Disclaimer: Harry Potter and everything in the franchise is the property of J.K. Rowling, Dungeons & Dragons is a property of TSR. Rating is PG-13 for mild violence and swearing, may turn to R in later chapters.
Harry Potter & the Coming of the Dragon
Chapter 11
Silence reigned and for several moments Harry and his friends looked to each other not knowing what to say. Alec abruptly pulled back from the door as if burned and hauled his friends off to one side and into the shadows. Everyone's protestations were cut short as the classroom door burst off its frame and splintered against the far wall.
The elf lord swept into the hall, his cloak rippling as if caught in a mighty wind. The professors Dumbledore and Snape followed as the headmaster tried to calm the man. "Where, Albus?" Jayxom's voice had taken on an eerie timber, as if coming from the bottom of a well, turning to the two men he asked, "Where was she when she was taken?"
"The Forbidden Forest, not too far from Hagrid's hut." Dumbledore replied. "She and a Slytherin Boy had wandered away from the group during Care of Magical Creatures."
Jayxom waved his hand and a swirling purple vortex as tall as a man appeared in the hallway before him. He took a step toward it and turned back to the headmaster. "I want to meet with all the students from that class along with Hagrid within the hour. I'm going to hunt the forest for any sign of what may have happened to my charge." Without another word the elf stepped into the light and both vanished. Dumbledore and Snape both turned sharing worried expressions before they hurried down the corridor and out of sight.
Harry turned to see Alec standing rigid, eyes closed in concentration and both arms straight out before him. "What..." The raven-haired boy almost asked but stopped as another swirling purple vortex slowly formed in front of them. From his expression and the sheen of sweat on his face he was exerting himself greatly to perform this spell but he relaxed visibly when the portal had reached full size. "Alright, this is a dimensional portal, we can go straight to Hagrid's hut using this, and everyone hold hands and go in. Follow the silver cord you'll see floating inside to another portal, it will close behind me so I'll be last." Harry leading the way, they entered the purple light and vanished from the hallway.
They found themselves in a space filled by flashing, multicoloured lights and a glowing silvery cord floating in front of them and disappearing into the distance. Harry started walking, following the cord, which seemed to pull away from him at the same speed so that the end of it was always no more than a few feet ahead of him. Casting glances to his right and left, he swore he could almost see faces of incredible creatures looking back at him; some in curiosity and others in what looked uncomfortably like hunger. After a seeming eternity that couldn't have actually been more than a minute or two they came to another glowing portal and exited to find themselves standing directly before Hagrid's hut. Bringing up the rear, Alec took a look around and breathed a sigh of relief, "Made it."
Everyone shot startled looks at the boy, "Made it?" asked Ron, "What do you mean 'made it' I thought you knew what you were doing!"
Looking a little weak-kneed and covered with sweat the boy tiredly answered. "I just learned to make the portals this last summer, I've never taken so many people with me before, I was pretty sure I could do it but it was harder than I'd thought."
Hermione prevented comment the red-head might have had, "At least we made it, Where is Professor Silverheart I wonder?"
Looking around quickly, Alec pointed off into the woods, "Dumbledore said that she was taken in the woods near here, Jayxom is probably following her trail to wherever she disappeared."
Looking into the sky and then into the forest with a less-than happy expression, Draco put in, "The day is almost gone, and we'll never find either of their trails now."
"Why don't we split up," said Harry, "Ron, you and Hermione go off that way," pointing off to the left and into the woods, then pointing off to the right he said, "and Alec, Draco and I will go this. If you see anything or get into trouble send up some sparks."
Ron and Hermione made their way into the woods with the redhead moaning quietly about spiders and being too young to die, Harry and his companions prepared to start their own search. "You know Harry," Draco said, "We could just wait for Silverheart to come back out on his own."
Alec shook his head, "No, he'll try to protect us from whatever's going on no-matter the risk. I owe him my life and I'm going after him."
"A bit melodramatic aren't we," Malfoy replied, "I mean after all, there's nobody out there anymore is there?"
Harry threw an arm around his blond friend, "Relax Draco, I'm sure its completely safe," a smile grew on his face, "we can always borrow Fang."
"Oh please," the other snorted, "you know he's a bloody coward."
They travelled in silence through the dark wood for some time when Alec stopped. "I can feel him, I think." Now with a firm direction to travel in they made better progress and soon came to a small glade surrounded by dense vegetation. Inside they found Professor Silverheart kneeling, his brow furled in concentration.
Harry put his wand in the air and sent the signal to let their friends know where they were and Alec motioned for them to sit.
"What's he doing?" Draco asked.
"He's reading the memory of the clearing," replied the curly-haired boy.
"Doing what?" the blond asked, "it doesn't exactly have a mind, how can he read it?" The boy was about to answer as Ron and Hermione arrived so he waited for them to set down before beginning his explanation.
"Whenever something happens that causes strong emotions, death, sex or some kind of attack like happened here, it leaves an imprint in the location or on an object. If you're sensitive to it you can relive that moment like you were there. Jayxom is probably re-living the attack on Bethany right now."
"Bethany?" Draco asked.
Alec nodded, "It has to be her. We know it was a girl and she was the only one that was with the Slytherins."
"It was." The voice came from the centre of the small clearing.
Jayxom now stood and was looking off into the woods, "She was with a boy named Blaise," Draco's face hardened in anger, "He had brought her here to be alone, not to capture though, I think they were here for 'other' reasons." The friends looked to each other in confusion for a few moments before getting the meaning though Alec just shook his head with a grim smile, he knew the girl well.
"They had been quite involved with each other when their attackers came from deeper in the woods. They stunned her and the boy ran away." He pointed off deeper into the woods "They carried her that way, likely past the Hogwarts apparition wards." Jayxom closed his eyes for a few moments then spoke again. "I can't sense her so either they know what we are and therefore blocking us or..."
"Master Silverheart she's only fifteen, they wouldn't..."
The elf lord shook his head, "These are dark wizards Alec, you more than anyone should know what a truly evil person is capable of. She may be dead but I'm hoping that they've simply captured her for information."
Taking the Gryffindor's shoulder, Jayxom asked, "Harry, They're blocking any mental connection to Bethany. Will you let me link with you again? Maybe I can at least locate Voldemort." With Harry's nod, the man reached out and touched his brow. They stood perfectly still for several moments until with a sigh he released the boy. "Nothing. He's found some way to block himself magically or he has the help of one of our kind. You five go tell Dumbledore what I've learned, I'm going to Riddle manor, even if he isn't there I may learn something of where else to look."
Alec grabbed his master's sleeve. "I know why you have to go but she is also my friend. I'm going either with you or by myself... so take me."
They stared at each other for a moment before the elf sighed, "Remind me again why I encouraged this stubborn streak in you? All right you go. As for you four..."
"We'll be going as well sir." spoke Harry, "There's likely death eaters at the manor, and we can at least keep some of them busy for you... We'll be careful."
Shaking his head in resignation, the elf pulled out some items from his pouch. "Dumbledore is going to kill me... Stand close, for this I'll use a little of my worlds magic, its called a teleportation circle..." The elf drew a quick circle in the dirt around them while chanting in the Elvin tongue. The circle began to glow and runic figures began to dance in the air around them.
"Here we go again." Was Ron's last comment as they disappeared from sight.
They appeared in the graveyard outside Riddle Manor. "Sorry about this Harry," seeing the haunted look on the boys face, "but this image is the strongest in your head, Stay here and stun any death eaters you see, I'm going to have a look." Without another word he left them crouched behind a crypt and stalked towards the house.
Hermione nudged Alec as they watched, "Something seems a bit off about the Professor, I mean I understand he's upset about one of his students being taken but he's acting almost feral, the door and all back at the school..."
"You have to understand," replied Alec, "Elves, Jayxom's people, live very long lives, a trade-off with that is that they rarely have any children. When a child is born to their people they are considered more precious than any material wealth. Jayxom sees his students as his children and... I think you're about to see why people don't mess with the elves too much..."
Jayxom had almost reached the gates of the manor when two death eaters confronted him with wands out. Harry tensed preparing to throw a stunner when Alec stopped him, "Wait." The two cloaked figures both cast stunner spells at the elf who waved a hand casually deflecting the spells away, then taking the sword hilt that had been strapped to his thigh he held it out and a blade formed in the matter of a few seconds made of black ice.
Not waiting for another spell to be cast, the elven warrior slashed to the left and cut one mans wand hand off at the wrist. Spinning with the momentum of the cut he ducked low and slashed the other man across the stomach and came up into a guard position his blade held diagonally across his body. They all watched in horror as the first mans hand hit the ground and shattered like glass and the second landed in two different spots.
The night was suddenly filled with fire as spells were cast from nearly every window of the house. Jayxom had erected some kind of bubble that surrounded and protected him from the attacks of his foes. Jarred out of their surprise by the sudden activity, Harry and his friends began casting stunners as quickly and accurately as they could. The night shook as the elf threw what started out as a pea-sized ball of fire at the front doors. When it struck them it exploded and swallowed a forty-foot wide portion of the house, reducing it to cinders.
For several moments everyone, inside and out froze, stunned by the horrendous power of the magical attack. All stood frozen except Jayxom. Screaming something in his own tongue he charged the house alone, where screams and the pops of apparating wizards was all that could be heard. The fight after that was relatively short. The fireball earlier had ignited the wood of the old house and it was well on its way to ash. Jayxom had rounded up several of the dark wizards that hadn't been mortally wounded, including the handless sentry, and had them tied up for the aurors that were sure to be coming soon.
The elf stood over the defeated death eaters, his face dark. "Voldemort was here earlier and left with Bethany. None of them know where he was going." Looking to Harry the man said, "You, however have another decision." Not waiting for the boy to ask what he meant, the man pulled up one of the captured wizards and pulled back his cloak. "Pettigrew."
Held in the elf's hand was the man who had given his parents to Voldemort and made his godfather a criminal. Harry shook, this man had been responsible for the deaths of his mother, father and Sirius. His wand was out and pointed at Peter's face before even Harry had realized it. Wormtail, true to form had begun to blubber and beg for his life from the moment he had been revealed to the Gryffindor. "This man has earned his fate, but it is yours to decide..."
Harry stood staring at the man for the longest time. Death would be too easy. "I want to clear Sirius' name and I want that 'thing' to suffer everything that my godfather had to in Azkaban for the rest of his life."
"You're wise beyond your years young man." The elf put his hand to the whimpering mans brow and the traitor suddenly began to scream in terror and pain.
Harry's eyes grew wide, "What did you do?" "I'm giving him a little taste of a place called Tartarus. I've marked his soul, when he dies he'll have somebody waiting for him. He will pay for his evil." They watched the man writhe on the ground as ministry aurors began to apparate into the field. "Your Voldemort had best pray that he doesn't hurt Bethany. Avatar or not, I will show him what torment truly is."
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The week passed quickly and it was now Halloween. They had the day free as it had fallen on a Saturday and everyone was lounging around the common room. Harry and his friends sat talking to Alec about The mental shields that he had developed and whether his friends could as well.
Harry had begun to train shielding his mind with Alec when Jayxom had explained to the boy his sensitivity to the dark lord and dementor was because of a latent telepathic talent. Harry had been overjoyed when, after only a few lessons to build the proper mental shields, he could block out legimens cast by Snape or even Dumbledore. He also found that he was immune to the attacks of dementor and boggarts. "Without the talent, such as you have Harry, I could only teach defensive forms, such as your shields. Given time I could probably teach you a little more but Jayxom says that humans need to mainly stick with either magic or mind skills because we don't live long enough to master both. I bet I can teach you telekinesis pretty easily though, it comes in handy being able to move stuff and nobody knows its you." The last part said with a grin.
Draco leaned forward. "Speaking of powers, Jayxom said the other day that most any wizard could be animagus. What do you know about it?"
"Just what he told me," the boy answered, "I can help you find your animal but it's kind of intense. If you can find some place that we can go that's private and secure we could go there after the feast and at least find out what your animal is."
Harry Ron and Hermione looked at each other and nodded, "We think we know a place... is there anything special we'll need?" "Well, couches maybe," Alec, said, thoughtfully, "It's kind of like a dream quest. You'll become your animal in your dream."
They all sat quietly. Harry, a copy of the Daily Prophet announcing the name of Sirius Black 'cleared' held tightly in one hand asked, "Alec, if you don't mind, what is Lord Silverheart to you? You said the other day you owed him your life..." Alec smiled back, "I do, and a lot more. I was an orphan; my mother gave me up when I was a baby. The first ten years of my life I lived with my 'parents' Daniel and Karen. We were happy and they were planning on adopting me officially when they could afford it except a few months after my tenth birthday I started hearing voices."
Alec's face had taken on a solemn cast, "A social worker with a big imagination decided that me hearing things was a sign that I was being abused and got me taken away from them. The problem was the voices was simply the first manifestations of my power, it's just that neither they nor me knew what it was. Anyway after that I had to stay with another family for like a year and a half. The thing was, the lady took me away from my parents got me placed with a couple that did things... they were monsters." The boy trembled for a moment and Hermione put her hand on his shoulder.
"You don't have to go on..."
The boy shook his head and smiled at her again. "No, its alright, its just a bit much for me even now... Anyway after a year and a half I got my chance and ran away and lived on the streets until I was thirteen. I lived on scraps and had to steal some to stay alive and the voices were still there, stronger now and I was having mammoth headaches along with them. Finally one day I'd gotten cornered by some local bangers, they were mad because they saw me lift this guys wallet in their territory and they wanted it."
"Anyway Jayxom comes along and beats the living crap out of these guys. Takes me back to the school he teaches at and I found out about the voices." I didn't believe it at first, I even ran away but he kept an eye on me and protected me until I accepted his help. He even got me back with my foster parents, my real parents now. Anyway I've learned so much from him I guess he'd be like your godfather was for you Harry." They all sat, silently until Ron looked up at the clock on the wall, "Cripes, look at the time, we need to get ready for the feast!" Harry waved to Draco and Alec as they were leaving the Gryffindor common room, "See you shortly." And went to change into his costume.