AN: Sometimes the evil is too great for just one Hero. Sometimes the Wheel of Life needs more than one person to keep things balanced. This time, its on the shoulders of two children - one born of elven parents, the other of wizards blood. United, they have a chance to save both worlds...
In this chapter: all text in italics is the Elven language.
PHOENIX and DRAGON: Through the World Gate
Chapter One
"The Wheel has turned and Darkness returns.
Look to the Phoenix and the Dragon,
Born to the Light under the Horned God's moon.
Touching, though they touch not,
Together, they complete the circle.
They must join the children of the Gryffon,
Ere the season turns on their year of passage,
And learn the wize ways, or Cymru will fall.
The Wheel has turned and Darkness returns."
"It's nice to get out once in awhile," a woman's soft voice drifted across the pub from a booth at the back wall, "but I'm worried about leaving Gavin at the Grove. He's still so little..." An old man sitting slumped over and half asleep in a nearby booth, sat up with a snort when he heard her lilting voice and he smiled at the slender woman with dark hair and delicately pointed ears, displaying large yellowed teeth much like those of the sheep he herded. He received a smile in return as Gwynnid recognized him and nodded a greeting. The other person in the back booth, a young man whose slightly more rounded ears showed a touch of human blood mixed with the elvish, leaned out to see who she was smiling at and waved a greeting as well before taking another swallow of his ale. "I just hope Gavin is behaving for Llygoden. He's teething and he's being awfully fussy."
"I'm sure he's fine, Gwynnid. Quit worrying! We're only here for an ale. He was asleep when we left and we'll be back before he even knows we were gone," Gleis murmured in return, reaching across the table to brush her long black hair gently back and stroke the line of blue runes on her cheek reassuringly. "Llygoden has taken care of children before, I'm sure he can manage for an hour or so. This is the first time we've been out of the Grove since Gavin was born, and I intend to enjoy myself!"
The door of the Grinning Cat pub slammed open as the evenings latest arrivals entered, bringing a blast of icy wind and rain with them. The strangers stood for a moment just inside the door, shaking rain off their robes as they looked around the small pub. The young man sitting in the back booth looked up, his eyes widening as he saw them. "Gwynnid, look at the two men who just came in." His companion turned her head slightly, just enough to see from where she sat sideways on the bench seat across from her companion, and tensed as she saw the odd pair.
"Those aren't local's, and they don't look like tourists, not in weather like this, and not with those robes." She turned to look at the pub keeper and caught his eye, then nodded slightly towards where the newcomers were now sitting and conversing quietly, heads bent together as they watched the other patrons warily. The man looked them over, then frowned and shook his head.
"This looks like trouble, Gleis. Old Pedran doesn't know them either, so they aren't any of the magic folk from Godric's Hollow." The tiny village of Cylgwyn was far off the beaten path and difficult to get to in the winter, and the only other people in the pub were the old man, who had gone back to sleep with his head on the table, and a pair of local farmers, warming their hands around mugs of hot toddy. "I didn't see lights from an auto, and they aren't wet enough to have walked far."
"They have wands stuck in their pockets. They're wizarding folk, and not from around here either, I think their accents are from the London area," Gleis said quietly, changing to the elvish language, which sounded enough like the local Welsh dialect to pass unnoticed by non natives. He lifted his glass of ale and casually sipped at it. "They must have apparated in," he commented still using elvish so the strangers would not understand, even if they heard them.
"Not their territory, I wonder why they're here," Gwynnid said quietly, as she watched the men out of the corner of her eye, keeping her head down to hide the runes on her face. She shivered suddenly as she lifted her glass to finish the last of her ale. "I think we need to get out of here, I have a very bad feeling about this." She was from a long line of elven seers, and had learned to trust her feelings, even when she wasn't having a true vision.
Gleis absently brushed his shaggy black hair back, then remembered he hadn't put a glamour on to hide his pointed ears or the line of blue runes tattooed on his cheek and pulled it forward once more, hoping the strangers hadn't noticed. The elves seldom bothered concealing their true appearances when they visited here in Cylgwyn, since all the regular's at the Cat knew them and had accepted their presence many generations before. They were more careful in the summer months when they needed to worry about the people with bicycles touring the countryside, but it was late on Halloween night, and a howling gale had blown in off the Irish Sea. Anyone with sense was home, staying warm in front of a fire, so the newcomers were unexpected. "We don't have our glamour on, and its too late to put it on now, they might detect it."
Gwynnid nodded agreement as she set her glass down on the table and lifted a hand to signal Pedran, getting an understanding nod in reply. "We'll have to go out the back, can't risk outsiders seeing us." The old man walked past their booth and stood beside the newcomers, blocking their view of the elves as he took their drink order. Gwynnid gathered her cloak and slid out of the booth, and Gleis picked his up and followed, making sure Pedran had the strangers attention. "We need to alert the sentries to check for others. There's been Death Eater activity in the area, they killed two families with wizard born children yesterday in Haverfordwest, and we can't risk them finding the Grove." Moving casually, they passed behind the bar and stepped out the back door of the pub, into the howling wind.
They were on the pathway back to the forest, passing through the back garden of the last house before the woods started when they heard the screams and saw a flash of green light. "It's the Ebsworth place! They've got a wizard born daughter. Come on!" Gleis paused for a moment to cast a concealing glamour on them both, while Gwynnid cast a quick charm to summon the Grove sentries, then they turned in at the garden gate and ran to where the back door hung half off the hinges. A man in black robes and a white mask turned as they entered the mudroom and Gleis dove sideways as the stranger raised his wand and a blasting curse blew a hole in the wall where the his head had been. Gleis lifted a hand and cast a bone crushing spell, just as Gwynnid cast a blasting curse, knocking the man off his feet and throwing him backwards against the far wall where he hit with a liquid sounding thump and slid down to the floor. Gwynnid moved carefully to join her husband, reaching down to give him a hand up.
"Be careful? I'd hate to have to break in a new husband!" Gwynnid teased, even as she carefully looked through the doorway for other intruders. She froze for a moment when she saw the body of the eldest Ebsworth child, a boy of fourteen, laying crumpled in the hall at the bottom of the back stairs leading up to the second floor of the cottage. The young man lay partly on his back, his eyes wide and blankly staring at the ceiling. "Oh damn, we're too late!"
Another scream came from the front of the house. The two elves stepped carefully over the nearly boneless Death Eater they had killed and walked through the kitchen towards the sitting room. They paused when they reached the doorway out of the kitchen and Gleis cast a locating spell to confirm the enemy's positions, then pushed it open a crack to peek through. "Just the two of them left in the house. They've got the parents on the floor and I think they're both dead, but they're still torturing the daughter and the youngest boy. Be careful?" Gwynnid nodded, then they slipped through the door, casting spells as they went.
The Death Eaters were surprised, but not for long. They quickly dodged, then returned fire, casting blasting curses and other hex's, but to little effect since the elves were fighting as a team - one attacking while the other shielded both of them. The second Death Eater had just gone down, victim of a reflected slashing curse cast by his companion, when a sound came from the kitchen behind them. They had forgotten about the two wizards in the pub.
A voice shouted, "Avada Kedavra!" Gleis fell limply towards the floor, even as another voice shouted the same spell. "Avada Kedavra!" Gwynnid followed her husband to the floor, her emerald green eyes glazing over as she died, a single tear sliding down her cheek.
"Are you sure, Etain?" The tall dark haired man paused in his pacing and turned to look at the ancient woman seated beside the fire, a pleading expression on his face. "There's no question about your prophecy? It's Gavin?"
The Elvin Seer sighed as she finished braiding a string of crystal beads into a lock of her long white hair, then tucked it behind her elegantly pointed ear. "Am I the most powerful Seer in all Elderwood Grove or not?" She waited until Myrddin nodded reluctant agreement. "Are not the Elderwood Grove Seers the most powerful in all of Cymru, possibly all of this world?" Again Myrddin nodded, and Etain snorted softly in amusement at the pleading expression on the mage's face. "This is what the vision told me Myrddin. All the auguries say Gavin is the Phoenix it speaks of, but we don't know who the Dragon or the Gryffon are, not yet at least."
Myrddin turned and walked back towards the fire. "Did they find anything at all about the other child? Gavin has no twin, and yet the prophecy speaks of two sons of the light, born in the last minutes of July, when Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars aligned with the crescent moon."
"I didn't come to you with this the moment I saw it you know. I asked the rest of the Circle to help me find the other child." Etain shook her head sadly. "We have searched the ether until our minds eye failed us, cast the rune stones until we've nearly worn the markings off them, and drawn a hundred star charts, and yet we have not found him." She sighed wearily and rubbed her eyes with one hand. "The Horned God's moon only happens every 200 years - there can't have been that many babies born that night, for the Goddess's sake, we just have to find the right one..."
The old woman turned her emerald eyes downward to look at the sixteen month old child sleeping on the rug in front of the fireplace and smiled sadly. Her great granddaughter's son was beautiful; Gavin's dark eyelashes were a delicate fringe against his rounded cheeks, his soft lips pouted slightly as he dreamed, his black hair was tousled from his sleep and the pale ear, slightly less pointed than the seer's, peeking through its locks, showed his mixed human and Elvin heritage. She knew that his eyes would be a glowing emerald like hers when he woke, the golden ring outlining the green iris a gift from her bloodline.
It was a shame Gavin's parents would never see him grow up, never see him cast his first spell or hold his first sword. They had been assigned as guards for the portal at the Birchwood Grove in the Cwm Gwaun valley, one of the last elven outposts in all of Britain. It had always been a low risk area for the elves since it was far from any human city and the locals had known of the Grove for many hundreds of years, keeping the secret and helping to protect it from prying eyes. Low risk, until evil had struck.
Gwynnid and Gleis had been killed while trying to save a human family from an attack by evil's minions. It had been one of several simultaneous attacks around the Welsh countryside, including one in nearby Godric's Hollow, a village with a mixture of wizard and non wizard families. The worst thing was they had struck mostly at non magic families with magic born children, and many innocents had been killed that night. The two shouldn't have gotten involved with the human troubles, but they weren't the type to just walk past something like that, especially since children had been in danger. The Grove sentries had come quickly when they were called; they killed the Death Eaters and rescued the youngest of the Ebsworth children, but not soon enough to save Gavin's parents.
Maybe now the High Council would admit that another Dark Lord was rising, and do something about it before it affected the elven world. The shadow cast by the last Dark Lord had caused thousands of deaths; many elves had gone to the Goddess before their time, including Etain's children and grandchildren and Myrddin's Oakwood clan wife. It had nearly wiped out some of the weaker fey. The darkness seeping through from the human world affected the magic born races like a disease, causing unrest and hatred between the different peoples. Last time it had been the goblins, maybe this time it would be the centaurs...it wouldn't be long before conflicts would break out, and then the deaths would begin.
"My great-granddaughter Gwynnid would have wanted me to train Gavin if he has inherited the sight," Etain mused, her thoughts turning away from the past and towards the child's future. "The sight is strong in the Elderwood bloodline. It tends to skip a generation, and since his mother was only moderately gifted it is likely Gavin will need training. It was in your wife's bloodline as well, even though she was Oakwood," she said sadly. "Watch him and let me know if he comes into his talent early?"
"Of course...I will watch for the signs. My son Gleis would have wanted me to train Gavin in magic; he already show's signs of being powerful," Myrddin responded wearily, leaning back and closing his eyes. "I just hope the Dark Lord allows us time."
"I'm getting too old for this Myrddin...I have seen the rise of six Dark Lords in the last thousand years. We haven't even had fifty years peace since the last one and I'm tired. This child is the last of both our lines, he is my only heir and I was hoping he could live in peace." Etain sighed and ran her fingers over the worn carvings on the tall Elderwood staff leaning against her chair. "I know that's all your father wanted for his family when he came to live with us so long ago. I'm just sorry its not worked out the way Merlin hoped." She looked at her companion for a moment before she continued. "You look like you have an idea?"
"Well...it doesn't say they are twins...," Myrddin gazed out the window at the forest for a long moment, then leaned forward in his ornately carved chair and brought his hand up to his chin thoughtfully. "It speaks of them as touching each other, which is how we speak of a twin-bond, not that they are twinned. What if the other is...," he paused and looked at the old woman, his eyes widening as he thought of a possible explanation. "What about the other prophecy, the one where Melkin spoke about the Dragon and the Fire Bird? Fire Bird is another name for Phoenix!"
"Melkin died nearly 600 years ago, I'm surprised you know anything about his prophesies," Etain watched as Myrddin got up once more and went to his bookshelf, quickly running a finger down the line of books until he found a slender one bound in green leather.
"I knew Melkin when I was very young, and my father knew him before he became a famous seer. They studied together for a while with Bleys, and my father used to tell me about him. Melkin was a real character and used to tell the most amazing stories...I guess I kept track because of that," Myrddin answered absently as he opened the book and flipped through the parchment pages until he reached the writing he remembered, and then read it carefully aloud.
"The Fire Bird must hunt with the Hawk as the Old Year dies.
Find the Dragon, Son of Siam and Alaw,
While breath is drawn and blood still flows.
Unite the child of Adam with the heir of the Oak and Elder,
Ere the world will fall to Darkness."
Myrddin paused for a moment in thought. "Since this seems to refer to the Human world it would make sense to translate it into English." He paused for a moment as he re-read the prophesy, then began slowly. "The Fire Bird is Gavin. Looks like he will have to be involved in whatever we do to find the boy, and the Hawk is probably me since that's what my name means and I'm the only one in the Grove named Hawk. Son of Siam and Alaw, is James and Lily's child. The next part sounds ominous...the child may be in danger, or we may be...I can't tell which. Child of Adam, is a human child, and heir of the Oak and Elder is once again Gavin, since his mother was Elder and my son was the last of the Oak royal bloodline through his mother." He looked up at Etain with a spark of excitement in his eyes, "What if the Dragon is across the portal, a child born at the same time as Gavin, on the human world?"
"A human child? I will have to think on this, Myrddin, although its worth checking on. It is a problem we must solve or our world may fall to the darkness that is spreading from the human world." Etain closed her eyes, and allowed her mind to drift into a light trance, hoping a solution would come to her.
Myrddin sighed as he wearily pushed the shallow silver scrying bowl away from him, careful to keep the ink tinted water from sloshing onto his desk. He had tried looking into it for at least an hour a day for nearly three years, and had cast innumerable locating spells, but he had not been able to find the child the seers had identified as the Dragon. Several Elderwood Seers had sighted the child, and had verified he was on the human world, but they were unable to find him physically, possibly because of magical wards blocking them.
The time of the prophecy was growing ever nearer and they needed the Dragon before the time of the two boy's passage from childhood, which occurred on an Elvin child's eleventh birthday. They needed him soon if there was to be a chance to train him in the magic of this world. There was little point in sending untrained children to fight a Dark Lord, not if you wanted to give them a chance to succeed. He had already started Gavin's magical training, and he was doing well; he was going to be an extremely powerful mage when he came into his full power. They needed to find the Dragon quickly, so he could also gain the skills he would need.
"Grandfather? My arm hurts." The small boy the Elvin world of Cymru knew as the Phoenix stood in the doorway of his grandfather's library cradling his left arm gingerly, tears welling up in his emerald green eyes and slowly sliding down his face.
"Come here, Gavin, and let me look at it?" The dark haired man bent down and lifted the boy up to sit on the edge of his desk, then brushed the child's shoulder length black hair back and tucked a wayward strand behind one delicately pointed ear. "This won't hurt a bit, I'm just going to cast a charm to see what's wrong." He carefully touched the child's arm, calling a tiny trickle of power and casting a diagnostic charm on it. Gavin's arm glowed blue for a moment, then the spell faded without effect. "I don't see anything wrong with your arm, did you fall?"
The small boy shook his head soberly. "No, but I think Harry did, because my arm hurts."
Myrddin looked up sharply at his grandson. "Harry? Who is that, little hawk?" He asked curiously, using Gavin's nickname. He didn't remember any child in their Grove by that name. The boy looked down, suddenly shy.
"Harry is my friend, we talk at night when we go to sleep. We always have, as long as I can remember." Gavin looked up at his grandfather, afraid he'd done something wrong, but he was reassured when Myrddin smiled and nodded for him to continue. "He is real unhappy...his Momma and Poppa died, just like mine did, but he didn't have a Grandfather to live with. He has an Aunt and Uncle, and they don't like him. They call him names and hurt him sometimes. It was his birthday yesterday too, but they didn't give him any presents."
Myrddin's eyes widened as he realized what his grandson was saying. Gavin's Elderwood sight seemed to have manifested early. He may well have been in contact with the Dragon the entire time they'd been hunting for him! "It was Harry's fourth birthday yesterday? Just like yours?" he asked casually, afraid to startle Gavin. "What's his father and mother's names? Do you know his family name?"
"Yes Grandfather, we were born the same day, and we're best friends. We talk about things, and I'm teaching him the stories that you teach me." Gavin smiled when his grandfather nodded encouragement. "His mother's name was Lily, but he doesn't really know what his father's was. Maybe Potter, because his Uncle said something bad once about a man named Potter and Harry's mother. He said Harry was a freak, just like they were."
"Was it James Potter maybe?" Myrddin's breath caught in his chest when Gavin nodded hesitantly, and he waited a moment before asking his next question. "What does Harry look like?"
"Me! He looks like me, except his ears are round like your's and his eyes don't have the gold circle like mine do. He says his mother wasn't an elf like mine was," Gavin smiled as he started to reach up to touch his ear, then winced when it moved his arm. "His ears are round, but he wants ears like mine someday." He flinched again as he forgot to keep his arm still, and rubbed it.
"Harry's arm hurts, and you feel it too?" Myrddin asked, stroking Gavin's silky hair softly. "Has this happened before?"
"When I had the bad fever, and you couldn't make it go away," Gavin explained, "Harry was sick and his Aunt wouldn't help him. She shut him under the stairs." He looked down guiltily, and hesitated. "I'm sorry Grandfather, I know you told me not to teach the other children any of the spells you show me, but I taught him the healing charm, and he got better. I don't think he would have if I didn't. He was awfully sick."
Myrddin spoke with Gavin for quite a long time, learning a lot about Harry, but not the most important thing; where was he now? Harry knew he hadn't always lived with his Aunt and Uncle, they took great joy in reminding him of how much of a burden he was to them, but he didn't know where he had lived originally.
Careful search of human records by one of the Grove's human friends would not turn up anything about the Potter family, so they were no closer to finding Harry than before. All they could do was wait...and hopefully they would get a hint of the boy's location.
"Hello, little hawk," Myrddin spoke softly as his small grandson approached slowly down the white graveled pathway three months later, his feet dragging as if he were still half asleep. "I missed you at breakfast this morning, did you sleep late?" He turned his face up towards the sun again, enjoying the warm fall morning, likely one of the last of the season since the oak leaves had already started falling. It was the last week of October and the days were normally cold by this time of year, so a nice day was not to be missed by staying indoors. "I found the bracelet your friend Ydwy gave you for your birthday, you lost it under your dresser. You are four years old now Gavin, and you should be more careful with your things, especially when they are gifts." Myrddin opened his eyes and looked at his grandson when he didn't get a response. "You're not chattering like a little bird as you usually do, are you ill?"
Gavin shook his head and sat down on the graceful garden bench beside his grandfather, then leaned weakly against the man's side, his face pale and worn looking with dark circles under his eyes. "I'm fine Grandfather, but Harry doesn't feel good...I think someone hurt him again yesterday, pretty bad this time too. He didn't talk to me last night...but I could feel him crying so I sang him songs like Grandmother Etain does when I don't feel well," he softly told the mage, then looked up with pleading eyes. "He cried all night Grandfather, and his stomach hurts really bad and I don't think the healing charm is helping this time." He stopped and seemed to gather his courage before he continued. "Can Harry come to live with us? I'll be good, and I promise I'll share all my things with him?"
Myrddin looked into his grandson's eyes, seeing the pain and sadness in the emerald depths, and made a sudden decision. "Are you sure he wants to come here to live with us?"
"Yes!" Gavin answered quickly, no doubt in his voice. "Harry says he would do anything it takes to live with us. He says our home is like Heaven, which is like the Summer Lands I think, and he wants to be here more than anything."
"Do you know where he lives now?" Myrddin asked hopefully. The last time he had asked neither of the boys had been able to answer that question, and the seers were still unable to locate where Harry was living. They had determined that the reason for this failure was powerful shields that blocked their magic, blood wards set up by a powerful wizard, apparently to protect the boy from some sort of danger.
"They live in Surry, in a city named Little Wingy or Winking, or something. Harry can't pronounce it," Gavin answered promptly. "He doesn't know his address because he can't read yet, but he says all the houses on the street look the same."
"Do you think you would be able to tell where Harry is if we went through the portal?" Gavin nodded eagerly, so one of the most powerful mages in all of Cymru stood, holding his hand out to his grandson. "Lets go tell Etain we probably won't be home for dinner - we have somewhere we have to go." He smiled when Gavin's eyes brightened with hope and the small boy smiled back. "Change into something a little warmer, then lets go see if we can find Harry."
The trip to the human world went without problem, even when they stepped out of the portal at Cwm Gwaun into a cold driving rain. Myrddin merely pulled the hood of his cloak further over his head and made sure Gavin was tucked tightly within its folds.
"Alright Gavin, we're here. Can you feel Harry?" Myrddin held Gavin in his arms and waited patiently while the boy closed his eyes and searched.
"That way, Grandfather." Gavin said finally and pointed eastwards, towards where Myrddin knew London to be.
"We will start by drifting to one of the London marker stones," Myrddin explained as he reached out with his magic to find one of the ancient stones the elves used as anchors when they employed the elven form of apparation to travel to an area they weren't familiar with. They were usually stones about a meter long by half-meter thick and wide, roughly squared off and then infused with runic magic. The stones had been set within elven forests and at important places across Britain when elves had been plentiful in the world, forming a powerful net of beacons across most of the island. Now most of them were either destroyed or used in human walls or set in parks. "I found one. Hold on, I'm not sure where we will come out." He closed his eyes and concentrated on moving them both towards the stone.
Myrddin opened his eyes and saw a large rock in front of him, set firmly into the side of a bridge abutment. A sudden blare of an auto horn made him jump out of the roadway, narrowly avoiding being hit by an oncoming car. He moved carefully off onto the grassy berm of the road and looked down at Gavin. "Now where do we need to go?"
Gavin closed his eyes tightly again, and wrinkled his nose as he tried to find Harry. "That way, only not so far as before," he said finally, pointing in more of a southeasterly direction than before.
Once again, Myrddin concentrated to find a marker stone. It took him a while, there weren't many in that direction since it was heavily farmed and a lot of the stones had been destroyed by development. Finally he found one in the right direction. "Hold on, here we go."
This time the stone was set in the wall surrounding a pasture, and they barely escaped the bull they disturbed when they popped in nearly under his nose. The next one was completely buried under a large thorny bush, and it took several minutes to get untangled, and several more to pick the last of the thorns out of their clothes. The fourth stone was in the center of a creek, and Myrddin had to cast drying and cleansing spells on them both after they climbed out.
"Lets take a break for a few minutes," Myrddin said, "we'll have some lunch." He sighed wearily and sat on a nearby log, setting Gavin down so he could stretch his legs. "We're probably not that far away, but I'm tired and need a little rest before we continue." He conjured some lunch and they ate quietly, resting until well after the sun was past its highest point.
Gavin suddenly put his hand to his head and collapsed to the ground with a groan. "Grandfather! I think something has happened to Harry!" He curled up, wrapping his arms around his ribs in pain, and moaned as he tried to catch his breath.
"Gavin! Push the pain away from you, like it's a blanket covering you - its not your pain, push it off!" Myrddin watched helplessly as Gavin struggled to push the pain away for many minutes before he was able to sit up. "Are you alright?"
"Harry is hurt bad! He isn't asleep, but he's not moving and it feels like he's in his cupboard under the stairs again. Wait...," Gavin closed his eyes and turned, trying to pinpoint where Harry was. "We need to go now!" He lifted his arm and pointed south.
Myrddin searched for the next stone and finally found it, jumping them there immediately. They were standing beside a water fountain in a small park. The marker stone was set as part of a low wall around a spindly tree. He set Gavin down and looked around. There was a rusted swing set and a wooden frame surrounding a pile of dirty sand, next to a patch of worn out grass. A busy road ran beside the park and Gavin watched the cars pass with wide eyes. "Where now Gavin?"
The boy closed his eyes and turned in a circle, then opened them and pointed in the direction the road led. "That way, not very far though. We need to hurry!" Myrddin picked him up once more and began to walk quickly, following the route Gavin pointed out as closely as possible without crossing through yards.
Eventually, they reached a side street where all the houses were identical, small two story brick homes with identical bushes out front. Gavin looked at the houses for a minute then turned to his grandfather. "This is the right street, and I think Harry is in one of the houses in the middle."
Myrddin set Gavin down for a moment and held his small hand as he looked down the row. "I see which one it is, there are wards around it...it may be difficult to get through them."
"I see them too, they look like yellow fog," Gavin said softly.
They moved closer to the house with the wards, and stopped about a hundred feet from it. "The edge of the first ward is here - it seems to be an alarm set to go off if magic users cross into it. Stand still for a moment, I'm going to need both hands to get us through without setting it off." He reached out and gently stroked the magical field, soothing it and persuading it not to alert whoever was watching when they passed through. "Now, walk slowly forward until I tell you to stop." They moved to the sidewalk in front of the house before stopping once more. "Another ward Gavin, just a moment."
"Hurry Grandfather," Gavin said quietly, worry evident in his voice. "I don't feel Harry anymore."
The mage made quicker work examining this ward. The first part was passive, meant to prevent anyone from using the wizard method of apparating in or out, and it could be ignored for now since it wouldn't affect the elven way of travel. A second active layer, blood magic from the feel of it, was set to stop anyone meaning harm to the occupants from entering. He felt several other alarm and surveillance spells as well, but they would not prevent their entry and could be ignored for now. Myrddin picked Gavin up once more and moved quickly to the front door of the house at number 4 Privet Drive. He examined the door and noticed a small button set into the frame to one side. "People push that when they want to go in the door," Gavin said softly. Myrddin thought for a moment, then cast a wandless charm on the door, opening it silently.
They stepped quietly through and closed it quietly behind them, listening to see if anyone was home. "Where would Harry be?" Myrddin whispered, looking around a garishly decorated sitting room. Gavin pointed towards the stairs, then led his grandfather to a padlocked cupboard door set under the risers. Myrddin motioned him back, and cast another unlocking spell before slowly opening the door.
A small black haired boy was curled on his side with a purple bruise covering one side of his thin face. He lay facing the back wall on a stained mattress pad, blood pooled under him. A ragged shirt was torn part way off, revealing blade sharp shoulder bones. A pair of shorts, many sizes too large for his emaciated body, were tangled around his feet. Bruises and stripes of blood across the boy's back, buttocks, and legs showed where he had been hit with a strap of some sort, likely not for the first time since some of the bruises overlapped ones that had already faded to yellow.
"Great Goddess, what have they done to him!" Myrddin reached out to feel for a pulse at Harry's throat, making sure he was still alive. He found a faint one, but the boy was cool and clammy to the touch. "They've nearly killed you child," Myrddin whispered in horror, looking at the injuries a quickly cast diagnostic spell had revealed. "What kind of monsters are they?" Internal injuries and bleeding, broken ribs, a broken arm, a concussion and a bleeding head wound from when he was apparently thrown into the cupboard, in addition to the damage caused by the latest whipping he had received. "He's in shock Gavin, I have to heal him now - he's too injured to move. Keep watch, let me know if you hear or see anything, I don't want to be interrupted in the middle of a spell." Gavin nodded, his face pale, then moved to where he could see the stairway and the front door.
Myrddin frowned angrily as he started casting the most powerful healing spell he knew. Subtlety be damned, it was just too bad if whoever set the wards felt the spells, no child deserved this and he almost hoped they were caught - he would love to meet the people who allowed a child to be abused like this. It was a good thing they had gotten here as quickly as they had - even an hour later and Harry would have been dead.
Several healing and strengthening spells later, Harry was breathing better and he wasn't as pale, so Myrddin lifted his frail body carefully out of the cupboard and carried him over to one of the overstuffed couches, laying him down on the soft cushion and casting a cleansing spell so he could examine him again in better lighting. The boy's bruises were nearly gone and the head wound had closed, leaving only a faint scar, but he knew the broken bones and internal injuries weren't completely healed. "Gavin, come here and see if you can talk to Harry - let him know we're here. I think he may be afraid to wake up," Myrddin said, still worried because Harry hadn't opened his eyes.
Gavin knelt beside Harry and reached out with one small hand to cover the scar that zigzagged down his friend's forehead. He closed his eyes for a moment and then began to softly sing one of the lullabies Myrddin sang at bedtime. Harry didn't respond, but Gavin kept singing, changing to one of the first teaching songs he had ever learned, a simple tune about magical animals dancing with the sprites, repeating it until Myrddin suddenly heard another soft voice trying to sing along. Gavin bent close to Harry and whispered in his ear. "Harry? Wake up Harry, we're here to bring you home."
Harry moaned as he opened his emerald green eyes, then looked at them with a dazed expression on his face. "You're here?" He closed his eyes again for a moment, then tried to sit up. Myrddin moved quickly to support him, kneeling on the floor in front of the couch and reaching out both hands to hold Harry upright. Harry opened his eyes again and looked for a long moment at the unfamiliar face in front of him, then turned to look at Gavin. A large smile slowly grew on his bruised face, and he shakily reached one spindly arm out to place his fingertips on Gavin's cheek. "You're real, you're really here!" he gasped in Elvish, tears of joy starting to fall down his cheeks. Gavin nodded, a wide smile on his face.
"Are you ready to go? Is there anything you need here?" Myrddin asked in English, surprised that the child had answered in their language but suddenly nervous about how long they had been in the house. He didn't know if his spells had set off an alarm, or who would show up if they had, and he decided he wasn't prepared to conduct a magic duel with two small boys underfoot. They needed to get Harry back to the Oak Grove where the healers could see him. He was a powerful mage, and the combination of elven and human spells he had used had healed the worst injuries, but it was obvious Harry needed more than that.
"No, there isn't anything here I need," Harry said firmly, his eyes locked on Gavin's face. "Lets go home."
Myrddin picked Harry up carefully, trying not to hurt him as he wrapped him in his cloak, and Gavin wrapped his arms around his grandfather's leg, holding on tightly. "Alright, hold on...we'll drift directly back to the Grove. From there, we'll take the portal home so the healers can look at you." Two sets of nearly identical green eyes looked up at him, and two young heads nodded agreement. Myrddin closed his eyes as he reached his mind out to find the stone in the Grove at Cwm Gwaun, held the energies still for a long moment, then drifted them out. The three of them vanished without a sound, moments before a key slid into the front door knob and turned to unlock it.
There was a sudden surge of power as the spells guarding number 4 Privet Drive came crashing down.
The fireplace flared green, and the worried face of Minerva McGonagall appeared in the flames as Albus Dumbledore looked up in surprise at the sudden unwanted interruption. He had left Hogwarts for a few days to take care of some problems at his estate, and he wasn't pleased to be bothered about what he assumed to be a trivial matter. "Albus! We've got a problem - there are several alarms going off in your office. It looks like all the wards at the Potter boy's house have fallen!"
"Contact the Order! Get someone over there immediately," the white haired man snapped as he stood and moved quickly to the fireplace. "I'm on my way!"
Dumbledore grabbed an emergency port key off his desk and stuck it in a pocket of his robe, then grabbed a handful of flue powder, tossing it quickly into the fire and firmly telling it "Arabella Figg's house" before jumping in. The fire flashed, and the wizard was gone, reappearing almost instantly in the fireplace of a small cottage on Magnolia Crescent, a short way from Privet Drive. Dumbledore brushed soot off his robes as he moved quickly through the crowded sitting room, pushing cats out of his way as he went. "Arabella! Follow me!"
He emerged from the house, the older squib on his heels, and strode quickly down the street to Privet Drive. Nothing appeared to be wrong as he approached the Dursley house, but the wards were gone, so he waited a moment until soft pops indicated someone had apparated in. "Go to the back, Kingsley," Albus ordered with a glance as Alastar Moody and Kingsley Shacklebolt joined them, then motioned the others to follow him to the front door.
Dumbledore reached out with his wand and cast a quiet unlocking charm on the front door, then pushed it open and quietly stepped in, moving slowly towards the stairway. A sudden shriek came from the kitchen and a roar from the sitting room quickly followed.
"Freaks! Get out of my house!" A loud voice blustered, and Dumbledore and Moody quickly moved to the kitchen. Petunia Dursley stood with her back to the sink, a furious expression on her face. Her corpulent husband stood nearly toe to toe with Kingsley, his face bright red with fury, nearly foaming with rage. "Get out! You freaks can't just bust into my house, I don't care what you want! Get out before my neighbor's see you!" Vernon reached out to hit at Kingsley, and Moody promptly cast a stupefy on the beefy man, dropping him immediately to the floor. Petunia shrieked again and ran to her husband, a mixture of tears and muttered threats rising from where she knelt over him.
"Where's Harry?" Dumbledore asked calmly when Petunia's noise had quieted slightly upon finding her husband unconscious instead of dead.
Petunia lifted her head to gaze coldly at the Headmaster. "The freak's gone, and good riddance!" she said, nearly spitting the words out. "Now get out!"
Kingsley had moved out of the kitchen and soon spotted the open cupboard door under the stairs. "Headmaster, you'd better come see this," the auror said grimly. He cast a spell on the blood stained mattress, and sighed when the result said it was human blood. "This doesn't look good, there's enough blood here to indicate a major injury."
Dumbledore cast a spell to detect recent magic and looked at the strange results for a long moment. "Several major healing charms, and several spells of a type I've never seen before." He held his wand on the flat of his palm and muttered "point me Harry Potter." The wand spun randomly, not detecting any trace of Harry. Dumbledore moved to the far side of the sitting room and recast the spell, hoping it had been the traces of odd magic interfering with the previous spell. Again, the spell failed, and he paled as the reality of the situation hit him.
Dread filled him... They had lost Harry Potter.
Several hours later, Dumbledore's office was filled with members of the Order of the Phoenix, most sitting silent with concerned expressions on their faces as they listened to Alaster Moody explain what they had found in Vernon Dursley's memories when they had used legilimency on him.
"So," Professor Snape snarled, "they have been abusing Potter...and this afternoon Dursley beat him bad enough to nearly kill him."
Dumbledore sighed as he nodded reluctantly, his eyes totally without their normal twinkle. The blasted Muggles were supposed to treat the boy badly, but he'd told them not to cause permanent injury. Now all his careful planning was for naught.
"I warned you about giving him to those muggles," Snape said as he sat back in his chair with a satisfied smirk.
"Now wait just a minute Severus," Minerva McGonnagal replied sharply, supporting the Headmaster's decision despite her own misgivings. "They are his only blood relatives, that was the best place to put him given the circumstances!"
"He had to be there for the blood wards to work," Dumbledore added calmly, trying to diffuse the situation. "It was the safest place for him."
"You gave him to muggles who nearly killed him, and now he has disappeared," Snape pointed out coldly. "The blood wards were useless." He smirked as his comment started a small riot when all the members present tried to express their view at once.
"Quiet please!" Dumbledore finally said, gaining almost instant obedience. "Moody, Arabella, did you find out anything from the neighbors? Did any of them see anything odd?"
Moody snorted. He'd spent nearly an hour terrorizing the Dursley's neighbors, and cast a dozen obliviates, but nobody had seen anything. Apparently whoever had taken Harry had been invisible, for all the muggles had noticed. "Nothing. Those muggles wouldn't see a dragon if it landed on their dining table," he growled. "Worthless."
"The only magic in the house that we could identify were healing spells," Kingsley added. "We don't know what the other spells did; none of us has ever seen magic that would leave a residue like that."
Arabella looked at the Headmaster hopefully. "Would it be possible to get someone from the Department of Mysteries to take a look at it?"
"Alas, I've never seen magic of that type before either." Dumbledore sighed and sat wearily down behind his desk, his expression bleak. "I will ask at the Ministry, but meanwhile we will just have to keep our eyes open and hope we find something that will lead us to Harry." Dumbledore turned his attention to the corner where Snape sat with his arms crossed on his chest, looking like a large black bat. "Let me know instantly if any of Voldemort's supporters have him."
Snape nodded, but cast a sneering look at the rest of the Order. "It is unlikely Death Eaters took the brat - they would hardly have bothered to cast healing spells."
AN: This is not going to be an Uber-Harry story - so let me know if I slide that direction too badly. Some Welsh/Celtic mythology will play a part, and Dumbledore bashing will probably occur at some point. Strictly AU, won't adhere to storyline because major action will happen prior to book timeline.
I'd appreciate some reviews to let me know if this is worth adding more chapters to. Review Please?
11/10/2007 …I've done some minor revising on this chapter to correct a few errors and reposted it.