The Power He Knows Not
Spoilers: Books 1-6
Rating: PG
Chapter 1: New Beginnings
The night was peaceful and still; the dark sky was dotted with millions of twinkling stars and the bright moon reflected on the surface of the pond. Nearby, a bird chirped its song sweetly, only to be answered a few moments later by a bird far off in the distance. The wind blew softly, disrupting the smooth, glasslike surface of the water and rustling the leaves of the surrounding trees. A single leaf broke off from a tree branch and elegantly swooped down, making its way gracefully to the grassy ground. The night was perfect.
Harry Potter sat completely still on a rock overlooking the pond, his legs pulled up tightly to his chest. If only his thoughts would reflect the peacefulness of his surroundings. If he listened carefully, Harry could just barely make out the sounds of music and voices from the distant Burrow where a party was taking place to celebrate Bill and Fleur's wedding, which had taken place earlier that evening. Harry had just barely managed to slip away from the crowd, with any luck, unnoticed; the last thing that he wanted to do right now was to dance and socialize. He could not stand to be around Mrs. Weasley offering him more food or Ginny begging him to dance any longer. Couldn't they see that he did not want to have fun right now- that he couldn't?
Harry continued to sit on the rock, staring at the peaceful water. His jet-black hair blew in the soft wind, exposing his jagged scar across his forehead, the mark of his past and his fate for the future. The single mark, cast upon him accidentally as a baby, exposed him to the rest of the Wizarding world. With his lightning bolt scar, Harry could no longer just be himself; he had become "The Boy Who Lived" or, even more recently, "The Chosen One". Angrily, Harry reached down, snatched a stone from the ground, and flung it hard into the pond. The stone landed in the water with a loud splash, frightening a nearby duck that anxiously flew away.
He was leaving early the next morning. It would be hours after he left that the sun would fully rise and the Weasleys would awaken to find his bed empty, a note carefully placed on his pillow. He had already written the note to Hermione and Ron, explaining what he was doing, why he had left them. He could not bring himself to drag them into such danger. He would be going into hiding to fulfill the mission Dumbledore had set out to do the year before. He was going to tackle the dangerous task that lay ahead of him; he would hunt down the remaining horcruxes and dispose of them, shattering Voldemort's soul, therefore making the dark wizard mortal once again. Harry could not imagine venturing out on this dangerous journey alone, but the prospect of leading his best friends into danger frightened him even more.
Harry's mind began to wander and he began to imagine a life completely destroyed and taken over by Voldemort. A life where all of his friends, guardians, and mere acquaintances were gone, snatched away from him and killed at the hands of Lord Voldemort. The idea wasn't too hard to imagine. The single wizard had already taken away his parents, his godfather, his mentor, but Harry knew just what the dark wizard was capable of. He had seen too many times the amount of damage and despair that the single wizard could create. Harry knew, perhaps more than any other in the Wizarding World did, just how horrible a world controlled by Voldemort could be, and Harry wasn't going to allow that to happen. He was not going to sit back and watch as Voldemort tore apart family after family, as he created a world filled with fear and terror.
Harry heard a branch snap from behind him in the woods, interrupting his thoughts. Turning his head, he could see two small pinpricks of light bobbing up and down in the darkness. Soon Hermione and Ron emerged from the trees, but Harry continued to stare straight ahead at the glittering pond, avoiding the stares of his two best friends. He knew they would be asking questions; he knew they would be expecting answers, answers that Harry wasn't quite ready to give. "You left the party," Ron stated bluntly. Harry remained silent, still staring straight ahead. A bird swooped overhead and landed gracefully on a tree branch nearby.
Hermione sat down next to Harry on the rock, her chocolate-brown eyes full of concern and worry. "Harry, what's wrong? What is it?" she asked softly, reaching out and gently placing her hand on top of his, causing Harry's hand to shiver. Still Harry refused to look his friend in the eye; he knew that the moment he made eye contact with the girl sitting next to him, he would not be able to control himself. Her eyes would entrance him, forcing him to spill out his secrets, his plans. Not yet, he told himself. Silence filled the cool night air.
"It's nothing," he said finally, trying to keep his voice light and carefree, as if there truly was nothing wrong. Yet Harry knew that he was not going to fool anyone. He certainly would not have been fooled; his voice, even to him, held a certain edge, full of anxiety and nerves. But they would find out the next morning, not now. He mindlessly picked at a loose thread on his dress robes.
Hermione slowly took her hand off Harry's and crossed her arms as she shivered in the night's cool air. The thin material of her dress, still left over from the wedding earlier that evening, was doing nothing to block the cool night air. A small gust of wind passed by, causing her to shiver even more. Rubbing her arms, she sighed and looked helplessly at Ron, who shrugged and looked down at his hands. She glared at him, her eyes wide as if to say, Well, aren't you going to help?
"Well okay then," Hermione said matter-of-factly, standing up and smoothing out the wrinkles in her dress. "We might as well head back to the party. People will begin to wonder where we went." Harry looked up in surprise. In all of the years that he had been friends with her, Harry had never known Hermione to give up without finding out the complete answer.
Ron was staring at Hermione with disbelief, as if he, like Harry, could not understand why Hermione was giving up so easily. "B-but, don't you want-" he stammered before allowing his voice to die away.
Hermione just nodded, in a sort of finality, before walking back towards the Burrow, where the wedding party was just finishing up.
***
Harry awoke very early the next morning. Looking out the window, he could barely make out the sun, peeking its way above the horizon. He slowly got dressed, and with a flick of his wand - his seventeenth birthday was the previous week, enabling him to do magic legally outside of Hogwarts- packed up his trunk. He paused for a moment before leaving the room, taking the moment to stare at the sleeping figure of his best friend, whose flaming red hair was peeking out from beneath the covers and an arm slung down next to the bed, the fingertips grazing the carpeted floor. Sadly, he carefully placed a letter on his pillow before opening the door.
Still looking back at his best friend, Harry failed to notice a large bundle on the other side of the door, resulting in him falling rather ungracefully on top of it and sending his trunk and other belongings flying across the hallway. The bundle began to move underneath him and a head of bushy hair appeared from beneath a blanket. "Harry!" she exclaimed, rubbing her head tenderly and staring at her best friend who was still laying on top of her, disbelief and confusion written across his face.
"Hermione," he hissed quietly, trying not to wake anyone up, "what do you think you're doing?" He slowly got up off her and snatched his wand, which he had dropped during the fall.
"I was trying to prevent you from doing exactly what you're doing!" she hissed back, her eyes wide with outrage, her hands on her hips.
"Wha-?" Harry looked stunned. But how did she know?
As if reading his mind, Hermione grabbed him by his arm and dragged him back into Ron's room, quietly closing the door behind them. "Ronald, wake up," she said loudly.
Ron slowly opened his eyes and yawned. "What's happening?" he asked, groggily.
"Harry, here, was leaving us," Hermione stated, holding her chin up and refusing to look at her friend next to her, whom she was still gripping rather tightly by the arm. "Weren't you Harry?'
It took Harry a few moments to catch on to what was going on. He still could not figure out how Hermione knew he was leaving. But, in his heart, he knew she must have known for weeks now, most likely before he even figured it out. Harry and Hermione knew each other too well; it was as if there was a connection between them, a connection that no one else had. She seemed to know what was going through his mind, if he was troubled, if he was scared. Hermione was always able to tell what he was thinking, what he was planning. His heart dropped as he realized that by leaving her behind, he wouldn't be able to enjoy the connection; there would be no one around that would completely understand him, that would be able to tell him to snap out of whatever mood he was in. God, I'll miss her, he thought sadly. Looking up from the ground, Harry noticed his two friends staring at him, still waiting for his answer. "Well, you're not coming with me," he said blankly.
"Of course we are," Hermione said, her tone businesslike and final.
Harry glared at her and wrested his arm away from her. "No. You're not coming." He crossed his arms and took a few steps back towards the door. Hermione, in turn, pulled out her wand, and with a flick of her hand, Harry could hear a small clicking sound of the door locking behind him. Inwardly, he groaned.
"But Harry-" Ron began, his voice hesitant and uncertain. "Why can't we come with you?" He sat up in bed and swung his legs over the side.
"It's too dangerous," Harry replied bitterly.
"That's never stopped us before," Ron said, grinning. "I mean, look at us. We've handled Fluffy, a mountain troll, dementors, Death Eaters. We've always gotten ourselves into dangerous spots; it's, like, who we are."
"No," Harry said, his voice cracking ever so slightly. "Don't you see? I can't drag you into this because I can't bear to lose the two of you. You can't come with me because Voldemort will use you against me, I just know it. All my life, he has taken away anyone who was important to me, anyone who has risked his life to try to help me. First my parents, then Sirius, now Dumbledore…"
He trailed off, causing Hermione to open her mouth to speak. But Harry continued on, knowing that if he didn't get all of this off his chest now, he never would be able to. "I just can't take it anymore; can't you see that? Do you realize that I have been there, witnessing each and every one of their murders? I was there when Voldemort murdered my parents, I watched at Sirius fell through the bloody veil, and I was there, unable to do anything, as I watched Dumbledore be murdered by a man he put full trust in. I have nightmares every night, witnesses their deaths over and over again until I can't stand it anymore. I am not going to let that happen to you. This is my mission, my destiny. It was my name on the prophecy, not yours. I'm the target now, not you. But you will be, I just know it, if you come with me. And I'm not going to be responsible for my best friends' deaths."
Harry suddenly couldn't handle speaking anymore; his throat seemed to close up, and he forced himself to not break down in front of his friends. He needed to remain strong; he needed to remain in control.
"Harry," Hermione said, taking a step closer to him. "Don't you get it? You're trying to keep us away so we're not a target of Voldemort's, but we're already targets, we have been since we first became friends. And it was our choice to become friends. Ron and I knew what we were getting into when we became friends with you, we knew that making friends with The-Boy-Who-Lived would be dangerous, yet we chose to risk it. You were worth the risk; you were worth the danger. And even though you are no longer the scared, timid boy, in need of friends and love, you are still worth it now, even more than before. It was our choice, and even now, I would not change that decision, not for anything. Harry, we have been together so long, we are in this together.
"Your battles have become our battles; your destiny is ours. We chose for it to be this way and nothing is going to keep us away from you, away from helping you. Just like your parents, like Sirius, and like Dumbledore, we know what we are getting into. All those people who have died protecting you…it was their choice, Harry. Your parents, they knew you were Voldemort's target, they knew what was going to happen by having you as a son. Sirius knew that Voldemort had led you to the Ministry; he knew it was a trick, yet he chose to go anyways. He chose to risk his life protecting you. And Dumbledore, he knew what was happening to him. He knew the potion was poison, and yet, he drank it anyway, so you, Harry, could continue on the path of your destiny. So you could live to say that you have defeated the most powerful dark wizard alive. Life is all about choices, Harry. And this choice is not yours to make."
"Yeah, Harry," Ron piped in. "We're coming with you, whether you like it or not."
Harry did not know what to say, he did not know what to think. Sure, it would be awfully nice to have help hunting down the Horcruxes, nice to have the company and the support of his best friends. But what would the Weasley's say? Or the Grangers? He could not just expect his friends to leave their lives behind, leave their family, their friends, to follow him. He was not going to return to Hogwarts, if it even opened the following year. He could not expect them not to return as well. And Hermione, who was guaranteed her life-long dream of becoming Head Girl. He could not deny her that experience.
Harry, who had been fiddling with his hands as he thought, finally looked up to see Hermione and Ron both staring at him, with tentative smiles on their faces, and questioning looks in their eyes.
"But what about your parents?" He asked, trying to find a loophole in Hermione's speech. "I can't take you away from your families. Surely they wouldn't want you gone for so long, much less, doing something as dangerous as what we'd be doing."
"I've already talked to my parents about it before I came to the Burrow. They're not pleased about it, but they accept that it is what I need to do. They know how much you mean to me, Harry, and they know I'm not going to let you run off on some dangerous mission alone," Hermione said simply. "Oh, and they said that we can stop by at anytime for dinner," she added quickly, causing Ron's face to light up.
"And I can talk to my parents before we leave," Ron added.
Biting his lip, Harry thought hard. "But then you two won't be going to Hogwarts in September," he pointed out.
"Hogwarts may not even open."
"But Hermione, you'd be Head Girl. I know how much you wanted to do that," Harry argued.
Hermione just shrugged. "There are things more important than titles and school." At this, Ron started laughing, so hard, in fact, that he rolled off his bed and onto the floor. "Yes, Ronald. There are more important things than school, and N.E.W.T.S, and being Head Girl. Things like friendship and bravery." With her last words, she looked towards Harry, a knowing smile upon her face. Harry thought back to the last time Hermione spoke those words. It was right before he would be facing Lord Voldemort alone, before she would leave to bring Ron to the hospital wing, before she hugged him. The moment stuck out in Harry's memory; not because of the danger he faced, but because it was the first time he had ever been hugged. The first time someone told him just how special he really was.
Turning his attention back to the argument, Harry added, "I would like to leave as soon as possible; hopefully within the hour."
Hermione smiled, "The sooner the better."
"Well…" Harry thought hard, trying to come up with another excuse of why his friends should not come with him. He found that he could not. "Okay then," he said softly. "I guess you're coming with me."
Only seconds after he spoke these words, he pulled into a crushing hug by Hermione. "Oh, Harry," she said, slowly letting go of him.
Harry looked at the beaming faces of his two friends standing in front of him, and slowly the corners of his mouth curled up into a smile.
Author's Note: So there you go. This is my first fanfiction, so be nice :-) I promise it will get better; this chapter basically sets up the plot. Thanks for reading and please review!!
-SpecialK220
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