207Harry Potter and The Power Within
Chapter Fourteen - The Funeral and Wards
It was the day of the funeral and it was a cloudy wet cold day. Harry stood in his room wearing all black with his Phoenix stood on his shoulder. He checked to make sure he looked ok then in a flash of white flames his Phoenix transported him to the graveyard where Minerva' was to be buried. He appeared amongst a crowd of tear faces, black robed people.
He quickly wormed his way around them all and found Dumbledore wearing an all black plain robe. This was the firs time Harry had ever seen the Headmaster in plain robes. Dumbledore was also crying freely for his lost friend.
Harry moved up beside him and offered the aged man some kind of comfort only for Dumbledore to turn around and hug Harry like he would a grandson. He let go and stared into Harry's eyes.
"I have no family, I lost them in the last war to Grindlewald, Minerva was the closest person to family I had left. Now you are. You are the closest thing to a grandson I will ever have again. Please, kill Tom once and for all for me" Dumbledore chocked out then grabbed Harry again.
Harry patted Dumbledore on the back and whispered into his ear. "And you have always been a Grandfather to me and always will be, I love you like the family I always wished I had" which caused Dumbledore to grip on even tighter.
The ritual was very similar to a muggle funeral with the priest saying the prayers sending them onto there next life and family and friends coming up talking about happy memories and such. Then it was Harry's turn.
Harry climbed up to the platform but instead of saying anything he broke into song. Mearas stood proudly on his left shoulder singing along with him. All who herd it were in awe of it. Harry voice was producing a noise exactly like a phoenix and with Mearas sitting on his shoulder singing with him. It was a once in a life time sight. Seeing a phoenix and a man singing in harmony, then with a burst of orange flame Fawkes appeared at his other shoulder and joined into the song. Everyone there who wasn't crying yet were now. Harry was singing with the two phoenixes openly crying, singing the most sorrowful song a being could produce harmonized by the two phoenixes.
Minerva had received the most unique funeral every. To have a phoenix sing at ones funeral was a rare occasion and meant to carry the soul onto the afterlife smoothly. Having two phoenixes sing and one who can talk in the language of the phoenix sing at a funeral was unheard of and had never happened before. Had Minerva been alive she would have been overjoyed. She had felt attached to Mearas and always liked the phoenix animal.
Harry transported Dumbledore directly to his own personal home after the funeral. He escorted him into the living area and summoned a cup of tea and some lemon drops for Dumbledore. He took the offered tray and chuckled slightly at the sight of the lemon drops before promptly plopping one into his mouth.
"That was a wonderful thing you did there Harry. To have a phoenix sing at a funeral is a wonderful thing you can do for someone, no doubt people will be talking about it for years" Dumbledore said sincerely.
"It just felt right at the time. I swear on her grave and the grave of my parents that Voldemort shall fall. I will not rest until he is dead and sent to justice" Harry said vehemently. Dumbledore looked at the young man whom he looked upon as a grandson with nothing but respect shinning in his eyes.
"And I will be there to help if I can" Dumbledore added on smiling at his adopted grandson. "I promise never to withhold information from you again" he said his eyes downcast.
"I have forgiven you for that, I have had a long time to get over it" Harry said smiling at Dumbledore.
"I keep forgetting you have had a few years extra than the rest of us lowly people" Dumbledore replies with a chuckle. Mearas appeared a moment later in a burst of song and sat on Dumbledore's knee singing an uplifting tune making Dumbledore instantly feel better. Mearas song was a lot stronger than Fawkes' but he would never tell the old bird such a thing.
$Thank you for singing at the funeral today Mearas$ Harry trilled.
$No problem Harry Friend, I like the woman-cat$ Mearas trilled back then resumed singing the heart warming song.
"I really must be getting back to the school Harry. I am guessing this is your lovely home?" Dumbledore inquired.
"You would guess right" Harry replied. "I thought you might rather be somewhere you can be bothered for a change. If you ever need to get away from it all just ask and I'll bring you back. This place is warded so strongly nothing can gain access unless I want it to"
"Thank you, I may take that up with you. I also need to tell you that you may take the NEWT tests you want next week on Wednesday, hopefully I'll see you then. The ministry is sending a load of examiners to Hogwarts for it, you should get your results within ten minuets of completing the exam so you don't need to be a nervous wreck waiting for the results" Dumbledore said. "now if you could take me to the school as I'm sure I wont be able to get there on my own"
Harry grabbed onto Dumbledore and Jumped him to his office. Dumbledore stood there and shivered slightly at the power that Harry burst threw him.
"Wow, that was quite a rush there Harry, you've got to take me around like that more often" Dumbledore said with a slight chuckle.
"Yeah, no problem, just lemme know when you need to illegally break threw some wards and I'll take you there" Harry replied with a chuckle of his own. It was at that moment that the fire in Dumbledore's office turned bright green and a bunch of red headed witches and wizards started falling out closely followed by a brown bushy haired witch.
"Ah Weasilys, welcome, and Miss Granger. Please, sit down" and Dumbledore was in the process of waving his wand when a bunch of arm chairs and sofas came into being before he had a chance to finish. Harry sat in the more grand looking armchair looking smugly at Dumbledore whom merely raised an eyebrow at him.
"Thanks Albus. Harry, that was a beautiful thing you did today, but I want you to know, it will most likely be on every single paper by tomorrow," Arthur said.
"Don't worry about it. I've gotten over getting annoyed at the media. It's a part of my life I'm going to have to accept." Harry said casually, much to Ron's bane. His jealousy kicked up again and he snapped out at Harry.
"Yes because that's such a burden isn't it. Having people fawn over you and do any little thing you say, such a hard life that must be" Ron snapped out. Everyone in the room gasped. Molly turned bright red and was about to give her son an earful but Harry beat her to it.
"Ron" Harry spoke quietly and deathly coldly, striking fear into everyone in the room, including Dumbledore " it is high treason to talk to me in such a manor as you well know as does your dad" Harry spoke "and no, a life of fame is not all that great. Having no parents, everyone thinking your spoilt at your home life being that of a spoilt prince. Well let me inform you of a little secret about my home life before I became 'blessed' with this body. My uncle murdered me. As in I died. The only thing that saved me was a prophesy that claimed only Voldemort can kill me and only me him. Then add on the media. The inability to have a private life without the press trying to stick there nose into it. Then the expectations of the entire wizarding world and what they think I should act like that. Would you really want that. Being forced to act a certain way, not being able to have any personal life" Harry slowly said. Then his eyes slowly got a menacing gleam.
"I'll make you a deal. I'll give you every single coin of money in my vault at Gringotts, and all the knowledge and power I had before my 16th birthday on one condition" Harry said looking at Ron awaiting an answer. Ron looked about to say yes straight away then realised Harry had said there was a condition.
"And what's the condition?" Ron asked with barely contained glee.
"That I kill every single member of your family and post the press every small little action you do in your life!" Harry all but yelled. The room went deathly quiet. Every single face in there went white as a sheet at the impactions of what Harry had said. If Ron Weasily agreed there would only be four people alive in the room apposed to the eleven there should be. Ron would be responsible for over fifteen murders, most likely a lot more as the Weasily's were a very extended family.
"What. No way, that's unfair!" Ron yelled.
"Exactly, and that's what has happened for me!" yet your still jealous even though I just offered you everything I have!" Harry yelled in Ron's face.
Everyone in the room stared at the youngest Weasily male. If you looked carefully you could slowly see the understanding light up in his eyes, then Ron slowly developed a darker and darker blush of embarrassment. Then Fred, George, Charlie, Bill and Ginny slowly approached him and took it in turns to slap, punch or kick him in the shins. Then they all went up to Harry and shook hand and congratulated him on knocking sense into there younger brother. All except Ginny that latched onto his chest and seemed to be entirely too comfortable there. Much to Harry's amusement. He had spent that last two years without female contact and with raging hormones he wasn't complaining, even if he wouldn't choose Ginny to date, she was just to young and more like a little sister.
She quickly let go and started to blush bright red much to more amusement of the people in the room. The Weasilys stayed for about half an hour talking about the funeral and other things before they all slowly left leaving just Ron and Hermione, Harry and Dumbledore. Hermione hugged Harry tightly before stepping into the fireplace and vanishing in a swirl of emerald flames. Ron apologized yet again then he to vanished in the green flames.
Harry stayed a bit long and chatted to Dumbledore about some of the more advanced wards he knew and about his up coming NEWTs, before Harry excused himself and Jumped home quickly followed by Mearas and did a quick workout before going to bed for a nap before he would go back to Hogwarts and start erecting stronger older wards to help protect the castle. And also to take his NEWTs.
Meanwhile near London Voldemort was in one of his many hideouts surrounded by what was left of his Death Eaters. In the blast which that Potter brat made all of his inner circle had been killed and he found out Snape was a spy, and the brat removed his Dark Mark as well! Where was he getting this power from!
Voldemort had been spending nearly fifty years researching rituals and spells to increase his already strong magical power. He did have to blood of a Founder in his veins after all. And he was one of the few people that had herd of Forge, so he knew that his ancestor had been trained by this mythical being. Voldemort had spent may a year trying to track down this Man but had no success. This man had obviously discovered the secret of immortality and he would torture it out of said man if he could only find him.
But the power this Potter brat had, it was immense, it made him look almost like a squib, and the brat had the nerve to cast the Cruciatus Curse on him. Him. Lord Voldemort! No one had every hit him with that curse in all his life. And the power that brat channelled into it. It made his Cruciatus Curse looked like a tickling charm.
The battle had taken more out of him than he was willing to admit. He was barely able to apperate never mind torture his pathetic followers. It would take weeks, if not months to gather his strength again and recruit more followers.
The Dark Lord sighed and climbed to his feet and dragged himself into his private chambers after dismissing his followers. He sat on his bed stroking his huge snake before slowly dropping off to sleep.
Harry woke bright and early the next day feeling fully refreshed. He did his morning ritual of running ten three minuet miles. Then working in the gym on the weights for an hour before showering then eating. He got dressed in a loose fitting pair of cotton pants and a plain grey t-shirt. He fed Mearas and Hedwig some owl treats and told them he was going to Hogwarts to do some exams. He rooted around in his trunk looking for his wand and pulled it out.
This was the first time he had held his wand properly since before his training. It felt like a piece of dead wood in his hands now. He cast a simple stunner out of it and was amazed at how much it restricted his power. He would use his wand for exams and that would be the last time he would ever use it. It also reminded him that he needed to register his Staff at the ministry. True, he didn't have to, but he felt it only fair as Arthur was the Minister now.
He tied his hair back into a loose ponytail the jumped to Hogwarts in the middle of the Great Hall scaring the crap out of all the professors and examiners at the same time.
"Harry, good to see you, I hope your feeling well today, you've got a busy day ahead of you!" Dumbledore all but yelled then motioned for him to sit beside him as the rest of the people in the hall ate breakfast. Even though Harry had eaten his, it didn't stop him eating enough to rival Ron on a good day, after all, living with Forge had greatly increased his appetite.
Once everyone was finished eating they all say back and watched in amazement at the sheer amount and speed Harry sat and ate his second breakfast.
"What's the matter Harry, you not eat before you come out?" Dumbledore asked with a chuckle.
"Huh, what, of right. Yeah I did, I just thought since I was here I might as well eat a bit more, I'm going to need the energy if I'm to do all the wards I want to" Harry said with a chuckle. Everyone then stood up and Dumbledore waved his wand and the Head Table vanished leaving a teacher desk and a student desk.
"Harry, this is where you will do all the written part of the exams, as you have chosen to take all the NEWT exams you will start now and you will have the normal time limit to complete them but you may finish as early as you like" Dumbledore informed Harry.
Harry nodded in acceptance and sat down at the desk. His first exam was charms. Harry stared at the paper as if it was insulting him. Every single one of the questions was pathetically easy. Harry grabbed the quill and a bottle of ink.
"I don't s'pose I can charm the quill to store ink so I don't have to keep dipping it in?" Harry asked his charms examiner. The man looked up in surprise at the question. He didn't even know there was such a charm, yet it was so practical he wondered why it had never been thought of before.
"Of course" he said eager to watch this boy genius work if what he had been told was true. Harry grabbed his wand from in his pocket and tapped the quill, then tapped the ink bottle. The both glowed blue for a second, then Harry dipped the quill into the ink pot and it slowly started to suck up the ink. By the time half the ink bottle was gone into the quill Harry pulled it out restarted doing the paper.
He flew threw the answers. Within fifteen minuets much to the examiners shock Harry had completed it. The examiner asked Harry to stand up and he took him to the other edge of the hall where another table had been set up and asked Harry to do a series of spells. In which Harry did them all perfectly and without saying a word. Not even the spell incantation. The examiner nodded and told him he could sit down again.
Harry sat at his desk and waited for the next examiner which turned out to be a woman who was in charge of his Transfiguration. Again Harry zoomed threw the paper even faster than last time. Within ten minuets Harry had completely finished the exam and handed it to the woman. She too took him to the edge of the hall where the table was bare except for a block of wood.
"I would like you to turn it into a wooden spoon please" she said coldly, she didn't seem to like Harry at all fro some reason not that he cared. He waved his want and the block of wood melted into a wooden spoon. "Good, now into a metal spoon" she asked. Harry did as he was told, with a little extra. He turned it into a very finely carved silver dinner spoon with a complex pattern engraved onto it. By now Harry was bored and just did it for the sake of it. "Good, now into a stone spoon" she said, just as bored.
Now Harry went all out. He waved his wand and instead of the expensive silver spoon, was a pure diamond spoon with inlayed rubies and emeralds. This time the examiner couldn't help but gasp. The spoon was a work of art.
"Very good, now turn it into an animal of your choice, the more complex the animal the more points you will gain" she said. Starting to warm up to the kid. She thought everything that had been said about him was just an exaggeration. Harry smiled happily, this was going to be a bit more challenging, but not much. Harry waved his wand and the masterpiece spoon transformed into a bright white phoenix with golden tips. It was an exact replica of the phoenix Harry had seen when he had died. He had even charmed it to be alive, so it could sing and move about. This time there was no denying it. The examiner gasped out right. From a block of wood this young man had managed to produce the most stunning creature she had ever seen in his life. "That is all. Now unless you have an animagus form, that is the end of the exam" she said in awe. Harry waved his wand turning the phoenix back into the wooden cube it started as.
"Which form do you want to see" he asked with a cheeky grin. The examiner looked at him curiously.
"What do you mean which form?"
"Well I can turn into any non-magical animal you can think of and a phoenix" Harry replied smugly, he had decided to keep the dragon form secret till he needed it.
"Wow…I mean erm how about Siberian Tiger?" she asked. This was her most favourite animal there was second only to the phoenix he had made earlier. With a slight crunch Harry turned into a jet black tiger with white striped and a slight lightning bolt mark on its nose. "well done Mr Potter. You have passed with flying colours. If your written part is as good. I can tell you that you have most assuredly gotten an O!"
Harry smiled happily to himself. He had manage to impress a total stranger and she seemed cold at him at the start but he had managed to twist her arm.
Much of the exams went the same way throughout the day. Harry would do the written part of the exams in less then twenty minuets at most simply because he couldn't write fast enough to do it any faster. In the potions exam he was able to impress the potions examiner by making the potion and improving it!
By five p.m. Harry had been giving his results back and he had passed each and every single NEWT with an O. He had a perfect score of 100 in each exam. This had never happened before in Hogwarts but with Harry studying constantly every single day for two years with access to books that don't even exist anymore. It wasn't really much of a surprise.
Dumbledore came back in beaming happily at Harry with pride shinning in his eyes. Harry smiled back happily and waved his own wand making a table appear more spectacularly carved than the head table usually was. Dumbledore merely chuckled at Harry's display of skill along with the rest of the staff and examiners. Snape merely scowled as per usual.
Harry sat down at his seat at the right hand of Dumbledore then dived into the food that appeared the next minuet. Harry ate at a speed unrivalled by anyone but Forge, but as he wasn't there, he ate at a speed unrivalled for near an hour until he was finished.
He and Dumbledore then stood up and went out and stood in front of the Main Doors into the school.
"OK Harry cast all the wards you want, as long as the students can get in" Dumbledore told Harry stepping back where all the other teachers had stood back to watch. One of the examiners suddenly burst out before Harry could start.
"You telling me your going to let this young man re-ward Hogwarts on his own!" he yelled out raged.
"I assure you. Harry has both the skill and the power to do it. If by any chance something is to go wrong. I will help out as much as I can with the aid of Filius" Dumbledore said motioning to the charms master to his side who nodded enthusiastically dieing to see Harry perform magic on this huge scale. It should be a sight to be hold.
The examiner looked appeased and nodded his consent and Harry sent a thankful smile to the headmaster before holding his hands out in front of him and summoning his Staff to him, drawing gasps from everyone who hadn't seen it.
Harry started twirling it in his hands drawing energy into it just like he did at the battle a few days ago. Faster and faster it twirled. A lot faster than it did at the battle until it looked like he was holding a solid hold shield. The magic building up in and around Harry was growing to immense levels. Unrivalled by anything any of the others had felt before. Then all of a sudden The spinning stopped and again Harry slammed his Staff down and the Ruby and all the emeralds exploded into light. A brilliant white beam exploded from the end and travelled up until it struck the wards that were already there then slowly spread out covering them all. The power kept pumping out of his Staff super charging the old existing wards. With a flash of light the beam cut out and the power slowly faded away and the wards slowly vanished into nothing.
Meanwhile at the ministry the magic sensors that covered the North East of England and into Scotland, suddenly went off the scale then blew up causing mass panic in that office.
Harry stood there panting and all the teachers and examiners, Dumbledore included, stood staring at Harry slack jawed. The professors had re-set the wards at the start of the holiday, not more than a few weeks ago, so they were still fresh and charged, and that took the joint effort of all the teachers with Dumbledore pushing all he had into them.
Then here was Harry, who had managed to increase there power more then fifty fold, single handily. That amount of magic was simply unheard of, especially in one person!
Harry stood there leaning on his Staff getting his breath back. He felt all the excess magic in the air getting sucked into him an a huge rate to fill in his gap of magic power which he had just pushed forth. In the space of five minuets, where everyone was still staring at him Harry had recovered. He smirked to himself. If they thought that was impressive they were in for a ride now.
Harry had never done this ward before, he was going to do it on his house but never had time to do it. It would stop all Death Eaters and anyone baring the Dark Mark being able to enter the grounds, it would also stop daemons and anyone baring ill will to any of the students. The power needed for such a ward would pretty much drain him and knock him out. He only hoped Dumbledore would take good care of him.
He sent a quick telepathic message to Dumbledore to tell him what he was about to do and prepare to feel some awesome power.
Harry again starting spinning his Staff. This wasn't really necessary in any of his spells, it just helped him focus his magic and visualize is charging. This ward would require Harry wanting to protect everyone on the ground with everything he had otherwise it may not work.
Harry thought of Voldemort and what would happen should he get onto the grounds with all the students here and the havoc he could cause. This was enough for Harry's 'super' barrier to break like it did when he wiped out the Death Eaters.
The power inside him started going up in leaps and bounds. The teachers and examiners watched on in complete awe. Dumbledore watched on in amazement. Harry had told him this ward take a lot more power but he had no idea it would take this much, and it was still rising. It was nearly at the level it was when he destroyed all those Death Eaters and still it rose.
Again Harry felt the itching on his back except this time he was more than aware of it instead of being in a blood thirsty state of mind. With a quick thought his t-shirt fell from his body whilst he continued to gather power and hold the barrier open. Then with a blood turning ripping noise and a sharp stinging pain in his back, the black leathery wings broke free. This time Harry had time to notice them. They did indeed look like exact replicas of the wings he had in his Dragon form. He could also feel them sucking in power from the very universe itself and pumping it into himself which he in turn pumped into his Staff. The Staff itself was starting to get red hot in his hands and buckling under the power being funnelled into it. This was the power he was born to wield, the power he was given to defend the very Earth with.
Forge sat in the Hall of Doors when his senses got overloaded. He felt the magic Harry was wielding. It was like a few days ago. Except this time on a much grander scale. What ever he was casting Forge wished him the best of look before turning back to the book he was reading.
In the Ministry of Magic and Department of Mysteries every single magical scanner was going haywire and blowing up off and overload. Even the witches and wizards could feel the magic washing over them now. Giving them a sense of peach and comfort. The Death Eater spies within the Ministry and DoM weren't so lucky. They had a feeling of fear and promised pain wash over them.
At Voldemort's headquarters the power wave washed over them. Many of the Death Eaters fell to the ground crying begging for forgiveness and others, the more evil ones, felt physical pain. Non more so than Voldemort himself. Luckily for him though he was in his private quarters when the wave washed over him. And he felt a pain similar to when the brat had cast the Curico on him. He also knew that it was the brats magical signature. The power wave zapped the Dark Lord of the little health he had gained over the days and he was once again back to the near magic less state he was when the brat attacked him.
The staff and examiners watched on in amazement as Harry wielded such awesome powers. The pulsating backlash that was washing over the UK and most of Europe was incredibly intense where they were. It re-energized them of all there magic and healed them of any ailment. It also probably added on ten years to there life, maybe more.
Just as Harry thought he was going to burst from all the magic he knew he had enough, and e had a strong enough reason to cast the ward, to be successful, that he slammed the staff onto the ground and again all the jewels started to glow, but brighter than the Sun itself. The power burst forth and started making a dome covering all of Hogwarts, the Forbidden Forest, and all of Hogsmead. It was more than any of them could of dreamed for. The power just kept on pumping out making the old wards look like nothing more than a basic banishing charm.
Eventually it started to die down then stopped. Leaving Harry standing there panting. This time the wings didn't not vanish but remained. Harry stood there gasping for breath trying to remain conscious. Harry said four words before slipping into a coma due to lack of magic.
"So mote it be"
Then slowly started to fall forward. Before he had the chance to hit the ground Dumbledore dashed forward and grabbed Harry and picked him up cradling him like he would a grandson. And started carrying him inside and towards the hospital wing slowly with everyone else following.
"You did great. You did better than I could of ever dreamed. I am so proud of you" Dumbledore whispered into Harry's ear as he lay him down carefully onto a hospital bed careful not to jar his wings and make it uncomfortable.
Harry had just broken all magical rules and cast the most power ever recorded, and ever to be recorded again. The power he wielded was not for short to that of which God himself used in to creation of the universe
AN: Woooooo! What a monster of a chapter 5265 words of only story, not including title and AN! that's a big ass chapter, and a hard one at that! I'm sorry about lack of update but as I don't have the internet I'm sitting writing a load of chapters, since I've got nothing better to do, and when I start college I'll post 'em all up then, I even started a new story. Harry Potter The Wanderer's Apprentice it probably wont be updated much but oh well. Adios my friends till the next chapter! Which I will post after I receive ten reviews, not a lot, and I know more than 60 of you receive author alert so there really isn't any excuse and it will be pitiful if I don't get them!