(Author's Note) This is probably going to be the first of series of scenes that I will be posting. Think of these scenes as what's happening in the revamped SW-canon, hints and teases to the buildup to the next big story. Scenes that will explain some backstory to what's happening in 'The Sorcerer' so I don't have to waste doing such in the actual story.

The Road to "The Sorcerer"
By: Tellemicus Sundance
#01: Harry's Tale

Rome, Italy
April 1996

'What is going on out there?' Harry wondered from his position on the floor. His captors had clearly been trying to make him feel as less than a human. Clad in some ragged, torn, and stained gray pants, no shoes, and a very thin t-shirt that offered no protection against the cold, he was seated in a lotus position, trying to calm his rising nerves and ignore his hunger and thirst.

It must've been more than a week since he'd been arrested by the International Confederation of Wizards. Harry wasn't entirely surprised that he hadn't been put on trial just yet. The ICW had probably wanted to make a huge deal out of it, make it known to all of Europe of what their stance on illegal Sorcery was, make it into a big public circus event with hundreds of reporters and thousands of witnesses. Granted, there was probably a big investigation going on about what other clandestine activities he'd been up to prior to his arrest. But one thing he knew for sure was that whatever happened during the trial, the tide was going to be strongly against him. Not once since he'd been literally thrown into the dark, dank prison cell he presently occupied had he been visited by anyone, not even a guard to give him bread and water.

'I hope everything's ok back home,' he thought, remembering how he'd left things back at Hogwarts. A big battle between no less than seven factions and their armies had been waged on the Hogwarts' grounds with hundreds of deaths on all sides. He didn't know how it ended, considering he'd surrendered just as the Muggle military and ICW had arrived, and he'd been swiftly detained and Stupefied afterwards. When he'd awoken, he'd found himself in his present situation.

Sighing as he climbed to his feet, he made his way over to the door of the cell. It was a sturdy thing of aged oak with no interior handle and only a small barred window two-thirds of the way up its length. Peeking through the opening, he looked around for as far as his limited range of sight allowed. All he saw was the same thing he'd seen the last time he'd done this, an empty stretch of crudely-made stonewall hallway.

But just as he was about to pull back, a glint of light on the floor on the other side of the hall from his cell door caught his attention. It was large, rusty key!

"Well, isn't that convenient?" Harry muttered aloud, eyes narrowing dangerously as the implications dawned on him. But that didn't stop him from reaching out with his Sorcery to telekinetically grab the key and bring it up to the lock on his door. It was a little tricky maneuvering the key into the lock since he couldn't see the slot, but he eventually managed it after a few moments. With a deafeningly loud clicking and squeaking sound in the silent hallway, the lock was released and the door swung open. Moving outside of his cell, Harry gently closed the door behind him, taking the key in the process.

Glancing down the hallway as he stretched out his magical awareness, he muttered, "Someone is playing games here. But am I a player or piece?" Deciding on which direction to take, as guided by the subtle urges of the magic around him, Harry quickly and quietly made his way down the hall. After running down several of the hallways, he came across a large open area that looked like the guard lounge. Inside the lounge were several Wizards dressed in red cloaks, lying on the floor with the obvious signs of having been pummeled quite brutally.

"Yeah, I'm definitely a pawn in this game," Harry muttered, looking around the lounge, a bottle of water and bowl of fruit immediately grabbed his attention. He instantly shot over to the water, gulping it down with the frantic urgency of a parched, dying man. Once the water gone, he grabbed an apple and took a few hurried bites out of it. Maybe it was his starvation, but that little bit of water and those bites of apple were the most delicious scraps of food he'd ever had before!

Grabbing another apple, he stuffed it into his pants pocket for later. As he was biting into his first apple again, something familiar caught his attention on the table next to him. It was his lightsaber! Setting aside his apple, Harry hurried over to it with a frown on his face. Holding out his hand, he carefully stretched out his senses, searching for any untoward Charms, Jinxes, or Curses that had been cast upon it. His frown deepened when he felt the presence of a strong but subtle Tracking Charm.

"So, whoever's orchestrating this breakout clearly wants to keep an eye on me," Harry growled, waving his hand as he easily dispelled the Charm. "This is not the way to get on my good side."

Sensing the approach of someone, Harry turned and faced the man who'd just entered the lounge. He couldn't see the man's face because of the hood he wore, but he could easily detect the spiking levels of confusion, anger, and fear that the man was unknowingly emitting. "What's going on here?!" he demanded in Italian as he hurriedly shuffled off to the side of the room, keeping Harry within his eyesight as one hand grasped for his wand.

Holding up his hands in a placating gesture, Harry hurriedly called out, "It's not what it looks like!"

The man clearly didn't believe or even understand him, grasping his wand and launching a Stunning spell at Harry. Even as Harry ignited his lightsaber and deflected the spell, the man reached out and hit a red button on the wall that he'd been heading towards. Instantly, the lights overhead changed to red as an alarm began blaring. The man jabbed his wand up to his throat as he shouted out, "ALERT! ALERT! THE SORCERER IS ESCAPING!"

Frowning angrily at the man's willful contempt and proud escalation of force, Harry jabbed his free hand forward and knocked the man into the wall with enough force to knock him unconscious. 'Why do Wizards always have to escalate things without first investigating the reasoning?'

Shaking his head, he immediately turned and sprinted out of the lounge and back down the halls. Reaching out with his magic, he could feel rapidly escalating levels of anger, confusion, and fear rising all throughout the facility he was being held in. The prison enforcers were wondering what was happening, besides the obvious jailbreak taking place, and the prisoners were furious that it wasn't themselves that were escaping. Ignoring the tide of negativity that was flooding the air around him, Harry once again returned his focus on allowing magic to guide him and help him escape.

Rounding on corner, he found himself face to face with a trio of guards. For a split second, none of them moved as they all waited for the other side to make the first attack. Quickly regaining himself, Harry turned and sprinted back the way he came from, searching a different route to take as he ignored the shouted commands of the guards behind him. 'I can't get into another more trouble than I already am! If I fight, someone might get hurt or killed. And I'll be blamed even more!' With his Sorcery-boosted speed and dexterity, it wasn't more than a few moments that he managed to lose his pursuers in the maze that was the prison.

Reaching another junction of hallways, he smelled it before he saw it. The singe in the air of burnt ozone, the scent of burn fabrics and fried pork, iron of blood, heavy in the air. As he turned the corner in the junction, he found a massacre of five new guards. The wounds on their corpses were quite distinctive and he easily recognized them as the slashes and stabs made by a lightsaber. 'This just goes from bad to worse with each turn I take! Who's doing this and why?' The potential list wasn't a very long one, that he was aware of, since lightsabers were still a very new weapon that comparatively few had possession of. But he didn't have time to think about it.

A fast series of spells being shot at him from behind him caught Harry's attention. He spared only a glance over his shoulder to see that the trio who'd been tailing him had caught up to him. Rather than stand and take the blame, Harry turned and sprinted away. By the time he'd reached the end of the hall and made another turn, the trio had reached the corpses and began shouting out in Sonorous-enhanced voices, reporting the deaths of the guards to the rest of the prison.

'This just went to hell in a handbasket,' Harry thought derisively. Up ahead he spotted a large door in what seemed to be a foyer. 'The way out? Please be!'

The foyer was deserted, all of the guards likely either searching the prison or the perimeter for their escaped Sorcerer prisoner. Still, that didn't stop Harry from slowing down as he reached it. Cautiously peeking around the room to confirm that it was empty before hurrying to door. Opening it slightly, he found that there was a large stone courtyard beyond, the moonlight and city-lights of Rome casting the courtyard into brilliant illumination. There'd be no easy way of sneaking out through there.

"Where is he?!" an Italian voice cried out. "Do you see him?"

"He must be heading for the courtyard!"

Hearing the approach of the guards behind him, Harry took a swallow to calm his nerves. There was no choice. He'd have to run across that open courtyard to reach the city beyond and pray to find a way to escape his pursuers before they could apprehend him again. There'd be no second chances and no way back, but he had no choice anymore. Opening the door, he immediately dashed outside and headed straight for the large, locked doors on the other side of the courtyard.

Blinding search lights blinked into the existence the moment he reached the halfway point, immediately zeroing in on him and he skidded to a halt. All around him, he could sense and see the rising silhouettes of guards and Italian Aurors. More than dozen suddenly Apparated down into the courtyard, surrounding him with their wands leveled on him.

"What were you hoping to accomplish with this stunt, boy?" the man immediately in front of him demanded in a derisive and mocking voice that was heavily accented.

"Don't blame me for this!" Harry snapped, holding up and igniting his lightsaber in a defensive stance. "Someone's using me like a pawn in a game. All I'm trying to do is keep from being immediately executed for crimes not my own!"

"And how does that make you so different from any of the other thousands of convicted criminals in this place?" the man asked, frowning at the boy who couldn't have been any older than his own son.

"Because I will prove it!" he deactivated his lightsaber as he said that.

Taking a titanic leap, Harry seemed to suddenly take flight as he swept over the surprised guards and Aurors, who'd never seen a boy accomplish such a feat before. This momentary surprise is what allowed Harry to reach the gatehouse of the courtyard. By the time he'd touched down, the Aurors had recovered and started casting spells at him. But by then it was too late, it was a simple matter for Harry take a dive over the wall and drop into the canal that ran along that stretch of the wall.

Although the Aurors would rapidly begin searching the outlying areas around the prison and then expand into all magical areas of Rome, they'd never find Harry Potter. He had utterly vanished into the night.

Next time...

The Road to "The Sorcerer"
By: Tellemicus Sundance
#02: Deadly Dursley