Prologue
“Thanks Merlin, the Dark Lord is now dead.”, Mrs.Figg slurs, after the tea party with Ginny, Luna and Harry in one afternoon.
Ginny thinks the old lady had had too much Fire Whiskey in her tea, but Harry doesn’t.
“The Dark Lord isn’t real,” Ron laughs mockingly, stuffing more pastry in his mouth. “Dead, defeated by the Aurors and moreover, Professor Dumbledore; they are bloody good, I tell you.”. Harry only nodded and pulled his friend in their way to pre-Hogwarts Charm class of Professor Flitwick.
“Hhm? ‘Dark Lord’ is just a meaningless title.”, Hermione scowls, turns the page of her Herbology book. The children are in the library, when Harry asks after Ron clumsily hit the candles, let them burnt out in the sticky puddle of wax.
“ There’s none.”, Draco Malfoy snorts, put the knight down on the chessboard, corners the white king. “It’s just horror story to scare bad kids.”
Harry stops asking then.
“They are real.”, Luna’s voice sounded oddly distant, “My papa told me once. In the Forbidden Forest, there was a tower….”
7 years old. He is only 7 when he snuck out from Lily’s observing eyes – his mother teaches Muggle Study in Hogwarts – to head out to the Forbidden Forest.
Hagrid usually takes him to the forest in broad daytime. Harry is, practically, in heaven whenever he get the chance. The kid is mesmerized by sweet, plump berries bushes; he plays with the giant squid in the Lake; chasing blue pixies around and around. He collects the mushrooms, cooing at those unicorns when the caretaker has Care of Magical Creatures classes. He stomps in muddy puddles after rains, or screams till his throat goes hoarse to annoy the mermaids – they get mad eventually, splashing water on his face by the swept of tails. Harry tags along with Hagrid since he got too big to ride Fang, gaping at the half-giant’s stories of the forest, green eyes gleaming like ocean in sunlight. He wanders around with Fang in summer breezes; he naps on the branches of the Whomping Willow without any accidents – a surprisingly miracle that got James several hysterical laughs and a terrified, but curious Lily. Harry simply adores the Forbidden Forest, even pestering his parents to let him stay in the wood all day. One glare from Lily stops his attempt, leaving a pouty Harry with unshed tears on the eyelashes.
Giant Hagrid tells him every single day before they go into the forest: “Stick with me, kid; and no trips at night.”
Harry is 7 when his Gryffindor persona rides up. He sneaks through the dancing elves tapestry next to Muggle Study class of his mother, runs into the forest when the light is fading. Alone.
Fang whines softly when Harry crawls out under the ivy web, scratching on the ground as the boy pats dirt from his jeans. Harry looks up, his head falls back as he pants harshly. Up. And up.
“Don’t get too far in the forest, sweetie.”, Lily whispered faintly, hugged Harry closer. The nightlight went blurry before her sight. “Never find the tower, sweetie.”
Harry’s eyes went wide. “The tower?”. Luna just smiled, her eyebrows furrowed as if she knew a secret. A dark, horrible secret,
“In the Forbidden Forest, deep in the wood, there was a tower….”
At first, Harry can’t recognize its shape, especially when the only source of light is the lasting sunset of yellowish orange clouds above. Like a gigantic, filthy and lethal monster; the tower – Harry can see some old bricks behind the wave of vines – appears, lurking in thick, coiled shadow of twilight. Rotten and abandoned. An owl dashes from the nearby oak tree, swings over Harry’s head so sudden that he startles slightly. {Creepy}, the kid rolls his eyes, {but bloody wicked}.
Harry steps forward to the tower, then startles again as if he just walked under a waterfall of cold, thick porridge. Ignoring Fang’s frightened barks; he slowly creeps to the vines. Hypnotizing by the odd sense of magic, he rises up, catches the iron bars that run around the tower in a cage-shape, effortlessly swing up like a true gymnast. Dust and dry leaves pour on his messy Potter head, yet he doesn’t bat an eyelash at the unwanted accident. Harry closes his fingers tightly onto the bars, Avada green eyes stare in between the crack of decaying wooden boards.
:So hungry, I’m hungry:
Harry jolts, almost slips his hands.
:Hello?:
Suddenly, Harry’s shirt collar is snatched backward, makes him to let go of the bars. Firenze’s face – Harry remembers the kind centaur he met when Hagrid took he to the forest to find some orchids for Molly’s birthday – presses closely to Harry, astonish blue eyes dilate of frightens.
“Firen…”
“What on earth are you doing here, human child? No one is allowed to be here, Harry Potter.”
The centaur hurls Harry onto his back like a potato sack, flees back to Hogwarts. Harry clings on Firenze’s waist to prevent falling, casts a quick bewildered look back to the tower.
“There’s someone in the tower.”, the boy stirs.
Firenze snaps at him. “Nothing is there, Harry Potter. You are not allowed to stay in the forest without the half giant or human wizards, do you understand?”
Harry winces. Firenze never raises his voice at him. Fang barks happily, throws a I-told-you-so glance to the kid.
“Do you understand, child?
Harry says “yes” in the minimum volume. Later, the centaur hears the boy mumbles softly.
“Please don’t tell mommy. She will forbid me from flying for the whole month.”
The centaur nods.
Lily suspiciously scrutinizes at her brat of a son’s ecstasy story of hunting fireflies with the help of Firenze, knowing that there isn’t any fireflies in this season in the wood. She doesn’t point that out, though, even when she sees the centaur nodding along Harry’s frantic speaking speed, his white blonde hair swaying in the air. When the two of them get home, Harry dances from the firesides to bedroom, a smudge of ash on his nose; not forget to hum a goodnight wish to his parents before Lily can catch him, therefore avoids the consequence in the morning with his mother’s wrath.
That night, Harry dreams of the lone tower that silently stands in the dark, and the whispering of ancient cursed language, all but caressing his lightning scar.