The Apprentice Piece
by Jardyn39
Part One of "The Apprentice Piece"
Chapter 20: The Challenge
Harry did not feel a tug as he had with other Portkeys. Instead he had a fleeting feeling of being carried in a warm breeze. In a flash of blinding white light he found himself standing staring at a group of people around a hospital bed.
Harry quickly registered that Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and Mr. and Mrs. Granger were there. Before they realised anything was happening, Fides waved his free arm and both Weasleys disappeared.
Hermione's parents looked up at them in concern. Fides looked rather surprised that they had remained until he comprehended what had happened.
"Ah, you must be non-magical?" he asked politely. "You see I can't use magic on non-magical people."
"This is Mr and Mrs Granger, Hermione's parents," said Harry, a little shakily. "This is Fides, he's a wizard from the Department of Mysteries."
Mr and Mrs Granger looked still in shock but Fides smiled and nodded.
Mrs Granger seemed to recover and she looked at concern at the state of Harry. She reached out to Harry, who immediately stepped back.
Fides stepped between them and said "Harry here has brought an elixir that may help your daughter. It will be useless if anyone else touches it."
Mr Granger immediately pulled his wife away saying, "Go ahead, Harry."
Harry approached the bed and looked at Hermione. She was very pale and still. He reached out and held her hand and was alarmed to feel how cold she was.
Harry unstoppered the phial containing the precious liquid and gently reached under Hermione's neck. Lifting her slightly, he poured a little onto her lips which opened immediately. Gradually Harry administered the remainder of the elixir before finally withdrawing his hand from under her neck. He gently brushed aside her hair and simply willed her to recover. He would not entertain any other eventuality.
Harry stood upright and looked around as Fides began to speak to Mr and Mrs Granger.
"You daughter will awaken in a few moments," he said pulled out a pocket watch, "but she is not yet out of danger. It is now nine o'clock in the evening. Between the time she wakes until tomorrow morning she must not sleep. You must remain with her at all times. She must also release what was given. You must get her to confess her feelings to herself. Talk to her constantly but tell her nothing of our presence or the elixir. Harry must go for a few hours but we will both be back before six o'clock."
Harry lost the thread of what Fides was telling the Grangers when he realised that in a bed opposite from Hermione was the girl from the Hospital Wing. Sitting next to her was Patrick Stephens looking uncomfortable on a small chair. They were both asleep.
Harry felt a strange awareness of his surroundings. Harry looked closer and realised he was seeing things differently. Patrick appeared to have an aura. The girl did too but it was much fainter. Harry momentarily glanced back at Hermione and, as he feared, her aura was almost gone. Harry noticed that there was something similar about the auras produced by both Patrick and the girl. Instinctively, Harry realised what this meant.
Wake, he thought, looking directly at Patrick. Instantly he did so, looking surprised to see Harry. Harry felt himself refocus and their auras disappeared from view.
"Come here a moment," Harry whispered and the boy stood and walked over to him.
Harry began to walk down towards the end of the ward, past sleeping patients and Patrick followed. As they walked Harry spoke, "She's got something similar to what Hermione has, hasn't she?" Patrick nodded.
"I just realised, you don't need elixir to help her. Listen, just wake her in a moment and talk to her. Tell her your feelings and don't stop until she believes you. It may take you all night, but don't give up."
Harry did not know how he knew this but as soon as he had said it he knew it was true.
Patrick looked at him frowning but looked unable to speak. Eventually he just nodded and Harry smiled. "You'll do fine," he said extending out his hand and indicating a chair next to the end bed Patrick should sit in. This one was padded, with arm rests and loomed much more comfortable.
Patrick suddenly found his voice when he realised who was lying in the bed looking completely undisturbed, "How did you do that? She was all the way down there a moment ago!"
"It will be more private here," said Harry. "Remember you have only until morning. Wake her now."
As Patrick sat down, his attention now focussed entirely on the girl, Harry turned to rejoin Fides. The curtains around the bed closed as he started to walk away.
"What is going on here-" came a loud voice from the other end of the ward. A furious looking medi-witch was stomping towards them.
Suddenly in a flash she was gone and a rather surprised looking nurse stood in her place. She was older and didn't look nearly as stern as the previous one.
She looked around and smiled, "Hello, Fides. How can I help?"
"These good people will be remaining with their daughter tonight. There is also a young man visiting at the end of the ward. They are not to be disturbed under any circumstances. No-one but you may enter or leave. We will be back in the morning."
The nurse just nodded, obviously used to Fides' strange requests.
Harry was now back at Hermione's bedside and he smiled as she began to wake.
"Harry," said Fides, "we must go before she wakes."
*
In a flash of bright light, Harry found himself standing back on a wet slippery rock floor deep under the Department of Mysteries.
"Can I ask you something?" said Harry handing the empty phial back to Fides. "Was there ever really an elixir?"
"Not precisely, no," admitted Fides, "but it gave you focus, something to concentrate your feelings on. You transferred those feelings when you administered the liquid. You would not have been able to do that on you own, not yet. Thank you for helping that young couple. I neglected to ask Madam Pomfrey if anyone else had been affected. The girl caught it from Miss Granger, of course, not the other way around."
"And the challenge?"
"That's different. I admit it has nothing directly to do with Miss Granger, though again I believe you would not have been able to help her otherwise."
"I could see, well actually it was more like I could feel, their auras. How was I able to feel like that?"
"Hah!" barked Fides, "I thought you'd ask about the bed moving before that!"
"I just thought if the Knight Bus can do it …" Harry said modestly.
"Well the reason you could both feel and perform that rather unusual wand-less magic was that, well, you aren't quite yourself at the moment."
Harry wondered what he was talking about.
"When you crossed that bridge earlier, you were split into two entities. Standing in front of me now is the Harry Potter that would have existed if Voldemort hadn't attacked you. Actually, that isn't entirely true since your personality and upbringing would have been different too but you get the idea?"
"So my other half-"
"-Is quite a piece of work, I can tell you. Angry, bitter, violent. That half is everything of you that you became after Voldemort attacked you but excluding, er, the bits that are in your half."
"But I don't feel any different."
"Yes, that's rather remarkable, really. It just shows that you are the dominant half. Dumbledore was right, it seems."
"Dumbledore?"
"Yes. When you were a baby, just after Voldemort was attacked, the Unspeakables took quite an interest in you. They knew there was something rather nasty lurking around inside you and didn't really want to take that chance of another Dark Lord emerging. Dumbledore insisted that good and bad traits aren't inherited, but are learned."
"You're going to make me re-join with the other me, aren't you?"
"Yes, Harry."
"Why?"
"Well, he's kept you alive, hasn't he? Can you honestly tell me that you'd feel bothered if you never won a Quidditch match again?"
Harry thought. It was true, right now he wasn't that bothered.
"Trust me, Harry, Good-Harry is a wimp. You need Bad-Harry to live, even if Evil-Harry is in there as well. I'm pretty sure, also, that at least two of you are needed to use that apprentice piece of yours properly."
Harry sighed deeply.
"Okay, so how do I get back together?"
"In theory, it should be simple. Just embrace yourself. The tricky thing is not him kill you beforehand. He knows everything you do and has no morals or conscience. He will also think you are the evil one."
"Why can't we split the other one and rejoin me with the less evil one?"
"That bridge is gone, Harry, remember?"
*
Harry stood panting looking down at the miserable creature in front of him. Red eyes stared up at him in defiance for a moment before the figure cowered down, begging for mercy.
For a half a moment, Harry felt pity for the pitiful filthy animal before him. Harry came to his senses just in time. As it lunged for him, Harry raised his arm and brought a rock down hard onto the back of its head.
Harry stooped and turned the creature over, and looked into his own face, one distorted somehow.
"You're going to feel that later," said Fides from behind him as Harry quickly stuffed the small rock into his pocket in case he needed it again.
Harry did not turn around. He was exhausted. He was determined that this had to end now. For the tenth time that night, he crouched down and gathered up the slumped figure before him.
As he extended his arms and lifted, the creature awoke again. And again the creature bit, punched, kicked and scratched him, fighting with all its strength to get away again.
This time, Harry held on, feeling the pain within him increase. Gradually the creature stopped fighting and then was gone. Harry froze for a moment before falling hard onto the rock floor unconscious.
*
Harry and Fides returned to St. Mungos a little before six o'clock was were greeted in the ward office by the smiling nurse. She looked tired but happy.
"Both of them are doing fine," she whispered, "and have no idea either of you were here last night. A Mrs Weasley has been trying everything she can to get back in."
"The wards will be lifted when we go. Thank you for helping, Helen, I'm again in your debt. Well Harry, shall we go back to Hogwarts? I need to give the Headmaster an apology and Madam Pomfrey will want to patch you up a bit."
*
A little later Harry found himself stroking the luxurious plumage of Fawkes back in the Headmaster's office, not taking a blind bit of notice of what Fides and Dumbledore were talking about.
Harry managed to bid Fides goodbye before he disappeared in a flash but stood there on shaking legs, his thoughts elsewhere.
"What's wrong, Harry?" asked Dumbledore kindly.
"I just can't get the image of my other self out of my head," he answered truthfully, "he acted like a combination of Wormtail and Voldemort. He was me. I am him. I am-"
"-Tired and in need of the Hospital Wing," interrupted Dumbledore. "I know it can't be easy meeting your, er, other side. We are all made up of good and bad, you just happen to have met them. Harry, think of the good you achieved last night. I have never really approved of Fides' methods but I must admit you both succeeded rather well. Not only will Hermione and Mary Jacobson recover but you've also seen some of your potential."
"Oh, yes," said the Headmaster with some amusement, "Your wand suddenly appeared on my desk a few hours ago, here."
"Fides told me you argued that I wasn't going to be a Dark Lord after Voldemort attacked," Harry said. "Thank you for that."
"Actually I only said you might not become a Dark Lord," Dumbledore said with a smile. "It wasn't actually me that finally won the day. You had a rather, er, vocal supporter. The Unspeakables are still rather terrified of her. She immediately fell out with me, of course, when she discovered I had placed you with your Aunt and Uncle. We haven't spoken since."
"What is her name?"