Disclaimer: See the Prologue
A/n Thanks for the reviews on the last chapter. There is one thing I want to clarify right now. Scar rock is the Goblin name that Ragnock gave Harry. There is no Goblin with that name anywhere in the story. This all came up because my friend (who is also my beta), got confused and thought that there was a Goblin with that name. I wanted to clear that up so people do not get distracted. I would also like to thank Lady Sloane for giving me some ideas to work with. With that said, here is the chapter. Updated to fix dates so they are correct based on the story timeline. Have also fixed spelling mistakes.
Updated to fix a little mistake about the ownership of the motorbike.
Chapter 3: Mind link And Portraits
3 years later: October 31st, 1988
Knock, knock, knock. 8 year old Harry James Scar rock Potter along with his friends Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom, and his cousin Dudley Dursley waited for someone to answer the door.
A lot had happened in the last 3 years. Harry, his cousin, and his friends had started going to Muggle school. They had a lot of trouble getting the bullies to stop bullying Hermione just because she was better than them academically.
Hermione had started to blindly trust authority figures but with a few arguments and proof, Harry had managed to get Hermione to see that not all authority figures were to be trusted.
Meanwhile, at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was very worried.
About 4 years ago, Harry's family had been killed because number 4 had suddenly gone up in flames.
He knew that Harry was alive because of what he had done that Halloween night 7 years ago.
Flashback: October 31st, 1981.
Albus Dumbledore had just closed his office door after Severus had, yet again, tried to warn him that Peter Pettigrew had been the spy all along and had given the secret to Voldemort and he was going to go and kill the Potters in a few hours.
He felt sorry for Severus. He really did. He contemplated on saving Lily so that Severus could have her but no. She was to independent and to smart. He had had to obliviate her quite a number of times just because she had been angry at him for one thing or another and also because she had figured out some of his secrets. No. Lily had to die for the greater good, and if she didn't die, then the blood protection would not work. James would no doubt fight instead of begging for his son's life to be spared in exchange for his own. James death would be unfortunate, but for the greater good, it had to happen.
Sirius Black was also going to be a big problem.
His train of thought was abruptly cut off when one of his instruments began beeping. He activated his listening charms that he had placed in the cottage that he had lent to James and Lily. After all, he could not have left them in Potter manner, could he? Voldemort would not be able to kill James and Lily otherwise.
His listening charms activated.
Bang! The door burst open.
"Lily! Take Harry and go, run! I'll hold him off."
Voldemort laughed in a high cold voice.
"Avada kedavra!" A thump as James's body hit the ground.
Voldemort pushed a few boxes out of the way, or that is what Dumbledore could figure out, although he was not sure.
"Give me the boy and I will let you live."
"Don't you dare hurt my son you bastard!"
"Move out of the way, you stupid girl."
"No, don't kill Harry, kill me instead!"
"I am warning you again. If you want to live then move out of the way!"
"No! Not Harry please. Kill me instead!"
"Very well." Severus will be disappointed but if you are going to be this stubborn, then you leave me no choice.
Avada kedavra!"
Another thump as Lily hit the floor.
"Now, your turn." Harry began to cry.
"Shut up you stupid boy."
Harry still kept on crying.
"Pathetic. No one can defeat me, especially not a stupid boy like you but I have to do this because of that stupid prophesy.
Avada kedavra!"
Boom! The whole house exploded and Harry began to scream.
Dumbledore quickly called Hagrid to go to the Potter's house to collect Harry.
He still had his listening charms activated so he was able to hear what was going on.
A few minutes later, Sirius Black appeared at the house and began to sob.
"Now calm down Sirius. Give Harry to me. Dumbledore's orders."
"Hagrid, James and Lily are dead because of me. I made them change secret keepers at the last moment. I suppose that little Peter got the best of us.
Please, let me take Harry. I am his godfather."
"No, I need to take him back to Hogwarts, it's Dumbledore's orders, now, give him to me."
"I am coming with you," Sirius said and they hopped on Sirius' motorbike and made their way to Hogwarts.
As soon as they arrived, Dumbledore woke Sirius and said, "Cunfundo."
A glazed look appeared in Sirius's eyes.
"You will go and hunt down Peter Pettigrew and kill him in front of many witnesses."
Dumbledore took some of Harry's blood and put it on some of his instruments so they could tell him where he was, what his health condition was, and if he was alive or not.
Sirius Black had been arrested for the murder of Peter Pettigrew and injuring 12 muggles the very next day. There was only 1 finger of Peter Pettigrew left on the street where he had been murdered.
Minerva had been stubborn, but a few compulsion charms later, she had not interfered and taken the boy herself when Dumbledore had put Harry with the Dursleys. Albus had also modified Hagrid and Severus's memories so they could think that Sirius was the secret keeper instead of Peter.
End flashback.
He kept looking at his instruments. They had failed to tell him anything except for Harry being alive.
Many people were asking him how the boy who lived was and wanted to see some photos of him.
Before the boy went missing, Dumbledore would either go and take a picture to appease the public himself, or he would steal a picture of Harry from the school photos.
Ever since the boy had disappeared, there were no photos of him and he had to repeatedly put compulsion charms on people so they would not ask him about Harry Potter.
Those compulsion charms were driving him crazy but unfortunately, he couldn't wipe out everyone in the wizarding world just yet. He didn't like to get his hands dirty, instead with his very clever brain, he manipulated others to do the dirty work for him.
The other thing that was bothering him was the elder wand.
How dare those filthy creatures take what was rightfully his? How
On the night of November the first, he had destroyed most of his instruments because of what the creatures had dared to do. Now as he paced up and down his office, he tried to calm down so that he could show his grandfatherly façade just in case anyone came into his office.
He had repeatedly tried to talk to people about those meddlesome goblins but no words would come out of his mouth. Whenever he tried to write it down on a piece of parchment, the letters would change and insult him instead. He would then be laughed at.
Back at the Granger residence, Harry, Dudley, Neville and Hermione were sorting through all the sweets that they had gotten that day.
After taking 1 quarter of the sweets each, they went to bed.
The next day, Ragnock called Harry, Neville, Dudley and Hermione to Gringots.
"Good morning, father." Harry and Dudley said and they bowed.
"Good morning, sir," Neville and Hermione said bowing to Ragnock as well.
"We have some bad news to tell you.
Yesterday, we saw one of Dumbledore's flashbacks.
It turns out that he was, indeed, partly responsible for your parent's deaths.
He is also responsible for your godfather's illegal incarceration in Azkaban prison.
Raw magical power crackled around Harry and all furniture, quills, parchment, and all the other things that were in Ragnock's office began flying. A picture of Dumbledore appeared in front of Harry.
Vines shot out of the ground, grabbed the picture, and crushed it into dust.
"Calm down, Harry." Hermione said, putting a hand on his arm.
"No, I won't!" Harry shouted with tears in his eyes.
"Why Hermione." W-why did he set up my parents to die? Why did he put Sirius in prison?
What have I done to him?"
Ragnock was not happy. He had known that Harry would be upset. He had good reason to be upset. But now he sounded desperate. As if he had nothing to live for.
This was not the happy, strong, and good boy that he had known for the last 4 years. This was a boy who had lost all hope and just wanted it all to end.
"I seriously did not think that he would stoop to such a level." Gellert said with a sigh.
"I will fucking kill him, them. Voldemort and Dumbledore.
Anger was radiating off of him like waves. He turned around and stopped. He couldn't do this yet. He remembered what Ragnock had once told him.
Flashback.
February 28th, 1987
Ragnock had come to visit Harry to make sure that he was okay. He had just turned to go back to his office when he turned around and said.
Harry, I know that life is going to be difficult for you. You currently have 2 dark lords after you.
Always remember. Never let your anger dictate your actions. Anger leads to hate, and hate leads to the darkness. Once you set foot on the dark path, there is no coming back.
If you let anger dictate your actions, then sometimes, people could get what they want.
Let's say that Lucius Malfoy applied for your guardianship. There is a trial. If you are calm, you can tip the odds in your favor. If you are angry, you will either begin yelling at him or curse him. Both of these things can get you into trouble as well as let Lucius Malfoy gain guardianship of you. The case will be clear. You are clearly an unstable young boy who must be taught discipline. If you are calm, you can be cunning and tip the odds in your favor.
Killing is also not a good thing. It damages your sole. Only kill if you really have to.
You will have to kill Dumbledore, Voldemort and both of their followers but don't be proud of it.
There are far worse things in the living world than dying.
The only reason you have to kill them is because they may somehow gain power and destroy the world as it is. Always remember that.
End flashback.
A few days later, Harry got to see his parent's portraits. Many people especially Dumbledore had tried to take them away but the goblins had kept them safe.
Now, it was time for Harry to talk to his parents.
The cloth was removed from the two portraits and Harry stared at his parents faces.
"Harry?" Lily asked, "is that you?"
"Where are we?" James asked, "what ah," but he did not get to finish what he was saying because a wave of memories flooded his mind, the attack on Halloween, Dumbledore telling him and lily that their deaths had been arranged by him, Dumbledore taking them to Privet Drive and making them watch Harry suffer, the Goblins rescuing them, being locked inside a room, and the goblins telling them that they would one day bring Harry to see them.
All of that was too much for James and he fainted. The same thing happened with Lily but the only difference was, James had a bewildered look on his face as he fainted and Lily had a look of fury on her face which did scare Harry a bit. He had heard that females were feisty and had a fiery temper, but hearing about it and seeing it were two different things. He was relieved when he eventually realized that his mother was not looking like that at him.
Harry was emotional.
"Mum, dad, a lot has happened to me over the past few years and there is a lot I have to tell you. Four years ago, I was adopted by Ragnock, the director of Gringotts, after they found out what Dumbledore had done."
Lilly responded with: "Harry, my darling, I'm sorry that all of this happened to you. When we found out who rescued you, we were upset at first but then a Goblin explained the truth about Grindelwald. To be honest, we owe him and the Goblins our gratitude for rescuing our little boy and Dudley as well."
"Did both of you ever trust Albus Dumbledore completely?" Harry asked.
"Well, I did James said," I practically grew hearing how Albus Dumbledore was the greatest wizard alive, how powerful he was, how famous he was for defeating the worst dark lord in history, etc."
"I trusted him as well," Lily said, in the books there was so much written about him. I was a bookworm when I was younger and had trusted nearly all authority figures.
Eventually, things happened, and I figured out that some things were not write. I, the foolish Gryffindor that I was, decided that confronting Albus alone would be best. Whereas if I had been a little sneaky, talking to other people about it, doing things to protect us, being more alert, and acting as though nothing was wrong, who knows, if I may have done that, then we may have been alive right now.
He tried to obliviate me quite a few times but he didn't succeed for he did not know that I had been personally trained in occlumency by Severus himself. Besides, obliviating someone will not hold on a portrait, nor the person who died.
Anyway, as soon as Voldemort payed us a visit on that Halloween night seven years ago, we knew that we were set up by that fowl, evil, manipulating, old man.
"Enough about us, how did you grow up?" James asked. "Have you got a girlfriend?" he asked, waggling his eyebrows.
"Yup I do," he said with a big smile on his face, "In fact, she is going to become my wife in a few years."
Lilly looked shocked, but responded anyway.
"So, what's her name? Is she a good girl?"
James was grinning at the look on Harry's face.
"Oh yes, she is. I think you will like her very much. I am soul bonded to her as well, her name is Hermione."
Harry spoke with them for a few more minutes and then left.
A week had gone past after Harry had talked to his parents.
He really hated training with the rest of the goblins as well as Gellert. They were merciless with their efforts. First it was the ten-kilometer run that Neville, Hermione, and Harry had to do.
They had complained to Gellert, Harry's father, Neville's gran, and Hermione's parents.
"Well, you need to stay fit," they would say to Harry, "and for you to, you also need to stay fit, especially if you are going to be on Harry's side. Voldemort, Dumbledore, and his followers will use you as bate to get to Harry. If you are not fit, then you can't escape if you have the chance."
Then there were all the spells and curses which were all hurled at them unexpectedly.
Sometimes, they may be challenged to a fight or duel between Gellert or the goblins, and sometimes, they would come talk to them.
That was very unexpected. When Harry had been fighting, he was aware of what was going on. But when the rest of the goblins or Gellert were talking to him, he would not be ready for the attack which followed. Sometimes, Harry would enter his bedroom to sleep and suddenly, a jet of Green light would come rushing towards him.
"You need to have very quick reflexes," Gellert had told the three children one day, "They could attack you anywhere so you always have to be ready."
Ragnock had then come in and said, "Our good friend Alastor Moody could teach more of these skills to you. Trust me, he really knows good reflexes. Unfortunately, Albus too many names Dumbledore has got him under a very powerful loyalty spell and we are working on a solution to free him from that.
It would also be good if all of you have a mind link between each other, Gellert, and I so if Dumbledore or Voldemort are holding you as hostage or whatever, you can communicate with each other.
Harry was very nervous today. Ragnock and Gellert were going to use legilimency on all of them together and try to link all their minds so that they could communicate with each other and share memories.
"Grab each other's hands," Gellert's voice came from the corner of the room."
They all grabbed each other's hands, and Gellert yelled, "Legilimens!"
They all felt him in their minds. They were all standing in a small room, and Gellert asked them to hold hands again. He then used raw magic to link their minds.
The pain was unbearable. They screamed and screamed and screamed.
"I wish that Voldemort and Dumbledore feel pain eight times more than we had to feel." Harry said, but his mouth wasn't moving.
"Did you just say something Harry?" Hermione said but like Harry, her mouth wasn't moving.
"it worked!" Neville said excitedly, "The mind link has worked!"
