Chapter Fourteen

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Dreams and Threats

As soon as the Hogwarts group got back to the castle, Sev and Harry headed to the kitchens for a snack. The meeting had been draining for both of them, and they felt as if they needed a slight pick-me-up. On their way back to the Slytherin common room, Harry suddenly came up with what he thought was a wonderful idea. Smiling wickedly, he turned to a nervous looking Sev. The younger Slytherin had seen that look on his friend's face only a few times before, and the after effects weren't usually pleasant.

“ What is it, Harry?”

“ I've just had a most brilliant idea.”

“ I dread to think….”

“ You might like it. How would you feel if I played a trick on the Slytherins?”

“ As long as I wasn't involved, and I could watch, I wouldn't mind. Why?”

“ How convincing was my Voldemort act?”

“ You wouldn't!”

With a malicious grin, Harry waved his hand over Sev, turning him invisible, so that the other Slytherins wouldn't see him and be suspicious. He then began to transfigure himself into the intimidating form of the Dark Lord. With a smirk, he led his Housemate back to the common room, stopping to whisper the password. When the wall opened, the chattering students didn't notice him right away, and Harry watched in amusement as he stepped in and cleared his throat. The Slytherins all turned towards the noise and froze when they saw who was standing there. With a sneer, Harry addressed them.

“ What sort of a welcome is this? I had expected more respect.”

Most of the students scrambled to prostrate themselves on the ground, while some simply stared at him in fear or confusion. Those who were from families who didn't support the Dark Lord didn't recognise him, but when he gave them each a cold stare, they quickly started to back up, some going so far as to run to their dormitories. As the room was organising itself, Sev slipped into a quiet corner to watch, wandlessly casting a silencing charm on himself incase he started laughing. It would ruin the whole prank if he did that. He watched as Harry strode forward, inspecting each of the crouching students, coming to a stop in front of Lucius Malfoy. When the blond boy realised he had been singled out, he started to tremble.

“ Luciussss,” Harry hissed, “ You disappoint me.”

“ I apologise, my Lord.”

“ As you should. What do you have to say for yourself?”

“ I'm sorry, my Lord. I was just surprised to see you…here.”

“ Am I not allowed to check up on my followers once in a while?”

“ You are, my Lord. It's just…”

“ Yes? I am losing my patience, Luciussss.”

“ My Lord, Dumbledore…”

“ You think I fear that old man?”

“ You presume I am a coward?”

“ Then why do you mention his name?”

“ My Lord, it is only that this is Hogwarts. It is supposed to be impenetrable…”

“ Are you doubting my competence?”

“ I think you are, Luciussss, and you need to be punished.”

“ As you wish, my Lord.”

“ It is my wish, Luciussss.”

Sev, standing in the corner, was having trouble holding in his laughter. Harry had backed Lucius into a corner, and the boy kept digging himself into an ever deeper hole. It was funny to see the Malfoy heir out witted and cowed. However, a minute later, Sev was shocked when Harry started to hiss.

*Simbi? Nirah? I need a favour*

*What do you want us to do, Harry?*

*Scare Malfoy. You don't have to bite him, just scare him a little*

*This should be fun*

The two snakes disentangled themselves from Harry's wrists and slithered across the floor towards a trembling Malfoy. The whole room had frozen in shock when Harry had spoken Parseltongue. It was a well known fact that Voldemort was the only Parselmouth of that time, so it erased any doubts from the minds of the onlookers that this was in fact the real Dark Lord. As Simbi and Nirah started circling Lucius, the boy started to shake violently. Simbi slipped around his throat and nipped him a little, making sure not to break the skin. After a few minutes, the pair retreated to their place on Harry's wrists and the boy started to speak again.

“ If I wasn't in Hogwarts I would have punished you more severely. Our next meeting will not be pleasant.”

“ Y-yes m-m-my Lord.”

“ Lucius? Don't stutter.”

“ S-sorry my Lord.”

“ You will be, Lucius, you will be.”

That said, Harry waved his hand and he was surrounded by a cloud of green and silver smoke. Snapping his fingers, a loud *pop* sounded, and he turned himself invisible before he could be spotted. When the smoke cleared, there was pandemonium in the room when everyone saw that Voldemort had gone. Lucius stood up trembling and made it as far as the nearest chair before collapsing in a boneless heap. Some of the younger students were running around screaming, and the older ones looked rather pale. Those from Light families who had remained in the room looked the most shaken, and Harry felt a pang of guilt for scaring them like that. While everyone was distracted, he went over to the corner where he saw the faint outline of where Sev's invisibility charm was wearing off and grabbed his friend by the arm, quickly propelling him up the stairs and into his room. As soon as the door was locked behind him, Harry removed the spells from both of them and the pair burst out laughing. Harry was glad of the permanent silencing spell he kept on his room; otherwise they would have alerted the other Slytherins. When Harry looked at his friend, he saw Sev had tears of mirth trickling down his cheeks.

“ Harry, that was priceless.”

“ I know. Did you see the look on Lucius Malfoy's face?”

“ Yeah, I'll treasure that memory for the rest of my life.”

“ Me too. I'll file it away in my head along with a rather prominent memory of my old school rival being turned into a bouncing white ferret.”

“ A ferret? A bouncing one at that?”

“ Yup, that was a good memory. Ask Ron about it sometime.”

“ I will. Anyway, you never told me you were a parselmouth.”

“ You never asked. And it never came up.”

“ Can I see your snakes?”

*Simbi, Nirah, come and say hello to Sev*

The young boy started when he heard the voices in his head, and raised one eyebrow at his friend.

“ They're telepathic,” Harry explained, “ They are magical coral snakes. A mated pair. Simbi is the male, and Nirah the female.”

“ Magical? In what way?”

“ Well, being a mated pair, they can't be separated for long or they die. I have a confession, actually. Over the Christmas holidays I put Nirah in your trunk so she could keep an eye on you. I had to put a charm on her so she wouldn't die from being separated from Simbi, but it was only temporary. Any longer than the Christmas holidays and the charm would have worn off. They also have magic destroying poison. If they bite a witch or wizard, the poison destroys their magic, leaving them like squibs. As a matter of fact, I tried it out on Lucius' grandfather Tiberius, and it worked like a charm.”

“ Wow! That's amazing.”

“ I'd appreciate it if you kept their existence under wraps. If the Slytherins find out they are my pets, they'll figure out my prank, and that could raise some awkward questions.”

“ Actually, I wanted to ask you about that.”

“ Your Shirley impression. How did you get it so accurate? I mean, I know you've seen him in battle, but how could you get every single detail of his physical appearance perfect? And his personality?”

“ I was hoping you wouldn't ask that,” Harry said with a sigh, shifting a little on his feet.

“ You don't have to answer,” Sev hurriedly added, but Harry simply shook his head and plopped down on his bed, signaling for Sev to do the same. Taking a deep breath, Harry started to explain.

“ Sev, you know I have faced him before, right?”

“ Well, once, when we were both younger, I had a duel with him. And won.”

Sev gasped and brought his hand to his mouth. He stared at his friend with a newfound respect.

“ What did you do with him?”

“ I wanted to kill him. I should have done, and saved the world a lot of hassle. But there were reasons I didn't. Reasons I can't explain to you, but you have to trust me when I say that they were good. Professor Dumbledore agrees. The point is, as a punishment for certain things, which I will explain at a later date, I did something humiliating to him.”

“ What did you do?”

“ I marked him as mine.”

“ What do you mean?”

“ What I mean is that I put the Dark Mark on his arm. If you look at one of the Death Eater meetings, you might see it. You know at the last battle when I got attacked by the vampire?”

“ Do you think I would normally allow something to sneak up on me?”

“ No, never. You're too good a warrior to let that happen. I remember thinking that at the time.”

“ Well, what I was doing was distracting Shirley. He was fighting Dumbledore, and our illustrious headmaster wasn't exactly winning. So I stopped what I was doing and sent wave after wave of pain through his Dark Mark. It distracted him enough to let Dumbledore get the upper hand, which distracted the Death Eaters, making them easier to take out. Unfortunately, I was concentrating so hard on Shirley that I didn't see the vamp.”

“ That make sense. You really gave him the Dark Mark?”

“ But how does that explain how you copied him so well?”

“ Well, as I have a link with him, I can use it for several things. I am the one who made the mark, so I control it. What I did at the meeting was open the link wider than I normally would when sending pain, and managed to copy some of his DNA. I took a sample magically, and used it to recreate his appearance. I also took a look into his psyche, allowing me to mimic his personality. Unfortunately, I can't read his mind; otherwise I could use it to gather information on his plans.”

“ You got into his head? Isn't that dangerous?”

“ Yes, but I thought it necessary. I don't know if it's going to have any side effects, so I'll just have to wait and see.”

That night, while he was asleep, something happened to Harry that he hadn't experienced in a long time. He had started off dreaming of the usual things, such as having a life with `Tea or getting to know his son. His sleep was even disturbed with the usual nightmares about the past. But then, something unusual happened. Harry's dreams turned more real, and the image of a green clad Voldemort materialised in front of the boy's dream self. Harry found himself in an elegantly furnished study, decorated with the typical green and silver. Voldemort was sitting at a desk, papers and books spread out before him and a quill in his hand. The boy edged forwards and glanced over the hunched figure's shoulders and glimpsed page upon page of intricate hieroglyphics. The piece of parchment set in front of the Dark Lord seemed to be a translation he was working on. Before Harry had a chance to read it, Voldemort sat up straight and called out.

A familiar figure strode into the room and kissed the Dark Lord's robes. Although he was older than the last time he had seen him, Harry instantly recognised Caligula Malfoy.

“ You called, my Lord?”

“ Yes, I did. Bring me the Vivarian Codex book.”

“ Yes, my Lord.”

As the Death Eater left, Harry heard his nemesis muttering under his breath.

“ Time of Darkness ending…Prophecy of the Four…can't come to pass yet…I will be ready…need to translate the last passage…inconsiderate ancient Egyptians…could have at least written it in Latin…”

As the scene began to fade, Harry could feel himself formulating many questions. What was the Prophecy of the Four? And why did Voldemort want to read it so bad?

The next morning at breakfast, Sev gave Harry a concerned look when the older boy slinked into the Great Hall and dropped heavily into his seat, resting his head in his hands.

“ What's up, Harry?”

“ Nothing, just didn't sleep well. I think I need to speak to Dumbledore, though. I believe I've discovered one of the consequences of what I did yesterday…”

“ What happened?!”

“ Let's just say that my dreams last night were rather vivid, and more like the sort Ginny would have.”

“ Really? You should talk to the headmaster after breakfast. You have a free period, don't you?”

“ I do. I doubt he would mind. I'll just ask him.”

Harry closed his eyes and opened a mental link with the headmaster. Normally, this wouldn't be any trouble, but his pounding headache and throbbing scar didn't help his concentration.

~Is it alright if I come to your office after breakfast? I need to talk to you about something~

Opening his eyes, Harry nodded to Dumbledore and sent him a pained smile, before turning back to his friend.

“ Do you mind if we don't talk? It's just; I have a really bad headache.”

“ Sure, no problem.”

As Sev turned back to his food, Harry closed his eyes again and sent a message to the other time travellers.

~Guys, I'm meeting Dumbledore in his office after breakfast. Can you come?~

After pushing his food around his plate for a few minutes, Harry was about to go up to the office to wait when the post owls came in. Everyone grew silent as a large black owl soared over to the staff table, a smoking letter in its beak. It looked like a howler, except for the fact that it was a poisonous shade of green. The owl dropped its cargo in front of the headmaster before flying off out of the roof. Everyone waited with baited breath as Dumbledore poked it with his wand. The envelope sprang open, and a familiar voice filled the room.

“ DON'T THINK YOU CAN HIDE AWAY IN YOUR CASTLE FOREVER, OLD MAN. I HAVE A CUNNING PLAN, AND SOON, YOU AND YOUR PITIFUL ORDER OF THE PHOENIX WILL BOW BEFORE THE MIGHTY LORD VOLDEMORT. BE WARNED, ONE WRONG MOVE, ONE ATTEMPT AGAINST ME AND MY PEOPLE, AND YOU WILL FACE THE MOST PAINFUL DEATH IMAGINABLE.”

As soon as the voice faded away, the letter combusted in a cloud of green smoke, which floated above the headmaster's head in the shape of the Dark Mark. The students soon found their voices, and started to run about the Great Hall in a panic. Harry watched calmly, thinking that it was about time he headed to the headmaster's office. On his way out he couldn't help but think, this is going to be a long day.

Dumbledore tuned up not long after Harry, followed quickly by Ron, Hermione and Ginny. Once they were all seated, the headmaster gave them all a cup of tea and offered them Lemon Drops. Once they were all settled, he asked the all important question.

“ Harry, what is this all about?”

Harry sighed deeply and started to rub his head where his scar was concealed. Ron, Ginny and Hermione paled, and exchanged glances. They hadn't seen him do that in a long time, but they all knew what it meant.

“ Sir, I had a dream last night.”

“ I see,” Dumbledore said a little skeptically. He couldn't see the significance.

“ It wasn't just any dream. In our own time, I used to have dreams about what Voldemort was doing at the time I had them. It was due to a connection I have with him through my scar. Obviously, as the incident that gave me the scar hasn't happened yet, I haven't had them since we left our own time. However, last night, I definitely had one.”

“ How is that possible?” Hermione asked, confused.

“ You know when I took Voldie's form last night to test Sev?”

“ Of course,” Ginny replied.

“ Well, to make it as accurate a copy as possible, I opened the link I have with him through his Dark Mark more fully than normal. It allowed me into his psyche and copy his personality….”

“ …and the link with his mind triggered the vision,” Hermione concluded.

“ Why does your scar hurt? I mean, you're rubbing it, so I assume it does,” Ron added.

“ It does. Did it never occur to you that I'm connected to everyone I've marked? Both Voldie and the Order members? You all have tattoos or other marks on you through which I contact you. Well, I have to have a mark that the connections are tied to. When I first created the Order marks, and later the one on Voldemort, I connected them to the one thing that was permanent and the least obvious.”

“ Your scar,” Ginny concluded.

“ Yes. That's why it hurts, because I opened the link wider and it's stayed open. I've started having the visions again because of it.”

“ So what happened in this dream, Harry?” Dumbledore asked.

“ He spoke of a prophecy he's deciphering. From what I could tell, it's in ancient Egyptian, and he hasn't finished the translation.”

“ Do you know what it's about?” Ron asked his friend.

“ Something called the Prophecy of the Four. I think it's about Voldemort's downfall.”