Sorry 'bout not updating Sunday/Monday. I went to a party Saturday
night, and didn't get home until Sunday night-- I slept maybe an hour
in all that time, passed out on the couch. Then I woke up and went
back to partying. Monday was my 'recovery' day. I still had to go to
classes, though...
Flummox - Scimitar is actually from Black Rose's "An Amercian
Weapon." The only other Weapon I've mentioned, that hasn't been seen,
is Naginata, and that's because Naginata is dead. Drows rock; I love
them ever so much. Dark Elves... hehehehehehe.
Kennen - Draco is in a muggle school so that I could kick him over
into AAW, and let Black Rose terrorize him. Hermione is in a maze.
I'll eventually get to the reason why, but probably not this second.
Scamber Dragon - That would be so much fun, tracking down our dearest
Angel of Balance just to get to torture Bladewhip ^__^
Kerrigan - Confusion is my game XD
Bryt - Yeah, they've got to find their way back to Lily's echo...
that's going to take some time for Draco-dear, however. I mean, he's
in _America_.
Eriol's bear - No slashing of Nate and Zabini. Although since Nate is
my all-purpose OC, he might end up in another fic. I'm not going to
embarrass Malfoy-- that's all up to Black Rose. XD
Ivette Jamaya - More it is!
Hurdlingbaybe06 - O_o;; You read it all in one sitting? Not even
bothering to go to sleep when you knew you had stuff to do in the
morning? Whoa...
guess - I've never actually had the chance to read Daughter of the
Drow, although I've made some vague attempts here and there. What I
know of the Drow has been stolen from Leigh's brain, since she
obsesses over them, to a point where she inserted a Drow into a
Rockman/Megaman Role Play Game.
Tasidia - *claps* I've been waiting for you to catch up; I always got
a smile from your reviews as you slowly worked your way through the
whole thing.
Phoenix Flight - See how fast Weapon turns the tables on them ^__^
Rouge-Sorceress - Oh, more people will die. I'm just working up to
it. Mwahahahahahaha~!
Lirael - Psycho!Harry is the best kind of Harry. Ouuuu,
reincarnation... did Legolas get reincarnated, too? *grins*
An American Weapon:
Lupine Night:
Still not in possession of Harry Potter. He still belongs to Madam
Rowling.
---
Blackened Sunrise
Chapter Fifty-One: Indoctrination
The Itch
---
"Hiiiiiyah!" Nate proceeded to attempt to preform a side-kick in
rabbit form, and failed rather spectacularly. Laying on his back,
stunned, the multicolored rabbit reflected that he probably should
stick to moves that would actually work with this body.
At least until he learned how each and every muscle worked.
Never let it be said that Nathaniel Calaveras had not watched far to
many muggle Martial Arts Movies.
Blaise shook his head as he shuffled over to the muggle refrigerator
in the corner of the 'living space'. It was easier just to have the
enchanted fridge sitting in one corner, keeping food stuffs fresh,
then to run the House Elves ragged as they switched back and forth,
back and forth, between the two different timed parts of the castle.
There would have had been need for constant replenishment.
Definitely, the fridge was easier.
Munching on an apple, he dropped into seiza, watching his friend
attempt to new moves in his rabbit-form. The boy had spent several
weeks like that now, and while he occasionally griped about it,
Blaise believed he secretly enjoyed the freedom of not being human.
Still, the former Slytherin knew that it was only prolonging the
inevitable. Nate would have to face up to his guilt over Cyliess'
death, and overcome it, if he was to be effective in any way to the
Weapons' new regime. Which meant that Lavender or Pavarti would have
to change him back soon.
His guess was a little off, having thought they had a bit more time
to be A Boy and His Pet Rabbit, when the doors banged open and said
female Druids sauntered into the room, Dean trailing along behind
them. Blaise hadn't realized that three months had actually passed
while he was training, and Nate avoiding the issue.
Lavender whistled when she caught sight of Nate's multicolored
fur, "Wow, Dean wasn't kidding when he said he was
colored 'interestingly'."
Calaveras gave her a flat stare, responding dryly, "I'll take that as
a compliment."
"And he talks!" Pavarti's eyes widened, "How is that possible? I
didn't think rabbits had vocal cords like humans..."
Blaise gave her a strange look, then shrugged. What did it matter if
he could talk or not? It was a _curse_ that had changed him, after
all.
Before the rabbitified Nathaniel could react, Lavender shot forwards,
scooping the bunny up into her arms, squeezing him tightly. She had
barely begun proclaiming his cuteness to the world, when she suddenly
found herself with an armful of seventh year Ravenclaw. The blonde
teenager blushed brightly, while the younger female eyed his upper
body before letting him go.
He scrambled to the bedding area, hiding behind a cot, still
blushing, but now curled into a ball muttering things to calm himself
down. They generally ran along the lines of 'girl not scary, girl
won't hurt me' over and over again, interspersed by Sum 41 lyrics.
Yes, his fear of females had reared it's ugly head, once again.
Sighing, Blaise climbed back to his feet, stretching out his back,
and turning to his teammates, "Well then... ready to train?"
Pavarti rolled her eyes as Dean and Lavender grinned widely, stealing
a page from one of Harry's more bizarre books. They posed.
---
Weapon remained emotionless as he hefted the still bleeding form of
the single-handed Drow by his collar, and wrapped his long, taloned
fingers around the stump left behind. Wide, terrified red eyes nearly
rolled back into the dark elf's head as he felt a tingle of pleasure
arc through his body, beginning at his missing limb. He never noticed
the Power being woven into his system, not that he would have
understood what he was sensing if he had. The Power was unique, and
only those that were experienced with it and it's facets, knew with
what they were dealing.
When the Drow was set back on the ground, clouded eyes cleared, and
he lifted up his stump to stare at it in shock. There was a hand
there-- not made of flesh and bone, but of Power-wrought metal. The
elegant gold stood out against his dark skin and dark clothing.
Raising his eyes to the man who had first removed his hand, then
replaced it, he found himself staring into the pinpoint pupils of the
most definitely insane Harry Potter.
Then the pinpoints widened, giving him a look of returning sanity,
although that was hardly the case. His eyes were simply adjusting to
the amount of light in the caves, after having been bathed with the
physical glow of the Power. After all, he wasn't just trying to prove
to this lower member of the Drow Elves that he was one of the Living
Weapons, he was trying to prove it to every other dark elf that could
possibly be in the area. Therefore, the light show.
The second Drow was also gaping, open mouthed, at the sight of his
older brother, marveling over the golden metal that was his brother's
hand. This... this was truly amazing. This man... he... he must have
been one of the Weapons. While a hand as such could have been made by
any blacksmith Drow, it would have taken much time to find the
materials, create the hand, enchant it, and then fuse it into the
body. Weapon had formed it in minutes.
"My Lord Living Weapon..." breathed the younger elf.
Harry's luminescent emerald eyes turned to face him, lips quirking
dangerously, "My Name is Weapon." He didn't bother to gift him with
his birth name; what was the point? He had trained himself to respond
to being called Weapon, but there was always a moment of hesitation
before he did so. To be called Harry... was to have power over him.
And as his other had told the two lower Drow, no one controlled
either of them. No one.
The last one to do so was dead.
"My Lord Weapon," the older bowed his head, something he had never
done for another male before. He and his brother were of Noble house,
and had been used to the male Drow bowing their heads to them; of
course, since the two _were_ male, they had to bow their heads to any
female that passed. Such was the way of the Drow, "What would you
have your servants do, my lord?"
Potter caught the stunned look on the younger brother's face, and
didn't bother to hide his grin. The brother was clearly stunned at
the fact that his elder had called them both servants of the Living
Weapon. His older brother had always been a stubborn one, and had had
to literally have his obedience to women beaten into him. Potter
stared hard at them.
"First, your names."
The younger looked mutinous-- this may have been one of the Living
Weapons, but he didn't have to _obey_ him-- so the older brother
spoke for them both, "My brother is Elear, and I am Helkaer."
"Helkaer," Harry mused, wrapping his mind around the strange names,
before disguarding the thought, "I want you to take me to where ever
it is that you and Elear live."
"As you command, my Lord," he turned into the darkness, trusting in
the Weapon's ability to see in the dark like the elves could. How
else would he have been able to come into the tunnels in the first
place?
---
Nate had managed to find some clothing, and was laying back in the
cot that his rabbit form had shared with Blaise. In the distance, he
could hear the four Druids being put through their paces by Sirius,
and knew they wouldn't be back for some time. Sirius rather enjoyed
being a taskmaster.
So the cot would be his until Sirius gave his 'students' a break, and
they finally left the time-distorted chamber. But that wouldn't be
for a long while, so here Nate was, thinking. Not something he'd done
for awhile now; ever since he'd come in, he'd been perfecting Rabbit-
Fu or sleeping, to avoid having to think about Schlatter's death. He
couldn't put it off any more.
His voice was quiet as he whispered lyrics to himself, closing his
eyes in thought, hands tucked up behind his head.
"Heaven smiles above me... what they gift, there be love... but now
I'm lost... gift that you give to me, no one knows..."
Why did you do that, Cyliess?
Why did you have to kill yourself?
Why did you leave me behind?
You... were my only friend...
...but not anymore.
That was the crutch. Nate had more friends now. He wasn't
just 'another Ravenclaw' to the other students, and he wasn't
the 'wanna-be muggle' to the Ravenclaws... he was Nathaniel
Calaveras, friend of Draco Malfoy, friend of Blaise Zabini. Funny how
all his friends had been in Slytherin.
He still didn't understand why Cyliess had thought it better to take
his own life, over living the way he wanted to. Instead of taking
life by the horns and wrestling it until it did what he wanted. He'd
been so sure that Schlatter had everything he could ever want-- well,
except Marie; he'd never actually gotten over his crush-- so why
would he do that? Oh, sure, Blaise had said that his family was Death
Eaters, and Nate had met them and their attitudes enough times to
believe it... but that couldn't be it.
Could it? Were purebloods so indoctrinated that they couldn't think
for themselves, and the only way out is suicide?
That caused him pause for a moment, an old theory coming to surface
once more. Why was it that there was only one magical newspaper? Why
weren't there others, to offer conflicting opinions, and give both
sides of the story? Where were the other forms of mass media? Why was
their music only chanting?
You were either labeled 'dark' or 'light'. There was never
any 'grey'. Why was it like this? Was the Ministry preforming
censorship? Only printing what they thought the people should know?
The theory sent a chill down his back, as he realized something in
the pit of his stomach. If that was true... if that was true, then it
led some credence to the reasoning behind Cyliess Schlatter's
suicide.
The indoctrination would have kept him from being able to see
anything outside of what he'd been taught. He wouldn't have known any
other way out. He was of pure blood, he wouldn't have been able to
question things by looking at it in the way only a muggle-- or
muggleborn, still living with a muggle family-- could look at it.
His mind flashed back to the discussions over the summer that he
listened in on. To Marie and their father arguing the politics of the
past. To their parents dinner-time discussions of history and the
current problems of the world. Yes, people only learned from their
mistakes...
...but where did that leave them, when the government themselves
refused to give the people enough freedom to realize they were making
mistakes? Where did that leaves them with the government itself was
to stupid and foolhardy to realize that what they'd been doing for
centuries could only hurt people?
The Ministry of Magic was the reason Schlatter was dead, Nate decided
with a firm glare at the ceiling. If they'd shown that there were two
sides to everything, or at least let information from out-of-country
into the Daily Prophet, then Schlatter would have known he had other
ways out other than suicide. He would have known that he could stand
up for himself, fight for what he believed in.
Nate had gotten the guilt of his friend's death off his chest; the
past three or so months in the Training Center having be freeing and
enabling him to become friends without having 'human' worries.
He had also gotten over what remained of his hesitance to rid the
magical community of Cornelius Fudge and his corrupt world order.
---
End Chapter
Swoosh; another chapter down!
night, and didn't get home until Sunday night-- I slept maybe an hour
in all that time, passed out on the couch. Then I woke up and went
back to partying. Monday was my 'recovery' day. I still had to go to
classes, though...
Flummox - Scimitar is actually from Black Rose's "An Amercian
Weapon." The only other Weapon I've mentioned, that hasn't been seen,
is Naginata, and that's because Naginata is dead. Drows rock; I love
them ever so much. Dark Elves... hehehehehehe.
Kennen - Draco is in a muggle school so that I could kick him over
into AAW, and let Black Rose terrorize him. Hermione is in a maze.
I'll eventually get to the reason why, but probably not this second.
Scamber Dragon - That would be so much fun, tracking down our dearest
Angel of Balance just to get to torture Bladewhip ^__^
Kerrigan - Confusion is my game XD
Bryt - Yeah, they've got to find their way back to Lily's echo...
that's going to take some time for Draco-dear, however. I mean, he's
in _America_.
Eriol's bear - No slashing of Nate and Zabini. Although since Nate is
my all-purpose OC, he might end up in another fic. I'm not going to
embarrass Malfoy-- that's all up to Black Rose. XD
Ivette Jamaya - More it is!
Hurdlingbaybe06 - O_o;; You read it all in one sitting? Not even
bothering to go to sleep when you knew you had stuff to do in the
morning? Whoa...
guess - I've never actually had the chance to read Daughter of the
Drow, although I've made some vague attempts here and there. What I
know of the Drow has been stolen from Leigh's brain, since she
obsesses over them, to a point where she inserted a Drow into a
Rockman/Megaman Role Play Game.
Tasidia - *claps* I've been waiting for you to catch up; I always got
a smile from your reviews as you slowly worked your way through the
whole thing.
Phoenix Flight - See how fast Weapon turns the tables on them ^__^
Rouge-Sorceress - Oh, more people will die. I'm just working up to
it. Mwahahahahahaha~!
Lirael - Psycho!Harry is the best kind of Harry. Ouuuu,
reincarnation... did Legolas get reincarnated, too? *grins*
An American Weapon:
Lupine Night:
Still not in possession of Harry Potter. He still belongs to Madam
Rowling.
---
Blackened Sunrise
Chapter Fifty-One: Indoctrination
The Itch
---
"Hiiiiiyah!" Nate proceeded to attempt to preform a side-kick in
rabbit form, and failed rather spectacularly. Laying on his back,
stunned, the multicolored rabbit reflected that he probably should
stick to moves that would actually work with this body.
At least until he learned how each and every muscle worked.
Never let it be said that Nathaniel Calaveras had not watched far to
many muggle Martial Arts Movies.
Blaise shook his head as he shuffled over to the muggle refrigerator
in the corner of the 'living space'. It was easier just to have the
enchanted fridge sitting in one corner, keeping food stuffs fresh,
then to run the House Elves ragged as they switched back and forth,
back and forth, between the two different timed parts of the castle.
There would have had been need for constant replenishment.
Definitely, the fridge was easier.
Munching on an apple, he dropped into seiza, watching his friend
attempt to new moves in his rabbit-form. The boy had spent several
weeks like that now, and while he occasionally griped about it,
Blaise believed he secretly enjoyed the freedom of not being human.
Still, the former Slytherin knew that it was only prolonging the
inevitable. Nate would have to face up to his guilt over Cyliess'
death, and overcome it, if he was to be effective in any way to the
Weapons' new regime. Which meant that Lavender or Pavarti would have
to change him back soon.
His guess was a little off, having thought they had a bit more time
to be A Boy and His Pet Rabbit, when the doors banged open and said
female Druids sauntered into the room, Dean trailing along behind
them. Blaise hadn't realized that three months had actually passed
while he was training, and Nate avoiding the issue.
Lavender whistled when she caught sight of Nate's multicolored
fur, "Wow, Dean wasn't kidding when he said he was
colored 'interestingly'."
Calaveras gave her a flat stare, responding dryly, "I'll take that as
a compliment."
"And he talks!" Pavarti's eyes widened, "How is that possible? I
didn't think rabbits had vocal cords like humans..."
Blaise gave her a strange look, then shrugged. What did it matter if
he could talk or not? It was a _curse_ that had changed him, after
all.
Before the rabbitified Nathaniel could react, Lavender shot forwards,
scooping the bunny up into her arms, squeezing him tightly. She had
barely begun proclaiming his cuteness to the world, when she suddenly
found herself with an armful of seventh year Ravenclaw. The blonde
teenager blushed brightly, while the younger female eyed his upper
body before letting him go.
He scrambled to the bedding area, hiding behind a cot, still
blushing, but now curled into a ball muttering things to calm himself
down. They generally ran along the lines of 'girl not scary, girl
won't hurt me' over and over again, interspersed by Sum 41 lyrics.
Yes, his fear of females had reared it's ugly head, once again.
Sighing, Blaise climbed back to his feet, stretching out his back,
and turning to his teammates, "Well then... ready to train?"
Pavarti rolled her eyes as Dean and Lavender grinned widely, stealing
a page from one of Harry's more bizarre books. They posed.
---
Weapon remained emotionless as he hefted the still bleeding form of
the single-handed Drow by his collar, and wrapped his long, taloned
fingers around the stump left behind. Wide, terrified red eyes nearly
rolled back into the dark elf's head as he felt a tingle of pleasure
arc through his body, beginning at his missing limb. He never noticed
the Power being woven into his system, not that he would have
understood what he was sensing if he had. The Power was unique, and
only those that were experienced with it and it's facets, knew with
what they were dealing.
When the Drow was set back on the ground, clouded eyes cleared, and
he lifted up his stump to stare at it in shock. There was a hand
there-- not made of flesh and bone, but of Power-wrought metal. The
elegant gold stood out against his dark skin and dark clothing.
Raising his eyes to the man who had first removed his hand, then
replaced it, he found himself staring into the pinpoint pupils of the
most definitely insane Harry Potter.
Then the pinpoints widened, giving him a look of returning sanity,
although that was hardly the case. His eyes were simply adjusting to
the amount of light in the caves, after having been bathed with the
physical glow of the Power. After all, he wasn't just trying to prove
to this lower member of the Drow Elves that he was one of the Living
Weapons, he was trying to prove it to every other dark elf that could
possibly be in the area. Therefore, the light show.
The second Drow was also gaping, open mouthed, at the sight of his
older brother, marveling over the golden metal that was his brother's
hand. This... this was truly amazing. This man... he... he must have
been one of the Weapons. While a hand as such could have been made by
any blacksmith Drow, it would have taken much time to find the
materials, create the hand, enchant it, and then fuse it into the
body. Weapon had formed it in minutes.
"My Lord Living Weapon..." breathed the younger elf.
Harry's luminescent emerald eyes turned to face him, lips quirking
dangerously, "My Name is Weapon." He didn't bother to gift him with
his birth name; what was the point? He had trained himself to respond
to being called Weapon, but there was always a moment of hesitation
before he did so. To be called Harry... was to have power over him.
And as his other had told the two lower Drow, no one controlled
either of them. No one.
The last one to do so was dead.
"My Lord Weapon," the older bowed his head, something he had never
done for another male before. He and his brother were of Noble house,
and had been used to the male Drow bowing their heads to them; of
course, since the two _were_ male, they had to bow their heads to any
female that passed. Such was the way of the Drow, "What would you
have your servants do, my lord?"
Potter caught the stunned look on the younger brother's face, and
didn't bother to hide his grin. The brother was clearly stunned at
the fact that his elder had called them both servants of the Living
Weapon. His older brother had always been a stubborn one, and had had
to literally have his obedience to women beaten into him. Potter
stared hard at them.
"First, your names."
The younger looked mutinous-- this may have been one of the Living
Weapons, but he didn't have to _obey_ him-- so the older brother
spoke for them both, "My brother is Elear, and I am Helkaer."
"Helkaer," Harry mused, wrapping his mind around the strange names,
before disguarding the thought, "I want you to take me to where ever
it is that you and Elear live."
"As you command, my Lord," he turned into the darkness, trusting in
the Weapon's ability to see in the dark like the elves could. How
else would he have been able to come into the tunnels in the first
place?
---
Nate had managed to find some clothing, and was laying back in the
cot that his rabbit form had shared with Blaise. In the distance, he
could hear the four Druids being put through their paces by Sirius,
and knew they wouldn't be back for some time. Sirius rather enjoyed
being a taskmaster.
So the cot would be his until Sirius gave his 'students' a break, and
they finally left the time-distorted chamber. But that wouldn't be
for a long while, so here Nate was, thinking. Not something he'd done
for awhile now; ever since he'd come in, he'd been perfecting Rabbit-
Fu or sleeping, to avoid having to think about Schlatter's death. He
couldn't put it off any more.
His voice was quiet as he whispered lyrics to himself, closing his
eyes in thought, hands tucked up behind his head.
"Heaven smiles above me... what they gift, there be love... but now
I'm lost... gift that you give to me, no one knows..."
Why did you do that, Cyliess?
Why did you have to kill yourself?
Why did you leave me behind?
You... were my only friend...
...but not anymore.
That was the crutch. Nate had more friends now. He wasn't
just 'another Ravenclaw' to the other students, and he wasn't
the 'wanna-be muggle' to the Ravenclaws... he was Nathaniel
Calaveras, friend of Draco Malfoy, friend of Blaise Zabini. Funny how
all his friends had been in Slytherin.
He still didn't understand why Cyliess had thought it better to take
his own life, over living the way he wanted to. Instead of taking
life by the horns and wrestling it until it did what he wanted. He'd
been so sure that Schlatter had everything he could ever want-- well,
except Marie; he'd never actually gotten over his crush-- so why
would he do that? Oh, sure, Blaise had said that his family was Death
Eaters, and Nate had met them and their attitudes enough times to
believe it... but that couldn't be it.
Could it? Were purebloods so indoctrinated that they couldn't think
for themselves, and the only way out is suicide?
That caused him pause for a moment, an old theory coming to surface
once more. Why was it that there was only one magical newspaper? Why
weren't there others, to offer conflicting opinions, and give both
sides of the story? Where were the other forms of mass media? Why was
their music only chanting?
You were either labeled 'dark' or 'light'. There was never
any 'grey'. Why was it like this? Was the Ministry preforming
censorship? Only printing what they thought the people should know?
The theory sent a chill down his back, as he realized something in
the pit of his stomach. If that was true... if that was true, then it
led some credence to the reasoning behind Cyliess Schlatter's
suicide.
The indoctrination would have kept him from being able to see
anything outside of what he'd been taught. He wouldn't have known any
other way out. He was of pure blood, he wouldn't have been able to
question things by looking at it in the way only a muggle-- or
muggleborn, still living with a muggle family-- could look at it.
His mind flashed back to the discussions over the summer that he
listened in on. To Marie and their father arguing the politics of the
past. To their parents dinner-time discussions of history and the
current problems of the world. Yes, people only learned from their
mistakes...
...but where did that leave them, when the government themselves
refused to give the people enough freedom to realize they were making
mistakes? Where did that leaves them with the government itself was
to stupid and foolhardy to realize that what they'd been doing for
centuries could only hurt people?
The Ministry of Magic was the reason Schlatter was dead, Nate decided
with a firm glare at the ceiling. If they'd shown that there were two
sides to everything, or at least let information from out-of-country
into the Daily Prophet, then Schlatter would have known he had other
ways out other than suicide. He would have known that he could stand
up for himself, fight for what he believed in.
Nate had gotten the guilt of his friend's death off his chest; the
past three or so months in the Training Center having be freeing and
enabling him to become friends without having 'human' worries.
He had also gotten over what remained of his hesitance to rid the
magical community of Cornelius Fudge and his corrupt world order.
---
End Chapter
Swoosh; another chapter down!