Part 3



Karis and Severus had arrived safely in HollowValley. It was dark and the air had a cold October bite, the trees were swaying in the distance which gave off dark shadows around the hills, Karis shivered into the darkness, feeling on-guard at the creepy surroundings.

“They are close.” was all she said to Severus, who was standing beside her.


Severus was rubbing his arm. “Just stay alert.” He whispered to her. Karis knew what he meant; his tattoo of the dark mark on his arm was now glowing red, as he turned to show her, it continued to turn a dark grey.

“How far are we from the site?” she whispered back.

“Half a mile, we will have to walk from here, but firstly we must wait for the signal, the others will be nearby shortly.”

Karis took in a deep breath and stayed silent while taking in the area in which they were standing. Over in the distance she could make out a graveyard and a house on top of a hill, there was a small flicker of light coming from one of the top windows.

“That’s the house isn’t it.” she said. “I recognise it.”

“Yes, that’s the old Riddle house, it belonged to his parents.”

“Why would he kidnap Alastor and take him nearby, he must of known we will find out.”

“Alastor isn’t in the house, the Deatheaters congregate there, it doesn’t have the cell you described, but the old orphanage to the east does.”

“I guess he needs grounding, he never had that, but as far as I’m concerned a monster like that doesn’t need a home.” She replied, frowning in anger. “Just a holding cell for his poor victims, to mutilate and kill.” Karis then punched her fist into her outstretched palm all the while trying to hold back a tear.

Severus put his arm around her shoulders.

“You haven’t told Harry have you?” he said nervously.

“No, I haven’t Severus, he doesn’t know anything.”


“I’m surprised, I thought you may have confided in him, considering the circumstances.”

“It’s something I want Harry to find out for himself, he has so many questions that remain unanswered, if he wants to know, then he will have to work for it!”

Severus turned and looked directly into her eyes. “Occlumency.” He whispered.

“Yes, I need to push him harder, I have been too lenient on him, after tonight’s escapade I have realised this. The problem with Harry is he’s confused, he wonders why this has happened to him. Look at earlier for instance. It seriously affects the way he looks at things, he feels no one can truly understand him, he is vulnerable and he feels isolated. He has immense stress and apathy and he is convinced he will never find a way out.”

She put her head down as an escaped tear trickled down her face. “That’s why I told him to go to bed, I thought he was ready, especially after Occlumency going so well, but now I’m not so sure.”

“Karis, do not blame yourself, no sixteen year old is ever ready for something like this, but, as Albus puts it, it is written in his stars, this is meant to be, whatever happens it was supposed to be like this. I never used to believe in fate Karis, but that’s what a prophecy is, its fate, which therefore means none of this is anyone’s fault, we just have to make do the best we can.”

Karis looked up at his thoughtful expression, and smiled. “When did you become so wise Severus?” she mocked.

He looked at her again but did not return the kind smile, he simply muttered. “When I first saw you Karis.”

Another tear tricked down her cheek as she remembered the first time she had met Severus, it should have been a meeting of two people at an event, or a congregation at Hogwarts of some sort, but it wasn’t. It was in the worse moments of her life, she thought she would never live to see another day and for that, Severus remained a loyal friend because not only had he saved her from torture and torment, he actually did the most honourable thing that any person, muggle or magic-folk could ever do; and that was to save a life while risking his own.

Karis pulled herself together while Severus remained silent, allowing her time to straighten herself out, knowing full well she had opened old painful memories for the first time in many years.

There was a loud crack in the near distance and Karis and Severus both turned around with relief to see Albus Dumbledore, Nymphadora Tonks, Kingsley Shacklebolt and Arthur Weasley striding over to them, along with ten other members from the Order of the Phoenix.

Albus embraced Karis quickly and patted Severus on the shoulder. “Have you anything to report?” asked Albus quietly.

“Yes.” said Severus. And without hesitation he pulled the sleeve up from his cloak and showed the now formed group his black deatheater snake and skull tattoo.

“We are close, we must take our positions.” said Albus, nodding to the others.

“Right, the orphanage is half a mile to the east, I can see from here there are no Deatheaters congregated around the house so they must all be at the holding site. We must stay alert and stick together, we are stronger in numbers. Remember if anything happens to any of us you must continue the mission, but if you are stuck and have no means to continue than you must apparate immediately to Grimmauld Place.”

Everyone nodded in understanding then a small voice came from the back of the now awaiting crowd, “Let’s get our friend back Albus.” whispered Emmeline Vance.

“Yeah, let’s do this and get Mad-Eye home.” replied Remus Lupin.

Albus surveyed them all with admiration. “Remember what I said; NOW LET’S GO!”

*


“Flaming Flamel….” Whispered Angelina Johnson as she entered the room of requirement, holding her hand over her mouth in shock.

“WHOA.” shouted Ron, looking dumbfounded.

“What is it?” asked Luna, looking wary and confused at the sight before her.

Right there in the middle of the room of requirement was a bright yellow orb with swirling colours of red and blue in the middle. It stood there in full beautiful glory, while the colours circled around like a large whirlpool.


“I really don’t know Luna.” replied Harry, still trying to take in what he was witnessing.

“Quick, let’s look in the wardrobe.” said Hermione, thinking it may hold a clue.

Slowly Harry and Hermione walked over to the wardrobe and reluctantly opened the double doors.

Hanging there on a rail was cloaks, with face masks, in a deep purple colour. On the back of the robes there was two letters written in yellow with full stop gaps spelling: D.A.

“No way, this can’t be!?” said Ron with his mouth still gaping open.

“Oh yes it can.” said Harry in sheer excitement. “They are DA robes, they have masks to cover our faces so Voldemort and the Deatheaters don’t know who we are, we can fight against them and remain anonymous. This is bloody brilliant!”

“Who’s idea was this?” asked Seamus Finnigan, looking as confused as Luna.

“Only one person sticks in my mind.” said Harry with a smile.

Hermione and Ron looked at him and smiled back while nodding in understanding, then all three repeated together at once. “Karis Dumbledore.”

“Lets get the robes on and then we can find out what the hell this orb is about.” said Hermione, gesturing to everyone to find their correct size.

There was a manic commotion in the room of requirement, everyone trying on different sized robes.

Neville tried the same robe on three times in the confusion, as they were getting tossed and thrown all over the place.

“Hey watch it Justin.” Shot Cho as he nearly hit her in the face while trying to get his arm into a sleeve.

“Ahhh, this is for a girl, it’s too small, here ya go Cho.” He said while throwing it over.

“Wow, got my size said Hermione, twirling around. “This is a wonderful colour, Karis wears purple all the time too, she obviously chose these.”

Harry however was looking hard into the centre of the orb, he could see the colours still whirling around together, the red and blues, it started to make him feel dizzy, then he started to see speckles like he had looked at a light for too long. He turned away to look at one of the plain walls when it came to him so clearly.

“Hermione, my dots are purple.” He said while rubbing his eyes.

“What are you talking about?” she replied anxiously.

“The Orb!” he replied, turning to look at her. “Hermione open your eyes. They are our house colours. Red for Gryffindor, Blue for Ravenclaw, Yellow for Hufflepuff, mix the centre colours together, what do you get?”

“A yucky dark mess.” interrupted Ron.

“Ron, you moron, you get Purple!” shot Harry

“Look, red and blue make purple, the writing on the back of the robes is yellow. We have united!” stated Harry in excitement. “The houses will unite – remember what Dumbledore said. In order to achieve any form of allegiance we have to unite.”

“What about Slytherin?” asked Dean Thomas.

“No Slytherins in this DA that’s for sure, and green is definitely not in the orb, which can only mean one thing, the Slytherin house have no part to play in this fight, they have their parents to do that for them, unfortunately, they are rooting for the other side.” replied Harry.

“So what do we do now, we are suited and booted with no-where to go.” shot Zacharias.

“Hey, why don’t you shut up so we can all work that part out.” retorted Ron.

Harry continued looking at the orb. “We have to all go inside It.” he said slowly.

“Are you mad Potter?” shot Colin Creevy. “I am not going in there, we don’t know if it’s safe.”

“Don’t be stupid Colin, I know Karis well, and I know she won’t hurt us! Not any of us!”

There were a few mutters around the room, and Harry didn’t hesitate, he held onto his wand tight and jumped straight in. Everyone gasped but Harry was elated. He felt warm and the feeling he had right now was in-comprehend able, it was like walking into pure blissful peace.

One by one the rest of the DA followed suit, as soon as the last person entered the orb it started to change in colour, finally residing with the dark purple that matched their robes.

Inside they all formed a circle and each held out their wand and pointed it at arm length and shoulder height into the middle. A small white spark protruded from each wand as it touched another. When all wands were centred there was a vibration descending down the shaft of each wand. “This is it.” Harry shouted to the others. A giant yellow shadow appeared over them in the shape of a lion, then another shot out in the shape of a large bird, then last but not least came the shape of a badger, they disappeared as quickly as they arrived, but it meant something, each of them received a gift, something penetrated through them like they had never felt before. They had fulfilled a prophecy tonight, they had united and in an extraordinary magical way.

“I hope this is a portal to where we need to go.” said Harry.

“Where are we going Harry?” asked Neville.

“All I know is it is called HollowValley.”

Hermione gasped as did Justin, but there was no-more time to think. The Room of Requirement heard Harry’s wishes, the orb was becoming a distant spot and the next thing they knew, each one of them were being pulled into a tunnel to a place that a few of them had heard of all too well.