JK Rowling Owns Harry Potter
FASA Owns Earthdawn
Note: All conversations in France are in French unless specified. I may start with Bonjour or oui, but that is the true limit of my knowledge of the most beautiful language on earth. Sorry.
-CS-
Harry's Rented Apartment
Same Night
Paris
Harry returned to his apartment around 1AM. He noted the 'tower offering' to Fashad had been taken. His Familiar was asleep, but Pipsey greeted him. "Did Master Harry catch dark wizard?"
Looking into Pipsey's huge and trusting eyes, Harry just smiled and shook his head. "Not a Wizard this time Pipsey, it was a Witch. She may not be evil, but she sure was powerful! Anyway, I lost her. Spoiled my date, too."
Harry began removing his weapons and putting them away. Trying not to wake the 'girls'. Athena was kind of mean when it came to sleep. "So, I need to make up for the crappy ending of my date. Maybe tomorrow you can give me a few ideas on how to fix it."
"Uh-oh, what did Master do…" Shaking her head and 'tisking' away, Pipsey looked a bit comical. Sweet, but comical. Harry realized she had looked after his dad, too. That probably explained a lot. Harry knew his dad was a bit of a scoundrel.
Nothing too bad Pipsey. When I saw that we were being watched, I apparated her to her apartment. In my haste to protect her, I neglected to tell her what I was doing." There, nice and rehearsed. "It kind of scared her, or something." He said all this while removing his basilisk hide armor. It fits tight and peels off with great effort. Being an August night kind of makes it a lot worse. Maybe he should put baby powder or something on under it next time.
Not hearing anything, Harry turned and looked down at Pipsey. She was covering up her mouth in shocked surprise. After a moment, she dropped her hand and exclaimed, "Young Wizards do NOT go into a young witches home UNINVITED! Pipsey has failed to train tiny Harry better." She started crying at this.
'Tiny Harry?' He wondered what that was about. 'I'm way bigger than Pipsey', Harry just shuffled around. Harry suspected she was intentionally overreacting. Guilt Trip? Is this what she used to do with his dad?
He recalled that Pipsey was his nursemaid. Just as she was his dad's nursemaid. "I just got scared, Pipsey. Dominique said she had fun, until the mistake." She did not look convinced. "I did apologize and she said it was OK… but I need to fix things. Will you think about what I should do and tell me in the morning?"
"Pipsey will fix things." Continuing with a deep sigh, "Master Harry said sorry and his new witch forgave him. Pipsey will help fix" Then smiling and shaking her head, "Pipsey helped fix lots of James' mistakes." Stopping and thinking back, she just said, "Poor miss Lily."
Harry didn't ask. He took a shower, got a glass of water and went bed. As he drifted off he wondered, 'Did Pipsey say MY new witch? I hope she doesn't do anything crazy.'
The next morning, Harry woke up saw his familiar coiled around his left arm. He was so used to this, it was comforting. She was really getting too big and there was a lot of thick snake body left over. Her heads were on the pillow beside him. He just grinned.
He slowly pulled his arm through her coils so as not to wake her and went to get a cup of Earl Grey. Pipsey knew the drill. Earl Grey, Sunny side up eggs, bacon or sausage, and toast. Sometimes she made hash browns and kidney beans.
Walking into the kitchen, he saw a small quiche and bacon with a croissant. Looks like Pipsey is enjoying a little French cooking! "Good morning Pipsey!" Harry kissed her on the top of the head. "This looks amazing! I love you Pipsey." He knew how badly Pipsey needed to be appreciated. She never really recovered from losing Harry's parents and grandparents.
Pipsey was beaming with happiness. "Pipsey is glad master Harry loves her breakfast. Here is earl grey with lemon." She took a minute, then added, "Pipsey fixed Master Harry's problem. Miss Aris will be most glad to see you now."
Oh, no. no. no. no. no. Time suddenly stood still. "Pipsey… what did you do?"
"Pipsey sent a dozen, dozen and invitation to Master Harry's walkabout at the dusty place." She was beaming with happiness.
"Walkabout? What? And what is a dozen, dozen?" Harry had to talk very quietly to keep Pipsey from overreacting, but he was crawling out of his skin right now.
"A dozen dozen assorted Flowers. Pipsey chose Daisies. And Tulips, Peach Roses, and …"
"Pipsey, are you saying you ordered her 144 fresh flowers?" Oh good lord. "And, what is this 'walkabout' you invited her to?
"YES, Pipsey fixed it with Flowers!" She clapped her hands now. "The walkabout is the tour Miss Fleur gave you. Musee Carnavalet." Pipsey was so excited. Harry had to wonder if she ever got involved with his mum and dad. Hey, at least she didn't go and clean Dominique's apartment while she slept… Sometimes, you have to look on the bright side.
Harry just nodded and smiled. And had more Earl Grey. Harrods no 42. Finishing breakfast, he opened his Banishing Box to go through his mail. Pretty basic stuff. He had intended to go by the restaurant from last night and check the guest list. Now that he had an afternoon date planned with Dominique, he would have to get Daphne to do the scouting for him. Was it another date? Would Dominique just laugh in his face? Which, given the 144 flowers, she just might.
OK – Harry pulled out a pen and wrote a note to Dominique. He like to write while he enjoyed his second cup of tea...
Dear Dominique,
Thank you for last night, I had fun. Sorry again for the unusual excitement at the end. I hope you like flowers. Funny story - I'll fill you in this afternoon, if you are interested in a friendly tour. The Musee Carnavalet is giving me a private 'back room tour' of their Egyptian objects from 'The Old Kingdom of Egypt'. Magical and mundane historical items; you might like it. The artifacts are not available to the public. I am going to help them translate a tricky message combining hieroglyphs and a bit of 'Wadi el-Hol'. I am one of the very few who can speak and read Wadi el-Hol, so they are rewarding me with the tour of their unusual artifacts. I plan to go there at 3PM and stay a couple of hours. Should be fun, hope you can make it.
Sincerely,
Harry
Ok, that should do it. Placing it in the banishing box for a moment, he knew it went out. Hopefully, Gringotts, Paris branch was as efficient as the London branch. Now, a quick letter to Daphne, and he will be ready to go out and steal something for Fashad. Hopefully Daphne was 'wily' enough to get the guest list.
Sending Daphne a quick letter, he got ready to go out. Picking up the 'girls' from the bed he draped them over his shoulders. He had to apply the 'scarf galmour' but that was no big deal. But, if she gets any bigger, he will need a feather lite charm. Do all familiars grow this fast? It seemed like just yesterday she could fit in his lapel pocket!
An hour later, Harry had a pilfered snow globe for Fashad. He also purchased from yesterday's 'mark' 6 Eiffel towers and a dozen post cards. He had mentioned to Hecate that Dominique was a researcher, which might have been a mistake. He had to disillusion himself and cast notice me not charms to keep people from staring at the strange Brit hissing to his fluttering scarf. Hecate could really talk fast when she wanted to.
Hecate was eager to see the artifacts and Artemis seemed to be more interested in the mysterious witch from last night. The one watching him. Yep, his girls were a fun bunch. It was at this point that he realized he would have to surprise Dominique with his gals. Assuming she was even willing to be seen with him.
Checking his banishing box, he had a letter from Dominique. That was fast, what was it, an hour or so? Too fast? We'll see. Opening the letter, he smiled. She would meet him at the B.D.J. cafe at 1PM. She offered to buy lunch. Nice, and meeting him takes the pressure off. Pulling out his map, it is an easy walk to the museum. Fun.
His next letter was from Colin. He's covering the Beauxbaton garden even freelance. 'Maybe I can help him out,' thought Harry. Writing him back, Harry asked Colin to come and visit Eiffel tower with him on Tuesday. He liked Colin. Tons of energy. Always positive. Made Harry feel tall! LOL. He needed some fun time.
Last letter was from Daphne. She said she was on it. Apparently Jean had already reached out to her. She was taking the 'business contact' approach to get the invitee list. Harry thought he chances were 50-50. On a whim, he invited her to his Yvoire home on Monday. Added that he was going to invite Andromeda as well. Harry really didn't want to give her the wrong idea. Hopefully it would be clean enough.
He next sent Teddy a post card and a snow globe he had personally enchanted to have the snow spell out a 'yes', 'no', 'maybe', or 'ask later' at random after being shaken. Harry remembered Dudley spending hours with his magic 8 ball. Until he broke it anyway. It should make Teddy happy.
Sent a postcard and a letter to Andromeda. Invited her to his home in Yvoire on Monday with Daphne. He filled her in on his trip and how well everything was going. He left out the strange witch that he encountered last night. No sense making waves in a still lake. Hopefully she could make it.
He sent a post card to Ginny, too. A quick note about seeing the sights and thinking of her. Said he saw Colin. Nothing too personal. He signed it with, take care. He also sent a mini Eiffel Tower.
Last, he sent a note to Bill offering to keep Victoire on Thursday night with the Delacours. He offered up his home in Yvoire with the condition that if it was a mess, he would give them his apartment. Bill and Fleur were like his brother and sister, this is the least he could do.
OK – mail is done. Time to secure the apartment again.
Sitting in his summoning triangle in the main room, he watered the roses and performed a soil cleansing and enriching ritual to appease the wood elemental. He didn't have to do it, but it kept the elemental happy. He then charged up the wards. Next time he travels, he would have to get a ley line map. Charging up the wards was time consuming. Considering his itinerary, he would have to see about scaling it back. It may be a little full, and he liked just walking around.
Wards fully empowered. Elemental appeased. Fashad's gift out of the way… Time to get ready. He wanted a little time to explore with the girls, so he planned to leave early and kill a little time. It would also allow him to scout out the area around the museum and the café.. No one would recognize him under the glamour he had cast. After last night, he would have his orbiting spy circulating and watching. Just in case…
Showered and changed, he transfigured his Iklwa into a small umbrella. Seeing how it is overcast, no one would look twice. Black jeans, a simple green crew neck tee shirt, and a royal blue light weight linen sport coat, he was out the door. He felt a little overdressed. The sport coat did let him keep his pistol in a hidden astral pocket easily enough.
Harry had to wonder, 'Why did Kreacher always put him in a sport coat of some kind? And why the green? Kreacher always said it matched his eyes, but sometimes it seems like Kreacher is trying to convert me to Slytherin.'
Other than the Ilkwa, The sig P226, a simple dagger and his primary wand, he was pretty light from a combat point of view. No armor. No second wand. No Benelli M4 Shorty. He felt like a civilian! Considering what he just thought, he had to laugh a little.
—-CS—-
B.D.J. Café
5 rue de Jarente
Paris
The carriage actually got him there a little early. Walking around, he got a nice feel for the area. His orbiting spy made the rounds and all was clean. He decided to go in and get a seat. He as 10 minutes early. Dropping his glamour, he walked in.
Approaching the hostess, Harry smiled and asked for a table, "Bonjour, I'd like to get a table for two please."
She smiled back, "Bonjour, do you have a reservation?"
Harry suddenly remembered that he was not in the magical district. He had no pull here… "No… sorry. How long is the wait?" Looking around, the café was full and there were people waiting. Maybe Dominique set up a reservation? Before the hostess could reply, he quickly asked, "Or is there a reservation under Dominique Aris?"
"Ah, Oui. She has already been seated." Harry followed her to the back of the restaurant. To his shock, Dominique was already seated and Harry would have to have his back to the entire restaurant. In parsel tongue he whispered, "watch my back, girls. He silently cast a 'sound muffler' around the table. It would not silence everything, but it would distort and muffle sound enough that no one could make out what they were saying. He'd have to expand it when the waiter came by.
"Hi Dominique. Thank you for meeting with me again! Oh, they're charmed to look like a scarf, but this is my familiar, Hecate, Selene, and Artemis. I named them after three moon goddesses."
Dominique looked intrigued and simply said, "Good to see you Harry. And pleased to meet you... three."
The scarf fluttered around a bit. Prompting Harry to add, "Yes, I have a glamour and a mild 'confundus' up to prevent anyone from noticing. Although you could ask, 'why is that crazy Brit wearing a scarf in August'?" To that they both laughed. Harry gently placed his 'scarf' on the chair beside him.
Harry jumped in first, "Hey, thanks again. Sorry about last night. I am officially off the clock now. No sudden apparitions."
Smiling she just said with a playful smirk, "I'll hold you to that, Harry." Thinking a bit, "You have three familiars?"
"Yes, but it's complicated. The girls are a runespoor." At this, Dominique jumped a little and did a double take at the scarf. "It's OK, she is my constant friend and confidant. Artemis is my strategist, Selene is my fashion and social advisor, and Hecate keeps me from doing anything too stupid." Harry said all that with a grin.
"Well, I look forward to meeting them outside of a glamour."
"Hecate has been eager to meet you as well. I may have mentioned our conversation last night around ancient rituals."
The topic turned to old magic. With Hecate sending questions to Dominique through Harry. Then it slowly morphed to school. Harry did not talk as much as listen. His school experience was exceptionally horrible. The tri-wizard tournament was never brought up. At one point they were served and the food was excellent. Harry especially liked the lamb.
"I have a very eager house elf who loves flowers. I mentioned that I," Struggling for the right words… "Acted rashly last night and asked her for advice. I had no idea she would flower bomb you." Perfect. Acted rashly. Fortunately, Dominique seemed to think it was funny.
Finally, the conversation turned to relationships.
Harry started, "I only really dated one person. We were together for a few years, but we broke up last week. I guess I wanted a family too much. Too fast. Too young. Throw in that there was always something dangerous around every other corner and… she needed a 'Break' from 'Us'. She's doing great and we are still friends. I guess. Who knows, maybe we'll find our way back to each other. Maybe we won't. But we both intend to do amazing things in the meantime. I'm taking a break from romance for a while, so I can figure out what I really want." There. Now it is done. He could relax.
Dominique already knew about Ginny. The French version of Witch Weekly circulates about two days after the English version. She could see that the scars were still healing and he was OK. She did as one crazy question, "Do you still love her?"
He answered immediately, "Yes." Then considering, "But I also know she needed time apart. Maybe I did, too. To stretch our wings, so to speak." Harry was shocked to realize that he actually meant it. Taking a deep breath, Harry took the plunge and asked about her status, "What about you? A beautiful witch like you must have wizards knocking on her door…"
"Similar to you, my last relationship ended about a month ago. Phillippe was more serious than I was. He wanted to settle down, but I am not ready to give up my career. Our split was NOT as nice as yours. He took it poorly." Looking into the distance, she added, "I still care about him. I don't know if I love him or not, but I did once. We were good together. He wanted me to give up my dreams and follow his. He is an up and comer in the French ministry. Being married to a 'Ministry Man' does not leave a spouse time for a career."
Shrugging her shoulders, "We are not so much on a 'Break' as we are on a permanent hiatus. I am, like you, taking stock in my life and avoiding romance."
Appreciating her honesty, Harry reached out and squeezed her hand. He always appreciated it when Fleur did it to him. Comforting. Next, he held up his glass and said, "To New Friends and Avoiding Romance."
"Cheers" she said as she touched his glass with her own. Harry realized he may have made a friend.
-CS-
Musee Carnavalet
16 Rue des Francs Bourgeois
Paris
Arriving a little late, Harry and Dominique met the Magical Curator, Madame Bellamy. She was a strong looking woman who appeared to be in her early fifties. In the magical world, appearances and age could be deceiving. Powerful Wizards and Witches frequently enjoyed an extended youth and overall lifespan.
Madame Bellamy introduced herself and held out her hand to Harry. He kissed her hand, as Andromeda trained him, and introduced Dominique and himself. Harry still found the kiss on the hand awkward.
"Well, Mister Potter, It is nice to meet you. I did not expect you to bring a friend, but as far as dates go, you will find the Musee Carnavalet to be a very amazing place to bring one." This is a witch who obviously loves and takes pride in her museum.
As they walked through the private and undocumented part of the library, she pointed out the most interesting pieces. Harry was fully immersed in the history of the place; and so, it appeared, was Dominique. Finally, they were led to an ancient stone obelisk.
"We found this on a dig in Egypt. Most of the hieroglyphs are clear, and easily translated, but the Wadi el-Hol script is a mystery. We feel certain that it is meant to give further descriptions to the hieroglyphs, but we have no way to prove this."
"OK, lets take a look. Please tell me before I begin, what is it you think the hieroglyphs say?" Harry wanted to start on the same foot.
The curator looked at him intensely for a moment then said, "It speaks of a hidden place of power and reverence. A place of life and safety."
Harry considered this. "Close. The sequence of these symbols means it is a place you go to hide and preserve life. This is dating back to at least 4500 BCE. Maybe older. The 'power' hieroglyph is missing the lower third. I suspect it actually looked… like… this… Harry focused and created an unrealistically-vivid glamour over the obelisk. Muggles would refer to this as an over saturated and sharpened image. The many centuries just dropped away and the details of the obelisk really 'popped'. Harry even provided highly saturated colors he thought would add contrast. It was Harry's version of what the ancient scribe spirit did in Malta. Not able to recover completely lost markings, as the spirit had done, it definitely brought back the barely visible carvings and colorings.
The curator and her staff were enthralled.
"See here, if I am correct, the bottom of that symbol on the obelisk is jagged, like a crocodile's mouth. That implies not just power, but dangerous power. The stone carver is noting that they went into hiding. Great fear. Great power. This is a work of desperation. But there is reverence for life here as well. And of sacrifice."
"Now, the rest of the script. The Wadi el-Hol portion. Hold up a moment." Harry then lifted his scarf. To the curator and her staff, it seemed too stiff and heavy. "This is my familiar. Please don't panic." And he removed the glamour.
Hecate took a bit of pleasure in watching people jump. Artemis was figuring out who reacted fastest. Selene was evaluating their outfits. She believed you could tell a lot about people by how they dress.
"OK," Harry said, "Now that we have gotten that out of the way…" He began hissing and speaking in parsel tongue to his familiar, mostly Hecate. They focused on the carvings, noting that many of the Wadi el-Hol symbols were worn almost smooth. As Harry touched them, he extended the glamour to make them more visible, as he had done with the hieroglyphs.
"OK. They are cursing the Therans for taking so many of their children, but rejoicing in what the sacrifice brought them". More hissing and agreement. "This is the obelisk of Kaer… Cresus. Maybe. Names translate poorly in parsel script. It marks the time spent inside a… citadel? Or a kaer. Hard to tell the difference between a kaer and a citadel as many parts of the script are worn completely away."
Walking around the obelisk, he went to a flat side covered in hundreds of symmetrical small lines. They were slightly grouped in collections of 10 lines. Perfectly sized and spaced. Harry addressed the curator, "What do you make of these, Madame Bellamy?
The curator stepped forward, "They appear to be markings of some kind. Perhaps a place where they were counting. The round carvings contradict that theory, though." The curator really was not sure what they were. But she knew they were not a script or language.
"This is the notation of years. That were spent inside the kaer or citadel. See the circle inside a circle? The inner circle is the sun. The outer circle is the earth's orbit. Usually there is a marking for the earth, but this is pretty smooth… wait. Here it is. Almost missed it. Together, the two circles represent solar cycles. Years." Pointing to where the small lines change into round figures, "These markings are when the wards or defenses began to fail." At this Harry touched the roundish marks. Using his glamour, he makes them stand out clearly. They are stylistic skulls. Crude. "Terror. Death. I don't know where you found this obelisk, but it is not a safe site."
Harry and Hecate locked eyes and nodded. Artemis then hissed something. "Oh, I missed this. Artemis noticed the changes in the markings. See how clean and precise the lines are. All the way until you get here… Something happened to the carver or the tools used to carve. These markings are less precise. Amateurish. Crude." Noting the slight darkening at one of the lower edges of the obelisk, Harry reached out and faked a little off. Rubbing it between his fingers, he knew exactly what this was.
Looking at the curator very closely he added, "Check the markings for microscopic bone fragments. In the end, they were carved with organic tools. But you knew that already, didn't you Madame Bellamy? I'm going to ask you a question that you may not want to answer…" The temperature was slowly dropping. It smelled suddenly like winter in a forest. Winter fresh. Clean. A faint hint of Oak and Roses.
"Where did you really find this obelisk, Madame Bellamy and why have you been lying to me?" Harry's eyes were now faintly glowing .The electric lights in the room were flickering. His wand slid slowly into his palm.
His familiar curled around him. Her eyes scanned the room in all directions.
Her eyes were glowing just like Harry's.
All six of them.
To be continued
—-CS—-
Authors Notes:
** Old Egypt is refers to what was called the "Old Kingdom" from about 2700-2200 BCE.
*** Wadi el-Hol is the name of the 'Gulch of Terror' where a very old writing style was discovered in 1999. It is not fully translated, very little is known about it. It may have been the first/earliest known phonetic alphabet. Most people just refer to the script by the location it was found. I have decided to hijack it and make it Parsel Script. Even if translated, it would only be a bunch of hisses and snake sounds…
—-CS—-
What's up with the Obelisk?
BTW - I added to chapters 2 and 3 now that the story is no longer Ginny centric.
Read and review - thanks