Harry Potter and the Guardians of Power
Usual Disclaimers apply, folks – sue me you get a 1989 Ford Aerostar with bald tires!
AN: Please review and thanks especially to those of you who have reviewed every chapter and added this story to your favorites list. Now I know why authors do evil cliff hangers. I got three times as many reviews for that chapter than any other. Thanks!
AN: This was originally drafted out to be 21 chapters, but as any one of you reading this can tell, I didn't make it. I would have had to leave too much out or make each chapter dreadfully long to keep it to that length, but it will be coming to a close soon. Thanks for all your support. I have promised myself I will finish this before starting anything else, I promise, I promise…(maybe my fingers are crossed!)
Chapter 21: Time Passes when you're Having Fun
In a dank cave somewhere on the coast of England:
A snake faced being with two malevolently glowing red eyes watched with open disgust as fifty dark robed figures wearing white masks entered the cavern and knelt down in his presence. None of them looked pleased to be there, several visibly shaking in fright. Lord Voldemort stood from his 'throne' and walked among them:
"Who can tell me where the brat and the traitor are? Who knowsss where my faithful ssservantsss are being held? Who can tell me where thossse from Azzzkaban disssapeared to?" Voldemort was spitting by the end of his questions, but no one was looking up at him, they were each hoping to avoid him noticing them. "You, what isss your name?" Voldemort pointed at a death eater who was shaking less than his fellows.
"Marcus Flint, my Lord" Marcus still looked like he was half troll, and he certainly hadn't gotten any better looking or smarter since leaving Hogwarts. He refused to meet Voldemort's eyes.
"Tell me where isss Potter? How did he essscape onccce again?" The voice was soft but cold, and decidedly menacing.
"I…I don't know, Master." Flint was now visibly trembling as were most of the kneeling figures in the cavern.
"Crucio!" the spell was only held for a few seconds, but to Flint it felt like an hour, as he writhed, screaming on the wet floor. "What isss the anssswer, fool?" Voldemort asked the next crouching figure.
"I…will…go and find him?" Was the quivering answer.
"Yesss, go all of you now, and do not return without anssswerss! Now, leave my sssight." Voldemort waved his wand in dismissal and the death eaters scrambled out of the cave, no one wanting to be the last to leave. Flint's buddies grabbed him under the arms and dragged him off as quickly as they could.
Voldemort turned to Nagini as thenoise of apparitions sounded like machine gun fire in the night air, "They are useless to me. They are only good for following orders and draining power from. Where are you Lucius, Wormtail, ah my Bella, where have they hidden all my faithful followers? I can feel you still live, but your life force is so small and I can draw so little magic from you. What have they done to you, my children?" He leaned his face towards the snake, and in an obscene parody of a lover's kiss, he felt her forked tongue caressing his lips in tenderness.
Tuesday at supper, Dumbledore stood and called for attention. "We have a wonderful surprise for you coming on Saturday afternoon. We will be holding a dueling competition here in the Great Hall starting at 2 p.m. Many of your teachers will be showing off their talents against each other, and even some visitors will be taking part. It should be an invigorating and enlightening experience, and I for one, am greatly looking forward to it. To begin though, there will be a short tournament for those fifth years and above. The winner of the tournament will duel against the teacher of their choice and then the main duel will begin. So study and practice hard this week and see Professors Black or Snape if you would like to take part. Now, enjoy this lovely supper. Good Evening!"
The tables erupted in excited chatter and even the head table had its share of enthusiasm. Professor Flitwick, who had been a dueling champion, leaned over towards Professors Black and Lupin and squeaked with excitement, "I would love to brush up my skills with you gentlemen if you could find me the time. It's been several years since I dueled regularly but I daresay you two could help me get right up to snuff again." They looked at each other, and with an unreadable look at Severus, Sirius nodded, "I would be happy to Filius, anytime you would like, perhaps this evening after dinner in the dueling chamber?"
Filius clapped his hands together like a delighted child, "Oh, yes, happy to, happy to. I will see you there in about an hour shall we say?" At Sirius agreement, they all returned to eating.
The Gryffindor table all looked expectantly at Harry. Colin piped up, "DA tonight, Harry?" Harry looked up from his shepherd's pie and looked at the eager faces of his classmates. "I need to teach all the Gryffindor fifth years something else tonight, but tomorrow night for sure, okay?" They fifth years all looked expectantly at Harry.
"I will see all of you guys in the Room of Requirement directly after dinner. Okay?" They all nodded acceptance and started babbling amongst themselves, trying to figure out what Harry was going to teach them. Harry looked at Ginny who was sitting across from him and then at the twins who were sitting just down from Ron, "You guys can come too if you like. It's something fun, I assure you." The three looked at each other and nodded.
With his ten classmates all arranged on comfy chairs around a blazing fire, Harry looked at the expectant faces and grinned. He quickly told the five who didn't know about his adventures in the past a little bit of what had happened to him, using Dumbledore's cover story of the kidnapping and subsequent escape as the reason his magic had so rapidly developed. He then took a deep breath and called on Hogwarts, 'I am here, can you help me now? I had a dream last night about this and I assume that you sent it to me? Did you?' Harry opened his mind to the contact.
# Yes, Master Harry. I can supply the power so your friends do not tire. I helped the one named Peter Pettigrew so that history would repeat itself, otherwise he would have been unable to transform. All of those here have the power within themselves, but I can help them transform tonight to their non-magical forms. You will simply have to help each one visualize their spirit animal and show them how to transform. #
Harry snapped his attention back to the room, and smirked before telling them, "I'm here to teach you to become an animagus tonight. Everyone want to do it?"
Hermione looked skeptical, "In one night? That's not possible, the book says it takes a long time and most people never manage to completely transform at all."
"Yeah, I'd really like to, mate, but I don't think I have enough power to do anything that hard." Neville looked down at his hands in regret and doubt.
"Hey, the book doesn't tell you about this, because the author didn't know about this way. Let me show you with the twins and then you can decide if you want me to help you too, okay?"
The twins had jumped up and hugged each other when Harry had first suggested it, and since they recognized by the look on his face; that Harry had been 'talking' with Hogwarts,they had full confidence in his abilities. They knew what kind of power Harry had, and were perfectly willing to let Harry and Hogwarts help them. Harry had George pull his chair directly in front of his, and looked deeply into his eyes. "Now, you have to trust me. I'm not going to go looking through your memories or anything, but I do need access to your mind, so just relax and let me in." George nodded and locked his eyes with Harry, feeling the immense core of carefully contained raw power that belonged to the young wizard in front of him. Harry entered George's mind and projected a mental image of himself to the teen. 'Now watch what I do with your magical core, and then do exactly what I do.'
Harry delved deep into the center of George to find a strong core of deep orange and red, and showed George how to pull a cord of power out to his hand. Then he lead George through his mind to the area that held the knowledge and power of his animagus forms. Harry grinned at the sight of a weasel and a niffler. Both of those animals sure fit the personality and overwhelming curiosity and mischief of the twins. He gathered his own power, feeling a comforting presence channeling through him. He 'showed' George how to trigger the transformation, pushed power from the castle to the boy and then 'stood' back and watched, encouraging at every step. George gathered the power around him, pushed his magic at the transfiguration point and shoved with all his might.
The others had been watching for over ten minutes as Harry and George seemed to be doing nothing, until they watched with amazement as George slowly and steadily morphed into a small, very red weasel. Harry blinked several times as the small animal began running around sniffing at everything and everyone. Fred looked at him in awe, "I'm next, me now!" Harry laughed, "Sure, but I expect you want your brother back first, don't you?"
That broke the tension in the room and everyone laughed at Fred's eagerness. Harry had to call George back several times before the weasel was willing to become human again. He was just having too much fun! But finally he came to sit on the chair opposite Harry and let the other boy look deeply into his eyes and show him how to return. It was much faster, and in only a couple of minutes, George was his usual self, "Man that was so WICKED, guys, you just have to try this, I mean it's so cool. Harry, can I do it again?"
Harry laughed at him and pointed at a clear walled enclosure that had appeared in one corner, "Just go in there and close the door. I need you to practice changing back and forth by yourself. Only the first transformation is difficult. After that it's a matter of practicing to become faster and easier since you already know that you can do it. But you've got everything you need to transform on your own now. So go on and I'll send Fred in soon." The procedure was repeated for Fred, and Harry wasn't surprised to find another very red weasel at his feet. He had been amused to discover that Fred would be a kneazle and not a niffler like his brother, but he supposed they were both very intelligent and curious animals, so they both fit. He sent Fred over to join his brother. They were both young male weasels so they could practice in the same room without any difficulty and were soon tumbling and wrestling with each other as if they really were weasels.
It took almost to curfew, but by then every fifth year Gryffindor, plus two seventh years and a single fourth year could change easily back and forth to their non magical animagus forms. The hardest to transform had been Neville, because he believed that he wouldn't be able to do it, even though everyone else had, even Lavender and Pavarti! But finally, Neville successfully turned into a badger, surprising everyone since a badger could be quite a ferocious fighter if cornered. Maybe this would help Neville realize the greatest hindrance to his own abilities was his own lack of faith in them.
Tired, but still excited, the group made the trudge back to Gryffindor Tower making plans about Transfiguration class in the morning. Wouldn't Professor McGonagall be surprised!
The fifth year Gryffindors had Transfiguration first thing on Wednesday mornings and most were too excited to eat much, well Harry was perfectly fine and nothing stopped Ron from eating, but the rest of them just nibbled with nervousness. They had each practiced several times that morning already. The twins had come to the younger boys' dorm room to keep out of sight of their age mates, and Ginny had done the same in the girls' dorms. They were confident and Harry had told them that he would be there if they needed him, but to believe in themselves and nothing would go wrong. It finally came time to go to class, and they all left in one group, oblivious to the curious looks from the other tables and the staff.
'Harry, do you have something planned this morning? You are all acting very guilty.' Severus sent to his son, 'Yeah, I taught them all to be animagi last night and today we have our first animagus lesson with Professor McGonagall and she's going to be really surprised! This way I won't stand out quite so much since we can all do it. They've all promised not to tell how they learned.'
Severus choked on a sip of tea, 'You taught them all! In one night! How, that's not possible. Longbottom?' Harry looked back at his father and gave him a big grin, 'Yeah, but Hogwarts told me I could and showed me how to teach them. Then she supplied all the extra power that they needed to support them. And Neville is stronger than you think; he just doesn't think he can, so he can't. Hogwarts told me it was much harder to help Wormtail transform. She knew he had to; otherwise history would have been changed. But she said even with her help it took him months.'
'Well, that makes sense; I always wondered how he managed to succeed. He really is a pathetic wizard. Well, child, have fun. Just don't hurt Minerva too much!' Severus went back to his breakfast; very sorry he had no excuse to cancel his first year Hufflepuff potions class to go watch a transfiguration class, but perhaps he could talk Eric into taking his class. He wondered if he could manage to be in Albus' office right during class, since he was sure that would be the first place Minerva would rush to with the news. 'Hmm, yes, I can find some reason to be there. Just let me think for a minute…'
The Slytherin students who shared Double Transfiguration with the Gryffindors on Wednesday mornings, watched the others with various expressions of distrust and curiosity. They were all sitting, eagerly listening, eyes forward and hands clasped on their desks. It was bizarre to say the least, they weren't talking or looking around, and even Pavarti was paying rapt attention to Professor McGonagall go over again what they had learned about animagus in the last class. She explained that today they would be trying the animagus revealus spell on a foot to see if there was the possibility of becoming an animagus is the future. She said not to expect too much, very few people had ever gotten even the first faint reaction on the first try.
"I want you to think about what animal most represents your personality and characteristics. When you say the spell, concentrate on changing your foot to the foot of that animal. You may just see an outline, or a few feathers or even just a patch of fur, but that will help us figure out what your animal will be. Now I am going to call each one of you up here so that I can watch closely with you. Everyone keep your eyes on the foot of your classmate so we can tell them if we see anything. Now, who would like to be first, all right Miss Granger, come on up." Professor McGonagall could see her practically bouncing on her chair with her hand in the air.
Hermione came forward, sitting down in front of Professor McGonagall on the chair beside her desk. She sent her mind inward; focusing on her magic like Harry had showed her. She said the spell quietly, even though she knew she didn't have to say anything, and with a soft pop she transformed into a beautiful calico cat. McGonagall put her hands to her mouth and startled, "Oh my, Miss Granger, that's wonderful, simply wonderful. I've never had a student manage a complete transformation on the first day. Oh, my, well, oh, oh, … can you manage to transform back?" No one had ever heard their prim and proper teacher stutter or sound flustered before, it was quite an experience.
The cat nodded and looked up with her golden, glowing eyes and popped softly. Hermione sat, grinning so wide it looked like her face would split in two. She looked expectantly at Professor McGonagall who looked too stunned to be able to speak. "Should I go back to my seat?" Hermione asked innocently.
"Yes, yes, you do that. Uh…where was I, oh yes…who wants to be next?" McGonagall was in such shock she forgot to even award points, but that was okay. The other Gryffindors knew the shocks weren't over yet.
"Mr. Potter, maybe you would like to try next?" Harry grinned and soon a beautiful silver wolf sat in front of the class. Professor McGonagall had to sit on the corner of her desk. "Would you forgive me for a moment please students?" She hurried from her classroom, and fire called the headmaster to come quickly. He stepped through the fire, followed by Professor Snape, who had just been in his office discussing supplies that he would need for his new class before it started the next week.
Professor McGonagall motioned to the two wizards to sit down and pointed first at Hermione who willingly and easily transformed into her cat. She transformed back and Harry took her place for just a moment before a large wolf sat grinning at the two. Harry morphed back and took his seat, still grinning. Professor McGonagall just asked, "Any one else like to try?" She seemed to have lost any sense of reality or control as first Pavarti transformed into a magpie and then Lavender morphed into a cute white bunny with a big pink bow tied around it's neck .
She was speechless at Seamus being an Irish setter, Dean's goat, and Neville's badger. She was sitting behind her desk almost beside herself with astonishment as Ron turned into a glorious adolescent lion, the beginnings of a magnificent ruff of red fur just beginning to show. She looked expectantly at the Slytherins, who looked back at her, equally in shock and astonishment. She wordlessly waved them out of the class and came around the front of her desk to stand with her hands clasped in front of her, her lips pursed and a single raised eyebrow. "Anyone like to explain what just happened?" She seemed to have finally regained control of herself.
Harry looked over at Severus and Albus who were both trying hard not to laugh, they both nodded at him so he spoke up, "I'm sorry, Professor. I figured out how to change to a wolf and I wanted them to do it too, so I showed them how after dinner last night. And then we practiced again this morning." Harry confessed, of course he didn't say he had learned to be an animagus over a thousand years ago, and that the castle herself had helped them transform, but he did tell her the truth, just not anywhere near all of it.
She raised the other eyebrow until they almost disappeared into her hair, "Last night? This morning? It takes years to become a full animagus, are you trying to tell me you all learned in one evening?"
The students all nodded solemnly at her and shrugged to confirm Harry's story. "I've never heard of anything like this, Harry, how did you do it? I have been teaching for many more years than you have been alive and nothing like this has ever happened. Even your father took several years to transform. Oh, my, I don't even know what to say." The unflappable Professor was surely showing signs of being totally flapped.
The Headmaster came forward and decided to help his friend, "Perhaps we can just award some house points, give them the papers to register with the Ministry and send them on to their next classes. Harry, wonderful job, glad to know you are such a magnificent teacher. I can't wait to see what you teach your fellows next." The last was said with a pointed glance over the top of his half moon glasses and a definite twinkle in the old man's blue eyes.
"Oh, yes, let's say 25 points to each of you who learned and 50 points to Harry for being such a good teacher. And Harry, I would like to hear how you have managed to do this. Perhaps you could teach your method to me so that I could share it with the other houses too? Now, off to class, I don't think you will be late yet."
Harry turned back to his Professor and added one more thought, "You need to give registration papers to Fred, George and Ginny too. They were there last night with us." He ducked out the door before she could respond and the group finally lost it as they all looked at each other and started giggling. Lucky thing Harry had remembered the camera, the pictures would be a wonderful addition to his growing photo album!
Professor McGonagall just sat downheavily behind her desk,and started to drink the large cup of tea that Albus had conjured for her. Severus wondered if it had been spiked with a calming draught. He 'called' to Harry to wait up for him and left the room still laughing softly.
Severus caught up with his son and put a warm arm around his shoulder, "Well, that is one way of still fitting in! Nice idea, what class are you off to now?" He was still chuckling at the memory of his flabbergasted colleagues, it was such fun now that he didn't have to hate everyone and be such a bloody bastard!
"Care of Magical Creatures, can I have a note to miss it so I can visit as a griffin? I think I need to give Hagrid something to be excited over at lunch too." Harry looked at his father with a mischievous smirk on his face.
"Eric is taking my classes for the rest of the morning, how about you go to class and Hagrid will have his dream come true. He'll have a dragon come to visit. And I assume your parseltongue will allow you to 'talk' to it?" Severus' sneer was just as evil.
"Well if it doesn't, we'll never let him know that; will we, hmm, Dad?" The two laughed and separated, Harry to catch up with his friends, his father to go outside to shift and then appear next to the forest.
Hagrid had finally managed to quiet the class down enough to begin talking about thestrals when a loud and very painful sounding roar came from just inside the Forbidden Forest. Hagrid noticed that Harry took off running towards the sound, Hermione and Ron right behind him. "Stop you three, where do you think you're going. That forest is forbidden for a reason!"
Harry yelled back, even as he was stopping, "But he's hurt, he's calling for help. We need to help him."
"Who's hurt Harry, what are you talking about. Nobody called for help." Hagrid was confused.
The three had stopped running towards the forest as a fifteen foot long Peruvian Viper Tooth dragon that was bleeding from his left back leg, limped into view. Harry just remembered to hiss in parseltongue as he asked his father, 'What happened to you, you're bleeding. Do I need to heal you?'
'Blasted sharp tree, I just didn't leave enough space to transform, I just stabbed myself with a tree that my tail broke off. When I turned to see what I had hit, the blasted stump cut me. It's not too bad, you could come over here and heal it though. It's hard to walk with one leg injured. I've never had to do it before. Dragon hide is impervious to everything just about. I must not have completely transformed yet when that stump stabbed me." Severus hissed back, so dragons did understand parseltongue. Good, that made things easier.
"Hagrid, he wants me to come and heal his leg, it's too hard for him to walk with it bleeding. Do you want to come with me? He says he came here because he had heard that there was someone here who could heal him and it hurts." Harry improvised a reason for why the dragon had just shown up where no dragon had ever been before, well except for Norbert, and that didn't really count. "He says someone named Norbert told him." Harry added for good effect.
Hagrid wiped a tear from his eye and ran to his hut to grab a huge jar of salve. "Here you go Harry, this will heal him right up. Professor Snape made it for Norbert when he was a baby. Can you tell him I won't hurt him none, so I can spread this on his wound?" Harry agreed and the two walked over to where his father was crouched down on the ground, snarling in pain. Apparently dragons weren't used to being injured and didn't know how to handle it very well.
"He's got some salve, as he spreads it on, I'll send healing through the bond and he should just think it's the salve you made for Norbert. So you knew about Norbert, huh?"
'I knew no such thing. He told me some cockamamie story about a friend of his raising a Welsh green in his yard or something. I didn't even listen long enough to remember the entire tale. I just made the salve to get rid of him. He was crying for goodness sake!'
Harry wondered how his father managed to send snarky emotions in parseltongue.
The class watched in amazement for the second time that day as Harry and Hagrid approached the dragon and tended to his leg. After healing the injury, which wasn't really very bad, the dragon followed them back to the waiting students. The class as a whole backed up to a safe distance. Hagrid beamed as he told them all about the rare treat that they were having today and all about the dragon now sleeping in front of them.
Harry wasn't sure Hagrid was going to release them from class when it was time for lunch, but apparently the half-giant wanted to tell all the staff about his wonderful morning. Harry told Hagrid that the dragon had to leave but that he might come back and visit again if that was okay. Hagrid had tears of joy running into his beard as he thanked the dragon for his visit and encouraged him to 'drop by anytime for a good visit!'
Harry could feel his father laughing as he left to go back into the woods. When Harry asked him what was so funny he said, 'I just can't wait to see the staff table today; between Minerva and Hagrid, no one's going to be able to eat a thing!'
Harry laughed and headed up to the castle, sharing his father's thoughts with his friends as they entered the entrance hall for lunch. They quickly sat down and shared their morning with an avidly listening Fred, George, and Ginny. They all dished up their food and watched the staff table expectantly as they began to eat ravenously. Severus was one of the first to arrive and had an anticipatory gleam in his eyes as he watched the arrival of the excited students who were sharing the tales of the morning with those who had not shared classes with the fifth year Gryffindors. The staff entered from the back talking just as excitedly as the students. Harry didn't think Dumbledore's eyes could twinkle more than they were now, but he would like to see if he could make it happen. Everyone was so happy and excited that the thought of Voldemort and the war was a million miles away. McGonagall was gesticulating wildly toward the Gryffindor table as Hagrid was regaling his end of the table with his hands moving like an old man telling fish tales. Severus was having such a hard time not laughing that it looked like his face was hurting.
With a loud bang of the doors, a young auror stumbled into the hall, yelled "Hogsmeade …under attack!" then collapsed into a heap onto the floor.