Lunarian: I know I said I was gonna update fast... unfortunately I never got up the drive till now.

- Night Terrors -

------------------------------------

--- Chapter 9 ---

-- Into the Unknown --

------------------------------------------------

In the hidden depths of Voldemort's lair live his favored Death Eater's. These followers of the Dark Lord while not in active service or training are treated as honored guests. From deep within his fortress an untold number amount of acts are performed, acts both pleasurable and painful. It would not be uncommon to hear screams of tormented agony echoing through the long dark hallways at any given time.

Located far enough away so the shrieks can't be heard Laurance Halmich sits in a comfortable chair surrounded by parchments and quills. Seated at a desk inside his Lord's personal library full of nearly any kind of tomes one could want, he burns the midnight oil working nearly to exhaustion in the tiresome task of translation. Here is where he chooses to spend most of his time, in the late hours of the night while others might be preparing to go to sleep or partaking of dark pleasures, Laurance prefers to delve deep into the teachings of old to seek wisdom.

Since his master had recovered the ancient scrolls, his master translator Laurance has spent his every waking hour feverishly deciphering them. Taking a moment to relax his stressed eyes he relaxes back into his chair and closing his eyes fondly relives that night of discovery those few nights ago.

---

Groaning slightly as consciousness slowly returned to him, Laurance opened his eyes to see what happened. Oww.. my head really hurts something awful. I haven't had a headache this bad since Ravenclaw's graduation ceremony, the NEWT's must have drained our intellect to have drunk all that fire whiskey... ahh memories. Seeing his Lord before him he decided to put an abrupt stop to his daydreaming of days gone past and show his reverence.

After kissing the hem of the Dark Lord's robe and kneeling with a bowed head he spoke one word in the uttermost sincere and respectful tone, "Master?" Why is Wormtail on the ground out cold he thought with no small amount of disgust. For that matter how come I feel so full of energy again so soon after burning myself out? ... Aha I see! Someone transferred their reserves to me, master must have need of my talent.

With the evidence prevented it seemed as if the best assumption would be that Wormtail was the poor recipient of a magic drain, and Laurance felt it couldn't have happened to a better creature. Some might wonder why such an avatar for the downtrodden would look at Voldemort's lapdog as Wormtail instead of Peter Pettigrew. Laurance had tried very hard to not pass judgement on his fellow DE, but he just couldn't stand the little rat. Stupid, weak, cowardly and fully untrustworthy that one is.

Suddenly his master looked directly into his eyes and spoke with supreme surety, "Come, the time to use your expertise is here, translate the runes inside." Laurance had been waiting for his moment and so he got up and followed his lord into the structure without delay. A first hand look into an Ancient's sanctuary, I'm so lucky.

Entering the chamber first was Voldemort whom cast a high level illumination charm to banish the darkness and light up the room as if it was in full summer daylight. Laurance's sight upon entering was no less magnificent then their earlier group spell. The floor and ceiling was covered in a smooth deep aquamarine surface that looked like some type of undefinable crystal, for it glittered and sparkled like a finely polished crystal goblet. On the floor center was a slightly upraised circle with markings on top, and directly above on the ceiling was an identical inverted circle. At the end of the room, opposite the entrance was a small alcove. Amazing.. Walking up to the alcove he noticed some runes near a light blue crystal.

The crystal had ritual markings on its top and bottom, and on closer examination Laurance could see that it was floating and spinning slowly with the use of some form of magic unknown to modern day. "My lord, this revolving crystal appears to be kept going by some form of ancient magic. The runes near it leads one to assume that it is a key of some sort. Shall I decipher them for you, My Lord?" It never hurts to be humble and courteous before our master. If there is one thing I have observed the most is that our master dislikes his followers to be too presumptuous.

"Proceed Laurance", instructed the Dark Lord. "Yes my lord, as you wish", he responded.

The only historian contingent of the death eater army spent the next few minutes translating the runes. Let's see, the four slanted lines over the circle means strength... oh wait a sec, but if the circle is smaller then the two innermost slants it means power. Okay... and this here indicates a transfer, and there is a place of holding of some kind, hmm... Ah, got it. "My Lord, it roughly translates to 'transfer power to open place of holding'. I believe that if you infuse the crystal with magic then a vault of some sort shall open."

"Step aside", said Voldemort as he glided up next to the crystal. Laurance quickly bowed and stepped away a few paces saying, "yes my lord." Again he felt very privileged to be in his master's presence as he was able to watch Voldemort place a hand upon the crystal and swiftly infuse it. It began to spin twice as fast while emitting a nearly inaudible hum. As the spinning object started to drain the blue out of itself, slowly turning black, his liege took a few cautious steps back. Wise decision, no telling what is going on here. Suddenly the crystal stopped spinning and humming and lowered into a slot now totally black.

As seconds slowly ticked by and tension rose, Laurance looked around the room. Something was different he was sure, there, in the center was a small light pulsating to the rhythm of a heartbeat. "My lord, the center runes, they are glowing." Voldemort turned around and approached the light and reaching out cautiously touched the small ball of light. As soon as those long thin fingers breached the outer shell of light, it expanded into a rectangular doorway stretching from the bottom runes to the top. With only a moment of hesitance, Voldemort stepped through the portal saying, "Come, Laurance, Lucius."

Inside the portal was countless scrolls left behind by the ancients. After carefully retrieving them they returned to base where Laurance got to work translating them. Only managed one so far, but master seemed most pleased. I wonder what use he has for advanced dream walking.

END

A/N: Well, I finally put out the chapter. I'm finding my stories are harder to keep potent and interesting the further in they go. I hope this will in the least bring a small slither of enjoyment to someone out there. Next chapter should be about... uh, one last dreaming I think and Harry finally gets a few moments of thought in the waking world. Well I only got two reviews for last chapter.. but, oh hell I'll keep going s'long as I at least get one... just takes me awhile.

REVIEWS

HoshiHikari- I'm thinking either next chapter or soon will be enough time for Harry's sanity to wave bye-bye. Thanks for sticking with me.

HeartlessAngel- Thanks, last chapter your right that I didn't much try to be sure of my spelling. But I will for this one.

BuriedFire- I'm happy you do.