A/N: Hey sorry for the late update, thought of a oneshot I really wanted to write and started working on that but I finally got around to finishing this chapter. Should be the last prologuish chapter. Now the real story begins : ). Hopefully I'll be able to start replying to some of the longer reviews as well. Enjoy!
The brilliant orange and yellow hues of the sun beginning to stretch forth past the vast mountains in the distance marked the fifth day of the Lordaeron's final group of survivors arrival to the new continent. It had been a difficult start; the uncompromising heat was a severe problem as people were unable to work under its influence for any lengthy period of time. People were vastly inexperienced when it came with dealing with the disparity between the climates of the continents, finding themselves suffering from heatstroke and dehydration far quicker than anticipated, halting their progress in setting up any degree of reasonable shelter.
Work had therefore been relegated to the evening or early hours of the day. Eventually, through the collective efforts all who came across, a rough and defensible encampment had been established. A collection of walls lined the perimeter, built from the timber of dismantled ships and stone which lay in abundance around the area. Houses consisted of the tent variety, much to the aggravation of some who had yet to hear the reasons behind such an idea.
The labour of setting up camp had finally finished in the evening hours of yesterday and finally everyone was able to sleep on solid ground, not needing any longer to crash in the uncomfortable, swaying hammocks of the docked ships or to hide there to take shelter from the midday heat.
In a tent that dwelt near the centre of their new camp, one indistinguishable to any other tent in any notable way, one might be surprised to find inside that particular tent, the entire population of the encampment.
The purpose of such a meeting that was about to take place was to discuss the plans for the future and everyone was required to attend. Many were unhappy to do so at such an early hour, yet their grievances quickly vanished upon setting foot inside.
A cool atmosphere greeted them, a stark relief from the previous one merely just outside. The ground was soft and spongy, its very state moulding itself to comfort them as well as possible as they sat down; a pleasant contrast to the hard and unyielding rock and sand they usually tread and slept upon.
Up at the front of the magically enlarged space was Harry who waited for everyone to take their seats and fall silent. As everyone eventually adjusted and finished exclaiming over the wonders of the tent, calls for silence from the guards near Harry eventually made their way through the crowd before them.
As the last people took a seat and fell silent, Harry nodded to the guards and they too sat down. Harry stood up and raised his wand to his throat and tapped it lightly and then addressed the people before him, his words magically amplified and reaching the furthest corners of the tent.
"Thank you for coming this morning, I know you're all still exhausted over the previous day's activities, however this meeting is important. I want to confer with everyone as to the direction we will move in from here on out. The basic premise here is that we are in the unknown; completely and utterly. The encampment we have here can only last for so long. Our supplies aren't unlimited and at best will last only a few months. We have little information as to what lies in the wilds here and our chances at procuring more of both water and food are negligible at best. The best course of action is to stay here however, but hopefully for not too long. Whilst you are all here together, you share strength in numbers. Whilst you are all here together however, I will set off in search of the other survivors of Lordaeron hoping to make contact with them. When I find them I will be able to bring you all instantly to them and save you all the hazardous journey of traipsing across potential hostile lands. Hopefully the other survivors will have used their greater time here to good purpose and will have managed to develop a strong foothold here where we can all be safe. This is the best plan I could come up with; feel free to talk amongst yourselves and discuss freely ideas for improvement."
Harry sat down and assumed and meditative stance, the low murmur of chatter that had begun washing over him gently without distraction. It was best for them to remain here, leading more than a couple hundred people, of which many were women and children across the desert and other such harsh terrain was a recipe for a bloody disaster. Here they were relative safe, as long as nothing came to attack them, but they were relative isolated here. The land from what he could tell seemed very inhospitable. They would also be easily collected when the time came, he was confident he could find Jaina's expeditionary force in time.
Nonetheless, leaving behind defences of his own devising would be a prudent decision. It was a shame he couldn't just cover them in the Fidelius, none of them were magical and the greatly complicated spell could only work between two of his own kind. He doubted it could hide an area such as the one they occupied anyway, so the point was moot.
Hadrian had argued with him fiercely at first at having a few of his men accompany him when he left but he quickly shot down that idea. Despite their passion and valour, they simply wouldn't be able to keep up with him. He also didn't feel confident in being able to protect them adequately if they met something powerful and hostile. Best for them to all stay here and keep the moral up, people are less likely to panic when they feel protected.
The chatter began to die down slowly and Harry stood up, eager to hear how the plan would be received.
"Does anyone have any suggestions, or complaints?" he began.
A man rose from near the front of the room, "What happens if after two months you find nothing? You're only one man no matter a sorcerer. Isn't it better to get multiple people out in parties scouting for other survivors and resources to sustain ourselves?" he questioned.
It was a reasonable point, Harry thought. There was indeed the possibility of finding nothing.
"It's only my intention to keep you all as safe as possible. In truth, yes mate, you're right that having more people would bolster our chances of finding something. But do you feel you're capable of defending yourself from whatever might be out there? To guide yourself and other people across unknown land at night and day, camping as you go? I understand most of you are farmers and craftsman. At the end of the day I am not your master, and if you feel best served by looking around for yourselves then I will do nothing to force your compliance. I know I'm asking a lot of you to place your trust in me, I haven't been around long. But I promise you I will search to the best of my capabilities; I have magic that can aid me in this endeavour. You do not."
"I understand, you have done us no harm and could easily have left us long ago or not come at all." The man took and deep breath and nodded to Harry, "By the Light may you be successful." He sat down, at ease with the decision to place his trust in Harry.
Similar looks were present across many of the other people who sat within the tent. Others were unhappy with the situation, how could they not be though, they were living on borrowed time and at any moment something could come and ruin anything. But they had little choice at the end of the day, and so all held their silence and prayed to the Light that Harry would come through for them.
No further questions were raised so the people began to leave the tent, with the day upon them they headed back to their own tents to prepare to accomplish what still needed to be done around the encampment.
The guards departed soon after too, after receiving orders from Hadrian, they set out to patrol the perimeters or help out with the ongoing construction and other duties before it got to hot. Only Harry and Hadrian now remained within the expanded tent.
Hadrian's restlessness was sensed by Harry, his unguarded thoughts contaminating the area around him. He turned towards him, an eye brow raised in askance over the unspoken question.
"Are you sure this is the best option?" Hadrian began, his frustration leaking over into his tone, "Many amongst the guard would be honoured to help, it's difficult to accept leaving so much to one man alone, even if he is a wizard. "
Harry mentally sighed, he knew by 'many of the guards' Hadrian referred mostly to himself. His sense of obligation towards Harry for defeating the undead and rescuing them were driving his reasoning in wishing to accompany him in search of the others.
"You're leader of the guard, you can't come. You already know this, we've been over it previously!" Harry said, his voice rising in volume towards the end. He took a deep breath before continuing, "It's more important for you to stay here, the rest of the men look up to you as well as the villagers for being the one to organise the defence back on Lordaeron."
Hadrian exhaled softly, it was somewhat grating to not have any true control over his and the other survivors fortune. It wasn't out of desire to appear the hero or for any sense of greater recognition, nonetheless the feeling of helplessness was an insidious one.
The inevitable approach of the undead force as the screaming symphony of families in the background scrambled towards the ships in a desperate bid to flee their impending doom, coupled with the frantic orders barked out to the guard was a memory he'd best rather forgo until he died. Just like then, the same feeling of helplessness lurked within him, not to the same intensity but still frustrating.
He knew Harry to be a man of honour however, "Aye, Harry; I will do as you bid," nodding his head once towards the wizard who opened his mouth intent on speaking but was quickly cut off. "Although if you say one more blasted time choosing between 'what's right and what's easy' I'll fucking punch you, by the Light!"
Harry just laughed; it was always good riling up people with a good old Dumbledore quote. The old man would undoubtedly get a kick out of knowing his advice is being dispensed in another dimension, he thought fondly.
"When are you planning to leave?" Hadrian asked, his question snapping Harry out of his laughter.
"Tonight if possible, I need to take care of a few things before I leave however," Harry answered.
Hadrian paused a moment, pondering something carefully. "Supplies and defences?" he hazarded a guess.
Harry nodded in answer, "I have one other thing to setup in case of an emergency as well. Always good to be prepared, eh?" he winked at Hadrian who scowled in reply. "Best to get started now though, I'll be working most of the day. I'll let you know when I'm finished; I most likely will leave after."
They both left the tent after that, intent on the tasks they had at hand.
Harry developed a series of golems which would spring to life when hostile intent was detected near the encampment. From what he could gather from his brief foray into combat here was that the majority of the beings who existed were mostly dependent on medieval means of weaponry. Swords, axes, maces, catapults, armour and everything else in between was all the rage.
The golems he developed and camouflaged into the nearby rocky hills would be a formidable defence in his mind; able to withstand all but the most grievous of physical blows, they would be nigh invulnerable to the weapons most prevalent here.
A magical barrage would be more effective, yet he was confident in his spell work being able to negate serious damage for a small time. From what little he gleaned from conversation however pointed to the fact that magicals, like on his own world were far rarer than their mundane counterparts. Even so, agile enchanted golems could be deadly to mages; his own vivid memories of the Battle of Hogwarts and the enchanted armoured warriors cutting down exposed and unprepared Death Eaters with ease were a testament to this.
The thought had crossed his mind before to set up other active enchantments to ensnare hostile forces directly with magic but quickly discarded it. Such defences are difficult and time consuming to set up; more important was the fact that such defences could also easily injure and incapacitate allied forces if they went out to engage the enemy.
He would let Hadrian know what he had done before leaving so he could account for the worst case scenario.
Now having finished the most important task, he turned to setting up the failsafe. A dynamical location large storage portkey.
A portkey generally was enchanted to move wizards and witches to a singular location. This one however would constantly update its target location based on Harry's magical presence, with a little leeway; it wouldn't do to have everyone fall on top of him now or off a cliff he was climbing on.
The tent he had expanded earlier would serve as the base for the portkey's large storage, the idea was to allow many people to make use of it at once, and then upon activation transport everyone inside near him.
The idea was first developed by Hermione, before her untimely death. Harry's thoughts were beginning to cloud and shook his head vigorously as if to shake them out before they could infect and poison his current mood. He had come to terms her death a long time ago now, no use bringing up the past, for it stayed the past. None of it could follow him here.
He raised his wand before the tent and began enchanting; it was going to be a long few hours.
The light of day was beginning to fade, the sun already halfway behind the vast mountains in the distance. A cool, pleasant wind blew across the plains; it was good conditions for travelling, thought Harry.
"All set then, Harry?" questioned Hadrian who stood behind him, alongside the majority of the guard and people within the encampment. They had come to wish him good luck for the journey ahead and thank him for all that he had done.
"Yes, I've got everything," he replied whilst tapping gently the small pouch he had attached to his belt.
Hadrian glanced at the small, leather pouch as did others who had seen the wizard stick an entire month's worth of food into a space no larger than his palm. The wonders of magic never ceased, it was reassuring to many however they had such a clearly powerful and resourceful mage helping them.
"Well, we won't keep you any longer then." Hadrian paused and took a step back and then bowed, as did the rest of the people gathered before him. A gesture of respect and gratitude for all he had done, not out of submission or duty. Harry would not deny them this; he knew everyone had their pride. His countenance changed slightly, his face sporting a calm, content smile, eyes twinkling.
Hadrian was the first to rise and look upon the visage of the wizard. Many times had Hadrian bowed before people, nobles, commanders, sorcerers one and all; often did they take pride in seeing people bow before them, and it showed. Their lips turned upwards slightly in a small smirk, as if privy to a secret pleasure only they alone knew, their eyes narrowed so slightly, drinking in the sight before them.
None of them looked like the man before him however, his expression one of a man truly at ease with himself, a man who holds great respect for all who come before him in peace, a man who understands.
Hadrian turned to face his lieutenant, "Bring the horse up."
Harry immediately cut short his order though with a laugh and quick, precise movements of his wand which ended in a sharp poke towards a rock on the ground.
Multi-coloured light burst forth from the tip and impacted the rock which began to swell abruptly and transform. It was only a few seconds ago where once was a rock now stood a horse.
Hadrian hadn't seen a polymorph quite like that before.
Harry conjured a set of reins and stirrups quickly and fastened them with a flick of his wand, mounting the horse soon after.
"By the Light, may you succeed," Hadrian intoned, which was echoed by those behind him, some not saying anything and still reeling from the shock of seeing a rock turn into a horse.
Harry turned in the saddle to face those gathered before him, "I promise I won't let you down" and bowed his head towards them for the saddle.
With a sharp kick the horse sprang into a gallop out towards the plains and the fading daylight, the dust lingering behind his trail in smoky swirls.
Soon he was lost to distant eyes of all those who stood in the encampment, and would not be seen again for sometime.