DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. The Oz series was originally created by L. Frank Baum and is now owned by the International Wizard of Oz Club and Walt Disney Pictures Inc. while the classic 1939 film The Wizard of Oz was produced by Metro Golden Meyer though recently re-released by Warner Bros. Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
A/N Why is it that it takes me forever to update this fic? Why must writer's block even exist? Is it a curse I have to bear? Am I doomed to spend weeks wondering what the heck I'm going to write until too much time has elapsed and I just scribble something down hurriedly? Whichever way, here's the belated chapter.
Chapter 10: An Interesting Turn of Events
"What do you mean by 'who are you'?" exclaimed Ron. "You've known us for years Malfoy, much to my displeasure."
Malfoy merely blinked and said, "So is this 'Malfoy' my name? What a weird name."
"All right, what kind of half arsed stunt are you trying to pull off," demanded Ron, pointing his wand at Malfoy.
"I think he's really lost his memory, Ronald," said Luna.
"Lost his memory? How could you believe that? This is Malfoy we're talking about, it's a trick!" exclaimed Ron.
"No, I agree with Luna," said Harry. "He reminds me far too much of the state Lockhart was in after his memory charm backfired." Sure enough, Draco Malfoy was now rocking back and forth humming some tune in a daze.
Ron still didn't lower his wand but said, "Well, I suppose you have a point."
"I can't even believe this is that same Malfoy we've known for years," said Ginny. "He looks so, well innocent and happy: two words I never thought I would've associated with him."
Hermione had a thoughtful look on her face. "Draco..." she said.
"I thought my name was 'Malfoy'," said Draco.
"It's 'Draco Malfoy'," said Hermione impatiently. "Anyway Draco, what is the first thing you remember?"
"The first thing I remember?" said Draco scratching his head absently. "Well that would be drinking some water out of that fountain over there." He pointed at the fountain at the center of the garden.
"What, that fountain?" asked Ron, walking up to the fountain.
He was about to reach out to the water when Hermione yelled, "Don't touch it!" Ron sprang away from the fountain as if it were on fire.
"Why shouldn't he touch it?" asked Ginny. "It just looks like an ordinary fountain to me."
"It's not an ordinary fountain; it's the 'Forbidden Fountain'," said Hermione. "It contains a special type of water called the 'Water of Oblivion'."
"The 'Water of Oblivion', Daddy printed something about that in the Quibbler once," said Luna. "Whoever drinks this water forgets everything they ever knew. If a malicious or evil person drinks from it, they forget all about they're evilness and become innocent and happy people."
"Really?" said Ron, suddenly looking completely delighted. "Do you understand what this means everyone? We have the chance to redesign Malfoy's character."
"Ron! We can't do that! He should get help to reclaim his memory!" admonished Hermione.
Ron snorted. "Oh come on Hermione, this new and improved Draco Malfoy seems to be a rather decent guy. Do you really think that if we told him that he was really a self-centered git that he'd want to reclaim that memory?"
Hermione hesitated. "Well..."
"Like I said, we have the chance to shape up a new and improved Draco Malfoy," said Ron. "Maybe I could convince him that he's actually my servant: get back at him for the way he's treated us for years..."
"No!" said Hermione. Ron merely shrugged.
"We don't have time for all this bickering!" exclaimed Harry, startling Hermione and Ron. He turned to Draco and asked, "Draco, do you know what the inside of the Royal Palace looks like?"
Draco looked thoughtful. "Well, during most of the day there are all these scary people in dark robes coming and going and I spend my time hiding from them. But they leave during the night and I have been able to take some quick looks inside."
"Did you find any place in the palace where someone might be kept captive? A dungeon or a locked room perhaps?"
"Well, there is a locked door at the back of the throne room. I could lead you there if you like," said Draco.
"Show us," said Harry.
* * *
As it hadn't been too long since Voldemort had taken over Oz, he had yet to redecorate the Royal Palace to his style. Despite this fact however, it was still a rather dark and dreary place without the life of Oz imbued into its hallways. The only light available came from the Lumos spells from the wands of the Hogwarts students. Draco was at first so fascinated by the lighting up of the wands that Harry had to remind him that he was supposed to be guiding them to the locked room he had mentioned.
After walking through a few dark corridors and chambers, the troupe finally emerged in what was clearly the throne room. There was a little bit lighter in this room, surrounding an emerald encrusted throne that stood upon a dais at the end of the chamber. The velvet steps leading up to the throne were also covered with emeralds of the highest quality.
"Its so beautiful," said Ginny. "But it's also rather depressing somehow."
"Its probably far more livelier when Ozma is in power," said Hermione. "It certainly wouldn't be this morbid."
"All this green light, so pretty," mumbled Draco. He seemed to be hypnotized by the light shining off the emeralds, the dazed smile on his face looking even more formless.
"Snap out of Malfoy and show us the locked room!" snapped Ron.
Draco blinked as he came to his senses and said, "Of course, its right here behind the throne." Sure enough, built into the wall so well that you could only tell it was there, if you looked very closely at the wall. It was merely a crack in the wall about the size of a small man and there was no knob or handle in sight. Harry examined the door and decided he couldn't find a way to open it with his hand.
"Well, I guess we'll need magic," he said. "Alohomora." With a deep creak that echoed through the entire throne room, the door rumbled open.
"I just hope that sound didn't alert anyone," said Hermione. Harry merely shrugged and walked through the now open door. Hermione walked in right after him followed by Ron then Luna. Ginny dragged Draco through the door as he had started humming some dazed tune.
The chamber they now stood in was in fact virtually identical to the throne room with the exception of one thing: there was no throne. Instead, there was a rotating pyramid of blue light where the throne was in the previous room. The pyramid was emitting a deep hum and was buzzing with an electric charge of some sort, and the ethereal beauty of the pyramid was much like some sort of mystical diamond.
"Oh so pretty," sad Draco. Before anybody could stop him, Draco had stepped forward and touched the pyramid. As soon as he done so, the pyramid released an electric shock and Draco was thrown back about two meters. He started moaning and groaning as he clutched his hand in pain.
Ron couldn't help but smirk a little and asked, "You know, considering Malfoy can't remember anything and all, is it OK to feel satisfied by that?"
Hermione face palmed herself and said, "Oh Ron, he isn't the same Draco Malfoy we've known for years." Ginny meanwhile gave her brother a look of disgust and kneeled down next to Draco. She muttered a quick healing spell while waving her wand over Draco's hand. Draco was clearly relieved of the pain.
"So warm. Oh thank you. Its so warm," he said.
Ron clearly didn't like what appeared to be happening between his sister and what had used to be his nemesis and scowled. "So where is this princess anyways?"
"I'd say inside that pyramid right here," said Luna in her dreamy voice.
"That's rather obvious," said Hermione. She tried prodding the pyramid with her wand, which caused a few electrical zaps. Hermione herself wasn't harmed but the tip of her wand singed a little. Thinking for a moment, she yelled out, "Finite Incantatem!" and sighed dejectedly when nothing happened. "I guess conventional magic can't dispel this enchantment. Maybe its not meant to be dispelled."
"No, I think there is a way to dispel this pyramid," said Harry. Hermione noticed that he had a strange gleam in his eye.
"Harry?" she asked. Harry didn't seem to have heard her as he approached the pyramid. He outstretched his arms toward the pyramid, his fingers spread. "Harry, what are you doing?" Hermione asked again.
Harry said nothing. Quite suddenly, he jerked his arms forward and flicked his fingers. The others were completely startled as the magical pyramid suddenly shattered into a million shards with a large sound similar to the sound of breaking glass. Within seconds, the shards that had made up the pyramid had completely disappeared.
Standing in the center of where the pyramid was before was a girl, and an exceedingly beautiful girl at that noticing how Ron, Draco, and even Ginny were now completely speechless. She was wearing a white royal, robe of pure white and she had a tiara like crown around her forehead, decorated with scarlet flowers on the side and the letters 'OZ' formed on the front, the 'Z' within the 'O'. Physically, she appeared to be around the same age as the Hogwarts students, yet there was a strange quality surrounding her that indicated that in truth she was far older.
All of this was beside the point for Hermione however. For her, the thing that stuck out the most was the strange resemblance between the girl and Harry Potter. Both had deep raven black hair, pale skin, and emerald green eyes. Even more noticeable to Hermione however was the sense of tremendous power both of them clearly possessed, hidden behind their gentle exteriors.
Harry made a small, polite bow and said, "Princess Ozma I presume?"
The girl smiled sweetly and said, "You assume correctly. I am Ozma, daughter of Lurline and Pastoria and ruler of Oz. Thank you, brave souls from rescuing me from my prison. But you are clearly not natives of Oz. Pray, tell me your names and how did you enter Oz during these dark times?"
"We're enemies of Voldemort and his Death Eaters, your highness," said Harry. "Or at least, he's got some kind of fixation on me. My name is Harry Potter. The others are Hermione Granger, Ronald Weasley, Virginia Weasley, Luna Lovegood, and uh... well... er, Draco... Malfoy... I guess. We're all wizards and witches who Glinda summoned here your highness."
Ozma smiled again. "Well brave wizards and witches, Glinda has once again chosen wisely. I am in debt to you and deep gratitude." She made a polite bow and said in a less formal voice, "And please just call me Ozma."
"OK," said Harry. "Well, as we've concluded our initial mission I suggest we should try to make our back to the Tin Castle."
"How do we get out of here?" asked Ginny. "Its almost dawn and I don't fancy running into a Nome or death eater as we try to get out of the city."
"Portkey," said Hermione. She pulled off one of her shoes and tapped it with her wand saying, "Portus."
"You know how to make a portkey?" asked Ron, his expression a cross between being impressed and being exasperated.
"I can't make a really long distance portkey yet," said Hermione. "But I can get us outside of the city. I'm hoping we can meet up with the Sawhorse once we're outside. Now hurry, this portkey will be activated in just 2 minutes."
Ron and Luna immediately placed a hand on Hermione's shoe and Harry guided Ozma to do the same. Ginny pulled Draco to his feet and tugged him toward the others.
"Why are we all touching this shoe?" asked Draco.
"It's going to get us out of here," answered Ginny. This only confused Draco further.
"How is it getting us out of here?" he asked.
"Oh you'll see soon," said Ginny, "and you probably won't enjoy it too much I'm afraid." It was in that moment that the portkey was activated whisking away the crowd.
It was only after the Palace was completely deserted that a figure emerged from the shadows: a tall hooded figure with glaring red eyes. "How interesting," he hissed. Soon, a sinister laugh echoed through the empty corridors of the palace.
A/N Next time, I promise I won't take as long to update, I promise. I just need to force myself to sit in front of my computer and start typing. Once I start, I often get on a roll. Its starting that's the problem for me. Anyway, just enjoy this chapter. This little fic is starting edge toward its conclusion so look forward to it.