Book of Memories

Chapter 22: HARRY'S DREAM

Harry stormed up the spiral staircase, not bothering to hear what Hermione or Ron had to say to his comment. He was furius and scared. What if they couldn't retrieve the staff ever again? What if no one could retrieve the staff ever again? That wouldn't be half bad, Harry thought. As his eyes began to droop, laying in his four-poster, he had one of his dreams...

Harry could see himself, from Ron's direction, lying in bed. Ron, however, was not awake. Footsteps echoed up from the spiral stairs but as they approached nearer and nearer, there was no person accompanying them. The curtain on his bed opened and the sleeve of Harry's pajamas rose up seemingly by itself. A knife appeared out of nowhere as well as a wand. The wand waved, casting some spell upon Harry.

Harry watched as the knife pressed itself against his exposed arm. He would have screamed but he couldn't seem to move. A vial appeared out of thin air, the knife disappearing, and went up against the cut, blood pouring into it. After a minute, the vial, too, vanished into thin air and the cut on Harry's arm closed with the wave of a wand.

The sleeve went down again, the curtains closed and Harry could hear footsteps moving towards the spiral staircase and down them. The dream quickly vanished and he didn't wake until morning.

Harry immediately told Ron about it as soon as they were alone in the dormitory.

"So it's tonight," said Harry, glancing scared at Ron.

"Pettigrew wants to meet us during breakfast," Ron told Harry. "Said he had something to tell us about the staff. I think he found out something fairly important. Eight o'clock in the trophy room. Should be empty."

Hermione obviously already knew when Harry went to tell her down in the Great Hall. They ate quickly and after eating as much as they could manage in a half hour's time, Harry, Ron and Hermione walked innocently out of the Great Hall and headed for the trophy room. Filch wanted dearly to know why they were walking out so early but a crash nearby (most likely Peeves) sent Filch into a rage, screaming something about impossible poltergeists. Harry, Ron and Hermione snuck all the way to the trophy room to find it... empty.

"Where's Pettigrew?" said Ron, looking all around. "Said he would be here before us."

Harry and Hermione looked all around, too. Pettigrew was nowhere to be seen.

"Maybe he just forgot?" suggested Hermione.

"Doubtful," said Ron. "He - really - wanted to tell us something, remember?" Hermione agreed.

"Then where is he?" said Harry.

"Oh, forget it," said Hermione dismissively. "If he wants to talk to us, he'll find us in the corridors. He has Harry's schedule memorized." Harry rolled his eyes in agreement.

But for the entire day, no one had seen Wormtail.

He did not follow Harry to Defense Against the Dark Arts, where Professor Delacour was finishing up the book Harry Potter: Lucky or Legendary. At this point, Harry grin and bared it. Today's subject was all about how the ability to speak Parseltongue leaked through Voldemort to Harry. Professor Delacour brought in a rather large python and allowed him to demonstrate.

Neville squirmed in the back of the room as Harry told the python to stand itself on it's tail and perform acrobatics in the air, all the while a hiss escaping his mouth instead of English. It surely freaked out the entire class, including Professor Delacour. Parselmouths are supposed to be Dark wizards but Harry had never shown the slightest inclination of joining Voldemort. He would never. Not even if you threatened to kill him.

"Well," said Professor Delacour as the bell rang, "I think zat wraps up today's lesson."

Grinning, Harry ordered the snake to go back into it's cage... and told it to close the door with it's tail.

Likewise, Wormtail did not catch up with Harry on his way to Care of Magical Creatures where Hagrid was showing the class Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes. Harry immediately recognized the golden beak and scarlet feathers. Fawkes spread his wings and set flight from Hagrid's arm immediately upon spotting Harry and landed on his shoulder, chirping peacefully. Instantly, Fawkes' warm feathers released some of Harry's built-up stress.

"Ah!" said Hagrid proudly. "Likes you, doesn't he?"

"Heh."

"Phoenixes are beau'iful creatures," Hagrid told the class when they finally assembled around his hut, all staring at Harry with Fawkes on his shoulder. "Slytherins might want ter back away. If Fawkes decides to sing, yeh're goin' ter find yehself scared for yeh life. Phoenixes are magically powerful. Their song makes the pure o' heart feel braver an' strikes fear inter the impure o' heart."

Harry could remember well the time Fawkes had sung into his ear four years ago, giving him the courage to get off his feet and drive the blade of Gryffindor into the gruesome basilisk. Perhaps Fawkes sensed Harry's current fears because he began to sing his phoenix song. The Slytherins immediately backed away. All the Gryffindors stood taller.

"I told yeh!" taunted Hagrid.

Hagrid contined the lesson with the Slytherins several feet behind the Gryffindors. Harry had to come up front next to Hagrid. Fawkes seemed quite attached to him and only left when Dumbledore came out just as the bell rang. Hedwig would have been jealous.

Harry began to worry when Wormtail did not turn up for lunch nor for Harry's afternoon lessons. No one had spotted him at all that day when Harry asked around during dinner.

It wasn't until the next day that Wormtail showed up at all. He was up at the staff table during breakfast when Harry arrived. And he didn't seem to notice that he had been missing for an entire day when Harry, Ron and Hermione caught up with him when breakfast ended in the entrance hall.

"N-no," he said, "I was here yesterday!"

Harry stood still as Wormtail walked off with Dumbledore.

"Very strange," said Harry. "Almost like a... like a..." he stammered.

"Like a what?" asked Ron.

Harry lowered his voice and said, "Like a Memory Charm..."

Ron and Hermione opened their mouths in horror. It only meant one thing: that Wormtail had been kidnapped and forced to tell how to get to the Book of Memories.

"Wormtail's gonna be killed tonight," said Harry firmly. "Which means we have to get the staff out of there tonight because tomorrow... they're going after the book!"

"Isn't there anything we can do to stop Wormtail from dying?" asked Hermione desperiately. "I mean..."

"I'd love to but they're likely to kill us too!" hissed Ron.

And as soon as Wormtail exited the Great Hall after dinner, it happened.

"PETTIGREW'S DEAD!" shouted a fifth year Hufflepuff.

The Great Hall exploded with a roar of frightened screams. At least fifty exploding firecrackers from the tip of Dumbledore's wand was what it took to silence everyone.

"Please save your panicking for later!" Dumbledore shouted to everyone. "Prefects, you will lead your houses to their dormitories. Head Boy, Head Girl and teachers will come with me."

Hermione had been appointed Head Girl over the summer.

"See you later, Hermione," Ron whispered to her. "Don't worry about us."

"I'm not worried about you," Hermione told Ron, "I'm worried about Harry."

Harry was worried about Harry, too.

Hermione strode off with the Head Boy, a Ravenclaw sixth year while Harry and Ron walked silently back to their dormitory with the Gryffindor Prefect who just happened to be James Griffith. When they all arrived in the commons, Professor McGonagall had come to tell everyone tomorrow's classes have all been canceled and that they were to not leave Gryffindor Tower for any reason. Harry and Ron, of course, were going to leave anyway.

It took forever for the common room to clear, for everyone who felt like Voldemort was going to burst in any moment and kill Harry to feel calm enough to go to bed.

"Come on," Harry whispered to Ron when Dennis Creevey had finally stopped asking Harry what he was going to do and went off to bed with the other third years.

Ron nodded. Before leaving, they checked to make sure that the Fat Lady was asleep in her picture frame. Her snores had become increasingly loud and when they heard her snort, they pushed the portrait open and climbed out the hole. Harry and Ron nearly jumped out of their skin when a girl with bushy, brown hair came charging down the corridor. Luckily, it was just Hermione.

"I can't go with you but I can tell you hints," said Hermione. "The biggest problem is that Mrs. Norris is prowling the third floor corridor."

"JUST - OUR - BAD - LUCK!" Harry hissed loudly.

"Shh! Keep your voice down! Professor McGonagall is just at the end of this corridor! I'll tell her I need her to see something and you can sneak passed her. There's no one else on the way but you need to do something about Mrs. Norris."

"How about we just kick the stupid cat and leave as soon as possible?" suggested Ron. "The stupid cat will scream and someone will think something's happened."

"Yes, exactly," snapped Hermione. "And half the teachers will be down the corridor in an instant. Great idea," she added, shaking her head.

"Ron, you check to make sure the coast is clear when we get there," said Harry, "and I'll think of something to do about the stupid cat." He had no idea what he was going to do but he made it sound like he had a plan.

"Okay, you deal with the stupid cat," said Ron.

"The stupid cat -- oh now you're making me say 'stupid cat' too! -- is just behind the door. Don't - be - seen!" Hermione urged. She paused for a minute and the three of them had time to ponder over how much trouble they were going to be in if they got caught. "Okay, I'll go distract Professor McGonagall," Hermione said finally and she walked back down the corridor. After a minute, she came back into view and waved them over.

Harry and Ron, the faithful Dragonback in hand with their wands and the Warmth Cloak (for which purpose they didn't know, it just seemed like a good idea to take it), followed Hermione down the corridor and all the way towards the third floor corridor. Hermione bid them good luck and Harry told Ron to just look out for teachers. Harry opened the door. Mrs. Norris, the stupid cat, was sitting on her hind legs, looking hungrily up at him. He wanted the stupid cat to move and what happened next, he couldn't explain.

Harry's body tingled all over and he felt very weak. A second later, his body collapsed under it's own weight and he fell unconscious. Upon waking up, all wasn't right. He could see himself. He had four legs and a tail and he was no taller than a foot. He walked down some stairs and then his body tingled all over again. Harry felt very weak and fell unconscious, to wake up once more, this time perfectly normal.

Mrs. Norris was gone. Harry had no idea how he did it.

He looked for Ron and pulled him over.

"Wow," said Ron, amazed, "how?"

"I don't know," said Harry, who was quite amazed himself. "She just walked away. I'll explain later."

The third floor corridor was clear as they made their way into Fluffy's room. They locked the door behind themselves and waited for Mr. Filch to come by, who, thankfully, didn't. Whatever Harry did, he made the stupid cat forget about seeing him, too.

Harry, extremely anxious and shaking all over, opened the trap door.

"All right," he said, looking down, "this is it. Once we get out with the staff, no one is to know we have it except us. We don't have any Mind-Blanker Potion so just keep your head clear."

Ron, who was also extremely anxious and shaking all over, nodded.

"Here goes nothing..."

They hung from the edge of the trap door, holding a hand on the Dragonback and let go. Harry and Ron landed with a soft thud on the cold, dark, dungeon floor.

"Lumos!" they both said. Harry conjured a rather large fireball after giving the Dragonback to Ron. If they saw something down there, they didn't want to see it for very long.

Through the Devil's Snare room, through the chamber of the flying keys, passed the giant chess set, into and out of the room with seven potions and into the last chamber they went. The Book of Memories was sitting atop the pedastal which was good, as it meant they weren't going to see anything... just yet.

"You do it," Harry insisted. For one, Harry couldn't stand another episode of touching the book and second, he had to summon the last of his courage as his hand clutching the Order of Merlin plaque so tightly that his fingers hurt didn't seem to be doing a thing.

How long were they going to be there trying to retrieve the staff? What if someone already found them missing and Dumbledore was coming down? What if the book suddenly disappeared and something dangerous appeared in it's wake...

Ron, shaking head to toe, pushed up his sleeves of his cloak and placed his hands in the correct spots.

"W-what were the words again?" he asked, turning his head to Harry.

Harry racked his brains. He couldn't forget the words, not now! Not when they had come so far. But Hermione was the one who had memorized it...

"Relatum?" he said quietly.

Ron turned his head back towards the book.

"Relatum... Relatum id..." he said.

"id res. Convulsum id," said Harry.

"...hactenus non temere?" Ron asked.

But the book immediately answered his question by shocking both Ron's hands, causing him to spin and sending him crashing into the far wall behind him with a crunch. Bits of stone rolled across the floor.

"RON!" screamed Harry, running over. "Are you okay?"

Harry turned Ron's head to face him and saw that his nose looked broken and there was a steady stream of blood pouring out of it. Remembering the Phoenix Bracelet on his wrist, Harry put his hand on Ron's nose. Amazed, Harry watched as the fire jumped from the silver band and crawled off the end of his fingers and onto Ron's injured nose. When it was healed, he pulled out his wand and shouted, "Ennervate!" at Ron, waking him up.

"Maybe you ought to try," said Ron, feeling his nose.

"No way," said Harry at once, standing up quickly and putting his wand back inside his robes. "It starts out 'Relatum id res. Convulsum id but I don't... REMEMBER THE REST!" he added, furious.

"Calm down. It won't do either of us any good if you lose your head," said Ron, getting up.

Harry didn't agree. Losing his head would make him dead and that would put an end to a lot of his troubles. He didn't dare voice that to Ron and soon after, he wanted to forget he had even thought of it.

"Convulsum id adseutus nihil?" said Ron.

"I think so," said Harry.

"And you finish the incantation with 'Eloco nihil non hactenus non temere,'" echoed a voice from the potions room.

Harry and Ron froze. They didn't recognize the voice but when the owner entered the room, Harry felt relieved.

"Thantanos!" he said brightly.

Ron put his hands back on the book and tried again.

"Relatum id res. Convulsum id adsuetus nihil. Eloco nihil non hactenus non temere."

Gray smoke escaped the Book of Memories and darted over to Ron's outstretched hand. It only took one try? The Staff of Cybele dropped to the floor.

"I should have known," said Thantanos, walking slowly towards the staff.

"Known what?" asked Harry. "What are you doing down here?"

Thantanos merely sighed, repeating "I should have known... Should have known..." to himself.

Ron picked up the staff and said, "Someone's trying to steal this thing. Good thing you came to help!"

"Yeah," said Harry. "Going to hide it up in our dormitory. They'll never know we took it!"

"I should have known," said Thantanos again but his tone was different. It was...

"For crying out loud," Harry snapped, "should have known what?"

"I should have known that it would have taken an ancient to revive the staff," said Thantanos, stopping and standing up to his full height. His eyes changed. "I know someone's trying to steal it and I know who it is."

"Who!" said Harry and Ron in unison.

"Me."

"You?" said Harry blankly. This was a joke. It had to be. "You?" Harry repeated. "W-why would you want it?"

Thantanos' eyes became cold.

"What's that matter to you?" said Thantanos brightly. "I knew if I let you at it you'd revive the staff for me. Didn't Barty Crouch's son tell you how easy it was to manipulate nice people?"

"No!" said Harry loudly and disbelievingly. "Why would you be after the Staff? You were under a permanent Imperius! Dumbledore removed the mark of ancients from you!" he shouted desperately. A sick joke, had to be...

"Ah," said Thantanos, starting to pace. "I don't think I ever told you it was I who dragged Michelle into this originally. She didn't come willingly... and that reminds me! After I take that book and staff and Disapparate, I need to go kill her for trying to make me not believe. My father's dead, dear Harry, and you killed him."

"I DIDN'T -- KILL HIM!" Harry bellowed, clenching his fists.

"Don't lie to me," said Thantanos. He snapped his fingers. Ropes appeared out of thin air all around Ron and bound themselves tightly to him, causing him to drop the staff. Thantanos pulled Ron towards him with a wave of his hand.

"Let him go!" Harry heard himself shout more bravely than he felt.

He quickly forgot that he was going to be in serious trouble as soon as he got out of this and all he wanted was to see Voldemort dead. It was obvious to anyone that Thantanos was under the influence of a mix of Memory Charms and the Imperius Curse. Harry quickly forgot that he was just sixteen and skinny and Thantanos was at least thirty, fit and a well-trained wizard.

Thantanos simply laughed.

"Pick up the staff," said a soft voice in the back of Harry's head, "pick up the staff..."

Great, now he's hearing voices? What if it was an attempted Imperius by Thantanos? Harry was good at fighting them off, but... Instead, Harry pulled out his short, eleven inch, holly and phoenix feather wand.

"What are you going to do with that thing?" laughed Thantanos which made Harry even angrier. "A poorly made staff can outpower any wand, even Lord Voldemort's! But the Staff of Cybele, oh we still don't know what powers it holds. Come on, Harry!" Thantanos added with a drawl. "What's the point! Join the Dark Lord. You're just going to die otherwise!"

"I - will - never," said Harry fiercely, gripping his wand, his last hope but it was a feeble and pointless hope.

"Pick up the staff," said the soft voice in the back of Harry's head again, "pick up the staff..."

He still didn't trust it, he didn't know what it was so he had no reason to... right?

"How touching!" said Thantanos coldly. "I always value bravery... Yes, Harry, your parents were brave... Lord Voldemort killed your father first; and he put up a courageous fight... but your mother needn't have died... she was trying to protect you..." Thantanos squealed with delight. "Ooh and if I remember correctly, Lord Voldemort said that to you five years ago, wasn't it? I'm so good..."

"If your stupid Lord is so powerful," said Harry, stalling, trying to think, desperate, fists still clenched, "why aren't I dead yet?"

"We were so sure we had you figured out, Harry," said Thantanos lazily. "Young kid, parents die, mother's sacrifice becomes a countercharm... I'm not going to make that same mistake again now, am I? That stupid dog was supposed to kill you though, not Hagrid."

"Pick up the staff, Harry," said the soft voice frantically. "Pick it up!" it shouted, insanely frantic.

"But you needn't worry about what's going to happen now. I'll be taking that book, the staff and Lord Voldemort will be walking again tonight!" he shouted joyously. "Now stop wasting my time and get out of my way. I don't like to keep him waiting."

Thantanos started towards the book but Harry walked straight in his path, stopping him.

"Foolish boy," taunted Thantanos, "what can you accomplish?"

"Voldemort's tried to kill me for five years now and what has it gotten him? He looks terrible, he's a mess!" Harry shouted. He didn't know what he was going to accomplish but he was going to do something. He was going to just let Thantanos walk out as planned. "I'm not totally useless," said Harry... did he really believe it to be true? He had to, he had done very useful stuff in the past...

Harry snapped out of it at the sound of the soft voice again.

"Pick it up," it snapped, "and see what happens!"

What was important was that Thantanos was still staring at the book. "What did you do to Fluffy?" said Harry hastily.

"Ah, Fluffy, is it?" said Thantanos, sounding very pleased with himself. "Experiments... some charms with the mark of ancients... and he was running faster than a Speed Demon! Seems it also made his reflexes faster. Pity that bracelet you wear was able to heal the gamekeeper. You might also be wondering how the Fire Quidditch committee actually accepted a team such as the one we had this summer? Oh, the power of this mark... Now get out of my way," drawled Thantanos, throwing Harry aside, knocking him to the floor.

Harry caught himself with his hands just before his face hit the floor, feeling the stone floor cut them. He looked at his hand, which was showing a little bit of red then turned his head, still lying on the floor, disgusted, to Thantanos.

Thantanos walked straight up to the Book of Memories and stared at it. Think, Harry thought furiously, think! Staring at the back of Thantanos, he saw something that caught his eye.

The tattoo Hermione had pointed out on the back of his neck, Harry was looking at it... It was the Slytherin serpent. She said it was changing? It didn't look to be changing at all. What had she seen?

Throwing the confusing thought away, Harry then did the only thing he could think to do. From the floor, he pointed his wand at Thantanos' back and muttered under his breath, "Crucio."

Nothing happened.

Dare he shout it? If Thantanos heard what he was trying to do...

"Try it with the staff," ordered the soft voice in Harry's head. "That wand you carry is pathetic!"

"No!" Harry said to it. Thantanos didn't seem to have heard. "CRUCIO!" Harry bellowed, pointing his wand at Thantanos.

A jet of light shot out the end of his wand and hit Thantanos at the top of his head. It didn't do anything. Harry quickly got up in preparation for anything.

Thantanos pulled out his wand. Harry stood frozen.

"Pick me up!" hissed the voice, sounding very angry. "NOW!"

Thantanos shouted, "Crucio!" pointing his wand at Harry.

It hit and to Harry's great displeasure, it did something. He felt like he was thrown into a pit of burning, flesh meltingly hot lava with needles piercing his skin. There was no pain from his scar, and thankfully so... Every inch of his skin screamed and his own screams echoed around the corridors. Surely someone above them he could hear... someone would come... surely he was screaming in pain loud enough...

"Trying to curse me behind my back, are you?" Thantanos taunted, laughing, enjoying Harry's screams. He didn't look to be stopping the spell any time soon.

"BREAK FROM IT!" thundered the voice in Harry's head.

Harry didn't think he could do much of anything except continue to roll all over the floor in terrible convulsions. He caught a glance of Ron. Ron had his eyes closed, fearing the same fate for himself.

Almost feeling Harry's pain for himself, Ron screamed, "Stop it!"

Thantanos merely laughed. Harry wanted it to end... to go out... to just die... and surely his body was coming apart at the seams... This was worse, this was stronger than worse, worse than any Cruciatus he had ever felt and the blood leaking down his mouth was a gruesome reassurance.

And the voice in the back of his head again told him to break the curse.

Thantans raised his wand and continued to laugh softly at Harry, who was still recovering, still shaking violently, now spread eagle, face down, on the damp, blood-flecked ground.

"I rather like that one," said Thantanos coldly. "Don't you?"

Harry pushed himself up with his hands, spit the remaining blood out of his mouth and pushed his hair out of his eyes, which had collected a few drops of blood.

"PICK - UP - THE - STAFF!" the voice roared so loud that Harry thought it might deafen him.

He decided to listen to it because nothing else seemed to be working. As Thantanos was still looking at the Book of Memories, he crawled his way, inching, towards the Staff of Cybele, still shaking.

Harry wiped his mouth with his sleeve, wiped the tears that leaked from his eyes and wrapped a hand around the staff. Instantly, he was far more scared of what was happening to the staff than what Thantanos was doing. A loud whirring sound filled the air, deadened by a rush of wind and Harry didn't notice that Thantanos was staring.

The Staff of Cybele, just a second ago, four feet long, having the head, body and tail of a Badger was now changing shape. Misty, gray smoke surrounded it and it was becoming longer. Seven feet long, in fact, and the animal on it was changing as well. Harry's grip was forced to widen as underneath his fingers the Badger's body was replaced by one of a lion. The tail became that of a lion's and the Badger's head became that of a lion's. The crystal, which glowed, at the tip of the mouth became scarlet and the scratches disappeared, leaving the crystal's surface perfectly smooth. The lion's body and head was golden. The tail, which to Harry's horror was wagging as if it were happy to be held by him, scarlet. All of it was warm to the touch as if it were alive. Harry could even feel fur on the body of the lion. The sound stopped and the smoke thinned only to disappear.

"My Lord, the writings don't lie!" breathed Thantanos. Harry stared at the fur-covered tail which was wagging like a real lion's tail. "Excellent! Now give it here, boy."

"Come and get it," said Harry through gritted teeth, getting to his feet.

He forgot that just a minute ago he had been crying at Thantanos' feet and that at any second he could be put under another tortourus curse. Was it really forgetfulness... or was it bravery?

"Who are you kidding!" said Thantanos, laughing. "You don't even know how to use it. Staves are dangerous, Harry, you know that... I was hoping several people would die when I had bewitched the crazy gamekeeper's dog but, ah well... Looks like more practice on using the staff for me..."

"It may be dangerous," said Harry hotly, "but I've been doing some pretty amazing things lately."

And truth be told, he had.

Whether he could handle the staff or not, he had to try. He made a choice between what was easy and what was right. This was right. It was also not going to be easy.

Harry twirled the seven foot long Staff of Cybele in his hand and brandished it threateningly at Thantanos. Thantanos smiled... and then to Harry's greater horror, Thantanos' skin glowed a perfect, blinding white. He couldn't believe his eyes. The mark of ancients was back in Thantanos.

"Yes," smiled Thantanos at the look of horror on Harry's face, "Lord Voldemort knows what he is doing, my friend, Lord Voldemort knows what he is doing... Oh but don't fret, there was only enough stored away for me.

"So you see, just give up. You're only going to go out tired!"

He threw his wand on the floor, clasped his hands and bowed his head, beginning to chant. Harry felt his stomach dissolve. He couldn't move. He clutched the Staff of Cybele, which he held in front of himself, and the Order of Merlin plaque as tight as he could for comfort. Harry moved to stand in front of Ron. If anything, Ron would get out alive... Neither of the things in his hands was making Harry feel any less frightened. His eyes didn't move from the sight of Thantanos' moving lips. He recognized the spell immediately.

"Parcere meus vita, parcere meus anima. Accio potentia caeles intus veneficus adfirmo. Adiumentum meus via. Parcere meus vita, parcere meus anima. Addere ultimus clades ad parcere nullus altera," Thantanos chanted. He smiled.

The last things Harry could remember as the blue haze from Clades Ultimus came in contact with him was Thantanos taking the Book of Memories and Disapparating. There was also a sudden flash of bright, white light, a spray of blood, Harry's own screaming and enough pain to make him think his body had exploded into a thousand pieces... His hand was still firmly attached to the Staff of Cybele... even if it wasn't attached to his body.