Harry Potter and the Fantasy Quest

Chapter 10 - Death, Armored and Walking

The next room was a kitchen, quite clean and apparently used regularly. Fortunately, there was no one in it at the moment. Not knowing what the meal schedule might be, the group decided not to linger but to gather what food they could. Ron was somehow able to devour large amounts of food without pausing and while keeping his bow at the ready. In spite of everything that had recently happened, his friend's incredible eating skill still amazed Harry.

Suddenly, Harry began getting mental images of his own death. They were disturbing, but really no worse than situations he had already faced. Certain that these thoughts did not come from his own mind, he looked around alertly. He saw nothing he could place as the source of the images. Looking at the faces of his companions, however, he could see that they were receiving similar pictures. Only George returned Harry's look with one of confusion and questioning, but Harry remembered that George was wearing a ring that protected his thoughts.

Deciding not to speak, Harry led the way to the next door. Fred checked it, then opened the door, walking in beside Harry. Ron and Hermione followed them.

On the other side of the kitchen, as might be expected, there was a large formal dining room. This did not seem to be in regular use. Although the long table stood there in the middle, surrounded by a few chairs, everything was covered with a layer of dust. The dust on the floor held some muddled tracks. Some of these appeared to be from fairly innocuous creatures such as mice and spiders. Harry also recognized prints that might have been left by monsters they had already fought. Harry took firmer grips on both his sword and shield.

The chandeliers hanging from above were unlit, but there was enough light coming in from the large, high-set windows too see the room clearly. Fred quickly pocketed the Continual Flame as they proceeded around the left side of the table. When they were about halfway down the length of the room, the door at the opposite end abruptly opened to admit a large creature reminiscent of a rhinoceros. It was grayish-brown in color, covered in a naturally armored hide and bearing a long horn on its snout. Its stout body stood upright on powerful legs, and it wielded a huge club in one giant hand.

The monster stepped a short distance into the room, and Harry sensed it sending some kind of mental assault at them. Harry was not affected, but he saw Fred suddenly stand still beside him. Chancing a glance over, Fred had a sort of glazed look to his eyes and no longer seemed aware of what was happening. Harry realized that the visions he had received must have come from this thing. Unwilling to risk turning any further away from their attacker, Harry returned his attention to the front.

"Holy Smite!" called Hermione, so she apparently was all right. It clearly affected the monster, but not much. Draco activated his Circlet of Blasting to somewhat better effect. The creature used its mental attack again, but Harry still resisted. Not looking around to see what its other effects might have been, Harry charged in with his sword, managing a small wound. Harry heard Ginny casting a spell, and George sent three Magic Missiles into it.

The monster struck Harry twice with its heavy club, nearly staggering him. It also tried to gore him with its horn, fortunately striking harmlessly on his armor.

One more blow like that, and I'm dead, Harry thought desperately. Raising his shield, he made a strategic retreat to the right and healed himself a little. A glowing, wormlike thing appeared behind the creature and slammed it while Ginny and George cast some defensive spells. Harry glanced over and saw that Hermione was now in a similar situation to Fred's, as were Ron and Siofra. That left only four of them to fight this thing, and Harry wasn't going to do much good without some more healing.

Draco came up unexpectedly on the creature's left-hand side and touched the rhino-thing with his hand, discharging an electric shock. The creature turned and struck the worm first, knocking it senseless. It then swung around to Draco and hit him solidly. Harry cast Bless on everyone. Ginny came and healed some of his wounds. He was going to protest, but he saw that she had already taken care of most of her own injuries. George cast Stoneskin on himself and moved forward.

Draco did his unarmed attack again, only to be knocked down by two blows of the massive club. Harry moved back in and managed to draw blood. Ginny attacked beside him with her scimitar but couldn't penetrate the hide. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw George ready his spear and circle around to the other side. He hardly ever got involved in melee like this, but Harry didn't have time to wonder if George knew what he was doing.

The monster sent a Cone of Cold down the middle of the room. George and Harry were far enough to either side to not be inside its range, but everyone else was hit. Harry swung his sword and connected twice. Ginny also tried twice but again failed to hurt it. George managed to get a small puncture with his spear.

Two arrows landed in the creature, indicating that Ron had broken free from his trance. One was pushed out by spontaneous healing, while the other seemed to cause minimal damage. The enemy swung its club twice, hitting George and missing Ginny. It gored Harry with its long horn, causing him to retreat out of range again. Siofra joined the fray by utilizing her Wand of Magic Missile, and Ginny was finally successful with her scimitar. Her first strike gashed its arm, and her second caused a deep wound in the creature's side, causing it to fall unconscious. George followed up with his spear to kill it. Then he withdrew his weapon and cleaned it.

"This close combat thing is exhilarating!" he exclaimed. "I should try it more often."

"It's also very dangerous," Harry pointed out, knowing that he'd been bludgeoned nearly to a pulp and probably looked an absolute mess. He cleaned his sword and sheathed it.

Fred had apparently levitated himself into the air while Harry had been occupied with the fight and was in the process of returning to the floor. Hermione stirred and went over to Draco, who had not moved since falling in battle.

"He's dead," she announced sadly.

"So there's no way to bring him back?" Siofra asked.

"Why would you want to?" Ron put in, and his brothers nodded agreement.

"He did help in this fight," Hermione replied with a sigh. "Anyway, resurrection is beyond my power. But Ginny, don't you have a spell?"

"Don't ask," Ginny answered shortly. "It would be a waste of a powerful spell because it wouldn't work. Reincarnation is only effective if the spirit wants to come back. Remember that death sent him home. Why would he want to rejoin us? Besides, this was suicide."

"How do you know?" inquired Fred, reaching the rest of the group. Ginny pointed to Draco's body.

"He could have healed himself of at least some of the damage done by you and Harry earlier before charging into combat. He didn't. I think he took the DM's suggestion to heart. He wanted to die."

Harry saw that she was right. The wounds he'd slashed into Draco's torso were still there, as well as the puncture from Fred's rapier. He wasn't really sure how he felt about this. It was true that Draco hadn't been much help in their fights, and there was certainly no love lost between them, but it was still a little unnerving to see him lying there dead like that. On the other hand, Draco was now back in his fancy mansion, remembering little or nothing of what had happened here. Harry wondered vaguely if seeing him die - or some of the things they'd fought, for that matter - would allow all the others to see Thestrals. How real was this world, anyway? Would having seen someone die affect them even if they couldn't remember it?

"Well, we might as well divide up his possessions," Fred said, systematically removing Draco's gear and laying it out. Harry took back the potion he had previously given Malfoy. Ron took the Circlet of Blasting, Fred claimed the Bracers of Armor, and Siofra wanted the Ring of Jumping. This left the Periapt of Proof against Poison and the Ring of Protection.

"I think either Ginny or George should have the ring," Harry said. "They're the most vulnerable right now."

"Ginny can have it," George offered. "I'll take the Periapt."

"Okay," said Ginny. "I can't wear the Periapt anyway, since I already have one."

They left the Heartstone with Malfoy's body. No one knew how to use his few weapons, so those were left with him also.

His body disappeared, as did the armored beast they had killed. In its place lay a wand, quickly identified as a low-level Magic Missile wand.

"Why don't you take it, Hermione," Ron suggested. "You didn't get anything from Draco."

"I already have a stronger one," she said. "But I'll hold it if no one else wants it."

"Well, the good news is, you all go up a level. That was a pretty tough fight, though, wasn't it?" The DM stood again in their midst, surveying the results of the battle. She looked Harry over carefully. "If I were you, I'd get some healing. You may have internal bleeding."

"Thanks; I never would have thought of that," Harry answered dryly.

"No need to get snippy," reproved the DM. "Anyway, like I said, you all go up to ninth level, after you've rested. That means Hermione and Ginny get access to 5^th level spells, and George can choose one new spell each of 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th levels."

"What was that thing?" Ron asked her.

"Oh, it's called a Braxat. They're trained from an early age to kill. Pretty effective, too, but there were simply too many of you. I thought of giving you two, but I think this was enough of a challenge for you."

"Challenge?" Harry shouted. "That thing nearly killed me, and did kill Malfoy! How can you be so...so...?"

"I told you from the beginning that this would be, at times, deadly serious," the DM answered calmly. "And remember that this death is not real. Believe me, if you were really dying, it would bother me. You may not understand this, but I actually care about all of you."

She was gone before anyone could respond to that. George set up his protective shield again, and everyone took up positions near the dining table so it could provide extra cover if needed. He decided his new spells would be Melf's Acid Arrow, Lightning Bolt, and Improved Invisibility. Hermione and Ginny used the spells they had remaining to heal those who were injured from either battle. Then they all rested.

While they rested, Harry considered the DM's parting words. Could there be a reason she had brought them here, besides her own entertainment? It did seem like a lot of work to go to just for that. She clearly knew of his background and possibly some of his future. Part of him knew that he would need to face Voldemort again someday, perhaps alone. Maybe he would learn things here that would remain somewhere in his subconscious. He was certainly a very competent fighter in this world and felt much more sure of himself than he did at home. If he could transfer some of that to his "real" life, it might help him.

Miraculously, nothing disturbed them during their rest period. Some of the group wondered if they should find this strange.

"Maybe the wizard's running out of things to throw at us," Fred speculated.

"Yeah, we have cleaned the castle out pretty good," added George.

"If I know Liselle, she's just saving it all up for us," Siofra disagreed. "The last battle is going to be a doozy."

"We don't even know if we're up to the last battle yet," Ginny put in.

"No, but we have to be close," Hermione said. "We're near the top of the castle. There can't be much further to go."

When they set off again, fully rested and healed, they found that the next part of the castle was the living quarters. There were a number of bedrooms and bathrooms, all empty but for old, sturdy furniture and fixtures. Harry wondered why the wizard apparently had no servants living there. Maybe they just came in from the village to prepare meals and such. Harry certainly wouldn't want to live in a castle filled with monsters and run by a megalomaniac evil wizard, and maybe the wizard didn't like people underfoot either.

"If we'd known this was just on the other side of the door, we could have had nice bedrooms to rest in," Ron commented.

"Yeah, and been split up if anything happened," Harry pointed out. "It would have been very easy for the wizard to pick us off one or two at a time."

At last, the group entered what was apparently an antechamber to the throne room. Harry and Fred entered first, splitting off to either side to leave room for the others. A skeletal being stood in a far corner, hissing something. It had rotting flesh barely attached to its bones, and Harry recognized it as a Mohrg, though it had strange tattoos carved on its body. Siofra used her Wand of Magic Missile.

"Disrupt Undead!" George shouted, finally able to try that spell. Unfortunately, it didn't have any effect. Harry saw Ginny step forward and fire her sling, but it went wide. Fred shot two arrows, missing both times.

"Holy Smite," Hermione called out, casting her spell but having no noticeable impact. The creature hissed again, pointing at Ron. It seemed to be trying to cast a spell, but he didn't seem any the worse, so Harry guessed it hadn't worked. Harry put his sword and shield away, deciding to go with a ranged attack. Ron activated his newly acquired Circlet of Blasting, but the bright light didn't seem to hurt the undead.

Siofra moved close to Ron and began singing to assist him. George cast a Fireball, but when the flames had gone, the monster again appeared untouched. Ginny cast her Flame Strike, which did seem to burn it, and Fred followed up with a successful Fireball from his necklace.

"Searing Light," Hermione said, and a bright flash of light hit the corpselike thing, causing it to shriek horribly. It returned several beams out of its own hand, hitting Ginny, Fred, and Hermione. Ginny showed evidence of pain, but the other two remained unharmed. Harry drew his crossbow and fired but didn't manage to hit. Ron rushed in with his sword and sliced open the thin flesh, Siofra following him at a distance and continuing her song.

Four magic missiles slammed into the creature, courtesy of George. Ginny put her sling away and drew her scimitar. Fred tried one more shot with the bow but missed.

"Don't let its tongue touch you!" Hermione warned Ron. Then she took out a Wand of Magic Missile and activated it, but it didn't seem to do anything. Despite this warning, the skeleton slammed Ron bodily and whipped its long, purple tongue at him. As soon as it touched Ron, he froze in place, and Harry understood that he was paralyzed. Harry quickly stepped forward and cast Remove Paralysis on him. Instantly, Ron attacked twice, causing a large wound through the stomach on his first attempt.

Siofra simply continued to sing; George tried his Disrupt Undead spell, again failing. Ginny rushed in and struck with her scimitar but glanced off some kind of magical protections. Hermione used her Wand of Magic Missile again and succeeded in completely destroying the Mohrg.

"A Spellstiched Mohrg," Hermione said with distaste. "Those runes carved into it were what allowed it to cast spells, making it more dangerous than a typical Mohrg."

"Still, that wasn't a very difficult fight," George commented.

"Maybe due to our new abilities," Fred said.

"Don't get cocky," Ginny told them. "I have a feeling the wizard is extremely powerful, and we're just about to face him."

Harry followed her gaze to the large double-doors leading to the throne room. If Ginny was right, they had only one fight left before returning home, one way or another.