Harry Potter and the Aspects of Death
I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters of the Harry Potter Universe. JK Rowling owns it and receives all profits from anything derived from that universe. I receive no monetary gain from this work of fiction.
AN: Ok, so the action should be picking up more in this chapter. I haven't forgotten about this story, I've just been focusing on Freak of Nature as I was/am really enjoying writing it. I appreciate those who take the time to review my stories, as they inspire me to think about what comes next in the story. I don't have the longest attention span in the world, so it helps when people remind me of why I was enjoying a story that I was writing. This inspires me to write more in it, so, for me more reviews does equate to more writing. Just a thought, and on with the story.
/Egyptian/
[parsel]
deathdeathdeath
Chapter 5: Getting to the Guts of the Matter
"Is it not strange that sheep's guts should hale souls out of men's bodies?"
William Shakespeare
Tumbling, rolling, squeezed through a tube; Harry Potter was swallowed by the Book of the Dead. Known by some as the Necronomicon, spoken about in hushed tones in dark corners in the time that Harry Potter had originated from, the book was more than just a simple book; it was Alive. More so than alive though, it was undead. Made from the very flesh of the first priests of Anubis, history's first necromancers and practitioners of the ritual blood and soul magics, the book and pedestal was their method of eternal existence, for each of them had submitted a body part to its making. It was this book, made from undying flesh, which was swallowing Harry.
Pressed between a constricting tube of red-veined cartilage and flesh, he felt like he was being crushed! Concentric rings of tissue flexed and squeezed, pushing Harry deeper into the carcass as if he was being squeezed from a tube of toothpaste. It was painful. The tube was backlit with some sort of golden yet sickly light, and he felt like he was suffocating as he was constricted and crushed through the tube… only to squirt out the end and fall 20 feet to land on some sort of fleshy squishy surface.
Harry stood up and looked around at the "chamber" that he found himself in. Above him and out of reach, he could see the esophageal sphincter that had closed off and locked him in this room. Looking around, he noticed that he couldn't seem to see the very edges of the chamber as the backlit light only seemed to illuminate the center of the room where Harry had landed. Slowly, Harry could hear a beating sound, Thud thud, Thud thud, Thud thud… Continuous and rhythmic, like the deep beating of a drum. Looking up at what he could see, he noticed that the fluid in the "veins" seemed to flow with the sound of the thumping noise. Otherwise, the room was completely silent.
"Um, Hello? Is anybody there? What happens next?" Harry questioned as he turned around in a circle and looked out into the darkness that was all around him.
"Next?" A voice issued out of the darkness and met Harry's ears. "There is no Next, there is only now." With that, a figure stepped out of the shadows, covered in a large dark cloak that split open to show the chest of a man with an Egyptian wrap around his waist and a black leather necklace with an ankh on it. The figure's chest was bear, but the Hood of the black cloak shadowed the face from the light that came down from above, the only thing that could be seen from the shadows were two glowing green eyes. "There won't be any next if you don't survive this," The figure continued, "And there definitely won't be a next for a while due to the fact that you probably won't stop me from devouring you." The figure said as it started to circle Harry, staying just within the edge of the lighted circle.
"What are you talking about? What is this place?" Harry said, turning to keep the figure in front of him.
"This is your test, boy, this is your training. You will either survive this and return to the temple above stronger and further aged by the knowledge of death and life, or you will die and become food for the book, food for our form." The figure said, a white smile now gleaming through the shadows, eerily painted under the still glowing green eyes. The man continued to pace around Harry as if he were a predator circling his prey.
"You won't take me so easily!" Harry said with menace as he crouched down and called upon his knowledge from Voldemort. He might not have a wand, but then again, by absorbing the elder wand and gifting it back to death, Harry Potter no longer needed a wand, it wasn't even wandless magic, Harry Potter was his own magical core! Calling up a ghastly curse that would turn the man inside out and skin him alive, Harry's hands rimmed over in a dark purple light which shot out in two beams at the pacing figure!
"You won't devour me!" Harry cried out as he shot the spell!
Only for Harry's magical attack to be absorbed into the hand of the pacing malignant figure! "Tut Tut boy, that won't work on me in here!" The figure said with a smirk.
Harry was shocked, and in that moment of inattention, the figure struck!
Seeming to disappear and then appear right in front of Harry, the figure grabbed Harry's Hands and pulled them apart. Staring into Harry's eyes with that same smirk, the figure took in a big breath, and then seemed to exhale a fog of green smoke and transcendental light! Still smirking at the now struggling Harry, the smoke covered Harry's head, where it forced itself into Harry's nose and now silently screaming mouth. At which point, Harry blacked out…
/"Saba! Saba Wake up!"/ said a voice accompanied by a rough hand that grabbed him and shook him awake. Harry startled and came awake, seeing that he was inside of a tent. An Egyptian man stood in front of him, garbed and armored with a leather breastplate, spear and shield held in the hand that hadn't shaken Harry awake.
"/Wha…What's going on?/" Harry said in confusion.
/"Quickly Saba, We don't have time to wait! The Sumerians are attacking and they have breached the perimeter in the dark and there are no guards to stop them! Come quickly or we will all die!"/ The man exclaimed, fright clearly present on his face, then turned and rushed out of the tent! It was then that Harry heard the clashing and screams of battle through the walls of the tent!
Harry stepped out of the tent, only to narrowly dodge a fist sized sling stone that whizzed by his head! All around him he heard the sounds of fighting and dying! Turning to the right and in the direction that the stone had flown from, he saw a series of sling wielding throwers pelting rocks at the three men struggling with the six cone helmeted Sumerian soldiers in front of his tent. Two of the Egyptian's soldiers were quickly cut down by the large flying stones as they struck the men in their heads! The other one was then ganged up on by the other Sumerians and quickly stabbed to death by their thrusting spears! Turning towards Harry, the Sumerian's saw him and yelled out a battle cry, charging him!
It was then that Harry realized that he was unarmed…
Quickly coming out of his stupor, He dodged the first man to get to him, sliding to the right and knocking the spear off of target with the outside of his left hand; causing it to just skirt by the left side of his stomach! Grabbing the man's spear arm with Harry's right, Harry slid around so his back was to the man's chest, and then used the leverage of the man's arm to fling him over Harry's shoulder, off of the ground and into four of the other onrushing soldiers!
Fortunately the body of the man hit the others and tumbled them to the ground in a knotted pile of squirming men, all too driven to skewer Harry to successfully work together to get up!
Scooping to grab a spear of the thrown man, and luckily dodging under the thrust of the last standing soldier, Harry herd a satisfying *Thump* as the sling stone meant for his head hit the sixth Sumerian in the chest; no doubt cracking the man's unarmored sternum and causing him to fall to the ground!
Realizing that it was stupid to bring a spear to a sling fight, Harry remembered he was a wizard! Harry threw out his hand and a shimmering appeared in a dome around him and seeming to harden the air, immediately casting a stationary bubble of protection which two sling stones proceeded to bounce off of.
Turning to the pile of 5 men who were getting to their feet, now a bit unsure of what to do about the apparent "Magi" they were fighting, Harry decided to strike first!
"Expulso!" Harry cried, both hands thrusting towards the pile of men and causing two spells to fly out of his two hands!
*BOOOOM!* Each spell clipped two of the Sumerians in front of Harry, causing four of them to explode in a combined explosion that blasted the tent to Harry's left into smithereens and caused his shield of air to patter with the sounds of bits of bone and flesh that struck it. The fifth soldier that had been in the pile was unconscious to Harry's right, blood clearly pouring from his ears and nose!
Green eyes then turned towards the slingers who had been trying to sneak a projectile at Harry while he was dealing with the soldiers. *Snapping* the fingers on both of his hands, Harry glared at the stone throwers as streaks of purple-fire flew out his hands and struck two of the men on the rise! Suddenly they began to scream in agony as internal fires caused their organs to boil and burst from heat and pressure!
The third, and only remaining, stone thrower turned and ran away screaming! Yelling something totally unintelligible to Harry's ears. Harry took off running towards where he heard fighting behind him, content to let the man run away, which Harry was to learn was a big mistake…
Harry had taken about eight running steps when he was surprised by a *ROOOAAAAARRRR!* behind him!
Turning and looking back at the ridge where the stone slingers had been, Harry saw three Nemean Lions which were obviously on the hunt!
Throwing his arm out in a wide circle, Harry cast a silent Diffindo that shot out of his hand like a red scythe of death!... only to hit the lions and have absolutely no effect!
Well, absolutely no affect other than to target them on Harry and piss them off!
"Eep!" Harry said as he saw the effect of his spell and the three sets of golden eyes turn to focus on him with a growl!
Harry turned and ran! Jumping over now burning tents, over corpses of Egyptian and Sumerian alike, running as fast as he could in the opposite direction of where the lions where! The lions who Harry could hear huffing behind him in fast pursuit!
Harry didn't take a chance to look behind, but he tried everything he could to slow down or take out the lions behind him! He transfigured one tent into a Devil's Snare, a body into a row of spikes! He conjured walls of stone behind him, and pillars to break up his line of sight, but those lions just carved a straight path after him!
Claws sharper than any human sword and a hide that was impervious to being cut plowed a straight path after Harry! They were like three independent buzz-saws that hacked and slashed through anything in their path!
Skidding around a corner of a tent, just as one of the lions took a leap for Harry and missed, Harry took off down another row of tents! About 25 feet in front of him he saw a Sumerian step out of a tent and turn to block his path, the Sumerian's spear dripping blood and pointed towards Harry! Harry heard one of the lions follow him down the path and gain ground on him, so he kept charging towards the Sumerian, who now spread his feet apart and braced himself to meet Harry's charge!
About five feet in front of the Sumerian, Harry heard the lion behind him give a little growl and its breathing changed! Eye's going large, Harry dived forward!... Sliding right between the Sumerian's spread legs and underneath the lion who had just attempted to pounce on Harry's back!
The silence and lack of stabbing in the back surprised Harry as he slid out from under the Sumerian. Standing up shakily, and turning around, He noted that both the Sumerian and the Lion were lying on the ground dead. The lion's claws had punctured right through the Sumerian's chest; where as the spear of the Sumerian could clearly be seen to disappear into the mouth of the Nemean lion!
Taking a deep breath and coming to stand completely up, Harry heard a growl and looked up. There at the end of the row were the two other lions!
"Shit!" Harry said as he turned and ran north through the tents, once again creating a zigzagged path through the debris of battle, "What does it take to lose these guys!" He panted as he ran for his life. The only sound he could hear were the lions behind him, as it sounded like the fighting had ended…
Skidding around the corner of the last tent of the Egyptian army's campsite and coming out into the open, Harry came to a screeching halt!
There, displayed in front of him were the corpses of a majority of the Egyptian army; in front of him, to his right, and to his left was the whole host of the Sumerian forces. Thousands and thousands of soldiers were arrayed as they stripped the bodies of the Egyptians and prepared to pillage the camp. Smoke issued up from the town in the distance, as Harry saw the Sumerians had already started raiding it a well.
Seeing one Egyptian alive, hundreds of the Sumerians gave a feral grin and hefted their shields and their spears! Sling throwers and archers in the back ranks loaded their weapons and began to swing their slings or pull their bows on the off chance that Harry got away from the thousands of troops surrounding him!
Slowly backing up towards the tent, Harry's retreat was stopped by a low growl, as the lions came out from among the tents and cut off Harry's escape route.
"Well shit!" Harry said to himself… and then it was as if the world slowed down to a halt. The Sumerian's advance seemed to halt as feet seemed to hang in the air mid-step. The lion's prowl was interrupted as open mouthed growls made no sound and seemed to freeze in mid-curl of the lip. Even the flies that had been feasting on the dead didn't seem to move, their wings staying still in midflight.
I gave the first brother the power of the stone, the power to call upon the souls of the dead... I give you greater power, to call on the souls of the dead and the power to mold those souls and dead to your wishes… I want you to use my gifts… The voice of Death directed Harry, as if speaking in his head.
Harry's eyes went cold, and he nodded in acceptance. Time sped up to its normal passage, and Harry's visage went hard.
*Stomp!* Harry picked up his foot and smacked it back down into the earth, causing a wall of dust and wind to swirl up around him and expand out into the forces around him and pushing them back for a second!
Totally silent, Harry's eyes started to glow a deep green, as if lit by fire from behind his eyes. Ethereal flames flickered out of his eyes and green flame seemed to start to grow, spread, and seep out of his body until he was limned over in it.
A Shout went up from the Sumerians as they knew they were facing a magic user! Quick as they could, they charged Harry! Every archer and sling thrower launched their projectile at Harry, the lions pounced, and the soldiers threw their spears or attempted to get to him before he could cast his magic… But it was too late!
*CLAAAAPPPP!* Harry smacked his hands together in what sounded like a thunderclap, and then threw his hands wide to the sides! An explosion of power flew from Harry in a concentric blast wave, blasting the soldiers and lions around him off of their feet and sending them tumbling and rolling over each other! Arrows and stones the size of baby's heads that had been flying at Harry reversed direction and flew outwards from the blast wave, and the forces that had been charging him tumbled into a seething mass of chaos!
Pointing his hands to the sky, Harry screamed out in Rage! How dare they try to kill him! He had already died once, and these enemies who for no reason known to Harry had killed the men around him, for no reason had attempted to kill him, would feel his Rage!
"AGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!" Harry cried out, bringing both of his hands to his chest and then throwing them into the air above his head!
Black fire seemed to erupt from his hands, licking down his body, and then fly straight up into the air a hundred feet, where it seemed to create a vortex into some dark realm. The vortex swirled and opened, until black balls of fire seemed to shoot out of the vortex and fly out into the masses of bodies laid out around Harry and throughout the camp. Though where the black fire landed, there appeared to be no reaction, that is, until the people started to get up off the ground.
The first people to get up off the ground were not the sling throwers in the back, nor where they the ranks of the archers. It wasn't the Sumerians who had their shields equipped and had been able to block some of the wave of power that had swept out from Harry, nor was it even the mighty lions. No, the first figures to rise up around Harry after he had knocked them off their feet and opened the vortex, were the Dead.
The black fire had flown out from the vortex and had flown right through the Sumerian's scattered around the plains and disappeared into the soulless bodies of the dead Egyptian's scattered about the field.
Rising from the ground as if pulled up by the strings of an invisible puppet-master, their eyes and mouths open in a black fiery stare, the dead floated from the ground where they lay until they were hovering above the ground.
Immediately the Sumerian's let out a groan as a palpable sense of fear inducing mist seemed to suck all of the life and energy out of the world around them. Moaning in the hissing grating voices of the damned, the animated soulless corpses turned their gaze to focus on the Sumerians and the lions in their midst... The sun seemed to fade from the world as if covered by invisible clouds, and as the world seemed to darken, the Sumerians were doomed. Harry Potter, known as Saba to the Egyptians, had not created inferni, Harry Potter had created Dementors.
Pointing towards the lions, six Dementors swooped down on them and pulled them up, high into the air. Though the lions struggled, bit and slashed, though bits of flesh were torn and rendered off of the dark beings that pulled the lions into the air, the lions could not get the now boney hands to release them. Though animals are mostly immune to the Dementor's presence, they aren't immune to being dropped from very high heights when said Dementors let them go. The fall from over 300 feet in the air crushed bones and punctured lungs and other vital organs in the Nemean lions, for though their hides were immune to being punctured, their innards were not.
After Harry's silent instruction towards the Dementors to finish off the lions, he turned towards the army before him and let his new creation feast.
Most of the Sumerians who had been on the plains before Harry passed out from their proximity to the Dementors, especially those Sumerians who had been in the process of looting said former corpses. On top of that reaction, the Dementors began to go into a feeding frenzy!
Harry had made the beings through the power of death's magic, but he had used the flesh of bodies whose souls were no longer present. It was for their souls that the beings hungered, and if they couldn't have their old souls back, then they would have to get it from the enemy that had originally killed them.
Reaching out their dead hands around them, the Dementors began to administer the "kiss" to as many of the army around them as they could. Their thirst and hunger for souls was unquenchable, and even the stabbing blades of the few brave Sumerians who remained conscious was not enough to halt the Dementors in their quest to suck out their enemy's souls.
All through the action, Harry just stood there, a smile on his face. His countenance was totally uncaring for the suffering taking part around him, as his once tormentors were now food for his creation. "It is nice to be the victor instead of the crushed, it is nice to be the predator instead of the prey" He thought to himself with a slight verbal chuckle.
After a time the Dementors finished their slaughter, leaving the field filled with the soulless bodies of the once strong, once conquering, army of Sumerians. Turning to float towards Harry, the army of Dementors circled around him, floating in a weaving sphere around Harry and over the army of "vegetables." They all stared at Harry quietly as they flew around him, seemingly having no affect on the young man.
"Behold, the once mighty army laid bare!" Harry said with a dark laugh, a smirk painted beneath his glowing green eyes. "Go my children, do as you please, it is all the same when it comes to death. I am sure that we will meet again."
With a wave of his hand a dark cloak formed over him, shadowing Harry's face and leaving the only thing that could be seen two glowing green eyes and a white toothed smile beneath it. As the Dementors floated away, the world around Harry seemed to fade out of existence.
As the world came back into clarity around him, Harry found himself again in the chamber at the heart of the Book of the Dead. The figure that now matched Harry's garbed body stood before him, green eyes and smile beaming from within the shadows of his cloak; grinning straight back at Harry.
"Good, I knew you had it in you." the figure said, removing his hood to show a mirror reflection of Harry, but wearing the necklace of the ankh and looking to be about the age of 30. "You have passed the test, and so you may have our knowledge. But know, just as death ages you, so the knowledge that we give you will age your body." The figure said, and with that, it stepped up to Harry and turned into mist that quickly seemed to mesh with Harry's being.
Harry's brain felt full, as his body rocked back with the absorption of the mist. In his mind he saw the formation of runes that would awaken the souls of the dead. He could build armies of undead creatures, raise animals and humans alike, and even animate bodies made from the limbs and parts severed from different beings then formed into one entity. He realized that his hands knew the signals of blood, the carving of bodies that would strengthen, would weaken, would torture or heal; blood magic that would protect, or that which would kill, was all in his head. Even more powerful, he knew the Egyptian methods for immortality, the formation of the horcrux and the soul container, both the easy method based on the death of innocents, and the harder method spent through meditation and years of introspection. He could exorcise ghosts, and calm the irate dead. All together, he had the mastery of blood, necromantic, and soul magic, and the ability to use it ingrained in his body.
However a price had been paid. When he had absorbed the knowledge of the Book of the Dead, he had aged. Looking down at his hands, and feeling his face, Harry realized that he had put on about 10 years of growth. Gone was the boyish looks of the late teen, here was the hardness of a thirty year old master of death, blood, and the pathways of the dead. Feeling his chest and looking himself over, He was surprised to see himself wearing the dark robe of the figure, even the necklace with the Ankh hung from his neck.
"But how is this possible?" Harry thought to himself. As if in answer, as soon as he thought it the answer appeared there in his head. When the book took him within it, into its beating heart and accepted him as passing the test, Harry became part of it, just another organ or tissue for the being of the whole. What the book knew, Harry now knew, for at the moment Harry was the Book of the Dead.
"Wicked!" Harry said to himself, and then looked around himself, "Um, what now?" He said out loud, only to be answered by a strange sucking noise that issued from above him.
Looking up, Harry saw the esophagus above him open. Uttering the first thing to come to mind, "Oh hell no!" Harry was sucked up into the air, back up through the crushing tube, only to be vomited out of the Book of the Dead and launched through the air into the chamber before it.
Rolling head over heels, Harry came to rest with his back against the wall, and his feet above his head. "That bloody sucked…" Harry grumbled to himself as he righted himself and dusted himself off. Looking back at the book, he was struck by the magic that would allow a full human being to be swallowed by a book that appeared to be light enough to be picked up and carried. That is if somebody would ever consider picking up a book that was growing out of the top of a pedestal made from a living human being. Even more striking to Harry was the fact that he could see in what was apparently the now pitch dark cavern. "It's strange what grabs your attention when you get used to the weird," Harry thought to himself.
Walking back through the dark cavern, Harry made his way back to the ladder and climbed his way back up to the Naos.
Climbing out of the pit behind the dais, Harry entered back into the lit Naos.
"/I see you survived. I had to wonder as you took longer than any before you have ever been down there./" Said Amotep as he stood waiting.
"/What do you mean?/" Harry questioned with a tilt of his head, "/I was only gone for an hour or two./" he continued.
"/No Saba, you were gone for three days./" Amotep told him with an amused air and raised eyebrow.
Speechless for a second, Harry took a minute to contemplate his new knowledge and figure out what to do next. Stumped, he decided to ask Amotep. "/What am I to do next?/" He asked.
"/You come back to US for now…/" Came the same wispy stone grinding voice of Anubis that had issue Harry into the land of Ancient Egypt.
Looking straight up at the statue that towered over the two men, they saw its head flare to life and rotate to look down at them.
Upon seeing the statue come to life, Amotep immediately bowed and prostrated himself before the statue of his god, where as Harry just looked amused.
"/I am pleased with you Saba…/" "/It is time that you came back with US to our realm apprentice…/" Death/Anubis stated. Unclenching its arms from across its chest, it pointed towards a spot next to Harry and a doorway, with green burning glyphs floating around it, appeared beside him.
"/Thank you for teaching me Amotep, I won't forget the lessons you provided./" Harry said as he stepped up to the door. Then, without another look back, Harry Potter stepped through the door to Death's realm, and disappeared.
"/Goodbye Saba./" Amotep's voice echoed around the room that was empty except for the statue of Anubis; the statue that returned to its original position and became stone again.
AN: Well, there is the first lesson of the three main ones that Harry will learn before he goes back to his proper time and the UK. I have to say that I really appreciate people's reviews and that they have been a big inspiration in getting me to post on my other in-progress story "Freak of Nature." I appreciate people's comments as I in no way have this story completely planned out, and I am letting it write itself as it goes along. Your comments and reviews definitely help get my creative juices going and help inspire me to put in time at the keyboard to type these stories. Anyway, best wishes, and thanks for reading.