Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Harry Potter and the wizarding world	By : zoy_grey Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male Views: 10766 -:- Recommendations : 3 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: Disclaimer: I do not own nor make profit off of JK Rowling's world of Harry Potter, the characters or the timeline. I do own some of the characters that are of my imagination as well as the plot that I came up with.

Chapter List
- 10
- 11
- 12
CHAPTER 11
Lying in his dormitory Harry absentmindedly watched the canopy of his bed. It was still very early in the morning and he expected he was the only one awake in the room.
Recently he had a hard time getting enough sleep. Even though he was the first one to go to bed, he always woke up first. It was probably because of his dream; the one of the manor and dark figure. He always woke up exhausted after that dream; exhausted and frustrated. Whenever he tried to make contact with the dark figure a light blinded him and he woke up. It was really annoying.
Harry reached out for his wand safely located on the night table and cast a Tempus charm.
‘Five a.m.’ he noticed and huffed in annoyance. ‘It’s not like I’m going to fall asleep now. Might as well get up.’
Silently Harry got out of bed and went to the bathroom. He tried not to wake up anyone; not because he wanted to be nice to others, but because he simply had enough of all of them and their stupid comments about him being a cheat.
Sitting in the common room, after he got dressed, he still felt awful. Earlier Gryffindor Tower felt like home for him, but after the last week Harry didn’t feel he belonged there; or anywhere in Hogwarts, as a matter of fact. The strange thing was he didn’t feel lonely or even disappointed, not anymore at least; now he was rather mad at the situation, at his friends and teachers for their actions and at himself for trusting others and depending on them too much. Harry wanted to show them he didn’t need their support, he could do it by himself.
‘If they want to believe I put my name into the Goblet then be it, but I’ll show them I can manage on my own,’ he decided and walked out.
He wandered aimlessly down the corridors. Once or twice he met some ghosts, but it looked like they were also influenced by other people’s opinions.
“Could you at least stop following me!?” burst out Harry at a particularly annoying ghost.
Not getting any response, he turned around to glare at the irritating ghost; he was in a really foul mood and felt he could defeat even Peeves, if he tried to annoy him. However, when he looked around he realised he was alone at one of the corridors; there wasn’t even a sign of anyone being there with him.
“Odd,” he said to himself. “I could have sworn there was someone following me.”
Harry cast another Tempus charm that told him it was already quarter to six and he got still plenty of time before breakfast. He walked outside and wandered around the castle grounds. After a while he reached the Whomping Willow and sat nearby.
He could see almost everything from there – the castle, the Forbidden Forest, Hagrid’s hut. Harry wondered if he should visit the half giant or not. After all everyone thought him to be a cheater so maybe Hagrid did too. Maybe it was better to leave things the way they were and simply accept the changes.
The time ran quickly and he didn’t notice people in the castle already woke up. He didn’t feel like going back inside, either. He’d rather stay here; where he met his godfather. For a moment it ran through his mind it may not be such a bad idea to find Sirius and move with him somewhere far; that way he’d be finally able to have a family and he wouldn’t have to worry about anything else.
“Harry?” said a voice behind him. “What are you doing here?”
The boy looked around and saw Jamie jumping off of a rocky hill and jogging his way.
She sat on the ground before him and asked again, “So? What are you doing here alone?”
“As if anyone would want to hang out with me right now,” said Harry with a sneer. “I’m surprised you’re talking with me. Guess Malfoy is going to point it out to you later.”
“Why would he do that?” she tilted her head to the side in confusion.
“Well, you’re a Slytherin and you’re associating with Gryffindor’s Harry Potter,” he explained as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Jamie just shook her head lightly in amusement and said “Sometimes I think people want to see him as a really vicious person, more than he actually is.”
“Come on now, he is a foul git,” protested Harry, but at the same time he didn’t feel like he was really arguing with the girl; they were actually having a nice, civil conversation; something he didn’t have in at least a week now.
“Foul? I wouldn’t call him foul. He’s a pure-blood and he’s very proud of it, all pure-bloods are. Try insulting them and it might be the last thing you’ll ever do,” laughed the girl.
“I’d say he’s arrogant, not proud,” retorted Harry.
“That too, but I guess it’s more of a Malfoy trait than pure-blood,” Jamie explained. “So, you’re here to get away from your housemates?”
At the mention of his housemates Harry’s blood boiled and all his anger came back. That happened quite often lately and Harry even started worrying if it was possible for that anger to surface some day and push him to hurting someone who insulted him.
“I don’t really want to talk about them,” he took a deep breath to calm himself down and asked “But what are you doing here? You’re running from your housemates as well?”
“No. It’s just a habit of mine. I run in the mornings every now and then; for exercise and sport,” she explained.
Harry laughed and quickly apologized to the girl. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s just that I’ve never met anyone in the wizarding world who willingly chose any other kind of exercise than Quidditch.”
“Quidditch is exactly why I started those morning exercises of mine,” she said, but explained further when Harry made a surprised face. “Even though my aunt and cousin are magical, my family isn’t and my father never wanted me to do anything connected with magic until I was officially accepted to Hogwarts. That’s why I never had a broom to fly. Actually, he still forbids me to play Quidditch and fly, so I’ve found out a different way to let out some of my energy.”
Then they’ve noticed Hagrid walking out of his hut and heading to the castle for breakfast.
“I think we should go back too,” said Jamie standing up.
“Jamie,” called Harry. “Tell me. Do you think like everyone else that I’ve done it? That I’ve put my name in the Goblet of fire?”
“I doubt that,” she answered. “And honestly, I don’t care, just like my housemates don’t really care.”
“What? What do you mean they don’t care? They are the ones wearing the stupid badges,” protested Harry, following the girl to the castle.
“Listen, if you were in Slytherin or friends with Draco, they’d be proud and supportive no matter if you’ve done it or not. However, you’re in Gryffindor and Draco’s enemy, therefore making your life miserable is sort of a principal, but honestly most of them don’t really care.”
On their way to the castle Harry processed what he just heard. He went back to the moment when he met Draco in Hogwarts Express; he was so close to being friends with the blond. If he had accepted that friendship, would Malfoy be supportive of him right now, just like Jamie told him? That of course was all only hypothetical, but it made him rethink his opinion of Snakes; at least some of them.

“You’re back again,” said Voldemort stroking Nagini’s scales and eyeing Shadow, who stood before him. “What news do you bring me this time?”
The younger man hesitated, but finally decided it was wiser to reveal his discovery; especially since the Dark Lord could get past his Oclumency defences and read his mind.
“It’s about Potter’s magic,” he started and saw the other man was immediately interested. “It’s starting to surface. It’s visible in his aura and it’s definitely not light.”
Voldemort’s eyes were wide open and shining with sudden excitement. This was the information he was waiting to hear. All those years, he thought someone has played a really nasty trick on him, but now it looked it wasn’t a trick; he was right; Harry Potter, the Golden Boy and Saviour of Light was not light at all.
“Are you sure about that information?” the older wizard didn’t want to risk it.
“Yes,” confirmed Shadow. “I’m not certain what his magical affinity exactly is right now, but it’s definitely not light.”
It was probably the best news Voldemort has heard in the last few months. Even if Potter was not a dark wizard, maybe they could convince his somehow to join them.
‘Oh, poor old Dumbledore would be so distraught to lose his precious Boy-Who-Lived,’ laughed the wizard in his mind. But they needed to be cautious; there were too many witches and wizards on the Light side.
“Did Potter tell anyone about it?” he asked.
“No. He hasn’t noticed it himself, yet,” explained Shadow. “Considering the way he’s being treated by others right now, he won’t be sharing any of his secrets or problems with anyone.”
“Explain,” ordered Voldemort, still stroking Nagini’s scales.
“He’s getting awful treatment, because he was chosen a Triwizard Champion.”
Entering Potter to the Tournament was another brilliant idea. The boy was used to special treatment all those years; people worshiped him, Dumbledore pampered him and students would give anything to be his friends. Now, however, everything seemed to have changed; the emotions might start raging in Potter and Voldemort was counting on it; that way they’ll find out the boy’s true magical affinity.
“We don’t have time anymore. You need to act now,” said suddenly Voldemort.
“But…” shocked by the sudden change of plans, Shadow protested. However, as fast as he started talking, he stopped, because the other wizard released Nagini and let the snake slither dangerously towards him.
“You know what to do,” Voldemort said with a smirk.

The next day during breakfast Harry decided he couldn’t take it anymore. More and more students were wearing the stupid ‘Potter stinks’ badges; his housemates weren’t helping either and the First Task of the Tournament was getting close.
He didn’t even have a clue what that task could be and it stressed him a lot. He knew he was the youngest participant and probably he didn’t have a lot of magical abilities that other Champions had, but he still wanted to do his best; after all he promised himself he’ll show everyone that he could do it on his own.
However the truth was Harry needed at least one friendly person to believe in him.
He looked around Gryffindor table, but just like he suspected, nobody even looked his way; even Hermione was engaged in conversation with Ginny and didn’t look his way at all.
Hufflepuffs sent him hateful glares, which wasn’t surprising really; after all, Harry was chosen Hogwarts Champion just like Cedric Diggory.
He glanced at Ravenclaws’ direction and caught a sight of Cho talking with some Bauxbatons’ girls; the rest of the students there pretty much ignored him.
Reluctantly, Harry turned around to see Slytherins with Malfoy as their leader, proud to be acquainted with Krum. He was mad at them for wearing those annoying badges and was still distrustful towards them, but somehow after what Jamie told him, they didn’t seem as awful as before.
‘Ironic,’ he thought to himself watching an owl land in front of Simmons and Cameron, and leaving the girl a letter. ‘The only people talking with me right now are Slytherins, or at least some of them.’
That moment a sudden realisation struck him. He had a person he could talk to; someone he was certain wouldn’t berate him or accuse of doing things he hasn’t done – Sirius.
According to the previous letters, Sirius was already back in the UK, which meant he probably already found out about the Tournament and Harry being one of the Champions. Harry hoped his godfather would be able to help him deal with the situation, maybe give him some tips how to handle the anger he constantly felt, and maybe he’d know how to explain the dark figure in his dream.
One last glance at his housemates and he decided he didn’t want to spend one more minute with them. He stood up and headed to the Gryffindor Tower to quickly write a letter to Sirius. Harry hoped for a fast reply if he hurried with sending his message.
On the way to his common room he caught a glimpse of Antonov and a few other Durmstrang students along with Malfoy’s gang pointing at him and laughing.
‘Just a week ago he was hitting on me,’ thought Harry annoyed by the ridiculous behaviour of the older boy. ‘Bloody idiots!’

The next three days Harry spent on waiting for a reply from Sirius. He knew he was probably acting silly, expecting to receive a letter back, only three days after he sent his message, but he didn’t know what else to do. The day of the First Task was nearing, he didn’t know how to prepare himself for that and there was no one to give him advice on how to do that.
Every morning now, he went to the owlery; mostly for two reasons – he wanted to check if there was any mail waiting for him and that was the only place where he could be alone, because most of the students hardly ever went there.
“Hi Hedwig,” he patted the owl and searched for a letter, but didn’t find anything.
He walked over to a different bird; a small, brown and white screech owl. The bird looked at him surprised and somewhat annoyed to be woken up by him. Not finding any letter there either, Harry sighed heavily; he shouldn’t be surprised really; after all, it always took about a week to get a reply from his godfather, and the fact that Harry desperately needed the other wizard’s support didn’t change anything.
“Oh, don’t be jealous, Hedwig. You know I can’t send you with those letters. That’s the only reason I use different owls,” Harry explained to the bird, when he noticed it hoot angrily. After a minute he got worried, because Hedwig didn’t stop her hooting. “What’s wrong? You can’t be this mad.”
A moment later, more owls joined Hedwig and hooted in the direction of the door. At the same moment, Harry felt a familiar feeling; something he has been experiencing for a long time now; he felt someone’s eyes on himself. Finally, after two months of speculations, he had a proof that he wasn’t imagining things; the owls with their strange behaviour proved it to be truth; there had to be someone standing there and watching him.
Hoping to catch his stalker off-guard, he quickly turned around. However, when he did that, no one was there; he was alone in the owlery. Even the birds calmed down immediately and Harry whined, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
After a while he decided it was time to head back to the castle. If he was lucky, he’d manage to eat breakfast alone, in peace.
When he was almost leaving the building, a sudden noise and a screech caught his attention. Harry looked around to find the source of the noise, but he couldn’t see anything out of place. Moment later, he noticed an empty spot where he knew the brown screech owl he recently sent to Sirius, should have been. At first Harry thought that whoever was stalking him was trying to scare him or make him think he was going crazy; but then he decided he was exaggerating things and the owl probably flew off somewhere.
‘This really isn’t my day,’ he thought to himself.
The Great Hall, just like he expected, wasn’t crowded yet; it was too early and hardly any students were up already. At the Gryffindor table there were only a small group of second years and Hermione.
Harry sighed inwardly when he saw her. He wasn’t as mad at Hermione as he was at Ron, but he couldn’t forgive her for doubting him either. Since the announcement of the Triwizard Champions Hermione hasn’t spoken to him at all and it irritated Harry immensely. He didn’t feel like making it easier for his friends to make up to him for their ridiculous behaviour.
Ignoring the girl’s hopeful stares, he sat at the table, keeping distance from his housemates; he poured himself a glass of pumpkin juice and grabbed a toast. All the time he could practically feel Hermione’s gaze on him. As usual, he ignored it, until something unexpected happened.
Even though it was a bit early for mail to arrive, Harry saw a lonely, but familiar brown screech owl flying straight towards him. At first, he felt a rush of excitement; for a moment he thought it was from Sirius.
‘I saw that owl an hour ago,’ he thought. ‘She couldn’t have flown to him and back this fast.’
Meanwhile the bird landed gracefully in front of him and gave him a letter; or rather more like a short note, really.
He unfolded it and read:
‘Your magical affinity isn’t exactly light, am I right? You don’t understand it, do you Potter? I can help you deal with that.
Meet me at midnight at the abandoned corridor on fourth floor.’
Cold sweat covered his forehead. Harry realised someone indeed was following and observing him closely; so close that they knew about his unstable magic lately. He hasn’t told anyone yet, but it was true that for some time now he felt something was different in his magic and it frightened him.
The brown owl that delivered him the letter flapped its wings and took off. Harry watched it go; hoping to discover the sender of the letter, but the bird flew straight through the hole in the roof and vanished. Once more he felt someone’s gaze on him, but he couldn’t find his stalker.
‘Maybe it’s a good time to make up with Hermione and Ron, and tell them about this unexpected letter,’ ran through his head.
“H-hi, Harry,” an uncertain voice said next to him.
He looked up and saw Hermione standing there fidgeting. It was unusual to see the normally self-confident witch fidget. Harry could see where this was going; the girl wanted to make up with him; she was probably tired of the distance growing between them too. The only matter that confused him was why Hermione came to him alone; why didn’t she come to him with Ron and why was she so nervous.
“Hi,” he answered shortly and focused on his breakfast.
“You’ve been an early bird lately,” the witch said with a small smile; all the time she closely watched her friend’s reaction; she didn’t want to ruin anything; it was her chance to get their friendship back to how it was before.
“I’ve just reorganised my days lately, that’s all,” was the teen’s answer.
“So…,” Hermione felt really uncomfortable right now; she honestly didn’t know how to talk with Harry after what happened, “…did something happen that you reorganised your day?”
The boy put away his juice and looked the witch straight in the eyes; he hoped she wanted to apologize to him for her previous behaviour, but with every passing minute he was more and more certain she wasn’t going to do that.
“I’m not up to anything, if that’s what you want to know Hermione,” he said calmly and saw by the girl’s reaction that he hit home; she wanted to be friends again, but she still doubted him.
“That’s not what I meant Harry,” she explained herself quickly. “I know you wouldn’t do anything against the rules, especially right now.”
“Tell me Hermione,” he turned to face her and asked, “what do you think really happened regarding the Tournament and my participation in it?”
“Well, I thought about it a lot,” she started. “I know you don’t mind playing pranks, like your father, and you are ambitious, but I don’t really think you’d ever enter the Tournament willingly.”
Harry sighed with relief. It seemed that Hermione was on his side after all.
“So I’ve ended up thinking that maybe you just wanted to prove you’re good enough to fool Dumbledore’s age line, but you never expected the Goblet to choose you,” she smiled to him.
“What?” was all Harry could master after the girl’s last words; so she did believe him to be a bloody idiot.
“Why are you bothering with him Hermione?” asked Seamus, who just entered the Great Hall, accompanied by Dean and Ron.
“But Harry never wanted to take part in that Tournament,” the witch defended Harry.
“Maybe, but he still flat out refuses to admit he had anything to do with the Goblet,” grumbled Ron and walked to the table.
Harry finally had enough. He didn’t want to listen to his friends anymore and whatever suspicions they had about him; they’ve known him for over three years now, they’ve been through a lot together and if they still doubted him, then maybe it was time for Harry to finally move on.
The boy stood up and wanted to leave surprised Hermione with the rest of the Gryffindors.
“Did we offend you?” asked Ron, but with absolutely no remorse in his voice.
“You know what?” Harry nearly hissed at his former friend. “You’re a foul git Ron,” and with that he stormed out of the chamber.

After half a week of staying in his animagi form, Sirius finally found a safe place to stay and go back to his human appearance. During the last few days he ran into aurors at least five times, though thankfully, he managed to get away before they even realised it was him. Even though the Ministry didn’t seem to have a clue about him being an unregistered Animagus and there was no chance for him to get caught in that form, he thought it was better to be safe than sorry.
Due to that, it took him some time to find a safe hiding place; somewhere he could stay and rest for at least two days. The other thing was, he needed it to be somewhere on his way to Hogwarts, because that was where he was heading now.
That reminded him of a certain matter that needed his attention; a matter he’d been postponing for the last three days, because he was trying to escape the aurors.
Because of the Ministry, he got stuck somewhere in North Yorkshire and still got quite a long way to get to Hogwarts. Fortunately, he managed to find an empty cottage in the country; its owners must have left for some time, though he didn’t know for how long. This only meant he had one maybe two days of rest until he had to head north.
Sirius stretched his sore muscles and slumped on a sofa. He enjoyed the nice feeling of the comfortable piece of furniture, but reminded himself about the pressing matter.
Taking out the letter from his godson, he felt awful it took him so long to even read it, not to mention reply to it. The wizard was aware of the difficult situation Harry found himself in; and if he was concerned about the teen before, now with Harry being a Triwizard Champion, Sirius was more than worried. It even surprised him that Harry wrote to him just now; he’d expected to hear from him right after the announcement, but maybe the teen was actually dealing with the situation better than he expected.
He ran quickly through the letter and when he was done he felt even worst for not reading it sooner. Apparently, his godson had sort of a break down and anticipated his reply more than ever before, yet Sirius kept him waiting.
The wizard stood up and started pacing; he had to think everything through; he needed to calculate his situation and send his answer to Harry. After reading the letter he was certain things at Hogwarts were far from good; his godson never wrote anything that might worry him, yet this time Harry openly admitted that he was having difficulties with his school life.
However, the matter that worried Sirius the most was Harry’s magic. From the moment he saw the boy after he ran away from Azkaban, he worried about it and how exactly he was to explain everything to the teen; he suspected Harry might feel uncomfortable about some of the revelations Sirius had for him, and maybe even a bit cheated by everyone for not telling him sooner, but Black needed to talk with him about it.
He had to have a talk with Harry about magical affinities and it had to be fast. Judging by what the teen wrote in his letter, Sirius’ suspicions about someone meddling with Harry’s magic were true. Now, that magic was raging inside him and the awful situation regarding the Tournament as well as other students’ negative behaviour towards the teen weren’t helping really.
The man quickly wrote a short message to Harry. He wasn’t sure if he’d be able to meet with him before the First Task of the tournament, but he wanted to at least fire call him and talk about things that troubled him.
Half an hour later, he found an owl to deliver his letter to Harry and he watched it fly away.
‘I only hope that when we discuss the subject he’ll take the news about magical affinities better than I did when my parents had that talk with me,’ he thought to himself and walked into the cottage.
Sirius was still disturbed by Harry’s letter and there was nothing that he wanted more than to be by his godson’s side, but he also knew he wouldn’t be able to travel any further without at least some sleep. He sat on the sofa again and decided to rest one night and go north first thing in the morning.

The entire day Harry was struggling with his thoughts; he didn’t know what to do with the mysterious letter he got that morning. He hoped he could make up with Hermione and Ron, and discuss it with them, but that was apparently out of the question. They seemed to have a problem to trust him and get over the idiotic case of the tournament, so there was no way they’d be able to be logical and helpful in such delicate matter as problems with raging magic.
Normally, he’d wait for Sirius’ reply, but he was running out of time here. The first task was getting closer and no one seemed to be capable to actually help him; and he was pretty sure that confused and raging magic would not make things easier during the tournament.
The message from an unknown person was suspicious and he was fully aware of that; it could be some kind of a prank or a trap. But if it wasn’t a joke, then it was the only chance he had to get some help in the current situation.
After dinner he’s finally made up his mind. He was going to take the risk and meet with whomever wrote that letter; he could always use the Invisibility cloak for safety measures.
Having all that planned, he waited in the common room until everyone went to bed. Nobody talked to him lately so it wasn’t surprising when he was the last one to stay in the room.
He looked at the clock showing it was quarter to midnight.
‘It’s time,’ he thought to himself and took out the cloak.
One last time, Harry looked around to make sure he was alone and then wrapped himself with the cloak.
As soon as he left the Gryffindor Tower his heart started pounding madly; it wasn’t the first time he was breaking the rules and wandering the castle at night, but it was the first time he’s done it completely alone and none of his friends even knew about it. That however made him wonder who was it that he was about to meet with; if it was a student, then they might also be in trouble for being out of bed at that time of night; or if it was a teacher then why didn’t they simply talk to him after classes.
Going through all that in his thoughts, Harry managed to get to the fourth floor without getting caught. He entered the abandoned corridor and found himself in a dark hallway, which reminded him of his first year and the corridor where Fluffy was residing. It was dead silent and gave him creeps.
The boy checked the hour on his watch and noticed it was almost midnight, but there was no sign of anyone there.
‘Great. I’ve probably got tricked by someone, like I was by Malfoy in first year,’ he thought angrily. ‘If nobody shows up in five minutes, I’m going back. Getting caught by Filch is the last thing I need.’
“Not very trusting, are you Potter?” asked an unfamiliar voice somewhere behind him.
Harry turned around gripping the cloak tighter, but he couldn’t see anyone. He narrowed his eyes to adjust his sight to the darkness, but it still didn’t help.
“I know you’re wearing the Invisibility cloak,” said the voice again.
“You’re not very trusting, either,” retorted Harry after a while and took the cloak off; there was no need to hide anymore, if that person already knew he was there; besides, he felt it wasn’t a joke of someone he knew from Hogwarts, because he didn’t recognize the voice.
“True. And I find it to be a rather useful trait at times,” he heard a laugh and saw something move in the distance.
The teen heard soft footsteps getting closer and he could already see a figure of some sort walking his way, but it was still too dark for him to distinguish who it was. He took out his wand and said “Lumos.”
Suddenly the corridor lit up and Harry was faced by someone he had never met before, but he knew perfectly well who it was. There, before him stood a wizard clad in neat black robes; his head hidden under a hood and face covered by a silver mask. He couldn’t be wrong about it; it was the one the aurors were looking for a few months already; it was Shadow.
“Stupefy!” was the first thing that came into Harry’s head as he pointed his wand at the other wizard.
“Don’t bother,” Shadow said calmly, blocking the spell with ease; he was prepared for such a reaction from Potter.
“That was just a warning,” said Harry without lowering his wand. “I’m capable of nastier spells.”
“Oh, I’m well aware of that.”
By the way the man said it Harry could swear that he was wearing a knowing smirk under that mask. Just then sudden realisation struck him – Shadow hasn’t drew out his wand or even tried to cast any spells.
“Where is your wand?” he demanded the answer.
“It’s here,” Shadow answered calmly and showed him the base of his wand, safely hidden in his left sleeve.
“Are you so full of yourself that you think you could defeat me without using it?” Harry felt a bit insulted by the mere thought of that; he knew he was still in school and learning, but he liked to think of himself as a rather tough opponent when it came to magical fighting.
“I did not come here to fight with you. Right now, I’d probably be able to win a duel with you. However, that’s because I’m honest with my magical affinity. You, on the other hand, are not,” answered the wizard and paused to let the meaning of his words sink into the teen’s mind. “You could do great things, you know. That’s why I wanted to meet with you. You don’t have much time until the first task of the tournament.”
Harry thought about everything he just heard. On one hand he was already starting to think that this Shadow person was harmless with his attacks that never hurt anyone, but now, when he stood in front of the man, he wasn’t so sure whether he should trust him. It did seem tempting to hear more of what he had to say, though; even Mad-Eye hasn’t told them enough about magical affinities yet, and it looked like that was exactly the problem in his case.
“Why should I trust you? You’ve attacked at least a dozen of kids by now,” he asked not sure if the wizard would really answer his question.
“I’m not a criminal as the majority wants to see me as. If I was a criminal, do you really think I’d leave my so-called victims alive, remembering our encounter?” he watched the teen process that information. “And do you, honestly, have a better option than to trust me?”
“I don’t even know who you are,” protested Harry.
“But I know what you need to solve your problems. You could refuse to accept my help and die in the tournament or trust me and have a chance not only to survive, but to improve your magical skills.”
Harry stood there, trying desperately to find the best way out of the situation. Normally he’d ask Hermione and Ron about their opinion, but they weren’t there. That reminded him of how his friends and other classmates treated him lately; he couldn’t count on them, not anymore. He remembered the decision he’s made this morning – he had to move on and he’ll prove to everyone he was doing fine.
‘This could be a trap…a deadly one,’ ran through his mind. ‘But he’s right. I might die in the tournament with my magic being as unstable as it is now. His offer gives me at least a slight chance of survival.’
“All right,” the teen finally made his decision. “What do you know about my magic and how do want to help me with it?”
“I’d appreciate it if you put away your wand first,” said somewhat amused Shadow.
“I can lower it, but not put it away,” protested Harry. “You said it yourself that right now you could defeat me with ease. I still don’t trust you enough to sit here with you completely unprotected.”
Suddenly, Shadow let out a hearty laugh at Harry’s comment. The teen was a bit startled by such behaviour; until just now he thought of the wizard before him as a criminal chased by the aurors and causing problems for Sirius, but somehow his actions were far from how Harry would imagine a vicious criminal.
“I’m glad I amuse you,” retorted Harry and lowered his wand.
“You’re not very trusting, for a Gryffindor,” commented the wizard. “But to the point. I’ve been watching you for some time now, which I know you’re already aware of, and I observed your magic development and aura.”
“Aura?” Harry felt a bit disappointed to hear about something related to Divination.
“Not the rubbish Trelawney’s teaching in her class. It’s a kind of aura that you can actually see and sense….without using your ‘third eye’,” the wizard said the last part with a sneer. “It’s related to one’s magical affinity. You’ve heard about magical affinities, I presume.”
“Yes,” the boy nodded. “Mad-Eye told us about it. There is light, neutral and dark affinity, right?”
“Correct. Witches and wizards are born with one of them and it normally doesn’t change for their entire life. We don’t really have enough time to talk about everything there is in that subject, but sometimes magical affinity manifests itself in one’s aura,” explained Shadow. “That’s how I was able to tell something wrong was going on with your magic.”
“But what do you mean by that?” Harry wanted to know more; he never had any problems with his magic before, so why now. “Why I’ve been doing so average in classes lately? And why do I feel so angry all the time?”
“I don’t know for how long, but I think something or someone has been meddling and blocking your true magical abilities. The recent events and the bad treatment you get from other students simply woke up the magic within you that has been suppressed for I don’t know how long,” the wizard paused for a moment to let Harry deal with the latest news. “You’re never going to do amazingly with light spells, if your real affinity is struggling inside you.”
“Are you barking mad?! You’re saying I’m not a light wizard?” the teen got agitated by the suggestion of him being some other type of wizard than light. “Who do you think I am, then? A dark wizard, maybe?!”
“That still remains a mystery to me, until you let your magic flow freely,” Shadow didn’t seem to be surprised by his reaction at all and continued his explanations. “Something has been forcing you to be light wizard, but that is not your true self. The anger and other strong emotions that you feel would not have such an impact on your magic if you truly were light. Those emotions, however, do trigger the other two affinities. You could be neutral, I don’t know yet, but you have to accept it and embrace your true affinity or your magical core might not handle it.”
The teen still refused to believe what Shadow told him; he couldn’t be dark, and he didn’t really understand what it really meant to be neutral wizard either. He was having an inner fight with himself about what to do; he knew he was in a difficult situation and everything Shadow told him indeed made sense; Harry just didn’t want to admit that he could be anyone else than light wizard. After all, everyone has been telling him how wonderful his parents were and that they fought on the Light side during war; even in school, they were taught that light magic was good, but they had to defend themselves against dark arts, which were fundamentally wrong.
He looked defeated at the other wizard and said, “Mad-Eye told us that one can end up a Squib if you try to force your magic to change.”
“That’s true,” Shadow saw that Harry was slowly trying to accept that he might be neutral wizard, so he decided to take advantage of it and prove to the younger wizard he was telling him the truth. “Haven’t you ever felt out of tune with the magic that you were learning here in Hogwarts? Or maybe you dreamt or even felt something other than light surrounding you?”
Hearing the last question Harry’s head snapped up and for a second he felt so surprised he didn’t know what to do, but he quickly regained his composure.
Shadow, however, didn’t miss that surprised expression and smirked, “You have, haven’t you?”
Without further explanation the wizard straightened his robes and walked gracefully to the window. Harry watched stunned as the man sat on the window sill as if he was about to jump.
“There is not much more I can do for you right now. It’s up to you now, Potter. But I suggest you accept it and you’ll see the difference soon enough,” after that the wizard jumped off the window sill and vanished, leaving utterly confused Harry in the empty corridor.

That night, after he got back to the Gryffindor Tower, Harry slipped into his bed unnoticed by his housemates, but even though he was exhausted after everything that happened that day, he couldn’t fall asleep.
His thoughts were on the newest revelations he heard. He decided that the Daily Prophet’s comments about Shadow were far exaggerated, but he wasn’t certain he could truly trust the man; and to be honest, he probably was scared that everything that Shadow told him might be true, and he wasn’t a light wizard. Would his parents be disappointed with him if they were alive?
Finally after about an hour he drifted off into his dreams.
Once again he found himself by the fence of the old manor. He knew well enough that the dark figure would be waiting for him by the gate and normally he’d rush over there to join his companion, but not this time. Harry stood there frozen, too afraid to move. He knew exactly how he felt whenever he was with his dark friend – his presence was pleasant, it made him feel warm, safe and at ease. But that was exactly what terrified him; he knew what it could mean – his friend wasn’t light; that much was clear to anyone.
“All right, I can do this,” he told himself and ran in the direction he knew the gate was located. “It might help me with the tournament.”
As soon as he got there, the familiar figure appeared by the gate and he couldn’t help the feeling that his friend was happy to see him too.
He walked closer and wanted to grab his friend’s hand, but the other one quickly drew it back.
“What’s wrong?” Harry asked confused.
The dark figure pointed to his arm and he saw something he hasn’t noticed before. There was a white, though slightly transparent, cloak wrapped tightly around his whole body.
“That’s why you can’t touch me?” he asked the other, pointing to the cloak.
When the figure nodded Harry took off the cloak with one swift move and dropped it to the ground. All of a sudden he felt strange, as if something heavy was lifted off of his shoulders. He saw his friend stretching out his hand to him, but Harry had something different in mind. He walked a few steps backwards and took out his wand.
“Stand back. I don’t want to hurt you,” the figure tilted its head to the side, questioningly but stepped aside as Harry requested.
The teen pointed his wand at the gate; feeling all the stress from the last few days grow in him, he let it flow and with all that anger he cast a spell directly at the gate, “Bombarda maxima!”
He tried that spell before, with no success; this time he knew it would work and it did. The spell hit the iron and the gate exploded into pieces.
“At last,” he smiled to himself and walked into the front garden of the manor.
His friend walked closer to him and when Harry put away his wand, the figure opened its arms allowing the teen to embrace it. At the beginning he wasn’t sure if it was alright for him to do that – he was fourteen after all – but as soon as he felt the warm embrace of his dark friend all his doubts disappeared.
The young wizard felt amazing – warm, safe, accepted…and strong. He revelled in that sensation and slowly drifted off.
- 10
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- 12
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Harry Potter and the wizarding world