Chapter 2

Harry had been laying on the bed strapped down when the witches that were chanting, to remove his block as well as the blood ward drain on his core, stopped and left as what felt like 10 cruciatis curses hit him at once. He screamed in absolute agony as the power was ripping through his body. As the bracers and necklace burst into flame and disintegrated from the massive power overload he passed out. Harry opened his eyes into a misty grayness and looked around in complete incomprehension until he noticed a patch of white in the distance. Having no clue whatsoever he decided to walk towards the light. After seeming hours had passed he entered a scene reminiscent of platform 9 3/4. He saw a man and woman standing in front of him and walked over to them. "Hello, who are you, and what is this place?"

The man spoke up "You may call me Cernunnos, Tyr, Ra, or Ares. This is my companion; you may call her Brighid, Athena, Hathor, or Diana. As for where we are, well, this is your representation of the plane between your world and ours."

"Wait a second ... Cernunnos? Ares? Athena? Diana? Those are then of separate Gods and Goddesses. Who are you really?" Harry asked heatedly.

"The woman spoke up in a cool and soothing manner "names are too limiting for us, but it gives clues as to or various aspects. My companion" gesturing to the man beside her "is the one in the forefront of battle, the protector and the destroyer, the feral instincts and the willingness to shoulder burdens that would crush others. I however am the healer, the wise one, the voice that counsels reason and the voice that cries out against injustice, as well as the seeking of knowledge that leads to advancement. Know this: for it is an absolute truth that few understand and none fully comprehend we are one yet separate, many yet singular."

Harry looked at them for long minutes as he tried to comprehend what they had said his mind awhirl he did what comes to those whose world had been shattered in an instant, he fainted. After several minutes he stirred and looked around, when he saw the man and woman gazing at him with faint hints of concern on their faces he groaned and got up. "Why am I here? Why are you telling me this?"

"Ah, finally we come to the pertinent questions. First you should know that time has no meaning here. You could spend years here in the blink of an eye, or the reverse in that a blink of an eye here and years could pass in the mortal realm. As for why you were chosen? That requires a bit of a history lesson young Potter. Around ten thousand years ago humanity began to spread out. A tribe set out upon the ocean having been driven out by invaders and stumbled upon a continent that you know as Atlantis. There they found a gateway between your realm and ours. The tribe settled down around that portal and in time we encountered them and spent time amongst them. They were fearful and primitive at first, but eventually they learned and they began to worship us. As all acts born from love and desire are pleasant to us eventually children were born thus were the first magic users amongst humans were born. The land prospered and began trading with various tribes, villages, and eventually nations, such as Egypt, Sumeria, Lumeria, amongst others. As time passed they took on the role of advisors, teachers, and priests and priestess. Eventually the leaders and most powerful of Atlantis grew so prideful that they created a portal that reached into the darkest realm where dwell those beings known as demons. They fell for the whispered promises and they opened it that they might gain even more power from the demon lords. They were the first to be slaughtered and their souls were sucked dry. Unchecked the demons spread forth across the land destroying all they found. There was a small minority however who fought back and their leader was known as Merlin, which was a title of the High Priest. They cut their way to the portal and closed it forever sealing it shut, thus saving humanity; however their land was broken asunder and was unstable from all the energies they had used. So taking a few treasured belongings they fled. The Merlin and the few supporters left alive went to England, others went to Egypt, Sumeria, and a small group went west to South America and the land of the Toltecs. Not long after they left the land exploded, destroying our portal as well as the one to the Demonic Realm. Your ancestors were amongst the followers of Merlin and were descended from our loins, as well as being the temple guardians. In this land they stayed true to the Old Ways, that there is no light or dark, there is only magic. The ways and purposes to which magic is used is the only defining aspect. To put it simply there is no light or dark, merely infinite shades of gray. This knowledge was passed down father to son when the son reached the age of 13. However in the 1700's the head of your house was killed by a Dark Lord before his son was of age to begin instruction, thus the line of knowledge was broken. However the enchantments are still in place and have preserved some of the knowledge of magic you will need."

"Eventually however the band forgot their origins and became corrupt and swayed by the religion from Rome, they have become stagnant and decayed. Their arrogant pureblood philosophy has curtailed the power available so that those descendants whom are known as muggle born have as much if not more potential magic power than they do. For magic and the capacity to use it has become inherent in every human being. However know this, the planet and every human being is facing one of two roads. One leads to your race spreading amongst the stars, the other leads to total annihilation. You asked why you? One of the reasons is that you are our descendant and thus we are able to contact you easier than almost anybody else. The other main reason is that you are the pivot point to humanity's path. For if you do not defeat Voldemort and bring justice and the old ways back to wizarding kind then the world will be destroyed."

Harry listened to this and snorted "why do I always get the shitty end of the stick?"

The man laughingly replied "suck's to be you. That and the Fate's seem to dislike you."

"Yeah that does seem to be the case. Ummm not to be rude or anything, but why are you contacting me now? I mean why didn't you contact me earlier?"

The woman spoke up "We have contacted you now young one because the blinders that you had concerning the ministry, current wizarding society, as well as the leader of the light have been dropped from your eyes. For the first time in your life you have started to take control as well as question everything that had happened to you. Without this you would have either dismissed this as a dream, or run to Dumbledore with this tale. Now Dumbledore is not an evil man, however he is manipulative, self-righteous, egotistical, and blinded by his brilliance in other aspects. He abhors any sort of violence or direct conflict. His moral code and justifications for everything he does have led to the rise of Voldemort and the status quo in the current society. Unfortunately he does not realize that the current society will eventually give rise to a new Dark Lord time and time again. If the current society is not changed the mass of humanity will eventually discover wizarding kind in the worst possible manner. The shock coupled by hysteria, panic, fear and revulsion will lead to a series of conflicts that will destroy this world."

"All right then, let's get started" Harry grimly replied.

"Excellent" Athena replied. "The first thing you need to learn is the code of the Guardians. Never commit murder, never rape, never steal, never boast and never let the innocent go without justice. Protect the innocent from harm, care for your allies before yourself, never fight without just cause. Think before you act, never lie to your allies, strike fear into your enemies, never take pleasure in torture, never torture without a clear purpose, fight for the rights of others, fight with a clear head and give help to those that need it. Question those that would have power over you and care for those that you have power over. Never forget to live and know when peace is required. Bring justice to those that have been wronged, seek retribution on those that harm the innocent. Stop those that seek power for the sake of power. Learn to live, love and be rejoiceful in knowing that you are loved. Seek knowledge of the world, learn from all things and do judge knowledge from where it came from, for even the most wicked and evil things you may experience will have lessons for you. For the universe talks in all things: in love it whispers, in life it talks, and in pain it shouts. Teach those that wish to learn no matter who they are or where they come from. Learn from history, but never forget that the ones who record history are mortal."

Tyr spoke up "the code of the Guardians is a hard one to live up to. Take heart that we do not require you to be perfect, but strive always to honor and follow the code, and remember in battle there is no mercy. Mercy is for before or after the battle, never during. Honor your family, but remember that they too were mortal."

The lessons continued as the two deities explained conflict, war, justice, honor, truth and various concepts. Seemingly weeks passed as the concepts and moral code of the Guardians became instilled and deeply rooted in Harry's psyche. They wouldn't exactly change him, but they would give him guidelines to follow, as well as provide a moral compass in times of need or confusion. Most importantly they gave him a direction for his life.

Tyr spoke once more "Harry now that you have code and underlying concepts behind it down we need to tell you some things. One is pertaining to the link you have with Voldemort. Dumbledore may have told you that it happened when the killing curse rebounded due to the sacrificial protection cast by your mother. That is only partly true. When the curse rebounded it tore loose a piece of his core and that fragment entered you. It drained your core, and caused the mental link between you. Now there is two ways that this can be taken care of. One is that you can have it destroyed right now. The other is that you can use the link and take control of it and use this intelligence that you gather to decimate his followers. Then destroy is right before you kill him. It is your decision entirely. However know this, the path to control the connection will be painful, but will gain you much more power and potentially save more people as you will be able to listen in on all of his planning. As to destroying the fragment in your head, that requires a ritual that you need to recover which is currently hidden in Egypt."

"I have a part of his core in my head!!! How in the name of Hades is that possible?"

Athena said "Voldemort created a horcrux when he was 16 and placed it into the diary you destroyed. However when he did so his soul was unstable and ragged with the rips and tears he put upon it. When the curse rebounded on him a fragment of his core was torn loose and it entered you."

"How many of these things did he create?"

Athena replied "He created two. One was the diary, another was an heirloom passed down in his family from Salazar Slytherin. It is a locket with two snakes on the front. It should be located in the Black residence, being taken there from its hiding place by Regulus Black, the brother of Sirius. Regulus was a death-eater who turned traitor when he truly saw Voldemort for what he was. He learnt of the horcruxes and found out the location of one. He then retrieved it and brought it back to his ancestral home. He tried to destroy it but was unsuccessful in doing so. He told Kreacher to try and find a way to destroy it. It should still be located there."

Tyr then continued where Athena left off. "The sword of Godric Gryffindor is one of the few things able to destroy a horcrux, now that it has absorbed basilisk venom from when you killed the basilisk. A spell called fiendfyre can also destroy one. The only other thing that can destroy one is basilisk venom. Personally I would stick with the sword because fiendfyre is almost impossible to control, and it requires an immense amount of control and magic power, it is much easier to use a sword."

Athena then sighed and said "well Harry, you now have the two options that are available to you. Which will you choose?"

After thinking it over for several minutes Harry said "I will keep the connection for now. However I might change my mind before the end of Voldemort. Where exactly is this ritual located again?"

Athena looked at him searchingly then replied "the ritual is in Egypt. When Atlantis was still thriving, several groups of people went out and became priests and advisors. One group went to ancient India and helped the growing civilization there. When that civilization was destroyed by horse nomads they fled to Ancient Sumeria and founded a religious group that worshiped the god Ninurta a god of war and agriculture they became known as the Order of the Black Flame. When they had settled down and remembering the reason they fled, they took a sacred vow to not let the innocent suffer or allow the destruction of civilization by barbarians again without fighting. So they turned from the relatively benign magic's they had brought with them from Atlantis and turned to battle magic's. There they developed extremely powerful battle magic's and were considered to be the most powerful group there was, despite the small numbers of priests. Right before their city fell to the Akkadians due to treachery and ennui of the city's inhabitants they moved to ancient Egypt and founded another small priesthood and eventually became advisors to the Pharaohs, until Egypt fell to Rome. Right before the empire and the priesthood were destroyed, they gathered all of their scrolls and hid them deep in what they called Hamunaptra in remembrance of the lost city of their forefathers that was lost long ago. Once they had hidden away their secrets they set, one of their greatest discoveries, a type of magical serpent to guard their treasures. Once they had done this they marched into battle and destroyed nearly half of the invading forces wizards despite being outnumbered 20 to 1 before they died. That place has been hidden away these past centuries and only you can enter it, once certain things have passed."

Harry puzzled said "what things?"

Tyr replied "you must go to your ancestral castle and while there go into the henge which is located on that property and dedicate yourself to the code of the Guardians following the ritual described in your families Book of Shadows. Once you have completed the ritual you will be marked by magic itself. Once this ritual has been done you will then be able to practice the teachings you will learn from the scrolls of the Order of the Black Flame. In the scrolls there you will find a ritual to complete that will increase your connection to magic exponentially. Once you do this ritual you will be marked by your magic once more as an initiate and practitioner of their brand of magic. These two markings are quite different and will be permanent. There is also a magical artifact that will aid you greatly there. One of the premier inventors of the Order of the Black Flame created it in the last days before their annihilation. He called it the Eyes of Wenut, and Mind of Thoth. It is a time compression device that compresses a single day into thirty days. This can be set for a time period to be compressed for up to fifteen days at a single period, once activated it cannot be deactivated, and all supplies such as food must be in the compression zone. Like all other time compression zones one cannot leave or enter the zone once it is activated. The one thing that sets this device apart from all others is that the people inside the zone will age at the rate of those without, thus you will only age 15 days, not three years. Another facet of this is that your body will change according to how you've changed it, so that if you exercise extensively in the time zone your body will reflect your exercising for the time period of inside the compression zone. One warning that we must stress is that if you set the zone for more than 16 days you will age to death in three hours. To avoid this from happening you must take a break from using it for two days before you can safely use it again."

Harry absorbed this information and vowed to find the lost secrets of the Order of the Black Flame. He then said "what ancestral castle? What is the Book of Shadows?"

Athena replied "your ancestral castle will be revealed to you under the name of Gryffindor. Your ancestors changed their name after the founding of Hogwarts and the rupture with Salazar Slytherin. The Book of Shadows contains the magic spells and rituals that have been passed down from father to son. Yours is the oldest Book of Shadows still in existence, as it was started in Atlantis. It contains all of the spells as well as other discoveries by your ancestors. The only other Book of Shadows that is remotely comparable is the one in Dumbledore's possession, which he gained from Grindewald. That book is the reason that Dumbledore is as powerful as he is, especially as Grindewald shared the spells in that book with his onetime friend Albus Dumbledore."

"Wait, you're saying Dumbledore and Grindewald were friends? I thought they fought each other?"

Replying to Harry's question Athena answered "Yes they did fight, but only after many years had passed since the sundering of their friendship. Albus and Gellert first became friends in 1900. They were both gifted students and nearly equal in power and skill. They both made plans for the wizarding world to dominate and lead the muggle world. Where they differed was in approach. Gellert wanted to conquer the wizarding world and rule it openly and lead the wizards under his control to conquer the mugles. Albus preferred a puppet master approach to become politically powerful and use that influence to rule the muggles in the shadows as it were. They both coined the phrase 'for the greater good' to explain any and all actions for the furtherance of that plan. One other difference is that Gellert had no problems in equality amongst wizards and witches as long as they obeyed him, while Albus decided a caste society with purebloods on top ruling half-bloods, with muggleborns on the bottom all of them ruling over muggles. Albus brother Alberforth found out these plans and remonstrated against Albus for betraying his family traditions. When Gellert found out that Albus was being swayed by Alberforth's words he snapped and attacked Alberforth. Albus stepped in and the two dueled until a stray spell hit Albus's sister and killed her. Dismayed at possibly killing his secret love Gellert fled to Europe where he took on the persona of Himmler and conquered most of Europe and all of Russia. He never went to England however as he didn't want to face Albus. Albus however went to Europe and dueled him in1945. He didn't come before then because he didn't want to face his old friend. The only reason he came was he feared that his own plan for leadership of the muggles was in jeopardy due to persistent whispers that he was afraid of him. After defeating and imprisoning him for life, Albus gained all the political power that he could want."

Tyr then spoke up continuing where Athena left off. "Dumbledore has spent the last 50 years gaining complete domination in Britain and is now only hindered by Voldemort; because he prefers to remain on his throne and 'pure' in the light he has never taken offensive action or directly killed anyone. He instead sends his faithful out on missions secure in the fact that eventually the dark lord will fall. He ignores when convenient any and all law's that hinders him, and sees the death of people as completely avoidable. He also is blinkered by the fact that everyone deserves another chance to repent and be forgiven. By shaping society the way that he has he has created a society that's mentality can be compared to sheep. As long as their savior is around and doesn't inconvenience them they don't care who is in power. The pureblood's grimly cling to anyone who promises them their continuing prestige, power and wealth. The halfblood's are caught in the middle and don't really care who wins as long as they are left alone. The muggle born are ostracized and belittled at every turn so that in ever increasing numbers they leave Britain and go to where they don't have to face the discrimination they find here unless they happen to be the lucky few who find husbands of a higher social class such as your mother. Meanwhile witches in the top two tiers generally have no political power, and almost no economic power. Amelia Bones is one of the few exceptions and she only got to where she is by being the sole surviving member of the Ancient and Noble house of Bones; the only other exception is Umbridge and she got political power by securing the patronage of Cornelius Fudge who uses her as a patsy and cutout to any illegal or immoral actions he wants done. You see why this society must come down? Half of the citizens have no power on their own merits, and of the remaining half only the purebloods whom make up around 22% total of the population dominate business and the Ministry of Magic. With this war currently taking place the percentage of purebloods is going to be more than decimated. With Voldemort killing off the 'blood traitors', and those of his followers being fought and occasionally killed off in return the purebloods are in trouble; especially when the genetic consequences are considered. The constant inbreeding amongst the pureblood's and the desire only for sons has brought their numbers to an all time low. Where exactly they will find suitable pureblood brides is a good question as well.

Athena then said "that is the reason that we have been granted permission to speak and give guidance to you now. In accordance with our instructions the location of the temple of Hamunaptra is located 80 km west of the pyramids. Buried under 30 feet of sand and rock the only way to get into the temple is to speak in parseltongue: sss may the temple of serpents open to the one foreseen and called by the gods' sss. Amongst the scrolls you will find a way to teach parseltongue to any witch and wizard. The greatest of spells and rituals requires high parseltongue which the serpent guardians will be able to teach you. Unfortunately high parseltongue cannot be learned by non-natural parselmouths. Once you learn high parseltongue you will also be able to read the writings on the walls which I suggest you do so as soon as possible. One thing I must ask of you is to gather a group of trust worthy companions and learn together this way you will not be cutting yourself off from humanity. I know that your first inclination would be to do this alone. You must not do this; otherwise you run the risk of falling into the trap of Grindewald and Dumbledore in that they do not and indeed cannot trust others fully with their plans. While you are training and learning with others in your group you will also be able to gain insights that may not have occurred to you."

Athena then spoke up once more "Harry what are your plans for getting to your ancestral castle? You now know that you cannot trust Dumbledore or most of the Order of the Phoenix, right?"