A/N: ::covers head from mass of sharp objects being thrown and runs for cover from angry readers:: I'm sorry! Just don't kill me before your read the chapter!
But on a brighter note, I'm typing this up on my own, brand new (ish) computer, so update should hopefully be more frequent now.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and have never claimed to.
Chapter 23
"A snidget?" Harry asked sceptically as he looked up from his bed at Sirius. "You sure? I thought they were nearly extinct anyway."
"They may be," said Sirius, looking as if he knew everything on the subject. "But just because they're near extinction doesn't mean that you can't have one for your animagi form."
"Oh."
A few minutes of silence passed, neither sure of what to say, until Sirius smiled slightly and turned to leave, unable to stand the awkward silence that had occurred a moment longer.
"Um, Sirius?" Harry said, just as his godfather got to the door, causing the older man to turn. "What actually happened?"
Sirius sighed and came back into the room. He sat down, cross-legged, on an old, dusty, backless, black armchair and leaned his head against the wall which was just behind him, the old wallpaper crackling quietly under the sudden and unexpected weight. He closed his eyes a moment, before opening them and staring directly at his godson with a gaze so intense that Harry had only ever seen on one occasion before: two and a half years prior in the Shrieking Shack when Sirius had been trying to kill Wormtail.
"Do you know," Sirius started, still gazing unblinkingly at Harry. "The story behind that room I took you in earlier?"
Harry shook his head, making Sirius sigh, before he stared explaining the whole story behind it.
Bella sighed as she sat down, her back sliding down against a walls next to the door and she stared across at the mural on the other side, the only thing painted in there that wasn't moving, which gave it a much greater effect. This room could cause so much trouble, but was very important to history, and was about the only room in the house that was surrounded by light magic.
There was a history to the room that many people had forgotten over time, thinking that the magical history of the world was just goblin wars thanks to the history lessons that they had at school. But there was more to history than that, and the Black family had always made sure their children had known it. The room itself was part of one of her favourite sections of history that most people either forgot about or just didn't know. She could remember the story easily...
Long ago, at the dawn of our world, elves left their own world and settled in ours. The elves of then and the elves of now are very different. Back then the elves were not the humble house elves of today. Back then the elves were not the servants of man. Back then elves were different physically, magically and mentally.
Most of the elves were near immortal, as is normal for their kind, though only one was considered fully so. She was a Goddess among men and a Queen among her own people. Her name was Tanhisial.
The elves spent several hundred years on Earth, all of which was in peace, and during which they helped and advised mankind in building their civilisation, and on their laws and morals, helping them in ways many people cannot imagine, suggesting and guiding towards ideas from their own culture to begin with, all of which could be changed at a later date by man should they wish it so.
But then, after approximately 500 years on Earth a terrible deed was performed by man, one which the elves saw as unforgivable. An elf was killed, unprovoked as all elves were peaceful unless forced into war. This forced the elves to come to a realisation: their kind and ways of life would be destroyed forever , and they themselves would come under the control of the humans, and so Tanhisial made a decision that would affect all. She decided that the elves needed to leave the human world for good.
Many of the humans pleaded with the elves to stay, that it wouldn't happen again, that it was a one off, and so on and so forth, but it was to no avail. They could not sway the decision with most of the elves.
The elves parted ways with humans and the Earth then, but Tanhisial gave them one last parting message:
'Do not say we are out of touch with this rampant chaos - your reality. We know well what lies beyond our peaceful refuge, the nightmare we found our own world to escape.'
There were a few elves that stayed behind, of course, swayed by man's arguments that nothing of the sort of crime that had been performed would happen again. The descendants of these elves are now no more than the common day house elf, proving that the rest of the elves had been correct to leave when they had.
Whatever happened to Tanhisial and the rest of the elves that chose to leave is widely unknown, though there are many speculations. Some say that they are all dead, some say that they are a dying race. Some say that they are alive and well, currently thriving in whatever world they went to after leaving our own. Others say that they are actually living amongst us, and that they never left, and others still say that Tanhisial and the others did leave, but, after many years, started to worry about the race of man, and so they sent back one elf to watch over them all in the guise of a human child in order to help protect to human world.
Yes, Bella loved that story, and the room she was in was supposed to depict what was seen through the portal to whatever land that the elves had gone to when they had left Earth by whoever was there at the time. Who had actually painted it, no one was too certain, but whoever had done, they had done a great job, and had probably added the wards surrounding the room as well.
The wards around the room, according to many, many tests that bad been done on them over the years, were mainly to keep the room safe, ensuring that no one who meant to do any harm to the one last reminder of the true elves could enter. But there was one ward, one single ward that was different from the others. This ward had been designed to identify the Prophesied One' upon their entry to the room. Whoever the Prophesied One was had remained a mystery up until earlier that day, but now she supposed it made sense. After all, Harry had been mentioned in the prophecy about Voldemort, but why no one had thought of it before was beyond her. Or, perhaps, they had, just not mentioned it for fear of ridicule.
Hermione stared out of a window at the top of Gryffindor tower, sitting with her back against the wall. Her homework lay done on the table, most of it she had only just managed to do to each of her Professors' requirements.
It was raining outside, as was normal for the time of year, and the sky was black and purple from the clouds. Somewhere in the distance lightning flashed, and she counted. One... two... three... four... and there was the thunder. Ever since she had been a little girl she had always counted the time between the lightning and the thunder, just mainly out of curiosity after hearing that each second you counted represented one mile further away from where you were to where the lightning had struck. According to that equation the lighting had hit only four miles away, most probably at the furthest side of Hogsmeade, or possibly somewhere up in the mountains.
"Hermione?" a timid voice asked from behind her. "Are you going to stay there all night?"
Hermione turned, a scowled fixed on her face as she glared at the person who had disturbed her; Ron. He instantly backed away as he saw the look on her featured, knowing that she was not to be messed with at that particular moment, and it would be best to not talk to her.
She turned back to the window and resumed staring, thinking back to what she would have been doing at about that time just one year ago. Probably either studying for the OWLs or doing homework. But now both studying and homework seemed rather pointless, along with grades, after all, there were more important things in life, like freedom for instance.
She knew what had brought about the change in her, from bookworm to then, and that was the events of the summer. Harry had lost his freedom, along with practically any chance of regaining it at the same time, and so it had help place things in perspective for her. Knowledge didn't seem as important anymore, it just... didn't.
Ehno giggled as he replaced 'So You Want To Learn The Forbidden Arts' back on the shelf in the Black Family library. It had not given much information, but he had gained some knowledge from it that he could use, and every little bit counted.
Again he ran his hand over a shelf of the ancient books, searching for the right one, though he wasn't quite sure which it was. He knew he would know when he came to it, and so he did. He felt something, some magic in his hand when he reached one of the books which shot up his arm until he pulled out the book..
It was relatively thin compared with the rest, and appeared to be made of muggle paper, a welcome change from all of the parchment. The covers were made of a blue cardboard and all over it were drawn pentagram, stars, spirals, heartagrams and spider's webs, all drawn with great care in black or red, with the words 'The Diary Journal of Sirius Black' written in faded gold letters on one side. Ehno smiled, this could be what he wanted, what he needed to complete his task, but only time would tell.
He shrank the book, and hid it before leaving the library, shutting the door behind him.
He was there again, in the forest, and, again, there was more mist, less light, and more dead trees than the last time he had been there. He looked up and saw Tanhisial.
"Welcome, Harry Potter," she greeted him, a smile on her face, which quickly faltered. "I see that you now know of the past involvement between my people and your own."
Harry swallowed, and nodded his head, waiting for her to continue, but she never did. Finally Harry decided to speak.
"Um, can you tell me why I keep coming here?"
She stared at him when he asked her the question, making him feel as if he had offended her in some way, though he quickly realised he hadn't when a smile graced her features.
"You are coming here to learn more of your destiny," she said simply, looking around at the trees, one of the leaves of which fell. "Though it is your choice to come in the first place."
"You sure?" Harry asked, his brow furrowed in his confusion. "Because I don't exactly remember thinking about coming here."
"Maybe not," she laughed at him. "But your subconscious did."
"Could you explain a little bit more?" he asked her as politely as he could manage, feeling his infamously short temper starting to surface. Tanhisial chuckled quietly to herself.
"I had almost forgotten how impatient man can be. But, if you want to know, I will not deny you. Your subconscious knew about this place all of your life, from the moment you were born. You come here of your own free will., the first time you come, and anytime you come whilst you are asleep, when your subconscious mind is at its strongest. However, should you decide to come whilst you are awake, you can do so, simply by thinking of this place. I would not advise this though," she smiled at him. "This would be, essentially, like apparition in your world, as your body would accompany your mind on the trip."
Harry nodded, his mind barely accepting all of the new information he had acquired. Then an idea struck him.
"If I was to come when I was awake..." he started, trailing off when he saw Tanhisial had a good idea of what he was thinking.
"No, if you were to come when you were awake then you would not necessarily end up back in the same place as to where you had left, but, rather, where you most wished to end up."
A mischievous glint appeared in Harry's eye as he thought about the possibilities for this power. They were nearly endless. It would certainly come in useful.
A/N: OMG! Do you have any idea of how long that chapter was?! Over 2000 words! It was so easy to write as well! Woohoo! Maybe not being distracted by the internet when I'm writing is a good thing, especially since I wrote almost all of this in one sitting. ::hugs computer:: I knew I should have gotten one ages ago!
Mirai Diavolo: Thanks! Here's the update!
Dark Miroku: Sorry, none of them. Besides, I had already decided on what his animagi form would be.
Saetan: Nope, actually, it's tiny. I said in the last chapter that you never could tell how large your form will be, so that meant it could be any size.
Tradiferis: I have a spellchecker! And I use it too! And I'm resolving that next chapter.
panuru4u: No, she was mouthing off at her aunt. But I get the idea. And thanks.
Sonowiknow: ::shrugs:: Oh well.
padfootjr23: I hope this sated some of your curiosity.
Ryua Malfoy: As if anyone could get me to write that!
SiLvErFaTeD: Lol!
Amscray: Hmmm, good point about Sirius. And I do know my tudor history, you know. I love that era!
Hell's Reaper: Thanks!
Rock and Sarcasm: This soon enough?
G: Okay!
The Vampire Story Hunter: Nope, sorry, not a fox demon. And they don't show YuYu Hakusho here, so I wouldn't know.
Krissy Riddle: Yes, I did! And it got me some death threats!
Zaraky: Thanks!
Lek Nufrac: It was easy enough. I just stopped typing.
mellowyellow36: Again, no, not any sort of snake. And I know about the AU one.
INMH: Here you go!
Susan: Well, Harry's power's mentioned at the end.
A. Person: Lol! This chapter has some majoy hints in it.
sarl927: No, not stupid, well planned and strategically placed.
Topsta: Um, I'm not sure about Bella. I'd have to think about it, though I don't think I will have her as one. The facts just wouldn't add up.
Bardiel-Sachiel: Well, if that's your attitude I'm not sure I should update at all.
TimGold: No, you didn't miss it, and no I didn't forget. I just have trouble writing romance. Hopefully I will writesome in the next chapter (I have a whole scene planned out in my head). And has that been officially announced? If it has I must have missed it.
JulyFlame: A snidget, and thanks!
Be0t: Yeah, I know. Description's where I always go wrong.
NatalieJ: Lol! Thanks! But please! Don't remind me about my GCSEs! I'm trying my hardest to forget!
NateP: Now isn't that an interesting question. I could base a whole chapter on that.
Klerenallan Serpiente de Plata: Thanks for telling me about that! I really needed to read a fic like it.
Dackasjack: I can and I did!
Noname: I know that now!
Potts: To get death threats over the it.
Okay, now there's just one thing I've gotta say to you lot: 34 reviews! OMG! I'm in shock! Maybe I should do evil cliffies more often…
