Chapter 3
The Exanclo Curse
"We need to talk," Ginny said. "Away from here."
"What's the matter?" Harry asked anxiously.
Ginny shook her head and led him out of the apartment complex and into her car.
"Listen Harry," she said quietly as she pulled onto the highway, "we've got something really important to do. I don't know everything, and I can't even tell you everything I do know yet. So you're just going to have to trust me, ok?"
"Yeah, sure," said Harry. What else could he say? His instinct told him to go with her, so he did.
"One more thing. Don't ask any questions, don't even SAY anything about this, ever, unless I bring it up first."
Harry found this somewhat annoying.
"Why?" he asked irritably.
"Because if someone found out that we knew something…that we were beginning to remember…to resist…they would have to kill us. God, we shouldn't even be talking about it in here, it's just not safe."
Harry found this answer so entirely confusing that he didn't say anything else, and neither did she. They drove on for several hours, both deep in thought, and then, suddenly, Ginny drove off the road into a large shopping center, and parked the car.
"Er…Ginny? I don't think any of these shops are going to be open, it's 2:30 in the morning."
"We are not going shopping, Harry. Honestly. Follow me," she said taking his hand, "and remember, not a word."
They walked in silence for a mile or so, and then Ginny led him off the sidewalk into a wooded area. Harry had no idea where they were going, but he felt happy when he was with Ginny for some reason, perfectly at ease, like he could really be himself….even if he didn't completely know who "himself" was. He looked up at the stars, half-expecting them to reveal some deep, long-forgotten secret.
"Mars is uncommonly bright tonight," he muttered, without knowing why.
Ginny didn't respond, and they continued walking deeper and deeper into the wooded area, although it was more like a creepy forest by now. Indeed, the farther they walked, the more dense and eerie the forest became. Harry thought he could hear the trees whispering.
"Wait…" he thought to himself, "trees do NOT whisper. What is the matter with me? I am following some psycopath woman that I just met for the first time this morning, by complete accident on the tube, miles and miles into the depths of a MESSED UP forest…I have to work tomorrow!! I can't go any farther, I'm just going to tell her that I have a really important appointment that I forgot about, and I have to turn back."
Ginny looked over at Harry and seemed to read his thoughts.
"We're almost there, don't give up now," she said, almost pleadingly, "I know this is really weird for you, trust me it's weird for me too. I know more than you though, so I'm scared. At least you aren't scared yet."
That wasn't entirely true, Harry thought, surveying a particurally large tree to the side of him with numerous multi-colored eye-balls peeping out of it. There were also lots of creepy sounds, Harry could have sworn he saw something that looked half human, half horse sprinting through the forest.
Weirder still was the feeling of belonging and normalcy about it, Harry was almost mad at himself for not being more weirded out.
Suddenly they stopped walking.
"What is it?" Harry whispered.
"Shhhhh…" she hissed, and then suddenly clutching his arm, "there's something behind that bush…"
Harry thought he heard a faint rustle coming from the bush. He looked at Ginny and saw that she was completely helpless. He felt her trembling beside him and her brown eyes were filled with fear. He put an arm around her somewhat awkwardly.
"It's probably nothing," he whispered, "just a rabbit or someth--" he was cut off by a loud crack from the bush.
Ginny was trembling more violently than ever now.
"Er…I guess I'll go check it out then, just to be sure."
He slowly advanced on the bush, and had all but reached it when suddenly a massive black dog came bounding out from behind it, followed by a weasel.
Ginny screamed and burst into tears. Then, something totally unexpected happened. The weasel jumped onto the dog and started clawing at it, and then suddenly the dog turned into a middle-aged man, who threw the weasel off of him and bounded over to harry, nearly suffocating him in a hug.
"It's Harry! Oh my god Snape, it's HARRY!" said the human.
Suddenly there was a pop and the weasel turned into a man, about the same age as the other man, but uglier and smellier. He had a very sour look on his face.
"Why don't you say it a little louder Sirius, so that Voldemort himself will hear you? Eh?"
Sirius pushed Snape out of the way and turned back to Harry.
"Harry, it's been six years, SIX YEARS, since I last saw you. You were eighteen and had just began training to be an auror. But you wouldn't remember that, would you. Nah, you don't even remember me. It's not your fault though."
"When did Professor Snape become an animagus?" said Ginny suddenly.
Sirius and Snape both gasped.
"You remember??" they cried, "You know what an animagus is??"
"I told you in the letter," said Ginny to Sirius, "I'm beginning to remember lots of stuff. Random things though, it's like a puzzle, and it's just starting to come together. Although I still have a few holes."
"And you, Harry? Do you remember anything?" said Sirius.
"Honestly, I have absolutely no idea what's going on here. I don't know who any of you are, although you all look vaguelly familiar, like you were in one of my dreams or something. Every now and then I'll see an object that will remind me of something really weird, and sometimes really bizarre words come into my head, like 'imperio' and 'seeker.' And yesterday, when Ginny showed me the newspaper, I instantly knew that the 'cloaked lunatic' was called Voldemort. I also thought the stick he was holding looked familiar. That's all I know, seriously, and to tell you the truth, all this stuff is sort of freaking me out. I have to work tomorrow…"
"Ha ha," said Sirius, "he has to work tomorrow! Harry you can forget about First Union Bank, you're never going back."
"Look, I don't know who in hell you all think you are," said Harry angrily, "but I think you're all a bunch of crackpots. What do you want from me? You want money? You want---"
Sirius sighed sadly and Ginny beckoned to Harry to come sit down on a nearby tree log, but he refused.
"Harry, don't you think it's a little strange that we all know your name, and stranger still that you think you've had dreams about us? You didn't recognize the 'cloaked lunatic' in that picture because your psychic Harry, you recognized him because you know him. He's your mortal enemy," said Sirius.
"Mortal enemy? I don't have a mortal enemy, I don't have ANY enemies, except that guy who tried to steal my palm pilot last year…"
"Yes you do," said Snape sneeringly, "you're just too dumb to remember."
"IT'S NOT HIS FAULT IF HE DOESN'T REMEMBER! NO ONE REMEMBERS, SNAPE, NO ONE BUT US AND THE REST OF THE DEATH EATERS!"
"Look, I don't know who you think you are, but you're messing with the wrong guy here, I swear," Harry spat at Snape.
"DON'T YOU USE THAT TONE WITH ME, POTTER!"
"I'LL USE THIS TONE IF I BLOODY WELL WANT TO YOU UGLY SLIMEBALL--"
"YEAH, HE'LL USE WHATEVER TONE HE WANTS!" Sirius chimed in.
"Can we all just calm down for a second?" said Ginny quietly. All three men stopped screaming for a moment. "Maybe if you sit down and calmly EXPLAIN everything, Harry will remember some more stuff. And there's lots of things I'd like to know too…"
"She has a point…" said Sirius.
Snape was looking murderous, but he didn't object, so Sirius began explaining.
"God this is gonna take forever," he started, "I guess the first thing you should know is that you're a wizard. Don't look at me like that! I'm totally serious…seriously…."
"And so, you finished your seventh year at Hogwarts," said Sirius.
"And then what?" said Harry curiously. For as Sirius had told Harry the story of his "life" Harry had begun to remember things, he even added a few details here and there.
"Then Voldemort came up with his Plan, and it was successful. He managed to eliminate out all of his enemies in the wizarding world, with a single curse. The Exanclo Curse. It drains the magic out of anyone not bearing the sign of the Dark Mark on their arm, and in the process wipes out most of their memory as well. Voldemort invented this curse himself, so only he knows the counter curse."
"And he did this six years ago?" asked Harry.
Sirius nodded.
"Then how come he hasn't taken over the whole world by now? What's he waiting on? There's still plenty of muggles out there to kill!"
"Well, you must remember that he was the first one to ever use Exanclo, so there was a good deal of risk involved in it. The curse backfired, so-to-speak, and injured him greatly, but as we know all-to-well, Voldemort is apparently un-killable. He has spent the past six years in the care of his Death Eaters, and has been nursed back to health, and is now quite as healthy as ever before, isn't that right Snape?"
Snape grunted.
"Snape has been a useful spy in our little 'resistance' if we may call it that. For the past six years all we've had in it is us two. We thought it would be best to lie low for awhile, make Voldemort think that all his enemies were gone, or else we would have contacted you a long time ago."
"Sirius," said Harry suddenly, "you don't have the dark mark on your arm, how did you avoid Exanclo?"
"To be totally honest, I'm not completely sure. I was in my dog form when Voldemort performed the curse, so I can only assume that the curse doesn't affect animals. And based on what I've found from living in this forest most of the past six years, there's still a lot of magical creatures left."
There were a few minutes of silence. Everyone was deep in thought. Dozens of questions popped into Harry's mind, each more important than the one before. He wondered what had become of Dumbledore, Hermione, Hagrid, Cho Chang, Lupin, the whole Weasley family, Draco Malfoy…
"We need to get wands," said Ginny suddenly.
"Yeah," Harry agreed, "we're totally helpless without our wands."
Sirius frowned a bit.
"Your wands were all destroyed by Exanclo. Even mine is gone," said Sirius.
"Then we'll have to make new ones," said Harry.
"Easier said than done, Potter," Snape said, "very few people can make decent wands. Wand-making is a very fine art, and can only be done properly after years of study. There have been hundreds of books written on it."
"Hermione Granger," Harry said.
"What about her?"
"She was the smartest girl in my year, probably in the whole school. She's read practically every magical book there is, I'm sure she knows something about wand-making."
"Knowing 'something' about wand-making is a very distant step from knowing how to make wands," Snape snarled. "I myself, a qualified wizard cannot do it, and neither, I'm sure, can Sirius."
"Hermione's a qualified witch too!" Harry said to Snape, "and I bet she's smarter than you EVER were."
He winked at Sirius.
"If anyone can do it, it's Hermione Granger."
"Potter, do you realize how utterly idiotic you sound? Hermione Granger has been out of the wizarding world for six years. You actually think that she would be able to remember the fine-lined details of a book she has not read in over six years? A book that she read in a life that she does not remember? You're as immature and thoughtless as you were when you were my student, Potter."
"And bloody hell, your nose is as hooked and massive now as it was when you were my teacher! Anyways, I'm sure she would remember. All you have to do is tell her everything, just like you told me. It has all come back to me now, I remember everything as clearly as if it were six years ago. And Hermione is not one to forget something she read in a book, trust me."
Snape's upper lip curled.
"Do you have a better idea, Snape?" said Sirius.
Snape was silent,
"Great," said Harry, "Then let's use Snape's wand to summon her."
"That's PROFESSOR Snape to you, Potter."
The Exanclo Curse
"We need to talk," Ginny said. "Away from here."
"What's the matter?" Harry asked anxiously.
Ginny shook her head and led him out of the apartment complex and into her car.
"Listen Harry," she said quietly as she pulled onto the highway, "we've got something really important to do. I don't know everything, and I can't even tell you everything I do know yet. So you're just going to have to trust me, ok?"
"Yeah, sure," said Harry. What else could he say? His instinct told him to go with her, so he did.
"One more thing. Don't ask any questions, don't even SAY anything about this, ever, unless I bring it up first."
Harry found this somewhat annoying.
"Why?" he asked irritably.
"Because if someone found out that we knew something…that we were beginning to remember…to resist…they would have to kill us. God, we shouldn't even be talking about it in here, it's just not safe."
Harry found this answer so entirely confusing that he didn't say anything else, and neither did she. They drove on for several hours, both deep in thought, and then, suddenly, Ginny drove off the road into a large shopping center, and parked the car.
"Er…Ginny? I don't think any of these shops are going to be open, it's 2:30 in the morning."
"We are not going shopping, Harry. Honestly. Follow me," she said taking his hand, "and remember, not a word."
They walked in silence for a mile or so, and then Ginny led him off the sidewalk into a wooded area. Harry had no idea where they were going, but he felt happy when he was with Ginny for some reason, perfectly at ease, like he could really be himself….even if he didn't completely know who "himself" was. He looked up at the stars, half-expecting them to reveal some deep, long-forgotten secret.
"Mars is uncommonly bright tonight," he muttered, without knowing why.
Ginny didn't respond, and they continued walking deeper and deeper into the wooded area, although it was more like a creepy forest by now. Indeed, the farther they walked, the more dense and eerie the forest became. Harry thought he could hear the trees whispering.
"Wait…" he thought to himself, "trees do NOT whisper. What is the matter with me? I am following some psycopath woman that I just met for the first time this morning, by complete accident on the tube, miles and miles into the depths of a MESSED UP forest…I have to work tomorrow!! I can't go any farther, I'm just going to tell her that I have a really important appointment that I forgot about, and I have to turn back."
Ginny looked over at Harry and seemed to read his thoughts.
"We're almost there, don't give up now," she said, almost pleadingly, "I know this is really weird for you, trust me it's weird for me too. I know more than you though, so I'm scared. At least you aren't scared yet."
That wasn't entirely true, Harry thought, surveying a particurally large tree to the side of him with numerous multi-colored eye-balls peeping out of it. There were also lots of creepy sounds, Harry could have sworn he saw something that looked half human, half horse sprinting through the forest.
Weirder still was the feeling of belonging and normalcy about it, Harry was almost mad at himself for not being more weirded out.
Suddenly they stopped walking.
"What is it?" Harry whispered.
"Shhhhh…" she hissed, and then suddenly clutching his arm, "there's something behind that bush…"
Harry thought he heard a faint rustle coming from the bush. He looked at Ginny and saw that she was completely helpless. He felt her trembling beside him and her brown eyes were filled with fear. He put an arm around her somewhat awkwardly.
"It's probably nothing," he whispered, "just a rabbit or someth--" he was cut off by a loud crack from the bush.
Ginny was trembling more violently than ever now.
"Er…I guess I'll go check it out then, just to be sure."
He slowly advanced on the bush, and had all but reached it when suddenly a massive black dog came bounding out from behind it, followed by a weasel.
Ginny screamed and burst into tears. Then, something totally unexpected happened. The weasel jumped onto the dog and started clawing at it, and then suddenly the dog turned into a middle-aged man, who threw the weasel off of him and bounded over to harry, nearly suffocating him in a hug.
"It's Harry! Oh my god Snape, it's HARRY!" said the human.
Suddenly there was a pop and the weasel turned into a man, about the same age as the other man, but uglier and smellier. He had a very sour look on his face.
"Why don't you say it a little louder Sirius, so that Voldemort himself will hear you? Eh?"
Sirius pushed Snape out of the way and turned back to Harry.
"Harry, it's been six years, SIX YEARS, since I last saw you. You were eighteen and had just began training to be an auror. But you wouldn't remember that, would you. Nah, you don't even remember me. It's not your fault though."
"When did Professor Snape become an animagus?" said Ginny suddenly.
Sirius and Snape both gasped.
"You remember??" they cried, "You know what an animagus is??"
"I told you in the letter," said Ginny to Sirius, "I'm beginning to remember lots of stuff. Random things though, it's like a puzzle, and it's just starting to come together. Although I still have a few holes."
"And you, Harry? Do you remember anything?" said Sirius.
"Honestly, I have absolutely no idea what's going on here. I don't know who any of you are, although you all look vaguelly familiar, like you were in one of my dreams or something. Every now and then I'll see an object that will remind me of something really weird, and sometimes really bizarre words come into my head, like 'imperio' and 'seeker.' And yesterday, when Ginny showed me the newspaper, I instantly knew that the 'cloaked lunatic' was called Voldemort. I also thought the stick he was holding looked familiar. That's all I know, seriously, and to tell you the truth, all this stuff is sort of freaking me out. I have to work tomorrow…"
"Ha ha," said Sirius, "he has to work tomorrow! Harry you can forget about First Union Bank, you're never going back."
"Look, I don't know who in hell you all think you are," said Harry angrily, "but I think you're all a bunch of crackpots. What do you want from me? You want money? You want---"
Sirius sighed sadly and Ginny beckoned to Harry to come sit down on a nearby tree log, but he refused.
"Harry, don't you think it's a little strange that we all know your name, and stranger still that you think you've had dreams about us? You didn't recognize the 'cloaked lunatic' in that picture because your psychic Harry, you recognized him because you know him. He's your mortal enemy," said Sirius.
"Mortal enemy? I don't have a mortal enemy, I don't have ANY enemies, except that guy who tried to steal my palm pilot last year…"
"Yes you do," said Snape sneeringly, "you're just too dumb to remember."
"IT'S NOT HIS FAULT IF HE DOESN'T REMEMBER! NO ONE REMEMBERS, SNAPE, NO ONE BUT US AND THE REST OF THE DEATH EATERS!"
"Look, I don't know who you think you are, but you're messing with the wrong guy here, I swear," Harry spat at Snape.
"DON'T YOU USE THAT TONE WITH ME, POTTER!"
"I'LL USE THIS TONE IF I BLOODY WELL WANT TO YOU UGLY SLIMEBALL--"
"YEAH, HE'LL USE WHATEVER TONE HE WANTS!" Sirius chimed in.
"Can we all just calm down for a second?" said Ginny quietly. All three men stopped screaming for a moment. "Maybe if you sit down and calmly EXPLAIN everything, Harry will remember some more stuff. And there's lots of things I'd like to know too…"
"She has a point…" said Sirius.
Snape was looking murderous, but he didn't object, so Sirius began explaining.
"God this is gonna take forever," he started, "I guess the first thing you should know is that you're a wizard. Don't look at me like that! I'm totally serious…seriously…."
"And so, you finished your seventh year at Hogwarts," said Sirius.
"And then what?" said Harry curiously. For as Sirius had told Harry the story of his "life" Harry had begun to remember things, he even added a few details here and there.
"Then Voldemort came up with his Plan, and it was successful. He managed to eliminate out all of his enemies in the wizarding world, with a single curse. The Exanclo Curse. It drains the magic out of anyone not bearing the sign of the Dark Mark on their arm, and in the process wipes out most of their memory as well. Voldemort invented this curse himself, so only he knows the counter curse."
"And he did this six years ago?" asked Harry.
Sirius nodded.
"Then how come he hasn't taken over the whole world by now? What's he waiting on? There's still plenty of muggles out there to kill!"
"Well, you must remember that he was the first one to ever use Exanclo, so there was a good deal of risk involved in it. The curse backfired, so-to-speak, and injured him greatly, but as we know all-to-well, Voldemort is apparently un-killable. He has spent the past six years in the care of his Death Eaters, and has been nursed back to health, and is now quite as healthy as ever before, isn't that right Snape?"
Snape grunted.
"Snape has been a useful spy in our little 'resistance' if we may call it that. For the past six years all we've had in it is us two. We thought it would be best to lie low for awhile, make Voldemort think that all his enemies were gone, or else we would have contacted you a long time ago."
"Sirius," said Harry suddenly, "you don't have the dark mark on your arm, how did you avoid Exanclo?"
"To be totally honest, I'm not completely sure. I was in my dog form when Voldemort performed the curse, so I can only assume that the curse doesn't affect animals. And based on what I've found from living in this forest most of the past six years, there's still a lot of magical creatures left."
There were a few minutes of silence. Everyone was deep in thought. Dozens of questions popped into Harry's mind, each more important than the one before. He wondered what had become of Dumbledore, Hermione, Hagrid, Cho Chang, Lupin, the whole Weasley family, Draco Malfoy…
"We need to get wands," said Ginny suddenly.
"Yeah," Harry agreed, "we're totally helpless without our wands."
Sirius frowned a bit.
"Your wands were all destroyed by Exanclo. Even mine is gone," said Sirius.
"Then we'll have to make new ones," said Harry.
"Easier said than done, Potter," Snape said, "very few people can make decent wands. Wand-making is a very fine art, and can only be done properly after years of study. There have been hundreds of books written on it."
"Hermione Granger," Harry said.
"What about her?"
"She was the smartest girl in my year, probably in the whole school. She's read practically every magical book there is, I'm sure she knows something about wand-making."
"Knowing 'something' about wand-making is a very distant step from knowing how to make wands," Snape snarled. "I myself, a qualified wizard cannot do it, and neither, I'm sure, can Sirius."
"Hermione's a qualified witch too!" Harry said to Snape, "and I bet she's smarter than you EVER were."
He winked at Sirius.
"If anyone can do it, it's Hermione Granger."
"Potter, do you realize how utterly idiotic you sound? Hermione Granger has been out of the wizarding world for six years. You actually think that she would be able to remember the fine-lined details of a book she has not read in over six years? A book that she read in a life that she does not remember? You're as immature and thoughtless as you were when you were my student, Potter."
"And bloody hell, your nose is as hooked and massive now as it was when you were my teacher! Anyways, I'm sure she would remember. All you have to do is tell her everything, just like you told me. It has all come back to me now, I remember everything as clearly as if it were six years ago. And Hermione is not one to forget something she read in a book, trust me."
Snape's upper lip curled.
"Do you have a better idea, Snape?" said Sirius.
Snape was silent,
"Great," said Harry, "Then let's use Snape's wand to summon her."
"That's PROFESSOR Snape to you, Potter."