Harry Potter and The Rise Of A Champion
Chapter Seven: To Walk Toward Battle
The wind rushed by his face as he swept along the country on the magical motor bike that Sirius had left him, a look of dark determination set on his face showing to all who would gaze upon it for months to come that he was a man on a mission, and he would do anything to achieve the goals of the mission, anything at all.
"That's the second one over the hill there Tronz, fancy scouting it out for me?" Harry said to his faithful familiar as he brought the bike to a stop and set it on its stand. He received a trill in reply, which he interpreted as a yes.
"Thank you, you know what to do don't you? Just like the last time, alright?" Harry said with a small smile gracing his weary face. Again he received the same trill from his only travelling companion, and in a whoosh of air the phoenix sped away to the second fortress of the dark lord, as shown on his stolen map. It didn't take long for the phoenix to get back so Harry got right to work on searching his mind with an advanced branch of Legillemency that wizards can perform on certain types of magical familiars.
"So, they have mountain trolls patrolling?" Harry mused to himself. It had been years since he had seen one of those hideous (and not to mention smelly) creatures.
"It doesn't seem as big as the other place, this must be an outpost or something then… but then if it was why would they have trolls guarding here but not the last place?" Harry asked aloud. Tronza cocked his head to the side in response, as if saying 'Why are you asking me, I know I'm perfect, but I'm not all knowing'
Forming a quick plan in his mind, Harry unsheathed the sword of Gryffindor and, allowing a small amount of wandless magic to seep into his muscles he charged over the hill. To the trolls the oncoming threat looked more like a line of wizards charging at them because Harry was moving so fast and so before they could even grunt one of them was already on the floor, missing a head and one of the others was being tackled. Not giving himself time to rest (he may have used magic to make his physical abilities better, but it still cost him energy) Harry jumped from the shoulder of the still collapsing corps of the mountain troll and jammed his sword through the shoulder of the next closest troll and used it to hoist himself up, however his sword appeared to be jammed in the collar bone of it, and Harry didn't have the time to get it out because it now looked like the trolls were catching on to the fact that they were only dealing with one wizard, and that he could move faster than is normal, the result was that the troll he was currently riding began bucking wildly causing Harry to have to dig the claws of his magical glove into the thick skin of the troll and hold on for his life, and this he later reflected was the thing that indeed did save his life because the last mountain troll had noticed the problem its fellow troll was having and decided it could knock Harry off with his club and so it swung with all it's might and connected with a solid crack, effectively knocking out the bucking troll after missing Harry who had dug his glove into the skin and lay himself along the trolls shoulder.
"Two down one to go" Harry murmured as he rose to his feet and took in the last troll, who seemed confused that Harry was still standing, but its companion was not. Deciding to take advantage of the situation Harry braced himself and then with not so much as a sound took a small, but fast, run up and jumped using his enhanced abilities onto the club the troll was examining, and held on tight for the expected shaking of the club from the troll, trying to knock him off. This was exactly what he wanted, because now there was enough momentum for him to cast a low-level levitation charm and use the swing from the troll to put force in a blow to the trolls head.
Once the final troll was on the ground unconscious Harry searched his mind for the layout of the fortress before him that Tronza had supplied.
"3 Levels high, main hall, sleeping quarters… and storage, a lot of storage. So this isn't an outpost but a warehouse. I suppose taking this from them will be detrimental to their war effort" Harry said and chuckled to himself. Now that the trolls were taken out Harry only had to find a way to enter the building and search the dungeons (What property of the Dark Lords would be complete without one?) for Ron and Ginny. After casting a few minor detection spells to determine the wards around the building Harry began circling the perimeter looking for any way in, or any faults in the structure he could exploit.
'This would be so much easier if I didn't have to worry about the magic detection both Dumbledore and Riddle use' Harry thought angrily to himself as he passed a set of doors for the third time. It appeared that the building was well warded, and the structure sound, there was no way in but the front doors, and they were sure to detect the absence of the dark mark on his arm.
"Well what would life be like without taking a few risks?" Harry asked himself as he steeled himself for whatever nasty surprise awaited him after entering those doors.
"Boring" Harry groaned. In front of him stood no more than 20 deatheaters and they all looked like they wanted a piece of him.
"Well, well, well. We've been expecting you Potter, it seems you have indeed done the Gryffindor thing and started searching our bases in order of location. We've been expecting you for several days now, though I do confess I had began to think you had actually used your brain and gone at our bases randomly." Said a deatheater, apparently their leader of the group. As he spoke Harry examined his surrounding, or what little he could see of them. He appeared to be in the main entrance hall, with only one way out other than the doors the deatheaters were guarding, and that was the way he came.
"You think I came in here without a plan?" Harry asked mockingly, although the deatheater was right, it was rather foolish of him to take out the fortresses one by one, and not to mention more difficult without the use of his full magical potential, but if he were to take them out randomly he could strike fast and quick with his full force and be gone by the time Riddle or Dumbledore sent someone to take care of the problem, or show up themselves.
"Oh? You have a plan then? It must be going wrong then, you look petr…" the deatheater sneered, but was cut off as Harry struck. He had no plan, what he said was a bluff, he just hoped he could hit them while they were distracted, and use his still enhanced muscles to his advantage. With a slashing sound the lead deatheater fell to the floor dead, with a gaping hole in his chest before any of his comrades could blink.
"REDUCTO" came a bellow from their right, they barely had time to even register that before an explosion with force enough to rock the castle hit, wiping out the closest deatheaters, but only bruising the ones who were further away and had time to put up a shield.
"Disecta" shouted a faceless deatheater who was quick to recover, the spell however did little more than light up the shadows where Harry had been moments before.
"Stupefy" came a whisper from behind, and the ambitious deatheater fell unconscious to the floor, however the spell had given away his position, and before he could apparate away he was bombarded with every spell imaginable. Erecting a hasty shield spell Harry went over his options in his mind.
'option one, I could flare my aura and knock them all back, alerting Riddle and Dumbledore that the power they detected earlier was me. Option two, I could change my form, again alerting them. Option three, drop the shield and give them all I've got, with medium level curses.'
Having decided which option he was going to take Harry dropped the shield at the same time he felt apparation wards being set up and dove behind a support pillar.
"Expelliarmus" "Stupefy" "Petrificus Totalus" Harry fired off in quick succession. He was able to fell five death eaters with those, the spells being so easy he was able to over charge them and have them bounce from one target to the next like electricity.
"Shit, he' faster than I thought, how is that possible?" One of the lesser deatheaters asked.
"Does it matter? Just blow him up!" Another replied.
Using their distraction to his advantage Harry closed his eyes for a few seconds to get a feel for the place and then he began to absorb the wards from around him, pooling it into his hand channel and glove, before finally adding electricity in equal parts to the magic. The effect this particular bit of magic had when Harry released it and guided it with his wandless mind magic was spectacular, because electricity when in greater amounts than magic reverses magic's effects and vice versa for magic, the effect when they are even and in enough amounts is like a miniaturised muggle A-bomb, with prettier colours. While there was not enough magic and electricity added to alert Riddle and Dumbledore about his identity there was certainly enough to take out the last deatheaters.
"What the fuc…" The lesser death eater queried as he saw the emerald green floating ball of magic with purple electricity licking the surface float towards him, he never got to finish his sentence however because when it got close enough the whole thing began to ripple, before the union of magic and electricity finally becoming unstable and exploding with such force that the very air was distorted, vaporising all but a lucky few.
Coming from his hiding spot Harry took in the scene before him. It reminded him very much of his rebirth, when the sorcerer transformation had begun and he fried all those present.
"That looks painful" Harry remarked as he saw one of the death eaters who were stunned was missing a lot of his skin and hair from the left side of his body. Deciding that he looked the most likely to be able to answer his questions Harry strode over to him and enervated him.
"Ahhhh" was the first thing out of the mouth of the recently un-stunned death eater.
"I have a few questions for you to answer, and as a reward I'll take the pain away." Harry said calmly as the deatheater thrashed about on the ground, trying to keep from screaming out whilst in Harry's presence. After a few moments oin which it appeared the deatheater was trying to form a response he was finally able to murmer something, which took Harry a few seconds to decipher, but when he did he was quite impressed with the bravery of this deatheater, his response was an unoriginal, yet unexpected "Go to hell you Bastard".
"Well then, I see we're going to have to do things the hard way, aren't we?" Harry asked darkly. The effect this had on the deatheater would have been quite comical if he had not been in such pain. The determination to get his best friend and brother in all but blood, as well as his girlfriend back at any cost was reflected in his eyes, his face was set to one of dark determination and hatred and his voice had an underlining of suffering, and so to the deatheater when Harry had told him he was going to get the information the hard way he had interpreted it as several long bouts with the cruciatus curse. In reality however all Harry meant was he was going to have to take the block off his mind reading abilities and read this deatheaters mind, but by doing this he would pick up the pain and suffering also, and not just from this deatheater but from all those close enough. With a resigned sigh Harry prepared himself for a long day.
"What news have we of his movements?" Questioned the leader of the light forces, the formidable Albus Dumbledore.
"He has already taken out the Cornwall stronghold, headmaster. When we got their there wasn't much left of anything, it looked like he'd blown it up or something, but if that was the case wouldn't we have detected it?" replied Tonks, who since the war reached such epic proportions always went out of her way to appear normal.
"Harry is a very skilled wizard who I myself have taught, I planted the seeds of thinking out of the normal in his mind, and it seems it was a very fertile place" Dumbledore replied with a smile and twinkle.
"So Harry has found a way to avoid our magical radars then?" She queried in confusion.
"No, dear girl he has not, but we can only detect magic cast from a being, Harry has the ability to pool magic from around him to either use or absorb, as well as his fire elemental and lightning abilities, both of which I doubt we could detect with out very sensitive radars." Dumbledore answered calmly. Since Harry had left Dumbledore had spent much of his time with his old friend and teacher, Nicolas Flammel. They had both been working on improvements to Hogwarts defences and living conditions, using the advanced fidelius as the last line of defence. In their spare time they had both been working on Dumbledore's mobility.
"This all seems so surreal sometimes, the amount of power Voldemort controls, the amount of power Harry does, the war, everything. I just wonder how this all got so far" Tonks said in an uncommon act of disparity.
"I know, but we have to remember that there is always a brighter future on the horizon. We have seen evil the likes of which have not been seen for hundreds of years, if ever, but we have also seen love, light, courage and the very embodiment of all we fight for. We are lucky enough to be here to witness Harry, to know him and to fight with him, not because we may someday have our names in a book, or because we feel obligated, but because he brings out the best in everyone, good or evil. We may be in the worst times of the wizarding world, but we are in them with such a shining example of hope that it is worth fighting for, worth dieing for." Dumbledore said in a voice barely above a whisper, with such emotions that his twinkling eyes shone with tears and passion. For her part Tonks looked to be much the same, her eyes tearing, smile small but speaking volumes, and for the first time in four years, her hair a shocking pink!
"He is very lucky to have someone like you looking out for him, sir" Tonks whispered.
With a smile that brightened the room and a small chuckle, the old sorcerer replied "It is I who is lucky to have Harry, my dear"
"My Lord, another one has been taken, nothing remains… it was the…" The deatheater didn't get to finish his report however, just hearing the words 'another one has been take' was enough for him.
"Cruccio" Voldemort bellowed, pointing his finger at Nott, the unfortunate deatheater who had to deliver the news. Since conquering most of Britain the dark lord had saw fit to only be in contact with the few inner circle that he trusted, and he commanded his army through them, unfortunately his inner circle was not as big or well versed in magic as it had been before potter and Dumbledore got to them. Just thinking those names fuelled the cruciatus curse more than was usual.
"AAAHHHH" Nott screamed from his place on the floor, where he was thrashing about.
"I told you not to bring me any more bad news, did I not?" Voldemort sneered in his snake like hissing.
"AAAAHHH" that was all the reply Nott could give.
"Look at you, you are pathetic, you sicken me, get out. I want information from those blood traitors when next I summon you, now go!" Voldemort screeched at Nott after he had lifted the curst.
"Master the balance changes, he grows by the day, he shall soon be here" came a quite hissing from a dark corner. To all who would look upon and listen all they would have heard was hissing, unless they were a parstletongue, like Tom Riddle or Harry Potter…
Harry awoke with a start, his scar tingling. Since being back in his body Harry had had the chance to take advantage of his scar, or more specifically the link and now he was able to view normal (for him) emotion driven dreams from Riddle, much like he had in his fifth year, only this time Riddle didn't know and Harry had control.
'So the snake can taste the magic flow? Riddle must know that the war is turning in our favour.' Harry mused to himself as he stretched. It had only been about 4 hours since he had finished off the second of the many fortresses known and unknown to him. He had found nothing of any use and as expected Ron and Ginny weren't there. The answers he had got from the mind of the deatheater however were at least useful, he didn't know where Riddle's personal stronghold was but he did know of a few others that the light side didn't know about, and they weren't that far away, meaning he could surprise them, catch them unawares. Checking his watch Harry saw he had still a few hours left before he was due to move out, but decided on leaving now seeing as how he doubted he would get anymore sleep in the knowledge that Ron and Ginny were getting information extracted from them, and he doubted it was by use of potion. With a sigh he gathered his things together and woke Tronza (who wasn't happy about it) and went on his way, this was the routine he would keep for weeks to come, search and destroy, rest and travel, this is what would keep him alive and sane for weeks to come.
"Sir, we have just received word from the muggle Prim Minister!" Remus Lupin exclaimed as he barged into the headmasters office. He was unsurprised to see Flammel seated with the headmaster, it was common sight these days for the two ancient wizards to be found in this office. They had been working hard on restoring mobility for Dumbledore for weeks now, ever since they had strengthened the wards of the castle, the defences and made living easier. Remus had no idea what they were doing however to help Albus walk again, or use his arm, but he knew that if anyone could do it, it was these two, or Harry, now there was a thought. Harry had been gone now for over a month and a half, they had received the occasional letter by way of phoenix and some of the guards claimed to have seen a Quezacotl charging the wards. The sound of someone quickly rising to their feet brought Remus back to reality.
"This is excellent news Remus, has the accuracy of this information been proven?" Dumbledore asked as he strode across the room to him.
"Yes sir, we received word by way of owl, tracked it back with a detection camera on it, it certainly looks like him, there is now magic detected in the area and he appears to have most of his ministers with him." Remus replied as he and Dumbledore with Flammel behind began walking through Hogwarts towards the planning room.
"Excellent, what did he say?" Dumbledore asked
"He has requested aid, he and his people have been working on rounding up the muggle, since Harry got back the focus has been taken off looking for them and so he has been able covertly get them, or at least locate them." Remus replied with a smile, it was truly good news that the muggle government was still operational, and better that they were now pulling together, especially faster now they had a break from the relentless attacks from the deatheater, it seemed that lately, or at least before Harry was back they had taken to a new sport: Muggle hunting. Remus wrinkled his nose in disgust thinking about what they did for fun.
"This is truly good news, we need to get specialised portkeys set up, temporary residence and storage space, we will transfer over all we can from their base of operations. This really is a move in the right direction for our side. Was that all he sent?" Dumbledore beamed, things certainly were looking up, and they all had to do with Harry Potter, had he not came back from the dead (which was the best news by far so far) then they would not have his good friend Nicolas, they would not have had contact with the muggles and they would defiantly have lost Hogwarts.
"He didn't write much in case it was intercepted, he requests a meeting with you though." Remus promptly replied.
"Of course, a meeting, now then.." Dumbledore said, before he was interrupted.
"Your walking!" someone screamed from behind.
"What!" Remus exclaimed, spinning around to see Hermione running up the corridor, then he turned to face Albus who had such a twinkle in his eyes, he thought they were charged with some sort of magic.
"Professor! When did this happen?" Hermione exclaimed, panting from her sprint up the corridor.
"We just finished when Remus came barging into my office, the muggle prime minister has come forward" Dumbledore replied, talking as if it were an everyday experience for someone who was permanently crippled to be up and walking again.
"Prime minister, yes, yes that's all well and good, but this is magnificent, how did you do it Mr. Flammel?" Hermione asked, face alight with happiness and hope for the first time since Harry had left.
"A combination of alchemy ,naturally, muggle technology and magic, it seems Mr Potters techniques for wandless magic have more uses than we expected, we were able to set up reservoirs for Albus' magic, then we added a little muggle gene therapy by way of magic, and the result is a fully functioning Albus Dumbledore, though we have had to re-create a certain stone." Flammel explained.
"You mean I've been walking through Hogwarts for the past ten minutes with you, I didn't notice! How thick can I get!" Remus asked in amazement at his own stupidity. It was such a common thing to walk with the headmaster that he hadn't even adjusted to not being able to before it was all normal again. This earned a few laughs at his expense, but it was well deserved.
"Now then, I believe we have some guests to start preparing for, if things go well, we may be able to step this war up a notch, and bring Harry back into the fold" Dumbledore said, getting back to business.
"The end is coming soon" smiled Dumbledore.
A/N: AN UPDATE!!! I've updated… it must be the first sign of the apocalypse, or I just got a new muse Bet you weren't expecting an update for this ever again ;-) hopefully updates will be more regular, I feel the need to finish this, and whilst writing this an idea for a sequel has began forming… who knows. Any who I hope you all enjoy this, I know not much happens here, it was more of a getting back into the swing of things chapter for me, the next one you'll see some deatheater hunting from Harry, some Dumbledore and Flammel action and maybe an attempted escape, who knows? Certainly not me.
Until next time,
GG
