Story: Swallowed by Shadow

Summary: When Harry begins his search for the Horcruxes, a mysterious man appears. Is he friend, or foe? Can Harry finish his task and beat the Dark Lord, or will he be Swallowed by Shadow? HP? HGRW RLNT

Date: 28 May 06

Chapter 4

When Furballs Fail

Harry Potter had always had strange dreams. Some were of Voldemort, some of his parents. And that night was no exception.

He didn't remember how they had started, but his dreams led him to when he had just been born. He saw his father in the training room, dueling with the three dummies, while his mother watched from the door.

After he defeated them and reset them three times, his wife came down the stairs. Before he could hear what she was saying, his vision changed again, and more memories flashed before his unconscious eyes. He saw his mother practicing against the dummies with wands while his father dueled another with a sword.

Then he saw Moony and Padfoot wrestling playfully in the basement. Then he saw his mother holding a much younger version of him, with a bottle in his mouth.

The visions continued, flashing so quickly that Harry wasn't sure what he was seeing, until he finally opened his eyes and sat up. He was covered in sweat, and in a room he didn't recognize.

It held a four poster bed which he rested in, and various other furnishings, including a large dresser and a desk.

Everything seem blurry, and after a minute he realized he wasn't wearing his glasses. He spotted them on a night stand and put them on, pulling himself out of the bed with force of will. He felt exhausted, despite the hours he had slept.

Walking over to the window, he noticed that the sun was high in the sky, and he knew it must have been at least noon.

Harry opened the door into a long hallway, lined with portraits of the Potter line. He walked down, saying hello to those who greeted him.

Just as he was about to leave the hallway, he noticed two faces he never thought he'd see again.

There, in a portrait of what he assumed to be their wedding day, stood Lily and James Potter. Harry couldn't move, he couldn't breathe as he stared at them.

"Hello, son," his father said, his eyes shining brightly.

"Hi, Dad," he said quietly. "Mom?"

"Yes dear?" she asked.

"How--how?" he nearly whispered.

"Harry!" he heard a voice call from downstairs.

"I have to go," he said. "But I'll be back, I promise!" With that, he turned and rushed off down stairs, looking back and nearly falling as he ran.

He found everyone gathered around in the kitchen, along with the rest of the Order. Tonks was practically sitting on Remus' lap, making him blush.

"Someone call?" he asked, glancing at the rest of the order.

"Yes, Harry," Remus said. "I wanted to make sure you were alright with us all being in your house."

"Of course," Harry said, shrugging. "Whatever you need."

"Very well," Minerva said quietly. "I believe it would be wise to place the home under the Fidelius Charm for as long as we're here." She glanced at Harry, who nodded consent, before continuing. "As some of you may know, the reason we called this meeting here is because of the acquisition Harry Potter and his friends, Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger have made."

"What did they get, Minerva?" Filius Flitwick asked in his squeaky voice.

"The Cup of Helga Hufflepuff," she responded. "One of Voldemort's Horcruxes."

Gasps went around the room, not only at the discovery, but also at the fact that she had used his name.

"How?" Tonks asked quietly.

"I believe we should allow them to tell that story," Minerva responded, as Ron and Hermione walked in.

They exchanged a short glance, and then nodded. Hermione told the tale as far as she could, and then Harry took over what had happened in the tomb. When he finished, Hermione told the rest of her story, up to the point they Apparated back to Number 12.

Silence followed their story, before a great round of applause at their feats. When Minerva finally called the group to order again, she said, "Because of this, it is my firm belief that they deserve to be fully inducted into the Order."

A few cheers went up at this, until Minerva said, "A vote, then. Please raise your hand if you think that their deeds merit membership." Almost all of the hands went up. "And if you don't?" she asked. The only hand that went up was Molly Weasley, but no one took any notice.

"Very well," McGonagall said. "Then by the power of my position, it is my honor to welcome you all to The Order of the Phoenix."

After their first ever Order meeting, the three went out into the gardens to watch Minerva cast the Fidelius Charm on the mansion. It was a complicated charm that required a rather long incantation, but Harry was sure that he saw Hermione writing it down as soon as it was done. He didn't think he could remember a single word of it, though there was one surprising turn.

When the charm was finished and the house disappeared to the eyes of all of the others, Harry could still see it without a problem.

When Harry stated that fact, Minerva and Remus double checked the spell's effects, before chalking it up to Harry's binding with the home. The charm had worked on the rest of them without trouble.

Ron and Hermione had decided to go for a walk, which perplexed Harry. He'd never seen them go an hour without bickering, much less seek each other's company alone.

Harry went back into his house and talked to Remus about the Horcrux.

"We haven't had any results so far," Remus said. "But we're still working on it."

Harry nodded and left, going back to his room. Looking out the window, he saw what Remus had meant when he said there had been a pattern.

In the field of red roses stood out the pink lilies lined in white that spelled out "I LOVE YOU, LILY" Harry smiled slightly as he read it. He knew that Hermione or Ginny would think it a romantic idea, one he might have to apply sometime for himself. He pictured how Ginny's face would light up if he showed her something like that. He grinned widely, before he remember braking up with her.

The grin faded, and in its place rested something else, something that would come to be feared by Death Eaters in the years to follow. Grim determination scared his young features as he said softly but firmly, "You'd best watch out, Voldemort, because I'm going to come for you, and when I do, it will be the end of your life."

"Harry?" Remus asked, coming to the door of his room. Harry had been standing at the window, looking out at the garden, deep in thought since he'd entered the room two hours ago.

Harry jumped, drawing his wand and trailing it on his uncle without even thinking.

"Wh--Oh, Remus," he said, replacing his wand in his robes. "What's up?"

"You OK?" he asked, coming into the room and sitting on the bed.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Harry responded, going to sit next to his uncle.

Remus looked at him for a minute, unconvinced, but continued anyway. "We're stuck, Harry," he said. "We've tried everything we can think of, and there's just nothing that'll get through it."

Harry was silent for a minute, before he asked, "You want me to contact that man from the graveyard?"

"Yes," Remus replied. "I hate to say it, but he's the only lead we have on how to destroy one of these things."

Harry nodded. "Alright," he said. "But I'm not going to owl him."

"What do you mean?" Remus asked.

"It's too dangerous," he said. "If the man really has destroyed one of Voldemort's Horcruxes, then my owl going to him isn't going to look very good, now is it?"

Remus was silent for a minute, before he finally said, "Alright, so what do you want to do?"

"Go there," Harry responded quickly. "Me and Minerva will go and get him."

"I'm coming with--"

"No," Harry said. "I'm not gonna make what could very well be our last hope think we're suspicious of him. Minerva has to come so he can return, and I to make sure he doesn't think she's from Voldemort. Anymore and it's practically saying 'We don't trust you'."

"…But we don't trust him," Remus said.

"He doesn't need to know that," Harry responded slyly.

"Alright, Harry, go then."

Harry nodded and twenty minutes later stood with Minerva in front of the fireplace.

"You sure this is the best way, kid?" Mad-Eye growled. "Maybe someone should go under an Invisibility Cloak."

"No, Mad-Eye," Harry said shortly. "We're doing this one my way."

Mad-Eye grumbled something about Harry being too trusting as he wobbled off.

Harry rolled his eyes and Mad-Eye said, "I saw that, kid."

He couldn't resist, and so flipped a rather impolite symbol at the retreating ex-Auror.

"And that too," he said. "In my day, we'd--"

"Mad-Eye," Remus said firmly. "I don't think Harry needs to know this."

Mad-Eye grumbled something else about werewolves interfering with proper education and then clinked the rest of the way to the kitchen on his wooden leg and cane.

Remus shook his head sadly and turned back to them. "Well, off you go, then," he said.

Harry nodded and turned to the fireplace. "Although I believe ladies first would be the proper form, Minerva," he said, "I think I should go first."

She nodded and smiled slightly. He handed her the piece of parchment and stepped into the fire. "Room 21, Leaky Cauldron, Diagon Alley, London!" Then with a flash he disappeared.

He landed painfully on the floor with a loud thunk. Before he could move to get up off the floor, he felt a wand tip at the back of his head.

"Who are you?" growled a voice.

"Harry Potter," he responded, trying to cling to some dignity even though he was on the floor.

"Oh," the voice said, withdrawing the wand. "Sorry, you can never be too careful." The man, now without a hood, offered Harry his hand.

Harry took it and started to stand, but when he looked at the man's face, he fell flat on his bottom.

At first, he thought it was Sirius who stared back into his eyes, but he pushed that thought away. Sirius is gone, he said to himself. But the man looked incredibly like him. Except for a couple of scars on the side of his face that were nearly covered by his beard, and the fact that his hair was a good two inches shorter, it could have been his twin.

"Are you quite alright?" the man asked, reaching out his hand again.

Harry reached up to take it, but the man pulled it back, grasping his forearm and wincing in pain.

Without hesitation, Harry jumped to his feet and backed away from the man, drawing his wand.

"You're a Death Eater!" he said, wishing he would have listened to Mad-Eye, or at least had Minerva come through directly after him, instead of waiting five minutes.

The man's eyes took on a fervent look, much like Sirius when he looked at Wormtail.

"No!" he screamed, coming towards him.

"Stay back!" Harry warned, brandishing his wand. "If you're not a Death Eater, then pull up your sleeve!"

"Harry, I was a Death Eater," the man said. "But I'm not anymore."

"How do I know you're telling the truth?" he asked.

The man looked him straight in the eye for a moment, before he mouthed something. Harry's eyes went wide with shock.

"But, but, it can't be," he stuttered.

"Oh, it can be," the man replied. "I am…left blank until I get the right answer from y'all"

Harry swallowed, his wand forgotten. "OK, then prove it," he said.

The man asked, "How?"

"What was the Horcrux?" Harry asked, after a moment's hesitation.

"It was a same, with someone's crest upon it," he said.

Harry swallowed again, unsure what to do. What he said was right, and only one man could know it.

"But you can't tell anyone," he said. "Not yet, anyway."

Harry nodded after a minute. "We need your help," he said. "We can't destroy it."

"Ah," the man said. "So your attempts failed, eh?"

"Yea," Harry said, replacing his wand. "Minerva will be along in a min--"

He was interrupted as the woman in question stepped from the fireplace elegantly.

"Harry," she said, nodding at him. "And Mr.--?"

"You can call me Canopus," he said.

She raised an eyebrow and perched her lips at the strange name, but nodded nonetheless. Five minutes later, the trio port keyed to The Potter Mansion, one more person brought into the trust of the Fidelius Charm, unknown to them that he would be the man to change Harry Potter's destiny, for better, or worse.

A.N--Ok, you guys getting tired of the secret? Tired of the cliffhangers? THEN GIVE ME THE RIGHT ANSWER! Come on peeps, it's not that hard! Only ONE person has gotten it, but I want more than what the book gives! Gimme a guess on who it is, come on!

Just think: Death Eater who's destroyed a Horcrux. Pretty limited selection y'all!

REVIEW!