Disclaimer: I do not own anything about the Elder Scrolls series or Harry Potter.
All dovahzul translations are listed at the end of their respective paragraphs.
The Soul of a Dragon
Chapter 4
Eric Potter was having a nice day so far. Excitement was running high in Hogwarts as that evening drew closer. Eric was so hoping for just a normal quiet school year. This year proved to not be that year as the Tri-Wizard Tournament was happening, but maybe, just maybe, he would be watching instead of competing.
The Great Hall was silent as everyone gathered to hear who had been announced as Champions. The lights in the Great Hall dimmed as Albus Dumbledore stood up. "It looks like our Goblet is now ready to make a selection. When your name is called please go through the door behind us on the left."
The Goblet of Fire lit up in red flames instead of its traditional blue and a tongue of fire flew out with a piece of parchment on the end. Dumbledore reached up and caught it. "Our Champion from Beauxbatons is… Fleur Delacour!"
Eric watched as the girl with long blonde hair got up and walked through the back door.
"Look at them, they're all upset." Hermione said. Eric looked back at the Beauxbatons group and many of them were crying. His attention was called back up to the Goblet as it once again turned red and another piece of parchment was born out on a tongue of fire.
"Our Champion for Durmstrang is… Vicktor Krum!"
Krum got up and started to leave to a large round of applause. "Vell done Vicktor!" Karkaroff could be heard shouting.
Finally the cheers calmed down as Krum exited the hall. And every eye turned expectantly to the Goblet. In reply it turned red once more and Dumbledore caught the piece of parchment. "Our Champion from Hogwarts is… Cedric Diggory!"
Cedric once again got up to loud cheers and applause, Hufflepuff being the loudest.
"Excellent! We now have our three Champions!" Dumbledore paused as everyone cheered. Then every cheer was cut off as the goblet turned red once again.
Eric felt ice grip his lungs as he struggled to breathe. Dumbledore caught the proffered parchment and paled drastically. "Harry… Potter." Almost in unison every pair of eyes turned to Eric. They quickly left as a loud clang sounded and an orb of purple and black fire bloomed into existence.
It slowly faded as a boy wearing blue fur robes was revealed lying on the ground. He quickly got up and looked around. Or that was what Eric assumed as his face was covered in a mask of some Bluish colored steel. Just looking at that mask, Eric felt a small trill of fear worm its way through him from the sheer power he could feel flowing from it.
"So, I am going to guess that you were the one to summon me?" The boy spoke quietly, almost too quietly to hear. Actually by all right's it shouldn't have been heard from where Eric was sitting, but each word was filled with some kind of power that made it flow through the room. A couple of the goblets actually trembled. "What do you want me to do? I just want to leave, or kill you, either option will send me home."
Silence fell at that pronouncement; that a boy who appeared to be no more than fourteen could talk about killing so easily. "Hello, anyone home? Barzul people, you summon the Dragonborn and are actually in awe when it actually works? What kind of troll shit is in your brains?" Eric was starting to get unnerved by the boy's voice. Harry, a part of his mind tried to supply.
Dumbledore seemed to snap from whatever daze he was in. "If you would kindly refrain from that kind of language Mr. Potter, and if you will kindly go through that door at the back we will be happy to explain things to you." Dumbledore gestured to the door that the other champions had gone through.
"Mr. Potter." Dumbledore prodded when the boy didn't respond. "If you would..." He gestured at the door again.
"You know, it's rude to talk to someone else when I am right here in front of you and already asked a question." He turned to the Goblet of Fire. "Is that the summoning artifact? It would have to be. The basis for the ritual. But where are your runic matrices? Your confinement circles? I could easily escape this place it I wanted to." He looked back at Dumbledore.
"That's it though isn't it? You weren't expecting the ritual to work. You were teaching about summoning or something, but someone shot a spell at your summoning artifact and I arrived! That's a relief. I really didn't want to do what you wanted me to and I also didn't want to kill you. So with that I think that I'll be off."
The boy exited the Great Hall and instantly people started to whisper. "Eric, I thought that your brother had died?" Hermione said.
"He did." Eric replied. "Mum and Dad said that he did. Why would they have reason to lie?" That is what had him really confused. They had never been able to disguise their sorrow over his death.
The doors to the Great Hall flew open again. "Where in Oblivion am I? This is not Keizaal." The trembling worsened.
"You are at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." Dumbledore said grandly.
Harry snorted. "Watch it old man. You are getting dangerously close to an insult by calling me a witch. I am Arch-Mage of the College of Winterhold and the only thing that I have to do with witches are when I kill them and their Hagraven Matron."
Dumbledore looked shocked, and this time worried. "If you would please step through the side door we will be able to explain everything."
"Be fast." Harry said and he disappeared through the back door.
Eric was walking around outside during his free period when he next met Harry. There was a loud crash. Eric looked up and quickly ran to the side as large rocks and rubble fell to the ground.
As the dust settled, Eric heard a cough. "Well damn, that wasn't one of my better exits. Though I am sure that it will leave a strong mark on them." Eric could hear the smirk in that soft voice.
Out of the dust climbed one blue robed figure. Harry seemed to have spotted him. "What are you doing here?" Even with no plates around to shake he could still feel the power of the voice.
Eric's mind was short circuited. He looked up and saw a gaping hole in the castle wall. He looked back at Harry and back up at the wall.
Harry seemed to follow his gaze. "Wow! That stone is tougher than it looks." He said in awe He turned back to Eric. "Hi, my name in Adraxian."
"Eric." Eric said without thinking. "Wait a minute, isn't your name Harry?"
"Akatosh, not another one." Adraxian/Harry cursed. "I am Adraxian, Archmage of the College of Winterhold."
"Okay, okay," Eric held his hands up. "I'll call you Adraxian then. If you don't mind me asking, why are you always wearing that mask?"
"Mask?" Adraxian asked. "Oh, this is Morokei. I got it off an old Dragon Priest."
"Why do you wear it? Was the Dragon Priest important to you?" Eric asked.
A hand flew to the mouth of the mask and Adraxian's shoulders shook with suppressed laughter. "Oh, it's no friend at all. That skeleton tried to kill me so I killed it. The dead should stay dead."
Eric had nothing to say to that. What was there to say to that? He decided to change the subject. "Can see your face, I want to see why everyone is calling you my twin."
There was silence on Adraxian's end for a moment. Adraxian studied the boy. It was so strange to see a boy that looked so similar to him that was in all actuality half his age. "I see no harm in it." Adraxian reached up and slid off the red and bonze hood. It was easy to remove the mask itself, it stayed on mostly from will and spells.
Eric's eyes widened. Adraxian's eyes were a green much more vivid than his own and his mothers' though they still held the same shape. The shape of his head was that of his fathers' as well as the black hair. Hair which fell down to his shoulders and was held back with a leather tie.
It was like looking at himself at thirty adjusted to fit a teenagers face. "How old are you?" Eric blurted before slapping his hands to his mouth.
Adraxian laughed. His laugh was louder than talking normally, strong enough to shake the ground. To Eric's relief he didn't laugh long. "You act like I am some court lady from the Imperial City who is touchy about her age." Adraxian grinned a wide grin that belied his vocal tone. "I have been cursed or blessed, depending on your point of view, to physically age at half of my age. I am 32 years of age."
Eric gained a poleaxed expression. How?! How was that possible! They were twins! He should be fourteen not thirty!
Adraxian heaved a hopeless sigh. "Yeah, yeah I don't get it either. It is actually how I got interested in magic in the first place. Mom and Dad took me to the College of Winterhold. They couldn't afford for us to go to the Imperial City, to see the mage center. I am actually glad that they didn't. The city fell during the White-Gold Concordant. Anyways, the mages at the college couldn't understand it either. The only one who could vanished after some Elder Scroll whispers."
All Eric caught was 'magic' and 'unable.' "So they were unable to identify it?" He asked.
"Nope." Adraxian smiled as he placed the mask back on and lifted the hood back up. "Anyways, who are you supposed to be?"
"Eric Potter." Eric said thankful that the conversation was flowing back onto stable ground. "My -our- parents are Lily and James Potter."
"My parents were no Lily and James Potter." Adraxian's face hardened. "My mother was a breton named Evelausa Gaering of Kynesgrove, my father was a nord named Skorm Ice-Fist of Solitude. They are the two I recognize as parents. Not yours."
Eric held up his hands. "No need to get all defensive." He defended himself. "That's just what all of the adults are saying."
Adraxian snorted. The ground shook. "They may say what they like. Doesn't make it true."
"Time will tell if they will back off." Eric shrugged. "Why does the ground always shake when you talk? And why do you talk so softly?"
Adraxian gave a dry chuckle. "You just answered your own question. I talk softly because my voice is so powerful that if I talk any louder you would be shaken apart. My voice is the focus of my soul. Like Alduin, only he didn't try to control his volume. He was powerful and made sure all knew it."
The cloudless sky darkened momentarily as Adraxian spoke the name Alduin. Eric was about to open his mouth to ask who Alduin was when Ron and Hermione came around the corner.
Adraxian sighed as he saw the bushy-haired breton and the red haired imperial from that noon appear around the corner. A small part of him was grateful for the interruption, and another part of him was disappointed. Despite his inadequacies Eric Potter could turn out to be an interesting conversationalist. And he seemed more observant than most.
"YOU!" The red one shouted and came stomping over.
"Ron, calm down." Eric said. Ron ignored him.
"You have some nerve casting that spell at Hermione." Ron growled from where Eric was holding him back.
Adraxian snorted. "I have no time for a child's sanctimonious prattle." Adraxian shrugged. "No, until she learns that the universe is not all about rules that must be followed. I will cast spells on any who get in my way." He turned to Hermione. "Try that again and next time I will maim you, not just encase you in an ash shell."
Ron's face was turning red, so was Hermione's. "W- Without rules is anarchy!" She cried her voice rising drastically. "Society cannot exist without rules."
Adraxian stared at Hermione. Then laughed. It wasn't the warm laughter Eric had heard earlier. This one was cold, dark and twisted. The ground shook with vigor. "Rules are there to protect. Rules are there to keep us safe." He said in a sing-song voice. His voice turned deeper than normal while talking in a louder voice while it was still soft. Eric, Ron, and Hermione had trouble keeping their balance.
"I could care less for the rules of society. I respect those that I find worthy. Unless they can pass that test, they mean nothing to me. Society is of no interest to me, I care only about how to break the laws of Mundus."
Adraxian had to hand it to Hermione. She was brave when she opened her mouth to speak despite her white face. "Is that really how you were raised?"
Adraxian's face shut down. He growled at a normal tone of voice, but keeping a tight rein on his Voice... the graound still shook violently. "My parents were killed by Talmor bastards for trying to give their son an elves immortality. Their attitude was the same as that blonde bastards. I do NOT respect those with that attitude and they get a direct dose of their own attitude. They will be treated as a skeever, fit only to be slaughtered. They are the reason I hate society. Currently the only Jarls with my respect is High Queen Elisif and Jarl Balgruuf"
Adraxian turned to stalk away before looking over his shoulder. "Eric Potter, I quite hope to see you again. You have quite the intelligence with you. You should use it."
As Adraxian turned the corner and was out of view the attack came. Adraxian released a small smile. So this was the angle now. One failed meeting and it was now to be a prisoner.
Unfamiliar spells, streams of light, flew at him as he wove around and through them. Much less dangerous than dodging fire, ice, and lightning.
Adraxian released a low-powered fireball at the attacker's feet. The invisible assailant was thrown off balance and revealed to be the scarred man as he landed next to the wall.
"You were better off revealing yourself instantly." Adraxian said calmly as the man got up. The man just growled and released another onslaught of spells.
Adraxian held both hands out and dual cast a standard Greater Ward. While the ward was holding Adraxian gave the magic a twist to attempt to identify spells. All he could tell from the magic was that all spells were meant to bind and incapacitate. They wanted him alive and unharmed. Too bad for them he had no such compunctions… then again the best way for him to identify this magic was to learn about it. This was a school right? They also seemed to want to keep him here.
Adraxian quickly put a stranglehold on his magic. His ward stated to putter. The attacker's spells also started to increase. Best way to learn the magic would be as a student. If things went like they did at his College, he would be the head of the school within a few short years.
With that in mind he let his ward die just as a beam of red light caught him in the chest. He felt himself go flying as his vision went dark.
Adraxian let himself groan as he slowly woke up. Opening his eye he noticed that his mask was on the desk. It was filled with his necklaces and rings. Oh, and he was on a chair with his hands cuffed behind the back. There were also full-grown adults in the room. The disfigured guy, Albus, James, Lily, the man with oily black hair, and a woman with a stern expression.
He currently sat in the office where he had recently escaped, the wall was repaired. "Akatosh, you had to have kept me out for over a week to repair that damage." He said.
"It was a simple reparo spell." Albus said. Adraxian took note of all of the teachers around him. None appeared to have any battle experience except for the one with the scared face, wooden leg, and wild eye, the one who had attacked him. It would be easy to take them out. "So why did Fawkes respond badly to you?"
Adraxian gave a dry laugh. "That useless heap of feathers is the spawn of Stendarr, Aedra of Mercy, Charity, Well-Earned Luck, and Justice. I am Dov in all but form. We Dov respect power, and the birds were nothing but cowards during the First Fall. I am as much the child of Bormah as the Firstborn was."
"Who is this Bormah?" Lily asked.
"Bormah is father in Dovahzul." Adraxian replied. "I am the last." Adraxian sighed. "Anyways, now that I have answered your question can I go now?" Just because he had surrendered in the fight didn't mean that he would let them walk all over him.
An imperial with greasy black shoulder length hair spoke. "You will do as we say brat."
That more than anything got a chuckle out of Adraxian. "The last one to call me a brat found his blood staining my blade. He died with such a look of surprise on his golden face. Like a cow had just decided to get up on its hind legs and dance. That Altmer underestimated me too." Adraxian sat up straight, or at least as straight as he could with being tied to a chair. "Feim."
As he became ethereal all of the ropes and the handcuffs fell off. Adraxian rubbed his right shoulder while working that arm to loosen it up. He leaned back over the chair to grab the cuffs. "Interesting cuffs." He said inspecting them. "Meant to contain magic, but not I think souls. I think that I'll keep these." He slipped them into a magicka pocket.
"I am going to have to ask you to return those." Albus said standing from his chair slightly.
"Sure I will." Adraxian smiled. "Right after I have had the chance to study them. Now you brought me here what do you want?"
James took charge. "We wanted to get to know you."
Adraxian raised one eyebrow. "And you thought attacking me and tying me up was the best option? Couldn't you have just asked?"
"We did ask. You blew out the wall." Lily said.
"No, Albus asked. You just stood there. If you want to talk you can just ask." Adraxian approached the table. "You even removed my items. That is the easiest way to get onto my hit list."
"Wait, please." Lily called as he placed his hand on the door knob. "Just let us talk. Please."
Adraxian turned around and saw her desperate face. He sighed inwardly. There were sometimes he couldn't help helping people. This one appeared to be one of them. "Fine, what do you want to talk about?"
"First of all, where have you been for the past fourteen years?" James asked quickly.
"It was a mistake letting him up." The scared guy muttered.
"It was a mistake letting you continue to talk." Adraxian snapped back. "Yet the person slated to do that failed. The world is full of disappointments. As to where I've been. My home is Skyrim. The Fatherland."
Albus seemed to ponder this. "And where is Skyrim?"
"It is one of the countries of Tamriel. Of Mundus." Adraxian replied easily. "If you would be so kind as to tell me where I am?"
"You are in England." The stern woman said. "In Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
Adraxian snorted. "Witches. Again with the witches. I have had my fill of them."
"Oh? And what do you call your female magic users?" Lily asked.
Adraxian looked at her like she was an idiot. "We call them mages of course. The witches are those who follow hagravens. They always try to kill me."
Silence met that statement. It seemed like no one knew how to respond.
"So, now that we have talked, can I go now? To be perfectly candid, I will be willing to talk more if you had just asked. Nothing is really stopping me from blowing out the wall again." Adraxian asked.
Albus sighed in disappointment… like he was dealing with an unruly child. "If you are so eager to go, we just have one more thing to discuss. Your attendance here at Hogwarts."
"Why?" Adraxian said. "Why should I join this school? As you could tell I can already perform magic. What is so great about here that I must become a student?"
"NO!" The greasy haired man shouted. "Albus, I refuse to have another Potter-spawn in my classroom."
"You do not get to decide what I do." Adraxian sneered. "Run along little minion."
The man's eye's widened as he reached a hand into his robes. "Severus!" The stern woman shouted. "The man paused as he slowly removed his hand.
"Good little puppy." Adraxian mocked. "Listen to your master."
"Albus, you can't be serious…" Severus implored.
"Minerva, could you please take Mr. Po…" Adraxian coughed pointedly. "Stormcrown and set him up with a schedule?"
"Albus," Minerva asked. "Do you really think this is wise?"
Adraxian's estimation of the man rose a little with his next words. "I don't know Minerva, The best we can do is try, at least if you are willing to try?" He directed this last past at Adraxian.
"Finally!" Adraxian exclaimed. "It took you too long to try and finish a meeting while being diplomatic. I would be more than willing to accept, so long as no one even tries to call me 'Harry Potter.' I am Adraxian Stormcrown of Skyrim."
Okay, there's this chapter. It was one of my easiest to write and still made me do multiple drafts to make sure that I had everything in it.
The next chapter will be coming out a bit slower because I have had multiple requests to give my other stories a jumpstart as well. This one will be my main story, but the others will be getting a redraft and kick-started.
Next chapter I have plans for the classes Adraxian will be taking. Any ideas are appreciated, because all that I have right now in my head are the scenes for the tasks on replay over and over again with multiple outcomes.
I am thinking about building a bridge between Adraxian and Eric, and eventually having that build over the gap between Hermione and Ron as well.
And, finally, I have giving the previous chapters an update.
DiamondAir
