Dragons' Heartstrings

Author's Notes:

Dragons' Heartstrings was written by me and my friend Caitlin (with each of us writing every other episode). We got the idea when we were discussing Horcruxes (not 'Horcri!!!'), shortly after reading book 6. It was that hour of the night when everything seems hilariously funny, and we were naming random things that could possibly be a horcrux, such as pillows, Dumbledore's hat, Harry's scar, and a piece of Drooble's Best Blowing Gum. I said, "What if Ginny was a Horcrux? Then Harry would have to kill her in order to kill Voldy! Ha ha ha!" Caitlin said, "Ha ha ha! That sounds like a soap opera or something!" So we stayed up the rest of the night jotting down plot ideas in a notebook. And this, my friends, is the result.

We are not sure exactly how many episodes are going to be in the soap, but I will tell you that we have ideas for the plotlines of several seasons of Dragons' Heartstrings, so the fun is not going to stop any time soon.

Reviews are appreciated! Readers' comments will greatly influence our upcoming episodes.

Dragon's Heartstrings

Episode 1

Season 1

Screenplay by Katie Hogan

FADE IN FROM BLACK:

A single candle fills the otherwise dark screen. Slow violin and harpsichord MUSIC with one voice plays while the CAMERA scrolls around the room, Dumbledore's Office at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The room is filled with flickering CANDLES, illuminating the strange silver instruments and the silent portraits that line the walls. Dumbledore's PORTRAIT is prominent. As the camera scrolls, a voice fills the room, growing in volume:

The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches....Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies...and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not...and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives....The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies....

The CAMERA comes to rest on a PENSIEVE, which is displayed on a pedestal in the center of the room. Revolving in the pensieve is a form of silver mist, Sybill Tralawney speaking the words of the prophecy.

FADE INTO FLASHBACKS (with the flickering candlelight on the edge of dark, the camera never gets a completely clean look):

DUMBLEDORE

....the wizard so determined to evade death that he would be prepared to murder many times, rip his soul repeatedly, so as to store it in many, concealed Horcruxes....

FADE

VOLDEMORT

....I, who have gone further than anybody along the path that leads to immortality.

FADE AGAIN, STRONGER THIS TIME

SLUGHORN

(To Tom Riddle. Fiddling with the ribbon on top of his box of crystalized pineapple.)

A Horcrux is the word used for an object in which a person has concealed part of their soul.

TOM RIDDLE

(To Slughorn. Expression greedy and full of longing.)

How do you split your soul?

SLUGHORN

(Uncomfortably)

You must understand that the soul is supposed to remain intact and whole. Splitting it is an act of violation, it is against nature.

TOM RIDDLE

But how do you do it?

SLUGHORN

By an act of evil-the supreme act of evil. By committing murder. Killing rips the soul apart.

FADE

VOLDEMORT killing, in flashes of GREEN LIGHT and claps of THUNDER, in a series of short clips:

his father and grandparents,

Marvolo,

some random people,

James,

Lily.

Points wand at baby Harry.

FADE

DUMBLEDORE

He made seven Horcruxes. He was intending to make his final one with your death....

A FLASH of GREEN LIGHT, accompanied by a loud, sharp round of THUNDER.

HARRY

He made seven Horcruxes?

FADE

TOM RIDDLE

Isn't seven the most powerfully magical number?

FADE

DUMBLEDORE

The seventh part of his soul, however maimed, resides inside his regenerated body....

VOLDEMORT rising from CAULDRON in graveyard.

FADE

DUMBLEDORE

The diary, Riddle's diary....

Harry destroying the DIARY in the Chamber of Secrets, Tom Riddle's body writhes in pain and begins to fade, then vanishes altogether.

DUMBLEDORE

The ring, Harry. Marvolo's ring.

Dumbledore destroying the RING, his wand hand burning, licked in FLAMES.

DUMBLEDORE

(Looking at his twisted, blackened hand.)

The ring is no longer a Horcrux.

Fleeting images of the locket, Hufflepuff's Cup, Nagini.

DUMBLEDORE

Without his Horcruxes, Voldemort will be a mortal man with a maimed and deminished soul....You've got to kill him, Harry.

A string of images flash by:

Dumbledore and Harry cutting open their hands and spreading the BLOOD on the DOOR of a cave.

Voldemort killing Cedric Diggory.

The Dark Mark over Hogwarts.

Harry casting a PATRONUS at the Dementors.

The Great Hall draped in black.

Harry helping Dumbledore drink the potion that the locket Horcrux is in.

Tears pouring down Cho Chang's face.

Fleur sobbing over Bill in the Hospital Wing, his face ripped up by Greyback.

Wormtail cutting off his arm.

Dumbledore and Voldemort dueling at the Ministry of Magic.

Sirius falling into to VEIL.

Dumbledore falling off the Astronomy tower.

Voldemort pointing his wand at someone offscreen, facing front.

FLASH of GREEN LIGHT.

As these images flash by faster and faster, the music picks up speed and volume, until it ends abruptly and another image FADES IN:

EXT. LAKE ON HOGWARTS GROUNDS-NIGHT

Stars twinkle overhead. HARRY pointing wand at someone offscreen, facing front. CAMERA rotates until GINNY WEASLEY is shown, Harry's wand pointed directly at her heart.

GINNY

Harry, no....

HARRY

(bitterly)

You're working with Voldemort. Part of his soul is in you! I've sworn to kill him!

GINNY

Harry, I didn't mean to, I swear I didn't. Please don't kill me Harry....

HARRY

I've sworn to kill Voldemort! I have to try and kill him, or --

GINNY

(beginning to cry)

Harry, I love you!

HARRY

Avada Kedavra!

A FLASH of GREEN LIGHT. Ginny crumples to the floor, lifeless, an expression of shock on her beautiful face. Harry drops his wand and falls to his knees beside her. He fingers her golden red curls that lie like a halo around her fair head.

HARRY

(whispering)

Ginny....

A single tear falls down his cheek and lands on her lips. He reaches down and gently closes her eyes. Picking up his wand, he stands and walks away, head hung low.

CAMERA cranes over Ginny, circling around her sleeping face, then rises to the stars above and FADES OUT.

INT. COURTROOM TEN

Harry is seated in the CHAIR at the center of the room, surrounded by benches circling up to the ceiling, filled with the WITCHES and WIZARDS of the Wizengamot, all wearing plum-colored robes with an elaborately worked silver W on the left-hand side of the chest, and staring down their noses at him.

RUFUS SCRIMGEOUR

And did you not, knowingly, deliberately, and in full awareness of the illegality of your actions, perform an Avada Kedavra curse on Ginevra Tempest Weasley on the night of the 12^th of August?

HARRY

I did.

The chains attatched to the chair that Harry is in rattle and clank as they entwine themselves around his legs.

SCRIMGEOUR

And where, may I ask, did you learn the Unforgivable Curses?

HARRY

At school, sir. Professor Moody taught them to us in the fourth year.

SCRIMGEOUR

If I remember correctly, Alastor Moody turned out to be a Death Eater in disguise, so it hardly seems fitting that you would take his example, when you showed such hatred to him and his kind-

HARRY

-I did it because of Voldemort!

Gasps from the Wizengamot. Some exchange frightened and suspicious looks.

SCRIMGEOUR

(excitedly)

Are you writing this down, Weatherby? I think we're about to get a full confession from Mr. Potter about his dealings with You-Know-Who-

HARRY

(impatiently)

No! I did it because Ginny...is a Horcrux.

A shocked SILENCE, broken only by the feverish SCRATCHING of Percy's Quill.

SCRIMGEOUR

(furiously)

A Horcrux! Did Moody teach you about them, too?

HARRY

No, sir. Professor Dumbledore told me about them.

SCRIMGEOUR

(triumphantly)

Ha! I knew it! According to Educational Decree Number Twenty-Six, teachers are banned from giving students any information that is not strictly related to the subjects they are payed to teach.

DOLORES UMBRIDGE

(leaning forward, eyes popping so that her monocle nearly falls out)

That was my idea, you know. I signed it!

HARRY

(bitterly)

Yeah, but it doesn't matter, does it? Dumbledore's dead.

SCRIMGEOUR

(scowling)

The fact remains that you murdered Ginny Weasley. Knowingly, deliberately, and-

HARRY

-in full awareness of the illegality of my actions. I know. I told you, she was a Horcrux!

SCRIMGEOUR

(to Umbridge)

My dear Senior Undersecretary, perhaps you should contact St. Mungo's about Mr. Potter. I hear they have a special ward for people whose brains have been addled by magic....

HARRY

If you believed me when I told you that Snape killed Dumbledore, how come you won't believe me now?

SCRIMGEOUR

(sarcastically)

Seeing is believing. In the case of the murder of Dumbledore, we had several eyewitnesses, and of course, Dumbledore's body.

UMBRIDGE

Hem hem!

(To Harry)

I assume, when you say Horcux, you are saying that Voldemort had a Horcrux?

HARRY

Seven. And if you want proof of that, take a look at Dumbledore's pensieve.

UMBRIDGE

And do you happen to have any proof that Ginevra Tempest Weasley is a Horcrux, young man?

Enter Ministry Official.

MINISTRY OFFICIAL

Minister, Mr. Potter's Witness for the Defense is waiting outside. Should I-

SCRIMGEOUR

(impatiently)

If you must.