Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Harry Potter.

Chapter 5

Every colour flashed brighter, every noise echoed louder, and every pulse of Harry's beating heart thrummed in his ears as he readied his thoughts.

My name is Harry James Potter.

He chewed as lip nervously as Albus remained composed in silence, raising a puzzled eyebrow at the comfortable familiarity in Harry's last proclamation.

My NAME is Harry James Potter.

His mouth distorted in preparation as words thundered through his head, crackling like lightning through every nerve and synapse.

MY NAME IS HARRY JAMES POTTER.

Pale lips opened up in anticipation to utter a sentence that would forever change his ill-fated destiny.

"My name is… Ariana James Potter."

His face grew chalky as he realized what he just said, as if an unseen force had shaped and sculptured his sentence.

Albus' brow furrowed as he contemplated the confession, "I am very good friends with the Potters… Charlus and Dorea do not have another child apart from James," he refuted with slight confusion.

Harry shook his head in a negative; his head swinging back and forth wildly as black hair framed his delicate skin like midnight waves on a sandy beach.

"I was born a half-blood on the thirty-first of July, 1980. I have travelled back twenty years from a non-existent future to save the Wizarding world from total annihilation," he continued with unabated energy and bright eyes, the whole speech sounding outwardly farcical.

"I know of everything… the Order of the Phoenix, Tom Marvolo Riddle… also the destruction," Harry looked away as he squeezed his eyes shut and gripped the sides of his chair, "and the death he will bring."

Not letting Albus respond, he relinquished the transient darkness that his eyelids gave him as he opened his eyes to look back up at Albus.

"He is immortal you know."

"Who?" Albus whispered as he felt ice chilling his blood, instinctively knowing who the young girl was alluding to.

"Voldemort."

"How?" he croaked, his brain whipped up in a storm of jumbled thoughts.

"Horcruxes; the last thing you told me before I died was that he had seven of them, but you only told me specifically of six objects before we parted ways."

Albus turned deathly silent as he put his pounding head in his wizened hands.

Seven horcruxes, so this is what he meant when he said that he will push the boundaries of magic and push them again.

This is impossible, time travel is only limited to hours with a time-turner and is under the strictest watch from the Department of Mysteries.

He raised his head to stare into the turbulent eyes of unspeaking girl in front of him. Reaching out with legilimency, he probed in and around the surface of Harry's mind for the false promise of a sliver of hope that all this was a delusion brought on by the recent injuries.

Finding only the raw truth emanating, he withdrew, deeply ashamed of himself for not trusting the young… or not-so-young girl. Just as he was about to respond he noticed with horror two small words that only now registered.

"Wait… you died?"

"Yes, when I was captured, a magical explosion fused with an item that looked like a time-turner had destroyed my body, only to bring me back to this period in time," Harry replied with a shrug of indifference, his mouth refusing to also talk of what happened in the afterlife.

Relentlessly barraging Albus with more bombshells, he continued. "Soon, Voldemort will stop orchestrating small-scale raids and will subsequently move to a fully-fledged war with the Wizarding world in th-…"

"STOP," thundered Albus, eyes widening as he stood up in haste.

Harry looked with only the upmost confusion as he paused to look at Albus in unease at the sudden outburst.

Albus took a shaky breath as he sat back down. "If what you are saying is real, your knowledge then holds considerable power… by telling me about this there is a chance to risk everything into obsoleteness… a single act can change everything the future holds, like a pebble dropped into the middle of a still lake."

A red veil draped itself over Harry's eyes. "That doesn't matter, there is no future – everyone is dead," he half-screamed with a heaving chest, unknown anger deep within him rising as his magic roiled in response.

Both of them stared at each other, simmering green eyes clashing against electrifying blue eyes in a collision that seemed to stretch on forever.

Albus was the first to back down, lowering his eyes and exhaling as he acquiesced in Harry's decision. "The Order, Tom, Horcruxes… how do you know about all of this? What part did you play? Why did I entrust such secretive information with a mere student?" he stressed as he launched a profusion of questions.

"I know all of this because I am a weapon… your weapon," Harry whispered as he turned his head away.

"In four years from now, a prophecy that will change everything will take place at Hogsmeade. As a result, I was both a sword and shield that you had finely tuned against Voldemort during my time at Hogwarts."

"That is what my destiny is," he finished as hot tears spilled from his eyes against his will, remembering how Lily had told him he was supposed to die in his seventh year anyway, the promise of a future, vanishing into nothingness.

The desolation he felt was all consuming. His mind became an icy wasteland; the wind howled in his soul and wrapped icy tentacles around his heart so tightly it almost stopped beating.

The silver band on his wrist grew to a terrifyingly hot degree and the latent signs of magical stress showed up on his face, causing it to take on a sallow complexion.

Albus had dealt with this scenario many times, for the past week and back in his childhood. Memories flooding back to him on how to tackle this gave unique strength to his voice.

"Ariana, listen to my voice… ," he coaxed in a comforting tone as he went around the desk to put his hands on Harry's thin and trembling shoulders as he faced him.

After what seemed like an hour Harry's shuddering stopped as they both calmed down, weary from the mental energy that was spent. Harry gave a watery smile as Albus casted a wandless healing charm on his burn and walked back around the desk to sit on his cushioned chair. A heavy silence hung in the air.

"So… I take it Lily Evans is your mother?" Albus deftly changing the topic, a knowing smile gracing his lips with as a familiar twinkle, one which Harry had not seen in full force since meeting him in the train station, flooded his tired eyes, giving him the image of the carefree man he had once know.

"Yes, the eyes, I know. And that also means I'm actually seventeen, so don't treat me like a kid," Harry replied, finger wagging in mock admonishment as he pouted, the shadow of full grin lying behind his lips, all traces of the previous outburst gone.

Albus clutched his sides and burst out laughing at the childish image. Deciding to humour the lovable girl, he tried to keep a straight face as he nodded with suppressed snickers, "Of course I won't."

"Now, I believe it's time you told me the rest of the information so we can plan and act accordingly." Albus began, glad that emotions were now on a stable level.

The rest of the day faded away as the ever-burning candles in Albus' office illuminated both the serious and pensive faces of the two people that would change and shake the very foundations of the world itself.


Focus Harry, you do this every night. Your life depends on this.

Although the trainings in Occlumency he had once received from Professor Snape in his fifth year were harsh and cruel, the lessons he learned from them were sufficiently brutal enough to give him confidence and skill to plunge himself into his own mind, delving through all manner of memories and echoes of the past. He swam hazily around the nebulous pits of his mindscape until he came across what he was looking for.

There, the black gate.

He floated his way through the mist to where an imposing gate made of seemingly out of the blackest of obsidian, looming over him in an ominous fashion with an all too familiar symbol etched on its surface with its door slightly ajar. He closed his eyes in preparation and channelled some of his wild magic that lay dormant within towards the gate, the very same magic that he had accidentally used to expel Voldemort from his own mind the first time.

Close yourself… I SAID CLOSE!

Beats of sweat formed coalesced on his brow as they traced the curve of his florid face and tightly closed eyes, slightly panting from exerting such a strange conduit of magic. After a few seconds of channelling a beam of white magic, the gates tightly clicked together and a giant lock made of pure marble appeared on the handles of the gate, sealing it shut from all attacks from the other side and involuntary attacks from within.

Every night the lock gets larger and stronger. It must be from me becoming more familiar with this unusual magic. He internally mused. Finishing the intended job, he pulled himself out of his mind, gasping with fatigue as he felt his body and mind were still exhausted from the chat he had with Albus earlier.

He flopped back onto his feathery bed in his new room with a tired sigh. The dark, onyx clouds rolled past his open window, letting the refreshing and crisp air fill the room. Moonlight shone soft and silvery from an almost full moon, coiling its brilliant tendrils upon whatever it came across, dipping into the black lake in a radiant and hypnotic glow. Just before Harry dozed off, he felt a peculiar twinge originate from his lower belly, but paid no mind to it as sleep took him over.

The next morning Harry awoke groggily and groaned, only to feel as if his whole body was just trampled on by a herd of rampaging hippogriffs. As he sat up, he noticed that he felt oddly sticky and felt a strange wetness in between his legs, a place on his new body that he vowed to never look at when he was changing or otherwise.

Curiosity burned within him as he lifted up his pale dress, noticing with bemusement that the front was stained in a dark reddish colour, the smell of rusty iron filling the air. As he looked at his undergarments that he had loaned from Poppy, he saw that the reddish hue was actually blood that had soaked and saturated the entirety of his underwear, as if a turbulent sea was thrashing under the shine of a setting red sun.

Panicked, he wracked his brain and recalled what was currently happening from his meagre time he spent in his muggle sexual education classes when he was younger.

Is this what girls call a period? Oh no… what do I do, where should I go, how sho-…

All of a sudden the muscles within the region contracted painfully, cutting off his inner monologue. The pain only increased tenfold as he tried to get off the safe confines of his bed, causing him to scream out loud and contract into a fetal position on the floor, shrieking loudly from the intense pain.

Albus was in his office when he heard the cries of distress emanate from Harry's room. Fearing for the worst, he sprung into the room with his wand in his hand at the ready.

Like a million red flowers blooming, droplets of blood lay scattered across the stone floor in a morbid display around a convulsing figure as it thrashed and flailed. Albus breathed in an out, but no air would enter his lungs. Trapped in a memory of the past, he lay unmoving at the ghoulish sight before him. It took a while for him to recognize his surroundings as he suddenly jerked upright and bounded towards the crying girl.

Quickly gathering up Harry in his arms, he rushed towards the hospital wing, veins and tendons tensed up as old feet pounded hard up steps and elderly legs moving at a speed he would have never thought possible in his old age.

Poppy was sitting at her desk reviewing arbitrary files on chronic illnesses of certain students of Hogwarts in preparation for when they arrived to start school soon. Just as she was settling in with a cup of tea at her side, the hospital wing opened with a loud bang as it did so many times in the recent past. She quickly stood up and pursed her lips. Really, people nowadays really need to stop doing th-…

"Good heavens child, back already?" Poppy cried as she spotted the culprit, bustling over to Albus to levitate her whimpering patient onto a clean white bed, still in a fetal position.

She waved a complicated diagnostic over Harry's quivering body, only to gasp out loud in confusion.

"Albus, what is happening? It looks like Ariana is going through her first menstrual cycle, but her magic within seems to be rejecting this process."

Albus looked slightly confused as healing wasn't his strongest department in his eclectic set of skills. Poppy clucked her tongue at the expression Albus' face and elucidated the situation for him.

"Think of receiving cut on your arm, your magic should accelerate your healing rate to heal that right? This is a direct antithesis of what I just described. The menstrual process is a natural part of a young girl's body, but yet it looks like the magic is rejecting it like a foreign parasite… as if not in harmony with the body." Poppy explained as she froze in place, rooted to the spot as her talented mind sped through the thousands of cases studies which she had learnt in the healing academy and profession.

How is this even possible? How many cases like this have happened before?

"We will need to work with her magic while she is unconscious. Albus could you stun her for me please," Poppy all but commanded as she marched over to a silver cabinet to pull out some rugged magically resistant gloves which she slipped on her hands with deftness and precision – a sign of an experienced healer.

Albus' eyes turned dark for a fraction of a second before he unwillingly raised his wand to cast the stunning spell at the trembling and curled up figure.

"Stupefy."

The red burst of magic sped out and propelled itself towards the unsuspecting girl, but when it was a mere hairsbreadth away from hitting her, it was redirected and veered off to crash into the wall as a protective bubble of white magic shimmered into existence before fading back to invisibility.

Poppy's eyes widened her eyes comically as she realized how intricate the situation was.

"Albus, her magic is destroying her from the inside… while protecting her from the outside. This is almost unheard of!" she spluttered, as all her training she had received and expertise went out the window with this unique situation.

After running a careful palm over the transparent layer of magic that shielded her patient, she started pacing back and forth in agitation, brain working in overtime.

What should I do? Use neutral magic? No, there are two different sets of magic at work here.

Force potions down her throat? Not possible if we can't get past that bubble.

Maybe we should try to get rid of th-… yes…yes that should work.

"Albus, ready the most powerful stunning spell you know, we need to force our way in through her protective layer of magic," she snapped as she brandished her wand at almost breakneck speed.

"What?" Albus gasped.

"You heard me; it's the only chance we have to save her in one piece."

Still dazed, he realized that once Poppy was the master of this domain and once she had set her mind one things, she would not take no for an answer.

"Albus, now," Poppy growled, wand already at the ready as it pointed towards Harry, "On my count cast with all the strength you have. Ready?"

Albus nodded as he shakily drew his wand out from under his robes.

"3… 2… 1… NOW!" Poppy thundered, her blue eyes aflame with a paroxysm of passion to save someone she had come to grow very fond of.

"Stupefy!"

"Altum Somnum!"

A potent beam of grey magic that induced deep sleep sped from Albus' powerful wand mixed in with a simple yet strong stunning spell from Poppy.

The beams spiralled in the air, joining one another mid-flight, twisting and turning as the end result was a blend of both magics. The red and grey mixed around into dusty pink as it reached and assaulted the protective cover when it shimmered into existence, taking the attack full on.

The fusion of both spells then spun around and drilled its way slowly through the white magic, emitted sparks as it met with heavy resistance. Just as they were on the verge of breaking through, the white cover then started to push back ever so slowly against the rotary-like movement of the spell.

Recognizing that one more spell would be the end-game in this stalemate, Albus took a deep breath and cast the same spell he had just used.

"Altum Somnum!"

The offensive magic buckled under the stress as a third spell joined into the amalgamation, strengthening it beyond belief. With a final ominous shudder, the white magic shattered violently, destroying all the windows in the hospital room once again as it exploded outwards, forcing Albus to nonverbally throw up a shield charm around the trio to avoid the as seen before deadly shards of falling glass fragments.

"We're finally through! Albus go to that bookshelf quickly and bring me a book titled 'Magical Interactions of the Physical Body', and also bring me a magic-resistant face mask," Poppy demanded, seemingly unbothered by the glass that littered the floor as her mind was focused on Harry.

"Seeing how much magic this girl has, I'd best protect my face in case she blows up again," she muttered as her wand waved delicately in the air in an elaborate manner as she begun to untangle the threads of magic that were eating away at Harry's lower body.

She sighed as she looked at Harry's face once more in resignation before starting the process. "How much does this child have to suffer?"


That same morning

Although it was an early summer morning in the surrounding woodlands, an unnatural frosty chill hung in the air. The dark shadows of the voluminous trees and the surrounding bushes had become the backbone of forest, standing as passive protectors of a peaceful place. The wildlife was bold yet cautious of figuring out their new visitor, daring to get closer to look at the foreign creature disturbing their peace. The drone of insects humming and buzzing filled the air as little frogs croaked while searching for food, hoping to catch an easy snack in the dark and calm lake behind the figure.

Lord Voldemort yawned in impatience as he dispassionately waited for the werewolves to arrive. Something had inexplicably changed within him recently as if an epiphany; the half-breeds that he once spat upon suddenly seemed extremely useful to his cause. He had reached out in the wizarding underworld and contacted a very promising individual that went by the name Fenrir Greyback.

Using this sudden change in mind-set to his advantage, he decided that was also the prime time to pool resources as he had already planned to convince the werewolves, vampires, giants, dementors and to a lesser extent, a dragon. To reiterate, Voldemort was an extremely ambitious individual.

All of a sudden, the animals that had been gathered curiously around the almost statue like figure of Voldemort fled as one, the sound of terrified hooves and paws connecting with the clutter on the ground, echoing throughout the silent forest.

They had finally arrived.

The undergrowth gently rustled as around twenty figures slinked out of the shrubbery, mostly adults, dressed in shabby and torn clothes with teeth that bared in a feral manner.

"You would call us out here wizard, knowing that tonight is a full moon? Some of my pack might get a little... peckish," a voice at the back growled as it chuckled menacingly, pushing his way to the front of the throng.

A fearsome looking man approached, exhibiting numerous scars that lined his sharp face as proof that his mettle had been tested in combat. A full and scraggly beard that resembled a chin curtain only gave him a rougher look as his eyes were the thing which stood out the most on his face. Soulless black pits in his eye sockets stared out savagely in what could only be described as a ravenous and all-consuming primal hunger.

A cultivated tone responded, creating a jarring juxtaposition between the two voices.

"Mr. Greyback, I have a proposition for you and your… pack that might be of interest to you" Voldemort asserted confidently, positive that the negotiations would swing in his favour from all the research he had done on this particularly bloodthirsty pack of werewolves.

"I understand you have a numbers problem in your pack, this can be resolved easily. I have many prisoners that you can turn and be forcefully bound to your service" he began.

"You also have troubling moving around in daylight because your faces are well-known among the magical authorities as well as the muggle ones. I have necklaces that I have made myself that turns your face into another for the duration that it stays on you."

"Lastly Mr. Greyback, if you work with me, the chance that you will meet… children will exponentially increase."

The sound of a low rumbling growl filled the air as Fenrir curled his gums to reveal yellow stained teeth, sharped to a deadly point. "You have done your homework wizard; you know me and my pack well. Children are a rare delicacy. You bite them young, take them away and raise them to hate wizards… how can you promise such a thing?"

"I believe you are already acquainted with one Remus Lupin? He is currently attending Hogwarts; a residence which will be the target of many of my ventures that I'm sure will satisfy you."

"Little Remmy has grown up that quickly, eh?" Lips displayed a savage grin as the alpha male thought about the situation carefully.

"You are an interesting wizard and I can smell how much magic you are emitting from here… I accept."

Dark eyes that tinged red burned with a baleful fire as victory coursed through his veins. The first domino in the chain had already fallen, plans coming to fruition as he realized his initial goal had been achieved. He had a sizable amount of Death Eaters, had significant control over the British wizarding high court of law, Wizengamot, with the help of Lucius and other members, had geopolitical and monopolistic control of many areas thanks to his shrewd acumen in the property business, and now, he had acquired the first set of lethal weapons that were the werewolves themselves.

"I will contact you when I have finished preparations," Voldemort assured, with a clear dismissal in his voice as he faced Fenrir. Black eyes stared at him before nodding slowly, giving a blood-curdling howl at his pack as they slipped back into the deep foliage in almost complete silence.

Completely satisfied with the results as Greyback didn't even put up any sort of negotiations, he prepared to Apparate as he dug into his vast pools of magic but stopped short as a peal of thunder sounded in his mind, rocking him back and forth as he realized what had just happened.

The white lock on the black gate he had tried to enter many times had exploded into oblivion.

A grin stretched across his lips in glee as he sat down in the middle of the tranquil forest and immediately dove into his mind. He steadied his breath and swam through multitudinous memories of torture, kidnapping, subterfuge and murder for hours before coming to stop at the familiar black gate. Gathering his willpower he commanded with intensity.

OPEN.

The black gate groaned and heaved under the stress of the command as they slowly pried open to reveal the turbid and foggy atmosphere. He floated with trepidation in the air at the entrance, wary if this was a trap that would harm him or lock him in his own mind. Sensing no defence at all, he plunged forcefully into the mist, gasping as he suddenly felt himself in the mind of another being.

Suddenly he felt fear, anger, love, worry and compassion all in one tear through his heart as he stared through the eyes of a young girl. As she stared blankly at someone speaking to her, he recognized the speaker as Poppy Pomfrey, the Mediwitch stationed at Hogwarts.

He felt a perculiar familiarity with the girl but couldn't place a finger on why it was the case. He looked off to the side and noticed a small bundle that contained swirling and moving images, all compacted together in a jumbled mess – her memories. Intrigue still filling him, he was fascinated by the blend of colours as he drifted closer to the iridescent churning ball.

He stretched a long and pale finger towards the globe in a slow manner, fascination etched through his very being as he had never come across this type of magic before. Just as he dipped the tip of his finger in, a torrent of fear resonated through the area, awareness kicking in as the untangled and repaired threads white magic flooded back into region.

Screaming at the sudden burst of bright light, he was forcefully purged from his own mind like once before and he fell hard to the ground with a hard thud. Chuckles burst from his lips in a staggered manner as he picked himself off the ground to stand up straight.

It was raining when he broke out of his mind but he stood completely still in the downpour as plans started to formulate in his head, the darkening sky encasing everything as thunder rolled overhead, spreading out into the darkness as the wind picked up, howling, crying and baying like a wolf into the night.

"Nice to finally meet you… Ariana"


A/N: Five chapters in almost one week! Phew, my fingers are working overtime.

Also, every scene has a purpose and will blend together soon enough!

As always, criticisms of any kind are super welcome. I read and take to heart all reviews seriously!