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HARRY
POTTER
AND THE
CURSE OF THE LYING PROPHECY
PART 1

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 HARRY POTTER
AND THE CURSE OF THE LYING PrOPHECY
(FAN FICTION BASED ON THE WORKS OF

J.K. ROWLING)

TEJ
RAVAL
CONCEPT BY: NAVJOT SINGH
& DEEPAK DAWER

CODEX PUBLISHING HOUSE

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This book could never have been possible without the

wonderful world created by the most creative mind to exist
in literature world- Joanne K. Rowling. She's an inspiration
to all of us and his book by no means is trying to compete
with her original books. It is just a story we wanted to tell,
lawfully under the laws of fanfictions and so we have.

Sincere thanks to our editor Rushi Jain who worked

according to our demands and bearing our ups and downs
throughout the story.

Gratitude for the man who brought the cover picture to life
and had been a constant companion, Jaideep Sherry.

A genuine thankfulness to the Facebook page 'Ministry Of

Magic' who supported our project and are one of the
biggest Harry Potter fan pages on social media.

Our families who supported us in pursuing this project and

make it happen successfully.

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 THE CURSE OF THE LYING PROPHECY
TEAM'S NOTE:

THE AUTHOR:

It has been an emotionally wild experience writing this

story. It is absolute honor for me to be able to use my
words to convey a story of the Potterverse. At the same
time, it was a tremendous pressure to write something that
once has been written by J.K. Rowling, but again, I do not
wish this book to be looked at as a competition to the
original series. It's a lot different and truly beautiful in its
own way. I have taken some daring steps while forcing my
teammates to add some things in the story that were quite
huge but they coped well and w somehow managed to pull
this off. I really hope our headwork reflects and book is
loved by all. All the questions raised in part 1 are to be
answered in part 2 with complete justifications, so have
patience and enjoy the story!

- Tej Raval

THE CONCEPT MAKER:

The journey of this dream project was amazing. The origin

of this concept had not predicted any of the things
happening right now! This book is created by the fans, for
the fans and it will remain that way. As a huge fan of the
Harry Potter series myself, I couldn't help but let these
ideas strangle in my mind which with team effort finally
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gained a form which would reach worldwide to all the
potterheads and I'm sure by the time this story meets its
end after release of part two, all the fans across the world
and especially India would support us in our endeavor.
This project has had its own ups and downs but we topped
it and eventually, are presenting this book to you with a
hope of your kind support. Let the magic spill!

-Navjot Singh

THE ENHANCER:

It has been a great voyage for all of us to work on this

project. We have held our hopes high as its one of the
biggest fanfiction projects to ever take place. I urge every
reader to not compare it with Rowling's work and just feel
the story word by word and sense our feelings and
hardwok behind it. That's the only way this story can be
enjoyed in its true spirit and if done so, it would be loved
by most. We're extremely thankful to all the potterheads
and J.K.Rowling herself for creating this amazing world of
Harry Potter which today enables people like us to bring
such wonderful stories to life.

-Deepak Dawer

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 PROLOGUE

It was a few minutes post sunset when two pairs of feet

rustled their way into the forbidden dark forest least caring
about the rules of the school, at least for then. The two boys
had their bags tied on their backs and seemed to be looking
for something with some obvious sweat on their foreheads.
They walked towards the western part of the forest trying
to avoid stepping on the dry leaves much often. Their body
languages didn’t fail to suggest that they were not there for
anything official or maybe not even legal. But Hogwarts
had had a history of students wandering around and
eventually, something big always stemmed out of it. But in
this case, maybe the ones messing around too had no idea
of what they could be inviting over their heads. They
walked for about seven and a half minutes before one of
them who was walking a few steps behind of the other
turned his head to his extreme right to a simulation he felt.

‚Jake, Do you see that?‛ his eyes were stuck on something.

‚Where?‛

‚Right there. See those sparkles?‛

‚Come on, Curtis. This is the forbidden forest. Its forbidden

for a reason. Let’s keep moving and get out of here before
we become someone’s meal." Jake started walking again.

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‚Yeah, I just thought maybe it was…‛ Curtis left his words
incomplete joining Jake in moving ahead.

‚It was what?‛

‚Nothing, just the stories about this place.‛

‚What stories?‛

‚About the elder wand. They say he broke it and it ended

up here in the forest, eventually.‛ Curtis’ fear of the
unknown was escalating quickly in his expressions.

‚The elder wand, eh?‛ Jake stopped and turned around

with a sarcastic smile on his face, ‚You actually believe in
the story of the deathly hallows?‛

‚You don’t? Dude, Harry Potter himself held and

destroyed that wand. How can it be not true?‛ Curtis
argued.

‚They also say he’s immortal.‛ Jake’s smile just grew

wider.

‚You never know, maybe he is.‛ said Curtis.

‚Oh my god,‛ Jake burst into laughter, ‚I can’t believe this!

You have got to be kidding me! That guy walks with a
stick!‛

‚Look, there are a lot of people who have been eye

witnesses of that famous duel including Professor Neville.‛

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‚Famous, eh?‛

‚Or infamous, whatever. Now let’s get the krimps and get
out of here before we catch someone’s sight.‛ Curtis
adjusted the bag on his shoulder and moved ahead.

‚Yeah,‛ Jake followed him, ‚Or maybe we could just take a

look over there.‛

‚Look,‛ Curtis turned around with wrinkles on his

forehead accompanied by sweat, ‚We came here for the
krimp herbs, we got some, let’s get some more and then go
back without going looking for troubles. We already have
enough. Your father will be awfully mad if you don’t get
enough of these herbs. Man, I don’t even have anything to
do with it!‛

‚Come on, if there is an elder wand for real, I would want

to see it, wouldn’t you? I’ll handle my father; maybe we
would find more krimps that way. We’ll still make it before
dinner ends." Jake said.

‚Look, Harry Potter is not going to be here and the

Voldemort dude is dead so we don’t have to fear anyone.‛
He added.

‚But it’s getting darker; it’s too dangerous to be here even

right now.‛ Curtis said, expecting Jake to change his mind
because he knew he wouldn’t make it alone either way.

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‚Well, we can do something about that,‛ said Jake pulling
out his wand, ‚Lumos maxima!‛

A bright light made a hole inside the darkness surrounding

them from the tip of his 13 inches long, brown colored
wand. The two boys walked towards the direction they saw
some fading light and sparkles coming from. They both
walked silently making their own theories in their
respective minds about what could it be. Curtis, although
scared, kept following Jake with his wand out open just in
case. Jake’s eyes seemed curious but a part of him was
expecting trouble any moment. He slowed down after a
few steps and gestured Curtis to stop.

‚What happened?‛ Curtis asked, tensely.

‚I think I heard something.‛ Jake started looking around.

A sound came from near the bushes they just walked past
simulating both of them to be alert. Jake quickly put his
wand back allowing darkness to take over again.

‚Behind that tree!‛ He whispered to Curtis whose fear was

at its peak.

Curtis followed Jake into running and slipping behind the

giant trunk of that tree. They both hid in there and stood
stiff for a few seconds. They could hear the sound of some
giant steps, other than that it was too dark to be able to get
any visuals. After about a minute, Jake shushed Curtis who
was now trembling with fear and leaned outside a little to

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take a look on what was happening around. As soon as he
scanned the dark view in front of him, a ray of mild light
stuck his eyes with the sound getting louder and before he
could understand or reason anything, a giant lantern
appeared from behind of the bushes beneath a fellow tree
which was held by a figure even larger than the lantern
with his face shining in the yellow light.

‚Who is there?‛ Rubeus Hagrid’s loud voice layered above

all others.

Curtis was trembling with fear, holding Jake’s arm. Jake

tried to free himself of a scared Curtis’ grip but it took him
a longer, noisy struggle luring the lantern towards them
without their notice. Before they knew, Hagrid was
standing right in front of them flashing the light of fire in
their faces.

‚Ah, look! What do we have here, our two tiny kiddos

messing around in the forbidden forest at this hour for god
may know what reason! Aw, and just when I thought the
night couldn’t be cuter!‛ Hagrid leaned down on them
wearing no expressions as such suggested by his words
and tone. Some of his white beard hairs were even touching
Jake’s face making him turn his head away.

‚We were just here for getting these herbs, we weren’t

doing anything, I swear!‛ Curtis’ tongue cried out.

‚Getting the herbs at THIS hour? I’m sure professor Neville

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wouldn’t ever send you here for a freakin' crop so stop lyin’
to me and gimme your bags.‛

Hagrid screamed at them as both removed their bags and

handed them over to him, ‚Holy...- what were you taking
these crops for? Feeding a dragon or something!? Both of
you do realize that these krimps are one of the rarest herbs
and dragons are not allowed at Hogwarts! And by the way,
dragons DO NOT EAT KRIMPS! Do you wanna make the
same mistake that I made with Ducky!? Huh? Where the
hell do you kids learn these things from anyway? I tell you
if you cause any harm to that dragon you’re both dead at
my hands!‛

‚But we don’t have a dragon!‛ Jake tried to bring up a

statement trying to pull Hagrid out from his self-created
illusions.

‚Oh…well, umh, so...uh… ya both takin’ a tour or

something? Huh? Because that would be a very bad
idea…umh....‛ Hagrid horribly tried to keep his scolding
still strong.

‚We were here to get these krimps for herbology class

tomorrow. We got a little late because we…‛ Curtis tried to
explain but Jake cut him off.

‚We were lost. We couldn’t find our way back.‛ He said.

‚Well, let me show you the way now…to the headmistress’

office! Move your butts now and follow me!‛ Hagrid said
lifting the lantern and throwing the bags at them.

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 ***

{Two days later}

‚Mr. Nubian, I understand your concern about Curtis’

future here in Hogwarts but I assure you he will not be
expelled from the school.‛ Luna Lovegood spoke to Curtis’
father as both the kids Jake and Curtis stood with their
heads down. She stood with her back turned towards them
behind her desk, finishing her painting of a grindylow.

‚But headmistress, I will not stand in the way of any

punishment you might suggest for both these kids for their
irresponsible behavior, and neither would Jake’s father. By
the way he has sent apologies for not being able to come; he
had an important meeting to attend with the minister of
magic.‛ Mr. Nubian was a formally informal man.

‚I understand. And as long as the question of punishment

remains, I am afraid you will not be seeing your son for
quite a while from now.‛ She said turning towards them.

‚Uh, why would that be, may I ask, headmistress?‛

‚Because, I have decided both of theirs punishments.‛ She

said putting down her brush and taking her seat in front of
Mr. Nubian, ‚They will be spending their holidays in their
dormitories this year, Mr. Nubian. Also, I would be pleased
if you would pass this message on to Mr. McNair please?‛

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‚I…I sure will….‛ He said after staring at Luna for a few
seconds realizing there was not much he could do about his
son’s punishment and being a ministry of magic member
did not seem to make a difference either. He looked at both
the boys standing in the corner while Luna got busy into
writing some letters on her desk. Getting up slowly, he put
on his hat and settled his coat while Luna turned her
attention back to him.

‚I would take your leave now with your permission,

headmistress.‛

‚Sure. It was a pleasure meeting you, Mr. Nubian. Do

extend my greetings to the minister of magic; I haven’t seen
him in a while now.‛

‚Sure, headmistress.‛ Mr. Nubian said and walked out of

the chamber after a couple of seconds’ stare at both the
kids.

‚Well, I don’t think you two have anything else to say, do

you?‛ Luna asked Jake and Curtis in sweetest possible tone
as they shook her heads, ‚I would suggest going back to
your dormitory now.‛

Jake felt humiliated and his look to Curtis made it clear that
he blamed him and his father for all of this. Both of them
were about to leave when Luna stopped them. ‚And by the
way you will both be costing 50 points each to your house,
unfortunately.‛

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Jake stormed out of the chamber followed by nervous steps
of Curtis as Luna continued with her letters.

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 CHAPTER ONE

UNUSUAL INTUITIONS

The snow covered most of the houses on the streets of

Enfield, London. It was a day without much sun as clouds
covered most of the sky. The red mailbox outside house
no.19 shone despite of some snow resting over it. ‘The
Potters’ – it read. The house was having a lazy winter
Sunday morning with people still dressed in their night
wears at 10 in the morning. The house had a spacious
living room connected with the kitchen on its left and a
stair alongside a lobby where the former led to a bedroom
and the latter, to kids’ bedroom and a guest’s room
upstairs. The kitchen sent out a delicious odor to the people
sitting on the table at dining area waiting for the breakfast
to be ready and served. Harry held the Daily Prophet with
one hand sipping coffee with the other. Albus sat with an
old book in his hand titled ‘Quidditch through the Ages’
while Lily’s eyes were stuck on her cell phone screen.

‚Lily, get your head out of that phone for a minute and
help me out here. The cookies are ready, take them out.‛
Ginny said in a loud tone from kitchen.

‚Ask Albus.‛ Lily instantly replied, triggering Albus’

changing expressions.

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‚He’s washing the plates today. Now come here and help
me, Lily.‛ Ginny almost yelled while pouring the soup.

‚Go and help your mom, Lily.‛ Harry looked at his

daughter from behind the newspaper.

‚There should be exceptions for Sundays.‛ Lily said while

getting up from her chair leaving her phone on the table in
front of her seat and left with a warning to her brother -
‚Don’t touch it!‛

The family had their breakfast together like every morning.

Their lives amidst the muggle world had been flowing
smooth with some ups and downs every once in awhile.
The Potters were one of the biggest names in the world of
wizardry. Harry James Potter, the most reputed person in
his world and also the minister of magic had had quite a
few escalations ever since the battle of Hogwarts including
him becoming the head of the auror department at the
ministry; the same department Ronald Weasley worked in
who apart from his comedy career, went on to become the
head after Harry’s promotion as the minister of magic. The
duo utterly revolutionized the auror department over the
years. Ron’s wife and Harry’s friend Hermione Granger
worked at the same ministry in the Department of Magical
Law Enforcement who once, laughed at the idea of
becoming a lawyer in her schooling days. Ginny, after
having quite a good name in quidditch initially, had been a
housewife taking care of her three children James, Albus

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and Lily . Of whom, James had graduated from Hogwarts
and went to Romania for studying dragons. Albus Severus
Potter was about to begin his final year at Hogwarts the
following year while Lily, her fifth. The trio of Harry, Ron
and Hermione had been living their lives full of stories to
tell.

‚You look a bit off today. What’s the matter?‛ Harry held
Ginny from behind gripping over her shoulders followed
by her waist, smelling the fragrance off her beautifully red
hair.

‚I don’t know. Something just doesn’t feel right.‛ Ginny

said continuing to clean the plates.

‚Well, that was my life for about two decades of it. Quite
an experience there,‛ Harry giggled, ‚Tell me, Gin. What’s
wrong?‛

‚Bad dreams.‛

‚Nightmares, hmm,‛ He kissed her to the lower left of her

neck, piercing his beard against her skin, ‚Well, what did
you see?‛

‚I don’t know, I don’t remember. It was like a rush of

thoughts, as if my whole life was played like a movie in a
flash. But something comes all of a sudden and wipes it all
away. Everything just vanishes...in a bad way. It felt

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unpleasant.‛

‚Maybe because you’ve been reading a lot of Beedle stories

in your loneliness. Sometimes it’s just nothing but your
own mind creating problems out of nowhere when you
don’t have one for real.‛ Harry held her face with both his
hands.

‚No, Harry! It’s not that I know it. It just makes me feel
abandoned and depressed all of a sudden and I don’t even
know why!?‛

‚Look honey, I know that fear and it really is difficult to

handle but I trust you, Gin, you’re a brave, brave woman.
Besides, someone once told me- Happiness can be found in
darkest of times, if only one remembers to turn on the
light." Harry said, waving his hand towards the lamps of
the kitchen lighting them up and filling the dimly lit room
into a bright one.

Ginny turned around and kissed him locking him in her

arms.

***

{A Week Later}

The sun was almost set when the lobbies of the ministry of
magic were crowded once again for the day was to end and
all the employees left their desks to leave for home; except

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for a few. A meeting was announced about an hour ago
which was still going on in the conference hall. People from
Aurors and wizardry research departments were present
including the head of auror department, Ron and minister
of magic, Harry himself. Harry was standing with the
support of his chair while the fat man sitting in the farthest
left corner to him spoke overlapping all other voices.

"Look, in my personal opinion, I don't know why we're

discussing these matters now. It's a simple case of theft and
the aurors will solve it, unless they can't and they need our
help."

"Well look who's talking," Ron said, "The man who couldn't
keep his balance on his broom because the stick shoved up
his butt." The entire room giggled. The man gave a terrible
look and fell silent.

"Easy, Ron." Harry finally interrupted, "And Mr. Bradshaw

it's not a small deal anymore. The theft of krimps has
grown by a lot over the past couple of weeks. I feel it is
now time to take it seriously. They might just be herbs
but...-"

"Oh no, Minister," spoke a tall, thin and brown haired man
on the table, "Please do not mistake it to be just herbs. They
can do a lot more stuff than we can think of. We have learnt
about this in wandlore. They are used for several causes,

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like curing snakebite wounds, resurrecting damaged
wands, make various potions,..."

"What?" Harry looked at him eye to eye making him even

more nervous than he already seemed.

"...what? The krimps... I was talking about...-"

"Wands. You said it is used for resurrection of damaged

wands."

"Oh, yes, yes actually that's the most common use we make
of it although it is too rare and expensive but we at
Ollivanders have used it quite a few times for our
customers, one of them being Mr. Weasley a few years
back." He now wore a smile as he expected Harry to be
impressed by the information he gave. Ron looked down in
embarrassment.

"So Joseph, how many krimps are exactly needed for each
wand?" Harry folded up his sleeves making everyone
realize that the meeting was not going to finish anytime
soon.
"Five or maybe ten if the damage is severe."

"That's that then," the woman on the next chair to Ron's

said, "It can't be wands. Considering the figures Joseph just
gave us, the amount of krimps robbed are much more than
needed for even a hundred wands."

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"Actually, Ms. Eades is right, we should be focusing on
some other reasons for the cause, it might be something
terrible." Bradshaw said.

"But Joseph, is it possible that some wands might need a

little more krimps than usual? How long is the process?"
Harry said, ignoring Bradshaw completely.

"Some of them might need double of that, but that's it, I

have not seen a single wand in my career that would be
need such a high amount of krimps to be repaired or
resurrected. It takes about two months if the damage is
minor, and if it's completely broken, six to eight months.
Although in most cases, people can not afford to go with
the krimps method so they either get a new wand or rob
the herbs. I don't know how it's become so easy though."
Joseph said.

"No it's not easy, but whoever's doing it, is...-" Harry took
his eyes off everyone trying to arrange things in his mind.

"Harry!" Ron got up from his chair.

"I bloody wish you are thinking the same and wishing it's
not true." Harry turned to him.

"There have been reports of krimps theft from the

forbidden forest at Hogwarts."

"You think someone's after it?"

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"I don't know, mate. But I do know that you destroyed it at
your own hands, and it could be one heck of a deal to
resurrect it."

"Resurrect what?" Bradshaw couldn't keep his patience.

"Of course...I was there...26 years ago..." A man in black

coat on the middle right of the table spoke. His expressions
weren't pleasant.

"The elder wand..." Harry murmured still looking away.

"What...I didn't catch you right" Joseph moved in his chair,

leaning on the table.

Harry took out his wand and waved it all over the room,
shutting down the curtains and locking the door. Ron lit up
the lamps with his lighter.

"Every word of this discussion stays here, in this room."

Harry faced his staff as everyone nodded, "26 years ago, at
battle of Hogwarts when Voldemort died, I became the
master of the elder wand which was then possessed by
him. And for those of you who don't know, elder wand is
the most powerful wand in history of wizardkind and it
only changes its ownership when another wizard bests the
previous wielder. The day Voldemort died and I became
it's master, I broke it in half and threw it into the river at
Hogwarts which meets the forbidden forest. Of course
then, nobody had a clue that even broken wands can be
resurrected."
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"This is...huge." Ms. Eades spoke in shock.

"And dangerous. Mate, we really need you to authorize an

inquiry at Hogwarts. Let me go there." Ron said.

"There have been reports of theft of krimps from Hogwarts

grounds...right..." Harry was murmuring to himself, "Please
tell me the matter is nowhere near to the elder wand."

"Umm, sir, if someone is trying to resurrect the elder wand,

it's not a professional wand specialist, such a huge amount
indicates failed attempts, although the entire process for
such special kinds of wands are not fully known till date."
Ms. Eades said.

"She's right, Mr. Minister. We need to look into this...-"

Joseph's words were interrupted by the door of the room
thrashing open to everybody's diverted attention. A blonde
woman in black skirt and black shrug appeared with a little
sweat on her forehead. She was of course tensed about
Harry's reactions to her breaking in.

"Gilda, I think I told you to keep the disturbance away not

to be one yourself. Something important is going on here
right now." Harry said, half turned towards her.

‚I’m sorry, sir but I had to give you this...‛

‚…look if it’s from home you can...‛

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‚-…Sir! It says URGENT.‛ She almost yelled at her boss, ‚I
read its cover...I did not mean to, but…‛

Harry took the piece of paper from her hand cutting her off
in between. As soon as he touched the fold to open, it got
snatched from between his fingers and floated mid air in
front of him. Ron and others got up from their chairs.
Harry moved a couple of steps back as the paper caught
red flames and sobbing voice of Lily, his fifteen year old
daughter echoed in the room.

'Dad... Someone's attacked mom…Albus and I don’t know

what to do…please come home…we’re very scared…'

After Lily’s cry, the red flames swallowed the paper and
burnt it to ashes which fell on Harry’s shaking feet. Every
person in the room including Ron who struggled to figure
out his own reaction were baffled and left in shock. Harry’s
body language changed drastically in a matter of seconds
and sweat took over his already tired face. His feet
suddenly felt heavy, his mind was going numb with the
thought of what might've happened to Ginny. He grabbed
his stick, the one he used while walking, which he rested
on the table on his side of the desk and prepared to leave
right when Ron interrupted him.

‚I’ll go with you." He said.

***

28 | P a g e
"I was upstairs with Lily, helping her with her holiday
potions assignments when I heard mom calling out my
name to open the door." Albus sat in front of Ron in the
bedroom upstairs, "But I didn't answer."

"And then?" Ron was keen for every word.

"Then I heard the scream, after a few minutes. I and Lily

rushed down only to find Mom laying on the floor with a
bleeding mouth. She was hit hard on her head and all the
stuff in the house was messed up. I didn't know what to do
so I asked Lily to send a message to Dad. That's it."

"So any chance you saw who actually did that? Any
glimpses or appearances that you caught? Anything?" Ron
asked.

"No, nothing." Said Albus and fell silent.

"Ron, will you please stop being an Auror and be a

responsible uncle for now? The kids are nervous right now.
Come on downstairs you both, she's waking up." Hermione
entered the room breaking the awkward silence in the
room.

All three of them moved down to the room Ginny was in.
Harry just took his seat in fron of her after placing a pillow
on the back of her head when they entered the room. Albus
sat on the corner of the bed near his mother's feet, Ron took
a seat next to Harry and Hermione stood opposite to the
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bed. Ginny was barely awake and weak. She had a lot of
bandadges on her body from the multiple wounds she
received by the broken glass of the bedroom window when
the attack occurred.

"She's been hit with cruciatus curse. Multiple times, before

hurting her physically." Harry spoke to Ron without an eye
contact as Ginny starred into nothingness looking away
from everyone.

"Ginny, are you okay?" Ron asked.

"You think?" Hermione felt irritated by her husband's

stupid question.

"Cho Chang..." Ginny's weak voice murmured the most

unexpected name at the most unexpected time.

"What?" Harry looked at her leaning forward and holding

her hand as Ron, Hermione, Albus and Lily- all turned
alert.

"Cho Chang..." Ginny spoke again, only this time, clearer.

"Cho? What about her?" Harry asked impatiently.

"She did it..."

"What? Cho Chang did this to you?" Ron fired his questions
again.

30 | P a g e
"She..." Ginny turned her head to Harry, "She used the
legilimancy spell, took away a lot...-' she was further
interrupted by her own coughing.

"But why would she do that?" Hermione said tensely, "I

haven't known of her whereabouts since school."

"Did she tell you anything?" Harry asked Ginny ignoring

Ron and Hermione.

"She said...to turn on the light...you must have some

around you...he will not spare you one." Ginny's weak
voice said.

"Okay," Harry said, getting up and kissing her forehead,

"You get some rest."

"Harry!" Ginny tried to top her voice.

"Yeah?" He turned around.

"She...she wasn't herself. Her eyes...they were different."

"Okay." Harry said and left everyone in an awkward

silence.

"Aunt Hermione, who is Cho Chang?" Lily got curious.

"A long story." Hermione said while Ron left the room
following Harry.

Harry came to the living room to pick up his coat and

spectacles. The stick he used to walk made a typical sound
31 | P a g e
knocking itself on the floor every time. He was all prepared
to leave the house when Ron came to him.

"Mate!" He said, "Where do you think you're going?"

"My wife's been attacked in a cruel manner, what do you

expect me to do? Sit back and relax and wait for the culprit
to surrender?" Harry's tone was defining his mental state
well.

"You think Cho would do that? She was under an imperius

curse, right? It's one of the unforgivable curses." Ron said.

"It's dark magic. Only an extremely skilled wizard can

perform it successfully. And if there is someone that
powerful out there setting out to do things like this, I need
to find him."

"No you don't," Ron came forward looking him in the eye,
"we do."

32 | P a g e
 CHAPTER TWO
THE VEIN'S PREY

A brown Labrador kept barking at his master in his

bedroom as he was asleep. His master had been asleep all
day and the constant smell of alcohol in the small, messy
house explained why. The dog kept barking and pulling
the loose ends of his master's pajamas until he finally woke
up and threw a pillow at the dog to shut him up. A man of
about five feet and a half rose from the bed. He was
wearing pajamas with check prints on them. He had a two-
day unshaven beard and his hair on his chest were messier
than the ones on his head. He kicked the dog away to make
space for him to land on the floor. In no hurry, he walked-
almost crawled his way to the kitchen in the front part of
the house. There were about ten packs of corn flakes on the
cupboard which need not be opened as it had no door. He
almost bowed himself inside the refrigerator looking for
milk but he did not find any.

"Idiot!" He abused a nobody and slammed the door closed.

He walked his way towards the living room and bumped

himself on the old, worn out couch. He slipped left hand
under the couch looking for the remote for the television,
holding the bowl of flakes with his right. He turned on the
TV and gazed upon the very first channel that appeared on
33 | P a g e
it, about some kind of travel package advertising for a
couple trip to Europe. He stuffed a spoon of flakes in his
mouth carelessly, with some of them falling back in the
bowl and some, on himself. He seemed to be at his utmost
comfort when he suddenly got baffled by the sound of
something hitting his floor hard outside the main door of
the living room. Three seconds later, a knock was placed on
his door, which took him around fifteen seconds to
analyze. He got up and spilled a few more abuses while
reaching out to the door. He opened the door to find two
men, both taller than him, staring at his face. One of them
was over six feet tall and had roughly combed red hair and
a brown coat while the other one had a faded scar on his
forehead and wore glasses and stood with the support of a
stick in his hand.

"Mr. Hansen?" Ron asked.

"Yes, Mr. Stranger."

"Uh, look Mr. Hansen, my name is Harry and this is

Ronald. We're old friends of Cho. We need to see her
regarding a matter. Is she home?" Harry spoke to the half
naked man.

"So you're the one eh?" Hansen said.

"Excuse me?" Harry said.

34 | P a g e
"I know you, Harry Potter. You're the biggest of all those
freaks ain't ya?" Hansen said in a disgusted tone, "but what
brings you here to my door Mr. Potter?"

"We're investigating on a case and we need to talk to Cho

for that. Now if you would please..." Ron got restless.

"She doesn't live here anymore," Hansen said cutting off

Ron, "She left home; it's been a while. So if you two are
done ruining my breakfast would you mind leaving my
house?"

"The two of you got married right after school. What

happened? Where did she go? When did you see her last?"
Harry shot some questions altogether at him.

"Yes! She did marry me after graduating from that school

of all you idiots but I didn't know till it was an year
already! And couple years ago, she got weird.-"

"Got weird?" Ron interrupted.

"Yeah, she behaved weird. I couldn't handle her. One day

she left without a notice and my life has been peaceful ever
since so leave me and my house alone and fly away. I got
nothin'. Shoo!" Hansen was truly disgusted having wizards
at his home.

"Well, you certainly do not think very well of the wizards,

Mr. Hansen." Harry said slipping out his wand.

35 | P a g e
"What the fu-"

"Obliviate!" Harry wiped Hansen out off their presence.

"Wasn't needed though. He wouldn't matter." Ron said.

"I don't want a single person to know about anything,

especially our whereabouts, may it be a wizard or a
muggle. I'll be taking a few days off and be with Ginny.
Let's go now. Come on." Harry said, offering his hand to
Ron as they were ready to appart.

They vanished the very same moment and Hansen kept

wondering what just happened to him, but soon got busy
with his corn flakes.

***

{TWO DAYS LATER}

Harry stirred the tea he made for Ginny before handing it

to her and sitting in front of her on the same bed. She
sipped on to the warm tea as Harry looked at her with an
emotion he could never describe. Even after all these years,
nothing had changed between him and Ginny. He loved
her just the same, and time had flown with grace on the
couple. He took a look at her bandages and healing
wounds. Harry Potter, who for once wouldn't care about
small wounds was now an insecure person, because if
compromised now, he had almost everything to lose. The

36 | P a g e
scars on Ginny's body pained him as if they were his own.
Ever since the attack, he was feeling more insecure than
ever. It was his family's safety that had been compromised
and he had been able to find no clue on it. Only things he
knew about the incident were those he was given handy by
the culprit himself. He decided to take a few days off the
ministry work and be home with Ginny to look after her
recovery.

"I hope I get better by next week. I want to be there when

kids leave." Ginny said, sipping on to her tea and leaning a
little on Harry who was now sitting besides her holding her
in his firm grip.

"It's fine if you're not, Gin. It's not the first time they're
going to Hogwarts." Harry said.

"Yes but it's the last time, for Albus."

"Well, he wouldn't want his mother to be in pain, would

he?" Harry said.

"But, Harry...-" Ginny was interuppted by a sudden sound

of coals tumbling by themselves in the fireplace which was
visible right in the front area of opening of the bedroom
door.

"Harry!" A sound came from it in a low pitch.

37 | P a g e
Harry got up putting down the pillow he held in his hand
on the bed. He went closer to the fireplace to figure out the
dialler of the head-only floo network on the other end.

"Who is it?" Harry spoke firm.

A couple of seconds later, Ron's recognizable face carved

out in it and his voice was louder and clearer.

"It's me- Ron. Harry, we need you here right now. If Albus
and Lilly can be with Ginny for a while..."

"What happened?"

"Another attack... This time it's at the ministry. Gordon and

Elkhart are dead. Hermione's not doing any well either. It's
Cho again. We have her now but we need you here right
now...-"

"I'm coming." Harry said staring into the fire, shaking with
both, anger and fear.

***

"Anything yet?" Harry asked while taking quick and firm

steps towards the interrogation room where Cho was kept
at.

"Nothing. She isn't ready to speak up anything. I and

Hermione stayed away, we couldn't torture her into
anything. She says she doesn't remember anything." Ron

38 | P a g e
said walking besides him and pushing the door inside as
they arrived, to let Harry in.

Harry entered the interrogation room. The room lacked

presence of anything else but a chair kept in the corner and
a heavy chain originating from the wall to its opposite, to
which Cho was tied by her left hand and right leg. The roof
of the room was nothing but an illusion of sky filled with
darkness. Three filthily hungry dementors floated above a
layer spelled to keep them from entering the room
undesirably. Harry removed his coat and hung it on the
hook right next to the door of the interrogation room and
also left his stick behind. He folded up his sleeves, took out
his wand and reached for the chair in the corner. He picked
it up and carried it towards Cho. Cho's expressions clearly
defined her fear and panic as Harry walked towards her
with his wand on his grip. He limped a lot more while
walking without the stick. He placed the chair in front of
Cho and sat on it placing his elbows on his thighs and
leaning a little towards her. She was shaking with fear as
Harry took a while to speak his first words to her.

"Why?" Asked Harry a question which was responded by

nothing but sobbing and panicked shaking of Cho in the
most uncomfortable way. Watching her like this seemed to
be bothering Harry a little but he soon remembered the
suffering of his wife and placed the same simple question
again with a lot more aggression.

39 | P a g e
"WHY!?" He yelled.

"I DON'T KNOW!" Cho cried out her tears that were
getting uncontrollable now. She sobbed painfully. Harry
took a moment to calm himself and continued.

"Cho, look at me." He said, "You need to talk, alright? What

made you do this?"

"I don't know, I don't know, I DON'T KNOW!"

"Cho, do you know who I am?" Harry asked in a lower tone

trying to control his frustration at the moment. Cho
tearfully shook her head in no.

"Do you remember anything from the past one month?"

Harry placed another question trying to come closer to his
doubt. To which, Cho shook her head again. Only this time,
bursting into tears once again.

"What's the last memory that you have?" Harry's own

question was making him nervous. Cho answered with
tears again.

"What's the last memory that you have, Cho!?" Harry asked
in a louder tone pointing his wand at her.

"I don't remember a thing," Cho sobbed heavily, "I felt like I
was asleep...since no idea when...and then suddenly I woke
up when they grabbed me...and put me here. I feel like I
did something horrible... But I don't know anything about
it. I don't know me, I don't know you, I don't know
40 | P a g e
anything!"

Harry stared at her for a while. He took a close look at her

bleeding feet and hands because of the dreadful chain she
was tied to. He took a final look at her eyes that were still
filled with tears enough to melt him down to believe in
them. He stood up, kept the wand back and walked to the
door undoing his sleeves. He took his coat and left the
room amidst the echoes of Cho's sobbings. A bunch of men
were waiting for him outside as he came, including Ron
and Bradshaw.

"She's been wiped. She's totally empty." Harry said as

everybody looked down, "What happened here anyway?"

"She attacked me when I was with Hermione at lunch hour

in my chamber. Hermione saved me but Cho hit her with
cruciating curse." Ron said, "Fortunately, Valor showed up
at the right time and he got her petrified and got her
finally."

"Thanks, McNair. Good job." Harry said to a pale skinned

man standing besides Ron wearing a long black overcoat
on which his long hair rested on the shoulder area. Valor
McNair had been one of Harry's the best aurors till date.

"That's my job, Mr. Minister. Sadly, I couldn't get enough

information from her." Valor said in his deep, middle aged

41 | P a g e
voice.

"Perhaps you could've been a little less intensive while

hitting her. If she'd died we would've had nobody to
interrogate in the first place." Bradshaw standing next to
Harry, criticised Valor.

"I did what I had to do, Mr. Bradshaw." Valor said in a cold
voice.

"Oh is that so? You did what you had to do eh, what's with
all the aggressive spells and stuff you come up with every
time in a situation, is it just you or does it come naturally
when being raised by a goddamn death eater!" Bradshaw
growled.

"Shut it, Bradshaw. It has nothing to do with his past. It's all
history and he's twice as good as you are." Ron interrupted.

"More. Mr. Bradshaw if you think there was a better option;

you could've stepped forward and faced the enemy." Valor
eye contacted Bradshaw.

"That's alright, it wasn't gonna do no good anyway,

Bradshaw, do we have anything about Elkhart and
Gordon?" Harry asked.

"Both were murdered while she entered from the upper

lobby. She broke in from god knows which portal. There's
nothing much to get about them. We're yet to inform their
42 | P a g e
families though." Bradshaw said, adjusting his tight pants
over his globed out waist, still disturbed by the look Valor
gave him.

"Harry, don't you see a connection here?" Ron expressed

his concern.

"Yeah, both worked on the krimps case. I know." Harry's

tone was calm now, "Umm, McNair, did you secure the
wand used by her when you got her?"

"Of course, Mr. Minister." Valor said sliding out the black
colored wand with a short handle.

"Take this to Joseph," Harry held the wand examining it,

"Ask him if he can check what were the last used
unforgivable curses by this wand and when. He must have
something on this. We need him to."

"Umm, mate that's another thing I wanted to tell you." Ron

spoke losing the eye contact with Harry.

"What?"

"Joseph..." Ron trembled a little, "He's actually not showing

up since a week. We ran a check, he's not at Ollivanders,
he's not home. But we'll find out soon."

"Ron, when were you gonna tell me this?"

"I'm sorry mate, I thought you had enough on your mind

right now so I...I'm sorry mate."

43 | P a g e
"You're right. It's more than enough." Harry stared away.

44 | P a g e
 CHAPTER THREE

NO ONE, NOWHERE

"Harry comes on,‛ Ginny was desperately trying to

convince her husband, "I'm absolutely fine now, the
wounds are long healed and I can walk too."

"No, Gin." Harry refused, "You need to rest. There will be a

lot of people at the station."

"So?"

"So, I don't want you out there in the open. We still don't
know who did this to you."

"So you would rather leave me alone here than to take me

with you under your protection?" Ginny knew she'd won
the argument the moment she said that line and received a
stare from Harry.

"Okay, okay. Alright. You'll come with me. But..."

"But?"

"Nothing. Just be safe." Harry had literally no reply.

"Of course I will be," Ginny walked towards Harry and

landed a kiss on him, "I would be with you."

45 | P a g e
Harry asked her to change quickly and walked out of the
front door towards the car with an arguably successful
attempt of controlling his smile. Albus and Lily were
already in the car.

"It's time now, dad. We should really leave now. Rosy and
Hugo are already there." Lily said as Harry walked up to
the car.

"In a minute. Your mom's coming with us." Harry said

while adjusting himself on the driving seat.

***

The Potter family entered the King's Cross station and

made their way to the platform no. 9¾ walking past the
muggles. Harry's stick made a typical tapping sound when
he walked faster. Ginny seemed happy to be out of home
after a long time. She kept telling Lily about the kind of
boys to stay away from at school as according her "fifth
years are the times when the kids get into troubles". Albus
and Harry talked about the quidditch world cup all along
the way which was to be held later the same year. After
three and a half minutes they finally ended up in front of
the breach to enter the station. Harry sent Ginny and Lily
first across the breach and then he went in with Albus.
They ran straight into the the pillar between station
number 9 and 10 and the breach after a short darkness
opened them up outside welcoming them to station no. 9¾
46 | P a g e
where the red and black Hogwarts Express greeted them
with steam and shone against the bright sunlight. The view
around them had changed. There were no muggles
anymore. There were little witches and wizards, owls and
cats and parents who were seeing their children off. Ginny
had already spotted Ron and Hermione standing a few feet
away. She walked towards them followed by Harry and the
kids.

"Hi," Ginny greeted Hermione with a hug, "I'm so glad to

see you."

"Well," Hermione smiled, "I didn't expect to see you, it's a

total surprise."

"Yeah, how come you're out of your bed." Ron said.

"Maybe I wanted to hear my brother cracking up a joke to

me." Ginny hugged Ron too.

"Well, in that case..." Ron said only to be interrupted by

Ginny.

"I was just being nice, Ron." Said Ginny.

"Hey Harry," Hermione greeted Harry.

"Hey, " He greeted back, "Where are Rosy and Hugo?"

"Oh, they are already on the train. I told them to save a

compartment for Albus and Lily." Ron said.

47 | P a g e
"It only seems like yesterday when we got in this train for
the very first time, doesn't it?" Hermione said.

"Yeah, really." Harry said.

"Well, here come the Malfoys." Ron said.

All of them turned their heads as the Malfoy family walked

in. Scorpius walked besides his father as the duo entered
and came straight to where the Potters and Weasleys were
at. Draco came forth to the parents while Scorpius joined
the other kids. All the three men stood together while
Ginny and Hermione got busy in giving children some last
minute advices.

"Nice to see you, Potter." Draco shook hands with Harry

without much change in his expression.

"Nice to see you too, Draco." Harry smiled.

"Weasley." He nodded.

"Malfoy." Ron nodded back.

"I heard about the attack. That was unfortunate. Find

anything yet?" Draco asked.

"Actually," Harry said, "No. Nothing at all."

"It's not as bad as it sounds though." Ron jumped in the

conversation.

"Well, it is. There have been multiple attacks and we have

48 | P a g e
no idea who did it and what they're after." Harry's
frustration was slowly showing up in his voice.

"Well, all I could say is that if you need my help, do let me

know. You know I've got contacts." Draco said trying to
sound less humble than he was actually being.

"Funny you're offering contacts to the minister of magic

though." Ron said and laughed at his own joke
accompanied by nobody. He sure did attract a stare from
Malfoy.

"By the way, if you might know, there's been a lot of krimp
theft news these days." Harry spoke to Draco again.

"Yes. Been hearing about that."

"I think it has some interconnections."

"What? The theft and the attacks? No way." Draco

disagreed.

"Yeah. Well, don't let this out but, the attacks were made
using a dummy. And it was Cho Chang. She did it." Harry
said.

"Yeah, he's right. She also killed two of the aurors while
breaking into the ministry who were working on the
krimps case and we still don't know how she broke in." Ron
came back to a serious note.

49 | P a g e
"I will see if I can find anything. Scorpius won't be here
now so I don't have much to do. I could help." Draco said.

"Thanks, Draco. I appreciate it."

"Yeah, just that..." Draco left the sentence incomplete as he

spotted an unusual being standing near the engine of the
train. It looked like a man, only covered in hood. Some
kind of mild black smoke surrounded him in some areas
although it wasn't easily noticeable. And just another
minute when a few people walked past him, he
disappeared.

"What happened?" Ron asked as he and Harry tried to

figure what Draco was looking at.

"Nothing. Just, uh, keep your eyes open. I don't think it's
just about you alone. This compromises the safety of whole
wizarding world. Attack on the minister's closed ones
doesn't indicate anything much different than that." Draco
finished saying what might be an altered version of
whatever he was to say before.

"Hey come on, it's time." Hermione called out for the men
as the train whistled, indicating departure time.

Harry, Ron and Draco walked nearer to the platform area

and watched their kids settle down in the same
compartment. Albus, Lily, Rosy, Hugo and Scorpius waved
goodbye to their parents as the train slowly moved
50 | P a g e
forward. All the faces looked happy despite of the
occurrences of last few weeks for the parents knew, that
Hogwarts was the safest place for their children. They were
vulnerable in the outer world but at Hogwarts, they were
under the protection of the finest.

The train soon became invisible in the woods only leaving

the smoke to their sights. The Potters, The Weasleys and
Draco prepared to leave the platform through the same
breach they came from. Ron and Hermione went first.
Following them, Harry and Ginny walked past the pillar
and arrived in the muggle world. Draco after taking a look
around him also took a small, casual run towards the pillar
to breach through-

"Stupefy!" A voice startled Draco followed by the effect of

the spell which threw him away from the pillar hitting him
back thrust on the floor.

Draco baffled by the sudden attack looked around

haphazardly and his eyes were caught up on the same
hooded figure he saw earlier, only scarier this time. A pale
hand rose from underneath it holding a wand with a firm
grip, pointing it straight towards Draco.

"Crucio!" Draco was hit again with an unforgivable curse

this time. He screamed in pain as the people around them
started running away. The whole place had people running
haphazardly. On the other end of the breach, after walking

51 | P a g e
a few steps, Harry realized that it took Draco far more than
normal time to get through the breach.

"Ron, I'll just go check on Draco, you and Hermione stay

here with Ginny." Harry said and went back to the pillar.
He walked past the breach only to find a chaos on the other
side. He saw the hooded figure standing just a feet away
from Draco who was still screaming in agonising pain.

Before Harry could understand anything, the hooded

figure pointed his wand back at Draco and hit him with the
most unexpected curse- "Sectumsempra!"

The moment Draco was hit with it, his body instantly
developed slits on his skin and the Malfoy blood was
spilled on the floor within seconds. He soaked in blood and
collapsed immediately.

"No!" Harry shouted pulling out his wand but before he

could make any use of it the hooded figure apparated from
the place right that instant only after throwing a small piece
of paper on Draco's bleeding body.

Harry quickly ran to Draco and sat besides him holding

him from the back of his neck and shoulders. He waved his
wand at him and quickly but carefully uttered the spell -
"Vulnera Sanentur"

The slashed wounds of Draco slowly began to heal up as

Harry kept repeating the spell over and over again to make
sure he healed him.
52 | P a g e
"Vulnera Sanentur!"

Finally after a couple of minutes, all the wounds of Draco

were healed, stopping the bleeding but he was much
weaker owing to significant other caused wounds. Harry
now grabbed that crushed piece of paper and opened it. It
was a page horizontally half torn from the middle. Harry
could read the title of the book it belonged to -'Advanced
Potion Making'. Below it were written some words in a
handwriting very much familiar to Harry - 'Sectumsempra
- For enemies".

Harry starred into the piece of paper with complete

helplessness. He felt numb realising that one more attack
had been made right in front of his eyes and there was
absolutely nothing he was able to do about it. Ron,
Hermione and Ginny came running through the breach to
check on Harry and were startled to see him down on
knees and Draco, lying unconscious. Ron picked up Harry's
stick that fell off his hand while pulling out his wand and
handed it over to him. Crowd had begun to gather around.
Even in the wizarding world, people only bothered to
watch the play after the curtains fell. Hermione held Ginny
close to her as she was devastated to see her husband
amidst such a terrible situation.

"Somebody get him to a hospital!" Harry yelled out and as

a quick response, a couple of officials of the station came

53 | P a g e
immediately holding a stretcher and helped Draco to get on
and took him away.

"Are you okay, Mr. Minister?" A man from the crowd came
forward and asked.

"Fine." Harry said without looking at him or anyone

including his family. He got up avoiding the help offered
by Ron and walked a couple of steps away where the other
three followed him.

"Mate, it'll be alright. Tell us what happened?" Ron said.

"I saw it." Harry said, "I saw him."

"Saw who?" Hermione prompted.

"Whoever's been haunting us. I saw him."

"Well, what did he look like?" Ron asked.

"I don't know. He wore a hood." Harry said.

"Was it the same person who made Cho attack me and

Ron?" Ginny asked.

"I don't know, Ginny. I don't know anything." Harry said,

"Except..."

"Except what?"

"This." Harry handed the piece of paper from Snape's book

to her.

54 | P a g e
"Oh my god!" Ginny exclaimed, "This is...how is this...I
don't..."

"What is it?" Ron snatched the paper from her hands.

"This belonged to the book you hid at Hogwarts. No one

knows where it was kept except for you, Ginny." Harry
said.

"Are you mad?"

"No, Hermione. I'm not doubting her of course. But it

means-"

"That it was stolen. From her mind. Wasn't it?" Ron asked,
figuring out the whole situation.

"Yes. When you were attacked, Cho must have used the
legilimency spell on you. You said you saw a lot of things
from your memories in a flash, didn't you? Was this a part
of it?" Harry asked.

"I'm not sure, but maybe it was. It did feel strange after I
gained consciousness." Said Ginny.

"That's it then. We know where to go." Ron said handing

the paper over to Hermione who was getting restless to see
it for herself.

"Not we. I'll go alone." Harry said looking away.

55 | P a g e
"What? No! Of course, no, Harry you can't just go alone to
Hogwarts, I'm going with you." Ron spotted the worrying
firmness in Harry's voice.

"Yes, you've got to keep Ron with you Harry." Ginny's

voice expressed her concerns quite clearly.

"I need you guys to stick together. Ron, I need you to stay
here and protect Ginny and Hermione. I'm going to
Hogwarts anyway. It's much safer there. Also, I'll be able to
see if I can find something about the krimps. And I'll see
the kids too, and warn them to stay away from danger
maybe." Harry convinced his family to let him go.

"But..." Ginny tried to make one last attempt.

"No, Ginny. This is the first clue we have ever since it all
started and that too when the culprit himself gave it to us. I
can not risk your safety once again and let him make a fool
of ourselves!"

"You're right." Hermione agreed, "You should go, Harry."

"Yeah, I'll take care of things in here." Ron assured him

once again.

"Brilliant." Said Harry, "So it looks like I'm going to

Hogwarts then."

56 | P a g e
 CHAPTER FOUR
HOGWARTS

Harry felt a little trembling in his feet when he walked on

the Hogwarts grounds after years. He looked around
himself while walking down the path towards Hagrid's hut
in the grounds. It was going to be his first stop before he
went to the main castle of the Hogwarts. He was wearing a
long, brown overcoat and a black muffler around his neck.
Hogwarts-coming regardless of its reasons had induced a
new spark, a new energy inside Harry. He got rid of his
beard this morning and preferred not to do his hair 'too
sophisticatedly' as he tried looking more like the Harry
Potter who belonged to this castle instead of the Harry
Potter who was the minister of magic and greatest wizard
of his time. Looking at Hagrid's hut from around the corner
gave him a little tickle in his stomach. While he walked
slowly towards it being accompanied by the sound of grass
crunching under his shoes; with no sign of anyone around,
he recalled his younger self all those years back when he
was a little kid and when the giant Hagrid became his first
family. Whenever he felt like something's just not right
within him, he had two people he would always go to;
Albus Dumbledore if he needed to know what to do, but
Rubeus Hagrid if he didn't need anything but just a warm
hug, some tea and a few terrible jokes about muggles. In all

57 | P a g e
the years since he left Hogwarts, he had visited only a few
times on occasions of work. However last time Harry
visited there, Hagrid had grown even more salts between
the peppers on his head and beard. This time, Harry had
decided he would not miss anything out and he knew
exactly where to start with as he arrived in front of
Hagrid's hut. He adjusted his overcoat a little and resettled
the stick in his hand which was almost frozen to his palm.
He closed his eyes for a second and then walked towards it
only to find an oversized lock hanging on the door of the
house of an oversized man.

It kind of bothered him inside not being able to see Hagrid

on arrival but he was going to be there for a couple of days
so he made his peace with it and directed his steps towards
the clock tower which was the second entrance all the way
across the flying class ground. He pulled out his wand as
he moved a little quicker now towards the tower, and
waved it in the air illuminating a thin, bright, sparkling red
flame which went high up in the air in a projectile towards
the building. A man in a room on the second floor noticed
it and took a close look from the window and immediately
left his room to reach downstairs to receive Harry. He
appeared at the entrance when Harry was only a few steps
from the fountain. Harry saw the tall, black haired man in a
sleeveless sweater and smiled at him. Both men had faces
that revealed how pleased they were to see each other.

58 | P a g e
"Glad to see you, Neville." Harry said reaching up to him
and hugging him.

"Good to see you too, Harry. Been so long." Neville

Longbottom welcomed Harry to Hogwarts.

"Yeah. And I don't have any excuses!" Harry smiled as they

began walking through the lobby, moving towards the
headmistress' office.

"That's alright. May it be you but Hogwarts doesn't really

like to have politicians. They're no good sign, eh?" Neville
cracked a joke that didn't offend Harry at all, "Anyway,
how is Ginny doing now? Luna told me."

"Brilliant. Doing fine now."

"What about Draco?"

"I don't know. Last time I checked he was home, resting. I

guess that's why I'm here. Hopefully something carves
out." Harry said doing his coat again as they climbed the
stairs.

"Actually, it sure will. I have a few things to share about

happenings in Hogwarts over the past few months."
Neville said.

"What kind of happenings?"

"Unusual. Not very dangerous or creepy but unusual."

59 | P a g e
"Like what?"

"Like sometimes these stairs, they just wouldn't change.

They'd go steady. Once about three months ago, all the
people in the paintings on walls disappeared. All of them
were empty, and the next time when they came back, none
of them remembered anything. And then stealing of crops
from the dark forest. I mean what do kids need them for
anyway? We never used them when we were students."

"Students?" Harry expressed a doubt, "You mean, the

students were stealing them?"

"Not exactly, sometimes they would just not remember

what happened or how they got out of bed and some
others say they took the wrong crop while looking for
something else for herbology class. I personally never
asked them to bring any krimps to my class but maybe they
might've misunderstood. It's pretty complicated."

"And what did you do for that?" Harry asked.

"We tried to get as much information as we could from the

kids but nothing useful. We informed the parents of the
kids we caught last month who supposedly were there
after sunset to get crops for class next day. Both of their
father's work at ministry itself. One of them couldn't visit
although, as he was with you for some meeting. So I
thought better not to interfere your schedule. But I've

60 | P a g e
warned the kids well. It's been pretty quiet for two weeks."
Neville walked Harry to towards the main lift to office.

"At the ministry? Whose kids were they? I never knew

about it." Harry questioned.

"Of course, they wouldn't want you to. One of them was a
fourth year Hufflepuff, Nubian. And the other was Jake
McNair, a fifth year Slytherin." Neville said, supporting
himself as the lift moved up.

"When did you say you caught them? Any exact day?"

"I don't know but I remember it was a weekend evening

when it happened. About five weeks ago."

"When were you going to tell me this, Neville?" Harry's

tone was altering a little.

They both walked out of the lift as it brought them to the

office finally. They turned around to find Luna Lovegood
watching them from the other side of the desk. She
removed her specs and got up from her chair, coming all
the way across the table to greet Harry. She didn't seem to
have aged at all. She still looked as pretty as a young lady.

"Hello, Harry." Luna greeted in her sugary sweet voice.

"Good to see you, Luna." Harry smiled almost forcefully.

"I told him about it." Neville said to Luna, looking down.

61 | P a g e
"Yeah, and I'm not very happy about it. When were you
guys going to tell me all this?" Harry spoke to both of them,
"There's so much more than wrong going on with
Hogwarts and you've never even sent an owl."

"We wanted to," Luna said, "But we were afraid of ministry

imposing on the school for the safety purposes."

"So? You want the school to run or kids to be safe?"

"No, Harry. It's not that bad." Neville tried to justify, "We
have been trying to find the cause and we never let thing
escalate more than that. We at Hogwarts here are capable
of protecting it. We didn't want the kids and parents to
panic by sudden intervention of the ministry in school
matters."

"Yes and besides if there's any place safer than anywhere

else, it's Hogwarts." Luna turned to Harry, "Would you like
a cookie?"

"Uh, no. Thanks." Harry nodded.

"Harry, if you're not very tired, we could take a walk

around the school and you can take a look, meet the kids
maybe." Neville put a hand over Harry's shoulder.

"Yeah. I need to check the room of requirements." Harry

said.

62 | P a g e
"Room of requirements? That's all the way up to seventh
floor, but do you think it will show up?" Neville asked.

"It should, I guess."

"While you two have a walk around the lobbies, I would go

and have something to eat. The baby's hungry." Luna said
walking to the opposite corner of the chamber to grab her
coat and hat.

"By the way, When did that happen?" Harry asked.

"Umm, a few months ago. She was pretty tensed about

Scamander but I guess it'll be fine."

"She'll be fine." Harry said, looking at the innocent mother-

to-be.

***

Harry and Neville stood by the door and took a look at the
class of defence against dark arts where Harry was able to
have a little glimpse of Lily amidst the children. The father-
daughter duo exchanged smiles and then Harry moved
ahead. They spent quite a few hours wandering around in
the lobbies and watching students enhancing and
mastering the magic in them. It was no less than a ride to
the olden days for Harry. Neville even took him to the
flying class of third years who were learning the advanced
principles of Quidditch.

63 | P a g e
"Well it is an honor, students, to introduce you to the
greatest seeker of his time, to which Madame Hooch shall
agree, Harry James Potter!" Neville was quite excited about
the day, "Oh and he's also the current minister of magic,
did I miss that?"

Harry did have some quite messy business to look after in

his visit to Hogwarts but for some reason he wanted to take
one thing at a time. He knew he was at Hogwarts after
years and he wouldn't be here for another few years to
come after the current investigation is done and so he
wanted to live through every moment of his school life in
the very same corridors and classrooms. Maybe it would be
a boost for him to investigate better as he did it as a student
while getting into troubles all the time along with Ron and
Hermione. He even demonstrated catching a snitch in front
of the students. Flying on a broom after so long was an
exquisite experience that he hadn't had ever since he broke
his leg after falling from it. On the third floor, they saw the
final years coming out of potions class and decided to wait
outside the classroom to meet Albus and Scorpius.

"There they come." Harry said, spotting his son from far
away, coming forward.

"Oh, Scorpius's with him. Be careful, he doesn't know."

Neville warned Harry.

"Why?"

64 | P a g e
"Draco wrote to us about it. He didn't want Scorpius to be
worried. He wouldn't be able to do anything anyway."

Harry nodded without looking at Neville as Albus came

forth and hugged his father. Scorpius shook hands with
Harry.

"Well, now this is a bit unexpected. What brings you here,

dad?" Albus asked.

"Work." Harry said, "How have your days been till now?"

"It's only been a week, dad."

"Okay." Harry turned to the blonde haired boy next to

Albus, "Scorpius! How is it going, son?"

"All good, sir. Thank you."

"You might wanna tell your father about your habit of

wandering around the castle." Neville made a little taunt.

"Me and Scorpius have terrible memories. And stairs, they

keep changing. We happen to get lost a lot. That's all."
Albus lied looking eye to eye.

"Your son, ain't he?" Neville looked at Harry.

"Absolutely." Harry said.

***

65 | P a g e
Finally after visiting all the classes and corridors, they
arrived on the seventh floor corridor and before they could
reach the front wall, the room of requirements presented
itself on it as soon as Harry and Neville came nearer. Harry
pushed the old door inside after decades.

"Nobody's been here since ages. I guess these students

don't even know this exists." Neville said entering the room
but soon shutting himself up, "Holy...sh.."

"I don't think so." Harry said looking at the insides of room
of requirements, destroyed and messed up in all corners.
The cupboards were broken and burnt, so were the walls.
There was not a single inch of floor visible as it was
drowned in the pieces of wood and paper as well as sand.
The room had never been in this condition ever before.

"Good." Harry said turning around, "This saves me some

time."

"But...I don't understand! This looks like hell!"

"Malfoy was attacked with a curse that only a handful of

people know including me and him." Harry narrated, "The
book in which it was written along with many other dark
art tricks, was hidden here somewhere, by Ginny. Only she
knew where it was."

"So you're saying..."

66 | P a g e
"Yes...legilimency was practiced over Ginny when she was
attacked. And to make this place look like this...it's
definitely someone from the inside."

"But, what now?" Neville asked.

"Now, I want you to fix a meeting up with those kids you

caught from the dark forest." Harry said.

"Those kids? But why?" Neville was still in shock.

"Because Neville, I was home for a long time when Ginny

wasn't well. There was no meeting five weeks ago or even
any other day around that time. That kid lied." Harry made
his statement finally.

"But..McNair... He's.. "

"Valor McNair is one of the best on the order, and I think

there's something his kid's hiding. Valor was with me all
the time but there was no meeting, he could've taken off
whenever he wanted to."

"Oh god, Jesus, I can't believe this is happening. I don't get

it. What's happening, Harry? Do I need to warn the
students?"

"Can I ask one more thing?" Harry asked ignoring Neville's

panic.

"Yeah...yes.."

67 | P a g e
"Where's Hagrid?"

"Oh him," Neville sighed in relief, "He's gone to London for

some official work. He will be back any moment now."

"Alright, I will spend the rest of my time with him today."

"Harry?"
‚Yeah?"

"You didn't tell me. Is Hogwarts at risk? Should I warn the

students?"

"You don't understand, Neville." Harry said clearing his

throat, "No where is safe anymore. This danger that is upon
us is completely invisible to the people right now but very
soon we might be looking dead in the eye of it. All of this is
happening around me. There's some definite link through
that kid, he might even be under imperial curse. We need
to play it cool for now, especially myself. Once we get a
hold over the vein of whoever's behind this, it's all a matter
of mere time. The order is all set to arrive at any moment.
All they're waiting for is a sign."

"Been long since I had this fear in my heart."

"I need to send an owl first and then I'm going to see
Hagrid. Don't tell Luna about the room."

"Yeah alright, Harry. Do what's necessary."

68 | P a g e
 ***

"Why'd ya get rid of the beard, eh?" Hagrid said pouring

some coal into the fireplace, "I saw it in the paper, looked
good on ya trust me."

"Wanted to feel home-like...you know, coming to

Hogwarts." Harry smiled a little, sitting on the chair
opposite to Hagrid's, sipping on the tea.

"So how's yer day been like?" Hagrid settled on his giant
couch.

"Brilliant." Harry said gulping down his tea, "In fact, the
best part was a completely messed up room of
requirements."

"Room of requirements? Who would possibly do that?"

Hagrid wondered.

"No idea. But I definitely know something is going wrong,

just that I can't figure what. Hagrid, it's like all the people
who have ever been close to me are being threatened. I'm
being sent messages indirectly and directly that
something's going on, someone out there is after something
and he wants to make me feel like I'm helpless."

"Do you feel so?" Hagrid raised his eyebrows.

"I don't know. I'm just a lot scared." Harry stared into
nothingness.
69 | P a g e
"Scared? Harry, yer the greatest wizard alive in the
wizarding world. And I knew it right from the time I
carried ya on my bike when you were as tiny as a dragon's
egg. Everybody knew the day would come when Harry
Potter will lead them into glory and these days are exactly
those. So that doesn't give you right to be scared, Harry.
You were chosen to live, not to die. So don't think that
way."

"I'm not afraid of dying or getting hurt, Hagrid. I have a

family now, I have kids and that makes me worried. The
more I have the more vulnerable I am!"

"But who'd dare to conspire against Harry Potter?"

"I don't know. Maybe someone powerful enough."

"Ow come on, Harry, you talk like it's a-"

"I saw him, Hagrid." Harry looked at Hagrid, "I saw him in
front of me. I was there when he attacked Draco. I could
feel those vibes. He's not some punk trying to humiliate
me. Both the attacks were serious ones and there's no way I
could ignore that. Everyone involved in it is someone I've
spend my best days with. Someone's using them against
me."

"Well, you can't opt out of having friends." Hagrid said,

70 | P a g e
"Although I have something to show you, here." Hagrid
handed over Harry a piece of krimp.

"These are the same ones?"

"Yeah, I took it from them. They were little kids! What kind
of kid would do that."

"I'll get these examined. Thanks."

"You sound low. You need some more tea?"

"Nah, I'm fine. Just that sometimes I wish I could stay little
forever. And learn about everything from Professor
Dumbledore. You know, having a mentor makes a
difference."

"Yeah, Dumbledore was a gem," Hagrid almost sobbed,

"He would never let - oh my god!"

"What happened?" Harry turned his attention.

"Dumbledore! Ow gawd, how did I forget this?

Dumbledore!...Yes!... Dumbledore's gone mad.." Hagrid got
up from his chair and wandered around haphazardly
looking for something.

"Hagrid, professor Dumbledore was -"

"Not him, Harry!" Hagrid shoved a newspaper to his face

from behind, "Him. He went mad."

71 | P a g e
Harry handed the newspaper to himself trying to look
carefully in the picture that showed Albus Dumbledore's
younger brother Aberforth Dumbledore. He was seen in a
dreadful condition inside some dark room, yelling
something and collapsing on ground. All his hair had gone
white and he looked over a hundred and fifty years old
even by muggle means. Harry took a look at the article
written by Gracy Skywalker, and turned up.

"This says here..."

"Yes. All he does since past few years is to take your name
all the time. People used to make fun of him but then
everyone realized it was much more serious. But he doesn't
harm anybody though, he keeps himself locked in his home
and keeps saying your name."

"But why? I've never known."

"Nobody wanted to let you know about what happens at

Hogwarts, Harry. They're all scared. Things are not the
same as before, you are the minister of magic and probably
the only person who can shut down Hogwarts for the
safety purposes."

"I wouldn't. Can I see him?" Harry sounded a little restless.

"Who? Aberforth?"

"Yeah."

"What for?"
72 | P a g e
"Maybe he has something to tell me. I can use everything I
can get at this moment."

***

Harry walked alongside Hagrid, a very unfairly heighted

man. The size of Hagrid was not just big enough make you
look small, it'd make you FEEL small. They both walked
digging in the snow on their way towards Hogsmeade. It
was a cloudy night with a predictably moderate snowfall
following midnight hour.

"By the way Harry, be careful with that old man." Hagrid
said while walking.

"I don't understand. What happened to him all of a

sudden? Why does he want to speak to me?" Harry said
without looking at Hagrid.

"Some say he went mad after he saw something or maybe

someone threw a real bad illusion at him, not sure about
that."

"I hope it's not an illusion, I badly need some lead."

"Well if yer goin' to that guy for seeking help, let me

remind you of what I've been tellin' ya all the time, he's
crazy! Crazy, Harry! Whatcha' expect to learn from him?"

"I don't know."

73 | P a g e
"Know this, here it is" Hagrid gestured towards the door of
Aberforth's house, "Be careful with him when we're inside,
Harry. You don't know how he's gonna react, he's never
spoken to anyone in years."

"Don't worry." Harry said and placed a knock on the door

before Hagrid could do it himself."

"Get away from here ya filthy demons!" A voice came from

inside.

"Mr. Dumbledore, it's me Harry Potter. I'm here to speak to

you. Please open the door." Harry turned his volume up to
convey himself through the door. A few seconds later, a
clicking sound came from the top corner of the door and it
opened slowly.

"Potter?" Aberforth popped his head outside, "Merlin's

beard... Potter! Where have you been!?"

Before Harry could say anything Aberforth slipped his arm

outside and grabbed Harry from his coat pulling him
inside the house. He slammed the door shut before Hagrid
could enter leaving the big guy in a reaction filled with
question marks on his face. He realized a couple of seconds
later that he was totally unwanted inside and murmured to
himself, "I knew it, I knew the old guy's crazy, and...and
arrogant and and...and an idiot! Shouldn't have come here,
shouldn't ever have come here!"

74 | P a g e
Inside, Aberforth didn't leave Harry's coat that he grabbed
until he threw him on a chair. The room was dimly lit with
only a lantern spreading its light in a very little area. Not
many objects around were visible but the smell of dust in
the air suggested that not many of them had been
disturbed by touch in a long time. Harry felt a little
uncomfortable when he took a proper look at Aberforth
who was now closing the last window ensuring both of
them were alone. He had turned older than his elder
brother ever was and for some reason he was not as healthy
as he used to be. Pounds of weight lost, meters of hair
grown, and here was Aberforth Dumbledore standing in
front of Harry Potter looking at him with a gaze from his
pair of brown eyes beneath his wrinkled forehead. He
walked slowly towards Harry who hadn't said a word
since he entered the house.

"Potter...," He said, "You know how it's like to be the

world's only hope..."

"I don't know, sir..."

"You do! Bloody hell you do Potter!" Aberforth came closer

to his face screaming at top of his old voice, startling Harry.

"You're the kid who lived and who fought for his
home...Hogwarts, you used to call it your home eh?"
Aberforth's tone went a little low as he stared away, still
close enough to Harry's face to let his beard rest in his lap.

75 | P a g e
"Hogwarts will always be my home." Harry spoke firmly.

"Really? Is that why you never show up here? Is that why

you have failed to keep your family safe!?" Aberforth yelled
again.

"How do you know?"

"You just like everyone else think I'm just a madman who
has caged himself in isolation, don't you?"

"Why don't you tell me what you have to. I know you've
been longing to talk to me. What was it for?"

"You think I was dying to talk to you Potter?" Aberforth

took a few steps back, "I'm not here to talk to you Potter,
I'm here to warn you."

"Warn me? About what?"

"He's here...be warned Harry... He's after you...unpleasant

things will keep happening around you...people will die...-"

"No one will die! I'm going to find out who he is and I'm
going to stop him! If you want everyone to be safe then tell
me who he is and where can I find him!" Harry screamed.

"It doesn't matter...because I don't really know." Aberforth

looked down, "He almost killed me...he was staring in my
eyes from an inch away...and I could tell you Potter, that

76 | P a g e
fear is not limited to me... It mustn't be. You must fear him,
Harry or he will make sure you do."

"What do you mean?"

"All I know is that everyone has their time. But no one

knows how much of it's left. Do not stay in illusions, open
your mind, look beyond things and try your best not to let
anyone else die because of you. That kind of guilt never
goes away, Potter. Remember."

Harry chose to remain silent to that. There was nothing he

could argue to a Dumbledore. Aberforth turned around
and went to the other room looking for something in
darkness. Harry was sweating now, and for the first time
after stepping inside the house he recalled Hagrid was still
outside waiting for him. He got up from his chair and
walked to the window trying to peep from it but before he
could do so, Aberforth came back to the living area and
even without the dim light of lantern, he could be spotted
from far away due to a luminous object he held in his hand.
It looked like a test tube container inside which a bluish-
white strand laid illuminating light.

"This..." Aberforth said, "This is the reason I needed to

speak to you Potter. The biggest secret of the wizarding
world that exists today." There was a moment of silence
after he said that.

"What is it?" Harry asked curiously.

77 | P a g e
"It's the last memory of Albus that was kept secret from
you and subsequently the world. It is the memory that
changed everything and he wished me to give this to you
when the time came."

"Time for what?"

"You shall know soon." Aberforth handed the memory tube

over to Harry.

"Have you seen this?" Harry asked. Aberforth nodded a yes

and looked down.

Harry stared at the memory in his hand for a while and

then put it on the pocket inside his coat. He looked at
Aberforth once again who was now unbelievably calm and
silent, standing half drowned in darkness. Harry walked
towards the door and grabbed the knob to unlock it when
Aberforth spoke to him again.

"Harry," He said, looking in the eyes of Harry behind the

glasses, "I respected and hated my brother. And that was
for a reason."

Harry looked at him for a while, with no words to say. He

nodded a little and left as the door slammed after he
stepped out. Aberforth stared into the darkness around
him, scared and burdened of what he knew and the world
didn't.

78 | P a g e
 CHAPTER FIVE
THE BURIED MEMORY

Harry slowly walked into the headmistress' office only to

find nobody there. All the students and staff were at the
dining where he decided not to go to avoid making any
formal unnecessary speeches. Right now the only thing on
his mind was the memory he had inside the pocket of his
coat which he pulled out. As the history always suggested,
just when he thought he knew everything, something
shocking came up. Albus Dumbledore was a man of many
mysteries and was yet able to be wise enough to everyone's
minds that they all trusted him to do the right thing,
always. Harry had always viewed him as a father figure, a
mentor who was always there to direct him on the right
path, never directly, but by providing him with all the hints
he needed. Never before had this thought struck Harry's
mind that by the knowledge of the life that Dumbledore
had lived, anyone could tell that he always showed what
he wanted to show and how much he chose to show.
Harry's relationship with the then headmaster Albus
Dumbledore deepened a lot ever since Lord Voldemort
returned in complete form when he was in fifth year at
Hogwarts. Ever since then until his last moment, Harry had
remained closer to him than almost anyone else. In the
memory of Snape that he thought was the last part of

79 | P a g e
Dumbledore he didn't know of, he saw Snape who was
always on the side of good despite of what he might have
represented. He saw Albus Dumbledore predicting that he
was a Horcrux and making the decision to sacrifice himself
so that things would go as they were supposed to and
Harry could live. He saw the undying, unconditional love
of Severus Snape for his mother Lily, who married
someone who used to bully Snape. After seeing something
as disturbing and moving as that, Harry now was
completely numb about what could this last secretive
memory could have in store for him. He knew that when it
came to Dumbledore, you can not expect anything much
simple and that made him curious as well as nervous. He
knew it had something to do with the current happenings
and attacks on his family and friends but he was too scared
to find out what it actually was. Maybe because it was
Dumbledore who had a habit of getting Harry's adrenaline
to his knees, even after being dead.

He looked in the corner of the chamber where a pensieve

stood still at the very spot it used to be when Dumbledore
took him on a ride to Lord Voldemort's past. He walked up
to to the pensieve and finally opened the cap of the
memory tube, pouring the memory strand in it,
illuminating the pensive. After taking a deep breath, Harry
closed his eyes and dived his head inside silvery liquid that
the pensieve remained filled with.

80 | P a g e
Harry felt as if he was falling from a great height but
hardly did he feel any surface of impact when the fall
stopped. He wasn't sure where he was exactly because it all
seemed too dark at first. A scene gradually started taking
shape in front of his eyes and he could simultaneously hear
a sound of a sudden blow of wind as if someone just
apparated to the place. The visuals slowly became clear and
it was one of the scenes he was always afraid to watch as it
was a familiar one. He saw a tall man with long white
beard wearing a typical wizard's gown and standing at the
door of the Godric's hollow. Harry recognized both, the
man and the house; only that he was never aware of his
presence that night. He pulled out a cloak and covered
himself inside it, for which he had to bend himself a little
owing to his height. As soon as he put it on, he disappeared
into the fibres of the invisibility cloak. Harry suddenly felt
like he too was inside the cloak, or maybe inside the head
of the man. Albus Dumbledore opened the door and
walked inside the house and Harry could follow him
without realizing he had no physical structure right now.
Dumbledore entered the house's living area which led to
the lobby connecting to the bedroom of the Potters. He
stopped suddenly upon hearing voices from the room. He
went a little bit closer and took his hiding in a dark corner
opposite to the room.

81 | P a g e
"Nobody had a clue that he could be the one! But it's done
now, let's just move from here right now, it's not safe Lily."
Said a man of blackish brown hair wearing spectacles.

"No James! I don't care of what Peter did because right

now, that is not going to make our decision! I'm not going
anywhere! I'm going to keep Harry safe with myself, that's
the safest he can be!" Lily said.

"Honey, please you have to understand!" James tried to

convince his wife.

"No I don't, James! Don't be scared when it's time to fight,

this is what we prepared ourselves for!" Lily almost yelled.

"I'M NOT SCARED!" James screamed in a louder tone, "I'm

not scared, Lily! I'm ready to fight the Dark Lord,
anywhere, anytime, I WILL FIGHT HIM! But... But not at
the cost of my wife and my son's lives. He will come for
Harry and us too. Lily, I have spent all my life ignoring the
fact that everyone did think of me a coward and an
egoistic jerk but I am not going to let that be the reason to
lose my family. I love you, Lily... And even more than
that... I love Harry... I'm not gonna let anything happen to
him. Please trust me, okay? I will protect our son till the
very last of my breath."

Lily looked in the eyes of James for a few seconds and then
kissed him, enough to assure him of how much faith she
had in him and his love for their child. She then turned

82 | P a g e
around as James began to gather things they would need
before leaving. Lily sat on her knees in front of the tiny bed
inside which little Harry was trying to stand on his feet by
the support of the edges. She looked at her son deep into
his eyes like she had never looked before.

"Harry, be safe...be strong..." She uttered, "You're so loved,

Harry... You're so loved..."

Suddenly a sound of the main door of the house falling

apart rattled the entire place. Harry felt strong vibes inside
the invisibility cloak. A dark figure enveloped in black
hood and gown walked across the lobby with quick steps
and headed towards the room with his wand held ready to
kill anything and anyone in its path. His presence in the
house filled it with a feeling of deep fear and anxiety like
Harry had never experienced before. James realized the
situation and pulled out his wand. Before Voldemort could
raise his wand towards Lily who was trying cover Harry
behind her, James leaped in front of his wife and son with
his wand pointed straight on the face of the Dark Lord.

"Foolish." Voldemort said.

"You don't hurt my family, Tom! I will-" James' words

could never meet their fate.

"Avada Kedavra!" Voldemort's curse hit straight on James as

he fell away in a dramatic and impactful manner. As soon
as James' body hit the floor an almost invisible layer of

83 | P a g e
highly excited particles formed in front of Riddle who was
not sure what was it all about. It was like a shield that
wizards would use in a duel to protect themselves from a
curse or spells, only that it looked much bigger and
stronger than that. Lily cried out loud on watching her
husband's soul getting enveloped inside the green flames
that had just left his body along with his life.

She tried to reach him but before she could make it that far,
Tom Riddle raised his wand again, prepared to penetrate
the shield formed by James' death and kill little Harry in
order to beat the prophecy.

"Avada Kedavra!" He yelled in a loud voice.

To his shock, Lily pushed herself in between the curse and

Harry and got hit with it. The curse got split as soon as it
tried to pass through the shield and a small part of it hit
Lily breaking her down to the floor and leaving a scar on
little Harry's forehead. But in no time did he realize that the
curse had not only been split, but it had rebounded and his
body was slowly falling apart converting into a black
smoke that gradually got lost into the air of the room. The
little kid cried loudly seeing his mother who was laying on
the floor.

After a few seconds, Dumbledore raised his steps again and

walked towards the room. Just near the curve of the lobby
near the entrance of the room he saw James lying lifeless
surrounded by all the mess of the furniture and house
84 | P a g e
items. His wand was lying a few inches away from his
hand and his dead eyes conveyed his state pretty clearly.
Harry could see his father lying dead. He had never seen
him from this close. Dumbledore stepped inside the room
dropping his cloak now where Lily was lying on the floor,
also surrounded by the mess and a little child in a tiny bed
right behind her. Dumbledore looked at everything with
almost no expression. It was the most expressionless Harry
had ever seen him. The very next moment, Harry saw his
mother's hand crawling on the floor trying to support her
body up. She was so weak that she had no strength left to
pick herself up. She first looked at the little Harry in the
bed crying and a newly given scar on his forehead which
he gained from the curse of probably the darkest wizard
ever. Lily then noticed that someone was standing next to
her dead husband and she turned her head up with great
difficulty to notice Albus Dumbledore standing tall in front
of her, still as stagnant water.

"...Professor..." She sobbed as tears stormed out of her eyes

watching her world gotten destroyed.

"...Professor...please...James..." Lily's voice trembled as she

struggled to form words.

Dumbledore looked at her with the same look in his eyes as

before and then noticed James lying near his feet. He saw
his wand lying on the floor nearby and after observing it
for a few seconds, ignoring Lily's cries, he picked the wand

85 | P a g e
up and brought his eyes back to Lily who was now trying
to crawl towards the wall in order to pick herself up.

"Forgive me for this, Lily." Dumbledore said, raising the

wand and pointing it towards Lily Potter.

"Professor... What a-"

"Avada Kedavra!"

Green flames originated from James Potter's wand that

Dumbledore held in his hand, enveloping Lily inside it and
pulling the life out of her instantaneously, being cast by one
of the most powerful wizards of the century. Dumbledore's
expressions now were losing up gradually after realising he
had taken a life. He walked towards little Harry who was
still crying watching his mother dead, but before he could
do anything else a sound of apparatition and steps
following it came from the hall area. Dumbledore almost
saw Severus Snape entering the lobby without noticing
anything inside the room. He closed his eyes and the very
next second he apparated from the room.

The scene began to dissolve and everything started turning

into liquid smoke and Harry suddenly felt his face and
body undergoing tremendous pressure from all directions
and the next second, he pulled his head out of the pensieve,
getting himself out of the biggest shock his life could've
received for him. His entire body was shaking. The

86 | P a g e
memory tube fell from his hand on the floor and he did not
care to pick it up. He looked around only to find darkness.

Harry took a few steps backwards trying to digest what he

just saw. He slowly moved his feet to take his exit from the
office and goto the guest room near the house dormitories.
He took a few mild hits with objects while making it to
entrance of the headmistress' room and stopped on the
steps of the elevator which took him downstairs. His body
was shaking while walking towards the dormitory. He took
a few wrong stairs which delayed him to the final lobby.
He kept walking but he was barely focused on his steps or
the way he was going towards.

His mind was rushing with a thousand thoughts at once.

All the questions raising in his mind screamed for answers
he knew he would never be able to seek. Why would Albus
Dumbledore do that? If there was one man he had ever
looked at as a father figure or a mentor, it was Dumbledore.
He sure was a man of many mysteries but this one was
something that would never be justified for Harry for the
rest of his life. He had to live with the fact that the man he
idolized all his life was the man who killed his mother. The
biggest lie of his life was the one that he grew up upon. He
kept walking till Neville saw him from behind who just
walked into the lobby from the corridor behind him.

"Oi, Harry!" Neville called out, "Harry, why didn't you

come at the feast?"

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Harry stopped upon hearing his name and turned around
slowly to find Neville looking at him with a strange face
which probably was due to a similar look on his own face.
He completely ignored Nevile's question and turned
around again and started walking back on his path. Neville
chased him down the lobby, finally catching up and laid a
hand over Harry's shoulder.

"What's the matter, Harry?"

"I'M FINE, NEVILLE!" Harry said in a loud tone which he

brought down to normal after realising how rude it was,
"...I'm fine... I just need some rest."

"Okay..okay man, relax." Neville said, "Your room's down

the lobby on the extreme left at the end."

"Okay."

"Harry?"

"Yeah?"

"Those students you asked for, they have been told to meet
you in the quidditch dressing room. Rest classes would not
be available and plus, dressing room's a little away from
the main castle so you could use some privacy."

"I'll be there." Harry said, and left.

He entered his room which was specially designed and

decorated to welcome guests from the ministry. It was a

88 | P a g e
dimly lit room with some candles. The walls had brown
and black wallpaper and the wall opposite to him was
decorated with various individual portrait frames
including the small ones of the staff members whereas the
ones hanging a little higher than them were a little bigger
in size and they were all the headmasters in the history of
Hogwarts. Harry saw the picture of Luna at the end of the
tail. He kept going up from the tail and walked a few steps
in the room itself. He paused a little over the picture of
Snape which had a little wooden plate beneath it that said
'Severus Snape, Headmaster: 1997-1998'. The Severus in the
portrait behaved just like the real one and just gave a look
to Harry with a stiff face, however, his eyes seemed soft
and deepest Harry had ever looked into. Next to him was
the portrait Harry was not wanting to look at but he had to;
'Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster 1971-1997', it read.
Harry's feet stopped right in front of the old man staring at
him with a mild smile on his wrinkled and bearded face.
His body was shaking, his hormones were clearly not
under his control, he could feel a shiver on his spine and
the heat in his ears. No matter how hard he tried to hold
back, tears were finally trying to bulge out of his eyes
behind the glasses. Mixed emotions of anger, rage,
frustration, hurt and shock did not allow any of it to
express itself to its fullest and it killed him inside; he felt an
acute pain in his chest and his head was feeling like being
stomped from all directions.

89 | P a g e
"Why?" Harry said in a lower tone, sobbing as tears rolled
down his cheeks, with his teeth crushing against one
another.

"WHY? WHY?... WHY?" He screamed repeatedly to the

Dumbledore in the portrait as if he would make him
answer. To which the old man in the picture just gave a
reaction of shock.

"I saw you as I'd have seen my father..." He said, looking

down as he bursted in tears struggling to speak, "It was
you who I looked up...as a mentor...an idol...I believed in
you..."

"Did you hear that?" He looked up, with a much furious

eyes with a lot more red in it, "I BELIEVED IN YOU!"

The man in the frame gave a sad expression to which

Harry's temper triggered him more. He removed his
glasses wiping the tears and controlling his sobbing and
stammering.

"Get out of the frame..." He said and waited for a few

seconds as old man wandered to his words, "Go
away......JUST GET THE HELL OUT OF THE FRAME! GO
AWAY! I DON'T WANT TO SEE YOU HERE!"

The Dumbledore in the frame bowed his head sadly and

walked away. Harry burst into tears as soon as he
disappeared and broke down on his knees. He cried like he
90 | P a g e
had never cried before. He screamed like he had never
screamed before. The pain of knowing something he would
never be able to justify himself about and the possibility
that his mother would still be alive if it weren't for the man
he considered his idol was killing him on the inside. He
collapsed on the floor crying his eyes out and finally giving
into exhaustion, he fell asleep amidst the darkness of the
room.

The thunder rose to its greatest that night as the boy who
lived slept on his worst night.

***

The dark forest enjoyed the scariest of atmospheres in

winters and the snow added to its chilling woods. It was a
few hours before the dawn when a lantern tore apart the
darkness of the forbidden forest and moved towards the
core of it. The hand holding the lantern was getting lost
into the insides of a brown colored cloak worn on a thin
body. Suddenly, the lantern stopped moving. The man
with the lantern, froze to his feet when he could hear
someone's breath right behind him over his right shoulder.
He daringly turned around and found a black hooded man
standing in front of him, with the same pale hands that
Harry Potter saw at platform no. 9¾. He looked like some
kind of dark entity with the black smoke around him as he
arrived to the forest by flight without the use of any
brooms or other modes.
91 | P a g e
"He's going to confront us in the morning." The man with
the lantern, probably a boy, said in a thinner and scared
voice.

"He doubts?" The black hood asked in his deep, rough

voice.

"I don't know, I didn't see him all day." The boy said.

"It is time. There is no one here to protect him."

"So what do we do now?"

"Keep this." The hood stretched out his left arm with
something enclosed in his palm that he dropped in the
boy's hand.

"This?" The boy asked, looking at a small, blackish red,

shining diamond-like stone that felt quite warm in his
hand.

"Use it if there's need. Whatever happens, do not lose the

stone."

"Okay...and...what am I supposed to tell him if he asks?"

"He won't. The time has come."

"When exactly?"

"Tomorrow is the day. Everything to be done, will be done

tomorrow. Make no mistake, or you shall know what that
might cost us."

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"I won't.. Of course, I won't." The boy said in fear.

"Tomorrow." The black hood said and levitated further and

swirled away into the darkness and disappeared in a
couple of seconds.

The boy with the lantern held the stone tight and overruled
his fear with a smile that did not point at anything very
pleasant.

93 | P a g e
 CHAPTER SIX

THE DAWN OF DOOM

Harry walked with quicker than usual steps and had

decided to leave his stick back in his room. He was wearing
a rather long overcoat accompanied by a muffler and his
face looked as cold as the air in the corridor. He leaped
bigger steps reaching the final lobby leading to the
quidditch dressing room where Neville was already
present with the two boys Jake and Curtis, that Harry had
to confront for their lie about the krimps. Harry entered
without saying a word, neither replying to any of the
greetings from Neville.

"What took you so long? I got Curtis and Jake here an hour
ago." Neville came up to him and tried to keep up on his
pace.

"Nothing." Harry said without looking at Neville, and

pulled out his wand from his coat and his feet didn't stop
till he reached the kids and pointed it at them with the
agony overflowing in his eyes.

"Harry, what the hell are you doing!?" Neville exclaimed.

"Don't interrupt, Neville." Harry said without turning back,

in a tone he never had used before to anyone, "And you

94 | P a g e
two, I need to know what did you do with the krimps you
stole, NOW!"

"We...uh... We-... I don't... I'm so..." Curtis' stammered in the

worst possible manner as he failed to look eye to eye to the
greatest wizard alive. He stood upon his trembling knees.

"You're Nubian's kid, aren't you?" Harry asked.

"Ye...yes.. I am, I am.." Said scared Curtis.

"And you," Harry turned to Jake, "Your father's been one of

the best Aurors of all time. Every criminal out there fears
the name of Valor McNair, and you being his son, keep
messing around all the time and then lie about your father?
I don't think his position at the ministry is going to make
any difference in the trouble you've gotten yourself into."

"We don't know what you're talking about." Jake said.

"What?" Harry said, pointing his wand under Jake's chin,

"You were caught red handed goofing around in the
forbidden dark forest after sunset with a pile of crops
including the krimps, and you want to tell me that you
don't know what I'm talking about? Look kid, I know you
lied about your father being busy at the ministry so he
wouldn't know about how graceful his son's been at school
but you should know this, ...it's not a good day to mess
with me."

"It's definitely not." Jake smiled.

95 | P a g e
Harry was stunned by such a response from a 15 year old
and he sensed the sudden darkening of the lights and
blowing of the wind. He looked around and ended up
finding nothing but Neville staring at him with the same
question on his face too.

"What's happening, Jake!?" Harry screamed at Jake.

"Pity." Jake said and started laughing as the air hit the room
like a cyclone.

The very next second, a number of black smoke trails

entered the room and landed on the floor producing the
wizards that carried themselves there. One by one several
black cloaked bodies gathered in the room surrounding
them all taking rounds revolving around them. Harry
leaned down a little and moved closer to Neville as they
both were surrounded by the intruders revolving around
them fast enough for them to miss their identities. Jake and
Curtis had suddenly disappeared from the site. Harry
raised his face and suddenly he noticed a few similar faces
from those surrounding them. Dean, Seamus, Parvati and
many others he went to school with were the ones to
intrude Hogwarts using clearly observable black magic.
One of the hands grabbed Neville and threw him out of
their circle of revolution. The throw was so powerful due to
the velocity of revolutions that Neville fell nowhere near to
the door of the room. He landed straight into the corridor.

96 | P a g e
"Neville!" Harry yelled an unheard scream.

He looked around and was able to spot a stock of comet

360 brooms lying in the nearest corner. He somehow
managed his balance and observed the pattern of bodies
passing from in front of him and made a jump
straightaway outside the circle of revolution, grabbing a
broom with his right hand. The bodies got scattered in the
room the moment he escaped from them. Harry, wasting
no time, climbed upon the broom and flew towards the
door only to find Seamus under the imperius curse
blocking his way and ready to attack him. Harry made a
close dodge and flew all the way to the room back inside
and targeted a huge window on its opposite end. He had to
get past about five cloaked bodies to reach the window and
break through it, which was seemingly the only escape
from the room. He flew in a straight line, dodging everyone
in his way. Hitting and getting hit on few occasions, he
finally made it to the window and raised his left arm to
cover his face as his broom went past through the window,
shattering its glass and frame into pieces. He entered the
open air spotting the green grounds beneath him and
finally prepared himself to escape the chase the very same
moment he broke through the window.

"Stupefy!"

Something strong hit Harry out of nowhere, throwing him

off his broom. Harry fell on his shoulder from about 30 feet
97 | P a g e
causing him to scream out of pain inside his body due to
multiple injuries from the fall. He turned his head towards
the direction he was hit from. The man with the black hood
walked towards him with slow and steady steps. His pale
hand held out his wand firmly as it peeped from his gown's
long sleeves. The other entities and his army that attacked
Harry flew out as Harry looked up in the sky at all the
familiar faces under imperial curse trying to kill him. Harry
reached out for his wand while the black hood was still a
few steps away. He grabbed his wand and pointed it at the
broom lying a few feet away from him.

"Accio comet!" Harry screamed as the broomstick flew and

came rushing towards him only to get held by his firm grip
again. The man in the hood kept walking calmly without
responding anything. Harry climbed on the broom once
again and swirled his way up in the air in the opposite
direction. The hooded man too raised from the ground all
by himself and followed Harry with almost same speed as
his. Harry flew over the clock tower and spaced his way
from the bridge. He saw the quidditch stadium not so far
from where he was flying and mended his direction that
way. The hooded man kept following him. Harry was just
above the ground inside the quidditch stadium when
something hit him again.

"Petrificus Totalis!"

98 | P a g e
Harry's body suddenly froze like a stone. His broom left his
grip and his body couldn't oppose even a little against an
even bigger fall, smashing him right into the ground,
collapsing his insides nearly completely. He was shaking,
with pain, with fear, with anger and with will to come out
of his restricted movement and pick up his wand. He even
managed to crawl a little after a few seconds as the effect of
the spell began to lay off. The hooded man arrived on the
ground and so did his dark army. This time, accompanied
by Jake who was still wearing the smile that pissed Harry
off.

Harry still remained a couple of feet away from his wand

as everyone surrounded him making room for their master
to come closer to his prey. The hooded man walked up to
Harry and sat on his knees where Harry laid on the
ground, collapsed completely.

"Strange, isn't it Harry? There was absolutely nothing you

could do." He said, "Do you want to know why? Because,
you see...I am not someone who would do things blindly. I
calculated every moment of this game years before I finally
executed it. It's weird how you could be famous in the
entire wizarding world as the boy who lived, the one who
survived, the greatest wizard of his time......and still... No
one... No one realizes. You know Harry, it's quite shocking
how important one man can be for whole of his world, but
no one realizes at what cost does he come!"

99 | P a g e
"Uh... " Harry struggled to form words,

"Wh......who.....aarghh..‛

"Well, now that you're finally realizing that you have lost,
maybe you deserve to know that. But before that, I have
some closures for you, Harry." He said.

"Bring it to me." He said without taking his glance off

Harry. Jake came forward with his sight on the ground,
holding a rectangular box in his hands. He came a little
closer, bowed and presented the box, opening it in front of
him. The black hood raised his right hand to pick up the
object lying inside the box and a couple of seconds later to
Harry's deepest shock, he picked up the elder wand from
the box and took a fine look at it, examining its external
features to its detail.

"Beautiful, isn't it? Feels so powerful by its mere gripping."

He said walking down towards Harry and sitting closer to
him on one knee near Harry, "Sadly, you have never
known true power, Harry. But I will."

He pulled back his hood uncovering his face and his hair
ruffling out of it, attached to his pale skin on a semi
bearded face. His hair reached his shoulders and his
eyeballs glowed green. A very familiar but only more
dangerous than usual face became visible to Harry after
giving an infinite suffering to him and his friends.

100 | P a g e
Harry, in his most shocked emotional state managed to
form words, "Va......wha-...... Valor!"

Valor McNair held his head high like a king as he stood tall
in front of a collapsed Harry Potter.

"Yes..." Valor said in his deep, dark voice, "And soon to be,
the most powerful being among both, wizards and
muggles, a master...of death."

"You...!" Harry screamed, "Don't..."

"Oh I will, Harry." Valor came closer gripping tightly upon

his wand, "And there won't be anything, that you shall be
able to do about it. Because you, Potter, wouldn't make it
that far...Crucio!"

Harry cried out in pain crawling on the ground. Valor

dropped the elder wand a couple of feet away from Harry
in front of his eyes and started circling around him.

"Come on, Harry." Valor said, "Here is your chance. Pick up

the most powerful wand to ever exist and fight me. All you
have to do is lift that wand and kill me...because that is the
only way you can stop me. And that, Harry, is going to be
the reason that I will not die and you, shall not live. You
see, you're a little too soft inside to be able to hurt someone,
curse someone... No matter what they did to you...your
friends...your family... You never truly want to give them
pain. People say that's a sign of a good man, but Potter,
believe me they really are the fools who are too afraid to
101 | P a g e
admit that they lack the desire, the ultimate desire to bring
pain to your enemy. That makes you weak, and me, way
more stronger... Crucio!"

Valor's wand enveloped Harry's body in red flame for a

while causing him the worst pain in this fight. Valor circled
him and then stopped a few steps away from him turning
his back towards Harry.

"He was my brother..." Valor said in a milder tone as Harry

heard his cold voice, strangling in pain, "The only good
thing about my life...the only person who didn't abandon
me out of fear, or for the fact that my abilities, my
tendencies were a little different. My birth father made
many mistakes in his life, but the only one that hurts me
even now, is abandoning me for who I was. Rejecting
me...for being an outcast. My brother, being born years
after I left Durmstrang, was never told about me by my
father and neither did I know of his existence. And one day
when I went to my old home to kill my father and gain my
vengeance...that's when I saw this little kid...so bright...so
beautiful. I just couldn't do it. But when the time came
when he had to realize who he was, he was sent to
Hogwarts...right here. Here, is where I met him for the first
time and believe me Harry, he was the best thing to happen
to me. Our relationship was a secret. After being raised by
a death eater, you don't really want to showcase yourself
with your true family in the times of Lord Voldemort."

102 | P a g e
"But the only good thing about my life, the one person I
loved..." Valor turned around and looked Harry dead in the
eye, "...was snatched away from me. All the light in my life,
all the progress I made on the path opposite to THIS!
GONE! - Crucio!" He waved his wand and his loud tone
sent a shiver down Jake's spine.

"And the one person I hold responsible for his death...is

you!" Valor's expressions changed for the very first time
and he became scarier due to the aggression piling up
inside him as he watched Harry , "If it weren't for you,
Potter, none of this would've been happening! Right from
the moment you were born, until now in all these years,
everyone around you, everyone who's ever tried to help
you have met the same fate. Your parents, your friends,
your family, your teachers, your idols and mentors, each
one of them would've been alive right now if they didn't try
to risk their lives to save you. People may believe in you as
the greatest wizard of this century but you're nothing,
Potter. You're nothing without them, not even good
enough to be able to pick up the wand you master and use
it against me. You're a curse on the wizarding world,
Harry. Stop trying to escape, Harry and start to believe that
your moment...is he-"

"Reducto!"

Valor's words were interrupted by one of his dark army

men fell flying over as the land beneath him bursted open,
103 | P a g e
smashing into the ground as everyone watched turning
their heads back. Albus Severus Potter flew his broom to
the best of it's speed to make it to his father and save him.
Besides him was Scorpius, followed by Neville who was a
little away as he screamed at Albus not to go any further, of
course, unsuccessfully. Valor and the dark army were yet
to respond when several white colored smoky flames
appeared in the sky, marking the Order approaching
towards them rapidly. Albus, Scorpius and Neville were
still flying over the boundaries of the stadium. The very
next moment, one of the white flames landed on the
ground and Ron appeared out of it as he made it to the
ground before the other Aurors. Valor took a notice of
threat coming to him from two directions and before he
could swirl his wand to charge against the Order-

"Expelliarmus!"

Valor abruptly turned around as Jake disarmed Harry who

had made it to the elder wand and had picked it up to
attack Valor from behind. Valor looked at the Aurors and
the trio of Albus, Scorpius and Neville getting even closer
with every passing second and he turned to Harry pointing
his wand in front of him and uttering an unforgivable curse
looking straight in Harry's painful eyes,-

"Avada kedavra!"

104 | P a g e
Green flames originated from the tip of Valor's wand and
wounded Harry inside them, relieving him from the stress
of the struggle he was undergoing since the very first
moment of their encounter. Harry suddenly felt like
blacking out in front of his eyes and lost all the energy from
his body. He gradually stopped feeling different parts of
his body. Various good and bad memories from his entire
life appeared in front of his eyes in a flash. He saw his
younger self receiving the Hogwarts acceptance letter in
huge numbers through owls, little Harry driving in the
flying car along with Ron, meeting Hermione and being
saved by her on several occasions, catching his first snitch
in his first quidditch match, destroying Riddle's diary,
Cedric dying in front of his eyes in the graveyard, holding
his prophecy ball and watching Dumbledore protect him
and go toe to toe with Lord Voldemort, death of his
godfather Sirius Black, moments of fun with his friends
Ron and Hermione, having tea at Hagrid's place and riding
Buckbeak, holding the resurrection stone and watching his
parents so closely, discovering about Snape's memory and
love for him and the way he protected him all the time,
going all head and shoulders with the dark lord himself
and defeating Voldemort, breaking the elder wand and
throwing it away, marrying Ginny, having three beautiful
children, waving them on their first journeys to Hogwarts,
taking care of Ginny after an attack, watching Draco
bloodied by Valor, discovering about Dumbledore's last
memory and crying out loud and finally watching Valor's
105 | P a g e
wand pointed right at him just a fraction away from
putting an end to his life. The green flames took over him
leaving nothing but bright white light in front of his eyes
sinking inside his soul pulling it out of his body, leaving
him completely lifeless laying on the ground within a
matter of seconds.

"NO!" Albus' voice couldn't come out to it's best and got
lost somewhere in his voice box. Scorpius and Neville lost
the momentum of their brooms owing to their diverted
concentration. Ron and the other Aurors came running as
fast as they could.

"HARRY!" Ron screamed as tears flowed out of his eyes

along with rage as he ran pushing every muscle of his body
to its extreme and swirling his wand in the air sending out
a curse which failed to hit Valor as he quickly jumped upon
the elder wand that dropped out of Harry's hand grabbing
it by its grip and apparated in the fraction of a second.

Albus almost fell off his broom and could only manage to
run a few steps as his feet went numb, his body froze
completely and voices faded out from his ears and a sharp
sound of nothingness hit him. His brain barely functioned.
Scorpius came running from behind and held Albus by
shoulder picking him up and supporting him, followed by
Neville. Ron was the first one to reach Harry, he broke
down in tears on his knees in front of Harry's dead body
lying there. He took Harry's head in his lap and cared the

106 | P a g e
least about his tears dropping on Harry's coat. One of his
tear drops fell on Harry's glasses which had received a
crack from the curse that hit it. His eyes were still open.
Albus walked to his father with submissive steps and
straightaway hugged him on the ground grabbing his chest
with both his arms and burst out in tears. He felt a void
inside his own lungs that still made him feel heavier. He
choked on his words and couldn't utter any. Albus sobbed
over his father's body as all the times of his moments with
him triggered inside him. The other Aurors stood with
their heads down and those wearing hats took them off as
voices of sobbing and crying were audible among them too.
There were no words coming out of anyone's mouth and
everyone just couldn't come up with anything else other
than tears. Ron gently took of Harry's glasses and closed
his eyelids with his shaking fingers. Neville comforted
Albus and held him from shoulders. He looked a bit over
Albus' head and saw someone walking towards them from
near the entrance of the stadium. He handed Albus to
Scorpius and ran in that direction controlling his own
emotions, wiling off his tears.

"Luna! What're you doing here? You should be resting!"

Neville said in nearly stammered voice as his lips were
shaking out of aftershock.

"Who is that?" Luna asked without stopping her pacing feet

or looking at Neville either.

107 | P a g e
"Nobody, just go back to the castle, Luna! You should not
be here! Please just listen to me!" Neville said in hyped
tone.

"Harry!" Luna cried out finally recognizing the face in Ron's

lap between his hands. She held her baby in the womb with
her hands and walked quickly towards Harry. Only that
she could not move closer when Harry was laying just a
couple of feet away. She felt a chill inside her and for the
first time ever, Luna Lovegood was shocked to her very
core and drowned suddenly inside a depressive valley of
grief. She saw a crying Albus broken down on his father's
lifeless body, a sobbing Ron who still wasn't able to believe
his best friend and brother was no more breathing, a tearful
Scorpius who held his friend and a group of Aurors who
held their heads down in sadness. Neville came from
behind and placed Luna in the middle of his arms as she
buried her face in it making his sweater wet with silent
tears.

The wizarding world's doomsday seemingly had arrived

with the death of its biggest name. A snowflake fell on
Harry's forehead initiating a snowfall following the
greatest tragedy of the century as Harry J. Potter rested in
peace.

108 | P a g e
 CHAPTER SEVEN
GUARD OF HONOUR

It was dawn of the day as all the wizards at Hogwarts

gathered in the same Quidditch stadium where Harry took
his last breath. All the black gowns stood right in front of
the coffin that was placed in the centre of the ground which
was now to be the grave of Harry James Potter. The
morning was without sun, perhaps the darkest day for the
wizarding world in all aspects. All of Harry's family,
friends, coworkers and every person he had ever known,
were present over there and none of them could believe
that inside the coffin right in front of them was the man
who gave meaning to the word 'Hope'. Ginny stood almost
as lifeless as her husband, only breathing. She did not cry,
tears fell from her eyes without seeking her permission or
letting her expression change even a bit. She was held by
her shoulder by long and strong arms of her eldest son
James who had returned from Romania overnight as he
came to know. James stood in shock more than grief. Albus,
still accompanied by Scorpius, couldn't hold back his
sobbing. After all, he did watch his father die in front of his
eyes. He had his wand in his hands, he was so near and yet,
couldn't save his father. The seventeen year old cried like a
baby watching his father's coffin take it's place in grave.

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Hermione kept Lily in her arms. Ron's eyes looked drained.
They were so dried up that it wouldn't be too hard to make
out that he had been crying his life out and was finally out
of tears to shed. Everyone stood with their heads down as
the funeral proceeded. From Ginny, Ron, Hermione, James,
Albus and Lily to Neville, Luna, Hugo, Rosy, Draco,
Scorpius, Hagrid and everyone found themselves
drowning in darkness life never before with no ray of hope
to hold on to. The idea of the world without Harry shook
them all from their very core. Except for the sobbings, there
was complete silence It was a silence like never before. A
horrible, horrible silence. Neville came forward finally to
break it.

"As much as I thank all of you for being here today, I

understand how unfortunate this is. Years ago at battle of
Hogwarts, we all thought he had left us. We thought
Voldemort had somehow done it and our world was at an
end. We were still ready to fight, but we knew we never
stood a chance. But then, out of nowhere, he jumped out of
Hagrid's arms and all of our hopes, all of our courage, all of
our will came back to us. We suddenly felt as if we had
already won, because we knew we had Harry with us. Ever
since he was born and long before he even knew who he
was, we all did, and the name 'Harry Potter' became a hope
for all of us to live upon and believe that we can do this
and we will have a better tomorrow. He has saved lives at
multiple occasions including the time he saved the entire

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wizarding world. It sure does pain me deep inside that
we've lost him today. And I might as well make it clear that
the culprits will be put to justice. Harry is gone, but he will
always be with us by all means other than physical. He still
is a ray of hope. He still makes me feel brave. Although it is
still difficult for me to believe that he isn't with us anymore,
I assure all the students and everyone else, that all of us
together will make Harry live, in our hearts. We will pay
our tribute by bringing the long lost peace back. We are
going to make this happen, not without him, but for him."

Neville uttered the last of words he had to say and quietly

moved to the back gesturing if anyone would want to say
anything. A sobbing, tearful Hagrid stepped forth with a
giant napkin in his hand to wipe his running nose. He
clearly couldn't stop crying looking at the gravestone of
Harry's grave that said 'Harry James Potter. 1980-2024'. His
face was reddened and his half grey hair were messily
undone. He finally gathered some courage to say a few
words after controlling his sobbing.

"...I just can't stop...thinking about the time when, I carried

him all the way from his parents' place to privet drive...he
was so tiny...but when he held my finger with his little
hands...it was so firm, like he would never let go......I just...
It's too hard to believe that the Harry who used to come at
my place for tea, and would hug me tight every time he
sees me, that little kid grew up so quick...and did so many
brave things...it's like...losing my own...-... I-...I can't ..." He
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broke into tears midway and made a few failed attempts to
finish his words but he couldn't. Finally, Luna came upto
him and hugged him, whatever part of him she could.
Hagrid leaned a little on Luna and kissed her on forehead
before leaving and taking his place among the crowd. Luna
adjusted her hat and looked up with the tears she held back
very effectively but not secretly.

"Harry James Potter was the one man we all have looked
up to in all our lives. We felt safe knowing that he's around.
We felt there is someone who is as scared as we are and still
is brave enough to face the worst fate. He taught us that
one can be scared, be vulnerable and at his very lowest, but
can still have the courage to fight against all odds and
protect his loved ones. For me he was among those rare
people that made me feel that weird is not bad, but
different. And being different is good. Harry has been an
idol for all of us and I believe with him gone, he has yet
managed to induce a certain things in us that will help us
defeat the evil. With him, we have learnt that no matter
what, when you have love and will in your heart, you will
definitely be able to overcome the toughest and triumph in
the sun."

She pulled out her wand and said, "Let us vow today that
we will live for everything Harry Potter ever stood for. I
urge you all to join me in providing the guard of honor to
th-"

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She was interrupted by Draco Malfoy who made his way
from the back to the front and drew everyone's attention.
He was wearing a black coat and his face looked dull. Luna
stopped as he approached and left the space for him. Draco
was looking down as he walked and did not look up as he
spoke, standing in front of everyone. His shaking tone
expressed nothing but pure, rage.

"Regardless of what terms the Malfoys have shared with

him before the battle of Hogwarts...he has saved my life on
multiple occasions." Draco's teeth crushed against each
other as his anger enveloped him completely, "He taught
me that nobody is born a bad person. It is we ourselves
who decide what do we want to represent. And today, as a
friend of Harry, I represent him from now on till the last
breath, either mine...or Valor's!" He pulled out his wand
and everyone followed him.

"Let us not be so drowned in grief that we fail to protect

ourselves from the enemy that's out there. Let us not pity
the dead and save the ones that can be saved. Together, we
will seek what Harry deserves! Justice!" He pointed his
wand towards the sky and so did everyone as they
accompanied him in paying their tribute, "For Harry!"

A white sparkling flame originated first from Draco's and

then from hundreds of other wands meeting up in the sky
and illuminating a light bright enough to make everything

113 | P a g e
invisible for a moment, it was just this white light and
nothing else around.

***

The evening after the most unfortunate funeral was not

going well at the Potter house. Ginny, after breaking down
to her very core on hearing the news of her husband's
death, had not said a word ever since. She was silent and
cold as a stone. She kept staring at any random corner in
the room or anywhere she was, and would not look in the
eye of any person talking to her. She refused to stay with
Ron and Hermione at their place. Albus and Lily were
allowed to stay home for some time until everything cooled
down. James had come on a short leave for just a week but
he was to go back to wrap things up in Romania and return
soon. Ginny was the one person who regardless of
anything, was suffering the most. Not just her but for
anyone, it was too hard to believe that the man known by
the name Harry James Potter is no more and the reason of
his death was because he was murdered in cold blood by
Valor McNair, an orphan brought up by a death eater.
Nobody really knew anything more about Valor than that
he had killed Harry Potter and had the elder wand. But
that much information was enough to send a shiver down
anyone's spine. If a man could kill Harry Potter, he might
as well be able to do unimaginable things. Terrible things.

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James and Lily sat in the living room with Ginny who was
still wearing the black dress she wore at the funeral. Lily
sat besides and James stood by the corner. He wanted to
say something to his mother but soon after a short lived
struggle with words inside his mind, he figured there was
nothing in the world that he could say to console her. How
do you console someone whose soul has been snatched out
of their body in a fraction of a moment? There is no going
back from that. There is no restoring that.

"I'll just...uh, take my bags upstairs. Clean up my old room

maybe." James said, taking hold of his luggage bag from its
handle.

"And I'll make some tea for mom then." Lily said getting up
from her seat.

"I don't need tea." Ginny said in a low, deep voice.

"Yes you do. It'll make you feel better. James you need
some?" Lily tried to lighten the atmosphere, of course
unsuccessfully.

"I'll have some." Said James going up the staircase.

"Albus?" Lily called out Albus' name but he didn't respond.

"Maybe he'll like some chocolate. I'll just come, mom. Why
don't you change till then if you feel like it?"

"I'm fine, Lily." Ginny said.

115 | P a g e
Lily went to the kitchen to make tea, leaving Ginny who
was now alone in the room lost somewhere within herself.
James walked the lobby upstairs to the very last room
which used to his. He opened the door only to find it just
like he left it. The walls of the room were stacked with
posters of quidditch world cup. His bed had a brown
colored bedsheet with that being his favourite color. He
saw his old cupboard just as neat as it could be. His study
table with a lamp under which were kept a couple of quills
and a bottle of ink. Besides the lamp was a picture frame.
He picked it up and cleaned the dust from its surface to
find a motion photograph of the while Potter family. Albus
and Lily who were a lot shorter in their respective body
heights at that time, stood in the front and on their right
just behind Lily he saw himself- a fairly tall brown haired
boy with glasses who resembled a lot to his grandfather
whose name he carried. On the left corner stood Ginny and
Harry. Ginny stood next to James, occupying nearly the
centre and next to her on the corner was Harry. James'
finger involuntarily went his father's face. The complete
family in the picture was smoking at him and adjusting
themselves in the position for the picture. Suddenly, a tear
fell on the frame. Perhaps, James did not realise he had
them in his eyes until it fell. He quickly wiped his eyes and
then the frame and put it back on the table. He cleared
some space on the table to put his suitcase on it. He undid
the clips and and opened it. A couple of his clothes
stumbled right out as even after being an adult, he wasn't
116 | P a g e
quite good with the stuff like that. He took them out one by
one and placed them in an open cupboard in the corner of
the room.

After emptying almost half of the bag, a strange tension

showed up on his face. His forehead curled up a little as if
something had just bitten him. He quickly picked up all his
clothes from the bag and looked through them to find
something. He checked the cupboard again. Still tensed, he
opened his second and final case which had nothing but
some books. After looking through everything, James'
heartbeats became even quicker as he slowly began to
realise what had happened. He helplessly ran downstairs
in the living room where Ginny and Albus sat with their
tea and chocolate mugs in their hands and Lily was just
walking out of the kitchen. As James arrived in a
haphazard manner looking tensed as ever, all the heads
turned to him.

"Brother, what's the matter?" Albus said turning his head

away from his cell phone.

"James?" Ginny's eyes expressed enough concern for his

son's restlessness.

"The cloak..." James' breath was not having a normal day.

"Cloak?" Lily jumped in.

"Yes the cloak, it's gone!" James' voice went down and yet
loud again as nobody still understood. He made it clearer,
117 | P a g e
"The invisibility cloak! It's gone! I can't find it anywhere-it's
gone!"

"What..." Ginny did not stop having additions to an already

worse time.

"Are you sure you looked in all the places?" Lily said.

"Yeah, or maybe you forgot it back in Romania." Albus got

up from his seat.

"No...no! I never forget it, I always keep it with me, it was

in the bag when we went for the funeral but now, I can't... I
can't find it...its gone!"

Ginny and Lily barely handled themselves as their

conditions grew similar to James' and Albus stood firmly
with almost no expression.

"It's not gone..." Albus said, "It's stolen."

118 | P a g e
 CHAPTER EIGHT
THE MASTER OF DEATH

A month after the most tragic death of the wizarding

world, the ministry had collectively decided to resume
education at Hogwarts by keeping a constant posting of
Aurors within the grounds. A protective shield was created
casting multiple layers in its strength. Neville had taken
cover as the temporary headmaster as Luna was to deliver
the baby within a month or two. Everyone at Hogwarts,
including teachers, were overly conscious every minute. As
they didn't have a closure to the whole 'death of Harry
Potter' thing, they weren't sure of what would happen next
which made them live in constant fear. The scenario at the
ministry however seemed lot more tensed than at
Hogwarts. It had resumed working after a month of
shutdown.

It was the very first day and nobody had a clue of what to
do and where to go and how to work. Nothing had
changed except for the death of the minister of magic
which wasn't the first incident in the history where a
minister was assassinated but this time, it was a lot
different. It was mind boggling and triggering restlessness
among the employees and the staff because the shadow of
protection that Harry's name gave them, was gone and

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more than that, the thought that the man who killed Harry
Potter was roaming out there free and way beyond their
reach was even more terrifying. All the representatives of
various departments of the ministry were gathered in the
conference hall this morning in order to decide who should
be the new minister of magic. Ron and Hermione, both
were present in the meeting representing the Auror's
department and the department of magical law
enforcement respectively. Everyone sat around the table
and Ron initiated the discussion.

"Ladies and gentlemen, as you all know, we are all stuck by

a sudden tragedy that we weren't ready for. Some of us are
still in disbelief of the happenings but for the sake of
greater good, a new minister of magic is the need of the
hour. Wise thing to do now would be to elect a new
minster who can take up the mantle and lead us in this
situation. So-"

"This whole discussion is pointless, Ronald." A man on the

left corner of the table said.

"Didn't get you, Meryl, can you explain?" Ron said.

"Well, we all know if there is someone after Mr. Potter who

could be in his place, it's you. So why linger over it?"

"Me? Have you gone mad?" Ron exclaimed.

"Meryl's right. And it is no doubt that you are the next best
person for that chair." A senior lady minister spoke. Her
120 | P a g e
words were supported by a lot of people as everyone one
by one put forth Ron's name for the minister of magic
except for Bradshaw as in his opinion, Ron would be a
disastrous leader.

"Look, I appreciate you all for considering me for this but

think for a second, if I am the minister of magic, what
happens to the Auror's department? That's the most
important section to carry right now. Besides I've never had
leadership qualities in me. And if we want the best and
most capable person to take up this job, I must say that is
not me, not among the people sitting in this room."

Everyone started murmuring as he said so and one of the

voices came up from them asking Ron, "What do you
propose then?"

"It's simple and pretty clear. It's should be Hermione." Ron

said. This triggered a lot of voices in the room. Hermione
looked at Ron with a sight of concern.

"Merlin's beard! You must be crazy Weasley!" Bradshaw

said.

"Never been able to surpass you though." Ron responded

him and then addressed everyone, "Guys look, think clear.
Hermione is the brightest witch of our time and till date no
one has been able to match her skills may it be theoretically
or practically. If she can't, nobody really can. We must put
our faith in her and join hands in this movement. If we do

121 | P a g e
that and work together, I'm sure we will see the dawn past
the darkness pretty soon."

"Well, I wouldn't say I was wrong but I'm quite convinced

on second thoughts." Meryl said

"So anybody else has an objection if Mrs. Weasley is chosen

as the next minister of magic?" One of the wizards stood up
and spoke. Nobody raised an objection except for
Bradshaw's expressive disagreement.

"Very well then, hereby we have the newly crowned

minister of magic, Mrs. Hermione Granger Weasley!" Ron
said and everyone applauded Hermione in and outside the
room. She got up from her chair and walked towards the
chair on the beginning corner of the table which was
reserved for the ruling minster of magic. She did not sit
there however. She gestured everyone to be silent and took
a deep breath.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I- Hermione Granger Weasley, as

the new minster of magic, hereby declare that Hogwarts or
any other wizarding organization will not remain closed
any more and will function as per it's routine. All the
members of the ministry are ordered to compulsorily seek a
training from the Auror's department in order to stand
against dark magic. The enemy here is not someone we go
looking for. He will arrive eventually and when he does,
this time, we will be ready!"

122 | P a g e
 ***

Away from the eyes of wizarding world, within the walls

of a small house lost in the unknown amidst darkness. The
only visible part of it on the inside was an old, abandoned
room where there was nothing but a small, wooden table
which displayed a very ancient craftsmanship on its
carvings and corners. A small lamp hung over the table
which was the only source of light in the entire house apart
from a fireplace in the centre of the house. A huge sized
chair, much like throne was visible through the fading light
on the either side of the table on which sat a quite tall
figure. Only visible body part was the left hand on the
armrest of the chair which held the elder wand between its
index and middle fingers.

Jake entered the room as politely as he possibly could and

with his head bowed, he put the stone on the table; the one
was given by Valor himself in the dark forest the night
before Harry died.

"Here it is as you asked for, Father."

"Hmm..." Valor's deep voice said as he picked up the stone

from the table, "Pick up that cloth covering the table."

"I umm..." Jake hesitated.

"Go ahead, lay your hand on the table, son."

123 | P a g e
Jake did so to a table seemingly bare but he ended up
touching the invisibility cloak which was placed over the
surface of the table. He was astonished to see the invisible
surface on one side of the cloak and even tried putting his
hand behind it.

"Quite amazing isn't it?" Valor said.

"Truly!"

"Put it back, " Valor said to which Jake responded

immediately, "That is the invisibility cloak. One of the
hallows of death."

"Hallows of death? So there's more than just elder wand?"

"A lot. There are three as they say- the elder wand, the
invisibility cloak and the resurrection stone but I believe,
there are four. The fourth one being a wizard powerful
enough to wield all of them altogether and make one the
master of death."

"Yes...indeed, father."

"You should be proud, Jake. You have played a key role in

helping me possess the ultimate power and you will be
rewarded soon. And then, you will join me further as I take
on everything and anything that Harry Potter ever stood
for and shatter every form and every piece of his legacy
that he has left behind. And wonderfully, no one out there
is going to be able to stop me from doing it."
124 | P a g e
"I...I am father... But.. They're ready for us... How will we
keep up against them..."

"Oh poor Jake, you have no idea what these deathly

hallows can do, do you? Remember Jake, I killed Harry
Potter! And if Harry Potter couldn't...how the hell will
they?"

Valor's evil laugh echoed amidst the terrifying silence

within the walls of the room marking the beginning of the
biggest and darkest wizarding war to fall upon the world
which might as well affect muggle lives. Jake silently
starred on the floor shivering with the sound of laugh of
Valor.

125 | P a g e
 EPILOGUE

Harry's eyes opened slowly as the brightness covered them

once again. He slowly turned around and got up only to
find himself in a familiar place. It was the King Cross
station, only lot more white and clean, as he saw when
Voldemort tried to kill him years ago. He felt like waking
up from a deep sleep and he somehow knew he had been
laying there for quite a long time. He looked around but
couldn't spot anything at the first sight.

"Looking for something, Harry?" A familiar voice came

from behind him that sent a shiver down his spine.

"Professor..." Harry saw Dumbledore sitting on a bench

behind him, "...what are you...."

"Doing here? Well, you asked me not to be in the frame. I

had to be somewhere." Dumbledore calmly replied.

"I don't understand..." Harry stammered, "I...I just...need

some answers..."

"Answers to?"

"Why?"

"Well I suppose you saw that memory then."

"Yes I did! And I need you to tell me right now! Why did
you do that!?" Harry yelled.
126 | P a g e
"I do not know what I did was right or wrong, Harry. But it
sure was necessary." Dumbledore said looking eye to eye.

"That's not my answer, professor! Let's not play the

puzzles." Harry became restless.

"Calm down, Harry. Come, let's sit and have a

conversation. All the answers have awaited you for long."
Dumbledore gestured Harry to sit besides him with a small
but noticeable smile underneath his long white beard.
Harry seemed confused with this behaviour of
Dumbledore, he couldn't figure what to do and stood there
in dilemma.

"What? Come on Harry, hop on." Dumbledore said, "You

don't have a train to catch, do you?"

******

127 | P a g e
 {TO BE CONTINUED}

128 | P a g e
 "The last enemy that shall be
destroyed, is death."

129 | P a g e