Disclaimer:
I solemnly swear that the literature and works of the Harry Potter Verse belong to JK Rowling, Bloomberg and Warner Bros. The only thing I own are the one-shot ideas that popped into my head and whatever OCs I would create for them. This is a work of pure fiction made solely for fun, constructive reviews will be welcomed, flames will be ignored. Any references to characters in real-life or fiction are purely coincidental. If I could make money out of my ideas, it would be nice...
Mischief Managed Damn It!
Title: Indiana Potter (Working Title)
Posted Date: August 20 2023
Tags: Harry as the explorer, possible series.
Tags not to be used: WBWL, Dursleys
Challenge: See Below
The corridor of old bricks felt very stifling for the people walking through it. It was not helped with the cobwebs that hung from the ceiling and old roots that had burrowed through the stone work, providing a path for years of rainwater to go through and creating an environment for moss to grow in patches and making the place very humid. But they pushed on with the walking, because they were close to their price and they had endured plenty to get it. They were not going to give up until then.
That said, a few were getting impatient.
"How far are we? Are we getting closer?" One guy wiped his brow of the sweat with his sleeve due to the humidity. The one leading the pack paused to turn to one of the youngest members of the group. That one was a young man dressed in a button shirt and long dark pants ideal for heavy travelling in the forests, with a fedora on his head that helped to block the dripping water from on-top. His emerald eyes were glittering as he pulled out a small notebook to check the details.
"Yes, we are getting closer. In fact." The young man pointed to a stone bust of a lion slightly hidden from the moss and roots. "We are close to the end, that bust indicates the final quarter of this path."
"Finally." The impatient one let out a sigh of relief.
"Anything worth noting at this point, Harry?" The older man next to the young man asked.
"A few more traps are coming up, but that is to be expected." The now named Harry checked the notebook. "At least we got rid of that boulder trap near the entrance, otherwise we would be the new additions for this tomb." A few shivered at that notion. "I am more worried about whether we can apparate from this spot after we get what we came for. The tombs around here may have been built before apparition became a standard, but the architects had access to the natural ore that blocks our abilities to move instantaneously. While we have disabled the traps behind us, we would still need to run a lot to get past the last ward line we marked out. Here on out, there are bound to be more traps to stop us."
"Well, better get to it." The leader directed the few in the back to come up front and checked for traps. The first one nearly got a taste of it when he stepped on a loose pebble and slipped backwards in time to avoid a giant saw blade from giving him a haircut of the scalp. The others held a breath for a moment before letting it out when that guy started moving and scrambled back on all fours. It took a while but they managed to clear the traps for the relatively short corridor and even got the chance to test whether they could apparate back out into the open area outside of the tomb. They then moved on into a chamber that was more open than the corridor they were previously in, a welcomed notion for those getting slight claustrophobia. The chamber was brightened by the sun that was peaking through the gaps in the roof, showing a chamber that was supposedly used for worship in the past with faded tiles on the floor, old water channels by the sides, murals on both walls of the chamber, and on the far end of the chamber, an altar that had an idol of the god the locals worshipped to, one supposedly made of solid gold and with gems of red and blue for the eyes. The light shining from above gave the placement a rather holistic view for them.
"Finally!" The impatient one stepped forward only to get pulled back by a couple of others.
"Seriously Lockhart, did you not see the multiple traps we had to disable earlier? There is no way this open space is safe." The leader scolded the man before bending down to grab what looked like an old torch to press down on one of the worn out patterns on the floor. A loud 'click!' was heard before a needle was shot out from the wall and embedded itself deep into the wood, a remarkable feat given how thick the wood was despite the age. The impatient man paled at the half-embedded needle; that would have gone through both his legs at once!
"Harry, this is your show." The leader motioned to the young man who nodded and came forward to study the pattern on the floor. A quick consultation with his notebook and he started to walk about the ground in a certain manner that saw his feet moving around the edge of the patterned tiles. Briefly one of the tiles broke under his foot and he jumped back 3 tiles to avoid a volley of needles at his previous position. It took roughly 3 minutes to get to the altar before Harry could take a breather to center himself.
"Okay, let's look at this." Harry leaned forward to inspect the idol that was on the slightly worn out altar of stone. It was shaped in the form of a lion roaring with an open mouth, the fangs still impossibly sharp even after years being stuck in this tomb. It had more gems other than the ones used for the eyes, but they were smaller and meant for the spine of it before ending with one red gem for the tail, giving the impression of the lion having a flame for the tail's end. Adding to the effect, the idol was held up on a wooden stand with different parts to allow the feet to be placed on them, showcasing it as the prideful lion roaring in defiance to all that dared to disrespect it.
It was quite a masterpiece in his view, big enough that he would need to have a firm grip with two hands for it, and long enough to match his forearm from head to tail end. Such craftsmanship should not be left alone in such a tomb with the elements ready to affect it. It should be displayed in a museum, or at least a place where certain people could view it and learn its history.
Harry consulted his notebook again to check for any notations that talked about this while going about the altar for any clues. From his time with other tombs and the traps they had been disabling thus far, this appeared to be one of those pressured control traps where a change in the weight could trigger a trap or something else to go into the real trap. Given the stand's design, it was clear that the architect of this tomb made sure to make this a very sensitive trap that just a little bit of difference would set it off.
Oh boy.
"Gold is roughly 8 to 12 times the weight compared to regular sand." Harry muttered as he kept the notebook and pulled out a bag of sand he had prepared for such a deal. He tested the weight and frowned at the feeling. Even with a big bag of sand, it won't match the weight of solid gold and gems. He looked about and found the ground strewn with small pebbles and stones that came from the loose ceilings and nature poking through. He grabbed a few and dumped them into the bag, checking the weight a few times before adding or removing more stones and sand. He then double-checked the placement of the idol to make sure he was not missing anything.
"Okay, guys. I am about to try and remove the idol. Fingers crossed." Harry called out to the rest who nodded with a few putting their hands to pray for good fortune. That impatient idiot Lockhart was even on his knees to pray, drawing rolled eyes and scoffs from the leader and the others.
Harry took a deep breath and let it out slowly as he handled the bag of sand and stones in one hand while reaching out to the idol with his other hand. He took a few more seconds to get the timing right in his head and tuned out all other sounds around him, then with a quick breath and action, grabbed the idol and moved it slightly to place the small bag on the altar. Everyone paused in tense silence at the action, then after a few seconds of nothing happening, they started to relax a little and smiled at the success. Harry on the other hand kept his guard up while slowly stepping away from the altar.
It was too easy in his opinion.
That got answered when a loud click came from the altar followed by the bag sinking into some empty cavity and the chamber started to rumble about them. "Run!" The others did not hesitate on that and bolted back where they came with Harry chasing after them, his footsteps triggering the traps in the floor and having poisoned darts firing off from the walls. His adrenaline was enough to barely avoid the darts by the skin of his teeth as they flew about his back and got him running faster to outpace the floor that was breaking beneath his feet and collapsing into some chasm below. Thankfully, they all made it past the lion idol and were able to apparate to safety. Harry put on the speed and made it past the idol to apparate right as the chamber collapsed behind him with the corridor following suit.
He ended up landing on the ground harder than intended and dropping on his side with a groan. Nearby, he could see a few of the others lying on their backs and panting from the exertion. "Everybody okay?"
"Oh great, just great." One of the others groaned on her spot by the grass. "Let's not do that for a long while. Like, 'Forever' Long While." The groans of agreement came from the others around her. Harry could not disagree with that as he pushed himself off the ground and dusted himself off. His pain was soon forgotten as he reached into the bag and pulled out the idol that they had been trying to get and now was in his hands.
"Well, on the bright side, we got what we came for." Harry stretched to show the others the idol. Almost everyone got up to their feet immediately, their pains forgotten in favour of inspecting the prize they were chasing, the remainder taking a while from getting winded. But all were able to come forward to see the idol in its glory.
"Wow, it really is beautiful." One of the females marvelled at it.
"This is why we want to keep this safe before those people from the construction crew come along." Harry remarked as he admired the idol. "This is history that could be lost, and now history to be kept alive."
"And history that will be in mine."
Everyone turned to see Lockhart smirking with his wand out and several of the indigenous tribe members surrounding them with what Harry recognized to be combat spears slash magic staffs. The others huddled together while keeping their eyes on the weapons. "I will be taking that, thank you." Lockhart came forward to grab the idol. Harry resisted a little but relented when one of the tribal hunters came forward threatening with the spear. Lockhart sneered at Harry before stepping back to one that had to be the leader of the group given the ceremonial mantle he was wearing.
"So these are the trespassers?" The leader asked in the native tongue of the region.
"Yes, they are, and as promised, I have saved your idol." Lockhart acted very smug on this before stepping back. Harry was the only one to fully understand what they said and growled inwardly.
"Lockhart, what the hell, man?!" One of the female members glared at the apparent traitor.
"This venture has taken too long for my liking, but I had to endure it up to this point so that we could get to the idol and then I will hand you over to the tribe for stealing their idol." Lockhart spoke to address her. "You should have listened to me on the way, I could have helped you out of this." The woman spat at him as her answer.
"Really, Lockhart? Like seriously, REALLY?!" One of the other guys threw up his arms at this. "This is why I did not want him on the team, he is following his bloody cousin's footsteps!"
"Oh please, my cousin is playing a fool's errand by plagiarising other people's achievements and writing them off as his own. I, on the other hand, know where the real money is coming through." Lockhart scoffed as being compared with his cousin, clearly at odds with him despite the similarities. "The real value comes from all the priceless relics that remained untouched all these years, now they are mine, erm I meant, OURS." Lockhart changed at the last minute at the tribal leader's glare. Clearly things were not rosy with their agreement.
Harry decided to capitalise on that.
"You do know that he is not going to let you take back the idol, right?" Harry directed that question at the tribal leader in his native tongue.
"Like you were not going to do the same?" The guard next to the leader taunted back in the same language. Harry shrugged as naturally as he could.
"I was trying to preserve history, this region is being reclaimed for redevelopment, and others less scrupulous would loot the place. I want to make sure that some bit of culture remains intact, and the Gryffindor Idol would not be lost in some collector's room to gather dust, or worse, get the gems removed and sold separately while the gold gets melted down." Harry answered truthfully in this case. "And I can tell you upfront that Lockhart will not be keeping his part of the deal." Both the guard and the leader looked at each other before turning as one to Lockhart who looked nervous at the conversation.
"He is lying. I will return you the idol." The tensing of the hands and the furtive glances were not good signs.
"Hand us the idol." the leader motioned with his hand.
"Erm, I can hold on for you. You know, for safekeeping." Lockhart stammered as he took a step backwards, a mistake that had the other guards pointing their spears at him. A sharp word from the leader had two guards wrapping the arms around Lockhart's with a third coming forward to get the idol off his hands. "Wait, that is mine!" He slipped back to English at this.
"Clearly, you are the real dishonourable one." The leader glared as he took the idol from the servant. He briefly paused to look at it with gentle eyes before looking at Harry. "You claim to be protecting history?"
"If it holds history, they should either be well protected or be placed in a museum for all to learn." Harry just answered properly and clearly. The leader looked at him before motioning with a hand to get the others standing down but still on alert. The leader walked forward and stopped a few metres away from Harry, a tense silence appearing between them.
"We talk. Alone." Harry turned to his excavation leader who nodded reluctantly, before he followed the tribal to a corner with two guards following for security. Lockhart tried to move along only for the burly men to drag him away whining.
It took a few minutes, but felt like hours to the team, before Harry came back with the leader from their chat. The tribal leader looked happy while Harry looked a little more relaxed but resigned to something. The leader spoke something that had his men moved away from the team, then after exchanging some words and a bow with Harry, the tribe moved on while dragging a frightened Lockhart away with them.
"So what happened?" One of the others asked while watching Lockhart get further away from them.
"The leader wanted to confirm details, and I had to allow him to cast a spell to ensure I was telling the truth." Harry started explaining as he checked his bag. "Once that was settled, the leader was willing to let us go, but in exchange I had to let him take back the idol. Along with handing him Lockhart to punish." The younger members groaned at this.
"I am so glad we are not working for the goblins, they would be having us in the tunnels with the dragons." A few shuddered at that remark. "But we can't just leave empty-handed." To their confusion, Harry smiled before holding up a pouch that they knew he did not have before. He opened it up and tilted it slightly to release some of the contents onto his hand, showing a small handful of rough cut diamonds and gold nuggets.
"As a sign of good faith and repayment for showing Lockhart's unfaithfulness, the tribe leader granted me this sample of the next tomb to get to. There is more where this came from, including a replacement idol that we could obtain for this trip. He gave me directions that I have marked out on the map." Harry returned the contents back into the pouch and closed it up before putting it back in his bag. He paused to see his fedora that had been left on the ground since their escape and went over to grab it.
"Well, let's hope that we can get that for our trip." The leader of their excavation team shrugged. "Shall we return to base camp?" Harry nodded as he grabbed and dusted off his fedora of dirt.
"Yeah, I think we have enough excitement for the day. As for tomorrow?" Harry replaced the fedora back on his head where it should be and smiled. "It will be a new adventure."
Author's Notes:
This came about after watching the latest and likely the last of the Indiana Jones Films. It was a decent send-off for Harrison Ford, I grew up on the films and I will miss watching those films. Of course, the original trilogy will always be my favorites, especially the Last Crusade with Sean Connery.
For this, the routes I am envisioning have pros and cons:
Route 1: The usual "OC Harry goes to Hogwarts and doing all the canon storylines despite being a different person" route.
Conclusion: I don't see this coming out that well for this version, it just won't work for me.
Route 2: "Follow the films AU" route.
Conclusion: Possible, will need to a lot of work to change the story a lot to get that going.
Route 3: Full on Indiana Jones AU with bits of Rowling verse terminology.
Conclusion: I am thinking of Hogwarts being a high-school slash university with different departments, and Harry will be the archaeology teacher's assistant and part time adventurer. Malfoy could be his rival. Dumbledore can be the good guy here (I am thinking the actor who played Dumbledore for the first two films). If we are going with the villain, perhaps Grindelwald will be the Big Bad? And of course, given who Indiana is, Harry is going to have to deal with women in his life XD
What do you guys think?