A/N et al: You want a sequel – I'll give you a sequel! Whoooohahahahahaha. To everyone who read it the first time round, reviewed, and then asked for more, here you go: Lord of the Net, Bandy, Beth, Giesbrecht, Lunar Bard, Netsurfer77, Serene, Sir Weston Weasley and Voltora. Standard disclaimer applies; I don't own anything except the plot because J. K Rowling invented it all, although if I can create new characters I want 'em! At this point I apologise again if I made you a boy and you are a girl or vice versa, and also for some of the names that I have used as they may be nothing like your own – just call it severe artistic licence. I also disclaim any similarities between my work and numerous films/TVM as they are often a great influence on my writing. You asked for it, you got it, my Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you:
Harry Potter
Lord of the Net
THE RETURN
Chapter 1: The Beginning
~SWW and LOTN~ Program ended…thanks to all…signing off…catch you later.
Clicking disconnect on the forum Wes shut down the computer, together with his friends he'd brought back Stephen and Harry from a virtual world, and defeated some previously unknown evil. 'So what now?' he asked, his voice seeming very loud in the silence that had engulfed the room.
'Well…' Harry said to Stephen, 'thanks…I guess I'll go now…thanks for letting me use you computer.'
'Um…yeah…anytime.' Stephen replied equally uneasily.
'Thanks for your help as well…' Harry said to Wes.
'Wes,' he finished for him, 'it was…fun.'
'Say,' Stephen said as Harry shifted towards the door, 'you wanna get a drink or something, I'm…er, not really ready to go back on the net.'
'Me too,' said Wes, 'I think a drink would go down well.'
'Sure,' said Harry, and before he could stop it a smile appeared on his face, 'I could use a break…' with this Stephen switched off the computer screens and the three boys left the humming room, trouping down to the kitchen.
That had been two months ago, and now Stephen was back in school while Harry had returned to Hogwarts…life was dull. Well there was always the internet and webchat for Stephen, he especially looked forward to chatting with the other eight people, now called The Eight, who had brought him and Harry out of his PC during the summer. The best part for him though was that Wes, an eighth of The Eight lived next-door, and now instead of coming round to complain about his system crashing they were now talking more and each of them even looked forward to doing homework with the other. While life was not extraordinarily boring, the mind-numbingly dull routine of school was beginning to take its toll on Stephen and Wes, as well as their friends. Except for Harry, as he got to leave the Dursleys he was more then happy to return to Hogwarts, although this year he did miss his new friends he had to admit.
Yeah, life was beginning to drag, but on a sunny evening in November, Stephen and The Eight would have given anything to return to normal…
* * *
Harry lay dozing in an armchair in Gryffindor Tower, equally flaked out in chairs around a small table were Hermione and Ron, the day had been one of Harry's most energetic in his history of being taught at Hogwarts. First there had been Quidditch practice for two hours in the morning, then for lessons one and two he'd been through his Broomstick Proficiency Exam with the rest of the Gryffindors. He'd passed easily but had been almost falling off his Firebolt by the end, yawning and tripping he'd made his way to a double dose of Defence Against The Dark Arts where a lesson in curses had sent him running on a 14 mile marathon after Hermione shattered his Shield Charm. The final punishment of tiring day had been the long walk up to Divination followed by the horrifying announcement that Professor Trelawney was away and that for homework the class had to study the effects of scattered omens on themselves about the castle.
Now Harry lay in a deep dream that had initially consisted of a marathon but was now focused on his Muggle friends he'd left behind…odd, he'd never been able to picture the faces of the other seven before…
* * *
Beth stifled a yawn as she turned on her PC, god she hated chemistry homework, but now the evening was hers to surf on the net. As she waited for the file caches to reboot she noticed a flickering icon in the bottom left of her screen, weird, she leant in and found it was a skull icon, now how the hell did that get on my PC? Fingers flying over the keyboard she opened a debugger window then carefully watching for any anomalies she clicked on the icon…
* * *
Nothing, it does absolutely bugger all, Mark Giesbrecht fumed at his PC, once again it had put unknown shortcuts onto his desktop, I bet it's John doing this, he thought of his little brother who always tried to sneak in his room, I need a better padlock on that door.
* * *
Beverly clicked repeatedly on the icon but still nothing happened, opening a chat window she signed in and returned her attention to the icon, again no reaction. Typing 'Voltora' into the signup box she read the Unicode as the chat room began to process her details, always waiting…
* * *
'Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!' shouted James a.k.a. Netsurfer77 as his computer failed to identify the new icon for the fiftieth time in twenty minutes, 'top of the range virus scan my bloody foot!' he shouted at the new program he'd installed the day before.
* * *
Basking in the light Katy a.k.a. Lunar Bard almost fell of her chair when the small icon in the bottom left of the screen exploded outwards in size. So much for another quiet evening, now what virus is this, doesn't look like the Budweiser frogs or that valentine's day one…
* * *
Ashley Marlston blinked rapidly, that icon was…oh my God!
* * *
Bandy sprayed juice over the floor when the icon appeared on her screen, then cursing rapidly to herself she brought up that chatroom where she had been waiting for the rest of her friends to put in an appearance. Oh goddammit where are you guys?
* * *
'Shall we sign on now then?' Wes asked Stephen who had been lost in thought.
'Huh? Yeah sure, I guess everyone will be on by now.' He replied in a lacklustre tone, god he was bored, then again everyone else was, what made him special? Yawning he turned on his screen and actually did fall over backwards when he saw the exploded icon. 'Wes! That's the Dark Mark!'
'Wha – oh dear God!' it had appeared on the computer he had booted up as well. Then the room lit up with an eerie flashing and a pop sounded in the boys' ears.
'Well, well, well…' crooned a sibilant voice, 'Lord of the Net and Sir Wesley Weston, it's an honour indeed.'
Fearing the worst Stephen turned to face the speaker, it was the Dark Wizard Voldemort whom he had met two months ago inside his computer. He now seemed even more real, from his fluidic black cloak to his blood red eyes above two snakelike nostril slits. 'What do you want?' he asked, amazed a tremble hadn't appeared in his voice.
'Simple Stephen, I want you and The Eight,' He stared down into the boy's eyes, 'say goodbye!'
* * *
With a loud yell Harry threw himself out of his chair as his scar woke him up with a deep and burning pain, 'STEPHEN!' he shouted, then with a shout of alarm from Ron he collapsed on the floor.
* * *
Sir Wesley Weston Everybody logoff and get out of yo– error 593: Host removed
–=Netsurfer77=– Whoa, what's biting him?
* beth * Are you guys getting this weird icon?
[Lunar Bard] I've seen it before…
^Bandy^ It's like, taken over my screen.
(Serene) Get off your computers and away, that's the Dark Mark sign.
{Voltora} Holy – error 593: Host removed
+Giesbrecht+ He's back again!
* * *
'Poppy what's wrong with him?' asked Albus Dumbledore as Harry lay quietly sweating on a hospital bed.
'I don't know headmaster,' replied the school nurse, 'I can't find these symptoms anywhere.'
'Did he say anything?' Dumbledore put the question to an ashen faced Ron who just stuttered in response.
'He shouted out the name Stephen,' Hermione replied for her dumbstruck friend.
'That's Lord of the Net,' Dumbledore said with a hint of worry, 'something's happened…Hermione, Ron, please come with me, it's time to go back online.'
* * *
In Harry's mind the he saw Voldemort transport away Stephen and Wes and Beverly, inwardly struggling he watched as the chat list filled with 'error 593: Host removed' until Voldemort had taken all of The Eight and Lord of the Net, how? We deleted him? HOW? Outside his motionless body Madam Pomfrey watched as Harry gritted his teeth and sweated against the pain.
* * *
'ARRRRRRGGGH!' and with a loud THUMP Stephen and Wes landed. Groaning they picked themselves up, 'I'm alive' shouted Wes in exuberance, then he looked around; 'arrrrrrgggh!' he said again. The boys were in a musty cavern very similar to the digital image where Harry and Stephen had fought Voldemort during the summer.
'Do you hear that?' Stephen asked Wes as a low rumbling sounded very near to them, in response he got a quiet nod.
With a bright flash another person flew out of the wall and landed on top of a shell-shocked Stephen, 'What in god's holy name is going on?' shouted Beverly as she pulled herself off of Stephen. 'And who the hell are you?'
'I'm…Lord of the Net,' He replied while watching her darting eyes, 'that's Sir Wesley Weston, who the hell are you?'
'Wait, are you saying? No!' Beverly looked like she could kick something very hard so Stephen took a step backwards, 'it can't be…I'm, I'm Voltora.' Another low rumbling sounded and Stephen pulled her away from the entrance as more people slowly came flying through; 'Serene, Lunar Bard, Netsurfer77, Beth, Giesbrecht and Bandy' Stephen said as the cave filled up. 'He's got us, so what does he want?'
* * *
Harry's eyes snapped open and focused on the first person he could find causing Madam Pomfrey to shriek when he quietly said her name, breathing heavily he gave her all the information he could in a single sentence; 'Tell Dumbledore that He's back…and that He took my friends.' After saying this he faded back into a blissful unconsciousness where no more images would haunt him.
* * *
'Dumbledore that's what he said,' explained Madam Pomfrey for the fifth time, 'now if you'll excuse me I want to get back to my patient.' With this she left the Muggle Studies office where Dumbledore, Ron and Hermione sat around a computer with Professor Mysis.
'So how exactly does this work?' Hermione asked the Professor while Ron watched the screen in a state of amazement and disbelief, 'I thought that no Muggle equipment could work around Hogwarts.'
'That's true for the entire school,' answered Mysis, 'except this room and the feeder tube for the cable to the PC. After last year Dumbledore decided he would like to stay in contact with fellow spirits by the internet rather than by owl mail, the reasons for this are obvious. We constructed the pathway for the cable, removed the Anti-Elektricity Charm and voila, the school has a computer.'
'But Muggles still can't find it?' persisted Hermione.
'Well, there was a possibility of some people running a trace, but between Dumbledore and myself we created an Advanced Firewall, it's a program that normally prevents viruses or hackers gaining access to your computer. We altered it so that anyone tracing back here is automatically told we live in Iceland, then by Dumbledore's part of the program their computer is shut down, it was quite fun testing it worked, we asked a Gringotts' official to try and hack in.'
'I hate to interrupt,' Dumbledore interjected suddenly, 'but we have a problem. Voldemort is back, and he's taken several Muggles hostage, Mysis they were the ones who helped us last year.'
'Not Stephen and Wesley?'
'I'm afraid so, something must be done…I do not know what.'
'I do,' Harry muttered, leaning heavily against the doorway.