Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling is the creator and owner of all characters and settings in her Harry Potter series. All other characters and settings mentioned in the following story are mine.

The Emerald Dawn

Chapter Two

The Light Bearers and the Shadow Queen

Harry finally felt himself stop spinning and he was flung out of the fireplace. Both he and Aunt Petunia landed on their feet. Just. Harry glanced around. They were in a large foyer of what looked like an old castle or manor. Orbs of light sat in niches in the walls and a large chandelier hung from the ceiling. Weapons adorned the walls of the massive room, and Harry noticed with surprise that a wizards duelling area was painted on the shinny floor. An old grand staircase was opposite a set of huge old oak doors, with intricate patterns carved into them.

"Petunia?" cried a man's voice in surprise, and Harry turned swiftly to see a man walking briskly down the staircase. He was tall with shoulder length dark hair. He wore a white shirt and black pants tucked into well-worn boots. He wore a long sleeveless robe of a deep red casually over his clothes.

Aunt Petunia walked forward. "Raif, it's good to see you. I wish the circumstances were less dire." They embraced.

"I know." Said the man called Raif. "I can't believe it's been fifteen years since I last saw you. And Alice and Lily . . ."

They broke apart still holding one another's forearms. "There will be time to grieve later." Said Petunia defiantly. "What has happened? I can feel her growing in strength at an amazing rate. Something must have happened to signal such a change."

Raif nodded sadly. "Yes, something has happened. We just don't know what. I have had every resource I've access to drained trying to find out what is happening, but so far it has been useless."

Petunia nodded slowly before turning to Harry. "Harry, this is Raif Goldeneye. Raif, I'd like you to meet Harry. My nephew."

Raif turned to him slowly looking him up and down. "Lily's son." He whispered. "Green eyes. That means he's magical?" he asked turning to Petunia.

She nodded grimly. "Yes. If Calithia returns to power she won't stop until she wipes out the last of the Emerald Dawn. It does not help that he is Lily's son. She will want to settle the score with her through her son."

Raif nodded grimly. "Then you've bought him here for training. Has she realised that one of the Emerald Dawn lives?"

"Yes." Whispered Petunia. "I was careless in bringing him here. She sensed us, or more likely the sword."

"Yes, I don't doubt she would have forgotten that blade easily."

Feeling thoroughly annoyed about being spoken about as if he wasn't standing just there, Harry cleared his throat and glared as the two turned to look at him. "Can someone please tell me WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!"

Raif turned to Petunia. "You haven't told him?" he asked in disbelief. Petunia shifted uncomfortably. "I thought it would be best if you were here." She said looking at the floor.

Raif sighed and forced himself to smile. "Come. You need warm clothes and something hot to eat. You both look exhausted."

Harry frowned and thought of demanding to be told why they were here right now not later, but thoughts of food stopped him flat. He was starving and hadn't eaten since that morning. Picking up the bags he followed Aunt Petunia and Raif up the stairs.

After being shown to a luxurious bedroom, Harry was left to change, being told to come downstairs to the library when he was ready. Harry frowned and looked around the room. A large four-poster sat in the middle of the room, nestled between two large windows whose drapes were drawn. The fire in the fireplace burned merrily and the sturdy wooden furniture gave off a sense of comfort. An open door led to a bathroom of white marble. Harry pursed his lips in annoyance. Why did Aunt Petunia bring them to a place that was so obviously magical? On the walk to his room Harry had passed several wizarding portraits. The magical glowing orbs were everywhere, and the mirror above the fireplace had told him to flatten his windblown hair when he had glanced at it earlier.

He growled in frustration and opened his bag to pull out some fresh clothes. After pulling on a shirt that was such a deep green it was almost black and a pair of clean jeans, Harry found himself wandering downstairs, hoping he was following Raif's directions correctly. He reached a pair of double doors that were partly opened, the warm glow of the fireplace shone through the doorway and low voices murmured to each other. As Harry opened the door and entered the voices came to a halt, making Harry feel as though they had been talking about him.

"Harry, take a seat." Welcomed Raif, gesturing at a comfortable looking chair. A teapot and an assortment of sandwiches and cakes were laid out on a table. Harry sat down in the offered chair, marvelling in the size of the library. 'What Hermione wouldn't give to come here!' he thought with a small smile and took the cup of tea offered to him. He nodded his thanks to Raif and took a sip, winced slightly and added a dollop of honey to the tea. When he looked up he noticed the two others gazing at him in wonder. "What?" he demanded defensively.

Raif chuckled. "Just like Lily." He murmured softly. Harry flushed. He had never been compared to his mother before. Everyone said that it was his father he resembled, his father he had taken after in Quidditch, his father whom he matched in skill. It suddenly dawned on him, not for the first time, how little he really knew about his mother. Petunia was watching him thoughtfully.

Raif broke the silence by clearing his throat. "So Harry," he began, setting down his teacup. "Any weird dreams lately?" Harry looked up, startled.

"How do you know that?" he asked sharply.

Raif sighed. "So it has begun . . ." he murmured and stared into the fire. Petunia looked at Raif fiercely.

"How long until she awakens? Can we stop it at all? It has been twenty years, surely that should have weakened her! We may be able to destroy her – for good this time! What if –"

"Calithia cannot be destroyed. She is immortal. You know this Petunia." Raif's voice sounded dead and Harry shivered at the almost defeated sound of it. "If. . . no, when she rises, it will take all of the power of the Light Bearers to stop her. And we don't have the others anymore. All we have is a new generation of children."

"But weren't we children when we faced her?" whispered Aunt Petunia desperately. "We were children and we faced destiny. We stopped her! We will again!"

Raif was suddenly on his feet. "You are a fool Petunia!" he hissed angrily. The fire cast shadows over his face making him appear dangerous and demonic. "We did not stop her with skill or power! It was luck! Nothing more then luck! If it had not been for Lilly then we would have failed and the world would have plunged into the darkness, with no one left with the power or the knowledge to stop her! Yes, we were children. That may have been the only thing that saved us. We were children so she underestimated us. She will not do that a second time. The Shadow Queen does not make the same mistake twice. She has survived for over a thousand years, beaten back each time she tried to rise up by the Light Bearers. She has had a thousand years to perfect her plans and gather the darkness to her to do her bidding. Luck will not save us this time . . ."

Harry watched, as his Aunt seemed to collapse into herself. Raif blinked and sat down. "Petunia I'm sorry, but this time we'll need a miracle." He murmured softly.

"What is going on?" asked Harry wearily. Petunia looked at him sadly. "Harry," she began softly. "I'm sorry I did not tell you of this sooner. I had hoped that what came to pass twenty years ago would be the last time the Queen walked the earth. I guess I was wrong." She looked at Raif expectantly. The man sighed.

"Harry, twenty years ago your mother was in her last year at Hogwarts. With her were Alice Knight, Narcissa Black, Kate Warren, Jack Peters, Severus Snape and myself. Petunia and Gabrielle Morgan, were both living in London at the time. We knew each other but we certainly weren't all friends. Then she came."

"We did not know what was happening until it had already begun." Said Aunt Petunia with a sigh. "We did not know who we were and what power we held over everyone else. All we knew was that our families had started dying. First relatives we'd never heard of before. Then grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and cousins. Parents . . ." Petunia swallowed. "My parents had both died. Assassins had killed them that was certain. At first both Lily and myself believed it had something to do with the Dark Lord, who was terrorizing both the magical and muggle populations at the time. But it soon became clear that it was something else. We realised that our families weren't the only ones being targeted. Gabrielle Morgan was a friend from London, and Lily found a pattern at Hogwarts. However it was not until an attempt was made on Lily that we discovered what was going on.

"It was mid November when She sent her Torbix to find Lily and kill her. The attempt was a failure, but only because of the fact that Gordon intervened in time to spirit Lily and the others away from Hogwarts."

"What are Torbix? And who's Gordon?" asked Harry with a frown. Raif glared at the flames in the fireplace.

"The Torbix are Calithia's minions. Much like Death-eaters only fiercely loyal and not human." He paused and frowned. "Well, I guess they were once human, but immortals tend to become less and less human through the centuries. Immortal may not even be the proper name for them. They can die, just not of old age or sickness. Arrows work rather well, as does anything sharp and pointy, and sometimes fire. You will learn all of this later, just as we did."

"Gordon was the last of the Light Bearers from the last time She threatened the world. He bought us together and taught us everything we needed to know about the Shadow Queen and our destiny to stop Her at all costs. If She is given free reign over the world and returns to her full power . . ." Petunia trailed off and shuddered, pulling her coat closer around her body.

"It will not happen Petunia." Declared Raif stubbornly. "We will not allow it. We will never let Her get that far. To allow it would be to let this world sink into the chaos of Her reign."

"Anyway, Gordon taught us to fight Her and we fought. We lost battles, won battles. Finally nearly a year after the assassination attempt on Lily, we penetrated the Tower of Shadow, Calithia's stronghold. The fight was fierce, but we prevailed. Lily saved us all. Calithia was about to open the Chest when Lily finally reached her. They fought, and Lily won. She drove her sword straight through Her body. The Torbix were sucked back into the earth and we won. Afterwards the Chest was hidden somewhere only Gordon knew of.

"We tried to destroy Her body but nothing worked, fire, magic, sword. Nothing. So we placed her body in a tomb deep in Egypt and sealed it shut with as many spells we could think of and guarded it with the greatest warriors we could find."

"But it was not to last." Sighed Raif. "The earth is trembling again as She strengthens. Now the others are gone except for myself, your Aunt, Narcissa and Severus. Your mother died a few years after defeating the Shadow Queen. At first we could not believe it. How could Lily Evens have been killed? She was the defeater of Calithia. But when we heard of the spell she worked moments before her death to save you, we knew she had sacrificed herself as a blood offering. Kate's whereabouts are unknown. She became an Auror not long after finishing Hogwarts but after she left for Spain on her first mission, we never heard of her again. Alice and her husband Frank are both better off dead then what happened to them. And Gabrielle died from cancer ten years ago."

"Raif, what have your guards got to say of this? I thought they were watching over Her tomb?"

Raif looked suddenly weary. "They're dead. I hadn't heard from them in over five days, so I travelled into Egypt to try and contact them. When I arrived . . . it was a blood bath. The dead were everywhere and the tomb had been opened. From the outside."

"Treachery." Whispered Petunia.

Raif shook his head. "No. There is a jinx on all those guards that serve me. If they betray me I will know instantly. We were not betrayed. We were discovered. Hunted you might say."

"By who?" asked Harry as he watched the shadows on the older mans face flicker in the firelight.

"I do not know." Sighed Raif. "All I know that it was a magical attack. Foreign spell residue was everywhere. And there was quite a lot of the Black magics used."

"You mean Dark Curses?" frowned Harry.

Raif shook his head. "Dark magic is a term used by the government to label spells and rituals that are not safe to cast unless the caster is of considerable power. Black magic is truly evil magic worked by someone with malicious intent. Whoever ambushed my men knew what they were doing."

"And Calithia?" asked Petunia.

"Has been taken, though she has not awakened yet."

"How do you know she isn't awake yet?" asked Harry.

The two adults shared a glance. "We will know when she awakens. Everyone will know."

Harry frowned. "Hold on. If this is such a big deal how come I've never heard of it before? The way you speak of Her makes Her sound just as bad as Voldemort."

At this statement both adults jumped to there feet.

"Voldemort! Of course! How could I have not have guessed?" Raif strode across the room to a large table set in the centre of the room. On the table were three crystal orbs, each the size of a Quaffle. Raif began moving them about on the surface of the table until they each sat as the point of a triangle. He threw a pouch at Petunia, who quickly undid it and began throwing pinches of it into the air above the triangle, speaking a word in a language Harry found familiar each time she did so.

Harry watched as the air inside the triangle became murky and changed. Through the murky haze he could just make out a room of some kind. There were figures moving about the room. Tiny bursts of sound could be heard at odd moments. He looked at Raif questioningly.

"Viewing Orbs." The man said softly not taking his eyes off the picture. "The only set left in existence. It would work much better if we had something personal to tie the image to the Dark Lord. Some hair, or even something he touched recently. Blood works best. It would bring the image into sharper focus and we would be getting better sound."

Harry looked up. "Blood? You need Voldemorts blood?"

Raif nodded. "Blood would be the best way we could get a lock on what Voldemorts doing, but since we don't have any this will have to do."

Harry reached behind himself and unsheathed a dagger from the small of his back. Raif let out a small yell of surprise as Harry took the blade and slashed it across his palm, wincing in pain. Before the two shocked adults could say anything Harry grabbed hold of the top of the closest orb with his injured hand. There was a bright white flash as the blood made contact with the orb, before there was a rushing sound and the image came into focus, noise blasting there senses.

Raif was looking at him in amazement. "How did you . . ."

"You wanted Voldemorts blood, you've got it. Now do what you have to. I'll explain it all later."

Petunia watched her nephew fearfully for a moment before turning her gaze to the table. The space inside the triangle made from the orbs showed a large room. There were sharp yells and orders barked around them. Harry's eyes rested on a large block of stone in the centre of the room of Death-eaters. A woman rested on the stone bed. Black hair flared out around her head, and robes of reddish black clothed her figure. There was a blood red ruby on a chain around her neck, nestled between her breasts. What looked like chain mail was just visible through her robes.

Harry frowned and glanced at the two adults each standing at a point of the triangle. Both jaws were set and eyes watched the woman with something akin to fear. He looked back at the scene before him. The look on his Aunts face was one he had never seen before. It was one he never wanted to see again. He started as a familiar tall, black robed figure entered the scene. Death-Eaters scrambled out of his way bowing to their Master.

"Voldemort," whispered Harry.

Raif nodded. "So we were right. It is he. He is a fool to do this. There is no way he could possibly control Her."

"Control her?" asked Harry frowning at the older man. "Why would he want that?"

Raif sighed. "Calithia created her own army of Torbix and other dark creatures many centuries ago. Voldemort wants control of that army, mark my words he desires her power and believes she will grant him that power in thanks for saving her from eternity locked in her tomb."

Harry watched as the Dark Lord bent over the woman lying on the black of stone and caressed her face with long skeletal fingers. "Soon, my Queen," he hissed, red eyes ablaze. "Soon you will awaken and we will conquer this land together."

Harry was beginning to feel rather faint. He looked down at his injured hand to see blood beginning to pool over the orb and onto the table below. He frowned. It was rather a lot of blood. Petunia looked at him a moment later and gasped. "Raif we've seen enough! He's losing to much blood."

Raif looked at the bloody table and cursed. "Harry let go. We've seen enough for today. We can always look again." He walked around the table and took Harry's hand, prying it from the orb. The image began to fade quickly. Harry heard Voldemort's voice for the last time before he passed out. "Just wait until the full moon . . ."

Hello readers! I hope you are enjoying my story – it would mean a lot if you leave a review to make me do my happy dance! I like to hear what people think of my work. So please review!

Responses!

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The Best witch of all: thanks so much; I'm glad you're enjoying my work!

Coming next on The Emerald Dawn . . . .

Petunia's Story.