Heart of the Eclipse, Book one: Ascent
Chapter 2
Terra Arcana, Unnamed residential realm
Six years passed, and James and Lily Potter were quite happy with their two children: Harry, who had unruly black hair like his father (although it did seem to have a red gleam in the direct sun), and Flora, with her blood red, mostly straight hair, which fell to the middle of her back by now. Both of them had inherited Lily's emerald eyes.
While their magic still felt distinctly different, their accidental magic was strangely normal, if there was such a thing as "normal" when it came to magic. They levitated toys, summoned cookies and vanished their vegetables. Yes, it happened more often than usual, and yes, the banished spinach had taken several strong cleaning charms to remove from the wall, but all in all, they didn't do anything too unusual.
These two did everything together, but they cared surprisingly little for contact with other children. They weren't exactly shy or withdrawn, but they didn't actively try to play with other children, either. Not that there were many of those around: The vampire couple down the street had a little girl, some of the fairies in the small patch of forest were quite young, and there was a young male water spirit connected to the lake.
The community in which the Potters lived was rather small, but quite mixed. James' three best friends from school lived in the house next to theirs, there was an older human couple, two werewolves just out of school, the vampire family, the water spirit, the aforementioned fairies and a couple of forest nymphs. All of them were friendly, and this realm, while small, was a beautiful place to raise children.
Lily worked for the guild of unspeakables, a very secretive guild mostly dedicated to the development of useful spells, potions and magical artifacts for the general populace. They had once tried to research and codify the laws of magic, but that had quickly proven to be useless. The main benefit of working for this guild was that she could do so from home. Lily was paid for every sold book which contained a spell or potion she had developed.
James, on the other hand, was a hunter. He regularly went out into the wildlands, hunted some creatures – most of which were rather harmless, since he was careful not to become too arrogant – and sold whatever meat or potions ingredients could be sold.
Sirius and Remus, two of James friends, were aurors. They had been two of the best argentors of their year, and had been promoted to full aurors quickly because of that, but they lacked the ambition to try to become master aurors. They preferred leaving the more "annoying" parts of the job (in their own words) to others. Those parts were mostly the surveillance meditation and the daily reports.
Peter, the last member of their group of friends (who called themselves the marauders), often accompanied James into the wildlands. Where James was a hunter, though, Peter was a gatherer. He gathered potion ingredients and food from plants as well as rare plants for the herbology guild.
They were on just such a trip right now, talking while they searched for something worth selling.
"You know, Peter, I've felt uneasy since the twins were born, and even more so these last few moons. Somehow, I think it's a warning."
"I know. We – Sirius, Remus and I – have felt it, too. The other two even more so, they said they felt as if they would not get the opportunity to godfather the twins."
James sighed.
"If the source of the feeling is the same, I won't even get the full seven cycles as a parent. I actually don't think I have much longer than until the next eclipse."
"The solar eclipse? Why?"
"It's their thirteenth eclipse, including their birth. Somehow, I think there will be some powerful magic happening on that day."
Peter nodded, and both of them were silent for a while. Finally, James spoke up again, although it was barely more than a whisper.
"I just wish I could help them beyond that, you know. Even if I don't get to see them grow up, I wish I could do something to help them."
This time, Peter looked hesitant, but James noticed.
"What are you thinking about?"
"Well... there's four of us..."
James shook his head, horrified.
"You... You can't mean that!"
They stopped, and Peter looked at his friend.
"James, everybody who tried before always tried for one of them. Of course they failed, they were trying to disrupt the balance! We would be trying to imbue one of the twins with the power of all four, in equal amounts. I believe it could work... and at least, we wouldn't simply die in vain. And even if it doesn't work, we will be the sacrifice, not your child."
James thought about it, visibly uncomfortable with the idea. Then, he reluctantly nodded, just once.
"It's probably the best thing we can try."
Terra Origina, Crawley, England, September 19, 1985
It was Hermione's sixth birthday. Sadly, the Granger family didn't get to celebrate. After Hermione returned from school, they were driving towards Hermione's favourite restaurant when another car crashed into theirs. The driver had been distracted by the unexpected solar eclipse, which was even more unexpected since the last new moon had been the week before.
Minutes later, when the police arrived, they found the distracted driver and the Granger parents dead. In the Grangers' car, a seatbelt was fastened on the back seat where a child's seat was, but a body was nowhere to be found.
Further research did not reveal the reason for that seat to be in the car. All records of Hermione's existence, including all memories her classmates and teachers had of her, had been erased.
Terra Arcana, Unnamed residential realm, Solar eclipse
When Lily came to consciousness, she was confused. Several aurors were around her, as well as several of her neighbours. All of them were looking in the same direction, and all of them seemed to be quite pale. She stood up, her legs still shaking, and looked towards the source of their horror.
In the clearing which formed their end of the street, there was some kind of altar which hadn't been there before. Her son was strapped to that altar, and four men stood around him, chanting and glowing in different colours, one hand each raised towards the sky. Her daughter lay off to the side.
She knew those men. She knew them well.
She tried to run to them, to interrupt them, but she was held back by one of the aurors.
"I'm sorry, Mrs Potter, but that's elemental magic they're accumulating. They were already glowing when we arrived. If anything, even a nullification field, interrupts them now, this whole realm is going to blow up. There's nothing we can do."
Lily had tears running down her face now.
"But why? Trying to harness that much elemental magic... it's suicide! One of the more common forms even. Why... why would they do that?"
"We don't know. We know that they are synchronizing their magic, keeping the amount of each elemental magic exactly even while gathering more and more of it. They have actually surpassed the level needed to induce the ascent to a titan, but nobody would be stupid enough to try to become one for an element."
"I know. Elemental magic is too pure, in such concentrations... They'll die. They're dead already. But what are they doing with Harry?"
Just as she asked that question, all four of the marauders lowered their raised hands, pointing them directly at the altar beneath Harry. They began pushing all the gathered magic into the altar. It took several minutes, and as they finished, they collapsed from the effort. They died within a minute, their bodies burned out from channelling the elements themselves.
Above Harry, though, the moon eclipsed the sun. The magic of the eclipse awakened his own, and him with it. Nobody noticed his sister, to the side, waking up, too, and watching fearfully. Nobody noticed a young girl with bushy brown hair suddenly appear to the other side, confused by her sudden relocation.
The magic of the eclipse touched upon the highly concentrated elemental magic and began absorbing it.
"No! They didn't. Please, somebody, tell me the didn't -"
"They did."
It was all the auror, who was still holding Lily back, could say.
"If they weren't already dead, I'd kill those four myself! Oh Harry, please survive this..."
As everybody watched, Harry's body slowly absorbed all the elemental magic, but it seemed to mix together and become mutated by the eclipse. Instead of glowing in the typical elemental colours – green and brown for earth, red, orange and yellow for fire, blue and green for water and light blue and white for wind – he started emitting waves of golden and silver light.
The two girls, meanwhile, had approached the boy everybody's attention was focussed on. It was too late when they were noticed. Flora, concerned for her brother, and Hermione, who felt some sort of connection to those two, rushed towards him and touched him at the same time. The light spread from Harry to both of them – mostly golden for Hermione and mostly silver for Flora.
All three of the children lost consciousness once more as the glow of potent magic surrounding their bodies faded.