In His Memory
Part Six: Quests Perilous
By: WeasleyTwin2
I thought I did what's right
I thought I had the answers
I thought I chose the surest road
But that road brought me here
Better Than I
John Bucchino
His hand is mighty (or victorious) within the house of Keb, and the Company of the Gods rejoice greatly at the coming of Horus, the son of Osiris, whose heart is firmly stablished, the triumphant one, the son of Isis, the flesh and bone of Osiris.
The Origin of Horus
Translated from the Egyptian by A.E. Wallis Budge
Harry trembled violently and sat with his face in his hands. He was sobbing, silver tears running down his face. Ron and Hermione hovered, silently staring at him. I reached out a hand to comfort him, and then pulled it back as I remember he was a ghost and not a living person. We sat in shocked silence for several minutes; our minds numb wondering what we could do to help. Finally, Harry gained some control over his emotions and his sobbing subsided, even if his tears did not. He looked up and when he did, we all saw the look of determination that his tear filled eyes held. His body still trembling, he floated to the edge of the tower and looked down at the milling army standing between him and his parents. His eyes narrowed and he glared down at Seth-Ra who stood just behind them, his face cloaked in shadow.
"What will we do now?" asked Ron, who had come to stand next to Harry.
Soon Hermione and I had joined them, to look down at the teaming horde below. Harry turned away from the shadow-cloaked army.
"We must get you three out of here, passed the guards and into Godric's Hollow. We need the whole story, not just fragments, if we are to stand a chance against Seth-Ra," said Harry, his eyes glittering.
We nodded in agreement.
"But how will we get passed them without being seen?" I asked indicating the milling army below and the winged creatures that filled the skies above. I was positive that the creatures were spying on our every move.
I had sat down again. My scar was sending lances of pain through my head and I was feeling extremely weak, disoriented and lightheaded. My body burned and I could hear Seth-Ra's voice again. I tried to ignore the subtle hissing voice in my mind but it was insistent. It whispered of our deaths and doom, of the fate that awaited me and all who thought to oppose his will. I tried to shake the feeling that this cause of ours was hopeless but it remained there. All my lingering doubts resurfaced again. Surely the cause was doomed from the start. Surely we would fail in our quest. There was nothing left to fight for, was there? Then I looked into Harry's eyes and all my fears, all my doubts vanished. He believed the fight was worth fighting. Surely if Harry believed then there was a chance… A hope…
"By a secret passage," said Harry with a sad sort of grin as if he was remembering something funny and yet sad at the same time.
His face grew set and determined. Then he said, "We must find Sirius quickly before it's too late."
He led the way down the tower steps and out into a passage just off the tower common room of Gryffindor house. There were so many memories haunting this hall that I could barely make myself walk down it. I kept seeing images from the battle, how the seventh years guarding this passage had gathered around Harry's flag draped stretcher, how the hall had been full of rubble, and how Harry had died in the Gryffindor Common Room just three days after we had taken him down this hallway. I shivered and tried to push these thoughts from my mind. Harry led us unerringly to a door in the this corridor where Sirius had a room that he used when not in his house outside of Hogsmeade, where he and Harry had lived for a time once his name was cleared. Ron knocked and the door opened. Sirius eyed us for a moment.
"Ron…Hermione…Draco?" he said, looking extremely puzzled.
"We need your help!" said Harry.
Sirius' eyes widened when he heard Harry's voice. He looked all around for the source of the voice. They widened farther when Harry slowly appeared before him all silver and misty looking. Tears sprang into Sirius' eyes and he reached out a hand toward Harry. His mouth moved but no words would come out. Harry floated there, a look of profound sorrow on his face and I saw him begin to stretch out his hand toward Black. It was only for a split second and then the set look was back.
"I've no time to explain,' said Harry, cutting off anything Sirius might say. "These three need to get out of here, tonight."
"Our…My house outside of Hogsmeade should be outside Seth-Ra's ring. I could led them there via the secret passage I had built."
"That's what I was thinking. Take them there for me, Sirius and then guide them to Castle Gryffindor in Godric's Hollow. You're the only one who can do this. You know all the hiding places and safe houses between here and there. Please do this for me. I would do it myself but I have another quest I must see to."
There was a fire burning in his eyes and his body trembled emotion when he said this.
"What…?" began Ron.
"Harry…don't…" Hermione cut in.
"You can't do this…" I began
Harry cut us off with a look of such rage and sadness that we became silent. He shook his head and sighed.
"I have to try and save my parents. They gave their lives to save me once. I owe it to them to try. You don't know and can't know what it's like in that place," Harry shivered then continued, "I cannot allow them to be sent there. I can't and I won't!
I shivered as a foggy memory surfaced in my mind. A blurry image of fire and faint feeling of great pain overcame me for a moment.
"What if you are taken?" I asked, trying to fathom why he was doing this. "What then? How will we be able to fight against him and win without your help? I blurted, fear for Harry's safety evident in my voice.
Harry looked sadly at us, a look of indecision on his face. Two duties called and he must only choose one. He bowed his head for a moment and when he looked up again, he looked deep into each of our eyes, hold ours with his for a moment.
" I might be taken. I might even "die" again but at least I'll know I tried to save them instead of standing by, watching and doing nothing."
We all nodded. There was nothing else we could do once he had made up his mind and we all knew it. Harry looked pale and resolute.
"Take the weapons and go. Go into hiding if you must but remember to never surrender to any of Seth-Ra's creatures. Fight, even if all seems lost. Fight until you have nothing left to give. Don't relinquish the weapons to him. If he tries to seize them you must destroy them. Promise me this," said Harry as he faded from our sights.
We promised him quietly.
"Good fortune to you!" we heard his voice call.
"And to you, Harry!" we called and then the voice too was gone. I wondered if we would ever see him or hear that voice again. I hoped we would meet again, somewhere.
We stood wrapped in deep silence for several minuets after Harry left. Finally, Sirius shook himself out of his stupor and turned to us, the shock of seeing Harry's ghost still visible in his eyes.
"I'm not sure what's going on but I will do as… Harry… asks," he paused for a moment, staring at the space Harry had occupied a minute before. " We will leave at sundown. Meet me at the statue of Gregory the Smarmy. Pack light for speed will be essential on this mission. I suggest you three get some rest if you can. If you will excuse me, I need to speak to Remus and Minerva."
After promising to him at sundown we returned to our rooms to pack. I laid out Harry's wand and the roll of parchment that contained all the information we had gathered on Seth-Ra, placing them on the bedside table. Then I pulled out a pack and began to fill it with clothing and some quills, parchment and ink. I closed it and draped my cloak over it. There was nothing else I needed. Suddenly exhausted, I decided to take Sirius' advice and rest. I lay on the bed and closed my eyes. I wondered about Harry's mission of mercy. Why did I feel overcome with panic every time I though of Harry and his self appointed quest? Why did I feel that there was a trap laying in wait for him? I was extremely tired though and these thought didn't occupy me for too long. Soon I felt myself relax for the first time in a long while and then I was asleep.
Harry floated at the top of Gryffindor Tower, glaring down at the place his parents' spirits were trapped and at the spell which held them. Seth-Ra was still there, hovering like a great black shadow. The power that glowed around him was much more then Voldemort had ever held. He was at least ten times more powerful then Voldemort had ever been, even at his height. Harry knew that his own powers were nowhere near that strong as he gazed across the grounds at the creatures guarding the edges of the camp.
"Still no way in,' he thought, watching the guards march back and forth around his parents.
Suddenly Harry noticed a nearly invisible barrier around the waiting army. It was much stronger than any barrier he had ever seen before and as dark as night. Harry muttered a curse and began to pace the tower roof, thinking. He had to find a way to get through the barrier. He HAD to. He could hear his parents calling to him.
"Don't give in to him, Harry. The others need your help more then we do," his mother's voice said out of the gloom that was descending over the grounds and into Harry's heart.
"You will never truly lose us. We are with you always. Don't surrender to him, not without a fight. Remember what you told the others?" his father's voice cried.
He was hearing their pleading voices again, their last moments of life. The very words he remembered hearing as a baby in strange counterpoint to their current pleas.
"Please not Harry, not Harry!"
"Lily, take Harry and go!"
"I need to save them and protect the others too, but how. I can't be in two places at once…Wait a minute … Maybe if…"
His mind raced. There were only fifteen minutes left of the hour Seth-Ra had set. Could it be done in that amount of time? He pondered the question and studied the space between Seth-Ra and his parents and the dark barrier that surrounded them. He paced the tower again. He looked down at where his parents lay bound and studied the space between them and Seth-Ra again. He figured in his head how much time was needed and decided to try. When Seth-Ra performed the spell that would send them to their doom the barrier would weaken and he could slip in performing a counter spell and a protection spell on his parents, thus freeing them. Yes, he would be sacrificing his very soul but their safety was worth the price.
"My actions will save them and free them from Seth-Ra's power forever."
He could hear them cry "No!"
"Don't you see I have to do this? You once sacrificed all to save me. How can you expect me to do nothing to help you? We are too alike in that respect."
"But your powers…" they began.
Harry hadn't forgot about them. He knew as well as they did that the powers of the Horus must never fall into the hands of Seth-Ra for if they did he would then become invincible. The powers Harry carried were the fourth weapon mentioned in the fragmentary legend: the wand, the cloak, the sword and the power of the Son of Osirius. He pondered for a moment and then disappeared from the tower's roof. After a few seconds he reappeared at the foot of the tower having completed the power transfer he had started earlier in the year. The bell tolled the hour and Harry stood still, readying the spell that would release his parents. It would take all of his remaining power to accomplish this spell but he was ready.
"THE SUN HAS SET AND THE HEIR OF OSIRIUS IS NOT HERE. I SEE YOU ARE TOO AFRAID TO FIGHT ONE WHO IS YOUR MASTER IN ALL THINGS. PITY. NOW YOU LOSE ALL YOU ONCE PRIZED AND ALL THOSE YOU ONCE LOVED. THEY ARE MINE! FOREVER!
Seth-Ra raised his wand and began to cast the curse, his wand ringed by a glowing darkness. In that instant the barrier fell as Seth-Ra feed it's energies into the curse he was weaving. Harry apparated into the space between his parents and Seth-Ra and shouted out the counter spell to the one set around his parents and the protection charm that would render Seth-Ra unable to do them any more harm. There was a blinding flash of golden and scarlet light and his parents were freed from the binding spell. They lay on the ground stunned for a few seconds and then they shouted and pointed at something behind Harry. Harry, who had been thrown to the ground by the combined force of the two spells, turned weakly around to see a bolt of darkness burst out of the end of Seth-Ra's wand and streak toward his parents who were still on the ground unable to move. Without thinking, he leapt into the space between the bolt and his parents. The bolt never reached them. It hit Harry with its full force and he fell to the ground in agony unlike any he had known before. Seth-Ra stepped forward to watch him as his spirit died. Harry looked up, a burning pain in his heart that was spreading throughout his body, and he saw the face of Seth-Ra. He paled realizing now what Prof. Trelawny's final prediction meant. Too late, he had found the answer. He knew who the traitor was, the one calling himself friend. Seth-Ra grinned an all to familiar grin and Harry felt the faint stirrings of fear in his fading soul. The world spun around him and he slumped forward but still managed to keep his pain-filled eyes on Seth-Ra's own.
"Yes, Horus. You've unmasked me at last but the information will do you no good. The one you knew is no more, there is only I, Seth-Ra. Know this you will give me more power then all of the others combined and with it I will rule this place forever. Light is forever vanquished and now Darkness will cover this land. I will rule, living forever. Think on this as you die and die again in the Place of Despair: Your greatest fear will come true and you will be mine body and soul. Darkness will claim you at last and you will call me master."
Harry smiled then, for he carried no power within him. It was all gone. He looked over at his parents, whose images were beginning to fade in and out. They were safe now from Seth-Ra's powers forever. He could just make out with his failing vision the pale glow of the same spell they had used to protect him from Voldemort years ago. His love would now guard them. He saw them reaching out to him and calling his name but it was too late. He couldn't hear them anymore and the sky began to darken around him then or maybe the world was just fading. He felt a blinding pain and then… nothing for a long time.
By now you know which characters belong to which authors, so I'm not going to repeat that again. Part 7 will move a little bit faster I promise and it will be called "Night Falls Fast". Hope you enjoyed this part. Please feel free to review or not, as you choose, even though I like reviews.J
WeasleyTwin2