Lord Phantom

Chapter 16: Another Work

By some reason Danny started to laugh at the sight of one of this signs.

"What are you so happy about?" Luna asked him.

"Oh, Luna, don't you see?" Danny breathed, "The Forbidden fruit is sweet. Soon every single person will talk about it"

And it seemed that Danny was quite right. By the end of the day, though they had not seen so much as a corner of The Quibbler anywhere in the school, the whole place seemed to be quoting the interview to each other.

Harry was a hero in the Gryffindor common room that night. Daringly, Fred, George and Danny had put an Enlargement Charm on the front cover of The Quibbler and hung it on the wall, so that Harry's giant head gazed down upon the proceedings, occasionally saying things like 'THE MINISTRY ARE MORONS' and 'EAT FLIES, UMBRIDGE' in a booming voice.

-Laateer-

"Harry, Harry, get up!"

A couple of weeks after his dream of Rookwood, Harry was to be found, yet again, kneeling on the floor of Snape's classroom, trying to clear his head. He had just been forced, yet again, to relive a stream of very early memories he had not even realised he still had, most of them concerning humiliations Dudley and his gang had inflicted upon him in primary school.

"Are you alright?" Danny asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," said Harry.

"That last memory," said Danny, "What was it?"

"I don't know," said Harry, getting wearily to his feet. He was finding it increasingly difficult to disentangle separate memories from the rush of images and sound that Danny kept calling forth, "You mean the one where my cousin tried to make me stand in the toilet?"

"No," said Phantom softly, raising an eyebrow, "I mean the one with a man kneeling in the middle of a darkened room ..."

"It's ... nothing," said Harry.

"How do that man and that room come to be inside your head?"

"It...it was...just a dream I had"

"A dream?" repeated Danny, "What was there?"

Harry was surprised that he was interested, but told the story nevertheless.

"So...Department of Mysteries?" Danny asked.

"Voldemort must be searching for something there," Harry nodded, "Why do you ask?"

"I share your point of view, Harry. We need this dreams. But protection is still a good thing to have. For how long do you have this 'connection' with Voldemort?"

"As long as I remember. The scar hurts more since he returned. Why?" Danny looked at him with thoughtful look on his face.

"Of course," he muttered, "he used Avada Kedavra against you. There is no need to sugarcoat this. There is a stinking piece of Voldemort's soul inside your skull," he said loudly. They were silent for some time. Then...

"WHAT?!" Harry shouted.

"I suppose it happened when he tried to kill you fourteen years ago..."

"Can you remove it?!" Harry started to panic.

"That is where dilemma is. I can. But for that I need all my power, which can seriously hurt, if not kill you. I'm trying to find a solution. I will ask you to keep it a secret from now on. Even from your friends and other Order members, can you do it?"