Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter in any way shape or form. I really appreciate all the reviews so far, they keep me going and help me figure out where to take the story. I'm going to work on answering everyone's questions within the story, just give me a little time. Sorry for not updating for a bit.
Harry Potter and the Changing World: Chapter 5
The beast had sentience. It knew what it was, a darkness incarnate. Wizards meddling in ancient summoning spells found a way to rip away some of the darkness, and give it form in the world.
The dark arts are referred to as such for a reason. They taint the user's soul. Over time, both the caster and their victims have contributed to a growth in this negative energy.
A person killed with avada kedavra. A tortured mind, with the cruciatus curse. Those left in a world filled with loneliness and pain.
The source of hatred and darkness has grown over the years. The echo of the souls touched by it increases its power. This is truly the reason why the dark arts have become tainted over the years. The dark wizards wish to cause pain. They steal a portion of the person's soul, their identity. Their sadness, pain, and suffering remains and those with evil intent feed upon it.
From this dark origin, this evil beast was created. When feeding on a soul, it throws it into the depths it was created from.
Harry opened his eyes, feeling himself being dragged across a wasteland by the beast.
Dark clouds filled the sky. A lonely landscape. This was the vision he had created through his occlumency training, to protect his few precious happy memories from attack.
'We're in my soul' realized Harry.
The beast continued dragging him across the ground, until Harry felt a darkness open up ahead of them.
The ground had given way to a cliff, and a dark cavern opened up. Swirling with negative energy, Harry could hear the cacaphony of tortured souls that had been affected by the dark arts.
'If I go down there, I'll die.' Harry thought. At first, this thought didn't phase him. The beast was able to dampen the survival instinct of its victims until it was too late.
'What's left. I'm in this new world, my friends aren't here. It's ok to die.' he thought.
As soon as this thought occured to him, he felt himself involuntarily begin to cast a spell with magic from his soul. "I'm dying Ginny" was the message he connected with the spell, and released it.
New life suddenly poured into him, as the beast's ability wore off.
"Get off of me you demon!" screamed Harry, trying to throw the demon off of him. The creature seemed to laugh.
"Heh. It's been a while since someone's been able to resist me. No matter. See that pit over there? That's where I came from, and where you are about to spend the rest of eternity." snickered the beast, laughing.
Wrestling with the beast, Harry found himself being drawn closer and closer to the cliff's edge. Below he could feel the dark pit calling to him, begging him to join them in their suffering.
'This is it' he thought. Life or death.
The dark taint of the pit seemed to grow and infilitrate his being. Closer and closer, he struggled with the beast but he felt himself cross the spirtual distance represented in this landscape of his soul, closer to the darkness.
Such pain… he shuddered. The victims of the killing curse, of the pain curse, they're empty pain filled much of this void yes. But it was the living pain, the continuous pain of those with unanswered pain.
The beast was at the edge. Harry could feel how similar yet different the beast was to what laid below them.
'I can't allow this beast to live.' Was Harry's thought as he grabbed the beast, and pulled him over the side. Tumbling down, the beast was accepted into the darkness, grabbed and pulled into the depths.
Harry could feel it pulling him, like an extra pull of gravity. Holding onto a thin ledge, Harry focused on creating an occlumency shield to try and shield his mind from the dark influence.
Slowly Harry pulled himself over the ledge.
'I need to get back to my body' thought Harry as he began to look around, trying to find an exact.
Suddenly the pit seemed to erupt, and black tendrils shot out at Harry before he could react, encircling him.
'So alone…. So dark… make the pain stop… please…' Harry felt himself being overwhelmed by the thoughts and feelings left behind, given form in the darkness.
'why don't they love me…. Why do they hurt me… why don't I have parents… why does everyone I love die…'
Harry felt his own feelings begin to echo with the thoughts being projected on him.
'Join us…. Give up, there's no way to live with all that pain…'
Harry was surrounded by the darkness now. There was no pit. There was no form to his soul anymore. The pain and darkness had surrounded him. He was the loneliness, the despair.
The darkness settled back into its pit, content for a time to have decreased its loneliness slightly.
Looking at it, it was hard to tell when it began to take shape. It wasn't until a nearly full formed figure had been formed that you realized it was separate from the rest.
This time the dark essence made no move to attack the figure. They were the same. And then the figure spoke, and its form began to clear.
"I am Harry James Potter. I have killed for the sake of those I love, and those I love have killed for me. Many whom I have loved have died for me. Today I was able to do the same. I know of pain. The pain in you was echoed in me. I felt it resonate with my own burden before, now I carry it as my own. We can not give up."
As Harry spoke, the darkness shrank as well and coalesced into another figure.
"This world is nothing but pain. How can we go on?" asked the newly form little girl, representing the gathered darkness.
"There is much pain in this world. Much sorrow. We have dealt with more than our fair share, and there is still more we must face. I can not force you to live in this world, to fight for what little good there is to find. But I will. And I will carry the memory of your pain along with my own, until the day I day." Harry spoke, tears streaming down his face.
The little girl nodded, looking up from the ground for the first time. She felt the weight of the pain on her, its depths of sorrow and grief. Tears streaming down her face, she felt it in Harry as well as she looked him in the eyes.
"You have done well here today, Harry Potter. You taught us of life. It feels painful, disgusting, and full of disappointment. We have never felt our sorrow in such a way before. I understand now, that maybe, perhaps, these feelings exist as proof there is something greater."
Harry nodded. He too felt the weight of what he now carried, their sorrow and grief. It would overwhelm him one day perhaps, he realized, unless he stood by his pledge to his loved ones to love life. No matter what.
"We have little to give, but consider our powers yours. Now go." Said the little girl, as Harry felt himself returning to his body.
30 minutes prior, Headmaster's Office
Dumbledore had returned, and was sitting in his chair as he looked across his desk at the family gathered. Alberforth had said he needed to speak with him immediately about a pressing matter, however when the Potters had shown up his concern had immediately shifted to them.
"You were attacked? … and you survived?" Dumbledore asked.
James nodded, looking at Lily who was nursing her head from a headache. "Lily was attacked by the beast they had with them, and we all thought for sure she was dead. No one has been able to heal those wounds, not the best healers at Saint Mungo's, not even you Albus!" yelled James.
Dumbledore nodded, looking back and forth between the two.
"Where's Harry and Sarah?" asked Dumbledore. Alberforth seemed ready to speak but was then unsure of himself, as Dumbledore awaited the answer from the parents.
"Harry ran off earlier today. We're not sure what happened. It was like he was a completely different person! I don't know where he is now, we're worried about him but we know he wasn't there when the attack started, only Sarah was. Sarah's in the hospital wing getting checked out, she should be fine. After that our memories get hazy." Said James.
"What do you remember exactly?" he asked.
"My memory's all hazy, I remember seeing Harry, but how can that be? I remember a fight, and then I remember the beast hitting Lily and sometime after that I was hit with a stupefy spell." Said James. Turning to Lily he asked, "what can you remember honey? Can you tell us anything?"
Lily shuddered a moment at the memory before nodding. "It was like cold fire entering inside of me. The pain alone from the wound was worse than being crucio'd somehow. Then the beast it… it felt like it was devouring my soul," pausing to take a breath she continued.
"I had no way to fight it, it kept me subdued somehow. I felt pieces… pieces of me being taken away. And then there was another presence. There was some kind of conversation between it and the beast, and then I felt it let go of me… I feel like I would have died then. Its touch is fatal, I know that I was supposed to die when it let go, no matter how far it had gotten."
Dumbledore broke in, asking the question on everyone's lips. "Why didn't you?"
"The presence, as it took the beast away, pushed something at me. I can't quite describe it, I'm still adjusting to what happened. But it entered the wounds the beast had created in my magical core, in my soul, and filled them. Without that transfer, I would have died." Replied Lily.
Dumbledore paled for a moment, and then nodded. "That's very advanced soul magic Lily, very forbidden."
Lily nodded. "I know, but without it I'd be dead. It seems like that may be the only way to fight these monsters."
Dumbledore nodded slightly, and said "Perhaps." Before he could continue, an explosion was heard from the bottom of his stair case.
Everyone in the room grabbed their wand, pointing it at the door, unsure of what could have penetrated so far into Hogwarts without setting off the wards.
The door opened…
To be contined…..
Sorry for the cliffie, but I wanted to get this chapter up. Pats to anyone who can identify where I borrowed the quote from last chapter, "my healing is of a different sort." Thanks for all the reviews, I'll try to keep answering questions within the fic, give me time. Any preference on shorter or longer chapters? Review to tell me how mean I am for not updating sooner, and maybe I'll get the message this time.