Chapter 12 Meet the Ancestors
The ride to the vault was just like a port key, but this time Harry was able to retain his footing without falling on his back. He was once again in the portrait room or the Ancestor room as Harry had aptly nicknamed it.
All the portraits were looking at him as if waiting for him to speak, but Titus beat him to it
"May I present to you our Master, Harry James Potter" Titus said this towards the portraits from his head on the ceiling
All the portraits nodded towards him, he noticed that the black portraits were missing many in number, though the portrait of the former headmaster Phineas Nicholas was present, and he noticed in amusement that one of the common characteristics of the black portraits were that, they seemingly had a sneer on their face.
Must not be happy to be a part of the Potter family I guessHe moved around till he came in front of the portraits of his parents and his godfather
"Hi:"
"Hello Harry" said Lily while the men nodded towards him indicating that his mom needed to speak with him first.
"Master Harry if at any time you wish to speak with one or more portraits in Private you may move to the sitting room from where you acquired the ring, the portrait will follow you." spoke Titus
"Yes please no disrespect to the rest of my family, but I would like to catch up with my parents and Sirius for the moment"
The others smiled at him, and some grunted in reply, Harry nodded to them and moved to the sitting room.
He sat on the sofa, and then suddenly from nowhere the portraits seemingly came out of the walls in front of the sofa.
Deciding that Titus also dissolves and absolves from the walls in this manner, he need not waste time in asking such questions.
Lily smiled at him and spoke "You look as dashing as your father did when he was at your age" Harry blushed at this
She continued "You have grown up soo much, Sirius has told me your childhood history" she started to cry at this, and Harry gave her a smile letting her know that she could continue at her own pace
"I am soo sorry Harry that I was never there for you, I was never there to hug you, love you, I am sorry that you had to live with that HAG of a sister that I have" both Lily and Harry were openly crying at this. For years he wished he could see his mother, hear her, so that he would know that his parents always loved him.
"Ohh god Harry I don't know what to say, Sirius told us your Hogwarts History as well, and at first I must admit I was soo scared for you, but then I realized that you are a brave courageous young man, and all I want to say is that I love you Harry, I love you my son, we all love you, and I am proud of the man you have become"
Upon hearing this Harry went on his knees and starting weeping openly, James was comforting Lily, while Sirius had also become teary. For the first time in his life, he felt loved from someone he could call his own family; he finally could hear those words, which he had been waiting to hear his whole life from his mother. He had always felt jealous towards the Weasley's because they openly told each other how much they loved their family, and Harry never had anyone to tell him that.
After a while with his back on the leg of the sofa while still sitting on the floor, Harry said "I love you too mom, and dad, and Sirius"
This brought about a fresh set of tears to all of them. Harry knew he shouldn't get too attached to them, after all they were just representations of the original people. But they are the closest I have to the real ones, thought a sad Harry.
He resolved that he would spend some time with all three of them and get to know them, and he might also bring Remus along too.
After three hours of catching up, laughing at his fathers and Sirius's stories about their days at Hogwarts, Harry was interrupted by Titus.
"I am sorry to intrude young master, but there are some other portraits that are asking for your audience, may I send them here as well"
Harry nodded and Titus dissolved from the wall and was replaced with a few portraits.
The first portrait on the left spoke "I am William Potter and this is my wife Edna, we are the first of the Potter line whose portrait was included in this vault, and also we started the tradition. We would like to welcome you officially to our family. James and Lily never had the time to bring you here to complete the proper family rituals"
"Rituals?"
They replied "It more like bringing the youngling to receive the blessings of the whole family"
Harry smiled and nodded to them
The next painting spoke "I am Jean De Anguifer the first of my line to include portraits in our family vaults, and I would like to welcome you young Harry"
The next portrait said also in the same manner "I am Jack Matador the first in my line to include portraits in our vaults, and I would like to welcome you to our small family here" he seemed like a man who liked to make a lot of jokes, so Harry laughed at the man's attempt at humor by saying small family.
The next one was the one that Harry had wanted to meet, since the moment he had been told he was related to the man
"I am Sir Godric Gryffindor the first of my line to include portraits in our vaults, I would like to welcome you young Harry to our family" Harry nodded to the man with the same amount of respect as he was showing Harry.
Then the black portrait spoke "I am Satanus Black, though I have no choice in the this, I must welcome you to our family" he sneered at Harry trying to show that Harry was not worth being part of the Black's
Harry was unperturbed by this and actually expected this from the sneers he received when he entered the room, "Mr. Black, I can understand your attitude towards me, but I must tell you I rather have my godfather back, then getting control of the black assets, though now that you and your family are part of my family, we would be happy to include you here, but if you rather spend your time in isolation in your vaults, I see no problem with that, it is your wish in the end"
The sneer left and a small smile instead graced his face "Phineas was right about you, though I am quite neutral in the affairs of my family, I was ordered to act in this manner so that you can not take for granted, your acquisition of our line"
He continued after a moment "I know the rumors about our family, where we mostly side with the dark lords that are prevailing in the world at a given time, but there are some like Phineas, Sirius, and myself, who would rather remain neutral or remain on the side of the light, as you may have noticed not all of our family portraits have been included in the Potter portrait room, those who were neutral or light sided in the family agreed to have a copy of their portraits here, the others refused or were refused to be allowed by me to be placed here"
That answers my question, thought Harry while he nodded
"So please forgive me for my lack of manners, and I welcome you to the family, young Harry"
Harry got up and spoke to all the painting in the room "I am pleased with being accepted here, I have never been accepted anywhere in my life until I met the Weasley's or came to Hogwarts, but I always longed for a family, and it pleases me that I have finally found them here"
All the figures in the paintings gave him a smile at this and clapped for his kind words.
Harry waited for them to quiet down and then spoke "Now I am sure Sirius must have told you all about how my life has been till the moment he left a imprint of himself here right"
Everyone nodded
"So Sirius when did you exactly leave the imprint here"
"Just after I made the pensieve for you, I wasn't sure if Dumbledore would allow you to take possession of the vault this soon, by the way how did you get possession without him interfering"
"Simple the goblins came straight to me without asking him first, like you had specified in your will"
Sirius smiled at that, "Thank god I specified that, god knows Dumbledore would have taken control of this and never would have informed you of the presence of other vaults other than the one for your school purposes"
Sensing Harry anger increasing he tried to divert his attention from the current topic, but he did notice that Godric was giving Harry a odd look, but he thought nothing of it, and continued "Tell me what happened after the Christmas Holidays"
Godric interfered here, "If you don't mind me intruding, instead of Harry telling us, I think it would be better if he could include his imprint here in the vault which can be used for future purposes like for making a portrait, as well as if he allows we can absorb all his memories, this way we can get a complete idea of Harry's life"
Harry looked at his parents who were giving Godric a funny look, who himself was looking quite innocent but was giving them a stare as if asking them to doubt his sincerity. But nevertheless his parents and godfather nodded to Harry to do what Godric asked.
Harry didn't mind them seeing his memories, because he had nothing to hide, and also what ever was mentioned in this vault, no one can mention it outside, it was charmed that way so a family could retain their secrets.
Harry nodded to Godric who then called for Titus and whispered something to him. Titus nodded and disappeared.
"Harry for this we will need to go to the portrait room, thus we will meet you there" the painting disappeared from the room, and Harry followed them to the portrait room, where they were all clustered together on the wall in front of a small pedestal that was not present before.
The other portraits were looking at it in curiosity, Harry felt a little uneasy at this, but nevertheless trusted everybody here.
"Harry you will just have to put your ring emblem on the imprint, and then trust magic do what it has to do" said Godric to Harry
Harry took in a couple of slow breaths to calm his nerves, because for some reason he was feeling a little uneasy with this.
He ignored this and stood in front of the pedestal.
He raised his head to give a weak smile to his parents, and placed his ring emblem on the imprint.
Nothing happened for a couple of seconds, but then slowly by slowly the ring started glowing, and then the glow covered the top of the pedestal, and then the whole pedestal.
Harry noticed that he couldn't move his hand from the imprint, like it was frozen there, the glow then covered the whole room, and the walls behind the paintings started to glow, then Harry started feeling drowsy for some reason. and even though he tried to fight it, he couldn't, there was a chair suddenly placed behind him, and he sat on it while still having his ring hand on the pedestal, and slowly by slowly he closed his eyes.
He suddenly woke up to find himself in a black void, he looked around but it was black everywhere around him. But then slowly by slowly he saw some light coming towards him, when the light came near him he saw flashes of memories, his memories, it looked like he was watching a muggle movie, because everything seemed to be from a third person point of view, he saw some old ones like when Dudley and his gang used to chase Harry, or when he was made fun of in the muggle school because of his clothes and appearance, he also saw the memory of his visit to the zoo, where he talked to the python. How he was made to sleep in the Cupboard under the stairs.
Then the memories starting to move faster and faster, some were too fast for him to decipher, but a few he was able to make out like the one where he first met Ron and Hermione, then the one in which he defeated the basilisk, then the Triwizard tournament, and soon he reached the Department of Mysteries, where he saw Sirius fall in the veil, the memory moved onto the one where Dumbledore told him the prophecy, and the memory flow ended just before he place his ring on the imprint.
But then everything started to go backwards, at extremely fast speeds, and stopped at the moment, he was in his mother's fetus.
Then the light disappeared, and Harry was back in the black void, thinking that it was over he waited for his body to wake up.
But then he noticed a griffin standing in front of him, except it wasn't looking at Harry but it looked like it was searching for something.
Strange I thought this was just a memory transfer, thought Harry while he was admiring the beautiful griffin.
The griffin started to move away from Harry as if it had found something in he blackness, so Harry decided to follow him.
After following the griffin for a while, because Harry didn't understand how long he had been inside his own head. The Griffin stopped in front of what appeared to be a door in the middle of the void.
The door was made out of wood; it looked quite old, one that you would find in old castles guarding some treasure. It was locked as well, and the most curious thing about the door was the large lightening shaped mark on it.
The Griffin was clawing at the door, hoping it could open it by scratching.
Harry had a sudden urge to find out what was hidden behind the door, but he couldn't find any lock, or lever to open the door, so decided he might as well use some force.
Harry took a couple of steps back from the door, the griffin looked towards Harry, and after understanding what Harry was about to do, backed away a little giving Harry a clear path.
With a grunt Harry ran towards the door, with his shoulder in front so it would collide with the door.
On contact with the door, the door cracked a little, Harry shoulder didn't even hurt a bit.
When he backed away again, he noticed that there seemed to be light coming from the cracks, which Harry had caused to the door.
With another grunt Harry ran towards the door and the door cracked more, with more light escaping from the cracks.
He backed away one last time to give it all in this run, he noticed that the griffin had disappeared, but thought nothing of it. His sole attention was to find out what was hidden behind that door. It was like he now craved for some reason to find out what was that light that was coming out of those cracks.
With deep breaths and a loud cry Harry ran with all his might towards the door, and this time he succeeded in breaking the wood, and he was about to celebrate his triumph, when the next moment he was engulfed in what seemed like waves of light coming from the door. Everything was soo bright that he had to close his eyes.
And the next moment, he started to scream because of the pain he was feeling all over his body.
Authors Note: Phew Long chapter by my standards, and sorry for the cliffy. Also I was astounded with the amount of reviews I got yesterday, I can't thank everybody individually, but overall its nice to know I am being appreciated.
MioNeGr1000: I will keep that in mind
Frozenwands: I hope to keep on meeting your expectations
Chaos-Empersonified: Sorry great things are in store for Harry, so a chap without anything happening kinda impossible
Uten: Great minds think alike ;)
Icy tears: I know fanfiction can be a little addictive! ;)
Dovasary: Thanks for the rating and hope you continue to like the other chapters as well
Thanks so much for your support, I will try to give another update today if possible
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