The Years of Adventure: Atlantis

Chapter Six – The Sunken City


Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter, not only would the Epilogue be a terrible nightmare but Harry would have ended up with someone, anyone, other than Ginny. She's a sister people, a sister. Anyway, since the Epiloguedoes exist and Ginny marries Harry, I obviously don't own Harry Potter.

Author's note: Okay, sorry for making you wait. Enjoy!


As Sorianin and Harry walked through the halls, many people stopped to stare at Harry; word had gotten around the city that there was a Visitor there and Harry's 'pirate' outfit kinda gave him away. Everyone else was wearing various combinations of loose pants, shirts, dresses and robe-like garments similar to what Sorianin was wearing. Yes, Harry stood out.

"Sorianin," Harry said, "What's everyone wearing? It looks like there's a dress code or something."

"Oh. That is complicated. We have many clothings for different people." Sorianin said. "It depends on who and what you are."

"Right. Well, it certainly looks complicated. Maybe you can explain it when we are alone and I can put the translation spell on you again. That way I won't get confused."

"Good idea. I not know if I do a good translation for all clothing information now." Sorianin said, "Here is the first eating hall. Important people eat here. You are a Visitor so you are important, I guess I am your Speaker now so I get to eat too." Sorianin looked excited, "I never eat here before."

Throughout the meal, many people walked past their table, some stopped to introduce themselves (via Sorianin) but most just wanted to get a look at the first Visitor in over a thousand years. Harry had a rather tough time remembering everyone, because almost every person who came by not only had a first and last name, but also a title. There were Scholars, Greensmen, Professors, Keepers and Apprentices – Harry could guess what their jobs were – but there were also Issuers, Listeners, Formals, Planners, Helpers, and more which he had no idea what were. These were often preceded with 'Head' or 'Master'. Harry also noticed that all the women were wearing dresses, he had a mental laugh imagining the faces of some of the women he knew if they were told they all had to wear dresses; between Hermione and Ginny the world would probably implode. Most of the men were wearing shirts but a few of the younger men weren't. There were some transparent robes and some solid coloured robes, and each robe had differing amounts of embroidery on them. Harry could tell there was a pattern, but could not, for the life of him, figure out what it was. He would just have to wait and ask Sorianin when they were speaking English again.

Harry wasn't surprised to find that a lot of the food was vegetarian, but he was surprised that it was almost exclusively vegetables that he knew and recognised. There was a distinct and complete lack of seaweed of any kind, there was fish and seafood but nowhere near as much as he would have expected. All he could figure was that they must have hundreds of greenhouses somewhere, another thing he'd have to ask his guide about. For the time being though, Sorianin was busy introducing Harry to the many people who came by, Harry didn't envy the poor boy at all. Sorianin knew enough about Harry to not have to completely rely on translating exactly what Harry said. In fact, the longest conversation went like this;

Atlantian: "Greetings, honourable Visitor."

Sorianin: "He says 'hello' in a very nice way."

Harry: "Hello to you too. My name is Harry. Just say it in a nice way and make it sound formal or something."

Sorianin: "He says; my greetings to you as well. My name is Harry Potter, I am the one who should be honoured to have the opportunity to see the great city."

Atlantian: "Welcome Harry Potter. My name is Manortio, Keeper of Knowledge. If there is anything you need, or any questions you have, please do not hesitate to come to me. I would like nothing more than to tell you about Atlantis. Also, translator boy, can you find out what in the ocean he's wearing? But please don't be rude, I don't want him to think poorly of me."

Sorianin: "His name is Keeper Manortio, ask him Atlantis questions if you want. He also says your clothing is weird. Other people want to say hello so you should finish fast, I will talk as nicely as possible. Also I will try to talk for as long as you and he do."

Harry: "See, you're getting good at this whole making it up as you go along thing. It's nice to meet him, I'll ask him Atlantis questions when I have time. Just tell him something believable about my clothing."

Sorianin: "He says; I am greatly pleased to have been able to meet you and will of course come to you when I am learning about Atlantis. I have yet to have the opportunity to visit the Clothing Masters but will be doing so soon."

Atlantian: Bows. "Thank you, if I may ask, how is it that you arrived here? Also, what is it that you do that has allowed you to be invited here by the power of Atlantis?"

Sorianin: "He want to know how you got to Atlantis and what you surface job was. Um, he talked in a very nice way so I'm saying this to make it sound like I say in nice way too."

Harry: "Remind me to make you a cup of tea later, you're doing really well. I traveled on a 'boat' across the water and walked across the land because I'm an explorer. I like to teach and learn. The power of Atlantis just brought me here, I don't know why. I will tell you all about the boat and getting here later. There, I think I said enough to give you time to explain."

Sorianin: "He says; It was purely the great power of Atlantis that allowed me to visit, the power of Atlantis is too great to understand. On the surface I travel from place to place, learning as I go. Sometimes I walk across the land and sometimes I travel in a boat, this allows me to cross the waters on the surface. I was, and still am, a Traveler, a Professor and a Student."

Atlantian: "How is it that you can be all three of those? A Professor, a Student and a Traveler?"

Sorianin: "How you teach, learn and travel at same time?"

Harry: "I travel from one place to another, what I learn in one place, I teach in another. Do you think you can use that to answer on your own or should I explain some more? Blink twice if you need me to explain." Sorianin didn't blink. "Well that makes my life a whole lot easier. Blink twice if it's going to take a long time to explain." Sorianin blinked twice. "Oh. Sorry about that, I think I will introduce you to something called 'scones', they will go great with the tea I'm going to make you because you have to deal with all this. I have to say, your understanding of this language is really good. Okay, that should give you enough time."

Sorianin: "He says; Just as you are a Keeper of Knowledge, you may think of me as a Sharer of Knowledge. I am first and foremost a Traveler, but in every place I visit, I become a Student. I learn what they have to teach and then I become a Traveler again. When I get to a place that doesn't have the knowledge that I do, I become a Professor for them. I give knowledge and I take knowledge at the same time. In this city, all the knowledge is in one place, but because the surface is so vast, the knowledge there is spread out. I am trying to find as much knowledge as possible, to do that I have to be a Traveler, a Professor and a Student."

Atlantian: "It is too bad that the surface does not have all it's knowledge in the same place, they must need many Keepers if it really is as big as you say. Our knowledge is extensive but all can be found in one place, if you would like to see our knowledge I think we would be able to show you."

Sorianin: "It's sad all the knowledge is spread out. We have a lot of knowledge and if you want you can see. There are a lot of other people waiting to meet you though, I think we should probably finish this up."

Harry: "Tell him that I'd love to learn here and that I will probably ask him later. If you can say it in a way that will make him go away, please do."

Sorianin: "I am deeply grateful for your offer, when I am learning about your city I will make sure that I visit your in the Halls of Knowledge."

Atlantian: Bows. "I could ask for no more." Walks away.

Sorianin: "He says thanks."

Harry: "This is going to take forever, isn't it?"

Sorianin: "Sorry."


When they were finished eating and there was a lull in the constant flow of people, Sorianin asked Harry if he wanted a tour of the city but Harry was rather fed up with all the repetitive questions – and he guessed that Sorianin was too – so he opted to go back to his room so they could talk properly.

Once back in the room, Harry put the English translation spell on Sorianin, and took the Latin on off himself.

"So, from what I got; the clothing means something, those were a lot of important people, I'm going to be flooded with questions the entire time I'm here and everyone wants to help me. Am I correct?"

"Yup. That's pretty much it. I think that you should probably tell me a bit more about yourself so that I will be able to answer more of the questions myself, at least until we work on my Latin. There were a bunch a different questions they asked, basically when they asked, I told them your name, that you'll be wearing proper clothing later, you traveled in a contraption called a 'boat' that takes you across the water of the surface while also walking over the land because you're a traveler and an explorer. You like to learn and teach while you travel, making you a Student, Professor and Traveler."

Harry smiled. "Well, that seems about right. I also agree that we should talk to make sure you can answer as many questions as you can. But first, I want to know what's up with the clothing."

So, Sorianin explained the clothing, and Harry really wished he hadn't asked, it gave him a headache. Apparently clothing played a large role in Atlantian social life. For the men; pants and no shirt in greens and blues meant unmarried and not looking for a wife; pants and no shirt in reds, oranges etc, meant unmarried and looking for a wife; pants and shirt in any colour meant married or engaged. For the women; pants and tunic in blues and greens indicated a child; relatively short dress in blues and greens meant unmarried and not looking for a husband; long dress in blues and greens, looking for husband; long dress in any colour with a belt mean married or engaged. There was also the possibility of being a Devoted, that was someone who decided not to get married and to devote their life to their task; Keepers were usually also a Devoted. A Devoted wore the clothing a married person would. Then came the robes, the were open faced, non-hooded robes with a thick border-like strip of fabric running down both sides of the front. Children didn't wear a robe; a translucent robe indicated an apprentice, student or someone who had only just started a job etc, everyone else wore a solid robe that was colour coordinated with their clothing. Finally, anything in cream and white was reserved for those who had the Lady's favour, but they weren't required to wear it. Harry wanted to rip his hair out. But that wasn't an option because hair meant something too, for children it didn't matter, but the length of a man's hair indicated rank or seniority (but it was never longer than their shoulders), and there were different types of braids and clips for the women, Harry didn't even try to understand that. Finally, just to top off this crazy classification system, were the rings. The rings were personalised, they were like an ID, on the inside they told your name, birthday, etc. but the crest of the ring told about your life. There was your symbol which related to your personality, a border which related to your ancestry and an ever-growing design that told of your personal history. For people who had a very specialized and important job, there was another ring, on a different finger, with a symbol and letter designating their profession. For example, a member of the council had a 'C'; a scholar, someone who dedicated their life to learning had an 'S'; a Keeper of Knowledge, someone entrusted with well, knowledge, a glorified librarian, had a 'K'; there were too many to remember. All Harry knew was that if the person had a letter, they had an important job. Beyond that, he was lost. However, there was more to the robes, because the style and colour range of people's clothing was restricted, they were encouraged to embroider them. People often used their robes to tell stories, reflect their interests or show their personality.

The only good thing Harry could see with this system was that it took a lot of uncertainty out of interpersonal relationships, other than that, it was just confusing. However, it didn't really connect in his mind that this would restrict what he wore, he was too busy trying to find a headache potion.

Once he had calmed his head (and explained potions to Sorianin) they started a question and answer session where they tried to cover any topic that people would ask about. By the end they had determined that he wanted to be called Harry, just Harry, he was from England which is a country on the surface, that a country was a collection of land and cities that were all connected by the same laws and rulers, his first language was English but he also spoke Latin and was learning Atlantian, he was a student, teacher and traveler, the full definition of a boat, that the lands on the surface were sometimes divided by water, he liked to share knowledge, he wanted to stay for at least a year, he knew how to swim, and many other random things people might ask about.

Harry was very tight lipped about his personal past and focused instead on his education, teaching, travels and life on the surface. He made sure not to mention the violence, bigotry, hatred, racism, intolerance, war, pain, suffering, famine etc. that existed, or had existed, on the surface. He was pretty sure Sorianin knew he was leaving things out but the kid seemed smart enough to guess what and that the council members would get the hint and not ask. Also, from what Harry could guess, he was ranked just below the council members, meaning he could basically say and not say, whatever he wanted.

Sorianin left at 9:00 to go to bed and told Harry that he would come back at 8:30 the next morning with proper clothing so they could have breakfast, and then meet with the Lady Aella again.

Harry sat on the edge of his bed and thought. Just this morning he had been sailing around in circles in the middle of the Atlantic, the he had found himself in Atlantis, talking with the Lady of the city, then he had a chat with a great kid, met a ton of important underwater people, then talked some more with the kid. It was surreal and he didn't quite know what to make of it. He opened up his tent and walked inside, if he was going to stay a while, he might as well get unpacked. He pulled out his pajamas – he would be getting 'proper' clothing tomorrow so he didn't need any of that – a few books, journals, sketchbooks (personal and official) his drawing and writing supplies and his toothbrush. As a rather guilty afterthought, he grabbed Bill's letter and conversation from beside his bed. Harry put the books and journals etc. in his new study, Bill's letter in the nightstand and his toothbrush in the bathroom. One look at the enormous bathtub, and Harry knew exactly what he was doing next. An hour and many heating charms later, Harry wrapped himself in the thin provided robe and walked to his room, he glanced out the clear portion of the window and saw the gorgeous city so he grabbed his sketchbook and pencils and spent the next two hours sitting on the window seat, working tirelessly on a drawing of Atlantis at night. It was absolutely breathtaking, and Harry knew it would take a lot more than one simple pencil drawing to capture even a fraction of the city's beauty, but that didn't mean he couldn't try. Harry was glad that he could stay here as long as he wanted, just looking out over the city he could tell that it would take many months to explore every nook and cranny of the ancient metropolis, and that was just exploring. After he finished his drawing he wrote in his journals and then he just sat in the window, looking out at the city. By the time he fell asleep (at four am), Harry was excited and just wanted it to be morning already. Unfortunately, Harry wasn't used to staying up that late as well as having a schedule to follow, so he completely forgot to set an alarm.


Sorianin rang the bell to Harry's room at exactly 8:30 in the morning, he was carefully carrying a folded pile of clothes and looked extremely nervous again. When Harry didn't answer the door, he tried again. No luck. By the third try, Sorianin was getting really worried, finally, on try number four, a sleep rumpled Harry opened the door.

"Mph. Whadda ya wan?" Harry mumbled.

Sorianin looked at Harry in shock, not only was it obvious that he had just woken up, but he hadn't put the translation spell on yet so Sorianin didn't understand a word. However, he got the impression that even if he was using the spell, he wouldn't have understood anyway, he probably wouldn't have understood if they both spoke fluent Atlantian or English.

"Um, Harry Potter. You're meeting with my Lady Aella in 45 minutes."

"Gah, what the hell? You sound like Binns on a bad day. Merlin knows he likes to speak fucking Latin...OH Shit! Latin! Goddammit. Okay, hold on, ah crap, what was the spell? Oh, right..." Harry cast the English spell on Sorianin and then pulled him into the room. The poor kid looked more than a little terrified. Harry saw that he was holding a pile of fabric, "Hey, you brought me clothes, nice. Oh, I remember, 'proper clothing'. Okay, I'll just go get dressed now."

"That would be a good idea. We used to have an hour for you to get dressed and eat but it took you 15 minutes to answer the door, we just wasted five, it takes five minutes to get to the Eating Hall and ten to get from there to the Council Room. That means you have 25 minutes to get dressed and eat." Sorianin said, pushing the clothing at Harry, silently telling him to hurry up!

"Oh, shit. I supposed I should have gone to be a bit earlier... I just got a bit caught up in my drawing. You can go ahead and look through the sketchbook, it's on the desk, I'll just put these on and do my teeth and stuff."

Sorianin was looking through what he thought were the most amazing drawings of the city he'd ever seen, when he heard a shout from the bathroom.

"Sorianin, you forgot to give me a shirt!" Harry called as he walked to his main room.

Uh oh. Sorianin thought as he left the study. "Um, remember how clothing means a lot?" He asked a frowning Harry Potter.

"Yeah..." Harry said, not liking where this was going.

"That's the clothing for an unmarried, young man in high status who isn't looking for a wife and who isn't planning on becoming a Devoted."

"You mean I'm going to be dressed like this for the entire time I'm here?" Harry asked in shock.

"Well, yeah. I thought you understood that yesterday when I explained the clothing. Why, is there a problem with the clothes? Are you married or looking for a wife?" Sorianin asked, he was pretty sure they had covered this yesterday.

"Yes. I mean no. Dammit! I mean, I'm not married or looking for a wife. But can't I have a shirt?" Harry asked, sounding rather like a petulant child. It wasn't that he minded not wearing a shirt, he just didn't really like the way the girls looked at him when he wasn't wearing a shirt. Years of running away from Dark Lords and playing Quidditch, combined with a naturally hairless chest was apparently very attractive, he only made that mistake twice. Now, he was looking at over a year of being shirtless. Lovely. At least something - he couldn't remember exactly what - about his clothing meant he wasn't looking for a wife, that would be a nightmare.

"No, you can't have a shirt. I know you probably think it's strange but no shirt is a sign of your youth, you're not considered a full man until you're engaged. So, you get to wear blues and greens, no shirt, and, because you're a teacher, you get a solid robe." Sorianin explained. "Now, we're running out of time, and you put your pants on backwards, the string ties in the back with the flat fabric band at the front. Also, your robe is inside out, the wide strips of fabric that make the border at the front opening, face out, not in."

"Arg." Harry growled. "I'm seriously considering going starkers now, this stuff will kill me!" But, despite his protests, Harry retreated to the bathroom to fix his clothing."

By the time Harry was finally presentable, they had ten minutes until they were going to meet with the Lady and it was a 15 minute walk...Harry cast a notice me not spell and they ran. Just as they were about to walk in, he remembered to switch translation spells.


If you asked Harry, he would say the meeting went well, he knew he didn't get the full story but also knew he would just get Sorianin to tell him later. He and Sorianin had talked about confusing the Speaker and the two of them decided on a system where Sorianin would translate quietly enough to Harry that the Speaker wouldn't be able to hear his little mistakes. If Sorianin knew the full answer, he would end his translation of the Lady's comment with 'duh'. They both thought this was hilarious, if this was the case, then Harry would answer in full 'colloquial speak'. Because of their question/answer session the day before, Sorianin knew all the answers. So Harry had a great time thinking up ridiculous ways to say things.

If you asked Lady Aella, she would say the meeting was wonderful. She was impressed by the young Greeter, fascinated with Harry's story, and delighted that he planned on staying in Atlantis for an extended period of time.

If you asked Sorianin, he would say the meeting was a combination of terrifying and hilarious. He remembered everything that Harry had told him, but he had to make sure he fully answered the Lady's questions, he had to remember to speak to Harry quietly enough that the Speaker couldn't hear him, but he also got to listen to Harry speak what sounded like almost complete nonsense. It was almost fun to try and figure out what he was saying.

If you asked the official Latin Speaker, he would say the meeting was extremely frustrating. He only understood half of what the Visitor said but when he listened to that kid Greeter's translations, it made perfect sense. He couldn't understand it and that bothered him. He also began to wonder if his Latin teacher actually knew proper Latin.

If you asked the Council members, they would say it was quite amusing, not that they would admit it. Like Lady Aella, they were fascinated by the Visitor's stories but because the Lady was asking the questions and they had to wait for the Greeter to translate, they really only had to listen a quarter of the time. What they (well, most of them) were watching were the expressions on the Visitor, Greeter and Speaker's faces. The speaker looked confused, annoyed, interested and angry all at the same time. At first glance, the Greeter looked nervous but there was also an underling smugness and even amusement in his face. The Visitor had a rather neutral expression, too neutral, if they really looked, they could see a tiny glint of mischief in his eyes. It took them a while, but they realised that the Visitor and the Greeter were conspiring against the Speaker. It was obvious from before, that the Visitor had taken an immediate dislike to the Speaker and had managed to confuse him when he took over from the Greeter. Now it appeared as if the Visitor had brought the Greeter in on whatever he had been doing. They guessed (correctly) that the Visitor and Greeter had spent a great amount of time discussing what they thought they would talk about today. While amusing, the Council members also thought it was a bit childish, then they really looked at the Visitor and realised that he was actually quite young. It seemed that Lady Aella had also noticed his age and just bluntly asked him. When they found out he was 17, a few of the Council members stifled laughs. A 17 year old mischievous Visitor, who befriended a 12 year old Greeter. This was bound to be interesting.

By the time they were finished talking to Lady Aella, Harry was starving. He had been so late, and made such a fuss over his clothes that they had been forced to skip breakfast, now it was lunch time. However, as soon as they left the room, the first order of business was to laugh their heads off at the expression on the Speaker's face, then they all but ran to lunch. After lunch, Harry and Sorianin went back to Harry's room where they both worked on Latin for an hour, then Harry worked on Atlantian for an hour before they finally left to start Harry's tour of the city. Sorianin explained to Harry that they wouldn't be able to do the whole city that day but that they might get it done in a week, if they were extremely lucky.

They weren't lucky. Aella wanted to talk for at least two hours each morning, which mean that Sorianin and Harry had to spend at least an hour, usually three, trying to figure out what she would ask. At first, it was a game but then it just got frustrating. Basically, between meeting with the Lady and Council, learning the languages, touring the city and what they called the Aella Guessing Game, the two boys spent every single day together. The hardest part was the guessing game, they had to prepare for any question. Almost half their day was spent in Harry's study with Sorianin using the English spell. Sorianin ended up knowing more about the surface world than everyone else combined, he had learned three or four times what the Lady actually ended up asking. After a few days, the Council and Lady Aella asked Harry if he would be willing to learn Atlantian so he could teach some of what he knew to the people here. When he told her, in very stilted Atlantian, that Sorianin had already started teaching him, she was delighted.


Life went on like this for nearly a month, Sorianin would meet Harry for breakfast (usually having to wake him up because Harry was not a morning person), they would eat, visit the Lady, have lunch, teach for a few hours, explore the city, have dinner and about half the time, Sorianin would hang out in Harry's room in the evening. They would talk, teach, have a cup of tea, or sometimes Harry would read and let Sorianin look through various books; Atlantian (from the study), English and Latin. He would also let him look at his sketchbooks and journals. Sorianin's favorites were the sketchbooks, he would carefully look through them for hours. He even managed to convince Harry to teach him how to draw. Some days and evenings though, Harry would say that he wanted to do some quite study of his own, he would claim that he really didn't need Sorianin for these days. It only took Sorianin a few days to figure out that Harry was giving him time to spend with his friends. Harry had obviously noticed the small group of young kids that would sometimes watch Sorianin instead of Harry.

So, Harry learned about the city, learned Atlantian and gradually became used to living in the sunken city. He even started going almost a week before having to get something out of his tent.


Author's note: Thank you so much for all your reviews, they're great! I'm almost finished with the next chapter so you should see it in a day or so. Thanks for reading!