Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Dragon Age.


Soft fingers drew her back awake, and Morrigan groaned as she sat up. Her neck was a bit stiff as she had apparently fallen asleep while reading. The same candle was still burning though, so it couldn't have been too long.

"Sorry if I woke you," Harry whispered.

She yawned as she rolled her neck for a moment before laying back down. "It seems for the best. I should know better than to fall asleep in such an uncomfortable position." Morrigan glanced at him and saw that he had a bottle and a glass in his hand. "Why do you look so troubled?"

He took off the cap and poured himself a drink. "Because sometimes there are no good answers."

Morrigan rolled over onto her side to get a better look at him. "What do you mean?"

Harry set his wand down on the night table and took a very large gulp. She had to hold back a giggle as steam poured out of his ears. "I mean I am not sure what to do about the rival factions vying for the dwarven crown."

"You've already conducted your interrogations? That was fast."

He snorted. "With magic, it didn't take much to get past any guards." Harry smiled at her and continued, "I believe you also read for much longer than you may have realized. The darkest part of the night has ended, and dawn is coming soon."

"Tell me what vexes you and I shall help you decide what course of actions to take."

"I love how decisive you're feeling," he chuckled.

"Better to decide quickly so we can get some more sleep."

"True," he nodded. "Alright."

The bed was every bit as comfortable as the one she'd been using in the tent, a luxury that was one of the better things that Morrigan had found since Harry Potter had come into her life. Because of that, she forced herself to remove the covers and sit back up against the headboard.

The fact that Harry's eyes tracked her every move were just a nice little bonus. She may have been smirking happily as he did so.

It took him a moment to begin speaking.

"First off, we have Lord Pyral Harrowmont, one of the closest friends and allies of the former king. He is a decent man, fairly honorable for a noble." Harry closed his eyes and sighed, then reached for his glass again. "On the other hand, he is far too conservative- a staunch traditionalist- and if anything, he will likely make the already precarious caste situation that much worse. Dwarven society stands on the edge of the abyss. They've already lost so much of their once grand underground kingdom, and Orzammar will fall too if change doesn't come soon."

"Then it sounds like he would be a bad choice," Morrigan suggested.

Harry nodded. "On the other hand, we have Prince Bhelen Aeducan. Third son of the late king, and yet his only remaining heir. Why? Because he had his eldest brother murdered and then framed the middle son for the deed."

"Another bad choice then."

"Yes, but..." Harry sighed again. "Bhelen does have his good points. He has a keen mind and wants to reform the country. More rights for the casteless, better ties to the surface, more open trade. Pragmatically speaking, I believe he would be a better king. There's just the fact that I'd have to endorse a man who would murder members of his own family in his lust for power. And that fact does not leave a good taste in my mouth. Not to mention the fact that if he's been willing to perform such a terrible betrayal already, he may do so again someday."

Morrigan considered both options and then watched Harry rub his face wearily. "I would vote for the reformer. All men have their flaws, and for the greater good, especially in a time with the darkspawn unleashed upon Ferelden, we will need a strong, capable leader."

"For the greater good..." Harry chuckled ruefully. "That's not a phrase that I have good history with."

"Would Harrowmont make a better ally?" she asked.

"In the short term, maybe," he shrugged. "Less complicated at least. But Harrowmont also will probably be a worse ally in the long run, as he does not want to have anything more to do with the surface than is absolutely necessary. As for the dwarves themselves? The kingdom would likely be stable under him for the next few years. In a decade or two though, I think Orzammar would once again be in decline."

"Then you believe Bhelen would be a more prosperous ally for the long term?"

Harry gulped. "Yes, unfortunately I do."

To Morrigan it seemed like an obvious choice. "We side with him then."

"I knew you would say that," he chuckled. "I doubt the others would agree."

"We have all agreed to follow your lead, Harry," she chided him. "Besides, why would you have to tell them what you've discovered? You took on the burden of leadership, therefore you must be willing to bear the responsibility for such choices as this."

"That's fair, I suppose."

"So, what is our next step then?"

Harry shook his head. "Well, I'm not willing to play errand boy for either of the squabbling nobles. I think we should head for the Deep Roads, find this paragon the dwarves have been talking about, and use the paragon as leverage to push whichever of them I choose onto the throne."

"A few threats and potential blackmail wouldn't be remiss," Morrigan suggested with a smirk. "In order to keep our new ally firmly on our side."

"Yeah, that may be necessary, especially if I do go with Bhelen." Harry finished his drink and set the glass aside.

"Take off your clothes, Harry."

He turned to look at her with a grin. "Are we feeling eager?"

"I merely wish to sleep beside you." Morrigan took a moment to watch as he undressed. "We both need the rest. However, perhaps in the morning I will be feeling amorous again."

Harry slipped under the sheet and lay next to her. "I'll be looking forward to it."

"Of course you will," she said as she wrapped an arm around his chest.

Harry pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Good night."


Sirius was starting to get worried. "Harry should have been back by now."

"You should have more faith in him," Leliana chided. "He has already done so many extraordinary things in the short time I have known him. Try to relax, Sirius."

"Perhaps he wanted to do some research while he was at the tower," Wynne suggested. "If he means to lead us into the Deep Roads, it would be wise to read up on them first."

"Or maybe Morrigan just kept him up too late," Leliana teased, winking at Sirius.

"I'd like to think so," he laughed. "He deserves to get lucky after all this. Besides, it might make Morrigan a little less of a nightmare."

"One can only hope," Wynne sighed. "She is a most disagreeable person. I don't know what he sees in her."

"You are all annoying in one way or another," Shale interjected. "Feel lucky that I haven't squished any of you yet despite how bothersome all your disgusting fleshy behavior is."

Sirius chortled. "Thank you for that, Shale."

"The dog is welcome, since it proved capable of being polite, for once," the golem responded. "I do miss the little mage though. It has proven to be fairly interesting at times. I've enjoyed the lack of boredom while it has been around."

"Yeah, I don't know if Harry's ever had a boring life," Sirius added. "He certainly didn't in the time I knew him, when he was back in school."

"That was a long time ago," Harry interjected as he and Morrigan found the booth at the far back of the dwarven tavern. "So, did the mutt get the rest of you in any trouble?"

"Hey!"

Wynne chuckled. "Shale and I were able to keep the youngsters from doing anything too rash."

"That's good to know," he replied.

"So, what have you been up to?" Sirius asked.

"Morrigan has been paid by one of her dwarven contacts," Harry said. The witch in question merely raised an eyebrow, daring him to go on. "I have good news for Dagna about the Circle, although I would like to ask her to do me a favor before I take her there. Then I think we should head for the Deep Roads, to track down this missing paragon of theirs. But first, I've got a tome to retrieve for the dwarven Shapers. Why don't the rest of you check the merchants for anything we might need while I deal with that?"

"We may not all have enough gold to buy everything," Leliana replied. "The dwarven smiths are well known for their skills. If we wanted to replace all of our equipment with better-"

"Just make a list then," Harry interrupted. "I'll figure out our finances once we meet up. I should still have plenty of gold for whatever we need."

The others nodded and stood up, heading for the door a moment later. Except for Morrigan, who was waiting with him.

"I have a dwarven contact now?" she queried.

"Do you have a better way to explain that fellow with the lyrium shipment?" he grinned. "Besides, I'm pretty sure Wynne would have lectured you about the dangers of the illicit lyrium trade, and I think we all know how badly that would have gone."

Morrigan narrowed her eyes. Harry thought she looked like she was about to unleash a rant, so he decided to cut that off.

By kissing her.

She leaned into it and soon had a hand wrapped around his head, pulling him close.

"Erm... excuse me," a deep voice grumbled.

Harry heard the pleased little moan from his witch when he pulled back. "Yes?"

Standing before them was the red headed dwarf he'd seen the other day- the one with the fancy braided beard.

"The name's Oghren," he said, introducing himself. "I couldn't help but overhear that you were talking about heading off to find Branka. If so, I want in."

"Who is Branka?" Morrigan asked.

"The most recent dwarven paragon," Harry answered. "She and her clan went into the Deep Roads two years ago, in search of some magical anvil they used to create golems like Shale."

"The Anvil of the Void is what it was called," Oghren added. "Branka was obsessed with finding that thing. Crazy bitch at least could have taken me with her."

"And you are...?" Morrigan sneered at the dwarf.

"Her husband!" he growled.

"I can see why she left you behind," Morrigan scoffed and wrinkled her nose. "The smell is enough to make me want to head for darkspawn filled caverns immediately."

Harry snorted. "Go easy on the guy. A dwarf might come in handy on our little trip."

"Oh, please no," Morrigan complained.

"I've got a map," Oghren offered. "All the Deep Road tunnels Branka knew of, all the passages and hints of where we may be able to pass through safely- if you'll take me with you, it's yours. Besides, I'm a damn good warrior if I do say so myself."

"Then where is your weapon?" Morrigan countered with a very unimpressed look.

Oghren grumbled. "I'm not allowed to bear arms in the city."

Harry clapped him on the back. "That won't matter once we're down in the Deep Roads. What did you prefer?"

"Two handed weapons are what I was best with," Oghren replied. "A great axe or a maul, something like that."

"We'll have to add a weapon for you to the shopping list," Harry mused.

"Where are we going to get this tome?" Morrigan asked.

"The Proving Grounds," Harry replied.

"Good," she nodded and turned away. "Follow me, then."

Oghren whistled as she began to walk off. "That's a hell of a nice view."

Harry laughed. "You're telling me, brother."

"So, uh, you want me to come with you?" Oghren asked. "I don't want to be a third wheel here."

"Why don't you go catch up with the rest of my group and introduce yourself?" Harry suggested. "Tell them you've got a map to help us navigate the Deep Roads but we're going to need to outfit you with-"

"I've got my own armor," the dwarf interjected. "I'll just need something to kill darkspawn with."

"Then tell them that," Harry agreed. "Morrigan and I will catch up with the rest of you shortly."

"Thanks."

"You're welcome," Harry said before hurrying after Morrigan.

"You took your sweet time," she said while they crossed the bridge leading out to the Proving Grounds in the center of the huge cavern.

"I actually like meeting new people sometimes," he said with a grin. "I think our new dwarven friend will be most useful."

"Your new friend, you mean," she scoffed. "Keep that stinking oaf away from me."

"As you wish."

Morrigan nodded and kept walking.

"We could use another hand in a fight, you know," Harry pointed out.

"I suppose he's short enough that I can easily aim spells over his head," she admitted. "On the other hand, if he's foolish enough to run into the center of battle and get caught in the area of effect of some of my magic, 'twill be his own fault."

"Let's try not to plan to kill our allies," Harry snorted.

"Fine, take away all my fun," Morrigan laughed. "Now, where exactly are we going?"

Harry made liberal use of the point me spell for the next couple of minutes until they found themselves going down one of the halls in the Proving Grounds. Eventually they found themselves coming across a group of sketchy looking dwarves in leather armor speaking to a rather well dressed fellow.

"Do you have my item?" he asked.

"You got our pay?" the leader of the thugs countered.

Harry sighed and held Morrigan from interfering in the transaction. Once they were done and the thugs were walking away, he stepped forward to accost the noble. "I hope you realize the Shaperate knows that volume was stolen. And they may have asked for my assistance in its return."

"Why should I care what you have to say, surfacer?"

"Because I could do terrible things to you," Harry shrugged. "I'd rather not, so why don't we try to come to a more equitable solution?"

"I paid good money for this," the dwarf replied.

"Then perhaps you should pay us good money to allow us to let you live," Morrigan suggested as she pointed her staff at him. "Or don't, and then Harry can return the tome after I've taken out my frustration on you."

"Fine," the dwarf grumbled as he handed the book over to Harry.

Harry chuckled and pulled out his wand. He quickly duplicated the tome and handed the copy back to the wide-eyed dwarf. "I'm not an unreasonable man. You have your prize and no one will want to track you down for theft. Isn't that a better option?"

"What about my need for violence?" Morrigan asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm sure you'll get plenty of that soon," Harry replied.

The dwarf took the book and ran off, muttering about magic users.

"I still say we should have killed him."


It didn't take them long to return the stolen book back to the Shapers, who were most pleased by its return. He and Morrigan then went back to the center of town. Leliana was talking to Sirius, who had conjured a sheet of parchment and was writing out a list that she was clearly dictating to him. Harry waved to his busy godfather and kept walking.

"Where are we going next?" Morrigan asked.

"I want to talk to Dagna. You remember, the little would be scholar?"

"What of her? Surely you're not going to make another trip to take her-"

"Actually, I'm going to ask her to do me a favor," Harry interjected. "With all the chaos and danger going on right now, I'm going to out source as much research as possible. I would assume that the dwarves would have plenty of knowledge about the darkspawn."

"You mean to have her sort through their library and collate things, much as you are having those two young mages do back at the tower," Morrigan finished.

"Exactly," he nodded.

A few minutes later they found the spritely young redhead outside her father's armor shop, and she was clearly excited when Harry approached her.

"Hello again."

"I've got good news," Harry said.

"How could you possibly find out something so quickly?" Dagna asked.

"Magic, my dear," he smiled. "But, I have a favor to ask of you."

Harry outlined what he wanted her to do, and Dagna was eager to help.

"Once we return from the Deep Roads, I'll personally take you to the Circle Tower," he added.

"It's a long trip, I wouldn't want to be a bother," Dagna blushed.

"It will give me a chance to show you some magic," Harry replied. "Besides, I think that's only a fair trade since I have a feeling that you and I are going to be working together a lot in the future."

"I'd like that," Dagna smiled. "Be careful on the Deep Roads."

"Thank you. We'll be back as soon as we can."

She was still waving happily as they walked off and ran into Wynne and Shale who were nearby waiting.

"I take it she was pleased?" Wynne asked.

"She was," Harry agreed. "She also agreed to help me with some research on the darkspawn."

"What is it you are hoping to find?"

Harry ran his hand through his hair and sighed. "I'm not sure. The way the Taint works, the way the darkspawn behave, whatever drives them to cause these Blights-"

"Whenever an Archdemon appears, 'tis always what leads the horde and causes a Blight," Morrigan interrupted.

"Yes, but how? How do they control the horde of darkspawn? I know you'll say the Taint- but I want to know if there's a way to disrupt that magic. Or change it. Or something," he growled. "I understand that it's some sort of fairly unique magic involved, but there's almost always a way to break a spell or enchantment. Even in powerful magic, there should be some form of counter effect. If I can find something like that, it could save a lot of lives."

"Only by killing an archdemon has a Blight ever been stopped before," Morrigan replied.

"Which has always required the Grey Wardens," Wynne added. "Keep that in mind, young man."

Harry snorted. "One of these days, Wynne, you'll remember that I'm actually older than you."

"Yes, well... you don't look it," she replied with a frown. "Also, you don't often act so either."

"I like trying to stay young at heart," he laughed. "It's much better than being so very weary and cynical."

The rest of the group joined them at that point, with Leliana motioning for Sirius to hand the parchment over to Harry. "We finished our list."

"Okay..."

"The final tally is more than twice as many sovereigns as we could all add together," she added. "I hope you have as much as you suggested."

"Don't worry about it," he grinned. "Let's go somewhere private first."

"Tavern?" Sirius asked with a hopeful look on his face.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Fine. We'll get a table somewhere in the back while you get the drinks."


Sirius and Oghren came back together, laughing as they carried a tray of mugs.

"You know, I rather like this dwarven ale," Sirius smiled. "It's got a nice, earthy quality to it."

"That's probably the lichen you're tasting," Oghren said knowingly. "If you drink enough of the stuff, you can even learn to tell which cave it was grown in."

"Lichen?" Morrigan sneered, her hand recoiling from the offered drinks.

"I think I'll be sticking to water," Leliana added.

Harry was amused to see that Wynne just accepted her mug and took a sip without complaint. There was no way Sirius would let him hear the end of it if he didn't try it, so Harry followed suit. It was a struggle to keep a grimace off his face. "Earthy, yeah, I can see why you'd say that."

"It's not the best thing around, but we can't always get the fancy liquors that you surface folk make," Oghren replied after he finished his first mug with a gulp. "Now, if you ladies don't mind sharing, I'll finish the extras. Wouldn't want it to go to waste after all, heh."

As the dwarf chuckled and hoarded the alcohol, Harry couldn't help but grin.

"I'll go get some more water," Sirius said as he stood up.

"Thank you," Leliana nodded before she turned to Harry. "Now then, let's talk about money. For everything we could possibly want, with as many upgrades as possible for our entire group and the best weapon we could find for our newest member, we're looking at almost one hundred gold pieces. Unfortunately, between those of us who were shopping, we found that all pooled together we had less than thirty. So, Harry, I hope you are feeling generous because once we go down into the Deep Roads, we will likely not have another chance to stock up until our journey is complete."

"That's not a problem," he shrugged.

"Really?" Oghren seemed shocked. "Um, now don't take this the wrong way, Harry, but you don't exactly seem like the rich, fancy pants noble type."

Harry laughed. "Why thank you for saying so. I actually haven't thought a lot about money in years, but I did clean out my family's vaults from Gringotts once things got dicey back home."

"Did you say something about Gringotts?" Sirius asked as he returned.

"Yeah, I was just explaining where I got my money from."

"Did you have any problems with the inheritance I left you?" his godfather asked. "I know I was still a fugitive at the time, but I hoped that wouldn't screw things up. Plus, I damn sure didn't want the Malfoys to get their hands on it. Or god forbid my awful cousin."

"Well, there weren't any problems with the money," Harry began, shaking his head and chuckling at an old memory. "There were some other... issues that came to light after the war was over, but I think everything turned out for the best."

"Good," Sirius nodded.

"Right." Harry took off his mokeskin pouch, and reached in elbow deep with his wand still grasped. Levitating a chest full of money out was a lot easier than trying to heft it out by hand. A moment later, Oghren gasped at the display.

"Well, call me a nug lover!" he exclaimed. "Do all you surfacer mage types have super huge bags that look tiny?"

"Harry's magic is somewhat unique," Wynne said with a smile. "I hope to learn some of it though."

"If only we can get a nice quiet break in things, I'll be happy to sit down and teach," Harry grinned. "Now we just need the darkspawn to decide they need a couple of weeks off from the Blight."

He opened up the chest and started making a small pile of gold in front of him.

"You should put that away before anyone sees it," Leliana said quietly. "Unless you want every thief in Orzammar to come after us."

"That would give me something to do," Shale sighed.

"Sorry about that," Harry said. Putting the chest away, he found what was left of the pouch of money he'd received from Flemeth when he started this entire quest. He took a couple of the gold coins and carefully examined them.

"Those look slightly different," Wynne said.

Harry could only nod. "Two types of gold pieces. One gold galleon from back home and one gold sovereign from the locals." He waved his wand over both twice and relaxed. "The sovereign is slightly thicker, but the galleon is bigger, so I shouldn't have too much trouble adjusting things accordingly."

"How the bloody hell are you going to do that?" Sirius asked.

"Do you remember how Dumbledore had been an alchemist?" At his godfather's nod, he continued. "Well, after the war and everything was quieting down, his brother Abe gifted me a bunch of the headmaster's books. He said he didn't need or want them, and he thought I deserved something for all the crap I'd put up with over the years. That was what really started my personal library. Admittedly, not all of it interested me, but as I got older, I started to wonder about alchemy. I'd heard about it years before, and after coming into contact with the philosopher's stone that belonged to the Flamels, I was a little curious."

"Alchemy? What did that mean back in your home?" Morrigan asked.

"The primary goal was trying to turn other metals into gold. Transfiguration between other metals could be done, but something about gold made the magic not work right. I read once that there was a theory that the goblins had done something so they could keep their little banking monopoly going, but that could have been made up for all I know.

"However," Harry focused and waved his wand over the galleon, slowly reshaping it. "Changing the shape rather than the composition itself was a skill that I learned."

Morrigan picked both gold pieces up and squinted at them. "They appear to be identical."

"That was the idea," Harry agreed. "Give me a few minutes, and I'll do the same with the rest of this."

"Then we can finish our shopping and prepare to leave," Sirius said.

"Finally," Shale added with a groan.


It took another hour for a set of leather armor to be properly fitted for Leliana, but soon enough the group of seven was headed down a dirty path towards a large opening in one side of the cavern.

Unfortunately, there were several armored guards blocking the path.

"I'm sorry but I cannot allow you to pass without the permission of a Deshyr," the leader of the guards stated. "And I've heard nothing of any new patrols scheduled to leave today."

"Not even for a Grey Warden?" Harry asked.

"So, you're him? I'd heard you were traveling with one of the ancient golems," the dwarf looked appraisingly over Shale. "Even for those such as yourself, the Deep Roads are a terribly dangerous place. And I'm sorry, but I have my orders."

"Come on, Faren," Oghren piped up. "We're going to find Branka so we'll have a paragon to clean the nobles' mess up and get things working again."

Faren sighed as a couple of his men snorted. "I should have known you would find some way to get included in this sort of thing, Oghren. You need to stop dreaming and accept that Branka isn't coming back. It's been two years since the Legion of the Dead hasn't brought any word of her or the clan. If they haven't seen them, there's no one still alive."

"You don't know that," Oghren argued. "If they found the anvil-"

"Then they would have already made it back here," Feren countered. "I'm sorry, but this is a fools' errand."

Harry interjected. "I've been told that I'm on one of those myself. You know, with the whole 'save the world from the Blight' thing, especially with Ferelden and Orzammar both on the brink of civil war. Now, why don't you fine gentlemen stand aside and let me get to work."

One of the other dwarven guards started to speak. "Our orders-"

"Imperio! You will let us pass and forget to mention this little conversation to any superiors for the next couple of days."

"Harry," Sirius sighed. "I can understand why you might feel that's necessary, but-"

"We've got work to do," Harry replied. "People standing in the way of that, especially for petty reasons, or even worse political reasons, cannot be allowed to jeopardize the fate of the world."

"Well said," Leliana agreed.

"I'll lead the way," Shale offered as the golem stomped on ahead.

Sirius laughed. "You know, any of those times in the past where I carefully scouted the area or we tried to sneak up on our foes? I think we're going to have to forget about that sort of thing with Shale around."

"Fine with me," Oghren said as he hefted a great axe and grinned. "I prefer a straight fight."

Morrigan started to scoff, so Harry turned to her and offered his arm. "Shall we? I hear the Deep Roads are just lovely for a nice afternoon walk this time of year."