Harbinger

[Year 3, First Semester]

Remus Lupin was tired. The feeling of nostalgia which filled the werewolf upon boarding the Hogwarts Express was largely overshadowed by the pain remaining from his last transformation had brought. The headmaster had requested Remus to take the train to protect the students from both Sirius and the dementors.

'Sirius…' the werewolf whispered as he closed his eyes. Just before the train left King's Cross station, the door to his compartment slid open. Remus could hear a grunt before the heavy thud of a trunk hitting the luggage compartment. Since the students were not making much noise, he chose to keep his eyes shut and rest for the remainder of the journey.

Unfortunately for Remus, the remainder of his ride on board the Hogwarts Express was far from smooth. The train came skidding to a halt and he knew that too little time had passed to have reached Hogsmeade station. Furthermore, the compartment door had slid open once more and a few other students had entered (more of tumbled, based on the sound) into the compartment.

Snapping his eyes open, the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor whipped out his wand and intoned, 'Lumos.'

Light shined from Remus's wand tip and he locked eyes with a green-eyed bespectacled girl. Just his luck. James's daughter had ended up in his compartment. Apart from Harriet, there was a bushy-haired girl, a rotund boy and a redhead (probably a Weasley).

'All of you,' he ordered, 'please remain in this compartment. I am going to the front to check in with the driver.'

As he stepped out of the compartment, Remus found some students from the near-by compartments poking their heads out in curiosity with some of them even making their way down the carriages. As he marched closer towards the front of the train, Remus began to feel the tell-tale chill of the dementors. Strangely enough, they were all clustering towards the front of the train.

Memories of four young boys roaring with laughter in the Gryffindor common room, playing pranks on Peeves, scrubbing the giant squid and dashing through the Forbidden Forest flooded his mind. The patronus charm flared to life in the form of a white sphere, pushing the dementors out through the doors of the Hogwarts Express.


[Year 3, Second Semester]

'To think that you are Black's accomplice Professor Lupin. Pity, I had higher expectations of you.' Harriet muttered as she studied her nails. Hermione (with Crookshanks), Ronald (plus his pitiful rat) and Harrietf were stuck in the Shrieking Shack with a crazy mass murderer and their Defence Against the Dark Arts professor.

Hermione whimpered from the corner she was huddled into. Her friend's nonchalance was something that she was still unused to and the Girl-Who-Lived's lack of fear was more worrying than comforting in their current situation. Sirius Black had all their wands and she did not have much faith in Lupin after seeing him embrace Black like a brother.

Atop the ruined four-poster bed in the shack, Ron could only moan in pain as he clutched his broken leg. He was surprised to find the Gryffindor Seeker to be completely at ease with the current situation they were in. Yet, the youngest Weasley boy was still more surprised that he had not peed his pants yet from fear.

Surveying Black, Harriet snorted at what she saw. The so-called 'mass murderer' was severely malnourished and was clearly on his last legs. If she did not take him out there and then, the wanted wizard would likely have passed out from exhaustion on his lonesome. Azkaban and the dementors must not have been kind to him. However, something still seemed wrong to Harriet.

'Are you sure you murdered all those people?' Harriet questioned with narrowed eyes. Yes, Black was crazy but not the right type of crazy to have killed so many. This only brought out laughter (that sounded more like barks) from him as he stared back at Harriet.

Remus quickly positioned himself between Harriet and her godfather. There were many rumours floating about Hogwarts about the Girl-Who-Lived. Ghosts fear her and even the dementors refuse to approach her. Furthermore, there were the whispers within the castle that she killed Quirrell, exterminated an entire nest of Acromantula before slaying a bloody Basilisk. Should these rumours be trusted, there is no telling what she may choose to do with Black.

'Harriet, Ron and Hermione,' Remus began, 'I know that you may not trust me but that pet rat is not a rat. It's a wizard. A wizard by the name of Peter Pettigrew.'

Despite Remus's words, the three Gryffindors remained on edge towards the two men. Harriet, Ron and Hermione had a very good reason to remain uneasy when Black suddenly lunged with a snarl towards Ron's squealing rat. That was the very moment Professor Snape chose to unveil himself from underneath Harriet's invisible cloak and he proceeded to stun the rat.

His lip curling, Snape drawled, 'Well well well… Look what we have here. A werewolf colluding with a mass murderer. I wonder what the headmaster would say, Lupin. Potter and Granger, help Weasley up and bring him to the hospital wing.'

Hermione and Ron immediately began to protest against Snape's orders with Hermione demanding a proper explanation whereas Ron vehemently demanded for his rat back. In contrast, Harriet simply shrugged before grabbing Ron's left arm. She was being surprisingly compliant with Snape.

As the whole group marched back towards the castle through the tunnel, the adults had placed a silencing charm around their group to prevent any potential eavesdropping as Crookshanks led the way. Glancing back at them briefly, Hermione hissed, 'Harriet, why did you just follow Snape's orders without any question. I thought you were so curious and interested to meet him.'

'My curiosity is satisfied. If anything, Black has proven to be a rather different individual from what I expected. Kind of expected a more crazy person you know?' she responded with a shrug. For the Merlin knows time that year, Hermione wondered if her friend had truly gone crazy.

As they stepped out into the moonlit grounds of Hogwarts, the peace surrounding the strange group was suddenly disrupted. Remus had forgotten to take his potion that night and the full moon hung high in the sky. Too quick for Snape or Black to respond, the werewolf lunged at the Gryffindors and managed to grab hold of Ron. A black blur shot through the air as the grim that Harriet saw all year leapt at the werewolf.

'Bloody hell, Black! I'll hit you if I have to!' Snape snarled as he took aim at the pile of werewolf, Black and Ron. Harriet's eyes flashed the same eerie kaleidoscope of colours as she whipped out a knife. Moving faster than any of the other wizards present, she swung her blade twice at the werewolf that immediately caused two large bleeding gashes to appear on its right arm.

The werewolf howled in pain and immediately released Ron. Snape stared at Harriet. This was similar to the memories that he had witnessed and validated the possibility that the girl could have taken on the Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets. Going on its fours, the werewolf snarled in challenge at Harriet and Black.

Taking advantage of the distracted werewolf, Snape rushed to Ron's side to view the damage that was done. While there were obvious claw marks where Lupin had grabbed him, the lack of any visible bite marks already made the Weasley boy astoundingly lucky. Murmuring under his breath for spells to stop the bleeding, Snape mentally cursed his own foolishness for momentarily forgetting about the full moon and not sending the liability (Weasley) to the hospital wing sooner.

On the other hand, Hermione paid almost no attention to Ron and was transfixed by the beautiful dance with death that laid before her. Harriet and Black weaved in and out of the werewolf's strikes whilst slashing and biting at any available moment presented before them. With various open wounds bleeding profusely, she noticed that the werewolf was slowly giving ground to Harriet and Black as it inched towards the forest.

Suddenly, it attempted to pounce on Harriet but was only met with a fresh cut across its snout. Whimpering in pain, the werewolf abandoned its attack and bounded into the Forbidden Forest. Black returned to his human form with a feral grin on his face. Yet, their victory was short-lived by the sudden foreboding chill that ran through the air.

Hermione felt a hand on her shoulder roughly her back as Snape placed himself in front of her. A pure white doe burst from the tip of his wand and charged directly into the trees. Unfortunately for the party, a single patronus was insufficient to guard against the swarm of dementors that were descending upon them. Strangely, the creatures still gave them a large berth and were seemingly unwilling to get much closer.

For the first time since she knew Harriet, Hermione was witnessing her friend in genuine distress. Fear lit up her green eyes as they darted between the various dementors. Harriet closed her eyes from the green light no one could see while covering her ears from the screaming which no one else could hear. The dementors seemed to be focusing their energy upon Harriet and Black as Snape along with Hermione (as well as a passed out Ron) were seemingly unaffected.

As soon as Harriet closed her eyes, the dementors surged upon the group. Snape's silver doe once again stood at their defence but was only able to keep the dementors from touching them. 'Potter,' Snape whispered, 'I need you to do whatever you were doing to these cursed things. My spell cannot hold out for much longer.'

In the warm light of the patronus charm, Harriet was able to push away the nightmares of a wrecked nursery, the car crash and the disturbing period of time when she first awoke from her coma. Opening her eyes, she glared at the closest dementor before throwing her knife at it. For the second time that night, Snape and Hermione had witnessed the impossible.

The potions master and the brightest witch of her age were both aware that most spells were unable to harm dementors. It would have been impossible for the muggle weapon that Harriet threw to even phase the dementor since it was an incorporeal creature . However, the Girl-Who-Lived seemed to have a penchant for doing the impossible.

The blade of Harriet's knife seemed to completely tear the dementor asunder. With an unholy shriek, the dementor that she struck erupted into a dark miasma which faded into thin air. Such an action stirred up fear amongst the dementors as they began to flee just as quickly as they came.

'Go to hell…' Harriet muttered with a smirk on her lips before she blacked out.


[Year 3, Summer]

Snape was not having a fun summer vacation. Dumbledore had sentenced him to more research after the entire fiasco with Sirius Black and Potter two months prior. Since he was the only 'trusted' witness of the girl's powers, he alone had the 'honour' to discover the truth behind it. Skimming through books and reports of dark magic was not how he intended to spend his summer.

Rubbing his eyes in frustration, the potions master could only continue to plough through book after book. The only thing that had brought Snape some semblance of delight was pettily watching his old school bully having to remain underground since Pettigrew had somehow managed to escape their grasps once more. He always knew that Black had not been the spy but the complete lack of evidence apart from his own and Dumbledore's word was insufficient to keep Black out of prison all those years ago.

Just as Snape was about to give up on his hunt for clues, he managed to strike gold. The book he was currently reading through was modern by the standards of most wizards and witches. It was no wonder Dumbledore had been unable to find the girl's power in a dusty old tome. The Mystic Eyes of Death Perception was a relatively new discovery made in Japan during World War II.

'He who wielded these rainbow-classed eyes,' he read through the translation charm, ' was no demon nor monster on the battlefield. He was merely the harbinger of the end.'

Precious little was mentioned about these Mystic Eyes of Death Perception. The only thing that the book had managed to confirm was its name but was incapable of giving much more information. Yet, the potions master was not dissuaded by this. Dumbledore would be sufficiently pleased with him at least naming Potter's power and he might still be able to enjoy his summer vacation.