Author's Note:
So I went back on forth on whom the seventh person would be but then when I looked ahead to see what I had planned my doubts fell away. Just like with Harry in Hufflepuff I think there is untapped potential with this one and all I ask is that you give me a chance to do it justice.
And … you really can't complain because this is the third chapter in less than 2 months.
Thanks for reading and enjoy!
Here is my disclaimer that says I do not own anything Harry Potter related. Everything belongs to JK Rowling, except in universe 47837. Probably.
It was the end of February before Remus Lupin resembled something like the man who had come to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts at the beginning of the school year. Harry didn't know if some full moons were worse than others for the Werewolf but given that the man was finally starting to regain some of the weight that he had lost during the fall and early winter Harry reasoned that it might be a distinct possibility.
Then again, it wasn't like Remus had shown up to Hogwarts in a particularly healthy state either.
At any rate, however, with the man feeling better Harry finally had a reason to stay after class and take his Defense Professor up on his offer, one that had become even more intriguing given the several weeks that had passed since his illuminating conversation with Peter Pettigrew.
It wasn't like Harry needed to confirm what the rat had told him – or what Harry had seen inside Pettigrew's mind. Though, for the plans that Harry had recently fleshed out to finally begin establishing himself as a behind-the-scenes player, a discussion with the older Marauder needed to happen.
And Harry wasn't about to wait a single minute longer.
Justin and Neville gave Harry a final nod before turning, leaving their leader alone with the professor.
"I'm glad to see that you're feeling better, Professor," Harry announced, approaching the front of the classroom after their double period was over.
It was the perfect time because all they had now was lunch.
Lupin finished writing something on the parchment on his desk and looked up with the beginnings of a genuine smile on his face.
"I was beginning to become concerned about your health," Harry continued.
He reached Lupin's desk at the front of the room and stopped. Then, he hoisted his satchel containing all of his school materials over his shoulder before folding his arms across his chest.
"That's very kind of you to say," the man's smile grew larger and warmer.
"I'll admit to not feeling quite like my usual self these past few months but, between you and me, I think the worst is behind me."
Harry returned the man's smile but shifted his feet nervously to lean slightly to the left while his hands fidgeted about his elbows as his arms were still crossed in front of his chest.
Except Harry was just keeping up appearances since he knew exactly where he wanted to take this conversation.
"You don't have to lie, Professor…" Harry then paused the appropriate amount of time.
Between that and his soft voice Lupin had a sense of what was coming.
"I know that you are a Werewolf."
Harry held his breath and his eyes remained fixated, like he was afraid of what Lupin's response would be.
To the man's credit he kept his face rather neutral, like he must have expected that at some point his secret would be revealed.
But his eyes did flick upwards then downwards and then directly at Harry.
He was just about to reply when Harry blurted out, "But I'm okay with it, Sir!"
And then he continued on in a less frantic approach.
"I don't think it came as a surprise to me … I feel like a part of me has always known that about you – even since I was a baby. "
Harry took a momentary pause to allow his words to sink in. Harry didn't care that Lupin had been about to say something else; his only concern was that this conversation went the way that Harry wanted it to go.
"You said you were friends with my parents at the beginning of the year, Professor. I didn't really understand why at that time but there was something so familiar about you, about the way I began to feel in your presence."
Lupin's face morphed into a thoughtful yet far away expression as he looked again to the ground and then upwards to meet Harry's stare once more. The man was no longer preoccupied with keeping all of his emotions in check and Harry saw his eyes begin to glisten from the memories of when James and Lily were still alive.
This was easier than Harry had thought it would be; Lupin and his parents were just as close, if not closer, than Pettigrew's memories had shown. Harry had no doubts that this conversation would be everything and more than he had hoped as he continued to prepare Lupin for the eventual role that the man would unknowingly play.
"I don't mean to make you feel uncomfortable, Professor, either with bringing up the past or discussing something that other witches and wizards are shockingly unaccepting of given that they themselves were once persecuted by those that could not perform magic."
Harry wavered for the briefest of moments before adding quickly, "but I wanted to, no needed to talk you about some things. You see, I even think I remember you. Moony… right… isn't that what they called you?"
The man's eyes widened minutely and Harry resisted the urge to smile at how predictable people could be if you knew how to tug at their heartstrings.
"That shouldn't be possible!" Lupin whispered in a clear but distinct voice.
"You were so young when I last saw you. How do you remember that?"
And it was true – Harry had been too young to remember. But Lupin only needed to hear something that made sense, something that when it no doubt traveled back to Dumbledore wouldn't raise any suspicion.
"I used to think that they were only dreams, Sir. When I was little and before I knew what Hogwarts was or that magic was even possible I kept having these recurring dreams. They were oddly comforting and I always awoke with a smile on my face. I didn't have the best childhood, you see, but looking back at that now I think it was because deep down I knew that I just didn't belong in that world."
Harry stopped just long enough to uncross his arms and use them for support as he leaned backwards against the first row of desks.
"It was only after Professor Snape set the essay on identifying Werewolves that I was able to connect the dots and realize what you were, and what my dreams have been telling me all these years… what a part of me has always known. In that dream I always hear my dad call out to you… 'Moony,' he always says, and you then would call him … 'Prongs.' What did that mean?"
"That's extraordinary!" Lupin said in mild shock.
His cheeks were warm and his eyes were getting very moist, and with the mention of Harry's dad and the nicknames that they had once used the man wouldn't focus on how Harry had put two and two together when none of the other students apparently had. That would have led this conversation down a road that Harry didn't want to navigate.
Thankfully, Lupin was as easy to manipulate as putty.
"Prongs," Lupin spoke like he were reliving a part of his youth, "was the name that we called your dad because of what his Animagus form was. Your dad was very talented with magic, Harry, and could transform into a magnificent Stag. Truth be told," Lupin said with a heavy voice," your dad became an Animagus for me."
"For you?" Harry said with all the right notes of curiosity and surprise in his voice even though he already knew all of this – and likely more than what Lupin was going to tell him.
"Your dad and the rest of our friends became Animagi to comfort me during the full moon. You see, a Werewolf is no danger to a witch or wizard while they are in their animal form. They were foolish for wanting to comfort me, but I appreciated them and treasured their friendship more than anything."
Harry looked rightfully proud as a son of someone like that should have looked upon hearing such nice things about one of their parents.
"I'm sure your friendship meant just as much to him, Professor."
There was a comfortable silence for the next several minutes as Lupin thought back to the times of the Marauders while Harry waited a reasonable amount of time before getting to the point of this conversation.
"Again, Professor, I didn't mean to pry but I was very much hoping that you could tell me more things like this, about my parents. I don't really know all that much about what they were like or who they were."
"I mean," Harry shifted uncomfortably before hopping up to sit on the desk, "I am reminded a lot about what they looked like. 'You look just like James,' they will say or, 'you have your mother's eyes.' Or I'm reminded about the night they died," he said while looking at the floor as he pointed to the scar that he had spent the majority of his first and second years making people forget about.
When Harry turned to look up at Lupin he saw just the face he knew his performance would elicit. Lupin was a good person at heart and had truly been loyal to his friends.
Lupin then proceeded to give Harry a thirty-minute overview of what his parents were like at Hogwarts. Harry played his part perfectly and smiled and laughed at all the right places, and even moistened his eyes when Lupin finally got to the part about when James and Lily started to date.
Things then turned darker as Lupin delved briefly into their time after Hogwarts before bringing them back to the present with a brief mention of Sirius again as Harry had interrupted Lupin's story only once to say that Dumbledore had told him about Sirius being friends with them.
The room became quiet after Lupin had finished speaking and Harry again waited an appropriate amount of time before responding, before setting the foundation for how he could use Lupin in the future.
"Thank you, Professor. I can't thank you enough for making my parents seem more real to me and giving me an opportunity to imagine what they were like when they were my age and walking these very same halls. I don't know how to express my gratitude at knowing that they had a friend like you looking out for them. Perhaps we can continue this later in case you think of any more stories about them?"
Harry's hopeful expression was met with a very warm and agreeing nod from Lupin who finally realized how late they both were for lunch and began to gather his things.
Harry did the same and made to walk towards the door; however, before he left he turned his head and called back to Lupin.
"Actually, Sir, there was one quick thing that I was kind of hoping that you could help me figure out if that's okay?"
"Of course, Harry. Anything." Lupin responded.
"I've been having this dream lately and I don't know what it means. Now that I know some of them have been based on events that actually happened I was wondering about this one in particular."
Despite the considerable control that Harry had over his facial expressions, he had less of a handle on willing his pulse to stay normal. His heart was beating very quickly as what he said in the next few moments was the reason for having spent the last forty minutes talking with the man in the hopes of making sure Lupin was primed for action from the memories of his past.
"The dream starts off in a baby's room, and I can only imagine that it was mine. I see the crib against the wall and there is a toy broom right next to it. My dad is holding me and my mum is standing next to us and I can see her green eyes, so much like mine when I look into the mirror."
Lupin smiled with a little difficulty at hearing how accurate and vivid Harry's dreams had been.
"There is another man standing across from us and he begins to reach out his hand and join it with my dad's. He's short and a little overweight and from my other dreams I think you all used to call him Wormtail?"
It was almost comical how Harry could see the fight going on within Lupin's eyes as they tried to widen upon hearing the name of the man that he thought had died for his friends and in the beginnings of a situation like that; though, he had to give the man some credit considering Lupin likely would not have given anything away had he been dealing with a typical third-year student.
"That sounds like him," Lupin somehow managed to say despite the horrible sensation that began to stir in his gut.
"I can't hear any of the words but something is said and my mum moves what I now know to be her wand over the joined hands of Wormtail and my father as the room begins to darken. Then the tip of her wand glows a bright yellow before spreading outwards until we are all softly glowing. The next thing that happens in the dream is that the yellow color surrounding both of my parents and me fades until the only thing that remains visible in the room is Wormtail. The yellow glow lingers about his body for several more seconds before it fades away completely and the light from the lamp in the room slowly brightens again and that is where I always wake up. Does that sounds like a spell you know of or mean anything to you?"
To be honest, Harry was mildly impressed that Lupin made only the slightest of outwards signs upon receiving very good if not incontrovertible evidence that the man he had blamed for the deaths of his friends had been wrong for the past twelve years.
Of course, there was always the possibility that the man was in shock, and therefore was literally unable to react any more than he was currently doing.
Still, Harry didn't really care what type of reaction the man had had just as long as he wholeheartedly believed what Harry had said to be true without thinking anything other about the means that he had received the information than Harry had wanted him to. Harry knew that he had not given Lupin any tangible proof that the man could use to clear Sirius – nor did he expect the man to be honest with him about what it meant.
Not because he wanted to lie to Harry but because Harry knew that Lupin knew that the dreams of a thirteen-year-old wizard had no weight behind it unless a person was in the exact sort of position to believe it that Lupin just so happened to find himself in.
So Harry just waited patiently and like nothing out of the ordinary was happening at all while Lupin battled to keep the bombshell, and any evidence of it, contained.
"I can't think of anything, Harry," the man said with a great effort. "Not all dreams are based in reality; it's possible that your mind has put together several events in which your parents had cast magic in front of you."
"Oh, well, thank you for your time, Professor. I really can't thank you enough for giving a part of my parents back to me."
Harry smiled at the man and made it seem like he had no reason to doubt what the man had said. Besides, he had no trouble producing a true smile as he watched the man struggle to contain his emotions, and Harry just knew that when the time came he could count on Lupin to be an unwitting player when he finally threw his hand into the ring. The truth would eat away at the man until he had no other choice but to do exactly what Harry wanted him to.
Over the course of the next month Harry had had two more conversations with Lupin. While nothing as earth shattering came up like Pettigrew having been the Secret Keeper, Harry did find ways to make sure to subtly bring up some new facet that added to his already perfectly described casting of a Fidelius Charm. Something that Lupin had outwardly dismissed as a harmless dream, but Harry knew just how much his reveal had rocked the man to his core.
The man's health had taken a turn for the worse again as the doubt and the guilt silently ate away at him. What little weight the man had managed to put back on had been lost again.
Of course, little by little the man was earning Harry's respect for being smart enough to know that since there was nothing that could be done to clear Sirius, it wasn't worth transferring that guilt to a child by doing anything about it.
Harry just had to give credit where credit was due since he was positive that many of the other adults at the school would not have been able to hide their reaction to his bombshell like Lupin had. Unfortunately for Lupin, Harry was the one pulling the strings and so he hadn't been able to fool him.
Still, it impressed Harry and reminded him ever so slightly of his own followers and the loyalty that they showed him. It gave Harry pause to think about how he could use the man's loyalty to his parents and thus to him should he ever have the need of outside help. Harry was nothing if not pragmatic about making sure that all of his bases were covered.
The feeling of his recent successes and his realization of just how far he had come with his own development caused his magic to hum contently from where he sat on the couch with all six of his followers now around him. They had been working harder than ever in recent weeks to ensure that Harry's plan went off without a hitch.
Even now, when they could have been getting ready for another scrimmage they were utterly devoted to perfecting the roles that Harry had assigned to them. It made Harry's magic pulse with an unusual ease to know of their level of devotion to him. In fact, Harry couldn't ever remember feeling so content and his magic couldn't help but work its way out of his core without Harry knowing it to more closely interact with each and every one of them.
The first pair that his magic unknowingly passed over was Justin and Cedric. Several moments passed in this manner as Harry's magic wove in and out of theirs without producing the usual and tantalizing sensations that signaled just how closely they belonged to him.
Eventually though Harry realized that his magic was about the room and as had become normal he focused on what the tendrils that pulsed outwards from his core told him. Immediately Harry sat up straighter on the couch as he realized the union of his magic with Justin's and Cedric's didn't have any of the euphoric effects that he had come to expect. It was like his boys were simply ignoring the fact that his magic was literally bathing every inch of their body.
Normally, he could feel the shivers of ecstasy as his magic touched upon their every nerve. Curious as to what was happening Harry stopped thinking about his plans for Lupin and how he would turn the wizarding world on its head and concentrated wholeheartedly on the puzzle before him.
His breathing slowed as he centered his consciousness to focus only on the interaction of his magic with theirs. The absence of that treasured connection was one of the strangest sensations that he had ever encountered – second only to the exquisite and delicious interaction that he felt when in the presence of Tom Riddle's diary.
But just as soon as he had thrown the full weight of his consciousness and abilities at the missing connection he found it again.
Suddenly that familiar warmth was back stronger than ever and he watched as Cedric and Justin lost all control over their bodies and ability to function with the instantaneous appearance of Harry's magic in and over every inch of their body.
Their moans of pure and unadulterated bliss caused the others in the room to immediately stop what they were doing and first look at the pair and then to Harry who was watching the scene unfold with the same and identical facial expression as they had.
"Harry!" Justin and Cedric whimpered together with all the telltale signs of overstimulation.
Quickly Harry called his magic back into his core and both Cedric and Justin began to pant heavily as they tried to hoist their chests off the ground to look at Harry in an attempt to understand what had happened.
"What… was that?" Cedric heaved as he gulped in as much air as possible into his empty lungs.
"I … don't … know," Harry said for one of the few times in his life.
"One minute I was as content as I had ever been and the next I noticed that my magic was about the room but couldn't feel either Cedric or Justin. Tell me," Harry instructed quickly, "before what just happened did you feel anything out of the ordinary?"
Cedric and Justin briefly glanced at each other before simultaneously shaking their head from side to side.
"Hmm," Harry thought out loud as he slid backwards into the couch to think.
Justin and Cedric were now sitting on the floor and leaning against one another for support as their magic slowly recalibrated from the nearly orgasmic episode of having Harry's magic instantly inside of them without any warning. They were too distracted to share in the glance that the others had.
Neville, Luna, Ginny, and Roger hadn't experienced what they had and so couldn't fathom what an absence to Harry's magic – even for a moment and no matter that it had returned stronger than ever – would mean or feel like. Their minds couldn't even accept such a situation as being possible.
The silence in the room continued until Harry noticed how out of sorts everyone was and this time consciously set his magic loose until it filled up the entire room.
This time was very much like all the others where his magic produced the blissful sighs and satisfied hums in his followers.
"I don't know what just happened," Harry announced with a voice laced heavily with magic, "but I wouldn't worry since I feel you just as strongly as I ever have. Never doubt our connection."
Harry willed his magic to fill them like it never had before and the six defined points in his own magical core pulsed until the tips began to glow a faint green.
They stayed this way for several moments until Harry withdrew his magic and the room returned to normal. While each of those who had pledged their lives and magic to Harry were reassured by their connection, Harry's mind was still trying to figure out what had happened.
Only, he wasn't as concerned about the event as he felt he should be. Something in his gut told him that in time he would come to understand and in this moment that was the only thing that he could do.
Another month had passed and Harry's carefully thought-out plan at interjecting his unseen hand into current wizarding affairs was closer and closer to being put into action. Nearly everything was ready and only a few days remained until everything came together.
The excitement and knowing that their next chapter was just ahead of them made it almost too difficult for Harry and his followers to go about their day-to-day routine of going on like they always had. Several times Luna had starting singing random verses in the halls about the beginning of the end but fortunately her behavior usually included such outbursts and so no one paid any notice.
In fact, it was as if the others were able to tow the line because of Luna and their shared connection allowed them to release some of their giddiness through her.
Even Harry felt more in control as the days passed and he learned to control his emotions better and better. Excitement was one of the few emotions that Harry had not really been able to master yet but as April ended and May began he was so very close to having a mask capable of covering anything that he needed to.
Thus, it was just like any other day in early May when Harry, Neville, and Justin ascended the many stairs and even a ladder for their Divination lesson. The majority of the school year was almost complete and they were only a week away from beginning the month-long process of revising all they had learned for Hogwarts' notoriously difficult end-of-the-year exams.
Of course, Harry and his followers were confident that they could sit for most of them now and do nothing short of Outstanding. The one class where for the first time Harry didn't really know what type of grade to expect was Divination.
Trelawney was about as consistent of a grader as flipping a coin. Some days she would be very generous with her marks and others she would find fault in everything and it had nothing to do with the quality of the material that was handed in.
Much like the way she behaved in every other aspect of her life Harry got the sense the woman relied on her inner eye for grading too. Only, the most that Harry reacted to her shenanigans was with a dramatic eye role; even after the handful of times that she had predicted his death and thus drawn a momentary bout of unwanted attention to his life Harry had never developed a strong disliking towards the room.
He had also stopped caring many months ago as he had learned not to question some things, even if they did go against every ingrained response that his rational and extremely logical mind had developed.
So Harry was currently behaving like he normally did in this classroom and continued on as the perfect partner for Susan Bones. She was another person who might be of use in the future on account of who her aunt was, and considering what Harry had planned it was only a matter of time before he would have need of Susan's connections.
The class rarely dragged on anymore because there was always some interesting event or dire prediction happening and soon it was the end of the lesson. Everyone gathered their belongings and one-by-one they made their way down the ladder. Harry was the last person to descend and he was four feet from the bottom when he heard Susan cry out.
"Shoot, I forgot my book!" she lamented.
"No worries, Susan, I can get it for you," Harry smiled and began to climb upwards, leaving Neville and Justin to wait for him with Susan.
"I'll just be a minute," Harry called before closing the trap door.
He moved quickly and quietly over to the table that he shared with Susan and had just placed her book in his satchel when he heard the sound of a teacup crashing to the floor behind him.
Harry pivoted around on the tips of his toes and came face-to-face with Trelawney and her round frames that were several sizes too big.
"Professor, are you all right?" Harry questioned with the appropriate mask of concern.
Half a second later and Harry had his magic at the ready since it was clear that something was very wrong with Sybill Trelawney.
The woman's hands were shaking and her magnified eyes were half open.
Suddenly the room seemed to get darker and her voice sounded eerie and unlike anything that Harry had heard before.
"It has begun," her voice washed over Harry.
"Seven was the number of perfection, seven gods, seven demons, seven sins, seven virtues, and always in pairs."
For the briefest of moments Harry thought that she was up to her usual theatrics, but there was a power in her words that was ethereal and mesmerizing and Harry had trouble thinking straight.
"But it was severed, corrupted. Soon the pieces can be made whole and restored unto its original and glorious form. One protects each seven, and the two reunites the kingdom. However," she whispered harshly in that heavily laced voice, dripping with so much power that Harry could almost taste her words, "a choice yet awaits that could cause the tears of Isis to flow once more. Should the wrong Riddle be answered and the Other not defeated, neither equal will live because neither equal can survive in an incomplete form. A choice approaches… the kingdom… awaits"
It was at this point that Harry realized that he wasn't breathing and with an intake of fresh air into his lungs new blood began to flow through his brain.
What had he just seen, just tasted?
With that, the thought that this woman who spent most of her time as a fraud was having an authentic vision of the future came to Harry's mind. Nothing else made sense and as her words died down he quickly unleashed his magic so as to know what she was going through.
Except as he entered her mind it was unlike anything he expected to see. So different was this totally clear and indescribable sensation of certainty than of the many tenuous possibilities of the past, present, and future that he had previously seen within Luna's mind.
Here, before him were two striking different ways that the future, his future could turn out.
Because Harry was as certain as he had ever been about anything that central to both options before him was exactly what he imagined his older self to look like. He didn't even need to see the green eyes to know that this was about him, his destiny.
No matter that he had never considered being bound by fate before.
This was different, but what astounded him was just how different these two paths before him looked. In the first vision he could see his followers behind him and they looked as strong and mighty as the Gods and Goddesses of Olympus or the Nile. All around he could see the realities of his unlimited potential and at his side stood Tom with seven forms behind him that Harry could not make out.
Yet each compared to his home.
Together Tom and him looked untouchable and their joined hands radiated a power that Harry wanted to be blinded by. It was all he could do not to reach out and connect with that scene in which he finally had an equal, and his magic, no, their magic, had been set free to conquer the world.
Even as he longed for that reality his attention was redirected to the other possibility, and it was as horrible and depressing in every way that the first vision had felt so right.
Harry's older self looked tired and … incomplete. But that wasn't the worst of what he saw before him because Justin, Luna, and Neville were nowhere to be seen.
And those that were behind him were broken, a faint glimmer of their true forms.
However, what cut Harry to his core was that Tom was gone and in his place something resembling the deformed Dark Lord that had killed his parents had taken his place and his wand was locked in a vicious battle with Harry's and neither was able to gain an inch. Forever.
It felt like a knife had pierced his heart and twisted.
And then the visions were gone and Harry was left inside the haphazardly arranged and confusing mind that belonged to Sybill Trelawney.
It was so overwhelming of an experience to have gone from such a high to the very lowest of lows, far worse than he could have ever imagined failing at anything. Harry struggled to contain himself at witnessing how dramatic the effect of a single choice could be, a choice that he could not yet foresee.
In this moment it felt like he had hit rock bottom, and his magic surged out from his core in anger while he exited her mind.
But then something unexpected happened, and as his magic touched every corner of the room it passed through the core of Sybill Trelawney it happened.
His core became complete.
The unformed and last peak within his source of magic now had a defined shape as it latched onto the magic of the woman in front of him.
Everything that Sybill was and would ever be was now bound to him.
The woman gasped in ecstasy as her magic pledged itself to Harry's like all of those before her had and as her magic settled Harry's core began to glow.
All of the doubt and the worry and the fear that just moments ago had threatened to overwhelm his consciousness was gone. The starkly different paths that his future could take were momentarily forgotten about with the strength of this new might that flowed outward from Harry's center.
In this moment, he thought nothing of the prophesized choice that loomed in his future. Whatever, or whenever, that might be was insignificant. He would choose correctly; he was sure of it with every fiber in his being.
How could he not when his core continued to grow in brightness and soon every inch of Trelawney's classroom was bathed in an ethereal and otherworldly shade of green so very similar to the Killing Curse? And the intensity of the light kept growing and then with an explosion a great pulse spread outwards from his core as each of his points sought, no yearned to be connected with the person they belonged to.
The very foundations of the castle began to shake as the pulse moved outwards as each and every living person in the castle felt the raw power go through them.
Trelawney was the first to fall to her knees in ecstasy and bliss and her eyes rolled back into her head.
Justin and Neville collapsed into one another and they shared a look of pure and unadulterated joy while Susan stumbled into the wall and fell down.
Ginny needed to grip the handrail of the staircase to prevent herself from falling through one of the missing steps as her body shivered in exultation.
Roger braced himself against the wall as he watched his classmates trip over their feet; the smile, that because of the confusion was unseen on his face, was matched by a tear or pure love that fell from his cheek.
Cedric had been peeing in the urinal and couldn't contain the jubilant moan that escaped his lips. Subsequently, his knees bent inwards and his turned body began to wet the walls and the floor. But he didn't care because his Harry was now whole.
Luna was the only one that remained upright. An angelic and otherworldly smile took over her face as she continued to sing and dance throughout the halls of Hogwarts.
"It's the end of the beginning as we know it… and we feel fine…"
Severus Snape clutched at his Dark Mark while a feeling of panic clutched at his heart. The Dark Lord of his youth had returned and he was terrified.
Albus Dumbledore clutched the Elder Wand on his desk before rising to look out the topmost window in his office. The day that he had been dreading had finally arrived.
"I always knew that you would find a way to return, Tom," he said as he readied his mind to go to war.
Tom Riddle, the one in the Diary, who had been slowly receding from consciousness while in the darkness of the bottom of the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets shuddered. For a moment it had become self aware again and remembered that entirely confusing but absolutely sense-altering tingle of power that he had felt from that boy in the library wash across his pages once more. He didn't know what to think but soon it didn't matter; he had begun to sleep once more.
Hidden away in the Room of Requirement, the place where all lost things in Hogwarts ended up, a beautiful and elegant Diadem rested on a shelf. When the ripples of Harry's power washed through it, though the fragment of the eighteen year-old Dark Lord who lived within had been sleeping for over half a century, one of the jewels brightened for the briefest of moments. Somewhere deep inside the slumbering Horcrux, an unknown longing stirred long enough to produce a dark smile within the void. But that Tom Riddle soon drifted off once more.
I would really like to know what you are thinking now. I'll be honest, that prophecy was hard because while I have a very clear idea of what will happen I didn't want to give it all away. I hope it isn't too confusing, though.
Anyways, I think I am 2/3 of the way through Part I of this story. I've planned out 7 or 8 more chapters that will take us to the beginning of 5th year, and I am really amped to write it. Then we get into Part II, which will be roughly the same length as Part I.