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Chapter Forty: Past Explained and Prophecies

Harry and Lily both exchanged an uneasy look at the look of bewilderment and slight terror on Sirius’s face on seeing someone who he thought to be dead for nearly fourteen years. This was going to be extremely fun to explain. Sirius had a confused look on his face but he managed to snap out of it long enough to question Lily again.

“This is..what exactly…how?” asked Sirius. “They said you were dead Lily, both you and James and believe me…I was tormented with that thought night after night in Azkaban…the very thought that by merely suggesting that you should switch to Peter that…well…it’s difficult, even after all these years.”

“Take your time Sirius,” said Lily quietly. “Harry didn’t quite believe it at first either but he gave me a chance to prove it was me even through if I made one wrong move, it could have ended badly for me.”

“Tell me about it,” said Sirius, closing his eyes, remembering the previous year’s encounter at the Shrieking Shack. “Harry didn’t seem too thrilled about meeting me after the things he was likely to hear but at least he gave me a chance when he could have very well ripped out my throat and by the look in his eyes, I don’t doubt he would have tried for one second.”

“So you believe it’s truly me then Sirius,” said Lily in a tentative voice.

“Yes, something tells me that it is you but I still don’t know how you managed to cheat the Killing Curse,” said Sirius before widening his eyes. “Unless..you did disappear at the oddest times years ago for your work as Unspeakable of the Department of Mysteries. That’s what you were working on, wasn’t it Lily? A way to block the Killing Curse.”

“Yes and no,” said Lily shaking her head.

“Okay, I know for a fact you are Lily Potter, because you’ve lost me,” said Sirius shaking his head in confusion. “How could something so cut and dry be yes and no?”

“I was working on a ritual to attempt to use a human sacrifice to use as a way to nullify the Killing Curse and make it rebound on the caster,” said Lily. “The curse Voldemort blasted me with would have been his death sentence had it not been for several factors. The rebounding part of the spell slightly, booting Voldemort out of his body until two days ago but several intangibles caused the spell not to work as it should have.”

“So in other words, it partially worked,” said Sirius.

“It would have worked completely if I would have factored in the fact that Voldemort had created himself a few Horcruxes,” said Lily in an irritated voice. “Of course, I might not be here to tell the tale if he didn’t so…”

“Wait, wait, Voldemort created Horcruxes,” said Sirius in a disgusted voice causing Daphne, Theodore, Ginny, Hermione, Hailey, and Harry to look at him surprised.

“You know what Horcruxes are, Sirius?” asked Harry quietly.

“Of course I know, you don’t live in a family that turns out more dark witches and wizards without accidentally picking up a few unpleasant bits of information that you’d rather not know,” said Sirius waving his hand.

“What exactly are Horcruxes anyway?” asked Hermione. “I’ve never even picked up a hint of them in anything I’ve read and believe me; I’ve read a lot, perhaps a bit too much for my own health.”

“Well they aren’t exactly anything people would stick in the main section of the library where anyone could look,” said Ginny. “They’re vile, they’re evil, and hell, I should know because I was possessed by one during my first year at Hogwarts.”

“Riddle’s diary was a Horcrux,” said Daphne with interest.

“Yes but it wasn’t made as fluidly as it should have been from what both Harry and Ginny could tell me from what happened with the diary and Riddle,” said Lily.

“So if it wasn’t made as well, they it means it would be less dangerous, right?” asked Sirius but he didn’t seem too convicted in what he said.

“No actually being poorly made makes a Horcrux even more dangerous and potentially unstable,” said Lily. “And that’s not counting the fact that Voldemort strikes me as the type that is extremely paranoid and puts all kinds of automatic defenses on it that would make it even more unstable. If Harry hadn’t managed to sever the connection between the diary and Ginny, Hogwarts would be completely destroyed due to the backlash of magic.”

“So since the connection is destroyed, the diary battered, that means no more Horcrux?” asked Theodore.

“Unfortunately no,” said Lily.

“Wait, I thought that if the Horcrux was destroyed, than the dark wizard that created it was to become mortal,” said Sirius.

“That’s a distorted view, the real view is the piece of the soul contained in the Horcrux must be unified with the native part of the soul,” said Lily. “Fortunately, I have found a book after months of extensive searching that might help make Voldemort mortal. If we can find all the Horcruxes and rejoin Voldemort’s soul so it becomes whole again, then there is a good chance that Voldemort could be defeated. That is, if everything goes right.”

“I’m almost afraid to ask this, Lily, but what if something doesn’t go right?” asked Sirius tentatively.

“Voldemort will become, for lack of a better term, a super Dementor that will destroy the will to live of every living being until everyone dies and there is no life left on earth,” said Lily grimly. “Of course, that’s the best thing that we could hope for if something goes terribly wrong.”

“And that’s why there are some questions that are best left unasked,” said Hailey grimly.

“There are still some questions that are left unanswered, Lily,” said Sirius. “Like where in the hell were you for so long?”

“Okay, I was wondering when you’d ask that Sirius,” said Lily. “It’s a rather long and complicated story. It all started the night that Voldemort attacked at Godric’s Hollow, just days before we gave the Secret Keeper position to Peter. Days earlier I found out I was pregnant with Hailey here…”

“Wait, did James know that you were going to have another child because I don’t remember him saying anything?” asked Sirius looking at Lily with a confused look on his face.

“No but I was planning on breaking the news to him a few days before Voldemort attacked. I regret I never did but that’s just an example of how life can throw damaging curveballs,” said Lily, closing her eyes at the very thought. “Anyway Voldemort broke down the door. James yelled at me to get Harry and go as he’d try to hold Voldemort long enough for us to get to a safe place. I was reluctant to leave him but I knew exactly what I had to do. Unfortunately Voldemort made it extremely difficult for me to get Harry out of there. He put Anti-Apparation Wards, Anti-Portkey Wards, and Anti-Floo Wards around the area of the house. That forced me to use the spell I had mentioned that I had been working on to counteract the Killing Curse. Unfortunately I hadn’t had a chance to test to see if it would work as of yet. Of course, I didn’t have too much time to make a decision as Voldemort decided to come up the stairs to finish Harry off so I managed to stall him long enough to do the ritual. I completed what I needed to do just seconds before Voldemort decided to finish me off by blasting me with the Killing Curse. The ritual formed an invisible yet very powerful magic shield around Harry and while I should have been dead, I actually was knocked right into stasis.”

“So Voldemort used the Killing Curse on Harry and that knocked him right out of his body until a couple of days ago,” said Sirius as Lily nodded in confirmation. “Still, I’m missing exactly where you were for thirteen years?”

“I’m getting there, be patient,” said Lily in a tense voice. “After Voldemort’s original body was blown to bits by the backlash of his own curse, I slowly woke up, seeing that Harry was still alive, except for a jagged cut on his forehead the shape of a lightning bolt…”

“Unfortunately,” muttered Harry underneath his breath. That scar had proven to be more trouble than good in the past.

“Anyway, I felt I didn’t have much time, I needed to get Harry out of there as Voldemort might have been destroyed but I didn’t put it past him to have several of his Death Eaters stationed nearby to take care of any trouble that might interfere with Voldemort’s…work,” said Lily saying the last work very carefully for lack of a better term. “I prepared to collect Harry to get him to the safe place and to make sure you don’t do something stupid like track down Pettigrew and attempt to kill him before the Secret Keeper switch could be explained to the Ministry. As I was getting Harry, I was blasted from behind with a spell that wiped all my memories clear.”

“All of them!” exclaimed Hermione in horror. “I didn’t know memory charms could be that comprehensive.”

“Perhaps wiping them clear would be a bit of an understatement, the person who attacked me blocked all my memories, putting them out of reach and having me unable to reach them,” explained Lily. “After attacking me, the person who did this transported me to an back alley in New York where I was left for dead, without my memories and severely weakened. Thankfully the alley way was behind the TCRI Building where I was found by some of the inhabitants inside the building. Of course as I came to find out, they weren’t exactly all what they seemed.”

“What was it, Magical people posing as Muggles or something?” asked Sirius.

“Oh, close,” said Lily. “They were actually stranded aliens from another planet that were known as Utroms…”

“Aliens!” yelled Daphne, Theodore, and Hermione in unison in a bit of a shocked, befuddled tone of voice.

“So there is intelligent life out there,” said Sirius. “And I always thought that was something that some insane Muggle made up to make to make all the people paranoid.”

“Yes, they think they’re doing that but none of them really truly know the truth as far as I know,” said Lily.

“Exactly how did these Utroms come to be on earth anyway, Lily?” asked Hermione.

“Well that’s a story in itself, and I’ll try to be brief but it does require a bit of explanation to fully understand the true evil of the individual I am about to speak about,” said Lily slowly. “First thing you should understand is that most Utroms are peace loving and tend to avoid conflicts that involve violence. There is one that does not follow the norms of his fellow Utrom. One who reeks of pure evil, having slaughtered countless millions without one hint of remorse. This Utrom’s birth name is believed to be Ch’rell but to avoid capture from the Utrom authorities he has used countless aliases throughout the centuries. Most recently, he has gone under the dual identity of Oroku Saki and the Shredder.”

“Wait a minute, Oroku Saki!” exclaimed Hermione in a slightly horrified tone of voice. “I know for a fact I’ve read that name before…”

“Yeah that’s the…in the Daily Prophet,” said Theodore but he trailed off.

“The person who spread those lies about Harry’s family to the Ministry,” finished Daphne.

“So that’s why Harry seemed to know who Saki was,” said Hermione nodding her head in understanding.

“Exactly Hermione but there is more to Saki that you will learn soon enough,” said Harry in a grim tone of voice. “Let’s just say I’ve encountered him more then enough times. Mum, please continue”

“Okay, let’s see, Ch’rell might have based his latest identity off of a real, human Oroku Saki that lived several centuries ago in Japan but my information on this is extremely sketchy,” said Lily. “Back on track, Ch’rell embarked on a reign of terror that lasted nearly four hundred years before the Utroms could connect the wrong doings to him. Millions throughout the universe were brutally slaughtered. Entire planets were stripped clean of all of their resources before being completely destroyed by Ch’rell. Eventually Ch’rell started leaving bits and pieces of evidence to the fact he was behind these horrendous war crimes. The Utroms managed to deduce exactly who were behind the destruction of several planets and used all of their resources to attempt to track Ch’rell down and bring him to justice for his crimes. This effort lasted nearly a century and Ch’rell knew he would eventually be captured so he attempted a daring kamikaze like attack on the Utrom home world.”

Lily paused for a few seconds before launching back into her explanation.

“Ch’rell and several paid mercenaries stormed the very heart of the Utrom home world government headquarters, leading a very violent attack on the government. Several were slaughtered at the hands of Ch’rell and his hired help,” said Lily. “They even managed to gain access to Utrom technology that they used to enslave the Utrom high council. At that darkest hour it seemed hopeless but thanks to a lot of luck but not without a price, Ch’rell was defeated but he managed to flee the Utrom home world, leaving his mercenaries to be captured and imprisoned. Nearly five thousand Utroms lost their lives in that battle and Ch’rell managed to elude capture for a few more months but eventually an Utrom starship caught up with Ch’rell and through an insane string of luck, the fugitive Utrom was captured.”

“Of course that wasn’t the end of it, was it Lily?” asked Sirius.

“No, I’m afraid not,” said Lily. “Ch’rell was as intelligent as he is dangerous and ruthless and managed to free himself from being imprisoned before tampering with the technology involving the star ship. The ship shorted out, before spiraling out of control. Thankfully, they managed to manually steer the ship, despite all the navigating equipment being burned out, towards an uncharted planet which turned out to be Earth. They managed to survive the crash and the prisoner managed to escape. The Utroms thought they had seen the last of the prisoner, the fugitive Utrom known as Ch’rell. Unfortunately they were wrong.”

“That’s when Oroku Saki showed up, wasn’t it?” prompted Hermione.

“Yes, under the guise of his second identity, the Shredder who now had a large number of ninja assassins to do his bidding. Collectively, Shredder’s group of assassins were known as the Foot,” said Lily. “Ch’rell had forged this identity to erase his own past failures at taking of the government of the Utrom home world to start a new powerful dynasty. Of course, he refused to let old wounds heal and he wanted to wipe out the small group of Utroms that had been stranded on earth due to the crash that he caused. Shredder, as he was now officially known, became obsessed with vengeance on the Utroms and hunted them down ruthlessly for the centuries that they were on earth. The Utroms were forced to change their base of operations many times to remain one step ahead of Saki, the Shredder and wound up in New York where they eventually found me after my memories had been blocked by my mysterious attacker.”

Lily paused for a few minutes but all the occupants in the room seemed to be clinging with attention with the exception of Hailey, Harry, and Ginny, who knew exactly what Lily was talking about.

“About ten years after my memory had been blocked, bits and pieces of my memory started leaking back through the blocks, but I still could not put anything together,” said Lily. “This started becoming a regular occurrence after one of the TCRI guardians observed a battle involving the Foot against some mutated Turtle creatures and a mysterious boy with a lightning bolt scar on his head.”

“I assume that was the night that we first met the Foot, the same night I found out that I was a wizard,” said Harry. “I remember that night all too well. The Foot had attacked us for some mysterious reason which we apparently later found out that Saki believed that my brothers, Master Splinter, and I had some ties to the Utroms and were working with him. Naturally, Saki wanted to wipe out anyone and anything that stood between himself and the entire destruction of the surviving Utroms being stranded on earth.”

“So, wait, Harry, I remember something now that happened when I visited you during the Christmas holidays during our first year,” said Hermione. “Those invisible ninjas that attacked you…they were actually working for Saki.”

“Yes,” said Harry grimly. “That wasn’t the first time that the Shredder had someone attack me nor would it be the last. I really didn’t bring Saki into my life in the magical world but due to the fact he appears to be in communications with Minister Fudge and his propaganda piece in the Daily Prophet, there is a chance that the wall between my two worlds is crumbling to pieces.”

“By the sound of hatred in your voice, this Shredder seems to be someone you encounter on a regular basis, Harry,” said Sirius who looked disturbed that his godson was the target of a series of attacks by an evil fugitive alien who had a band of skilled ninjas available to do his evil deeds.

“I’ve personally battled the Shredder in four times,” said Harry causing gasps all around the room. “Each time I was lucky to escape with my life. I’d say the Shredder is just about as dangerous as Voldemort is and he doesn’t have a drop of magic within him. The first encounter, after I rudely spurned an offer from the Shredder to join the Foot, caused him to sick his band of Foot Ninjas on me and my brothers. Thankfully Master Splinter was able to save us just in time. The second time nearly ended in tragedy. I was on a training run when I was ambushed by over fifty foot ninjas, who wore me down for the final assault involving the Shredder and his Elite Guard. They thrashed my brothers, myself, and Master Splinter before trapping us in a building and attempting to blow the building up with us inside!”

Harry paced a bit, he still had nightmares about his second encounter with the Shredder even through he didn’t tell anyone about it. Everyone looked anxious at the look of pure hatred on Harry’s face that continued to grow as he described his past encounters with the Shredder.

“Third encounter, last year in the TCRI building,” said Harry in a weak voice. “The night I found out that my mother survived that Halloween night. We learned the truth about the Shredder on that night and we learned that he was an evil Utrom. The Shredder and the Foot attacked with a lethal vengeance. The Utroms managed to escape by way of the Transmat, a device that can transport matter from one part of the universe to the next. The battle with the Shredder was close but we fought hard, managing to destroy the Shredder’s metal exosuit, exposing his true form. Still, he ruthlessly fought back and we made a mad dash to the Transmat where we barely escaped before an Utrom Implosion device that he planted blew to bits.”

“Yes, that’s the night that my memories all came back in a flash, every little thing that had happened to be, with the exception of the crucial fact of who blocked my memories in the first place I remembered,” said Lily. “The Turtles, Splinter, Ginny, Hailey, Harry, and I barely managed to avoid the wrath of the Shredder who despite his powerful exosuit being stripped away from him, he was still as dangerous and as bloodthirsty as ever.”

“Then the fourth encounter,” said Harry. “The Shredder somehow managed to survive being blown to bits in the implosion at the TCRI building. He had a squadron of Foot Mechs, built by leftover Utrom technology, which he planned to use to begin his conquest of the Earth. Thankfully, Shredder decided to send a little present to destroy us first, a Foot Mech disguised as Master Splinter, which clued us in onto his plans. We stormed his new temporary base of operations, engaging into battle with all of the Foot Mechs before sinking the ship with the Shredder trapped in the fiery bottom. We thought once again he had been destroyed but unfortunately, recent events printed by the Daily Prophet indicate that Oroku Saki, the Shredder, is not as dead as I hope for him to be.”

“Did I answer all your questions Sirius?” asked Lily after a moment’s pause.

“Yes, I understand how you survived and why you were missing for so long,” said Sirius. “Did you tell the Ministry about Peter?”

“Yes but Fudge only cleared you on the charges of betraying James and I,” said Lily as Sirius’s eyes widened. “He still wants you taken in for the murder of the twelve Muggles and Peter. The only way we can get your name completely cleared is by finding Peter and bringing him in to the Ministry but I wonder if it would be enough. The Ministry of Magic does not like admitting their mistakes and I have a feeling they might just sweep this underneath the rug and nobody will win. Except for the Ministry of Magic that is.”

“Great, my name is still mud in the Wizarding world,” said Sirius sarcastically.

“Welcome to my world,” muttered Harry darkly before straightening up. “Now before we got sidetracked with this little conversation, I believe there was something important you needed to tell us, Mum.”

Lily sighed, this was the moment that she had been dreading for quite some time but she made a promise to tell Harry and the others both prophecies that had been made. The real one and the fake one concocted by Dumbledore due to the fact of the old man learning part of the true prophecy.

“There is something you all should realize before I say this. No one can truly predict the future. Granted, there might be some that might awkwardly stumble into a semi accurate guess but that is truly the exception rather than the rule,” said Lily. “The only reason many prophecies that have been fulfilled are because someone heard them and got all paranoid, which caused them to inadvertently do something that fulfilled the prophecy. According to a Department of Mysteries study, only roughly fifteen percent of all prophecies ever made have some kind of written record and only eight percent of the recorded prophecies have ever been accurately fulfilled. To put things bluntly, making a prophecy is a sketchy business at best and pure and completely rubbish at worst.”

“And let me guess, there is some kind of prophecy that affects me,” said Harry.

“Actually there are two,” said Lily.

“Lovely,” said Ginny sarcastically while looking at her boyfriend who looked extremely agitated at this new development. “Harry gets thrown into the line of fire because of some kook fortune teller.”

“One of them is true and one of them is false,” said Lily. “First we are going to examine the false one that was concocted in response to a part of the true prophecy.”

Lily smoothed out a wrinkled piece of paper on the table before waving her wand at it, causing the wording on the prophecy to be blown up as if being used by a Muggle overhead projector. The prophecy stated the following:

The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches…Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seven month dies…and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have the power that the Dark Lord knows not…and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives…The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…

“Don’t read too much into that, because this prophecy is a complete and utter fraud,” said Lily. “It was concocted by Dumbledore, who forced Sybill Trelawney under the Imperius Curse and forced her to say the following, under a false Seer trance. Unfortunately you can’t just make someone deliver a prophecy; it’s completely meaningless, even more than a true, actual prophecy. Severus Snape overheard this prophecy, whether or not he knew the circumstances it was being made, I don’t really know and reported it to Lord Voldemort.”

“Enough of this rubbish, let’s see this real prophecy, so we can understand what caused that manipulative old coot to go to such lengths to concoct this piece of tripe,” said Harry in an impatient voice.

“Just a second,” said Lily. “Now this Prophecy was said to be made in ancient Egypt nearly four thousand years ago. The Department of Mysteries managed to recover it about fifty years ago and it just managed to be translated into English less than six months before this piece of tripe was concocted. It goes as follows.”

Lily pulled out another piece of parchment before waving her wand doing the same projection spell to the second prophecy.

Throughout the land four great people of grand magical talent will found a school that young people can learn and prosper from. The bond between the four founders will be strong and great, until jealously and deceit rips them apart. The divide shall be no greater than the one who spawns the line of the lion and the one that spawns the line of the snake. The snake will rise to power, earning the respect of his peers and the utter and completely loathing of the lion. The lion will call upon a powerful yet evil force to prove his power is comparable to that of the snake but summoning such a force will put the world in great peril. The snake would barely contain the evil force but by the time the snake traps his foe, the breach between the four founders, especially the one between the lion and snake becomes fractured beyond repair.

The snake has two offspring who go upon different paths in life. One of the offspring goes upon a path that is not favorable, consorting with the worst that could be possible, and bringing great dishonor to the line of the snake, causing his earlier achievements to be faded into obscurity. The second of the offspring is not blessed with magic as her father, so she flees in shame, marrying in with non magical people until the fact that her and her descendents ever came from the snake was completely forgotten.

The dishonored line of the snake spawns a new dark threat that puts the world in grave peril. Born due to the union of the last living female descendent of the snake and a person lacking magical abilities, this person will become bitter and disenchanted, wanting all to fear him. He will succeed to the point where all fear to utter his name and he will believed to be one of the most sinister forces the world has ever seen.

The lost line of the snake will have a female descendant, born sixty years into the century. She will be the first in a thousand years to have one trace of magic within her. Despite her greatness, her son will be even more powerful, as he would be born nearly two decades after his mother did. He will be marked by the corrupt forces of manipulation as many would like to use the descendent from the lost line of the snake to achieve their own sinister objectives.

The two lines of the snake will have many encounters, with the seventh encounter, should there be a seventh encounter, being the most crucial. The winner of the seventh battle between the two lines of the snake will decide whether the evil of the dishonored line is completely wiped out or the world be enslaved by the darkness.

But even before the final, seventh encounter can take place, the great evil summoned by the lion a thousand years previous and its followers will break free from their containment. These creatures will prove to be the greatest evil the world has ever seen and will put every occupant of the world in peril, especially both of the fractured lines of the snake. The outcome of this will factor into the plausibility of the seventh decisive battle between the two lines of the snake coming to reality along with the fate of the entire realm of mortals.

The outcomes between these two decisive conflicts will decide whether the world engages into a new age of prosperity or plunges into an age of unprecedented darkness. The abilities of the descendent from the lost line of the snake, the one with the Heart of the Warrior, will decide whether the world becomes a better place for us all where the forces of manipulation and corruption become the exception rather than the rule or whether it will get plunged into a nightmare of pure darkness. Only the fates could truly tell for sure.