Part Two - The Dream
Survival
Survival is the basic instinct that drives conscious beings to want to live.
Hogwarts, Thirty first October nineteen ninety two
The Chamber of Secrets has been opened!
Enemies of the heir beware!
The words sent a chill down Daphne Greengrass. The entirety of Hogwarts was crowding the corridor and those in front were frozen still by the words and the stiff as death; cat, soaked in the pool of water outside the out of order girl's bathroom.
"What's going on here?! What's the hold up? Move you miserable brats!"
Filch pushed his way to the front, past the grumbling students who were getting annoyed by the hold up.
Whispers from the front began to travel at the speed of sound and the news began to spread. Thoughts and imaginations began to run wild until an anguished Filch's scream silenced them all.
"Mrs Norris! Mrs Norris. She's dead! Someone killed my precious!"
Daphne was near the front and could only watch with muted amusement. Someone had killed the cat. Maybe it was curiosity she joked in her head.
Headmaster Dumbledore and his posse' also pushed to the front and a moment later declared the cat wasn't dead. Daphne hummed, maybe it wasn't curiosity after all.
"It sure looks dead," Tracey mumbled queasily. "And what is that god awful smell?"
Daphne shrugged and met the eyes of Hermione Granger. Brown eyes looked surprised find the cold blue ones and quickly looked away. Daphne smirked.
"Alright everyone! Move along. This is not a show. Back to your common rooms or I will start deducting points!"
"Yea, listen to Professor Kitten," someone joked. Daphne turned her head and spotted one of the Weasley twins grinning and high fiving the other twin.
"Ten points from Gryffindor," McGonagall said coldly, wiping their grins away.
Slowly, the crowd began to move past although the movement was slow as everyone wanted to get a glimpse of the cat, the writing and the sobbing caretaker who was still moaning about his cat. Daphne supposed it was quite sad. Her sense of empathy had taken a hike due to the events of last Christmas leading to her being titled Ice Queen by her fellow housemates. Daphne loved it. That title was everything a young teenage girl aspired to be. That or Head Girl. Daphne preferred Ice Queen. Head Girl came with too many responsibilities and she wanted none. She had only one goal. A goal that had evolved and twisted over a long period of time. Now, it was the desire to rule over all the purebloods. To show them that it was her and not some poncy blonde they had to kneel before.
Her smile made Tracey wary and the red head took a step away from Daphne.
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Headmaster's Office.
Dumbledore was feeling quite crowded in his office. McGonagall was there looking severe. Minister Fudge who looked more haggard than ever. Auror Bones standing by the fireplace like a pillar of authority. Arthur Weasley; the new head of Muggle Born wizard and witch relations, the M.B.W.R for short and Lucius Malfoy, the new Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, looking like a Salamander had mauled his face, sitting straight as an arrow in his floating wheelchair.
"So," drawled Malfoy. "The Chamber of Secrets? Has Slytherin's heir returned?"
"A clear threat to muggleborn children," Bones boomed. This is going to be bad Albus."
"We don't know that," Arthur said wearily. "It could also be a prank. Merlin knows Hogwarts has enough trouble makers."
"Then it's not one in good taste," Dumbledore said heavily. "And I don't think this is a joke. I fear this is the work of a dark wizard."
"Who?!" gasped Fudge.
"I have no hard facts yet Minister." Dumbledore's eyes flickered to Lucius and Fudge followed the trail. His eyes narrowed when they landed on Malfoy and the cogs in the political mind began to turn.
A beetle flew past his nose and he swatted at the air irritably. The damn thing had been following him since last week!
"The last time the Chamber was opened there was a student who attended Hogwarts at the time. A student who would later grow up to become the most terrible Dark Lord our world would ever witness."
Dread began to pool around everyone's feet. It crawled up their legs unpleasantly and struck fear from the bottom of their hearts.
Fudge was the only one stupid enough to ask. "Who Albus?!"
Dumbledore paused and swept his eyes across the room solemnly. "Lord Voldemort."
The gasps of terror turned into an undulation flame of fear.
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Four months ago
There was a loud crack and a boy fell on a dusty and hard surface.
Harry Potter gasped and wheezing, feeling his stomach churn and eyes spin. He lay there, on his knees, trying to gather his senses and bearings while trying to digest the unexpected teleportation.
When he regained his sight and legs, he found himself surrounded by darkness. His pupils dilated, looking for any source of light when suddenly, blue twinkling dots began to blink into existence over the horizon.
Harry blinked rapidly and followed the lights, his neck turning back up observe the wondrous sight.
A cold breeze bite past and Harry coughed when particles of dust flew into his mouth and eyes. He desperately wiped his eyes and spat before trying to understand where he was but he could barely see his own hands.
He took a step forward and felt the sound of hardened dirt under his feet.
The wind continued to blow, sending dust flying constantly and Harry shielded his face and took another step forward.
He then realised he had apparated to some dry open place where it was night. For a moment he thought of the desert and then reluctantly dismissed the idea. The ground beneath his feet was hard. Sand was soft.
He wished he had some light. The moon was nowhere to be seen even though the sky was clear and dotted with beautiful stars. It took him a few seconds to remember the void. He pulled into it and moulded it into warming him as the cold was beginning to hurt him.
He tried to think back to charm books for the spell to conjure light and remembered. He put his hand into his pocket to grab his wand. His fingers scrapped the bottom of an empty pocket.
"Left it in the house," he mumbled. Harry closed his eyes and pictured how the threads of magic looked when he practised the spell. It was difficult because he rarely ever used that spell. There were always candles around.
Harry opened the face of his palm and concentrated. He pushed the void through his fingers and willed them to ball into a yellow ball of light. He felt a heat and opened his eyes.
Lo behold, a ball of yellow light shone above his palm blinding him for a moment.
When his eyes adjusted and looked around, trying to find something familiar. But there was nothing. He raised his arm above his head, allowing the light to spread further and all he saw was cracked, hardened earth. He was in the middle of a drought hit land. There was nothing but flat lands in all directions and no sign of life or light.
Excitement began to bubble in the Void. He was in the middle of nowhere. He had to survive. Feeling oddly elated, Harry began to walk. The wind howled and the young wizard smiled.
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Harry didn't know when he had fallen asleep. He remembered walking on and on until he began to feel tired and hungry. The last time he felt this way was when he was at Privet Drive and usually, before the hunger drove him to be reduced to a state of begging, he was feed. He had never had to find food himself in those conditions.
When he woke, he felt heat beat down on him with a vengeance. The wind was still blowing. Only now it was harsh and hot. Harry grimaced and stood up. Insatiable hunger hadn't reduced him to a state of helplessness yet but he was feeling its impending arrival.
There was still nothing but hard earth around him but Harry could see a lot more than what his ball of light could provide. Now, with the sun half way to the top, he saw something that made his heart sore.
Mounds of pale yellow, rising and dipping into the horizon. He was in a desert after all! It was certainly not what he had expected from the pictures and descriptions.
Harry twisted and looked all around again. He had to find something to eat or drink or else his desert adventure was going to come to an early end.
There was nothing. Dare he risk heading into the unknown without water or food? He mentally sorted through his knowledge of magic and found that sustainable food was impossible to conjure. However water was in the realm of possibility!
He focused on the description of how to conjure it and could only recall wand motions and a spell. He growled. He was beginning to feel helpless without his wand.
What did he have to do?
Harry calmed his mind and closed his eyes. Magic was all about intent and direction. What magic was associated with water? He pulled at the depths of his memory and the picture of a rune popped into his mind.
Harry squatted and carved the rune of water in the ground with his nails. He then pushed the void at the rune and focused on the thought of summoning water.
He pushed all of the void at the rune keeping his intent strong. After a whole minute he felt exhaustion dig into his gut and he broke the connection of magic with a gasp.
Nothing had happened.
Harry frowned. That should have worked. The rune looked correct and his intent had been strong. Did he also have to say something? An incantation?
He was saved from his pondering when the ground began to rumble and crack.
Harry jumped to his feet and took a couple of steps back with wide eyes. Three seconds later the ground burst and a spring of crystal clear water began to spray a couple feet into the hot air.
"Water," Harry gasped in awe.
Then with delight, he ran into the pooling water and began to drink with greed.
He had never thought water could taste so sweet.
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Twenty fifth September nineteen ninety two
When Harry Potter didn't return to Hogwarts, an inevitable hue and cry was raised.
His story and the fate of his family was retold. The headlines screamed for blood at the loss of the saviour of the magical world. Articles by prominent journalists and novelists were published and statements were made by leaders in the magical world.
Lucius Malfoy took the opportunity to lay all blame on Albus Dumbledore and toppled the venerable wizard from his position as Chief Warlock. It was a pivotal position of law making and with his appointment to the helm of all decisions, the regulation of muggle born witches and wizards was born.
To counter this move, Minister Fudge, who was fighting with all his political skill, created the Department of Muggle born witches and wizard relations, which was responsible for their introduction to the magical world and their grievances. The office of misuse of magical artefacts was merged into it thereby making Arthur Weasley the department head.
The manoeuvre won Fudge the support of the surprisingly large muggleborn community and plaudits from pro muggleborn rights halfbloods and purebloods.
The title of Minister was still precariously balanced on his head.
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Time unknown
Survival was not easy. Harry never knew what survival entailed. He was only fascinated by Darwin's theory. Experiencing it was beyond what he had imagined. The Dursley's paled in comparison. Their treatment of him now just brought about of roll of his eyes.
He tore into the burnt flesh of the lizard with the spiny tale and threw it away once he had stripped it clean.
Days and nights had gone by and the more time he spent in the arid plains, heading towards the sands that seemed closer than ever and yet far away, the more aware he became of life under the ground. Anything that was aware of life had magic in them, Harry had realised. It made finding food a lot less hard. Without the Void he would be long dead.
Hunger still clawed inside him and his skin had sunk into his bones. He was alive but only just. He was surviving.
In spite of the pitiful condition of his body, unaware of the chaos his disappearance had wrought, his mind and magic were alive. He had never felt happier in his life.
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Time Unknown
The ground beneath his feet had turned soft. It was a moonlight night and Harry Potter sat on the first sand dune he had come across. The light from the moon cast an ethereal glow on the sand and he found himself drowning in its beauty.
His robes had worn out and he had cast his shoes away a long time ago.
Harry summoned the void and drew the rune of attraction into the sand lazily. It was difficult when there was so much wind and he casually created a wall with the void. The wind was blocked and he heard a howl of frustration. The wind in the desert always wanted to kill.
He successfully drew the rune and pushed the void into it with the intent of attracting living things. He had learnt which runes were useful. All his knowledge about runes, spells, magic, theories… all of them were useless. There were a few things he needed and the lack of complexity to survival was refreshing. Harry hated it when things got complicated. He liked life to be simple. Survival was the epitome of simplicity.
An hour later, he heard something move through the sand and lashed out with the void. It was a snake. It tried to thrash and escape as it was held in the air by the void but it was useless. The void was fashioned moulded into the physical form of a knife. Harry poured more magic into the physical manifestation and a gleaming butchers knife was willed into existence.
It swept through the air and chopped off the head of the snake.
Harry giggled and levitated the snake into the torn parts of his robes that had been fashioned into a bag. Finding creatures was difficult and when he did, he carefully stored them and preserved them with runes and magic until desperate hunger gnawed in his gut.
Harry stood up and moved on. He didn't know where he was going. He had no direction and no aim. It was oddly liberating.
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Time Unknown
On a particularly pleasant day, when clouds hid the sun and sporadic rain poured from the heavens Harry came across a sight that had him momentarily stunned.
He had scaled a particularly large dune and on the other side, coming up, was a column of camels and there were people sitting on them!
Harry didn't know what to do. He had completely forgotten that people existed in the world.
They were laughing and talking loudly with massive umbrellas over their heads.
When the lead person spotted Harry he exclaimed in shock and shouted something in a language Harry didn't understand.
Then began a flurry of moment and people began to dismount and rush towards him.
Harry was so surprised he just stared.
The people had dark brown skin. Many of them had horribly wrinkled skin and the women had metals pierced in their noses and ears.
They stopped a few feet away from Harry looked positively amazed and threw words that Harry didn't understand at all. They were dressed in odd colourful clothes.
A woman took a step into touching distance and Harry took a step back. In the meantime the people under the umbrellas managed to get down and Harry noticed they had pale white skin. A stark difference from the brown men and women who looked like they knew what survival was.
"Oh my god!" gasped someone. A male from his voice, Harry noted.
"Oh my god it's a kid! It's someone's kid!"
"What?! Oh my god, he's so small! He looks like he's half dead!" That was the horrified voice of a women.
The shouts of the white people seemed to prompt the brown ones to do something and a man reached out and grabbed Harry.
Harry reacted.
The Void lashed out and banished the man away from him. The man screamed and fell some ten feet away feeling like a moving wall had slammed into him.
Gasps and screams resounded in the desert. Harry's blood began to boil. These people were ruining the desert!
The void rose around him like a wind of vengeance and sand began to swirl around him. His eyes began to glow.
The Camels began to panic and screams of run had the unfortunate people running far away from the strange boy of the desert.
Harry calmed down when they began to run and the wind died down. Harry watched the people continued to run until their voice was no longer audible and they were little shapes on sand.
He nodded in satisfaction and decided to apparate away from them. His mood was ruined and he wanted to get as far away from the place as possible. It was clearly a location were people came and he didn't want to run into more of them. He focused on a spot he could see far up North and disappeared with a loud crack.
One of the white men held a camera as he ran, pointing it towards the boy and recorded it all.
The story of the Desert Guardian was born.
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Fifth February nineteen ninety three
Hogwarts
Aurors were a common sight in Hogwarts now. The tall men and women in blood red robes were an inspiring sight to the children in the school.
Two more students had been petrified after the cat and both were muggleborns.
An explosively revealing article by Rita Skeeter post the second petrification sent a wild fire of rage and fear through magical communities. Fights between purebloods and mudbloods were more frequent. Fruitless investigations were launched into the attacks at Hogwarts until a second year student came to the startling conclusion it was a Basilisk running wild through the castle plumbing.
She spoke of her deduction to the headmaster and the Aurors came to understand it was a witch or wizard capable of controlling snakes; Rita Skeeter claimed it was a parselmouth and therefore was You Know Who sowing terror.
Tensions were high and aurors were dispatched to Hogwarts to find and kill the beast.
Minister Fudge wanted the school shut down but the move was blocked, surprisingly by both Lucius Malfoy and Albus Dumbledore.
It had been a week since that decision and the Aurors were no closer to finding the Basilisk or the person controlling it.
In the midst of it all Dumbledore was made aware of a story, of a boy mysteriously disappearing in a desert, making waves in the muggle world.
His investigations led him to find what muggles called a video. Fascination aside, Dumbledore recognized the boy in the moving photos.
He saw past small frame, the wild hair all over his face, the torn and dulled clothes, the obvious instant of the utilization of a banishing charm and apparation. It was Harry Potter!
What the blazes was he doing in India!