Meeting with Morrigu
Harry appeared in a hallway, it reminded him of the hallways of Hogwarts slightly, but instead of suits of armour or portraits, animal heads and skins with runes on them adorned the walls. He looked around, a window was not far from him, he moved to it and looked outside. He gasped, outside was the rest of a huge castle, even more grand than Hogwarts, in the grounds he could see men and women, they were all busy, some were moving food and animals, others were working away in smithy workshops, a group of children were being lead to the gates by a pair of young women. In a further away section, he saw a group of them sparring with each other, both with and without weapons. Then it struck him, he couldn't feel his glasses, yet he could see fine, he reached up to touch his face. He saw his hand, and screamed.
His hand was translucent, through his hand he could see the outside world, yet also see his hand. He looked down at the rest of him, it was in the same state. Harry's mind was reeling, what had happened, was he dead?
His thoughts were interrupted by a booming male voice, "taibhs, lean" it commanded. Or at least Harry though it was a command as he turned to face the voice. Before him was a large, muscular man, he looked up at the man, thankful at that moment that his body wasn't real. The man was well over six feet tall, broad shouldered wearing a leather tunic and a tartan (composed of red and black) kilt. Strapped to his back was a large axe and to his side a foot long dagger. His hair was dark brown and shoulder length, his face weathered and beaten with a scar across his left cheek under his brown eyes. Harry felt very small and intimidated looking at the man.
"Taibhs, lean" the man repeated, this time louder and with more force. Harry just looked at him confused.
Realisation dawned in his eyes. "She said this might happen" the man spoke slowly in heavily accented English, "Taibhs, follow". With that the man began walking down the hallway to a large set of double doors. The man stopped at the doors, he raised his fist and pounded three times on the wooden door. Then he waited.
Harry was about to ask what was going on, when a female voice echoed through the door, the voice while faint, resonated with power and authority, "Let him in, freiceadan"
The man opened the doors and motioned Harry to enter. Harry complied and as soon as he had passed through the doors, the man closed them with a bang. The room was lit by a dozen flame torches, its ceiling seemed to be both high and low at the same time, the floor and walls were made of stone, the floor covered in an simple brown carpet. The walls were bare save the torches. At the other end of the room, a large chair sat, the chair was made of ebony, ornate carvings of ravens formed the back and arm rests. Beside the chair, lay two spears, their metal tips gleaming in the torch light. Upon the chair sat a woman, she appear to be tall, had pale skin, long dark hair drawn from her face, her face was neither ugly nor beautiful, her eyes lit with knowledge and fire. Her clothes were black, fading into her chair, a short sword clipped to her belt slipped out through the arm of the chair.
"Harry, son of Lily, son of James, I welcome you to the hall of Morrigu, in the castle Mor in the realm of the Gods." her voice washed over him, his blood calling out to it for more.
"Who.. who are you?" Harry stuttered out.
"I am the Morrigu, war goddess of the ancient Celts, goddess of magic, war and death. It has been a long time since a wizard has called out to me, usually it is warriors and witches who call me although none have done so in recent history."
"What do you mean called out to you? How did I get here? Am I dead?" Harry fired questions at her, while his mind kept yelling at him not to insult the woman claiming to be a goddess.
"You called to my herald, through the book and your blood. You have seen what has happened in your life and you are choosing to make a stand, you want to defend your friends, your world from the darkness of Voldemort. The warrior in you is emerging, you understand that fighting is done only when needed, only to defend against those who would slay you and your kin. I was amused to find you were a wizard, usually it is male muggle, as you call them, warriors or female witches who have called to me in the past, but I see into your heart, I have seen your life, what you have seen I have now seen. Your fire has brought you to me, my herald opened the doorway for you."
"Your herald? What was your herald, I guess the book is the little book that came from the library book, but what was the herald?" Harry stood perplexed by the goddess.
"The raven which flew into you was my herald, my eyes and ears in your realm, since our kind was cast out long ago. And to answer your other question, you are not dead, but your body could not make the journey to this realm, so only your spirit has been summoned."
"I'm not dead, but why am I here? How can you help me? Why were you cast out? What is your kind?" Every answer he received gave rise to yet more questions.
"My kind is my secret, but we are the gods and goddesses of your world's history, we were cast out by mortals who deemed our worth too little, they banded together to bar us from your realm. It didn't quite succeed as they wished but it did enough that we ourselves can never return to your realm, we are limited to actions such as this to guide your race to its adulthood, though it is far, far from reaching it. Do you understand?"
Harry nodded, although his mind was filled with more and more questions, but he held his tongue.
"You are here because you want to be able to defend your world, I know of the impending war and the ones that will follow. I do not wish this Voldemort to gain so much power that he could breach into our realm, him nor any others can be allowed to enter our realm, such powers could threaten my own, possibly defeat them. I am now taking steps to ensure the safety of our realm."
"How so?"
"That will be answered in time" she replied, reminding him a bit of Dumbledore, "As to how I can help you. I can help you become a better wizard, a better warrior, although not overnight and almost all of the work will fall to you, I can only open the door, you must use it."
"How can you help me become a better wizard?"
"Mortals know only the basics of magic, they can direct it and use it but few understand the true nature of magic, how a person uses it, why they are better at some magic than other, why some are powerful and others are weak, do you know of what I speak, young Harry?" Morrigu asked, her voice soothing yet challenging.
Harry looked at her, confusion was evident in his expression, "What do you mean?"
"I mean, do you understand where the power for your magic comes from?"
"I though it came from within us, from some sort of well of power we each have"
"That is true, to an extent, but that is not the whole story, magic does not have one source in a person, its has three, do you know what they are?"
"Eh, no"
"I thought as much, people in your realm have no respect for the old teachings and ways.."
"What teachings? What ways?" Harry interrupted.
"Silence child, do not interrupt the Morrigu!" the goddess roared, scolding the spectral child, "I will explain as and when I see fit"
Harry shrunk away from the irate, armed goddess, "spectral or not, she can probably still hurt me or worse" he thought to himself.
The goddess calmed down, but fire remained in her eyes, her voice eerily taking on a tone similar to Professor McGonagall, "As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted, magic has three sources, the body, the mind and the soul. Each source is powerful in its own right, but combined they are a truly awesome power. You humans and your magic mainly only use the power of the mind to accomplish magic, that is why you need a wand to direct your power almost all of the time, although you also tap into your body magic when you undergo an Animagi transformation as you call it, where your body changes to that of the animal which best represents you. Humans seem to have an inbuilt block which prevents them from totally accessing their whole magical being except in times of great emotion, what you term accidental magic I believe. Some small cracks can be made in the block so that in some cases people can become telepathic or can become animagi, even your muggles can access some of this magic although it is rare, generally manifesting itself as telepathy or deja vu. Wizards in your realm seem to have cracked the barrier to the mind but were unable to go much further."
"So you are saying that wizards and witches could be more powerful than they are just now but cannot access that power"
"Yes, young Harry, you are beginning to understand I think, your magic is as I said, based around the mind, that is why your friend Hermione and Dumbledore seems so natural at it, they have very organised and logical minds. You may be thinking that you are not as strong because you seem to have more problems, sometimes even more than your friend Ron, but this is not the case, you are powerful, the power in your mind is quite exceptional but your life and the incident near the beginning of your life has affected you somewhat. The blocks in you are cracked beyond repair, they are collapsing and your three centres are leaking into one another, this is affecting your abilities because the barriers are still there and interfere with the natural magic processes you should have."
"So why am I able to do spells like the Patronus?"
"You can do that because you drove yourself to do it, you wanted it badly, you managed to get around the interference on your power to use it for that spell."
"How can I sort this or be able to do magic properly?"
"You cannot sort this yourself, nor can any in your realm."
"Then what can I do? Should I give up magic, will it be dangerous to continue if I can't perform the spells correctly?" Worry and fear were causing his voice to rise in pitch.
"Calm down, boy, I never said you had to stop, you are jumping to conclusions. There is an option available to you, but there is a price."
"What, what price, what option?" questions flew out of his mouth before he could think.
"The option is that you become my avatar, my champion if you will in the war, I will remove the blocks completely from you, allowing you to access all of your considerable powers, allowing you to learn the magic used by the ancient races."
"What is the price?" his eyes betrayed both hope and fear.
"The price is that you become bound to me, the Morrigu. I feel your warrior blood call out to me, just as it called you to this place. You will revel in the battle when it comes, you will do all you can to win, you will dedicate your life to my service, defending and fighting in battles against the darkness, against those who would corrupt nature's balance. You will become the warrior bound as many have before you, a lifetime of service defending the world which you hold dear, Voldemort is but one tyrant, there are many more waiting to take his place."
"And if I refuse, if I wish to continue as I have done?"
"Therein lies the rub, you can't refuse, you brought yourself to me, from that point on you were always mine, I will have you bound by force or willingly, but do not make it hard on yourself, accept this gift from the Morrigu."
Emotions played upon his face, thoughts running through his head, a lifetime of being a target, then he realised that even without this binding, he would have been a target for his life anyway, even after Voldemort was defeated, he was a symbol to the wizarding world, with this binding he would be able to defend his friends, his world to the best of his abilities. His blood cried out to accept it willingly, his mind in turmoil, was this as it appeared, he tried to reason it out but it always came back to the one conclusion, he had to accept, he was being given the chance to defend his friends.
"Morrigu, I accept this gift you grant me, and offer my life to your service on Earth" the words poured out his mouth, he wondered where he had brought them forth from as he bent on one knee before his goddess.
"Harry, son of Lily, son of James, I accept your pledge and grant you my gift." As she said this, she took her sword and raised it high above her head. In one quick motion she brought it down upon the head of Harry. Harry watched as the blade neared him, a scream issued forth from his mouth, then the blade hit and there was nothing but a flash of light, then darkness.
As Harry returns to his body, pain shoots through his chest, his heart and lungs feel as though they are expanding outwards beyond his body, a scream attempts to escape him, but is muffled as a screech rings through the air. The raven shoots out of his chest, heading out the window, leaving as suddenly as it had arrived. Slowly the pain in his chest began to recede, his breathing became less ragged. He pulled himself up from the ground where he had fallen, sweat adorned his brow, his skin pale and sickly looking. He almost got himself under control, when a new wave of pain washed over him, the pain was centred on the outside of his shoulders, making its way partway down his arms, his mouth opened, a cry issued forth as the pain increased again. His upper arms and shoulders felt like they were on fire, his vision became blurry, he collapsed to the floor, unconscious. The boy lay there unaware of the world, unaware that the raven had returned to the window. As it looked in, it saw the sleeves of the shirt the boy wore crumble away in ashes leaving his shoulders and arms bare. Upon the pale flesh, his left shoulder and upper arm was adorned with a black trinity knot, its right counterpart adorned with a black raven in flight. Clutched in his right hand, was the book that started it all, its title now emblazoned under the symbols, "The Morrigu: Queen of the Ancient Magic". The raven nodded, as if satisfied with its work, then took off, never to be seen again.
(A/N: Thank you to those that review the first part. In answer to why it is AU, this won't be finished before OotP and I can pretty certain that what happens here won't occur in the books.)
Harry appeared in a hallway, it reminded him of the hallways of Hogwarts slightly, but instead of suits of armour or portraits, animal heads and skins with runes on them adorned the walls. He looked around, a window was not far from him, he moved to it and looked outside. He gasped, outside was the rest of a huge castle, even more grand than Hogwarts, in the grounds he could see men and women, they were all busy, some were moving food and animals, others were working away in smithy workshops, a group of children were being lead to the gates by a pair of young women. In a further away section, he saw a group of them sparring with each other, both with and without weapons. Then it struck him, he couldn't feel his glasses, yet he could see fine, he reached up to touch his face. He saw his hand, and screamed.
His hand was translucent, through his hand he could see the outside world, yet also see his hand. He looked down at the rest of him, it was in the same state. Harry's mind was reeling, what had happened, was he dead?
His thoughts were interrupted by a booming male voice, "taibhs, lean" it commanded. Or at least Harry though it was a command as he turned to face the voice. Before him was a large, muscular man, he looked up at the man, thankful at that moment that his body wasn't real. The man was well over six feet tall, broad shouldered wearing a leather tunic and a tartan (composed of red and black) kilt. Strapped to his back was a large axe and to his side a foot long dagger. His hair was dark brown and shoulder length, his face weathered and beaten with a scar across his left cheek under his brown eyes. Harry felt very small and intimidated looking at the man.
"Taibhs, lean" the man repeated, this time louder and with more force. Harry just looked at him confused.
Realisation dawned in his eyes. "She said this might happen" the man spoke slowly in heavily accented English, "Taibhs, follow". With that the man began walking down the hallway to a large set of double doors. The man stopped at the doors, he raised his fist and pounded three times on the wooden door. Then he waited.
Harry was about to ask what was going on, when a female voice echoed through the door, the voice while faint, resonated with power and authority, "Let him in, freiceadan"
The man opened the doors and motioned Harry to enter. Harry complied and as soon as he had passed through the doors, the man closed them with a bang. The room was lit by a dozen flame torches, its ceiling seemed to be both high and low at the same time, the floor and walls were made of stone, the floor covered in an simple brown carpet. The walls were bare save the torches. At the other end of the room, a large chair sat, the chair was made of ebony, ornate carvings of ravens formed the back and arm rests. Beside the chair, lay two spears, their metal tips gleaming in the torch light. Upon the chair sat a woman, she appear to be tall, had pale skin, long dark hair drawn from her face, her face was neither ugly nor beautiful, her eyes lit with knowledge and fire. Her clothes were black, fading into her chair, a short sword clipped to her belt slipped out through the arm of the chair.
"Harry, son of Lily, son of James, I welcome you to the hall of Morrigu, in the castle Mor in the realm of the Gods." her voice washed over him, his blood calling out to it for more.
"Who.. who are you?" Harry stuttered out.
"I am the Morrigu, war goddess of the ancient Celts, goddess of magic, war and death. It has been a long time since a wizard has called out to me, usually it is warriors and witches who call me although none have done so in recent history."
"What do you mean called out to you? How did I get here? Am I dead?" Harry fired questions at her, while his mind kept yelling at him not to insult the woman claiming to be a goddess.
"You called to my herald, through the book and your blood. You have seen what has happened in your life and you are choosing to make a stand, you want to defend your friends, your world from the darkness of Voldemort. The warrior in you is emerging, you understand that fighting is done only when needed, only to defend against those who would slay you and your kin. I was amused to find you were a wizard, usually it is male muggle, as you call them, warriors or female witches who have called to me in the past, but I see into your heart, I have seen your life, what you have seen I have now seen. Your fire has brought you to me, my herald opened the doorway for you."
"Your herald? What was your herald, I guess the book is the little book that came from the library book, but what was the herald?" Harry stood perplexed by the goddess.
"The raven which flew into you was my herald, my eyes and ears in your realm, since our kind was cast out long ago. And to answer your other question, you are not dead, but your body could not make the journey to this realm, so only your spirit has been summoned."
"I'm not dead, but why am I here? How can you help me? Why were you cast out? What is your kind?" Every answer he received gave rise to yet more questions.
"My kind is my secret, but we are the gods and goddesses of your world's history, we were cast out by mortals who deemed our worth too little, they banded together to bar us from your realm. It didn't quite succeed as they wished but it did enough that we ourselves can never return to your realm, we are limited to actions such as this to guide your race to its adulthood, though it is far, far from reaching it. Do you understand?"
Harry nodded, although his mind was filled with more and more questions, but he held his tongue.
"You are here because you want to be able to defend your world, I know of the impending war and the ones that will follow. I do not wish this Voldemort to gain so much power that he could breach into our realm, him nor any others can be allowed to enter our realm, such powers could threaten my own, possibly defeat them. I am now taking steps to ensure the safety of our realm."
"How so?"
"That will be answered in time" she replied, reminding him a bit of Dumbledore, "As to how I can help you. I can help you become a better wizard, a better warrior, although not overnight and almost all of the work will fall to you, I can only open the door, you must use it."
"How can you help me become a better wizard?"
"Mortals know only the basics of magic, they can direct it and use it but few understand the true nature of magic, how a person uses it, why they are better at some magic than other, why some are powerful and others are weak, do you know of what I speak, young Harry?" Morrigu asked, her voice soothing yet challenging.
Harry looked at her, confusion was evident in his expression, "What do you mean?"
"I mean, do you understand where the power for your magic comes from?"
"I though it came from within us, from some sort of well of power we each have"
"That is true, to an extent, but that is not the whole story, magic does not have one source in a person, its has three, do you know what they are?"
"Eh, no"
"I thought as much, people in your realm have no respect for the old teachings and ways.."
"What teachings? What ways?" Harry interrupted.
"Silence child, do not interrupt the Morrigu!" the goddess roared, scolding the spectral child, "I will explain as and when I see fit"
Harry shrunk away from the irate, armed goddess, "spectral or not, she can probably still hurt me or worse" he thought to himself.
The goddess calmed down, but fire remained in her eyes, her voice eerily taking on a tone similar to Professor McGonagall, "As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted, magic has three sources, the body, the mind and the soul. Each source is powerful in its own right, but combined they are a truly awesome power. You humans and your magic mainly only use the power of the mind to accomplish magic, that is why you need a wand to direct your power almost all of the time, although you also tap into your body magic when you undergo an Animagi transformation as you call it, where your body changes to that of the animal which best represents you. Humans seem to have an inbuilt block which prevents them from totally accessing their whole magical being except in times of great emotion, what you term accidental magic I believe. Some small cracks can be made in the block so that in some cases people can become telepathic or can become animagi, even your muggles can access some of this magic although it is rare, generally manifesting itself as telepathy or deja vu. Wizards in your realm seem to have cracked the barrier to the mind but were unable to go much further."
"So you are saying that wizards and witches could be more powerful than they are just now but cannot access that power"
"Yes, young Harry, you are beginning to understand I think, your magic is as I said, based around the mind, that is why your friend Hermione and Dumbledore seems so natural at it, they have very organised and logical minds. You may be thinking that you are not as strong because you seem to have more problems, sometimes even more than your friend Ron, but this is not the case, you are powerful, the power in your mind is quite exceptional but your life and the incident near the beginning of your life has affected you somewhat. The blocks in you are cracked beyond repair, they are collapsing and your three centres are leaking into one another, this is affecting your abilities because the barriers are still there and interfere with the natural magic processes you should have."
"So why am I able to do spells like the Patronus?"
"You can do that because you drove yourself to do it, you wanted it badly, you managed to get around the interference on your power to use it for that spell."
"How can I sort this or be able to do magic properly?"
"You cannot sort this yourself, nor can any in your realm."
"Then what can I do? Should I give up magic, will it be dangerous to continue if I can't perform the spells correctly?" Worry and fear were causing his voice to rise in pitch.
"Calm down, boy, I never said you had to stop, you are jumping to conclusions. There is an option available to you, but there is a price."
"What, what price, what option?" questions flew out of his mouth before he could think.
"The option is that you become my avatar, my champion if you will in the war, I will remove the blocks completely from you, allowing you to access all of your considerable powers, allowing you to learn the magic used by the ancient races."
"What is the price?" his eyes betrayed both hope and fear.
"The price is that you become bound to me, the Morrigu. I feel your warrior blood call out to me, just as it called you to this place. You will revel in the battle when it comes, you will do all you can to win, you will dedicate your life to my service, defending and fighting in battles against the darkness, against those who would corrupt nature's balance. You will become the warrior bound as many have before you, a lifetime of service defending the world which you hold dear, Voldemort is but one tyrant, there are many more waiting to take his place."
"And if I refuse, if I wish to continue as I have done?"
"Therein lies the rub, you can't refuse, you brought yourself to me, from that point on you were always mine, I will have you bound by force or willingly, but do not make it hard on yourself, accept this gift from the Morrigu."
Emotions played upon his face, thoughts running through his head, a lifetime of being a target, then he realised that even without this binding, he would have been a target for his life anyway, even after Voldemort was defeated, he was a symbol to the wizarding world, with this binding he would be able to defend his friends, his world to the best of his abilities. His blood cried out to accept it willingly, his mind in turmoil, was this as it appeared, he tried to reason it out but it always came back to the one conclusion, he had to accept, he was being given the chance to defend his friends.
"Morrigu, I accept this gift you grant me, and offer my life to your service on Earth" the words poured out his mouth, he wondered where he had brought them forth from as he bent on one knee before his goddess.
"Harry, son of Lily, son of James, I accept your pledge and grant you my gift." As she said this, she took her sword and raised it high above her head. In one quick motion she brought it down upon the head of Harry. Harry watched as the blade neared him, a scream issued forth from his mouth, then the blade hit and there was nothing but a flash of light, then darkness.
As Harry returns to his body, pain shoots through his chest, his heart and lungs feel as though they are expanding outwards beyond his body, a scream attempts to escape him, but is muffled as a screech rings through the air. The raven shoots out of his chest, heading out the window, leaving as suddenly as it had arrived. Slowly the pain in his chest began to recede, his breathing became less ragged. He pulled himself up from the ground where he had fallen, sweat adorned his brow, his skin pale and sickly looking. He almost got himself under control, when a new wave of pain washed over him, the pain was centred on the outside of his shoulders, making its way partway down his arms, his mouth opened, a cry issued forth as the pain increased again. His upper arms and shoulders felt like they were on fire, his vision became blurry, he collapsed to the floor, unconscious. The boy lay there unaware of the world, unaware that the raven had returned to the window. As it looked in, it saw the sleeves of the shirt the boy wore crumble away in ashes leaving his shoulders and arms bare. Upon the pale flesh, his left shoulder and upper arm was adorned with a black trinity knot, its right counterpart adorned with a black raven in flight. Clutched in his right hand, was the book that started it all, its title now emblazoned under the symbols, "The Morrigu: Queen of the Ancient Magic". The raven nodded, as if satisfied with its work, then took off, never to be seen again.
(A/N: Thank you to those that review the first part. In answer to why it is AU, this won't be finished before OotP and I can pretty certain that what happens here won't occur in the books.)
