Quest of the Seekers: The Timeless Conflict
Year Four at Hogwarts
Disclaimer: This was inspired by the brilliant work of one JKR and events and names that she has copyrighted aren't mine and yadda yadda. I hate writing long disclaimers if I haven't told anybody that.
Warning: This is rated PG 13 but future writings will get very gory and will border R related. Just a heads up and I will give warnings when there are scenes like that.
Summary: This is the fourth installment in the Seekers Series. Unless you've read Elements of Transformation, Animals Within and A New Haven then this will make very little sense. The four seekers achieved a remarkable feet their previous year so they hope to have a satisfying one this time starting with a trip to America but little do they suspect that this year will be anything but completely pleasurable. Their trip in America takes a turn for the worst when they meeta gang of wizards that introduce them to new facts of the wizarding world they would've never dreamed of. That's just the beginning for when they return to Hogwarts, theydiscover the true history of their school. Also, an ancient enemy force of the school reappears with powers and intentions that make the terror of Lord Voldemort seem like a common neighborhood bully's reputation. The only thing standing in it's way are the seekers and their friends as they unlock the true series of events that created the house rivalries especially between Gryffindor and Slytherin. Join Tyler, Jacke, Reggie, Brad and their friends as they fight to save their world and their chances of passing end of the year exams. New friends, old friends, new enemies and battles will be richin this fourth installment.
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Chapter 1: An Invitation
Goblin Family Killed, Dark Mark Present
Near the village of Nottingham today, the Dark Mark was found floating over what seemed to be a small wrecked hut. When a team of aurors appeared on the scene, they found 4 goblins laying lifeless. Specialists have verified that the head goblin found was a high standing member in the goblin council responsible for managing the wizard bank of Gringotts.
"More killing, great." said a brown haired boy folding up the latest issue of the Daily Prophet. "Glad mom and dad don't read my issues of the magic newspaper," Brad said thankfully.
Brad Carter was sitting in his room in his pajamas reading the issue of the Daily Prophet that arrived with a rather loud owl that woke him up from a peaceful sleep. His room had posters of soccer players and banners from school with the Hufflepuff crest on them and even took to having his room have good decorations of yellow and black. Brad was a wizard fresh from his third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and had already been home for over three weeks. He eyed his trunk that was full of his wizard books and trinkets across the room and to the left side of his sliding door closet where he could clearly see his school robes with the Hufflepuff badger crest on them. Brad studied his magical possessions to help him try to get over the fact that he was already missing his life at school. Sure, he still loved his muggle lifestyle but magic was just to good to not think about at least once every four hours.
Brad was what was termed in the wizarding world as a muggleborn wizard. This meant that he came from a non-magical family or muggles as the term went. This caused him to face some ridicule especially from some of the snotty slytherins about how he didn't belong in their world let alone their school. Thinking about some of them made Brad's blood boil but still not all slytherins were bad. In fact, he really liked two of them. One being Regulus Black who was a great guy if you took the time to know him. He even helped keep the Seekers from falling apart their first year.
Brad turned to look by his bedside table and saw the picture of himself and his fellow seekers there waving at him vigorously in the wooden frame by his wand. Another thing that Brad really missed were his three fellow seekers: Reggie, Tyler and Jacke. They've been friends ever since they all met and also played seeker on their respective house teams. They've been friends ever since they all first met and even formed their own 'coup' so to speak. They did face a bit of rejection from their houses because of their friendship but they always had each other to fall back on.
Thinking of his friends led to thinking about the upcoming trip they would all take to the United States. He hoped that his family wouldn't do anything embarrassing around them because he was sure that they would be nervous to hang around wizards even though they were his friends. But before he could think more on it, his 11 year old sister Sophia peaked her head into his room.
"Hey Brad." she said in a typical voice.
"Soph, hey," he said stretching.
"Are you staring at those magic things again? Please, we're not that boring are we?" she said sounding a little hurt.
"C'mon Soph, I love you guys and no you're not boring. It's just that...magic is a big part of me now." He answered truthfully. He was never one to lie to his sister about what he felt.
"It does sound wonderful. I wish I can do magic like you. I guess that I never will huh?"
Sophie wasold enough now forit to become clear that she didn't inherit the magic like Brad did. He could still remember the disappointment when last year he had gotten his Hogwarts letter for his third year and she didn't get one which meant that she wasn't a witch. He would've loved if Sophia had come to Hogwarts but in some ways, he was thankful. At least she didn't have to deal with the ridicule Brad did because of the fact that he was muggleborn meaning that both his parents were non magical.
"It's okay Soph, I know you're upset but at least you can still keep the life you have. I lost the life I had here and had to get a new one at Hogwarts and even though I like it, I still miss my old one that I left behind."
"But at least you still have Zeo." she said with a giggle which made Brad think that maybe Sophia might fancy him a little.
Zeo was Brad's best friend from muggle primary school and they still hung out in the summers after Brad came back from Hogwarts. Even at Hogwarts, Brad still wrote to Zeo about his time at Hogwarts; Zeo was the only one from his old muggle "gang" that he told the truth of being a wizard to, other than him popular belief was that he went to a good boarding school up north.
"Yeah, you're right," Brad resigned. "Come on, let's go have some breakfast. I'm hanging out with Zeo later, and no, you can't come." He said when he saw her mouth open.
"What? You can't tell me what to do! I'm bored, I want to go into town too. If you don't then...I scream."
"No, no anything but that," Brad said waving his hands in front of him like pleading mercy. "Oh, alright, just don'tbe a brat."
Then the two siblings went down to their kitchen laughing.
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Tyler was outside playing catch with his snake Chaos outside his house. Tyler Slytherin lived in the secret Slytherin Mansion that was hidden from any eyes be it magic or muggle in the Great Down Mountains in Sussex, England. There lived himself, his mother and father, their snake familiars, and the assortment of house elves. Tyler felt that he had a close bond to all of them for he spent his live growing up among them all the time.
"Hear Chaos, try to catch this one." he hissed loudly behind he tossed a ball a little higher than usual and was amazed when Chaos leaped and caught it successfully. "Good job"
"Thank you. Aren't I the greatest?" his snake said a little smugly.
"You're not that great Chaos."
"Spoilsport." he shot back causing Tyler to laugh a little.
He really did like his family and home.
However, growing up there in such an isolated area for most of his life, Tyler was denied many things that normal boys would normally have. One of those things being interacting with people his own age. Tyler never had any friends his own age until when he started going to Hogwarts and met his first three friends, Jacke Walker, Reginald Falkner and Brad Carter.
Looking back, Tyler was amazed at how adventurous and crazy his life became after that. First of all, the four of them were sorted into the four different houses at Hogwarts and with the famous house rivalries, staying friends wasn't an easy feat. It even went so far that fights between his best friend Jacke and himself broke out that were friendship threatening but they were able to get through it together with the help of Reggie and Brad. That was just the personal craziness that they encountered. In their first year, he and his friends became elementals, people with the power to create and control the elements. They even achieved to have their powers unshackled by the spirit of the earth so now the limits that they can take them are unlimited. These powers however are strictly prohibited by the ministry as among one of the most darkest and dangerous to possess so they kept them secret. At their second year, Tyler and his friends became animagi, or wizards with the power to become animals, and they were illegal ones at that since they didn't register. Tyler saw registering with the ministry was pointless because what was the point of a good animal identity if everyone knows about it. On top of that, the four of them formed a coup if you will and called themselves the Seekers, inspired by the fact that they looked for powerful secrets and adventures and the name came from the fact that they played seekers on their house teams. Tyler realized that he was lucky to be alive after that year since the DADA teacher that year tried to kill him for his own selfish glory but his friends jumped in and saved him. Third year was the most thrilling yet; the Seekers created a whole secret island in their own image. They discovered a secret temple entrance hidden at a secret portal in the forest near the school and fought through monsters, traps and mazes to get the Potion of Fecundity which was the most powerful magical wonder in the world.
Tyler smiled a bit as the memories came back to him. In the temple, his secret was well known and the beings there treated him as if he was normal as his friends. Tyler, as well as his father and grandfather, were parselmouths meaning that they had the born ability to speak the snake language. This gift was the reason that his family had to live in isolation and secret because of the feelings toward people like them. A good example of those feelings would be the only other parselmouth that was around, his cousin Tom Riddle or more formally known as Lord Voldemort. Voldemort was an evil tyrant that was trying to rise to power and destroy all that opposed him and also was making it sporty to attack wizards of muggle origins. His cousin was a fine example of what their kind were throughout history, evil beings who only want to destroy muggleborns and cared about the purity of wizarding blood. Tyler and his family, however, weren't like that for they werein reality verynice people. Sure they had a fascination with Dark Magic but they didn't misuse it.As far as Tyler knew, the Slytherin family had been hiding their identity ever since their ancestor Salazar Slytherin left Hogwarts, the school he helped build which Tyler discovered was with thesame potion the Seekers found.Salazar Slytherin left because muggleborns were starting to be admitted to Hogwarts which he was against so he left. The family went into hiding after that and Tyler hated that part of his life and he also hated his ancestor for what he caused.
Tyler considered himself lucky that he wasn't pretending to be something he wasn't to his 3 friends since they discovered his secret. Last year, more people were in on his secret and they were honorable in keeping it so far. Yeah, as far as anyone was concerned, he was lucky.
All of a sudden, Tyler heard an hoot from an airborne owl as he was heading back inside.A elegant brown owl landed at Tyler's feet and extended it's leg delivering a letter tied to it.
"What you got there?" he said to the owl untying the letter. Tyler opened it and saw who sent it. "Chaos, it's from Regulus!" he hissed to his familiar who looked at the letter with interest.
Regulus Black was another friend of Tyler's from school that was from Tyler's own house of Slytherin. Regulus was like a watchful older brother to him. He cared about Tyler's feelings and was always there to talk to if there was a problem. His letter read like this:
Tyler,
I hope you're having a good summer so far. If you don't remember, you said that you would like to visit me this month before you went on your trip with your fellow seekers. Well, it can you make it this weekend? I'm kind of in a bored slump right now so it would be great to have company. My parents said it was okay and they would like to meet you. Well, they said that in simple terms; their actual words were too formal and I don't think it would be clear if I put them on paper for you. Anyway, it would be great if you could come. Matt was invited too but he said that his parents don't think it's a good time right now since apparently they are in the midst of something but he said that he thinks it'll be over soon and he'll visit probably some time next month so it'll be just you and me. I hope you can make it and I think you should march up to your parents right after this letter and ask. I told the owl to stay with you until you can right back so you better do it now.
Regulus
Tyler could've laughed at the tone of the letter. He figured that Regulus must've been really bored to hell if he was actually telling him to march up to his parents and ask right now. He didn't want to disappoint him so he figured he better do just that.But he felt that was pushing his luck. They were already worried about Tyler leaving for afew weeks with his friends to go to America and it was hard covincing them of that so another trip to stay with friends was going to be tough.
"Yenze," he called out for the loyal house elf. Yenze was the head of the family elves and they were quite fond with each other.
She appeared in a wisp of light in front of Tyler. "You summoned me Tyler." he said in a squeaky voice and elegant one armed bow.
"Yeah, I was wondering if you know where my mom and dad are. Do you?"
"Oh yes, Mister and Mistress are in the study speaking with your grandparents through the floo."
"Thanks Yenze," Tyler said patting the top of the elf's head causing him to chuckle under his breath.
Tyler walked up to the study and found that two chairs were pulled to the fireplace where he could hear his parents Simon and Nora Slytherin talking. He could hear the voices of his grandparents coming from the fire responding to them and at closer inspection, saw their figures in the fire.
"Hello," Tyler said rather timidly. He saw that his parents were sitting like they were chatting in a regular conversation in their chairs. He saw that his dad's familair Serpentine was snoozing in his lap.
"Oh Tyler, hello there," his grandfather Alan called out.
"Tyler it's nice to see you dear." his grandmother Barbara.
"Yeah, son, come join us." his dad Simon said waving for him to sit with them as he conjured a chair beside him.
"Don't be shy Tyler. Sit." Tyler followed his mother's advice and sat in the chair his dad made which was quite comfy.
"So what are all you talking about?" He asked curious of what they were discussing earlier.
"Oh just random things. I hear from your dad that you're taking a trip to America with your friends Tyler," his grandpa said smiling over to him.
"Yeah, in three weeks." 'Might as well get it over with now especially since my grandparents are here. They always take my side.' Tyler thought to himself. "Actually, I was looking for you mom, dad, because well, I have something to ask."
"What sweetie?" Nora said staring him down.
"Well...I was invited to go over to a friend's house on Saturday for the weekend. I was wondering if it was okay?"
"But won't you be seeing them for almost a month next month?" Simon said looking confused.
"Oh, no, this is another friend."
"Which one?" Nora said sounding intrigued.
"Oh, it's from Regulus Black. Remember, I told you about him."
"Black?" his grandmother said from the fire. "The name seems familiar. I think I've heard of that family before."
"So can I go?" Tyler said turning to his parents and even did put a feeling of hopeful innocence on his face.
His parents leaned into each other talking quietly. His grandparents were staring them down like they were urging them to let Tyler have this.Tyler crossed his fingers hoping for the best until they turned to him. "Okay, but you'll have to write us every day." his mother said looking a little stern.
"It's just for two days."
"Still, we would feel more comfortable if you did. Can you do that?" Simon said looking at his son seriously.
"Okay."
"Good, if you do that then we have no problem."
"Great, well I better go. Regulus wanted me to write back to see if I was coming or not."
He hopped off the chair and headed out the door but right after he left the room he heard them talking in urgent voices. Tyler couldn't hear what they were saying but he was dying to know. They would notice him snooping if he went closer and he wished there was a way to listen in without them finding out. Then he could've slapped himself for his stupidity; he could use him animagus form to get close enough to listen in. He focused and soon, right where Tyler was standing, an emerald green snake was in his place. He slithered and made his way behind his father's chair and listened in.
"I still think that he shouldn't be going. Going with his other friends to America for almost a month was bad enough. He won't be there to watch over him."
"Simon, don't worry," he heard his grandfather say. "Tyler's growing up and you can't be there for every little thing."
"But I'm worried dad. Tyler's growing more and more involved with his friends and I don't think that it's safe for him."
"Simon," his grandmother said consolingly. "Tyler needs this. He needs these times where he could feel like a normal kid. A normal kid that gets invited to sleep over or have fun with friends."
"I agree with Simon. Tyler is becoming too attached and it will only make him feel more upset that he's living a lie with them since they don't know about him."
"Nora please," his grandpa said nearly shouting. "Simon, you're not fooling me in the slightest. I know you're worried about him but I think that you might be becoming jealous of your own son. He's able to have friends like a normal boy while you weren't able to socialize and were lucky to have befriended Timothy."
"Jealous? Father please," his dad said rather quickly. "I just don't want Tyler to have his heart broken if his friends leave him over the fact if they discover his secret."
"Simon Solemn Slytherin!" his grandmother said in a strict tone. "Listen to what you're saying. You are practically saying that you want to keep Tyler completely caged up. I know that you are upset that Balder was as trusting as Tyler seems to be becoming..."
"And we all know what that got him mom! Captured and put down like a rabid dog!" Simon shouted. "I'm just looking out to make sure that Tyler doesn't take the same stupid path! I wonder if you'll be saying the same spell if Tyler in front of you soulless because of his desire to be normal!"
At that moment, Tyler didn't think he could handle hearing this argument anymore so he slithered off. Once outside the room, he went back to his human state and ran to his room. He wrote a letter to Regulus with three simple words: I can come. He sent the owl away, shut his door and then collapsed on his bed crying. He looked over to the pictures of his fellow seekers on his beside table to the pictures of his other friends around his room and he cried even more.
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End of Chapter 1
Nightlit: Wow, you hit the nail pretty good there. Most of the stuff in the last chapter were set ups for this story. You scare me sometimes. Also, good luck with the problems in Trials. It's too good a story to let up and I'm anxious to read more.
Author Notes:
Tyler's folks are really protective aren't they. I can't imagine what would happen if they found out that Tyler heard everything. Also, I included Brad's own personal log because out of all the seekers, he seems to be the one that I focus on least and I'm going to work on that. Review.
High Serpent King