LUX IN TENEBRIS LUCET (ORIGINAL VERSION)
CHAPTER 6:
DARK SAVIOUR
Halloween, 1991.
Harry wasn't enjoying the Halloween feast as much as he could have been. This was, admittedly, for a couple of good reasons. The first was that his parents had died ten years ago on this very day, and for the wizards, because it was the day Voldemort was vanquished, it was a time for celebration. However, for Harry, it was a time for mourning. He had brought this up with Dumbledore, who sympathised, but gently asked him to come down to the feast anyway. It was good for morale to have the Boy Who Lived.
The second reason had two names involved: Hermione and Ron. In Charms, earlier today, the bossy know-it-all had been paired up with the redhead. Hermione had been a harridan ever since that incident involving the flying lesson and the subsequent 'midnight duel', going on about how they broke the rules, and it wore on Harry(1). It also wore on Alma, too, whenever she was awake and connected to Harry.
That being said, what happened was probably not good. In Charms, Ron had been struggling with Wingardium Leviosa, and Hermione had been correcting him. When he challenged her to do it, she did so, earning acclaim from Professor Flitwick. Ron was furious, and at the end of the lesson, had remarked to Harry that it was no wonder she had any friends. Her reaction startled them both: she fled from them, crying, and she had apparently hid in a girl's bathroom all day, sobbing and crying.
She had been a pain in the butt for the past little while, but Harry felt sorry for her. He was reminded, sharply, of what it was like to have no friends, especially before Alma came along.
Ah, yes, Alma. At times, she watched what Harry did through his eyes. Sometimes, she even walked with him along the corridors of Hogwarts, a girl in a red dress. She always vanished before anyone could see her, though some of the ghosts, as well as Ron's twin brothers, were giving him odd looks. He could understand the ghosts maybe perceiving his connection to Alma, but Fred and George?
Hogwarts was indeed a great school. He was enjoying himself immensely for the most part. But three people in particular made it less enjoyable. There was Draco Malfoy, the snide Slytherin who had baited Harry ever since Harry rejected the boy's offer of 'friendship'. Alma had asked on a few occasions to liquefy the boy, and Harry had to fight the temptation to say yes.
Then, there was Severus Snape, the Potions Master. He seemed to detest Harry right from the start, testing him on Potions questions that, while not actually outside the first year curriculum, were nonetheless very advanced. Harry managed to surprise the Potions Master by answering two of the three questions correctly, namely the one on the bezoar, and the one on aconite. Thank God for McGonagall's advice. But he also kept in mind that Snape was the one who had given Voldemort cause to come after the Potters.
Of course, Snape hated him for a petty and selfish reason. Voldemort knew that Snape had once been friends with Lily, and enemies with James, so to have his mortal enemy steal his friend away from him sowed the seeds of a massive grudge, even against the son. Only because he answered what questions he could competently and politely, did Harry manage to gain the most grudging of approvals from the Potions Master, and he still used what excuses he could to deduct points from Gryffindor. Like claiming Harry should have spotted Neville's mistake in adding those porcupine quills.
The third and final person was perhaps surprising. Potions was an ordeal thanks to Snape, and History of Magic was utterly boring and (if Harry knew the term) soporific, thanks to Professor Binns, the ghost teaching it. But the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher was a joke. Quirrell was a stuttering mess of a man who seemed afraid of his own shadow. But during their last lesson to date, when Alma was watching, she whispered a warning in his ear. A warning that made him afraid.
He smells of Voldemort, like that Horcrux thing smelled.
Later, when Harry was in his bed, and his mind was in Alma's mindscape, they debated what to do. Harry wanted to go and tell Dumbledore, but Alma pointed out that he may know already. She had been present when Harry and Ron had tea with Hagrid. She had heard all sorts of thoughts buzzing around the gigantic, if friendly groundskeeper's mind, and found some of them curious. She divulged to Harry that Hagrid had brought a valuable item from Gringott's to Hogwarts, and shortly before someone attempted to rob the bank: none other than the legendary Philosopher's Stone.
Voldemort had some knowledge of the Stone. Supposedly, the only known person who had created it was one Nicholas Flamel, and he was, along with his wife, a famous recluse, one of the wizarding world's few immortals. For the Stone could not only perform transmutation of any metal into another (gold being a particularly coveted metal), but was also the key catalyst in the Elixir of Life.
During their talk in Diagon Alley, McGonagall expressed doubt that Voldemort was truly dead. Harry and Alma knew this to be so: they knew that Voldemort had created five Horcruxes, not counting Harry. They only knew of a few of them, and where they were. In any case, the Elixir of Life could be used to bring Voldemort back into corporeal existence.
It was Alma who pointed out that the Philosopher's Stone was probably bait in a trap. Dumbledore was playing a dangerous game. In fact, it was probably what lay beneath the trap door that the Cerberus (that Harry, Ron, and Hermione had encountered during Malfoy's attempt at entrapping them) was sitting on.
And Quirrell was an agent of Voldemort. Or worse. Alma warned Harry to be careful around him from now on. Snape may once have been an agent of Voldemort, but now, it seemed that Quirrell was.
Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. The doors to the Great Hall burst open, and Quirrell, his turban askew, screamed, "TROLLLL! TROLLLL! IN THE DUNGEONS!" He came to a stop in front of the Great Table, in front of Dumbledore, and mumbled, in fatigue and fear, "Thought you'd want to know." He then sagged to the floor in a dead faint(2).
The uproar that followed was silenced only by Dumbledore, showing his true authority. He then ordered the Prefects to lead their students to their dormitories immediately. Harry noted that Professor Sprout and Professor Vector also went to accompany the Hufflepuffs and Slytherins, whose dormitories were in the vicinity of the dungeons. But why wasn't Snape helping the Slytherins?
As they were bustled away by Percy, Harry remembered Hermione: she had no way of knowing that the troll was wandering the school. So he and Ron slipped away. If they encountered a teacher, they would tell them. Hopefully, it wouldn't be Snape or Filch.
They very nearly encountered Snape, who was walking down the corridor. Harry decided to avoid him, but noted that he was heading for the third floor. He frowned. Was Snape going to take advantage to try and get past the Cerberus? Or was he heading someone else off?
The troll is a distraction, Alma hissed in his mind. But it's heading this way. Hurry, Hermione is nearby!
They made it to the toilets, only to see the troll, a big, stupid lump of a creature, stroll right inside. Seconds later, Hermione's screams began to ring out. Harry and Ron ran inside, to find Hermione struggling to avoid the creature's club as it advanced on her.
Things…went badly after that. Harry and Ron tried to distract it from its target, and succeeded somewhat too well. Ron was sent flying by the troll's club, ribs making a sickening crack as he slid down, injured and struggling to breathe. And the troll itself began to advance on Harry, a gleam in its piggy little eyes.
HARRY! screamed Alma, and it was heard by everyone in the room, and indeed, everyone in Hogwarts Castle. In fact, even a few people in Hogsmeade heard it. And suddenly, she was there, a girl in a red dress, lank black hair framing her grey, doll-like face, orange eyes glowing with hatred, a rippling purulent aura surrounding her as if she was on fire.
The troll stared, rather stupidly, at her. Hermione stared, in fear and surprise, at her. Ron, through the pain, stared at her.
Alma then said one word. Quietly, but with all the authority of a deity. It was a statement of reality, not a command.
Die.
The troll suddenly howled, a burbling gurgle of a sound, great torrents of liquid gushing from its body, bloody gouts of fluid pouring from every orifice on its body. Its eyes burst. It choked out its own putrefying tongue. Its club hand dropped off the arm, melting as it did so. A horrid smell filled the room, even more than the troll's normal smell of rank socks and uncleaned public toilets. It was the smell of death and decay, amplified a thousand-fold.
Harry ran to one of the few sinks that had survived the troll, and emptied his stomach into it. He didn't want to look at the final moments of the dying troll.
Hermione, however, couldn't look away. She watched as the troll appeared to decay, rapidly, the flesh all but melting off its bones. She remembered being traumatised by that scene from the end of Doctor Who: Dragonfire, when Kane committed suicide, as well as that similar scene at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, where Toht got the same treatment(3). To experience it in real life was something else.
Ron was also staring, trying not to breathe too hard, given that he had a couple of broken ribs. His eyes flickered to the girl in the red dress. Who the hell was she? And how could she kill a troll like this? Trolls were notoriously resistant to magical attack, so how could she liquefy its flesh with seemingly no effort? And how had she known Harry?
It was like this that McGonagall, Snape, and Quirrell found the four of them later. Quirrell took one look at the troll's liquefied remains, and Alma, and promptly collapsed. Snape's snarl of anger had transformed into an expression that he was clearly unaccustomed to: fear and awe. And McGonagall was beside herself already, learning that three of her Lions were here, but to find a fourth child, no Hogwarts student she recognised (and certainly not in uniform), along with the steaming, molten remains of the troll, sent her into shock.
Alma stared levelly at the teachers, before skipping up to McGonagall and giving a somewhat ironic curtsey. All part of the service, Professors, she said, before she disappeared in a cloud of what looked like flower petals(4).
Harry turned to the professors. "Ron's hurt," he said plaintively. "He needs help."
"Severus, could you please help Mr Weasley?" McGonagall asked.
Snape scowled, but did as he was bid, using a Body Bind to make sure Ron and his ribs were kept still, and a Mobilcorpus spell. As Snape moved out (limping as he did so), McGonagall turned her attention to the other two students. "Now, what happened here?" she asked, the anger and authority in her voice tempered by the faintest quaver of fear.
Harry opened his mouth, only for Hermione to interrupt him. "Please, Professor McGonagall, they were looking for me."
"Miss Granger?"
"I…I went looking for the troll because I…I thought I could deal with it on my own…"
"That's not true!" Harry yelped, before he could think. When McGonagall's eyes went to him, along with Hermione's, he said, "I heard someone teased her this morning, said some bad things about her. I don't know who. She was here all the time. She didn't know about the troll. That's why we came here, Professor, to try and find her. We didn't mean to run into the troll, we thought it'd be still in the dungeons! I…I had a bout of accidental magic when Ron got hurt. That's why the troll…" He gulped.
Hermione gaped at him, while McGonagall looked down at him, anger and fear for his safety, and even a little pride mixed in. "That's as maybe, Mr Potter, but I will have to deduct five points apiece from each of you. Fifteen points from Gryffindor in total. It was extraordinarily dangerous, and you could have notified a prefect. As it is, you are all lucky to be alive. However, I will add ten points, five apiece to you and Mr Weasley, for coming to aid a friend in need. But I need to ask, who was that girl?"
"My…imaginary friend," Harry said quietly. "I've seen her for a long time. She often arrives with my accidental magic."
McGonagall looked at the suppurating remains of the troll. Eventually, she said, "You're very lucky, Mr Potter. Trolls are very resilient to magic. That your accidental magic didn't harm you or your friends…Professor Dumbledore will be notified of this. Go to the common room. The students are finishing the feasts up there."
They arrived back at Gryffindor Tower not long afterwards. Harry noticed that the Weasley twins were looking at him strangely. The pair of them came over, their eyes not glittering with mischief as usual, but with something hard and flinty.
"Why is our brother in the hospital wing?" Fred asked.
"What were you doing with him and Hermione?" George enquired.
"Were you off fighting a troll?" Fred queried.
"And who the hell is Alma Wade?" George demanded.
"Alma…Harry, was that the girl who killed the troll? Was that Alma?" Hermione asked.
Harry was pressed into a quiet corner of the Common Room by his three fellow students. Eventually, he said, "Guys…can we wait until Ron gets here? He'll want to know. He was there too."
"Okay," Fred said. "But we want answers. Ron's a bit of a prat, but if he gets hurt…"
"…we hurt those who hurt him," George finished.
Harry nodded. Thankfully, the twins, upon looking at a strange parchment, announced Ron was on his way back. Cracked ribs, it seemed, were easy enough to heal. And when he entered through the portrait of the Fat Lady, he immediately went over to Harry and the others. "What the hell happened, Harry? Who was that girl?" he hissed.
Fred erected a privacy charm, and nodded to Harry. He looked at his four fellow Gryffindors. "Okay. It's about time I tell you about Alma Wade…"
CHAPTER 6 ANNOTATIONS:
Originally, I was going to make this chapter a series of vignettes about Harry's first year, or about his conversation with McGonagall in Diagon Alley. Instead, I decided to do it based around that fateful Halloween night involving the troll. Yes, things turn out different than in canon. It was only sheer luck that Harry and Ron managed to stop the damned thing in the book and film.
To respond to DMacX's review, Harry is no less badass for Alma helping him. The core of Harry Potter won't change. He is still a caring, heroic character. But Alma is also ridiculously protective of him. In fact, she is overprotective. So when he is in mortal danger, she comes to the fore to help him through a massive application of psychic overkill. Harry will probably be underpowered compared to Alma Wade, but then again, Alma IS someone who can warp reality with her mind.
But on the other hand, it is thanks to Harry being there for her and being a good friend that brings Alma out of the darkness. In the game, Alma is a hollow shell of a human being, but Harry is changing that. He's still the talented and powerful wizard he is in canon, and he will be capable of, for example, learning and casting a corporeal Patronus during his third year. In fact, Harry does manage to hold the Dementors off for a time during the climax of the events of The Prisoner of Azkaban, and it's only when he is being overwhelmed that Alma basically does her melting-their-flesh with her mind thing. But the story is not about comparing Harry and Alma's magical power. It is about their friendship, and how it prevents Alma from sinking into darkness, while saving Harry from Voldemort's plans.
Harry is still the youngest Quidditch player in Hogwarts history. He is still one of the best and most powerful wizards in the Wizarding World. But in this story, he has Alma by his side. He doesn't want to rely on her power, partly because it is so horrifying and partly because he doesn't want to use her as a magic power crutch. But he knows that it is there.
I may get similar complaints when the Harry Potter of my other major Harry Potter crossover, Harry Potter and the Cetra Heritage, goes to Hogwarts with Aerith (and possibly others) in tow.
Alma and Voldemort's memories are helping Harry get ahead of the game here. Her presence, as well as the lack of a Horcrux, means that Harry has better mental shielding than before. And Harry responds to Hermione's attempted cover story differently. I think he realises more that he could have died fighting the troll, and didn't want Hermione to get into trouble for his sake. He does, however, deliberately leave Ron's name out of the picture, and Hermione is grateful enough to them coming to help her that she doesn't correct him.
Of course, now McGonagall, Snape, and Quirrell have seen Alma. And McGonagall is not buying Harry's story. So she'll be heading to Dumbledore.
1. Re-read the first book. As much as Harry and Ron broke the rules, Hermione is being more than a little bitchy. This is because she is obsessed with following the rules, and the Halloween incident helped get that out of her. And this is coming from someone who actually likes Hermione.
2. Although I am basing this more on the novels, I loved Ian Hart's take on Quirrell in this scene in the movie version, and preferred to adapt that, instead of the scene as in the book.
3. Both are gruesome melting head moments. I reckon Hermione, with her nerdish ways, is a closet Whovian, and she would have been maybe seven or eight when Dragonfire was transmitted. She probably saw Raiders of the Lost Ark on VHS.
4. I watched clips of Alma from the original F.E.A.R on YouTube, and the child version seemed to disappear in drifts of what look like petals.