Harry Potter and the Isle of Mists
Disclaimer: I can only hope to attain the creative brilliance of J. K Rowling.
AN: Please review. This is my first Harry Potter fanfic, so be kind.
AN2: This story is AU after OOTP.
I Don't Think We're in Kansas Anymore
Harry hit something hard face first, and the first thing he was cognizant of was that he had a mouth full of sand. The second thing was that his arm was wet. He sat up slowly, and spat out sand, grimacing when he felt it grit between his back teeth. He shook his hair out of his eyes and looked around.
He was on a beach. The sun was not out, but the bright whiteness of the clouds made his eyes water. Thinly swirling fog did not completely obscure the view, but did make it difficult to see a great distance. He dusted his sandy hands off on his jeans.
"What the hell?" he muttered.
"Where are we?" came a bewildered voice from his feet. He held out one hand to help Ginny to her feet.
"Our book was a portkey," he said, wishing he didn't feel at so much of a loss.
"You think so?" Ginny said sarcastically. Harry didn't appear to notice.
"But were they all portkeys…or just ours? And why? And how could anyone possibly know that I would have that book at a certain time? Or was it an accident? And where are we? Do you - ?" Harry was rambling, pacing back and forth a little ways in the sand. Waves washed up placidly, just inches away. They were slate gray.
"Harry," Ginny cut into his myriad of questions. "Have you talked to Hermione yet?" Harry stopped short and stared at her, feeling more than a little foolish.
Hermione? Hermione, are you there? There was a moment of silence.
Ow! was the first thing he heard in his head. Then with a note of panic, Harry, where are you?
On a beach…somewhere. Ginny's with me, but there's not another soul here. Are you still in Diagon Alley? Was your book a portkey too?
Yeah, we're in a …ow, I think I landed on a rock. Wait! I think I see…
She trailed off, and at the same time, Harry saw three figures break from the mist, at the edge of a wooded area.
"Harry!" she cried, and started running. Harry met her halfway and swept her up in his arms.
"Are you okay?" he asked, concerned. Over her shoulder, he saw Luna, eying their surroundings without much interest. "Luna, are you all right?"
"I've read about this," she said, "we're may have to watch out for the Senghali Pygmy Mages."
"Do you have any idea where we are?" he asked, smothering a smile in Hermione's shoulder.
"Oh, this is lovely. Potter and his blood trash reunite," came a snide drawl. Harry spotted the third figure with Hermione and Luna.
"Aw, no!" he said, in disgust, but carefully moved away from Hermione. He wanted to keep their relationship as low-profile as possible, with Malfoy watching.
"Nice to see you too, Scarhead," Malfoy said, imperiously, dusting at his sleeves.
He was grabbing the book when the portkey went off, Hermione said, almost sounding apologetic.
Well, it certainly wasn't your fault that he was being a complete git! Harry's eyes narrowed in thought. Why did he grab the book right then?
"See where your nasty, grabby ways got you, Malfoy?" Ginny snarled, having just come up to the other group.
"Yes, stuck here with you lot," Malfoy sounded disgusted, as his gaze took in the motley group disdainfully. "I'll just be going now," he said.
He's going to Apparate, Hermione said quickly.
"But Ginny and Luna can't - " Harry interjected, but Malfoy did not vanish. The Slytherin swore under his breath.
"This place must have anti-Apparation wards up," Harry observed, unable to keep himself from smirking at Malfoy, despite the gravity of their situation.
"And it has the weird effect of making people state the obvious!" Ginny said, her eyes wide in mock wonder. Harry glowered at her.
"You just…really needed that book, eh, Malfoy?" Harry asked momentarily, all innocence.
Real subtle, Harry, Hermione snarked in his mind.
Malfoy's features were smooth and bland. "I'm a sixth-year just as much as you are, Potty. You had obviously had trouble finding it. I wanted it. Without all the effort, you understand."
"That's obviously the preferred Slytherin method!" Hermione said hotly, her contempt for anyone unwilling to work for what they wanted quite clear. Malfoy shot her an amused look.
"Quite true, Granger. Did you expect me to be ashamed of it? It's not as if I were a Mudblood."
Hermione flinched visibly, and her jaw clenched. Harry tried to send her a wave of soothing calm, but found it difficult, his attention preoccupied with how much he'd like to clobber Malfoy.
Malfoy seemed to be able to read his thoughts, and he lifted his chin like the arrogant aristocrat he was, appearing to say without words, "Do your worst."
Whatever rejoinder Harry had intended was forgotten when Luna waved and called out, "There's Ronald! He must have used an Alternative Quadri-dimensional Portal."
The other four students stared at her for a moment. Malfoy coughed something that sounded like "Mental patient," into his hand.
"I - I think he just had the other portkey, Luna," Hermione stammered, looking askance at the Ravenclaw.
"That's what they want you to believe," Luna nodded sagely. Hermione decided against further argument.
"What in the bloody name of the four Founders is going on?" Ron said, having gathered a full head of steam as he trudged down the beach, after being deposited in a small tidal pool. He was completely wet - and now coated in a fine layer of sand. "Where the hell are we?"
"You know as much as we do, Ron," Harry said with chagrin. He took his wand out of his pocket. "At least we still have these," he said. "Point Me." His wand spun in his hand, at a dizzying speed, and then rolled off of his hand into the sand at his feet.
Malfoy started laughing. Hermione tried the spell, as well, and watched in befuddlement as her wand did exactly the same thing as Harry's. She stared at it for a moment, with an air of betrayal.
"This place is Randomized," Luna said, as casually as if she were discussing the weather…or Nargles in the mistletoe. The others gazed at her, clearly uncertain how seriously to take this pronouncement. Harry wondered if he was the only one who noticed the sharp, thoughtful look in Luna's eyes.
"It can't be Randomized," Malfoy said contemptuously. "You can't send someone by Portkey to somewhere that's Randomized."
"Wait," Hermione said, looking from Luna to Draco. "Wait - that's real?"
"It's like something being Unplottable, right?" Ginny said tentatively, looking at Luna, rather than Draco. Hermione and Harry stood there, looking completely out of their element.
"I suppose if that's the cleverest comparison you can come up with," Malfoy drawled, managing to make his statement sound insulting. Ginny bristled.
"It's a place that moves around magically. If you find it, it's really an accident…like finding a Velvet-veined Darklex. There are only a few of them in the world, and nobody's ever been able to figure out when and where they'll move next. There's no pattern," Luna spoke clearly, but her eyes were vague and dreamy again. Harry tried to figure out if she was talking about Randomized places or Darklexes.
"Well, then how would you send someone there via Portkey?" Hermione asked. Luna shrugged, giving off the air that it would be nice to know, but she wasn't going to worry about it overmuch.
Harry would have pursued more along that vein, but Ron, who had been standing and listening silently to their discussion, burst out suddenly,
"Well, the one obvious thing is that we have a traitor in our midst!" The other students' eyes flitted instantly to Malfoy, who rolled his eyes.
"Been hit too many times with Bludgers, Weaselby?"
"Why else would you be here, Malfoy?" Harry asked acidly. "Certainly not of your own free will."
"Of course it wasn't of my own free will, you stupid sot! It was a portkey."
"That you ran up and grabbed. After you heard Mum call out that we were going to be late because it was nearly 12," Ginny said evenly, lancing him with a look. Harry looked alarmed.
"They were timed," he breathed. "This was all planned. But why?"
"Probably so the Dark Lord can put a proper hole in your head this time," Malfoy said, and his wand suddenly flew 8 or 10 meters in the air, as Hermione, Ron, and Ginny all cast disarming hexes.
Ron caught the wand easily, and for a moment, Malfoy's smirk looked less than certain.
"Care to say that again, ferret?" he said, skewering Draco with a dangerous look. "If V - You-Know-Who has something planned using you as his little stooge… then your master will find pieces of you all over this place."
"You're not going to do anything to me! You're too bleeding soft-hearted!" Malfoy's glare was withering. "And the only person who is the master of Draco Malfoy is Draco Malfoy!" Ginny snorted, then coughed, obviously trying to look like she wasn't laughing.
"Incarcerous!" came a soft tone, with elements of steel in it. A rope shot from Luna's wand, and spiraled around the proud Slytherin. Luna calmly picked up the loose end, and began to lead Malfoy towards the wooded area.
"You really are crazy!" Malfoy said, looking at her with some trepidation.
"Luna, what are you doing?" Harry called after her.
"I always wanted a pet," Luna said, looking at Malfoy fondly, "Although, I'd rather have had a Banded Snicklehorn. There should be a castle up here, I think." The intelligent, confident look flashed back for a moment. "We ought to find it before it rains." And she wandered into the treeline, leading a bewildered Malfoy behind her. She walked so gracefully that she almost seemed to be floating above the ground.
Ron watched her go, and then turned to the other three. "Well, come on," he said.
"Ron, you can't possibly - we don't even know - she could be - " Hermione sputtered, unable to form a complete sentence. Ron speared her with a look.
"Do you have any better ideas?"
Hermione opened and closed her mouth several times, looking around her helplessly for some sort of inspiration. Harry looked at her sympathetically.
Come on, he said, reaching for her hand. Maybe she knows what she's talking about.
It began to rain.
sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
Harry wiped the rain off of his face, and tried to look up through the strands of damp hair that hung over his forehead. He wished that riding a broom was a more athletically demanding pastime. The rain had quickly turned in to a woeful drizzle that just seemed to add to the amount of mist around them. The woods were overgrown and difficult to maneuver through, and, given the haphazard behavior of Harry and Hermione's wands, no one was overeager to try a cutting spell. By the time they had come out of the woods, after more than a kilometer, everyone was thoroughly out of sorts. They had finally seen a castle as well, high up on an outcropping of gray rock.
The slight clammy chill, combined with the heat caused by the exertion of effort managed to make the hike quite unpleasant. Ron was ahead of him, with Ginny, and they seemed to be having a better time of it than he was, although a swear word floated back to Harry on the breeze, every now and then. Luna was in the lead, placidly leading Draco Malfoy by a length of rope. Every now and then, Malfoy would move unexpectedly or try to trip Luna up, but she seemed to instinctively know when those were coming. Harry hadn't seen her stumble yet, even while she seemed to lead Draco along the most difficult routes, places where he would be most likely to step in mud, trip over rocks, or get hit in the face by slender tree limbs.
He turned to help Hermione up to the next boulder. She had long since tied her wet sweater around her waist, and tied her hair in some kind of knot atop her head.
"This is ridiculous…" she panted. "She doesn't know anything about…this place. She could…be leading us…anywhere."
Harry shrugged one shoulder in what could be construed as agreement. "I don't know, Hermione. I don't know how Luna knows things, but I trust her judgment."
"Her judgment?" Hermione looked at him with askance. "Judgment implies…logical and rational considerations of all the facts. Luna doesn't deal in facts."
"No, she doesn't," Harry agreed, grinning. Hermione glared at him. "Yet, she's managed to wrap up Malfoy for us…and he's definitely going to have to be dealt with."
"She got him tied up because we disarmed him!" Hermione said, and Harry snickered, deciding to let the subject drop. Hermione, a lover of books and all things dealing with concrete knowledge, had a clear blind spot about Divination, other fuzzier arts, and the people who dealt with them. To her, Luna was clearly one of those people, and could not be trusted with any kind of intellectual reliability.
As they finally reached the top of the outcropping, which had been tall, but not terribly steep, they got a much closer view of the castle, which appeared to be carved from the same rock on which they were now standing. Behind and far below the castle spread the same gray ocean that they had seen from the beach. Everyone stood motionless, regarding the building without speaking. Set upon the crag as it was, with the fingers of cloud wreathed around it, the castle was a desolate and formidable sight.
"Are we just going to stand here and wait to be invited inside?" Malfoy said sarcastically.
"By whom?" Luna asked innocently. "Nobody's here. At least, not the kind of people who answer doors." She said it with such absolute certainty that Ginny got a shiver up her spine. Luna smiled at Harry with an almost impish look. "Try a spell now, Harry," she said.
Harry hesitated for a moment, before raising his wand, and saying, "Lumos!" With an audible rush and crackle, a bright white beam shot from his wand, blazing enough to cause everyone to turn their faces away.
"Magic is stronger here," Hermione said, looking at the castle with fascination.
"Well, there's no way in hell Malfoy gets his wand back now," Ron muttered.
"How did you know that?" Hermione demanded, throwing her hands up in the air in exasperation, her patience quite gone. "Do you even know where we are?"
By way of answering, Luna pointed her wand at the door, and said, "Alohamora." The giant double doors flew back with a speed that belied their size, and hit the walls behind them with an echoing boom.
"I suppose she wants us to go in there," Ron said, with an air of resignation.
"Ynisvitrin," Luna said, and a wind seemed to come up and swirl her hair in a bright nimbus around her head and shoulders. The word seemed to echo off of the craggy rocks around them, giving her voice the timbre of someone imbued with power.
Harry took an unconscious step toward Hermione, and Ginny looked around her nervously, like someone who feels that she is being watched. Draco's smirk looked slightly more wary than normal, and Ron gaped at Luna with wide eyes. Hermione's jaw dropped at the word that flowed like poetry from Luna's lips.
There was a moment of complete and utter silence. Luna's hair settled softly around her shoulders once again.
"W - where?" Harry finally stammered, nonplussed. He had the same uncomfortable feeling that he had when he had once hidden from Dudley and his friends in a church. He crouched low behind a wooden pew on a thick carpet, while light filtered down through a beautifully designed window, crouched there in his flopping, dirty shoes and his mismatched, worn clothing. He had felt utterly unworthy.
"Avalon. The Isle of Mists. The Isle of Glass. Ynisvitrin is its Celtic name." This time it was Hermione who spoke. Luna darted an amused glance at her, and Ron rolled his eyes. The wind seemed to swirl around them once again, when Hermione said the names.
"The last time I checked, Avalon was not mentioned as being out in the middle of the ocean," Draco said in a superior tone.
"Well, of course it wasn't when Merlin brought King Arthur's body there," Luna said, in her customary placid voice, but Harry noticed that the bright intelligent gleam was back in her eyes. "But since it's Randomized, it's moved around since then."
Hermione looked at Luna with cautious admiration. "That actually makes sense. Lots of places have myths about mysterious, mist-shrouded mountains."
"But - how did we get here?" Harry asked helplessly, barely understanding what they were talking about.
"You're asking the wrong question, Harry," Hermione said. "Why are we here? Someone planted portkeys, somehow figured out how to find this place that's supposedly Randomized," here she shot a dubious glance at Luna, "and sent us here. Sent you here. Why?"
"Well, it couldn't have been Voldemort who sent me here," Harry said, in a weak attempt at jocularity. "Why would he send me somewhere where magic is stronger?"
Is it just me, or did the fog thicken when you said Voldemort's name? Hermione asked him, a trifle nervously. Magic may be stronger here, but I don't trust this place.
Neither do I, Harry said, and smiled a little, as he felt Hermione tuck her arm in his.
The sky had darkened since they left the beach, and Luna finally said, seemingly back to her normal off-kilter self, "Let's go inside. Thistle-backed Winglorns come out after dark in places like this."
Harry felt like he was being given a choice between the frying pan and the fire, and the others' faces mirrored that thought. Looking back at the crag they had just traversed, now growing shadowy in the dim light, they followed a complacent Luna through the gaping double doors.
sssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
"I don't know why I'm telling you this again!" Molly Weasley cried, her voice blurred with emotion. Arthur Weasley patted her arm, soothingly. The Auror sat across the desk from her, with a mostly fake look of sympathy on his face. "I looked up and they were all gone. Just that quickly," she snapped her fingers.
"And where were the children standing?"
"Flourish and Blott's keeps several bins of discount books over to one side of the store," she said, with the sing-song air of one who has repeated oneself many times. "They were around those."
"And you spoke to them?"
"I told them to hurry up; it was nearly 12, time to go. And then that horrid Malfoy boy just ran up, and tried to snatch Hermione's book right out of her hands."
There was a restless movement behind them. Narcissa Malfoy sat in another chair, in elegant repose…and as far away from Hermione's Muggle parents as she could get.
"Really, Molly," Narcissa sniffed in an injured tone, her cultured voice falling smoothly into the room. "My son is among those missing. I would have thought you would have a little sympathy, as I am in the same heart-wrenching predicament that you are."
Molly said nothing in response to this, but her expression spoke volumes.
"I would not find it surprising," Mr. Granger said fiercely, from where he was standing in one corner, "if it became known that your son had something to do with the disappearances! We've heard the things he's said about our daughter…and her friends."
Narcissa smiled at Hermione's father, as if humoring a small child. "Draco? He and Harry are quite good friends. Any spats must be chalked up to childish high spirits. Draco is very spirited."
"He's called our daughter a Mudblood on more than one occasion," Mr. Granger said clearly. Narcissa smiled a sparkling smile at him. She really was quite beautiful.
"Perhaps he fancies her," she said, "Boys do tease girls they fancy." The gleam in her eyes seemed to say that even she found this to be patently absurd.
The Weasleys gaped at her, as if they could not believe what they were hearing. Arthur had turned back to the Auror, who had been watching the scene with thinly-veiled boredom.
"It should be known that Draco Malfoy was not a friend of any of the other children who disappeared. In fact, he seemed to have especially singled out Harry, Ron, and Hermione as enemies," he said. The Auror looked as if he did not at all care about the particulars of in-fighting at Hogwart's.
Narcissa cleared her throat delicately, and smiled a tight little smile. "If what Arthur says is true…and I have never heard anything that would lead me to believe that… then my son is outnumbered. His health and safety should be of paramount concern."
"My children and their friends would not hurt anyone!" Molly seethed. "Even your son!"
"Really?" Narcissa said, looking reproachfully at Molly. "It was your daughter who hit my son with some vulgar kind of hex involving bats, wasn't it?" Her face was vaguely amused. "Children do such vicious things at times, don't they?"
"I'm sure that any altercations between them were provoked by your son," Molly said through gritted teeth.
"So many parents say that," Narcissa said. "It must be so hard to see one's child or children grow up and turn out badly."
A tremor shuddered through Molly, and Arthur must have been afraid that something bad was about to happen, because he placed a placating hand on Molly's arm.
"It probably is difficult…especially when the child is picking up pointers from Death Eaters like Lucius Malfoy," Molly said angrily.
Narcissa stood abruptly, but her face never wavered from its smooth placidity. "My husband is in prison," she said, her voice holding a hint of ferocity. "Draco is all I have now." She slanted a knowing look at the Auror at the desk. "Please keep me informed. And if there is any need for further funding…" she trailed off. The Auror tried to look like he didn't know what she was talking about.
Narcissa elegantly exited the room, closing the door with a sharp snap, and leaving a trail of expensive perfume in her wake.
"I cannot believe the nerve of that woman!" Molly began, showing all the signs of beginning a rant.
"Now, now, Molly…" Arthur said, soothingly.
The Auror slid the paperwork across the desk, and handed Arthur a quill. He was eager to get these people out of his office.
sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
The six students wandered slowly into the large vestibule, looking around them warily. The huge double doors slammed shut, and the echo bounced around the cavernous entryway several times. Everyone jumped, and Malfoy looked visibly upset.
"Look, Lovegood, I demand that you untie me!"
Ron made a noise of protest.
"Sod off, Weaselby! I haven't got my wand, and I can't Apparate! What am I really going to do?"
"Finite Incantatem!" Luna said, in a bored tone, and the rope vanished from around Malfoy.
"Luna!" Ron exclaimed, looking at her in disbelief.
"What harm could it do, Ron?" Harry said, in an irritated tone. "He's just a miserable little wandless ferret. At least this might shut him up."
"We aren't that lucky," Ron muttered, still casting suspicious glances at Malfoy, who was straightening his clothes with a self-righteous look on his face.
They had wandered into a large chamber, empty except for a gigantic fireplace at one end. A fire was already crackling merrily in the grate. Their footsteps rang out hollowly on the polished floor.
"Do you think we could find out how to make Floo powder?" Ginny asked, eying the fireplace.
Any replies to her statement were cut off, as Harry and Hermione crossed the center of the room, seemingly oblivious to the fact that they were hand in hand again. There was a loud crack, like a thunderclap, and golden words that blazed like fire began to write themselves in the air in front of the startled group.
Welcome to Avalon, Heir of Gryffindor and his Chosen One.
TBC
-->