AN: back again so soon, who would have thought?
Well if you want people to read the stories you write you gotta keep them in the first few pages of updated stories, which is what I'm trying to do here.
Heh
=^o.o^=
Magic faded into the physical spectrum, on a paved footpath in Surrey, taking in the sights around him.
'Someone's been playing with my gift.' Magic thought within moments as he felt a schema for a set of wards near his location. 'This power holds the marks of sacrifice, just like that which caused my creation… the intent however…'
Magic, unlike anybody else, didn't just see magic, cast, enchanted or any other forms that a magical might use their, his power in, he could read the intent behind it.
'These wards have been erected with the desire to hide others with my gift from finding this location… and to fester dislike towards those of my gift from those without it…and all of it done with the stick of Elder that Death tricked the Brother's Three into taking as a prize for beating his little quiz.'
The Eye of Truth flared.
'Albus…Percival Wulfric Brian…Dumbledore, such a… Supreme Schemer…' Magic thought, looking on as the tall thin man, with silver hair and a beard so long it reached his waist, dressed in robes of a mix of red, blue and purple, retrieved a device from his robes, proceeding to use it to extinguish the lights of the street lamps of Privet Drive, to bathe the immediate area in the cover of darkness.
As the aged man walked down the stretch of road towards Privet Drive, he paused hearing a meow from a cat, turning to see a tabby cat sitting on the nature strip of house number 4.
"Minerva, thank you for coming." The aged man said with a glint in his eye. "Though I don't think I've ever seen a cat sit so still before, you may wish to work on that in the future." He added, bemused.
The tabby cat gave a brief hiss before pouncing forward, morphing into a woman mid leap.
"Good evening Albus… now can you explain to me why you requested to me to meet you, here of all places?" the once cat, now lady asked.
"Alas my dear, a great tragedy has occurred…the Potter's have been attacked by Lord Voldemort, none but little Harry survived." The Hogwarts Headmaster answered.
McGonagall, unprepared for such news, reacted to the words spoken as if they were a physical blow, her eyes wide in shock and her mouth hanging open.
Whatever she had been expecting, being told that two of her most favoured past students had been killed definitely wasn't it.
"H-how?" was all that McGonagall was able to get out amidst her shock.
"Alas my dear, I do not know… as far as I was aware they were safe under the fidelius charm cast at Godric's Hollow."
"The fidelius charm…? Then that means that…"
"Indeed. There was a conspirator within our ranks, working for Voldemort." Dumbledore answered.
"You said that Lily and James are dead…what happened to their son? What happened to Harry?" Minerva asked, a little scared to find out, there had been so many deaths in the last few months from Death Eater attacks she didn't know how they were going to cope.
The war had taken so much...
"That my dear, is a mystery."
"Why? How?" the sots-woman demanded
"As much as this sounds like fantasy… dear Harry destroyed Lord Voldemort." Minerva stared at Dumbledore in a stupor.
"What?"
"In an astounding bout of luck, it seems that something happened tonight, that when Lord Voldemort cast the killing curse at Harry after killing his parents, the boy reflected the curse back at him." Dumbledore answered, sowing the seeds for the legend of the Boy Who Lived, using a low powered, wandless compulsion charm to make sure Minerva took it at face value.
"What's more astounding, as impossible as it appears, not only did Harry destroy Voldemort, but the Killing Curse failed, leaving only a scar on the boy's forehead." Dumbledore revealed to his Deputy, continuing his compulsion, thankful that it was just the two of them present at the time.
"This sounds like pure fantasy Albus, how can a boy not even out of diapers destroy He Who Must Not Be Named?" Minerva asked, as such a notion was too impossible to comprehend.
"I assure you my dear, that it is true." Albus said, trying to placate the woman, concluding his charm, hoping that the effect stuck.
"Then where is Harry Potter?" was her next question, as near a demand as she was ever going to get when speaking to Albus.
"I sent Hagrid retrieve him, and bring the boy here." Albus answered.
"Hagrid?" Minerva asked, baffled. Don't get her wrong, she had no ill will towards the large man but Hagrid wasn't exactly the most sensible of people at times, especially after an attack that took the lives of two people inundated to the Order of the Pheonix, like what had just happened tonight.
"Do you really think it wise to trust Hagrid, of all people, with something like that? Lily and James have just been killed!" McGonagall said, her voice rising in line with her panic.
"Ah Minerva, I would trust Hagrid with my life." Dumbledore answered.
A noise sounded, way off in the distance, drawing both Albus' and Minerva's attention to the sky, watching as a man on a motorcycle was flying through the air right at them, the noise growing by the second.
Minerva scrunched her face in distaste as the tyres on the bike impacted the road, generating a high pitched screech of burning rubber that caused a fair amount of discomfort to her ears.
Dumbledore and McGonagall watched on as the bike went down the street, coming to a stop a dozen meters away from where the two of them were standing
"Oops." Hagrid said, embarrassed at his bumbled landing, he'd just been given the flying bike, how could he possibly know how to land it properly with no practice.
Dismounting the enchanted bike, Hagrid walked a slow, subdued pace towards Dumbledore.
"Hello Professor Dumbledore sir, an' you Professor McGonagall." Hagrid greeted them, his nerves rising as the seconds ticked by, feeling the judging gaze of Dumbledore on him, making him feel even worse.
"Hagrid, where did you get that bike?" was Minerva's immediate first question, beating Albus' to the punch by the barest fraction of a second.
"Sirius Black gave i' ta me, ta help me get 'ere whilst 'e went ta the Ministry." Hagrid answered the Scotswoman, trying his best not to look at Dumbledore.
This had Albus on alert, especially as the older man noticed that the large man wasn't carrying anything with him, expressly against what Albus had asked of the large man.
"You were there Hagrid? You saw Sirius Black? What about Harry?" McGonagall asked/demanded, her questions firing fast, making the half giant squirm in place even more.
"Go' there as Sirius was leavin', was all frantic sayin' tha' Lily an' James 'ere dead an' 'arry was missin'; 'e said tha' You Know Who was gone an' all tha' was left was a black robe in 'arry's room where mos' o' the room an' roof 'ere blown off." Hagrid explained.
"Excuse me Hagrid?" Dumbledore asked, not believing what he was hearing, finally able to get a word in edge wise.
Hagrid however was on a roll, his adrenaline pumping on high had the added effect that he disregarded Dumbledore's query and kept going.
"'e told me tha' he wasn' the Secret Keeper, tha' 'e convinced Lily an' James ta switch ta Peter a' the las' momen'. Then 'e took the black cloak an' lef' for the Ministry, tellin' me ta take 'is bike ta meet ya here."
"What?!" Minerva exclaimed, in outrage from what she was hearing.
"An' he was real confused abou' 'ow an' why I was there…and when I tol' 'im I was ta bring Harry ta Surrey ta you he was real upse', asking wha' you were thinkin' takin' Harry ta someone named Dursley."
The Dursley name saw Minerva send a scandalized look to her boss, an unwelcome feeling in the pit of Dumbledore's gut beginning to fester.
"The Dursley's?! That's who lives here?! Petunia Dursley?! Lily's sister?! Albus I was Lily's Head of House for seven years, and throughout that time every time her sister came up… that girl hated her sister, why the stories Lily told me after coming back from summer break were awful." Minerva grimaced in remembrance of those times, before her mind snapped back to the here and now.
"You were going to leave a magical baby in the hands of a woman that abhors magic!?" she hissed. Dumbledore though seemed unfazed by Minerva's diatribe, cleverly hiding the unease he was feeling.
"My dear Minerva, she is Harry's only living blood relative and the best possible place to offer young Harry the necessary protections from those who follow Voldemort, outside of the magical world is the safest place for him to stay…until he is ready." Albus replied defensively, trying to placate his deputy.
"Protections that are next to useless unless he can be found! We should be out there looking for him instead of standing around here! Or finding Petigrew so we can find out how You Know Who found the Potter's in the first place!" McGonagall near shouted, before taking a quick breath to steady herself, she was getting far too riled up.
Unexpectedly, a ripple of power burst from the house of 4 Privet Drive, said ripple washing over Dumbledore, Minerva and Hagrid causing them all to stagger unsteadily, nearly forcing them off their feet.
Instantly Minerva drew her wand, a myriad of spells on the tip of her tongue, ready for anything; an action mirrored by Dumbledore.
"Wha' was tha'?" Hagrid asked, quite a bit unnerved, grabbing at an umbrella in one of his giant coat's pockets.
"The blood wards… they collapsed…" Albus said, completely dumbstruck; this wasn't supposed to happen! How could his carefully crafted ward schema collapse like this? He'd planned them out meticulously, with the added boost of the Elder Wand no less, they were supposed to be infallible!
This shouldn't have happened!
"I don't see anyone here with the required power that could do that, how did they fail so spectacularly?" Albus asked himself, totally stumped.
"Your wards collapsed, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, because I willed them to; they were not going to do anyone living any good, so I dismissed them. They were, by your own doing, playing with powers that concern my creation, such power is not meant to be left to the wiles of those that don't know what they're doing." A fourth voice said, making the three people standing on the street tense in alarm.
"Who's there? Show yourself!" Minerva growled out.
Several meters to their left, a man in a glowing grey robe with shoulder length black hair, with green glowing eyes faded into their line of sight, making both Minerva and Albus instantly point wands point directly at him.
There had been no sound of apparition, where had this man come from?
How long had he been there?
Instantly what drew the attention of all three Hogwarts staff was the third rippled eye in the centre of the man's forehead, an eye that twitched erratically from side to side without pause. This unusual visual had Albus and Minerva grip their wands tighter in agitation, Hagrid doing the same with his umbrella.
As they looked upon this grey garbed man, they all felt a hesitance within themselves, their magic was resisting their wills, such a feeling alarming them all tremendously, they had never experienced a feeling like it in their lives.
Who was this man, and why did he look so much like James Potter with a 3rd eye on his forehead?
=^o.o^=
AN: Magic is met for the first time by magicals, what will their reactions be?
I see I've acquired a few alerts and favourites to this story, so if its not too much to ask, maybe a review telling me what drew your attention, what you liked so far or maybe something you wish to see happen.
As a writer, a fanfic writer at that, I crave reviews, it doesn't take all that long to submit a comment after you finish reading a chapter.
The reviews we writers receive are like gold to our eyes when we read them and make us so happy, they help encourage us to keep at it and publish again for more feedback, thus continuing the cycle.
That being said...
R&R
(Not that I'm begging or anything...)