Beaten and Blown By the Wind

Chapter Eight: Balance and Counterbalances

"I'm what?" Harry whispered into the too quiet and tense room, utterly confused.

"You are the heir of Gryffindor, Harry. Don't tell me this is entirely a surprise...surely you must have realized you had some connection to him," Aislynn reassured him.

"That's impossible, the sorting hat...it thought I'd be best in Slytherin."

"The sorting hat sits in Dumbledore's office all day every day of the year listening in to things it shouldn't. The sorting hat decided to give you a test. You're Gryffindor because you refused Slytherin, but it wouldn't have mattered. You are what you are and were destined to be such long before you were even conceived. There are more prophesies than the ministry has heard and catalogued. Some of them live on as legends, Harry, for those who know better to know where to look for the entire truth, and others left simply as prophesies. Just because it was left as a legend for Albus Dumbledore to figure out doesn't make it any less true."

"What is the legend?" Harry asked, still looking skeptical.

"There was a seer who made a prophesy after the deaths of the four founders of Hogwarts. She said that bitterness will live through death only to be relived greater than before. She said that the souls of the founders will be recycled through eternity, one rising in ambition, taking on the bitterness his soul left behind, the other rising with bravery to help the world regain balance. These are the souls of Slytherin and Gryffindor. She left years to which the heir of Slytherin would be reincarnated and further legends of the heir of Gryffindor. Dumbledore knew who Tom Riddle was from the moment he was born, but had hope against the boy taking upon the bitterness his soul carried through the ages. But it wasn't up to Dumbledore to find the heir of Gryffindor, but his parents.

"The legend states that Slytherin's soul will have already reached power and adulthood before the heir of bravery would be born. Because of that, the souls of Gryffindor's closest guardians would also be recycled, born to guard his soul until balance is restored. But time does a funny thing with souls sometimes - it splits them up. The legend explained that the soul of Gryffindor would be broken and split within two people, a man and woman, and that the child of those two people would be his heir."

"If those two people possessed the soul of Gryffindor, wouldn't they be enough to guard the heir? Especially since they would be his parents," Hermione asked, displaying the kind of logic that made her so useful to the people around her.

"You'd think so, Hermione, but once the heir was born, the parents would be immediately found out. This is only the second time this legend has come into play since the death of the founders, but both times the parents of the heir were subject to terrible misfortune that ended in their death. Perhaps the seer foresaw that as well, but felt it unhappy reading and left it out of the legend. Honestly, that's all I can figure, and believe me, I've had plenty of time to think on that," Aislynn looked as if she had the weight of the world upon her shoulders and was more than happy to be sharing the burden for once.

"So what about the guardians? How do they come into play?" Harry asked, eager to learn more about the prophesy.

"The legend said that there would be four friends, two boys and two girls that would rise through Hogwarts in excellence. They would be well known, loved, and very well educated as to prepare them for their future. Two would obviously hold within them the soul of Gryffindor and do his name much pride. The other two would be friends of the first two, closer than family, the kind of friends that are only made through souls who have much good history together. They would possess powers unparalleled to any around them and 'hearts of fire', if I remember the words correctly. They would be frozen in time once they reached the height of their life so as to be forever at their strongest to guard the heir.

"The heir would be marked equal to the heir of Slytherin by the Slytherin heir and become his adversary. Neither would be able to live while the other still existed and no one save the other would be able to destroy either. You know that, Harry, Dumbledore told you that much. But what he didn't tell you is that the battle will always come when the younger is still unprepared, armed with nothing but bravery, on his own. He must face the heir of Slytherin alone in person, but by the sacrifice of his guardians, will have acquired the power to triumph if his spirit so permits," Aislynn sighed a little at something no one had yet caught on to.

"So how did Dumbledore find these people if there weren't dates?" Ginny asked, showing her occasional Hermione-like observation.

"Well, he simply had to find a group of two boys and two girls, most likely in Gryffindor, who most exemplified the characteristics explained in the legend who also happened to be incredible friends. Then he had to determine which of these were the parents and which the guardians. Then he had to try and find a way to let these people know who they were supposed to be in the legend and what was to come of them."

"When did he tell you?" Harry asked, wondering at Dumbledore's ability to withhold incredibly important information from people.

"The beginning of our fifth year. One day in the first week of school, he called us into his office during class as to not be disturbed by any other students or teachers. He told us the legend, but not who was who in it. When James asked, Dumbledore smiled that smile of his and told us that if he told us too much, it'd affect our lives too much, that time would tell us where we all belonged in the legend and we would all know well before we needed to," she smiled at something Harry couldn't fathom. "Your father left his office cursing up a storm. He hated being held in suspense and would rather Dumbledore tell him exactly everything he had to do and what would be in his future at that moment. Your mother leaned over to me and said something to the effect of wishing she were either the guardian or that Sirius was the other parent, that if she had the choice, she'd never pick James as a husband," Lynn and Remus laughed at that and all four kids cracked smiles, they were a little too shocked at the existence of the legend and Harry's part in it to find anything incredibly funny.

"So how did you figure it out?" Ron was beginning to catch onto everyone else's curiosity, figuring that if Ginny and Hermione could ask questions, he could drop his 'if they don't want to tell me, I don't care, it doesn't really concern me' attitude.

"Well, you can bet that we talked about it nonstop until we did anytime that the four of us could find an excuse to hold a secret conference."

"And you know that it drove me and Peter insane," Remus said, laughing. "We couldn't figure out why Lily could suddenly stand James' presence one minute and go back to hating him the next. Peter got too curious and asked about it once, so that's when they started getting sneaky about it."

"Ah yes, that's when James, Sirius, and I would start planning pranks that involved the two of you sneaking out without us or us three sneaking out when you and Lily were on prefect duty so that we could corner her without you knowing or Peter suspecting anything."

"And they covered their tracks well. When they told Peter they were out pranking, there'd end up being another item or two on Filch's list of illegal objects or a corridor that would rain every time someone said 'I don't know'," the others started laughing at the pranks they knew Fred and George would have been proud to call their own. "Well, they were well covered until I caught them talking very seriously about it in the corridor the Slytherin common room was off of one night while Lynn and Lily were working very hard to charm coats of armor that would be invisible until a Slytherin walked past and at which time they would give chase and, once they caught the person, would demand they pledge their undying love of Gryffindor on the top of their lungs before letting them go. If they refused, the armor would hold the person until a professor or someone found a way to let them go. Then the armor just followed them around the school for the entire day, disappearing at dinner to return to wherever they were summoned from. James and Sirius almost got detention for that one, especially after the fit a certain Lucius Malfoy threw over it, until Lily, as a prefect, and Arthur Weasley, as head boy, made the point that neither of them were so advanced in charms to make such a stunt come to life. Lynn was suspected, of course, but had used James' invisibility cloak with him and Sirius to leave Gryffindor Tower and, once seeing all the trouble the coats of arms caused with the Slytherins, her roommates were more than willing to say she had studied herself into a headache and had gone to bed early, which was quite common for her, especially fifth and seventh year, so no one, not even McGonagall, asked questions," everyone was in stitches by then. "It was quite a while before the three of them tried another huge stunt like that - McGonagall started watching the portrait hole from an alarm in her office that went off whenever the portrait was opened and there was no one visibly entering or exiting it!" the mild mannered werewolf was very uncharacteristically gasping for air by then. "They must have summoned every coat of arms in the castle! It was so brilliant, even I couldn't turn them in!"

"McGonagall knew about the invisibility cloak?" Ron asked incredulously.

"No, but she knew that one of us had cast the invisibility charm on the armor and didn't put it past whoever did to do the same to whoever needed to sneak out pranking," Aislynn explained.

"So what happened when Remus found you charming suits of armor?" Ginny asked, smiling.

"First he asked what we intended to do with the armor and how many we had summoned. When I told him I didn't know, because truthfully I didn't, I've yet to take count of all the suits of armor there are in that castle and we charmed every last one of them, he said we'd better let him know what we kept holding secret meetings about because he knew it wasn't planning for that prank."

"At least I thought it wasn't, but you know Sirius and you've probably caught on enough to your father's love for pranking to know that when the two of them were together, serious talking didn't stand much of a chance when one of them got an idea. And, of course, there's Lynn's tendency to get off topic very easily. Lily was the only one that kept them serious. That prank was planned while the three of them meant to be discussing the legend," Remus smiled a little at the memory. "But since they were so eager that the prank not be stopped, they went against Dumbledore's direct orders and told me all they knew. Or rather, Lynn did, telling the other three to shut up so she could tell the story as she went."

"Why were you so nonchalant about telling him the story if Dumbledore told you to keep it quiet?" Hermione asked, looking disapprovingly at both adults.

"I thought he well and deserved it. He trusted all of us with his greatest secret, why not we trust him with ours? Besides, by then we were quite aware of his ability to keep secrets and, I've said it once and I'll say it a million times, Remus always was the smart one. I figured it'd be a help to have a fresh mind on the mystery," Lynn shrugged at the memory, emphasizing her belief that telling Remus was quite alright. "He would have found out one way or another, being such a close friend of ours. I thought it best that he learn directly from us. You know, the completely truthful version. Plus, he was a help."

"How did he help?" Harry asked, having enjoyed the story, but was yet again eager to steer Lynn back onto the legend.

"He solved one of the pieces. After we told him what we knew of the legend, he looked at the four of us, asked if we knew which one any of us were, and when we shook our heads no, he just laughed at us. He told us to look at ourselves. Any of us aside from Lily could be explained as having 'hearts of fire' easily, Lily with a small stretch of the imagination unless she was having a bad day, but as for the two of us, I had to be the guardian because I definitely had more fire at any given time than Lily. He figured two of us out in a matter of seconds. It baffled us, but then again, sometimes you see yourselves more truthfully through someone else's eyes."

"So you just had to figure out my dad and Sirius?"

"Yeah, so we thought. But by the end of the year, Sirius and I were an item and your father was certain that we were the parents and he the guardian alongside Lily because, as much as he was in love with her and refused to admit it, she still loathed him for his arrogance, as you saw in that one memory, Harry, and, for you three, said she'd rather date the giant squid that James," she paused the story for the small coughs of laughter that interrupted.

"That was the summer Sirius ran from home. His birthday was the end of June, in case you didn't know, and about a week past a very unpleasant birthday on which his father told him he should grow up and take responsibility like a grown man, Sirius decided he had taken quite enough abuse and owled me asking if he could come visit a while. I was spending all my holidays from school at my father's home in Ireland at the time because it was near his sister's home and my cousins, who amazingly were a lot nicer than my damned Slytherin siblings, aside from my younger sister, and my father and his sister didn't get along. That meant that the house was built out of some kind of guilt my father had about having to be near family for at least a few days a year, and that he wouldn't visit very often. My sister and I had guests there all the time because my father usually announced when he was coming well in advance. So I got the owl and immediately responded that it was just me and my sister bored out of our minds in the countryside and would love to have him. That's when we found out he had ran away from home, so there was a certain clandestine adventure during the first week of August in which we broke into the old Black house to get the few last things he needed for school. It was very fun and exciting until my father appeared in the house in Ireland the next evening, having spoken with Mrs. Black. It seems that miserable elf saw the three of us sneaking in and out and let her know. She then let my father know Sirius had left home and was probably staying with us, so he came to check it out," Lynn shook her head. "I don't think I've ever been given more attention by that man in any one other instance my whole life. He yelled and screamed and then started throwing hexes at both me and Sirius. We escaped to my aunt's house down the road, my father following and hexing the whole way, almost unscathed. My aunt fixed us up and we spent the night there after owling James to see if Sirius could stay with him until school started. Going back to my father was risky, but the two of us going back was suicide. The next morning James' parents had owled my aunt back saying he was more than welcome and he used my aunt's fireplace, that was hooked up to the normal floo system, to get there. My sister and cousins snuck his things out of the house and to James' later that evening while I was at home being screamed at by my father for my irresponsibility or something of the such.

"We all stayed the last few days before school started in rooms in the Leaky Cauldron; your father, Sirius, Remus, Lily, my sister, and I, that is. It had become a tradition then in its third year. Peter's parents never wanted him away from home more than necessary, but, quite honestly, he wasn't that missed.

"After three weeks of having all post cut off by my father, I got to talk to Sirius who let me know about James' belief that we were the parents. I had discussed all of this with him during his stay with me and we had come to the opposite decision. I hadn't seen anything about it, but it just didn't fit. I suppose part of it might have been us preferring the role of these hero like guardians rather than the parents of the future or something, but we both stood fast with the belief that Remus was right about my and Lily's place."

"Couldn't Sirius have still been the other guy, though?" Ginny questioned much to Harry curiosity by the looks of it.

"Yes, it was quite possible. But then you had James' unrequited love for Lily and Sirius being stubborn as a mule about not wanting to marry Lily while I remained a choice, though it doesn't sound quite so heartfelt when put like that," her frown of concentration broke a little at that. "Then again, Sirius never was one to think before speaking. The love was there, it just didn't quite sound like it. But realizing our adult responsibility away from the school we were so used to being kids in and having gone through so much that summer with Sirius' running away and my father forbidding me to ever speak with him again, we all grew up an awful lot. The pranks started losing their fun when we realized how many people we were hurting and how much of a disruption they were causing in school, but they were still part of us, so we kept them down to a bare minimum. I suppose that's mostly because of James' incredible transformation over the holiday. Having convinced himself he was responsible for the life of the heir of Gryffindor, who could make or brake the world, James had gone through a whole lot of growing up and was determined to be more responsible and such for the sake of the future. The idea of being someone so important in his future humbled him in ways life never would have otherwise. The new serious and humbled James certainly caught the eye of a certain red headed prefect who used to loathe him. He managed to talk her into going to the Yule Ball with him, back then we had them every year, and they had a great time, but she hated looking like a hypocrite, so she then went out of her way to avoid him. Rest assured, Harry, that they were quite the happy couple by the end of the year."

"And so my dad decided he was wrong about the legend and you all knew where you stood?"

"No, actually your father was every bit as stubborn as Sirius and hated admitting he was wrong as much as your mother," Lynn looked to Remus who seemed to be lost in a similar memory with a slight smile on his face. "There was an argument that lasted a good portion of our seventh year before I had a vision that sorted everything out."

"And you saw my parents married?" Harry asked eager to get her to a happy story of his parents now that the mystery of his being was solved.

"No, Harry. I saw you," she grinned at Harry's open mouthed shock. "I saw you lying on a bed on the knight bus. Your face was covered in shadow, but I could still see James looking at me with Lily's eyes. You asked a question. You said, 'So what did you do?' and I had no clue what you were talking about and was wondering if maybe I was in someone else's mind in this vision, but when I answered you with words I wasn't hearing before spoken, I realized that it was my voice speaking, but different, sadder, older I remember thinking. So I answered you, I said, 'What do you think I did? I cut out his heart and left him for dead! And then I forgot I was dating your father at the time and told Sirius he was a damn fool to take so long to notice me, but I'd give him his chance.' Then I laughed and said, 'But it's been a long night and we need sleep now. Goodnight, Harry,' and do you know what you said, Harry? You said the most remarkable thing."

"What did he say?" Ginny asked after Harry sat there for a moment staring at the woman as if she were a ghost.

"Goodnight...Beautiful," Harry answered for her, looking completely shaken. He wasn't the only one. Remus was now looking at the heir of Gryffindor as if he had suddenly sprouted a third arm or second head.

"How did you know...?" Remus asked, not even being able to finish the question. Lynn had a strange, almost proud look in her eye and Harry's ashen face just stared at her as if she had just told him he was the son of Voldemort.

"How did he know what?" Hermione questioned quietly.

"How did you know to call her that?" Remus asked again, still spooked. "That's...that's his name for her. Did he tell you?"

"No, I figured it out. Lynn had been telling me about how she and Sirius got together through the mirror when I was attacked. I was just falling asleep when I remembered she hadn't finished the story. I asked her about it and she finished, and I had figured out his nickname for her, she had mentioned the nickname fiasco when I asked what to call her in an earlier note," Harry still looked a little scared. "You were all able to find out your roles for the future based on you talking to me on the knight bus?"

"I saw you and knew, despite the nickname, that you couldn't be anyone but Lily and James' son. I didn't know why we were on the knight bus or how we got there, but I knew it was real and whose son you were and why I was with you."

"And they instantly believed you?" Harry asked, regaining a little color.

"Of course not. Everyone was very skeptical about the whole thing, so we all decided to go see Professor Numbi, who was the current divination professor. Lily allowed herself to by hypnotized by Numbi, who then asked me to take her hands and concentrate very hard on the face I saw in my vision. Then she asked Lily if she could see the face of the boy who looked like James with her eyes and she said yes. So Numbi asked her to look for that face, to look for it in her, Lily's, future. That's when Lily tensed up and went very cold. I opened my eyes and I'll never forget the look on her face. She was terrified, there were tears streaking down her face though her eyes were closed, but I could see them moving around rapidly behind the lids. I was scared for her then. Numbi was eventually able to break her trance, but when we asked what we saw, Lily just shook her head. After she regained a little color and looked like she finally recognized us, James asked if the boy was their son and she just looked at him and said, 'he called me mum,' and a few more tears fell without words before she caught enough control of herself to stand, thank Professor Numbi, and start down from the astronomy tower. She never told us what she saw."

"So you never found out?" Harry asked, wondering what glimpse of his life could've terrified his mother so.

"Of course I did. I pried into her mind one day during class," Lynn explained, looking a little sheepish. "People don't like it, you see, so I try not to do that kind of stuff, but I really wanted to know what bothered her so badly and I figured she was too much of a bookworm and too concerned with the N.E.W.T.'s to try and stop me or say something if she did find me poking around in her memory. It takes a lot of concentration on my part, so I picked history of magic because I knew Binns would never notice me not paying attention. And I certainly found out why your mother looked so scared. Scared for you, Harry, not of you or who you were.

"Do you three know what you call two wands whose cores are from the same magical being?"

"Brother wands," Hermione answered promptly. "Ollivander told me when I got mine. Apparently my wand's brother also had an owner named Hermione. He told me she was head girl when she was in Hogwarts," she explained to the incredulous 'how did you know that' look from Ron. This information caused Lupin to tense up considerably. "Are you alright, Professor?"

"Yes, I'm fine," he answered quickly. "Why do we need to know that, Lynn?"

"I'm not finished asking questions. Does anyone other than Harry and I know what happens when brother wands are used against each other in a duel?" Lynn asked as everyone looked at her with blank looks but Harry, whose face had again turned ashen and shocked, but no one seemed to notice. "They join by a band of magical energy. The wand that wins the battle then causes the other wand to regurgitate the most recent spells cast. It's a test of wills, so to speak, of the two wizards whose wands are enjoined.

"I'm sure you all know about Dumbledore's pet phoenix, Fawks, but what you may not know is that Fawks gave two tail feathers, and only two, to Ollivander for wand making. What is so special about those two feathers sits before you," she said, looking pointedly at Harry before continuing to the other three. "One of those feathers lies in Harry's wand. The other, strangely enough, lies in the wand that gave him that scar he's always trying to cover up," she paused, waiting for the inevitable gasps to sound before continuing. "That is just one more way in which the two heirs are equal. Ironically, neither will be able to kill the other while both hold their own wand. Voldemort will always be too proud to admit that he's doing anything wrong, which leaves the task of switching wands to you, Harry, sadly enough."

"Why is it so sad that Harry is willing to see fault and make a change?" Ginny asked.

"Because every wizard is most powerful with the wand that suits them. You got your wand from Ollivander's, right?" Ginny nodded. "Then I'm sure he told you that the wand chooses the wizard. Harry's magic will always be at its strongest when performed using his wand, yours with your wand, that's simply how it is. The sad part is that the weaker party will enter battle with yet another weakness. But it doesn't have to be a weakness altogether. Harry will enter battle with all the magical knowledge and skill of his guardians within his grasp, thanks to some sentimental thought from Remus, he is sure to have that, but that's all I will tell you about that much for now. It's not necessary to know that quite yet and I'm sure even Remus isn't sure how he helped, but you should all know that without his help, Harry wouldn't stand a chance against Voldemort. It's funny how once you're caught up in fate's plan the smallest action can change the fate of the world..."

"But what was her vision?" Harry asked, hoping against his best intuition.

"You already know, Harry. Do you want me to share it?" Harry nodded. "Very well. Harry was selected to compete in the Tri-Wizard Tournament two years ago. He competed very well and during the final test, the maze, he reached the center with the help of and after helping his fellow Hogwarts competitor, Cedric Diggory. In a moment that showed the immense bravery and nobility of the two as matched, Harry confirmed suspicions that Cedric was, in fact, the heir of Hufflepuff, sadly a little too late to let anyone, even Cedric, know his incredible destiny. The heir of Hufflepuff, no matter who would call them weak, would be braver and stronger than any expected, siding with their best judgment, whose death would be at the hand of the heir then cursed. If we had been certain of his identity as the Hufflepuff heir, we would have let him know years ahead, but the legend was very sketchy as to the other two heirs. Once the two Hogwarts competitors, the heirs of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, took hold of the Cup, they were transported to the graveyard in which the bones of Tom Riddle's father Tom Riddle lay. Using ancient dark magic, Wormtail then resurrected Voldemort using Harry's blood. Then, the death eaters reassembled around him, Voldemort killed Cedric, and challenged Harry to a duel, knowing that one of them could not live while the other breathed, but nothing more than that. Tom Riddle was too serious a student and young man to pay much attention to myths and legends, you see, which is a shame for his sake because it would have given him quite the advantage.

"Once challenged, Harry and Voldemort set to duel; unaware of what would happen to their wands. Once joined, they were suspended mid air in a cocoon, if you will, of their own magical energies. Harry's wand won the test of wills I spoke of earlier and Voldemort's wand started spitting out shadows of the most recent spells it had cast, including shadows of Cedric and Harry's parents. It was there that Harry's mother had her vision as a teenager. She had her vision as the shadow of herself from Voldemort's wand."

"Why did she see me there?" Harry asked, sounding as if he had broken.

"Because she wasn't looking for you as the baby she had last seen you as when she lived," Aislynn sighed, not wanting to have to explain this. "She looked for the face I had seen and that's the closest time to your present self in which she saw you. None of us were aware they died so young. She didn't realize she was a shadow of a ghost there, all she knew was that she was watching her son face the dark wizard she was told he would have to face and kill or be killed. Had she known how she was there under such circumstances, I don't know if she would have been able to regain her sanity. That's not something you want to see before you even take your N.E.W.T.'s."

"So what happened after that?" Ron asked, oblivious to Harry's position on the edge of coping with the idea of his mother having to see herself dead.

"Nothing unusual until the whole Voldemort marking Harry as his equal. We finished the year, passed the N.E.W.T.'s, went into our respective job training, remained close friends, I stood up to my father and told him I wouldn't leave Sirius for him, got kicked out, shared an apartment with Lily until she and James got married, was her maid of honor at the wedding, moved in with Sirius after, was named Harry's godmother, and kept a close watch on him hidden and from afar as to be the last line of defense. I was to make sure nothing happened to Harry, but the death eaters believed me to have hidden myself away in Ireland. No one but Remus, Severus, Dumbledore, and the Weasleys heard from me until I talked you through the death eater attack, Harry, and that's how things were meant. Now I'm as much as a target to them as you, especially since Bellatrix Lestrange and I have unfinished business."

"So that's why you never wrote to me?"

"Yes. And besides, Dumbledore had a point that it would be better for you to grow up away from the whole wizarding world being infatuated with your story. And I wasn't exactly trusted to even take care of myself at the time. I lost my fiancée, my best girlfriend, another close friend, my sister, my niece, and my godson within half a year and another close friend to the death eaters only a couple years before that. That's a horrible ordeal for anyone to go through, especially all at once. I don't think I would have recommended my presence to anyone for about seven or eight years there. I wasn't exactly into the whole getting over my grief thing and you weren't exactly in imminent danger at that point, so I really had nothing to take my mind from it but my own personal experiments."

"What experiments were they?" Hermione asked, interested.

"Are they," Aislynn smiled a little. "I haven't succeeded yet; they're still going on, though I'm not sure if it's my place to tell you anything..."

"She's working on finding a cure for my werewolf problem," Remus interjected.

"You mean she's...?" Hermione's eyes went wide with wonder.

"Working on helping me out with my...condition...so to speak," Remus answered for her.

"Is it working?" Ginny asked, now gaining interest.

"A little," Remus said thoughtfully. "I'm, of course, her test subject. I'm only transforming every two moons or so anymore, not every one of them, so we think we're making advancements."

"The biggest problem is trying to figure out which part of it is working and which isn't. If I strengthen the part that isn't working, it could reverse everything we've done. But if I strengthen the part that is, that could be the key for Remus' ability to keep a normal life," Harry was uneasy with the discovery that his godmother was working on healing werewolves in her spare time, but was comforted a little by the glow in her eye that wasn't pride in herself for getting so far, but excitement for what she could be accomplishing for a close friend.