The Land of RuneScape
Chapter 1: The Portal
Pools of golden sunlight washed over the towering ramparts of the castle and swathed the great lake in a warmth that only such a powerful star could live to provide. As a suspicious tentacle rose in salute of the morning from the lake, the more terrene students began to stir within the castle, students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Among those, a boy of sixteen, famous throughout the school, as a matter of fact, famous throughout the wizarding world in it's entirety. Most noticeable on him, a red, vivid scar within the shape of a lightning bolt. Slowly, Harry Potter began to wake.
Two beds along from him, Ron Weasley, a boy of picturesque hair that echoed a friendly flame, was also beginning to stir. In the neighbouring dormitory, Hermione Granger was already awake and routinely attacked her straggling hair with a comb, attempting to temper the vivid, brown and bushy hair that the morning had clearly got the better of. It was a considerable while following that Harry got out of his bed and pulled on his robes, Ron grudgingly followed suit. It was a Monday, their lesson-free weekend had ceased to be, in it's place, they were presented with a double Potions session in the afternoon, a Divination lesson preceding and a Care of Magical Creatures lesson following. None of these appealed to the two friends. Hermione, who had descended the magically reinforced staircase leading to the girl's dormitory in waiting for Harry and Ron, had given up Divination and therefore would have a free period until the afternoon.
Shortly afterwards, a figure appeared in the common room that was neither Harry nor Ron, but a girl of the same bright red hair of her brother's Ginny Weasley. As Ginny appeared and bade Hermione a morning greeting, she sat down next to her friend, and the two awaited Harry and Ron. Shortly afterwards, they arrived and joined Hermione and Ginny by the fireplace.
"Morning," said Harry to the other two, who echoed his greeting, and awaited a conversation. It was struck by Ron, who began to complain about that days lessons.
"I don't know why you two still study Divinations, honestly, it's a load of rubbish if you ask me," said Hermione.
"Dunno," muttered Ron. "Suppose it'd take all my willpower to tell that old bat I don't want to be taught by her. She's frail enough as it is."
"Probably because she has someone to predict the death of every lesson," Harry mused casually, Ron laughed.
"So I guess that we both could benefit from dropping it," he added. "Dunno why it didn't occur to us."
Ginny, who had not said anything up until this point, replied,
"In our fourth year, there was the Triwizard Tournament for everyone to be worrying about, most of all Harry," she cast a glance at him reverently as she spoke. "In the fifth year," she continued, "that old hag upheld the Ministry's reign of terror upon us all, so thoughts of quitting Divination probably never came up. Still, I'm with you both that, considering you had the option to walk out at any point, you might as well have done before." Her short musings ended, she got up and said to the other three "I'm going down to the hall."
"I suppose we ought to go down to breakfast," Hermione told them. "Oh! Ron, you and I have prefect duties to do early-morning."
"Not to mention, I'm hungry," said Ron darkly, "Which is another reason to go."
"I'll wait for you in the hall," said Harry as he got up to accompany Ron, Hermione and Ginny as they left the common-room.
Before they reached the first floor, they ran into a girl of their age, the candlelight falling upon her hair of a dishwater blonde, her radiant face illuminating the corridor as if it were a light source of it's own.
"Oh, hello Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny," she greeted each of them in turn
"Hi Luna," Harry smiled. Ron and Hermione bade her hello, and made to proceed until she spoke again.
"I was hoping I would run into you three. There was something I wanted to show you."
Ron, Hermione and Ginny exchanged a look behind her back, wondering what Luna had in store for them, Harry followed quite indifferently, curious but certain that Luna could lead them to no harm. She walked as if heading to the Entrance Hall, but instead, walked straight past it and down a winding corridor that Harry did not normally use. They walked for a minute, His night-time wanderings about the school had taught him that the route she was heading now would take them to the Slytherin dungeons, but she did not go there either. Wherever she was taking them, it was in a part of the school that none of them had ever visited before. Luna, however, was confident in her path, and evidently knew where she was going, wherever that might be. Eventually, curiosity took the better of Harry.
"Luna, where are we going?" he asked.
"Oh, it's not far, it's just down here ..."
Harry wished he had the Marauder's Map, which showed him the layout of the entire school, but it was buried within his trunk in the boy's dormitory. Luna took them into a deserted classroom, quite in it's solitude amidst the corridors filled with a pale green light, there were no other rooms nearby.
"What's in here?"
"See for yourself," said Luna, and she pulled open the door.
Harry was shocked. The classroom was clearly disused, tables and desks had long since been stacked away, there was no trace or sign that anyone had been here in a long time. Upon the walls, a shocking light of a crystal blue shone, but what captured them all was what cast it. In the centre of the room, a huge, circular and ornate frame stood resolutely, secured to the floor. Within it, a luminiscent and opaque substance swirled within the frame, as if it were the strong nylon of a trampoline strapped to the edges, only this substance was less than solid. Yet neither was it liquid nor gas. Harry was reminded of the vivid substance within the Pensieve that the headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, kept in his office. Yet he felt uneasy about it.
"I wanted to show you four," said Luna. "I have no idea what it is, I found it one night when I was sleepwalking."
The first to step forward was Ginny, examining the strange object closely as she approached the frame. She walked around it, as if trying to decipher it's use. Hermione also seemed to be giving it an evaluative stare.
"It's ... weird ..." said Ron, mesmerized by the swirling blue within the centre of the object. He stepped forward to examine it for himself.
Getting ever closer, Ron then said, "I wonder what this stuff is ..."
All four of them saw Ron lift his hand and inch it towards the substance.
"Ron, no!" They all cried, but Ron did not hear them, as if magnetically drawn towards it. He dipped his hand within it, expecting it to come out of the other side. But instead, an invisible force lifted him from the ground and yanked him by his arm, pulling him into the matter. He did not have time to yell as he was sucked into the strange object, and did not come out of the other end.
"We have to go after him!" Harry shouted.
"But he could have gone anywhere, that might endanger us all ..." said Luna uncertainly. Ginny, Harry and Hermione gave her a fierce look,
"If he's in danger then it's within our best interest to go after him," said Hermione, her voice shaking. Without hesitation, she walked up to the portal and leaned into it, soon, she too was gone. Ginny followed, and Harry approached it at a run, diving head-first into it. Luna sighed. It had been a mistake to bring them here, but she too, followed, with no knowledge of where this mysterious portal would take her.