Harry Potter and the Guild of the Night

Chapter 16

Three days later Harry was lying flat on his back on the mats in the Guild classroom, resting after running through yet another kata. He had twelve memorised so far and the last was fairly difficult, requiring a few fairly drastic changes in direction at various points. He was not looking forward to finding out what some of the remaining katas were like. If each one built on the previous then the last few were going to be murder. Master Nhean was letting him rest for the moment at least, while he supervised the others and Harry was taking full advantage of the opportunity.

"Harry!" Hermione gasped. "The pouch! The egg!"

Harry hauled himself to his feet and ran over to the table. When he put his hands on it, he found that the pouch containing the egg Hagrid had given him was twitching slightly and he quickly undid the top and drew it out. He held the twitching egg in his hand and his friends gathered around him one by one as they finished the kata they had been doing. The last to join them was Master Nhean and he arrived just as the first split appeared in the shell. It only took the creature inside a few minutes to break enough of the shell to start nosing its way out and very shortly a small three-headed snake was lying curled up in Harry's palm. He quickly removed the remains of the egg and admired the snake. Its energy colours were orange flecked with yellow which Harry recognised as indicating courage, pride and intelligence.

"Oh, Harry!" Hermione breathed in surprise and delight. "It's a Runespoor. It's beautiful."

The little orange and black snake uncurled and raised its three heads to look at Harry. "Hello," the middle head hissed. "Who are you?"

Before Harry could answer, the other heads swung around to face the middle one. "Well, obviously it is not our parent. It does not look like us, so it must be a friend," the left head hissed. "Foolish!" the right head snapped. "It is ours and we are its." The right head swung back to look at Harry. "What is your name? And what is our name?"

Harry was a little surprised by his new pet but rallied himself to answer. "My name is Harry," he hissed, "and I think I will call you Orinda." He and his friends had discussed what he was going to name whatever hatched out of the egg in the last couple of days. Hermione had speculated that the egg was some kind of snake egg though she hadn't been able to identify exactly what kind of snake. She had said that its shape and texture was the key so she, Harry and Ron had decided instead to look up serpent-type names. Of all the names they had found Orinda was the one that occurred to him as he looked at his new friend. Orinda was a Teutonic word that meant fire serpent and considering the colour of the energies and the colour in real life of the Runespoor, he thought it was most appropriate.

The three heads of the little snake considered the name for a moment. "What does it mean?" asked the middle head. "At least you had the intelligence to realise we are one, not three. Though I trust it's a male name?" the right head hissed sourly.

Harry swallowed a grin. The right head was starting to sound alarmingly like Snape. "The name means fire serpent and, yes, it's a male name."

The three heads hissed approvingly and swung around to look at the others. "Who are they?" asked the left head. "His friends, obviously," the right head hissed sarcastically.

Harry smothered a grin. "Yes, they're my friends. Their names are Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Neville, Luna, Fred, George and Master Nhean." He pointed to each one in turn and the little snake's three tongues flickered out each time, catching each person's scent to attach to the name.

"The one called Ginny has your scent on her," the left head hissed. "Is she your mate?" the middle head asked with interest.

"Er well, yes, no, er, sort of," Harry replied a little awkwardly.

"Good," the three heads hissed approvingly and the middle head continued. "We like her scent."

"Well, that's good," said Harry with bemusement and the little snake began curling itself around his left wrist.

"We will stay here," the left head hissed as the snake finished curling up. "We think that we will be safe here and we need to rest now." The left and right head immediately settled down to sleep. The middle head looked up at Harry for a moment. "We like you, sightless one, our Harry. We will stay with you." With that it settled down and slept as well, leaving Harry staring at his new friend in astonishment.

"What did it say?" Hermione asked excitedly.

"Erm, well, he asked what all of our names were," Harry said, still slightly stunned, "and he also asked me what his name was."

"Which did you choose?" she asked.

"Orinda. I thought it was the right one, considering the colours. It means fire serpent," Harry explained. "He also said he liked me and would stay with me." Harry began to smile.

The others beamed at him and then Hermione shook her head and chuckled. "Hagrid still hasn't figured out what's dangerous and what's not. The fangs on the right head are supposed to be extremely venomous."

Harry laughed. "Well, that makes sense I suppose. The right head was rather caustic. In fact, it sounded a lot like Professor Snape." The others all laughed.

"Well, Harry, do you think your new friend would mind if you continued your exercises?" Master Nhean asked.

Harry shrugged. "I don't think so, Master. He's definitely asleep and I'm sure the movements of the katas won't wake him."

"Excellent! Come, I have a new kata to teach you. The rest of you, redo the one that was interrupted by this rather interesting event." Master Nhean clapped his hands together twice and the eight teens groaned and headed back to the mats.

******************************

Dinner that night rather quickly became an interesting affair. It started when Harry walked over to Hagrid and gave him a hug.

"Thanks for the Runespoor, Hagrid! He's great!" Harry exclaimed.

Hagrid blushed and ruffled Harry's hair. "Yer welcome, 'Arry. I thought ya'd like 'im."

"A Runespoor, Harry?" Remus asked with interest and Harry went and sat down next to him. He pulled his sleeve up to show the little orange and black snake wrapped, sleeping, around his wrist.

"How fascinating," the werewolf said, examining the little creature, making sure not to touch him.

Dumbledore smiled approvingly at Hagrid and Professor Snape leaned across the table to look at the little snake.

"What have you called him?" Remus asked.

"Orinda," Harry said proudly. "It means fire serpent. He likes it and he likes me. He also knew I was blind; he called me 'sightless one'. Actually he said that he was mine and I was his."

"Possessive little thing," Remus said with amusement and then moved back a bit as the little Runespoor woke up and raised its heads.

"Ssssss, more people," the left head hissed. The right head made a grumpy sounding noise and the three heads looked around the table. "We like him," the right head said smugly.

"Who?" Harry hissed back.

"The black one who smells of strange things," the right head elaborated and Harry grinned.

"I thought you might," he said dryly.

Orinda hissed contentedly and slithered down into Harry's hand. Harry lowered the little snake to the table and switched to Oversight so he could watch as it started investigating.

"What did it say?" asked Professor Dumbledore curiously.

"He likes Professor Snape," Harry said absently as he watched the little snake sniff the plates on the table.

The silence that greeted that statement caused him to raise his head. "What?" Harry asked.

"He likes Professor Snape?" Remus asked with quiet humour.

"Er, yes," Harry said blushing. "Well, he said he likes the black one who smells of strange things so I assumed he meant Professor Snape."

"Why?" Remus asked, swallowing a grin.

Harry frowned, unknowingly echoing the Potions Master's expression. "Er, well, Professor Snape wears black and he does smell of strange things. The smell of the potions ingredients and the potions themselves seems to linger on him a bit." He frowned again and cocked his head, scenting the air in Professor Snape's direction. "It's not a bad smell, just an unusual one. And a distinctive one; kind of spicy but at the same time kind of fresh and, well I don't know, unusual."

Snape raised an eyebrow at Harry and then turned his attention to the Runespoor. He offered the little creature a sliver of meat. Orinda considered it for a moment and then the right head delicately took the morsel from the Potions Master.

"Hey!" Harry said with amusement. "Professor Snape's trying to subvert my snake!"

The Potions Master smirked at Harry and offered Orinda another sliver of meat. "It's not a snake, Mr Potter, it's a Runespoor. And I do not think you have anything to worry about. If a Runespoor chooses to stay with someone, they rarely change their minds." Again the right head took the morsel. Snape looked up at Harry. "You called it 'he'?"

"Erm, yes," Harry said surprised. "He asked if the name Orinda was a male name and seemed pleased that it was."

"Hmm," Snape mused, continuing to offer the Runespoor tidbits. "I wasn't aware that Runespoors exhibited specific genders. Well, if...Orinda is ever willing to give up one of its eggs, do let me know. They are quite valuable as potion ingredients."

Harry nodded and Orinda crawled back over the table to him. The Runespoor climbed back into his hand and wrapped itself around his wrist once more.

"We do like that man," the left head said in satisfaction. The middle head hissed in agreement and the right head looked at the other two. "Of course we do," it said smugly. Harry smiled at the snake and shook his head.

The teens spread themselves out around the table, with Ginny sitting next to Harry. She leaned into him and looked at Orinda. "Could I touch him?" she asked quietly and Mrs Weasley drew in a quick breath.

Harry smiled at Ginny. He loved looking at her with Oversight. Her energy colours were scarlet, indicating courage and loyalty, green indicating she had a strong healing presence and brown, indicating practicality and dependability. The first time he had seen her with oversight she had had flecks of black in her energy colours. It had taken him a while to work out they those black flecks indicated fear and uncertainty. He was pleased to see that during the time she had been here, the black flecks were slowly diminishing from her energy colours.

He looked down at his Runespoor. "My er, well, my...mate wants to know if she can touch you. You don't mind, do you?" he hissed.

All three heads came up and looked at him. They then turned and looked at Ginny. The middle head suddenly went very still, along with the rest of the body. The remaining two heads also stilled and seemed to be waiting.

"Harry?" Ginny asked and Harry held up a hand.

"I'm not sure what happening," he said and the Headmaster and Professor Snape both leaned over to look.

"Hmm, the middle head on a Runespoor is the dreamer," Professor Dumbledore said. "It can have visions and I suspect that is what is happening now. Just be patient."

Harry watched his Runespoor for a moment longer and then disengaged his Oversight and turned his thoughts towards dinner. He had no idea how long the middle head was going to be dreaming and he was hungry. After a quick thought, he reinitiated his Oversight and scanned the table. His thought was correct, he could determine where everything was with Oversight and he began to realise why Master Nhean had said that most Warrior don't ever really turn it off. He concentrated a little more, trying to focus on the bowl in front of him, not realising that he had gained the attention of everyone else at the table. Only Master Nhean realised what he was doing and he watched his young charge intently. Harry stared at the bowl, frustrated that he couldn't tell the details of what precisely was in it. He could identify that it was some kind of stew but what kind he didn't know. The colours of food tended to be pretty much the same; lots of shades of green and brown. Not surprising as food was natural and came from the earth and 'healed' you in a unique way.

Harry was just about to give up when Master Nhean said quietly, "Try saying Misetsukeru saimoku."

Harry frowned. "Miset...damn! Misetsukera saimoku," he said in a rush and then swore as the nature of what he was seeing changed. His eyes widened as the energy fields he had been seeing shimmered and almost seemed to flow, expand and contract for a second. They then settled and Harry shut his eyes and gasped.

Master Nhean quickly stood and walked around the table until he was standing behind Harry. He placed his hands on Harry's shoulders. "Easy, Harry," he said soothingly. "Slowly open your eyes and don't panic. You will be getting a bit of new information and it will take some time to get used to it." Harry slowly obeyed him and Nhean kept speaking calmly to keep him centred. "I'd not have introduced this step so early but I could clearly see that you were starting to get frustrated. The basic Oversight spell shows you the energy fields but little else. This addition to the spell that you have used, and it only needs to be used once, gives you the details you have been lacking. Now I'm sure you're asking yourself why it only needs to be used once. Well, that's a very good question and I don't have an answer to it. About 300 years ago there was an attack on the Guild headquarters in Tokyo by a disgruntled former Guild Member. It was not successful but he did manage to do a fair bit of damage and unfortunately part of the damage was to the library."

Master Nhean chuckled and he began to feel Harry relax under his hands. "That was a mistake on his part. Librarians tend to be fairly mild-mannered until you threaten their books and then, well, watch out! Among the books that were lost were the ones detailing the theory behind the two Oversight spells. While the theory for the initial spell was well understood, the theory behind the second was a bit arcane and complicated. Everyone could remember the incantation and the effects of the spells, no-one at the time of the attack could really explain the theory behind the spell. And so it was lost. But the spell still works as you can see."

By this stage Harry had calmed down considerably. Ginny took his hand in her own.

"What can you see, Harry?" she asked quietly as Remus and the others looked on anxiously.

"It's so strange," he said quietly. "I can still see the energy colours but now there's a bit more detail. It's not just shapes anymore." He turned to look at her and ran a wondering hand down her cheek. "You're not just a shape made of energy anymore. It's been overlaid with detail now." He blinked a bit and then said softly, "I can see your face."

Master Nhean smiled softly and secretively. "And now you know the greatest secret of the Guild, Harry; returning a version of sight to its members. Not everyone can cast the second Oversight spell. We don't know why. Maybe it's because they don't want to enough or maybe they don't believe it's possible but whatever the reason, less than a tenth of Night Warriors are able to do it. I had feeling you might be able to. You're used to seeing and you've been very frustrated without your sight. I rather thought you might have the motivation to make the spell work."

"So you can see again?" Hermione asked in amazement.

"Sort of. Not clearly but sort of," Harry said with a smile. "The energy fields are still prominent and that's mostly what I see." He grimaced. "It's kind of hard to explain. It's like there is a layer over the top now that shows the details. It doesn't overshadow or replace the energy fields. It's like...a...an echo or a ghostly layer but in colour or a..." He thought for a moment. "Well, you'll probably be the only one to understand this, Hermione. It's like the Heads-Up Display that you see in fighter jets in the movies. Ah! It's like a projection of what actually there overlaying the energy fields."

At the last sentence, faces cleared around the table and people started nodding in understanding. Harry looked around, marvelling in this new ability. It wasn't sight like he used to have, the image that he saw was 'ghostly' rather than clear and solid but to be able to see again, no matter how indistinct, was incredible. As he looked around he quickly noticed that this new 'sight' was not consistent. For people like his friends, Remus and the professor he knew well, he could actually see details. For the professors he didn't know as well, there wasn't much in the way of detail. There was an indication of a face and a feeling of expression but nothing more and when he looked at inanimate objects such as chairs there was hardly any detail at all.

He looked at the plates of the food on the table and was pleased to see that he could now tell what was in them. It wasn't the same as looking at people; it was something between that and looking at objects. He turned a bit more and looked at Professor Snape. He flinched back from the intense glare that the man was directing at him and then blinked when the glare disappeared and a self-satisfied smirk graced the Potion Master's face. He looked curiously at Snape and received a ghostly raised eyebrow in return. Remus, who had seen the exchange of expression, grinned; he had a fair idea of what had just happened. Harry thought for a moment and then shook his head and gave an exasperated grin.

"You know that'll only work if I have my Oversight active, sir?" he said wryly and Professor Snape smirked at him again. Harry's friend watched the two of them curiously for a moment but Harry only shook his head at them. "Don't worry about it," he said with amusement and continued looking around.

He'd just finished making a circuit of the occupants of the table and was surveying the plates on the table again when he heard a quiet hiss coming from his wrist. He looked down and saw Orinda's three heads looking up at him.

The middle head looked carefully at him. "Not so sightless now are you, our Harry. It is well, it is well. Much have I seen in my dreaming." The right head hissed sourly but the middle head ignored it. "We like her," the middle head announced and the left head looked at it and then at Harry. "Take your mate's hand, our Harry," the left head said.

Harry looked curiously at his friend but did as it asked. As soon as he took Ginny's left hand in his own left hand, the little Runespoor uncurled itself and slid down to their joined hands. It twined itself around them for a moment and then crawled up to Ginny's wrist where it curled up for a moment and then it made the return journey back to Harry's wrist.

"Our Ginny," the middle head hissed and then the Runespoor settled down and appeared to go to sleep again while Harry stared at it with astonishment.

Ginny had watched all of this in silence and had been startled and then delighted when the Runespoor had curled around her wrist. "What did it say?" she asked with a smile.

Harry gave himself a shake and looked at his girlfriend. He was distracted for a minute by actually being able to see her and then he answered. He told her what Orinda had said about seeing and dreaming. "Then when he curled up around my wrist again, he just said 'Our Ginny'," he said with a smile.

Ginny looked both startled and awed then her lips twitched into a grin. "I guess it likes me then," she said dryly. The others laughed and everyone settled back down for their dinner. Harry looked over the dishes and served himself with pleasure. He knew it was only a small thing and his friends hadn't minded serving him his meals but he liked having that small independence back. He was about halfway through his meal when his head began to ache and he reluctantly dropped the Oversight.

"How long will it take before I can use the Oversight all the time?" he asked his Master.

"You could do it now," Nhean replied calmly.

"But what about the headaches?" Harry objected.

Nhean cocked his head a little. "You've been using Oversight now for over a week. It's taking longer and longer for the headaches to start, isn't it?" he asked and Harry nodded. "That's a good sign. You could just leave your Oversight active. You will get headaches but as you've had no problems other than that so far, you'll be fine. The headache will fade in a few hours; a day at the most."

His tone had become challenging at the end and Harry stared sightlessly at him for a moment. His Master didn't often use that tone with him and when he did it meant that this was something fairly significant. This was something his Master wanted him to do but didn't feel he should be pressured into doing. Harry gritted his teeth and initiated his Oversight again; wincing a little as his head throbbed.

By the end of dinner, his head felt like someone was taking a sledgehammer to it and his face had become quite pale. He rubbed his temples as Ginny rubbed his back soothingly and then looked up at Master Nhean.

"Can I use a headache potion or will that mess things up," he asked a little plaintively.

"I was wondering when you were going to ask," Nhean chuckled. "Of course you can use a headache potion."

Harry sighed and looked down the table to where Madam Pomfrey was sitting. She anticipated his question. "Come on, Mr Potter," she said with a kind smile. "Let's go and get you one." The two of them stood and headed out of the Great Hall.

They were halfway across the room when Harry suddenly cried out and grabbed at his scar. He screamed again and collapsed to the floor. Ginny was the first to react. She leapt out of her seat and flew across the room. When she got to Harry she dropped to her knees, grabbed him and pulled his head onto her lap. By this time, Madam Pomfrey had collected her self and knelt down next to her. She quickly examined Harry then got up and ran over to Professor Snape. They talked quietly for a minute and then the two of them ran out of the room.

Ginny saw none of this. Her attention was solely on Harry and she was quietly talking to him. "Come on, Harry. Concentrate," she was murmuring to him. "Block your mind. You can do it. Come on, Harry." She repeated this over and over as Harry moaned in pain. Remus and the rest of the teens gathered around and waited.

Professor Snape came swooping back into the Great Hall, potion bottles in hand and the teens quickly made room for him. He was about to hand the first bottle to Ginny when she held up her hand.

"That's it, Harry!" she said encouragingly. "You can do it!"

They could see that Harry's brow was furrowed and he was panting. Ginny stroked his forehead and then his hair. Suddenly Orinda's three heads appeared from under his collar. The little Runespoor had obviously crawled up his arm. The three heads stared at Harry and hissed encouragingly to him. The right head then swivelled around and seemed to almost glare at Professor Snape. It hissed sharply at him, its tongue flickering in and out. Snape raised an eyebrow and lifted one of the bottles he had brought with him. The Runespoor's right head hissed approvingly and Snape handed the bottle to Ginny.

"Get him to drink this," he ordered as he eyed the Runespoor with interest.

Ginny nodded. "Harry, drink this," she said. Harry shook his head, his eyes closed tight, and she sighed in exasperation. "Its one of Professor Snape's potions and Orinda has approved of it," she said firmly and Harry shuddered and opened his mouth and drank the potion. Gradually Harry stopped panting and his brow cleared. He lay still for a moment with his eyes closed.

"I think I've done it," he said with relief. "He's still raging but I've put some kind of wall between him and me. I can still tell what he's feeling and thinking but I can't actually feel it, if that makes any sense."

Snape raised an eyebrow. "Well done, Mr Potter," he said, much to the surprise of the teens. They couldn't recall Professor Snape ever praising Harry before.

Harry gave a weak grin; he was just as aware of that as his friends. "He's not happy with me," he said with weary humour. "From what I can gather, my headache was being passed through the link and I think he was doing something important though I can't tell what. The headache distracted him and...well, something went wrong." Harry gave a breathless laugh. "I think that upset him a bit and he got angry at me." Harry frowned in concentration. "He's able to direct his anger at me towards the link and that's what makes my scar and head hurt. It's hard to keep him out like this though."

"It will get easier with time," Snape observed. "How did you do it?"

"You've been teaching me about how to stop someone getting into my mind in the first place," Harry said and winced as a particularly strong wave of anger hit him. He concentrated on the 'shield' he had constructed to keep it out. "I tried to treat the pain as a person trying to get into my mind. It was hard at first. It's not quite the same but once I got a tiny grip on it, it got a lot easier."

Snape nodded. "Do you think you could leave the shield you have created up permanently?" he asked.

Harry shook his head. "I don't think so at the moment. It's hard but I don't know whether that has something to do with the fact that he was already in there before I set it up. But I think I might be able to do it in the future." Harry breathed deeply for a moment and concentrated. "You know, I think I could turn this back on him," he said speculatively.

"No!" Snape half-yelled, echoed by Remus and the Headmaster. "No, Mr Potter," Snape continued. "Do not do that. He is far more skilled in Occlumency than you are."

Harry nodded and then just as suddenly as he collapsed, he sighed and sat up, opening his eyes. "He's stopped," he said with relief. That was when he noticed that Orinda had wrapped himself around his neck and was hissing quietly.

"What is it?" Harry hissed to his friend.

"Bad visions," the middle head hissed in distress. The right head snapped at the middle head. "Stop that!" it hissed irritably. "The black man knew what to do. We should not fuss. Our Harry was helped by our Ginny and the black man."

"Snape," Harry hissed. "The black man is called Snape and don't snap at each other. I don't like it."

The three heads twined around each other and then separated. "We won't," the left head promised. The right head hissed sullenly, "We won't." It then turned to the other two heads. "Snape knew how to help our Harry. There was no danger," it hissed sullenly.

"I'm alright," Harry reassured the little snake and Orinda curled up around his throat again. "I'm alright," he repeated in English to those around him. "Orinda was just a little upset."

Snape looked at both Harry and the Runespoor with an interested expression and then stood. "Do not be late tomorrow morning, Mr Potter. We have much work to do," he said and walked briskly out of the Great Hall.

Harry shook his head with amusement. He knew Snape didn't do 'Your Welcome's' very well but he didn't even get a chance to say thank you. He had no reason to doubt what Orinda had said about Snape helping him. He shook his head again and grabbed his cane from where he had dropped it. He got to his feet with Ginny's help and drew her into a hug.

"Thanks, Gin, I could hear you talking and it gave me something to focus on besides the pain. You really helped," he said, dropping a kiss on the top of her head and then one on her lips when she looked up. Ginny blushed and snuck a look at her mother and sighed with relief at the pleased expression on her face.

"How are you feeling now, Harry?" Remus asked anxiously.

"Um, pretty good actually," he replied. "That potion that Professor Snape gave me was a pretty strong headache potion so my head doesn't hurt much anymore."

"Alright," said Remus with relief. "Why don't you and Ginny go down to the Hospital wing and get some more headache potions from Madam Pomfrey. I think that's what she went to do."

Harry nodded and, with an arm still around Ginny's shoulders, they left the Great Hall.