FicWad

Harry Potter and the Celestial Zone
Chapter 15
03rd August 2005


"Harry, where are you taking me? And why is Mrs. Malfoy here? And why is she so quiet?" Harry was leading Hermione and Narcissa down a deserted hallway with little lighting. It was apparently not too well known or used, because dust and several cobwebs clung to the walls and ceilings. Harry had discovered it recently, and was going to have Dobby start the House Elves cleaning it soon.

He chuckled at his girlfriend's curiosity, "I found this place one day when I was exploring during a free period. I was looking for a place to quietly practice my skills and magic, as well as test any creations I might have, when I came across this corridor that wasn't on the Marauders Map. I think they just assumed the general layout of the castle and worked from there, but it's really more. I've copied the original map and keyed the new one to me, so that if I find anywhere new, the map will just update itself through me. Anyway, I have a feeling this place hasn't been seen or used in a very long time, probably since the founders actually, because I found some of those old spells in here."

He opened a door, and Hermione gasped. It was a library. Not quite as large as the one they knew of, but it was still pretty big. The tomes were all pretty dusty, and cobwebs were all over, restricting their movement, but Hermione could see it clearly in her mind's eye. She walked over to a bookshelf and touched some of the books there, most of them looked like they weren't in a modernly recognizable language, and some had think metal covers. She sat at a table, and Harry followed her.

He continued and Hermione listened absently, "When I dueled Malfoy senior, he said everything he had would be mine. That's why Narcissa's here; she wasn't anywhere by choice. She wanted someone else but was forced into marriage by Luscious and old man Black. She tied to escape, so she was put under a control curse that basically made her property. That's why she followed Malfoy but didn't say anything unless asked a question, it wasn't so much a matter of tradition. Since her 'ownership' has transferred to me, she'll follow me around till I find a counter curse. That's what I was looking for when I left that book open over there."

Hermione's mind was spinning with all this information, but when pointed to a specific book, she immediately went on auto-drive, and sped over to the book, and began flipping the pages. Harry talked her through it, "I'm quite sure this is the book because it was the last one of the controlling curse books there are. Something like this was mentioned in several other books and gave references to this one and one other, which had an Imperius based thing, not like what I'm looking for." Hermione suddenly jumped for joy, "I've found it!

"But it's not quite it really. See it explains the spell and potion here quite clearly. The potion has to be ingested before the spell is begun, but the potion will wear off even with the spell in place. This means that there is no complete cure for this; you can give her back most of her mind and personality, but you can't give her back things like her original affections. She'll just go about her day doing what she wants, but will always defer to you, while her romantic interest will remain, primarily, you."

Harry sighed, "I'm sure there's more than what you're saying." She sighed as well and hung her head in defeat, "It also means that she'll want you. In a romantic sense, sexual sense, all that stuff; so if we weren't already together it would have been fine. For me, it's just..." She paused and a look passed through her eyes and she bit her lip, "Give me some time to think about it. The spell goes in two parts, but for now I guess just the first part and order her to return to go and stay wherever you want." Harry nodded and turned to Narcissa.

.........

"Harry, how are ya mate? Listen, that match was great. I mean, I'd never have thought of using a duel to uncover secrets from the Nibblers like that." Ron had slung an arm round Harry's neck a few days later to congratulate him again. Dean and Seamus came up a right behind, "So are you gonna teach that stuff in the DA? I mean, it'd be cool if we could control the Nibblers to attack each other."

Harry laughed along with them before sobering up real fast, "You guys have no idea how difficult it is to cast that stuff. Ron may be able to handle the control spell, but with very little finesse. The rest of them, well Nev and possibly Gin may be able to cast one of them, but after that they'll be wiped out. It's next to impossible to cast any of them before you gain your magical heritage, which is your 17th birthday, if I remember correctly. They require that much power. In any case, I wouldn't teach any of it to anyone because it has a negative effect on your psyche in that you become more and more prone to using dark curses as a first choice and second choice, etc.

"If, and only if, you can master the sword and body amalgamation stage of the Celestial Arts, will I teach you darker spells and curses. The energy used to power the Celestial Arts is more fondly known as Spirit Energy because as you become more powerful, your spirit also becomes more powerful, and you become more firmly grounded in your beliefs, morals, etc. That's why I can use dark magic without really being tainted by it. Now if I used dark magic all the time, a volley of dark curses every hour or so, then I would become tainted, because there's only so much you can take. Using it sparingly though, is not going to turn me into another Voldemort."

The group soberly walked along, now more of a funeral march than a morning jaunt to breakfast. Dean then spoke up, "I haven't gotten further Harry, why can't I when even Neville's moved onto the Thunder-Light Vibration?" Harry sighed again, he'd realized he'd have to explain more, but he didn't think it would be this soon. He didn't make Dumbledore's mistake by putting it off though, "Call it what you will, but all I can say is that Neville's made for it. We're all unique in our own ways, and this is reflected in our abilities.

"I apparently showed great potential for the position of Green Dragon, spirit weapon, and such, so I was chosen. The best thing about the Heavenly Way Heart Sutra is that there are no predefined levels of power like in, say, the Celestial Solar Dragon Formula's first through ninth levels. This means that you advance at your own pace to your own level, and nobody can say that you're inferior because you're a lower level. It also provides for different types of people. Neville's actually got more potential for speed, reflected in the Quick Lightning, than I do, even though I beat him in power, reflected in the Thuder-Light Vibration."

"So if you can't get to the Spirit Sword, it's alright, you just have to make do with what you have. I have a few ideas where Ron's abilities may lie, mainly because he's progressing so well in the Whirlwind Illusion; he just needs to curb his temper." Ron snorted at this and elbowed Harry, "The rest of you may have potential in the medical fields, or in the crafting fields even. Experiment and find out for yourselves." Seamus rolled his eyes and walked off with Dean, muttering about stupid puzzles. He turned to Ron, "just between you and me, I think Luna has the best chance with the PanGuHunYuan Dictum." He waltzed off leaving Ron looking flabbergasted

.........

"Hey Herms, you alright? You've been kind of distant with me lately." Hermione smiled at him, turning from her unusual activity of staring into the fire. She stood, "I'm alright I guess, can we go for a walk?" Harry grinned and led her out by the hand.

...

"Here Harry, let's sit. I don't want to go back up so soon." Harry sat and she settled in his lap comfortably with the odd wiggle. Finally she sighed, "Remember what I told you about Narcissa? About how she will defer to you even after the counter curse, and how her romantic interests will not shift?" Harry nodded, he hadn't actually thought about it but he remembered it quite clearly.

He held her closer, both gazing out onto the lake unseeingly. She took his hand in her own, "I meant it you know? It'll be just like a festering wound; she won't be able to control it eventually. You can put her off for a while, and she'll do as you wish for that time, but eventually she'll be overwhelmed by the feeling and she'll lose control over herself and give in to her emotions." Harry sat there stunned, his mind unable to grasp the possibility, not willing to grasp the idea that he would be demanded such.

But Hermione wasn't finished, "I think I mentioned it that day, that if it was just you, no me, it'd have been fine because you won't have any other worries to take into account. But you do anyway, I love you and I know you love me too." Harry stopped her here and kissed her till her toes really curled. Breathless, she took a few gulps of air before she could continue, "Yes that's what I was talking about. I suppose the point is that either you kill her or take her."

She sighed; this was probably the hardest part, "I don't want you to kill her. I don't agree with your killing Draco Malfoy, though I can understand it. I don't want you to kill Narcissa, which means." She visibly swallowed, "which means that eventually I'll have to share." Harry seized up again, his mind went to auto-shutdown, and his body went rigid. Hermione smiled uncertainly at him, "I don't actually want to share you Harry, I'd like nothing more than to have you all to myself every night, and give myself to you at your whim as well. But I don't want you to kill, so much as I don't want to, I'm willing to share you and your affections with Narcissa.

"It's not like she's not beautiful you know, I've talked to her before and I once caught her going to the shower. I hate to admit it, but her body's a lot like mine in almost every way." Harry stopped her and gave her another kiss, effectively silencing her. He started before she could start rambling, "It's alright Hermione. If you want this then I'm fine with it. We can let Narcissa in, no problems. Alright?" Hermione visibly relaxed and leaned up to kiss him again, "Thank you for understanding Harry." Having a girlfriend was definitely cool.

.........

"Good morning everyone, not so long ago we witnessed the second round of the Hogwarts Championship Dueling Tournament. I am here to announce that next week we will bear witness to the final round of this tournament, and Blaise Zabini will face Harry Potter. I'd appreciate if the display from last week weren't brought up again as we will be hosting several other dignitaries." Dumbledore was doing more announcements at breakfast the next morning.

"So Harry, gonna win this? I mean, Blaise looked pretty powerful last time; even Dumbledore failed to beat her." Dean was curious on this; Harry chuckled, "I'm not entirely sure. What we saw last week wasn't exactly standard wizard dueling; I believe I will be able to hold out long enough to win, but we really can't go making bets on that." Seamus looked like he'd heard but wasn't at all bothered in making bets on the outcome of the match.

Hermione leaned against Harry's shoulder in a deceptively innocent and carefree manner, "Promise me Harry that you'll come back, whether or not you win." Harry kissed Hermione on the head and whispered back, "I promise sweetie, I promise." He didn't scoff; he knew the circumstances of the duel. Xuan apparently had achieved the basic level of Celestial Forces and Body Amalgamation, a power beyond what he knew. Certainly he was sure that he was above her in terms of skill, but could that be the key to defeating her? He didn't like the uncertainty; he'd rather be sure in the knowledge that he was almost indestructible. Intellectually he acknowledged it wasn't true, but it was still a nice feeling.

"Well c'mon people, we have classes to get to." Harry shouldered his book bag and exited the Great Hall holding Hermione's hand and Ron close behind with the others.

.........

"Hermione, I need your help here. It seems we didn't search hard enough for an antidote." He and Hermione were in their library again during one of their free periods. They'd found that this old library in fact held much more information than the usual Hogwarts Library, and actually held personal notes of some rather famous people who'd made incredible discoveries without actually publishing them.

Not so long ago Harry had found a set of notes on the Fidelius Charm and a derivative that someone had formulated. He'd used it on "The Potter Wing" as he and Hermione now called it, and hidden it from anyone else. The original Fidelius required a live, communications capable secret keeper, which made it somewhat less secure because of legimency attacks. The derivative was less powerful in that it couldn't hide more than perhaps just Hogwarts Castle, but could place the secret in an object.

Harry had chosen to use the Black family ring because it only responded to him. By extension though, he could pass the secret onto Hermione and conjure an image of a wall where the passage to their wing started. Their most recent day in their library had started off with Harry thinking of his problem with Narcissa and wondering how to counter the combined effects of the potion. The second part of the spell couldn't be cast for a while yet, so they still had some time to think it through.

Harry had searched through the Potions section of their library and found a small subsection on controlling potions. He smiled at the two prospective tomes left after he went through the other 3 much thinner tomes before calling Hermione over. She arrived with a mildly curious expression on her face, "Yes Harry? What's the matter?" He smiled at her, "I've found 5 books on controlling potions, which sounds much like the potion we're after doesn't it? I went through these 3 first and already because they're much thinner. These last two, one for you and one for me right?"

Hermione squealed and took off with the larger of the two and plonked herself in front of a bench to read through. Harry chuckled at her enthusiasm and sat across her so he wouldn't get injured with her eagerness and almost frantic page turning.

...

A short time later, he set the book aside; he'd found several interesting potions, but nothing pertinent to his present predicament. He looked up only to find Hermione grinning madly at him, her own tome open to somewhere in the middle. He identified the bait for what it was, but decided to bite anyway, "No luck here, what've you found?" Hermione squealed, "Loads! But only one that we're interested in, the only problem is that it has to be brewed almost perfectly or there'll be complications that will lead to swift death."

Harry frowned; he like the idea of finding a cure, but he didn't like the idea of death. He rubbed his face with his palms and gazed out the window, searching for a sign. It was a Sunday, and there were many other Hogwarts students out on the grounds enjoying themselves with their friends, playing quidditch, or with their significant others. He sighed again, resolved to the foreseeable furure, "When do we start?"

Hermione chuckled, "It's not that hard, Harry, we just need these ingredients, which I'm sure we can find in that small potions lab down the corridor, and we're set. It's not as simple as dumping everything in, heating it, and hoping for the best, in fact it requires much more precise brewing, like a certain fire level, and certain stirring methods and directions. It won't be so hard though, and we can brew it together, and it'll be just you and me." Harry smiled; this was why he was doing it, because he cared too much about the sanctity of life, because it mattered too much to him that people weren't being controlled like he had once been.

.........

It was only a few short days later, with the cauldron on a low fire, potion stewing merrily, that Dumbledore stood up at breakfast and cleared the tables with a wave of his wand as various important people from around the world started entering the Hogwarts wards. He waited for everyone to collect themselves before standing up, "Today we are glad to witness the Grand Final of the Hogwarts Dueling Championship Tournament!"



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A/N: Ah, the cliff! Any guesses out there? No matter, it's already coming up! R/R People!