A/N: This chapter has not been checked for any spelling/grammatical errors. I apologize if you encounter them while reading.
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Harry apparated over at the outskirts of Montignac Village and looked around. The placed matched its pictures which he'd seen in the book he'd read about the Lascaux cave systems. Using a simple 'point me' charm he headed for the cave's entrance.
There were quite some people on the outside of the caves seeing how famous this spot was making sure to cast a 'notice-me-not' charm Harry walked ahead inside the cave.
It was surprisingly bright in there considering it was a cave and after walking further in he began seeing the wall drawings these caves were famous for. He looked at them, wondering why the book would send him here. He'd brought the book along with himself just in case it gave him another clue or instruction as to what he was looking for here but so far the book hadn't given him anything.
So he decided to just walk further in and hopefully he will catch something that was probably the reason why the book had sent him here. As he wandered around, looking at the paintings on the cave walls he sensed a magical presence and looked around. Someone magical was present among others within this cave, someone other than him. When he'd first arrived here only he was the magical person but now there was someone else.
Focusing on is senses he finally caught the magical presence of the other person. Knowing his notice-me-not charm would probably be caught through by this stranger Harry hid himself behind one of the many crevices inside the cave and covered himself with the invisibility cloak before following the magical signature he felt from this person.
A few minutes later he was separated from the others but the magical signature he sensed only grew stronger. Also, he even felt a few more magical presences up ahead and their numbers only increased. Cautious, he made sure he had his wand within reach if anything happened when he walked up to a barrier. It was a simple muggle repellent charm barricading a smaller entrance to a deeper cave and from the inside Harry could feel many magical signatures.
Passing through the barrier he walked ahead when the book within his pocket glowed. He quickly pulled it out and opened it. There was nothing written in it nor did the book say anything. Its glow had also died down but it wouldn't have glowed in the first place for nothing. Harry figured that the book wanted to tell him that he was in the right place and so he walked in further deep into the cave.
He kept walking for about twenty minutes. The pathway was straight but with a little bit of slope and with the change in temperature that he felt Harry knew he must be descending deeper underground rather than going straight or towards upper levels because he had the same experience in temperature change whenever he visited his vault at Gringotts.
Sometimes later he began hearing voices. There were people up ahead and a good number of them, it seemed. Once again he made sure that his wand was within reach if he'd ever need it before he continued in and then came into a rather large open space deep within that cave.
Harry looked around and saw the place channeled into many smaller caves in all direction and the place he was in was sort of like a meeting point for all those caves. It was a very huge underground opening with extremely high cave ceiling as he looked up. Every inch of the cave walls were covered with hand-drawn paintings of animals, magical creatures, people and other things but the one thing that made these paintings different from the ones Harry had seen outside of this muggle-prohibited zone was that these drawings moved, just like the portraits back at Hogwarts and his manor.
Some people looked at him as he walked in further before they went back to doing whatever they were but Harry could feel something was not right. He kept looking at the drawings on the walls. There was nothing special about them except that they moved and tell a story like any other drawing in these caves.
Harry walked around, wondering why the book wanted him here when his eyes fell on something. It was a wall drawing of what looked like a giant monstrous snake. It was snapping at some people who were trying to defend themselves from it using spears and sticks which Harry later realized were actually wands, even the spears. He looked at the snake's drawing and while being drawn very simple it did contain some of the features Harry immediately recognized were what Selandra had.
Harry's surprise knew no bounds when he realized what this place was as he looked around and saw many other drawings and in each of them there were one or more divine beasts. He also found a few of them to be burnt or smudged wondering why anyone would do that. A man came and stood beside him, looking at the same drawing he was looking at as Harry turned and looked at him.
"Excuse me," he said looking at the man, "why are some of these drawings smudged and burnt?"
The man looked at him. "Because they contain drawings of a being of whom people of that time were very afraid of," he said. "From the looks of it I think this is your first time here but you seem to know what most of these drawings are about, don't you."
Harry looked at him before smiling. "I don't know what you're talking about," he said before turning around to walk away.
"You know what the divine beasts are," the man said causing Harry to stop. He didn't turn to face him but kept standing there. "While this place is magically kept hidden from the non-magicals even the magicals cannot find this place if they don't know about the divine beasts or have no idea as to what they are. Those who know are the only ones who can find this place, far less enter it."
Harry turned around and looked at him. The man smiled. "It seems you do know what they are," the man said.
"It's the Yayu, isn't it?" Harry asked. "The burnt and smudged drawings on these walls are of the Yayu. Who are you people?"
"We are like you," the man said. "We know about the existence of the divine beasts, who and what they are and what they mean for this world."
"If you do know that then I assume you also know about him?" Harry asked.
The man nodded, his smile replaced by a grim look. "We all sensed his presence when he was first partially revived," he said.
"Can you help us?" Harry asked.
"There's no one who can take him down, Mr Potter," the man said.
"How...How did you know my name?" Harry asked his senses at full alert for any danger as he quickly and discreetly looked around.
"You don't have to be on your guard when you are in here," the man said. "My name is Noah and I can assure you that no single person in here is a threat to you. The reason why we know your name is because we know that you would be coming here today."
Harry blinked. "How?" he asked.
"I suppose the book inside your pocket didn't tell you that?" Noah said.
Harry felt like the ground beneath his feet had disappeared as he looked at the man. "You…you sent the book to me?" he asked.
Noah smiled. "We didn't," he said, "but we do know who sent it to you. Unfortunately now is not the time that you can know of his identity as that would endanger everything. What you do need to know…for now is that you all will fail. We have been keeping tabs on you and everyone else who knows about the divine beasts and the impending danger that is upon us and believe me when I tell you that nothing you do will work against him."
"You never answered my question," Harry said. "Who are you people?"
The man smiled as the others all gathered around him and Harry who looked at them with full alert, his wand now in his hand as he didn't care how they would respond to that. "We are the descendants of one particular person who said a prophecy about you," Noah said.
Harry's eyes widened with surprise as he realized who Noah was talking about. "You…You all are descendants of Ask?" he asked.
"We are indeed," Noah said with a nod when he stopped and seemed to have been alerted about something. "He's here," he said.
"Who?" Harry asked.
"I am sorry, Mr Potter but you will have to come with us," Noah said.
"Wait a minute," Harry said. "What is going on?" He was on full defense mode.
"The book sent you here to meet us," Noah said. "We were told that you would be coming. Trust me when I tell you to come with us before it's too late!"
Suddenly the ceiling collapsed out of nowhere as people ran around, trying to protect themselves from tons of falling rocks. Some stood their ground, effortlessly stopping the debri from falling on to anyone when screams were head.
"What is going on?" Harry asked.
"He's here," Noah said. "Hurry, Mr Potter. He knows you are here. If he gets his hands on you then everything is lost!"
"Who's here?" Harry asked when the debri being held by a handful of people was forcefully dropped on them. Harry moved the ones out of his way before they could fall on top of him as did Noah.
The entire place got filled up with dust from the falling debri and visibility was dropped to almost nothing. With no windows or openings for the debri dust to escape through quickly it became hard to clear them away as the remaining people who were alive or conscious were heard coughing and gasping for cleaner air.
Harry immediately had cast a bubble-head charm around him to protect himself from breathing into the dust. His senses were on alert feeling for anything around him when he felt something as he dropped on his knees. Then the pain started as Harry gasped, unable to bear it as he let out a gut wrenching scream, his wand falling from his hand as he dropped on the ground. He tried to focus but couldn't as he pain was too much. He could hear some people shouting and even heard his name being called once or twice but he was in too much pain to care about any of those.
Realizing he could pass out any moment he tried to summon his wand to cast a proper enervation charm on himself so as to stay awake. He couldn't cast such a charm wandlessly but unfortunately the dust and zero visibility from it was making it all difficult for him. To summon something one needed to know that object's general direction. Harry didn't know which direction his wand had fallen so he kept summoning for it on his left, right, front and back but it never came to him.
Suddenly the pain he was feeling stopped all at once as he felt a powerful impact of what he guessed was a wall of air as he was thrown off of his feet and hit the cave all behind him. He shouted in pain, feeling at least two of his vertebrae and a couple ribs of his break from the impact as he slumped on the ground, unmoving.
The dust in front of him cleared as a man appeared in front of him, looking down at him with a smile on his face. "How are you doing, friend?" the man said when a spell came and connected with him from his left and exploded.
The spell wasn't meant to do any harm to the man. No spell could. This spell was meant as a distraction as once exploded the spell covered the man with a thick mist, zeroing down his visibility. Then the ground beneath him shot up, taking him with it but before it could move any further it crumbled as the man gracefully landed on his feet and sighed. "Looks like we're going to have to do it your way…Ask," the man said looking where Harry was a moment ago.
He was gone.
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Thanks for reading…
