An Eclectic Catalogue of Ideas

Through the Veil, a Whole New World

Sometimes, a single difference is all it takes to change fate.

They were within the Department of Mysteries, and battle was under way. Harry Was standing near Neville, trying to help the other boy to his feet. Not far away, a jet of light narrowly missed Sirius, and Harry heard Bellatrix cackling in glee, triumphant, as he saw Tonks blasted off her feet and sent flying, slamming into Sirius.

Sirius staggered backwards towards the stone archway, what Hermione had called the Veil of Death. Harry heard Remus cry out, "No!" before he saw both Sirius and Tonks fall through, the diaphanous black curtain covering the arch fluttering as they passed. Harry stared for a moment, not sure what happened, and he left Neville's side, "Sirius? What happened?" They disappeared. They couldn't be gone.

He approached the archway, only to hear Remus' panicked voice, "Harry, get away from there!" He could hear soft whispering, and almost by instinct he dodged a green spell as it struck the wall near him.

"I KILLED HIM! AND THAT MUDBORN BITCH TOO!" Harry heard Bellatrix cackle, and he whirled, staring at her, then glancing at the strange object.

"No." Harry said this quietly, "No." Sirius couldn't be dead. His parents were dead. He'd seen Cedric die right in front of him. Not Sirius too, not when they'd actually started to talk, to get to know each other! Harry dashed forward, ducking under Remus' arm as the man tried to grab him.

And they all saw Harry disappear into the Veil, the curtain fluttering behind him before falling still once more.

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Harry felt an odd squeezing sensation as if his entire body was being crushed then expanded. He couldn't breath. At his temple he felt intense heat, a burning that was beyond painful. He heard a brief, hissing cry as something happened, energy surging through his body.

It was then that Harry landed on his hands and knees, quite literally faceplanting as he lifted his head, spitting out a bit of dirt. And he thought floo travel was annoying. Where was he? What... Sirius!

Harry looked around frantically in the dark, and relaxed when he saw a pair of forms struggling to their feet not far away. Sirius and Tonks. "Sirius! Tonks! What happened?"

"Harry, what're you doing here?" Sirius paused, "We fell through the bloody Veil, we should be dead. Tell me you didn't come running in after us!"

Harry saw Tonks' hair turn red at Sirius' words. He explained, "I saw Bellatrix blast Tonks into you and you disappeared. So I..."

"So you ran through the Veil after us." Sirius put a hand over his face, sighing, "Harry, that was dumb. And it's me saying so so you should know it's true; I've done a lot of stupid things in my time."

Harry looked down, and said, "I'd just found you, I couldn't let you die. Especially as it was my bloody fault you were there in the first place."

"Hey," Sirius said, "Hey, kid, it wasn't your fault." He moved towards him, hugging him. He frowned slightly as Harry went stiff before he managed to relax. He'd noticed that, before. That was something he'd have to look into in the future.

Tonks slowly approached them, "Not to break this up, but where are we? Why aren't we dead?" A pause, "Are we dead?"

"I don't feel dead," Sirius said to her, "I don't know where we are though," he said, looking around. Then he glanced up. And stared. "I... don't think we're on Earth anymore."

They all followed Sirius' gaze to the moons. Plural. There were three moons in the sky: a large white moon and two smaller moons, one red and one blue. "Bloody hell," Tonks stated. "Where are we?"

Sirius shook his head, "I have no idea." He took a breath, looking around, "Right. There's no arch or other obvious way to return home. We need to find out where we are, and we can take it from there." He looked from Harry to Tonks, "I'm going to take a quick look around. Tonks, keep an eye on Harry while I'm gone." With that, his form blurred and a black dog loped off into the darkness.

Even as Sirius disappeared into the trees, Harry ran his fingers through his hair, sighing. He looked at Tonks and all he could say was, "Sorry, Tonks. This is all a mess."

"It's definitely a mess," Tonks agreed as she wandered closer, putting a hand on Harry's shoulder. She frowned as she too noticed him tense slightly at her touch, and let her hand fall. "There's nothing to apologize for. We're still alive. Somehow. We'll deal with it."

Harry really wanted to argue, but refrained. He just, sighed, waiting, and a few minutes later, Sirius returned. Running his hand through his hair as he shifted back, he said, "I found an old cobblestone road." As he spoke, he pointed, "That way. I also saw a city in the distance, maybe ten miles away."

This at least took Harry's mind off his worries. He reached a hand into his pocket and pulled out his broom, tapping it with his wand to unshrink it. He'd stolen it back from Umbridge after Hermione sent her to the centaurs. "This can easily hold two, and I bet three if we're careful, and is a lot faster than walking."

"Oh, that's your Firebolt, I've always wanted to have a try on it," Tonks said after a moment, grinning. Harry nodded at her and gestured and she hopped up behind him on the broom, slipping an arm around him to steady herself.

Harry glanced at Sirius, "You coming?"

"Probably better to not. I can run pretty fast as Padfoot, and we don't want to approach the city in the air anyway, it might cause problems," Sirius said after a moment's thought. "Just skim the road till we're maybe a half mile from the city and then we walk in."

"I guess that makes sense. If it's something like a muggle city, we don't want to reveal anything," Tonks said. "'course, this being another bloody world, we don't know what's what anyway."

As Harry nodded, Sirius again turned into a dog and loped off. This time, Harry followed him on the broom, skimming along behind him. Ten minutes, they found themselves leaving the trees and coming upon a road. It was old, and paved with old stones. "This looks like one of those Roman roads, I saw one on a class trip once," Harry said.

He could feel Tonks nodding her head behind him as she stated, "I saw a road like this not far from London." They began to fly along the road, heading in the direction of the city in the distance.

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As they had to keep pace with Sirius-as-Padfoot, it took them almost two hours to make the journey to the city. Stopping a distance away from the city, Harry pulled out his wand, shrinking the broom and putting it in his pocket. Sirius transformed, saying, "We'll want to be careful. Let me do the talking. You're my son, and you're his girlfriend," he said to Tonks. "All right?"

"Harry, did you know I was your girlfriend?" Tonks teased him, "We haven't even kissed yet, we should get on that," she said, clinging to his arm. She smirked as he blushed.

"Tonks!" Harry stared at her.

"Don't give the kid a heart attack," is all Sirius said, chuckling softly as he led them towards the city gates. The city looked rather archaic, with huge wood and metal gates. The city walls were perhaps five meters high and solid stone.

As they approached the gates, they saw a tall older man with a closely-shaved gray beard step out of a small door. "Halt! What brings you to Leycroft?" He wore what looked like brigandine armor. At his side was a sword.

"We're travelers." Taking in the armor and sword, Sirius continued, "Our mounts were driven off by wild animals, and most of our supplies went with them. Luckily we were close enough to the city to walk. I'm Sirius Black. This is my son, Harry, and his betrothed, Dora Tonks."

"Mmm," the man said, looking over all three of them, examining each in turn, carefully. "I'm Tef. You're welcome to Leycroft, though if you wish to stay long term, you'll need to find work. We're always looking for those who have knowledge of crafts or magic, and if you're of the more doughty sort, joining the Guild counts as employed as long as you can pay for accommodations. Apprenticeships or the Academy also count as employment." He disappeared through the door he emerged from and returned with what looked like three small stone coins. "These are your identification. Return in two weeks with proof of employment and you'll be issued a residency sigil."

Sirius accepted the sigils, offering one to Harry and then Tonks, "Thank you, sir. How much would an inn cost, and do you accept foreign coinage?"

"A room at an inn varies. One fit for a merchant might cost two or three silver talens a night and would come with breakfast and dinner. And we do accept foreign currency; most merchants have scales," Tef explained. "Just come in and we'll let you through, we don't open the gates during the night."

"Ah, good, I have some gold coins I can use," Sirius said with a nod. "Thank you, sir," He said, as he followed, gesturing to Harry and Tonks.

Once they got through, and walked down the street a ways, Harry said, "Wow. I feel like I'm in the middle ages or something. Did you see his armor? It looked cool."

"Boys," Tonks said dryly, "It does look weird though, like a medieval city." She paused as she came to an intersection with glowing balls of light set in sconces, "Okay, medieval magical city, that's almost like Hogsmeade at night."

"We're going to have to get jobs. Or perhaps study, they mentioned an Academy," Sirius said after a moment. "Between you and I, we'll be able to teach Harry magic. Well, our magic. This world obviously has magic of its own. It might be interesting learning how it's different."

Harry snorted, "Even in another bloody world, people talk about schooling." He was amused though, "Probably for the best to learn as much as I can. I wonder what 'guild' they were talking about."

"Don't know. Could be just a craft thing, but they said you needed to be doughty, so I'm going to guess it's something else," said Sirius. "We can do some research later. I'm just glad they speak English. Or we somehow speak their language, who knows."

"It sounds like they're speaking English," Harry said after a moment. "But it'd be really strange if they actually were."

Shrugging, Tonks commented, "Does it matter, really? We can talk to people, that's all to the good. Let's get a room so I can sleep with my betrothed." She grinned at Harry's blush, "Thanks, Sirius. This is never going to get old."

"Why did you say she was my betrothed, anyway?" Harry complained.

"Because I saw the road and the city from a distance; it didn't look like a modern city," Sirius said with a shrug, "I was covering bases. It may have looked odd to have her traveling with us without some sort of connection. She's too old to be my daughter. It was either you or me, and honestly, Harry, I just couldn't. I helped change her diapers." He grinned at Tonks' glare. "I guess I could have had a sister, but this was more fun." He grinned.

"Do you not want to be my betrothed?" Tonks asked as she pouted at Harry, making her eyes even bigger than usual to accentuate the expression. She loved teasing him.

"Tonks, stop it, you're a wonderful girl, that's not the issue," Harry assured her without thinking. He didn't notice her slight blush at his words, as he ran his fingers through his hair.

Sirius smirked as he watched them and mentally made a note. Tease more in the future, this might bear fruit.

But for now, time to find an inn.

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"Hey, you guys won't believe this!" Tonks said as she entered their room. She'd spent most of the day walking around the city in other forms, asking questions.

"What's wrong, Tonks?" Harry asked. He'd been sitting with Sirius, talking quietly.

"This world is weird, it's almost like a video game or fantasy story. No stats, but still. That guild they mentioned? An 'adventurer's guild'. They hire people to go out and kill monsters. There's a lot of them around, apparently. Imagine a world where there are bloody wargs and trolls and other things running around willy-nilly. They even mentioned a dungeon in a nearby city."

"A dungeon?" Sirius stared at Tonks, "You mean where you store prisoners?" He was a pureblood who never played video games or read much muggle literature.

"No, one where lots of monsters are. Apparently they appear naturally where magic is very strong, it's a way for the magic to drain safely, or some such. Otherwise, boom." She shook her head. "The guild is used to protect people from monsters, it's got a mandate in most of the kingdoms around here."

"So people just become adventurers and fight monsters?" Sirius said musingly, "Sounds like being a hit wizard without all the paperwork." He paused, "You mentioned magic, did you learn anything about it?"

"Yeah, actually, I asked around the guild, posed as a clueless newbie from the sticks." Tonks said lightly, "Magic here is based on spirits. You bond to a spirit of some sort and can learn to do magic, though not everyone can establish a bond. Most seem to bond to elementals. Y'know, air, earth, fire, and water? They also have wood and metal. But there are other spirits. Light, shadow, and more. Some big name hero years back was apparently bonded to an archon, basically an angel. Magic here seems a lot more flashy and powerful than we're used to, but more focused from the stories I heard. Some guy at the guild is bonded to a metal elemental. I saw him shatter a sword with his fist during a duel and another sword just bounced off him."

"Only one spirit? Can you choose?" Sirius asked curiously.

"You can't choose, they said. What is called when the summoning ritual is performed is what you get, kind of like becoming an animagus. Most can only do it once. Some people with stronger magic can perform the ritual multiple times. Apparently if you can bond to multiple spirits, you -can- choose which one you bond to first, though. The hero I mentioned apparently bonded six spirits," Tonks said.

"Huh, that sounds interesting. We'll have to pick up books on it," Sirius said. "We already know our magic works here, but this world's magic would be fun to learn. Anything else?"

"The guild mentioned ritual and runic magic that anyone with a bonded spirit can do. It sounds a lot like our own, though the rules are probably different," Tonks said with a shrug.

"This is cool," Harry interjected. "I wonder if we'll be able to bond a spirit. How do you do it?"

"You either hire someone or join the adventurer's guild. They perform the ritual for you," Tonks said. "Hiring someone is pretty expensive, as it requires exotic materials. The guild does it free, but you have to work for them for at least a year."

"In my case," Sirius said after a moment, "I guess I join the guild for a year. It sounds like interesting work."

Tonks nodded at him, "Me too. What about you, Harry?"

"I'm not sure I like the idea of killing things," Harry admitted, "But they are monsters who hurt people, right? I could probably do it. I've already done it before, even if I nearly died."

"Wait." Tonks stared at Harry, "Did it before?"

"Yeah. My second year," Harry said to her. "There was this business with people getting petrified because the Chamber of Secrets was opened." He admitted, "People found out I was a parselmouth, so they all said I was a Dark wizard, I got hexed a lot, and the teachers didn't do anything about it," he said, shoulders slumping. "Anyway, eventually I found the entrance and went down inside to save Ginny Weasley, Ron's sister. Turned out she was writing in this magical diary, and it was possessing her somehow. There was a huge basilisk down there, longer than fifty feet. I killed it with a sword, but nearly died. I would have if Fawkes hadn't cried on the wound."

"Please tell me you're joking," Sirius almost begged.

"I'd heard about some trouble, but nothing about you killing a basilisk," Tonks said, staring. "Granted, I was busy with auror training but still."

Harry pulled up his sleeve to show a large, shiny patch of skin on his arm, lifting it to show the other side, "Well, I did. Bit me when I stabbed it too." He gave a few more details, shrugging.

Sirius really didn't like how blasé Harry was about his adventure. He looked at him a moment, then sighed, "Well, sounds like we do the adventurer thing. What're the rules, Tonks?"

"We have to do at least one bounty a month, though if we want to make money to live, we'll have to do more anyway," she said. "Bounties range from hunting monsters outside the city to going into a dungeon, though that only happens in places that have dungeons. The closest one is up in Rook, the capitol of this region."

"Hmm, what do you think, Harry?" Sirius asked, wanting Harry to have input; he knew how much Harry hated having people decide everything for him.

Harry considered, smiling a bit, "I think it depends on how hard it would be to get to this Rook place. If it's not that difficult, we could practice doing things here first for a bit of experience, then move up to Rook to try the dungeon. I bet a dungeon would be more consistent. If it'd take a while to get there, we might as well get it over with and go up to Rook, even though we haven't fought any monsters here before."

Tonks agreed with Harry, saying, "That makes sense. And from what I understand, travel to Rook is easy enough along the highway, though it'll take us days to walk it. Shorter if we get enough money to get space on one of the stagecoaches. I think we should be fine for money, if we try. Between Sirius and I, we should be able to handle weaker monsters. I was trained by Mad-Eye, after all, and Sirius was training as a hit wizard before... well."

"And Harry can help out too," Sirius said, nodding, though he was going to make sure Harry kept in the rear. He knew better than to try to keep Harry in the town. He nodded his head. "Okay, then. First stop is the Guild to join up."