An abstract of Aura.
Red – Power, Security, Jealousy.
Orange – Pleasure, Appreciation, Comfort.
Yellow – Status, Authority.
Green – Love, Compassion.
Blue – Knowledge, Influence.
Violet – Clairvoyance, Unification.
Unknown – What is enlightenment?
The Badlands
Time Unknown
Tonks was the first time he had got a hint of what sexual pleasure felt like. The murder. Her soft skin. Her terrified eyes. That night had later compelled him to read about sex. He understood it's pleasure was rooted in orange. He observed how it played in the colours of others and filed it all at the back of his mind.
All that he had learnt was coming back to him. This place was flooded with orange and Harry could feel the magic around him steer him towards a form of sexual pleasure.
He controlled it.
The succubi melted into the background and Harry followed Bellatrix to a nearby pristine white three storey building which had a wondrous positive energy and through its springy door into a messy club that was in the stages of closing for the night. Yellow light dominated the space and Bellatrix led Harry through the tables with broken glass and dead men to the bar behind which a familiar woman was cleaning up.
He remembered her from Hogwarts but didn't know her name, just that she had been in Hufflepuff.
She looked at Harry with a lingering gaze and turned to Bellatrix without comment. "Shall I turn on the jukebox?" she asked Bellatrix.
They sat at the bar and Bellatrix smiled at the girl. "Keep it mellow darling. The night's just about maturing."
Harry looked around and frowned. Was the bar opening or closing? It felt like sunrise was close by. He could see the subtle changes in the layers of magic around him. He slid on to the black leather bar stool and wondered what he should drink. Alcohol was something he hadn't really experimented with and with the vast options available at present, he didn't want to miss the chance. Having crazy for company was an added bonus. He might as well have fun until the time came to kill them and move on.
There was some sort of runic structure that protected the village. Harry had noticed it when they walked into the bar. He let the magic soak in. Yes… he could feel it. The runes told him there was a shield in place to keep things out … or in, he wasn't sure. The dialect of the magic felt older than anything he had encountered so far.
"What will you have?"
It was the bargirl. She was looking at Harry with indifferent eyes. It was a facade. Harry could see her colours. She was scared and her survival instincts had given her the strength to maintain a mask of calm indifference.
Harry grinned. It was a good application of emotional control. "Beer," Harry said after a moment's thought. His Uncle had loved beer. Beer was usually the drink that led to a great beating. Maybe now he'd understand what frame of mind his dead uncle was in under the influence of beer.
"Whiskey for me, Sweetheart."
"Do you understand what place this is?" Bellatrix asked Harry. "You're done probing aren't you?"
"It's a Succubi's Nest."
The drinks arrived and Bellatrix downed her's in a shot. Harry took a slow sip through the thick foam and winced at the taste of bitter yeast. He decided he liked it.
"Wrong. This is not just a nest. This, is an island, hidden within reality, where those who are within the reach of the furthest reaches of magic and mystery, sit back, relax before the final stretch of the journey. For people like me, it's a heaven. A place to revel without limit in the realms of pleasure before heading back into the chaos of reality."
Bellatrix leaned into Harry with a provocative grin and touched his thigh. "This is a place where forbidden pleasure is not forbidden," she whispered.
Harry watched her eyes glitter with mischief as he felt her fingers slide into his thighs and travel up. He calmly caught her wrist and firmly placed it on the wood table before she could reach his balls.
Bellatrix scowled. She didn't like rejection. She killed anyone who resisted her. She had always hated it and now, hated it even more, knowing that the boy in front of her could hold his own against her. Deep inside her, her pulse quickened. She was getting excited. This could be fun!
"Has it got a name?" he asked. Names were important. Names written with Magic had significance.
Bellatrix leaned back and grinned. She soaked in the soft psychedelic pulses of the bass and calmed herself. "This is Avalon; the entrance of the Badland, Harry. It's the so to speak entrance to the final sprint for those on the quest to find the source."
"What do you know about it? The Source." The name Avalon stuck in his mind and began to pull knowledge about it. It was supposedly a mystical island in Arthurian Legend. The Badlands drew no knowledge at all and that piqued his interest in this place he had ended up in after going through the heart of his desert.
Bellatrix called for another shot and two beautiful women, again, wearing white robes walked in and with light claps of their hands, began to repair the damages to the bar.
"Just as the name say's, it's the source of magic and legend say's the way to get to it is through a rip in space time made using magic that is sharp enough to make the cut." Her eyes flickered to her waist and Harry saw it. The Sword Bellatrix had stolen from Hitomi. Was Bellatrix after the source too?
"That?" Harry asked with slight interest. Talking with Bellatrix for a few minutes had given him more information that a lifetime's worth through Dumbledore or blindly hunting in the library.
Bellatrix didn't reply and instead leaned back and glanced around the bar, checking out the spike in activity. The Club was reopening.
"So the Badland is where the Source can be found," Harry summarised. His path had become surprisingly clear. It felt like he had already travelled through space time. This place was in a different dimension within reality. It literally was a gateway and Harry had to find the right exit. His excitement grew, he was close. He could feel it.
Bellatrix giggled. She saw the wheels turning behind his eyes. "Don't underestimate the Badlands. No one has returned feeling victorious. It is an Journey without an end, without answers. Just more questions. It's been thousands of years since the quest of the Source began and no one has found an answer. It's accepted that the Source is just a myth."
Harry frowned. He didn't believe it. The Source was real. He had felt it.
"That's why this little village is pleasure central. It's one of the last hidden mysteries of magic, the furthest point we have reached in the quest for the source and here, we celebrate it. Beyond this point, is just barren lands full of pointless mysteries and strange creatures. The novelty wears off after sometime and playing with the real world becomes more fun. This village sits on the pinnacle of the magical scale."
Harry sighed. "So you don't actually know anything." But she had said enough for him to make a hypothesis. Beyond this village, magic was strong. Strong enough to make the most powerful magical creatures admit defeat and return to the material world. The journey was not material. It was metaphysical. He had to understand what magic was saying. Conversing with it was the only way forward and right now, he understood the reason he was here. It stood out clearly. He had to converse with his orange. He had to release it in order to rise closer to the source. Sexual energy had never been a topic he had taken seriously until today.
"Oh boy," Bellatrix chuckled. "I can see the pattern of your thinking. You don't believe me. You're thinking the way to the source is not about power but it's also about the perspectives of the mind."
She rolled her eyes. "You're not the smartest in this place. The most brilliant minds of the world have reached this point, gone forward and come back, not with immeasurable power, but with wiser goals or as ghosts."
"You think the Source is Power?" Understanding dawned on Harry. She didn't understand the significance of this place.. this village. Should he explain? Show her how wrong she is? This was a place to shed the latent desire of the soul's sexual centre. Here it was possible to fulfill the desire of the orange in order to move forward undistracted with complete focus.
"Why else would every dark lord in existence have pursued it?" she joked with a snort. "Bring me some of the good stuff now hun!" she called out to the bargirl.
Light streamed in through the curtains and warmed the air inside. More people were entering the club. A breakfast buffet had been set up on the emptier side of the room. Young girls dressed like maids were now serving and cleaning. Activity inside the club had picked up pace.
"The Source is truth, not power," Harry said softly. She might not understand it, but he had to say it.
Bellatrix choked on her drink. She swallowed with a wince and then burst out laughing.
"What?" Harry asked with a scowl. He didn't like being laughed at. It pissed him off.
"You're a truth seeker? You're after enlightenment and all that crap? No fucking way! Not after what you did just to avoid persecution! It's the most beautiful magic of destruction I have ever seen! Truth seekers preserve life Harry, they don't end millions of them for their own reasons."
Harry went silent. She was halfway right. Maybe he didn't need to explain.
"Or," she continued. "You're on the path seeking to understand what purpose the source serves?"
He didn't answer. She didn't need to know. He already understood the purpose. It was a question of accomplishing the purpose. The means of accomplishing it was what he was after. Finding his way to the village was one of those means. "Can you see magic?" he asked. It was time to change topic. Some things were best left unsaid.
Bellatrix turned her palm up and let purple lightening crackle between the tips of her fingers. Harry read the intent to utterly shred in them. Bellatrix was powerful. She had a deep connection to magic.
"Does that answer your question?"
"It tells me you like to cut things and you're good at it."
"Ha! That's the nature of my magic. Everyone has one nature they are inclined towards. What matters the mastery of that nature. I'm impressed you can read it so well. Voldemort was good at it too, until you bitch slapped him and trapped us in a desert whose sole purpose is mind fucking games. Though, I'll admit, all those idiots pulling the string had this coming to them. The world was always just one step away from an apocalypse. You successfully managed to tip the scales." She giggled. "If you wanted, you could turn Dark Lord, round up a bunch of followers, create your own harem and live the rest of your life in utter bliss."
Bellatrix was still standing on the concepts of sides, Harry thought. She wanted constant pleasure on her own terms and to her those terms could have been possible only under a magical world ruled by a Dark Lord. Now, she felt no animosity toward him because she had found sanity in the desert and create her own terms of existence.
"Heh." Harry couldn't help up smiling. He looked into her purple eyes; reddened with alcohol and alive with the desire to live free no matter the consequences. She was powerful enough to do that too. She definitely was Worthy of Magic.
Bellatrix sighed longingly. "The things you could do with that power of yours, whatever it is, makes me quite wet." She smiled wickedly and glanced down. "I could teach you so many ways of using it."
Harry felt her orange burn with lust and felt his reaching out… wanting… desiring. He controlled it and contemplated the woman in front of him. He knew he had to let it go at some point in order to evolve further. The knowledge that came with it was not something that could be told. It had to be experienced. That's what this village was about. For some reason, it was crucial in order to move forward.
"After you activated your curse, more entrances to the island opened. People unknowingly find their way here and the scuccbi and the others have been feasting. Magic is growing stronger and spreading faster than ever before. You might have actually tipped the scale of balance of this planet. You've made magic dominant no longer to remain latent."
"So you can understand it," Harry muttered. "My intent was to reveal the shallow nature of humanity and show it the true depth of the gift bestowed on them."
"You were disgusted with the way they taught magic," Bellatrix summarised. She snorted. "Hogwarts has churned out more than a few dark lords because of their view on magic and they way the teach it."
"Magic is so much more," Harry continued. A little passion entered his voice. "The things we can do. The knowledge we can perceive. Haven't you ever wondered why we were given these abilities?"
His glass was empty. He was feeling a buzz in his head.
"Oh I do," Bellatrix drawled. She gestured at the bargirl to refill Harry's glass. "I remember when I was your age." She paused. "How old are you anyway? You look hmm seventeen?"
For a moment Harry was speechless. How old he was? He had stopped counting after eleven. Using time as a scale of measurement for life always felt pointless to him. "I …"
"Wow," Bellatrix said, bemused. "Show me your finger. I need to draw blood."
Harry offered without resistance. He didn't sense malice. They were not enemies. Not that they ever truly were. It was just a perception of society that decided it.
She tapped her wand on the tip of his index finger and a dot of blood dripped out. A short jab of her wand twisted the blood into a language. Harry could not understand it right off the bat but he was sure it was magic.
"Sixteen eh?" she muttered. "Close enough."
Harry took a moment to process that. Had it really been that long since the desert was created? The last he remembered he was twelve. Had four years really gone? Or was time just variable and not a constant as humanity believed?
She twisted her wand over the words and it changed into a date.
First of September, Nineteen Ninety Six.
Bellatrix giggled. "I used to love that date. It meant freedom from stupid rules, ethics and morals. Did you destroy Hogwarts?"
An image of a serene Luna skipping through the castle came to him with vivid clarity.
"Yes," he lied. "It's nothing more than a pile of rubble now. It's unfortunate they chose to attack me instead of just letting me go."
Bellatrix sighed deeply. "I think I'll go to bed," she announced. It's been a long night and it was long before you showed up. Goodbye Harry Potter. If you regain your senses and decide to rule the world instead of destroying it, remember me." Bellatrix cackled.
Her chair screeched as she pushed it away and with a giggle and a salute, she swayed away towards the back of the bar where a staircase lay hidden in the shadows.
Harry sat there in silence for sometime, sipping his beer and listening to the music. He was oddly feeling satisfied. Content. This was a good place. He could see it now. Only those who were Worthy of Magic could make it here and here did they indulge in their baser sexual instincts. The only question was how many of them knew the magic of this place was responsible for the desire they felt.
"Can I get you another?" It was the bargirl.
Harry assessed her. Would he want to seduce her? She was pretty. He could manipulate her colours easily enough. It wouldn't be hard at all. He tilted his head and saw fear rise in her. He probably wasn't the only one to have thought about seducing her. She had gone through this before. She was the favourite target, the bargirl.
He looked into her frightened eyes and laughed. "No thanks. I need a room."
She looked relieved. "We're full, but there's a hotel down left with some vacancies."
Harry stared at her for a few mores seconds, not particularly thinking of anything, but it served to make the girl start to sweat.
"Thanks," he said and slid off the chair. He headed towards the open entrance which was now bright with light and stepped into the streets of Avalon.