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Author: Ari Story: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Rating: Young Teens Status: Completed Warning: Implied violence Reviews: 11 Words: 32,959
Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny were reading the plaque set by a mound of overgrown rubble that was once the Potters’ house when they heard something approaching them from behind. They instantly turned to face the threat, three of them reaching for their wands as the boys pushed Hermione and Ginny away from the approaching creature. It looked like a three-foot-high dog, if you ignored the colouring – it was black with red patches on its belly, tail and down its spine. On closer inspection, the devices sticking up from the creature's back were not fur, but rather bony plates as black as the surrounding fur. On the creature's head were two stubby horns, glowing softly in the faint sunlight inside the crater. "What do you think it is?" Ginny asked in a whisper, watching the dog-creature slowly approach, its ears forward and nose in the air. "What ever it is, it can't be working with the Death Eaters," Harry said, and Ron looked at him. "What makes you say that?" "For one thing," Harry said, "it would have sent some sort of message to them telling them we're here." "Maybe it can't see?" Hermione said. "I've never seen a dog with blue eyes before." "Or maybe she's wondering why there are four humans on an island that has been abandoned for over a decade," the dog said, sitting in front of the quartet. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny yelped, shrieked or gasped, each taking a collective step back from the creature. Ginny recovered first to ask, "What are you?" "I'm a Kelpie." The creature's tail flicked and a small whirlwind whirled between the leaves on the ground. "But kelpies are water demons?" Hermione said, questioning both the one in front of them and her own learning. "Are there two species of humans?" the Kelpie retorted. "Magic and no-magic?" "That's not the same –" Hermione said, frowning. The Kelpie cut her off. "Light- and dark-skins? Those of good intentions and those of bad?" "Yes, but –" "Let her talk, Hermione," Ginny said, resting a hand on her friend's shoulder. "You learn more from the creatures themselves than from the humans that document them." Hermione huffed but stayed silent, listening to the Kelpie. The dog-like creature smiled at Ginny. "You are a wise human, redhead." She nodded to her, then looked at the others. "Like all creatures, Kelpies have both good and bad members. Humans remember the bad because they diet on them. The good, however, exist on fish and other creatures. We know that humans can kill us or tame us easily." Harry frowned at the her. "Why are you here?" The Kelpie stood up and stepped back on its rear paws. It became exactly the size and shape of a gnome. "I thought you would like to know the story of the Potters' downfall. However, if you prefer to ask the humans who used to live here, then good luck to you. They live on the next island along." The she went to run into the bushes, but Harry pounced on it. "Wait! We want to hear your version!" Hermione cried, then gasped as a tawny centaur erupted from beneath Harry. The centaur looked at Harry over her shoulder. "I could take offence that you jumped on me, but you're the only visitors I've had in years. I need an audience that won't laugh at me." "Who laughs at you?" Harry asked, moving to climb off the centaur's back. The centaur turned quickly so that Harry had no choice but to grip her flanks tightly with his knees. "Stay on. I'll take you and your friends to my favourite view point." "What's your name?" Ron asked, helping his sister onto the centaur's back. The centaur frowned. "Some call me Ghorianastapholianio, but I suppose you can call me Riana." "I'm Ron. This is Harry, Hermione and my sister Ginny." Ron introduced them between helping Hermione on and climbing onto the centaur’s back himself. At last the three had gotten on behind Harry. Hermione had protested, all her senses saying that Riana was a dangerous creature to ride, but Ron finally teased her into getting on, and they flew across the fields, always on an upwards slope. They finally eclipsed the ridge at the top of the volcano and all four gasped at the view they beheld. Below them, a fertile forest spread out for miles. Among the many, many trees, small wooden houses dotted the landscape below. Riana headed towards the village. She was laughing as the air flew through her hair. The four on her back held on for dear life, afraid of falling under the clattering hooves more than whatever awaited them in the forest village. ~*~ Riana pulled up in front of a building just inside the perimeter of the village. It was made of branches, rocks and small skeletons. Their skulls were displayed above the doorway, as though commemorating the killing of the creatures. Riana shrunk back into her dog shape, then pushed the door open with her nose. She entered, and Harry, Ron and Hermione looked at each other. Ginny pushed between them and followed Riana, her wand drawn and alert. Ginny pushed the door open a little further and muttered, "Lumos!" Seeing the interior of the building, she waved the others inside. They gasped at what they saw. There was an inch of dust over everything inside. There were upturned chairs and tables everywhere, broken glass, shattered porcelain; the textbook scene of a struggle, a long time ago. "I knew I had been away for a long time, but I didn't think it had been this long," Riana muttered, and looked around at the humans. "This place used to be the home of a dear friend of mine, by the name of Remus Lupin. He doesn't seem to have been here in at least four years, which is strange. I haven’t seen him in all those years." The quartet looked at each other. Riana caught the look. "Do you know Remus?" she asked, turning to look at them completely. "Is he all right? Does he still change shape, like we Kelpies?" "He does," Harry said, looking around the shabby hut. "He never told us where he lived before he came to teach at Hogwarts." "Well, this is the place. When Remus changed shape, we would go running around in the moonlight, terrifying the local wildlife." Riana smiled. "He didn't put the skulls on the door, of course. They were there before he arrived, and neither of us could remove them." "Did he leave anything here, do you think?" Hermione asked. Riana lowered her head and started sniffing in the dust, as though hunting for something. She yelped, her head in a cupboard. "What is it?" Harry asked. Riana looked at them, a spider crawling across her nose. She was glaring at it. "That creature bit me!" she cried. Then she shook her head, the spider flying off it, and put her nose back to the floor, walking to the other side of the room. The quartet could see where she had already walked, the dust having been disturbed, making her outline smudged, when she yelped again, her nose under a couch. "Another spider?" Ron asked, looking out of the door. "No. Something of Dark potential." Riana withdrew her nose from under the couch, the handle of a golden cup in her jaws. She dropped it as soon as she saw that Harry was staring at it, and backed away from it. The Kelpie transformed into a pixie and started rubbing its nose. "Really stings," Riana said, examining her nose. She was cross-eyed, which made Ron laugh. Harry, Hermione and Ginny were staring at the cup. They could almost feel the evil intent in the thing. "Harry? Do you know what it is?" Hermione asked, glancing to him. "Horcrux," Harry breathed. Hermione gasped. Ron started choking on nothing. Ginny was staring between them. "What is it?" she asked. Harry explained without looking at her. "A Horcrux is a piece of a person's soul, trapped within an object. The diary from your first year was one. This, however, is far worse. The cup is Helga Hufflepuff's. The soul is Voldemort's, but the part that’s trapped in this artefact is more powerful than the one in the diary was, more cunning, more learned, Add all that to a significant historic artefact and it becomes even more powerful." Ginny gasped. "How do we remove the soul without damaging the cup?" "I don't know. I think we have to destroy the cup." Harry looked at Hermione. "Do you know how to do that?" "Diffindo might work. Maybe reducto as well." Hermione drew her wand. She levitated the cup outside, where any backlash wouldn't destroy the building. Animals ferreting for food ran at the sight of the cup. "Okay. Watch out, everyone." Hermione pulled back her sleeves and raised her wand at the cup. A Reduction Curse flew from her wand and rebounded off the cup. Hermione ducked and the Curse hit the tree behind her, narrowly missing Riana, who looked like a house elf. "What did you do that for?” she yelped. “You almost killed me!" "Sorry, Riana," Hermione said, "but I did tell everyone to duck." Riana muttered something and stood behind Ginny, her head peaking around her legs. Hermione looked around them and then back at the cup. "I think I know how to destroy the cup," Hermione said, "But I don't think I can cast the spell." "What spell?" Ron asked. Hermione looked at Ron with a small hint of apprehension in her eyes. "Avada Kedavra." Harry frowned. Would that spell do it? Would I be able to cast it? "Let me try." Hermione frowned. "Harry?" Ron placed a hand on her shoulder. "Let him try, Hermione. I don't like it any better than you do, but he can always try." Hermione frowned again. "Okay, Harry. Let us get out of the way first. And you should take cover too, in case it bounces back at you like the Reductor Curse did." Harry nodded and rolled up his sleeves. "Okay." Hermione, Ron, Ginny and Riana ran inside the hut. Harry stood behind a tree, carefully aiming his wand at the cup. Hermione nodded at him and vanished inside. Harry took a deep breath and focussed on his hatred of Voldemort and his followers. "Avada Kedavra!" he hissed. A pale green light issued from his wand and he glared at the cup. The words of Bellatrix from his fifth year, just after he'd lost Sirius, played in his mind. "Never used an Unforgivable Curse before, have you, boy? You need to mean them, Potter!" Harry's glare became so focussed that he was almost cross-eyed. Hermione glanced over the windowsill to see that Harry was preparing to use the curse again. She motioned for Ron, Ginny and Riana to duck again, and waited for something to happen. "Avada Kedavra!" Harry hissed again, imagining the cup as Voldemort, wanting to kill him, needing to kill him. The green light that came from his wand was much stronger than it had been the last time. The beam hit the cup and was absorbed. The cup hissed and sizzled, then melted. The energy trapped was sent out in many directions. One of the beams shot in through the door of the shack and hit the wall, narrowly missing Riana's tail. Another almost severed Harry's wand, but he snatched his hand back quickly enough to avoid it. When the commotion had died, down, Hermione and Ron carefully looked around the doorframe. In the middle of the path was a small piece of melted gold, all that was left of the cup. The Dark presence was gone from the air, and the fading sunlight suddenly felt very warm. "Is it gone?" Ron asked, stepping carefully out of the hut. Hermione, Ginny and Riana followed him out of the hut. They could hear the creatures in the trees start to settle down after the loud burst of noise that celebrated the end of the Dark presence. "It's gone," Hermione whispered, pointing at the puddle of melted gold. "Harry, are you all right?" "You should see this," Riana called from behind a tree. Hermione and Ginny walked over to the Kelpie. Riana looked like a wolf, sniffing carefully at a pile of what looked like clothes. "They weren't here the last time I visited Remus." "They can't have been here too long, either, else they would be half-rotten." Hermione pointed her wand at the pile. They slowly floated up and together, looking for all the world like they were being worn by an invisible child. "Can you track a scent, Riana?" "I can." Riana gingerly touched her nose to the cloth and sniffed. She sneezed, then did it again. This time she put her nose to the ground and started to slowly walk towards the hut that Remus Lupin had once inhabited. A black shape, as dark as the dead of the moon, separated from the woodwork and ran into the forest. Riana howled and took off after the spectre, her voice echoing around the close clearings between trees. Hermione, Harry, Ron and Ginny took off after her, their wands out. "Stupefy," Ron chanted, pointing at the black being's back. The spectre was caught by the spell and fell. When the five of them caught up with the spectre, Riana put her nose to the ground. "It has disappeared," she said, then sniffed at the ground again. "Wait –" She yelped as the ground below them collapsed, sending them into a dark abyss beyond the sunlight, following the dark spectre and into what lay below the island of Godric's Hollow. ~*~ Lupin, Charlie, Kingsley, Tonks, Isabella and Arthur set foot on the shore of Godric's Hollow and looked around. Charlie swore when he saw the size of the volcano they had to climb. Only recently had Lupin realised where the children were going, and he had been able to lead the search party to the island without the aid of a map. "Don't swear, Charles," Arthur said, then pulled out his wand. "We should have brought brooms. This would be so much easier." "You did not bring brooms?" Isabelle asked, reaching into her pocket. "Eet ees a good zing zat I did, no?" Arthur smiled at her. "You're a life saver, Isabelle," he said as she pulled a handful of shrunken brooms from her pocket. "'I do want zem back,' she said, looking particularly at Tonks. "I'm not that clumsy," Tonks said, and took a broom from Isabelle's hand. "Tell zat to ze seats you knocked over at ze wedding," Isabelle muttered, and Tonks frowned at her. "Ladies, please," Kingsley said, standing between them. "Can we just find the children without spilling too much of our blood?" "Fine," Isabelle said, unshrinking her broom and mounting. She kicked off and hovered a hundred feet in the air, waiting for the others to catch up. "Let's go," Arthur said, mounting his own broom.
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