A/N: Ahhh…summer hols. Gotta love them. Nothing to do but eat, sleep, and write. And scream about how that BLOODY 5TH BOOK WON'T BE OUT UNTIL NEXT YEAR!!!! GAH! Ahem. Anyway…on to the story…
Disclaimer: All fictitious characters that you recognise are not mine. All that you do not recognise are mine.
"Harry, no. I forbid you to do this."
"I'm NOT A CHILD ANYMORE, Dad."
"YOU'RE MY CHILD!"
Real Harry just stared at his shoes. The one who looked like Harry…or maybe…Dad, Harry had called him. Ron was confused. Lily and James Potter were dead long ago. They shouldn't be here, not here, not now. Not when Voldemort was threatening to kill them all, and Harry was willing to join him.
"Harry, please, please listen. You can't think about us. Not when the entire world depends on you. You just can't give up the world for us. Think about yourself. You can apperate away right now, no one will catch you. Just leave."
"Really, Mum?" Harry asked sarcastically, rounding on her. "Is that what you thought, when you died for me? When you were protecting me, screaming 'Not Harry!' was that what you thought? If I leave now, I can save myself?" He turned to face what Ron knew now had to be James.
"And what about you, Dad? Were you thinking, 'I'll apperate away,' while you stood, trying to face down Voldemort to give Mum a chance to run? Is that what you were thinking? Were you thinking about yourself?" He was babbling now. Ron knew it. He knew that Harry knew it too.
"Harry please," Hermione spoke up, trying to stem the flow of words, trying to force him to listen to reason, as she had always done. "Harry you must listen. You can't be selfish like this. We're only a few people that you happen to care about. Out there is a whole world that needs to be saved. If you join him, we'll die anyway."
"NO!" Harry shouted. "No," he whispered. "I won't let you die."
"We'll die either way Harry, and I'd rather die for the good of the world."
"You're the only one who can kill him, Harry," Ron spoke up. It was odd, like an out of body experience. Ron felt that he was watching himself, not actually speaking for himself.
"You're the only bloody one. Would you rather live the rest of your life, knowing that you could have stopped him, but didn't because it would have killed your friends? Like 'Mione said, we'll die anyway. But you're the only one who can beat him."
"No I can't." Harry's voice was tired, deadpan. "I can't kill him. All I can do is damn him to the seventh predicent of Hell for eternity. And then I'd need my wand. And he has that."
"So maybe you can't do it now, Harry," said Hermione. "Maybe not now, but you know, if you leave now, that you'll be able to get a chance to do it later. I'd rather die knowing that, Harry I really would."
"And I can't live knowing that I killed you. Become a Judas to my friends. Mum, Dad, you've already died once for me. If I could, I would return the favour. But I can't." Harry sounded beaten, worn down by decisions he was too young to make.
"The worst thing that you could possibly do to us," whispered Lily, "Is to return the favour. No parent should have to see their child die. The natural order of things is that the old must die before the young."
"I won't let you die." Was all that Harry responded.
"RON! Ron, are you alright? Ron?" Ginny was in his room, looking closely at him. Ron sat up. Sweat was pouring down his face.
"It's Harry! He's…" he trailed off as Ginny lit her wand, with a murmur of "lumos." The comforting surroundings, his Chudley Cannons posters on the walls brought him abruptly back to where he was.
"It's nothing, Ginny," Ron said with a weak smile. "Really. It's nothing. Just a bit of a nightmare, is all. Nothing."
"Ok," said Ginny, sounding disbelieving. "Are you sure you're alright Ron?"
"Yes, of course," Ron attempted a grin again, which turned out more like a grimace. "I'm fine, really."
"Ok, just, go back to sleep, we have to leave for Hogwarts tomorrow." said Ginny, turning her back to leave.
"Oh, and Ginny?"
"Yes?" she turned around again.
"Would you mind not mentioning this to anybody?"
With a vague muttering of 'boys' she turned around and left.
"It's nothing," Ron said to himself, over and over again. "A bad dream. It's nothing." But try as he might, he couldn't get himself back to sleep.
Or convince him self that it was nothing.
~**~
"Dad, do we really have to do this? It's supposed to be our break."
"Yes. I was bored, and so was your mother. Lessons it is."
"Mr. Potter," piped up Hermione, who was sitting on Harry's bed, looking excited. "You said this wasn't a normal lesson. What kind of lesson is it?"
"A practical one, since we can't use the classrooms," said James, grinning.
"Oh joy," said Harry, completely deadpan. Six weeks ago, he would have never ventured to use sarcasm with his parents. Now that he knew them so well, however was a different story.
"Oh Harry, stop it." Said Lily briskly. "Just because it's six in the morning doesn't mean that you have to be grumpy."
"It does, actually," said Harry, grinning for the first time that day. "I think it's some kind of universal law. That means that all you chipper people are breaking it. Sorry Hermione, you too. Tsk tsk…I never thought I'd see the day that Hermione broke a law, much less a universal one."
"Oh, shut up Harry." Hermione yawned.
"Much better. We won't have to put you in the gaol now."
"Children." James knew he always got on their nerves when he said that, so he took the liberty of saying it often.
"Now, Hermione, this really doesn't apply to you, but since you were up, you might as well learn, even if you can't do it," said Lily. Hermione's face fell.
"I'm sorry," said James gently, "But really, it only has to do with andcromancers."
"So, this is what we said. A practical lesson. One to do with dark arts creatures. The reason why Moony isn't teaching you this is for the same reason. He isn't a mage either, Hermione."
"Right," said Hermione, nodding.
"Now, demons have been around for centuries, because, without fail, some idiotic block head will call one up, thinking that he will be made powerful through it, or the things that the demon can give him. However, within a few hours, the demon must go back to where it came from, in other words, Hell, or send one in it's place. The same idiot blockhead, within those few hours, is normally overcome, and sent to Hell, and then we have a demon on our hands, running about, trying to kill people, suck out peoples souls, and generally scorch every chair it attempts to sit in."
"Sounds rather nasty," said Harry.
"Yes, rather nasty is an accurate description," said Lily.
"So anyway, have either of you read Dante? No? Lily get that on their reading list," James muttered in an undertone to her.
"Well, Dante had special Hells for different kinds of people. He didn't know about demons, not really, and he was a muggle. However, he was right about one thing. There are seven things called predicents. Each one is a worse level of Hell. If it's a small demon, or not a very bad one, and it hasn't scorched a lot of chairs, you send it to the first one. If it made your house into a fiery inferno, and sucked the soul of your teddy bear, you send it to the seventh one." Said James.
"So how do you send a demon into those predicents?" Asked Hermione.
"It's quite easy actually, as long as you are a andcromancer and you have a wand. The power all really depends on where you want to go. First you say, 'I Damn thee to _______ predicent of Hell,' while you're pointing your wand at the demon. If it's a high predicent, say, the fifth, sixth, or seventh, you hold your wand there and let the power build up. When you think you've got enough, you simply say, 'Dante'. If you've done it correctly you should have sent it there. The lower the predicent, the easier it is to call them up. The seventh predicent is impossible to use to conjure up a demon. You would only use that one on, say, Voldemort."
"You can send people there too?" Asked Harry.
"Since when was Voldemort considered a person?" Answered James.
"Only Dark lords can be sent by another person, Harry," said Lily.
"And you, Harry, are the only person
that can send Voldemort there, because you are not only a mage, and an
andcromancer, which, the two really go together, but the heir as well."
"What do you mean, 'the two really go together?" Asked Hermione
"If you're a mage, you're an andcromancer. If you're an andcromancer, then you're a mage."
"Oh. Alright then."
"Well, Harry, tomorrow you get tested on all this."
"What!?"
"Yeah, we'll find a nice demon for you to send back. But now, you get the rest of the day off, since all the students are coming, and I'm sure you want to say hello."
"Thanks dad."
"Anytime."
~**~
A/N: Hehehe. Fun fun fun. What will Harry do about the demon? What will Hermione do when she sees Ron again? Find out next…