LILY POTTER AND THE THIRD REALM

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MOST IMPORTANT THING TO KNOW BEFORE READING:

This is the sequel story to the Albus Potter series on this profile (beginning with Albus Potter and the Global Revelation).

Reading that series is not technically necessary. This being said, there will be many references to characters and events from that story. The magical theories introduced in the Global Revelation series will carry over. If anything crucial is used from the Albus series, I will try to include explanations, so that you're not forced to read seven books first to read this one. That being said, I would of course still recommend the Global Revelation series firs. It will make the experience of this book vastly richer, especially considering that this, the very first chapter of this book, references the very last event of the Albus series. If you read this chapter first, you'd know the end of the Albus series and it would vastly diminish the experience of that series if you ever decided you wanted to go back and read it.

If you want to read both as intended, please go to our author profile and find Albus Potter and the Global Revelation to start the "Global Revelation" alternate Potterverse, of which this story is a part.

If you are more invested in a story about Lily than a story about Albus, I will do my best to make sure the story can still be understood by anyone who reads it, not just followers of the original series.

But since this story has only just begun, why not read the Albus series before reading this chapter and knowing its ending? You've got plenty of time; this story will definitely still be in progress when you get back. Again, it's not required to read that series, but it's highly recommended.

Story Summary

SPOILER ALERT: Proceeding past this point, whether in the summary or the chapter that follows, will spoil the ending of seven-book Albus series on this profile. There's no going back. If you plan on reading the Global Revelation Albus series, don't read any further!

Lily's Quest

Lily Potter is twenty-seven years old. Eleven of those years were spent an innocent girl with no idea the depths of evil to which some people were capable of sinking, impatient for her opportunity to learn magic. She then spent four years at Hogwarts, one year fleeing and then fighting the Man in the Shadows, two years completing an accelerated education for her N.E.W.T.s, and four more years after that working on an advanced law degree at the Katarina Pinzel School of Sorcery in California. Her last few years at a law firm in Great Britain have been proving her a standout young professional.

But she cannot get her mind off of the fact that the last twelve of her years were not shared with her brother Albus.

She knows, deep inside, that he isn't dead. She's possessed by this idea, and she's done everything she can to prove it, so the rest of the world knows that her search is worthwhile. She's done the research, churned out the mathematics, studied advanced magic and things even less explainable than magic. Though Albus sealed the Abyssal Vortex from the inside, Lily plans to use modern magical theory to reach through the realms and bring him back from the abyss where he currently drifts alone.

And she may be the best equipped person to do it. Not just because she's the one whom the experts in experimental magical theory come to when they're confused and she ends up rewriting their textbooks as a hobby, but because she misses her brother like crazy, and she'll stop at nothing until she finds him.

But she faces her own foes, her own fears, and her own doubts as she struggles to balance her quest to find Albus with a difficulty that Albus also faced: the weight placed on her shoulders by her last name. Though the villains her father and brother faced are gone, there will always be dangers in the world, and anyone feeling fearful looks to her family to help. As a legal expert, she has learned that the right thing is not just hard to do, but also hard to identify. Having proven herself one of the magical world's most prominent lawyers, she will be forced to figure that out fast. A new challenge is arising, an immense legal battle brewing between worlds, with enemies to defeat in a much different and much more complicated setting than her family has ever experienced before.

For those of you who aren't familiar, my name is Andy. Cody (also known as NoahPhantom, on whose profile we're uploading this story) wrote his Albus Potter series based off of an initial plotline I'd written, and I helped brainstorm and edit throughout the series. Now, I'm starting a story of my own to follow his. I'm uploading it on his profile because it's the profile that has the Albus series that comes before this. He is also editing it and helping me plot and plan, so this story is also credited to him in the same way he credits me in the Albus series. A big thank you to Cody for making all of this possible and encouraging me to try writing a story for myself!

Lily Potter and the Third Realm will be uploaded as one story in two parts. Part one is entitled "Spellbound" and begins here. I will aim for uploads weekly or every other week, hopefully weekly.

This first upload is a flashback to an event referenced briefly in the epilogue of the series, where Lily mentions that Bill told her the story of Ephreneia, to show the beginning of Lily's journey to find Albus. There will be flashbacks throughout the series, regarding important events that took place between this book and the Albus series, or sometimes even earlier. They will be denoted by the title of "Lily Reminisces." I'll spend some time getting ahead in my writing, and then Chapter One will be uploaded next as the start of the uploading schedule. I can't wait to start my own journey with you!

-Andy

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PROLOGUE

The Tale of Ephreneia

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Cautiously, Lily cast her wand light forward. There wasn't a chance in hell that this could be what Bill said it was, and she wasn't about to get her hopes up.

"Where's the part you were talking about?" she asked.

She stepped closer to the far wall of the dark chamber to better distinguish the small pictures carved and painted around it. The colors were vibrant and striking despite thousands of years separating Lily from their original artists. She scanned the hieroglyphs for anything that might resemble a part of the story Bill described, trying to visually interpret it through guesswork. She wasn't feeling patient enough for Bill to translate it to her. Not when it came to Albus's situation. So perhaps she could parse enough of the meaning just from sight.

Or not. She begrudgingly waited for Bill to reveal the meaning.

"Here," Bill said, pointing to a low corner of the stone wall. A large cluster of symbols glared out from in an indent in the wall, next to which was a cracked and dislodged stone. "We think that the original artist was not supposed to write about this. He pulled a stone from the wall and carved the story behind it, then concealed it again with magic. We only discovered this half by chance, when we—"

"What does it say?" Lily interrupted.

Bill took a deep breath. Lily could tell that he was deciding whether to comment on her emotional state, but he didn't seem to want to deprive her any longer of the information she was so desperate to hear. He turned to the wall and began translating.

"This is the tale of Ephreneia, the woman of the three realms."

He turned back to face Lily. "Ephreneia's legend has survived in other accounts. She was the most famous and possibly the most powerful witch in Egyptian—"

"Okay," Lily said tersely.

Bill turned back to the wall. If he judged her for her biting tone, he was holding back from showing it.

Lily hoped he knew that she appreciated it.

"This is the tale of Ephreneia, the woman of the three realms. Many tales tell of the life of Ephreneia, but this is the tale of her departure from life. May it serve as a warning for both the living and the dead.

"Ephreneia was the daughter of Nezzestes and Tepaphra, Grand Vizier to the Pharaoh, and the most learned sorceress of all times. Ephreneia knew of the greatest magic, but not even the greatest magic can bring the dead back from the Third Realm."

Lily bit back her questions. Ephreneia of the Three Realms… The Third Realm… How much of this was myth from ancient Egyptian religion, and how much of it was based on actual magical fact that they somehow discovered?

Bill continued. "At the age of forty, towards the end of her time in this world, Ephreneia lost her brother. She was driven mad with the grief and longing."

Bill gave a look back at Lily that was anything but subtle. The knot of discomfort in her stomach stirred again, agitated by the unspoken accusation and the wasted seconds.

"Though she strained and bled to build the empire higher than ever in her life, she almost collapsed the empire in her despair. Convinced he had been taken too soon, obsessed with reclaiming him from the afterlife, she spent years trying to break through to the Third Realm to find him.

"One day, she succeeded in breaking down a wall between realms, but it was not the realm she sought. She instead broke through to the Second Realm, the place of knowledge and divinity."

Lily stiffened. "That sounds like…"

"The Abyssal Vortex?" Bill guessed. "That's what we thought. That's what it sounded like, anyway. But I'll continue. In this realm, Ephreneia was enveloped in wisdom and led to understanding. She came to accept that there was no way to reclaim the man that was her brother, and she left the second realm intending to carry on without him."

"This is a joke, right?" Lily demanded, a flame building up inside her the likes of which she'd never experienced against her own family. "You're not trying to tell me to stop looking for him, are you? Because that's never going to happen. Albus isn't dead like Ephreneia's brother. Albus is lost within the 'Second Realm', yes, but he's still alive. I know it, and I'm going to prove it, and I'm going to find him and bring him back to us."

"That's not the end of Ephreneia's story," Bill explained calmly.

Lily took another deep breath, but she let it out through her nose and waved for Bill to continue.

"But Ephreneia was tormented by his memory and succumbed to depression. She wanted to live on without him, but she found it too difficult. Seeking help from the pure wisdom found in the Second Realm, she found no answer to assuage her emotions, for emotion is the substance of the Third Realm.

"Ephreneia traveled to the Second Realm once more with High Priest Kambulkar of the South, and called a prayer to the Goddesses Isis and Hathor. Kambulkar watched over her as she offered a fount of purest love to the Goddesses. Upon her prayer, she was transported to the Third Realm. The goddesses took mercy, and summoned her there to be together with her brother for all of time."

Bill looked back to Lily, a small smile breaking through the severity he had been wearing throughout their trip. "You know what this could mean, right?"

"No," Lily said, but her heart raced in anticipation of the detail she was missing. "What does it mean?"

"The 'fount of purest love'," Bill said. "The author means a Eucoeur. Other tales have told us that Ephreneia had possession of a Eucoeur, but we'd never found it in her tomb or heard any stories suggesting she'd used it. As it wasn't buried in her tomb or anywhere else… we can assume she took it with her into the Second Realm, the Abyssal Vortex. And apparently, activating a Eucoeur in the Second Realm had some strange secondary effect… it transported her into the Third Realm."

"So she offered a Eucoeur, and she was taken to be with her brother?" Lily asked. "What does that mean? What does that have to do with me?"

"Lily, Albus brought a Eucoeur into the Abyssal Vortex, too," Bill prompted. "And if he used it in the Second Realm…"

"…he may have been transported to the Third Realm," Lily continued, and her heart lunged out of her chest with every beat. "So even though the Abyssal Vortex is sealed forever… if he used his Eucoeur…"

"Then we would be able look in the Third Realm instead," Bill finished.

"And he had to have used his Eucoeur!" Lily exclaimed, following her heart's lead and jumping up and down, her thrilled voice echoing all over the chamber. "The endless knowledge of the Abyssal Vortex would have told him how to use the Eucoeur to get transported to the Third Realm! He's not in the sealed Second Realm—we just have to find a way to get to the Third!"

Though she had always insisted she would find a way to break through the seal on the Abyssal Vortex and get to Albus, she had begun to seriously fear in the two years since his disappearance that there might never be a way. Albus had, after all, purposefully sealed it from the inside to try and ensure that no one could ever again access the ultimate power within. And even if she could open it up again, that might have unwittingly unleashed the evil that Albus had sealed inside the Vortex with him. But if Albus had been transported out of the Vortex…

"Lily, this is just one story on one wall," Bill warned. "Remember not to look too far into this until you have more facts."

"I'll get the facts," Lily breathed. "All the facts. And then I'll get Albus back." At Bill's concerned glance, she pointed at the hieroglyphs. "Whether or not this is true."

She paced forward, stopped, and reached a hand out until it was almost on the wall. Almost touching the pictures, just as she imagined she was almost reaching Albus.

If the story written here turned out to be true… she would be reaching him soon.