PRIORI INCANTATEM by Arianna Waters (read with me .TXT) 📖

I think you might be able to recognize me even after a long time of being dead!” he heard his father saying.

“James?” Dumbledore was dumbfounded.

“He’s back,” Harry shouted. “He’s back. Voldemort.”

“What’s going on? What’s happened?”

The face of Cornelius Fudge appeared upside down over Harry, it looked white, appalled.

“My God — James — Lily!” it whispered. “Dumbledore — they’re supposed to be dead!”

The words repeated, the shadowy figures pressing in on them gasped it to those around them . . . and then others shouted it — screeched it — into the night — “Potters are alive!” “They’re alive!” “James and Lily! Alive!”

“Bertha Jorkins?” Fudge asked.

“You-Know-Who’s back!” she whispered.

“Harry will need to go to the hospital wing!” Fudge was saying loudly as Dumbledore was talking to James and Lily.

“I’ll take Harry, Dumbledore, I’ll take him —”

“No, I would prefer —”                            

“Harry, stay here —” he heard Dumbledore say.

(A/N: I will prefer not to repeat the scene where Moody takes him to the office, and then reveals the truth under Veritaserum, so to the time Dumbledore is taking Harry back to his office!)

 “I want you to come up to my office, Harry,” he said quietly as they headed up the passageway. “Sirius and the rest are waiting for us there.”

Harry nodded.

Dumbledore helped him to reach the stone gargoyle. Dumbledore gave the password, it sprang aside, and he and Harry went up the moving spiral staircase to the oak door. Dumbledore pushed it open. Sirius was standing there, his face white and gaunt.

“Harry, are you all right? I knew it — I knew something like this — what happened?”

His hands shook as he helped Harry into a chair in front of the desk.

“Sirius, I want you to meet some people, who, under some strange circumstances, have been restored to life. Harry here will explain later, what exactly happened.”

As if on cue, James and Lily entered the room from the door leading to Headmaster’s private quarters.

“Prongs?” a surprised Sirius asked as happiness flooded through his eyes for a splitting second. The moment passed. “Who the hell are you? Thinking it is funny to —”

“Padfoot! It’s really us!” James said.

“Turn into Prongs, if you even know what I mean,” Sirius stated.

Immediately, with a flick of wand, James vanished. In his place stood a beautiful stag with peculiar markings around its eyes.

Sirius seemed satisfied. With a gleeful scream, he plunged himself on top of James who had now turned back to his usual self.

“James! Ho — Wh ­— Never mind! I never thought I’d live to see you again!”

“Lily-flower!” he went and hugged Lily. James joined the group hug. Dumbledore nudged Harry to go to his parents.

Lily hugged Harry as if there would never be a next time. “Oh! My baby has grown up so much! He looks so much like you James.”

“But he has your eyes!” James whispered, hugging his son as well.

“So I’ve been told before,” Harry grinned.

“What am I? Chopped liver?” Sirius whined. Harry went over and hugged him as well.

“Where’s Moony?” James asked.

“Must be somewhere,” Sirius replied, grinning. He looked as if he had become twenty years younger in presence of James and Lily.

“Ah, sorry to interrupt your family moment,” Dumbledore spoke, chuckling, “Harry here has some explanation to do.”

“The Wizard of Oz . . . always spoils the moment,” Sirius said, whining.

“If I’m right Sirius, which I firmly believe I am, it was you who was eager to listen to Harry’s experience,” Dumbledore chuckled.

“Okay, what happened?” Sirius asked seriously. (A/N: No pun intended)

Dumbledore began to tell them everything Barty Crouch had said. Harry was only half listening. He was so tired every bone in his body was aching.

There was a soft rush of wings. Fawkes the phoenix had left his perch, flown across the offices, and landed on Harry’s knee.

“ ’Lo, Fawkes,” said Harry quietly. He stroked the phoenix’s beautiful scarlet-and-gold plumage.

“I need to know what happened after you touched the Portkey in the maze, Harry,” said Dumbledore. He asked Sirius to change back to his animagus form and called Cedric, Bertha and the old muggle in his office.

Reluctantly, Harry raised his head, took a deep breath and began to tell them. As he spoke, visions of everything that had passed that night seemed to rise above his eyes; he saw the sparkling surface of the potion that had revived Voldemort; he saw the Death Eaters Apparating between the graves around them; he saw Cedric’s body, lying on the ground beside the cup.

When Harry told of Wormtail piercing his arm with dagger, James let out a vehement exclamation, Sirius growled barring his teeth and Dumbledore stood up so quickly that Harry started. He told Harry to stretch out his arm. Harry showed them both the place where his robes were torn and the cut beneath them.

“He said my blood would make his stronger than if he’d used someone else’s,” Harry told Dumbledore. “He said the protection my —” he looked up to Lily, “­— my mother — left in me — he’d have it too. And he was right — he could touch me without hurting himself, he touched my face.”

“Ah, that doesn’t matter now does it?” Dumbledore smiled. For a fleeting second, apart from happiness, he saw a gleam of something like triumph in Dumbledore’s eyes. “Your mother — Lily — is now back, so the protection won’t work. Harry, continue, please.”

Harry went on; he explained how Voldemort had emerged from the cauldron, and told them all he could remember of Voldemort’s speech to the Death Eaters. Then he told how Voldemort had untied him, returned his wand, and prepared to duel.

He told, rather gleefully, about the golden beam of light that had connected his and Voldemort’s wands. He could see Cedric emerging; see the old man, Bertha Jorkins . . . his father . . . his mother . . .

His father broke the silence. “The wands connected?” he said, looking from Harry to Dumbledore. “Why?” He quickly added, rather cheekily, “Not that I am complaining. It’s good to be . . . um . . . alive again!”

“Priori Incantatem,” Dumbledore muttered.

“The Reverse Spell effect?” Lily asked.

“Exactly,” said Dumbledore. He went on to explain the shared core between the two wands — Priori Incantatem — which reverses the recent spells cast by the wand in reverse order, starting with the latest and going to the oldest.

(A/N: I’m not writing that part in detail here, you’ve read it before.)

Harry suddenly became aware that Fawkes had left his knee. The phoenix had fluttered to the floor. It was resting its beautiful head against Harry’s injured leg, and thick, pearly tears were falling from its eyes onto the wound left by the spider in the maze. The pain vanished. The skin mended. His leg was repaired.

“Healing powers of Phoenix tears,” whispered Cedric. “Professor Dumbledore?” he said.

“Yes?”

“Sir, I’m of age now, and I’ve seen him return. I want to join you against You-Know-Who, please.”

“Are you sure Cedric? Once you are a part of people against him, there is no turning back. And let me tell you, the dangers you might face will be much worse than the supervised ones we had in the Triwizard Tournament, and that too turned out to be unsafe,” Dumbledore said.

“I’ve died once, and I’m ready to do it again to make this world a better place,” Cedric politely but firmly stated.

“Alright Mr. Diggory. You’ll follow us to the hospital wing then,” said Dumbledore. To the muggle who had introduced himself as Frank Bryce, he said, “I’m afraid I cannot let you go live where you had spent your life, purely for the reasons of your safety.”

“You are good people,” the old man said. “You will fight the bad man who killed me. I do not know magic, but I will live with you. I will be your servant. I know how to cook and clean, and trim gardens.”

“Dumbledore, I want to join you as well,” Bertha stated. “I can be your spy at the ministry.”

“Very good,” Albus Dumbledore said. “Welcome then, to the Order of the Phoenix. I must state this, I have full trust over every single person in the Order, and I believe you will trust each other as well. Please do not let earlier differences come in way of your unity, which is what we require the most to conquer Voldemort.” He cast a meaningful glance at James and Sirius.

He further spoke, “You have shown bravery beyond anything I could have expected of you tonight, Harry. You have shown bravery equal to those who died fighting Voldemort at the height of his powers. You have shouldered a grown wizard’s burden and found yourself equal to it — and you have now given us all what we have a right to expect. You will come with me to the hospital wing, as will the others I suppose. A Sleeping Potion and some peace . . .” he paused. “I’m afraid I cannot say how the Ministry is going to take the news of Voldemort’s return. Ms. Jorkins, I must ask you to go find Cornelius now and try to gain his full trust. You will not speak of today’s events unless asked, and must speak only of what you saw, not what Harry or I told you. You must not cross what Cornelius says, and must agree to whatever he says, stating that you might have been confounded and mistaken some Death Eater as You-Know-Who, should such a situation arise.”

Bertha gave him a solemn nod.

“I must also add, what we discussed today should not leave this room. I trust you all for this. Now, off you go Ms. Jorkins.”

She nodded and walked away. Everyone else stood up as well and walked with Harry and Dumbledore out of the office, accompanying them down a flight of stairs to the hospital wing.

When Dumbledore pushed open the door, Harry saw Mrs. Weasley, Bill, Ron and Hermione grouped around a harassed-looking Madam Pomfrey. They appeared to be demanding where Harry was and what has happened to him. All of them whipped around as Harry, Dumbledore, rest of the group and a black dog entered, and Mrs. Weasley let out a kind of muffled scream.

“Harry! Oh Harry!” she started to hurry toward him.

“Still as fussy as ever, Molly?” James grinned.

Mrs. Weasley glared to see who had spoken up. Then, seeing James and Lily, rushed forward to give them a big hug.

“Molly,” Dumbledore said, “please listen to me for a moment. Harry has been through a lot tonight. What he needs now is sleep, and peace, and quiet. If he would like you all to stay with him,” he added looking around at everyone present in the room, “you may do so. But I do not want you questioning him. James and Lily will answer everything for him.”

Before Madam Pomfrey could question him, he said, “This dog will be remaining with Harry for a while. I assure you, he is extremely well trained.” At this, James grinned at Sirius, muttering under his breath. “Harry — I will wait while you go to bed. I will be back to see you as soon I have met with Fudge. And I would like you and Cedric to remain here tomorrow until I have spoken to the school. And Poppy, I think Sleeping Draught will do some good to Mr. Diggory here as well.”

Cedric knew better than to protest, and soon, he and Harry were fast asleep.

 

Harry woke up to the whispering around him.

“They’ll wake him if they don’t shut up!”

“What are they shouting about? Nothing else can have happened, can it?”

Harry opened his eyes and put his glasses on. Cedric had already woken up and was sitting propped up on pillows in the bed next to him.

“That’s Fudge’s voice,” Mrs. Weasley whispered. “And that’s Minerva McGonagall’s, isn’t it? But what are they arguing about?”

Now Harry could hear them too: people shouting and running toward the hospital wing.

“Regrettable, but all the same, Minerva —” Cornelius Fudge was saying loudly.

“You should never have brought it inside the