A/N: This chapter hasn't been checked for errors or mistakes so if you find them…I apologize in advance.
Sorry…I've been hurrying up with a few chapters which is why I haven't been getting enough time to revise some of the chapters…
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'Thwack! Thwack!...'
The sound of digging echoed into the silent night. As fog and cold wind enveloped the graveyard the few owls, crows and vultures that lived there looked at the man who dug through the soil so as to gain access of the graves as he stopped and went down on his knees, panting and shivering in that cold. He removed any remaining soil off of the coffin's lid before opening it up as the smell of rotting flesh filled the air.
Grabbing the decaying corpse through its empty eye sockets he pulled it out of the coffin, dragging it over a little far before dropping it on the pile of bodies that he'd taken out from the graves tonight as he panted in relief. Tonight's job was done as he removed his hood and looked at the graveyard. An abandoned small town left by its people decades ago was a perfect place to get the bodies from without letting anyone know about it. The new laws of the acting government of Magical Britain weren't exactly making it easy for him to stay surfaced as aurors were everywhere looking for him.
A smile came upon his face as he counted the bodies that he'd dug out. Finally he had enough for the ritual. Taking out his wand he gave it a wave as all the soils, caskets and the broken concrete tombstones reverted back to their original forms leaving the graveyard spotless and devoid of any evidence of being robbed or interfered by someone.
He could've used magic to make taking out the bodies a lot easier and quicker but that would've tampered with their purity, especially with bodies this eroded and rotten. They were required without any trace of magic on them. Putting his hand in his pocket he took out a few pebbles, each of which had a carving on it – a rune. He started putting those pebbles around the pile of bodies before activating them with their spell, causing them to glow a faint yellow before a thin, yellowish bubble surrounded the bodies, making them disappear the next second with a faint popping sound. They were special runes made purposefully to not leave any trace of utilized magic…perfect for transporting the bodies to wherever they needed to go.
The man then took out his communication rune and brought it close to his mouth. "Did you get them?" he said.
"I did," a voice came from the other side. "Now return back, Gellart. Our work isn't done yet."
Nodding, Grindelwald put the stone back in his pocket before apparating away from the place.
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Harry waited in the living room of his quarters as he looked towards the closed doors of Daphne's room when he heard the door unlock and open slowly. Daphne was coming out when she saw him and stopped, looking at him with an expressionless face before walking past Harry and towards the exit door. As she turned the knob to walk out of the quarter Harry turned and called her name.
"Daphne," he said. She stopped, turned around and looked at him. "I know you are mad and I know I shouldn't have blocked you…any of our friends while I was away training with Draco. I tried contacting you all but I was just too involved with my training that I never got time. As soon as my training got over I would literally hit the bed and sleep out my tiredness. I tried…many times, I tried to write you or mirror-call you but I couldn't. I know you wouldn't forgive me…at least not easily but please don't torture me by not talking to me. Please."
Daphne looked at him for a moment before turning towards the door and opening it. Harry wanted to say something but then he stopped as she walked out into the corridor before she stopped and turned towards him. Her lips twitched a little as she looked at him. "Aren't you gonna get ready?" she said.
His face lit up as Harry nodded enthusiastically before he ran inside his room and came out a few minutes later in a little proper casual get-up, ready for their first ever Hogsmead weekend. As the two left the quarter Sir Jaime looked at them go with a smile on his face. Finally the two were talking again. It would again be fun to listen to them mockingly berate each other.
"Whoa! Looks like they made up," Susan said nudging Hermione as she saw Harry and Daphne walk into the great hall together. Hermione looked up from the book she was reading and smiled slightly, finally happy that her two friends were at least on talking terms again as judging from Daphne's face she could tell that the ice princess hadn't completely forgiven Harry. But they were talking and that was a good improvement from the last month of torture for Harry.
The two joined their friends on the Ravenclaw table this time as Luna had asked them to sit with her. Astoria came over to her sister and the two began to talk before she left again after a few minutes, winking towards Harry who didn't know how to respond to that so he simply smiled at her sister-in-law. It seemed odd to think of someone as young as Astoria as his sister-in-law but he and Daphne were legally married so that made Astoria his SIL.
The group finished their breakfast before heading out towards Hogsmead. Like any other third year they were excited to explore the village and buy stuff. They all submitted their permit letters to Filch who scoffed looking at Harry's. Being an emancipated minor Harry was seen as an adult in the society but that didn't mean he could sign his own permit letter in order to be excused to go to the Hogsmead village so he had none other than McGonagall sign his letter which he handed over to Filch as the caretaker gave him an annoyed look which Harry returned with a satisfied smile making the caretaker even more annoyed.
Filch gave a grudging grunt looking at Harry's letter before moving on to collect the rest of the students' as Harry joined his friends for a whole day to spend outside of Hogwarts. With no threat of Voldemort or his death eaters' surprise raid the students were pretty excited this time to spend some outside time either by themselves, with their friends or with their partners.
There were many couples as Harry and the group saw and some small groups like their own. They decided to walk the distance instead of taking a carriage as that was more fun and the village wasn't that far from the castle.
The girls all formed their own group leaving Harry and Neville together which made it a little awkward for the two boys as Neville had always avoided talking directly with Harry unless it was absolutely necessary. Harry knew it was because of the whole 'Yayu had killed Gak' thing and Gak being Griffin's close friend made it difficult for Neville and Harry to talk, although Harry didn't want it that way. From the way he and everyone else saw it, it was Neville who'd stopped talking to Harry after knowing it from Griffin that it was the Yayu who'd killed Gak.
Putting the hands in his pockets Harry began to walk towards the stationary shop as he had to buy some quills, parchments and ink since he was running low on them.
Half an hour later as Harry finished his stationary shopping he came out of the shop and met the Weasely twins who were coming out of the joke shop adjacent to the stationary shop. The two saw Harry and stopped, smiling wide as they came over to him.
Harry loved them. Unlike their other siblings the twins were actually more understanding and mature. It was a pity not everyone saw these qualities in them as to others they were nothing but trouble makers.
"Hey, Harry, shopping for some quills?" Fred asked.
"I am," Harry said as he glanced at the carry bags of which their hands were full of. "I see you've done quite some shopping as well."
"Oh, these?" George said looking at his carry bags. "These are just for the first few months."
"Who's the target this time?"
"Professor Slughorn and a few Slytherins," George said, "apart from some others a well."
"It seems like you two are only beginning your Hogsmead weekend," Harry said looking at all the stuff they'd bought.
"We are," George said. "While there aren't enough prank tools and things that we would generally like to get out hands on at least it is giving us some ideas for when we open our own shop but I guess we already told you about that."
"Come to me if you're looking for investors," Harry said. "I would really like to invest in your shop idea."
"Really?" both said in unison.
"Why wouldn't I?" Harry said. "You've shown me some of your ideas that you work on and to be honest I was really impressed by that."
"Whoa! That's the first time anyone other than us two has shown any interest in our idea to open a joke shop!" Fred said as he looked at his twin brother. "I think we need to work on a proper plan in order to impress our future investor here, bother."
"We sure do," George said before looking around. "Are you all by yourself, though, Harry?"
"Hermione and other girls of my group are doing their own shopping and stuff so I was hanging all by myself," Harry said.
"What about Longbottom?" Fred asked.
"Oh, he likes to be by himself really," Harry said, not really wanting to tell the twins that they weren't generally on talking terms.
"Join us," Fred said.
"Sorry?" Harry said.
"He said join us for the day," George said. "We promise you will love it."
Deciding he had nothing better to do Harry tagged along with the twins and George was right. He had so much fun as the twins and he headed back to the castle to put back the things the twins had bought before returning back for more shopping of prank items. Harry wondered why they didn't just shrink all the things instead of going back to the castle to put them to which the twins replied that some items were magic-sensitive and using spells on them like the shrinking spells or weightless spells could harm their functionality.
Entering the joke shop Harry couldn't believe how many different types of pranking items were there on sale. He didn't even know majority of them and the ones he did know he knew from the twins explaining it to him. And even after all that the twins didn't seem to be all that impressed with the products that they bought, finding problems and shortcomings in them while devising their own ideas on how they could improve these products.
After spending the entire day with them Harry had realized one thing – the twins were genius. Yes, they didn't use their brains for studies like they were expected to but when it came to the implementation of magic on pranking others he wondered if anyone else thought like they did. He wondered if there were any books back in his manor that would be helpful for them as he thought about gifting it to them.
As the day came to an end the girls joined Harry and Neville before they took one of the carriages back to the castle. Harry had also bought a few items from the joke shop thinking they might come in handy some time.
Arriving at the castle everyone went back to their dorm/quarters to put back the things they'd bought. Harry accompanied Daphne back to their quarters and they talked about how their days went by today. Harry was happy that they were on talking terms but he knew she still hadn't completely forgiven him. He knew he'd deserved it.
As he and Daphne prepared to head over to the great hall for an early dinner Harry suddenly saw flashes of images…memories before his head ached like someone had hit his head with a hammer. He grabbed his head as he groaned and then screamed in pain before falling on the floor.
Daphne immediately came to his side seeing if he as alright. All of a sudden he'd grabbed his head and had started to scream. She didn't know what was happening to him. Worried and panicked she floo-called Pomfrey who came the next moment. She'd brought with herself some pain relief potions since Daphne had told her that Harry was in incredible pain. The potion did nothing and as Pomfrey examined him she found out that it was a headache but not just any headache. This was the first time she was seeing this. She knew her examinations and scans of the boy couldn't be wrong but she didn't know how could be possible either.
Harry was experiencing a throbbing pain through memories.
Pomfrey tried to knock him out but nothing worked. She tried again and again but failed every time. Harry's screams filled the living room as Daphne stood in the corner, teas falling down her eyes as she didn't know what was happening. Seeing Pomfrey's spells not working made her even more worried. "What…What is happening to him?" she asked through sobs.
"I…I don't know, Mrs Potter," Pomfrey said.
Daphne didn't care that Pomfrey had just called her Mrs Potter as she came by her side and looked at Harry. "Harry…Harry?" she called his name as he kept screaming while grabbing his head. "Harry, please…please stop. You're scaring me!" he didn't respond as his voice got coarse and coarse du to continuous screams. "Knock him out!" she said looking at Pomfrey.
"I've been trying to do that but it's not working!" said the medi-witch. "His shields are way too strong for the spells to do any work!"
"What shields?" Daphne asked wondering what the hell was Pomfrey talking about.
"Knock-out spells work on by binging down occlumency shields," said the medi-witch. "The stronger one's shields the harder it is to knock them out using magic. Mr Potter's shields are unlike any I've seen before." She then paused and looked at Daphne. "I…I'm sorry. I don't think I can help him."
"YOU HVE TO DO SOMETHING!" Daphne screamed. "YOU ARE THE HEALER! FI HIM! MAKE HIM FEEL BETTER!"
Pomfrey lowered her head in shame. She felt ashamed and incompetent having unable to help Harry when suddenly something came to her mind as she looked up. "There's something we can try," she said.
"What?" Daphne asked.
"His occlumency shields are incredibly strong," Pomfrey said. "We need to bring it down. Even a little bit would be enough to knock him out. But…"
"But what?" Daphne asked.
"We would be needing help on this one," Pomfrey said. "We need someone with very strong legilimency skills, especially since I've never sensed any occlumency shields as strong as Mr Potter's."
"Well, who do we go to?" Daphne asked, getting more and more desperate as Harry's screams filled her ears.
"Normally we could go to Dumbledore but he's…unavailable…"
"WHO DO WE GO TO?" Daphne asked or rather shouted standing up and glaring at the medi-witch.
"Snape," Pomfrey said. "Severus is very skilled in legilimency. He could help…"
Daphne ran over to the fireplace and threw in a pinch of floo powder. "Professor's Snape's office!" she said. A moment later Snape's head emerged from the green flames as he looked at Daphne a little confused.
"Ms Green…Mrs Potter," he said correcting himself, "what is the matter?"
"Harry is experiencing…I don't know what it is. Madam Pomfrey is saying he's experiencing pain in his thoughts…memories…She can't put him to sleep o relieve him of the pain. She says it might be related to his strong occlumency shields and so we need…"
"Step back," Snape said. Daphne stood up as the fireplace flared with green flames as Snape walked out into their living room. "Where is …" he asked but could already head Harry's screams.
"Severus!" Pomfrey gasped seeing the DADA professor. "He's…"
"Move aside," Snape said kneeling down on his knees and grabbing Harry's head with both his hands. The fact that Harry was thrashing his legs didn't exactly help Snape but he managed it somehow. "Potter?" he said. No response. Harry continued screaming. "Potter!" Snape said a bit loudly. Still nothing. He took out hi wand and mumbled something before moving his wand over Harry's entire body. "Your guess was right," he said looking at Pomfrey as he shifted to the side. "Hold his head down."
Pomfrey kneeled down and held Harry's head over his hands while Snape removed his and with one hand opened his eyes. It was hard but he managed to do so and when Harry opened his eyes Snape moved back a little seeing the pain the boy was experiencing. He had no idea what was happening to Harry but Pomfrey and his scans on Harry were right. It was a memory/thought related pain. Leaning in closer to him Snape looked directly in Harry's eyes before taking in a long breath.
"Legilimence!" Snape said and penetrated Harry's occlumency shields like they were nothing. For Daphne and Pomfrey it seemed very easy for Snape to do this but for the DADA professor he knew how much effort he had to put for in order to enter Harry's thoughts and the moment he did he found himself in what seemed to be an unending empty void of white with a very huge tornado in the middle of it.
He could feel its powers as Snape tried to keep his grip on Harry's memories through his legilimency. It was proving harder with each passing second and he still hadn't figured out what was causing Harry so much pain. There was nothing here but this giant twister and Snape had no idea how to stop it and since there was nothing else it had to be this twister that was causing Harry so much pain.
Not knowing what else he could do Snape did what came to his mind as he began walking towards the twister, barely keeping his grip on the non-existent floor as he tried not to get blown away by it when suddenly it stopped and vanished out of the blue.
Snape wondered what had happened when a black sphere began to materialize in front of him before he felt a powerful push. Being a very skilled legilimence user Snape knew it was an occlumency push. Realizing it had come from this black sphere Snape realized that this sphere…whatever this was, contained memories. What these memories were he didn't know but one thing was sure – memories didn't protect themselves so it could mean just one thing – this black sphere was the memories of the Yayu.
He gasped audibly as Snape was thrown out of Harry's memories and before he could fall on his back on the floor due to the shock Pomfrey held him. He panted while simultaneously checking whether his own memories were fine or not. They were and he sighed in relief before looking at Harry. The boy was unconscious.
"You did it!" Snape heard Daphne say as he looked at her in confusion.
"I don't know how you did it Severus but thank you," Pomfrey said with a nod towards Snape who nodded back, not telling them that it wasn't him. He actually didn't know if Harry's pain had stopped because of him. As far as he knew it had stopped on its own.
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Draco walked through the forest, his senses alert and his wands ready for he knew this place wasn't exactly safe. His one eye had the long, vertical pupil of Selandra who was also seeing through him, aiding him in case he gets ambushed.
"Is it getting stronger?" he asked.
"It did a while ago and since then it hasn't changed," Selandra replied back. "But it hasn't vanished."
"How can it not change?" Draco asked. "Are we lost?"
"We aren't…" Selandra stopped talking as Draco's movement stopped as well. "How can this be?" she said.
"What?" Draco said as he enhanced his magic around him to sense movement when he caught four signatures on his left and slowly turned towards that direction. "Are you really not being alert right now?" he asked Selandra sensing she wasn't as alert as he was since discovering four life signatures. He was still new to this sensing others so he couldn't tell the difference of magic between the four but Selandra could but of all four of them she was only interested in two, one of who she knew…probably.
The sound of leaves being crushed under someone's steps filled his ears as Draco's fingers crackled with magic just like his wand's tip when he saw four figures approaching him through the dense fog.
"Why don't you lower your wand, Draco," he heard a familiar voice as the four figures got nearer to him. "We aren't your enemies."
Draco saw as the four came and stood a few feet away from him. One of them, he didn't recognize. The other had his face covered with a big hood while the other two were Remus Lupin, Sirius and Harry's close friend and the other one was Kingsley.
But there was one other thing that he felt and he couldn't understand it properly as he felt Selandra's feelings whenever he looked towards the two strangers. 'You know them?' he asked her telepathically.
"It's good to meet you too, Selandra," said the stranger man. Draco saw he wore a weird looking cloak made of grass and moss. He had a rather short stature, about four to four-and-a-half feet tall with sharp green eyes and small pointy canines which were visible whenever he spoke. It was then that Draco sensed it inside this short man as his eyes widened as well. now he understood why Selandra seemed so surprised to sense him but he wondered who the guy in the hood was. He wasn't sensing anything similar inside him what he felt from the short guy so why was Selandra so shocked to see this mysterious person?
'Let me out,' Selandra said to Draco inside his head. He nodded before getting on his knees and hands.
"Beast mimicry," he said as an aura flared around him before separating from him and taking a smaller, physical form of Selandra. Both Remus and Kingsley watched this in amazement.
"Is that the secret chamber's monster that Salazar hid underneath Hogwarts?" Remus asked looking at Selandra who looked at him. "You're small."
"This isn't my actual form," Selandra said. "I am this small because it is easier for others and it's not going to attract any unwanted attention. We aren't exactly in a safe place here." She then looked at the smaller guy. "So, what is your story?" she asked looking at him.
"I cannot say," said the smaller person before looking at Draco. "I cannot say it in front of him. It's still too early for him to know anything."
"What is?" asked Draco as he looked form the two strangers to Remus and Kingsley. "Potter is looking for you two everywhere," he said. "Shouldn't you at least let him know that you are alright?"
"Unfortunately we can't," Kingsley said. "At least not now. The time isn't right."
"I didn't know something like this required a right time," Draco scoffed. "He's worried for you. they all are. Do you know how much effort he and Black have put in order to look for you?" he said looking at Kingsley. "At least Lupin got away by writing them a letter, telling them not to find him. At least you can do the same. That way the aurors and resources that we've all spent after your search would be spared."
"Draco," Remus stepped forward looking at the boy, "it is important that this information remains a secret that Kingsley is actually alive and well. "Most in the ministry thinks he's dead and we…we want it to be that way if not anything else. If Harry knows he's alright the others will, too, and when that happens, our plan will be discovered and ruined."
"What are you talking about?" Draco asked.
"Harry was attacked," said the hooded guy having Draco's immediate attention. "But it wasn't just any attack. There is something you need to know but you have to make an unbreakable vow that you wouldn't tell Harry a word about it."
"Why?" Draco asked.
"You and Snape trained him," said the short guy. "Especially you. You will need to do it again because you know it that he isn't ready. His training wasn't complete. What you're looking for…your doubts and your investigations regarding all of that…they are true."
Draco's eyes widened when he heard that. "Then that means…."
Both Kingsley and Remus looked towards him while the hooded man gave a single nod. "It happened yesterday," said the hooded man. "The attack on Harry wasn't exactly an attack. It was the Yayu's response. It felt agitated sensing him. Grindelwald has revived him."
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Thanks for reading…
