A/N : Most characters and the main plot belongs to J.K. Rowling.
Harry woke up after his spell usage, well half woke up, he was in his mind, and it was disorganized, and badly so. He was in what appeared to be a small castle, old, but not old enough for it to have been made to defend a village or something. It was more like a castle in which one lived, but without the modern aspect to it, it was a sort of mix between the two.
He was currently in a room full of shelves carrying orbs. Of course, Harry recognized this place: it was the place where all his memories were stored. When he had first been here, he was with Dumbledore, and the entire place was a wreck, and Harry's memories had been scattered around. Now, however, it was slightly different. The shelves which had carried the orbs previously had been changed, they were now much lighter, and didn't give off any bad feelings. The room itself was also lighter, and gave off positive energy, not the gloomy energy from before.
When he had first begun, he had tidied everything up, and put all the memories on shelves in no particular order. Now, however, there was some sense to it. He had stored all of Voldemort's memories in another room, one which would cause as much pain as the Cruciatus. Those were memories which he didn't want anybody finding out about, especially Voldemort. Harry's memories were now sorted into different categories, so it made it easier for him to find himself. If someone did decide to attack him mind, they would find it incredibly hard to reach, because since he had discovered the Room of Requirement, he had decided to use a similar entry. And to get in, you had to think of something very specific, and he was sure that nobody would be able to just guess it.
He was just walking around, trying to find a way to leave this place, when he felt something, not physically, but mentally. Not knowing what it was, he decided to go find out. He had his wand raised, and began walking around to see what the feeling was. He found nothing. This confused Harry even more. He didn't know if it was someone trying to enter his mind or not, but it had never felt like this before, and yet, there was still some familiarity to it. He decided that it must be nothing, and began going back. That's when Harry stumbled upon a door, and that door led to Voldemort's memories. Fear built up in Harry, as he knew that this could mean something very bad was happening.
He prepared himself as much as he could, and with a heavy breath, he opened the door. What he saw when he walked in was not like it was when he had done it. It had partially returned to the state it was in before Harry had begun training. He didn't know how this was possible, because he had never felt any sort of attack on his mind. That worried him, because now, he feared that he hadn't trained his mind enough, and that it was easy to access his mind. And if someone had discovered that he had Voldemort's memories, he would be seen as a Dark Lord, and that was something he could do without.
He began walking among the rows of spheres, and finally, in the 24th row, he saw something that shocked him, but also terrified him. In front of him, was Lord Voldemort, but he seemed to be somewhat paralysed, and not actually aware of his presence here. He seemed to be appearing out of one of the spheres. It seemed like the opposite of a pensieve, instead of you looking into it, the image was shown, but only part of the image.
Harry decided to approach the ghost-like Voldemort. He seemed to be in a sort of trance, and he was mumbling things, things which Harry didn't understand from this distance, so, ignoring his common sense, he decided to get even closer than what was safe. As he approached, the mumbles began to get clearer.
"Cup… Locket… Diadem… Diary… Ring… Snake… Cup… Locket… Diadem… Diary… Ring… Snake…" These were the words which he seemed to repeat over and over in a loop. They didn't make any sense to Harry, but he decided that it might be a good idea to remember them, so he listened a few more times, just to be sure that he knew them all. As he was about to leave, Voldemort seemed to wake up from his trance, and began thrashing around, as if he was being tortured. Harry was about to see if he could help, until he remembered who it was thrashing around in front of him.
It lasted around a minute, and when said minute was over, Voldemort seemed to get clearer. It was only then that Harry noticed that he wasn't completely clear, he seemed a little blurry on the edges. All of a sudden, Voldemort looked up at Harry, his red eyes fixed on him, and Harry seemed to freeze where he was. The supposedly dead man's eyes were red, yet they still held a coldness to them.
"Harry Potter…" Voldemort said, to Harry's surprise.
Daphne was in Transfiguration, and she couldn't help but feel like she wasn't in the right place. It had been nagging her for a little while now, but it had increased immensely in the last few minutes. Professor McGonagall seemed to notice, so she made her way over to the Slytherin. "Miss Greengrass, is there something wrong ?" She asked, her voice void of emotions, something which the teacher did well, she managed to keep a lid on her emotions better than many.
"I'm fine, it's just-" At this point, Daphne stopped talking, it was like something became clear to her, but it wasn't clear, it was sort of misty, but she could recognize it anywhere. "Harry." She whispered, but it was easily heard by the teacher, because the rest of the students were writing down the things she had written down on the board. The teacher's eyes held a confused look.
"I'm sorry, Miss G-" Professor McGonagall began, only to be cut off.
"Excuse me, professor, I need to leave." Daphne said with urgency. She quickly packed her things, and ran out of the classroom, in the direction of the hospital wing. She couldn't describe the feeling, but it was as if she knew that something was up with Harry. Daphne had never run so quickly in her life. She had thought about going to Dumbledore first, to see if he could help, but she also knew that Harry didn't trust him fully, so she went straight for Harry. On her way there, she crossed Professor Flitwick, who seemed disturbed at seeing her running as fast as she was, and was about to call her out about it, but then he noticed the worried look on her face, and decided to leave her alone.
When Daphne reached the hospital wing, she pushed the doors open with all her strength, something which had increased quite a bit this year. She made her way straight for Harry, and as she reached the curtain surrounding his bed, Madam Pomfrey stopped her. "What do you think you're doing, Miss Greengrass !? You can't just barge in here like that !" The resident healer scolded her.
Daphne paid her no more attention, and pulled open the curtains. What she saw, scared her immensely. Harry was pale, so pale, he looked dead, and if that was in fact the truth, well, she didn't know what she would do. "HELP !" She shouted, and the healer came running over immediately. When she arrived, she stopped for a second, surprised at the state of the boy, and got straight to work.
"Go get Professor Snape, ask him to bring a restorative draught, and some wiggenweld potion !" Madam Pomfrey said as she walked around Harry casting spells on him. Daphne didn't question her, even if she knew that the wiggenweld potion was an antidote to sleeping potions, she just hoped that he would be alright, and threw her common sense out of the window in this case. As she was running, she went past Professor Flitwick once more, and this time, he decided to stop her.
"Miss Greengrass, may I-" He began, but quickly noticed that she didn't care for a word he was saying, and so, he decided that it must be important, so he decided to see if the Headmaster knew what was happening. So, he made his way into his office, and went up to his floo, asked for the Headmaster's office, and threw in some floo powder. He put his head into the fire. It was spinning for a few seconds, until his eyes landed upon a familiar office. Behind the desk, a man looked towards the fireplace, where he saw the head of one of his teachers.
"Ah, Fillius, what can I do for you today ?" Dumbledore asked calmly, obviously if he knew, it was well under hand.
"Is there something happening in the castle, headmaster ?" Fillius asked in confusion. Surely the headmaster would know what happens in his own school.
"I'm sure I don't know what you mean, my friend, what makes you think something is happening ?" Dumbledore asked, a little fear making its way onto the old man's face, something which had been happening quite often nowadays, especially with the attacks.
"Well, Miss Greengrass has been running around the school, and it isn't something which she normally does, she's normally very collected." Flitwick replied.
Dumbledore looked confused at first, and then realization hit him. At first, he thought that Harry must have sensed another attack, but that wouldn't be possible, as Harry was in a state of magical exhaustion, and wasn't going to be waking up from it for around another half a week, and that's when it clicked with him. It must be something to do with Harry. All sense of a smile disappeared from the man's face. "Thank you very much, Fillius, I will attend it personally." The half-goblin nodded, and left the floo connection. As soon as he did, Dumbledore left his office at a near run. He disillusioned himself, so that the students wouldn't suspect anything. He had considered using a house-elf to transport him, but he didn't want to disturb Madam Pomfrey in her work. As he was running, he came across Professor Snape, and Daphne Greengrass, who, on her part, didn't care if Harry trusted him now or not. If he could help Harry, then he was welcome to join them.
"What has happened, Miss Greengrass ?" Dumbledore asked.
She seemed to be trying to keep herself together, and so, she took a deep breath before talking. "It's Harry, he- he's really p-pale." She explained. Dumbledore also paled at this. He knew that Harry had said that he no longer held the Horcrux that used to be there, but what would happen if it wasn't fully removed, or wasn't removed correctly. These were the thoughts which were going through the headmaster's head all the way to hospital wing, which was made quite quickly. Once they arrived, they saw a distraught Madam Pomfrey, she had tears pouring out of her eyes. Dumbledore had never seen her in such a state, not once, and so, he knew that it couldn't be good news.
"Poppy, what is it ?" He asked calmly, hoping to not make Daphne freak out even more than she is already. However, she seemed to have caught on to the healer's expression. The dam which she had held together earlier, broke immediately, and she collapsed on the floor, and began crying silently. She just stayed there, kneeling on the floor, looking in Harry's direction, and soon she was hyperventilating. At this point, the doors opened again, and Hermione, Neville and Tracey came in. Tracey was obviously in class with Daphne, and had noticed her leave in a hurry. She didn't think much of it, until she realised that Daphne wasn't coming back for the lesson, and at that point, the class was almost over. When it was, she went to find Hermione and Neville, and they all made their way to the hospital wing after that.
What they walked in on, wasn't what they were expecting. Hermione and Tracey both immediately went over to Daphne to comfort her, even though they didn't know what had happened, but they made sure to be there for their friend. Neville, however, looked over at Harry's bed, and noticed the look on Madam Pomfrey's face. His heart sank immediately. Harry was like a brother to him, and he didn't want to lose him. The other two girls seemed to have come to the same conclusion, as they had joined Daphne in her crying on the floor.
There was silence in the room for a minute or so, well, apart from the crying. But, out of nowhere, Harry began shouting. They were all relieved to know that it wasn't what they had feared, but were immediately worried about the boy who had already suffered much. Madam Pomfrey began her scans straight away. However, her scans came up perfectly, all of them, as if Harry was in perfect health. But when she went to check his magical core, it was clear, on the resident healer's face, that something wasn't right.
"What's wrong with him ?" Hermione asked. They had all joined the healer around the bed when they heard the scream.
"I- I've never seen this before... His magical core seems to be having an internal reaction, as if it's fighting itself, I can't describe it." She said, completely confused on the subject. When it was said, Dumbledore felt as if he had failed. He feared that he was right about the Horcrux not being removed entirely. He immediately began waving his own wand above the boy, only to be left even more confused. There was no residue magic left from the Horcrux.
"What can we do to help him ?" Dumbledore asked, but feared he already knew the answer.
The healer released a sigh, and answered. "Nothing. All we can do is wait."
Harry just stood there, completely paralysed by the sight before him. Having Voldemort in his mind, or whatever this was supposed to be, felt draining, he felt like he was fighting a battle with himself, one that he wasn't sure he could win just yet. It took Harry a minute or so to break away from the state of fear he was in. Never before, had he been that scared of something or someone, and he didn't like that feeling. Voldemort held a cold gaze on him, one that if looks could kill, would do exactly that.
"Tom Riddle" He answered after the break of fear, not sure where that name came from, but by the look on the snake-like face of Voldemort, he didn't like that name. The two of them stood there for a while, just staring at each other, trying to kill the other just by looking. That's when everything went wrong. The two of them had decided that it was time to throw spells at each other. All different types of colours were being thrown around, purple, green, red, blue, all of them. Harry quickly found out that he was glad to have been running every day, because that would have been an advantage Voldemort would have held over Harry. Of course, Harry didn't expect Voldemort to go running, but thanks to his magical core, which was much bigger than Harry's at that point, he easily managed to hold his constant spell casting.
After a good 10 minutes of constant spell swapping and moving around to dodge the spells, Harry was beginning to get tired. He knew that Voldemort could only have a part of his strength at that moment, because otherwise, he wouldn't have been that much of a threat if Harry could hold against him, and he was only twelve years old. As Voldemort cast spells, Harry noticed that his form grew fainter, weaker. He assumed this was a good thing, so he held up his casting, but he knew he wouldn't be able to hold it forever.
After another 10 minutes, Harry was exhausted, and he knew that Voldemort in his real form would easily walk over him, but this one seemed to get tired too, it was as if part of his magic was held by Voldemort, and that it was being used at that moment. Something which he also noticed, was that Voldemort's spells weren't more powerful than his, nor were they weaker, they seemed to be the same.
The only conclusion which Harry could reach, was that Voldemort must be using Harry's own magic against him, through some missing link between them or something. At the exact same time, the two of them collapsed, both gasping to recover their breath. The two of them had stopped casting spells at one another, and it seemed that they had both been magically exhausted in Harry's own mind. Harry didn't understand it all, but he knew that he had to do something to end this battle. That's when an idea came into his head. If his assumption was right, and that he was actually in his own mind, then he had complete control over it, so it shouldn't be too hard to make Voldemort leave.
He made himself focus on this one task, but nothing happened. "You think- you can- just- get rid- of me ?" Voldemort asked, gasping a few times to catch his breath to say it. Harry decided that he didn't want to waste his energy to talk, and concentrated on other forms to get him out of here, but none of them seemed to work. He then decided, that instead of getting rid of him, he could just disarm him, and so he focused on that, and was a little surprised when it actually worked. The first thing that crossed his mind when it happened, was to stun the man as quickly as possible, and that is exactly what he did. Then, he imagined a cage around the man, or what was left of a man anyway, and a cage appeared. Harry knew that he had to kill whatever it was, but he didn't know if he had it in him to kill a disarmed man. But at that point, he remembered who was in front of him, and the things that man had done, and decided that it couldn't be that hard. Besides, he also knew that he would have to kill him properly at some point, or get killed, so the experience would only help.
So, he gathered his courage, opened his eyes, and looked at the man in the cage. He seemed so powerless. It was at this point that Harry realized that, the powerful can become powerless. Harry sent a silent cutting curse at the man's neck, and as the curse reached his neck, Harry began convulsing on the floor.
Back in the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey, Professors Dumbledore and Snape, Daphne, Hermione, Tracey and Neville, were all looking worriedly at the boy in the bed. He was sweating, but none of them knew why. When Madam Pomfrey had done yet another test on him, they discovered that his magical core was depleting quickly. As if a spell was taking twice as much magic to be produced.
After an excruciating 20 minutes or so, Harry seemed to go into a deeper form of magical exhaustion. It was as if he had lost the will to live, and his magic was leaving him, only it didn't leave entirely. The group of people stood there, perplexed at what was happening. Never had there ever been something like this happen. A couple of minutes after that, Harry began convulsing, but his magic was returning in waves. Madam Pomfrey scans were going haywire, there was something happening with the boy's system, and it was producing more magic than he had ever held before, and that was saying something, as the boy was already powerful enough as it was, he just needed to learn how to control it all.
They were all running around, all doing things which they were told to do by the resident healer. Harry seemed to calm down after a little while of convulsing, and entered a deep sleep, one which Madam Pomfrey assured them could only be a good sign, and that he would wake up from in a few days time. The whole group seemed to relax greatly at this, and the teachers went their own ways, knowing fully that there was now nothing at all that could be done for young Harry, as what he needed now, was a long sleep.
The group of students, stayed with him for a short while, but eventually, they left for some food. It had been a long day, but they now knew that Harry would be okay, and that he would be back on his feet in a few days.
A/N: Thank you to all those who have been reading my story, I appreciate it a lot. I also want to thank you all for the support I've received, in all shapes and form.
Replies:
About the idea of having a ghost research the 1st time the chamber was opened, I think I will include that in the story, after all, Sir Nicholas did say to ask if they needed anything to ask him, so why not that. However, I won't be implementing the camera idea, I like it, I just don't think it has a place in this story, maybe another time.
Sorry about not releasing the snake at the zoo, I didn't think of it at the time.
Finally, onto blcoachmag's many reviews. It will only be a Harry/Daphne story, so yes, they will have enough children to cover their houses. I understand that you don't trust Dumbledore, but I feel that he really wants to gain Harry's trust, and so he wouldn't do anything against him again, unless it was for the Greater Good, but I think he understands, that Harry represents that Greater Good at this point, that he's the key to that objective he has been searching to achieve all his life, and so he hopes to reach it through Harry. I plan on expanding on the family magic department later on, it's just that right now, Harry is concentrating on the basics along with his friends, but he will eventually reach that point. Malfoy will receive what is due to him soon, I have something in mind to take the family down, don't worry, I've got the moment and details about the scene planned, it just needs the right moment, and it shouldn't be too long. And yes, I also plan on fitting some more "Malfoy annoying", as you call it, in the story.
Once again, thank you for the support.