Prince Ruairi woke up on a soft bed in unfamiliar surroundings. His most pressing concern was the way that the magic felt here, like his body was bloated and would pop at any moment. Opening his eyes he screamed and instinctively reached for his magic only for it to fail to respond. Staring into his eyes was a girl with pale silvery eyes and dirty blond hair. It looked like she had a large smile on her face, but as it was upside down to him, he wasn't sure.

The girl is the first to break the silence after he stopped screaming, "Hallo Prince Ruairi, I'm Luna. I saw you coming. I can be your anchor while you're here if you'll be mine."

A woman's voice to one side admonishes her, "Luna, you know that most people aren't Diviners, and so don't have you insight or knowledge of things that haven't happened around them. You should have introduced yourself and then let the Prince introduce himself."

"Yes Hogwarts." Ruairi notes that her voice sounds contrite but her face is anything but.

"Now Ruairi, you are our captive, or hostage if what Azaria told us is what you'd understand. Until you give me a magical oath that you will not attempt to escape, you will be denied your magic and additionally limited to the inside of this castle. Additionally, you'll need to learn the local language, we call it English. I have no idea how Luna learnt your language, but that's Diviners for you."

"Oh, that's simple." Luna interjects,

"While I may not be able to travel to his world yet, I can certainly see it, and keep my mind there. I just have to remember to pop back every few hours to catch up with what's going on here. Of course, I've only been able to do that since I became a Magi with Ginny and Dudley."

Hogwarts sounds a little flustered at the explanation, "Right, yes, well. Moving on. I am formally known as Hogwarts at this time. I have had many other names and titles in the past. Some of which you may even recognise. However, in order to avoid scaring you, I'm not going to list them.

"You are probably currently feeling like a balloon that's about to pop. That's because we're almost in what you will know as the desert. In addition to teaching you English, Luna will also be responsible for teaching you our method of accessing and controlling our magic. Once you've mastered that it should be a lot more comfortable here, and you'll also be able to join the rest of the school for classes."

A plate with various foods and meats on it appeared with a small table beside the bed.

"We'll leave you now to get accustomed to your situation, and eat. There is a bath and toilet through that door, and we have provided clothes in the wardrobe there."

A moment later he was left alone to his thoughts. He always knew this was a risk, it had been drilled into him for cycles. He just didn't expect it to be like this. Seeing no point in spiting himself to make a point to his captors, he tried the food and found it to be plain but palatable.

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Azaria looked up at the ceiling of the infirmary ruefully, Tonks was sleeping in the chair beside her and holding her hand as if she was about to disappear on her. She both wanted to laugh at how possessive she was being, and scream at the fact she was being held here. She'd recovered from worse on her own, but both healers had deemed that she needed to stay overnight. Then Tonks fluttered her eyes at her and that was it. Sighing she closed her eyes and entered her inner world. She looked around and stared up at the primordial mountain that took up one side of the scape. A deep cave open like a maw in the side of the mountain. Taking a deep breath she conjures a light and makes her way into the cave one shaky step at a time. The faint glisten of wet rocks shimmered in the darkness, her light providing a halo around her of clearly defined light. Small insects and vermin skitter away from the light, hiding from the gaze of predators, the smell of mold and slime causing her nose to twitch. After 50 paces or so, the cave opens up into a cavern as she knew it would. Turning around she examines the opening and can't see the ridge of stone or the shallow trench she was expecting. This would be where the barricade was placed along with the locking stone so that the only way past was to jump through the protections that prevented jumping. Just in case any of the slaugh were sheltering in here she cautiously made her way forward. It was irrational she knew, as nothing in this inner world would be harmful to her, however she couldn't help her fears.

Outside her inner world Azaria's magic started to respond to her fears and began cycling itself ready for battle. As Tonks was till holding her hand, her magic responded, and started cycling too. As it had before, their magic synchronised and started to flow together. Though this was the first time it had happened outside the throws of passion. Various alert charms went off and brought both healers running to her bedside and start casting diagnostic spells. Poppy was about to separate both of them when Gosling grabbed her arm.

"They're linked together, I don't know how, but if you diagnose their magic you can see it."

"I don't know those spells, the ones I do know didn't show anything, so I'll take your word for it."

"I'll teach you about them later, as well as how to interpret the results."

Back inside Azaria's inner world Tonks appeared in pitch darkness, instinctively she draws her wand and ducks down silently to one side while not casting a silencing spell on herself, the wand feeling like nothing more than a dead stick. Frowning, she tries again without her wand, and smiles when the spell takes after a little resistance. As her eyes and ears adjust to the darkness and silence, she can make out a glimmer of light and someone sobbing off to her left. Carefully stalking down the corridor towards the light and sound, she stops in awe as she rounds a bend and sees a cavern lit up like the sky as the light glistens off of crystals studded through the walls. The awe quickly wears off when her eyes find the source of the crying. Quickly rushing over to Azaria, who is kneeling on the floor with her face in her hands, Tonks crouches down in front of her before carefully taking her hands.

Azaria looks up sharply as someone takes her hands, then she launches herself into Tonks arms as she recognises her partner. This pushes Tonks off balance and they both end up on the floor, where they stay for a good 15 minutes while Azaria lets out her emotions.

"Thank you for coming." She whispers.

"You're welcome, though I have no idea where here is, or how I got here."

"This is my magic, we're in a primordial cave, where my people used to live before we discovered how to build and protect our homes. This was our sanctuary during the triple light and the triple darkness." She takes a deep shuddering breath, somehow the place feels less dangerous now that Tonks is here.

"Do you want to tell me why you were crying on the floor here?"

Azaria looks up at Tonks and meets her eyes, her own eyes damp with tears. It takes her a few false starts, but she finally manages to verbalise it.

"In my home world we don't really have winter the way that you understand it. We don't even have a solar calendar. Instead, we divide time by the cycles of our two moons. Using the calculations that they've come up with, the reason is that our solar year is over 1,000 earth years long. One day here is three and a half years there. Our home still has snow occasionally, but the big things are the triple light and the triple dark. During the approach to the triple dark, the strength of the sunlight becomes less and less. As a result the planet gets colder and colder, and the magic gets wilder. We know that we only have a couple of cycles of the smallest moon, Ghealach, before the worst is upon us. During the last half cycle the Slaugh come out of hiding and start to revel in the wild magic. They then follow the call of the magic and fight, fuck, or feed on anything and everything that has a pulse. All of our wildlife has developed to either participate in this, or to hide and sleep. From what we can tell my people gained our self-awareness in caves and valleys like this one. We used to be part of the Slaugh, and if we give in to the magic we become part of them again. But our intelligence lead us to lead the hunt. What changed is that we started sheltering in caves like these. Deep enough in the mountain that the wild magic is a barely detected aura on our senses. It took generations for our people to move from sheltering in these caves for most of the year and only coming out for the wild magic, and instead sheltering in the caves from the wild magic. But each generation that grew up here was less dependant on the wild magic than the one before, as they were kept here rather than let out where the other Slaugh could hunt them. What our ancestors found is that the less they gave in to the wild magic the easier it was to think. Once we could think clearly we could choose not to give in to the wild magic, and instead try to combat it. The problem is that even now, if we give in to the wild magic we lose ourselves, and seek to consume and fight for a mate. Those that aren't riding wild magic are the tastiest of morsels, no one is sure why, so the first thing they do is try to get at the people they know. Records on the inside of caves like this show that before we were able to barricade the entrances, we used to have those who would dip into the wild magic to defend the community. There was a skill to it, and many warriors were slain because they stepped over that line.

"When we started to move out from the mountains, our dwellings mimicked the caves in many ways. If there were hills, we'd build a burrow into it, on the plains we'd have a basement that led to caves. My clan are lucky, as we live in hills, so it's easier to hide in the dark. Those that live on the plains either live in cities or run horrible risks.

"I was young, less developed than the first year students we have here, though not by much. Due to raiding by other clans, we'd not been able to stockpile everything that we needed for the dark by the time it came around. It wasn't yet full dark, Ghealach was still a sliver of light in the sky when my uncle went out to get more supplies from the compound. It was before Lyasa was born, so at least she was spared the memory. My Uncle left it too late to go, and we could feel the magic rise as the sun set. We waited for him to return and give us the signal, but he was gone for longer and longer. Finally we heard the signal on the barricade, but it was wrong, off. His magic was wild and violent. Father was the leader of the clan then, and he had to instruct everyone away from the barricade. I remember my grandmother crying while my father restrained my uncles wife. The worst thing was how the pleading to be let in switched to anger and resentment, and then attacks on our Barricade. I also remember my father showing me the hoarfrost that was 3 inches deep during the day that day. The next day I snuck out after my father and watched as he and the other warriors in the clan had to fight my uncle. There was so much blood sprayed out over the ice, but I stayed quiet and made it back without them knowing. The memory still gives me nightmares, and I've been told that I have PTSD. But it also drove me, I was the most accomplished tracker and warrior in our clan bar none when we were attacked by the winter court.

"This cave, I visited one once you know. It was a bit like this, except there was a trench cut out of the ceiling and an offset one in the floor. A huge slab of stone as deep as my shoulders are wide, and double my arm span in width, lay on the floor to one side with the anchor stone next to it. It takes 10 Sidhe to levitate it into position, as it's taller than the cave roof and only fits if they put it in the trench in the ceiling at an angle and then slide the bottom in. The anchor stone is then placed in the other trench and prevents the base of the barrier from being moved from the other side. This cave doesn't have any of that, it doesn't have any paintings either. It is in caves like this that the Slaugh shelter during the rest of the year, those that aren't strong enough to survive outside anyway. We don't go into these caves as it's almost certain death if we do. When I realised that there were no markings in here I just collapsed and couldn't do anything."

Tonks could do nothing more than hug her tight and close, "It's ok to be scared, it's ok to be like this. And you're not going to have to face another triple dark on your own, I'll be with you every single time."

They lay like that for what seemed like hours before Azaria recovered enough to not have tears in her eyes.

Tonks kisses her before saying, "So what does a girl have to do around here to get a tour of the area?"

Azaria gives out a weak laugh, "For you, another kiss would be nice."

Tonks gives her another, longer and deeper kiss before pulling back and creating the brightest Lumos she could near the top of the cavern, "Why don't we start here, and with what you call those crystals."

"Those are wild eyes, as they reflect light like the eyes of the Slaugh in the night. They're an extremely common crystal, though only the foolhardiest warriors use them for anything. They remind too many people of times best left alone."

"What about the flying things that we can see at the ceiling?"

"Would you be surprised to find out their name translates to bat?"

Tonks laughs, and Azaria joins her now that she can clearly see the ceiling.

"What else is there here, as it seems to be a bit sparse for a magical world, even mine has more life than this. And it's just a Chameleon vine, as in only the one."

"To be honest, this is the first time I've come into this cave. I've avoided it so far and stayed in the forest outside. It's just that you were holding my hand, and I've been doing those sessions with Healer Gosling, so as I couldn't go anywhere else, I figured I'd explore in here."

"Well show me your forest then."

It was a few hours later while they were lying on the grass beside a brook filled with mountain fed water. Water that was icy cold at that. Azaria felt the faint tug of the dream opening up. Impulsively she pulls Tonks to her feet and drags her to the centre of her magic. Here was a tree that had a faint patina of frost over it, showing that it was matching the level of magic of this world.

"Tonks, do you trust me?"

"With my life."

"I want to try something, go into your own magical world but stay here."

Confused, Tonks closed her eyes and tried to do that. Azaria smiled as she watched a vine grow around her tree. Taking a deep breath she whispered "I love you Tonks." Before kissing her and letting her magic rise to the level beyond her home world.

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Harry, Hermione, and Daphne all returned to Hogwarts from Florida for the night carrying Micky Mouse merchandise and, in Hermione's case, reading a book about Disney. They were about to head to the sanctuary to get some sleep when Poppy came charging into the entrance hall.

"Oh thank Merlin you're here, Tonks and Azaria have disappeared."

"What do you mean?"

"Azaria was injured yesterday when a group of Sidhe found them by accident, so we had her under observation in the hospital wing all day. A sudden rise in her magic levels alerted us, and we found that her magic was linked to Tonks, who had been sleeping beside her. I need you to let Hogwarts and the Headmistress know."

Harry smiles, "I think you just did, give it a couple of seconds and I'm sure that Hogwarts will have Karen here."

"He's right, if I was sleeping in the library it would have been different. Now what are you three doing back here so late?"

"It was only 7pm when we left."

Hermione puts her hand over her face, "I forgot, there's a 5 hour time difference between here and the east coast of America."

Karen sighs, "Very well, go get some sleep, and maybe see if you can catch up with your school work before you head out tomorrow."

"Yes Mum." Harry says Cheekily.

Karen started to walk to the infirmary with Poppy while the three of them vanished to the Sanctuary.

"So what's happened?"

Poppy outlines what happened again, and adds additional details about what they were monitoring.

"Hogwarts, could you open a memory so that we can talk? As I'm sure you've heard all of that, and I have no idea what's happened."

A door opens in the wall beside them.

Hogwarts greets them and welcomes them into her roman villa.

"Before you say anything, I have no idea what's happened. It matches a couple of stories that I've heard, but if it's one of the things in the stories then it's far rarer than anchors. Despite

the fact that we have one full anchor and one potential anchor in the school right now, anchors were something that you'd see maybe two or three of in a generation. If it is based on those stories, then it's the precursor of the soul bond myth. Though it's not their souls that are joined, it's their magic that's intertwined. The only thing we can do is wait and see if they come back. As it stands they've either not gone far, or they're spending a lot of time getting acquainted with each other."