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Category: Alternate Universe, Asylum Challenge (2013-3), Asylum Challenge (2013-3) Characters:Albus Dumbledore, All, Draco Malfoy, Harry/Ginny, Hermione Granger, Lily Potter, Luna Lovegood, Minerva McGonagall, Other, Ron Weasley Genres: Action/Adventure, Angst, Drama, Romance Warnings: Dark Fiction, Death, Disturbing Imagery, Violence Story is Complete Rating: PG-13 Reviews: 105 Summary: *** Winner of Best Overall, Best Drama and the People’s Choice Award in the Asylum Challenge *** *Nominated for 2014 April/May and November/December DSTA for Best Romance and Best Drama* *Nominated for 2016 January/February DSTA for Best Drama and Best Completed* Ginny's plans for the weekend were just perfect: a day out in Hogsmeade with her girlfriends. Spend the morning window shopping and wishing, then lunch at the Three Broomsticks, and then to the local theater for a production of the Scottish Play (Macbeth). Unfortunately, the bad luck of the Scottish Play strikes before it even starts. The village is invaded by Death Eaters, Dementors, and a man she had hoped to never see again in her life. And in the middle of the battle, Ginny sees something she'd never thought she'd see. Voldemort and one of her greatest friends dueling; Harry Potter and Voldemort fighting so fiercely, she lost focus on her own battle. Harry Potter, crying out, falling, and hitting the ground. Dead. And then, someone she never expected to help her saves her from Voldemort’s wrath. Hitcount: Story Total: 169256; Chapter Total: 4981 Author's Notes: A//N: Names here pronounced as: Fraya: Fray-ya Zigreyn: Zee-gray-nen Safiiray: Sah-fi-ray Yachana: Ya-chan-na Fayore: Fay-yor Donte: Don-tay Also, the chapter title and Romancer's line at the very bottom are, respectively, a reference and then a quote to/from “Chicken Run.” Or something like that. |
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Kiss Your Bum Goodbye I did my best to walk without Harry's help. My legs were still shaking from seeing the snakes, but I needed to be strong. I had had enough of being afraid. I was ready to rearrange the demon's face for what he had done to me; and rearrange it the hard way. Standing in the shadow of the statue was the Storyteller, the Romancer, a woman I did not know, and the Punisher. Even though they had come into the Mortal World and their images were filtered, the magic coming off of them nearly knocked me to the ground again. The Punisher's back was to us, which I was glad for. Dumbledore's face turned the color of parchment, and Harry's grip on my hand tightened. She and the other woman were the only ones who looked unearthly. The Storyteller was still taller than a normal man, but his blue eyes were kind and he looked at me the way my grandfather did. My legs steadied and tension in my shoulders relaxed as he smiled at me. Beside him, the Romancer stood maybe twelve feet tall, towering over us and over the woman at his side. He bowed to us, his smile mischievous. The Punisher glanced over her shoulder at us, sighed, and moved towards the statue. As she did, the magic coming off of her lessened. “So this is the infamous Harry Potter,” the Romancer said, glancing up and down Harry. “I thought you'd be taller.” The Storyteller rolled his eyes dramatically. “Shut up, Romancer.” “You shut up.” “Both of you hush your mouths,” the woman snapped. She was taller than I was, but just an inch or two shorter than the Storyteller. Her skin was fair, speckled with freckles, and her eyes were larger than natural and the color of dark chocolate. She had pulled her hair away from her face with clips, showing pointed ears with jewels dangling from her earlobes. Except, her hair wasn't actually hair; it was brightly burning fire. Orange flames licked at her neck and shoulders, falling in an inferno to her waist, but apparently it was not painful, seeing as she wasn't screaming. The woman stood with her pointed chin held in an expression of regal pride and her hands behind her back. Her feet were bare, and she wore a calf-length robe of silky rust brown that fell off her shoulders. She had an eerie beauty about her; the magic coming off her sent a sense of familiarity through me. It was like I had met her before, once before when I was too young to remember. The Storyteller glanced at the fiery woman standing between him and the Romancer and then looked back to me. He smiled like he knew what I was thinking, and laid a hand on her shoulder. “Where are your manners, Romancer?” Storyteller said. “You should introduce our companion to Ginny and her match.” “Oh, how rude of you to forget to remind me,” Romancer shot back. “But Ginny should be able to guess on her own.” “Wait, what?” I said, starting. “I don't know her.” “Don't you?” Romancer said, raising an eyebrow. “Think, Ginny. You know her.” I opened my mouth to protest that I didn't, when the woman's large eyes locked on mine. She lowered her chin and let her face settle into a gentler expression. Harry glanced between me and the woman, his brow furrowed. I bit down on my lip, letting my thoughts comb over everything I had learned. Her fire flickered brighter a moment, jumping out as though a breeze had touched it. “I have no idea,” I said. Romancer sighed, shaking his head gently. “Yes you do,” Storyteller said. “Look at her. Who does she remind you of?” “Do we really have to do this now?” I asked. “Now, with the demon getting out?” “Knowledge is power, Ginevra,” the woman said. “Tell me who I am.” I sighed, raised a hand and rubbed my eyes. “Okay, fine.” I turned my eyes back on her face, scanning her short nose, her larger than natural dark eyes, her small red mouth. My eyebrows drew together as I scanned my thoughts and memories. “Ginny,” Harry said softly in my ear. His breath sent a shiver down my spine. “I think she looks like you.” I looked back at him sharply. “Me?” He nodded, his eyebrows raised. “Well, yeah. You've got the same face.” “No we haven't. My eyes aren't that big.” “Apart from that,” Harry said, “they're the same color. You've got the same freckles, same nose. The only different thing is her eyes, ears, and the fire hair. Though your hair looks like it's on fire sometimes.” I opened my mouth again to say I wasn't like her, but the words got stuck in my throat. I turned back to her, mouth still open. He was right. “Are you a fire demon?” I asked. She bent at the waist, bowing low to me. “Yes, I am. My name is Fraya Zigreyn Omnipotent the IV of the Warrior Caste.” “Fraya? Like the Queen Fraya who imprisoned the demon first?” Harry asked. “Like her, yes. I am her great granddaughter.” “Are you the queen of the Fire Demons?” Dumbledore asked her. Her expression hardened; her hair burned an angry red and her eyes darkened. “No, I am not. Safiiray Yachana Charismatic of the Scholar Caste is queen now.” “Were you queen?” “No, I never was, though I should have been. The throne was taken from my family by her when I was a small child. But my actions here should prove that I am the worthier champion of the Fire Nation, and therefore make me able to reclaim my birthright.” “Okay,” I said. “But why do you look like me?” Fraya smiled. “Because I am your fire twin.” “What?” Harry and I shouted together. “You're kidding,” I said. “No, I am not,” Fraya replied, “I really am your fire twin. When Fireflies are born, they are always born with a twin, a true fire demon to keep their demon blood alive. I am yours.” My eyes wide, I stared open-mouthed at her. “What about Storm Runners?” Harry asked. “Do I have a twin?” Storyteller raised his eyebrows. “It is different for Storm Runners, so no. You have something similar. I believe she will be arriving soon, with the rest of the Lords.” “What is she then?” Harry asked. “Twin or what?” “Not a twin, a blood brother — well, blood sister in your case —,” Romancer said. “Storm Runners, especially your kind, are very dependent on the idea of blood ties. While the Fire Nation keeps its mongrels powerful with birth sisters and brothers, the storm demons select one from the Storm Runners family to share blood and powers with.” “Will I get special elemental powers?” Harry asked eagerly. “It depends on whether or not your blood sister chooses to give them to you,” Storyteller said. “And me?” I asked. “You already have an affinity for fire, Ginevra,” Fraya said. “You must simply unlock it.” Harry and I exchanged excited glances. Dumbledore cleared his throat loudly, interrupting the moment. “I hate to end this happy exchange, but we do need to defeat the demon,” he said. “And there is the matter of E before we can do that.” “Oh, yes,” Romancer said, smacking himself in the forehead with his palm. “As soon as Harry's blood sister and the others get here, we'll have a pow-wow and then go kick E's reptilian butt. After that we beat up the demon, then we can have lunch and go to a movie, okay?” Harry raised an eyebrow. I suppressed a snigger and Dumbledore looked honestly startled. I glanced at them, and sighed. “He's joking about the movie,” I said. “And we won't actually be done in time for lunch.” “Who says we won't?” Romancer said indignantly. “I do,” said someone behind me. I turned to see the Dreamkeeper leading a small group of unnatural looking beings towards us. Clinging to her arm was a thin and ragged man, his plain white robe hanging off him. His face was lined, his brown hair falling to his shoulders, and his eyes were milky white. He looked blind. “This is my husband, the Lord of Time,” Dreamkeeper said, stopping before us. “Say hello, Time.” “Hello time,” the man mumbled. Dreamkeeper shook her head slightly with a gentle but sad smile. She glanced over her shoulder at the people trailing behind her, and jerked her head towards us. “Ginny, this is the rest of the Lords, well, the ones who wanted to help,” Dreamkeeper said. “Come forward one at a time and introduce yourselves,” she said to them. The first to step forward was a man taller even than Romancer, reaching close to fifteen feet, his skin the color of charcoal, a bald head and his eyes like lit coals. “My name is Wild,” he said, in a voice deeper than the sea and enchanting like whiffing Amortentia. “I am a Feral being of the Untamed Realms, though I allowed the Tamed to dub my realm 'Tamed' some centuries ago.” He bowed to us, and moved to stand by the Punisher by the statue. Another man stepped forward. This man was maybe seven or eight feet tall, with pure white hair and bright blue skin. His ears were long and pointed, sticking out from beneath his wispy hair. He smiled, and I saw that his teeth were pointed. “My name is Frost,” he said, and he bowed low before Harry. “I am High Counselor to the King of Storms. It is an honor to meet you, Master Potter.” He inclined his head to me, and stepped away. And now a woman stepped forward. Her skin gleamed a warm shade of gold and her eyes matched. She curtsied to us, her Grecian dress and brown hair fluttering as though in a slight wind, and smiled. “I am the Storyteller's wife,” she said, “you may call me The Lady.” She turned away from us and took the Storyteller's arm. I glanced at Harry. He shrugged. A third being approached us and introduced herself as the Lord of the Realm of Ghosts. Another greeted us as the Lord of the Realm of Flight, and two more fire demons bowed low to both me and Fraya, calling themselves Fayore and Donte. Then there was just one left, but she seemed reluctant to step forward. A woman stood maybe ten feet from us, conversing softly with Frost. Frost had an irritated expression on his impish face. The other woman stood with her back to us, a hood blocking me from seeing any of her features but for her graceful looking hands, which she kept waving around. The fact that she was barely five feet tall seemed unusual since everyone else was so unnaturally tall. Finally, Frost shook his head and gave the woman a small shove. She stumbled backwards, tripped over the hem of her cloak, and staggered to a halt in front of us. She looked up, and groaned. I clapped a hand to my mouth and beside me Harry swore. “I can explain,” said Luna Lovegood, in a less odd manner than she usually carried. “Yes, you should,” Frost said. Luna shot him a dirty look. Frost crossed his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow. “I could fire you,” Luna said warningly to Frost. Frost only rolled his eyes. “Yes, yes, you've made me aware of this fact on many occasions,” Frost said. “Hurry up and tell the boy what he needs to know.” Luna looked both overwhelmed and embarrassed. She turned to Harry, her eyes refusing to meet ours. “I'm your blood sister,” she said shortly. Harry blinked at Luna, his face expressing shocked confusion. “What?” I said. “I'm not human,” she said. “I'm a Storm Demon. My mom is the Storm King, my dad is a wind spirit, and I'm sort of the heir to the throne of the Storm Kingdom.” Harry still said nothing. Luna fingered her radish earrings awkwardly. “I'm actually called Zefyre by the Storm Demons but you can keep calling me Luna; Zefyre is more an title than a name,” she said. “And I'm Potter's blood sister.” “You said that,” I said. “How?” “Well, his family's a really powerful family of Storm Runners because the Storm Demon who birthed the first Runner in his family was Janu, my great-great grandmother and since my mother is the Storm King that means that Potter is a Royal Storm Runner which might not make any sense to you, but that's the truth." Harry and I exchanged glances. "Um," Harry said. "Um is right," I said. Luna glanced up at us, then down at her feet. "Is that where you go when you go looking for Crumple Horned Snorkacks?" The question popped out of my mouth before I could really think about it. Luna looked up at me sharply. "Well, yes," she said. "My dad isn't really welcome in the Realm of Storms, so I stay with him during the school year and then go to my mother's palace in the summer, and we say that we're looking for weird creatures." "So you don't really believe in Crumple Horned whatsits?" Harry asked. Luna frowned at him. "Of course I do. The only reason mortals have never seen them is because they live in a different Realm." I looked out of the corner of my eye at Harry. He shrugged. I found my lips curling in a smile as I turned my gaze back to Luna. "This is nice and pleasant and everything," Fraya said, cutting off my thoughts, "but we have the demon to defeat, and E." "Oh, right," Luna said; she seemed rather flustered. "Err... who's got a plan?" "One might think that the General of the Storm Army might know how to attack," Frost said. Luna winced. "That is an honorary tittle," Luna snapped. Frost simply shrugged his shoulders. I glanced at Fraya, who shook her head. "If I were to help bring down E, we would lose the advantage of darkness," she said. "I cannot extinguish my hair." "Oh yeah," I said miserably. "Okay then, what else can we do?" "Those who glow in the dark, please step to the left," Dreamkeeper said. Fraya, and the Lord of the Realm of Ghosts stepped aside along with the other two fire demons. "Now, Princess Zefyre, if you could make your choice now, that would be helpful. Does your blood brother deserve elemental powers or not?" Luna opened her mouth, looking like she would rather be anywhere else at the moment, then sighed. "Harry, come here," she said, holding out her hand. Harry glanced at me; I nodded at him eagerly. He stepped forward, and Luna held up her hand. "Normally this process has a special ritual and fancy chanting," Luna said. "But that's the natural way. We don't have time for you to learn how to master the powers of a Storm Lord naturally, so you'll have to give me permission to enter your mind." "Say again?" "I need to enter your mind," Luna said. "So I can plant the information you need to use these powers in your memories. It'll only last a minute." "Uh... okay?" Harry said. Luna pressed the tip of her finger to a spot between his eyebrows. Her eyes began to glow dark blue. Harry sucked in his breath before Luna let out a gasp of pain and jerked her arm back. Harry stumbled away from her. I grabbed his arm, stopping him from falling to the ground. "What did you do?" I asked Luna forcefully. "I'm fine," Harry muttered, rubbing his eyes. "Whoa." "You're sure?" I said; Harry smiled wearily at me. "Just perfect," he replied. I rolled my eyes, and looked back to Luna. She was rubbing her hand, frowning. "It doesn't usually happen like that," Luna said. "What does?" Harry asked. "The mental instruction," Luna said. "It took less than a second for you to shock me. It usually takes a minute." "What?" "What I did, normally what happens is that the person giving the information gets a small shock when the receiver gets all the information, and that normally takes more than a minute, and you didn't just give me a little shock." "But he can use elemental powers now, right?" Romancer asked. "I don't know," Luna said. "He hasn't done anything yet elemental yet." Harry looked down at his hand, then at the river surrounding the walkway. He raised a hand, and narrowed his eyes at the water. "That might not work, Harry," Luna said. "I can only use wind powers so you probably-" The water roared and a huge wave formed, cutting off Luna's words. Harry dropped his arm, his eyes going wide, and the wave died, leaving the water to lap at the stone. "Or you could be able to manipulate water," Luna said. "You never know." "What else can you do?" I asked Harry eagerly. Harry pointed his finger at the ceiling. A bolt of lightning arched from the tip, striking the stone above our heads. "Lady Zefyre?" Frost said with a frown. "What exactly did you teach him?" "I can't be sure, since it was so quick," Luna replied, looking up at the ceiling. "Do you know how awesome this is?" I said, grinning at Harry. Harry smirked. "I thought I was already awesome," Harry quipped. "You were," I assured him, poking him gently in the chest. "You're just even more awesome now." Harry grinned; he leaned forward and pecked me on the lips. "WHOA!" Harry and I looked around. Romancer had his hands over his eyes, rubbing his face. He looked up, his eyes wide. "When did that happen?" "When did what happen?" I asked. "THAT," Romancer said, gesturing at my mouth. "When did you get together?" "Uh, the second that I wasn't dead anymore," Harry said. "Why?" "You nearly blinded me," Romancer said. "The energy coming off you was enormous." "Okay," Harry said, raising his eyebrows. "Uh, that's the Romancer, Harry," I said hastily, realizing that Harry had never been introduced to the Romancer, nor the Storyteller. "He's attuned to all kinds of relationships and love stuff. And that," I added, pointing to Storyteller, "is the Storyteller; who is basically what his name implies, a story teller." "Right," Harry said. "Pleased to make your acquaintance." "And us you — " Storyteller started, but trailed off when the Lady cleared her throat. "Evil demons behind us, remember?" she said, raising her eyebrows. "We need a plan?" "Of course," Storyteller said, smiling fondly at her; then his expression darkened as he thought. "I am no military general, but I do know that our first priority would be to put out all the lights in E's cavern, then to stab her with a unicorn horn." "Brilliant plan, Bard," Romancer said, clapping Storyteller on the shoulder, "but do we have a unicorn horn?" The Lady raised a hand; a long, white spiral horn shimmered into existence in her palm. "Yes," she said shortly. "Perfect!" Romancer said, clapping his hands together. "Now who gets the honor of poking our dear E?" "I'll do it," Harry volunteered. "And me," I said. Harry glanced at me, but said nothing. "And bear in mind that you cannot just touch any part of her, it must be the underbelly of her snake trunk, or her human skin," Storyteller said as the Lady handed Harry the horn. "Got it," I said. "Anything else?" "How do we put out the lights?" Fraya asked. "I will take care of that," the Punisher said, her low voice sending a shiver down my spine. "Lovely," Dreamkeeper said, smiling. "Fire demons, Lord of Ghosts, would you watch my husband while we fight?" "Of course," Fayore said, stepping forward and tucking one of Time's arms in hers. "Thank you. Those who are fighting take a mask, and follow me." The Dreamkeeper waved a hand, and plain white masks appeared on the ground. We all stepped forward and took one; I pulled mine onto my face, and instantly the smell of wet stone vanished, replaced by clean, clear air. Dreamkeeper turned towards the statue, and touched a hand to the ground between stone Slytherin's feet. With a grinding sound, the stone connecting the feet sank into the ground. Inside, a faint green light lit the passage. "Put your heads between your knees and kiss your bum goodbye," Romancer muttered as we all stepped into the passage. |
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