The Pivotal Five
Summary: Five great stories come together in an epic imbalance that sets the world of fantasy on its side. Each people from each story much learn to put their differences aside and work together to save their own world, and the world of reality.
Last Episode: Galadriel healed Ron from the Buto poison.
Chapter 10: Dark Mark Unrevealed
"Now that we hold more people than this ship can contain, what next, Captain?" Ana Maria asked sarcastically. She was against taking the Rock Mother's survivors onto the Pearl, but, being only first mate, she had no say in dissuading Jack's whims.
"We're to stop soon, anyway, love. It shouldn't be too difficult to sustain them."
Letting out a frustrated sigh, Ana Maria shook her head and went back to her log.
"The insolence of them all. What I know is of extreme importance, yet they don't deign to listen to me," Cesair Finn complained.
"What do you know, then, Miss Finn?" Ann asked curiously, hoping that Cesair would take the bait. Though Ann was what most considered to be the marrying age, she still loved stories and yarns, particularly ones that had very little chance of being true.
"The legend I'm thinking of had to do with a wizard and witch of a very long time ago. They loved to interfere with things on a grand scale, such as time, dimensions, and other abstract notions. They found a way to go back in time, but their machine did other things, like after-effects, when it went to different time periods. One of its pieces broke off, and then split into six different parts, each going to a different time. I think the pieces are trying to be found, and so threw all these different times together."
"So…we need to find these six pieces of the witch and wizard's time machine?" Ann asked dubiously.
"I'm afraid so."
Jack was idly watching the sky when he noticed a bird that collapsed on the deck. He bent down to pick it up and saw it was an owl. How strange, he thought to himself. It had a letter attached to its leg, and a green seal closing the letter. Jack looked at the poor bird. Chances were it was going to die. It had been roughed up pretty bad. He hid the letter on the inside of his shirt and went down below to give the bird to Cesair to tend to.
"Where do you think those pieces will be, Miss Finn?" Ann asked.
"I don't know. Hopefully close by."
Jack walked in, looking odd with the large barn owl in his arms. "Seems we've had a strange occurrence. This bird crashed into the deck. See to it that it doesn't die, if you would be so kind."
"Captain, how did an owl come to be at sea in the first place?" Cesair questioned.
Jack shook his head. "I haven't the faintest idea." He shrugged his shoulders and left for his cabin.
Once inside, he took his cup of water and held it over a number of candles. Once the water began to steam, he held the letter over it, and the seal came clean off with it breaking.
The seal looked a bit like the pirate emblem, a skull. Yet, instead of crossbones underneath it, it had a snake coming out of its mouth. He opened the letter and read its contents.
Loyal follower,
The time has come to take what should have been taken away that Halloween night fifteen years ago. It is very well protected, as Hogwarts is the most secure hiding place for anything. Two years ago Crouch jr. got in effortlessly. It was what followed that killed him. Where he failed, you shall succeed. The Dark Mark doesn't mar your arm for a reason. It is time to step out, and to see the light of day for once in your existence. We will have Potter, and Dumbledore will be powerless to stop it.
This letter will vanish within ten minutes of breaking the seal.
It then gave directions to the aforementioned vault, in Jack's opinion, Hogwarts. A moving map was sketched at the bottom. Warning bells sounded off in Jack's mind, but his curiosity got the better of him. A dot that read, 'You are here' was floating along the Atlantic Ocean. Confusion at the name of the sea they were currently sailing was whirling in his mind, but he didn't think about it much, if he kept the ship going at the same distance and rate, they'd come upon land that led to this Hogwarts place very soon. The only problem Jack could think of was his men not being accustomed to travel by land instead of by sea.
He refolded the letter and placed it back in his shirt. He got up, then, and went on deck to tell Ana Maria about their new destination.
Ann couldn't be more anxious to see what the captain was so secretive about. When he put the bird on the table, she had seen an envelope in his shirt. Curiosity expounded, and it never left her mind. Where they headed somewhere new? What about the hand of Midas? And why, did she feel like this life was so lonely and dull when she'd already seen more things than most people twice her age? Feeling hopeless, she visited the survivors of the Rock Mother.
"How are you all doing?" she asked the five of them. The older man Sanglant looked worse for the wear. The lizard man Fifth Son was sitting up and making new jewelry out of his armor that was destroyed. The handsome young man Alain was watching, as though he were learning how to make lizard jewelry. The girl Blessing and woman Tallia were reading their own separate books. The servant Elysh was lying down, staring at the ceiling in thought.
"As well as can be expected," Sanglant answered quietly.
"Are any of you at all hungry?" she offered. Her question was met with five solemnly shaking heads. Blessing even looked up at and glared at her.
"Land ho!" was the loud shout heard from above. Ann, on the brink of having an anxiety attack, ran up the stairs in a rush.
Jack remembered this shore. It hadn't changed in all the weird things that mad been going on. It was still England's abandoned coast. Anchors were laid, and the small boats were lowered. Hogwarts was only a three days' walk away. Jack could almost smell the adventure in the air.
What he didn't know was that it wasn't adventure, it was magic.
A/N: Well, something happened and I'm writing a bit more now. Yay! But my computer's being a stupid PoS, so it might be awhile before my stuff looks remotely satisfactory. Grrrr… O well, you people don't care unless it prohibits you from getting chapters right? -vigorous nodding from me- Alrighty then…review replies!:
Tekvah Arial: My writer's block is a very vicious animal. Don't let it hear you say things like that! :-p Thrilled you like it, and that you're sticking with it, and hope you like this chapter. As you can tell, it's easier to put everyone in one place, and when the plot depends on it, well, it just makes my job a bit easier. :-D Oh, and since you like Harry Potter stuff, check out Campaign of the Unicorns. It's a filk based on Vanessa Carlton's Winter on her new album, Harmonium. Sorry about the Eminem thing…
Cerulean Asphodel: Thanks for reviewing. That's so cool that you've read Crown of stars!!! So you know, this is set after the third book, and before the fourth. I've never read the fourth, and I don't intend to. It's given me ideas to make fanfiction and it would be rather sad to tarnish them with reading those epic size books! Lol… Glad you like this story. Thanks for reviewing, and hope you keep coming back!
Please review. I need some serious improvement and encouragement to keep going. Well…TGIF, and TTFN. :-)