Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter either. It belongs to its creator J.K. Rowling and probably Warner Bros. too. I'm not too sure about that. This piece of literature is simply the work of a humble fan. I also credit Jim Butcher for various themes, subjects, or references that I may use.
Author Notes: This is a Harry Potter crossover with the Dresden Files the book series. All my knowledge of the Dresden Files comes from the books. I've never seen the TV series. For the timeline that will be stated later. Thanks to the folks at DLP for help with editing.
Awaken Sleeper.
Chapter Twelve: Two Years Ago
by: Water Mage
The taxi ride was quiet. Too quiet, too tense, too everything. He liked it that way. Elaine was giving him cursory glances when she thought he wasn't looking, like she was afraid that at any moment he was going to lose his cool and explode. He could do that silently, and all within his mind, thank you very much. He wasn't mad at Elaine. Okay, he was a little annoyed that she hadn't told him the Summer Court was in town, but that was his own fault. He should have known. The Summer Knight's death would have brought the Courts into town faster than the mail owl flies. No, more than anything he was mad at Aurora. Still mad, more like it. How long had it been since he had last seen the Faerie Queen? Two years sounded about right. It wasn't long enough.
Funny how time flies.
"Harry?"
He looked up at her, fighting to keep his face expression neutral. "What, Elaine?"
Elaine sighed. "You know you don't have to come. Aurora only wants to meet with me."
"I promised to help you in this, and that means seeing the Misses," said Harry. "To move forward then there mustn't be anything hindering the path."
She raised an eyebrow, cracking a slight smile. "That's surprisingly insightful."
"Daytime television," he said with a tip of his head.
He returned to gazing out of the window, watching the streets of Chicago pass with an absent eye. His thoughts continued in the same current cycle. Faeries, rage, Aurora, then repeat. Most of all he began to remember how his present feelings originated. No matter how far back he put it in his mind he would always remember that day. Harry Potter and the Summer Lady Aurora had been married two years ago in chaos, death, and blood…
A sense of timeless wonder hung in the air in the woods of Solaria Garden. It was if time had no business within the trees and once you entered the forest time seemed to crawl by, distorted by the perfect serenity of the land. The gates swung open and Harry entered the garden proper, housed behind fortified walls and guarded by sleepless sentries. This was the first time he had come to the Nevernever without Elaine accompanying him, but he didn't need her to hold his hand through everything.
The inner sanctum of Solaria Garden was as always surreally beautiful. The hanger-on's and nobles of the Summer Lady's court walked underneath the gold tinted leaves that filtered in the soft light of the moon, bathing everything in an ethereal glow. He took a moment to take it in, before he flagged down an attendant he knew served Aurora.
The young girl with the typical Sidhe eyes, and frost colored hair looked at him expectantly. "Can you show me to Lady Aurora, if you please?"
Her eyes fell on the glittering, gold oak leaf dangling from the chain around his neck. "I just left her presence, but I will escort you, Wizard Potter."
The court of Aurora was a grand hall formed from the trees, blending nature and architecture in a way that didn't overbalance the other. They didn't go there. The aide led him through a curtain of an ivory hiding a worn path, leading to a set of gold-embossed double doors. Carved on the face was a scene of dragons in flight around the rising sun surrounded by a net of stars. They opened into a large square shaped parlor. Warm light shined from globes hovering above their heads, and comfortable furniture was arranged around a spacious sitting area.
The youngest Queen of Summer wore a pair of coveralls, still looking beautiful as ever, paint brush in hand, standing before a canvas and easel. Though she was dressed in paint splattered clothes, her graceful movements and bearing was a tale tell sign of her true status.
"Wizard Harry Potter," she said, turning to him. "What brings you to Solaria Garden?"
The Sidhe aide was dismissed with a swift hand gesture, and Harry spoke as the door closed behind the girl, "So the future Queen of Summer likes to paint?"
She nodded, turning back to her painting with a contemplating expression. "I find painting soothes the soul."
"But you don't have a soul," remarked Harry.
Aurora turned her cat like eyes on Harry, scrutinizing him intently. "Are you sure of that?"
"Yes," he replied, surely looking into those blank eyes that was absent of the inner spark that humans had.
An enigmatic smile spread across her rose red lips. "Yet I still find myself enjoying the craft. What does that say about me?"
"Hitler liked to paint and draw," retorted Harry with a shrug.
Aurora tipped her head, noting his valid point. She gestured to a nearby armchair and he took a seat. She sat on a curvy looking couch. Harry clasped his hands, positioning them on his crossed legs. Aurora regarded him with an amused little smile.
"By your posture I assume you have a request of me?" she asked.
Harry nodded stiffly. It didn't surprise him she noticed. He tried to hide it but it was hard. It wasn't often that he was in Aurora's presence. Specially within her own lands of power. He didn't make it a habit of visiting the lands of lands of Summer within Faerie. He didn't want to be on no one's territory.
"I do need something from you," he began carefully.
In the year he had been an ally of Aurora he had never lessened his caution. And he never would.
She smiled. "We are allies. If it is within my power I will see it done." Her smile didn't drop, but it became almost too bright, too wide. It was off. "I know if I am in need you would do the same."
Damn it if his heart didn't lurch at the proclamation. "I need a safe place to work a spell."
"That's all?" she asked.
Harry sighed. "The spell has to be done in the Nevernever, and frankly this is the safest place I know in this whole realm."
"Will this room meet your needs?" asked Aurora, motioning with her hand.
Harry blinked. He hadn't expected her to agree, at least not as readily. "Okay then. Well thank you." He paused for a moment, turning to her with narrowed eyes. "You're not going to leave me alone for this are you?"
Aurora's expression was reproachful. "Would a lion let a tiger loose within its den?"
Obviously that was a no. "Well I guess you'll be in for a show."
He stood up and moved the chair back. The bare floor was made up of smooth stone and it would due for the spell. Harry casted the finite incantatem spell on the shrunken items in his pocket. The books, chalk, and herbs returned to their normal size.
"Looks more like a ritual than a spell," noted Aurora, moving next to him as he kneeled on the ground.
Harry shrugged. "It's a spell. Just a very complex one." He began drawing careful lines on the floor and not looking up said, "I developed this spell based on an ancient rite practiced in Camelot by Merlin's Radiant Order." He jerked a finger at the books splayed open before him. "They were a detailed lot."
Aurora stood over one of the open books, reading the text with a small frown. "They were developing ways of piercing the veil between worlds to find Avalon. Such a thing was folly." Her expression turned curious as she settled her stare on him. "Initially I suspected you were some quasi human half breed. One of those dreadful scions but you're much more interesting. With your unique magic and the way the Nevernever hums around you one would begin to think you're not from around here."
The chalk almost broke in his grip as the silky voice washed over him. He didn't look up, instead only murmuring a cursory, "Oh?" to her inquiring accusations.
She laughed. "I wonder if you truly are a wizard or if that's just the title that best suits you within this world?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about," said Harry, looking up for the first time. His expression was one of successful honest confusion. "I really am a wizard."
She might be able to smell a lie a thousand miles away, but the truth would set him free.
Her smile dimmed a bit at his honest answer. "Mysteries surround you like a cloak. You can't always hope to keep everyone of them."
"I will to the last day I draw breath," said Harry, a bit of the inner coldness clouding his eyes.
She was silent as he went back to working on the markings on the ground. Harry pointedly didn't look back up while he continued drawing the symbols on the stone floor. He didn't mind that Aurora guessed that he was from a different world. It was inevitable that she would become suspicious of the true nature of what made him so unique from other wizards. She had picked up on it the first time they met. If anything he was surprised that the Sidhe had taken this long to puzzle it out. From the way she described his power it sounded like he stuck out like a sore thumb, especially when he was within the Nevernever. The land reacted to his magic like a sedated lover, buzzing against his insides with a dim awareness.
The proto-Avalonian symbols adorning the ground was the basis for the language used on the island of magic. At least it was according to his research. He traced the runes carefully in a wide circle, whispering a prayer over each symbol as he curled each accent over the markings.
He tweaked the spell based on the principles of a pensive. Theoretically the spell would use his own magic frequency to lock on a similar source, the wizards of his world, and take him there. Not unlike a pensive a bubble of temporal time would form around him so he couldn't interact with the environment on the other side. Two objects from different universes interacting would have the result of matter meeting antimatter. Poof. They would just simply cease to exist. At least that's what all his research had led him to believe. Apparently that was how this world's version of Atlantis had fallen.
"That should be the last bit," said Harry, standing up.
He took a step back to admire his handiwork. The circle was made up of blocky Avalonian script, red against the ivory colored stone floor. Within the circle was a six pointed star, representing the point of origin in six dimensional space.
Aurora gifted him with a bemused smile. "I hadn't realized you were this gifted in the Old Ways."
"When you put your mind to something…" he trailed off, leaving it at that. Harry looked at her, his expression going serious. "Take a step back."
Harry stepped into the circle as the Summer Lady took a step backward. He took out his wand and gripped the stick in two hands. There was a reason he picked the Nevernever to do the spell. The land was a crossroads of sorts for other various realms. Places of myth such as Tartarus, Olympus, Valhalla, Heaven, and Hell are realms of spirit so their paths all cross within the Nevernever, since technically they're all just regions within the larger dimension of spirit. In theory it was the perfect place for extradimensional exploration.
His wand vibrated in his hands as a visible aura of magic started to shine around him. His form glowed green like the color of his eyes and the infamous Killing Curse. He dug deep into that well of magic that he had access to. It was like opening a door. The floor of warm energy thrummed through his veins like an adrenaline high. Harry directed it through the wand in his hands, and the focus did as it was supposed to. The magic ran into the wand and burst from the tip in a blast of magic and energy. The circle beneath his feet ate the power up, feeding the energy into the symbols, giving life to the spell to run its course.
The room began to hum with power, rising in pitch till he could feel it stroke against the inside of his skin. The star tips lit up and six lances of light split the air. The beams moved and their points converged in a spot above his head. The blue rays emitted a pulse and the air around their joined points began to destabilize. Space broke down as the laws of physics fled before the power rupturing the air.
A dim darkness shone from within the distorted space. The edges throbbed with an angry purple light that seethed with foreign power. Within the abyss of darkness existed dripping chaotic eddies and faded pale lights of an abysmal continuum. Local space fluctuated and Harry shuddered as the world around him shook.
"Harry!" Aurora called with an edge of warning in her tone.
Harry gritted his teeth holding his wand tighter as it vibrated stronger, reminiscent of the Priori Incantatem all those years ago. "I got it, okay!"
He hoped.
Slowly he tried to cut off his power flow connecting him to the spell. Abruptly the power in the room exploded in a maelstrom of chaos infused magic. Harry stumbled as the tear in space above him screamed. He fell to his knees as the noise roared through his mind, battering against his Occlumency shields like they were paper. He vaguely registered the tempest in the room swell as the lances of light pulsed with eerie blue light. The hole in space expanded by the pulse of the beams, and with it the screaming intensified as the universe around it strained to correct the hole in time and space.
Harry strained his ears over the roar of the tempest of exotic power. He could vaguely make out Aurora's voice over the din. Then white hot pain overrode his every sense of self. Fire licked at his nerves as he felt like his body was being stretched like a piece of taffy. In reality his body was being sucked through the tear in space. His entire mass was reduced to its most basic molecules. Even if he could scream no one would hear the cry through the dimension aether that his atoms streamed across. Black took over his mind sending him into blissful dark as the pain burned his very soul.
He awoke to the sounds of groans.
Someone was making a deep groaning noise of weary pain. Consciousness hit him like a jolt and he realized that the noise was coming from him. Pain hit him a moment later as he struggled to open his eyes. He bit down on his tongue to resist crying out as he turned his body, fighting to pull himself up. He winced as his eyes opened and light filtered through his irises.
He definitely wouldn't be trying that again he thought as he sluggishly righted himself. The pain was a big factor, but more than that the way the universe destabilized and reality fluctuated…he couldn't take the chance of screwing up and blowing up half a city because his spellwork wasn't on point.
Harry rose up holding his head as his blurry vision adjusted itself. His muscles screamed at the movement, and he staggered as his feet gained a foothold on solid ground. His stomach did a flip and a roll and he choked down the vomit that wanted to greet him. He took a ragged breath forcing off the nausea, and then took his first look around.
Okay… not what he was expecting. Cold white ice covered everything in a blanket of snow. He took a full two minutes staring at frozen landscape. Slopes and hills with jagged ice icicles hanging over the edges circled around him. In the distance were snow covered mountains with ivory tipped peaks rising high into the…alien sky. He gaped, rubbed at his eyes, and then gaped some more.
Something had gone wrong, terribly, terribly wrong. The sky looked like every picture of a nebula he had ever seen. It was alien and beautiful in its majesty with its twirling colors of star forming gas, mixing cerulean and blue, in a kaleidoscope of color. Beads of light peaked out from the formation in the horizon, twinkling mauve light setting off the spectacular sight.
This shouldn't be, he told himself, staring at the sky in mixed rapture. A sound pricked his ears and he turned sharply, his body loudly protesting the swift movement. His eyes landed on an unexpected sight.
"Bloody hell," he murmured.
Aurora still clothed in her coveralls shakily got to her feet, even making her imbalance seem elegant. Harry helped her up and she shook off his hand as it slid over her arm.
"Don't touch me," she snapped, taking stock of their surroundings as she gained her footing. "What have you done?"
Harry struggled to form a coherent thought through his muddled thoughts. "Something went wrong."
"Obviously," she stated dryly.
Harry frowned. "My head is killing me right now, and you throwing your attitude around isn't going to help matters."
Her expression clouded. "Do you not realize what you've done?"
The icy question caught him off guard. "I'm sure you can enlighten me."
Aurora looked around and she shuddered, shuddered, as she gained a look at the sky above. Her expression went from angry to fearful then smoothed over till he couldn't tell what she was feeling through her expressionless face. It was too late however. He had seen her fear clear as day. The Queens of Faerie had little to fear in the world, and what little was fearsome indeed.
"I should kill you where you stand," she declared, staring at him with rising contempt. "Do you have any idea where you've taken us?"
Harry shook his head. "I have no idea where we are. I was aiming for something more Earth like, but not."
It was the clearest answer he had given her so far, hinting that he was in fact searching for an alternate Earth. She nodded, unsurprised by the admission.
"I suppose you were, but you have overshot your mark…" Aurora suddenly stiffened, stuttering off.
She grabbed his arm and dragged him into the shadows of one of the nearby hills. Her grip may have been dainty but her strength was just as inhuman as the rest of her. Harry stood close to her side, barely breathing, taking her hint of silence. His heart thudded loudly in his throat as her gaze went to the sky. Her small hand was still wrapped around his wrist, and as a piercing screech broke the still of silence her grip tightened painfully.
Harry jerked his head up as a thing flew directly above their heads. Fear crawled down his spine as the creature flapped six unnaturally long wings that had to span a city block. They were membranous, and its head was something glaringly ugly in its monstrosity, as it resembled something almost squid like, but not. It gave one more echoing, terror invoking screech and soared over the horizon with slow lazy flaps.
"What was that!" Harry demanded, rounding on the shorter woman with her knowing, horrified eyes.
"A Walker," she stated with quiet finality. "One of the lesser creatures in this realm." She looked at him and he almost shrank beneath the timeless, almost ancientness that shone in her eyes. "You've taken us to the Outside. We're in the realm of the Outsiders."
"Outsiders?" he asked.
"As I am to you, the Outsiders were to the Old Ones eons ago." She took a moment to stare at the frozen land. "They lost their acquisition of the world, and now they're here in the Outside, beyond all reality."
Harry's mouth went dry. "What happened? Why weren't they destroyed instead of locked up here?"
"We rule now where they ruled once. Where we rule now, they shall rule again. After winter is summer. After summer is winter."
His heart faltered at the connotations. "We're seriously fucked aren't we?"
"We've gone beyond the Outer Gates," she said gravely. "We're not even in the same universe. My powers here are greatly diminished." Aurora craned her neck, listening. "Even now the Song of Summer fades from my ears. We mustn't stay here."
Harry nodded. He had heard passing mention of the Outer Gates once before. They marked the boundaries of the universe. If his spell had crossed them over, and they landed here that meant his home was further than the Outside. He might have gotten the destination wrong, but at least he knew one thing. His home was somewhere beyond the Outer Gates.
"No worries," said Harry, eyeing Aurora as she began to visibly become agitated. "The spell wasn't designed to permanently catapult me across the universe. I added a contingency within the spellwork. Within a certain amount of time the remainder of the spell will trigger a recall, and it will send us right back." He said the next part sheepishly. "I just don't know how long that will be."
Her razor edged smile made him narrow his eyes. "Are all wizards where you're from as competent?"
He bit back the immediate comeback and instead settled for saying, "Let's go find shelter. I don't like being out here in the open."
It took almost an hour before they reached a rock formation. Aurora with her exceptional eyesight was the one who saw the cave ten meters up within the rock formation. With slow movements they climbed the icy rock face, being extra careful since quick movements was sure to have them falling. They made it up almost eight meters when they found a series of smooth steps in the outcropping that may have been made naturally, but it was impossible to tell because of the thick layer of ice and snow.
The inside of the cave was dark and thankfully not as cold as the outside. After the hour long trek, Harry was more than tired. He already had felt like shit and the walk hadn't helped in the least. Aurora took a seat on a larger boulder and Harry sat on a smaller rock, and sank his face into his palms.
"My magic is wonky too," his muffled sentence came out between his fingers.
Aurora's hearing was just as preternatural as her eyesight, and she understood him perfectly. "I was afraid of that. How can you tell?"
"I tried a Warming Charm earlier," he answered with a tired sigh. "I could almost feel it start to work, but it fell flat. I hate to say it but I don't think we'll stand a chance if we run into one of those Outsiders."
Aurora lifted her chin haughtily. "I'm the Lady of Summer. These creatures will rue their existence if they strike against me."
"I thought you were powerless," retorted Harry, raising an eyebrow.
Her hot glare almost made him reach for his wand. "I said my powers were diminished. I am not powerless. I was born in the womb of Summer, and its warmth still lingers yet within."
That was kind of squicky, but he nodded anyway. "Understood. I-I'm sorry for bringing you here. It wasn't my intention for the spell to sweep you up too."
"I assumed as much, otherwise I would have killed you when I came to."
He didn't know what to say to that.
Aurora continued seeing him at loss for words, "If anything do you not think an explanation is in order?"
Harry frowned. She had a point. He did owe her something. He would be damned if he told her everything, but he would tell her something to satisfy her curiosity. Maybe it would stop her from giving him those long glances that made him feel like he was being dissected.
"I'm not from around here," he started. He laughed a little at his wording. "I didn't lie. I'm a wizard. Only I'm not from the Earth you know. Something happened that I can't repeat, and I ended up in your reality and I don't know why. I just want to go back home."
Aurora tucked a strand of loose white hair behind her ear. "Your world may be beyond Outer Gates, but I can guarantee the Outside is the world closest to my own universe. Just as the lands of Faerie are the closest to the mortal realm within the Nevernever."
"You're being awfully informative," said Harry suspiciously.
Aurora shrugged, making the action seem as if she meant nothing and everything all at once. "You told me something and I responded in kind by telling you something. What do you humans call it, tit for tat?"
Harry snorted out a laugh. "That's right."
"You look cold," noticed Aurora with a small frown. "Summer fae run naturally hot. Come near me and I'll share my warmth."
Harry blinked. "Wow. You're forward."
A tiny smile tugged at her lips. "It wasn't my goal to seduce you. Unless you want to be seduced?"
He had to admit if he didn't think she would stab him in the back at the first or second opportunity he would probably go for it. She was just his type too. Chartreuse eyes and scarlet bow shaped lips, backed by beautiful pale, youthful skin, and long white hair. She had an ethereal beauty about her that shone greater than the Veelas of his world. Even in her paint splattered coveralls she was a vision of loveliness and every teen boy's wet dream come to life.
"Not particularly," replied Harry, fighting to keep the shaky tremor from his voice.
Aurora shrugged that Gaelic shrug once more. "Pity. You were quite talented from what I remember."
"So were you," he replied back with an involuntary smile. The smile slipped abruptly and he snapped out, "Stop trying to glamour me!"
"I'm doing no such thing," Aurora denied, watching him with bemusement.
Harry frowned harder at her confusion. "Thrice I ask and done. Are you trying to glamour me?"
She stiffened and the look she leveled him with could have melted him on the spot if she had her full powers. Aurora didn't answer right away. She took a careful breath before closing her eyes. When she opened them they were flat and neutral as she stared at him unblinkingly.
"I'm not using glamour on you."
Her hard voice could have cut glass. Harry let out a little sigh. He might have just made an enemy out of her, and ruined what little camaraderie they had going but he had to know if she was influencing his perception. At least he knew for sure now. The binding had made sure of that. It probably wouldn't have worked if she was in full form, but he was thankful she was knocked down a peg just as he was.
Faeries aren't allowed to lie. It's the reason they always word their sentences very carefully. And if a faerie says something three times, it has to make sure that it's true. If a promise is spoken thrice it's bound to fulfill it. Faeries hated to be bound in such a way, and he could imagine that as a Sidhe and the Lady of Summer the binding had burned something deep in her gut.
He licked his lips and said carefully, "Thank you."
Her expression made his heart skip. Not in a good way.
He rubbed his hands together puffing against the cold skin. At least they both were dressed somewhat warmly. His blazer wasn't thick but it was comfortable and kept out most of the chill. He imagined that Aurora's coveralls were doing much the same thing.
Harry almost started to doze off as the cold seeped deep in his bones. Sleep eluded him completely since a Sidhe was across from him probably plotting his murder. It was reason enough to keep one eye open. Harry swallowed thickly as she smiled thinly at the nervousness that fleetingly flashed in his eyes. Oh yeah, she was still not happy. Harry leaned his head back against the wall. He jerked up and pressed his ear completely against the wall.
"What is it?" asked Aurora suddenly, noticing his anxiousness.
Harry looked at her quickly, earlier feelings pushed aside for the moment. "I don't know. I hear something. I-I'm not sure what it is."
He took his ear off the wall and peered into the depths of the cave. Nothing jumped out at him, but he had to know what that sound was. He had to know whether if it was dangerous or not. If it posed a threat then they would beat it out of here. If it was something harmless then they could wait the remainder of their time here in peace till the spell's recall triggered.
Harry stood up. "I'm going to go check it out. I may be nothing but I need to make sure."
"I'm going with you of course," stated Aurora, climbing to her feet smoothly. "There's safety in numbers."
They walked as silent as they could further beyond the mouth of the cave. The cave depths were surprisingly colder the more they walked. Harry prayed that they didn't find anything. Finding safe shelter again like this was unpredictable. What he wouldn't give for his magic to be acting normal. A lumos spell would come in handy right now, he thought grimly, as the light gained a murky tint.
The noise rose in fervor with every footstep. The cave ceiling started to slope upwards till it opened into a giant cavernous room, the size of a coliseum. And it wasn't empty. They stopped on a ledge and looked down at the horrendous sight stretched out before them. Thousands of beings, creatures, stood within the space below. Most were taller than a tree stands, covered with flickering eyes all over their pulsating bodies. Goo fell from the eyes, acidic drops that hissed and sizzled against the icy ground as they fell. The other forms were vaguely more humanoid in appearance, only in the fact that they wore strange armor that obscured most of their form. Yet flailing tentacles, flexible and dexterous, jutted out from their sides, and held in their grips were razor edged weapons.
They weren't idly moving about. They were clustered before a gigantic ice throne. At the sight of the creature seated on the throne his heart almost failed him. It was monstrous creature of unimaginable form. Its flickering body was ghostly, and seemed to be made of the howling wind given tangible form. An awful feeling of gathering dread built around him the longer he stared at the creature.
A tugging on his arm caught his attention. He dragged his eyes away from the terrible creature and howling monsters. His stare fell on Aurora's uneasy expression. For the first time he realized that this was what she had feared earlier. Her eyes said enough. They had to get out of here. Now.
Harry nodded mutely. The faster they got away from here the sooner his skin would stop itching, like it was trying to crawl off his body. This being was ancient in its might and every primal part of him could sense it clearly. Something shifted in the air, and the shadows around them began to bend at strange angles. A lurking fear pressed upon his shoulders.
Aurora grabbed his wrist and tugged him backward. He staggered a step in her direction, but not before seeing the being on the throne look over the lesser creatures, turning those dead eyes directly on them. A presence rushed through the cave tunnel, promising something akin to awful fright. They were well and truly fucked. Harry found his legs moving with little urging. He and Aurora took off at a breakneck pace down the tunnel, as if the hounds of Hell were on their heels. If only. What chased them was something a lot more terrifying.
Light shone at the end of the tunnel and the cave mouth appeared. Icy air, like a caress of the frozen north, ghosted across the back of his neck in a warning. Harry gripped Aurora's hand tightly, helping her down the ice covered stairwell.
"Hurry, quickly," Harry urged her, his heart pounding inside his chest.
Aurora moved deftly down the rocks and Harry followed after her, slipping a bit as he trailed after the woman. They jumped the last bit of distance and landed hard on the icy ground. Their feet barely touched before they took off, running for their lives.
"What was that thing?" asked Harry in a huff, as he strained to keep pace with the faster Sidhe.
Her stride was effortless, but her distress was apparent in her voice. "A Lord of the Empty Night…The strongest of the Outsiders… This foe is beyond us."
The ground rumbled like the epicenter of an earthquake. DO NOT THINK THAT YOU CAN ESCAPE MY EYE.The words came from nowhere and everywhere at once as the Lord of the Empty Night suddenly loomed behind them in all its gigantic otherness. The wind rose in a howl of fury as if spurned on by the Outsider's very presence. Those fathomless eyes seared into his mind and sent an ethereal spike of pain straight to his soul. Harry came to a stop with a skid.
He was still an Auror and the Corps didn't go down without a fight.
Harry reached deep inside his gut for the dark feelings he needed. He took all his pain, his reasons for living, his desire to see the Outsider dead before him, and then balled it up into a powerful fuel.
He aimed his wand high and spat with an angry roughness, "Avada Kedavra!"
His magic answered his feelings like a loyal friend, and dark emerald light blasted from his wand in a lance of magic and death. The Killing Curse slammed into the impossibly tall Outsider and instead of staggering back, the power splashed across that broad white chest like water.
Impossible. That shouldn't happen, Harry thought desperately. He aimed his wand again and the mighty arm swiped through the air. Clawed fingers dragged into his body, cutting through flesh as the force lifted him up and away into the air.
Excruciating pain flared through his body and he almost blacked out as he hit the ground. Bones cracked and he screamed as his leg bent at an odd angle and then snapped. He coughed up blood and his hands began shaking as shock started to settle in. The claws had torn into his ride side leaving three of his ribs exposed as hot blood poured from his midsection.
The Outsider raised his foot and brought it down directly on Harry. The ground exploded outward as the earth buckled and cratered around the foot. Bright sunshine yellow light began to peak out beneath the foot, growing brighter till the foot was blown away by it. Standing like a Greek statue given life was Aurora, shining like the rising sun, as warm light poured from her hands forming a golden dome around her and Harry.
"It will take more than that to extinguish the light of Summer," Aurora declared, defiantly staring at their attacker.
Power exploded to life abruptly and the familiar esoteric waves thrummed through the area, as the air itself began to fluctuate with the sudden influx of power. The sky shuddered as a hole in space and time was birthed to life from the flickering violet light gathering above their heads. Aurora took hold of Harry's hand.
"Hold on," she said as the portal began to suck them in.
The return trip was just as disconcerting as the first time.
The parlor appeared around them as the portal returned them to exactly the same place they left. Aurora took a staggering step backward as the forces beyond her understanding and control relaxed their hold. Harry lay at her feet gasping for air as the life slowly bled from him, lips turning a dangerous blue against his deathly white face.
She kneeled down next to him, ignoring the blood spreading around her. "You live yet. I can save you…Harry, listen to my words."
He coughed up blood. "S-save…me…"
"Do you accept whatever comes along with it?"
Harry's thoughts slipped and broke with his every breath. He knew he should question it. A small part of him wanted to. The larger part just wanted to live. It took all he had to grunt out an affirmative reply. Her hands clasped his just as the ground shook, and with a crashing sound mixed with screams, the roof above was ripped off with a great heave and flung away.
The Outsider had come through the portal and was greatly angered. He turned his wraith upon them, and the Nevernever distorted around the monstrous form as if it was incapable of holding in all that he was. Aurora managed to deflect his fist that almost smashed them to bits with a ray of light.
The light was joined by another light that fell into the exposed room like a comet. Within the light was a tall woman dressed in a billowing gown. She raised her hands as if in benediction and golden light surged upward. The Lord of the Empty Night met the light with a beam of inky black that poured from his mouth in a scream of rage. The gold and black light met, and Lord of the Empty Night or not this was the realm of Summer, and its Queen would not be defeated in her place of power. The golden ray pulsed, doubling and refocusing, glowing like the morning dawn. The light washed over the mighty being and he was unmade from the biggest piece to the tiniest atom. The light turned him into nothing than less to nothing.
"Take it freely, freely is it offered… and until death comes…"
The light faded leaving Aurora still clasping Harry's hands as she whispered under her breath, pouring power and herself into her words. She urged Harry to repeat after her, and he did slowly drifting between life and death but kept in the now by the hands held in his.
"…shalt have me in thy keeping."
He screamed feeling a tightening within his chest as an unfamiliar power sizzled through his veins, thrumming and glowing with golden warmth. Something opened inside of Harry, inside of Aurora. It was more like a door and what came out of it was a rush of staggering, scorching and stellar light. They both threw back their heads and screamed as the force opened its mouth and swallowed them whole. It wrapped them tight, hot and familiar, like an old friend or lover.
The power filled Harry to the brim and he took a deep gasp of air sitting up, unhindered and without pain. He looked down at himself, his completely unharmed and completed healed self. His clothes were ripped to hell, but he was mark free as if death hadn't just tried to take him.
Harry stared down in amazement and then at Aurora. "What did you do?"
"My life force runs in you and yours through me," she said with a tired sigh. "We're connected now in a way that transcends death."
Visions of Deathly Hallows and horcruxes flashed across his mind, and he stared at her with unbelievable anger. "You bitch."
The woman took a step forward, amber gown sweeping across the debris littering the floor. He took his first good look at her and blinked at her resemblance to Aurora. The eyes and hair were the same, but the face was wiser and there was a timeless quality about her features.
"You certainly gained a fiery one for a husband, daughter," said Queen Titania with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Welcome to the Summer Court, son in law."
He didn't believe her welcome anymore than that chameleon smile.
So he ran.
And he didn't look back…
Surprisingly they let him go. Solaria Garden was in chaos so no one cared that he sprinted from its lands, fleeing back to the mortal realm with his tail between his legs. He spent the better part of a week hiding in his apartment waiting for the Summer Knight to drag him back to court. It was two months after that before he started to leave his apartment without looking over his shoulder or peering into the shadows. For two years he avoided the lands of Faerie, and distanced himself from all things pertaining to them.
He put the Outside in the back of his mind and kept his eye on the purple prize. His home was somewhere out there beyond the Outer Gates. It wasn't hard to ignore the well of power that hovered so tantalizingly close to his own magic. It was warm and bright like the sun and it begged to be noticed. Whatever. It wasn't the first time he had been thrust with someone else's magic, and it wasn't the first time he refrained from using it. He had cheated death once again. Only this time he hadn't come out of it with a free ticket.
He had gained a wife, a future Faerie Queen, whose species viewed mortals as their playthings and manipulation as a favorite past time. Harry had been down that road before. He was going to be no one's toy because Aurora was sidhe, and like it or not, she wanted to use him in some shape or fashion.
"Harry…we're here."
Harry shook himself from his thoughts. They were parked in the back of a building that he vaguely recognized as the Rothchild. She paid the driver and he took off leaving them in the back of an empty lot.
"Elaine…" he began, giving her a look.
She shrugged apologetically. "I guess I should have told you the Summer Court is stationed on the roof."
His eye twitched. "It would have been nice to know."
"No use crying about it," she said, gesturing for him to follow her.
She walked to further into the back of the lot toward a breezeway that was fairly unnoticeable. Harry almost missed it if she hadn't led them to it. Her amulet with its five point star gleamed suddenly, throwing a strobe of blue white light into the air as the breezeway grew steadily darker. The light landed on an elevator that opened when Elaine waved a hand before the doors.
The amulet stopped glowing once they stepped inside the lit space of the elevator. Muzak pumped from the speakers and Elaine reached into her jeans and fished out a little silver key. Instead of a button pad for floor numbers, Elaine slipped the key into a slot and they lifted off.
Harry raised an eyebrow. "Well aren't you just full of surprises today."
"Don't start," said Elaine in her usually tough tone. "I don't like this anymore than you."
She was right. He didn't like this. The doors opened into a scene from the Jungle Book. He stepped onto…grass. The setting sun shined down its light and he frowned at the forest that grew around them. If it weren't for the faint sounds of Chicago underneath the buzz of insects and haunting music of a pipe he could easily believe they had been transported to the Amazon. No doubt the whole roof was under Faerie glamour to protect it from prying mortal eyes.
They waded past hanging vines and overgrown leaves of bushes till they found a well worn path. They followed it to a glade that opened into a mini version of the courtyard of Solaria Garden. Faerie creatures lounged around the open space, sitting on large boulders and stone benches. Satyrs put on a mock swordfight and pixies played in the looking pool. Near a cluster of trees Sidhes painted, a trio of stone statues grouped to their right. Lord Talos and a fierce looking centaur he recognized as Korrick noticed them first, just as they rose from a bow before a twisted wooden throne.
"The Lord Consort," whispered a voice behind him.
Then it spread like wildfire amongst the gathered people. Heads tipped respectfully as he met eyes around the glade. He stifled a groan as even Talos tipped his head. Aurora took Korrick's hand and rose from her wooden throne, garbed in a short dress of butter cream and no shoes. Her almost violent green eyes settled on him, as a slow smile spread across her face.
"Lord Harry," she said, taking joy in the way his shoulders tensed at the title. "What brings my long lost husband back to me?"
He was back in the lion's den. This time running wasn't an option.
The various Lovecrafthian themes surrounding the Old Ones were used for this chapter, since nothing is really known for sure of Butcher's Old Ones and Outsiders. I don't expect the next part to take as long as to get out. I was working on a project and it took precedence.