AN: Woah, 54 reviews by Thursday! That's really good! I ought to make deals with you guys more often :) Since it's the long weekend, I'll upload this now. Also, I'd like to sincerely thank:

Goldigger, PassingGirl, FSL, sirius009, markplc, AlboDraconis and DreamingRabbit for their reviews and encouragements! The story will be unraveling much faster now, so stay tuned :)

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all characters from the Harry Potter books are the intellectual property of J. K. Rowling. These stories are for pure non-profit personal enjoyment. Only the story plots and original characters are mine.

Chapter Ten

Truth Revealed

'Did you see me blow the head off of that manticore?' Asked a proud Ron as the group sat around a magical campfire, crunching on some overcooked lion meat, to Hermione's great chagrin. The group had been reluctant to eat meat off of creatures they had just defeated, for it seemed a bit inhumane. But after a whole day drinking nothing but water that they magically drew out from the earth around them, and after Celeste had almost collapsed from hunger, Harry, and the group, quickly changed their mind.

The lion had been the first in a series of progressively more magical and more dangerous creatures that popped out of these freshly layed eggs from a gigantic riddle asking chicken that punished every wrong answer by laying one aforementioned egg. The whole ordeal had been slightly mind contorting, as the group didn't know if they should laugh at the ridiculous riddle asking chicken or scream in fear at some of the creatures coming out of her eggs, such as the manticore. The fact that the chicken was carved out of stone didn't help improve the group's sanity at all. Ron had even tried to blow the chicken to pieces, only to have the statue lay ten eggs in a row in retaliation.

'Yeah, that was a pretty advanced blasting hex there, Ron. I was pretty sure we were done for back then.' Commented Harry between bites. He was too famished to pay attention to his table manners, even with Celeste and Hermione present.

'Thanks... And good thinking with that whole backdoor to the maze thing, Hermione.' Added Ron, a bit embarrassed by Harry's praise. 'Who knows how long we could have spent in that 3D maze with all those stairs and ladders had you not found that convenient passage.'

'Well…' Began Hermione shyly, not used to praise from her redheaded best friend. 'It was nothing, really. I just thought that maybe whoever built the maze would also have left a 'key under the front mat', so to speak.'

'Well, in any case, I'm really glad that you guys came with me.' Said Harry genuinely, thinking about time his friends had help him save. 'I couldn't have come this far without you.'

'I am grateful as well…' Added Celeste weakly before collapsing in a fit of coughs. She was withering away before their very eyes.

'We are glad to be of help.' Hermione offered. 'We couldn't have just left Harry in his greatest time of need, could we? (Slight pensive pause) Anyway, I wonder what's going on up there, back home… It's been a whole day…'

'Bah, what could possibly happen in a single day? Bet it's the same old boring reports back at the Order.' Said Ron dismissively, diving his oil stained face back into his food.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

You-Know-Who Seizes Eastern Europe in a Single Night!

In a single night, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named sent out an army of strange creatures, mainly comprised of undead bodies, and seized most of the major countries in Eastern Europe. It is not known at this time where the dark lord found such an army, or how he was able to move it into position without being detected. However, the results cannot be denied, as most east-European nations' ministries of magic have undergone a minister change overnight, and now swear allegiance to the dark lord.

Unconfirmed reports indicate that the dark lord's armies are now advancing toward Western Europe. Various ministries on the continent are trying to coordinate their defenses as we speak.

'Why us? How come he didn't invade you guys first?' A German ministry official was quoted as yelling on an over-the-floo interview with one of our journalists. The British ministry currently is at a loss to answer that question.

'We're just lucky You-Know-Who seems to be keeping all his conquering the world business within the magical community right now.' Remarked a British ministry official at the now hectic ministry building. 'Who knows what kind of chaos we'd have to deal with had he started causing mayhem with muggles as well?'

It is indeed strange that the dark lord have not brought war upon the muggle population, as the hate of muggles and muggleborn wizards or witches is the most fundamental of the dark lord's purity oriented philosophies. A reliable source within the newly swelled ranks of the dark lord's minions had informed us, on condition of anonymity, that the dark lord plans to consolidate power within the magical world first before striking decisively against those 'disgusting muggles'. Our source further advised that it is probably best for 'all those filthy -censored- to seek refuge with their -censored- muggle relatives if they wish to live long enough to see the dark lord purge the world of muggles'.

With the recent passing of the Boy-Who-Lived, one wonders if there is anyone left to oppose the dark lord and his forces, as our ministry has already become highly disorganized for a country that has yet to be invaded. Can our beloved headmaster of Hogwarts, the famed Albus Dumbledore, rise to the challenge, and rid the world of another dark lord?

For a list of countries now under You-Know-Who's control, see p. D7

For pictures and illustrations of the creatures in the dark lord's army, see p. E12

For comments and musings on the strange change in You-Know-Who's behavior as of late, see p. E14

For an in-depth analysis of the war and its possible outcomes, see p. F1-15

For a list of popular doomsday sayings and one-liners to proclaim the end of the world, see p. Z99

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Charlie Weasley, along with seven of his fellow dragon handlers, were among a rare group of brave wizards and witches that volunteered into the hastily assembled militia that was supposed to augment the auror forces defending Germany's ministry of magic's building. Of course, by the time the militia organized themselves into a passably coordinated force and arrived at the ministry, there were no aurors left to play a supporting role to. To further their bad luck, Charlie and friends had portkeyed straight in front of one of the giant suits of armor, seemingly held together by a mere cloud of black mist, twin glowing green orbs where the eyes should be the mist's only distinctive feature.

His rusty seeker skills stretched to the max, Charlie barely had time to throw himself on the ground as the giant armor's sword swept past him. Luckily, he, as his small team's leader (thus standing in front), had been the only one within range of the weapon. The rest of his team wasted no time in sending a huge number of curses and jinxes of various sorts at the metallic/misty hulk, with the coordinated efficiency of years of working together to subdue gigantic dragons. To their horror, all of their spells bounced harmlessly off of the armor, and those that hit the misty substance vanished without any apparent effect.

Charlie, no longer facing the business end of a twelve feet long sword, tried a strong wind charm against the suit of armor, hoping to blow the mist away. It seemed to have worked slightly, as the black mist shifted in the wind, and the suit of armor slowed down its attacks.

'Everyone! Cast the strongest wind charm you know, on three!' Commanded Charlie. 'One, two, three!'

And as one, eight wind spells were cast, unleashing a torrent of air current upon the misty warrior. The combined power of the eight wizards blew the black mist away from its suit of armor, which promptly crumbled to the ground, having lost the substance that seemed to sustain and animate it. Charlie and friends slowly turned their attention toward the larger battle around them, and lost what little hope they had gained from their defeat of the hulking armor.

Though the masses of undead creatures were falling like paper dolls against the fire spells of the militia, their seemingly never-ending number was exhausting even the hardiest of them. It was obvious by now that this battle was lost.

Charlie had barely finished ordering his team to gather around him and portkey back to safety when the unmistakable sounds of clinking metal armor were heard behind him. Turning his head back, he saw, to his amazement and great dismay, that the suit of armor his team had defeated only moments ago was now reassembling itself, the black mist having seemingly returned to reclaim its physical shell. Noticing that all of his team was accounted for and touching the portkey he was holding, Charlie promptly spoke the activation word.

Not a moment too soon, as a giant sword swept through the empty air where the entire team had been a fraction of a second earlier.

Doing its best imitation of a shrug, the black mist and its giant suit of armor moved swiftly toward the now flaming building of the German ministry of magic.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

'So, what are we going to do, Albus?' Asked a nervous Minerva McGonagall as she put down the Daily Prophet, hands still trembling. 'Do we even know where he kept such a large army? He couldn't have possibly conjured them up in one night, could he? He can't be that powerful… Nobody is…'

'Calm down, Minerva.' Said Dumbledore soothingly. 'He is not that powerful. I suspect he kept all of his forces in the vast underground network that now lays beneath Azkaban, as Severus has told us before he was incapacitated. And Charlie has just informed me about this portal that he had seen, which explains how Voldemort was able to deploy such a slow and noticeable army so fast and without our knowledge.'

'So what are we going to do about it?' Asked an eager Tonks, who just walked into the kitchen and caught the tail end of Dumbledore's musings.

'Patience, Nymphadora. Let us wait until everyone is assembled.' Offered the headmaster, oblivious to the death-glare the young auror was giving him upon hearing her first name.

Before long, most of the Order of the Phoenix were assembled in the kitchen of number twelve Grimmauld Place. All have heard of the fall of Eastern Europe, and some, like Charlie, had first hand experience in the matter. Suffice to say that the chatter noise in the room was far above normal.

After Dumbledore called the meeting to order, which took longer than usual, he started with the obligatory speech, which contained little new information than what was already known.

'Albus! In a time like this, I think it is even more imperative that we find the children and return them here, for safety!' Molly Weasley practically shouted seconds after Dumbledore had finished his starting announcement.

'Molly! Though the matter is of high importance to us, we have far more pressing matters to attend to at the present. All magical scans and tracings we've conducted indicate that Ron and Hermione were fine and healthy when they disappeared from that street corner. I think we…'

'What do you mean, more pressing matters? What can possibly be more pressing than saving the lives of two innocent children?' Molly cut Dumbledore off, obviously venting an entire day of pent up worries and frustrations.

'We need to coordinate evacuation efforts and try to stop, or at least stall, the dark lord's army's advance. This could potentially save hundreds, maybe thousands, of lives, many of them children.' Retorted Dumbledore with assertiveness.

'But…' Molly stuttered, not sure what to say against that.

'Molly, let us give Ms. Granger and young Mr. Weasley the benefit of the doubt for now. They told us that their little escapade would not require more than a few days. We shall go look for them in earnest should we be still without news of them two days from now.' Dumbledore offered to placate the redhead woman.

'Oh… thank… you Albus… I am sorry for my outburst… It's just that, with Harry only so recently… gone… I couldn't bare to lose…'

'It's quite understandable, Molly.' Said Dumbledore calmly but dismissively. 'Now perhaps we should focus on how best to help our allies on the continent. I have received an urgent request for aid from my counterpart at Beauxbatons Academy. Madame Maxime is asking us to help evacuate as many of the muggleborn students and their families as possible to Hogwarts in provision to the eminent invasion that the French ministry of magic is facing from the East.'

'I believe that me and Hagrid can help with that', offered Remus politely. 'Seeing as how Hagrid is already at Beauxbatons anyway, and French people are less sensitive to werewolves than people here.'

'Thank you, Remus. I was hoping you'd volunteer, as you are far better than the most of us when it comes to helping organize operations of this scale.' Dumbledore offered sincerely, knowing that the werewolf was the most meticulous and well-organized person in the room.

'Next, we should concentrate our efforts in devising a clear strategy to stop, or at least stall, Voldemort's army. As you all know, that army far outnumbers our ranks, or even the ranks of the entire British auror corps, for that matter. What we need is something clever that exploits the army's weaknesses.' Dumbledore declared with a small twinkle in his eyes. 'You've all read reports on what the dark lord's army consists of, but I think we could all benefit from a first hand account in this matter. Charlie?'

Charlie, having not received this kind of attention since his seeker days at Hogwarts, was slightly shy at first, but quickly grew comfortable as he detailed his run-ins with the dark lord's forces. By the end of his account, most in the room wore identical looks of defeat in their eyes.

'Charlie's strategy against these suits of armor was sound.' The voice of Dumbledore brought everyone out of his or her personal contemplations. 'I believe we can achieve a more permanent effect if we simply take care of this mist creature once it is blown out of its protective shell.'

'But how, Albus?' Asked Minerva. 'Charlie just said that the spells they hit the mist with were simply absorbed!'

'Ah, true, true, my dear Minerva. But think about it. How would one usually get rid of fog?'

'Well, here, in London, we just wait until either the sun vaporize the fog away, or wait until the rain comes down and condenses what's left of the fog.'

'Precisely!' Dumbledore exclaimed. 'I suspect that, since the mist creature seemed affected by wind just as normal mist would have been, we can also assume that heat or cold would have the same effect on the creatures as they would on normal mist.'

'So you're saying we can vaporize the mist creatures with heat?' Asked an incredulous Charlie, who was cursing himself for not thinking of this during the battle.

'Perhaps. There is no way to know until we try it.' Dumbledore said cautiously.

'Well, this is easy. Since we are using fire spells against those zombies already, we can simply use fire on those giant armor suits as well.' Cried someone in the back of the room.

'Indeed. Charlie, Alastor, please assemble a team to test out this theory as soon as possible.' Dumbledore directed. 'Last I heard, part of Voldemort's army is headed for Austria; you may wish to conduct your tests there.'

'And what of the zombies themselves? I heard there was even a few sharks crawling in that undead army!' Yelled someone else in the back of the room.

'I suspect that Voldemort animated these corpses weeks, if not months in advance, on Azkaban. It is fortunate that his powers does not yet allow him to reanimate corpses on the spot, or we might be forced to face our very own comrades on the battlefield as soon as they fall…' Dumbledore trailed off a bit. 'In any case. The most potent magic against such creatures would be holy magic, or those of very pure intent, such as the Patronus Charm. But fire spells are usually fairly effective as well. Those of us who…'

And the meeting continued long into the night.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

'Where are we now?' Asked a very tired Harry as he stared at the sight before him.

They seemed to be on the shore of a giant lake, or sea, for he could not see any land on the other side. The ceiling stretched beyond the limit of their vision, and a bright, sunlike light, shone down on them from miles and miles above. Despite the generous light source, Harry and friends could not see the ceiling, though fluffy white clouds and even a few seabird like creatures arched across the 'sky' above. Had they not already known, they would never have suspected that this magnificent place was located twenty-five miles beneath the earth.

Glancing at the vast body of water before him, Harry immediately saw a small island, situated about half a mile from the shore. The island was of the strangest shape he'd ever seen. It was almost cylindrical in nature, looking as if someone planted a giant, round stick in the middle of the water. The wall of the cylindrical mountain appeared to be incredibly smooth. Not very good for climbing, thought Harry. And there, at the top of the island, sat the unmistakable form of a medieval castle.

'I think this is the final step. According to my cousin, that castle is where Merlin's portrait is located.' The genie offered helpfully. He seemed to have mellowed out considerably since the start of this strange journey, perhaps because none in the group ever laughed at his satiric remarks. The entire group was now also far battle-hardened than they had been at the start, as they've been forced to brave through hellish traps that would make all but the hardiest wizards tremble in fear, flee from heavenly temptations that would have impeded many a greedy dark lord, not to mention deal with magical guardians that Hermione hadn't even read about, and even duel with mirror images of themselves that could read their every move. All in all, it had been a 'near-fatal but truly eye-opening experience', as Hermione had put it.

'Hmm… I see no boat, and I doubt we can climb that island's wall once we get there anyway.' Commented Harry as he looked up and down the shoreline. 'Why don't I fly us all to the island there? I still have the broom…' Trailed Harry as he eagerly brandished the now almost twig-less broom in front of his three companions.

'Err…' Hermione started, not confident at all about the mangled broom's qualifications as a dust-sweeping device, and even less about its ability to fly properly.

Beside her, Celeste suddenly started another fit of coughs. When she withdrew her hands, which she had used to cover her mouth, generous amounts of blood could be seen dripping from them.

'Celeste!' Harry cried in concern. They have come too far to fail her now. 'Listen, Ron, Hermione! I'm going to fly Celeste and myself up there. We'll try to find Merlin's portrait and get her cured as soon as possible. I will come and get you guys after. Ok?'

'Of course mate! Go save the girl!' Said Ron enthusiastically before Hermione could object. The prospect of waiting on the sidelines, worrying her heart out about Harry and the success of their small mission, didn't exactly appeal to Hermione. Still, she supposed that there is no other choice. At least Ron will be here to keep me company, thought Hermione. And for some reason, the idea of having a giant argument with Ron suddenly popped up in her head; she smiled.

'Well, take care!' Harry waved as he took off, Celeste securely cradled in his arms in front of him, with the genie's bottle strapped into one of his shirt pockets.

'Err? They… were all ready and just left? Did I space out or something?' Hermione asked.

'Well, I would think that was obvious…' Ron offered.

Hermione let the little jab slide for now, as the two best friends followed Harry's diminishing shape across the sky.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Well, this seems easy, thought Harry as he made his way toward the island's castle. Even from this distance, he could glimpse a giant portrait through the open windows of the stone keep.

'Watch out!' The genie warned, pulling Harry out of his blind focus on the portrait. Harry instinctively jerked his broom left, in a classic bludger-dodging maneuver. A seabird zipped right through the space he had been a fraction of a second earlier, its wings clipping his gray cloak… and slicing cleanly through the fabric like a razor sharp blade. Looking at the bird more carefully, Harry discovered to his horror that it was not a bird at all! But a metallic contraption best described as two short swords melted together in a 'V' pattern. The contraption was, of course, magically charmed to fly.

Glancing around quickly, Harry noticed that all the flying 'birds' and clouds have now converged on his position. And, was it just him, or was the sky darkening by the second? Looking up, Harry could no longer see the sunlike light that radiated comfort and serenity. Instead, he was confronted with a black cover of clouds that seemed forbiddingly gloomy and promising ill news for all those unfortunate enough to be caught under them.

'Uh-oh…' Harry said, a bit discouraged.

'Cast a quick shield over yourself, now!' The genie urged.

Harry didn't need to be told twice. As fast as his lips could move, he cast three powerful shields over himself and Celeste, one against physical attacks, one against magical attacks, and the third one against both in case the first two failed. It seemed to have worked, as the 'birds' can no longer harm him for the time being, and the giant bolts of lightning from the sky crashed more or less harmlessly against his shield, with the only visible effect of making Harry's hair stand on end.

And then, it started to rain.

'Acid! Wow… this is some pretty good magic.' The genie commented.

Harry was far less inclined to praise the magic that was now raining melting liquid upon him. His shields were absorbing all the damage, for now. As a consequence of the strain put on his shielding, the spherical and invisible bubbles of protection around him grew smaller and smaller, and parts of his broom was now exposed to the rain. Harry silently urged the broom to go faster, speeding with all the power he could muster toward the top of the island…

And he would have made it too, had it not been for the mile high sea snake like head that suddenly popped out of the water surface and threatened to swallow him and Celeste whole. Harry swiftly veered away from the creature, which contented itself with spraying him with some sort of digestive fluid instead, further shrinking his already strained shielding.

'Is this it?' Harry yelled out to no one in particular as he clung to his rapidly melting broom. 'No! I will not let Celeste die! I will not fail another time!'

But words alone could not save him, as he and Celeste (and the genie, who, strangely, choose to remain silent) dropped toward the acid laced lake, where more of the giant sea snake heads awaited them.

Harry decided to serenely hold on to Celeste, and whisper his apologies for failing her during the precious few moments between the start and end of his fall. He had closed his eyes in shame, for he was truly mortified to have failed her so miserably.

Suddenly, the sound of torn fabric reached his ears, and, opening his eyes, Harry saw a shimmering light brightly blinding him before disappearing in a burst magic, to be replaced by, as far as his half-blinded eyes could tell, a giant mass of darkened silver.

And then, he was ascending again. Looking incomprehensibly around him, he could only make out, through the haziness of his still unrecovered eyes, more mass of silver surrounding him. Suddenly a bright torrent of blue lightning rushed away from him, hitting the form of the giant sea snake that had blocked his flight earlier dead on, zapping it into unconsciousness. And then, with possibly the worst landing in Harry's memory, he crashed onto the island's top surface.

Harry quickly rolled down from the hunk of silver that had carried him to the island, his eyesight having returned to him some time during the 'landing'. Glancing back, he was astonished to see a monstrous silver dragon spreading its magnificent wings before him. The silvery beast, its shinny, reflective skin oddly dark in the now clearing skies, was easily three times as tall as the largest dragon Harry had seen in his life-time. Looking up, Harry was surprised to see the dragon's crystal blue eyes staring straight back into his own emerald green ones, with something akin to pleading. As if it had been waiting for their gaze to lock all along, the resplendently argent dragon gracefully folded its wings back and, with a whimpering howl, collapsed onto the ground, shimmering into light as it did so. When Harry's eyes could see again, the naked and familiar figure of Celeste layed on the spot where the dragon had been.

'So, you finally get to find out, eh?' Came the annoying voice of the genie somewhere in Harry's back as he stood there, too shocked for words.

AN: Please REVIEW! And answer questions like: Did any of you see that one coming? Was the whole 'dungeon crawling' part of the journey too short? Do you guys feel like Harry's too weak (compared to other fics out there)? And is the character of Celeste still believable?

I did a bit of foreshadowing from the start, but I guess the best clues were in the last chapter. Anyhow, I'm in uncharted waters, and would very much appreciate your opinion on what you think of this story.