Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any other canon characters or plots. JK Rowling does. Any characters that she doesn't own are mine, though.
Chapter 3: Learning More
As was always the case after the full moon these days, when Dumbledore knocked on the door at Grimmauld Place (he was the only one who ever bothered to; the rest simply apparated in), it opened to reveal an exhausted Sirius Black. Sirius always seemed to be tired and thin these days, but unlike Remus, whose appearance was caused by his lycanthropy, Sirius had simply lost almost all drive for living. Everyone had been hit hard by the declaration of Harry's death, but Sirius took the news worse than anyone else. Dumbledore privately thought that Remus was the only one keeping him alive now. The last time he had dinner with the two, he had seen the werewolf quietly badger the convict into first putting food on his plate, and then actually eating it. Since they met in the Shrieking Shack and Harry saved his life multiple times that night, Sirius' entire life was Harry. For the boy to have seemingly died and in such an obviously painful way (no one could lose that much blood painlessly) had practically killed the man.
Dumbledore could not wait to give the news and revive the animagus.
So when Sirius was still breaking out a thin smile at the sight of his old headmaster, Dumbledore wasted no time with pleasantries. "I've found Harry. He's alive," he said simply, though in hindsight, he mused, watching Sirius just barely catch himself on a chair, perhaps he should have prepared Sirius first. He had, after all, just spent the night in dog form running around with a werewolf. Add that to twelve years in Azkaban Prison, being in his hated childhood home, and almost four months of grieving, and the result was very poor nerves. Yes, he decided as Sirius gaped at him, he should have had Sirius sit down first.
"Alive?" the convict gasped. "Harry's actually alive? Dumbledore, this better not be a joke. Please, tell me it's not a joke." The old headmaster smiled gently.
"It's no joke, Sirius. I managed to find Harry down by, well, near the ruins of a house. He was unconscious then, but he woke shortly after I brought him to Hogwarts. Granted, he didn't seem pleased to see me, and I don't have anywhere near the whole story, and furthermore he ran off as soon as he could, but he is alive."
"Ran off?" Sirius repeated. "Why? Wait, don't tell me yet. Let me get Remus. He'd kill me if I let you explain – which you are going to do – while he's not here." He ran up to the lycanthrope's room. A few minutes later, a strangled yell emerged from there, and another few minutes after, the source and his friend also came out and downstairs. Remus looked even worse than Sirius, but that was understandable, considering the night he had just had.
"Harry is alive? How? Where is he? What happened? Is he –" he cut himself off when Dumbledore raised a hand.
"Remus, Sirius, I promise, I'll explain everything as soon as possible. However, I'm afraid that I don't have the entire story. If you'll come with me to Hogwarts, though, there is someone who does know more than me. Hopefully, he'll be able to clear everything up."
"You mean Harry?" Sirius asked eagerly. "But you said he ran off. What do you mean?" Dumbledore chuckled.
"Again, I promise, come to Hogwarts with me and you'll soon know as much as I do. Here." In his hand was a portkey. They took it with him. In moments they were all in his office and were greeted by Ron and Hermione. Pleasantries were quickly exchanged, and then Ron gestured towards the window.
"Misno left and went hunting. He said he'd be back in a few hours. He took the amulet with him, too. But sir, even after he comes back, how are we going to all hold it? Hermione and I had a hard enough time with just us. But five people?" Hermione was nodding her agreement
"That is a problem, yes, but I'm hoping that an enlargement spell will work. I don't dare a duplication spell. Those are impossible, and sometimes dangerous, unless you know exactly what you're duplicating, which I don't. Even an enlargement spell might ruin the fabric of spells." Turning to the confused marauders, he explained. "The one who I'm hoping will explain is actually a snake named Misno. He is Harry's familiar and has in his possession an invention of Harry's: an amulet that translates Parseltongue into English. Misno, while loyal to Harry, seems to want us to help restore Harry's life to him, and so has agreed to help us find him.
"But while we wait on him, I may as well explain as much as I know. For starters, I should explain that shortly before he was born, a prophecy was made. Its wording is irrelevant now, but essentially it described the one who would defeat Voldemort. Most of the description could mean either Harry or Neville Longbottom. However, the final criterion was 'marked as his equal', and when Harry survived the Killing Curse, he was indeed marked by Voldemort as his equal. The prophecy said that eventually, Harry and Voldemort would fight, and only one would survive in the end. Therefore, when Voldemort died, I knew that Harry had to still be alive, and I quickly deduced that he was the Hunter…" Ignoring any questions, glances, or movements, Dumbledore continued to sketch out the past few days for them from his point of view. At his request, Ron and Hermione explained Harry's attitude when they confronted him. Dumbledore then told them of his suspicions, that someone was pulling Harry's strings and that Harry didn't like that. He also told them how Harry escaped, or at least, his point of view.
"Couldn't he be using his invisibility cloak?" Remus asked thoughtfully. Ron shook his head.
"Can't be. His cloak is still in his trunk – I've used it once or twice." He flushed at their inquiring glances and Hermione snickered.
"It was to hide from Fred and George. They've been so bored lately that they've taken to tease anyone who was in detention with Umbridge, and that makes Ron a big target." Professor Delores Umbridge was the new DADA teacher, and it was a mark of her horrid personality that Dumbledore didn't even attempt to remind her of the High Inquisitor's status as teacher. Remus and Sirius grinned.
"Would you like to try some payback, Ron?" Ron grinned back, but shook his head.
"Not until we've got Harry back and safe. Then, I'd love to. Actually," he added thoughtfully, "Ginny might agree to help out, too. She's in the same strait I'm in with the twins, and she's brilliant with pranks." Hermione rolled her eyes, but then she also smiled.
"Look, everyone. Misno's back. Sirius, Remus, this is Harry's familiar, Asismisno, more commonly called Misno." The two gaped at the snake that couldn't seem to be able to decide on a size as it slithered up to the group. In his tail he grasped a beautiful amulet. It seemed to be made of weightless gold and had a green snake on it in the shape of a 'T'. When Dumbledore took it and enlarged it just enough for the five to all comfortably grasp it, the snake began hissing.
Is this everyone you want here?
"Yes," confirmed the Headmaster.
Good. Now, it's time for me to begin. First, I must explain to you that there are two types of divinity. The higher form is the Creator Gods. They, as their name suggests, create worlds, universes, and all that that entails. They rule and judge the humans. There is never more than one God ruling a world. The God of Christians and Jews is the God of this world and he forbids his worshipers to bow before any deity but himself. But, even though this world's God does not allow them in his religion, there is also the lower form of divinity. They are merely gods, lords over the powers that can guide a human's life, sometimes called the 'powers that be'. The more important ones would be the goddess of luck, the goddess of destiny, the god of magic, the god (or goddess – nobody is ever sure) of chaos, and the god of fate.
Each god occasionally chooses an avatar, and recently, the god of fate chose my master for his. More specifically, he called my master to be a Hunter. As a result, my master is bound and sealed to Fate. Somewhere on my master is something that represents this contract, but I am not permitted to say, nor is my master. Either way, that means that my master's life will be forever devoted to Fate's will and that his expertise in Fate's service is destroying Evil, the enemy to all gods. That is why my master has been hunting Death Eaters and the Dark Lord. They were all judged to be evil and so had to be destroyed. I n return for his service, my master received the power to do so, me, and a magical sword. My master is now powerful and has achieved revenge for his parents and everyone else killed by Voldemort or his followers. But my master is young still, and he craves a normal life. He tells me that even in his childhood, his life was completely abnormal and that it only became more so on his eleventh birthday. He mentioned once that his greatest dream was to have a family, one of his very own, that no one could ever take away, one that would always love him. He has given up on this dream now, believing that Fate would never allow this. But even if he cannot escape Fate's grasp, and even if he can never be one of the crowd, I would like to give my master some chance at least a semi-normal life. A chance to fulfill his dream.
"Hold on," interrupted Sirius. "Are you saying that the god of fate is now in complete control of my godson? Harry's a slave to him?" He was obviously upset.
Yes. My master cannot disobey. That is, he can, but he will not, not anymore. Creating this amulet was a small form of rebellion, and Fate was slightly amused by it, so my master escaped punishment then so long as he destroyed this and the other one. You see, my master also created an amulet translating Owlspeak. But unlike Hedwig, I managed to save this one from being destroyed by my master. The second time my master rebelled, it was to give in to his anger and cause the Dark Lord great pain before killing him. But then Fate put my master through intense pain, enough that he won't even try Fate's patience anymore.
Before, when a Death Eater barricaded himself in his home, guarded by deadly wards, my master simply waited them out. He would set up his own wards, preventing House Elves and the like to fetch food from external sources and preventing anyone inside from conjuring anything. He would then wait until the Death Eater had to leave the house to survive and then strike. But Fate did not like that, so when Fate ordered my master to kill Lucius Malfoy, my master did not follow his usual methods. Instead, he blasted the wards, destroying the house and weakening himself. Then, when the Death Eater engaged my master he had the advantage and my master only barely managed to kill him. In fact, he could not even heal himself like usual and was unconscious until the Headmaster brought my master here for healing. But that also will incite Fate's wrath.
"Misno, I am sorry to interrupt, but it might help if you were to tell us what Harry is forbidden to do," Dumbledore interjected quickly. Everyone else agreed.
You are quite right. I am sorry to have omitted such information. Essentially, my master was ordered to hide his powers and leave no evidence, magical or physical, of his presence. He may not do anything that might alert anyone to his continued existence, such as being near anyone of the wizarding world (unless he's about to kill them, of course) or people who once knew him. He is to use his powers only in that which is Fate's will. That is why creating the amulets was rebellion. My master did it only on a whim, to see if he could, but without the order from Fate, he would have kept them.
"So, what's going to happen to Harry once Fate knows that we know Harry's alive?" Ron asked the question that was now on everyone's mind.
Unless my master can provide a good enough excuse, he will be punished. Severely.
"So what can we do? How can we help him if he can't even be near us?" Hermione put everyone's follow-up question into the air, but this time, Remus, not Misno, answered.
"We convince Fate that Harry's interaction with us is not Harry's fault. If we make it look like Harry had absolutely no choice…" Sirius grinned.
"Alrighty then. Headmaster, Ron, Hermione, would you three mind doing some research? You know, stuff on this god of Fate. See if anything mentions contract symbols. Remus and I will figure out how to capture, interrogate, and imprison Harry, unless you mind, Remus? I know you love research? Excellent. Misno, I think it'd be best if you help us out. You mind? Great. Let's start 'Operation Save Harry's Life From Meddling Gods.'" When Remus rolled his eyes at the title, the animagus grinned. "What? I've always wanted to do an auror-type operation!" Shaking their heads at the convict, the three assigned research headed for the library while the marauders and snake began planning. With any luck, Harry would be safe and sound at Hogwarts within a week.