Title: Failsafe (HP/LotR crossover)
Summary: Tackling the last traces of magic Voldemort left scattered around Britain, a magical disaster causes Harry and Ginny to wake up in the dungeons of a ruined fortress. It doesn't take them long to realise that something is very, very wrong…
Pairings: mild, cannon pairings only
Rating: T, for some language and fight scenes
Chapter Four
Eventually it was Harry who had spotted the way out.
He had accidentally slipped down a rather steep pile of rubble when he fell off the side of the narrow bridge. Luckily the approaching dawn meant it wasn't as dark as it had been even half an hour before, allowing him enough light to grab hold of one of the withered plants that were growing through the cracks. Even so, it was a tense minute with Harry half dangling over the ravine before Ginny scrambled close enough to wingardium leviosa him to safety.
"Well, that's one way of finding a bridge, Potter," she'd quipped, but their laughs had been cut off quickly. Wherever they were, it was not a place to laugh.
Making their way carefully across the narrow bridge, both paused for a moment before turning and looking back. Harry heard Ginny suck in a breath and he couldn't blame her. The fortress was a mass of towers shooting into the sky, their height emphasised even more by the steep ravine that circled the entire structure. Confirming their earlier suspicions, there was not a single turret that wasn't broken in some way. In fact, the whole citadel looked completely abandoned.
Part of Harry felt sad at that thought. It was easy to see that once it had been an impressive sight, maybe even a beautiful one. Whoever had lived there before had clearly been skilled builders. But whatever beauty or majesty the place had once had all been driven away by the undercurrent of malevolence that now pervaded their senses. Even without knowing the charred remains of the massacre inside, the whole place exuded evil. The part of Harry that wasn't feeling sad was screaming at him to keep moving, get far away.
"Have you ever seen anything like it before?" Ginny asked quietly. She was staring at the ruin with an inscrutable expression in her eyes. Harry could tell by the tension in her shoulders however that she was just as eager to leave as he.
"No," Harry said, before adding fervently, "and I hope never to again."
She shot him a look at that but didn't respond. Instead, as though from an unspoken agreement, both turned their backs on the fortress and walked away.
Surrounding the fortress on all sides was a forest. Forests were not new territory to Harry after the last year, but he couldn't feel comfortable in this one. The malicious aura from the fortress was far reaching and seemed to saturate the very air around them. It didn't help that the rising sun didn't seem to penetrate the thick canopy of leaves above them. Their walk was instead encased in an odd twilight, the air thick and heavy. Prickles down Harry's back made him feel as though someone – or something – was watching them. Occasionally they heard the far off screeches of different animals and once something that sounded like a roar from a worryingly large animal. Every sound caused them to jump before speeding up slightly. Neither of them spoke to each other; all of their energies were focussed on just getting out. Would the stupid forest never end?
When, after several hours, they did break out into unexpected and glorious sunshine it came as a massive shock. Harry even heard Ginny gasp out loud as he frantically blinked tears away from his streaming eyes. After hours of the murky forest, the bright light of the day was painful. What wasn't painful was the fresh air suddenly surrounding them. Harry took in a deep gulp of it, not fully realising how cloying the air among the trees had been until now.
Once his eyes had cleared Harry squinted at the landscape in front of them. To say it wasn't encouraging was an understatement. There were no signs of cities, towns, buildings or even just a simple road. It was just endless grassy plains that couldn't even be called fields. Fields to Harry meant someone tended to them and that they had borders. There were no borders here, just endless waving long grass. He shot a dismayed look at Ginny.
She just sighed and shrugged before carrying on walking. Harry sighed and followed.
Despite the fact that it was now at least mid-morning, which meant they had been awake for more than 24 hours, neither Harry nor Ginny suggested that they rest for a while. Although neither of them had spoken a word, and despite the fact that they had now left the forest, both of them could feel still feel that unrelenting pressure to keep moving, to get far away… Harry felt unclean with it, as though the dark atmosphere was something that coated his skin. There was also that sense that something in the forest had been watching them, and watching with unfriendly eyes. The bigger the distance they put between them and the forest and fortress the better.
Because of this the sun was high in the sky before Ginny finally called out an end to their increasingly weary rambles.
"Bloody hell," she gasped, in a fair approximation of her brother. "I thought we'd never be rid of that evil place." She flopped to the ground, apparently uncaring of the various states of decaying foliage around her.
Harry didn't comment, just collapsed next to her, equally exhausted. His thoughts had long since boiled down to just keeping one foot moving after the other. Anything further than that had taken more effort than he had been willing to spare. They had been walking for hours.
For a while it was all either of them could do to just lie there in the sun. Although they could still see the forest behind them it was now just a dark smudge on the horizon. For now they were still surrounded by the same open plains, marred only by the occasional rock bursting through the surface. It was in the shade of one of these that Ginny had stopped.
"Should we try apparating now?" he asked Ginny eventually. Now he had gathered his wits about him, he wondered why he hadn't tried it immediately. Part of him knew the answer; the darkness of that place was too close to the forefront of his mind to allow him the necessary focus. That first pile of bodies had been the largest they saw, but by no means the last. All through their eerie, silent journey through the ruined fortress they kept coming across odd, charred corpses. Some of them still seemed to be smouldering slightly, belying Harry's earlier assertion that the disaster happened a long time ago. Aside from some uneasy glances however neither he nor Ginny spoke of it. Instead they just obeyed that unheard pressure to keep moving and get as far away as possible.
Truth be told, it had taken longer to shake both the pressure and the darkness clouding his mind than he would have thought was possible. It was only once they were out of the forest that he felt the nausea he wasn't aware he was feeling lift completely and it had taken even longer for the feeling of wrongness at his back to dissipate.
"Not until you've had some rest," Ginny negated firmly. "I don't know how we didn't get splinched the first time but if you feel anything close to how I feel right now then we'd pushing our luck asking for another miracle."
Harry felt he should protest out of principle, but the truth was he hadn't been this exhausted in a long time. Not since the Battle, he supposed, fighting off echoes of that particular night. He still groaned, but for a completely different reason. "Ugh, where as we going to find beds for the night – or day, even?" he reminded himself, squinting at the merrily burning sun above them. "Oof!"
Ginny smirked at him from where she had just given him a friendly swat. "Moron," she told him. "Are you a wizard or not? A few cushioning charms will be absolutely fine." She shrugged complacently. "We only need a few hours."
Harry considered her for a moment and then laughed. "All those months of roughing it and I still always slept in a nice, warm, comfy bed," he mused good humouredly. "I suppose this is proper 'roughing it' then."
Ginny snorted. "Only by magical standards. If we were two muggles this would have been a whole lot more uncomfortable."
"If we were two muggles we wouldn't be in this situation in the first place," Harry countered with a smile before heaving himself back up to his aching feet. He probably had blisters everywhere. Ginny watched him from where she had curled up on the ground.
"What are you doing?" she asked sleepily as he pulled out his wand and began flicking it around them. He looked back over his shoulder at her.
"Muggle repelling, notice-me-not… all the standard enchantments we had on our camps," he told her. She frowned.
"Won't that stop the others from finding us?" she asked. "Surely they'd be looking by now."
Harry paused momentarily but carried on. "They will, but I'd rather not take my chances with that behind us."
Ginny murmured an assent and he continued with his wards. By the time he finished and turned back she was fast asleep. He smiled slightly and shot a few silent cushioning spells at the ground underneath her before following suit. It had been a ridiculously long day.
~ Failsafe ~ Failsafe ~ Failsafe ~ Failsafe ~ Failsafe ~ Failsafe ~ Failsafe ~
Ginny was starving.
When she first collapsed on the ground she had been convinced that could easily sleep for a whole week without waking. Yet it felt as though it had been barely twenty minutes before she was wide awake again. She could tell by the position of the sun that it had been longer than that – a good few hours – but it still wasn't enough.
And what, exactly, had woken her?
The growling of her stomach.
Unfortunately all Ginny had on her were some rather flattened looking Bertie Botts Beans and an equally battered Chocolate Frog. She resisted the urge to chomp down on the Chocolate Frog immediately, especially as she knew that Harry might not have any food on him. Merlin, the faster they got away from here and back to London, the quicker she could indulge herself in Mum's home cooking.
Of course, Mum would probably bewitch said food to ensure that Ginny never left her sight again but right now that was a price Ginny was willing to pay for a helping of a good old Sunday roast…
'Note to self; thinking about food when you are starving is not the most sensible idea in the world.'
Sneaking a glance to make sure that Harry was definitely still asleep Ginny sighed and reached for a small rock. Biting her bottom lip in concentration she swished her wand carefully to shape the stone into a goblet. All she got for her efforts was a slightly rounder rock. Ginny frowned and tried again. Transfiguration may not be her best subject but she could still manage a better goblet than that.
After several tries Ginny had to satisfy herself with what amounted to a small, shallow bowl and immediately set about cleaning it as best she could, before filling it with water. The first sip of cool water was delicious, if slightly soapy tasting, and she had swallowed it all before even thinking about it. It was only then that she realised how thirsty she had been and quickly set about filling it up again.
"Don't drink too much at once or it will make you sick," Harry said suddenly, his head popping up into view. He startled Ginny so much that her hand flickered and squirted him in the face with the jet of water. "Ginny!" he protested, blinking his eyes blearily even as Ginny launched into peals of laughter.
He scowled at her before drying his face with a flick of his wand. "I'll get you back for that someday," he warned her ominously before transfiguring his own stone into a bowl. Ginny was somewhat satisfied when it proved to be just as difficult for him as for her. Catching her look, Harry simply grinned. "Out of practice."
Ginny grinned in return, using a quick charm to chop the Chocolate Frog in two. "You got any food on you?" she asked hopefully as Harry took his fill.
Harry shook his head morosely. "Only if you count skiving snackboxes."
Ginny made a face. "Well, this will have to do until we get home," she said, offering him half of the Chocolate Frog. He took it with a slight bow, making her laugh.
"Who was the card?" he asked before taking a careful bite of the melting chocolate.
Ginny swallowed her own piece whilst searching in the wrapping. "Dumbledore."
Harry didn't say anything, just looked at the card wistfully. Ginny handed it over without a word. It had always been obvious to everyone that Harry and Dumbledore had been more than just student and teacher. Part of the reason why he hated that cave so much was because he saw it as a precursor to Dumbledore's death.
Not that anyone could blame Harry for hating the cave simply for its own sake. Ginny shivered even though the day was quite warm. There had been something so relentlessly… menacing about that cave. She hadn't said anything because she was quite sure it was just her own fears and feelings about the Chamber of Secrets being projected into their surroundings. But then there had been that castle… Ginny knew why she hadn't immediately recognised they weren't in the caves and that was because they had felt exactly the same way. That same relentless evil, the menacing intent in every inch of space. She wouldn't go quite so far as to say there was a presence there, because there hadn't been. Evil had simply seeped into the heart of everything about that place, just like in the cave.
Just like in the Chamber.
"Are you ready for a bit more apparating?" Harry asked from besides her.
She smiled at him. "Hell, yes – let's get out of this place."
Pulling each other to their feet, Harry grabbed hold of her arms and closed his eyes, concentrating. He took half a step forward and –
- nothing.
He opened one eye carefully and then stared about in consternation. "What happened?" Ginny asked but he just shook his head and said he'd try again.
Still nothing.
"Where are you aiming for?" Ginny asked, wishing she could help but her apparation lessons had been cut short early after several run-ins with Snape last year.
"Grimmauld place, but nothing's happening," Harry said frowning.
"Maybe try the Burrow?" Ginny suggested, worried. "Grimmauld Place was where you tried last night, wasn't it?"
He looked worried too now. "Ok, I'll try the Burrow," he agreed but it quickly became apparent that the Burrow, nor Hogsmeade, the Leaky Cauldron or even Number 4 Privet Drive was going to work. "This is ridiculous, I should be able to apparate somewhere," Harry snapped, breaking apart from Ginny in frustration.
"Maybe you're still too tired?" Ginny ventured timidly. "Or maybe that spell did something?"
That drew him up short and he swore vehemently. "Of course it did, of course it bloody did," Harry growled, fists clenching. "Bloody Voldemort and his stupid fail safes. If I hadn't already killed him I'd kill him!"
Ginny shrugged, trying to make light of the situation. The truth is that neither of them fully knew what had happened when they disapparated or what the long term effects might be. There was no use in speculating – what they had to do was get back to the Ministry and the Unspeakables who probably could figure it all out. When she pointed this out to him his anger deflated slightly, but he was still pissed off – she could see it all in his eyes.
"All we need to do is find a road and call the Knight Bus," she said, laying her wand flat out on her hand. "Point me road."
The wand span rapidly in her hands but didn't stop. Ginny looked up to see Harry staring at her with alarm. "What does that mean?"
He shook his head. "I don't know. But whatever it is, I don't think it's good." He got out his own wand and focussed on it. "Point me Hogwarts." The wand just span continuously. He swallowed, looked at Ginny and tried again. "Point me London."
"Point me England," she incanted but it just had the same effect as Harry's last. Nothing. She looked up and saw her own panic reflected in his face.
"Where in the world are we?"
~ Failsafe ~ Failsafe ~ Failsafe ~ Failsafe ~ Failsafe ~ Failsafe ~ Failsafe ~
Thanks for reading everyone!
I realised that I hadn't actually described where they were so had to add a bit more in which is why this chapter's a bit late this week. Most of you already have and those that haven't I'm sure you can guess where they landed now
Love,
Hannanora xxx
