The Second Trial: The Lost Library
Chapter 2
It finally dawned on him. He understands now. There is a perfectly legitimate reason that Harry is so amazing at flying. It's because for some reason, he took all his natural skill at other forms of travel, which is usually balanced in an average person, and but it towards flying. Thus, we have the amazing flyer who hates portkeys, floos, aparation, and now book-keys. Why does he also hate book-keys? Well, it goes like this.
WHAM!
"Son of a witch" (i know what it normally is)
Harry exclaimed, as he simultaneously had an epiphany and slammed his face into the floor. The stone floor.
After picking himself back up, and finding that while his nose hurt like none other, it wasn't broken, Harry looked around, and immediately noticed the absence of the other champions. In fact, he realized, there was an absence of anything. Harry was in a circular stone room. The only thing in the room, was a 14 year old boy, a torch, and a door, handleless, with the engraving on it:
FIRST TRIAL
ALL YE WHO ENTER FOR GLORY VAIN
SHALL FIND NO ONE KNOWS THEIR NAME
NAME THE TEST
AND CONQUER THE TRIAL
TO CONTINUE ONWARD
"Huh," why would someone who looks for glory be nameless, harry wondered. Then, it hit him.
"Fear," he said, "This is the trial of a person's fear, or maybe their greatest fear."
As he spoke those words, the doors handle appeared, so harry stepped forwards, and pulled the door open.
There was a cloud, or a fog, inside the door. Harry couldn't see more than three feet. With a shrug, harry walked through the doorway, but when he turned around, there was no door.
He wondered what his greatest fear was, since he was no longer terrified of Dementors. Scared, yes, respectful ,yes, but not terrified. He turned around and began walking into the mist. Harry heard something to his left, a low sound, that of foorsteps. He turned to see what it was, and what he saw confused him. He saw Ron and Hermione walking away holding hands. They were older, and obviously in love. He didn't understand how this was supposed to make him afraid, until he noticed that they were walking down a hall of Hogwarts. And that as they were walking, and older Harry was walking the other way. Harry saw his older self smile at Ron and Hermione, but he saw no reaction on their faces. They continued along past him, and harry saw the smile drop. Older Harry then slumped his shoulders and walked off, alone.
Harry fell to his knees on the floor, his eyes blurring as they stared at the ground. He knew what his greatest fear was now. He didn't fear for his life. He didn't fear reliving his worst moments. He feared being left behind, being unneeded by his friends. He feared being alone again, with no one to be close to, no one to share the laughs and the tears of life with. And for a time, Harry wept. He knew that this wasn't the truth. He knew his friends still loved him. And he felt shame, that even when he had loving friends, he would still doubt them. And he felt hate. Hate at himself for succumbing to a simple vision.
After a time of letting these emotions run loose, harry pulled himself together and stood back up. He looked back at the picture, where Sirius was walking with an older lady past older Harry, and decided that if this ever came to pass, if his friends ever stopped needing him, he wouldn't give up. He would continue to be their friends even if they didn't acknowledge him. He would still help them when they needed help. He would still consider them friends, and he would never abandon them. With this determination, Harry turned and saw another door. This door was blank but had a handle, so harry opened it and walked through.
Fleur walked into the second room, breathing hard and heart still pounding, and sat down in the chair that was located to her left.
She briefly remembered the last room, and shuddered as she thought 'I'll never let a man touch me like that. Never.'
After a few minutes of deep breathing and meditating, fleur got her emotions fully under control. Wild emotions, even contained as they had been when she walked through the door, were dangerous for veela to feel. She had to suppress them when they roiled like they had. This isn't to say she couldn't feel emotions, she just had far worse consequences if they controlled her.
When fleur had herself calm and collected again, she looked around the room and saw another door. This door had the inscription:
SECOND TRIAL
YOU HAVE PROVEN THAT YOUR GREATEST FEAR
WILL NOT CONTROL YOU WHEN IT'S NEAR
NOW YOU MUST PROVE YOUR DETERMINATION
OR FACE ETERNAL DAMNATION
Fleur snorted at the inscription, knowing that if she failed the test she wouldn't be eternally damned, she would just be ejected back into the real world. With these comforting thoughts in mind fleur opened the door. Before her was a vast plane of snow and ice. In the far distance fleur could see a tiny shape, and as there was nothing else visible, fleur knew that was her destination. As fleur stepped through the door, she realized two things. First, she realized that it was very cold, and that the wind was blowing fiercely. Second, Fleur realized that she no longer had her wand. She turned around to get it, thinking she had left it inside, and saw a sign on a post behind her that said:
YOUR MAGIC SHAL NOT BE ALLOWED FOR THESE TRIALS
ANY USE OF MAGIC TO PASS THESE TRIALS WILL RESULT IN
IMMEDIATE DISQUALIFICATION
MAGIC IS PERMITED BETWEEN TRIALS
This sign filled fleur with dread, because it was very cold on the snowy plain, and without her wand she wouldn't be able to easily keep herself warm. She was halfway through generating a ball of fire using her veela abilities, but she stopped herself realizing that was magic too. With a sigh, Fleur turned and began walking towards the dot in the distance, pulling her silk dress tighter around her.
An indeterminate time later, a violently shivering Fleur looked up from her feet to see how close she was to her destination. She hadn't looked in a while and expected to be able to see more clearly what she was walking towards. She was right. She could see what she was walking towards. It was a mountain. A large mountain. With a building on top of it and a path running up the side. And despite being able to see the path and the building, Fleur knew she was only just over halfway. She sank to her knees, ignoring the biting cold of the ground and felt despair wash over her.
"A mountain. Zey want me the climb to ze top of a mountain. It cannot be done. Not in zis weazer."
Fleur looked up at the mountain and it seemed to be even bigger. She thought of how she hated the cold, and how she didn't want to die here in some godforsaken wasteland. She was halfway through forming a ball of flame again (it takes time unless she is running hot on rage) when she remembered what the door had said. She realized that his was the test. Not to see if she could reach the top of the ountain, but to see if she would try. To see if she would keep going even when it seemed hopeless. Feeling a little bit hopeless herself, Fleur stood up and began trudging along again.
Yet more time had gone by, and by now Fleur could barely feel her hands. She had lost feeling in her feet long ago, seeing as silken slippers were not made for trudging through icy wastes. Fleur took another step, and felt her leg bounced off of something. The instant burst of pain shocked her dulled mind back to full alertness, and fleur looked up and realized that she was at the base of the mountain. She was about to let out a cheer until she saw the path she had to follow. It was incredibly steep, and narrow too as it wound up the mountain. She realized that this was another test of her determination, because the mountain looked much bigger up close than from a distance. Fleur sighed, gathered her skirts up, went around the rock she had banged her shin against, and started up the path.
She was only ten feet up it when she thought "Phff, path. No, this is a goat trail, at best."
This time the cold, addled mind of Fleur almost got herself killed before she regained lucidity. She had reached the end of the path and nearly walked off the cliff at the top of the mountain. Quickly taking a step back, and feeling her heart beat double time in her chest, Fleur turned around, expecting to see a building. What she saw instead was a flat expanse, about twenty feet wide, of open stone. There was no building, no door, nothing. For a moment, Fleur felt like she might cry, before she pushed that unneeded thought away and started to think. After a few minutes, Fleur looked farther, and saw what she thought she might see. She was on a subpeak, a secondary peak below the highest peak, usually fairly close to the highest peak. For the first time in this trial Fleur felt pride in herself, for getting this far, and figuring out the last part of the challenge. Now that she was looking for it, she saw how the path continued down the other side of the rock, and then went up towards the true peak. She knew that this would be a short walk, and sure enough, ten minutes later Fleur was standing in front of an old house. She put her cold numbed hand on the handle, and pulled the door open. She stumbled through the door enjoying the warmth of the stone room beyond it.
Cedric stumbled through the door leading into the stone room and collapsed face down on the floor. After three minutes he moved his arm under his head. After another ten, he groaned and rolled over onto his back, looking at his fingers expecting to see black and blue digits, destroyed by frostbite. He was pleasantly surprised to see that his fingers looked normal, and upon curling them he discovered that they worked just fine too. After a cursory inspection of the rest of his body Cedric decided that the frozen plains must have been an illusion, and he was glad to be past them.
He slowly stood, and feeling that the insidious cold had left him he turned to look at the next door.
Like the last on this door had both a handle and an inscription, which read:
THRID TRIAL
YOUR COURAGE WILL PUSH YOU FORWARD
AND YOU DETERMINATION WILL LEAD YOU ONWARD
BUT NOW WE SHALL SEE
IF YOUR SPEED IS ENOUGH TO CATCH ME
"Um, yeah. I'm not sure what that means, but I guess I'll find out."
With those sentiments Cedric pushes through the door and steps into what appears to be an alley.
Not understanding what he is supposed to do, Cedric turns around and sees a great brass key laying on a pedestal, which has written on it:
This key shall open the way
Do not lose it for you shall not get another
One hour you have to find my mate
Hurry hurry don't be late
A watch appears on Cedric's wrist that starts counting down from three hours. After seeing that the time has already begun, Cedric turns back to the key only to see it grabbed by a young man, who says
"Ooh, shiny. I think I'll keep this, and maybe I'll find what id goes to. Or maybe I'll sell it. Yeah!"
And with that, the young man, who Cedric now saw was dressed in jeans and a button down shirt, muggle clothes, took off running around the corner.
Not having much choice but to follow Cedric took off after the man. The young man seemed to be unnaturally fast, because Cedric, who played a sport that he was considering going professional in, was being matched for speed. No matter what tricks or ideas Cedric could come up with the young man stayed ahead of him.
Cedric almost lost the man one time when he ran past a short clock tower that had a wooden door that he recognized with a keyhole in it on its side wall. Not believing his luck at having found the door but not having the key Cedric took off after the young punk again.
As Cedric was running he realized that this city was similar to Venice, or possibly was Venice, because he was running over bridges and across canals the whole way. And that little punk kept turning around and taunting him, baiting him and flashing that key around.
It was a half hour later that Cedric realized that if he didn't get the key soon he wasn't going to make it in time. Checking his watch, he say that he had only 22 minutes left. So putting on a burst of speed Cedric desperately charge after the young man, who turned around to taunt Cedric again. The young man's eyes widened as they realized how close Cedric was, and he turned and ran around the nearest corner. There was a loud shriek, before the sound was cut off. Cedric followed him around a corner and saw two things. First, he saw the young punk getting beaten by three thugs, and second, he saw the key skitter across the ground and fall into the back of a boat in the canal.
Cedric then made a choice. He turned away from the boat, leaving it to get lost amongst the other boats and various pathways, and turned to the thugs punching the annoying punk. Letting out a scream, Cedric charged the thugs, knocking one of them over and punching another one hard in the face. The third one just turned and, seeing the fury in Cedric's eyes, turned and ran. The one that was knocked down grabbed his buddy with a broken nose and shuffled off.
Once he was sure they were gone, Cedric turned around to check on the punk and found him lying on the ground unconscious. Cedric picked him up, being surprised at how light he was, and took him out onto a main street, where he convinced a passing lady to show him where the nearest hospital was. After a short walk, Cedric dropped the young man off, told the on duty nurse that he had been beaten into unconsciousness, and walked out of the building. Just after he walked out, Cedric heard the watch beep, and when he looked at it, he saw a button flashing. Thinking it would stop the beeping, Cedric pressed it, only to be shocked when I jumped off his wrist and formed a door, a familiar door, a door that he thought he had failed to get to. Thinking that this was the door for failing the test, Cedric walked through the door.
Everyone was becoming quite bored. The champions had disappeared with a flash 15 minutes ago, and nothing had happened. Just as some of them were getting up to leave, there was a flash, and Victor Krum appeared, along with a large man wearing ancient armor.
The Man stepped forward and said, "Victor has shown true bravery and by conquering his greatest fear he has passed the test of courage. He has shown his dedication and his will and has passed the test of determination. But Victor has failed the third test, the test of compassion. It is my will that Victor not be allowed to enter the Ancient Library of Alexander."
With that proclamation Victor turned and asked "Vat do you mean I av failed da third test? I retrieved da Key and passed through da door, just like it said."
The man turned to victor and said, "The test was not about beating the other boy in terms of speed, it was about having compassion for your enemy when they have fallen. You ignored him while he was beaten, and though he was not real, you failed."
With that the man turned and walked back to the book. Just before he could touch it though, Dumbledore cleared his through and asked, "Sir, I would like to know who you are, and I would like to know what these tests are for, because I was told that they were a test of courage?"
The man turned one last time and said "I am the Avatar of the Library of Alexander the great. My body has been shaped to be identical to his. And the purpose of these tests is to determine the true character of those who take the test. This witch" he waves his hand at Madam Maxine, "failed the first test and thought the entire trial was about ones courage. I will be back when the others are finished."
And with that he reached down, tapped the book, and was gone, leaving a disgruntled Victor Krum and an unhappy Karkaroff.
To her surprise, Fleur found that through the door was another room, and this room had a plaque on the wall next to the door. There were no words on the door, only on the plaque. The said:
A MIGHTY MIND YOU HAVE INDEED
AND A STRONG WILL YOU HAVE TO CONTROL IT
A COMPASSIONATE SOUL YOU BEAR
TO TEMPER IT
THROUGH THIS DOOR YOU WILL FIND BOTH PUNISHMENT AND REWARD
IF YOU FAIL THIS TEST, THEN KNOW THAT YOU DO NOT HAVE FAITH IN YOURSELF
BUT IF YOU SHOULD PASS THIS TEST
YOU WILL FIND THE REWARD WORTH YOUR STRUGGLES
THE COMNPLETE THIS TASK
YOU MUST SIMPLY
WALK THROUGH THE DOOR IN THE NEXT ROOM
Fleur shook her head, feeling amazed that letting the key go had been the right choice. She had been sure she had failed, but she wasn't going to let those bullies pick on that boy like that. This test seemed incredible simple, which meant to Fleur, that it would instead be incredibly complicated.
With a long suffering sigh, Fleur pushed open the door and walked through.
The first thing she noticed was that the room vas spacious, about a thousand feet to a side. And she saw the door standing resolute in the middle of it.
Knowing there had to be more to this test than just a 500 foot walk, Fleur carefukky scanned the room, and again found nothing.
That was when her vision started to fade. At first Fleur thought the lights were dimming, but she could see that the torches burned a right at ever. It was her eyes that were fading. After a few more seconds, her eyesight was totally gone.
Now Fleur took a step towards where she remembered the door, expecting to hear something, the moving of stones, the thumping of something large walking towards her, the scream of a battle cry of some creature. But she heard nothing.
She heard NOTHING! Not her footsteps, not her breathing, nothing. Starting to panic, Fleur carefully sat down on the floor, and started crushing down her panic. She sat there and beat down her panic when she stopped feeling the stone under her. she stayed put and controlled her panic when she stopeed tasting the saliva in her mouth. And she stoop up and ignored the panic when stopped smelling the old dusty air of the room.
Well, at least she thought she stood up.
.
.
.
That though almost overwhelmed her with fear. It was a time, as she could no longer measure time, before she regained control of herself. She though back to the plaque, and the only thing that she could think of that sounded useful was the part about failure meaning that you had no faith in yourself. She had faith in herself. She knew she did.
She tried to walk forwards, although without being able to feel anything, she didn't know if she was actually doing anything. After a long time, she decided that that she had either missed the door, or she wasn't able to control her body.
This brought back the fear again, but Fleur knew there had to be a way to beat this test. She started meditating again, and started to feel a slight pull.
At first she ignored it, thinking that her mind was making it up to compensate for the loss of her senses.
'Oh God, I've had lost my senses. Oh god oh God oh God…'
'Argh', Fleur thought, as she once again pulled herself off of the brink of insanity. She knew she was close to losing it, and she knew if she even though of it, she would lose control again. Instead she felt the slight pull again, and focused on it.
She focused on the pull and felt that she knew that something was there. She had a rough idea of what distance is was, but she had no idea what is was. Not caring about the impossibilities of 'sensing' something, she began to move closer. As she got closer to it, she started to make out more clearly what is was. She couldn't grescribe it in words, and it had no definite shape, but she understood that is was A Way, a Passage, a connection from one place to another. Without any hesitation, Fleur entered the connection, and found herself falling through a doorway into another stone room.
Five minutes had passed since Krum had appeared and everybody was getting anxious for the next reappearance. They had only seconds more to wait.
In a flash, this time greeted by cheering and clapping, the avatar and Cedric reappeared. Cedric fell to his hands and knees and took deep breaths as his shivers passed.
The avatar looked compassionately down at Cedric, and then turned to the school and said, "Cedric Diggory has shown himself to have Courage in the face of fear. He has shown himself to have Determination when his will falters. He has shown himself to have Compassion, even when none is expected. However, Cedric has failed the test of Faith." And here the avatar reached down and helped Cedric to hit feet. "But do not be ashamed. For few have ever passed the test of Faith. You have shown yourself to be the kind of man who would make a good leader. Now we shall see if those two have what it takes to be legends. Fear not Cedric, for the two that remain are more special than you can imagine."
And with those cryptic words, the avatar touched the book again and was gone, leaving a thoughtful Cedric in his wake.
Harry lay on the floor, gasping, relieved beyond belief that he had gotten out of that emptiness with his mind intact. Or as close to intact as it had been before.
After assuring himself that all his sensed had returned, including the ever popular mistake of smelling his own armpit (yep, the nose works again, or at least it used too, it may be permanently damaged now) Harry stood up, and found a plaque and a message on the door. Deciding to read the plaque first, and expecting more wonky rhymes, Harry read:
CONGRATULATIONS ON PASSING THE FOURTH TRIAL
AS PROMISED YOU HAVE BEEN REWARDED WITH A GREAT PRIZE
THE TRIAL HAS TAUGHT YOU A SKILL FEW KNOW EXISTS, AND EVE FEWER HAVE DEVELOPED
TO FIND YOUR WAY THROUGH THE FOURTH TRIAL YOU MUST CONTROL YOURSELF
WHEN YOU LOSE YOUR SENSES
YOU MUST THEN REACH OUT AND FEEL THE MAGIC SURROUNDING YOU
THIS IS THE REWARD: NOW THAT YOU KNOW THAT YOU CAN SENSE MAGIC
YOU WILL BE ABLE TOO AT WILL
BUT BE CAUTIOUS, BECAUSE THIS WILL NOT TELL YOU GREAT DEALS OF INFORMATION
IT WILL ONLY ALLOW YOU TO FIND AND IDENTIFY MAGIC FOR ITS TRUE SELF
NOW, LIKE EVERY OTHER TALENT, IT TAKES PRACTICE TO USE
SO GO OUT INTO THE WORLD AND PRACTICE
Well, that made a lot more sense than normal. It was a lot more wordy too. Harry thought about it some more, and realized that it would be similar to discovering you could see. If you have gone your whole life blind you would need to practice being able to see, so that you could understand what you saw. So taking that idea and running with it, harry sat down and attempted to feel the magic around him. After a while, he felt the same pull as before, but this time it felt like he had opened his eyes. Harry could see himself, which he identified in his magical sight as a living creature. He could see the door, which look exactly the same as the last door, a connection between spaces. And he could see his wand.
Wow!
A wand is a beautiful thing.
Although wants channel as much destructive magic as constructive magic, what they really do is channel raw magic while the human shapes it. When Harry saw his wand he saw Purity. It was the only way to describe it.
Then Harry started to feel a headache, and quickly closed his magical eyes, open his real eyes, and thinking "huh, I guess that it's like a muscle too, and I'll have to work on keeping it open longer. I'll also have to try it while my eyes are open. Oh well, let's get the last task done."
With that, harry stood up and walked over to the door, and read the inscription:
FOUR TESTS YOU HAVE PASSED
AND NOW YOU STAND BEFORE THE LAST
TRUST YOU MIND
TRUST YOUR BODY
TRUST YOUR HEART
AND TRUST YOUR SOUL
IF YOU DO
THIS TRIAL IS YOURS
Harry sighed at yet another cryptic message, but he pushed the door open anyways and stepped through.
He saw that he was at the end of a hallway, and there was an open door at the end. Harry walked to the door and looked inside. Just as harry looked inside harry saw a girl, who he didn't recognize chained to the wall. He heard a voice whisper "crucio" and he saw a colorless spell go shooting by. As the girl began to scream Harry Jumped forwards and yelled "Stop!"
He looked left and saw a tall man wearing a cloak and hood that covered his head.
As the man turned to face Harry, the girl stopped screaming and began whimpering. The man looke back at the girl and said "I guess our play time is over, such a pity"
And before Harry could speak the man's wand had leapt forwards and he had intoned "avada kedavra."
As the green bolt raced away from the wand Harry saw that it was headed towards the girl. Not thinking twice about it, but knowing it was the right thing to do, Harry jumped in front of the green bolt.
Once More there was a flash and the students clapped and cheered again. That ended when they saw the avatar standing in front of them without anyone.
And he was smiling.
He walked towards the students and said "Today is a glorious day indeed. Not one, but two incredible young people have passed the fifth and final test. Like Victor they proved to be of stout mind and strong will. Like Cedric the proved to have compassion for their fellow beings. They then went on and learned the skill of magic sight." This caused Albus Dumbledore, Luna Lovegood (is anyone surprised?), And Barty Crouch Jr. to sit up and really pay attention (Barty thought it was similar to his stolen eye).
The avatar went on and said "and after passing the fourth test, the test of Faith, they both went on and passed the test of Sacrifice, by giving their lives for another without thinking of reward, glory, or gain."
This caused everyone to gasp and Dumbledore paled severely. "Do not worry though, they aren't truly dead, they were merely in an illusion. But today is the day we celebrate that two have passed the Trial of Character."
Dumbledore stood up and asked, "Avatar, if they have passed then why are they not here?"
The Avatar looked at him and answered "They have been granted admission to the Ancient Library of Alexander the Great. They now have to earn the right to return home. The trial is truly the first of two tests. The first test proves that the person has the natural character necessary to not abuse the power found within the library. The second test is to prove that they have the knowledge to use the power without accidental harm to others. I expect them to come back within the next month."
With that, the avatar walked over to the book and tapped it, and was gone.
In Dumbledore's head the only words he could hear were "the power he knows not."
Harry woke up.
'Huh, I guess that makes two for me.'
He rolled over and saw Fleur waking up too. Without thinking he asked "How come I'm not dead?"
Fleur responded "yeah, me too?"
And they both Heard a voice say "Welcome Harry James Potter and Fleur Isabella Delacour to the Lost Library of Alexander the Great.
AN: I like Cedric, and really, for the way i designed the tests, he did really good. he showed himself to be the top end of the average humans. finishing the fourth test is being an exceptional human. finishing the fifth test is to be legendary. they have to react, naturally, and throw themselves in front of certain death to pass. there is no time to think or to weigh the relative values of live, there is onlt time to react. I would expect dumbledore to pas the fourth test but fail the fifth. and a little bit on the fourth, it's not so much finding th ability to perceive magic, it's having enough faith in youself and control of yourself to not panic beyond your limits to control first.
AN2: i have finals this week, so we'll have to see how often chapter come out.
~delphinous