Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, Hogwarts, Gringotts, the Leaky Cauldron or anything else in JKR's wonderful world. Except for the little pebble just to left of the front doors of Hogwarts. I put that there. I might own that. Maybe. But probably not.
A/N: Just a little something that popped into my head while I'm waiting for the glue to dry. Doing the same with House. As usual when I don't know what I'm talking about I Googled the subject, wrote what I needed that was true and made up the rest, tried to make it as good and entertaining as possible and called it AU. So, if you're going to tell me 'That's wrong' I say, 'Not in my story!' Authors can do that you know.
Rebirth
Brian Denley noticed the two young women off to the side of him and thought that they weren't some of the pagans here to celebrate Ostara, the spring, or Vernal, Equinox. They just weren't dressed for it. While most of the religious celebrants were dressed in what they thought were proper old Celtic clothing, rough woolen trousers and skirts, loose linen shirts, leather boots and shoes and many with flowers woven into their hair and clothing, these two were thoroughly modern. The blonde, easily in the super-model looks department, though with slightly larger breasts than those women typically had, had her mid-back length silver white hair pulled back into a low ponytail and wore a close-fitting red T-shirt under a black leather jacket, black jeans tucked into high black boots. When she had looked his way earlier, he had seen eyes the blue color of an iceberg he had seen in a picture that had just tipped over, revealing a dark blue that seemed to glow.
Her companion, while not quite a super-model, was still quite beautiful in a girl-next-door kind of way. Her unbound brown hair, cascaded down her back in soft waves of ringlets over a denim jacket with a black T-shirt, paired with blue jeans and laced knee-high brown boots. When she'd swept her gaze around the gathered celebrants and watching observers, he'd seen chocolate brown eyes.
He sidled closer through the crowd, hoping to chat them up. Maybe Lacey's idea hadn't been such a bad one after all.
Lacey McCudden, his best friend for over twenty years, a girl he had known since the age of five, had suggested coming to Stonehenge to witness the Vernal Equinox, or Ostara, celebration held by the Wiccan and pagan religious groups, just to see what it was like. It had taken some persuasion, but he'd finally given in, and they'd come to the ancient monument.
So had hundreds of others.
Lacey had explained the event signaled the end of winter and the first day of spring, a time of rebirth and renewal and many of the people there were certainly in high spirits.
They had made certain to get as close to the center of the Henge as they could, wanting to see what the high priest or shaman or whatever the head honcho was called would be doing to celebrate the day at sunset.
Evidently, so had the two girls.
The priest was saying something as the others in the ceremony were carrying out their parts in front of the altar stone as he stepped up behind the two, just as he heard the brunette say 'Now." To his surprise the two of them stepped forward, the people in front of them being pushed to either side, and walked right into the center of the ceremony, something definitely unplanned if the surprised reactions of the participants was any indication.
Angry cries met their intrusion as they stepped in front of the altar stone, to the surprise of the priest, faced each other and raised their hands, leaving a space about six inches wide between their palms, and began to chant something unintelligible. They ignored demands to explain what they thought they were doing and continued their chant, in words that were totally unrecognizable, but which, for some reason, seemed to be actual words and not just gibberish, as people reached to remove them.
They flashed.
Like being caught unawares when a camera flashed directly in their eyes, only ten times brighter, people at the front of the crowd cried out and surged backwards, covering their eyes, as the two women flashed brightly. He could still hear them chanting as he tried to rub sight back into his eyes, even as he felt a strange itching sensation over his body and heard a strange crackling sound.
When he could finally see again, he turned to them…and gaped at what he saw…
They still stood facing each other, arms raised, chanting…but were totally nude. The remnants of their clothes were nothing but pieces of charred material, small pieces clinging to their shoulders, the tops of their breasts and the outer curve of their hips, but the rest of it littered the ground at their feet. Even the scrunchie which had held the blonde's ponytail was gone, letting her hair fan out in a white halo around her head, even as the brunette's brown locks did hers.
The most remarkable thing however was the blue nimbus surrounding them. Little lightning bolts, dozens of them several inches long, crackled and raced over their bodies in random paths while electric bolts arced between their hands.
And still they chanted.
He watched as several of the racing bolts on the blonde collided, combined, grew…and jumped to a nearby stone.
Oh, shite! Realizing that staying where he was, was probably not a good idea, he turned to the crowd. "Get back!" he shouted, pushing people back away from the two women. "Get away!"
"Brian!"
He looked around at hearing his name, saw Lacey. "Lace! Get the people out! There's an electrical field and it's expanding!" he shouted even as he kept trying to get people moving out of the Henge. To one side he heard a Snap/Crack and a woman screamed and cried, goading people to turn and push back against the crowd behind them trying to see what was going on.
Without turning around, he could see the blue light intensifying on the stones around them, even as he recognized the priest pushing into the wall of people. "Move People!" He roared. "Can ye' not see ye' might die? Get out!"
They were almost outside the ring of stones, and he could see little lightning bolts dancing on them as the people outside finally realized something inside had gone terribly wrong. A man tripped and fell and as he stopped to help him up, half dragging him toward the outside, he got a glimpse of the two women, wreathed in blue fire, arms high, still chanting even as lightning played on the rocks and stones around them. And then he was running.
Having finally gotten the idea the screams and cries from the front of the crowd hadn't been because of the ceremony, that the people making those cries were genuinely terrified, the back of the crowd had turned and begun trying to get away and the exodus from the monument was finally being accomplished.
He could see other people, part of the crowd that had been observing from afar, backing away, even as a man with a large camera on his shoulder with a BBC logo on its side stepped forward.
"The Henge! Look at the Henge!"
He heard Lacey's cry and turned around, to see an astounding sight: blue fire outlined the Henge's stones, standing and fallen…even the ones not there!
The entire monument pulsed.
Bright blue, but not as bright as when the two women had flashed, a dome of light raced outwards from the ancient stones and people screamed in terror as it swept over them.
Almost everyone collapsed where they stood as their strength seemed to leave them and as he lay on the ground panting for breath, so weak he could barely move, Brian felt…a cool breeze on a warm spring day; raindrops from a gentle rain on his face; a hot summer sun on his bare skin; the smell of flowers and new mown hay; cool water as he swam; the smell of burning leaves and ripe vegetables; the crisp clean air after dark and a day of snowfall; the silence of a world asleep on a cold winter night.
Memories. Good memories. Memories of events in his life. Memories of life. Memories that made him laugh, that made him glad to be alive and he knew…knew without a single doubt…whatever was happening at the henge was a good thing, a helpful thing.
"Do ya hear it, Brian?"
He managed to raise his head at his best friends' voice. Lacey stood several feet away how the hell was she even on her feet looking towards the circle, an enchanted smile on her face. "Do ya hear it, Brian? It's singing!"
He turned his gaze upon the circle, the stone lit in blue, and only stared as he saw a fallen monolith slowly rising from the ground towards the vertical, even as another floated upwards and over two of the standing outer stones. It settled atop them even as more of the standing stones began to appear, slowly, one after another, just fading into existence, filling in the outlines of the blue flames. The light of those flames rose into the heavens like a beacon in the rapidly increasing darkness, a shining shaft of light that brightened as more of the stones appeared out of nothing to fill in the holes and gaps of the structure.
Somehow, he knew the women were responsible for what he was seeing; for rebuilding, replacing the missing parts of the rings. The reason for their doing so, or even how, he hadn't a clue, but he did not, could not, believe it was for a malevolent purpose. Whatever they were doing it for, whyever they were doing it, they had a reason, a good purpose for doing it. A purpose for good.
A movement drew his eye. Lacey, walking back towards the monument. "Lacey!"
His friend either didn't hear him…or ignored him, continuing on her way. "Lacey!" He yelled desperately. Even if he was certain the reconstruction was for a good, benign purpose, he didn't want her going in there. He struggled to roll over, to force himself to his hands and knees, to get to his feet and then spend precious seconds trying to stay balanced enough not to fall on his face as vertigo and a general lethargy threatened to overwhelm him. A driving force made him stand however, to stay standing, to straighten and stand upright even as he noticed two other figures approaching the glowing structure.
He took his first step just as his best friend passed between two of the upright megalithic stones…
…the monument pulsed again, brighter, the blue dome of light once again expanding outward.
He never remembered falling as it passed over him.
((((((OOOOO))))))
He groaned as someone prodded him, bringing him back to awareness.
"Come on, son, time to get up." An unknown voice made him raise his head, try to look around. A wall of grass blocked his vision.
A hand appeared. "Here, let me help you."
He took it and was pulled upward until his head rose above the knee-high level of the grass…a level it hadn't been at the night before. On his knees, he looked around. As far as he could see the grass was tall, with wildflowers growing everywhere, where only the evening before the plain had been bare. Here and there in random locations were copses of trees…where none had been before. And not little trees, either. Some of them looked huge.
It was an abundance of life he was certain had been caused by what the two women had done, what they had caused to happen, at the monument. Why they had done so was the question, however.
"What the hell happened?" he asked, almost to himself, until reminded of the man beside him.
"I think only God will be able to answer that question, son." The man replied. "You going to be alright?"
He nodded, still looking out over the Salisbury Plain. "Yeah, thanks."
The man walked away, and he finally turned to look upon Stonehenge. It sat under the early morning sun, looking positively massive. As a ruin it had been huge. Now, complete, it dominated the landscape. He rose to his feet, the lassitude of the night before gone, and slowly walked towards the structure.
Others were there, marveling at the gigantic construct, but he had another purpose. Passing through the outer ring he found the inner one complete, whole, as well. He passed to the center, stood there in front of the altar stone, and looked around. A few small pieces of charred material on the ground were the only evidence of what had happened here. Of the two women, of his friend, there was no sign.
He searched for over an hour, around the monument, the car park, out onto the plain, with no sign of Lacey.
He suddenly realized his concern for her went far beyond that for just a friend. The thought she might be gone from his life forever left a gaping hole in his heart; one that hurt; one he was going to fill.
He was going to find her.