FicWad

17: MORE VISIONS
The morning of September 12, Harry had yet another strange dream. Unlike the previous two, it did not feature mass destruction of a major urban centre. Instead, he found himself on an unknown beach, looking up at a massive castle that clung to the side of a bluff. Unlike most places Harry was familiar with, this was light and airy. Curious, the area seemed to hum with magic; it was very much like the feeling he got at Hogwarts.

Then, there was the strange aircraft that hovered just out over the water, about level with the castle. It had a long body, but no wings. Two tails extended from the mid-section of the body, in between which there was a large, fan-like propeller. He could barely make out the name on the front of it, which read ‘VALIANT’. It looked formidable, although Harry was still slightly confused as to how it was able to stay aloft.

He caught movement out of the corner of his eye and spotted a group of men walking toward the beach. They were dressed in uniforms that resembled something that American soldiers used to wear. They all carried brooms similar to the one Travis carried, as well as some sort of firearm. ‘Very strange,’ Harry had to admit.

One of the men with them stood out, as he was not dressed the same. If anything, he looked like someone out of medieval times. He had blonde hair, and after studying him for a few moments, Harry realized that he was someone important.

Even more startling, a centaur trotted over to the group… at least, Harry believed it to be one, although he certainly didn’t look like Bane or Firenze did. He was equally magnificent, however, and quickly addressed the young man. “General Potter has informed us that the Invincible will have to be left behind. The craft was too severely damaged.”
“Thank you, Oreius. I rather expected that,” said the young man. “It is good to know that our people had nothing to do with it.”
“Agreed, your majesty…”

Harry woke abruptly, his mind swimming with what he had just seen. ‘General Potter?’ he thought, carefully untangling himself from Frank. He swung his legs over the side of the bed, and then slowly stood up. Three strange dreams now, and this one had to be the strangest. ‘Merlin, gotta wonder what Trelawney would think of this,’ he thought, quickly slipping on a pair of shorts, and a tee shirt.

Stepping into the library, he was not surprised to find Moody already seated at the conference table, reviewing a stack of parchment. “You’re up early, Potter,” he said, looking up from the pile.
“Strange dream, again,” answered Harry, retrieving the pensieve. He drew out the memory, and placed it into the bowl. “Care to join me for a look?”

Harry and Moody both dropped into the memory, and, at once, the grizzled old wizard started to take in the entire scene. At one point, he gestured with his wand, to stop the memory.
“Most interesting, you did not note the other ships?”
“Where?”
“Look over there.” Moody gestured with his wand, to a spot behind his peripheral vision. Sure enough, there were two more ships, identical to the Valiant, one of them rested in the water, at an off-angle. A group of soldiers, dressed similar to the others Harry had seen earlier, were retrieving contents from it, by the looks of it. Harry saw the name ‘INVINCIBLE’ on the front.

“Thing is, why am I seeing these dreams, though?” asked Harry as they exited the memory.
“I would have to conclude that this is your future, Potter. The reference to you being a general of some army, I would assume,” answered Moody.
“But that’s the LAST thing I would want,” said Harry, frustrated. “All I want to do is deal with Voldemort and get on with my life, should I survive. I mean, I think I’m entitled to that, am I not? And that world isn’t ours. At least not as far as I know… I mean, that centaur looked nothing like Firenze or Bane.”
“It still could be, perhaps a foreign breed of centaur. Most definitely, I would put coin on this being a distant future for you,” said Moody.

Harry practically stumbled through the rest of the day, the vision from that morning dominating his thoughts. The soldiers had brooms, but yet they had muggle weapons and were dressed like muggles. So which were they? Wizards or muggles? The aircraft were obviously magical, but yet, how could one be damaged so severely that they could not repair it? After all, the ‘Reparo’ charm tended to work quite well, and more than one person could cast it simultaneously, if necessary.

Largest issue of all, where was the place? Not having travelled all that much, it only clouded his ideals of places even more. Theoretically, it could be in their world, most likely many years into the future.

Then, another thought came to him. Perhaps, the reference to ‘General Potter’ meant one of his children. But no, that wouldn’t make sense either, unless he could get pregnant. As far as he knew, that was impossible. Harry made a note to ask someone about that, as he and Frank made their way to the 7th floor corridor, back at Hogwarts. A meeting of the Defence Association was scheduled for that evening in the Room of Requirement.
“Um, Harry… did you hear a word I just said, man?” asked Frank, sounding slightly irritated.
“Huh… Oh, sorry,” answered Harry, instantly feeling regret for not listening.
“You’ve been in space all day, what’s going on?”
“Just, well, I told you about that dream I had this morning.”
“Yeah.”
“I just can’t stop thinking of it, is all.”
“Well, you better. I mean, Severus knocked you on your ass several times last time, remember?”
“So he did,” Harry remembered. “Merlin, I’m sorry, mate.”
Frank only nodded, and then said, “I was saying that we’ll be back on tour the beginning of October, you know that, right?”
“Yeah, I remember. I guess that’s why Gerard and the rest of the guys are practically invisible these days.”
“That’s about right… and that’s gotta include me too, now,” said Frank. Harry nodded, having known that was coming.
“At least we can still sleep in the same bed at night… God, you have no idea how often I wished for that, well, earlier this year… to sleep in my own bed. The bus is fun for a while…”
“But it gets dull after a while,” finished Harry.
“The extra security won’t hurt, either.”
“Well, Frankie, you’re a target. I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you and your friends safe… they’re my friends too, now. You know, I really wish you guys could learn to apparate… Merlin, I would feel so much better…” a goofy grin crossed Harry’s face. “I know EXACTLY what we can do! Remind me after the meeting, we’ll talk to Remus.”

As expected, Severus was again sitting in on the club, as they met that evening. Harry, however, was by no means distracted by his presence. Although they most definitely still had their differences, the former potions professor was very much involved in teaching Harry and his friends, preparing them for the inevitable fight with Voldemort. He had been moved to the Defence against the Dark Arts position before Albus had been removed as Headmaster. Harry had only bumped into the new potions professor a few times, and he seemed to be all right, although he suspected that the man had many ulterior motives. Professor Horace Slughorn came across as slightly power-hungry. Of course, he WAS from Slytherin, and that’s all Harry needed to know.

The evening was spent once again refreshing the material covered the previous year, and orienting the new members, of which there were 20. That brought the total membership up to nearly 50, including him and the rest of the ‘ministry six’. He had decided the membership wouldn’t be open to anyone below 3rd year, since students in 1st and 2nd year were still learning the ropes of life at Hogwarts, and he only needed look back on his courses from that year to remember that they were by no means ready to take on what the club was about.

That quickly raised another issue: the prospect of the school being attacked. If that scenario ever did take place, was there an emergency plan in place? Perhaps another discussion with Minerva was in order.

As the meeting drew to a close, Harry was approached by a 3rd year Ravenclaw girl. “Excuse me, Mr. Potter?”
“It’s just Harry.”
“Did you really fight a troll in your first year?”
“Yes, I did,” answered Harry, giving her a weak smile. “I thought that would be all over the school by now.”
“Well, I heard Cho talking about it, and she also said you drove off a hundred Dementors once.”
“Yeah, that’s true, too, but like I said last year… it was all luck, and I had help… I mean, without Hermione, I wouldn’t have been able to do half the stuff I can.”
“Harry, we better get back, you did want to talk to Remus, right?” Frank reminded.
“True. I’m sorry, I have to go,” said Harry.

Returning to the trunk, Harry found Remus in the dining room, cradling a cup of tea, by the looks of it.
“How did the meeting go?” he asked.
“Fine. We have about 50 members now,” said Harry, pulling up a seat at the table.
Dobby instantly appeared and asked, “Is Harry and his Frankie needing anything?”
“A butterbeer, if you don’t mind,” said Harry.
“Yeah, sounds good,” Frank agreed. The little elf nodded and popped away, only to return moments later, with two bottles of butterbeer.
“Remus, I was wondering something,” said Harry. “Would it be possible to set up… reusable port keys?”
“Well…”
“I mean ones that are programmed with a single destination, but can be used over and over again.”
“It might be possible, you’d probably be better off asking Filius about that, I think,” said Remus.
“Filius?” asked Frank.
“Professor Flitwick,” said Harry. “Right, then. I’ll ask him tomorrow afternoon…” He then remembered his thoughts from earlier. “Remus… is it possible for a wizard to become pregnant?”

Frank looked at Harry, mortified, while Remus burst out laughing. “And where… where did you… come up with an idea like that?” he finally managed.
“Well, I had a strange dream this morning, I think it was of the future… and I got thinking, I guess,” answered Harry.
“Well, the short answer is no, absolutely not. There is a way for two wizards to have a child, but it most definitely does not involve either wizard carrying it. That would be rather disturbing, I believe,” Remus explained, trying his best to keep a straight face.
“Ok, now THAT sounds just as disturbing, I think,” said Frank.
“You are familiar with a surrogate mother?”
“Oh.”
“In our world, both wizards would contribute, well, their essence, if you will. The female would be then bound by magical contract, and, finally, impregnated.”
“So, if Harry and I wanted to have kids, it’s still possible… I mean, not that I’m wanting anything like that anytime soon… but, um, right.”
“Yeah, I agree with that… I don’t want anything more that Voldemort could use against me, and that’s exactly what a child would give him. Thanks, Remus, for that insightful explanation, I think…” Harry could feel his face getting very hot.
“I do believe you’re blushing, Mr. Potter,” Frank hissed playfully. Harry responded by dumping the rest of his butterbeer on Frank’s head and sticking his tongue out at him.
“Oh, you wanna play that way… fine with me,” Frank smirked, promptly returning the favour.
“Right, then, I’ll just leave you to it, then,” said Remus, quickly sliding out of his seat to leave the two combatants to their own devices.

Passing by Travis’ room as they went to get cleaned up, Harry heard the music going. Nothing new on that front, as Travis had a ton of music. However, this was something a little different. He knocked on the door. “It’s open!” came the reply.
“Who is this?” asked Frank, as they both entered Travis’ room.
“Cool, eh?” said Travis. “My friend Andy sent a disc to me in the mail, I just got it today. The bird that delivered it, fucking crazy though. Anyway, they’re called Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker(1), at least according to Andy’s note. He and a bunch of friends went to a rave a while back…”
“Err, what’s a rave?” asked Harry.
“Oh, it’s a blast.” Travis grinned. “I’ll have to take you sometime. It’s lots of music like this, trance, techno stuff, really wicked.”
“Sounds like fun.”
“How come you haven’t invited your friends up to the cottage and introduced us?” asked Frank.
“Because the last time I was with them, well… need I say more?”
“Right, true. Still, that’s not fair to you or your friends, man,” said Frank. “They know you’re magical, right?”
“Yup, definitely. Whether the ministry wants them to or not,” answered Travis. Then a wicked smile crept onto his face. “You know, we could have a rave here, in the trunk, use the Room of Requirement and so on.”
“Err, one problem. How do we bring a bunch of muggles into a magical environment without violating the statute of secrecy?”
“True,” Travis said, nodding his head. And so, the idea died there and then. Too complicated, he admitted silently to himself.

Of course, that didn’t stop Frank from seizing Harry about the waist, and together swaying to the beat. That got a rather amused look from Travis. “I gotta know, how come you guys are half wet, anyway?” It was only then that he actually noticed that.
“He started it,” said Frank, giving an impish smile.

oOo
It was the late evening of September 18. For the first time in quite some time, Harry managed to get himself into bed before midnight. He found himself easily spending half his days at Hogwarts, much of it spent doing research and planning things to cover with the Defence Association.

Returning from the school, he then ended up doing more training in the Room of Requirement, or studying something or other. On this particular evening, however, he took a break from all that, choosing to instead relax. So, at 11:30, he was in bed, and very quickly fast asleep.

He awoke with a terrible start what seemed like only minutes later, having gotten yet another terrifying vision. He leapt out of bed, startling his parents awake in their portrait.
“What is it, son?” asked James.
“Remus… he’s… there’s a fire at Grimmauld Place, I think!” Harry gasped, throwing on a shirt and a pair of shorts. He quickly exited the room, and made his way into the library, to find Moody there, along with several other Order members.
“What is it, Potter?”
“Did Remus go back to Grimmauld Place?”
“He did, why?”
“Merlin’s balls! There… I just… the place might be on fire!” Harry blurted.
“Fire? How…”
“I just got a vision the place is on fire! Ugh! Never mind, bloody hell!” Harry shouted, bolting from the room, into the common room. He quickly threw a handful of floo powder into the public fireplace, and stepped in, saying, “No. 12 Grimmauld Place!!”

He was ejected out of the fireplace into the kitchen, and, instantly, the acrid smell of smoke assaulted him.
“Remus?”
He heard coughing and wheezing up on the second floor, and so quickly apparated there.
“Harry?”
“Come on, there’s a fire! I think… just let’s get back to the floo.”
“You’ll have to help me, Harry,” Remus wheezed.
“Is there anyone else here?”
“No, just me,” answered Remus. Harry gripped him by the shoulder, and once again apparated them back to the kitchen with a loud CRACK. Instantly, a horrible scream pierced the hallway, and Harry knew who it belonged to. The noise had awoken Sirius’ mother, and he had to grin briefly, knowing that, perhaps, she was about to meet a fiery end.
“Shall we, Harry?”

The instant they arrived back in the trunk, they found themselves surrounded by most of the other inhabitants of it.
“Everything all right, Harry?” asked Ron.
“It is now. Merlin, that was close,” answered Harry. “The house was filled with smoke. I think maybe we should see Madam Pomfrey.”
“I do too,” Remus rasped.
“What is it, smoke inhalation?” asked Travis.
“Yeah, I think so,” said Harry, managing to stop himself from coughing.
“I might have something for that, hang on.” Travis took off to his room, and returned a few moments later with two vials. Just then, Deric stepped into the common room.
“Everyone, you’ll want to hear this.” He indicated for everyone to join him in the library.

Once everyone was seated, he turned up the volume on the radio.
“…THIS MORNING… THE LONDON FIRE BRIGADE HAS NOW ELEVATED IT TO A 12-ALARM CONFLAGRATION, AND HAVE ASKED POLICE TO EVACUATE HOMES AND BUSINESSES FOUR BLOCKS IN ALL DIRECTIONS. THE FIRE HAS NOW CONSUMED 6 BLOCKS, AND SEEMS TO HAVE NO SIGN OF STOPPING. FIRE OFFICIALS ARE REFERRING TO THE FIRE AS, ALMOST HAVING A MIND OF ITS OWN, UNNATURAL, NOT RESPONDING TO REGULAR FIREFIGHTING TACTICS…”
“That sounds like fiend fire,” said Moody.
“No, that would appear magical, I think,” answered Deric. “But I think we can all agree that wizards were involved in this.”
“Death Eaters,” said Harry. “But how did they know about Grimmauld Place?”
“I don’t know, Harry, but we can be certain that there won’t be much need to go back,” said Remus.
“Well look at it this way, mate,” said Ron. “You won’t have to listen to Mrs. Black and her screaming anymore.” That got a smile from Harry.
“Indeed. You know, I never really liked the place that much,” said Sirius from his portrait.
“We managed to retrieve anything of value quite some time ago,” said Remus, “Particularly when Dung started carting things out of the house. I have a number of boxes stored at my cottage.”
“I think that stuff should be stored in one of my vaults… no offence, Remus, but those things were willed to me.”
“Of course. If you want, we can…”
“Not right this minute, bloody hell, I think this was enough excitement for one night,” Harry groaned.

Indeed, although the muggle media had no clue, the wizarding world knew all too well who was at fault. The Daily Prophet the following day carried the headline: DEATH EATERS BURN MUGGLE NEIGHBOURHOOD IN LONDON. Several photos followed, showing the massive swath of destruction carved through the neighbourhood, leaving twisted wreckage, a few chimneys, and crumbling brick. Harry knew that somewhere in that mass of wreckage was what used to be Grimmauld Place.

Then, something caught Harry’s eye. A message scribbled across a crumbling brick wall, which read: ‘YOU CAN’T PROTECT THEM ALL, POTTER’.

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AUTHOR NOTES: So many fan fictions cover MPREG. It’s one thing that I just can’t wrap my head around. Now of course, I want Frank and Harry have children together. However, I’m going to go the traditional route, with some magical rules thrown in.

Now, the skill testing question to see if you were paying attention… Virtual cookies (and possible recognition at the end of next chapter) to the first one to guess what place Harry was dreaming about at the beginning of the chapter >:) And no, my beta doesn’t count… although feel free to guess… smirk

And, of course, a big shout-out, as always, to my beta, haushinka_77.

(1) look these guys up if you like an industrial sound, they’re wicked. They’re a band out of Toronto.