Harry Potter & The True Power
Chapter 4 : The Aftereffects
Harry was very surprised at the effect he had on Snape. Albeit, happily so. Then he turned to look at professor McGonagall. She looked very worried but slowly the expression was changing to one of relief. Just as he was getting up, he felt a lot of changes in his body. He could feel full of energy. He no longer felt the lethargic fatigue which had been the norm for as long as he could remember in the recent times. He was seeing properly, though his glasses were nowhere to be found. But the best of all was the confidence he felt. For the first time in his life, he felt loved and accepted. Not for what others thought him to be, but for who he was. Although even he may not know what that was, but he truly knew now that he was loved unconditionally. Previously, he was always worried about what others would think of him, if they would leave him if he didn't satisfy their expectations and all the insecurities that arose from an unloved, neglected and abused childhood. Now, he knew he was loved, and that, set him free.he felt like a new man. But then the words of her mother came to his mind. He decided to get cautious and not show the new changes. He closed his eyes again and tried to become like what he was just 5 minutes ago.
Just then they heard a shriek again. "You!" petunia screamed.
Indeed it was Albus. He had just flashed with Fawkes on his shoulders. His distress at the current events can be measured by the fact that he didn't stop to give even a polite nod to petunia. For all his reaction, one would think that he had entered an empty room rather than one filled by a woman whose present job was just to shout at him. He slowly tried to walk up the stairs. He faltered. In that instant, Fawkes again flashed him directly into Harry's room. Why he just didn't do it directly shall probably remain one of Fawkes mysterious actions.
In Harry's room, as Snape gasped, Harry blinked to his previous demeanor and Professor McGonagall was about to say something, Albus appeared in front of them looking quite frail. "Albus", Minerva screamed again. "You shouldn't be here". Albus nodded looking all knowingly but still couldn't hide his weakness. He closed his eyes again, looking at Harry. He was shocked to the core. There were no wards around the house and the link between Harry and the wards was nowhere to be seen.
"Minerva. Help Harry pack. He can't stay here any longer, it's not safe. Harry," he said now looking at Harry. "Could you please take all your belongings? I don't foresee you ever coming back again. Severus, help me down would you. We need to go to the basement."
All of them were shocked by this event. However, before Severus could do much more than hold Albus, Fawkes, who had earlier shifted near to Hedwig's perch, moved over to Albus's shoulder again and took them both to where Albus wanted to go.
Minerva, looking shocked again, nodded to Harry and said," Mr. Potter, let me know what you need". In a few seconds with not more than a dozen movements of her wands, all belongings had shrunk and moved into his trunk. The trunk again was transfigured into a wallet. Minerva smiled, adding a constant weight charm on the wallet, gave it to Harry. Harry looked amazed at the possibilities of transfiguration, and then they both started to walk down.
In the meantime, Albus and Severus reached the basement. Here at a very specific place, Albus cast a spell. Soon, a small orb with a few red colored strands in it came floating out. Instead of the blue color that it should have been, it seemed that there was no magic in the orb. Albus was puzzled, no, he was more than that, bewildered, befuddled…he really couldn't explain this sudden decimation in the wards. Putting the orb in his pocket, he motioned to Fawkes, who fire-flashed them both in the living room. They heard some steps coming down the stairs and saw both Minerva and Harry walking down. Before Albus could say something, he saw moody sitting comfortably on the sofa with two huge and one small ferrets bouncing up and down the kitchen. Moody was on his way down the stairs after leaving both Snape and Minerva to deal with Harry when he had seen petunia shouting at Albus. Just after Albus flashed away, he saw a huge elephant kind of a man and a baby elephant, probably Harry's uncle and cousin come barreling in from their rooms listening to the shouting of petunia. He could see it was going to be trouble. Better stamp out the spark before it becomes a fire. Anyway, he was a fire first and asks later kind-of-a-guy, he turned all of them into bouncing ferrets. He had heard what his imposter had done in the worst year of his life. He had been itching to try it for some time.
Albus smiled disapprovingly, Snape just smirked, Minerva shook her head with annoyance and Harry, let's just say that he was amused.
Albus conjured a small rope and Minerva pointed her wand at it and asked "Headquarters?" Albus nodded. She again concentrated and muttered a spell, "Portus.". The rope glowed a bit and then everybody held the rope. "Activate" was all it took as everybody felt the pulling at their navels and they reappeared by the fireplace at 12, Grimmauld place.
As soon as Harry stumbled as usual with the portkeys, a sudden emotion hit him. In all the recent activities, he had pretty much forgotten the very reason for his being in that state. Sirius, his godfather, who had died to save him. Tears started to fill his eyes and for the first time since Sirius's death, he cried. Unashamed, uncaring of whoever was present or of what caustic remarks he would be hearing from his beloved professor Snape, he cried.
"Mr. Pot… Harry", started Professor McGonagall. Before she could say another thing, Harry turned and ran, very typical to the teenagers faced with extreme emotions, up the stairs before anything could be said. With knowing or meaning to, he found himself in front of Sirius's old room. Hesitating, he turned the knob and entered. It looked the same as earlier.
Suddenly he felt as he somebody had enveloped him in a big hug. He felt comforted. He looked around and remembered Sirius in all the ways he could. The grim, the haphazard looking man everybody thought was out to get him, Ron with his broken leg, his running away on buckbeak, the hippogriff, the tropical bird, little pig who was now with the Weasleys and before his train of thought could continue, he fell asleep. He never even knew when he had walked to the bed and lied down.
Down below, Snape said,"what happened, Albus?" Severus prided himself on his ability to connect seemingly unrelated pieces of information and coming up with the facts. Today however, he was totally clueless. As such he prided himself on being the smartest. His ego as a spy not only demanded but required one. That was simply not allowed. As such it being related to that insufferable brat potter, he was even more riled. Albus looked around all three of them, looking into the eyes of Alastor, Minerva and Severus. He knew they were expecting some answers but what could he give them if he himself couldn't understand anything. More than that, he needed some rest.
He let the frailty show on his face and said, "I need some rest. We will talk of it later in the morning. In the meantime, Minerva, why don't you stay back? Severus, "before he could add anything, Severus felt the pain move thru his mark. "I will join you later, headmaster." With that, he turned and walked out of the house.
"I will stay here." Alastor added. With that he looked at Fawkes again, who flew back again to Albus's shoulder, and flashed him directly into his office. Here Albus looked gratefully at Fawkes, and said, "Why don't you rest as well, old friend. You must be tired too." With that, he again entered into his time-turned apartment, drank and energy replenishment potion, and went to sleep.
Fawkes, instead of going to sleep on his perch, seemed to close his eyes for a while. Flashed away again. He knew he didn't have much time, before Albus would miss him. He looked around and felt the ever present of feeling home. He was in the lost peaks in the Himalayas, the home world of the Phoenixes. He knew the time had come.
Severus, had walked out of the house quickly and apparated to the way station. It was kind of a transit point, under fidelus charm and many other security charms. Only those with the dark mark were automatically resent to wherever the dark lord was. This not only kept the location of the dark-lord secret, but also was one of the several security measures out any unwanted visitors.
As soon as he apparated to the opening in the dark-lord's manor, he was astonished to find many junior death eaters in a huddle. The dark lord was obviously not on the throne. As he entered, the voices hushed down. Then he saw the rat and the madwoman (peter Pettigrew and Belliatrix Lestrange) in front of him. Bella motioned him to come in. Surprised, yet keeping his face impassive, he nodded to Bella and then started to move inside the manor. Going thru several turns and stairs, they reached the one room even he feared to enter, the bastion of dark lord, and his private suite. They entered without knocking. This event, more than anything else, started the bells ringing in his head. Nobody, and he meant nobody had ever had entered the room unannounced. As he entered, he did have a coronary. He gripped his left arm and had to grab the chair on his right to see the dark lord lying on the bed. Though he was not dead, by noticing the obvious motion of his chest rising and falling, his face had sunk in a bit. By no means the re-incarnated heir of slytherin was a handsome man, yet this was even more gruesome than he had ever seen the dark lord.
The healer moved forward and nodded, clearly giving his regards to the top lieutenants of the dark lord.
"Report!" said Bella crisply, assuming command of the situation.
"My lady! Sirs" the healer said. " we have a grave situation. I have done all the tests and seen all the scrolls. The malady our lord was described in one of the ancient scrolls in the possession of our lord. The present disposition of the lord seems to suggest that the soul of our lord has some-how been dispossessed of his body. Without the soul to keep the body, our lord's body is slowly deteriorating. I have just found a stasis field which I am going to put on the body to preserve it, but I don't know. It seems the dark lord's soul is stuck in some kind of a limbo."