Summary: Continues right after HBP (including spoilers). Harry is about to leave Hogwarts for good by himself against the will of his friends when a memory of something Dumbledore said before pops into his mind. Deciding to take action based on this memory, Harry decides to remain at Hogwarts for a while longer and train a bit more before going into the world on his own. What he discovers afterwards about himself and the world marks the beginning of a war of unimaginable proportions. This is a story inspired by Warcraft 3, Reign of Chaos. Also, a bit of other shows and books are involved such as Magic the Gathering, and Naruto (not enough to actually make it a crossover) is used.
Disclaimer: Do not own Harry Potter
Arthur's Note: Sorry everyone. Don't think you guys want excuses, so let's start the chapter and talk afterwards.
The Gathering Series Book One
The Gathering Twilight
Chapter Nine:
Me, My Magic, And IHarry awoke to purple fields and yellow skies. There was nothing that really distinguished anything, no clouds, trees, nada. He started to wonder about that, forgetting everything momentarily and leaving his mind in a blissfully unaware state, before he received what had to be the mother of all migraines. Within all of the pain, Harry remembered what happened, his sudden betrayal, pain, and burst of emotions. Everything was as clear as Dudley's new high-definition television from last summer.
'Damn, how did all that happen?' He thought to himself, he didn't remember why everything happened the way it did, especially his thoughts about his friends. He wasn't really mad at them, was he? Before he could confuse himself into another headache, he heard a familiar voice. "You are awake," it said, softly and with a hollow ring to it like a ghost.
Of course, Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lives, isn't scared of a mere ghost when he had faced so much worse, but there was something in that voice. What was it? It was his own voice. Harry turned around to look for the speaker, finding nothing, not that he expected to. After all, it was kind of like protocol for all things weird, appear when nobody expects you, and disappear when you can be useful or someone's looking for you.
Harry let out a soft sigh before putting a resigned look on his face. "What is it this time? Am I being summoned by a demon? Or maybe it's the spirit of Christmas past!" Harry said, tired of all the "weird" things happening to him. "I do not like that attitude of yours." The voice replied, before Harry felt a presence right in front of his face. The speaker wasn't really anything he expected; it was, for a lack of a better word, an egg of blue light. It was about the size of his head, which made him feel a bit awkward, as it was like talking to a floating head. There was a bit of a blue mist surrounding it, giving it the look of a powerful aura, but Harry wasn't intimidated by the power, for some reason.
"Who or what are you?" Harry asked, thinking that his life was going to get even stranger. "Well, I am blue." The little oval replied, triggering a moment of silence. "Naw… really?" Harry asked as he raised an eyebrow. "Your attitude never ceases to astound me." Blue replied, in a similar drawl to the one Harry had used.
Harry gave a soft sigh before deciding that enough was enough. "Just tell me what you want so I can go." This caused another lapse of silence between the two with Harry staring at the figure while Blue appeared to be staring at Harry too, even if it had no visible eyes. "This is going to take a while to explain, as I am here to explain to you the basic theory of magic."
More silence. Harry didn't understand why there were these silences any more, was he supposed to say something profound at this moment? "Go on," Harry prompted, wondering what he was getting into. Blue shifted a bit, before seemingly cleared its throat before beginning.
"Right now, we are in your magiscape. That is, the plane of existence where you can see and feel your magic within your body. This plane exists parallel to the dreamscape, soulscape and the mindscape, making the Tetrity of Self. The soulscape is only accessible through the worst of what most wizards call "Dark Magic" while the dreamscape can only be visited naturally at random times, though it (the dreamscape) can be controlled through rituals.
The mindscape is accessible and controllable to all who practice what you call Occlumency and Legilmency, once more amplified through rituals and artifacts. Lastly, the magiscape, that we are in now, is not something that most people can manipulate. There are not even any rituals to control this plane or the soulscape, as the magical and spiritual energies are too dangerous to trifle with external energies.
However, as part of an old wizarding family's Blood Earned True Advancement (Beta), some wizards can surpass these boundaries. The Potter line has been gifted with, amongst other things part of their Beta, the Basic Sight, which allows them to see magic in its most basic forms. Thus explains how you can see me. Are there any questions so far?"
Harry took a while to commit everything to memory, before asking a question. "Doesn't everyone see magic? Everyone knows what the disarming spell looks like, as well as others, what's so different about this Basic Sight?" Blue paused a bit, again, before answering. "Those are the physical visual colours of the spells, not their… true forms if you will. All magic is categorized into different colours, which is what I will explain next. Unless, do you have any more questions?" At the shake of Harry's head in the negative, Blue continued.
"The five colours exist in a cycle, starting with Red and going clockwise, we have Red, Green, White, Blue (that's me), and Black. They represent almost everything, from emotions to types of magic to elements. For example they elementally represent Fire and Lightning, Earth and Plant Life, Light and Humanity, Water and Air, and Darkness and Metal. In terms of types of spell casters, they represent Sorcerers, Druids, Clerics, Illusionists, and Necromancers. They represent in many more ways, but I doubt you need more examples.
All magic is divided more or less into these colours, including spells, rituals, and magical creatures. However, they all have a relationship with the other colours. The ones adjacent to a colour, is their ally, which those that fact them are opponents. For example, I am Blue, and as such I work better with White and Black, but not Green or Red. This does not mean I cannot be used with Red or Green, but rather a spell from the combination will be harder to cast or control or cause some other problem.
There is also a who-beats-who relationship, as each colour looses to one of its opponents while wins against the other. That is, if the amount and intent in the magics are equal. Blue beats Red, Red beats White, White beats Black, Black beats Green, and Green beats Blue. That is the truth, and I admit it, though other colours are not as honest in how they view their weaknesses. Mind you, there are exceptions, but this is the general rule, called the Pential Cycle. Of course, these are just the basic colours."
Harry held up his hand up to try and remember everything. After a few minutes he took a deep breath and asked the one question that bothered him the most. "What does this have to do with me? What does this have to do with any wizard?" Harry expected a pause, but thankfully there was none as Blue started to talk again.
"When casting a spell, wizards and other spell casters channel their raw magic from their magiscape, or their "Magical Cores" as some call them, to manipulate them into spell, whether by will alone or through a focus. Between the final resulting spell and raw magic, there is a secondary stage for magic, in the form that is called Mana.
This Mana exists in the colours that I have just told you about and is converted by the spell caster. Some magical beings have/develop Mana cores along with their raw Magical Cores. The advantage here is that it is far more efficient to channel Mana for spells rather than raw magic. In terms of amount, converted Mana is ten times more effective than raw magic. However, some spells require specifically raw magic, so it's not wise to depend entirely on Mana.
That being said, all humans with born magical ability are born with an affinity for a specific colour of Mana. This means they can cast and control spells of that particular colour easier than others. They may also be able to develop a Mana core of their colour. These Mana cores in turn create avatars, like myself, to look over the development of the cores as well as other related tasks. However, unlike most of the other avatars, I can speak to you and you can see me, due to your Potter Beta.
Now, some are born with two affinities, which result in one of two scenarios. One is that the two colours can work together nicely, like Black and Red, in which there is no problem, and only more benefits for that person. However, if the colours are contradicting, like Blue and Green, then there is a problem. There is a lot of magical tension, in this case, and while this is great for casting offensive spells and spells that specifically target that colour combinations, all other spells are weakened. The only way to fix this, is a Forced-Affinity ritual is needed. Basically, since any two opposing colours have one colour that works with both of them, such as White for the opposing Blue and Green, the ritual forcibly gives a person an affinity for that middle colour, to stabilize a person's magical abilities.
There is a negative backlash to this, as the spell caster will then be more than just dismal at the remaining two coloured spell types. However, even having one affinity is rare, and thus this is not a major issue. Now, as you may have figured, I would not be telling you this without reason. I am here to inform you of your affinities, and other parts of your magical core."
That was the response Harry received for his rather simple question, but he still paid attention to everything being said, as he believed this would be important. "Affinities? So I have you and…?" Harry trailed off, waiting for Blue to speak. But before Blue could answer, he felt overcome with anger before it dissipated just as quickly. "Me." He heard a different, almost passionate voice say. It still sounded like his own though, as a flash of Red showed Harry his answer. In front of him, right beside Blue, was an identical Red entity.
There appeared to be an awkward pause before Blue spoke again. "Ugh, yes. Your other natural affinity is... Red," he said with what seemed like disgust in his voice. Harry felt another flash of anger before Red retorted with a "What's that supposed to mean!" However, it seemed as if Blue was no longer paying attention to what he said before.
"I thought you were looking after the other two?" Blue asked, changing the direction of the conversation. "I brought them here with me," Red replied. It was then that Harry noticed two smaller orbs of light revolving around Red, both the size of his fist, much smaller than Blue and Red. They were Green and White. "Hold on!" Harry exclaimed as the white light floated away from Red and towards Blue. "I though you said there could only be affinity for three colours at the most for one person?"
Blue seemed to cough before replying. "Um… yes, but those that have double affinities pass those on to their offspring with a 90 chance of success. Your mother had affinities with Blue and White while your father had Green and Red. With their coupling… it is no wonder what happened to you." Harry blinked a bit at his answer before coming to another thought that bothered him. "So I'm not able to cast Black spells? I mean, considering everything you've told me about affinities…" he drifted off, wondering what Blue, or even Red, was going to say.
Once again, silence, Harry wondered if all magic was so… dull. It was then that he felt it. It was a pain, it was a hate, it was an emotion that he had only read about in description. There was a sudden burst from his scar before his eyes adjusted to the new sight before him. It appeared to be a mannequin made from some solid black material, with his figure almost exactly. "I guess this is the time for my entrance," it said with a soft hiss. Harry noticed that Red and Blue seemed to grow a bit while White and Green seemed to be whimpering.
"Black," Harry said through ground teeth. "I suppose you are a gift from Voldemort." There was a great silence that followed, before Blue talked once more. "Ah… yes… Black… was from a… special circumstance. Now I have one more lesson for Harry before he has to leave. It appears the headmaster is trying to wake him up." The other colours faded away leaving Blue and Harry alone.
"Harry, the reason I called you here was because I was finally able to. When you absorbed all of those spells, the converted magic gained awakened White and Green, while strengthening Red and myself to level 2, and Black to level 3. The levels, as you see, were indicated through our forms. Now, quickly, for you must awake soon."
Soon Harry's vision shifted to that of yellow space with a giant purple orb in front of him.
"Think of this as a planet Harry. The purple represents your natural magical potential; this is 20 times larger than the normal amount. The yellow is your full potential, with the use of rituals and amplifiers and such. However, everyone's full potential is near infinity, so there is not use comparing to a standard there."
The purple orb rotated a bit to show patches of Black, Blue, and Red. Together, they were about the size of Eastern Europe, with half of it being black, and the other being two equal quarters of blue and red. There were small specks of white, green, and gold. All of the colours seemed to be situated on a sea of gray the size of Russia.
"These are your developing Mana cores, which refill and develop faster than your magical core, represented in gray. This of course holds your raw magic. Lastly, Gold spells, creatures, and rituals contain parts of each of the five basic ones. Silver represents magic that is a combination of colours with a minimum of 2 colours and a maximum of four. Since the different combinations do different things, there is no general pattern for these colours in terms of behaviour or otherwise. Each Silver and Gold spell is different.
You cannot have Gold or Silver Mana cores. What you see below you is a part of your bonding with a magical creature. We don't have time for you to go look closer now, but it appears like a giant shrine/temple and the area around it grows as you become close and experience more with the creature that you are bonded to. I believe this is a bond to the Omnisence, which contains all colours, and is thus Gold."
Just as Blue finished talking, there was flash as everything started to dim in his vision. "I'm sorry but our time is up, we will talk the next time we are able to!" Blue all but screamed as Harry began to feel a dragging motion upon his mind.
Harry opened his eyes once more that day, though this time it was in the actual physical world. At least, he tried to but he couldn't open his right eye for some reason. Fear struck him as he glanced around, only to see the headmaster looking down at him. Harry quickly stood up and noticed that he was still pretty much wearing what he was before the big explosion, if only a bit more ruffled.
"Professor! You won't believe –" he started before Dumbledore cut him off quickly. "Not now Harry. I must apologize but I already know what you have just learned. At the moment, you must learn one thing before I need you to fulfill a mission for me."
"Mission, sir?" Harry asked, a bit annoyed that he was interrupted. "I'm sorry Harry, but no time to explain at the moment. I believe you've learned about Betas, yes?" Dumbledore asked, but continued before Harry could reply. "Of course you have. Now, I'm going to leave you with a problem that you cannot solve. Afterwards, I'm going to give you some hints on what the answer is, before showing you to a harder version of the problem to truly test if you have learned what I want you to learn. Do you understand? Good."
With that, the professor disappeared leaving Harry to look at his surroundings. It looked like there were one some kind of giant flying island over one ocean or another. The area he was in was a little clearing in a small forest on a small mountain. There appeared to be giant stone tablets arranged circularly to look like the Roman Coliseum. They were held up be magic and rotating this way and that along with some shifting here and there. In the middle was one giant fountain that seemed to radiate a peaceful life with two smaller silvery fountains around it. There was a final giant stone tablet behind the biggest fountain that seemed to reflect light like a mirror.
Before Harry could look even further at his surroundings, the ground of the island began to shake. Before Harry knew it, there were new holes in the grass with skeletal claw-like hands working their way out of it. Taking a look around, Harry noticed that there were hundreds if not thousands of these little hands around him coming from the ground. Pretty soon, the one closest to Harry made the hole big enough for a skeletal and deformed head to pop out of the ground with beady red eyes. The other burrows around him follow through as Harry backed towards the fountains reaching for something to help him fight. He then realized that he was left with only the abilities of his two arms, as his acquired wands and Frostmourne were gone. Before Harry knew what happened next, he only had one thought to the ancient headmaster. "You know what Dumbledore? You're. Not. Funny!"
A/N: Not my best chapter, but I wanted it out as soon as possible. The ending's a little rushed, but it's on purpose, not just because I wanted to post it as soon as I can. Sorry for no action yet, but I wanted that Mana system to be explained since it's probably going to be one of the main ways that Harry's going to be fighting. Any ways, I wanted to let you guys know I didn't forget this story, as well as I have basically decided on the relationships. However, I want everyone to tell me how many should be with Harry because I've read some pretty good stories with more than dozens of lovers, and I think it might be able to be done. I'm considering this for a few reasons that might give a bit away of the future occurrences, but I'm still not too sure for now. Also, I've basically forgotten if I'm supposed to say or reply or do something that I was supposed. Please inform me if I have forgot something.
Anyways, U-T signing off, sorry for the long wait, the next should be on by Thursday.