Thank you to all who reviewed! This is a nice long chapter, hope you like
it.
Chapter 3 Skulls and Symbols
Ria Evenstoke examined the mountain terrain as she waited for the others to arrive. She had been sent here to investigate some strange writings found in a secret chamber in a mine. Eager to see them she'd rushed out immediately, the rest of her crew would be arriving tomorrow to help out. Some professional archeologist had also been brought in to aid; apparently there were bodies and a weird skull in the chamber as well.
Ria had never been to the mountains before, growing up in new York she'd moved out as soon as possible and gone to Africa to work on some cave paintings that seemed to have a form of written language in them. From there she'd traveled the world, but she'd never really been up on a mountain. The sky was a brilliant blue and off in the distance a lake glimmered. Finally she heard the approach of an automobile and turned in time to see a rather beat up mini van come around the corner, followed by an old dark blue jeep that looked like it had seen better days. Out of the jeep jumped a middle-aged man with tanned skin and messy brown hair. From the van emerged another man with dark gray hair and a slightly crooked nose.
"Ah you must be Dr. Evenstoke, Dr. Adam Gradar." The gray haired man said, offering his hand.
"Hello, thank you for coming, I'm David Rigand," said the rather short brown haired man; he looked very excited and a little nervous.
"Can we head straight up to the mine?" Ria asked him.
"Of course, we'd best take the jeep though, it'll be safer for the mountain road." Ria and Adam both loaded their gear into the jeep; Rigand's wife came out of the house to see them off.
"The rail cart can go anywhere through here, it's great for moving things about." Rigand explained, the small miner was in his element showing his guests about his mine. "Here's the site, it's okay the ladder will hold, just up through there. Be careful when you climb off the ladder, go to the left, the artifacts are on the other side." He instructed as Dr. Gradar climbed up, holding up a lamp.
Once inside they set up electric light to shine on the walls.
"Incredible," these inscriptions, they're unlike anything I've ever seen. Ria murmured to the other two as she examined the writing. "I've seen just about every known language, modern and otherwise, but nothing like this."
"Do you think you can decipher it?" Dr. Gradar asked as he bent to study the obsidian skull, careful not to touch it.
"Well it's not pictographic, not even remotely, 28 characters as far as I can…no make that thirty. Then an entirely different set, numbers maybe? Ten of them, well it appears to be alphabetic. I'll take some photos and copy some of it down and run it through the computers back at the lab, it may just be really arcane. Then again it could be fake."
"Why do you say that? Dr. Gradar asked, indicating to Rigand to hand him a brush so he could remove the dust that caked everything.
"It's a very simple language, just lines basically. They must have used some sort of acid to engrave it, and there's traces of something…perhaps some primitive ink." She stepped back and took her camera out of her pack and began to take pictures while Rigand moved the light from one spot to the next.
"These bodies are incredibly old, they must have worn a lot of copper and turquoise in life, there's small ornaments scattered about them. This skull however, is the most amazing piece of artwork I've ever seen. Obsidian is very difficult to carve, it breaks easily, yet this tone is perfectly smooth, not a chip mark on it. Rigand-" He was cut off as suddenly the ground shook and a rumble of rolling rocks echoed about.
"Oh damn, rockslide, I'll go see if it's blocked the entrance." Rigand said and climbed down the ladder, a few moments later they heard the cart starting up as he rode it out of the mine.
Rigand was back in a few minutes. They heard the cart approach and stop, and then hurried footsteps and Rigand's head appeared through the hole in the floor.
"Bad news folks, the entrance is blocked, but my wife knows where we are and if I'm not back by the time the suns goes down she calls in he-" he stumbled and nearly fell as a huge blast shook the mountain. "That was dynamite!" he shouted as dust fell from the ceiling. They could here rumbles and crashes of cave ins throughout the mines.
"It was WHAT?" Gradar asked back in astonishment.
"Dynamite, there's someone down here using dynamite. That was a big blast, fools could have collapsed ever damn mine on the mountain!" The stocky little miner said, enraged.
"Did it collapse? Are we stuck in here even worse? Do you think…" Ria trailed off.
"That they, whoever they are, caused the rockslide with another bunch of dynamite?" Gradar asked, "Rigand do you own all the mines?"
"No, just this one, it's called the Pluto, there's also Jupiter and Saturn. Jupiter went out when an underground river swallowed it, it's right next door. Saturn is on the other side of the mountain. They're both own by some bug company, though I'm not sure if they even use the mines for anything, I've never seen them go in."
"Can you hear something?" Ria asked suddenly, they all went silent, from far away, steadily growing in volume; they could here a rushing noise, it sounded vaguely like…"water?" Ria asked softly.
"Rigand didn't you say that the Jupiter was flooded out?" Gradar asked, staring down through the hole.
"Yeah, not all of it mind you, just the lower levels…do you think the dynamite blast tore through form those level to here?" He asked suddenly in horror.
"Is that possible? I mean the dynamite would have to be placed in the water." Gradar said, the rushing was getting louder.
"Whether it's possible or not I think it just happened." Ria whispered, clutching her camera, her eyes wide with fear. Suddenly water began to come running up the mine, they could see it surround the cart down below in the mine. The level was rising fast, in seconds it was five feet deep and still rising. "Oh shit," she whispered, backing up against the wall.
The mine tunnel was large, seven feet high by five feet wide, but soon it was full of water and the water was starting to pool in the bottom of the chamber.
"Rigand is there a door? Something to seal it shut with?" Gradar asked, Rigand frowned, then pointed to a board he'd used to hoist their equipment up. Gradar grabbed the board and tried to cover the hoe with it, but it was too small and force of the rushing water below ripped it from his hands. The water kept coming in.
They backed up against the curved walls, trying to keep away form the rising water. Finally they felt it pool about their ankles, it was cold, nearly cold enough to become ice.
"There's a great underground cavern back under the Jupiter, four underground rivers flow into it, and the pressure is enormous. Usually it just flows out through another underground river, which comes out in an old reservoir. But the three towns around the reservoir were closed down, and the railway had no sue for it. It collapsed form disrepair eight months ago. It collapsed inwards though and mudslides sealed it shut along with tons of rock and cement form the reservoir wall, then the hillside collapsed around it, there's no way the water could have gotten through. It must have been building up pressure all these months in the cavern. That blast blew out one wall and now it's coming up through here." Rigand gasped as the water reached their knees.
"The people who set off the dynamite, they must have been killed. Any chance of getting out of here?" Gradar asked.
"Can you swim a mile underwater?" Rigand asked, looking desperate, the water was at their waists, suddenly the lights went out, dropping the room into pitch blackness. Shivering, with hypothermia setting in the three huddled in the dark, feeling the water rising about them, numbing them completely.
"Look! Down there in the tunnel, do you see a light?" Ria suddenly shouted, sure enough, in the dark they could no see and faint glow coming form down in the water, getting steadily brighter. They all backed up a bit more as the glow got even brighter and suddenly something came up out of the water, in the glow cast by it's large dive light they saw the person stand up and grin a them.
"It appears I have arrived in the proverbial nick of time."
**
Harry bent over the shimmering caldron, it was early morning and he had been up since yesterday at noon working on this potion. He'd slept for sixteen hours and still had a slight headache. The days and nights spent helping the order had taken a harsh toll, none of the people had had a blocking spell, agonized thoughts whirling through your mind or screaming and sobbing were enough to drive anyone mad, multiply that by the number of people rescued, 654 in all, and you've got one major headache. In the end it had been all he could do not to pass out form it all. Harry was very sensitive to magical vibrations, and he'd been able to feel small amounts of other's pain or worry, it was rather demoralizing to have it pressing in one you from all sides hour after hour.
The potion Harry was working on was going well, though since it was a new invention of his he couldn't be sure. He'd combined laxatives with pain and mental stress relievers with some healing substances and a special potion of his own making that had extreme effects on numbing subconscious pain to create this. A potion that could, if it worked right, awaken many of the people now in deep comas form excessive exposure to the cruciatus curse, mindless pain filled shells like Neville's parents might just have another chance with this. But by his calculations it wouldn't be ready for about two months yet. Finally deciding that the rather noxious fumes weren't helping his headache any Harry turned down the fire a bit and went outside.
Harry relaxed on the beach outside the cabin on the island, reading a book on phoenixes and sipping lemonade. He'd finished his homework in record time and he didn't especially want to go back to work on the elementals just yet. Finally he found the passage he was looking for.
From the time they are laid phoenix eggs need to be incubated at 100 degrees, Fahrenheit, for a month. The more gold flecks on the egg the closer it is to hatching.
Harry marked the page and closed the book; he put his lemonade back in the cabin and went into the cellar, which contained his potion lab as well as a bunch of portkeys. Harry picked the one off a shelf with his family crest on it, the circle with the eight points radiating from it in silver with a pair of gold griffins on either side. Carrying it he called Hedwig and caught her on his arm.
"Incantatem," he felt the familiar jerk and second later he was standing in front of the gates to Potter manor.
The Potter manor was huge, surrounded by a spiked black iron fence that was covered with black iron rods twisted into runes and weird animals. He touched the black box next to the gate with a hand print indentation in it and the gates swung open. Inside was a path of ground up seashells with flowers on both sides leading up to the house itself. The Potter family mansion was made from white stone flecked with silver, around the top were two gutters, one for water that always kept itself clean and the other planted with huge long trailing vines that had feathery purple flowers from February to September. The door s were a shiny wood with a goldish tint, Harry pushed them open and walked into the entrance room. Two stairways led up, one of his left and the other on his right, both ending on a large balcony overhead, below the balcony were the great door leading to the dining room and ground floor. Harry took the left staircase to the balcony. From here long hallways lit by huge windows went off to his right and left while ahead of him a third hallway led straight in. Harry took the middle hallway all the way to the back of the manor and then turned left, the entire left end of the manor was one huge tower, he climbed up to the top set of rooms which were his.
Harry came to a wall hanging with a griffin on it, "Cornish Pixie," the hanging turned into a doorway.
Inside was a large waiting room with tall chairs along the walls. From here there were three choices, the living room, the office, and Harry's room upstairs. Harry went into the office.
Inside was a huge office, rose wood floors and desk, a dark red carpet on the floor, Tiger was snoozing in a pool of sunshine and opened one eye as Harry entered, Harry went over to the fire place in which there was a large metal bowl sitting. Inside the bowl was an egg. A phoenix egg to be exact, that Harry had found while helping a patrol that was gathering information on Voldemort's Honshu base. Voldemort had killed both the parents and the other egg, but Harry had saved this one. He was relieved to see that over the past three days the number of gold flecks and grown, until there was little white, as he watched one white sliver slowly began to turn to gold. He wasn't sure how old it was, but it would be hatching sometime soon, it would be completely gold by tomorrow evening, then add five days.
Assured by the amount of white that it wouldn't hatch in his absence Harry went to a painting of the manor hung on a wall in the living room.
"Decendius," it opened up to show what looked like a closet, Harry stepped in and suddenly it winked out of existence as the door shut.
It reappeared again behind a similar portrait in the kitchens Harry stepped out and smiled as he was the three house elves, Gady, Cobby, and Lismy sipping tea.
"Master Harry! What can we do for you sir?" Gady asked him, jumping up.
"Some lunch would be nice Gady, thank you." Harry said, smiling at the little elf who went scurrying back into another room and emerged in minutes with a plate with a sandwich and an orange on it. Harry thanked her again and left the way he had come.
Back in his office Harry went over and sat down by the fire, reading further in the book.
Once the egg is entirely gold it takes five days until it hatches-
Harry was cut off as an owl flew in with a letter bearing the Phoenix's seal.
Dear Harry,
We have received news that Voldemort is concentrating enormous amounts of attention on an old mine in the United States. We are not sure why or what he wants there, but it is in the general area of one of the eight points from which all magic flows. We are very worried that he might try to destroy many of these points and then influence the others so that none but himself and his people have any magic. As you might guess this si of great concern. The general public doesn't know anything about this, they all believe that magic was in your blood, it's not, well not all of it. Wizards and witches have an aura with unique attunement to these sources of magic. We don't know who put these things where they are or even what they are. Hundreds have tried to find them and failed, those that have…well they lost their minds and souls, rather like a dementors kiss. It has long been believed that the people of Atlantis, the true first wizards, put them there shortly before whatever it was that destroyed their world happened. It's a very long theory. In short we're sending in four people form the special projects division, we'd like you to go with them to help out. This will probably take two days, no more. Owl me back with your answer.
Sirius.
Harry sighed quietly, well the egg wasn't even completely gold yet, so that was five days plus a few, of course he'd go.
**
Ria gaped in shock at the figure who had emerged form the dark, certain that this was some figure come from her hypothermic imagination.
"My name is Harry Potter and I will be your guide on your way out of here." The man held up three masks and handed each of them one, then he helped them strap onto their back a canister of air.
"How did you get here?"
"I've been diving for most of my life, I just sold a cabin my family owned up around these parts. I went to clean it and get my diving gear with some friends. On the way back we stopped to see the mines and we here when the blast happened. The sheriff asked if I could help out perhaps. My friends and the police and some paramedics are waiting for us at the nearest dry tunnel which is-" here he paused to examine a small gadget attached to his wrist. "A mile and a half down the mine. The air tanks have enough in each for three hours, as you've noticed those long ropes connect all of you to me, I'll lead the way you'll follow. Do any of you have any diving experience?"
"I'm a qualified diver," dr. Gradar supplied.
"You'll come last with the second light then, I'll take the first, come on." With that he showed them how to put on the masks and breath with them, then he vanished below the waters, as soon as the rope between them was four feet out Rigand followed, another four feet and Ria ducked beneath the water, ahead she could see the glow of a light, soon behind her came another glow, lighting up the water around them.
It was eerie to swim through the mines; they could see the rail cart tracks, old shovels and gear left by the miners. It was cold though and soon the three found themselves nearly passing out. At this point their savior stopped, suddenly everything went dark.
Harry climbed out of the water and levitated the three people out behind him. He'd knocked them out to make it easier.
"How are they?" Grace asked, unstrapping the air tanks and masks.
"Better once I got the warming spells on them. We'd best take them down to that small local hospital I saw on the way up." He looked around; soon the rest came running over.
A half-hour later Harry and the Special Project Division left the town and headed up to the campsite they had made on the mountain side. The three would be okay, the sheriff just wouldn't stop shaking their hands and the entire town had been treating them like heroes. Back at the campsite they immediately went into action, everything was packed up and together they went back down the mine. Not bothering with muggle things Harry used magic to get back to the chamber and remove the bodies and skull. For some strange reason no one was at all sure of the skull's power hadn't affected Harry, he felt much more powerful around it, but nothing bad. On the Phoenix's advice none of the other team members were allowed to see or get within ten feet of the skull.
The mines had been closed, Harry, worried about what might happen when the skull, being one of the sources of magic, was moved, had a hidden chamber deep within the rock at the mountaintop prepared for it. Then he went back in.
Inside a huge bubble Harry teleported out the bodies. Then he used a complete copying spell to copy the writing and indeed the entire chamber. Once they got back to the Fortress this could be expanded again onto the walls of another chamber so they could see it, recreating the original. Then he turned to the skull.
Harry examined the problem of how to move it, he got the feeling that it was calling for him to touch it, but Harry resisted its call, time to experiment later. He levitated it and the pedestal up, that was when he saw the dip in the obsidian pedestal filled with blood that had been dried there for centuries, intrigued he examined it closer, careful not to touch the skull. The skull sat in the center of some symbol, the symbol was large and visible around the edges of the skull, in fact…Harry put it back down and looked at it from directly above. He stifled a gasp of astonishment at what he saw, the skull sat dead centered in a copper circle, around the circle were eight points, the same symbol as on his palm, the same as the Potter family crest.
Haha! The mystery deepens. Please review and tell me what you think.
Chapter 3 Skulls and Symbols
Ria Evenstoke examined the mountain terrain as she waited for the others to arrive. She had been sent here to investigate some strange writings found in a secret chamber in a mine. Eager to see them she'd rushed out immediately, the rest of her crew would be arriving tomorrow to help out. Some professional archeologist had also been brought in to aid; apparently there were bodies and a weird skull in the chamber as well.
Ria had never been to the mountains before, growing up in new York she'd moved out as soon as possible and gone to Africa to work on some cave paintings that seemed to have a form of written language in them. From there she'd traveled the world, but she'd never really been up on a mountain. The sky was a brilliant blue and off in the distance a lake glimmered. Finally she heard the approach of an automobile and turned in time to see a rather beat up mini van come around the corner, followed by an old dark blue jeep that looked like it had seen better days. Out of the jeep jumped a middle-aged man with tanned skin and messy brown hair. From the van emerged another man with dark gray hair and a slightly crooked nose.
"Ah you must be Dr. Evenstoke, Dr. Adam Gradar." The gray haired man said, offering his hand.
"Hello, thank you for coming, I'm David Rigand," said the rather short brown haired man; he looked very excited and a little nervous.
"Can we head straight up to the mine?" Ria asked him.
"Of course, we'd best take the jeep though, it'll be safer for the mountain road." Ria and Adam both loaded their gear into the jeep; Rigand's wife came out of the house to see them off.
"The rail cart can go anywhere through here, it's great for moving things about." Rigand explained, the small miner was in his element showing his guests about his mine. "Here's the site, it's okay the ladder will hold, just up through there. Be careful when you climb off the ladder, go to the left, the artifacts are on the other side." He instructed as Dr. Gradar climbed up, holding up a lamp.
Once inside they set up electric light to shine on the walls.
"Incredible," these inscriptions, they're unlike anything I've ever seen. Ria murmured to the other two as she examined the writing. "I've seen just about every known language, modern and otherwise, but nothing like this."
"Do you think you can decipher it?" Dr. Gradar asked as he bent to study the obsidian skull, careful not to touch it.
"Well it's not pictographic, not even remotely, 28 characters as far as I can…no make that thirty. Then an entirely different set, numbers maybe? Ten of them, well it appears to be alphabetic. I'll take some photos and copy some of it down and run it through the computers back at the lab, it may just be really arcane. Then again it could be fake."
"Why do you say that? Dr. Gradar asked, indicating to Rigand to hand him a brush so he could remove the dust that caked everything.
"It's a very simple language, just lines basically. They must have used some sort of acid to engrave it, and there's traces of something…perhaps some primitive ink." She stepped back and took her camera out of her pack and began to take pictures while Rigand moved the light from one spot to the next.
"These bodies are incredibly old, they must have worn a lot of copper and turquoise in life, there's small ornaments scattered about them. This skull however, is the most amazing piece of artwork I've ever seen. Obsidian is very difficult to carve, it breaks easily, yet this tone is perfectly smooth, not a chip mark on it. Rigand-" He was cut off as suddenly the ground shook and a rumble of rolling rocks echoed about.
"Oh damn, rockslide, I'll go see if it's blocked the entrance." Rigand said and climbed down the ladder, a few moments later they heard the cart starting up as he rode it out of the mine.
Rigand was back in a few minutes. They heard the cart approach and stop, and then hurried footsteps and Rigand's head appeared through the hole in the floor.
"Bad news folks, the entrance is blocked, but my wife knows where we are and if I'm not back by the time the suns goes down she calls in he-" he stumbled and nearly fell as a huge blast shook the mountain. "That was dynamite!" he shouted as dust fell from the ceiling. They could here rumbles and crashes of cave ins throughout the mines.
"It was WHAT?" Gradar asked back in astonishment.
"Dynamite, there's someone down here using dynamite. That was a big blast, fools could have collapsed ever damn mine on the mountain!" The stocky little miner said, enraged.
"Did it collapse? Are we stuck in here even worse? Do you think…" Ria trailed off.
"That they, whoever they are, caused the rockslide with another bunch of dynamite?" Gradar asked, "Rigand do you own all the mines?"
"No, just this one, it's called the Pluto, there's also Jupiter and Saturn. Jupiter went out when an underground river swallowed it, it's right next door. Saturn is on the other side of the mountain. They're both own by some bug company, though I'm not sure if they even use the mines for anything, I've never seen them go in."
"Can you hear something?" Ria asked suddenly, they all went silent, from far away, steadily growing in volume; they could here a rushing noise, it sounded vaguely like…"water?" Ria asked softly.
"Rigand didn't you say that the Jupiter was flooded out?" Gradar asked, staring down through the hole.
"Yeah, not all of it mind you, just the lower levels…do you think the dynamite blast tore through form those level to here?" He asked suddenly in horror.
"Is that possible? I mean the dynamite would have to be placed in the water." Gradar said, the rushing was getting louder.
"Whether it's possible or not I think it just happened." Ria whispered, clutching her camera, her eyes wide with fear. Suddenly water began to come running up the mine, they could see it surround the cart down below in the mine. The level was rising fast, in seconds it was five feet deep and still rising. "Oh shit," she whispered, backing up against the wall.
The mine tunnel was large, seven feet high by five feet wide, but soon it was full of water and the water was starting to pool in the bottom of the chamber.
"Rigand is there a door? Something to seal it shut with?" Gradar asked, Rigand frowned, then pointed to a board he'd used to hoist their equipment up. Gradar grabbed the board and tried to cover the hoe with it, but it was too small and force of the rushing water below ripped it from his hands. The water kept coming in.
They backed up against the curved walls, trying to keep away form the rising water. Finally they felt it pool about their ankles, it was cold, nearly cold enough to become ice.
"There's a great underground cavern back under the Jupiter, four underground rivers flow into it, and the pressure is enormous. Usually it just flows out through another underground river, which comes out in an old reservoir. But the three towns around the reservoir were closed down, and the railway had no sue for it. It collapsed form disrepair eight months ago. It collapsed inwards though and mudslides sealed it shut along with tons of rock and cement form the reservoir wall, then the hillside collapsed around it, there's no way the water could have gotten through. It must have been building up pressure all these months in the cavern. That blast blew out one wall and now it's coming up through here." Rigand gasped as the water reached their knees.
"The people who set off the dynamite, they must have been killed. Any chance of getting out of here?" Gradar asked.
"Can you swim a mile underwater?" Rigand asked, looking desperate, the water was at their waists, suddenly the lights went out, dropping the room into pitch blackness. Shivering, with hypothermia setting in the three huddled in the dark, feeling the water rising about them, numbing them completely.
"Look! Down there in the tunnel, do you see a light?" Ria suddenly shouted, sure enough, in the dark they could no see and faint glow coming form down in the water, getting steadily brighter. They all backed up a bit more as the glow got even brighter and suddenly something came up out of the water, in the glow cast by it's large dive light they saw the person stand up and grin a them.
"It appears I have arrived in the proverbial nick of time."
**
Harry bent over the shimmering caldron, it was early morning and he had been up since yesterday at noon working on this potion. He'd slept for sixteen hours and still had a slight headache. The days and nights spent helping the order had taken a harsh toll, none of the people had had a blocking spell, agonized thoughts whirling through your mind or screaming and sobbing were enough to drive anyone mad, multiply that by the number of people rescued, 654 in all, and you've got one major headache. In the end it had been all he could do not to pass out form it all. Harry was very sensitive to magical vibrations, and he'd been able to feel small amounts of other's pain or worry, it was rather demoralizing to have it pressing in one you from all sides hour after hour.
The potion Harry was working on was going well, though since it was a new invention of his he couldn't be sure. He'd combined laxatives with pain and mental stress relievers with some healing substances and a special potion of his own making that had extreme effects on numbing subconscious pain to create this. A potion that could, if it worked right, awaken many of the people now in deep comas form excessive exposure to the cruciatus curse, mindless pain filled shells like Neville's parents might just have another chance with this. But by his calculations it wouldn't be ready for about two months yet. Finally deciding that the rather noxious fumes weren't helping his headache any Harry turned down the fire a bit and went outside.
Harry relaxed on the beach outside the cabin on the island, reading a book on phoenixes and sipping lemonade. He'd finished his homework in record time and he didn't especially want to go back to work on the elementals just yet. Finally he found the passage he was looking for.
From the time they are laid phoenix eggs need to be incubated at 100 degrees, Fahrenheit, for a month. The more gold flecks on the egg the closer it is to hatching.
Harry marked the page and closed the book; he put his lemonade back in the cabin and went into the cellar, which contained his potion lab as well as a bunch of portkeys. Harry picked the one off a shelf with his family crest on it, the circle with the eight points radiating from it in silver with a pair of gold griffins on either side. Carrying it he called Hedwig and caught her on his arm.
"Incantatem," he felt the familiar jerk and second later he was standing in front of the gates to Potter manor.
The Potter manor was huge, surrounded by a spiked black iron fence that was covered with black iron rods twisted into runes and weird animals. He touched the black box next to the gate with a hand print indentation in it and the gates swung open. Inside was a path of ground up seashells with flowers on both sides leading up to the house itself. The Potter family mansion was made from white stone flecked with silver, around the top were two gutters, one for water that always kept itself clean and the other planted with huge long trailing vines that had feathery purple flowers from February to September. The door s were a shiny wood with a goldish tint, Harry pushed them open and walked into the entrance room. Two stairways led up, one of his left and the other on his right, both ending on a large balcony overhead, below the balcony were the great door leading to the dining room and ground floor. Harry took the left staircase to the balcony. From here long hallways lit by huge windows went off to his right and left while ahead of him a third hallway led straight in. Harry took the middle hallway all the way to the back of the manor and then turned left, the entire left end of the manor was one huge tower, he climbed up to the top set of rooms which were his.
Harry came to a wall hanging with a griffin on it, "Cornish Pixie," the hanging turned into a doorway.
Inside was a large waiting room with tall chairs along the walls. From here there were three choices, the living room, the office, and Harry's room upstairs. Harry went into the office.
Inside was a huge office, rose wood floors and desk, a dark red carpet on the floor, Tiger was snoozing in a pool of sunshine and opened one eye as Harry entered, Harry went over to the fire place in which there was a large metal bowl sitting. Inside the bowl was an egg. A phoenix egg to be exact, that Harry had found while helping a patrol that was gathering information on Voldemort's Honshu base. Voldemort had killed both the parents and the other egg, but Harry had saved this one. He was relieved to see that over the past three days the number of gold flecks and grown, until there was little white, as he watched one white sliver slowly began to turn to gold. He wasn't sure how old it was, but it would be hatching sometime soon, it would be completely gold by tomorrow evening, then add five days.
Assured by the amount of white that it wouldn't hatch in his absence Harry went to a painting of the manor hung on a wall in the living room.
"Decendius," it opened up to show what looked like a closet, Harry stepped in and suddenly it winked out of existence as the door shut.
It reappeared again behind a similar portrait in the kitchens Harry stepped out and smiled as he was the three house elves, Gady, Cobby, and Lismy sipping tea.
"Master Harry! What can we do for you sir?" Gady asked him, jumping up.
"Some lunch would be nice Gady, thank you." Harry said, smiling at the little elf who went scurrying back into another room and emerged in minutes with a plate with a sandwich and an orange on it. Harry thanked her again and left the way he had come.
Back in his office Harry went over and sat down by the fire, reading further in the book.
Once the egg is entirely gold it takes five days until it hatches-
Harry was cut off as an owl flew in with a letter bearing the Phoenix's seal.
Dear Harry,
We have received news that Voldemort is concentrating enormous amounts of attention on an old mine in the United States. We are not sure why or what he wants there, but it is in the general area of one of the eight points from which all magic flows. We are very worried that he might try to destroy many of these points and then influence the others so that none but himself and his people have any magic. As you might guess this si of great concern. The general public doesn't know anything about this, they all believe that magic was in your blood, it's not, well not all of it. Wizards and witches have an aura with unique attunement to these sources of magic. We don't know who put these things where they are or even what they are. Hundreds have tried to find them and failed, those that have…well they lost their minds and souls, rather like a dementors kiss. It has long been believed that the people of Atlantis, the true first wizards, put them there shortly before whatever it was that destroyed their world happened. It's a very long theory. In short we're sending in four people form the special projects division, we'd like you to go with them to help out. This will probably take two days, no more. Owl me back with your answer.
Sirius.
Harry sighed quietly, well the egg wasn't even completely gold yet, so that was five days plus a few, of course he'd go.
**
Ria gaped in shock at the figure who had emerged form the dark, certain that this was some figure come from her hypothermic imagination.
"My name is Harry Potter and I will be your guide on your way out of here." The man held up three masks and handed each of them one, then he helped them strap onto their back a canister of air.
"How did you get here?"
"I've been diving for most of my life, I just sold a cabin my family owned up around these parts. I went to clean it and get my diving gear with some friends. On the way back we stopped to see the mines and we here when the blast happened. The sheriff asked if I could help out perhaps. My friends and the police and some paramedics are waiting for us at the nearest dry tunnel which is-" here he paused to examine a small gadget attached to his wrist. "A mile and a half down the mine. The air tanks have enough in each for three hours, as you've noticed those long ropes connect all of you to me, I'll lead the way you'll follow. Do any of you have any diving experience?"
"I'm a qualified diver," dr. Gradar supplied.
"You'll come last with the second light then, I'll take the first, come on." With that he showed them how to put on the masks and breath with them, then he vanished below the waters, as soon as the rope between them was four feet out Rigand followed, another four feet and Ria ducked beneath the water, ahead she could see the glow of a light, soon behind her came another glow, lighting up the water around them.
It was eerie to swim through the mines; they could see the rail cart tracks, old shovels and gear left by the miners. It was cold though and soon the three found themselves nearly passing out. At this point their savior stopped, suddenly everything went dark.
Harry climbed out of the water and levitated the three people out behind him. He'd knocked them out to make it easier.
"How are they?" Grace asked, unstrapping the air tanks and masks.
"Better once I got the warming spells on them. We'd best take them down to that small local hospital I saw on the way up." He looked around; soon the rest came running over.
A half-hour later Harry and the Special Project Division left the town and headed up to the campsite they had made on the mountain side. The three would be okay, the sheriff just wouldn't stop shaking their hands and the entire town had been treating them like heroes. Back at the campsite they immediately went into action, everything was packed up and together they went back down the mine. Not bothering with muggle things Harry used magic to get back to the chamber and remove the bodies and skull. For some strange reason no one was at all sure of the skull's power hadn't affected Harry, he felt much more powerful around it, but nothing bad. On the Phoenix's advice none of the other team members were allowed to see or get within ten feet of the skull.
The mines had been closed, Harry, worried about what might happen when the skull, being one of the sources of magic, was moved, had a hidden chamber deep within the rock at the mountaintop prepared for it. Then he went back in.
Inside a huge bubble Harry teleported out the bodies. Then he used a complete copying spell to copy the writing and indeed the entire chamber. Once they got back to the Fortress this could be expanded again onto the walls of another chamber so they could see it, recreating the original. Then he turned to the skull.
Harry examined the problem of how to move it, he got the feeling that it was calling for him to touch it, but Harry resisted its call, time to experiment later. He levitated it and the pedestal up, that was when he saw the dip in the obsidian pedestal filled with blood that had been dried there for centuries, intrigued he examined it closer, careful not to touch the skull. The skull sat in the center of some symbol, the symbol was large and visible around the edges of the skull, in fact…Harry put it back down and looked at it from directly above. He stifled a gasp of astonishment at what he saw, the skull sat dead centered in a copper circle, around the circle were eight points, the same symbol as on his palm, the same as the Potter family crest.
Haha! The mystery deepens. Please review and tell me what you think.