Chapter 7-Decisions and Old Friends
When Harry and Severus returned to the headmasters office, they were not surprised to find that they were the last to finish the search. Hermione and Ron were sitting close together on one end of a plush couch, Ron's arm securely around the shoulders of his wife. Remus and Sirius were standing next to each other behind the headmasters desk, the latter leaning against the wall as though he were exhausted. Draco was sitting next to Ginny on another plush red couch, and by the looks of things, he was attempting to comfort the distraught mother. The aged headmaster was sitting behind his desk, apparently reading something out of a large tome when the door to his office had opened almost silently. Upon seeing her husband arrive, Ginny's eyes lit up hopefully until she got a good look at his face and began to tear up again.
"Judging by your expressions, I would assume that none of you had any more luck than we did" said Harry as he collapsed into one of the large couches next to his wife who immediately cuddled up next to him, causing him to unconsciously wrap an arm around her tense shoulders.
"We're sorry, Harry, but nobody has seen or heard anything from the twins since breakfast" said Sirius heavily as he massaged his head wearily, beside him on the couch, Remus nodded in agreement before speaking himself.
"It's as though they just vanished into thin air, none of the students or people in the village have seen hide nor hair of them all day. I'm sorry Harry, I have no idea what to do now, or how to find them" he said honestly, for the first time in his life feeling completely hopeless and lost about offering advice to his best friends son.
"I know, I just wish I hadn't kept refusing to tell them the truth, I should have known something like this was bound to happen!" shouted Harry furiously as he banged his clenched fist onto the small table beside him, rattling all of the small and spindly figures and causing several to fall to the carpeted floor with a soft thud.
"Harry, love, calm down" said Ginny softly, and the others, knowing that the red head was the only one who would be successful in trying to calm him down, watched in silence "I know you're upset and angry, so am I, but there is no way that we'll find James and Lily if we act this way" she said logically and hearing her words, Harry closed his eyes for a few tense moments and breathed deeply before opening them again, and now, instead of anger and hopelessness radiating out of them, there was determination.
"You're right" he said softly before his eyes surveyed the other members of the room, his closest friends, his family "Ok, does anybody have any ideas about how we get out of this one?" he asked, again putting his trust in those who had always been able to help him out of tricky situations before.
The group remained in complete silence for several minutes, all lost in their own whirling thoughts and feelings, all trying desperately to come up with some solution and not a single person moving more than enough to breath.
After nearly ten minutes, though, the silence was broken by a terrible screeching sound, and immediately, eight wands and a staff were aimed directly at the open window as nine minds were drawn back to a similar sound that brought only pain and fear to their hearts. The last time any of them had heard any sound similar to this, a sound that turned all of their blood to ice, Sirius had nearly died.
Last time, it had been a black hawk that had uttered the terrible cry, a hawk sent by death eaters that had warned Harry to surrender or face his death, but when he had refused, the hawk had attacked, but instead of coming after Harry, she had struck Sirius with her poisoned talons and if it hadn't been for the golden phoenix guardian of the boy-who-lived, Terres, Sirius would have died that morning.
As their minds all wandered back to that terrible day, their eyes remained trained onto the window, and a moment later, they were all standing in frozen shock as a hawk all to familiar flew through the window and left a piece of parchment at Harry's feet as it flew in lazy circles around the ceiling of the spacious office. The hawk was nearly twice the size of Severus' animagus form, and solid black from it's beak to its tail feathers, and its eyes were a fierce yellow color that were currently pinned on Harry as he glared right back at it. Before he was able to do anything else though, another cry from outside captured their attention and caused even more confusion. This cry was fare from bone chilling, instead, it was rich and melodious, causing them to all relax slightly, but at the same time, the cry was fearsome and upon hearing it, the hawks eyes widened and she let loose another shriek. An instant later, a streak of gold flew through the high opened window, and flew straight toward the hawk who in turn flew as quickly as she could back out the window, the gold streak right behind her, leaving the humans in stunned silence until Harry spoke up.
"Terres?'" asked Harry in a soft voice, obviously in shock about seeing his guardian again after so long
'It is I, my child' answered a sweet voice in his mind, ringing with a quiet reassurance
"What are you doing here?" he asked in bewilderment
'I told you, my child, that we would meet again when the need arose, and it is now that you will need my help. Your children are missing and another dark lord is trying to take up where Voldemort left off' she said, and he could clearly hear the worry and disdain in her usually calm voice as she spoke of Iniquitous.
"What should we do?" he asked, hoping she would have the answers sinc he and all of his friends did not.
'There is nothing we can do, my child, it is up to him to make the first move' she answered with regret 'We know not where he is hiding or who his followers are, and until we do, we can do nothing to stop him'
"Where are you now?" he asked after her words had sunk in, wanting to see her to finish the difficult conversation in person so he could look her in the eye instead of speaking to a blank wall.
'I am over the forest, ensuring that that despicable bird has left and will not return' she answered 'You would think that she learned her lesson last time' she added, and despite the seriousness of the situation, Harry felt a small smirk cross his features at the tone of Terres' voice
"You mean to tell me that this is the same bird?" he asked
'Yes, it is, my child, and as I said, you would think that she learned her lesson when she was nearly eaten by that winged lion'
"you would think, but remember who she takes orders from, they aren't the smartest lot" said Harry, and behind him, he heard several of his friends chuckle quietly, and seeing as they could only hear his end of the conversation, he was mildly surprised that they had been able to understand what he and his guardian were speaking of, but apparently, they had.
"Is it gone?" he asked after several moments when he no longer could hear the distant cries of the hawk
'Yes, as soon as she was outside the school grounds, she vanished, she must have had a portkey on her that activated when she was outside of the wards to insure that she wasn't followed back to wherever her master is. There is no doubt that she is now among those who are behind this' Terres responded.
"Ok, can you come back to the castle so we can finish this discussion?" he asked wearily, disappointed that Terres hadn't been able to give that hawk what she had coming
'I'm on my way, my child' she responded, and a few moments later, she entered the office, this time at a much slower pace than the previous, and perched herself on Harry's shoulder who smiled a tight smile at her after admiring her beauty for a few moments.
"It's good to see you again, Terres" he said quietly as he gently stroked her head
'Likewise, my child, but now is not the time for greetings, you should read that letter' she instructed and his mood was immediately brought back down
As soon as the golden bird was back in their sight, the eyes of all the occupants of the room turned to look at Harry who in turn had his attention focused on the parchment at his feet, forgotten until now because of the discussion with Terres. Without a word, he flicked his wrist and the letter unrolled and landed in his upturned palm. He read the entire contents in silence, and the others immediately knew that whatever he was reading was not good. His expression changed from grim, to worried, to angry in a matter of mere seconds before the figurines along the mantle of the headmasters fireplace began to rattle, as was the opened window, and fearing an explosion of magic, Ginny hesitantly laid a gentle hand on her husbands arm, hoping to distract him and find out what had gotten him so upset in the first place, but dreading that it was something about the twins.
"Harry, what is it?" she asked quietly as she felt the eyes of the rest of the occupants in the room on her and wondering the same thing. Mutely, he handed the letter to his wife and after skimming its contents, she felt her eyes fill with tears for the hundredth time that day and she collapsed to her knees on the ground, and was barely aware that Harry had followed her until she felt his strong arms encircle her and she leaned into the embrace, finally giving into the emotions that had been threatening to overtake her.
Seeing the distraught couple on the floor before them, the rest looked to each other in worry before Remus picked up the discarded letter and read it out loud in a quiet voice, that nonetheless carried through the entire office as though he were screaming the words.
Potter,
I don't believe that we've been properly introduced, my name is Iniquitous, and unlike Voldemort, I will defeat you.
As you have probably guessed, I know everything about you.
I know about your childhood and the verbal abuse you suffered from your relatives.
I know about everything that happened during your first five years of Hogwarts.
I know about the final battle on the schools grounds.
I know about the chamber and the torture you went through at the hands of the remaining death eaters, and better still, I know how you escaped.
I know about the soul that resided inside of you for the year and a half after you had returned, and I know about your little journey into the past with your precious godfather.
I know about that Christmas day, and that you really died at the hands of your friends and family.
But the most important part, is that I know about your family, all about it, and I am sorry to say that your grandfather lacked the skills necessary to achieve his goals, unlike me.
Now that we have established what I know of, let me inform you of some things that you are not aware of.
Your children, as I'm sure you have been informed, have come to know these truths that have been kept from then their entire lives, and needless to say, they weren't too pleased by what I revealed to them.
Now, you may be asking yourself why they would be so angry that they were ill informed about things that were clearly before their time and that have no bearing on their lives now, so allow me to explain.
You see, Potter, I wasn't completely truthful with your children, I'm not sorry to say.
I didn't tell them everything about the past, just what they needed to know to turn against you and the rest of those who haven't been entirely truthful with them, instead, using half truths and white lies to achieve my goal.
I showed them images of you attacking students and professors, of those same students and professors killing you, among others that would help to sway them to my cause, and it worked.
I will be brief, for I have many plans for the near future.
Your children are powerful, immensely so, perhaps not as powerful as yourself, but their strength is enough for what I need.
With their combined energies focused against you and your cause, it will be enough to succeed where Voldemort failed, and since I know you would never do anything to harm your precious children, I WILL be successful.
You can give up your hopeless search, Potter, I have your children, and once they have served their purposes, I will dispose of them, and nothing you do can stop me from achieving my goals.
You know not where to find me, and not even your incredible powers can help you there, and by the time I reveal myself to the wizarding world, it will be to late to stop me and I will win.
Enjoy the remaining peace, Potter, for we are once again on the brink of war and your children will be among the casualties, as well as all the others that you hold dear.
Iniquitous
A/N: I know, I know, it's short and extremely late, but at least I got something posted, right? Ok, blame it on the fact that I managed to break a rib and fracture my collar bone about a month ago, it's really hard to type with one arm, you know. Ok, I promise that it will be longer next time, and this has not been beta read yet, the corrected version will be up shortly. Oh yeah, I started a yahoo group since I'm getting sick of ff.net always being stupid, I will still post here, but I'll post there first, especially when I can't get on this site. Go ahead and join! And feel free to post anything you want to there, as long as it's appropriate, I like reading a good fic just as much as the next bored college student. Ok, hope you liked it and it explained some things, review and let me know what you think, and while you're waiting for the next chapter, check out my other story, I need some opinions on weather or not to continue it, it's called Reestablishing Trust and you can find it on my profile page as well as the link to my group, have a good day and I'll update soon, promise! ~Tismy~
When Harry and Severus returned to the headmasters office, they were not surprised to find that they were the last to finish the search. Hermione and Ron were sitting close together on one end of a plush couch, Ron's arm securely around the shoulders of his wife. Remus and Sirius were standing next to each other behind the headmasters desk, the latter leaning against the wall as though he were exhausted. Draco was sitting next to Ginny on another plush red couch, and by the looks of things, he was attempting to comfort the distraught mother. The aged headmaster was sitting behind his desk, apparently reading something out of a large tome when the door to his office had opened almost silently. Upon seeing her husband arrive, Ginny's eyes lit up hopefully until she got a good look at his face and began to tear up again.
"Judging by your expressions, I would assume that none of you had any more luck than we did" said Harry as he collapsed into one of the large couches next to his wife who immediately cuddled up next to him, causing him to unconsciously wrap an arm around her tense shoulders.
"We're sorry, Harry, but nobody has seen or heard anything from the twins since breakfast" said Sirius heavily as he massaged his head wearily, beside him on the couch, Remus nodded in agreement before speaking himself.
"It's as though they just vanished into thin air, none of the students or people in the village have seen hide nor hair of them all day. I'm sorry Harry, I have no idea what to do now, or how to find them" he said honestly, for the first time in his life feeling completely hopeless and lost about offering advice to his best friends son.
"I know, I just wish I hadn't kept refusing to tell them the truth, I should have known something like this was bound to happen!" shouted Harry furiously as he banged his clenched fist onto the small table beside him, rattling all of the small and spindly figures and causing several to fall to the carpeted floor with a soft thud.
"Harry, love, calm down" said Ginny softly, and the others, knowing that the red head was the only one who would be successful in trying to calm him down, watched in silence "I know you're upset and angry, so am I, but there is no way that we'll find James and Lily if we act this way" she said logically and hearing her words, Harry closed his eyes for a few tense moments and breathed deeply before opening them again, and now, instead of anger and hopelessness radiating out of them, there was determination.
"You're right" he said softly before his eyes surveyed the other members of the room, his closest friends, his family "Ok, does anybody have any ideas about how we get out of this one?" he asked, again putting his trust in those who had always been able to help him out of tricky situations before.
The group remained in complete silence for several minutes, all lost in their own whirling thoughts and feelings, all trying desperately to come up with some solution and not a single person moving more than enough to breath.
After nearly ten minutes, though, the silence was broken by a terrible screeching sound, and immediately, eight wands and a staff were aimed directly at the open window as nine minds were drawn back to a similar sound that brought only pain and fear to their hearts. The last time any of them had heard any sound similar to this, a sound that turned all of their blood to ice, Sirius had nearly died.
Last time, it had been a black hawk that had uttered the terrible cry, a hawk sent by death eaters that had warned Harry to surrender or face his death, but when he had refused, the hawk had attacked, but instead of coming after Harry, she had struck Sirius with her poisoned talons and if it hadn't been for the golden phoenix guardian of the boy-who-lived, Terres, Sirius would have died that morning.
As their minds all wandered back to that terrible day, their eyes remained trained onto the window, and a moment later, they were all standing in frozen shock as a hawk all to familiar flew through the window and left a piece of parchment at Harry's feet as it flew in lazy circles around the ceiling of the spacious office. The hawk was nearly twice the size of Severus' animagus form, and solid black from it's beak to its tail feathers, and its eyes were a fierce yellow color that were currently pinned on Harry as he glared right back at it. Before he was able to do anything else though, another cry from outside captured their attention and caused even more confusion. This cry was fare from bone chilling, instead, it was rich and melodious, causing them to all relax slightly, but at the same time, the cry was fearsome and upon hearing it, the hawks eyes widened and she let loose another shriek. An instant later, a streak of gold flew through the high opened window, and flew straight toward the hawk who in turn flew as quickly as she could back out the window, the gold streak right behind her, leaving the humans in stunned silence until Harry spoke up.
"Terres?'" asked Harry in a soft voice, obviously in shock about seeing his guardian again after so long
'It is I, my child' answered a sweet voice in his mind, ringing with a quiet reassurance
"What are you doing here?" he asked in bewilderment
'I told you, my child, that we would meet again when the need arose, and it is now that you will need my help. Your children are missing and another dark lord is trying to take up where Voldemort left off' she said, and he could clearly hear the worry and disdain in her usually calm voice as she spoke of Iniquitous.
"What should we do?" he asked, hoping she would have the answers sinc he and all of his friends did not.
'There is nothing we can do, my child, it is up to him to make the first move' she answered with regret 'We know not where he is hiding or who his followers are, and until we do, we can do nothing to stop him'
"Where are you now?" he asked after her words had sunk in, wanting to see her to finish the difficult conversation in person so he could look her in the eye instead of speaking to a blank wall.
'I am over the forest, ensuring that that despicable bird has left and will not return' she answered 'You would think that she learned her lesson last time' she added, and despite the seriousness of the situation, Harry felt a small smirk cross his features at the tone of Terres' voice
"You mean to tell me that this is the same bird?" he asked
'Yes, it is, my child, and as I said, you would think that she learned her lesson when she was nearly eaten by that winged lion'
"you would think, but remember who she takes orders from, they aren't the smartest lot" said Harry, and behind him, he heard several of his friends chuckle quietly, and seeing as they could only hear his end of the conversation, he was mildly surprised that they had been able to understand what he and his guardian were speaking of, but apparently, they had.
"Is it gone?" he asked after several moments when he no longer could hear the distant cries of the hawk
'Yes, as soon as she was outside the school grounds, she vanished, she must have had a portkey on her that activated when she was outside of the wards to insure that she wasn't followed back to wherever her master is. There is no doubt that she is now among those who are behind this' Terres responded.
"Ok, can you come back to the castle so we can finish this discussion?" he asked wearily, disappointed that Terres hadn't been able to give that hawk what she had coming
'I'm on my way, my child' she responded, and a few moments later, she entered the office, this time at a much slower pace than the previous, and perched herself on Harry's shoulder who smiled a tight smile at her after admiring her beauty for a few moments.
"It's good to see you again, Terres" he said quietly as he gently stroked her head
'Likewise, my child, but now is not the time for greetings, you should read that letter' she instructed and his mood was immediately brought back down
As soon as the golden bird was back in their sight, the eyes of all the occupants of the room turned to look at Harry who in turn had his attention focused on the parchment at his feet, forgotten until now because of the discussion with Terres. Without a word, he flicked his wrist and the letter unrolled and landed in his upturned palm. He read the entire contents in silence, and the others immediately knew that whatever he was reading was not good. His expression changed from grim, to worried, to angry in a matter of mere seconds before the figurines along the mantle of the headmasters fireplace began to rattle, as was the opened window, and fearing an explosion of magic, Ginny hesitantly laid a gentle hand on her husbands arm, hoping to distract him and find out what had gotten him so upset in the first place, but dreading that it was something about the twins.
"Harry, what is it?" she asked quietly as she felt the eyes of the rest of the occupants in the room on her and wondering the same thing. Mutely, he handed the letter to his wife and after skimming its contents, she felt her eyes fill with tears for the hundredth time that day and she collapsed to her knees on the ground, and was barely aware that Harry had followed her until she felt his strong arms encircle her and she leaned into the embrace, finally giving into the emotions that had been threatening to overtake her.
Seeing the distraught couple on the floor before them, the rest looked to each other in worry before Remus picked up the discarded letter and read it out loud in a quiet voice, that nonetheless carried through the entire office as though he were screaming the words.
Potter,
I don't believe that we've been properly introduced, my name is Iniquitous, and unlike Voldemort, I will defeat you.
As you have probably guessed, I know everything about you.
I know about your childhood and the verbal abuse you suffered from your relatives.
I know about everything that happened during your first five years of Hogwarts.
I know about the final battle on the schools grounds.
I know about the chamber and the torture you went through at the hands of the remaining death eaters, and better still, I know how you escaped.
I know about the soul that resided inside of you for the year and a half after you had returned, and I know about your little journey into the past with your precious godfather.
I know about that Christmas day, and that you really died at the hands of your friends and family.
But the most important part, is that I know about your family, all about it, and I am sorry to say that your grandfather lacked the skills necessary to achieve his goals, unlike me.
Now that we have established what I know of, let me inform you of some things that you are not aware of.
Your children, as I'm sure you have been informed, have come to know these truths that have been kept from then their entire lives, and needless to say, they weren't too pleased by what I revealed to them.
Now, you may be asking yourself why they would be so angry that they were ill informed about things that were clearly before their time and that have no bearing on their lives now, so allow me to explain.
You see, Potter, I wasn't completely truthful with your children, I'm not sorry to say.
I didn't tell them everything about the past, just what they needed to know to turn against you and the rest of those who haven't been entirely truthful with them, instead, using half truths and white lies to achieve my goal.
I showed them images of you attacking students and professors, of those same students and professors killing you, among others that would help to sway them to my cause, and it worked.
I will be brief, for I have many plans for the near future.
Your children are powerful, immensely so, perhaps not as powerful as yourself, but their strength is enough for what I need.
With their combined energies focused against you and your cause, it will be enough to succeed where Voldemort failed, and since I know you would never do anything to harm your precious children, I WILL be successful.
You can give up your hopeless search, Potter, I have your children, and once they have served their purposes, I will dispose of them, and nothing you do can stop me from achieving my goals.
You know not where to find me, and not even your incredible powers can help you there, and by the time I reveal myself to the wizarding world, it will be to late to stop me and I will win.
Enjoy the remaining peace, Potter, for we are once again on the brink of war and your children will be among the casualties, as well as all the others that you hold dear.
Iniquitous
A/N: I know, I know, it's short and extremely late, but at least I got something posted, right? Ok, blame it on the fact that I managed to break a rib and fracture my collar bone about a month ago, it's really hard to type with one arm, you know. Ok, I promise that it will be longer next time, and this has not been beta read yet, the corrected version will be up shortly. Oh yeah, I started a yahoo group since I'm getting sick of ff.net always being stupid, I will still post here, but I'll post there first, especially when I can't get on this site. Go ahead and join! And feel free to post anything you want to there, as long as it's appropriate, I like reading a good fic just as much as the next bored college student. Ok, hope you liked it and it explained some things, review and let me know what you think, and while you're waiting for the next chapter, check out my other story, I need some opinions on weather or not to continue it, it's called Reestablishing Trust and you can find it on my profile page as well as the link to my group, have a good day and I'll update soon, promise! ~Tismy~