Last time:
Snape stood up and stalked over to Harry.
"You will tell me, boy, what strange magic is at work here, or I will take you before the Headmaster, and tell him all of what has just occurred."
Harry closed his eyes in defeat as he realized that he had no choice. He knew that he had to tell his teacher, but he had to ensure that Snape would not reveal any of his secrets first.
"All right, Snape, I will tell you, but on one condition. You cannot speak of this to anyone else. Lives are at stake, and a whole civilization could come to ruin if you let any of this slip. Do you understand?"
Snape looked for a moment like he was going to say something, but then he closed his mouth and nodded gravely.
"Do continue," he said silkily. Harry sighed and closed his eyes, and settled back to begin the story of his time in the Vale.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Harry lay awake in his bed at the Dursleys. It was only another four minutes until he turned fifteen, and he would be going to Hogwarts roughly a month later, for his fifth year of school. He wondered who the teacher would be for DADA. He hoped it was someone good, like Remus. Maybe Remus would come back.
He sighed and rolled over, staring at the clock. Three minutes to go.
He supposed that his life was going OK up until that point. Except for the whole Cedric thing…He still felt horrible. He had come home without saying a word, and had remained practically silent up until now.
He rolled back over to face the wall. It was all his fault. Everyone knew it. He deserved to be treated the way he was. He was no better than a murderer. If only he had taken the cup by himself…
He turned to face the clock, and watched as the numbers flicked from 11:59 to 12:00. And jumped as a voice rang out from the shadows of his room.
"Happy birthday, Harry Potter."
He leaped to his feet, wand in his hand in an instant.
"Who's there?" he called, voice hoarse with fear.
"No one who wishes to harm you, Harry Potter," said the voice, and two figures stepped out of the dark recesses of the corner. Harry gasped at what he saw.
A man and a woman stood before him, their pale skin seeming to glow in the soft silver light of the cloud-misted moon. They both had pale silver eyes, and shimmering hair that cascaded down their backs like a waterfall of ice. They both had very distinct, pointed features, with high cheekbones, and—were those pointed ears?
"Who—who are you?" Harry asked, not lowering his wand.
"We are elves, child," said the woman. "I am Llyrithen, and he is Eldwyn. We have been sent by our elders to collect you."
"Collect me?" Harry gasped, bewildered and a bit angry. "For what? Where would you take me? For how long? And how did you get in here?"
The man—Eldwyn—held up his hand. "Peace, child. We did not mean it in such a way. We have come to collect you for protection, and training. We will take you to our home, the Vale. Trust me, you will have never seen its like. You would not be there for very long; only a year or so. And of course we would not keep you there against your will. And we have magics of our own to be able to enter your house."
Harry stared at them for a moment, overwhelmed by all this new information. He sat down on his bed, his head spinning slightly. The woman looked concerned, and moved to put a hand to his forehead. Immediately, the spinning stopped, and Harry noticed that his ever-present headache was also gone. He looked up at the woman in awe.
"Healing magic, child," she said, smiling slightly. "It is part of what you would learn. And also—"
She leaned down as if to whisper in his ear, and said quietly, "We could make the dreams stop. All of it, your guilt and fear and pain—it would be gone. We could help you to overcome all of that, and more."
Harry looked up, stunned and a bit afraid. How did she know that? And if she knew about his dreams—she knew what had caused them—
A wave of terrible shame swept across Harry, and he turned his face away so that Llyrithen would not see his too-bright eyes. She sat next to him on the bed, however, and cupped his face in her hands.
"It was not your fault, child," she said softly. "The Evil one, he has claimed many lives, many of which could have been prevented. But if we all were to immerse ourselves in the past, and blame ourselves for everything, we would not be able to work for the future. You need to move on, and let it go. He forgives you, and he would have wanted you to fight for him, not weep for him. Yes?"
A solitary tear slipped down Harry's cheek, and he quickly reached up to dash it away. He nodded, still not looking up, and he heard a soft sigh. Llyrithen got up from beside him, and went over to stand by Eldwyn.
"If you come with us, Harry Potter, you will eventually be able to stand against the Evil one," Eldwyn said softly. "Think on what we have said. We will return tomorrow night for your reply. If you choose not to come—all memory of us will be erased, and you will go on with your life. But if you do—you will have powers you have never dreamed of. You will be able to stand against the evil forces, and beat them back." Eldwyn smiled. "Until then, Harry Potter."
And they were gone.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"I thought about what they said, and I thought about it a lot," Harry continued, pretending that he hadn't just spilled him innermost thoughts and fears to Snape. "And the next night they returned—and I said yes."
Snape leaned over his desk, disbelief all over his face.
"You said yes, and went with two total strangers to a place you'd never seen, and with no real defense against their magic?"
"I knew they weren't evil," Harry said, his gaze fixed on a point some three feet behind Snape. "I just could—sense it. They inspire some sort of calm, and—security; their whole race does. And so I went with them, to their home—the Vale. It was—amazing. Like nothing else I'd ever experienced."
Snape noticed that he got a faraway look in his eyes, and a slight smile came over his face.
"It was so…calm there. There were no real pressures—except those of training. No one expected you to be anything that you weren't, and you didn't have to put on a show for anyone. They were all so…accepting, even of things that normal wizards and Muggles alike would not think were appropriate."
Harry suddenly came back to himself and blushed, aware that he may have just revealed more than he'd wanted to. Snape merely raised an eyebrow.
"The rest you can probably guess," Harry continued. "I stayed there and trained, mostly under Eldwyn and Llyrithen, and a few others. I never felt pushed past my limits, though I met them many times over, and the things I learned…it was so wonderful. I miss the Vale a lot, and I wish I could visit again. Maybe I will, someday."
Snape sat back in his chair, amazed at what he had just heard. He would not have believed it if he had not seen examples of the boy's power himself. This certainly did explain a lot of things.
"So…you spent your last two years at this…vale?" Snape asked, still a bit dazed. Harry nodded, and sighed.
"I did, and though I missed my friends terribly, I made a lot of friends there, and I even had one special friend that I had to leave behind."
Sadness flashed over Harry's face, and Snape frowned.
"A lady friend, perhaps?"
Harry laughed, sorrow gone.
"Oh, no. I could never even consider doing…any of that with any of the people there. For one, they are all at least seventy years older than I am, even the youngest of them. And for another, I—"
Harry stopped, looking as if he had just prevented himself from letting something slip. "I was just friends with all of them. This was an animal friend, a very special one. Her name was Socorro. She was my first friend there."
Again, that flash of sadness that was quickly pushed aside. Snape looked at him, curious.
"What kind of animal?"
Harry laughed. "I bet you're expecting me to say a snake. But no, Socorro was a hawkeagle, one bleached pure white by all the energies of the Vale. The animals there have prolonged lifespans, too. She was about ten years old, and expected to live to be at least thirty. She was…my constant friend. I do miss her…maybe, someday, I could bring her back here. That would be wonderful, to have another person to talk to."
Snape regarded the boy—young man—before him intently. What he had just heard was nothing like he had expected, and it was just so unbelievable that it might be true.
He sighed and leaned back in his chair, unsure of what to do or say. This boy was even more of a puzzle now than he was before.
He decided to move on to a topic that he was familiar with.
"What did you learn in potions? Anything? Do they even have cauldrons?"
Harry laughed. "Oh, yes. They have all kinds of cauldrons. They even have cauldrons with a special kind of metal that will brew the potion to triple strength without changing it magically, and ones that will add elements to the potions that you could not even imagine. They even have cauldrons made from pure—I don't even know what the word for it is in English. The Elven word is Lorilangalea—the metal of light. It is so pure, so basic, that you do not even need to worry about how the potion will react with the cauldron. You can brew virtually anything in it—even a dissolving draft, and it will not melt, explode, or react with any of the elements of the potion."
Snape leaned back in his chair, a faraway look in his eye. What he wouldn't give for one of those! If only he had some way of getting one—but no, he would not stoop to asking the boy.
Harry looked at the clock that was on the wall, and jumped suddenly.
"Sir, I—I have to go. I'm late for a le—a meeting. I have to meet with one of the other teachers, and I'm already ten minutes late. I'm sorry—I have to go!"
He jumped to his feet and raced out the door, leaving a very bemused Severus Snape behind.
A/N: OMG I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOO sorry for the lateness of this!!! I've just started school and the HW as well as the stuff after school I do has just been chaotic, and I can barely get a moment to think, much less write! And with the hurricane coming….I live in VA, on the coastline, so I reeeeeally hope my computers don't get wiped out! *Frantically backing up EVERYTHING* If it does, it might be another month or more before I can update! AS it is, we're expecting to lose power for a day or more, so the next chappie will be a while in coming. Again, I'm soooo sorry for how late this is, please try and understand! *ducks various food thrown*