A/N – I don't own Harry Potter or the Heroes of Might and Magic (HOMM) franchises.
Hi everyone. This is a story that came to mind rather randomly and I very quickly decided to get a chapter out. The HOMM game it is based on is HOMM2 on the campaign called the Succession Wars. I used to play the game a lot when I was young and a while ago decided to download it from the GOG website out of nostalgia. That led to this story.
I do have the basic outline of every chapter so far, with about 38-40 chapters at this stage. Could go longer than that once it starts getting written. I have decided to add to what I am calling my 'wildcard' list. That means it will only be updated by poll vote on my pat-re-on.
If you want to look me up there it is Bored Peasant's Written Works. All support on pat-re-on means more to me than I can possibly say and helps me need to work less so that I can continue to write these stories for you.
This is a little bonus chapter this month. The regular schedule of one chapter from Plan for the Galaxy and one wildcard story will be continued from now on.
Special thanks goes to Ranger, FallenMetalGod, BuzzGrave and Ezoz for their support.
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CHAPTER 1 – A TRIP THROUGH THE VEIL
A spell crashed into the wall beside Harry, sending chips and debris into the air as Harry ducked and cast a stunning spell at the Death Eater who had cast it at him. He didn't have a chance to see if it hit as another spell from Rudolphus Lestrange cast a bright orange curse at him. He threw up a shield which blocked it but pushed him back two steps.
"Harry!" Sirius bellowed out, running forward and flung several spells at the elder Lestrange brother. He was quickly forced onto the defensive as Rabastan stepped up to his brother's side and began shielding against Sirius' attacks.
Harry stepped up next to Sirius casting out reductos as fast as he could, the combat spells smashing into Rabastan's shield. The fourth spell destroyed the shield altogether and Sirius hit the younger Lestrange with a whistling blue spell that had the Death Eater be blasted away screaming.
"I'll kill you!" Rudolphus roared, casting orange curses as fast as the man could. Still, the man was not good enough to be able to take both harry and Sirius on at the same time, especially after more than a decade in Azkaban. Harry managed to hit the elder Lestrange with a disarming spell, causing his wand to go flying somewhere over Harry's right shoulder. Sirius was about to cast the finisher but ducked at the last moment to dodgy a winding purple spell sent by Antonin Dolohov that flew through where his head would have been.
Harry felt his anger flare to new heights as he saw the foreign wizard who had hit Hermione with the purple flame spell earlier. He cast an angry stupefy that was easily blocked.
"You'll need to do better than simple stunners, Potter!" the Death Eater taunted him, even as he through back a sickly yellow spell of his own, forcing Harry to block with a shield charm.
The exchange was short but vicious. Sirius turned away from wherever Rudolphus Lestrange disappeared to and helped cast spells at the foreign wizard. Dolohov was good, very good, but neither Harry nor Sirius were pushovers. Together they managed to push the Death Eater back until Harry hit the man with a reducto.
They had a moment to breath and Harry looked around to see that Tonks seemed to be duelling with Bellatrix Lestrange, who was cackling madly as she cast out red curses every few seconds, making Tonks dodge. They were fighting closer to the mysterious arch that had a fluttering veil in the middle.
Kingsley Shacklebolt was fighting two Death Eaters on his own, but didn't seem to be struggling too much. Moody had another two to himself but was throwing around wide area spells out of his staff that was forcing his opponents to dodge. Around them were another half dozen battles that were scattered around the place. Harry ducked under a stray spell that came from Remus' battle with Amycus Carrow.
"Bella!" Sirius growled and took off at a sprint to help Tonks fight his crazed cousin.
Harry was about to follow when he saw an Order member about to be double teamed by two big Death Eaters, that Harry was pretty sure were Crabbe and Goyle Seniors, when he was already fighting the female Carrow. He dove over to help, casting stunning spells as he did. One connected with Goyle's back, dropping him instantly. Crabbe turned around and cast killing curses with surprising efficiency.
Harry ducked, letting two sickly green curses fly right over his head, almost hitting MacNair, who threw himself out of the way, making him catch a cutting curse from Dedalus Diggle.
"Don't throw killing curses you moron!" MacNair shouted, conjuring ravens to stop jinxes that Diggle was throwing his way.
Crabbe grunted and changed to purple and red spells that Harry didn't recognise. Harry threw up a shield and when a purple curse splashed against it, he dropped it quickly and threw a reducto that hit Crabbe's wand hand.
The large man roared in pain and rage, charging at Harry as if to tackle him physically, before dropping from a stunner Harry threw at him.
"Well done, Potter!" the Order member gasped, holding a hand to his side, the female Carrow nowhere in sight.
Harry was about to reply when he heard a shout that caused his heart to leap into his throat.
"Sirius!" Tonks screamed, followed by a loud cackle from Bellatrix.
Harry looked over, just in time to Sirius tumble threw the veil covering the arch, and not come out the other side!
"SIRIUS!" he roared and took off to grab him from the arch, only to stop when Lucius Malfoy stepped in his way, a trickle of blood coming from the blonde man's hair.
"You've ruined everything," Malfoy hissed at him. "The Dark Lord will make everyone you love suffer for this!"
"He can shove off!" Harry shouted in defiance, casting a reducto at the Death Eater.
They exchanged spells, shielding and ducking at the attacks. Malfoy was more experienced, but Harry was faster and had the benefit of good reflexes and recent training with the DA. It took far too long for Harry, who was desperate to recover Sirius, but eventually he managed to hit Malfoy with a cutting curse to his wand hand and dropped him with a stunner right after.
He sprinted towards the archway, only stopping when he had to duck under a spell thrown at him by Bellatrix. He threw back a stunner that was easily shielded. He ducked under a cruciatus that the mad woman cast at him and responded by hitting the ground in front of her with a confringo that blew her back.
Mad the female Lestrange might be, but she was too good to let that keep her down. She rolled to her feet and cast another cruciatus at him that he dodged, then another. Feeling his desperation rise, he cast two rapid reductos at the Death Eater.
Lestrange shielded the first one, but the second one, powered by Harry's desperation, shattered her shield, letting Tonks hit the woman with a banisher, blowing the madwoman away.
Harry took a breath, staring after her to make sure she wasn't coming back. Then he turned and ran to the archway.
As he got close, Tonks seemed to realise what Harry was going to do and shouted for him to stop. Harry ignored her, closing the gap with the archway rapidly.
"Harry! No!" Tonks wailed and threw herself at him, just before he reached it. But Tonks was Tonks and in that moment of desperation…
She stumbled.
Tripping over her own feet, she desperately threw her arms out to try stop Harry from reaching his destination. Her arms collided into him, throwing him off balance, and her hands slipped down.
And knocked his wand out of his hand.
Off balance as he was, Harry had no chance of stopping. He staggered, reaching blindly for his wand, but never touching it. He heard it clatter to the ground.
Then he went through the archway.
The ministry disappeared. Everything turned white, and the sound of soft whispering voices came at him from all directions. Loud enough to be heard, but none were clear enough to be understood. The sensation of falling overcame Harry as the ground disappeared and he tumbled through the white mist. Everything seemed to spin and he shut his eyes to stop the dizziness take over him.
Then, all of a sudden, he came out the other side.
Harry landed in a large thorn bush, scratching his skin and snagging on his clothes. He groaned softly to himself as he dragged himself out of the painful plant, and hit the dirt with a muffled thud. He took a minute to let his vision stop spinning and his stomach settle before he rolled on to his front and pushed himself to his knees.
"Sirius?" he called out, looking around slowly. "Are you here?"
Only the soft rustling of wind blowing across the dirt answered him. Harry looked around and saw that he was in what appeared to be a desert. Dull yellow sand, rocks and thorny scrub as far as the eye could see.
But no Sirius.
Harry felt anguish rip through him. "Sirius!" he bellowed.
No answer.
He looked around desperately, looking for footprints that might suggest where Sirius was, or if he had been captured. He couldn't see any. Not a single footprint, scrap of cloth, nor anything that might give Harry a clue as to what happened to Sirius. From all appearances, no one had been at this place for a long time.
He felt anger and despair crash through him as he had no idea what to do now. He didn't know where he was and he didn't know where to go. He looked back at the stone arch behind him, wondering if he should just go back through when something captured his attention.
A massive glowing blue door shimmered into existence.
Something deep in Harry told him that this was not what he wanted, that danger was coming, even though he had no idea why. He quickly yanked his invisibility cloak out of his pocket and threw it over himself, just as the doorway started depositing monsters.
Flying gargoyles and minotaurs came through the glowing doorway. It was a small army. The minotaurs all carried double-sided axes and held them in a disturbingly uniform way, like watching soldiers march. After them a group of centaurs, all holding longbows, came striding through the magical doorway. Harry remembered the anger and viciousness that Bane had towards Hermione and him. He did his best to still his breathing and softly pulled his invisibility cloak more tightly over himself.
Finally, after all of the line of centaurs came through, a single human came through the portal, riding a large brown warhorse. Harry couldn't see him too clearly from his position. He could see long dark hair and a thick, long beard, and yellow robes. But beyond that, Harry could feel the man's magic. It was strong, but it was also foul, as if the man was exuding dark magic from his very body. It was more powerful than he had felt from Voldemort, and it made him want to be anywhere else.
"Search the area," the man ordered, his voice harsh. "Look for any sign of someone coming through the lith."
The creatures moved out in an orderly fashion, searching for anything that would look like it was evidence of Harry coming through the now-named lith. As anxious has Harry was about looking for Sirius, there was something deep within Harry that told him that if these creatures found him, it would be extremely bad for him. He did his best not to flinch as a centaur stepped right near his head, before moving on.
Then he heard the sniffing sounds. As carefully as he could, despite his cloak keeping him hidden from sight, he slowly moved his head to see that a minotaur was sniffing the air loudly, trying to smell Harry out. He felt terrified for a long moment, willing himself to not smell so that the minotaurs couldn't find him, begging to whatever magic or source of magic that the monsters wouldn't be able to smell him out.
The sniffs got closer and Harry begged harder. A sweat broke out and he prayed harder that the minotaurs wouldn't smell that too.
Finally, to Harry's immense relief, the minotaurs straightened up and moved away, looking in a different area.
"Lord Agar," a deep voiced centaur, sounding exactly like Bane, addressed the man on the horse. "We have determined that someone did arrive with the lith. There are some tracks and the minotaurs could smell someone being here recently. Unfortunately, the tracks disappear before too far and the scent doesn't lead away from the lith. It would appear that they have teleported away, either with a Town Portal or a Dimension Door."
"Is that right?" the man, Lord Agar, mused. "Very well. Have the minotaurs depart, looking for tracks or smells within the usual range. If it was Dimension Door then we can potentially trace them. Everyone else, form up. We will be returning to Brindamoor."
The centaur bowed and marched off, calling out orders to all of the centaurs, gargoyles and minotaurs, who all rushed to obey their lord's orders. In short order, the centaurs and the gargoyles were in their ranks gathered around the horse rider, with the minotaurs marching away in groups to look for Harry somewhere else. The closest group of centaurs were only a few meters away from where Harry was hiding.
Harry was terrified, but also feeling hopeful. The monsters were leaving, which meant he would soon be out of danger. His heart was beating so loud he was afraid that the centaurs closest to him would be able to hear it. It was all he could do to lie still and not make the slightest noise, worried that even the sound of shifting sand or breathing too loudly would be enough to give him away.
Finally, whatever the apparent Lord Agar was waiting for was ready. The yellow-cloaked man raised his hands and rasped out "Town Portal!"
A soft white light enveloped the entire group. Harry stared at it all for moment, then startled as the light expanded to just barely cover him too, feeling the man's magic like a blanket. He sat up underneath his cloak, ready to move away from the small army, but was too late. The light grew brighter until, with a sudden flash, the entire group left the lith.
An instant later, he landed on a pile of straw, letting of an 'oof' that was fortunately covered by the noises surrounding them. It was the loud heavy banging that reminded Harry of a blacksmith that he had seen for a school excursion when he had been in primary school with Dudley. The sounds of crowds moving nearby were also rowdy enough to drown out his soft exclamation.
"Forward to the castle," Lord Agar ordered his troops again. The monsters marched off in an orderly fashion, not even looking back at where harry was now lying in the pile of straw.
He finally gave a huge sigh of relief. Before covering his mouth with his hand again in fear. He had no idea where he was but knew he had to find a way to get out and find Sirius. He dragged himself out of the straw and took a moment to make sure that no straw was clinging to his invisibility cloak. Finally, he looked around and his mouth dropped open.
It was a medieval town. It looked like it was a castle and town taken straight out of the Middle Ages. Massive curtain walls, more than forty feet high, surrounded a massive area (an inner bailey, if he vaguely remembered his primary school lessons), where a town larger than Hogsmeade was located. There were even forests and large towers of a weird configuration in the distance. He saw something flying above him and blinked. Were those griffins? They were!
All of this paled in comparison to the largest castle he had ever seen, easily half again as large as Hogwarts. It was made from what looked like a single massive stone from this distance. Though it was a good few hundred meters away so he might just be seeing things.
He looked around the town and blinked again. There were regular humans in the town, but there were plenty of creatures walking freely in the town too. Minotaurs, centaurs, goblins, orcs and… was that a zombie? It wasn't an inferi as it looked far too alive. He gaped at what he was seeing, but no one else seemed to be bothered by it. Someone threw it a sausage as it walked past and it gave a wave before it moved on. There was even a hydra resting on a large stone in a clearing!
He was dumbfounded by what he was seeing. Even in the wizarding world there wasn't a unity of magical creatures like he was seeing here. Where was he to be able to see this? Was he in a hidden community that was only accessible beyond the lith?
He walked through the town, looking around at everything and making sure to not bump into anyone and be discovered. He fumbled around, making sure to not get caught up in staring at some of the monsters. He passed the blacksmith shop that he had been hearing since he landed in the straw and saw that the blacksmith was actually a cyclops! He stared as the cyclops looked hammered a sword on an anvil, before quenching it with a hiss in a barrel. He could only gape in shock as the cyclops stared at the dying fire and a light shot out of his eye causing the fire to roar to life.
He stumbled away from that sight and moved as quickly and quietly as he could through the crowds. He managed to find a way to an empty alley where he could look out over the bailey to see if there were any clues that he could find of where he was or where he could go.
Suddenly, a large bell started ringing from the castle, the sound peeled over the entire town and everyone, human or not, stopped and stared at the castle for a second before, in an orderly fashion, nearly everyone started moving towards the castle.
Harry waited until most of the crowd had passed, before he joined near the rear of the mass of beings, moving to see what was happening. They moved through the buildings of the town until they made their way to a clearing of sorts. In the centre of the clearing, a stage had been constructed. Not much more than a wooden platform that was slightly higher than chest high on an adult.
Unfortunately, Harry had never been the tallest person, and this crowd included monsters that were even taller than people, and there were easily thousands of beings of all types in this crowd. He wasn't able to see what was going on without taking off his invisibility cloak and so decided to find a different vantage point.
Harry moved until he was able to stand behind a house on the border of the clearing, but closer to the stage than any other house. He looked over and saw that a collection of barrels leaning against the wall. He clambered up them as quietly as he could, climbing onto the roof, lying down on the shingles, letting him see over the heads of everyone in the crowd. He was only about forty meters away from the stage and had a good view of what was happening.
On the platform, there were several people. Going by the looks of them, a couple of them were richer than the rest, judging by their finer clothing and jewellery. One of them seemed to be wearing a crown of some sort. Standing around them were a few soldiers, all minotaurs armed with heavy double-bladed axes. And chained to a post that sprung up out of the centre of the stage was a person that Harry was shocked to see.
Sirius.
His godfather didn't look good from where Harry was hiding. One of his eyes looked black, his hair was filthy and limp, and it looked like he was as thin and emaciated as he had been when Harry had seen him the first time in the Shrieking Shack. His godfather didn't even seem aware of the world around him.
Harry's heart leaped into his throat as he looked for away to get to Sirius, but he couldn't see a way to get through the crowd, certainly not without bumping into people and letting them know he was there. Certainly not without his wand either.
"My people!" the crowned nobleman addressed the crowd of monsters and regular humans. He received a roar from all alike as he gestured to where Sirius was chained to the post. "A few weeks ago, this man, this spy, invaded our lands from beyond the forbidden liths to the north west. He tried to make me believe that he wasn't from my traitorous brother, the Usurper Roland. But my noble Hero Sandro was able to determine that he had indeed spent time among the Knights. He was attempting to gain information on our weaknesses, to let the Usurper know how to defeat us!"
A huge roar burst out from the gathered masses, humans and monsters alike. The nobleman let it continue for several moments before raising him hands. The crowd went silent almost immediately. Harry had no idea what he was talking about. Sirius went through the Veil only about maybe five minutes before Harry. How had Sirius been here for a month? Did time work differently in this place? Had someone thrown a time turner through the Veil?
"That's right, my people!" the noble bellowed fiercely. "He was just as deceptive as you could expect from someone sent by my traitorous brother! He tried to spout of lands beyond fanciful imaginings! Of machines that could fly faster than dragons run without magic! Of carts that required no horses to move faster than the wind! Where magic was hidden from the world out of fear!"
Another roar of denial came from the crowd, especially loud from the creatures gathered, such as the centaurs and the few minotaurs. The roar seemed to jerk Sirius out of the haze he seemed to be in and he looked up at the crowd as if noticing them for the first time.
"These are the lies that my brother will descend to!" the noble roared. "His treachery is revealed as he seeks to divert my attention to myths so that he can catch me unawares as he makes his attempt on my kingdom! But I will not be deceived! I will not be distracted and I will not fall for his schemes!"
Another roar of triumph was heard and Harry could tell that things were drawing to a close. He ust didn't know what to do. He didn't have a wand; he couldn't make it through the crowd without being detected and he would stand out too much from the people and beings that were in this area. He felt truly helpless, unable to do anything but watch and hope.
"I will leave a message to all of you, good beings!" The noble declared. "On my name as your king, I will not suffer any distraction as I seek to conquer my brother's armies! I will not be redirected from our noble cause! I will take our armies, and we will unite all of Enroth under my banner, King Archibald! On this I swear!"
"ARCHIBALD! ARCHIBALD!" the crowd hollered and brayed, throwing fists and thrusting swords and axes into the air.
Harry was completely panicking now. He couldn't see a way to get Sirius and even he could feel that there was a moment coming that was going to be too much to take back.
"And I will start, here and now!" the noble, now identified as King Archibald, roared over the crowd. He turned to a man wearing a black hood, holding a massive axe that reminded Harry of third year when McNair was going to execute Buckbeak. "Kill this spy and feed him to the griffins."
Harry abandoned all stealth and threw his invisibility cloak off to run down to save his godfather. He took a step and opened his mouth to bellow Sirius' name…
When a green hand came from behind and clamped hard over his mouth, cutting off any chance he had to shout. He fought against his captor but nothing he did could stop the man in the black hood, lifting his axe high. He tried to bite the hand, but the man rasped out a single word: "Paralyze" and Harry instantly froze, just as rigid as a petrificus totalus.
With Harry forced to stopped fighting, he was stuck looking down desperately at Sirius. To his shock, horror and shame, Sirius looked up right at that moment and stared straight at Harry. The shock on his face lasted less than a second, before it changed to desperation as he mouthed out to Harry. 'Run'.
Then the axe fell. And so did Sirius. Or his head, at least.
Harry wanted to cry out against the palm over his mouth, his tears being the only thing allowed to move falling as he poured his grief from his anguished soul. The sound of it all was completely hidden by the bloodthirsty screams of the crowd below in the square as two large griffins were released and they dove hungrily to Sirius' remains.
Harry was still crying in despair and grief as he heard gruff voice of his captor call out behind him.
"Town Portal."
A flash of light encompassed the both of them and a moment later, they flashed away from the castle.
…
A/N Please Review/Follow/Favourite as you please.
Constructive reviews are appreciated. Trolls are ignored.
So that was the intro chapter. What do you think? I realise that not many people play HOMM so I thought that this would be something new to many people and I hope you found it interesting.
All updates for this and all of my other stories will be found early on my pat-re-on. Updates for wildcard stories can be voted on there. Bored Peasant's Written Works. If you wish to get updates early, or just support me for the work I do, then feel free to help me there.
Until next time!