Now alone with Alastor and Lily, Dumbledore allowed the twinkle to fade from his eyes. He stood up wearily from his desk, exchanging greetings with the witch and wizard, before walking to the cabinet that contained his Pensieve. Removing the Pensieve from the cabinet, he said leadingly, "I have already been reviewing my memories of Harry Ashworth."
"You found something?" Lily asked, hopeful.
"Precious little, I am afraid," Dumbledore sighed, walking back to the desk upon which he placed the Pensieve. "Most of the memories I reviewed and refreshed held only information of which I have long been consciously aware. As such, the only thing that really stuck out to me was something he said in passing on the day I released him from the staff."
"Oh?" Moody asked in genuine surprise. Having been in Dumbledore's close confidence during the years Ashworth had been at Hogwarts, Moody figured he knew everything about Ashworth that Dumbledore did.
"I told Mr. Ashworth that he might one day be able to come back and teach at Hogwarts," Dumbledore told Moody and Lily. "He responded by saying that Defense Against the Dark Arts was his stronger area."
Lily pursed her lips thoughtfully. "Well, I can't honestly say he was a brilliant Potions professor."
"Indeed," Dumbledore acknowledged. "Before we view the memories you two have of Ashworth, I have prevailed upon Severus to provide me one of his memories. I think you will find it interesting."
Professor Dumbledore gestured for them to enter the Pensieve, and he followed. They viewed Harry Ashworth's conversation with Severus Snape on the night that he had attempted to help Narcissa run away from Hogwarts. In it, they witnessed Ashworth berate Snape harshly, telling him that he would never really be one of the purebloods and of the horrible things the Death Eaters would do to the innocent. Before long, they exited the memory.
"That is a side of Ashworth I never quite saw," Moody said faintly.
Briefly, Lily explained the situation as she remembered it and summarized her own interview with Ashworth that night. "He was quite displeased," Lily concluded.
Dumbledore sat down in his chair. "It is a valuable memory. It reveals a little of what was behind Harry Ashworth's mask. In my review of my memories, I almost never saw Ashworth express raw, uninhibited emotion. He was not necessarily an actor by any stretch of the imagination, but he would have made an excellent Poker player."
"Poker?" Moody asked, sounding both confused and suspicious.
"Forget I said it," Dumbledore said. "The point is that in an unguarded moment, Ashworth displayed that he unequivocally opposes Lord Voldemort. That is reassuring."
"But only if Harry Ashworth is alive," Lily pointed out. "As far as we know, we're dealing with Bellatrix. Regardless of how much goodness there is in her-and goodness knows there may not be overly much-she is about as mercenary as you get."
"But is also completely dedicated to Harry Ashworth," Dumbledore countered.
Having listened silently, Moody finally spoke. "Have any of you noticed that Ashworth bears a striking resemblance to James?"
Reflexively, Lily opened her mouth to deny the resemblance, but then stopped as Harry Ashworth's appearance materialized in her mind. "I guess there is a bit of a resemblance," she said, realizing for the first time how much her former professor resembled her husband.
"Perhaps the result of pureblood relations?" Dumbledore mused, removing a pair of vials from a desk drawer. "He may even be related to the Potter line. Now, if you two would be so kind to deposit your own memories of Ashworth here, we can proceed."
.....
Bellatrix threw herself out of the path of a stunner and straight into a repelling charm. It propelled her through the air, and she collided with the ground. A familiar trickle in her nose told her that she was bleeding.
Because dodging all of Harry's spells seemed rarely to be an option, Bellatrix often found herself having to pick which hex she thought she could take and keep fighting. Thus, she had chosen pain over unconsciousness and the end it would bring to the duel. She hated short duels, almost as much as she hated easy ones.
That said, although Bellatrix remained consistently grateful for Harry's skills, and increasingly convinced of the wisdom she displayed when she decided to make him her mate, Bellatrix was also intermittently annoyed by Harry's prowess, since it meant she very rarely won their duels. In fact, only after Bellatrix forced Harry to stop holding back on her during their practice duels did she realize how truly formidable he was. Harry's spell repertoire remained slightly more limited than hers, but he learned to cast new spells very, very quickly. While the projection and phoenix fire spells with which she'd previously challenged him had taken him some time and effort to master, Bellatrix had not yet taught herself to cast either. By contrast, Harry's ability to learn from her spells she could already cast seemed almost instantaneous. Moreover, the speed of his reflexes rivaled the speed with which he acquired spells. His ability to abruptly change direction while spinning and weaving away from her spellfire reminded Bellatrix of a quidditch seeker. Add to that his raw power, and Bellatrix found herself crossing wands with the greatest duelist she had ever faced. But forcing him to stop going easy on her had taken some effort, indeed.
At first, when Bellatrix and Harry resumed their practice duels following her husband's prolonged convalescence, every spell Harry cast at her seemed so underpowered that Bellatrix feared that the injury Harry suffered to propel them both through time had permanently damaged his magical core. Watching Harry run through complements of difficult and draining spells, however, Bellatrix quickly realized that Harry was in truth back at his full magical strength-if anything, he seemed to be even more powerful after his convalescence that he had been before it-causing Harry's wife to grow more and more annoyed with her husband's kid gloved approach to their duels.
Initially, when her admonitions to Harry to challenge her elicited insufficient response, Bellatrix began throwing the magical kitchen sink at her husband during their duels. Harry bobbed, dodged, shielded, and disapparated throughout the long abandoned RAF hanger which Bellatrix had purchased and warded specifically for the purpose of training with her husband.
....
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