A/N: First of all, Thank you guys for 200 favorites. It makes me feel really happy that this story blew up so much since I was expecting like 30 favorites and slightly more follows…
I got a review saying that the last Chapter was subpar compared to the rest of the story, and I agree. Kind of. In the larger scale of this Part, the events in Chapter 33 start everything. On its own, it's not my best work…
The first two scenes of the last Chapter are just filler, I won't deny it, and I should have specified that in the Author's Note.
The courtroom scene did have one big plot hole in the form of Sirius, but I had to get him out of there somehow. He is too OP for Harry and Ginny to be able to do something helpful (cast their Patronus).
You know that one mistake you make that Fucks everything up in your life at that moment? Yeah, Sirius not being there was that mistake for him.
This Chapter basically explains everything that happened in the last Chapter. (Yes, I'm taking down the second note on the last one).
This Chapter was initially scrapped because I thought it would be clear what was happening by the end, but I do realize it's a long wait, and that it could be better if they knew something before going to Hogwarts so… here we are.
Anyway, here's the new Chapter, hopefully it all makes sense.
A Song of Lightning and Fire
Arc I: Hogwarts
Part IV: The Rune of Ekrizdis
It had been two days since the day of the Trial, and Harry was in a horrible mood, pulling away and snapping at everyone that insited on talking to him.
It wasn't their fault, though. It never was. But Harry just needed a moment to himself, why couldn't they see that? The only people to have left him alone after trying twice were Ginny, Sirius, and Ron.
He thought a lot about what everything that had happened that day, so much so that it was worrying, even for him. But he felt that he had a good reason to do so, specifically, the memory of his Mum's death.
It wasn't that he enjoyed remembering it. It was one of the worst memories of his life, yet he couldn't help but cherish those last words.
He hadn't told anyone what had happened, but he had sent a note to Professor Dumbledore saying that he wanted to meet soon. He needed answers and/or help, and the only one he felt that could give it to him was Dumbledore.
The Fight in the courtroom had also been weighing heavily on his mind. He and Ginny had been praised so heavily that one would think they were the reincarnations of Merlin himself. Harry still felt like the Aurors were the real heroes of it all, there was no way Harry would have been able to take on the other Dark Robed figures and live to tell the tale.
But it wasn't the aftermath of the Fight that affected him the most. It was what had happened during it. The decapitation of Amelia Bones still played like a loop in his mind at night. The fact that he saw her face every time he went near a popular area did not help matters.
The other Aurors too, murdered by the worst methods. One of them was blasted apart from the inside, the other had been made to inflate like a Balloon and burst open, the last one had been hit twice with a Cutting Curse.
But that wasn't all. It was the fact that the attack itself didn't make sense. There was no need to kill all those Aurors, there was no need to kill Bones. They could have just taken Lucius and Peter and gotten the hell out of there.
So, why didn't they?
Just as the question passed through his head, a Fire ignited in mid air in the center of the room. Harry fell off the bed in surprise, but quickly stood up, summoning his Wand.
Fortunately, it wasn't a threat like Harry had initially assumed it to be. The Fire grew larger and larger till it started taking shape. Wide wings stretched out of its sides and the feet of a bird grew out from under it.
The Fire turned into a Phoenix, specifically, Dumbledore's Phoenix, Fawkes, who trilled a happy note when he saw Harry, managing to confuse the boy even more since Fawkes didn't come to visit him.
Fawkes offered him his tail feathers, and Harry hesitantly grabbed hold of them. He was immediately aware of his Body transforming into fire, merging with the Phoenix, before he was sucked into a sort of Vortex.
The sensation quickly ended, and Harry found himself in a decent sized Living Room. He was standing near the doorway, and he could see a large fire on the wall across him with lots of couches and armchairs around it.
It didn't look like it had a pattern, but it didn't look bad either. It was very much what he would imagine Dumbledore's living room to look like if he'd have ever previously thought that Dumbledore had a life outside of the school.
There was a medium sized chandelier hanging above the couches, and the walls on either side of him had bookshelves, filled with all sorts of Obscure Books. There were also tables on the sides of the room, on which he saw many Magical Objects.
A few seconds later, he saw Fawkes Flame into the room again, this time with Ginny.
"Gin?" He asked in confusion.
"Hey, Harry," she replied, giving him a small smile that he was sure was fake.
"Hey," he greeted back as Fawkes Flamed away. "What are you doing here?"
"Mum sent Dumbledore a note that I needed Counselling," Ginny muttered darkly. "I'm not here of my own choice. Where are we anyway?"
"Dumbledore's home, I reckon," Harry answered.
"Five Points to Slytherin," Dumbledore's cheerful voice sounded from behind them as he entered the room, dressed in pale yellow Robes.
"Good morning," Dumbledore greeted them, moving over to sit on one of the Armchairs, and gesturing for them to take a seat as well.
"Good morning, Professor," they said, moving over to a couch and seating themselves on it.
"Can I tempt you two with some Tea?" Dumbledore asked. "It's ready, I'll just need to heat it."
"Thank you, sir, but I've already eaten," Ginny said.
"Me too," Harry said.
"Very well," Dumbledore said. "Ginny-"
"I don't want to talk about anything," Ginny interrupted him. "I'm fine,"
"Your mother has expressed concerns that you are… pulling away. A perfectly normal reaction to witnessing something so traumatic," Dumbledore hastily added when she opened her mouth to reply.
"She shouldn't be surprised," Ginny muttered. "I'm not going to get better if she doesn't give me time to myself. All she's been doing is keeping me busy with chores."
"I believe she thinks, or rather, hopes that it would help you cope," Dumbledore said. "Not just with this, but also with everything else you have done and seen."
"Yeah, well, I'd rather deal with it on my own," she said after a moment.
"If you want me to go…" Harry trailed off, leaving the offer in the air.
She shook her head and gave him a small smile, a genuine one this time. "Thanks. But no. I can deal with it. If I need help, I'll ask," she said the last part to both Harry and Dumbledore.
Dumbledore looked hesitant to trust her on this, but he nodded anyway, and turned to Harry. "You said you needed my help with something?" He asked.
"Yes," Harry said as he looked to his feet, thinking about the best way to phrase his worries.
"Go on," Dumbledore said when Harry didn't say anything else for a moment.
"It doesn't make sense," Harry said finally, getting up and pacing in front of their couch. "The attack on the courtroom, I mean. Why not just take Malfoy and get out? There was no need for them to attack with Dementors. There was no need for them to do… everything else that they did."
Dumbledore leaned back in his chair and sighed. "I have been thinking about this a lot myself," he confessed. "I asked the Minister, but he did not share my views on this, claiming that it had to be an inside job, or that there is a mole in the Ministry, trying to take over his position."
Ginny shook her head, seemingly in disgust. "How did he reach that conclusion?" She asked.
"I will tell you what I told Harry back when he asked why the Ministry would work against him," Dumbledore said. "Wizards are afraid of anything they cannot control. This is even more obvious to see for the ones blinded by Power like Fudge is. Conclusions that sound absurd to us, are something that sounds perfectly normal to him."
"What do you think, then?" Harry asked. "Sir," he added belatedly.
"I think that this is the work of another group of Wizards," Dumbledore said. "They are called 'The Talons', a few of Voldemort's finest soldiers. They were very low in Number compared to the rest of the Death Eaters he possessed, only about fifty of them existed back in the war as far as my knowledge goes."
"Why would they do this?" Ginny asked, furrowing her brow.
"I was able to interview one of the perpetrators," Dumbledore said. "I found out that they had planned to sneak Peter Petrigrew out of the boat that took Prisoners to Azkaban. Amelia Bones derailed their plans and they had to… improvise. So, they created a distraction to let Lucius escape with Peter."
"Why send in the Dementors, though?" Ginny pressed, leaning forward on her seat. "I mean, there was no point in doing that, was there? They could have just let everyone go and get out of the Ministry themselves."
"True," Dumbledore said. "But that would not have been quite the Fear Tactic that they were going for."
"Fear Tactic? Why would they need that?" Harry asked.
"To spread fear among the civilians of the Magical World again, of course," Dumbledore said. "It was a very popular tactic they used in the previous War. Using Dementors to suck the souls out of innocent people would definitely be a good way to do that, don't you think?"
"Yeah but, Why, though?" Harry asked. "It's not like another War has started yet, right?"
Harry was getting really worried when Dumbledore did not answer for a while, choosing instead to only blankly stare at him and Ginny instead, and by the look on her face, Ginny was too.
"I do believe that they are planning to start another War," Dumbledore said finally. "I also think that this one won't be as small as the last one was…" he trailed off, shaking his head.
"Voldemort's back, then?" Ginny asked, eyes wide and full of panic.
"Not to my knowledge," Dumbledore replied. "That does not mean that he isn't, just that I don't know if he is."
This was the last thing Harry wanted to hear, and he had to sit down again to get his bearings. He had always assumed he and Ginny would be considerably older by the time Voldemort came back, maybe even at an age where they'd graduated Hogwarts, but now, he wasn't too sure he'd get that luxury.
"Train us," Ginny said, interrupting his train of thought.
Dumbledore blinked. Hard. "What?" He breathed in shock. Personally, Harry thought it was a great idea, Voldemort was sure to come after them, and if he had training… maybe Harry and Ginny could escape in one piece.
"You're the most Powerful Wizard of our time," Ginny continued. "Voldemort is probably going to come after Harry, and there's no way I'm leaving him alone if he does, but we need help to fight propey. Train us. If Harry doesn't want to fight, then train me."
"I cannot," Dumbledore said, sighing. "Not now," he added when Ginny opened her mouth again. "I still need to look for some things that will aid in my quest to destroy Voldemort's method of immortality. That will take up a large amount of my time."
"How is that going by the way?" Harry asked. "I've been meaning to ask."
"I have a very solid lead," Dumbledore said. "I dare not utter the name for safety reasons, but I am close. Closer than I have ever been in the past two years. I only hope that there isn't something that I have to stay for at Hogwarts this year. I've even hired a new assistant to help with managing the School in my absence. He will also be the new Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor for the Year."
"What's his name?" Ginny asked.
Dumbledore smiled as though he was hiding a secret. "I shall leave that for the Start of Term Feast," he said. "Now, is there anything else I can help either of you two with?"
Ginny shook her head and looked at Harry, who was staring down at his hands. "Harry?" Dumbledore asked. "Are you alright?"
"Remember the voice I hear whenever I'm near a Dementor?" Harry asked Ginny, who gave him a nod.
"It's my Mum," Harry said. Ginny gasped and her hand went to her mouth as Dumbledore looked at him with a worried frown before realization set in on his face. "Yeah. I see what happened that Halloween. Voldemort gave her a chance to move but… she didn't. She just stood there."
"What happened then?" Ginny asked hesitantly a few moments later. Unbeknownst to her, it was all that he needed to talk again.
"Then she said his name," Harry said. "His real name, Tom Riddle," he provided unnecessarily. "But, I also heard her voice in my head, talking to me in a strange, ancient sounding language. Then he got pissed and cast a green Curse at her. 'Avada Kedavra' he'd said. It's the Killing Curse, isn't it?" Harry asked when Dumbledore's eyes widened.
"Yes," Dumbledore said hesitantly.
"I… saw her die when the Curse hit her," he said after swallowing, taking comfort in the fact that Ginny had slipped her hand in his at something after he'd started talking. "Then a blast of Magic came out of her and destroyed Voldemort."
Ginny's jaw dropped open and Dumbledore's eyes bugged out of his head. "What?" They both asked, seemingly in a daze.
"The Killing Curse never touched me," Harry said. "Remember when I said I heard her voice in my head? That was also when I felt the Scar form over my forehead."
Dumbledore's eyes had filled with tears because of this piece of information. "She did it," he whispered to himself with a sad smile. "She actually did it."
"What?" Harry asked him. Ginny looked about ready to cry herself, and she was as confused as he felt.
"She was learning an Ancient Charm," Dumbledore said. "It is called the 'Shield of Sacrifice' , and it is, by far, one of the most complicated Charms to ever exist. Not even I can cast it properly…" he trailed off, shaking his head in amazement.
"How does it work?" Harry asked.
"It works on the principle of a Parent's Love," Dumbledore said. "It uses the power of that Love to make the Shield. The deeper the Love, the stronger the Shield. The Shield is formed over both the Parent and the Child, although the Shield on the Child is merely a backup, and is activated only if the Parent dies. Of course, it is also nigh impossible to channel an emotion as deep and complex as Love into a raw Magical Shield."
"But there is another catch," Dumbledore continued. "The Stronger the love for your Child is, the harder it is to cast the Charm. The fact that Lily was able to cast one Powerful enough to stop Voldemort's Killing Curse, and subsequently destroy his body, speaks volumes about her Skill, and her love for you, Harry."
Dumbledore finished his explanation in a whisper as Harry buried his face in his hands, taking deep breaths to calm himself, to not cry. It worked. Barely.
"Why do I still have a Scar from it? Shouldn't Light Magic heal?" Harry asked, looking up, wanting to distract himself with something else. He could go cry his eyes out once he was in his room.
"I have never heard of it leaving a Scar," Dumbledore admitted. "Although it has been theorized for generations that any and all types of Light Magic can leave a Scar on the user, or the target if they are cast with enough Power. And people tend to forget that Light Magic scars are just as untreatable as the scars produced by Dark Magic. But yours doesn't seem like a Dark Magic Scar," Dumbledore said, peering at the scar in question. "Not now that I know the truth. Thank you for sharing this with me, Harry."
"Why did you think that it was a Dark Magic Scar at first?" Ginny asked.
"The Scar's shape is astoundingly similar to the Wand Motion of the Killing Curse," Dumbledore answered. "It made the most sense at the time."
"Thank you for your time, sir," Harry said after a while, standing up.
"I'll leave now, too, I think," Ginny said, getting to her feet. "Thank you, sir."
"Of course," Dumbledore replied, extending a hand for them to shake, which they did. "I'm always happy to help any students of mine."
Harry and Ginny nodded in thanks as Fawkes flew into the room and above Harry and Ginny. They grasped his tail feathers, and were quickly Flamed away to Harry's room in the Leaky Cauldron.
"Are you okay?" Ginny asked worriedly. "I mean, of course, you're probably not, but-"
"I'm not," Harry said with a small smile. "But I will be. I always am."
"Do you want me to stay?" Ginny asked, looking around the small room.
Harry shook his head and squeezed her hand. "Thanks, but you should go," Harry said. "Your parents must be worried."
"Alright," Ginny said. "But if you need anything-"
"You'll be the first to know," Harry said. "Pinky promise," he added with a grin, holding up his pinky finger.
Ginny snorted but intertwined her pinky finger with his. "Pinky Promise? You're such a child sometimes."
"We are children, though," Harry said with a sad smile, not really believing his own words.
She returned his sad smile and wrapped her arms around him. "Children shouldn't fight Monsters, Harry," she whispered in his ear, letting him go. "Bye."
"Yeah," Harry replied with a smile as she grabbed Fawkes' tail feather and Flamed away. "See ya."
A/N 2: So… yeah. That's it. Hopefully this made more sense, and cleared up any questions you guys had.
Leave a review please! I'll see you in the next Chapter.
Byee!!