This is a reaction to all those "Harry gets summoned into another world, ends up helping his ABDUCTORS" stories...I have read a few where he comes in reluctant but eventually "sees the light"...yeah...no. Not this time.
The sound of steady chanting floated through the air in the gloomy and cavernous hall the group was gathered in.
The six figures arranged each at a point in a six pointed star represented the most powerful of their group.
Standing at the point oriented to the south with her figure stiff backed and proper, Minerva McGonagall's eyes were resolute and shining with a fierceness that most Hogwarts students would be familiar with.
To her right, James Potter's face was fixed in a focused mask as sweat beaded his brow while he fought to keep a tight grip on one part of the reality defying magics being summoned that night.
Beside him his best friend and brother in all but blood, Sirius Black, faced a similar struggle as he too handled the other part of the powerful magics they were dealing with; his Black blood affording him the foundation to stand firm in the storm of chaos magic swirling around him.
Next in line, adorned in midnight blue robes patterned with eye-searing neon yellow stars, the great wizard Albus Dumbledore maintained a strong grip on the fabled Elder Wand while he continued to chant in counterpoint to the other five people involved in the ritual. His powerful aura, usually kept under wraps, was flaring brightly for all to see, leaving no doubts in the minds of those present that he was truly the greatest wizard of his age.
To his right was a woman who at first glance seemed to have fire for hair and emeralds for eyes. Lily Potter allowed a small part of her mind to focus on the archaic words falling steadily from her lips while the rest of her consciousness worked to steady the river of magic gushing through her wand into the nexus in the center of their formation.
The sixth and final member of the ritual grunted out the words to the chant in a gravelly tone while his magical eyeball swivelled back and forth, still subconsciously keeping constant vigilance.
Albus' eyes narrowed as he sensed the nexus begin to pulse as the ritual neared its end.
Around him, he felt the rise in anticipation from the other five aiding him, as well as from the rest of the Order of the Phoenix arrayed outside the temporary wards he had erected to keep out any interference.
Still, a few sentences away from the conclusion of their summoning, he spared a moment to send up a prayer for forgiveness.
You see, what Lily Potter – the person who had designed the foundation of the ritual – didn't know was that Albus had made a few changes to the runes inscribed on the floor.
He was lucky that Lily trusted him enough to leave the preparation of the ritual solely in his hands.
Whereas the original wording had been along the lines of,
"…summon a warrior who had already ended his own war and who was willing to help them end theirs."
Albus had changed it slightly, removing the section about willingness because he had feared, and rightly so, that someone who had already won the war in their own world would not be willing to fight in another.
Thus, he had made one of those difficult decisions only leaders ever had to make, and he had elected to omit the element of free will from the ritual. He would merely have to work on convincing the newcomer if said person was unwilling.
To that effect, he had omitted the final rune allowing for willingness, and changed the preceding one slightly to cover up its absence. So, the ritual was now geared to
"…summon a warrior who had already ended his own strife"
However, in his haste to see peace brought to the Wizarding World, Albus forgot one vital truth about magic.
Magic was the very force of belief…of intent…of will.
In attempting to reach beyond the walls of his own reality, Albus had drawn the attention of the force that kept the universe running – magic. Furthermore, not only had he drawn Magic's attention, but he had also irritated it by daring to circumvent the free will of another sentient magical being in such a manner.
As a Light Wizard who believed wholly in the beautiful life giving magic of love, Albus sometimes forgot that it was the same Magic which created the Patronus that created the Cruciatus; magic could be both kind and cruel….both life and death.
So, as the chanting hit its crescendo, the nexus pulsed a final time and then exploded in a flash of blinding light.
The magical wave caused by the explosion spread out from that reality into the other realities bordering it, and even further still.
Finally, Magic found a candidate who both fulfilled the criteria of the ritual and its own wishes for punishment.
And with a final surge of power, Magic plucked up the one man who could be said to have ended his own strife – Hadrian James Potter, the Master of Death.
With a final flash of golden light, the energy died away leaving almost everyone blinking away the blindness from their eyes.
Once they had all recovered their bearings, Lily gasped once she realized that the cloaked figure standing before them was proof that their ritual had worked.
However, just as Albus moved forward to greet the newcomer, the person raised his hooded head and flashed arctic silver eyes at Albus, freezing him in place with the very, very alarming sensation that he had just made a grave mistake.
The stranger opened his mouth and spoke in a tone so cold that it chilled those present to their very souls,
"What have you done?"
Blinking in surprise at the man's words, Albus shook off his hesitation and once more prepared to speak to the person whose entire body, save for his luminous silver eyes, was covered in his cloak.
He was, yet again, interrupted, this time, by a louder and far angrier question,
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!"
Now slightly alarmed, Albus noticed Moody's subtle shifting which let him know that the stranger now had the wand of the most dangerous Auror in the Ministry pointed at him.
This time, Albus managed to get some words in before he was interrupted once more,
"Now, please try to calm down and I shall explain –"
With a sharp gesture, the cloaked man cut him off, leaving more than one person blinking in surprise at his audacity.
Ignoring the slowly darkening faces of those around him as he continued to exhibit such hostility to their leader, the hooded man instead turned his shadowed face to one of the walls of the room they stood in, prompting most to follow suit, though Moody, James, Sirius, and a few others kept one eye on the stranger.
With no gesture or word on his part, an image suddenly sprang to life on wall the man was facing, bringing to the minds of those who were familiar with the non-magical world, a memory of a cinema.
As one, everyone watched a magical battle being fought in a snow covered small town which greatly resembled Hogsmeade, though there were some notable differences.
They all saw as the cloaked man in their midst arrived in the center of the battle and immediately began to take down the attackers who were all dressed in some kind of menacing blood red robes.
Many present were awed at the skill the stranger moved with, dodging attacks aimed his way without looking, while nailing opponents with successive magical nonverbal bursts, all with a dancer's grace.
Finally, a few minutes after the man had entered the battle, more figures, this time dressed in official looking robes that bore some kind of crest, arrived and began fighting beside the man.
With the new reinforcements, the attackers were more quickly wiped out with the defending side taking only few casualties.
Suddenly, a growled word followed by a scream had them refocusing their attention on a building located near the middle of the town.
The image – what everyone by that point had realized was a memory – obliged them and moved to focus on the new scene, leaving many people present pale faced as they realized what they were seeing.
While the stranger and his allies had been fighting the attackers, some of their number had snuck off to wreak havoc somewhere else.
They had found an orphanage.
With a snarl, one of the red robed men shot off a violet curse which streaked through the air on a course for a little girl who was running to get to the orphanage.
They all knew that she was never going to make it.
With a scream once she realized her impending demise, the little girl threw herself to the floor and curled up in a futile attempt to protect herself.
Seconds away from impact, the stranger spun into existence, and while still in his spin, slapped the spell back at its caster, before he turned to scoop the girl up and rush her the remaining feet to the door.
Once she was safely inside, he spun and blurred his arm through the air, erecting great big glowing walls of magical energy which easily absorbed the spells now being aimed at his body and the orphanage behind him.
The barrage of curses continued for a few more seconds before one of the men shouted something and as one, the spells ceased.
However, they were not done.
In unison, the six attackers raised their wands and spoke two words in one voice,
"Bellua Ignis"
The spectators flinched in fear as on the wall, the image showed six streams of superhot flames shooting out towards the lone stranger and the orphanage.
In between their casters and their target, the flames took on a life of their own as fiendish creatures were birthed in the center of their inferno.
The cloaked man, instead of fleeing as any sane man would have, steadied his footing in the snow and visibly took a deep breath.
On the exhale, he flung his hands outwards, ending with his wand, gripped in his left hand, pointing to the right straight into the center of his right palm.
Immediately, the silvery walls of magic he had erected earlier took on the form of liquid and flowed into a new configuration and once they finally ceased to move, it looked like a funnel was floating in the air in front of him, with its wider end pointed towards the oncoming inferno and its smaller end in-between the tip of his wand and his right palm.
With a roar that shook the spectators to their bones, the flames were pulled into the funnel and once they reached the end, they were forcibly compressed into a small ball in the stranger's palm.
As the man visibly strained to contain the dark flames, it began to look like he was holding the very sun in the palm of his hands.
However, to the rising horror of those watching the memory, a familiar golden light began to pulse around the stranger as he fought to hold off the flames.
Even though they could not see the features of the man in the memory, they could all imagine his panic as the powerful summoning magics began to tug and pull on his person.
Finally, the golden light flared once to blinding intensity before the memory was cut off.
In the sudden silence as the memory faded from view on the wall, they all turned horrified eyes on the deathly still cloaked stranger in their midst.
No one knew what to say.
For the first time in his century and a half long existence, Albus Dumbledore truly regretted the consequences of his actions. Never before had he felt as wretched as he did in that moment.
Finally, the stranger began to move. In a very slow and controlled manner, he turned to face Albus and said,
"Congratulations, you have just murdered thirty nine children."
While everyone flinched in horror at his words, he vanished with a thunderous boom, shattering the decades old wards on the house they were all in.
I should have mentioned this at the start of this collection, but in your reviews, please leave suggested continuations for each story. Once I wrap up Little Things (and yes, I will finish it...just as soon as I am done with this...thing...called school...so close, yet so far) I will pick one of the stories here and expand it.
As for this little nugget, well, put away all thoughts of Hadrian eventually caving into his kidnappers and helping them...I am not saying that he will join Voldie, in fact, I wouldn't even want to be that guy...but Hadrian is not going to have a sudden change of heart...ever.
Finally, an apology is in order. Earlier on, I had posted a one shot called Something Wicked, about the Avengers...yeah, I failed to give appropriate warnings so a few..delicate...people were offended. I have removed the one shot and moved it to my profile on AO3, link on my profile page, where people are made of sterner stuff.
Guur jorrin