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Chapter Ten: Reflections Mirror the Future

Sirius had finally made it to his destination, just outside of Hogsmeade. The journey from Azkaban had been long, with many difficulties despite being in his Animagus form. He had to make a quick stop to Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place to pick up a spare wand to use. No doubt the Ministry had snapped his old wand. If he could somehow get to Gringotts to access his vault, he could purchase a more suitable replacement, even if this replacement was purchased on the black market, deep within the shadows of Knockturn Alley. Sirius had no doubt in his mind that he was being hunt down like a dog by the Ministry of Magic. If they were smart, the Ministry would have Aurors scouring every place imaginable for Black. At least, that is what Sirius would do if he was the Minister and had to track down a fugitive.

During his visit to Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, Sirius was very displeased to find that foul house elf Kreacher still existed. He seemed to have gotten worse over the years and Sirius pretty much deduced why. The foul little thing had been taking orders from a ranting and raving portrait of Sirius's dear dead mother. Sirius knew hearing that vile shriek all day over and over would drive him to a state of insanity. Kreacher now appeared to be in a state of madness that was only slightly beneath Bellatrix.

Something that perplexed Sirius was he could have sworn that Harry would be put at the Dursleys despite Lily throwing a ballistic fit when Dumbledore suggested it when her and James were still alive should they ever die. When he visited Privet Drive in late July, there seemed to be no sign that Harry lived at the Dursleys’ place of residence. Sirius feared the worst and he felt a bit of mistrust towards Dumbledore due to this happening. Dumbledore was not exactly on Sirius's good list right at the moment due to Dumbledore not doing anything to get Sirius a trial before he was thrown in that hellhole.

Still, Sirius felt he would confirm Harry's status when he went up to the school, to Gryffindor tower in an attempt to kill Pettigrew. Sirius believed that if Harry were still alive, he would be a Gryffindor.

One thing Sirius knew for sure is he would commit the crime that threw him in Azkaban in the first place. Pettigrew would suffer just like he suffered in those twelve years in Azkaban.

If Sirius would be honest enough to admit so, he would know he was more of a Black than he cared to believe.

Harry was in an abandoned warehouse. Foot Ninjas surrounded him from all sides. He tried to battle them back, but every time he hit one, they seemed to split in two like the Dementors did before his eyes like they did to Azkaban.

Harry looked desperately as his family and friends were at the mercy of hooded figure with a high cold laugh, with red catlike slits from eyes and a gaunt chalklike face coming underneath his robe.

"Help us, Harry!" screamed the voices of those Harry could see but not quite reach do to his own skills, which he failed were rapidly degenerating. He failed to save them, like he always failed.

The Foot Ninjas vanished replaced by the Shredder's Elite Guard, Hun, The Shredder, and Baxter Stockman, wielding a remote control device. Stockman twisted a knob on his control device and at least a thousand Mouser robots came into focus, chewing away at the foundation of the building, causing heavy pieces of concrete and metal coming down, crushing Harry's friends and family, but seeming to miss Harry. Harry ran towards the Elite Guard but they teleported away. The Shredder punched Harry, knocking him onto back and Hun pulled a piece of pipe, whacking Harry in the ribs just as he got up, causing him to hit the ground again. No matter what Harry tried, he could not fight back.

Harry looked as smoke swirled, replacing the scene of the Chamber of Secrets. Ginny was lying motionless on the Chamber floor, with the form of Riddle, laughing evilly and calling the Basilisk forward. Harry prepared to engage the Basilisk but he froze in his tracks. The Basilisk divided into fourths, surrounding Harry, moving in for the kill. Harry found himself surrounded by four Basilisks.

In a flash, Harry felt himself miniaturized and trapped inside a cage, in the palm of someone's hand. He looked up, and he was staring directly at the twinkle of evil.

"Trapped, Harry," said Dumbledore in a false grandfatherly tone with a twinkle in his eye. "Sealed inside, just like the majority of your magical powers."

Dumbledore morphed into the Shredder who crushed the cage with the miniature version of Harry in his metal-gloved hands, his eyes glowing red, laughing evilly but stopping before he crossed Harry.

"Failure Potter," hissed a cold voice belonging to Voldemort. "You'll fall to the power of Lord Voldemort. The world will be entombed in the darkness and the fault of this occurance shall be all yours.

"No more, no more," whispered Harry.

"No more!" screamed Harry, sitting up abruptly out of bed. Last thing he remembered, he was leaving Lupin's Defense Against the Dark Arts class then there was nothing. He seemed to be missing a long stretch of memories, although it seemed like he had been out for a very long time.

"Hey, everyone, Harry's finally up," remarked the voice of Leo.

Splinter walked over, leaning on his walking.

"My son, it is good to finally see you awake," remarked Splinter. "I must say I was getting quiet worried, it has been a long six weeks since you passed out."

"Six weeks!" cried Harry wincing, at the pain in his ribs for yelling so much. "I can't guess what happened that caused me to pass out for six weeks."

"You were in Azkaban, bro," said Raph in a grim voice.

Something clicked in Harry's mind. The missing section of memories from when Harry during the time he left Professor Lupin's class until the time he passed out came out. Harry's eyes went wide and he appeared to be attempting to vainly fight to urge to start screaming.

"Uh, Harry," said Mikey.

"Excuse me for a minute," said Harry calmly although he was shaking. "The Room of Requirement needs to help me burn off some anger, before I go and kill the people responsible for what has happened recently."

A sword appeared suddenly in Harry's hands as he sprang up to his feet. On the floor, a dozen glass statues appeared. Four of them resembled Fudge, the next four resembled Umbridge, and the final four resembled Dumbledore.

Harry raised the sword into the air, before angrily lashing out, decapitating one of the Dumbledore statues with a violent swing of the sword. The only regret Harry had was it was not the real live manipulative old fool. Harry then raised the sword in the air and stabbed it through one of the Umbridge glass statues before pulling it out and stabbing one of the Fudge statues in the throat.

"Whoa," gasped Don, his eyes going wide at the anger exhibited by Harry.

Harry swung his sword, splitting one of the Dumbledore statues in half. He tossed the sword, impaling one of the Fudge statues in the stomach with it before yanking it out and leaping up, slicing one of the Umbridge statues into pieces. He swung around in a circle with the sword, chopping the remaining six statues into pieces with several quick swipes. Harry looked down at the broken pieces of glass and willed the room to vanish the mess.

"I trust you feel better after that little...exhibition, Harry," said Splinter looking a bit horrified at Harry's borderline sadistic behavior right there.

"No, I don't but it was worth a bloody try," said Harry in a dark voice.

"Harry, that was just..." said Leo before trailing off.

"Dumbledore is going to rue the day he was born," said Harry in a bit of an angered voice. "What he did to Ginny was inexcusable! As for Fudge and his pet toad, I’ll deal with them soon enough! As soon as I think of something that is a fitting enough punishment for them sentencing me to that vile and desolate place."

"Harry, I'm almost afraid to ask but what are you planning on to do to Dumbledore right now," said Don, choosing his words carefully.

"I am going to challenge that old bastard to a duel to the death," said Harry his green eyes blazing with fury. "He attempted to use me time and time again. This time he will pay and the price will be his life. He will..."

"Harry, that is sufficient," said Splinter sternly. "I understand your anger but you cannot take rash actions like that. Dumbledore would crush you in his hand if you tried to fight him right now. You are not currently at his level of power although perhaps there will be a day you may be. Until then, you must sit back and simply wait for an opportunity to present itself that you can remove Dumbledore from this school by legal means."

"I suppose you're right Sensei," said Harry a bit deflated, but still shaking. "Dumbledore deserves some form of retribution and I do not have the power. It feels like I should be more powerful, especially when I tried to activate my Portus Amulet wandlessly..."

Harry stopped; something in his nightmare had come back to him. When Dumbledore held him in his hand in a cage, Dumbledore remarked that Harry was locked away, sealed from the rest of the world just like his magical power. No, not even Dumbledore could be so cruel...

"Harry, are you okay?" asked Mikey in a concerned voice.

"I seen my homework has been brought by," said Harry in an attempt to steer the conversation away from his paranoid delusions

"Yeah, Hermione made sure she collected all of your homework, even when it looked like you were going to spend a few months in Azkaban," said Raph. "You should make a good start on what you missed as its Friday night."

"Trust Hermione to remember to keep me up to date on my schoolwork," said Harry, looking through the pages of extensive notes Hermione gave him. It appeared as if the girl transcribed all the teachers' lectures for him.

"So, since you're awake, what's the plan for going to Hogwarts?" asked Leo.

"I'm going to walk into the Great Hall Monday morning as if nothing at all was different," replied Harry calmly.

"Dumbledore won't like that," remarked Don.

"Well, I'm all for making Dumbledore's day a little more difficult after all he did to me," said Harry. "I bet he probably expected me to walk up to him and stick my wand right in that infernal twinkle of his the next time I saw him. I'm going to be very Slytherin about this, cutting him off at the knees when he least expects it."

Harry began work on his homework, some of it quiet interesting, some if, such as History of Magic, dull as watching paint dry. He hoped to make some headway on this but dark thoughts plagued his mind when it was not focused on catching up on schoolwork. Ginny laid injured at St. Mungos from what his brothers told him, and they did not know quiet when she would recover. Harry tried to cast it out of his memory but he could not. He remembered the blank lifeless look in Ginny's eyes when he found her outside Dumbledore's office. That lifeless look haunted Harry's dreams, in addition to the usual dreams involving Shredder and the Foot. Harry believed these dreams would not die until the Shredder did and Harry wondered if he would live to see that day.

Monday Morning, Harry walked down from the Room of Requirement, walking through the hallway, looking rather happy. Many wore looks of shock at Harry not being there. Harry pretended nothing at all was the matter, continuing his walk towards the Great Hall.

Dumbledore was sitting at the High Table, enjoying his coffee. He gazed out a nearby window. The weather looked lovely outside. The Headmaster felt nothing at all could go wrong, not on a day like this. None of his carefully laid plans could possibly be fouled up today. Potter was still entombed in Azkaban to his best knowledge, after all, Fudge had not told him any differently so Dumbledore would just assume. The Weasley girl was not going to recover until at least mid December, and would probably not remember anything from the day she fell underneath her condition. Dumbledore had a cheerful twinkle in his eyes; nothing could put a damper on his day.

"Good morning everyone," said a cheerful voice.

Dumbledore looked up and saw something that made him spit out his coffee in surprise all over the high table. Harry Potter walked into the Great Hall as if nothing at all was the matter. Dumbledore knew it had not been six weeks but he could not confront Potter without showing his cards so he wisely said nothing.

Dumbledore felt like an idiot, Potter was up and about. One of his plans went into shattered into bits.

"Harry, you're back," said Daphne in an amazed voice.

"I wasn't aware I was gone," said Harry before adding in a low voice. "I'll explain later."

Harry looked around, there seemed to be someone missing.

"Where's Hermione?" asked Harry, looking around for his other friend.

"Two words for you, Draco Malfoy," said Theodore. "He decided since you weren't around, he got her banned from the Slytherin table. He seems to be a lot more confident when you are not here."

"I'll take care of Malfoy later," said Harry with a glint in his eyes that made Theodore and Daphne shiver slightly. "What's been going on since my sabbatical?"

"More of the same, the Ministry of Magic is no closer to catching Black and Lestrange than they were six weeks ago," said Theodore, shaking his head.

"The Ministry of Magic couldn't even catch a cold at their current state of incompetence," said Daphne.

Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle came in right now. Malfoy stopped, seeing Harry. Malfoy's knees gave out from underneath him, not being able to see what he thought he saw. Obediently, Crabbe and Goyle caught Malfoy.

"Hands off me!" snapped Malfoy. "Potter, I thought you were gone for good."

"Funny, that thought seems to be running rampant quiet a few places," said Harry before switching to his quiet spooky tone of voice. "Now what's this I hear about you not letting Hermione sit at this table with her friends."

"I had to put up with that vile Mudblood for too long," said Draco. "She is a stain on Wizarding kind and she should be St Mungos lifeless just like that Weasley trollop. It was..."

Malfoy did not finish that sentence as Harry wrapped his hands around Malfoy's throat, choking him. Malfoy was going to pay for his remarks, especially the one about Ginny. Harry pulled Malfoy over the table, so they were face to face. Malfoy looked terrified at the look Harry was giving him. Harry released one of his hands from Malfoy's throat, before picking up a fork, putting it an inch away from Malfoy's eyes.

"Give me a reason, Malfoy and I swear I’ll kill you right now," said Harry in a low dangerous voice.

Malfoy just whimpered in terror as Harry raised the fork. Crabbe and Goyle made a move to attack Harry but a deadly glare from Harry caused Crabbe and Goyle to back off. For the first time ever, Crabbe and Goyle made a semi intelligent move.

"You don't have the guts, Potter," whispered Malfoy. "My father will have you expelled if you harm me in any way."

"Your father will be joining you if he tries anything with me," said Harry. "As for having guts, we'll find out if you have any once I rip you open with this fork."

"Harry Potter!" screamed a voice. "Let him go this instant."

Harry turned his head, seeing McGonagall who was looking rather terrified at Harry's behavior.

"One week of detention, Potter, for your attack on another student," said McGonagall shakily as if she was expecting Harry to attack her as well.

"Better make it two weeks, Professor," said Harry coolly as he bounced Malfoy's head off the table. Malfoy slumped down, bleeding from the impact.

"Take him to the Hospital Wing," said McGonagall to Crabbe and Goyle.

It took Harry a few minutes to realize how close he just came to killing someone out of anger. It wasn't like it was Shredder, Voldemort, or even Dumbledore that he tried to attack. It was a fellow Hogwarts student, his own age.

"What have I done?" whispered Harry in a horrified tone of voice.

"Harry, it's Malfoy's fault," said Daphne although there was something rather shaky about her voice.

"Yeah Harry, he should learn how to keep his mouth shut," said Theodore in a hollow voice.

Harry looked up, he knew there words were true, but they did not convince him completely. They just seemed like words without much conviction.

Harry realized what the problem was quickly enough. She was not here and as long as she wasn't, a piece of him was missing. Ginny could always make him feel like it wasn't his fault when she talked to him. She managed to pull him out of his depressed state out of the battle with the Shredder. The dreams still haunted him but his own doubts about his own ability began to come back. This time, she was not there to make him feel better. His family and other friends could only do so much.

Harry wanted his friend back, but he knew it would be quite some time before she recovered, if she ever did. A dark long road seemed ahead for Harry and he always knew how much of a great friend Ginny was, but he did not know the full extent of until now. He needed her back, or he may fall into a worse state than he did during the summer following the defeat from the Shredder.

Another thing Harry wished if he could figure out what that infernal dream meant. He knew it held a couple of clues that may be of assistance to him other than torturing him with the reflections of his past failures.

Harry pulled himself up. No matter what dreams haunted him, he still had to resume his normal school routine. Reluctantly, Harry remained at Hogwarts but he wondered whether it was exactly wise. The thoughts of his friends being left at Dumbledore's mercy to be manipulated tossed all thoughts out of this nature out of Harry's mind. Harry had made a vow a few months ago to protect his friends and family at all costs, even if those actions cost him his life. The rest of this year was going to long the rate things were going.