DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter, he belongs to J.K Rowling and if you are reading this and think any different then St. Mungo's should be your next port of call.
THIS CHAPTER IS DEDICATED IN BELATED CELEBRATION TO MYSELF, TANYWDR AND ANY OTHER FANFIC READER WHO HAVE RECEIVED THEIR GCSE or A' LEVEL RESULTS,
1 A, 8 B'S AND A C PEOPLE, COLLEGE HERE I COME!
This is just a small reminder of the story so far as I feel it has been way too long:
Sirius took Harry as a baby and escaped to a remote island followed by Remus. Meanwhile the world thought that Sirius was evil and had converted Remus and that they were responsible for the random attacks on the Wizarding World that was actually the remnants of Voldemort's loyal servants. Frank Longbottom and the Prewett Brothers were killed trying to prove Sirius's innocence and the Trio themselves were subject to two attacks before Harry started Hogwarts. At Hogwarts, Harry is probably the most powerful student due to the fact that he has already had seven years of magical tutoring and is widely feared, hated and worshipped. Sirius and Remus, free of Harry started tracking down Pettigrew only to witness him helping Voldemort being reborn which led to Sirius and Remus duelling Voldemort and Pettigrew. Injured heavily, Remus managed to grab the unconscious form of Sirius and escape to Hogwarts where Remus barely got them through the front doors before hundred of wands were pointing at him before he promptly collapsed leaving Harry as his only line of defence.
Now onwards with the story!!!
Chapter 21: Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned
Grabbing Remus to his feet, Harry forgot where he was but more importantly, who he was with. As soon as Remus got to his feet, reality settled in and Harry barely pulled the werewolf to the ground as the first curses went flying overhead. Remus collapsed as well, not having the strength to get up; Harry was left facing hundreds of wands.
But he'd go to hell and back before one of them curses hit Sirius or Remus.
To that he made a solemn vow.
He drew his wands.
Till his last breath.
They would be safe.
It was like Medusa was in the room because the whole hall, after seeing Harry Potter, the-boy-who-lived, not only help Remus Lupin, traitor, to his feet but protect him from the curses that some rash Gryffindors had sent. They then saw the child take up a defensive position in front of the now collapsed bodies not only of Lupin but also Sirius Black; the person who they thought had betrayed his parents. This caused the whole hall, teachers included except Dumbledore who had risen to his feet quicker than the human eye could measure, literally freeze in their tracks.
Obviously this didn't last for long as the Gryffindors recovered quickest, eager to prove themselves as heroes, started firing curses at the bodies of Lupin and Black. The Gryffindors were quick to act but not before Severus Snape had risen from his chair firing curse after curse, desperate to be the one credited with capturing Black and finally settle his score with Sirius forever by being the one that handed him over to the Dementors. Before long around half the students were firing curses before anyone could do anything to get the situation under control.
As the bursts of light sped towards Harry at rapid speed his first thought was just to get the hell away from them all. But looking at the fallen and broken bodies of Sirius and Remus lit a fire deep within his soul that was unlike anything that he had ever imagined.
Harry raised both his wands as the first curses; Snape's, drew near and bellowed:
"Henev Fortuna"
At first nothing happened and Harry started to panic, as he had never used this shield before as he had only recently learnt about it. He had found the spell in a book in the Restricted Section of the library during one of his midnight jaunts, under a complex Invisibility Charm, in a book about dangerous and powerful spells that should only by very powerful wizards or as a last resort. The spell unlike other shield spells, is directly linked to the caster's magical power and once erected will stay so unless one of two things happen. Either the caster runs out of magic hence dies or the counter spell is spoken. The upside of this is that the caster can still cast spells whilst the shield is up though it drains the magic quicker plus if the caster is a strong wizard then the shield is breached only by the Unforgivables or the most powerful of curses.
So it was a sigh of relief to Harry when a thin sheet of light around six foot high and ten-foot wide appeared in front of him and instantly absorbed the first set of curses easily even though they were very powerful curses bordering on the Dark Arts. Just as Harry thought that there might be some chance that he would be successful the first set of curse from the students hit the shield.
The impact of fifty or so curses striking his shield simultaneously visibly rocked Harry who felt drained all of a sudden as if he had been constantly using his magic for hours. It was lucky though that only half of the curses that the students had fired hit, due to the poor aim most had. Raising his wand Harry desperately tried stopping the students:
"Explosio"
A sharp intake of breath was heard around the hall as a powerful variant of the Explosion Hex struck the Gryffindor table and sent many of its occupants, mainly the ones standing on it for better aim, flying to the ground in a spray of wood.
Even this wasn't enough though as there were still around twenty students from the other three houses who were brave enough to keep attempting to curse Harry, Remus and Sirius. Although around a quarter of these still missed, the ones that did plus the scattered cursing from the staff table made Harry feel weaker as his shield began to waver. Harry had no choice and muttered the counter-curse to the shield, bringing it crashing down as he reasoned that he would be better use alive than dead. Preparing for battle, Harry was saved from further action by Dumbledore, who had been disarming Snape. Snape was now sitting at the staff table, held in place by some invisible force as he struggled to stand up and reach Black, wand or not.
Flicking his wand Dumbledore created a shield similar to Harry's though this one measured around thirty-foot high and forty foot wide and where as Harry's was a normal dull white, Dumbledore's shone with unnatural brilliance. Then, confident that Harry and the collapsed duo were safe, Dumbledore turned to address the student body who were in various stages of either hiding, tending to their wounds, those of others as many had been hit by their fellow students own curses or still pointing their wands at Harry. The last group to be fair was in a small minority mostly made up by yet again Gryffindors and Harry thought about how foolish and reckless they were. Raising his voice Dumbledore bellowed:
"Will all students kindly settle down. Those injured come and see a Professor." Dumbledore's voice was very different to that of his normal grandfather tone. This voice was that of pure power and authority.
All students quickly obliged at Dumbledore's request, even the bravest/foolish of students would never do anything to annoy Professor Dumbledore, after all, most powerful wizard in the world or not, he was also there Headmaster. Seeing that all the students and staff were now relatively settled although some students could still not get over the fact that the supposed Dark Lord and his second in command were lying unconscious in their Great Hall, Dumbledore took command once more.
"Will all Prefects please escort all students back to their Common Room's where you shall stay until your Head of House has informed you that it is safe to leave. I shall not be sealing the entrances but I will tell you all now, ANYONE caught out of bounds will be expelled immediately. Now good night to you all." Dumbledore finished in a tone closer to that of his normal voice.
The Prefects were the first to act, jumping to their feet and making sure that the younger people in their houses were all accounted for before they started to make their way back to the dorms. They also made sure that none of the older students were stupid enough to try and do anything that would get them expelled.
Once all the students were gone from the Great Hall, Dumbledore turned to address the staff who were also in various states of panic but these people were quickly calmed by the reassuring words of Dumbledore. He assured them that the castle wards had not been breached but he would take care of the matter. He then dismissed them saying that they should turn in for the night and that the Heads of Houses should go to the Common Rooms first thing in the morning to tell the students that the curfew he imposed had ended.
The staff left quickly leaving only Dumbledore and Harry who was vainly casting whatever Healing Spells he knew, which weren't many, to try and stabilise the people who were the closest thing that he had to parents. Running out of ideas, Harry tried to pour some of his own power into the pair of them using a strength-sharing spell but all that accomplished was that the pairs breathing got a little calmer where as Harry started to get dizzy.
"Well, this was unexpected Harry, now how about we get these two to the Hospital wing post-haste." Dumbledore had appeared behind Harry and resting his hand on Harry's shoulder, Harry felt suddenly much more energised and figured that Dumbledore must have done some sort of wandless spell similar to the one that he had just done.
"Professor, Sirius and Remus are innocent you know, I'd swear my life on it, you have to believe me, they didn't…" Harry started babbling to Dumbledore, desperate to make the man see sense as the reality of the situation sunk in suddenly.
"Don't worry Harry, I think that once these two have been patched up under the expert care of Poppy, we ought to all have a little chat and see where we are to go from there." Dumbledore calmly said while patting Harry on the back softly to calm him down.
Shrugging off Dumbledore's kind gesture, Harry started thinking about what was going to happen now. Just thinking about all the possibilities was making his head hurt like mad. But he just couldn't get one thought from his head.
"What about Fudge? He will here about it for sure, and then Sirius and Remus will be shipped off to Azkaban within minutes, injured or not. What power do you have against the Minister of Magic?" Harry questioned, not caring that he was being somewhat rude to the proclaimed most powerful wizard in the world.
"Power over Minister Fudge?" Dumbledore said stressing the word Minister. "More than you could ever know." He answered cryptically, which angered the emotional Harry further but he let it drop. It would be no use getting in an argument with the only person that could help him.
The rest of the walk to the Hospital Wing was done in complete silence with Harry looking up at Dumbledore every now and then but the Headmasters expression never changed from a highly pensive look.
Upon entering the Infirmary, Madam Pomfrey came walking out from her office, there obviously being some sort of alarm set to go off and alert her when the Infirmary doors were opened. She briskly strode over to Dumbledore, probably to ask who's hurt when she saw the two limp bodies floating behind him. Drawing her wand, she got within five feet of the bodies before stopping, an abject look of horror on her features as she turned open mouth to stare at Dumbledore.
"Albus…that is...are you serious…!" Poppy managed to stutter out before Dumbledore once again took command of the situation in a powerful yet gentle way.
"Whatever they are or aren't Poppy, I need these to alive so that we can have a little chat, so if you would please." Dumbledore stated, waving his hand in the direction of the floating men, punctuating his statement.
Not needing anymore prompting, Madam Pomfrey waved her wand at the two man and they suddenly floated over to the two nearest beds. Running up and down the two men frantically, she began casting spell after spell, dealing with the more serious injuries first. On completion of the spells it seemed as if she truly noticed Harry for the first time.
"Mr. Potter, can you grab these Potions for me from the stores cupboard in my office post haste." Madam Pomfrey stated, her strict disciplined nature restored, as she began listing Potion after Potion to the boy.
Harry rushed off to grab the Potions and upon returning he saw that Dumbledore was speaking to the Nurse in hushed tones. Harry wished he could do a Listening Spell but he had no hands free and did not feel capable of using Wandless Magic in his weakened state.
Giving the Potions to the Nurse who immediately began distributing them to the two men accordingly, Harry's attention was drawn to Dumbledore who was beckoning him to join him on the opposite idea of the Hospital Wing.
Once close to the Headmaster, said man flicked his wand and what looked liked a privacy bubble erected around the two of them. Arching his eyebrow slightly, Dumbledore answered the implied question.
"I would trust Poppy with my life but I have learned that the less people that know important things the better."
Harry just nodded before asking the question that was on the tip of his tongue. "How are they?" He bluntly asked not wanting to be messed around.
"They are doing well considering. Poppy has stabilised them and in addition to the fact tat I as well as you have poured some power into them, they are suspected to wake up much sooner they normally would given the extent of their injuries." Dumbledore answered in a tone that warmed the heart of the young boy stood in front of him.
Harry gave a huge sigh of relief that soon turned into a huge yawn as the young boy's heavy day finally caught up with him. Seeing this, Dumbledore reached into his pocket and produced a vial that was filled with what Harry recognised as Dreamless Sleep Potion.
"You are tired young Harry." Dumbledore stated in a kind tone, "It has been a long day. Take this and sleep, I give you my word that Sirius and Remus will still be in the same position they are in now come morning." The man finished in his most kindly grandfatherly tone.
Suspicious of Dumbledore but feeling his body began to shut down; Harry didn't really have much choice but to take the vial from the outstretched hand of Dumbledore. Settling down on the bed across from Sirius and Remus, Harry wearily took the invisible sword off his back before he flicked his wand and changed straight into his pyjamas, too tired to get changed the Muggle way. Then taking his glasses off, Harry was asleep long before his head struck the pillow.
Harry woke early in the morning; he could see the sun just about raised in the sky, indicating that it was around 8am. Wondering what had caused him to awake; Harry soon heard the loud conversation between Dumbledore and Minister Fudge, puzzled as to why Dumbledore speaking in such loud tones before it struck him.
Luckily feeling energised, Harry jumped to his feet and with two swishes of his wand and a mumbled incantation, he was dressed, had his sword re-strapped to his back and was invisible. Then concentrating hard, Harry performed a more complex Invisibility Spell on both men. It would take a powerful wizard to see through those so Harry was satisfied. Then just as he was relaxing slightly, Harry caught another line of the Headmasters conversation.
"…But a whole division of Aurors searching the Castle, Cornelius, isn't that a bit extreme. I have already told you, no matter what you have heard, after waking both men, they somehow managed to escape and young Harry is still in his dormitory where he has been since last night." Dumbledore spoke clearly and loudly, Harry catching on straight away.
When the Hospital Wing doors opened, Harry stealthily crept past the Headmaster and the Minister, seeing Dumbledore look straight at him and giving him the tiniest of nods before proceeding to tell the Minister how Sirius and Remus were not in the Hospital Wing, despite what he may have heard.
Creeping his way down the corridors, Harry ducked through a secret passageway near to the Great Hall, before emerging visible. Entering the hall he was not too shocked to see five Aurors guarding each House Table, the majority of them giving him suspicious looks.
After eating his breakfast, Harry left the Great Hall but could only get about a hundred yards before a group of Aurors unfortunately led by Dawlish, who glared at the child as soon as saw sight of him.
"So Potter, Black and Lupin have finally decided to show their faces and grace the Wizarding World with their presence. Hopefully we'll find them soon; we've got some friends in Azkaban who want to give them a little kiss!" Dawlish laughed at Harry who as soon as hearing it, had his wand in his hand steadily pointing at the Auror who looked slightly surprised.
However these people weren't Aurors for nothing and within seconds Harry found himself at the wrong end of five wands. Grinning maliciously, Dawlish opened his mouth again to speak.
"Potter, you are outnumbered five to one here. Put your wand down and then you can answer a few questions for us, the Minister has authorised the use of a few drops of nice tasty Veritserum for you to have, now drop your wand." The man spoke to Harry as if he was five, a ting that infuriated the young boy about as much as the threat he had just issued.
Not phased in the slightest, Harry asked in a sarcastic voice, already knowing the answer, "And if I say no?"
Being that predictable, Harry had already moved before the Stunning Curse had fully left the lips of the Auror. Swishing his wand and crying "Repello", Harry caught the man unaware and caused him to fly backwards, knocking two other Aurors to the ground with him.
Not allowed a moment to congratulate himself, Harry was already defending spells from the other two Aurors who were not holding back on the eleven year old boy. Deflecting two Stunners before reflecting them back to the men twice as quick using a cool spell he had found in the Library, one of the Aurors fell stunned as the other blocked his just.
Taking the initiative, Harry sent a powerful Paralysing Curse at the rising three Aurors, managing to take two of them out. Rolling to the lift to avoid a spell that Harry had never heard of, Harry blocked a Binding Spell before sending three Bludgeoning Spells at the two remaining Aurors who managed to block them all much to Harry's chagrin.
Dodging two powerful Restraining Curses, Harry sent a Punching Spell at Dawlish who easily blocked it before both Aurors began to send powerful mono-syllabic curses at Harry, a strategy that Aurors have obviously been taught to employ.
Finding hard to defend against all the spells, let alone counter-attack, Harry resorted to physically dodging the spells rather than wearing his magic out constantly defending from them. Rolling to the left, Harry saw his chance and sending the curses sent at him back to the Aurors, quickly thrust his wand towards the one next to Dawlish and cried:
"Fuo"
The Powerful single syllable Bludgeoning Spell took the Auror by surprise, not expecting Harry to know such advanced magic despite what he had already seen of the boy. Already shielding against the Stunner Harry had reflected at him, the Aurors shield collapsed, the curse hitting him throwing the man against the wall where he slumped unconscious.
This just left Harry and Dawlish circling each other, both of them only dimly aware of the crowd that had been steadily growing for minutes, all disbelieving that a first year had taken out four Aurors and was holding his own. Harry and Dawlish weren't bothering about that fact now; to each other they were the enemy.
Reacting first Dawlish sent a curse that Harry had never heard of before at him. Rolling left Harry fired two Stunners one after the other but the man blocked both easily. Harry then went on the offensive but no matter what he did the Auror either blocked it or dodged it easily. Sensing that the duel was slipping away from him, Harry decided to try out something that he had wanted to do for a while.
Waiting for Dawlish to send a curse, Harry rolled forward, under the curse and quickly casting a Wandless Jumping Charm, Harry propelled himself into the Auror, kicking him in the temple, sending the Auror sprawling across the floor, wand clattering from his hand leaving the man defenceless.
Raising his wand, Harry was about to stun the man when suddenly his wand leapt from his grasp. Spinning round, Harry whipped out his second wand, curse on the tip of his tongue, when he saw Dumbledore holding his wand. Worse still was that Minister Fudge was standing there surrounded by what looked like all the other Aurors who all had their wands drawn.
"What is going on here?" Dumbledore asked rhetorically, a smile tugging at his lips.
"They were going to interrogate me Professor. Dawlish said that they had the Ministers approval to use Veritserum on me. It was self-defence!" Harry exclaimed, being smart enough to send his second wand back to its holster.
"Preposterous!" Fudge cried, "You couldn't have taken out five Aurors, Black and Lupin must still be around here somewhere. The boy is making it up Albus."
"Do you want to see what I can really do Minister?" Harry asked in a sickly voice that dripped contempt.
Paling, the Minister looked to Dumbledore for help and upon receiving none; he drew himself up to his full height and said "Yes, well you haven't heard the last of this Dumbledore. I know you have something to do with their sudden disappearances. I will be back, that I promise."
With that proclamation, Minister Fudge swept down the hall, all the Aurors following close apart from a few who either awakened or levitated the five fallen Aurors behind them as they left.
Turning to the masses of students who just happened to be in the same corridor as where Harry's duel took place, Dumbledore cleared his throat loudly before announcing:
"However much I would love to find out how the whole of Hogwarts can be in this corridor within thirty seconds of a duel starting, I'm sure you all have better things to do."
All the students began moving, understanding the underlying message Dumbledore had just given them, eager to get out of the way of the Headmaster.
Turning to face Harry, Dumbledore gave the boy his wand before looking him straight in the eye and asking:
"I too wonder how you took out five Aurors Harry but alas I'm sure that have probably forgotten the answer so I will not endeavour to ask but just remember, the Minister is a bad enemy to have, he can make life uneasy even for the best of us."
With that Dumbledore said goodbye, leaving Harry to his thoughts.
Spending the day studying some books in the privacy of his dorm, Harry was dreading the evening meal that night and for good reason. Upon entering the Great Hall it was like a Silencing Charm had been cast, not a sound was to be heard from anyone except Dumbledore who seemed to be enjoying clanking his cutlery and glass just to make a sound.
The looks that Harry was receiving from the whole student body, ranging from respect to awe to fear to envy to lust. Harry shivered at that last one and made a promise that he would never be alone with that particular Hufflepuff Seventh Year.
That night, Harry was sitting in his dorm reading when he felt someone enter the dorm. Expecting it to be Ron or someone he took no heed. When he felt his privacy charms being inspected he drew the curtains, wand in hand to look straight into the face of the Headmaster who found Harry's state highly amusing. Sobering very quickly however, the Headmaster simply said:
"There awake."
AN
Has it really been nearly 11 WEEKS? Where does the time go??? I apologise profusely but I have been working ten hours a day and hence have had less time to write this summer than I normally have when I go to school!
Anyway there is some good news, I have posted a new one shot, Twisted, but not on this account, was being stupid and wouldn't allow it. To read, follow the link through my BIO. Also coming soon is another short story and it, unlike HLBLC is nearly complete. It is called Strength in Sacrifice and is mainly from Sirius's POV and the whole thing will be up within two weeks!
This story will be now worked on till completion before I do anything else though I have got another couple of stories in the Black Saga in the pipeline.
Oh and join the Yahoo! Group, Sirius Denial! Address on my BIO and you can see my work before it is posted on !
REVIEWER RESPONCES
Araidel: Harry does have the Sword with him at all times still but I will say and I am big enough to admit that I had forgotten about it, doh! Thank you for reminding me, I have included it in the future chapters planning pus this chapter, just for you!
blackstar9: To be honest, I think people have Harry friends with Neville rather than Ron when Sirius raises him as Neville is easier to identify with!
Knucz: How long do I usually take to update? I have now updated about 4 times in 5 months but before that I was updating once a week. Hopefully I am going to try getting back to that or at the most once in every two weeks, its my aim to get the story done by Christmas, it was the challenge I set up when I set the story.
Thanks for the overwhelming patience and support and cheers!
Halstead