Chapter 2, this will be the last chapter until the poll on my profile is finished, so enjoy it while it lasts.

H- HP -P

Chapter Two: The Serpent Tongued

Nearly ten years had passed since Harry had been taken by Briar from his relatives' doorstep and brought to the Netherworld, but the upside-down tower of obsidian rock had hardly changed at all. The orbiting rocks which acted as transports to the various levels of the Netherworld still circled the tower awaiting to be called and the hot lava where the tower had been built deep into the world's crust still kept the Netherworld warm, its light crept into the windows and archways of the tower and glinted from the armour and weapons of the guarding hobbe and regular sized minions as they patrolled the tower and chased unfortunate rats and pest, including other new born minions. Only the Private Quarters seemed to have changed in anyway, or rather, a little side room that had been built a ways off from the Private Quarters main chamber, connected by a bridge of obsidian carved from the tower rock.

The single large window in this room had bars in it so that the occupant of this room didn't fall out of it when he was younger. Yet, although Corvin 'Harry' Potter, Heir to the Dark Lady, was older now, she still refused to remove those bars. 'You'll be surprized how bars can come in handy, my son.' Briar had told a young Corvin. Harry Potter, given the name of Corvin to mix better with the realm his mother ruled over, awoke to what he hoped was a quiet day. His training with weapons and magic was over for another week and he had earned a free day to rest his aching muscles. Since he had a day off, he rolled on to his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorbike in it. He had a funny feeling he'd had the same dream before.

There was a rapping noise outside his door.

"Cory? Are you up?" asked a girl's voice.

"Nearly, Adela." said Corvin.

"Lady Briar says she wants you up for breakfast."

Corvin groaned. Today was meant to be his free day.

"Sorry Cory, I didn't hear that." Adela asked through the door.

"Its okay, I'll be with everyone in a minute."

He heard little Adela's feet run away from his door and probably back to either the throne room or the banqueting hall a few floors above. Corvin got slowly out of bed and started looking for clothes. He found a pair of socks under his oak-frame bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them, put them on. Corvin was used to spiders, not because his chamber was full of them, but because the Netherworld was home to even bigger ones than the small common spider he had just taken off of his sock. The green minions rode spiders that could eat his socks, Corvin knew that from experience. He dressed himself in a pair of jeans he had got from his own realm and a black cotton tunic with red trim he had got from his mother in this realm.

When he was dressed he opened his door and walked along the short bridge to reach the Private Quarters, it was mostly empty apart from a few serving minions who were making sure things stayed in order and a couple of red minions were checking the temperature of the water in his mother's huge bathing pool. Several bowed as he past on his way to the throne room and once he found no one there he went outside to find a floating platform was already waiting to take him up to the level of the banqueting hall. It took only a second for the rock to take him up a few floors and once he entered the tower again it returned to orbiting the tower with the other platforms. The banqueting hall was a huge cavern where the many tables had been carved from the very floor, they had been shined so many times it was like looking into a mirror. It was decorated with a huge number of banners and gilded statues of minions and some generals of ages past, when his mother had fought against the Glorious Empire. Most of the long tables were where the more veteran minion and bray warriors ate, they had earned the right to eat in the same room as their ruler and commander. Each of these twenty tables could seat more then a hundred and were permanently stocked with food. A slightly smaller, but much more grand and ornate table had been carved on a high platform and was the Overlord's table. His mother, the great Dark Lady Briar, supreme ruler of the world of Glorias and destroyer of the once mighty Glorious Empire, was sat in the middle. To her left sat the sisters Candra and Horatia, great great great granddaughters to Juno. Horatia was getting Adela, her daughter, comfortable on her lap and was sharing the food from her plate. Both sisters were curvy with light olive skin, Candra had long brown hair with golden fastening holding the brown locks out of her eyes, Horatia had slightly lighter hair and was a year younger than Candra. Beside them was their father, Benedictus, an ageing but very powerful looking man with olive skin a shade darker than his daughters' he was one of the oldest general of Briar's horde. The second from last person on the left of the grand table was a tall dark skinned man, with a straight nose and a cat-like gaze, he dressed in black silks and gold finery, Harkim was a wanderer from the Great Southern Desert and was another of his mother's generals. He was also one of Corvin's teacher in this realm and taught him maths, sciences and literature. Harkim was a good man with many talents, sword skills was only one of them. A little way down from Harkim was the strongest of his mother's generals. Gor was the great grandson of Ox, an albino wendigo who had helped Briar defeat the Glorious Empire. The huge grey and black creature was so big he sat on the floor while he ate and even then he towered over everyone else; he was already eating what looked like a whole roasted cow, complete with horns and tail. To his mother's right sat Fay, the former elf Queen of the Sanctuaries who had almost sacrificed her magic to help Briar get past a defensive magical wall around the Empire's capitol city. She was the only remaining mistress from those times. Kelda and Juno had died of old age many decades ago, before Briar had even met Lily. Next to the right Roan, Skarin and Bjorn, three brothers who were the great great great grandsons of Kelda. Roan, was the youngest at thirteen with dirty blond hair and a permanent smirk on his face, Bjorn was the second oldest at seventeen with the same dirty blond hair as his younger brother and Skarin was the oldest at twenty one, he was very powerful with large biceps and long hair almost a very very pale blond, intricate tattoos adorned his shoulders and chest. Skarin and Bjorn were some more of Briar's generals and also helped with Corvin's tutoring in the fighting arts. Roan was Corvin's part-time rival and his best friend. The grand table was looking strangely empty, even with Gor's massive bulk filling a whole end, since many of the generals were busy keeping Briar's kingdom in order. Even some of the mistresses and the older children had left to help their fathers, brothers and lovers in their endeavours. With mostly everyone eating and Briar concentrating more on something she was reading it was Roan who saw Corvin first and he gave his younger friend a large open smile. He was baring some new bruises from his own training with his brother's yesterday. Corvin was sporting some new ones as well.

Perhaps it had something to do with living underground, but Corvin was somewhat short for his age. Despite his height, or rather his lack of it, he was a strapping lad stronger than what he should have been, again thanks to the weapons training his mother and the males of his extended family forced him, Roan and the other children to take. Corvin had a thin face, strong limbs, jet black hair (almost the same, but not as silky or as shiny as his adoptive mother's) and bright-green eyes. All in all, he was much like the other Netherworld children, strong, happy, intelligent, and adored by Briar. Corvin had almost needed glasses at one time, but a quick spell from his mother and Corvin had been spared the need. It had been a painful process, but Briar had taken care not to cause to too much pain. The only thing that made Corvin unique in anyway was that Briar said he was a wizard and a very thin scar on his forehead which was shaped like a bolt of lightning. He had had it as long as he could remember and the first question he could ever remember asking his mother was how he had got it.

"The same madman that killed your parents, my son," she had said. "He turned his magic on you but your mother saved you."

"If you were there, why didn't you save my real parents?" a young Harry had asked.

"It was your real mother who died to save you." And so Briar had told Harry how James and Lily Potter had given their lives to save the only thing that had really mattered to them. How James had died protecting Lily and his son, and Lily had died defending Harry. Briar, who had preferred to stay in her own realm, had not known anything was wrong until it was too late. Corvin would be forever grateful to his real parents, but more so to Briar, for raising him in their stead. Briar had known his real mother since first visiting his home realm and so could tell him about her, however, she had not known his father very well. Only once did Briar ever see James and even then she had not introduced herself, but Lily had told Briar about him a lot. It turned out his mother and father used to hate each other when they were younger; James used to bully an old friend of hers at school or something.

It was only when Corvin got closer to the table and Roan called out that his mother looked up from whatever she was reading and saw him sitting down in the empty seat next to her."Good morning, Corvin. After your lessons yesterday I thought you would appreciate a good breakfast." she explained. It was only as Corvin began to eat some of the roast chicken did he realise he was hungry and silently thanked his mother and little Adela for getting him onto his feet.

"What are you reading, mother?" Corvin asked, finishing his first bite of chicken.

"Something about your home realm, I've been thinking about your potential as a wizard." Briar told him honestly. "You're about the same age as Lily was when..." she whispered to herself not realizing that Corvin was still listening to her.

"When what?"

Her icy blue eyes looked at him quickly then flashed back to the book she was reading. "It may be that they believe you dead, you have been gone for ten years and I doubt they've found any way to track you down here in another realm – we would have heard something by now if they had found a way."

"Mother?" Corvin asked, worriedly. He was used to his mother going off on one of these little rants, as he called them, but it wasn't often she ranted on about something to do with him and she had never mentioned anything about him as 'dead' before.

At that point Candra noticed her dark mistress' far away look and Corvin must have had a forlorn look on his face because after casting a glance to the young boy the Empire maiden gently shook the Overlord's armoured shoulder. "Lady Briar?"

Briar just grunted without taking her eyes off of the book. Corvin craned his body about so that he could read what the title of the book was. It was a dark red book with golden letters which read 'Hogwarts A History'.

Hogwarts, thought Corvin seeing that Candra had Briar's attention now that's the magic school my parents went to. Why would Briar be concerned about that school? His private lessons with her in the arts of magic were going fine. When he was younger and began to show magical potential she had bought spellbooks and equipment from his world to teach him magic, he was getting good at it too despite not owning a wand. Briar, however, had anticipated this and was slowly showing him the fine art of performing wandless magic. He could perform several basic charms with ease and even some everyday spells. He was still no where near as adept as Briar herself.

She could call forth a powerful inferno of searing fire and scorching mana with a single finger, slow a battalion of charging knights to a crawl, imbue her weapons with arcane poisons and turn the most dangerous of her enemies into mindless puppets, all with the movement of a hand. Corvin still had a lot to learn.

Corvin just continued with his breakfast until his mother rounded on him and asked. "How would you like to spend a few days in your realm? You, me and a few of the others. It would get me away from the horde for a while and you have earned a small break from your training."

"Really? A few days without getting bruised, beat up and battered around? Can Roan come too?" Corvin asked, hope dripping from every word. When his mother nodded the young boy's face lit up with a large smile and he leapt at his mother and threw his arms around her shoulders. Roan was going to owe him big for getting the both of them out of training.

It took a bit of time to get the two boys to calm down and begin explaining to them what they were going to do. It turned out that Briar was going to pay the wizard bank of Gringotts a visit, she was going to start up an account for Corvin so that should anything happen in the Netherworld of her realm Corvin would be able to retreat back to his own realm with resources to start a new life for himself, she also wanted to ask the goblins something she had been wondering about for many months but she would not explain to Corvin what it was. As the plans began to finalize Gnarl, Briar's most senior advisor and servant ambled up to them, black robes dirtier and more ragged then when Briar first came to power but still pocessing his ability to order the other minions about.

"Young Lord Corvin, I have received word from Slick that he has found something that might interest you in the Green Sector of the Minion Burrows."

"Green Sector?" Corvin asked "What could he have found there?"

"Will you be going now or after breakfast?" Gnarl asked. Corvin got up from his seat after seeking consent from his mother to leave the table, he gave his thanks to Gnarl and then left. Racing to the floating platforms and willing one of them to take him to the Minion Burrows.

H- The Dark Prince -P

Slick was a rather unfortunate green minion. Unfortunate in that he was smaller and weedier than the others, this made him a popular target for the other larger minions. He was, however, very good at finding things. While the average greens prided themselves in being the Dark Lady's best assassins and ambushers Slick had proven to be a very good spy and scout. Unlike other greens he washed regularly and so didn't have the usual 'green problem' of smelling like the lovechild between a rotting carcass and a bag of fish heads. He was a full head smaller than the other greens and had very long ears he had studded with makeshift jewellery like bones and feathers. His skin was a very dark green and had stripes of lighter green along his back and sides. A fight earlier in his life had broken his lower jaw and poor Slick had had a tendency to drool when he got excited ever since. Having always been shunned from most of minion society and still considered young at five years of age he had quickly taken to playing with Lord Corvin in his bedroom when he had been chased into the Private Quarters by a group of other minions intent on bashing his head in. He found his means of escaping the bullies and earning himself a high rank in society when Corvin had asked if Briar would allow Slick to be his 'personal' minion servant. She had agreed and now no one dared argue with Lord Corvin and kept out of Slick's authority. Feeling his young master's presence nearby the green minion rushed to the area where the rock platform would drop off its passenger. His master had to see what he had found.

The Minion Burrows was a vast, crawling network of caves and subterranean chambers offering a surprising array of habitats, courtesy of the power of the Dark Lady's magic. A great forest grew along the western side of the Great Cavern that was the Netherworld, this was where the green minions had begun building a huge hive in the heart of this underground jungle. Their smaller, original hive was still located at the original Minion Burrow before the horde began to grow to an extent that needed more space. Now the Greens had grown a huge forest, the Blues had moved to the underwater lake that supplied the River of Styx, which also gave the Greens forest the water for the plants. The Reds had travelled deeper down, nearer the fiery lava and the Browns had begun to build their new hive to the North of the great cavern, their new territory extended from the North and around the cavern along the eastern side. Corvin had reached the Greens Forest soon enough to find Slick waiting for him.

"Master, Master, come see!" Slick shouted excitedly.

"What is it Slick?" Corvin asked jogging behind the small green making sure not to step on his long tail.

The green minion just ran on, a trail of drool appearing on the ground as they continued to wherever he was leading them. Slick led him to a rather deep and dense part of the forest before pointing to a large rock standing near to the edge of the great cavern, it was bathed in the red glow from the lava below. One the top of it was one of the largest snakes Corvin had seen in his life. It could have wrapped its body five times around a car from his realm and crushed it to dust – but it didn't look to be in the mood. It looked more like if was asleep, warming its body with the vast quantities of heat thrown out from the sea of molten rock. Slick was staring at the huge reptile, enraptured with it, drool pooling in a puddle around his feet. Corvin rolled his eyes as he really should have known by now. All green minions had a strange desire for all things reptilian, it probably stemmed from the fact that they were the most reptilian of the minions; Slick just happened to be one of the worst. He was staring intently at the glistening brown coils that could have squeezed the life out of him like Briar could make a building burst into flame with a click of her fingers. Only Briar wouldn't eat him whole afterwards.

"So pretty, so shiny." Slick mumbled under his breath as Corvin moved closer to the big snake.

The limbless reptile opened its beady eyes, raised its head and said to Corvin as he sat down on a rock beside it "Ever ssince moving here, I get thisss every day." Having Skarin, Bjorn, Harkim, Gor, his mother and everyone else beating on his bedroom door to get him ready for his training, Corvin could understand the harassment easily.

"I know," Corvin said as the snake shifted and laid her head down on a section of her body like a pillow. "It's really annoying – painful as well."

The snake raised an eyebrow, not understanding what Corvin was talking about.

"Where did you come from anyway?" Corvin asked

The snake jabbed her tail in Slick's direction "Green minionss brought me down when I hatched."

"Oh I see." Corvin said. It didn't surprise him. The greens were always bringing down any reptile they had been able to catch from the surface worlds. He'd seen some Boa Constrictors about and even some Chameleons from his realm around here. "Sorry about them."

"No worriesss, much easier life here than on the ssurface."

At that moment, a horn from the tower sounded, his mother calling some of the horde to her side. He looked back at Slick, whose ears were swivelling around his head as he listened to his Dark Lady's orders.

"Mistress wants Master back." the green minion said. Corvin sighed and looked back to the friendly snake who was now dropping down from her boulder to the ground, warmed up enough to start her own day.

"Sorry to begin a conversation and then leave Madame Snake." If there's one thing you have to do when talking to a creature that could swallow you whole for breakfast, it was to be respectful. You were more likely to survive the encounter. Take Gor for example.

The big snake just hissed out an understanding to the boy and then silently slivered away into the undergrowth. Corvin grabbed Slick by an ear to take the minion's attention away from the rippling muscles and returned the way they came back to the same rock port that Slick had been awaiting for him.

When the boy and his minion reached the tower they found Briar watching as some young browns were taking trunks and cases through the Netherworld gate. Its normal blue light was now a rich purple, the colour for Corvin's realm.

"Mother? I didn't think we would go so quickly."

Briar turned to look at her adopted son and placed an armoured hand upon his unruly hair again taking great care with the sharp inbuilt claws. "I want to get these matters sorted quickly so find Roan and tell him to dress for your realm. I have already told the minions to begin their chores in the manor, we leave as soon as you get Roan ready."

"Yes mother." Corvin said before running off to find his friend. Once her son had left, the Dark Lady went to sit on her throne to await their return. On the left arm of the great obsidian seat was an old envelope. The yellowish parchment had darkened from age and the emerald writing ink was faded, though still perfectly readable as was the letter that was inside it.

Miss L. Evans

Third Bedroom

7 Francis Avenue

St Albans

Hertfordshire

Lily had come to see Briar a day after first receiving her letter; she had been so happy, Briar still remembered her shining face and big smile, could still remember young Lily running at her with this letter in her grasp.

"Briar Briar! Look, there's a school! There ARE others like us!" She had been so happy. She had shown Briar her letter and the uniform for Hogwarts she and her family had bought at Diagon Alley. That was the day Briar discovered why the Netherworld had sent her to that presumably non-magical realm, there was a secret society of magical users living in it and Lily would finally get the proper training in her abilities that she needed. Now, her son was reaching that age that Lily had first received this letter. Briar wondered if Lily's son was being missed in his realm.

H- HP -P

How was this one, I'm trying to follow the books as much as I can but do expect some twists and turns.

I don't know where Lily lived or even if it was in the book, I only read through the last few books quickly.

Remember there is a poll on my profile, so go vote now.