Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

By: Krystal Lily Potter

Chapter Twenty Seven: The Truth of the Guardian

Rating: PG-13 (more on the AA side)

Couples: HP/HG, DT/LB, PP/SF, LL/NL, DT/GW, LB/RW, LL/RW, HP/CC

Summary: As Harry and his friends enter their sixth year at Hogwarts they don't enter the cheerful world they left behind. They enter a world covered in a thick blanket of fear. It only hits Harry how important he really is when people start seeing him as the light that allows them to see under this blanket. Along with his friend he must battle the horrors of the past, present, and possible the future to begin the end of the war, hopefully before it hits Hogwarts. What happens when people start disappearing from under Dumbledore's protection, and one of the famous 'trio' disappears? It's up to the last two, plus some more friends, to find a way to save all the people that disappeared because they can't fight this war on their own...

Warning: Dark themes will be mentioned a lot and if worst comes to worst I'll rate this R because of that. There's swearing, mentions of suicide, murder, rape, gore/bloody scenes, and other dark things like that...honestly though it's not as dark as I make it sound...

Yesterday ff.n messed up my story some, now it's auto-fixed it but my titles to those chapters are gone and I can't make them stay without messing it up again otherwise (Nice eh?) LOL!

"Life is a challenge, and only those who live up to the challenge can really know what it means to live."

-Unknown

"What do we do now?" Lavender asked with a slight note of hysteria in her voice.

"I don't know we're kinda trapped," Seamus replied sarcastically. Both were obviously on edge as they continually looked around the corner.

"Shut up would you?" Harry growled at them from across the hall. There was a thin line of blood running down from his forehead and he looked extremely pissed off.

"You guys, there's something coming," Dean muttered and backed up a little bit.

"Shit," Harry muttered. Suddenly he remembered he had heard something when they had ran into this dead end. "I know what we have to do. Come here quick."

The other three moved over to him and...

Harry groaned as he woke up and looked around wildly. He had felt something cold pass over his body which in turn yanked him out of his dream.

"What the hell was that?" he muttered under his breath as he rolled over, noticing that it was 6:30 in the morning. Sighing to himself he got up to get ready for classes that day.

When he got downstairs he saw a nervous looking Hermione waiting for him. The second she saw him she jumped up and threw herself on him.

"Woah what the hell Mia?" he said wildly.

"I was afraid you wouldn't be coming downstairs," she muttered and she buried her head in the crook of his neck.

Harry sighed and said, "I'm fine Hermione, what's with you though? You knew about this before Dumbledore announced it."

"Yes but I thought there was something we could do to stop it," she said. "You said there wasn't." "Hey calm down, we're all going to be fine, we always are," Harry said confidently. It occurred to him that he was trying to make himself believe that statement more then he was trying to make Hermione beat it.

She calmed down slightly then said, "Well come on, let's get to breakfast quickly, so we're not in the hallways alone for along time." With that she grabbed his arm and pretty much dragged him out of the door, giving him very little time to grab his bag before being tugged away.

Clara Evelyn waited patiently for her class to show up. She knew by now that the sixth year Gryffindors would be the first to show up and they'd all be together. It was a ritual she had become familiar with over the course of the year.

Looking back at her schedule from the first day of classes she chuckled slightly. Something inside of her mind had told her they wouldn't be following everything like she had planned. Actually today they weren't doing anything that was on it, they were going to do something else.

Looking up quickly as the door open she saw the Gryffindors walk in and grab their normal seats, which were all up at the front.

She smiled lightly at them and waited for the rest of the class to appear. As they did she noticed with a look of pain that there was a few missing students in this class.

"Well sixth years," she started. "I know we've been off the schedule I made for us at the first of the year so for now on I'm just throwing that to wind. You will never know what we're doing in class. We could be studying a magical creature, looking at curses, looking at transfiguration in defence, duelling or many other things. Today we'll be doing one of those other things."

The class seemed excited and nearly everyone leaned over their desks a little bit to get closer to her.

"Put all your wands, quills and books away," she said. "I'm going to be telling more or less stories for now."

Everyone did and stared at her with interest.

"Now this might seem a bit off my subject, but are prophecies real?" Evelyn asked.

This question struck Harry as odd and he almost didn't hear Neville answer yes.

"That's right," she said. "Prophecies are kept in the Department of Mysteries in the Ministry of Magic. The only people that know them are the ones that it's told to. Majority of the time the person that says it can't remember saying it. Now sometimes other people hear the prophecy and they're not meant to. That does not mean they forget it." She quickly got up from her desk, strolled over to the chalk bored and magicked a picture onto it of a sphere. "This is what prophecies are held in and the only way to hear them once they're in that is to shatter the orb. Actually no that's not true, that's only one way to hear it, the second way is to go to the person who it was originally told to," she started pacing back and fourth.

After a moment of silence she said, "Have any of you ever heard a prophecy before?"

Everyone went silent and a few people glanced over at Harry curiously, they expected him to know because not only had he been in the Department of Mysteries last year but everything always seemed to happen to him.

Harry narrowed his eyes and said, "What does that have to do with Defence?"

"Well..." she started.

"Don't answer that," he said dully. "You know there's no answer or at least not a good one unless you plan on telling us all a lie."

Everyone stared at him in pure shock he had never talked back to Professor Evelyn yet this year but it was almost as if he was talking to Umbridge again.

Evelyn's emerald eyes flashed angrily and she said, "Get out."

"Fine by me," Harry said. "I'll just take a trip up to Dumbledore's office and see if he can answer what prophecies have to do with this class. Sure they may tell us how to win a war or something like that but it doesn't help us defend ourselves."

He attempted to get up and leave when a flash of panic went across Evelyn's face. She pretty much flew across the room and in front of the door. "Never mind Potter, just stay here and shut up."

He got a small smirk of triumph on his face and he learned back, crossing his arms over his chest as he continued listening to his teacher go on.

"That's them," someone whispered in the hall.

"There are only four of them left," someone else whispered.

"Why are Patil, Weasley and Granger staying around them?" someone else said. "Aren't they in danger of being attacked?"

"I think so," yet another person said.

"We can hear you," Harry said loudly, causing people to stare at him with alarmed looks. "So if you're going to attempt to talk behind one of our backs then make sure that one, we're not in the area, and two, you're not pretty much yelling it out."

The four that had been talking turned red in the face and they took off in the other direction. He couldn't help but chuckle at their frightened faces.

"That was so mean," Hermione said.

"I know, but I'm a mean person," he insisted.

"No you're not," she said back.

"Right sorry, you're the mean one,' he said.

"Oh shut up," she smacked his arm as they walked to Transfiguration.

When they got there Professor McGonagall had a worried look on her face and she looked like she was about to cry the second she saw Harry and it got worse as Lavender, Seamus and Dean walked into the room.

She stood up and said, "We're working on changing those pencils in front of you into physical shields because this is something you might have to use when defending yourself. We'll be using different objects but start with the pencils. This spell is more convenient then any of the other ones we've ever done because there's no fancy wand waving or anything, just point your wand at it and said 'Sheilius'. It does take a bit of energy but as you get used to it you'll never notice it. Now go."

Everyone set to work. On the first shot Hermione got it and was awarded 10 points. It took Harry a few times to get it but Ron said there were probably too many things on his mind. His red headed friend had got it the try before him.

Before they got up to leave she said, "Now I know at the first of the year I said I'd be making Animagi out of some of you, this year has been mostly to see who is ready, who isn't, and who is capable of it. You'll find out sometime if you are or if you aren't and if you do get a letter from me do not tell anybody else, understand?" Everyone nodded. "Alright now, you can go to lunch."

They had a great time in that class but after lunch they had to go to Potions, which Harry still dreaded more then anything.

The second Snape marched in Harry felt a bitter feeling of dislike run through his veins. He didn't even have to look at Snape to know when he was around anymore.

"Today we'll be working on a project with the partner I assign you," he said icily. "This is not part of the sixth or seventh year curriculum but the Headmaster insists it's necessary. I will put you into pairs and you will make a potion from scratch."

In Hagrid or Evelyn's class everyone would have burst into whispers already but you did not do that with Severus Snape...it just wasn't done. The same could be said for good old Minerva McGonagall.

"I will explain after you get into your partners," Snape said with a slight hiss to his voice. "MacDougal and Bulstrode, Boot and Finch-Fletchy, Goldstein and Zabini, Granger and Patil, Bones and Moon, Nott and Macmillan and finally Malfoy and Potter."

Harry's mouth fell open, as did Malfoy's and the two looked at each other for less then a second. This time Malfoy moved when Snape told them to.

He stared at Harry darkly and he returned the look. Neither one had so much as looked at each other recently, let alone talked so this would prove to be interesting, at least most people thought that.

"I don't plan on failing because of you Potter," Malfoy spat.

"That's what Ebony said to me too," Harry growled. "And I didn't fail her."

"That's comforting," Malfoy muttered.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he said slowly.

"I know she's a traitor. She's been giving information to you guys for along time now," the blonde said.

"You never told?" Harry asked cautiously yet dangerously.

"I'm a lot of things Potter," Draco said after a moment of thought. "But I am not a rat, especially not like Pettigrew."

That was the last Harry said to him outside of trying to figure out what to do for a potion.

'This will prove to be interesting no doubt,' Harry thought as the bell rang.
Hermione yawned slightly as she leaned over her Transfiguration homework, glancing up from time to time. She was glad to see that Harry was at least trying to work but had to frown at the fact that Ron and Lavender didn't know what a PDA was.

Harry had his books pushed up in front of him in a pile and had his head leaning on the palm of his hand. He knew Hermione would kill him if she saw that he wasn't studying like it seemed.

After a few months of good rest and lack of dreams Harry had suddenly started feeling extremely tired again. He would use his time turner more often now to get some more sleep. His scar was constantly throbbing heavily.

Suddenly a sharp pain shot through his head. He let out a groan of pain and lurched forwards, knocking his books to the ground and startling Ron and Lavender, causing them to break apart.

His hands flew up to his forehead and he started shaking in pain. Closing his eyes tightly he fell backwards onto the couch. The last thing he heard was Hermione calling his name.

VVVVVV Harry's Dream VVVVVV

He was watching a shadowy figure pace back and forth. Tapping his long fingers together he seemed to be waiting for something.

Suddenly there was a hissing sound and a large snake slithered into the room.

"Ahh Nagani, did you bring me any information on the location of Pettigrew?" the man said. It only took Harry a minute to realize he was seeing through Voldemort's eyes. He could also tell that snake-man didn't know he was there.

He understood the snake as it said no, which made him wonder what the rat was doing.

"Who cares about that rat now?" the shadowy figure said. "There's only four of them left, lets get them while we can."

"I admire you Vulcan Potter, but you are brash like the rest of your family was," Voldemort said. "The smarter thing to do would have been to grab these four at the beginning of the year but my longing to see your descendent suffer clouded over my good judgement. The remaining four are Potter and three of his closer friends meaning they will be well protected."

Vulcan muttered something and walked into the light. He looked just like he did in the picture except he wasn't coloured, just several shades of grey and he was transparent and floating.

"Don't worry Potter," Voldemort said. "I am well aware that you need my magical abilities to come back to life as I need your abilities for creating spells and rituals. That is something I'm not willing to sacrifice."

"Good," Vulcan replied. "I wouldn't want you forgetting your part of the bargain Voldemort."

"I wouldn't dream of it," Voldemort hissed but there was something in his voice that Harry didn't trust and make him think that Vulcan was incredibly stupid for believing the dark man. "But I believe we can snag two of the remaining four now."

An evil smirk of glee came upon the Prince's face and he said, "Excellent."

VVVVVV End Dreams VVVVVV

Harry shot up into a sitting position, sweating heavily. He felt sheer panic rise in his stomach as he tried to say something but he couldn't get anything out.

"Harry are you ok?" Hermione asked. "Say something please!"

"Come on mate," Ron encouraged him as well.

His green eyes snapped towards Lavender, who obviously noticed that with nervousness and surprise because she took a step back.

He jumped up and ran towards the portrait while asking, "Where are Seamus and Dean?"

"They just went down to the kitchen, why?" Hermione asked as she kept up with him, followed by their other two friends.

"They're going to be attacked," Harry panted out as he ran down the stairs, taking them by twos and threes.

"Wait," his girlfriend yelled suddenly and for good reason. Harry just ran on the magical stair but he was running so fast his leg didn't sink through, he was just thrown forwards and took a very painful tumble down the stone steps onto the landing below.

"Are you alright?" she asked and ran to his side at full tilt. Harry nodded, wincing in pain and said, "We're not going to get there on time, I can feel it in my gut."

"It's ok, calm down, maybe it was just a dream," Hermione said but she didn't believe that at all.

"We can still get to them in time you know," Ron said suddenly.

Harry nodded and he stood up, helping Hermione to her feet then taking off towards the kitchens once again.
"Dean! Seamus!" Lavender yelled out, seeing their two friends walk in front of them.

"Hey guys—what's wrong?" Dean asked obviously.

"Be careful!" Harry said and fell to his knees. The pain from his scar and falling down three sets of stairs now finally built up.

"Are you alright mate?" Seamus asked.

"I'm fine but you won't be," Harry said. "What?" Dean questioned with a perplexed look. "He's coming," he replied. "I saw it, he's coming for you two..."

"He could be coming for Lav or y—" Seamus didn't get to finish off his sentence because a hand shot out of the wall and grabbed him around the neck.

"SEAMUS!" Lavender screamed and attempted to get closer to help him.

"No," Ron said and grabbed her, holding her back.

Harry got up and shot towards his friend only to make that effort to go in vain. Seamus was pulled through the wall. When he was some of his blood splattered onto the floor. Obviously the blood that was left behind was Vulcan's trademark. The only living Potter at the time ended up crashing into the wall then stumbling backwards onto the floor.

Hermione rushed to his side and screamed as the Half Blood Prince's spirit came through the wall. Harry got up and grabbed a hold of her in an attempt to protect her even though she wasn't in danger.

Vulcan looked around the room and said, "I could grab you all now..."

"Go to hell Vulcan," Harry muttered, causing his ancestor to look over quickly at him. His pale blue eyes bore into Harry's emerald green ones painfully. Hermione moved between the two slightly.

"Mudblood or not, you're no threat to me," the prince said and threw himself towards the two. Suddenly he was stopped and rebounded backwards.

Everyone stared in confusion then the female ghost appeared. Harry knew right away that she was the one protecting him all along and the antagonist had been Vulcan.

"He's right you know, you should just go back to hell where you belong," the ghost snapped.

"That's coming from a girl who died 15 years ago," Vulcan said sarcastically, slowly edging towards Dean without anybody noticing. "When you were only a baby." She growled angrily then gasped as the prince threw himself and Dean, crashing into him before he could even scream and pushing him through the wall. Once again his blood splattered on the floor.

"NO!" Lavender screamed and started crying, falling into Ron's arms for comfort.

The ghost stared in shock and said, "Oh dear sweet...I didn't know...I'm sorry..."

Harry looked up at her while comforting Hermione then something hit him.

VVVVVV FLASH VVVVVV

Harry sweet heart, you are the good child in this family," Lily said with a giggle, looking over at the play pen beside the chair James had been in. Her face turned into a slight frown.

As much as she hated to admit it, Lily preferred one of her children over the other. She had a soft spot for Harry, but for her...

VVVVVV FLASH VVVVVV

James looked on the floor and saw a rat run into the living room and to the play pen then his old friend Peter Pettigrew appeared out of nowhere. He reached into the pen and pulled out a baby girl that looked older then Harry.

"PUT HER DOWN!" James yelled.

"Give us the boy Potter," Voldemort hissed.

"NO!" Lily screamed.

"Kill her," Voldemort said and Peter pulled out a knife and stabbed it into the baby's chest.

VVVVVVVVVV FLASH VVVVVVVV

"Remus, did I have a sister?" Harry repeated the question he asked last night.

Remus sighed again and said, "Yes you did Harry. Her name was Gemma Aileen Evans."

"Evans? Why not Potter? Why didn't mom like her that much? What happened to her?"

"Woah, slow down there. She was an Evans because James Potter wasn't her father," Remus said darkly. "She looked just like her dad too, which is why Lily didn't like her that much. You see Lily didn't mean to have Gemma. Gemma's father was a man named Parker Beaumont, a known Death Eater."

"A known Death Eater? Well why did my mom go with him? Wasn't she with my dad at the time?"

"That's the thing Harry...she was. No, no, Lily would never cheat on James. You see this bastard of a person...well...he raped her. That's why she couldn't really look at Gemma without wincing. James helped her and tried to take care of the child as if it was his own. But he just couldn't really do it. She was taken care of good though, mind you. That night, when your parents died, Gemma was killed by being stabbed through the heart."

VVVVV FLASH VVVVV

Harry looked at her and he noted like he did along time ago in summer that she was not white, meaning she wasn't a normal ghost. She had strawberry blond hair and dark brown eyes.

"Gemma?" he asked hesitantly. She had been looking away from him and had turned around quickly enough to startle Hermione greatly.

Slowly the look of shock disappeared from her face and she said, "Yeah, I'm Gemma Evans."

Harry felt his throat go dry and his eyes water up. "I—I'm sorry." He didn't know why that was the first thing he said but he knew it was necessary."

"Why?" Gemma asked confusedly.

It took Harry a few minutes to realize the answer before he said, "Mum liked...well she seemed to prefer me more...and it didn't seem fair..."

"It's alright," she said sadly. "I got to know them...technically I grew up with them, you didn't so I'm the one that should say I'm sorry to you."

Harry held in the tears that threatened to fall as he asked, "How come you're colored?"

"I'm not a normal ghost," she said briskly, getting her mind of the sad subject from before. "I'm your guardian. Once my job is done I'll return back to where I came from and only come back when I'm needed most."

Harry nodded weakly, unable to say anymore. Hermione, Ron and Lavender were all in too much shock to say anything else.

"Dumbledore's coming but I've got to get going, remember don't give up faith or hope just yet. Also be careful, there is a dangerous person here," Gemma said before vanishing into thin air.

"GOODNESS!" McGonagall's voice rang out as she, Dumbledore, Snape and Evelyn walked around the corner. "What happened?" Evelyn asked sharply.

"They're gone," was all Hermione got out before fainting back into Harry's arms.

"Woah," he muttered and picked her up.

"Who's gone?" Dumbledore asked worriedly.

"Seamus and Dean..." Ron said.

"There's only Harry and I left," Lavender said heavily, her voice echoing in the empty hallway.

Author's Babbling

Well actually I'm not sure what I'm going to do, just reply to questions or all reviews. For this chapter I'm replying to all because I feel like it! Plus I don't have much to write here.

Here's two things all readers should take note of though:

the evil person inside Hogwarts is someone we've met before

somebody will die in this story...

If anyone notices something that they think might be a hint or important point it out because I might have forgotten about it...

Alright now, onto the reviews. Thank you for reviewing to all of you!

Lady Nicole Potter – I think I named her Athena, I'm not sure. Yeah there were some obvious things that string together and some not so obvious things.

Holimontski – Damn straight. Now that things are being explained you can kinda guess what's going to happen soon, considering I'm getting close to the end here...

UltimateHPFreak – I went as a Grape! LMAO! Well I was dressed from head to toe in purple...I'm serious...even my hair has purple in it! LMAO! I'm so strange...

Lady Silver – Is this soon enough?

Drake Smythe – Yup there will be action coming soon, promise!

Hpfanchrissy1502 – if you have a question ask it, I might not answer some of them straight out anyway so you won't be ruining anything...

Carn – lol thanks

Ginerva-W-Malfoy – What's going to happen next...I know but you'll all have to wait and see

Idiot with reason – Happy? I'm replying. Yeah that was an eyesore...did you type it all out or use copy and past???

TanAlike – I kinda felt it was necessary to put the blood thing up there so people could see how I'm classifying people in this story...

WIZ1 – Yes don't worry, more action is coming.

SlytherinHeart – I go to JK's site...I did see the info on it last time but I'll probably check it out again sometime soon...

LadyLuck13 – Actually it wasn't tattoos, it was more gruesome. The Prince took over their bodies and made them cut the word 'Half Blood Prince' into their arms...

Well thanks everyone! Hope you like this shorter chapter too...

Krystal Lily Potter