Harry Potter and The Power Within
AN: Well here is my next chapter, hopefully it wont be as utterly crap as the last one was, and since I'm in a good mood, I'll see how long I can get it, ill start now, at 6:30p.m and it will be uploaded at 11:30pm or sometime around then.
(I'm happy because I got an A in English coursework, for a story)
Chapter 10 - The Duel and Attack
Harry was currently in the shower after his nap and watching Mearas's birth. He had an hour to kill before he thought about going to Hogwarts. He could hear Mearas's squawks slowly become more like the phoenix song it was meant to be, it wouldn't be long till she was fully grown, a couple of days at most.
Harry turned the water off and stepped out of the shower and started to towel dry himself off. He walked to his bedroom and dug around in his trunk to find the battle robes Forge gave him, if he was going to fight Albus he was going to do it in style no matter what the risks. He put the first layer on and it started to shrink until it wrapped around his torso and thighs like a tight second skin. He pulled the robes over his head and again, they started to shrink to fit him perfectly, except this layer wasn't tight and flowed and rippled like water every time he moved, giving off an elegant look about him.
He pulled his staff from the trunk and lay it on the bed, then he pulled out Olvar and Excalibur and stuck them to his back with the elegant, gold designed sheath that appeared on his back every time he placed his weapons to him. He then picked up Mearas, which by now had small silvery feathers, and placed her in his pocket and proceeded to jump to the front gates of Hogwarts. He was ten minuets earlier than he intended but since they never set a time they couldn't complain that he was late.
He walked into the school and into the entrance hall with all the elegance of a young prince and seemed to float across the floor and walked towards to doors to the Great Hall and forced his will to make them open and they swung open with a loud boom as they hit the wall at either side and Harry walked slowly into the Hall to see the faces of his transfiguration teacher and his potions teacher standing there thin lipped and the wands pointed at him, with Albus sitting in between them with a twinkle in his eye. Harry looked around the table and also saw the Minister of Magic, Fudge, sitting at the other side of Minerva looking severe.
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Albus called Minerva and Severus into his office as soon as Harry left, of course he wouldn't tell them this, in case Harry wanted to keep his privacy, but they had to be told about the duel. Albus didn't have to wait very long until there was a sharp knock at the door and the two people in question stalked in.
"You wanted to see us Headmaster?" said Snape in his oily voice.
"Indeed I did, there will be a duel happening tomorrow night and I need you two there to referee and keep witness to what happens" said Dumbledore slowly.
"What do you mean a duel" they both cried at the same time.
"I have had someone very capable come to me asking after the job of DADA but since that position is already taken I offered him the job of the duelling teacher"
"What? I thought you were going to give that job to someone out of the Order" said Minerva.
"I was, but the power he had could not be ignored, and with him working here I can keep a closer eye on him"
"Who is it?" said Severus.
"That is not my place to say, although you do know him and I bet you will be surprised to see him when he shows up, he looks very different these days" said Dumbledore with his eyes twinkling in overtime. "And as it is now late I shall be going to bed and we will prepare for the duel tomorrow as we are having it tomorrow night in the Great Hall"
"Are you sure this is wise" said Severus, "this could be a trick from the Dark Lord"
"I know for a fact that he works not for Voldemort Severus, you have my word on that"
"As you wish Headmaster" and with that he turned on his heel and stalked out with his robes billowing out behind him.
"Why are you really giving the job to this person Albus?" said Minerva slowly.
"Because he asked for it to be honest, and I seriously doubt that there is many that could beat him in a duel from what I saw earlier"
"What do you mean? you already had a fight with him?"
"Well yes and no, when he first came, he told me who he was and I didn't believe him, and I sent some really powerful spells at him, which he shook off without really tapping into his power"
"But no one is stronger than you, even You-Know-Who is scared of you"
"Alas, I do not think he will fear me for much longer for his power grows all the time, he already has more power than me, he is just reluctant to come to Hogwarts and fight because of the wards, but with the new teachers here, Hogwarts will be the safest place on the planet, for the DADA teacher can fight remarkably well"
"As you wish Albus, just be careful tomorrow" said Minerva.
"I will, I promise" said Albus as Minerva turned and left him alone in his office. "I promise"
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It was the day of the duel and Albus was running around school franticly trying to organise everything for the nights events. The minister had declared that he must be a witness to the duel as soon as he found out about it and Albus could not make him leave. Albus only hopped that Harry would still duel him in front of the minister because Albus was very intrigued to find out how much Harry had learnt in his 'training'.
It was fast approaching seven at night and still no sign of Harry and since they only said it was at night there was no telling when he would show up except that it would be before midnight. Albus sat between Minerva and Severus and the hall was deathly silent as they waited. It wasn't long until they heard the doors to the school open and someone walking across the entrance hall. Then with a loud band the Great Hall doors burst open, and there was Harry in the most splendid Battle Robes Albus had ever seen, he was also holding a very powerful and beautiful staff in his hands.
In an instant Minerva and Severus were on there feet with wands pointed at Harry. Albus just sat there grinning at Harry, who after scanning the table and seeing the minister, grinned back.
"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" sneered Severus.
"Now, now, I am here for the duelling job, and I believe that I am going to duel Albus not you, so put your wand away before I hurt you" said Harry in a strong cold voice that was void of any emotion and made everyone in the room shudder, Snape thought to himself, 'He sounds way to much like the Dark Lord'.
Snape quickly lowered his wand, heeding the threat seriously but Minerva was a little reluctant.
"You still have not told us who you are"
"And I will not tell you who I am, with the minister standing there because I do not want the bumbling buffoon looking up all my personal history and trying to get me fired, if its all the same to you" said Harry with a small grin starting to spread across his face when he saw the way Fudge was reacting.
"You cannot talk about me like that! I will have you arrested!"
"No you wont because I broke no law, and if you do some how manage to get your men to attack me, not one of them will make it back to you, one way or the other" said Harry in a deathly voice, "Now sit down, shut up, and keep out of this. It has nothing to do with you and if you interfere in anyway I will make you pay for it"
Fudge quickly sat down on his chair with his eyes fixed on Harry's emerald ones and suddenly feared for his life, those eyes were like looking death in the face. He quickly looked down his whole body trembling, it was not a good idea to come here I think, thought Fudge to himself.
Minerva and Severus immediately liked this new stranger even more the way he had treated the minister and the way the minister was now trembling with fear. Not even Dumbledore could make the man do that, and here was a man standing in front of them, looking nothing older than twenty and he had succeeded in scaring the minister completely. Minerva sent a rare smile to the man which he sent back and Snape nodded at him.
The man walked towards Minerva and put his hands into his pockets, when he brought them out there was a baby bird sitting in his hands chirping happily.
"Would you please look after her? I couldn't leave her at home alone because she has just hatched and needs lots of attention" asked the man in a strong and powerful voice.
"Of course I will, what is it if you don't mind me asking?"
"It is a Phoenix Lord, freshly hatched, ill bring her back when she has fully grown for you to see if you wish? And her name is Mearas"
"That's impossible" shouted Fudge, "Phoenix Lords do not bond with humans and never will!"
"I warned you to be quiet" roared Harry at Fudge. Harry's eyes started to glow with a hidden power within him and he waved his hand at Fudge, who's face suddenly lost its mouth and it never looked like it was ever there. Fudge had a look of pure horror before the same force pushed him back down into the chair and fastened himself there.
"I told you to keep quiet otherwise you would pay, and for your knowledge this is a Phoenix Lord, and you are right, they do not bond with humans, but that is only wild ones, and the only reason they died out was because people hunted them for there blood to use in healing potions, so do you blame them for keeping out of your way?!" Harry yelled at Fudge.
Fudge just sat there completely terrified, he swore to himself that as soon as he was back in his office he would look up ever law there was to try and find someway to put this man in Azkaban. Harry turned his attention back to Minerva that flinched slightly and being looked at so direct but as she looked at the man he saw his face soften as emotion started to come through and he smiled at her and raised his hands. She too raised her hands and the man gently lay his Phoenix in her palms.
The bird seemed weightless in her palms and just holding it seemed to warm her whole being and she smiled down at the bird then up at the man. He smiled back and gave her a wink with his emerald eyes. 'Those eyes are almost exactly like Lily's…' Minerva thought to herself but soon was playing with the bird in rapt attention with Dumbledore looking at it with shock apparent on his face.
"I'll let you play with Mearas later when she's fully grown, but right now we need to have a duel I believe?"
"Yes, yes of course" and with a slight swish of his wand there was a the table they were sitting at vanished and everyone seemed to slide next to the wall where a shield seemed to shimmer in place around them. Harry waved his staff and another shield appeared over Albus' which was giving off a lot more power than Albus had never had in a shield before. He gulped slightly and turned to face Harry.
"So what are your rules Headmaster?" asked Harry.
"First to yield, nothing that would kill one another and no Unforgivable curses, that ok to you?"
"Yes" said Harry with a gleam in his eye, this was the kind of duel he was best at whenever he fought Forge.
"Ok, Minerva will count down to three then we will begin" and just as Albus had finished speaking Minerva stood up, her attention fully on the duel and not the bird now.
Albus and Harry bowed to each other and Minerva began the countdown.
"3...2...1...BEGIN" she yelled and within less than a second of shouting it two shields burst into life.
Harry and Albus both brought up a simple shield to block minor curses and Albus quickly fired off a disarming spell at Harry, but Harry just waved his staff and it fizzled out before it even got near. 'I need to learn how to do that' Albus thought to himself. Harry sent a stunner at Albus which caught him off guard because Harry didn't have to say the incantation to any spells, only if they were really complex and took a long Latin sentence to cast.
"Fotia Poli" Albus roared and a jet of high power water went shooting towards Harry. It didn't even get close when Harry just used his elemental abilities and sent the water crashing into the wall. Albus was starting to get annoyed now, Harry was severely holding back and he was still making Albus look weak.
Albus decided to pull out the big guns and cast one of the ancient magic's, one of the very few he knew or was strong enough to cast.
"MOLOJIOR" Albus screamed and he felt the powerful magic sweep from his body as he saw the blast wave that went speeding towards Harry that wasn't expecting such a strong spell and got thrown back thirty feet into the wall. His staff fell from his hand and rolled along the floor towards Albus who quickly picked it up.
This was a bad move, because as soon as he touched it Albus felt like he had been cast under a very powerful pain curse and he fell to his knees. He quickly let go of the staff and the pain vanished instantly. The staff obviously had some kind of safety ward on it that stopped anyone else from touching it, very clever, Albus himself had a very similar thing on his wand to stop people trying to steal it. It was a very old and very powerful spell, his one was nowhere near as powerful as the one on the staff but it was enough to make you let go.
Harry got to his feet with fire burning in his eyes. Albus had knocked him over and tried to steal his staff. Harry pulled Olvar from his back and began to charge at Albus. Albus watched Harry pull the axe from his back and gasped in amazement when he saw it, he had never seen or felt anything like it before, the axe seemed to pulsate magic's very essence itself. Then look of amazement soon turned to fear as he saw Harry sprinting at him with the axe in hand when with a slight crunch it was a black furred lion running at him, Albus quickly ducked past the animagus that went running past him and twisted and came to a stop at the other side of the Hall.
It turned around and came charging at him and with another crunching noise turned into a black bull with lethal looking horns aiming for his chest, and again Albus moved out of the way just in time for its tail to whip his chest and make him stumble back slightly. By now Harry was getting incredible frustrated and ran at Albus for a third time but this time he turned into his favourite non-magical animal, his panther form, and leapt at Albus and landed on his chest and started to claw at his chest. Albus tried and failed to get the creature off his chest where it was ripping away at him, but every time he had a firm grip on Harry it would turn into something else, until Albus could feel defeat and lay still. With one last crunch noise Harry was standing over him with one foot on his chest and his axe very close to Albus' neck.
Harry heard a gasp from one of the people watching but he didn't care, he had to finish this.
"Do you yield" Harry said with a deep booming voice that made everyone there feel a cold finger run up there spine. Albus lowered his head and sighed.
"I yield to you, may you spare me" then there was two gasps and a yell or protest, but it was to late and Harry had won the fight.
Harry quickly took his foot of Albus' chest and placed his axe back on his back. He summoned his staff to him and waved it over Albus and focused the magic around him to heal Albus completely, which it did and wouldn't leave a scar.
Albus stood up amazed at how well Harry had healed him, and how well Harry had duelled against him, and even beat him, the most powerful wizard of the centaury, was beaten by one of his own pupils, that hadn't even finished yet!
Harry stood back and looked at Albus uneasily. Albus was just standing up and a phoenix song started to echo through the room. Harry looked up and there was Fawkes obviously here to heal Albus because it would know he was hurt through the bond that they shared. The phoenix landed on Albus' shoulder slightly confused as to why he had been called here when Albus was obviously fine.
ΩHello there FawkesΩ Harry trilled out to Fawkes in the same language phoenixes use. Albus stumbled backward when he heard a phoenix song come out of Harry and how easily it happened too.
ΩYou speak our language?Ω
ΩI speak every language of the beastsΩ
ΩYou are a beast talker then?Ω
ΩYou, I was wondering though, what do phoenixes like to eat, because I've got a baby one over there and I don't know what to feed it.Ω
ΩDo not feed it anything, once it is fully grown it will go out and hunt its own food, but if you really wish to feed it, owl treats will work just fineΩ trilled Fawkes in an amused sort of way.
ΩOK, well I need to chat with Albus now, no doubt he has some more questions about why I am able to talk to youΩ trilled Harry with a slight chuckle that came out in a beautiful phoenix song.
ΩOK young one, and you sing marvellouslyΩ
Harry turned to Dumbledore to see him standing there with his mouth hanging open then shutting, trying to talk but not finding his voice.
"You could catch flies in there if you aren't careful Albus" . Albus snapped out of it and looked at Harry in shock and awe.
"I did not know you talk the language of phoenixes. Is that how you came about a Phoenix Lord egg?"
"Well I speak most animal languages, and I got the egg as a gift from my trainer"
"Who was your trainer?"
"I do not wish to tell me so do not ask, ok?"
"OK, now I believe I need to arrange for you to take your NEWTs before the school year so you can teach Duelling here"
"You mean I got the job?!" asked Harry in an excited voice.
"Harry, anyone that can beat me in a duel could walk into any job that involves fighting of any kind" said Albus with a chuckle and a twinkle of the eye.
Just as Harry was about to reply there was a loud boom and the castle shook to its very foundations.
"What the hell…" was all Harry managed to get out before there was another loud boom and the main doors to Hogwarts burst in and a swarm of men in black robes ran into the hall.
"Accio Teachers" Harry yelled and Minerva and Snape started zooming towards them across the hall, Fudge on the other hand Harry couldn't care about but Dumbledore summoned him. Within five minuets the five of them were surrounded by a sea of men in black ropes. Minerva was clothing Harry's phoenix tightly in one hand and was holding her wand in the other, everyone else quickly followed suit and they all drew there wands, and Harry his staff.
The Death Eaters made a small gap in the ranks and Harry looked in shock as he saw Voldemort walk down between his followers with a triumphant sneer on his face, and his red eyes flashing menacingly.
"Well look what we have ere, it's the muggle loving fool, and he just had a duel from the lack of power I'm sensing in him, looks like this take over wouldn't be so hard after all" mocked Voldemort.
Dumbledore stood up straight and looked Voldemort straight in the eye.
"Ah, but Tom, I lost the duel, and the man I lost to is standing right here behind me, and if I'm not mistaken, his power reserves having dropped in the slightest" said Dumbledore in a strong powerful tone "and I myself can take down any number of your little followers with or without full power"
Voldemort glared at Dumbledore as hate started to take over him and he sneered at him.
"I will not have you talk to me like that old man! Curico" Voldemort yelled and a red beam shot from his wand, but Harry moved in front of him and summoned his axe to his hand and smashed the curse its tracks.
Voldemort paled ever so slightly as he saw one of the un block able curses being blocked.
"That is impossible!"
"Ah, but you see, I am always doing the impossible"
"Who are you, and why are you on the side of this fool? With me you could hold true power and be my next in command" declared Voldemort worried that if he didn't get this stranger onto his side he would have a serious problem in all his plans.
"Don't you recognise me Tom my old pal? You should do by now"
Voldemort looked at the strange man in the eye and tried to force his way into his mind when he saw a steel wall blocking his way bearing the sign 'Trespassers will be hurt badly' right before he fell to the ground in severe pain as his head felt like it was trying to explode from the inside out. After a few minuets of agony the pain vanished and Voldemort stood up again.
"Please, please try to do that again, you have no idea how much fun that was!" begged Harry.
"Who are you!" yelled Voldemort.
"I, my dear friend, am the boy you tried to kill at the age of one and failed and from the age of 11 onwards tried to kill me pretty much every year after that, and might I add, failed every time" Harry stated.
Voldemort looked Harry in the eye, and got a cold emerald gaze back that made even him want to curl up and cry.
"So you are telling me you are Harry Potter?"
"Lord Harry Potter to you Tom, but yes"
"Then I will be taking my leave to get stronger than even you then" and with that Voldemort put his hand into his robes and hissed something in Parseltounge before he vanished in a fury if colours, and quickly all the Death Eaters did the same except from a small few that got stunned by Snape and Minerva.
Harry looked around the room and saw that everyone was staring at him in shock, even Snape, but to Fudge it looked like Christmas had came early.
Harry walked up to Fudge and said very quietly in his ear, "If you even think of trying to arrest me, I will kill everyone of your family members, and don't try hiding because I know enough spells that will break through them, and I will kill them all in front of you, right before I kill you. So it would be in your best interest to keep your mouth quiet" said Harry in a quiet and deadly whisper that scared Fudge so much he wet himself there and then.
Harry looked at him disgusted and snapped his fingers, and Fudge's mouth was restored back to how it was. "Remember Fudge, not a word, unless you have a death wish" and with that Harry waved his staff and Fudge disappeared.
"Where did you send him?" asked Dumbledore
"Just back to his office at the ministry, well when I say his office I mean the main entrance which should be busy enough for everyone to see him and the wet patch on his trousers" said Harry with a dark chuckle. "Minerva could I please have Mearas back please? We need to be getting home"
"Of course, but are you really Harry Potter?" she asked while handing him the small bird that was rubbing against Minerva's thumb.
"The one and only" said Harry.
"Then you wont mind telling us how you have changed so much then will you Potter" sneered Snape.
Harry turned around lightning fast and thrust his staff into Snape's chest and sending him sprawling on the floor.
"It would do you good to watch your tone with me SNAPE" he spat "And no I wont tell you where I became strong, because I don't like you, and you don't need to know" he turned to Minerva and said in a much gentler and nicer tone "I'll be brining Mearas back soon as I said I would and I'll tell you and Albus where I've been then, and if I don't you will know by the time school starts for sure" said Harry giving Minerva a grin.
"OK Harry, just try and keep out of trouble, ok?" said Minerva.
"Sure thing, and Harry Jumped back to his house and began the job of hiding his house with as many wards as he could think of before he fell asleep that night. Leaving Dumbledore standing dumbfound and leaving Snape lying on the floor seething with rage.
All in all, Harry Potters life was going to get better from now on, one way or another.
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AN: this chapter is basically an apology for chapter nine as it was so crappy, and I changed the phoenix name, because the new one is a lot more girlish and not so crap, I came up with the old one late at night.
Pleasant Reading
Night Wanderer