Disclaimer- While the plot is mine, the characters are not… I'm just playing with them.
A/N= Here we go, finally. Should have been up earlier but I wasn't counting on getting sick.
I
I
I
Chapter 12
"The 'River Sanzu'?" Tonks repeated the hellhound's words warily. "So this is the Fifth gate?"
"But why are we here?" Ron wanted to know. "Hermione said the Sanzu trial was for dead people. We're still alive!"
"Anyone living or dead that travels this way must go through the fifth gate," Fluffy told him. "The only exceptions are the guides and the elements."
"Guides naturally being the pureblood Fae," Sirius said bitterly.
Lupin asked, "Elements? Oh, you mean elementals…"
"What?" Hermione squeaked. "Elementals really exist?"
"When we get back to the Wizarding World, I'd suggest you research a Wizard by the name of Paralda," Lupin told her, amused. "If anyone can tell you about elementals, it would be him."
"So what do we do now, Fluffy?" Hermione asked, trying to see the river below. The fog made the river barely visible so the only thing she could see of it was the reflection of the water from what she presumed to be the sun.
"At the edge of the river, you will find either a way across or a way to what is probably certain death," Fluffy told him. "The trial can be fatal to the living and should you die here, your soul can not be retrieved. One of the rumors I heard is that those who die here later inhabit the waters."
"Inhabit the waters?" Ron repeated horrified.
Hermione grimaced, "Ron, there are sections in the Sanzu were venomous snakes lurk."
"One last warning," Fluffy said as he started towards the river, "If you had not noticed already, your wands will not work while we are on the path through the gates. Your magic can not help you here."
"What!" Only the werewolf did not protest in horror or shock at that information.
"Hermione, what is going on?" Ron asked. "What is going to happen to us?"
She said softly, "Ron, we should be fine. None of us should see a snake. Only those evil in heart and soul will see them. At the very worst, we'll find the ford instead of the bridge."
"Ford?" Ron asked, puzzled.
"A ford is a section of a river that's very shallow," Lupin told him and the equally puzzled Sirius. "At the most only a few feet deep. Your feet will get wet, but that's about it."
"Then why are you worried if we'll be fine, Hermione?" Ron asked, noticing how pale she was.
"Because I found about the Sanzu River while researching a religion called Buddhism several years ago," she answered grimly. "Most Asian faiths are can better be described as philosophies bent on improving a person physically and spiritually."
"So what?" He really did not understand.
"It means, Ron, that if you ever thought of hurting anyone or anything, no matter how insignificant, you are going to have problems here," Lupin understand what she meant. "The penalty will be much worse if you actually went through with any of those thoughts. The trial will use every negative action or emotion you ever had against you."
"So we're going to be our own worst enemies," Tonks swallowed.
"We can always go back, you know," Ron whispered. "Harry should be fine, right…?"
"Ron, how can you say that?" Tonks protested. "I thought he was your friend!"
"But, but…" Ron stammered under the glares of his companions. He didn't know how to explain without making things more difficult for everyone.
"So this is why Fluffy didn't tell us," Lupin sighed, starting down towards the river. "He knew we would react this way…"
"Wait up, Moony!" Sirius ran after him shouting. "I'm not going to let a Muggle religion or whatever keep me from seeing Harry!"
"Just Harry?" Tonks said as she chased after her cousin and lover. "You both do realize we're entering the World of the Dead, right?"
"Yeah, so?" Sirius didn't understand what she meant.
Lupin did though, "Ah! She means that we might see James and Lily while there."
"What?" Sirius stopped in his tracks at that. "You mean, I'll finally be able to apologize to Prongs for getting him and Lily killed…?"
Hermione and Ron had just caught up with the trio and heard his words. Ron said angrily, "It's not your fault. If it's anyone fault for Harry's parents dying, it's the Death Eaters."
"But I'm the one who told them to use that traitor as Secret Keeper…," the animagus growled.
"You didn't know," Lupin said softly. "We didn't know…"
Hermione gasped, directing their attention back to their surroundings.
They had arrived at the river's edge.
cwn
Fluffy sat down by the lone dead tree on the bank to wait for the mortals that argued amongst themselves on the other side of the river. This tree was reserved for the twin judges that placed the souls in their place of final rest, but there would be no judging today. The five mortals would either pass the trial and enter the Realms or they would fail and die.
There would be no in between.
The hellhound also knew from experience that the humans would not be seeing the same thing on the bank, as each soul had to take the test separately in order to advance. The close friendship between the two witches and three wizards might also cause problems. He did not to step in if he didn't have to.
As the humans separated to find a way across, he turned his attention up the river to where that strange scent he spotted earlier came from. The moving shadows indicated that the source of them had finally caught up, but was still far enough away for the oblivious mortals to notice. As far as he could tell, it was a single being moving quickly. At the rate it was rushing towards the bank, the soul responsible either had not noticed the river or was a frequent traveler of the route.
Fluffy then chuckled as his question was answered. It was the latter as the being in question leapt across the churning water of what could only be snake infested water only to disappear once more into the fog bank. He supposed that they would be seeing it again in the company of the Unseelie at the Council meeting.
What else could he expect of a werewolf that smelled of the blood of children?
cwn
Hermione sighed as she walked along the banks of the misty river in hopes of finding Ron or any of the adults again. It had been Lupin's idea to split up to search for a way across the river, but after that, everyone had just disappeared into the fog. She had found a rickety old wooden bridge only a few minutes into her search, and cautiously checked to see if it was safe. As it held her weight without so much as creaking, she decided to tell to the others of her find only to learn that she had lost the others. She could no longer even hear them anymore. The possibility of being left behind scared her.
Ron and Harry meant so much to her. They were her first friends, and her best ones. Sure, they had their problems -all friends do occasionally- but when times were desperate, they pulled together. It was that close friendship that let them succeed at anything, no matter how scary or difficult it was. She would never admit it to anyone, but it was also her friends that gave her strength.
She did not want to be alone anymore; she already endured enough of that in the Muggle world. There she had been too smart, too bossy and too rule-abiding to fit in with anyone, less of all her peers. She scared them away.
Hopefully someone had found the bridge while she was gone and was still there, and with that thought she headed back. She could see the large outline of what could only be Fluffy on the opposite bank and a hazy outline of something else. Deciding that they would be meeting up there instead, she hurried across the bridge to rejoin them.
cwn
Tonks was uncertain as to whether to call her findings a tightrope or something else. What she found was a pair of worn hemp ropes tied across the river to a dead tree stump on both banks, one tied at knee height and the other at shoulder height. The water underneath it looked like several feet deep but from the bank she could see that the river current was swift, possibly too swift to navigate through without assistance.
Her traveling companions had all vanished into the fog bank sometime ago, and knew that they could take care of themselves. She could see that someone made it across already and was irritated that they did not come to find her first. Once she got across the river, she would give them a piece of her mind.
Looking once more at the strong current, she sighed before hoisting herself up onto the lower of the two ropes. Praying that the ropes didn't snap or that she slipped (which was more than likely with her history), she held onto the higher rope before taking the first step forward. Neither rope surprisingly was slippery from algae, so she carefully took another step and then several more until she safely made her way across. Once on the other bank, she collapsed in relief and stared at the rope-bridge thing that had vanished once again into the fog.
How the hell did she get across that without falling in?
Perhaps she was better off not knowing…
cwn
"Somewhere between the bridge and the forge, huh?" He mused. "Did the trial judge me on wolf's merits or my own?"
Lupin grimly stared at the path before him. It's not that he had any reservations about his ability to cross. The route ahead did not look too difficult. A series of half submerged stepping stones spanned between the banks of what he considered to be fairly shallow water.
No, the anxiety was due to his train of thoughts. Multiple odors hung in the air for all for experience as an invisible testament to all that had traveled the ways before and he had caught the faintest whiff of an enticing scent of something or someone that had passed through earlier. Unfortunately, the area's close proximity to the Realms' core made it impossible to tell how long ago that happened.
For his sake, he hoped that it was long ago and the owner was dead and gone.
Dora didn't need the additional heartache. He truly did love her and it hurt knowing that the wolf did not consider her his mate. Her scent was similar enough the wolf's chosen to pacify Moony, but it was not enough to halt the guilt. He could only speculate that it was something in the Black family's blood as being in the close proximity of Sirius and his brother also drew similar reactions yet the mere scent of the Black sisters had repeatedly drawn bouts of anger from the wolf.
As near as Lupin could figure it had not been Andromeda, Narcissa and Bellatrix that had angered Moony, but the constant reminder of their husbands. He was fairly relieved that he had never been left alone with any of the three. Moony would probably try to override their claim or something just as stupid and that was something he wished to avoid.
Sirius was reckless enough for the two of them.
There was also Harry to consider. He still didn't know how he missed that the boy was a Fae. It should have been obvious as not even James bore that strong of the blood and Lily (as far as his senses could tell) had been a pureblooded human. That in itself was a bit of a conundrum that had two determined Gryffindor scholars running for the books during their final year at Hogwarts. The results of their search and left them speechless.
It was all a matter of genetics. The bloodline of very witch or wizard in existence could be traced back to some sort of liaison between a human and Fae. But how could they tell the world that there was no such thing as a pureblood Wizard and that creature blood was a must if they desired a strong magical heir? If the Wizarding World continued interbreeding, the desire for blood purity would slowly kill them all off.
The result of the initial search had sparked the pair into another massive research session that left more questions than answers. Without revealing the truth as to what they were doing, the nearest Lupin and Lily could speculate was that the mass majority of what the Wizarding World called "Muggleborn" was in fact the children of two Squibs while the rest had been born the same the first of their kind had been: the offspring between a Fae and a Muggle.
Yet the search did not solve his questions regarding Lily's blood; it created more. Far too many in his opinion. How was he going to tell Harry? James did not know and they never told Sirius either. Fortunately Wormtail also didn't know or that information would have been in Voldemort's hands by now.
Hopping across the river by stepping stones was the least of his problems. He just hoped there was a solution in their futures sometime soon.
With that in mind, he ventured across.
cwn
Ron was not very happy with what he found as he plopped down on the bank in a huff. There was nothing there but a river staring back at him and he couldn't find his companions either. They were missing. Fortunately he also did not see any of the snakes Hermione warned him about but he couldn't find a bridge either and that water looked far too deep to be a ford. Didn't Lupin say that the water on a ford was supposed to be shallow?
"This is not what they told me," he grumbled. "So what do I do now?"
He knew he could try to swim across and maybe if he was lucky the water looked deeper than it really was. He was a fairly strong swimmer and the river had no current from what he could see, but the part of him that was holding him from taking the plunge into what was probably very cold water was asking if it was worth it.
It was the same part that insisted he would always be the third wheel with his two best friends and he would never amount to anything more than being Arthur Weasley's sixth son. It was the part of him that envied Harry's fame, Hermione's intelligence, Malfoy's money and his eldest brothers' charisma and good looks and the reason why he could not take an insult, no matter how slight. He would never be as good as they were. All he had ever been good at is chess and he never seriously considered himself great at that either. Sure, he could beat almost everyone in the Gryffindor dorms but the majority of his fellow lions only played once or twice in their lifetime, if that.
Last year's Yule Ball proved that he also had absolutely no luck with the fairer sex. Fleur had laughed in his face that time he asked and his actions during the Ball managed to infuriate Hermione and the Patil twins. Padma still had not forgiven him for that night.
No matter what he chose to do, he could not go back. He needed Fluffy to navigate him back through the other barriers and an adult to Apparate him off the islands before he could go back to either Hogwarts or the Burrow. He also could not leave Hermione to fend off the Fae on her own. Sirius, Lupin and Tonks were grown ups and could take care of themselves but they could not protect Hermione too. He also needed to make certain that Harry was alright.
The Slytherins and Fae could not be allowed to convert his best mate.
Rising back to the feet, he eyed the river once more. There was no change to the water and still no signs of any snakes. He would have to risk it. He was a Gryffindor after all.
It was time to take the plunge.
cwn
Sirius Black growled as he paced the length of the river looking for anyway across the raging river he saw before him. It did not look deep more than a foot deep but the clear patches in the otherwise white water revealed that the river bottom was very rocky. The trek across would not be easy but if that greasy bastard Snivellus could get across this than he should too. He wasn't a black-hearted Death Eater so what were the chances of him drawing a snake? He didn't at his sorting so he shouldn't now.
The river however had other idea as he saw something swimming in the clear section of water that was certainly not a fish.
"Bloody hell!" He jumped back from the bank, but his curiosity made him return seconds later to search the water once more. Whatever it could have been was long gone and hopefully stayed that way. After a moment's thought, he decided that his eyes were playing tricks on him and that whatever it was had been either a shadow or one of those long fish-things.
What did Lily call them… eels?
With a smirk, he decided that it was definitely an eel he saw and once again turned his eyes back to the river in hopes of spying a safer place to cross. The fog made it difficult to see too much and the rest of his companions had disappeared into the fog not that long ago. He doubted that they were having any more luck finding a way to cross than he was and turned once more his attention back to his own dilemma.
They would find him when they were ready. If not, he would go look for them later.
Fluffy apparently already made it across and with his long legs; the sight did not surprise him. The giant probably made it the other bank in two or three steps.
The giant also said that magic would not work here but was he really telling them the truth? He was, after all, a Faerie and those creatures were known for their lying, cheating ways. It was probably their common blood that helped Snape get across anyway.
That was fine with him. He didn't need a handicap from those creatures anyway.
There was only one way to find out. He drew his wand from his robes and silently said the spell that under normal circumstances would summon a boat to appear. The spell failed when nothing appeared. Deciding that a boat wouldn't be of much help anyway, he quickly cast other various spells to help aid him across the river to have the same results.
So Fluffy had been right; magic really did not work here. He would have to try again once they got to the other side to see just how far this anti-magic field extended, and should he find out whether or not he'd get splinched if he made the attempt, try to Apparate as well. If he was successful, then perhaps he could take Harry to someplace safe.
Anyplace had to be safer than where they were now even with the black bastard, Voldemort, running around loose in their world. He just had to find one where they would be safe from both the Death Eaters and the Ministry.
Actually the thought of hiding together with Harry sounded like a good one. They were both fugitives of the law and innocent of all wrong doings besides. Maybe he could convince Moony to join them…
It would be just like old times.
So how to get to the other side? He could not see any place less treacherous to cross than where he was now and that snake-like fish-thing was visible again. Maybe he could scoop it out of the water and hopefully kill it, but another the appearance of another one nixed that idea. There were probably more there hidden in from view then, so he decided that was probably a bad idea.
Besides, didn't Moony and Hermione say doing anything harmful here would make things worse?
He then considered his options and wondered if Padfoot would have better luck finding a route. Seconds later, he had to discard that idea as well. He could not access his animagus form and growled in frustration before collapsing on the river bank.
Losing his animagus form should not be possible. Was the anti-magic field really that strong? It had to be…
He then groaned. He would have to do this the Muggle way then.
That would mean that he would need to take some risks. He decided that there only way to make it across.
He ran.
cwn
When they regrouped on the other bank by the tree, Fluffy gave them each an amused look before leading them out of the fog. After what seemed to be only seconds, they witnessed what appeared to be vast field of rolling hills and in the center of it a valley where a light shined. They could also see the glimmer of water that was confirmed by their ears.
Fluffy grinned and then said, "This is the edge of the Forsaken Realms… so, welcome to Sifra."
cwn
He observed from the shadows as the group of six passed by him without noticing before smirking. He thought that that they looked familiar but needed to be certain. Things would get interesting and he considered that a good thing.
Fenrir Greyback left his hiding spot before venturing down into the city below.
I
I
I
Notes
Paralda is a Italian that befriended the wind elementals and later became their king.
The ferryman in Greek mythology is a man called Charon, whom is now associated with as the Grim Reaper given their similar appearance... The word "Grim" actually means 'hooded' or 'masked'. While Charon is associated as the ferryman of the river Styx, in actuality he pilots the Acheron instead.
In Japanese Buddhist faith, the Sanzu River is known as the River of Three Crossings. As the body was buried with six coins in order to pay the ferry man after a seven day trip, the newly dead soul would need to cross the river on the last day to reach the afterlife. The river is said to have three crossing points (a bridge, a ford, and a spot containing serpent infested water) but where the soul crossed depends on their actions while alive. The pure and good used the bridge, the ones that were neither good nor evil used as the ford, while the evil swam through the snakes. On the bank, two demons were said to watch and later to judge just how grievous these offenses were by the weight of a person's (presumably waterlogged) clothing.
The Rivers of Hades= In Greek Mythology, the underworld of Hades is said to be bordered by either five rivers or by one river (the Styx) that circled the realm nine times. The dead soul must pay the toll to Charon to pass (the body was buried with either a coin in the mouth or one coin in both eye sockets to pay) or would wander lost forever. The rivers each bears the name of a deity and some, like the Acheron, are also existing rivers in real world. The Styx is known as the 'river of hate' in Greek Mythology and along with the Phlegethon, Acheron, and Cocytus rivers are said to converge at the center to form a great marsh. The Divine Comedy (by Dante) states that the Styx is part of the Fifth level of hell. The Acheron is known as the 'River of Pain' in mythology, and is the primary river of Tartarus. Both the Styx and the Cocytus rivers originate from the Acheron and the Phlegethon conjoins with it. Many myths also describe the Acheron as a lake or swamp. The Cocytus is known as the 'river of wailing' in Greek Mythology and Dante claims it as a frozen lake that holds Lucifer imprisoned. The Phlegethon is known as the 'river of fire' in Greek Mythology that runs parallel with the Styx. Dante calls it a river of blood designed to boil souls of murderers in the seventh level of hell and was guarded by centaurs. The Lethe (meaning 'truth') is known as the 'river of forgetfulness' in Greek Mythology and waters were drank in order to wipe away the memories of those being reincarnated. The Lethe is also believed of be the border of Elysium, where the virtuous dead reside, but many myths also call it a lake or even a plain. The properties from the waters of the Lethe were said to be countered by some drank from some of the pond of Mnemosyne (meaning memory). Souls were encouraged to drink from the Mnemosyne instead.
