FREEING THE SOUL
LADY SHINIGAMI
DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING BUT MY IMAGINATION. THERE IS NO REASON TO SUE ME.
CHAPTER 2
"Show me the memory." The memory faded and was replaced by another, this time situated in Hogwarts. Harry looked around and recognized the Great Hall, but a glance at the enchanted ceiling told him it was very late at night.
He heard crying and searched for the sound, finding it over by Slytherin Table. Walking over to the table, Harry saw Tom, this time maybe 12 years old, crying, hiding under the table from something that Harry didn't know about.
Moving closer, he started to hear soft mutterings, like as if Tom was talking to himself.
"This is home...but why am I alone...I need a friend, someone I can talk to...but I'm a Mudblood, no one in their right mind would talk with me..." Young Tom was barely talking out loud, but Harry picked up on everything he said.
Harry heard something behind him and turned around, seeing Dumbledore walking over to where Tom was crying softly. The young Slytherin didn't hear the older wizard approaching and was caught off guard when Dumbledore coughed slightly.
"Oh, Professor Dumbledore..." said Tom and he rubbed at his face, trying to hide the fact that he had been crying, as he crawled out from under the table and stood up. Dumbledore, on the other hand, almost glared at Tom.
"What are you doing up so late and out of bed? It is against the rules to be out of your common room after hours. Five points from Slytherin." Said Dumbledore and Tom nodded.
"Sorry, Professor. It won't happen again. I-I'll be going now." Said Tom, wary of Dumbledore's attitude, and he started to leave the Great Hall.
"Tom, make sure that I never catch you after hours again without a very excellent reason. I dislike detentions myself and you would not be happy in a detention with me, do you understand?" Dumbledore glared at Tom for sure this time, and Tom cringed.
"Yes, sir. Goodnight, sir." Tom left the Great Hall, cowering almost, and he kept glancing his shoulder all the way down to the Slytherin common room. Harry knew that someone was following young Tom, but he didn't know who, although he did have a guess.
Just as Tom was about to go inside the Slytherin common room, a loud, thunderous voice echoed through the dungeon corridors, startling Tom greatly.
"Be careful of your actions! Do not tempt my wrath!" then the voice was gone, and Harry thought he saw something down at the very end of the corridor, like someone leaving. Turning back to Tom, Harry saw the boy huddled against the stone wall, once again muttering to himself.
"I'll be good, I'll be good...don't hurt me...I'll study, anything...I'll be good, I HATE you! I'll be good..." Tom's voice faded and he stood up and went inside his common room, shaking like a leaf.
"Even at 12, he hid his emotions as best he could, and was quite successful at it. What you are watching is only a small portion of Tom's fears at that time. And as you saw, he was damn near hysterical." Said Exile, his voice floating around Harry, coming from nowhere and everywhere at once.
"Did Dumbledore instill this fear in Tom? What could be his excuse for terrorizing a student? Right now, Tom is not that incredibly powerful, but it almost seems that Dumbledore wants control of Tom's power, wants the poor boy to be completely under his control. It was probably Dumbledore's controlling nature towards Tom that got him started into the Dark Arts, unless he was already into the Arts. Am I rambling?"
Exile chuckled softly. "A little. You are right about Dumbledore, and I'm glad that you came to your conclusions on your own. A few more memories like this, and I think you will be able to rescue Tom from the demon. It's time for you to go now. See you again soon."
The dreamscape started to vanish, and Harry woke up in the common room still, and sunlight was just creeping in through one of the windows. Harry stood up, wincing slightly in discomfort and wandered upstairs to get a change of clothes and to hit the showers before going down to breakfast. Leaving Gryffindor Tower, Harry arrived in the Great Hall before any of his House was even asleep, and with a sigh of relief, he saw Snape at the staff table. Harry figured that he would catch the Potions Master before class started and before anyone would be around. All he had to do was wait.
His House mates slowly trickled in the great hall when Snape finally left the staff table, heading for the doors. After a minute, Harry followed him and once he was out of hearing range from the Great hall, Harry called out to his professor.
"Professor Snape!" the call caught the Potions Master's attention and Harry hurried to catch the man. Snape raised one eyebrow expectantly. "I had another dream with Exile."
"Alright, Potter, follow me and quickly." Snape led Harry down to the Potions lab and motioned for the raven haired Gryffindor to sit in the front desk.
"Tell me everything of significance."
Harry obeyed the order without thinking about it and informed Snape about the memories and Dumbledore's involvement in them, as well as telling the Professor his own conclusions. When he had finished, Snape stayed quiet for a few minutes, obviously thinking about what Harry had told him, then he sighed.
"Well, Potter, it seems that we do have a predicament here. Dumbledore can't be trusted with this, and that makes this complicated. I do have an idea as to help young Tom, but it could take weeks, at the least. I suggest that you continue with your dreams, Potter, and continue to report to me. Is there anything that I should know?"
Harry thought about it for a minute, then remembered something. "Yes, sir, I think that Ron knows something. He's had a true Seer's Vision, with the blanking out and everything. He saw me fighting the demon, among other things, and I'm positive that this is real." Said Harry and Snape narrowed his eyes.
"Weasley with visions? Interesting. Make sure he doesn't figure out what his visions mean. That would ruin everything."
"Yes, sir." Harry then went to his normal desk and pulled out his Potions textbook. With a glance at his professor, he asked, "What Potion are we brewing today? A head start might be a good idea, considering that I collapsed yesterday." A smirk flickered onto Harry's face and Snape twitched.
"Page 87, Potter. Class will begin in fifteen minutes."
Ron woke up in Gryffindor Tower and he automatically looked over at Harry's empty bed. Frowning, he realized that the bed hadn't even been disturbed. Wondering where his best friend was, he grabbed a change of clothes and showered, and ran into Hermione in the common room.
"Hermione, have you seen Harry since last night?" he asked, but the clever girl shook her head.
"No, why, isn't he upstairs?"
"Nope, he didn't even get to bed last night. I thought maybe you had seen him on the off chance. Maybe he's at breakfast?"
Hermione shrugged. "We could check. Let's go."
The two of them left the common room, and went into the Great Hall, but they couldn't see him anywhere inside. Confused, they ate in silence, continually looking around the large room for any sign of Harry, but found none.
"Come on, Hermione, he's not here. He may be late for Potions, but I don't want to be late." Said Ron and Hermione nodded slowly. They left Gryffindor table with the rest of their class and headed down to the dungeons ahead of the Slytherins. They were surprised to find the door already open, and when they looked inside, the two of them saw Harry reading a textbook - a potions textbook! - while Snape wrote notes on the board. The two looked at one another before walking into the Potions lab.
"Mr. Potter, while I don't mind you studying in here before class, I must ask that you talk to your friends outside of the room." Said Snape and Harry looked up from his book. Seeing Ron and Hermione, he closed the book and walked over to them, leading them out of the classroom.
"What are you guys doing down here? You weren't worried about me, were you?" Harry asked, and the two Prefects glanced at each other. Harry saw the glances and frowned. "Look, I can take care of myself, and I thought that it would be a good idea if I studied some, see what I missed yesterday when I collapsed. Snape let me in his room only if I studied. Nothing to be worried about."
"Okay..." Nothing more was said as students, Slytherins, were heard coming down the corridor. Harry returned inside Snape's class, avoiding the onrush of Slytherin students. Soon after, the Gryffindors arrived, and they moved into the class room, surprisingly without any insults thrown.
Immediately, Snape got them started on a Truth Potion and Harry gained a small head start on the rest of the students, who still had to read the subject material. As the rest of the class started preparing their ingredients, Harry was already adding them to his simmering Potion, a Potion that was going along quite smoothly. Snape performed his rounds, even lashing at the Slytherins when they made mistakes. But when he came to Harry's cauldron, he smirked.
"Well, it would seem that only Mr. Potter has managed to correctly brew this Potions, although he is not finished yet. I see you were serious when you said you wanted to catch up in Potions, Mr. Potter. Good job, I hope to see more of your work." Harry blinked, taken by surprise, before he resumed to making the Potion. The Slytherins were glaring at him like no tomorrow, and the Gryffindors stared on in surprise. Did Snape just give Harry Potter a compliment? It didn't seem possible, but it had happened.
As it was, Harry was the only one to correctly make the truth potion by the end of the class period, even after Malfoy had tried to sabotage it. he didn't mind, though. Harry found that he actually liked Potions when Snape wasn't being nasty, and that Potions was a lot like Muggle cooking, giving him an idea on how to prepare his ingredients the next day.
After the class was done, Harry met up with Hermione and Ron and walked with them to Transfigurations. Hermione seemed upset that she hadn't gotten the truth potion right, but she was impressed with Harry.
"That was a really difficult Potion, Harry, but you managed it almost easily. How did you do it? you've never done that well in Potions before." She said and Harry grinned.
"Well, maybe it's because I see Potions almost like Muggle cooking. There are definitely similarities between the two, and I'm an excellent cook. Also, Snape wasn't being snarky, or nasty, or sarcastic. I think he wanted to see if my claim in wanting to catch up what I missed yesterday was true." Ron snorted with contempt.
"Yeah, he probably thought you wouldn't do it! Why did you try in Potions? I mean, it's just Potions!" He said, but Harry shook his head.
"Ron, I think I'm going to need Snape's help in the final battle when Voldemort dies. I think in order to do that, I should at least give him the impression that I am capable at something as easy as Potions. And who knows, maybe he won't be a bastard tomorrow, cause I think that I might enjoy Potions if he leaves me alone. I mean, I proved that I'm quite capable of brewing a Potion."
"I never thought of it that way... that make sense." Ron said, brow furrowed in thought. Then he grinned. "Maybe you could surprise the rest of the Professors! That would be so funny to watch! They could be chatting in the teacher's lounge, or wherever they go, talking and gossiping about how much you improve!"
Hermione laughed at the image that thought conjured. "Ron! Although, I admit that it is unlikely, but that was amusing!"
Harry shook his head, smiling. "Ok, enough! Let's just get to class."
After dinner that night, Harry went to the Room of Requirement, slipping past his friends by use of his Invisibility Cloak. He did not want them harassing him about being out late, especially with his dreams he shared with Exile. He was hoping to sleep elsewhere tonight so that Ron didn't question him later. Harry knew that Ron would be the one to wake him up, if need be.
The trip to the Room of Requirement was uneventful, for which Harry was thankful. He went inside the Room, delighted to find a big comfy-looking bed and a lit fireplace. He would need that in order to get a hold of Snape after his dream.
Suppressing a sudden yawn, Harry climbed into bed and was asleep before his head hit the pillow. He smiled as the familiar dreamscape closed in around him, and he patiently waited for Exile to reach him.
"Hello, Harry. You are doing remarkably well. Maybe Tom has a chance to be saved after all." Exile said rather sadly from behind Harry. The Gryffindor turned around slowly.
"Exile, I will save him. I only wish I knew how, and that I can see your face sometime." Harry chuckled softly. "I still don't know what you look like."
Exile smiled softly. "And you won't, not until you are ready to see. I would like to hear about you tonight, find out why you are destined as Tom's Soul mate. Would you allow me to see your own memories?"
Harry frowned slightly. "Why would you need to do that? I don't get it."
"Memories are often the most effective way to see into one's soul, one's character, and it is often through the memories that those like me can guide one to his or her Mate. It is often better to ask, but if there is a desperate need, one like myself can see your memories without your consent. I don't like that, not one bit. But it is time for me to see why you are Tom's Mate, if you are to ever save him." Harry listened to Exile's words, and he nodded with understanding.
"I get it. therefore, I give you my consent to view my memories. I would do anything to save Tom, and you, in fact. You are going to die if Tom dies, so I feel that, as one of best friends, I could save you as well." Harry grinned and Exile gave a small smile, shaking his head slightly.
"You have no idea who I am..." He trailed off and stepped forward, closing the gap between Harry and himself. He reached up, almost hesitantly, and lightly touched Harry's scar.
LADY SHINIGAMI
DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING BUT MY IMAGINATION. THERE IS NO REASON TO SUE ME.
CHAPTER 2
"Show me the memory." The memory faded and was replaced by another, this time situated in Hogwarts. Harry looked around and recognized the Great Hall, but a glance at the enchanted ceiling told him it was very late at night.
He heard crying and searched for the sound, finding it over by Slytherin Table. Walking over to the table, Harry saw Tom, this time maybe 12 years old, crying, hiding under the table from something that Harry didn't know about.
Moving closer, he started to hear soft mutterings, like as if Tom was talking to himself.
"This is home...but why am I alone...I need a friend, someone I can talk to...but I'm a Mudblood, no one in their right mind would talk with me..." Young Tom was barely talking out loud, but Harry picked up on everything he said.
Harry heard something behind him and turned around, seeing Dumbledore walking over to where Tom was crying softly. The young Slytherin didn't hear the older wizard approaching and was caught off guard when Dumbledore coughed slightly.
"Oh, Professor Dumbledore..." said Tom and he rubbed at his face, trying to hide the fact that he had been crying, as he crawled out from under the table and stood up. Dumbledore, on the other hand, almost glared at Tom.
"What are you doing up so late and out of bed? It is against the rules to be out of your common room after hours. Five points from Slytherin." Said Dumbledore and Tom nodded.
"Sorry, Professor. It won't happen again. I-I'll be going now." Said Tom, wary of Dumbledore's attitude, and he started to leave the Great Hall.
"Tom, make sure that I never catch you after hours again without a very excellent reason. I dislike detentions myself and you would not be happy in a detention with me, do you understand?" Dumbledore glared at Tom for sure this time, and Tom cringed.
"Yes, sir. Goodnight, sir." Tom left the Great Hall, cowering almost, and he kept glancing his shoulder all the way down to the Slytherin common room. Harry knew that someone was following young Tom, but he didn't know who, although he did have a guess.
Just as Tom was about to go inside the Slytherin common room, a loud, thunderous voice echoed through the dungeon corridors, startling Tom greatly.
"Be careful of your actions! Do not tempt my wrath!" then the voice was gone, and Harry thought he saw something down at the very end of the corridor, like someone leaving. Turning back to Tom, Harry saw the boy huddled against the stone wall, once again muttering to himself.
"I'll be good, I'll be good...don't hurt me...I'll study, anything...I'll be good, I HATE you! I'll be good..." Tom's voice faded and he stood up and went inside his common room, shaking like a leaf.
"Even at 12, he hid his emotions as best he could, and was quite successful at it. What you are watching is only a small portion of Tom's fears at that time. And as you saw, he was damn near hysterical." Said Exile, his voice floating around Harry, coming from nowhere and everywhere at once.
"Did Dumbledore instill this fear in Tom? What could be his excuse for terrorizing a student? Right now, Tom is not that incredibly powerful, but it almost seems that Dumbledore wants control of Tom's power, wants the poor boy to be completely under his control. It was probably Dumbledore's controlling nature towards Tom that got him started into the Dark Arts, unless he was already into the Arts. Am I rambling?"
Exile chuckled softly. "A little. You are right about Dumbledore, and I'm glad that you came to your conclusions on your own. A few more memories like this, and I think you will be able to rescue Tom from the demon. It's time for you to go now. See you again soon."
The dreamscape started to vanish, and Harry woke up in the common room still, and sunlight was just creeping in through one of the windows. Harry stood up, wincing slightly in discomfort and wandered upstairs to get a change of clothes and to hit the showers before going down to breakfast. Leaving Gryffindor Tower, Harry arrived in the Great Hall before any of his House was even asleep, and with a sigh of relief, he saw Snape at the staff table. Harry figured that he would catch the Potions Master before class started and before anyone would be around. All he had to do was wait.
His House mates slowly trickled in the great hall when Snape finally left the staff table, heading for the doors. After a minute, Harry followed him and once he was out of hearing range from the Great hall, Harry called out to his professor.
"Professor Snape!" the call caught the Potions Master's attention and Harry hurried to catch the man. Snape raised one eyebrow expectantly. "I had another dream with Exile."
"Alright, Potter, follow me and quickly." Snape led Harry down to the Potions lab and motioned for the raven haired Gryffindor to sit in the front desk.
"Tell me everything of significance."
Harry obeyed the order without thinking about it and informed Snape about the memories and Dumbledore's involvement in them, as well as telling the Professor his own conclusions. When he had finished, Snape stayed quiet for a few minutes, obviously thinking about what Harry had told him, then he sighed.
"Well, Potter, it seems that we do have a predicament here. Dumbledore can't be trusted with this, and that makes this complicated. I do have an idea as to help young Tom, but it could take weeks, at the least. I suggest that you continue with your dreams, Potter, and continue to report to me. Is there anything that I should know?"
Harry thought about it for a minute, then remembered something. "Yes, sir, I think that Ron knows something. He's had a true Seer's Vision, with the blanking out and everything. He saw me fighting the demon, among other things, and I'm positive that this is real." Said Harry and Snape narrowed his eyes.
"Weasley with visions? Interesting. Make sure he doesn't figure out what his visions mean. That would ruin everything."
"Yes, sir." Harry then went to his normal desk and pulled out his Potions textbook. With a glance at his professor, he asked, "What Potion are we brewing today? A head start might be a good idea, considering that I collapsed yesterday." A smirk flickered onto Harry's face and Snape twitched.
"Page 87, Potter. Class will begin in fifteen minutes."
Ron woke up in Gryffindor Tower and he automatically looked over at Harry's empty bed. Frowning, he realized that the bed hadn't even been disturbed. Wondering where his best friend was, he grabbed a change of clothes and showered, and ran into Hermione in the common room.
"Hermione, have you seen Harry since last night?" he asked, but the clever girl shook her head.
"No, why, isn't he upstairs?"
"Nope, he didn't even get to bed last night. I thought maybe you had seen him on the off chance. Maybe he's at breakfast?"
Hermione shrugged. "We could check. Let's go."
The two of them left the common room, and went into the Great Hall, but they couldn't see him anywhere inside. Confused, they ate in silence, continually looking around the large room for any sign of Harry, but found none.
"Come on, Hermione, he's not here. He may be late for Potions, but I don't want to be late." Said Ron and Hermione nodded slowly. They left Gryffindor table with the rest of their class and headed down to the dungeons ahead of the Slytherins. They were surprised to find the door already open, and when they looked inside, the two of them saw Harry reading a textbook - a potions textbook! - while Snape wrote notes on the board. The two looked at one another before walking into the Potions lab.
"Mr. Potter, while I don't mind you studying in here before class, I must ask that you talk to your friends outside of the room." Said Snape and Harry looked up from his book. Seeing Ron and Hermione, he closed the book and walked over to them, leading them out of the classroom.
"What are you guys doing down here? You weren't worried about me, were you?" Harry asked, and the two Prefects glanced at each other. Harry saw the glances and frowned. "Look, I can take care of myself, and I thought that it would be a good idea if I studied some, see what I missed yesterday when I collapsed. Snape let me in his room only if I studied. Nothing to be worried about."
"Okay..." Nothing more was said as students, Slytherins, were heard coming down the corridor. Harry returned inside Snape's class, avoiding the onrush of Slytherin students. Soon after, the Gryffindors arrived, and they moved into the class room, surprisingly without any insults thrown.
Immediately, Snape got them started on a Truth Potion and Harry gained a small head start on the rest of the students, who still had to read the subject material. As the rest of the class started preparing their ingredients, Harry was already adding them to his simmering Potion, a Potion that was going along quite smoothly. Snape performed his rounds, even lashing at the Slytherins when they made mistakes. But when he came to Harry's cauldron, he smirked.
"Well, it would seem that only Mr. Potter has managed to correctly brew this Potions, although he is not finished yet. I see you were serious when you said you wanted to catch up in Potions, Mr. Potter. Good job, I hope to see more of your work." Harry blinked, taken by surprise, before he resumed to making the Potion. The Slytherins were glaring at him like no tomorrow, and the Gryffindors stared on in surprise. Did Snape just give Harry Potter a compliment? It didn't seem possible, but it had happened.
As it was, Harry was the only one to correctly make the truth potion by the end of the class period, even after Malfoy had tried to sabotage it. he didn't mind, though. Harry found that he actually liked Potions when Snape wasn't being nasty, and that Potions was a lot like Muggle cooking, giving him an idea on how to prepare his ingredients the next day.
After the class was done, Harry met up with Hermione and Ron and walked with them to Transfigurations. Hermione seemed upset that she hadn't gotten the truth potion right, but she was impressed with Harry.
"That was a really difficult Potion, Harry, but you managed it almost easily. How did you do it? you've never done that well in Potions before." She said and Harry grinned.
"Well, maybe it's because I see Potions almost like Muggle cooking. There are definitely similarities between the two, and I'm an excellent cook. Also, Snape wasn't being snarky, or nasty, or sarcastic. I think he wanted to see if my claim in wanting to catch up what I missed yesterday was true." Ron snorted with contempt.
"Yeah, he probably thought you wouldn't do it! Why did you try in Potions? I mean, it's just Potions!" He said, but Harry shook his head.
"Ron, I think I'm going to need Snape's help in the final battle when Voldemort dies. I think in order to do that, I should at least give him the impression that I am capable at something as easy as Potions. And who knows, maybe he won't be a bastard tomorrow, cause I think that I might enjoy Potions if he leaves me alone. I mean, I proved that I'm quite capable of brewing a Potion."
"I never thought of it that way... that make sense." Ron said, brow furrowed in thought. Then he grinned. "Maybe you could surprise the rest of the Professors! That would be so funny to watch! They could be chatting in the teacher's lounge, or wherever they go, talking and gossiping about how much you improve!"
Hermione laughed at the image that thought conjured. "Ron! Although, I admit that it is unlikely, but that was amusing!"
Harry shook his head, smiling. "Ok, enough! Let's just get to class."
After dinner that night, Harry went to the Room of Requirement, slipping past his friends by use of his Invisibility Cloak. He did not want them harassing him about being out late, especially with his dreams he shared with Exile. He was hoping to sleep elsewhere tonight so that Ron didn't question him later. Harry knew that Ron would be the one to wake him up, if need be.
The trip to the Room of Requirement was uneventful, for which Harry was thankful. He went inside the Room, delighted to find a big comfy-looking bed and a lit fireplace. He would need that in order to get a hold of Snape after his dream.
Suppressing a sudden yawn, Harry climbed into bed and was asleep before his head hit the pillow. He smiled as the familiar dreamscape closed in around him, and he patiently waited for Exile to reach him.
"Hello, Harry. You are doing remarkably well. Maybe Tom has a chance to be saved after all." Exile said rather sadly from behind Harry. The Gryffindor turned around slowly.
"Exile, I will save him. I only wish I knew how, and that I can see your face sometime." Harry chuckled softly. "I still don't know what you look like."
Exile smiled softly. "And you won't, not until you are ready to see. I would like to hear about you tonight, find out why you are destined as Tom's Soul mate. Would you allow me to see your own memories?"
Harry frowned slightly. "Why would you need to do that? I don't get it."
"Memories are often the most effective way to see into one's soul, one's character, and it is often through the memories that those like me can guide one to his or her Mate. It is often better to ask, but if there is a desperate need, one like myself can see your memories without your consent. I don't like that, not one bit. But it is time for me to see why you are Tom's Mate, if you are to ever save him." Harry listened to Exile's words, and he nodded with understanding.
"I get it. therefore, I give you my consent to view my memories. I would do anything to save Tom, and you, in fact. You are going to die if Tom dies, so I feel that, as one of best friends, I could save you as well." Harry grinned and Exile gave a small smile, shaking his head slightly.
"You have no idea who I am..." He trailed off and stepped forward, closing the gap between Harry and himself. He reached up, almost hesitantly, and lightly touched Harry's scar.