What He Never Had

Harry's Scar

****Camellia's POV****

In the middle of the night, Lily Potter slept soundly, with her newborn son Harry sleeping by her side. She stirred, slipping her arm instinctively around Harry's sleeping form.

Camellia had seen her husband on the couch downstairs; she supposed Lily had kicked him out so that there would be room for Harry. Which was a good thing, for in the light of the soft moonlight filtering through the window, the two of them glowed together, a pale, yet brilliant green.

'A blue moon,' Camellia thought, and confirmed, looking out the window.

She sat down quietly on the bedside, and reached over. Tugging slightly on the chain around her grandniece's neck, she revealed a small, round, flat stone at the end. The stone was clear, with a black sphere the size of a pupil in the middle. Under that was another, smaller black dot. Camellia shook it, waiting for a reaction, but none came.

'All right, it must be Harry then,' she thought.

She reached into her pocket, pulling out a similar medallion, except this one was more oblong, a sort of teardrop shape. She slipped it around the baby's thin neck. The stone suddenly glowed with jade light, and the smallest black dot moved around the other in a counterclockwise direction, stopping directly above it. A small smile appeared on Camellia's face, and she touched the stone to her forehead. Slowly, she slumped over.

****Harry's POV/ in Harry's dream****

He was back under the tree. The dragon was considerably smaller this time, and he wasn't breathing fire.

"Sorry I scared you, little one. I'm Gabriel," the dragon told him in a completely casual tone of voice.

"He was trying to show off," Arlene said wryly. Gabriel glared at her. Harry suddenly realized Raphael was wrapped around one of his arms, as the snake unwound himself.

"What were you doing there? Where are we? Why am I here?" he demanded.

"Perhaps I can answer that," came a voice from behind him. He turned around.

"Who are you?!"

"I'm your great, great aunt Camellia. Alas, those greats just keep getting longer, and longer!"

She climbed toward him, and three animals climbed up after her; a unicorn, a large salamander, and graceful white pelican. "I was there on the day you were born, and I'll be staying at your house for a while."

"Okay, what are you doing HERE?"

She laughed. "Yes, I am really truly here. I came to visit you in your mind. I thought I might help explain."

She turned to the others. "You WERE going to tell him, weren't you?"

They grumbled, nodding grudgingly.

"So, as for where we are, we're in your mind. And these are you."

"WHAT?!"

"Let me clarify. This is all an illusion. Every single one of us is how you're subconscious decided that you should view us. Everything here is symbolic."

"Okay . . ."

"For instance, the hill we are on right now represents your physical body. The tree is your subconscious, you are your conscious, and you see my conscious as being me, when really, I'm back in the real world," Camellia explained.

"Got it." I suppose it kind of makes sense . . . Harry shook his head. Never mind, I lost it. "And the others?"

"Well, that's a condition that Lily inherited from me, her grandmother, my sister, and now she's passed it on to you. Us, instead of just having a subconscious and a conscious, have five consciousnesses. The animals are representing parts of your mind. The phoenix-raven is your future conscious, the snake is your past conscious, and the dragon represents your all conscious. Just like my pelican, Abellona, my salamander, Mendel, and the unicorn, Fransibel, here."

"Right, so what do the consciousnesses mean?"

"The past is aware of anything is your past, and if you tune in on it, you can view with it. That's probably too hard for you; it's kind of complicated. You might learn it in a couple decades, though. Right now it'll only work if prompted by somebody else. The future works in the same way. And the all, which is also known as the present, is aware of what is going on all over the world right now. If thirteen past or future consciouses work together at the same time, they can draw a person into the past or future. That's what happened, in your case. Eleven others like us and I, in the future, sent you back."

"OOOHHH... Wait, eleven and one makes twelve, didn't you say thirteen?"

"The thirteenth was- you, actually. It was done without you being aware of it."

Raphael looked down sheepishly. "I told you, they talked me into it!"

Harry laid his head down.

"Betrayed! By my own conscious!" he wailed dramatically.

"Oh, shut up," snapped Raphael, slithering away.

****Camellia's POV****

A hand grabbed at her upper arm.

She opened her eyes, and looked right into the startled gaze of her great-niece.

"Auntie Camellia! What are you doing here?"

The glowing had stopped.

"Just a gift." She showed her the medallion around Harry's neck. The dot had swiveled back to it's original spot, signifying that he was back to a normal slumber.

Lily's hand flew to her throat. "Were you the one who gave me this, when I was little?"

"No, but I sent it."

"Oh. All my life, I've wondered. Thank you, I like it."

Camellia stood up.

"Wait, I have a couple questions-" Lily started.

"In the morning, I will be here."

She withdrew herself to the shadows, and waited until Lily had fallen into a fitful sleep before she left. Harry would understand, and come to terms with the new knowledge. He'd be fine.

****Harry's POV****

He opened his eyes. Rays of sunlight shone through a prism-like window near the ceiling, covering the room in little rainbows and light reflections. It was quite impressive.

His mother was up, and she grabbed some clothes and walked into the adjoining bathroom.

The door opened, slowly and soundlessly as Camellia strode in. Seeing his eyes on hers, she put on finger over her lips.

Harry nodded.

She plodded across the room, picked him up, laid him on her shoulder, and started to walk away.

"A-HEM!"

They stopped. Lily was dressed and standing in the doorway.

"Exactly where do you think you're going?"

Camellia turned and looked her in the eyes. They had the same emerald green eyes, except Camellia's were framed by pure white locks, while Lily's were red.

"Do you trust me?" she asked.

"Trust you? Of course I do! But that doesn't mean you can just walk off with my baby without telling me."

"No, I mean, do you REALLY trust me?"

"I suppose so, why?"

"Just answer the question. You have to be positive."

"I trust you," Lily confirmed.

"Good. If you come with me, will you trust me enough not to interfere, no matter what happens?"

"Sure."

Camellia nodded. "Does this place have a basement?"

"It's built over the ruins of a medieval castle. There are the dungeons, if that's what you're asking."

"Perfect. Lead the way."

"Fine."

Lily beckoned them, and they started another long trek through the house.

"Most people have trouble finding their way around here, you know. There are so many rooms, and most of them only have a couple doors. It's like a maze, there's only one correct way to get to each room. To find the room right next to the bedroom, for example, you would have to go down a couple floors, take the door to the left when you come into the old armory, through the extra guest rooms, climb out the window in the last room, take the stairs spiraling clockwise up two floors and walk through the door backwards. If you don't walk through backwards, you'll find yourself in the oven downstairs, and you'll have to climb up all over again.

Which also wouldn't be good if you happen to be baking at the time. Needless to say, we don't use that room very much."

She tapped the foot of and old lady in a portrait, and the wall slid away, revealing a dark damp stone staircase that twisted ominously downwards, changing direction every once and a while.

"Took me a while to figure everything out. I still get lost! Believe me, you don't want the grand tour, last time it took days, and I ended up the under the kitchen sink twice!"

Lily pulled a wand out of her pocket. "Lumos!"

They crept quietly through the dungeons. Countless cells with bars were on either side, and still she led them deeper. At last, she stopped.

"Good enough? I think James said something like the medieval Potters were taking over the surrounding towns, and at one point the dungeons were so full they just put a never-ending spell on it. They're not quite never-ending, but you could walk under the Mansion for days."

"Good enough." Camellia nodded with satisfaction. She gave Harry to his mother and sat down.

Suddenly, she had a bag in her hand. Camellia then took out some wood and lit a fire, the muggle way.

"This is an elven protection spell I got from my sister's husband's mother. She didn't have a daughter to pass it on to, so she gave it to me. She was your great, great, great grandmother, I believe. Something like that."

"For Harry?"

Camellia nodded. "Turn your light off."

"Will he NEED protection? Nox."

"He might." She answered in a deep voice. Well, Harry knew that anyway.

Once the fire was burning, she tossed a couple of herbs in, and then a fine powder. The fire blazed white, letting off a strange purple glow.

She took out some candles and lit them from the fire, placing them in a circle around them. They flickered, as if there was a great wind, but the air underground was totally and completely still.

She chanted softly in an unknown language, which was so strange they almost understood it. It involved lots tongue twisting.

"Take out your medallion," Camellia ordered softly.

When Lily had done so, she pulled out Harry's and her medallion, an hourglass shaped one, with black dots on the bottom half. They burst into the same white/purple glow as the fire. On Camellia's, the smaller dot moved up and merged with the higher one.

She pulled a silver branch, and stuck it in the fire. Then she gave Lily a meaningful look. Moving quickly, she pulled the silver coloured branch out of the fire, and while it still glowed, grasping Harry's head firmly, drew a jagged line down his forehead.

And DAMN it hurt.

The branch burned deep into his skin, left a charred trail behind. He gritted his teeth.

All at the same time, the fire and every candle in the room turned off, sending them into darkness.

"Harry . . ." his mother weakly queried.

"He'll be fine," Camellia promised. "And that, ladies and gentlemen, was elven magic. A bit too dramatic and ceremonial for my tastes, but it works."

She stood and briskly started to clean up the various objects.

"Lumos." His mother lifted her wand to look at Harry.

"Hey! There's no mark!"

****James's POV****

Where was Lily, anyway? She said she would be down soon, but he had been waiting with Sirius, who had shown up early, and Samantha, who had slept in her old room.

Samantha had found it terribly amusing that James had been kicked onto the couch. Lily insisted it would be safer, or should he say more assuring for her, if he slept in the bed. But then there was no room for James . . . so he had slept on the couch.

The doorbell rang, and one of the house elves, Griffy this time, hopped in.

"The nice mister Peter is here to see you!" He announced proudly.

"Let him in," James instructed.

Peter came waddling, no walking, in. James reprimanded himself silently. It's not nice to think of your friends that way, Lily would've had a fit. So anyway, Peter 'came' in.

"Hello James! How's Little Harry, I've heard so much about him from Hagrid."

"Oh, he's around here somewhere. In fact, here they come now."

Lily came walking in, holding Harry and looking a bit dazed, followed by Camellia. When did she come, anyway?

Peter took a step towards them, a huge smile on his face, but as soon as Harry laid his eyes on him, the child SCREECHED. It was only the second time James had seen his son cry, at all, and it had the same effect as the first time. Everybody pressed their hands over their ears, but the sound went passed that, and pounded in their heads, permeating every single thought. And it hurt. Like hell it hurt. Lily was the only one not really affected, and she carried him to the other room.

Everybody stood there, blinking, and rubbing his or her temples in agony.

"Wow, if I didn't know any better, I'd think he despised me!" Peter announced, rubbing his lower arm with one hand.