Disclaimer: I tried sleeping in the cardboard box and it rained. I own nothing related to the world of Harry Potter. Cricket bit me when I asked her if she was really an alien.
Harry Potter and the Strength of Three
Chapter 14, Of Wizards and Witches Dark
This chapter is dedicated to my mum, who reviewed my story last chapter.
"...We'll take the stairs?" Harry mumbled, confused. He looked around at his companions, seeing his expression mirrored around the room. With a chuckle, he shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever...I should expect things like that from him." Here his face darkened slightly, and he stood from his chair. "He never explains anything. Anyways..." He looked about the room they were in again, allowing a grin to form across his features. "This place is cool, let's do some exploring." Ron grinned as well, and the four left the room, opting to go back upstairs and start from there.
The four friends spent several hours exploring their new home...not that the safe house was extremely large, only interesting. Every room seemed to carry on the crimson and gold color scheme, lending a Gryffindor air to the place. Windows spilt light from the afternoon sun across the lush carpets of each room, but curiously every window was opaque, seemingly covered in frost. Either so the four couldn't see outside or so others couldn't see in, Harry didn't know, although he was leaning towards the latter.
The upstairs portion of their temporary home consisted only of bedrooms, extravagant and lush to a fault, but bedrooms nonetheless. Each room looked similar to another, and the four quickly grew bored and moved back downstairs from the far end of the hall. The stairways on this end of the house led to a room much like the one on the other side of the house, only smaller. Three couches stood before a cold fireplace, the grate clean and free of ashes as though it hadn't been used in some time. A small table stood beneath a window along one of the walls, a chessboard complete with pieces sitting atop it. Curiously, the chess set was of muggle design, much to Ron's chagrin. He poked and prodded the pieces several times when he thought no one was looking, trying to get them to move. Harry had to move from the room to keep from laughing.
The next room was a kitchen, but unlike the chess set this was obviously not of muggle design. A stove stood on one side of the room...but it was free of knobs or heat controlling devices of any kind. Harry briefly wondered how it was used, before remembering the stove that Mrs. Weasley used at the burrow, which was quite similar...if slightly less opulent. One would simply light a magical fire above one of the burners, so there was no need for knobs or anything...the heat level was controlled completely by the witch or wizard.
"Looks like you'll be doing all the cooking, Tonks." Harry chuckled, pointing to the stove. "We're all under age, so we can't do magic." Remembering his now broken wand, Harry grimaced. "Besides which...I don't even have a wand anymore." Shaking his head at his loss, Harry quickly strode into the next room, and came to a sudden stop as his friends did the same, all four gasping in various levels of surprise.
The room before them was about twice as big as the larger 'common room,' stretching grandly before them for almost thirty meters. Situated around the room in an almost haphazard fashion was a startling array of strange instruments...some that Harry recognized and some he did not. The first thing that caught his eye was an array of stuffed burlap sacks, shaped as people. They stood along one of the walls, and although they seemed to be in excellent condition the wall behind them was scarred and burnt in places. Practice In the center of the room was a raised platform, roughly six meters to a side...a dueling stage. Several...machines, if they could be called so, were situated in a corner to their left. A few of them Harry recognized as exercise machines of some sort, although if they were the design was nothing he had seen before. There were no cables or visible weights...indeed, compared to muggle exercise equipment these machines seemed incredibly simple...almost incomplete.
Other practice dummies were spaced about the room, seemingly for practicing other forms of attack. A few hung suspended from the ceiling to their right, and Harry guessed they served as the wizarding equivalent to a muggle punching bag. However, none of these items are what grabbed Harry's attention. The burlap dummies in the far left corner are the ones that he began walking towards...or to be more specific, the walls and racks behind them that held the most amazing array of bladed weaponry he had ever before seen.
There were swords, of course, as well as knives of every shape and size. Axes, long poles with blades on the ends, long, curved, wicked looking blades with a handle in the middle, gloves with spikes, blades that were seemingly meant to be strapped to ones forearm...the multitude of weapons was fascinating. Harry was in awe, each blade seemed to shine as if it was brand new, polished and not touched since. He had never before imagined so many devices with sharp edges before. The sight made him shiver...there had to be well over a hundred weapons in this room.
And all with a single purpose...to kill.
He tentatively stuck his finger out towards one of the weapons that seemed to be made from a single piece of metal. The handle was situated in the middle, the blade stretching out to the sides over two feet in each direction, meeting in the middle in front of the handle. The entire thing looked sharp, the glinting metal curving in a graceful ark in each direction and ending in a menacing point, to sweep back and connect with the handle. The entire blade was sharp...even the parts of it that would face the wielder, the handle being the only part of the weapon that didn't look deadly. With a mesmerized look to his eyes, Harry slowly let his finger come to rest upon the blades edge...only to bring it back with a startled yelp as the blade bit into his finger. It was razor sharp.
"Well, that was dumb." He heard Ron say from his side, and turned to see his friend looking at the weapons warily. "It's a blade...meant to cut things...like fingers." Ron turned his gaze to meet Harry's, humor in his eyes. Harry scowled and stuck his finger in his mouth before walking further among the weapons. Some of the swords and daggers had runes etched along the length of their blades, and Hermione did her best to translate them, being the only one of the four to have studied ancient runes. Although she couldn't translate all of the writings, she could understand several runes that seemed to be common among the few engraved swords. Runes of everlasting sharpness, unbreakable runes, runes to bestow strength and stamina upon the user, runes of bonding, and on one of the swords, a black double edged monster that Harry doubted he could even lift, not to mention swing...a rune of pain.
"I bet ol' Tom would just love that one." Harry said sarcastically, gesturing to the ebony blade. "Right up his alley..." Seeing the others curious looks, Harry elaborated, "Tom Riddle?" Seeing nothing but confusion, he shook his head in annoyance. "...Voldemort."
Most of the inscribed blades also had names; several quite gruesome, like Head Chopper and Hamstring, but others were quite poetic. Moonlight, a small silver dagger with a blade no longer than Harry's hand, glowed a faint bluish color and had stars and a moon depicted in the pommel. Paladin was a broadsword, not quite as large as the black one, and the entire weapon was made of a metal that was so white it almost hurt the eye. Amee's Song was a katana style sword, the handle wrapped in a textured turquoise cloth that matched it's hardened sheath. When removed, it elicited a beautiful sound that the four discovered made everyone that heard it, besides the wielder, feel strangely lethargic...slow. Another dagger, this one called Sparkle taught them to keep their hands off the weapons, as the blade spat an arc of electricity at Ron as he moved to pick it up.
Ironically, the black sword with the pain rune etched near the cross-guard was named Griever.
"Let's get out of here," Hermione shuddered, eyeing a wicked looking axe with a red blade that hung on the wall above their reach. "This place gives me the creeps..." Everyone agreed, and soon they found themselves sprawled in the couches in the smaller common room. The door at the far end of the 'training room,' as they had come to call it, led to the room they had met Dumbledore in, and besides the many unexplored bathrooms and bedrooms on the second floor there was nothing else to see. Tonks had conjured an illusionary fire in the fireplace, and as the day wore on into evening it became the only source of light in the room. Soon enough, Ron's snores filled the room as the occupants fell asleep one by one. Hermione once again curled up with Harry on the same couch.
Harry was the last to fall asleep, as he had remembered a few things...things that made him worry. What happened to Dudley? Where was Cricket? Were they both ok? Were they even alive? Everyone around him suffered needlessly...even the poor squirrel.
Voldemort was right...death followed him everywhere.
Harry awoke the next morning to find the Headmaster sitting in a conjured armchair directly in front of the fireplace, seemingly asleep. The illusionary fire had long ago dissipated, but soft sunlight streamed through the frosted windows to splash about the room in a gentle fashion.
Harry stretched, as much as one can stretch with a teenage girl sleeping on the same couch, and stifled a yawn. Blinking a few times, he returned his gaze to Dumbledore, to find the headmaster gazing sadly back at him. His eyes held a twinkle, but it was dim...faltering. Instead of conveying calm and carefree happiness it exuded an almost palpable sadness, which Harry found slightly confusing.
"I am sorry, Harry." Dumbledore spoke softly, pain evident in his voice. "If I had known that your relatives were capable of doing such a thing...I would have never left you in their care." Harry looked away, concentrating instead on the ceiling, not wishing to see the headmaster in such a vulnerable state. "I have witnessed many horrible, terrible things in my many years. I have lived through more dark times than light it seems...indeed, I've lived during the reign of not two dark lords...but five." Harry jerked his gaze back to Dumbledore as he said this, his eyes widening in surprise. This was news to him. "Before I attended Hogwarts, the Dark Witch Liandrin was defeated at Morgan's Pass. During my sixth year at Hogwarts Lord Necronis rose, only to be defeated two years later on the street just below that window." Here the old man gestured lazily towards the frosty glass set in the wall, his movements slow, lethargic. Harry had never seen the man look as old as he did at that moment. "When I was thirty, and still an Auror, a Dark Wizard going by the name of Sin plagued the British Isles, committing acts so depraved, so atrocious, that they gave many good wizards nightmares just to think about. I myself brought about Grindelwald's defeat in 1945."
Dumbledore stood from his chair and moved to the window, seemingly piercing the opaque glass and looking down on what lay below. "Now Voldemort...and these other Dark Wizards are only the ones on our side of the world. Did you know, Harry, that the United States have their own Dark Lord, who is at this very moment gathering followers of his own? Committing crimes equal, if not even more heinous than those of Voldemort and his followers?" He turned to look at Harry, who had stood from the couch carefully to avoid waking Hermione, and was now trying to look through the window himself. All he could see was frosted glass.
"No...I didn't. I've always wondered why we didn't have some outside assistance, especially during Voldemort's first reign. Now I know." Harry sighed, running a hand through his hair. "How can people be so...evil? What is the point? Kill a few people, and you're evil, but why do it in the first place? I just don't get it." He turned a questioning glance upon the headmaster, who still looked sadly out the window...seeing things only he could see.
"I don't know Harry. I could never tell you, for I am not evil myself...nor could you understand if Tom were to come here at this very moment and explain himself, for you are inherently good." Dumbledore turned his head as he finished, the sadness in his eyes punctuated with a hint of pride...it disappeared with his next words however. "It is our choices that make us who we are, Harry. Tom Riddle was raised in an uncaring environment...mentally and physically abused. Every experience that he had with muggles before coming to Hogwarts was bad...much like your own experiences." Harry made to protest at this, but Dumbledore held up a hand and continued. "I'm not saying that you and Voldemort are anything alike Harry, merely that you share similar backgrounds. Both shunned and abused before your arrival at Hogwarts, and once there you faced similar situations as well. You both faced hatred and awe from your classmates...You for who you are, and Tom for his heritage...for he found he was of Slytherin blood in his very first year. Despite this, you both are so completely different to be exact opposites. You Harry, would sacrifice yourself to save an unknown man, while Voldemort would sacrifice himself for no-one. Years of hatred stirs within his heart Harry...Voldemort has done such horrible things in his life that I do not think he is capable of any other emotion...indeed, I do not believe him to be completely human even."
"But you Harry," The twinkle returned, pride and happiness, even...hope. Harry turned his head from the gaze, knowing that the hope was misplaced. Just the day before he had been defeated by his non-magical uncle...how was he to defeat Voldemort? "You made all the right choices. You are a beacon of light among the darkness...a shining hope for all of wizard-kind. Indeed," the headmaster's voice turned sorrowful as he strode back to the center of the room. "You are our only hope, and I am sorry that you must carry this burden." Once he reached the center of the three couches, he turned to face Harry once more. "Enough of this melancholy conversation, hmm?" With that, he reached into his robes and withdrew his wand, with a wink to Harry he waved his wand, sending a shower of red and gold sparks cascading from its tip...with a god-awful crackling, popping noise to go with it.
"Bloody hell!" Ron yelled, falling to the floor with a yelp. He scowled about the room before catching sight of the headmaster's amused expression. Blushing, he shot to his feet, standing at attention like a muggle army recruit about to be reprimanded by a drill officer. Hermione and Tonks reacted much the same, except Tonks first reaction was to go for her wand, sending a stunner at the source of the sound before she even had her eyes fully open.
Much to Harry's surprise, and Tonks' horror, Dumbledore dropped like a stone.
A/N OMFG!!!!!11!1 He updated!! lol. Sorry to keep you people waiting so long, but I had a lot of stuff going on for a while. Then Halo 2 was released...not to mention the WOW open beta...and HL2...yea, lots of stuff, heh. It wasn't that long anyways though...right? Like a month almost. I'll try to update much faster in the future if I can, but I'm moving to a new apartment next week, so it might not be for a couple weeks at the least. Hopefully I can get internet right away...
My beta readers are ass-kicking as always, my thanks go out to Nymph23, Shadow Dragon 12, and the new guy Shaz124
Right now it's reaaaly late...or early depending on how you look at it, so I'm posting this before it gets beta'd.
I know that since I've taken so long to write this that a few more days without an update wouldn't hurt, but
I just had to post this...Cricket made me do it. After my betas whip this into shape I'll repost.
To the reviewer that asked to be a beta, fan fiction .net edited out your email, so I can't email you. Unfortunatly, I think I've got enough beta readers now, sorry. If you ever have a suggestion of anything email me, I take every good suggestion to heart.
A couple people have warned me now about putting review responses in my chapters...apparently fan fiction .net doesn't like that, and in their infinite wisdom they'll smite my story from this site if they see them. Soooo, no review responses this time, sorry. I'm thinking of getting one of those yahoo groups everyone uses now-aday, but we'll have to see. Needless to say, I REAAAAALLY appreciate the reviews, so please keep reviewing.
I know this chapter may seem like a bunch of filler, but I had to get this stuff out of the way. I had to instill a sense of respect for Dumbledore back into Harry...at least before he gets pissed at him again, which is coming fairly soon. I hope you liked it anyway. I thought I might have a hard time getting back into things after my hiatus, but my muses came right back to life.
I do have one thing to say...joe6991 and aerie22, both great writers, reviewed my story, so I ROCK! Muahahaha! If you haven't read their stories yet do so now, you'll thank me later. I dunno if I've mentioned RossWrock here before, but I'm sure most of you have heard of him. Read his stories, or Cricket will bite you. Hell, look at my favorites list, all the stories are damn good. Whoever mentioned me on those yahoo groups has my thanks...I'm realy tired and forgot your name.
Anyways, thanks again to all those that reviewed. I hope to be updating soon.