When Shadow and Light Collide

[Numenorian]

Epilogue: Madness


Harry James Potter nervously awaited his guest in his favourite armchair. He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked round. His eldest daughter, Lily Potter, gave him a reassuring smile. He smiled back, his green eyes looking in hers, and ran a hand through her long black hair.
The kitchen door opened and Harry’s only son, James Potter, appeared. He had the same black hair and green eyes as his twin sister Lily.

“Coffee’s ready dad.” James said.

Harry smiled at him. Twenty years had passed since the day Voldemort had fallen. Twenty years of relative peace and love. Harry and Ginny had married and Ginny had given birth to three children. The Boy Who Lived led a happy life, a peaceful life.
Harry awoke from his daydreams when the front door opened. His two best friends, who had always been there for him, even at times he didn’t want them to be, entered the Potter manor.
Harry stood up from his armchair and grinned.

“Hello mate!” Ronald Weasley said.

“Harry!” Hermoine said, and gave him a hug.
“Lily and James! How are you?” She hugged them as well.

Lily smiled. “We’re fine auntie. How’s Katie?”

Katie was the eldest daughter of Ron and Hermoine and one year older than Lily and James. She and Lily were best friends.

“Oh Katie’s great. She says hi and would’ve liked very much to be here, but the pregnancy is starting to take its toll, she has to rest a lot.”

Lily already new this as she visited her best friend every week. During these visits they’d talk for hours and hours about the baby’s name and what it was going to be like and so on.

“Al?” James asked.

“Had to work.” Ron replied.

James looked a bit bummed.
Alfred was Katie’s husband and everybody loved him. He always had a smile on his face and a funny story to tell.

“Ginny too.” Harry said, explaining his wife’s absence.

The front door opened again and two more of Harry’s friends entered the mansion.

“Neville, Luna, How are you?” Harry asked, hugging them.

“Good Harry, good.” Neville said, smiling at his wife.

It came as a bit of a surprise to everyone, when Neville and Luna announced they were in love with each other. But soon enough they all came to see that the two of them were simply perfect together. They also had three children; the eldest two named after Neville’s parents and the youngest named after Luna’s mother.
Luna hugged Ron and hermoine, then turned to Harry.

“Ginny had to work?” She asked in a dreamy voice. Her and Ginny had always been best friends.

Harry nodded.

“How’s the auror training going James?” Neville asked, shaking his hand.

James frowned. “Well, it’s really hard actually.”

“Oh you’re doing fine.” Ron said. Being an auror himself he had been supervising James’ training. “You only made one mistake so far.”

Ron told them about the third exam where the aurors in training had to remain calm and focused in a scary and hostile environment in order to defeat their enemy. It had been a simulation of the dark forest and James’ objective was to rescue two students from an acromentula, a giant spider. But when Ron became an auror, he had made a small adaptation to this exam. Eventually James had found the victims and was slowly moving towards them, searching for his adversary, when suddenly an exact copy of Alastor Moody appeared right beside him and yelled ‘CONSTANT VIGILANCE!’. James had jumped 3 feet into the air and accidentally hit one of the fake students with a spell, making the dummy's head explode.

They all laughed and James turned red. “At least I still defeated that spider and saved one of them” He muttered.

"He should have used a flying car." Harry whispered to Ron, who couldn't surpress a laugh.

“Coffee anyone?” Lily asked.

“Yes please.” Neville and Ron said. Harry and Hermoine nodded that they’d like some too.

“I prefer tea.” Luna said.

“I’ll go make some.”

“No no, I’ll make it myself darling.” Luna and Lily left for the kitchen.

Harry, Hermoine, Ron, Neville and James, still with a blush on his cheeks, all sat down.
Harry’s face turned serious.

“You know why I’ve asked you to come here today. He’ll be arriving any moment now.”

“Yeah but I still don’t understand why he wants to talk to you.” Ron said, frowning his eyebrows.

“Oh come on Ron, it’s perfectly clear.” Hermoine said. “Like others before him he just wants to use Harry for propaganda. He’d gain a lot more followers if Harry would announce he believed in him and his so called plan.”

“But his display yesterday… He can’t seriously think dad would support him after that.”

“I wouldn't ever support him. What he wants to do is wrong and how he wants to do it is terrible.” Harry said, a frown appearing on his face too now.

“Maybe he thinks-“

But James never finished what he wanted to say, for three firm knocks on the front door seemed to resound through the entire mansion.
Luna and Lily quickly entered the room again and gave everybody their drinks.
They all looked at each other. Harry stood up and walked towards the door, took a deep breath and opened it. On the doorstep stood a tall, young man. He wore a heavy dark brown cloack with cap, though the cap was thrown backwards, showing a handsome face and brown hair.
The man seemed to have a certain presence about him that expressed itself in the way his grey eyes looked into Harry’s green eyes, in his movements too, the way he stood there dead straight, intimidating, a sort of charismatic power that immediately filled Harry with respect and admiration for him, but also with fear. There were a few seconds of silence, but then Harry shook off these feelings.

“Come in… Ravenzarth.” He said, saying that last word a little sharper and louder than he wanted.

The man addressed to as Ravenzarth smiled and entered. “I know my followers like to use that name, but actually I prefer to be called by my real name if you don’t mind, which is Mattheïs.”

“Well then hello Mattheïs, welcome to my house.” Harry said, softening his voice a little.

“Thank you.” Mattheïs said, still smiling politely. He examined the room and his smile broadened when he saw the others. “Ah, I see you have assembled a whole jury to decide whether my intentions are for the better… or not.”

“You’ll see that we've already decided on that Mattheïs." Harry gave him an unmistakable look.

"Already? Hastiness often leads do wrong decisions." Mattheïs said, almost grinning now.

"Sit down please.”

Harry pointed at the large dining table on the other side of the living room. Mattheïs sat down on one side, the others on the other side. It indeed seemed as if the tall man were to be judged by a jury.

“Do you want coffee?”

“That would be nice.”

“sugar or milk?” Lily asked.

“Black.” Mattheïs said. The word seemed to linger.

Lily stood up en left for the kitchen again.
A silence fell in which Mattheïs kept looking directly into Harry’s eyes, a smile still on his face. No one made a sound and the others started to look uncomfortable, but Harry wasn’t going to say anything. This man wanted to talk to him, well then he’d have to start talking.
Harry noticed Mattheïs’ eyes weren’t smiling. They seemed to sparkle a bit. Deep grey eyes which seemed to contain all the wisdom of the world, which seemed to hide secrets so big they’d shake the very foundations of the earth if they-
The kitchen door slammed and Lily appeared with the coffee, putting a stop to Harry’s thoughts. Where had those come from?

“Thank you.”

Mattheïs smiled at her, but Lily didn’t look at him. She sat down next to her father, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“So Harry Potter, what do you think of my grand plan?”

Again Harry took a deep breath. “I think it’s senseless and foolish. There’s simply no need to do such a thing Mattheïs and it will never work either.”

Harry had expected the smile on the man’s face to disappear after these harsh words. But instead of disappearing, it widened.

“No need you say? Harry, you know as well as I do that in the past, present and the future the wizarding community has suffered, is suffering and will suffer under this state of living. Wizards and witches have been tortured, killed, humiliated. We are in constant danger, our children are in constant danger. We have to protect our world all the time, spending money on it, wasting time on it. Countless wizards and witches have to work day and night to secure our secret lives. Whenever we want to hold a big event, the quidditch cup for example, we have to take hundreds of safety measures and even then it’s still not waterproof. Communication and cooperation between wizarding communities could be so much easier iif we would give up our secrecy.”

As he spoke, the others listened as if lightning-struck. All he said did seem to make sense. But Harry recovered first.

“You exaggerate.” He said. “We’re not living in constant danger and we’re not suffering at all. ”

“And most of the killing an torturing was done by wizards, not muggles.” Neville said, a painful look on his face. His father had died four years ago and his mother two. And Although they had told him his parents wouldn’t reach an old age, it had still caused him a lot of pain. He visited their graves and that of his grandmother every month.
Luna ra a hand through his hair and kissed him on the cheek.

“It’s true that sometimes things would be a lot easier if we wouldn’t have to keep or world a secret, but the ministry does a great job at hiding it. We’ve learned to adapt.” Hermoine said.

Now Mattheïs’ smile díd disappear.

“We learned to adapt. Indeed we did. We learned, to adapt. And that’s the very problem. Why did wé adapt? Wé are strong, wé are powerful. Muggles are weak. It shows in their weapons of which they are so proud of. They know they don not have real strength, so they create objects that make them feel strong. It isn’t we who should adapt, but them! We shouldn’t have to learn how to live with them; they should learn how to live with us! We have power, we’re just too afraid to use it.”

Harry’s heart started to fill with fear. This Mattheïs started to sound like the man, no, like the monster that had killed his parents.
Mattheïs continued.

“We are strong, we are the ones that should have privileges! But with these privileges comes responsibility. The strong are responsible for the weakness of the weak. For if they do nothing to stop this weakness they become weak themselves. This is the truth.”

Hermoine looked frustrated. “Not necessarily. And your solution to this so called problem and how you want to achieve it is wrong! You want to remove all muggles from The United Kingdom and Ireland and want all the wizards and witches in the world to live here! You want to remove innocent people, both magical and non-magical people, from their homes! Force them if you have to! You can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s inhuman!”

Mattheïs smiled again, but there was no kindness in this smile.

“Don’t you see how perfect my plan is? Can't you see it's for the better? Finally we make ourselves known to the muggle world! At last we won’t have to hide anymore. We’ll live amongst our kind and they’ll live amongst theirs. What's wrong about that? We will be responsible for them ofcourse. We will have the ability to stop all wars. With a flick of our wand we will save thousands. A sip of one of our potions will cure a patient thought to be incurable. We’ll save our planet! And we will run it. They will be our flock and we the shepherds. They’ll be ancient Greece and we Mount Olympus!”

A silence followed. Then Harry spoke and you could here the anger in his voice.

“And you’ll be Zeus?”

Mattheïs laughed. “Exactly. I will make the world a better place than anyone has ever seen! A new world order under wizard sovereignty. A kingdom of conscience, a kingdom of justice. A kingdom of power.”

Only one word came to Harry’s mind: Madness.





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[Numenorian]

Chapter 1. A Prefects Meeting


Almost three years earlier…


He put his trunk in the last compartment on the Hogwarts express and sat down. The train had just started moving. The boy sighed heavily.

“This year was going to be hard.” He thought.

His name was Bryan, Bryan Grindce. Bryan had dark hair, soft brown eyes, pale skin and- you’re wondering why he was sitting there all alone? Well the thing is, Bryan Grindce belonged to a family that had been in the house of Slytherin for ages. And Bryan made no exception. The only difference with all his other relatives was that he hated to be a Slytherin. The most of them were ok, just ordinary students. But he hated all their talk about pure blood and their general disgust for muggles and muggleborns. It was so pathetic. He just couldn’t stand it. And he hated his family too, with their rude muggle jokes and their so called superiority. It made him feel sick. The other Slytherins knew about this. They knew he wasn’t a real Slytherin. They avoided and despised him. And though the house rivalry had diminished in comparison with the rivalry that existed in Harry Potter’s time, it certainly was still there. So Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor students didn’t talk gave him a second look after seeing the Slytherin emblem on his robes. So everyone saw him as a Slytherin, except for the slytherins themselves. He was an outcast, who didn’t belong to any house. That’s why Bryan Grindce was sitting alone. Sitting alone for the sixth time, alone like every other year. The only reason other Slytherins had never bullied him was because of he’d always had a strong appearance, with broad shoulders and strong arms. Also it was rumored that he had extraordinary dueling skills and that he was very good at, and loved the dark arts.
But this year was going to be harder than the others. He was chosen to be a prefect, which he hadn’t expected in the least.

“A prefect.” He thought. “Why in Merlin’s name did they choose him to be a prefect? How were people going to react if he was going to boss them around? Not well.”

Bryan left the compartment, ignoring a scorning look from a Slytherin. He had to go a prefect meeting or something of that sort, where he was going to get instructions from the headboy and headgirl. He sighed once more.

“If I’m good at something, it surely is sighing.”


**********

A sixteen year old Lily Potter her mother Ginny on the cheek.

“Bye Mum. See you at Christmas. Write me every week!”

“Have fun darling and behave.” Ginny said, giving her eldest daughter an appraising look.

“Mum, did you think I’m a prefect because I don’t behave? Those are the things you have to say to James.” Lily said, pointing at her twin brother.

James, tried his best ‘but-I’m-an-angel’ look.

“I always behave baby-sister.”

“I’m older than you James.”

“Just by a minute.”


Lily potter was sixteen years old, with black hair and blue eyes. Her sister Daisy was three years younger and her twin brother James only a minute. Both her siblings had green eyes, just like their father, but James hair was as black as Lily’s, while Daisy’s was red like fire.
Lily watched as her mother kissed both her sister and her brother. Her father was already at Hogwarts, since he was the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, ever since the Second War.

After last goodbyes and waving enthusiastically the three of them got on the train with their trunks and owls and walked down the corridor as it started moving. Halfway Daisy said goodbye and entered a compartment to their left where her friends were. Lily and James caught sight of three weasleys, a boyle and a longbottom before the door closed.

“Let’s find an empty one.” James said.

Suddenly they heard a loud voice behind them.

“What’s all this? Holding everyone up on the corridor? My, my, are we in trouble.”

Lily turned to see Teddy, son of Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks, who both had died when he was still a baby. Teddy Lupin was about to commence his last year at Hogwarts.

“We’re the only ones in the corridor Ted. Nice imitation of Filch though.’

Teddy grinned.

“Yeah, well I heard that phrase more than I can count.”

Teddy really was quite the troublemaker. Behind him appeared three other well-known figures; Alice and Frank Longbottom and Lizanne Weasley. Alice and Frank, who were two years apart from each other, were the daughter and son of Neville and Luna.
Lizanne Weasley was the daughter of Bill and Fleur and of the same age as Lily and James. She was almost an exact copy of her mother with sparkling blue eyes, silver-blonde hair and something gracefully about her. She too was chosen to be a prefect this year, but like Lily was a prefect for Gryffindor, she’d be a prefect for Ravenclaw.

They all greeted each other cheerfully and entered the last compartment which seemed to be empty, except for a trunk. But as there was no one there, they all sat down. They told each other about their holidays for a few minutes, but then Lily, Lizanne and Alice, who was in her seventh year at Hogwarts and Head girl, left for the prefects meeting.
James, Frank and Teddy spent the time catching up with each other and talking about the dueling tournament. It was installed soon after the War. Students of fifteen years of age or older could participate in the tournament and the winner would win the dueling cup. Once every three years there was a dueling tournament in which all schools in Europe could let their winners of the last three years participate.

“I’ll win that tournament like changing a whistle into a watch.” Teddy exclaimed, tapping his watch. It changed into a whistle, but when he tried to play it no sound could be heard. The others laughed at the sight of Teddy’s face getting redder and redder trying to get a sound out of the whistle. Finally he gave up, took a deep breath and regained his color.

‘Last time you said that, your head got as big as a pumpkin before Dad got it back to normal.’ James said. Frank laughed even harder.

“At least I didn’t make my teacher fly instead of my feather practicing the levitation spell.” Frank was laughing hysterically now.


**********

Bryan entered the prefects compartment. The two prefects of Hufflepuff were already there, as was one of the prefects from Ravenclaw. They all looked at him in surprise; one of the Hufflepuffs even had a glimpse of fear on his face. Bryan sighed and sat down. Moments later Alice Longbottom, the Head girl and Stan Finnigan, the Head boy, came in. They were followed by Lily Potter and Lizanne Weasley.

Bryan looked at them. All three of them were beautiful. Especially the silver-blonde one with the sparkling blue eyes; she was absolutely gorgeous. Suddenly the girl looked at him. He quickly turned away. He didn’t want to give her the impression that he was staring. A few seconds later Sean Thomas entered the room as the second prefect of Gryffindor. He was followed by Mycandra Malfoy, daughter of Draco Malfoy. She had an unpleasant smile on her face when she saw Lily and Lizanne.

“If it isn’t Potter and Weasley. I can’t believe Keynes made you scum prefects.”

Both Lily and Liz stood up immediately, the looks on their faces expressing pure hatred for the girl in front of them.

“Quiet prefect.” Alice said with in an angry tone.

“And Longbottom’s Head girl? This school really needs a new Headmaster.”

Lily did an aggressive step towards Mycandra, who smirked.

“So you want a fight?” She drew her wand.

“Sit down Narcissa. I want to get this over with.”

Everyone stared at the other Slytherin prefect. Bryan continued to look in front of him with his arms crossed. But to everyone’s surprise Mycandra put her wand away and sat down, looking very irritated but keeping her mouth shut.

After a few seconds Alice regained her voice and started explaining with a slightly shivering voice what their tasks were as a prefect.

**********

Around noon Alice, Lily and Liz got back from the meeting to find James, Frank, Teddy and Frederick Gizzenby, a friend of theirs, at a game of exploding snap.

“Guess who’s one of the Slytherin prefects.” Lily said.

“Mycandra Malfoy!” Alice exclaimed dramatically before anyone could answer.

“Malfoy? Ugh that’s not good. That’s not good at all.” James looked worried.

“Now she’s going to be even more annoying.”

“She can’t be more annoying than she already is.” Frederick said.

“Oh yes she can Fred, she’ll be the ninth world wonder.” Teddy replied.

They all laughed.

“Who’s the other Slytherin prefect?”

“That Grindce boy.” Alice said.

“Bryan Grindce?” Teddy asked. Lilly nodded.

“They say he’s very good at the dark arts.” Alice whispered.

“And did you hear what he did in his third year?” Teddy said.

“What?” Lily asked curiously.

“They say he cursed three sixth years so badly they were in the hospital wing for a week.”

Lily and Alice looked frightened.

“He seemed a bit sad to me.” Lizanne said.

“I’d be sad too if I had a family like his.” James said. “I mean, his parents were-“

Suddenly the door opened again. Bryan Grindce entered.

At first he didn’t seem to notice there were other people in the compartment. Lizanne had been right, he really did look sad. He looked up and realized that instead of being alone, seven people were staring at him in utter surprise. The gorgeous prefect with the silvery blonde hair was there too. Unwillingly he started to blush.

“Ummm, hello.” He said.

They all kept staring at him. Then James opened his mouth.

“What are you doing here Slytherin?”

“Yeah, what are you doing here? Eavesdropping us?” Frank said.

Bryan frowned at the insult. “No, I-“

“Probably looking for a reason to take points from Gryffindor, aren’t you.” Teddy said, not letting him finish.

Bryan looked angry. “No! Of course not, just let me finish! I just-“

“You were just looking for a way to get us detention, weren’t you, ‘dark arts lover’.” James said, drawing his wand.

But Bryan, who had drawn his faster, pointed with it at his trunk, which was behind James. It flew towards him, knocking James to the ground on its way. Then he pointed at James’ wand and using a non-verbal disarming spell it flew out of the boy’s hand. The next moment Teddy, Frank, Frederick and Lily all drew theirs.

“WAIT!” Bryan yelled.
The silence that followed was overwhelming. For a moment it seemed as if the fight would still break loose.

“I just wanted to get my trunk.” He said, pointing at it. “I put it here and left for the prefect meeting. When I came back I didn’t know anybody else was here. But I’ll leave. Just wanted to get my trunk back.”

No one moved. They all seemed as if lightning-struck, staring at the boy in front of them.
When no one made a move after several seconds, Bryan left the compartment, giving a last glance at Lizanne.





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