Shadow Master Normal Shadow Master 2 1 2003-07-19T04:38:00Z 2003-07-19T05:52:00Z 1 1647 9389 Home 78 22 11014 10.2625 Clean Clean 0 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
Chapter 8: The Trainer
They had reached the castle just in time for dinner that evening. All four of them walked into the Great Hall, soaking wet, and dressed in the formal clothes given to them by their first period teachers. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny sat down at the Gryffindor table, where all was silent.
"What's going on?" whispered Ron to Seamus, wondering why there was so much silence.
"I don't know, he just said that he had an important announcement to make."
Dumbledore stood up from his high backed chair, and began to speak, 'I would like to announce that to lighten everyone's spirits, there will be a Halloween Ball. The ball will just be for Fourth years and up. It will start at seven o' clock PM and will go until midnight. Now that that's out of the way, Tuck in!"
The entire school started to eat and talk. Girls talking about nearly everything that involved the ball, guys just talking about anything but.
"So, Harry, who are you going to take?"
"Ron, I have no clue. I don't even want to think about that right now."
"C'mon, you have to have someone in mind."
"Oh, Ron, Honestly! He's not like you, you know!" Hermione said. Everyone then looked at her. Ginny saw something in her eyes she had never seen before. A new feeling, toward Harry. I'll talk to her about it later.
"Herm, is there something you're not telling us?" Ron asked her, looking suspicious.
"No, of course not!" she said, and went back to eating her food. He looked at Harry, and saw a feeling he'd never seen before. A feeling towards Hermione. He looked at Harry for a few more seconds, and then turned back to his steak and kidney pie.
Dinner ended, and everyone started to file out of the Great Hall. When Harry got the statue entrance to the Gryffindor Prefect's common room, he said good night to all of them, and went to his room.
He took off the dress clothes, and threw them in the hamper in his room. Harry got into bed, and pulled the covers around him. He fell asleep as his head hit the pillow.
Harry was once again standing in the Zen Garden. He looked around to see two wooden poles sticking straight out of the ground. Harry walked over to them, put his one of his hands on top of one of each of the poles, and pushed off of the ground, going into a perfect handstand.
After a few minutes, Harry's arms were starting to hurt. The muscles were aching, ready to get the whole of Harry's weight off of them. He just stayed there, letting them ache, letting his mind grow stronger.
Then a rock hit him in the back. Harry's arms couldn't take anymore, and gave out under his weight. His head hit the ground with a soft thump.
"You call that concentration?" a soft voice asked him. Harry turned around to see Cho walking toward him.
"Cho, what are you doing here? You're dead."
"Yes, no thanks to you." Cho chuckled softly, "I told you yesterday that in this place, you aren't dead, and you are not alive."
"What are you saying?" Harry asked, eyeing Cho suspiciously.
"You're in the land of the dead right now."
"What?"
"Your mind is one of three bridges to this land. I should start from the beginning, so take a seat, please."
Harry looked around. The Zen Garden was floating away, and he was falling into a living room of sorts. His feet hit the floor, and he was standing in the Gryffindor Common Room. He looked around, not seeing Cho anywhere, until he heard a soft voice.
"Aren't you going to sit down?" Cho said, already sitting down in a chair. Cho's right hand was pointed at the chair next to her.
Harry walked over to the chair to her left, and sat down. The fire's warmth was already reaching him.
"We have to go back, to a time, when wizards were persecuted. The Muggles knew openly of witches and wizards. They didn't like not being the top of the food chain, so they tried to annihilate us."
"Are you saying, that they went to war with us?"
"Yes. If you think, that pure-bloods died out, because of most of them married muggle-born witches or wizards, you're completely mistaken. The Ministry of Magic doesn't remember anymore, there are few who do, but around Merlin's time, there was a great war between the magical world, and our world."
"How did we lose?"
"Arrogance. We all thought that we had unlimited power over the muggles, and tried to enslave them. Only the greatest wizards realized that the muggles could not know about us, to be able to live in harmony with them, and stayed out of the conflict.
Now, the war started off as the annihilation of the muggles. Their villages were plowed through by us, burned to the ground, and then, something happened."
"What was that?"
"One of the greatest wizards, Ubendale, betrayed the wizarding world."
"Ubendale, I've never heard of him."
"You won't, in any history class. No one likes that he told them our greatest weakness."
"And what is our greatest weakness?"
"Power. We wanted control. They wanted existence. He gave them the power to let them keep their existence."
"What are you saying?"
"Ubendale sacrificed himself, to give the muggles their freedom. But he killed three-fourths of the Pure-bloods. It ended years of fighting, but at a greater cost to wizards."
"So he killed most of the pure-blood families?"
"Yes. If he hadn't sacrificed himself, we wouldn't have been more or less exiled. But there's more. After the war, everyone sought to rebuild. But something was going wrong. As new wizards were coming into our world, as muggle-borns, the pure-bloods didn't want anything to do with them.
Now, mind you, some of them wanted to keep their families going, like your bloodline of Potter, and others, but few really married muggle-borns. Now the greatest magical people, Merlin, Morgana, Abendale, and Ursulane, had to come up with a way to stop the wizarding race from dying out."
"Wouldn't muggle-borns be born if all of the pure-bloods die?"
"No, they wouldn't. When wizards were created, it was said that you can have a child with a muggle or muggle-born wizard or witch, and still have a pure-blood child, but if all of the pure-blood families were to die out, the entire wizarding race was to go with it."
"Why?"
"Because while the pure-bloods are here, there is an added power to anything wizards do. If that isn't there, then no wizard could do anything, and the wizard powers are useless."
"How many pure-bloods are left on earth?"
"Two."
"Me and Voldemort."
"Exactly. If both of you die, then the entire wizarding race would die, unless…"
"Unless what?"
"When the four wizards met, they decided, that they had to focus the power of all wizardry into a single object, an object that can only be used by pure-bloods."
"What is the object?"
"We have not found out what it is, or its location, but we do know a few things about it."
"Like what?"
"Like that one of you must harness this object before Voldemort does. It can be used in two ways. The first way, is to ensure that if both of you die, the power will live on in the true love of the user."
"Why the true love?"
"The love between two people is a true bondage, stronger than any person's magical ability. If two people love each other enough, the bond is so thick, it can create a bridge between the two, making everything inside of each other known. It can also transfer powers if one person dies."
"Oh, I see. Do you know how my true love is?"
"Well it certainly wasn't me. But yes, I do."
"Who-"
"You have to find out for yourself. I cannot help you in that matter."
"Alright, what is the second way?"
"The second way, is the most tragic, the most deadly. The second way, is the user has power to destroy all magic. Kill every witch and wizard alive, using the power against the world."
"That's what Voldemort is going to do? Use it against the world?"
"Yes, that is his plan."
"I have another question for you, why, Cho?"
"Why what?"
"Why did you have to jump in front of me? Why did you have to take that curse? Why did you have to die?"
"Harry, there are things I don't even know about, but I do know, that my death was necessary."
"Why?"
"There is one other thing I wasn't supposed to tell you yet, but I have to. I don't know all about this, all I know is a couple of the bloodlines. I don't even know now many people are involved, or who they are, but I am a trainer. A trainer of you."
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know what I mean, because barely any of this was explained to me. Right now, we need to get to your training."
The Gryffindor Common room fell away, and they were floating up to the Zen Garden. Harry still hadn't gotten over the feeling of floating and falling this world brought. He was just starting to get his focus when Cho threw him a sword from a rack on the wall. He looked at her stomach to see a blue circle.
"Hit the blue circle, Harry." she said, swinging her sword at his head
"Won't it hurt you?" he said, blocking her strike.
"Ah, you've grasped that I can die again in this world. If you hit the blue circle, you won't even touch me. Now hit it, if you can." She swung the sword at Harry's feet. He jumped, and landed on one foot, balancing on one of the poles, smirking.
"You're on." They both chuckled to each other, not knowing the skill of the other.
Hermione said the password to Harry's room. She wondered if he was alright, after today, after saying goodbye. She walked up a small set of stairs, and saw Harry lying in his bed, a smile on his face.
Hermione grinned. It feels so good to see him smile again. She thought, as she crossed his bedroom, and sat down close to his head. She looked at him for a moment, looking so peaceful, so calm. Something she rarely ever saw in him over the past few months.
She stood up, and pulled the covers farther over top of him. Hermione bent down, and kissed him on the forehead, and whispered in his ear,
"I love you."
Cho had a small advantage in the swordfight. Being born into a Chinese family and lifestyle, she learned her weapons abilities early, and carried them further beyond the grave. But Harry was doing fairly well in the fight. He had learned quickly that you could use other means of getting to the circle, when Cho had kicked him in the side of the face, sending him flying into one of the wooden poles.
Then Cho, stopped, and smirked once again, and looked surprised when Harry sent the sword through the blue circle. He pulled it out, and looked at her, wondering what happened.
"Good, that is why you should never pay attention to anything else in a fight like this. You lose."
"What happened?"
"It's nothing, don't worry about it."
"Alright."
The training continued, Cho giving Harry different exercises to do, and finally, a cool down to make sure that his mind was ready for the next day.
"Now you must wake up. Touch that pole, and you will awake in your world. See you tomorrow night."
"See ya." Harry waved once and touched the pole. The Zen Garden disappeared, and Harry opened his eyes. He was lying in his bed. The sun was coming over the trees. It was Thursday.