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Chapter Forty One: Heading Home

“This is…that means…that…that…that,” stammered Harry looking over the prophecy, unable to believe the contents of it.

“Exactly,” said Lily. “Voldemort isn’t the only Heir to Slytherin, even through he is the one descended from the line that most people unfortunately remember and the general public’s perception of that line is what has forged what people think Slytherin was like.”

“The dishonored line!” exclaimed Hermione, her eyes widening in understanding. “That’s the line that has caused all the hatred and contempt for Salazar Slytherin and his house all these years.”

“Dishonored line, lost line, exactly how many lines from Slytherin are there?” asked Sirius.

“Only two,” replied Lily. “This prophecy explains a lot of what has happened over the past several years and something that I stumbled upon just a few months before Voldemort attacked on that Halloween Night. That is that I was descended from the lost line of Slytherin and as a result, so are Hailey and Harry.”

“Descended from a founder,” said Hailey. “Wicked!”

“It does explain a lot doesn’t it?” asked Harry in a thoughtful voice. “Slytherin’s Blade couldn’t be used by just anyone. Slytherin didn’t intend for just anyone to find his personal library buried just underneath the school along with the Portus-Amulet. I seemed to be finding a whole lot of things that belonged to Slytherin.”

“Just being descended from Slytherin isn’t the only reason you found those items, Harry,” said Lily. “I’ve done my fair share of after hours exploring at Hogwarts and I never seen anything like you described like the entrance for the Slytherin library. Not to mention Voldemort would have picked the library clean had he found it and there were countless other descendents from the dishonored line that attended Hogwarts but never stumbled upon one trace of Slytherin’s private library.”

“So, Slytherin had something built into the magic within Hogwarts that deemed whether I was worthy or not,” said Harry, nodding his head slowly in understanding. “That does make sense, as he wouldn’t want just anyone to find such power and knowledge. After all, certain people tend to abuse those things.”

“Yes, but this thing is bugging me,” said Ginny looking over the Prophecy. “The seventh battle. The way it’s looking to me is you have to face Voldemort three more times before it’s all over.”

“Fifteen months old, first year, second year, just a couple of days ago,” muttered Harry before nodding. “Yes it’s looking that way to me as well. I’m still at a loss to understand exactly how everything is being set in stone.”

“I don’t normally believe in Prophecies but this one troubles me because at least half of it seems to have already happened,” said Hermione scanning the prophecy.

“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” said Ginny. “This first bit seems to describe the founding of Hogwarts a couple thousand years before it happened.”

“The snake is Slytherin and the lion is…Gryffindor!” exclaimed Daphne.

“Yes it seems good old Godric did something to attempt to tank the reputation of Salazar Slytherin,” said Theodore.

“Yes but summoning something, what could it possibly mean?” asked Daphne.

“I know,” said Harry quietly. “Gryffindor managed to tap into the power of the Realm of Darkness. He summoned a demonic force from there which could have obliterated the world had Slytherin not found a way to contain it.”

“What exactly is this Realm of Darkness?” asked Sirius in confusion. “I’ve never heard of it, not even any of the darker members of my family brought up this place.”

“It’s normally spoken in hushed tones by even the most hardened of Dark Wizards,” said Lily grimly. “No one knows what possible horrors that the foul pits of abyss in the Realm of Darkness spawns. Even the Department of Mysteries only came up with one possible thing, an artifact that they managed to find many hundreds of year ago. It is a mysterious yet deadly veil. There is a strong, yet unconfirmed belief that one of the inhabitants of the Realm of Darkness managed to transport it to Earth some millennia ago due to the fact none of them could come here without someone summoning them from the other side as was the case with Gryffindor.”

“What exactly is so horrible about a veil?” asked Hermione.

“There’s a belief that it is a one way gateway to the Realm of Darkness,” said Lily. “What little research we’ve been able to do on the veil has deduced that it is very dangerous to be close to it at times, as intoxicating voices from behind the veil, most likely taking on the appearance of dead family members, give people near the veil for prolonged periods of time a strong, sudden urge to step through the veil. My guess is they wanted to use the veil to lure mortal prey through to the Realm of Darkness, as it seems to be a delicacy to them. Then again, I could be wrong.”

“Okay, we know understand to never go to near any strange veils in the Department of Mysteries,” said Sirius.

“So we’ve decided that Gryffindor summoned this great evil from the Realm of Darkness in an attempt to prove that he was more powerful than Slytherin,” said Harry. “Most of this prophecy has already happened, including over half of the battles between Voldemort and myself out of the seven. My question is, why seven?”

“Seven is the most powerfully magical number so it stands to reason that a series of battles to determine the balance of power in the Magical World would be seven,” said Lily.

“Yeah but before seventh battle happens, Harry has encounter this dark evil force from the Realm of Darkness and his minions,” said Ginny in a worried tone of voice. “The greatest evil the world has ever seen and it breaking through looks like it might affect everyone.”

“Even Voldemort himself,” said Hailey. “This prophecy doesn’t seem to give much hope for winning or survival for that matter.”

“Damn it, I will win!” cried Harry slamming his fist down upon one of the desks in the classroom. “I’ve done too much and worked too hard to let some dark evil force beat me or Voldemort for that matter. I have to win, there is no other option!”

“All of the weight of the world has been put on your shoulders Harry,” said Hermione quietly.

“Yeah, if you get killed, none of us will have much of a future,” said Daphne.

“So no pressure Harry,” said Hailey.

“If anyone can defeat two evil forces, it’s Harry,” said Ginny. “He’s had the odds against him before and he’s always come out on top.”

Harry nodded in agreement but despite what he said, what he was thinking was quite different. He wondered as he inched closer to the final confrontation, if his luck at getting out of tight situations would run out. Harry didn’t know if he could live with himself in the afterlife if he let everyone down.

There was no question whatsoever in the mind of Harry Potter. He had to triumph over both Voldemort and this evilest force the world has ever seen or there would be dire consequences for everyone he cared about.

As this was going on, Voldemort was also busy in his office on the top floor of Salazar tower, also known as his fortress of evil. Voldemort, like all self respecting evil maniacs bent on world domination, had a throne room to conduct his Death Eater meetings but all of his legitimate business was conducted in his office and only his Inner Circle was permitted to ever enter that part of his fortress.

Salazar tower was a ten floor dwelling and was said to once belong to Salazar Slytherin as a short lived place of residence before he founded Hogwarts. In fact it was located behind a wooded area just outside of Hogsmeade, right behind the deepest, darkest, most dreary part of the forest. Of course if this wasn’t enough to deter any unwanted visitors, there were all sorts of automatic defenses that targeted those who either didn’t have the dark mark or weren’t given express permission by Voldemort himself to visit Salazar tower. Needless to see, those defenses would lead to a dark and sinister fate to anyone attempting to enter Voldemort’s base of operations and the Dark Lord wouldn’t have it any other way.

Of course those defenses did not power themselves. Deep within the basement of Salazar tower rested a gigantic magical diamond that fueled the magic around Voldemort’s defenses. This diamond was given to Voldemort as a present from a group of Middle Eastern Dark Wizards as a “thank you” for Voldemort lending them some of his lower ranked Death Eaters back in the early 1970s to carry out a mission against some of their rivals.

Ironically enough, that is the reason why Voldemort was working in his office in Salazar tower at such a late hour. If he wanted to enact his plans to gain control of the entire Magical World, he would need more than just his Death Eaters to carry this plan out. He would need man power in other groups of Dark wizards and witches, not to mention various races of dark creatures.

Thankfully for the Dark Lord, there were several dark magic cults scattered throughout the world with similar aims and beliefs about Muggles that Voldemort had. Cults in the Middle East, South America, Russia, and Japan would benefit Voldemort when they aligned with him. Not to mention the giants would be aligned with Voldemort, along with the Dementors. Voldemort already had formed a loose alliance with some of the vampires and the werewolves during his first rise to power.

Voldemort’s thoughts of conquest were interrupted when the door of his office door creaked open.

Wormtail walked into the office. He had been elected to tell the Dark Lord a rather unfortunate piece of news. Wormtail found himself slightly sickened by the smell of burnt flesh as he entered the Dark Lord’s office, still lingering from when the Potter boy lit up the Dark Lord like a human inferno with that sword. It was still up for debate whether charred, burnt flesh improved Voldemort’s appearance or not.

“Yes Wormtail,” hissed Voldemort coldly.

“My Lord, I have a bit of unfortunate news I think you should uh know,” said Wormtail.

Despite his own ambitions of using the Dark Lord to achieve his own goals, Wormtail couldn’t deny he was just a tiny bit intimidated by the Dark Lord; even through he was just a disgusting half blood.

“Well do tell me Wormtail as I have very important work to do and I don’t need to lingering here to waste my time,” hissed Voldemort.

“Lily Potter she…well there is no delicate way to put this but she’s, let me see,” said Wormtail before deciding to blurt it out. “LILY POTTER IS STILL ALIVE MY LORD!”

Voldemort looked up from his work to glare at Wormtail. So she still lived, did she? Lily had given Voldemort his fair share of headaches due to her ability to slip away before Voldemort could manage to kill her before Voldemort thought he managed to finally murder the Mudblood girl nearly fourteen years ago. Her son seemed to have taken up the family business of eluding death when Voldemort dished it out but the fact that she still lived caused Voldemort to be a little bit unnerved. While she didn’t have enough power to vanquish the Dark Lord, Harry Potter on the other hand did and there was no telling what Lily Potter learned that could be used to destroy him. If she passed on this information to Harry Potter, then Voldemort’s plans for domination might be a little bit more difficult to complete.

It would be easy to blame himself for not making sure the Mudblood was dead but it would be even easier to blame Wormtail.

“Wormtail, you failed me for not letting me know that the girl had any way of blocking the killing curse,” said Voldemort.

“It’s not like she broadcasted that fact my Lord,” said Wormtail in a slightly bold voice.

“You forget your place, Wormtail,” said Voldemort before raising his wand. “CRUCIO!”

Wormtail screamed out in pain, while mentally vowing revenge for all the torture and all the downgrading that Voldemort had given him over the years. Once Wormtail acquired enough power, it would be Voldemort that would be begging for mercy after being stepped all over by Wormtail.

After about thirty seconds of torture under the Cruciatus, Voldemort lifted the curse causing Wormtail to step back, panting slightly.

“I hope you’ve learned your lesson, Peter,” hissed Voldemort coldly.

Wormtail nodded before staggering out of the room. One day he would get Voldemort, he would prove that he was more powerful than that half blood. He would prove the greatness that the old man had told him that he had. One day Wormtail would be the Dark Lord and Voldemort would merely be the quivering servant.

Another year had concluded for the students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Dumbledore had announced the return to power of Lord Voldemort at the End of the Year feast, despite Fudge warning him of severe consequences if he did so.

“Many of them believe that Voldemort has returned,” said Harry as they were boarding the Hogwarts Express to go home for the end of the year. “Still, many of them are skeptical or don’t want to believe that Voldemort has returned.”

“Unfortunately that’s just how life is,” said Daphne. “If the worst has happened, then people would rather live in their own little perfect worlds, ignoring all the bad things going on around them.”

“Until it’s too late,” said Hermione. “This is how Voldemort rose to power the first time. The Ministry stuck their heads in the sand and letting him slowly rise to power despite all of the warning signs.”

“Sill, this time we have someone who doesn’t take Voldemort lightly,” said Ginny, looking over towards Harry fondly.

“Exactly,” said Harry. “I’m going to continue him as the most dangerous thing I’ve ever faced, something that needs to be vanquished at all costs. Just like at the Graveyard. He treated me as a young, inexperienced underage wizard and I treated him as a deadly threat. “

“Still Voldemort nearly getting fried to a crisp was kind of amusing. I kind of wish I was there to see him like up like a firecracker,” said Hailey, shaking her head with an amused smirk on her face. “Pity his Horcruxes saved him from becoming a pile of ashes.”

“We’ll solve that problem soon enough, when all of the Horcruxes are found that is,” said Harry. “I hope it’s soon and nothing goes wrong when we recombine Voldemort’s soul pieces back into the original piece of the soul.”

That was the end of that conversation as no one said much until Harry, Ginny, Daphne, Theodore, Hailey, and Hermione found a compartment all to themselves. They talked about the final task, up until the unfortunate incident at the Graveyard.

“I still can’t believe the gall of Fudge, screwing you out of the prize money,” said Ginny, who had her legs draped across Harry’s lap, with her head resting on his shoulder. “You went through that Tournament, even through you never entered and then when you get out of it looking like hell, you don’t get one knut for winning the tournament.”

“They couldn’t recover the Triwizard Cup, so Fudge made up some excuse about since they didn’t have the Cup, then they couldn’t award the prize money,” said Harry in a tired voice.

“It wasn’t your fault Voldemort blew up the bloody cup in the graveyard!” yelled Ginny before calming down slightly. “I’m sorry, I’m just not too happy with the Minister of Magic right now.”

“Yes, well they aren’t going to be too popular with anyone outside of the pureblood fanatics right now,” said Hailey. “They are point blank denying the return of Voldemort and they refuse to believe Harry no matter what.”

“Of course, that wouldn’t fit the Ministry of Magic’s agenda,” said Daphne. “Telling the truth never has.”

“Still you really should have won that prize money Harry,” said Theodore. “Of course you would have had the Ministry been governed by the same Unbreakable Magical Contract to award the money to the winner that forced the champions to compete when there name came out of the Goblet of Fire.”

“Yes but I’m really too fussed about it and I’m really not going to make a big deal out of that,” said Harry.

“Can I make a big deal out of it Harry?” asked Hailey. “Fudge could used to be slapped around a little bit by someone.”

“No you be good,” said Harry in a stern voice. “Anyway, I really didn’t want the prize money anyway; I was planning to put it towards a noble and quite humorous cause.”

“You aren’t serious are you,” said Ginny raising her eyebrow. “Mum would flip if Fred and George actually went through with it.”

“Hey, I’ve survived encounters with the Shredder, Hun, the Foot Elite, the Foot, the Foot Tech Ninjas, Lord Voldemort, Wormtail, Bellatrix Lestrange, Dementors, the Triceratons, the Federation, the Mob, the Purple Dragons and several petty criminals, so I think I can handle explaining myself towards your mother if she wanted to know what possessed me to give her twin sons a thousand galleons to fund a joke shop and thus lessen their chances from working at the Ministry of Magic,” said Harry. “Besides I don’t see either Fred or George working at the Ministry of Magic without severe behavior modifications as they normally don’t tend to adapt to authority that well.”

“Actually those two would be excellent running a joke shop,” said Hermione. “After all of the pranks they’ve pulled over the years, they surely have come up with a few ideas.”

“Yes, pity you can’t find a way to help fund it Harry, since the Ministry isn’t exactly coughing up the prize money,” said Theodore.

“I’m still thinking about giving them start up funds even if I have to dip into my own personal money at Gringotts,” said Harry. “I’ll think of something. I always do.”

Just then the door of the compartment angrily slid open and Cedric Diggory stormed inside, not looking too happy.

“You!” yelled Cedric, pointing at Harry.

“Me,” said Harry coolly.

“Potter, do you have any idea what you’ve done?” asked Cedric. “You won the tournament and somehow lost the Triwizard Cup which meant none of us got the prize money. That’s why you shouldn’t have been in the Tournament in the first place. We competed for no reason after the stunt you pulled.”

“I was under the impression that the Tournament was happening to promote International Magical Cooperation,” said Harry in a calm, even voice.

“No you daft git, it was about the prize money!” screamed Cedric.

“I can’t believe you would be so shallow to even think that,” said Ginny shaking her head. “Maybe that’s the reason why you entered.”

Cedric opened his mouth, most likely to say something rude about Ginny but Hermione managed to avert the potential disaster by lifting her wand up and waving it, wordlessly. Cedric found his mouth swollen shut and unable to speak. Cedric shot Hermione an angry glare before turning his back and walking off.

“What was his problem anyway?” asked Harry.

“Chang dumped him when he didn’t win the Tournament,” said Ginny casually. “She seemed to think that she would get a cut in on the prize money if Diggory won.”

“Well that explains it,” said Hailey before coughing something that sounded suspiciously like, “little gold digging whore”. “Sorry, I had something stuck in my throat.”

“It all happens to the best of us,” said Hermione who was fighting an amused smile.

“What exactly was that little curse you used on Diggory, anyway?” asked Daphne.

“Jaw swelling charm, it should wear off in a couple of hours, I think,” said Hermione smugly.

“You really should have been sorted into Slytherin, Hermione,” said Harry.

“I kind of wish I was, the hat seemed to be torn between Gryffindor, Slytherin, and Ravenclaw but I foolishly decided on Gryffindor,” said Hermione.

“We all tend to make foolish mistakes when we are younger,” said Ginny, thinking about her first year trauma with the diary and Riddle.

“Ginny, that wasn’t your fault,” said Harry.

“How did you know what I was talking about Harry?” asked Ginny.

“Trust me, I just know,” said Harry, before kissing Ginny briefly on the lips. “He’ll be gone soon enough but I’m going to try and enjoy the summer for a few weeks before I get straight to work with assisting Mum in attempting to find the Horcruxes so we can get a few steps closer to taking Voldemort down. I’m afraid it might be several years before we reach that point.”

“Just promise me you’ll be careful,” said Hermione.

“He will be, I’ll come with him to make sure,” said Hailey.

“You aren’t going,” said Harry sharply. “Not until you can learn a bit more magic, at least to O.W.L. level if not higher. That includes all classes, even Potions.”

“That means I’m going to have to…read over the summer,” said Hailey groaning, thinking that joining both her mother and brother on this little Horcrux hunt might not be worth doing extra studying. She only did the minimum amount to pass the class with the exception of Defense Against the Dark Arts which Hailey felt was the only worthwhile class.

“Doing a little extra reading isn’t really that bad, you know,” said Hermione.

“Yes it is!” snapped Hailey.

The rest of the ride back to King’s Cross went on without too much incident. At the platform, Harry said his good byes to his friends.

“Harry, hopefully you do have a quiet, eventless summer,” said Theodore which caused Daphne, Ginny, Hermione, and Hailey to burst out laughing. “What?”

“Quiet, eventless summer and Harry, now that’s something that doesn’t mix,” said Hermione.

“Agreed,” said Harry. “I’m hoping for the best but I’m prepared for the worst.”

“Bye Harry, Mum said I can come and visit in a couple of weeks,” said Ginny.

“She didn’t object to my families unique circumstances?” asked Harry.

“No but that doesn’t seem to be a problem with most of my family,” said Ginny, thinking about the reaction Percy would have about Harry’s family and the fact that Ginny might accidentally hex him for being such a prat who was stubbornly following the opinion of the Ministry. “Lily being alive on the other hand was extremely fun to explain but once Mum understood she survived, she didn’t seem to have too much of a problem letting me come to New York alone this time especially if a mature adult would be keeping an eye us.”

Harry nodded before bending forward and kissing his girlfriend goodbye.

“See you later Ginny,” said Harry. “The same goes for the rest of you too. C’mon Hailey, let’s go.”

Hailey grabbed her brother’s arm as he used the Portus Amulet to transport them back to the Potter residence in New York.

Privet Drive in Surrey was a normal place, with normal people. Quite frankly it was a bit boring to people who liked a bit of excitement in their life but the residents of that neighborhood wouldn’t have it any other way. They frowned down upon anything strange and mysterious, as it would be a disruption to their quiet little life.

There were no other two residents that aspired to be more normal than Vernon and Petunia Dursley. They went out of their way to be normal so much it was quite mystifying to say the very least. However, despite the best attempts by the Dursleys to be normal, a deep, dark secret plagued their very existence. The very scandal of it all had lead the Dursleys to be the subject of gossip by the other residents of Privet Drive.

The Dursleys had already been the subject of gossip where their strange and mysterious nephew Harry Potter had been left at their doorstep one chilly November morning. Petunia Dursley had claimed that the Potters had died in a car accident but many of the more skeptical residents of Privet Drive believed the Potters had been murdered.

For four and a half years, Harry Potter lived with Petunia, Vernon, and their young son, Dudley. Then, just as mysteriously as he arrived, Harry Potter had vanished from Number Four Privet Drive without a trace. The Dursleys lamely claimed that Harry had been sent to live with other relatives from the Potter line but many suspected foul play. After all, even through many only caught a few brief glimpses of it, Vernon Dursley seemed to be the type to have a temper and may have beaten the boy to death in a fit of violent rage.

Of course this was only rumors, as a police investigation hadn’t turned up a body or any evidence of foul play. Still, when did an insignificant thing such as proof keep the residents of Privet Drive from their little gossip games?

Of course, Lily Potter could care less about rumors and gossip as she walked up to the door of Number Four Privet Drive. She decided to pay her sister a visit, as she suspected that her sister and her husband weren’t too kind to Harry when he had lived there. Harry didn’t seem too forthcoming with answers and always changed the subject whenever the Dursleys came up which made Lily believe they made Harry’s life here hell.

Lily knocked on the door; leave it to Petunia to be so normal that she couldn’t have anything slightly out of the ordinary like a doorbell. On the other end of the door, Lily heard footsteps before the door creaked open revealing the horse faced form of Petunia Dursley.

“Whatever you’re selling I’m not interested in…” started Petunia before trailing off, seeing her supposedly dead sister standing in the doorway. Petunia screamed in terror before slamming the door in Lily’s face and hoping she didn’t see what she thought she saw.

Lily sighed before pulling out her wand.

“Alohomora,” muttered Lily, causing the door to open and walking inside, seeing Petunia sitting on the couch, looking completely terrified. “Hello, Petunia, I’m here to have a nice little chat about when my son was left here for you and Vernon to raise.”

“N-no Lily, you can’t be here, y-you dead, no,” said Petunia who rose to her feet. “Stay away from me or I’ll call the police. I mean it Lily; I swear I’ll call the police.”

“And then they’ll have you sent to the asylum for seeing dead people,” said Lily. “As far as the Muggle world is concerned, I’m dead.”

“You are dead Lily, you can’t be talking to me, that Dumbledore freak said you were dead,” stammered Petunia, her face red and drenched in sweat.

“Shut up Petunia and listen to me,” said Lily in a sharp tone of voice. “Harry was left here, against my better wishes granted, but I would have thought you would have grown up enough to not take out what petty grievances you had on me out on a helpless child. How could you have sank so low to do that?”

“Lily, I swear it wasn’t my fault, I couldn’t stop Vernon…” started Petunia, attempting to place the full blame on her husband, despite the fact that she was just as responsible for making Harry’s life miserable as Vernon was.

“Petunia, don’t try and place the entire blame on Vernon because I can tell you did your own share of the damage,” said Lily. “Still, even if Vernon was responsible for all the trauma my son suffered, you should have stepped in and stopped him, even if he would have beaten the snot out of you. It sure wouldn’t be the easy think to do but it’s the bloody right thing to do. “

“That freak son of yours shouldn’t have been left here in the first place!” screamed Petunia, losing her temper completely and revealing that she had just as much of a temper as her nephew and sister, even through she refused to be compared to those two in any way. “Just like you should be dead right now and the whole lot of you freaks would be better off six feet under group. I should have had Vernon drown the little brat when he got here, it would have saved us a lot of time and money. “

“I see you haven’t changed Petunia but I’m hoping for your sake you get over your prejudices, or your life will be extremely miserable” said Lily sadly.

“What exactly is that supposed to mean, Lily?” asked Petunia in a challenging voice. “Oh perfect, precious, witch Lily threatening me, I’m so scared.”

“Good bye Petunia,” said Lily without answering her sister’s question and leaving just as suddenly as she appeared.

Petunia didn’t know it, but Lily had wandlessly and wordlessly put both Petunia and Vernon under a Bad Luck Curse. As it name indicated, it would bring down all sorts of bad luck on Vernon and Petunia, short of either of them dying. The only way the curse would wear off would be if Vernon and Petunia completely got over their unwarranted hatred of towards anything magical.

The students of Hogwarts might have been gone but the Headmaster was still at play. The Ministry of Magic wanted to give him problems, did they? Well Dumbledore had been playing the game a lot longer than most of the people at the Ministry and he could teach a class on ruthless manipulation if he chose to. The Ministry would be in for a bit of a rude surprise if they tried to maneuver Dumbledore out of Hogwarts.