Chapter 3
The second thing Harry noticed as he walked through the run-down museum was that he couldn't remember how he got there. The slight fogginess of being woken up after a Stupefy gave some indication to the likely scenario, but he was still trying to figure out who, and more importantly, how.
The first thing he noticed was that he didn't have his wand.
This could either be very bad, or worse.
Torches were lit on the walls of the museum, trying their best to keep the darkness at bay, but even they were unsuccessful at holding back the chill in the air. The air was stale and dusty, and Harry's nose was stuffy within moments. Bubble-head charm was far too intricate a spell to be cast wandless, and he also needed to preserve his magic for the inevitable fight that was sure to happen.
His wrists were shackled behind his back, but they were naught but a nuisance to him. The bigger problem was actually the chill that was slowly increasing in its intensity. He was already feeling it in his bones, and that wasn't any good. Fighting back against his chattering teeth, he kept following the trail of the torches, hoping it lead to some answers.
Another 5 minutes of agony later, he reached a gateway with two giant wooden doors wide open, the intent clear. The other side of the gateway was pitch black. He looked back, and saw that the torches had extinguished themselves. He sighed and walked through the door.
"Welcome!" a gentle but deadly voice boomed inside of the large hall. At least, that is what Harry judged based on the acoustics of the place. "Welcome," the voice continued, speaking as if from all directions at once, "the fellow Seeker of Truth."
"Oh, it is going to be one of those days," Harry whispered under his breath.
"Indeed," the voice responded, as if Harry had been talking to him. "It is not every day that humans are given the privilege of Learning the Truth."
"Please, just, stop," Harry groaned. "I would rather you kill me than continue this nonsense."
"But of course, if we wanted you dead, you wouldn't be walking, dear Harry Potter. But death is the path of ignorance." Harry could hear the sneer in the voice. "We would much rather rejoice in our Life and Knowledge."
Harry sighed again. The cold was making him twitchy, it would be much harder for him to cast spells wandlessly. The darkness was absolute, all he could figure out was that the museum was made primarily of stone, which really wasn't relevant at all.
"Fine, what do I need to do?" Harry asked. Best to let the damn voice continue his story.
"Let go of your anger," Harry could tell that the voice was trying to be calming, but it only grated on his nerves more. "Find peace within your heart."
"I would be much more inclined to do that if my hands weren't tied up."
"Precautions, it couldn't be avoided," for a moment Harry heard genuine sadness in the voice, surprising him.
"Who are you?" he asked. Bad guys always loved an attentive audience for some reason.
"I am."
"Huh?"
"I exist, and so I am. Why would I need a name? I am no different from anyone else, I am but a vessel. I exist to spread Knowledge, Wisdom, and Peace."
Harry was starting to feel a headache growing. "What are you, then?"
"I am a Seeker of Truth, much like you. The Truth that is Eternal, the Truth that is Wise."
"Well, I am the Seeker for a round, golden and shiny 'Truth' that's sold for a galleon a piece down at the Quality Quidditch stores, so I guess that works out."
"Mocking me will serve you no purpose, it will only delay the inevitable. And judging by your shivering legs, you shouldn't really be trying to delay, now should you?"
Harry smirked internally, that had managed to annoy the voice.
"Fine, yes, I would much rather not hear your annoying voice any longer. What do you need me to do?"
"Swear a Magical Oath."
Harry laughed. "Wait… you're serious," he spoke when the voice stayed silent.
"Yes. If you don't wish to die in this cold, swear an Oath."
"Do you… know me?"
"Harry James Potter, age 21, resident Quidditch instructor at Hogwarts…"
"Yes, yes, stop." Nothing that wasn't public information. Looked like his captors hadn't really done their research.
His teeth had started chattering. He assumed that his shackles had magic-restricting runes etched into them, so a simple wandless Alohomora wouldn't work. It would likely alert them about his wandless casting capabilities.
He would have to play the waiting game for now. Worst case, he could summon the Elder Wand, but he really didn't really want it to come down to that.
"You know I would rather die than cater to your whims, yes?" Harry asked aloud.
"It would be unfortunate," Harry could hear no sadness in the voice, "but we would understand. Not everyone can understand the Truth."
"Fine, tell me the words of the Oath you want me to swear."
There was a moment's pause, and then fiery letters started forming in the dark. Harry had to squint his eyes as they adjusted to the sudden light in the room.
I shall surrender all my knowledge, strength, wealth, and freedom to further the cause of the Truth. I shall forever dedicate my life to spread the Truth all over the world. I shall surrender all my magic to give strength to the Truth, so I swear.
The Oath made Harry somber up. Most of the people in this cult were unwilling victims. Furthermore, he could never tell who had entered it willingly or unwillingly. This had suddenly gotten a lot more complicated.
He tried looking around in the light of the letters, but it only barely illuminated the stone floor.
The cold was becoming more unbearable every second.
"Why should I trust an anonymous voice?" he challenged. "If you couldn't even be brave enough to face me yourself, Why should I believe you?"
"There is no need for you to believe me, child."
Harry drew another ragged breath. He had no choice. He mentally willed the Ender Wand into his hands.
… kill, slaughter, destroy…
He mentally shut out the whispers from the Wand.
The cuffs broke with a definitive snap.
"What—"
But Harry was too busy chanting. "Expecto Patronum!"
The magnificent stag emerged out of the wand, lighting up the large hall. Harry quickly looked around. He saw a hooded figure pointing their wand at the fiery letters.
"Stop!" The voice shouted, but Harry was already running towards the wand-bearer.
"Stupefy!"
The figure dropped to the floor, their wand clattering on the stone floor.
The Oath floating in the air vanished.
Harry finally breathed a sigh. "Well… there's that, I suppose."
"Oh you stupid, dangerous child," the voice spoke again.
"What?" Harry looked around, he had thought that the hooded figure was the source of the voice.
"This… complicates matters. Harry Potter, why must you do this."
"What, you expected me to just say 'yeah sure I will give up my freedom' because you asked nicely?"
"I had hoped that."
The ground started shaking under his feet. Stone screeched on stone all around the room, and Harry could sense some sort of machinery at work.
"I had hoped, Harry Potter. It is truly a shame that your life ends in such tragedy."
And suddenly, Harry heard a voice inside his head that he hadn't heard in a long time.
Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!
He watched as the walls slowly descended into the floor, exposing his biggest fear.
A horde of Dementors drifting towards him ever so slowly.
The voices from the wand returned with a vengeance.
… burn, slaughter, kill…
Stand aside, you silly girl!
… must, destroy, annihilate…
Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead!
… carnage, destruction, mayhem...
Avada Kedavra!
Harry collapsed on the stone floor as the Dementors drifted ever closer.
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Natasha Romanoff, one of the deadliest canons in SHIELD's arsenal, was currently on a mission in the Sahara Desert.
Specifically, in the City of Timbuktu.
They had received reports from the area about some unnatural coldness around the town. Three reports also talked about the feeling of bone-chilling despair they had felt when they had ventured near some old ruins.
And those three reports were from people who had been smart enough to turn around and walk away from the ruins; the fate of those who had actually ventured inside the ruins was completely unknown.
Fresh out of her forced vacation, Natasha had been eager to take the job. Her primary objective was recon, saving anyone inside the ruins was to be a secondary objective. Intel, she knew, was oftentimes much more important than any human lives.
And so she walked down the dusty path, disguised in civilian clothes, towards the ruins. She had started feeling the effect of the cold 2 miles away from the ruins. The cold only grew as she walked, the harsh sunlight of the Sahara doing nothing to prevent her shivers.
Only yesterday she had been enjoying the beaches of Hawaii…
She sighed but kept trudging onwards. He clothes blended with the sand around her, camouflaging her to an extent against any enemy snipers. She had, of course, requested for recon, and the satellite images and various drone footage captured around the ruins couldn't spot a single human around the area. But she adhered to the old adage, 'trust, but verify'.
Her hand-bag held a gas mask and a small cylinder of oxygen, just in case this was due to a chemical leak.
Soon she was near the broken gates of the ruins, actively shivering under her disguise. Her hands found comfort by holding onto the SHIELD upgraded pistols.
She stepped inside the dark interior. And instantly stopped. Two guards stood near a door, their stance unnaturally alert. The slow rising and falling of their chests was the only indication that they were even alive.
Natasha jumped out of the darkness, making new plans on the fly. She identified the guard on the right as Isam Shah, one of the civilians who had been missing in the area.
Is it the mind control again?
Swapping out the pistols for a couple of knives from her bag, she moved to the side of the rocky ruins and punched the knife into the wall. It sunk in smoothly, pulling down on the knife showed her that it were stuck. Perfect.
Stabbing the two knives alternatively and stepping on them like a make-shift ladder, she started climbing up the high wall.
Just as she was about to haul herself onto the roof, she felt a strong wave of cold and dizziness, and almost stumbled, but managed to catch herself.
She saw a glass dome ahead of her, the glass stained almost completely black. Feeling the coldness almost radiating from the dome, she ran hard, her parkour training was paying off. She jumped and dodged around the various machinery sticking out of the roof.
She didn't stop as the dome came nearer, instead opting to use a stray pipe to vault over to the top of the dome.
"Aim and shoot, soldier."
"But he's… alive!"
"Fine." She felt a nozzle at the back of her head. "Kill or be killed."
She pulled the trigger.
Natasha shook her head. Not now. Now wasn't the time.
She used her knife to scratch the glass in a circle, then held her gun like a hammer and smacked on the glass, breaking it up.
The glass fell inward, creating a circle of light. She looked inside. And stilled.
Harry Potter lay strewn on the floor.
She re-prioritized quickly, and pulled a harness out of her bag.
She had tried, but couldn't spot anyone else in the room. Snipers, then. Or if she was lucky, unguarded.
Only once in her life had she ever been lucky, though.
So she also pulled out smoke signals.
She then secured some ropes on the roof, attached them on her harness. For good measure, she also equipped a gas mask.
Doing some calculations as she stood on top of the hole she had made, she finally closed her eyes, took a deep breath, opened them, and jumped.
At the same time she also fired the smoke signal, covering her in dense smoke to make it much harder for the potential snipers, but also leaving the area under her feet completely visible.
She landed a few feet away from Potter.
And promptly collapsed.
"I have a family! Please! I will tell you everything you want! Just let me go!"
She pulled the trigger.
"Such is our fate, huh, Nat? Sharing breakfast by the morning, shooting each other by the night."
She pulled the trigger.
"The man is a–"
She pulled the trigger.
"As I was saying…"
"I don't care."
She woke up in cold sweat, still on the stone floor. She felt warmer somehow, but didn't spare the time to think about it. Instead, she opted to jump up, secure a rope around Potter, and trigger her harness. For a moment she almost felt as if she was being nudged by an animal, but shook off the sensation just as her harness shot upwards, pulling them out of the hole.
She climbed out of her harness, sat back on the roof, and slumped.
Feeling utterly drained, she pulled out a protein bar and chomped on it. And all her fatigue miraculously vanished.
She looked at her protein bar in amazement. If it had worked on her… not worrying much over it, she crushed the rest of her bar, opened Potter's mouth, and poured it inside. She then pulled out her bottle, poured a couple drops in his mouth, which fortunately triggered the swallowing muscles in his throat.
He immediately stirred, and began coughing. His eyes snapped open.
"Where… How… Romanoff?"
"Talk later, we need to get out of here."
"But…" suddenly his eyes gained focus. "Right. Dementors."
"I'm sure you're not speaking gibberish," Natasha explained calmly, "But this area is under some effect which causes cold and dread. Come on, let's leave."
But Potter was shaking his head. "We leave and the whole town gets massacred in one night. We have to deal with this right now."
"Wha– do you know what's causing this?"
"Yes, and explaining it is going to take time we do not have right now. Just… did you give me chocolate?"
The question completely threw her out of the loop. "Uhh… maybe, I gave you a protein bar, it has some chocolate for taste."
"Fantastic. Do you have more?"
"A couple." Natasha didn't know why she was actually listening to his whims, but she complied nonetheless.
He concentrated, and a greyish stick was suddenly in his hands. His face morphed into a frown for a fleeting moment before he was smiling. "Perfect."
"I'm not letting you leave till you explain everything, you know that, right?"
"Perhaps. Anyway, talking later, big bad Dementors first."
He then swished the stick. Wand, he had called it in their previous encounter.
"What are these Dementors? And how to kill them?" Natasha asked as she loaded her pistol with a magazine.
"You can't even see them." Potter snorted. "Let me deal with them."
"Why? Can only… magicians see them?"
He gave her a look. "We are called witches and wizards… and yes, only we can see them."
He then stood up, stretching his arms around.
"They expected me to accept the oath… Which means… Accio Holly Wand!"
After about 10 seconds a tiny stick flew into his outstretched hands.
"Neat trick." Natasha commented dryly.
Harry chuckled.
"You have seen nothing yet."
He switched the wands, grey one in his left hand and the other one in his right, mirrored the wand movements in both hands, and shouted "Expecto Patronum!"
And nothing happened.
"Well so much for–"
And that's when the warmth hit her. Comfort. Like a soft bed at the end of a long day. She felt so peaceful.
Potter was grinning like a loon. "Wonderful feeling, isn't it?"
She nodded absent-mindedly.
He turned away from her, and walked to the edge of the roof. Then he looked up, addressed no one she could see, and spoke, "Go."
The warmth dimmed, but didn't vanish.
"What was that?" she asked in amazement.
"Patroni. Guardians."
"So fucking cool." She was feeling giddy, like a child.
Shaking it off, she spoke calmly. "And? Are the Dementors gone?"
He shook his head sadly. "Even I can't kill them. My Patroni are driving them away from the town as we speak."
She nodded. "Do you have to maintain concentration to control them."
"No, magic has a mind of her own, in a sense. Anyway no, I don't have to focus on them, just have to maintain my magic through the wands."
"Well then," she sighed. "Let's talk."
"Uhh…"
"Would you rather disappear again, and leave this town to be slaughtered?" she countered. "Face it Potter, you can't run away from this. Now, talk."
"Fine." He massaged his forehead. "And I would much rather you call me Harry."
Natasha nodded.
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AN: Apologies for the long wait between uploads. Covid is just the worst.
Anyway, hope y'all are healthy and taking all the safety precautions recommended in your region. Stay Safe!