Chapter 17: The Voice of the Shadow
Hermione and Cho seemed quite scared when Harry told them about the voice. It was a very strange thing, but Harry had a strange feeling that the voice wasn't doing any bad thing, quite on the contrary; he felt that it would help them in the future. That was, unless the feeling was the result of another dark art.
Ron hadn't taken the news of the voice as bad as Hermione and Cho had. He seemed to agree with Harry that it may be of help -- though they weren't sure how much help it could give them. But they couldn't guess what the voice was and why it was there. And the most controversed thing was if the shadow was on their side or on the enemies'. Hermione and Cho didn't believe that it could help them -- Hermione kept telling Harry that Voldemort would've thought about that and prevented it.
Hermione came with a strange idea -- fearing that Harry may be affected by the Shadow of Darkness again, she learned a few spells she could use on him in case that Harry started to act as the evil one. The only thing Harry was blaming himself lately was that he didn't tell Hermione that she was affected by the Shadow of Darkness, too. He didn't know how she would take it, or what she would do if she found out...
But then he asked himself another thing. What could happen if both of them began to be controlled by the Shadow of Darkness at the same time? Would they do something stupid? They could be expelled...
That won't be happening, Harry convinced himself.
The worst thing was that he didn't know how the Shadow of Darkness worked. If one spell couldn't possess more people at once, it would be good. But what was the chance?
None. The Death Eater said it was a passive spell, so it didn't need to be casted by someone -- or by something... So it could happen at any time. He didn't want to imagine himself lose his mind completely -- the Shadow wsa affecting him more and more with each passing day. His visions of himself turning dark were forming again in front of his eyes. Every night he had only a dream: He saw himself in the Great Hall running, cursing the ones he hated the most: the slytherins, and after that some people were trying to stop him -- he stopped them, too -- Hermione joined him, too, the effects of the Shadow of darkness were showing upon her, too, then he saw Dumbledore in front of him, saying that he would be expelled from Hogwarts, only for safety measures.
Everytime he saw Malfoy, he had an urge to curse him. He felt that the Shadow was affenting him so much lately that it would be a very bad idea to go out of the Gryffindor Tower.
He didn't want to talk to Dumbledore either. He had another strange feeling that told him that it wouldn't be a good idea to talk to him, and that something would happen.
But then what did he have to do?
Many days had passed until he had another important talk with his friends. Hermione got Cho and wanted to talk with Harry on a Tuesday, just after they finished Charms. She knew that it would be a great idea to talk about the effects of the Shadow of Darkness after everything that happened to Harry the past week. Harry thought it was a good idea if he warned Hermione that she seemed to be affected by the Shadow of Darkness, too.
They said they would meet in a deserted classroom on the 4th floor. That was a classroom he had never been inside.
As soon as he opened the door, he saw Hermione, Ron and Cho waiting for him.
"At last," said Hermione.
"Hi," said Cho. Harry didn't say anything, instead he just nodded.
"Now that we're here at last," said Hermione, "it's time to think about the Shadow's effects. They really start to show -- a lot, Harry. I arranged this because we had to talk -- Harry, I think you..."
"I what?" Harry asked.
"I think you are going mad! Don't yell at me or anything like that, I am sure you are aware --"
"I know, Hermione! I don't need any morale for this. I know their effects perfectly well -- I bet I know them better than you do."
"Maybe. But the way you always look at Malfoy when you enter the Great Hall -- it's... just... so strange; I've never seen you --"
"You've never seen me affected by the Shadow of Darkness before," Harry stopped her. "And I know perfectly well that this cannot be stopped -- unless we find someone who knows about the spell and its effects."
"Come on, Hermione," said Ron, "If you were affected by a spell like that do you think that you won't be aware of it making you different?"
"No, I don't mean --"
"Stop," said Harry. He was going to tell her about the shadow affecting her. But at the same time, he knew that she wouldn't believe him. She wasn't aware of the spell affecting her at all. Ron was wrong, and that meant that he, Harry, did things that he wasn;'t aware of...
But it couldn't be possible.
"I just wanted to say something that I realized, Hermione," he continued. But after those words, he didn't know ho to put it -- how could he make it convincing even for someone who doesn't feel affected at all?
"And that is?" she asked.
"I don't know how to say it. And I know that you won't accept it, from what I know." Thinking for a few seconds, he decided to start it with other things -- things that had a connection with what he wanted to say. "I have to say that Ron was wrong."
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked. "Do you say that you aren't aware of what you did lately?"
"No, not that. I mean another thing." All three were looking at him very interrested. He didn't feel in the mood of saying it, but now that he made them so interrested, he had to continue. "I mean, the Death Eater was right when he said that I were not the only one affected by the Shadow."
Hermione made one step forward to him. She continued in a very touching voice, "In a way of saying it, I know it, Harry."
"You do?" Harry asked.
"What do you mean?" Ron asked.
"Isn't it obvious?" Harry asked. "Well, you weren't there all the times -- Hermione acted very strange more than once. Remember the way she made Malfoy's hair leave his head? Haven't you seen the curse she used? It was not the spell as I knew it. She definitely didn't say Scurtupa, as I know the incantation is."
"What are you trying to tell?" Ron asked, even more confused, but Harry saw that someone around seemed to understand.
Cho was looking at the ground, and he could see in her eyes that she was thinking deeply at something. Then, she continued, "Yes."
"What?" Ron asked again.
"The Shadow not only makes us dark, but sometimes it modifies our instincts," Harry continued.
"She used a Dark Art," Cho continued. "I - I know it, I heard the spell before." She sighed, and then continued. "The incantation Hermione used was 'Parrum lilitis'." She closed her eyes, and Harry understood that it grought her back a sad memory. "The spell..." but she stopped.
Harry wanted to know what happened, and why she became so sad when talking about that spell, but he felt it was better if he didn't. She didn't want to say it, and he decided that it was her right to say it when she wanted. Harry could see a tear fall on her face slowly.
"I don't feel like talking about that now," she said. "But... the spell is a dark art, and that means the Shadow of Darkness has already started to affect you, Hermione."
"No!" said Ron. "What is this? A Dark Wizard academy?"
"Ron, you don't understand it!" Harry said, revolted. "Very dark stuff is beyond all this -- it's nothing we can to against that except... wait and see."
"So who casted the spell?" Hermione asked, changing the subject. She seemed to be fighting an interior battle -- she knew that the Shadow of Darkness was affecting her.
"I have no idea," said Harry. "But... I'd have another question. Remember the blank pages in the Dark book of Dark Arts?"
"Yes," said Hermione.
"I should see this book," said Cho. "It maybe interresting. You keep talking about it but I've never read anything from it."
"Yes, I'll show it to you after this... erm... meeting," said Harry. "Now, I wonder if these blank pages contained informations about the Shadow of Darkness. They're too suspicious, what could make a book have blank pages? Only if somebody wanted them hidden."
"So do you reckon that the person who casted the Shadow of Darkness... erased those pages in the book?" Ron asked.
"It may well be," said Harry, thinking about it. Why would he want to erase the pages containing the Shadow? He didn't erase anything else -- not the informations about the memory modification spells, nothing... He didn't hide the spells he used on Harry, he just erased the Shadow of Darkness...
If there was information about the Shadow of Darkness. Nothing was sure at those moments.
"What should we do about the spell's effects?" Harry asked.
"I guess..." said Cho, "I guess we should try to -- er -- stop them with something -- or, no, we'd better make sure you won't do anything bad -- I think we should always... stay around you and in case that something happens -- we should try to -- just -- stun you or something... or maybe we should cast a memory charm..."
"No way!" said Hermione. "Memory charms should only be used by experts, and even experts may make mistakes with it. We know that they can damage the target's memory forever... and we don't want that to happen, do we?"
"Of course not," said Cho. "But then we have to do something. I guess the Petrificus Totalus spell is enough."
Harry didn't like the idea of being petrified by his own friends, but he had no alternative. Cho was right, Something had to be done, and that seemed the best thing they could do. After all, it was got his own good. Then something came to his mind again --
"And what about Hermione?" he asked.
"Well, I..." Hermione said, not finding words, "I -- er, I think I am not that affected --"
"HERMIONE!" Harry shouted, "Wake up! You are affected by the spell, too, and you know it!"
"Right," she continued. "Do the same wiht me as you do with Harry... So we must always go in group in case that the Shadow makes us do unwanted things..."
"So I think it's settled," said Cho. "I won't be able to come with you because I'm in Ravenclaw, but I guess Ron is enough, right?"
The three of them looked at Ron, who seemed very confused. "No, I don't think --"
"Yes, he is enough to take care of us," said Hermione, giving Ron a Can't-you-ever-do-something-good look.
The next few days passed in a so strange way. It seemed like they passed in no time at all. On thursday, Harry remembered about the voice he heard.
He recalled the moments he heard that mysterious voice. The first time, he felt like he had nothing better to do than sit there and wait for something to happen. The second time, he sat, trying to think -- or to not think -- of himself turning evil. There were so much similarities in those two encounters...
What if he got another chance to talk to the voice? That time he would manage to find something more important from it...
Recalling those moments again, he realized how they happened. As a conclusion, he sat on his four-poster and looked strainght into the opposite wall. That was what he did both of the times when the voice started speaking to him. If he only got the chance to talk with it again... If he was right and the voice started talking to him everytime he sat there looking at the opposite wall...
Ten minutes passed, but nothing happened. He just told himself, I must keep going. He knew that it had to work -- it couldn't be another way, only if it wa a total coincidence, an option he didn't want to believe.
Twenty minutes passed. He worried more and more about himself turning dark. He pictured himself fighting Ron, Hermione and Cho... all three of them... It looked like he could see them on the wall... He wouldn't ever do that, he knew he wouldn't...
Half an hour passed. He felt an urge to leave the room immediately, but he knew he had to stay there. It felt like something didn't want him to talk with the voice... Maybe Voldemort realized that the voice could help Harry too much and he casted a spell that made Harry leave the room...
Fourty-five minutes passed. Everything seemed so dark, he could still see the shadows if him and his friends fighting on the wall opposite. He managed to get that image oout of his mind again -- he had to talk to the Voice of the Shadow...
A few minutes passed... The door to the dormitory opened, and Ron came inside, looking at Harry as if he was looking at a Hermione who didn't want to read a book. But he had to be ignored, Ron couldn't just stop him from talking with the strange voice...
And then he heard it again. Ron was still looking transfixed at him, but Harry didn't care; he was too happy that he managed to bring the voice again.
"Harry Potter, I see you found me this time."
"I did," Harry said.
"Took you long enough to realize how you can contact me."
"It's not that long," he continued. Ron was looking at him with a Should-I-get-Madam-Pomfrey face. "Oh, I forgot that you can't hear it," Harry pointed out to Ron.
"You hear it again?" Ron asked.
But Harry didn't reply to Ron -- he was busy at that moment. The voice was waiting for him, and he had lots of questions to ask. He was sure that it would tell him some things he didn't know.
"So will you ever tell me what you are?" Harry asked the voice.
"I can't hide it from you anymore. I watched you for so much time, Harry Potter. I know what you will do if I won't tell you what I am, because your personality shows it very well. You'll do everything possible to find me. But, no matter for how long you will search for anything on me, you won't find a bit. Because you can't find anything on the Shadow of Darkness either."
Harry wanted to say something, but no words came to his head. He couldn't think of anything on the moment. But his felings told him right, the voice would tell him everything.
"I see you are so impatient. I don't want you to shout at me if you will get too angry. So let's start with it. I am not a creature, I am no physycal thing. I am just a spell casted on your head. I mean, I am a side effect of an ancient spell casted on you."
"The shadow of darkness..." Harry said. Ron was looking at him, eager for the moment Harry would tell him everything to come.
"Good guess. I am an unwanted side effect of the Shadow of Darkness. Lord Voldemort didn't want me to appear with the spell, but he had no choice. That is the spell, it is cast upon a weaker mind and makes the vicrim turn dark in a very short time. But you didn't turn dark, though the shadow is affecting you for a few months. The spell only attacked the weaker minds. And I will tell you that you are no weak mind.
"Back to the spell, I am just a voice that is on no side. I am not evil, nor good. I would help the victim as much as I would help the caster. But I can't help the caster. I just can't."
"You mean Voldemort?"
"Voldemort?" the voice laughed. "Voldemort? The caster?" It laughed even more. "It takes a wizard ten times more skilled than Voldemort to cast the Shadow of Darkness!"
Harry froze. That meant Voldemort had a very powerful ally. Was him the second in command that Avery talked about when they used Veritaserum on him?
It couldn't be, it just couldn't. He met that second in command only a few days ago. And he said that it wasn't him who casted the Shadow of Darkness. And Harry was sure that he didn't lie, because he didn't look that strong to be ten times stronger than Voldemort.
But who could be that person?
"So... who casted the spell?" Harry asked.
"It is not possible to tell you. This is the only thing I can't tell you about."
"Why?"
"The spell is made like this. I know what casted the spell, but I can't talk about it."
"So it's not a person then." The voice used the word 'what', not who. But what could cast the Shadow of Darkness then?
"Good. That was a nice thinking. And you are right. It can be anything in this castle -- just think about it."
This time it was impossible to not know what casted the spell. It could only be one thing. "That cursed book!" Harry said. "It's the Dark Book of Dark Arts that makes me turn dark... and Hermione, too."
He felt like everything was wasier to understand at the moment, because he knew everything. Well, he thought he knew everything -- no unanswered questions could come into his mind at the moment. He didn't know what to do -- he felt like telling Hermione about it, but the voice of the shadow could tell him some things he didn't know.
"I see you understood it well, Harry. And know that as long as the shadow is affecting you, I will always live inside your very head, collecting every information you think. Don't worry, I will keep your secrets to death -- because nobody else can listen to me, can they?
"Now, as a last thing to say for this time. If you want to talk to me, don't try this looking-at-the-wall thing because it confuses me completely. No new informations happening -- I'm so bored of staying and looking at the wall... That's why I wanted to talk to you. Now, if you want to talk to me, just ask, okay?"
"Ask?" Harry asked.
"In your thoughts. You may call me 'the voice of the shadow'. I can hear every thought in your head, remember?"
"Yes," Harry said, and then he heard a strange sound even he couldn't describe -- it sounded strangely like the wind but, still, so different. That was the sign that the voice left him alone. It returned to the middle of his brain, waiting to collect more informations from Harry's life.
He turned to Ron. "It's gone," Harry said. "I talked to the voice long enough."
"S-So? What did you talk this time?"
"It -- I'm not in the mood to tlak about it right now. I'll -- I'll tell you tomorrow," Harry told Ron, feeling more tired with every passing moment.
He became very sleepy so soon. And then he heard a voice in his head. It was very similar to the Voice of the Shadow.
"Boo," it said.
Then he could hear a loud scream, telling him that the voice scared somebody. But if it was the Voice of the Shadow, it couldn't leave Harry's mind, could it?
"Don't be afraid of me, girl," the voice said. There was a short pause, and the the voice continued. I know why you are scared -- but don't."
"W - W - What are... y - you?" a very scared girl's voice asked.
"Who cares," the voice said. "Let's call me... a mysterious voice."
"v - voice?" the girl asked. "Ooohh are y - you the same voice -- H - Harry heard?"
"Not the same, but the same type," the voice said. "Each of you has his own voice. Well, Harry's voice just told him what it is."
Harry realized by then that the girl was Hermione. Her voice of the shadow started talking to her, too, just as Harry's started to talk to him.
"You can hear us because you are the only ones affected by the Shadow of Darkness. We voices of the shadow are very strange things, Hermione Granger."
"Voices of the Shadow?" Hermione asked.
"That's how we are called."
Then, Harry could hear another voice that he recognized as Parvati's -- "Hermione? Y'all right?"
A terrible silence followed that moments. The first one to talk was the voice. "She can't hear me."
"Oh," Hermione said.
"Well, I'll leave you here, Hermione -- Harry knows more about me. He may tell you. You know, I don't want them to think that you started talking to yourself. Hear you soon!"
Harry woke up instantly, and he immediately jumped to his feet. It was just a dream, he couldn't see anything because it was dark. He heard everything Hermione could hear... the voice of the shadow talked to her at last, so Harry felt it was better to go and find her -- he needed to talk to her.
But he didn't have to find her, she found him just when he exited the staircases that lead to the dormitories.
When he saw her, he thought she was going to faint. She was trembling so hard Harry wondered how she managed to stay on her feet. Luckily, she didn't fall and neither fainted, so Harry looked at her breathing heavily, thinking if he should start talking or wait until she would do it.
"H - Harry," Hermione said and then stopped.
"I know," Harry said. "Don't worry, it's nothing to be scared about."
"It's so frightening, Harry!" she continued, still trembling.
"I know how it is," Harry continued. "I heard it so many times."
"Harry, I'm --"
"However you are, don't. Everything turned up to be better then we expected."
"W-Why?"
"Because I know who casted the spell."
Hermione seemed to stop trembling for a few seconds. Even her voice started to feel more normal when she told him, "You solved the mystery?"
"You may say that," he answered. He was glad that Hermione stopped trembling, because she was giving him freaks. "The voice of the Shadow told it to me... almost everything..."
"The voice, Harry, it's so scary!" Hermione said. "I've just heard it --"
"I know," he answered, "I had a dream and I heard you and your voice."
"I thought I was the only one that could hear it?" Hermione asked.
"Maybe not, if I could hear it in the dream. But I'm positive that it can't be heard in the real world -- only these dreams I have."
"Okay, okay," Hermione told Harry, making a sign with her hands that told him to change the subject. "So who casted the spell? This is a very important thing for us --"
"It was not who, it was a what."
"WHAT CASTED IT?" Hermione asked, ready to punch Harry if he didn't tell her.
"Damn, Hermione, this shadow affects you --"
But that was enough to make Hermione cast a spell on Harry. He didn't hear the incantation, but he saw a white light blow from her and and shooting to him. He was so close that ce couldn't dodge it, and after it hit him, strangely, it didn't seem to do anything.
"What was that?" Harry asked. Hermione seemed back to normal. But, waiting for the question, he answered, "The Dark Book of Dark Arts."
"What's with it?" Hermione asked. "Oh," she said, after realizing what question Harry answered.
"What spell did you just cast?"
"I wonder, too, but I guess it was a truth spell -- made you answer my question, didn't it?"
"Right. Pity that I couldn't hear the incantation, it could come in useful."
"I can remember it -- it was something like Adaverus."
"Adaverus?" he said. "Let's see. Don't answer -- Who is Dumbledore?" he asked, and then he casted the Adaverus spell on Hermione. Soon after he casted the spell, Hermione answered, "The strongest wizard in the world. He is head of Hogwarts, and he found twelve uses of the Deagon's --"
"Stop it, Hermione!"
"-- blood. He is the only one Voldemort --"
"HERMIONE!"
"-- ever feared."
Hermione stopped talking, and she seemed to be back to normal, thing that relieved Harry. He would have found a very long answer for that question, and he thought she wouldn't stop answering the question until she said everything she knew about him.
"Cool," Harry said.
Hermione seemed very surprised. "I've rarely heard you using that word, Harry."
"Yeah, but it's still cool. This spell is excellent -- Who needs a Veritaserum now?"
"Now, Harry, what about the Voice of the Shadow?"
Harry started telling Hermione everything he learned from the Voice of the Shadow. She was so interrested in them -- Harry felt that she was more interrested in them than himself. They were both placed under the Shadow of Darkness, but he didn't feel so anxious to find out everything -- ot was that another effect of the Shadow over him? Maybe it didn't want Harry to know much about its effects and made him less interrested?
But he already knew it all...
Hermione and Cho seemed quite scared when Harry told them about the voice. It was a very strange thing, but Harry had a strange feeling that the voice wasn't doing any bad thing, quite on the contrary; he felt that it would help them in the future. That was, unless the feeling was the result of another dark art.
Ron hadn't taken the news of the voice as bad as Hermione and Cho had. He seemed to agree with Harry that it may be of help -- though they weren't sure how much help it could give them. But they couldn't guess what the voice was and why it was there. And the most controversed thing was if the shadow was on their side or on the enemies'. Hermione and Cho didn't believe that it could help them -- Hermione kept telling Harry that Voldemort would've thought about that and prevented it.
Hermione came with a strange idea -- fearing that Harry may be affected by the Shadow of Darkness again, she learned a few spells she could use on him in case that Harry started to act as the evil one. The only thing Harry was blaming himself lately was that he didn't tell Hermione that she was affected by the Shadow of Darkness, too. He didn't know how she would take it, or what she would do if she found out...
But then he asked himself another thing. What could happen if both of them began to be controlled by the Shadow of Darkness at the same time? Would they do something stupid? They could be expelled...
That won't be happening, Harry convinced himself.
The worst thing was that he didn't know how the Shadow of Darkness worked. If one spell couldn't possess more people at once, it would be good. But what was the chance?
None. The Death Eater said it was a passive spell, so it didn't need to be casted by someone -- or by something... So it could happen at any time. He didn't want to imagine himself lose his mind completely -- the Shadow wsa affecting him more and more with each passing day. His visions of himself turning dark were forming again in front of his eyes. Every night he had only a dream: He saw himself in the Great Hall running, cursing the ones he hated the most: the slytherins, and after that some people were trying to stop him -- he stopped them, too -- Hermione joined him, too, the effects of the Shadow of darkness were showing upon her, too, then he saw Dumbledore in front of him, saying that he would be expelled from Hogwarts, only for safety measures.
Everytime he saw Malfoy, he had an urge to curse him. He felt that the Shadow was affenting him so much lately that it would be a very bad idea to go out of the Gryffindor Tower.
He didn't want to talk to Dumbledore either. He had another strange feeling that told him that it wouldn't be a good idea to talk to him, and that something would happen.
But then what did he have to do?
Many days had passed until he had another important talk with his friends. Hermione got Cho and wanted to talk with Harry on a Tuesday, just after they finished Charms. She knew that it would be a great idea to talk about the effects of the Shadow of Darkness after everything that happened to Harry the past week. Harry thought it was a good idea if he warned Hermione that she seemed to be affected by the Shadow of Darkness, too.
They said they would meet in a deserted classroom on the 4th floor. That was a classroom he had never been inside.
As soon as he opened the door, he saw Hermione, Ron and Cho waiting for him.
"At last," said Hermione.
"Hi," said Cho. Harry didn't say anything, instead he just nodded.
"Now that we're here at last," said Hermione, "it's time to think about the Shadow's effects. They really start to show -- a lot, Harry. I arranged this because we had to talk -- Harry, I think you..."
"I what?" Harry asked.
"I think you are going mad! Don't yell at me or anything like that, I am sure you are aware --"
"I know, Hermione! I don't need any morale for this. I know their effects perfectly well -- I bet I know them better than you do."
"Maybe. But the way you always look at Malfoy when you enter the Great Hall -- it's... just... so strange; I've never seen you --"
"You've never seen me affected by the Shadow of Darkness before," Harry stopped her. "And I know perfectly well that this cannot be stopped -- unless we find someone who knows about the spell and its effects."
"Come on, Hermione," said Ron, "If you were affected by a spell like that do you think that you won't be aware of it making you different?"
"No, I don't mean --"
"Stop," said Harry. He was going to tell her about the shadow affecting her. But at the same time, he knew that she wouldn't believe him. She wasn't aware of the spell affecting her at all. Ron was wrong, and that meant that he, Harry, did things that he wasn;'t aware of...
But it couldn't be possible.
"I just wanted to say something that I realized, Hermione," he continued. But after those words, he didn't know ho to put it -- how could he make it convincing even for someone who doesn't feel affected at all?
"And that is?" she asked.
"I don't know how to say it. And I know that you won't accept it, from what I know." Thinking for a few seconds, he decided to start it with other things -- things that had a connection with what he wanted to say. "I have to say that Ron was wrong."
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked. "Do you say that you aren't aware of what you did lately?"
"No, not that. I mean another thing." All three were looking at him very interrested. He didn't feel in the mood of saying it, but now that he made them so interrested, he had to continue. "I mean, the Death Eater was right when he said that I were not the only one affected by the Shadow."
Hermione made one step forward to him. She continued in a very touching voice, "In a way of saying it, I know it, Harry."
"You do?" Harry asked.
"What do you mean?" Ron asked.
"Isn't it obvious?" Harry asked. "Well, you weren't there all the times -- Hermione acted very strange more than once. Remember the way she made Malfoy's hair leave his head? Haven't you seen the curse she used? It was not the spell as I knew it. She definitely didn't say Scurtupa, as I know the incantation is."
"What are you trying to tell?" Ron asked, even more confused, but Harry saw that someone around seemed to understand.
Cho was looking at the ground, and he could see in her eyes that she was thinking deeply at something. Then, she continued, "Yes."
"What?" Ron asked again.
"The Shadow not only makes us dark, but sometimes it modifies our instincts," Harry continued.
"She used a Dark Art," Cho continued. "I - I know it, I heard the spell before." She sighed, and then continued. "The incantation Hermione used was 'Parrum lilitis'." She closed her eyes, and Harry understood that it grought her back a sad memory. "The spell..." but she stopped.
Harry wanted to know what happened, and why she became so sad when talking about that spell, but he felt it was better if he didn't. She didn't want to say it, and he decided that it was her right to say it when she wanted. Harry could see a tear fall on her face slowly.
"I don't feel like talking about that now," she said. "But... the spell is a dark art, and that means the Shadow of Darkness has already started to affect you, Hermione."
"No!" said Ron. "What is this? A Dark Wizard academy?"
"Ron, you don't understand it!" Harry said, revolted. "Very dark stuff is beyond all this -- it's nothing we can to against that except... wait and see."
"So who casted the spell?" Hermione asked, changing the subject. She seemed to be fighting an interior battle -- she knew that the Shadow of Darkness was affecting her.
"I have no idea," said Harry. "But... I'd have another question. Remember the blank pages in the Dark book of Dark Arts?"
"Yes," said Hermione.
"I should see this book," said Cho. "It maybe interresting. You keep talking about it but I've never read anything from it."
"Yes, I'll show it to you after this... erm... meeting," said Harry. "Now, I wonder if these blank pages contained informations about the Shadow of Darkness. They're too suspicious, what could make a book have blank pages? Only if somebody wanted them hidden."
"So do you reckon that the person who casted the Shadow of Darkness... erased those pages in the book?" Ron asked.
"It may well be," said Harry, thinking about it. Why would he want to erase the pages containing the Shadow? He didn't erase anything else -- not the informations about the memory modification spells, nothing... He didn't hide the spells he used on Harry, he just erased the Shadow of Darkness...
If there was information about the Shadow of Darkness. Nothing was sure at those moments.
"What should we do about the spell's effects?" Harry asked.
"I guess..." said Cho, "I guess we should try to -- er -- stop them with something -- or, no, we'd better make sure you won't do anything bad -- I think we should always... stay around you and in case that something happens -- we should try to -- just -- stun you or something... or maybe we should cast a memory charm..."
"No way!" said Hermione. "Memory charms should only be used by experts, and even experts may make mistakes with it. We know that they can damage the target's memory forever... and we don't want that to happen, do we?"
"Of course not," said Cho. "But then we have to do something. I guess the Petrificus Totalus spell is enough."
Harry didn't like the idea of being petrified by his own friends, but he had no alternative. Cho was right, Something had to be done, and that seemed the best thing they could do. After all, it was got his own good. Then something came to his mind again --
"And what about Hermione?" he asked.
"Well, I..." Hermione said, not finding words, "I -- er, I think I am not that affected --"
"HERMIONE!" Harry shouted, "Wake up! You are affected by the spell, too, and you know it!"
"Right," she continued. "Do the same wiht me as you do with Harry... So we must always go in group in case that the Shadow makes us do unwanted things..."
"So I think it's settled," said Cho. "I won't be able to come with you because I'm in Ravenclaw, but I guess Ron is enough, right?"
The three of them looked at Ron, who seemed very confused. "No, I don't think --"
"Yes, he is enough to take care of us," said Hermione, giving Ron a Can't-you-ever-do-something-good look.
The next few days passed in a so strange way. It seemed like they passed in no time at all. On thursday, Harry remembered about the voice he heard.
He recalled the moments he heard that mysterious voice. The first time, he felt like he had nothing better to do than sit there and wait for something to happen. The second time, he sat, trying to think -- or to not think -- of himself turning evil. There were so much similarities in those two encounters...
What if he got another chance to talk to the voice? That time he would manage to find something more important from it...
Recalling those moments again, he realized how they happened. As a conclusion, he sat on his four-poster and looked strainght into the opposite wall. That was what he did both of the times when the voice started speaking to him. If he only got the chance to talk with it again... If he was right and the voice started talking to him everytime he sat there looking at the opposite wall...
Ten minutes passed, but nothing happened. He just told himself, I must keep going. He knew that it had to work -- it couldn't be another way, only if it wa a total coincidence, an option he didn't want to believe.
Twenty minutes passed. He worried more and more about himself turning dark. He pictured himself fighting Ron, Hermione and Cho... all three of them... It looked like he could see them on the wall... He wouldn't ever do that, he knew he wouldn't...
Half an hour passed. He felt an urge to leave the room immediately, but he knew he had to stay there. It felt like something didn't want him to talk with the voice... Maybe Voldemort realized that the voice could help Harry too much and he casted a spell that made Harry leave the room...
Fourty-five minutes passed. Everything seemed so dark, he could still see the shadows if him and his friends fighting on the wall opposite. He managed to get that image oout of his mind again -- he had to talk to the Voice of the Shadow...
A few minutes passed... The door to the dormitory opened, and Ron came inside, looking at Harry as if he was looking at a Hermione who didn't want to read a book. But he had to be ignored, Ron couldn't just stop him from talking with the strange voice...
And then he heard it again. Ron was still looking transfixed at him, but Harry didn't care; he was too happy that he managed to bring the voice again.
"Harry Potter, I see you found me this time."
"I did," Harry said.
"Took you long enough to realize how you can contact me."
"It's not that long," he continued. Ron was looking at him with a Should-I-get-Madam-Pomfrey face. "Oh, I forgot that you can't hear it," Harry pointed out to Ron.
"You hear it again?" Ron asked.
But Harry didn't reply to Ron -- he was busy at that moment. The voice was waiting for him, and he had lots of questions to ask. He was sure that it would tell him some things he didn't know.
"So will you ever tell me what you are?" Harry asked the voice.
"I can't hide it from you anymore. I watched you for so much time, Harry Potter. I know what you will do if I won't tell you what I am, because your personality shows it very well. You'll do everything possible to find me. But, no matter for how long you will search for anything on me, you won't find a bit. Because you can't find anything on the Shadow of Darkness either."
Harry wanted to say something, but no words came to his head. He couldn't think of anything on the moment. But his felings told him right, the voice would tell him everything.
"I see you are so impatient. I don't want you to shout at me if you will get too angry. So let's start with it. I am not a creature, I am no physycal thing. I am just a spell casted on your head. I mean, I am a side effect of an ancient spell casted on you."
"The shadow of darkness..." Harry said. Ron was looking at him, eager for the moment Harry would tell him everything to come.
"Good guess. I am an unwanted side effect of the Shadow of Darkness. Lord Voldemort didn't want me to appear with the spell, but he had no choice. That is the spell, it is cast upon a weaker mind and makes the vicrim turn dark in a very short time. But you didn't turn dark, though the shadow is affecting you for a few months. The spell only attacked the weaker minds. And I will tell you that you are no weak mind.
"Back to the spell, I am just a voice that is on no side. I am not evil, nor good. I would help the victim as much as I would help the caster. But I can't help the caster. I just can't."
"You mean Voldemort?"
"Voldemort?" the voice laughed. "Voldemort? The caster?" It laughed even more. "It takes a wizard ten times more skilled than Voldemort to cast the Shadow of Darkness!"
Harry froze. That meant Voldemort had a very powerful ally. Was him the second in command that Avery talked about when they used Veritaserum on him?
It couldn't be, it just couldn't. He met that second in command only a few days ago. And he said that it wasn't him who casted the Shadow of Darkness. And Harry was sure that he didn't lie, because he didn't look that strong to be ten times stronger than Voldemort.
But who could be that person?
"So... who casted the spell?" Harry asked.
"It is not possible to tell you. This is the only thing I can't tell you about."
"Why?"
"The spell is made like this. I know what casted the spell, but I can't talk about it."
"So it's not a person then." The voice used the word 'what', not who. But what could cast the Shadow of Darkness then?
"Good. That was a nice thinking. And you are right. It can be anything in this castle -- just think about it."
This time it was impossible to not know what casted the spell. It could only be one thing. "That cursed book!" Harry said. "It's the Dark Book of Dark Arts that makes me turn dark... and Hermione, too."
He felt like everything was wasier to understand at the moment, because he knew everything. Well, he thought he knew everything -- no unanswered questions could come into his mind at the moment. He didn't know what to do -- he felt like telling Hermione about it, but the voice of the shadow could tell him some things he didn't know.
"I see you understood it well, Harry. And know that as long as the shadow is affecting you, I will always live inside your very head, collecting every information you think. Don't worry, I will keep your secrets to death -- because nobody else can listen to me, can they?
"Now, as a last thing to say for this time. If you want to talk to me, don't try this looking-at-the-wall thing because it confuses me completely. No new informations happening -- I'm so bored of staying and looking at the wall... That's why I wanted to talk to you. Now, if you want to talk to me, just ask, okay?"
"Ask?" Harry asked.
"In your thoughts. You may call me 'the voice of the shadow'. I can hear every thought in your head, remember?"
"Yes," Harry said, and then he heard a strange sound even he couldn't describe -- it sounded strangely like the wind but, still, so different. That was the sign that the voice left him alone. It returned to the middle of his brain, waiting to collect more informations from Harry's life.
He turned to Ron. "It's gone," Harry said. "I talked to the voice long enough."
"S-So? What did you talk this time?"
"It -- I'm not in the mood to tlak about it right now. I'll -- I'll tell you tomorrow," Harry told Ron, feeling more tired with every passing moment.
He became very sleepy so soon. And then he heard a voice in his head. It was very similar to the Voice of the Shadow.
"Boo," it said.
Then he could hear a loud scream, telling him that the voice scared somebody. But if it was the Voice of the Shadow, it couldn't leave Harry's mind, could it?
"Don't be afraid of me, girl," the voice said. There was a short pause, and the the voice continued. I know why you are scared -- but don't."
"W - W - What are... y - you?" a very scared girl's voice asked.
"Who cares," the voice said. "Let's call me... a mysterious voice."
"v - voice?" the girl asked. "Ooohh are y - you the same voice -- H - Harry heard?"
"Not the same, but the same type," the voice said. "Each of you has his own voice. Well, Harry's voice just told him what it is."
Harry realized by then that the girl was Hermione. Her voice of the shadow started talking to her, too, just as Harry's started to talk to him.
"You can hear us because you are the only ones affected by the Shadow of Darkness. We voices of the shadow are very strange things, Hermione Granger."
"Voices of the Shadow?" Hermione asked.
"That's how we are called."
Then, Harry could hear another voice that he recognized as Parvati's -- "Hermione? Y'all right?"
A terrible silence followed that moments. The first one to talk was the voice. "She can't hear me."
"Oh," Hermione said.
"Well, I'll leave you here, Hermione -- Harry knows more about me. He may tell you. You know, I don't want them to think that you started talking to yourself. Hear you soon!"
Harry woke up instantly, and he immediately jumped to his feet. It was just a dream, he couldn't see anything because it was dark. He heard everything Hermione could hear... the voice of the shadow talked to her at last, so Harry felt it was better to go and find her -- he needed to talk to her.
But he didn't have to find her, she found him just when he exited the staircases that lead to the dormitories.
When he saw her, he thought she was going to faint. She was trembling so hard Harry wondered how she managed to stay on her feet. Luckily, she didn't fall and neither fainted, so Harry looked at her breathing heavily, thinking if he should start talking or wait until she would do it.
"H - Harry," Hermione said and then stopped.
"I know," Harry said. "Don't worry, it's nothing to be scared about."
"It's so frightening, Harry!" she continued, still trembling.
"I know how it is," Harry continued. "I heard it so many times."
"Harry, I'm --"
"However you are, don't. Everything turned up to be better then we expected."
"W-Why?"
"Because I know who casted the spell."
Hermione seemed to stop trembling for a few seconds. Even her voice started to feel more normal when she told him, "You solved the mystery?"
"You may say that," he answered. He was glad that Hermione stopped trembling, because she was giving him freaks. "The voice of the Shadow told it to me... almost everything..."
"The voice, Harry, it's so scary!" Hermione said. "I've just heard it --"
"I know," he answered, "I had a dream and I heard you and your voice."
"I thought I was the only one that could hear it?" Hermione asked.
"Maybe not, if I could hear it in the dream. But I'm positive that it can't be heard in the real world -- only these dreams I have."
"Okay, okay," Hermione told Harry, making a sign with her hands that told him to change the subject. "So who casted the spell? This is a very important thing for us --"
"It was not who, it was a what."
"WHAT CASTED IT?" Hermione asked, ready to punch Harry if he didn't tell her.
"Damn, Hermione, this shadow affects you --"
But that was enough to make Hermione cast a spell on Harry. He didn't hear the incantation, but he saw a white light blow from her and and shooting to him. He was so close that ce couldn't dodge it, and after it hit him, strangely, it didn't seem to do anything.
"What was that?" Harry asked. Hermione seemed back to normal. But, waiting for the question, he answered, "The Dark Book of Dark Arts."
"What's with it?" Hermione asked. "Oh," she said, after realizing what question Harry answered.
"What spell did you just cast?"
"I wonder, too, but I guess it was a truth spell -- made you answer my question, didn't it?"
"Right. Pity that I couldn't hear the incantation, it could come in useful."
"I can remember it -- it was something like Adaverus."
"Adaverus?" he said. "Let's see. Don't answer -- Who is Dumbledore?" he asked, and then he casted the Adaverus spell on Hermione. Soon after he casted the spell, Hermione answered, "The strongest wizard in the world. He is head of Hogwarts, and he found twelve uses of the Deagon's --"
"Stop it, Hermione!"
"-- blood. He is the only one Voldemort --"
"HERMIONE!"
"-- ever feared."
Hermione stopped talking, and she seemed to be back to normal, thing that relieved Harry. He would have found a very long answer for that question, and he thought she wouldn't stop answering the question until she said everything she knew about him.
"Cool," Harry said.
Hermione seemed very surprised. "I've rarely heard you using that word, Harry."
"Yeah, but it's still cool. This spell is excellent -- Who needs a Veritaserum now?"
"Now, Harry, what about the Voice of the Shadow?"
Harry started telling Hermione everything he learned from the Voice of the Shadow. She was so interrested in them -- Harry felt that she was more interrested in them than himself. They were both placed under the Shadow of Darkness, but he didn't feel so anxious to find out everything -- ot was that another effect of the Shadow over him? Maybe it didn't want Harry to know much about its effects and made him less interrested?
But he already knew it all...