In His Memory
Part Five : Keeping Secrets
By: WeasleyTwin2
In this time of fear
When prayer so often proved in vain
Hope seemed like the summer birds
To swiftly flown away
When You Believe
From: Prince of Egypt
Then Set took upon himself the form of a hissing serpent, and he entered into the earth in this district without being seen.
The Legend of Horus of Behutet
Translated from the Egyptian by E.A. Wallis Budge
Harry floated above the stone that marked his grave, deep in thought. He remembered the look in Draco's eyes when he had looked up at him. Those eyes were full of questions that Harry knew Malfoy would probably never ask. Harry knew that he wanted to know exactly what happened during the attack. As far as Harry knew, he remembered nothing of the battle in which his soul was almost lost for all time.
"He's the lucky one," he thought, as he shivered remembering the things he'd seen and experienced in the place of Despair.
Harry never wanted to return there again and he wasn't sure how he would answer the questions Malfoy was sure to ask. How much would he believe? How much could his spirit take?
"How do you tell a powerful wizard that his power has been almost drained and that he came a lot closer to death then anyone's willing to tell him?"
A chill wind blew across the grounds and Harry shivered involuntarily. Seth-Ra's minions were on the move spreading his darkness on an unsuspecting world. Harry could feel them. Seth-Ra was quite nearby- biding his time. An evil and dark shadow seemed to hang in the air to the south, obscuring all sight. Harry looked southward and shivered again, for even as a spirit he was not safe from attack himself. He was glad that his parents were safe in heaven where Seth-Ra couldn't reach them. He looked at the clear blue sky, which was just turning pink with the rising of the sun and sent up a prayer for their continued safety.
"I just hope I can complete the power transfer before it's too late. If my powers are captured before I do then all hope is lost."
Harry turned his eyes southward again, trying to read the messages that were being carried on the wind. A cry… long and piercing, meet his ears. Then it became two cries, then three, then a dozen. They were the cries of souls in agony, crying for release from pain and suffering. He wished he could help them but there was nothing he could do. He bowed his head, listening to the voices calling to him, begging and pleading for mercy. He couldn't shut them out now that he had spent a brief time among them in the Place of Despair. They called to him out of the hopeless darkness that was that place. He heard them always, their voices echoing in his mind. He found he was crying. They were the spirits of people he had known and he could do nothing to help them. Nothing. Seth-Ra had brought this upon the world and if they couldn't stop him as he had been stopped thousands of years before… If they couldn't find a way to defeat him for all time…
"All the world be plunged into darkness forever with no hope of salvation. The light would be cast out for all time and darkness would reign for eternity."
Much closer at hand Harry heard another scream coming from the school. It was Draco. Harry bolted back toward Malfoy's room, knowing that Seth-Ra had come to finish the job he had started.
"I just hope Draco is still alive. For if he dies then all hope dies with him and the light would fail."
I woke up screaming. My body and soul burned with a pain so intense that tears were streaming down my face. I sat bolt upright and my back arched as wave after wave of pain washed over me. I let loose with another piercing scream unable to stand the pain that was running through my body. Ron and Hermione burst through the door while Harry came hurtling through the wall in response to my cries of pain. I fell back on my bed as soon as they entered sweat soaking my body. The pain had stopped as quickly as it had begun. I lay there, breathing heavily, for several minuets before I was able to do or say anything. I could hear the others chanting a protective spell over the room and me. Finally, I opened my eyes and found the three of them gazing at me with grave and serious expressions.
"Alright, what was that all about?" I asked as I attempted and failed to rise.
"Seth-Ra tried to steal into your mind. He was trying to take you over as you slept thinking you'd be weaker at that moment. You fought him off but at great cost to yourself."
Harry's voice sounded tired and Ron's face was very pale.
"I thought we'd all be safe here, at least for a time," muttered Ron darkly.
Hermione nodded, her eyes wide as saucers.
"So did I, but apparently I was mistaken. We will have to leave here and soon. We can't afford to endanger anyone else."
Harry faded in and out as he spoke as if he was unable to keep his form.
"We must return to Godric's Hollow. There is a ruined castle there, which is said to have been the ancestral home of Godric Gryffindor. My family dwelled there for generations and we can trace our roots back to Gryffindor himself. Perhaps we'll find out the full story there," he continued.
We all agreed with him for we had already exhausted all of the sources in the library and we had already spoken to nearly all the professors too. The only two people we hadn't talked to were Professor Lupin and Sirius Black. I sat back up in bed and wiped the sweat from my face. The three of them were watching me with concern.
"I'll be all right! Just give me a moment!" I said irritably.
I sat on the edge of my bed for a moment, hoping that I would be able to rise. I took several deep breaths and rose slowly to my feet. The room around me spun for a moment. I grew faint and though I would fall but then the spinning stopped.
"I'll be along in a moment," I said, hiding my weakness from the others. " I suggest we finish our research and talk to those we still need to talk to. We probably should head out by the end of the week if we can."
The other three nodded.
"Harry and I will talk to Prof. Lupin and you two should speak to Mr. Black."
Ron and Hermione agreed and left my room right away in search of Black. I, meanwhile, slumped into a nearby chair feeling suddenly drained and more tired then I had ever felt in my life.
"What is wrong with me? Why am I still so weak? I want the truth, Harry. You know what is wrong with me. Is it life threatening?"
I looked up at him and his sad eyes bore into my own. He sighed heavily and played with the tattered ends of his robes, a look of resignation on his face. I was sure I was touching on a subject that Harry would rather not speak about but I needed to have answers. I had to know if I was strong enough to travel, swiftly if need be. I need to know if this weakness would hamper me ability to travel.
"You came very near death, so near in fact that everyone thought for a moment that you had died. Your soul has sustained heavy damage and is still in grave danger of being recaptured by Seth-Ra. You are in the greatest danger whenever and wherever Seth-Ra and his minions are. You were held by him once and he is not easy to completely escape from."
Harry shuddered as if in remembered pain. It was almost as if he remembered something I did not. I turned this bit of information over in my mind, trying to understand it. I decided not to ask anything more even though a hundred more questions sprang into my head to replace the three original ones. Details could wait for the time being though I wanted those too.
"Will I be able to travel swiftly if the need arises? Can I keep up on a long journey such, as this one will be? We can't afford to have hindrances if we are to defeat Seth-Ra."
"You are capable of traveling with speed. The weakness should pass as soon as you are far enough away from his influence," Harry replied.
I nodded and got dressed.
An hour later, Harry and I sat in Professor Lupin's office, although it was only me that he saw. Lupin looked tired, which didn't surprise me since there had been a full moon two nights passed. He stood, looking out across the grounds with his back to me.
"Seth-Ra?" he mumbled when I asked. "Seth-Ra…"
He shook his head, the sunlight streaming through the open window highlighting the gray in his hair. He turned away from the window and gave me a veiled look.
"Yes, Seth-Ra. The Greatest Evil, the Bringer of Eternal Night, the Soul Stealer. I had heard of him long before coming to Hogwarts as a student."
"Then you must know something that will aid us, sir, if you have heard of him."
The look in his eyes became faraway and sad.
"Professor… please, we haven't much time." I said, trying to bring him back to the present.
Lupin shook his head, and then he continued:
"My family has been of Gryffindor's house for ages but before the founding of Hogwarts my ancestors aided Gryffindor or "Osirius" in the many battles he fought, including the one against Seth-Ra or, as he was known then, Set Beloved of Ra. He had existed through the ages, rising to power and then falling by the same hand only to rise again with the passing of the one who had once defeated him. Every age has known him by different names and he has never been truly defeated for he just feigns death, awaiting the right set of circumstances to rise again more powerful and terrible then before. His power in the Dark Arts is great and he knows a terrible spell that allows him to always return from death with his spirit and his powers still intact within a new body whose own soul is fully destroyed. It was this spell that Voldemort attempted to master but failed to master fully.
Lupin paused significantly and eyed me, a serious look in his eye.
" No one has ever learned what this spell is, only that it is very powerful and evil and there is no known counter spell."
Lupin looked deep into my eyes for a moment, as if trying to figure out the answer to a question that was puzzling him.
"According to family history and to the legend, on the darkest hour of the darkest day there will arise one who is capable of defeating Seth-Ra for all time. He will have the ability to counter the spell and break it forever. He is called the Horus in the legend, though my family's lore calls him the son of the Lightbringer or Dawnbringer. Just exactly who the Horus is though is not know. Some… thought…"
"That Harry was the Horus," I finished for him, as Lupin stared back out the window again.
He was lost deep in thought and seemed to be transfixed by something outside the window. It was then that I realized what he had to be looking at. He had one of the tower offices that looked out over the lake and, of course, Harry's grave was near there. In fact, on measuring the position of his office mentally, I discovered that the view out of the window could only be Harry's grave. There was nothing else in the area. I felt grief once again and my vision blurred.
"I still miss him every day. I keep expecting him to walk right through that door to see me," Lupin sighed and bowed his head a moment.
"I do to, sir. I think of him everyday and wonder if there was something more I could have…no, should have done to protect him," I said quietly, relieved at finally being able to give voice to the guilt that I had hidden and that still weighed heavily on my soul.
I looked back at where Harry floated. He looked extremely sad and had reached out a ghostly hand toward Lupin as if he wanted to touch him but didn't quite dare to.
"You couldn't have known what was going to happen. None of us could possible have known," said Lupin, who had not taken his eyes off the grave.
His shoulders sagged and he sighed even more deeply then before.
"Too many dead. Too many old friends gone…taken away in a moment before you have time to realize what you have lost," he said so quietly that I wasn't sure I'd heard him correctly.
"Yes, but if Harry or any of the others were here now they would tell you not to grieve too long for them. They will always be alive in you, in your memories. That is the place where they dwell forever in peace and no harm can ever come to them there."
Tears blurred the room around me then and Professor Lupin became an indistinct mass of shadows. For a moment, both of us wept for our lost friends and family. I'm not really sure that I knew where I had picked up that particular piece of wisdom nor was I sure how long we cried but soon our sobs came to an end and we stood looking into each other's eyes bright with tears. Lupin dropped his gaze from mine and wiped his eyes on his shabby robes.
"Thank you for saying those words. I needed to be reminded of that. For just a moment you sounded just like Dumbledore. Maybe my heart can finally begin to…"
But whatever he was going to say was cut off by a wave of darkness and evil that turned the cloudless day into the blackest night in a matter of seconds. Lupin's eyes had grown round and he muttered, "It's not possible," under his breath. Harry floated passed me to look out the window too, while my scar renewed its painful attack. It was sending lances of pain throughout my body and hard upon the pain I had another vision: a swirl of deep darkness, voices crying out in agony all around me, bright green light, a shower of red and gold sparks, three voices chanting in unison, then four voices, an army of darkness, evil twisted creatures that nature had never created, smoke, fire, pain and a towering, red-haired figure cloaked in shadows.
"Seth-Ra is attacking!" I shouted as his deep resounding laughter filled the air. I crossed to the other window and looked out at the teeming hoard below. The air was thick with strange flying creatures with leathery wings and the grounds below were covered with an immense hoard of the foulest creatures of darkness I had ever seen. The creatures below were human in that they walked upright on two legs and had arms but that was were the similarity to humans ended. They were also scaly and looked a little like giant, hooded cobras. Their hoods hid the faces of these creature and they carried barbed spears and swords with serrated edges. I had seen many creatures of darkness but never anything like these creatures.
Lupin jerked himself out of his stupor and into action at once. He ran out of the room and Harry and I had no choice but to follow in his wake. The alarms around the school sounded and Professor McGonagall's voice could be heard telling students to return to their House Common Rooms immediately and for the Professors to meet in the Great Hall at once. Outside in the hallway we meet Sirius Black, Ron and Hermione. Everyone was headed for the relative safety of their houses but we headed unerringly toward the Great Hall, which was swarming with people. Professor McGonagall was there, looking pale and nervous. I could read her feelings in her eyes. She was shocked and dismayed that another magical battle was eminent. I couldn't blame her for her feelings. Things had been going so well until now and now we were being plunged right back into the chaos of conflict which we thought we had left behind long ago. The feelings of helplessness and hopelessness returned to those of us who remembered the Battle of Hogwarts. McGonagall put on a brave face though and shouted out orders to organize the defenses around Hogwarts. Everyone flew to accomplish the tasks she had asked of them without questions or complaint. We three were given no set task and so we volunteered ourselves to spy on the enemy for her. She reluctantly agreed and told us to be careful. We climbed to the top of Gryffindor Tower and watched the gathering army below us.
From the vantage point of the tower, we could see that Seth-Ra and his army had surrounded us, cutting us off from the outside world and from any aide we might have received from them. It was like a nightmare and each of us was forcibly reminded of the battle a year ago. How many would fall in this battle? We could see plumes of smoke rising in the air from the direction of Hogsmeade. It appeared that Seth-Ra had already sacked the village and taken what he wanted there. I shivered. Even though he was not visible at the moment, I could feel Seth-Ra. I could almost hear his thoughts. The power of Dark Magic was calling to me again, trying to overcome my will. It pulled at my mind with a greater force then it had ever done before. I struggled for a long while in silence, hearing the power call to me and a fierce longing to return to it swept over me. I could hear his voice promising me anything, everything if I would just join him. A part of me wanted to take his offer, wanted to believe the lies he was telling me and I was tempted. Yet another part of me was trying desperately to block Seth-Ra's voice out, to keep me to the path I had chosen. The path of goodness, the path of light. I heard my own voice again as it made its vow to renounce all evil. The two voices warred within me for my soul and the pressure within my mind built to the breaking point. Finally, one side won out over the other.
"No! I will not renounce my vow!" I shouted then. "Hear me, Seth-Ra! I will not be turned! I will not look back!"
The pain in my scar blinded me as it doubled and I heard Seth-Ra say, "So be it." I slumped to the ground, unable to stand any longed as wave after wave of pain attacked me. I knew Seth-Ra was trying once more to claim my soul but there was little I could do to prevent him from doing so. I prayed that whatever protective spell the others had cast on me would continue to hold. Soon the pain subsided again and I felt Seth-Ra's mind forced away from my own. I was able to see clearly again and to think once more.
Seth-Ra laughed, his deep laughter laced with evil and said in a magically magnified voice:
Give over to me the Heir of Osirius. Let him come to me now. This is his day of doom, his darkest hour. Come to me or you will lose the spirits of those you still hold dear, forever.
The three of us looked at Harry, who had grown paler and more transparent.
"No…"he whispered.
We all looked down and saw the spirits of Harry's parents, James and Lily, held captive within a net of Seth-Ra's power. They struggled within the glowing net, trying to escape it but in so doing, they only tightened Seth-Ra's hold on them.
You have one hour to decide the fate of the world.
"No… not… them…"Harry whispered again as he floated down in a heap next to me.
"How…Why…" he continued, in disbelief.
He looked imploringly at each of us with his eyes shinning brightly with unshed tears and full of fear. We looked back at him unsure of what to do or say that would help. What would we do now? How could we save them from Seth-Ra's wrath?
A/N: Only Seth-Ra and this plot belong to me. Everything else belongs to J.K. Rowling. The sixth part of this story will be called "Quest Perilous " and will be coming shortly. This is turning out to be a much longer fic then my other one. Hope you enjoyed it and now that you've finished reading, please review. Thank You!
WeasleyTwin2