Title: Setting Darkness
Autor: Aranduriel
Rating: M
Summary: It's in the nature of mankind to preserve itself, and when a whole race is in danger of extinction only hard measures can save them. Or so they think. Now the elf Calanon, formely known as Harry Potter, must save his own race from those he fought for a long time ago. LV/HP, Timetravel
Warnings: Slash, Violence, Dark and Mature themes, Timetravel, AU, OOC, OCs, Spoilers from book 1-5
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of the Characters in the books. All belong to J.. I only own the plot and my own characters.
Time is the most undefinable yet paradoxical of things; the past is gone, the future is not come, and the present becomes the past even while we attempt to define it, and, like the flash of lightning, at once exists and expires. ~Charles Caleb Colton
Two men were leaning over the ancient desk, one with fair hair and blue eyes the other one with dark hair and green eyes, studying what appeared to be strange writings with symbols instead of letters.
"Are you sure? " Asked the blonde one while studying his friend. "This could go wrong in so many ways."
The other one looked up from the ancient texts he was reading and sighed unhappily. "Yes, like I told you many times before. I am sure. This has to be done Thandion."
Thandion shook his head, making the blonde locks fly around him. "But you don't even know how to do it, if it is even possible." He further argued.
His friend gave him a brief glance from the corner of his eye before he focused into the writings once more. "I'll find a way. We know that it is possible in theory." He said while running his fingers through his hair.
Thandion looked desperately at him. "Come on Calanon. Can't we just leave the damn wizards alone. They'll probably obliterate each other anyway before the century is over." He paused before speaking again. This time slowly. "I know you grew up amongst them but..." He stopped, clearly not knowing how to continue.
Calanon looked up sharply. His eyes blazing like emerald fires. "Yes. And before they kill each other they'll try to immigrate all the magical beings into their society in a desperate attempt to save their race. They already made laws that all the unmated magical creatures that live amongst the wizarding population must mate with a wizard or face death penalty. Right now only the Veela are affected because they normally live amongst them but because they are all fleeing from the wizards it won't take long before they also turn to us."
Thandion looked doubtful. "We are elves. How can little wizards affect us with their inferior magic?" He started, pointing out at his pointy ears. "And their numbers have declined heavily in the last few decades because of their petty wars."
Calanon nodded. "Their magic may not be as powerful as ours but they can use it on a wider range. We are creatures of the nature. That's where our power primarily lies and an ordinary wizard cannot do much to us, but a group of them could take down an elf. Not a powerful one, mind you, but a magically weak one will be enough for them." He stopped, as if considering something. "And the other beings are in more danger than us. For the sake of balance we have to do something."
Thandion looked thoughtfully at him. "Let's say you found a way to travel back in time, what do you plan to do then? How will you stop the population from declining so strongly?"
Calanon shrugged. "I will decide what to do when I'm there."
Thandion nodded slowly. "Do what you think is the best. There is no way to get you around anyway. I have guarding duty for the night. I'll see you tomorrow then." He said resigned.
Calanon nodded and waved his friend goodbye.
Calanon threw the book across the room in his frustration. Seriously, were there no useful books about time travel in the Grand Library of Dranyohr.*
He sighed and shook his head. He had been searching for an answer for months but he couldn't even find the smallest clue about his problem. Yes, there were the time-turners, of course, but with those you could only go back a few hours, a day at most, but what he needed was years. He could probably find an answer if he researched the topic for years but he didn't have that kind of time. What he needed was a solution that could be used straight away.
He looked out of the window to the city and the forest in the background. It didn't look good for the magical beings. Because of the the rising issues between the white magic users and the black magic users a long overdue conflict had erupted between the wizards; Voldemort against Dumbledore, white against black. Then he had thought that the conflict was right, that it served for a good cause. Now he knew better.
Calanon looked away. The Magic most wizards used had no colour. All that mattered was the intent. You didn't get tainted or were a better person if you used different magic. But, of course, this all changed if a human decided to dwell into the magic of the nature; rituals, necromancy, heavy illusions and elemental magic. For these kinds of magic you needed to absorb the energy of the nature and could easily get lost, if you were a human that is. For elves, absorbing the energy of the nature was as instinctive as inhaling fresh air. But most humans couldn't use this kind of magic anyway. In fact, he knew of only one human who could: Voldemort.
For centuries, the government of the wizards had been in the hands of the white wizards. They had repressed the dark wizards for years and this had concluded in a great civil war. They fought for years, trying to overpower the other, but in the end their population just declined rapidly because of the deaths. When Voldemort was finally killed, a purge against the dark wizards followed. They all got killed. Now the wizards had only a fraction of their original numbers and obviously a breeding problem and their solution was breeding with magical creatures, bringing in fresh blood, to increase their numbers again. Of course the Magical beings weren't exactly sympathetic to the idea. Now they were fleeing and the wizards hunting.
To be honest, he also carried some fault in the matter.
He had been born in the wizarding world under the name of Harry Potter. His mother, Lily Evans, had been seduced by an Elf and got pregnant with his baby. Of course she never told her husband, James Potter, about her misdeed and pretended that the baby was his. Being the smart witch that she was, she had managed to find his father where countless others had failed and made him do a illusion on the baby in the womb. After his birth, she had decided that she would tell him about his elven ancestry when he was old enough to keep it a secret. Of course she didn't live long enough to tell when Voldemort attacked. He was sent to his magic hating aunt and her family where he lived until his eleventh birthday. After that he went to Hogwarts, a school for witches and wizards and learned that he was apparently a very famous wizard because he had survived the attack on his family when he was but a baby. Unusually he had been able to do some wizarding magic, but it wasn't good enough. People thought that he was magically very weak and it raised doubts about him being the boy-who-lived. No one, including himself, knew of course that he was only half-wizard and the genes of elves tented to be dominant on the magical side. So, he wasn't weak, he just couldn't do the kind of magic wizards usually did. You didn't need strong magic to destroy magical artefacts. So that's what he did and in the end got Voldemort killed.
He sighed. This wasn't getting anywhere. There wasn't anything left in the damn library that he hadn't looked through and there still wasn't anything.
"You know, you could have asked me for answers if you needed them so badly." Said someone behind him.
He whirled around to see who had spoken and came face to face with Eruantien.
He frowned. "And you have the answers I need, Alter Mann?*"
Eruantien smiled mysteriously, for once a smile reaching his eyes.
"No." He said calmly.
Calanon frowned. "Then why ar-"
Eruantien interrupted him. "But I know the place where you can find your answers."
"Oh?" He said sceptically. "And where might this mysterious place be?"
Eruantien didn't say anything for a while, just observing him.
Calanon sighed and looked out of the window. Eruantien was old. Older than any other elf he had met before, perhaps even older than the last king. The red haired elf didn't mix with people. In fact it was very rare to see him in such a public place. He had usually more luck with the old elf than others but for him to actively seek him out. It was... Unusual.
He looked up when the other elf spoke again.
"Follow me." He said and started walking towards the exit, not even turning around to see if he was followed.
Calanon shook his head and followed the elf with a slight smile
They walked for a while, passing familiar hallways and statues and after a while they entered a section of the castle that was unknown to him, which was unusual enough. After a few secret passages, which he tried to memorize as best as he could, they finally stopped in front of a magnificent door. It was made of pure gold with diamonds paved around it.
"Is this the place?" He curiously asked the other elf.
Eruantien nodded. "This is your birthright. Your father told me to bring you here when you were ready."
Calanon twisted around. "What do you mean my father-" he stopped abruptly.
Eruantien was gone.
He snarled and hit a hole into the wall in his anger. Damn it, Damn it, Damn it. He closed his eyes and weakly let himself slide to the ground.
His father was a very sore topic for him. He had left him after making sure that he looked like a human before his birth and never emerged from the shadows again, but he knew that was only partly true. He might not have seen his father but he was always there. What he had thought in the past as an amazing luck in the direst situations was, as he knew now, in fact his father helping him out from the shadows. But why didn't he come out. He obviously cared so why? Why?
Calanon opened his emerald eyes.
Now wasn't the time to immerse himself into his father issues again.
He stood up swiftly and approached the golden door. There wasn't a handle on it so he tried to open it by pushing but it was of no use. The door didn't even budge.
He frowned. Eruantien had called it his birthright so...
He smiled. "Clever old elf."
He bent down and quickly drew a dagger out of his boot. He studied it for a moment. A dagger passed down from father to son for generations. For elves this meant Millennia...
He shook his head and cut his palm with the dagger until it bled and before the wound could close smeared it on the door. He didn't have to wait long before the door opened easily with a 'click' and the contents of the chamber was revealed to him.
It was a medium sized room. Nothing special really, just a medieval kind of living room with old armchairs, carpets, old paintings and a fireplace. Two doors were leading away from the room which on a closer inspection revealed an old style bedchamber and a library.
Calanon grinned. Eruantien wouldn't have brought him here if the answers he was so desperately searching for weren't here. He had a very good idea of where he was and thus the library here should be much more specific.
And so the elf started going through the library of the mysterious chambers.
It didn't take long to go through the titles of all the books as there were notable less books here than in the grand library. They were strictly about some kind of magic and he even found some about time but all that was written was about theories or some useless comments.
He closed the last book with more force then necessary, making the dust on it fly around, and lay it on the table. And here he had thought that he could find his answers here. Perhaps he should just give up and find a solution about stopping the humans with force...
Disappointed, he walked towards the bedchamber. Perhaps his head would be clearer after a night of good sleep. He entered the chamber and threw himself into the bed. He was lucky it had been held clean through old enchantments. If only something wasn't stinging on his side.
He frowned and fished with his hand for the annoying thing and drew it out of the blanket.
He frowned further when he saw what it was.
It was an old papyrus with a message written on it.
You'll find your answer in the ancient shores of Cronus found in Keros
He sighed. Seriously, he had been searching for hours in the library for an answer and this is where he found his anticipated solution? For he was sure that this was the answer. Why else would Eruantien bring him here if there wasn't an answer? He knew that it wasn't the old elf who had laid the clue on the bed, for he knew that wasn't his handwriting, but he would worry about the writer later. For now he had to go find this Keros. It obviously was a place on the sea.
A map revealed it to be a Greek Island.
The sun was rising over the sea when two elves walked on the shores of the island. Calanon was walking beside a female elf. A beautiful woman of silver-blonde hair and grey eyes in a tight leathered dress with a sword on her back. They walked until they arrived before an ancient temple of the old times. Dedicated to the titan Cronus, or Saturn as he was called by the old Romans.
They stood there for a while, watching the sunrise.
"You are pretty silent today, unusually so." Calanon said while watching her out of the corner of his eye.
The female elf named Cugedhiel didn't even look at him when she answered. "If we are successful today and you find what you are looking for, then we might never see each other again. Who knows what will happen in the past, and the fact that I don't remember you from before you came to us just supports that something happened to you in the past..." Her voice broke, and when she abruptly turned to face him he could see the tears swimming in her eyes. "Don't do this Calanon. I know we can get rid of the humans if you let us go against them. Please..."
Calanon looked away, and as if this was a confirmation Cugedhiel stopped talking, and sighed heavily. "What am I talking anyway. You'll do what you want to do in the end no matter what we say." She said resigned.
Calanon smiled slightly. "Come on Cugedhiel, we have work to do."
The she-elf grinned sinisterly. "Then let's go!" She said loudly and walked forward to the temple, not even a sign of her previous sadness present on her face.
Calanon shivered. "Well at least she doesn't behave strangely anymore. Her behaviour was starting to creep me out." He murmured as he followed her into the temple.
"What did you say?" He heard Cugedhiel ask from inside the temple.
He stilled at once. "I said Eruantien starts to creep me out"
In the end they found an ancient device in the temple. It looked like a time-turner that had seen too many summers, but it was what he had been searching for. From the type of the magic it contained he came to the conclusion that it was pretty wild magic he was planning on messing with. He couldn't predict how far he would go back. It may be as far as thousands of years or just a few minutes. He couldn't know, but he was going to risk it anyway.
And so came the day he would depart. The other elves were against it of course, some for personal reasons others not so, but in the end he said his goodbyes and retreated to the chambers Eruantien had showed him that fateful day.
Only he wasn't the only one in there.
There was someone standing before the fireplace, obviously waiting for him. He was wearing a black robe, its hood shadowing his face. He was tall and lean-muscled, but a male obviously. He was not welcome.
Calanon narrowed his eyes. "Who are you?" He asked. His voice even and clear without an ounce of emotion in it.
The male chuckled. And suddenly he could feel his power. It was huge. He was powerful, very powerful. In fact, he had never met someone so powerful before. But nevertheless he could feel instinctively that the elf, for he could only be an elf, wasn't dangerous for him. Just who was he?
The elf spoke quietly. "Channelling magic into the device by yourself could be very dangerous for the one to take the journey through time. I'm here to help you." He said.
Calanon looked doubtful. "And why should I trust you?" He asked.
The other elf chuckled slowly. "I know you trust me instinctively, even though you have no idea why. You will hear my reasons when the time is right. Now stop being a whelp and let me help you."
Calanon wanted to protest, he really did, but he couldn't find it in himself to do so. He knew the other elf was telling the truth and that it would be wise to follow his lead. So he didn't say anything, and just took the ancient time-turner out of his pocket and held it to the stranger.
The other elf took it while explaining to him what to do. "I will channel nature magic in it and you will just hold it. You can not even leak a little of your own magic to the device, it could have disastrous consequences. You ready?" He asked.
Calanon nodded and together they held the device. The nameless elf channelling magic into it, and Calanon just holding it. After a few seconds the surroundings started to blur. A wind started to spin around them, and the last thing he saw before darkness surrounded him was the face of the other elf. Midnight black hair and blue eyes, and a satisfied smile.
*Dranyohr: The capitol of the Elven haven in the Northern Boreal Forests of Canada.
*Alter Mann: Old man in German.
A/N: English is not my first language and I don't have a beta-reader so errors are to be expected. I would be very delighted about Reviews.
