Someone had beaten them there if the set of recent footprints in the dusty walkway was any indication. Harry held the horde of battle ready Weasleys and Order members back with a single raise of his arm. He hid behind the brambles surrounding the lighthouse and the others quickly followed suit. It seemed that he had uprooted Lupin in his position as leader of the Order, but Harry had no time to consider that. He was too focused on his goal, rescuing Ginny, to notice the subtle shift in the group dynamic. More importantly, it appeared that someone had beaten him to the lighthouse and he silently cursed the fact that almost every male had opted to come with him as back up for retrieving Ginny’s soul, as they had considerably slowed him down. They were forced to Apparate to a distant location and then fly in rotating formation due to the many secrecy charms that the lighthouse boasted, it also didn’t help that it was unplotable. Many sensory charms and counter-charms were utilized by the eldest members of the Order who had had previous encounters with unearthing secret locations, but Harry suspected that he would have been able to find the house if he ventured out on his own. In the recesses of his mind, something told him that the lighthouse wanted to be found by him. Strange as an inanimate object having wishes sounds he had chosen to ignore that niggling feeling, but now he wished he hadn’t.
A movement in the bushes ahead caught his attention and his hand tensed on his wand, he took no aim however, as his eyes caught sight of the rabbit which had made the noise. Harry stoically resumed his perusal of the situation, for which there appeared to be only one solution, he would have to go into the lighthouse entirely unaccompanied and trust that Gaia or Ginny would sense his presence and lead him to them. Taking others would only confuse the Volcens and add to the amount of noise they normally heard when utilizing their powers. Could Ginny even use her powers when her soul had been stolen? Harry held back a shudder at the thought. Much as he hated the soul-sucking dementors, he secretly wished that they were the ones who had taken Ginny’s soul, as it would then be a simple matter of her escaping their clutches and returning to her body. It was not so when another Volcen took her, the possibilities for becoming lost were endless, which was why he had to get to her as soon as possible, or preferably sooner.
“I’m going in,” Harry whispered silently to Lupin who was inches away in the same bramble that Harry used for cover.
His whisper was barely perceptible, nothing more than a breath carried to Lupin’s ears on a fluttering breeze of wind, but Lupin’s jerky nod signaled that he had heard. In less than a heart beats time, Harry considered the possibility that Lupin could be a traitor and that this entire thing could be a set-up, and then he calmly shuffled that thought aside. Even if Lupin was working with Gaia, Ginny still needed rescuing; the other two could be dealt with later. Large clouds moved like a blanket on the heavens, covering the white beams of the moon from the inhabitants of Earth, Harry steadied. There was a flare of heat in his pocket and Harry didn’t have to check to know that it was the coin that the DA used to schedule meetings. Before he left for the lighthouse he and Hermione had devised a secret plan so that they could keep in touch.
The flare of heat came from Hermione every hour, on the hour, letting him know that she and Ginny’s body were still safe. If he felt as though the coin were suddenly weighing him down, that meant he would be granted thirty seconds before the coin became a Portkey, transporting him to the Burrow straight away, from there he could use the Floo Network to transport to wherever he needed to go. He deftly turned the coin clockwise once, in his pocket, without Lupin taking notice. One clockwise turn meant he was safe as well, and three counterclockwise turns would transport Hermione to the Burrow, although he hardly saw the need for this added precaution he had succumbed at Hermione’s insistence. Fred caught his attention from a distance and Harry put thoughts of his coin aside. When Harry was certain that Fred had a clear view of him in the moonlight, he motioned that he would be entering the front door and that Lupin and Fred should split the group to cover the various entrances and exits that Lupin had drawn for them back at Privet Drive.
Fred gave a tense nod and moved back to his original position, covering Lupin, just in case the old man really was up to no good like George suspected. Harry gave a final nod to Lupin and began nimbly making his way to the lighthouse’s secret entryway that the young Lupin had utilized in the Memoirs. He heard shuffling around him and was grateful for that; the others had sought to provide him with ample cover, no one would notice the dead leaves crushing under his feet when the wind was noisily rattling the trees around the lighthouse. The trek from his position to the old wall that was just beyond the front entrance proved uneventful. He walked straight through the collapsible looking wall and into the regal burgundy room just as he and Lupin had in the memoirs. Despite the years there was not a single fleck of dust or an object that had been moved from its place, the thought of little house elves slaving away to maintain the room flitted into his mind; he would have to consider that at a later time.
Never forgetting his mission, he moved from room to room gaining speed as he recalled the relics he had seen on his previous, Memoir, trip. Crossing the last room Harry repeated ‘thirteenth door from the right’ over and over under his breath, wanting to waste no time as young Lupin had done. He remembered, just in time, and returned to the center of the room that he was currently occupying, and chastised himself as the floor swallowed him up and the burglar destabilizer rent him asunder, he couldn’t forget to properly unlock the house or he would never get to the white room. Once he regained his bearings Harry noticed the twenty multi-colored doors that had stumped young Lupin. He moved to the door directly in front of him; that with a knob shaped like the head of a zebra, and counted thirteen to the right taking care to include the zebra knobbed door as number one.
Standing in front of the Victorian style door Harry retrieved the Bobby Pinners, a Fred and George invention that resembled a typical girl’s bobby pin, from his left sock and inserted them into the latch. As promised on their colorful packaging the Pins shifted to work and soon the door’s latch clicked open. Harry gratefully placed the Bobby Pinners back into his sock and pushed the door wide open. Once he was fully in the room he bit down on his lip and closed the door behind him. All at once the fire he had been dreading burst from forth and quickly bit away at the room. He threw himself to the floor and the flames did very little more than provide a cool tickling sensation. Without another person present to give the illusion of someone in agony the fire was not difficult to get through. The flames steadily made their way towards him and he closed his eyes for a spell to fortify his senses for the bright white that would soon be pressing upon his eyes.
He wondered for a moment if the person who had beaten him to the house was doing as well and getting though the puzzle as successfully. Opening his eyes slightly when he felt the ground rumble he noticed the purple flames that had furled around him, dragging him into the abyss of the ground, and panicked. The flames were not supposed to be purple! They were supposed to be green! What had he done wrong that caused the wrong colored flames? The possibility that the flames were different colored because he was lying on his stomach instead of his back hit him in the final few seconds before the ground had swallowed him whole and he went against Lupin’s advice, ‘never struggle against the house’, and managed to get onto his backside. The flames flickered from purple to green and Harry felt an instant of relief that was quickly replaced with horror when the flames grew white and black molten chain snaked their way around his body, rendering him completely immobile.
In his wide eyes a myriad of emotions collided, not the least of which was fear for Ginny. He cursed as the blackness enclosed on his vision and his body hit a brutal cement floor. Lupin had mentioned something about dungeons, but hadn’t known the key to break into them. What Lupin did know was that the dungeons were virtually impossible to escape. He, Harry, had been in the house no more than five minutes and already managed to get into more trouble than all the Marauders combined. What spark of genius had possessed him to enter the lighthouse on his own? He struggled against the bonds holding him and managed to do very little more than wriggle around like a fish out of water. There was not even a glimmer of light to aid him. All of the sudden Harry felt large, course hands grabbing the scruff of his robes and dragging his body along the cold, wet floor. He panicked, immobile as ever and locked in the accursed black chains of doom, this was not how he thought it would end.
In his worst nightmares, at least it was Voldemort who finished him off, not some putrid smelling troll in hidden dungeons of Sirius’ late uncle’s lighthouse. After dragging him a short distance the troll roughly shoved Harry under a cot. Amazingly, the troll left him there and quickly shuffled away. Was this troll particularly dumb? Did he not know that after you capture prey you tear it limb from limb? Harry didn’t know the answers to the questions filling his mind; he only knew that this would be a short reprieve and that he would need to make the most of it and get out of the bonds that held him. As he struggled, undoubtedly making his fair share of noise, he heard a deep, booming voice command him: “Quiet!”
Harry stilled at once; a troll that could speak? That was preposterous! Could it possibly be…? A bright light hit Harry’s eyes and he cringed, momentarily blinded. The light was coming from a fireplace that would have been impossible to see in the vast darkness. From it, he could make out the outline of the very large man who had dragged him under the cot. It was another moment before Harry heard footsteps announcing that they had a visitor.
“What did I tell you about trying to escape?” Regulus asked, from the fireplace in which he had just appeared.
Dean’s father remained silent as stone and just as unmoving. His penetrating gaze that sent a chill down Harry’s spine seemed to have little effect on Regulus.
“Ameen, you must learn to trust me, I know what’s best for you,” Regulus insisted as he extricated himself from the fireplace, wand firmly in hand.
“I will see you burn for the atrocity you have committed against my family,” Ameen said at last, when it appeared that Regulus was about to turn and thereby catch a glance of the cot that Harry was under.
“Must we do this again, Ameen?” Regulus asked in a cordial manner, returning his attention to the object of his annoyance. “I’ve had a long day.”
“And I, a long imprisonment,” Ameen answered. Whether he was being brave or stupid by mocking Regulus, Harry was unsure, but at least he had saved him from Regulus’ gaze, and for that Harry was grateful.
“Your other half is in quite a state,” Regulus informed Ameen conversationally, “I do believe she is beginning to lose her mind.”
“Leave Gaia alone,” Ameen commanded with an authority that Harry doubted he would ever be able to exert.
“I do believe she’s been using her powers again, even though I warned her not to.” Regulus continued as though he had not been interrupted. “One minute she’s Gaia, the next she’s Ginevra! She’s in a right state, that one! If you ask me she should join Voltara in the loony bin.”
“Stay away from…” Ameen began, but he did not complete his threat in time as Regulus simply swept his wand and tightly bound him in ropes.
“It’s not Gaia I’m worried about,” Regulus commented to the room at large. “Ginevra on the other hand…”
Regulus let his unspoken threat linger for a moment before turning to leave. Harry felt the sweat trickle down his brow. Could Regulus know that he was there, listening…somewhere? Is that why he had so casually tossed Ginny’s name out, to see if he would elicit a reaction from him? Before Harry could come to a decision regarding whether he should make his presence known Regulus entered the fireplace and was gone in an instant. Harry heard the sound of someone rising from the floor and footsteps heading his way soon followed. Panicking, Harry wondered if he had made a mistake.
The rough feel of cement hit his face and rubbed his cheeks raw as the man searched him. It took a moment of clever deduction before the man found the wand that he had been seeking stuffed into Harry’s right sleeve. Given that his search had been conducted entirely in the dark, Harry was quick to recognize the man’s intelligence.
“Lumos,” the low voice washed over Harry along with a beam of bright light that filled the air around them.
For a moment there was silence. Harry could hardly break the silence as his mouth remained firmly bound, but the man simply starred at him. When enough time had gone by, so that Harry felt his body beginning to numb from the robes, the man released the binds from his mouth and loosen the rest which were cutting off the circulation of his blood.
“Who are you?” the man asked without preamble.
“Harry Potter,” Harry responded, hoping that telling the truth would help rather than hurt him.
The man waited. It occurred to Harry that the man doubted him.
“It’s true, the scar is on my forehead, you can see for yourself,” Harry offered, holding out hope that the man was a good guy that Lupin had described.
The man used Harry’s wand to shift the hair from his forehead and reveal the lightening scar. His face was impassable bearing no mark of astonishment or recognition, the reactions Harry had grown accustomed to.
“Who is your father?” the man asked.
Harry breathed a sigh of relief and answered, “James Potter.”
“And your mother?”
“Lily Pot…that is to say, Evans.”
“Lily and James? Unusual,” the man remarked.
“Why?” Harry asked, unable to help the curiosity he felt at the odd comment.
The man looked at him with the same unreadable expression.
“They will be worried about you; do they know where you are?”
Harry felt something clench up inside his throat, Dean’s father thought that his parents were alive. For a moment he pretended that they were, their worried faces and anxious expressions over the Harry’s predicament, the prophecy, Voldemort all washed over him. He felt a longing such as he never felt before. What would it have been like if one of them had survived?
“Well?” Dean’s father asked, clearly he was used to his questions being answered right away.
“They’re dead,” Harry said to both Ameen and himself.
A horrid feeling ripped through the pit of his stomach and seized his heart violently. Harry looked away from Ameen and took a second to compose himself. When he finally looked back it was to an Ameen who looked quite introspective.
“That is a shame,” Ameen said at last. “How did it happen?”
Harry swallowed his feelings down and bottled his emotions for later examination, right now he had to get out of the precarious situation he landed himself in and Ameen was the only one who could help him.
“Voldemort killed them.”
Ameen shock his head angrily. “He kills many people.”
Harry was unsure want to say, so he simply nodded.
“Why them?” Ameen asked.
For an instant Harry was taken aback. Everyone knew about the Order of the Phenoix. They were all familiar with the story of a prophecy that somehow linked Harry and Voldemort. Here was a man who knew nothing of the events that had transpired during Harry’s entire lifetime. To Ameen, he was nothing more than an average boy who had been playing in a lighthouse and accidentally fallen into a dungeon. It was like he was having a bizarre out of body experience. The name Harry Potter meant nothing to this man…not a thing. The man had not even cringed when Harry had spoken Voldemort’s name, but then again, Ameen had been imprisoned even before Harry was born, perhaps he was not part of the era that feared speaking the Voldemort’s name. Harry was unexpectedly seized with a flash of reckless abandon: Why not tell Ameen the real reason why Voldemort had killed his parents?
“He killed them to get to me. It has been prophesized that I will kill him or be killed by him.”
Ameen seemed to consider this revelation thoughtfully. “You ran away to save yourself and ended up here, it is a difficult life you lead, Harry.”
Harry lay, still bound, perplexed as ever.
“He did not come after me today,” Harry quickly explained, “he came after me when I was a baby fifteen years ago.”
“Strange,” Ameen commented, “you were not with your parents?”
“I was,” Harry rushed to explain, “he murdered them to get to me, but when he attempted to kill me the spell rebounded upon him.”
“So he is dead?” Ameen asked.
“No, he came very close to death, but survived as some sort of a spirit thing. Now he has been restored to a body and is after me once again.”
“I see, and that is why you have ended up here tonight.” Ameen nodded his understanding.
“No!” Harry quickly responded, wishing that Ameen had indeed heard all the rumors, gossip and conjecture that abounded in the wizarding community.
“Why then?”
“I am here to save Ginny!”
“Ginny?”
“Ginevra! The girl Regulus mentioned.”
Ameen pointed his wand to Harry’s throat. “What do you know of Regulus?”
Harry kicked himself for not explaining the matter very well. “His brother was my Godfather.”
“Was?” Ameen prodded.
Harry felt the tension eating him up again. “He died last year fighting against Voldemort.”
“Sirius is dead?” Ameen asked, his voice cracking for the first time.
Harry studied Ameen’s features and quickly noted that his eyes had glossed over. It had happened the moment he brought up mention of Regulus.
“If you want to know something, speak to me yourself,” Harry said loudly, hoping that his hunch was correct.
Ameen remained frozen, as though transfixed. Harry, however, clearly heard the sound of movement coming from a darkened corner of the room. Regulus strode up to them taking care to disarm Ameen and re-bind him in ropes.
“You are a filthy liar!” He hissed venomously at Harry.
“I’m not,” Harry responded with a calmness he didn’t feel, “it was your cousin Bellatrix who killed him and laughed as he fell through the veil in the department of mysteries.”
Regulus looked stunned. Even from his poor vantage point Harry could see that his words had struck a cord and were resonating with Regulus.
“Bella kill Sirius?” Regulus asked in shock.
”Because he fought for Dumbledore, because he was a member of the Order, because he protected me from Voldemort she murdered him!” Harry yelled, this time caring very little for the consequence of his action. “Your precious Bella is a murderer! Sirius is gone! I’m alone! I’m completely alone! Except for Ginny, you have Ginny and I will get her back from you no matter what!”
Regulus sank down to the ground a placed his head in the palms of his hands as Ameen started to flail around showing that he had come out of the hold that Regulus had placed on him.
“Sirius dead? Bella killed him? The Dark Lord fallen to an infant? What lies are these? I would be a fool to believe them…” Regulus said, though the look he gave Harry was imploring.
“You are a fool if you stand in my way, nothing will keep me from Ginevra.”
“STUPEFY!”
Regulus, looking very much like someone who had been knocked out, fell like an inanimate object to the floor, his lightweight body making very little noise. Meanwhile Ameen, clearly recognizing they had company, held perfectly still and waiting alongside Harry to see who the new intruder was. From the fireplace Harry could see a light coming closer and closer. In complete disbelief Harry made out the face of his rescuer, the last person he had ever expected to see.
“Alright, Harry?” Dean Thomas asked, while stealing glances at the father he had never known.
In Adversity We Know Our Friends by Wise Owl
Chapter Notes: I know it's been a while and I apologize for the delay! Let's pick up where we left off...Harry has been challenged by Gaia to find Ginny and gets some help from the Memoirs.