Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. Unfortunately.
AN
Hi!
First off: this is my first fic, don't be too harsh please.
Second: I doubt there'll be lemons, but i might change my mind later. There will definitely be sexual references and bad language so I'll rate it an M.
Third: Dumbles and Weasley bashing! Harry is really not gonna like Twinkles, Molly, Ron or Ginny. Not sure about the others yet, but there you go.
Fourth: HHr!
Finally: I appreciate constructive criticism. I welcome tips and pointers. Tell me when i make mistakes, if you don't i cant improve. Don't flame, there's just no need.
Enjoy!
P.S Im told having a Beta reader is helpful. If you would like to help, please let me know:)
Chapter 1: War Heroes
It had been nearly five years since the last meeting of the 4 Dwarf lords of the four kingdoms and Yarak, adviser to Lord Kror was not looking forward to the upcoming meeting. Nothing interesting in the holds had happened in the last two hundred years: the last interesting thing being the finding of a six thousand year old Basilisk in one of the gold mines to the west of Stagnum hold.
The then Lord Krain had to enlist the help of the other 3 Kingdoms to slay the beast after losing hundreds of guards and fifty or so of the elite 'Slayers' the kingdom trained to counter just this sort of incursion.
The beast had been over 200 feet long and had aged so well that its black and dark green scales were able to shrug off the best of runic weapons and war machines. Its killing gaze had swept through the ranks of the Dwarves, killing hundreds.
It had sprayed acid from its mouth like a dragon breaths fire, something never before seen from a basilisk. Then again, no-one had ever encountered one this ancient before. The battle had lasted for 3 days and the ranks of the dwarves, now equipped with thick runic glass eye protection, was being pushed back at a terrifying rate through the cavern like tunnels that connected the mines to Stagnum hold.
The tunnels were truly massive, being hundreds of meters wide and upwards, with huge tracks to allow the constructs to carry raw materials and equipment to and from the city. The huge gold colored 'Dwarven Iron' supports had glowing blue runes running through them. They would have been truly a sight to behold, had they not contained hundreds of sweaty warriors, hundreds of dead and dying and a 200 foot long basilisk.
It was then that Lord Krain had entered the battle, with his contingent of Elite Guard. Krain's temper had been rising for the last 3 days of battle and the beast had just managed to destroy one of the 'ancient constructs': a massive automaton wielding a 10 foot runic axe that had been in the war vaults since before recorded history. The secrets to manufacturing the 'ancient constructs' had been long since lost to the winds of time.
The 'ancient constructs' had long been considered indestructible, mechanics had been trying to take them apart for thousands of years to study them and none had even come close. And this Basilisk had just melted one.
The 20 Elite Guard and Lord Krain sprinted past the Dwarves on the shield line without any fear, leaping over the bodies of fallen comrades and small war machines, screaming bloody murder. The Elite Guard all had large 'Dwarven Iron' axes covered in glowing blue runes held in one hand and a large similarly made rectangular shield, dressed in bulky armor that gave them the appearance of walking tanks. Lord Krain had a lighter looking armor, made instead entirely out of Mithril and a two handed war-hammer with a series of glowing blue runes that looked like they oozed with power.
The Basilisk slithered over the smoking, melted remains of the automaton and brought itself up to near full height, looking down on the approaching party. Without even batting an eyelid, it snapped its mouth open, faster than something of its size should be able to, and let loose a torrent of dark green acid.
The guards immediately snapped up their shields forming a protective wall around their lord. Had they been fighting a dragon, this tactic would have been incredibly effective as the dragonfire would have deflected off the shield wall and dissipated. Unfortunately however, the acid was deflected off the tight shield wall and pooled around the feet of the unfortunate guardsmen who, despite the excessive protections placed on their armor, began to dissolve at an alarming rate. The screams of pain filled the air as the front rank of guard fell.
However, before the rapidly expanding puddle of acid found the feet of Krain, the guards closest to their lord as a last act picked up the old warrior and, with their immense strength, enhanced further by their armor, threw Krain over the jet of acid towards the head of the mighty snake.
Krain, with a scream of pure hatred, brought his hammer down on the beasts head, right between the eyes. Just as the hammer impacted, Krain activated the largest of the runes covering his weapon and the hammer's head exploded, throwing Krain from the beast and causing the basilisk to rear back in surprise.
Shards from the magical weapon impacted one of the basilisks eyes, rending it partially blind. The basilisk writhed around in pain for a few seconds and the watching dwarves let out a huge cheer. This however, caused the basilisk to snap its head towards the dwarven lines. It then spotted Krain staggering to his feet a mere 50 meters away. With a basilisk's equivalent of a sneer, its huge tail snapped up and was brought down onto Krain with a strength that shook the cavern, and squashed the old warrior as one might squash an irritating fly.
Silence descended on the battlefield. The Dwarves looked on disbelievingly at the small bloodstain that was once a legendary figure. Lord Krain had held lordship over Stagnum for 400 years, since he was chosen amongst the ranks of the Elite Guard by the council. That is how Lords have always been chosen, but now there were no Elite Guard, and no Lord. Stagnum hold's hierarchy had just been destroyed.
Captain Kror, leader of the 2nd Company stared blankly at the battlefield, not comprehending the death of a lord. No Lords had died of anything other than old age for thousands of years, not since the Dwarves had fled from the surface world. Krain had been just and fair and had proved himself in battle many a time, fending of occasional goblin raids and had even managed to slay a dragon on his own, a rare feat for a race that lives underground. The dragon had been set loose in the mines by the goblins, who were hoping to be able to walk off with a large amount of gold. Krain had slain the dragon and the party of 20 goblins on his own, being at the mines for a routine inspection of his hold.
And now he was dead, squashed like a bug. A feeling of hopelessness settled on Kror's mind, befor being ruthlessly quashed. He was a dwarf, for heavens sake! He would fight this beast until death took him! He looked to the center mass of the dwarven lines, looking for orders, before remembering that Krain was dead. That thought would take some getting used to.
He looked next towards his company and saw a gut wrenching sight. His troops had the same look of hopelessness he had felt just seconds ago, he watched his company for a whole 5 minutes just searching their faces, looking for...there! The sergeant to his second squad, Yarak, a dwarf of about 20 had his face set in a mask of cold determination. It snapped him out of his musings and turned his attention back to the battlefield.
Most other companies hadn't had the same reprieve his had. The Basilisk had since charged the center mass of dwarves and was spitting acid and striking with magically enhanced speed, using its powerful jaws and venom to full effect.
Seeing this, he sent his company, all 50 dwarves wielding two handed axes in to reinforce the sea of warriors forming a line of shields in front of the basilisk. He was about to follow them when he noticed a single dwarf hadn't moved from his position, and was staring at something across the battlefield.
Kror approached the dwarf, who he now recognized as Yarak, and bellowed "I THOUGH I GAVE YOU AN ORDER SERGEANT! ARE YOU GOING DEAF?" The sergeant said nothing, and didn't even look at Kror, instead he brushed past his commander and headed out towards the battlefield, but not in the direction of the battle. Instead, he headed out over the sea of bodies and destroyed war machines.
Intrigued, Kror followed Yarak, who traveled out about 300 meters and knelt down to examine something. When Kror caught up, Yarak was on his feet once again, and was holding the still glowing and easily recognizable handle of Krain's famous hammer.
The two stood there amongst the dead for a while just staring at the handle of the hammer letting the battle rage behind them. "I've got an idea" said Yarak grimly, "and your not gonna like it Cap."
And Yarak explained his idea.
Kror just stood and stared at his sergeant the gears in his brain whirling. After a while he nodded, resigned to his fate.
The two stealthily made their way behind the basilisk, before stopping about 100 meters behind it. Without saying a word, Yarak handed Kror the handle of the hammer and the two nodded two each other before splitting up. Yarak made his way out to stand beside the huge bulk of the oversized snake. He took several deep breaths, then sprinted out to stand between the basilisk and the line of dwarves before throwing his huge axe at the beasts head.
As expected, the axe bounced off the thick scales and flew away, but it got the snakes attention. The snake reared back, surprised that one of the small pink hairy things had managed to get so close. The surprise lasted but a fraction of a second though before the beast lowered itself down and struck at the dwarf.
Yarak leapt back, only just avoiding being eaten whole, but the snake still managed to bite of his left arm at the elbow and throw the dwarf back into the shield wall. A quick thinking dwarf warrior quicky chopped off the rest of Yarak's arm to stop the venom from spreading and shoved the wounded dwarf back towards the sea of dwarves where he was passed along until he reached the medical tents, but by then he was thoroughly unconscious.
/
Kror waited patiently behind the basilisk, praying that the ruddy beast would do at Yarak had predicted. The seconds went by and Kror's worry became greater and greater. Suddenly, the beast reared back in surprise, and then lowered itself down. Kror immediately sprinted forwards, and up onto the beasts tail, he kept sprinting, praying that the beast would not raise itself up again before he could reach his target.
He was almost at the heard when he felt the beast begin to move below him. Cursing his rotten luck, he grasped the handle of Krain's hammer between his teeth and quickly latched onto the nearest scale. As the beast rose, Kror quickly grasped for an idea of how to quickly fix the plan.
Just as the beast's ascent started to slow, the idea hit him like a slap in the face. Before he could change his mind, he let go of the scale he was holding onto and was flung in the air by the beast's momentum.
The snake felt the weight shift on its back and quickly looked up in time to see the dwarf start to descend. It opened its maw ready to swallow the foolish thing.
Kror saw the beasts mouth open and quickly threw the handle of Krain's hammer. The young dwarf's aim was true, and the handle flew down the beasts throat.
Krain was well known as a master Runesmith. He created several complex runes that were gifted to dwarves as a whole, and others he only wrote down so that future Lords would be able to make use of them. The effects of a few of these runes were well known to the public, as Krain had warned them all of them to change the mind of any thieves looking to steal his weapons and armor. One in particular was extremely volatile.
If Lord Krain had died and the famous hammer was held by any but a dwarf for more than five seconds it would explode in a huge fireball. It was one of his most acclaimed accomplishments. Combining runes for blood connection (to Krain), race detection which was already and complex rune, and a rune for elemental discharge which was unheard of before Krain invented them, was a truly staggering feat.
The basilisk, after swallowing the shaft of the famous hammer, went rigid. After 5 almost comical seconds of complete silence and no movement in the cavern, a huge gout of white flame spewed from the basilisks mouth, eyes and ears and it knew no more.
Kror had landed in a heap on top of a squad of hammer bearing dwarves and hit his head against one of said hammers and darkness claimed him.
/
When the duo awoke, they were heroes of their hold. They had finally brought down the beast which was slaughtering dwarven warriors as if they were ants. Kror was quickly named Lord by the council, and Kror named Yarak as his chief adviser. And so sparked a friendship that would last the rest of their long lives. Kror followed in Krain's footsteps and studied Runesmithing in his free time, and Yarak took up metalworking as a hobby.
For the next 200 years Stagnum hold was mostly a peaceful place, nothing more than the occasional goblin raid brought any kind of violence. The duo were still hero worshiped and memories of the battle were shown in Dwarven schools.
AN: That was fun, I really love dwarves as a race, ever since I saw the first few seconds of The Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey ive freaking loved how bad ass dwarves can be. They looked so good in their shiny armor, big bushy beards, huge axes, massive city, piles of gold etcetera.
Don't worry, Harry will show up promise.
Please comment, constructive criticism is appreciated. I'm still looking for a beta too...