Chapter 10
Confessions


"Where am I?" Harry thought. It looked like he was in a cemetery. In fact it looked like the same cemetery he had visited in his forth year at Hogwarts. The same place he had seen Cedric murdered. Thousands of cobwebs draped around the tombstones that surrounded him. Off in the distance Harry heard what appeared to be some kind of ceremony. He recognized several death eaters surrounding what appeared to be a baby. For some weird reason Harry could tell that this was a memory from something that had happened when he himself was only a baby. Out of the shadows appeared none other than Voldemort followed closely by a dementor. A shudder ran down Harry's spine. Dementors were one of his least favorite creatures. He noticed a few death eaters tremble but not one of them spoke a word.
"This is a girl," Voldemort hissed. "She is worthless."
"Master," a squeaky voice whispered to his right. "She is the only child we could find and the Lockhart's have so graciously given her to you. She'll have to do."
"Fine," Voldemort spat, "Peter begin the ceremony."
The rat like Peter Petigrew laid the baby on top of a cold stone table in the center of Voldemort's loyal death eaters. He quickly handed Voldemort a knife and Voldemort continued his quest toward the baby. He turned the baby girl over and etched a snake right below her left shoulder. The baby began to cry. Voldemort made a cut in his arm and took his blood and mixed it with the girls.
The death eaters began chanting, "The heir of Lord Voldemort," over and over again. The baby's cries grew even louder. Harry just wanted all of this to stop but he couldn't take his eyes off what was happening.
Lord Voldemort picked up the girl and whispered, "It's alright my child. Everything is okay now Crystal."
Harry suddenly awoke in his dormitory. Whatever the dream meant he'd have to wait and find out tomorrow.

"Crystal," Harry said the next morning at breakfast. "We need to talk."
"Okay," Crystal replied. "About what?"
"We probably don't need to talk about it in here. Let's go get our robes and go outside near the lake. Ron, Hermione, Ginny, you come too."
It was a cool morning as the group made their way outside. The lake was illuminated by the soft rays of the winter sun. Fog drifted above the water creating an almost eerie feeling.
"Okay," Harry began as he stopped near the edge of the ice cold water, "I had a dream last night. Voldemort called you his child. So would you please fill me in?"
"I will," Crystal said slowly. "But please let me tell my whole story before you judge me.
"My father was a death eater, one of Voldemort's most valued supporters. Someone had made a prophesy about you Harry and Voldemort was afraid that it would come true. After a lot of thought he decided he'd kill you. My mother just found out she was going to have me. My dad offered to give me to Voldemort once I was born so he could make me his heir by some kind of blood bonding ritual. Voldemort agreed and made his pet Nigini bite my mother. The poison though wouldn't kill my mom until I was born and insured that I would be a Parseltounge. One night almost a year after I was born Voldemort ordered my father to take me to the United States and teach me all that I could while Voldemort hunted down Harry. If Voldemort didn't succeed I was to take his place, or so I was told. That was my mission, to destroy Harry at all costs. I attended a muggle school until I was old enough to go to RoseOx. Over the summer I took as many muggle martial arts lessons as I could and anything else my dad could find. I learned to fight, with my wand and with my body before I even went to RoseOx. My dad made me play every muggle sport he could get me into. He wanted me to be a superhuman type thing.
"Last summer Professor Dumbledore came to me and told me about my father and my true heritage. He told me everything that had been hidden from me ever since I was born. I moved to England to live with my grandmother and I was enrolled into Hogwarts. But the funniest thing about all this is that the night that you Harry, the night that you lived the snake disappeared and was replaced by a lightning bolt. Every time Voldemort felt a strong emotion I felt it to. He haunted my dreams and concurred my thoughts. By with my dad not knowing this, by all that he taught me, I became strong enough to get out of his control. Or at least enough to live a somewhat normal life. I still felt the pain but he couldn't control me."
"Okay one more question," Hermione spook up. "What's the blood bonding ritual?"
"It connects me with Voldemort in a psychic kind of connection that can't be broken. And I have a theory. I think the night that you and me kissed," Crystal turned toward Harry. "That Voldemort sent me surged of passion that I just couldn't detect. We kissed just long enough for him to make sure that you would see that dream. The time that I almost sent a snake on Draco I felt a surge of anger toward him. It's scary that he can have that much power over me but I keep trying to fight him and I'm getting better. Now it's my turn. What's the Order?"
"It's really the Order of the Phoenix. It's a secret organization that tried to stop Voldemort when he was at full power. Now they've rejoined and are continuing the fight against Voldemort," Harry replied. "My mom and dad were in it before they died. So were Neville's parents before one of Voldemort's supporters tortured them into insanity. It's been hard on Neville. The Order of the Phoenix has it's hideout at my godfather, Sirius's house. Sirius's died when I was in my fifth year and I still blame myself for his death."
"I'm sorry," Crystal whispered. "But look." Crystal reached inside her robes and pulled out a silver necklace with a phoenix charm at the end. "They called me the phoenix back at RoseOx."
Harry stared at her for a moment then screamed, "Voldemort needs to be killed. He's killed so many people, Sirius, your mom, my parents, and thousands of others. Even if it don't kill them himself it's one of his death eaters carrying out an order."
"Harry calm down," Crystal shouted over Harry's screams. "He's going to pay for what he did, believe me he will."
"You don't know what I've been through. In my first year Voldemort almost got the sorcerer's stone and nearly killed me in the process. On my second year I defeated a basilisk, saved Ginny, and stopped Tom Riddle from returning to human form. In my third year I met a werewolf, learned that my godfather was innocent, and faced a dementor. Forth year I saw Cedric Diggory."
"I know," Crystal broke in. "Dumbledore doesn't always stay in Europe. I've known him since I can remember. He came and told me what was going on almost every year at RoseOx. I've had it rough too so get off my back."
Harry just stood there, shocked that someone actually yelled back at him. It became so quiet you could have heard a pin drop. No one could think of anything else to say so they marched back into the castle as it softly began to snow.

"Luna is planning a D.A. meeting tonight," Harry said later in the common room.
"What time?" Crystal asked.
"7:30," Harry replied. "She didn't give a time to when it ends though."
"Okay I'll be there."

At 7:30 Crystal made her way to the Room of Requirement. Once Crystal arrived everyone was already there waiting for her.
"Settle down," Luna said to the chattering class. Once everyone was quiet she continued, "Has anyone here ever practiced occlumency?" Harry and Crystal both raised their hands. "My lesson is sorta on the order of it. I'm going to tell you to do stuff mentally and you have to fight it."
"How can you attack us mentally?" Harry asked.
"Over the summer I learned that I have telepathy, which I will be using today, and telekinesis, which allows me to move and change matter. So who wants to go first?"
"I will," Harry volunteered.
"Okay," Luna began. "One the count of three. One, two, three."
Harry had never felt so much pain in his entire life. He closed his eyes and tried to focus on what he had to do. Someone was yelling at him saying walk toward me. He opened his eyes to find that his surroundings had vanished. All that he could see was an endless black oasis. Then shinning brightly against the black background was Luna. Harry slowly began walking toward her. "Maybe if I go the pain will stop," he thought. Harry walked forward a little faster. "Run" a voice said to him. Harry began running toward the shinning figure. All of a sudden the pain stopped and his surroundings regained their original color. He was standing face to face with Luna.
"You failed," she said brightly.
"I'll try it," Crystal said. Crystal had a good start but soon she lost her defense and achieved the same results as Harry. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny couldn't fight the mental spell either. Neville went last and gained the most success out of the group. No one could explain it but Neville was no longer the weak little boy everyone believed him to be. Maybe it was the fact that he wanted revenge for what was done to his parents that caused him to study harder. He was now an expert in Herbology and a good student in everything else.
"Class dismissed," Luna said.

The next few days flew by fast and classes continued as normal. In Transfiguration they began studying about Animagi and what characteristics each one possessed. And before they knew it, it was time for the first Elite competition.