Chapter 18: CLOAK STAIN
Harry rolled out of bed feeling oddly happy the next morning. It took a few moments to recall where and when he had had that sick feeling in his stomach before. Then he remembered that he had fallen asleep with it and that made last night come back in a whirl of unpleasant faces and voices.
He had an urge to tell Sirius about this incident, just to see if he would have done the same thing that Harry had done... and maybe to see if Sirius couldn't convince Dumbledore to give him the cloak back. Harry fought this down, thinking that Sirius would be furious at him for what he did. While eating breakfast, Harry wanted to hit himself for what he did. Why couldn't he have just taken the thing and left?
"Why are you always beating yourself up?" asked Hermione.
"I don't know," Harry replied in a flat tone, "but it's a bad habit of mine and I --"
"And you need to stop doing it," Hermione said, eyeing him sharply.
Harry blinked nervously at her a few times under her gaze, turned to Ron and saw a very similar facial expression then looked down at his half-empty plate of pancakes. He poked a particularly syrup-soaked portion of them with his fork and stuffed it into his mouth, chewing, yet thinking.
Why had I blown up at all on them, he asked himself, when it would have just been better to crack a joke at Dudley and Disapparate out of there? Now I have to serve some horrible detention and Professor Trelawney is going to predict my now death more than ever, he thought bitterly.
"I can't take this anymore," he finally burst out. "I'm almost glad I have one year left but I just hope I can stay somewhere else but the Dursley's. And worse yet, I've got no idea what I want to do with my life."
"You're good at Quidditch," Ron reminded Harry.
"With my luck I'll get hit by both Spiked Snitches, one in each eye," said Harry grimly, looking for the next likely piece of pancake to spear with his fork.
"My parents said I could wait until I'm eighteen before I really have to start deciding," said Hermione thoughtfully.
Harry took a momentary break from his search to glare at her from the top of his round glasses, then he thrust his fork in a piece, raised it to his mouth, chewed, and swallowed.
Transfiguration on Wednesday had seventh years trying to turn their desks into water fountains. While Harry had much success getting the desk to turn silver, grow taller, change shape and become round, the only problem was that there was no water to make it a fountain.
Ron was having far more trouble. He could get the water but there was no fountain to speak of and the water simply came out of the desk's top and soaked the stone floor of the classroom.
"Concentrate, Weasley, or you'll never be able to do it correctly," barked Professor McGonagall.
When she turned his water-spewing desk back into a normal desk, Ron tried again but this time he had only managed to make his desk turn silver and let loose a few drops of water before the legs on the desk gave way and it broke down.
"Hopeless," Ron muttered.
Harry, having just as much trouble as Ron, scowled at his desk. Professor McGongall came back around to turn his desk back to normal and with an extremely hard whack with his wand, Harry screamed "VERIVERTO!" He wasn't the only one who had yelled at his desk, he got the idea from Seamus Finnigan whose desk had turned the color of rusted metal.
To Harry's surprise, his desk became a better fountain than the one Hermione quickly turned her attention away from. There appeared to be just one problem.
"You broke your wand, Harry," said Ron, looking at the piece that was still in Harry's hand, then at the piece that was lying on the floor.
Raides, who had been drinking from Hermione's fountain occassionally, walked over to Harry and said, "Don't just stare at it, fix it."
"How?" asked Harry, bewildered, and then, "Oh."
Raides leapt up from where she stood, turning back into the staff and Harry caught her. The whole class (including Professor McGonagall), anxious as always to see the staff at work, stopped what they were doing as soon as the misty gray smoke appeared.
Harry, who very well knew how powerful the staff was, didn't even need an incantation at this point. He just layed both pieces on top of Neville's desk (he hadn't had any luck) and, holding the staff upside down, touched both pieces with the scarlet crystal. A golden sparkle ran the length of the staff as a white glow emanated out from the crystal. Harry's wand glowed white for a quick second and, before their very eyes, was as good as new.
"Wow," said Harry, dumbstruck as he picked up his wand and tested it out by making it shoot random colored sparks. "Shame I can't use the staff instead of my wand," he said, grinning.
"Now, now, Potter," said Professor McGonagall, looking like she wanted a go with the staff, too, "you know very well that you'd have been able to do seventh year work in your first year with Raides."
By the end of class, Harry managed to make his desk turn into a fountain but got no water. Yelling, he supposed, made him focus better but, seeing as how he didn't want to break his wand again, refrained. Ron's success had been similar except that his fountain was made out of wood and not brass but did have water. When turned back into a desk by Professor McGonagall, the soaked wood felt apart as soon as Ron put his book bag on it. Harry needed to use Raides to put it back together.
As Harry tried to sneak out with Ron and Hermione, a voice behind him called, "Potter!"
Raides walking next to him, Harry turned around, hoping that Professor McGonagall had forgotten about the detention he had been promised. Harry walked towards her desk and Raides stayed by the door.
"You will be assigned the very difficult task of catching unicorns with Hagrid," she told him. Harry's eyebrows raised, wondering for what possible reason someone needed to catch unicorns. "Hagrid needs demiguises for one of his lessons," she continued matter-of-factly, "and as unicorns can help in the manner of finding them -- seeing as how their fur can turn them invisible, this is a necessity. After catching a unicorn or two, you will then attempt to catch a few demiguises. Meet him in front of his cabin at nine o'clock sharp on Friday. Friday because it can possibly take a few hours as unicorns are tricky to catch. You will obviously be taking Raides with you."
Over dinner, Harry explained his seemingly not-so-hard detention to Ron, Hermione and everyone else who had been listening in, which included Ginny and Dennis Creevey. The only wish he had was that it didn't take place in the forbidden forest. He had been in there on several occasions, each time worse than the last, all of them being brushes with death. Professor Trelawney would have been proud.
"Wow, Harry!" said Dennis, completely awed for some strange that Harry was assigned the "really cool" task of catching demiguises. "I bet you can see them! Even when they're invisible!"
"Yeah," said Harry dryly, who was thinking of catching a demiguise for himself and knitting a new Invisibility Cloak.
"She didn't tell you because, like the rest of us, you were supposed to know. Hagrid's just going make a potion of True Seeing," said Hermione.
"That's all?" asked Harry.
"We made them, what, last year?" Ron said.
"Oh, now I remember," said Harry, also recalling how Snape had yelled at him, saying that Harry didn't help Malfoy; his potion had turned black when it was supposed to be silvery and somewhat transparent.
Friday afternoon had come while Harry and the rest of the Gryffindor seventh years finally found out what haruspicy was: examining the dead remains of animals. Hermione had overheard Professor Trelawney speaking with Professor Vector about possibly combining lessons while waiting outside the staff room for Hagrid. Hermione said it was immediately shot down when Professor Trelawney went crystal gazing and didn't see it happening.
One of the demiguises would go to seventh year classes. Unluckily, Gryffindors had the bodies first.
Checking his golden watch and seeing that it was nine, Harry put down his phoenix-feather quill, put the cap on his bottle of ink, rolled up his Defense Against the Dark Arts essay ("Give a background on the history of the Dark art of possession and ways in which it had been abused in history").
He felt his stomach give a funny jolt. For the life of him, Harry couldn't shake the feeling that, after going over it in his head while trying his very best -- and failing miserably -- to write his essay, he had possessed two bodies: Mrs. Norris, Mr. Filch's cat, last year and that Muggle boy this past summer. The tingling sensation all over, the way he passed out and then woke up... There was just no other explanation and he had no idea how to control it. What would happen if he did it in front of a crowd of wizards? And they recognized it for what it was immediately?
Having the sudden urge to tell Ron and Hermione and then write to tell Cho and Sirius about it, he looked at his watch again and realized that Hagrid wouldn't be happy if he was late. Harry would definitely tell them as soon as he could. He left his wand with the rest of his things up in his dormitory -- he had every intention of using the Staff of Cybele instead of his pitiful wand while in the forest.
Harry kicked Raides lightly, who had been sleeping under the table Harry sat at, and told her to follow him ("But I was having such a nice dream about slapping Professor Trelawney around a bit with my tail and telling her she's going to die, too").
Sniggering, Harry said good-bye to Ron, Hermione and -- he didn't really know why but he did anyway -- Ginny too. Raides growled loudly as Peeves bobbed up and down in the enormous entrance hall and shot quickly out of sight when she finally barked at him. Upon Harry's arrival, Hagrid was already prepared, his crossbow armed and a quiver of arrows slung over his back.
"There yeh are, Harry," he said, sticking a knife he had been sharpening into a pocket of his moleskin overcoat.
"Why d'you need all that equipment?" Harry asked as he felt Raides rush past him and clamp her powerful jaws on a grotesque, one foot wide creature that had crawled out of the forest.
"I reckon yeh don' want a repeat of yer past experiences in there, do yeh?" Hagrid asked, a smile evident behind his tangled beard.
"So you're going to make True Seeing potions?" Harry asked, now at Hagrid's side and really wishing he didn't have to go back into the forest.
"Yep," Hagrid replied, "and I'm goin' ter need yer help since I --" but he broke off, not feeling the need to say that he hadn't gotten to potions of True Seeing because he had been wrongly expelled in his third year at Hogwarts.
"Don't worry," said Harry. "I can make it."
Hagrid pointed to a stack of potion ingredients and a bronze-colored cauldron inside his cabin.
"I have everything," he explained, "just don' have the unicorn hair for the potion. Had a good time gettin' me hands on one las' year for the potions as well. Hoped I wouldn't have ter to it again, took me a good five hours. But with yer help," Hagrid went on, beaming at Harry, "and Raides', it shouldn't take too long! Mind yeh, yeh're goin' ter want to have Raides at the ready. I came across another bloody balrog last year. Had ter get Dumbledore ter kill it. I don' know where they're comin' from an' I don' think I want ter know. Speaking of which, Raides, if yeh would mind... yeh know?" Hagrid finished, clearly suggesting Raides transform back into the staff.
Raides acted like she hadn't even heard Hagrid's request.
"You can listen to him, you know," Harry hissed at her, quietly enough that Hagrid wouldn't hear. "It's not like he wants me dead."
Harry stuck out his hand and Raides leapt up into the air. He clutched his fist around her tightly when she hit his hand as the staff. Hagrid didn't know what to make of whatever Harry had said to Raides and looked indifferent.
"Right," said Hagrid firmly, "let's go. C'mon, Fang!"
Feeling strangely like Cho was around to walk into the forest with him, Harry set off at Hagrid's side, Fang trotting behind Hagrid. Harry's hand was firmly wrapped around the Staff of Cybele for comfort and the other desperately wanted to grab onto the Order of Merlin plaque.
After a few minutes of walking, there was an indistinct growling noise a few feet from behind Harry. The bush in front of him quivered. Harry instinctly walked closer to Hagrid and tightened his grip around the staff which made her growl and so he loosened it.
"Can you feel pain?" he asked before he knew what his mouth was doing. "I've kicked you several times now."
"Nope," Raides replied quickly, the crystal having disappeared. "All I feel is pressure and I instinctively roar when I feel enough but only when I'm beind held."
"Why?"
"Don't know. I guess it's just one of my features," she said, grinning.
"Quiet," Hagrid whispered, "both of yeh." The crystal reappeared in the staff's mouth and they both fell silent. "We'll never be able ter catch a unicorn with yeh blabberin'. Harry, yeh should go off with Raides along the path. I'll go with Fang off of the path. I know this forest like the back o' me hand. An' don' worry, yeh'll be safe with Raides with yeh. If yeh see a unicorn, just stun it, Disapparate out back to me hut with it an' come back to where yeh was. I jus' need two. If yeh get one, catch Foresight with me an' I'll meet yeh back at the cabin so we can try an' get the second together. But we might not need it an' I hope not. Mind, I'll need ter do a bit more than stun since I ain't got me a staff," Hagrid said, grinning at it.
Harry, feeling like Hagrid wasn't so right, unwillingly let Hagrid leave his side. He watched Hagrid go, feeling the shroud of darkness of the forest consume him. He blinked a few times and Hagrid was gone, his shadow sucked up by the many trees and bushes of the forbidden forest. While he somewhat agreed that with Raides with him, nothing, not even a nundu could stood a chance, he was still very scared as was evident by the hand now clutching the Order of Merlin plaque.
"Calm yourself, Harry," Raides whispered but Harry felt nothing like staying calm. "You can cast Clades Ultimus with me if you need to."
While Harry had forgotten completely about that, it only worked to let his hand release the plaque, his breath still coming noticeably faster than it had been up in Gryffindor Tower while trying to do his Defense Against the Dark Arts essay. He had been alone in the forest before and didn't die. At least this time he had the world's most powerful staff.
But every bush rustling in the breeze, every screeching noise coming from the shadows of towering oaks and ancient pines and every time he heard some footsteps that he knew weren't his or Hagrid's, he stopped moving for a few seconds. Clearly, something was watching him, as was evident by the familiar pringling of the hairs on the back of his neck.
This is one of your powers, Harry, he told himself, so you better use it.
He heard a shrill cry whose owner definitely wasn't human but certainly didn't sound threatening... and there were galloping footsteps running away from him. Harry twirled the staff in his hand once and then, taking a deep breath, walked over to where he thought he saw a bush give another quiver.
Putting the staff on the ground next to him, he kneeled down and saw a bit of shiny, silvery liquid on the ground. He bent closer to it, looking at it. It glistened in the sparse rays of moonlight that were streaking down from the treetops.
Not exactly sure if he should do it, Harry poked it with his finger and put the tip of his finger to the tip of his tongue. Barely having enough to taste, he concluded that it tasted something like -- but he was glad that he didn't feel like he had just been poisoned. Harry wiped the rest of it on his cloak (making the spot on his cloak glisten in the sunlight, too), grabbed the staff and stood up.
More galloping made him strain his ears; he knew that must have been either a centaur or a unicorn but centaurs' footsteps had a louder thump to them so, Harry concluded, it had to be a unicorn. The galloping was just ahead of him and he broke into a run.
Whether it knew or not whether he was trying to catch it, it was running very fast and Harry tried his best to keep up with it. Headlong through branches, jumping over stumps in the ground and trying hard not to trip and fall on the hem of his own robes, Harry chased it, bringing him clear off the path of the forest. But he was losing it. The unicorn kept him going for longer than his legs wished to go and so he pointed Raides at his feet and snarled, "Faster!"
A dark pinkish light bursted from the crystal.
Like someone had just injected him with adrenaline, Harry's legs picked up their pace and he was gaining on something, something white with hooves. He had to have been moving at least five times faster than he was just a few seconds ago. He didn't really care; his heart gave a jolt, this was unicorn number one and it didn't take long at all. He pointed the staff at the tail of the unicorn, which was now clearly visible, and said "Stupefy!"
A jet of red light issued from the crystal and before Harry knew where it went, it had zoomed past the unicorn and burned a hole through a thick oak tree in front of it, a large amount of saw dust spraying the ground. His mouth fell open and he stopped dead in his tracks as it did a u-turn, tearing through many more trees, and came back around, hitting the unicorn square between the eyes. There was just one problem: the holes in the trees weren't small and all of them were wobbling.
Every tree that had been hit was threatening to fall down. Panicking, he pointed the staff at the nearest tree, concentrating on all of them and shouted "Don't fall!" because he didn't have any idea what else to say. It did exactly what he wanted, however.
A golden glitter ran the length of the staff like usual and a hideous number of strands of white light snaked out from the crystal, turning and twisting every which way, lighting up the forest like daytime. They had all gone to touch every single tree that had been damaged but this all happened so fast that for all he knew, the strands of light could have very well already been there and he just revealed them.
Upon getting hit, the saw dust around each of the trees crawled up the trunk and before his eyes, all of them looked like new again. When it was finished, the ends of the light strands released themselves from the crystal, beginning to vanish from the crystal to the tree it was touching. All of it was gone in the blink of an eye and it was once again very dark.
Before going over to the unicorn, Harry stood stunned for a few moments, letting the reality of what a simple charm had just done to so many trees and the way he repaired them sink in. He never knew spells to tear right through other objects nor go so very fast. For all he's seen, if one collided with something, it either bursted or cracked a portion of it -- certainly never burning through it as if the spell were a laser beam. And the snakes of light were certainly cool to watch.
Figuring it was all just to do with how powerful the staff was, he then hurried over to the stunned unicorn. It's eyes had rolled into the back of it's head and the spot where the spell had hit looked slightly burned. Harry put his hand with the Phoenix Bracelet on the spot with the burn mark to get rid of it. Once the bracelet had done it's work, he bent down next to the unicorn, put a hand on it and Disapparated with it into Hagrid's hut.
It was empty of Hagrid, Fang and another unicorn.
"Hagrid," Harry said to himself, eyes closed, having caught Foresight with Hagrid, who jumped a good foot in the air at hearing Harry's voice in his head.
"Oh," said Hagrid sheepishly a few seconds later, realizing. "Yeh got the firs' unicorn?"
"Yes. I'm at your hut with it. You wouldn't believe what happened, though. I went to stun it and the spell missed the unicorn but it tore right through several trees, did a u-turn and finally hit. A bunch of trees were about to fall over when I -- well, they're okay now. And the unicorn had a burn on it's face where the spell hit. This staff is amazing," said Harry, finishing with his mouth open in awe.
He had never really used the staff to do something big -- that is if you discount reviving Sirius last year.
"Harry!" Hagrid croaked. "I don' believe yeh caught one so fast! It even takes Professor Dumbledore an hour or two! Ah, but anyway, I'm comin' back. We can try ter make the potion with just one. Jus' need ter cut off some o' it's fur. Let me do that."
Harry put Raides down and she transformed back into the great gold and scarlet lion.
"So fast? What's he talking about? That was easy," said Harry blankly, sitting down on one of the enormous armchairs, and then, "Oh."
Raides grinned at the unconscious unicorn laying on the floor by the fire.
"Unicorn fur acts like a natural defense," said Raides, "and as you saw, they run fast. You casted a Haste Charm on yourself so you would go faster."
Haste. That rang a bell. He had casted a -- a Haste Charm on himself to run faster...
Wait a second, Harry then thought, hadn't I experienced something like that before? Where I'd been running a lot faster than I probably should have? I never really noticed it before...
Raides looked at the odd expression on Harry's face.
"What?" she asked curiously. "Did I say something?"
"Oh," said Harry, thinking fast of something to say and hoping the expression on his face really was neutral. "Is that charm within ordinary wizarding level?"
"I don't know," she replied, the shoulders of her front two legs rising in a shrug. "I lost most of my memory, remember?"
"Be nice to find out why you were missing for several thousand years," said Harry, his mind really on trying to figure out why the Haste Charm he had used before was bothering him so much -- it was just one stupid charm!
"Tell me about it."
Calm yourself, Harry, you're going to bust a blood vessel, he told himself. You're getting older and you're getting better at it. So you can use a Haste Charm without a wand? Big deal.
He knew it was bothering him a lot more than it should for some reason. Harry leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, his hands folded and waiting impatiently for Hagrid's return. Feeling hot, he pulled his cloak off and threw it on the wooden floor next to the big armchair.
Raides, clearly noticing that Harry was thinking about something, gave a sigh, said, "Go ahead, I won't tell anyone," stood up and walked outside. That was another thing bothering Harry: Raides was strangely loyal to him.
Sitting there, he became aware that he was tired.
About fifteen minutes of going over the charm again and again in his head ("It was just one charm, stop getting yourself worked up. It was nothing. Why are you even talking to yourself?"), Hagrid turned up at the front door. Hagrid rubbed his hands together in delight, looking at the unconscious unicorn.
Harry quickly sat up straight so that Hagrid wouldn't notice that he'd been in deep thought, hoping he wouldn't get questioned about it.
Hagrid then pulled the knife he'd been sharpening from the pocket of his moleskin overcoat, bent down over the unicorn and cut off a sizeable amount of it's hair, stuffing it into a cup. When the unicorn was completely bald, Hagrid sniffed.
"It's so beau'iful," he sobbed. "I don' like ter have to capture them but if you don', those horns like ter gore yeh. Go on, Harry. Wake it up."
Right on cue, Raides walked in, transforming into the staff just long enough for Harry to say, "Ennervate!" pointing the staff at the unicorn. The unicorn gave one long look at Raides, then positively fled out of the cabin and back to the forest.
"Well, now yeh have all the ingredients, Harry. There's the cauldron," said Hagrid, pointing, "there's all the unicorn hair yeh'll need an' the rest o' it is over there in that open cupboard."
Ten minutes later, Harry worked up a bubbling, frothing and smelly cauldron of a True Seeing potion on top of Hagrid's table. It was hovering slightly over a blue flame Harry had conjured with just his fingers. That didn't bother him as Hermione had learned that spell in her first year. He didn't forget about what he'd been going over about in his head -- it was just that he didn't want to mess the potion up and have to catch another unicorn. Hagrid's recipe called for using all of the unicorn hair so it was enough for three people (he needed some for his lesson on Monday) and would last ten hours. Harry found that, without Snape bearing his ugly hooked nose and greasy hair over his shoulder, making potions was much easier.
"That's it," said Hagrid, nodding his head approvingly at the potion that had now turned silvery and somewhat transparent.
"Almost done," said Harry, checking his golden watch.
Harry cleaned of the stick he'd been using to stir with the rim of the cauldron and put it down on Hagrid's table. He took a seat in the armchair he was sitting in earlier and slumped into it, yawning, his arms splayed over the armrests and his legs stretched all the way out.
"It's on'y a lit'le after ten, Harry," said Hagrid disbelievingly. "Yeh're not tired already, are yeh?"
Harry couldn't stifle another yawn.
"I had used a Haste Charm on myself to catch up with the unicorn. It drained me a bit," said Harry truthfully.
"They can do that ter yeh," said Hagrid knowingly. "I'd say it was a shame that yeh don' have the Mark of Ancients anymore so yeh could... but... we all know how well that turned out ter be," he finished darkly.
"I don't need the Mark of Ancients," said Harry, giving an involuntary shutter at the very thought. "I've got Raides." Raides was beaming at the side of Harry's head. "The potion should be ready in about five minutes. I reckon I can catch a demiguise faster than I got that unicorn so we'll be finished very soon. You sure you won't tell me what's going on besides the Triwizard Tournament?" Harry asked, hoping to catch Hagrid offguard and feeling the need to get his mind off everything else.
Hagrid waved a disapproving finger at Harry, his beetle-black eyes aimed sharply at Harry's green ones. Harry desisted.
"We need ter catch two," said Hagrid when the potion was finally ready. "I'll go with yeh since I reckon yeh're right about catchin' the demiguise faster."
Harry wasn't too interested in catching anything at the moment but went back into the forest with Hagrid to get the demiguises.
It only took a few minutes before spotting the first one ("THERE!" boomed Hagrid, making it Harry's turn to jump a foot in the air). Harry stunned it, this time making sure his aim was right the first time. They resembled graceful apes, sporting large, mournful black eyes and covered with silvery gray fur that unfortunately reminded Harry greatly of his dad's Invisibility Cloak.
Hagrid slumped the first one over his shoulder and when they caught the second within the same hour, Disapparated back to Hagrid's hut.
"Thanks a lot, Harry," Hagrid said for about the fifth time since they caught the first one. Harry had been pink around the ears since after the second time.
"Don't mention it," Harry said. "No really, don't."
Hagrid smiled broadly as he washed out his cauldron, putting away all the ingredients for the potion of True Seeing.
"I guess yeh can go back ter the castle then," Hagrid told him. "That took on'y two hours! I'll see yeh tomorrow?"
"Good-bye," said Harry and without a moment's hesitation, picked up his cloak, collected Raides and set off back to the castle.
In the Gryffindor common room, Hermione and Ron were still up doing their Defense Against the Dark Arts essay.
"Back so soon?" Hermione asked casually.
"We had Raides," said Harry loftily, as Raides curled up by the fire, scaring away a first year.
Harry went to his dormitory, collected his essay, quill and ink and went back downstairs. He sat at the same table as Ron and Hermione and threw his cloak on a chair behind him. Harry took one look at the blank piece of parchment in front of himself and sighed, leaning back in his chair.
"Can I read one of yours?" he asked, rubbing his forehead, still feeling the effects of the Haste Charm.
"Here," said Hermione, giving him her finished essay, "but don't you dare copy."
Harry rolled his eyes. "I won't."
"You look beat up," said Ron. "You were only gone two hours?"
"I had used a Haste Charm with Raides to catch a stupid unicorn. Hagrid said they can leave you somewhat drained," Harry informed them and then he remembered that he had used Haste Charms before, and they had never made him tired and he fell silent.
Recalling someone's advice, Harry tried simply putting it out of his mind for the time being. He went to read Hermione's essay...
Bodily possession, a Dark art first recognized in early 400 B.C., had been abused many times since it's discovery. There had been accounts of entire armies being possessed by a hoarde of wizards that were used to destroy their own village, accounts of wizards possessing common animals to spy and a more recent abuse was that of Voldemort, who had been using it to stay alive in his, thirteen-year hibernation period, if you will. Not one good wizard has ever been known to harbor this ability except Albus Dumbledore, who sees the lack of moral uses for possession and refuses to use it. This is not to mention the controversiality factor tied to it.
What real good use is there for such an ability? I, personally, would not want to be friends with someone who has used it.
The primary use of possession is that of making the target do the caster's bidding. As a step up from the Imperius Curse, one of the Unforgiveables, the caster becomes the target which allows many things, which, in particular, include impersonation (a step up from Polyjuice Potion being it doesn't run out). In addition, if the target dies, the caster is simply thrown back to their own body.
Slightly horrified, Harry skipped to the end of the essay.
Percivus Potter, who lived five hundred years ago, had said it best. "Possession shall not taint the Potter family. We stand proud... we stand tall. We stand to keep the line of great Gryffindor proud and possession does naught but make one stand hunchbacked."
Thoroughly horrified, Harry handed the essay back to Hermione.
"Percivus Potter," he began uneasily, "was he... ?"
Hermione smiled. "Yes. You're from the same family line as him. I found him and a bunch of other people named Potter (who I traced your family line down to) in a book I used to help me write my essay. It's amazing how many great wizards there were in your family tree, Harry, really."
"Yeah," said Harry, feeling sick, "amazing."
"But I wanted to ask you," Hermione went on, "how'd you get this unicorn blood on your cloak?"
Harry blinked. "Unicorn blood?"
"Yeah. That silvery-white stuff. You didn't --?"
"No," said Harry quickly, feeling even more sick and feeling the heat rising in his face. So that's what it was... that he had actually tasted...
"It's a good thing you wiped it on your cloak without tasting it!" Hermione said, as if the idea were ludicrous. "Because, you know, if you did, well, you remember what that centaur told you." -- and she made an impression of a centaur -- "'As soon as the blood touches your lips, you will have but a half-life, a cursed life.'" And she giggled.
"Well, I'm going to bed, really very tired," Harry lied, wishing he could stop his stomach from feeling like someone had filled it with unicorn blood to the point of exploding and very aware of the beads of sweat breaking out over his forehead.
As though someone had just hit play on a tape recorder, his conversation with the centaur came back to him.
"If you're going to be cursed forever, death's better, isn't it?" Harry asked the centaur.
"It is," the centaur agreed.
Suddenly very hot, very dizzy, noticing his vision dimming and feeling like there was a hand squeezing his head from all sides, Harry fumbled around the desk, picking up his quill, still-blank parchment, ink bottle and his cloak and staggered up the spiral staircase to the top of Gryffindor Tower, to his dormitory, trying his best not to faint.
He immediately sat upon the edge of his four-post bed, his hands clutched tightly around the edge of the mattress.
"YOU STUPID IDIOT" he muttered soundlessly to himself, "WHY DID YOU DO THAT! Now what's going to happen to you? Are you going to grow fangs? Spit acid? Be forced to keep drinking it just to stay alive? Idiot. You're going to end up like Voldemort was."
Harry took one deep breath and let out one great exhale then threw himself, hard, backward onto the bed, feeling his neck snap down as his back hit the mattress. His head, too far up to come in contact with it, didn't. This hurt a considerable amount but he didn't think he broke it -- he would probably have killed himself instantly.
He covered his face with his hands, feeling the hot sweat from his fingertips on his forehead and feeling too angry with himself to express in words. The dizzy feeling wasn't relieved by much from lying down.
Harry let out a soft groan of self-torment. What was going to happen? How much did it take? Was he already cursed? Is there any cure? Raides... yes, Raides would know the countercurse or at least let him perform it. But what if she knew he was cursed? Would he stop letting him use her? No... she didn't seem to care or even notice.
Okay, calm down, he thought. Think sensibly. Nothing has happened yet. You only swallowed a very, very tiny bit. Something should have happened to you already, right? Right. But you're already feeling sick. Is that just the reality setting in or is that the curse?
Should he tell anyone? Raides? Ron or Hermione? Sirius? Hagrid? Dumbledore?
He had a feeling Hermione would start off by calling him stupid but he already figured that part out and didn't need reminding of the fact. She would probably then proceed to run to the library and find out the effects of drinking unicorn blood and tell him not to panic. But he was already well beyond panic.
His head hanging off the edge of the four-post bed and his eyes closed, Harry put his hands on his stomach and felt it churn horribly. After a minute of trying to decide whether his stomach wanted to put his dinner on the floor, Harry then opened his eyes and found he was staring at his bedside cabinet. A familiar pen next to the Pensieve, a sort of thought jar that Dumbledore had given him last year, gave him an idea.
"Sirius," Harry mumbled to himself. "If I don't tell Ron or Hermione, I had better tell someone."
He sat up and flipped his legs around to the other side of the bed and the next second, he had jumped off the bed, seized the pen, grabbed a piece of parchment and wrote Dear Sirius. But what could he possibly write?
Dear Sirius. Sorry to bother you but just a few hours ago I did something really dumb and swallowed a bit of unicorn blood. Nothing's happened yet but I expect I'll have to keep drinking it just to stay alive and have to kill myself and then get resurrected like Voldemort. Can you tell me what's really going to happen? Thanks, Harry.
He stabbed himself repeatedly with the pen until there was as much pain the middle of his forehead as he figured his scar would cause when he woke up tomorrow after having the dream again. Harry had absolutely no idea who to write to, what to do, what to consult or what to think. Just about everyone, he figured, would begin by repeatedly calling him an idiot.
"Get a grip on yourself," Harry thought, "you were supposed to get cursed from the same moment it entered your mouth and you're perfectly fine so there's got to be hope... Who the hell am I kidding," he groaned aloud, his face screwed up against tears and throwing himself back onto his four-post bed, his head hanging off the end again. "Stick me back in my bed at Privet Drive and let me live with the Dursleys where I can't hurt myself. I'm cursed forever. Just kill me."
It was these last moments where he saw the last of consciousness. A violent rumble in the pit of his stomach crawled up his throat and out his mouth, sending bits his dinner up his nose but mostly onto the floor.
Harry rolled out of bed feeling oddly happy the next morning. It took a few moments to recall where and when he had had that sick feeling in his stomach before. Then he remembered that he had fallen asleep with it and that made last night come back in a whirl of unpleasant faces and voices.
He had an urge to tell Sirius about this incident, just to see if he would have done the same thing that Harry had done... and maybe to see if Sirius couldn't convince Dumbledore to give him the cloak back. Harry fought this down, thinking that Sirius would be furious at him for what he did. While eating breakfast, Harry wanted to hit himself for what he did. Why couldn't he have just taken the thing and left?
"Why are you always beating yourself up?" asked Hermione.
"I don't know," Harry replied in a flat tone, "but it's a bad habit of mine and I --"
"And you need to stop doing it," Hermione said, eyeing him sharply.
Harry blinked nervously at her a few times under her gaze, turned to Ron and saw a very similar facial expression then looked down at his half-empty plate of pancakes. He poked a particularly syrup-soaked portion of them with his fork and stuffed it into his mouth, chewing, yet thinking.
Why had I blown up at all on them, he asked himself, when it would have just been better to crack a joke at Dudley and Disapparate out of there? Now I have to serve some horrible detention and Professor Trelawney is going to predict my now death more than ever, he thought bitterly.
"I can't take this anymore," he finally burst out. "I'm almost glad I have one year left but I just hope I can stay somewhere else but the Dursley's. And worse yet, I've got no idea what I want to do with my life."
"You're good at Quidditch," Ron reminded Harry.
"With my luck I'll get hit by both Spiked Snitches, one in each eye," said Harry grimly, looking for the next likely piece of pancake to spear with his fork.
"My parents said I could wait until I'm eighteen before I really have to start deciding," said Hermione thoughtfully.
Harry took a momentary break from his search to glare at her from the top of his round glasses, then he thrust his fork in a piece, raised it to his mouth, chewed, and swallowed.
Transfiguration on Wednesday had seventh years trying to turn their desks into water fountains. While Harry had much success getting the desk to turn silver, grow taller, change shape and become round, the only problem was that there was no water to make it a fountain.
Ron was having far more trouble. He could get the water but there was no fountain to speak of and the water simply came out of the desk's top and soaked the stone floor of the classroom.
"Concentrate, Weasley, or you'll never be able to do it correctly," barked Professor McGonagall.
When she turned his water-spewing desk back into a normal desk, Ron tried again but this time he had only managed to make his desk turn silver and let loose a few drops of water before the legs on the desk gave way and it broke down.
"Hopeless," Ron muttered.
Harry, having just as much trouble as Ron, scowled at his desk. Professor McGongall came back around to turn his desk back to normal and with an extremely hard whack with his wand, Harry screamed "VERIVERTO!" He wasn't the only one who had yelled at his desk, he got the idea from Seamus Finnigan whose desk had turned the color of rusted metal.
To Harry's surprise, his desk became a better fountain than the one Hermione quickly turned her attention away from. There appeared to be just one problem.
"You broke your wand, Harry," said Ron, looking at the piece that was still in Harry's hand, then at the piece that was lying on the floor.
Raides, who had been drinking from Hermione's fountain occassionally, walked over to Harry and said, "Don't just stare at it, fix it."
"How?" asked Harry, bewildered, and then, "Oh."
Raides leapt up from where she stood, turning back into the staff and Harry caught her. The whole class (including Professor McGonagall), anxious as always to see the staff at work, stopped what they were doing as soon as the misty gray smoke appeared.
Harry, who very well knew how powerful the staff was, didn't even need an incantation at this point. He just layed both pieces on top of Neville's desk (he hadn't had any luck) and, holding the staff upside down, touched both pieces with the scarlet crystal. A golden sparkle ran the length of the staff as a white glow emanated out from the crystal. Harry's wand glowed white for a quick second and, before their very eyes, was as good as new.
"Wow," said Harry, dumbstruck as he picked up his wand and tested it out by making it shoot random colored sparks. "Shame I can't use the staff instead of my wand," he said, grinning.
"Now, now, Potter," said Professor McGonagall, looking like she wanted a go with the staff, too, "you know very well that you'd have been able to do seventh year work in your first year with Raides."
By the end of class, Harry managed to make his desk turn into a fountain but got no water. Yelling, he supposed, made him focus better but, seeing as how he didn't want to break his wand again, refrained. Ron's success had been similar except that his fountain was made out of wood and not brass but did have water. When turned back into a desk by Professor McGonagall, the soaked wood felt apart as soon as Ron put his book bag on it. Harry needed to use Raides to put it back together.
As Harry tried to sneak out with Ron and Hermione, a voice behind him called, "Potter!"
Raides walking next to him, Harry turned around, hoping that Professor McGonagall had forgotten about the detention he had been promised. Harry walked towards her desk and Raides stayed by the door.
"You will be assigned the very difficult task of catching unicorns with Hagrid," she told him. Harry's eyebrows raised, wondering for what possible reason someone needed to catch unicorns. "Hagrid needs demiguises for one of his lessons," she continued matter-of-factly, "and as unicorns can help in the manner of finding them -- seeing as how their fur can turn them invisible, this is a necessity. After catching a unicorn or two, you will then attempt to catch a few demiguises. Meet him in front of his cabin at nine o'clock sharp on Friday. Friday because it can possibly take a few hours as unicorns are tricky to catch. You will obviously be taking Raides with you."
Over dinner, Harry explained his seemingly not-so-hard detention to Ron, Hermione and everyone else who had been listening in, which included Ginny and Dennis Creevey. The only wish he had was that it didn't take place in the forbidden forest. He had been in there on several occasions, each time worse than the last, all of them being brushes with death. Professor Trelawney would have been proud.
"Wow, Harry!" said Dennis, completely awed for some strange that Harry was assigned the "really cool" task of catching demiguises. "I bet you can see them! Even when they're invisible!"
"Yeah," said Harry dryly, who was thinking of catching a demiguise for himself and knitting a new Invisibility Cloak.
"She didn't tell you because, like the rest of us, you were supposed to know. Hagrid's just going make a potion of True Seeing," said Hermione.
"That's all?" asked Harry.
"We made them, what, last year?" Ron said.
"Oh, now I remember," said Harry, also recalling how Snape had yelled at him, saying that Harry didn't help Malfoy; his potion had turned black when it was supposed to be silvery and somewhat transparent.
Friday afternoon had come while Harry and the rest of the Gryffindor seventh years finally found out what haruspicy was: examining the dead remains of animals. Hermione had overheard Professor Trelawney speaking with Professor Vector about possibly combining lessons while waiting outside the staff room for Hagrid. Hermione said it was immediately shot down when Professor Trelawney went crystal gazing and didn't see it happening.
One of the demiguises would go to seventh year classes. Unluckily, Gryffindors had the bodies first.
Checking his golden watch and seeing that it was nine, Harry put down his phoenix-feather quill, put the cap on his bottle of ink, rolled up his Defense Against the Dark Arts essay ("Give a background on the history of the Dark art of possession and ways in which it had been abused in history").
He felt his stomach give a funny jolt. For the life of him, Harry couldn't shake the feeling that, after going over it in his head while trying his very best -- and failing miserably -- to write his essay, he had possessed two bodies: Mrs. Norris, Mr. Filch's cat, last year and that Muggle boy this past summer. The tingling sensation all over, the way he passed out and then woke up... There was just no other explanation and he had no idea how to control it. What would happen if he did it in front of a crowd of wizards? And they recognized it for what it was immediately?
Having the sudden urge to tell Ron and Hermione and then write to tell Cho and Sirius about it, he looked at his watch again and realized that Hagrid wouldn't be happy if he was late. Harry would definitely tell them as soon as he could. He left his wand with the rest of his things up in his dormitory -- he had every intention of using the Staff of Cybele instead of his pitiful wand while in the forest.
Harry kicked Raides lightly, who had been sleeping under the table Harry sat at, and told her to follow him ("But I was having such a nice dream about slapping Professor Trelawney around a bit with my tail and telling her she's going to die, too").
Sniggering, Harry said good-bye to Ron, Hermione and -- he didn't really know why but he did anyway -- Ginny too. Raides growled loudly as Peeves bobbed up and down in the enormous entrance hall and shot quickly out of sight when she finally barked at him. Upon Harry's arrival, Hagrid was already prepared, his crossbow armed and a quiver of arrows slung over his back.
"There yeh are, Harry," he said, sticking a knife he had been sharpening into a pocket of his moleskin overcoat.
"Why d'you need all that equipment?" Harry asked as he felt Raides rush past him and clamp her powerful jaws on a grotesque, one foot wide creature that had crawled out of the forest.
"I reckon yeh don' want a repeat of yer past experiences in there, do yeh?" Hagrid asked, a smile evident behind his tangled beard.
"So you're going to make True Seeing potions?" Harry asked, now at Hagrid's side and really wishing he didn't have to go back into the forest.
"Yep," Hagrid replied, "and I'm goin' ter need yer help since I --" but he broke off, not feeling the need to say that he hadn't gotten to potions of True Seeing because he had been wrongly expelled in his third year at Hogwarts.
"Don't worry," said Harry. "I can make it."
Hagrid pointed to a stack of potion ingredients and a bronze-colored cauldron inside his cabin.
"I have everything," he explained, "just don' have the unicorn hair for the potion. Had a good time gettin' me hands on one las' year for the potions as well. Hoped I wouldn't have ter to it again, took me a good five hours. But with yer help," Hagrid went on, beaming at Harry, "and Raides', it shouldn't take too long! Mind yeh, yeh're goin' ter want to have Raides at the ready. I came across another bloody balrog last year. Had ter get Dumbledore ter kill it. I don' know where they're comin' from an' I don' think I want ter know. Speaking of which, Raides, if yeh would mind... yeh know?" Hagrid finished, clearly suggesting Raides transform back into the staff.
Raides acted like she hadn't even heard Hagrid's request.
"You can listen to him, you know," Harry hissed at her, quietly enough that Hagrid wouldn't hear. "It's not like he wants me dead."
Harry stuck out his hand and Raides leapt up into the air. He clutched his fist around her tightly when she hit his hand as the staff. Hagrid didn't know what to make of whatever Harry had said to Raides and looked indifferent.
"Right," said Hagrid firmly, "let's go. C'mon, Fang!"
Feeling strangely like Cho was around to walk into the forest with him, Harry set off at Hagrid's side, Fang trotting behind Hagrid. Harry's hand was firmly wrapped around the Staff of Cybele for comfort and the other desperately wanted to grab onto the Order of Merlin plaque.
After a few minutes of walking, there was an indistinct growling noise a few feet from behind Harry. The bush in front of him quivered. Harry instinctly walked closer to Hagrid and tightened his grip around the staff which made her growl and so he loosened it.
"Can you feel pain?" he asked before he knew what his mouth was doing. "I've kicked you several times now."
"Nope," Raides replied quickly, the crystal having disappeared. "All I feel is pressure and I instinctively roar when I feel enough but only when I'm beind held."
"Why?"
"Don't know. I guess it's just one of my features," she said, grinning.
"Quiet," Hagrid whispered, "both of yeh." The crystal reappeared in the staff's mouth and they both fell silent. "We'll never be able ter catch a unicorn with yeh blabberin'. Harry, yeh should go off with Raides along the path. I'll go with Fang off of the path. I know this forest like the back o' me hand. An' don' worry, yeh'll be safe with Raides with yeh. If yeh see a unicorn, just stun it, Disapparate out back to me hut with it an' come back to where yeh was. I jus' need two. If yeh get one, catch Foresight with me an' I'll meet yeh back at the cabin so we can try an' get the second together. But we might not need it an' I hope not. Mind, I'll need ter do a bit more than stun since I ain't got me a staff," Hagrid said, grinning at it.
Harry, feeling like Hagrid wasn't so right, unwillingly let Hagrid leave his side. He watched Hagrid go, feeling the shroud of darkness of the forest consume him. He blinked a few times and Hagrid was gone, his shadow sucked up by the many trees and bushes of the forbidden forest. While he somewhat agreed that with Raides with him, nothing, not even a nundu could stood a chance, he was still very scared as was evident by the hand now clutching the Order of Merlin plaque.
"Calm yourself, Harry," Raides whispered but Harry felt nothing like staying calm. "You can cast Clades Ultimus with me if you need to."
While Harry had forgotten completely about that, it only worked to let his hand release the plaque, his breath still coming noticeably faster than it had been up in Gryffindor Tower while trying to do his Defense Against the Dark Arts essay. He had been alone in the forest before and didn't die. At least this time he had the world's most powerful staff.
But every bush rustling in the breeze, every screeching noise coming from the shadows of towering oaks and ancient pines and every time he heard some footsteps that he knew weren't his or Hagrid's, he stopped moving for a few seconds. Clearly, something was watching him, as was evident by the familiar pringling of the hairs on the back of his neck.
This is one of your powers, Harry, he told himself, so you better use it.
He heard a shrill cry whose owner definitely wasn't human but certainly didn't sound threatening... and there were galloping footsteps running away from him. Harry twirled the staff in his hand once and then, taking a deep breath, walked over to where he thought he saw a bush give another quiver.
Putting the staff on the ground next to him, he kneeled down and saw a bit of shiny, silvery liquid on the ground. He bent closer to it, looking at it. It glistened in the sparse rays of moonlight that were streaking down from the treetops.
Not exactly sure if he should do it, Harry poked it with his finger and put the tip of his finger to the tip of his tongue. Barely having enough to taste, he concluded that it tasted something like -- but he was glad that he didn't feel like he had just been poisoned. Harry wiped the rest of it on his cloak (making the spot on his cloak glisten in the sunlight, too), grabbed the staff and stood up.
More galloping made him strain his ears; he knew that must have been either a centaur or a unicorn but centaurs' footsteps had a louder thump to them so, Harry concluded, it had to be a unicorn. The galloping was just ahead of him and he broke into a run.
Whether it knew or not whether he was trying to catch it, it was running very fast and Harry tried his best to keep up with it. Headlong through branches, jumping over stumps in the ground and trying hard not to trip and fall on the hem of his own robes, Harry chased it, bringing him clear off the path of the forest. But he was losing it. The unicorn kept him going for longer than his legs wished to go and so he pointed Raides at his feet and snarled, "Faster!"
A dark pinkish light bursted from the crystal.
Like someone had just injected him with adrenaline, Harry's legs picked up their pace and he was gaining on something, something white with hooves. He had to have been moving at least five times faster than he was just a few seconds ago. He didn't really care; his heart gave a jolt, this was unicorn number one and it didn't take long at all. He pointed the staff at the tail of the unicorn, which was now clearly visible, and said "Stupefy!"
A jet of red light issued from the crystal and before Harry knew where it went, it had zoomed past the unicorn and burned a hole through a thick oak tree in front of it, a large amount of saw dust spraying the ground. His mouth fell open and he stopped dead in his tracks as it did a u-turn, tearing through many more trees, and came back around, hitting the unicorn square between the eyes. There was just one problem: the holes in the trees weren't small and all of them were wobbling.
Every tree that had been hit was threatening to fall down. Panicking, he pointed the staff at the nearest tree, concentrating on all of them and shouted "Don't fall!" because he didn't have any idea what else to say. It did exactly what he wanted, however.
A golden glitter ran the length of the staff like usual and a hideous number of strands of white light snaked out from the crystal, turning and twisting every which way, lighting up the forest like daytime. They had all gone to touch every single tree that had been damaged but this all happened so fast that for all he knew, the strands of light could have very well already been there and he just revealed them.
Upon getting hit, the saw dust around each of the trees crawled up the trunk and before his eyes, all of them looked like new again. When it was finished, the ends of the light strands released themselves from the crystal, beginning to vanish from the crystal to the tree it was touching. All of it was gone in the blink of an eye and it was once again very dark.
Before going over to the unicorn, Harry stood stunned for a few moments, letting the reality of what a simple charm had just done to so many trees and the way he repaired them sink in. He never knew spells to tear right through other objects nor go so very fast. For all he's seen, if one collided with something, it either bursted or cracked a portion of it -- certainly never burning through it as if the spell were a laser beam. And the snakes of light were certainly cool to watch.
Figuring it was all just to do with how powerful the staff was, he then hurried over to the stunned unicorn. It's eyes had rolled into the back of it's head and the spot where the spell had hit looked slightly burned. Harry put his hand with the Phoenix Bracelet on the spot with the burn mark to get rid of it. Once the bracelet had done it's work, he bent down next to the unicorn, put a hand on it and Disapparated with it into Hagrid's hut.
It was empty of Hagrid, Fang and another unicorn.
"Hagrid," Harry said to himself, eyes closed, having caught Foresight with Hagrid, who jumped a good foot in the air at hearing Harry's voice in his head.
"Oh," said Hagrid sheepishly a few seconds later, realizing. "Yeh got the firs' unicorn?"
"Yes. I'm at your hut with it. You wouldn't believe what happened, though. I went to stun it and the spell missed the unicorn but it tore right through several trees, did a u-turn and finally hit. A bunch of trees were about to fall over when I -- well, they're okay now. And the unicorn had a burn on it's face where the spell hit. This staff is amazing," said Harry, finishing with his mouth open in awe.
He had never really used the staff to do something big -- that is if you discount reviving Sirius last year.
"Harry!" Hagrid croaked. "I don' believe yeh caught one so fast! It even takes Professor Dumbledore an hour or two! Ah, but anyway, I'm comin' back. We can try ter make the potion with just one. Jus' need ter cut off some o' it's fur. Let me do that."
Harry put Raides down and she transformed back into the great gold and scarlet lion.
"So fast? What's he talking about? That was easy," said Harry blankly, sitting down on one of the enormous armchairs, and then, "Oh."
Raides grinned at the unconscious unicorn laying on the floor by the fire.
"Unicorn fur acts like a natural defense," said Raides, "and as you saw, they run fast. You casted a Haste Charm on yourself so you would go faster."
Haste. That rang a bell. He had casted a -- a Haste Charm on himself to run faster...
Wait a second, Harry then thought, hadn't I experienced something like that before? Where I'd been running a lot faster than I probably should have? I never really noticed it before...
Raides looked at the odd expression on Harry's face.
"What?" she asked curiously. "Did I say something?"
"Oh," said Harry, thinking fast of something to say and hoping the expression on his face really was neutral. "Is that charm within ordinary wizarding level?"
"I don't know," she replied, the shoulders of her front two legs rising in a shrug. "I lost most of my memory, remember?"
"Be nice to find out why you were missing for several thousand years," said Harry, his mind really on trying to figure out why the Haste Charm he had used before was bothering him so much -- it was just one stupid charm!
"Tell me about it."
Calm yourself, Harry, you're going to bust a blood vessel, he told himself. You're getting older and you're getting better at it. So you can use a Haste Charm without a wand? Big deal.
He knew it was bothering him a lot more than it should for some reason. Harry leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, his hands folded and waiting impatiently for Hagrid's return. Feeling hot, he pulled his cloak off and threw it on the wooden floor next to the big armchair.
Raides, clearly noticing that Harry was thinking about something, gave a sigh, said, "Go ahead, I won't tell anyone," stood up and walked outside. That was another thing bothering Harry: Raides was strangely loyal to him.
Sitting there, he became aware that he was tired.
About fifteen minutes of going over the charm again and again in his head ("It was just one charm, stop getting yourself worked up. It was nothing. Why are you even talking to yourself?"), Hagrid turned up at the front door. Hagrid rubbed his hands together in delight, looking at the unconscious unicorn.
Harry quickly sat up straight so that Hagrid wouldn't notice that he'd been in deep thought, hoping he wouldn't get questioned about it.
Hagrid then pulled the knife he'd been sharpening from the pocket of his moleskin overcoat, bent down over the unicorn and cut off a sizeable amount of it's hair, stuffing it into a cup. When the unicorn was completely bald, Hagrid sniffed.
"It's so beau'iful," he sobbed. "I don' like ter have to capture them but if you don', those horns like ter gore yeh. Go on, Harry. Wake it up."
Right on cue, Raides walked in, transforming into the staff just long enough for Harry to say, "Ennervate!" pointing the staff at the unicorn. The unicorn gave one long look at Raides, then positively fled out of the cabin and back to the forest.
"Well, now yeh have all the ingredients, Harry. There's the cauldron," said Hagrid, pointing, "there's all the unicorn hair yeh'll need an' the rest o' it is over there in that open cupboard."
Ten minutes later, Harry worked up a bubbling, frothing and smelly cauldron of a True Seeing potion on top of Hagrid's table. It was hovering slightly over a blue flame Harry had conjured with just his fingers. That didn't bother him as Hermione had learned that spell in her first year. He didn't forget about what he'd been going over about in his head -- it was just that he didn't want to mess the potion up and have to catch another unicorn. Hagrid's recipe called for using all of the unicorn hair so it was enough for three people (he needed some for his lesson on Monday) and would last ten hours. Harry found that, without Snape bearing his ugly hooked nose and greasy hair over his shoulder, making potions was much easier.
"That's it," said Hagrid, nodding his head approvingly at the potion that had now turned silvery and somewhat transparent.
"Almost done," said Harry, checking his golden watch.
Harry cleaned of the stick he'd been using to stir with the rim of the cauldron and put it down on Hagrid's table. He took a seat in the armchair he was sitting in earlier and slumped into it, yawning, his arms splayed over the armrests and his legs stretched all the way out.
"It's on'y a lit'le after ten, Harry," said Hagrid disbelievingly. "Yeh're not tired already, are yeh?"
Harry couldn't stifle another yawn.
"I had used a Haste Charm on myself to catch up with the unicorn. It drained me a bit," said Harry truthfully.
"They can do that ter yeh," said Hagrid knowingly. "I'd say it was a shame that yeh don' have the Mark of Ancients anymore so yeh could... but... we all know how well that turned out ter be," he finished darkly.
"I don't need the Mark of Ancients," said Harry, giving an involuntary shutter at the very thought. "I've got Raides." Raides was beaming at the side of Harry's head. "The potion should be ready in about five minutes. I reckon I can catch a demiguise faster than I got that unicorn so we'll be finished very soon. You sure you won't tell me what's going on besides the Triwizard Tournament?" Harry asked, hoping to catch Hagrid offguard and feeling the need to get his mind off everything else.
Hagrid waved a disapproving finger at Harry, his beetle-black eyes aimed sharply at Harry's green ones. Harry desisted.
"We need ter catch two," said Hagrid when the potion was finally ready. "I'll go with yeh since I reckon yeh're right about catchin' the demiguise faster."
Harry wasn't too interested in catching anything at the moment but went back into the forest with Hagrid to get the demiguises.
It only took a few minutes before spotting the first one ("THERE!" boomed Hagrid, making it Harry's turn to jump a foot in the air). Harry stunned it, this time making sure his aim was right the first time. They resembled graceful apes, sporting large, mournful black eyes and covered with silvery gray fur that unfortunately reminded Harry greatly of his dad's Invisibility Cloak.
Hagrid slumped the first one over his shoulder and when they caught the second within the same hour, Disapparated back to Hagrid's hut.
"Thanks a lot, Harry," Hagrid said for about the fifth time since they caught the first one. Harry had been pink around the ears since after the second time.
"Don't mention it," Harry said. "No really, don't."
Hagrid smiled broadly as he washed out his cauldron, putting away all the ingredients for the potion of True Seeing.
"I guess yeh can go back ter the castle then," Hagrid told him. "That took on'y two hours! I'll see yeh tomorrow?"
"Good-bye," said Harry and without a moment's hesitation, picked up his cloak, collected Raides and set off back to the castle.
In the Gryffindor common room, Hermione and Ron were still up doing their Defense Against the Dark Arts essay.
"Back so soon?" Hermione asked casually.
"We had Raides," said Harry loftily, as Raides curled up by the fire, scaring away a first year.
Harry went to his dormitory, collected his essay, quill and ink and went back downstairs. He sat at the same table as Ron and Hermione and threw his cloak on a chair behind him. Harry took one look at the blank piece of parchment in front of himself and sighed, leaning back in his chair.
"Can I read one of yours?" he asked, rubbing his forehead, still feeling the effects of the Haste Charm.
"Here," said Hermione, giving him her finished essay, "but don't you dare copy."
Harry rolled his eyes. "I won't."
"You look beat up," said Ron. "You were only gone two hours?"
"I had used a Haste Charm with Raides to catch a stupid unicorn. Hagrid said they can leave you somewhat drained," Harry informed them and then he remembered that he had used Haste Charms before, and they had never made him tired and he fell silent.
Recalling someone's advice, Harry tried simply putting it out of his mind for the time being. He went to read Hermione's essay...
Bodily possession, a Dark art first recognized in early 400 B.C., had been abused many times since it's discovery. There had been accounts of entire armies being possessed by a hoarde of wizards that were used to destroy their own village, accounts of wizards possessing common animals to spy and a more recent abuse was that of Voldemort, who had been using it to stay alive in his, thirteen-year hibernation period, if you will. Not one good wizard has ever been known to harbor this ability except Albus Dumbledore, who sees the lack of moral uses for possession and refuses to use it. This is not to mention the controversiality factor tied to it.
What real good use is there for such an ability? I, personally, would not want to be friends with someone who has used it.
The primary use of possession is that of making the target do the caster's bidding. As a step up from the Imperius Curse, one of the Unforgiveables, the caster becomes the target which allows many things, which, in particular, include impersonation (a step up from Polyjuice Potion being it doesn't run out). In addition, if the target dies, the caster is simply thrown back to their own body.
Slightly horrified, Harry skipped to the end of the essay.
Percivus Potter, who lived five hundred years ago, had said it best. "Possession shall not taint the Potter family. We stand proud... we stand tall. We stand to keep the line of great Gryffindor proud and possession does naught but make one stand hunchbacked."
Thoroughly horrified, Harry handed the essay back to Hermione.
"Percivus Potter," he began uneasily, "was he... ?"
Hermione smiled. "Yes. You're from the same family line as him. I found him and a bunch of other people named Potter (who I traced your family line down to) in a book I used to help me write my essay. It's amazing how many great wizards there were in your family tree, Harry, really."
"Yeah," said Harry, feeling sick, "amazing."
"But I wanted to ask you," Hermione went on, "how'd you get this unicorn blood on your cloak?"
Harry blinked. "Unicorn blood?"
"Yeah. That silvery-white stuff. You didn't --?"
"No," said Harry quickly, feeling even more sick and feeling the heat rising in his face. So that's what it was... that he had actually tasted...
"It's a good thing you wiped it on your cloak without tasting it!" Hermione said, as if the idea were ludicrous. "Because, you know, if you did, well, you remember what that centaur told you." -- and she made an impression of a centaur -- "'As soon as the blood touches your lips, you will have but a half-life, a cursed life.'" And she giggled.
"Well, I'm going to bed, really very tired," Harry lied, wishing he could stop his stomach from feeling like someone had filled it with unicorn blood to the point of exploding and very aware of the beads of sweat breaking out over his forehead.
As though someone had just hit play on a tape recorder, his conversation with the centaur came back to him.
"If you're going to be cursed forever, death's better, isn't it?" Harry asked the centaur.
"It is," the centaur agreed.
Suddenly very hot, very dizzy, noticing his vision dimming and feeling like there was a hand squeezing his head from all sides, Harry fumbled around the desk, picking up his quill, still-blank parchment, ink bottle and his cloak and staggered up the spiral staircase to the top of Gryffindor Tower, to his dormitory, trying his best not to faint.
He immediately sat upon the edge of his four-post bed, his hands clutched tightly around the edge of the mattress.
"YOU STUPID IDIOT" he muttered soundlessly to himself, "WHY DID YOU DO THAT! Now what's going to happen to you? Are you going to grow fangs? Spit acid? Be forced to keep drinking it just to stay alive? Idiot. You're going to end up like Voldemort was."
Harry took one deep breath and let out one great exhale then threw himself, hard, backward onto the bed, feeling his neck snap down as his back hit the mattress. His head, too far up to come in contact with it, didn't. This hurt a considerable amount but he didn't think he broke it -- he would probably have killed himself instantly.
He covered his face with his hands, feeling the hot sweat from his fingertips on his forehead and feeling too angry with himself to express in words. The dizzy feeling wasn't relieved by much from lying down.
Harry let out a soft groan of self-torment. What was going to happen? How much did it take? Was he already cursed? Is there any cure? Raides... yes, Raides would know the countercurse or at least let him perform it. But what if she knew he was cursed? Would he stop letting him use her? No... she didn't seem to care or even notice.
Okay, calm down, he thought. Think sensibly. Nothing has happened yet. You only swallowed a very, very tiny bit. Something should have happened to you already, right? Right. But you're already feeling sick. Is that just the reality setting in or is that the curse?
Should he tell anyone? Raides? Ron or Hermione? Sirius? Hagrid? Dumbledore?
He had a feeling Hermione would start off by calling him stupid but he already figured that part out and didn't need reminding of the fact. She would probably then proceed to run to the library and find out the effects of drinking unicorn blood and tell him not to panic. But he was already well beyond panic.
His head hanging off the edge of the four-post bed and his eyes closed, Harry put his hands on his stomach and felt it churn horribly. After a minute of trying to decide whether his stomach wanted to put his dinner on the floor, Harry then opened his eyes and found he was staring at his bedside cabinet. A familiar pen next to the Pensieve, a sort of thought jar that Dumbledore had given him last year, gave him an idea.
"Sirius," Harry mumbled to himself. "If I don't tell Ron or Hermione, I had better tell someone."
He sat up and flipped his legs around to the other side of the bed and the next second, he had jumped off the bed, seized the pen, grabbed a piece of parchment and wrote Dear Sirius. But what could he possibly write?
Dear Sirius. Sorry to bother you but just a few hours ago I did something really dumb and swallowed a bit of unicorn blood. Nothing's happened yet but I expect I'll have to keep drinking it just to stay alive and have to kill myself and then get resurrected like Voldemort. Can you tell me what's really going to happen? Thanks, Harry.
He stabbed himself repeatedly with the pen until there was as much pain the middle of his forehead as he figured his scar would cause when he woke up tomorrow after having the dream again. Harry had absolutely no idea who to write to, what to do, what to consult or what to think. Just about everyone, he figured, would begin by repeatedly calling him an idiot.
"Get a grip on yourself," Harry thought, "you were supposed to get cursed from the same moment it entered your mouth and you're perfectly fine so there's got to be hope... Who the hell am I kidding," he groaned aloud, his face screwed up against tears and throwing himself back onto his four-post bed, his head hanging off the end again. "Stick me back in my bed at Privet Drive and let me live with the Dursleys where I can't hurt myself. I'm cursed forever. Just kill me."
It was these last moments where he saw the last of consciousness. A violent rumble in the pit of his stomach crawled up his throat and out his mouth, sending bits his dinner up his nose but mostly onto the floor.