Coldness was the only thing Harry Potter could feel. It was only natural at this point, after spending hours in the Ministry of Magic and fighting off the Death Eaters, the followers of Lord Voldemort himself. Just thinking about the name made Harry's blood boil with rage these days. Everywhere he looked, his bloody face kept following him. Why couldn't he have just stayed in the forests of Albania for good and saved everyone the trouble? Instead, here he was fighting for his life alongside the Order of the Phoenix to save his friends from the Death Eaters. Harry thought he did a good job teaching his class how to defend themselves, but his worst fears came alive before his eyes. They were outclassed in every way possible and if the Order hadn't arrived when they did, his friends would be captured or worse once Voldemort finds out his precious prophecy is long smashed.
"Harry, I'b sorry!" Neville was saying, his face contorted in sadness, "Harry, I'b so sorry, Harry, I didn'd bean do…"
"It doesn't matter! Just try and stand, let's get out of…" Neville's face morphed into one of joy and said something he couldn't understand. "What?"
"Dubbledore!" Neville was shouting and Harry looked to see. Sure enough, standing from the nasty Brain Room's entrance, Albus Dumbledore stood, his eyes blazing with the same blue fire that Harry saw when he interrogated Barty Crouch Jr. 'We are saved.' Harry thought to himself, relieved at last. Dumbledore walked down the steps, greeted with the shouts of terror from Death Eaters who scrambled like monkeys away from him or just surrendered altogether.
Harry glanced up to Sirius who was currently duelling his cousin, Bellatrix LeStrange. Good God, how did Sirius be so cool when most of his family ended up like her? Both fought like Harry hadn't seen before, Sirius laughing with joy and Bellatrix with fury. "Come on, you can do better than that, Bella!" Siris laughed, his voice echoing in the chamber. She stood still and cast two more jets of green light from her wand; the Killing Curse Avada Kedavra. He ducked below the first one, but the second one was making its way to his chest. Sirius, still laughing, lifted his wand reflexively and a sheen of light formed around him that the curse smacked into. Even from here, Harry could see Sirius's eyes widen in shock as the recoil knocked him backward, behind the veil they were fighting near. He seemed to fall in slow motion, passing through the ragged veil hanging over the archway. His body sunk through the cloth, which fluttered as if a light summer breeze had been passing by.
Harry wasn't sure when he released Neville, but the next thing he found himself doing was running towards the veil. "Sirius!" He was only knocked back, those voices weren't anything to be bothered about. "Sirius!" He ran despite Bellatrix's cackling laugh. Oh, how badly he wanted to hurt her when he knew Sirius was alright. Lupin reached out a hand to try and stop Harry but he slid him in the last moment. How did he do that, Harry would wonder later on. "Arresto Momentum!" Lupin shouted.
"Protego!" Harry shouted back. He couldn't understand why Lupin would do such a thing; he would make sure to ask about that when they got back to Grimmauld Place. Harry reached the veil and in a quick motion, leaned through it.
What Harry hadn't expected was for him to start falling as if he was sucked in. But it wasn't solid ground he hit at all. As a matter of fact, he felt like he was falling from his Firebolt in midair to the Quidditch pitch below. Harry couldn't see anything but pitch blackness all about. Wind rushed through his ears as Harry tried to look around him. His blood turned to ice when he heard a clicking sound through the wind and a claw reached for him the size of a car. Harry pushed against the bony claw, missing whatever reached for him. He kept falling down and down before he saw something. Harry couldn't make it out that well but it looked like rocks. My wand! Harry tried reaching for it but was being buffered so hard he couldn't feel it. The rocks were so close now, there was nothing to do now. Harry twisted in mid-air and held on. He felt the rocks press into his back but it was far gentler than he anticipated. In fact, it was over the moment it began. The wind was gone. Harry blinked, trying to see. It was still pitch black but was more manageable now. Harry sat himself up, the ground under him feeling firm. He paused. There was something strange about this ground, as if the very earth pulsed with magic. It was a worry that would be worked out later. "Sirius. Sirius!"
"Harry!" Harry looked at his feet. Sirius lay on the ground, trying to pull himself up. Harry grabbed him and helped him up.
"Are you alright, Sirius?" Harry asked, beyond relieved.
"I'm alright. I've gotten a worse knock or two in my younger years, let me tell you." Even in the darkness, Harry could make out Sirius's grin. The moment stopped when they heard a deep growling. "What was that?"
"I don't know." Harry replied, reaching for this wand that he thankfully still had on him. It was a strange growl, almost like a werewolf. That wasn't quite right, it was more feral, more monstrous. In the darkness, Harry could make out a pair of red eyes. "Stupefy!" Harry shouted to the eyes as it lurched to him. The presence stopped immediately, letting out yelps of surprise.
"Let me, Harry. Lumos." The light cast against the walls, forming a perfectly circular cave. What chilled Harry was what attacked them. It resembled some sort of lizard that Harry saw once when he went to the zoo with the Dursleys. This creature looked like those lizards, if said lizard had only one pair of limbs, white bone plates across its back with odd red streaks where the face was. Not to mention that is was the size of the cae itself. Its jaw gnashed at them, trying to bite them. "What sort of creature is this?"
"I don't know." Harry felt a chill when he saw such a creature, it reminded him too much of the Dementors, the guardians of Azkaban. But this creature did not radiate such malice or evil, almost like a cheap copy of one. And that gave Harry an idea. "Stand back, Sirius." He did so, looking interested. Harry held out his own wand. The lizard-like beast fought harder, and if Harry didn't know better, it was scared. "Expecto Patronum!" A thick white mist came from his wand and the familiar stag sprung forth. It charged at the beast, passing right through it. The lizard screeched even louder than before, dissolving into black smoke. The stag disappeared as Harry stared down at where the ash was piling up.
"What the bloody hell was that?" Sirius breathed. Harry could see fear on Sirius's eyes, and Harry could hardly blame him.
"Let's get out of here." Harry said, turning back to the Veil or whatever it was. He took a step forward and stopped. He could feel the ground beneath him vibrating as if an army was charging for him. Harry looked back, and thanks to Sirius's light, he could see more of the lizards, much smaller versions of with paler bone armor and fewer red streaks coming for them. By God, there had to be hundreds of them. "Expecto Patronum!" The stag came back once more, charging at the lizards. The cave shook more but Harry didn't pay attention, focusing on his Patronus charging at these lizards, cutting through them with ease. "Get back!" Sirius tackled Harry, knocking him into a crevice. Harry was going to protest when he saw the ceiling coming down on them. The creatures' roars came to a sudden stop. Harry coughed.
"Thanks."
"That's what godfathers are good for." Sirius grinned, leaning against the wall. Harry did so too, thinking back to those creatures. They were unlike anything he had seen before, and their response to his Patronus was not something he had even read about during his OWL studies. The cave shook some more, and in the aftershock, Harry noticed something new. At the far end of the tunnel, there was a sliver of light peeking through. Daylight! "Help me, Sirius!" Harry started pulling at the rocks, Sirius coming up next to him in the cramped quarters and pulling. Neither had any idea how long they worked, and Harry thought he felt warmth under his fingers by the time the rocks began to give way, daylight blinding them almost. Harry pushed himself out and stepped into the sunlight.
Harry blinked at what he saw. The lake below them resembled the Black Lake but stretched on beyond his sight. The water, the trees, even the air felt far different from England. "Where are we?" Harry asked as Sirius pulled himself out. He too was transfixed by what he saw.
"This is something you don't see every day." He said, taking in a deep breath. "Smells like Japan."
"Japan?" Harry looked to Sirius for a moment, surprised. "When were you in Japan?"
"How else did you think I was going to stay hidden, Harry?" Sirius waved off the question. "Their magical laws and regulations are less strict than they are in England. That still doesn't…" He paused. "What's that?"
Harry listened too. He heard screaming in the distance. In a jolt, Harry looked down. Below them, resting on a lower cliff side, was a small village with wooden walls around it. The same reptilian beasts were at the gates and the people were firing guns into them, not even denting their numbers. "Come on!"
"Harry, wait!" Sirius called out. "We don't know who they are. That could be a Death Eater base for all we know."
"We'll find out when we get down there." Harry said. Sirius was right, but if Harry's instinct was right on these being cheap copies of Dementors, no one deserved to die like that. In a moment, he could hear the wooden walls crashing down and the screams getting louder than ever. "Expecto Patronum!" The stag leapt from the ledge onto the cliffside below. To Harry's surprise, he saw another patronus following close behind, a large dog. Harry looked at Sirius who looked pale with concentration. "Together!" Harry looked back down, watching as the two specks of white plowed through the monsters, their numbers, thinning rapidly until they disappeared. When Harry could see no more, he released the spell. Harry fell onto his back, the sheer exhaustion from the last 24 hours catching up with him. He saw Sirius leaning against the wall, looking tired too. Harry heard people clamoring to them and in a daze, Harry felt himself being lowered down before darkness consumed him. When he woke, the room was warm but comfortable like the Gryffindor common room. Harry sat himself up, groaning from the pain. He was more tired than he expected. The sound of voices caught his attention and Harry looked to see Sirius sitting with another man, an elderly gentleman wearing blue robes and a bowl-like hat. For some reason, that same sense of magic he felt in the cave came back to him, radiating from him. Sirius was the first to notice. "Harry! Have a seat!" Harry did so, watchful. The man was older and had seen much in life.
"Strangers, welcome to Soin My. We owe you a great debt for saving our village from the Grimm. If I may ask, what semblances do you have? I have never seen such before."
Harry blinked, trying to take in the information. He blurted out the first question that came to mind, "What's a semblance?"
