The Final War of the Sorcerers

Disclaimer: Most of the characters are from books by JK Rowling and JRR Tolkien and are not owned by me in any manner. I have created storyline and the few characters I invented belong to me. This is not meant to and cannot create any monetary profit for me the penniless watcher.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Chapter 2:  Glimpses

The sky was overcast. The wind was howling through the jungle and a thick mist seemed to be developing, as the atmosphere got progressively colder. He did not recognize the place. Even the trees were of an unknown variety; still he kept walking through the rough path cut through the jungle. It was as if his feet wouldn't stop, wouldn't listen to him. 'Is that so?' he thought angrily 'I will fly then' he leapt out of the woods towards the sky and it was as if the sky rushed towards him. The next moment he could see the jungle way below him. A gurgling river made an arching crown over the forest.  Some where far beyond, he could see smoke and a large fire. It seemed as if volcanoes had erupted all around him covering the land with layers of thick black ash. He looked back at the river and the next moment he was pulled into the water. He was swept away with the brisk current.  The river swerved through the land and he could see ruins. Ruins of a once mighty castle, great stone statues, quaint little villages devastated & abandoned, and trees brutally torn and burnt.

The current swept him further ahead into a land of absolute nothingness. The land where he had seen the huge fires, only charred remains were left as a clue that some time back life had existed there.  The sky turned blood red and he saw a huge army, an army of the foulest of creatures ever known to mankind.  Trolls & Orcs, Wolves & Ravens, Dementors & wraiths, hooded humans with wicked looking battle-axes; all of them dressed in black.  They were all standing still as stone statues carved in the mountainside. He turned his head to look at the other side of the river and he saw people going about their daily menial chores, children playing in the sand, women watching over them, men plough the fields and tinker about in their little factories.  He looked again and he could make out faces; faces of people he knew, Ron, Hermione, Mrs. Weasley, Sirius..' All of them seemed completely oblivious to the great army standing so near them. Then suddenly a deafening laughter broke out from nowhere and Harry saw a dark black skull floating under the blood red sky. This seemed to put life into the army and it started marching. Harry tried to scream but no voice came out of his throat.

When all seemed lost a giant figure broke out of the earth. He was dressed in pure white robes and had a flowing beard. He held a long white staff in his hand. The figure kept on growing as if reaching out towards the sky. It became so overwhelming that Harry didn't feel it would stop.

He woke up with a gasp. His whole T-shirt was wet with perspiration and clung to his chest.  He struggled with his breathing for sometime before collecting himself enough to reach out for his glasses. If Ron had been in the next bed he would have woken up hearing the loud gasps for air. However he was sleeping soundly in the Hospital Wing under the care of Madam Pomfrey.  Harry clambered out of his bed and fumbled inside his trunk for a new T-shirt. He moved towards the window to catch some fresh air and cool off.  A small crescent shaped moon spread a dreamy white light across the school grounds. The sky was full of stars and Harry was sure that this was the type of night when the centaurs did all their stargazing.  This thought subconsciously made him look at the forbidden forest; 'perhaps he would get a glimpse of the centaurs'.  There half in the shadows he could see the cages of the Wargs.  They seemed to be very silent at the moment.  He caught a glimpse of somebody running across the school grounds. He rubbed his eyes to clear any cobwebs. Unmistakably there was somebody in the grounds. Harry caught glimpses of the person when he moved out of the shadows.  Harry wasn't even sure it was a 'he' but he assumed so. The figure disappeared behind the cages of the Wargs.

Harry panicked as if the Wargs were let loose there would be chaos. Perhaps somebody in the school was doing the bidding of the dark lord.  He immediately grabbed his firebolt from his still open trunk and jumped out of the window.  He swooped in on the cages his wand ready in his right hand. There was a strange eerie silence around the cages.  Harry again caught the glimpse of someone entering the forbidden forest.  He rushed in after him.  The forest was dark. The moonlight could not find its way through the thick canopy of trees.  Harry stumbled along the rough path.

"Lumos" he murmured as he quietly made his way into the forest.  He had long ago lost sight of the man.  Unwittingly however he continued down the path. In ten minutes he was completely unsure as to which part in the forest he was in or where he was headed.  Just then..

" Ah! You rotten bundle of roots! There is no way your are going to get us."

" Yes we will cut you to tiny little pieces and burn you in the fire of Mount Doom" Two gruff little voices spoke. The second one seemed to be a bit muffled. 

Harry stopped with a start and fearing the worst peered out into the small clearing ahead of him. A huge oak tree, which looked like a long lost cousin of the Whoomping Willow, had grabbed somebody in its thin wooden fingers. The tree was slowly crushing it to death.   Harry blinked and rubbed his eyes. The two people were as short as a 10 year old child but amazingly they had beards and moustaches and very gruff voices that could only belong to grown ups.   In fact the face was as big as a grown ups while the rest of the body was short & stocky.

Puzzled Harry looked on for some time, as the one at the bottom, fought the tree.  The tree held the other one even higher where it was impossible for the first one to reach.  He vainly tried to jump up and fight it.  Understanding the futility of the whole process he then went for the huge trunk and started chopping away at the bottom of the trunk.  Harry saw that the tree was too big and by the time it was chopped off, the one already in the oak's grasp would be crushed to death.

Shaking of the stupor, Harry emerged from behind the foliage and pointed its wand at the tree. He threw a few stunners at the Oak but that only managed to infuriate it further and it lunged for Harry. Harry tripped and fell back.  The tree missed him by a bare few inches. This enraged it even more and it bent forward for a final swipe.

Frantically Harry thought of a spell that could hurt a huge Ill-tempered Oak tree.

"Incendio" he shouted and the branch caught fire.

It immediately let go of the fellow it had in its grasp and started thrashing about.

"Let's go! Get out of here fast." Harry shouted and all three of them dove to their left as the Oak set the neighboring tree on fire. They continued running through the forest until they came to a clearing in the woods and sat down exhausted from the ordeal.

" What.. Who are you?" Harry mumbled.

 "I am Bror and he is Thor," said one of them.

"And we are Dwarve Princes from the Dwarvian Kingdom of Emerelda.

"Dwarves! Emerelda?" Harry muttered puzzled "I have never heard of this place"

"I am Harry" Harry said putting his hand out for a handshake. The dwarves looked at his hand then looked at each other and exchanged puzzled looks.  One of them, perhaps Thor, leapt up and gave Harry a clap.

Before Harry could fathom the meaning of this he caught a sound in the bushes behind him. Harry turned back to look ready with his wand and after 10 seconds he came face to face with the scowling face of Professor Severus Snape. He was dressed in dark black robes and his greasy black hair hung limply on either side of his pale face giving it an even more sinister appearance.

His lips were bent back into a sneer, "Harry Potter.  Violation of the curfew hours by any Hogwart student makes him liable to the strictest of punishments and even a possible suspension" he smacked his lips as he said this.

"Perhaps you have an explanation Mr. Potter as to this nightly sojourn to the Forbidden Forest" he said Icily "Now, wait a minute! Single handedly out to save the wizarding world aren't we? And how do we do it, set half the forest on fire"

"You have been endangering the school by your stupid acts of showing off but this time you have been caught red handed and you shall not escape"

Anger seeped through Harry " Perhaps you should ask these dwarves who were in trouble if there was any other alternative than to set the tree on fire" He motioned and turned back to find nothing but thin air behind him.  Harry turned and looked wildly on either side but no trace of the two dwarves could be found.

" They were here a minute ago, they were being attacked by a large oak tree and the only way to save them was to burn the tree." He mumbled

"Dwarves! That is Hare brained story even by your standard Potter. Even Lockhart would have come up with a better Hero story than that. Perhaps this time Dumbledore would do what he should have done, a long time ago" Snape sneered and led Harry back to Hogwarts through the forest.

Watchers Note:

I am thankful to Quidditchqueen15 'Isabella', Athenakitty, Emerald Skies for their encouraging reviews. This chapter is a bit shorter. Hope you all like it. I currently have no Beta readers so some errors might creep but I am improving with every chapter (at least I hope so!).

I am not sure if anyone really wants to read Jadushala so I stopped updating it. If you really want to continue reading I will update.