Titre: The Awakening

Auteur: Shae Vizla

Rating: T

Genre: Aventure / Family

Pairings: None, it's a gen story so far, put perhaps Harry/Luna later

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, JK Rowling does. I am only using her works in a nonprofit way.

Summary: AU. When Harry Potter and his cousin are attacked by Dementors, something strange happens to him and the adolescent begins to recall memories that are not his. But as Harry Potter or Regulus Black, the young wizard is determinated to stay with Sirius and vanquish Voldemort. And this time, he will have no of the oneshot: If you can't succeed the first time around…

This fic is the sequel of the oneshot If you can't succeed the first time around… You didn't need to have read it in order to understand the plot of the story, but it's better to do it. The Awakening is an english translation of my story L'Éveil.

2 August 1995

Harry Potter would have been unable to describe, let alone explain, what happened when one of the Dementors who had chased Dudley and him began to suck his soul. It was like his whole body had started to emit some kind of pulsation, before a shock wave emanated from Harry and forced the creature to let him go. But it wasn't the time for questions, he still had to do everything he could in order to protect both souls.

The strange phenomenon had made him drop his wand again and without thinking, functioning only on instinct and adrenaline, the young wizard cried Accio, suppressing a sigh of relief when he felt his wand gently vibrate in his hand in harmony with his magic. He closed his eyes to concentrate on a happy thought and remembered Sirius offering him to come live with him. He felt a pulse once again and a feeling of warmth before shouting:

"EXPECTO PATRONUM !"

Harry was taken aback for a moment when, instead of a stag, his Patronus took the form of a large silver dog. Padfoot ? the teenager thought confusedly while the Patronus eagerly hunted down his attacker. Deciding to ignore this mystery for now, Harry ordered the dog to attack the other Dementor whose hooded head was coming dangerously close to the mouth of his cousin. Like its companion, the creature was thrown into the air by the dog and fled away. The silver dog continued to pursue it until the end of the driveway before dissipating in a silver mist.

Harry turned to Dudley, who was still curled up in a fetal position on the ground and used his wand to cast a cheering charm on him, which should help his cousin to surmount the side effects of his recent exposure to the Dementors. How do I know that?... It's not important for now, I have to help Dudley. He reached into his pocket and fished out a chocolate bar from Honeydukes, since he always kept one his person in case he got hungry during his long absences from the 4 Privet Drive. After breaking it in two, he knelt beside his cousin and waved half of the tablet under his nose.

"Eat this, the chocolate will reduce the discomfort you feel because of these creatures."

Dudley slightly raised his head and looked at him with a mixture of fear and mistrust. Harry rolled his eyes, remembering what had happened the last time his cousin had eaten a magic candy and began eating his share of the tablet to prove it hadn't been bewitched. Dudley then snatched the chocolate and began to devour it. Big tears soon rolled down his cheeks, but Harry pretended not to notice in a show of male solidarity.

He had just finished his last piece of chocolate when he heard a voice he barely recognized as Dudley's whispering:

"I feel much better... Why do I feel better after eating chocolate? And what happened? I thought it was you, but you made me feel better so..."

"You apparently couldn't see them because you're… not like me but two Dementors attacked us. These are the guards of Azkaban, the Wizards' prison, and being close to them gives you the impression that you'll never be happy again, then you remember all the bad things that have happened to you."

The young wizard decided to avoid mentioning that the Dementor's Kiss also deprived an individual of his soul. Dudley was still shaking and reeling from the attack and he didn't need to know how close he had been to the Void. Harry wondered vaguely what bad memories a child as spoiled as his cousin might have before theorizing that his bullying and overweight could have very well cause him to be bullied in turn by his seniors in the start of his tuition at Smelting...

Harry heard the running steps of someone approaching behind them and spun, taking care not to expose his wand, though he was ready to use if needs be. He raised his eyebrows when he recognized Mrs Figg, their old crazy neighbour with too many cats who, judging by her appearance, was returning from shopping. Several strands escaped from her bun and she had run over several dozen meters judging from her difficult breath. Why was the old Squib in such a state? Harry frowned. Where did that come from? As far as he knew, she was a Muggle, like any other residents of the neighbourhood except him.

"Don't put it away, stupid boy! shrieked Mrs Figg. What if there are others around? Oh, that Mundungus Fletcher, I'm going to kill him!"

Mundungus Fletcher? The stupider and greedier thief of the British Wizarding World? And Arabella Figg? Dumbledore must really be senile to recruit such morons in his Order of Fried Chicken...

The young wizard raised his eyebrows again. He saw in a flash a man of medium height with shifty eyes and in another a Mrs. Figg fifteen years younger. He listened with only one ear while his neighbour told him that Mundungus had left in order to purchase stolen cauldrons... Typical of Fletcher. So it was him I heard Apparating before the attack. Dumbledore and his sycophants haven't deigned to contact me all summer, not even to help me to overcome Cedric's death, leaving me biting my fingers while I torment myself into imagining what is going on with Voldemort and all this time, they were spying on me without even telling me. What a bunch of morons! Dumbledore really became senile if he trusts someone like Mundungus Fletcher. Or too arrogant. Nothing new under the sun, he had always been like that.

"Why did you never tell me that you knew I was a wizard? You had more than one occasion to do it when you babysat me."

"It was on Dumbledore's orders."

For Pete's sake, another member of Albus Dumbledore's personal cult. Were the residents of the British Wizarding World unable to think by themselves? If Dumbledore said so, then it was obviously true and the whole shebang ... The Wizarding World is filled with sheeps, divided between those who swallow the crap uttered by the Ministry via the Prophet, the supporters of the Dark Lord and the disciples of Dumbledore...

"I had to keep an eye on you without revealing anything to you."

She began to give him crap excuses such as he was too young at the time, or he might tell his uncle and aunt. Nothing but stupid excuses. Harry had learned early on to have secrets for the Dursley who were bent on preventing him from experiencing a single moment of joy since Dumbledore had seen fit to throw him on their doorstep like a bottle of milk. And it had been five years since he had been informed of the existence of magic. He was too young... He was not ready... It was for his own good... All of this was only excuses the adults invented in order to control his life.

"How am I going to tell Dumbledore what had happened? I don't know how to Apparate, I'm a Squib!"

"You are connected to the Floo Network, I suppose?"

"Albus told me it was only for emergencies!" cried the Squib hysterically, wringing her hands.

"I believe we are just in the middle of one now" said Harry sarcastically.

Mrs Figg, totally ignoring the teenager, continued to wring her hands. Unimpressed by her ability to think under pressure, Harry rolled his eyes and chose to help his cousin on his feet. Dudley was strangely subdued and quietly followed him when he began to take the direction of 4 Privet Drive. Mrs Figg followed them as she continued to babble:

"You don't understand. Dumbledore will need to act quickly, the Ministry have their own ways to detect the use of magic by underage students. They already know about this, you can be sure of it."

"Don't fret over it, Mrs Figg, the law allows me to use magic in case of self-defence. And two Dementors trying to give the kiss to Dudley and me clearly is a case of self-defence."

How do I know that? It's... make perfect sense actually. Let's forget it for now.

"But ... But…," stammered the Squib whom, in this instant, was making a very good impression of a fish out of the water. "You did magic in front of Dudley, a Muggle! Just think about the Statute of Secrecy!"

"Mrs Figg", replied placidly Harry. "Dudley is my cousin, we live under the same roof and he has been fully aware of the existence of magic for years. The Statute of Secret doesn't apply to him."

He glanced sideways at his cousin who nodded to confirm his statements.

"But... But..."

Damn, why do I have to deal with such fools? The Order of the Feathered Ones decidedly didn't improve with the years.

He exchanged another look with Dudley and whispered:

"That's what happens when people only get married between cousins."

Dudley let out a snort before saying:

"It's a really good thing that is so not going to happen to us…"

"You break my heart just now, Big D."

The two cousins exchanged an amused look and suppressed their laughter. Harry found it really strange to have this kind of exchange with Dudley but after all, his relationship with Hermione and Ron had really begun after they escaped a death-by-troll together. This situation wasn't much different.

The young wizard then heard the characteristic pop of an Apparition and spun, lifting his wand while a strong smell of cheap alcohol and bad tobacco invaded the atmosphere. Harry immediately recognized the man he had seen in his earlier memory, but seemingly thirty years older. Huh, apparently alcoholism ages you prematurely. The boy swore to never drink to excess.

Both adults bickered for a while before Fletcher disappears to warn their common brain. Mrs Figg walked the two teenagers back home without offering any interesting information to Harry, merely telling him to wait Dumbledore's instructions before walking away. The wizard stifled a scream of frustration, Dumbledore had obviously trained the squib as well as his others pets in his little gang. She didn't say anything important to him and anyway, he was sure she only knew the bare essentials for her mission. Dumbledore always had the annoying habit of keeping everyone, including his henchmen, in the thickest fog, unless absolutely necessary.

Harry frowned as he entered the house after his cousin. He had always been sarcastic and had never fully trusted Dumbledore despite the absolute devotion of his entourage for the Headmaster because he had long since learned that he shouldn't expect anything from the authority figures or any other adult and could only really rely on himself. However, these trends seemed to have increased exponentially since the attack, and he appeared to know things he wasn't supposed to... Nevertheless, it was different from his nightmares and his scar wasn't hurting at all, so he wasn't particularly worried.

"Diddy! It's about time! I was really beginning to..."

Aunt Petunia suddenly stopped talking and rushed to her son. Even if he regained some colours after eating half a bar of chocolate, the blond was still very pale. She pinched his cheeks and paced around him, seemingly looking for what was wrong.

"I'm fine, Mum. Harry and I, we were attacked but Harry..."

"ATTACKED !" exclaimed Petunia as she quickly scanned Harry from head to foot before guiding his son to the couch. "Vernon? VERNON!"

Harry's uncle emerged into the living room with a heavy step and looked around, before rushing to his son when he saw his wife helping him sit down.

"What's going on, Dudley? You're awfully white."

"I'm fine, Dad. I'm just a little shocked. Something attacked Harry and me on our way home, but he made them flee with his magic."

Vernon turned to Harry and several conflicting emotions passed rapidly over his face. He was apparently furious that his nephew had used magic but on the other hand his beloved son affirmed that it was in order to save him. He finally asked:

"What has happened, bo... Harry?"

"There were..."

Harry's answer was interrupted by the arrival of an owl gaving him a letter. The teenager emitted a derisive laugh when he discovered its provenance to be the Ministry, claiming they wanted to expel him and snap his wand. Ridiculous. He would have had to commit at least a dozen of serious infractions or put someone's life in danger in order to be expelled. And he only had the episode about the flying cake – one for which he wasn't even guilty - in his record, since Fudge had covered up the accident with Aunt Marge, which was in fact accidental magic since he didn't use his wand.

"Incompetents fools, muttered the teen before continuing, as I was saying, there were two Dementors in the street..."

"Two what? asked Vernon. What is that that nonsense?"

"De-men-tors, Harry repeated slowly. There were two of them."

"And what the hell are Dementors?"

"They are the guardians of Azkaban, the wizardly prison," said Aunt Petunia shakily.

The woman seemed as shocked as his nephew by the words coming out of her mouth and she quickly clapped her hands above it. Discovering about Figg was a surprise, or rather half a surprise, but Aunt Petunia... It was just surreal. Harry wondered for a moment if the Dementor had actually sucked his soul and if all that had happened since the attack was in fact a delirium created by his tormented soul... Nah, impossible. He didn't have enough imagination to create a world where he'll get along with Dudley and Petunia would tell tales about the Wizardly World on her own accord.

This was the moment a second owl chose to make its appearance. Harry was hardly surprised that the great Dumbledore had not deigned to write him himself and that it was only a message from Arthur Weasley asking him not to surrender his wand to any official of the Ministry. As if he ever had intended to do it... They had no legal justification to expel him, or destroy his wand, and he had never been one to be intimidated by fools. He instead chose to focus on the current situation and asked his aunt how she came by her knowledge of the Dementors.

Petunia seemed as lost as he was and looked guiltily at her husband before lowering her hands and say,

"I heard that awful boy... he was talking to her... about them… a long time ago."

Harry opened his mouth to shout at her that she ought to call his parents by their names and surprised himself by quietly saying instead:

"Do you meant Severus Snape?"

Aunt Petunia's eyes widened, obviously as surprised as him by his response and nodded mechanically.

"How do you know this name?"

"He's one of my professors."

"I was sure he had died during their war. He was the one who stuffed the head of my sweet little sister with all his stories about the fabulous world of magic before taking her from me. Not that it did him any good, she dropped him like an old sock for a rich and popular boy when she no longer needed him. She always had a real talent in using people for her benefits before throwing them like any old Kleenex."

The words of her aunt and the intense bitterness with which she had uttered them shocked Harry to the core. He was trying to assimilate the idea that her mother had been friends with Snape, and above all how he had known that his aunt was talking about him and not James Potter, when a third owl appeared. Harry rolled his eyes when he discovered that it came from the same ministerial employee who was now informing him of the change in their decision to expel him in favour of a disciplinary hearing. It was becoming more and more foolish by the minute. If he hadn't known the laws of the Wizarding World beforehand, he would be certainly have panicked, which probably had been their intention all along.

He thought that things were getting really ridiculous when a fourth owl appeared after going through the chimney with a short message from Sirius asking him not to do anything drastic and to wait like a nice little boy, as usual. His heart pinched at the thought of the Animagus and Harry reasoned it was due to his disappointment that his godfather still did not put him first.

After all that, he explained calmly to Vernon and Petunia what had happened, reassuring them about the fact that he had intervened before one of the Dementors could suck the soul of his cousin. He then advised his aunt to prepare a cup of hot chocolate for Dudley in order to help vanish the side effects of his exposure to the creatures completely. Harry was more than a little surprised when her aunt put a second cup before him and gave him a small smile of thanks.

"What were these Dementoids even doing in Little Whinging?" Vernon finally asked.

"I think they were after me, the real question is about who sent them, and why."

"YOU !" growled Vernon, before shutting up when Petunia put her hand on his arm.

"Let him finish. Explain to me why the creatures who aim to keep their worst criminals would attack a fifteen year old boy? It's absurd, even for them."

"Well, there are two possibilities. The first that comes to mind is that he sent them to kill me because he seems to have a fixation on me."

"He?"

"Lord Voldemort, the wizard who killed my parents."

"But he's dead," said Vernon.

"Not really, it seems that he only lost his body that night... One of his minions infiltrated the school and arranged for me to participate in a really dangerous tournament – in which I shouldn't even have been able to enter since I'm a minor - and they captured me. Voldemort then used my blood to perform some black magic ritual in order to regain a body."

Vernon seemed on the verge of a stroke while Dudley's face was as white as a sheet. As for Petunia, she frowned before asking:

"Why has nobody informed us of this?"

"Uh?"

"We are your guardians, they had no right to make you participate in any tournament without our permission, let alone compel you to do it. And they are supposed to warn us if anything happens to you. I think a mad man determined to kill you is more than a sufficient reason to contact us !"

"Well, it's not like it was the first time someone tried to kill me since I've arrived to Hogwarts. I nearly die almost every year."

"What! I thought this school was supposed to be the safest place for your lot!"

An expression of derision appeared on the face of the teenager.

"Say that to Cedric Diggory's parents, he was kidnapped with me by Voldemort but he didn't survive."

Dudley turned pale.

"Your nightmares, it's because you have seen him die, isn't it?"

Harry was surprised to see pity and shame play on his cousin's face. He would have never thought Dudley was capable of such emotions.

"You said that there were two possibilities, what is the second one?" asked her aunt.

"Huh? Oh yes. The Dementors are controlled by the Ministry of Magic..."

"They have their own government? I'm no longer surprised that England is falling apart."

The teenager ignored his uncle's grumbling and continued:

"The problem is that the wizardly government, and especially the Minister - an incompetent fool in the pockets of one of Voldemort's minions - refuses to believe the mere thought of him returning. If Fudge wasn't such a coward, I would suspect him of having tried to kill me in order to shut me up."

"ENOUGH, I HAVE HEARD ENOUGH! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT! I REFUSE THAT YOU GET US ALL KILLED BECAUSE OF YOUR ABNORMALITY!"

"Vernon, Calm down!"

"But Pet..."

"Vernon, these people want us dead, inconsequentially of the boy living with us. They hate everyone who is not like them, especially those who are like them but were born in a normal family, like my sister. At least as long he live with us, we are protected too. I have explained to you that the protection was working for both him and us when we took him under our roof."

"Aunt Petunia..."

"I have never wanted you to come live with us and I am sure she wouldn't have wanted it either. Your presence among us makes me remember unpleasant things that I have wanted to forget but in spite of everything, that does not mean I want you dead."

"Pet..."

"I said he was staying, Vernon, and that's final."

"I want him to stay too, intervened Dudley. He helped me even when he didn't have to."

Just then, a new owl appeared to deliver a howler to Petunia. It was in all pretty anti-climatic. His aunt was shaken but seemed more pissed than anything else. Whoever his interlocutor was - and Harry had an idea on the matter - he had greatly underestimated her aunt.

Betaed by butterfly83.

Notes

In fact, when I first published If you can't succeed the first time around… in French, I didn't really thought about writing a sequel and I was quite surprised that some of you talk me into it in their reviews, and followed the fic when I indicated that the story was complete. I had a vague idea for several small oneshots on this theme, but I didn't have any idea about how I could develop it apart by introducing an entity like the Destiny that would reveal to Harry he was chosen to defeat Voldemort because of his desire to finish what he started in his previous life. And to be frank, I thought it was neither original nor very subtle.

The same thing happened when I published the English version, and I begun to think more seriously about the idea of writing a sequel. I was doing something completely different when I got the idea to make the attack by Dementors have an unintended consequence on Harry, by giving him access to his memories of his previous life.

Amusingly enough, one of the authors listed in my favorites, Tsume Yuki, has started a fic where Harry Potter is also Regulus Black's reincarnation. Like we said in France, les grands esprits se rencontrent… (great minds think alike). I hope you will like this fic, as well as the others fics I plan to translate in English in the near future.

Regarding the shockwave

The story will not really reveal what happened, because Harry will not have all the elements to deduce it exactly. Basically, the soul of Harry is more complex than the ones of most people, even without considering the small part of Riddle's soul clinging to him. In the world of The Awakening, when a witch or a wizard dies, their soul goes to the Other Side and is reincarnated after some time. Before dying, Regulus Black made a double vow: to reconcile with his brother and finish his quest to destroy Voldemort. Some higher power heard him and allowed him to be reincarnated immediately. His unconscious mind eventually formed a barrier between Regulus' memory and the most recent memories of Harry in order to allow him to cope with this duality but the memories still remained inside him.

As his soul didn't go through the usual rest cycle between two incarnations and cohabits with another soul, it was more powerful than the average soul and therefore it had the capacity to manifest itself in an almost physical way. The attack by the Dementors triggered some kind of self-defense system in Harry's soul that manifested itself by a psychic wave, which pushed his attacker and broke the barrier blocking the memories of his previous life.

Regarding Harry's Patronus

It's not something I had planned in advance but that came to life while I was writing the scene of the attack. Although he's not yet aware of it, Harry is not longer the same as he was before the attack, but he's not Regulus either. The personality change was nevertheless sufficient to change his Patronus, taking the form of the most powerful common denominator between Harry and Regulus: Sirius. In the novels, Tonks's Patronus changes when Remus refuses to have a romantic relationship with her and it is also implied that Severus' changed too after Lily's death, so it's theoretically possible.

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Edit 24/06/15

After reading the same thing in several reviews about it, I realized english-speaking people don't have the same editing rules than in my country for the conversations bits: we rarely use the inversed commas anymore and a dialog had always started with a dash. I don't use inversed commas because I think it's ugly and weigh down the text in French, but since it's a translated fic and you aer more used to this way, I edited it to ease the read.