The Heart of the Raven

Chapter 6: The Raven Revealed

Harry couldn't believe his eyes. He just stared open-mouthed at Raven's wand, and she stared back at him, her flashing dark eyes seeming to burn straight through to his soul.

"You're... you're a witch?" he managed to gasp, still staring at her. All sorts of crazy thoughts were rushing through his mind. Was she working for Voldemort? Had it all been some kind of trap?

"You're Harry Potter!" she gasped back at him, seemingly bewildered. "What is this, what were you planning to do exactly?" She continued to glare at him, keeping her wand fixed on him. Raven was obviously just as confused as Harry was.

When Harry didn't answer right away, Raven turned her gaze on Tonks instead. "Are you with him?" she asked, jerking her head in Harry's direction. When Tonks nodded, Raven narrowed her eyes and clenched her left fist.

"You'd better start telling me what you think you're up to right now," Raven hissed. She motioned to Tonks to stand over by Harry, keeping her wand trained on the both of them. "And you too in the shadows there, I can see you," Raven added to Remus, who stepped forward sheepishly. "Now, start talking," she said to Harry.

"It's... it's about your tiara," Harry choked, still completely shocked that Raven was apparently a witch. "We have reason to believe that your tiara once belonged to one of the founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

Raven's expression softened somewhat. "Rowena Ravenclaw, you mean?" she asked, raising an inquisitive eyebrow as she continued to survey the three of them.

"Yeah, Row- wait, how did you know...?" Harry stuttered.

"I'm a descendent," Raven explained. "My last name is..."

"Rex?" Tonks guessed.

"That's right." Raven nodded, casting Tonks an inquisitive look. "I see you three have done your research." She looked at them with new eyes now. "Why are you after the Heart of the Raven?" Raven spoke in a carefully measured voice. She'd lowered her wand by this time, but was still keeping a firm grip on it.

"We think that a certain Dark Lord may have gotten hold of it," Remus explained.

"Lord Voldemort wanted to collect items that belonged to each of the Hogwarts founders," Harry elaborated. "He wanted to turn them into Horcruxes, I don't know if you've ever heard of..."

"...Objects that contain the fragments of a person's soul when split by committing murder," Raven recited, as though reaching into a Hermione-like dictionary of magical terminology.

Harry stared at her.

"Well," she remarked. "That certainly explains a lot. But why didn't you guys just try to talk to me, rather than try to jump me in a dark alley? That's a bit of a cliché, isn't it?" Raven seemed a lot friendlier now.

"We didn't know you were a witch," Remus explained. "Tonks saw your interview in a Muggle magazine and recognised the tiara from a design sketch..."

"And what do you want with these alleged Horcruxes?" Raven wanted to know.

"We've been trying to destroy them," Harry explained. "Four have been taken care of so far, but your tiara is the second last."

"It's the only way we can defeat the Dark Lord," Tonks added. "Once all of his Horcruxes are destroyed..."

"...Then the only thing keeping him alive will be the last bit of his soul still in his body," Raven concluded. "Interesting plan of his, trying to create more than one Horcrux. Makes things complicated, doesn't it?"

"Very," Harry agreed.

Raven surveyed the three of them with her dark inquisitive eyes before speaking again. "I'd like to help," she said at last. "This Lord Voldemort is a real twisted character. I may be from Canada, but I've heard an awful lot about his reign of terror. He's been trying to recruit wizards from other countries to his cause. It's only a matter of time before he tries to take over the entire world. He nearly killed some of my relatives in the last war. But if you're trying to defeat him, I would love to get in on that." She surveyed Harry with interest.

"We'd be happy to have all the help we can get," Harry said eagerly.

"On one condition," Raven added, before Harry could speak again. He swallowed hard and waited for Raven to lay out her demands.

"I need a way to get into Hogwarts to search for something," Raven informed him. "I don't know if you've heard of the Scrolls of Ravenclaw, but..."

"Actually we have. Some friends and I already found them," Harry told her.

"Well," Raven remarked, impressed. "If I help you, will you let me have the scrolls?"

"Of course," Harry agreed, relieved that the scrolls were all she was after. "In all respect, they should be yours anyway, with you being a descendent..."

"Nice to know we could work this out." Raven smiled pleasantly. "Why don't you introduce me to your friends?" she added, glancing expectantly over Harry's shoulder at Remus and Tonks.

"Oh..." Harry said stupidly, realising he hadn't properly introduced them. "This is Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks," he clarified.

Tonks elbowed him hard in the back. "Just Tonks, Harry," she reminded him. Harry gritted his teeth, and tried to ignore the throbbing pain in his spine. What did Remus see in her, anyway?

"It's nice to meet you all." Raven smiled, shaking hands with everyone.

"Hey Raven!" Nevermore's blue-haired bass player called out. She turned to glance back at him for a moment. "Are you coming?"

"In a minute, Arty," she called to her friend. She turned back to Harry and the others. "My friends and I are staying at the Pendulum Hotel. How about we meet up tomorrow and talk about how to destroy this Horcrux? I would love for there to be some way to get the Dark Lord's soul-piece out of my tiara without destroying it. You don't mind if I ask my friends for some advice?"

"No, go ahead," Harry assured her, secretly glad to get some new ideas thrown into the ring. "We'll come by and pick you up tomorrow, and we can go back to our headquarters and see if we can work out a plan..."

"Great." Raven nodded, rummaging in her bag again. She wrote down her hotel's address and directions and gave them to Harry. "Sometime after noon would probably be best. We musicians need our beauty rest," she joked.

"Sure." Harry nodded.

With a smile and a wave, Raven Rex glided off into the night with her long hair flowing out behind her like a fan.

"This has officially been the strangest night of my life," Harry heard Tonks remark to Remus. "Who'd have guessed that she was a Rex? I should have seen it coming! The scroll said that the Rexes had a daughter Raven's age."

"But it didn't say her name," Remus pointed out.

"Still, I should've known when I saw how much she looked like Rowena." Tonks shook her head. "Uncanny!"

"Uncanny indeed," Remus remarked. "Interesting how that happened. After all the centuries that have gone by, there's still some strong genes there."

"Rowena was a strong person," Harry decided. "And I think Raven is too." He turned to Remus and Tonks. "Do you think it's the right thing to trust her?"

"She seems pretty genuine," Tonks said. "But I'd love to know why she spends her time pretending to be a Muggle singer."

"I guess it's a cover story," Remus considered, as the three of them began to make their way back to headquarters. "Being on tour, it's an opportunity to get to places all over the world to search for relics."

"I'd still like to have a little chat with her," Tonks said. Her auror's instinct seemed to be hard at work. "Just to be sure. But she seems alright. What d'you reckon, Remus?"

"She seemed trustworthy, but I've been wrong before," Remus said gravely. "But in this instance, I've gotten better at telling when people are real or fake. Perhaps Raven prefers not to be outwardly known as a Ravenclaw descendent because of the infamy surrounding the Rex family. The Rexes aren't trusted, and she's worried that she won't be either. So she takes up the façade of the singer."

"Good point," Tonks agreed.

They continued to discuss Raven Rex all the way back to Headquarters. The others had waited up for them, and they were extremely surprised and shocked by the news about Raven Rex.

"We need to be one hundred percent sure that we can trust this girl," Hermione said to Harry. "When you go to get her tomorrow Harry, you should take Luna with you."

"Why Luna?" Harry wanted to know.

"She's been learning Legilimency," Hermione explained. "She said it would help her find those blasted Crumple-Horned Snorkacks of hers, but she could use it to read this Raven girl's mind to see if she's not trying to deceive us somehow."

"I dunno," Harry said apprehensively. "I don't like the idea of breaking into someone else's mind. Why don't we just let Tonks question her? She's an auror, after all."

"I still think you should let Luna check her out," Hermione insisted. "I'd be glad to get her out of the house for awhile to be honest; she keeps trying to find Nargles in the closets..." Hermione trailed off, rolling her eyes. "She's driving me mad."

"Alright, I'll take Luna," Harry grudgingly agreed. "But I won't ask her to use Legilimency on Raven. I don't know why it is, but I feel like we can trust this girl."

Hermione sighed impatiently. "Fine. Suit yourself." And she left the room in a huff.

Harry knew that Hermione meant well, but he didn't want to subject anyone else to Legilimency unless it was absolutely necessary. Not after his own experience with that traitorous Snape. No one else needed to be put through something so traumatizing. They'd just gained a new ally and the last thing they should want to do would be to alienate her.

****

Meanwhile at the Pendulum Hotel, Raven Rex was knocking on the door of room 219. She paused, waiting for her friends to let her in. There were two other girls standing behind her, one tall and one short.

"Is that you, Rae?" asked a male voice from within.

"Who else, Arty? I've got Elektra and Medea with me too," she said.

There was a second's silence before the boy in the room began to recite from the famous Edgar Allan Poe poem The Raven: "'While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping...'"

"'...as if someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door,'" Raven responded with the next line of the poem. It was one of the many the secret passwords among the band to avoid impostors from infiltrating their ranks.

The door of room 219 creaked slowly open to reveal Nevermore's blue-haired bass player, Artemis Atreyu. Raven gave her friend a smile before slipping past him into the dimly lit room. The other two girls, Elektra Echo and Medea Milton, followed.

"So... what is this all about?" Artemis asked Raven as she, Elektra, and Medea settled themselves on a sofa.

"I met Harry Potter tonight," Raven announced as Nevermore's fifth member, Sebastien St. James, came out of the bathroom. Sebastien and Artemis both eagerly sat down opposite Raven and the other girls, waiting with bated breath for her to tell them more.

"Harry Potter!" Elektra exclaimed. "He was at the show?" she asked Raven excitedly.

"Yup." Raven nodded. "I'm sure you saw him. He was right there in the front row; wearing a really cool jacket."

"I saw that guy!" Medea recalled. "He was with another guy and this girl with really neat hair."

"Apparently," Raven continued, "he was intrigued by the mystery of my trusty tiara. And I think he answered some questions I've had."

"About zee tiara's dark powers?" Sebastien asked in his familiar French accent.

Raven nodded. "It turns out Lord Voldemort's put his special touch on it," Raven said gravely. "My tiara is a Horcrux."

"That explains a lot," Medea remarked blandly.

"It sure does," Artemis breathed. "How did Harry figure it out?"

"He said that the Dark Lord wanted to acquire objects from each of the four founders of Hogwarts to make into Horcruxes," Raven told them. "A grand scheme in a plan for immortality. Harry and his friends have been working to destroy them."

"But you can't let him destroy you tiara!" Elektra protested. "You love that thing way too much," she added, forlornly.

"Zere could be a way," Sebastien spoke up, "to save zee tiara. But it would take a very powerful potion."

"I'm sure you could handle it, Sebastien," Medea said dryly.

"Well, I didn't get top marks in potions for nothing." Sebastien grinned. "And I love a challenge, too."

"How do you know you can trust this guy?" Artemis wanted to know. "I assume you checked him out."

"I did." Raven nodded. "I could see all his emotions right there on his face: nothing but honesty. He's on a very personal quest. This Voldemort character's destroyed so much of his life... it's only fitting that Harry would want to be the one to take him out. I really think we should help him. We've got all sorts of resources that we could contribute to this cause."

Artemis nodded, satisfied. "Good then. I think we should do it. But we'll need to take a vote..."

"I'm in," Medea said immediately.

"Me too," Elektra added.

"And me, of course." Raven nodded.

"And me also," Artemis agreed.

"Count me in," Sebastien chimed in.

Raven smiled happily at them all. "Well, look at that!" she declared. "We haven't been unanimous since we picked our band name."

The five members of Nevermore all smiled around at each other for a few moments. It was always at times like this that they took a moment of silence to anticipate the coming of an exciting new adventure.

"I guess we should adjourn for the night," Elektra said at last.

"Yeah, I'm beyond sleepy," Medea agreed.

The three girls rose from the couch, Elektra leading the way. Medea fell into step behind her and Raven followed after. She was just reaching for the door when she felt Artemis touch her shoulder.

"Rae?" he said tentatively.

She turned to face him. "What's up, Arty?" she asked.

"I just wanted to say... be careful when you go to see Harry tomorrow," Artemis said. "I know you said he was alright, but I just don't know..."

"Relax, Arty. I know a trustworthy kid when I see one," Raven assured him. "You know, Harry's probably asking his friends if they think he can trust me right now."

Artemis grinned. "Probably."

Raven smiled back. "I'll see you tomorrow, Arty," she said as she gave her friend a hug.

"G'night, Rae."