Harry Potter and the Dark Sigil
Chapter 2: Dreams of the Past
By: Harry's Mum Lily
Disclaimer: I own none of these characters but then none of us do. The lullaby is an old Welsh one called "Suo-Gan". Thank you to everyone who reviewed my last one. I hope you enjoy this one too.
Not Harry! Please…have mercy…have mercy…
Lily Potter
Chapter 9
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
But your mother needn't have died…she was trying to protect you…
Voldemort
Chapter 17
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Voices were swirling above him but he couldn't make out what they were saying for the pounding in his head. The voices faded in and out, seeming to come from a great distance. He tried to open his eyes but found that was unable to summon the strength to do so. He was very tired, worn out physically and emotionally. He lay unmoving on the bed and waited for sleep to claim him. He was waiting for the darkness to carry him off and as he waited one voice rose high above the others and became crystal clear. It was a familiar woman's voice singing softly, lovingly. He felt wrapped in the love coming from that voice. The song was one he knew but how or why he knew it he had no idea. The words seemed to echo within his mind as if from some far, yet hidden, corner of his brain.
"Why do you smile now
So tenderly in your sleep?
Are angels smiling on you
As you smile tenderly?
Fear not, it is only a leaf
Knocking at the door
It is only a solitary little wave
Rippling on the shore
Sleep, my child
Nothing here can frighten you…
Harry felt a soft hand brush his face and for the first time in ages he felt himself relax. Then he felt a soft kiss on his forehead right where his scar was burning. The kiss was as light as a feather and the soft voice continued to hum the song. Harry felt as if he were a very small child being cradled by his mother. The pain in his scar receded and he felt himself relaxing farther as he listened to the soft humming coming from somewhere overhead. He felt himself falling into a deeper sleep then he had been in a moment before.
~
The voice was still humming somewhere above him, quiet and reassuring. Harry felt happy and safe. Nothing could ever harm him as long as the lady remained nearby; he somehow had always known this. Yet, he detected a faint note of fear and sadness in the voice singing above him. His eyes snapped open and, at once, he knew he had to be dreaming. A woman's face with bright green eyes like his own and a halo of dark red hair made redder still by the light shining behind it was looking down at him. She was smiling at him and humming softly but at the same time tears were trickling down her face.
She bent lower and Harry felt her long hair tickle his cheek. He reached up to brush the strand of hair away and his fingers became tangled in the strand.
"Mum."
Lily's eyes lit up and her smile brightened as she untangled his fingers from her hair.
"Mum," she agreed softly, with a loving but sad smile as she lifted him out of what he could see now was a crib to hold him closely.
He tried to catch the details of the room but could only make out the lamp on the dresser, which was covered in moving wizard pictures of Harry as a baby and his parents. Most of the rest of the room was cast in shadow there was no light coming in from the two windows that Harry could see. The only other light was coming from a luminous clock, which had three hands. The hands all pointed to "Mortal Peril" and two of them were glowing an evil green while the third seemed to be glowing the scarlet of blood. There was a date shining beneath the three hands: 31 October 1981.
"Mum," Harry said softly, tears running down his face as he saw the date, knowing what was about to happen and powerless to prevent it.
"Harry. I'm sorry. Sorry we will not be there for you," she held him tighter. "He will come tonight…I can feel it. He will try to take you but it will be over my dead body. I swear I'll protect you from him!"
Lily started to hum the Lullaby again and Harry felt his eyelids beginning to drop. He jerked them open wanting to remain awake and stared into his mother's determined face.
"You know there's something wrong, little Harry?" she said wonderingly.
Harry began to cry, unable to stop, knowing what was coming. He could feel it in the air now, a sense of evil, of darkness rushing toward the house where he was. He reached out a hand and touched his mother's face where her tears were falling and began to cry harder. She took his small hand in her own and Harry saw the flash of silver on the ring finger of it. She kissed his hand and dried his tears.
"You are more special then any of us knew, very powerful in magic…" Lily's voice trailed off and she became lost in a vision that only she could see. "There is so little time left to us and there are things you must know. "
Harry found himself wishing that he could somehow help ease her sorrow but he knew that he could not affect a dream.
"Know that we will always love you," Lily looked in his eyes and Harry looked back into hers, seeing himself reflected there.
He stretched out his hand and grabbed another strand of her vivid red hair. She looked at him with a faraway look in her eyes and a loving smile that trembled slightly.
"Know that we died so that you could live to carry on our fight against evil."
She untangled his fingers from her hair yet again and placing him backs in his crib. He reached out to her and gave a cry. She looked longingly at him for a moment and bent down to kiss him on the forehead, her eyes bright with unshed tears. She moved away from the crib and returned with her wand, which she pointed at him.
"Instructs Totals Memento," She whispered and he felt a strange sensation in his mind.
It sounded as if someone was speaking to him, giving him instructions, but he could make no sense of the words.
"These memories will be hidden until you need them but you shall always know these defensive spells."
There was the sound of a door slamming somewhere close by and Harry could feel his scar burning with the closeness of Voldemort even though it was his sleeping body that had the scar not the infant's body his spirit was currently occupying. Then he heard the door to the room burst open and his father's panicked voice floated above him.
"Lily…it's Him…take Harry and run…I'll try to hold him off…you must get him away. He's too important to the cause."
Harry saw his mother's face turn away from him and nod.
"Why us, James? What did we ever do to deserve this?" Her voice was angry but steady and calm.
"You must go, now…please Lily. As we planned in the beginning."
Harry saw his Dad's face crowned with its messy black hair looking down at him then. James bent down to give his son a last kiss.
"I love you, Harry," he said quietly then his face was gone.
Harry saw their shadows embrace but he could not see them looking intently into each other's eyes for a moment. He heard a small sob coming from his mother and a soft whisper from his father. Then the door opened and James was gone.
"Dad!" he cried, hearing almost instantly the sound of a duel in the next room.
"There is no more time. I must leave you now," she gave him one more kiss and pointed her wand at him again. She began to speak the words of an ancient spell, tears shining in the light of her wand. Harry strained to hear the exact words but he could only make out pieces of it.
"Grant protection from death…
That he should rise again…
My life in exchange…
This my oath…
Blood of the …willingly taken"
Harry saw something reflecting in the lamplight, shining silver and then he heard another voice and saw again Wormtail's silver dagger, firelight glinting off its polished surface. He was back at the Riddle graveyard and he could hear Wormtail's wheezy voice.
"Blood of the enemy…forcibly taken…"
Harry felt the dagger pierce him again and he heard the high evil laughter of Voldemort.
He yelled, tossing and turning on the bed. He could see Voldemort's blank red eyes glowing in the darkness. He was staring right at Harry with a look of intense hatred on his face. He pointed a wand at Harry a smirk playing about his mouth.
"Alone. You will be left alone and friendless. No one can save you."
"Alone….alone…." Harry hears a chorus of voices echoing around him.
Voldemort made a motion with his wand and Harry's felt intense pain. He writhed around trying to escape it but the pain remained. It was everywhere and it was so acute that Harry found himself sitting bolt upright in bed with his hands over his face. He could feel sweat rolling off him and tears stinging his eyes but the pain in his dream had gone. He laid back down and tried to go back to sleep but it was a long time before he was able to shut his eyes and an even longer time before he could relax enough to sleep.
~
Harry returned to class the following Monday with a heart full of foreboding. His scar hadn't stopped aching since that first dream in the Hospital Wing and it had begun to ache more with each passing night as he saw in his dreams two other towns attacked. He's said nothing to anyone though because he wasn't sure anyone would believe him and he wasn't sure of the validity of his dreams either. Ever since the day he'd fainted he'd been looking in the Daily Prophet for any news of attacks by Voldemort's Death Eaters but there were no such reports. To all outward appearances things were normal in the wizarding world. This hadn't worried him the first time he couldn't find an article but he grew alarmed when he could find nothing about any of the three attacks. In desperation, he even searched the papers in the Muggle world. There was nothing unusual there either.
"Am I losing my mind?" he thought as he rubbed his scar.
The other students clearly thought he had. They were now acting as if he had some kind of plague or something. He could hear them whispering as he walked to the Great Hall for lunch after Professor Flitwick's class. He sat down next to Ron and Hermione and began to absentmindedly pile food on his plate. Across the Hall at the Slytherin table, Draco Malfoy was making faces at Harry and doing spirited imitations of Harry fainting, which caused nearly the whole hall to laugh. Over the heads of people at the house tables Harry saw Malfoy smirk at him in silent challenge. Angry, Harry stood up, his lunch forgotten, and began to walk over to the Slytherin table. Ron grabbed the back of his robes as he passed and dragged him out of the room.
"Crazy Potter and whining Weasley!" Malfoy called after them.
Ron felt Harry struggling to escape but he continued to steer Harry from the Hall, pointedly ignoring Malfoy and the now chortling Slytherins. After a few minutes Hermione joined them. Her face was flush and her eyes were snapping and for a moment Ron wondered whether she had slapped Malfoy again. Hermione, however, didn't offer any information. She was instead looking with concern at Harry whose eyes Ron noticed were looking out of focus and glazed over. Suddenly Harry screamed and then fell bonelessly to the floor in a heap.
Ron looked at Hermione over Harry's limp, unconscious body and saw fear in her eyes.
"What is wrong with him?"
"We need to find Dumbledore," she said, in a tone that broked no argument. " Ron, go and see if his is still at the staff table."
Ron took one look at Hermione and then he ran back the way they had come. He found Dumbledore in deep conversation with Snape at the entrance to the dungeons. He waited for them to finish their conversation and for Snape to leave before he approached the Headmaster.
"Professor!" he called softly but urgently to Dumbledore.
Dumbledore turned around and seeing the look on Ron's face he somehow knew that it had to do with Harry. They returned to the place where Ron had left Hermione and Harry. They found Hermione trying to awaken Harry but he remained limp and unconscious. They half carried half dragged him to an empty classroom and laid him down. He began to cry out but they could not make out words. Then he thrashed around on the floor as if he was having some kind of fit.
"His power grows, drawing nearer with each hour," Harry said in a faraway voice not at all like his own.
The three of them looked at each other.
"Darkness will descend, the evil will grow."
"Professor?
"What is going on?"
Dumbledore waved a hand for silence.
"The Light will vanish and with it all hope"
Harry's hand flew to his scar and his eyes opened looking at nothing.
"Pain unending for one, but it must be endured"
"Why?" Dumbledore asked softly.
"The time of testing is at hand. The time of final battle draws nearer."
Harry's face became a mask of intense pain and tears fell from his staring eyes.
"The one who died and was reborn will face a trial by fire and the heir shall then claim his own."
"The heir?" Hermione looked at Dumbledore but he was still looking at Harry.
"Danger lays ahead…great danger for all."
Harry's eyes began to roll up inside his head and his body trembled.
"In the darkest hour…a sacrifice was made. It must be renewed."
Ron and Hermione looked up at Dumbledore questioningly.
"The past and the future must now become one. The time of secrets is ended."
"For what purpose?" Dumbledore asked quietly.
"The fate of the world hangs in balance. The Dark Sigil flames…beware."
Harry's face relaxed and the voice trailed off. He lay still with his eyes closed and his breathing normal. Then suddenly he began to breath rapidly as if he were running. They saw Harry raise his arm as if to ward off a blow and then he screamed, a shriek of such terror that the three of them trembled to hear it.
"They join their master. Terror will stalk the streets."
A shiver ran through Harry's body then he went completely limp again and when they touched him they found he was cold and clammy. They looked from Harry to each other and back again and wondered what this meant.
~
Harry was dreaming again. He stood in front of a small cottage surrounded by tall trees and flowers of all kinds. He heard a voice calling him and saw his mother standing in the doorway with her arms outstretched. He began to run toward her as fast as his baby legs to carry him. He felt something trip him and he began to fall down. Just as he was about to hit the ground he heard a swishing noise behind him and felt someone grab him. Harry laughed and turned to face his father whose eyes were twinkling merrily.
"How is my young partner in mischief?" he said laughing at the confused look Harry was giving him. "I've done it again, well never mind."
He ruffled Harry's hair and grinned. Harry began to laugh and bounce on his father's lap.
"Fast fly!" he cried still laughing.
James and Harry looked down at where Lily stood, looking at her with identical grins on their faces. James looked pleadingly and Harry copied his expression, as they hovered in the air inches from her face.
"Oh, get on with you then!" she said in mock exasperation. "Just be sure to be back by supper. I won't keep the food warm for you if you're late."
They bent down to kiss her cheek and flew over the garden, which made a colorful pattern below them.
"Be careful!" she called after them.
They waved at her and soon left her behind as they flew higher into the clear blue sky. Harry could feel the wind on his face and saw the ground far below him making patterns of light and shadow. He saw the village that was near the house where he lived with his parents looking like a toy village from this height. The river that ran through the village was a shimmering ribbon of silver shining in the sunlight. He could hear birdcalls and turned his head to see a flock of birds flying on a path that intersected with their own. They were swooping and calling to one another in some game that only the birds understood. James flew a bit lower and the birds swooped and darted overhead close enough that Harry thought he could reach out and touch one. A small sparrow flew toward them and landed on the handle of the broom in front of Harry. It looked at him a moment, bowed its head and chirped. To Harry's surprise he could understand it as if it was speaking English.
"The heir has come…the heir has come!" the young bird piped.
Suddenly there were birds all around him, looking at him and bowing at him in midair. He stared back at them and then reached out to touch the sparrow. It let him touch the soft feathers on its head before it flew off again to rejoin the game the others had returned to. Harry, not understanding what was going on, turned to his father and found his father looking as confused as Harry felt.
"Its time to go back to your mother."
James turned the broom around in midair and speed back toward the house.
Harry murmured in his sleep and turned over. For a brief instant Harry saw again the image of Buckbeak bowing deeply before him in his third year. Then the image melted away and he found himself in the middle of another dream.
~
Several hours later, Ron and Hermione sat in the Headmasters office waiting for an explanation of what happened earlier in the day. Harry was still unconscious in the Hospital Wing and they were growing concerned about him. Dumbledore sat behind his desk with his hands steepled in front of him. His beard glinted in the torch light and his blue eyes looked bewildered. He looked around the circular room as if expecting the answer to his quandary to be written on the walls. He sighed heavily and looked at Fawkes, who stared calmly back at him from his perch by the door.
"Professor? You said you would explain what happened," Hermione began but Ron interrupted her.
"What is wrong with Harry, Sir?"
Dumbledore looked from Fawkes back to the two students before him. He saw that their faces mirrored the concern he was feeling in his heart and he wondered how much of the truth they could handle. He had carried the secret of Harry's past these many years, keeping the secret as he'd been asked to by James and Lily long ago. There were just too many ways this could be used against Harry and he needed to be sure that Harry was ready for the information before he revealed it. So he'd kept it hidden in a corner of his brain waiting for the right time to tell Harry as he had promised.
Ron and Hermione looked at Dumbledore expectantly. It was plain that they were as worried about Harry as he was. Looking deeply into their eyes he knew they could handle the truth but still he hesitated wanting to keep this secret for a while longer. He glance at Fawkes and the phoenix rose from his perch and flew across the room to land on the arm of his chair. He stroked the phoenix's gleaming feathers silently. Fawkes looked into his eyes and Dumbledore nodded.
Dumbledore looked from Fawkes to Ron and Hermione. He saw again briefly the power, which swirled around them. Harry had found powerful allies in these two. He was as certain of this as he was of the fact that he would soon be asking much more from everyone and from the three of them most of all.
"Professor?" said Hermione quietly, disrupting his thoughts.
He knew then that whatever the consequences Harry's friends deserved nothing less then the truth.
"I'm not exactly certain where to begin," he said softly, praying that he was not about to destroy their friendship but knowing the time for secrets was at an end.