A/N: Okay, fuck it! I woke up and thought why not to post the second chapter if I already have it. I've already gotten ahead of myself and posted the first one. But now, really, I won't be posting anymore any time soon. I don't have any more chapters written and I have an exam -the most important and final one of my academic life- in a few weeks time, so I won't have time for anything else. If anyone reads it, you'll see an important decrease in the writing quality. This chapter is totally mine, I used a "mold" for the first one, so... Read at your own peril. This chapter was inspired by another fanfic "What's her name in Hufflepuff by Asehz2ashes" so thanks to them!
Chapter 2: The Order of the Moirai
He landed hard on something unforgiving and metallic. He felt nauseous. It took several moments for him to catch his breath and for his body to stop feeling sore. He tentatively tried to sit up and felt relieved that nothing felt broken. He would be bruised up to all hell, but no seemingly permanent damage.
Whatever this was, it was pitch black. Perfect, I've been kidnapped by a pedo, Alex thought to himself. The air was cool and stale. Could the mirror have been a secret trap door to the basement? Alex stood up and felt dizzy as light flared up around him. He was in a treasure cave. An enormous one, at that. Alex was pretty sure that if he stood very still for a few seconds everything would snap back to normal.
A torch-light hung from the ceiling lighting up the room in contrast with the dancing shadows. The light of the hanging lamp reflected on the glitter of the golden mountains made of coins that filled the space. There wasn't a section of the floor that was bare and several mounds of gold rose far above his head. Fist-sized jewels were scattered around the place, shining through the gold and in open wooden chests. The walls were all scraped with what looked like hieroglyphics, or were they runes?
The vault was square shaped. Alex had landed in the middle of it. He moved to the wall in front of him, splashing golden coins with his legs. There was a big, thick, wooden door that could only be the way out. Alex felt the door with his hands and the stone wall around it to see if there was any way out, but the only indication that the door could be opened was a brass, medieval looking, round knob and an ancient, rusty keyhole. He banged the wood and shouted. "Hello!? Is anybody there?!". No answer. He thought he heard a snigger behind him. Alex turned and tried to look for an assailant in the poorly lit vault. There was no one there. On the opposite wall, all the way across the room, Alex' attention was caught by a mirror that looked just the same as the one he had seen in the den. He once again crossed the room splashing golden coins around. The frame of the mirror was the same as the other one. The surface was different. This was a plain looking mirror. Alex would have been more keen to further explore the frame of the glass if it hadn't been for the reflection that was staring back at him. Instead of his usual seventeen, average looking, year old self, the mirror showed a child. His child self. Even with the regression in age he recognized himself. Same wavy, brown, long hair. Same brown average eyes, and same straight nose. Even his clothes seemed to have shrunk to fit his new body. The reflection must have been between 10 and 12 years old. He wondered if he was undergoing some neurological dire event. He decided to try and see if there was a way out through the mirror. It was solid. "This is not possible." Alex said to no one in particular. His voice was different too. A more musical, pre-puberty tune. Another snigger. "Hello?" Alex asked to the emptiness of the room. "I know you're there." Snigger. A shadow seemed to cross the wall to his left, between the mountains of gold and a wall with some weaponry attached to it (Spikes, shields, swords, daggers and shiny suits of armour mainly). He made his way to that side of the room, pushing aside the gold, jewels and general obstacles in his path. There wasn't anybody there, just a life-sized portrait of a woman sitting in an armchair, dressed in what seemed to be a blue renaissance gown. She held a fan in her hand. Though she seemed to have been painted as she slept, the beginning of a smile colored her expression, the same way that the Mona Lisa smiled mysteriously to the observer. The portrait was supported on a painter's easel, and the frame had a plaque at the bottom.
Madam Eloise Mintumble, 1890.
That name rang a bell in Alex' memory, he could have sworn it had to do with Harry Potter, and something with time-travel. He looked around to see if there were hidden cameras. If there were, he didn't see any.
"This is not possible." Alex said again. Whatever was behind his change in appearance must have been top tier technology. He might have even been drugged. The alternative made something inside him spark with fear and exhilaration in equal measure. It just couldn't fucking be it.
Another snigger. This time he hadn't imagined it. The sound had come from the portrait. And by the looks of her, the woman in the painting wasn't able to hold her laughter any longer. She burst out laughing in very unelegant snorts. "Hello?" asked Alex. "Madam Mintumble?" What kind of futuristic technology was that? There weren't any cables attached to the portrait, and if it was a screen, whatever technology it was using was unknown to Alex. Perhaps it was broadcasting via bluetooth. Alex shook his head. David and Lizzie had gone up and beyond to set up this prank. Perhaps they had even involved his parents in this pantomime of an escape room. "Okay!" he shouted to the roof. "I'll play, this is an escape room isn't it? I'll find my way out!"
"Who are you talking to, child?" asked the woman in the video. She must be in another room, and was broadcasting live. The filter they were using to make it look like a one dimensional canvas was top notch, Alex had to concede. "Are you daft? Julian needs to start stepping up his game when he goes out recruiting. Next time he comes by I'll give him a piece of my mind about how to get things done."
Who the hell is Julian? And how the fuck can I get out of this room? Alex thought. Okay, talking to the screen portrait must be the first clue, he reasoned. If the name of the woman was related to the Harry Potter series, and the vault seemed like a Gringotts vault, he probably needed to go along with the theme of this twisted game.
"Sorry, Madam Mintumble. I was just a bit confused." God, it was weird to be talking to a portrait. "I don't know exactly how I managed to get here, but I guess the goal of all this is for me to get out. Wouldn't you know by chance how to do that, would you? And who's Julian by the way?"
"Julian is my son. And as far as how to get out of the vault… Well, with the key of course." She said as if it were the most obvious thing. "You definitely must have some sort of impediment. At least you will make a nice addition to my collection. Lucy has been so lonely here…"
"Lucy?"
"You're almost stepping on her, dear."
Alex looked downwards, and yes, indeed, he was almost stepping on someone. Well, what was left of her human remains. A small skeleton lay at the feet of the easel, wearing a moth-eaten silly dress that seemed to be out of a 1940s black and white movie. Alex jumped back a few feet, prompting the woman in the portrait to start laughing again. Okay, that's a very realistic fake skeleton, thought Alex. He shook his head, and tried to think of how to get some kind of clue out from the woman, she was the only lead that Alex had for getting out of this place.
"You are Eloise Mintumble, aren't you? The famed Unspeakable who traveled back in time several centuries…" said Alex to the laughing woman.
"Oh, so there might be some hope for you after all." She said between her dying chuckles, as she fanned herself. "I'm painted after Eloise, yes, what you see is what I looked like in 1890. I don't have the memory of her traveling back to the fifteenth century, as she did so shortly after I was created, but I've been told so far that she was the only person to ever manage to do it. Time travel was not our only interest, no… I studied many fields of magic. Very well… Indeed, a muggleborn who at least knows something. If anything, it seems that you will make good conversation, of course, up until you die. But I bet perhaps you could manage to become a ghost and keep me company! Only Morgana knows Lucy has not been very good at the art of polite conversation these past few years."Alex tried to dismiss her last words – and the suggestion of his imminent demise– and went on.
"Seeing that we are in a vault full of gold, and valuable objects, am I to assume that we are in Gringotts?" asked Alex. It was better to get all-in in the role.
"HA! There is no way I would have let those bastards get a hold of my fortune! It turns out that when you manage to make interdimensional travel a thing, those greedy goblins get all pissy about it: something to do with creating a multiverse inflational bubble and bursting out the market. Compensation for disrupting the market, they had the gall to claim… No. We are not in Gringotts, but you made a close guess, not that it will help you in any way to get out of here… Julian emptied our vaults just before those bastards decided that they had a right to our fortune. He moved everything to the basement of the Motherhouse. The bastards have my riches just under their noses and can't even get them!"
A phantom of a feeling was starting to grow inside Alex. Was it even possible that there was any remnant of truth in what she was saying? He needed to get out, probably there was a lack of oxygen and it was starting to mess up with his head, and thus the hallucination of his younger self.
"How do I get out then?" Alex interrupted her rambling. "You said something about a key? How do I find it?"
"Don't you have a pair of hands and a pair of eyes?! Use them!" she said, apparently annoyed that she had been interrupted. "I can't be expected to do all the work for you now, can I?" She went silent after that, opening the fan with an angry jab.
Alex started to search for the damn key. He was starting to feel tired, hungry, and a bit thirsty. He must have been gone for a while now, if he wanted to make it back for dinner he needed to hurry. A voice in the back of his mind told him that it was unlikely that he would make it back home at all. He pushed aside mounds of gold in search of a key, if it was anything like the keyhole it must have been rusty, and Alex hoped to be able to notice it in the middle of all the shiny things. He turned over everything that could be turned. It turned out there was also furniture under all the gold, Alex hadn't noticed it on a first glance. He opened drawers and wardrobes. He checked inside the armors and looked for cracks in the wall for a place in which a key could have been hidden. He even searched through the floor for the sake of thoroughness. After what felt like an eternity, and having searched the entire room feet by feet, Alex went back to the portrait. He hadn't found anything, and by now he was more than exhausted, sweaty and hungry. He also needed the loo. Urgently.
"Well?" asked Madam Eloise with a smirk. "Giving up already?"
"Actually, yes I am. I'm tired and hungry. And I need to pee, so could you avert your eyes while I do my business?" Alex had had more than enough. He turned to the corner and unzipped his fly.
"No!" screamed Eloise. "The stench will cling to the room for days! Very well… I will help you… Just because you seem to be a bit more knowledgeable than the last fool who crossed through the mirror… She kept muttering nonsense about talking rabbits who were running late and lions that could defeat powerful witches. Besides, today I am feeling magnanimous… Don't get used to it."
Alex rezipped his fly. He was getting out. Finally. "Well?" he said.
"Don't you use that tone with me, young lad." answered Eloise. "Are you a wizard or not? I bet that you love to do little parlour tricks, don't you? Even little muggleborns like yourself can do some basic spells." Alex almost answered that no, in fact, he wasn't a wizard. At most, he could be considered a party magician, but he was too tired to argue anymore. He took out the forgotten nickel, which in comparison to the gold in the room looked very cheap, and held it in his hand. He did the one-handed sleight and the coin vanished. It was in the sleeve of his coat. "Well?" Asked Eloise. She had an excited look on her painted face, as if she were waiting for something. "Now all you have to do is produce the key instead of that little cheap coin. A simple switching spell!"
"How? I don't have any keys!"
"MAGIC! You daft moron!" shouted her. She was getting agitated, just like him. "Just close your eyes, do what you always do, and will the damn key to appear in your hand!" He was frustrated, but Alex did as she told him. He wanted to be done with this. He did the trick backwards, to make the coin appear in his hand, and with all the concentration Alex could muster, he willed a key to be in there. He felt something snap inside him, like a balloon bursting, or the feeling of a rubber band snapping after being tensioned to its breaking point. The sensation was followed by a tingle and a rush, making the hairs in his arm stand, and as he turned his closed fist and opened his hand, he was holding a rusty, big, old key. Eloise applauded.
"Oh! Well done! I knew you would get it in the end! Or I was almost sure in any case! Welcome to the Order of the Moirai dear!" She said, "You are now a member of my select group of magic researchers! I hope that we can move on past our initial disagreements, you see, I have to be very selective with who I allow into our fold. All water under the bridge now!" Eloise said. Alex didn't pay her any attention. He was focused on the key in his palm, as if it were the most extraordinary thing he had ever seen. In a sense, it was. Perhaps the exhaustion had finally made him lose all sense of rationality. Or perhaps there really was a lack of oxygen in the room. However, Alex had so far been able to find reasonable explanations for all the things he had just witnessed in the previous hours. But this, this he couldn't explain. He didn't have a coin in his sleeve anymore. The coin had turned into the key. There wasn't any other explanation. Alex knew it. He also knew that it had been him the one responsible for transfiguring it. He had done Magic. Capital M. It was against all sense of logic – and the natural order of things– and yet Alex was as sure about it as he was sure that the sky was blue and the grass was green.
Eloise went on. "I have a small favour to ask, now that we are on such good terms. When you are done fawning over the key, and pull yourself together, could you ask Oma to bring my portrait up to the drawing room dear? I have had enough of staring at galleons and sickles for a while. Besides, this light does not do justice to my countenance."
"Oma?" asked Alex, trying to get out of his own mind. "Who is Oma?"
"The house-elf, of course! By now she must already be waiting outside that door!" explained Eloise, pointing with her fan. "Didn't you need to use the bathroom dear?"
That seemed to make it. The notion that house-elves were real and the reminding of his need for the loo pushed Alex to the door. Tentatively, as if the key was about to disappear, he put it in the hole and turned it. The door creaked but it opened with a push. A stone staircase went up. POP. A small creature appeared out of thin air. Alex would have been beyond surprised at any other time, but he found he didn't have any more energy to spare today. The art designers for the Harry Potter movies had really made a very good job characterizing the servant creatures. Oma was about three feet tall, with spindly arms and legs and an oversized head and brown, musty, big eyes. She had pointed, bat-like ears, in one of which a golden hoop earring dangled with the movement. The elf bowed, and when she spoke she did so with a squeaky voice. "Oma welcomes the new young master to the Motherhouse. How might Oma address the young master, sir?"
"Alex Friedman, nice to meet you." answered Alex as politely as he could. What was the etiquette for addressing House-elves anyways?. He awkwardly bowed his head. Upon closer inspection there was a different aspect to the elf than what he might have expected. She wasn't wearing a dirty pillowcase. Her uniform consisted of some sort of fabric that reminded Alex of an ancient Greek toga. However, she was barefoot.
"Oma is thrilled to have a young master wizard to attend to again. It has been a long time! Oma almost disobeyed Master Julian's orders and popped into the vault to help Master Alex get the key, but Oma is a good elf. She knew the new master would manage it in the end!" She said as she started to walk up the stairs. Alex followed her. "Oma has been cooking all afternoon for when Master Alex managed to get out of the vaulty, sir."
Alex' stomach growled in response. He also really needed the loo. They arrived at the top of the stairs, where there was a wooden panelled wall. Oma snapped her fingers, and the wall glided to the side leaving an open doorway. On the other side, an elegant, cavernous hall sprawled. The wooden walls were richly engraved and decorated with tapestries and portraits. Behind him, a grand wooden staircase went up to the upper floors. One could see the central hall from the top floor through some arched stone galleries that surrounded it. The hall was decorated with many elegant seating pieces, and carpets covered the floor. A grand fireplace stood in front of the staircase.
"The bathroom is that way, sir." The elf pointed. "First door on the right. Master will be having dinner in the dining room tonight, yes he will. Tonight is a special occasion!"
After he had answered nature's call, and discovered how annoying magical mirrors who talked back and made commentary on one's appearances were, Oma led him to the dining room. The chamber seemed to have been taken out of a regency era novel. High ceilings with painted clouds that seemed to be slowly drifting on a blue sky backdrop, a glittery chandelier, and an impossibly long carved table lit with silver-supported candles. Sleeping portraits decorated the walls and an ornate flower arrangement –proudly boasting its elegance– sat in the middle of the table. Oma seemed to have gone all above and beyond with the layout of the silverware and the cooking. A feast lay in one end of the table, waiting for Alex to devour. As he sat down and picked a bit of everything to try, he asked Oma: "So, what is the Order of the Moirai exactly?" He didn't remember that being mentioned in any of the books.
"The Great Order of the Moirai is an ancient society conformed by witches and wizards searching to uncover the many secrets of magic, sir." explained Oma. "As far as Oma knows, time travelling and world crossing are just some of the many fields studied here in the Motherhouse, sir. But Master Alex needs to learn about wizardry and witchiness in school before he can do any of that. Young Master Alex would do better asking Master Julian if he comes back. Oma is just the house-elf." Said the elf with a shrug.
Alex didn't remember anything about other secret societies existing in the world of Harry Potter beyond the Order of the Phoenix and the Death Eaters, or their predecessors, the Knights of Walpurgis. So I'm not in canon, assumed Alex.
"Is it something like the Department of Mysteries? By your description it seems that what people do here is similar to what the Unspeakables do, isn't it?" he asked temptatively.
"Oh yes! Many great masters of the Order have been Unspeakables too! Oma doesn't know all the details, and Master Alex could look in the library if he wants to know better, but the Order always works in secret, keeping all the knowledge of magic safe from the outside world! The Order of the Moirai is like the Unspeakables but not like" said the elf as if there was nothing more to it.
"Do you know how is it possible that I'm here? You see, where I'm from magic is not real, just something from fairytales and kids' stories. This world is actually a series of books." Asked Alex while he reached for the potato purée.
Oma shrugged and snapped her fingers, making the plate with the purée levitate closer to Alex and serve itself with the spoon to his plate. "Oma only knows that when young Master Alex crossed through the darky mirror and managed to conjure the key, he became a new master and member of the Order. Oma is bonded to the Great Order of the Moirai, and the Motherhouse, which is the Headquarters. Master Julian is the current Head of the Order, sir." said Oma with pride. "There hasn't been many wizards lately in the Motherhouse for Oma to attend to since Master Julian sealed the house twelve years ago. It has been a very dark times, sir."
Alex mused as he took a bite of what he believed was pheasant. He had crossed to another world through the mirror, so perhaps there had been a bit of a mix between Narnia and Alice in Wonderland in the Dutch house after all, but he had ended up in an altogether different fictional world, and there was this secret society that he had never heard of or read about in the books or fanfics before. Also, Oma had said something about dark times. Was it possible that he had ended up in a time between the wizarding wars? Or had he just arrived at a time when Harry Potter had finally defeated Lord Voldemort for good?
"Oma, Madam Mintumble said that the vault in which I arrived is close to Gringotts, are we in Diagon Alley?" asked Alex with a spark of excitement. If he really was in Diagon Alley, there was no way Alex wouldn't go exploring at a later point. "Also, what date and year are we in?"
"Not exactly in the Alley, master Alex. The goblinses creatures don't know about the Order's riches. It was quite clever of Master Julian to put the vaulty so close to them, under the garden, sir. The Motherhouse is located at the end of Horizont Alley, one of the adjacent streets to Diagon Alley and of better standing, if Master Alex asks Oma's opinion, sir." Oma explained with a puff and then pointed to an ornate clock resting over the mantle of the fireplace. "Today was the 21st of July of 1991, sir. It's close to midnight now, so it will soon be the 22nd. Don't older masters teach young masters the hours and the dates where you come from, sir?"
Alex didn't answer. He had landed in the summer before Harry Potter had started his education at Hogwarts, and that meant that Harry would still have to face Voldemort and fight a war. Alex was possibly the right age to attend Hogwarts too, and he had done magic, hadn't he? What was Alex going to do? Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore… No shit.