Harry Potter and the Sympathy of Souls

III) "Lies"

PART ONE: NICHOLAS

Harry opened his eyes, gasping. His whole body was aching, and his scar felt as if it had been branded on with a hot iron. He could hear murmurs from all over the room, and when he sat up, he saw people craning over their desks trying to get a good look at him.

Brushing off Professor Tofty's worried fussing, Harry pretended that he was going to head up to the hospital wing to get a headache potion and some rest. The second he was out of sight, he sprinted up towards Gryffindor common room. He arrived, gasping and panting for breath, and hurtled up towards his dormitory. Sparing no thought to the first and second years, who had already finished their end-of-year exams, staring at him.

He bent over his trunk, and started rifling through it madly, searching for an ornate silver mirror. It had arrived along with the rest of his Christmas presents at Grimmauld Place, along with a note from Nicolas, explaining how to use it.

Harry's fingers fumbled as he finally managed to grab hold of the mirror, and lifted it to his eye level. "Nicolas Flamel!" he intoned firmly, obeying the instructions in the note attached to the mirror.

The image of his face reflected in the mirror disappeared, and instead, Harry found himself staring at a white surface, with an unidentifiable brown smudge at the very edge of the mirror. An annoying ringing was piercing the air, getting louder and louder as the seconds wore on and Harry wondered what was going on.

Just as Harry was beginning to think he had somehow made a mistake, the sound of rushing footsteps emanated from the mirror, and a second later the mirror became a topsy-turvy blur of colors which then resolved itself into Nicolas's familiar face.

The ringing had stopped as soon as the surface of the mirror had morphed once again, and Harry assumed its purpose had been to alert Nicolas to the fact that he was being contacted by Harry, rather like the ring of a telephone.

"Harry!" Nicolas smiled widely when he saw Harry. Then, taking a closer look, he frowned. "You don't look so good. What can I do for you?"

"I just had another vision." explained Harry quickly "Voldemort has my godfather Sirius in the Department of Mysteries, and he was torturing him!"

"The Department of Mysteries?" Nicolas looked extremely puzzled "Where all the highly-trained Unspeakables could happen upon him at any moment? How strange."

"I've been dreaming about it all year," replied Harry, "I think there's something in there that Voldemort wants. A weapon or something. Dumbledore has a secret order that fights Voldemort, and I know that there have been members of the Order standing guard at the entrance to the Department all year. That's where Mr. Weasley was when I saw the snake attack him."

"Interesting." said Nicolas "I have no knowledge of what is in the Department of Mysteries, but it stands to reason that it would contain some very powerful weapons. I assume your godfather is a member of this secret order?"

Harry nodded.

"Then I suggest you try to contact a member of this group and inform them of the situation. Meanwhile, I shall go to the Ministry of Magic myself to assess the situation. I shall keep the mirror on me, so that we may inform each other of our progress. Good luck."

"And you," replied Harry. "thank you, Nicolas."

~

Harry sprinted out of the hospital wing, and towards an empty classroom a few feet away. He had no one but Nicolas to turn to. Professor Dumbledore wasn't there, Hagrid was gone, and he had just found out that Professor McGonagall wasn't there either. The severity of her injuries necessitated her transfer to St. Mungo's.