Of Shadow, Shine, and Shades

Ch.1 Pain in the Beginning

He nearly broke down in tears when the warmth filled him and assured him with its familiarity. It was slightly different but recognizable still. The magic of the Emerald had interwoven with his and it was thrumming happily within him, the steady power of the Emerald now completely his, not only connected to him and at his use but his.

Well, this is a development, thought Harry distractedly.

Bracing himself for the pain he craned his neck to take a look around. It was a clear winter morning and he was in the middle of a small clearing surrounded by pine trees. They were frosted with snow and the sight was magical even to the tortured Lord.

Magical and familiar.

Oh, hell.

No bloody fucking way.

His neck gave painful twinges as he tried to take a look in every direction. Suspicions confirmed, an involuntary chuckle managed to escape his pursed lips. The man bit his lower lip in an attempt to keep the laughter inside – it would only cause him to hurt even more – and glanced at the Emerald. It was glowing faintly and, apparently sensing his eyes on it, gave out a flash of deep forest green instead of its normal green shade.

"Y-" Harry had to cough and swallow a few times to make use of his voice. His throat was raw from all the screaming but it was not like he was a stranger to this kind of pain. His nightmares had pretty much taught him to ignore sore morning throats. Giving it another try, he whispered: "You think this is funny? Wait till..." He swallowed again, painfully. "When Nicolas hears about this, he's gonna finally die. Of laughter."

The bloody jewel twinkled at him.

Well, maybe he deserved it. It wasn't every day a wizard Vanished his house. While attempting a memory charm, no less.

It was hilarious. Pathetic, but hilarious. Even he could admit it. It, however, didn't make it any less painful.

After an agonizing ten minutes the man had managed to drag his body into a sitting position. His shirt was wet with sweat and his breathing had turned into panting at the first movement. While sending a Patronus to fetch help might have been the best option, Harry really did not fancy being found in such a helpless state. He still had enemies that would jump at such a chance at getting him, not to mention the press that would anyway have a field day when they found out about what he'd done to his house.

Blaming it entirely on his Gryffindor side – as he usually did with these stupid stunts – the mage, already wincing in anticipation of the pain, took a deep breath and Dissapparated with a boom any mortar would have been proud to produce and that woke the sleeping creatures in a mile radius.

He appeared in his bedroom at the Grimmauld Place 12 accompanied with a loud crack that sounded as if a cliff had broken off a mountain side. And he appeared in his bedroom three feet above his bed, disrupting a cloud of dust into the air as he crashed down on the said bed. In his confused state Harry took a deep breath to clear his mind from the pain Apparating had caused and dissolved into a sneezing fit that sent paralyzing jolts of agony along his spine.

The Staff still in his left hand he thrust it in the air and groaned between sneezes: "Clean."

The dust vanished and finally he was able to breathe again. Ignoring the pain he focused only on taking big gulps of air and calming his racing heart. This, Harry decided swallowing against the threatening tears, cannot be healthy.

Eventually he calmed down enough to be angry at whoever had played this prank at him – not that he could do anything about it at the moment. But oh, wait till he got some rest. Teddy and Mike would be so screwed.