Hey guys, sorry for the wait. Between two jobs and school, it's hard to find the time or the will to write. I'm not entirely happy with this chapter, I literally re-wrote it about 17 times. It just doesn't feel right to me. Maybe I'm being to critical of it, but you guys tell me.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed, and thanks to Cylon One for his finding of my grammatical and spelling errors. This story has not been beta'd at all.
As always, I don't own any characters affiliated with Harry Potter or Green Lantern.
Harry Potter and the Blackest Night
Chapter 2
-==-
"Welcome to the Sinestro Corps."
"Uhh… OK. But what do I do now?" Fenrir asked of the strange new ring.
"Prepare to transport sentient being," said the ring, while wrapping Fenrir in the yellow fear energy once again. Before Fenrir could react, he saw his body disassemble itself, literally molecule by molecule. As soon as he realized what was happening, his skeleton, which was the only part of him that remained visible, let out a startled yell. And then he was gone.
-==-
Back at the Burrow, Harry was enjoying a late lunch with the Weasleys and Hermione. Things had been going well for Harry and Ron as Aurors. Even though they were only being assigned lower level missions for the moment seeing as they were rookies, the pay was good and hours were currently flexible since they were also catching up on a years' worth of education. And days like today, where the sun was shining and they had gotten the day off from the Ministry were Harry's favorite.
"So a mushroom walks into a bar, and the bartender says 'We don-',"
All of a sudden, Ginny's joke was interrupted by a knocking at the door.
Hermione quickly jumped for the door, and opened it.
"Why Minister! This is a surprise. Come in!"
Curious as to what was going on, Harry, Ron and Ginny got up from their places at the table and joined Hermione and Kingsley in the sitting room.
"What's going on Kingsley? Has something happened? Are we needed for a mission?" asked Harry.
Kingsley looked solemnly between the four for a moment before speaking.
"You're not needed for a mission, but yes, something has happened. I received word about half an hour ago that Andromeda Tonks has died."
The two Aurors and their lovers stood shocked into silence upon hearing this news.
"Apparently, she died because of an unknown disease that was able to resist magical cures. While magic can't cure everything, it can cure things that muggle medicine can't, and vice versa. We had a healer who also works in muggle hospitals on the scene to do an autopsy. They were completely baffled. The disease that killed her had never been seen before. But regardless, that now leaves her grandson, Teddy Tonks, son of Remus and Nymphadora Lupin, without anyone to take care of him. Harry, as Godfather it is up to you whether or not you want to take him in," explained Kingsley.
"I'll take him, he deserves to have someone there for him," said Harry without hesitation.
"Now Harry, this is a huge responsibility. Are you sure? If you don't feel that you're up for raising a child, we can have him put into the foster care system."
"No, that wouldn't be right. I was put into essentially the same position, and it was terrible. I don't want him to go through that. Lupin and Tonks were like extended family to me, and they entrusted their child to me in case something ever happened. I can live up to this."
"Alright Harry, if that's what you truly want, I'll have someone bring Teddy and his belongings to you. I'll work with you to make sure you can perform your Auror duties and take care of him. Also, you can expect a pay raise. Make no mistake Harry, this will be a challenge, but I'm sure you'll be able to live up to it if you make the effort."
"Thank you Kingsley," replied Harry, touched that the Minister would go through this much trouble for him.
"My pleasure. Now, I have to go, I have some very important meetings to attend," said Kingsley. He then pointed to both Ron and Harry. "I'll see you two on Monday," and with that, the Minster of Magic left.
-==-
In the Anti-Matter Universe, on the planet Qward, Fenrir Greyback fell to the ground onto all fours, having never experienced something like the transportation method of the strange yellow ring. It was nothing like Apparation. He had literally just watched himself be torn apart on Earth, and be reassembled on this strange world.
"Where am I?" wondered Greyback, getting to his feet.
"Planet Qward. Home of the Sinestro Corps. New recruit, report to Lyssa Drak for induction."
Fenrir looked at the ring. It had been telling him what to do ever since he got it. He sighed as he still had no idea how to control it and needed instruction anyhow.
"Alright, where is this Lyssa?" he asked of the ring.
"Scanning. Sentient being Lyssa Drak located. Follow the arrow."
Before Fenrir had a chance to ask what arrow the ring was talking about, yellow light shot out of the face of the ring and formed a three dimensional arrow pointing in the direction he supposed he had to go. He looked in that direction and saw the bare outline of a castle like structure on the horizon. Grinning to himself, Fenrir felt that he could make it there in no time without any issue. And thus, he turned on the spot and vanished with a loud crack.
-==-
Almost instantaneously, Fenrir appeared at the entrance to the castle he saw.
"New location registered, recalibrating directions. Scanning. Sentient being Lyssa Drak located. Follow the arrow," said the ring, now pointing into the castle.
Fenrir began walking, aided by the yellow rings construct. After several minutes of walking through corridors and up flights of stairs, the arrow pointed to a closed door. Fenrir openedthe door and walked in, expecting to see an ugly old hag. What he did see was a tall thin, dark skinned woman with strips of cloth covering her breasts and her more intimate areas. She had black eyes with yellow irises. Lastly she wore a yellow ring as well, except that it constantly generated yellow chains that bound her to a book that bore the same emblem as their rings on the cover.
"Ah, welcome Fenrir Greyback of Space Sector 2814. I am Lyssa Drak, keeper of the Book of Parallax. You are here to receive instruction in the ways of fear, correct?" asked the woman.
"Lady, I can cause fear like no other. I just don't know how to use the ring. Maybe if you could give me some personal instruction…" said Fenrir, looking up and down her body with lewd and hungry eyes as he licked his sharp teeth.
Lyssa Drak actually shivered. Something about this man was not right. He appeared to be an Earth man, and came from Earth, but there was something vastly different about him. And the way he looked at her unnerved her slightly. She was used to men attempting to bed her, but this one seemed to want to bed her and eat her directly afterward. Still, she got her emotions back in check as she turned to walk away, beckoning for him to follow.
"In order to use the ring, you must become fear itself. Being able to instill fear is only the first part of the equation. You will be placed into a fear capsule, like all new recruits. Your ring will be drained of its energy and your task will be to overcome your deepest fears, as well as taking your ability to instill fear to a greater degree. If you can do this, the ring will collect the fear energy and it will spark, which will trigger the fear capsule to open. Be warned, that if you cannot accomplish this, you will die inside the capsule, unworthy of the ring or your place in the Sinestro Corps."
And with that, Lyssa turned to him and opened the Book of Parallax, at which point, the yellow light that was in Fenrirs' ring flowed into the book.
"What do you mean by taking my ability to instill fear to a greater degree?" asked the Lycan.
She gave him a sinister smile and said "Let me tell you a story…"
-==-
Back at the Burrow, Harry had just finished moving his belongings and Teddy's into Fred and George's old room. The Weasleys insisted that he move in with them as well, since raising a child would be extraordinarily difficult for just one person and they had room to spare. Plus, he liked being that close to Ginny.
Whenever Harry and Ginny were alone with each other or just the both of them and the infant Teddy, Ginny would talk to Harry about possibly getting married the day she turned 17, and how the two could raise Teddy together as adoptive parents. Harry liked the idea and the romance behind it, but wasn't so sure he wanted to jump right into it. Yes, he did love her and yes, he wanted to be with her, but things were unstable for him at the moment. Kingsley was working with Harry closely to make sure that between raising a child and going on increasingly dangerous missions, that he didn't burn himself out.
It was a surprise one day when both Ron and Harry received summons to the Auror Department immediately, for an 'Endgame' class mission. Endgame missions were the most difficult missions for an Auror, and only came about when something very big was about to go down.
Leaving Teddy in the capable hands of Mrs. Weasley, Hermione and Ginny, Ron and Harry apparated to the Ministry.
-==-
At the Ministry, Kingsley had called Harry, Ron, Lavender Brown, Ernie MacMillion, and Susan Bones to a private meeting. Harry surveyed the people gathered. Lavender had never truly gotten over Ron, even now, she would cast glances over at him. Apart from that, she and her best friend Parvati Patil were quickly becoming two very powerful Seers and were starting to get random, but clear visions of the future, in addition to their combat abilities and experience.
Ernie, though still somewhat arrogant, had toned down his attitude quite a bit after being thoroughly spanked by every senior Auror he had trained with. But where he excelled was the fact that he knew more spells and curses than almost everyone in their Hogwarts class, second only to Hermione. Thus he had far more tools in his belt than most.
Susan was doing very well with all of her Auror training, the death of her grandmother the previous year had encouraged her to grow up and take magic seriously. It also gave her the determination to hunt down every Dark Wizard she could. She was an excellent tracker.
Ron, though still a bit thickheaded, was fiercely loyal and proven that he could indeed strategize. And now that Harry thought about it, ever since Voldemort eradicated the bit of his own soul from Harry, Harry's own magic had seemed to become less powerful, letting Ron surpass him in sheer strength of magic, due to Ron having to compete with Harry for seven years.
All in all, all Aurors here were from the faction that Harry had led during his fifth year of Hogwarts, Dumbledore's Army. And these five people here had some of the strongest Patronus Charms Harry had ever seen.
Harry looked up as Kingsley reentered the room, accompanied by a woman who looked like she was straight out of a Vegas stage show. She wore a purple top hat with a purple and white suit vest, as well as white gloves, a black leotard and black stockings over top her shapely legs. She regarded them all with interest.
"Alright you five. The reason I called you here is because I have something special in mind for you. You five have proven to be the best in your respected fields as well as powerful Aurors. So we are making a five person cell to be our enforcers, for when our normal Aurors have problems. You will be called the Phoenix Force,"
Kingsley then motioned to the new woman. "This is Zatanna. She is the liaison between the magical world and the Justice League."
Awestruck, all involved, except Ron, stared at the woman. But something didn't quite click with Harry.
"Hold on, if she's our liaison with the Justice League, how come they didn't get involved with the entire war with Voldemort?"
Before Zatanna could respond, Kingsley spoke. "Because of the International Statue of Secrecy. If the Justice League got involved, then the muggle world would know about all of us. Regular people aren't ready to accept us living among them. They accept her, because she is a 'superhero'. And think, no one, even in the League, is immune to magic. Think of how the world would respond if say Batman had taken a killing curse, or even Superman?
"Now, if that's all cleared up, Zatanna will be taking you five further than most any wizards have ever gone before, you'll be the best of the best of the best. And after she's done with you in one week, you'll have your first major assignment."
-==-
As soon as Harry and Ron got back to the Burrow, they told Hermione and Ginny of what had happened. The two girls gasped and Hermione exclaimed; "Oh my god! You actually met Zatanna?! Of the Justice League?! What was she like?"
Harry was about to go into his impression of her when Ron butted in. "Now hold on. Who is she and what is the Justice League?"
This time, in many years, Harry and Hermione got to look awestruck at Ron's ignorance for once.
"You've never heard of the Justice League?" asked Hermione.
Ron merely shook his head.
"Then I have some stuff for us to look at," said Hermione, racing to her room, and swiftly coming back with several DVD documentaries, some with a large 'S' inside of a diamond, or two gold W's stacked on top of each other, or even a yellow sideways oval with a caricature silhouette of a bat. Ron looked at them with interest, and the four sat down on the couch, where Hermione conjured up a large television and they popped in the first of the DVD's.
"Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, witness live footage and interviews with the Man of Steel…"
-==-
The following week was filled with lots of extra training, and the Phoenix Force was quickly becoming the premiere cell among the Aurors.
"A group of elites needs a highly visible symbol, something that will set them apart from the normal soldiers," said Zatanna after one of their training sessions. "And this will be your symbol, wear it at all times and wear it proudly," she said as she held up several red and gold gauntlets. "You are in fact the best of the best of the best. And don't ever forget it. I may call upon you, my dear Phoenix Force if I ever need help, but for now, the Minster has something he wants you to do. Now get out there and show the magical world what you can do."
-==-
After Zatanna had departed to go back to the Justice League, the Minister approached the newly active Phoenix Force with a scroll of parchment.
"Alright Phoenix Force," said Kingsley, addressing the group. "Here is your first official mission. We have received information the there is a colony of Dementors around Rapoltu Mare, Romania. According to known information on Dementors, a colony usually consists of around 50 Dementors. Reports have been coming about a perpetual mist that they are generating as well as extreme cold. You've all encountered Dementors at some point, so I don't need to remind you that they can drain the happiness out of surrounding people. This goes without saying, but try not to get Kissed."
As Kingsley finished up, Harry, Ron, Lavender, Ernie and Susan were pulling on their Auror combat uniforms. They were somewhat shorter cloaks made out of a thinner material and had built-in shield charms, courtesy of Fred and George before the Battle. A nice feature to the gauntlets that Zatanna had provided them with was the ability to generate a fair amount of heat, reminiscent of the phoenix itself. After suiting up, the Phoenix Force apparated to their destination.
-==-
Outside the village of Rapoltu Mare, five loud cracks sounded in quick succession. And five figures in cloaks with red and gold steel gauntlets appeared from a back alley.
"Wow, it really is cold," said Susan.
"Are we sure that it's only 50 Dementors?" questioned Ernie.
"Well, that's what the reports said," answered Ron.
All of a sudden, Lavender let out a quick gasp. "What was that?!" She asked, sounding a little frightened, rubbing her head.
"Was it a vision?" asked Harry, turning to her.
"Yeah… I don't know what to make of it. I saw many men in green and black uniforms fighting monsters that looked like they were made of orange light. And one man's uniform kept changing; the amount of green on it was changing, like it was struggling against a blue that was on him too."
"That's weird. Are you alright, do you need some time?" asked Ron.
"No, let's go, it was just a strange vision," she replied, pulling her wand out.
The others also pulled their wands out and began their walk through the village, keeping their eyes and ears open for anything.
-==-
Back on the Planet Oa, a pink skinned alien with four skinny arms, no discernible mouth and horns going down the sides of his pointed face was going over the reports regarding the Sinestro Corps recent attempt to invade and destroy Earth, as well as the reports pertaining to the capture of the former Torchbearer, Ion. Or rather, Kyle Rayner, as he was formerly and now known as. Many Lanterns had fallen, and it weighed heavily on Salaak's heart. But this seemed to signal that something big was going to happen.
-==-
As the day progressed, the Phoenix Force had scoured the village and some of the surrounding forest, and found no trace of the colony as described in the reports. The sun was up and the mist was beginning to clear.
"Well guys, it looks like we were fed some false information," said Harry. Maybe we should head back."
The others agreed and started to put away their wands. Just then, the fog became insanely thick, and the air became much colder. All at once, Dementors surrounded the five young Aurors. There were literally hundreds.
"Uh… Harry, I think we've got more than a single colony to deal with," said Lavender. Then the five sprang into action, putting their backs right against each other, they each concentrated on their happiest memories, and shouted "EXPECTO PATRONUM!!"
Five silver animals burst out of their wands, Harry's stag bounding headlong into the army of Dementors, while Ron's Jack Russell Terrier ran around the humans, barking at the Dementors, and acting as a shield. Alongside the stag was Ernie's boar as well Susan's eagle and Lavenders dolphin.
-==-
On Oa, after Salaak had seen to the gathering of the rings from the fallen lanterns, he was taking some time to re-calibrate and to begin the re-encoding of them. Mogo had taken a fair amount of damage from the Children of the White Lotus, so it was a no-brainer for Salaak to help take some of the burden off such an important lantern. As he worked he began to think on what had been happening to the Corps in recent years. Every day the Guardians seemed to close themselves off more and more to the idea of anybody holding any emotion, especially anyone serving in the Corps.
Salaak could certainly understand their concern, what with the recent revelation that the yellow light was in fact the energy of fear. Though he had rumors of Ganthet and Sayd, two Guardians who had taken on names to separate themselves from the rest of the Guardians, had been banished for something as simple as feeling emotion. It was unknown where the two had gone, but Hal Jordan had become even more surly and resistant since it happened. But then again, the human made no effort to hide the fact that the only Guardian he had trusted was Ganthet.
Gradually, Salaak turned his mind to the humans. To be honest, he hadn't thought much of Hal Jordan when he had first met him. He had always heard that humans were a fearful, greedy, and an all-around stupid race. Not to mention the smell. But as Salaak ascended the ranks, he saw that Hal not only disproved the slander against his race, but was in fact making a better name for all humans. This was only further increased when the other three humans joined, John Stewart, Guy Gardner and Kyle Rayner. Hell, Lantern Rayner had actually become the Torchbearer for a while and contained the living embodiment of willpower, Ion, inside his body for that duration.
Granted, eventually Lantern Rayner had let fear overwhelm him after Sinestro had forcefully extracted Ion from him, and that left him vulnerable for possession, courtesy of the living fear-entity Parallax. To date, Parallax had taken possession of two Green Lanterns, both of them human. But in a stunning turn of events, the humans had managed to force Parallax out and had actually managed to defeat it not only once, but twice, even with the weakness of the yellow impurity.
And now, Hal was down in the Sciencells preparing to tell Sinestro of his imminent execution, while Kyle Rayner was having a discussion with the Guardians. Somehow, these humans managed to overcome all obstacles. Sure they fell occasionally, but they got right back up and came back with a new plan and new strength. Maybe some more humans added to the Corps would bring even more success. The Guardians would not approve, and would more than likely let their own opinions of the humans cloud their logical thinking. Salaak could not say that he approved of the way things were going, but who was he to disobey his superiors? Then again, the Guardians had never given an order to NOT recruit more humans…
Setting two rings aside, he encoded them to go to Earth and to find any viable humans for the job. He then sent the rest to Mogo for their re-encryption.
As he walked to the Citadel, he decided that maybe it was a better idea to not let the Guardians know about more humans becoming Green Lanterns right now.
-==-
The Dementors swooped and glided to get around the animals of light, but neither side seemed to making any headway. The sheer number of Dementors allowed the forces of darkness to switch out weakened Dementors with fresh ones, to allow the weak ones to rest up while the others pressed the attack. Harry was stunned. This was the first time that he knew of Dementors attacking fiercely and smartly. They were generally instinct based creatures that had, until now, only had enough intelligence to know what they wanted and to follow simple orders.
Before an hour had passed, he could hear Lavender start to breathe heavily, and he couldn't blame her. Maintaining and controlling a patronus charm was extremely difficult for extended periods of time. He could feel Susan next to him wobbling and shivering. The battle was not going well, and if they tried to disengage, the Dementors would have them before they could apparate to safety.
Then things took a turn for the worst. Lavender passed out. She fell to the ground and her dolphin patronus faded into a silver mist and vanished. Harry took a quick look around him, and saw that Susan's eagle was starting to flicker and leaving a trail of silver mist. At this point he heard Ernie breathing hard and ragged.
"I'll try to stay with you guys, but I don't know how much longer I can hold this," Ernie said to them.
"Guys, just a little longer, at this point, it isn't even about completing the mission, it's about surviving this," Harry replied as Susan also passed out. Harry reckoned that the only thing keeping Ernie up was the fact that he and Ernie had a bit of a rivalry going and Ernie didn't want to pass out before Harry.
However, now that the girls had fainted from exhaustion, Ron now had to focus on defending the two unconscious women as well as the three men. The effort that had now been placed on all three of them was quickly becoming overwhelming. And soon, Ernie passed out as well.
Ron and Harry were the only ones left standing, and there were still a couple hundred Dementors swooping about them, trying to get at them, and coming ever closer. This was a losing battle, and they both knew it.
"Harry, I think there might be a chance that we're not going to make it," said Ron.
"No Ron, we will, we have to. The rest of our group is depending on us, and we have women waiting for us at home, we've got too much to live for! Ron, force all of your magic into it!"
Harry and Ron fought as hard as they could. Their magic was being quickly drained, but putting every last ounce of their will power into their spells paid off. Each one of their patronuses killed five Dementors before they faded into a silvery mist.
As the charms faded, all got very dark and cold. "Ron, it was nice knowing you mate. Don't let them kill you without a fight."
"Same to you Harry."
The two began throwing punches with their gauntlets, occasionally feeling something they hit. Then, out of nowhere, a green light started to shine.
Harry looked toward it, wondering what it was. Despite the fog, the green light made it possible to see the silhouettes of the Dementors swooping about. They were curious as to what this green light was as well, but they didn't want to get too close to it.
As the green light got brighter, it became clear that the source was two separate objects.
"Blimey," muttered Ron, awestruck.
The glowing green objects descended and brought themselves down to eye level with Harry and Ron and began to circle them.
"Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley of Earth. You possess the ability to overcome great fear."
The two objects, which turned out to be rings, attached themselves to the middle fingers of the hands that harry and Ron did not wear their gauntlets on.
As soon as the rings attached themselves to the two wizards, green light exploded out from them. At first, Harry thought it might be a killing curse, but he noticed that the green light held no ill intent, and was in fact empowering them both. The green energy wrapped around the best friends and faded to reveal the two men wearing form-fitting black and green suits with their ring hands covered in white gloves. They also had white boots and a white circle in the middle of their chests, each with an emblem of a green circle being sandwiched between two green bars. It looked like a lantern.
"Welcome to the Green Lantern Corps." said the same voice from before. This filled Harry and Ron with excitement. They knew about Earth's Green Lantern Corpsmen, since they had all been in the Justice League at some time or another. And other than excitement, they were ready to finish their mission with a bang.
Unfortunately, the rings were fairly un-responsive. The green light faded, but didn't entirely go out, so they could still vaguely see their enemies.
"You've got to be effin kidding me…" cursed Ron.
"Well, I guess we keep throwing punches until we die," said Harry.
"Looks that way."
The two resumed their fight against the Dementors. Once again, only occasionally feeling their fists meeting the putrid flesh of the Dark Creatures. The rings glowed a bit brighter every time they threw their punches, but nothing else.
It was then that Harry heard the rattling breath that was always associated with the Dementors Kiss. Whirling around, he saw that the Dementors had actually managed to move Ron and himself away from the unconscious members of the Phoenix Force. And now he saw that the Dementors were in the process of removing their souls.
'No!' thought Harry, abandoning the foes in front of him to get back to his comrades. But several other Dementors moved in front of him to block his way.
"Ron! They're trying to Kiss the others!"
Ron spun about and also tried to get back to their starting point, but likewise, his path was blocked.
"No!" yelled Ron, unable to move anywhere. "We've got to save them!" As he began to struggle all the harder.
'And we will, these Dementors need to die! Come on Harry, just a little more! Keep going until they are safe!'
Then something extraordinary happened. Both green rings glowed brilliantly as small spheres of green light formed around the fists of Harry and Ron. All at once, multiple beams shot out of the spheres, though they didn't travel in straight lines, like lasers did in cartoons. These beams actually sought out and homed in on their targets. Then Dementors started to die en masse. With beams of green blasting through the heads and chests of many of the soul-suckers, the Dementor super-colony took its first major hit.
Stunned at what had just happened, Ron began to yell at his ring.
"What the bloody hell?! At first you wouldn't do anything, but right then you killed a colonies worth of Dementors! How about finishing the rest of them now?" said Ron as he pointed the ring back at a large group of the creatures.
"Unable to comply," said the ring.
"Why the hell not?!"
"Your will is not strong enough."
And it suddenly clicked with Harry. The rings didn't respond to thought, it bent to his will. He had to want it to do something, the ring and its constructs had to become an extension of his body, just like his wand.
"Ron! I think I've got it! It responds to willpower! And let's see what these can do!" exclaimed Harry as he rose his ring hand to the regrouping Dementors. Focusing all his willpower, Harry gave it all to the ring as well as a shape he had in mind. At once the ring responded by blasting forth a huge construct of a Hungarian Horntail.
-==-
It was dark, and Harry's mind couldn't fathom what was happening. As he mentally gained his bearings, he became aware of whispered voices around him. Harry began to open his eyes, finding them to be crusted over. He hefted his right hand up to wipe it off, though as he did so, he found an unfamiliar object on his hand, he opened his eyes fully and tried focusing on the unknown object, and he realized that it was the green ring that had saved him and Ron as well as the downed members of the Phoenix Force.
"HARRY!" came the over-excited voices of his team mates and friends as he was immediately assaulted by several women hugging him and a few men clapping him on the shoulder.
Harry reached over to find his glasses on the side table as everyone retreated. Putting them on, he looked around to see Ginny, Hermione, Mrs. Weasley, Susan and Lavender all standing there, their eyes shining with tears that threatened to come pouring out. He also saw Ernie, Mr. Weasley and Kingsley there, each with a grin that seemed to almost split their faces open.
"Where's Ron?" asked Harry.
"Right here mate," said Ron from Harry's direct right. Harry looked over to see Ron lying in a bed like he was, though Ron probably looked a bit better than Harry at the moment.
"What happened? And where are we?"
Kingsley stepped forward and took a breath before answering. "Harry, we are in the secure section of St. Mungo's, this wing is only for recovering Aurors and government officials who haven't given their reports in regards to security threats. You are in here because everyone in the Phoenix Force had fallen unconscious on the mission in Rapoltu Mare. Granted, the mission was a success, even though the information regarding the number of Dementors was highly inaccurate. Harry, I am so sorry about the Phoenix Forces first big mission, all known information showed that a Dementor colony would never get bigger than fifty of them. We could have lost all of you…" said Kingsley, his voice lowering towards the end.
"But, after we hadn't received any reports, we sent out a recon squad, and they found the five of you passed out amongst the corpses of nearly 250 Dementors. Miss Brown, Miss Bones and Mr. McMillan had passed out from Magical Exhaustion, and while you and Ron had exhausted your magic as well, you two were also suffering from severe physical and mental exhaustion. It was unknown whether you two would survive until last night."
Harry appeared shocked as this information was revealed, but before he could voice his shock, the Minister continued.
"Probably the oddest thing about the situation was that the Dementors were not killed by magic. I have taken reports from Lavender, Susan and Ernie, and one from Ron as well, but Ron's had some large holes in it, so I was hoping that you could fill in those holes,"
Just then, the doors to Ron and Harry's hospital room burst open, revealing a very pissed off Zatanna.
"Kingsley!!" she roared. "How dare you send them on a mission of that magnitude when they are so fresh out of training?! I know that they are the best you have, but for God's sake, they're still kids!"
By this point Kingsley was backing up with his hands held up in front of him defensively, while the red-faced Zatanna continued to rip him a new one.
"And then I get reports that these two," she gestured angrily to the bed-ridden Ron and Harry. "Almost died! Do you have any idea what kind of news would do to the wizarding world?! That the premiere combat cell of the reformed Auror division was decimated on their first mission?! Not to mention the death of the boy who defeated Voldemort? What the hell were you thinking?!" she screamed.
"Now, Zatanna, cut him a little slac-," started Harry, who quickly shut his mouth as the super heroine whirled around to face him, her eyes blazing.
"And you! Why the hell didn't you disengage immediately?! Not that I'm not relieved that all five of you survived, but what the hell?!"
As she started on her rant towards Harry, he put his hands up in a sign of surrender, but he ultimately knew it was futile. If Zatanna was anything like Ginny, her anger would remain white hot for the foreseeable future.
"And another thing, why…" she paused as she noticed something on his right hand that wasn't there during training. She grabbed his hand and looked at the band of green on his finger, and on it, she saw a symbol, one she knew quite well.
"Where did you get this?" she asked in an astonished whisper.
Surprised by the sudden change in demeanor, Harry hesitated before he went into his explanation that he was going to give to Kingsley, about how after Ernie, Susan and Lavender had passed out and he and Ron had run out of magic, they had to resort to physical violence against the soul-sucking monsters, and how a brilliant emerald light had shown them through the darkness and mist where the Dementors were. He continued to speak as he described the light showing itself to be two rings which bonded to Ron and himself. Occasionally, Ron added some details about what the rings had said and how each ring had killed off around fifty Dementors each when they attempted to rescue the other three. And it was then that Harry finally remembered that he had actually created a construct of a Hungarian Horntail to breathe emerald fire down upon the surviving Dementors, while Ron had managed to form a construct of himself in Quidditch robes blocking any Dementors that tried to escape.
Everyone in the room was hanging on to their every word. In the span of two weeks, Harry and Ron had gone from being rookie Aurors; to the two most powerful of the Phoenix Force, and now apparently the Green Lantern Corps had accepted them into their ranks.
"This is odd," said Zatanna. "There are already four human Green Lanterns from Earth, why would these two rings be out this close to Earth? Well, I'll talk to John Stewart, and see if he'll help out. He's an ex-marine, so if I ask him to keep us on the down-low, I think that he will. Well, I need to go see about things with the League. I'm glad you guys are alright, and I'll send word when I get the chance to talk to John."
And with that, the magical super-heroine turned on her heel and left the room.
-==-
A few days later, Ron and Harry were back at the Burrow, having finally recovered from their first real exposure to the power of the Green Light. They were both immensely happy that the entire Phoenix Force had come out of the entire Dementor Super-Colony situation relatively unharmed.
After Zatanna had ripped Kingsley a new one, the Minister had apologized to the Phoenix Force and began an inquiry of the recon units over such a massive mistake.
Harry and Ron were also happy to be back at the Burrow with the women that they loved. They couldn't wait for the future.
At that point, a knock came from the door.
"Hell, I just sat down," said an exasperated Ron as he got back up to answer the door. Opening the door completely, he saw a tall, bald African man wearing a mostly black suit with green covering his shoulders and his chest. He also wore green gloves and boots. The most dramatic things were his glowing green eyes and a white circle on the center of his chest bearing a green circle sandwiched between two green bars.
"H-hello," stammered Ron, not even noticing Harry coming up to stand beside him as the Green Lantern looked down at them.
"Hello. My name is John Stewart. I hear from Zatanna that you two came across two Green Lantern rings, and as such, I am here to teach you how to use them, since the Lantern Administrator specifically asked me to not mention this to the Guardians; you will be going through MY boot camp. Do you understand?"
"Um… yes," said the two rookie lanterns.
"You will respond by saying 'Sir, yes sir, Lantern Stewart, sir!' you get me poozers?!" shouted John, going into full drill-instructor mode.
"Sir, yes sir, Lantern Stewart, sir!" shouted the two young men, and suddenly, they could in fact wait for the future.
-==-
A month had gone by and Ron and Hermione were in the sitting room of the Burrow, holding a slightly fretful Teddy Tonks, who was awakened by the screaming and yelling that was occurring between his godfather and his chosen girlfriend.
"YOU HAVE TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL GINNY!! YOU'RE TOO DAMN CLOSE TO FINISHING AND THERE IS NO REASON FOR YOU TO DROP OUT!" came Harry's voice carrying down from the fifth floor.
"I DON'T HAVE TO DO SHIT, HARRY JAMES POTTER! IF YOU'LL RECALL, YOU, RON AND HERMIONE ALL DROPPED OUT AND YOU AND MY BROTHER DIDN'T GO BACK! STOP BEING SUCH A FILTHY HYPOCRITE! AND IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T NOTICED, WE HAVE A CHILD THAT NEEDS TO BE TAKEN CARE OF!!" came Ginny's furious response.
As if recognizing that he was now part of the fight, Teddy started crying in Hermione's arms. Hermione made shushing sounds to the infant and rocked him in her arms while Ron came back with a full bottle. Hermione had made the decision an hour earlier to go and rescue Teddy from being a metaphorical casualty in the fight that had erupted between her two friends.
As Ron gave the bottle to Hermione who gave it to Teddy to drink from, he sat down on the well worn sofa, sighing as he did so. Ever since the Hogwarts letters came almost two weeks ago, Ginny and Hermione had been fighting so often that it almost seemed to become part of the daily routine, their fights usually lasting for a few hours at a time, and usually only interrupted when one of them became irate enough to leave the large house for a while, or when Harry had to go to work.
Just then, the front door opened to reveal Mrs. Weasley, groceries in her arms so that the large family could eat. She opened her mouth to call out a greeting when she heard the voice of her daughter screaming at the young Auror, who also now wore a band of green around his finger. Sadly, she sighed as she began to close the front door.
Turning back around, she saw that Ron had generated large shopping cart made out of green light, courtesy of the green ring that adorned his finger as well.
"They're fighting again?" she asked her son.
"Same fight it always is. She doesn't want to go back to school, but he tells her how stupid it would be of her to drop out," said Ron, helping her place her shopping items into the construct, before gesturing for it to take the things to the kitchen.
Sighing again, Mrs. Weasley thought about her daughters' relationship with the Chosen One. Most of the time, they were fine, in love and ready and willing to take on the world. When Teddy had been introduced, she knew that it would put a bit of a strain on the relationship of the two youngsters, but Ginny seemed to love the idea of raising Teddy as if he were her own son. She was given further hope for the two when it was revealed that Harry and Ron were hospitalized but were going to be fine after the first big mission of the Phoenix Force. Ginny had been completely devastated when it looked like Harry might not recover. But in the end, she knew that Harry was right. She needed to finish school if she wanted a chance of ever doing anything with her life outside of being a mother and probably a housewife.
Deciding that things would work themselves out as they tended to do, Molly Weasley turned to her youngest son to thank him for his help with the groceries. He snorted.
"Don't thank me; thank John for showing us how to use the rings."
Molly began to take things out and place them around the kitchen, while being mindful of the two large green colored lanterns sitting on the counter, a reassuring glow of green light shining from both of them.
Quietly, Hermione slipped into the kitchen, holding a now sleeping Teddy.
"Hermione, do you need me to go to Diagon Alley for you?" asked Mrs. Weasley.
Hermione gave a small smile.
"No thank you, Kingsley sent a set of everything that Ginny and I would need through Ron and Harry. I think it was his way of thanking us for everything that happened."
Molly nodded in understanding, and the three adults let out a sigh of relief as it sounded like the latest fight between Harry and Ginny was finally starting to wind down.
-==-
On the planet Odym, two of the little blue people, who used to be two of the immortal Guardians of the Universe, finally came to rest on the most beautiful planet in the universe. This planet was orbited the Polaris star and seemed to embody life and hope, unrestricted and unrestrained.
As multicolored birds flew by, the two Guardians, Ganthet and Sayd, who had been banished from Oa simply because of the fact that they felt emotions. They felt love for each other and they felt hope for the future of the Corps. But alas, none of the other Guardians wanted to hear it, and seemed to be doing whatever they could to NOT hear it, going as far as to remove the prophecy of the Blackest Night from the Book of Oa.
Quietly, they made a pact to each other, to assist the Green Lantern Corps and to help the universe wherever possible. Ganthet, taking Sayds hands into his own, spoke to her quietly.
"Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps will need help, and they will have it from our Corps."
As he spoke, a blue light enveloped both of the former Guardians. Their red and green robes turning white, with a blue symbol placed on the chest. The symbol was a circle with two small lines protruding out of the top and bottom which were connected to two lines that curved. At the two o'clock and ten o'clock positions, two more lines jutted out, and curved downward, and stopping right outside the four and eight o'clock positions before turning inward toward the circle, but not touching it. This would be the symbol of the Blue Lantern Corps.
-==-
A year had passed by and Hermione and Ginny had finally returned to the Burrow after a long school year. They had written their family and lovers every week and made sure that they accomplished all they could have. Hermione was Head Girl while Ginny had captained the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Through their correspondence, Harry and Ron had found out that Luna had taken a class regarding the making of magical items, and had taken a real shine to it, apparently inspired by Mr. Olivander and the stories he told her while they were imprisoned. According to Hermione, the Duel Club had been restarted and Luna CRUSHED the competition with a staff she had made and merged her wand with.
In a lengthy letter, Hermione described exactly how frustrated she was when she dueled Luna, only to find her own magic absorbed into the head of the staff and redirected back at her. Her frustration had only increased when she looked over the staff, finding it to be wholly unremarkable while in her hands, or anyone else's for that matter. It seemed that whatever Luna had done to it worked for her and only her. When Hermione asked her what she had used on it, Luna had only responded by saying that she had used 'Nekloks'. And Hermione, not really wanting to listen to silly made-up terms had stormed away. Ginny, as if in apology for Hermione had questioned what Luna meant, which received a vague and not too helpful answer of "I don't know for sure, but it feels like it is full of goodwill…"
But now the three new graduates were on their way to their career choices. Halfway through the year, Hermione had changed her mind about being a civil rights activist and decided to go into Magical Law Enforcement, not as a Auror mind you, but as an investigator. Her job was to look over mountains of reports of everything from Inquiries to magical terroristic threats.
Ginny had decided to go Pro for Quidditch, and with some help from Professor Slughorn, was put on the list for tryouts in a few weeks time with the Holyhead Harpies, since one of their chasers was retiring as soon as the season was over.
Luna decided that she loved making magical items, and was in the process of opening her own shop. She had also decided to not use the 'Nekloks' in her new items, since it seemed that she would be the only one able to use it at that point.
After graduation, Luna had separated from Hermione and Ginny, though the friends all kept in touch. It would not do to let such a special friendship fall apart. Each one of them was now ready to take on the world.
-==-
On the planet Ysmault, a large red alien, a Ryutian, currently the only survivor of the now dead planet was consumed by his eternal hatred for the Guardians of the Universe. He had to make them pay. They destroyed his planet with their metal monstrosities called the "Manhunters". Because of them, he had lost his wife.
Currently, the Ryutian, named Atrocitus, was busy performing a ritual that a soothsayer had taught him when he was young. The ritual required the blood of another, which wasn't a problem, seeing as he had just killed the fool who was trapped on this desolate planet with him.
See, Atrocitus had a plan, but in order to find out how to make key parts of the plan work, he needed to use this ritual. He needed power. Power to get off this rock, and power to make the Guardians, and two of their Corps, namely Sinestro and Hal Jordan, pay for the sins they had committed. He needed a power to rival the Green Lantern Corps.
As he wiped the blood across the rock, it began to take shape, and it told him how to accomplish his goal, and though it would warp his mind and body, Atrocitus felt that it was worth the price.
With his goal in mind, the large red Ryutian dove into a red lake of blood, which seemed fairly commonplace on this planet. He swam as far down as he could, and it began to get darker and cooler as he went. But he did not feel the chill. His hatred kept him warm. And though most might try to let go of, or just simply acknowledge their anger and hatred, he embraced it. And his reward for doing so came in the form of a red light near the bottom of the lake. The light began to take shape, first as a circle, and from the circle, it expanded even more, into two lines on either side, looking almost like the symbol that the Green Lantern Corps bore, except that it was turned on its side. At the top of both of the lines, it diverged into a forty five degree angle, pointing outwards and then righted itself shortly thereafter. From the center of the circle a small object formed and made its way towards Atrocitus. He began to recite the incantation that would become his oath as soon as the ritual was complete.
"With blood and rage of crimson red, ripped from a corpse so freshly dead. Together now with my hellish hate, I'll burn you all. That is your fate!"
The object, which was now clearly visible, was a ring. The ring attached itself to the middle finger of Atrocitus's right hand. His heart stopped beating, and he coughed, all of the blood from his body being expelled all at once, and he felt his rage intensify tenfold. His body became wrapped in a red light, and it sped him towards the surface of the lake.
As Atrocitus broke the surface of the bloody lake, he wore a black and red full body suit, with armor covering his shoulders and the back of his neck. As the light began to settle, it concentrated on a circle on his chest, which came to bear the same shape as the Red Light had.
Atrocitus turned as he heard something else breaking the lakes surface. As he came to make out what it was, he grinned evilly. He watched as a humongous red lantern, the central battery for his future corps, came fully out of the blood, hovered and made its way towards dry land where it bonded to the rock.
Stepping out of the lake, Atrocitus made his way to his brand-spanking-new central power battery. Feeling the red energy that had replaced his expelled blood react to the large battery, he plunged his hand into the glowing red face of the large lantern. After a second or two, pulled it out, and in his hand were several red rings. He threw them into the sky, and the rupture in the face of the lantern spilled more rings out, each taking off into the sky before hitting the ground.
"Now my red rings, go forth, and bring me my Red Lantern Corps.!"
-==-
A few weeks later, Cho Chang, a lovely Chinese witch that had attended Hogwarts with Harry and the first serious boyfriend she had, Cedric Diggory, was walking back to her home. She was furious. That bitch, Ginny Weasley had just gotten the position she had been trying out for with the Holyhead Harpies.
Granted, Ginny had flown wonderfully, and was an excellent Chaser, while Cho was more suited to be a Seeker. But that red-headed skank had been getting the best of Cho for a few years now. Ever since she and Harry had broken up, Cho had needed a little time to herself to figure out what she really wanted, and in the end, she had wanted Harry. She had planned to ask Harry back out after the Gryffindor team had won the Quidditch Cup that year that he was Captain. But she had been too late. Ginny had snagged him instead.
And now, to top things off, Ginny had just taken away the best prospect of a career that had made itself available to Cho since she graduated. This was unacceptable! In the deep reaches of her mind, Cho knew that she didn't have the right to be angry, but as we all know, anger knows no rationality.
Occupied with her thoughts, Cho continued walking down the road until she bumped into someone. Snapping out of her thoughts, she glared at the person she bumped into before recognizing that they were wearing Auror robes. The man quickly gave an apology to her and tried to escort her back the way she came, saying that there was a situation and that civilians needed to stay back.
Looking over the man's shoulder, Cho's stomach churned. She was at her house, but it was crawling with Aurors, and several of her father's business friends lying on the ground with a few Aurors lying around them, all of them dead or dying. Terrified, she looked up the lawn at her house, and saw many different colored flashes of light and she heard the sounds and shouts accompanying the spells. Her house had turned into a battleground.
Cho pushed passed the Auror and ran toward the house. As she got near, she was grabbed by another two Aurors and was held back.
"MOTHER!!! FATHER!!! FONG LI!!!" she screamed, trying to catch any glimpse of her parents or her house-elf.
Then all at once, the fighting seemed to stop. The flashes of light were gone and it was deathly silent. Cho's breath caught in her throat. All of sudden, a crackling voice came over a medallion on a chocker around each of the Aurors necks.
"Clear. All targets down," said the voice.
"What the hell is going on?!?" yelled Cho.
As she struggled against the two Aurors holding her, Aurors had rushed the house and began bringing out bodies. Amongst them was her father. A minute later, her mother was brought out in handcuffs.
Breaking free of the two Aurors holding her, she ran to her mother as they were getting ready to take her away. "Mother! What's happening?"
"The ministry has killed your father as well as several of his business partners and our bodyguards. Fong Li is dead as well," came the resigned reply.
"That's not entirely true Mrs. Chang and you know it," said a clipped, but very familiar voice.
Cho whirled around to see Hermione Granger, wearing Investigators robes approaching them.
"I'm sorry Cho, but we have a lot of evidence of your parents in contact with a mole who was placed in the Ministry. They were stealing information and sending it to the Chinese Ministry. This is called High Treason, and is very serious. I'm sorry to say that your father and house-elf had killed themselves in order to avoid capture after we placed enchantments over your residence that would prevent Apparation in or out."
Hermione looked at Cho with sad eyes, and Cho looked to her mother. The way that her mother would look down said everything.
Still reeling from shock, Cho didn't even hear the last apology Hermione gave her before all the Aurors which were finally wrapping up the clean up and memory modifications to the Muggles who had seen the incident, all Apparated away, probably to the Ministry.
Left all alone Cho sunk to her knees, trying to comprehend everything that had happened that day.
It dawned on her then that it was Hermione that had just finished taking everything away from her. Ginny had started the job that morning by taking away her career as a Quidditch player and Hermione just took away her family. And those two were the only people she could think about.
Hermione, oh-so perfect Hermione, was a sneak who had put a curse upon the paper that she and Marietta had signed upon their joining the DA, and it came back to bite Marietta in the ass when she was just performing her duty to her country and her family. This had led to her and Harry breaking up. Then of course Ginny snatched him up, out-flown her back when they were in school, and the red-head had also taken the Holyhead Harpies position. And now Hermione had killed or captured everybody she grew up with. The fire that had been burning in Chos' heart that day suddenly became a blazing inferno.
Cho let out a scream of rage and anger and hate. She would get back at those two harlots, and make them suffer, the way that they had made her suffer. She didn't notice the streak of red soaring through the blue sky as angry tears filled her vision. She kept on screaming until a voice, so clear even over the sounds of her hate spoke to her.
"Cho Chang of Sector 2814. You have great rage in your heart."
She looked around quickly just before seeing a red ring slip itself onto the ring finger of her right hand.
All of a sudden, Cho fell to her knees again, hunched over and holding her throat. She opened her mouth to cough, but all that came out was blood. And a lot of it. It just kept coming out, until she felt like she had no more blood in her body. She could hear her heart beat. Ba-bum. Ba-bum. Ba-bum. And then it stopped. She thought she was going to die. Every vein in her body felt like it was on fire.
Red energy enveloped her body and her clothes changed. The energy ripped her Quidditch robes off and formed a skin-tight suit colored black and red. Her hands had red gloves while the skin-tight suit formed black sleeves up her arms. At her shoulders it changed to red, and continued halfway across her clavicle before plunging almost completely. The suit covered half of her breasts except for small circular curves covering her nipples before plunging again. It finally leveled out right around her hips and became skin-tight black pants that covered her shapely legs and ended in red boots. The red energy came to rest over a circle right where a belt buckle would be if she had one. It formed a symbol that reflected the symbol on her ring perfectly.
"!!!" yelled Cho, her eyes turning blood red. Her fist clenching painfully, she heard the ring again as it growled.
" You belong to the Red Lantern Corps."