Tales and Tails
Harry Potter had barely slept. He had been to Ollivander's on Monday and had found, to his horror, that his suspicions were correct and that it was Voldermort's wand. He sat in his study and thought about Tom Marvolo Riddle. An orphan boy who grew up in the muggle world. As a boy he had shown cruelty towards others and disdain for those he believed to be inferior. At Hogwarts he had been a talented, well liked by the teachers, friendless boy who gathered supporters in Slytherin. He despised muggles and muggle borns. He saw death as a weakness from the age of 11. He murdered his father and grandparents when he was 16 and framed his uncle. He wanted power. Then there was his adult life. He had-
"Daddy." Harry jumped and stowed the wand away in one of the drawers of his desk and tapped it with his wand. He spun around on his chair, it was a muggle computer chair, wizards had yet to discover the benefit of a chair with wheels. In the door was a bleary eyed Lily.
"Lily Luna Potter what are you doing up?"
"I was asleep but I had a nightmare."
"Oh." Harry fought back memories of the nightmares he'd had. "Come here." Lily climbed onto her father's lap. She would have been a reincarnation of Lily Evans but she had hazel eyes instead of green.
"So what was this nightmare about then?"
"I was here and then I came downstairs and you were all…dead." Lily's voice cracked and she began to cry. She buried her head in her father's shoulder. He held very tightly and let her cry. Death was a very touchy subject in all their families houses, everyone had lost someone. Harry had lost his parents and godfather, Ginny and the rest of the Weasley's had lost Fred, a brother and son and Teddy/Dora had lost their parents/daughter and son-in-law and their grandfather/husband respectively. Lily always got upset about things like this.
"Lily it's okay we're not dieing, we're not going anywhere." Harry had decided against telling her about James' attack.
"Why do you have a dangerous job, daddy?"
"'cause it's the only thing I'm any good at."
"You're a good father." Harry smiled
"Well unfortunately that doesn't feed you."
"But why?"
"You sound so much like your mother when I told her."
"What did she do? Please tell me."
"Well okay."
It was the end of August and Harry was once more staying with the Weasley's. He and Ginny had got back together, and provided they stayed together through a whole year apart, they were going to be in their own place this time next year. He was sitting on her bed trying to stir up the courage to tell her he was going to become an auror.
"Harry."
"Yes Ginny?"
"Are you going to tell me this news or not."
"Oh yeah. Well. I'mgonnabeanauror."
"What?"
"I'm-going-to-be-an-auror." He closed his eyes and waited for the explosion. After a minute of waiting he cautiously opened one eye. He couldn't see properly so he opened the other. The sight he saw made him want to be sick. Ginny was sobbing quietly into her hands. Harry would definitely had preferred the explosion. He moved over and slipped an arm around her, pulling her closely to him. She wrapped her arms around him and cried.
"Harry dinner's-" Hermione half opened the door but saw Ginny mouthed 'sorry' then backed out. This, however, had brought Ginny out of her weeping. She looked up at him.
"Why?"
"Because Kingsley said it was the best job for me and it's the only one he'd give me without returning for my N.E.W.T.s. Ron's joining too.""That doesn't make me feel better."
"Didn't think it would. But Ginny I will be careful, I promise. I have never been happier than I am now. I have you and Ron and Hermione and you family. I will also be there for Teddy. I am gonna give him something close to a father. I feel it's the least I can do for him and the rest of the marauders, barring Wormtail of course. You and me we've got a shot at the future, I'm not about to throw it away." Ginny smiled and nodded. They kissed and then Harry said "We had better get to dinner and you need to wash your face or I'll have lots of over protective brothers hexing me." She laughed.
Lily was silent and then said
"Did mummy really cry?"
"Promise you won't tell her I said this?"
"Yes."
"Then yes, she was very upset. But Lily no one is going to die and I am very careful. I have so much to live for. I have you and your brothers, your mother, Teddy and all the Weasley family." He stroked her hair back. "Besides, Lils, it was just a nightmare. Nightmares can only hurt you if you worry about them."
"Okay." She slid off her father's lap. "Will you be home tomorrow?"
"No, I have somewhere I need to be."
"Oh."
"You'll find something to do. If you can't meet up with Hugo why don't you….er….write to Al." Lily's face lit up.
"Yeah, I'll do that." She ran out of the room and up to her room. Harry smiled and rubbed his scar. Everything was going to be fine, no one was dieing under his watch.
Caly groaned as she sat up. She could hear Rose moving around. She rolled over and opened the hangings. Rose was turning the contents of the room upside down for a sock. She sat up and got out of bed. Her things were exactly where she left them last night and she dressed quickly. By the time she had finished tying her hair back in a ponytail Rose had found another pair of socks and the dormitory was a mess.
They met Scorpius and Al in the common room and headed down to breakfast. Today they had History of Magic, Defence Against the Dark Arts and Potions. According to all their parents History of Magic was the most boring subject taught at Hogwarts. As far as Caly could work out, this ghost didn't know his class and he didn't seem to really notice he was dead. Her friends had endless tales of boredom to regale her with and for the first time she found herself enjoying breakfast. The whole meal was fun until the owls came.
SWOOSH! Hundreds of owls came flying into the great hall. Caly jumped and dropped her toast and split her juice everywhere. By the time she had cleared up the owls were all circling the tables, finding their owners and dropping letters and parcels off and then flying off. Three owls came flying towards the four of them. Two landed in front of Al and Rose whilst Scorpius' dropped his letter and flew off. Caly looked curiously at his letter. It was smoking and red. He was paler than ever and all of Gryffindor table was looking sympathetically at him. He gritted his teeth and opened it.
"SCORPIUS HYPERON MALFOY!" A man's voice filled the hall and everyone turned to face them. "YOU HAVE DESTROYED THE FRAGILE REPUTATION THAT THE MALFOY HAS SALVAGED! YOU ARE A DISGRACE TO THE NAME MALFOY! I HAVE NEVER BEEN MORE ASHAMED IN MY LIFE! DON'T BOTHER COMING HOME AT CHRISTMAS YOU AREN'T WELCOME!" Silence filled the hall. Everyone was gazing at Scorpius sadly, Caly could see James looking a little guilty down the table where he was sitting with the dreamy twins. Most people had been prejudiced against him, they were infamous but seeing the first year who was as red as the letter most felt sorry for him.
"What was that?" Caly whispered to Al.
"Howler. Worst letter a Hogwarts student can receive."
However something even stranger happened that distracted everyone from Scorpius' howler. In through the windows that the owls came through flew a beautiful red bird. Professor McGonagall half rose from her seat in shock. All the staff, it seemed, were frozen in shock. The bird looked like a phoenix but they weren't real, or were they?
"Is that a-"
"Yeah that's a phoenix." It circled the hall four times and then descended towards the Gryffindor table. It was coming closer to them and Caly was sure it was going to Al. After all Al was famous, right. Her heart seemed to stop when it landed in front of her. The entire hall was gazing at her. She extended a shaking hand and gently stroked the phoenix. It bowed its head and ruffled its plumage. It took off and flew once around her head. As it did so it dropped a single feather. Caly picked it up and it caught fire. She didn't drop it, though, she just kept holding it. A ring of flames rose from the tail feather and down her hand till her wrist. It burned there for a minute and in that minute she saw all the birds memories. She saw everything and she knew they were linked. She looked back down at her wrist and saw the mark was all but invisible. She looked the phoenix straight in the eye as she tied the tail feather around her other wrist.
"Fawkes."