Harry Potter and the Shadows of the Watchgate

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-*~| CHAPTER 19 - Down Memory Lane |~*-
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"What is happening in Romania?" Harry blurted the moment he entered the Room of Requirement.

"Hello to you too!" Lupin exclaimed. "I thought you were not going to show up."

"Just got delayed on the way," Harry replied, distractedly.

"Oh, the deranged crowd. I should have guessed," said Lupin, amused.

"Well, back to your first, the Ministry of Romania has been infiltrated somehow. The Death Eaters have been using Imperius Curse on many important officials. We weren't looking for infiltrations but people to induct into the Order. Therefore, we were hoodwinked, but not for long, and that's why as soon as our contacts found that out, Dumbledore was called upon urgently to sort things out."

"He is good at that." Harry grinned.

"Yes he is." Lupin smiled. "But now everything known to Romanian Ministry is also known to Voldemort; from secret headquarters to the so-called escaped Death Eaters who begged for forgiveness after his fall. The Obliviator Squad had to do double shifts on the officials, but so many memories were modified that some cases were given up entirely and sent to St. Mungo's," he finished, sadly.

"But, why Romania? What was there?" Harry asked, puzzled.

"I don't know about that, come to think of it... However, Voldemort has his reasons. Always..." said Lupin, trying to control a snarl. "And it's not very cheery to know that Voldemort is gobbling up all kinds of information throughout the world," Lupin finished, scratching his chin.

"I reckon, he's looking for something," Harry provided, thoughtfully.

"Yes, because we found a small hoard of Death Eaters visiting Egypt and Italy, trying to repeat their folly. However, we got there before they could manage any further damage."

Harry raked his brains; numerous thoughts were making clattering noises inside his head, to his irritation. "It still feels a little weird, getting all this information. I'm not very used to it, really."

After a pause he continued, "If you could've been open like this last year--"

"Harry, we can't go back in time, can we?" Lupin interrupted him, desolately.

Harry's pupils dilated in excitement, while Lupin interrupted again. "Don't get ideas! You know it can't be undone. We always hope in life that we could have done things differently if we were given a second chance BUT we aren't. Things weren't revealed to you then for a reason, and now there is another. So, just get on, Harry; don't dwell in things you know you can't get out of."

Lupin's words struck a chord in his chest, but along with it, something else came. "But, Lupin, I have to dwell in the past to reveal my future!" he added excitedly, to a nonplussed Lupin.

"You see, maybe he is looking for the gateway!" Harry said wide-eyed, comprehension dawning on him.

"What? Do you mean that he's trying to get into the--"

"--world I saw in my dream... er... vision." Harry completed Lupin's sentence, much to his amazement.

"This is the missing link, isn't it?" Harry said reflectively, his heart soaring with a purpose. Then, it did a double flip and went down again. He suddenly felt very guilty for not sharing all this and more with his best of friends: Ron and Hermione.

"Maybe this is why Dumbledore is taking so long in Romania, checking up on everything to be sure. He has never left Hogwarts' premises for such a long time," Lupin pondered on loudly, breaking Harry's chain of thoughts.

"I reckon I need a break, Remus," Harry said, opening his bag and taking out Sirius's diary.

"Oh that." Lupin stared at the diary longingly.

Harry took out his wand absentmindedly, noticing Lupin's sad expression.

"I guess this is yours." Lupin hunkered down and picked up the orangish orb that Dumbledore had given him on his birthday, which had slid out of his pocket unobserved in the process of him taking out his wand.

"Take care of it," Lupin warned, and streaked out of the room without uttering another word.

Harry gazed at the retreating figure of Remus Lupin, which was somewhat hunched, or maybe he was imagining it. He sighed and in turn looked at the miniature orb, which he had dubbed 'Fireball' fondly, because of its color.

"Not your time, I guess," said Harry, returning it to his inside robe pocket and worked the diary with its password.

It had been months since he last opened it. He mused over the unusual friendship of Marauders and what remained left of it.

I hope Wormtail dies, a venomous thought clutched at his heart as he gripped the diary tightly.

Get a grip, mate! Ron's voice echoed inside his head.

Focus, Harry... It was Dumbledore, soothing all worries from his mind.

Yes! Focus... Let's get on with it. Hmm... A date well past Hogwarts... Some time before I was born.

Sirius, how did you live? What did you do? Harry pondered on in his mind, leafing through his godfather's memorabilia. As he went further and deeper in the diary, the writing changed and became more joined and slightly tilted to the right side. Marauders kept on popping after every few paragraphs.

A heading caught his attention, dated: 14^th April 1979, "The First Assignment."

He didn't want to wait and see where he would land; therefore, he reflexively tapped his wand on the page and waited for the room to dissolve into an unknown destination. The slightly darker walls of Room of Requirement expanded outwards and disappeared into nothingness. The blazing torches vanished into a luminous square room having thick walls, resembling the Dungeon walls at Hogwarts. The room was empty except for four stone gargoyles possessing ruby eyes, which somehow seemed alive, and glittered along the burning flames in their mouths.

Harry watched, his mouth agape, as the three figures he yearned to be with entered the area, whispering to each other.

Along with Sirius, James and Lily were treading softly towards the room. They were much older than the obnoxious teenagers he remembered from Dumbledore's Pensieve-- from a memory, which had disturbed him more than he liked. They more resembled the time when the wedding photographs of his parents was taken. Lily's voice brought him back from his reverie.

"Do you think it's wise?" asked Lily, incredulously.

"Got any other bright idea?" Sirius cocked an eyebrow.

"Keep your voices down!" James whispered in alarm, which quieted the other two.

Lily whispered a spell, which made her wand-tip glow red. She placed her index finger on her lips to silence her accomplices, while waving her wand at the sides of the nearest gargoyle. James and Sirius followed suit, as they too crouched low and made for other two gargoyles, their wands alight red.

The moment they repeated Lily's moves, a white laser-like beam shot between the three gargoyles, so that they were engulfed by a white triangle. Harry was in between one of the beams and moved away reflexively.

Lily signaled to them, shaking her head furiously, while the other two exchanged grins. Sirius brought out a very familiar mirror from inside his robes, simultaneously holding his wand aloft through which the white beam was passing. He placed the mirror in front of the beam skillfully. The mirror became transparent and the beam went past it, undisturbed. He then elongated his wand with a spell, so that it reached the fourth gargoyle. It also emitted a white beam of light, so that the trio became surrounded by a white square with two additional beams crisscrossing each other in the middle.

They moved away from the beams instinctively, looking at each other questioningly, waiting for some response. The beams pulsed three times and as brightly as they had emerged, they went out in a flick and turned the gargoyles' eyes emerald.

"Phew!" James sighed, Sirius and Lily followed suit.

"I thought we were done for," said Lily, wiping her brow.

"You and your optimism." Sirius rolled his eyes, while James masked his chuckle in a cough, being faced with another pair of angry emerald eyes.

"I wish Moony were here, or Wormtail for that matter," Sirius mustered, in a genuine aching voice for distraction.

"Yeah. Still you managed," James said, appreciatively.

"I must admit--" Lily faltered as the floor shuddered beneath their feet. They only had a moment to look shocked, as the floor gave away ominously like a dragon's hatching egg, and they were left at the mercy of thin air.

Harry screamed along James, Lily and Sirius, knowing too well that he couldn't be heard, but continued nevertheless. Harry's heart pounded against his chest, as he waited for an impact or something similar. He wasn't able to see anything because of the dense mist that surrounded them, the rushing wind howled against his ears.

"Do something!" Sirius shouted above the shrieking wind.

"Wish I had my broomstick!" James howled.

"Oh, I can't conjure parachutes!" Lily whined.

"What kind of a witch are you?" Sirius asked, incredulously.

"What is your problem, S--"

"Lily, I'm so sorry for bringing you along," James cut in between.

"Don't be silly, James."

"As our time is near--I was serious when I proposed to you last week."

Harry could hear Sirius groaning somewhere.

"You wha--"

Sirius cut Lily in between. "Let me be a Minister and marry you two off on the twist, shall I?" Sirius yelled, exasperatedly. "We are falling for crying out loud, and you lovebirds can't stop sno--" Sirius's plea to the heavens, was interrupted by a shout.

"Plumalio!" Lily bellowed.

The trio in the nick of time, plopped down on a featherbed, conjured by Lily.

"That was brilliant, Lily," James said, quite breathlessly, hoisting himself up from a tangle of robes, shoving off Sirius's leg, which was threatening to kick him in the shins.

Lily on the other hand was buried under the curtain of her hair and robes. James helped her to her feet, while she swept her long tresses out of her face, with short swipes. If it weren't for the whole mysterious location, Harry would have burst into gales of laughter. He couldn't help the few chuckles that escaped him nervously, as his subconscious was in a conflict that his parents were indeed there, in his time, not vice versa.

"It was nothing, really," Lily said, with as much dignity as was possible in her disheveled condition. James grinned and in turn messed up his own hair quite idly.

Harry looked about him in the darkness, the only source of light being the three wand tips held up by Lily, James and Sirius. The surrounding was unshapely and curbed, seemed more like a cave.

"Point Me!" James uttered, holding his wand aloft in his hand. The wand rotated first clockwise and then counter-clockwise and back again.

"It's no use!" Sirius said, in a frustrated voice.

"Where in Merlin's sake are we?"

"Deep, deep down, is all I can tell you," Lily answered, squatting at a corner examining a rock.

"Reducto!" James experimented with a corner. The spell didn't reveal a way but few rocks crumbled out of that place.

"Let's do it together?" James suggested, and they did. On their third attempt, some rocks fell away and revealed something shiny. On close examination and scraping, it turned out to be an egg-shaped jewel.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Pull it out or something," Sirius demanded, while Lily and James exchanged doubtful looks.

"It could be anything," Lily said, hesitantly.

"Nothing would happen, if we sit here and suffocate to death," Sirius said, flinging his arms about.

"Padfoot, you are such a ray of sunshine!" James exclaimed, and holding Lily's hand, jabbed at the pale jewel.

The jewel lighted with his touch and the unshapely rocks and earth, shifted away to reveal an oval shaped door beside the jewel.

"Not too difficult, was it?" Sirius half-smirked, half-gaped at the following scene.

The entry led to a stretched corridor which was guarded by a row of statues of lions and gargoyles, alternatively. A distant door was enticingly blinking at them at the end.

"Is it what I think it is?" Sirius asked, his mouth still sagging.

"Yes, I think so." James gulped.

"And you do know about the legend?" Lily asked, in a whisper.

"What legend?" Sirius and James both bellowed in unison.

"Haven't you read the confidential files that you were supposed to memorize by our next training session?"

"No!" they both uttered exasperatedly--the brotherhood continuing its toil. Lily sighed and rolled her eyes, muttering something which sounded like, "Men!"

Before anyone could say another word, an inhuman shriek came reverberating through the gargantuan depths of the corridor.

"I reckon we have company," James said, taking out his wand, his features metamorphosing every trace of humor into solemnity and determination.

Sirius's eyes glimmered in excitement. He gracefully covered the short distance from where he was standing to the oval shaped doorway so stealthily that none of them were able to notice till he had reached the exit.

Lily on the other hand had her eyes closed and was mumbling something under her breath as though recalling something forgotten.

There was a torrent of footsteps, as the darkness between the lion and gargoyle statues--that they presumed to be adjoining walls--gave away to faint flickering lights. There seemed to be a region much bigger than the gaping corridor between the shadows of the guarding statues, illuminated by the haphazard brightness.

"Cloak to the rescue, James. I think covertness would be much appreciated," Sirius provided.

"But I don't have it," James said, almost inaudibly.

"WHAT!"

"Shhh!" Lily warned.

"But why?"

"We were supposed to be doing field research, not entering some rampant duel," James said, exasperatedly.

"But you never know!"

"I think someone is spending too much time with Mooody," James jeered at Sirius.

"And I think--"

"Oh shut up, both of you!" Lily whispered, lividly.

"We can't always have everything! So, before we blow our cover, I'd like you two to be completely mute," she finished, in a try-otherwise-and-you'll-regret-it-later voice.

Sirius looked as if he would love to spill out what was going through his mind, but remained silent after receiving threatening glares from James.

"Let's have a better view, shall we?" James whispered, and they edged closer to the lights, shielding themselves behind the mammoth statues.

As Harry could chance a better view, he strolled towards the lights and was not surprised to see a hoard of hooded Death Eaters looming towards the corridor from the vast expanses of darkness of the region beyond. Half of them were carrying flaming torches and the others were using their wands to illuminate their path. The inhuman screech, which sounded somewhat familiar to Harry, rang again, from somewhere close to where he was standing.

The hooded figures quickened their pace, as the sound of a powerful, lithe body was added with the ominous screech of the unknown creature. Something huge was on their tails, possessing blazing eyes which followed them unblinkingly.

The Death Eaters spread around to distract the beast, which was suddenly illuminated by the torches and wands of the dispersing Death Eaters.

A fully-grown Griffin was regally charging at them, its variegated coat shining along with the enchanting fires of its eyes. It mercilessly swooped down on the fleeing Death Eaters, injuring and killing them with single snaps of its steely beak. The vast expanses of that unknown territory were soon filled with the echoes of pained screams along with the territorial roars of the Griffin.

Harry was so busy observing the Griffin that he didn't notice the trio stealing past him in their surreptitious expedition to the glowing doorway at the end of the corridor. Running Death Eaters kept blocking his vision, but before long, he was following the trio too.

A sudden flare of red sparks attracted Harry's attention. One of the Death Eaters had launched an ungainly attack on the Griffin, scorching some of its coat-feathers, and in an instant with a single slash of the Griffin's paw, was lying face down in the pool of his own blood.

In the frenzy, nobody noticed the three stealthy figures edging closer and closer to the doorway. The trio in turn was unaware of the haphazard group forming of the Death Eaters behind their backs to slay the Griffin.

A howling scream issued from none other than the rampaging Griffin, stopping the trio on their tracks. The ground shook beneath their feet and dust spilled from above, as if the structure itself was moaning with the troubled Griffin. They rounded back on the scene to glimpse a circle of Death Eaters shooting Stunning Spells and Crutiatus Curses to impede the beast.

"They are hurting him!" Lily said, angrily.

"We can't do anything. If we do, our cover is blown," Sirius said, in an explanatory voice.

Another screech sounded, the Death Eaters were closing in on the Griffin and were apparently gaining.

"But we have to do something! We must! We can't leave like this," Lily pleaded.

"Lily, come to your senses, we are getting all clear without the Guardian breathing down our necks. What more can one expect?" Sirius said, incredulously.

"I don't know, but I just can't!" Lily said, resolutely. She headed towards the Death Eaters without even a backward glance, wand ready for onslaught. James and Sirius followed suit, James ambled straight with the air of unwavering support, while Sirius just sulked along dejectedly.

Lily shot Stunning Spells as soon as they were in range, successfully distracting half of the Death Eaters. The Griffin seeing its chance, snapped at the nearest Death Eaters, killing them instantly.

"Get away, this is not your place," a Death Eater commanded the trio, but wasn't fast enough to save his wand from shooting out of his hand and landing in Sirius's grasp. However, before any of them could capture him, he broke a smoky vial at his feet, which issued a gush of black smoke, engulfing them rapidly and blindly.

"Stop, stop!"

James cleared the mist with a flick of his wand. They were almost alone, except the Griffin which was drunkenly following the last escaping Death Eaters.

"You two, maintain a lookout. I'll be just back with the Ventosus Scroll." Sirius ran towards the bright doorway, without waiting for a reply.

The Griffin hobbled back towards them, the fire of its eyes diminishing with every step. A muffled gurgling sound was coming from its mouth, as its head doled from side to side. Still, with extreme determination, it charged at James and Lily.

They ran in opposite directions to avoid the hulking beast, the Griffin swerved and ran after Lily instead. Harry too followed and anxiously wished for a miracle to happen.

"I don't want to hurt you, please!" Lily implored to the beast, as if to make it understand, still running from it, her wand alight and hair flying everywhere.

Harry could see James veering towards the beast as well.

"James, no!" Lily bellowed, as she saw him approaching the beast, his wand pointing towards it. The beast stopped on its tracks hearing Lily's bellow.

James looked nonplussed as he unsurely stole glances from the beast to Lily. She in turn, started nearing the beast. It just gazed at her with its fiery eyes.

"We don't want to hurt you," she said, softly.

The beast was almost eight feet tall, and it had to bow its head to be on par with Lily.

She inched closer seeing it becoming docile.

"Lily--" James whispered, worriedly, but was silenced by her held-up hand.

On a closer look she saw the reason behind the Griffin's waning strength. A huge splinter of a flame-torch had pierced one of its forelegs, caking the wound with dry blood. Due to its variegated coat, it was only visible up-close.

"Oh dear!" Lily gasped and edged closer. The Griffin didn't seem to mind.

She poked around the wound to check how deep the splinter had gone. Harry could guess that it was almost six inches deep and two inch wide, the Griffin must have incredible strength to bear such searing pain.

James kept his distance, because whenever he tried edging closer, the Griffin became fidgety.

Harry was intently watching Lily when the thought of Sirius flittered through his mind. The Scroll! he thought.

The moment he about-turned to check on him, he saw him ambling towards them clutching a slightly elongated sack. James warned him from distance that he shouldn't come any closer.

Harry snapped towards the Griffin, hearing a restrained sound issue from it, while Lily used a spell to extricate the long splinter of wood. She was performing some nifty spells that Harry didn't even have inkling of. With some more swishes of her wand, the Griffin became free from all injuries.

Lily faltered as she looked straight into the deep blazing eyes of the beast. Harry noticed that the fire of the Griffin's eyes ceased to be menacing, but had somehow changed into calming warmth.

The Griffin bowed its head slowly, and for a moment Harry thought that the beast would do something unexplainably horrible, remembering its attack on the Death Eaters. James too must have been thinking along the same lines as he readied his wand towards the beast, but the Griffin with greatest care, patted Lily's head gently with its beak.

All of them sighed in relief on the sudden appearance of graciousness from the beast. They were in no position to do anything otherwise.

The Griffin nudged Lily with a soft push of its beak, towards the door of the main chamber, from where Sirius had just extracted the scroll. She shot a panic-stricken look at James who didn't have any bright ideas either. The Griffin opened its wings as if trying to stretch its muscles along the walk. However, their straight journey was disrupted as it veered towards the rows of columns where Sirius was hiding.

"Uh oh!" James mumbled.

"Sirius, take cover!" James spoke to the communicating mirror, which Harry instantly recognized. Harry reckoned that the Griffin already knew the presence of another human and the fact that he possessed something which it guarded.

The Griffin screeched territorially, telling them that it knew more than they thought it did, halting just in front of the column hiding Sirius.

"It's too late, we can't run." Harry heard Sirius's dejected voice through the mirror James was clutching. He emerged in front of them, side-stepping the column.

There was a moment when Harry was certain that the Griffin was intending to swoop down with its steely beak and end the lives of those he dearly loved, but then again there was a part of him, which kept on telling him that they survived and there was no alternate reality to it.

The Griffin unfurled its wings and beat them about causing the age-old dust covering the expanses to scatter everywhere. It screeched again animatedly as if trying to convey some message. It bowed its head to be at Lily's eye-level, extending its right claw towards her and clucking in its throat, producing a muffled tick-tock sound.

"You want me to take it?" Lily said questioningly, doubt creasing her forehead. The Griffin clucked in response waving its claw in air.

"But I can't! I don't want it," Lily said shaking her head, while Griffin looked enquiringly at her.

James and Sirius exchanged looks and shrugged. Like Harry, they weren't getting the strange communication either.

The Griffin looked at the bulging robes of Sirius as if seeing through it. Sirius flinched in response, but stood his grounds.

Reading between the lines, Lily said, "We will never use it for power. We'll keep it safe."

The Griffin beat its wings again and observed them all one by one, making its final decision.

At last, it came near Lily and twittered softly in her ear, like imparting the world's biggest secret. After the short exchange, it grunted in James' and Sirius's direction and bowed to embrace Lily, lightly resting its head on her shoulder, stroking her hair with its head in small sweeping motions. Its wings unfurled to cover her completely. There she remained for awhile, closing her eyes and lost in the wings of a mystic creature. James worriedly reared to rush towards her, afraid of losing her, but was held back by Sirius.

It was a strange sight, seeing a vicious beast embracing a human with such love and devotion. Its wings concealed Lily from the rest of the world, like it was saving a part of her behind with itself.

The Griffin parted its wings to release Lily from its folds and beat them to produce a whirling current around them. All of them covered their eyes to deflect the flying dust about them. Everything went white as Harry felt a strange sensation in his navel like a plug being pulled, similar to traveling by a Portkey but more like a lift-off.

With the sound of a faint Griffin screech, they stumbled on solid grounds again. They were back in the Gargoyle Room and the floor was intact as if it had never given away to nothingness, as Harry remembered. The only exception was the four gargoyle statues, which didn't seem to be alive anymore. Their blazing mouths and eyes were empty and dark; their formidability all gone.

James rushed towards Lily, who was brushing her robes ceremoniously.

"Are you all right?!" James asked, concernedly.

"Hmm... what?" she mumbled, looking up. Seeing James however, tended her to focus as she looked at him strangely and stole glances around them.

"Lily, is everything okay?" James asked, examining her closely for any injuries or such.

"I'm fine, James... I was just overcome... Really, there's nothing to worry about," she said, soothingly, giving them reassuring glances.

"And I thought we were done for." Sirius broke the silence by enacting a girlish voice.

In spite of herself Lily grinned genuinely, waving a fist at Sirius, who grinned back and looked more than relieved to see things back to normal.

Harry in turn just wondered about the Sirius in front of him. The escaped prisoner from Azkaban was a mere shadow of this Sirius, who was the bottom-line master, a person who would do anything for his friends.... Like, giving his life?

Harry sighed, closing his eyes to the memories which had almost overwhelmed him. They were exhilarating but painful at the same time.

He opened his eyes to the sound of his father.

"Do you still have it?" James asked. Sirius fished inside his robes and with a contented smile took out the Scroll.

"Yes!"

"Lily, you did it!" James hugged Lily, without seeing that she was buried in some deep thought.

"Yes, those Healer classes paid off," Lily said, smiling at James, while Sirius examined the ancient looking scroll. It was written in some unintelligible language and its crispiness told them that it had been managed by very few hands.

Harry in turn, just looked hungrily at the people he loved and lost, when he felt the tell-tale effects of the memory ending. He felt the ground giving away to something soft, like a hearthrug and the gloomy dark walls were replaced by the bright ones of the Room of Requirement. Try as he might to hold them back, the three figures vanished into the cruel sands of time.

~*~