Disclaimer: I don't own this stuff.


Upon entering the building, the group immediately saw the first set of stairs leading down. Sirius raised his hand and asked them all to stop. "Are we just going to smash our way through the darkspawn that Harry saw, or should I try to sneak in and scout things out?"

"Scouting is often wise, but time may be against us if the survivors are being attacked," Leliana pointed out.

"I didn't see any creatures that should be too challenging," Harry shrugged. "Just some of the taller darkspawn that we've already fought and a bunch of the shorter ones."

"Hurlocks and genlocks are what they are called," Morrigan replied. "In that order."

"Good to know," Harry nodded. "Some of them were getting close to the humans, so I think it may not be the time for stealth. Let's just all be careful with our spells."

"Single target only," Morrigan said. "Unless you would prefer for me to freeze us all."

"And here's me without a jacket," Harry laughed.

"Then let us tarry no further," Wynne suggested.

They hurried down the path, briefly stopping to check on a strange cluster of crystals.

"This is interesting," Harry said as he examined them. "They seem to be growing, and yet, they are also magical. Something innate, possibly."

"We can grab a sample on the way out," Sirius said.

"Yeah, good idea."

In the next room, they came across the first group of darkspawn. Several of the genlocks and hurlocks charged at them, their blind aggression getting the better of them as the group was all ready and opened fire with spells and arrows.

Morrigan's target was frozen, Wynne's was knocked over with a conjured boulder, and Sirius smiled as he watched his newly learned lightning spell blast from his staff and down one of the darkspawn. For Harry's part, he was awestruck to see the Crushing Prison's effects up close- a hurlock stopped in the middle of its charge and just convulsed over and over again until it fell over dead. "Very nice."

Leliana finished their enemies off with a flurry of arrows and they kept moving.

Sirius started sniffing the air and turned to Harry with a grin. "Padfoot smells something good."

"What?"

They turned a corner and came across more than a dozel huge barrels.

"Ale!" his godfather barked out a laugh. "Good stuff too, according to my nose."

"We'll just have to make sure we have a reason to celebrate when this is done," Leliana said.

Down another set of stairs they found a long, narrow corridor. Harry warned them, "We're almost to the villagers. Be ready for another fight first."

A short turn down another hall lead to a door that opened into a very large room on the far side of which were the surviving villagers all huddled behind some sort of magical barrier that was keeping the darkspawn from reaching them- and one of the darkspawn was even casting spells, trying to pierce it. Off to their right, there was a raised section with darkspawn archers overlooking the room. Several more of the creatures were spread across the main section as well.

Morrigan wasted no time in firing a Sleep spell at the largest congregation of darkspawn. Several of them fell to the magical slumber. The enemy magic user was unaffected, and the archers began to fire as well.

Dual shouts of "Protego!" rang out as Harry and Sirius stopped the arrows from reaching them.

"Crushing Prison," Harry announced with an evil gleam in his eye as he targeted the genlock emissary who snarled just as the spell began to take effect. He followed that up with a flame whip that seared off the darkspawn's right arm and readied another spell just in case the telekinetic curse failed to kill his foe.

Meanwhile, Morrigan had followed up her Sleep enchantment with a Horror effect that left the darkspawn trapped in a confused nightmare as they awoke and immediately began to attack one another. She smirked as they went to work butchering each other.

That left Sirius, Leliana and Wynne to deal with the archers. Sirius stayed on shielding duty, deflecting all the enemy's arrows.

Wynne launched another boulder to the enemy closest to her while Leliana kept up her rapid fire, choosing to begin with the furthest target. The two women met in the middle, where the final hurlock archer bellowed angrily as an arrow sunk deep into its thigh just before another boulder collided into it, smashing it back into the wall.

A moment later, the carnage was finished. Sirius and Morrigan began searching the bodies for any interesting loot while Harry approached the villagers.

"You weren't sent by the bann were you?" one man asked.

"We saw the attack when we were passing by," Harry answered. "I believe the darkspawn are all taken care of now. You can come out."

"Oh, thank the Maker!" one of the women said.

The first man touched the magical barrier and all of the other townsfolk left. He looked over at Harry with a sigh and asked, "I don't suppose I could convince you to do me another favor, could I?"

"You don't look like a mage."

"The name is Matthias, and I'm not," he replied. "My father was and he keyed some defenses to the family line, so I was able to activate that barrier."

"Ah, a mage could explain things," Morrigan said as she walked over to join them. "It is said that years ago some of the Tevinter magisters gained some of the golems and had control rods that allowed them to use their services. If one such device were here-"

"My mother sold the blasted thing years ago," Matthias interrupted. "And good riddance! Shale murdered my father. It's been left there ever since."

"Shale?" Harry raised an eyebrow. "So, we would need to find this control rod to wake it up?"

"No, you would need a pass phrase," Matthias replied. "I'll give it to you if you'll help me."

"Alright."

"Thank you. My daughter Amalia was with us, but she fled deeper into my father's laboratory," Matthias explained, motioning to a door beyond him. "I don't know how she made it past my father's defenses. One of the men went after her, but something killed him. I had to stay here or the barrier would have fallen and the darkspawn would have killed us all. Please, save my little girl. I'll give you anything you want!"

"Calm yourself," Harry said. "We'll find her."

"Could you spare some of that ale?" Sirius asked before several disapproving glares turned his way. "What? It smelled really good."

"If you bring Amalia back to me, you can have whatever you want."

"Do you know what else lies further down there?" Harry asked.

"No, I haven't been further than this," Matthias answered.

"Alright, then wait here and we'll be back soon."

"Thank you."

The group went through the door and found another twisting passage leading down, this one covered in old spider webs.

"This place feels odd," Harry said. "There's something-"

"Yeah, something off," Sirius nodded. "Reminds me of Azkaban a bit. Some sort of misery in the air."

"It's the Veil," Morrigan said. "It is weak here."

"So, spirits would be more likely to leak through into this world?" Harry glanced at her and she nodded in affirmation. "That explains something I saw earlier. There's some sort of demon down here, as well as the girl."

"We'll need to be careful then," Wynne suggested. "The girl could be in grave danger. Children do not often fully understand the dangers of interacting with spirits."

"I'm going to try something," Harry said as he stepped in front of the others. "Expecto Patronum!"

The glowing form of Prongs burst to life and began leading them down the path.

"Why did you do that?" Sirius asked. "Prongsy's got a tight fit down here."

"I'm hopeful that it will sort of reinforce the Veil," Harry replied. "You know, keep more demonic spirits from trying to slip through and attack us."

"That would be very useful," Wynne said.

"If it works," Morrigan threw a smirk Harry's way and he grinned at her. "Your theory does seem sound though, from what I read about the spell last night. Tears in the Veil often form where death and pain were in abundance. Blood sacrifices in particular."

"It is said that is how the Tevinters tore open the Veil on their mad quest to reach the Golden City of the Maker," Leliana added. "They were supposed to have killed thousands of slaves in a horrific blood sacrifice ritual."

Harry winced. "Yeah, I can see how blood magic got a bad name in this world. I'm generally against the slaughter of innocents."

"Aren't we all?" Wynne retorted.

A quiet groan interrupted them as they walked on. Prongs stopped and sniffed at the air before shoving one antler through a wisp of what looked like fire that disipated upon contact.

"Nice work," Sirius chuckled.

"I believe that was a demon trying to reach us," Wynne said.

"I'm definitely going to be experimenting more with this then," Harry said.

"It could lead to a break through in helping to restore the Veil where it is weak," Morrigan agreed.

They passed through another room, down another path with more of the strange magical crystals and eventually came to another magical barrier, this one with a more yellow shade to its hazy outline.

Harry raised his hand to stop the group and cast the sound muffling charm. "The girl is inside. And so is the demon."

"We must tread carefully," Wynne cautioned. "If we can separate them, I will focus on protecting the girl."

"Then that leaves the rest of us to deal with the demon," Morrigan added. "We've dealt with many more foes before. 'Tis likely we shall be able to handle a single demon, no matter its strength."

"I'm keeping Prongs out, just in case it can weaken the demon," Harry said.

"If it isn't too large, Padfoot could try to tackle the monster," Sirius suggested. "That would give us an opportunity to get the girl out of the way."

"Then I think we've got a plan."

Everyone nodded and Harry let his Patronus lead the way through the magical barrier. He noticed that it seemed to be keeping something on the other side from escaping- perhaps the demon? His group all stepped through it with no problems.

That's when they saw the cat. And, of course, the little girl they had come to rescue was talking to it.

"What do you mean you've never climbed a tree?" she asked. "Don't cats like to be in trees?"

The girl saw them coming and smiled. "Oh look! Someone's come to play. You have come to play, haven't you? We're playing a guessing game. It's better with more people."

Sirius sniffed and muttered, "That's no mere cat."

"I know," Harry sighed. "Have you been playing with the cat?"

"Of course! Kitty and me are best friends," Amalia replied. "Anyway, you should go if you're not going to play with us. Kitty finds you distracting."

"Look at my glowing deer, Amalia," Harry said to the girl. "Maybe he could play with you and Kitty? Would you like to pet him?"

"Can I?"

"I'm sure Prongs would like that," Sirius agreed.

The cat hissed as Harry's Patronus stepped closer to the girl. As Amalia reached up to pet the glowing stag, Harry fired a stunning spell at her.

Padfoot leapt into action, barreling into the house cat.

When the girl slumped against his side, Prongs knelt down and Harry floated the girl up over his back. The Patronus carried her to safety, behind the rest of the group where Wynne pulled her down and began to cast a spell to diagnose any damage from the demon's influence.

'Kitty' then shifted forms, growing rapidly into another of the succubus-like desire demons. "No! The girl is mine!"

Sirius was still a dog- and he would always blame what happened next on the animal's instincts.

Because Padfoot leapt forward again and began humping the demon's purple thigh.

"Get off me, you foul beast!" the desire demon screamed, backhanding him off of her. She turned and began to draw power from the Fade, summoning more demons to help her.

But Prongs was still there, and Harry sent it forward where it lowered its antlers into the wisps of darkness.

"What have you done?" the desire demon snarled.

The rest of the group finally shook off their shock and began pelting the monster with spells and arrows. A Cone of Cold from Morrigan, a bolt of lightning from Sirius, and Harry's new favorite Crushing Prison all would have probably been enough.

Leliana's volley of arrows struck home in the desire demon's incredibly impressive breasts.

If their reactions had been noticed, Sirius and Harry would have both been getting scolded by the women in their group. No matter how old a man may become, there's nothing quite like a great set of tits. Even purple demonic boobs.

(Some would say, especially purple demonic boobs.)

But their winces went unseen as everyone was mostly focused on making sure the monster was dead.

Sirius shifted back into Padfoot and stalked forward, sniffing the creature. After a moment, he lifted his leg.

Harry started laughing first with Leliana soon joining him while Morrigan rolled her eyes.

With his business done, Padfoot turned back into the old marauder and shrugged. "Sorry about that. Padfoot just really doesn't like cats."

In the years to come, Harry would tell this story many, many times.


Shortly thereafter, Amalia was returned safe and sound to her father. Matthias gave them the magical phrase that had been tied to the control rod, Dulen harn, and the group went outside to see if they could activate the golem.

"Who would like to do the honors?" Harry asked as they gathered around the immobile creature of stone.

"If I may?" Morrigan asked, stepping forward when he nodded at her. "Dulen harn!"

There was a rumble and then a creak before the golem swung its arms and twisted its neck, seeming almost to be stretching after the years spent as a statue, watching over the town square.

"I knew that the day would come when someone would find the control rod," it said. "And yet, I do not see it. Tell me, little witch, do you have it hidden somewhere?"

"We freed you from your slumber, creature," Morrigan answered.

"Slumber would have been preferable," the golem sighed. "Do you have any idea how boring watching these peasants live their dull, little lives has been for the last twenty or thirty years? Or has it been even longer? At least the attack by the darkspawn broke the monotony."

"You don't sleep?" Harry asked.

"Sleep is for mortal creatures," the golem replied. "As are all of those other," and it paused while it tried to shiver with disgust, the stone body making an odd sort of groan, "awful things you pitiful bags of flesh require. I am a golem, my superior form needs none of those bothersome wastes of time."

"So, you have just been watching the villagers all this time?" Leliana wondered. "That must have been... really, really boring. I am so sorry."

"One must wonder if you shouldn't show some gratitude to the one who has allowed you to finally stretch your legs, golem," Morrigan added.

"I haven't immediately squashed you, now have I?" the golem scoffed before sighing. "I was just beginning to get used to the quiet too. A pity that some of the villagers survived."

"If this place bothers you so much, you could come with us," Harry suggested.

"Another mage I see," the golem replied. "It speaks to me as if it has something better for me to do."

"Well, there is this whole Blight thing going on," he responded. "Darkspawn trying to destroy the world and all that. I assume they would even decide to bother golems some day."

"It does have a good point."

"I was told you are called Shale."

"It was told the truth, although I may have nearly forgotten after all the years of simply being ordered about. 'Golem fetch me that chair.' 'Do be a good golem and squash that insipid bandit.' And who could forget, 'Golem, pick me up. I tire of walking.'

"But I find it most odd that I do not sense the control rod."

"We don't have one," Harry answered.

"Fascinating," Shale replied with a raised stone eyebrow. "I suppose it must have broken then."

"Or perhaps the magic wore off," Harry said. "I did try a few spells to reactivate you when we first arrived here."

"That was its doing? Well, don't do it again," Shale grumbled. "It tickled."

Sirius started to laugh. "You shouldn't tickle golems, Harry."

"So many mages all around me," Shale sighed.

"Do you have something against mages?"

"Just the one mage, really. At least, the only mage I can remember."

"We'll just have to try to annoy you less than he did," Harry smirked.

"It has a good idea," Shale agreed. "I suppose I'll have to see how long that good behavior lasts though." Shale began stomping through the town square before turning back to them. "Shall we be going?"

Everyone followed the winding path leading back out of Honnleath. Harry noted a couple of things about their new companion that could be an issue. Not only was Shale over seven feet tall, and probably weighing half a ton or more, but its stomping footsteps were very loud and a bit slow. The longer stride mostly allowed it to keep pace, but the humans in the group were able to walk past her by the time they had left the boundaries of the village.

There was a particularly loud stomp just as they passed a clucking chicken. Harry and Sirius turned to see a few feathers floating near Shale's foot, and a bit of red oozing out from under it.

The golem shrugged and started walking again. "Do you have any idea how many of those awful things had used me as a perch? I felt violated."

"So, death to birds?" Sirius chuckled.

"Be glad, little mage, that you are a filthy mongrel instead of one of those flying pests," Shale replied.

"I have a feeling I'm going to like our new friend," Morrigan smirked as Harry caught up with her.

"You don't think Leliana will do enough to keep Sirius on his toes?" Harry asked quietly, not wanting either his godfather or the French... or Orlesian priestess to overhear them.

"I think the barrel of ale that he wanted as a reward will soon be gone if you don't keep an eye on him," she replied. "Personally, the destructive force of having a golem on our side seems like an infinitely better bounty for today's little excursion."

"I don't know, Leliana did find that swanky helmet," Harry interjected with a laugh. Morrigan snorted and rolled her eyes before he continued with a grin. "But yeah, Shale should be a lot of help. From what little I could detect about it, the golem should be very hard to kill. Apart from its obvious physical attributes, I could tell that it has a strong resistance to magic as well."

"We could have a problem if it ever turns on us then," Morrigan remarked.

"True, but it is actually alive," he answered.

"What do you mean?"

"The golem has a soul inside it," Harry explained.

"Fascinating," Morrigan said as she turned to peer at the stone creature bringing up the rear of their party. "That suggests a few ideas about how the golems may have once been made."

"Yeah." Harry kept walking for a moment. "We may have a bigger problem though."

"What?"

"I'm not sure if the carpet will be able to carry Shale alongside the rest of us."


It was nearly sunset by the time they were back in the wilderness and off the beaten path. Padfoot had ranged ahead to find a nice, clear spot to set up the tent.

"I shall wait outside," Shale said while watching the tent being set up.

"You don't have to," Harry responded.

"It seems to have trouble with its vision if it thinks that I will fit inside," Shale snorted.

"No, I had my vision fixed a long time ago," he chuckled. "But thanks for the concern. What I meant is that the tent is bigger on the inside."

"It must be joking."

"Space expansion magic isn't something you've encountered before, then?"

"If only," Shale sighed. "The old mage actually chiseled me down so that I would fit inside buildings and through doorways. Can you imagine the indignity of that?"

"My condolences," Harry replied.

"Well, I suppose I shall just have to see if what it says is true." Shale watched the others step inside and followed after a moment, clearly waiting for a joke to be revealed. Harry heard it gasp once Shale finally took the plunge.

"Impressed?"

"It is a mage with more tricks than Wilhelm ever had," Shale replied.

"Glad it meets your approval."

A few moments later though, Shale excused itself to go back outside. It was very much not interested in watching the 'pitiful fleshy beings doing their awful evening ritual'- meaning dinner.

Harry shrugged and let the golem do as it wanted. He just hoped that it wouldn't lead to any problems for the surly stone warrior to feel distant from their group. At the same time though, he reminded himself not to assume that golems had the same perspective on existence as a human would. A number of magical sentients from his old world had taught him that lesson- Centaurs, house-elves, and even Veela did not necessarily see things the way he did.

"With any luck, Arl Eamon should have forces already gathered," Wynne said.

"Really?" Sirius asked. "That sounds awfully convenient."

"He was planning on joining the battle at Ostagar," Wynne sighed. "If only the king had been able to wait for those reinforcements, maybe we'd all be much better off. But the darkspawn wait for no one."

"Hopefully, those troops are prepared," Harry agreed. "We're going to need even more than an army of warriors though."

"That's why you started by coming to the Circle?" Wynne guessed.

"Among other reasons," he shrugged.

"We should all get a good night's rest then, for whatever may await us when we reach Redcliffe," Wynne added.

After she had turned in for the night, Morrigan started to get up as well. "I'm up to the third year of the books you leant me."

"You're a fast reader."

"When 'tis such an interesting subject," she replied, "I find it easy to focus on such an endeavor. Besides, I don't need to learn every spell. I hardly need to worry about turning a beetle into a button. Why would anyone ever do such a thing?"

"You know, that actually would have come in handy for me once," Harry said.

"Really?"

"There was a witch who could shapeshift into a beetle," he replied. "She used it to spy on people and to get into places where she shouldn't. And she did her best to make my life hell for a little while. If I had just turned her into a button, I could have gotten rid of her quite easily. Assuming she couldn't change back."

"Could she?"

"I don't know. Transfiguring an animagus into an inanimate object could be harder than a normal spell."

"It is," Sirius nodded. "But after some of the things I know you've done, you probably had the power for it."

"Oh well."

"Well, I am going to follow Wynne's example and try to get to sleep," Leliana said. "A lady needs her beauty rest, after all."

"I think you've had plenty of that already," Sirius winked at her.

"Maybe you should come... tuck me in," she teased.

Padfoot's tail was soon wagging as the grim followed the redhead into one of the bedrooms.

"He moves fast," Morrigan smirked as she headed for the room she had claimed. "Good night, Harry."

"Good night."


Harry took a deep breath as he stepped outside. The crisp clean air of this new world was something he had really come to enjoy. A world with minimal air pollution compared to back home, and while he would probably miss several of the benefits of technology, he was going to focus on the improvements.

Of course, things would be worse if the Blight spread with the darkspawn, but that was something he would have to study soon as well. Perhaps there were ways for him to cleanse the taint of those creatures using some of the magic from back home.

"Good evening, Shale."

"I am enjoying the quiet," the golem replied. "What does it want of me?"

"I just wanted to check in with you before I go to bed," he shrugged.

"There is something else about you," Shale said. "Ah, I see- it has found some augmentation crystals. I was not even aware it knew about them. Well done!"

"Is that what these are?" Harry asked as he pulled the several samples of strange crystals he had found in the underground tunnels. "Was the mage growing them for you?"

"I do not remember precisely," the golem responded. "Perhaps. The old mage was rather annoying with some of his ideas about how he could improve me. But the augmentation crystals are useful. For a number of reasons. It should give them to me."

"Alright," he replied as he handed the crystals over. Harry watched as the golem stuck a couple of the larger, purple ones into its shoulders and a set of smaller glowing orange crystals around its fists. Shale smiled in content once it was finished.

"So? What does it think?" Shale asked. "They don't make me look any wider, do they? I find I am already too wide as it is."

"No, they look lovely," Harry smiled. "Can you tell me about what they do?"

"They have different elemental properties," the golem replied proudly. "The smaller ones allow me to channel fire magic into my blows, smashing and burning my foes at the same time. It is really quite marvelous to see. The larger crystals help to bolster my already impressive defenses, helping to defend against elemental attacks, among other things. Personally, I really like the color purple too. And they just make me feel wonderful, as if my entire body is even more perfect than usual."

Harry chuckled. He was going to have to see about finding more of the crystals.

"I think it should find more as soon as possible," Shale said. "I want to glitter from ear to ear... so to speak."

"You know, I was just thinking the same thing," he grinned at the golem.

"Then perhaps I will be able to get along with it better than the old mage."

"Good night, Shale."


Author's Note: I threw in a little reference the the Helm of Honnleath in there because it's one of the best pieces of treasure in the game in my opinion. Shale is a fun companion, but I had to keep reminding myself not to slip about some of the spoilers you learn about the golem later in the story. Some of you may can probably guess what I'm talking about.

Next up, we're going to Redcliffe. I played that section of the game again recently, so I should have a good handle on it. It may be slightly delayed though, as I am working on a couple of other stories too. Hope you all enjoy!