The Count of Azkaban

Chapter 7

Harry's dream

Harry was still looking at Cilera. He seemed to be thinking something. Not being a natural telepath, or a legilimens, he was unable to know of the workings of this man. He looked around and saw that he was amongst trees which looked very old. He could even feel a bit connected to them. Shaking it off as a result of his latest calamity, he turned his head back to the elf and was surprised to see the eyes looking squarely at him. He suddenly felt as if his very soul was being read, once again.

-------

Cilera on the other hand had been thinking a lot and got lost in his recollections. Having lived for nearly 3000 years did result in too much memory. He now turned at the young wizard in front of him and thought of explaining a few more things to him. As he turned again, he saw Harry. He was looking around. Cilera could see the natural magic of the trees enveloping and interacting with the young one. He dared to hope now.

Then suddenly, Harry turned and looked straight into his eyes.

-------

"Come Harry. I know you must be interested in knowing several other things. But I think I should continue and tell you the complete story." With that, Cilera waved his hands a bit and two chairs appeared out of nowhere and he motioned Harry to sit down opposite him.

"As I was just saying, the conflict in our magics reached to a level that we had to set up a separate plane and had to anchor it. We chose the anchor to be the thirteen magical chambers of meditation. They are not only the anchor but also a gateway to our world. However, these chambers normally respond to elven magic only. Whenever a wizard is forced into these chambers, they go mad. The magical clash is too great. However, somehow, your magic responded and interacted with the magic of the chambers and you were transported to our part of the world."

Harry had somehow been expecting something like this. He had been uprooted and moved. Things had happened of which he had no idea. Not knowing how or why, he felt as if something momentous is going to happen with his life.

Cilera on the other hand continued with his story.

"When we felt the magical wave pass through, we could all feel the huge magical displacement happening. And when we came to the entrance of the chamber, we found you there, hovering and enveloped in a mist of magical energy. Then, we brought you here. This is the mystical forest of healing. We have been waiting for nearly a week for you to awake. Now that you are, we have a meeting with the council." With that, Cilera got up and waited for Harry to follow him. He had wanted to recheck all their hopes and it was time to submit his findings to the elder's council.

Harry, on the other hand just kept sitting for a while. The questions in his mind were making him very nervous. And the most important thing was that he still had no answers. These people had just told him that he had somehow been transported through some gateway but how he ended up there or what could account for his physical as well as his mental changes, was still a mystery.

But unable to do much, he decided to do the one thing he could. He followed Cilera to wherever the meeting was going to take palace.

About fifteen minutes later, both of them returned to the place they had started from. Instead of the two elves they had left behind, under a tree, there were now nearly twelve elves which were floating over the round, in lotus position. A sense of calm seemed to pervade through all of them.

As soon as they arrived, Cilera waved again and a seat appeared in front of the congregation. He himself moved over and joined the others. To Harry's utter astonishment, he sat in the middle of everybody and floated a few centimeters above the rest. He was obviously their leader.

(((o)))

Present time

Ginny had been asleep for sometime, lost in the dreamless sleep owing to the extreme mental and emotional fatigue. A few hours into it, as her mind started to achieve the normal position of unrest, she started to go through the usual nightmares she had. She dreamt of her mother's death. She had died broken. The once generous woman was no more. She was barely a skeleton.

The amazing peaceful aura that had always enveloped her had long been lost. She had not eaten for a while. The healers had refused to treat her under the threat of the new monarch. All her brothers were gone except for Percy and Ron. She wished that they had died as well. That would be lot better than the betrayal they had given to the family. At least her father had died fighting. She was proud of him. Proud of him for standing up to his ideals and for fighting for what he believed in. and she had been angry.

She had been angry at her father to leave them stranded. But now, as she saw her mother dying, she vowed that she would get even. Come hell or high water, these people would pay.

A devious plan started to form I her mind.

Suddenly the scene changed and she saw Harry. He was smiling and both of them were walking hand in hand on the lake shore. The moon had been beautiful and the moon light was bouncing off the lake water. From afar, both of them could hear sweet songs of the merpeople. It had been enchanting. As she turned towards Harry, to kiss him, her eyes jerked open. She was astounded as well as scared. For the person she had turned around to kiss was not the Harry potter she knew, but a man. He looked young and was quite handsome. He looked quite familiar but could not place the familiarity. More than that, she had not looked at him long enough to see his features.

Ginny could not sleep a wink for the rest of the night.

(((o)))

Harry's dream

All thirteen of them were looking at the young Harry. He had become quite nervous by that time. Lost in dimensions, he was at a loss at what to do. But somehow, he felt something tell him that all would be alright. Taking hope from his inner voice, he looked up straight into the eyes of every one, with all the pride he felt in himself and waited for them to start.

Meanwhile, twelve of the thirteen were a little less excited than the thirteen one. But now was the moment of the truth. They looked at each other and then at Harry. All of them nodded together as if coming to a joint decision and Cilera spoke up once again.

"Harry. I know that you have been wondering what is happening? To tell you the truth, we have been doing the same. It has never happened that a wizard may be acceptable to the elven magic. But we have a theory. More like, we have a hope. If you would just grant us a request, we can really find out what is really happening here?"

Harry was pretty surprised at the request. He had assumed that the elves would at least answer his questions as to his presence here. But to know that even they were unsure about everything, a strange feeling began to fill his stomach. It was more of a fear for out of the blue, he was getting surer that something strange is happening once again. Realizing that answers are needed by all of them, Harry nodded.

"Can you tell us something about your family and the circumstances that led you to us?" Harry now knew that he was in a long haul. Though his life may have been short, it was certainly eventful. He nodded and started to tell of his history bit by bit. Soon however, he was skipping important parts and had to go back. And in no time at all, his story was all jumbled up. The council too was confused.

"Harry! This is not helping. Would you mind if we could use a bit of telepathy and see all this in an organized manner?" Harry was flushing to his roots. He was completely embarrassed. Here he was, the sole wizard in presence of the high elves and all he could do was make a mockery of his ability to think properly although, a few moments earlier, in the forest, he had been thinking in a more organized form than ever before. This strange dichotomy befuddled him even more. After thinking for a few seconds, he nodded. He knew he was taking a big risk, trusting the elves with all his secrets as well as the prophecy, but he could think of nothing else to do. More than that, something inside him told him that they were trustworthy. In the end, he acceded and nodded once more, giving his acceptance.

Cilera smiled a small smile and came up to Harry, followed by the rest of the council. Cilera placed a hand on his head and closed his eyes, as did all the others.

-------

Harry felt a strange calmness envelop him and he too became one of the observers of his own life. The first sight he saw was him floating in a sort of fluid. It was garish. He could feel loved and protected, probably for the first time in his life, he felt peace. He was in his mother's womb. The scenes seemed to flyby. He was born and he looked at the happy faces of both his parents. Both of them looked not much older than him. His mother was beautiful. Then he saw him being loved and treated like a prince; His mother's walks across a strangely familiar meadow, with him in his arm. There were a few glimpses of Albus, Sirius, Remus and a couple he could only assume were Neville's parents. The time passed by and the happy looks in his mother's eyes became haunted. Her face went gaunt and she seldom smiled. He heard a major argument between his parents which he could only assume to be over the choice of the secret keeper.

Visions flashed by as he saw Voldemort enter his nursery, just behind his mother and his mother's attempt to save him. He was astounded to find that she died a few feet away from him. Then he saw Voldemort approach him and curse him with the killing curse. Everything just blanked out for a few seconds. Then he saw Hagrid picking him up. The next ten years were something that he was not proud to see. He saw the abuse, the neglect and the pain. He could feel the outrage and sorrow felt by the high elves.

Then the story became quiet detailed as he entered the Hogwarts. The first year with Quarrel and the mirror of erised; second year with the image of Voldemort and Ginny; third year brought the adventures with his godfather and his reaction to the dementors; the fourth year with the tournament and the rebirth of Voldemort; finally the last year was filled with dejection and pain he felt; The final betrayal by the headmaster after learning the prophecy and his turning into a catatonic state and then into magical coma.

As the whole story passed him by, he saw several things which he had overlooked as well as several things which he could now correlate. But what followed was an absolute shocker to him. He saw himself lying down in his room as he saw the face of silver haired Draco enter his room. He looked positively gleeful. He saw as Draco pick up his wand. He was shocked to find his wand react badly to Draco's touch. But Draco picked it up anyway.

He heard an alohomora followed by three avada kedavras. A few instants later, he saw the aurors come in. He was taken away on a stretcher. What followed was a farce of a trial. Dumbledore didn't deign to help him. He only felt grief in the eyes of one couple, Mr. & Mrs. Weasley. The rest were unresponsive. Remus wasn't there and Sirius had died. A few flashes later, he saw himself enter the Azkaban prison where he was sent to bottom rooms that were a state secret known to very few.

The last turn of events he saw were his placement in the chambers and a strange white light enveloping him.

With that, he opened his eyes and saw everybody looking up to him, an odd light shining in their eyes.

(((o)))

Present time

Hogwarts was one place which was lost in the shrouds of magic even the dark lord could not fathom. Built by four of the greatest wizards ever, it was ingrained with magic so strong and ambient that it had disappeared after the takeover bid by the dark lord. It was just like the Gringotts, albeit the scale was like comparing a mountain to a grain.

Voldemort had tried hard to capture the last bastion of light but had conceded defeat after numerous efforts. Of this much he was sure, if he couldn't find it, no one else could either. He did understand that his own prized ancestor, Sir Salazar Slytherin, was the maker of most of the defensive as well as offensive wards at Hogwarts. Accepting defeat from his icon, even though being separated by a millennia, he conceded.

Hogwarts was lost to the world.

However, for the last two days, a strange hum of magic could be heard around what used to be Hogwarts. Through some unknown turn of events, the magic in Hogwarts was changing a bit. Inside a huge room in the castle, which no one even knew of, several stones started to shine and magic started to hum. In the middle of it all, the Gryffindor's sword began to glow and magic once again started to coarse through the ancient walls of the school.

(((o)))

Harry's dream

Cilera's eyes were shining with happiness as he approached Harry. Harry was strangely curious of this change in emotions he could feel amongst all the high elves. He saw as the elf he had come to know approach him. Harry could almost make out some wetness which had appeared in the eyes of the leader of all the elves.

Strangely, still rooted to the ground, he could see Cilera as he rushed and stood just opposite to him. Harry was sure now that tears had formed around his eyes. Suddenly, strange arms enveloped him and the last thing a bewildered Harry heard was, "my son!"

Author's Notes:

Another chapter for all of you. And for me. Hope you enjoy it.

Let me know how you like it. Or if you don't.

gt