I am so, so sorry for not having this up sooner. I have been going to college and working along side that so I have been pretty busy. But the Semester is over and we are out for the Holiday break, what better time to get this up. Stay tuned for the Author's Note for an address for a story related surprise.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Chapter 25: the Swirling Orb
Classes started up again that Monday, as McGonagall handed out the second semester timetables.
"I have Muggle Studies first." Ron said as compared his timetable to Harry's.
"I have double Advanced Potions today followed by double Herbology and then I have a free period." Harry said laying down the parchment.
"Tough day, mate" Ron's comment was then followed by his breakfast exploding in his face and a mad cackle as Peeves appeared and zoomed away with Ron chasing after him.
"Peevesy makes Weasley's food go boom, Weasley makes Peevesy go Zoooooom." The Poltergeist cackled as soared out the door.
Harry found himself rather distracted all day, He flubbed up Restorative Draught in Potions, earning him a long parchment on the ingredients of the Potion and their purposes and measurements in the potion and where he went wrong in brewing it. But Harry knew he had bigger matters to worry about: The Phoenix Blaze and who was the last entry in Gryphon's book. He was sure that Gryphon had to have written more down somewhere about this mysterious survivor. Harry felt like he didn't know enough about the Phoenix Blaze for all the information given to him. He decided that he needed to see what he could find, even if it meant sneaking into her office. Part of him didn't want to believe that she was an Alljandre and that she was just missing like a normal person. The other part had consigned to everything he had been told about the woman and in a way it was what alarmed him. Everything seemed to point to what Voldemort had told him about the Professor. Did she really murder her parents? Was that why she had a Bounty on her head and that she had a disagreement with her brother?
That evening he crept into Gryphon's office underneath his invisibility cloak and the Marauder's Map in hand. The Map informed him that no one was in her office, and that Gryphon wasn't anywhere in the castle. Unlocking the door using Alohamora and slipping inside, he viewed his surroundings. It seemed just as empty as it had been when he had visited her last. It felt cold and unlived in compared to that time. Gryphon's armor and sword were still gleaming in their niche between the bookcases, books placed haphazardly on the shelves. Looking through the titles he couldn't find anything that looked handwritten or search related except one that was titled Unexplained Magicks: Instances of Strange Magick of Olde by Jopher Tophline. The gold lettering was peeling and the book looked well worn. Flipping through the pages, Harry found a couple of pages with mention of the Phoenix Blaze. It was very religious related and spoke of the Apocalypse often. Harry found Jopher's version being rather Christian Heretic compared to Gryphon's more sensible one which was still very confusing. But Harry still did not find anything relating to the last user of the Phoenix Blaze. The books print date dated back to around the time the printing press was invented. There wasn't even anything written on the inside of the bindings. Harry swore. She had no Journals or notebooks on these shelves. He continued to look throughout the office. Her desk drawers contained empty rolls of parchment, a bottle of Apple Cider and several quills with a bottle of ink. Finding nothing, he went onto the adjacent room.
There was a chest that much to Harry's chagrin only contained clothes, some being incredibly more ornate than the others. He then went up a ladder to a perch that overlooked the room. On the perch was a small table that contained candles, a lifelike drawn picture of Felix Gryphon, an old clock and Gryphon's white wand. Under the table was the small chest that Gryphon had retrieved from Ollivander's shop. It was locked and sealed in more ways than one. There was a huge hammock strung from one side of the room to the other and the perch made it possible to get into it. On the hammock were a Blanket, Sheet and Pillow, all neatly folded up. A window, that was level with the perch, lead out to the roof of the tower. It overlooked the wing of the castle that held the Great Hall. The sight was incredible with the white tree slightly interrupting the landscape before him. There was nothing here that told him what he wanted to know. He went back to the main part of the office and his gaze went immediately to Gryphon's desk top. The swirling silver sphere on the desk reminded Harry of something. Quickly, Harry realized that it could be a pensieve with its silver memories floating about inside! He picked it up from its stand and looked within its center and found himself pulled in.
He found himself in a foreign place, in a strange forest during the night with a group passing by. In the middle of the group was a dark-haired richly-dressed man carrying a babe in a blanket, around him was an entourage of guards. All had pointed ears. The Guards looked very uneasy about being in these woods Harry followed them for two minutes until they stopped. The babe started to cry and fuss and the man told them to make camp. Some of the guards looked very mutinous. One shot out of the group and grabbed the babe out of the man's hands. The blanket fell away to reveal a Golden haired, silver eyed child with a collar around her neck. The guard held a knife to her throat under the collar. "Why did we have to make this stupid expedition to the Northlands?!" the guard demanded of the man, "The Allogryph are stubborn, secretive and could easily tear us apart without a single thought."
The man looked alarmed, "What ever ye do, do not remove the collar!"
"What is so important about this wretched collar in the first place, all I have been hearing since I came to work for thee is to never remove her collar." He said swinging the babe by her clothes. "I never received a reason why."
"For thy…" The man began
"For what! I went into the Guard to pay for school and probably fight some dark wizards, I never joined to escort a fool and his little brat!" The knife cut into the child's neck and then was used to break the collar. The collar dissolved before it could hit the ground.
"Run!" The Man told every one. "Hide."
The child grew and contorted into a creature as large as the guard. The guard bolted and the Creature followed. Harry found himself forced to follow.
The chase ended ten minutes after it began when the creature caught the Guard. The Guard screamed and threw his arms in front of his face to protect himself. With a flash the dark haired man swooped out of no where and placed a new collar around the creature's neck. Its eyes went wide, she wretched and fell over. The Guard slid himself from under the creature and watched in horror as the creature resumed the form of the little girl. The man plucked a ring out of the vomit and cleaned it off.
"This should be a lesson to ye all to never remove her Highness, Avyllynne's collar." The man addressed the group of guards that had followed him and the Guard that had caused this whole mess.
"Aye, M'lord." They intoned.
"As you very well see, she is half Allogryph and it was her mother that wanted me to make peace with the Allogryph as her dying wish." The man said seriously as he picked up the sleeping Avyllynn.
"Aye, M'lord." The group intoned again.
A rumble came from the ground and soon a sprout shot forth into a sapling tree white in color.
"What kind of sorcery is this?" A guard who was standing beside the man asked in awe as gaped at the miracle before him.
"It is the pure magic that resides within the Allogryph and once within our Elvin Ancestors. It is not the dark magic that our race has only been capable of." The Man answered in pride as he looked at the white tree. "I have a feeling that this place will serve a purpose in years to come."
Everything went dark and the scenery changed to that of the Hogwarts Express. Harry saw a little kitten-like girl looking around five years old and her mass of blonde hair falling past her shoulders. She was staring out the window as the train sped by the countryside, her silver eyes seemed to have a hard time focusing on anything.
"Oi, what's a little girl doing on the train?" A boy, looking not much older than eleven, with bright blue eyes and Auburn hair pointed out when he had come into the compartment. They were dressed in very old fashioned clothes that went out of style last century
The girl bristled in indignation. "How dare ye say that ye ignorant fool!" she hissed at him as she pointed a rough white wand at him. "I assure thee that I may look younger than you but I am old enough to attend Hogwarts."
"Umm… Sorry." The boy said. "Look all the other compartments are full and I have no where to sit, can I sit in here for the trip?"
The girl gave him a bitter look. "By all means, I am not stopping thee."
Five minutes passed in silence.
"Soo… What's your name?" The boy asked making small talk.
"Why?"
"So I am not calling you 'hey you' all the way to Hogwarts." The boy said.
"J. Avyllynn Gryphon. And Thine?"
"Huh?" The boy sounded thickly. The young Gryphon rolled her eyes.
"Thy Name?"
"Oh! Er… Albus… AlbusPercivalWulfricBrianDumbledore." The Boy finally answered quickly.
A look crossed Gryphon's Features, "Greetings to thee, Oheralbusalbuspercivalwulfricbriandumbldore." She announced with a straight face. "I must say that ye have a really long name. Tell me is that thy given name or thy sur name?"
Albus did not look amused. It was clear that Gryphon had been toying with him when she gave him a smug smile.
The scene shifted to depict a battlefield. The sky was overcast. Many were fighting in the distance. Bodies lay all around. Harry found himself standing next to a kneeling Gryphon dressed in the same armor that had come to Hogwarts in. She looked the same age as she was now. Her demeanor looked tired and ashen and her eyes looked wild and alert. She was breathing heavily. She had her wand in her left hand and her sword in her right.
Her ears twitched and she rose quickly to parry off an attack from behind. Her attacker was clothed in black robes, his ears where long and pointed, tattoos marked the pale skin of his face, and his teeth were sharpened to points. It was clear that he had been using these teeth as weapons. His face was covered in blood. He carried a black sword and a carved bone.
Gryphon bared her teeth and threw off the sword attack. She never uttered a word, as she shot a spell at him. He parried using his bone wand. Harry realized that his was a dark wizard. Gryphon then ruthlessly slashed her sword through his force field and through the dark wizard. Gryphon went back into kneeling and breathing.
The scene changed again for Harry. He was following two people into a large and dimly lit stone corridor. Harry figured that they were in a castle of some sort. One of the people he had been following was a younger version of Dumbledore whose hair and beard were long but still had the auburn color. The other person had the looks of a teenager. But the long gold hair and pointed ears gave it away that this was none other than Gryphon.
"I hope she is okay." Gryphon said to Dumbledore as they ran along.
"I hope so too." He added. "How did he get a hold of Ariana when her powers are so unstable?"
"Let's hope for our sake that thy sister has already exploded." Gryphon said with a malevolent grin.
"How could you say that!" Albus exclaimed.
"It'll mean less of Grindlewald that we will have to deal with." She added sadistically as she leapt up the staircase that they had come to, taking five steps at a time.
Dumbledore grumbled, "I know, but how dare you say that."
They came to a large set of doors at the top of the stair. They pushed the doors open to reveal a dark cavernous room only lit by two torches on the opposite wall several meters away. There stood a large, grisly man with a scared woman.
"Did you bring the hollows?" the man said insanely as he gripped the woman's bonds.
"The hollows are only in fairy tales!" Gryphon shouted irritably.
"No they are not. They are the keys to ultimate power, they exist! I know you have them! I wouldn't have started associating with Albus if I didn't know that he had them! Spiculum Ventus!"
Dumbledore countered quickly and whatever spell Grindelwald had thrown at them was deflected into the adjacent wall. "Listen to me Grindelwald! The Hollows do not exist!"
Grindelwald threw the girl aside and started throwing a petulant fit, "Yes they do! Yes they do!" he screamed as he stamped his feet. "Tabesco"
"Prohibeo!" But Gryphon's spell wasn't soon enough. She dodged before the spell engulfed her. Unfortunately, Gryphon's long hair was still hit with the spell and started to melt away. Her irises changed slightly and the pupils became slitted "Grindelwald, Storytellers of old made up those stories to keep peoples' interest."
Grindelwald looked like he was struggling against an invisible force, "Keep your mind out, you freak." The dark wizard spat out at Gryphon. Her eyes returned to normal and his struggling ceased. A silver rope immediately wrapped itself around Grindelwald's neck like a whip. Harry saw as Dumdledore tightened the rope, screaming at him to take it back. But Grindelwald just smiled as the rope turned to black dust and fell from his neck. He blasted the ceiling above Dumbledore, burying the man in stone and concrete.
Ariana lay unconscious and forgotten as Grindelwald struggled towards Gryphon, whose pupils were slitted again. She looked like she was trying to keep him away.
"I told you to stay out of my mind!" Grindelwald Shouted at her.
"Then stay away from me!" Gryphon shouted back. In an instant, her eyes returned to normal and she blasted him with some of the rubble that encased Dumbledore. But a crack alerted her that the Dark wizard had apparated. Before she could run to help Dumbledore out of the rubble that pinned him down, a crack directly behind her alerting that somebody was behind her, she didn't have enough time to turn and attack before Grindelwald throttled her neck and picked her up.
"You have no business in this affair, Alljandre!" Grindelwald said into her pointed ear. "You have no business carrying the Elder Wand." He took the white wand from her grasp. She was losing air as she continued to struggle against the dark wizard's grasp around her neck. Harry felt like he needed to stop this somehow. He reached for Grindelwald's arm but his hand went right through. Harry remembered that nothing could be altered in a memory. Gryphon's face was turning blue and her attempts in struggling were becoming feeble. He put Gryphon's wand in his pocket and pulled out his own. "And you have no business existing." He swirled his wand before he impaled her through the back with it and his hand. Blood went everywhere. Gryphon's eyes rolled to the back of her head and her body went limp. In an instant her body twisted, contorted, and changed to the form Harry had seen before. There was no denying the fact that Gryphon was an Alljandre. Harry watched in horror as Gryphon's white fur was covered in her own red blood gushing from her chest. Grindelwald dropped her unceremoniously into the growing puddle of blood. The memory faded out.
Harry was back. What he had just seen had horrified him. And a good deal of it did not make any sense. Gryphon was clearly dead when the memory faded, how could she be alive now?
"What where ye doing in there?" a boy's voice roughly called him. Harry's eyes went wide when he saw Felix putting the swirling orb back on its stand. Felix looked furious.
"I…" Harry started but found it hard to speak. He realized he was no longer in Gryphon's office and that he was now in the Headmaster's office.
"Have been in things you shouldn't have been in." Dumbledore said from behind his desk. "Felix informed me when he found you in here." He indicated the orb
"I did not have the expertise to pull thee out of mother's pensieve." Felix's tone was rather icy as he guarded the orb protectively. "The Headmaster pulled thee out."
"Thank you Felix, you can go put this in your mother's office now that we have extracted Mr. Potter from it."
Felix looked mutinous for a few seconds, but he nodded, threw his arms around the orb and scurried off.
"He was hoping that you would get punished for this." Dumbledore told him. "That was most unwise, Harry, an Alljandre's trust is easy to get and not very easy to get back after you've lost it."
Harry wanted to yell at him, for all that was kept from him, but the only thing that came to mind was that Professor Gryphon shouldn't even be alive.
"Was she killed?" Was all that escaped from his lips.
"Yes." Dumbledore said gravely. "But she did not meet her end on that day.
"Then how did she…" Harry started but was silenced when Dumbledore brought a finger to his lips and nodded toward the Headmaster Portraits behind him. Harry nodded that he understood.
"All I can tell you, Harry." Dumbledore added, "Is to put the pieces together yourself, but use commonsense on which pieces are actually part of the puzzle you are putting together."
Harry nodded.
"And Please, Do Not Divulge what you have found out to anyone. She has asked those of us who know not to tell as it is not our place to tell."
"I promise I won't tell anyone." Harry said resolutely.
"Good, you may go."
Author's Note: I tried to get a link of a picture of professor Gryphon but FF doesn't seem to be able to handle it. Thankyou to those who pointed out that direct links don't work here and that I needed to spell every thing out and allow the readers to type it in properly, so here it is:
ach tee tee pee colon backslash backslash tojot dot deviantart dot com backslash art backslash Professor-J-Avyllynne-Gryphon-106814265
And please vote in the poll that is on my Author page, It allows you the reader to have some say about the fate of one character in this story. I Thank you for reading, I hope to have another chapter up soon. Please be patient with me if it does take forever for the next. You are welcome the leave a review if you please, but you aren't required to. Thank you again and have a happy holiday.