The Secret Keeper
The end of term came rather quickly and the O.W.L.s were fast upon them. Harry had spent endless hours studying in the library with Ron and Hermione, finding it difficult to keep his mind on his work and not let it wander to a certain red headed girl. Ginny would study with them every now and then, but she had her own exams to worry about. Besides, Ron was still a bit uncomfortable with the situation and often smirked at Harry and Ginny when they would hold hands.
The
O.W.L.s, however, hadn't been as terrible as Harry had anticipated. He was certain that he would pass most of
them just fine; the Potions exam had been the only on that really bothered him. It was as though Snape had purposefully
written an impossible exam just to fail them all. Even Hermione had to admit that she didn't quite know several of
the potions.
And
then they were over. The fifth years
charged out of their last exam, Defense Against the Dark Arts, with an air of
enthusiasm. Professor Figg's exam,
though difficult, had been loads of fun in Harry's opinion. After batteling it out with several odd
creatures, she had allowed them change their own hair and eye color. Harry had gotten a good laugh at Ron who had
changed his hair green, Hermione's favorite color
As
they proceeded through the door, Professor Figg called to Harry to stay
after. Harry was puzzled, but did as
requested, letting a still green haired Ron leave with Hermione. Harry put his things back down and waited
for everyone else to leave. Professor
Figg smiled at him and asked him to take a seat in her office.
Harry
had never been in her office, but he wasn't surprised to find it decorated in
the same fashion her house had been. He
sat down on the over stuffed sofa and Professor Figg sat next to him. "Harry, I have something for you. A gift, you might say. But there is a story behind it that will
take some explanation. So please, be
patient with me."
Harry
frowned. She seemed to be very nervous
and upset about something. It wasn't
like her to be nervous around Harry. "Is it something bad?" Harry asked.
"No,"
she said softly, "it's actually something very good. But it's a secret I've kept for so long that it's difficult for
me to finally let go of it."
Harry
waited. He could tell that she was
working out words in her mind. It must
be very important. "Harry, have you
ever wondered why Voldemort wanted to kill you?"
This
wasn't what Harry was expecting and he was rather startled by the
question. "Yes. I asked Dumbledore once about it and he said
it was something I would learn about when I was older."
"Well,
you're older, Harry." She looked hard
into his eyes and Harry braced himself to hear the truth. "Why do you think he wanted you dead?"
"I
have no idea." Harry said
truthfully. "I know he wanted my dad
dead. And I know that he wanted me
dead. My mum only died to save me. She needn't have died."
"Yes, that's true…but you see, Voldemort was mistaken. It was your father that didn't need to die." Harry was confused by this statement, and he asked her to explain further.
"Your
mother possessed a very special gift. A
gift that was detrimental to Voldemort's plans. But he thought it was your father that possessed the gift and set
out to kill him. He also knew that the
gift was hereditary, but wasn't certain if you possessed it or not. Rather than wait and find out if you did
indeed possess the gift, he thought it would be best to kill you, too."
Harry's
mind was racing. "What gift?" He held his breath and watched her closely.
"Your
eyes, Harry."
"My
eyes?" Harry thought for a minute. How could his eyes be a gift? He couldn't see worth a darn without his
glasses. He'd always been rather
annoyed by the fact that he had to wear glasses. He raised his hand and fumbled with the nose-piece.
"It
was the glasses that made Voldemort think it was your father who had the
gift. When learning how to use the gift, some people have to
wear special glasses until their eyes adjust. Your mother did, but only in secret. She worked very hard to make sure no one knew about the glasses."
"My
mum didn't wear glasses?" Harry countered.
"Yes
she did, but not for the same reason you wear glasses. Her eyesight was perfect, and she caught on
rather quickly. So she didn't need to
wear the glasses very often. I suspect
that you'll catch on rather quickly as well."
Harry
was decidedly confused. "I'll catch on
to what? I don't understand."
Mrs.
Figg rose and went to her desk. She
opened the top drawer and took out a familiar looking box. Harry recognized it as the box he had seen
Daphne and her talking over last term. She brought it over to Harry and placed it in his hands.
Harry
could now see that the markings were indeed in another language. It looked Greek, but Harry wasn't quite
sure. He looked to Mrs. Figg who
signaled for him to open the box. Harry
very slowly opened it, afraid that something might jump out at him. But Daphne had told him what was inside, so
he knew very well what he was going to find.
Glasses. Square rimed glasses with strange
lenses. They were orange in color. When Harry picked them up, he noticed that
the lenses were red. He moved the
glasses back and forth in the light and couldn't decide if the lenses were
orange or red. Daphne was right…who
would want to wear funny looking glasses like these?
"They're
ugly." Mrs. Figg said, much to Harry's
surprise. "Let me see if I can do
anything about that." She tapped her
wand on them and the transformed into a replica of Harry's own glasses. "Now you can wear them and no one will ever
know the difference."
Harry
looked up at her in puzzlement. "Why
would I want to wear these?"
"So
that you can learn better how to read someone's aura." She said
matter-of-factly, as if it was a common thing to do.
"What?"
Harry said stunned. He had read about
auras around people and that it was very difficult to see them. In fact, he remembered reading somewhere
that it was believed all wizards capable of seeing auras had been killed by
Voldemort. "You mean I…I can…"
"Well,
you'll never know until you try them on, will you?" She reached over and took off Harry's glasses from his face. Harry looked down at the special glasses in
his hands. Slowly, unsure of what was
going to happen, he placed them in front of his eyes.
The
room didn't look any different, but Mrs. Figg did. She had a pale blue glow around her. Harry went to the window and glanced out side at some students
enjoying a picnic on the lawn. A
Huffelpuff girl had the same blue glow that Mrs. Figg had. The boy she was with had a more pronounced
glow around him. Harry turned and went
to look at himself in the mirror. His
own aura was very white.
He
looked back at Mrs. Fig who was smiling brightly and said, "You see it, don't
you?"
Harry
jumped. "You see it, don't you?" That was what his mother had said to him
about Wormtail. This was what she
saw! "Yes, I see it. But what does it mean?"
"That,
I'm sorry to say, is something I cannot tell you."
"Why not? I need to know why everyone looks different." There was urgency to his voice.
Mrs.
Figg sighed. "I can't tell you Harry
because I don't know."
"But
you knew about the glasses and the auras…"
"Yes,
your mother entrusted me with them." She walked over to Harry and continued. "Your mother was very good at what she did. She was able to spot a Death Eater at a glance. But she couldn't very well explain how she knew they were a Death
Eater. That was were your father came
in. He would set about proving that the
person Lily pegged was indeed a Death Eater. They were a wonderful team. But
very few people knew of your mother's abilities. I knew because I had been suspected of being a Death Eater once
and it was Lily that put an end to my sentencing. When I questioned her about how she managed to convince those in
charge that I wasn't a Death Eater, she told me."
"But
how did you get these glasses?" Harry asked.
"Your
mother gave them to me just before they went into hiding. She was worried about Pettigrew being their
secret keeper." Harry's jaw dropped in
astonishment. "Yes, I knew about
that. Your mother could see that his
loyalties were changing, but she didn't know how to tell your father. So she came to me with the glasses and had
me promise that if anything happened to her, I would be sure to explain this
all to you when you were old enough. She made me your Secret Keeper."
Harry
shook his head, "but I don't know what any of it means!"
"I
know…" Mrs. Figg sat down in one of the desks. "There was a book your mother kept in her study that explained what
different auras meant. I was instructed
to take the book, if something happened to your parents, and give it to you
with the glasses. But Voldemort
destroyed your home along with the book." Harry frowned and Mrs. Figg added, "I'm terribly sorry."
"So,
what am I supposed to do now?"
"I'm
not sure, but if I were you, I would wear the glasses around for a while and
take notes on what I see. You certainly
know several people who you can trust and who not to trust. Keep a record of what you see from each
person. But I wouldn't tell anyone
about it just yet. You have a very
powerful gift. A gift for which many
people were killed."
Harry
picked up the box and took his old glasses back from Mrs. Figg. He walked slowly out of the classroom and
headed for Gryffindor Tower.
"Ron told me you were down here." Harry looked up as Ginny came skipping towards him. "What's the matter? Trying to convince Professor Figg to give you full marks?" She laughed.
Harry
stared at her. Her aura was just as
white as his, but it was thicker. It
dimmed slightly as she frowned at Harry. "What's wrong?" she asked.
"Nothing. I'm just really glad to see you." She smiled and blushed slightly. "Come on," Harry said, "I'm starving!" He took her hand and pulled her gently.
"Wait!"
she said, and Harry stopped. "We
mustn't go and stuff ourselves."
"Why
ever not! We deserve it for all the
studying we've done."
"Well…the
banquet. I don't want to be stuffed
before the banquet."
She
had a point. "Ok, but I have to eat
something."
"You
go on ahead, then. I've got to go start
getting ready." She kissed him on the
cheek and ran off down the hall. Harry
smiled as she slowly disappeared out of sight. He was certainly going to enjoy this night!
****Sorry
I've taken so long to get this up! I've
been very busy with work and company. And I lied…I do have another chapter in me for this story. Any suggestions for who's aura should be
described would not fall upon deaf ears. So, if there is a character you'd like to have described, let me
know. (I'm already planning on Ron,
Hermione, and Draco…so don't bother with them!) And again…thanks to Lin-z for beta reading!
****Daphne Affigo is an Alphie creation. Harry Potter and all other characters are property of J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers.
