Harry Potter and the Spirit of Revenge
Chapter Seven: The Death-Who-Screamed

Please Read and Review. I'd like to know what I'm doing right (to keep doing it), and what I'm I doing wrong (to correct it).

Quintessence Plane

Floating in the void of space, stands a tall man. Incongruously, he simply wears a blue suit that was almost black, a high-collared blue cloak, a fedora of that same colour. The lack of air doesn't seem to bother him at all. His right hand clasps the left, while he looks intently at the Earth, floating serenely next to him.

The man's voice was barely heard in the silence. "A new Spectre has been chosen. The youngest so far." The Phantom Stranger's eyes, eternally hidden in shadow, peered into the globe, finally settling in Britain. "And after almost two millennia, it is a magical. Things are changing."

He turned away from the globe. Last time, he had been delayed. This time, he would talk to the new incarnation of the Presence's Wrath immediately. Hopefully, it would be early enough.

Suddenly, he stopped, and conjured an image of the new avatar. A wave of his white-gloved hand revealed the human guise of the new Wrath avatar. It was a boy of about 12 to 14 years old, with messy black hair and round spectacles. A scar shaped like a lightning bolt marred his forehead. There was a white owl standing on his shoulder.

"What a coincidence. Another boy of prophecy and fate. Maybe they should meet. Both need a friend."

The Phantom Stranger restarted his walk, and exactly seven steps later, he vanished gradually.

Hogwarts; Owlery.

Hermione Granger used the time before curfew to write a letter. She addressed it to her father. In short, she asked him to check on his sister-in-law, Marie Granger, to see if she was back in England, and also to ask if Hermione's cousin was also in the country.

Once she had released the school owl with his precious cargo, Hermione ran back to the Hospital Wing. To her disappointment and worry, Harry wasn't there. Madame Pomfrey barred her access to the Hospital Wing, simply standing in front of the door. She looked at Hermione impatiently, "Miss Granger, I strongly ask of you to return to your common room! The DMLE will arrive shortly, and they could retain you as a witness if they think it necessary. I'd rather save you from the trouble."

"Thanks, Madame Pomfrey." Hermione bowed her head, "I'll go immediately. Will you let me know about Harry?" she pleaded.

"Yes, child. As soon as I know myself. Now go!"

Hermione ran back to Gryffindor Tower, she reckoned she would arrive with barely a couple of minutes to spare.

Her steps slowed as she approached the Fat Ledy portrait. The common room would be a hotbed of gossiping.

Just what she needed…

She hoped hoping to avoid the interrogatory she would surely be subjected to if she managed to get to her bed quickly enough.

To her relief, the Twins were waiting for her right next to the entrance, their faces creased with worry for the boy they thought of as an honorary brother. The left twin waved at her, she thought it was Fred. "Hermione! Any news of Harry?" The other one spoke a moment later, "Is he okay? No one could tell us anything."

Hermione sighed. "He didn't came back… I'm not sure what happened. Madame Bones and several Aurors went to wherever the Cup was keyed. But…" she bit her lip. Hesitating before sharing the other news she had," Luna Lovegood fears for him… Have you ever heard of …the Spectre..?"

Fred scratched his ear, thinking. He shrugged, and his brother answered, "No… who's that?"

Hermione looked around, "Is there some place we can talk? I think in there it would be…"

George nodded brusquely, "A circus? Yeah. And Ronniekins is doing all he can to be the main attraction. Come, we know of a secret passage near." Quickly, the two Weasleys guided Hermione to a corridor. One looked around, and pushed into a brick. The other twisted a relief in the wall, tilting his head towards a solid looking part of the wall. "Push that panel, Hermione, and walk fast. We will follow you in."

She followed the instructions. The panel swung over itself, revealing a long corridor. Hermione almost ran to the other end, finding a small room. There were a couple of tables with chairs. Veritable mounds of books on one, while the other was covered with a mess of parchment pieces, containing diagrams, maps, and alchemical notes.

Fred and George arrived just after her. "Please excuse the chaos. We think better in here."

"Now, who is this Spectre? Some kind of ghost?"

Hermione unfolded Luna's drawing, showing it to the Twins, "Luna drew this, she says Harry will have a… I'm not sure if I understood what she tried to tell me. I think it is a Doppelgänger, a ghostly double of Harry. There are legends about them in the muggle world, that if one sees his own Doppelgänger, it is an augury of bad luck, maybe even death. Or that it is an evil twin, keen to replace the original. Luna told me there would be another Harry. I may be very off-course, but all my instincts tell me Luna is right."

Fred examined the drawing, and felt the skin of his arms crawl with dread. "I never heard about any Spectre, but this guy looks familiar…"

George took the drawing, "Very familiar… White skin, green robes…"

They looked at each other, "…Deathly powers…" they said, echoing each other.

George raised an eyebrow, "Sounds like a legend."

"Very old, very old." Fred stood up, and began rummaging amongst the piles of books set in one bookcase, while his brother did the same at another. A minute later, he pulled a very old book from the shelf. The covers were green-tinted leather, almost falling to pieces. "We found this book in here, under stasis spells; it is very, very old, maybe even older than Hogwarts itself." Quickly but carefully, he flipped the pages, until he found what he was looking for.

He showed the page to Hermione. It was an old style wooden engraving.

It showed a slender woman, standing tall among a group of soldiers, all of them dressed in what seemed to be roman armour. She seemed to be taller than a fully grown troll. Her features were beautiful, but her skin was white as chalk, her eyes shrouded in shadows, except for a single green dot where the iris should be; and her black hair was a tangled mess. A green robe wrapped itself around her torso, leaving her arms and legs free. Her bare feet floated over the ground.

Fred tapped the edge of the engraving with his wand, and the image began to move. The woman's hair floated behind her, almost billowing like Snape's robes. The robe fluttered around her.

The woman raised her head and opened her mouth. She seemed to scream in rage, her beautiful face twisted into a mask of pure, distilled wrath.

All around her, the soldiers grabbed their throats, while their bodies withered until only skeletons remained. The woman looked around, nodded satisfied, her robes wrapped her body like a shroud, and pulled themselves tighter and tighter, until she disappeared. A moment later, the scene replayed itself.

Hermione shuddered in dread. "Who's that?"

George tapped the engraving again, and the image froze again. "We don't know for sure. The book is a diary by some guy who supposedly met a guy who survived an encounter with her. The writer was collecting old stories, and supposedly met an old man who in his youth was a soldier in the Roman Army. But this is written in some old Latin dialect. We just don't know enough to fully translate the text. He calls her the Banshee."

Hermione sat down on a stool, thinking. She looked at Luna's drawing, then at the engraving. The similitudes were clear. The Banshee and the Spectre could be relatives. Both were named after ghosts. Both killed their enemies in gruesome fashion, and both were very pale-skinned, with a preference for wearing green clothes.

Little Hangleton Cemetery.

Madame Bones and Tonks examined carefully the place. An auto-quill wrote Madame Bones' observations, while Tonks operated a camera to record the scene, Isaac Savage watched over the two as they worked, ready to defend them in case of an attack. "Adult male, wearing Death Eater robes and mask. Removal of the mask reveals an individual tentatively identified as Waldon McNair. The mask and robes correspond to previous sightings of Death Eaters and confiscated evidence during the Blood War. Priori Incantatum reveals the last spells cast with the wand in the man's right hand are repeated castings of the Killing Curse, preceded by Cruciatus and Scourgify spells. The man's left forearm shows…" she paused for a moment, "the Dark Mark. However, the snake has been animated, biting the arm and possibly injecting an unknown venom. Preliminary observations coincide with the apparent cause of death of Severus Snape, Igor Karkaroff, and..." she hesitated for a second, "Alastor Moody, directly witnessed by myself and several others at the grounds of Hogwarts. Additional note, the animated snake in the victim is visibly receding back on the skin. Quick, Tonks, check the others' left arms!"

A minute later, Madame Bones resumed her dictation. "A cursory examination of the other corpses present reveals that all of them present the same Dark Mark, plus to puncture wounds in a position concordant with the presence of animation of the snake in the Dark Mark."

She then put the body under a stasis spell, conjured a sheet, and covered the corpse. Then, she and Tonks proceeded to the next body. Their findings were very similar.

Meanwhile, perched on a different bough, a water beetle watched attentively. Listening to each and every word.

Hogwarts
Headmaster's Office.

Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore paced around, completely baffled, and worried out of his mind.

The silver trikets that monitored Harry Potter had exploded during his absence. He had no way to know where he was, his level of magic expended, not even if he was alive!

His whole plan to finally defeat Voldemort hinged on Harry Potter being able to end the threat of Tom Riddle once and for all, him dying before that was unconceivable!

Dumbledore sat heavily on his gaudy chair, and popped a muggle sweet in his mouth.

Hogwarts
Kitchens

Down in the kitchens, all the house elves had stopped in their work. All standing silently around one of their own. None knew what to do or what to say. This had never happened before.

Close to a foot over the hard stone floor, an elf floated immobile. His hands clutched his heart, and his eyes wept constantly. Somehow, his eyes had changed. The irises still kept their green colour, but the sclera was completely black.

"Dobby… What bes happening to youse?" the oldest elf asked, worried. Not daring to touch the floating elf.

Dobby's voice echoed in the kitchen, but his lips didn't move at all. "Great Master Harry Potter being dead… Dobby being a bad elf… Dobby lives, Master is dead… Dobby lives… Master is dead…"