Chapter 9 Legacy of Atlantis
"On the planet Atlantis, whose location we do not know, a highly intelligent race evolved. With the race, humans, evolved magic. All the humans had it, and it spread, before long something close to half of all creatures of Atlantis had magic. The Atlantian people were highly advanced, perhaps even more so than we are today. For the Atlantian people learned from the past, their laws, as we know from the inscriptions, were harsh, almost exceedingly so. Theft, murder, were things of the past. War was inconceivable. They were not idealists, but every life form strives for perfection. Their rulers were the most powerful among them, the more power you had the more responsibility you had to those with less power, it was a system with very little room for error. Their world was a dangerous one, there were many plants and animals, magical and not, that could kill, everyone was taught the basics of fighting at a young age. I won't get into their education system, aside to say that it was near perfect. The planet was like earth, all the same types of terrain, Atlantis; the planet itself had been shaped by the early generations of humans so that it would be better for their descendants. There were three large landmasses, all of equal size and each capable of supporting an equal population. The group at the top of the system, the rulers of the planet, were aided by officials elected from each continent, twenty per continent to help with the decision making and a huge host of minor officials, each with their own department in which they worked. The Atlantians thought ahead, much more than anyone on this planet ever does. They did everything within their power to keep the planet free of pollutants and unnecessary toxins, they were extremely careful with the environment, keeping careful check on the populations of every species, plant and animal, and as a result of all this concern they were highly advanced in the sciences. The Atlantians decided early on that they wanted to maintain a balance on their planet; therefore they were careful not to overtax any resource. They kept their population at or below a strictly regulated 50,000 individuals, not one over. Their only true enemy was another race of space-faring non-magic militaristic conquering species originating from the nearest solar system, which wasn't all that far away. Apparently this race attacked the Atlantians in the hopes of taking over their planet, the name of this species was the Bachians, they had basically destroyed their own planet and were looking for another, the Atlantians, after asking for peace numerous times, were left with no choice but to destroy them when the entire Bachian population attacked them all at once."
Harry paused, watching reporters scribble furiously and seeing the keen interest on the faces of everyone.
"The Atlantian people were highly sophisticated astronomers, and one day their astronomers caught sight of a new comet in the area. After watching it they tracked its course, and figured that it was heading straight for their planet. The comet was in fact three comets, all traveling together only about a hundred miles apart. The tracking showed that the biggest, sixty eight square miles of rock, would hit Atlantis. At the time Atlantis was already unstable from a dozen volcanic eruptions in the past four months. Their specialists figured the effects of the impact, it would completely destroy the planet's surface. Monster tidal waves, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, fires, etc." He paused again, watching the crowd, sensing that they were completely wrapped up in his tale, their ancestors, nearly perfect, powerful, but unable to save their planet. "The leaders of the time decided that they would have to leave, fortunately they knew of another planet, with no intelligent life forms, that they could live on. Earth. They had one year until the comet struck, so they gathered their entire population, 48,000 at the time. They gathered specimens from every plant and animal species, for where they were going there were none of these, in fact Earth at the time had very very few life forms at all. There was one dilemma in their mass exodus, the only way to reach earth was to travel in another dimension, through space and time, the entrance to would be created by the ruler of Atlantis, for she was the only one powerful enough. But no one person had the power to move them on their own. The eight most powerful members of society together did though. But it would take all their powers, and their life-force to do so. These eight knew that it was the only way to save their people. So everyone was gathered together on a hill, then the eight stood around the hill in a circle, al evenly spaced out and began the spell. Our ancestors, the Atlantians, were transported to earth successfully, else we wouldn't be here. The eight others died in the effort, and the trip through time and space ripped the powers off nearly half of the Atlantians. So they arrived, on a new planet, and only half of them had any magic left."
He waited, watching his audience; the story had been a shock to him as well the first time he'd read it.
"However because they had all lived in such an organized and perfected lifestyle they were quick to recover and shape a new life here on earth. In memory of their planet they called it Atlantis. Their eventual dream was to return home, and so they kept careful records and the knowledge of their planet's location. Then after nearly a thousand years here disaster struck again. The same as last time, the comets, the two that were left, had returned. Again they had warning, nearly six months, and in those six months the Royal Family, the only ones with any power these days, planned. They knew that only one of the two comets was on a collision course, but it was nearly as big as the one which had destroyed their home. And this time there was no other planet they knew of to run to. They carved eight skulls of pure obsidian; it is very good for storing power, into these the king drained his life-blood, equally divided among the skulls. Then one family member put all their lifeblood into each skull. A few days before the comet hit three family members went to the chamber in which the skulls had been placed. Here they drank a special potion, that would mix with their blood in seconds and give it the properties it would need to save Earth and start the skulls working. They then drained a large amount, 3/4, of their blood into the pedestals on which the skulls sat."
Harry picked up the pedestal and outlined the small carved out ring with his finger. "A few days later the comet hit. As we know it killed nearly every living thing. The Atlantians that survived reverted to the cave-man ways to survive, magic was forgotten. Bu the skulls worked, magic itself still existed, even though those who had held it were dead, and all the magical plants and animals from Atlantis-the planet, survived." Harry put the pedestal down and waited, in a few seconds questions were thrown at him.
"Wait, wait, not yet please. In the chamber in which the skull was found the Atlantians left us…a map…a star map…a way to find our home planet. Their goal was to help their ancestors find their way home, what they didn't foresee was what happened, the civilization of muggles and magic folk that evolve din their place. Inside the skull, floating in the life blood, I found a perfect globe of Atlantis, the planet. Showing all its landmasses and oceans and rivers, showing how dedicated to their planet they were." Harry turned to the wall behind him, suddenly a map dropped down form the ceiling, upon which was drawn a map of Atlantis, as it had been all those thousands of year ago where their ancestors had fled it. Cameras flashed rapidly as he stepped aside, giving them all a clear view of it.
After a few minutes he returned and called up one of the specialists he'd asked to come. The best astronomer on the planet Ben Dralim was in his early fifties, medium height with graying brown/blond hair, his gray/green eyes twinkling, his laboratory housed a score of the best telescopes in existence.
"This is Ben Dralim, a few days ago I gave him and his teams the challenge of trying to find Atlantis, funding for the project was provided by all the Ministry's, showing a rare streak of cooperativeness." Here everyone chuckled, Harry stepped aside and sat down in the back as the respected astronomer came forward.
"Now we've only had a few days so far to work on this, but I have to say I'm honored to be the first to be given a try at it. The Order of the Phoenix's SPD team has painstakingly duplicated the entire chamber, since the entire thing is part of the map; I understand that from now on all work on the chamber and skull has been turned over to Mr. Potter so I hope he can help should we run into difficulty. The map itself is 3D, and you can literally walk inside it, since it encompasses the entire chamber, seventy- four square feet of wall space. It is unlike any map I have ever seen. It appears to be a view of the night sky as seen form the naked eye, probably from a mountaintop. Where we don't know. It shows many stars all over the ceiling, as they would have looked to the designers when they looked t the night sky. However that was thousands of years ago and the stars do change. They also left us a huge mathematical problem, showing the distance…I think, to the solar system, or general area in which we can find the planet Atlantis. We are trying to find this section of space the walls depict, probably the night sky above the mountain in which the chamber was found. A very difficult problem, most of the constellations we know of today didn't exist. We know that the planet is in this galaxy; we know that it is in the same arm of the galaxy we are, and that's basically it. We're trying our hardest and I will keep you updated on our success." There was applause a she sat down again, Harry stood to take questions.
"How has everything been going with the blood tests?" Everyone stopped to listen.
"Not very well, I have tested 3,477 blood samples, and I haven't found any that can last longer than a half hour, that being achieved by Albus Dumbledore. I will continue to collect blood samples and test them, I am convinced that our ancestors wouldn't create such a thing that none of us could use because of the skulls powers."
"Have you shown any ill effects?"
"Aside from a headache from examining labels on small phials of blood no, nothing." Harry answered with a smile.
"And phoenixes are not harmed by it?"
"Correct, unicorns, all kinds, and dragons are not either." Harry said, wondering if he should do more tests on animals. Pain flashed across his scar, Harry kept his outward mask on, inside he searched frantically, but nothing was happening near by, Voldemort must have found some new victims. Harry told Sirius quickly before the next question was asked.
"Have you tried elf blood?"
"No, not yet. And on that meter, elves and humans use dot be the same species, the Atlantians were a cross between human and elf, through selective breeding (basically) it ended up dividing into two species." This created a shocked silence. "Trolls, giants, goblins, they were always a different species indigenous to earth that evolved with magic after a few thousand years." Harry added, making a memo to ask Larquan, Kylara, for blood samples.
This went on for nearly two hours, after which the guests left and Harry, by now very tired, left the stage.
"Wonderful Harry, wonderful, it's so nice to hear your speeches, you're so energetic." Miranda said, smiling at him happily.
"Lord Phoenix we have the death eaters down in the dungeons." Reported an agent of the red patrol. Miranda's mood, ever mercurial, changed in seconds from happy to hissing mad.
"Can't wait to hear what Skeeter has to say. She wrote an article yesterday calling you a corrupt, drunken, madman for not attacking Voldemort's base." She told to Sirius, her eyes flashing dangerously. Sirius frowned, anger glinting in his eyes, anger that was mirrored in the mind o f everyone else there.
Hope he lets Miranda torture that nasty b*tch!
Might as well interrogate her and throw her in a pit of baby dragons. That had to be Charlie Weasley. Harry, realizing suddenly that he was reading their minds, clamped down his shields, which were weak after holding back the thoughts of the crowd for hours.
"I'll head back to Hogwarts, how many did you get?" He asked, eager to be away from the constant press of minds.
"Three, one got away though."
"Oh no! Skeeter, she can transform into a beetle!" Harry said suddenly, Sirius sent out a quick message to the agents on prison guard duty to check on Skeeter.
Check Skeeter's cell, she can transform into a beetle, don't let anything out of there! Harry frowned, his shields really weren't strong enough, he needed time to repair them, meditation would help a lot. Three more agents came up, now the pressure on his shields nearly hurt, Harry turned and hurried outside, he left the Fortress in a quick blast of lightning. Suddenly pain streaked through his scar, he stumbled, appearing in the courtyard of Potter Mansion. Harry swore angrily, cursing Voldemort in a variety of different languages before going inside, best not go to Hogwarts tonight, he might be needed elsewhere quickly if Voldemort attacked.
**
Harry was floating in darkness, with tired resignation he relaxed, knowing the dream would take him where it would anyway. Dark mists swirled around, then they turned red, and then a picture solidified. A farmhouse, situated at the foot of a hill out in the middle of nowhere. Darkness fell around it, figures appeared around the hill, they all hurried into the farmhouse, a sickening darkness washed around him. Searing pain across his scar. Harry struggled and managed to gain a tiny element of control over the dream, but then it's power scooped him up again. Harry went inside, helpless to stop the dreams, down a flight of stairs…red liquid covered them, and into the basement.
Cells, eight of them in a circle, the circle was about fifteen feet across. Death eaters were sitting on top of the cell roofs or standing behind barricades between the cement cells. Two doors opened, from each emerged a young girl, about eight Harry guessed, each was armed with a knife.
Voldemort, seated on a high throne atop one of the cells, death eaters sitting about his feet. His mad red eyes gleaming, he was clearly enjoying this. Fiery pain ran through Harry's scar, it felt like a red hot brand on his forehead.
"Now girls, a good battle, first one to die looses. Winner gets a reward, maybe some candy?" Voldemort said, in an oddly kind voice that really didn't sound right.
"I don't want to fight!" one of the girls said, pouting. "Where's my papa? What happened to him?"
"Needn't worry about papa!" Someone called out.
"He's alright for now young'un." The death eaters laughed.
"Oh yes, very alright…alright dead." This last was said in a whisper.
"He's safe." Voldemort said simply.
"I don't want to fight! I don't hate her!" the other little girl shouted.
"Do you want to be powerful?" Voldemort asked them both. There was a short silence, and then both nodded slowly, uncertain. "Well then, how do you think anyone gets to be powerful these days? You've got fight for it." Then his voice turned menacing, "if you do not fight you will die terribly, so I would suggest you try the stronger of you will be allowed to live, but you must kill the other. Let the battle begin!"
Harry tried to hit Voldemort as the two girls moved toward each other timidly. Death eaters cheered and jeered at their captives. Harry fought the dream furiously.
Suddenly he woke up, sitting upright, shaking with anger.
Sorry, I don't like being mean to children, but I don't think my other stories were quite dark enough. And I need to kill a lot of people to make the plot work. Review!
"On the planet Atlantis, whose location we do not know, a highly intelligent race evolved. With the race, humans, evolved magic. All the humans had it, and it spread, before long something close to half of all creatures of Atlantis had magic. The Atlantian people were highly advanced, perhaps even more so than we are today. For the Atlantian people learned from the past, their laws, as we know from the inscriptions, were harsh, almost exceedingly so. Theft, murder, were things of the past. War was inconceivable. They were not idealists, but every life form strives for perfection. Their rulers were the most powerful among them, the more power you had the more responsibility you had to those with less power, it was a system with very little room for error. Their world was a dangerous one, there were many plants and animals, magical and not, that could kill, everyone was taught the basics of fighting at a young age. I won't get into their education system, aside to say that it was near perfect. The planet was like earth, all the same types of terrain, Atlantis; the planet itself had been shaped by the early generations of humans so that it would be better for their descendants. There were three large landmasses, all of equal size and each capable of supporting an equal population. The group at the top of the system, the rulers of the planet, were aided by officials elected from each continent, twenty per continent to help with the decision making and a huge host of minor officials, each with their own department in which they worked. The Atlantians thought ahead, much more than anyone on this planet ever does. They did everything within their power to keep the planet free of pollutants and unnecessary toxins, they were extremely careful with the environment, keeping careful check on the populations of every species, plant and animal, and as a result of all this concern they were highly advanced in the sciences. The Atlantians decided early on that they wanted to maintain a balance on their planet; therefore they were careful not to overtax any resource. They kept their population at or below a strictly regulated 50,000 individuals, not one over. Their only true enemy was another race of space-faring non-magic militaristic conquering species originating from the nearest solar system, which wasn't all that far away. Apparently this race attacked the Atlantians in the hopes of taking over their planet, the name of this species was the Bachians, they had basically destroyed their own planet and were looking for another, the Atlantians, after asking for peace numerous times, were left with no choice but to destroy them when the entire Bachian population attacked them all at once."
Harry paused, watching reporters scribble furiously and seeing the keen interest on the faces of everyone.
"The Atlantian people were highly sophisticated astronomers, and one day their astronomers caught sight of a new comet in the area. After watching it they tracked its course, and figured that it was heading straight for their planet. The comet was in fact three comets, all traveling together only about a hundred miles apart. The tracking showed that the biggest, sixty eight square miles of rock, would hit Atlantis. At the time Atlantis was already unstable from a dozen volcanic eruptions in the past four months. Their specialists figured the effects of the impact, it would completely destroy the planet's surface. Monster tidal waves, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, fires, etc." He paused again, watching the crowd, sensing that they were completely wrapped up in his tale, their ancestors, nearly perfect, powerful, but unable to save their planet. "The leaders of the time decided that they would have to leave, fortunately they knew of another planet, with no intelligent life forms, that they could live on. Earth. They had one year until the comet struck, so they gathered their entire population, 48,000 at the time. They gathered specimens from every plant and animal species, for where they were going there were none of these, in fact Earth at the time had very very few life forms at all. There was one dilemma in their mass exodus, the only way to reach earth was to travel in another dimension, through space and time, the entrance to would be created by the ruler of Atlantis, for she was the only one powerful enough. But no one person had the power to move them on their own. The eight most powerful members of society together did though. But it would take all their powers, and their life-force to do so. These eight knew that it was the only way to save their people. So everyone was gathered together on a hill, then the eight stood around the hill in a circle, al evenly spaced out and began the spell. Our ancestors, the Atlantians, were transported to earth successfully, else we wouldn't be here. The eight others died in the effort, and the trip through time and space ripped the powers off nearly half of the Atlantians. So they arrived, on a new planet, and only half of them had any magic left."
He waited, watching his audience; the story had been a shock to him as well the first time he'd read it.
"However because they had all lived in such an organized and perfected lifestyle they were quick to recover and shape a new life here on earth. In memory of their planet they called it Atlantis. Their eventual dream was to return home, and so they kept careful records and the knowledge of their planet's location. Then after nearly a thousand years here disaster struck again. The same as last time, the comets, the two that were left, had returned. Again they had warning, nearly six months, and in those six months the Royal Family, the only ones with any power these days, planned. They knew that only one of the two comets was on a collision course, but it was nearly as big as the one which had destroyed their home. And this time there was no other planet they knew of to run to. They carved eight skulls of pure obsidian; it is very good for storing power, into these the king drained his life-blood, equally divided among the skulls. Then one family member put all their lifeblood into each skull. A few days before the comet hit three family members went to the chamber in which the skulls had been placed. Here they drank a special potion, that would mix with their blood in seconds and give it the properties it would need to save Earth and start the skulls working. They then drained a large amount, 3/4, of their blood into the pedestals on which the skulls sat."
Harry picked up the pedestal and outlined the small carved out ring with his finger. "A few days later the comet hit. As we know it killed nearly every living thing. The Atlantians that survived reverted to the cave-man ways to survive, magic was forgotten. Bu the skulls worked, magic itself still existed, even though those who had held it were dead, and all the magical plants and animals from Atlantis-the planet, survived." Harry put the pedestal down and waited, in a few seconds questions were thrown at him.
"Wait, wait, not yet please. In the chamber in which the skull was found the Atlantians left us…a map…a star map…a way to find our home planet. Their goal was to help their ancestors find their way home, what they didn't foresee was what happened, the civilization of muggles and magic folk that evolve din their place. Inside the skull, floating in the life blood, I found a perfect globe of Atlantis, the planet. Showing all its landmasses and oceans and rivers, showing how dedicated to their planet they were." Harry turned to the wall behind him, suddenly a map dropped down form the ceiling, upon which was drawn a map of Atlantis, as it had been all those thousands of year ago where their ancestors had fled it. Cameras flashed rapidly as he stepped aside, giving them all a clear view of it.
After a few minutes he returned and called up one of the specialists he'd asked to come. The best astronomer on the planet Ben Dralim was in his early fifties, medium height with graying brown/blond hair, his gray/green eyes twinkling, his laboratory housed a score of the best telescopes in existence.
"This is Ben Dralim, a few days ago I gave him and his teams the challenge of trying to find Atlantis, funding for the project was provided by all the Ministry's, showing a rare streak of cooperativeness." Here everyone chuckled, Harry stepped aside and sat down in the back as the respected astronomer came forward.
"Now we've only had a few days so far to work on this, but I have to say I'm honored to be the first to be given a try at it. The Order of the Phoenix's SPD team has painstakingly duplicated the entire chamber, since the entire thing is part of the map; I understand that from now on all work on the chamber and skull has been turned over to Mr. Potter so I hope he can help should we run into difficulty. The map itself is 3D, and you can literally walk inside it, since it encompasses the entire chamber, seventy- four square feet of wall space. It is unlike any map I have ever seen. It appears to be a view of the night sky as seen form the naked eye, probably from a mountaintop. Where we don't know. It shows many stars all over the ceiling, as they would have looked to the designers when they looked t the night sky. However that was thousands of years ago and the stars do change. They also left us a huge mathematical problem, showing the distance…I think, to the solar system, or general area in which we can find the planet Atlantis. We are trying to find this section of space the walls depict, probably the night sky above the mountain in which the chamber was found. A very difficult problem, most of the constellations we know of today didn't exist. We know that the planet is in this galaxy; we know that it is in the same arm of the galaxy we are, and that's basically it. We're trying our hardest and I will keep you updated on our success." There was applause a she sat down again, Harry stood to take questions.
"How has everything been going with the blood tests?" Everyone stopped to listen.
"Not very well, I have tested 3,477 blood samples, and I haven't found any that can last longer than a half hour, that being achieved by Albus Dumbledore. I will continue to collect blood samples and test them, I am convinced that our ancestors wouldn't create such a thing that none of us could use because of the skulls powers."
"Have you shown any ill effects?"
"Aside from a headache from examining labels on small phials of blood no, nothing." Harry answered with a smile.
"And phoenixes are not harmed by it?"
"Correct, unicorns, all kinds, and dragons are not either." Harry said, wondering if he should do more tests on animals. Pain flashed across his scar, Harry kept his outward mask on, inside he searched frantically, but nothing was happening near by, Voldemort must have found some new victims. Harry told Sirius quickly before the next question was asked.
"Have you tried elf blood?"
"No, not yet. And on that meter, elves and humans use dot be the same species, the Atlantians were a cross between human and elf, through selective breeding (basically) it ended up dividing into two species." This created a shocked silence. "Trolls, giants, goblins, they were always a different species indigenous to earth that evolved with magic after a few thousand years." Harry added, making a memo to ask Larquan, Kylara, for blood samples.
This went on for nearly two hours, after which the guests left and Harry, by now very tired, left the stage.
"Wonderful Harry, wonderful, it's so nice to hear your speeches, you're so energetic." Miranda said, smiling at him happily.
"Lord Phoenix we have the death eaters down in the dungeons." Reported an agent of the red patrol. Miranda's mood, ever mercurial, changed in seconds from happy to hissing mad.
"Can't wait to hear what Skeeter has to say. She wrote an article yesterday calling you a corrupt, drunken, madman for not attacking Voldemort's base." She told to Sirius, her eyes flashing dangerously. Sirius frowned, anger glinting in his eyes, anger that was mirrored in the mind o f everyone else there.
Hope he lets Miranda torture that nasty b*tch!
Might as well interrogate her and throw her in a pit of baby dragons. That had to be Charlie Weasley. Harry, realizing suddenly that he was reading their minds, clamped down his shields, which were weak after holding back the thoughts of the crowd for hours.
"I'll head back to Hogwarts, how many did you get?" He asked, eager to be away from the constant press of minds.
"Three, one got away though."
"Oh no! Skeeter, she can transform into a beetle!" Harry said suddenly, Sirius sent out a quick message to the agents on prison guard duty to check on Skeeter.
Check Skeeter's cell, she can transform into a beetle, don't let anything out of there! Harry frowned, his shields really weren't strong enough, he needed time to repair them, meditation would help a lot. Three more agents came up, now the pressure on his shields nearly hurt, Harry turned and hurried outside, he left the Fortress in a quick blast of lightning. Suddenly pain streaked through his scar, he stumbled, appearing in the courtyard of Potter Mansion. Harry swore angrily, cursing Voldemort in a variety of different languages before going inside, best not go to Hogwarts tonight, he might be needed elsewhere quickly if Voldemort attacked.
**
Harry was floating in darkness, with tired resignation he relaxed, knowing the dream would take him where it would anyway. Dark mists swirled around, then they turned red, and then a picture solidified. A farmhouse, situated at the foot of a hill out in the middle of nowhere. Darkness fell around it, figures appeared around the hill, they all hurried into the farmhouse, a sickening darkness washed around him. Searing pain across his scar. Harry struggled and managed to gain a tiny element of control over the dream, but then it's power scooped him up again. Harry went inside, helpless to stop the dreams, down a flight of stairs…red liquid covered them, and into the basement.
Cells, eight of them in a circle, the circle was about fifteen feet across. Death eaters were sitting on top of the cell roofs or standing behind barricades between the cement cells. Two doors opened, from each emerged a young girl, about eight Harry guessed, each was armed with a knife.
Voldemort, seated on a high throne atop one of the cells, death eaters sitting about his feet. His mad red eyes gleaming, he was clearly enjoying this. Fiery pain ran through Harry's scar, it felt like a red hot brand on his forehead.
"Now girls, a good battle, first one to die looses. Winner gets a reward, maybe some candy?" Voldemort said, in an oddly kind voice that really didn't sound right.
"I don't want to fight!" one of the girls said, pouting. "Where's my papa? What happened to him?"
"Needn't worry about papa!" Someone called out.
"He's alright for now young'un." The death eaters laughed.
"Oh yes, very alright…alright dead." This last was said in a whisper.
"He's safe." Voldemort said simply.
"I don't want to fight! I don't hate her!" the other little girl shouted.
"Do you want to be powerful?" Voldemort asked them both. There was a short silence, and then both nodded slowly, uncertain. "Well then, how do you think anyone gets to be powerful these days? You've got fight for it." Then his voice turned menacing, "if you do not fight you will die terribly, so I would suggest you try the stronger of you will be allowed to live, but you must kill the other. Let the battle begin!"
Harry tried to hit Voldemort as the two girls moved toward each other timidly. Death eaters cheered and jeered at their captives. Harry fought the dream furiously.
Suddenly he woke up, sitting upright, shaking with anger.
Sorry, I don't like being mean to children, but I don't think my other stories were quite dark enough. And I need to kill a lot of people to make the plot work. Review!