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Chapter 9
Guardians
Disclaimer: Don't own, don't own, don't own. pouts If I did own this, I.... blush I'd better not tell anyone, what would happen if I did own it.
Tidmag – I just about fell off my chair reading your reviews (which is not a good thing for 4 in the morning!)! I have to relate about the 'Note to Self' – and can completely understand. And as for Draco! I have lots of things in store for him (and Harry) as well! I, too, love Snape! There's just something about him....
Thanks to Prophetess of Hearts, Luna Rose, Arizosa, and Atheis who reviewed! Ah, it laid a calming balm on my heart as it recovers from getting too close to my computer crashing into little bits. But, I saved it! (Barely...)
Enough with me jammering on – here's the next chapter....
Things are just getting started!
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Harry felt the coldness start to seep into his veins. Green lights seemed to flicker in his peripheral vision, just enough to make him keep looking in each direction. The crystal he wore around his neck gave off a pulsing beat.
"Harry?" He looked up at Dumbledore, who wore a grave expression on his face.
"Dementors..." he managed to get out. The coldness was overwhelming, and already he could hear the faint screams of his mother. The only thing that was holding him up was the knowledge that he could perform the Patronus charm. That gave him hope.
Dumbledore sped out of the room, leaving Harry and Aeryn behind. The three of them had been discussing lessons for Harry when that awful feeling swept over him. Harry shivered as the cold drew closer.
He looked over at Aeryn and found she held her wand in her left hand, and she wore a necklace like he did. The crystal's light was growing more steadily as they both waited for the Dementors to go by.
The cold rushed in again as Harry whipped back towards the door. The hooded, cloaked figure was swiftly walking towards them, invading the very sanctuary of the Headmaster. He held out his wand and pointed it at the Dementor.
"Expecto Patronum," he said in a steady voice and watched as the stag came out of his wand. Next to him he heard Aeryn whisper the words. A soft white shape floated from the end of her wand into a unicorn. The Dementor paused at the sight, hurrying out of the office and Harry sighed with relief as it did so. He shakily sat down in his chair as his legs decided that they didn't want to stand any longer.
The inner door opened and a small bundle of scared child leapt at him. "Harry! Aeryn!"
"Shh, Marty," he whispered. He could feel her trembling against him and apart from his own. Harry looked over at Aeryn, whose face was pale and her hands were shaking.
"I hate those things," she said as she noticed Harry was looking at her. All he could do was nod. The coldness lingered in the air, even as they heard shuffling outside.
"Pepper imps!" The candy was shouted, and Harry recognized it as Draco. He stood and carried Marty over to where Aeryn leaned against the sofa and ran down the stairs. Cautiously opening the door, he pulled the blond boy quickly in and shut it, hearing the grinding of the gargoyle as it slid back into place.
Under his hand he could feel Draco shaking violently and immediately understood what had happened. "Where did you see them?"
Draco looked around Dumbledore's office as they made their way into the living area behind it. "The dungeons.... Pro... Professor McGonagall and Professor Steele are... The dungeons..." he finally panted out.
Harry's head whipped over to look at where Aeryn and Marty were now standing as they entered through the door. As he did so he felt a strange pulse of power. He stopped at once, noticing that Draco did the same. There was a strange look on all their faces as the power surged again.
The ground shifted under his feet as he took another step into the room, trying to shake the strange feeling surrounding him. The four paintings of the founders seemed to glow out of the corner of his eye as he tried to concentrate on the others. Draco, Aeryn and Marty were sliding out of focus and Harry tried to raise his hand up to his head. He found he couldn't do it as he felt his entire body seem to turn into a statue, as if somebody had performed Petrificus Totalus on him.
An odd light swirled in the room as he heard Draco fall to the floor next to him. Harry tried to look down but it was as if he could only see the colors as they whipped around the room in a whirlwind. Again he heard a noise, softer this time, but he couldn't make out if it was Aeryn or Marty who had fallen. A second later it didn't matter as he fell to the floor as well, blackness overtaking everything.
"Harry?"
He heard his name being called, but it was far away. Part of his mind welcomed the darkness since his entire body was in pain. It felt as if he had fallen off his broom from a great height the way his muscles ached.
"Harry?"
There it was again, only much closer. A soft voice was calling him in his ear, a gentle whispering voice indicating that it was time to leave the blackness that he lay in.
Opening an eye, he was greeted with a blurry world. He reached up, wondering where his glasses were when his hand bumped into them. The movement knocked them askew and suddenly the world tilted into focus. His other eye shot open as he dragged his glasses off and sat up. He ignored the pain this called for and looked around the room in wonder.
"Are you all right, Harry?" He looked back to see a woman's face watching him carefully. She seemed very familiar to him in the way her eyes twinkled, but they were a soft shade of purple.
"Aeryn?" The name popped into his head and he knew it was right when she nodded. "What was that?"
She shook her hair and Harry saw that there were long streaks of pale blue in it. "I don't know, but it was powerful. And now we're in a room I don't recognize..." She shifted from her kneeling position to sit on the warm floor. "All I know is that I woke up and all three of you were... different."
Harry looked around the room as she spoke. This room was sparsely decorated, and there wasn't a speck of dust anywhere. Still, he had the feeling that nothing living had been in this room for a long time. 'Different...' He wasn't sure what she meant by that until he saw a blond man starting to shift slightly on the stone floor, and a young, brown-haired woman a few feet away from the rest of them. Each of them had the same strange streaks of color in their hair, the blond man with red and the woman with white strips of color.
He watched as Aeryn went over to the man. "Draco?"
Harry's eyes widened. Could that possibly be Draco? It couldn't be, as this man was around Aeryn's age. It wasn't possible, at least, he thought it wasn't. He watched as Aeryn carefully brushed a long strand of hair out of the man's face before he went back to his inspection of the room. Spotting a mirror, he slowly made his way to his feet. He winced as every muscle screamed at him to stay still. And yet, he had to see what Aeryn meant by 'different.' Stopping in front of the mirror, his mouth dropped open in shock.
He didn't look like him. A man around the same age as Aeryn stared back at him with eyes as emerald green as before. His hair, though, was now in a long, messy tangle down past his shoulders with blond streaks running through it. But was startled him the most was that his scar was gone. Lifting one hand up to his forehead, he rubbed the flesh, trying to feel where the scar might have gone.
"What the hell?!"
He turned at the sound of an older Draco's annoyed voice. The blond was looking around the room in a panic and Harry noticed that his eyes were a darker shade of grey than before. His pointed face had filled out, softening into a startling combination of his parents' beauty and something else as well.
"What is this?" Draco asked as he tried to shove himself off the floor. He made it up to his knees before he sagged and groaned. The low moan was filled with pain as he shifted slowly back to the floor.
"Are you okay, Draco?" Aeryn asked in a soft voice. She was kneeling next to him and held his shoulders in her hands, trying to keep him balanced.
Harry came over to the two of them and knelt as well. He heard Draco's shocked gasp as he saw Harry, but he was looking at Aeryn for a brief moment. Tilting his head over to where the young woman lay, he said in a low voice, "do you think that's Marty?"
Aeryn eyed him thoughtfully, her dark blond eyebrows scrunched together before nodding. "I... I think so. We were the only four in the room."
"Where are we?" Draco asked as he finally found the strength to get to his feet.
"We don't know," Harry replied, shrugging his shoulders. He looked around the room again and noticed a sword on the wall. It looked like it was the sword he had pulled from the Sorting Hat his second year in the Chamber of Secrets. Curious, he rose once more and walked over to it and touched it with a light hand.
The metal glowed with a soft red light and he felt power run up his arms. He pulled back slightly before running a finger along the handle. Harry could feel a warmth coming from the jewels that were inlaid in the gleaming silver. Gripping it in a loose grip, he picked up the sword and turned to find Draco and Aeryn watching him in shock.
"Ha... Harry," Aeryn stuttered. "I think you'd better... look in the mirror again." Her curiously purple eyes seemed to glow slightly in the softly lighted room.
Walking over to the mirror again, Harry was stunned at the sight that greeted him. He looked... very different than he had just a couple minutes ago. His face gave off a faint shimmer, and he now wore long red robes with golden yellow piping along the seams. What were once green eyes were now a rich blue-green color, like the seas of the tropics after a storm. His mouth hung open as he looked down and saw a gold bracelet wrapped around his left wrist. On his throat were odd symbols that gave off a gentle warmth as he slightly pulled his collar to see where the feeling was coming from.
"Wow..." Harry gawked at the mirror again as he heard Aeryn and Draco move towards him.
"How'd that happen?" Aeryn asked as she looked in the mirror. She froze when she saw herself. "What?!" She ran a pale hand through her hair and turned towards the other two. "I... I have blue hair!"
"And purple eyes," Harry said in the same low voice he had spoken in before. He liked the sound of it compared with the cracking voice he'd had a couple of years before. Even yesterday he had thought he still sounded childish, but now his voice was a rich tenor. Smiling, he moved out of the way so Draco could see his reflection.
The red streaked blond leaned in until his nose was almost touching the looking glass. "This is not me. I'm not this old, damnit!"
Aeryn laughed in a soft tone. "Now you are."
Harry saw her glance at their surroundings and watched as she walked over to where a curious piece of wood lay. She stroked the wood slowly and it began to glow. As he watched her robes changed into a startling deep blue. A shimmering purple lay at the bottoms of the sleeves and the hem.
"Awesome!" Aeryn turned around, a happy smile on her face. Harry noted that her eyes were an even deeper purple than before and she had strange markings around her eyes. The gold bracelet that now appeared on her left wrist had the same markings on it. He looked at his bracelet again and saw that the same symbols that graced his throat were laid in the gold.
A low moan caught all three's attention. The young woman that lay on the floor began to move slightly. Aeryn rushed over to her, Harry and Draco not far behind.
"Marty?" Harry asked softly.
"Wake up, Marty," Aeryn said, gently touching the other woman's shoulder.
The woman's eyelids fluttered open, revealing warm brown eyes that looked like melted, bittersweet chocolate. She looked in confusion between them before raising herself on one elbow. "Wha...?" She jumped at the sound of her own voice. "But... but I thought I..." she drifted off as she looked at her hands and then her body.
"It's okay, Marty," Aeryn reassured her. "I think that you had to catch up to the rest of us." She looked up at Harry and Draco. "At least that's the feeling I have. Both of you aged to my age, and Marty definitely has grown a lot."
Harry nodded thoughtfully.
"Harry," Draco began. "Where are your glasses?"
The other man shrugged. "I don't need them."
Aeryn shook her head. "Neither do I."
Draco and Harry looked at her. "You didn't wear glasses," Draco said.
"I wore contacts," she replied. "I was far sighted, but now I can see perfectly no matter how close something gets to my face. And even distances seem sharper." She pointed out the small window, which had a scene outside it that none of them recognized. "Like there's a hawk circling over those trees."
Draco frowned. "I think we all have the same eyesight."
Harry and Aeryn gave him a curious look, while Marty gave the same confused one she'd been wearing in the few minutes she had been awake.
"But, where are we? And why am I suddenly so much older? And how do I know a whole lot of things a three year old shouldn't know?"
Aeryn stood up and began to pace. The blue robes she wore billowed as she turned the corner, giving her a royal appearance. All of a sudden she stopped and looked at them. "I think I know what it is. Grandad had me read this book once, and told me to remember it. I'm not sure who wrote it, but it was full of different prophecies. One of them had this strange 'riddle' in the middle of it.
"Now that I think of it, Voldemort's real name is Riddle, right?"
Harry nodded. "Tom Marvolo Riddle."
"I get it," Aeryn said. "Let me see, how did it start?" She was quiet for a couple seconds before she brought out her wand and conjured up a chair and sat herself. "Well, that was much better than I thought it would be."
Harry and Draco gave each other strange looks before scrambling off the floor and conjuring their own chairs. The blond's mouth gaped when he saw his chair. "I never could get it to come out right!"
Aeryn waved over near Marty and conjured her a chair as well. "There you go, sweetie... Um. Marty." She looked sheepish. "Sorry..."
The other woman waved it off. "It's okay. I'm still having a little trouble believing myself."
They were all quiet for a moment before Aeryn spoke again.
"The book said that there would be four souls that were to take the place of the four guardians. Until such time brought them all together, the guardians would watch over their treasure, keeping it safe until the moment arrived - the moment the destined four souls met. When this happened, they would each be given help to learn the powers the guardians were to grant them. No matter what the ages of them were, they would take the age of the eldest, as well as their wisdom. The vitality of the youngest would be granted to each of them, ensuring that they would live for their purpose. Each would be given the keen eyesight and intuition of the one who would be able to give the most insight, while the fourth would give them a steady sense of poise and power, as they would be the one who held the most. Once all four souls have been healed and trained in their own way, they would once again be equal on some levels, yet have individual differences.
"The book went on to say that during the time the souls that wandered until when they met again, the guardians that stayed together would grow in strength while watching others that happened to pass by. Once all the souls were joined, anything that ever held a part of their soul was give energy back to the soul."
Aeryn frowned. "I'm just summarizing it, and I hope its not that confusing. I had to reread that section several times in order to understand it. From what I've found out, it's believed that the book was written by Merlin himself. It was his teachings that led to the founding of Hogwarts by Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin.
"It goes on to say that they would have to solve a riddle to bring peace back in the world, but I honestly had no clue what that meant until a couple of minutes ago. Indeed, I think I had forgotten that passage until I touched this," she said, indicating the bow that lay across her lap in the chair.
Harry looked over at her and found a quiver full of strange looking arrows. Each one gave off a different color, ending in a rainbow effect on the floor beneath the chair. He looked at Draco and Marty, both of whom were wearing black robes. He also wondered about Marty's clothes growing with her and gave her an odd look. Looking back up, he saw that Aeryn had noticed where his eyes had been as a blush spread across her cheeks. "I gave her clothes," she said in a soft, embarrassed voice.
Marty squeaked, making Harry and Draco laugh.
A glance around the room revealed two more corners that had previously gone unexplored. The sword that rested in his lap had been in one, while the bow Aeryn had found was in another. He had the feeling that Draco and Marty would find something in the other corners. "I think you two should look for something that belongs to you," he said in the uncomfortable silence that had stretched between the four.
Draco nodded and stood. A glint of silver had caught his eye and he strode towards it. His eyes widened when he got sight of the silver short sword that rested on top of a jewel studded sheath. With a gentle hand, he picked it up and held it reverently before turning back to the corner. He saw Harry watching him with a surprised look on his face and Aeryn had an amused one. Looking across the room, he saw Marty standing in front of a small table. She reached for something and her robes turned into a rich chocolate brown that seemed to shimmer in the candlelight that supplemented the weak sunlight that came through the small window. On the cuffs was a shimmering buttery yellow in an intricate Celtic weave.
That reminded Draco to look down. He found his robes were now the green of Slytherin with odd silver markings along the bottom six inches of hem. On his left wrist was a gold bracelet similar to the ones that the others were wearing, as he saw Marty had one as well.
He saw Harry smirk. "Looks like you're the one who has the mark now, Draco."
"What!" Draco raced over to the mirror and found that he was right. On his forehead were markings the same as on his bracelet. He noticed that while he still had the red streaks in his hair, the silver blond had bleached even further, giving it an odd glow. Yet, the markings on his forehead were just a little different from Aeryn's.
"Why don't you two have these?" Draco asked as he pointed to his forehead.
Harry sighed and pulled down his collar, showing his.
Marty flushed. "Do I have to show mine?"
All three looked at her. "Where is it?" Aeryn asked.
She placed her left hand just between her breasts. "Right here," she said, her voice holding much embarrassment. Her right hand shook as it held two sharp daggers made of a dull grey metal and a wand she hadn't had before.
Aeryn shook her head when she saw the glazed look in Harry and Draco's eyes. "No."
"Damn," Draco muttered under his breath. Aeryn slapped him upside the head and gave him a rude look before settling back into her chair.
"I wonder why us?" Harry wondered.
"Because you are essentially us." All four looked to find the source of the strangely soft voice. There was no door to the room, so nobody could have gotten in that way.
"And who are you?" Harry asked.
Four figures slowly appeared. They had the look of the ghosts that floated the hallways of the school, but they seemed more ethereal, as if they didn't give off that cold feeling but one of warmth. Each of them went to stand in front of the four who sat in the chairs before they congregated in the center of them.
"We are the guardians," the taller of the two women said.
"Or you could say you are the new guardians," the shorter of the two men countered.
"Salazar, be quiet!" the other woman scolded.
The four who were a lot more solid choked. "Did... did you just say Salazar?" asked Aeryn. "As in Salazar Slytherin?" Her voice was very shaky, and Draco was glad she had been able to get the question out because his voice didn't seem to want to work.
The shorter man nodded. "Yes, I am he. Or was, actually."
"And I was/am Rowena Ravenclaw," the taller woman said.
"Godric Gryffindor," the taller man bowed. "Pleased to make your acquaintance."
The shorter woman hit him, even though it seemed impossible. "Pleased to meet yourself you mean." She gave a quick smile. "I am Helga Hufflepuff."