Chapter 6
I don't own Harry Potter
Incidentally, ~Words~ marks Parseltongue. Not sure who first came up with that, but I'm grateful to them.
"And on that revelation," said a genial voice from the doorway, "perhaps I might intrude?"
Sarah glanced at the doorway to see a gently smiling Dumbledore, dressed today in sober- for him- purple robes with the Sword of Gryffindor strapped to his side.
"If, perhaps, I could talk to Orion, Sarah and Sirius alone?" requested the old man. Lupin nodded slowly, and walked out. Both Hermione and Ron looked torn between protesting and their respect for the Headmaster, but Sarah ushered them out, with Ginny following.
"We aren't going to tell them?" Sirius asked, looking at Sarah as Theia followed Dumbledore in and sat next to Orion.
"You may if you wish, Sarah," Dumbledore said, "But it may be best not to make them aware of the full extent of Voldemort's darkness."
Sarah looked at Orion, who shrugged.
"I told my Ron and Hermione, but bear in mind that I had no idea where most of the Horcruxes were and my Dumbledore only had guesses. It was a good thing that they knew, I suppose. How long had you been listening, Headmaster?"
"Most of the conversation." Dumbledore smiled. Orion clicked his tongue.
"So, what did you think of my plan to help Sarah?"
Dumbledore's smile turned to a slight frown.
"I believe it to be plausible, if dangerous. Of course, given that the only other choice we know of is to allow Sarah to be struck by a Killing Curse it would be best to at least attempt your plan first."
"Yes, true. We'll need you to distract Voldemort while I cast the spell, probably. However, I daresay that you aren't here to talk about Sarah?"
"No. No, I noticed that you did not actually mention how you destroyed the Horcruxes, but a little thought on how you destroyed the Diary led me to believe that the Sword of Gryffindor has become imbued with Basilisk venom, and so is suitable for destroying the Horcruxes. And you said there was a Locket in this house?"
"Yes. Congratulations on working that out, Headmaster. Assuming that things in this world proceeded as they did in mine- a reasonable assumption, since most things seem to be the same or rather similar- and further assuming that Kreacher hasn't stolen and hidden it, we should be able to destroy one more piece of Voldemort's soul today. Shall we?"
Dumbledore nodded, and they left with Orion limping at the back, Dumbledore and Sirius leading. Sarah dropped back and leaned across to Orion.
"Did you not mention the sword so that we would work it out ourselves? Like a test?" she asked curiously, though she suspected that she knew the actual truth. Solidifying her theory, Orion blinked and his eyes shifted uneasily before he spoke.
"Yes. Yes, that's right-"
"You forgot, didn't you?" Sarah interrupted. Orion winced.
"'Forgot' is such a damning term. I'd prefer…well, there's no alternative, really. Yes, I forgot to mention it. But it showed that Dumbledore can still manage, which is good. After all, things will change because Theia and I are here now, which will make my future knowledge…alternate world future knowledge, at that- basically useless."
"Damn you and your logic."
"Technically it's your logic as well, given that we're fundamentally the same person."
"I was trying to ignore that mildly creepy fact. Thank you for reminding me of it, Orion."
"You're welcome. Now, I think we have a piece of evil soul to destroy?"
"Probably." Sarah mumbled as the group entered a dark and gloomy drawing room. Orion headed towards a cabinet against one wall, pressing his gloved left hand against the glass.
"This is it. We were cleaning out this cabinet, and we threw the locket out. Good thing Kreacher rescued it, really, but then Mundungus stole it after Sirius died and sold it to a most unpleasant Ministry worker. Ron, Hermione and I had to break into the Ministry to recover it. You might want to remember that as well Sirius- you might not like most of what's in this house, but it's worth more than what Mundungus will get for it once he's nicked anything that isn't nailed down."
"Good to know." Sirius said dourly, as Orion heaved open the cabinet doors and Dumbledore cast a complex locking and privacy charm on the door, so they would not be interrupted. Orion considered the contents of the cupboard, and then sighed and started to dump it into a bag that he had pulled from a pocket.
"A rubbish bag? You're quite well organised, aren't you?" Sirius said, impressed. Orion squirmed.
"Actually Theia gave it to me yesterday. Said I'd need it."
All eyes turned to the serenely watching Theia, who gave the briefest shrug.
"It came in useful didn't it?"
"Scary." Sarah subvocalized. Orion gave her a minute nod, then gestured for her to help him unload the cabinet. It was filled with items that were almost all of an unpleasant nature: a silver snuffbox that Orion warned them not to open, as it bit and was filled with what he said was Wartcap powder; a pair of silver tweezer-like items that were more like a spider and attempted to attack Sarah until Sirius smashed them with a book; a set of photos that Sirius promptly declared the most evil things in the cabinet, even including the fragment of Voldemort's soul, and a music box that Orion refused to go near until Theia tied it shut and threw it into the bag.
"What was so bad about the box?" Sarah asked, amused. Orion shuddered.
"It's evil." He replied. Nonplussed, Sarah looked to Theia, who happily elaborated.
"It plays haunting and tinkling music that terrifies Orion." She said happily, causing Orion to sigh.
"Also, let's not forget that the music saps the will and induces a sleepiness in the victims. That thing is evil." He said, trying to defend himself. Sirius laughed at him, and Dumbledore smiled and shook his head. Orion scowled before leaning into the cupboard and pulling out a heavy gold locket.
"Aha!" he said triumphantly, a moment before a small figure crashed into him and sent him toppling. Orion's shriek- manly shriek, he would later insist- was drowned out by the cries of a near hysterical Kreacher, who was trying to wrest the locket from Orion. Unfortunately for the House-Elf, Orion had picked it up in his silver, and abnormally strong, left hand, meaning that the Elf's efforts were wasted. Sirius wasted no time in hauling Kreacher off the now swearing Orion and letting Theia pull the silver-handed man to his feet.
"Bloody manic Elf!" Orion cursed, over the inarticulate screams of Kreacher.
"Shut up! We're trying to destroy the locket you idiot!" yelled Sirius, completely ignored by Kreacher, who was raving incoherently about 'Master Regulus' and spicing the babbling with curses-regular ones, not magical- aimed towards everyone else in the room- quite colourful curses at that. Orion shook his head.
"Petrificus Totalus!" he snapped, pointing his wand, and Kreacher froze. For a moment Sirius was so still that Sarah feared Orion had hit him as well, but then he moved away from the House-Elf.
"Now, if you'll listen," Orion said, in a tone that suggested that violence would follow if Kreacher did not listen, "I know what this locket is, and I want to destroy it, not take it away. Sirius knows what his brother did, and we all agree that Regulus was bloody brave for defying Voldemort. So, I'm not going to let you free because frankly I don't trust you, but you can watch. Headmaster?"
Dumbledore drew the Sword of Gryffindor and offered it to Sirius.
"As it was your brother that retrieved this locket, I think it only right that you be the one to destroy it." The old man said solemnly. Sirius, awed, took the blade and stood over the locket.
"Now," Orion said, "I'll tell the locket to open in Parseltongue and pull it open. Strike immediately, Sirius- the locket will attempt to defend itself using persuasion and illusion. In my world Ron destroyed this, but it took five minutes and there was more than one moment when I thought I'd have to tackle him and do it myself."
Sirius nodded, and Orion knelt down on the other side of the locket, placing his hands on the latch.
~Open~ he whispered, the soft hiss in his voice only just audible to Sarah. The latch of the locket snapped open, and Orion pried open the small door and flung himself away. Sarah stared in sick fascination as the small door opened, and, rather than a mirror or picture hidden inside the locket, a single brown eye, streaked with crimson, blinked up at them.
"Sirius Black…" hissed a soft, menacing voice.
"Stab it!" screamed Orion, sounding afraid for a moment. Sirius looked down, eyes wide as though he looked into an abyss only he could see, then his face screwed up and the Sword of Gryffindor swept down, point first. The locket gave an awful scream of rage and terror as the sword pierced it, and a howling black cloud poured from the violated metal, screeching around them for a terrible instant before the scream turned to a high pitched wail and the cloud faded, leaving the group pale faced and panting.
"You destroyed seven of these?" Sarah gasped, looking at Orion. Orion still looked shaken.
"Not seven, more like four. And I had help. Not all of them put up that kind of fight, thankfully. The Diadem and the Cup were just hard to reach."
Sirius was still standing but bent over, leaning heavily on the hilt of Gryffindor's Sword, his eyes oddly blank.
"Sirius?" Dumbledore asked warily, and the Animagus seemed to shake himself.
"Sorry. Just…it just hit me, what Regulus did. Destroying that thing…"
"Avenging the memory of your brother is not a light task." Theia opined. Dumbledore nodded in agreement.
"You should take the Sword back, Headmaster. The Diadem is at Hogwarts, hidden inside the Room of requirement. In order to access the Room you must go to the tapestry of Barnabus the Barmy on the seventh floor, and walk past it three times while thinking of what you need, in this case the room where things are hidden. The Diadem is atop a bust somewhere in the room, I can't remember where exactly, but it did not appear to have any defences upon it when I destroyed it. That said, it was destroyed when Crabbe, Goyle and Malfoy followed me, Ron, Hermione and Theia into the Room and Crabbe used the Fiendfyre spell before losing control of it. Pity that I could only save Malfoy…or perhaps a pity that he was the one I saved."
Surprisingly, Dumbledore made no comment on that last, rather cynical, statement, but Theia slapped the back of Orion's head and frowned at him. The Headmaster dispelled the spells he had placed upon the door and gently retrieved the sword from the now slack grasp of Sirius, bestowing a smile upon them and walking away.
"Not even a goodbye." Orion commented, before glancing worriedly at Sirius. The Animagus was still looking blank, and Orion clapped him on the back and rested his hand on the older man's shoulder.
"That's it done, Sirius. Come on, we'd be better off leaving this room for now. Kreacher?"
Now with the Body-Bind spell dispelled, the House-Elf was silent and oddly respectful as he inclined his head to the young man, before snapping his fingers and vanishing with a soft crack.
"So that's how he got past the spells before. Come on Sirius, to the kitchen. Tea, the universal comforter."
"Uh, yeah." Sirius said, managing to respond to Orion as the four of them made their way to the kitchen. Somehow the house seemed lighter already, and Theia remarked on it, theorising that the presence of the Horcrux had affected the house and, by extension, Kreacher. Orion simply shrugged when Sarah looked at him questioningly, though he did offer that in his world the house had only become nicer after the Horcrux had been stolen by Mundungus Fletcher. Sarah was starting to think that the phrase 'Magic is illogical. Weird stuff happens' would soon become her guiding sentence. Given what had happened over the past few years that might be a useful thing to adopt, actually. The only person in the kitchen was Molly Weasley, who looked at them in worry as they shambled in, noticeably ruffled.
"A Dark artifact we found while cleaning." Sarah offered smoothly. "Destroyed now, but it put up some…resistance. Nothing to worry about, Mrs Weasley."
Orion nodded as he slid past Molly and began making tea, waving aside her protests. The grey-eyed dimension traveller then set the tea before Sirius, who seemed to be coming out of his thoughts and actually seemed more cheerful.
"The artifact might have been affecting him as well, hard to tell. It affected people who were close to it when I was trying to destroy it, I know that." Orion said in a low tone, leaning close to Sarah so that Molly couldn't hear.
"So, how is the cleaning going, Mrs Weasley?" Orion eventually asked, breaking the silence that had settled in the kitchen. Molly frowned.
"Oh, well enough, dear. I think we can manage, though if Kreacher would do more- or anything, actually-"
"Kreacher should begin helping soon." Theia said dreamily. "The artifact we destroyed had an unusually high concentration of Nargles around it, Kreacher must have been affected…"
Molly and Sirius looked utterly bemused, while Orion and Sarah, more used to the odd manner that Theia- and in Sarah's case, Ginny's friend Luna- sometimes affected, laughed at the two adults.
"Oh, once we reach Hogwarts, I hope Theia gets into Ravenclaw. Her being in the same house as Luna would be a riot." Sarah commented. Orion looked horrified.
"Or cause one." He mumbled. Theia smiled at them both.
"Maybe. I think it might be useful for my alternate self to have a friend in her own house. I only really had Ginny while I was there…"
"We'll help her, Theia. Personally I think Slytherin might be interesting. For a while, a least."
"The Hat wouldn't put you in Slytherin. I think the strong chance of the House ending up with you as the only living resident will dissuade it."
"Ah, true enough. Probably Gryffindor then, I'm not smart enough for Ravenclaw."
"Not Hufflepuff? After all, you risked a trip through time and space to help me- I'd say that shows loyalty." Sarah teased. Orion continued to smile.
"And yet you are essentially me, which makes it self-preservation, not loyalty. Plus, I was motivated to take the jump by the prospect of a closer acquaintanceship with the tender affections of the Dementors."
"Keep telling yourself that." Sarah returned, smiling. Sirius groaned out loud.
"I don't believe it. It's like having another set of Weasley twins- God must have a grievance against me."
"Says the Marauder who's never grown up." Sarah muttered, and Sirius shrugged.
"I'm only nominally the adult here. Why do you think there are almost always Order members visiting? They just don't trust me. Not that I can blame them."
Sarah raised an eyebrow at Sirius, and turned to Orion.
"So, you're supposed to teach me this Occlumency. What is it, exactly?"
"Occlumency," Orion said, "Is the art of protecting your mind, specifically from the magical art of Legilimency, which allows a form of 'mind-reading', though any practitioner will insist that it isn't mind-reading. A master of Legilimency can catch surface thoughts from an unguarded mind without any words, which is how Voldemort likes to duel. Your unique connection with Voldemort also causes your dreams to…bleed…into one another's, and Voldemort could also send you false visions if he tried. That's how he lured me to the Ministry at the end of my fifth year."
Sarah absorbed all that and then nodded.
"So how do I do it?"
Orion clicked his tongue.
"There are a couple of ways, but the one I'm best with is the formation of a barrier, of sorts. The easiest way is to pick one memory, focus on it so that it is all the Legilimencer 'sees'. Once you've mastered that you can move onto projecting a blank 'wall' for the attacker- just be sure that the memory is as neutral as possible." Orion said, complete with finger-quotes placed around words. Sarah nodded silently, beginning to consider what memory she should use, one that would give a potential attacker nothing to use against her.
"Is that how you learned?" Sirius asked, looking at Orion curiously. Orion shook his head.
"No, ironically enough, that method comes from Voldemort's memories. No, my 'lessons' with Snape consisted of the phrase 'Clear you mind!' and a full force attack. It was…not very effective. Luckily, Voldemort stooped trying after he tried to possess me and almost sent himself insane. More insane. Incompatible viewpoints, see?"
"Not really, but I'll take your word for it. How are you going to test Sarah?"
"I can perform Legilimency well enough to check her mind, once we've hit high enough we can get Dumbledore to do it. Not Snape, I just don't trust him to do what's good for Sarah. That unrequited crush on Lily Potter is just creepy, you know?"
Sarah, who had been absently taking a sip of tea, choked.
"Snape had a crush on my mother?" she hissed, staring at Orion.
"Ah." Orion said, flushing. "I probably shouldn't have said that."
Sarah narrowed her eyes and glared at Orion, who cringed slightly.
"Tell me." Sarah demanded. Orion shuffled in his seat, clearly uncomfortably aware that he was sat directly next to Sarah.
"You should just tell her." Theia commented. "Otherwise she'll hurt you, and you'll tell her eventually anyway."
"Well, that's true. Alright. Basically, it's a long story, but while Snape was busy dying from being mauled by Voldemort's pet snake-"
"It was one bite." Theia said. Orion glared at her.
"But mauled sounds better. Now, Snape was both bleeding out and dying from poison, and there was no way I was able or even inclined to help him, when he gave me a bunch of memories- I didn't even know that was possible. In any case, when I viewed the memories they were mostly of him and Lily, during their childhood. It has to be said, the Marauders were really unpleasant to Snape. Not that he didn't deserve it, but it was pretty immature."
Sarah looked at Sirius, who shrugged.
"He isn't wrong. We were pretty nasty to Snape- not that I regret it. He was just as bad right back."
"Moving on, after five years of tit-for-tat Snape snapped and called Lily a mudblood, which pretty much put the boot into their friendship, after which Snape joined the Death Eaters and James got over being an immature prick. Snape then found out that Voldemort wanted you, and by extension Lily, dead, and so he ran to Dumbledore and has been racked with guilt over his failure ever since."
Sarah blinked, took time to absorb all of that, and then scowled.
"There's something you aren't telling me, isn't there?"
Orion laughed.
"Oh, absolutely. Don't worry, once you manage to master Occlumency to a reasonable degree I'll tell you the rest. Don't want to chance you sharing a dream with Voldemort and spilling all our secrets."
"Uh, ok. Anything else you'd like to share?"
"Not that I can think of…unless you'd like to learn how to duel?"
Sarah looked at him in utter silence for several long minutes.
"Are you kidding? Of course I want to lean to duel!"
"Then we'll do that as well. Sirius, you helping?"
The Marauder shrugged.
"Sure. Once we get enough of the bottom floor cleared up and knock some walls down we can start learning there."
"Learning what?" Ron asked as he shambled into the room, covered in dust and looking grumpy. Sarah raised an eyebrow at him.
"How to eavesdrop on full conversations rather than walking in half way through one?"
"Oh, very funny. What are you really trying to learn?"
"Duelling. Specifically, duelling for your lives against Death Eaters. Fun times, eh?" Orion chipped in. Ron shrugged.
"Sure. Is there anything to eat? I'm starving."
"Are you ever not starving?" Sarah asked. Ron shrugged.
"Not that I can remember." Ron replied cheerfully, as Molly Weasley plunked a platter of sandwiches on the table and he dug in at a remarkable speed. Theia, Sarah noticed, was watching in fascination. Orion sighed.
"Theia, Ron is not playing host to any kind of mythological magical creature." He said. Theia spared him a brief glance and then went back to watching Ron, who was still eating, entirely incognisant of the calculating stare being levelled upon him.
"But his huge appetite, his sometimes odd behaviour…maybe some sort of parasite that provokes jealousy?"
"I don't think those exist, Theia." Orion tried, only for the blonde girl to cut his reply down.
"Given that you have often argued that it is ridiculous, in a world with such generally mythical creatures such as Dragons and Centaurs, to dismiss the existence of a creature out of hand, your argument falls flat, Orion."
Orion frowned, and receded into silence as Theia continued to stare, now with Sirius and Molly joining her to stare at the entirely unaware Ron. Sarah leaned across to Orion.
"You said those things about mythical creatures in the past to support her, didn't you?"
Orion nodded, and Sarah smiled.
"How sweet. Have you ever actually won an argument with her?"
"Not one. I don't think anyone ever has, it used to drive Hermione insane. Shall we go and do some more cleaning? I'll lend you my wand, it's Trace free."
"All practice is good practice?" Sarah asked, raising an eyebrow. Orion grinned slightly.
"Something like that."
"You don't really know what you're doing, do you?"
"No. I figure you can use Scourgify to clean off all the muck, anything jumps out at us we go with 'Kill it with fire' and use Incendio and if that doesn't work we run for it."
"You are awful at planning, really. How have you lived this long?"
"A combination of blind luck, moments that strongly resemble Deus ex machine, the helping hand of insanity and close friendships with two girls who have a knack for planning."
"It's worrying that you have such a ready answer, you know that?" Sarah remarked as they walked into the largest room, filled with blocky furniture.
"I know. But these things do happen. The only problem we might run into is if there's a Boggart or something, I don't know my greatest fear and I'd like it to stay that way." Orion said, passing Sarah his redwood wand. She was surprised at how comfortable it felt to use, although given that Orion was her alternate maybe it wasn't that surprising.
"How can you not know your own greatest fear?" she questioned, in between casting the Scourgify spell and sweeping the wand over the dusty room. Orion's answer was slow in coming, as though he was thinking carefully about it.
"It sounds odd, doesn't it? But when you have faced horrors, when you find yourself driven past the edge of insanity, when you have more than one thing that you truly dread…for instance, which do you thing frightens me more, the prospect of losing Theia or the thought of returning to who I was, to the man the Ministry called Dark Lord Lament? An impossible question, and I truly fear to see the answer."
Sarah went quiet at that, thinking it over. It was logical, she admitted, and she suddenly wondered if her Boggart would no longer be a Dementor, but rather the image of Cedric Diggory, cold and pale at the feet of the serpentine Lord Voldemort. After all, she had long mastered the Patronus charm, the response to the Dementors. A shudder passed through her, and she glanced around to see the knowing expression Orion now wore.
"You see? The Boggart appears as your greatest fear, but who is to say that a person can have only one greatest fear?"
Sarah had no question to that philosophical inquiry, and so silently returned to cleaning the room.
Later that night, as she walked towards her bed, Sarah heard low voices coming from the library. Stealthy on soft feet, Sarah crept up to the library door and listened in. The easily recognisable tones of Orion were the first she heard, with the softer voice of Theia replying.
"Are you going to tell her the Prophecy?" Theia asked.
"Of course. She just needs to be able to protect her mind enough first…it would not do to have the words of the Prophecy bleed into Voldemort's dreams."
"Mm. And…are you keeping this from her just for the sake of the plan, or for Sarah's sake?" Theia asked. The words seemed to strike a chord in Orion, because his reply was sharp.
"What do you mean by that, Theia?"
"You know what I mean, Orion. You insist that you do not need any emotional crutch, or any anchor to keep your…darker…impulses in check, but I notice that you seem rather protective of Sarah."
"You say that like it's a bad thing." Orion shot back. Sarah could practically hear the smile in Theia's voice.
"Oh Orion, you need to be less suspicious. It hurt me to see you break yourself away from what was left of your friends and family at your trial. I'm glad to see you going back to the person you were."
Orion sighed.
"That might be true. Theia…if it were not for you, I would still be lost in madness or stuck in Azkaban. Without you-"
Sarah peeked around the corner, just in time to see Theia lean forward and silence Orion with a soft kiss.
"I'm not going to leave you, Orion. You're all I have left as much as I am all you have left." She said gently, the last words Sarah heard as she crept away, somehow feeling guilty for intruding on such a private moment, even though she had stayed unheard and unseen.
Well, it's been quite a bit since the last update- my apologies, I got caught in a rut in the story. Still, things are moving along again, so enjoy!