Harry Potter & the Price of Mercy

by: NecessaryEvil

Chapter Thirteen: Beginning of the End

Disclaimer: They aint mine, foo.

A/N: Thanks to my reviewers.

Now on with the show.

Monday started a week that threw Harry's sense of reality through a loop. It started on the way to breakfast, Harry was about to turn a corner when he heard an angry voice coming from one of the classrooms;

"You stupid bitch, you wouldn't dare," that was Hermione's voice Harry realized in surprise.

"If she threatens me again I will," and that was Sayouri.

"She would never threaten you, she's pure, unlike you,"

Harry decided that this was none of his business whether it was out of the ordinary or not, so he continued on to the great hall to have breakfast. When he got there he saw Ron looking worried and asked, "What's wrong,"

"Have you seen Sayouri?" Ron responded

"I think she was talking to Hermione in one of the classrooms," Harry half lied,

"Oh," Ron responded.

***

When the students entered the Transfiguration classroom it was empty. They all silently took their seats and waited and after a couple of minutes the door to Professor McGonnagal's office opened and a familiar figure walked out, but it was definitely not McGonagal.

"Good morning, cheeldren. I am Professor Delacour, I will be feelling in for your Transviguration teacher," Harry saw all the guys in the class smiling widely and blushing as they laid eyes on Fleur, Harry merely nodded at her and she returned his acknowledgement with a wide smile and a wave.

The boys spent the rest of the class trying really hard to do the transfiguration spells that were being taught in order to impress Fleur, while she merely smiled and sat reading a magazine and occasionally explaining a new spell to keep the students occupied.

***

After Divination they had lunch and during said lunch Dumbledore came up to Harry. He placed a hand on Harry's shoulder and looked at him sadly and began to lead him to his office. He led Harry to a seat and Harry sat.

"Harry I have some bad news,"

"What is it?"

"Sirius has disappeared," Harry's heart fell into his stomach, "He was on a mission for me and he hasn't checked in in more than a week. I'm afraid that we don't know what has happened to him,"

Harry nodded numbly, "Is that all Professor?"

"Yes Harry," Dumbledore said, "Please take the rest of the day off, you look like you could use the rest,"

Harry nodded again, "Thank you sir,"

Harry got up on unsteady legs and walked out the door slowly making his way back to the Great Hall. He found each of his friends and told them ,"He's gone missing," before making his way up to the Gryffindor tower with Ron, Hermione, and Cho looking after him sympathetically.

Harry found his way up to his dorm lay down on his bed and cried himself to sleep.

***

Harry stood in the middle of a white expanse. There seemed to be noting else, just white. He took a step forward only to find that the world twisted around him as he did so. He stopped moving and waited for something to happen, as they so often did in his dreams. He didn't have to wait long as a young man appeared walking towards him in the expanse, flitting forward several steps every once in awhile.

As the figure drew closer Harry recognized the figure as being reminiscent of his father at twenty, only with emerald green eyes. Figuring this information in he decided that he must have been looking at an older image of himself, this was confirmed as the figure grew younger and became a mirror image of Harry only with his a robe in contrast to Harry's muggle clothes.

A pair of chairs appeared and Harry's double sat in one and motioned for Harry to take the other. Harry sat and his double motioned to the tea on the table that had just appeared between them.

"Who are you," Harry asked after a few moments of silence.

"I'm Harry Potter, who are you?" wizard Harry(the double) said.

"I'm Harry Potter," Harry replied, "Why am I here?"

"You tell me, you're the one that decided to come," wizard Harry replied.

"Is something coming," Harry asked

"I don't know, I'm you," wizard Harry replied, "I know as much about the future as Professor Trelawney,"

"You know something that you're not letting on," Harry said

"I know that you have a choice to make, but then you know that too," wizard Harry said

"Will Finn?" Harry asked

"Will Finn," wizard Harry replied nodding.

"What should I do?" Harry asked.

"Well he could be trying to kill you," wizard Harry replied

"He had me alone and didn't kill me," Harry stated.

"He could be going after your friends first, trying to get you to bring Cho to him," wizard Harry continued

"I think he's on my side," Harry replied, "The only real question is should I take lessons from him,"

"You know plenty enough to beat Voldemort a couple times over," wizard Harry said.

"The more I know, the less chance Voldemort will win, plus I've got a new bunch after me," Harry said

"Right, the Harbingers," wizard Harry conceded, "You should learn some more, that Riku was tough and I bet Rem is one too,"

"Yeah, so I'll do it," Harry stated, "Me and Cho can learn from him,"

"Right," Wizard Harry said, "Well bye for now,"

Harry got a feeling as the emotions he had been feeling when he fell asleep resurfaced and welled up to the surface and then Wizard Harry was gone and...

***

Harry sat up in bed and looked at the time, he had slept all through the rest of the afternoon and the night. It was still too early for anyone to be up so Harry decided that this would be a good time to take a shower.

***

Tuesday went normally for awhile, but then it came time for the most boring class in the History of Magic, going under the title of History of Magic and this is when the day started getting weird. Professor Binns, the ghost of a teacher was not in his class as he always was, instead there stood a twenty-something year old guy with spiked blue hair, waiting nervously for the students to arrive and sit, when they had he began.

"Hi, I'm Mr.Franklin, they called me in when Professor Binns came down with a life threatening ailment and had to go off to a hospital,"

There was a general murmur and a few snorts. Ron muttered, "He's already dead, how can anything threaten his life?"

No one much complained as Mr. Franklin made the subject seem a little bit more exciting that Professor Binns did, but the students came out of the class still wondering what had happened to their Professor.

***

Harry made his way to the great hall and was just about to turn a corner when he heard a voice seemingly arguing with itself, Harry looked into the room the voice was coming from and all became clear, Fred and George were in there fighting amongst themselves, this wasn't too uncommon. Harry was just about to turn around and leave when he caught part of the conversation,

"She only failed me because she thought I was you,"

"She failed me too you prat,"

"Well if you weren't off thinking up pranks all day you might get some good grades,"

"Me!!!What about you, Mr. Lets get them Slytherins,"

At this point Harry turned and fled from this disturbing sight. The twins fighting about grades, it had to be a gag.

***

Wednesday morning Fleur was still presiding over the Transfiguration class with no reason given as to why McGonagal was away. Fleur seemed to excel at teaching while giving the lesson as little attention as she would give to a speck of dust in the air, while still getting at least half the class to learn to do the spells she assigned perfectly.

Harry seemed to be the only boy who wasn't swayed by her charms, though surprisingly Ron was very close, as he spent at least half the time doing his usual flirting with Sayouri instead of spending all of it trying to impress Fleur like the other guys. Harry figured that if anyone tried the Imperius curse on his friends Ron would be the best to go to, as he seemed to be able to fight charms with sheer force of loyalty.

***

In Charms both Harry and Ron got a big shock. Professor Flitwick put the class into groups of three to try to Charm a fairly large and complicated object. He grouped Harry and Ron with Malfoy. Ron was immediately on the defensive, getting ready for whatever insult Malfoy shot at him, but Malfoy started off in a genuinely warm voice and said, "Good morning you two,"

Ron stared for a moment, "Ok that's just creepy,"

Harry nodded, "We should get to work on the project," he said, still staring at the friendly smile on Malfoy's face, "Before one of us gets carted of to the mad house,"

"Ok, what do you two want me to do for you?"

"Act normally you git," Ron yelled a little too loudly as several people shot dirty looks at them as they were distracted from their spells, "Sorry," he said to the class, "But this is just scary," he muttered to himself.

***

Harry was half dozing in Trelawney's class when she came over to check on his and Ron's progress on their tea cup readings. When she asked if they needed any help Ron handed her Harry's cup and said, "I can't quite make this one out,"

Professor Trelawney gazed intently into the cup and then said, "I see a cane,"

"So I'm going to get a beating," Harry asked sarcastically

"No, it means you're going to live a long life and die of old age,"

Ron laughed out loud at the look of pure shock and surprise on Harry's face at hearing Trelawney utter those words.

As they were walking out of class Ron said, "Cheer up mate. You look like a dog just ate your pet donkey,"

"Huh?" Harry asked

"She probably just was tired of being proven wrong time after time and changed her story,"

"Yeah...probably," Harry mumbled thoughtfully.

***

At dinner Harry felt a hand rest on his shoulder in the middle of a story Cho was telling him about Care of Magical Creatures. Harry turned to see who it was and found himself looking into the solemn eyes of Professor Dumbledore. Harry knew right then that he wouldn't like the news, and he had a pretty good idea what the news was too, but he didn't let the thought of it get to him until he and Cho (Dumbledore having asked her there to be Harry's emotional support) had been sat down in Dumbledore's office and he heard the words that he had been dreading for almost a year and a half.

"Sirius Black has been caught,"

A/N: This is part one of a two parter, which covers an entire weird week. Part two will explain some of the smaller stuff from this half and will also set up for some later problems. Tune in then. Oh and I'll be responding to the reviews I would have responded to in this chapter in the next, because its three in the morning and I don't want to try to figure out which review was the last one I answered.