Chapter 11
"As much as it pains me to say it, we cannot rely on Harry Potter returning to us. The chances of that are very slim." As he said this the doors to the great hall opened and the whole school turned to see a hooded figure in the doorway.
Harry Potter pulled his hood down. "Slim, but not impossible" he said. The hall sat in stunned silence not believing that what they were seeing was real.
"Harry James Potter has come back to Hogwarts!" he shouted and the hall erupted in cheers. Kyla ran to him as fast as she could and threw her arms around him and began to cry.
"Oh Harry we've been so worried. What happened to you?" she asked noticing the new scar on his face and the fact that his eyes were still lined with silver. "What's happened to your eyes?" Harry knew the questions would come but that didn't make them easy to face. He didn't feel like telling the entire school that he had been tortured for days on end.
"I'll explain soon, but not tonight." He said. The cheering carried on and Harry felt that hope had returned to the Wizarding world, or would be when everyone found out he was back.
"It seems," Dumbledore said. "That a celebration is in order!" he waved his wand and the house banners were replaced with the Potter family colours and the Potter crest. People were constantly coming over to Harry and hugging him and all the boys seemed to want to shake his hand. Harry wasn't too fond of all the attention but he put up with it. Seeing all his friends again reminded him how lucky he was to be alive but seeing them he felt different than he had in the past. He now knew what would happen to them if Voldemort found them and he couldn't let that happen. He also didn't want them to look at him differently now that he was back. Hermione and Ginny couldn't stop hugging Harry all night and even Ron gave him a brief hug when he first got chance.
He knew that tomorrow people were going to want to know how he escaped and what had happened to him but for now he just wanted to enjoy himself. Harry was beginning to feel tired when Dumbledore approached him and embraced him a tight hug. It was a very fatherly gesture and it surprised Harry.
"Harry, I would like you to come to my office please." He said nicely. Harry nodded and broke away from his friends. He followed Dumbledore up to his office and saw that Dumbledore wasn't the only person he would be recounting his tale to. Professor McGonagall, Snape, Moody and Arthur Weasley were stood there.
"We got your message Dumbledore," Arthur said. "Why is it so ur-" he cut himself short when he saw Harry walk into Dumbledore's office behind him.
"My lord!" he said. "Harry you're alive! Although it looks like you've had a rough time," he said noticing the scar on Harry's face.
"Potter how do we know you haven't swore loyalty to Voldemort and are here to kill us all?" Moody accused, making Harry angry.
"I have not escaped torture and captivity to be accused of joining Voldemort!" he shouted.
"Alastor I don't think there is need to be worried about that." Dumbledore said.
"I think we should give him Veritaseum" Moody said.
"Harry, if only to appease Alastor here, will you recount your tale under Veritaseum?" Harry nodded grudgingly shooting a glare at moody.
"Just a precaution potter," he said gruffly.
"Severus will you bring up some Veritaseum from your potions store please?" Dumbledore asked.
"Certainly professor." He said and left the office and returned a few minutes later carrying small vile of liquid. He handed it to Harry who pulled off the top and drank the vile.
"Let's start at the beginning Harry, what happened just before you were portkeyed from Diagon alley?" Harry told him about binding the Deatheaters and how one of them had grabbed Harry's leg. He then told them about waking up in the cell shackled to the wall and how Bellatrix had tortured him with the cruciatus curse and with the knife making the people in the room wince. He recounted his whole tale up to just before he battled Bellatrix.
"So Voldemort gave you your wands and you battled Bellatrix?" Dumbledore asked. Harry nodded and described the battle in as much detail as he could explaining how angry he had felt and when he came to the part where he used both his wands to form a more powerful Cruciatus curse some people in the room gasped.
"Did your curse work this time?" Dumbledore asked calmly.
"Yes," Harry said remorsefully. "I was so angry, I kept it on her for a while just watching her scream on the floor. Then when I released the curse I wanted to kill her." He heard everyone's intake of breath obviously thinking that he had killed her. "I was about to kill her, but a part of me told me that I wasn't a killer and it was right. Then Voldemort gave me a choice, he said join him or die." Harry knew this was the part he was going to have to tell people that he was an Animagus.
"I knew that either way he was going to get the prophecy so I had to escape. I summoned a wall and ran for the open window."
"So you jumped out of the window?" Snape said disbelievingly. "And how did you survive Potter? Do you have wings?" he said sarcastically. He could see the whole room was looking at him expectantly.
"Yes I did have wings." Harry said flatly.
"Are you sure this is Veritaseum Snape?" Moody asked.
"Quite." Snape said obviously insulted.
"Harry," Dumbledore said calmly, "how did you have wings?"
Harry sighed, "Because I'm an Animagus." The room was stunned.
"Will you show us?" Dumbledore asked politely. Harry nodded and transformed himself into the red and silver phoenix. The room gasped at Harry's form. Not only was he an Animagus but he was a beautiful phoenix. After a minute he transformed back and waited for someone to break the silence.
"Very impressive potter." Moody conceded. "I'm satisfied you're not a Deatheater."
Dumbledore smiled at Harry. "Fawkes will be pleased." He said happily.
"So after I escaped I managed to find my way back to Hogsmeade and just walked the rest of the way."
"And Voldemort did not get the prophecy?" Dumbledore asked and Harry shook his head to Dumbledore's relief.
"Then we have been very lucky. Harry I would like you to go down to the hospital wing and let Poppy look at the cuts on your body. I must talk to the order now but I will come and see you in the morning." Harry left Dumbledore's office and headed to the hospital wing.
"I thought I'd be seeing you." Miss Pomfrey said. Harry smiled and let her examine his cuts. It hurt when she applied some type of cream to them but they felt instantly better afterwards. She insisted that he spend the night in the hospital wing and Harry grudgingly accepted. To Harry's surprise, not long after Kyla snuck into the hospital wing and came and sat by Harry's bed.
"Hey," he said. "You shouldn't be here you know."
"I've been worried sick about you for weeks, I'm not going to let some silly rule stop me from seeing you. So are you going to let me in the bed with you?" she asked smiling. Harry threw back the covers to let Tonks in but she stopped when she saw the scars on his chest.
"Harry what did they do to you?" she asked close to tears.
"There just cuts, but I'm fine now." He said shortly.
"I love you so much." She said getting into bed with him. "I'm never letting you out of my sight again!" she cuddled close to him and for the first time in weeks Harry had a good nights sleep.
Harry opened his eyes groggily and saw the headmaster sitting patiently at the side of his bed. Harry sat up quickly when he realized that Kyla was still with him fast asleep.
"Err, hi professor." Harry said flushing slightly.
"Good morning Harry, I trust you slept well?" he asked with a twinkle in his eyes.
"Very well." He admitted and shook Kyla awake. She saw Dumbledore and blushed.
"Good morning Kyla." He said brightly. "If you don't mind I would like to talk to Harry alone for a bit. I think the great hall is open for breakfast, you can come back when you've eaten." She nodded and got out of the bed and kissed Harry goodbye before leaving.
"You are very lucky to have someone who cares about you so much," Dumbledore said to Harry. "Did you tell her what happened?"
"I can't," Harry said. "I don't want her to worry about me."
"Isn't that her decision to make?" Dumbledore asked questioningly.
"I don't want her to look at me differently and I know she will if I tell her what happened."
"What do you mean by different?" Dumbledore asked.
"Like I'm going to break." Harry said solemnly. "Please professor let me deal with this myself."
"Ok Harry I'll leave you to make your own choice. Now, let us move on to why I came here in the first place. You said you felt a surge of magical power just before you cast the cruciatus curse?"
"Yes." Harry said remembering the silver he had seen run down his veins into his hands. He explained this to Dumbledore and he just nodded.
"Do you realise that your eyes are still lined with silver?" he asked and Harry shook his head.
"What does it mean professor?" he asked.
"What you felt was pure magical energy. The fact that it remains in your eyes shows you have excessive amounts of it. I think your adult powers are finally coming through, and by the looks of them you have more power than any wizard alive."
"That's impossible." Harry said disbelievingly.
"Is it?" Dumbledore asked. "You seem to forget that you overpowered over 20 Deatheaters, you survived torture that would have broken the strongest Auror and afterwards you still managed to duel a very powerful Deatheater and win."
Harry sat in silence not knowing what to say. Sure he had done those things but he assumed it was just because he had been trained to do it. He couldn't have more power than any other wizard. Dumbledore had made his battle with Voldemort look easy. Harry could never do that.
"What do we do now professor?" he asked wanting to know what this power meant for him. Dumbledore thought for a minute before answering.
"I will take over the last part of your training myself. No other wizard is powerful enough to teach you the things you need to know. I will start by teaching you Occlumency and Leglimency. You should be able to pick it up quickly now. Then we will move onto wandless magic. With that much magical energy in you that should be easy for you as well. Lastly I will show you how to apparate and show you spells that few wizards in the world know."
Harry didn't know what to say. It was a pretty full agenda and Harry wondered if he would be able to cope. "I'll try my best." He said to Dumbledore. "But will all this be enough to defeat Voldemort?"
"You will certainly be as powerful as him but as to whether you can defeat him, I don't think so. But I doubt he could beat you either."
"What about the power I'm supposed to have that he doesn't know about?"
"When you are ready, I will take you to the department of mysteries but for now I think we have enough to be getting on with. As for when we will train I have spoken to some of your teachers and we have decided that you no longer need some classes. When you usually have defence against the dark arts, transfiguration or charms you will meet me in the room of requirement."
"I'm surprised professor McGonagall let me out of transfiguration." Harry admitted.
"We will be doing some very advanced transfiguration together and by the end of this year you will be able to sit your NEWT in it, I am sure."
"Ok." Was all he could manage as he tried to take in all this new information.
"One last thing before I go." Dumbledore said. "I have decided to hold a dueling tournament for sixth and seventh years. Obviously I cannot allow you to compete but I would like you to be a judge with me and some of the staff."
Harry felt honored to be asked by Dumbledore to do this along side him and readily accepted but he was slightly disappointed that he wouldn't get to compete.
"I'm glad you accepted. Now I have to go and tell the school about the tournament. You are excused from lessons today so feel free to just relax." He said kindly.
Harry decided to take Dumbledore's advice and left the hospital wing and headed to a secluded spot by the edge of the lake where he would have time to think. He stood and gazed into the reflective waters of the lake. He saw a distorted image of his face, looking older. For the first time he saw the scar on his face and the silver in his eyes. He barely recognized the stranger who was looking back at him. The stranger looked powerful and Harry could see a purpose in his eyes but on the inside Harry was scared. He was scared that people were going to die, that he would lose people he loved, that only he could stop the suffering but everyone had to wait until he was ready. He sat down and let his head slump against a tree and fell asleep.
Harry heard screaming coming from a cold chamber. He looked around and saw that he was back in Voldemort's lair. He quickly ran to where he heard the screaming coming from. He opened the door the cell and saw Kyla being tortured by lord Voldemort. She was screaming in agony and Harry couldn't do anything because he didn't have his wands.
"Harry, help me!" Kyla pleaded between screams. "Don't let him kill me!" Harry tried to run to her but an invisible force blew him back and he was forced to watch as Voldemort continued to torture her using the cruciatus curse. He laughed manically the more Kyla screamed. Eventually she passed out from the pain and Voldemort decided she'd had enough torturing. He turned to face Harry.
"This is what happens when you defy Lord Voldemort!" he shouted and pointed his wand at Kyla. "Avada Kaderva!" he yelled and green light erupted from his wand and hit Kyla in the chest. Her body slumped and Harry screamed.
"Nooooooo!" tears started to come from his eyes and Voldemort just laughed.
"Your loved ones will not escape death." He said evilly.
Harry woke with a start, his scar burning with pain, and felt warm tears on his face. Voldemort had shown him his worst fear. He knew how close he was to Kyla and now she was in terrible danger but he couldn't tell her that Voldemort had shown him a vision. If I tell her she'll be determined to stay with me he thought. Harry felt hopeless and dejectedly made his way back up to the castle.
"Are you ok Harry?" Kyla asked as Harry sat down in the great hall.
"Fine," he lied. He ate his lunch quietly not wanting to look at Kyla. He knew he couldn't put her in danger; maybe he just had to distance himself from her. He knew it would be hard but he had to do it for her own good. Kyla tried her best to engage Harry in conversation but he seemed to be too caught up in something else. When he got up and left the table without saying goodbye she knew something was wrong. She decided to give him some space and talk to him later on but when he didn't show up in the common room that evening she thought she might know where he was. She got up and left for the room of requirement but was surprised when she found that he wasn't there. She was now worried and didn't know what to do. She tripped over the last step on the stairs and heard a mocking laugh behind her as she pulled herself up.
"Well if it isn't Potter's clumsy girlfriend." Malfoy mocked. His perfect hair and arrogant stance screamed opulence.
"Back off Malfoy, your father's money won't be able to fix what I can do to you." She said coldly.
"Is that a threat?" he asked. Kyla glared at him hatefully. "You know I like girls who stand up for themselves." He said moving closer towards her and stroking her arm. She instinctively pulled away but Malfoy moved closer towards her. "What do you see in Potter?" he asked. "I think you'd much prefer me if you got to know me." He said edging Kyla back towards a wall.
"I think I'll stick with Harry. After all when he's finished with Voldemort he'll kill your bastard father." She said hatefully. The insult stung Malfoy and he lost control. He backhanded Kyla across the face and threw her against the wall. Kyla could have sworn she saw something on Malfoy's arm when he hit her.
"You insult my family again and I'll kill you." Malfoy said venomously. He stormed off leaving Kyla on the floor. No one had hit her like that before. Her face stung where he had hit her and for the first time in a long time she cried.
Harry sat at the top of the astronomy tower gazing up at the stars. More specifically he was focused on Sirius, the Dog Star.
"I'm trying Sirius." He said despairingly. "But everything I do gets people hurt. I got you killed and now I need you more than ever. I miss you so much; I really need your advice now. I don't want to disappoint you, or my mum and dad but it's so hard to keep going. What will I lose before this is over?" he paused for a minute.
"WHY DO I HAVE TO SUFFER!" He shouted at the sky frustration building up inside him. "I'm not a hero, I'm a teenage boy!" he put his head in his hands and tried to clear his head. He sat in silence until he realized it was getting late and went back to his dormitory hoping things would be better in the morning.
A/N: Ok from the next chapter onwards the chapters will be about twice the length because it's hard putting cliff hangers at the end of every chapter