Harry Potter and the Four Guardians

Chapter One: Finding the Way

By: Elf

"We're getting another DADA teacher this year, of course, poor Mad Eye didn't want the job, not that I blame him, after being locked in a box for almost a year, and three new students that are transferring," Hermione Granger informed Harry Potter as they sat at the Weasley family table, while Hermione read the latest issue of The Daily Profit.

Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, lifted his bright green eyes to his friend. Hermione had really filled out since the last two months that he had seen her. Her hair was still unruly, but instead of being bushy, it was just wild curls that tumbled to the middle of her back in a briar of golden brown. She hadn't grown much taller, maybe an inch or so, but she had really filled out in other respects. So much when Ron had seen her again, he merely stared at her, lack jawed.

Hermione twisted one of those curls behind her fingers as she explained, "It says all three of them are fifth years. Two of them are from a school in Japan, Shimasan I think. They do a lot of meditation there and is sort of a private school for wizards. The third is an American. It doesn't say where they're from, just that it is an American. It's quite vague, and there's no mention of You-Know-Who either."

"Voldermort," Harry hissed, feeling the anger wash over him once again. He saw Cedric's dead grey eyes staring up at him, falling from Wormtail's curse. He saw a pair of blazing crimson eyes watching him with a wicked glee as Voldermort prepared to kill him in a duel that Harry knew he was hopelessly outmatched in. Then he heard Malfoy's voice as he taunted, "I told you that you better choose your friends wisely, Potter! Mudbloods and Muggle-lovers will be killed first, well after Diggory anyway!"

Hermione reached out and patted his clinched fists. "Voldermort," she stated, watching him, "And I'm wondering why Dumbledore is letting new students like this in these times."

Harry pushed his untidy black hair from his face and replied thoughtfully, "Dumbledore wants us to live our lives as we always did."

"Still, the whole new student thing is puzzling and they don't even give names," Hermione informed him as she handed him the article.

He breezed through it. It talked about a new unnamed (of course) DADA teacher as well as the three new fifth years that were being transferred for reasons unnamed. He pushed his glasses up on his face as he studied his friend.

"Hey, watcha two reading?" came the voice of Harry's other best friend, Ron Weasley, as he came down the stairs.

Ron's flaming red hair was sticking up all over his face and he was still dressed in pajamas that where too short for him, stopping well above his ankles. He yawned and stretched as he sat down at the table beside the other two. Hermione handed him a letter and told him, "Ginny just owled your mother from Egypt. She's pleased that Bill's letting her visit over the summer." Her face became wistful as she sighed, "Think of everything she's learning. And I'm not even talking about magic wise! I bet she's having a lovely time."

Ron grumbled, "Its not fair. Ginny gets to go visit Bill while we have to stay here."

"Ginny's just shown interest in what Bill's doing, that's all. That's why he's asked her to visit. It's sort of an internship," Hermione explained as Ron shrugged and poured himself a glass of juice.

Harry stared at the article as he suddenly said, "We're getting three new fifth years. Transfers. Two from Japan, one from America."

"Really, bugger, let me see that," Ron replied as he reached for the article.

Harry gave it to him and looked out of the Weasley's sunny kitchen. School was starting up in a few weeks and his fifteenth birthday was coming up too. Sirius had done a lot of convincing on his part to let Harry come and spend time with the Weasley's. ("Albus, do you think that those damned Muggles could protect Harry?") Added to that fact was that Padfoot could roam around and act like a friendly stray without having to worry about Azkaban's Ardors or dementors coming after him.

Still, he knew in the heart of his hearts, that those three new students were going to be more than meets the eye.

******

'KAI! KAI!" the teenage warrior shouted angrily. He furiously moved strands of his silky lavender hair out of his eyes as he took a deep breath. He would try again. Maybe it was a case of nerves that was it.

The teen stood there, taking a deep breath of air and let his own energy wash over him. He felt it charging at his cells, lifting his hair, and he waited. He waited for the golden glow of power, the adrenaline rush that accompanied the change.

Nothing happened.

The youth scowled, knowing at that moment he looked very much like his father, as he crossed his arms and bellowed, "Kai! I want answers!"

He looked around, at the choppy sea beneath the rocky ledge he was standing on. If he had been in a better mood, he would have said it was beautiful. If he hadn't been lacking his power. So, the youth scowled.

"Kai!" he yelled again, hoping to bring this Kai back to him to answer some more questions.

And to get his full power back.

******

"Who am I to protect?" she asked in her celestial voice, her pale hands running through her night dark hair. She had been brought here to protect someone, someone who had not been named. She thought to fully protect them that she would at least know their name.

Her mentor and "aunt", sighed as she looked at her charge with her soulful brown eyes. "Sweetheart, I can't tell you because I do not know myself. Stay calm. We'll work this out."

The girl sighed as she stood up and walked out to their room's balcony. She stood there, looking up at the stars and sighed. She felt the tiny dark violet wand in her pocket and wrapped her fingers around it.

She knew that she would have another wand, a more functional wand, in just a few days. Still, all of this was new and strange to her. She welcomed it, being an outcast from her own world, but it was still disturbing.

She sighed as she looked up at the moon and stars. She leaned over the post and rested her chin on top of her fingers. With the starry sky above her and the quiet whispers of night, she couldn't help but fantasize about falling in love.

All of her friends had lovers with each other or with someone else and she had nothing, only to watch from the sidelines like the outsider she always had been. Her aunt was the same way. Her mothers couldn't understand why she felt so distant, but her mentor did because she felt the same way.

Her mentor's love was in the arms of another woman, a bright, shining golden woman, and all she could do was watch. The girl knew that her mentor had came to this strange place to mend a broken heart, a heart that might never heal.

It was more than the mission at hand. They had their own reasons for leaving.

******

He'd been called many things in his life, street rat, murder, and so on, and most of them applied at some point or another. Except the street rat thing. He wasn't a street rat. He was street smart.

He could cut deals with drug dealers and over eager pimps that wanted to either have sex with him or sell him out to leave him alone. He could move into shadows without being noticed. He could live on his wits and a five-dollar bill for a week.

And now he knew the reason why.

He wasn't what he thought he was, but closer to who he claimed to be. Which was very strange indeed. He thought he was one thing but calling himself something else as sort of a twisted joke, then finding out he wasn't what he thought he was but what he was calling himself. It was a twisted joke all around on his part.

Luckily, he appreciated the irony and was adapting.

Another thing he was good at was adapting.

He was remembering things that he had never learned, strange things, like how to curse someone to puke slugs, and useful things like how to truly meld into the shadows. The thing that was bothering him was that he was pulled out of a world that he called home, away from friends and "family", and placed in a world that he belonged in but knew relatively very little about.

Still, he was hell with spells though.

He waited in the shadows as the oily shop keeper stepped out, locking door behind him with a simple charm. He chuckled to himself as he slid into the shadows themselves, becoming one with the darkness, a wonderful feeling indeed, like being blanketed by warm fleece, and then materializing within the shop.

He looked around at shrunk heads, a Hand of Glory, and various dubious ingredients for various potions and the like. He opened a trunk and smirked when he pulled out a jar of vampire fangs. He opened the jar up and grabbed a couple of fangs, stuffing them into his pocket.

He was drawn to dead things, things of the undead or things that could control the dead. Like the small vial of necromancer's blood that he was sliding into his pockets beside the fangs. He scratched his nose, looking to all the world like a kid in a candy store, as he looked around.

He ran his fingers over a few leather bound books, smiling to himself. He touched the Hand of Glory and moved onto a blood-covered deck of Tarot cards. He chuckled as he ran his gaze over those as he looked at a twisted metal tool that was dangling from the ceiling. He paused as he passed a book whose title read Cursing your Enemies and Binding your Alleys.

He looked around as he stepped back into the shadows. They enveloped him once more as he soon found himself standing out of the darkened store. He chuckled as he ran off, an adrenaline high once again.

He wasn't evil, but he was drawn to Darkness, but not into it.

******

"Three new students? I haven't heard anything about this," Sirius mused as he paced around, his ragged grey robes floating about him, "Damn, I wish Dumbledore or even Snipe, would have told me about this."

Harry frowned and pushed his glasses on his face as he studied his godfather. Harry asked, "So, you knew nothing?"

"I knew that Dumbledore would get a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher that could help defend against Voldermort when the time came, but new students, no, I didn't. Transfers like this anyway. New first years are to be expected, but not three new students from different parts of the world," Sirius answered as he sat down beside Harry, the two of them looking around idly at the Weasley's grassy lawn. A gnome ran past their feet.

Harry reached out and caught the small, leathery creature and began to spin it around by its ankles. Sirius chuckled as Harry let it fly. "Not too fond of them myself, tend to bother me when I'm changed," Sirius mused as they watched the creature land.

Harry shrugged and asked, "Could they be powerful wizards in their own right?"

"Or they could just be needing more advanced schooling than their schools could offer them. One of them's an American, right?" Sirius answered, running his fingers through his now short hair. Harry was glad to see that Sirius was looking better, gaining a little weight and not so thin and pale, and sporting a hair cut as well. Still, the dark, haunted look still lurked in his dark eyes from time to time, and the only time it vanished was when the two of them were alone, doing things that Harry supposed were things that a normal father and son would do.

Normal in a wizard's sense anyway.

Harry grinned and answered, "Yeah, the guy's an American."

"There you go on him. Japanese wizards and witches are very touchy, from what I've heard, but very focused in their magic though," Sirius explained with a grin.

Harry asked, "Heard anything about the new DADA teacher?"

"Not really, actually. Not even Snipe knows anything, except that they're not from Britain," Sirius answered as he started to stand up.

Harry stood up as well, wishing that he didn't have to go. He didn't have to be brave or hide things from Sirius like he did with the others sometimes. He could let go and let Sirius take care of things just for a little while. Harry swallowed and asked, "Where are you going?"

"Rumor has it that Voldermort's on the move and that he's allying himself to vampires as well as dementors. I'd rather face a dementor than a vampire any day. Less cunning, I'll tell you," Sirius replied.

Harry looked at him and said, trying to keep his voice neutral, "Be careful."

"I will, Harry," Sirius told him with a grin as he vanished from view. Harry sighed as he was now alone. He wished that Sirius could have stayed for his birthday, just a day away. Still, he would be very happy spending it with Ron, Hermione, and the Weasleys. He sighed as he stood up and brushed grass from his jeans. Anything was better than the Dursleys.

Then, as if Sirius had heard his thoughts, he Aparated in front of Harry again, smiling. He held out a wrapped present with a card. Harry's eyes widened in surprise as Sirius grinned and asked, "Did you think I would forget your birthday, Harry? I just wish that I could be here with you. It's a bit early, but here you go."

Harry took the present, surprised and happy. "Thank you, Sirius," he cheered, almost shaking with happiness as he tore open the gold wrapping paper. Settled inside of the box was a faded, scarlet robe, Gryffindor's color. He pulled it out, immediately recognizing a Quidditch robe when he saw one.

He looked up at Sirius' bittersweet expression and realized that the robe had been his father's. "I knew he'd want you to have it," Sirius said in way of explanation as Harry carefully folded the priceless robe, holding it to his chest. Sirius smiled and nodded to the box. "There's more, son," he added, looking nervous.

Harry looked down to see a magical photo of a young James Potter, Sirius, and Remus Lupin, smiling, waving, and, occasionally, Sirius getting James in a head lock with James poking him in the ribs while Lupin laughed. He noticed that the fourth friend, the Wormtail out of their Moony, Padfoot, Prongs and Wormtail was missing. Peter Pertigew had betrayed them all to Voldermort and had hidden with Ron's family for years as a rat. Then he had kidnaped Harry to bring Voldermort back to power.

Beside that was a small crystal necklace on a delicate silver chain. He gently picked up the chain to study the clear crystal. It swayed slightly, making a soft, almost singing noise as it did as it caught the sunlight in a myriad of colors. "Did this belong to my mum?" he asked as he gently put the pendent down.

"Yeah, it's a Singing Crystal. It brings good luck and happiness. Lily gave this to James right before they got married. She never went anywhere without it before though," Sirius answered gently.

Harry flung himself at Sirius and said, "Thank you."

Sirius hugged him back and looked down at him. "It's not exactly what I wanted to give you, but I'm not exactly cleared yet," Sirius answered with a shrug, the normally haunted look of his eyes lifting for a moment.

Harry knew what he meant. As soon as Sirius was cleared, he was going to adopt Harry as his own son, something that would make Harry the happiest wizard in the world. It was as close as he could get to his real father and thanked Sirius for that. The best part was that he didn't have to say anything because Sirius knew. That was one of the reasons that Sirius was one of the coolest people that Harry knew.

Harry smiled at him and happily stated, "It's the best birthday present that anyone could have given me, Sirius."

Sirius smiled and said, "Well, I'm off to go hunt vampires now. Send Hedwig if you find out anything or Pig."

"Of course. See you soon," Harry replied as Sirius Aparated away again. Leaving Harry to look at the now prized possessions in his hands.

******

It was defiantly the best birthday that Harry ever had. Mrs. Weasley was cooking a huge dinner of Harry's favorite foods (she had grilled Ron for this information) while Ron, Fred and George (Harry always considered them as a unit), and himself practiced Quiddich. Hopefully, they would not have the Triwizard tournament at Hogwarts this year. Harry missed playing as Seeker and any chance to out due Malfoy was a welcome one.

That evening, just to make things better, Bill had shown up with Ginny. Bill, dressed in his dragon leather rock clothing and dragon fang earing, had added a tatoo of an elaborate blue-green wyrm on his upper arm that harmonized with his long, red hair. Mrs. Weasley almost fainted at the sight of it before she tried to go at it with her wand. Bill waved her off as the rest of the Weasley family commented on how cool the tatoo was.

Ginny was even more changed than her brother. Her pale face was sprinkled with a few freckles, not having as many as the rest of her clan other than Bill, but she had . . . grown to say the least. She stood there in a pale blue sun dress, pretty as a picture.

Harry gawked at her before Ron elbowed him in the ribs while Hermione giggled. He just didn't remember Ron's little sister, the girl who had the massive crush on him, being so lovely. Her long red hair adorned her soft, round features and huge, amber brown eyes. She was still tiny, but the rest of her figure had changed a great deal over the past few months.

She then looked over at Harry and blushed. Harry looked down at his food and began to eat. Ron was torn between glaring and chuckling and settled for the later.

Sometime after dinner, Bill said, "Hogwarts has borrowed me for a little while this year."

"Heavens, what for?" Mrs. Weasley asked as she started to put away the dishes.

Bill shrugged and answered, "Don't bloody well know. Curse breaking I think. Rumor has it that Voldermort's looking for something or someone who could help his power base. There are several artifacts that are heavily protected that could be what he's looking for. They're paying me a damn good amount of money and the job's going to be a nice change. And it will possibly hurt Voldermort. Rumor also has it that he's got vampires and dementors joining his sides as well as his Death Eaters."

Harry looked up from the box of fake wands that the twins gave him as a gag gift. It was almost exactly what Sirius had told him earlier. Voldermort was looking for something and it wasn't Harry. He didn't know whether to be worried or relieved. Still, he was going to be on his guard this year though.

******

"I want who G was hiding alive and well. G had a great knowledge of the Dark Arts and knew of those born with a natural ability to it or other unique powers. If G traveled to another reality to protect his 'little demon', he knew that I would want them. I know that there's a Scythe Barer alive and well. I just need to get my hands on them," Voldermort sneered at his collected group of Death Eaters, dementors, and vampires.

The vampires were a welcome addition to the group due to their unique abilities. And they were quite a bit more cunning than most of his Death Eaters. The dementors were ready to feed and were focused on that one fact. Voldermort promised them all the feelings that they could gorge themselves on and had not failed yet. The dementors would blindly follow him into Hell.

Still, the Scythe Barer was the ultimate power he wanted to possess. The tool he planned to use despite all else. He just needed to find them first. The problem was that the only person who knew where the Scythe Barer was had killed themselves, something that he wouldn't expect from self-preserving G.

He did know that the child was almost sixteen and knew very little of what they could do. Knowing G, he would have placed the child in the protection of the most righteous and powerful wizard he knew. That wizard was Dumbledore and Dumbledore was at Hogwarts.

So, it was back to Hogwarts.

And it would give him another chance to finally finish off Potter, once and for all.