I know the last chapter was short, but hey, it was a prologue. So, this chapter's extra long! please R&R!
Of course, all HP characters (c) JKR
all Zelda characters (c) Nintendo
"Harry!"
A tall skinny boy with dark hair jumped at the sound of his name. Gazing around he rubbed his eyes groggily before he heard his name again, this time sounding more desperate. Bolting to the door of Fred and George's room, he flung it open and was met by a wave of heat and smoke, which stung his eyes. Shielding his face with his arms, Harry forced his way into the hallway of the Burrow. Flames licked the walls around him as he squinted through the heavy smoke in the direction of the stairs, and as he looked, a flash of long red hair, barely distinguishable from the consuming fire vanished around the corner at the bottom.
"Wait!"
Harry ran down the stairs two at a time, so quickly, he lost control of him legs and tumbled down, landing with a sickening thud on the floor of the kitchen. Pushing himself to his feet, he reached up and touched the side of his head, feeling a warm trickle of blood on his temple. Taking a quick glance around the kitchen, he hurried out the door, now coughing so forcefully he could barely breath. The cold night's air quickly cleared his lungs as he entered the garden, still coughing and retching. His heart thudded in his chest violently as he looked, franticly, for anyone who had made it out as well. Turning back towards the house, his breath stopped in his throat. The Burrow, the home of his closest friends was engulfed in unnatural flames reaching hundreds of feet in the air. All around, flaming creatures were clawing at the house, breaking out of the windows and eating the nearby bushes and trees. Harry instantly recognized it as Fiendfyre and watched as several gnomes fled from the flames, which were now spreading at an alarming rate.
Suddenly, several loud screams pierced the cloudless night, the noise, clearly, coming from inside. Harry watched, eyes wide, unable to move as a green light shot up into the air from behind the Burrow. His stomach turned to lead as the light reached the top of the flames and burst into an enormous shimmering skull, a snake winding from it's mouth.
"Harry!"
Harry was jerked awake by the steady loud pounding on his door. His face was streaked with sweat and he was panting heavily. Once again he had fallen asleep on the windowsill, the pages of the newspaper he was holding loosely in his hand had fallen out onto the floor. Again someone knocked on the door.
"We're coming in," said a voice as Harry shifted uncomfortably against the cold glass, still groggy.
There was a murmur, the lock clicked, the door opened, and in walked a boy and a girl, the boy, taller than Harry, with fierce red hair immediately took a seat on the bed, as the girl, with bushy brown hair, walked over and picked up the fallen pages of the paper.
"You're awake?" she asked in a slightly surprised tone,
"Hardly…must've fallen asleep over here," Harry muttered,
Hermione eyed him suspiciously and opened her mouth.
"Alright mate?" Ron asked before Hermione could say anything,
"You look awful…"
Harry glanced at his reflection in the mirror on the wall. A pair of bright green eyes stared back at him, their colour only enhanced by the fact that his face was nearly chalk white beneath a mess of dark hair.
"Bad dream." He said.
Harry smiled because he realized that for the first time, he was being honest. It was just a bad dream and nothing more. Standing up, he stretched and yawned, his back giving several cracks as he reached his hands above his head.
"What time is it?"
"Just about half-past two." Hermione replied, taking a seat on one of the many boxes that still occupied the room.
"Mum said we should let you sleep because you got in so late." Ron explained.
Harry had just spent the better part of two weeks on his own, tracking down old classmates of his parents' asking them what they remembered about James Potter and Lilly Evans.
"Did you find out what you were looking for?" Hermione asked tentatively, unsure of what reaction it would bring.
Harry gazed out the window for a moment before answering,
"I guess so…I wasn't really sure what I was looking for to begin with." He smiled.
"Well it's good to have you back then." Ron laughed,
"I haven't had a decent quidditch practice in ages."
Hermione rolled her eyes and began looking cautiously in a nearby box. Harry sat back down then stood up again, removing his invisibility cloak from underneath him. Ron relaxed on the bed and suddenly everything went dark.
Harry spun around, with one hand, he firmly clutched his invisibility cloak and with the other, drew his wand from his pant's pocket. He blinked his eyes rapidly hoping he could adjust to the sudden darkness, but upon spotting Ron and Hermione, he realized he didn't need to. He could see them as clearly as he was able to in the light they had just previously been in, but everything else seemed to be a gaping black nothingness. Ron and Hermione stood up quickly (both having had the thing they were sitting on vanish from underneath them) and drew their wands together. The three lit the ends of their wands, the light from the tips having no effect on the darkness, and slowly looked around.
"This is mental," Ron gasped, his voice echoing strangely.
Hermione defiantly pointed her wand and shot a bright blue spell in four different directions, then straight up and then straight down. Each spell flew in a perfect line and gradually got smaller until they could no longer see it's light. Hermione's eyes widened in fear and Harry could understand why. There seemed to be no way out of this place, if they even were anywhere. The trio moved closer together and turned to face each other, speechless.
Ron raised a shaking hand and pointed between Harry and Hermione and they turned to see a large floating silver eye staring at them. Harry was now petrified. He had never heard of anything like this happening anywhere else and he knew Hermione was racking her brains for some little bit of information, which might have come up anywhere, that might help them in this kind of situation. The eye blinked. Once, twice, then started to expand, loosing all shape and form. Harry, Ron and Hermione took a step back. The swirling silver mass seemed to reform it's self into a large ornate stone gate, a carving of three triangles, placed together to form a single triangle materialized in the center.
"What's it say?" Ron asked, nodding his head toward the strange symbols that were engraved deep within the gate's frame.
"I don't know…" Hermione's voice shook and echoed,
"I've never seen runes like these."
As the last words came out of her mouth, the gate gave an enormous shuddering groan and opened. Inside seemed darker than where they were standing already if it were possible.
Harry looked closer, there seemed to be something moving behind the massive stone doors and he took a step closer. He could hear Hermione gasp as he did, but as he stared into the blackness, he realized, something was looking back. A single pair of rich violet eyes opened and looked back into Harry's green ones. The eyes were so vivid, Harry could clearly see the whites and the deep purple. Suddenly, pair after pair of eyes, the exact same colour as the first, opened and gazed intently at the three. Harry felt Ron shudder and take another step back, and as he did, he saw a wide smile appear, proportionately underneath the first pair of eyes and Harry knew something was going to happen a split second before it did.
Hundreds of dark hands with snaking arms reached out of the gate and hurtled straight for the three friends. Even though they were as dark as their surroundings, they were clearly identifiable due to the strange dark purple pulsing glow that surrounded each one. Harry ran, he could see Ron and Hermione in front of him running occasionally stealing glances over their shoulders. Praying that it would work, Harry pointed his wand behind him and roared "SECTUMSEMPRA!" Turning back to look, he saw a hand slashed down it's center, violently oozing a purple light, vanish only to be replaced by three more. Harry closed his eyes and ran as fast as he could, his lungs screaming in protest and the stitch in his side stinging painfully. Two hands, which were neither extremely warm nor cold, grabbed him around the ankles, causing him to fall flat on his face. Looking up, he saw Hermione and Ron fall as they too were tripped. He soon lost count of how many black hands were grabbing him, lifting him up, and delivering him swiftly back to the gate with Ron and Hermione beside him. Before he passed out, Harry glimpsed the gates closing and the eyes and smile gleaming at him in the blackness.
The large stone doors slammed shut with an echoing rumble, then vanished.
Explanation of the gate: When I first started writing this, it was also supposed to involve FMA (Full Metal Alchemist), but since then, I've decided to write it out. The gate, however, seemed to fit well, and although it's not exactly the same, the idea of the gate technically belongs to Hiromu Arakawa.
Hopefully I'll be able to update frequently and I hope you enjoy it!
Victor Leigh
