Hey all. Here I am again. I thank all those who took the time to review. I appreciate it. And here's the next chapter
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A Different Path
Chapter 5
Harry awoke from something prodding his magic. Frowning, Harry opened his eyes a bit, actually still being half asleep. He felt a gentle pressure against his mental shields, asking for entrance, or so it seemed at least. Waking up a bit more, he tried to identify the person who was pushing against his shields. With a bit of a shock, he discovered, or realized, he wasn't sure what, that it wasn't a person asking for entrance in his mind, but the castle itself. Having nothing against the castle, and feeling curious, he opened his shields just enough to grant access to his conscious mind. Immediately, a mental impression of his friends being escorted by McGonagall, and Flitwick, being Head of Luna's house. They were moving in the direction of the Headmasters office. Cursing, he got out of bed as fast as he could.
'Crap, I should have known he wouldn't let it drop. Not being able to find me, he moves to my friends. Damn old man, you're far too nosy for your own good.'
Harry hopped into his clothes, using a small wave of magic to 'comb' his hair while he was tugging on his pants. Finishing by tying his hair with his leather hair band, he got another impression from the castle, about his friend arriving in the office of the headmaster. Wasting no time, he focused on the ability he 'acquired' from a demon and shimmered briefly before fading from his room. He shimmered back to existence in a darkened part of the office, behind the headmaster. He kept quiet, masking his presence to all present in the room.
"Ah, good morning all. Lemon drop?" Albus Dumbledore greeted the five teens. All dressed in bathrobes, leading Harry to rightly believe they had been pulled from their beds before the rest of the students had to get up. They seemed very apprehensive about being there, no doubt having guessed this was not going to be a friendly get together. Nobody answered the headmaster's offer of a lemon drop, they just stood there, looking at him. Dumbledore sighed softly. Why did nobody ever want one of his lemon drops?
"Very well then. I gather you all know why you're here?"
"Because you want to know what Harry told us last night after he put the entire Hall to sleep." Hermione answered, being the unofficial spokesperson of the group.
"Indeed, I would be most grateful if you could tell me where Harry has been all this time. And why he seems to have decided to stop his schooling here at Hogwarts."
Hermione pondered on what to say. After all, Harry never really said where he'd been, because he feared, and rightfully so it seemed, that the headmaster was going to try to get the information from them. He also never said the actual reason why he wouldn't come to Hogwarts to follow lessons either.
"Harry never told us where he'd been the entire time, nor did he tell us why he's stopping school." She calmly answered.
A scoffing sound came from the headmaster's right, from Harry's PoV.
"Do you really expect us to believe that Granger? Do you take us for fools?" Came the sneering, unpleasant voice of Severus Snape. Harry hadn't know he was there, although it didn't really surprise him much.
"We know Potter must have told you his whereabouts, so you're going to tell us or you'll all be severely punished."
"Now, Severus, there's no need to get hostile. I'm sure Miss Granger will do what's right without the threat of punishment. Now, if you please, Miss Granger, we really must know where Harry has spent his time the past months. It's for Harry's safety, so that we can see if he was found by the Dark Lords followers."
Before Hermione or any of his friends could say anything else, Harry made his presence know. He did so by putting the blade of a very sharp looking curved sword against Snape's neck.
"I think that's quite enough. I clearly told you last night that I wouldn't discuss anything with you, and in my opinion, that also means you don't learn anything via my friends." Everyone gave a start at the sudden appearance, though Snape kept himself very still. His eyes shone with fury and hatred at Harry though.
"I will warn you again. Don't interfere with my life, or that of my friends again. If you do, I will cripple you, both magically as physically." Harry said in a no-nonsense tone of voice. Seeing Snape's hand inching to where his wand was in his robes, Harry addressed him.
"Don't move a muscle Snape. You don't have the speed or power needed to get away from my sword. I don't care if you're dead or alive, although I'd prefer you dead. But it's too early in the morning to begin cleaning my sword, so don't force me to do so later." To show he was serious, he put a bit more pressure on the sword, just enough to nick the skin of his throat. Snape grimaced as a drop of blood began to trickle down.
"Harry. Why are you doing this?" Dumbledore asked, looking older than he normally did. "We only want to help you."
"No, you don't. You don't want to help me, you want me back under your control, like any good weapon. Don't think I haven't seen through your plans old man. You don't care for me, never did. All you ever cared about, was me being your way to defeat Voldemort." Harry suddenly moved and stood between his friends. Before anyone could do something, a shimmering shield appeared around the group of youngsters. He looked at Dumbledore with contempt in his eyes and voice as he spoke. "You've been in power for far too long, old man. The people fighting this war have become pawns to you, to be used and sacrificed on your command. Everything is good enough to defeat Voldemort and his followers, with the exception of the deaths of those same followers. You think they'll come flocking to you once he's gone, to be redeemed into the light, but you have no idea what makes them tick, do you? They enjoy the feeling of power they have when they torture innocent people. They enjoy the fear they cause, they revel in it. And you're stupid enough to think you can bring them back. The crimes the committed alone are sufficient reason to get rid of them and make sure they can never hurt anyone again." Harry took a deep breath, ignoring Dumbledore as he attempted to talk again. "I refuse to be a pawn. I'll destroy Voldemort on my own. I already know how, I just need a little more time to prepare."
Harry turned to address his friends. "Everyone hold on to me, we're leaving."
"Harry..."
"For the last time old man, only my friends can call me that, and you're not one of them. Stay out of my life and you'll be fine. Interfere and pay the consequences."
Every one of his friends had grabbed hold of Harry by then. They'd kept quiet the entire time, preferring to see what was going to happen. After all, they hadn't been allowed to bring their wands, so they wouldn't be much help anyway. Just then, Snape had enough and shot a darker version of the stunning charm at Harry. It still caused the person to be rendered unconscious, but unlike the normal version of the charm, this one caused great amounts of pain before the victim was knocked out. Snape either forgot about the shield around the teens, or, more likely, thought himself strong enough to break through it. The spell hit the shield, sparked, and flew back the way it came, at twice the strength. Having no time to react, being in such small confines, Snape took the spell directly to the chest and screamed as the pain hit him for several long seconds before knocking him out.
Dumbledore looked on in a bit of a shock, both because his potions master would try to use a dark spell like that to subdue Harry, and the fact that the spell was so easily stopped and returned. After all, Severus Snape was a pretty strong wizard. Looking back to where Harry stood with his friends hands on him, he could see that Harry was amused by what just happened. It saddened him to know that the pain Severus had just experienced cause Harry any measure of joy. Obviously, that meant Harry was walking down a darker path.
"Tch, stupid ponce." Harry commented on the fallen wizard. He then looked back to Dumbledore. "You've been warned old man, and I won't warn you again. Stay out of my life."
Before the elder wizard could say anything, the group of teens shimmered and vanished from the office, leaving him stumped and shocked, looking at the empty spot.
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The moment they rematerialized, Hermione let go of Harry and stood before him.
"But you can't apparate inside Hogwarts, it says so in 'Hogwarts, A History'!" She half-yelled, half-asked.
"Very true, so what does that tell you?" Harry calmly answered her. He'd brought them back to his room, seeing as no-one but them knew where it was anyway. Instead of Hermione, it was Luna who answered. She looked a little less spacey than she normally did.
"That we didn't apparate. It certainly didn't feel like we did."
Hermione turned to face Luna. "You know how to apparate? But they don't teach you until the year you're going to be 17."
Luna nodded. "True, but daddy is strong enough to dual apparate. That's how I know what it feels like." Hermione got an understanding look on her face, only to be replaced by a curious one moments later. Turning to Harry, she asked the question he knew was coming.
"Harry, if you didn't apparate, then what did you do?" The rest of his friends looked at Harry for an answer too.
"I shimmered." Internally, he smiled. He knew it'd rile her up if he kept his answers cryptic. She was so fun to rile up. Seeing that Harry wasn't going to elaborate, Hermione fumed.
"Harry..."
"Yes?"
"Aren't you going tell us what this 'shimmering' is?" She ground out, barely keeping herself from shaking him back and forth for keeping something she never heard of hidden from her. While outwardly, Harry seemed only faintly amused, inside he was howling with laughter at the look on Hermione's face. Deciding he should tell her, lest she get physical with him. Holding up his hands in surrender, Hermione noticed that once again he wore a black glove over his right hand.
"Fine, fine. You're not gonna let go till I tell you anyway. Have a seat, all of you." He said, waving a hand and creating a couple of comfy seats for everyone. Shocked at the ease he created the seats, his friends took a moment before they finally sat down. Harry was busy conjuring a quick breakfast for everyone, so he didn't notice their hesitation and shock. Finally he sat down too, motioning for them to eat up.
"During my time away, I learned a great deal about magic. One of those things, is that not all magic users use magic the same way. You see, they way they teach her at Hogwarts and in the other wizarding schools isn't the only way magic can be used, although I'm not even sure they know that... Anyway, there are a number of ways people can use magic, wiccan magic being the one I encountered that lead me to shimmering. Wiccan's, also called witches or wizards in their circles, don't use wands, but mostly use rhymes to focus the magic. The rhymes don't really matter, it's more the intent behind the rhymes that counts. Also, they seem to have an inborn active magical power. To use the sisters I encountered as an example, one sister, Piper, could freeze time locally or blow up things she concentrated on. The second sister, Phoebe, could levitate without outside assistance and from what I was told, she had visions of the future and sometimes the past too. Mostly those visions lead to someone who needed their help. The third and last sister, Paige, could teleport herself and anything she concentrated on to where she wanted. They called it 'orbing'. Given what her father was, she should be able to heal wounds too, but she hasn't been able to yet. Together, they were called the Charmed Ones, arguably the strongest witches, of the wiccan variety." Harry paused to take a sip of his juice.
"What does that have to do with the shimmering?" Hermione asked, getting impatient. While fascinating that other people used a different way to use magic, she was curious about this new kind of transportation that apparently had no problems bypassing anti-apparation wards.
"I'm getting there, keep your panties on. Now where was I? Ah, right. Well, being the Charmed Ones, they had this destiny to help the 'innocents' who needed their help. They did so, while trying to keep the existence of magic a secret. Now, on the flip side, you also have people who used the magic they had for evil, they were called warlocks. Then you had a whole collection of demonic beings who all tried to kill them so they wouldn't interfere with their plans. These warlocks and demons all have their own way of traveling, shimmering being most common with demons, and blinking mostly used by warlocks. There were other ways, but they were mostly used by a specific kind of demon or other supernatural being. Anyway, the sisters regularly came across demons and mostly vanquished them. When I visited, I noticed that they didn't have any kind of instant travel method, save for the third sister. On one occasion, I managed to separate the attacking demon from his powers before the sisters vanquished him. It took me a while, but I was able to find the specific bit of magic the demons used to shimmer. I successfully integrated into my own magic and so I now have the ability to shimmer like that demon could." He finished, quite curious about how they would react. So far, nothing had been said, but that wouldn't take long.
Everyone of his friends, save Hermione, was pureblood for several generations. They were naturally skeptic about the existence of demons or people who didn't use wands to perform magic. Sure, some witches and wizards could use a bit of wandless magic, but to use magic all the time without a wand? Hermione was more worried about the fact that Harry's ability came from a demon instead of something that could be learned by everyone.
"You're using dark magic to travel? Harry, what were you thinking? They could put you in Azkaban for the use of dark magic!" She nearly yelled.
"No, Hermione. You've got it wrong. Shimmering isn't any kind of dark magic. In fact, there is no real dark magic or light magic. It's all in the intention. Dark and light, just like good and evil, right and wrong, are all terms created by man. True, there are types of magic that are darker than others, but that doesn't make them evil. Even the Imperious curse or the Killing curse, both considered Unforgivable's, aren't really evil." He held up his hand to forestall any protests. "It's all in the intention. Say you're in a burning building, on the top floor. The only way out is to jump out of the window, but your friend is terrified of heights and doesn't dare jump. Putting him under the Imperious could potentially save his life. Likewise, a person suffering from an incurable disease in constant pain. If you use the Killing curse to relieve him of the suffering, that's not an evil deed. On the other hand, a spell to charm brooms to do your bidding could very well lead to the death of someone if it's used on a flying broomstick. Dark and light, good and evil, are all relative terms." Judging from the looks on their faces, none of them had ever considered things in that light before.
"Besides, the ability originally came from a demon but I now know how it works and I'm pretty certain I could teach you how to do the same. Same with the blinking used by the warlocks the sisters encountered. It's not because an ability is used by someone or something evil that that ability itself is evil. Besides, I plan to go back to the sisters someday to teach them how to shimmer or blink too. They'd be a lot safer if they could shimmer or blink out of the way of an incoming energy bolts or whatever they get shot with."
"So you're not turning evil?" Ginny asked, having lived in a pretty much black and white world of good and evil all her life. The examples Harry gave about the use of certain curses or charms had rocked her world view more than a little bit.
"Nope, but don't be surprised Dumbledore begins to spout I am, because I threatened Snape with a sword and because of my reaction when he zapped himself with that dark stunner. He'll no doubt try to use that as evidence that I'm going dark and need to be brought back to the right path. If you're not following him, then you're as bad as the Death Eaters in his eyes. Another reason I don't trust him anymore." Mindful of the fact that they did have classes, Harry waved his hand, a digital readout appearing in the air, showing the time.
"Alright, it's almost time for your classes, and seeing as you're still in your sleeping clothes, I'll drop you off in your common rooms. After your classes, you can come back if you want. No reason to get points docked because of me. And don't worry about getting pulled out of class or something like that. An eye is being kept on you." The last was said with a big grin on his face, making them wonder, and worry just a little bit what he meant by it.
Once again holding on to Harry, he shimmered straight to the Gryffindor common room first, dropping the majority of his passengers off there, waving to the others in the room. Then he shimmered away again, to drop Luna off at the door of her dorm room. Wishing her a pleasant day, he shimmered back to his own room, to finally get his shower.
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There, that's it for this chapter. And no, it's not a crossover with Charmed, although I haven't run across one of those yet, strange as it may seem... He did meet them, but they won't appear in this story. Or that's the idea anyway. Who knows what might happen... I'll try to get the next chapter out a bit sooner. Review please! (Not yet beta-d)