Title: Revenge from the grave.
Author: Black blade
Chapter tile: Plot thickens.
Disclaimer: umm, looks up innocently, not mine.
Summary: Slash. One year has passed since the day Harry Potter was killed by Voldemort in a desperate effort to save Snape from certain death. Harry is back from the grave to finish the job he was born to do. Kill the murderer of his parents. Will he succeed or will he fall? For there is no coming back from the dead if he fails, again.
A/N: Thanks for the reviews . Sorry for the wait. As stated in my profile I did try and post this a month ago but fan fiction wouldn't let me.
A/N2: Oh, if you want to know the few sentences in the nightmare that sounds like gibberish is in code. If any one wishes to have a crack at it leave what you think it is in a review. 50 points to the one that figures it out! It's not that hard…I think.
Beta: Websurfer. Thanks mate, any other mistakes found are purely mine.
Last time:
"It's okay, calm down. I would tell you everything will be okay but I can't," Harry told the boy softly. "But I can tell you that you are safe with me, understand?"
The boy nodded his head shaking and shivering. Harry pulled his jacket off, and swung it around the boy's small shoulders.
"What's your name, kid?"
"S-Sam," the kid stuttered.
"Okay Sam I'm going to take you to see the wise old man that lives in a castle. How does that sound?" Harry smiled.
xXx
"Did you get the blood?"
"Yes, all we have to do is make the potion. Did you get the potion's book?"
"Picked it up today, Pince didn't even notice it missing."
"How'd you get the pass into the restricted section?"
"Snape, I said I wanted to work on an extra credit assignment. He passed it over without question. He's always giving me anything I want in potions. He loves his Slytherins too much," the voice sounded sarcastic to the listener.
"Yes, well he doesn't trust Ravenclaws. Since he loves you Slytherin's so much you can get the last ingredient we need. Once this potion is done we'll have Potter in the palm of our hand," the second voice chuckled.
xXx
Harry pulled the boy closer to him focusing on the apparition point outside Hogwart's main gates. Using his magic he wound it around the boy and himself, hardly noticing the golden snake also wrapping itself around them.
With a soft 'pop' Harry and the boy reappeared where Harry wanted them to, thankfully he didn't stuff it up and leave parts of himself and Sam behind. He was still new to the whole apparition scene, that and he hated the feeling.
The boy seemed to agree with Harry, for he hung onto him harder his eyes screwed shut as he sobbed into Harry's shirt. Harry tried to comfort the boy and in the process didn't notice as the golden snake shrunk and wrapped itself back around his wrist.
When Harry finally managed to calm the boy down he swung him up into his arms. Slim legs wrapped around him as the boy's face pressed into his shoulder. Harry shifted on his feet as the shirt he wore slowly received a soaking, on the shoulder, from the kid's tears. Harry didn't mind, he just wished the kid had done it on one of the shirts he didn't like.
The castle doors opened in welcome as the two approached. Harry nodded to the school in thanks, and without stopping, he hurried through the castle, the boy held tightly in his arms. When he reached Dumbledore's office door, the Gargoyle reluctantly moved out of his way with a few grumbles and groans in protest, Harry just grinned in reply.
Albus looked up as they entered the room, "Harry what a pleasant surprise."
Harry tried not to stare at what Dumbledore was wearing as he settled down in a chair the boy still warped tightly around him. No wonder many believed the old man was mad if his fashion sense was anything to go by the man should have been looked up in the psychiatric ward a long time ago.
"Professor, there has been another attack. I was too late to save anyone but little Sam here," Harry said quickly.
Wanting to get the hell out of there as quickly as possible for Dumbledore's bright orange and blue robes with little rubber ducks bobbing around, were already giving him a headache. He didn't how the staff of Hogwarts could stand it.
"I see, this is a very serious matter," Dumbledore said carefully, looking the young child over. He suddenly began searching around in his robe's pockets after a few long seconds he pulled out a small tin. "Lemon drop?"
Harry rolled his eyes. "No thank you, headmaster."
The headmaster looked at the tin in his hand, as if wondering why no one ever took one, before turning his attention back to Harry and the small boy.
"Now, Sam I want you to tell me what happened?" Dumbledore requested softly of the small boy.
Sam looked up at the old man with wide brown eyes and quivering lip. Harry could feel how tense the boy was in his arms and tightened his hold in comfort.
"The bad people came," Sam answered slowly. "Bad people with masks and black cloaks."
Harry felt his heart clench at those words, but didn't say anything.
"What happened then?" Dumbledore asked sitting forward in his chair, a thoughtful expression on his wrinkled face.
"They broke through the door. Mummy and daddy yelled at them, while the bad people pointed sticks at them…"
"You're doing well, Sam. Keep going."
"The bad people keep screaming about something shinny they wanted," Sam sobbed.
"Shh, it's okay, Sam." Harry said softly. "Was the shinny thing a coin?"
"Yes, yes," Sam said eagerly nodding his head up and down. If the circumstances weren't so dampening, Harry would have believed that the boy looked like one of those nodding dogs. "A coin, daddy said he wouldn't give it to them. Then mummy was screaming and daddy yelled at me to run and I ran and ran. I didn't even pick up teddy from my room, I miss teddy. I miss mummy and I miss daddy."
Harry's heart broke as the child in his lap cried into his shoulder, again. He murmured reassurances in Sam's ear as he caught the headmaster's eye over the kid's head. The death eaters had gotten what they'd came for and now Sam stood as an orphan, all over a damn coin! The injustice of the matter tore at him.
"Can you take Sam here down to the hospital wing, Harry?" Dumbledore requested, his eyes looking old and without a twinkle in sight.
"Yes, sir," Harry agreed just as softly. "Do you think you'll be able to find a place for him?"
Dumbledore smiled thinly, "I think I may, now off you go."
Harry nodded and with a bit of effort and an old man groan he made it to his feet with Sam in his arms. Oh, how his back was going to kill him in the morning for that move.
Harry happened upon Severus at the bottom of the stairs from Dumbledore's office. The dark haired man stopped suddenly, his dark eyes widened slightly, as he looked down his sizeable nose at Harry.
"Mr. Potter, where did you get that?" Severus asked silkily, pointing at the clinging child.
Harry looked down at the boy, "Would you believe I found him?"
xXx
Harry smiled as Sam dug into his food with the energy of the five-year-old he was. He glanced across the table in amusement where Ron was eating just as fast. If Harry didn't know better he would have thought they were having a one on one bad manner's eating competition and it looked as if Ron was winning. Either Sam was advanced in age or Ron was just a child, Harry couldn't decide which. Catching Hermione eye he subtly pointed out the similarities in Ron and Sam's eating styles.
"Our little boys," Hermione whispered in his ear, a grin tugging at her lips even as she cringed at the display.
"They're growing up so fast," Harry whispered back, faking a tear.
"Soon they'll be all grown up," Hermione sighed, then changed her mind. "Well maybe not Ron but Sam has lots of prudential."
Harry turned his laugh into a cough.
"Hey, what you whispering about?" Ron piped up, a bit of egg hanging out of his mouth.
Hermione wrinkled her nose up, as little Sam giggled from Harry's left.
"Ron, you got something on your face," Harry declared, wanting to help his friend out.
"What?" Ron wiped at his face, smudging the egg across his chin.
Harry turned away, there was no helping him now as Hermione scowled her boyfriend for his table manners or lack of.
Little Sam giggled some more as he watching Hermione and Ron bicker back and forth like an old married couple. Not that Harry would say that to their faces, he liked his head where it was, thank you very much.
Harry couldn't help but smile at Sam, he was happy for the little boy, it had been two weeks since the attack on his home and the child seemed to be getting over his parent's deaths. He still had patches where he'd become quiet and disinterest in everything around him, but those moments were getting further and further apart. Dumbledore had been working hard to find a relative of the boy's but had come up empty handed. It was as if Sam and his parents had appeared out of nowhere. Their family history was suspiciously, not there.
Harry suddenly looked up when he felt eyes on him. His green eyes locked with grey ones from across the hall. Draco Malfoy stared back at him from the Ravenclaw table? Harry did a double take; yes, Malfoy was sitting next to the same girl that he'd been next to in Herbology, at the Ravenclaw table. The girl, who had been talking to Draco, suddenly looked up and Harry found himself looking into two sets of similar grey eyes. The breath caught in his throat until the two turned back to their conversation.
Hermione followed her friend's gaze. "That's Abigail Moon, she's in the same year as us. She's Malfoy's cousin, she also has a younger brother in Ginny's year, in Slytherin," Hermione told him.
"How come I've never noticed her before?" Harry asked turning to Hermione.
The girl shrugged. "Most of our classes before sixth year were with Slytherin and you were only here a few months of sixth year, when we had mixed classes. I guessed you just over looked her, her family tried not to associate with the Malfoy name."
"Then why are they sitting together? At the Ravenclaw table!"
"Oh, I forgot you didn't know!" Hermione cried.
"Don't know what?"
"About Malfoy! About a month or so after you…." Hermione seemed to grasp around for a word but could quite reach one.
"Died," Harry suggested.
Hermione looked anywhere but at Harry. "Yes, not long after you left, he went home for a weekend for a family emergency," she continued.
Ron snorted from across the table, Hermione glared at him.
"He went home and then disappeared…" Hermione explained.
"Hagrid found him a week later at the front gates in a right mess," Ron butted in. "His father turned up the next day and disowned him. It was all over the school."
"Disowned him?" Harry questioned, he couldn't see Lucius Malfoy disowning his only son and heir. Unless it had something to do with Voldemort. Did Draco not take the mark?
"Yeah," Ron answered.
"We think it had something to do with Voldemort," Hermione said after a shared looked between her and Ron. "We think that he was supposed to get the mark and backed out at the last minute. Since that day he has stayed close to Abigail and sometimes her brother."
Harry looked back over at the two grey-eyed cousins at the Ravenclaw table before leaving with Ron and Hermione to go to class.
xXx
"Have you found out anything about how I came back?" Harry questioned Hermione.
The three were in the library, books of all kinds spread out before them. The moment Harry had told her about what happened, when he'd died, Hermione could be found in the library a book in hand about the subject and a puzzled frown wrinkling her brow.
"I haven't found out much, but I've asked my mother to send the book on muggle myths and legends that I think I saw that story about crows and the afterlife in," Hermione said without looking up from her work.
"How much of the library have you looked at?"
"I haven't had much time, Harry," Hermione sniffed. Sounding offended, that anyone would question her study habits.
"Sorry," Harry said quickly, he knew how she was about her work. "I just wanted to know, so that I won't be looking over texts that you've already looked at."
That seemed to calm the witch down for she smiled sweetly. She dug around in her bag for a few minutes before withdrawing a piece of parchment with a few titles on it.
"These are the books I've already looked through," Hermione said. With a quick spell she copied the list and passed one of them to Harry.
"Thanks Hermione, what about…oh," Harry began to say.
Hermione held up a few more pages of parchment with notes on them, with another quick spell Harry now had Hermione's research notes.
"Thanks, I'll have a look around and see if I can find out anything," Harry grinned.
"Have you finished your Potions?" Hermione asked sternly.
"Yes.'
"Oh, well off you go," Hermione said with shooing motions.
"Yes, mother." Harry saluted, turned and marched off with a smile.
xXx
Red, red rivers, red lakes, red pools. Red everywhere, everything else came second to that colour. He could see it, a deep red making tracks toward him, in a way that made his stomach roll with nausea. Everything else was dull as if seen through a foggy glass window, except the red. A dipping sound penetrated his mind as if the colour was paint dripping to the floor. Loud cackling laughter filled the air drowning out the dripping. He didn't know what sound he would rather hear. Screams picked up in the background as the rivers of red turned darker.
"Fomh corte troe fhm thadowo ss lht tighe, mive ge toweo pr wivt lithoue cime, tome tortf!"
xXx
Harry woke with a gasp, the nightmare still filling him with a feeling of horror and dread. His dreams, since the first time he'd had that nightmare, three weeks ago had been filled with those terrifying images.
Harry stood shivering in the middle of Severus' rooms. He couldn't take it any more! He'd only been getting a few hours of sleep a week! If this kept up he'd be useless. He needed to sleep and at this point he believed he would do anything to do so.
Harry crept across the room to Severus' bedroom. He quietly opened the door and slipped into the room, taking the two steps to the bed. He reached out a hand to Severus but stopped when he felt the tip of a wand stick into his ribs.
"Severus, it's me," Harry whispered.
"Lumos," Severus muttered.
Light flared in the room, Severus looked up at Harry with cold black eyes.
"What are you doing? Trying to get yourself killed?" Severus hissed.
"No, I had that nightmare again. Severus I need to sleep and I've already tried the dreamless sleep potion. I don't know what to do, but I need sleep!" Harry cried.
Severus stared at Harry's pleading face for a few minutes his own face unreadable. Severus must have come to a decision for he sighed loudly in the quiet room.
"When my sister used to have nightmares, she said sleeping next to her big brother used to help," Severus said quietly. "If you are quiet you can sleep here, like my sister used to do."
Harry smiled and nodded, he didn't much care if he needed to sleep on a pile of dung, if it meant he could sleep.
Severus moved over in the large king sized bed as Harry wormed in next to him. Severus spelled the light off and turned his back to Harry.
Harry didn't even care he shut his eyes and was soon asleep. He didn't even feel as strong arms came around him some time later in the night.
xXx
A large archway stretched out curving around high in the wall. Large stone benches surrounded the archway, like a half-sized gladiator arena, but instead of blood thirsty gams there was but the archway. In some ways the innocent cloth covered doorway was more dangerous than any gladiator arena. The stage on which the archway rested was raised higher calling people's eyes towards it and to the criminal that were once trial or just thrown into it without a trial. It was that that made the veil the most deadly object in wizard's hands for the arced doorway of stone was a portal to the land of the dead, the underworld.
Tonight however, something else would draw people to the dark archway and its flattering cloth covering. The veil fluttered and flailed in an invisible wind, as voices called out to the living. The dead were angry this night. They wished to escape their forced imprisonment. They possessed something that they should not have been taken before it's time and time wanted it back. Crying and wailing echoed around the once silent room as the torches flickered, casting shadows into every corner, as if feeling death's pain.
The veil swung back and forth, shaking and rustling. In a morbid dance of release and struggle. Something could be seen behind the darkness as a darker shadow passed across the fluttering plane. The whispering and wailing rose in pitch to a loud howl. The shape grew, twisted and turned, trying to free itself as the cloth tried to keep it back.
Suddenly a dark haired man leaped free, fire burning in his blue eye as he held out a wand a spell on his lips.
"Expelli-what?"
The man's voice sounded loud in the once again silent room. The man gazed around in confusion.
"What the -"xXx
Harry woke to the feeling of an arm tight around his waist, he felt warm and safe within the half embrace and couldn't remember what had woken him. He snuggled back into the body of his bed partner before falling back into sleep's arms. Not knowing his world was going to flip on its backside once again when he woke.
xXx
'GRIM CAUSES CHAOS AT MISITRY!'
'A grim like dog was found early this morning wandering the bowels of the ministry of magic.' Sara Cunning reporting. 'It took four hours for Aurors to chase the dog out of the building with only slight injuries sustained. Ministry officials are still puzzled over the appearance of the dog.
"I didn't know what to think when I saw it the dog," Said one frightened employee. "I thought I was seeing a Grim, usually I'm not taken in by all that divination mumbo jumbo, but it scared the bigeezus out of me!"
The dog managed to access the potion's laboratory and the main offices of the ministry cursing mass amounts of damage to property and files. Officials confirmed that the dog was acting like any trapped animal would and the possibility of it being an Animagus has been ruled out, even though the ReveloAnimagus spell was not cast on the animal.
The dog managed to escape out of an open floo network and its location at this time is unknown…'