Gan 'Edhen
Prologue: Ponderings, Premonitions, and Preparations
"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches...
Born to those who have thrice defied him,
Born as the seventh month dies...
And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal,
But he will have power the Dark Lord knows not...
And fortune shall smile upon the Dark Lord,
He will partake in the power of his foe…
And both shall travel through the ether,
To the Garden of Sin…
There, they shall wage war upon one another
And the Dark Lord will release the Fallen once more…
But the Chosen will fight back,
Possessing the strength of the Infernal Wyrm…
And either must die at the hand of the other,
For neither can live while the other survives…
And from the battle, the victor shall emerge
And reign for a dragon's age…
The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord
Will be born as the seventh month dies..."
Headmaster Albus Dumbledore of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry drew the fragrant smoke from the stem of his pipe. It was a guilty pleasure very few knew of. He let the white haze slowly billow out of his mouth and he pondered the prophecy that his current Divination professor had given so many years ago.
The only person who knew the entirety of the prophecy was himself and he felt the need to keep it that way. The wording of the prophecy and phrases used were…worrying. He stood slowly from his massive desk and gazed up at the likenesses of his many predecessors gazing out from their paintings on the walls of his circular office. They moved back and forth from portrait to portrait, talking amongst themselves or they slept away on the furniture in their paintings and some even gazed out at him and nodded in acknowledgement before returning to their previous ventures.
Dumbledore put his pipe in his mouth and let it dangle as he stretched for a moment before relaxing. He walked out from behind his desk and checked the numerous silver instruments in his office. Some issued smoke, others chimed, others spun, and a few more swung back and forth… It was just entertaining to watch but the Headmaster used these for more than just entertainment. They were keyed into the various wards around certain residences that he had deemed important. Most were in fact tied to the wards of Hogwarts that he had strengthened some years back and the school itself was still slowly integrating them into its existing wards. Once the school was finished with this process, the instruments tied to them would be more or less useless…
A small number of the instruments though were tied to houses like the Burrow(the residence of the Weasley clan), Number 13 Grimmauld Place(the headquarters of The Order of the Phoenix, a vigilante group dedicated to fighting the forces of the recently resurrected Lord Voldemort), and finally, Number 4 Privet Drive Surrey, London.
In his opinion, the wards around the last address were the most important and yet…they were the weakest of all his protections. He frowned at the puttering device that issued an inconsistent series of smoke rings that were very wispy and easy shooed away with a single hand. The Headmaster just shook his head…
He never understood why the exceptionally powerful blood wards he had erected around the property refused to take hold on the property. As long as a blood relative lived under the same roof as Harry, the wards should have been nigh impenetrable! But still…the wards were barely functioning at their lowest level and no matter how much time he spent trying to perfect the wards through the instrument, they refused to bond…
Dumbledore wandered over to a window in a small reading nook with a cushy chair that let in the moonlight from the night sky. He settled into the chair and drew deeply from his pipe before releasing. He sat there a moment, relishing the sweet smoke, before flicking his hand at the lights in his office. The only source of light now was the half-moon outside.
The Headmaster's gaze did not see through the window but instead looked into its reflection. He could see himself in it. Many saw him as a grandfatherly man with a long flowing silver beard that he tucked into his belt and long silver hair as well. His long nose was crooked, having been broken twice. His half-moon glasses perched on his nose did nothing to hide his twinkling blue eyes. The skin of his face, the little that was visible, was tanned, wrinkled, and leathery much like his hands. Today he wore a violet robe with shooting stars dashing across and around the borders.
All in all, most saw an eccentric old man that was a lot like the fabled Saint Nicholas!
But Headmaster Albus Dumbledore saw deeper than that. He saw the depths of his own soul and knew different. Albus Dumbledore was tired…very, very, very tired… Two powerful Dark Lords had come and gone in his lifetime and he had even defeated one of them himself!
But now…one of them had come back. And to make it worse, it was the darkest and more powerful of the two… So, yes, Dumbledore was weary just thinking about the upcoming fear and anger and death and…all the horrors that war brought about.
What drove him forward was this prophecy. If not for its existence, Dumbledore would have been done with it already and gone to destroy the mounting threat! He believed that every human being deserved the chance to make the right choice but Voldemort… He was a monster.
Corrupted beyond anything he had ever seen, Dumbledore knew without a shadow of a doubt that the Dark Lord Voldemort was as human as a fleshing eating slug was. In other words, not at all.
Unfortunately, Dumbledore could only sit back and watch as events unfolded before him and could only dread as the tension mounted higher. Some would ask, 'Why don't you train Harry so that he could defeat the dark blighter?'
The reason: Dumbledore was as wary of Harry as he was of Voldemort.
The prophecy spoke of some very…sinister power that Harry controlled. 'Possessing the strength of the Infernal Wyrm,' was not something one just dismissed. Until Dumbledore figured out what this 'strength of the Infernal Wyrm' was, then Harry was best left to his own devices.
Also, another line made the Headmaster hesitate in doing anything. 'And from the battle, the victor shall emerge and reign for a dragon's age…' So whoever won, regardless whether if it was Harry or Voldemort, they would reign for a dragon's age; roughly a thousand or so years. Voldemort had already tampered with extremely dark magic in order to prolong his life and keep himself anchored to this plane but Harry… Harry was just a normal teenager, as far as he knew. You don't just rule for a thousand years without taking some kind of steps to give yourself pseudo immortality.
There was no ordinary magic that could be used to extend one's life; only extremely dark magic could do that. And yet, Dumbledore never detected any kind of dark magic around Harry…
It left Dumbledore entirely unsure what to do.
Would he only be trading one Dark Lord for another if Harry actually defeated Voldemort or what?
He shook his head and focused once more on the moon.
He could only wonder why life must be so difficult…
X P X
She gazed into the massive white crystal for a moment. It pulsed with a steady light that gradated to an infinite rainbow of colors. Her eyes flickered up to the night sky and then back down to the crystal. She waited another moment before asking, "You called for me?"
There was no response.
She was alone in a rather large amphitheater with high walls that were made of white stone. Suspended above her head in the center of the gathering place was the large crystal she had been observing. It floated in place with no wires or platforms or any means to hold it up whatsoever.
Then the crystal blazed with a multitude of colors and a voice that was both male and female, young and old, and guttural yet refined filled the arena, "I have indeed called upon you."
The woman ran her hand through long silky brown hair and replied, "Then speak."
Silence reigned for a moment before the voice echoed once more, "The son of your daughter lives. He resides in the realm of Terra."
Wind sprung up as a fury and frost flowered into existence below the woman's feet, "You lie!"
The voice was emotionless and informed her calmly, "I am incapable of such actions. You know this."
The wind died down and the woman took a deep breath and released, "Tell me then, why have you kept this knowledge from me, spirit?"
"I am wise and can see into the past and the future but I am not all knowing. I only just saw the heir of your line this day in a vision. He will journey here to Edhen to seek out his parentage and then, and only then, shall you meet."
"What stops me from journeying to him right now and bringing him here?"
"I am your obstacle. And I shall remain so as I will not provide you passage to the realm of Terra."
The woman sneered, "Then why bother telling me at all!?"
"I felt it appropriate to inform you that your grandson was alive."
The woman glared at the crystal before storming away.
"May Michael watch over you."
The woman shouted back, "To the Rephaim with you, worm!"
X P X
Hermione Granger was up late tonight reading a book.
It was a very good book and it had been some time since she had simply read a good fiction book. She smiled to herself. It wasn't really a surprise, after all, who needed fiction when the magical non-fiction was just as amazing and inspirational!
She folded down the corner of the page she was on, closed the book, and reached over and set it down on her nightstand. She looked around her room and felt a sense of comfort from being back at home. School had just let out a few days ago and as she went to a boarding school (not just any boarding, mind you, but Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!) she sometimes felt a little homesickness but as the years passed she felt it less and less. Hogwarts, it seems, had become a second home to her. However, there was just something about returning to the home of your childhood that was just…comfortable.
She shook her head, dispelling these useless thoughts before getting up off her respectable sized bed with red sheet and blankets. Her toes curled into the thick beige carpet that covered the floor of her room before standing up and walking to her simple white vanity, the only really feminine piece of furniture in the entire room. She sat down the low white stool and looked at her reflection.
She saw an ugly duckling with bushy hair and plain features that would never catch the eye of a smart, handsome boy. Specifically, she was thinking about her best friend, Harry Potter. Yes, she had feelings for her best friend. Was it wrong? Possibly. Did that change anything? No. She sighed as she glared at her reflection, hoping that maybe if she stared hard enough her hair would magically straighten, maybe even become blonde, and her eyes would change to something other than just plain boring brown! Grey would be nice… Maybe blue. Or possibly an emerald gree-…
She slapped her forehead with her palm.
'There I go again!' she thought, 'I'm a pervert, I swear!'
And so she resumed her activity of glaring balefully at her reflection. Her eyes made their way down to her chest. She scowled fiercely at this point. She was practically flat! And the same held true for her butt! It was no wonder that Harry only saw her as some kind of genderless creature… Her only saving grace was that she had always been somewhat on the slim side. What she would do to have a figure like Lavender Brown or Katie Bell or Susan Bones or…dare she say it…Cho Chang! She groaned in frustration before taking her brush out of the drawer of her vanity and began to brush her hair.
Just like many girls her age, Hermione Granger was insecure of her own appearance and often considered herself boring looking and sometimes ugly. For some girls, this is an unfortunate truth, but for Hermione, she was wrong in this case. Her "bushy" hair over the years had slowly started to become very curly, and if not for the fact she kept trying to brush it straight, she would have thick curls of hair that would be very pleasing to the eye. Her brown eyes, while common, still had their own unique flair. They were very light and had an almost golden hue to them. You could almost see her curiosity brimming to the surface if you looked into them. Her frame could be described as willowy. While she would never be "buxom," Hermione would discover there were just as many men who like figures like hers. And finally, a feature she never even thought about in her self-assessment, her smile. A few years ago, she had buck teeth until an incident with another student allowed her to trick the school nurse into shrinking her teeth. Having taken care of that problem, Hermione had a gorgeous pearly white smile.
All in all, Hermione was a very pretty girl who had yet to realize that she was pretty.
After unsuccessfully trying to brush her hair straight and only making her hair even bushier than before, Hermione set down her brush and made her way over to her window. She looked down from the second floor of her house to the manicured front lawn below before her eyes drifted up to the half-moon.
She felt a strange premonition that something was going to happen soon. Whether it would be good or bad, only time would tell.
X P X
Sirius pulled out four lockets from the old beaten trunk. They were fairly simple, nothing more than plain bronze. No, what made these important were the enchantments on the lockets. Yes, they would be crucial for what he had planned. Sirius considered putting one away since he only needed three but figured he might as well as take them all. You never know what could happen…
From the trunk he also pulled out an old journal; his to be specific. He briefly skimmed the pages but nothing really caught his eye. What he had seen had been etched into his mind apparently. Nonetheless, he flipped through each page until he came to a cutout in the book. Inside the cutout was a large silver skeleton key.
He lifted it from its cradle for a moment before placing it back inside. He closed the journal with a snap and put it inside a travel bag at his feet. He placed the lockets inside the bag as well.
Sirius reached into the trunk again and shuffled through the various things he had put in there to distract nosy people from the important pieces he had placed in here. His let out a small sound of triumph having found what he was looking for. In his hand was a one handed battle axe reminiscent of the Viking age but its blade was polished steel and the handle wrapped in leather to provide a better grip. It looked brand new for all intents and purposes.
Sirius was carefully inspecting tribal looking marks in the blade itself. They were only shallow depressions that one would hardly notice if you did not know to look for them. He nodded his head in approval and held the axe away from him. The markings suddenly lit up with red light and the axe head was wreathed in fire. The sound of the flames filled the silent attic of his home that had stored his trunk in and he smirked in satisfaction.
The sound of footsteps suddenly reached his ears and Sirius dropped the axe in surprise. It hit the floor and the flames disappeared from the blade, but not before lighting a robe he had thrown to the floor on fire. Sirius cursed and stamped out the flames quickly. He picked up the axe by its blade to try and hide it but let it go of it almost instantly. The metal was still quite warm from the fire.
"You're terrible at this. You're out of practice."
Sirius looked over and saw it was only Remus. He glared, "Jackass, you could've announced that it was you…"
Remus grinned, "And miss out on watching you make a fool of yourself? I think not."
And indeed, Sirius looked quite silly glaring out from underneath a mane of coal black hair with purple-grey eyes while nursing a burnt hand. His burgundy robes had also been singed a bit at the bottom from stamping out the fire.
Sirius just continued to glare at his friend. Remus just stood there in his tattered brown robes smiling. His scarred face looked younger when he grinned like that and his brown eyes danced with mischief like they did years ago. If Remus was wearing a Hogwarts uniform and his sandy blonde hair didn't have so much grey, Sirius could swear he would be seeing a double of a much younger Remus Lupin.
Sirius shook his head and picked up the axe by the handle this, checked the blade to see if it had cooled down, and then placed it in his travel bag.
Remus asked, "So I'm coming with you this time, right?"
Sirius had started to rummage through the trunk again, "Of course. Especially after what Lily and James learned over there. You're not being left behind this time. We've been preparing for this for half a year now."
Remus nodded, "Good."
Sirius straightened up, this time holding sheathed sword. It looked much like something that a medieval knight would have carried. Sirius drew the sword. It was much like the battle axe, polished steel with tiny engravings up the center of the blade. He nodded, his inspection complete, and held it away from him.
The engravings blazed blue and mist started to drift downward off the sword much like one would see when you open a freezer. Sirius placed the sword point lightly on the burnt robe on the floor and watched as frost spread from the point of contact. He smiled and the engravings dimmed once more. Sirius carefully scraped off the thin layer of ice that had formed on the blade before sheathing it. He then handed it to Remus.
"This was James' sword. It should serve you well when we depart."
Remus frowned, "Shouldn't Harry use this?"
Sirius shook his head, "He'll use Lily's. Trust me; he won't need the extra kick from these weapons like we will.
Besides, if he really wants a flashy weapon," Sirius then reached back into the trunk and withdrew a very long and wide dagger. He unsheathed it and engravings on the blade lit up and tiny arcs of electricity started to dance up and down the metal, "then he can use this one."
Remus smiled, "Very well then."
Sirius ducked into the trunk again, "Take these too." Sirius hefted up a breastplate and heaved it to Remus. Remus stumbled a little but caught it all the same. Sirius also threw a heavy cloak at Remus which landed on top of the breastplate.
Remus examined the two items and saw that the cloak was actually made of dragon hide with very large black scales. The breastplate, including pauldrons, was also covered with a lot of the little engravings just like the dagger, axe, and sword.
Sirius explained as he continued digging in his trunk, "The breastplate was James' along with the cloak. When we get Edhen, you'll need the protection. The armor is enchanted like the weapons but instead to ward against physical attacks. It needs to be charged though so fill it up with magic while were here and then just top it off every night. It may take a while to fill it thought because it does have some pretty powerful wards. Believe or not, that thing is almost as good as if you were wearing a full suit of plate armor.
The cloak will, of course, come in handy to fend off attacks of the magic variety."
Remus looked dubious, "I would think Harry would need this…"
Sirius rolled his eyes, "Moony, just trust me. Harry's going to be the one we worry about the least. I'm telling you, he's going to be an ass kicking machine without all this crap! No, no, we're going to need these far more than Harry. Besides…I only have two sets of those. Well…not including Lily's, but she hardly needed. Ditched 'em as soon as she was told how redundant it would be to wear them."
"Alright… If you say so."
"I do say so… Now help me pull out the rest of this stuff. This trunk has a major expansion charm on it and I forgot how much crap I piled into it…"
Remus sighed, "You idiot…"
Sirius just grinned a pearly white smile.
Remus stepped forward and started to dig through the old robes and books searching for items that looked important, "So, how do you plan on getting Harry here before his birthday? We only have about three weeks until then…"
Sirius smirked as he continued to dig through the trunk, "Simple, I'll bitch and moan to Dumbledore until he finally says yes. And if that doesn't work, I'll threaten to kick the whole lot of them out of my house! And he knows I can do it too. This house has pretty nasty wards on it and since I control them it'd be quite easy to do."
Remus raised an eyebrow and continued to work as well, "You'd really do that?"
Sirius replied, "In a heartbeat. Besides," he cackled, "I've been purposefully keeping the house dirty so that Molly and her brood, and anyone else for that matter, stay downstairs cleaning and they don't start snooping where they shouldn't!"
Remus guffawed, "You haven't!"
Sirius puffed out his chest with pride, "Oh, indeed I have, Moony! It's actually one of the subtler defense wards. Dust just doesn't cake on that thick, y'know? And all the pests? Well their nests are housed inside small warded compartments throughout the house and when the specific ward I'm talking about is activated, the pests are released and the wards encourage them to go at like rabbits."
Sirius did frown at this though, "Unfortunately, some other creatures were released when I activated the ward. I know that a lethifold was let out and I already took care of it but I'm having trouble finding the boggart that's snooping around here somewhere…"
Remus nodded in appreciation, "Well, besides the boggart and lethifold, it really is an ingenious way to keep people finding things they shouldn't."
Sirius groaned, "Seriously, Molly is a fucking pain in the balls! She walks around here like this is her house! She seems determined to throw everything and anything she thinks is 'dark'. I found her about to throw away this!"
Sirius took something out of his travel bag and handed it to Remus. Remus examined the object and what he saw made him very curious about what it was. The object had a single lens of green crystal enough to cover one eye, the left one in this case, and it was attached to a steel frame and arm that was connected to something that looked like it covered the left ear entirely with small slits in it. There was a piece that also snapped into place to hold onto the outer part of the ear.
While completing his examination, Remus asked, "I thought you hated all this stuff that your parents kept here?"
Sirius scowled, "I do! But y'know what? I'll decide what gets trashed and what stays! Not some bossy housewife that wouldn't know useful if it bit her in her fat ass!"
"What does this thing do anyway?"
Sirius smirked, "Well, I bought this little baby back in Edhen but I forgot to store it in the trunk. What you have there, my friend, is an amazing device that lets you see in the pitch dark but also lets you hear far more then you could otherwise!"
Remus replied, "Can already do that. One of the few advantages to being a werewolf."
Sirius rolled his eyes, "Well, not all of us can do that! It'll be bloody useful when we finally get to Edhen… Seriously, there's some scary shit that can sneak up on you in the dark. Hell…even during the day too."
Remus smiled and nodded, "I'll be sure to keep that in mind."
