Chapter 11: Deep Magic
I woke again and immediately grabbed the wand and began chanting under my breath. "Accipetremmagus! Accipetremmagus!"
I heard Lily roll over from her patch of floor next to mine and 'saw' her sit up and rub her eyes. "Lyra! Lyra, it's been four days and you haven't gotten past growing a few feathers! By the time we figure out how to do this, we'll either be rescued or we'll be dead. Give it up."
"NO! I know we can do this. I don't know how or why, but it feels like we were… fated I guess to get out on our own. We just need some help. There's something, someone I've forgotten."
Lily laughed harshly. "Lyra, there's no one! We're stuck in your dungeon, locked in a cell. All of our potential help is high above us!"
"That's it! Lily I could just kiss you right now!" I said, leaping over to hug her.
Lily sighed. "Ok, what is it this time?"
"I forgot about Allison! If anyone can help us, it would be her. Let me see." Allison? I thought. Allison, can you help us? Allison appeared in front of me. She was clearer than ever and stayed longer than a few seconds. I think it had something to do with not being able to see physically. I think it also had something to do with the fact that I was 'seeing' as Lily taught me; it had become second nature.
However it happened, Allison appeared clearly in our little dungeon and Lily gasped and we both jumped to our feet.
"A- Allison?" she asked shakily.
"Wait, you can see her too?" I was surprised. Lily had tried when I first told her, but could no more talk to Allison than if she was talking to a tree.
"It's because you are touching." Wait, that was Allison!
"You- you can talk to me now?"
Her voice was as pretty as she was: light, almost sing song and clear as calm water. "As you suspected earlier, it is a combination of sensory deprivation and the Deep Magic."
"Deep Magic?"
"The way you are seeing the room right now. It's like the ultrasound of a bat, but with vibrations of magic instead of sound. You wouldn't know it, but you see a lot more clearly than Lily. The Deep Magic runs through your blood and bones, as it does occasionally with chosen witches and wizards."
"I am… so confused right now."
Allison sat down cross-legged on the floor. We copied her, me being careful to keep contact with Lily as Allison continued. "Each witch and wizard is born with a drop of the Deep Magic in them: it's where you get your power. In some, like you Lily, or your Aunt Hermione, the Deep Magic is stronger and you can perform highly advanced magic easily. But in others, like you Lyra, or Dumbledore, or even Merlin, you have more than even the splash of Deep Magic possessed by the talented ones. Your body is full of it. You become the greatest of the great, performing high above your level in everything. You also get some special power. Besides using every spell to its absolute full extent, you have a sensitivity to something else. With Merlin, he knew the character of a person with just a glance. Dumbledore could see the intricate web of people's choices and their outcomes. Seeing the future, in way. And you Lyra, you are connected to the dead. It is a hard gift to discover unless someone close to you dies and you attempt to contact them as a form of therapy."
We were both gaping at her at this point.
"What- But- How-" I was spluttering. I was being compared to the greatest wizards of all time. I was being set at a level equal to Dumbledore, easily the greatest wizard to walk the Earth in his century. And Merlin, the wizard people swore by every day, he was like me? I was like him?
"But you're a Muggle!" Lily blurted. "How do you know this?"
Allison smiled at her, looking upward. "Where I come from, knowledge is shared amongst all, and I've had a few years to learn. What else do you think we have to do for eternity but unravel the intricate depths of the human mind, magical and Muggle?"
"You don't speak like a 12 year old either," I muttered. Her words coming out of that young, innocent face was startling. It was like the mind of a Professor had been transported into a pre teen body.
"Ah yes," she grimaced a little. "Luckily there are terribly many children my own age there, so I talk mostly to adults. A lot of them lived a long time ago, so I picked up their speech. But enough explanation. You are running out of time. I need to teach you both how to access all of the Deep Magic you possess. Meditation and quiet are really the best way to tap into your reserves, but it can be done in a hurry if need be. But keep in mind," she cautioned. "This will probably take a lot more out of you than normal magic. That you do with the barest speck of what you have. The rest is connected to you mind, body, and soul and will draw on all of those to provide you with energy. You could easily burn out your energy force if you use it all the time, so this is only to be used in the case of emergencies."
We exchanged scared glances, then nodded. "This has to be done," I said. "Because I think I've finally figured out why Rookwood has us. He said it himself- we're the bait. All these people have a grudge against Harry for defeating Voldemort so long ago and what better way to lure him into a trap than to kidnap one of his children? We just made the job so much easier for him," I said bitterly. "And I'm going to do my damndest to make it hard again."
Allison grinned. "I can see why Al likes you. You have so much fire it's impossible not to. You two are going to be so cute together!" She sounded like a 12 year old for the first time and I smiled. "Now. Tapping your Deep Magic is like tapping the magic you use to see, but going deeper. It's the difference between dipping a cup into a pool and diving in head first.
"Close your eyes," she whispered. We obliged. "Breathe in… out… in… out. Deep breaths. In… out… Feel your magic surge within you. It's behind a barrier isn't it? Thin, yet strong. It's blocking you. Take the barrier down. It's part of you, you control it. Let the magic spill over, fill you, pour out into your every cell and particle of your being. It's a bright, warm feeling isn't it? Feel its power."
I did as she instructed, fumbling a bi with the barrier. I could feel it, a small, tight ball in the middle of my chest, full to the brim with silver magic, but my mind slid over its smooth walls as though it was glass. I breathed in and drew back. I breathed out and rushed forwards, slamming into my barrier and ordering it to lower. It did and the highly compressed magic it contained rushed out, filling my tired body with a delicious power fill my frame. There were aches that I had that I only noticed once the power erased them away.
I laughed out loud at the thrill and opened my eyes. My skin was glowing silver. I glanced at Lily, and saw her glowing, more faintly than me, in a pale gold. I laughed again. The idea that I couldn't perform a spell in this state was ludicrous. I said the spell I'd been repeating for days with minimal success, repeating it now with complete confidence.
"Accipetremmagus." Immediately, I transformed into a silver hawk. There was just one catch…
Allison laughed lightly as I struggled out from the pile of my clothes. "Yes, well it is still the first time you've successfully performed the spell and there are bound to be snags on such complex magic. Also, your natural defenses in your mind are preventing you from using too much of the Deep Magic and damaging yourself, so the spell wasn't totally performed." As she spoke, the fox Lily dug her way out of her own pile of clothes.
Thank you Allison I thought.
"You're welcome. Lily can hear you as well, as can anyone else you wish to communicate with. Now I want you both to stop using your Deep Magic until you really need to. I suspect you're pretty tired already and continued use will only make it worse."
With reluctance, I stuffed that wonderful power back into its barrier in my chest. Lily and I stopped glowing and all the aches came back to my body as I became very tired, though not too tired to function.
"Good luck girls. Oh, and the others are nearly here. They've found you through several long, complex spells and are coming to break you out. They'll be here in approximately… a minute and a half. Go!"
Allison vanished, but I barely noticed. The space between the bars, much too small for two 15 year old girls, was plenty big enough for a fox and a hawk.
I'll pick you up Lily, hold on. I swooped down, and carefully hooked my talons into the scruff of Lily's fox neck. I hope I'm not hurting you.
I'm fine, just go quickly!
I launched into flight, beating my wing hard to keep us both in the air. I got Lily to the window and she used her paws to launch herself out of my grip and onto the floor. She leaped quickly up the steps as I drew back to the farthest wall from the door, then shot across the room, folding my wings for a split second to shoot through the bars and then flapping quickly to keep myself from smashing into the opposite wall.
I flew to the top of the stairs where Lily was hopping and pawing at the door handle. Seeing no other option, I pointed a claw at it, briefly drawing on the Deep Magic. Alohamora!
Lyra Lily chided as we rushed down a corridor. We're not supposed to draw on our Deep Magic.
How else were we going to get out of there? Left.
She skidded left at my command, heading towards the front door. I however, continued flying straight and she called, then ran after me. Where are you going? Her toenail clicked on the marble stairs I was flying above.
Mum's still in the attic somewhere. Go out the front.
She snorted. Like hell I will! I'm not leaving you. We turned onto the second flight.
Lily I said warningly, but got no farther as a huge explosion sounded below us. Thumping feet were suddenly everywhere around us.
Stay still! Lily called. She slumped flat to the floor in an alcove, looking for all the world like an empty skin. I landed on a ledge above her and posed, wings outstretched. Several Death Eaters clomped down the stairs past us, wands out. I was so tempted to draw on my inner magic again, but restrained myself because I was already tired.
We repeated this action several times as more Death Eaters poured from everywhere to join the battle raging downstairs, but we eventually reached the seventh floor where the entrance to the attic was. There was a guard, but he looked more concerned with what was going on downstairs than what was going on in the room he was guarding. He therefore missed my mother sneaking up behind him with a heavy looking chair leg.
He never stood a chance. The heavy piece of wood connected with a solid thunk and he slumped to the ground, thoroughly unconscious. She glanced up, wiping a strand of dark hair out of her face and looked at us as if it was completely normal.
"Oh good," she said calmly. "You got my hint. Let's go."
We didn't have time to marvel at her, she charged past us and down the stairs, waving the chair leg like a maniac. We looked at each other, then quickly followed.
I LOVE your Mum!
Me too. I would have grinned if it was possible for a hawk, but unfortunately it's not.
What surprised me was that Mum took a turn on the second floor and sprinted to my room. We followed, confused, as she threw open the doors and ran to my wardrobe. "Turn back into humans," she instructed, throwing us clothes. "You can do more damage like that." She turned to my bed and crouched down, unstrapping two wands from the bottom of the frame. We both turned back and got dressed quickly, starting at her in shock.
"Um, Mum? How long have you had spare wands hidden in my room?"
She tossed us the wands in question before answering. "Draco was acting strange for a while, so I went shopping and stashed wands in several rooms in case of emergency."
"You suspected this?"
She looked at me gently. "I never told you dear, but I have a bit of Seer's blood in me. I learn to trust my instincts. I had no idea what was going on. Now come on, we're missing the battle."
She ran off again before I could point out that she was unarmed except for a chair leg. Lily and I exchanged looks, then charged after her. We sprinted as fast as we could into the melee in our entrance hall.
It was complete chaos. Our beautifully and expensively furnished hall was torn to pieces as spells flew all over. A part of one wall had collapsed and the marble floor was cracked. The furniture was either blasted to smithereens or badly gouged and ripped. I saw Aurors, all the Weasley/ Potter children, Ron, Harry, and Scorpius battling the escaped Death Eaters heatedly, our people trying to make it towards the dungeons to find us. I was about to make that unnecessary by doing something extremely stupid to save my friends.
"Lily, I have a plan, but you have to trust me. All you need to do is run for the doors and take the others with you NOW!" I pushed her and she instinctively followed my directions, disappearing into the fray. I waited five seconds to give her a decent head start, before doing the stupidest thing I've ever done in my life.
I drew all the attention to me by sticking two fingers in my mouth and letting out a piercing whistle.
"Hey, Death Idiots! We're out! You know, you guys suck at keeping watch. Maybe you should reconsider career options. Janitor might be more up your alley! I'm sure there are plenty of places that need cleaning. Azkaban perhaps?" While I was speaking, I backed slowly towards the foot of the second flight of stairs. Then I threw on the final straw. "Or you could go the same way as Voldemort and get owned by a bunch of school kids."
Just like I knew it would, that last comment infuriated every Death Eater in the room enough to break ranks and charge after me with a roar. I turned and sprinted at my fastest up the stairs. They weren't going to catch me on the stairs. It was what happened when the stair ran out that had me worried.
A/N: Review, review, review! You know you want to!