2. The Grand Old Duke of York
That particular Wednesday was another hot sunny day, everyone was glad that they were not going to climb the Tor until the evening, as it was a strenuous ascent at the best of times. At least by the time they started there was a gentle breeze coming from the south west that cooled them.
There were two ways to climb the Tor, straight up for those who had some sort of death wish, or to follow the path which wound its way around the hill in a spiral getting ever closer to the top, longer, but much less energetic. The Tyr decided to opt for the path.
They left the cottage after their evening meal and walked to the start of the path at the base of the Tor. Hermione had a small bag over her shoulder in which she had placed the crystal pyramid, Ron was carrying some water for the climb and butterbeers to celebrate Harry's birthday, other that that they just took themselves.
As the path wound its way up the slope their view over the surrounding countryside grew. They could see the extent of the cultivation on the south side of the Tor that provided Avalon with much of its food, but in every other direction all they could see was unbroken meadow stretching off into the distance.
The top of the Tor formed a narrow ridge, in the muggle world it was wide enough for a church to have been built there at one time. Although the only remaining structure there was the church tower, here, in the slightly sideways world of the Isle of Glass, there was nothing to mar the ridge other than a large block of stone some four feet square and about the same in height.
Harry, using the top of the stone as a vantage point, could see over the edge of the Tor to Avalon clustered to the North. As the evening drew in and the shadows grew the lights of the village provided the only points of reference. The surrounding country side faded to a blackness that was total. Then all of a sudden the night sky made its appearance.
With no other lights, than the candles and lamps below, which were dim at best, the glory with which the stars shone was breathtaking. They all lay on their backs gazing with wonder at a night sky none of them had been able to appreciate before. In the normal wizarding world the muggle lights still intruded, and blotted out all but the brightest stars, but here every star that could be see was there to look at, and the time leading up to midnight seemed to pass in an instant.
Hermione had given Harry a new watch for Christmas which they were using to count down the minutes to his birthday. With five minutes to go Hermione retrieved the crystal pyramid from her bag and set it down on the stone.
"What are we going to do at midnight then?" asked Ron.
"Well, I suppose stand as we did when we helped Neville, but this time Hermione should be in the middle, and then we……err" Harry shrugged his shoulders, not sure what to say next.
"Yes?"
" We….we ask the crystal to help us." added Hermione lamely.
"That doesn't sound very magical to me" scoffed Ron.
"Hah! and that is from someone who thought a silly poem would turn his rat yellow."
"You just had to bring that up, didn't you Hermione. George made it sound so believable."
"Well" said Harry "perhaps we should all just believe that this will work, and maybe it will."
The minutes ticked by, Harry stood at Hermione's right, and Neville at her left, they each took a hand. Ron stood behind her, placed a hand on each shoulder, and gave them a little squeeze of encouragement. Luna and Ginny stood to either side of Ron, and like him placed a hand on her shoulders. As before the Tyr was complete.
The alarm on Harry's watch sounded midnight, and there were murmurs of "Happy Birthday Harry". Then they all stared into the crystal pyramid, and a gentle glow began to surround them, as it had at St. Mungo's the day Neville's parents returned. As the glow strengthened Hermione felt the stone on her necklace vibrating. Suddenly there was a flash of brilliance and Hermione's Tear burst into life.
…………………………………
The old mansion had seen better days, the walls had a scabrous look, there were few intact windows, and part of the roof at the back of the house had collapsed. There was no obvious reason as to why the house had been built on this site in the first place. It was miles from anywhere, surrounded by an almost impenetrable forest through which no roadways or tracks passed. The only access from outside could not be seen at all.
On the coastline, some two miles to the west, high cliffs pounded by incessant seas seemed to preclude any landfall, but in one spot was a small cove and at the end of the cove was a cave. This cave led to a tunnel, once an underground stream, now dry except in the winter, which continued inland to finish in a large chamber directly below the mansion.
From this chamber stairs led upwards, passed several large rooms cut into the bedrock, to the house itself. In the house, at this particular time, there was only one room in use. Large and dark and smelling of damp, this room had only one piece of furniture, a large high backed chair set in the room rather like a throne. Two people stood in front of the throne, a man with long white blonde hair and a superior look to his features, the other a woman, black haired, who could have been good looking but the ravages of time and debauchery had made her sour. In the chair, hidden in the shadows, was someone that could have been a man or woman, as the only features visible were burning red slit-like eyes, but when it spoke it sounded like neither.
"Lucius, my followers have had enough time to rest and gather themselves." The voice was dry, hissing like a snake, but dripping with malice. "They will come to us, and you will give them my orders. Then they will go about my business." Voldemort paused, as if he was considering his plans. "We will start the way we did last time, and this time there will be no errors."
His balled fist crashed down on the arm of the throne. "I want every wizard to know that I am back, and to be in terror at my coming. My power is absolute and my knowledge supreme, nothing can stand in my way this time." His voice rose, edged with insanity.
"I will send out the call, then you can go and meet them." His eyes flashed, and a small wand movement made both Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange cry out in pain and clutch their forearms.
"Show me, Lucius" Malfoy pulled back his sleeve and clear on his arm burned the mark of a Death Eater. "Descend to the chamber and give my orders to the others when they arrive. You understand what must be done" Malfoy nodded. "Good, now go". They both turned away. "No, not you Bellatrix".
The woman turned back, remained silent, and awaited her Lord's pleasure, "I want you to set an example of what is in store for those who decide not to follow me. Use your particular talents and your penchant for the young and helpless, make it a good example, I want everyone to notice it."
"Thank-you my Lord, it will be my pleasure, the young are so vulnerable." The look in her eyes suggested that Voldemort was not the only one touched by insanity.
Lucius Malfoy descended the steps down to the large cold chamber below the mansion. His twelve months in Azkaban had concentrated his hate, and he had so much hate to concentrate. He wanted the Potter boy dead for putting him in that place, but he was for his master to deal with, Lucius would bow gracefully and accept that fact. So he would have to satisfy his craving for revenge on Potter's friends. Arthur Weasley's boy, Draco had told him his name, he thought, yes, Ronald, that was it, and that mudblood Granger girl. He would enjoy destroying him, and he would enjoy destroying her, eventually, once he was finished with her. It amazed him that he revelled in the idea of revenge, it was not usually his style, but the pleasure at the thought was too much to resist.
In the room above Voldemort smiled `Good, even you Lucius cannot resist my will. What I think, what I want, you will do, and you will think that the ideas are yours. I am the ultimate puppet master, and you and your fellows are the puppets, the tools I will use to do the job. There only needs to be a little hate and I can fan it to an inferno.'
A door opened and closed as someone entered the room. Foot falls echoed from the bare walls as the person approached the throne.
"Ahh, my young protégée, I have special instructions for you."
The young man approached Voldemort and bowed low to the form in the chair, his white blonde hair fell forward and as he straightened he had to brush it out of his eyes. Those blue eyes gleamed with a sycophantic fervour, and a slightly lopsided smile turned his mouth into a cruel line.
Voldemort gave a satisfied sigh "The young, so much more malleable." He said to himself. Then to the young man "Bellatrix has been treating you well? Teaching you her ways?"
"Yes my Lord"
"I trust she hasn't exhausted you? Her appetites can be somewhat extreme and you have a great deal of work to do."
"I am much younger that she is my Lord, I don't tire as quickly." There was a smile of self-satisfied accomplishment behind those words.
Voldemort laughed, a dry sibilant sound. "Good Draco, listen carefully, this is what you shall do."
……………………………
On previous occasions when Hermione's Tear had reacted, the light had radiated out in all directions. Twice it had done this to form a shield to protect Hermione from attack, and once when Harry had used it to locate the souls of his parents. This time a beam of intense blue shot right through Hermione as if she wasn't there, it stretched into the distance both in front and behind her.
Fortunately for his peace of mind, Ron was concentrating on the crystal. He did not notice that the beam, which passed through Hermione, also passed through him as well.
The beam did not follow a straight line but bent away to the east before them and to the west behind as it traced the course of the Rose Line, the most powerful lay line in the whole land. The gentle glow surrounding the Tyr intensified.
Down in the village Solomon looked up at the pulsating golden light at the top of the Tor, it was waxing and waning, probably in time to the combined heart beat of the Tyr. Then the sudden appearance of the blue beam marked out the path of the lay line in the night sky.
Now that was something to see; not since the time of old man Merlin himself had that particular trick been used. `I think you would be proud of them too, father' Solomon thought.
Hermione could feel the others' minds with her as the light from the stone at her neck passed through the pyramid and drew her in. She moved through the smooth surface and entered the crystal, her presence was recognised and she was accepted.
The minds of the rest of the Tyr fell away until she was all alone, she looked around her `Oh Merlin, it's full of stars' she thought, but all these stars were golden and they were moving. They whirled about her head, coming close but never touching, and she thought they were trying to talk to her.
Then suddenly it was all over, she was back on the top of the Tor with the others, she could feel Harry supporting her and gently lower her to the ground. When she opened her eyes there were five anxious faces peering down at her, illuminated only by the fading glow from Hermione's Tear and the stars in the night sky.
"Hermione, are you all right?"
"Yes Harry, I'm fine," she puffed out her cheeks. "Wow! That was quite an experience."
"What did you see?"
"I'm not sure, they looked like stars, but they moved about a lot. I think I heard voices."
"That doesn't surprise me in the least" said Ron with mock sarcasm, "we'll all be hearing voices if we stay up here much longer, can't we go back down?"
Harry tore his gaze from Hermione and looked up to Ron "No, I don't think it will be safe in the dark, it's warm enough, lets just settle down and wait until it gets light."
Ron frowned at the prospect.
"Why are you complaining, a night out under the stars with Luna, thought you would appreciate that" said Harry.
Ron instantly brightened, he hadn't thought of that. He dug in his bag and handed out the butterbeers. He held his bottle up in salute.
"To Harry, Happy Birthday mate" he said.
A chorus of `Happy Birthday Harry' rang out and they all drank to his health.
Neville and Ginny were standing holding hands, then she whispered something in his ear. They turned, walked quietly to the other side of the stone block, and sat with their backs leaning against it.
"Hey you two, no hanky-panky round there" said Ron.
Ginny replied, but her voice was muffled "Mind your own business Ron."
"Right, if you insist, I will". With that he and Luna moved to pick an empty side of the stone, leaving Harry and Hermione alone.
They slipped down to the grass, and snuggled close together. Harry had his arm around her, and she was resting her head on his chest.
`Well Harry, what's it like to be seventeen then?' she thought at him.
`How would I know? it's only been fifteen minutes. You have much more experience at it than I do' his thought carried a little smile with it.
`Oh that's nice, throw a girl's age back at her, why don't you' she thought with mock severity. `Right `old man', what would you like for your birthday?'
`I'm not sure, how about one of these?' Harry applied a mental kiss and as before the effect was amazing.
Hermione couldn't help herself and "Ohh Harry" escaped her lips.
When she had collected herself together, she sat up and looked into his eyes `OK buster, get a load of this then' she mentally puckered up and let fly.
If giving was fun, getting one back was indescribable, it was as if all the kisses and emotions in those kisses he had ever had with Hermione were all piled in together in one big heap. His unconscious cry of "MERLIN HERMIONE!" was greeted with absolute silence, then from around the other side of the stone, someone giggled.
………………………..
The six of them descended the Tor early in the morning. Their arrival back at the cottage was timed nicely, as breakfast was almost ready, and Ron was starving.
Harry and Hermione's mum and dad had arranged a pile of birthday presents for him in the main room, and after breakfast Harry sat to open them. Natalie and David had bought him some more muggle clothes. They had started his collection last Christmas, and he had been able to cast off his remaining connections to his previous existence with the Dursleys, namely Dudley's old hand me downs.
"You're at an age when you cannot have enough pairs of socks and stuff." said Mrs Granger.
"Thanks Mum and Dad" said Harry, now not in the least self conscious about calling them that.
Mrs Weasley had sent him some fudge and another jumper, and Hagrid had sent a magnificent cake complete with decorations and candles, thank goodness his cooking had improved, they would keep that for tea.
The Tyr had clubbed together and bought Harry a brand new set of Gryffindor robes, the only thing missing from them was the Gryffindor badge which was usually attached to the left side, level with the wearer's heart.
"Sorry Harry but the badge came separately and it was more than we could afford" said Ron blushing a little.
"No problem guys these are great, I can use the badge from my old robes, and they were getting a bit short for me anyway."
"Yeh, we noticed" said Neville.
There was a rap on the front door, and David Granger went to answer it.
"Albus, Solomon, nice to see you, do come in. Harry's just opening his presents."
Albus Dumbledore swept his pointed wizard's hat off his head, and entered the room. He was so tall that even without his hat the top of his head touched the low ceiling. He looked at Harry and smiled, but behind that smile was sadness, Harry could see it but not the reason for it.
Solomon sensed the tension and butted in "If I might Headmaster, could I give Harry my present first?"
"Of course Solomon, thank-you."
"Harry, I, that is my mother and I," he corrected "have a gift for you. Gifts are not normally given with conditions but I am afraid this has one. You must promise that once you have read and learned it, you will destroy it, and there is only one person with whom you may share it."
"I am afraid I would not be able to keep anything from Hermione," he said, looking around for her, "if she is not the one I can share this with, then the answer is no."
Solomon Aegis smiled "I'll take that as a yes then." He handed Harry a small envelope, which Harry opened.
The piece of parchment it contained held three words, it was a spell. "Sir I don't understand. It's a spell but there is no wand movement."
"There is none, the spell must be thought not spoken, it is the key to Avalon, it will summon the nimbus limen to you wherever you may be. I will explain."
Dumbledore had moved over to one side of the room, he was gazing at Harry as he talked to Solomon, he looked in turn at each of the students standing in rapt attention and sighed.
"Sad? Albus, on such a lovely day, anything I can help with?" Mrs Granger asked.
"You are a very perceptive woman, Natalie" Dumbledore replied, "I have a little sadness yes, because I fear that I will not be able to give Harry another birthday present after this one, and the only one I have for him this year is responsibility."
"I understand, I know the fight will be hard but we must have faith that he will be fine. As for your present, you know it is a responsibility that he will willingly take on, and one he can share."
Dumbledore considered her words, she hadn't really understood. "I have every faith in Harry, never doubt that. Where is Hermione?"
"She just went upstairs." Her mother replied.
"Well then, I think it is time now," he gave her a little bow of acknowledgement, "I apologise for being such an old man" he moved back into the middle of the room. "Harry?"
Harry looked to his headmaster, the bright twinkle was in his eyes again, they both smiled.
"I would like to see you in these new robes your friends have bought you."
Harry placed Aegis' note in his trouser pocket and picking up his robes he put them on.
"Very smart,… very smart indeed. Ah! I see your breast badge is missing."
"Yes Professor I was going to take the one off my old set and use that."
"No need for that, I just happen to have one here" Dumbledore twiddled his fingers and a cloth badge appeared in his hand. Without showing it to anyone he reached forward and placed it in position on Harry's robes, muttered a sticking charm and it was permanently attached.
"Happy Birthday Harry!... I believe congratulations are in order."
Harry was feeling a little confused, why congratulations? He caught sight of himself in the long mirror by the front door. The black robes with the wide red and gold facings and the black hood similarly lined in red and gold, just as it should be.
There on his left breast was the badge the Headmaster had given him, but it was not a Gryffindor badge. There was a coat of arms on the badge; a lion, an eagle, a badger and a snake surrounding a large letter `H' the crest of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry looked, then looked closer still, there was no mistake.
"Professor, I don't understand the only students who wear the school crest are the Head Boy and…."
"The Head Girl" said a voice from the foot of the stairs.
Harry turned, standing behind him in new robes of her own, with the Hogwarts crest at her left breast was Hermione.
Harry stared at her, she closed the distance between them. "Congratulations Harry" she threw her arms around him and kissed him soundly on the lips.
The room was suddenly filled with cheering students as the rest of the Tyr descended on the pair, slapping backs and bestowing kisses where appropriate.
"How long had you known?" Harry asked Hermione once all the celebrations had died down and Dumbledore and Aegis had left.
"The Headmaster came and saw us all last week, when you were cosseted with Solomon. We arranged it all, and then he made us forget, so we wouldn't spoil the surprise by mistake. I only remembered when he walked in the door this morning. It was really hard not to cry out when the memory popped back into my head, I still can't believe it."
"No, it is a little hard to grasp at the moment. Congratulations to you as well, I am so glad it's you." he hid a little grin "Ron and the others told me that the head girl position was a bit of a tight race." Harry said seriously.
"Really" said Hermione with concern in her voice.
"Yes, between you and Millicent Bulstrode. You just beat her on personality though…. OWW! That hurt!" he complained, as he rubbed the top of his arm.
Several envelopes appeared at lunch time, by whatever passed for owl post in Avalon. The letters of confirmation from the school with regard to Harry and Hermione's position as Head Boy and Head Girl. Two sets of OWL results for Ginny and Luna, who disappeared upstairs as soon as the got their hands on them, and two letters from Gringotts wizarding bank addressed to Harry.
Harry took his letters and retreated to the garden and sat in the shade of a tree, Hermione followed.
"Do you mind?" she asked.
"Course not" he patted the ground beside him.
Hermione sat next to him and leaned back against the tree trunk. Harry was sitting forward staring at the envelopes, which one to open first? He knew one would be about his parents, he assumed the other would be about Sirius, he was worried that old wounds would be opened, wounds that had only recently been healed. He handed one envelope to Hermione.
"Hold it for me, I'll open this one first." He broke the seal and removed the piece of parchment from inside. Opening it up he read the flowery script.
"It's about my Mum and Dad. I thought the vault I drew my money from was theirs, but it seems there is another one, and to claim the key I have to…" Harry was having difficulty in reading the script. "Oh I see now…appear at the bank with this letter and proof of who I am, then they will give me the key."
How am I going to do that? I don't have any written proof of identity."
He looked to Hermione for advice. She was tapping her forehead, he didn't get it. She rolled her eyes, and then made a mark on her forehead in the shape of a lighting bolt.
The penny dropped. "Oh yeh, didn't think of that."
The other letter was as he had surmised about Sirius, it was almost identical to the first, except that at the bottom was added. ` As you are not a blood relation the bank is bound to wait fourteen days from the date of this letter to ascertain that no other claim is to be made on this estate…..'
"Are there any blood relations left?" asked Hermione.
"Yes" spat Harry "Bellatrix Lestrange, and Draco's mother, Narcissa Malfoy."
"Ohh yes, I'd forgotten. Surely they won't try and claim. Will they?"
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