Harry Potter and the Baba Yaga.
A/N: The world and characters you recognize belong to Jk. the plot idea, belongs to me. (I hope I did this right. If not- Don't Sue me!)
Baba Yaga.
*The famous hag or Witch from Eastern Europe. Stories of her are popular in Russia, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia. Baba Yaga has the appearance of a peasant woman and travels through the air on a pestle and mortar with a fiery broom. She has teeth of stone or knives and lives in a house that bizarrely moves around on one chicken leg. Her house is surrounded by a bone like fence with skulls on top which shine light through their sockets. The house is situated between this world and the Otherworld. Baba Yaga can be very cruel and those who visit her may die. Sometimes she manifests her mouth as a cave and devours travelers who wander in. She maintains good order and punishes those who misbehave. Baba Yaga is good to women and others who seek her help giving them useful items for their quests. She creates such items with her pestle and mortar and cauldron of body parts. To those who fear her house and objects appear gruesome but to others who understand her true function, such things are quite pleasant. The fire-breathing Dragon, Chudo-Yudo lives with her as her pet that guards the Water of Life and Death. In earlier stories she is the divinity of life and death and is surrounded by herds and horses where she holds the reins of the four seasons and controls harvests and rain flow.*
*Taken from website.
In the world of witchcraft and wizardry, the year 600 B.C. is forever tainted. That was the time when the word Baba Yaga, was synonymous to terror, destruction and death. Villagers would flee towns when even a hint of rumor reached their ears, that Baba Yaga was near. They would not care for gold, valuables or anything but just their children and the entire village would be empty within an hour. Kings and queen would assure common people, that they would defend their kingdom but they were nowhere to be seen once Baba Yaga set foot in their castles.
Countless such castles, manors and gold were claimed by Baba Yaga. They now lay forgotten behind many layers of wards and ancient magic. It was a time when the world was at constant war, between witches and muggles. The treaties signed by them were broken only a day after and no one could foresee the future. Peace, happiness lasted only momentarily, to be shattered by presence of Yaga. She did have a clan, and number of ardent followers even when she didn't want it. They would follow her; shadow her, in vain attempt to learn the secrets uncovered by her. Some were just awed at amount of power she held, and for some it meant the new era of the dark arts. Her knowledge stored safely, on the other side of the veil, was only accessible to her. Knowledge had made her powerful, and wizards feared her for it. Only after a century later, she had met her fall.
But it had not been always this way. Very few knew the real name of Baba Yaga; fewer knew who she was before she chose her name. At that time, women as well as witches were treated as commodities. Even now, in the world they are often enslaved to serve derogatory purposes of men. But, she changed the view of how men viewed women. The slave trade of women withered away, from the 'time when Yaga was around. The men who persisted in this trade were would disappear only to be found in various states of decay with various parts of their bodies missing.
The list of good deeds was long, but her the bad deeds could fill books upon books. Wizards and sorcerers were powerless to defend themselves, much less attack her. She was just too strong, too unpredictable for them. There was no way she could be captured, she knew far much then them; how to disappear, how to evade and ways avoid death.
It all started when she, was found to be a witch and taken by the wizards. They would actively tour towns, to look for any signs of magical children. Boys would be taken in instantly, while girls would be taken for other means, mainly for providing an heir, or children for them.
The desire to prove herself, increased when at every turn, she was refused a fair treatment, and knowledge. They said, "Women are weak, and thus do not deserve such knowledge." Her argument was, "When knowledge in not given, how can one expect, to be strong?" She did not lack raw power, nor lacked the thirst to gain knowledge. It angered her greatly that she was refused both and taught how to be a good mother and 'what to do while she bore a child' and such things. She left the safe sanctuary; she knew she was not meant for such 'things'. Wizards could do as they please but she would never be subverted to their ideals. Wizards left her to fate, believing that she would be eaten by the wolves. For a moment she feared the same, but she remained strong. She would eat whatever forest would provide, and often went hungry. She learnt the art of survival at a very young age. She learnt how interact with wild creatures and beast and read many scriptures and scrolls with her, along the way. She had been sneaky enough to steal it after all. After years, she emerged strong, and the first thing she did was to take revenge upon the sanctuary.
They didn't stand a chance, but in her quest she was injured. It was then she learnt that she was not invincible and thus she strived harder and harder each day to prove her worth. She was alone and it didn't matter to her. All that mattered was power, and to prove her worth. Wizards would learn what a women could do if angered. They would learn that they were not weak as they pegged them to be. And learn they did.
What started as a noble sentiment soon became corrupted, twisted by darkness. She'd lost count of how many sacrifices she had done, to achieve immortality. She lost her humanity when she performed the darkest ritual of Necromancy. Granted she gained plenty of knowledge, experience, and she found a way to travel to other-world, but the price was too high. She was not human anymore; not even in control of herself. Her whims, her twisted desires dictated her and ravaged her soul.
It all ended, when an elite group of wizards was called, to deal with her. The trap was set, Baba Yaga knew that this was a trap and she didn't care. She'd conquered death and was too powerful to be captured by such puny mortals. Only one wizard lived that day out of the 100 wizards sent to kill her. It was not the wizard who was the leader of the group, but one who had an innate ability to manipulate the ambient energy of the magical forest to his advantage and turned her into a statue. He had no other option, they had shot her with all the deadly curses they knew! And each time she'd heal within seconds and with a wave of her hand, more would fall. Her laugh contained a morbid sense behind and the shrill voice echoed through forests. She's considered a joke, an amusement when only a mere boy not more than 30 years old stood alone in her way. The boy had cowered in fear when she approached and soon it turned into a smile, a smile which Yaga often associated with victory.
She looked around, and found herself trapped in the holy triangle. She could not leave that space! She tried to cross over the veil but at that moment, he had summoned all his power and changed her into a stone. Thus she was trapped and the wizard disappeared. He did not want to claim the victory, or recognition. He just wanted the madness, the evil to end. Besides he had only a few days left to leave. He had used up all his magic, and had gone as far as spending his life energy for trapping her. Victory came with a cost, and the cost was his own life. He perished 3 days after.
In the meantime he went home to his wife and his two children. He gazed lovingly at his family; the joy of his life. He instructed the older child, of what he had done and how he had tied the curse to his life. He knew what would happen once he was dead, and had pleaded with his son to key the curse to him. The older son was intelligent and understanding. He too had lost many friends to the 'Yaga Witch' to want her back to life. After a few days, father had breathed his last, and departed in peace knowing that the future was bright for them. He knew that they would be happy, prosperous for many years. True enough, it was only a matter of time when people would connect the dots, of how and why the terror of Yaga had come to end. The Sole surviving man, out of the group was lauded and given highest honor that could be bestowed across the lands. And thus it carried on, for generations to come; prosperity, fame and various bounty on the witch were given to the family. The older son was intelligent and he did well with his wealth, and flourished in safety and security for ages to come.
The curse on the Yaga, keyed to the lineage had passed on till as far as the Halloween of '81 and kept Yaga in a stone like stasis. A tiny mistake proved to be their undoing. The family responsible for destroying Yaga, had branched out and took different names. The original name lay forgotten and no one took pains to understand how the Yaga was destroyed or trapped. The man had remained conscious only for hours explaining and transferring the key to his son. The loophole to the curse was known only to the bearer of the key and the small piece of information was lost in time. The curse was supposed to pass on as a rite of passage, which was not done by the half-brothers Carlus Potter, to his son James Potter and Arius Longbottom to his son Frank Longbottom. The curse weakened significantly, when it passed without rite of passage to James Potter and Frank Longbottom. The curse was no more when both James Potter and Frank Longbottom were killed at the same night as on Halloween of '81.
And somewhere in the bottom of sea stone statue cracked. Through the stone statue the witch gave a smile through the crack.
A/N: The idea popped up in my head, after reading many fics about harry being raised by powerful witch/wizards. This is just another attempt to recreate such beautiful story by Jk. I'm trying to stay close to the cannon version of Harry Potter but it will have some differences. This is my first attempt at writing a fic, though i have been reading many fics before.
Ideas and suggestions are welcome, on how the character of Yaga should be molded Tips on writing the story are also welcome. Reviews certainly helps a budding writer to get his juices flowing and I would encourage you to do the same! Let me know on how the story should progress.