Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
::Mindspeech::
-Parseltongue-
Chapter Twenty-Two: Divisions
"Harry," Dumbledore said gravely, "I'm afraid this foolishness of yours has got to stop. Can't you see the effect it's already had on the school?"
It was after dinner at the end of the third week of classes and Dumbledore had called Harry up to his office. Harry was surprised that Dumbledore hadn't done so sooner but perhaps the older wizard had thought that Harry would start acting 'normal' again after a little bit of rebellion. Or perhaps Dumbledore was relying on the compulsive potion that Harry had found in his pumpkin juice every day for the last week or so.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Harry said flatly.
"This…division. Ignoring your friends. Acting rudely to me. You have no idea the rumors that are going about, saying that you've gone Dark, that you've gone to Voldemort…"
"Actually, Headmaster, I'm pretty sure I do know what the rumors are saying," Harry said coolly. One advantage of having Helga on their side was knowing all the current rumors going around the school. Rowena might have been book smart, but Helga knew the people. And Ginny already had a very nice little niche in the Hogwarts rumor mill.
Dumbledore just gave him a pitying look.
"Also," Harry continued, ignoring the look, "I haven't been ignoring my friends. I talk with Draco and Ginny every chance I get."
"Harry," Dumbledore said softly, looking at Harry sadly.
"And," Harry said, raising his voice slightly, "I behave rudely to those who treat me badly. Those worthy of respect, I respect. Anyways, you've never made anything but weak objections to me or any other students being rude to the rest of the staff."
"Harry, when have I ever treated you badly?"
"Sending me to live with neglectful relatives is treating me pretty badly," Harry snapped, "If Death Eaters had come to Privet Drive looking for me, I have no doubt that my relatives would send me out beyond the wards just so they'd be rid of me. So don't tell me that it was for 'my own good'. And I haven't given you permission to address me by my first name. Do so again and I'll be forced to take offence."
Dumbledore sighed heavily and looked terribly old and defeated. Harry supposed that it was supposed to make him feel guilty but it made him feel just the opposite. Vindicated and angry were his forefront emotions.
"Mr. Potter, then…I beg you to reconsider. You're dividing up the school. Soon they will be forced to choose a side and I'm sure we both know which one of us the students all look up to."
"Yeah," Harry said calmly, "Me. If that is all, Headmaster…?" Inside, he was furious; dividing up the school? Because he, as a Gryffindor, was being friendly with a Slytherin?
Dumbledore sighed again but appeared to have nothing else to say. Harry left.
Just outside the office, he allowed himself to grin, his prize safe in his grip. He walked down the hall; quite cheerful…Having just successfully liberated the Marauder's Rulebook from one of Dumbledore's many shelves.
o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Snape was lecturing…for once.
Harry rather thought that the only reason that Snape bothered was that there were several easily made mistakes with this particular potion that could cause an explosion capable of blowing up a good portion of the dungeons. Doubtless Snape had added several extra wards to the room beforehand and was prepared to keep a sharp eye on the whole class. Harry briefly entertained the idea of deliberately making one of the mistakes and seeing if Snape would try and stop him but he was just annoyed at being ignored and never seriously considered it. Besides, he was more interested in what he was currently doing: working out a complicated Arithmancy equation and completely ignoring Snape's lecture.
There would have to be four circles…Only natural when he was planning on enchanting four objects. But unless he was planning on doing them all separately, there would have to be another, larger circle because he had to power it all himself. Maybe if he had had three other people capable of pulling off such a spell…He already had it mapped out roughly, all those complex, interlacing lines. Rituals were such complex things after all and it took years of practice to the hang of all the little things that meant the difference between success and failure. And failures always meant consequences…
Snape was now over halfway through the lecture and Harry was completely absorbed in his work. The parchment was covered with runes and Arithmancy equations, mixed in with Harry's messy notes and various spells in Salazar's neater hand. Salazar's handwriting appeared only when Harry was writing spells in different languages, of which he was glad, since it meant less suspicion from his teachers. Written Parseltongue was also scattered all over the parchment, referencing moon cycles and days of the week as well as mentioning magical ties to be aware of, mostly with Voldemort and Serphenia.
"Potter!" Snape shouted. So much for being ignored. Harry's Professor sounded mad and dim recollection told Harry that his Potions teacher had called his name several times already. There was muffled laughter from around the classroom.
"Yes, Professor?" He asked as innocently as possible.
"Fifty points from Gryffindor for repeatedly ignoring a teacher!" Snape snapped. The man was definitely angry.
"What is this trash?" Snape sneered, snatching Harry's work away from him. Harry bit back a cry of protest, knowing that if he acted concerned, Snape was more likely to do something nasty. Confiscating his work was fine, Harry could steal it back later, but deliberately setting it on fire, ripping it up…If Snape destroyed that bit of parchment, it might take Harry hours to reconstruct it from memory.
"Extra credit assignment?" Harry knew that Snape would not believe it for a second, so he allowed himself to sound like he was guessing.
Snape glanced down at the parchment and frowned. Of course the man had no idea what it was and it irritated him. If anything, he had, at most, seen one or two things resembling it.
"You don't have Arithmancy."
"I never said it was Arithmancy," Harry answered easily.
"You don't have Ancient Runes or anything remotely related to anything on this parchment."
"That's not true," Harry protested, "It has a bit of Transfiguration." He pointed to the corner where there was scribbled out in Parseltongue: transfigure objects at least one week prior. While doing so, he passed his hand over the parchment and was able to copy the contents (magically) onto the sheet of parchment he had snuck into his lap earlier. Relieved that he now had a back-up copy, he couldn't stop himself from adding, "And do you memorize all of your student's schedules, or am I just special?"
For that he got a week's worth of detentions. Snape had been avoiding giving detentions (as that just meant time alone with Harry witch would probably be unbearably awkward or just uncomfortable; at least one of them was certain to be mad at the other) and Harry knew that this meant the revival of Occlumency lessons. Snape, of course, knew (even if he did not want to acknowledge it) that Harry knew Occlumency already; he'd been the one that taught Snape in the first place. Dumbledore had probably talked to Snape about it.
Just great.
o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"So what's this marvelous new plot of yours?"
"Which one?" Harry asked distractedly. They were in the Room of Requirements and he was once again plotting out the ritual. This time his work spanned over four sheets of parchment and he was ready to reach for a new one any minute. He was mostly double-checking is calculations; with luck, he'd be able to perform it tonight…After Occlumency lessons with Snape.
Ginny rolled her eyes,
"You know…the one you're working on now. The one with the…ritual." The last word was said with a somewhat distasteful air. Rituals being Dark magic, Helga had never known of her friends' frequent use of them. Draco was a little more accepting, as his current life was a lot Darker than his past life. Helga and Ginny were both pure Light.
"Well…I was hoping make spirits…" Harry said vaguely, still not really paying attention.
"Huh?"
Harry finished his last Arithmancy problem, read through it briefly, and rolled up the parchment neatly,
"Spirits. From Impressions. You know, you take a painting or something else and make it more than just animated. If you do it right, you can make it able to walk around, like a ghost. If you do it well, it will be a real person, just not…alive. No heartbeat, can walk through walls if he or she chooses, so on."
"I didn't know it could be done," Ginny marveled softly.
"Of course you didn't," Harry said, slightly patronizing, "It's Dark magic."
Ginny made a disgruntled huffing sound but wasn't fully discouraged,
"So you need a ritual to do that?"
"Or heavy spellwork. The ritual's more convenient."
"But if there's already a ritual for it, why do you have to do all that work?" Draco asked, curious.
Harry almost replied with annoyance to this amateurish remark but paused. Godric would have condemned him for this (he had, in fact). As Draco, he was trying to learn. It was…nice. Somewhat. When it wasn't annoying.
"Even with normal rituals, you have to do work. You'd have to change it around a bit depending on what day of the week you decide to do it and what runes you decide to use and what deity you decide to call on and all that rot," Harry paused briefly, "Personally, I've never tried to call on a deity, too much extra work for too little gain. Deities are usually quite fickle and then you need to have a solid contract with no loopholes…
"Anyways, I'm taking four Impressions out of one object at the same time, so of course the ritual's going to be wildly different. And then I'm going to have to trap each of these inside of an object. They don't have a body, you know, so they need something solid to anchor on and then they can solidify their sprit or whatever they want. Gemstones are good because they focus magic well and it works best if the color of the object matches up with the sprit to be trapped in it. And I want to make it so that I can put spells on the object, which required a little bit of extra in the ritual (in this case, the object has to be transfigured from something else, preferably a week or more beforehand) since spells normally just slide off of objects with that much magic in them. And then there are all the runes that change and the Arithmancy formulas I have to run through. If something's off, it can cause Backlash and that's always nasty, in some way or another."
The other two took a minute to go over this information. They had just recently gotten over an intense dislike for all things Dark, after all.
"And these…spirits…they'll be spies for you?" Ginny asked.
"Among other things, yes."
"And where are you getting the Impressions from?"
"The Marauder's Rulebook."
"You're messing around with bits of our souls without telling us?" Draco yelped.
Harry rolled his eyes at the ignorant remark,
"No. Actually, that's why both the rituals and spells are supposedly Dark. It deals with the soul, so on, so forth. Actually, Impressions are Dark nowadays, too. But that's just a misconception. Impressions aren't our souls, more like copies. They grow to be quite different from their originals, in a lot of cases. Just like a normal, human soul."
"You've lost me," Ginny admitted "You'll have to go over this with us later. It's just so different from everything I've been taught."
"Sure," Harry looked at the wall, where a clock conveniently popped into existence, "This room is great, by the way," He scowled, "…I have Occlumency soon. I was hoping to put it off for a bit longer." The clock obligingly moved backwards three hours. Harry grimaced.
He glanced around and then frowned when the Room did not immediately give him what he wanted,
"Have you seen the Marauders' Rulebook lately? I could have sworn I left it around here…Chances are, I'll have to start preparing for the ritual as soon as the 'lesson' ends."
Ginny rolled her eyes and then pulled the little book out of the inside pocket she had sewn into her robes,
"You mean this? Don't just leave things lying around like that. Any student could have walked in and grabbed it."
"Not very likely…Anyways, I've got to go now," Harry said gloomily.
"Well, bye, then," Ginny said cheerfully.
"You'd better get going," Draco said warningly, "Don't give Snape reason to be mad at you. Not that he needs it, really." He had started to forgo the respectful title of 'Professor' when not talking to the man, encouraged by Harry's irritation towards the Head of his house.
"Have fun!" Ginny called as he left the room.
Harry stuck his tongue out at her and the door closed itself little more forcefully that usual in his wake, reflecting his annoyance.
He headed off down the hall, purposely not hurrying. If he was late, then he was late. What did it matter? Harry turned into a short cut, paused, and then doubled back. He could appear in the Slytherin Head's office instantaneously if he wanted to, why bother with shortcuts? He hummed under his breath as he tried to decide on the longest rout to Snape's office (except it had once been his, hadn't it?) without going out of his way. Decided at last on which way to go, he whistled a random tune as he wandered off lazily in the general direction of Snape's office.
o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"You're late, Potter," Snape sneered as soon as Harry stepped into Snape's office. Ignoring him, Harry looked around rather curiously. He could almost see the little table Salazar used to keep his papers on, one which had probably been replaced decades ago…And that pile of books he always kept on his desk, which had probably been locked away after his banishment because of the inappropriate Darkness to them.
"I got lost," Harry explained airily.
Snape sneered but Harry interrupted him before he could make a scathing comment,
"Look, I don't want to be here and you don't want me here so just Legilimens me a couple times so I can get out of here."
Snape's lip curled,
"Stand over there, Potter."
Harry obligingly walked over to the indicated spot.
With no further warning, Snape started the lesson,
"Legilimens!"
Snape dove into Harry's mind with relative ease. That is, he quickly entered the outer layer of the reincarnated Slytherin's mind; the layer that was filled with useless memories just for intruders.
He was six and cowering behind a dumpster hoping desperately that Dudley and his friends wouldn't be smart enough to find his hiding place…
He was twelve and was staring horrorstruck as the giant statue that he thought was Salazar Slytherin opened its mouth…And something was moving deep inside…
Blinding pain…He was seven and Aunt Petunia had swung at him with a frying pan for the first time and he had been too surprised to duck…Uncle Vernon tossed him into the Cupboard muttering, "Serves him right, the freak, breaking one of Petunia's favorite plates…"
Snape pulled out of Harry's mind, frowning,
"You're not trying, Potter! Legilimens!"
Terror! He was six and Aunt Petunia expected him to have the plates washed before she got back. He was standing on a chair because he couldn't reach the counter with just the small stool but if Aunt Petunia came back and found him standing on the furniture, he'd be in big trouble. She could be back any second…If he wasn't done when they got back, he'd be in big trouble. If he dropped a plate or missed a spot he'd be in trouble…Was that a car just outside? Terror!
He was nine and was sprinting desperately around the school. It wasn't any good leaving school grounds, he'd just get into more trouble, and there wasn't any refuge for him anywhere in Little Whinging. But being at school limited the hiding places…Over there, if he could just make it behind those trash cans…One big leap…Safety…
"I know you can do better than this, Potter!" Snape shouted, frustrated.
"Oh?" Harry asked archly, "And how would you know that?"
Snape sneered at him, livid,
"Legilimens!"
"I'm warning you," He was ten and Uncle Vernon's large, purple face was inches from Harry's…there was some of Uncle Vernon's spit on his face but he didn't dare wipe it off, "I'm warning you now, boy – any funny business, anything at all – and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas!"
He was fifteen and storming away from the Great Hall. How dare they?! Ignorant, the lot of them…and they expected to teach the students something useful? A danger to the school? Him? Reaching a sufficient distance from the hall, he put his hand against the stone wall and snarled "Open; Chamber of Secrets" in Parseltongue…
Oops. That one was not supposed to be there. Harry could feel Snape pause and dig deeper…searching…Harry quickly worked to locate and patch up the hole that the memory must have slipped through while simultaneously holding Snape back from any other memories that weren't supposed to be there.
"You would have done well in Slytherin…" "Progress for progress's sake must be discouraged, for our tried and tested traditions often require no tinkering…" "There he is!" "And now you will face me, like a man…straight-backed and proud, the way your father died…" "'Don't kill Cedric! Don't kill Cedric!' Who's Cedric – your boyfriend?" "Not Harry…" "I knew your parents…" "D'you think I'm proud of having relatives like her?" "I WARNED YOU! I WILL NOT TOLERATE MENTION OF YOUR ABNORMALITY UNDER THIS ROOF!"
Finally, Snape pulled himself out of Harry's mind, sweating a little from the effort. Harry surveyed him coolly.
"Are you done?" he asked, putting on a bored air.
Snape glared at him,
"What was that memory, Potter?"
"I was twelve and I'd just told my cousin to say 'please'."
"You know which one I mean! It wasn't yours, Potter! Who's memory was that?!"
"I don't know," Harry said calmly, "Perhaps Evan's?"
"Get out!"
"Excuse me?"
"Get out of my office! I will not waste my time teaching you! You inept, brainless Gryffindor!"
"But I'm half Slytherin," Harry half protested, half corrected.
"OUT!"
Harry walked calmly to the door, then paused,
"I'll be back tomorrow at the same time and every day after that until my detentions are all done with or you decide to tell Dumbledore that I can maintain a decent Occlumency shield."
The door slammed shut behind him.
o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Harry took a small, green gem out of his pocket and placed it carefully in its intended spot, as he had for the red, yellow, and blue gems before it.
"I'm sorry," He said to it, "This is a pretty awful life I'm signing you up for."
The green-eyed wizard then moved so that he was standing in the middle of a completely empty room. In the previous three hours, he had removed every peace of old furniture from the room and meticulously cleared away every speck of dust without magic. It was imperative that only certain spells were used in a room before a ritual but it was also necessary for the room to be fairly clean; every speck of dust or dirt meant a little interference with the spell.
Four candles had been allowed to see while cleaning the room and while copying runes onto the floor. Now they were outside of the room, carefully placed around the room in an ancient ward traditionally used in a novice's ritual. It kept malicious, magic-eating creatures like Scelus omens away from rituals and any summoned creatures or deities from leaving the room, trapping them in a crystal. The crystal was already outside; Harry hoped to catch the strange shadow-creature and stop it from further mischief.
Now, after hours of preparation, the room was clean, the runes written in chalk upon the ground, and every object in place. Because the candles were now outside, the room was pitch-black and Harry had to walk carefully as he went to take his position in the middle of the room. Smearing a chalk-rune or kicking a carefully-placed object could be catastrophic. A small mistake could put his life in danger. A big mistake could level the school.
Harry stood completely still in the middle of the room, waiting. Everything was silent, he could feel his heart beating and then…Magic welled up in him suddenly; he was filled with magic. Experience told him what to do. He didn't try to hold the magic but let it flow out of him…
His aura glowed bright white-gold as it hummed with magic and then the golden light poured out of him, illuminating the runes on the floor. First the runes closest to him lit up and from there the light spread out, illuminating runes until the light reached the furthest runes. The five circles of runes were filled with pools of light; the four circles that held the colored stones (one in each corner of the room) and the circle of runes in the middle of the room that held both Harry and the Marauder's Rulebook.
The light intensified until it became unbearably bright and then started fading away. Harry remained still until he was satisfied that the last of the runes had stopped glowing. Then he picked up the Marauder's Rulebook and stepped out of the circle of runes. He didn't need to create light to see where he was going; the room was far from dark. The four gems were still glowing brightly, the light inside them swirling, mesmerizing to watch. Harry walked around the room and gathered the stones, red then yellow then blue then green. They were warm to the touch.
Red, yellow, and blue went into a little bag that Harry produced from the pocket of his cloak and he was once again left holding the green.
"I've got a place for you, but you'll have to wait a while," Harry said to it apologetically, "Take the time to get back your strength." The light in the green gem swirled, the spirit inside too weak to do anything.
Harry put the green gem with the others and tucked the bag back into his pocket.
The reincarnated founder left the room and then stopped abruptly. The four candles were snuffed out and the crystal was shattered.
o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"And this crystal thing…it wasn't just a really cheap one that…already had a crack in it or something?" Ginny asked skeptically.
"No, that's the thing," Draco leaned forward conspiratorially, lowering his voice, "The crystal was apparently really high quality. It was the size of my hand and perfectly clear and cost something like a hundred galleons."
"That expensive?" Ginny asked, shocked, leaning over and lowering her voice in imitation of Draco.
Harry rolled his eyes. They were in no danger of being overheard; the only reason he was letting the other two talk about this over breakfast. He had put a charm on the three of them that made it difficult for the rest of the Hall to think about them. Even if Dumbledore had appointed someone to watch them, all they'd see was the three of them doing 'normal' things, probably chatting. People sitting nearby would barely notice them, let alone eavesdrop on their conversation. Harry had gone above and beyond Salazar's usual sound-muffling charm because they were sitting at the Slytherin table and he wouldn't put it past his House to have a couple members that could lip-read.
"Proper crystals are hard to come by nowadays," Draco said with a shrug, "That's what Sal said, anyways."
Ginny looked over to Harry, who was silently taking in this relay of information,
"So this shadow-thing of yours…it's dangerous?" Her brown eyes were troubled.
"It's not my shadow thing…and yes, it seems to be pretty powerful, at least," Harry said casually. He didn't mention that the crystal was of good enough quality to hold fairly weak to mediocre deities and demons. Harry had said this to Draco during their earlier conversation but the Gryffindor had had enough tact not to say this outright when talking to Ginny.
Helga worried. She knew that she didn't have Godric's raw strength, Rowena's brains, or Salazar's cunning. She had never fully appreciated that her sympathy and compassion towards everyone was a quality in itself. And after her new lifetime with seven older brothers, it wasn't a great surprise that she was more timid and troubled than before.
"What if it attacks the students?" Ginny fretted.
Draco glanced at Harry. It was a possibility that they had discussed.
"It'll be fine," Harry reassured her, "We don't have any reason to believe that this creature will have any inclination to do anything to the students. It seems to be mostly focused on me, anyways. We're working to stop it before this gets out of hand, remember?"
Ginny sighed,
"I wish Rowena was here. She'd know exactly what it was and how to get rid of it."
"Actually," Harry interjected, "She probably wouldn't. She's almost as ignorant in the field of Dark Magic as you two are."
Further conversation was postponed by sudden bustle of activity that heralded the arrival of the post owls. Seconds later, feathered mail-carriers were landing all around them and Harry hurriedly moved his plate aside as a white-feathered owl crash-landed on the table in front of him.
-Rough flight?- Harry asked amusedly.
The owl gave him a disgruntled glare. Harry grinned. With a flick of his wrist there was a bang and a huge cloud of smoke and several Gryffindors' hair turned various colors. In the resulting chaos, nobody noticed the owl in front of him turn into a snake and slither up his sleeve.
-Stupid feathered creatures. Why would anyone want to be an owl? Horrible!-
-It's a job only you can do,- Harry said offhandedly, -Anyway, when are you going to give me my mail?-
Serphenia hissed wordlessly at him from his sleeve.
-And cold. Do you know how cold it is up in the sky? Any sensible creature would find a nice hole and go to sleep. But birds? Stupid creatures, they live up there!-
-I'll give you a nice mice later,- Harry promised her. He had a shoebox will a couple of fat little mice for special occasions; usually he would just transfigure one for her or she would have to hunt for one herself.
-…Promise me transfigured mice for a year and then I might be convinced to deliver the rest of your mail.-
Harry didn't hesitate,
-Done.- No matter how hard it would be to find fresh mice regularly, he knew that Serphenia wouldn't go back on her word. Snakes didn't lie; they found lying to be a pointless human habit. For all that they were portrayed at Hogwarts as scheming and backstabbing, snakes were remarkably simple in their thoughts.
-The letter is up your left sleeve,- Serphenia admitted grudgingly.
Harry reached up the indicated sleeve and withdrew a short scroll. Leaning back, he read through the letter quickly then, smirking, read through it again.
"Good news?" Draco asked.
"Pretty good, yeah. 'Evan' made a lot of friends during the end of his Hogwarts days…and some of them are still looking for every opportunity to back out of the Death Eaters. The only reason they still follow Voldemort is fear for their lives and the lives of their families. And if I can set up a safe haven…How do you think Voldemort would react if half of his army deserted at the same time?"
Draco smirked,
"He'd be pretty upset."
"But I thought that nobody remembered Evan?" Ginny asked, confused.
"Just a little tweaking with the memory charm; they remember certain things but not others," Harry said dismissively, "It's a flexible charm, it wasn't hard."
The slowest of the post owls were just arriving and Harry was surprised to see Hedwig alight gracefully on his shoulder. Hedwig was a very nice owl; she should have been one of the first to appear, not one of the last.
"Someone intercepted you, huh, girl?" Harry asked her.
She hooted her annoyance at him and stuck out her leg, allowing Harry to take the letter from her.
"What's this one?" Draco asked as Harry rewarded his owl with a piece of bacon.
"Just a letter from Remus…I need to keep Hedwig busy so people don't notice that Hedwig suddenly has a twin. And if both of them happen to come on the same day, nobody notices with all the other owls around." Hedwig nipped his ear in annoyance and he hurried to appease her, "Sorry, Hedwig. It is nice to keep correspondence with Remus, too. And you get the very nicest bacon from my plate."
-Two-faced human,- Serphenia hissed lazily from somewhere in his cloak.
"So…" Ginny said hesitantly, "You and Hedwig can talk to each other?"
Harry shrugged,
"She doesn't talk. I mean, not while I'm human. It seems that for me to communicate with an animal, at least one of us has to be a magical creature at the time. But that doesn't mean I don't understand her."
-I don't like her,- Serphenia hissed in annoyance, -Owls are stupid creatures. She gave me a dead rat yesterday. As if anyone would want mice all cold and stiff!-
Harry laughed. A silent war between his owl and his familiar had lasted several weeks. In the end, Hedwig had seemed to decide that Serphenia, as Harry's familiar, was just a part of him and treated her as such. Serphenia, though, was still contemptuous of birds in general and Hedwig's constant gifts of dead mice didn't help to soften her attitude.
o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Breaking into the Headmaster's office was a lot easier than expected. Sure, Salazar had had full access to the room (through invitation and previous break-ins) but surely nobody could be so naïve as to rely entirely on wards set up almost a thousand years past, let alone a long chain of various Headmasters. How could so many people turn a blind eye to how vulnerable such an important room was?
Well, that was not entirely true, Harry allowed. There were some wards set up in various places around the office (most of which the more paranoid Headmasters of the past were responsible for). However, most of these wards were old and fragile, serving only to protect one area of the office and so leaving practically the whole room unprotected. Dumbledore's own wards were designed only to create the illusion of omnipotence, leaving the defense of his office to a handful of fragile wards.
Not wishing to tear down the room's few protections, Harry entered the office through the most unprotected (but most obvious) entrance: a window. It had been Salazar's favorite entry point, made easier now by Harry's black-stained wings which were, once again, itching to be used. There were only a few wards on the windows, most of which had been set up by Godric, and Harry was able to bypass most of them easily and brush aside the rest with no problems.
Once the window was open, Harry sauntered in and grabbed the Sorting Hat from the shelf. He ignored the whirling and buzzing little instruments; though Dumbledore might receive a few interesting readings from them in the morning, Harry was confident that none of the information from the instruments would be useful. Dumbledore probably didn't know how to use half of the instruments and any readings that might end up pointing towards Harry could be denied. Appearances could always be faked and auras can be manipulated; there would be no definite proof in any data that Dumbledore might manage to collect.
With the Hat in his hands, Harry went back to the window and climbed onto the roof. There was no use in sticking around the office and perhaps setting off one of the instruments when he used magic. Still, the conical shape of the roof made it hard to find any place he could sit comfortably and examine the hat without falling off. He briefly considered flying off to another tower but dismissed the thought. This shouldn't take long and, anyways, if he flew across the school, there would be more chances of being seen and so probably more rumors the next day. This being Hogwarts, a couple rumors were unavoidable, even if Harry had waited for the new moon and decided to wear all black to avoid being seen by more students than necessary.
"Who are you?" The sharp voice nearly caused Harry to fall off the roof in surprise, "What were you doing in Dumbledore's office?" And this being Hogwarts, there was naturally more than just one or two harmless student witnesses the one day that he decided to break into the Headmaster's office.
Wings fluttered in protest to the near fall, stilling when he finally regained balance, automatically hiding his prize behind his back. This would be something of a problem. Somewhat luckily, Harry hadn't come to the Headmaster's office as Harry Potter.
"Alastor Moody," Evan said, turning to greet the new arrival, "I'd say that it's a pleasure to meet you but at the moment but that would be a lie. I'm a little busy at the moment, you see." Unfortunately for Harry, it was exactly the wrong time for him to have a confrontation with Moody. To Harry's frustration, one of the potions he was currently working on (an absolutely essential one if things were to turn out as he hoped) requires that the brewer not to lie during the month that is required to brew it. There were certain loopholes but basically the brewer wasn't allowed to say anything he or she considers to be a lie in this period of time. Harry was an expert on avoiding the truth without lying but sometimes telling a lie would be more convenient for a situation. Like now, for instance. Still, it was an interesting challenge.
Moody was standing in the closest tower; in fact, Moody was in the very tower that Harry had used to get close to the Dumbledore's office and also the same tower that Salazar had so often used to break into Godric's office. It was near enough that one didn't need wings to make the quick leap from the window of the tower to the roof of the office tower, provided that one had enough balance or spells not to fall to his or her death. Had Moody followed him? Or was it just a coincidence that Moody had been passing by and seen a suspicious person in the Headmaster's office?
"I asked you a question, boy!" Moody barked, "Who are you?"
"Evan," Harry didn't give a last name; he rather thought he needed a new one, anyways. The old one, Harrison, was a bit too obvious to use in conjunction with his chosen first name, "A last name isn't necessary, since I'm using an alias. Just call me Evan."
The other tower was slightly taller than the one Harry was standing on, making Moody, who was in the window, about eye level with Harry, even though Harry was standing on the roof of his tower. Harry could see that Moody's magical eye spun around to check the surroundings every minute or so but was otherwise intent upon Harry. The scrutiny was expected but it was making Harry nervous. Could Moody see through Harry's disguise? Harry had thought he was safe, since he wasn't using glamour spells or Muggle disguises that Moody could simply see through, but Harry really didn't know exactly what the eye was capable of. Still, the new Head of Slytherin didn't seem to recognize him and Harry was grateful that Evan Harrison no longer looked like a Harry Potter clone.
The former Slytherin had finally realized the full risk of the similarities between Evan Harrison and Harry Potter and had adjusted Evan's looks appropriately. Twenty years in the past, of course, this had been impossible, as too many people had seen him before he had had a chance to shapeshift. On the train, Harry had made a few adjustments but hadn't really changed the way 'Evan Harrison' looked. He hadn't even realized the risk until one of the first years next to Harry at the feast asked him if he was related to someone named Evan. The 'new' Evan Harrison now had silver eyes, longer hair, various changes in facial structure, and looked to be about a third year (age and height could always be adjusted, though). And, naturally, had no lightning bolt scar.
Moody snorted in disgust; naturally, a fake name was not what he had asked for,
"What were you doing in Dumbledore's office? What do you need the Sorting Hat for?"
"Private business, as I'm sure you can understand," Harry said, shrugging nonchalantly. Obviously, hiding the Sorting Hat behind his back was little use against Moody's magical eye, so Harry wasn't surprised that Moody had realized which item he had stolen, "The enchantments on the Hat are from the time of the Founders. I wanted to have a look at them before they finally fell to pieces under Dumbledore's interferences, well-meaning though they might be. It'll be back in the morning with no damage done."
"So I'm to believe that you're some harmless magical connoisseur coming to view the sights?" Moody asked, annoyed, "You're wearing all black and you waited for the new moon to make your move and I'm to believe you're harmless?"
"Of course not," Harry said patiently, "But you can believe me when I say I have no plans to harm anyone in this school tonight."
Moody seemed to consider this for a moment,
"What's your connection with Potter?" Moody demanded.
"I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about," Harry said calmly. Inside his mind there was a flurry of activity as Harry reviewed his options. There were a million things that Moody could have used to connect this new Evan to Harry Potter and only a few of them had the potential to bring about any sort of a crisis.
"Your aura," Moody said impatiently, "I've only met two people who know how to hide their aura completely and both within a month: you and Potter. Were you the one who taught Potter to shield his aura?"
"That's rather a large leap of logic," Harry said cautiously, "Couldn't it be a coincidence?"
"I don't believe in coincidences," Moody growled.
"Your right, it is rather suspicious," Harry agreed. This would be a hard question to answer when he wasn't allowed even the tiniest of lies. His wings flapped nearly soundlessly and he hovered soundlessly, thinking, "The answer's a bit complicated. I suppose you could call me Potter's connection with the Slytherins…Or at least one of Potter's Slytherin connections." Harry bounced lightly on the very tip of the roof and then balanced there, wings spread wide in a subconscious gesture saying, 'Look, I'm not Potter. Does Potter have wings like this? No? So I'm not him, even if I have connections to him.'
Moody narrowed his eyes,
"What are you?" he demanded.
"You do know that that's a horribly rude question? At least it was a long time ago…And, anyways, there are so many evasive answers to that question that I could spend all day…uh, night…listing them."
"You know what I meant," Moody snarled, "You don't look like any Vampire or Werewolf. Closer to veela with your wings but not even they look anything like you. You are some sort of Shapeshifter, I can tell that much, but no Shapeshifter I know can go as far as growing wings. So what are you?"
"I'm not a Vampire or a Werewolf or a veela but I'm not telling you what I am," Harry informed the other wizard cheerfully, "And how could you tell? That I'm a Shapeshifter, I mean."
"Apart from the fact that you just confirmed it? I've been near a Metamorphmagus enough to know what a Shapeshifter's like. It's not your aura; you've completely hidden that from me, but I can see that there's something about you that isn't right. You don't look right, even if I don't know what you're supposed to look like."
"That's…Really interesting, actually. I'll have to find some sort of Shapeshifter sometime and see if I can see it myself. I've heard that there was some sort of unique aura signature but I've never seen it…your description is very interesting. And how would you know that I'm not some sort of crossbreed? A one-of-a-kind sort of mix between a veela and a…Vampire or something similar?"
"I didn't. Now I'm pretty sure you aren't. Well, at least I know you can read auras now."
Harry shrugged,
"I didn't say that but it is kind of hard to learn to hide your aura without being able to see it a bit. It comes pretty naturally to someone who knows Occlumency, though, if they know how."
"So Potter can read auras," It wasn't a question, "And probably knows a fair bit of Occlumency, too. Tell me, are you his teacher? You don't look old enough but then…Lots of magical creatures are ageless, vampires for one. And you certainly feel old; are you immortal?"
Harry laughed,
"Now I know why you made such a good Auror! So many guesses but some of them aren't far from the truth. Do you have a bit of Seer blood in you, perhaps? You might have made a good Head of Slytherin if Dumbledore hadn't messed everything up for you…But you'll have to try harder to get the answers you're looking for."
"And the fact that Potter knows Occlumency makes me wonder why Snape hasn't graduated him yet. You'd think he'd be glad to get the boy away from him."
"Snape probably doesn't want to realize that Harry actually knows how to do anything passably," Harry shrugged, "Or maybe Harry's faking and pretending he's horrible.
"Faking is pretty near mastery of Occlumency," Moody said thoughtfully, "Though I won't rule out him knowing how. And just know you called him 'Harry', which means you two are closer than you were pretending earlier when you were calling him 'Potter'."
"You really are dangerous. I'm sure you'd ferret out all my little secrets if I let you keep going like this," Harry was still smiling but now it was partially fake; this conversation was interesting but he got the distinct impression that he was loosing. Or at least not winning.
"You normally look like a human, right? You can make your wings disappear and blend in with the crowd? Otherwise I would have heard about people like you. My guess is that you're one of the students in this school. Or even one of the staff; you're not as young as you pretend to be," Moody looked thoughtful and Harry found the conversation going in a very dangerous direction, "And another thing: you haven't lied once in this entire conversation. Is it just because you're overconfident or is it that you can't lie?"
"That's for me to know and you to find out," Harry said in a sing-song voice. And then he vanished. So what if it was running away? He was a Slytherin at heart, not a Gryffindor. And he wouldn't be able to keep up the conversation without giving away more information. At least Moody still had a couple hundred people on his suspects' list, even if he might watch a few people a little closer than was good for Harry.
"You can also use some sort of teleportation inside Hogwarts. Apparation isn't possible, so it can't be that. Possibly a Portkey," Moody said to the air in front of him, on the off-chance that the winged boy was somewhere close enough to hear, "I'm right that you're one of the staff or students here and I'll even adjust that by saying that you're probably a student. You're used to lying and so your reaction to what I say is fractionally slower than if you were allowed to say what you want. So you normally do lie and for some reason you refrained from it during our conversation."
He waited a minute for teasing laughter or a final retort but there was none. Feeling a little annoyed that the boy had come and provoked him only to disappear, Moody limped off. He would, no doubt, see that boy again sometime and in the meantime there were students to catch out of bed. He would need to keep an eye on the sixth and seventh years, though, and five as well, to be thorough. Especially Potter. There was some sort of connection between the two and watching Potter would be the surest way to find the other. Of course if Evan was an unusual Hogwarts student in either sixth or seventh year, than his profile easily fit with Potter's or the Malfoy brat Potter was suddenly friendly with. And that really was something to think about.
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So…We've got two more days and two more chapters to go. I don't think it's quite asking for a miracle but I'm only about a fourth done with the remaining chapters…at most. They last one in particular should be really long. Maybe.
It has been pointed out by a couple people that calling each other "Sal" and "Rick" is kind of obvious…Is it really? To everyone, Salazar Slytherin has always been Slytherin, the Hogwarts Founder. I don't think very many people would connect "Sal" and "Salazar Slytherin of the great Hogwarts Four". And the concept of reincarnation is pretty obscure, even in the wizarding world. And, of course, "Rick" is an ordinary, Muggle name. There's little talk of the Founders, even in Hogwarts, and their first names are rarely mentioned, even if everyone knows what they are.
About Serphenia, since a couple people seem confused: Serphenia was Salazar's familiar, the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets. She died when Harry killed her in his second year but was reborn on Harry's sixteenth birthday (wasn't specified in story) as a different type of snake when he received his Dark Angel 'powers'. In the following month or so, she was confused and lost and wandered around. Then when Harry was thrown back in time, she (being his familiar) was forced back in time after him. Therefore, the whole time that Harry was back in the past, so was Serphenia and the other Serphenia, the basilisk who was still sleeping in the Chamber of Secrets. She disappeared without explanation for the last couple of chapters and she also has shapeshifting powers, though they're more limited than Harry's. Sorry that I didn't clarify this enough.