Harry Potter and the Heir to Gondor
A Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings fusion by Andrew J. Talon
Disclaimer: This is a fanbased parody work of prose. Please support the official release.
Wrapping up our first arc...
The next few hours were a mess. Aurors, the Magical World's version of police, came to take Peter Pettigrew into custody-Though not before Snape had provided a few drops of some kind of truth drug for an interrogation. An hour after that, Harry and Petunia were called into Dumbledore's office.
Harry was rather pleased to see Luna was already there, sitting alongside Professor Lupin. Petunia gave a warm (for her) smile to the girl, and sat next to Harry when he settled down in a chair. Dumbledore looked at them all with a wry smile himself.
"It's been... An eventful few hours," Dumbledore admitted, "but as it turns out, Peter Pettigrew was the one who betrayed your parents, Harry. Not Sirius Black."
"It's true, Harry," Lupin said, "Peter was a Death Eater. He'd broken under torture and been made into one." Remus sighed deeply, looking down at the floor. "If only we'd paid more attention, if only-"
"That kind of talk will not change anything," Petunia said gently. Remus actually managed a smile at her, and she returned it. She turned back to Dumbledore, all business once again.
"What does this mean for Harry?" She asked.
"Well, I've had a talk with Amelia Bones, the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement," he said. "Sirius Black will be invited back to the Ministry, for questioning and a proper hearing. More than likely, it will go over quite well, and he will be exonerated." He looked over at Harry.
"You'll be interested to know he is your legal godfather, Harry," Dumbledore stated, "and, judging from his note, was very concerned with your safety. I imagine you'll want to meet him... But the decision is up to you."
"I..." Harry managed a gulp, and avoided looking in Petunia's direction. "I... I think I'd like that. Very much, sir."
"Can you find him, Luna?" Petunia asked gently. Luna hummed thoughtfully, rubbing her chin.
"If he wishes to be found, I might be able to," she said. "He's off with the giant spider right now. I'm not sure why. The Nargles suggest I am far too young to ask such questions."
"I... See," Petunia deadpanned. She looked over to Dumbledore, who just kept smiling with that damnable twinkle in his eyes. She looked over at Lupin, who shrugged in a bit of helplessness. She finally looked over at Harry, who smiled warmly at the younger blonde.
"Please see if you can, Luna?" Harry asked. "It would be brilliant. Really."
Luna closed in on herself, looking a bit shy.
"I... I will try, Harry. You're my friend, after all," she said, "and friends should do things like that for eachother, right?"
"Right!" Harry said with a big grin.
"So," Petunia said, the corner of her mouth quirking a bit, "what does this mean for those damned monsters?"
"The Dementors will, of course, be removed immediately," Dumbledore said, looking rather relieved, "though given this escape from Azkaban, the Minister was worried about others. To allay his fears, I will be keeping an Auror contingent in the castle... And you, of course, Petunia. If you want to?"
Petunia didn't look at Harry. She suspected she might see a similar mix of conflicting emotions. She at last gave Dumbledore a wry smile.
"I suppose I will," she said at last, leaning back in her chair, "after all... I don't have anywhere else to go."
She felt Harry's hand reach out for hers. And she squeezed it back.
Maybe a quiet year away from everything she had lost would be for the best...
a day later, Harry was still in a kind of shock. It was like walking in a dream, as he made his way to the Great Hall and sat down with his friends for breakfast.
A quiet year? Without threats on his life? Was such a thing possible?
"Hello Harry," said Luna. Harry jumped, and looked up. Luna's Song was in his senses, as calm and reassuring as it was strange. He smiled at her, and she smiled back.
"Hello Luna," he said warmly, "what's up?"
"May I eat breakfast with you?" She asked. "I usually eat alone, but since we are friends, I would like to eat with my friends and see if it improves the taste of the food."
"Of course you can," Harry said with a happy smile. Luna returned it, sitting down at Harry's side. She piled up food on her plate and began to eat, while reading a copy of a magazine called The Quibbler upside-down. Neville stared intently at her, blinking several times.
"Neville? You all right?" Harry asked.
Neville coughed, and nodded. He looked down at his food with a blush.
"I'm fine," he managed.
"Must be Wrackspurts," Luna murmured to Harry, "they begin to afflict wizards when they reach a certain age."
"Really?" Harry asked with an interested look, "please, tell me more?"
Luna's smile grew.
"I would be happy to," she said warmly.
At the entrance to the Hall, Ron, Seamus, and Hermione had walked together. Seamus came to an abrupt stop when he spied Luna at the Gryffindor table.
"What's Loony doing with Harry?" He asked. Ron clapped an arm over Seamus's shoulders, and his smile grew a bit frightening.
"Mate, I'm pretty sure I didn't hear you call her that," Ron growled. Seamus held his hands up.
"But she really is-!"
"She helped capture a Death Eater and set an innocent man free," Hermione said, her eyes narrowed, "so would you kindly not call her names?"
"N-No, you're right, you're right," Seamus said quickly, "sorry... Just... Ya know, she is a bit... Weird."
"Sure she is," Ron agreed, "but she's still my friend."
Seamus grimaced and nodded. They headed over, taking their seats. Hermione took her usual seat on Harry's other side, while Ron and Seamus were across the table facing them. Harry greeted them with a big smile.
"Morning Ron! Morning Hermione! Morning Seamus!"
"Morning Harry! Morning Luna!" Ron returned happily. Luna smiled at him.
"Morning Ronald. Good morning Hermione."
"Er, good morning Luna," Hermione said with a genuine smile, though her eyes did focus intently on how close Harry and Luna were.
"You're in a good mood, Harry," Seamus observed, buttering some toast, "usually you're kind of a quiet grump."
"We might finally have a quiet year at Hogwarts," Harry sighed happily, "no bollocks."
"Language Harry," Hermione said, "but it would be nice to not have to worry about anything but our studies."
"And Quidditch," Ron said cheerfully. "Thanks to all of Miss Petunia's training, I'm gonna try out for the team! I mean, I know I'll only make reserve but it's great to start getting experience now so I can go pro!"
"And what are your plans if you don't go pro, Ron?" Hermione asked wryly. Ron shrugged.
"Eh, I'll think of something. It's not like you have your whole life plotted out now, right?"
"Well, to my graduation at least, yes," Hermione said. Ron shook his head.
"And you say I'm mental for sticking with Divination."
"You are!"
"Am not," Ron huffed. "Right Harry?"
"Well," Harry frowned, "Aunt Petunia did suggest I take up Arithmancy and Ancient Runes. It'll help with the sword, and all."
"Aw come on!" Ron groaned, "it's a sword! How much math and dusty letters do ya need to use a sword?!"
"Remember how Miss Evans blocked the Trace with a few of those dusty old letters?" Hermione shot back. Ron hummed.
"... All right, good point," he mused. "Still, an Easy O's an Easy O. Just saying."
Luna laughed out loud, almost cackling. Everyone stared at her, as she got her composure back.
"Haa! Easy O! That's very funny, Ronald," Luna said with a warm smile. Ron's pale cheeks flushed, and he scratched his cheek.
"Er, thanks, I think," he managed.
Hermione's scowled deepened and she turned her attention to Harry.
"Anyway, I do hope your aunt will start teaching us some Eldar magic soon," Hermione said, "I've begun to experiment a bit myself."
"You have?" Harry asked with an eager smile. "Like what?"
"Oh, well, I've uh, I've tried moon letter writing," Hermione said, "as a test. I won't know if I succeeded until next month, but I'm confident." She smiled proudly. "Oh! And I've also been trying a few Elvish spells with my wand."
"Ah," Luna said with a nod, "you've translated the strokes that form the Elvish letters to wand movements."
Hermione blinked in astonishment at Luna, who serenely held her gaze.
"Th-That's right, yes," Hermione said.
"It would take a great deal of trial and error," Luna pointed out, "as shaping the magic in the Elvish way isn't as dependent on wand movements and the incantation as it is getting the Song and Intent right."
"The magic should respond the same way every time," Hermione replied, "that's how it does with modern spells."
"Different magics have different ways of responding," Luna said, "you shouldn't assume it will be the same just because you translated it. Something may be lost."
"Hmph," Hermione huffed, pulling out her wand, "it's not that difficult. Watch! I'll just do a simple cleaning charm, with Elvish forms."
"Uh, Hermione," Harry began, "maybe we shouldn't do this in the Great Hall-"
"I'm sure it's perfectly fine," Hermione stated, moving her wand in a complex set of movements, before she pointed it at a spot on the table.
"Npoita toa!"
Pure white magic emerged from Hermione's wand... And the entire table was made smooth, pure, and clean, like it was brand new. Hermione smirked up in triumph at her friends, especially Luna... Just before the entire table collapsed and everything-students, food, and silverware-fell into a heap on the stone floor. Laughter erupted from the other tables as Hermione sat up, a sausage in her bushy hair.
"Wh-What did I-How did I-?!"
"Npoita, Quenya," Luna recited calmly, as she brushed some eggs out of her hair, "derived from primitive Elvish poy, meaning 'to cleanse' or 'to purify'. Toa, noun, Quenyan for 'wood'. Your intention was to purify and clean the wood of the table. You did so, but you also removed anything not wood in the table."
"Like nails," Ron deadpanned, picking up some bacon that had landed in his lap and eating it. Hermione blushed furiously, as Harry patted her on the shoulder.
"Hey, we'll use it on the Slytherin table some time," he consoled her.
"Bloody hell, I think I broke something," Seamus groaned. He pulled a broken carrot out from under him and scowled. "What the hell's a carrot doing at breakfast?!"
"I'm trying to eat healthier?" Neville offered.
The magical order had arrived. Many of the others went off, but It... Had lingered. It could sense others of its kind lingering as well, but was less concerned with that.
It had never had real concerns before, really, save for Feeding. It was too cold, always too cold, since it had come into being. Everything else was warm, and beautiful. Everything Else horded that beauty, that warmth-Especially the Stars. The Stars inside those fleshy bodies, that animated and drove them. That powered their magic.
Those bright points of light, in a sea of night... So full of energy, yet so unwilling to part with it. The Stars it had consumed glowed brightly within It, but never brightly enough. It was still so cold, so... Empty.
The Dementor was always empty.
It paused over a pond, and stared into its depths. It saw a reflection of Itself, against the blue sky. The sunlight was not pleasant, the shadows were better...
An image burbled up in the Dementor's mind. Something... Not from the Stars it had seized, but from a Star it had nearly taken, long ago. A... Song it had absorbed recently connected with the light of this memory.
A Star in a redheaded... Woman's body. The women was running with... A man. A dark-haired man with glasses. They ran in a wood, like this one. There were other Dementors swarming nearby. Trying to seize the Stars within... For a Dark and Powerful Lord...
"Run Lily! Run! I'll hold them off!" The man shouted. He unleashed the Sun Spell-It took the form of a great beast with antlers... A deer...?
The spell burned. It drove off others of its kind. The Dementor (what a funny word, Dementor) had been able to dodge. It grabbed the redheaded woman, who shrieked. The Dementor had lifted its robe, was already tugging on the Star within her... It absorbed... Memories, Songs...
The Sun Spell Deer (Patronus, the Dementor remembered) had struck it, and it had dropped the woman (Lily... Her name was Lily). The dark haired man stood over Lily, desperate, frightened, as his Patronus tried to keep them all at bay.
Lily had pulled out a knife, and cut her wrist. Blood poured onto the ground, and she Spoke.
The language was different from what the... Wizards spoke. It was ancient, and powerful, but the Dementor understood it all the same.
"Holy Elbereth, heed my call. Save my Loves. Bring the Dawn! Save my Loves!"
A light had emerged from her, and it touched the Patronus. It glowed with even more power, so much that other Dementors burst into flames. The Dementor turned and fled this power, as fast as it could.
It had reported failure to the Dark Lord. The Potters were not consumed. It had survived the subsequent fires, but only just.
It could hear the Song now. Those fleeting memories it had taken from Lily were stronger now. Clear.
Clearer than the mindless hunger it had endured for so long. Years?
In its reflection, it could almost see long red hair, green eyes, a smile...
"Lily," it murmured, in a beautiful lyrical voice, "Lily... Potter..."
It reached out and touched the frozen pond. The reflection vanished under the frost, but...
The memories remained.
The Dementor... Did not know what to do with this new knowledge.
But it would think of something.
Here we go...