As I said before, I will try to explain as I go if you haven't read Harry Potter, but please understand that this was originally a Harry Potter story and His Royal Tightness wiggled his way into it...
Because this doen't get addressed until the end of the story, and many people have asked.... Remember that Cari went to school in the past... returning to the present when she returned home for the holidays... Soooo, that means that even that for Cari 300 years have passed, in reality, it was only for a couple of months for the Royal family... Let's see... invasion was on early September, and the quidditch game was in mid October? So I would say about 2-3 months for Jareth, Sarah, and Jay (even time is different in the Underground.) ^_~
Special thanks to all of you who reviewed the third chapter: Estelle, Melissa Davis, Jareth&Sarah4Ever, Danalas, Lillian, Amber, and Tenila.
If you find mistakes here, please excuse my spelling errors and other horrors, but English is not my first language(and this was my second fic). So let me know any errors you find and I will correct them. As always, please R/R and tell me if I'm doing a good job or if this sucks.
And before I forget,
DISCLAIMER - All characters from Potterverse belong to the magnificent J.K. Rowling. Sarah, Jareth, and everything Labyrinth belong to Jim Henson Productions. I only own Caridwen, the plot, and any other characters you don't recognize.
And now, the story.
The Searcher II:
Harry Potter and the False Ghost
Ch. 4: The Past Always Comes Back to Haunt You...
Ron and Hermione were talking in the common room, when they saw Cari storming straight for the girls bedroom. She looked like she was crying. They looked for Harry to ask what happened, but he was nowhere to be found.
They looked at each other with a feeling of dread, and Hermione voiced the question that was in both their minds "Did something happened to Harry?"
At that moment, they saw him.
As he was making his way into the common room, they noticed a very strange expression on his face. It was something between sadness, happiness and anger. All this emotions were on his face at the same time. They never saw Harry like that before.
Harry turned his gaze over to his friends, and all he said was "I am tired, and I'm going to sleep. I guess I'll see you tomorrow."
At the sound of his voice, they felt this fear wash over them. It was not because of what Harry said, but at his voice, it was dark and cold as ice.
Ron and Hermione looked at each other nervously.
They tried to decide what was their best course of action and Ron said to her "I'll go check up on Harry. Why don't you go talk to Cari?"
Hermione nodded silently, and before leaving she said to Ron "Please be careful" with a pleading look.
Ron nodded, his stomach making flips at the sight of Hermione worried, and he started walking towards the boys dormitories
There was a soft knock on the bedpost, followed by a soft "Cari?"
Cari opened her curtain and said to Hermione "I guess you want to know what happened."
"If you don't want to talk about it, it's fine."
"I guess I better get it off my chest before I explode. Remember the robe at Madame Malkin's?"
Hermione nodded, she remembered Cari paying and getting out of there like a bat out of hell.
"The reason I reacted so strange is because that was supposed to be my engagement robe" pointing to the robe in her open closet.
"Engagement? But you are only fifteen!"
Cari sighed. How to explain Fae customs?
"Hermione, remember that I lived in an era very different from now. When I lived before, you did not marry for love. I was engaged to be married since I was a year old. My fiancé felt that at fifteen I was old enough to make the engagement official. It was supposed to be a grand Ball, a week before the start of school term. The engagement was called off about a week before the official announcement. I think turning into a ghost was the best thing that happened to me. Not only I was engaged to be married to someone older than me; I could live with that, even that I did not love him we got along well, but he lied to me. Once I discovered his lie, I broke off the engagement. But that was not the worst part."
Feeling a tear come down her cheek, she wiped it down.
She noticed her friend becoming more curious, so with a sigh, continued "Did I ever told you how I 'died'?"
Hermione shook her head. "I was fighting the invasion of a dark lord trying to take over, much like Voldemort. I disappeared trying to stop the dark lord. Just him and me, in a wizard's duel. I managed to destroy him, but in the process, I became a ghost somehow. Valkor the Dark, that was his name. The name of the man I was supposed to marry."
Cari heard Hermione gasp, and she lifted her face. Hermione saw that there were tears in her eyes.
Hermione asked "We saw Harry minutes after you came in, and he was acting very strange. Did something happened while you two were alone?"
Cari gave a sad chuckle and said "Yes, he kissed me. I realized that I like him a lot and ran away. He is probably mad at me."
She could see Hermione looking more confused now while asking "And that made you cry and run away because?"
Cari said "I know that I can hurt Harry more than you could imagine. If I want what's best for him, I cannot return his love, even if I love him with all my heart. I prefer hurting his feelings now, when he can get over it. And if you are his friend, as well as mine, this conversation never happened."
She turned her face away from Hermione, and thought 'Besides, I should not get involved with the chosen one. Father will not be happy. Especially after he witnessed that kiss.'
Ron walked into the bedroom. He wanted to talk to Harry, but noticed that he was already asleep. No, better to talk to him in the morning. Ron turned around and went back into the common room. Harry was in a deep sleep, but his dreams were disturbing.
He was walking in the forbidden forest when he saw Cari. Someone was throwing spells at her. She was expertly avoiding them and throwing spells back.
Hermione sat trying to digest what Cari was saying "Let me see if I got it right. You love Harry and Harry loves you. You will rather be unhappy because you think that if you two become an item you will hurt Harry? I don't get it."
Cari said "I have said too much already."
Hermione sighed. This was not going to be pretty.
Hermione said "Come on, let's go to dinner."
Cari shook her head and said "I'm not hungry. I think I'll go to sleep. Go to dinner, Ron is probably waiting for you already.", making Hermione blush.
"Are you sure?" she asked, and Cari replied "Yes. Besides, I prefer not to see Harry until tomorrow."
Cari put her head on the pillow and closed her eyes. "Well, I think that ends our conversation" thought Hermione.
She walked back down to the common room. As Cari said, Ron was waiting for her to go to dinner.
"Where's Harry?" Hermione asked.
Ron said "He was asleep when I got into the bedroom, so I decided that it is better to talk to him tomorrow. Where's Cari?"
"She did not want a chance to see Harry again until tomorrow. I think she is waiting for him to calm down before she talks to him."
They went down to the common room without saying another word, each one immersed in their own thoughts.
He heard her say "Give up, Valkor. You are finished. Your forces are gone."
He looked at the wizard called Valkor, and he had a feeling that he had seen him before. But where? He couldn't put a finger on it.
He suddenly heard "Avada Kedavra!" and a flash of green light went from Cari's wand towards the wizard.
The wizard, Valkor?, yelled "You will not get away so easily!" and shouted some incantation that he did not understand.
Harry heard Cari scream as the death spell took Valkor. Harry turned around to Cari, but she was gone. He looked frantically for her everywhere. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a flash of gray. He turned in that direction, hoping to find Cari, with no avail.
He then screamed "Cari!" and woke up, sweat across his face.
Ron was a second later next to him "Harry! Are you all right? You were screaming Cari's name."
Harry replied "It was just a nightmare, that's all. I'm fine, go back to sleep."
He saw Ron getting back to bed, so Harry turned the other way and touched his scar. For some reason it was hurting.
"But it only hurts when I dream of Voldemort…" and fell asleep once
again.
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