*sighs heavily* Hopefully I can figure out a way to fix it.
Arizosa - Well, people keep telling me...
CastusAlbusCor - Complications are fun. You know not complications
until you've heard Leigh ramble on about the Identity Series. It's
hard to keep the relationships between so many characters straight.
X.X
wicchick - I'm glad I'm writing again, myself. The writer's block is
annoying, but at least it hasn't snagged me yet and killed me. And
muse!Remus has been giving me ideas for dealing with Sulnore and
Helkaer ^__^
fantasydima - Mrph, the next chapta is here.
Scamber Dragon - w00t! One of my regulars! *bounces* Hiiiiii! I'm
hyper ^__^ *snickers* Sev's lovely little trip to America is coming.
Slowly, but it is indeed coming.
lkoKennen - And another regular! Ah, I missed you guys. Three great
chapters, now! (in my opinnion, at least :P)
Adrielle*Silverleaf - Bingo! Hanging out with crazy people gives me
good ideas! Exclaimation marks are fun when you're hyper ^__^ Hey,
death threats are cool. I haven't had one of those in awhile. *eyes
shine*
Black Rose - Heyya! Been awhile ^__^. I love my Drows, too. They're so
cool... Yeap, Sev will be sent your way, and he can magick-away the
Writer's Block for you ^__^
Potter ain't mine. He's Rowling's.
---
Blackened Sunrise
Chapter Fifty-six - Preparations
The Itch
---
The Potions Professor was not in a good mood.
Grumbling under his breath about pushy annoying Weasleys, he dropped
the last ingredient into the potion, and stirred counter-clockwise
exactly three and one quarter turns. Then he settled back, watching
the concoction boil. It would take almost twenty more minutes to
clear, and then after that he'd have to drop something of Draco's into
the potion. Normally, one would use a hair or a fingernail or some
such item to focus the potion upon them.
Severus Snape was going to be using a hand-full of the iridescent
silver-white scales that had been taken off Bladewhip's cheek in a
rather brutal match against Katar some days earlier, within the
Training Center.
Katar... the mysterious redhead was a puzzle to be solved. The man had
been under Cornelius Fudge's thumb for over a decade, forced to do
whatever the man wished of him. Severus had first seen the imposing
mountain of a man when he had been standing guard over Fudge at a
trial of some of the Deatheaters, following Voldemort's defeat. Katar
had been new to the Wizarding World, then, but no one knew that this
man had once been a muggle.
It was hard to tell, considering anyone who even attempted to cast a
spell on him to see if he was Pure-blood or Muggle-born, would only
get feedback that would knock them out for days. Fudge thought to use
Katar's strange immunity to many spells-- although hardly _all_
spells-- as a shield. But Katar would never act without Fudge's direct
command. He would stand blankly and still like a statue until his
'master' demanded that he would do something.
As such, Fudge had taken to giving Katar the command to protect the
Minister of Magic from danger every couple hours.
But the redhead was not the man he had been back then. Instead of the
blank, hazy crimson eyes that never seemed to see anyone, and yet
caught ever movement within his range of vision, there was an intense
intelligence lurking in shadows of suffering. Katar had been used, but
how far it had gone, no one was quite sure. Had Katar merely been a
bodyguard... or had he been forced, while under the control of his
'master', to do more? It was not especially something Snape wanted to
consider.
No, not at all.
The large man's shaggy mane of blood-colored locks made him look wild,
the dark look in his eyes, dangerous, and the solemn cast to his face,
brooding. He could spring at any given moment, his stances always
loose and relaxed, muscles prepared for movement. His pyrokinetics
were always something of a shock, especially given the amount of
control he had over his manifestation of the Power. He had been
controlled for years by a fool who might not be a fool, and yet had
managed to gain full control over his abilities.
Not even Potter had full control of his own link to the Power, and he
hadn't been controlled for longer than a couple hours at a time. Draco
still had much to learn about his own plasma/energy manipulation, even
with Hak-- yes, Severus knew of the presence of the 'voice' of the
Power that was also badgering the young Malfoy. It was rather hard not
to, when Draco started bitching at the bodiless voice in the middle of
the halls.
Virginia had a fair amount of control herself, but no where near
Katar's abilities. How had he done it?
Shaking the thoughts from his head, Snape returned to his potion,
frowning as he watched the cloudy, brilliant blue liquid slowly begin
to clear. Soon the potion would be ready to accept Draco's scales, and
he could get that ever-annoying female Weasley to stop breathing down
his neck, and get back to his normal sulking and griping.
---
Again and again, over and over, came the resounding clacks. Metal
jangled with the noise, and the soft padding of footsteps was almost
drowned out.
Hermione had taken the flail from her belt and switched it over into
staff-shape to use as a walking stick. Every time the staff hit the
ground, the chain that connected the two halves of the staff would
jangle within. She really had to wonder how it was doing that-- the
hole where the chain would slide in and out hadn't seemed that wide
when she screwed the pieces together.
Oh well, it was likely one of those annoying things that just sorta...
happened. Every six or seven feet she would stop and mark the wall on
her left, focused on finding her way out of the maze now that the
walls were no longer moving. Still, she got the feeling that
_something_ was going to go wrong.
The Enchantress _really_ wished she was able to connect mentally to
Weapon and Harry. Despite the relatively short period of time that it
had been since she'd set up that link, she had gotten rather used to
it, and missed it dearly.
Besides, she was damned lonely.
---
The trio came to a halt as they reached the outer-gates to the palace
at the center of Agarwaen. Sulnore raised a slender eyebrow, and
Helkaer smirked at what appeared to be the city's entire army,
gathered in the front courtyard. Apparently, the whispered words of
Weapon's attack had reached them, and all had gathered to hold back
the group of three.
After all, only one female and two worthless males? There was no
chance that that tiny group would ever make it past Agarwaen's finest.
Harry's emerald eyes all but glowed in the darkness as he grinned
widely at those that were attempting to hold him back from his current
goal. The Drow had obviously never heard of Harry James Potter before.
What the boy wanted, he got. There had yet to be someone who stopped
him from doing whatever he pleased-- even the late Albus Dumbledore
had never truly tried to stop him from doing what he wanted.
The old wizard's memories, tucked away and curling in some obscure
corner in the back of his mind, told him that quite clearly.
They also spoke of spells that could be used, quite effectively, to
tear through an entire army. Spells that Harry felt could be...
modified with the Power to be even stronger. Perhaps even... more
destructive. Destruction was good-- especially when his goal was the
destruction of the old ways of the Wizarding World, destruction of the
Dark Lord, destruction of the barriers between magic and technology,
muggle and wizard.
Sulnore tapped her bo against the ground, uncaring of the flecks and
pieces that fell away from the cracks in the end from both Helkaer's
hand and skull. She'd just pick up a new one from a fallen foe. It was
that simple. The Warrior-Princess was licking her lips in anticipation
of battle. Being a border-guard meant one got used to battle, taking
on the creatures that lived under the earth and would quite possibly
ravage the city if the guards weren't there. The best of the
border-guards were those who flourished during battle. Sulnore thrived
on it.
Her Drow companion uncrossed his arms, golden hand glinting with his
movements. He, too, bore a grin, and although he was skilled in
battle-- one had to be when hunting through the tunnels where the
fauna was just as likely to eat you as you were to eat it-- he did not
thrive, nor even care for bloodshed. But he was prepared to cause it,
even when calculating just how much it was going to cost him to have
to repair or even replace his clothing once he had finished this
little endeavor.
Glowing emerald pupils flared slightly, Harry forcefully making his
point to his chilling other half that he wished to battle this time.
Unlike the emotionless Weapon, Harry let a husking laugh, ringing with
madness cross his lips. It was always fun to throw your enemies off
balance, and as he looked up through long, tangled bangs, he knew he'd
done just that.
And his laugh got louder as he heard the command from the
Commander-General of Agarwaen's army shrieked a battle cry.
---
End Chapter
Ah, a lovely place to cut it off, non? *smirks*