Destroying the Snake

Prolong - June 21, 1997

Snow. It fell on Harry's shoulder as he put the last flower on Cedric's grave. Harry, in all his thoughts, did not realize how bizarre it was. When had it ever snowed on the first day of summer?

Things had been quieting down since He had been killed, and no one noticed the weather anymore. No body noticed. Harry sighed as he walked out of the Hufflepuff cemetery and into the courtyard. He held his head down and didn't look into the faces of the looming statues of the Four Founders, in which this whole mess was made in the name of.

"I've been waiting a long time for you to come, Harry," a voice said from the foot of Godric Gryffindor. Harry didn't turn around.

"Are you another one of those reporters or something because I don't care what you say anymore. Leave me in peace," the sullen-faced seventeen-year-old said abruptly.

"I am not a reporter. I have distrusted them from the day I was born, and no, I am not out to kill you."

Harry spun around to look at them. "How did you-"

"I know many things, Harry," the figure said. It was a young woman about Harry's age (or so it seemed) and she even wore a Hogwarts' uniform, a GRYFFINDOR Hogwarts uniform to be exact. On her chest, proudly worn, was a scuffed Head Girl badge, and she was smiling at him with an angelic smile. She was very fair and beautiful, and her eyes shown like wise pure blue orbs at him.

"Who are you," Harry whispered; because looking into those eyes made him feel even more guilt. Guilt from the distant memory of Albus Dumbledore.

"My name is like yours, with so many different titles attached I really don't know where to begin!" the girl said with a laugh. She stood up from the feet of Gryffindor and shook herself clean of the fluffy snow. "But I spoose I could give you all of them: Heir of Gryffindor, Lioness amongst the Snake, Dumbledore's Niece, and etceteras. Oh! My real name, now that's the one I don't really remember."

Harry gave her a look that anyone would give a person such as this. "How can you NOT remember your REAL name, when you remember ALL the other ones?"

The girl's face became hard and desolate. "Unlike you, Harry, no one remembers me. So how can I stay in a world where I'm gone by with TITLES, other than my name?"

"You're a spirit of one of Voldemort's victims. Wait, did you say Heir of Gryffindor?!"

A heartfilled laugh echoed through the graveyard. "Voldemort did kill me, but I'm not a spirit, more of your guardian angel, and yes, I did say Heir of Gryffindor, but not in the sense you're thinking of."

"But YOU'RE the HEIR OF GRYFFINDOR! Dumbledore told me that Gryffindor KILLED Slytherin, and that was meant to happen again," Harry said, now forgetting, for a moment, how sad his life had become.

She gave him another smile. "Gryffindor did kill Slytherin, I did kill the Heir. You did it physically, with all the power and the hope that was needed; while I killed Him from the inside." A painful look came over her face.

"You knew him," Harry whispered unnecessarily. She nodded.

"All too well. It hurts whenever I think of the horrible contribution I gave to his power," She said, a look of selfloathing coming upon his face. "To know that you gave the name that became feared among everyone, that if you spoke it you did not know what happened to you. I lived in the darkest of times, Harry, in the muggle and wizarding worlds. You did not know who you could trust.

"Dumbledore, before his death, did not tell you what happened, why Voldemort was so powerful, so quick to kill. I suppose he was right, God rest my uncle's soul, for if you did you would have looked on him differently, thus enabling Him to, perhaps, turn you. Now you must know, for even James knew, and how it hurt him. . .I will start at the beginning, and a very long beginning it was. . .