AN>: If i didn't mention this before this takes place post OOP and ignores HBP. /AN>
Chapter 1
Neri'Ckuhdar'DarracunThe creature regarded him for several seconds before nodding slightly.
"Harry I think that I will talk to you again." Then it turned and floated away.
"Wait." It stopped, but didn't turn around. "Won't you tell me your name?"
Do dementors even have names?
"My name is Neri'Ckuhdar'Darracun." Then it continued down the corridor in its usual patrol pattern. Neither of the creatures made any attempt to contact him as they passed while leaving. When they were gone and the chill retreated Harry sat on his cot to think about what had just happened.
They've never talked to me before; most of them just ignore me. I guess they can't feed if you're not afraid of them.
He slowly lay down and after meditating for about ten minutes he drifted off to sleep, certain his barriers would protect him from any visions that he might have. When the next patrol came through half an hour latter he didn't even stir.
The dementor did not return for almost two weeks. Harry didn't know what time it was. He only keep track of days by counting his meals, that came like clockwork.
But then it was there, battering aside his defenses as it stood next to his cell. He had been ignoring the others but this one was so powerful that he couldn't subconsciously fight it. His dreams shifted from the pleasant but fleeting things that most people dreamed of to the nightmares of people walking into the veil and cursing him before they went, bloody figures screaming for his help. Harry awoke in a cold sweat turning his head to see the creature watching him. Furiously he focused his natural occulmancy barriers he had to dull the screams he could hear in the background.
"What are you doing here?"
"I said that I would return when I could and the guards are occupied." Its voice seemed softer than the first time, not that nails against a chalkboard was any less disconcerting than ice on ice. Before Harry had a chance to ask why it didn't want the guards to see it, the creature continued to talk.
"May I come in?"
"How would you manage that?"
"I take that as a yes." Harry dumbly nodded; maybe letting this soul stealer in wasn't the best thing to do.
The creature waved its hands in front of the cell. The bars didn't move but Harry immediately felt something, magic. The ward that prevented the use of magic had been lowered.
I didn't know that they could even manipulate magic.
Then suddenly the dementor was inside the cell. There was no popping to signal an apperation but instead the creature just blurred out and simultaneously appeared inside the cell. Harry started but kept himself from jumping out of his bed.
"How did you do that?"
"I can teleport."
Like that explained everything.
The two regarded each other from across the room for several seconds before the dementor asked another question. Then slowly at first they talked. Neither wanted to breach the topic of their pasts and instead talked about the prison, the nearby prisoners, and the guards. When the dementor left, taking care to reactivate the wards around his cell, Harry felt strangely better. Not because the mind numbing presence was leaving, he'd gotten used to blocking out its power, but because he had someone to talk to. Considering how fast the meal arrived after Neri'Ckuhdar'Darracun left, they must have talked for at least three hours. He had to find a shorter name for that dementor.
He hadn't learned anything about the dementors. Neri, as he'd settled on, had avoided that subject. But he couldn't fault it for not talking about itself. Harry hadn't mentioned any of his former friends, or his past experiences. They were too painful to talk about right now, so soon after…
Get a grip on yourself Harry.
He didn't really understand how they'd managed to talk for so long while artfully dancing around just about every possible common ground they had. After all Harry had no plans on sharing about his experiences with Neri's kin.
Neri returned the next day and they talked about a sorts of nonsensical things before Harry got up the courage to ask Neri about it self. It was their third late night meeting and they were winding down a debate over the meaning of life when Harry finally asked.
"Neri?"
Uhoh.
"What did you call me?"
"Well your name is very long and the second part is hard to pronounce and all. Can I call you that?" The cloaked figure just starred.
Ah hell its gonna kill me.
"You do call me just Harry after all." Its shoulders moved, almost like a shrug.
"Very well Harry. You wanted to ask me something didn't you."
"Yeah. W-well what do you really look like?"
"Our bodies have long since decayed. Some of us still have flesh, but only are bones are preserved by our magic. I am nothing but a skeleton."
"Oh." Harry had really wondered.
But just a skeleton I don't really want to see that.
"Perhaps..." The dementor started to glow.
"Perhaps what?" Neri gave no answer and the light intensified, it was very bright but somehow dark. When the light receded Neri had shrunk. Then it moved. No it hadn't shrunk it was no longer hovering like it always did. Neri was only slightly taller than him when it chose not to hover. The lose fabric of the robe was dragging across the floor as the outline of Neri's legs could be seen walking across the floor towards him. Harry had always sat on the bed and Neri had stood in the center of the opposite wall.
"What did you do?" Again no answer. Neri stopped at the foot of the bed and lifted its arms to the cowl around its head. As the fabric fell back Harry gasped when he saw Neri's hands sticking out. He had seen a skeletal hand on the dementor that had attacked him on the train all those years ago. And Neri had said that it was nothing but bones. But what he saw was certainly not bones. A pair of pale hands traveled up and grasped the cowl then let it fall back. Neri's hands were very pale, almost white, but still looked very much alive. The fingers were longer than what you would call normal but they weren't wrinkled or shriveled and didn't look like that of a skeleton's or a mummy's at all. That didn't say anything about its, no her, face. Neri's face was angular, she had distinctively aristocratic features but was still young and quite beautiful. She had gray eyes and almost white blond hair that fell down into her robe. Kind of like a Mafloy…
No, not going to think about them.
She sat down next to him. The black robe that had previously shown none of her features now clung to her very feminine figure. As she sat some of her hair moved aside and he was able to see her ears. They were swept up and lobe less.
"You're an elf?" She smiled at that.
"This body was once one of the now extinct species called the high elves." The chilly voice that he'd gotten used to sounded very cold and disconcerting coming from the vision of beauty that sat beside him.
"I don't get it. You said you were…"
"Humans put far to much emphasis on physical appearance. What you see is just an illusion; my body hasn't looked like this in over 5000 years. I merely decided not to shock you into a stupor. Your ideas towards life are quite interesting and I'd not like to lose my only companion in such a long time."
"Wait, only companion. What about all the other dementors?"
"You know absolutely nothing about our kind do you?"
"Besides that you feed on happy feelings and can suck a persons soul out of their mouth, no." Neri laughed, the effect was incredibly chilling. While the stunning elf laughing put him at ease the sound was horrible.
"That's not even all correct. Well I guess not delving into such topics couldn't last forever. But if you want to know about my people then you have to share about your past as well." Harry hesitated, he really had hated reliving such things but this was better that with just being near one without his shields in place right?
"O-Okay. But I did ask first."
"Well… where to start. Dementors are a hive society, one independent dementor is not even qualified a sentient. The hive conciseness on the other hand is quite intelligent. I am the queen of this hive."
"How big is your hive?"
"Well there are seven hives worldwide, all the dementors in Britain and some of France are under the hive's control."
Damn she's been controlling ever dementor I've ever fought and she hasn't killed me.
Why?
"The hive's not just yours?"
"There is a hive consciousness. I guide the hive but I am not the hive. My position as queen makes me much more powerful than your average dementor and allows me free will." She stopped and looked at Harry, as if to see if he understood. He nodded slightly.
"The hive itself exists on sort of a parallel dimension where ever soul that we control resides. Each dementor is composed of a pseudo-soul of sorts. We create their souls by combining the souls that we have collected. Each dementor is composed of four other souls. They only have full range of sentience when they are connected to the collective. Because I am made up of twenty souls I can think outside of the collective."
No wonder she was so strong, probably five times that of a normal dementor.
"Isn't soul magic very dark?"
"Darkness and light are constructs of lesser sentient creatures who seek to come to grip with their own lack of perfection." She snorted.
Okay avoid that topic from now on.
"I told you about my people, why are you here?"
I knew I had to tell someone eventually.
"I was framed."
"I'm sure everyone here has some story about why they don't belong here. Why don't you tell me your whole story and let me decide." Harry let out a long sigh.
"Okay. Well it all started like this."
FLASHBACKIt was raining outside. Harry was sitting in his bed, staring at the wall. Even though it was almost one in the morning Harry had no plans on going to sleep. The nightmares were to bad, he'd only been home for about half a week and the events at the departments of mysteries still weighed heavily on him. Sirius' death hurt the most of all. It had been a trap and not only had he fallen for it, he'd nearly gotten his friends killed in the process. He had gotten his godfather killed. The fact that he hadn't cast the spell meant nothing. Then Dumbeldore had dropped that prophecy on him. What type of bullshit is that? '…one must die at the hands of the other…' how I'm I supposed to kill something that might as well be immortal? A better question was how is that supposed to justify all the time spent with his miserable relatives. If Sirius was here I could stay with him, but that just dragged him back into the cycle of hating himself for his godfather's death. Tears came unbidden to his eyes. He hadn't properly grieved since that night, he'd spent far to much time blaming himself. But his pity party was interrupted by a knock at the door.
Who would be knocking at this time of night?
Harry picked up his wand and crept down the steps. He could hear Uncle Vernon rising from above him.
"Boy that had better not be any of your freak friends."
Harry desperately hopped so as well, he didn't want to talk to any of them yet. But his fears were confirmed when he opened the door. It was Tonks. Harry could here Vernon's footsteps coming closer.
"Hello Harry, I need to speak to you outside."
She stepped back and waited for him. What's wrong with her, no enthusiastic greeting? No wotcher. She seemed dead. It's got to be because she was close to Sirius too. They were cousins after all and knew each other far better than he knew me. There's another person I've hurt. He could hear Vernon on the top of the stairs now. Harry nodded and stepped out into the rain. She had walked to the middle of the yard and was waiting, Harry followed.
"Look Tonks, I'm sorry. About Sirius, about everything."
She made no sound.
Great so she's not talking to me. Then why'd she ask me to come out here? Then he noticed two figures across the street, they were wearing black robes and in a flash of lightning he caught sight of familiar white masks.
"Tonks, death eaters!" He brought his wand forward and then grunted when he was grabbed from behind.
"Tonks what are you…" The odd mannerisms, its not grief, she's under an imperious curse!
He struggled but she quickly disarmed him and forced him to the ground with one hand, she held his wand with her other hand. The taller of the two death eaters took the wand and pocketed it.
"What in blazes is going on!" Vernon now stood in the doorway. As he saw Harry pinned to the ground he laughed.
"Finally getting what you deserve boy."
"Indeed." The taller death eater snapped his wand up and muttered impero. Vernon's gaze went slack and he just stood there.
"Well invite us in muggle."
"Yes, would you like to come in." Vernon got out of the way, as the shorter death eater walked in followed by Tonks holding Harry and then the taller death eater. As soon as they were inside the taller one nodded to the shorter one and then proceeded to lock the door and place silencing and privacy wards on the doors and windows. The shorter one disappeared upstairs.
"Tonks fight it, I know you can." The death eater lashed out and punched Harry in the gut. He gasped and sagged, Tonks kept him from falling.
"You'll shut your mouth child."
Minutes latter the shorter death eater came down stairs floating besides him where the bound and stunned bodies of Dudley and Aunt Petunia. He sat them up on the couch and told Vernon to sit down as well. Then the taller one handed the shorter one Harry's wand. Oh no, he thought.
"Remember only the men, she is connected to the wards."
"No stop." Harry was rewarded with another punch for that. Two green curses latter Dudley and Vernon Duresley were dead.
"Well now that most of the filth is gone we can disperse with the pleasantries." The death eaters removed their masks, a pair of far to familiar blonds stood before him now. Draco and Lucius Mafloy.
"Not so big now are you Potty." Draco smirked and twirled Harry's wand.
"Release him." Tonks obeyed, and as Harry rose charging at the younger Mafloy he ate a cruciatus curse from the older Mafloy.
"Temper Potter." A soon as Lucius released him Draco hit him with another of the pain curses. As far as cruciatus curses go Draco's was pathetic and even Lucius was nothing compared to the pain that Voldemort had dished out in that graveyard. Unfortunately they had the anger to hold the curse, and no matter how many times you felt the familiar sensation of hot knives skinning you alive, you still couldn't prepare.
They kept this up, trading back and forth, for about two minutes, giving him the minimum needed time between blasts, as Draco explained.
"We wouldn't want you to lose your mind just yet." When they finally stopped Harry glanced up at Tonks, his eyes pleading for help. Her eyes were cloudy but he could see growing resistance deep within. Lucius noticed it too.
"Well it looks like its time to go to stage two." Using his own wand Draco placed Harry in a full body bind and positioned him so he could see what Lucius was doing. He had bound Tonks' arms behind her back and with the help of several sticking charms and conjured ropes he was hanging her by her arms from the ceiling and keeping her legs from kicking him. Tonks had come out of the imperious effects now and was cursing like a sailor.
"The rooms been silenced, no one will hear you."
"But you can scream anyway, I kinda enjoy that. Crucio!" Draco finished as he hit her with the pain curse. She held out for a few seconds before screaming.
I don't like the leering smile those two have, oh god no.
Lucius stepped forward and ripped her robes and the blouse she wore beneath open. Tonks spit on him but earned a hard backhanded slap for her troubles. Over the next hour Harry alternated between screaming and begging for them to stop. Aunt Petunia came to, and joined Harry but she was quickly stunned again.
When the father and son duo were satisfied with her they used a sticking charm to attach her to the ceiling above the frozen Harry. She was crying and whimpering now, Harry had never seen her so broken in his life, he just wished they'd end it and kill him. Anything to help the naked Auror that hung above him.
"She wasn't too bad for a mudblood whore. Don't worry you didn't miss much Potter." Harry cursed his mother and got a kick to the groin for it. Once again Draco pulled out Harry's wand and cast a cutting curse at Tonks, it grazed her belly and while the cut wasn't deep she started to bleed, on Harry. Draco made several more until the young Auror had stopped screaming and crying her every ounce of remaining strength on keeping herself breathing. Lucius spent the time by hitting Harry with minor, but still excruciating pain curses. Suddenly they cut the holding charms on each of them. Harry could barley move and he had no time to react before Tonks' broken body fell on him.
"Please don't die, please Nymp."
"Harry… do me a favor." 'cough'
"Anything, just hang in there." She grabbed his hand and squeezed.
"Kill them for me." Then her hand went limp and she stopped breathing.
"So pathetic." Draco fired a killing curse at Aunt Petunia, who had been up and screaming for several minutes now. Then the two death eaters spread the fallen family Duresly out on the floor and laid Harry's wand down beside him. Harry grabbed it and tried to put every bit of hate into his next spell.
"AVAD…" He never got that far as Lucius kicked him in the head and everything went dark.
END FLASHBACKNeri's face showed a mix of disgust and pitty as she listened to his tale.
"So is that why you're here?" At this Harry began to laugh. It was a cold and disquieting laugh.
"Hardly, if a lifetime here was the cost of killing those two bastards I'd gladly forsake the rest of the world for revenge. No the story isn't over, if you though it was possible it gets worse. Let me finish before I lose the will."
"Okay." She placed her hand on his shoulder. Her hand may have looked fleshy but it felt bony and cold, still Harry took comfort in the fact someone would listen to him even if she was the avatar of the foulest creatures that he'd even encountered.
FLASHBACKWhen I awoke it was morning, there where aurors and Order members everywhere. As soon as I started to move someone stunned me. The next time I awoke I was in a cell at the ministry. Besides the pain curses, and a few bruises I was in decent shape. Didn't matter they didn't give me the treatment for the after effects anyway. Those aurors, they questioned me for hours. I told them everything and then everything again under Veritaserum. They wrote it down and then left, and I was held in the dark for several days unaware of what was going on. They fed me but no one would tell me what was being done, whether or not they caught the Mafloys. Then one day the removed me, they stunned and awakened me down on the bottom levels of the ministry. They took me in to my trail. My trail! For the murder of my family and Tonks' rape and murder. How could anyone think I'd done such horrible things? When I tried to protest they placed a silencing charm on me and I was forced to watch the trial. No need to panic right, they would let me speak in my defense right?
At first the prosecutions case was simple, I was at the scene, my wand had been used to kill everyone there and I was holding my wand when they found me. I could deal with that, however unfair it was any trial grade attorney could get me off. Even a muggle attorney could get me off with the physical evidence alone. I saw that I did have someone to argue on my behalf since they wouldn't let me speak. But that person did nothing. The prosecution finished with the evidence I thought it was over that my defense would help me, admit the transcripts of my lengthy interrogation. Or question me under Veritaserum. But I was wrong the prosecution had more evidence. Evidence that was against my state of mind, basically they had found some people to perform a character assignation. I didn't know who they'd found but it was worse than I could have ever thought. They had my friends; my best friends testify that I was horrible, evil even.
Ron, my supposed best friend, told the world that I was an attention-seeking prat. That I broke rules just to break them. That I hated my aunt and uncle, that part was true but I would never wish them death. Maybe a broken arm or something but not death. Hermione, my other ex-best friend, told them that I was rash and impulsive, I guess that's true but why? Then she told them that I was practicing dark arts and the list just went on. Over the past year the Daily Prophet had dragged my name through the mud, and the people who'd defended me then now confirmed every-false rumor. Most of my so called and friends and most of the Weasley family testified against me. By the end of that farce they called a trial the trip we took to the ministry, that got my godfather killed, became a 'mad quest by a dark wizard in training' they even accused me of using the imperious curse on them to force them to come with me. They said they had no idea why they would have done such a foolish thing. What was worse Draco even testified against me, how could that murdering bastard be accusing me of his crimes. I screamed at the top of my lungs but no one could hear me. Fudge, the minister of magic, was as giddy as a schoolgirl. He was smiling the entire time, along with the rest of his ministry staff. Headmaster Dumbledore spoke against me, he said that he didn't know where he'd gone wrong. Wrong! He went wrong when he refused to allow me to speak! After an incredibly short recess the wizenmagot found me guilty on all counts. Their sympathy towards a minor was that I be imprisoned for seven hundred years. When I was given the chance to say something after my sentencing I was immediately silenced when I tried to plead with them to look at what happened at my interrogation. They took me down to the holding cells again and let my friends approach me. I was still silenced and could say nothing, when I got close to the bars they spat on me. Even though the wizenmagot had ceremonially broken my wand, Ron informed me he'd switched the wand with a fake and held my wand out before me. He'd rescued it so he could break it himself. My best friend, if he was capable of such malice, I-I never knew. Hemione was no better; she'd found the album of my parents. Sirius had given it to me; it was all I had of them. She burnt it in front of me, they told me it severed me right and anything I got was a thousand times better than what I dissevered. Then one of the guards gave me a bundle, someone had left for me. I-it was… H-hedwig. My owl, my first friend, she would have believed me no matter what. Someone had strangled her. What did she do to anyone; she was the best friend a person could have. I got no more visitors, the next thing I knew I was being chained up and portkeyed to the fortress. I've been in this cell ever since.
END FLASHBACKAt this point Harry eyes where filled with tears, every single horrible thing that had happened since that faithful night in the department of mysteries crashed back down upon him. His mental shields where holding, this was completely his doing.
'Shss, Shss' "It's not okay but it will get better." Harry collapsed into Neri's arms. It was like holding the reaper himself, but she comforted him all the less. When the guard came by latter on she made herself invisible and let Harry, who had fallen asleep on her shoulder, rest.
This one has gone through so much; I should at least listen to him, even if there is nothing I can do.
Or can I?