Acknowlegements to the series Visionaries - Knights of the Magical Light and the Doctor Who episode Utopia, written by Russel. T. Davies for some of the ideas used in this chapter.
As usual, we don't own Harry Potter, the excellent JK Rowling does. The only thing we do own is the plot, Heinzl and his followers.
Harry Potter and the Muggle-Born Uprising
Chapter Nineteen
The Colour of Magic
Harry looked at the picture Hermione showed him. The Heinzl in it looked normal, nothing like his appearance now and in Gryffindor's later memories.
He walked over to the picture of Julius.
"Julius - we know you know Eldrad Heinzl," he began. "Please tell us what you know before everyone in the wizarding world gets wiped out."
The person in the portrait looked grim. "Yes, I know Eldrad, or I thought I did. The picture you see is of the old Eldrad. One who had not yet been contaminated by the Dark Arts."
"What can you tell us about him?" asked Hermione.
"A lot, but I will need to take you back to the origins of magic first."
"Contrary to what has been taught, magic has not always been around. Ignore those claims by members of some families who say their family have had magic since the beginning of time - that is not true.
"In another dimension, there was a war of magic and high technology. The leaders were the legendary wizard Merlin and his brother Merklyn. I will show you what I can."
And as Harry and Hermione looked on, the entire room was transformed into a medieval setting.
"Wow!" Hermione exclaimed, "How are you doing this? There's no Pensieve in this room."
"You're right, Hermione," Julius replied, "There is no Pensieve in the room - this room IS a Pensieve. When I had my portrait made, I used Runes and some of my own spells to help convert the room into a Pensieve, which can play back the memories I fed into the portrait before my death."
"Impressive. Are there any copies of the Runes and spells anywhere about?" Hermione asked, excited at the chance to learn new magic.
"Hermione!" Harry interrupted, "There is a time and place for that, but we need to learn about Heinzl and the origins of magic first."
The image turned and showed a world which apparently had high levels of technology.
"This is the planet Prysmos. The occupants had taken control of all sources of energy, generated by the planet's three suns, and enjoyed a life of comfort and ease for over 10,000 years."
The pictures showed people enjoying themselves. Then the picture changed to show the planet's three suns changing position.
"Everything changed when the three blazing suns of Prysmos realigned, signalling the end of the age of technology."
Julius showed images of technology failing all over the planet. Aircraft shut down and crashed. Constructions machines deactivated and building materials crashed into buildings under construction, demolishing them. Futuristic cars stopped in the middle of the various roads, their occupants getting out and asking among themselves.
"Scientists are unable to explain the loss of technology from the planet, but authorities warn against panic," a female news reporter said, but seconds later, all TV screens went blank.
"As the last vestiges of technology died on the planet, the Age of Magic began but it would take time before men would believe this."
Years passed and the pictures changed to show a medieval type environment. The old cities were abandoned, almost ruined. Old flying machines lay in junkyards. Castles were now standing.
"Ten years passed and as the old order collapsed, a new primitive order rose from the rubble."
Warriors could be seen fighting with swords, whips and other primitive weapons. An army being led by a villain tried to use ladders to storm a castle, but the leader of the good guys ran along the ramparts using his whip to capsize the ladders and send the climbers into the moat.
"Unknown to these people, wizards had lived on Prysmos for centuries. Merklyn was keen to use his powers to help the people. His mentor, Merlin, was against it but when he tried to interfere in his plans, Merkyln sent him to the Wizard's Jail, where many wizards had been imprisoned by Merlin."
"Merklyn issued a challenge to all interested parties to make their way to his shrine where they would be rewarded with magic beyond their wildest dreams. Fourteen people made it."
They could now see inside a huge shrine. An elderly man with a long beard holding an orb released magic and gave it to the fourteen people. On chest plates on their armour, an animal appeared.
"But the magic could not be given out like in our world. Each of the fourteen knights received an animal totem, which they could transform into at will. It was the predecessor of the animagus transformation some of us can use."
"What were the animals?" Hermione asked.
"A lion, an eagle, a bear, a cheetah, a dolphin, a fox, a wolf, a gorilla, an armadillo, a phylot, a beetle, a lizard, a shark and a Mollusca. Two of the animals are indigenous to Prysmos."
"Eight of the knights were also given a staff which contained a single separate power. Each was charged with a special power - Wisdom, Light-Speed, Knowledge, Strength, Decay, Destruction, Fear and Invulnerability."
"Merklyn was a manipulative person. He ensured that each staff could only be used once, forcing the knights to return to him to charge them. Because the Spectral Knights wanted to use the magic to help their people, he could get them to do tasks for him."
The picture changed to show the good guys collecting items for Merklyn.
"The Darkling Lords were not so easy to control. Once, there was a plague which threatened to kill magic users. Four knights - two on each side - escaped by not being in their cities at the time. They went to Merklyn for help. Watch and observe."
The picture changed to the shrine. Merklyn was in front of his huge cauldron.
"I sent the Darkling Lords on a quest for the ingredients a month ago," Merklyn said.
"Despite everything, the two factions still fought for control of Prysmos. Each side searched for a tactical advantage. The knights who were not given staffs were given the power to infuse machines with magic."
The picture changed to see the knights fighting each other. There were occasional shots which showed good guys placed in a machine which removed the magical totem. Vehicles were also used with deadly weapons.
"Eventually, the Darkling Lords rebelled and managed to steal Merklyn's orb and sent him to the Wizard's jail. But the orb was not meant to be used by mere mortals. They unleashed a great power which threatened to destroy the planet," Julius said.
The picture changed to show the planet falling to pieces. Storms ravaged the planet, earthquakes destroyed cities and homes. The Darkling Lords made their way to the Wizard's jail.
"They returned the sphere to Merklyn but it was too late for him to reverse the damage. Disgusted by the way the Darkling Lords abused the power; he decided to leave Prysmos and its inhabitants to their fate. He jumped dimensions to Earth and arrived there in the 7th century. Unknown to him, he had arrived in the only major inhabited area of the planet that was not magical. Centuries before, various areas had created magical beings. But England was unaffected. Merklyn set the challenge again and twelve people won the honour of being the original twelve magical families in England. But the magic was different."
"Who were they?" Harry asked, already suspecting the answer.
"I do not know the full names but the family names were: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, Lovegood, Pevelle, Longbottom, Weasley, Bones, Shacklebolt, Black and Tonks," Julius answered.
Both Harry and Hermione were fascinated by the list of names.
"So those claims by Malfoy that his family are first generation purebloods from the time magic began are just idle boasts?" asked Hermione.
"Malfoy? From what I made out from genealogy books written since my portrait was charmed, the first Malfoy to receive magic were in the 16th century and before then, they were French Muggles."
Harry laughed at this.
The picture changed to show the people receiving magic. But they did not have totems like their Prysmos counterparts or magical staffs, and of course, being the seventh century, there was no technology to infuse with magic. They all had an animal form but was completely different to the Prysmos knights.
"As you know, there was a decision made by the early Ministry to keep our world secret but what was not known, was that there was a decision by the original twelve after Tonks was killed by Muggles after he showed a display of magic."
"But our friend Tonks' father was a Muggle. Surely he can't be descended from that Tonks," argued Harry.
"You may well think that, Harry, but I could tell from the moment she entered this house she was a descendent from that Tonks. His son, from which the line carried on, was the first Squib. The line of Squibs carried on until your friend Nymphadora.
"Time went on and the magical lines started. Merklyn set up a base on a mountain and named it Iron Mountain, after his shrine on Prysmos. There he remained until a few hundred years later. I was born five years after Hogwarts was founded. For a reason I do not know, the family name was changed to Potter. When Heinzl went on his reign of terror, Merklyn returned to try and stop him. Some people reported that Heinzl killed him but others reported that Merklyn was frozen and was buried deep under what would become Azkaban prison.
"Heinzl was a good friend of my parents and they named him my godfather. When he began his reign of terror against the purebloods, he left the family alone - we said that we would not fight him."
"What can you tell us about his reign of terror? Gryffindor's memories don't tell us much," asked Hermione.
"I know what the memories say. I viewed them before depositing them in Gringotts. It does not tell the complete story. Heinzl despised Muggles for what they did to his mother. He was a strong opponent to Slytherin's view that Muggle-borns be prevented from learning magic. It was Slytherin himself who invented two of what are now called the Unforgivable curses - Avada Kedavra and Imperius. Heinzl invented the Cruciatus in retaliation of Slytherin using the Imperius Curse on friends of his. Heinzl was not always unstable. He invented the potion which would help discover the animagus form but it was sabotaged. What you see of him is a result of that. His animal form was implanted on his human form. That and a rare brain torture curse Slytherin used on him drove him insane. It was this action and Slytherin's views which led him to declare war on the Purebloods."
The picture changed to a meeting. Julius was watching at a door. It showed Heinzl urging eleven Muggle-born students to join forces with him. Each had been subjected to the Cruciatus curse by Slytherin after the Founders told him about it.
"My best friend Turoc was one of those students. After Heinzl was vanquished, they changed their names, appearances and blood status in order to hide. Then, there was no way of checking the truth of their statements. Veritaserum would not be invented for another four hundred years. However, before Heinzl and his followers could leave, Heinzl vanished. Slytherin said he killed him. I believe Slytherin killed him in the Chamber of Secrets. I've seen the Chamber, just like you, Harry. I theorise that Heinzl spelled his body to release his ghost on his death which would allow him to regain a corporeal form with the right circumstances. I believe Merklyn was removed because the magic of Iron Mountain can complete the task. But no-one could find it afterwards. Then Heinzl was vanquished."
"Iron Mountain still exists and only Merklyn or his heirs can get into it. I believe we are his heirs. Harry, you must protect the magic otherwise if Heinzl gets hold of it, he'll be unstoppable."
"Where is it?" asked Hermione.
"It is reported to be in Italy, in the mountains near Rome," Julius answered.
"How kind of you to reveal this information, my old friend," a voice spoke. Harry and Hermione turned around to see the ghost form of Heinzl standing in the library.
"How did you get in here?" Harry asked.
"Simple folk, Muggles. Very easy to hide within. Being someone who can enter the Manor, Miss. Granger's mother just walked into the house with me inside her."
"If you harmed my mother, Heinzl, I will kill you!" Hermione threatened.
"She has not been harmed. I instructed her to leave after I was finished with her. I always suspected your real father was Merklyn, Julius," Heinzl said. "You should have helped me but you didn't. I thought we were friends."
"I was not going to tell you how to get into Iron Mountain - people are not meant to be in control of that much power."
"Very well, if you will not tell me what I want to know, then I will get that information and the power to enter it by force."
Heinzl put his fist through the portrait, ignoring Julius' screams coming from it. Both Harry and Hermione looked on in horror, not knowing what to do. He waited a few moments, absorbing the information Julius held. He then pulled his arm out, holding a crystal.
"Harry," Julius' weak voice could be heard, "That is Potter Manor's ward crystal. If he gains his power through that, the Manor will be defenceless! The influx of power might even destroy the Manor! You must stop him!"
Heinzl took the crystal in both hands. Without a second thought, he broke it in two. He stood in a star shaped stance as the energy fired from the crystal, engulfing his body. Harry and Hermione reached out to him as his body solidified, Heinzl screaming as the energy poured through his body.
People from miles around could see the light show coming from what they thought was a small cabin. American tourists thought they were seeing the famous Northern Lights.
-
At Hogwarts, the staff was holding a meeting on reopening the school. The Minister of Magic, along with Amelia Bones, was also there. Suddenly, Sirius stood up and ran to the fireplace.
"What's wrong?" Remus asked.
"It's Harry," Sirius said, taking some powder and throwing it onto the fire. "DIAGON LILY!" But nothing happened. He repeated the process but nothing happened. Remus did the same but nothing happened.
"Can we resume this meeting later - something's wrong," Sirius asked, running towards the door.
"Maybe he turned off the floo as a prank," McGonagall suggested.
"He wouldn't have done that," Sirius replied. McGonagall and Flitwick went after Sirius and Remus. As soon as the four got beyond the Hogwarts wards, the two Marauders got their fellow teachers to grab hold of their arms.
"We'll have to side-apparate you. It's part of the security measures Harry's ancestor built into the house," Sirius explained. The four vanished....
-
... and reappeared in the hall of Potter Manor, well, what was left of it. The four adults looked on in horror. They ran around the house, calling out to Harry and Hermione. The house was a wreck. There were traces of explosions, burn marks on what was left of walls, pages of books scattered everywhere. Harry and Hermione's bedrooms were still intact, the remnants of a shield ward protecting them. Sirius remembered being told that the master rooms were heavily warded with their own ward crystals to protect the inhabitants from repeated attack.
The four ended up in what was left of the library.
"Looks like this is where the fire started," Flitwick commented, looking around. Sirius screamed as he saw two bodies lying on the ground - Harry and Hermione. The foursome ran over to them where Flitwick scanned them with his wand. With tears in his eyes, he looked up to his friends.
"I'm sorry, Sirius," he began, "but they're dead."
Sirius' cries could be heard for mile around as he was told the last link to his best friend was dead.
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