I still own nothing really
Chapter 11: A Dark Path Revealed.
***********************Alexandria, Egypt***************************
0815 Hrs local time
August 5, 2012
Muggle history for the most part, recorded the destruction of the Great Library at Alexandria as a result of Caesar's battle at Alexandria in 48 BC, or at the hands of various invaders over the next few hundred years. In most ways the Muggles were correct about the first assumption, with the exception that the library had never been burned. That fateful night in 48 BC, seeing the flames racing from the harbor towards the collection of ancient tomes and texts, a group of Egyptian wizards had hurriedly used a series of hastily rigged transportation spells, the ancient forerunners of the modern portkey spell to transport the contents of the library into a series of caves just outside of the city itself.
Unfortunately the five wizards and one witch that had accomplished this great feat died a week later at the hands of the invading Roman army, caught in a battle between Caesar and Pompey's forces. The relocated library had been lost for almost two thousand years, until while on a mission for the American government to obtain an extremely powerful artifact; Dr. Henry Jones had found a clue that would eventually lead him to the relocated library twenty years later.
The noted archeologist, sporadically spent time here over the next several decades. Usually in periods between having to reestablish new muggle identities as his long life, while not as long as Dumbledore's, couldn't be explained by muggles. He was technically overseeing a project to catalog the library, and after all of the texts relating to wizarding directly were secreted, was planning on revealing its existence to the world as a whole.
Hermione appeared silently in the entrance to the caves holding the contents of the Library. She smiled absently as she looked out at the stacks and stacks of scrolls. There were books as well, while the Muggle world may not have started producing books until sometime in the sixth century AD and mass producing them starting in 1450, wizards had been conjuring them into existence hundreds of years before that. Still the practice wasn't common and wizards had mostly written on scrolls and tablets, just like their muggle neighbors until after Gutenberg invented his printing press.
She waved at several of the graduate students from Stonehenge University working in the front area. One of them, a tall, thin woman with strawberry blond hair and a slight sunburn, who was using her wand to blow dust from the tomes as Hermione came in, pointed to the back with her free hand, "Dr. Jones is in the back cavern Hermione."
Hermione nodded and started towards the back cavern of the series of caves. She was well known here, she had actually come here on vacation at least once, dragging along Harry, and giving Ron fodder to tease Harry with about being whipped enough to follow his wife to a "giant bloody library out in the middle of the desert for Merlin's sake." He had shut up as Luna had clonked him on the back of the head.
Hermione laughed to herself at the memory as she finally reached the furthest back cave. The cave was actually closed in by a door, and on discovery the door had resisted opening for years, until three years ago, Albus Dumbledore, Bill Weasley, who after Voldemort's defeat had returned to his prized job as a curse breaker, and Dr. Jones had spent a month cracking the various wards and defenses of this room. Culminating in a simple, anti-climatic Alohomora to open the door. After they entered it, they had been shocked to silence as the room was filled with texts, including several that had not been published until well after the chamber was sealed. It appeared that whatever spell the movers had used had continued to collect information. In fact, as if to prove her point, as she entered the room, a brand new text appeared with a soft pop.
This back cave was the largest of any, and in fact was expended by magic to be many, many times larger than seemingly possible. "Dr. Jones." Hermione shouted.
"Over here Hermione." A battered fedora caught her eye, and Jones replaced it on his head with a wry grin. His eyes sparkled under his gray hair. "And you can call me Indy; you know that." He grinned roguishly as she approached, "Or I guess I could call you Dr. Potter."
"Well if you must use my titles" Hermione replied dryly, "I would prefer you use the full set." He laughed, as he held out a hand to help her up onto the small stage-like platform he was standing on.
"Let's see, that's Dame Lieutenant Commander Hermione Potter, Lady Ravenclaw, Lady Gryffindor, Doctor of Arithmancy and Transfiguration, Assistant Professor of Transfiguration at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry..." he smiled, "I miss any?"
"You forgot the whole series of titles having to do with the Order of Merlin, and there's some rank in the peerage having to do with the old Potter line, but we don't quite understand it." Hermione shrugged, and turned to business with a small sound of annoyance, "what did you need me here for Indy? As much as I love libraries, I need to get home. Poor Harry is probably by himself with the kids and they already outnumber us two to two." Hermione joked. Jones chuckled, then with a sigh his expression visibly darkened. He grabbed an odd wand at his waist that had a length of braided leather attached to it. He flicked it in the direction of one of the hovering light orbs and with a slight whoosh of air it came to his call. Jones waved over his shoulder, motioning Hermione to a large, dusty tome that lay open on a old, carved golden table.
Hermione looked at it for a moment, absently running her finger lightly along the text. She didn't understand a word; the language in the text was unknown to her. It seemed to have elements of several ancient languages, but was more complex than all of them. It was almost as if those ancient languages were simplified derivations of this language. She looked up at Indy, "I don't know what to say; I don't recognize the language. Not really." She said, though something tickled the back of her consciousness, some fact that was trying to escape.
He looked grim, "I know, it seems to be a base language that some of the later languages are based on. I tried a translation spell, but it just backfired on me." He pointed at the book, "Turn the page." Hermione did...and let out a little gasp of astonishment. An illustration was painstakingly presented on the pages, an illustration of something that had not been seen for ten thousand years.
Shining towers of steel and glass filled the pages, behind some of the towers and quite visible through some trick of the artist's art, the ocean could be clearly seen. Small, tiny people were scattered in the picture, and from the perspective, Hermione could tell that some of the shining towers were immensely tall, perhaps as tall as anything in modern day New York or Singapore and except for the obvious odd curves and angles that indicated magical origin, would not have been out of place in either city. That wouldn't have been a problem if the book were new. "How old is this book?" She asked slightly breathlessly.
"Dating, both magical and mundane, puts it at, at least nine thousand years, maybe as much as fifteen. It has very strong intrinsic protective charms however so don't worry about hurting it." He replied softly, "Turn the page again." She did so and this time it was with not astonishment but horror, that a soft sound escaped her lips. The shining buildings were now shattered and torn. Vast black shapes hovered over the buildings with green shafts of destruction spilling down from them and sweeping the streets. Shattering, breaking the buildings, raking the land clean of life. "Turn it again, Hermione."
The next scenes were the telling ones. Black, hooded figures were shown advancing on what were obviously troops in odd uniforms. The troops were putting up a valiant fight, the picture showing illustrations of spellfire and other weapons spitting defiance at the advancing horde. But in the picture the good guys were loosing, ghostly, cloaked shapes were overrunning one segment, and as she watched the picture obligingly zoomed in to show in detail the Dementor, for that's what it had to be, giving some poor, long departed soul, the kiss. She touched the advancing dark line, and the image zoomed in enough to confirm that it was a X'Sheen she was seeing advancing on the line of defenders. "Once more Hermione."
She turned the page again, to see a white robed wizard standing defiantly in the center of the line. He was holding aloft a glowing red orb, and as Hermione watched the image a beam shot out of the orb, collapsing a shining, silver mirror-like portal at the back of the attacking X'Sheen. It seemed to be some sort of portal, or that's what it looked like when compared to descriptions of such things she had read in other ancient texts.
He looked at her, "I guess your problem has been around longer than a few years."
"Yeah"
*****************************Dublin, Ireland******************************
Ron led Luna and Fred into a small dusty shop in the old section of the city. As they eased the door closed, Fred flipped the sign on the door from open to closed and mouthed a locking charm on the door. The proprietor, a middle-aged man, dressed in an old, natty jumper and slacks looked up at them and started. He reached for something under the counter. "ACCIO WAND," Luna growled and the man's wand shot to her hand.
He raised his hands and stepped back. "Who are you people?" The man asked belligerently. He slowly stepped from behind the counter toward a cluttered shelf.
"Stop right there," Ron growled and the man froze. "Wayne McGovern?" The man nodded, Ron pulled a wallet from his jacket and opened it, flashing his credentials to the man. "We're here from the Ministry, we have some questions regarding goods that you are stated to have received from Kaiser Distributing in Norfolk on or about the ninth of June." McGovern jumped, just the tiniest bit, but enough for agents trained under the harsh eye of Alastor Moody to catch it. He nodded and lowered his hands slowly.
"Can I check my manifests? I have them in the back." He said and Ron agreed, flashing a warning look to Luna and Fred as he did. They followed him to the back room, and watched as he continued to a desk and a shelf behind it. He glanced back at them once, to see that they were standing in front of his desk, Ron and Luna together, Fred a bit back. He turned back to the shelf and, under the stack of papers he was reaching for, pressed a button.
Instantly the floor vanished beneath Ron and Luna and they went tumbling into darkness. The floor slid closed just as fast, and McGovern spun about with a new wand in hand. His hand was already raising, "AVADA..."
A red bolt of light impacted him between the eyes before he could utter the second word and he dropped like a sack of rotten potatoes. "Ron, Luna..." Fred yelled, pounding on the floor. He ran to the back of the room, and after a quick search, found the button McGovern had used. Fred repeatedly pushed it to no avail.
After a good, several second fall Ron and Luna crashed down together into darkness. They had both automatically cast momentum dispersion charms on themselves as they fell, so they were both alright, but where were they? "Lumos" Two throats muttered and twin beams of light speared into the gloom.
Low growling sounds escaped the darkness and an odd, sharp smell, like that of old blood and iron, identified itself to the two animagi. "Werewolves." Ron whispered to his wife. He grabbed her hand and tried to apparate, only to feel the effects of a quite strong anti-apparition field in place. He tossed his wand to his left hand and drew the modified muggle sidearm that they all had been issued since Ginny's encounter with wolves last year. Without looking he knew Luna had done the same. Together they stood back to back; Ron's light scanned right, and suddenly glittering eyes and ivory fangs appeared in the dark. The wolf leapt, and his gun barked three times. As it fell at his feet, behind him, other growls sputtered into being, one, five, ten
A heartbeat later the dark room erupted in flashes, Ron took down one, then another, and another and as a fourth wolf sprung from the dark at him, a soft click answered him. Behind him, Luna growled a curse as her slide locked back as well. The wolf stopped at the edge of his wandlight, growling. Ron could hear at least five more somewhere in the large room and gulped. "Luna..." He whispered, "Get ready, animagus forms it's our only..."
A loud explosion cut them off, Ron grabbed Luna and dove to the floor as flaming chunks of the ceiling fell almost on top of them, "RON, LUNA" Fred screamed down into the hole.
"Here," Ron replied "werewolves." Fred didn't waste time with words. A pair of conjured ropes dropped into the room, and as Ron and Luna grabbed one each, they shot upwards with enough force to almost jerk their arms from the sockets. Frustrated howls came from below at the sudden escape of their prey, as Fred frantically dragged Luna and Ron away from the hole in the floor.
His family clear, Fred smiled darkly and pulled a half-glass, half shining sphere from somewhere in his many pocketed jacket. "Argent grenade." He explained as he pulled a pin from the top and casually tossed it over his shoulder into the subbasement. A loud WOOF, came from below accompanied by a bright yellow flash. Howls of pain were heard for an minute, then silence. Fred took a small submachine gun from under his jacket, instantly causing Ron to wonder if there were expansion spells on his pockets. He pulled the magazine from it, and after confirming that it was loaded with silver and replacing it, he dropped down into the basement, his wand in his other hand providing light. After a minute of silence, he called up, "Its all clear down here." His face appeared down below, "send down a rope bro, and you might want to see this."
***************************Hogwarts*********************************
Ron, Luna and Fred's faces appeared on a mirror in Harry's office. They were still standing in the shop, looking somewhat the worse for wear. "We found a case of QWC quaffles, the same lot number and type as the one that was used at the World Cup." Ron reported, "We also found what looks like a lab of some sort." He looked at Fred.
"Harry, you probably want to get Hermione here or one of the people specializing in high energy magics and metaphysics," Fred stated, "But yeah, from going over the possible stuff we got at Rupp and what McGonagall discovered in her work, this could have been where they built the device. There are a whole bunch of spare parts as well, but no other crystals."
"Understood," Harry replied he glanced over at Valerie Sommers, she nodded, "what about the shop proprietor?"
"His mind's gone Harry," Luna replied, her voice slightly dreamy as she relaxed back into her normal state of being. She shrugged casually, "looks like he had charms put on his mind to wipe it, if he were to be captured."
"Shit." Harry muttered under his breath, he took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose tiredly, after a second he looked back up at the trio of Weasleys on the mirror screen. "There's a sweeper team on the way to clean up the site and look for anything you missed, bring the guy in, maybe Valerie can still get something from him."
"Sure Harry." Ron replied with a frown. With a final nod, the image of the three faded from view to be replaced with a reflection of Harry's office.
Harry looked up at Valerie. "Get your team ready for when they get here, I doubt you will find out anything from the guy, but maybe we got lucky. I'm heading home, you can get me by mirror or phone if you need me." Harry said. He stood and locked his desk with a wave of his hand as he left the room.
*******************************The Burrow*******************************
Harry appeared silently in Molly's garden and on noticing the gnomes scurrying about he dropped to his knees and started chucking. After ten minutes and two-dozen gnomes sailing through the air to parts unknown, Molly stuck her head out of the kitchen. "Harry," She chided, "you know we have folks to do that now?" Her eyes chuckled a bit.
"Yeah I know mum," Harry rose from his knees and brushed off the knees of his jeans. He grabbed the robe he had had on at Hogwarts from a garden bench and followed the Weasley matriarch into the kitchen. He sat at a table as she poured him a mug of tea, and pushed a plate of biscuits across the table at him.
"So..." she looked at him over the top of her mug. Harry was instantly reminded of another conversion with her over a kitchen table, years ago and hundreds of miles away in another kitchen when she had confronted him about his and Hermione's new status. Harry looked down into his mug, "Luna as well then, Harry?" A trace of venom slipped into her tone, but was quickly squashed in favor of the pain that had caused it. "And not me, you still won't let me in?"
"Not so much as won't, but can't." Harry looked up and met her gaze evenly. He really didn't want to have this conversion, but he wasn't about to flinch, "I would if I could, I've learned keeping secrets just to protect someone..." Molly nodded unwillingly, "is not the best reason. In this case, it is genuinely that Luna, like the rest of us, was Auror and intelligence trained and commissioned right out of Hogwarts. She was active for a short period of time before she took reserve status to manage the Quibbler for her dad." Harry shook that off and glanced upstairs.
"The kids asleep?"
"Yes, Harry, and if you don't mind taking Elliot tonight?" Molly asked, as they both silently agreed to set aside their difficulties for now. He nodded and stood. Harry headed off, around the old scrubbed wood table, and paused with his hand on a slightly askew doorframe.
"Molly, if there's a way at all, we'll get her back."
"I know Harry."
****************************Stonehenge******************************
August 5, 2012
3:00 am
A bright full moon, shown down over the ancient site. The pale white stones stood up from the ground like broken teeth from some fallen giant. Howls rent the air, howls of hunting packs and conquests. A tall, thin robed figure strode through the night; flaked by a pair of low, lean wolves. His hood was pulled forward masking his features.
He reached the circle of stones, and a ring of cloaked, still figures parted for him. He passed between the silent ones to stand before a hasty altar. A crumpled mass of robes was laid upon the altar; a black pool of liquid was gathered on the stones below. A cloud that had been blocking the light of the moon from the altar passed, and a fall of red hair could be seen haloing the prostrate, motionless small body.
Lucius nodded at the scene and took a brightly glowing, red orb from his robes and held it aloft. He smiled darkly as he swept his robes back from his head with his free hand. His eyes were glowing brightly, fit to match the orb as he looked around his circle of gathered Death Eaters. "Witness our triumph." He turned so as to see all that come this night, "this is the beginning, our forces will scour the world...we will destroy those poor, misguided fools who consort with cattle as if they were worthy."
He raised the orb in both hands, "Enclosium Avertao Portalis." A purple/black beam shot out from the orb to the very center of the enclosed circle of stones and stopped. A tiny pinprick of light danced there, like a tiny star. Malfoy lowered the orb slightly and held it in one hand so as it was held in the tips of his fingers in his left hand. He held out his right and Bariss placed a bloodstained blade in it. He took the bloody knife and quickly sliced the palm of his hand holding the orb. He closed his fist around the orb, the red blood of the Death Eater's sacrifice mingling and with his own, dark almost black blood and coating the glowing red orb. "Come forth my servants, come forth and be bound to my service."
The pinprick expanded, growing, flattening, until it became a shimmering oval disc ten feet high, by five wide. Slowly, a scaled hand emerged, followed by the rest of a dark cloaked body. The X'Sheen stood, waiting, as one then another then ten, then fifty more appeared. As if controlled by one invisible puppeteer, one hundred bowed, prostrating themselves before the Dark Lord. Malfoy laughed as more and more emerged from the portal. In the forest beyond a wolf howled, and ghostly shapes blocked out the moon as a cohort of Dementors passed in the night.
A/N: Kinda short...sorry. I will try to get another up this week to make up for it, no promises. Next Chapter...A
passing of friends? Schedules for school, weird wizarding photos, feeding Norbert, a dark surprise and an unexpected
trip...damn we will be busy.