The Silver Millennium

Authors Note: Here is chapter 4. I really liked writing chapter 4 than any of the other previous chapters. Thank you for the people that reviewed and read chapter 3! I appreciate it so much. There are a lot of new characters in this chapter like Kaitlyn, Agnes Colmes, Silver, and Sir Napoleon; actually there is going to end up being quite a few more. Well, here is chapter four. ; )

-|- Chapter Four -|-

A New Hero Appears

“I clean and I cook. I scrub and I polish. I sweep and I mop and I wash and I always manage to keep my sanity! And this is the thanks I get!” cried Agnes Colmes. She set down the aged broom she had in her hands, and walked slowly with her hands on her hips to the foot of the staircase. She peered up it on tenterhooks, growing more impatient by the second. “Honestly! You must be the laziest bunch of children in the Kingdom!” she growled, “get down here…NOW!”

The old rickety staircase shook as all nine of the Colmes children sprinted down it. They stopped in front of their foster mother neatly, forming a line as they did. The younger one’s seemed to be playing it smart with a nice angelic smile to get on the better side of Agnes Colmes. The oldest children, like Silver, stood pompously at the back of the line mostly with their arms crossed over their front and their eyes rolling as back as they would go. Agnes took a good look at the nine children with a scrunched up sort of look on her face.

“I have been taking care of you all practically your whole lives. I have given you everything a foster mother could give children and more actually. What do I get in return? This!” she snarled, pointing at Silver’s disrespectful attitude. “Don’t roll your eyes like your having a seizure, damn it! Give me the courtesy of looking me in the eye, Silver.” When he didn’t respond to her comment, she grabbed him by the ear and pulled him closer to her, finally getting his eyes to look over at her; some of the younger children snorted with laughter at Silver. “Did you hear me?” she asked him.

He nodded still disrespectfully; she pulled his ear a tad harder.

“Did you hear me?” she repeated.

He sighed. “Yes, yes, I heard you all right,” he replied.

She pulled once again on his ear. “What was that? I’m sorry, I didn’t quite know who you were addressing…someone your age or someone of elder,” she said, still not releasing his ear from her pointy fingered grip.

“Yes, I heard what you said, Ms. Colmes,” Silver mumbled.

Agnes released his ear, and put that hand on her waist. “I hope you all remember to respectfully address me and to treat me with common respect that you’d give all adults. I may not be around forever you know. I’m a very elder woman for this time with very many stressful events and problems to deal with. I’m only at the brink of fifty, and already my once wonderfully carrot orange hair is now turning a wispy gray. Now, today I am assigning new chores and I expect them to get done by the end of sundown,” she explained, “Wayne, Mort, and Reyna, you will all have very simple chores since your all only six and seven. You each will pick the harvest from the fields outside. Elizabeth and Tawny, you will be cleaning the whole of the kitchen, and cook the dinner. Ren you will be doing the upstairs dusting, sweeping, and polishing. Arnold you will be doing the exact same for the downstairs. Kaitlyn you will be my personal helper today, and as for you Silver. You Silver, will be re-cropping the fields. Now all of you get to work!”

There was a moment of scurry as everyone rushed to go do the task they had been dealt. Silver gave Agnes a hateful look before he disappeared outside, following Wayne, Mort, and Reyna to the fields. Kaitlyn walked up to Agnes wearing quite a sweet smile.

“For you, Ms. Colmes,” Kaitlyn said kindly, handing Agnes a daisy flower, “I picked it especially for you. I thought it was beautiful and it even smells magnificent.”

“Why thank you, Kaitlyn,” Agnes said, wrapping the stem of the daisy flower around the strap of her apron so that now the daisy could be seen on her apron like some sort of button. “Your very polite, Kaitlyn…never stop being polite.” Agnes gave the teenage girl a motherly smile before she cleared her throat. “Now follow me. I have to go into the market in the main city of the Kingdom today. I just need to get my cloak and purse.”

Kaitlyn nodded and watched as Agnes left the main hall up the stairs to her bedroom. Kaitlyn turned away from where she had been standing and walked over to the front window of the small house. She stared out of it with her pretty berry colored eyes.

Kaitlyn was mostly different from the rest of the eight children. She was fifteen years old, almost sixteen, but her maturity was similar to that of someone ten years older than her. She was the smartest of the children, even without an education and the prettiest, too. Kaitlyn often strayed away from the other children to think of other things. She, unlike most of them, knew what was going on around her. She didn’t buy into the lies of the Lord, his nobles, and his soldiers; she knew what was happening in the Kingdom was a dictatorship, despite all of the adults attempts to cheer everything up. She knew of the past, as well; she knew of the freedom that had once existed, and she knew that it had died the night of January 1^st, 2000; the first night of the new millennium. How Kaitlyn wished the famous Harry Potter hadn’t lost to the Lord. But still she hoped, and wished he wasn’t dead; still she kept her faith that somewhere in the world he was still alive.

“All right,” Agnes said, returning from retrieving her cloak and purse, “I’m ready. Now remember, Kaitlyn, stick close to me and don’t speak to anyone. I mean that. The market in Shadow City isn’t a place for children or anyone of our kind.”

Kaitlyn nodded. Despite the warning from Agnes that Shadow City was a dangerous place, she couldn’t help, but feel excited about going there.

-|-

Poof!

SMACK!

Down and down and down Harry Potter rolled. He had appeared out of thin air and landed straight on the grassy hills. He began rolling uncontrollably down the hill, unable to stop himself by grabbing onto anything; there seemed to be nothing to grab onto.

Finally, he reached the bottom of the hill and stopped rolling. For some time he couldn’t even open his eyes or sit up, due to his extreme dizziness. Instead he lay there with his arms spread out fully as well as his legs, looking as if he were dead. When the dizziness died away, he sat up and carefully opened his eyes.

He was in the middle of some grassy hills. His first thought was that the scenery was quite beautiful. There were trees nearby as well as flowers, and even little butterflies flying around. The sky was a perfect baby blue and was lined with fluffy clouds. Harry stood up, dusting off the grass from him and pocketing the Time Turner. It was then that his eyes looked directly below the hill he was on. His jaw literally dropped at that point.

What he was seeing was so astonishing he couldn’t move an inch, only stare at the sight in front of him. For moments he stood there staring at the unbelievable view; he gulped for air when he had realized he had stopped breathing.

In front of him were towers and castles and even high turrets. They were all magnificent and wonderful. It was like the whole Kingdom consisted of nothing, but excellently built buildings painted different shades of grays and blacks. Above all of the breathtakingly glorious castles, towers, and turrets, was the tallest one of all. This one was a mystic silver color and was almost as tall as the sky itself. It was a castle unlike Harry had ever seen before; he wondered what was inside it.

When Harry finally came off the shock from the stunning scenery around him, he made his way leisurely down the hills. As he traveled down the hills, he began to see the bottom ground of the Kingdom. That was when he realized the Kingdom did not consist of wonderful arched buildings. There were many more buildings and houses below, but most, especially the houses, were a deteriorating gray and moldy brown color. He realized that all of the splendid castles and turrets were bunched together, away from the poorer side of the Kingdom. He learned that the nice side of the Kingdom was where all of the nobles lived.

He jumped down from the last hill, onto a small stone floor. It appeared to be an alley between some dirty streets. Harry exited the alley and started down the meager streets, feeling horrible. There was hardly anyone on these streets, but the very few people he saw looked underprivileged. They’re clothes were ragged and they’re faces were dirty. Some of the children lacked shoes or even socks and he saw some without many teeth.

After about thirty minutes worth of walking, he began to enter more roads and streets, these at least appearing to be a tad bit cleaner. This small village he was passing through appeared to be full of houses with fields for backyards for crops and harvest. He could see children in the back of the fields picking food and tossing it into baskets almost as big as they were.

These streets too were quite abandoned, although someone pointed at him and screamed in astonish, “are my tired eyes deceiving me? Are they showing me something of fiction?” The woman ran inside, screaming for her housemates to come look outside.

Harry decided to take a side street, to get away from that house as quickly as possible; he was failing to realize why the woman had screamed that at the sight of him. His feet were starting to get sore from all of the walking and he was feeling quite hungry for some food. He stepped off of the cracked pebble sidewalk to cross the visibly abandoned road.

“WATCH OUT YOU SILLY BOY! WATCH OUT!” screeched Agnes Colmes, swerving the shabby wagon being pulled by a single mule away from Harry. The wagon came to a screeching halt and Agnes quickly climbed out of it to tell Harry off. “You have some nerve crossing the road without even looking, boy!”

“Uh…” Harry trailed off.

“Honestly! You young people these days. No common respect for us elder people. It’s apparent your parents never taught you some decent manners,” Agnes rambled in a shout, “if I were your legal guardian, I would have made a point of it to teach you some respect and – mighty Merlin! Are you…where’s my spectacles? My eyes must be getting worse, because you look exactly like our demised defender Harry Potter.”

Kaitlyn came running up from behind and handed Agnes her spectacles hurriedly. “Here you go, Ms. Agnes. I took the liberty of polishing them,” she said.

“Thank you, Kaitlyn. I’ll make a point of buying you a slice of bread as a treat. If I have enough Knuts, I’ll even let you get some marmalade for it,” Agnes said, putting on her eyes. Once she had her eyeglasses on, which magnified her brown eyes, she peered at Harry. “Oh my Merlin! You are Harry Potter! You even have the lightening bolt shaped scar!” she gasped, her voice quivering.

“Erm…maybe I should go,” Harry said, turning to leave, but Agnes grabbed his elbow to hold him back.

“Nonsense. You do understand what I’m asking, do you?” she asked.

“Yes, I do. And, I am Harry Potter,” Harry said almost inaudibly.

Agnes took a step back; almost keeling over completely; Kaitlyn prepared to catch her if she did. Agnes put a hand to her heart as if it were giving her pains and stared at Harry in awe with her magnified brown eyes.

“Harry Potter,” Kaitlyn whispered in stun, “but your dead…aren’t you?”

“You can’t be Harry Potter,” Agnes disagreed, “you look like a teenager. Harry Potter would be twenty five years old if he were still alive.”

“I am Harry Potter, but I’m not twenty five,” Harry said with a shrug, “I’m only sixteen. You see, let me explain. I’m from the past. I’ve traveled here from the past of 1996.”

“My word,” Agnes sobbed, “Harry Potter has come to end the Darkness! He has come bravely at the sweet, tender age of sixteen to risk his skin for the betterment of us all! Harry Potter, you truly are a great Hero!”

“Erm…” Harry drifted off, trying to figure out something to say.

Agnes clapped her hands together in rejoice and said, “come, Harry Potter, I will lead you to my home. There I will cook you a grand meal. You need all the strength you can get. I can’t believe my prayers are about to be answered!” She gave Harry a surprised hug, before she clapped her hands again and hurried over to the wagon.

Kaitlyn stepped closer to Harry wearing a grateful smile as she leaned closer and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. “Thank you for returning, Harry Potter,” she whispered quickly in his ear, “you have been greatly missed.”

She turned away and started back toward the wagon. Harry stood there blushing a bit before Agnes reminded him to come over to the wagon. He shook his head and walked to the wagon, hopping inside. The wagon started up again and headed straight for Agnes Colmes house where the other eight children were still busy at work.

“Erm…” Harry stuttered, finally able to speak, “you see I’m not supposed to be here. I mean…I mean I don’t have permission to be. I came here, because someone from the future…the year 2020 to be exact, came to my time. I used her Time Turner to travel here to destroy Voldemort.”

The wagon turned wildly, almost spinning over onto its side. When it came to a faltering stop, Agnes turned over in her seat and gaped at Harry in a fusion of utter shock and fear. “Never…never say the Lord’s name,” she whispered, actually trembling from panic, “he will know. He knows all.”

Harry looked at Kaitlyn, who was sitting in the wagon next to him. She was quivering, too, with her hands over her ears and her eyes on Harry in fright. It took Agnes a couple of seconds to regain calm in order for her to operate the wagon. When it started again, Harry wasn’t sure if he wanted to speak.

“I say his name,” Harry said at last, “whether anyone likes it or not. Back in my time people don’t say either, but I do. I don’t care if I’m not supposed to say it. It’s his name and I’m going to address him by it.”

For a brief moment Kaitlyn looked at him in admiration. “So, the legends of the bravery of Harry Potter are true,” she whispered in marvel, “you truly are brave enough to speak his true name. You truly are.”

“I don’t call it bravery. I call it foolishness,” Agnes commented.

“Well, there are others who say it, too. My godfather,” Harry said pausing at the word ‘godfather’, “he said it as well. And my best friend Hermione Granger has been saying it for about a year now. It isn’t that big of a deal.”

“Shut up with your naivety,” Agnes growled angrily.

Harry decided not to respond to her words; she seemed to be easily offended on the topic by anyone who had different views than she did.

“I’ve read some books about you,” Kaitlyn said, striking up conversation, “you never knew your parents, you were forced to live with terrible Muggles until you went to the legendary Hogwarts School for Witches and Wizards. There you met two best friends Ron Weasley, a red headed boy that was your sidekick, and Hermione Granger, a very clever witch.”

“Where are Ron and Hermione?” Harry asked interestedly.

Once again the wagon almost took a wild turn, though this time Agnes managed to avoid spinning completely out of control. She exhaled a deep breath with her eyes closed, demanding calm from herself.

“Time’s change,” she said merely.

“No, where is Ron? Where’s Hermione? Why does everyone refuse to tell me?” Harry asked, beginning to lose his temper on the matter. “I have a right to know where they are. They are my best friends.”

No one said anything. A minute later Agnes finally pulled the wagon to a stop and exited it. Kaitlyn led Harry towards the door of the very pitiable looking house; this house almost made the Weasley’s home look like they were millionaires.

Inside wasn’t as horrible as Harry had expected. For the outside looking so shabby, the inside didn’t look half bad, minus the fact that all of the furniture was shaky and near collapsing. Agnes rushed right away to the kitchen to begin whipping up a meal. Agnes shunted Tawny and Elizabeth out the kitchen and when they entered the family room they discovered why.

“Wow!” gasped Elizabeth stupidly, “you look just like Harry Potter! I didn’t know he had a twin!”

“This is Harry Potter,” Tawny said knowingly, “I’m right…aren’t I? You are Harry Potter. I always knew you weren’t dead. I always knew you were playing a coward instead.” She nudged Harry and gave him a quick wink as if the secret had just been between the two of them.

“Erm…no,” Harry said to both Tawny and Elizabeth, “I’m not the twin to Harry Potter. I really am Harry Potter. I’m just from the past.”

Tawny frowned greatly, and peered up suspiciously at him with her oddly tawny colored brown eyes. “You sure?” she asked as if he didn’t know where he came from.

“Of course he’s sure,” Kaitlyn answered for him. She looked over at Harry and gave him a pretty smile; Harry blushed again.

“Ah, stop flirting,” Tawny said, annoyed.

“Tawny, let ‘em flirt,” Elizabeth argued, sticking her tongue out.

“No! It’s gross!” Tawny shouted.

“You’re gross!” Elizabeth countered.

Soon both of the eleven year olds were arguing and shoving one another furiously. Both Kaitlyn and Harry turned away from them leaving them to their own little squabble. Kaitlyn seemed only interested in talking to Harry.

“I wasn’t flirting,” she said, flushing out of embarrassment, “you don’t have to worry.”

“R-right,” Harry said strangely. He hated that Kaitlyn’s kindness and beauty was distracting him from the stuff that he really should have been thinking about. Yet, he still couldn’t help admiring her tender blue eyes and her soft black hair; he didn’t even apprehend that he was in reality nine years older than her if he had indeed lived.

“Harry Potter,” said a cold voice, “I don’t believe it.”

Both Harry and Kaitlyn looked up from their private blushing fest, towards the front doorway where stood the slightly shaded outline of Silver. He stepped inside, letting his huge boots touch the wooden floor slowly to draw attention to himself. Once he stepped inside he was no longer shaded.

Harry didn’t like this git. He stood up a little straighter and crossed his arms; for some reason this git reminded him of a slightly taller and broader Draco Malfoy, especially the feature of his blondish silver hair. “And what’s not to believe?” Harry asked composedly.

“That your Harry Potter,” Silver answered, still taking slow steps toward Harry and Kaitlyn. “I don’t believe it.”

“Then maybe you should start,” Harry replied, “because I am.”

By the time Silver stopped taking steps closer, he and Harry were face to face; Silver was still taller than he was.

“Yeah, well, I don’t believe it,” Silver said.

“That’s a shame,” Harry said sarcastically, “I was hoping for your validation.”

Kaitlyn stepped between the both of them when Silver tried to take yet another step closer with his fists clenched. She pushed them away from each other, looking bothered by their immatureness. “Will you two stop it? Silver, this is Harry Potter. Harry, if I may call you that, don’t provoke Silver please,” Kaitlyn said smoothly; her voice was stricter reminding Harry of Hermione’s voice whenever she was trying to prevent Harry from fighting with someone.

Harry nodded. “Fine,” he said. He looked up at Silver respectfully and held out his hand for Silver to shake. “Truths?”

Silver looked from Harry’s green eyes down to the hand he was offering, before he gave him an odious look and turned away. He left the house through the front door again without another word to say.

When he was gone, Kaitlyn looked at Harry apologetically, and said, “he’s a bit tough to get along with, Silver is.”

“No kidding,” Harry murmured.

-|-

The meal that Agnes had prepared was excellent. Harry ate everything that was on his plate and seconds. Agnes demanded that he take thirds, but he had to kindly refuse; he wasn’t that hungry. Once the meal was over, Agnes instructed him to get a good rest up in the third bedroom where there was a free bed, because the old person that used to sleep there had moved out on his eighteenth birthday. Harry didn’t much feel like sleeping. Instead, he asked Agnes if he could come with her and Kaitlyn to the capital city of the Kingdom, Shadow City. Reluctantly, Agnes agreed to let Harry come, but on the condition that he wore a cloak tightly around him with the cloak’s hood up to cover most of his face and certainly the scar up; Harry agreed.

The three of them got into the wagon again, before they began their journey across a large part of the Kingdom to get to the central core of it where Shadow City was located. During the ride Harry decided to question Agnes with a few things that had been causing him to ponder ever since he had gotten there.

“So this Kingdom…the Silver Millennium Kingdom, I mean, has different cities and villages?” he asked to begin with.

“Yes, some richer than others. Like Shadow City and certainly Lord Metropolis. But the villages like the one I reside in, Oxford Village isn’t the richest place to be to put it in simple terms,” Agnes answered.

“And the nobles…they all live in the rich cities?” Harry asked.

“Merlin, yes. They don’t bother ever crossing past the town of Googlewalsh into our poor slums. They treat us almost as if we are a disease,” Agnes said.

“Why don’t you all do something about it?” Harry questioned.

“There is nothing,” Agnes retorted, “every form of resistance died in the year 2000. The Ministry of Magic, the Order of the Phoenix, and every form of opposition died. Most of its leaders and soldiers died with it. There was talk of a new revolt a month or so ago, but no one has the guts to lead it.”

“I would,” muttered Kaitlyn.

“Your not old enough,” Agnes snarled, “and besides the idea is totally ludicrous. There is no point in revolt. The Lord is the ruler. He is our Lord whether we would choose against it or not.”

They arrived in Shadow City after about over an hour of travel. The streets of Shadow City were quite packed compared to the other roads Harry had seen. There were shops, most of them looking as if they would have been located primly in Knockturn Alley, lining the streets, and everyone Harry noticed was wearing dark colors.

No one was really talking as they walked down the streets; all of their faces looked gloomy as if they felt there was no point in talking. The tall castles and turrets that had once seemed so far away from Oxford Village were now looming over them in a sort of slanted manner, as if they were going to fall over them all at any second.

“I need to buy some fertilizer for the crops and I owe Kaitlyn some bread. Ah, bloody hell I might as well buy two loaves of it. It can’t hurt to have a surprise treat for the rest of the children even if they have been disrespectful lately,” Agnes said, looking down at her hand with the few coins on it.

“Here,” Harry said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out about six Galleons, “have these. I have plenty.” He handed them over to her, looking as if he had just handed over something he didn’t want at all.

Agnes gaped at him in astound again, her mouth open a bit. “I’ve forgotten who you are,” she whispered, “Kaitlyn, Harry, stick together. I’ll be out in a split moment. Remember what I said, Kaitlyn.” Agnes disappeared from them and became part of the huge throng walking down the sidewalks.

“We’re not allowed to even cross the streets right now,” Kaitlyn whispered to Harry, “some of the nobles are going to pass through, I hear. They went to Googlewalsh today for a meeting with a noble that lives there. They’re on their way back to the Lord Metropolis. Never in all my life have I ever been this close to any noble.”

Harry gave Kaitlyn a weird stare; the way she spoke of the nobles was as if they were celebrities. He opened his mouth to reply, but at the same exact second a horn and trumpets began to play loudly. Harry closed his mouth and looked around as people on the sidewalks started lining up at the edge of the sidewalks to see the nobles as they passed in their royal wagons and carriages.

It was the most emotion Harry had seen the people on the streets of Shadow City show; this seemed to be the only thing that caused them to show excitement, even despite the fact that the nobles treated most of them like vermin.

The first carriage was a black magnificent one with gold outlining as two horses pulled it. Inside the carriage an old man with a long beard could be seen sitting next to a teenage boy, looking quite bored as he ignored the crowds gathering on the sidewalks.

Carriage after carriage passed, and a few wagons, each one receiving a big hand of applause and cheer from the crowd. Harry looked next to him at Kaitlyn’s gleeful face; her eyes were shining with happiness. He looked back as an absolutely fantastic wagon passed being pulled by two white stallions.

Sitting on the wagon was a very harsh, square jaw looking man with auburn colored hair and a beard. He was draped in fabulous jewels and swathed in a red cape. He was looking around uninterestedly at the people as if they were part of the buildings. Next to him sat a young woman with curly brown hair, wearing a long pale blue colored gown. She had her hands on her lap, and was looking around her with a small, sad smile; Harry didn’t get a clear view of her face, but something about her was different from the others.

He looked away from that wagon and discovered that Kaitlyn had been watching him stare at the last passing wagon. When he caught her staring at him, she gave him a pitied smile, and looked back at the next carriage passing.

A few minutes later when all the carriages had passed, and everyone had now begun walking down the street plainly, expressing no emotion at all again, Harry asked Kaitlyn why she had been staring at him like that.

“No reason,” she replied simply, “just forget it.”

“Did you see Sir Luther?” a street passer was saying to another woman, “even when he’s bored he looks handsome.” She sighed dreamily.

“Yes, I know,” agreed a second street passer, “but I thought that Sir Napoleon was handsome, too, and did you see Lady Napoleon? She looked so graceful.” The two street passers disappeared into the throng of people again.

They were the first two people Harry actually heard speak; he assumed they were unlike everyone else in the sense that they didn’t understand that supposedly you weren’t supposed to speak on the streets of Shadow City.

“There’s Ms. Colmes,” Kaitlyn said, pointing, “come on.”

Harry nodded and went to follow, but someone had grabbed at his arm to hold him back. This person pulled his hood to his cloak off of him, and said a bit too loudly than Harry would have liked, “I knew it was you. I knew you were, Harry Potter!”

-|-

Authors Note: Thank you for reading. I REALLY enjoy reading reviews whether they contain compliments, criticism, or questions. Thanks ; )