Disclaimer: I own nothing; it all belongs to J.K.Rowling. I'm just borrowing the characters to play with for a while. This is for pleasure only, no profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.
CHAPTER ELEVEN – Protection
Harry popped into his phoenix form and grabbed a hold of the Headmaster. A quick fwoosh of fire-travel and they were at Sanctuary. Albus was in awe at the sights and feelings around him. Harry popped back into his human form.
"Good lord Harry. The magic here is alive! It feels like the exact middle of Stonehenge on the vernal equinox. It is…" Albus paused thinking up the best term for this and settled on "invigorating."
Harry smiled "Yes it definitely is." Archimedes felt his brother's presence and came out to greet them. Harry saw him coming over and said "Albus, I would like you to meet my brother Archimedes. Archimedes, this is Albus Dumbledore, and you can affix about a dozen spiffy titles to the end of that if you wish."
Albus smiled at Harry and took in the griffin in front of him that just shifted into some sort of humanoid lion. "Hello Archimedes. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"You too Albus. I've heard all sorts of good things about you and it is an honor to finally meet you."
Albus raised an eyebrow at that, was looking at Harry out of the corner of his eye, and said "Really?"
"Oh don't mind my brother. You just have to learn how to read between the lines with him. Why he continues to delude himself I'll never know." Archimedes said with a shake of his head as though he were placating a small child.
"You better watch it Archie! I'm sure the dragons are hungry enough to dispose of an old decrepit griffin body." Harry said with a playful frown.
"That's it! I've warned you not to call me that!" And Archimedes transformed back into his normal griffin appearance and jumped straight at Harry. Harry morphed into his large black griffin form and the two wrestled and grappled each other. Neither was trying to actually hurt the other, they were just attempting to give the other what to griffins would be essentially a noogie. Archimedes got the upper hand and had Harry pinned beneath him. He jumped in the air to pounce further on his body, and with the opportunity Harry popped into his phoenix form and flew away. Archimedes went back into his more communicative form and said "Such a cheater isn't he Albus?"
Albus could only smile and laugh at these two. He was beginning to understand the concept of brotherhood between these two was even stronger than most brothers by blood. "I think it may be in my best interests to remain diplomatic and not comment on Harry's methods."
Harry rejoined them in his human form with a smile on his face. Fawkes was now with him, and it appeared he wanted to join his brother and companion on their tour. Harry began their tour and right away Albus was asking questions, Harry was unsure about answering. Harry asked the Headmaster to perform an oath of confidentiality and was willing to answer any of them then.
"Very well Harry, I swear on my magic to keep the secrets of Sanctuary to myself and share them with no others." A swirl of magic was visible and the oath was official. "There you go, and now, the one that is killing me the most, where on earth are we?"
Harry smiled. "We are standing on the island mage Gabriel thought no one would stand on ever again."
Albus's eyes widened "Oh heavens. Is it true Merlin made this his Avalon?"
Harry nodded. "I'm not certain, but as I am guessing, Merlin managed to raise it back up, and the foliage has since grown back on it. I have found few signs of salvageable ruins, other than the manor that Merlin built himself. I'm pretty sure the manor is directly over some central magical force too, as the wards and protections all stem from around it."
Harry explained as much as he himself had understood. He pointed around the grounds to directions some creatures considered their homes. They walked past the neighborhood of homes where the veela, werewolves, and even some vampires lived. He finished with a tour of the manor and a bit of time in the library. Albus was completely fascinated with many of the books and scrolls Harry had. Harry gave him some quiet time to read some, while Harry did the same. Albus was interrupted by his Order Medallion buzzing indicating someone had an emergency. He activated it and heard Kingsley Shacklebolt's voice. "Albus! The Dark Lord is attacking Diagon Alley! We need your help!" Albus assured him he would be right there, said a brief goodbye to Harry, and grabbed onto Fawkes tail and they disappeared.
Albus appeared and saw an advancing Death Eater force of at least 50 strong. Heading it at the front was Harry Potter. This supposed Harry was screaming killing curses and sending them flailing towards any crowds of people he could find. Albus straightened his body up and screamed out "You – Are – Not – Harry – Potter!" and with a forceful lunge forward with his wand aimed at the fake Harry, an explosion of white power flew from his body. It looked like a ghost of Albus was flying straight towards Harry where it hit a shield and sliced straight through impacting hard into the faux Harry Potter. His body crumpled and flew backwards towards a storefront. Apparently this impostor had some fail safes to keep himself from getting captured and he completely disappeared before even smashing into the windows behind him.
The rest of the Death Eaters took this as a cue and all disapparated away. The fighters for the light took a look at the destruction and realized this could have been a lot worse. This was merely a statement by the dark. Albus recognized it was Tom merely testing Harry as well as trying to make sure Harry had enemies. He was a bit saddened to think Harry wouldn't really care about this. After assisting all those who needed immediate help, and dealing with the injured and the dead, the Order assembled for an immediate meeting.
It seemed more people were becoming sympathetic to Harry Potter. Ron Weasley was unsurprisingly not one of them. "How are you so sure that wasn't Harry Potter?"
Several people protested saying Harry had never attacked anyone since he got out of prison and he wasn't likely to start by openly allying with his parents' murderer and stage a weak public attack. A few of the doubters grumbled and said that's just what Potter would want you to think.
Albus silenced them quickly. "I know that was not Harry Potter for a number of reasons. I am familiar with his character, and I have a general idea for his power. But even if I barely knew him, he has a perfect alibi, in that I was talking with him and had been in his presence for hours when Kingsley alerted me to the attack."
Ron thought this too sounded awfully convenient, but seemed to be in a minority on this. Tonks seemed quite happy to hear this, and asked if he had been at what she called 'Harry's place'. Albus assured her, he could not discuss it in any capacity, but that yes he was, and it was absolutely breathtaking. This only served to pique more people's curiosities but Albus was unable to tell anything further.
There were some scattered attacks over the next few weeks supposedly led by Harry Potter, but only the most closed-minded it seemed believed it was truly Harry Potter. When a few people they knew to be supporters of the Dark Lord agreed it was Harry Potter it seemed quite clear to everyone else that this was merely the Dark Lord trying to manipulate public opinion of Mr. Potter. When some articles claimed it was because he was too scared to attack Potter himself, the impostor stopped showing up altogether. None of it seemed to bother Harry in the least though. The only ones he could begin to care for knew him and knew what he was like and was doing. The Dark Lord did not take this well. It seemed being ignored was somewhat insulting to him, and the attacks then continued, though this time messages were left for Harry instead. And the reasons for the attacks seemed to be him. One of the more notables ones, was that the Burrow was completely destroyed. No one was hurt luckily, but the Weasley family home was gone. Upon one of the walls that remained standing, the missing and decayed body of Remus Lupin had been nailed and crucified. In his mouth was the rat formerly known as Peter Pettigrew. Written in blood was the message "Scabbers missed his old home. Is your collection of Marauders complete now Potter?"
When Harry was told, he frowned, but just a little. Ron however became even angrier at Potter. He was blaming him for every wrong thing, for being so callous and heartless and bringing this onto them. The other Weasley's mourned the loss of their childhood home, but were not blaming Harry for this. No matter how many messages and attacks continued to be made, Harry was staying out of the war. They continued for a couple months becoming more sporadic. School had started back up, and it seemed the Dark Lord was getting bolder.
Harry received word from a couple vampires that had been at Sanctuary for a while, that the Dark Lord had purchased a pair of nundus. Harry was a bit curious at this, as it sounded like an obvious trap for him. The Dark Lord seemed to respecting Harry's wishes and had avoided all other creatures or species and was just attacking wizards and very limitedly muggles. The vampires seemed completely honest about it though, and he knew he had to investigate it. Even if he was being played, he didn't want creatures with that kind of power being forced to be used against others. The breath of just one nundu can kill hundreds in every direction. All it would take would be something like a control curse or potion on the creature and there would be little anyone could do. Apparently the delivery of the nundus was happening tomorrow morning at 11:00 AM.
Harry went to a base camp of the Dark Lord's in southern Spain. There were about 30 Death Eaters milling about. Harry was hiding in some trees in his phoenix form. Right around 11:00, two large cages with nundus in them were carted in. Harry felt some magic wards spread quickly over the area. Anti-appartion, anti-portkey, and some kind of magic muter. Harry knew they would do little to affect him, but it just assured him this was supposed to be a trap for him. Harry sang a loud trilling song that put fear into the hearts of the Death Eaters. Only the nundus seemed to find a calming effect in the song. He shifted form into the large black griffin and began tearing through the masked men. They were firing curses at him, but he easily avoided most and his griffin body just absorbed some of the weaker ones. He had knocked almost half the Death Eaters unconscious without even using any magic. This was way too easy.
All of sudden, the large black griffin stopped. He let out a terrifying roaring screech and all the Death Eaters halted their movements. The griffin popped in Harry Potter who just slammed his fist into the ground. The resultant shockwave knocked all the Death Eaters off their feet, and with a few quick wand movements a wave of stunning power erupted in all 360 degrees from the man in the center. Any Death Eaters still conscious were quickly knocked out. Harry quickly drew up a portal to Sanctuary, and forcefully shoved the nundu cages through. His brother would be able to sort them out. Right now he had something much more important to do.
Hundreds of miles away, an overconfident Dark Lord was marching over 200 followers in a straight frontal attack onto a school of children.
