Back To The Palace
The next day, Harry went to the train as fast as possible. As he stood, waiting for it, he heard whispers.
“-That’s her!”
“The one with the plaited hair?”
“Yeah!”
Harry looked and saw the plaited hair girl. She appeared to be Indian and very pretty. She seemed to be his age too. She wore a Hogwarts’ uniform.
The whispers continued, but the train arrived.
On the train, near their stop, she stood from her seat and spoke to an older lady,
“Here! Take my seat.”
The older lady tried to protest, but the girl was politely insistent. Before the older lady could sit, though, a businessman took it for himself.
She stared in awe before speaking, “That was for -”
The businessman had fallen asleep.
Harry didn’t know why, but he spoke up, “Want me to wake him up?”
She shook her head, “No,” She turned to the woman, “Sorry I couldn’t help…”
The lady laughed, “It’s alright, dear.”
“Let me hold your bag, at least!” The woman gave a teasing sigh,
“As long as it’s not too heavy.”
“Oh, don’t worry! I train plenty!”
After they got off the train, the girl approached him, “Sorry! I just wanted to say thank you!”
Harry blinked, “What for?”
The girl was undeterred, “For helping me on the train! I just wanted to be kind to my fellow classmate.”
With that, she was off.
The rest of the day was normal as it should be. Until he saw Crouch talking to the girl, ‘Parkinson’.
“Hey, Parkinson. It’s been quite dangerous because of those accidents-”
“Sorry,” She gave a clearly forced smile, “I have a photoshoot today! I really can’t miss it.”
“You know, being a model is fine and dandy, but a pretty little thing like yourself shouldn’t work yourself to the bone. You said something about being sick, right? Appendicitis?”
‘Parkinson’ gave a nervous laugh, “Yeah, I’ve been too busy to go to the hospital. Sorry to worry you!”
“You must be lonely too, with your best friend at practice all the time. Oh, and stay away from that transfer student. He has a record, after all. If something happens to you-”
“Thank you! Excuse me…” As she walked away, Crouch made an irritated noise and left too.
As he exited the school, Ron approached,
“Hey!”
“What’s up?”
Ron’s smile dimmed, “I wanna talk about that castle. I tried to ignore it, but I can’t pretend nothing happened! Especially since it’s connected to Crouch! And, since you’re the only other person who knows…You in?”
Harry contemplated for a moment. He was curious to learn more and those dreams he’s been having…
“Sure, What’s next?”
“Brilliant! Let's retrace our steps! Tell me if you see any weird buildings.”
After they went back to the place they met, Ron said, “We walked that way, right?”
Harry thought the path looked familiar but couldn’t be sure.
“Maybe?”
“Dammit, now I'm not sure! Oh, well let’s try anyway!”
They retraced the path they walked the day before, but the castle wasn’t there. They tried again and, still, no castle.
“What is going on?!”
Harry was just as confused. He thought for a moment before remembering something.
His dream.
“Check your phone.” Harry suggested.
Ron shook his head, “No, I checked for places. No hits.” He seemed to have an epiphany, “Wait…You had a phone app yesterday! It said something about returning to the real world, right? Let me borrow your phone!”
Harry aquested and handed him his phone. Ron found it almost immediately,
“I bloody knew it!”
“I can’t delete it.” Harry told the other boy.
Ron stared at the phone in disbelief, “What a strange app. Ah hah! I found the search history!”
He shoved the phone in Harry’s face before quickly removing it.
“Now,” Ron grinned, “Let’s see how this works.”
Harry spoke up, hesitantly, “I-I don’t know-”
“Come on! It’s just an app!” He tapped a button and a robotic voice rang out,
“Beginning navigation.”
“Okay, so we went that-” He cut himself off when he noticed Harry staring in confusion. Ron looked around too,
“What the hell?!”
The world around them swirled in red.
.
.
.
The castle from the day before stood in place of the school.
“What the hell?! Does this mean yesterday really happened?” Ron turned to Harry before jerking slightly and pointed at his clothes, “Mate-”
When Harry looked down at his clothes he saw the ones from yesterday.
“What the hell? They changed yesterday too, right? And what is with the clothes!”
Harry smirked, slightly. He was compelled to tease him, “You jealous?”
Ron sputtered, “N-No!” He didn’t sound very convincing.
“Will you two pipe down?!” A familiar voice whispered harshly. Hedwig popped up, seeming rather annoyed.
Ron pointed, “You!”
Hedwig let out a quiet growl, “Quiet!” She shook her head and continued, “The guards were making a commotion, but I didn’t think it would be you two. Especially since you barely made it out yesterday.”
“What is this place?” Ron hissed at Hedwig, “Is it a school?”
Hedwig nodded, “That’s right.”
Ron shook his head in disbelief, “But it’s a castle!”
“Shh,” Hedwig hushed him, “This castle is the school…only to the Palace's ruler.”
“The ruler?” Harry questioned.
“I believe you called him Crouch? It’s how his distorted heart views the school.”
“Crouch…Distorted heart?...That doesn’t make any sense!”
“Quiet!”
Screams interrupted the two’s bickering.
“What was that?!”
“Probably the slaves.”
“Really? We saw other people here held captive yesterday…I think they were from our school.”
“Most likely Crouch’s orders, nothing out of the ordinary. Plus, with you two escaping yesterday, he probably lost his temper quite a bit.”
Ron clenched his fist, “That asshole!”
“...Ron?” Hedwig seemed concerned.
Without warning, Ron slammed himself against the door, trying to break it down.
“You hear me, Crouch!”
“That won’t open the door. Though, you seem to have your reasons.” Hedwig seemed slightly sympathetic.
Ron turned back to the cat-like creature, “Hey, Heddywig!”
“It’s Hedwig!” Ron ignored the protest,
“Do you know where those screams are coming from?”
“You want me to guide you? Fine, only if Wild Hair, er, Harry comes too.”
“Me?” Harry asked. Why was he so important?
“It’s nothing bad,” Hedwig reassured, “I just want to see how strong you are. Besides, I’m sure he will just go in alone. Will you really leave him?”
It didn’t take long for Harry to agree.
They approached the vent they escaped out of last time and Hedwig climbed up.
“This way,” She told them, “Taking a less obvious room is important for phantom thievery.”
As Hedwig climbed through the vent, Ron stopped Harry for a moment,
“Sorry about dragging you along. It’s just-I can’t let this go! I owe you for this, though.”
Harry just nodded. He kinda asked for this.
After they climbed through the vent, Hedwig spoke up, “you have to listen to everything I say, all right?”
They agreed and walked into the entrance. For a moment, it seemed to flicker between the school and the Palace before settling on the latter.
“Bloody hell!” Ron exclaimed.
Hedwig rolled her eyes, “We don’t have time for this. The slaves, remember?”
Ron nodded and they traveled down the stairs
As soon as they saw a guard, though, they hid.
“Should have known they would be guards patrolling.” Hedwig spoke, “Seems like we’ll need to fight our way through. Remember, try to come up from behind and rip their mask off. That will disrupt the control the Palace ruler has on them long enough to distract them.”
Harry nodded and sneaked behind the guard and did what she advised. It seemed to work and the guard melted into a small fairy looking creature.
They took it down with ease.They carried on before Ron noticed something.
“Where the hell are they?!”
“They’ve probably been moved.” Hedwig informed him.
“Shit!”
The sound of footsteps alerted them to the guards heading their way.
“It’s the guard-thingies!” Ron exclaimed.
Hedwig led them towards a door that was flickering in and out of existence.
“We’ll be safe in there, I think.”
“You think?!”
“We don’t have time for this.” Harry gathered the courage to say.
They quickly headed into the room and shut the door behind them.
“They probably won’t come in here.”
Ron panted, “How…would…you know?”
“The distortion here is minimal, meaning the Palace’s ruler doesn’t have as much control over the area.”
The room flickered for a moment, seemingly turning into a classroom before turning back to its original form.
“Is this…a classroom?’
“Do you finally get it? This place is another reality that Crouch’s heart projects.”
“This is Crouch’s world? This makes no sense!”
“You could say this is a world where the Ruler’s desires have materialized. I call them Palaces.”
Ron still looked confused and overwhelmed. Harry was right there with him.
Hedwig sighed, “This is happening because Crouch sees the school as his own castle.”
Ron seemed to finally get it, “So, it’s like this because he thought of it like that?!” He let out a laugh before cursing, “That bastard!”
Hedwig blinked, “You must really hate him, huh.”
Ron fumed, “Hate doesn’t even begin to cover it! Every single thing is his fault!”
“Well, just don’t let it cloud your judgment.” She turned to Harry, “I’m sure you’re curious about your outfit, is that right?”
Harry nodded, “Yeah.”
“I’m curious too!” Ron exclaimed
“It’s because of this world as well.”
Ron huffed, “More stuff that makes no bloody sense!”
Hedwig carried on, “Anything becomes distorted according to how the Ruler pleases. After all, a school can transform into a castle. In order to prevent distortions, you must have a powerful will of rebellion. Your outfit is the physical manifestation of that will. It’s the image of rebellion you hold within.”
“Enough of this! I’m still curious about you! What even are you!”
Hedwig seemed to shrink, “I-I don’t know.”
Ron raised an eyebrow, “Well, you look like a cat-”
“I’m not a cat!...I think. I think I lost my true form, so I came in here to investigate, but I ended up getting captured. Besides, Crouch tortured me too! I’ll make him pay!”
“What is this? A comic book? This is bloody insane!”
“If we’re gonna continue infultating, we should hurry.” Hedwig turned to Harry, “I’ll be relying on you this time.”
Harry nodded, “I’ll do the same.”
Ron perked up, “Oh! I brought some stuff too!” He pulled out-
A gun?!
Wait, upon further inspection, Harry realized it was a fake, if realistic gun.
“It only makes sounds, but it looks good, yeah?”
Hedwig rolled her eyes, “That’s a toy!”
“It looks realistic enough! We could scare them a bit! And, I brought some first aid supplies!”
“So, you planned this. Whatever, let’s continue the infiltration.”
“Where could those guys have gone?” Ron questioned.
Harry answered, “Hedwig said they might have been moved.”
“But where?”
Hedwig seemed to get an idea, “Maybe if we eavesdrop on the guards, we can find out more information.”
Harry nodded and they slightly cracked the door open enough to hear the guards outside talking.
“I thought I heard something over here.”
“Perhaps it was the slaves you heard?”
“No, they were moved to the training hall this morning, remember?”
The guards walked past the door and Harry, Hedwig, and Ron walked outside the room quietly.
“Okay,” Ron whispered, “Where’s the training hall?”
“I think I saw it just a little further up ahead. Let’s go.”
They walked until they noticed a guard in their way.
“The hall should be just up ahead.” Hedwig informed them. She turned to Harry, “Remember, attack from behind.”
Harry nodded and did as he was told.
It was a quick, if not tedious battle.
They rushed forward before they saw guards around the corner.
“Okay,” Ron whispered, “Will you two attack like before?”
Hedwig shook her head, “We have a long way to go. We need to ration our energy.”
“O-Oh, Sorry…Dammit, if only I could fight! All I have is the toy from earlier…I’m a bloody loser.”
“You mean the gun?” Hedwig inquired.
Ron nodded, “It looks realistic, but doesn’t do much.”
Hedwig smirked, “This could work…”
Ron seemed concerned and confused, “It doesn’t even shoot blanks!”
“Don’t worry,” She assured him, “This’ll work.” She turned to Harry, “You ready?”
A part of him wanted to protest, but she hadn’t led them astray yet.
“I’m telling you, it’s-” Ron’s protests went ignored.
“Point the gun at the Shadow and fire.”
Harry aimed the gun and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
It melted the Shadow upon impact.
Ron looked gobsmacked, “How-?”
“If the Shadows believe it’s real, it is real!”
“How does that make sense?!” His protest was ignored.
They continued their way through the castle’s underground. As they approached a corner, they noticed another guard past it.
Hedwig stopped Harry from shooting the enemy,
“Wait, I want to show you something. Pull its mask off.”
Harry nodded and did so with ease.
They melted into the fairy-like creatures.
“Now, strike their weakness and knock them down!”
Harry shot them down and she continued, “Let’s go all out!”
They rushed the creatures with a myriad of slashes and strikes. They fought together as if predicting each other's movements.
“It’s over!” Hedwig shouted as they melted into nothing.
Ron rushed over, “What was that?!”
“That was an All-Out Attack.” She turned to Harry, “You’ll be in charge of deciding when to use it.”
“Me?” Harry asked, confused, “Wouldn’t you be better at it than me?”
Hedwig shook her head, “I’m intrusting you with the decision.”
Harry nodded and they were hurrying off again.