Date: Thu, 7 Oct 2004 22:06:46 +0100 From: MeTA4 <meta4@meta4.org> Subject: Harry Potter and the Rising of the Dark, chapter 13 HARRY POTTER AND THE RISING OF THE DARK by Meta4. Chapter 13. The Eleven (Elven?) Commandments ================================ 1. Thou shalt bow to J.K. Rowling, creator of the Potterverse! 2. Thou shalt acknowledge all characters created by Her. 3. Thou shalt acknowledge the trademarks of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. 4. Thou shalt not read the story herein if Slash offendeth you. 5. Thou shalt not read this story if thou art not old enough so to do. 6. Thou shalt not pass the work herein as thine own. 7. Thou shalt not gain profit from distributing the work herein. 8. Respect thy mother and thy father - only read this work when they are out. 9. Thou shalt acknowledge My copyright 10. Thou shalt contact Me if thou likest or thou detesteth this work. 11. Thou shalt never piss off an Elf... HARRY POTTER AND THE RISING OF THE DARK by Meta4 <meta4@meta4.org> CHAPTER THIRTEEN:: Orchestration. Colin woke to find a hand gently shaking his shoulder. Remembering where he was and what had happened, he reflexively pulled away. "It's all right, Colin," came Dumbledore's extremely tired voice. from the chair beside him. "You... You're alive sir," he stumbled, squinting in the dim firelight. "I'm a tough old boot, but I'm also extremely lucky: You burst in and distracted him from his spell casting. I'm afraid I'm still very weak, but I am alive, and that is all thanks to you." "What are we going to do, sir?" "My absence - and yours no doubt - will not have gone un-noticed at Hogwarts. They will be looking for us, Colin, but I am afraid they will have little idea as to where to start. That is why I am placing a lot of hope in Harry and his friends." "Harry and Liam and... Why them?" "As Voldemort said, there is something greater than himself about to launch itself upon this country. It is an ancient evil that has plagued this world since before history." "The Dark?" "Yes, Colin, the Dark. It is the collective name we give to all things that oppose us, the Light. It can manifest itself once a century, and it is up to a group of people chosen by fate to fight it." "Harry," breathed Colin. "Perhaps," replied Dumbledore. "But until they have been Chosen to fight the Dark, they are as helpless as the rest of us. Even so, I feel that Harry himself may have a better idea of where we are than anyone else. His scar is so fundamentally linked with Voldemort that it is impossible for him to ignore or misinterpret something critical that Voldemort himself undertakes. His murder attempt on me, for example. From what we have seen in the past, I am sure Harry's scar will be telling him in no uncertain terms that there is something afoot. One way or another, Colin, they will come for us." ========== The stairs to the first floor in the Shrieking Shack squeaked under Ron and Hermione's weight. "D'you think they're here? It's well quiet. Why would they come all the way out here anyway?" "I have some idea," smiled Hermione. One of the things she really loved about Ron was his absolute child-like innocence when it came to certain things. They crept along the landing and glanced into the larger of the two bedrooms. "Awww, look at them," swooned Hermione as she and Ron stood at the door. I was now spooning with Harry, fast asleep with my left arm draped over his chest, facing the door. Thankfully, we'd pulled the quilt over us enough to protect the majority of our modesty. "That's disgusting," coughed Ron. "Ron! I happen to think it's beautiful," "Beautiful? It looks like Liam's had his thing up Harry's..." "What Harry and Liam decide to do with their own bodies is absolutely nobody's business but their own. They're obviously very much in love with one another," she chided. "I still think it's sick." "Ronald Weasley!" she hissed viciously, trying to convey anger without volume. "I'd have thought you'd have been happy for your best friend. I know you've been trying to hook him up with Cho Chang -" Ron looked quite shocked that she knew this, but she continued and ignored him "- and so now you can see why your little matchmaking game didn't work." "I s'pose so," Ron admitted reluctantly. "What's wrong with two people sharing their love for one another? I mean how would you feel if Harry and Liam saw us together and thought that was disgusting?" "But we've never..." "There's another bedroom here," she smiled shyly, taking Ron's hand. "But we can't... umm... I mean I've never... uh..." She smiled gently at Ron. "Neither have I." "Oh..." "C'mon, it'll be fun." Seeing as Ron still wasn't sure about the whole prospect, she took a step forward and kissed him hard on the lips. Half way through the kiss, she decided to take a further initiative and squeezed Ron's bulge through his trousers. His eyes shot open with surprise, but it had the effect Hermione intended. "OK." "You don't have to if you don't want to, and I won't think any less of you," she added, realising that she was almost bullying Ron into something he might not be totally comfortable with. "No 'Mione, I really, really want to," he grinned, and led her into the adjoining bedroom. ========== I woke to find myself hugging Harry to me tightly. I was astonished at how relaxed sleeping with someone made you feel: Just the feeling of his heart thumping away rhythmically in his chest was enough to lull me back towards sleep. And fall asleep I would have, had it not been for the altogether less subtle, arrhythmic-enough-to-be-annoying thumping on the wall from the room next door. "Harry," I whispered into my love's ear. "Harry, wake up." "Mmm," he smiled, snuggling against me. "I think we've got visitors." He turned his head towards me. "Who?" "I dunno, but they seem to be enjoying themselves..." We paused to listen for a moment. The thumping on the wall was starting to be punctuated by the odd grunt or moan. "They obviously called this the Shrieking Shack for a reason, eh?" "It would appear so," he smiled, waking up more. "So who d'you reckon it is?" "The only other people that know this place isn't haunted and how to get to it are Ron and..." "Hermione!" came the muffled, slightly strained voice of Ron from the other side of the wall. Harry and I looked at each other before bursting out into stifled giggles. "Bloody hell, she's really giving Ron a seeing to, isn't she?" "'No, no, NO Ronald - you're doing it all wrong,'" I impersonated in falsetto. Harry nearly creased himself. "Shall we go and see?" "Nah - they were good enough to leave us alone." "You think they saw us?" I pointed at the open door. "Can't really see how they could have missed us to be honest." "Oh man - I wonder what Ron'll think of this..." "Why?" "Well, I'm his best friend..." "So?" "He's the jealous type, Liam... He'll get over it, but it'll take him a little time." "I think he's got his hands full at the moment, though," I smiled. The thumping on the wall had now turned into a more rapid banging, and gasps from a voice of a higher register were now interspersed with Ron's baritone. We lay side by side, listening to Ron and Hermione's sounds that were rapidly reaching their crescendo. With a few final, defined thrusts (and correlating bangs on the wall), both voices were heard to scream out in pleasure and then fall silent. "Should we?" asked Harry, mischief written all over his face. "It'd be rude not to," I grinned back. Harry inserted two fingers into his mouth and let out a seriously loud whistle before we both broke into a round of applause. "You're both bastards!" came Ron's voice from the other side of the wall after our ovation died down. "So to what do we owe the pleasure of this little visitation?" asked Harry, still smiling. "Uh, we thought you might have come here to get a little peace and quiet. We didn't want you to be late if you'd fallen asleep." said Hermione. "Nice alarm clock, I must say," I replied. "Very rhythmic." "You're really going about the right way to get your arse well and truly kicked, Liam," chuckled Ron. "Listen, mate - I'm in awe - that was some performance!" An embarrassed silence was presented as the reply, so I decided to keep the conversation going by making light of things: "So, now we've all satisfied various urges and desires, are we still up for breaking into Dumbledore's office, or are we a little too tired?" "I say we do it," replied Hermione. "Ron seemed to be doing all the hard work anyway." Harry and I looked at each other, more in shock than anything, before laughing once again. "I'm not a total prude," she added. "Besides, I think I've certainly got the bigger deal, if you know what I mean," "Hermione! Shhh!" "Don't be embarrassed, Ron - it's not as if I've never seen you with a stiffy in the mornings," replied Harry. "He's quite... um... thick," explained Harry in a lower tone of voice." "Are you two decent?" asked Hermione. "We're coming through." I conjured us up a clean pair of boxers each and took pleasure in aiding Harry in putting them on; checking, of course, that his love tackle was 'well seated' in the front with a gentle squeeze. Harry insisted on giving me the same treatment before calling Ron and Hermione through. "Fuck me, it stinks in here," sniffed Ron as he walked through in boxers and a T-shirt. "Is that an offer?" enquired Harry playfully. "Huh? Oh, uh..." "I think he means 'No, but thank you anyway'," smiled Hermione, following him in and using her cloak as a dressing gown. "I do take your point, though," I said, and willed the scent of our love making to vanish. "So - Dumbledore's office. Do we know the password?" "Well, it was Humbug, but I think it changes every half day." "Have they ever not been muggle sweets?" "I don't think so," said Ron. "Well, if needs be, we can always go through the entire back catalogue of Muggle confectionery until we get the right one..." ========== As Draco Malfoy fought his way to the Stantons' house, he desperately tried to make up some kind of excuse to be there. Every one he'd thought of so far had seemed extremely poor, so he decided to tell the truth. Well, nearly the truth: He couldn't exactly say 'I want to stare into your son's eyes, Mr. Stanton,' so he decided he may as well say that Mrs. Pettigrew thought he looked bored and that he should go and see Will. Which was near enough the truth anyway. Yes, that'd work... It wasn't anywhere near his usual standard of invention but he was too nervous to chastise himself to any great extent. The wind had really picked up and he found himself having to lean into it in order to remain upright. As he finally stepped onto the Stanton's driveway, it was as if the wind had been magically switched off. Draco looked round, but could see no one on the road besides himself. A crow in one of the trees opposite cawed harshly at him before spreading its wings and taking flight. Finding or feeling nothing particularly out of place, Draco turned back to his original course. He was going to try and knock at the front door, but the snow had drifted so high he would have had to climb into the drift in order to get anywhere near the door itself. He decided to try the back door before tackling the snow drift and crunched his way round to the other side of the house. From inside, he could hear animated chatter interspersed with the odd laugh here and there. He knocked on the back door and, after a moment or two, it opened. "Goodness! Lord Malfoy! It truly _IS_ an honour that you should choose to make time to visit our humble abode and grace us with your presence," smiled Jim. "I... er... Perhaps I should go..." Jim had managed to totally destroy Draco in a sentence. He felt so bad about how he'd treated Will and Jim earlier he could barely stand it. "I'm only kidding, Draco - come on in out of the cold," Jim smiled, standing aside to allow Draco entry. "I really am sorry, Jim. I've made a promise to myself I'm never going to act like that again." Draco offered his hand. It was received warmly, finding itself enclosed in the crushing grip of Jim's Navy-honed handshake. "Not a problem," chuckled the eldest Stanton son, slapping Draco on the back which caused him to take a step forward, such was the force. "All forgiven and forgotten. WILL! YOU'VE GOT A VISITOR!" "Who is it?" came Will's voice as he walked through from the other room, mince pie in hand. Will's face lit up as he saw Draco standing there looking rather intimidated by Jim. "Wow - you've really changed your look!" Draco was quietly elated. "Better?" he asked, smiling for the first time. "Much. The whole evil overlord thing didn't really suit you." This quite surprised Draco. "No? I thought it was quite fetching..." "Well, yeah, if you were in an old fifties horror movie. You kinda looked like Eddie Munster. In a cu.. uh... nice sort of way that is." "Who?" "Never mind," Will smiled. "So why'd you come over?" "Bored. Mrs. Pettigrew suggested I might have more fun here," he said, smiling apologetically. "Well, all of my brothers are monopolising my Great Uncle at the moment, so I'm at a bit of a loose end myself." "Oh, sorry - I didn't realise you had guests... I can come back tomorrow if you want..." "No - don't worry about it. Gumerry will get round to talking to me eventually." "Gumerry? Funny name..." "It's a nick name, I guess. He's really Merriman Lyon - not even related to us, but he's known the family for so long we've always called him our uncle. Thing is, calling him 'Great Uncle Merry' all the time is a bit long, so we kinda shortened it to Gumerry." "Merriman Lyon?" "You know him?" "I'm not sure. I've heard or read the name somewhere before. At least I think I have." "I'm not totally surprised - he does loads of research all over the place for various universities. I suppose he's written books - maybe that's it." "Yeah, maybe." "You want a cup of tea? Mum's just made a pot." "That'd be lovely, thank you." As Will clattered round the kitchen retrieving a mug, milk and the sugar bowl, he kept stealing glances as Draco absent-mindedly meandered round the rather cramped little kitchen. "I do like your hair loads more now." Draco turned, more than a little surprised. "Thanks," he smiled. "Do you take sugar?" "Just the one, thanks," Will added a teaspoon of sugar to Draco's cup and stirred it. "Any chance of a refill, young William?" asked the slightly gruff voice of Merriman as he stooped under the low doorway that led off into the hall. "Hi Gumerry - sure. This is Draco M..." "Malfoy," smiled Merriman, taking a seat at the kitchen table. "How did you..." "Does your father know you're here, Draco? With these people?" "No, he... How do you know that he wouldn't..." Merriman chuckled. "I have known of your family for a long time, Mr. Malfoy. It seems, however, that there is a black sheep amongst the Malfoy flock." Draco took a sip of his tea and sat down opposite Merriman. "You won't tell my father I'm here, will you?" "Of course not, Draco, of course not. It is fortuitous that you - you both, in fact - are here." "What's going on Uncle Merry?" asked Will, handing Merriman his cup as well as bringing one for himself to the table. Merriman waved his hand over the two of them. Will wasn't exactly sure what happened, except that an eerie silence had suddenly fallen over the house. "What happened?" snapped Draco, jumping to his feet. He'd automatically pulled his wand from under his jumper and pointed it rather shakily at Merriman. Will just looked on, bemused. "I've taken the liberty of catching us out of time," explained Merriman. "You can put your wand down, Draco - no harm will come to you here." "Wand?" asked Will, more confused now than anything. He looked round to see that the kettle that had been boiling away happily on the stove had apparently stopped. Looking a little further down, the fire in the grate of the old stove was now alight with a blue-white flame rather than its usual deep orange-red. Draco, looking rather uncertain, slowly took his seat once more. "What I'm going to tell you now may seem a little strange - more strange to you, Will, as Draco already has an idea as to what I'm about to say. Please, let me tell you all of it, and I will endeavour to answer questions when I have finished. The force that comprises all of the evil in this world - the Dark - is Rising." Merriman went on to explain to Draco and Will about the Dark, it's periodic rising against the light and the Six that would turn it back. "But I thought the Rising of the Dark was just a legend," said Draco after Merriman had finished. "No no, young Draco," said Merriman. "It is a very real threat." "Gumerry, you said that it was lucky that Draco and I are here..." "You two are to be members of the Circle. Draco, if he hasn't already told you Will, is a wizard-in-training. He's proven to be very talented, but was being held back by the Malfoy name. Now that he has divorced himself from that, I believe we shall see very great things of him. You, Will, are the first of two special individuals to know that they are Circle members, although the others already suspect. You are the seventh son of a seventh son, Will." "But I thought you said you only had five brothers," said Draco. "At this moment, that is true. However, Will did have an older sibling - Peter - before James. Tragically, he died of pneumonia a couple of weeks after he was born, but he was the first son nonetheless. Jim was number two, Chris third, Luke and John fourth and fifth, Paul sixth..." "And me seventh..." "That's right, Will. You - seventh son of a seventh son - are legend. You are an exception in the magical world in that the type of Magic indigenous to you is very different to the type of magic with which most people would associate. You have a very close tie to the earth and can channel her through you. I'm afraid I can't say too much more about this now, however you will, in your own time, learn how to use and control it. Of that I am certain. "However, what I am not certain of is when the others shall arrive." "Who are the others, Gumerry?" "It is not right that I should tell you now, Will. You will know them when they make themselves known to you, however," said Merriman. "If you know of my Father..." "Then I also know that he has aligned himself with the Dark." "So why choose me?" "Because it has always been so. The circle has had a fixed contingent for centuries. It usually comprises of an acquaintance of the Dark, the seventh son of a seventh son, the academic, the brave, the smitten and the non-human." "Nuh... Non h-human?" stuttered Will. "As I said, you will know in time." "So how do you know you can trust me?" Draco was going to get a reasonably straight answer to this one way or another. "Because," replied Merriman, "of who you hold dear to you. He has a sphere of influence that transcends this material world and, if I am not mistaken, his strength of character has already had a beneficial effect on you." "Will," breathed Draco, suddenly looking at Will, realising what he'd said. Will returned his stare quizzically. Merriman waved his hand over them once again. Immediately the kettle resumed boiling and the fire returned to its ordinary orange-red glow. The sounds of the rest of the Stanton family filtering from down the corridor now seemed extremely loud to their ears after the eerie silence of non-time. "We're going a-carolling in a couple of evenings' time, Mr. Malfoy, if you'd care to join us." There was only one answer that he knew Merriman would accept, and so he said he would. "Excellent. Thanks for the tea, Will," he smiled. "Oh, before I forget, I have something to give you." Merriman dug around in his pocket and pulled out a curious-looking object - a metallic ring around three inches in diameter and quartered by a cross. He looked it over before handing it to Will. "It's a bit premature, but happy birthday," he smiled and ambled off back down the corridor to the rest of the Stanton family. "Did that really just happen?" asked Will, staring at the rather heavy thing Merriman had given him and more than a little confused. "If it didn't, we've just had a joint hallucination." "So is it true? I mean about your father and the Dark?" "I'm afraid it is," said Draco, taking another sip of his tea. "So... You're a wizard, then?" Draco nodded. "So _THAT'S_ why you were wearing those mad clothes!" Draco nodded again. "Are you good at it?" "I'm only in my fifth year of school." "So they have, like, Wizard schools and stuff?" "Yeah," Draco smiled. "The one I go to is called Hogwarts. It's up in Scotland." "Cool! So you must know all about this whole Dark versus Light thing then?" "Only what my father has told me," admitted Draco. "But it was enough to scare me shitless." "Come up to my room where we won't be disturbed," grinned Will. "I want to hear all about this." ========== "Shhh!" "That wasn't me!" "Stop treading on my heels!" "Sorry!" "SHHH!" Four people under an invisibility cloak would've been funny in nearly any other situation, but as it was we found ourselves desperately trying to both appear and sound invisible, the latter failing miserably. Thankfully, the Marauder's Map showed us that Filch and Mrs. Norris were in their office in the dungeons, Snape and McGonagall were in their respective quarters and Peeves was floating in the vicinity of the trophy cabinet. We rounded the corner and came within sight of the huge stone statue that guarded the entrance to Dumbledore's office. "OK - Here goes nothing," I said. "Humbug!" Nothing. "Mint Imperial!" Still nothing. "What would Dumbledore set the password to if he knew he was going away?" "I dunno - something that would be hard to guess I s'pose..." I thought for a moment before saying "Nougat!" Still the statue did not move. "This could take forever - we don't have the time!" I broke from the cover of the invisibility cloak and walked up to the statue. Carefully, I touched it, and immediately felt the password that had been set. "Gray's Traditional Herbal Tablets!" The huge statue did it's little bit of gymnastics and leaped aside, revealing the small antechamber that led to Dumbledore's office. With a final look round and a glance at the Marauder's Map to ensure we weren't being watched, Harry, Ron, Hermione and myself made our way into the Headmaster's study. "Remember, be as quiet as you can - we don't want to wake up the portraits," Hermione reminded us. Gingerly, we crept past the headmaster's desk and up the small flight of stairs to the bookshelves that contained hundreds of volumes pertaining to Hogwarts. Thankfully, Dumbledore saw fit to keep the records reasonably well organised and after a few minutes, we found four volumes titled 'Pupils: present'. As carefully as we could, Harry and I removed the 'K-N' volume from the shelf and laid it on the floor. Thinking back on it, it's amazing how loud the turning of a page can sound in the silence of night, but right then it made us all cringe many times until we found the entry for 'Malfoy, Draco'. Under the 'Family Details' section there was a fairly extensive list of various relations and an explicit order in which to attempt contact that had been stapled in. From what we could gather, it appeared to be from Lucius Malfoy, Draco's father. All of the addresses that were listed were no good, however, as none of them were in Surrey. Just as we were about to give up Ron, who'd been reading Lucius' note, drew our attention to the last paragraph. Whispering, he read it. "As a very last resort - and I must emphasise that this person is to be contacted only if all else well and truly fails - you may contact Mrs. Izabella Pettigrew, The Stables, Old Bakery Road, Surrey." "Pettigrew!" whispered Harry. "What? You know her?" "No, but I know someone with the same name - Peter 'Wormtail' Pettigrew. He was the secret keeper for the spell that concealed my parents' house at Goderic's Hollow. He was recruited by the dark and revealed their location to Lord Voldemort." "I think that confirms it, then," I whispered back. "Not only is her address in Surrey but one of her relations has strong ties to the Dark, as well as Malfoy's father. I think we've found our address." = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Well, that's all for the moment. Let us know what you think (good or bad) at meta4@meta4.org, or visit our web site at http://www.meta4.org.