Reviews
tylermech66
Cosmic Horrors are indeed cosmicly horrible blame Lovecraft for making me liking them.
Yes its called a character sheet at least for a single character. If its an army your controlling its then called an OOB or order of battle.
Qaletaqa
Thanks.
A.W
Dumbledore doesn't have the authority to tell Harry Potter where he can and can't go. Nor does he have the authority to have founded and lead the Order of the Phoenix. Yet the Headmaster does these things anyway and people obey him. Why? Because he's Dumbledore.
Also while Damien could refuse he won't because going along with Dumbledore suits his long term plans. He wants to find the Locket not that's it there because it was never a Horcrux so that won't go well.
As for the D&D story no one knows what the reward is until after the game starts. By that point people will be forced into seeking the reward as RPGs have a way of forcing players to follow the plot.
Overlord Susanoo
Thank you.
Selias
Fleur won't be there but Tonks will and there is no Remus around. But to Tonks, Damien is just a teenage boy so I don't see his charms working on her very well she is an Auror after all and she'd an avid Dumbledore supporter.
Joe Lawyer
People who have been kidnapped and tortured are rarely sensible thinkers, at least not until they've had some time to deal with the trauma.
Damien felt he couldn't deal with Voldemort so he went looking for help. Yes it wasn't the smart thing to do but Damien was scared and felt unable to deal with the problem by himself, so he turned for help from... well himself really.
Lord Edric
Actually the oath was for Damien not to wage war on the Necromancer which does have some wiggle room in it.
Plus Damien is already planning to move to a new world so he doesn't have to fight, as you will see in this chapter.
However the Necromancer doesn't want to fight Damien because he's too busy supplying his Daedric Prince counterpart with dead cannon fodder. Plus he's now off to invade the Forgotten Realms in Adventure Gothic which was partly why ensuring peace with Wizard Gothic was so important to him.
War Sage and Mattblue
Thanks guys.
Author Note:
This chapter is dedicated to Redthebattler whose exchange of ideas with me was a major help in shaping the long term plot of this story.
The First Gothic. Book One. A Wizard In Training. Part 39.
Ravenclaw Tower. Hogwarts. The Wizarding World.
It was hard to believe that it had been less than a weak since I'd been captured by the Dark Lord before escaping and then blowing up his family home with a bomb my Necromancer counterpart had acquired from a rather nice group of terrorists/freedom fighters who were fighting tyranny on a very, very alternative version of Earth.
Watching Riddle Manor getting blown to bits had been a very therapeutic experience for me and as the house had gone boom I'd felt a lot of my concerns go up with the Dark Lord's base of operations.
Since that day I'd kept my head down and had thrown myself into studying or at least that was what I had been doing after I made sure that Voldemort was gone.
Over the years I'd found a few magical ways to spy on people and I had employed a few of those methods to confirm that Riddle was really gone. Merlin's magic mirror confirmed that the Dark Lord was not in the United Kingdom and my crystal ball showed me a sort of smoky ghost thing hiding in some very unfriendly looking woods.
After gathering that information I'd come to the conclusion that Riddle had retreated to the forest in Albania like he had back when baby Potter had destroyed him in the early the nineteen eighties.
Of course Voldemort would return, or at least attempt to return one day, perhaps it would be one day soon, but for now I was reasonable safe as long as none of the Death Eaters knew enough about me to consider me a threat. But even if they did Death Eaters didn't concern me much, I had more than enough knowledge and power to deal with them.
Besides ultimately they weren't my concern, my fight wasn't with the Mort Munchers or their Dark Master. I had other things to deal with but they too could wait.
Right now it was more important to focus on my education. My potential was great and I could become a very powerful Wizard one day but only if I actually learned to utilise the powers I had earned or otherwise been granted.
To this end I was hitting the books, and it was so dull. I could only assume that all my time spent plotting, scheming and generally getting into all kinds of trouble had made other activities to dull in comparison. In short I was bored.
Well not just bored I was a bit annoyed too. It seemed as if the Outcast group was starting to fall apart. Ginny and Neville were spending more and more time with Potter. Harry was also trying to patch things with Granger but most of his efforts were wasted as she was a teenage girl in love.
While it was true Luna and Hermione focused their attentions either on me or homework, meaning we got closer, I wouldn't be surprised if Gin and Nev left the Outcasts to join whatever group Harry had either already set up or soon would.
The sad thing about it was that there was nothing I could do about the fracturing. Friendships fall apart some times, some people get closer while others go in new directions and end up leaving those they knew in the past behind. I wasn't sad about too much as these happened but I couldn't help but feel that the end of an era was upon me.
Although if I was honest with myself I did feel a little disappointed about Neville. He was suppose to be my best friend, yet I hardly spoke to him any more. Admittedly that was partly my fault as I was spending most of my time with the twins and my two secret wives. Also it was I who had encouraged both Neville and Ginny to get closer to Harry as I couldn't afford to. If it weren't for my worries about Dumbledore I might of befriended Potter myself, even though I didn't like him very much, because he was often where the action was and it was important to keep on him in order to fulfil my oath.
However things were different now. With Voldemort having fled the country he was no danger to Harry right now so I was no longer compelled to protect him by the oath I had made. Even if I had been I could of simply of asked the other Outcasts to release me from the oath. That would of released them too but I didn't think it was really needed any more.
Then again I had to consider the fact that Riddle would return one day. I really needed to finish him off but I had no idea how to destroy a ghost smoke thing.
Worse I didn't even know what would happen if I used a portal to get at the Cup and Locket and then destroyed them both. Would Voldemort have to come back to life again in order to be killed or would destroying his anchors force the Dark Lord to move on to what Dumbledore called the next great adventure?
The annoying thing about the Locket was that I couldn't even find the blasted thing. All my attempts at scrying had failed to locate the cursed object. I'd even considered sending Tizzy to go find it but that wouldn't work since I couldn't tell her where the Headquarters of the Order were. I knew it but I couldn't communicate the location to anyone else since I wasn't the Keeper.
Still if I was taken to the Headquarters of the Order this summer I could find and destroy the Locket at least, then I could chose when I would destroy the Cup.
That part seemed simple enough, but these days little worked out the way I wished them to.
The major problem with my current plan of action was that I couldn't be at Headquarters and be at whatever summer school the Traveller had picked out for me.
In the past this hadn't been a problem as nobody seemed to question the fact that I vanished off the face of the Earth for most of the summer holidays, but if I was suppose to spend my time off school somewhere secure then people would notice that I wasn't there. People like the interfering Headmaster for example.
With a sigh I realised that there wasn't anything I could about that but wait and see what happened. Either things would work out or they wouldn't and if they didn't well then I'd just grab what I could and start again elsewhere.
No wait I couldn't because of the damn oath. I'd sworn to protect Harry Potter from Lord Voldemort, so the only way I could leave with violating the oath was if I got rid of Riddle.
Giving the matter even more thought I wondered if I could Soul Trap the bit of soul that was currently floating around the woods in Albania.
It should be possible as that was the Dark Lord's fractured soul out there but I'd have to 'kill' it to Soul Trap it. If the smoke ghost thing was possessing someone then that would work fine as you could Soul Trap more than one living thing at the same time as long you had enough Soul Gems.
The problem there was that I had no idea how to make Riddle posses something nor could I stop him from possessing me. I was sure that I could fight such an attempt but that wouldn't help me to trap the bastard. I was at least sure that I could Soul Trap and kill anything the Dark Lord could posses fast enough, but that didn't really help if he stayed a smoky ghost thingy.
For a few moments I sat back on one of the comfy armchairs that were scattered around the common room and imagined sending the Ghostbusters into the woods in order to deal with Riddle.
It would be very amusing if they actually managed to entrap the spirit of Voldemort, but unless I knew for certain that it would work I wasn't willing to risk the lives of mundane humans even they were experienced in dealing with ghosts.
The communication mirror in my pocket vibrated and I took out the small compact mirror and flicked it open like it was one of those communicators in that old Star Trek TV show.
"Hey Luna" I said by way of greeting.
"I found something you might want to see" reported the teen.
Last time she'd said that I ended up discovering her interesting use for the Hair Removal Curse, and while that had been fun I wasn't really in the mood to play.
"I'm not really..." I started to say but she stopped me.
"Its about the Third Task".
Ah well that was worth looking into. I could use a break from my failed attempt at studying, and if it led to something that involved sneaking around and scheming the all the better.
Really I must have been placed in the wrong School House. What had the Sorting Hat been thinking?
The School Grounds. Hogwarts School. The Wizarding World.
"So what did you find?" I asked both my first and second wife.
Luna didn't react at all when I dispelled the Invisibility Spell I'd cast over myself, but Hermione nearly screamed when I spoke.
"How did you do that?" she demanded to know.
"Magic" I answered before repeating my question.
Rather than answer Luna took my hand and led me into the Forbidden Forest were to my surprise a Centaur was waiting for us.
I never would of expected to speak to a Centaur as they loathe humans for the most part and given that it was my fate to destroy the Wizarding World I would of thought that they would go out of their way to avoid being in my presence. I certainly had no desire to speak with the stargazing ponies.
"Greetings Dark Saviour" said the Centaur.
"Err hi" I replied rather lamely.
The creature seemed rather relaxed considered that it was in the presence of the 'Dark Saviour' so I at once assumed that there were other Centaurs nearby all armed with weapons and ready for a fight.
"The Seer has told me of what is to come and about the war you must make upon the Wizards. She has also told us that you can save our race and the other magical beasts".
Well that explained the saviour part of Dark Saviour.
"Has she now" I muttered in an angry tone.
I really did not appreciate her telling these savages things about me. Luna had plans of her own I'd accepted that, but tricking me into a meeting with a Centaur was a bit more than I could easily forgive. It was only the fact that I genuinely loved the ditzy blonde that stopped me from cursing her backside.
"Indeed she did" said the beast who seemed to not understand that what I had just said hadn't in fact been a question "she also warned of us of what is to come and she tells me that you can send us to a different world".
Okay I hadn't seen that coming.
"Wait you want to leave Earth?".
The hybrid creature nodded and then asked me a question.
"Tell me young Wizard, do you know how we Centaurs came to be".
All I knew about Centaurs was that they were a primitive people who let burning balls of gas and lumps of rock tell them what to do. I had no idea how they came about nor did I care.
"Nope" I answered as neutrally as possible, as I didn't want to offend a herd of barbarian warriors on their home turf.
"We Centaurs are not part of nature we were created in a land you know as Greece by a group of very powerful Wizards and Witches called the Twelve Olympians".
Hermione decided to butt in at this point and tell everyone what they all ready knew.
"The Twelve Olympians were the major deities of the Greek pantheon: Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Athena, Hestia, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, and Hermes".
"Indeed young scholar," agreed the Centaur before carrying on with what he was trying to say "The Twelve were the most powerful magic users in the world at the time and they banded together in order to take control of what is now called Greece. They were worshipped by Muggles as gods, but they had rivals of nearly equal power so to aid them in their battles they merged man and beast into many forms. One of these creations was the first Centaur. We were created to fight men on horse back and the iron chariots".
Well that explained why there were so many magical races. I'd not thought about it until now but it actually made sense that some Greek Wizards were behind all the strange magical creatures and races.
There was evidence to support this as for example the creature know as Cerberus, the three-headed, giant hound that guarded the gates of Hades was not one of a kind, proven by the fact that Hagrid had Fluffy. And if the Greek Wizards had made a race of elephant sized three-headed dogs then it wouldn't be too hard to fuse man and horse together.
Such creatures couldn't be a creation of nature as nature made sense but magic allowed one to pervert what should be in order make things that shouldn't be.
In short Centaurs were just one of many magically made bioweapons.
"And we are not the only ones" confirmed the Centaur "there is one like us in the care of the half-giant Hagrid. A Minotaur"
The Minotaur was a monster with the head of a bull and the body of a man. There were a few old stories in which the Minotaur appeared and each one the creature was slain, so it made sense that there was more than one.
There could be hundreds of them a whole species.
"Like us the Minotaurs were created to be tools of warfare. They are many times stronger than a normal human, have a great sense of smell, they also heal extremely fast and they can put on great bursts of speed if needs be".
So they were the Greek Wizard version of a super solider. That was... interesting.
"It is to serve a role in the next Task" informed the Centaur.
Oh so this did have something to do with the Third Task after all. That at least saved me from having to punish Luna which was a good thing for both of us as I couldn't bring myself to really hurt her. That could be a problem in the long run but it was one I had no solution for as I didn't want to inflict pain and suffering upon the people I cared about but I also needed a way to punish my followers.
I briefly considered the idea of a spell that inflicted a large amount of pleasure rather than pain. It should be simple enough to create as the Torture Curse simulated nerve endings to inflict pain so why not one to inflict pleasure. It would be like having a magical version of that Orgazmorator. That would be a good way of temporally incapacitating an enemy without doing any actual harm and a good orgasm was a nice way to keep the help in line.
Knowing that I needed to focus on the here and now I pushed that very odd line of thought to one side and ignored what could be a sign of growing insanity so that I could get back to the matter at hand.
"So the maze they are building on the pitch isn't in fact maze its a labyrinth" I deduced "the champions will have to escape while being chased by the Minotaur".
Since I knew that Harry was suppose to deal with a maze for the this task I guessed that he would be chased out of the maze by the Minotaur.
"No they are to slay it" corrected the Centaur
"No!" screamed Hermione "that's wrong, they can't just kill someone!".
I'd known for a while that Wizards liked there entertainment to be dangerous but this was a bit much even for them.
"Are you sure?" I asked "it could be like the hostages in the lake, just a misunderstanding of the stakes. Maybe they really do just have to escape the creature".
The Centaur lowered its head and I could sense its sadness.
"The Minotaur knows he is to die. His clan was paid a great sum of gold for his life".
Now that was just sick.
"To most of your kind we are not really people," explained the stargazer "we are lesser creatures, animals to be used. That is what humans do".
Not all humans. There is a big difference between slaughtering animals that don't think for food and slaughtering thinking people for amusement. Humans are omnivores, as a species were are meant to hunt and even kill animals but not for mere entertainment. Killing something you hunt should be a test of skill not amusement for the masses.
Well the Romans did, but they did a lot of weird things.
Admittedly mundane humans of this nation aren't much better what with fox hunting and all, but this Task was just plain wrong. I had to do something about it.
"Okay how about this" I offered "I will just go and set the Minotaur free".
"They would simply bring another here" said the Centaur shooting my idea down.
"Not if I do it just before the Task starts" I countered.
"The Minotaur is not caged, young Wizard" explained the creature with a sigh "it goes to its death willingly because the gold earned will helps its people".
Damn it that really complicated things.
"But you can help" insisted Luna "not just now but later too".
"How?" I asked, wanting some straight answers.
"The stars have always guided us Dark Saviour" said the four-legged man beast "and while it will pain us to live under different stars we must go or we will as a race come to an end".
I had to ask about that title.
"Why do you call me Dark Saviour?".
"You are our saviour" he (or so I assumed) explained "but to save us you must do dark things".
Ah yes of course dark does not always mean evil and light doesn't always mean good.
"I'm surprised you'd trust me to save you" I remarked.
"You have the sword" replied the creature "that is enough".
Oh so it did entitle me to some respect then. That was good to know.
"It would take years to move all the races the Twelve made to another Earth" stated Luna "but you make a start by saving this herd".
Given that Centaurs had survived decades of sharing their home with werewolves, giant spiders, and for a while a unicorn killing Dark Lord, I could imagine a few worlds that would be a paradise in comparison.
"We would ask you to find another world like this" requested the Centaur "your sword entitles you rule this land but it does not matter what version of this land it is. We would not bow to you but we could live under your rule in exchange for lands to call our own".
That surprised me but perhaps it shouldn't as compared to the Ministry even a potential Dark Lord would be an improvement. I'd at least kill them quickly if I felt I had to. The British Ministry, and the other ones across Europe it seemed, were killing all the magical races off slowly by forcing them into demeaning servitude and limiting their lands so they couldn't afford any population growth. That was much more cruel than I could ever manage to be.
"The Ministry limits us to these woods when fields of grass is what we need" the Centaur went on to say "if you could find a world with no humans we could become true nomads once more and hunt as we were meant to. We would happily co-exist with other races such as the Minotaurs as they prefer not to wander far from the caves they call home".
In my mind I could picture a society forming. The magical non-human races would not only survive but prosper. And best of all they would owe it all to me. If arranged things right I could live like a king on their gratitude. As an added bonus it would also prevent genocide and that was a very nice thing.
"I don't want to rule anyone really" I told the Centaur.
Well actually I did but I wanted to rule over humans preferably sexy naked female ones, but I could see how having a saviour leading them to the promised land would appeal to the magical races and I might as well milk it for what it was worth.
"You have the sword" the creature reminded once more "you will rule it is to be".
I really hated destiny at times.
"I'm in school" I pointed out "it will be years before I can start moving you to a suitable magical world".
I'd have to scout out a world and then take the magical creatures one at a time to the new world. They'd need supplies too and tools. The job could take decades if I was indeed suppose to set up all the magical races up on a new world.
"There is no rush" assured the Centaur "the preparations will take three years at least. The magical races must prepare and we must do so without your kind discovering our plan".
And I was going to figure out a way to use the Portal Spell to transport entire herds of kinda people to another world then I was going to have to find some sort of portal making magical object. Then I'd have to strip the enchantments so that I could replicate the device. Or maybe I could ask the Traveller to turn the Veil Of Death into a portal to a world suitable for this plan. It would be much easier to steal the Veil than make a new stable portal to another universe.
At least I had time to figure something out I was good at making plans I'd find a way it was what I did best.
"But what about the Minotaur" protested my second, and hopefully last wife, "we can't let it die!"
"There is a way" promised Luna "all we have to do is to convince the champions not to kill the Minotaur".
That could work. Harry was a hero and wouldn't kill if he didn't have to and Diggory was a stand up guy. Fleur and Krum however, well they would be harder to convince. They might think that we were trying to trick them into not killing the creature in order to help out the Hogwarts champions.
Thankfully trust wasn't that important.
"If we can get all four champions in one place we could use a magical contract that will prevent anyone going back on their word" I said thinking out loud.
I'd gotten rather good at convincing people to do things so I didn't think I'd have any trouble getting them to agree not to participate what could become a blood bath, it was just a matter of getting all four of them in a room then making them sit down and hear me out.
"Do what you must humans" said the Centaur "if you can convince the Champions not to kill then the Minotaur will be free the Seer knows this but if any fight then one will die that day".
I nodded and then turned to leave. My wives falling into step behind me. There was no time like the present after all, we might as well go and talk to them now.
Then I'd start researching spell creation I so needed some way to keep my girls in line.
Or I could just hire someone to do. I had all this money after all. I might as well make use of it.