Chapter three: Meeting the Arcs I
Sleep was a luxury Harry Potter had come to greatly enjoy since entering the magical word. During schooldays he usually had to get up early, but on the weekends he always enjoyed the extra hour or two he was allowed to lie in. As a result his mind wasn't all that keen to start to do anything even remotely productive even if his body was coming out of his slumber.
Slowly but surely information started to get processed. He was in a bed. A warm and very comfortable bed. 'Time to get back to sleep.' Harry sleep addled brain decided and he was about to do just that before he realised something else. This was not his bed. It was comfortable for sure, but it was not the one in his dorm. Nor was he in a bed in the Hospital Wing.
He opened his eyes and after blinking several times to get used to the light Harry stared at the ceiling above. 'Definitely not in the dorm.' Harry concluded feeling oddly calm despite not knowing where he was. Maybe it was because his body felt so heavy that he really didn't want to do anything or maybe it was just his hazy state of mind.
Even in his current state of mind Harry was able to do some basic reasoning. If he didn't know where he was than he should try to remember what happened before it. Eventually that train of though should lead to his current location right?
'Let's see … there was that dream, no vision, he had been awake. Had it been in the afternoon? Yes during one of Binns's classes … okay he might have been asleep. So there was the vision/dream. His idiotic flight to the Ministry. The Death Eaters!' Harry blinked several times as more and more information came to the forefront. Had he really fought Death Eaters? Not only fought, but bested several of them and survived against the rest? Yes, yes he had.
What else had happened? He had been forced to retreat. There was that room and a giant magical array … it was some kind of transportation spell. He was forced to a forest and … Harry's mind screeched to halt as an image of a savage beast suddenly filled his mind; demons, he had fought demons.
Against the wishes of his protesting body Harry shot up his mind suddenly clear as the full extent of his misadventure came back to him. Forget surviving against Death Eaters. Demons! Freaking Demons! How the heck had he survived against that? No better question how where they even here? Or an even better question was; how had no one known about this? Say what you want about the general competence of the magical governments the world over one thing they excelled at and that was keeping the supernatural world a secret.
Even as technology marched on. Even as countless idiotic people with superiority complexes had drawn way to much attention to their world. Even with countless Muggle parents and partners being told that the world was much larger than they could ever hope to realise the truth was never spread to the general public. Why? Because magicals were very good at hiding themselves and had only gotten better over the centuries.
So it was simply impossible not a single government hadn't detected those demons … or him fighting for that matter.
'Wait, fighting?' Harry thought as he suddenly realised his memories extended beyond that forest. 'What the hell was I thinking?' Harry wondered as he remembered a whole string of bad decisions which had ultimately led to him falling unconscious in the middle of a demons infested hellhole with a bunch a vampires running around. 'Really what the hell was I thinking?' Harry thought as his hand subconsciously drifted to his neck. To his relief he didn't find any blemishes and he allowed himself to relax a little as he took in the room.
It was rather obviously a bedroom of some kind, not very big and crammed pretty full with different kinds of furniture, but he paid very little mind to those as his eyes had caught sight of something far more important. Without hesitation Harry strode forward and grabbed hold of his staff which had been resting against a nearby wall. As soon as he reclaimed his foci Harry experienced a familiar warmth he hadn't even realised he had been missing.
Unfortunately it also made him realise just how pitiful his current reserves were. No that was wrong. It was not that his reserves were pitiful; they had hours to recover after all, but rather it was his body that was still clearly recovering from the magical exhaustion and a large chunk of his magic was being diverted to heal him. Considering how bad he felt and how much of his magic was being diverted he really did not want to know in just how bad a condition his body was.
'At least two day's of observation and a no magic for at least a week!'
And now he was hearing Pompfrey's voice in his head. Either he had hit his head when he had collapsed or he had simply spent so much time in the Hospital Wing that he knew what she was going to say without her needing to be there to say it. Still 'her' words held merit. Magical exhaustion was not something he could simply brush of. The last thing he wanted was damaging his core. So if possible he should probably try to not use magic for a couple of days … at least one.
Feeling more confident now that he he had his staff back in his grasp Harry continued to scan the rest of the room and noticed some of the things he had missed before. There was a simple wooden door without anything resembling a lock and an window that looked like it could be easily opened (even if it looked like he wasn't on the ground level as he saw the top of some tree through the window). Those two facts combined with the fact that they left his staff with him and didn't restrain him in any matter made Harry think whoever brought him here was if nothing else not hostile towards him.
Close to him were also a small desk with a chair in front of it. On the chair was very familiar jacket. He picked it up, but didn't put it on just yet. To do that he would need to let go of his staff and while he didn't get the feeling someone was trying to harm him (not at the moment at least) he still didn't really felt confident letting go of his foci. Not to mention the fact that after all that chaos of last night … it was last night wasn't? He really hoped he wasn't out for more than a couple of hours. Anyway after all that fighting and that intense heat his little 'camp fire' had provided had left him a sweating mess and whoever had put him in bed had only removed his jacket and shoes (which he noticed where standing next to the bed) before pulling the covers over him so to put it mildly his clothes were smelling less than stellar and he really did not want to subjugate his beloved jacket to close contact with it. He was almost tempted to just say screw it all and clean both himself and body with magic, but managed to restrain himself. There were a number of things he was willing to break his self imposed promise not to use magic for at least a day for. Most of them had to do with his continued survival and sadly personal hygiene had little to do with that.
His attention then fell on a rather large photo frame that stood amids several smaller one on the desk. The reason for it's size was rather apparent as whoever had made the picture had crammed a decent number of people in it; some very familiar people in fact. Harry couldn't believe his bad luck as spotted a very familiar giant of a man featured rather prominently in the middle of the group photo. Harry's grip on his staff tightened as he let go of his jacket to grab the picture frame to get a closer look. The up close inspection confirmed his fears; there on the picture was the man he had previously labelled as a vampire and considering the picture was here then there was a decent chance the man was also here.
Something did not add up however. While he had never the displeasure of meeting those bloodsuckers what he did know about them did not paint them as people who would pose for a family photo and there was no denying the people in the picture were a family. The family resemblance was simply impossible to miss. The giant had blue eyes instead of the blood red vampires were known for. An eye colour he shared with a young woman he was pretty sure was that spear wielder from last night, those sword and shield twins (even if they looked younger than he recalled) a young man around his age (or at least around his age when the picture was taken) and two other females he was pretty sure were also the man's daughters.
So if none were vampires than what were they?
Human shaped demons?
Fae?
The result of secret government experiments?
The first sounded ridicules (but probably not impossible). The second sounded equally impossible as there hadn't been confirmed sighting of a true fairy in decades. The third … well that sounded more like something that fourth year Lovegood would sprout; amusing, but unlikely.
Fortunately or unfortunately depending on one's point of view the answer to some his questions was closer than he thought as suddenly the door was opened and in walked the very man Harry did not want to see just yet and it was only with considerable effort that he managed to restrain himself from aiming his staff at the man, the very big man. As Harry quickly placed the photo back down. AS Harry took in the man's appearance he couldn't help, but notice the man was not what he was expecting even after seeing him in the picture.
Again he had never met a vampire and even though he had serious doubt the man was one a part of his brain had still build an image of it in his head and it was difficult to let go of it; tall, lanky, pale, blood red eyes and with an aura of menace surrounding him. This was what he had imagined. The man standing before him was the opposite from what he had imagined. He was tall yes, but far from lanky, he was tanned instead of pale, his blue eyes were warm and all in all it was hard to connect this man to the figure he had seen fighting the day before. The man looked so … so Hufflepuf! For the love of all that was holy the man wearing a apron! An apron with World's Greatest Dad on it!If it wasn't for the fact the man was still towering over him and looked buff enough that he wouldn't look out of place in one of the weird cartoons Su so enjoyed where everyone was always ridiculously ripped for no reason than Harry might have seriously started question his judgement in terms of threat assessment.
Harry swallow as he was forced to crane his head up to make eye contact with the rather imposing man. 'Don't show fear. Don't show fear.' He mentally chanted as he tried to stand as confidently as he could. How well that went was up to debate, but at the very least the man didn't seem to notice his unease as a broad smile appeared on his face. ''Ah your awake.'' He said. ''I though I heard something and lo and behold I find our honoured guest already up and about.''
Harry blinked as he processed the words - English - that was good. His skill in foreign languages was weak at best. His weeks at the Temple had taught him bits and pieces of Master Li's and Su's native language and other than that he knew more than a few insults in foreign languages (he had been curious what some people in the ring had called him) and had picked up a couple of words when he had researched foreign magics. Non of those things would have been very useful in an conversation.
Of course the fact he could converse with the man did not actually make it easier to do so. What should he say? What could he say? Was he allowed to mention magic. Was he allowed to talk about the Department of Mysteries? Should he ask where he was or did that look suspicious? Should he ask what the man was … no at the very least that would probably a very bad idea. All those thoughts crossed his mind in a near instant and still he was left indecisive, but fortunately for him the man continued the rather one-sided conversation.
''How are you feeling?'' The man asked with a tone of voice Harry could only call concerned. ''When we found you collapsed we figured you suffered from Aura depletion, but I am afraid we don't have the medical equipment necessary to check. We have called for help, but I am afraid it hasn't arrived yet.''
'Well that clarified absolutely nothing.' Harry thought as he hadn't the faintest idea what aura was. In the context it might be what this man called magic, but somehow he doubted. Still when in doubt fall back to what works.
''I am fine.'' He answered before realising that those words actually never worked as they tended to be ignored by whatever Healer got their clutches on him.
The man laughed as if he had heard some good joke. ''That's great to hear!'' The man exclaimed happily and Harry had to admit that it got harder and harder to connect this man to the fighter of the night before … well other than the size; that was still intimidating as hell.
Suddenly the man put his hand forward and again Harry was forced to suppress his instincts. For a moment Harry only stared at the outstretched hand. He did not want to shake hands with a man that looked like he could crush his entire hand. 'Manners, Harry' a familiar voice chided him. 'Screw you, master.' Harry thought not even fully realising he was mouthing of to memory his own brain had dragged up Still despite his reservation he moved his hand forward to accept the handshake. Contrary to what he had expected the man did not break every bone in his hand, but merely gave him a firm handshake ''Nicolas Arc, at you service.'' The man said before giving him a more serious look. ''And I mean that literally . If there is anything you want, anything and it is within my power to give it you than you only need to ask. I .. the Arc family owns you a debt we can never repay you.''
Debt? What debt? Harry wondered before he remembered a pretty familiar face he had seen on that picture. ''I hope your daughter is okay.'' He said in response hoping he had been right and didn't make an absolute fool of himself.
''Yes, she fine better than fine in fact.'' His sunny disposition back full force. ''A bit shaky, but that is to be expected after such a close encounter with a Beowolf .''
Beowolf? Was that was they were calling that species of demons? He had to admit if nothing else it was less of a mouthful than Minor Dog Demon. Still only shaken? The girl, a mere child was nearly killed by a demon and she was merely shaken? He was no Mind Healer, but he was pretty sure traumatised for life would be the more appropriate response. Still if she was fine then she was fine he guessed. ''You own me nothing.'' He eventually decided to reply. ''If you have power than you should protect those still to weak to protect themselves.'' All things considered his words were probably not the wisest thing to say as having someone as powerful as this man in his debt might prove useful as he was still in such an unknown situation, but he wasn't willing to compromise on this. Children should be protected no questions asked.
The man laughed again seemingly pleased with his words. ''Spoken like a true Hunter!'' The man exclaimed and again the man threw out a word that Harry was not familiar with. Yes he knew what a hunter was, but Harry was pretty sure the man was not talking about any of the definitions of the word Harry was familiar with. ''Still regardless of your reason we owe you a debt and a Arc remembers his debts.''
Harry inwardly shrugged at the man's response. Just as he had his convictions so did the man apparently. He had better things to do than argue with the man over this. ''How long was I out?'' He decided to ask deeming it a 'safe' enough question for someone who had apparently fallen unconscious due to 'aura depletion'. Anyone would want to know how long they were out cold wouldn't they?
The man thought over it for a moment before answering. ''Somewhere around twenty hours I think.'' He answered much to Harry's shock. ''By the way we didn't find a scroll on you so we didn't know who to contact, but do you have someone you want to contact?''
Scroll? What scroll? Again with a familiar word that Harry was sure he and the man had completely different definitions of. Still how should he answer the man. 'Yes, please contact the nearest Ministry of Magic; you have an demon invasion on your hands?' Yeah that was probably not a good idea. ''That's not necessary. I don't have anyone to contact.''
Apparently that was the wrong answer as the man frowned and Harry felt himself tense. ''You don't?'' He questioned. ''You have no one that needs to know where you are?''
The sudden serious tone made Harry realise he said something stupid, but he wasn't sure what and it was not like he could fix it so he just nodded.
The man studied him for a moment longer before he settled on. ''If you say so.'' He said before an easy smile returned to his face, but to Harry it looked a bit forced. ''Now, Mr …'' the man trailed of clearly waiting for Harry to introduce himself.
Knowing that not saying something was a bad idea was a stupid idea he said the first thing that came up to him … which in hindsight was also a pretty stupid idea. ''Black, James Black.'' Harry felt like slapping himself repeatedly as those words left his lip. Yes until he knew exactly where he was it was probably not in his best interest to advertise he was the Boy-Who-lived, but using a fake name that consisted of his father's first name (and his own middle one) and his godfather's last name? The only fake name that could have been worse if he had picked his mother's maiden's name and called himself James Evans.
Unbeknown to Harry's inner turmoil the man nodded. '' Mr Black,'' He continued. ''You said you were feeling fine and while I am sure you are in fact feeling better I can see you are still rather exhausted. While I of course won't hold you against your will I strongly suggest you return to that bed and rest some more.''
How did one diplomatically say 'Hell no!'? To be frank Harry wanted to get as far away from this man as possible. While he was pretty sure the man did not want to do him harm (at this time) he couldn't shake the feeling the longer he stayed here the bigger the chance something was going to go very wrong, but on the other hand. He was not wrong. He needed rest, needed time to recover and since he had no idea where he was where else could he recover?
''Please.'' The man said. ''I am in your debt and I can't in good consciousness allow you to head outside as your are now. I owe you a debt I can never repay and I don't know your circumstances and if you don't want to talk about it then that is fine, but please let me at least make sure you are in a state where you can defend yourself before you step out of my house.''
Harry eyes narrowed. What was the man thinking? There was a hidden meaning in the man's word Harry did not fully grasp. Still he could feel his legs were starting to have trouble supporting his weight; for better or worse he really needed to rest and what was that saying? Better the devil you know?
''Thank you for the offer. I think I will take you up on it.´´
XxX
It was only a couple of minutes since the man had left and Harry had to admit it was pretty strange to lie in a bed that was not his own, but there no denying it was comfortable and soothing to his aching body and to be honest he had a lot to think about so he decided not to think to much of it.
A strong part of him practically screamed at him to get of his lazy ass and find out what the heck was going on he manged to suppress that train of thought and look at it more rationally. Last night he had acted on impulse. It was not a bad move when time was short and there was little time for elaborate planning, but as he was recovering there was no need for impulsive actions now. Hell acting impulsive now would probably do more harm that good.
What did he know? What didn't he know?
He was brought here by a ritual preformed in the Department of Mysteries, the single move secretive branch of the government if he remembered correctly they called it the Magbob Solution. He still had no idea what that was, but now that he had time to think about it he was pretty sure he he heard the term Magbob somewhere before.
The ritual was bigger than anything he had seen before and even if he had time to study instead of the mere glimpse he had seen of it he was not confident he could reverse engineer it. The magic surrounding space and time had always sounded fascinating, but at the same ridicules complex and dangerous. He had planned to start studying it several years down the line after he had mastered some of the more basic forms of magic. After all he had all the time in the world to study it … or so he thought. Not to mention how utterly fickle rituals could be.
There might be some clues to be found at his point of arrival, but he had little hope. While he could sense magic the exact nature of what it did often still eluded him. Not to mention this would mean he would have to go back to that Forrest not something he was all that keen on doing.
What other avenues did he have?
He hadn't been alone in that room. Four Death Eaters had been pursuing him and one of them had shouted at the others to get away. Did that mean he knew what the room did? A more important question was of course whether they were also transported here. The ritual had been activated almost as soon as the man had shouted his warning so they should have been caught as well, but if they were then why hadn't they arrived in the same place as he had? Call him arrogant, but he was pretty sure at least one of them would prioritise him over the demons.
So if they had been caught in the ritual, but hadn't been sent to the same place did that mean they were send somewhere else?
Was going in a demon infested Forrest to search for clues or track down a group of people that wanted to capture him really his only two options?
Harry sighed and trying to clear his mind he scanned the room again. There was the door that would ultimately lead to the not-vampire, there was a window where he would no doubt break his legs if he left through that and that was not an experience he wanted to experience again, a desk with pictures he had already looked overs, a closet that didn't look all that interesting, several posters about what he guessed where movies, but the names didn't ring any bells and then there was a bookcase.
Now that he admitted did interest him. How could it not? He desperately wanted information and there right next to the desk was a bookcase filled with books that were hopefully filled useful information. Was it rude to sniffle through another person's bookcase? Possibly. Was it a dumb idea to potentially piss of a group of not-vampires just to sate his own curiosity? Probably, but as they say you only live once right?
Expectedly ignoring his protesting body Harry pushed himself up again. The short rest only seem to have made him feel worse, but he ignored it as he wobbled over to the desk. Steading himself on the chair Harry scanned the titles in the nearby bookcase. The first two rows seem to be filled with some kind of comic called X-ray and Vav? He had never heard of it, but comic books were never his thing to begin with to begin so that wasn't surprising. The rest of the bookcase was filled with actual books and Harry soon pulled out his first target.
''World of Renmant.'' He read the title before opening it starting leafing through it. 'What the … ' Harry thought in confusion as his brain absorbed the various maps the book contained. None of them looked even remotely familiar and the one that looked like it must be the world map didn't even remotely resemble earth. 'Must be fictional' He eventually concluded as he returned the book to his place on the shelve before selecting a new book. This process was repeated for some time with Harry now taking the time to sit on the nearby chair with each book to spare his legs.
Some time later Harry had finished the last interesting book and he was staring with a dazed look out of the room's only window. As much as he would have loved to say that whoever owned this room had one hell of fiction book collection the sight of the night sky had brought back a memory he had apparently blocked out. He could ignore a lot of things, but the sight of a broken moon reminded him he might be in a lot more trouble than he originally thought.
''Where the hell am I?''
Author Notes:
About the Arc family: I know I said I was going to stick pretty close to RWBY canon, but I have decided to make an exception for this. While to the best of my knowledge the show has never told us whether any of Jaune's direct family is an huntsman/huntress I am pretty sure they aren't. In the show we know that Jaune knows little to nothing about Hunters (he didn't even know what Aura was) which means he has received neither training from his family nor gone to a combat school. In one episode Jaune tells Pyrrha that his parents had told him not to worry if he was forced to come home. Thanks to that we know Jaune's parents known that Jaune is at beacon. If they really had been huntsman/huntress then they would have known he wouldn't even be allowed to enrol in Beacon since they would have known he had no training.
On an unrelated note I recently broke my own promise not to watch the new season/volume of RWBY (I was going to wait until it was finished because I hate waiting for a new episode) and I have to say I regret nothing. The new season was pretty epic so far. Everything looks better; the fighting is even better and the Grimm are really starting to look like threats, the world is getting darker, but they still manged to sneak in some moments of levity and most importantly so far almost nothing has been revealed that has contradicted what was in my outline for this story.
The only real problem I have with this season is the number of plot lines that are going on at the same time. There is one for each RWBY girl, one for Salem's faction and there are several others, but at least they are linked to the plot-lines of the RWBY girls. Don't get me wrong I love multiple plot lines I only hope the show doesn't end up like certain other shows where certain plot-line are ignored for numerous episodes because they had to finish an other plot line first. So far they have done it pretty well so I can only hope for the best.
My only other concern is Salem. To me before watching volume 4 she was the epitome of evil in the RWBY universe. An 'person' that only looked human, but was really something else. A cold and apathetic person that only cared for the end result. A person we would only get to see glimpses of. Her motives and goals only to be speculated at, but then we are shown multiple meeting with her subordinates, we are shown her displaying anger and it kind of disappointed me. Not greatly, but it was still kind of disappointing
Finally I wish you all a happy new year and I hope to see you back in 2017!
