Categories > Books > Harry Potter > The Dark Light Within
A/N: I don’t own Harry Potter no matter how much I would like to.
A/N 2: The Bond line was of course “shaken, not stirred” and the Churchill quote was the drunk and ugly one.
Yet another A/N (that’s number 3 for anyone who can’t count): If you are reading this on Ficwad and can’t see the Chapter 2, please see my profile for web address for my account on FanFiction.
A/N 4: Cliché warning. This story will probably be very clichéd, this is my first attempt at writing fan fiction and I’m still trying to find a writing style that works best for me, so I take my inspiration from a lot of places. I apologise to any of you who don’t like it, but you might prefer some of my later stories.
Chapter 3: Discoveries
Harry awoke slowly. He was aware of a dull, throbbing pain in his head and a sharp nip in the middle finger of his right hand. He lay were he was trying to figure out what was going on. He could understand why he had the headache, he had quite a bit to drink the previous night, but he couldn’t explain the pain in his finger. He cracked open his eyes, but as the light hit them his headache intensified. He blinked a few times and the pain receded slightly before looking towards his hand to see his snowy owl, Hedwig, biting his finger.
“Hey there girl,” he said softly “How have you been?”
The owl just ignored him and continued trying to chew through his knuckle.
“Ouch, that one hurt! Look, Hedwig, could you please stop that? I know I haven’t paid you much attention recently, but I’ve had a rough few weeks and I’m sorry.”
At this Hedwig stopped nipping him and turned around to stare at him.
“Okay girl, I know what you want,” said Harry as he summoned an owl treat. He stared at the treat in his hand until Hedwig ate it. “Shit, did I just do that?” Harry asked his owl. He decided to test it out and summoned another treat which he handed to Hedwig. “Here you go girl. That’s for having to put up with me these past few weeks.”
“Aawww, that is so cute,” he heard a voice say from the doorway.
Looking up, Harry saw Hilda standing in the entrance to the room.
“What time is it?” questioned Harry.
“It’s nearly two,” explained Hilda “You were out late last night and, judging by the state you were in, you had quite a lot to drink, so I let you sleep in a bit.”
“A bit?”
“I lost track of the time,” confessed Hilda, “I was just coming to wake you up now. I know you don’t like to spend too long in bed.”
“Okay,” responded Harry as his stomach rumbled, “It isn’t too late to have breakfast though, is it?”
“You’re a typical man Harry. Your stomach does all the thinking. Come on; let’s see what Winky can do. Daphne isn’t up yet, so she’ll probably want breakfast too and there is something I want to talk to you about anyway.”
*
Half an hour later Harry and Hilda were sitting at the dining room table and Harry had just finished eating.
“Right, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?” said Harry as he pushed his plate away from him.
“I’ve done a bit of research,” replied Hilda, “And I think that, because of the fact that you are part dark elf -”
“How do you know that?” interrupted Harry.
“You talk in your sleep.”
“Oh.”
“Anyway, as I was saying, I think that the curse Slytherin put on your family – you said a lot of things – had some side effects that he didn’t consider. A few of these you have already discovered, which are an increase in your magical capabilities; and your improved eyesight. There are others as well, which you may not have noticed. For example, your movement is far more graceful – you almost appear to glide. Also I believe that your strength, speed, fitness and reaction times have all increased. You’ll probably find that you can handle a sword and other weaponry quite well too.”
With this last piece of information Hilda suddenly picked up a knife and threw it at Harry. Harry watched the knife as it flew towards him; it seemed to move slower than it should have done, before calmly sidestepping and catching it between his thumb and forefinger.
“What the hell do you think you are doing?” demanded Harry.
In response Hilda just laughed. Harry realised that she had just been testing how fast he could react and calmed down.
After Hilda’s laughter had subsided she asked Harry to demonstrate his recently awakened magical power.
He was halfway through another summoning charm when Daphne’s entrance surprised him.
“I just came down to – wow!” exclaimed Daphne as she flew towards Harry, landing right on top of him and knocking them both to the ground.
She stayed where she was, enjoying the sensation, until she realised her mum had started to laugh again. She hurriedly stood up as her mum said “Harry, your meant to ask a lady out first before you get so hands-on with her; and I never realised you liked the woman on top.”
Harry felt the blood rushing to his face as he mumbled an apology. Secretly he was glad that a lot of his blood had gone to his face as it prevented another embarrassing moment as he stood up. He noticed that Daphne was very embarrassed and refused to look him in the eye.
Quickly changing the topic, Daphne asked her mum what date it was. When she was told she exclaimed “Ahh, Tracey is coming here today to spend the rest of the summer with us.” She turned to Harry, “You remember Tracey don’t you? You probably haven’t seen me without her.”
“Yeah, I think I know who she is. Fairly short, dark hair, brown eyes, nice ass.”
“Harry!”
“Hey, I’m just saying. Although, if I was honest I would say yours is better.”
Harry ducked as he saw the playful slap from Daphne approaching his face.
Hilda asked “What time is she arriving at?”
“Four.”
“That’s in only half an hour’s time. You should probably go get ready. You probably should as well Harry. Go have a shower and get dressed.”
*
At quarter past four Harry exited his room, clean and refreshed. His hangover had completely gone. As he descended the stairs he heard two girls talking. He recognised one voice as Daphne’s and realised the other must be Tracey’s.
“We have another visitor staying as well. You’ll never guess who it is.”
“Who is it?”
“Just have a guess.”
“How long has this person been here for?”
“About a week.”
“Mmmm, that would be about the same time Harry Potter disappeared. Did you know he was spotted out with some mystery woman last night? It’s all over the “Daily Prophet.” They’re even saying she was quite attractive. Lucky bitch beat us to him.”
Daphne just couldn’t contain her laughter any longer.
Tracey was offended and asked “Why are you laughing at me?”
“You’ll be laughing in about half an hour. But you still haven’t guessed how is staying here.”
“Give me a clue.”
“Okay, his name was plastered al over the “Daily Prophet” this morning after being spotted with a mystery woman last night.”
“You don’t mean the golden boy is staying here? And you were out with him last night? Why didn’t you tell me? And how do you feel about sharing?”
Daphne laughed. “I wish. He’s just so . . . good. I don’t know how to ask him or anything.”
“What? You’ve had Harry Potter living with you and you haven’t done anything yet? Your mum is so liberal as well – she’d let you do anything. Ah well, that means there is more for me!”
Harry chose that instance to make his appearance. “Hey gorgeous,” he said as he walked into the room and dropped himself into the armchair as the girls had been sitting on the sofa facing each other.
Both girls were stunned but managed to recover quickly. One asked him “Which one of us are you talking to?” while the other said “How long have you been listening?”
“Both of you, and long enough.”
“Damn,” said Tracey but she was already thinking of how she could use the situation to her advantage. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your attractive friend, Daphne?”
“Right, Tracey, this hot piece of man is Harry”
“I’m starting to feel like a bit of meat,” commented Harry.
“And Harry, this fairly short, dark-haired girl with the brown eyes and a nice ass – his words not mine – is Tracey.”
“Hi,” said Tracey, “You really think I have a nice ass?”
“Yeah, but Daphne’s is better. Your legs are amazing though. How did I miss you two these past years?”
“You nearly lost me there, Potter, but you saved it with the comment about my legs. I’m actually quite proud of them.”
“And so you should be.”
“Very smooth Harry,” called Hilda “But if I remember correctly, Daphne was on top of you this morning.”
“I though you said nothing happened between you two.”
“Nothing did happen. It’s a long story. Harry, do you mind if I tell her, she can keep a secret?”
“Alright, go ahead, but you can’t tell anyone else.”
“Right” both girls agreed.
*
After Daphne had finished telling Tracey what had happened during the past week, with Harry offering a bit of input every couple of minutes Tracey noticed that Harry hadn’t been shown round the house, or the grounds.
“Welcome to today’s tour of Greengrass Manor ladies and gentlemen. I will be your guide for the tour,” said Daphne jokingly as she started showing Harry about the building.
After walking round the building for half an hour, Harry had discovered that Daphne and Tracey were going to be sleeping in the rooms either side of him and Hilda slept across the hall from Tracey, who was in the room to his left.
As they went outside for the tour of the grounds Hilda said that dinner would be ready in about fifteen minutes.
“Guess we’re going to have to do a flying tour then,” declared Daphne she said as she summoned her broomstick – a Nimbus Two-thousand and One. Tracey summoned a Golden Arrow, which Harry recognised as one of the American racing brooms, it even came close to his Firebolt.
Harry was stunned that both girls had used magic.
Daphne saw the look on his face and explained. “The Ministry of Magic can’t detect who does magic over the summer, just where it is cast. You did quite a bit this morning, didn’t you?”
This reason satisfied Harry and he summoned his broom. The three teenagers gossiped as they flew round the grounds. They talked about everything, from quidditch to how much the hated Malfoy and Harry and the girls took turns explaining how their houses worked at Hogwarts. Harry learned that the girls in Slytherin were divided into two groups – the people who would sleep with nearly anyone else in the house if they thought it would benefit them and those who refused to. Both girls said they were part of the latter group and that was mainly how they had ended up being so close.
As they flew Daphne also pointed out the quidditch pitch, which was charmed to prevent muggles going near it, two greenhouses which Neville would have loved and a swimming pool. Harry shuddered at the memory of the last, and first, time he had been swimming – it hadn’t been a very pleasant experience. However, the girls loved it and promised to teach him how before the end of the summer. In response he was going to make sure that they played a bit of quidditch and he might even let them fly on his Firebolt.
They landed shortly after and walked slowly into the house for dinner. Hilda chastised them for coming into the house covered in sweat before casting a cleaning charm on each of them and ordering them to go to the dining room.
As they took their places at the table, the food appeared in front of them. Harry quickly grabbed as much as he could fit onto his plate, while the girls were more dignified and only took as much as they knew they would eat.
They ate in a comfortable silence and as they were finishing their desert Hilda spoke up.
“Harry, there are a few things I feel we really have to talk about.”
“Okay,” replied Harry nervously, not liking where the conversation was going.
“We need to talk about what happened between you and You-Know-Who.”
Harry groaned.
“Now, Harry, I know it’s a hard thing to talk about, but I really think it would be beneficial.”
“Sorry, it’s not that you think we need to talk about Voldemort – it’s the fact you can’t say his name, even if it is made up. It’s an anagram of his real name, which was Tom Marvolo Riddle, and means Flight from Death. It’s not so scary when taken literally, is it?”
“No, I guess not. But, anyway, you’re going to have to tell us what has happened between you two, as the only other source is the “Daily Prophet” and it’s not exactly reliable.”
“Okay,” said Harry “But where do you want me to start?”
“How about your first year? Everyone knows you were stuck in the hospital wing at the end of it and missed the last quidditch game, but no-one could tell us how you wound up there.”
“Right, well, it all began on my eleventh birthday…” started Harry. He told the three women everything, from the adventures with the philosopher’s stone in first year, the Chamber of Secrets in second year (although he left Ginny Weasley’s name out of it,) his run in with Sirius Black in third year, Voldemort’s resurrection at the end of the Triwizard Tournament and he concluded with his story of the DA and the events in the Department of Mysteries.
The three girls sat in stunned silence as Harry finished, it felt good to get everything of his chest. He realised that he had barely grieved for Sirius and he knew that it is what he would have wanted.
Hilda was the first to break the silence. “You mean to tell me Sirius Black was innocent?”
“Yeah, he would never have betrayed my dad. They were basically twins after he ran away, the only thing they didn’t have in common was blood.”
“Sweet Morgana! That must have been horrible. Having the whole wizarding world believing you are guilty of a crime you didn’t commit.”
As he looked back, Harry came to a stark realisation. “Actually,” he said “I don’t believe everyone thought he was guilty.”
“What?” exclaimed Tracey.
“I think Dumbledore knew – how could he not? And it would probably explain a lot as well. When Hermione and I told him Sirius was innocent he believed us straight away, and he had that damn twinkle in his eye.”
As Harry put the pieces together he recognised the extent of Dumbledore’s misgivings. “In first year, he was there straight away when I killed Quirrel, and in second year there was no way he couldn’t have known about the Chamber of Secrets – he was at the school when it was opened the first time and Hagrid was blamed, there’s no way he would hire someone if he honestly believed they could do something like that. Then in third year he allowed the dementors onto the grounds, in fourth year he pretty much told me that I had to compete in the tournament, and last year, he refused to acknowledge me at all. He allowed Snape to … to mind-rape me and then he allowed me to leave the grounds – I know he could have stopped me - and he must have known that Sirius was in danger. He always showed up at just the right time, but when he and Voldemort fought, neither of them gained any sort of advantage and they didn’t seem to be trying too hard either, almost as if they were just keeping up appearances.”
As he said the last words his eyes rolled back and he fell into a trance.
*
Harry recognised where he was, once again he was standing by the lake at Hogwarts, although this time there were two people by the lake. As he ran towards them they turned around and he stopped dead in his tracks.
“Padfoot, is that really you?”
“Who else would it be? I hope there isn’t someone trying to impersonate me, nobody will ever be able to pull it off,” joked Sirius.
Harry walked slowly towards his godfather before they hugged each other. After a few seconds they broke apart, both slightly embarrassed by their actions.
Gryffindor managed to avoid further embarrassment by getting straight into what the two men needed to tell Harry.
“Harry, as you may know, in each major period of magical history there has always been a champion for the light and an opposing champion for the dark. What you probably don’t understand is that neither was intended to be what you would describe as dark. They were meant to keep the balance equal between the two opposing forms of magic and to provide the prosperity the wizarding world would need in order to survive. This continued successfully until the last century or so. Dumbledore was chosen as Light Champion and Grindelwald was Champion of the Dark. However, Dumbledore did not like to share his power and started a war to kill his opposition. In the end he was victorious and we chose Grindelwald’s apprentice as his successor, and so it was that Tom Riddle became the next Dark Champion. But he was already consumed by hate and was evil. He sought revenge against the man who betrayed his mentor. This time a stalemate was reached, and in the end the men, Dumbledore and Voldemort, admitted that they could not kill each other and formed a treaty of sorts. Then the prophecy was made. In it Dumbledore saw his chance to remove Riddle and proclaim himself Lord of Magic. He planned on you killing Riddle and then he would show up and kill you, claiming you had been possessed and that it was necessary. You see Harry, Dumbledore believes that you will be the next Champion of the Light, but we have decided to play with fate. You, Harry, will be the Dark Champion and the Light Champion will be someone you know – a Nymphadora Tonks. Of course, there is till the magic that is covered neither by the Light or the Dark and this was the domain of the Mediator. He or she needed to have links to both Champions, but also had to be out of reach, or dead and so we have chosen Sirius. We just need to wait for Nymphadora to appear, although I believe she prefers to be addressed as Tonks. We will explain the situation to her and then I will need to explain a bit more. You should probably take this time to think over what I have just told you.”
Harry walked slowly to a large sycamore tree, trying to comprehend what he had just heard. It was a lot to take in. He was barely aware of a surprised Tonks arriving and everyone and a while she would glance over towards him with a worried look on her face.
Harry just sat beneath the tree and tried to understand the impact it would have on his life. Finally he decided to think about it later, and talk it over with the other residents of Greengrass Manor. He looked up to see the three others approaching him.
“Wotcher Harry,” said a subdued Tonks.
“Hey.”
“It’s a fair bit to take in, isn’t it?”
“You can say that again.”
They were quiet for a few seconds before Sirius broke the silence.
“You two probably want to listen up here. This won’t have as big an effect on your lives as you think it will. It might actually explain a bit. Your control over transfiguration and charms comes from being a possible, now definite, Light Champion Tonks, while the same is true about your expertise in Defence Against the Dark Arts and Care of Magical Creatures Harry. You will probably find that Light and Dark creatures will obey you and you should probably carry the gifts we are about to give you, but that is pretty much it.”
“Gifts?” inquired Tonks.
“Yeah, gifts. To you, Tonks, I present the Staff of the Light,” said Sirius, handing her a staff which seemed to glow with a pure white light. “And to you, Harry, I bestow these ancient elven war blades, may they serve you well.”
Harry grasped the sheaths of the sort swords in his hands. He fastened one round his waist and the other over his shoulder before drawing one. They were about eighteen inches long, and slightly curved. The blade and grip was jet black and there was a stone set in the pommel which almost seemed to glow with a dark light. It was obviously crafted with beautiful care and an attention to detail that not even the goblins could match.
As Harry stared at the blade he felt something fly by close to him. He looked up and saw a pure black phoenix staring at him. He barely noticed a white phoenix in front of Tonks. He reached out to stroke the bird and once he touched it he instantly felt something foreign envelope his mind. He knew it was the bird in front of him and it was incredibly intelligent.
“These are your familiars,” explained Gryffindor. “They will provide strength when you need it and will guide you along your path. Heed any advice the give you, for to ignore it could mean a long and painful death.”
“And now we must part. In the morning, your bird, Tonks, will transport you to Harry’s location. There is much you should talk about, like how to get rid of Dumbledore.”
“Goodbye cub, see you soon,” said Sirius.
The black phoenix approached Harry and dark flames sparked into life along its wings as it enveloped Harry.
*
Harry awoke to see, two pairs of concerned eyes looking over him.
“Harry, are you alright?” questioned Daphne.
“You were unconscious for quite a while, and then you stirred a few moments ago. Hilda was just away to contact a doctor,” explained Tracey.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Oh my, Harry, that bird is gorgeous, where did it come from?”
“Long story short, in the morning we will have a visitor. And I’m the next Champion of the Dark” said Harry.
The girls were stunned for a few seconds until one of them broke the silence by saying “I think someone has a lot of explaining to do. Don’t you, Mr. Potter?”
A/N: And so concludes chapter 3. As always, please review. Anyone got any ideas for what the pairing should be? At the moment it looks like it will be Harry/Daphne or Harry/Daphne/Tracey, but I am open to suggestions…
Thanks
Concealed-Convict
A/N 2: The Bond line was of course “shaken, not stirred” and the Churchill quote was the drunk and ugly one.
Yet another A/N (that’s number 3 for anyone who can’t count): If you are reading this on Ficwad and can’t see the Chapter 2, please see my profile for web address for my account on FanFiction.
A/N 4: Cliché warning. This story will probably be very clichéd, this is my first attempt at writing fan fiction and I’m still trying to find a writing style that works best for me, so I take my inspiration from a lot of places. I apologise to any of you who don’t like it, but you might prefer some of my later stories.
Chapter 3: Discoveries
Harry awoke slowly. He was aware of a dull, throbbing pain in his head and a sharp nip in the middle finger of his right hand. He lay were he was trying to figure out what was going on. He could understand why he had the headache, he had quite a bit to drink the previous night, but he couldn’t explain the pain in his finger. He cracked open his eyes, but as the light hit them his headache intensified. He blinked a few times and the pain receded slightly before looking towards his hand to see his snowy owl, Hedwig, biting his finger.
“Hey there girl,” he said softly “How have you been?”
The owl just ignored him and continued trying to chew through his knuckle.
“Ouch, that one hurt! Look, Hedwig, could you please stop that? I know I haven’t paid you much attention recently, but I’ve had a rough few weeks and I’m sorry.”
At this Hedwig stopped nipping him and turned around to stare at him.
“Okay girl, I know what you want,” said Harry as he summoned an owl treat. He stared at the treat in his hand until Hedwig ate it. “Shit, did I just do that?” Harry asked his owl. He decided to test it out and summoned another treat which he handed to Hedwig. “Here you go girl. That’s for having to put up with me these past few weeks.”
“Aawww, that is so cute,” he heard a voice say from the doorway.
Looking up, Harry saw Hilda standing in the entrance to the room.
“What time is it?” questioned Harry.
“It’s nearly two,” explained Hilda “You were out late last night and, judging by the state you were in, you had quite a lot to drink, so I let you sleep in a bit.”
“A bit?”
“I lost track of the time,” confessed Hilda, “I was just coming to wake you up now. I know you don’t like to spend too long in bed.”
“Okay,” responded Harry as his stomach rumbled, “It isn’t too late to have breakfast though, is it?”
“You’re a typical man Harry. Your stomach does all the thinking. Come on; let’s see what Winky can do. Daphne isn’t up yet, so she’ll probably want breakfast too and there is something I want to talk to you about anyway.”
*
Half an hour later Harry and Hilda were sitting at the dining room table and Harry had just finished eating.
“Right, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?” said Harry as he pushed his plate away from him.
“I’ve done a bit of research,” replied Hilda, “And I think that, because of the fact that you are part dark elf -”
“How do you know that?” interrupted Harry.
“You talk in your sleep.”
“Oh.”
“Anyway, as I was saying, I think that the curse Slytherin put on your family – you said a lot of things – had some side effects that he didn’t consider. A few of these you have already discovered, which are an increase in your magical capabilities; and your improved eyesight. There are others as well, which you may not have noticed. For example, your movement is far more graceful – you almost appear to glide. Also I believe that your strength, speed, fitness and reaction times have all increased. You’ll probably find that you can handle a sword and other weaponry quite well too.”
With this last piece of information Hilda suddenly picked up a knife and threw it at Harry. Harry watched the knife as it flew towards him; it seemed to move slower than it should have done, before calmly sidestepping and catching it between his thumb and forefinger.
“What the hell do you think you are doing?” demanded Harry.
In response Hilda just laughed. Harry realised that she had just been testing how fast he could react and calmed down.
After Hilda’s laughter had subsided she asked Harry to demonstrate his recently awakened magical power.
He was halfway through another summoning charm when Daphne’s entrance surprised him.
“I just came down to – wow!” exclaimed Daphne as she flew towards Harry, landing right on top of him and knocking them both to the ground.
She stayed where she was, enjoying the sensation, until she realised her mum had started to laugh again. She hurriedly stood up as her mum said “Harry, your meant to ask a lady out first before you get so hands-on with her; and I never realised you liked the woman on top.”
Harry felt the blood rushing to his face as he mumbled an apology. Secretly he was glad that a lot of his blood had gone to his face as it prevented another embarrassing moment as he stood up. He noticed that Daphne was very embarrassed and refused to look him in the eye.
Quickly changing the topic, Daphne asked her mum what date it was. When she was told she exclaimed “Ahh, Tracey is coming here today to spend the rest of the summer with us.” She turned to Harry, “You remember Tracey don’t you? You probably haven’t seen me without her.”
“Yeah, I think I know who she is. Fairly short, dark hair, brown eyes, nice ass.”
“Harry!”
“Hey, I’m just saying. Although, if I was honest I would say yours is better.”
Harry ducked as he saw the playful slap from Daphne approaching his face.
Hilda asked “What time is she arriving at?”
“Four.”
“That’s in only half an hour’s time. You should probably go get ready. You probably should as well Harry. Go have a shower and get dressed.”
*
At quarter past four Harry exited his room, clean and refreshed. His hangover had completely gone. As he descended the stairs he heard two girls talking. He recognised one voice as Daphne’s and realised the other must be Tracey’s.
“We have another visitor staying as well. You’ll never guess who it is.”
“Who is it?”
“Just have a guess.”
“How long has this person been here for?”
“About a week.”
“Mmmm, that would be about the same time Harry Potter disappeared. Did you know he was spotted out with some mystery woman last night? It’s all over the “Daily Prophet.” They’re even saying she was quite attractive. Lucky bitch beat us to him.”
Daphne just couldn’t contain her laughter any longer.
Tracey was offended and asked “Why are you laughing at me?”
“You’ll be laughing in about half an hour. But you still haven’t guessed how is staying here.”
“Give me a clue.”
“Okay, his name was plastered al over the “Daily Prophet” this morning after being spotted with a mystery woman last night.”
“You don’t mean the golden boy is staying here? And you were out with him last night? Why didn’t you tell me? And how do you feel about sharing?”
Daphne laughed. “I wish. He’s just so . . . good. I don’t know how to ask him or anything.”
“What? You’ve had Harry Potter living with you and you haven’t done anything yet? Your mum is so liberal as well – she’d let you do anything. Ah well, that means there is more for me!”
Harry chose that instance to make his appearance. “Hey gorgeous,” he said as he walked into the room and dropped himself into the armchair as the girls had been sitting on the sofa facing each other.
Both girls were stunned but managed to recover quickly. One asked him “Which one of us are you talking to?” while the other said “How long have you been listening?”
“Both of you, and long enough.”
“Damn,” said Tracey but she was already thinking of how she could use the situation to her advantage. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your attractive friend, Daphne?”
“Right, Tracey, this hot piece of man is Harry”
“I’m starting to feel like a bit of meat,” commented Harry.
“And Harry, this fairly short, dark-haired girl with the brown eyes and a nice ass – his words not mine – is Tracey.”
“Hi,” said Tracey, “You really think I have a nice ass?”
“Yeah, but Daphne’s is better. Your legs are amazing though. How did I miss you two these past years?”
“You nearly lost me there, Potter, but you saved it with the comment about my legs. I’m actually quite proud of them.”
“And so you should be.”
“Very smooth Harry,” called Hilda “But if I remember correctly, Daphne was on top of you this morning.”
“I though you said nothing happened between you two.”
“Nothing did happen. It’s a long story. Harry, do you mind if I tell her, she can keep a secret?”
“Alright, go ahead, but you can’t tell anyone else.”
“Right” both girls agreed.
*
After Daphne had finished telling Tracey what had happened during the past week, with Harry offering a bit of input every couple of minutes Tracey noticed that Harry hadn’t been shown round the house, or the grounds.
“Welcome to today’s tour of Greengrass Manor ladies and gentlemen. I will be your guide for the tour,” said Daphne jokingly as she started showing Harry about the building.
After walking round the building for half an hour, Harry had discovered that Daphne and Tracey were going to be sleeping in the rooms either side of him and Hilda slept across the hall from Tracey, who was in the room to his left.
As they went outside for the tour of the grounds Hilda said that dinner would be ready in about fifteen minutes.
“Guess we’re going to have to do a flying tour then,” declared Daphne she said as she summoned her broomstick – a Nimbus Two-thousand and One. Tracey summoned a Golden Arrow, which Harry recognised as one of the American racing brooms, it even came close to his Firebolt.
Harry was stunned that both girls had used magic.
Daphne saw the look on his face and explained. “The Ministry of Magic can’t detect who does magic over the summer, just where it is cast. You did quite a bit this morning, didn’t you?”
This reason satisfied Harry and he summoned his broom. The three teenagers gossiped as they flew round the grounds. They talked about everything, from quidditch to how much the hated Malfoy and Harry and the girls took turns explaining how their houses worked at Hogwarts. Harry learned that the girls in Slytherin were divided into two groups – the people who would sleep with nearly anyone else in the house if they thought it would benefit them and those who refused to. Both girls said they were part of the latter group and that was mainly how they had ended up being so close.
As they flew Daphne also pointed out the quidditch pitch, which was charmed to prevent muggles going near it, two greenhouses which Neville would have loved and a swimming pool. Harry shuddered at the memory of the last, and first, time he had been swimming – it hadn’t been a very pleasant experience. However, the girls loved it and promised to teach him how before the end of the summer. In response he was going to make sure that they played a bit of quidditch and he might even let them fly on his Firebolt.
They landed shortly after and walked slowly into the house for dinner. Hilda chastised them for coming into the house covered in sweat before casting a cleaning charm on each of them and ordering them to go to the dining room.
As they took their places at the table, the food appeared in front of them. Harry quickly grabbed as much as he could fit onto his plate, while the girls were more dignified and only took as much as they knew they would eat.
They ate in a comfortable silence and as they were finishing their desert Hilda spoke up.
“Harry, there are a few things I feel we really have to talk about.”
“Okay,” replied Harry nervously, not liking where the conversation was going.
“We need to talk about what happened between you and You-Know-Who.”
Harry groaned.
“Now, Harry, I know it’s a hard thing to talk about, but I really think it would be beneficial.”
“Sorry, it’s not that you think we need to talk about Voldemort – it’s the fact you can’t say his name, even if it is made up. It’s an anagram of his real name, which was Tom Marvolo Riddle, and means Flight from Death. It’s not so scary when taken literally, is it?”
“No, I guess not. But, anyway, you’re going to have to tell us what has happened between you two, as the only other source is the “Daily Prophet” and it’s not exactly reliable.”
“Okay,” said Harry “But where do you want me to start?”
“How about your first year? Everyone knows you were stuck in the hospital wing at the end of it and missed the last quidditch game, but no-one could tell us how you wound up there.”
“Right, well, it all began on my eleventh birthday…” started Harry. He told the three women everything, from the adventures with the philosopher’s stone in first year, the Chamber of Secrets in second year (although he left Ginny Weasley’s name out of it,) his run in with Sirius Black in third year, Voldemort’s resurrection at the end of the Triwizard Tournament and he concluded with his story of the DA and the events in the Department of Mysteries.
The three girls sat in stunned silence as Harry finished, it felt good to get everything of his chest. He realised that he had barely grieved for Sirius and he knew that it is what he would have wanted.
Hilda was the first to break the silence. “You mean to tell me Sirius Black was innocent?”
“Yeah, he would never have betrayed my dad. They were basically twins after he ran away, the only thing they didn’t have in common was blood.”
“Sweet Morgana! That must have been horrible. Having the whole wizarding world believing you are guilty of a crime you didn’t commit.”
As he looked back, Harry came to a stark realisation. “Actually,” he said “I don’t believe everyone thought he was guilty.”
“What?” exclaimed Tracey.
“I think Dumbledore knew – how could he not? And it would probably explain a lot as well. When Hermione and I told him Sirius was innocent he believed us straight away, and he had that damn twinkle in his eye.”
As Harry put the pieces together he recognised the extent of Dumbledore’s misgivings. “In first year, he was there straight away when I killed Quirrel, and in second year there was no way he couldn’t have known about the Chamber of Secrets – he was at the school when it was opened the first time and Hagrid was blamed, there’s no way he would hire someone if he honestly believed they could do something like that. Then in third year he allowed the dementors onto the grounds, in fourth year he pretty much told me that I had to compete in the tournament, and last year, he refused to acknowledge me at all. He allowed Snape to … to mind-rape me and then he allowed me to leave the grounds – I know he could have stopped me - and he must have known that Sirius was in danger. He always showed up at just the right time, but when he and Voldemort fought, neither of them gained any sort of advantage and they didn’t seem to be trying too hard either, almost as if they were just keeping up appearances.”
As he said the last words his eyes rolled back and he fell into a trance.
*
Harry recognised where he was, once again he was standing by the lake at Hogwarts, although this time there were two people by the lake. As he ran towards them they turned around and he stopped dead in his tracks.
“Padfoot, is that really you?”
“Who else would it be? I hope there isn’t someone trying to impersonate me, nobody will ever be able to pull it off,” joked Sirius.
Harry walked slowly towards his godfather before they hugged each other. After a few seconds they broke apart, both slightly embarrassed by their actions.
Gryffindor managed to avoid further embarrassment by getting straight into what the two men needed to tell Harry.
“Harry, as you may know, in each major period of magical history there has always been a champion for the light and an opposing champion for the dark. What you probably don’t understand is that neither was intended to be what you would describe as dark. They were meant to keep the balance equal between the two opposing forms of magic and to provide the prosperity the wizarding world would need in order to survive. This continued successfully until the last century or so. Dumbledore was chosen as Light Champion and Grindelwald was Champion of the Dark. However, Dumbledore did not like to share his power and started a war to kill his opposition. In the end he was victorious and we chose Grindelwald’s apprentice as his successor, and so it was that Tom Riddle became the next Dark Champion. But he was already consumed by hate and was evil. He sought revenge against the man who betrayed his mentor. This time a stalemate was reached, and in the end the men, Dumbledore and Voldemort, admitted that they could not kill each other and formed a treaty of sorts. Then the prophecy was made. In it Dumbledore saw his chance to remove Riddle and proclaim himself Lord of Magic. He planned on you killing Riddle and then he would show up and kill you, claiming you had been possessed and that it was necessary. You see Harry, Dumbledore believes that you will be the next Champion of the Light, but we have decided to play with fate. You, Harry, will be the Dark Champion and the Light Champion will be someone you know – a Nymphadora Tonks. Of course, there is till the magic that is covered neither by the Light or the Dark and this was the domain of the Mediator. He or she needed to have links to both Champions, but also had to be out of reach, or dead and so we have chosen Sirius. We just need to wait for Nymphadora to appear, although I believe she prefers to be addressed as Tonks. We will explain the situation to her and then I will need to explain a bit more. You should probably take this time to think over what I have just told you.”
Harry walked slowly to a large sycamore tree, trying to comprehend what he had just heard. It was a lot to take in. He was barely aware of a surprised Tonks arriving and everyone and a while she would glance over towards him with a worried look on her face.
Harry just sat beneath the tree and tried to understand the impact it would have on his life. Finally he decided to think about it later, and talk it over with the other residents of Greengrass Manor. He looked up to see the three others approaching him.
“Wotcher Harry,” said a subdued Tonks.
“Hey.”
“It’s a fair bit to take in, isn’t it?”
“You can say that again.”
They were quiet for a few seconds before Sirius broke the silence.
“You two probably want to listen up here. This won’t have as big an effect on your lives as you think it will. It might actually explain a bit. Your control over transfiguration and charms comes from being a possible, now definite, Light Champion Tonks, while the same is true about your expertise in Defence Against the Dark Arts and Care of Magical Creatures Harry. You will probably find that Light and Dark creatures will obey you and you should probably carry the gifts we are about to give you, but that is pretty much it.”
“Gifts?” inquired Tonks.
“Yeah, gifts. To you, Tonks, I present the Staff of the Light,” said Sirius, handing her a staff which seemed to glow with a pure white light. “And to you, Harry, I bestow these ancient elven war blades, may they serve you well.”
Harry grasped the sheaths of the sort swords in his hands. He fastened one round his waist and the other over his shoulder before drawing one. They were about eighteen inches long, and slightly curved. The blade and grip was jet black and there was a stone set in the pommel which almost seemed to glow with a dark light. It was obviously crafted with beautiful care and an attention to detail that not even the goblins could match.
As Harry stared at the blade he felt something fly by close to him. He looked up and saw a pure black phoenix staring at him. He barely noticed a white phoenix in front of Tonks. He reached out to stroke the bird and once he touched it he instantly felt something foreign envelope his mind. He knew it was the bird in front of him and it was incredibly intelligent.
“These are your familiars,” explained Gryffindor. “They will provide strength when you need it and will guide you along your path. Heed any advice the give you, for to ignore it could mean a long and painful death.”
“And now we must part. In the morning, your bird, Tonks, will transport you to Harry’s location. There is much you should talk about, like how to get rid of Dumbledore.”
“Goodbye cub, see you soon,” said Sirius.
The black phoenix approached Harry and dark flames sparked into life along its wings as it enveloped Harry.
*
Harry awoke to see, two pairs of concerned eyes looking over him.
“Harry, are you alright?” questioned Daphne.
“You were unconscious for quite a while, and then you stirred a few moments ago. Hilda was just away to contact a doctor,” explained Tracey.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Oh my, Harry, that bird is gorgeous, where did it come from?”
“Long story short, in the morning we will have a visitor. And I’m the next Champion of the Dark” said Harry.
The girls were stunned for a few seconds until one of them broke the silence by saying “I think someone has a lot of explaining to do. Don’t you, Mr. Potter?”
A/N: And so concludes chapter 3. As always, please review. Anyone got any ideas for what the pairing should be? At the moment it looks like it will be Harry/Daphne or Harry/Daphne/Tracey, but I am open to suggestions…
Thanks
Concealed-Convict
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