Chapter 36 Carrying the Stone
It was all the cue the Winter Land warriors needed. Freed of the worry of the Dementors, the archers were already shooting arrow after arrow down into the Grendling pack. The dog masters now drove their brooms toward the ground, and released the harnesses, letting the dogs drop the short distance to the ground. Barking gleefully the dogs leaped into battle. A moment later, Alrik's warriors, swords and axes raised to strike, joined them, meeting the Grendlings head on with a great battle cry.
Fifty men landed on the Capstone, fanning out and driving the Grendlings away from it.
"Get ready!" Severus shouted to Harry. Harry hesitated only a moment before driving his broom downward, seeing the opening that cleared near the stone. A dozen more men followed him from the sky, shields and swords raised to keep any Grendling from attacking him as Harry at last set foot on the frozen ground. He took only a moment to release Prongs from his command, letting the Patronus loose with the last order to circle the battle before turning his attention to the great Capstone.
Feet firmly planted Harry aimed his wand at the enormous stone, only vaguely aware of the men fighting all around him. "Wingardium Leviosa!" he shouted, and the great stone seem to come to life - the carved knots and runes on the stone suddenly burning with an inner fire. The stone rose obediently into the air, but this time Harry felt its enormous weight and he staggered under the sensation. Unlike the other stone he had lifted, this one seemed different - connected somehow to the Earth - and the Earth did not want to release her hold.
But Harry focused his mind, his heart pounding, and channeled everything he had into the weight of that stone, commanding it to move, begging the Earth to let it go. And impossibly the stone obeyed, floating silently through the air toward the great Well of Despair that now had a cloud of Dementors being forced down into it.
With every step Harry took across the now blood-stained ground, his feet sank into the frozen earth as if he himself was suddenly heavy beyond imagining. His whole body strained beneath the weight of the stone, but his hand never wavered, his magic never hesitating even when he was splattered with blood from the warriors and Grendlings fighting around him.
Twice dark shapes leaped at him, only to be driven back by large metal shields that were raised to protect him just in time. His legs shook, his feet leaving deep imprints as he took each painful step toward the Well. Beyond he could see the silvery Wolf and Dog racing in a fiery circle around the lip of the Well, the flames of the Phoenix driving the last of the Dementors back down into the Earth. It seemed as if the air itself was filled with the screams of the damned and every step closer brought the cold icy touch of despair to Harry's soul.
"The Wyrms!" someone shouted. "The Wyrms are coming!" And distantly Harry could hear some far off sound of hissing that sounded vaguely familiar.
"Keep going, Harry!" another voice shouted to him, Sirius he thought. "You're almost there!"
And Harry pushed onward, forcing the stone ahead of him, forcing his legs to keep moving despite the great weight that seemed to be crushing him now, pulling him down. Only vaguely was he aware that something had changed in the battle, something different in the sound as men were shouting and screaming as some new horror bore down upon them. Harry could not spare even a glance away from the stone to look, the last of the Dementors now disappearing beneath the earth.
Five more steps, he staggered, driving the stone forward until at last it hovered over the Well, its fiery sigils pulsing now with each beat of his heart. One flick of his wand and the stone dropped, slamming down over the Well and shaking the Earth all around. But connected now to the stone and the Earth, Harry could feel the great pressure of darkness beneath the stone pushing upwards at it, and the roar of hissing voices was growing louder by the second. He knew he had to seal down the stone before the darkness broke free once more and he could feel the Earth herself waiting for something, waiting for some word or command from him.
On his knees now, his legs no longer able to hold him, Harry raised his wand once more, his mind focused on one of the ancient sealing charms he remembered from one of the many long study sessions with Hermione.
"Terra Fas Sigillum Protego!" he shouted and a brilliant light shot from his wand and struck the burning sigils blinding him with their brilliance. And it seem to him as if the Earth herself reached out and grasped the Capstone wrapping around it almost lovingly and pulling it hard into the dirt. A single drumbeat sounded, shaking the land, and then growing still and silent. Deafened by the sound, Harry collapsed against the great stone, no longer able to feel any sense of darkness pressing back up through the bowels of the Earth. The stone, the Well, the screaming Dementors, were utter silent at last.
Only then, after a dozen gasping breaths of air, did Harry become aware of the sounds of battle still going on around him. The hissing screams had not been silenced with the Dementors he realized and he raised his head to look around, staggering to his feet. Severus, Sirius and Remus were surrounding him, weapons wielded in their left hands, wands in their right as they fought off a few straggling Grendlings who were still trying to get past the rest of the warrior.
But there were few Grendlings left in the battle - rather the men, who could not leave the ground until Harry was back on his broom, were fighting off dozens of enormous black serpents that had come down from the mountains during the battle. Eyes widening in horror, Harry thought at first they were basilisks, but their gaze did not seem to paralyze as the men tried to drive them back with their sharp blades. The snakes were enormous towering over all of them like wingless dragons, and they struck with lightning speed, snapping at anything that moved, be it man or Grendling.
They were circling the army of men much like the Patronus had circled the Dementors, driving them inward tighter and tighter together so that they might feed at will. Archers, still circling overhead, were having little luck taking them down for the arrows were little more than an annoyance to the great creatures. Only blasts of fire and lightning from the wands of Severus, Remus and Sirius appeared to be doing any damage at all - driving the snakes briefly back before they shook off the pain and came forward again, gripped it seemed by some madness that would not be sated.
"Kill! Destroy! Crush the Shadow Bringers!" they were hissing, each curse driving the others forward. Their lashing tails shook the ground, knocking down anything they touched, and even the Grendlings had abandoned the battle in terror.
Scrambling to his feet, no longer even know where his broom might be, Harry aimed his wand at his throat. "Sonorus!" he cried out and then turned his attention to the great Black Wyrms.
"Stop!" he shouted, his words coming out in a thunderous hiss of Parseltongue, amplified horribly by his spell. He climbed up onto the Capstone. "Stop! Do not attack!"
His words had a galvanizing effect on both men and Wyrms. The men could not understand him, but shuddered under the sound of Parseltongue, and the Serpents drew back in shock, their great black bodies slithering away and arching upward, heads turning to eye the young man who stood alone on top of the great Capstone. Dozens of enormous forked tongues flicked out, tasting the air as cold black eyes turned to gaze at Harry. All around him, men froze, holding their attacks, though he could hear their desperate gasping breaths of exhaustion.
"What trick is this, Shadow Bringer!" one of the great Wyrms hissed at Harry, tail lashing violently and sending enormous boulders rolling away from him.
"It is no trick!" Harry hissed back, praying he would not collapse before he was through. "Why do you attack us? We have not entered your mountain territory."
"You are the ones who bring the Shadows to devour our souls!" the great serpent hissed at him and the others hissed in defiance. "We remember the Shadow Bringers raising the stones which destroyed our nests. We will not let you bring more Shadows to our world!"
Harry shuddered in horror - the Dementors devoured the souls of humans but he had not known they could devour the souls of other creatures. Indeed he had no idea that a serpent even knew what a soul might be, let alone fear to lose it. Certainly the Grendlings had not been affect by the Dementors.
"It was not us who brought the Shadows!" Harry told them, the word 'Dementor' translating in Parseltongue directly into 'Shadow'. "We are from a different nest. And we did not come to raise more stones but to close the one that was opened. We have driven the Shadows back into the Earth. We have placed the stone back where it belongs. Your souls are safe!"
The serpents hissed in agitation, drawing back and circling the group of warriors, tongues flicking out to taste the air again and again.
"Look around!" Harry ordered them. "Do you see the hole the Shadows came from any longer? Do you feel the Shadows in your souls? They are gone. We are not your enemy."
At his words the Serpents did indeed look around as if searching the ground for another gaping Well.
"The Shadows are gone?" one of them asked hesitantly, and if snakes could sound hopeful, there was hope in its voice.
"The Shadows are gone," Harry confirmed.
"And the nest that awakened them?" another asked.
Knowing that there was no translation for "ministry" and guessing the men who had opened the Well long dead anyway, Harry just nodded. "That nest is gone as well, they will not be back. I will not allow it."
And that it seemed was all the Black Wyrms needed. As one they turned and slithered away, heading toward the mountainside. They paused briefly, glancing back at the men, and then to the amazement of all, bowed in unison, dipping their diamond-shaped heads low toward Harry. And then in a flash they were gone, disappearing into the stones of the mountain and vanishing from sight.
In one breath to the next a great cheer of victory arose from the men, screams of joy and disbelief. Harry, drained beyond imagining, collapsed again to his knees only vaguely aware of hands grasping him, voices shouting at him. He tried to look up, thought for a moment he could see Severus' face hovering over his, concern in his dark eyes, thought he saw his mouth forming words though he could not hear them. And then Harry just sighed and slumped to the side, overcome at last by exhaustion.
Severus caught Harry as he collapsed, Remus and Sirius moving up along either side of him. "We have to get him out of here," Severus told the other two men over the roaring cheer of victory. Remus immediately used his wand to summon their brooms, shouting at the cheering men to mount up. It was Alrik who finally managed to get the men to listen - urging them to begin gathering the dead and rising into the air before more Grendlings returned now that the Wyrms were gone.
Severus mounted his broom fluidly holding his arms out as Black lifted Harry to him. He pulled his cloak around them both, one arm holding Harry tightly against his chest while he gripped his broom-handle with the other hand. Then he rose swiftly into the air, Black and Lupin rising along side of him. The rest of the men mounted their brooms as well, rising up from the bloody ground. Below them they lay the carnage of the battlefield. Severus did not look back.
He could feel Harry shivering in his arms and he tightened his hold on him. He was magically exhausted. Severus too was wounded - bruises and scrapes - one deep claw mark across his left forearm that would need to be tended to soon. Remus and Sirius also had not escaped unscathed - though the werewolf seemed to be holding up better than anyone else. Sirius he could see was holding a bunched up portion of his cloak against his side - Severus assumed he was trying to stop some wound from bleeding.
As far as he could tell Harry had come through the battle unmarked - all three of them along with Alrik's warriors had thrown themselves time and time again between Harry and the attacking Grendlings, taking the blows meant for him as he carried that enormous stone across the ground. And was it no wonder he was magically exhausted - Severus had not believed his eyes when he'd seen that stone rising from the ground. But much of his shock was due to the fact that the boy had used "Wingardium Leviosa".
He'd almost shouted in denial when he'd heard Harry incant that spell, cursing himself for not going over the proper spell with the boy earlier. Lupin too had turned in horror when he'd heard the spell - and Severus knew they were both to blame. For fear of damaging the boy's confidence they had not questioned him the night before.
And yet unbelievably, impossibly, the stone had risen from the earth despite the fact that Wingardium Leviosa had a weight limit on it. Harry should have used Leviosa Maximus - a seventh year spell that Severus should have known the boy would not yet know.
But the true shock had come when Harry had sealed the stone in place. Locking and sealing charms were covered extensively during third year - it had not occurred to Severus to even question which one Harry might use. As it was, he had assumed that he, Black and Lupin would add their own spells to Harry's when all was said and done - preventing most wizards from even hoping to raise the stone again.
But once again Harry had surprised him, using a spell he had never heard before. And as he went over the spell in his head, translating out the words and thinking of the wave of magic that had washed over all of them when the Capstone had locked in place, Severus just shook his head. The boy had quite literally simply commanded the Earth herself to hold the Capstone in place. The boy had issued the command and the Earth had obeyed - no one would lift that Capstone again.
And then moments later to see him standing there atop that stone, pale and slender, armor glittering in the Winter light as he faced down the great Black Wyrms that towered above him - Severus had thought for a moment that his heart might stop. How he had stood there so fearlessly, speaking in that alien tongue until the serpents had not only stopped their attack but bowed to him in respect, Severus would never know. Gryffindors - at least this one here in his arms - were a breed apart.
He felt Harry stir in his arms and immediately tightened his hold on him, leaning forward to speak directly into his ear. "Stay still," he told him. "You're on a broom. If you move too much you might fall."
The boy stilled immediately and Severus could feel the Quidditch-trained muscles in his thighs tightening around the broom as he adjusted to his position.
"Are you injured?" Harry asked, his voice hoarse from shouting in Parseltongue.
"I'm fine," Severus assured him, seeing him turn his head to look around for Remus and Sirius. "So are they," he added. "Minor wounds only."
"How many men did we lose?" he asked then and Severus sighed, wishing just once that this boy - this man - would not take such responsibilities upon his shoulders.
"I don't know," he replied. "This will be accounted a great victory - and rightly so. We lost far fewer than we would have had you not stopped the Wyrms." And then because he could not help himself, he tangled one hand in Harry's dark hair, holding his head still as he whispered directly into his ear. "You did good, Harry. Let everything else go."
Harry turned then, looking back at him, and those green eyes pulled at Severus, tugging at his heart as he'd never before known, seeking something inside of him, some answer to a question unasked. And then a moment later, Severus' breath caught in his throat as Harry raised one hand to touch his cheek, his trembling fingers lightly grazing his skin. Though ice-cold those fingers left a trail of fire along Severus' skin. And then Harry just sighed and settled back into his arms, content to let him hold him and finish the flight in silence.
The waiting families of those who had gone to fight swarmed out onto the battlements and field before Bifrost Hall as they returned. Amid the chaos of the landing army - shouts of victories, cries of greeting, wails of despair at the deaths of those lost - Severus landed his broom, helping Harry from it. Remus and Sirius were there at once, both men reaching out to touch the boy who hugged them before they were all ushered back inside the walls of the Keep.
Severus commandeered a quiet corner in all that chaos and set to checking the injuries of the other two men. The wound on Black's side was deep but not life threatening. Lupin took little time at all to strip Sirius to the waist and begin cleaning the wound before turning his wand on it to bandage it as best he could. While there were potions enough being handed out by healers in the Hall there were others wounded far worse.
Severus to his surprise found himself forced into a chair while Harry knelt before him wand focused on his wounded arm. Several cleaning charms and a wound-disinfecting spell later, the boy began bandaging the injury. It was not deep but would require a potion or two when he returned home.
Warrior after warrior passed by them, calling out greetings, clapping them on the back, greeting each by name. And to Harry they saluted, right arm crossed over their bodies, fist pounding against their chests as they thanked him for the victory. Harry, strangely quite, just smiled at them, green eyes looking like they belonged on someone far older.
Alrik and Asgeir, both suffering only minor wounds, found them eventually, Alrik bearing Pepper-up Potions, which he distributed to all four of them. They drank them gratefully, and Severus saw some faint color finally returning to Harry's cheeks.
"We can't thank you enough!" Asgeir grinned. "There will be a great celebration tonight and this story will go down in history as one of our greatest battles."
"We can't stay, Asgeir," Severus informed him. "By now word of Harry's disappearance will have spread through the Ministry. We must return quickly before word gets to the Dark Lord that Harry is here."
"I thought as much," Asgeir nodded. "Alrik will take you home. If you go now you can make it to the ship before night falls." They rose wearily to their feet as Asgeir turned toward the crowd of men and women in the Great Hall. "My people!" he shouted and the noise died down, all eyes turning toward them.
"Today we have won a great victory!" His words were met with cheers, men beating their fists and swords against their shields, women pounding on the long wooden tables that filled the Hall. "We owe a debt to these four men who fought along side of us!" And the roar of the crowd was deafening.
It felt strange to Severus to be on the receiving end of such praise and he found himself glancing at Lupin and Black. Lupin looked just as uncomfortable as he did, but Black was grinning and waving to the crowd, at ease beneath the attention. Harry on the other hand just stood in silence watching the men with a strange calmness that belied his years.
When at last the noise died down, Asgeir turned toward Harry and held out his hand to the boy. To Severus' surprise, when Harry took Asgeir's hand, the man clasped it tightly between both his palms and dropped to one knee before them. All the men and women in the Hall did the same, leaving Harry and the three of them standing alone there before them.
"When the war comes, Harry Potter," Asgeir stated clearly for all to hear. "Summon us. The Winter Lands will fight under your banner. So may it be!"
"So may it be!" the men and women of the Hall repeated, and the magic of their Wizards Oath was felt by all of them, washing through the crowd like a great wind. Stunned Severus could only stare at Harry, wondering if the boy understood that the Winter Lands had just sworn an oath of fealty to him.
But it seemed as if Harry understood some of it, for he bowed his head in acknowledgement to Asgeir. "I'm honored by your trust, " he said quietly in the silence of the Hall, and everyone heard him. "Thank you."
Asgeir rose then, and the crowd again cheered, men and women coming forward to shake their hands once more. Amid the crowd, Severus exchanged looks with Remus and Sirius, seeing in their eyes the same worry he felt in his own heart. It seemed, no matter what he did, that the world was conspiring to thrust Harry into the center of the storm. And nothing any of them did seemed to stop it.