A short chapter but necessary. A few questions are answered….Review Responses are at the bottom! Enjoy!

Chapter 14: Mastering the Power

Harry remained in bed until 10 AM the following morning. The rest of the Gryffindors had already gone to lessons but Harry did not have to go because of his late night and the shock he had received. Ron, Hermione and Neville were in the common room waiting for him: they too had permission to remain out of lessons, though Harry suspected Hermione had tried to get them to go.

Hermione looked up at him when he emerged into the common room.

"Harry! What happened last night?" she looked tired and worn out, as if she had not slept much. Her hair was messy and she wore the same clothes as the day before.

He looked at them mournfully. How could he not tell them what he had heard? Having made that decision he sat down on the chair and told them what Dumbledore had explained. He left out no detail and when he had finished, they sat silent, speechless.

It was Neville who spoke first. His voice was quavering: "You're the heir of Godric Gryffindor?"

Harry nodded. "I am."

They sat silent unable to speak, unable to believe what they heard.

Harry made a move to get up.

"Where are you going?" Hermione asked sharply.

"To Professor Lupin."

"Why?"

"I'm going to ask him to bring me a Boggart and transfigure it into a Veil. I'm going to learn how to walk through it."

Hermione stared at him. "You can't be serious?"

"I am. I want Padfoot back and the only way is to go through the Veil myself. I'm going to take Wormtail up on his offer. In two weeks I'm going through," Harry said, defiantly, "If you want to help me, like you promised, then help me do this."

Hermione bit her lip. She was questioning her promise, Harry knew. How could she help him without stopping him from putting himself in danger? "I'll help as long as you tell Claire about her heritage. She deserves to know."

"I was going to enlist her aid and Luna's anyway. They can keep the portal open so I can get through." Harry explained.

Hermione sighed. "All right Harry, even if it pains me to think that you may die in this endeavor."

Harry smiled slightly. "You are a true friend, Hermione, and I'm thankful for all the support you've given me for many years."

"You deserve happiness Harry after all that has happened to you."


Professor Lupin was not teaching a class when Harry arrived at his classroom, however he was marking exams, yet he felt relieved that he could speak to someone. He seemed in shock.

"Professor, is something wrong?" Harry asked.

"Professor Dumbledore informed me of Padfoot this morning and told me I should be expecting you," he said slowly, "I am sorry, Harry. I have also been in the dark for this whole year. I did know, however, that your contact was Wormtail but I didn't know his reasons as to why he was doing it."

Harry remained silent. He didn't know what to say. Lupin had been in the dark, and he, Harry, thought he'd been keeping something from him! He felt so ashamed.

"Well, what did you want to ask me?" Lupin asked.

"I…was wondering if you could let me practise on a Boggart, but can you transfigure it into a Veil so I can learn to walk through it?" Harry asked. The answer he guessed would probably be 'no' but he held a tiny light of hope in his heart.

Lupin was silent, Harry fearing the worst.

"I can do this Harry. Dumbledore knows you won't stop until you've got Sirius back, so, I will help, but that is all I can do, I'm afraid. It is foolish and you'll probably die, but like your father, you are determined." He smiled suddenly. "James would be proud."

"When will I have the Boggart?"

"I will comb the school for one. If I do, I'll send you a note and the practices will be in my classroom," Lupin replied, "one more thing, Harry, I want you to be careful. Please do not give your life away in an attempt to let others survive."

Harry nodded. "I promise."


During the day he sought out Luna and Claire, bidding them to meet him in the Room of Requirement at 7PM. They both agreed and after giving directions to Claire who had no idea where it was, made his way there himself to think.

Luna was the first to arrive at 6:45 but Claire was not far behind. Once they were there and settled, Harry began to tell them what he knew. He told Claire firstly about her heritage and she took it by surprise but believed him when he told her it had been Dumbledore who's informed him.

"Luna," he said, focusing his attention on her, "are you the heir of Ravenclaw?" though he knew the answer to be 'yes' he wanted to check.

"Yes," she said dreamily, "I've known for a long time."

"Good," Harry said and then he went onto ask them if they were willing to help him go through the Veil.

Luna said 'yes' immediately but with Claire it took some persuading. Eventually she conceded and they parted for that night.

Three days later Lupin sent Harry a note telling him a Boggart was locked in his classroom and transfigured into a Veil. He set out for the class room that night with Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Neville and Claire. Luna was waiting for them.

The trunk in which the Boggart was being kept in had been placed on the floor. The desks had been moved to the side, and the others went to sit on them. Ginny had heard about the endeavor of Harry's from Neville, and wanted to come along and help. It was only that Ginny had also proved herself the year before that Harry was allowing this.

Pointing his wand at the trunk, Harry muttered a spell that unlocked the trunk and out of it came a shape, but then it rapidly became still, transforming into a Veil. Harry looked at it, entranced.

"I hear voices." Claire said, shuddering.

"It's the dead." Luna whispered.

Harry gulped. He didn't know what to do: how could he control the Veil's power? He had no idea.

"Hermione," he asked, "what do you suggest I do?"

"I have no clue Harry." She replied.

Luna suddenly stepped forward into the Veil before Harry could stop. "LUNA!" She was gone. His heart beat fast. Luna was dead. But then, how could she be if this Veil was not real, but she was not here.

Then she walked out of the other side.

"Luna, what happened?" Harry asked.

She turned shining eyes on Harry, her blonde, dirty hair stuck up on end. "I saw…" she breathed, "my mother."

"Care to explain a bit?" Hermione asked.

"I stepped through but I did not die. I kept an open mind saying 'I will come back, I will come back' over and over again. I saw a door and walked towards it. My mother came to me and told me how proud she was, how proud I'd discovered the power within me. I walked through the door and out the other side. I was back here."

Harry turned to Hermione. "Do you think if I did the same it would work for me? I mean with a real Veil?"

"Probably. But this Boggart just takes the shape of it. However something is making it seem reality."

"I'm going through." Harry said.

Breathing hard, he opened his mind and thought 'I will come back, I will come back' and the he vanished through the Veil.

He was falling into a deep dark cavern, blackness seemed to swarm through him. He fought to keep himself awake. Who knew what would happen if he closed his eyes? He landed, his feet touching the ground. He looked up and around.

As Luna had described he saw a door and made his way to it, but then two people stepped in front of him, halting his progress. It was James and Lily, come to say hello. They smiled at him, and he felt a hand on his shoulder, but when he reached to touch it the hand was not there. This was just his imagination. The real Veil would show…well what? He knew that mastering the power would be difficult…but standing here it seemed easy. He needed the real thing!

Ignoring the spectres of his parents he made his way to the door, opened it and fell out of the other side of the Veil, landing on the class room floor.

He dusted himself off, looking at the others.

"We need the real thing. A real Veil. Its not working. It wouldn't be that easy."

Ron exchanged glances with Hermione. "What do you plan on doing then?"

Harry ruffled the back of his head. "I really don't know. I think I'm just going to have to risk it. Go to the Department of Mysteries when I meet Wormtail, maybe he'll be able to help me. It's the only way I can think of that I will benefit from." He shook his head in frustration, his anger raising. "It's not fair! ALL I WANT TO DO IS HELP SIRIUS!"

But then as he stood there, anger racing through his limbs, he became aware of his wand glowing, and he realised that an immense power had awoken inside him. Overcome by desire, he stepped forwards once more into the Veil, and again he made his way towards the door, but this time as he stepped through the door, he fell into another class room – the Charms room.

Amazed he realised that he must have awakened the power to control the Veil inside him in his anger! Excited he rushed out of the room and back to the others who were looking worried and upset when he opened the Defence Against the Dark Arts door and closed it again.

"Harry!" Neville said.

"How…?" Hermione was stunned.

Excitedly he told them that his anger had spurred him on, and that it must be powerful emotions that helped him come out at a different place.

"Powerful emotions?" Ginny asked.

"Yes," Hermione said, "Happiness, anger, sadness. They are all powerful emotions. Any one of them will help you Harry."

Grinning broadly, Harry felt pleased he had discovered on his own how to use the power of the Veil.


The two weeks passed since meeting Wormtail passed in a blur. Harry taught Luna and Claire how to pass through the Veil and even bid the others to try it. Miraculously it worked, and Hermione, Ron, Neville and Ginny all appeared at different places around the school when they walked through the Boggart-Veil. However, Harry wanted to test his discovery on the real thing, but he had to wait until the right moment.

It was the end of June, two weeks before the end of term, that Harry with Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville, Luna and Claire made their way down to the Shrieking Shack to meet Wormtail. Harry was shaking with excitement. He knew if everything went well in this meeting, by the end of the week, he might even have Sirius back.

The midnight moon shone off them. Harry noted it was full-moon. That meant Professor Lupin was curled up in his office as a werewolf.

Wormtail was waiting for them. "Well, have you decided?"

"I want to save Sirius. If you can help me with that then yes, I'll help you get away from Voldemort." Harry said.

"Thank you! It is all I could ask for."

Harry nodded. "We are going to go through the Veil. Give us the location of Voldemort; we'll be there."

"The graveyard. The same graveyard that he was reborn in. He uses his grandparents house; it's known as the Riddle House. Death Eaters patrol it. You need your Invisibility Cloak. It will be the only means of getting through the house unnoticed to where Sirius is being kept."

"I've got the cloak here. Meet me in the graveyard in your rat form. I will briefly show myself and then you can take me to Sirius. Deal?" Only then did Harry hold out his hand. "You promise not to betray me in any form? Promise to aid me?"

Wormtail nodded.

"Then, answer me this one thing," Harry stated, "I know Sirius wouldn't aid Voldemort willingly. How has he got what he wants out of him?"

"He's made a new potion, like Veritaserum, but different. It stops the Witch of Wizard from using magic to prevent people from keeping information from them. It also gives hallucinations and causes the drinker to experience the bad memories of their pasts. In that delusional state, the Dark Lord could extract any information from Sirius whenever he wanted," Wormtail suddenly shuddered, "It is't very nice to watch."

Harry's face was pale, but he asked no more about it. Instead he extended his hand to Wormtail.

They shook hands.

The bond was sealed.

TBC

I think this chapter may seem a bit rushed, but there isn't really much going on that is worth mentioning. The next chapter is entitled: The Veil.

Review Responses:

Phoenixtears: Congratulations on guessing Wormtail. That chapter was the hardest to right and explain. The role of he betrayer was hard to fill – I didn't know who it should be for a while. I will write a book, but I'm stuck on writing it for now and have had no new ideas for a long time, so its not progressing very well. I think I'm up to about eighty pages on really small Times New Roman writing. At the moment, ideas for fanfictions have been going through my head so I decided to write them down first before continuing with my original work. Thanks for the review!

KelseyRadcliffe: You were the first person to guess it was Pettigrew, (well done!) I did think about e-mailing you and telling you that you'd guessed it, but I decided to leave it and let you read on. Your guess on the reason for the 'S' was brilliant. I had forgotten that myself! Thank you for reading and reviewing!

Got-lotr: Yes, another cliffy. More are coming. Oh…and uh…thanks for the muffin!

ThE 3 cAbAlLeRoS: Will Bonnie play an important role like Claire? Unfortunately, she won't. Much as I like the character, Bonnie doesn't fit into the story. Claire is far more important. I hope you liked this chapter!

LunaShadows: I hope this chapter answered why Voldemort could extract information from Sirius. Dumbledore doesn't know it himself so he didn't tell Harry. He just presumes Voldemort was using curses to do it. So, I hope that clears that up! Also people can change and when you think about Wormtail could be feeling miserable, out of place and upset that he's caused all this suffering for Harry. He's trying to be brave by standing up for his actions, and that means he's got to leave behind the Voldemort's back.

Moon Lace: Hello Serry! I'm glad you thought the last chapter was excellent. It was a bit difficult piecing things together making sure I had not left any gaps. The whole Godric Gryffindor line was hard to do (I made a family-tree of it to help me with it, that also links Claire's line into it: very hard to do, and harder to explain!) I don't like to be an author who copies other peoples ideas, so I try and make it seem as reasonable as possible. I'm glad it worked though! I was worried over it! And please don't cry over what's happened to Sirius. Don't worry, I'm not planning on letting him die…at least not in this story. Harry deserves sometime with Sirius…but it does depend how Harry's rescue goes in the coming chapters. I hope you enjoyed this chapter!