Categories > Books > Harry Potter > The Slayer, The Avatar And The Guardian Of Light
Chapter 73 - Hot Under The Caldera
Dimension: 563 - Earth
Date: 15th September 2001 AD
Country: France - The French Riviera - Marseeleveyre Mountains
Location: Chateau Delacour
Time: Afternoon
The next morning Harry, Fleur and Tonks Apparated to the Chateau. Sliding the Time Turner out of her pocket, Fleur
held out the chain for the others before winding the hands back six hours.
As the room stopped spinning Dimitri and the Elder Dwarf, whose name Harry discovered was Kcor (pronounced 'cor'),
came into view. Dimitri was garbed in a slim fitting set of robes that looked like a set of smart robes had been
adapted to allow easier movement in the event of a dangerous situation, the Dwarf was wearing a smart suit but
unlike a normal suit the fabrics were a lot thicker, suggesting that what he heard about Dwarfs wearing armour at
all times was correct, Harry wondered if the waist coat the Dwarf was wearing had a sheet of metal in it for
protection.
He, himself, was garbed in duelling robes, not that he would be wearing them long, whilst Fleur was wearing a dress
with a long slit up one leg, reaching dangerously high, to allow easy movement in case of trouble and lastly Tonks
was wearing her Auror uniform minus her identification.
"Right on time." Smiled Dimitri.
"Very funny." Replied Tonks "Shall we get moving?"
"One moment," Harry said as his ring finished casting spells on him leaving him dressed as The Avatar. "Now we're
ready."
Dimitri withdrew a length of silk from a pocket of his robe and held it out for them, as the last of them touched
the fabric they experienced the pull as the portkey was activated.
________________________________________________________________________
Dimension: 563 - Earth
Date: 15th September 2001 AD
Country: Italy - Aeolian Islands
Location: Stromboli - The Halls of Stromboli
Time: Morning
The Group landed hard, all just managing to stay upright, except for Tonks, who managed to trip over her own feet.
"Blimey, that was uncomfortable." Exclaimed Tonks as she straightened up, rubbing her behind where she had landed
on it. "So where are we?"
They group appeared to be on a rocky slope of a mountain, the top of which was only about five meters above them,
someone appeared to be burning something at the top as a huge amount of smoke was rising from the summit. Looking
down they saw that the slope continued down until it met the sea, there were a large number of house near the
shoreline.
"Stromboli." Explained Dimitri.
"Bless you." Replied Tonks.
"It's the name of the island." Dimitri elaborated.
"Why is it so hot?" asked Harry.
"That would be the temperature wards on the area and the fact we are standing near the rim of an active volcano."
"We're what?" exclaimed Tonks "Why on earth are we on a volcano?"
"Because that's where the Valkyrie's live." Replied Kcor sarcastically.
"And they like the heat." Added Dimitri, as he turned upwards and led the group up a path "They use heating wards
where it is too cool like out here and cooling wards where the volcano makes it too hot to survive. So while it is
very hot for us it is just right for the Valkyrie."
As they reached the top they were hit by a wave of heat from the crater they were standing atop, looking down Harry
could see that the stream of smoke he had seen was emerging from several large cracks in the base of the crater
which connected together at a ten meter wide circular pool of lava from which an awful lot of the smoke was
emerging. Interestingly, though, the smoke did not obscure the walls or the base of the crater, as the smoke was
obviously being manipulated by magic. The smoke gathered from all the cracks in a tidy circular column above the
pool before spiralling up in a neat double helix to the rim of the crater before continuing on as normal, creating
the natural plumes of smoke Harry had seen earlier. But the charmed smoke was not the most fascinating thing about
the scene, the fact that their appeared to be people living in the crater was.
All around the crater wall, houses had been carved into the dark stone, doorways led into the walls of the crater,
presumably where the Valkyrie's that were currently walking around below the smoke plume were living.
The group saw three Valkyrie walking up carved stone steps towards them.
Harry mentally recalled all he had been told about the species:
The Valkyrie's, like Veela, were natural Animagi. They could transform into ravens (though unlike Veela they were
the size of real life ravens rather than human sizes birds) and rode into battle on a vicious large variety of
wolves that the Wizarding World had dubbed Fire Wolves, due to their liking for extreme heats. Legend says
Valkyrie's were a purely female race that flew over battlefields and took the most heroic of the dead warriors to
Valhalla, the Halls of the Dead in Norse Mythology, whereas the Wizarding World told that that was just what they
told the survivors so they could take the bodies away and eat them at their leisure, others said they fed them to
their Fire Wolves and still more said that they wanted the bodies for religious ceremony to sacrifice to the
volcano, no one knew if any of these were really true or not as Valkyrie's rarely left the volcano's and the
surrounding islands and their relationship with the Wizarding world normally meant mutually ignoring each other.
There were as many theories floating around about the Valkyrie's as there were about Veela and their mating. After
the mating Harry had looked up more about the process and had read peoples theories about the balance of power;
some said that the Veela became slaves to their mates will, others said the reverse; that Veela became super
dominant and that their mate, although experiencing the full passion and pleasure of being a Veela's mate was
completely controlled and subservient, of course in reality the relationship was much more balanced.
The Valkyrie's were both male and female, tall, had a darker complexion than the average European, like someone
whose bloodline originated from around the sunniest parts of the Mediterranean, their hair was black and fell to
mid back, their eyes, unlike human eyes that from the outside in appear white, a colour then the black iris, where
black, red and then a black iris.
The Valkyrie had thin bodies like those of Veela, but unlike Veela they appeared more muscular than they did fair.
They were definitely elegant but their appearance did not necessarily give the impression of good or evil, Harry
guessed that like Veela they could look a lot more dangerous if they wanted to. The best description Harry could
come up with for them was that they were similar to Veela except everything that was light in appearance for Veela
was dark for the Valkyrie.
Two of the Valkyrie in front of them were garbed in what looked like soot covered gold armour with red and black
fabrics underneath, all the armour was adorned with triangular motifs, both held spears and wore teardrop shaped
helms that extended out behind their heads for aerodynamics. The last Valkyrie, the one in the centre was garbed in
rich flowing red and black fabrics with highlights and fastenings of gold.
As the three reached them the male guards bowed slightly while the female Valkyrie curtsied.
"Greetings Avatar, Master Of Elements. Greetings Dimitri of the Council of Power. Greetings Fleur, Master of Fire.
Greetings Nymphadora, Master of Forms and greetings Kcor Master of Stone." Said the female "I am Sigrdifa First
Daughter of King Thor XVII, Monarch of the Halls. On behalf of the King I bid you welcome to The Halls of
Stromboli."
Harry bowed low in reply, trying hard not to think that the name of the volcano sounded like some sort of pasta
dish.
"Thank you for your gracious welcome, Sigrdifa, First Daughter of the King." Replied Harry, remembering what
Dimitri had told him about the formal greeting customs of the Valkyrie's "May your halls continue to burn for a
thousand years."
Sigrdifa bowed again at his greeting before half turning towards the slope.
"Please follow me; I shall take you to the King."
Sigrdifa began to lead them down into the volcano, one of the guards moved to the head of the party while the other
took position at the end of their small column of people.
As they proceeded down the slope they could see what else resided within the crater, on the far side Harry could
see a fenced off area, within which Fire Wolves were prowling around, every so often one would lunge at another and
they would fight for a bit, ripping fur and tearing skin until one of their handlers broke them up. The wolves
themselves stood as tall as a horse and had a build as heavy as that of a rhino, though they were a lot more agile,
their heads were large but unlike normal wolves they were rounder and their snouts shorter. Not the sort of
creature you wanted to encounter on a dark night.
As they continued to descend Harry felt the temperature rise further, he was now certain that if it were not for
the large amount of cooling wards keeping the temperature down and keeping the ash and smoke away, they would
already be dead.
Reaching the bottom of the crater, Sigrdifa began leading them towards a large flight of steps that descended into
the craters base; it was guarded by six soldiers. Many Valkyrie's watched as they passed, their faces were hard to
read in the near dark that existed below the smoke cloud, the only light around them came from the molten lava that
resided in the central pool, in the cracks and the few outlets in the walls from which the lava was flowing before
running down into the cracks just before the liquid turned solid and set hard.
Heading down the steps they then followed the wide corridor underneath for several meters before they came face to
face with a wall of molten lava, falling like a curtain in front of them.
Sigrdifa said something in Valkyrie that made no sense to anyone else; the language was unsurprisingly very similar
to the cawing of a raven. A few seconds past before a gap began to appear in the wall as the lava was somehow
redirected leaving a gap around four feet wide.
Stepping through, Sigrdifa began walking the length of the hall they emerged into. It was not overly tall, no more
than eight feet high, though the sealing was expertly carved with triangular engravings, the hall was at least ten
meters wide, all down the length of the hall on each side of their current path were holes in the ceiling, through
which more lava flowed before exiting through holes in the floor, creating the illusion of rows of columns.
At the far end of the hall were two small lava outlets in the wall that flowed down into a triangular shaped
depressions in the floor, forming a small moat around a triangular shaped throne, on which sat a bald Valkyrie with
his head lowered so they could not see his eyes, he was tall, at least six foot five and from what they could see
of his face, looked grumpy and annoyed that they were even in his halls.
As they reached the Throne, Sigrdifa bowed.
"King Thor XVII, Monarch of the Halls, allow me to introduce The Avatar, Master of Elements. Dimitri, of the
Council of Power. Fleur, Master of Fire. Nymphadora, Master of Forms and Kcor, Master of Stone."
As she finished the King raised his head to reveal two bright red eyes that appeared to burn like the lava around
him, he should have been incinerated by the very proximity of the molten liquid, evidence of more heat preventing
wards.
He turned his inhuman eyes to Harry and looked him up and down.
"You're The Avatar." He stated flatly "Prove it."
Harry took a step forward before making a sharp upward motion with his arms.
On queue all the lava in the moat around the King jumped up, forming a triangular band of molten liquid hovering at
shoulder level, slowly rotating as the outlets began to refill the small moat.
Another gesture later and the lava triangle turned to the vertical so that it was spinning in front of Harry, a few
more gestures and the band began to spin faster as a sphere of wind formed in Harry's other hand, whipping his hair
around his face.
Placing the sphere in the air beside the triangle, Harry began to push the two closer together.
The others watched fascinated as the sphere slowly came in contact with the triangle and began to cool the molten
liquid, making it turn to stone, they watched as he expertly shaped the edges of the rock until a perfectly sharp
edged triangle of stone hung in the air before dropping to the floor with a loud thud, standing on one of its flat
edges.
"Impressive," replied the King flatly, almost taunting Harry "But why should I join your little band of merry men
when I am perfectly safe here in my volcano."
"Because your people are warriors," replied Harry "And a war is coming, a large war, a war between wizards and
witches, a war between good and evil, Werewolf and Veela, Goblin and Giant, a world war....A war of magic."
Harry paused for dramatic affect, when did he get so good at these speeches, this one sounded like the sort you
would hear in a film.
"Every sentient magical species will be involved, they will either be voluntary fighters or they will be dragged
in, but in the war they will be, the question you have is which side will you back?"
"Very dramatic." Replied the King, still not moving "I shall consider your words, dismissed."
Tonks and Fleur raised eyebrows at the king's audacity and lack of respect for Harry.
Bowing they were led out of the hall by Sigrdifa.
As they left the hall Sigrdifa dropped back level with Harry.
"I apologise for my fathers disrespect Avatar, he will seriously consider your proposal."
"I understand," nodded Harry "This is his Kingdom, he doesn't want to show weakness to someone like myself. He...."
As they neared the flight of stairs Harry was interrupted by a loud cawing in Valkyrie.
"What's happening?" asked Dimitri.
The response that came was not what any of them expected.
Harry heard a pair of grunts, both female, followed by thuds as two bodies hit the floor.
Harry didn't have time to react to as he felt a heavy impact on the side of his head, throwing him into the tunnel
wall.
The last thing he remembered was hearing the grunts of Kcor struggling against something before he lost his vision.
AUTHOR NOTE: Sorry it took so long to get the next chapter out, all it needs to slow the system down is for me or one of my beta's to be a bit busy and I think we have all been a bit busy of late, hence the lateness of this chapter
Dimension: 563 - Earth
Date: 15th September 2001 AD
Country: France - The French Riviera - Marseeleveyre Mountains
Location: Chateau Delacour
Time: Afternoon
The next morning Harry, Fleur and Tonks Apparated to the Chateau. Sliding the Time Turner out of her pocket, Fleur
held out the chain for the others before winding the hands back six hours.
As the room stopped spinning Dimitri and the Elder Dwarf, whose name Harry discovered was Kcor (pronounced 'cor'),
came into view. Dimitri was garbed in a slim fitting set of robes that looked like a set of smart robes had been
adapted to allow easier movement in the event of a dangerous situation, the Dwarf was wearing a smart suit but
unlike a normal suit the fabrics were a lot thicker, suggesting that what he heard about Dwarfs wearing armour at
all times was correct, Harry wondered if the waist coat the Dwarf was wearing had a sheet of metal in it for
protection.
He, himself, was garbed in duelling robes, not that he would be wearing them long, whilst Fleur was wearing a dress
with a long slit up one leg, reaching dangerously high, to allow easy movement in case of trouble and lastly Tonks
was wearing her Auror uniform minus her identification.
"Right on time." Smiled Dimitri.
"Very funny." Replied Tonks "Shall we get moving?"
"One moment," Harry said as his ring finished casting spells on him leaving him dressed as The Avatar. "Now we're
ready."
Dimitri withdrew a length of silk from a pocket of his robe and held it out for them, as the last of them touched
the fabric they experienced the pull as the portkey was activated.
________________________________________________________________________
Dimension: 563 - Earth
Date: 15th September 2001 AD
Country: Italy - Aeolian Islands
Location: Stromboli - The Halls of Stromboli
Time: Morning
The Group landed hard, all just managing to stay upright, except for Tonks, who managed to trip over her own feet.
"Blimey, that was uncomfortable." Exclaimed Tonks as she straightened up, rubbing her behind where she had landed
on it. "So where are we?"
They group appeared to be on a rocky slope of a mountain, the top of which was only about five meters above them,
someone appeared to be burning something at the top as a huge amount of smoke was rising from the summit. Looking
down they saw that the slope continued down until it met the sea, there were a large number of house near the
shoreline.
"Stromboli." Explained Dimitri.
"Bless you." Replied Tonks.
"It's the name of the island." Dimitri elaborated.
"Why is it so hot?" asked Harry.
"That would be the temperature wards on the area and the fact we are standing near the rim of an active volcano."
"We're what?" exclaimed Tonks "Why on earth are we on a volcano?"
"Because that's where the Valkyrie's live." Replied Kcor sarcastically.
"And they like the heat." Added Dimitri, as he turned upwards and led the group up a path "They use heating wards
where it is too cool like out here and cooling wards where the volcano makes it too hot to survive. So while it is
very hot for us it is just right for the Valkyrie."
As they reached the top they were hit by a wave of heat from the crater they were standing atop, looking down Harry
could see that the stream of smoke he had seen was emerging from several large cracks in the base of the crater
which connected together at a ten meter wide circular pool of lava from which an awful lot of the smoke was
emerging. Interestingly, though, the smoke did not obscure the walls or the base of the crater, as the smoke was
obviously being manipulated by magic. The smoke gathered from all the cracks in a tidy circular column above the
pool before spiralling up in a neat double helix to the rim of the crater before continuing on as normal, creating
the natural plumes of smoke Harry had seen earlier. But the charmed smoke was not the most fascinating thing about
the scene, the fact that their appeared to be people living in the crater was.
All around the crater wall, houses had been carved into the dark stone, doorways led into the walls of the crater,
presumably where the Valkyrie's that were currently walking around below the smoke plume were living.
The group saw three Valkyrie walking up carved stone steps towards them.
Harry mentally recalled all he had been told about the species:
The Valkyrie's, like Veela, were natural Animagi. They could transform into ravens (though unlike Veela they were
the size of real life ravens rather than human sizes birds) and rode into battle on a vicious large variety of
wolves that the Wizarding World had dubbed Fire Wolves, due to their liking for extreme heats. Legend says
Valkyrie's were a purely female race that flew over battlefields and took the most heroic of the dead warriors to
Valhalla, the Halls of the Dead in Norse Mythology, whereas the Wizarding World told that that was just what they
told the survivors so they could take the bodies away and eat them at their leisure, others said they fed them to
their Fire Wolves and still more said that they wanted the bodies for religious ceremony to sacrifice to the
volcano, no one knew if any of these were really true or not as Valkyrie's rarely left the volcano's and the
surrounding islands and their relationship with the Wizarding world normally meant mutually ignoring each other.
There were as many theories floating around about the Valkyrie's as there were about Veela and their mating. After
the mating Harry had looked up more about the process and had read peoples theories about the balance of power;
some said that the Veela became slaves to their mates will, others said the reverse; that Veela became super
dominant and that their mate, although experiencing the full passion and pleasure of being a Veela's mate was
completely controlled and subservient, of course in reality the relationship was much more balanced.
The Valkyrie's were both male and female, tall, had a darker complexion than the average European, like someone
whose bloodline originated from around the sunniest parts of the Mediterranean, their hair was black and fell to
mid back, their eyes, unlike human eyes that from the outside in appear white, a colour then the black iris, where
black, red and then a black iris.
The Valkyrie had thin bodies like those of Veela, but unlike Veela they appeared more muscular than they did fair.
They were definitely elegant but their appearance did not necessarily give the impression of good or evil, Harry
guessed that like Veela they could look a lot more dangerous if they wanted to. The best description Harry could
come up with for them was that they were similar to Veela except everything that was light in appearance for Veela
was dark for the Valkyrie.
Two of the Valkyrie in front of them were garbed in what looked like soot covered gold armour with red and black
fabrics underneath, all the armour was adorned with triangular motifs, both held spears and wore teardrop shaped
helms that extended out behind their heads for aerodynamics. The last Valkyrie, the one in the centre was garbed in
rich flowing red and black fabrics with highlights and fastenings of gold.
As the three reached them the male guards bowed slightly while the female Valkyrie curtsied.
"Greetings Avatar, Master Of Elements. Greetings Dimitri of the Council of Power. Greetings Fleur, Master of Fire.
Greetings Nymphadora, Master of Forms and greetings Kcor Master of Stone." Said the female "I am Sigrdifa First
Daughter of King Thor XVII, Monarch of the Halls. On behalf of the King I bid you welcome to The Halls of
Stromboli."
Harry bowed low in reply, trying hard not to think that the name of the volcano sounded like some sort of pasta
dish.
"Thank you for your gracious welcome, Sigrdifa, First Daughter of the King." Replied Harry, remembering what
Dimitri had told him about the formal greeting customs of the Valkyrie's "May your halls continue to burn for a
thousand years."
Sigrdifa bowed again at his greeting before half turning towards the slope.
"Please follow me; I shall take you to the King."
Sigrdifa began to lead them down into the volcano, one of the guards moved to the head of the party while the other
took position at the end of their small column of people.
As they proceeded down the slope they could see what else resided within the crater, on the far side Harry could
see a fenced off area, within which Fire Wolves were prowling around, every so often one would lunge at another and
they would fight for a bit, ripping fur and tearing skin until one of their handlers broke them up. The wolves
themselves stood as tall as a horse and had a build as heavy as that of a rhino, though they were a lot more agile,
their heads were large but unlike normal wolves they were rounder and their snouts shorter. Not the sort of
creature you wanted to encounter on a dark night.
As they continued to descend Harry felt the temperature rise further, he was now certain that if it were not for
the large amount of cooling wards keeping the temperature down and keeping the ash and smoke away, they would
already be dead.
Reaching the bottom of the crater, Sigrdifa began leading them towards a large flight of steps that descended into
the craters base; it was guarded by six soldiers. Many Valkyrie's watched as they passed, their faces were hard to
read in the near dark that existed below the smoke cloud, the only light around them came from the molten lava that
resided in the central pool, in the cracks and the few outlets in the walls from which the lava was flowing before
running down into the cracks just before the liquid turned solid and set hard.
Heading down the steps they then followed the wide corridor underneath for several meters before they came face to
face with a wall of molten lava, falling like a curtain in front of them.
Sigrdifa said something in Valkyrie that made no sense to anyone else; the language was unsurprisingly very similar
to the cawing of a raven. A few seconds past before a gap began to appear in the wall as the lava was somehow
redirected leaving a gap around four feet wide.
Stepping through, Sigrdifa began walking the length of the hall they emerged into. It was not overly tall, no more
than eight feet high, though the sealing was expertly carved with triangular engravings, the hall was at least ten
meters wide, all down the length of the hall on each side of their current path were holes in the ceiling, through
which more lava flowed before exiting through holes in the floor, creating the illusion of rows of columns.
At the far end of the hall were two small lava outlets in the wall that flowed down into a triangular shaped
depressions in the floor, forming a small moat around a triangular shaped throne, on which sat a bald Valkyrie with
his head lowered so they could not see his eyes, he was tall, at least six foot five and from what they could see
of his face, looked grumpy and annoyed that they were even in his halls.
As they reached the Throne, Sigrdifa bowed.
"King Thor XVII, Monarch of the Halls, allow me to introduce The Avatar, Master of Elements. Dimitri, of the
Council of Power. Fleur, Master of Fire. Nymphadora, Master of Forms and Kcor, Master of Stone."
As she finished the King raised his head to reveal two bright red eyes that appeared to burn like the lava around
him, he should have been incinerated by the very proximity of the molten liquid, evidence of more heat preventing
wards.
He turned his inhuman eyes to Harry and looked him up and down.
"You're The Avatar." He stated flatly "Prove it."
Harry took a step forward before making a sharp upward motion with his arms.
On queue all the lava in the moat around the King jumped up, forming a triangular band of molten liquid hovering at
shoulder level, slowly rotating as the outlets began to refill the small moat.
Another gesture later and the lava triangle turned to the vertical so that it was spinning in front of Harry, a few
more gestures and the band began to spin faster as a sphere of wind formed in Harry's other hand, whipping his hair
around his face.
Placing the sphere in the air beside the triangle, Harry began to push the two closer together.
The others watched fascinated as the sphere slowly came in contact with the triangle and began to cool the molten
liquid, making it turn to stone, they watched as he expertly shaped the edges of the rock until a perfectly sharp
edged triangle of stone hung in the air before dropping to the floor with a loud thud, standing on one of its flat
edges.
"Impressive," replied the King flatly, almost taunting Harry "But why should I join your little band of merry men
when I am perfectly safe here in my volcano."
"Because your people are warriors," replied Harry "And a war is coming, a large war, a war between wizards and
witches, a war between good and evil, Werewolf and Veela, Goblin and Giant, a world war....A war of magic."
Harry paused for dramatic affect, when did he get so good at these speeches, this one sounded like the sort you
would hear in a film.
"Every sentient magical species will be involved, they will either be voluntary fighters or they will be dragged
in, but in the war they will be, the question you have is which side will you back?"
"Very dramatic." Replied the King, still not moving "I shall consider your words, dismissed."
Tonks and Fleur raised eyebrows at the king's audacity and lack of respect for Harry.
Bowing they were led out of the hall by Sigrdifa.
As they left the hall Sigrdifa dropped back level with Harry.
"I apologise for my fathers disrespect Avatar, he will seriously consider your proposal."
"I understand," nodded Harry "This is his Kingdom, he doesn't want to show weakness to someone like myself. He...."
As they neared the flight of stairs Harry was interrupted by a loud cawing in Valkyrie.
"What's happening?" asked Dimitri.
The response that came was not what any of them expected.
Harry heard a pair of grunts, both female, followed by thuds as two bodies hit the floor.
Harry didn't have time to react to as he felt a heavy impact on the side of his head, throwing him into the tunnel
wall.
The last thing he remembered was hearing the grunts of Kcor struggling against something before he lost his vision.
AUTHOR NOTE: Sorry it took so long to get the next chapter out, all it needs to slow the system down is for me or one of my beta's to be a bit busy and I think we have all been a bit busy of late, hence the lateness of this chapter
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