry for the umpteenth time. "He didn't mean it, I'm sure."
Earlier that afternoon, Ron and Hermione had got into a heated argument which rapidly descended into an insult match and ended with Hermione running off in tears, Harry hot on her heals.
Hermione gradually calmed down, and Harry encouraged her to clean herself up at the sink. While the tap was running, Harry was sure he could hear something. Was it… screaming? He couldn't really tell. He didn't have much time to ponder it before a more pressing matter presented itself. A foul stench reached his nose and he could clearly hear thuds, like very heavy footsteps, in the corridor outside the toilet.
"Hermione," he whispered to the girl. "Something's coming. Turn the tap off slowly."
"What…" she began, but Harry shushed her. She did as he said and slowly turned the tap off. The thuds were getting closer. Harry pushed Hermione around the corner of the last cubicle, and peered round. The thuds stopped, abruptly, and with his keen hearing, Harry though that he could hear sniffing. The thuds began again, and soon their originator came into view. A massive troll, with dirty grey skin, carrying a heavy wooden club in its huge hands, pushed its way through the too-small bathroom door. Hermione barely stifled a scream when she saw it. Harry was rapidly trying to work out how they were going to escape. He came up with an idea. It probably wouldn't work. But it was the best he could do. He made a quick decision. It wouldn't matter if Hermione knew, he thought.
The troll had not yet noticed them, and Harry knelt, holding his palm a hairsbreadth from the smooth flag-stoned floor. Breathing deeply, he began to draw moisture from the air, turning it into liquid water which pooled under his hand. With a tiny gesture, he sent the quickly growing puddle flowing across the floor towards the troll. He drew forth more and more water, and it spread out across the bathroom floor, effectively flooding it. Hermione gasped when she saw what Harry was doing. And the troll heard. It stepped forward, swinging its club. Harry knocked Hermione out of the path of the gargantuan weapon, as he transformed himself into a hawk. He rapidly beat his wings, narrowly swerving to avoid the swinging club. But even with the reflexes of a bird of prey, the club missed him by inches, just clipping his tail feathers.
Yet as the troll stepped forward, its foot landed in Harry's pool. The momentum of swinging the heavy club carried it forward, and it slipped on the wet floor, falling thunderously to the stone tiles. But it was unharmed, and began to pick himself up. It went to grab the club, which it had dropped. It floated out of his reach. Harry's head snapped around as he transformed back into a human, and he saw Hermione with her wand drawn. She kept the club out of the troll's reach with her Levitation Charm, and, being rather stupid, the troll was unable to co-ordinate both standing up and reaching for the club at the same time. It kept slipping on the water, and Hermione carefully directed the club to float directly above the head of the troll. She brought her wand down sharply, slicing through the air, and the club came crashing down on the head of the troll. Harry heard an awfully loud smack when it impacted, and the troll fell completely and didn't get up.
"I didn't kill it, did I?" asked Hermione. Trust her to be worried about something that had just tried to kill her. Not that Harry thought it wrong – it was a very commendable virtue.
"Don't worry. I think it's just unconscious."
"What was…" she gestured and the water, "and what was…" she gestured at him. He assumed she meant the shapeshifting.
"I'll explain later," he said to her quietly, as only a moment later, a group of teachers hurried frantically into the room. Professor McGonagall was at their head, and she took in the scene that presented itself to her with wide eyes.
"What happened?" she asked. "What are you two doing here?"
"Umm…" said Harry." He was a bit frazzled, and his mental faculties hadn't caught up yet. "We weren't at the feast…" he began.
"I needed to clean myself up, Professor. I got mud on my robes." Hermione spoke clearly and confidently. "Harry kindly offered to wait for me. When the troll came we managed to knock it out with its own club, using a Levitation Charm."
McGonagall was dumbfounded.
"If I may," piped up a voice from behind McGonagall. She stepped aside to reveal Professor Flitwick. "These two are to be commended for their quick thinking and bravery. And their excellent command of the charm." He beamed at them. "I think fifteen points each for Ravenclaw would be appropriate…" He looked questioningly up at McGonagall.
"Err, yes," she said, shaking herself. "Well done…" she began, but was interrupted by two pairs of running feet echoing very loudly in the corridor outside.
"Harry, Hermione!" The owners of the feet called. They slowed as they neared the bathroom. Ron and Neville entered, red –faced and panting. "Harry, Hermione! There's a troll! You need to…" They were silenced when they saw the crowd of teachers, and the huge body of the troll sprawled in the centre of the room.
"Mr Weasley, Mr Longbottom. I believe you were all instructed to return to your dormitories." McGonagall pursed her lips. The two boys worked their mouths soundlessly. "Nevertheless, you showed great loyalty and bravery in coming to warn your friends. Take five points for Gryffindor."
The nodded, still panting, as McGonagall swept from the room. Flitwick followed, and then Professor Snape, who had been lurking at the back. Harry noticed that the man was limping.
"Are you two all right?" asked Neville.
"Yes, just a bit shaken," answered Harry. Hermione nodded curtly, looking at Ron.
"Hermione, I'm sorry," Ron said, sounding repentant. "I didn't mean it. You're not a stupid know-it-all, and you are my friend. I'm sorry, am I forgiven?"
Hermione pursed her lips, before giving him a perfunctory hug and leaving the bathroom. Harry followed, and heard Ron ask Neville: "Does that mean yes?"
xxx
When they entered the Ravenclaw common room, Hermione whispered to Harry:
"So, will you tell me now?"
"I... just have to write to someone first," replied Harry. "I'll tell you when they reply." Hermione nodded, then when straight to bed.
After fetching Hedwig from the dormitory, Harry remained in the common room, which was empty save a couple of seventh years writing essays. Most people had returned to the feast. He sat at a desk, and took out parchment and quill to write a letter to Taqqiq.
Dear Grandmother,
Sorry that it's a bit since I last wrote, I have been quite busy. Today has been… interesting, to say the least. Somehow a troll got into the school, and almost attacked me and Hermione. Don't worry, we dealt with it. And we're fine. I have a question, though. I had to reveal my elemental manipulation and shapeshifting in order to defeat the troll. Should I lie to Hermione, or is it all right for her to know the truth?
Oh, and something I forgot in my last letter. When I practice with the Ikuma, I use the Vox Praecantator as usual, but something happened on the train on the way here. We encountered some bullies, and when I told them to leave, I accidentally used the Vox. I s there anything significant in that?
Hope all's well,
Harry
Harry enclosed the letter in an envelope, addressed it and sealed it, then passed it to Hedwig.
"Fly safely," he said to her. She twitted a farewell, then winged her way out of the window. She would fly south, to Edinburgh and the Scottish National Owl Post Office, where the letter would be transferred to a Trans-Atlantic Message Goose1.
xxx
The next morning, but half-way around the world, Harry's Grandmother was also writing a letter. She was replying to the letter that Dumbledore had sent her in response to the letter she had sent to him through Harry. She remembered well the day it appeared on her table in a flash of phoenix fire a month or so ago. She sighed and shook her head. She had been having a very busy time recently. Three incidents in a month. Two magical attacks and murders against Muggle families – she had blocked the perpetrators' magic completely for that. The third incident had been more worrying. A rather powerful young witch had tried to kill a group of goblins in Toronto. Taqqiq arrived in time to save them, but as the witch destroyed herself, she screamed in an insane, gleeful voice: "He is coming, Mamanti! And there's nothing you can do to stop him!"
Taqqiq had written to Dumbledore regarding Harry's scar. She sat back for a moment and remembered.
xxx
Not long after Dumbledore had visited her when she had rescued Harry, she began to become increasingly worried about the dark magic that continually seemed from Harry's scar. Yes, she knew it to be a curse scar, but Taqqiq was an expert in such things, and she knew for certain that a mere curse scar should not leave such a residue. She had decided to investigate.
She waited until the five year old Harry slept, then, by touching his forehead lightly, she had enchanted the little boy to remain asleep until she had finished her detective work.
Carefully lifting his frail body, she carried him through into her magic room, and up to the slab of rock that barred the entrance to the tunnel that led off it2.
She rolled the stone aside with a flexing of her will, and then went into the dark corridor revealed behind. It sloped downwards quite steeply until she reached a dimly lit cavern, the oldest part of the cave system. The ceiling stretched up so high it was lost in the darkness. Stalactites hung down, mighty and thick, some long enough to merge with the tree-trunk like stalagmites that were forcing themselves skyward. In the centre of the cavern, in wide circle formed by a series of stalagmites, a small fire burned. It appeared to have no fuel, and seemed to float in the air inches above the rocky ground. In the centre of the fire, where it burned hottest, rested an object that Taqqiq had been responsible for protecting for almost sixty years. The Circlet of Sedna.
It was made from white reindeer antler, bent into the shape of an armband thousands of years ago. It was about four inches in diameter, and ancient, primitive carvings adorned its surface. Depictions of bears and great whales and soaring eagles seemed to dance across it, intertwining with geometric patterns. It had powerful magic; disastrous in the wrong hands. Dumbledore liked to refer to it as the Forgotten Fourth Deathly Hallow. It floated unburned, spinning slowly in the enchanted fire.
Taqqiq laid Harry down next to the fire, which seemed to glow brighter as she approached. Taqqiq sat next to the still-sleeping Harry, and closed her eyes. She took a pot from within her clothing, and with the paste that was inside, she made triangular markings on her cheeks. She breathed deeply, and sent herself into a trance. She didn't send herself from her body, but instead she let her magical senses extend. She could feel Harry's presence, and the already considerable magical potential that he held. She delved deeper, sensing the edges of his dreams. She went past them in her search. She sank through memories, disregarding them all. Eventually she found herself at a point from where she could go no further.
And it was terrible.
She felt Harry's very being, his soul; that was as it should be. But there was more. A dreadful parasite clung tightly to Harry. It had latched itself into him, eating away at his very core like a leach. It was feeding off Harry's life, stunting his growth, absorbing his magic. The dark wrongness that poured from it was unbearable to endure. She didn't know how Harry could possibly be surviving its presence. It was an alien scrap of soul; its fangs so deeply impeded in Harry that he had no way to fight it off. It soon noticed Taqqiq's presence, and she felt the cold paralysing effect of its attention. It began to reach towards her, but she was too quick. She hurled herself from Harry's mind and body and awoke with a start.
She shivered in horror. Harry was being used for the foulest piece of magic conceivable; as a receptacle for a ripped soul. A Horcrux.
Taqqiq sent to thinking. She knew how to destroy the soul fragment, but she didn't know if the process would harm Harry. She wondered who the soul fragment belonged to. The answer came to her in an instant. Voldemort. He was one of the Torn if anyone was. She was certain he had been Torn when he had come to try to steal the Circlet of Sedna. Taqqiq suspected that the soul fragment within Harry was an accident. A living receptacle would be too unstable to be sure of the fragment taking hold. She realised that it probably occurred when the Killing Curse rebounded. In that case, Voldemort's soul must have been incredibly unstable to begin with, for a fragment to have broken off. He must have other Horcruxes, she had thought.
She needed to act quickly, before the soul shard did more damage. Standing up, she faced the floating fire and the Circlet of Sedna. She spread her arms wide, like wings. In a voice resounding with deep undertones and clear harmonics, a powerful Vox Praecantator, she intoned a chant. She repeated it over and over, as a mantra. As the chant reached its final words, the harmonics in her voice rang forth louder and louder. The deep chords became more pronounced, and on the last repetition of the mantra, she thrust her hand into the centre of the fire. She took hold of the Circlet, and pulled it out. It left the fire with a flash, which remained alight. Taqqiq's hand was angrily burnt. The fire was enchanted to burn even her, the only person to know the removal chant, in case someone managed to posses her in their search for the Circlet.
Ignoring the pain, she had placed the Circlet around Harry's little wrist. It hummed, a deep, reverberating note, almost too deep to hear, and shrank to fit his arm. Taqqiq hoped that its magic would protect Harry's body and soul from her attack on Voldemort's soul fragment.
She left Harry sleeping in the cavern, and returned to her magic room. Racing around the cave she collected herbs and powders, and mixed them together in a bowl. She combined them with water and they became a paste, which glowed at her word. She gathered more herbs, then went back to where Harry lay in the other cavern. She took the paste, and marked a circle around Harry's curse scar. She cast the remainder of her herbs on the fire. Taqqiq was immediately overcome by the scent of the fumes that billowed forth. Gritting her teeth, she raised her arms. With her formidable will, she reached out into the world, and, gathering to herself wave after wave of natural magic, she called forth the Shamanlight. It burst into being, filling the cavern with light and colour. The very rock beneath her feat began to vibrate, and her small body shook with effort. Her grey hair rose up like a halo around her head, and she clawed her fingers, holding her hands out towards Harry. The blinding light that filled the cave began to close in, centring on Harry's little form. The colours began to spin, and a beautifully clear chord sounded. Taqqiq directed the Shamanlight into Harry's body, through the portal she had made of his scar. She followed, and pulled the magic down into Harry's deepest core. She located the soul shard easily. She could hear it scream in anger as it was engulfed by the Light. It shrank away, but then fought back. Dark magic seeped from it, attempting to overwhelm the Shamanlight. But the Light was too strong, and Taqqiq cast aside the shade's dark tendril. In its rage, Voldemort's soul fragment turned on its host as it was destroyed. Even as it was burned away, it hurled all its strength against Harry's body and soul. For a moment Taqqiq feared it would kill him as it died, but a new magic suddenly thrummed through Harry's system. The Circlet of Sedna on his arm flashed brightly, and the soul shard's magic rebounded. In her proximity to it, Taqqiq could feel its anger and agony as it was destroyed by the Shamanlight. She felt no pity, and hurled more and more Light at it, until it was at last completely seared away.
Then, silence. It was gone. Taqqiq reached out through Harry's whole core, searching for any remnants of it. There were none. With relief, Taqqiq released the Shamanlight, which returned to the world like rays from the Sun.
Taqqiq withdrew from Harry's mind, and opened her eyes, breathing heavily. He lay peacefully, still asleep. His scar had looked healthier than she had ever seen it.
xxx
Back in the present, Taqqiq shook herself from her reminiscing. She had told all this to Dumbledore, as well as her theories about more Horcruxes. He had replied, telling her that he had suspected as such for a long time. He offered his sympathies for Harry's plight. He had thought more on the matter than she, however, and had some ideas about what the Horcruxes could be, and where they might be hidden. She was replying to offer her assistance in any way she could.
She was finishing off her letter when another arrived. She thanked the bird who delivered it, offering her some food and a rest.
She opened the letter, and recognised the handwriting as Harry's. She gave it a read, suppressing panic at the mention of the troll. Pursing her lips, she added a postscript to her letter to Albus.
PS. Why on Earth was there a troll in your school?
Regarding the rest of the letter, Harry's questions; she decided to answer them personally. She calculated that it would be early afternoon in Scotland – Harry should still be on his lunch break.
She prepared an Ikuma, and the markings for astral projection. Sinking into a trance, she sent herself across the ocean.
xxx
Harry was indeed at lunch. He was sitting in the library, holding a hushed conversation with Ron and Seamus. He and Hermione were helping them with some Astronomy homework. He jumped slightly when he heard a familiar voice whisper his name. He glanced around, but there was no one. Excusing himself with a lie about needing the loo, he left the library, and went to an alcove under a staircase and behind a suit of armour. Checking that no one was around, he said:
"You can be seen now, Grandmother." Her astral projection shimmered into being. He smiled at the familiar sight, and she smiled back.
"Hello, Harry," she said. "I trust you are having a pleasant time. Are you studies going well?" She meant both those for Hogwarts and for her.
"Yes Grandmother. Are you all right?"
"Yes, Harry. I am here to answer the questions from your letter."
"Thanks," he replied.
She continued. "In regards to yourinadvertent use of the Vox Praecantator, it is perfectly natural. It is just a further sign that you are definitely destined to be Mamanti of the Islands at the Back of the North Wind, the British Isles."
He nodded.
"And about informing the girl Hermione of the truth, you must use your digression. The existence of the Mamanti is no secret; these islands have only forgotten. If you do not wish everyone to know that you have the Mamanti power then you must be sure that Hermione is trustworthy."
"I think she is," said Harry. Taqqiq's astral projection nodded.
"Then I shall leave you. Write soon, Harry. Good bye, my Grandson."
She leant forward, and with insubstantial arms, hugged him with an embrace he couldn't feel. And she vanished.
Harry rubbed his shoulders where Taqqiq's astral form had 'touched' him. He missed his Grandmother.
AN: Nice long chapter. I hope you enjoyed it!
Quick question – those people who have reviewed, have any of you received replies from yours truly? (Just checking. Not sure I have the hang of FF just yet)
Thanks for all the reviews. Keep Reviewing! :)
Another question – has anyone else been having trouble with their Traffic feature on FF. Mine isn't a happy bunny at the moment.
1. Trans-Atlantic Message Geese – directly pinched from Transfigurations by Resonant (please forgive me). If you haven't read it yet, you really should, it's absolutely fantastic (just search Transfigurations Resonant on Google). Just a warning, its NC-17 slash.
2. If you don't remember this tunnel, see near the end of Chapter 5. Same with the Shamanlight. Check Chapter 9 if you've forgotten the Vox Praecantator.