Aqurthia and Saphyria: Chapter One
Disclaimer:: I own Traci. Alana owns herself. JK Rowling owns
everybody else. Please find it in your heart not to sue!!!
A/N:: This is the first chapter of the Wild Magic (semi-) serious fic.
It takes place in the summer after GoF. If you haven't read the
prologue, you're still ok. It was just a background thing anyway. In
this chapter, we actually find out who the two girls are.
(That Summer)
Dumbledore was working late in his office. He had to send Sirius an
owl about the assignment he and Remus were to begin soon. All he had to do
was find both of them some partners, but all of the other qualified Aurors
were busy with their own assignments.
Dumbledore's pensieve was sitting on the desk beside him. The silver
liquid in it was almost to the brim. I'll have to get a larger bowl, he thought
absently. He was about to start looking for a larger bowl in his cupboard
when there was a knock at his door.
"Come in, please," he said toward the door. Severus Snape stepped in.
He looked a little worse for wear and was paler than usual.
"Headmaster, I have news about the missing Aurors who disappeared
last week," he looked nervous but pleased that he had something important
to report.
"Yes?" Dumbledore prompted. "Do you know their whereabouts? Who
they are?" Snape hesitated before giving his information.
"Lord V. set a group of Death Eaters to the task of capturing some
Aurors who he believed had key information about how to get past the
remaining protections of Pot-Harry Potter. I wasn't one of the ones who
were chosen to do the mission, so I don't have any specific information about
how they captured them, but I do know who the Aurors are."
"Really. Very good, this will help us to find out why they were
kidnapped in the first place. Please go on." Said Dumbledore.
Snape went on. "There are five of them in all that were kidnapped.
They are Mundungus Fletcher, Arrabella Figg, Jessica Warren, Leon
Saffleburg, and Samuel Hootin. Two of them were trained and skilled
Aurors, but the other three were just young trainees. They were to start
their first mission next week." He paused for a moment to think. "Why he
wanted to get them I don't exactly know. But they are rumored to be
somewhere in the Black Forests."
Dumbledore looked thoughtfully down at his desk and said half to
himself, "If I could just find Remus and Sirius some partners then I know we
could get them back safe and sound within the week. But they couldn't do it
alone. I must find them some partners."
We'll help, said a voice.
Dumbledore looked up quickly. "Severus, did you say something just
now?"
"No. Why, headmaster?"
Dumbledore frowned to himself. "Hmmm… You never mind, Severus.
You may go now, and remember to report anything you happen to find out."
Snape nodded his head once and said, "Yes, of course, sir. I will."
Then he turned and strode out of Dumbledore's office.
He's finally gone, said the same voice.
Good. Shall we? said another.
Yeah, we should, on three, said the first one again.
Three, said the second voice.
Dumbledore was startled to suddenly find that there were two girls
standing in front of him. At first glance, they seemed to be about fifteen
years old, but as he stared at them, they also looked as though they were in
their twenty's. They were both dressed as Muggles, but it was obvious that
they couldn't have found those clothes in a normal shop. No normal muggle
Dumbledore had ever seen had worn clothes like this.
They were both sporting necklaces with miniature masks on them.
One of the girls, one with short, strawberry-blonde hair and dark blue eyes,
had a necklace that had a mask that was split down the middle, painted white
on one side, while the other side was totally midnight blue, with faint
pinpricks of stars glittering every so often over it.
The other girl had auburn hair and jade-green eyes. Her necklace
held a mask on which one half was white and the other half black. Around
the eyes, a splash of paint had been put. On the white side, the splash was
black, and around the eye of the black side, it was poisonous green.
"May I-uh- help you two ladies?" Dumbledore said after a while.
The two girls smiled at the offer.
"It's really not polite to offer help to the helpers," said the one with
blue eyes. Dumbledore recognized her voice as the first one he had heard.
"Yeah, we might accept it," said the other, smiling mischievously at the
other. The first one grinned and shook her head.
Dumbledore cleared his throat and said hesitantly, "So what can I do
for you?"
"We're here to help you," the green-eyed one said, still smiling.
Hey Aqurthia, said the other girl into her mind, should we tell them
who we really are, or should we just go with the stand-by?
Really, I thought you knew by now, Saphyria, after all the time
we spent doing this through the years. The old stand-by, of course.
She answered with her mind.
Just checking… Saphyria muttered.
Then out loud she said, "But we should introduce ourselves before we
do anything." She turned to Aqurthia. "This is uh….Lana. Alana Lee."
Alana? How did you come up with that one?
Don't ask me…
"Yes," said the newly named Alana Lee, "And this is my friend,
um….Traci. Traci Duncan."
And you ask me where I came up with yours!?!
Yeah, so? I did exactly as you did. I made it up.
Whatever…
"Charmed to meet you, I'm sure," said Dumbledore, who still looked a
bit bemused, "You say you both are here to help us?"
"Yes," said Traci, "We want to help. But I must tell you this-"
She was interrupted by a knock at the door. The two girls quickly
vanished from sight. The door opened to reveal a large man wearing a
moleskin coat.
"Ah yes, Hagrid. Was there anything you wanted to see me about?"
Dumbledore said, ignoring the fact that the two strange girls were suddenly
gone, but he hadn't seen them use a wand.
"Oi just thought I'd let yeh know tha' Ah'm 'bout ta leave on that
assih'ment you tol' me ta do, 'eadmaster. I 'eard you talkin' ta somebody in
'ere so I didn' wanta innerrupt enythin'. But I jus' wanted ta tell yeh I was
about ta go, sir." Hagrid said, looking around the office, knowing that he had
heard voices other than Dumbledore's.
"Yes, Hagrid. And I wish you the best of luck, my friend."
Dumbledore answered warmly.
"Well, I'd better go now. I'll see yeh around the end of the summer, I
guess."
"You certainly shall." Dumbledore was shaking Hagrid's hand.
Hagrid turned and walked to the door muttering, "…Great man,
Dumbledore…Great man…"
As the door clicked shut, Traci and Alana reappeared in front of the
window, scaring the wits out of Fawks and Dumbledore, too.
"Where were we?" said Traci, cheerfully, "Ah, I was just about to tell
you why we were here." She cleared her throat. "We are here to help you
defeat Voldemort and save Magic. You see-"
"What do you mean, "save Magic"?" said Dumbledore, quickly.
Alana took over, "What she means is, that if Voldemort defeats all the
people who would stand against him, then all the Light Magic of this world
would be destroyed with them."
Traci nodded grimly, "That's right. You see, all good people have the
Light's Magic in their hearts. They are born with it there, some more than
others. But Voldemort has turned his back on the Light Magic and given
himself to the Darkness. Those who follow him, also have given up their
Internal Light."
Dumbledore looked at them suspiciously, "And how do you know this?
How did two girls find this out, when not even the greatest wizards know?"
Traci looked at Alana, who nodded, then she said, "To tell you this, you
need to know who and what we are. Which all-in-all is a long story. It will
take a while if we tell the whole thing, so we'll abridge it a little. Do you
want to tell it, Alana, or should I?"
Alana sat down on the couch in front of the desk. "No," she said, "You
tell it, you tell it better than I, and besides, I like just listening to it."
Traci shook her head at Alana, "You always did like a good story,
especially if it was about you…"
Alana leaned back and said, "Hey, what can I say?"
"Not much, it seems," said Traci, "Here. Let me start…
I think it started with a mortal woman called Sappho. She-"
"The tenth muse, you mean?" interrupted Dumbledore.
"Yes, some call her that. She was so good at writing and composing
poems, that she was called the tenth muse. But I doubt that you know, that
when the other nine muses found that a mortal woman was as good at
composing as they were, they were delighted at her skill and invited her to
join them. Most do not know this, because Sappho didn't tell very many
people. She was granted semi-immortality by the muses. She could not be
killed by a mortal, but in the fullness of time, she would die."
"No one could kill her?" Dumbledore asked.
"No, even if they stabbed her through her heart," said Alana from the
couch, "And many lesser poets who envied her eloquence tried just that,
too."
"Yeah," agreed Traci, "But it didn't work very well, did it, Alana?"
"Heh, it sure did surprise them when they did try. Stab her one night,
see her up and about the next…" Alana said.
"Well, you see. A long time afterwards, the muses told Sappho that
she was nearing the end of her life, and if she didn't want her skills to die
with her, she would have to find someone to take them. The muses had
always treated Sappho as one of them and were all sad that she was coming
near to the end of her life, so they gave her another gift.
The gift they gave her was the gift of teaching the elements. They
told her that when she chose her heirs, she was to give control of two
elements to each of them, no more." Traci paused, smiling mischievously,
"She chose us."
Alana took up the tale. "She went to some of the large towns to find
some one who had what was necessary to be her heir. She would not choose
a boy, for she had always favored girls. She chose two girls who were only
infants at the time. She saw in them that when they grew, they would be
very mischievous, but have what it takes to do what they were here to do."
Traci sat down in a comfy-looking chair. "They were us, and we are
them, at your service."
"She took us from where we were," Alana went on, "And taught us as
we grew up, how to both create and destroy, to tell what was good, & what
was evil, and what to do about both. Sappho trained us to control the
elements & what happens with them. Most of the time it is nature that
controls them, & neither of us have anything to do with it. But when we have
reason to use our teachings, we do. And we know how to use them."
"When Sappho died, we were still only girls, but the muses thought it
wouldn't be a good idea for two mortal girls to have control over all the
elements in the world, so they granted us immortality. But of course, they
left us with our mortal senses of humor."
"Thank goodness," said Alana.
"So what do you mean about the……these elements?" Dumbledore said.
"She taught me to control the Fires of the world and all the Winds
around them," said Traci, smiling at the memories.
Alana smiled back, "And she granted me domination over the Waters
and the great Earth itself."
"And together, we are the Wild Magic," said Traci.
Dumbledore looked amazed at hearing two girls say such things. "You
can control what happens with Fires, Waters, the Earth, and the Winds?"
then he turned skeptic, "How can I be sure that you are telling the truth,
though?"
Traci smiled a grin that was a little more than just amused. "Tell us
what you want as proof, and we shall do it, whether you think we can or not."
Dumbledore thought for a second then said, "Traci. Put out the fire in
the fire place without moving from where you are now."
"Too easy." Said Traci lazily.
Dumbledore looked triumphant, "You say that because you can't do-"
But he cut off mid-sentence, and looked over to the fireplace. There was no
sign that there had ever been a fire there for at least a day, and he hadn't
seen Traci even bat an eye. "-it" finished Dumbledore quietly.
He walked over to the hearth quickly and felt the ash on the logs,
stone cold. Soon the heat that had been trapped in the office was just
about gone.
"It-ahem- a little cool in here for this time of day." He said slowly. He
looked at Traci with an eyebrow raised. She smiled at him coolly and
suddenly there was a roaring fire in place of the cold ashes.
The headmaster sat down at his desk deep in thought.
"Perhaps you don't believe that I can do that too?" said Alana, "I can
do the part of putting out the fire, because I control water, but I can't do
the part of starting it up again. No fire for poor me, I guess." She smiled at
Traci as if she were telling a very old inside joke.
"Hardy-har-har." Traci said, rolling her eyes at the other girl. Then
she turned to the headmaster and said, "So do you believe us yet?"
* * * * * *
Disclaimer:: I own Traci. Alana owns herself. JK Rowling owns
everybody else. Please find it in your heart not to sue!!!
A/N:: This is the first chapter of the Wild Magic (semi-) serious fic.
It takes place in the summer after GoF. If you haven't read the
prologue, you're still ok. It was just a background thing anyway. In
this chapter, we actually find out who the two girls are.
(That Summer)
Dumbledore was working late in his office. He had to send Sirius an
owl about the assignment he and Remus were to begin soon. All he had to do
was find both of them some partners, but all of the other qualified Aurors
were busy with their own assignments.
Dumbledore's pensieve was sitting on the desk beside him. The silver
liquid in it was almost to the brim. I'll have to get a larger bowl, he thought
absently. He was about to start looking for a larger bowl in his cupboard
when there was a knock at his door.
"Come in, please," he said toward the door. Severus Snape stepped in.
He looked a little worse for wear and was paler than usual.
"Headmaster, I have news about the missing Aurors who disappeared
last week," he looked nervous but pleased that he had something important
to report.
"Yes?" Dumbledore prompted. "Do you know their whereabouts? Who
they are?" Snape hesitated before giving his information.
"Lord V. set a group of Death Eaters to the task of capturing some
Aurors who he believed had key information about how to get past the
remaining protections of Pot-Harry Potter. I wasn't one of the ones who
were chosen to do the mission, so I don't have any specific information about
how they captured them, but I do know who the Aurors are."
"Really. Very good, this will help us to find out why they were
kidnapped in the first place. Please go on." Said Dumbledore.
Snape went on. "There are five of them in all that were kidnapped.
They are Mundungus Fletcher, Arrabella Figg, Jessica Warren, Leon
Saffleburg, and Samuel Hootin. Two of them were trained and skilled
Aurors, but the other three were just young trainees. They were to start
their first mission next week." He paused for a moment to think. "Why he
wanted to get them I don't exactly know. But they are rumored to be
somewhere in the Black Forests."
Dumbledore looked thoughtfully down at his desk and said half to
himself, "If I could just find Remus and Sirius some partners then I know we
could get them back safe and sound within the week. But they couldn't do it
alone. I must find them some partners."
We'll help, said a voice.
Dumbledore looked up quickly. "Severus, did you say something just
now?"
"No. Why, headmaster?"
Dumbledore frowned to himself. "Hmmm… You never mind, Severus.
You may go now, and remember to report anything you happen to find out."
Snape nodded his head once and said, "Yes, of course, sir. I will."
Then he turned and strode out of Dumbledore's office.
He's finally gone, said the same voice.
Good. Shall we? said another.
Yeah, we should, on three, said the first one again.
Three, said the second voice.
Dumbledore was startled to suddenly find that there were two girls
standing in front of him. At first glance, they seemed to be about fifteen
years old, but as he stared at them, they also looked as though they were in
their twenty's. They were both dressed as Muggles, but it was obvious that
they couldn't have found those clothes in a normal shop. No normal muggle
Dumbledore had ever seen had worn clothes like this.
They were both sporting necklaces with miniature masks on them.
One of the girls, one with short, strawberry-blonde hair and dark blue eyes,
had a necklace that had a mask that was split down the middle, painted white
on one side, while the other side was totally midnight blue, with faint
pinpricks of stars glittering every so often over it.
The other girl had auburn hair and jade-green eyes. Her necklace
held a mask on which one half was white and the other half black. Around
the eyes, a splash of paint had been put. On the white side, the splash was
black, and around the eye of the black side, it was poisonous green.
"May I-uh- help you two ladies?" Dumbledore said after a while.
The two girls smiled at the offer.
"It's really not polite to offer help to the helpers," said the one with
blue eyes. Dumbledore recognized her voice as the first one he had heard.
"Yeah, we might accept it," said the other, smiling mischievously at the
other. The first one grinned and shook her head.
Dumbledore cleared his throat and said hesitantly, "So what can I do
for you?"
"We're here to help you," the green-eyed one said, still smiling.
Hey Aqurthia, said the other girl into her mind, should we tell them
who we really are, or should we just go with the stand-by?
Really, I thought you knew by now, Saphyria, after all the time
we spent doing this through the years. The old stand-by, of course.
She answered with her mind.
Just checking… Saphyria muttered.
Then out loud she said, "But we should introduce ourselves before we
do anything." She turned to Aqurthia. "This is uh….Lana. Alana Lee."
Alana? How did you come up with that one?
Don't ask me…
"Yes," said the newly named Alana Lee, "And this is my friend,
um….Traci. Traci Duncan."
And you ask me where I came up with yours!?!
Yeah, so? I did exactly as you did. I made it up.
Whatever…
"Charmed to meet you, I'm sure," said Dumbledore, who still looked a
bit bemused, "You say you both are here to help us?"
"Yes," said Traci, "We want to help. But I must tell you this-"
She was interrupted by a knock at the door. The two girls quickly
vanished from sight. The door opened to reveal a large man wearing a
moleskin coat.
"Ah yes, Hagrid. Was there anything you wanted to see me about?"
Dumbledore said, ignoring the fact that the two strange girls were suddenly
gone, but he hadn't seen them use a wand.
"Oi just thought I'd let yeh know tha' Ah'm 'bout ta leave on that
assih'ment you tol' me ta do, 'eadmaster. I 'eard you talkin' ta somebody in
'ere so I didn' wanta innerrupt enythin'. But I jus' wanted ta tell yeh I was
about ta go, sir." Hagrid said, looking around the office, knowing that he had
heard voices other than Dumbledore's.
"Yes, Hagrid. And I wish you the best of luck, my friend."
Dumbledore answered warmly.
"Well, I'd better go now. I'll see yeh around the end of the summer, I
guess."
"You certainly shall." Dumbledore was shaking Hagrid's hand.
Hagrid turned and walked to the door muttering, "…Great man,
Dumbledore…Great man…"
As the door clicked shut, Traci and Alana reappeared in front of the
window, scaring the wits out of Fawks and Dumbledore, too.
"Where were we?" said Traci, cheerfully, "Ah, I was just about to tell
you why we were here." She cleared her throat. "We are here to help you
defeat Voldemort and save Magic. You see-"
"What do you mean, "save Magic"?" said Dumbledore, quickly.
Alana took over, "What she means is, that if Voldemort defeats all the
people who would stand against him, then all the Light Magic of this world
would be destroyed with them."
Traci nodded grimly, "That's right. You see, all good people have the
Light's Magic in their hearts. They are born with it there, some more than
others. But Voldemort has turned his back on the Light Magic and given
himself to the Darkness. Those who follow him, also have given up their
Internal Light."
Dumbledore looked at them suspiciously, "And how do you know this?
How did two girls find this out, when not even the greatest wizards know?"
Traci looked at Alana, who nodded, then she said, "To tell you this, you
need to know who and what we are. Which all-in-all is a long story. It will
take a while if we tell the whole thing, so we'll abridge it a little. Do you
want to tell it, Alana, or should I?"
Alana sat down on the couch in front of the desk. "No," she said, "You
tell it, you tell it better than I, and besides, I like just listening to it."
Traci shook her head at Alana, "You always did like a good story,
especially if it was about you…"
Alana leaned back and said, "Hey, what can I say?"
"Not much, it seems," said Traci, "Here. Let me start…
I think it started with a mortal woman called Sappho. She-"
"The tenth muse, you mean?" interrupted Dumbledore.
"Yes, some call her that. She was so good at writing and composing
poems, that she was called the tenth muse. But I doubt that you know, that
when the other nine muses found that a mortal woman was as good at
composing as they were, they were delighted at her skill and invited her to
join them. Most do not know this, because Sappho didn't tell very many
people. She was granted semi-immortality by the muses. She could not be
killed by a mortal, but in the fullness of time, she would die."
"No one could kill her?" Dumbledore asked.
"No, even if they stabbed her through her heart," said Alana from the
couch, "And many lesser poets who envied her eloquence tried just that,
too."
"Yeah," agreed Traci, "But it didn't work very well, did it, Alana?"
"Heh, it sure did surprise them when they did try. Stab her one night,
see her up and about the next…" Alana said.
"Well, you see. A long time afterwards, the muses told Sappho that
she was nearing the end of her life, and if she didn't want her skills to die
with her, she would have to find someone to take them. The muses had
always treated Sappho as one of them and were all sad that she was coming
near to the end of her life, so they gave her another gift.
The gift they gave her was the gift of teaching the elements. They
told her that when she chose her heirs, she was to give control of two
elements to each of them, no more." Traci paused, smiling mischievously,
"She chose us."
Alana took up the tale. "She went to some of the large towns to find
some one who had what was necessary to be her heir. She would not choose
a boy, for she had always favored girls. She chose two girls who were only
infants at the time. She saw in them that when they grew, they would be
very mischievous, but have what it takes to do what they were here to do."
Traci sat down in a comfy-looking chair. "They were us, and we are
them, at your service."
"She took us from where we were," Alana went on, "And taught us as
we grew up, how to both create and destroy, to tell what was good, & what
was evil, and what to do about both. Sappho trained us to control the
elements & what happens with them. Most of the time it is nature that
controls them, & neither of us have anything to do with it. But when we have
reason to use our teachings, we do. And we know how to use them."
"When Sappho died, we were still only girls, but the muses thought it
wouldn't be a good idea for two mortal girls to have control over all the
elements in the world, so they granted us immortality. But of course, they
left us with our mortal senses of humor."
"Thank goodness," said Alana.
"So what do you mean about the……these elements?" Dumbledore said.
"She taught me to control the Fires of the world and all the Winds
around them," said Traci, smiling at the memories.
Alana smiled back, "And she granted me domination over the Waters
and the great Earth itself."
"And together, we are the Wild Magic," said Traci.
Dumbledore looked amazed at hearing two girls say such things. "You
can control what happens with Fires, Waters, the Earth, and the Winds?"
then he turned skeptic, "How can I be sure that you are telling the truth,
though?"
Traci smiled a grin that was a little more than just amused. "Tell us
what you want as proof, and we shall do it, whether you think we can or not."
Dumbledore thought for a second then said, "Traci. Put out the fire in
the fire place without moving from where you are now."
"Too easy." Said Traci lazily.
Dumbledore looked triumphant, "You say that because you can't do-"
But he cut off mid-sentence, and looked over to the fireplace. There was no
sign that there had ever been a fire there for at least a day, and he hadn't
seen Traci even bat an eye. "-it" finished Dumbledore quietly.
He walked over to the hearth quickly and felt the ash on the logs,
stone cold. Soon the heat that had been trapped in the office was just
about gone.
"It-ahem- a little cool in here for this time of day." He said slowly. He
looked at Traci with an eyebrow raised. She smiled at him coolly and
suddenly there was a roaring fire in place of the cold ashes.
The headmaster sat down at his desk deep in thought.
"Perhaps you don't believe that I can do that too?" said Alana, "I can
do the part of putting out the fire, because I control water, but I can't do
the part of starting it up again. No fire for poor me, I guess." She smiled at
Traci as if she were telling a very old inside joke.
"Hardy-har-har." Traci said, rolling her eyes at the other girl. Then
she turned to the headmaster and said, "So do you believe us yet?"
* * * * * *