Chapter Sixteen: Cold Lazarus
Monday, 11th October 1999.
Harry felt the blood rushing through his veins, still filled with adrenaline as he held Hermione firmly in his grasp. He had been terrified when Neville had pointed her out alone on the landing. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, filling his senses with the smell of her, and it calmed his racing heart somewhat.
"You ok?" She whispered softly, wedged between him and her parents.
Harry simply nodded his reply. He pulled away slightly, unable to fully withdraw as his arms were trapped in a Granger sandwich. "Yeah."
As the others pulled apart, Harry stepped back and turned, and he noted with surprise that the destroyed bridge was once more intact. None of the debris or other damage caused by the dragon remained either. It was as if the test had never even occurred. He stepped over to the bridge, the others falling silent as he moved and he tentatively tested his weight on a section of the bridge he knew had been destroyed.
"Cool." He murmured as he continued out over the void, heading for the platform. The others soon followed behind and within moments, all seven were arrayed around the pillar containing the Bloodstone.
"So…" Neville asked the group. "Do we think it's real this time?"
The others glanced at him before Hermione spoke. "Go ahead, Neville."
Harry, however, was taking a closer look at the larger pillar at the back of the platform. It was an obelisk, also made of the same stone as the cavern and like all other examples he'd seen, appeared to be carved from the very rock itself. Yet the embedded blue crystals made him think that there was more to it than that. And he'd seen examples of Alteran technology hidden inside what appeared to be nothing more than carved rock before.
Harry glanced over his shoulder as Neville reached forward to grasp the small stone, but his hand passed through it again. Immediately Harry moved to pull his wand, but his eyes were drawn back to the obelisk as the crystals lit up and a bright light burst out of the largest crystal, filling his senses entirely.
As it dissipated, the enormous cavern was replaced by a far smaller cave. The moment they arrived, torches in all corners of the room lit with flame revealing stone walls made of the same material, but these were lined by short bookshelves. The floor space about the cave was dotted with small wooden chairs and tables and in one corner was a futon-style bed. The centre of the space was dominated by two massive circular structures, one natural and one not.
The natural formation was an enormous, uneven limestone column several feet thick that filled the space from floor to ceiling. Beside it was a very man-made structure, a squat disc about three feet high, with twelve evenly-spaced rectangular stones around the outer edge peeking above the otherwise perfectly flat top which they were all now standing around.
"That was interesting," Padma said, spinning about to observe the space.
"So is this." Luna and Hermione said together, looking in different directions.
Harry spun to see the two girls standing back to back opposite him, and by virtue of his position, saw what Hermione was looking at first. On the back wall of the room was a stasis chamber built into the rocky wall, and it was occupied.
"That can't be." He whispered as he walked over to the active device. It was difficult to see in, the material filling the chamber had become clouded over time and the natural crystal patterns obscured the image further despite the eerie green-blue backlighting, but after so long chatting to their image in the Lab and Fundamenta, Harry was more than familiar with Myrddin's face.
Beside the chamber on the wall, there was another stone tablet, this one appearing to be made of granite rather than the red marbled stone of the riddles. Hermione read it aloud. "Here lies Myrddin, Archmage of the Round."
"Well," Richard said, "that's a win. Now he can finish the job."
"What about this?" Luna asked, now over by the column.
Harry turned to see what she was indicating and saw a mirror device embedded in the column itself. "They do love mixing fancy and natural. Wait, Luna!"
Luna looked into the mirror before Harry could voice his warning and the device stretched into active mode, extending out towards her. No lights within came on, but a metallic slurping sound behind him quickly drew his attention. The crystalline filling of the stasis chamber began to glow and recede, and Harry quickly stepped forwards to catch the falling body of the ancient Myrddin as it stumbled free.
"Richard. Help." Harry groaned under the deadweight and the elder man rushed over to help, the pair hoisting the dazed figure up by the arms and quickly shuffled him over to the nearby bed. The figure opened its eyes as they laid him down and wearily looked about, trying to speak for a moment before blacking out.
"That's great." Padma moaned as she looked at the still figure.
"Easy," Harry replied. "He's thousands of years old. I'm willing to bet being yanked out of stasis after that long is a shock to the system." He checked for vital signs and noticed shallow breathing and an unsteady heart rate. "Hermione? Anything you brought that might help?"
Hermione looked up uncertainly before she reached over her shoulder and removed the bag. She quickly dug inside and pulled out a handful of potions. "Hold him still. I've not actually done this on a person yet."
Harry and Richard held the already still body in place as Hermione stepped up beside her father and arranged the potions beside Myrddin's head. She tapped each one in turn and the contents vanished, but Harry noticed Myrddin's throat bulged slightly each time and then swallowed weakly.
"That should help. The last one is a weaker alternative to the Draught of Living Death. Should prevent him from expiring before we can get him home. I'm not game to try any proper magic on him until we know what his condition is. I could just as easily kill him while trying to help him."
"So, how do we get home? We don't know where on the planet we are. That beam felt like an Alteran Transport Beam, which we know could go anywhere else there is a receiver." Natalie noted.
Luna gave a soft hum of confirmation. "That would make sense. The notes in the Mantle mentioned that it was from Ganos Lal that Myrddin learned the beaming technology. The phase-shifting tech as well. Stands to reason she would use them in her own tests and efforts to protect the secret."
"I guess we need to have a look around. There is an opening over here." Neville said from the far side of the cave.
"I'll come with you." Harry offered, nodding to Hermione who was once more checking Myrddin's vitals.
Harry quickly joined Neville by the exit. The pair lit their wands anew as they passed into the narrow tunnel. It matched the style of the ones they had been in all afternoon, and Harry assumed it would lead them back into the cavern and then hopefully on to an exit.
"I hope Hermione's potions keep him stable," Neville said as they walked. "Don't like our odds of getting all the way back through this maze then back out of the temporal field onto the village and the porta only to have him expire a few minutes before we get home."
Harry nodded as he considered the dangers. If Myrddin died and he hadn't properly recorded how to build the device, all their efforts to now will have been for nothing. "Maybe once we find the way out, if it'll take too long, we can refreeze him. Better alive in stasis than dead out here. Light up ahead."
He waved his wand in the direction of the curve in the tunnel that showed a dull light reaching in from past its boundary. The two men stepped up their pace, both worried about being on the clock now Myrddin was on normal time once more. As they turned the corner, Harry stopped in place, a mixture of surprise and amazement at what he saw.
What had seemed to be a bend in the tunnel was actually the opening leading out of the cave altogether. In front of them, several rocky tiers lead down from the opening to a flat expanse of land a few dozen metres out from them before it dropped away. At the edge of the cliff was a wide stone dais with stairs on the front that lead up to an astria porta, and through the large opening within, Harry saw a lush forest stretching away beyond the cliff face under a pair of bright silver moons hung impossibly large in the night sky.
"Well, I guess that settles the debate about whether you can transmit matter as an energy wave through the porta." Neville joked.
"I'll say. The obelisks must be the beam engine. Sucks us up, dials the porta remotely and shoots us through to a receiver on another planet. I'd say this whole little mountain gets transported along. Something tells me that porta isn't connected to the main conmeatas at all."
"Yeah. I'm willing to bet if we skirt this thing, that cliff face runs around it all. If Lal could redirect the natural orbits of whole planets, making a mesa shouldn't be too hard. At least getting Myrddin back home should be easy enough. Provided our remotes work on that guy." Neville nodded at the giant ring dominating the skyline.
"You wanna find out? I'll go see how they're doing inside. And pop out a vulta as well. See what this place looks like. If this planet is unused or uninhabited as we suspect, it could be a handy location to have in our back pocket once we take away its reason for being off the grid."
"Will do," Neville replied, pulling one of the tiny drones from his bag and setting it loose in the sky. He hopped down the rocks as Harry quickly headed back inside. With any luck, they'd be home for bedtime, and with the brain that began this whole mission in hand.
"How is he?" He asked Hermione as he arrived back, noting that the others were gathering up all the odds and ends that they could carry in their bags to take back with them.
"Old. That stasis chamber is borderline useless. It's robust as all hell, but its ratio is way out of whack. He's aged almost a hundred years while inside of it. And he wasn't exactly spry when he went in."
"How bad?"
"We need to get him back to Fundamenta before I can make a proper assessment. And I think we need to call Poppy for help here. I'm still too green to fix this, Harry. We can't lose him."
"I know. I wonder why Lal made the stasis chamber that way. She went to all this trouble to keep him safe and alive… but botched it on the part that actually kept him alive? Doesn't sound right. There has to be a reason."
"How long do you think it will take us to get him all the way back to the porta?" Luna asked, stepping up behind Harry.
"Er, not long actually. The tunnel is only a few dozen or so metres before it opens into free air. We're on another planet by the looks of it. The obelisks are beam engines and there is a porta just outside. Neville is trying to dial home right now."
Hermione looked surprised at the news and her eyes flicked to the walls.
"Yeah, I thought the same thing. I think this entire mountain seems to get beamed up and sent through. We know the tech is powerful enough to do it. Also confirms that beam energy can carry matter through a wormhole."
"So. Home for dinner?" Luna asked brightly.
"Maybe breakfast, according to my watch." Padma retorted as she gathered up more of the books on the shelves scattered about the cave.
"Figure of speech, darling," Natalie whispered as she passed.
"Guys?" Neville's voice echoed into the cave.
"I'll see what's what. You gather everything that's not nailed down. We'll take what we can back home."
"And that?" Hermione queried, nodding at the mirror device which had receded back into the column.
"If you think you can bring it along, sure. If not, we'll see if we can lock down the address for this planet. I have a feeling it might prove useful in the future regardless."
Harry turned and headed back out of the cave, meeting Neville down by the obelisk, the now active porta on the cliff edge casting a glow over the plateau.
"Hey. We were right. Vulta shows this thing is a small chunk of a mountain situated atop a low mesa about a hundred feet high, surrounded by forest as far as it can see for now. Dialled out fine too," Neville paused and glanced at the glowing blue fluctuations in the event horizon, "but I guess you can see that. Merlin can't be here in person, no emitters, but he's analysing the programming of the obelisk before we go anywhere. Which should give us the location of this planet, too."
"That's handy. My plan had been to see just how high those little guys of yours could fly so we could get a detailed image of the stars. Not that there is all that much light pollution on this planet."
Harry glanced skyward and admired the thick covering of stars peeking out from behind the clouds high above. He was brought back to the ground when he heard Merlin's voice coming from the remote on Neville's wrist. "Analysis complete. Address confirmed, along with a dozen other destinations."
"More planets?" Neville asked into his remote.
"Yes. The obelisk is programmed to cycle the structure through them on a regular basis every few hours, completely at random."
"The entire mountain?" Neville whistled impressed as he gazed up at the rock above them. Harry agreed, it was at least four times the height of the already large porta and seemed to be quite long and wide as well.
"Negative. There is an identical structure on each planet. Only live matter is transported between them."
Harry groaned out loud. "What is it?"
Harry glanced at the other man. "Hermione thought the stasis chamber was broken, or just poorly designed. But if that's how it works, Myrddin is being constantly beamed into a buffer and shot through the porta into the next pod. That would account for its horrible inefficiency. It's only a fraction of a second at a time, but every few hours over a thousand years? No wonder his body went into shock. Did you update Merlin on the status of… well, Merlin?"
Neville chuckled, it was a good thing they tended to refer to the program as Merlin and the man as Myrddin. "I did. He's prepared the stasis chamber so we can put him under if necessary. Merlin can scan the body once it's inside and ascertain his long term health. He also feels confident he can access at least some of Myrddin's memories while he's in the pod, so even if he's too far gone to revive, we might be able to get the schematics."
"That's good," Luna noted, dropping down beside them. "Because I had a quick look in the mirror device. They aren't in there. It's an interface only. In fact, there was nothing in its storage banks. Lal cleaned it out."
"Great." Harry sighed. "How's the packing?"
"We're done. Everything of worth at least, the furniture can stay." Richard said, appearing from the cave entrance. "Hermione's bringing Myrddin now."
A few moments after the others cleared the entrance, Harry saw Hermione backing towards them, glancing over her shoulder occasionally as she levitated the still figure of Myrddin through the narrow tunnel. Harry stepped over and held up his arms, Hermione smirking at him as she took advantage and jumped backwards, into his arms. Thankfully she ensured Myrddin's descent was far smoother.
"Home it is?" Padma asked softly, the group all glancing between themselves and when no one disagreed, the Ravenclaw smiled and dashed through the active porta.
Harry gestured for Hermione to go next and tapped a message for Padma to be ready to support Myrddin's body, as they hadn't yet tested how magic performed when passing through an event horizon. The group watched quietly as the best hope for their major goal passed into the blue energy field, the usual watery sucking and sloshing accompanying the sight.
A moment later, Hermione followed him through, wand still raised as she disappeared over the threshold.
"Hey, Neville," Harry called before his classmate stepped through, causing the others to wend around him. "Set the vulta to wander. We're probably going to want a detailed idea of this place soon."
"That's a good idea," Neville replied, tapping the instruction into his remote and the pair heard the tiny sphere shoot off at high speed through the air. "C'mon. Let's get some rest."
Harry nodded in agreement as the two Gryffindors stepped into the astria porta and headed back home after what felt like the longest day they'd had in a very long time.
ϟ
Friday, 15th October 1999.
Natalie hummed softly as she finished sorting their new books into the shelving inside the vault. It had taken them several days to digitize them all first, but now the collection was tucked in beside those from their previous trips. Probably the greatest physical collection of Alteran knowledge on Earth, and perhaps the entire galaxy kept in the bowels of Gringotts with those above none the wiser.
In fact, the group had not set foot in the building above since they opened the vaults, not needing to with their ability to beam in and out at will. The elder Granger looked about the space, this one not containing any of the traditional valuables, only books and small furniture for the time being.
Her life had taken so many turns since Hermione had turned eleven, but seeing the results now, she wouldn't change it for the world. To not only be an active part of her adult daughter's life, but to be exploring the galaxy. It was a dream she'd had as a child, but had been precluded from attempting due to a simple defect in her left eye. No space agency on Earth would accept her, so she had passed on the dream.
And now she had travelled further through the stars than any astronaut on Earth could dream. She smiled to herself at the irony as she gathered her things and entered her destination on the remote. The usual beam of light surrounded her and she reappeared in the English cavern. She looked about in surprise at the changes that had been made since she last visited.
In the centre of the space, there was now an identical platform to the one from the cave on the planet where they had found Myrddin, and the mirror device seemed to have been moved from one of the tunnels to the wall near the platform. The plinth that had held the sword now had the Mantle incorporated into its upper surface.
"Merlin?" She called out, the image soon joining her.
"Yes?"
"Been redecorating?" She asked.
"I have made several alterations as we have come closer to completing our task. While I could simply use the technology at Fundamenta for integration of the device, this cavern is the safest place in the galaxy when it comes to dealing with ascended beings."
"And that?" She asked, pointing at the Mantle.
"Incorporating the Mantle into the main system boosts the effectiveness of the shielding. Were he in better health, I would be keeping my maker here as well. We are too close to risk failure now due to cockiness."
Natalie sighed. "That is true. How is Myrddin? Will you be able to revive him?"
"Not at present. We do not yet have sufficient medical equipment at Fundamenta to properly stabilize him after such a long and constantly broken stasis. That he lives after that at all is a testament to his hardiness. However, his mind is co-operating at present, and I am gathering the designs for the device as we speak."
"You don't feel any sort of kinship with the man? You are made in his image."
"As realistic as Myrddin made me, I am and always will be a program on a computer. I feel a kinship with nothing." Merlin replied, totally devoid of any sign of emotion on this occasion, something she had seen the image replicate before.
"That's a shame. We all like you very much." Natalie commented as she headed to the corner and deposited the few technological items acquired from Myrddin's cave. On this, they definitely agreed with Merlin, this Lab was the safest place to leave anything technologically related to the Sangraal. They did not want to trip at the finish line now.
ϟ
Harry stretched the knot in his shoulder as he stared at the lights shifting over Myrddin's once more frozen mind, Merlin working with the man that started this whole thing to finish the design of the weapon in the virtual buffer. It was taking longer than they had hoped now that they had the original inventor on hand, but his placement in stasis and the need to only store the information in the Lab meant each step was an arduous process to complete.
The complex was quiet as Natalie was off curating their collection. Neville was visiting his parents, probably talking to them about his newest adventures. Luna had gone to visit Dobby and her father on his continuing dig, believing they may have uncovered something important. Hermione and her father were off on a very rare father-daughter day out. While Padma was off catching up with her sister.
Not that Harry minded the silence, it was actually quite nice, it was just a change from his life of late. Usually, he was surrounded by friends or doing something urgent and life-changing. It was nice to have a day where he was resigned to wandering aimlessly for a change.
"HELP!"
Harry groaned deeply as he cursed the universe for listening in on his thoughts.
"HELP!" The female voice came again.
Harry dashed in the direction it was coming from and his blood began to run cold as he realized where he was heading. He rushed in through the open doorway to find two identical figures in the brightly lit room. One laying on the floor, the other sitting above them. The sitting one tossed her head back to scream for aid once more but stopped when she saw Harry.
"Help. Harry, please help her. She just fell over." Parvati yelped.
Harry noticed the shimmering walls of the box were flickering on and off, and there was no shadow inside.
"Where did it go?" He asked, kneeling beside Padma opposite Parvati.
"It's in her. Help her."
Harry took a deep steadying breath and considered their options. If Anubis was inside of Padma, they could not take her out of this room. Above all else, Anubis could not be allowed to escape. But as abrasive as she could be, Harry was already becoming quite fond of their second Ravenclaw.
"Merlin!" Harry yelled, and the image appeared in the air. "Open the box."
"Are you cert…" The image stopped as it seemed to realize that the box was empty. "Oh. Forgive me. I've been priori…"
"Just open the box," Harry growled, moving to slip his arms underneath Padma before he stopped and pulled his wand instead. With a wave, the still girl was hovering in the air and Parvati moved to head towards the doorway.
Harry guided the body into the box and Parvati's jaw dropped. "What are you doing? You need to help her!"
"I am helping her. Please trust me. Can you detect the presence in her?" He asked the computer as he laid Padma down in the middle of the space.
"Yes. I am reactivating the field now." The box once again began to glow, but flickered out a few times. "Error detected. Repairing."
An even brighter glow appeared in the bottom corner closest to them where the beam energy corrected whatever damage Anubis had managed to cause that had weakened the prison in their distraction during the past month. When it dissipated, the field came back on stable once again. Harry let out a breath of relief.
"Harry…" Parvati screeched.
"I know, believe me, I know. We're going to get it out of her, Parvati. But what is in her right now could destroy this entire planet if it gets out of this room." Harry stepped over to the frantic twin, gently taking her upper arms in hand and staring into her eyes. "We'll get her back. I promise. Now, I need you to tell me what happened. I thought Padma was visiting you at your parents' house."
"She did. We had lunch together and got to talking about what we'd been up to. When she wouldn't tell me details I nagged her. When I wouldn't stop, she brought me here somehow. It didn't feel like apparating." Parvati paused, and Harry conjured a pair of chairs, guiding her into one and sitting opposite her. "She showed me around a bit, and I saw this room with the big glowing doors. As soon as we came inside, this dark shadow surged at us and she shoved me aside. It bounced off the open doorway for some reason and then it all rushed into her body. What's going on, Harry."
"It's an ancient being we found. It attacked us, so we subdued it. We're working on a way to destroy it, but we aren't ready yet."
"What about my sister?" Parvati cried.
"We'll find a way to get it out of her. I swear." Harry meant every word.
He already felt guilty that he had been so distracted by the mission and his new status with Hermione that he'd stopped checking on Anubis. Clearly, the former goa'uld had not been idle and had managed to damage the prison cell enough to get into the main section of the room. He was just thankful that Hermione'd had the foresight to protect the entire room with the same energy field.
As though summoned by his thoughts, the door opened to reveal Hermione and Richard, the pair's eyes flicking from Harry and Parvati to the still form of Padma inside the glowing cube.
"What happened?" Hermione asked, kneeling beside her former roommate.
"Anubis broke out of the box. He couldn't get past the field you put over the room, so he possessed Padma. I put her back inside for now, and Merlin fixed the box." Hermione put her hand on Parvati's thigh as the girl began to sob in earnest. "We have to get that thing out of her."
Hermione nodded softly. "I know. We will get it out, Parv. You'll have your sister back in no time."
Parvati nodded and turned to stare at the box, soft sniffles coming from her regularly as the others stepped away and Harry vanished his chair.
"How do we get it out of her?" Richard whispered once they were far enough away from Parvati.
"I have no idea," Harry admitted. He really didn't want to lie to Parvati, and Padma had begun to really grow on him since she joined their team.
A loud crack filled the space and Parvati gave a sudden scream, jumping from her chair and staring at the newest arrival. Luna stood panting hard beside a wobbling Dobby, the elf looking like he was about to expire.
"Dobby," Harry yelled, dashing over to the wee figure as it swayed heavily, before falling backwards. Harry caught him before he collapsed and laid his friend on his lap.
"Harry Potter. Dobby is alright. Dobby is just very tired."
"Sorry. I panicked a little when we got the message and forgot about the beam." Luna apologised as she gave Dobby's sweating forehead a wipe. "I don't think Dobby realized just how far away this place is. The little guy just grabbed my hand and pulled hard on my magic and, boom, here we are."
Harry glanced up at Luna and nodded as Dobby passed out in his arms, exhausted from the effort of carrying two people to the other side of the planet in one go. His eyes drifted to Hermione who was looking between Luna and Dobby thoughtfully.
"What is it?" He asked her.
"I'm not sure. An inkling of something, but I'm not certain what. Something about what Dobby just did, and something about possession."
"You think Dobby can get Anubis out of her? He's way too tired to try that." Harry growled.
"Of course not, Harry. And I would never ask him to do that. But maybe we can do that. We share our magic when apparating all the time to boost our effective range or load. Maybe we can do that in a way that will help Padma."
"You mean you don't know how to help her?" Parvati cried, overhearing the discussion.
Harry glanced at the twin and his face fell at the panic in her eyes. "Not exactly. We've never had to deal with possession before."
"That's not true," Luna said and everyone turned to face her. "You have."
Luna's eyes were fixed on Harry and his mind suddenly recalled a rather painful night he'd been trying not to think about lately. The night he had thought Sirius had died. The night that Voldemort had forced his way into his mind twice.
Every eye was now fixed on Harry. "I don't know. There were extenuating circumstances then, Luna. My mum's protection hurt Voldemort."
"That's not what you told us." Hermione corrected. "You told me that Dumbledore said it was love that pushed him out of you. That someone as sour and hate-filled as Voldemort couldn't stand to be in a body so full of it."
"But I thought that was my mother's love?"
"Dumbledore didn't seem to think so. Remember, he said that he thought that the protection your mother gave you stopped working on Voldemort when he took your blood. That was all you, Harry."
"Ok, fine. But as much as I like Padma, I don't love her. I don't see how that helps us."
"You may not, but she certainly does," Richard noted, indicating the no longer sobbing figure behind them.
"Parvati?" Hermione questioned as the girl glared dangerously at the glowing box nearby.
The girl turned to face them, a steely expression on her face. "Tell me what I need to do." The Gryffindor growled, and Harry saw the resolve in her swollen brown eyes that had once separated the Patil twins into different houses, and would hopefully now bring them back together.