Categories > Books > Harry Potter > Shadow Play
Harry dove through the door and tripped
Chapter 3: Orion
Harry dove through the door and landed hard, and facing the door. He had time to look behind and saw his friends were trapped by all the spells flying at the room they were in before having to jerk his head back to keep it from being hexed off.
"Get up!" /a voice said. Harry did what it said, and wondered briefly where the voice had come from. The room was empty besides a table set against a wall and covered in candles and a small statue. "Your friends are trapped, and there is nothing you can do about it." /The voice was not layered with malice or sarcasm, and sounded genuinely sorrowful.
"Who are you?!" Harry asked angrily - he didn't have time to play silly-buggers.
/"Listen to me, I can save them, but I need you to trust me first. Will you?" /Harry thought for a split second, in which the spells aimed at the doorway of the room across from his intensified, and realising the inevitable, he made the only choice he could.
"Fine, what do I do?" he asked hastily.
/"Break the stone figurine on the table and I'll do the rest. Hurry!" /Harry, with a moments hesitation, ran to the table and threw the figurine, one of a man in robes with a finely detailed face, at the nearest wall, making it break into pieces, releasing a misty... something. It floated up from the remains like some sort of smoky snake and suddenly, after a moment that hovered in time, shot towards Harry, who suddenly realised just how stupid what he had just done was. The misty substance billowed through the air and up to his face, entering with his breath, and the world suddenly faded away.
*
Harry awoke in an unfamiliar bed in an unfamiliar room. The walls were mainly whitewashed and there was a hygienic smell in the air, as if someone was using disinfectant as an air freshener. He could just see this in his peripheral vision, and a light on the ceiling blinded him while he closed his eyes again.
'Am I in hospital?' /He thought. Someone next to his bed squeaked and called out for Ron. Opening his eyes, Harry saw it was Hermione, and a feeling of intense relief flooded over him. /They're alive!
"Harry!" Ron said, looking half relieved, half scared. "Jesus, we thought you weren't going to wake up!" Harry sat up, shielding his eyes from the light and looking around for his glasses.
"What happened in Diagon Alley?" he asked. "I thought you were dead for sure! How did you fight off all those death eaters?" Ron looked slightly puzzled and Hermione went pale enough to match the walls. She sat down hard and gulped while some realisation came over Ron as well.
"You don't... you don't remember?" she asked him, and it was Harry's turn to look confused.
"Remember? How could I, I was unconscious!" Ron sat down and shook his head, looking extremely pale himself.
"Harry," he said slowly, drawing on the words as if to find some appropriate way of putting his next sentence. "You didn't black out until we were safely out of the building."
"What?" Harry asked, thrown off guard. '/This is some sort of joke, it must be,' /he thought, although april fools was quite a way off and HAry had never known them to make jokes like /this/.
"You -" Ron took a deep breath before continuing. "Harry... /you /defeated the Death Eaters. You... you /killed /them all."
Harry went cold all over. 'Killed? I... killed them?'
"We don't know what happened," Hermione said very quietly, not meting Harry's eyes. "But we saw you step out of the doorway and raise your hand at them, and there was a massive explosion where the Death Eaters were. When we came out, we could see... all of them..." Ron pulled her into a hug and looked green; Harry began shaking. This was no joke. He had killed the Death Eaters, and he didn't even have the memories of it. He suddenly remembered the voice and the mist, and frowned. Was this what it had meant by "Saving" his friends?
/ /Harry blanched and blinked several times. It was the same voice, and by the way that Hermione and Ron were just holding each other, he guessed they hadn't heard it.
"What the hell...?" he whispered to himself.
//
'And what if I am /crazy?' Harry thought, feeling rather awkward. '/I do have a voice in my head, and I'm pretty damn sure it's not mine!'
'WHAT?'
/ /Harry shook his head sharply - didn't object at the time?! He had been unconscious!
'And if I don't want to share my body with you, what then?'/ /There was a grim sort of laugh in his mind, and the voice gave Harry the distinct impression it was shaking its head at his naivety.
//
Harry sat stunned, staring into space for so long that Ron and Hermione left to get the doctors. Soon after he was alone, Harry shook his head and tried to clear it, but failed miserably.
// Harry failed to see what linked him to someone imprisoned within a statue, but decided to indulge himself and find out.
/'Okay, so what is it that links us?' /Harry swore he could feel the person smiling.
/Harry went cold all over again, and stopped breathing.
/'And why should I believe that you aren't a dark wizard, or even Voldemort himself?' /Harry asked.
//
'Jesus, why's it only me that has to deal with this crap?!' /Harry cried in his mind.[
//
/'What do you mean?' /Harry had drawn his legs up to his chest and stared at his knees, wondering how this could benefit him.
//
/'What is that supposed to mean?!' /Harry thought, fed up of the voice's vagueness. Just for once, he wanted someone to be straight up and tell him what's what, and now even the voices in his head were being cryptic!
// The voice sounded slightly annoyed, and Harry was reminded of Tonks and her dislike for her given name, Nymphadora.
Ron and Hermione reappeared with a medi-wizard and Cornelius Fudge, minister of magic.
'Yeah, I guess. Aeroplanes have been around for a hundred years, though, and I've never been on one.'
'He would have involved them anyway,' Harry thought irritably. 'He's like that, he can't fight his own battles, never has.'
/came the reply. /
'Okay, what is it?' /A warmth spread through Harry's fingers and they glowed for a few seconds in a yellow haze, after which they felt fine. '/How did you do that?'
/ /Harry, feeling none the wiser from Orion's explanation, let it drop.
Dudley helped Piers to his feet and looked at the floor while Dee looked ready to explode. The girls hustled the boys out of the house before Dudley's parents could ask what was happening.
"I'm gonna get that asshole," Piers spat as they entered Magnolia Crescent.
"No you're not!" Dee growled, as if her small frame could make her intimidating. "You bloody well deserved what you got for torturing him throughout primary school - you brought it on yourself and I wouldn't be surprised if you got the crap beaten out of you by everyone you bullied when you were a kid!" Piers glowered at her but said nothing more. Dudley didn't speak for a long while until Gina said something about a party they were going to and the conversation turned to that.
For the next few hours Harry read through a potions book and memorised the ingredients and methods to making as many potions as possible. He read throughout the night and all the way up until the next morning, when his aunt told him to get to his chores. He tediously went through the list using magic where he could and then went up to his room again, reading for a while and then deciding to go for a walk. He walked to the park again and sat in the swings, thinking about his life and how it kept jumping from bad to worse as he got older. He spoke with Orion in his mind and decided that he wanted to do something. He was fed up of waiting for something to happen and not taking control of his life, and he was about to snap. He sat there for a long time, watching the sun set and the stars come out, no longer worried about what time he would return to Privet Drive. He closed his eyes and felt around in the darkness - there was Kingsley, under the invisibility cloak by the tree - but Harry felt it all, and saw all around him at once.
/ /Orion said, and Harry understood, in a way in which he could not comprehend, he understood. He broadened his senses, and felt around over the many kilometres around him - Surrey, London, all the way up to Hogwarts, and he could see it all at the same time. He focused on Hogwarts and saw all around it and along the lines of shadow in the school itself. Hagrid was tending to a sick Unicorn at his hut, and Snape was hurrying into the castle, and Harry guessed he was headed straight for Dumbledore's office. Harry focused on something else - Ron and Hermione, and found them in their separate homes. Ron's room was dark, and the family were having a quiet meal in the dining room. Hermione had visitors over to her house, and she was plainly bored out of her skull but could not bring herself to leave rudely.
Orion taught him the finer points of controlling what he saw, and then Harry checked for where Kingsley was again. The tall, calm auror had not moved a muscle, it seemed, and Harry stood and walked closer, as if casually making his way there anyway. When he reached his silent guardian, he said, "I'm headed back now, Kingsley," and laughed at the surprised look he could imagine appearing on that usually passive face. He set off at a jog and was back at his 'home' before too long. He entered the house and silently shifted upstairs to his room - he decided to call it shifting when he turned into shadow and back again; it seemed to fit well.
Looking out of his window, Harry focused on number twelve, Grimmauld place, and saw the street but not the house. He thought about the words he had read the year before and it appeared exactly where it should be, the front door shut but he could sense inside due to the shadows that reached the windows. He saw it was host to Mad-Eye and Mundungus at the moment, and Buckbeak was in his usual room. Harry yanked himself back to Privet drive and sighed - seeing that place brought painful memories of Sirius, and Harry was glad that Orion was staying quiet. Harry just wasn't ready to face those demons.
He read for the night and practised his conjuring spells for a bit, learning all the spells he would need to pass the first term at least with flying colours. He made some curtains for his window and made his books race each other around the room, transfiguring them into different things and so on to amuse himself while the sun rose. He got downstairs at seven and made breakfast as it was a habit he had. He didn't mind cooking, anyway. Dudley lumbered in and told him to make him some waffles. Smiling evilly, Harry took his wand out of his sleeve and turned to Dudley, who had just gone very, /very /pale.
"What are you doing?!" he asked, trembling. Harry feigned innocence and waved his wand.
"Just making your breakfast," he said mildly, and a plate appeared that was towering with waffles in front of Dudley, whose eyes widened in surprise and saliva started a downward journey from his mouth. Harry could see the boy was in two minds about eating the waffles - they /looked /fine, but they had been made with magic. He took a tentative bite and then tucked in when he realised no ill effects were taking place. Harry laughed when his cousin realised that using magic outside of Hogwarts was now allowed for Harry, and vowed not to piss Harry off the whole summer. Harry left for his room again and created a lock for his door on the inside so he could lock out his 'family'.
Chapter 3: Orion
Harry dove through the door and landed hard, and facing the door. He had time to look behind and saw his friends were trapped by all the spells flying at the room they were in before having to jerk his head back to keep it from being hexed off.
"Get up!" /a voice said. Harry did what it said, and wondered briefly where the voice had come from. The room was empty besides a table set against a wall and covered in candles and a small statue. "Your friends are trapped, and there is nothing you can do about it." /The voice was not layered with malice or sarcasm, and sounded genuinely sorrowful.
"Who are you?!" Harry asked angrily - he didn't have time to play silly-buggers.
/"Listen to me, I can save them, but I need you to trust me first. Will you?" /Harry thought for a split second, in which the spells aimed at the doorway of the room across from his intensified, and realising the inevitable, he made the only choice he could.
"Fine, what do I do?" he asked hastily.
/"Break the stone figurine on the table and I'll do the rest. Hurry!" /Harry, with a moments hesitation, ran to the table and threw the figurine, one of a man in robes with a finely detailed face, at the nearest wall, making it break into pieces, releasing a misty... something. It floated up from the remains like some sort of smoky snake and suddenly, after a moment that hovered in time, shot towards Harry, who suddenly realised just how stupid what he had just done was. The misty substance billowed through the air and up to his face, entering with his breath, and the world suddenly faded away.
*
Harry awoke in an unfamiliar bed in an unfamiliar room. The walls were mainly whitewashed and there was a hygienic smell in the air, as if someone was using disinfectant as an air freshener. He could just see this in his peripheral vision, and a light on the ceiling blinded him while he closed his eyes again.
'Am I in hospital?' /He thought. Someone next to his bed squeaked and called out for Ron. Opening his eyes, Harry saw it was Hermione, and a feeling of intense relief flooded over him. /They're alive!
"Harry!" Ron said, looking half relieved, half scared. "Jesus, we thought you weren't going to wake up!" Harry sat up, shielding his eyes from the light and looking around for his glasses.
"What happened in Diagon Alley?" he asked. "I thought you were dead for sure! How did you fight off all those death eaters?" Ron looked slightly puzzled and Hermione went pale enough to match the walls. She sat down hard and gulped while some realisation came over Ron as well.
"You don't... you don't remember?" she asked him, and it was Harry's turn to look confused.
"Remember? How could I, I was unconscious!" Ron sat down and shook his head, looking extremely pale himself.
"Harry," he said slowly, drawing on the words as if to find some appropriate way of putting his next sentence. "You didn't black out until we were safely out of the building."
"What?" Harry asked, thrown off guard. '/This is some sort of joke, it must be,' /he thought, although april fools was quite a way off and HAry had never known them to make jokes like /this/.
"You -" Ron took a deep breath before continuing. "Harry... /you /defeated the Death Eaters. You... you /killed /them all."
Harry went cold all over. 'Killed? I... killed them?'
"We don't know what happened," Hermione said very quietly, not meting Harry's eyes. "But we saw you step out of the doorway and raise your hand at them, and there was a massive explosion where the Death Eaters were. When we came out, we could see... all of them..." Ron pulled her into a hug and looked green; Harry began shaking. This was no joke. He had killed the Death Eaters, and he didn't even have the memories of it. He suddenly remembered the voice and the mist, and frowned. Was this what it had meant by "Saving" his friends?
/ /Harry blanched and blinked several times. It was the same voice, and by the way that Hermione and Ron were just holding each other, he guessed they hadn't heard it.
"What the hell...?" he whispered to himself.
//
'And what if I am /crazy?' Harry thought, feeling rather awkward. '/I do have a voice in my head, and I'm pretty damn sure it's not mine!'
'WHAT?'
/ /Harry shook his head sharply - didn't object at the time?! He had been unconscious!
'And if I don't want to share my body with you, what then?'/ /There was a grim sort of laugh in his mind, and the voice gave Harry the distinct impression it was shaking its head at his naivety.
//
Harry sat stunned, staring into space for so long that Ron and Hermione left to get the doctors. Soon after he was alone, Harry shook his head and tried to clear it, but failed miserably.
// Harry failed to see what linked him to someone imprisoned within a statue, but decided to indulge himself and find out.
/'Okay, so what is it that links us?' /Harry swore he could feel the person smiling.
/Harry went cold all over again, and stopped breathing.
/'And why should I believe that you aren't a dark wizard, or even Voldemort himself?' /Harry asked.
//
'Jesus, why's it only me that has to deal with this crap?!' /Harry cried in his mind.[
//
/'What do you mean?' /Harry had drawn his legs up to his chest and stared at his knees, wondering how this could benefit him.
//
/'What is that supposed to mean?!' /Harry thought, fed up of the voice's vagueness. Just for once, he wanted someone to be straight up and tell him what's what, and now even the voices in his head were being cryptic!
// The voice sounded slightly annoyed, and Harry was reminded of Tonks and her dislike for her given name, Nymphadora.
Ron and Hermione reappeared with a medi-wizard and Cornelius Fudge, minister of magic.
'Yeah, I guess. Aeroplanes have been around for a hundred years, though, and I've never been on one.'
'He would have involved them anyway,' Harry thought irritably. 'He's like that, he can't fight his own battles, never has.'
/came the reply. /
'Okay, what is it?' /A warmth spread through Harry's fingers and they glowed for a few seconds in a yellow haze, after which they felt fine. '/How did you do that?'
/ /Harry, feeling none the wiser from Orion's explanation, let it drop.
Dudley helped Piers to his feet and looked at the floor while Dee looked ready to explode. The girls hustled the boys out of the house before Dudley's parents could ask what was happening.
"I'm gonna get that asshole," Piers spat as they entered Magnolia Crescent.
"No you're not!" Dee growled, as if her small frame could make her intimidating. "You bloody well deserved what you got for torturing him throughout primary school - you brought it on yourself and I wouldn't be surprised if you got the crap beaten out of you by everyone you bullied when you were a kid!" Piers glowered at her but said nothing more. Dudley didn't speak for a long while until Gina said something about a party they were going to and the conversation turned to that.
For the next few hours Harry read through a potions book and memorised the ingredients and methods to making as many potions as possible. He read throughout the night and all the way up until the next morning, when his aunt told him to get to his chores. He tediously went through the list using magic where he could and then went up to his room again, reading for a while and then deciding to go for a walk. He walked to the park again and sat in the swings, thinking about his life and how it kept jumping from bad to worse as he got older. He spoke with Orion in his mind and decided that he wanted to do something. He was fed up of waiting for something to happen and not taking control of his life, and he was about to snap. He sat there for a long time, watching the sun set and the stars come out, no longer worried about what time he would return to Privet Drive. He closed his eyes and felt around in the darkness - there was Kingsley, under the invisibility cloak by the tree - but Harry felt it all, and saw all around him at once.
/ /Orion said, and Harry understood, in a way in which he could not comprehend, he understood. He broadened his senses, and felt around over the many kilometres around him - Surrey, London, all the way up to Hogwarts, and he could see it all at the same time. He focused on Hogwarts and saw all around it and along the lines of shadow in the school itself. Hagrid was tending to a sick Unicorn at his hut, and Snape was hurrying into the castle, and Harry guessed he was headed straight for Dumbledore's office. Harry focused on something else - Ron and Hermione, and found them in their separate homes. Ron's room was dark, and the family were having a quiet meal in the dining room. Hermione had visitors over to her house, and she was plainly bored out of her skull but could not bring herself to leave rudely.
Orion taught him the finer points of controlling what he saw, and then Harry checked for where Kingsley was again. The tall, calm auror had not moved a muscle, it seemed, and Harry stood and walked closer, as if casually making his way there anyway. When he reached his silent guardian, he said, "I'm headed back now, Kingsley," and laughed at the surprised look he could imagine appearing on that usually passive face. He set off at a jog and was back at his 'home' before too long. He entered the house and silently shifted upstairs to his room - he decided to call it shifting when he turned into shadow and back again; it seemed to fit well.
Looking out of his window, Harry focused on number twelve, Grimmauld place, and saw the street but not the house. He thought about the words he had read the year before and it appeared exactly where it should be, the front door shut but he could sense inside due to the shadows that reached the windows. He saw it was host to Mad-Eye and Mundungus at the moment, and Buckbeak was in his usual room. Harry yanked himself back to Privet drive and sighed - seeing that place brought painful memories of Sirius, and Harry was glad that Orion was staying quiet. Harry just wasn't ready to face those demons.
He read for the night and practised his conjuring spells for a bit, learning all the spells he would need to pass the first term at least with flying colours. He made some curtains for his window and made his books race each other around the room, transfiguring them into different things and so on to amuse himself while the sun rose. He got downstairs at seven and made breakfast as it was a habit he had. He didn't mind cooking, anyway. Dudley lumbered in and told him to make him some waffles. Smiling evilly, Harry took his wand out of his sleeve and turned to Dudley, who had just gone very, /very /pale.
"What are you doing?!" he asked, trembling. Harry feigned innocence and waved his wand.
"Just making your breakfast," he said mildly, and a plate appeared that was towering with waffles in front of Dudley, whose eyes widened in surprise and saliva started a downward journey from his mouth. Harry could see the boy was in two minds about eating the waffles - they /looked /fine, but they had been made with magic. He took a tentative bite and then tucked in when he realised no ill effects were taking place. Harry laughed when his cousin realised that using magic outside of Hogwarts was now allowed for Harry, and vowed not to piss Harry off the whole summer. Harry left for his room again and created a lock for his door on the inside so he could lock out his 'family'.
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