money from it, so please Mrs. Rowling if you read this
don’t sue me. A comment or two would be welcome
though.
Please, if you read, take two minutes to review.
Chapter 16: Setting the Board
Harry walked into the Apparation Training Room for the first DA meeting after the Christmas holiday and froze. Dumbledore was there along with Mark, Professor Lupin, Professor Tonks, Professor Chang and Madam Pomfrey. The members of the DA who were already in the room had congregated on the wall furthest away from their instructors and the lot of them were talking in cautious, yet excited whispers.
Harry’s attention, however, was riveted on what could only be described as a prison cell that was located on the wall opposite and furthest away from the door to the room. The cell, or cage as it was, was encased with glowing blue ropes of magical energy. The ropes snaked around the cage in a continuously flowing movement that was at once peacefully hypnotic and terrifying in its purpose. They were the second barrier that prevented the two Dementors inside the cell from escaping.
“What’s wrong?” Ron asked as he bumped into Harry from behind.
Harry’s hand moved to his wand and he cautiously moved further into the room; stepping in front of Ginny as he did.
“I don’t need you to protect me from a couple of dementors, Potter,” Ginny growled at him; giving him a shove further into the room.
“Whoa…” Ron said as he stepped into the room and his eyes settled on the caged creatures. His own hand moved to his wand as he made room for Hermione to get a look. “How come it isn’t cold in here?” he asked after a moment.
“You’ve never cast a patronus against real dementors before, Gin,” Harry said, still keeping himself in between her and the cage.
Hermione got her first look at the cage a moment later. “Because, Ronald, those blue ropes have nothing to do with containing the dementors,” she said. “The cage is more than enough for that. The ropes form a magical barrier that contains the magic of the dementors. The barrier keeps the cold of their poison from escaping into the room.”
Ron and Harry both turned to look at her, mouths gaping.
“How do you know that?” Ron demanded. Hermione rolled her eyes at them both and looked at Ginny for help.
“You two ought to read a bit more,” Ginny remarked, flicking her wand at Ron and Harry, wrapping them both in the same blue coils of light that surrounded the cage containing the two dementors.
Ron and Harry both started to fidget uncomfortably from the sensation of being trapped inside the barrier. It felt something like when you bite down on a piece of tinfoil, only this seemed to permeate through their whole body.
“It’s all in, Detaining and Capturing Dementors, by: Gavin Gladstone,” Hermione said as she waved her wand at Ron and Harry, releasing them from the spell that Ginny had cast around them.
“Very good Mrs. Potter, Mrs. Weasley, ten points to Gryffindor,” Professor Dumbledore said. Harry whirled to face him. He had not noticed the Headmaster, Professor Lupin, or Professor Tonks approach from behind while he was under Ginny’s spell. “But you are not supposed to be using a wand, Mrs. Potter,” Dumbledore said leveling his eyes on her. “Nor are you,” he added with a stern look at Hermione.
Harry recognized the look in Ginny’s eyes at the challenge and subtly moved away from the three professors. The effects of being trapped in the barrier had not hurt, but had not been particularly comfortable either.
“Expecto Contineo Patronum!” Ginny thundered as her hand flashed towards Professor Dumbledore. The blue coils of light shot from the palm of her hand, wrapping around the three professors and Ron, who had not had the foresight to move away from them. Harry smirked at his wife from the other side of the barrier she had erected.
“Ginny!” Hermione hissed as she once again canceled Ginny’s spell; this time without using her wand.
“Was that acceptable, Professor?” Ginny asked. Professor Dumbledore was shaking his head slightly as he tried to clear it from the effects of the spell. When his eyes settled on Ginny they twinkled with mirth at her.
“I should know better than to have said anything to you, Mrs. Potter.” He chuckled. He then turned to Harry. “Better you than me,” he said with a smirk.
“I’ll agree with that,” Professor Lupin added as he massaged his right shoulder.
“I will too,” Professor Tonks said. She was playing with her elbow like she had hit her funny bone particularly hard and was trying to get the tingling sensation to go away. “I never much liked the effects of that spell,” she added.
“Hey, she put the spell on me too,” Harry replied.
“Right, and we’re all agreeing that we’re glad you’re the one who has to go home with her at night and not us,” Tonks answered. Ginny was scowling at all of them while they smiled back at her and Harry.
“It’s worth it,” Harry said with a grin at Ginny.
“Flirt,” Ginny replied into his mind. Harry’s smile grew bigger at her jibe.
“Oy, if the lot of you are finished hexing each other, the rest of us might like to know what the plan is for today,” Dean Thomas called from where the rest of the DA was watching the exchange.
The group of them turned to the rest of the DA, and Dean quailed slightly under the eyes of his three professors.
“Sorry, sir, professors, I didn’t mean to be cheeky. The rest of us were just a little curious.
“That is quite alright, Mr. Thomas. You were not out of line given the exchange that we were all engaged in,” Professor Dumbledore said to him. Dean relaxed again as he realized that it was not just Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny who Professor Dumbledore felt deserved to be treated like an adult. “Just remember to be careful in how you address myself and your other professors given the situation you are in at the time,” Dumbledore added with a glance at all of the assembled DA members.
“Yes, sir,” Dean and the rest of the DA replied.
Dumbledore continued to survey his students with great pride. This group was advanced beyond where any of them should be in the area of defensive spells. Even the youngest of them, David McBride, the budding star of the Gryffindor Quidditch team and lone fourth year in the group was impressive to see in battle training. He was as competent in his fourth year in defense as Harry had been during his fourth year. And all of them had, at least to some extent, applied similar efforts to the rest of their studies.
These younger members of the DA, the ones who had not left school yet, minus Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Hagrid, and Neville would form the backbone of one aspect of the final battle. Mark and an as yet to be determined number of ministry employees not from the ranks of the Unspeakables or Aurors, were being tasked with fighting the dementors. These fifteen students, as long as everything went to according to plan, would join them.
This relatively safe task was being given to them because they would unlikely be in a position where they had to fight a Death Eater sending spells at them, and they would only have to concentrate on one thing. The more these students could do against the dementors, the fewer adults would be assigned to help them.
“The final battle between Voldemort and Harry draws near,” Dumbledore said. The DA’s eyes all shot to Harry, who nodded at them, and then back to Dumbledore. “You are all, if you are willing, going to be involved in some way,” Dumbledore continued when he had their undivided attention. “Mr. Thomas, if you would move into the center of the room please.”
Dean blinked at the mention of his name. Gulping visibly he nodded at Professor Dumbledore and moved to stand next to Mark who was beckoning to him.
With a wave of his wand Dumbledore conjured steel bars that grew out of the floor of the room rising to the ceiling, trapping Dean, Mark and Madam Pomfrey in one area of the room with the caged dementors and leaving the rest of the DA safely behind them.
Mark and Madam Pomfrey backed away from Dean, moving up against the steel bars of the prison cell that Dumbledore had created. The Unspeakable drew his wand and trained it on the cage holding the two dementors who, sensing that something in their prison was about to change, seemed to be looking more diligently for a way to escape it.
Dean’s attention alternated between the caged dementors and the Unspeakable behind him. He had drawn his wand when he first moved into the center of the room and now the color had drained from his face.
“It’s like Harry told Ginny when he walked in here, Dean,” Mark said to him. “I’ve seen you cast a patronus before. But now, not even suffering any effects of the dementors, you look terrified just to see them. I suggest you put yourself in the correct frame of mind.”
Harry watched Dean as a look of resolve came over his friend’s face. Dean turned to face the caged dementors and a moment later, the blue ropes of magical energy that contained the cold of the dementor’s poison disappeared from around the cage. The dementors instantly moved to the side of their cage nearest to where Dean was standing and a few moments latter, Harry felt the familiar chill of the dementor spreading across the room.
“I want you to use your patronus to force them back into the cage after I have let them out of it,” Mark said from where he stood behind Dean.
Without taking his eyes off of the Dementors, Dean nodded. “Go ahead, Mark,” he said. With a flick of Mark’s wand, the steel bars that formed the wall of the cage that the dementors were pressing up against disappeared and the creatures began to float into the room towards Dean.
“Let them come to you, Dean,” Mark coached him. “Give them a chance to affect you before you defend yourself. Make it a true test of your abilities. I’ll be here if you need help.”
Dean waited; the cold of the dementors began to seep into him and he struggled to maintain the focus of his mind on the memory that he always used to conjure his patronus. As the cold became more intense, his happy memory began to cloud and fade away.
The memories of the Death Eater attacks that had occurred on Harry’s last birthday slowly began to fill Dean’s head. The memory of his mum under the effects of the cruciatus curse while he battled to save his father and younger brother, before the Aurors arrived, flashed into his mind.
“Anytime would be good, Dean,” Mark urged him as the Dementors began to circle in closer. Dean’s wand came up and he shook his head trying to bring his focus back to his happy memory, clear it of his fears.
“Expecto Patronum!” he bellowed. The silvery substance that formed his patronus flew from the end of his wand in a stream hitting one of the dementors and driving it back. Dean turned his wand on the other dementor as he tried to make his patronus take its full shape. A few seconds later, he collapsed to the ground when his spell failed to fully form and the dementor forced its way past it.
“Expecto Patronum!” Mark thundered as he jumped forward to defend Dean. A silvery bear jumped from the end of Mark’s wand and chased the two dementors away from Dean. Mark forced the creatures back into the cage and conjured the fourth wall of their prison. While Mark reset the blue ropes of magical energy around the dementor’s cage, Madam Pomfrey rushed forward to Dean who was slowly sitting up; she pushed some chocolate into his mouth and handed him a mug of hot chocolate to drink.
“As you can see,” Dumbledore said, bringing the attention of the DA from Dean to himself, “It is quite another thing to actually defend yourself from a dementor than to simply conjure a patronus.” The members of the DA simply looked down at the ground or over to where Dean was now being lead out a side door that, they all knew, went directly to the hospital wing.
“Dean will be fine in another hour or so,” Dumbledore said. “He will be ready to try again tomorrow night. All of you will receive new schedules from Professor Tonks before you leave tonight. You will all be training every day against the dementors. If any of you wish to leave and not be involved with this, you should say so now.” Dumbledore’s gaze rested for a moment on each of his students.
“We’ve trained against the Cruciatus curse, the Imperius curse, and any number of other dark magic curses. Some of us have even faced down the Death curse in battle. If you think a couple of dementors are going to send us running with our tails tucked between our legs, well, then, with respect, sir, you’re nuts,” Neville said squaring his shoulders as he addressed Professor Dumbledore.
“Yeah, what he said,” Parvati Patil added.
“Yeah, what they said,” the rest of the DA agreed forcefully. Dumbledore smiled at them.
“Very well then, Harry we already know you can handle dementors, so you will come with me to my office. I wish for Ronald, Hermione and Ginny to make an attempt against the Dementors next. If you are each successful, you will come to my office afterwards. Neville you will go fourth and if successful you will come to my office at 9:00pm tonight. I will leave it to the rest of you to determine what order you are going to proceed in after Neville.”
“Yes, sir,” The DA replied. Dumbledore turned to go and Harry turned to follow him.
“Sir?” Neville asked.
“Yes, Mr. Longbottom?” Dumbledore replied turning to look at his student.
“I don’t know the password to your office.”
“Mars Bars,” Dumbledore answered directly into his mind.
“Thank you, sir.”
“I’ll see you shortly, Mr. Longbottom,” Dumbledore said and then he and Harry were gone.
“It looks like you’re up then, Ron,” Mark said. Ron turned to the Unspeakable and stepped through the hole that had been created in the steel bars separating the room in two. The hole sealed itself after he had passed through it and a moment later the magical blue ropes were gone from the dementor’s cage.
“Let them come to you, Ron,” Mark said as the wall of their cage disappeared and the dementors began to float into the room towards him.
Harry sat in a chair at Professor Dumbledore’s desk, with the headmaster opposite him in his high backed, squashy arm chair. Every so often Fawkes floated back and forth between them, alternately resting on one of their shoulders.
“Pawn to H-two,” Harry said instructing the chessman to move.
The two of them looked up at the door as the sound of the stone steps turning their way up to Dumbledore’s office filled the room. A few moments later, Ginny, followed by Ron and Hermione came through the door. Harry stood up and met Ginny half way across the office.
“Everything went alright then?” he thought to her.
“You doubted me?” Ginny replied. Harry could feel the ice in the tone of her reply and that she was still angry with him for feeling like he needed to step in-between her and the dementors in the Apparation Training Room earlier that evening.
“It wasn’t that I doubted you. I was just concerned. Anything can happen, Gin,” Harry replied sending his own displeasure with her back across the connection. “Or would you prefer that your husband was unconcerned about his wife having to fight off dementors?”
“No,” Ginny replied softening as she reached her hand to touch his cheek, “I like having you concerned about me.”
“Then don’t get mad at me when I show it,” Harry replied pulling her by the back of the neck and kissing her forehead. Ginny rested her forehead on Harry’s chin for a moment.
“I’m sorry, Husband. I just don’t like to be treated like a child.” Harry took her hand and pulled her to the couch next to the one Ron and Hermione had taken in the sitting area near the fireplace of Professor Dumbledore’s office.
“Am I forgiven for trying to protect you?” Harry asked.
“Yes,” Ginny replied.
“Then you’re forgiven for being angry with me for no reason,” Harry said.
Ginny squeezed his hand slightly as they sat down and Professor Dumbledore came out from behind his desk. He summoned his chair from behind his desk and conjured a small table in-between himself and his four students. As he sat down, he placed, what appeared to be, a small wooden box on the table. Harry couldn’t tell exactly what was on it, but it appeared to have intricate carvings on the four sides and lid, while the bottom of the box had four small round knobs that acted as feet.
“I trust none of you had any difficulties with the dementors?” Professor Dumbledore asked as he surveyed them over his half moon glasses.
“No, sir,” Ron replied.
“No, Headmaster,” Hermione and Ginny said at the same time. Dumbledore smiled at them.
“I did not really expect that you would, but it is better to find out if you are particularly susceptible to something in a controlled situation than when your life depends on it.”
That’s what we tried to tell, Ginny, you know, Harry’s first said.
Well, considering that we came out ahead in that last little disagreement, I’m not going to hack her off by telling her, I told you so, Harry replied to the voice.
No, neither are we, all four voices said together.
Good, glad were in agreement on that then, Harry said.
“Sir,” Ron said pulling Harry out of his internal monologue,” I thought all of the dementors had gone over to Voldemort’s side when they left Azkaban.
“You would be correct in that statement. However, some have been recaptured in the battles since they first left Azkaban. And the Ministry has always kept a few caged deep within the Department of Mysteries for the Unspeakables and Aurors to train against. I’m not sure how many the Ministry currently has under its control, but I know that Minister Bones has decreed, if a means to do so can be found, that the creatures are to be destroyed. The Unspeakables are working night and day to find a solution. I’m afraid they will not meet with much success.”
Harry blinked in shock. “Sir, I understand that they’re foul creatures. But they’re only following their nature. Don’t they have….” Harry paused as he searched for the words he wanted, “a right to exist as much as we do?”
Ron and Ginny turned to Harry with their mouths gaping.
“How can you say that?” Ron asked somewhat angrily.
Hermione jumped in to defend Harry. “Ronald, every creature has a right to exist, even the dementors,” she admonished him.
“Easy for you to say, Hermione, you don’t relive being possessed by Tom Riddle when they’re near you, or your mother being murdered when she tries to protect you,” Ginny snapped at her.
“Harry does relive his mother’s murder when he’s near dementors, and he still thinks they have a right to exist, Ginevera,” Hermione snapped back.
Harry and Ron both stared at each other in surprise at Hermione’s use of Ginny’s given name. Few people did so with her blessing, and those that did without it, didn’t use it a second time.
“Please,” Dumbledore said, holding up his hand and breaking into the argument.
Ginny stopped herself from retorting to Hermione’s last statement. Shooting a last glare at her that said, this isn’t over yet, she turned her attention to Professor Dumbledore.
Harry and Ron glanced nervously at each other as they noticed the last scowls sent by their wives at each other before they too turned to face Dumbledore.
“Harry, you are a truly remarkable person. You also, Hermione,” Dumbledore said once he had their attention. “And I would agree with both of you on your thoughts except for two things. One; the dementor is evil in the same sense as Voldemort. Unlike any other creature I can think of, there is no capacity in them for good. They exist only to cause pain, suffering, death, or worse, the loss of one’s soul. Two; the dementor is not a creature of nature. They have no means of reproducing themselves on their own. All of them that are in existence were created by Morgana’s son Mordred.
“The dementors are the kings, queans, princes, princesses, knights, soldiers, peasants, and any other enemy who he and his mother captured instead of killed. Some of them are her own servants who fell into her disfavor. Every dementor that exists was once a living, breathing person like you or myself.
“They are the result of Mordred’s experiments into immortality. He found a way to create an army that was almost unstoppable. Fortunately, most of the people he performed the transformation on did not survive the process. If they had, even Merlin would not have been able to stop Morgana from ruling the world.
“The two dementors you saw in the Apparation Training Room are what is left of what was once a person. A person, who, at one time, had hopes and dreams for their life; destroying the creature that is left, is merely sending a tortured soul to the rest it deserves."
The four of them had listened quietly to Professor Dumbledore’s response and had each lost the color in their face as the explanation had gone on.
“I didn’t know that, sir,” Harry said softly while squeezing Ginny’s hand tightly in his.
“Until recently, no one knew this except for myself and three other people. Now, you four join me in expanding the ring of this knowledge to six,” Dumbledore replied.
“Six, sir,” Ron said. “There are five of us in the room. With the other three you mentioned, wouldn’t that bring the total to eight?”
“It would if the other three, were not dead,” Dumbledore replied. His statement shocked the four of them into silence again for a short time. It was Ginny who broke it.
“Then the total should be five,” she said.
“It should be, but I’m afraid the correct total is six,” Dumbledore said.
“Who is the sixth, Headmaster?” Hermione asked. It was Harry who provided the answer.
“Voldemort knows, doesn’t he?” he said.
“Yes,” Dumbledore replied simply. He and his four students fell silent for a few minutes while he let them contemplate this news.
"Headmaster, what is the reason for keeping this a secret, and why are you telling us all of this?” Hermione asked.
Dumbledore pushed the box he had set on the table towards Hermione. She picked it up and examined it carefully before passing it to Ron. Ron tried to open it, but the lid wouldn’t move even after he tried a number of different unlocking spells. He passed it to Ginny, who began to examine it. Dumbledore started to speak while they were passing the box around.
“Once Morgana had been defeated, Merlin found what he named, The Tomes of the Damned. The tomes contained the knowledge of how the dementors had been created, and how they could be destroyed. He hid the tomes and then hid the information of their location with four secret keepers.
"No, one, keeper has ever held all of the information to the location of the tomes, nor have they ever known who the other three keepers were. This was done to protect the tomes from a keeper who had decided to use them for evil purposes; to prevent the creation of more dementors. That is why it has been kept secret as to how they came into being. If no one knew that they had been created, then it made it that much more difficult to figure out how to create more of them.”
“And now Voldemort knows that they were created from humans and wants to make more of them,” Ron groaned.
“Why didn’t Merlin simply destroy the dementors and the tomes?” Ginny asked.
“He tried, but was unable to do so,” Dumbledore sighed in reply. “The tomes can only be destroyed by the wand of Morgana and the Dementors can only be destroyed by the wand that created them; in this case, the wand of Mordred.
"Merlin was unable to wield either wand and unable to find a witch or wizard who could. Hiding the tomes, along with the wands of Morgana and Mordred was the only solution he could come up with. Instead of having all knowledge of the tomes pass away, and leaving fate to decide who would find them and what to do with them, Merlin assigned four Keepers as protection. His hope was that some day someone would be born who could wield the wands. The tomes and the dementors could then be destroyed.
“Shortly after he had hidden the tomes and wands a prophecy was made,” Harry and Ron both groaned at this news. Professor Dumbledore continued like he had not heard them. “Merlin recorded the prophecy and hid it with the tomes. He gave the Keepers of the tomes part of the information in the prophecy. This part would let the Keepers know that the ones who could wield the wands of Morgana and Mordred were alive and that it was time for the tomes to be recovered.”
“What does the prophecy say, Headmaster?” Hermione asked. Professor Dumbledore started writing with his wand in the air in response to Hermione’s question.
THE HEIR OF THE HOUSE OF THE SNAKE WILL RISE ANEW…THREE OF FOUR WILL FALL... IF THE EQUAL CAN DEFEAT THE HEIR TO THE HOUSE OF THE SNAKE A SECOND TIME, THE ENDING OF THE SOUL STEALERS ENSLAVEMENT IS AT HAND FOR THEIR DESTRUCTORS HAVE RISEN...
“Bloody wonderful news that is,” Harry grumbled.
“What’s so bad about it?” Ginny demanded.
“Well, the fall of three of the Keepers for one, Gin.”
“Oh,” Ginny gasped, her hand moving to cover her mouth as she realized what the second sentence of the prophecy meant.
“And the fact that if I fail to destroy Voldemort, the dementors will continue to exist, and that Voldemort will likely create more of them. I assume that Voldemort must have somehow found the other three Keepers and that’s how he knows about the tomes and wands of Morgana and Mordred in the first place?” Harry asked turning from his wife to Dumbledore.
“The other three Keepers all perished in the first year of Volemort’s second rising,” Dumbledore answered. “Professor Snape has confirmed that he remembers seeing at least one box exactly like the one you see there, sitting on the mantel of the fireplace in Voldemort’s chambers.”
Harry picked the box up and began to turn it around as he examined it more closely. Each side of the box had a wreath of thorns carved into it and inside of the wreath was a different animal. The top of the box was divided into quarters and repeated the wreath and animal symbol of one side of the box. Three of the wreaths on the lid of the box were empty.
“The gorilla, seagull and fox on the sides of the box represent the animagus form of three of the four Secret Keepers,” Professor Dumbledore said while Harry continued to examine the box. “Their symbol is missing from the lid of the box because they have passed on to the next world. When a Keeper dies, their box will disintegrate and the information that they carried with them to finding the tomes is sent to the remaining boxes. You can safely surmise that this is the only box left, and contains the three clues that when combined with the information I carry in my head will lead a person to the tomes that tell how to create and destroy dementors.”
Harry turned the box around to the fourth side and traced his fingers over the Wolf and Dolphin that existed in the fourth wreath.
“Sir,” Harry said quietly, “there are two animals in this wreath. I thought a person could only assume one animagus form.” Dumbledore’s eyes twinkled at him.
“I should think that your own animagus form would tell you not to believe everything you have been told, Harry.”
“I suppose I should expect that it would be you, if anyone, who would have more than one animagus, sir.”
“It came as a shock to me also. As a young man, I had a fondness for sailing. I happened to be at sea many years ago and was caught in a storm. My boat sank, plunging me into the frigid waters of the North Sea. I allowed myself to panic and instead of simply apparating to shore, I attempted to start swimming. Well you can imagine that it took little time for me to become frozen and weak from my efforts.
“In a moment of inspiration, I thought perhaps in my wolf form I would survive longer. I had always been physically stronger in that shape than I had as a person, and I knew that it took very little effort to change shapes. It was about all I had energy left to try. Imagine my surprise when I became a dolphin instead of a wolf.” Dumbledore finished. Harry chuckled slightly at the image in his mind.
“I think you must have been a bit relieved also,” he replied with a slight smile.
“Yes, once I figured out what had happened, I was more than a little relieved,” Dumbledore answered. Harry set the box back on the desk and fixed his eyes on Dumbledore in a serious manner.
“You still haven’t said why you’re telling us all of this?” Dumbledore sighed.
“As I am the last of the Keepers alive, it has come to me to be the one to select the next set of Keepers and pass the knowledge on to them. I have made my decisions, and for the first time all of the Keepers will know one another,” he replied. Harry closed his eyes and let out the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.
“I assume you intend for me, Ginny, Ron and Hermione to be the new Keepers?” he asked when he opened his eyes.
“All of you please place a hand on the box.” Dumbledore’s response was given as a command more than a request.
“And what if we don’t want to be a Keeper?” Harry asked angrily. “Isn’t it enough that my life, our lives, are cursed with prophecies and Voldemort already? Maybe once all of this is done, if any of us manage to live, we don’t want to be responsible for something like this.
“If the dementors are to be destroyed, why don’t you just take the knowledge of the location of these tomes, the wands and the prophecy and go get them. Find the prophecy, figure out who is supposed to wield the wands and have them destroy the tomes and the dementors and be done with it. Why do you have to curse us with this burden?”
“I have already tried, Harry. I was unable to open the chamber where the tomes are hidden. While I had the knowledge, I did not have the power needed. It is my hope that the four of you will be able to do what I can’t. That is why I am risking allowing the Keepers to know who the others are.”
“Voldemort knows three of the four clues and this significantly narrows where he needs to look to find the tomes. If we can, we need to, at the least, move the tomes to a new location.
“There is one other reason for you four to become the new Keepers of the location of the tomes. You are all about to be tested in a way that will stretch you as never before. While none of you lack for power, you all lack in knowledge. There is no way for you to gain the knowledge you will need to live, unless you do this,” Professor Dumbledore finished. The four of them looked at each other for a few moments and then turned back to Dumbledore.
“How will doing this give us the knowledge to survive?” Hermione asked.
“Merlin knew that the Keepers of the tomes would be in constant danger of someone finding the secret they carried,” Dumbledore answered. “He knew they would have to be capable sorcerers, but he also knew that it was possible for a sorcerer to become a Keeper before they gained the knowledge to truly protect the tomes. He bound a spell that ties the knowledge of past Keepers into the box you see there. If you become Keepers yourself, the knowledge will be passed into you. You four will gain all the knowledge of magic that I and the past Keepers have to give you.”
Harry slumped back in the couch next to Ginny pulling her back against his chest. He could feel her astonishment through the connection they now shared and always kept open between them. Looking across the table he could see Ron and Hermione trying to process this information. After a moment or two, Hermione opened her mouth to say something but then closed it again before she did. Finally, Ron managed to put a sentence together.
“All your knowledge, sir?” he asked.
“The knowledge yes, the practical use of it no, it will be like the difference between a written exam and actually casting the spell. You all know there is a difference in the two. However, if you know the theory, and you have confidence in your ability you will be able to apply the knowledge.”
“I’d never have to study again,” Ron said, clearly enjoying the thought.
Hermione smacked his arm. “Even the Headmaster can learn new things, Ronald” she snapped at him. And then realizing that she had just, somewhat, insulted Professor Dumbledore she stammered an apology to him.
“I…I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t mean to…” Dumbledore cut her off with a wave of his hand.
“You are quite correct, Hermione. There is always room to learn, and you will all need to complete your schooling and the assignments that go along with it. You will still find yourselves challenged despite the knowledge that is given to you. I know that I did,” he said.
“Personally, I would rather figure it out the hard way,” Harry said as he sat forward and placed his hand on the box. But like always, it seems I have little choice in what I do.” Harry fixed Dumbledore with a glare. Ginny leaned forward to place her hand on the box and a moment later, Ron and Hermione did the same. Professor Dumbledore placed his hand on the box also.
“I’m sorry, Harry,” he said.
“Just do whatever it is you have to,” Harry replied.
Professor Dumbledore nodded and proceeded to say a series of incantations. After he had finished, the box began to glow with a golden light and a feeling of warmth surged up Harry’s arm into his mind. He along with Ron, Hermione and Ginny blacked out a moment later. The box with the gorilla, fox, seagull, wolf and dolphin disintegrated into dust and four new boxes formed from it. The new boxes were adorned with carved images of a lion, lioness, phoenix and dragon.
Professor Dumbledore slowly stood up from his chair. “Dobby,” he called out and turned a second later at the sound of the house elf apparating into the office.
“The Headmaster is wanting to see…” Dobby trailed off when he noticed Harry and the others slumped over on the couches.
“They’re all fine, Dobby. Please move them to their rooms. This box belongs to Harry,” Dumbledore said pointing to it. “This one to Ginny, this to Ronald, and the last is Hermione’s,” he continued indicating each of the boxes in turn. “Leave them on their nightstands with them.”
“Yes, sir. Dobby will do as sir asks,” Dobby replied.
“Thank you, Dobby.”
“You is welcome, sir.” Dobby snapped his fingers and he was gone, taking Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny along with the boxes with him.
Two days after Harry and the others had become the Keepers of the, Tomes of the Damned, the wands and the prophecy, Voldemort and Peter Pettigrew walked to the base of the Sphinx in what was once the heart of power in ancient Egypt.
Raising his wand Voldemort repeated a series of incantations and a bolt of blue-green light shot from his wand towards the missing nose of the Sphinx. A portal opened and the nose of the giant statue appeared.
“Retrieve whatever is in the right nostril, Wormtail,” Voldemort hissed as he struggled to keep the portal open.
Peter levitated the ropes he had brought up and around the head of the Sphinx and began to climb up them to the creature’s nose. He reached into the fist sized hole of the nostril and his heart dropped into his stomach when he realized it was empty. He searched frantically for a moment with his hand and then in desperation checked the other nostril. Finding nothing in it either, he pulled his wand and attempted to summon what he had been told was there. A few moments later, the portal closed and the nose of the creature disappeared. Peter lowered himself down and scampered across the ground to his master; falling to his knees when he reached him.
“My Lord, it was empty,” he whimpered. The two of them disappeared and moments later Peter was writhing on the floor under the effects of the Cruciatus curse in front of the chair that Voldemort was sitting in. Voldemort smiled as the sounds of Peter’s screams filled the room.
Professor Dumbledore looked up as Fawkes apparated into his office. The phoenix floated down onto his shoulder and he reached up to take the message from the bird’s talon. He read it quickly and then tossed it into the fireplace.
“Thank Merlin,” he breathed. “I didn’t expect him to find the hiding place so quickly.”
“Harry and the others moved, The Tomes of the Damned, successfully then?” Phineas Nigellus asked from his picture frame on the wall.
“Yes,” Dumbledore answered.
“And where have they been hidden now?”
“I have no idea,” Dumbledore replied.
“Good,” Phineas said. “And do you know who the Destroyers of the Soul Stealers are?”
“No, nor do any of the Keepers of the tomes. The dementors cannot be destroyed until Voldemort falls. There is no reason for anyone to know who the Destroyers of the Soul Stealers are until that time. It would only endanger them.”
“I see,” Phineas said. “And what of this fool’s errand you send Harry’s wife and his two friends on. Would it not be better to simply let him go and only risk the loss of one of them instead of all four?”
“I have no choice in the matter. Ronald must plan Harry’s victory, or Harry must do it himself. Harry has agreed to the plan, and any interference on my part would lead to his defeat. You saw the results of my interference with the prophecy last summer. I will not risk more lives by trying to circumvent it again.”
“So you will kill Potter’s wife and his two friends instead?” the picture demanded. The other pictures on the wall had watched the exchange in silence up to this point and now started to shout their displeasure with the picture of Sirius Black’s great-great-grandfather.
“Let me thump him for you, Headmaster,” a severe looking witch called from her frame. Phineas was unbowed by the jeers of the other pictures.
“That’s enough!” Dumbledore thundered silencing them all. “From all of you,” he added with a glare at Phineas. “You know as well as I do, Phineas, that I am merely a pawn in this war. My only importance is my knowledge and the fact that my influence with the Minister and thereby the Ministry gives Ronald the resources he needs when he wants them. Ginny has the knowledge she needs to live through what she is going to attempt. What else would you have me do?”
“She knows theory, Dumbledore. You yourself said there is a difference between theory and practice,” Phineas retorted angrily.
“And all she needs to be able to use that theory is confidence in her own ability. Do you doubt that she has it?” Dumbledore demanded as his own temper began to rise. “Harry is no better off, should I just send him to what you believe is sure to be his death?”
The picture of Phineas scowled at Dumbledore. “At least test them, make them use as much of this theory as you can before you send them out to fight him.”
“Hermione has already begun to compile a list of the spells that the four of them now know. Tonight they will begin casting them. They will do that every night from now until the week before we set our plan in motion. That is the best that can be done. Anymore, than that and they will become weaker instead of stronger. I must not allow them to become drained before the battle.”
“Fine, wash your hands of it. It is your conscience, Dumbledore,” Phineas said.
Dumbledore stared stonily at the picture. “Phineas, you are dangerously close to being removed from the walls of this office,” he said. “Unless you have something to say that might help me, instead of berating me, I would advise you to hold your tongue.”
“Cast the dark magic spells against them that force them to use the knowledge they have been given,” Phineas replied.
“You know that cannot be done. If they were to make a mistake, they would be severely injured or even killed before the battle has taken place. The only training against the magic they are going to face will be to practice the counter spell. Like myself, the Aurors, Unspeakables and everyone else who fights against dark wizards, the first time they have to use one of those spells to defend themselves for real, they will have to be successful.”
“You cast the Death curse at Harry. What if his Phoenix spell had failed, what if Fawkes had failed to intercept the curse or the desk he threw between himself and the curse had failed to stop it? What is the difference between that and this?” Phineas demanded.
Dumbledore peered at the picture over his glasses for a moment before he replied. “I will consider it.” He then turned and walked up the stairs into his private chamber.
“You’re lucky I can’t cast those curses at you,” the severe looking witch said to Phineas after the door to Dumbledore’s private chamber had closed.
“Shut up you old battle-axe,” Phineas replied before he walked out of his picture frame.
Author’s note:
I did a fair amount of research online into the linage of the characters of Morgana and Mordred. The legend and mythology of King Arthur is such that you can find anything you want regarding who is related to who in the story. For the purposes of my story, Mordred is the son of Morgana and some unknown Wizard.