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The Towers that Eclipes Darkshire - Tom Marvolo Riddle - 01-22-2016
Darkness enshrouded the pair of us as we exited the gate with little warning or need for such. Rather it was a quiet entrance that allowed me to split my attention mainly upon the question brought before me and the gloom beyond. The dilemma that was Jade Harley and myself was something I hadn’t really deigned to think on. Despite the child like demeanor she took towards the English language, befitting that of a particularly hyperactive first year hopped up on cheering charms and pepper-up potion, the was a manner to her that belied something I couldn’t put my finger on yet.
“Her reactions to the images of Nippur are telling.” I said before pausing. Jade seemed earnestly forgiving even though she had been horrified at the sights she had seen through my perspective, even with what I had inflicted on others. “At the moment I have no intent, though access to her social network alone may prove to be a boon too big to shirk.”
If I were to be honest with myself she seemed far more companionable than Nealaphh itself. Her like I had met a time or two; naïve yes, but certainly worthwhile when properly directed. The key was to find out how to break them or learn what their limits were and stay strictly within those boundaries.
Breaking such people always resulted in something inferior, the Myrtle girl being a classic example which ultimately had been a mistake on my part. One I hoped hadn’t been recorded for the masses to see. If it had, then I had no choice but to make PR a main priority. Until I could confirm or deny either
Going from that experience alone, I put forward my census of the subject, and hopefully that would be last it would brought up. “If I had to say, she would best put to use doing what she already does well and nothing more. Any progress beyond that has to be made to seem that it was her own choice and no one else.” I said in a reasonable tone.
Glancing out the nearest window I saw the briefest sight of tree shaped shadows underneath us; obscured by the dense fog but to the far right I spied something else more important. The dim glow of human civilization. Each light was a dying star, huddling to conserve itself and not attract notice from larger forces that moved its fate along. From my readings I had a gleaming concept what those larger forces were. Though I myself was new to this world, I would see such petty weaknesses overcome.
However it was humanity that I required despite its many… failings. Though humanity might have been a stretch from what I’d seen. The Omniverse seemed to be all of Reality’s rubbish bin, dumping bits and bobs where it may, without thought or consequence. Mediocrity was to be the most I could expect from a lot of situations.
“Pray tell, where are we to coordinate shipments of the ore you requested?” I said finally over the silence that had fallen between us.
“Darkshire,” Nealaphh pulsed, the word seemed to carry a number of impressions and bits of knowledge that seemed to defy the capacity of sound alone. It was also enough for me to research upon the Dataverse, to which was to say, there was not much to go on. Hobble would be an accurate description comprised of mostly secondaries and rumors of a prime or two. But more than anything were the descriptions of monsters.
Perfect.
“Somewhere within range of that place would be ideal, with the Village between us and this Dracula fellow. A high hill overlooking a lake would be even better… but worse comes to worse I can engineer that myself.” I said as my words curled a grin upon my lips. Improvements were cheap, and I could feel the memory of my home coalesce and something about my omnilium resonated with it. It would be enough to ensure the construction of the entire structure from foundation to tower. Everything as I remembered it, perhaps more so.
Nealaphh resonated a telepathic hum before the chariot of his shifted in response. Obviously he had an idea of what I wanted in mind.
Re: The Towers that Eclipes Darkshire - Tearen Wover - 01-22-2016
About ten minutes later, the Chariot touched down on the dew soaked grass on the embankment of a modest river bend lake. The dark waters rolled somberly off to the west to feed the ancient mills of Darkshire. Yes, choosing a location up stream from the down trodden city would stymie the conveyance of raw materials, but it was more tactically sound in the long run, and the Gorons were nothing if not enduring. Baleful eyes gazed at the eldritch vehicle with reproachful disgust, and even as the wizard disembarked, he knew that this place was just as magical and perilous as those same woods that stretched for miles behin Hogwarts proper.
There was indeed a hill, as had been promised, but the only problem was that, aside from the first hundred feet from the shoreline, the area was quite heavily forested. Tom continued to survey the landscape as Nealaphh oozed out from the inner workings of the machine in the form of a black smog which recongealed into its preferred enrobed form.
"Less than perfect, but a good candidate for improvement." Tom said in a voice that only vaguely suggested approval. There was no need to try and hide his true feelings from the God-Mind; it was more than apparent that, the more time he spent around Nealaphh, the easier it was for the Enigma to read him. Of course, this also worked both ways. The shadowy figure simply nodded slightly and began to reabsorb the strange transport back into its body.
Nealaphh had no intention of going anywhere anytime soon, and if absolutely necessary, it could always travel to Darkshire in the guise of a crow. Doubtless, Tom would be busy getting the details of his beloved castle just right, and thanks to an incoming report from Klee and Shen, it was apparent that the first shipments of copper and nickel ore were already on their way.
It was early dusk in the Pale Moors, and the dog-like barks of bog toads mixed rhythmically with the persistent droning of crickets. Mosquitos and other pests buzzed about, completelt ignoring the two Primes, since neither had any blood to offer. For the first time in a long time, Nealaphh actually felt relaxed. It almost considered making the Pale Moors its choice for the Institute headquarters, but the Ashen Steppes were crucial towards making the statement about the power of mutualism and infrastructure...not that Nealaphh actually believed in such things. Everything was just a means to an ultimate end that very few would come to know before its juncture.
The darkening blue sky was no hindrance to Nealaphh's ability to see, but it was not so sure that Tom benefitted from nocturnal vision. As such, the God-Mind took the liberty to conjure a phosphorescent orb to cast near daylight on the immediate area. Mr. Riddle himself was posessed with reviewing the planned architecture he had so furiously been working on during their trip here.
The shadow was tempted to give its own input into the construction of the facility to be, but in the interest of a sustaines partnership, Nealaphh decided that such feedback might be considered overbearing. Anyone else and the God-Mind would have no compunctions advising them on their work, but, as always, Tom was different. He would have made a good Enigma, if it wasn't for the fact that so many of his aspirations hinged ona civilized world. It was entirely possible that this might be a point of contention between them in the future, but Tom was not a simpleton. Nealaphh was sure it could convince Tom of the wisdoms of freedom in due time.
For now, however, there was a simple task; clear the trees from the hill. In a fleeting moment of honesty, Nealaphh considered simply burning them to the ground, but the lumber might be useful for building supplies. As such Nealaphh took the liberty of summoning six more Aspects, each a unique polygonal shape and made from an alien obsidian, to assist.
"...and how exactly will these Aspects of yours help with the clearing of the forest?" Tom asked with more a peppering of challenge lacing his tone. Nealaphh turned and nodded to the assorted prisms and each moved towards the tree line, beginning to spin rapidly.
You are familiar with the conversion of mass into energy, correct? Nealaphh said as the internal lights of each Aspect began to flare into brilliance.
"...Indeed I am..." Tom said, watching with a raised eyebrow. In the next instant, there came a brilliant scintillation of raw radiance from each of the Aspects. Tom needed to shield his eyes for a moment, but once they had adjusted, he has to admit that the sight was rather impressive. It seemed that each of these entities was now blasting through the ancient black trunks with a razor thin beam of intense energy. The cacophany was unequaled in its timbre as the heavy oaks and yews crashed to the ground all around them.
"Well. This will certainly speed things along. What else can they do?" Tom asked glancing over at his tenebrous cohort.
What do you need them to do?
Re: The Towers that Eclipes Darkshire - Tom Marvolo Riddle - 01-23-2016
I closed my eyes for a moment, what did I need them for? More than I liked, but for right now they… I needed ward stones, anchors made from the land itself to bind the castle to the leylines. And if it were lacking such the castle would be the point to generate such from. How at the moment… I had no idea but what I was reading on the Dataverse was beginning to enlighten me to a number of different magical methods that could be apply to such. One in particular involved nodes and something called thaumcraft.
That would have to be for then.
“I need them to collect four large boulders and align them to the cardinal points and cut them into this-“ My wand flickered into my hand and a jagged slash brought up four obelisks in miniature, borne of molten light. “-shape . I’ll carve the designs myself unless they can do detailed runic work.” Another flick and a whisper of my will caused the illusion that hung in the air to expand to mimic the landscape around us, showing the placement of each obelisk in the ground with only the tips exposed.
The aspects seemed to pick up immediately on their creator’s observations as two broke off and began to shift into the darkness. That left me the hardest part, as more of the forest was cleared in a circle around the epicenter that was going to be the heart of the castle, I could see how much I needed to work.
Where the Heartstone was going to be placed was where the main issue of my understanding of defensive magic or lack thereof; my knowledge of warding was drawn directly from Voldemort’s and only a few years after my creation. The last time my Diary was updated, he had still been working at Borgin and Burkes’. Barely more than a young man, and more devoted to the flights of fancy that were his undoing than to exploring the breadth of magical knowledge available to him. All that time and I had lingered on a shelf!
So be it. I’d have to use instinct and omnilium to make up for the lacking.
Spectral mercury began to bubble from my left hand’s fingertips, refracting what little light reached it into a prismatic spray, brighter than what had initially filtered in. With my right hand, my wand jabbed into the growing froth and sent it splattering across the bare earth. Where it did, it began to hiss as my magic shaped it. But more than pure will was needed.
“Concresso!” I sang out, the sound splitting into harmonic notes of such beauty and power that the world bent its knee to me. Grass and soil boiled into liquid stone, tones of minerals ranging from granite, marble and streaks of carbon rippled as the very nature of the ground ingratiated itself to my wants and need. A small smile flickered across my face as a sense of rightness worked its way into me.
The foundation of Hogwarts rose up, bringing the hill and us with it, transmuting earth and sand into something of a far higher quality. Stone bricks each the size of a grown man’s head were sprouting like roots of an ancient tree as I twirled my wand in each direction. Immediately though I focused on the area around us, infusing it with more of the ambient magical energy that was being generated by the omnilium I had invested so far. I needed more, Hogwarts wanted more. Who was I to not oblige?
Quartz crystal budded with its own inherent life with rich striations of golds, silvers, irons and emerald. However it was too raw still, too uncollected.
I reached out with my wand once more and the errant crystals began to bleed towards the center of my craft to form a larger structure. An obelisk matching the earlier designs hummed and pulsed, shifting the impurities into trim of sorts that adorned the molten runes that I deigned to exist in the patterns that were wanted of them. I folded it. Pushing the current runes deep into the strata, I forced more to come to the forefront until a holographic pattern began to rivet through the entire arrangement. The internal light played with them and casted them upon the shadows in al directions until it was as if the entire world had become a magical matrix of my own invention.
Bearing more of the spectral liquid on hand I moved forward towards the glowing form of the Hearstone. Something was missing something, living. Which forced me to think back to history, what might have the Founders done? Each had their skill set, though much of what it was had been lost to propaganda and ignorance.
Salazar Slytherin was after all one of the four, his blood flowed into the creation of my pages and this body was a reconstruction of the one who once was, but no longer. Dark magic also had a place in his legacy and there was one spell that I knew could create thought, and life. Fire. Fiendfyre perhaps?
Each step brought me closer to the source of heat; the flagstone I walked on was still sizzling, but not hot enough to make me fear for myself
“I need four pieces of stone, one from each of the obelisks that your others are crafting”
A rumble came from Nealaphh who had sat watching this entire time, it sounded a bit like a snicker and more of something undefinable. I could feel though what was being done, the land itself recognizing what its actions were. The four pieces I had requested we moving towards me at a pace and it was long before a hand offered them to me. The simple polygonal form of one of the aspects.
Willing the omnilium in the air, I pulled the pieces to me in an act I hadn’t been able to replicate since I first arrived. Levitation. However pallor tricks would not help me towards this first goal, more was needed even though I nearly hesitated to do what I realized had to be done.
“Ensis Umbraduro” I whispered. It had been a spell of my own construction that I had never tested out more than once, nearly killed me. Fiendfyre was like that. The fire that burned in all directions, and consumed everything. Fifty years on a shelf though taught me self-control. Twelve hours in the Omniverse gave me strength to use it
A liquid flame borne crimson and black erupted from my wand and around my hand, settling in style of that of a French rapier. I didn’t pause, that would be suicide, instead I moved to slam it down on the center tip of the Hearstone, adding the inverted light into the core of Hogwart’s primary warding anchor. I left my wand in it and fed the four stones to the coiling mass of serpents borne of light and darkness.
For the briefest of seconds I even spied the phoenix feather core than had been buried under the yew.
At my wish omnilium sealed the cap over the quartz structure and shackled the fiendfyre into place. In turn the wand and the boiling lava that had been the chips of the boulders began playing with the light that the structure had been shining with.
It pulsed, flickered and died out. Only for a moment had a shred doubt crossed my face before I heard it.
The beating of a heart rang also with a trill that resonated from the Hearstone’s surface and the light in tempo with it. My wand would never fail me though now it was far more disposable than it had ever been before. But that was exactly what it had needed. Two opposing forces working in unison to bind the Hogwarts spirit into existance.
Now I could continue fully with the support of everything I had done so far. Bringing both hands together and I meshed them further within the roiling growing wave of liquid reality that I had somehow built up since my arrival in the Nexus. Everything but me shook as the castle awoke to my mind, to my domination, to my soul. It was touched with the very nature of my being. Walls began to close off around me and Nealaphh, runes burning faster and more numerous into everything wherever the rays from the Heartstone struck it, passing through the two of us harmlessly.
I turned the wall themselves transparent, though such an effect would only be possible from within this one room and began to direct myself in earnest. Bringing about the full might of my mind in commanding the world. Hogwarts’ roots were growing deeper, subsuming the natural omnilium and transmuting it to my own. It was a fine division but more than enough for me to take advantage of.
The castle was rising up at a break neck speed and burrowing deeper equally. Four towers surrounded us; each wrought with the symbols of the Founder’s, my first break from the original mold. Four towers of equals each with their own dungeons and pinnacles rather than half of the student body being relegated to under another’s heel. As much as I identified with Slytherin, I had to think bigger. A school divided could get away from me as easily as Voldemort had been undone by an infant, as easily as I had been nearly undone by two children; one a girl who had resisted me for a whole year and another who had almost destroyed me. But I had been made better because of them, their life still existed in me. For that experience and matter came my second change, with four whole towers and dungeons for each house my will wrought out individual dorms in every available space other than the privy and common rooms, or at least the nature of such.
Magic shaped by me and bound to the burning spirit of Hogwarts would see to it that these hallowed halls would always have enough space to house whoever might find themselves here, no matter their number. Provided they had my own blessing of course. But it would mean one thing, they would all be equals.
Though I would have you sorted, you will have to see each other eye to eye. You are individuals not a mob. These rooms will befit you as such or chasten you should you see otherwise.
Gargoyles began clawing their way out of the stone siding, each made of dark obsidian, each shaped to match the house symbols, the Badger, the Eagle, the Serpent and the Lion. They served both functional and ornate use, forming the basis of an aqueduct and the cistern below us that would be the Chamber of Secrets. The beauty of them though was my main reason for their inclusion. Magic could do many functional things but the aesthetic forms of what had been my home had always haunted me, calling to me.
But this was not a place of nostalgia. Not yet, not now.
I took several breaths, fatigue starting to knot around me; I turned my focus outward as I noted that ALL the aspects had now found their place in providing lumber to the earth’s hungry maw that I hadn’t realized I had even opened. The wall I peered through magnified a spot and began work on the most important piece, the meeting room for all the houses, all the staff. The great hall, it had always had the grandeur of a muggle cathedral and none of the lesser expectations. And then magic had made it better, and in this I kept it as the original had been, save for scale. Larger, with more room to expand, the ceiling’s enchantments would pierce the mists of the Moors beyond the way the building itself could only barely restrain.
At my bidding, much of the lumber itself began pooling from crevices between the floor’s pavings as a liquid. Wooden tendrils erupting from them, latching into shape and forms as they hardened into polished relief. Seconds passed as tables and chairs began to shape and harden, soon though they were accompanied by streamers crawling up the wall. Like ivy given a carpenter’s intelligence they grew into canvas and painting frames, though largely unadorned beyond the simple polish and varnished gleams that they ended in. How they were carved into shape was magnificent enough that anymore would have been ostentatious.
The Great Hall finished with a burning wash of color, as if rain were falling in reverse and rather than water it was the night’s sky itself. Each time it hit the ceiling, an astronomer’s dream and fancy winked into existence with far more depth than any painting could ever hope to accomplish. The only sight of the mist that obscured the outside world was on the far periphery of the walls where it began to become the ceiling itself.
More still needed to be done but at this point I could feel some level of weariness and the day’s events calling me to rest. And the heat from the moving stone, friction and liquefying of various substances was starting to build. With a lazy hand I opened all the rooms and the generic structures that were still forming so they could vent some of their oppressive air.
Without even an idle thought I fell into a chair and raised another for the being who I had followed up until now. Half my mind still directed the basic generation of the castle but now that the hardest portions were done, the rest could be drawn from memory and adjusted as needed. It was time to broach a subject that I had been keeping to myself for a while now.
This place was mine, nothing could ever change that, but from what I had seen I needed knowledge of the world and the Institute had that. Keeping them within reach and able to come when needed was of the utmost importance.
“So, Nealaphh, have you had any thoughts towards what you want the Institute’s Embassy Wing to look like?” I said finally.
It was an odd feeling to go to bed one night an wake up rested, but it still being night, more so was the fact that his dormitory was now just one room, a hot one at that.
Blinking Harry James Potter opened the door and was treated to a fresh wind, someone must have left a fireplace or two going for it to be this warm in Gryffindor Tower. At least someone, hopefully the same one had thought enough to open a window. But still why had the dormitories been altered this much or at all? Sure the stairs changed and the route to the Great Hall was different this year, but as far as he was aware, everyone in Hogwarts had to share a room with those in their year. If Professor Dumbledore thought to change things why not wait until the start of the next Term?
Or perhaps the Twins were just pranking him again.
Shaking his head Harry decided it was probably best to stay up, he was too wide awake to just go back to bed now and the heat from his room was sweltering. He only tarried long enough to get his wand and his glasses before striking out into the rest of the House to investigate. Had the Heir of Slytherin struck again, was this what he meant about driving out his enemies?
Everything though was a bit cleaner than when he had gone to sleep, and the air itself was crisp with mist. The only problem with that was, winter was still clinging on. Only just February and this far up north, he imagined the snow wouldn’t be going anywhere! So really the smell of mist was quite out. Opening a few doors revealed no one else in their rooms even under his wand light. Beds were made; curtains were there, but no one else. Where had everyone gone to-?
“Harry!” someone said squeakily, loud enough to make Harry jump more than a few feet. Turning his head Harry spotted a crimson faced redheaded girl that was none other than Ginny Weasley. In a nighty no less.
With more than a little blush in his cheeks, “Ginny what are you doing? This is the boys dormitories you can’t be in here!”
That gave her pause before saying, “That- that’s never stopped Hermione from doing the same thing.” It seemed at least for the moment she had forgotten her fear of him. However Harry was more concerned as to the whereabouts of Ron and the other boys.
“S-seen anyone else?” She asked warily, to which Harry shook his head.
“No, not anyone. You’d think we’d hear Ron’s snores even from the dungeons if he were asleep.” That got a short giggle from Ginny before she seemed to realize who she was talking to.
“Same here, all the girls are gone. Perhaps we should- should find a professor?”
Sighing, Harry realized it was probably a little much to expect her to forget THAT, but she at least had a point. Hogwarts was being odd, more so than usual. A professor at least might be able to straighten things out.
“Right, have your Wand?” Harry asked, to which Ginny nodded.
“Only thing other than my clothes that I could find.”
Harry paused, why would she need to find her clothes? Best not to think too much about it either way, something told Harry his life had just changed and probably not for the better, “Let’s find Professor McGonagall.”
Ginny nodded uncertainly, but followed him as he started to make way his down a flight of stairs. Harry though could see she was uncomfortable with something, he could feel his own sense of dread filling him with each step. A hand snaked into his own causing him to nearly jump and trip down all the way down. Only reflexes honed by Oliver Wood’s training and escaping Dudley’s clutches for years kept his neck unbroken.
The hand disappeared and he heard Ginny mutter, “Sorry”
Harry shook his head and reached out to retake the her hand, “Its fine. Safety in numbers right?” For once he was glad his reddening face was hidden by the night and his wand light pointed in another direction. Ron at least would be happy to see that his little sister was being taken care of. Though it was only an afterthought that Harry realized this was the most they had ever even spoken to each other.
Perhaps it was necessity.
Re: The Towers that Eclipes Darkshire - Tearen Wover - 01-23-2016
Everything had come together rather well. Say what you would about humans, but when it came to architecture, they were true masters at making statements indirectly via the structure of their habitats. Nealaphh saw and felt the precision and depth of meaning that suffused Tom's identity in ever sensual wooden curve, every rigidly pragmatic stone joining. The wizard's question intrigued Nealaphh, to the point that the God-Mind genuinely could not formulate a definitive answer for an entire five seconds.
It would be out of place to request that the environmental aesthetics of such a wing contrast to the rest of this structure. No. It simply needs to have some rooms for study and some rooms for living. I myself require no environmental accomadations, but the likes of Miss Harley or other Primes may desire ergonomic sleeping areas. Regretfully, the preponderences of human comfort is a subject in which I must defer to your judgement.
So in essence, Nealaphh had basically told Tom that it didn't personally care and just to make it work. Underwhelming, perhaps, but this was not Nealaphh's house, per se. The time would come for it to indulge in its own artistic statements, and this was not that time. Meanwhile, reports were coming in from the Aspects that Nealaphh had sent to work inspecting Hogwarts. Everything seemed to be in place, though one particular rhomboid reported briefly encountering an adolescent male and female human. Upon retrieving the visual memory from the Aspect, Nealaphh relayed the image of Ginny and Harry's startled faces to Tom.
Are you aware you summoned these two? Are they important to this place? I can have them ejected if you so wish.
In the few miliseconds between making this offer and Tom's repsonse, Nealahh also received a message from Klee and Shen that their current tasks had been completed and that they were awaiting new orders. After pondering for a subjective stretch of time, Nealaphh sugested that the Aspects search around for Primes in need of assistance, perhaps in the Nexus. After all, there were many ways to manipulate a person's fealty, and generosity and kindness often went much farther than subjugation and demands. Such was the ebb and flow of the human psyche...
Re: The Towers that Eclipes Darkshire - Tom Marvolo Riddle - 01-24-2016
I turned my neck back towards where Gryffindor Tower was, and I spotted the miniscule duo who had ended my reign before it began. It was a set of unique circumstances that brought them about, but one I wasn’t entirely opposed to. They shared attributes with me that would make me a fool if I ignored. So perhaps unfortunately I had to reject Nealaphh’s offer even though it was quite enticing.
“No, I had intended to summon those two, just not at this juncture.” I said calmly, before adding as an afterthought, “Let them wander around a bit, I’ll see to them shortly.”
Curiosity nipped at me, wondering from when I had summoned them. When specifically was why I had been intending to find the collection of books that referenced the one boy which so surreptitiously bore his namesake. To make an informed decision how to summon them. But for now indulging in such things as Nealaphh’s offer or hunting down the books would be more of an interference than a solution.
With a wave of my hand I sent a fraction of the full force of Hogwart’s dimming supply of Omnilium to make minor adjustments to the entire layout. One was directing the staircases to allow for an uninterrupted route to the Great Hall and a small feast to await them at Gryffindor’s table. Once that had been accomplished, I set the rest of it to finish the work I had planned, which for one was expanding the area opposite of the Institute’s embassy into a full museum and the Room of Hidden Things.
The latter of which I was hesitant to include but I could not bring myself to actively detract from the Founder’s original vision. But it did present a quandary in what might be stashed there after a few millenniums of Omniverse Students. Potentially items summoned by primes at that.
“So aesthetics aside, functionally is there anything in particular you require?” I said after a moment.
~*O*~
Harry gave the thing a glare as it continued to block their path. It had dead eyes and yet it somehow managed to convey that it was assessing them. The moment they had tried to back away that thing seemed to block their path faster than Harry could really respond to. A bit maddening really.
What unnerved him, and probably Ginny too given that she was squeezing his free hand pretty hard, was the fact it wasn’t doing anything else other than keeping them in place-
It blinked once slow and then started to retreat to somewhere else.
Well they weren’t petrified, Harry thought. At least not that he could tell, everyone who had been hit with that curse had been stiff as stone, but would they have even noticed had they been petrified? One moment frozen and the next… not?
“I don’t think that was Slytherin’s monster.” Harry said quietly, not wanting to attract its attention again.
Ginny flinched, “No, I don’t think was.”
Harry gave her a careful look as Ginny stared in the thing direction, disappearing. Sure the Monster had been bad but no one had been permanently hurt. Why was she worried? Putting that to the back of his mind he focused on what was happening now, they were alone and a weird monster had just kept them from moving forward.
“Come let’s find the Professor.” Harry said quickly before the creature could change its mind.
Ginny nodded slowly but moved quick enough with Harry, careful to keep close to him. Something about her seemed paranoid and he had a hard time putting his thumb to why. Had she been like this all year? From the way Ron had described her, this girl was nothing like what he was being treated to right now.
For now they could only go down, out of their House and hope to make it to Professor McGonagall’s office on the first floor and possibly find her.
Re: The Towers that Eclipes Darkshire - Tearen Wover - 01-24-2016
Tom's follow-up question was certainly more along the lines of somethinf Nealaphh could produce a fully informed answer for.
Laboratory space, first and foremost, and seeing as how the Hammer will be forged here, I will require a large manufactory area as well, preferably with running, fresh water and room to process large amounts of raw material. Nealaphh said. Tom dutifully wrote the specifications down on himself, but the pseudo-human seemed distracted. Nealaphh didn't need to glean his surface thoughts to know that he was preoccupied with the two Secondaries that had been summoned along with the rest of this arcane castle. Frankly, Nealaphh had a marked disdain for drawing clear lines between 'science' and 'magic'. In its tradition, both concepts could simply be defined by the word 'force'. A process that can be controlled to produce a desired effect. Nealaphh's own abilities required nothing more than the simple knowledge of how to wield them. No specil bloodlines, no inherent talent connected the God-Mind to its intuitive connection to the tides of space and time. Both by voluntarily giving up what mortals called 'sanity', and by realizing that any fraction of infinity is still infinity, it was easy to extrapolate how anyone could have a fundamental influence of the workings of the cosmos.
Alas, this was no longer the world that the Enigma fully lived in, for now. This was a world of systems and hierarchy. Speaking of which, the young adventuring humans would likely find Nealaphh's natural form to be disquieting. As such, the shadow took the liberty of slowly compressing and molding its shape back into that of crow. Nealaphh perched itself on the back of the chair it had been sitting and produced a baleful cackle, ruffling its plummage into a more comfortable arrangement.
I should also think that a way to connect Hogwarts to the Institute Headquarters, once they are constructed, would be highly advisable. I have heard that such things are possible in the Omniverse, but the specifics are beyond my ken. Nealaphh said, lazily keeping a single, beady eye on the gread carved doors of the dining hall.
Re: The Towers that Eclipes Darkshire - Tom Marvolo Riddle - 01-25-2016
Transportation between structures across the vastness of the verse? Well if the Communication devices functioned in that manner then perhaps something stronger could penetrate a hole or tunnel enough to allow for travel. Maybe akin to the Floo network of Wizarding Britain; it was an insane bit of magic, functional but insane, the portkeys however were far more useful. Something along those lines would be better suited for cross-verse movement.
However, there was a level of efficiency and speed of Floo for within the castle itself were ideal for certain situations. Might be useful in case of emergencies especially after the events of Nippur. When the castle finally extended to the villages, Floo travel would be necessary.
Grimacing at the thought I looked up from my musings, shifting my position in my seat only minutely, “I believe that can be accomplished easily enough, I still have a sum left that I can use for all of those items you have listed.” It would be expensive, my experience with the Castle itself gave me some marker of what we’d have to go through and instinct was telling me both would be equal in cost. Maybe there was something to that journal regarding the use of Omnilium being inherent to the material itself.
With the topic of the Hammer though I sent out instructions for more changes, duplicating what had done with the dungeons and had the castle add the same the Institute Embassy. A private shop in their own dungeon along with the requested additions. Then with a second though include Nealaphh’s requests to the public portion of the school as well. While division of ownership and rights to such were important, survival out here would likely call for many students to have access to much of the same; who more than likely would be building such items for themselves for use.
Which brought him to the topic of the artifact itself.
“What thought have you had as to who will be wielding the Weapon we forge?” I said offhandedly, ignoring Nealaphh’s change to Avian form. I didn’t want to give any impression that I was interested in the task myself nor his reasons for swapping shape. Although I myself could have done as such… wand work befitted the use of a sword more than a blunt instrument. It would not be an ideal match, nor would I lower myself to using any form of cudgel when a smarter tool lie at the ready with but a whisper of a word.
Be that as it may I did fully intend to go ahead with the construction of the weapon, and I would supervise its use in the mission it was meant to execute. It was only proper as I would likely be the only one capable of repairing the tool should it be damaged. Though if I did my work properly such a concern was hardly even a possibility.
~*O*~
A door was all that stood in their way between them and talking to Professor McGonagall. Like everything else, it had that too clean, too new, polished look that kept them from knocking straight away. It fit into a pattern that had Harry questioning a number of things he had come to accept about the castle. One of which was don’t accept situations at face value.
Like strangely enough getting down from the tower hadn’t been an issue. The layout of the stairs all took them towards the Great Hall, but what was even more concerning was the Gryffindor Tower itself was taller than before. When they had reached the Common room, they found stairs that went down into what would ordinarily be going towards the ground floor and the dungeons as well.
What bothered Harry and Ginny from looks of it also, were all the portraits were slumbering. The Fat Lady barely stirred in her frame when they exited from the Tower.
“Who could have enough power to change all of Hogwarts?” Ginny asked, her tone quiet. Neither one had yet knocked still. And for that point was the main reason.
“I don’t know, someone made it easy for us to get down here.” Screwing up his courage, Harry took a deep breath and knocked before stepping backwards. With baited breath they waited for something to happen, anything. But silence reigned.
“Oh come on,” Ginny said finally after a minute’s quiet, a slight scowl painting her face. With little choice Harry followed her for once as she tested the door. It opened with barely a sound, and revealed and office that… well looked like the Headmaster’s. Silver objects spun merrily, others puffed out smokes of all kinds, in the corner there was a rather plush couch which Harry could remember Professor Dumbledore sitting in in various places around Hogwarts whenever a chair hadn’t be available or didn’t meet his exacting requirements.
There was just one problem. For all the lived in look of the office (though exceptionally clean as well), there was no Professor. Just like every other room… nothing.
Harry was starting to have a sinking feeling that their only choice was to follow the wishes of their mysterious abductor and moved to the Great Hall. His stomach at least agreed to that much. If there was any food to be had.
Looking to Ginny who was still tightly gripping his own hand, he asked, “Should we try the Great Hall?”
His question seemed to elicit a sharp pause as she seemed to gather herself into a nod, “Do we have a choice in the matter?”
Harry thought for a moment, and like the room they were in, Dumbledore himself had once said, “We always have a choice. But this is a clue.”
Ginny gave him a questioning look, “What clue? These aren’t Professor McGonagall’s things. Not enough tartan”
Harry snorted, “No they aren’t, but the last time the Chamber was opened,” Ginny blanched but Harry ignored it and continued with what he was saying, “Professor Dumbeldore was the Transfigurations Professor.”
That did give Ginny another reason to pause apparently, absorbing the information, “But that means we’ve gone back fifty years in the past? Most time travel magics can only accomplish a few hours, maybe a day at best.”
Harry blinked, “Time travel? Magic can do that?” The look he got confirmed it, however something clicked in his head and remembered what Hermione had mentioned once about the plumbing, “Even so, I don’t think that’s it. The last time Hogwarts was changed was when they installed pipes for the loo and such. And his is Dumbledore’s office, they don’t add up.”
Ginny paled, “So- w-whatever this is, isn’t the past and isn’t the real Hogwarts?”
Harry winced, he hadn’t meant to put it that bluntly but he had to agree, “Right. I think the only answers we’re going to get are in the Great Hall. Everything is pointing that way.”
He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze, they didn’t really know each other that well but it was better than being stuck with a perfect stranger. Ron would understand.
“Then the Great Hall it is.” She said after a moment of contemplation.
The both left at a pace that wasn’t rush, whatever was going on they wanted to be ready should something bad happen. Best not to run head long into a trap.
Re: The Towers that Eclipes Darkshire - Tearen Wover - 01-25-2016
Nealaphh clicked its beak pensively, turning Tom's question over in its mind like a curious coin found on the pavement. The Gigaton Hammer was not going to be a simple weapon to wield. Even the physically strongest Primes would have trouble using the implement as an effective weapon. It was liable to be the most sluggishn, unbalanced, clumsy thing they had ever brought to bear in a fight. The one small blessing was that it really only needed to work once. Based on conversations with Darunia, the Hammer's first design was crafted so as to be able to impact Vovlagia's diamond hard skull so hard that it would momentarily shake the monster into vulnerability. A cro magnon maneuver, to be sure, but unfortunately when it came to legend and destiny, there was usually very little room for improvisation.
...but the Nealaphh would make sure to use as much of that room as possible. Alpha squad would have to be comprised of some of the toughest, most powerful fighters in the Omniverse. Surely there was some way to mitigate that collective strength into a more elegant solution than: bash head, stab lots. Alas, a suitable solution was more fleeting than the time which has elapsed since Tom's asking.
That depends largely on who makes themselves available. If worst comes to worst, I can always fuse with one of the stronger candidates to ensure their usefulness. the God-Mind said, turning to glance at the Wizard. Tom stopped his dutiful scribbling and returned the crow's twinkling stare.
"Pardon me...Fuse?" Tom asked, a note of incredulity underpinning the legitimate curiosity within his voice. The Crow bobbed its head.
Indeed. It is something I have done several times. I can bind the essence of my power to another being's body and augment their operational parameters. Other Primes share a similar talent, but I am not sure they can do so with more than a few select others. Nealaphh said, it's eternally patient tone serving to precisely undermine Tom's own sense of bewilderment. To combine two bodies and two souls? The sheer number of arcane variables involved were staggering, not to mention all of the potential psychogical and medical impacts.
He would simply have to see it done.
Re: The Towers that Eclipes Darkshire - Tom Marvolo Riddle - 01-26-2016
It sounded eerily similar to what I had done with Ginny. Possibilities within possibilities. The idea of not just flitting about but actually taking a true body as my own…if such a thing could be used to dominate rather than cohabitate then it would be a particular boon to my ends. More so than even than the Imperious Curse. But it was a line of thought I’d need to peruse in private.
With Nippur already being the subject of discussion, mostly thanks to my own broadcast of the events. I was starting to realize just how easily information was disseminated across the Verse. I would have to be very careful in dealing with how I was perceived. Unlike the world I had come from, it seemed this one had an indelible memory. Already my compatriot had quite a bounty upon him and if something akin happened its way upon myself, I would be hard pressed to erase it.
An exit strategy would be needed, and perhaps the Portkey system would be the best way to go about doing such, and more to the point Nealaphh would need similar.
A stir in the air caught my attention as Hogwarts itself seemed to pick up on my desire. Though it was at the limit of what it could do conceptually beyond remaking itself or expanding its size. But I had just enough to settle that account as well.
I let Reality once again pool forth from my fingers and cast it behind me without a backwards glance. As the last of the Existence was released I hissed a single word of power with a grin cutting across my face, “Portus.”
The mass fell upon the Heartstone and the incantation given seemed to grant the raw force of the Verses a manner of shape, arcing with currents of magic, emerald fire and distorting whirls. The brilliance of it wasn’t even absorbed; the Heart of Hogwarts instead seemed to amplify it and cast that light across the entire area, channeling all thoughts and intentions I had for this working back upon the castle itself.
Immediately fireplaces began to shift into every major core room whose nature deemed them important. This was then followed by ones requiring more individual attention such as the Common Rooms of each House, the Staff’s Lounge, each Professor’s Study, the Headmaster’s own and myself. Each one ornately marked with a symbol matching their purpose.
The last bit though was not nearly so spectacular, though it was far more important. In the air, the burning trails of quicksilver coalesced from mist, taking shape at my latent behest. One fell at the talons of Nealaphh and the other in my awaiting hand. For myself, a simple golden pocket watch marked with an emerald snake that framed the face with smaller siblings securing its dials. Dials that controlled the clock mechanisms and the hidden functions that linked it and its owner back to the school.
I made a show of the one in my own fingers, pointing to either dial which could be pressed when in need, “One to command it to take one’s self to any place within the Hogwart’s floo network, and the other is an emergency activation that will take you to a secure room near where I intend the Medical Wing.” I gestured to Nealaphh’s own which remained an amorphous mass of liquid silver, perhaps waiting for its new owner to mark it as Its own.
“Once you accept it, no one else will be able to touch it or deprive you of such except myself. In theory it should be able to reach you in any Verse.” I didn’t pretend to understand the being in question, though the basic shape of the Portkey would match my own, how it adjusted itself to its owner… that depended entirely on Nealaphh alone. But regardless in this form or any other it would be workable.
~*O*~
It had taken both Harry and Ginny a good few minutes to overcome being unnerved by the mound of food laid out in the area that they had typically sat at Gryffindor table. While it wasn’t explicitly accurate, it was close enough to be notable. The only exception was that whoever had prepared the meal didn’t seem to know what time of day it was… which was to say what time it was for them.
Going by the Great Hall’s ceiling it was obviously late or at least early morning, and thankfully whatever heat that had built up in the castle seemed to have died off at the hands of the night’s cool air. Still though it didn’t help qualm the uneasy atmosphere that had settled over them.
Harry had spent a good number of scoopfuls of porridge watching the space behind Ginny’s back and her doing the same. It wasn’t until he had moved onto the bacon that he felt somewhat more relaxed in more ways than one. Ginny seemed to have settled for no longer tripping over herself due to his own presence. That didn’t stop the random blushing when they bumped into each other on piling food onto their plates, but at least she hadn’t put her elbow into the butter dish again. Yet.
“Who do you think cooked the food?” Harry asked after washing down the last of his food.
Ginny shrugged after a glancing back at what remained of the still overly large array, “House elves I reckon. Bound to be loads of them here.”
Harry felt the blood drain his face, “Like Dobby?”
“Dobby?” Ginny asked curiously, forgetting herself.
Harry nodded furtively and explained the circumstances that had led to him nearly dying no less than three times this past year. By the time he was recounting his encounter with mad House Elf in the hospital wing, the pair of them exploring the Entrance Hall that First Years entered Hogwarts from.
“Find anything?” Harry called from his inspection of a wall that he could have sworn had never had a fireplace when he had first arrived two years ago. He was sure because it was situated in the same place that he and Draco truly begun to hate each other rather than simple House rivalry. Within sight of the empty House hourglasses, he was sure of it. So many things were the same and yet different.
“I… think… so.” Ginny said cautiously, prompting Harry to look over. She was staring at a particularly uninteresting section of wall and now that Harry noted that she was he too felt something was off. Every time he looked at it and actually to look, he felt his eyes side off of it. As if something was pushing his concentration away from it.
It was an odd feeling.
“What is that?” Harry muttered as he tried unsuccessfully to imitate Ginny’s feat.
Shaking her head she stepped back and took up his hand again with less hesitation. Though it felt like she was still fighting some sort of inclination whenever they did. “I think it’s a notice-me-not charm.” She gave an unnerved shudder and her face gained a distinct look of distrust, “The trick is to not look at the wall but look at what’s behind it.”
Harry cocked his head, “What?”
Ginny readjusted her grip and moved in front of him so she was between him and the offending wall. Her face was a profuse red that was nearly as bright as her hair. But resolutely she stayed where she had planted herself despite something in her looking like it was fighting her every step of the way.
“D-dad taught me how to ignore them. Said it was to protect my v-“ She choked out though the last bit was a complete wash to Harry’s ears.
“What?” Harry repeated with an uncomfortable knot forming in his stomach.
“To p-p-protect my virtue.” Ginny said though it was a near thing as the last word nearly again came out completely garbled.
Harry felt his own face heating up nearly as brightly as Ginny. No wonder she was struggling. This was hardly a conversation he wanted to have with anyone, let alone Ron’s little sister. Obviously though something about it was important.
“So. To protect. It. He taught me to ignore the charm.” She finally continued, picking up some momentum as she focused at some spot on Harry’s face. Not missing a beat she kept on going, “The trick is to focus on something near the person or thing being protected by the ch-charm.” Her free hand reached suddenly and with little warning took him by the chin and forced him to look straight at her face.
“Ginny-“ Harry stuttered but she silenced him with a finger.
“Look-“ She almost seemed to lose her nerve for a second, “Look at me, not the wall.”
Screwing his eyes, Harry nodded only just barely and did his best to only look at her. Staring really. The heat was coming off his face like Hogwarts had felt when he first woke up. But he listened to her. First her face, how her hair framed it, her nose and the freckles that was splattered across it and her cheeks, but more catching that anything were her brown eyes. They were bright, almost golden and they met his if only for just an instant-
And that’s when he saw it. Well not so much as saw it directly but in his peripheral vision there was a large double door archway growing from almost nothing.
An electric shock went down his wrist and both he and Ginny jumped at nearly the same exact time. Turning to look at the place that Harry had saw, he couldn’t help but notice that the air seemed heavier, as if it were alive with diffusing power. The enchantment breaking? Or maybe it was just him and Ginny blushing so hard that they were heating it up.
Either way they could see what had been hidden from them moments ago.
“Should we go?” Ginny asked
“Do we have a choice?” Harry countered, not quite wanting to hear the answer he knew he was going to get.
“You said we always do. I reckon our answers are down there.” She said quietly, before taking a breath and the initiative and pushed the door open. Half a conversation seemed to be echoing up from deep below the ground floor. A person talking to themselves?
“…well it was a temporary defensive measure, I was going to move the opening once the rest of the castle was finished.”
“Tom?” They both exclaimed breathlessly. Ginny though paled instantly and turned to him looking more than a little shocked that the name had come from Harry’s lips. The grip on his hand tightened immensely and Harry was beginning to feel as if part of the puzzle that was the year began to fall into place. But something about the whole situation seemed not quite accurate.
“Whatever it is Ginny, it’ll be okay.” Harry found himself saying, part of him didn’t believe it but it felt right to say. He owed Ron that much at least to reassure her though.
She nodded slowly even as he led her down the stairs, and hopefully towards the answers they needed.
Re: The Towers that Eclipes Darkshire - Tearen Wover - 01-26-2016
The irridescebt globule of raw potential which hovered in front of Nealaphh did not coalesce into any particular bauble or trinket. Instead it swiftly siphoned itself into the Crow's open beak, working its way into the unearthly inner workings of Nealaphh's body to become some bastard facsimile of an organ which the God-Mind could activate at will. This, moreso than many things the Enigma had done, caught Tom quite off guard. He was, however, loathe to admit that anything might throw him off balance in the slightest, and therefore opted to casually abstain from comment on the admittedly sickening sight. Nealaphh, on the other hand, had no compunctions in expressing its admiration of Tom's skill in swiftly devising a solution to the God-Mind's proposed course of action.
Quite excellent, Mr. Riddle. I should expect nothing less from a master wizard such as yourself. the Crow said with an approving click of its beak. The feathered fiend's flinty eyes flickered over to the hallway which led into the small atrium in which the two of them had been coversing. A wash of uninhibited emotion and thoughts came funneling down the hallway like a salty-sweet wind.
Your secondaries are approaching. Nealaphh said, on the off chance Tom wasn't already aware. It was one Harry Potter and one Ginny Weasley. The names were not taken from the owners themselves. The thoughts that the two had for eachother almost overpowered their singular goal of exploring a strange new environment. Nealaphh considered plunging deeper into their minds to find out more about the world that Tom Riddle called home, but the Enigma did not wish to give itself away just yet. Besides, there was no reason to assume practitioners of the arcane arts would not be able to detect such intrusion.
So, in the mean time, Nealaphh decided it prudent to discuss the next steps in their goals.
The materials for the Hammer will likely not arrive for a few days. In the mean time, I was wondering if you might help me with a scholarly pursuit? the Enigma hummed, flicking its eyes back to the pseudo-human. Tom rose a bemused eyebrow.
"Oh? Regarding what?"
We've already discussed the need for a treatise on the practice of Banishment, but I was also wondering if it might be prudent to publish a second volume of the Monotruth dedicated to the physical workings of the Omniverse, as opposed to the sociological focus of my first narrative. Nealaphh said with a tilt of its avian head. Tom hummed pensively and steepled his fingers in front of his mouth. It was a tantalizing prospect, and there was no real reason to suggest any superior alternative. Potter and thet Weasley girl, however, might take up more of his time than he would have preferred.
"We'll need to run some experiments." Tom replied, a slow smile rising behind his interwoven digits.
Oh yes... Nealaphh said, glancing back towards the approaching secondaries.
...most certainly.
Re: The Towers that Eclipes Darkshire - Tom Marvolo Riddle - 01-31-2016
The castle had long since finished taking its final outward form, but I knew it was far from complete. That sense of growth though was I something infused it with to be forever evolving. Like a tree made of stone, brick and mortar it would forever be growing and evolving as long as magic and omnilium to be had as fuel for it. For as long as my will be done.
That had a good ring to it.
Hogwarts was once again my home truly, but more than anything my first aspiration had been attained in a timely manner at that. Though there had been several consternations to that plan alone was only a minor setback. The question that really had me questioning my abilities though was the summoning of two children who had been my ultimate undoing. Luck it seemed had them at the ideal point in their lives where they both recognized and still trusted me, though I suspect Ginny still had some idea that she was the Heir of Slytherin.
That was something I’d have disabuse her of such a notion. Carefully.
But there we here now, nothing I could do about that without risk of causing issues that were upcoming to my own rise to power. Nealaphh had been right that experimentation was the only score by which we could measure ourselves and the potential we wielded, but with two onlookers that was hardly an able skill especially when there was a need to use live test subjects. It delayed us by a day though been in itself profitable in refining Nealaphh’s needs of the Embassy to match and it also allowed me to assess the limits of my creativity.
Suffice it to say, bending reality to my whim was a minor task in the seat of my power, and the minds of two preteens and their endless suggestions added to the scope of the place, if only in minor details. It also wore them out thoroughly while distracting them from their own plights. A situation for which while I was cognizant of, did not wish to explore to its fullest depth. When they did begin to droop though it left me the final task of seeing to them to personal quarters I had constructed near my own to where I could observe them as needed.
But at the moment, there were out from underfoot and in no need to for me to mind them.
With a motion I sealed the door to anyone but them and myself, and more so I placed a monitoring charm should either or both wake lest their minds be poisoned against me by the events that would soon transpire. Events which I had been looking forward to since my companion of sorts had broached the topic.
There are a number subject for which we can appropriate in the village. The telepath evoked. Glancing in his direction, I saw the shadows shift, briefly with the flutter of wings, then filled with the humanoid form that I associated more closely with Nealaphh.
I grimaced and shook my head, “No I may need of that population and should it come back to us…” I said trailing off before I realized the obvious solution. I did not know of my compatriot’s humanity but I had apparently experience enough to recreate those two… Such a thing had to be repeatable. In which case it would give us more experimental material than I- we could ever want for.
A means of testing spells that had previously been only practiced in theory with no substance to prove the result. It would make this venture worthwhile.
Taking a breath, “Come, I need to show you what I prepared for us before we were interrupted earlier.” It took no effort to glide down the halls, each step as familiar as they had been fifty years ago. More so even, it was intuitive, as anything that was mine should be.
Passing by the Great Hall I led the way to a fireplace and took a scoop of the ash grey powder and tossed it into indent. Emerald flame erupted in a roar as I spoke in parsletongue.
“Open the Path to the Dungeons.” I hissed
With a beckoning motion to Nealaphh, I walked into the cool-heat.
Re: The Towers that Eclipes Darkshire - Tearen Wover - 02-02-2016
The experience of travelling by this network of connected fireplaces was different than passing through a portal or simply using quantum uncertainty to simply be somewhere else. No, this was like being pulled into the ravenous maw of a shantak, shaken, and then spat out at somewhere far removed. Regardless, as Nealaphh was hurled from the flickering blaze that bore it, the God-Mind simply caught itself mid-air and gently floated back to the ground. It's pair, rock-like feet clicked loudly on the cobblestoned underfoot, despite their seemingly pliant nature. Nealaphh looked around slowly, taking in the sights of low-hanging, phosphorescent lanterns that dangled over large, shackle decked slabs. Other rooms were partitioned off from the main hall, with minimalistic living spaces built into their claustrophobic confines. Clearly it was a space meant for live experimentation, the God-Mind did have its doubts.
A welcome addition, but what of those who lack proper vision? Nealaphh asked as Tom walked over to one of the sterile looking tables. The pale light of the lanterns threw his features into sharp relief, portraying a look of dark glee.
"Oh, the only way into this place is through the floo network. To anyone who doesn't know it's here, it may as well not exist. I surmise that will be sufficient to keep the plebeians at bay." Tom said with a soft chuckle. Nealaphh nodded slowly and drifted over to another table, running a glistening black hand over its smooth linen surface. The only question now was...where to start?
Well, obviously, the first place to begin in any new discovery was to ascertain what the actual question was. Nealaphh had always had many hypotheses about the result of Prime and Secondary cross-breeding, but the timeline of such a pursuit would conflict with the fabrication of the hammer. No, there had to be another, shorter term experiment they could attempt. Honestly, the problem with finding a suitable pursuit was that, thanks to the Smiling One's perverted laws of physics, just about anything was possible. Testing the limits of human secondary bodies was a moot point, because they could simply be summoned to accommodate whatever augmentations were bestowed on them. This was partially the reason why Nealaphh preferred the idea of using 'native' secondaries for the experiments, but the juncture for such things was not yet present. It was legitimately frustrating, and for the first time in a long time, Nealaphh could not itself produce a viable solution. This was worrying beyond compare, especially since asserting its mental superiority over Tom was the primary dynamic maintaining their relationship of leader versus follower. Well...perhaps some symbiotic intelligence would be required.
I'm interested to see explore the realm of natural reproduction in the Omniverse, especially the possibility of Prime/Secondary cross breeding, but I am concerned about the timeline such experiments would impose. Do you have any suggestions? Nealaphh asked, turning to Tom. It was a less than perfect solution, but dwelling on it any more at this point would only produce more frustration. Inspiration could not always be forced, and it was a lesson of being an Enigma that Nealaphh did not want to ignore.
Re: The Towers that Eclipes Darkshire - Tom Marvolo Riddle - 02-02-2016
I paused in my steps forward, my body coming to rest against one of the stone dais designed for more elaborate rituals. The comment was striking an odd chord in me. Hybridization between primes and secondaries…? I had to admit it was a unique idea to gain perspective on, but I saw one flaw in the need of carrying out such research.
“I imagine the result of such a coupling could be found in any number of brothels. Such offspring could even be working in such establishments given the time elapsed.” Human nature such as it was, practically ensured that someone somewhere had carnal relations with a secondary. Years, according to what I had researched, had passed since the first recorded prime summoning. Discounting Dumbledore who I seriously doubted would have had interest in any secondary or prime… there were a number of other candidates already.
Hardly worthy of our long term time and resources when simple census could yield to our needs.
“But along those same lines, perhaps adapting the flesh of a prime to that of a secondary and to what result-“ I was cut off and the loud reverberation of a bell rang throughout the dungeon like some many a harmonic cannons. It was a sound that I had heard only twice in my own life. Both times when Hogwarts had come under threat of the War with Grindelwald directly.
In this case that I did not suspect that was even close to the reason. Though that did have some prospects… that would have potential given the state of my former headmaster. In this situation however that sound meant one on thing; that of someone wishing entrance.
Only a day had gone by since the castle had risen in place, there was only so many a reason that someone could have come here and why. Someone who under should have no idea that the castle was even here unless fate, the deity or both were having a go at me. Isolating my distrust I focused on the potentials only, not mindless speculation. It was after all a tenuous situation.
“It seems we have unexpected visitors, the Shipment perhaps…?” I said with a wry smile though I could feel the potential for disaster sour my lips, especially in light of Nippur. Any force that would threaten my castle would soon find my home was a far more fortified location and myself fully rested. Not to mention more dangerous.
Re: The Towers that Eclipes Darkshire - Tearen Wover - 02-02-2016
Nealaphh turned in curiosity at the large, doleful gonging that drew Tom's attention so presently. It was certainly an efficacious indicator that someone, or any number of someones, were encroaching on the premises of the castle that Tom had only very recently completed. Though Nealaphh was loathe to subscribe to mortal concepts of time and space, there had certainly been a sufficient elapse of events between the time that Klee and Shen had alerted Darunia to the readiness for receipt of the raw materials for the Gigaton hammer. Perhaps it was the Gorons, here with the first of many loads of ore. The God-Mind let the wizard toss another handful of catalytic powder into the flames of the ember-flecked doorway into this center of experimentation and passed through, more ready for the violent transmission through heat and frenetic magical energy.
Several intervals of human time later, the pair arrived at the threshold of the castle gates. With some caution, Tom bade the immense, oaken gate to give way inwards, revealing several heavy-set, swarthy travelers decked in heavy black robes and wide rimmed hats, not entirely unlike Tom's own dataverse device. Flinty eyes with inherent warmth glittered out from under the ragged brims, and a little over half a dozen large carts laden with heavy crates, drawn by gently hissing reptilian beasts of burden sat at the ready for transference. Over this entire procession, Klee and Shen hovered conspicuously, gleaming with pride at a job well done. Tom looked over at Nealaphh, and the Enigma nodded slowly. Mr. Riddle adopted a look of muted satisfaction.
"Good evening, gentlemen." Tom said, looking the unique bodies of the Gorons up and down. Consorting with Nealaphh certainly exposed him to a wide variety of the Omniverse's more exotic content. He was curious as to why they were garbed so strangely. Perhaps the locals had been opposed to their inhuman appearance? The wizard could only assume that the muggles of this world were just as jaded and self-aggrandizing as they were in his universe of origin. Doubtless their xenophobic tendencies had made the journey of these chaps rather cold.
"Hey there Brother! Got the first load of ore for ya! Where we oughtta put it?" said the foremost Goron. His booming voice was slightly grating to Tom's sensibilities, but these were guests of Nealaphh, so he would reserve judgement until they actually proved to be unwelcome in his beloved home.
"The Institute wing has a path to it around the north side of the castle for loading, but gentlemen please, you must be weary! I'm sure you must be hungry." Tom said, trying to be a model of what he presumed a good host would say. It was clearly not something the wizard was used to, and the God-Mind picked up on his discomfort.
The Gorons feast on stones and mineral compounds. I'm they've been well fed, but if rest is necessary, then they can reside in the Institute wing. I may actually need a few to assist with the brute manufacturing of the Hammer. Nealaphh said, stepping forwards to inspect the cargo of the carts. A few clods of gently shining metal snaked their way out from the heavy leather tarps that were lashed around the rickety vessels, and in the high moonlight, Tom could see Nealaphh's eyes glint ever so gleefully. With that, Nealaphh bade the Gorons to drop their load off and let their dodongos take sustenance. After resting for the night, many of Nealaphh's Brothers began the long trip back to Death mountain, eager to bring more of their hard-worked ore to Hogwarts. Their eagerness never failed to please Nealaphh. Having such an industrious race of beings in its debt would surely be nothing but a boon to the Institute. The shadow did request that three of the Gorons stay and assist with the forging process, however. They stoney, portly men were only too happy to assist in the construction of a giant processing plant in the basement of the Institute wing.
The first step would be to extract the copper and nickel itself from the rest of the volcanic substrate that was mixed into the melange that had been mined out. Luckily, copper and nickel had relatively similar ductility, and since the volcanic nature of the ore resulted in a sulfide composition, the prevalence of magnetic waste minerals was relatively low. To expedite this process, Nealaphh was able to route a pipe of water from the nearby river-bend lake to run through the ore crushers, driven by the tireless legs of a Goron machinist. After saturating the pulverized ore with water, Nealaphh to the liberty of summoning an immense slab of iron, which it then charged with static runoff from the machine components of the refinery's drive belt. This process sufficiently separated the two desired raw materials from the ore itself.
The runoff from the process was sluiced into a large vat for later Omnilium extraction. The amount of Omnilium to be gained from the slurry of metallic mud was liable to be a pittance, but in the Omniverse, there was no sense in simply throwing anything out, no matter how seemingly worthless it might be. It took roughly two days to process all of the ore, after which time, the metallic compounds were smelted down into long, thin sheets of metal. One Goron was able to keep the bellows for the furnace at a nearly perfect temperature, far more consistent than many of the different magical remedies that Tom offered during the time it took the God-Mind to construct the entire apparatus. Perhaps it was the fact that, as time went on, the Institute's wing, and the greater north end of the entire Castle, for that matter, began to smell heavily of damp metal. The heat and energy of the processing plant in the depths of Hogwarts was nothing but enjoyable for Nealaphh and its brothers, however. For the Gorons, it reminded them of their home, and for Nealaphh, the suffocating heat was nearly delicious.
Finally, the time came get the actual final product from all of this; the precious Osmium. One of the single most dense, naturally occurring, stable elements to exist in any half-rational universe. To get the crystalline metal, however, Nealaphh had to summon a wide array of exotic chemicals to run the cupronickel sheets through, slowly breaking the metal down bit by bit before evaporating it in a chlorine-hydrogen admixture. At the end of all of this, however, Nealaphh was able to reach into the growth vat and withdraw a single, shining, clump of spiky metal. Tom, his secondaries, and anyone besides the volcano dwelling Gorons could not be present to witness the triumph, however; the raw osmium released a terribly toxic gas when exposed to air. It was only a minor setback, however. For now, the Osmium would be sealed inside more of Nealaphh's mysterious, black crystal substance that it so often summoned, awaiting the next phase of manufacturing...
Re: The Towers that Eclipes Darkshire - Tom Marvolo Riddle - 02-06-2016
Harry stirred quietly to the soft sounds of Ron’s snores-
Soft snoring? Harry thought with a sudden jolt. Since when did ‘soft’ apply to any of the sounds that could be found in his dorm, let alone Ron? That was not something that happened. Ever.
Opening his eyes Harry looked into the morning gloom beyond his four poster bed and onto Ginny’s, which was notably empty, it was only then that the previous day’s events came back to him. Blushing Harry only just realized the implications of sharing a room with a girl, let alone his best mate’s little sister, but last night neither of them had been in any state to really protest. And well it felt more… normal and not as loud.
The rest of the room was equally unadorned, as were the beds when compared to the castle. Too clean, too new, not quite lived in but they were lavish in a way. One of the doors led to the privy and the showers but by sound alone Harry to could tell that the snores were not coming from there.
A glance at the glow of the bedside clock, and oddly old-fashioned muggle looking one, told him that that it was nearly six in the morning. And for what it was worth the groan of his stomach told him it was time to get up. The feeling that came with it was also equally hard to ignore but more concerning than anything was still the absence of Ginny.
Ron would kill him if Harry lost his best mate’s sister on his second day looking out for her. If ever there was a situation where he needed Dobby trying to save him, that was one he’d happily welcome it. It’d probably be safer.
With a shudder and that thought Harry pushed himself up and flicked his fingers at one the lamps that had been provided for their room, immediately dowsing the room in a glow that surprised him. Not because of the light, that had been the norm since the beginning of his first year, no it was because a door was gone. Not just any door but the one that led out to the rest of the castle.
Awareness leapt into his chest, and he began wildly looking around. It had been right there when it gotten up in the middle of the night to use the toilet…- a sinking feeling hit him as he stared where the door should have been, if he had been in the right bed. A cursory look in the proper direction revealed that he was indeed not in the right bed at all. His assessment under the bedding had him note the body warmth he could feel from the nearness of another’s skin meant matters were far worse it had been when he had first gone to sleep.
The glib grin on the side of Ginny’s sleeping expression told Harry more than he wanted to know. Which left him the problem of trying to extricate himself from the position he was in. The blankets were wrapped around him as tight as her. It was a miracle that they weren’t in physical contact though his hands were dangerously close. With slow movements Harry wormed his way out, though which each twist his balance became more precarious- Ginny rolled onto her back with no warning, taking Harry with her.
Several things happened at once, first was Harry’s sudden yelp was overcome by Ginny’s squeaking or perhaps show of a surprise. Second and perhaps worse he fell on her which cut off both noises they were making but, was instead treated to the look of surprise and the widening brown eyes staring right into his own and the warmth under his fingers.
Frantically muttering, “Sorry!” Harry quickened his escape but only succeeded further entangling them both together rather than making a retreat. It was only when he came to a rather close stop that he heard her giggle. It had an almost maniacal ring to it even as both of her hands were pressed against his chest to give them some distance. Her face was utterly beet red and Harry was certain his own face was brighter, maybe even his entire body as embarrassment over came him.
“H-Harry-“ she snickered out in broken breathes, “stop. Just settle down.”
Guiltily Harry did as she told him, fighting his desire to run from the room and lock himself in a broom closet. Maybe Tom would let him have his own room or- Ginny’s hands fell away from him and the pressure from the blanket loosened. Looking up Harry saw the grin on her face that was blazing still with mirth and mirroring his own embarrassment to a lesser degree.
“Ginny, I didn’t realize,” Harry started but Ginny waved him off.
“It’s o-okay, I should have told you when you woke me up last night.” She said placatingly.
Harry nodded but that didn’t help the feeling that somewhere Ron was glaring at him from beyond this world. He couldn’t help but notice her stutter was almost completely gone. What would Ron think of that, the girl that ‘never shut up’ who hadn’t spoken two words to him before yesterday?
Dual stomach growls punctuated the awkward silence.
“Food?” Harry asked dumbly.
“Food” Ginny replied with an amused confirmation.
~*O*~
More than once I had been tempted to interrupt the process of refining the osmium but as often since I had come here I had to remind myself of the basic precepts of observation. One of which was learning would get me everywhere, also there was a tenant of potion making and alchemy that also had me hold my tongue. The energy that went into changing a thing left an indelible mark on it. Such things could be as useful in adding potential to the final form as well.
There was only so much to be done with my presence here.
It was an odd sensation to say the least, to add little value to a particular situation, but there it was. The most my services were to provide an enhancement to the heat that only my fire spells could produce. But even that had limits when mechanical aspirations yielded longer term quality that I had to admit was impressive. Had I been human, truly human, no doubt I would have seen myself out well before then. Instead I had been impressed by what had unfolded.
Whatever else I could say, the Goron knew the workings of smelting and refining of ores in a way that reminded me strongly of goblins. Only they lacked the very same qualities that inclined me to end their lives in a most violent manner. They were in many ways far more amiable, simple even, yet there was a distinct brilliance behind those coal like eyes that I knew would do me well to be on guard of if I ever sought to make them an enemy.
Any betrayal would have to be swift, immeasurable and absolute which meant observing them.
Much of my time spent in point of fact was mostly observing, to which I was unfortunately growing more and more practiced in the art of until finally I decided my presence was no longer needed. The only thing I learned was the fact that both Nealaphh and the Gorons had patience and diligence that would earn them a stone’s respect provided they didn’t eat it first. For myself, my endurance of monotony was at its limit.
I didn’t wait for any particular signal other than the sound of the bellow groaning to push air into an ever demanding system.
None seemed to mind me even as my wand flickered and siphoned a portion of the run off into empty space. The missing section of molten ore was quickly replaced, though it did earn me a single curious glance from one of the younger ones. No matter.
Having claimed my prize I retreated as word passed through my mind about growing dangers that the lab presented by the Osmium. Which was a curious property that I’d have to explore at a later interval. But for now, it was best not to test my durability in the presence of such toxins. The official potions and alchemy classrooms instead would be better suited to my continued existence.
Passing from the Institute’s Embassy I rounded on the Great Hall, my eyes spying the terrible twosome who I had inadvertently wrought upon Hogwarts. There was an air of awkwardness about them that I could taste even at this distance, but it was less than it had been. I still owed them an explanation to prevent their suspicions of my true nature, but that was going to be a precarious, petrol soaked bridge to cross. One wrong move, one little spark and it would burn, possibly with me on it. I did not want to bring Dumbledore to my door step.
Sending them a gracious nod, I continued on my business to the main stairway corridor and began to make my way to my favorite classroom. I had some work to be done while Nealaphh toiled. And it began with an infusion of wormwood.
Re: The Towers that Eclipes Darkshire - Tearen Wover - 02-07-2016
Progress on the Gigaton Hammer was going smoothly, but Nealaphh still had nowhere near enough Osmium to fully construct the most important part of the weapon: the head. It would require at least two more full shipments of ore before that stage of construction could commence. The Enigma paced slowly around its workshop, idly looking over at the refinery as it cooled down from another day of tireless smelting. Siphoning off the excess heat from the astounding levels of energy that the dormant machines held was a temptation the God-Mind had to resist; drawing that much heat from them that quickly could potentially warp the delicate components that had taken so long to assemble.
It was night time in the Pale Moors. Nealaphh knew this only because of its neural connection to the Dataverse. The Gorons had quit for the day several hours ago, giving the God-Mind time to think and consider the first steps in assembling the Hammer proper in the deep darkness of the Hogwarts dungeons. All in all, it had managed to refine and grow about one thousand two hundred pounds of Osmium crystal, which really only worked out to be a cubic foot worth of material. Put simply, it was not enough for what Nealaphh had in mind. The hammer head alone was going to require at least five times that volume, not to mention the tang and core of the weapon. Estimating about seven cubic feet of solid Osmium, that would bring the total weight of the hammer to about ten thousand pounds. It was less than desired, but any higher, and Nealaphh doubted it would be able to find a suitable wielder for the Gigaton Hammer.
Moving over to where the crystals were being stored, the God-Mind slowly unsealed them from the obsidian it had summoned to prevent them from oxidizing into noxious vapors. The second most critical part of the weapon would be to ensure that the Osmium would not be exposed to air, which produced this effect. This was not so much out of a desire to protect anyone who might choose to wield it, but more so to ensure that the vital metal contained within the Hammer did not decompose over time. After extracting the element, Nealaphh began shaping it into a long, solid rod, six feet in length, by converting Omnilium into raw creative will. There was no doubt that the hammer would need to be wielded with two hands, so a sufficient grip was necessary. The hardest part of this step was making sure to check each and every molecular bond to ensure a durable crystal matrix was formed. Otherwise, the Osmium would be liable to crack after repeated hammer blows. After spending a few hours going over the individual molecules to ensure this, Nealaphh began to carve the leylines that would be necessary for holding the arcane energy that Tom had proposed. The hammer would be a potent mirpaux of engineering, magic, and chemistry; Nealaphh just hoped that it would be enough to waylay the beast long enough for Alpha squad to score mortal blows on the dragon. It was difficult to assess just how effective the hammer would be without having seen or studied Volvagia first hand, which was why the God-Mind had decided to hold nothing back in its creation, either in terms of its sheer devastating weight or its practicality as a weapon. It needed to be an absolute masterpiece.
By the time the haft had been fully completed, dawn had washed over the Pale Moors with a laughably optimistic brass glow. The sunlight had somehow managed to, ever so fleetingly, pierce through the dour cloud cover that was so pervasive in the skies of the Moors. It sometimes irritated Nealaphh that it could never see the stars at night in this darkened verse. For whatever reason, their alignments and movement were startlingly accurate to their positions in the Multiverse. Looking at them helped Nealaphh focus on its objective, and moreover, remind the God-Mind of what it once was. What it could be again. To dwell on such things in the breaking light of day was a recipe for disappointment, however, so Nealaphh decided to seek out Tom Riddle. They needed to discuss his plans for the arcane supplementation in the hammer in more detail. The Gorons could rest for the day, as long as they didn't reveal themselves to Tom's secondaries. Speaking of which, as the Enigma flew through the halls of hogwarts, it briefly passed over the heads of Harry and Ginny as they were on their way to breakfast. It could feel their curiosity, and suspicion, plainly through their unguarded psyches.
Nealaphh would also have to speak to Riddle about the young wizards; their snooping natures could potentially put them in harm's way.
Or in Nealaphh's way.
Re: The Towers that Eclipes Darkshire - Tom Marvolo Riddle - 02-25-2016
Molten light burbled softly under the weight of my wand as I fed the magic of the Moors and my own metaphysical might into the crucible. From the yew length, a beam of incandescent yellow saw that the iridium grew in mass and nature as I combined both the simple refilling charm and the complex nature of alchemy’s transmutation. What I needed after all was more than anything nature would provide. The arcane however, could.
Drawing up my wand I evoked, even at distance, the metal into rising with it into a sphere. With a flick of my wrist I wrought a flame freezing charm upon the area before approaching. Even then the heat was almost as impressive as what had been brought to bear in the Institute’s Embassy. That was when I began to work in truth.
Using the rod of wood like a stylus I began drawing runes and diagrams in detail upon the surface of the molten sphere. Each time I had covered the whole of it I drew it back and brought a ‘new’ face to the surface while the other runes sunk below. I had stolen the idea from ancient wizards of Japan where they folded runes directly into the very depths a sword’s blade. No doubt many Muggle could attribute their legends to the process I was employing now.
Hours passed as with each layer was compressed down and a texture was begot with glassy quality. Smooth yet when taking a deep look into it one could see writing layered on top of itself. It was done. Not much fanfare to be held. Most true works of magic were like that.
Ah, so this is what has you preoccupied? Nealaphh’s mind rang with a sudden pressure and sudden.
It was, perhaps, a good thing that books could not jump otherwise my body would have reacted in a similar fashion. Instead I turned to see the three eyed figure melt from the shadows into the light of the room. It only inclined its head at what I was working on.
“Indeed” I began simply, “with this the Gigaton Hammer will move where wielder wishes it regardless of its own weight.”
To demonstrate it, I drew my wand back about into a swift arc and muttered an incantation under my breath mid swing. My entire arm jerked to a stop as I fought the sheer weight holding in the remaining heat. Each inch further radiant energy was forcibly removed and the massive sphere began to shrink, cooling. It took nearly twenty seconds to clear the air of the distorting heat and the sphere was once again visible. Trusting in my working I placed a firm hand against the cubic meter sphere that had remained anchored in the air and pushed. Two thousand kilograms of Iridium moved with exactly the same. If I kept pushing however lightly into anything, the sphere would go with it and through anything in its path.
When properly shaped this metal would be the housing for the osmium, encasing it. With it bound to that much mass though; the effect would be more realistic to the laws of inertia. Instead of something that appeared the flagrantly ignore physics as much of magic did.
This will be acceptable, the entity projected.
I nodded in agreement and saw the opening to shift the conversation to something more pertinent.
“Is the next shipment of Ore due soon?” I said wearily. The last one had been late by days after all, but not due to issues with banditry or the empire but simple Time. Even with Nealaphh himself time very much seemed to be whimsical, matching his equation for the value of omnilium that he had shown me with the first hours of arriving.
Only if the smiling one sees fit to not further interfere further.
Re: The Towers that Eclipes Darkshire - Tearen Wover - 02-25-2016
Nealaphh chose to elaborate on the subject.
It is due imminently, though there have been reports of banditry in the Steppes. If my agent in that verse is doing his job, though, it should be arriving within the next day.
Tom nodded slowly in comprehension, all while jotting down scrupulous notes on his current project. The nature of the wizard's magic was irksome to the God-Mind. It seemed too wild, too unpredictable. Yes, Tom wielded it in such a way as to be more coherent that it might have otherwise been, but ultimately Nealaphh could see the inherent instability in the details of his castings.
Normally it wouldn't have bothered Nealaphh; there were precious few arcane traditions that allowed mastery of the physical universe while also allowing the wielder to cling to their precious sanity. The God-Mind had tried to explain several times to Tom that its abilities were not magical in nature, at least not in a literal sense, but the wizard seemed to try and find ties in almost all the Omniverse back to his home world.
Clearly he was very attached to his universe of origin, especially considering his construction of this castle, as well as his subconscious summoning of the Harry and Ginny Secondaries. Nealaphh often found itself wondering just what significance these two young spellcasters held for Tom. Indeed, neither the Enigma or Tom had revealed a great deal of their pre-Omniverse lives to one another.
Perhaps it was out of a sense of respect, or maybe even standard caution. Nealaphh and Tom had been through quite a lot in their relatively short time together, but there were still occasions when the God-Mind could detect trepidation in the pseudo-human's actions. Perhaps the confrontation with Volvagia would prove to be the cornerstone in the foundation of this relationship.
This reminded Nealaphh that it would have to start marketing the Institute for recruits again. It was difficult to maintain long term interest in Primes when Nealaphh actually had little to offer in terms of having a home and job. Nobody should ever feel irrelevant in the Enigma's moral system; it was taking a significant gamble that banishing the dragon would prove a suitable catalyst to prove that the Institute was capable of providing such a sense of belonging.
Regardless, neither Tom nor the God-Mind had said anything to each other for several minutes, so Nealaphh decided that the conversation was over.
I will be in the lab if you need me.
Nealaphh was, of course, referring to the secret, sealed off dungeon that Tom had created for their mutual benefit. In the God-Mind's time away from the forge, it had recently been experimenting with making incursions on the minds of sleeping denizens. Using the Astral Realm as a conduit, Nealaphh had successfully infiltrated the dreams of several secondaries.
Even now, as the God-Mind emerged explosively from the radiant fireplace, the comatose humans stirred restlessly in their sleep. Nealaphh had taken the liberty of writing a Thrall into each one of their brains to monitor their ongoing dream cycles. The Enigma would have to check in with the invasive psyches shortly. For now, there was bigger game to catch.
After days of proofing, Nealaphh believed that it was time to try and insert itself into the dreams of a Prime. Sitting down on a dias it had made specifically for the purpose of meditating, the God-Mind closed its eyes and let its mind escape from its physical constraints. It was a pleasant feeling, being temporarily without form, but the Enigma swiftly found a vulnerable, sleeping psyche to latch on to...
The Towers that Eclipes Darkshire [M] - Tom Marvolo Riddle - 03-04-2016
Quote:Mature postThere are times when even I needed a break from Hogwarts, both past and present. Hogsmede was ever a distraction but even then it didn’t fill the hole in me that craved a certain kind of perverse desire to destroy and dominate. Those two attributes often I had to rule and reign in lest they reveal myself in ways even I doubt I could come back from. No doubt the person who I became, or rather my former self devolved into, ultimately became his undoing.
History, time and time again, has shown that to oppress a person results in one of three outcomes in said person. The first is the rebel, to which I admire their zeal and may have had some mitigating factors on ‘Voldemort’s’ untimely demise. Second is a person subsumed by indifference, forged by any regime that ruled with an iron fist; these people adapt to any situation so as to best maintain their accepted lifestyle regardless of radical the change is. And the third… and the one I loathe the most but found most common in my time at Hogwarts, the sycophant.
Truly there nothing more worthy of despise from both former than the one who becomes a lapdog for the one who kicks them. And it these people who were the easiest to twist to my cause even early on, because even the lapdog will bite its neighbor to protect their place under its master. And for all their usefulness I had longed to kill many whom I encountered and often sent me out from my hallowed halls to aimless wanderings.
Thankfully today was not one of those cases, and I resolved to never allow those bootlickers to ever tarnish me or my Order again. No, today I wandered from my grounds for a very different reason. Boredom. Monotony it seems will forever be ally to my sworn enemy of mediocrity. And what better way to law low both like some many pieces of chaff than to explore my new home’s countryside? And with Nealaphh currently holding my personal dungeons hostage with some test subjects that I had left him with… I needed a breather.
Which found me on the path leading into the Forbidden Forest or rather what took the original’s place. It was a lonely walk hour long walk, soon it would be populated with a wizarding village and a train station, but those would be a long way off as I worked to recover my stores of omnilium. But the moment I left the trail into the darkness I saw what I was looking for. Or rather it saw me; I remained unmolested for some time though until I neared and then entered small grove.
I had my suspicions as to what was hunting me, unluckily for them they wouldn’t have a clue as what I was.
“It looks like a hooman,” came a serrated voice from beyond my sight.
“Doesn’t smell like one… smells like the scrolls master reads,” another voice sang in response, its words crumpled paper.
“Master bids us to kill hoomans, should we kills this ones too, hoomans never smells like his?” the third voice was tighter, higher pitched.
“Maybe we should eat it!” Came a fifth with a deeper baritone. The excitement it was exuding seemed to fill the air.
How many were there?
It was then I started smelling something rotten, no not rotten, earthly. A smell I associated with the ground, darker fire spells and of potions. Sulfur. That caught a portion of me that I hadn’t expected, brimstone was rarely associated with anything on the magizoology side. Even dragons were known to be far cleaner.
“I bet it tastes like shit! Let Azuth have it, he likes shit!” mocked another.
Muggle philosophies however… demons, true demons that were so much the cliché in literature but practically unknowns in my time beyond the muggle world. These… things matched what I was hearing and smelling now. Muggles it seemed had a leg up on the wizards for once. Something this unknown to me needed to be explored, thoroughly.
“It smiles! Why does the bookman smile when it can hears us?” A sixth said before it started hooting with a reptilian ape like bark. The sound was echoed among the others in throngs of sound repeating in variance and condition.
They had me surrounded, not that it really mattered. My hand strengthened its grip on the yew wand and had held the spell for nearly thirty seconds during the conversation regarding my ‘demise’ and methods to accomplish such. I was not particularly involved with that idea, so as it was, I was remiss to let them function on poor reasoning. And perhaps more unfortunately for them, their phrasing of my existence was far too close to the truth to be allowed to spread.
“It smiles,” I said coolly, “because it is going to kill you all.”
Sets of eyes began to flicker into existence in every direction I could see. Each were unblinking fiery golden orbs that bobbed up and down, methodically in step with one another. I didn’t need a mirror to know that murderous look, granted mine was far more charming than anything these creatures could hope to manage with their deep red skin, horns and elfish ears.
Elves, that’s what they looked like, demonically possessed house elves with lizard like proportions.
Deep beyond my sight, something shouted in a resonating command, “KILL!”
All at once they charged, some hefting small weapons, others baring their teeth and claws. The only thing that stayed the same was their gaits. It was a clumsy two legged galloping that barely looked trained, let alone efficient. But I’ll give them this it was fast; not that it mattered.
Flicking my wrist, I readied the magic had been bringing to bear since I first suspected hostile company, and whipped my wand around while murmuring, “Ferventis Gelata.”
Gouts of liquefied nova and glory erupted into from the tip of my wand, spiraling around me in a near full circle arc. Where it impacted the molten fluid blasted outward into a rolling, boiling conflagration of red and gold fire that into the forest with a constant roar that I could feel in my chest. Magic was singing in my ears as the first dozen souls perished in my arcane wrought power.
Those that didn’t fall easily clawed through flames like thirsting kittens who hadn’t succored in days. Only these bottom dwellers had far fewer affable characteristics going for them, and those they did have were burning away with the clouds of black smoke.
A hooting bark behind me was a warning too late as pain raked across my back, spinning me to face my foe.
This time I didn’t bother with the verbal incantation as my mind summoned a fire of an entirely darker persuasion. Ensis Umbraduro
Raising my wand upwards even as I finished the turn, a bar of dark scarlet fire met the blade- no, blades of a taller imp like creature. Iron sizzled and the two swords were bisected followed by its neck, as fiendfyre chewed through metal, flesh and bone; exaggerating the smell of sulfur to an even greater degree. I only had a flash of its face, eyes wide in shock and its mouth forming a little ‘o’ before the still walking corpse fell to three smaller siblings who were too seeking blood.
Fencing, is a lot like wizarding duels. They are the same motions, the same stepping; even the wand movements have practical purpose. It was a shame then that I my audience didn’t appreciate the subtly of how three more of the crettins fell with a single twist of my legs and a slight extension of my elbow-
“Uroth!”
That sound sent a chill down my spine, it seemed unintelligible but I had long learned not to underestimate anything in this world. The word while singular rang far too precisely for me to question. I turned back around, dispatching another imp, only to see the large one’s corpse start to bubble. Its head bursting into a liquid that raced to reconnect with its former self with trails silver-white smoke.
That didn’t bode well. Worse now was the fact that my barrier was beginning to die out and I could see that I indeed I had an audience, though far less appreciative than I’d have liked. Many of them were grinning at me. I didn’t need a second warning to begin charging my wand once more.
“Its has magic. We shall feast upon its flesh and take its power. Kill him for the master!” Came the commanding voice again, this time though I had a face to connect to. A thick scaly face with two long, uprising horns that if anything seemed quite… handsome. Though like its minions it did not seem to have sense of what it was dealing with.
Willing the sword away, I brought my wand around in a sweeping motion, drawing in the magical power of the land and fueled it the strange cost of my own stamina, and roared, “Magnus Totum Lacerovisis!”
If the hearthfire rumbled, the charged form of the evocative curse spell set practically quaked like thunder. The reforming corpse in front of me was gone as the force of my spell blew forward, outward, in a cone widening force that razed the land and scatter chunks of gore in every direction but my own. All that remained was a growing acre of red blood and scorched earth. Beyond it though I found my true quarry and began my march forward.
He raised his staff, a curled wooden thing bearing carved bones, and again he screamed out another, “Uroth!”
This time though I could hear the desperation and hesitation in his voice. The silver-white smoke though that issued forth from the prominent portion of the foci however didn’t pause, it rushed forward instead past me and almost immediately something barreled its weight upon my back.
A fiery set of claws ripped at my face and took me to the ground.
Unlike my foe though, I didn’t waste effort contemplating my untimely demise. With a jerk of my arm I slung the beast by the neck in my left hand and with my right, sent a simple [i]Frusto[i] into the skull of a newly reanimated imp to slacken it for good this time.
I could feel the ink pouring from my face and embers sizzling from the exposed flesh of my muscle. These imbeciles dared attack me and think they could turn the very powers of creation against me? Then wound me and force me to dirty my fingers with their blood? Nothing got away with that.
I snarled, and swept my wand around forcing another gout of fluidic flame to circle around me in an arc. It fell behind the chief but separated the rest of the beasts from its commands. More screams and howling pain filled the air as I continued my approach. I was thanked by way the sounds of feet thundering in retreat.
It was alone with the lead demon.
“U-ur-“ It began to stutter out.
I hissed one word filled with the loathing I had for worms who sought reach for the stars that they could barely understand before they could even reach the countertop of life. One single spell ended this little skirmish, “Crucio…!”
Alien screams of agony echoed dully amongst the flame and forest.
I didn’t relent the spell even as a thing line of weariness crept into my body. I kept it up until it convulsed and no breath was left in its lungs. It was only allowed relief when it eyes fogged with blood, obscuring the normal fiery glow. It gasped hard but did move otherwise for a good long while.
“Master will avenge mees! He will knows when I die!”
I made my disappointment with that answer quite clear when and uttered, “Crucio” again. It started to convulse and thrash as I twisted my wand to bring out the best ‘resonating’ pain. Each shiver and jerk grew more and more violent until the sparking hemorrhaging of red in its eyes forced me to pause. And perhaps also dissuade it of any notions of a quick death.
“I never said I’d kill you,” I cocked an eyebrow before adding, “Who is your master?”
Its eyes rolled loosely in its sockets but they turned to me only briefly enough that I could see it plotting.
“Our goth liwo avake avhe ukoul agh fleukh!” It raged for one gutteral moment and reached for its staff.
I slammed my foot down on its wrist. The sound of bones snapped right at home among the twigs, to reinforce this pointed I growled, “In English.”
A muttered incantation and a burning white light gave it further incentive to do just that. It screams weren’t as loud though. Pity, I hoped I hadn’t broken it already. If its vocal chords had snapped… I’d have to find another and this entire jaunt would have been a waste.
“Who is you master, creature?” I repeated with strong almost patient enunciation. Almost.
It turned its head towards me just as I move my wand to curse it again, it was staring at me bleakly but it seemed to know what I had intended to do as it was yelping before I even touched it further. “It- Its Dracula! In the castle far from here! Hes Scoola’s master!”
Dracula. I had heard that name before since coming to this place and that was excluding my previous life. It made sense to some degree but also worrying. If all that I had heard about the ‘leaders’ of each verse was true… I was not ready to take even the weakest of them on just yet. I need more information.
I raised my wand, its reaction instant. Scoola caught on quickly.
“Youss said you would spares me!” It screamed pleadingly.
I blinked. Of all the things I had been expecting that was the kind of lie I hadn’t seen coming. What was running through its head, either way… “I said nothing of the sort.”
That it would assume so; that led me to believe two things, the first being this wasn’t the first time the creature had been interrogated in such a fashion. which led to the next line of thinking, it’s about its ‘master’. Scoola had died many a time in service of Dracula, likely revived in a similar manner as its minions.
“Information yous want yes? Sp-spares pitiful Scoola!”
I gave him my best ‘consideration’ look. The kind you use when deciding between one meal or another. Predatory. It was something I had trained many times within the Slytherin common room specifically for instances when dealing with sycophants and it seemed that this creature was not any different. It was also a rare instance where I had more than a grudging respect for the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs.
“Why were you here?” I asked, fully expecting the lie that came.
The demon swallowed, its eyes bobbing incomprehensibly, and it hoarsed out a reply, “Scouting for meats, for magicks!”
White lightning struck it hard and renewed the forest and mine’s thirst for screams. Pink aspirations were frothing from his mouth as blood and spittle mixed into bubbles. I could practically hear its heart pounding in the screech’s fluctuation of the octaves even as its body started giving in with putrid smell of excretions. I left the spell fade though before it could fully run out of breath. Its rasping gasps though didn’t immediately resume until I prodded it with my foot hard enough to compress its chest.
The inhalation of breath was nearly as loud as its agony. I didn’t give it a chance to rest longer, leveling my wand towards its eyes.
“Waits! Wes was ordered to finds the Towers that eclipse the Darkshires! Master wants us to make not be talls anymore!” It screeched the moment it had a chance, its arms flailing wildly to block out any further of the cruciatus curse. Not that it would work.
Snarling, I brought the wand around to hit it one more time with just a burst. Any more and I think I would kill it and alert its master to everything that had transpired. That could not happen, not yet. The minions didn’t seem like the type ‘Count’ Dracula would monitor but this thing had magic, something more than mundane weapons. It could raise the dead almost effortlessly. If Harry and Ginny were any sign of it, for any magic to really take hold in this world, it had to be empowered by a prime. This thing had the backing of another.
“TRUTH! Wes tells truth!” It sobbed between gasps, “Yous master now! We won’ts lies to bookman! The Fallen won’t lies to bookman!”
Once again I was reminded of my vow to deal with individuals such as these and I had an idea just such way where I could fulfill that promise and make use of the thing. A solution that put a grin of my lips and put even more fear it its blinded eyes, “Fallen eh? Yes I think that will do just nicely… stupefy!”
Scarlet light flashed faster than ‘Scoola’ could even protest. At least some things remained the same as it slumped, its energy totally spent. If even the simple stunning charm didn’t take on something as weak as this thing, I really had to start worrying about how significantly my capabilities had been compromised. But at least what I had done worked. One good scouring charm removed the smell and banished its staff into the manifold.
I had briefly considered doing the same to the demon but I had no idea how the pocket universe I had constructed would affect live flesh.
Glancing around I spotted onr other of the- Fallen it had called itself- still alive. It was twitching, a good amount of its lower have had been burn away by the overpowered hearthfire charm. It’d have a few days of life if I helped it. If I didn’t… it could make itself useful in other ways. Always good to have a spare in either case. Or twenty as I banished the corpses to another manifold separate from my collectibles. Making that mistake once was enough.
Within a few moments I had the bulk of the mess cleaned up and I expected the nature of the omniverse and well… nature to take care of the rest. With nothing else left for me here I began to trek my way back up to Hogwarts, dragging the one and a half living Fallen by the horns. By the time I got back nearly two hours later I had managed to recover from my fight, and like my wounds the last of late morning darkness was burning off though the moor’s fog was barely thinned in any event.
As I mounted the steps to the Entrance Hall, I stopped before the Great Hall and moved to a fireplace that had taken the place of the entryway to the heartstone. One scoopful of floo powder in hand I commanded the castle to take me to the, “Deputy Lab.” Emerald flame leaped to my words and consumed my essence, propelling me through the network of grates, my two companions bouncing and scraping off of what was certainly hard stone, and in moments I was where I deigned.
I was greeted to a large study with places for each major section of magical study. Starting from ceiling, I had charmed it to appear as the night with a view of the Milky Way though I could change it as my needs required. The walls of were entirely of books, specifically every single one I had ever read or even browsed, the room unfortunately was nearly full edge to edge. I may have to at some point extend it into a small library. Over near the potions and alchemy bench, what I had set aside was both the bubbling alchemiac osmium that I had taken over for Nealaphh and the iridium sphere that I had yet to shape into the shell for the gigaton hammer.
All in all it was functional but not very comfortable for extended periods which had been why I left Hogwarts in the first place.
The Lab was something I had designed specifically for myself in instances such as these where other portions of the castle were… unavailable. Besides these two would barely require the needs of the full dungeon when I had three cells right here, hidden though they were. And perhaps unfortunately for the overly cooked Fallen, he would not need a cell to stay in.
Moving lightly to the bookcase closest to where I had entered I tapped the book, A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift, thrice. At one point I had considered Common Sense but that was one of the few classics I hadn’t read-
All at once the entire housing, books and all slid into its neighbor seamlessly, revealing in the process the three ward lined containment rooms. Far more than enough for right… but sometime in the future that may not be the case.
Smiling to myself, I threw Scoola into one of the three pits before sealing the barrier that would prevent its escape and being heard through the walls. I’d probably have a house elf deliver some food to it regularly lest he starve and reveal everything about what had happened.
With a dragging motion of my wand to seal the bookcase back over the opening, I turned back towards the cauldron that my colleague and I had been laboring over. Bright white light of molten metal was spilling over the edge though the liquid itself remained completely contained. After having dealt with radiant heat enough this last couple of days I had ended up setting up a defensive cooling charm over the entire potion’s lab as a precaution before moving even this little amount up from the Institute. It wouldn’t protect direct contact but it did keep my room from going up from flames or myself from drying out.
However I wasn’t quite ready for the cauldron shaped crucible just yet.
A flick of my wrist saw my other burden hit the table with a bone rattling thump as I retrieved two potions I had prepared. The first was a Blood Restoring Draught, and the other a complex mixture of Skelegrow, Essence of Dittany, glycerin and a biological accelerant. The combination would be lethal in the long term but in the short term it would completely reform the minion’s body long enough to endure the next few steps.
The imp in question was a smaller specimen than the one I had trapped behind my bookcase, lithe even. It had lapsed into a coma some time on the way back, more than likely from the pain alone. Well a little more wouldn’t change anything.
Drawing my wand, I pushed my will into it, forming a fine bladed tip of force that slid into the soft flesh easily. Each slice caused to body to twitch until finally I paralyzed it with a weal petrifying charm. Once I went deeper dark blood immediately began to well and pour out and until a whisper of hearthfire cauterized the crevace. Slowly I worked in this manner, excavating the flesh to form a hollow until the heart itself was revealed just below the ribcage.
My objective complete, I unstopped the phials containing the two potions and poured. The blood draught first was absorbed nearly as fast as it fell into the hole. Immediately the whole body seemed to flush as the pressure on the burnt tissue was reaching its limit. That was the signal to use the concoction and to take a step back.
A piercing squeal rattled the glass in the room with rather involuntary type keel to it. The entire body began to shake which in itself was remarkable given the lack of limbs to leverage itself with. Even so even that excuse was disappearing as bone and flesh began to pool out of it with startling speed. It looked malformed with silvery sheen to it but that disappeared as it extended further into something more ‘normal’ in appearance.
It took nearly ten minutes for it to stop seizing, I silenced it after one, and on the eleventh it sat up against the strength of the body binding spell. Not that impressive given that I barely put any power into it. It had been meant merely to control and slow its movements. Now though was the fun part.
Its eyes flickered glassily around to the office but only after it saw me did it freeze like some wild animal unsure how to react to an obvious predator. I didn’t hesitate to take the opening. My wand flickered with my movements forward and pressed itself to the base of the thing’s skull and focused all my thought into one single desire, to annihilate any existence of its mind.
“Crucio!” I sang.
The bolt of crimson was perhaps the brightest I had seen produce by the spell, that started and ended a loud yelping keen in less than a second. It wasn’t the result of righteous anger but close. The purpose was simply to crush. There was no exultation in an easy ‘win’ as this. Purely functional a functional process of ending a mind.
The spell faded fast as the Fallen hit the table again with no recourse, no movement, all evidence of its existence reduced to a sack of meat housing a soul.
With a swish and flick, I drew up the body into the air let it float to the crucible and began focusing my power on another flame freezing charm. They had never been a strong suit of mine; negating heat was after all a purely mechanical process that magic tended to require more power than the input. There were ways around if, to which I employed but honestly the flame freezing charm was a poorly made spell. But it did have its uses, such as for this.
Ice blue light lanced out and hit the living corpse before I began lowering it into crucible, molten osmium frothing upward almost like it was excited for the flesh I was feeding it. It didn’t burn, it wasn’t supposed, not yet. That spell would last for nearly a half hour with the whole of Hogwarts being channeled into this ritual.
When the body was gone, hidden beneath roiling liquid heat, I began the chant.
Chanting was one of those magicks that never went out of style, though my former self did not care for them due to the expediency of them, or lack thereof. But in this case it made interacting with the potentially lethal fluid a non-issue. With each word, minute by minute, I channeled the magic with my wand and bits of my life, force that constituted my body, into forming glowing black runes. Many of which a combination of languages that produce results that no single one could accomplish. Some were common others not so much. But the last one I uttered that formed at the center was the Egyptian hieroglyph for soul and a cuneiform rune to dispel internal magic. I imagined I looked much like a singing muggle orchestra conductor.
With the final stanza coming to the end I uttered a single piece in Latin, “Compleo!”
What happened next I’m not sure I remember completely in an accurate form; much of this spell was drawn directly from the process used to create horcruxes, more specifically my diary. But I had taken a number of liberties, relying on my instinct, omnilium and more than little magical guesswork. That often was the downfall of many an average wizard, but I, Tom Riddle was far from average. That said; it was far different from my own ‘memories’ of being born. Shadows seemed to move from their origin points, centering on the now nearly erupting broth of fluidic metal, and was lancing into it. Steam was issuing at as the living body was being broken down and anything not needed by the spell was being burned off molecule by molecule.
Feeling the time had arrived, I issued my final command with my wand to direct the iridium sphere into an arcing flight right into the crucible.
A sharp crack that sounded more like a scream readied my wand with a containment spell. The atmosphere itself began to shift toward the huge mass of magic and matter. A nova of purple force hit the cauldron to hold its structure in place, followed by the shaping spell-
Silence regaled me as I realized my body had been destroyed. My only sense was the feeling of radiant heat on my binding and the cool floor.
It took me nearly a minute to reorganize myself and pull together the energy to on human form again. When I did I could feel a suffusing sense of depth staring at me. Unknowing and unknowable, almost a kinship of the very most shallow level.
When I tracked my eyes to what my other senses were telling, my legs gave out. It felt not wrong, but… hollow. Hungry. My every intent had been to create something capable of withstanding stress, and recover from it but even after I had wiped out the Fallen’s salience… there was something that could only be described as emotions. Need.
Animalistic yes but there were other qualities in it I hadn’t intended.
Frowning, I tore my eyes away from the dark chromium surface that seemed to pull everything towards it. It was only then I hadn’t even noticed what it was. So filled with presence I hadn’t even realized that my entire lab should have been filled with molten iridium and osmium.
With a deep completely pointless breath, I forced myself to confront my creation. It was a sphere that was nearly a meter in diameter and yet despite having all the burning light from it drained away, it was indeed still liquid. Runes of all types were floating across the surface, rippling. Some were from my most recent working and others from that of the Iridium ‘flight’ matrix I had designed to be the chassis for the hammer once the final shape had been decided on. More pointedly though, was that the orb still remained floating which was not supposed to be. Not after that much mass had been applied to it.
I knew for a fact that I hadn’t overestimated the weight requirements of the osmium… Right now it should have been behaving more like a balloon filled with air rather than still being completely untouched by gravity. Not a bad thing but decidedly odd.
I couldn’t proceed further, and as unfortunate as it was, any shift from plans meant a near contractual need to confer with Nealaphh as to the finishing touches and whether or not he was to increase its mass further. If this event was even remotely a step towards a pattern, the whole final product would have to be revised. Furthermore a pattern like this meant less of a need for an inhumanly strong wielder. That gave us a number of possibilities we hadn’t considered before.
I pushed myself back up with a pained grunt and purposely turned away the moment I had laid down a Monitoring Enchantment to keep me apprised of any change that happened in my absence. With that done I saw myself out with a rush of emerald flame and the words, “The Great Hall!”
RE: The Towers that Eclipes Darkshire - Tom Marvolo Riddle - 03-12-2016
Harry was bored. Bored and sitting in the library with Ginny asleep on his shoulder while he stared at a fifty year old novel of some sort about warped gods from beyond the normal ‘world’. And by staring he meant staring, not actually reading. At this point he’d even take going to a double potions class with Snape over... well...this! And unfortunately he’d go out on a limb and say the feeling was mutual for Ginny. At least the antagonism their Potions Professor would heap on them would be a change from the unending dullness that their lives had become.
Tom was rarely ever available, trying to shore up the school.
There was the occasional House Elf who would bring them anything they wanted but they seemed lack Dobby’s communication skills or simply were unused to having a conversation. Whatever the case was, the two of them were lacking in entertainment, which was maddening.
With a quiet grunt he bookmarked and closed the completed works of HP Lovecraft before setting it on the table, careful to not try and wake Ginny up. In the last few days it was hard not to feel somewhat protective over her. She was the only person who really seemed to care, more so than Tom.
“H-Harry?“ his partner yawned out, apparently blinking herself awake only for her to jump when she realized the position she’d been in.
Harry winced, so much for not disturbing her. “Yeah Ginny?”
“S-sorry! I hadn’t r-realized-“ She stuttered out before Harry cut off her budding tirade of misplaced guilt.
“Its fine, we’re here together, might as well get used to each other’s company.” Harry said hesitantly before as he grabbed her hand. That always seemed to calm her some for whatever reason. It still felt weird. Touching someone but… if it helped her then what was just one hand? The blush it often elicited was also a bonus. Not uncommon, slightly predictable even, but enough to at least add some variation to the day.
Ginny flashed him a freckled, grateful if expectant smile.
Now if only he could get her to stop expecting him be able to pull the moon out from the sky. How could Lockhart stand it let alone like it?
Suppressing a shudder Harry asked the obvious question now, what were they going to do? There was only one thing he could possibly think of since neither he nor Ginny were Hermione. No doubt she’d be using the time to study. That left them to ask Tom for something, anything. Even if it meant interrupting him.
“You’re plotting Potter” Ginny said accusingly, though the glint in her brown eyes were mischievous.
“Well Miss Weasley” Harry started with his best Snape impersonation, sneer and all, “Unlike my marvelously idiotic boy, Mr. Malfoy, I feel there are better ways to entertain myself than doing nothing.”
Ginny giggled at that but still cocked her head questioningly, “Oh?”
Harry nodded and smoothed over his face so as not to look like a greasy haired git and spoke, “Tilly?”
With an enthused pop, a young house elf appeared on the table with a sideways stumbling step as her feet caught themselves on her maroon and gold robe like pillowcase. At the last instant though she righted herself before she could actually fall off the table top.
Tilly like many house elves was small, though slightly more so than Dobby had been and also plainly to see, younger. Or at least as far as Harry could gather she was, as he had never seen a female house elf before, he could only guess what a young female house elf looked like. In fact the other so called House-Elves of Hogwarts had never attended Harry and Ginny’s service. That being said, she did seem like she was better suited to being considered a teenager house-elf, as she was always stumbling about as she wasn’t quite use to growing up. Furthermore she had hair, loosely cropped though it was, of a sandy blond coloring that bounced around almost as much as she did.
“Yes Master and Missus Pottsley?” she squeaked as her long slender ears perked up.
Harry grimaced at the name, “Tilly do you know where Tom is?”
The House Elf practically started to vibrate like Uncle Vernon’s pocket pager right towards the edge of the table, “Yes! Yes, Tilly knows, shall Tilly goes gets him?”
Harry shook his head and in the corner of his eye he could see Ginny doing the same, though for what reason he wasn’t sure why, “No, we just want to know where he is.”
Tilly nodded, “Master Toms is in the deputesmaster study!”
“You mean Deputy-Headmaster’s Study?” Ginny queried.
Tilly began to vibrate again, inching even closer to the edge, “Yes! Thats!”
Harry and Ginny shared a look. In their entire time at Hogwarts, they never known Professor McGonagall to ever have a study, let alone use it. It was always her office, her chambers, the transfiguration room or the Library.
Reading their faces, Tilly began to hop excitedly, “Tilly can shows master and missus Pottsley!”
Both uttered a polite “Please” and before they knew it they were following the excitable House-Elf out of the library and through the halls. Harry also noted that surprisingly all the stairs and bridges were oddly aligned in the proper direction to get to where ever they seemed to be heading. Normally they seemed to zip this way, twirl that way or half the time in transition. Both before and after arrival, however this time that was not that case.
Ginny it seems was thinking the same thing as she spoke up right when the words were on Harry’s tongue, “Tilly, are you controlling the stairs?”
The house-elf nearly tumbled as she tripped over her ‘robe’s’ hem to look back at them and nod vigorously, “Tilly is! Master Toms told Tilly the secret, yous just Wills it at the direction yous wants and theys takes you there!”
Harry didn’t dare confirm Ginny’s surprise as they both leaped over the 1st floor’s vanishing trick step. Hogwarts in their time never was like that, why Ron and Harry on their first day to transfiguration class had tried to do everything in the power, short of kicking the stairs, to get them to turn in the right direction. Tapping their wands certainly hadn’t worked either. Tom really must have been updating Hogwarts!
Had Dumbledore done the same when had become Headmaster?
Immediately Harry began to recognize where they were, the central tower the home of the clock and bells, and more specifically where their rooms were on the third floor, just above the Great Hall. They hadn’t really explored all that much in this tower though they both, Harry was sure, remembered the rumors about how the Central Tower was taller on the inside. It was said that at least once a year a search party had to be sent out for a student who had gone up above the 7th floor of the tower’s top.
Hermione had always been threatening to explore it but with the mystery of the Philosopher’s Stone and later the Chamber of Secrets being opened, he didn’t think she had ever found the time.
A pang of guilt threatened to trip him much like their guide only it wasn’t from the hem of his robes. He missed them both, Ron and Hermione, but Tom had tried to summon them. In the end though it hadn’t worked, something had block Tom’s every attempts, something to do with him not being familiar with them.
Tilly led them up quickly one more flight of stairs before the reached a heavy set door that was reinforced with black iron or steel. The wood was a richly carved mahogany that had been set with both runes and a stylized design of all four founders raising the castle. No portraits protected it, no gargoyle defending it. Just a large door and a mighty knocker.
“That’s a big knocker,” Harry commented.
“I don’t know, I think she might be a bit lopsided.” Ginny quipped before turning red and began fighting what looked like a fit of giggles.
Harry just looked at her trying to figure out what she meant before his brain clicked. More specifically thinking back to a movie that Uncle Vernon had loved but had Aunt Petunia scandalized. Knockers…
Boobs.
Ginny-
A great heat filled Harry as he looked from Ginny’s face to her chest which seemed to just set the girl off in furious blushing and equally loud laughing. It was perhaps a full half minute before either one got their self-control and noticed that the door was gone, or more accurately open with Tom standing in its frame looking slightly perplexed.
They both stilled as Tilly disappeared with a pop. It was only after the House-Elf was gone that Harry noticed how harried their benefactor looked. His robes were bloodied, his normally refined hair mussed and there were the beginnings of circles under his eyes. Considering Tom had been a book before all this, his state seemed slightly concerning.
“Tom, are you alright?” Ginny gasped in concern, seemingly spying the same blood that Harry had.
Glancing down at himself in the same direction the duo had, Tom only shook his head, “Mostly, I had to make a statement and deal with some riffraff in the Forbidden Forest. Thankfully they were about as smart as trolls, and not nearly as tough.”
In a flicker of movement his wand just appeared in his hand and scoured the stains away like Snape had so effortlessly removed contents of cauldrons. Another bobbing of his head to check the accessible areas gave Harry a moment to watch in wonder that Tom actually seemed human for once. When Harry could see that Tom was satisfied, he nodded to himself and looked back to them.
“So what brings you two my study?” Tom asked offhandedly.
“We’re bored!” Harry and Ginny practically yelled out at the same time.
Tom raised an eyebrow. He didn’t seem particularly surprised but he also didn’t look like he had any idea that such a thing would be his responsibility. In fact more than anything the calculating glance on his face made him seem truly more a Slytherin now than at any other time that Harry could remember. Ron would probably have pitched a fit. Finally though whatever internal debate that had been warring within the older boy resolved.
Tom pulled back from the door’s threshold, “come on in,” he said with an ushering wave.
The room Harry found himself in, with Ginny, reminded him very much of Snape’s own office only with more books, simpler potions equipment and a giant orb of black-silver that… felt impossible, almost wrong. And Harry considered himself quite the expert on seeing the impossible; considering the many times he had used magic before he even knew it was magic! But something about it just rubbed him the wrong way even it seemed strangely familiar.
Without any fanfare Tom sat down on the edge of the counter that held his potions equipment and asked, “So what has you so bored?”
Harry blinked at that. Shouldn’t it be obvious?
A sigh escaped Tom’s lips, “People often don’t know what they want. Let that be a first lesson for you two. You came here because that this place is monotonous but not knowing what would rectify the circumstances that caused this state. And while I am the obvious answer to fixing this particular woe… I cannot conjure up without at least a better idea of what it is you want.”
Harry’s mind ground to a halt while he tried to process what Tom had just said.
“People” Ginny said desperately, “Places to be with them. Like you did with us but those who you can summon. Those from your time.”
Harry nodded in agreement, as he caught on to what Ginny was saying, “Tilly’s nice and all but I’d take professor Snape just for a change of pace.”
Tom’s eyes narrowed as he bowed his head for a moment, chuckling, “Alright. I can work with that though I suspect even Professor Snape is beyond my abilities.”
Harry and Ginny exhaled a breath that neither of them had realized they were holding and scrambled to follow Tom as he moved from his seat to the fireplace, though why Tom would need-
“Floo powder!” Ginny exclaimed.
Harry leaned to peer over her shoulder. They were still sharing a hand but this close to the wall was making it a difficult to position- he caught sight of exactly what she had said. Why hadn’t they notice that before on the fireplaces? Or was this the only one? Swallowing his questions Harry shelved them as a mystery for another time.
“We’re going to the Astonomy Tower, more specifically the Observatory.” Tom said simply as he passed a handful of the powder to each of them before he himself disappeared into a bellowing emerald flame and a command “The Observatory”.
Squeezing her fingers Harry didn’t look forward to his second experience with the powder, “Together?”
A light blush crossed Ginny’s face but she nodded, “Don’t want to end up in Knockturn Alley again?”
“Definitely not,” Harry agreed.
Grinning at each other, they threw the dust and said as one, “The Observatory!”
Stone brick and grates flew passed them and the sensation of gravity quickly lost its hold on them. With each exit they saw flashes of something outside. It wasn’t Hogwarts but something else, like pure space but distorted with floating streaks of glowing runes. Quickly though Harry noticed that there was also a lot of mist seeping in as well and it swirled behind them like-
A fireplace’s maw ahead of them opened up like a snake’s unhinging mouth before open air met them as they flew out into the power arms of Tom before they could face plant into the ground.
“Bit of advice when using the Floo, keep walking even when moving through the network.” Tom said with an exasperated note.
After situating themselves, on their own two sets of feet, Harry was finally able to look around at the bleary grey sky. This ever present cloud layer was getting old in Harry’s opinion which really was going to make midnight astronomy classes far more difficult. And those classes were difficult enough.
Looking back behind him he could see that the fireplace was set as a circular spire at the center of the tower’s radius. Big enough where multiple people could use it for warmth and travel, though oddly enough he didn’t see any stone hands sticking out with cups of floo powder like there had been in Tom’s Study.
Feeling the tug of someone’s gaze Harry turned to face Ginny whose own expression reflected his thoughts. What did the Astronomy Tower’s observation area have to do with giving them something fun to do? Then again he had done so many things since they had arrived it was hard to believe that anything was out of the older boy’s grasp. He had done things they didn’t even know if Professor Dumbledore was capable of.
Turning to Tom, they found he was gazing out west just as the foggy moon was rising on the horizon. But more importantly a silver glow was starting to overtake him along with mother of pearl iridescent colors. With his wand in hand still from when he had first cleaned his robes, Tom drew a sunset-crimson line across the horizon and swiveled around. The line rapidly began to expand and formed a concentric ring with the tower itself. Another lazy wand movement caused the circle to fracture into a wire mesh sphere of hexagons.
“Omnilium is the power to make anything. Magic it seems though makes it easier to wield.”
Harry’s brow creased as he thought on that, omnilium like the Omniverse they were in now? Did that make the stuff liquid reality? Maybe something they could brew in a potion…-
“And with magic we can do anything and omnilium makes it more powerful.” Tom continued as he began tracing runes which moved to various points in the burning sphere that had surrounded them.
Harry perked up, “That means the two are circular.”
Tom inclined his head to Harry, “Ten points to Gryffindor. And because of that I can use what is already here to empower raw omnilium as well.”
Moving away from the wall’s ledge, Ton began casting his wand this way and that, releasing molten jets of light that like his own skin had a metallic rainbow like sheen. The more he seemed to work the more complex the sphere that surrounded them seemed to get as the globules of the reality stuff flew off like missiles to the grounds below. Some into the castle, most further out. This kept up until he was practically dancing with his wand plucking a hexagonal strands; creating and breaking connections into complex shapes until Harry was starting to recognize something.
It looked like a rounded out version of a village. Some points were oddly familiar, others not so much. Wherever a building existed he’d fire more omnilium through it and another rune would disappear as if it were so much spiders web hooked on those time missile like droplets. And then he stopped.
Both Harry and Ginny felt their pulse quicken a rumble shook them in time with Tom lifting his wand once more. And then again into a growing shudder, but this time at his words, “Terra reformos!” It was the same dog latin that Harry was used to hearing but there was another quality to it, a command that expected to be headed… only it was to people but the world around them.
The listening world responded.
Everywhere at once things began to happen causing birds to escape into the air from the distant forests around them, from the ground itself as cracks and crevices began to shift across the entire landscape. Hogwarts was even getting taller and fountains of water into waterfall erupting from below the Entrance Hall. Even more awe inspire though was that the lake that had been fairly shallow to the naked eye was gradually darkening at its center. Deepening, widening.
A gasp from Ginny though averted his eyes to another location as he could see stone, wood and other things rising from the ground but more striking was where stone was predominantly sprouting almost like trees in time lapse. Ginny’s hand tightened sudden as she gave a shout, “Its Gringotts!”
Catching her meaning, Harry looked around for other spots of familiarity and crowd when he realized the general layout, “Hogsmeade too!”
Tom however didn’t reply as he was totally enthralled in whatever work the magic required. But over the next ten minutes Harry and Ginny tried to name as many of the buildings as they grew out from the fen. Slowly though Harry was starting to realize just who was the superior wizard. Tom was literally creating an entire village alone, something it would have taken teams of wizards and witch generations to do and had taken. He had even raised Hogwarts and actually make it make sense after it had been explained to them by Tilly.
Just when they thought he was done though Tom had one more trick to pull out of his hat, thankfully not literally, but one last swoop of his hand and wand in the furthest distances of the now larger open area that surrounded the castle. A heavy wall was growing much like Gringotts had done, only this time it seemed… more powerful. Like it meant to serve a purpose.
A defensive barricade that towered over the trees, separate the fen from the forest, though in the case of the north side cut through a portion. Harry could already see where soldiers or wizards in this case could patrol it. Which brought up the question, who would? The barrier was growing huge, circling the Hogwart’s grounds that was acres upon acres of land now.
Seemingly reading his mind Tom finally slumped a bit and spoke, “That’s as much as I can do for now. I summoned everyone I could remember from Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley… there’s also a Cultor Alley which will be where agricultural development will be most needed but with nothing else to work with we will need to recruit people. Perhaps from Darkshire.”
Darkshire? That was the muggle village down west of them.
“Now if you don’t mind I’d like to rest. It’s been a long day; I suggest you visit the Three Broom Sticks. Try not to alarm them.” Tom said warily.
Harry and Ginny nodded bade Tom a good day as he stumbled to the fire and was consumed by emerald heat. Neither one caught what he said though to command it to take him to.