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Chapter 19

August 17 - Day 46

A Gathering of Powers

Parseltongue is in italics

Warning! The rating of this story has been raised!

Last Chapter:

Harry fell back on his bed. He had a great time with Luna and hoped that they could hang out again. He soon fell into a deep sleep as the book under his bed began to pulse a black haze.

Libba lay on her couch starring at the ceiling. It had been so boring lately. Of course, it was just the calm before the storm. She was about to get up when she felt another presence.

"It's been a while," said Libba, "Why are you here?"

"You will come to the temple now." said the man standing behind her before he vanished a cloud of green smoke.

Libba gave a heavy sigh before getting up. She raised her hand and it started to glow a bright red. She brought it over her face and she disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.
Somewhere near Mt. Fuji in Japan, stood an old Shinto temple that was nearly falling apart. At least that is what it appeared to be to the casual onlooker. If one looked more closely they would realize that this was simply a charm to ward off those who weren't supposed to be there. It was actually a large temple built in the old Japanese style and was surrounded by a huge, lush garden. There was a small stream that ran right in front of the temple and a small red bridge went over it. A man wearing a bright green cloak was standing on it. He was leaning across the railing and looking at the fish swimming below in a stream. A cane was held in one of his ancient hands.

A lady a gray cloak walked out of temple and came to stand next to the man.

"Everyone has arrived," she said.

The man acknowledged that he had heard her and he took a hold on his cane and began to walk. Before he had taken even one step however, the woman took a hold of his other arm and began to help him walk to the temple. When they stepped inside they were greeted by 7 cloaked people, who were all seated at a round table with 12 chairs. The woman walked the old man to the chair at the head of the table and assisted him in sitting in it before she took her place at his right hand side.

The man lowered his hood and revealed his face. He had a long gray beard and his hair was dirty and tangled. He was tanned and had a middle-eastern appearance. Most everyone else copied his actions. Once this was done, the man started to speak,

"My dear companions, it has been 100 years since we last gathered together. It has been far too long. We are the Twelve Beings. We were created by the acts of humans. Do not forget who we are and what we represent. Even thought we have not all been born, we still must remember those who will join us in their time. Before we formally begin this meeting, let us update each other on what we have been doing and introduce those who are new to our circle. Everyone, I would like to introduce you to our newest member. Death, would you care to begin?"

The woman to his right stood up. She, in truth, was only a teenager. She had dark brown hair that went past her shoulders and accented her pale skin. Her gray eyes had a slight glow to them. She frowned as she nearly stumbled when her cloak got caught on the chair.

"Stupid chair," she muttered before facing everyone, "Hello there! Um, like Life said, I am Death. I have met most of you, however, I am still new to this gig. Um, right now I am still in training with Destiny, but I will be taking over the afterlife in a few months. So, uh, that's all I can think of to say now." She then sat down, but not before glaring at the torn spot on her cloak.

Life smiled at Death's antics before turning to the man beside her. "Would you care to go next Truth?"

Truth was one of the people who didn't lower his hood. He stood up without getting his midnight blue cloak caught on his chair. "It is good to see all of you again and to see several new faces. There is great danger where I am from. The Dark Lord Voldemort has risen again and attacked the Ministry of Magic. However, besides a few Death Eater attacks on muggles, he has been strangely quiet. I am hoping that today's meeting might shed some light on to what he is planning."

"You mean you can't sense it?" asked Death.

"No, somehow he found a way to block my powers from probing his mind for the truth." said Truth.

Life nodded and said, "We will cover that subject when we start the meeting. Now, how is everything with you Vision?"

Vision, who was sitting on the other side of Truth in a baby blue cloak said, "Except for Lord Thingy, everything is just peachy with me. It's not at all like the dreamworld has been processing more nightmares than ever before from the Wizarding World!" she finished, practically dripping with sarcasm.

"Point taken Vision." said Life sharply, "Now, what about you Purity?" he asked in a softer voice.

A empty chair was between Vision and Purity. Purity was a little Native American girl with curly black hair. She wore a pure white cloak and appeared quite dainty. "All is not well." she said with tears in her eyes, "People are saying bad things and doing bad things and it's all so much! The screams won't stop!" She clasped her hands over her ears as tears began to pour down her cheeks. The other's tried to calm her down, however, the tear continued to come.

Finally, Life said, "Perhaps you should return to your realm Purity. It will be fine if you are not here."

Purity nodded and in a flash of white smoke, she was gone. Life gave a heavy sigh and turned to the man who was sitting directly across from him. "Do you have anything to say Destiny?"

Destiny was another who had kept his face covered by his brown cloak. "I have nothing of importance to say during his meeting," he stated, "What will come, will come and nothing we can do will stop it."

"Thank you Destiny," said Life, "What about you Wisdom?" he asked the dark woman in the purple cloak, who sat on Destiny's other side.

Wisdom pushed her glasses up and said, "The first book has been found."

This statement caused nearly everyone to gasp in horror. "By who?" asked Death in a shaky voice. "Surely not...?"

"No, it's not him. The book is safe for now where it is."

"Very well," said Life, "War, is everything prepared on your side?"

"Everything is as ready as it can be." said the Japanese man, who sat next to Wisdom in a red cloak.

Life turned to the woman next to War, "What about you Sin?"

Libba was looking at her nails when Life addressed her. "What?" she asked in surprise.

"I asked how everything was going on your side, Sin." said Life glaring at the red head.

"Oh!" said Sin, "Well, I've been checking up on Voldy, but he really isn't doing much except look for some book. Now let's see, what did it look like again? Ah, yes, it was really big and black."

"Well, even if he doesn't have the book. He's looking for it." said Vision sourly.

Sin brushed a bit of lint off of her black cloak, "So that's the book you were talking about," she said, "I was wondering about that."

The next two chairs on the other side of Sin were vacant. Life shook his head in sadness.

"We know what is coming. Voldemort's rising could cause world distruction. Especially if he gets his hands on the book. What do we do?"

"We try to help the child as much as we can," said Destiny, "We are not allowed to interfere in the matters of mortals. We must let what is destined to happen, happen."

"What is going to happen?" asked Sin, "Can't you just peek ahead in that book of yours and tell us?"

"Absolutely not!" said Destiny, "We must be patient and let this conflict solve itself."

The Beings all settled in their seats. It would be a long meeting.

Former Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge sat on his couch in his London home. It was very early and the sun hadn't even risen. Yet, he couldn't sleep. He couldn't believe that he had lost his position. What had gone wrong? Where had he made his mistake? Perhaps Dumbledore... no! Dumbledore was out for his position. Dumbledore was not the good guy! Voldemort couldn't be back! However, he saw him there at the ministry.

"No, it was just one of Dumbledore's tricks." he said aloud. "I'll get that man. I'll get my job back!"

He stood up and walked to the hall, "Weasley! Get my good cloak out! I'm going to the Ministry!"

When Fudge had been sacked, Percy Weasley came with him as his personal assistant. After a minute, Percy still hadn't brought him his cloak. "Weasley! Wake up you lazy idiot! You bring me my coat this instant!"

He started to think that no one was there, but Percy had brought him some tea an hour earlier we he called for it, so he was there. Fudge climbed the stairs. As soon as he found that boy, he would be fired!

"Where's my cloak!" he shouted. Suddenly the temperature of the house dropped several degrees.

A shadow crept up behind him. "Looking for thisss?"

Fudge stood paralyzed with fear as he slowly turned around and saw Lord Voldemort standing right behind him, cloak in hand.

Lucius Malfoy walked out of one of the doors and said, "The Weasley boy is dead My Lord."

"Good," hissed Lord Voldemort, his eyes gleaming with madness. "The former minister shall be joining him very soon."

The crazed Dark Lord then raised his wand and cast 'Crucio'.

The minister screamed in complete agony. It felt like knives were stabbing him in a million different places. Finally, the spell ended. He fell down on the floor.

"Get up." said Voldemort, "I'm not finished with you yet."

"Please don't," begged Fudge, "I'll do anything. I'll give you anything. Just don't kill me."

"You have nothing to give me except your life," hissed Voldemort.

He then muttered a spell that Fudge was unable to catch and suddenly Fudge was surrounded by flames that gnawed at his skin and slowly, his skin was being peeled off of his body. Blood started to run down and Fudge screamed louder that he ever had before.

The last sounds that Fudge would ever hear was his screams with Voldemort's maniac laughter in the background. Then, all went black and he saw no more.

Voldemort looked at the minister's burned body. "It's a shame he had to go so soon. He was very entertaining while he lasted. Hang this corpse off of a tree in his front yard Lucius."

Voldemort then exited the house and after Lucius had done as told, he cast, "Morsmordre!" With the Dark Mark hanging high in the sky. He and his minion appaparated away.

Harry sat straight up in his bed. He had cleared his mind before going to bed, but his scar still felt like it was on fire. Voldemort had to have just done something big. He closed his eyes and soon his scar started to cool off. He took a glance at the clock next to his bed. It was only 4:02 in the morning. Far too early to get up.

He was about to try and go back to sleep when he noticed something under his bed was glowing violet. He looked under his bed and saw the book he had taken out of the Snape library pulsating. An errie violet glow surrounded the book. He got out of bed and went to reach for the book, however, something stopped him.

A voice whispered in his ear, "Not yet little one." His eyes started to droop and he soon fell fast asleep, his memory wiped of the incident.

Destiny stood in his realm. He was looking at a book on a podium. The book was larger than any other in the entire universe and the afterlife. The book told of the past and of the future. Destiny's eyes gazed over the pages of the ancient book. Many of the pages Destiny had read and knew of. Others, however, refused to make themselves clear to him. Further yet, others had yet to even appear in the book. For instance, one sentence on the page that told of the apocalypse was all that had been written. The rest would not be written until the apocalypse began, however that was many hundreds of years away.

Suddenly a new page appeared in front of Destiny's eyes. He read it and looked up to the sky. "May the spirits help this world." he said, "For if they don't, then this world is doomed to fall at the hands of a madman."

-End Chapter 19-

A/N: Sorry about the long delay, but school is keeping me pretty busy. Okay, the whole Fudge scene was a bit harsh, but hey, I thought they guy deserved it. Now you know who all of the otherworldly players are. (Note: They are not Gods! I repeat, they are not Gods!) Okay, also the rating as been raised because of future chapters that might be a little more graphic than previous ones. J.K. Rowling said that her books will get darker in the future, so I am simply trying to harness that. I'm now rambling, so I will be going now. Please review! Thanks!

-Lilyanphino-