Disclaimer- I don't own HP. Terry Pratchett, Patricia C. Wrede, Adamo Redamo, the Sigma Protocol, David Eddings, The Death Gate Cycle or AD&D.
A/N- I owe EVERYONE such a big apology, I just- I got to this point where I couldn't even look at Harry Potter fics, much alone write them, I expended too much energy to quickly and I could even consider this part of FF.net for a while. I wrote DBZ fics elsewhere and then over the summer I was gone at camp for 2 months, now I am back, taking a breather from DBZ fics and focusing on just this and After Effects (my baby!). Hopefully AD will be finished by spring, I have a lot of school work which must come first. I once again apologize to everyone for the horrendous wait.
Caverns Ahoy Chapter XVIIIDraco glared at the darkness. It wasn't that he was afraid of the dark, it just pissed him off that he couldn't see right now.
"Lumos." Dumbledore said and his wand lit up the cave-
Draco let out a soft exclamation at the size of the gargantuan cavern they were in the entrance to. It seemed to stretch down into infinity, and was totally and utterly dark. Beside him Seamus let out a low whistle proclaiming his own astonishment.
"What is this place?" He asked softly and beside him Dumbledore chuckled.
"A cave, a very large one to be sure but not that unusual." He said. Snape was grumbling to himself and patting the arms of his robes.
"All this dust-" He muttered and Lockheart got out his wand.
"Here, Quitos Polvan." He said and Snape's robes were suddenly dust free, a little damp and had just the very hint of grapefruit about them. Snape glared at Lockheart and declined to comment.
"Oh, I is wanting to go back to Hogwarts." Dobby moaned to himself and Hermione whirled around to comfort him.
"It's pretty wicked up there." Pansy said as she floated down. "Trees and shit blowing left and right… How long should it last?" She asked, not bothering to pay any attention to her language in front of a teacher. Being dead does make you disregard certain pointless laws. Dumbledore paused.
"I have no idea, but we must continue to head in this direction." He said pointing with his wand.
"Remind me again why the hell we're doing this?" Draco muttered angrily. Harry shrugged.
"We have to? I don't know why are we doing this?" Dumbledore looked vaguely uncomfortable.
"Well I guess for lack of a better description we have been manipulated by beings of incredible cosmic might and are trapped in a gigantic game of their design." There was absolute silence.
"Just fucking peachy." Draco snapped sarcastically.
"It's getting colder." Lucius said quietly. His legs ached from walking and he envied Narcissa her fitness. He was a wizard damn it, not some foolish Muggle that needed to walk everywhere… But Gazeroth had insisted that they use no magic while they were in the tunnels. So Lucius had walked, and Narcissa had as well although she walked everyday. Narcissa kept her figure with a strict regimen of exercise, daily walking and running.
Lucius had appreciated the result so he hadn't protested the almost un-wizard-like behavior. Although now he was slightly envious of it. Gazeroth walked before the entire group, his tall muscular form quiet like a shadow, but with an even softer bearing. The sword slung across the transformed demon's back looked awfully heavy but Lucius had a feeling that weight didn't mean much to Gazeroth no matter what form he took.
"Yes, it is getting colder, we must be closing in on the mountains." Narcissa said and Gazeroth smiled.
"Yes we are, which means we'll be having an item to pick up won't we?" He murmured to himself. Lucius's face darkened, the idea that others were controlling him made his pride rebel. He hated the thought that he was being dominated by another no matter how necessary it was. But he could handle it, he had to while Voldemort was still his master and he could handle it now.
"Why are we gathering these items?" Narcissa asked and Gazeroth smiled even wider.
"Well those three I mentioned, they're going to pit us against one another, a three way battle, after we've gathered all the objects. Then, whoever's team wins gets to keep the objects. They can't gather them because beings from their realm are not allowed to meddle or travel to the other realms, something that doesn't sit well with them. The tales behind those weapons are quiet interesting." Gazeroth's smiled turned into a nasty grin.
"They're fools though, you can use the weapons just fine." Narcissa coughed suddenly and Gazeroth turned a curious look to her.
"Gazeroth, you are very powerful, what is it that holds you in the thrall of these beings you mentioned?" Gazeroth grinned.
"Nothing." Narcissa stopped and Lucius gave Gazeroth an incredulous expression, for the moment ignoring the fire in his shins and the ache in his thighs.
"What the fuck are you doing then?" Lucius burst out and Gazeroth merely grinned again.
"Playing, these beings are from the realm of magic so they think they're gods. I've known a few gods and they do come close, but then again so do I." Gazeroth laughed and Lucius stared at him aghast, a mixture of horror and incredulity crossing his face before he mastered his emotions.
"Come on Lucius, you'll see why I'm doing this soon enough."
Snape was not a happy camper by any means. Although he didn't show any emotion he was sulking. There was altogether far too much "atmosphere" in the group. Between Granger and Weasley, Weasley and Longbottom and of course Potter, Finnigan and Draco there was enough "love" in the air to make any decent heterosexual man nauseas. Not that Snape was against homosexuality, but there was so much sappy young love going around it was positively awful.
He didn't even want to consider talking to Lockheart, the man may be talented since his memories were of powerful spells and he thought he was talented and thought was half the deed in magic, but Snape still couldn't stand the ingratiating smile and just- everything about the man. Dobby was out of the question; the small elf was hanging around Granger and carrying out her every wish even when she didn't want him to.
Snape also didn't want to harass Dumbledore, although the man was one of the very few people that Snape held true respect for he knew that the great wizard had more than enough on his plate right then. So that left Pansy, truthfully not a girl he had much hope for but as it turned out…
"So people actually listened to Voldemort with his anti-Muggle tirades?" Pansy asked incredulous, her ghostly face twisting in befuddlement.
"Yes, they did." Snape responded simply. "They had no choice really, only a few of us knew about Tom Riddle." Snape said softly. Pansy snorted
"They were fools then, the more I learn about Voldemort the more I just can't believe people followed someone like that." She said, her eyes flickering with curiosity. Snape shrugged and stepped nimbly over a large rock that would have surely sent him sprawling had he ignored it.
"It was the power Pansy, the fear could be intoxicating, you don't know the thrill of having someone totally submit to your will out of abject terror. Voldemort showed that to us, it sickened a few but they stayed quiet." Snape paused for a second as his demons caught up with him. "I loved it, but I knew it was wrong, it was perhaps one of the hardest things I ever did to stop myself from becoming a monster like him." Pansy knew whom the "him" meant and she was silent for a moment.
"What made you turn?" She asked then and Snape sighed.
"Many things, many things. The fear I was becoming my father, the knowledge that Albus had expected so much more from me, the fear of children about to die, even the fact that Sirius Black was right about me made me turn." He responded. "But mostly because I knew it was wrong. Deep inside of me I saw that Voldemort was a twisted freak trying to sate some deep-seated need for pain. No one can hate, as much if the one you hate is yourself. Voldemort hated mudbloods so much because he was one."
The three figures sat around a great table. Within was encompassed an entire world, a landscape so vast to a mere human it would seem to contain infinity. To those three it was merely a giant chessboard. One figure moved his figures about, all 12 of them.
"Mine will get there first." Said one, its body shrouded in shadow. It was very satisfied that its shadowy distraction was about to attack Duchess.
"Hardly, the conflict between Draco and Ron is about to be brought to a head." Said another as it waved its hand at the 12 figures. It was a woman of intense ethereal beauty. With long golden hair and a very developed figure, lush tropical golden skin, all of this marred only by soulless eyes that sucked the warmth of anyone looking into them away.
"Interesting move." Said the third, this figure was a man slender with a pair of eyes filled with the night sky. His hair was black and slightly disheveled, his features soft and his demeanor quiet. He moved his pieces and then waved his hand again.
"But sometimes it is easier to use the elements." The quiet man said. The woman twitched in displeasure as she saw the storm the quiet man had brewed a century ago reach the mountains. The first figure was cloaked in shadow, and nothing could be seen of its features.
"Very nice, but then again so is this." Said the Shadow. And then the quiet man saw something so subtle not even he had noticed it, a small windstorm had also been brewed by the shadow, but underneath the floating islands. When it came it would shake them like an earthquake out of the apocalypse. The woman hissed in fear.
"You fool, if you kill all our pieces we'll have to start all over again!" The shadow chuckled.
"Your move my dear."
Arabella Figg crept softly around the corner before jumping out with a great cry of false astonishment. The pair of students jumped up and screamed in fear.
"The astronomy tower is for star-gazing, not snogging! 10 points from Hufflepuff and 20 from Griffyndor." She said, adding the last because she felt like it. And then she cackled in glee before running off to find other unsuspecting students.
"Oh dear god that was scary." Muttered Joel and Cho nodded. Then she frowned.
"Why did she take points from Griffyndor?" Joel shrugged.
"She's insane?" The two considered this and then let it go. Who were they to fathom the mind of such a crazed teacher?
"Let's move to another place." Cho said and Joel smiled.
"I never want to do that again." Queen shuddered. King looked at her bemusedly.
"I doubt any of us do." He said and she shrugged.
"True, true." After the incredible wind had picked up they had all been frozen, unsure of what to do. It had been King that had saved them all, telling Jester to make them insubstantial. Then it had taken them only a couple seconds to get used to the sensation, and to stop falling into the ground. The group continued to move on, floating gently through the air up the mountains.
The scenery stretched before them, cold perilous beauty trapped in these mountains. There was a peculiar feeling of majesty in these great adornments of the earth. The snow was sparkling and sent light refracting into glaciers, sparkling rainbows that echoed eerily through the high passes. Finally one particular mountain came into view, it was tall, much taller than its fellows, and at its top lay a plateau, it looked as if someone had taken a large sharp knife and sliced the top of the mountain clean off.
In a way, someone had.
"That is our destination." Jester said. King looked at him.
"That's it? We climb a mountain-" He began until Duchess shrieked as her body began to twitch in horrible agony.
"No!' Jester shouted and gestured oddly with his hand. Suddenly a small dark spot appeared in Duchess's core, but with Jester's peculiar gesture, it was dispelled.
"What the fuck was that?" Lord rumbled.
"It looked like a shadow of some sort…" Queen trailed off.
"It fed on her." Lady said with no inflection in her voice as Duke tried to support his partner but found he couldn't move her with their current state of insubstantiality. And then she faded away, the first casualty in a war that would have many more to come.
Seamus groaned silently, Harry and Draco were brooding again. He could pick out occasional thoughts, Draco was focused on the relationship and Harry was focused on what he would have do to protect both Seamus and Draco. Seamus rolled his eyes and continued to walk along with his two soul mates down- or rather up- the cave.
Beside him Ron and Neville were walking along just holding hands, he thought that they were so very cute together! And then there was Hermione who was flirting lightly with Ginny. Seamus grinned, those two weren't so much cute as devious and perfect together. Perfect together…
Seamus itched the back of his neck and felt the desire for a shower as he pondered his two lovers. Harry was the perfect hero-boy. He was generous forgiving and had an unholy temper when someone hurt those he cared for. And Draco was the perfect gentleman, the very essence of propriety but with the soul of a devil. Seamus had noticed his aunt bringing that out considerably in the Slytherin boy.
But after this was over, where would they go? Homosexuality wasn't looked down on particularly by the wizarding community, and between Draco's familial influence and Harry's hero status he doubted they'd get much harassment. But first this had to be finished… And it really didn't make much sense, what were they doing? They were walking. How the hell were they supposed to accomplish anything walking? And why such a large group? Whoever had picked it must have gone overboard…
Seamus looked around him. There was no question as to why Dumbledore was there, he was perhaps the most powerful wizard in the world and had the peculiar telepathy that Harry held, although to a lesser degree. Also there was no question as to why Harry was there, Harry was Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, and he now had that same telepathy that Dumbledore had.
Neville was also a no-brainer, now that he was identified as a Sorcerer he could probably soon outstrip any of them in sheer magical power, even if he was a bigger klutz than any of the Three Stooges combined. And if Neville was there then Ron would have to be too, because of their bond. Same for Hermione and Ginny, Hermione was the Creator, whatever the hell that meant, but if she was here than Ginny would have to be as well. Draco and he both had their special abilities and had to be here with Harry.
Now that left Snape, Lockheart, Pansy and Dobby. Well Dobby made sense so far, he was a magical being, and house elves did have very powerful magic, even though Dobby was a trifle- undependable. Lockheart though… That made little sense to Seamus, and then there was Snape.
He looked thoughtfully at the Slytherin potions master. Snape's normally perfect black robes were look a little damp still from Lockheart's dust disposal charm. Snape was undoubtedly one of the worlds leading authorities on potions and Seamus would bet his- well he'd bet something really valuable- that Snape knew quite a few Dark spells. So that made sense after a fashion, but then why wasn't Fleur here?
Seamus grinned, the relationship between the French Veela woman and his greasy gloomy potions master had shocked him so much he had been frozen in shock for at least 10 minutes, wondering if the world was coming to an end. So why wasn't Fleur here? His grin faded to a frown and he moved on to the other member. Pansy.
Pansy Parkinson, Slytherin girl, great crush on Draco supposedly although she seemed to have gotten over that very quickly. She was shrewd, a perfect person manipulator and perhaps one of the most- well Slytherin-ish for lack of a better word- people he'd ever met. But she wasn't really necessary was she? And being dead was surely no picnic… Suddenly something occurred to Seamus.
He counted swiftly, and then did so again. He counted on his fingers and then swore. The group stopped and looked quizzically at the Irish boy. He looked up at Dumbledore.
"Who's the 13th?" Dumbledore suddenly looked nervous.
"Well-" The old man began slowly and then was swiftly interrupted by a horrendous roar. His eyes widened.
"Everyone, run!" He yelled and as one without thinking they obeyed.
"Where did you get that?" Shouted the shadow suddenly. The woman grinned.
"Picked it up from their world. There's nothing against it." The quiet man frowned.
"Yes- but-" The quiet man fumbled for a rule that would nullify the move she had just made. He frowned; there was no such rule.
"Whatever, I don't care, but from now on only the pawns get transported." The shadow growled. The woman laughed, it usually took so much to get under the shadow's skin. That had been delightfully easy!
"I hate this!" Adriana declared and Claire rolled her eyes.
"We can't do anything and that's that." She said to her friend.
"That doesn't mean you can't hate it, just put that anger to good use." Growled Moody. "Harness your emotions, otherwise they can dominate you, it's a thin line to tread but constant vigilance will keep you on top of it." Then he sighed. "If it's any consolation we all hate this."
"Great, just great." Adriana snapped and strode over to the window looking out over the snowy landscape. "Fuck it's snowing again, god damn it!" She swore and then proceeded to blister the air with cursing. At one point even Moody's eyes widened at the range of her language skills.
"I give it a 9.7 for expressiveness and general creativity." Dropped Arabella into the silence that came after Adriana's tirade was over. "Now get back to work." Said work was reading, something that Adriana detested normally.
"I hate reading, Roger loves to read why can't he?" She snapped and then frowned at the speculative glance Moody and Arabella shared.
"She'd massacre them." Moody said and Arabella smiled.
"I think you may be underestimating them, let her and he will be more useful than she will." Arabella rejoined and Moody shrugged.
"It's your students, Adriana go relieve Roger of his teaching duties and tell him to come to the library." Moody said and Adriana looked at the two of them incredulously.
"What will I teach them?" She asked gesturing wildly. "I've never taught before!" Claire grinned into her book at the rough spot her friend was now in because of her rather large mouth.
"You'll think of something I'm sure dear, now go teach." Arabella waved her hand and Adriana mutely left the room, so surprised she didn't even slam the door. As soon as she left Claire began to laugh.
Suddenly Arabella slammed her hand against the scroll she was reading in triumph.
"Yes, we found one!"
In a small village located somewhere in western China, something tragic happened. The village was found to have been incinerated, all the people in it killed barbarically and sadistically.
The same happened in a small village in India and Brazil. A day later there were reports of many villages that had been killed, and deep in the Amazon rumors of sprite like little people, only about 4 feet tall with long feathery wings. The world as a whole dismissed the ridiculous rumors, but the wizarding world was panicking, something was wrong, very wrong.
They had no idea how right they were.
Harry panted as he ran, his breath was ragged and his chest burned. Behind them came the endless rumbling, a distant roar of crushed stone that sounded like the crunch of a million bloody bones.
"We- must- stop." Panted Snape, his pale face even more withdrawn and his face red with exertion. Suddenly Neville shouted and everyone found themselves watching the world run like wax- and then they were on the surface, and it was a mess.
The ground had been ripped about; trees had been uprooted and thrown great distances-
A roar shook the ground as a thing burst though the dirt and into the surface.
"An earth troll!" Dumbledore said almost calmly but there was fear in his voice. Earth trolls unlike other trolls are incredibly resistant to magic, so much so that they are almost impossible to kill by magical means. At least, human magic that is.
"So what are you going to do now?" Inquired the woman archly, her smile showing sharp predatory teeth. The quiet man simply sighed.
"I'll sacrifice a pawn and jump to the next stage." He said, and moved Dobby to intercept the troll. They watched as the troll lunged forward and Dobby shouted something before diving into the troll's stomach and exploding in a huge release of magical energy. Then a portal opened and it sucked the group through it.
"Damn." The woman hissed, her brilliant plan had just backfired; now the other group was going to get to the world of Fire first.
"Interest-" The shadow began and stopped as one of his pieces winked out of existence and appeared before the Court…
"We are successful!" Jester crowed as he lifted the Staff of Power above his head, it crackled with intense energies and lit his face in a way that made him look more demonic than human.
"Great Jester, what about the rest of us?" Queen snapped but King calmed her, his arm straying to hers.
"Very well Jester, move us to the next stage." Queen said, while King's mind raced as fast as his heart at the sight of the power Jester held in his hand. Jester grinned and the air around all of them crackled with energy.
"Open sesame." Jester said in a high sarcastic voice, and before him split open a portal. He grinned as he looked at the rest of the Court, wondering who would die in this next world-
A pillar of fire erupted from the ground in front of them and there appeared a shrunken form that leaned heavily on a cane. Jester flinched and the portal wavered. Lady looked to Countess and they chose that moment to slip through the portal unbeknownst to anyone else. It was their best bet for survival.
The shrunken figure grinned and his hands extended. The staff strained against Jester's grip but he held fast. King thinking swiftly grabbed Queen and jumped through the portal.
"What are you?" Hissed Duke and the shrunken form grinned.
"That would be telling." He whispered and Duke screamed in agony before vanishing with a pop and explosion of fire. The same happened to Count and Lord before Gazeroth turned his eyes to Jester, who was no longer there.
"Him, oh well." The demon said to itself and vanished again. It was then that the storm brewing beneath the floating continent hit. The great island shook and shuddered with the strain and magic ran amok.
Deep in the underground caverns the earth groaned and Lucius stared around him in horror before Gazeroth reappeared.
"Lucius, this is your artifact, I want you to focus and put your hand in the earth." Lucius stared at the demon and did as he was told, Gazeroth had never led him false before and there was no reason to start now. The demon watched Lucius, idly wondering how they were supposed to have found this current artifact without him. None of the mortals could have possibly noticed the trail of energy signatures, the placement of otherworldly tears that led to this current location. Well, Jester could have and Dumbledore could have too, but Gazeroth had hidden the signs with his long reaching magic.
Lucius suddenly yelped as a cylinder shot out of the earth and embedded itself in his hand. With a cry of agony he fell to the floor and Gazeroth grinned. Karkaroff stood then, waved his hand making the Daemon Prince glance at him, and then nod. As Narcissa bent to help Lucius up, Gazeroth sent them spinning off into another world.
"Did you see that?" The woman hissed and the quiet man frowned.
"This is getting more complicated, we may have underestimated some of the potential present." He murmured. The woman rolled her eyes.
"Of course we did, look at them, who knew mortals could grow so powerful?" The woman asked and the shadow made a move.
"It's not the mortals that concern me." He hissed and pointed at the figure of Gazeroth. "The Daemon Prince is becoming troublesome, he hid the energy signals from the Lich and the Old One." The quiet man considered this.
"Can we stop it?" And the shadow looked at the woman who knew more of the inner workings of the charm than they did. She appeared uncertain, a look of questioning crossing her sleek otherworldly features.
"No, the magic has a life of its own now, the spell is so powerful that we could, but then we would get caught." They nodded, the price for otherworldly meddling was high, and such meddling that resulted in death would be the highest. "As a matter of fact, it is even beginning to unravel, and you know what that means…" Her voice trailed off and they could all imagine the consequences of their meddling, too well.
"Well then, maybe we could turn this to our advantage." The quiet man burst out and the other two bent forward to listen.
A/N- found one what? Well- all right I know but you don't… I'm so sorry this took so long, but school and writer's block and well, I'll try and get more out soon!
Shout Outs
Myr- But Myr, college should be fun… Don't ruin it for me with reality before I get there… Well I hope your finals go well for you at any rate!
Twins of Destiny and Fate- Cute, as long as both of you like it ^_^ My desk would be slightly uncomfortable to be chained too but I will try and get more out soon.
Shinigami- Well if you ask them you might get a different opinion… ^_^
Whitebearwrites- I don't think I'd like Chinese food and hot chocolate together but yes they are both very nice… Hmmm… Chinese food…
Demeter- Voldemort is going to definitely stretch the group's- erm- cooperative skills so to speak. It will be interesting and he does get to be quiet evilly evil as you put it.
DragonSoul- Yup, they're all pawns, at least temporarily…
Mizzy- Hiya Miz! Well it is sort of funny, especially now that I read it once more- glad you liked it.
IceFire- Wow, you're plethora of reviews was certainly inspiring, thank you very much for praise, it kept me going quiet a few times when I just couldn't find the energy to start this again.
Mike- fairly soon the identities of those three beings will be revealed, and then heads will roll big time.
Teigra- well I'm glad you found it and I hope you like this.
Tima- sorry I didn't update, I owe everyone a huge apology.
QrYx- the meaning of life comment came from Douglas Adams in his Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy series.
Toya Koya- I happen to like Neville, and seeing as how he always is the dumb clunky one I gave him some powers, but he's still kinda dumb and clunky, the purpose of his powers are more for what is coming however, when Voldie begins to subvert Draco's mind… *chuckles evilly*
KDay2- Well it's niec to hear that very strait-forward opinion, I'm glad I made it under the "like" banner, and don't worry about how big your review is, the fact that you reviewed makes me happy knowing that you liked it that much.