CH 4
Harry - James - Potter - Harry - James - Potter
TJ took in a deep breath. He'd been deposited in a smallish valley with no one else in sight. He looked to his map and noticed that there were a couple of entrances to some mines and caverns nearby. However that meant that they possibly existed on other maps. The green marker on his map indicated the direction he was to travel in, in order to get to the entrance of the old temple.
He double checked his gear and made sure that his small shield and short sword were in a position where he could easily take them out and use them in the defence of his person. He had several general healing potions looped and attached to his belt, again in such a way for easy access. He had one novice, healing spell in his repertoire, 'Heal Minor Wounds' from the School of Restoration. It was a different type of spell from the ones he'd learned from his school.
Strangely, the spells from these particular schools of magic did not require that he use a wand in order to cast them. He was grateful for it too, since it allowed him to protect himself without setting off wand usage monitoring magics. He'd researched it in order to know if he could use those magics protect himself against the Dursleys should he not be able to return to the Canyon School for the following summer. Apparently he could since they were not detectable by the Ministry Standards of Magic. However he was hoping to never go back there, so the point was put to the side in his mind with the things he listed as, 'Magic to do around them in order to pay them back for their violent Paranoia.'
"Right then," he muttered to himself. "Let's go."
He traveled in the direction of the blinking marker on his map and it didn't take him long to reach the wooden entrance, after he'd dispatched a couple of attacking wolves and rats. It looked like it had once been a mining entrance and he thought that it might have been exactly what it was.
The rumours of a temple could be based on a long buried structure, which might still be there and intact for him to explore. At least that's what he assumed from the markings that he found on the map that indicated a change in the wall structure from unformed cavern to blocky looking passages.
TJ explored all the routes that lead to many dead end nooks. The creatures that he fought in those tunnels were mainly rats, wolves, several bears and a lot of feral non-evolved skinny looking goblins that always attacked him on sight. He assumed that those were the Low Goblins that his smelting instructor had mentioned. As soon as he'd begun his exploration, he had no choice, but to kill or be killed down there. The experience he was gaining in the use of his bow and sword, showed in the added muscle he was gaining in his arms and the quickness of his feet.
'Thank goodness for the nutrition potions and physical exercises prescribed by the Healer,' he thought. 'I doubt that I'd have been in shape to do any of this back when I first arrived at the school.'
He eventually finished re-mapping the primary area and found solid door to a section that had not been explored yet. He had basically fulfilled his part of the bargain having found the remains and having taken the crumbling scrolls, journals and some decent armour. Anything new, from this point on, to be discovered would truly belong to him.
He set up his house-tent in order to get a good night's sleep from his minor adventure. He warded the area with creature warding and turning spells, which essentially turned them away from a location. It worked kind of like the Muggle repelling charms he'd heard about at school, only in this case they were Wards, drawn in Runes and enhanced by magic.
The primary area or tunnels weren't that difficult, but he'd done them all in about a day and a half. He was really knackered by now.
TJ knew that the level of difficulty in any particular dungeon, temple or some other treasure hunting location was magically monitored by some unknown entity. They were never told who or how it was down, but this method of learning had been set up in the ancient times. It had been explained that many of the old maps that the students used were maps to warrior testing sites.
His fellow students had talked about their experiences. They'd been giving him advice and preparation tips for his first experience. He was glad that the set level of difficulty for his map was one that would remain unchanged, since it was based on his initial entry and current level of experience. Until he returned to the surface and slept in his room back at the Canyon School, the level of difficulty would not change while he was still inside it. Again, due do some kind of ancient monitoring device for testing warriors.
He had planned his training in particular Skills, with the aid of the Founders' tapestry portraits, since they'd had a similar learning curve, back when they'd been alive back before they decided to create the school for the growing population of wand-waving Witches and Wizards. They had decided to create the school, since the growing population in their timeline indicated that not many magical humans could learn from the Schools of Magic that they were in the process of teaching Harry.
However at the moment, before he slept he meditated, as per Rowena and Helga's instructions, in order to clear his mind and to organize his thoughts into a logical semblance of order. He had to, since he sometimes had odd nightmares that needed to be analyzed from a neutral point of view. He didn't want his fears to overwhelm him and he planned to never let his enemies see his emotional state, especially if he found himself in a battle situation with someone that had…intelligence?
TJ woke up after sixteen hours of uninterrupted sleep, fully refreshed.
He pulled out a few of the leather armour pieces that he'd found in the tunnels and then he stepped into his Smithing Room, where he was able to process the wolf and bear hides into workable leather and leather strips to help repair the old armour. Then smelted and forged some of the raw iron ore that he'd managed to mine and made solid fastenings in order to create; a set of leather grieves or pants, two pairs of boots one solid hard and the other of soft leather with a matching supple cuirass that would protect him. They worked even better than the Canyon School gear that he'd been assigned to use and practice with.
He then proceeded to improve his existing weapons with the skills he'd acquired through practice, sharpening his sword in such a way that it would do more damage with less swings. He made another iron short sword with the intention of using dual blades the further down he traveled. He figured that his new armour would work just as well as a shield.
However, he still preferred to pick off his enemies before they had a chance to even know that he was there, so he used his bow heavily until he ran out of arrows. He'd been able to pick up some from the ground and from his enemies, but he didn't have as much as he'd have liked to have. At the moment, he carried about fifty-six iron arrows and twenty steel arrows.
His placed his forged and refined items on his assessment book that recorded his grade and proved to his Professors that he was still studying while he was away from the school. That was, probably the only way to notify someone that he was still alive.
When he finished Smithing skills his new iron sword he received a grade of S for it and he felt a magical surge of knowledge or understanding flow into him. It was his twentieth grade of S for a particular item type; ie: 20 S grade iron daggers, 20 S grade iron swords, each set of twenty is a pass in level. He knew, from a magical sense, that his base skill levels had increased again, since he'd already experienced the sensation once before for fifty iron arrowheads graded S. He had to wait until he was back at school for his Canyon Instructors to evaluate him with their particular form of magic.
TJ rested for another three hours, before putting on his new gear and then he set out through the large wooden door, whose lock he had to pick with the lock-picks that he'd found on some of the corpses, as though he was a thief sneaking into a forbidden area. He almost didn't take them from the corpses, but he was now glad that he did.
He explored much of this new section, like he had the other. He walked slightly slower because he didn't want to move all that fast, so mostly he crouched and sneaked his way through the unexplored section.
He heard a creaking sound just ahead of him and paused to see what could possibly be making that noise. The creaking came closer and a revealed an upright skeleton carrying war axe that walked in his direction. The creature didn't detect him yet, so he fired a volley of two arrows, one after the other, followed by a the flare spell, which created a ball of fire that hit the undead creature, blasting it a couple of feet away.
He heard that same sound further in the distance, but it seemed like the second creature didn't know that he was there. He sneaked into the chamber and looked around. There were two options of leaving that particular room, but on the far side he saw the second skeleton in the distance. It was further away, but again he followed through a similar battle plan. Several volleys of arrows, followed by a couple of flare spells and the second creature was destroyed too.
TJ then examined the skeletal remains to see if they had anything of value on their carcasses. Surprisingly the weapons were available as spoils of war and they both actually had really old gold coins, plus one had a low valued non-enchanted amulet.
'Cool,' he thought, as he looked at the patterns on the neck ornament. 'Looks like it had never been finished or that it was made to look like something expensive. The gems in it alone have value. I'd rather it had been enchanted though, since I need enchanted items to learn specific enchantments.' (...i...)
He looked at his map and could see that the chambers he was being lead to formed a circular route, so he took his time exploring the outer ring of corridors and rooms. He found the passage that lead down a set of ancient looking worn out stairs and knew that that was the path he had to take. However, he wanted to clear the parameters first. He wasn't planning to fight his way out of the temple. He hoped that there might be a reasonably safe escape route out, but he held no hope of that being the case, as he fully expected that he'd have to go out the same way he came in.
The rooms were filled with various barrels, old leather sacks, some of which could be taken and re-spelled to hold larger loads, using the magic that Rowena had taught him, meaning the inherent magic of Wizard Space. It was a good thing too, since the armour from those of the Mithril-Helm Clan were, rather heavy.
His tapestry instructors had helped in the translation of these journals, which TJ had copied in order to have a record of his findings. Some of the journals contained old or ancient secrets to smithing and enchanting, which he was currently studying at the Canyon School. He was hoping that before his summer sessions were over that he'd be able to create an amulet or charm of some kind that would hide him from specific members of the Wizarding Society, namely anyone carrying a camera or those prone to staring at him.
He camped out for another twelve hours in an alcove like room near the stairwell entrance before ensuring that he'd been fully healed prior to continuing his journey. He was much further along than any other explorer that had undertaken a journey to this particular area.
TJ packed up his items and ensured that he was ready for nearly anything he may encounter down those stairs. He followed his usual pattern and snuck about the bottom chamber dealing damage to all creatures that attacked him. He was getting better at killing them from a distance.
'Have to set up an Archery practice room in my tent or something,' he thought, after he pegged off another walking skeleton from a distance, taking it down with a first shot because the creature hadn't seen him. 'I'd like to increase my Marksman Skill for it.'
He was aware that there might some traps in the place and he'd found a few that he had to disarm before making his way up the central steps to the huge statue figure of a really gorgeous woman who was seated in a large throne like chair. A stone Alter was located just before the figure.
He paused on this way up, there were many steps and then continued, hoping that this would be the end of his journey and that no other prophecy existed for him. He suspected that he'd be out of luck, though, especially from the way that Rowena spoke about them.
The woman's statue developed a ghostly, misty outline of a real woman, superposed over the seated figure. "Tiber James Snape," the figure paused and then continued. "Child born of the wand-wavers, also known as Harry James Potter, you have made a long journey from your home, what is your wish?"
"Wish," TJ asked in a confused tone. "I have no wish."
The woman's image paused and then she continued, "I am a projection of the Seeress Morgana and contain all known prophecies and visions of the past and future. Prophecies have been written about you and your adversaries. However you will never be told the whole of it until too late, unless I tell you now, do you wish to know?"
Harry known as Tiber, gulped. He wasn't sure that he wanted to know, but something about the fact that she said he'd never be told the whole of it until too late, made him wonder just who else knew about a prophesy or something like it.
'Who,' he thought. 'Who in my life... would withhold this kind of information from me and why would they do such a thing?' A flash of twinkling blue eyes appeared in his mind and he knew then who not to fully trust with his well-being. This was the person who'd send him back to the Dursleys, especially, if the man had learnt of his summer plans.
TJ sighed, nodded his head and said, "Yes, I wish to know the pertinent prophesies regarding me and my adversaries."
"Very well," the Morgana statue said. "Five years before your birth the first prophesy from a goblin Seeress is:
...The one who learns the magics of old will destroy the undead creature, born of untutored necromantic magic and shall re-form the world with the re-immergence of lost magics and skill...
Three years before your birth the second prophesy, from servant elves, states:
...The one who learns the skills of old will defeat the followers of the undead creature, born of untutored Dark magic, who failed in the making of his final vessel due to ancient blood magics...
One year before your birth, a third prophesy from the Oracle Clan of the stout miners, is:
...Hidden, ancient scholars, the thread-born, shall teach the One, who'll destroy the undead wand-waving creature born of blackened magic...
Another, lengthy one, since it was the only one made by a human, is this:
...The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches...Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies...And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power that the Dark Lord knows not...And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives...The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies... (...ii...).
A final one, as others made after it, run on a similar theme to the previous, all from the other magical races other than the pure humans:
...The tournament gong heralds the coming Dark One. Evil will rise once more and the links forged by the Undying Dark must be found and shattered by the Chosen One, before peace returns..."
The statue then stilled and the ghostly, superposed image faded.
Harry had pulled out a scrap piece of scroll paper and had written every single one of those prophesies down, including their origins. He was furious about the human prophesy because of the detail it contained. It was one of 'kill or be killed' and yet there was something more to it because of the others that he'd heard. His solution could be found by studying the other prophecies.
He sat down on the Alter that was before the statue and he started to shed a few tears. His first year of school, he'd felt the overwhelming pressure of being introduced to the magical world, as the Boy-Who-Lived. He'd had a hard time adjusting from being some nobody in the Muggle Realm to being a kind of bloody saviour in the Wizarding World. He was pressured by his then best friends to figure out the secret living in the school.
His second year was no better, since his friend, Ron Weasley had expected him to help in the rescue of his baby sister. He'd felt the pressure of his status descend upon him from the moment some blasted news photographer had taken his image when Lockhart had grabbed him for a photo opportunity.
Even last year, the whole Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Dementor fiasco had him pining for a regular school year, but after hearing these prophesies, he knew that he wasn't going to get it. He knew, without doubt that the Headmaster of his school knew something about the human Prophesy, all because of the events that happened to him since his first year of school.
He knew now that the old man was doing his best to see if he, Harry Potter, a boy of great human and magical expectations, could in fact defeat, destroy or vanquish the Dark Lord, as per the prophesy that had probably came from Professor Trelawney's mouth.
"IT'S NOT BLOODY FAIR," he screamed and his words came back echoing in the temple chamber. Then he yelled, as much as roared his frustration at the position that he was being forced to play. He sent out blasts of flares, flames and other elemental Destructive Magic out into the chamber, without doing any real damage. He cried and sobbed, as he muttered, "I bet all of this will happen before I'm come of age too, before I can even become man of worth."
He wiped his nose on the sleeve of his shirt before he could compose himself enough to explore the rest of the chamber further. He wasn't foolish enough to not gather his spoils of war and leave the area without checking the chests he noticed in the hidden corners. It was a mindless task to occupy him, before he turned his thoughts to tackling his latest dilemma.
He suddenly felt the weight of all the human expectations, but he planned to consult his 'thread-born teachers' on the matter. He certainly hoped that they would be able to guide him or teach him about some of the things that came from the missing pages of the compendium that he'd been studying from.
"I hope that they'll explain the Horcrux thing, so that I might better understand what the Dark Idiot had done to himself to earn the title of 'Undead Creature' and 'Undead Dark' in these prophesies," he thought to himself, out loud, as he located a small passage to the rear of the seated stature.
The passageway lead him out of the temple rooms and by-passed the already explored areas. Several chests were tucked into that passageway, too. He picked the locked ones and scavenged all the magical artefacts that he could find in order to be able to disenchant them in order to gain the ability to enchant some of items. Duplicate enchantments and items would be sold to the dwarves as per his contract. Triplicate magical items, well depending on the enchantment, may be kept for personal use and protection. Sometimes the good stuff was still the old stuff untouched by time.
'You never know when something will be useful,' he thought, as he fingered an amulet that protected someone against Ice spells to a certain degree.
The dwarves of Stoneguard Bank had withheld any hope that young Tiber James Snape would return within the allotted time frame. The youth had taken much longer than the expected five-day exploration. It was a timeline that only existed because it that was the average time that most students took before they returned to the bank. To have any student or dungeon explorer return later, always meant that students would give up their education in the Canyon School or that the explorers were irrevocably harmed and could no longer do any kind of magic or else they had perished.
Tiber's return had been noted as being an extraordinary one, in that he had returned in nearly full health, since he'd taken the last of his healing drafts. His magical reserves hadn't recharged fully after his last round of fighting skeletons, which there were only a few of them in the final tunnels on his way out of the old temple.
The youth was lead back to the map chamber of Stoneguard in order to return the completed map and to conclude the conditions of his exploration contract. The Mithril-Helm Clan was pleased with the outcome.
Harry - James - Potter - Harry - James - Potter
TBC…
(...i...) This story will contain the Skyrim and Oblivion method of for learning enchantments, using an Arcane Enchanter and am planning to use the Oblivion method for spell creation, using a Spell Alter, with the similar conditions of area of effect (self, touch, on target, etc..., damage and duration.)
(...ii...) Direct quote, found on www dot hp-lexicon dot org/wizards/trelawney dot html#prophecies (remove the spaces and change the dots to access the web site or else re-read the Order of the Phoenix book, volume 5 of the series)