Harry Potter & the True Power

Chapter 20: The History Lesson

'Stunned' is far too weak an adjective to explain what he was going through. And with all that he had went through, it was saying something. His face was an exact copy of a goldfish.

He never knew how he sat down on the chair proffered by his grandfather, but when he did come to his senses, he was sitting on a chair, facing two of the legendary founders of Hogwarts. He sometimes felt that his life was not even like a rollercoaster, which just went up and down or sideways. With the speed at which such events were happening, it was more like a magical top. It just never stopped spinning out of his mind and turning him crazy.

"But how is that possible?" the words were barely out when he realized his mistake. If his grandfather could be a phoenix, why couldn't the two of the founders be? All of them were pretty powerful mages. He had asked Merlin several times how he ended up as a phoenix, but was always told that he would tell him when the time was right.

Merlin looked at his grandson and thought, "Yes, the time is right."

"Okay Harry. I guess you deserve the lesson. What I am about to tell you is a secret no one outside the phoenix realm knows. Even these two jokers don't know about this. You must guard the secret very carefully. It's the stuff legends are made of. Rather, it is a legend"

"You remember when I told you regarding my extended stay with the goblins at their place. Well, the story continues after that. You know the wizard I had removed all memories from, well it seems he had some corroborators. They were Wizarding merchants who traveled far and wide. When they returned five years later, they found that their partner had died sometime ago. He had become insane."

"It's very rare for a wizard to become insane. If the reasons are physiological, the magic takes care of most critical illnesses. Only minor illnesses are suffered by the magical folks. They were sure there was some other reason behind that.

After grouping up their resources, they traveled to the mines where they knew the gold was being excavated. I, on the other hand, had created several wards around the original mines for protection of my family. During those times, I had just found the usage of blood in the wards and created the first blood ward in the history of magic.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, I had never even dreamt of the kind of war they would go through. When those wizards could not get through the wards, they gathered the help of many evil wizards, promising them money and unlimited riches.

They were very cunning and knew that most of them would be killed in the fight and the rest they would take care of themselves. Had it been just a matter of money, I probably would have let them have the mines. But I knew that if I did that, either they would enslave my family or kill more trolls and caristas (house elves).

So we fought, all of us. But the goblins were very new to their magic whereby the dark wizards were not. Only after a few minutes, some goblins had been killed. I knew then that I would have to do something drastic. I could not let my family die. If it continued like this, I would survive, but every one else would die. That was unacceptable. So I overloaded the blood wards through my magical core and had all the goblins retreat behind them. A few moments later, my core exploded and everybody outside the wards was immediately vaporized.

You can compare it to a small nuclear explosion except that ground zero was safe. However, there was a downside. My body was vaporized due to total explosion of my magical core. I died.

Cornelius fudge was still sitting in his chair when Kingsley had left. He was totally blown up. He had been i.m.p.e.a.c.h.e.d. He had always felt that such a possibility existed. He had taken several steps to make sure that many things which had not appeared in the paper could be kept quiet. But now, those steps needed to be implemented. He had to reach his office and clean his safe. Those papers could ruin him.

Worried and sweating heavily, fudge sat and saw his magical folder on the table. He looked around for Elias but he was nowhere to be found. Cursing him, fudge picked up his folders and was about to stand when the voice of new minister of magic stopped him.

"Going somewhere? I would rather you stayed. We need to discuss a few things. Don't worry, all your personal things have already been moved from your office to your personal residence. Your official residence is also being cleaned by the house elves and all your personal effects are being moved there as we speak. It will be all over in a few minutes," Madam Bones smiled a truly devious smile.

Fudge knew he was finished. He had no way out. He had always thought that he would be prepared and move all the high security and proofs of his extra-curricular activities should such a position come. As a matter of fact, he had planned to do it just before coming here. But his incarceration at the Daily Prophet had angered him so much that he had totally forgotten about it. Yes, he was finished. He collapsed back into the chair, defeated.

Minerva was marking some year end papers when she suddenly felt the weight of some extra wards on her. She became worried immediately. "Was Albus alright?" she asked herself. Leaving the papers as is, she rushed to the headmaster's office. As the deputy headmistress of the school, her office was very near to Albus'. There she found him sleeping on the desk.

Relieved as she saw him looking much better than yesterday, she transfigured the chair into a comfortable bed and shifted Albus using the mobilicorpus spell. She left him sleeping and went back to grading her papers.

Hogwarts herself was pretty worried now. At the request of one of the founders, it had released the present headmaster from the burden of wards and had started drawing magic from a power crystal left as a backup for events like these, but they could only be recharged by a high mage. There were some heavy duty wards which were activated at the moment. In the present status of high drain, the crystal would not last much beyond the first of September.

She was scanning for possible candidates but at the moment, there were only four viable candidates. One of them was not acceptable in any way, place or form.

Everyone present, from Harry to Godric to Salazar were amazed. They had never known such awesome power.

Merlin smiled as he saw the faces of three people in front of him.

For the first time, Godric spoke before anyone else. "If you are dead, how are you here?"

Both Harry and Salazar nodded after him, silently repeating the same question. Laughing with total mirth, Merlin asked him, "You are dead as well. So how are you here?"

Both Godric and Salazar realized the fact and had the grace to look shameful at speaking before thinking the things through.

Merlin smiled and decided to tell them, "You forget, I was the direct descendant of a God. Actually, I am a one eighth God. The human part of me died. What was left of me, what you are seeing me right now, was the god part in me. I ascended to Olympus. Though, by that time, there were only two people there, Zeus and Hercules, my grandfather.

You see, Zeus loved my grandfather the most amongst all his progeny. He was the heir primus, the heir to the throne. In him, he saw all the virtues of a good king, knowledge, wisdom, power and humility. So when the time had come for them to go back to their world, he waited for Hercules to go with him. He wasn't bothered by having to wait for a few hundred years. For them, it was a blink of an eye.

But my grandfather wouldn't leave me behind alone. As I alone had the power to become a god. If the blood got any more diluted, one couldn't become one.

I on the other hand was not ready to leave. I was worried about my surrogate family as well as my real family. You see, my daughter's husband had been killed by an evil wizard and now she was all alone with her two year old son. So, I told both of them to leave me. But my grandfather refused again, he would wait for me.

Zeus, on the other hand could not wait much longer. He forced his son to choose. It was a very difficult choice which he was not ready to make. So Zeus offered a way out. Seeing the characteristics of love and protection in me, he made me the first protector of light. He made me into a phoenix.

Kingsley had just reached the auror office when he saw Luna Lovegood sitting straight in the chair in front of him. When he asked around, he found that she had not spoken a single word since she had come around. He found it to be very odd. He decided to try and talk with Luna himself. As it is, he had an apology and a message to convey.

"Ms Lovegood. I would like to speak to you for a moment. If you could follow me to my office, we shall wrap this up right now." Not saying a thing, Luna got up and followed. Kingsley opened the door to his new cabin and was about to enter behind her when he felt a thunder hit on his shoulder. He turned around with lightening reflexes to see Mad-Eye standing behind him. He was about to get a lecture on constant vigilance.

As soon as the Cat-Luna was alone and unobserved, she disappeared and reappeared into Luna's office and turned back into the nice kitty. Only this time, if one was to look closely, there was a golden chain around her neck.

There are no superlatives for what Harry was going through. His life was a string of superlatives and each one was so much bigger than the other was! There was no exclamation, no noise escaped from his mouth. He just sat there.

His two elders were not too different either. Both of them had mouths hanging enough that a hippogriff could have danced in it, each.

Merlin looked at all three of them and smiled wondrously. They were taking it a lot better than the selected few who knew about this.

Xarobian alias Salazar and Fawkes alias Godric knew parts of the story but even they didn't know all these things. However, they slowly accepted the facts and they fitted in with the other things they knew. Harry however was totally ignorant of all this. Damn! Then how did every phoenix come in. Merlin and eggs was something he didn't even want to think of. A distasteful flavor came into his mouth.

Merlin, who was now looking at Harry, also smiled a bit as he could fairly well make out what Harry was thinking. The answer will be given a few moments later.

"As I was saying." Merlin continued, "After Zeus turned the immortal part in me to a phoenix, both of them left and I looked after my family and stayed at the home they had left behind. I made it my home."

"But that would mean that the place we live in is…" Xarobian stuttered, not able to finish his thought. Merlin nodded, and said "Yes. It is the place where all gods lived. It is what was once known as mount Olympus."

"But wasn't it supposed to be somewhere near…" Harry was interrupted by Xarobian this time.

"Harry. Consider the power of these beings. The home being in Greece or thousands of miles away on the highest peak in the world would make no difference to them. They could just apparate or whatever. Anyway, it makes more sense for it to be there. It's the highest peak and these gods did go in for the best anyway." Xarobian added once again.

Harry nodded. It felt right to him. Then the other blazing question scorched his mind. Godric and Salazar.

This time it was Godric who understood the unsaid question. He looked at Merlin, as if to ask permission. Merlin nodded.

"Harry. You must remember that history is written by the victors and re-written by the politicians. First tell me what you know about both Salazar and me?" Godric asked gently.

Collecting his thoughts, Harry started, "It is a well known fact that both of you, with Lady Ravenclaw and Lady Hufflepuff founded the Hogwarts School of witchcraft & wizardry. You are known as the champion of light and Sir Salazar is known for his interest in the dark arts and potions. You both were excellent fighters and duelers. Salazar was also known for his parseltongue. It is rumored that in the end there was dispute amongst both of you regarding the inclusion of muggleborns in the school. One day you both had a fight and Salazar was never heard from again. It's also rumored that you killed him with your sword and a few years later, you also went away quietly. No-one has any specific records of your death. All there are are theories based on combinations of facts and fiction. And yes, Salazar is famous for having built a secret chamber in the school. I know for a fact that a basilik lived in it."

Xarobian's (alias Salazar) eyes teared a bit at the mention of the basilik but otherwise, he remained stoic.

Godric too waited a second, it seemed he was collating facts, and looked straight at Harry. "Harry, most of what you said is true. Remarkably, you mention the facts as they are known but did not add the prejudicial deductions which all the Wizarding kind draws from it. Let me tell you my side of the story."

"As you said, yes we both were two of the founders of Hogwarts. We were, or rather are still very good friends. More like brothers. We were four young people who wanted to educate the world. Both of us had seen enough blood to last a lifetime, Rowena was a great scholar. She took care of all the technical stuff. Helga was the most beautiful and loving woman I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. She was also the best healer there was."

"Fates brought us together. We two were the brawn, Rowena the brain and Helga was the glue which kept us all together. She was love. I have seen how her house is looked upon as inferior by the Wizarding kind. If you ask me, it's the most powerful house for it is full of love. Anyway, I am getting off the topic"

"So, here we were with all the good intentions and no resources. Salazar had some money but nowhere sufficient to build and maintain such a big school. Until one day, we met our benefactor here, Merlin. He was on one of his trips to the mortal realm and saw us in despair. He became our benefactor. To this day, Hogwarts is owned by the Potter family and all the funds are given by the potter vault. All the deeds are in the potter vault. There is no other documentation available."

"I digress, I once again went off. So, for a few years everything was fine. I was the buffoon and Salazar was stoic. He was," as he looked the glare Xarobian gave him, he said, "sorry, is also the more intelligent one. He was well conversant in the dark magic but you know that it doesn't matter. Light or dark cannot exist without the other and it's the person who is using it matters. At our time, there was no distinction. It's just that dark magic takes a lot more power, hence it is a lot more powerful."

"In our times, the wizards were very powerful as the blood had not diluted to that extant. Over a period of time, even human kind started to sprout up wizards. Whether that was due to some inter race liaisons or a natural progression, we are not sure. Most probably, they were a mix of both. However, we saw that most muggleborns were weaker. Or rather, the wizards & witches from a magical background were far more powerful."

"There were several incidents where muggleborns were hurt due to accidental magic of the more powerful ones. Hence, I advocated that we don't invite muggleborns and they should not be admitted to Hogwarts. I proposed to open a school for muggles. All three of them were against this. Whatever they said, actually it was because they did not want to break the team. I relented but the incidents kept increasing. In the end I had no option but to proceed on my plan."

"I wanted to sneak out but this whelp caught me. We fought and I beat him fair & square." Both of them smiled as if remembering those days. Harry was amazed at how the dots of facts could be connected in different ways.

"So I left, but not before a sad farewell from all three of them. I went and made my school. It was not as big as Hogwarts, but it did its job. A few years later, the old craving of adventure and romance called on me and I called upon Godric. He came, of course and brought with him his wife, Rowena.

"We had several wonderful years where we enjoyed our lives. Then one day, Rowena died. A few days later, out of heartbreak, Godric died. I followed soon after." Several unshed tears were now in the eyes of all of them hearing the tales legends are made of.

Harry felt respect for both of these men whom he had just met and anger at the bigoted people of the Wizarding kind. But people were the same everywhere. As he recalled the story he had just heard, he could surmise answers to his yet unanswered questions. And yes, the chamber of secrets.

He looked up and saw both of them looking at him, expectantly. Harry understood this was a test. So he gave the first answer to the unasked question. "What about the chamber of secrets?"

Godric laughed at it and motioned Salazar to answer this. "Well you see Harry. This idiot was always interrupting my research and experiments. So I built a secret chamber where I could do my work in peace. I was so proud of my creation that I challenged him to find it. Hence, the rumor began. I had a pet basilik at that time. They are very gentle creatures but at the same time dangerous ones. One look at their eyes and you are petrified. Only people with the ability of parseltongue are immune to it. While they are little, there power is not much. While building the chamber I found a baby basilik. They were being slaughtered everywhere else in the world. As I was immune, I thought of keeping one with me. Anyway, we got to love each other. One day, while Godric was goading me into telling him about the whereabouts of my chamber, I just told him that any unworthy creature who enters will meet a horrible fate. It seems someone overheard us. What I meant was that who so ever would enter my chambers, would be petrified and be in the same positions as a statue. I don't think it is a very kind outcome."

Harry was smiling as the answers kept making sense to him.

Now was the final answer. Yet he hesitated. The conclusion was nearby but he just couldn't grasp it.

Merlin now looked at him and said, "So what do you think is the rest of the story? I have taught you enough deductive analysis to find the answers with the information you have."

Harry, again structuring his thoughts said, "I have nearly all the answers except one. What I think is that when they died, they too were pure and light wizards of extreme power. So you helped them become phoenixes as well with your own power. Hence, most of the light wizards who were above a certain power level could be turned into one, should you wish. I guess all the phoenixes are born like that only. As there are so few of them, we have such a small population of phoenixes. Like I should have noticed before, Fawkes is Red and Golden, the color of Gryffindor whereas, Xarobian is green and silver, his own colors."

"But this also leaves me with a question. Remember the theory of balance you taught me. Every one has an opposite balancing force. You are immortal and powerful. So there must be someone on the opposite side of the spectrum."

Merlin was beaming with pride. He had expected another question from Harry. But he had not expected him to even think about this. He had taught his grandson far better than expected.

"Yes Harry! There are. As a matter of fact, you have met them. They are our polar opposites. They too were created the very day I was. They are immortal as well. The only difference is that when light comes, darkness must be gone. They have a weakness. They cannot face us. We too have a weakness. We must go through the burning cycle."

"Harry they are known as dementors now."

It made sense now, whereas Phoenixes radiated love and hope, Dementors fed on hate and despair. Patronus was nothing but a being of pure light fueled by love. In its very essence, it was a marginal recreation of all the phoenixes qualities. So, they had to run away.

But the most important question of all, what happened to Rowena and Helga. He asked them the same.

Godric answered this time. "Rowena was never as powerful as us. She was a scholar and very intelligent. When her time came, she crossed over. Helga though was so full of the power of love that when she died, instead of becoming a phoenix like us, she chose a path none-of-us had even thought about."

Harry knew the answer now. The tears were flowing in gratefulness of the one person who had given him his first home, a place where he was loved unconditionally for the first time in his life. He was sure of it.

It escaped his lips with him being aware of it. "She merged with Hogwarts. She is Hogwarts. She is the sentience of Hogwarts, the one who makes us all feel protected and loved as soon as we enter her gates."

"Yes Harry." Salazar answered this time. "Helga is Hogwarts"

Author's Notes:

Again, i thank you all for your reviews. i hope you like it.

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