CHAPTER FOUR: THE SPIRIT
They had made very little stops since the last meeting with Zhao. They had kept on going, Aang had shown signs of stopping to play with some animal or another but Harry had said firmly that a hero should always have his mind clear; he should not deviate from the path that is set for him. He should look upon his goal and make it happen whether it is impossible or not.
After that very demotivating speech, the others had no choice but to follow Harry's advice and go straight to the North Pole. Appa did not like the continuous flying because after eight hours it slowed down and landed on a small island, which was covered in tall trees.
Harry was befuddled he could not understand why the animal had suddenly stopped.
"Why did Appa stop?"
"He's tired and we might need rest." Katara answered.
"No we don't, that Zhao guy could be behind our backs any minute now"
"C'mon Harry give them a break. It's their mission after all, we can't tell them what to do." Hermione said reasonably.
Harry walked up to Appa and said "Ennervate" but nothing happened the creature was too big for the spell to take effect.
"Let's take a walk around the island to see if we can find something to do." Hermione said.
"Yeah, I'm bored anyway" Sokka said.
"Katara can teach me more water bending" Aang said happily.
"Sure Aang" Katara replied.
She moved towards the water and proceeded to create a knife out of water. Aang did the same.
She showed him more things she had learned from Bato and Aang learned fast. After a while, he got bored.
"I'll try out fire bending" Aang said cheerfully.
"No Aang, you should learn earth bending first!" Katara warned.
"Ok" Aang said a little disappointed.
He hit his foot hard on the ground and a large piece of rock came up but before Aang could move it, the rock fell on his foot.
"Ahhh!" Aang screamed clutching his foot. Hermione, Harry and Katara ran to help.
"Is he alright?" Hermione asked on the verge of tears.
"He'll be alright," Harry said taking out his wand to bandage Aang's foot.
"Come on lets eat lunch here, I don't think he'll get conscious again for a while. Hermione try every healing spell you know" Harry said and walked away his heart still pounding. He had just realized that if he was hurt or he died the world would fall to Voldemort, as it had no other hero.
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Draco walked towards Zuko's room having made up his mind to blame Zuko for all the bruises on his body. Just as he turned into Zuko's room, he ducked. Still the punch connected with his jaw and Draco was thrown back.
He aimed his wand at Zuko and thought Impedimenta. Zuko was thrown back and hit his head on the metal doorframe.
Draco got up and said, "Why'd you do that?"
"You humiliated me in front of my men, for that you will pay"
"Ha! I got humiliated too you know. It is nothing new to me; I'm used to being humiliated in front of everyone I ever knew."
"I've had worse experiences" Zuko retorted.
"At least you aren't considered a traitor, dishonored by your own father. Only the Dark Lord trusts me but I think that's because of Snape. I'm sure he would have killed me gladly if Snape hadn't stepped in and taken the spot for me" Draco had started to speak to himself rather than Zuko.
"You were dishonored by your father? You are considered a traitor by your people?"
"Yes, a traitor if they ever find out"
"Why?"
"I refused to kill my headmaster, just because the Dark Lord feared him he told me to kill him. Kill the most powerful wizard. How can a student kill the most powerful wizard?" Draco said looking at his feet.
"The same thing happened to me. I spoke against a general's plans and I dishonored my father. He banished me and gave me this scar," Zuko said touching his scar.
Draco looked around and decided that it was best to talk in Zuko's room. Draco went in and Zuko followed without any argument.
"When I was in school, we learned a subject called divination. It allowed us to see the future."
"I don't believe in prophecies," Zuko snorted.
"You don't have to, I won't make a prophecy, I'll tell you your future"
"It's the same, tell me but don't expect me to believe you"
"No problemo. Look into my eyes" Draco said using leglimency to read Zuko's worst fears and what had happened in his life. After three minute, Zuko broke eye contact but Draco had gathered enough information for him to make a 'prophecy'.
"Do you really want to hear it? It's bad. Maybe you're not ready to—"
"Tell me, I'm a warrior. I am ready for any situation," Zuko shouted getting up.
"Ok, Ok! Believe me you won't like it".
"Tell me" Zuko said a little apprehensive.
"Ok, I saw you capture the Avatar. You take him to your father and… do you really want to hear this?"
"Yes!" Zuko shouted now interested.
"You take the Avatar to your father; he takes the Avatar to his possession and gives an order to…"
"Yes?"
"Your father gives an order to execute you saying that you were a traitor and a spy".
"What!" Zuko shouted standing up and balling his hands into fists
"That's not all, I saw you escape prison and evade a lot of mercenaries sent after you. The last bit is puzzling, I also saw some guy in a blue mask sneak back to the castle to save the Avatar."
"I don't believe you!" Zuko shouted and made to walk out of the room.
"One more thing, a person called Zhao will rule your nation"
Zuko stopped in his tracks. "What did you say?"
"A person called Zhao will take over the world, after your father dies. You will live in exile all your life" Draco added with a smirk but quickly hid it when Zuko turned to face him.
"You are lying!" Zuko shouted taking a step towards Draco.
"I told you before, you can believe me or not. By the way Zuko, who's the man with the blue—?"
"Shut up! SHUT UP! I DON'T BELIEVE YOU!" Zuko shouted and stormed out of his room.
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Harry lay on the floor looking up at Voldemort's glowing eyes.
"How does it feel to be betrayed Harry?" Voldemort moved aside and Harry saw to his horror and anger Hermione standing behind Voldemort.
"You traitor!" Harry shouts.
"No Harry, you are the traitor" Hermione replied.
"I'll let her watch you die Harry," Voldemort said lifting his wand.
"Good bye Harry, 'Avada Kedarva!'" Voldemort shouted just as Harry woke up with a start.
"What the—"Harry said looking around. This was the first time he had a nightmare, which involved such a close betrayal. He was on Appa, Katara was driving, and everyone else was asleep. Knowing that he wouldn't be able to sleep again Harry moved to the front and sat next to Katara. She looked at him with pitying eyes.
"You were twitching in your sleep and saying something like Voldemort".
"Don't worry, I always have these nightmares"
"Want to talk about it? Aang has them sometimes and it feels better to talk about it"
"Ok, it always ends with me dying. Voldemort is the Dark Lord in our world, I have to kill him or die fighting him. Every time I see that nightmare someone betray me and the traitor watches as Voldemort kills me. I think this war is eating my mind, I just can't trust anyone anymore, I constantly look over my shoulder and I think I'm turning darker and darker. I love to use dark curses and I don't hesitate when I kill… I don't know why I'm telling you all this."
"It's ok, I don't understand everything but I think I'm good at making people cheerful."
"I'm sorry if I was so hard on you"
"It's ok."
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Avatar Roku stood over Aang, his eyes glowing red.
'You have failed to defeat Ozai. You failed to defeat him before the comet arrived. You allowed the fire nation to destroy the other nations. You failed to keep peace between the nations. You don't deserve to live.'
With that, Avatar Roku thrust his hand forward sending a blast of fire right at Aang's face.
Aang woke up with a jolt, a scream caught in his throat.
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"Aang wake up!" Katara shouted in his ear.
"What?" Aang said sleepily.
"We are going to get down in this village," Katara said.
Aang stood up and saw an earth bender village spread out before him.
"What are we doing here?" Aang shouted.
"What's wrong?" Harry said.
"It's an earth bender village; it could be under fire nation rule"
"No its not, we checked" Hermione said smiling.
"Ok, can we eat?" Sokka said rubbing his stomach.
"We just had food," Harry said giving a dirty looking at Sokka.
"Lets go" Hermione said breaking the impending fight.
They walked around the village not buying anything but looking around. Hermione immediately had an idea.
"Harry, we can see if Draco is ok, you know the Order method!"
"Of course, but I wouldn't fret if Malfoy died" Ron said.
"Ok let's try it". Harry lifted his wand and said the patronus spell, along with Malfoy's name.
An enormous stag erupted from the end of Harry's wand and trotted out off in the direction of the sea.
"Hey look a river!" Aang shouted and ran off towards a river at the edge of the village. The others quickly followed.
When they reached there, they saw to their horror a group of archers pointing arrows right at their heads.
"Yun Yun archers" Aang muttered.
"Can you do something?" Katara asked Harry.
"I can kill them"
"Let Aang handle it" Sokka said.
"Katara you help, there's enough water here." Harry whispered.
Katara brought her hands up creating a large wave and froze it. The archers immediately shot five arrows at it. Four hit and broke the ice and the fifth went through the broken wall of ice and struck Aang's arm. He fell down with a cry of pain.
The others responded with their own attack. Harry blasted three of the archers out from their treetops and wounded another two with a sectumsepra curse. Hermione ran towards Aang firing spells in random directions. Ron waved his wand and created a large wall of rock between the archers and the children (which was quickly broken). Sokka threw his boomerang knocking out two archers. Katara used her famous water whip to bring down two others.
Just as Hermione reached Aang, his tattoos started to glow an eerie blue and he got up. Hermione backed away looking scared. The archers shot a whole volley of arrows at Aang, but with a large blast of fire, he incinerated the arrows resulting in only debris falling on him.
Then soldiers started to come out of the forest in the other side of the river. Before any one could even start fighting, the soldiers surrounded them. Harry waved his wand shouting sectumsempra and killing anyone who looked too powerful. Hermione blinded three men with a swift anomelia curse. However, Aang did the most damage. He waved his injured hand in a fluid movement and caused a large wave to fall upon the soldiers on the other side and then he froze them, rendering the soldiers useless.
Then he brought his hands forward and pulled them back clenching his hands into fists, which resulted in the ground underneath the soldiers immediately in front of him to crack and create a spasm, which never seemed to end. Harry only got to see the horrified faces of the soldiers for a second, before they fell into the hole and into their deaths.
The other soldiers backed up a bit but they did not leave even though their faces showed that they really wanted to leave this place. A soldier came forwards with a fireball in his hands, the moment he was close enough he threw the fireball at Aang, Aang didn't dodge it he just took it to his hands and made it even bigger. The guard turned and started to run but Aang threw the fireball at him, making him burn alive.
He gave a withering glare at the remaining guards with his pupil-less eyes, the guards backed away and started to run. Aang grabbed his staff from the ground and swung it in the direction the guards had run. A humongous wall of air smashed its way through the trees taking with it the guards who had been running away. Aang turned towards the other children and they backed away looking scared. He pulled the arrow out of his arm resulting in a spurt of blood.
With the threat gone the eerie blue light faded and Aang fell to the ground and fainted. Katara ran to him, dragged him to the water, and put her hand over the wound. The others walked closer to see what she was doing, to their amazement they saw the wound healing itself.
"Katara where did you learn that?" Sokka asked impressed.
"I don't know, but I can use water to heal" Katara replied.
"Man, did you see him? He was so powerful, even Harry couldn't have done that to all of them" Ron said.
"I guess this is what the Avatar can do? What's with the blue light?" Hermione asked helping Aang to his feet.
"That's his Avatar spirit, when he's in a desperate situation, or he needs help or he's really angry the spirit come out and he has no control. This is the first time I have seen the spirit for so long." Katara said looking at Aang's youthful face.
"What is the spirit?" Hermione asked.
"It's all his past lives, Aang was the Avatar a 1000 times and when the spirit is aroused all his past lives comes back to him, leaving him no control."
"Let's get out of here" Harry said and helped Hermione carry Aang back to Appa.
"Yeah, let's go" Katara said, giving a last glance at the destruction they had done.
There was no forest anymore, all the trees had been blown away by Aang's powerful air blast, and there were at least eight dead bodies along with a large hole in the ground. Katara tried hard not to cry as she saw the dead bodies of the archers and the fire nation soldiers that they had killed.
Before she turned away, she saw a ship sinking in the horizon.
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Hope you guys enjoyed it. We are currently very busy with RL so its kinda hard to keep up with the stories but we will promise you that the fifth chapter of to ten questions we'd ask the cast of Avatar will be on my Saturday or after. We will also put the next chapter of Hell High soon.
Have a nice Winter/Summer. )