Harry blamed Sirius.
If his godfather hadn't mentioned the story about the other people like him, if he hadn't mentioned the King and the army, then maybe Harry wouldn't be having this dream right now and instead would be dreaming about something a lot nicer.
Nice like Treacle Tart.
But Sirius had mentioned the King and the army, he had mentioned that there were others like Harry. And now he was trapped in a dream, watching as his mind conjured up a horde of what appeared to be Romans. The black-clad army was trying to invade a small fort near the top of a huge mountain, Harry not recognising any familiar symbols or signs to help him place where his dream had dropped him, not even the city spread out below the mountain that was seemingly unaware of the battle going on above their heads.
As Harry watched, standing in one of the towers and looking down on the battle, both arrows and spells flew both ways – a wizarding war then, not that he remembered hearing of any wizarding wars in Ancient Rome (or Greece, he honestly didn't know the difference).
Flinching as a spell blew open the roof of the tower, Harry tried to duck under a large chunk of rubble, stumbling as it fell right through him like he wasn't there. Right he was dreaming, was that why everything felt so… stilted? Because he was dreaming? It all felt disjointed, like he was exhausted and trying to follow one of Hermione's "Today I learnt in Ancient Runes" talks at the same time, most of the information he was taking in going out the other ear while the other half somehow changed into meaningless words and sounds.
But if there was one thing that was coming through the blur of spellfire and battle, it was that the wizards and witches dressed in ragged purple armour and togas were losing to the darker army attacking them. There were more than twice as many black soldiers than there were of the purple defenders, who looked like they were on their last wind and were only being held together with muggle duct-tape. In a brief moment of emotion, Harry imagined himself and his 'side' against the Voldemort and his Death Eaters, him and Sirius standing alone against the black wave, with the Ministry and the wizarding world lying about to the side completely unaware of the battle right in front of their noses.
"I can't do it father!"
Whirling around as two men stalked onto the top of the ruined tower, four exhausted soldiers trailing after them, Harry watched as the arguing father left the soldiers behind and dragged his son towards the edge of the tower.
"Look down there and tell your people that!" the man shouted, jabbing a finger down towards both the losing defenders and the city below them. "You must do it, there is no other hope for our survival".
"If I do it, father, then no-one will survive," his son argued, shaking his head slowly as he stepped away from the older man. "Lady Trivia has not seen fit to gift me such power yet, even if I could unleash it, I could not control it," he explained desperately, Harry almost feeling his fear and urgent need for his father to understand.
"Cato. They will die if you don't".
"Father. They will die if I do," the young man exhaled softly, a lost expression on his face. "Everyone will die," he continued when his father opened his mouth to continue arguing, "Yes the Dark Lord and his servants will die. But so will you, me, our people, the entire city. Ask me to go down there and fight to my last breath, but do not ask me to do this".
Drawing himself up and puffing out his chest to make himself look bigger, Harry watched as the father looked down his nose at his son. "I gave you an order, Cato," he said coldly, "The Dark Lord will fall here, no matter the sacrifice".
And with that the man was turning and stalking away, gesturing the soldiers to follow him as Cato sagged and hunched in on himself. Choking on his breath as a wave of sadness flooded him, Harry staggered forward hesitantly, realising this was more than just a mere dream as he approached the trembling blonde man slowly.
"Lord Vulcan, forgive me for what I'm about to do," Cato rasped out, Harry flinching at the tears both on the man's face and in his voice. "If I deserve it".
Turning around to face the mountain, and Harry, Cato slowly spread his arms and closed his eyes as he focused on something. As he cautiously walked towards the silent man Harry froze as he felt a more than familiar spark, coming not from him but from the blonde before him. Concentrating on Cato as the man's trembling became more noticeable, a sweat building up on his face as veins became more pronounced, Harry struggled to follow the faint line of power running from the blonde's chest to… to the mountain.
Cato wasn't the one shaking… everything was.
Jumping as a gasp echoed through the air, Harry twisted around to see Cato was glowing now, his eyes snapping open with an unnatural red-orange glow to them as they locked directly onto Harry's emerald ones.
"I'm sorry," he whispered, "I'm so sorry".
"Oh Merlin," Harry murmured as everything fell into place, head snapping around to stare down at the city and then back up at the mountain… the volcano. "Don't do it! Cato! Stop!"
Cato could hear him, he could see Harry after all, maybe he could hear him too and stop this before an entire city was destroyed.
"It's too late," the man exhaled, "It's too late".
Choking on a scream as the mountaintop exploded, Harry shot up in bed, sweat pouring down his face as fire danced through the air.
Scrambling off his bed to Hedwig's startled hoots, Harry kept his flaming forearms stretched out in front of him, hoping not to burn anything other than his already well-done blankets. Trying to control his breathing, he kept his arms out and clamped his eyes shut, pushing uselessly at the fire burning out from beneath his skin and trying to trap it back inside.
It felt like he was trying to fight fire with oil though, Cato's emotions still overpowering any restraint and control he had up till now.
"Stupefy!"
A flash of light made Harry's eyes snap open suddenly, leaving him staring up at Sirius in shock as his godfather cupped his face gently.
"Hey kiddo, you feeling better now?" Sirius questioned nervously, Harry blinking slowly as he looked around hesitantly to find himself lying on the floor.
"What happened?"
"I had to stun you," the dog animagus admitted unhappily, "You were losing control, it was either that or you'd burn the house down. Of course, I wouldn't complain if you chose to burn this place down," he added with a shrug, "But I hardly think this is the best time for that".
Staring at his godfather in confusion, Harry felt a rush of shame as he realised what had just almost happened, sitting up and looking down at his hands in betrayal.
"Kid," Sirius said gently, making him tear his eyes away. "Tonks is here to talk to you, she says it's important?"
Ignition
"Dear Mr Potter,
The Ministry of Magic has received intelligence that you performed two counts of the Stunning Charm at fifteen minutes past nine this morning in a Muggle-inhabited area and in the presence of a Muggle.
Due to the severity of this breach and your past history of flaunting the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery, you have been hereby expelled from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Ministry representatives will be calling at your place of residence shortly to destroy your wand and bring you into custody for your crimes against wizardkind.
Hoping you are well,
Mafalda Hopkirk,
Improper Use of Magic Office
Ministry of Magic."
Staring down at the letter in dumb shock, Harry slowly looked up at the person standing opposite him, taking in the serious look in their eyes.
"Is this for real?" he asked blankly, "They're really trying the same thing twice?"
"It's real, Harry," Tonks admitted, scrunching up her nose as she pulled out a chair to sit at the table. "The letter was actually written by Madam Hopkirk, and the spells do register on your Trace report. Madam Bones was able to confirm that".
"But I wasn't even there at fifteen minutes past nine! I can't have cast those spells!"
"I know," Tonks agreed simply. "Because I did, well, me and Madam Bones did," she clarified as Harry's hand snapped down to grab his wand. "We were there to question that nasty cousin of yours, chill," she defended, raising her hands to show they were empty, "Madam Bones wanted to get proof about those dementors but your Uncle and cousin got a little... unnecessarily... violent. We were forced to stun them, this letter showed up mere minutes later".
"But then that's not my fault is it? I'm not really expelled from Hogwarts am I?" Harry questioned nervously.
"No! Oh Merlin no!" Tonks assured him quickly, "When some Aurors showed up to arrest 'you', Madam Bones and I were waiting for them. She's already fixed everything, so you don't need to worry". Tonks hesitated and shifted uncomfortably, "And she wants you to come in to the Ministry for a 'trial'," she admitted slowly, "It's a farce, so you don't have to worry, but we need an excuse to get Fudge and Umbridge into a courtroom".
"So I should just go ask Dumbledore if I can leave the house, to go to a meeting with a person he ordered not to talk to me in the first place?" Harry asked dryly.
"Or you could hide in the kitchen under that cloak of yours and then take the floo to the Ministry while Sirius and the Twins cause a distraction using the everlasting fireworks Madam Bones budgeted me under 'workplace expenses'," the Metamorphmagus corrected with a roll of her eyes. "It's not like he's not expecting you to leave the house anyway, the trial is on the same day as the fake one Umbridge arranged for is, you'll just be leaving a little earlier".
"Yeah that'll work too," Harry agreed, only a little disappointed that he didn't get to see the look on Dumbledore's face when he asked to leave.
"I'll let you know when it's time," Tonks declared, standing up again and smoothing down her robes with a smile, before turning and heading for the door. "Oh, and one thing," she added as she waved her wand to remove the silencing charm she'd put up around the library, "I know it's not my place to say anything. But you're not angry at me are you?" she asked nervously, "I mean, I didn't do anything to you did I?"
"I'm not angry at you," he assured her, "You're good".
As Tonks beamed happily and turned to skip out of the room humming, Harry looked down at the letter in his hands again, wondering just how desperate the Ministry of Magic was to destroy him. Either way, he was glad that he had Madam Bones on his side; an owl and an escaped convict were hardly the best people to help him take down a corrupt government. Not that Harry wanted to take down a corrupt government, just Fudge and this 'Umbridge' character.
"Harry?"
Humming in acknowledgement, Harry waited for his godfather to continue speaking as he folded the letter back up and pulled off his backpack, safely storing it with the rest of his letters.
"What the hell was what?"
"That was Tonks, your cousin," Harry deadpanned, hiding his smirk as Sirius shot him an unimpressed look.
"Don't make me hex you, kiddo," Sirius said warningly. "That's how you knew, isn't it? You've got the Head of the DMLE wrapped around your little finger, don't you?"
"I wouldn't say that," Harry edged uncertainly; "I'd say she's on my side after she found out the Minister tried to get me killed".
Sirius blinked, shocked speechless as Harry kicked himself. Maybe he should have eased into that; instead of coming right out and casually throwing the assassination attempt into the conversation like it was nothing.
"Can you do that silence thing?" Harry asked as Sirius opened his mouth, "We're going to have to start from the beginning".
Ignition
"Wand"
Handing his wand over obediently, Harry watched as the security wizard lazily dropped it onto a strange-looking bronze scale. Standing stiffly as the scales vibrated, pushing a narrow strip of parchment out of their base, he narrowed his eyes suspiciously as the man tore it off and glanced over it.
"Eleven inches, phoenix-feather core, been in use four years? That correct?"
"Yes," Harry confirmed, fighting the urge to snatch his wand back as the wizard handing it over and speared the parchment onto a small spike beside him.
"Welcome to the Ministry, have a pleasant da- hang on!"
Rolling his eyes as the security wizard looked between the badge on his chest and his forehead, Harry just swept past him and ignored the way the wizard called after him, instead beginning to search the crowd for a familiar head of pink hair.
"Wotcher, Harry!"
Smiling politely at the young auror, Harry made his way through the crowd towards her, Tonks looking nothing like the other aurors surrounding her due to her beaming grin and luminescent hair. "Oh it's fine, Harry, I just got hexed by a perp I had to bring in earlier," Tonks explained when she noticed where his attention was. "Medical said it wasn't a harmful spell so I decided to keep it, looks cool doesn't it?"
"It suits you," Harry lied, just so he had something to say that prevented an awkward silence.
"I know right?" Tonks agreed happily, "Come on, this way. Madam Bones is waiting for you in her office, she says this is important".
Easily following the bobbing and glowing pink head through the crowd, Harry found himself being led towards a series of golden lift set in a smaller hallway beside the atrium. Sticking close to Tonks and smoothing down his fringe as they cut straight through a line and instead approached a silver coloured lift that had the crest of the DMLE on its front.
"Just in here, Harry. Did you get away from the house alright?" Tonks questioned quietly as she opened the lift with a simple tap of her wand to the matching badge on her chest.
"The fireworks you gave the Twins… kind of exploded," Harry confessed hesitantly, flinching as Tonks' neck let out a dangerous-sounding crack when her head snapped around. "They were fiddling with them," he explained quickly, "They said they almost had the formula down, but the last aspect always gave them trouble". Pausing and trying to hide the smile tugging at his lips, Harry cleared his throat, "The fireworks turned sentient and dive-bombed anyone who came too close, last I saw they'd burned through Ron's pants".
"You didn't… you didn't see anything did you?" Tonks asked, her hair and face turning green.
"Mrs Weasley was adjusting the height of his robes, so thankfully he was wearing them," Harry admitted making Tonks sigh in relief. "I think the Twins are just lucky that the fireworks didn't burn anyone".
"It's a shame I missed it," Tonks murmured unhappily. "Ah! Here we go! Harry, I welcome you to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement!"
Following Tonks out into a hall around the size of Hogwarts' Great Hall, Harry looked around curiously, a little surprised by the muggle appearance of the cubicles and the aurors themselves. All in all, the DMLE was nothing like he would have expected, while there were some obviously magical items lying about – such as the purple paper aeroplanes zipping through the air – the muggle swivelling chairs and water cooler told a different story.
"You'll have to wait outside Madam Bones' office for a while, Harry," Tonks instructed as they moved through the hall, nobody giving them a second glance despite the way Harry was certain they all saw the badge on his chest. "I'll let her know you're waiting and she'll come get you when you're ready. She's a very busy woman," she added apologetically.
"It's fine," Harry assured as they reached a small alcove, a door at its tip with the name 'Madam Amelia Bones; Head of the DMLE' etched into it in gold. "I can wait," he added as he sat in the offered seat, Tonks smiling at him before hurrying over to a set of cubicles and ducking into one of them.
They'd arranged for him to sneak out and arrive at the Ministry for his trial early anyway, so sitting in the 'waiting room' wasn't really a problem for him, especially not considering the talk he and Madam Bones were about to have.
It could be worse though, he could be back at Grimmauld Place with nothing but an overprotective godfather and his thoughts. At least here in public he didn't have to worry about his mind running away from him, conjuring up images of him losing control and burning the entire house down. He'd always been good at throwing up masks in public, none of his fellow students at Hogwarts had realised how much their hate had hurt him during the parseltongue or goblet of fire 'incidents' after all.
Slowly looking down at his hands again, Harry flexed his fingers slowly, unable to help but dread how dangerous he would become. Cato – if his vision had truly been a vision – had caused the eruption of an entire volcano. What would Harry become capable of? There may not be any volcanos within England, but as the morning after his dream had proven he was still more than dangerous even without one. And right now the last thing he wanted was to be dangerous, he'd willingly give up all of his power if it meant he wouldn't lose control of it and kill everyone.
Glancing up as someone's footsteps stumbled, Harry barely wasted a moment looking at the angry-looking auror walking past the waiting area before he was looking back down at his hands. He wasn't surprised about the glare; Tonks had explained that his innocence regarding the second crime 'he' had committed was being kept a secret between the aurors that had showed up to arrest him. Madam Bones didn't want to risk the news getting back to anyone loyal to Umbridge or the Minister, so she did something that ensured their silence. They had to keep the entire plan – which Harry knew so little about that it made him itch – under wraps for as long as they could so that there was no chance that neither the Minister nor Umbridge were alerted.
"Mister Potter? Follow me please".
Leaping to his feet and rushing after the monocle-wearing woman, Harry shut the door behind him at her gesture and watched as Madam Bones tapped her wand silently on three ruby's inset into the corner of the desk.
"Take a seat, please, Mister Potter," the Head of the DMLE requested as Harry caught sight of the two other women in the office. "Might I introduce to you Madams Hopkirk and Marchbanks, of the Improper Use of Magic and the Division for Magical Education offices respectively. Madams Hopkirk and Marchbanks, may I introduce you to Mister Harry James Potter," Madam Bones said formally, making Harry incline his head respectively towards the two women even as he hid his confusion.
"This meeting is called in response to the severe breach of the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery by the aforementioned Harry James Potter – inhabitant of 4 Privet Drive, Surrey – at fifteen minutes past nine on the 10th of August," Madam Bones continued without hesitation, "Does everyone understand the charges?"
"I do," Harry answered when both Hopkirk and Marchbanks said the same without hesitation.
"Very well, Mister Potter, please sit".
"You stand accused of casting two counts of the stunning charm at fifteen minutes past nine on the 10th of August," Madam Bones recited, sounding very bored as the other two women sighed. "How do you plead?"
"Not Guilty?"
"Very well," Madam Bones added, nodding to Marchbanks as she stood, "Do you have any proof to support your claims? A witness, for example?"
Oh! Now Harry understood, this little trial was going to be as biased as the one the Minister was planning on springing on him.
"I have proof. Two witnesses," he explained to Madam Marchbanks as the woman took Madam Bones' seat.
"Both my own and Auror Tonks' witness statements have been given to the presiding," Madam Bones added as she took a seat in the corner and winked at Harry.
"The presiding have read the witness statements and have interrogated the witnesses to our satisfaction," Madam Marchbanks declared, "All in favour of clearing Mister Potter of all charges? Agreed, so mote it be. Mister Potter, all charges have been dropped. Well done".
"Thank you Griselda, Mafalda," Madam Bones said calmly as she stood, the formal air to the room vanishing suddenly as everyone else stood. "That must have been one of the fastest hearings we've done yet".
"Of course, of course. We will see you in the courtroom, Amelia," Mafalda answered as Madam Bones deactivated the glowing rubies on the desk and Marchbanks swept out of the room without a second glance.
"Thank you for bearing with me through that," Madam Bones said to Harry as she reactivated the rubies with a sigh, "We believed it to be for the best to go through the actions of a trial to prevent loopholes from being exploited".
"Makes sense," Harry agreed with a murmur when the DMLE Head stopped speaking.
The woman hummed in agreement, tapping her wand on a file that he could clearly see the name 'Harry James Potter' across the top of it. "Now, Mister Potter," Madam Bones began slowly, "I'm glad you agreed to meet me here before your 'trial' began, it gives us a chance to go over our so-called 'plan of attack' for how we-"
The woman froze as a purple aeroplane flew over Harry's head, making him glance over his shoulder towards the solid wall in confusion.
"It's just an interdepartmental memo, Mister Potter, the Ministry used to use owls but the mess was unbelievable. Anyway, as I was saying," the woman continued as she caught the aeroplane and set it down in a box labelled 'inbox', "I managed to gain enough evidence to engage in a low-key investigation of Senior Undersecretary Dolores Umbridge's actions".
"Madam Bones," Harry blurted, staring at the purple aeroplane as something twisted in his chest with a morbid sense of bad. "I think you should read that".
"Mister Potter?"
"I'm getting a really bad feeling about that memo," Harry explained as Madam Bones eyed him curiously, "Something tells me you should read it".
The woman squinted through her monocle at him for a moment before sighing, turning to inspect the memo through her monocle again before picking it up and unfolding it, reading it with an annoyed expression on her face.
"Mister Potter".
Head snapping back up to face Madam Bones at the anger in her voice, he watched nervously as the woman leapt to her feet and incinerated the memo with the wand she drew during the same movement.
"Wait for me outside my office," Madam Bones ordered as her wand flicked rapidly around the room.
"Madam Bones?"
The woman let out an angry growl and whirled around to face Harry, forcibly calming herself down as she smoothed out her robes. "That memo was a reminder about your trial today. It called together the entire Wizengamot, something I cannot believe Cornelius would be stupid enough to do to," she explained furiously, "Especially considering he's changed the time of your trial as well".
"He changed the time?" Harry asked nervously, "To when?"
"To ten minutes from now," Madam Bones deadpanned.
IGNITION
Because I've been asked this question so many times in reviews, I'll announce it formally here and then verbally abuse anyone who sends me a message about it.
THIS STORY IS NOT SLASH. HARRY REMAINS A HETEROSEXUAL LIKE IN CANON, THE ONLY DIFFERENCE IS THERE IS NO END PAIRING.
So there you go, that is the last time I'll say it, you've been warned about the verbal abuse so don't start whining when it happens. At the same time, I'd like to apologise for last week's non-update, I had finished the FIVE THOUSAND WORD CHAPTER and as I was saving I bumped the power cable of my laptop (which is really really old) and the entire thing crashed… thus corrupting the ENTIRE file and making me lose it all.
I doubt you realise how much of a shame this is, as the dream sequence was ten times better in the first one, like bloody poetry.
OH! And please stop commenting on the length of my chapters, if it's too short for you then stop reading, but I've already doubled the length of my chapters from 2k to 4k since starting this story and I refuse to force it anymore.
Thank you to everyone who reviewed last chapter!