A/N: This is another fic by Madella and Celynnen, but, obviously, it's Harry Potter. We still alternate chapters, just like we did in Second Company, and chapter one is by Courtney! (Obviously, it says so below) Just FYI, Madella is Lyric and Celynnen is Courtney. (Hey! Those both start with the same letter!) And you'll meet some new characters we made up. Lyric is Cedric Diggory's younger sister, Courtney and Cedric are Hermione's cousins, Lily is Professor Dumbledore's granddaughter, and Mikayla is an exchange student. OK, have fun reading! We originally made this story to role-play, and decided to make it into a normal story. Now I'm done, have fun!
Luv,
Courtney and Lyric
Chapter One
By: Courtney
"Lily, wait up!" Courtney shouted at one of her best friends. She, Lily, and their other friends Harry, Lyric, Ron, Cedric, Hermione, and their new friend Mikayla were on their way to Potions, and Courtney was lagging behind.
"Courtney, you are so slow," Mikayla said. Mikayla was a transfer student from Beauxbatons.
"Yes, the slowest sixteen-year-old in the world," Harry added. Being her boyfriend, he was allowed to make remarks like that. But, once she caught up, Courtney slapped him anyway.
"Ow!" Harry yelled. "What was that for?"
"Before I answer that, I have a question: mentally slow or physically slow?" Courtney asked.
Harry pretended to be thinking about it when Lyric shouted "Mental!"
Everybody chuckled. Harry looked at Ron and said, "Both."
Then Ron said, "Both."
"Both!" they both said together. Courtney hit Harry and Lily hit Ron.
"Be nice," Lily warned.
"Uh, Lily, I don't think that's possible," Cedric, Courtney's twin, whispered.
"I don't think it's possible for him to get any poorer, either," said a voice from behind them. They didn't even bother to turn around, but Courtney did.
"Malfoy, it's gettin' old," yelled back at him, "I mean, you always show up out of nowhere and you always make fun of how we're different from you. And after 6 years, I'm surprised you're still doing it. Oh, and we have names. I mean, you can't call me, Cedric, and Hermione 'Granger' because we all have the same last name, so it's kinda confusing."
The group laughed at this and cheered Courtney on, except for Mikayla because she had a crush on Malfoy (for some strange reason she thought he was Gothic). She just scowled and kept on walking. Then from around the corner, they heard her shout, "Hey you guys! Come look at this!"
They all stopped laughing and walked quickly to where Mikayla's voice was. She was at the end of a long, dark, and creepy hallway.
"Oooh, creepyful," Lyric whispered. There were several nods of agreement.
"I've never seen this hallway before," Hermione commented. Mikayla rolled her eyes. Everybody knew that Mikayla hated Hermione.
"Hey, I've got an idea!" Ron exclaimed, "Why don't we skip Potions and explore this hallway? It might be fun…"
"Sure, why not? It beats going to potions," Lily said. She usually agreed with all of Ron's ideas, but hers were always better.
"But Lily, if your grandfather ever found out we skipped potions, we could get detention," Hermione pointed out. Lily was Professor Dumbledore's granddaughter.
"So? Detention can be fun sometimes, and this is defiantly more fun than potions," Courtney pointed out.
Harry put his hand on Courtney's shoulder. "Well, that decides it then! Let's go!" Then they began to walk down the corridor. There were no classrooms or any doors leading from the strange hall. They walked for fifteen minutes in silence, and suddenly they were at the other end of the corridor. There was something strange about the wall though.
It was shiny and looked like liquid.
"Weird," murmured Cedric.
"Have any of you seen The Tenth Kingdom?" Harry asked. Everyone shook their heads. "It's a muggle movie. It's about this girl named Virginia-"
"Ginny?" Ron said, superbly confused.
"No, not Ginny! Virginia. I don't wanna explain it all right now but there's this magic mirror and it's, like, a portal from New York City to the Nine Kingdoms, and from the other side it looked exactly like this," Harry explained very quickly.
"Kewl!" Courtney said, "See ya!" She stepped into the mirror.
The last thing she heard was Harry shouting, "Courtney, no!"
"Oooo! Looks like fun!" said Lyric. She took a step forward and jumped into the mirror.
"There's our blondie," said Cedric dreamily.
"Walk away!" Lily muttered and she backed away slowly.
Meanwhile, on the other wide of the mirror, Courtney and Lyric were standing in awe at the forest around them. One by one, the others, including Draco, popped out of the mirror. Their reaction was all the same: they said nothing. Then finally, Ron said nonchalantly, "Cool."
Courtney shook her head. "No, Ron. This is more than cool, this… awesome."
"I've seen better," Draco said dryly.
Harry turned around to face him. "Since when were you here?!"
But before Draco could answer, an old man appeared from behind a tree and scared the nine sixteen-year-olds. "Did you all just come out of the mirror?" he asked. "Because if you have, I must take you to the castle immediately, by order of King Gryffyn and Queen Gwendolen."
"Lead the way then," Mikayla blurted out.
"Thanks for blowing our cover, Micki," Courtney muttered.
"You're welcome, and don't call me Micki."
The man counted how many people there were. "Five girls and four boys. Just the number he told me. You must be the ones. Follow me." He turned around and they all scrambled after him.
***
Several hours and sore feet later, they arrived at the castle. It was a plain but elegant castle, with towers and battalions and a moat. The old man led them across the bridge and into the castle. He led them to the main palace and requested an audience from the King and Queen. He said something like, "The Elements have come," and the guard let him and the others in at once.
"What did he mean by 'elements'?" Courtney asked Harry.
"I have no clue," Harry whispered back as they entered the throne room.
Then a powerful voice said, "How intresting. You all look different than how I pictured you." The teenagers looked over to where the voice came from. It was the voice of what looked like a King. "Oh, well. Welcome home."
"Whoa, whoa, wait. What do you mean, 'home'?" Courtney asked suspiciously.
The King sighed. "Oh, you don't know yet. Guards, bring in some chairs for our guests. This might take a while."
The guards brought in nine very extravagant chairs and the kids sat down. "First of all,' the King began, "You all were not born in the tenth kingdom, or, as you call it, Earth. You were born in the Eleventh Kingdom. You were taken to the Tenth Kingdom because you are different. You are the Lords of the Elements. Now, I will say nine different names. When you hear the one that sounds most familiar to you, raise your hand. I will also give you your dæmon."
"What's a dæmon?" Lyric whispered to Cedric.
"No clue," he whispered back.
Queen Gwendolen stood up, walked gracefully to a door and opened it. Out came nine animals: an eagle, a white leopard, a raven, a snowy owl that looked an awful like Hedwig, a panther, a phoenix, a white wolf, a Siamese cat, and a cheetah. "These are your dæmons. Now, for your names. Neryssa," the King said.
Hermione rose her hand timidly. "Ah. Well, you are the Lady of Water and your dæmon is Nyree." Nyree was the panther and as soon as the King said his name, he walked over to 'Neryssa.' She smiled and patted his head. "By the way, your dæmon is your 'spirit' in a way," the King explained, "I believe that you two will get along just fine. Artemis."
Lily's hand shot up. "That's been my favourite name for, like, ever!" she said excitedly.
"That's probably because it's your real name. You are the Lady of the Moon. Your dæmon is the white wolf, Cindareon," the Queen said as she pointed to Cindareon, who walked over to Lily.
Lily stared happily at her dæmon. "he's so pretty- er, handsome," She muttered.
"Perfect. Now for Aron."
Cedric rose his hand. "Your dæmon is Athena, the eagle, and you are the Lord of Wind."
Lyric whispered in Courtney's ear, "Aron is such a sexy name!"
Courtney looked at Lyric, horrified. "Lyric, he's my brother. I do not want to think about stuff like that when it concerns my brother! Ooh, bad vision!" Courtney slapped her head. Lyric just giggled.
"Vyvian." Courtney's hand rose automatically. "You are the Lady of Life. Your dæmon is Rylee, the White leopard." The Queen announced.
Instead of Rylee walking over to Vyvian, Vyvian walked over to Rylee. "Rylee, kewl name. I like!" She walked back over to her seat with her dæmon by her side.
"I'm glad you think so," the King said. "The next name is Thanatos."
Draco, with a bored look on his face, rose his hand.
"Hades, the raven, is your dæmon and you are the Lord of Death."
Everyone (even Mikayla) fought a mad urge to laugh. "Why doesn't that surprise me?" Courtney said in a whisper that everyone could hear.
Draco turned around. "You know what? You can just die," he hissed at her.
"You can die first!" Courtney retaliated.
"I seriously doubt that's gonna happen."
"Well, then do this: fuck off, then die!"
"Courtney," Harry warned before the situation totally got out of hand.
The King gave an amused look to his wife and continued: "Krystallis."
Lyric's hand rose while she was still whispering to Cedric. She didn't even notice it go up. "Hey Lyric," Hermione said after about a minute, "Look at your hand." Lyric did, and said:
"Why is my hand up?" Everybody rolled their eyes.
"Because your name is Krystallis, you're the Lady of Ice, and your dæmon is the Siamese cat named Keelan," the Queen explained gently.
"Ohhhhh! That explains a lot!"
"Okay, I changed my mind," Harry whispered, "She's the slowest sixteen-year-old on Earth, not Courtney." (hehehe…)
The King laughed and said, "Rowan."
"I think that's me," Harry said as he rose his hand.
"Yes, it probably is. Your dæmon is Hedwig, the snowy owl, and you are the Lord of Earth."
"I figured Hedwig was my dæmon," Harry muttered as his faithful owl flew over to him. "It was kind of obvious."
"Very obvious," Ron commented.
"Hedwig wanted to get to the eleventh Kingdom before the others because you were in much more peril than them," Queen Gwendolyn explained the unasked question. "Blaise."
Mikayla, who was busy staring at Draco, waved her phalanges in the air. "Aydon the phoenix is your dæmon and you are the opposite of water, the Lady of Fire."
"Figures," Mikayla muttered.
"The last one is Ravi."
Ron, being the last person, rose his hand. "Lemme guess, the cheetah's mine?"
"Yes, her name is Apolla and you are the Lord of the Sun," the King concluded- or so they thought. He kept talking: "Now that you have your names and your dæmons, you need to know about your charms. You each have a special charm that contains the power over your element. We don't have these for you because we only know tat they reside where that element rules, basically. You won't have your powers until you have the charms in your possession, and you must get them before Lord Voldemort."
Harry practically fell out of his chair at this remark. "What?"
"Voldemort wants the charms so he can be all powerful. But, he only knows that Harry and Courtney are the Lord of Earth and the Lady of Life, which is why he killed their parents," said a familiar voice from behind.
All the teenagers turned around and gasped at who they saw: it was Dumbledore.
"Grandfather, what are you doing here?"
Professor Dumbledore's eyes glinted merrily. "Just seeing why you all didn't show up for Potions. Professor Snape was especially curious why." Everybody (except Draco) laughed. (Lyric/Note: Draco never seems to laugh like he's having fun, does he? I mean, the only time he ever laughs his when he's making fun of someone, and that's not nice at all!) "I also wanted to make sure Lily- or should I say Artemis?- ("Artemis," Lily said, and she nodded earnestly.) "- and everyone else hadn't been kidnapped by Voldemort.
Ron flinched.
"Now that I know that you are all safe, I must be going. Not to be rude, but I have a school to run. Professor McGonagall will be worried. I wish you all good luck on your journeys." He and Lily lovingly embraced. The both had rather shiny eyes.
There was a silent silence after he left. After a minute or two, Lyric whispered, "Why is everyone so quiet?"
"Because we feel like it!" Courtney whispered back sarcastically.
"Why do you feel like being quiet?"
"Lyric, shut up!"
"Anyway," the King interrupted, "Tonight, you will all stay the night here at the castle and in the morning, you will be split up into three groups of two and one group of three. The servents will show you to your rooms." Immediately after he said the word 'servents,' nine servents came from out of the shadows, went over to one of the nine Elements, and lead them out of the throne room.
***
The next morning, Courtney woke up in a very large canopy that a maidservant named Keely had shown her last night. The blanket was a pale blue colour and the overly fluffy pillows were a darker one. The whole room was filled with different shades of blue. The only things that didn't seem blue were Courtney herself and the pale yellow dress on the blue chair next to her bed.
Courtney got out of bed (which took a considerable amount of time because she was a good five feet from the edge; she had to crawl to get there) and looked at her surroundings. "Too… much… blue!" she said in a freaked-out tone.
To get out of the blue, she looked at the dress. Actually, it was more of a long, flowy skirt with a top. It was a sleeveless top, but silk hung out from the sides an and connected to a band of coppery metal at the end. Then, hanging from the metal, was more silk.
"What an exquisite dress!" Courtney muttered. "I would've paid a lot of money for that dress in fourth year for the Yule Ball!" Whit that remark and a long whistle, she began to undress and put the dress on, which took longer than she expected. After she finally got it on (and this time, on the right way), she took a deep breath and left her blue room.
***
About the same time, Lyric was waking up in totally different surroundings. Her walls were a pale green colour. The satin sheets were a brighter green and the pillow were a forest green. The four-poster bed was very large, and the curtains were pulled around her, except for one. Sunlight poured in through a large window.
Lyric sat up and pulled the closed curtains open. She crawled to the end of the bed and tried to get off, but it was taller than she expected. She fell on her butt with a loud thud as she jumped off.
"Owie!" She shouted. "Shit that hurt!"
Her cat, Keelan woke up and hissed loudly, then saw that Lyric was hurt. He pranced over to her and sat on her lap and purred. Lyric stroked him gently.
Lyric tried to take her mind off her aching butt and looked at the chair standing right by her. On the chair was a long purple dress. The top part was a light purple with amethysts in the shape of a heart at the top. The bottom skirt part was a darker purple, it looked like it was satin, and had amethysts studded in random places. On the desk next to the chair was a necklace. The string was invisible and there were three amethysts in the middle.
Lyric put the dress on and put her hair up in a French Twist at the back of her neck. She admired herself in the mirror, put on some makeup, and headed downstairs for breakfast.
***
As Courtney walked down the hallway, Courtney began absentmindedly singing 'Fallin'' by Alicia Keyes, with Rylee at her heels. Ever since yesterday afternoon, Rylee wouldn't leave her side. Courtney smiled down at her dæmon and kept singing. I t wasn't the smartest thing to do, because Draco had just come out of his room and hadn't noticed her until the last moment. She ran right into him.
"Oh my God, I'm so sor-" she began automatically, but stopped when she noticed who she had knocked into, "Oh, it's just you." She walked away without finishing her apology.
Draco looked at her disgustedly. "You were saying?" he asked sourly.
"Nothing that you would understand, loser," she shouted.
"Slut!"
"Dumbass!"
"Smartass!"
"Wrong Granger!" Beside her, Rylee chuckled. Courney smiled to herself, and soon found that she was in a very elegant dining room. Harry, Lyric, and Hermione were sitting at the table, talking amongst themselves. Courtney hurried over to them as fast as she could in her fancy skirt. "Hi!" she said and she sat down next to Harry.
"Hey," he said back. "So, how'd you sleep?"
"Great, considering that I was swimming in blue… literally," she answered, her hand automatically reaching for a bagel. When she just got air, she asked, "Where's the food?"
"So that's what's missing!" Lyric said triumphantly.
Harry rolled his bright green eyes. "They said that they would bring out the food when everyone's here," he answered.
"Which really stinks," Hermione added, "Because I'm starving."
"Well, I know Malfoy's coming."
"How?" asked Lyric.
"Let's just say we… bumped into each other in the hallway." And just as Courtney had said that, Malfoy walked into the dining hall.
Harry blinked. "Right. I'm not gonna ask." Within the next five minutes, Lily, Ron, Mikayla, and Cedric all came into the dining hall, hungry and excited. As soon as Cedric had sat down next to Lyric, the cooks rushed out with all the delicious food that had been waiting for them.
Ten minutes later, everybody was finished and complaining of how fast they had eaten. They got up out of their chairs and followed a manservant outside of the castle. The King was waiting for them there. "I trust you all ate and slept well?" he asked politely.
The nodded vigorously. "Good, good," he continued. "But now it is time for you to go. These are the groups you are in: Neryssa and Blaise, Aron and Krystallis, Artemis and Ravi, and lastly, Rowan, Thanatos, and Vyvian. Now, I must go back to my duties. Good luck and (Courtney/Note: OMG, I am so tempted to put "May the Force be with you!" have a safe journey." The King the turned around and left them alone outside the castle gate.
"Well!" said Lily, "This should be very intresting."