Chapter 3

Disc: You know the drill, I don't own, you don't sue, everyone is happy.

Harry tossed and turned uneasily. Since his nightmare, he wasn't able to sleep properly. Every time he drifted off, he dreamt of blood and flashing swords and screaming. After some troubled sleep, Harry decided to stay awake and finish some homework. He pulled out parchment, a quill and some reference books, and gazed gloomily at his History of Magic assignment. 'Write a five foot essay on the age o Merlin. Emphasize on the sharp change in magical trends Pre and post Merlin.' Harry rolled his eyes. All he knew about Merlin was what he had read on Chocolate Frog Cards and to be perfectly honest he didn't care to know very much more. But he started writing. "Merlin was reputedly the greatest of the medieval wizards. Known as Taliesin, he was an accomplished bard and poet, as well as a wily manipulator. He served Ambrosius as well as Ambrosius's successors Uther and Arthur Pendragon. He had unimaginable magical powers, and was supposedly trained in…" Harry's pen spluttered to a stop, as he heard a noise outside.

Harry's fingers clasped around his wand, as he stood up in a single fluid gesture. He pulled on jeans and a loose sweatshirt. He opened the door quietly and slipped out. He was thankful for his dark clothes. It meant he was more or less invisible in the dark. Also he was rather good at sneaking around at night. He had done it everyday in the vacations. That was when he robbed food to eat, and that was when he worked out. Harry knew the use of good reflexes and physical strength in the art of Self-defense. So he exercised religiously. Now he was more or less prepared to meet the threat, muggle or wizard.

He crept down and went to the back door. The noise had come from the back garden. Gripping his wand tighter, he slid the door open, and tiptoed out. He found his suspicions were confirmed. A man dressed in dark robes stood in the garden, wand in hand. Harry pointed his own wand at the man and whispered, 'Stupefy'. The beam of light hit the other wizard in the stomach, and he keeled over. Very satisfied with himself, Harry strode over to the prostrate foe and pulled the hood off. Then with a guilty gasp, Harry hurriedly muttered, 'Enervate.' Remus's eyes fluttered and then opened and settled on Harry.

"Hello, Harry. Is this how you greet all your guests?" asked Remus with a grin, reminiscent of his Marauder days.

Harry pulled Remus up. "What are doing you here at this unearthly hour of the morning, Professor Lupin?"

"It's Remus, Harry. I'm not going to be called Professor, while Sirius gets away with being called by his first name. Anyway it isn't correct anymore, you know. I'm here to take you to Hogwarts. Something urgent has come up. I can't tell you what right now, but you'll know when you get there."

Harry nodded. "I'll just go get my stuff."

Remus shook his head. "No need for that, Harry. Just grab your wand and we'll be off."

"What about my broomstick and the homework, and all the rest of that stuff."

"Trust me, Harry. Your homework is the last thing you should be bothered about. Everybody'll excuse you. Right now we have very little time. We have to reach Hogwarts in half an hour, and the nearest wizard fireplace is at least three miles away."

Harry frowned. "Five miles? What about Ms. Figg?"

"Negative. She's on a mission and her fireplace has been temporarily disabled. So we have to use the Robinson's fireplace. And since they are not a part of the resistance, we have to sneak in. Not that you should have much of a problem, Harry. I never even heard you coming up to me. Oh, and by the way, nice 'Stupefy.'" Harry had the grace to blush.

Harry nodded. "O.K. Remus, let's go. I'm glad I don't have to take my trunk with me. The idea of lugging a fifty plus kilo weight for three miles does not sound appealing."

Remus laughed. "Follow me, Harry. And try to keep up, will you? We werewolves are notoriously agile and strong." Harry's only reply to that was a disbelieving snort.

Even though Harry found it easy enough to keep pace with Remus, he also found that the brisk pace left no room for idle conversation. Remus strode rapidly through the roads of Surrey, throwing comments like, "Next left!" or "First turn to the right!" over his shoulder. Finally he stopped. "All right, Harry. We're here." Harry looked up at the house. It was a large house, built on picturesque old English lines. It had the requisite vines climbing up its side, the red brick walls, the large knocker. It was rather lovely, but Remus didn't give Harry much time to look at it. He pulled the boy to a side and pointed. "See that drainpipe, Harry. Do you think you'll be able to climb it?"

Harry gave the older man a look of cool amusement and walked up to the drainpipe. He tested his weight on it lightly, and then swung himself up. He swarmed up it like a professional acrobat, and, on reaching the window, dropped quietly inside. Remus watched with amazement, and then followed, climbing the pipe with less grace, but adequate efficiency. Reaching the room, he looked suspiciously at his ex-student. "You're too good at this, Harry. You climbed that pipe like a cat."

Harry just gave him an ingenuous grin, "Yeah, you weren't bad either." Remus burst out laughing and relaxed.

Harry had traveled by Floo powder often enough, but he didn't like it very much. He watched with distaste as Remus pulled out a pouch of the green powder and threw some of it on to the flames. The flames shot up and turned emerald. Remus gestured to Harry. Harry stepped forward, shouted, "Hogwarts, Dumbledore's office." He walked into the flames, went flying through the portals and landed face down in front of Dumbledore's feet. He took Dumbledore's proffered hand, stood up and dusted himself off. He looked ruefully at his shattered glasses. "I doubt if even Reparo is going to fix this one, Professor."

"That's alright, Harry. We'll fit you with new glasses soon. Or maybe we'll just fix your eyes, if you prefer this look. We can decide that later. Come with me now." As Harry followed Dumbledore out, he heard Remus make a far more dignified entry through the fireplace. Dumbledore took Harry to a large room, which he had never seen before. "This, Harry is the conference room. We have a lot to tell you as soon as everyone else joins us."

Harry frowned. "Everyone else?" he started to ask, when Sirius walked in, followed by Mr. Weasely, Arabella Figg, Ron and Ginny, Hermione and Severus Snape. Harry threw himself into his godfathers' arms, which fastened convulsively around him. When Harry finally let go, he beamed at his best friends, who looked as confused as he felt. He also grinned at Mr. Weasely of whom he was very fond.

Before the trio could begin a joyous reunion, Dumbledore calmly ordered, "Please sit down, everybody."

Obediently everybody took their places. Dumbledore sat at the head, with Lupin on one side and Mr. Weasely on the other. On Lupin side sat Sirius, Harry and Hermione. Nest to Mr. Weasely was Arabella, followed by the two Weasely siblings. Severus Snape seated himself at the foot. "The first meeting of the Order of the Magid will now commence."

"Severus, where is Draco?" asked Dumbledore. All the teenagers, excepting Harry, shot each other confused glances.

"Still asleep, Professor. Sometime I don't know my own strength when I'm brewing."

Dumbledore nodded. "Then I'm afraid I must start without him. Now you must be wondering why this urgent meeting has been summoned. Some of us present here know what is going on, others don't. For the sake of the latter, I will fill in some details. Now, I am sure you know that Rowena Ravenclaw was a seer. By that I mean a true seer." Ron muttered 'Trelawney' to Harry, and both choked, but a glance from Dumbledore squashed them. "One of her famous prophecies was about the rise of a Dark Lord, the heir of another dark lord. Orphaned young, speaking the serpents tongue and so on, so forth. Obviously it is about Voldemort. But what is less well known is that there was a parallel prophecy. We didn't know about this prophecy till about six years ago when Lucius Malfoy brought it to me. We found it among his papers. I will read it out to you.

"Through darkness he will rise to light
Through death he will rise to life
Through hate he will rise to love
And in love he will find forgiveness
He will battle the powers of fear that prevail
And time and time again he will feel he has failed
Four will come to smooth his way, one to guide him
One to adore him, and two to fight beside him.
And on the night of the solstice when darkness reigns
He will find victory through the paths of pain
And as the forces of his soul unite
The boy of gold will be triumphant in his fight"

He looked at the blank faces turned towards him, and continued with a sigh. "A lot of research on Mr. Malfoy's part told us one thing. The Boy of Gold is a twist on the Golden Magid, an incredibly powerful wizard of legend. Magids are rare, very rare. They have absolute control over wandless magic and they have complete power over at least one element. Lastly, and most importantly, they are necromancers. Now, magic comes from a source and for Magids this source emanates more power. If the Magid hasn't learnt to control these powers by his or her seventeenth birthday, this source goes out of control and there is imbalance and hence Chaos."

He drew a deep breath. What he was going to say was not going to be easy for anyone, particularly Harry. "Harry, you are the Golden Magid. Yes, I know it's come as quite a surprise to some of you, but you'll have enough time to discuss it later." Disregarding the gasps that went up around him, he continued, "Ron, Hermione Lucius thought, as I think that you are the ones who will fight beside Harry. I'm afraid the rest is still a blur to us. Not the problem is that Voldemort found out about Lucius. Lucius Malfoy was the chosen Protector of the Golden Magid, as is Draco. One is dead and the other ill qualified to train the Magid."

Only Snape had the self possession to ask, "But, Professor, who will train the Magid?"

Dumbledore looked at them, his lips curved in a slight smile. "When I heard about Lucius's death, I was perplexed. Magids are so rare that you don't have people capable of training one alive anymore. And then it came to me in a flash. One of my more brilliant ideas! The last known Magid was Taliesin. Taliesin was a trained Magid. Where did he train? That was where Harry would have to go."

Three voices - Hermione, Harry and Ron said together, "AVALON?"


Yay, I got three reviews last time. But I'm afraid I'm kind of difficult to satisfy. So please please keep reviewing. It means a lot to me.

Thanks go to:
James: Thanks, that's really encouraging. Keep watching that space. I'm going to put up a new chapter everyday at least for the next one week.

Fan: Thanks, here's more. Keep reviewing and I'll keep writing. Well, that's not strictly true. I'll write anyway, Reviews are just an added bonus

Aloe: I'm really glad you like it. Your review was great, very helpful. Unfortunately I am no good at writing Slash smut. Lack of experience I suppose. So this is going to stay romantic, not smutty. Romance is going to come up somewhere around the seventh chapter. As for the D/H/G problem, wait for the fifth chap. I have a twist planned.