Unofficial Portkey Archive

Chapter 10

(Part of the 'Emerald Spellbook' series)

NOTE: I hate to do this to you guys again, but you need to re-read chapter 14 of Soul Crystal if you've read it before August 31st,04. Just skim down to the part where Dumbledore is explaining to Harry about his family. There's a much better explanation of what is going on with Harry and his powers.

Harry Potter and all the characters are not mine blah blah blah. The only things/people I own are Wendy Potter, Tea Mason, Esmeralda Carney, Kimberly Gellar, Malcolm, Jacob, Lisa, Emily, Wesley, the spell creation course, the mermaid language course, the broom making course, the blue magic flower ball, and "The Secret Lives of Spirits". Please do not use them in a story without asking me.

Thank you to reviewers: Shawn Pickett, juggling stars and starviolinist279

Please read and review. I love reviews! Thanks!

In the midst of sleep Harry felt someone gently shaking his shoulder. He opened his eyes to see Wendy smiling down at him. He yawned and looked around. "Where did Esmeralda go? Wasn't she keeping watch?"

"There you are. We've been looking everywhere for you." Her expression changed to concern and her voice followed suit. "Are you alright? Why's Mione all wet?"

Harry glanced down at the sleeping girl on his lap and began to stroke her forehead. "They...they tried to drown her," he said with a heavy voice.

Wendy's eyes went wide in horror. "The ghosts?" she exclaimed as McGonagall came up behind her.

Harry nodded. "If it wasn't for Esmeralda..." he began.

"Harry, are you crazy?? You're the only thing that stopped them!" Ron yelled before he noticed the small group of six students standing not too far behind Wendy.

Harry's head snapped around to Ron's position. His eyes said "Be quite! I don't want them to know!"

Ron didn't say another word, but the damage was done. Everyone was whispering to each other, making Harry feel very uncomfortable.

McGonagall spoke up. "Harry, what is Mister Weasley talking about?"

Harry gulped and stared down. "Can I tell you later...when I don't have an audience?"

McGonagall cocked an eyebrow. "Indeed. Well then, let's get back to Gryffindor tower, shall we?"

Harry nodded and lightly shook Hermione in order to wake her. "Mione...Mione wake up."

Hermione stirred and yawned. "Hmm? Oh." She looked up and saw McGonagall. "Oh Professor, you're here," she said with a relieved smile.

"Glad to see you're alright, Miss Granger. Alright everyone, let's go," McGonagall said as Harry, Ron and Hermione stood up.

As the group began to walk Malcolm suddenly shot up from the floor behind Harry and snapped a metal collar around his neck.

Harry suddenly felt sick to his stomach and very weak. "I don't get it. Why do I feel like I've been kicked by a hippogriff?"

Malcolm smiled in satisfaction. "I thought so. Alright! Kill them all!" Malcolm yelled at the floor. Four more ghosts came from underneath the room and surrounded the group.

McGonagall's eyes widened in recognition. "Malcolm?!"

Malcolm turned a cold stare towards McGonagall. "Ah, Professor. How nice to see you again."

McGonagall could do nothing, but stare at Malcolm's face. It was horribley scarred from a deep burn that covered many large sections of his skin.

Malcolm seemed irritated at this. "Admiring your handiwork McGonagall?"

At these words everyone stared at McGonagall, making her very uncomfortable. "Malcolm...I...you know I didn't..." she began.

"DIDN'T WHAT?!" Malcolm shrieked. "Didn't mean to dump DRAGON ACID on my FACE!!??"

Hermione's eyes bulged in shock. "So that's what Madam Pomfrey was talking about," she thought.

=============Flashback===============

McGonagall looked confused. "What kind of acid could cause that much damage so quickly?"

"It was dragon acid, Minerva," Madam Pomfrey said softly. "I should think that you, of all people, would recognize the effects of..." she began.

"Poppy, this is not the time to bring that up," McGonagall said sharply.

============End Flashback==============

McGonagall suddenly regained her courage. "You fell into me while I was holding the vat! There was no way I could have avoided it!" she yelled back as she stood rigid.

"YOU asked me to help you with it!!" Malcolm spat back at her.

Hermione suddenly felt a rush of sympathy for her teacher. She had never seen her so completely loose control of her emotions before. "She must've blamed herself," she thought with a small pain in her heart.

"Malcolm?" said the teenaged female ghost who had attempted to pour the acid on Harry earlier.

"What!!" Malcolm snapped, in irritation.

McGonagall took the opportunity the distraction afforded her. She quickly picked up the half-concious Harry and carried him back to the group of students.

"Jacob is waiting," the female ghost said nervously to Malcolm.

Malcolm appeared to calm down. "Very well, Lisa." He turned to the group of the living. "Kill McGonagall first," he said with a horrible smile.

The group of students, and McGonagall, huddled in a group as the ghosts surrounded them. "RUN!!" McGonagall screamed to the group of students.

McGonagall preformed a weightlessness charm on Harry, then handed him over to Wendy. "Take him! I'll buy you some time!"

"Phantasma Interfector!" McGonagall yelled as the students ran toward the doors. The spell killed the ghost closest to the door, who happened to be Lisa. "At least I preformed some justice before my death," she thought.

Hermione felt as though her lungs were on fire as they raced through the dark corridors of Hogwarts. "Some place safe," she thought as the two ghosts behind them flung another spell at the group, missing them by a mere foot. "Got to find someplace safe." Even though these were her thoughts she had a horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach that they were going the wrong way.

"Lavender!" Ron yelled.

Hermione turned around at Ron's voice and saw that Lavender Brown had tripped and Ron had run over to help her.

"LISA!" Malcolm yelled. He turned to McGonagall, rage filling his transparent eyes. "You'll pay for that!" He held out his hand. "Accio wand!" Instantly, McGonagall's wand flew from her grasp.

McGonagall simply smirked. "You think I'm defenseless without my wand?"

"Stupid hag!" Malcolm retorted.

McGonagall thrust her hand forward. "Aquilus armum!" A dark cloud filled the pool house, which she used as cover to run for the exit.

The cloud didn't effect the ghosts physically, of course. But their vision was rendered just as useless as any living person's would have been. Malcolm roared in rage as he blindly flung swirling balls of blackish- purple energy into the dark mass.

McGonagall dropped down to her knees as she dodged a blast that nearly took her head off, then breathed a sigh of relief as her hand landed on the handle to the exit door.

Once in the hallway she stood still for a moment; glancing left, then right. "Which way," she thought in frustration. She nearly went left when she heard Ron's voice coming from her right.

"There!" she affirmed to no one and ran towards the sound. "Please don't let me be too late!"

Ron's hands just missed Lavender's ankle as she was lifted into the air by the back of her uniform. The young girl screeched in protest. The female ghost that was holding her put her free hand around her neck and began to squeeze.

Hermione stepped up and pointed her wand at the ghostly offender. "Finite Incantatio!" she yelled. The spell burst forth from her wand and hit the ghost. Nothing happened. Hermione recoiled at the slimy smile the ghost gave her.

"Hey, that almost tickled," she said sneeringly. "Did you honestly think a student could take me out?"

Hermione gulped and instinctively took a step back.

"Your power is infinitesimal compared to mine," said the ghost as Lavender began to turn a bit blue from lack of oxygen.

"Finite Incantatio!" The spell blasted the ghost from behind. The male ghost next to her turned to see his companion stunned in mid air.

"Emily!" yelled the male ghost as Lavender dropped, like a sack of potatoes, out of Emily's grasp.

Ron was knocked to the ground as he caught the falling girl. ::Oof:: After only an instant of being dazed from the impact, he moved Lavender onto her back and began to check for signs of life.

The spell caster came running out of the shadows. "Don't just stand there like a bunch of pigeons! Run!" commanded McGonagall as she picked up a slowly stirring Lavender and bolted down the corridor.

The students broke from their momentary trance and chased after their teacher. "I didn't know she could move that fast," Ron exclaimed.

"Adrenaline does amazing things," Wendy exclaimed, still carrying an semi-conscious Harry.

Emily's companion preformed a cancellation spell and the two ghosts flew after their targets once again. "There they are, Wes," said Emily, pointing ahead of them.

Wesley threw a shot of energy at the group and hit a small first year boy. The boy screamed as the energy burned deep into his back. Wesley then picked the boy up and flung him against the wall. His neck made a sickening crack as it broke.

McGonagall had to hold one of the other students back to keep her from going to him. Blasts kept blazing past the group as they took turn after turn through the maze that was their school.

McGonagall suddenly noticed they were heading in the direction of the basement. "We were being herded!" she thought in wild panic. "Why didn't I see it sooner?!" A light up ahead. She realized it was a door. She also knew somehow that this was the end of the road.

The students burst through the door amid blasts of energy. "STOP!!" someone yelled. Suddenly, all was quiet. The students collapsed, exhausted, to the floor.

"Just what the hell do you think you are doing!" Jacob yelled at Wesley and Emily. The two ghosts hung their heads. More from fear of punishment than shame.

"Malcom told us to kill them," Emily said softly.

"Not in here you idiots!!" Jacob yelled. "Are you trying to ruin everything?!"

While the ghosts were arguing amongst themselves, Wendy carefully laid Harry down on one of the cushion mushrooms.

"Harry, are you alright?" asked Professor Dumbledore.

Harry looked up at the headmaster with hazy vision. "I feel so...sick," he replied as Hermione, Ron, Wendy and McGonagall sat down next to him.

Just then, Malcolm came through the ceiling. Jacob immediately floated over to his position.

"Why can't you do things according to plan?! Just once!!" Jacob yelled at his second in command.

Malcolm gritted his teeth.

"What the hell is this?" Jacob asked Malcolm, pointing in the direction of McGonagall's group.

"McGonagall is the one who scarred my face!" Malcolm retorted.

"I knew that. I was referring to the others," Jacob said impatiently.

"Those are Esmeralda's little friends," Malcolm said with mallous. "And that boy," he pointed to Harry, "killed Allen and Michael!" (A/N- Those are those ghosts that Harry blew to pieces)

"What!?" Jacob said loudly. He quickly regained his composure. "Alright....I'll forgive you this once, however," he said as he floated over to Harry, "I do have another question. Why did you put a collar on his neck? Planning on keeping a pet?"

"It's to keep his magic under control. He has Oberon's blood," Malcolm replied in a warning tone of voice.

"Really?" Jacob said with intrigue as he stared at Harry's fevered body. He suddenly sighed and shrugged his shoulders all in one motion. "Oh well. Just leave the collar on him till he dies then," he said as he floated back to the middle of the room.

"Dies?!" Hermione squeaked, as she looked at Dumbledore.

"That collar must be made of iron," Dumbledore said, looking grim. "Iron is like poison to Oberon and his children." He paused. "If he was not three quarters human he would be dead already," he finished with some anger in his voice.

That was all it took for Hermione to lunge for the collar. As soon as she grabbed it, however, she was blown back amid red and black energy bolts, landing about ten feet away from Harry. She slowly sat up and then glared icily at Jacob.

"You son of a BITCH!" screamed Wendy just before she was backhanded by Lisa.

"Jacob, stop this!" Dumbledore commanded.

Jacob glared at Dumbledore. "You stay out of this old man. If you weren't so foolish in your younger years I might be among the living right now."

"It wasn't my foolishness that clouded your mind with Tom's poisonous words," Dumbledore said calmly.

"Tom?...Do you mean Voldemort, Professor?" Hermione asked, wide-eyed.

Dumbledore set his jaw. "Yes. All of these children were once students at Hogwarts. They disappeared after I had reported them to the Ministry for being Death Eaters.....I had no idea they had died."

"When you refused to join our noble cause..."Jacob began.

"Noble cause? Perhaps you could explain to me how the slaughter of innocents based solely on their lineage is noble," Dumbledore said coldly.

"I don't expect you to understand. The purity of the wizarding race must be preserved and I won't listen to any nonsense that says otherwise," Jacob replied.

"You're the one spouting nonsense!" Hermione yelled at Jacob.

Jacob turned toward Hermione. A clear ripple of energy cut through the air and hit Hermione in the chest, knocking her backwards. "I will not be spoken to in such a manner by a mudblood." he said icily.

Dumbledore had had enough. In one motion he stood and raised his wand. "Phantasma Interfector!" The same spell that Harry had used earlier rocketed toward Jacob.

Jacob raised a magical barrier and the spell Dumbledore had cast bounced off and destroyed the ghost to his right instead. "You can't touch me, old man. Now that I'm a ghost I have twice the power you do. Oh, and you will pay for killing Emily..."

.........TO BE CONTINUED

Phew! I thought I'd never get that done. 2200 words though. Not a bad length. Then again, considering how long it's been since I updated this sucker....

I am so sorry to everyone for taking so long with this chapter. I was having an insane amount of trouble deciding how I wanted to do it. I really hate writer's block. All my ideas seemed stupid. If I hadn't gotten a new beta reader (Not for spelling or grammar, just someone to bounce ideas off of) I don't think you'd be reading this now. So an incredibly huge thank you to starviolinist279 for helping me to feel inspired to write. You really came through. ^_^\/

Hopefully, the next chapter will come sooner. But you guys know my track record so....