Hello everyone.
As all of my work for University is finished, I now have more time to do what I want. During the Christmas break, I will try to give you 3 or 4 new chapters.
Now a few quick announcements and answers to questions.
1. Now that I mentioned your opinions, I would like to ask you all. Where do you want Harry to travel? We still have some time before the cannon starts and while I still have a lot of things planned, I can make a few more adventures in-between if you want. So don't forget to give me your opinion.
2. I would like to answer the question about Harry making a wand. There are multiple reasons why he can't and won't in the near future. The most important is probably that Harry has no knowledge in wand crafting. He could probably create something akin to a wand, but it wouldn't work as well. Next, Hary's magic is different. His body didn't travel with him to this world, only his soul and some magic. Then it got mixed with the magic inside his new body.
Some of you may still have some questions about this subject, but I won't say anything else as it will be touched later in the story.
A bit of a warning before you start the chapter. Inside there are a few things that some of you might or might not like. I would be grateful if you all read the chapter until the end and then asked me a question if there is something that bothers you. I don't want people to get the wrong idea after reading this chapter.
There were a few more questions, but I can't answer them if I don't want to spoil the story.
Again I would like to thank you all for reading, following, favoriting and reviewing my story. It is wonderful to see so many people enjoying it and I will try to make it better and better.
That would be it, enjoy the chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own HP or GoT.
Chapter 7. The Past and the Present
In the beginning, the way towards the castle was quite easy. Just a simple walk on some grey stone. Harry was surprised that nothing changed for almost ten minutes when he was halfway to the target.
Unfortunately like always nothing could be so simple. When the second half of the road began, Harry started to notice a drain on his magic. At first, it was nothing too alarming, but the higher he got, the more magic got drained.
Harry tried to regain his magic back, but it didn't work. It only speeded up the process. So with a quick decision, Harry began to run. He already could see the entrance doors to the castle so he should be able to make it in time.
And he did. When the wizard got to the big, dark, metal doors, he tried to open them, only to fail.
He tried a few more times and the doors didn't even budge. Harry was beginning to panic as the drain on his magic was getting stronger and stronger so he didn't have too much time left.
Without any good ideas, Harry decided to do something quite stupid.
He pushed some of his magic towards the doors and tried to cast an unlocking charm. The spell didn't work, but it seemed the doors just needed some magic to open as after Harry pushed his magic in them, they quickly unlocked.
The wizard didn't waste any time and ran straight inside the castle.
The moment Harry did, he regretted his decision as the doors shut down with such force that the wizard was surprised they didn't break.
"Great Potter, what did you get yourself into again," mumbled Harry with annoyance seeping into his tone. The only plus of getting locked in this castle was his magic was no longer being drained. Now he would only need to find a way out. That was after he explored this place and rested for some time.
With a sigh, Harry looked around to observe his new surroundings.
He was standing in an extremely big hallway. The walls and floor were made out of some black material which Harry couldn't recognize and what probably was marble. The wizard never was someone who paid too much attention to architecture, but even he could admire how the interior was built.
On walls, Harry saw multiple flat sculptures which didn't really make sense to the wizard. Some of them represented humans or other creatures, but others showed symbols that Harry never saw. He quickly gave up on his attempts to understand them and moved on with his observations.
There wasn't any furniture in the hallway and Harry was left wondering if it would be the same in other parts of the castle.
Shaking his head, Harry looked at the stairs, there were a few of them. Two of them were located on each side of the hallway and lead to the upper floors. There was also a single staircase located in the center on the room and this time it went down.
The moment Harry laid his eyes on the staircase, he felt a pull on his magic. A bit scared, the wizard quickly checked if his magic was being drained again. It wasn't.
He released a breath of relief and tried to focus on the new feeling. Surprisingly it only wanted Harry to follow the pull. Fortunately, it wasn't the first time Harry came upon something like this so his worries quickly went away.
He thought for a bit if he wanted to follow the feeling at this moment, but decided against it. The wizard was tired and some rest would do him good. The big question was, where he could stop for a moment. Harry had no idea what was inside the castle so he couldn't just go to sleep in the middle of a hallway.
In the end, Harry decided to sit down in the corner and get something to eat. Sleep would need to wait until later. For now, he would wait to regain some strength and then go down the staircase.
Harry had no idea how long he sat in the corner of a hallway as it was almost dark in the castle. He ate some food and after he felt that he was ready to go, Harry stood up and followed the staircase into the lower parts of the building.
The way down was quite long and at one moment Harry wondered why anyone would create a space so deep under the castle. He could understand a basement or some kind of a bunker, but 5 minutes of walking down were getting quite disbelieving. So when the stairs ended, Harry almost screamed in joy.
That was until he saw another endless hallway with doors on left and right. Harry looked at the room in disbelief and sighed. He just couldn't get a break. Fortunately for him, the pull was still there so Harry knew where he needed to go.
It took a few minutes of walking and checking out the rooms around him to finally get to the place from which the pull originated.
It was a big circular room with a high ceiling. This time the walls were made out of some dark blue material that had a magical feeling to it. Harry couldn't recognize the effect the material's magic caused and he was quite irked by this fact. Apart from the new material, the room was dim lighted and Harry couldn't see any furniture apart from two very interesting objects.
The first one was a big stone pedestal that stood in the center of the room and was covered in runes. It was the same one from Harry's dream, but now he could see the runes more clearly. Unfortunately, it didn't mean that he could understand them. Like with the strange symbols in the entrance hallway, those runes were completely foreign to him.
Still, like in Harry's dream, the pedestal was not what caught his attention. No, the blood-red crystal levitating above the pedestal again took this place.
Like earlier, it was a bit bigger than Harry's head and gave out some kind of glow. When Harry reached out with his magic to check it out, he almost drowned in the pure amount of energy radiating from the crystal. It was like nothing that Harry ever saw. The only thing that came close to the crystal in the aspect of magic, was the Veil of Death in his old world.
Then Harry again felt the familiar pull and he couldn't stop himself from walking towards the crystal.
Just when Harry almost touched the crystal, his every sense screamed at him to dodge. He managed to slide to the right, just in time to avoid getting slashed by a sword.
He should have known that something like this would happen. Harry was lucky his magic and sword fighting training managed to save him from getting killed. The wizard then turned around to face his new opponent.
It was definitely a man judging by the person's build. He was taller than Harry and probably almost every human that existed. His clothes consisted of well-crafted, black leather armor. It was definitely of much better quality than Harry's and the wizard wondered if he could get one for himself. There were also more of those weird symbols carved into the armor and Harry again was annoyed for his lack of knowledge about them.
The wizard couldn't see the man's face as it was hidden under a hood. Then Harry's eyes drifted to the man's hands which were holding two short swords.
All in all, if it wasn't for one important fact, Harry would say the man looked like an experienced fighter.
The important fact was quite simple... the man was transparent, much like a ghost only without the gray colors. Harry didn't know what to think of this piece of information. He never met a ghost who could interact with the real world like a normal person and he was quite sure that this phantom didn't have that problem.
Harry didn't get any more time to think as the ghost swung both of his swords at Harry and the wizard was forced to draw his own shortsword to block the attack.
Whatever the ghost was, he was much stronger than the shadow binder Harry fought a few days ago. With only one block Hary felt pain in his arms. This fact led Harry to his decision of focusing on dodging from now on. Who knew how many hits he could block before his hands gave out.
The wizard barely dodged a few attacks and was left amazed by the phantom's abilities. No ghost should be able to fight like this, not even the resurrection stone could summon solid people. At least that was what Harry thought, he never really had a chance to test the Hallow after he threw it away in the forest. A mistake on his part, but who could have known that he would need this information now.
Again his thoughts were stopped by the phantom's attack which Harry was forced to block as it was too fast to dodge.
Annoyed Harry tired to push the ghost away with magic. To Harry's surprise the moment he used the magic, it was absorbed by an unknown force. The wizard cursed under his nose at the very important fact and quickly dodged to the left as another swing was coming at him.
With his magic useless Harry was again forced to dodge and block from time to time. The wizard's hands were getting weaker and weaker after every block and Harry wondered what he was supposed to do now. He vowed to himself that if he somehow got out of this, he would create some kind of magic to help him with the physical aspect of fighting. It was annoying that everyone was stronger than him and now the ghost was even faster than any adult Harry faced before.
It was clear that the ghost was toying with him and Harry was not amused by the fact. He already tried to use his magic again, only to get the same outcome. He could only set his blade aflame and it didn't help in any way. Still, thanks to using fire, Harry discovered that magic was no longer hard to use like it was in the Vale of Shadows.
With his flaming sword, Harry tried to find an opening in the ghost's guard and maybe get a lucky hit, but he couldn't see anything. The man's stance was perfect and Harry began to realize that he was not fighting a shadow binder who didn't have too much experience with a sword. Harry won the fight in the mountain only because he could use magic better than the shadow binder. This ghost or whatever it was, had skill that probably matched Bronn's or Harry's instructor in Asshai and the wizard couldn't use magic.
It was quite depressing to know that your enemy was toying with him and Harry was wondering why the ghost just didn't finish it.
The fight went on for another few minutes with Harry dodging almost every attack. Unfortunately, there were times when the ghost managed to land a hit and injure Harry a bit. To the boy's surprise, the ghost never aimed at a place which would weaken Harry's ability to fight. No, he only hit places that hurt a little, but not enough to harm his skills.
When Harry thought that his situation couldn't get worse, the ghost began to increase the speed and precision of his attacks. The wizard barely noticed when the man managed to hit Harry's left arm with the pummel of a sword and kick him in the chest.
Harry fell to the floor a few feets away from the phantom and groaned at the pain in his chest.
The ghost was just too strong and skilled for Harry to defeat. The wizard couldn't do anything against him, no matter what he tried, the ghost always had an answer for it. Harry began to wonder if this was how he would die again.
He already made peace with Death and knew that someday he would die in this world. Then he would finally meet his family and tell them the stories of his both lives. Two years ago Harry wouldn't even be against dying again, but now he didn't want to. The wizard loved the freedom he gained when he came to this world, he loved his travels to new places and he loved learning about the magic in this world. It was his second chance at a completely new life and Harry wouldn't throw it away without even trying. He wanted to live, even if Death had another reason than its amusement to throw him in this world.
With a new resolve, Harry gathered himself and stood up. His shortsword was lying a few feets away from him, so the wizard couldn't get it. With a sigh, Harry unsheathed Blackfyre and got ready for the hardest fight in his life.
Harry quickly used magic to put his sword aflame and rushed at the ghost. If the phantom was surprised at Harry's renewed will to fight, he didn't show it. He only blocked the boy's every swing and began to fight anew.
Harry had some problems with using Blackfyre as it was still hard to wield with his smaller frame. This fact caused Harry to be slower and less precise than always. Luckily his new will to live gave him enough strength to at least defend from the ghost. For a moment Harry even thought that he had a chance.
Unfortunately, the ghost was still better and more skilled so not even a thirty seconds later, the phantom performed a move so fast that Harry couldn't even see it. Blackfyre flew away from Harry's grasp and the boy now stood unarmed. Before Harry could recover from the surprise at losing his blade, the ghost for the first time during the fight used magic.
It was some kind of banisher as Harry flew through the room, straight into the wall behind him.
When Harry finally hit it, he was in the world of pain. He didn't care about the fact that the ghost used magic. No, right now it wasn't important. He knew that he lost, but he will at least take the ghost with him so Harry focused almost all of his magic and pushed it towards the phantom.
This time the spell went through and the hooded man staggered a bit. Harry didn't see the effects as he was trying to ignore the pain he felt. It wasn't as bad as a Crucio from Voldemort, but it still hurt.
Finally, the wizard looked up when he heard steps coming towards him. Harry gave out a humorless chuckle, "So it's the end... I thought I will get a bit more time. Guess not."
To Harry's surprise, he got a snort in return before the man spoke in a deep but a bit melodic voice, "The end? You might be hurt, but you are nowhere near dying. I wouldn't dare to kill someone who finally managed to get to the heart of the City of Night or Stygai as the people call it now."
Because of the pain, Harry only managed to hear about half of what the ghost said, "Wouldn't dare to kill me? My broken bones would argue with you." The wizard didn't really care that he was disrespectful or sarcastic. It was the only thing left to him after getting disarmed and beaten.
The man frowned under his hood. He must have overdone the magic push if the boy was in so much pain. Shaking his head in disappointment he said, "I apologize for my last attack. It was meant to be much weaker, but it looks like my magic is a bit rusty after so many years of not using it actively."
Harry looked at the phantom incredulously, "Why are you apologizing? You won the fight. Now if you could tell me why am I still alive?"
The ghost sighed in annoyance. It looked like the boy just ignored half of what he said. Deciding to at least help the young human a bit, the ghost closed the distance between the two and laid a hand on Harry's shoulder.
When the hand touched the wizard, Harry felt a burst of magic going through him. It was powerful and ancient. Before Harry even noticed almost all of his wounds disappeared and his bones were no longer broken.
The wizard never experienced such advanced magical healing. Not even the best of healers from his old world would be able to fix him so fast. Then there was the feeling of the ghost's magic. It was powerful and felt almost the same as the crystal in the center of the room.
"How?" Harry asked in astonishment.
The phantom chuckled a bit after he backed away from Harry, "I am old, I had years to perfect my magic and with the connection to the heart I can do so much more."
"Connection? Heart? What do you mean and who are you?" Harry fired out his questions not even caring about the fact that the man almost killed him a few minutes ago.
The man waved his hand and a semi-transparent chair appeared. After he sat down, the ghost addressed Harry once more, "It's a long story. One you need to hear as you are the first person who managed to get to the heart in millennials. As to who I am. I am the remnant of my race, the past, and this city. My name is no longer important, but I can at least show how I look if you do the same."
Still, curious Harry removed every piece of clothing that covered his head and waited for the man to do the same. He didn't need to wait long as the ghost pulled down his hood revealing a face of a man in his late twenties with dark brown hair. He had the typical noble features that Harry was used to seeing in purebloods from his last world.
Then Harry saw the man's ears and gasped. they were pointed and Harry couldn't help but ask, "Are you an elf?"
The man raised an eyebrow, "Elf? That's the first time I hear of this word. No, my race had its own name, but you would need the knowledge of our language to understand it."
Harry frowned, "So what am I supposed to call you. You wouldn't tell me your name and I don't know what you are."
"It is not important, you can call me whatever you want."
The wizard shrugged in return, "Well, elf it is then."
The elf said a few words in a language that Harry couldn't understand before he addressed Harry once more, "Now that you don't have any more questions, let me explain why you are still alive," after a short pause the man continued, "You see millenniums ago the now named Stygai was the center of the known world. It was the place where every race could live together and don't worry about the conflicts between them.
My race, dwarves, humans and many others lived here in prosperity. Magic was openly practiced and taught here. Whoever wanted to learn, they could do it. We lived in peace for centuries with only a few minor problems here and there. Unfortunately like always there will be someone who wants to destroy the peace. To understand what happened next I need to tell you more about my race.
You see my people were mostly like humans with only a few differences in our looks like ears or voice. But it weren't our looks that distinguished us from other races. No, it was our magic. We had a better connection to it and almost every member of my race could use it, unlike humans or others. We were also able to live a bit longer and some of us were more physically capable.
That's why my people were the rulers of Stygai and what are now Shadow Lands. We built it with the help of dwarves and as they didn't want to rule, we took the role. No one was against our rule and we tried to be as fair as we could. Unfortunately like I said it didn't last.
A few years before the fall of our city an organization was formed which stood against my people. They had members of almost every race and wanted to get rid of us. At first, we ignored them and we quickly paid for it. They began to hunt members of my race who were alone or away from the city. In just a few years we lost almost half of my people.
That's when we finally decided to strike back. We were stronger than them so we quickly managed to eliminate some of their members and stop the rebellion. During the next few years, we all thought that the threat was destroyed and we could again live in peace..."
The elf stopped here and got a faraway look. It was visible that whatever happened next was very painful for the man to even think about. Harry, himself was intrigued by the story. He still didn't know why it was important for him to know it, but he couldn't help but wonder how much older Stygai was from the oldest of the Free Cities in Essos or the Golden Empire of Yi Ti.
Harry stopped his train of thoughts as the man again began to speak.
"What happened next was dreadful. One of my people discovered that the organization was not dead, but in hiding. For years they were working on a way to kill us all. They found it. Somehow they managed to create a ritual that targeted my race like a plague. Day by day more of my people died without any explanation of why and how.
Unfortunately, the ritual they created had some unexpected side effects. As time went on, the lands around Stygain began to deteriorate. Tress and plants began to die. Animals disappeared. And our river became what it is today. Every inhabitant of the city who wasn't of my race escaped when the deterioration began.
It was a few days before the effects of the ritual would reach the regions outside the Shadow Lands, that we managed to find a way to stop it and fix the damage it caused. We created this crystal and pedestal. We called it the Heart as it would tap into all of the magic around Shadow Lands and stop it from expanding further. Then it would slowly repair the damage.
We knew we needed someone who would stay here and guard the crystal so I volunteered. With the help of another ritual we bound my life to the crystal, so I could stay here until the heart fixed the damage and then destroy it.
Unfortunately in our hurry, we didn't expect for me to get so tightly bound to the crystal that I couldn't destroy it after it finished its work. I was forced to stay here for years and watch the world around me with the help of the crystal. I could see what was happening in the entire Shadow Lands, but I could never leave the castle."
Silence came upon the two occupants fo the room. Harry thought long about this whole story and found it almost unbelievable. To think that here he was, the first person in millenniums to enter the castle in the city of Night. Still, there was one point in the story that Harry didn't understand.
"Wait, you said that the heart was meant to fix the damage done by the ritual, but Shadow Lands are still destroyed," the wizard inquired.
The elf nodded, "You are right. The heart indeed did the job, but the effect won't show until the crystal is destroyed and the magic will be free again."
Now Harry understood. Not only the crystal bound a man to endless life, but it also stopped the recovery of Shadow Lands. Knowing that his 'saving people' thing wouldn't just let him walk away, Harry looked the elf directly in the eyes and asked seriously.
"Alright, so what do I need to do?"
The elf looked up shocked at Harry's question before his face broke into a large smile. "Thank you. You don't know how much it means to me. I always felt like I failed my people because I couldn't destroy the Heart. I was already thinking of a way to convince you, but I am glad that you will do it anyway... You know, I was wondering how you managed to even get here as the entrance to the castle was warded against anyone who wasn't one of my people, but now I know. Somehow your connection to magic is almost as good as mine and the ward thought that you are one of my race. At least now I believe that my race won't end here."
Harry got perplexed at the last statement, "Wait, didn't you just say that you are the last of your race?"
The elf shook his head, "While I am the last of my people that I know of. It doesn't mean that there are not any of us alive somewhere away from Shadow Lands. Even then I wasn't talking about them. You see when we were working on a way to stop our people from dying, we tried to create a potion that would heal any illness, damage or curse placed on the drinker. We partly succeeded. The potion worked as it should, but it never could heal anyone from my race and had one side effect.
Anyone who drank the potion was turned into something similar to my people. Not entirely but close. Most of their old looks remained, but their connection to magic got stronger. We never worked out, why the potion caused this as we didn't have enough time. Still, we saved two last vials of the potion just in case. Now before you say anything, I am not telling you to drink it. You can save it and use it when you or someone you care about will be mortally wounded. I just ask that you take it with yourself and guard it."
Harry nodded at the long explanation. He didn't know what to think about this potion, but he wasn't planning on drinking it anytime soon. He would need to think about it.
The elf then stood up and walked towards the Heart, "To destroy the crystal you will need to use your longsword. I can fell the magic of dragons coming from it and it should be able to pierce the crystal. Now before you do it, I need to tell you a few important things.
Two more items will come out from the pedestal when you destroy the Heart. The first one is a small book. It is written in a language unknown to you, but when the time comes, you will understand what is inside. I won't say what the second item is, but from what I felt from your magic, I am sure that you will find it useful.
When you destroy the crystal, a wave of magic will go through the entire Shadow Lands and every magical user there and beyond should feel it. They won't know what caused it, but they will know where it came from. It would be best if you escaped the city as soon as you can.
Last but not least, you need to be careful. I don't know if anyone from the organization is still alive, but if they are, there is no saying what they will do. So watch out."
During the elf's explanation, Harry stood up and moved next to the Heart with Blackfyre in his hands.
"I have one last question. What about the other races who lived in Stygai. Are they even alive?" Harry inquired as he wanted to know if there was a chance to meet more mystical races.
The man shook his head, "I have no idea. They left a long time ago and they either died out or moved far away from here. Maybe some of them will come to see what was the source of the magic blast, but who knows..."
Harry nodded and pointed his sword at the Heart, "It was a pleasure to meet you, even if you almost killed me."
The elf released a loud chuckle, "A pleasure indeed. Goodbye. Now do it."
With this last command, Harry plunged his sword into the crystal and watched as the Heart slowly cracked. The wizard could feel the build-up of magic inside of it and he didn't get enough time to shield himself when the energy exploded outwards.
And that was how for the third time this day Harry was sent flying before he blacked out.
That would be it.
Now I am sure that many of you have questions and I will try to answer them.
But before any of you will send me a message or review with the question let me say a few things.
1. The fight scene was quite hard for me to write as Harry was just too weak at this moment to even pose a challenge to the now named "elf". So I am sorry if it felt a bit forced.
2. The potion which turns someone into half-elf. Don't worry even when Harry will use it, he won't get OP. No, this potions is mostly here for healing. The only boost anyone would gain is a slightly better connection to magic, that's all.
3. The organization. I need a name for it. I still don't know if it will play a big role later on, but I can't keep calling it organization...
4. Will Shadow Lands play an important role? Maybe, who knows. The story is still not planned out fully so I can add a thing or two.
5. I know that some of you might not like how weak Harry looked int this chapter, but remember his body is not even 12 years old and he couldn't use magic in this fight because of the heart. And no, I won't take his magic away like that in every fight, this was a special occasion.
Alright, this is all I can think of now. If you have more questions, ask them. And remember to give me your ideas. I love your input and like to read what you think.
Chaos out.