This chapter is long overdue, sorry about that. I've had a lot of work to do and I'm actually dozing off on my keyboard right now. Enjoy...
Chapter 55
An Untimely Revenge...a Generation too Late
Harri decided to keep her adoption quiet. She didn’t want everyone knowing that she was the heir to two different Ancient and Noble Houses. Though, now if Dumbledore tried to take her away from Sirius he couldn’t. Since her godfather was technically her parent now.
On her last day of vacation Dumbledore stopped by Grimmauld Place to talk with her. It seemed that her Headmaster thought that she needed more training to protect herself from Voldemort. She was told that Snape was going to tutor her in Occlumency and Defense Spells. Harri was pretty sure by defense spells he meant dark magic, but that might have been just her. Harri hated being treated like a tool that needed to be sharpened and made more deadly. She felt that Dumbledore was trying to turn her into a weapon.
There was something that Dumbledore didn’t take into account when he tried to turn her into a weapon...he didn’t realize that she was strong willed. Living with Sirius taught her how to think outside of the box and never blindly listen to what people tell her. Pranksters had to read between the lines. Harri didn’t think of herself as someone on the ‘light’ side, but she wasn’t ‘dark’. The Gryffindor figured that like most of her ancestors, she was, what the wizarding world considered, ‘grey’.
She wasn’t going to blindly follow Dumbledore like half the Order did. She didn’t fully trust the man, after all. There were too many odd things in his behavior, like putting the philosophers stone inside the school, or having basilisk in the slither around, or letting dementors on the grounds, or her favorite, letting an underage witch compete in the Tri-Wizard Tournament. She would let Snape train her, but if he attacked her, she would attack back.
Sirius didn’t like that her Headmaster was ordering her to take extra classes along with everything else that she had to do. He figured that it was too much for a fifteen year old to handle all on her own. Harri would never admit it, but she agreed. It shouldn’t be her responsibility to take down Voldemort. She was just a kid, not even of age.
The real question running through her mind was: Why did Voldemort target her in the first place? This question plagued her through the night and on during breakfast she voiced her concerns to Sirius while everyone was doing last minute packing. Sirius was drinking a cup of coffee, leaning against the counter, while reading a book he got for Christmas on Defense.
“Sirius, why is Voldemort targeting me? What makes me so special?” she asked quietly. She saw Sirius’ eyes widen. He closed his book and sat down at the table with her.
“Dumbledore doesn’t want me to tell you this, but I feel that you’re old enough to hear the truth,” Sirius began with sigh and Harri’s interest was peeked. “There was a prophecy made about you and Voldemort...I don’t know the finer details, but it says that you have to kill him or he’ll kill you. It was made a few months before you were born. Dumbledore takes this information very seriously and he is the only person who knows the entire prophecy. Voldemort knows part of it and I only know the basic details. I wish I could be more help to you, Bambi.”
Sirius looked tired and a little older by the end of their talk. She could tell that he wasn’t happy with the fact that she had to take down Voldemort. That was when she remembered something that would help stop him. “Sirius, do you know what the ‘come and go room’ is?” she questioned and the Marauder raised an eyebrow at her.
“Yes, why would you need to find it?” he responded and Harri smiled, her green eyes sparkling.
“Because, the last Horcrux is in that room and I intend to find it,” Harri told him as she played with her basilisk fang necklace.
“Harri, these are really dark objects, are you sure that you don’t want me and Remus to handle it?” he asked, grey eyes concerned for her wellbeing, but Harri shook her head.
“No, unless the diadem is alive and has poisonous fangs, I think I’ll be fine,” she assured him and he rolled his eyes.
“Okay, the ‘come and go room’ is more commonly known as the room of requirement,” Sirius began to explain the process of how to get in. It took so long that he almost made them late for the train ride back.
“You going to do what?” George questioned her incredulously on the train. The fifth year Gryffindor hit him on the back of the head. Harri was sitting with George, Luna, Fred, Angelina and Wendi, the rest of her friends were patrolling the train cars.
“Yea, Snape is going to be tutoring me. Apparently, I’m getting help for my OWLs, though, my score in potions is outstanding,” Harri replied with a lopsided grin.
“If he does anything to hurt you...” George muttered and the emerald eyed girl chuckled.
“Trust me, Sirius is already threatening to kill him if he takes a step out of line,” Harri assured him with a kiss on the nose. George grinned shamelessly as he leaned down to kiss her.
Shouts of ‘get a room’ were heard throughout the compartment. Harri completely ignored them as she deepened the kiss.
Life at Hogwarts was chaotic as ever, but it was passing quickly, a little too quickly for Harri’s liking. There was no word about Bellatrix and Voldemort hadn’t made his move yet. Harri figured that he was waiting for the right moment to strike.
Her first session with Professor Snape was the first Monday night in February. The potion master was in his office, seated at his desk, wand in his right hand. He didn’t seem to be in a good mood...his long hair was casting his face in shadows in the dimly lit room. Harri had her wand out as well, incase he was going to test her, but it was blocked by the sleeve of her robe.
She never took her eyes off the Potions Master as she sat down in the seat across from his desk. She felt her muscles stiffen moments later, her wand slipped from her fingers and clattered to the floor, she was trapped. “Potter, do you know why you’re here?” he asked in a threatening voice dripping with sarcasm.
“Well, I assumed it was for defense training, but I guess I was wrong,” she hissed in reply. Snape’s eyes narrowed and he approached the Gryffindor, picking her wand up and setting it aside.
His wand was pointed at her head moments later. She glared at him, not taking her eyes off of him. That was her first mistake, “Legilimens!” he said before she had any time to react.
Harri was pulled into her mind. She could feel Snape at the barriers of her mind, trying to break past her surface thoughts. She turned herself mentally into her owl form and waited for her professor to enter her mental version of Potter Manor. It would be much more deadly than normal.
She knew that Snape was a master at Occlumency and waited for him to come into the deeper part of her mind. Instead of coming in normally, he blasted the doors right off it’s hinges, giving Harri a nasty headache. He was going to destroy her mental barriers if he kept this up! Then she would be no match for Voldemort. Since he was so hellbent on attacking her she casually probed his surface thoughts. She could tell that he was trying to find information about her. So, to appease him, she let a few memories appear. He swatted them away and continued through the entry way.
“You’re going to have to do better than that, Potter!” he snapped and she narrowed her eyes. She swopped down and scratched his head as an owl and then disappeared into the darkness again. He scowled at her and made his way down the first hallway. Every time he tried to blast a door open it either disappear or open on its own to show there was nothing inside. She knew that Snape was trying to get into the deepest part of her mind, which would take some time. He didn’t know where in Potter Manor she held her deepest thoughts and desires.
She inwardly smirked, but that moment of triumph gave Snape enough time to blast through a door that she hadn’t meant for him to see, it was from Christmas. It was the memory of her signing her name on the adoption papers. She quickly forced him out of that room as quickly as he entered. Harri knew he saw too much when she noticed the smug grin on his face.
“So, the mutt is now you father. How cute...”
That was when Harri had enough, she tried to push him out, which was just what he wanted. He pushed back just as hard. He pushed through various doors, hoping to find something else.
Harri was beginning to get tired. She wouldn’t be able to keep this up much longer. She would need to think of something to make him lose his concentration long enough for her to push him out. She thought of the perfect memory.
The potions master had been in the library examining different books, hoping to find a memory. He found a book on transfigurations and tried to take it out of the shelf only to find it wouldn’t come out. The bookshelf the book was on moved and opened into a hallway. Snape then stumbled into a dimly lit hallway with only one door at the end. The potion master grinned and opened the door. He found a giant mirror in front of him. A younger version of Harri was standing in front of it. Staring at two people, Lily and James Potter.
Snape fell backwards at the sight of the ghost of the love of his life. The younger version of Harri suddenly morphed into the present version of herself and punch Snape hard. She would have surely broken bones if he wasn’t just a mental projection. The fifth year pushed him out completely.
Harri opened her eyes and saw Snape on the ground with a surprised looked on his face. The Gryffindor was no longer stuck to the seat. Her hair was red and her magic was sparking around her. “How dare you invade my mind like that!” She snarled getting out of the chair and grabbing her wand that was on Snape’s desk.
“I was told to test your mental shields, Miss Potter...The Dark Lord wouldn’t give you a moment to collect yourself and will attack without notice. I decided to do the same. He weeds out your weaknesses, which you are very good at hiding. I was surprised that you managed to push me out of your mind. The last memory you used wouldn’t have worked on the Dark Lord,” he told her, getting off the floor.
“You were just testing me...Try not to attack me again, or I might actually punch you, Professor,” Harri warned, nearly collapsing towards the end.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Snape replied, rubbing his head. He was obviously getting a headache, but he observed her, watching her breathing heavy like she had run a mile. “Potter, go to bed. Next week we will start with darker magic. I hope you don’t mind learning the dark arts.”
Harri gave a small smile. “This may surprise you, Professor, but my family isn’t a light family. The Potter family is a grey family. We learn both the dark and the light arts of magic. In a war we pick the side we believe in, recently, that has been the light side, but in the past it has been the dark side,” she informed him as she walked towards the door.
“You went easy on me while I was in your mind, didn’t you?” he questioned exhausted.
“You should see some of the runes I have in my mind...I led you to where I wanted you to go. I had no intention of hurting you. You just surprised me at one point, if I was fighting Voldemort, it would have been much more violent inside my mind,” she replied tapping her forehead with her index finger.
“Why are you so hellbent on using runes?” he asked her before she got the chance to leave.
She sighed and ran a hand through her hair, which was slowly turning back to its usual black color. She looked at her potions master and shrugged her shoulders figuring that it wouldn’t hurt to tell him.
“Runes are more powerful than many wizards realize. Etching them on surfaces or breaking them in a certain manor can save your life. It saved mine when I fought Voldemort the previous year. The more I read into ancient runes the more I find the wizarding world has forgotten. Ancient wizarding culture prided themselves on their rune work and made some very advanced curses with it that lasted up until they were triggered in the twentieth century. As long as they aren’t triggered or scratched they don’t lose their magic, unlike wards and shield spells. The majority of Ancient and Noble Houses are protected by runes not spell wards. It is rather impressive that wizarding culture has turned to shoddy spell work over a nearly perfected art,” she answered with a distant look in her eyes. Snape had a distinct sense of deja-vu, but decided not to dwell on it.
The potions mater shook his head and dismissed her. Harri made her way back to the tower and collapsed on her bed right away. She didn’t even bother changing out of her clothes.
In between classes, quidditch, tutoring, and extra defense lessons Harri found herself in front of the doors to the room of requirement, her basilisk fang in her hands. She hadn’t told her friends that she was doing this, they were too busy worrying about exams or causing mass chaos in the common room. Harri took a deep breath and opened the doors.
She was greeted with the sight of hundreds piles of discarded items. There was everything from mirrors to brooms. She looked around for the diadem and sighed, it was nowhere to be seen. Somethings looked extremely old and worn out, while other items looked newer. Harri realized that the further back she traveled the older the items got, so she made her way into the deeper part of the rows. The fifth year was running her fingers along a bookshelf when she got a painful ache from her scar.
Harri spun around to look for the diadem, but came face to face with Tom Riddle. He seemed to be about seventeen, short black hair and unfeeling eyes. There was a cruel smile on his face, the same one he had when he had possessed Ginny. Right below his feet was the diadem.
“Tom...” Harri greeted hostilely and the grin on his face broadened.
“Miss Potter, what a pleasure to finally meet you,” he said casually, as if trying to charm her.
Her eyes narrowed and she crossed her arms, tightening her grip on the fang. Tom’s grin turned into a frown.
“What is it, Tom? Can’t charm me into doing what you want? Well, you don’t hold any power over me. I know all about your horcruxes and guess what? You’re the last one. My friends and I have destroyed all the others,” she said with a smirk as she walked through the projection of Tom Riddle and straight towards the diadem. She could imagine that he was thinking of something to say that would make her change her mind. He would do anything to live forever.
Instead he laughed, high and cruel. “You might destroy me, but you never be willing enough to destroy the last horcrux, foolish girl. The last horcrux may have been unintentional, but there is no way that you will kill Lord Voldemort,” he taunted and Harri brought the fang down on the diadem, breaking it. His voice was silenced and she shrunk the handy fang back down to the size of her glass container and slipped it back in its case. She didn’t have time for games.
Though, she felt like he was telling the truth...could there really be another horcrux out there? She’d have to do more reading on the topic and then talk to Sirius.
Hey, so, college is kicking my butt. That's what I get for going to a school just outside of the Ivy League level. (So much work, so little time) I have a paper due Friday that I haven't even started yet.
I hope you liked the chapter. If you have any questions or concerns, leave a comment or PM me. I check my emails frequently.
Time for bed...=)
~Animerocker
PS
I don't own Harry Potter