9. THE HAUNTING PAST.

Harry and Domino apparated home. The trip was unpleasant, especially for Domino, who ended up throwing up on the floor.

"What was that?" Harry asked, handing Domino a glass of water.

"Apparition," Harry explained. "It's not the most pleasant way to travel, but I haven't had much practice with side-along Apparition."

"It feels like being drunk," Domino said.

"What's so bad about being drunk?" Harry asked. He had never really gotten drunk, but he remembered enjoying the feeling of light intoxication when he had a few drinks in his last year at Hogwarts.

"Just ask a glass of water," Domino said, still feeling a bit sick.

Harry nodded in understanding. Apparition did feel like being sucked up a hose, at least the first few times.

"Check yourself to make sure we didn't leave any body parts behind," Harry said.

"What?!" Domino exclaimed.

"It's called splinching. If you mess up your apparition, you can end up leaving bits of yourself back where you left." Harry replied as he absentmindedly patted himself down. "Never happened to me and I apparate quite a bit, but this is the first time I do a side along so…"

Domino sat down on the couch wearily.

"So … I have … questions."

"That thing … that beautiful creature made of light that made the fear and shadow go away. What was it?"

"A Patronus charm. It summons a protector spirit from your magic and your happiness. Let's see if I remember the description from the book. A magical guardian, a projection of all your most positive feelings. A guardian which generally takes the shape of the animal with whom they share the deepest affinity. Mine used to look like my dad. He could change into an animal, a stag. But it changed to my familiar Hedwig; she died protecting me from a dark curse." Replied Harry.

"Can ... can you summon it again?" Domino asked.

Harry nodded and focused on a happy memory. "Expecto Patronum!"

Hedwig leapt from Harry's wand and seemed to look around for a threat to face. Not finding one, she approached Harry and Domino.

"Hello old girl! Thanks for the help."

Domino took out her phone and looked at it in confusion. "My phone is on the fritz."

"Not surprising considering what happened to all the electronics in the hospital. Electronics don't handle magic too well, and that fight between Hedwig and whatever that darkness was was pretty intense. Then again, not sure if the phone would have survived the apparition anyway. My phone should still be on my bedside table." Harry offered.

While Domino left the room to make the call, Harry summoned a notepad and a pen to jot down his observations about the entity he had met. Magical libraries had to start somewhere after all.

Huffing in annoyance at his lack of progress, Harry summoned a stone basin on his living room table.

In the pensieve, Harry deposited his memories of the earlier events but only of the initial encounter with the creature. Rewatching these memories had yielded some interesting notes. The creature had called him a Sorcerer; perhaps there were other magicals in the world after all.

Adding those notes to his notebook, Harry decided he had had enough for the day and deposited a new memory into the stone basin and had it project the memory over the bowl.

Hermione, Ron, and he were sitting in front of the fire in the Gryffindor common room the night Harry and Cho had kissed under the mistletoe.

"That's what you look like when you smile?."

Harry turned to see Domino standing there watching him.

"Yeah. I'd just had my first proper kiss from a girl. Well, proper is a strong word; she cried through it, leaving me rather confused."

Harry wondered for a few moments, had he not smiled in all this time?

"Mrs. Thompson didn't answer, so I left a message. The hospital probably already called her. Who are they?" Domino asked pointing at the children.

"Hermione and Ron, my two best mates. Well, Ron was a bit of a fair-weather friend, to be honest, but even then, he went through a lot with us. Hermione, on the other hand, was always true to me." Harry replied wistfully.

"What's with this bowl?"

"It's a Pensieve. It holds memories and lets you look at them again for an external view. It's easier to notice things you would normally miss or find patterns."

They watched the memory unfold culminating with the trio breaking out in laughter.

"Here, let me show you something."

Harry returned the memory to his head and extracted another and dropped it in the pensieve.

"Put your finger in the liquid."

Domino looked at him with an incredulous look.

"You want me to put my fingers in your magical brain jizz?"

Harry rolled his eyes at her in exasperation and gently took her hand in his.

"The first time I used one of these, I put my entire face in."

Domino gave him a disgusted look.

"I'm not really a fan of bukake."

Deciding he probably didn't want to know what that meant, he ignored the comment and guided their joined hands into the bowl.

The living room melted away from around them, and they found themselves on an old train platform in the middle of the forest. The platform and forest lacked definition, almost as if they were cloaked in silver mist.

"This is crazy! Where the heck are we? Are we in a memory?"

"The Hogsmeade train station. Just watch. It should become clear in a few moments."

A large red train appeared in the horizon. Its main light cutting through the dark.

As the train approached the surrounding seemed to solidify.

A large shaggy man dressed in a fur trench coat walked up the steps carrying an old style oil lantern.

The train slowed right down and finally stopped. A sea of children poured out of the train and unto the platform.

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here! All right there, Harry?"

Harry look down at himself. He'd forgotten how small and puny he had been at that age. His hair had taken a bit of a style over the years compared to the messy birds nest he had at age eleven.

"Oh my fucking god! That's you! You look so small and scrawny!"

Hagrid's big hairy face beamed over the sea of heads.

"C'mon, follow me - anymore firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"

"Come on. We're following Hagrid." Harry explained as he took Domino's hand.

They followed Hagrid and the children down a steep, dark, narrow path.

"Ye' all get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here."

There was a loud "Oooooh!"

The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black lake.

Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers.

"Wow! That was your school?"

"That was my home for seven years. This is how I like to remember it, not like it was after the battle seven years later."

They stayed on the shore watching the children slowly glide across the still waters towards the school and the scene faded back to their living room.

Harry drew the memory back from the pensive and returned it to his own mind.

"Forget movies! That was fucking amazing! How are you not spending all your fucking time in here?"

"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live." Harry replied, quoting Dumbledore.

The next day found Harry and Domino outside the Thompson's home. They had not heard back from Mrs. Thompson and decided that it would be best to reach out to the woman as she would most likely have questions.

The house was located in one of the more affluent areas of Manhattan. Harry scowled at the Halloween decorations that adorned most of the houses on the street. Halloween had never been a good day for him. Between his parent's murder, the Troll, the opening of the Chamber of Secrets, the day Sirius broke into Hogwarts, the day the stupid Goblet of Fire had chosen him as a fourth champion …Halloween had never been a very happy day for the wizard.

"Her car is here." Domino pointed out while Harry rang the doorbell.

After a few moments and a few more attempts with the doorbell, Harry pulled out his wand and cast a silent detection spell.

"There's one person in the house on the main floor."

With a tap of his wand, the lock on the front door popped open and Harry let himself into the house.

The house, located in one of the more affluent areas of Manhattan, was well appointed. It was the kind of house the Dursley's would have wanted to live in. High end furniture, what Harry assumed was expensive art on the walls, hardwood flooring … the Thompson's appeared to be very well-to-do.

" ?" Harry cried out as he made his way towards the location his detection spell had indicated. "It's Harry, Harry Potter. We have news about your husband."

There was no answer. Harry still had his wand in hand and nodded to Domino who pulled out her stolen pistol.

Walking into an elegant living room, Harry found Mrs. Thompson laying on the couch.

"Mrs. Thompson?" Harry asked as he slowly approached the woman who appeared to have fallen asleep on the couch, a small blanket folded under her head used as a pillow.

On the coffee table were some photo albums and a small uniform of some type.

Harry began casting his limited repertoire of medical spells, mostly learned from his repeated visits with Mme. Pomphrey.

"Do you think Kruger got her?" Domino asked bringing a chair closer to the couch for Harry to use.

The phone began to ring, interrupting Harry's answer.

"Should I answer that?" Domino asked.

Harry shrugged his shoulders in reply.

"Thompson's residence." Domino greeted after gingerly lifting the receiver.

"No, Mrs. Thompson isn't available right now. Can I take a message?"

Harry began flipping through the photo album. The album cover was covered in dust and had strange indentations on it as if it had been lying under something heavy for an extended period of time.

"Is Mr. Thompson ok?" Domino asked after a moment. "I know you can't go into detail but if he's ok I'd rather not have her freaking out for no reason."

The photos inside showed a young girl dressed in a riding uniform riding a horse along with other horse related photos. The photos spanned several years but the album ended abruptly, the last picture showing the girl to be between 14 to 16 years old and there were apparently several pictures recently removed..

"I'll be right back." Harry whispered to Domino before apparating away with a soft crack returning a minute later with a small notebook.

Dennis Creevey had returned to Hogwarts to resume his magical education after the war and had taken up photography as a way to honour his older brother who had died defending Hogwarts during the last battle. The boy had held no ill will against Harry for his brother's death and had taught him some of the spells and potions involved in his brothers passion.

Flicking his wand at one of the photographs, Harry was able to slightly manipulate the images causing them to animate or zooming into the get more detail or even see things not actually captured by the camera.

"Emily Smyth" Harry read on a scoreboard of a photo of an equestrian competition, the last photo of the album, after enlarging that part of the picture.

Animating the photo slightly Harry observed the then Ms. Smyth's expression changing quickly from a bright smile to a somewhat fearful expression.

"Mr. Thompson woke up for a few minutes earlier. He's asleep again but this time it's normal. That's all the hospital could tell me. How are you doing that?!" Domino asked, noticing the animated photo.

"Magic." Harry answered absentmindedly. "Looking for clues. She took this album out recently. It's been in storage for a time. There must be a reason."

"Well, Centaurs are basically horses with a human on them right?"

Harry's head snapped up to look at his assistant. "Oh! Damn! I'm pretty bloody dense not to have thought of that! But she's been riding for years apparently, why would she be afraid of a horse and rider now?"

"That's interesting and all but aren't you going to dive in and pull her out?" Domino asked.

"It's not that simple. I didn't pull out Mr. Thompson, I wouldn't even know where to begin to start to do that. I just made him face his fear and then it broke the … curse I guess or possession or whatever you want to call it."

"Ok so jump in and make her face the centaur. Done deal." 

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I don't like this chapter either and yes i am rewriting an abandoned story. 

I can't change too much as I don't have much time to change this whole chapter.

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