A Gracey's Chance Chapter 1

[eiahmon]

Title - A Gracey’s Chance Chapter 1
Rating - PG
Summary - Twelve years after Voldermort’s defeat, Harry receives a letter from an old friend, with a most unusual request.
Disclaimer -I only wish I owned Harry Potter, and if I owned Haunted Mansion, the story would have been told in a much better way.
A/N - This fic ignores Sirius’ death in OotP and the Horcruxes. Dumbledore is lazy, immoral, and seriously annoying, but not evil.

1.

Thirty-one year old Harry Potter stared at the letter in his hands and sighed. It had come from the United States - New Orleans, Louisiana to be precise - and it contained a most unusual request. The writer of the letter, one Marcy Freeman, asked that Harry come to Louisiana to see if he could offer any solutions to a most unusual problem. He wondered why she had written him about it - they hadn't seen each other in years, not since she had helped him refine and control an ability that he and many others had been shocked to learn that he had.

Necromancy.

It was Hermione that had made the discovery, during an intense study session in the Black family library. She and Harry, along with Ron, Ginny, Luna, Neville, and Sirius, had been scouring every book that they could get their hands on, desperately searching for a way to permanently destroy Voldermort, when she had pulled down a random book and began to flip through it. Not long after, she let out a shocked gasp, and everyone had gone over to see what had her so shocked. She pointed mutely to the passage that she had been reading, and Harry and the others had bent over to look.

The Mark of Necromancy
No one can say for sure how a child is born with the gift of Necromancy, but there are a few subtle signs that can give their presence away if one knows what to look for. The first sign, and the least reliable, is the eyes. All Necromancers had brilliant green eyes. Some say that it is if their irises were made with the finest emeralds. The second, and more reliable sign, is uncontrolled power. An untrained Necromancer will have outbursts of magic their entire life which can result if grievous harm to people or property. For that reason, it is best if a Necromancer be properly trained to control their power, even if they have no intention of using it. The third sign, is the most difficult to see, is the ability to survive the unsurvivable. A Necromancer will have extraordinary luck escaping from life or death situations and is capable to taking a Killing Curse without any risk or harm to themselves.
Furthermore...

As one the group gathered around the table looked up at each other in shocked silence, and then all eyes turned to Harry, who was wondering how the Wizarding World would react if the press ever got wind of that little tidbit of information. The group had spent the night in serious discussion with the room warded to the skies to keep out any eavesdroppers, and in the morning, it was decided that Sirius would take Harry and find someone to train him to use his power. Harry had protested at first, until Ginny calmly reminded him that it could be the “Power That He Knows Not”.

Despite Dumbledore’s objections, Sirius and Harry had left that very day, traveling by muggle plane to the United States, where Necromancy was still practiced in certain areas. They had ended up in New Orleans, and discrete questions by Sirius had led them to Marcy, who had been one of Harry’s teachers for the next six months. Marcy, a wizened old Cajun woman that had eyes that drilled into your soul whenever she looked at you, had pushed Harry hard, citing that he should have begun training years before. It was also discovered during this time that Harry had a natural gift for dealing with disembodied spirits. He could communicate with them without the aid of a spell, and he could also control them, trap them in a room or object, or, if need be, destroy them completely.

A grueling half year later, Harry had returned home, a very different person from when had left. Gone was the naive schoolboy, bumbling his way through his adventures. In his place was a disciplined young man, hardened by his fast paced training and fully capable of dealing with anything that anyone had thrown at him. Draco Malfoy had certainly found that out the hard way. The sneering blond aristocrat would walk with a limp for the rest of his life.

The following summer, Harry and Voldermort had met on the grounds of Hogwarts, and while everyone else was distracted with the Death Eaters, Dementors, and Werewolves, Harry had calmly ripped Voldermort’s very soul from his body and destroyed it utterly. Tied to him by the Dark Marks, all of the Death Eaters had died as well. The power that he had used to do it had been kept a secret by the members of the group that were there when it was discovered. Not even Dumbledore had been told exactly how Harry had defeated Voldermort, though the old wizard had kept asking.

After the war ended, the friends had begun to pair off. To the surprise of many, Harry and Ginny had not gotten together. The two had been content with their brother/ sister relationship, and Ginny had hooked up with Neville of all people. Ron and Hermione had hooked up for a few months, but the two parted amicably after realizing that all they did was fight. Instead Ron had married Luna, and a year after the war, Harry married Hermione. Not long after, the two were disappointed to learn that they could not conceive a child. They tried multiple treatments, both magical and muggle, and all had failed, and after three years, they conceded defeat. They talked of adoption - the war had certainly left many children orphaned - but the time had never been right.

“What are you reading, love?” Hermione asked as she sat down on the sofa next to him. He wordlessly handed her the letter and watched her eyes move back and forth as she read it.

“Are you going to go?” she asked after she had finished.

Harry sighed again. “I should.” he replied “Marcy was a great help to me back then, and she refused any offers of payment. If there is something that she needs help with, then it’s the least I can do.” He looked up at his wife of 11 years and smiled. “Come with me?”

"Are you sure that I can? She seems to be asking for you only."

"I'm sure she won't mind. Besides, if she tries to exclude you, I'll simply tell her that you come before any zombie or ghost."

"Inferi, Harry, Inferi."

"Muggles call them zombies, remember." He gave her a lopsided grin. "And since we were both raised muggles..."

She laughed and lightly slapped him on the shoulder. "You're impossible."

"Yeah, and you love me for it. So will you come with me?"

"Yes, Harry, I will. I've always wanted to see New Orleans, and I've heard that their magical district has the most wondrous bookshops...”

Now it was Harry’s turn to laugh. “Don’t ever change, Mione. Now shall we go pack? Keeping Marcy Freeman waiting is never a good idea.”

“Impatient?”

“I learned the first time to never be late for a lesson.”

“How long did it take for you to pick yourself up off the floor?”

“A while.”

Hermione laughed again, and went up the stairs of their modest home to being packing. Harry rolled his eyes at her amusement and followed.

Preface --Chapter 2

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