Author's Note: Thank Radical for beta-ing this fic, here's a new and improved version of the prologue.
Author's Note2: Here's a new version, and from this point on 'servant' and 'master' would be capitalized. (Finally decided that they should stay capitalized, seeing as the words are describing a kind class and of a person respectively). In addition to those, there are words that I've capitalized as I've checked my resource once more, and confirmed that the words that I have now capitalized are supposed to be capiltazied.
Prologue:
After the burial, the grounds were eerily silent. It seemed that every living creature near the tomb or in the immediate vicinity of Hogwarts was mourning for the loss of its Headmaster. The current weather wasn't all that pleasant either, since it had started to rain after the ceremony. It was cold and dark, and in the midst of it all, there stood a single soul beside a white tomb. He neither spoke nor moved. One would mistake him for a statue if not for the rising and falling of his shoulders, indicating that he was still breathing.
This solitary soul was Harry James Potter.
Harry Potter, the so called, "Chosen One" and the "Boy Who Lived". But in his own mind, he had already replaced the word "Lived" with the word "Died" as another major part of him died when his Headmaster, Teacher, nay, Friend, died, right in front of his eyes, killed by his former professor, while he was forced to watch helplessly.
'Chalk another one up for the "People who died for Harry Potter…"' he thought bitterly.
'The Headmaster trusted Snape!' were the words Harry kept repeating inside his head. He didn't notice the tears that mixed with the rain as drop after drop fell upon him. Harry also didn't notice when a certain girl with bushy brown-hair, came up and sheltered him from the onslaught of the rain.
"Come on," Hermione told him, "You're going to catch a cold," her voice seemed so far, so distant and yet, she was right beside him. 'She always has been…'
"Harry, come on, we're going to miss the train." He heard Hermione tell him.
Harry looked at her through the corner of his eye. He could see her staring at the pearl white tomb, not even bothering to look at him.
'Am I that pathetic to look at?' he thought
Harry let Hermione lead him away from where he was standing, not even noticing that she held his hand all the way to the castle. Harry looked up at where the Headmaster had fallen. Harry saw the scene once more, only this time, he saw Dumbledore's back rather than his face falling from the tower. Harry averted his eyes to what he knew would happen next.
Harry never really noticed when Professor McGonagall came up to them and led them to the headmaster's office.
~~~~
"That would be all Miss Granger," said the former Gryffindor head of house.
That announcement of hers shook Harry out of his stupor. As he regained his senses, a solitary thought came into mind.
'…Dumbledore's office…'
"...But professor!" Hermione protested, "Harry would miss the train and…"
Only then did he realize that Hermione was beside him and was still holding his hand. His hand was only released when she finally noticed that his head moved and was looking, no staring at their interlaced fingers. When Hermione released his hand, he finally looked up to find that she was facing the other way, and that he was sitting in front of his head of house.
"Err…not to be rude or anything but, what are we doing…?" Harry asked.
Everyone in the room grew silent. Even Hermione whipped her head back to look at him. Harry fidgeted slightly in his seat, realizing that every eye, living or otherwise, was looking at him. The silence was only broken when one of the former Headmaster's paintings coughed and one of the two only living females in the office spoke.
"I am terribly sorry Miss Granger but I was given the order by the…former headmaster to have a private meeting with Mr. Potter here." The newly appointed Headmistress said.
The look on Hermione's face was that of determination not to give up. When she was about to speak Harry said,
"Don't worry about me Hermione. I'm sure that professor McGonagall wouldn't let me miss the train and if this 'private meeting' of ours is somewhat long, I'm positive that she'll find a way to get me to King's Cross."
Her face was still etched with worry but when he held her hand once more she released a sigh and finally gave up and stood up from her seat beside him and said,
"Ron and I will save you a seat on the train, okay?"
Harry nodded in response and she left the office. He noticed that his head of house was looking quite pleased with his actions. It took all of his strength not to stare at Dumbledore's painting which was behind his transfiguration professor.
"Professor you wanted to see me?" he asked the woman who had watched over him and his housemates for nearly seven years.
It was then that McGonagall handed him two sealed envelopes and said,
"Mister Potter, before headmaster Dumbledore…died, he specifically said that upon his death you were to be immediately given these two letters and he also said that you were to be given unrestricted access to the castle grounds in relation to those two letters. He also instructed me to give you and anybody with you transport to any point you wish after you've fulfilled his instructions.
She placed the letters on the table in front of him. Harry saw the perfect cursive writing of his mentor. He picked them up with trembling hands when Professor McGonagall spoke once again.
"Mister…err, Harry," she said in a gentle tone, "I won't ask what you and Albus were doing before he died, but I will ask you this." There was a slight pause, as she seemed to be arranging her thoughts. "What are you going to do now?"
If Harry was surprised at the question, he didn't show it. He just stared blankly at the two letters in front of him and then raised his head to stare at his former Headmaster's sleeping painting. After awhile he brought his gaze back down to his professor and said
"I'm not sure professor, but for all its worth, I think I'm going to continue what I - no, what I and professor Dumbledore - started."
McGonagall looked at one of her favorite students in her house, even though she would not admit it in front of anyone, and released a sigh. After a few moments of silence, she gathered what was left of her resolve and said,
"Harry, what ever you decide upon, I would like you to know that the Order will be always behind you, no matter what."
Harry thought for a moment for a proper response, when something suddenly dawned upon him.
"Professor, what will happen to the Order now that professor Dumbledore is…dead?"
McGonagall sighed in response and looked like the stress of the whole world had come crashing down upon her.
"I'm not sure Harry. Albus arranged the Order of the Phoenix very much like its namesake." She told him, "He arranged it so that there will come a time that a proper leader would be picked out from among the ashes of the old one, so to speak."
Harry nodded in response. He asked if he could stay in the office while he read the letters, which McGonagall readily agreed to. She stood up and stepped out of the office leaving Harry alone with the paintings and his thoughts.
'Well Potter, it's now or never…'
He opened the first one and took out the letter, it said,
Dear Harry,
If you're reading this then I must have gone on to the next great adventure. Do not worry about this old man Harry. I've lived a good and long life to which the only regret I have is not living long enough to see you, your future wife, and your children who will probably bear your eyes.
Harry smiled to the thought of his kids having his eyes. He closed his eyes and imagined them playing with their mother whose face he could not see because she had her back towards him but it seemed to Harry that her bushy brown hair was vaguely familiar…but he shook away the thought.
Harry, if you allow me to be frank, even though my given name is Albus…
Harry smiled at his mentor's attempt to crack a joke.
…in the second envelope that Minerva has given you, there are certain instructions to find a crest within the castle. Harry finding that crest is important, because the moment I die, the magic that was imbued in that crest would activate.
Find this crest with utmost haste, and read out what's written in the second letter. I assume that Minerva has already given you permission to search the castle without any hindrance. It would be prudent of you to seek the help of one excitable house elf that you and I know. Make Haste Harry, for time is of the essence. Enclosed in the second envelope is a diagram of the crest. Make sure you act immediately Harry, you may regret it if you don't.
Take care,
Albus Dumbledore
Once Harry finished the first letter he tore into the second one pulling out two pieces of parchment, one with a crest, which looked like a hexagram inside two circles with runes inscribed along the sides of the inner circle. In-between the two circles specifically the top, right, left, and bottom of the circle. Along the sides of the hexagram, there were six runes inscribed along the top-left, top-right, the middle-left, middle-right, the bottom-left and the bottom-right of the star. In the middle of the hexagram, were two major runes that were inscribed right beside each other, the other parchment contained a set of lines, which he concluded were the words he needed to speak after locating the crest.
"Dobby," He called out, and almost immediately, the excitable house-elf appeared.
"What can Dobby do for Master Harry Potter?" Harry disregarded the "master" bit because he was pressed for time.
"Dobby, I want you to look for the crest that's drawn on this parchment." Dobby looked at the piece of parchment and looked at Harry.
"Does Master Harry Potter needs the location of the crest fast?" Harry nodded and after a few seconds, Dobby came back with a worried look on his face.
"Master Harry Potter, Dobby has located the area where the crest is, but there be wild magicks in the area." Harry thought for a moment if this was really a wise idea.
"Dobby, I'm sorry but I need to go to where the crest is located." Dobby grabbed his ears and he looked like he was about to ram his head on the nearest hard object.
"Dobby, I need to go, NOW!" And without a second thought, Dobby popped both of them to where the crest was located. What met him was not at all what he was expecting. Even though they were in an enclosed space the wind was howling, there were flashes of light and when he looked at his surroundings, everything seemed to be warping.
'It's because of the magic!'
When he checked himself, he was surprised to see that his hands were not hands anymore they had become claws. After seeing this, he felt a searing heat on his back and he felt that he was growing wings. He tried to scream but all he heard was the gust of the wind in his ears.
Dobby tried shaking him to snap him out of it, but to no avail, his body seemed to be ripping apart piece by piece. The magic going from crest was ripping Harry's body apart, and at the same time, the same magic was constantly healing him. He tried everything to get a clear thought, but it was like trying to play Quidditch while someone was applying the Cruciatus curse on him.
Then he remembered the urgency with which Dumbledore wanted him to find this crest and say what was written on the piece of parchment. He cried out, even though he was not sure that he was being heard,
"Dobby, I need you to hold out the parchment that I'm holding~!"
He cried out in pain as once again he felt the magic tearing into him. He was almost at his limit when he saw Dobby holding the piece of parchment in front of him. With all the clarity he could muster, he shouted,
"I announce! Thy body shall be under my command; my fate shall be determined by thy sword. Follow the call of the Holy Grail. If thou wouldst obey this mind and this reason, then answer my call!"
The torrent of wind that was billowing in the room suddenly grew more violent as he spoke those words. Even the flashes of light became brighter as he finished speaking. As soon as he stopped speaking, he felt the crest sucking the surrounding magic in itself, along with his magic. Harry knew that something big was happening and tried to keep his eyes open. Try as he might, his vision shuts down and the world turned black. He tried to stand up but his legs failed him.
As the light faded and the wind died down, his vision slowly started to return and the first thing he saw was that in the middle of the crest, there stood a blond girl with eyes as green as his and fully clad in armor, she looked around and finally spotted Harry down on the floor and said,
"I have come forth in response to your summons. From this time forward, my sword shall be with you and your fate shall be with me. Now, our contract is complete," and then the girl added, "Are you my master?"
When she received no response, she stared at him and repeated,
"Are you my master?"
Harry Potter, the one who faced Voldemort five times and survived, stared at the blonde, green-eyed, fully armored girl; his brain, not processing any thoughts after the sensory overload that happened not a few moments ago. He lay there, on the floor, in a semi-prone position with only his elbows propping him up. There were a few tense seconds of silence, only broken when Dobby got his bearings after the whole explosion of magical energy.
"Harry Potter! Harry Potter! Are you alright, bones not broken?"
Dobby's frantic voice, and him searching every inch of Harry's body for any sustained damage, broke him out of his reverie. He tried to pry Dobby off him so that he could conduct a full body survey himself to see if anything was out of place.
'No claws, hands still intact, no horns, and certainly no wings on my back…,' he thought.
When he finally finished, he tried to get up, only to fall again when his knees buckled. Dobby caught him just in time.
"Thanks, Dobby." He muttered.
The girl was still staring at him, paying no attention to the house-elf helping Harry up. Her gaze unnerved Harry seeing as, even though she stood a full head shorter than he was, she exhumed an aura of extreme calmness. Harry wasn't even sure if anyone who wasn't a master Occlumens wouldn't have been shocked by the happenings that recently occurred. Sensing that Harry had already recovered, she asked again,
"Are you my master?"
"What do you mean, 'am I your master?'" Harry's voice betrayed his complete confusion.
"Have you not summoned me?" the armored girl in front of him asked, "Do you not posses the Command spells on your body?" Harry took notice of her voice. It was as emotionless as her face as she said those words.
"Spell, what spell? I didn't utter any spell," Harry replied.
Harry was becoming irritated, first he was transported to a room where there were powerful magicks running amuck, now there was a girl in what seemed to be full-plate armor asking him whether he was her master. Harry did not even consider that the girl in front of him was staring at his left hand. Not only that, but it seemed that Dobby also noticed something on Harry's left hand.
"What, what are you staring at," he cried out.
It took a few seconds for him to register that she was not staring at him per se. She was staring at the left side of his body, in particular his left hand. The girl sensed that Harry finally saw what she was staring at and said.
"Are those not the command spells?"
He saw an intricate looking tattoo, and a lot of blood on his left hand and then suddenly a million thoughts were running about in his mind: how did that tattoo get there, why was she so calm after what happened, and why was she wearing armor? However, out of all these thoughts there were three that stood out among the rest, who was this girl, what was a command spell and what had Dumbledore gotten him into? Dobby was already casting his Elven magic to heal his left hand when Harry said loudly,
"Look I don't know what you're talking about. Hell I'm not even sure I know your name and what you're doing here!"
The blonde girl was surprised at Harry's sudden outburst and her eyes widened. "I…err, apologize for not introducing myself," her unemotional mask, broken by her stumbling for words, "I am the knight of the sword, I am called Saber…"
"Err, I'm Harry, Harry Potter and the little one to my left is my friend Dobby."
It took all of the willpower of the little house-elf not to cry in front of the two humans in front of him. Dobby was about to say something when Saber spoke.
"Harry Potter, you bear the command spells and said the words of summoning." Saber told him, "You're the only one who stands here that bears the command spell, therefore you are my master."
Harry's mind was going a hundred miles an hour. What Saber said made sense…for now, and since he now knew Saber's name, he thought that he could ask as to why she was here.
"Err, ok now that's cleared up, how about you telling me why you're here?"
Now that question caught Saber totally off guard, as evidenced by her wide eyes and…well the evident shock that was written all over her face.
"Did I say something wrong…?" Harry asked, once he saw the barely concealed shock on Saber's face. He was feeling a little nervous when she did not answer after a few seconds. After awhile Saber ended his nervousness by snapping out of her shock-induced astonishment.
"Wait, let me get this straight," Saber abandoning the emotionless façade, "You really don't know what you're doing, do you?"
Harry shook his head, clearly announcing that he had no clue as to what was happening. Saber released a breath of defeat. Harry thought, this could be one of the most depressing scenes in his life, a pretty girl looking at him as if he had no chance of handling whatever was coming his way. Saber closed her eyes took a deep breath and started speaking.
"Before I explain anything, answer me first, if you answer me, I'll tell you everything you need to know."
After a few moments of consideration, Harry finally agreed in answering Saber's question.
"Are you my master?"
Harry's jaw fell on hearing Saber's question. 'That's it? That's her question?!' Harry thought.
"I thought we already covered that issue. You said that since I'm the only one here bearing these so called 'Command spells' then I must be your master…"
Harry knew that saying that he was Saber's master was wrong, but the words came out so naturally that he didn't even think twice after he said those words.
"~now our contract is complete."
There was another flash and it temporarily blinded the two sentient beings other than Saber, as she was the origin of the said flash. Then it ended with Saber giving off a soft green aura which soon dissipated.
"Master, what do you need to know?" asked the green-eyed beauty in front of him.
"First off, you can drop the whole master thing, I have a name, and that's Harry."
Saber thought about what he said for a moment and nodded, and then she asked again, "What do you need to know, Harry?" Saber's voice was not the monotone that came from her when she first appeared in front of him. Now it sounded like someone he knew who always had the right answer…Harry never finished that thought as he shook his head and got to the matter at hand.
"Saber you said you were summoned here, I'm assuming that there's a reason for your summoning so I guess we'll start from that."
"I am a Servant called from times past to participate in a war called the Holy Grail war." Saber saw the confusion on Harry's face so she continued on, "The Holy Grail war is a war that's fought by seven wizards and seven Servants to the death. You might be thinking that this 'Holy Grail' is the same with the Holy Grail from Christ's time, but it is not. I'm not even sure as to what this Holy Grail is, though one thing can be assured. After all the other Masters and/or Servants are killed, the Holy Grail will appear and grant you one wish."
Harry thought for a moment, 'One wish...' he banished the thought and asked another question. "Okay, now that we know why you're here, how about you explain this whole 'Master' and 'Servant' thing, honestly I'm not that comfortable saying that I'm someone's 'Master'."
"A Servant is a heroic spirit summoned, as I said, from times past. They are beings that are superhuman in terms of their abilities. A Master, on the other hand, serves as support for the servant in the upcoming battles between other masters and servants. In addition to being support, the Master constantly replenishes the supply of the magic reserves of his or her Servant."
Of all the words that came out of Saber's mouth, there was only one word that fully registered in his brain, 'Battles…why does it always have to involve fighting…' there was a slight pause in their conversation, and since Saber was more or less connected to him, she sensed that something was amiss.
"Is everything okay, Harry?"
Saber took a step closer and the sound shook Harry out of his stupor. He immediately tried to think of another question "Okay, I think I understand the whole Servant and Master thing, I think, now about these 'Command spells'…"
"The 'Command spells' are a set of three spells that, if used by the master, will command their servant's absolute obedience. Also if you've lost your Servant and still have your Command spells, by locating a Servant who lost a Master, you can form a contract with that Servant and still continue fighting in the war."
This was all too much for Harry to take in! First he forced his mentor to drink some sort of potion that does Merlin knows what to a wizard, then Hogwarts got attacked and he was rendered helpless to help his mentor when he was killed by a greasy haired bastard. After that he found out that the locket was fake and what Dumbledore endured in that godforsaken cave was all for naught. Now he had to find four more vessels that contained Voldemort's soul, and then Saber popped up out of nowhere telling Harry that he was supposed to participate in a war for some grail, and that he needed to defeat or kill six other masters.
'How can this day get any worse?' Harry thought it seemed that every time something big happens it had to be connected to him in some way. Images of horrible events past flash before his very eyes. Voldemort killing his parents, him killing Quirrell with his bear hands, him encountering his first Horcrux and at the same time killing a Basilisk, Hermione, Sirius and himself under hundreds of Dementors trying to suck the life out of them, Voldemort's Resurrection, Cedric's death, Sirius's death, his friends near death encounter, and finally Dumbledore's death. He cast his gaze downward so that Saber would not see his eyes tear up. Saber caught his distress and resumed her way towards him. Once Harry was close enough she told him,
"From this point on, whether you participate in the grail war or not, other masters would sense you being another master, or their servants would sense me, given that they're close by. We will have to fight. Every participant in the Grail war dreams of obtaining the Holy Grail for it could grant any wish…"
The word 'wish' came up again, Harry thought. Now this time it was accompanied with the word 'any'. Ideas came to Harry's mind like rain falling down from the clouds above.
'I could wish none of this would've happened, my parents would be alive, Sirius would be alive, hell Dumbledore wouldn't be killed by that bastard!'
This single thought gave Harry all the motivation he needed. He closed his eyes and steeled his resolve, and then he raised his head, his eyes, no longer held any tears, but showed pure determination. He would get this Holy Grail! He will make right all the wrongs. This would be his top priority; he could still search for the Horcruxes so that he had a backup plan in case he did not make it. He still needed to kill Voldemort after all. He looked at Saber then said:
"Don't worry Saber, we'll participate in your Grail War, but first we need to meet with the Headmistress, I think we may have missed the train with the time we spent here. We will need a way to get out of here. Come on Saber, let's go to the office, I assume that she's already returned there."
Harry, Dobby and Saber the three of them exited the room and proceeded to make their way to the Headmistress' office, with Dobby leading the way of course. During the course of their short trek to the Headmistress' office, all Harry Potter could think about was
'I will get that Grail and I will make sure none of this ever happened!'