The Life Unlived

by Grey Quill

Taken from the Dursleys, Harry grows up sheltered from the Light. Dumbledore is oblivious when Harry comes to Hogwarts for his first year. Dark, Slytherin, Vampyres, New Magics, Nonslash.

11. Chapter 11

Harry Potter and the Life Unlived

By

Vulpine Nox

Underlined is writing

Italics is telepathy

Bold is parseltongue

'thoughts of those not telepathic'

Last Chapter

As soon as Silver reached the top of the stairs she 'ported home and fell into a deep sleep easily; sleeping for a record three hours, because she had used up a lot of energy. When she awoke she once again stroked the air and the odd square appeared, she grabbed the bag of sand and opened it to find what would undoubtedly be Neville's familiar and a focus for his magic.

This Chapter

The sun was shining cheerfully on the snow covered grounds, children were outside playing and Professor Severus Snape was fuming internally as McGonagall told him why his house's points were none existent, while Dumbledore looked on in amusement, sucking on his lemon drops.

"- and you know how much trouble James was in school, and Ronald Weasley's brothers are Fred and George. I had to stamp out the problem before it escalated out of control." McGonagall said calmly.

"Regardless of whom it was, a hundred points each is far too many. If Gryffindor can't win, than neither will Slytherin, is that your intention Minerva?" Snape replied in an accusatory tone.

"I've no idea what you are talking about Severus." McGonagall said sweetly.

"And the fact that the House Points cannot be negative had nothing to do with it? Albus I propose that we repeal the point withdrawal and substitute it with more detention time. The points would be back to Slytherin 189 and Gryffindor 139." Snape asked cooly.

"You cannot consider that request Albus, we would lose face in front of the students."

The aged Headmaster considered both arguments for a moment, "I agree with Minerva, it would make the teachers lose credibility with the students. But in the future, Minerva, take an appropriate number of points for the offense, regardless of who it was. Lemon Drop?"

"No thank you Headmaster," Severus muttered.

"I would be happy to Albus." The Headmaster's twinkle brightened as the namesake of the goddess of knowledge and war took one of his favorite candies.

–

The six students reported down at the entrance to the Great Hall at eight o'clock were Filch met them, muttering about the good old days, and various means of torture.

"Filch have ye bin scarin' the students again? Git out of er ye filthy squib." Filch scuttled back up to the castle muttering about torture once again.

"Righ' then, we wil be going in the forest t'night. Someuns' been attackin' Unicorns, one badly hurt and we haf' to find it."

"We have to go into to the Forest? The Forbidden Forest? Are you mad? There are werewolves in there." Malfoy said haughtily but with more than an edge of fear. "That's servant stuff."

"Malfoy, this is a punishment and it isn't a full moon, dunderhead." Shade purposely used Snape's favorite term for idiots to annoy Malfoy, and it worked beautifully. Malfoy's cheeks colored red and his mouth worked silently, unable to find a decent response. He just caught up before Hagrid entered the forest with a large crossbow.

"Oi, Hagrid, don't we get one of those?"

Hagrid blinked; apparently the thought had not occurred to him.

"I 'pose ye could, thers a ittle un next to the door run and git it 'Arry, thers' a quiver of bolts too."

Shade hurried to the hut and extracted the 'little crossbow' from the tangle of stuff near the door; the thing was in fact anything but little. It was almost half as long as Fang and quite heavy, Shade withdrew his wand and cast a semi-permanent floating charm on it and returned to the group with the quiver slung over his shoulder.

Hagrid led them quite a ways into the forest and after about an hour told them to split up, Dean, Seamus and Neville with Fang and the floating crossbow and Shade, Malfoy and Ronald with Hagrid. That arrangement worked for about fifteen minutes until red sparks were seen. Hagrid went barreling through the brush, straight toward the sparks. Hagrid returned annoyed with Seamus sporting a black eye, Dean's robes were burned in places and Neville apologizing to both of them. Apparently Dean and Seamus thought that it would funny to scare Neville, and due to his recent training he easily beat them within a few seconds, not realizing that they were friends.

Hagrid readjusted the groups sending Malfoy, Shade, and Neville with Fang and the floating crossbow. They wandered for several hours and were about to turn back when Shade smelled blood as they entered a clearing.

Their breath caught collectively as they saw the dying creature, a cloaked figure slunk across the clearing and bent over the unicorn and proceeding to drink its blood. Malfoy let out a shriek and ran into the forest blindly, letting his terror rule him. The cloaked figure's head snapped up, silver blood smeared down the front of his cloak, searching for the source of the scream.

Run Neville, and tell Hagrid what you've seen.

Shade could feel Neville's surprise and half formed telepathic voice saying 'what?' Shade poked him hard and Neville hurried in the direction that they had came from.

As soon as Neville was out of sight of both the specter and Shade, he illusioned himself and returned to a hidden vantage point slightly away from both, drawing his wand as he braced himself to fight; Silver would kill him if anything happened to Shade.

Shade stealthily aimed the crossbow at the figure and pulled the trigger, a duel screech, one human on not so human issued from it. Shade cursed, his aim was slightly off so the bolt only hit the figure's shoulder. The figure grabbed wildly for it and yanked it out.

A hissing voice emerged from the cloak, more than a little magic laced through it, "Come forth coward, and face your death."

Neville had no doubt that if the command had been directed at him, he would hasten to obey. Shade didn't move, it wasn't that compelling. Shade quietly loaded another bolt, the crossbow made a quiet snap as it locked the bolt into place. The figured head swiveled towards the origin of the sound.

"LUMOS MAXIMA EXPLODRA," Shade shouted his voice seeming deafening in the still forest. Huge bolts of red and green light shot from the tip of his wand, the first two intertwining as they went and once it passed the treetops it exploded into firework like light. Shade brought the wand down toward the mysterious person half way through the spell and another bolt shot toward him. He jumped out of the way and withdrew his own wand.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Dumbledore will have your magical signature in two seconds if you do. And if you don't want this bolt between your eyes, assuming you have eyes, you had better leave. Hagrid will be here momentarily and someone at the castle will have undoubtedly seen the light show and will come to investigate. So leave now or be discovered."

The cloaked figure hissed at the boy, the child was right as much as it infuriated him. An arrow came from his left and he fled the damnable centaurs that had arrived.

"It is not safe for young to be in the forest tonight, especially you Harry Potter." The equine face looked at him apathetically.

"Greetings centaur, our folly are those of our elders, what do the stars whisper?" The centaur blinked in surprise, the greeting was somewhat appropriate, though old fashioned.

"Mars grows ever brighter, human colt, the act that you just saw validates it."

"Voldemort only fell for a short time; it is pathetic that the adults think that he is truly dead, and that a child did what they could not. What is your name star gazer?"

"Firenze, and are you aware of what is kept at the school?"

"The stone and I know Voldemort is after it." The centaur was unable to respond because Hagrid cam huffing into the clearing.

"Arry, there ye are thank goodness yer alright." Hagrid came rushing into the clearing, the others following behind him.

"Lo' Firenze."

"Hello Hagrid, Mars is bright tonight."

"Eh, yea, anyway we'll git back up to the castle now. Where's Neville?"

Shaking his head as if to clear cobwebs Neville stepped into view, "I'm here Hagrid."

"Right then, lets get back to the castle."

–

After a few hours the odd group finally got back to the castle, the four Gryffindors headed up the stairs. A Slytherin prefect met the two Slytherins at the bottom of the stairs that led to the dungeons.

"Your presence is request by the Slytherin Council; I will escort you there now."

Shade blinked, 'ah, cause Malfoy and me lost so many points.'

The prefect led them down into the deeper dungeons and to a dead end with only a door ahead. The prefect opened the door and led them into a dimly lit room. A large table sat on a long platform, not unlike the one in the Great Hall that the teachers used, the silhouettes of ten people shone against the ten candles behind them. Two cups of a light purple potion sitting on a small stand reflected the candlelight.

"Council, Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy." With that the prefect bowed and left.

A booming voice issued from the figures, "You have been brought here to explain the complete loss of our house points. Explain after you have completely drunken the potion in front of you, as it allows you only to tell the truth."

Shade stayed silent as Malfoy told of his discovery of Hagrid's dragon and his plot to make Weasley lose a great deal of points and get a detention, after they had both drunken the grape flavored potion. The council stayed quiet throughout the speech.

"Harry Potter do you have anything to say for yourself?"

"Council, I was told by a source, that I know is truthful, that Malfoy in fact warned Ronald Weasley that he knew about the dragon. Malfoy then snuck out and I assumed that he was going to confront Weasley, to what end I don't know. Before he could find Weasley he was caught by Professor McGonagall. Malfoy proceeded to tell the Professor about the dragon; from there she intercepted me and four Gryffindors. I had come to stop Malfoy from losing us house point and assumed that he could at least make it to the Gryffindors, but I overestimated him."

"If that is all of your statements we will discuss them among ourselves for a few minuets."

No sound was heard from the silhouettes, presumable they silenced themselves, for several minutes. Shade could smell Malfoy's fear as the seconds wore on after a moment the oppressive silence lifted.

"We have reached our decision. Draco Malfoy, it is your actions that cause two hundred points to be taken, this Council feels you are responsible for one hundred and fifty points of the two hundred taken. You have gain Slytherin sixteen points so far this term therefore you are accountable for the loss of one hundred and thirty-four points being lost. Your punishment is your expulsion from the Slytherin Common Rooms and Sleeping Quarters, loss of your eating privileges at the Slytherin table, and loss of immunity from the fifth years and up. These punishments can be repealed once you gain back all of the points you've lost, but at least one quarter of them must come from Professors other than Severus Snape. Do you understand?"

Malfoy had grown paler as each word of his punishment was spoken and shakily replied, "Yes."

"Harry Potter, though you intentions were in the interest of Slytherin you were caught. This Council feels that you are responsible for fifty points of the two hundred taken. You have gained Slytherin thirty-seven points this year therefore you are responsible for thirteen points being lost. Your punishment is your loss of eating privileges at the Slytherin table for one month, or until you gain thirteen points. Do you understand?"

Shade felt very relived and bowed slightly, he had merely received a slap on the wrist, "Yes honorable Slytherin Council."

"You are both dismissed. Your crimes and punishment will be posted on the board tomorrow, so Mr. Malfoy, I suggest that you retrieve your belongings before then, or by sunrise you may only own the clothes on your back."

–

"Eventful day?" Silver questioned, she was sitting on a couch in the living room rune spell papers everywhere. Shade idly wondered what they were for.

"I'm warding Fluffy's room with proximity wards, they'll alert us and Dumbledore." Shade scowled at her when she said this.

"Yes, I'm aware I'm annoying when I do that. What happened while I was gone, or did you not have anything to do with both Slytherin and Gryffindor have near no points?"

"Hagrid's dragon hatched, Malfoy found out, I tried to help but got caught along with Nev, Malfoy, and the Trip Gryffs. I just came back from a trial held by Slytherin Council, I can't eat in the Great Hall until I get thirteen points. Malfoy has to get over a hundred before he can come back, is kicked out of his room and the common room, and gets to be beaten up by all years."

"Ouch."

"Hm. How was your trip, did you get those books?"

"Yes, and I found the plant, a familiar and a focus for Nev, all from death."

Shade whistled, "Neville is going to be mighty strong."

"I know, I giving them to him on Saturday."

"I going to go to sleep, see you later."

"Goodnight Shade, I think I'll redecorate."

"Night."

–

"Mrow?"

"Blackberry?"

"Maow!" The small black kitten flicked its tail happily.

"How did you get in here?"

This time the kitten didn't answer, it walked over to the entrance of the Gryffindor Common Room and sat patiently waiting.

"Oi Neville, who's cat is that?" Ronald asked quietly, his voice easily heard in the empty common room. When ever one of them, the Gryffs that had been caught out of bounds, came into the common room, it instantly emptied of all students, even though it had been nearly a week since they were caught.

"A friend's, but I don't know how she got here. I'm going to return her, k guys?"

"Just don't get caught out of bounds again while you visit your Hufflepuff girlfriend. Who else would name their cat Blackberry?"

Neville blushed at Ronald's implication, but wasn't about to correct him as he walked out of the room. Perhaps he should tell Master about her supposed Hufflepuffism.

As soon as he got into the Fat Lady's corridor Blackberry clawed up his leg and back reaching his shoulder. Neville hissed slightly at the pain, pulled her off, and held her in front of him, "Are you done clawing me Berry?" He nearly dropped the kitten when he felt a smug mental brush of a 'yes.'

"You are full of surprises, like our Master." He returned the kitten to his shoulder.

Another brush slightly clearer, but more confusing, "I'm the one full of surprises? Hardly Bear-bear, now which way are we going?"

–

Ten minutes later he entered the Rooms, but thought he must have made a wrong turn somewhere. The place he was in was clearly Victorian, not the bare rice-paper wall of the previous Rooms. Blackberry jumped down as he was turning to leave.

"Mrow!" Again there was a mental brush, but this time he could decipher nothing from it. Not that it mattered, Blackberry was walking off. Neville caught up paying attention to the surroundings; the basic layout was still the same. Eventually he got to the Library, Blackberry sitting next to Ana on a couch purring.

The Library was a huge five sided room and it was also restyled. In the center of it was an immense five sided pillar, the area around it was completely occupied by couches, tables and comfortable chairs, all very old fashioned. The walls and the pillar were completely covered in books three stories high, rolling ladders gave access to the first three levels. Three stories up, there was a small walkway and another ladder, though only two stories high, and a small catwalk connecting the two. You had to climb a ladder to get up and down, and this pattern continued for four more levels, equaling eight more stories. Quills and what Master Ana called pens quickly copied books from the Hogwarts Library, and the copying was almost a quater done.

"Hello Neville, please sit down."

Momentarily shocked at Master Ana's personality change he stuttered a hello and sat down across from her. A low, long coffee table sat between them cover in papers that had many runes on them.

"I have three gifts for you Neville; the first is to help you control your magic." Master Ana seemed to stroke the air next to her and a seemingly floating portal opened. She grasped something small in her right had and withdrew it.

"Hold out your hand."

Neville did as he was told and Master Ana dropped a light stone into his hand. He looked at it closer, it didn't look like any stone he had ever seen, it was a golden yellow that darkened to red, and it had odd flake-like things in it.

"It's not a stone. Your next gift is a familiar." She once again reached into the odd square and withdrew a small egg.

"Here," she said handing it to him, "As you can see it hasn't hatched yet, nor do I know when it will, but it will most likely be within the next year or two. You don't have to worry too much about breaking it, it is quite sturdy."

"The last will protect you, and it should look familiar." For the last time, she reached into the square and withdrew a large bludger-sized sphere.

"That looks like my new magic." Neville blurted out.

"That's because it is its physical companion, it took quite a bit of time to find it."

"What am I supposed to do with it? What am I supposed with any of this?" Neville asked, very confused after putting both in a robe pocket.

"I'll teach you how to use your focus, you keep the egg in a safe place and hopefully you'll bond with your plant, brace yourself." Silver lightly tapped on the glass sphere with one finger, spiders webbed out from the point of her finger.

"Wha-"

Neville was interrupted by the sound of shattering glass, he rolled over the back of the couch and raised his head over it. The odd bramble just sat there for a moment before trying to lash out at Silver, but a rune shield sprung up before it could do any damage. It seemed to hiss by rubbing to vines together and slunk over to Neville. He was panicking because he didn't know any shield spells and he didn't want to hurt the thing. He moved to run away, but was too slow, and the vine thing caught him around the ankle and he tripped. Within seconds the vine had encircled him completely rendering him unable to move, and seemed to be drawing on his magic. When his magic was almost gone he idly wondered why he hadn't been stabbed by any sharp thorns. Magic seemed to be flowing back into him, but as he was unable to stay awake any longer, he closed his eyes and passed out.

When the vine had caught Neville, Silver jumped onto the couch he had been sitting on and perched on top. Watching with interest as the vine grew and wrapped him in a cocoon-like structure. Lots of guarding vines occupied the area around him, the ones near Silver hissing threateningly. Some of the vines had found a nearby table and were slowly pulling it over; soon they were breaking it apart and throwing the pieces at her. Silver's rune shield had yet to dissipate so it easily protected her.

At this inopportune moment Shade came walking in with a stranger next to him. A girl that looked to be a seventh year, who was previously marveling at her surroundings, ducked as the vines ripped apart more furniture and threw it at them along with a large chair which they dodged quickly.

Shade and the girl approached cautiously around the far side of the pillar after the plant had calmed down a bit.

"What is that?"

"My little project made something of a breakthrough."

"Ah, anyways this in Nymphadora Tonks, a seventh year. She's excellent at transfiguration but needs help with runes, and she'll join if she gets it. She wants to be an Aurora."

"Hm," Silver said, getting back to a normal position on the couch. Shade sat down next to her and Nymphadora sat down across from her.

"Call me Tonks, everyone does. Are you really that good with runes?" Tonks asked as she looked at some of the papers on the table.

Silver nodded and made a sweeping motion with her hand, all the papers stacking themselves, only one lying separate. In the now clear space a cold lunch appeared, sandwiches, with pumpkin juice, and a light classical tune played from nowhere. Tonks' eyes grew round, she knew that the top student in her class couldn't even try to do that. She could barely see the runes that had been cast by Silver, and it took a couple years to learn the skill. Shade picked up a sandwich and stared munching on it.

"Teach me how to cast them, please!" Tonks begged, Aurora candidates were looked down on if they could only complete the minimum requirements. Runes was her first choice, she could read and decipher them just fine, but casting them was very difficult for her.

"Tell me what the rune pattern on that paper is for."

Tonks picked up the paper and studied it for a few minutes, "It looks like a basic proximity alert ward with a few trigger spells, that aren't traps, but I can't tell exactly."

"I'll teach you if you join our club and teach some transfiguration and give us all of your old notes."

"Thank you, and did you find this place? It's amazing and huge."

"Hm, come on, I'll show you around, Shade watch my project." Silver answered.

"K," Tonks replied, too busy marveling at the Library to notice Silver didn't answer her question.

Silver led Tonks out of the Library, through the kitchens, work room, and finally to an empty bedroom near Silver's. Silver opened the door after some tweaking in the room runes.

"This is your bedroom if you choose to sleep here, you can decorate it how ever you like."

"Wow, all this done by a little firsty? You are Slytherin though, clever and all that. What's the catch? There's always a catch with Slytherins."

"You can't tell anyone about the Rooms and you have to teach some transfiguration. We'd also like you to get someone else to join. I'm not sure if Shade told you but we are trying to encourage the intelligence of our fellows and learn as much as we can while we are at Hogwarts. Currently all of our members have an O average, and we have members from all houses."

"Basically you're collecting all the smart kids and getting them to teach each other. I have a friend in Ravenclaw, my only friend, that's really good with charms. She's really smart, so if I get her to join then I'm in?"

"Yes, we'd also prefer it if you live here, make everything easier."

"No problem, my housemates think I'm weird, but I can't say for sure about Cwen."

"That's fine, if you tell anyone about the Rooms, save Cwen, I won't teach you. You can tell her she'll have unrestricted access to the Rooms library. If she wants to know more tell her to talk with me. There a few basic rules, which are don't make a mess and try not to break anything. The Rooms are not for snogging, and the library books are not to be taken out of the rooms without explicit permission."

"That all?" asked Tonks.

"Yes, welcome to the Rooms."

A.N. Hello everyone, how are you on this fine morning/afternoon/evening/night.

It would make my morning/afternoon/evening/night even better if you leave me a review.

Woot! I have a beta! Thank you sakurawolf11.

Thank you:

bandgsecurityaw, sakurawolf11, Dumbledore, T.K, bense2k, DarkDraknor, Darth Lucifer, galaxybaby, MatTer79, Mystical Enchantra, sawiuk, yali, and LucyferPheonixMalfoy.

Do you guys get it about the points? 189 - 200 and 139 - 400, but the house points don't go into the negative so they both end up with zero. McGonagall really didn't want Slytherin to win the House Cup again so she forwent Gryffindor's chance at second place to ensure that the Snakes wouldn't win. The other houses points are Ravenclaw 122 and Hufflepuff 96. I am also separating the House Cup and Quidditch, it doesn't really seem fair. So even if Slytherin trounce everyone in Quidditch they couldn't make a difference in house points. I know it seems like Shade earned a lot of points, but you have to figure that other Slytherins lost them.

I think Tonks graduated a year before Harry came to Hogwarts, but I need it to be this way.