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Yet again Harry had the sensation of floating.
Only this time it didn't seem to be under the influence of a spell.
Harry felt that if we wanted to move he could, but he simply didn't want to.
The last thing Harry remembered was Malfoy's curse. The pain had been so intense that Harry had fallen down, and shut his eyes, mentally trying to shut out the pain.
The pain had stopped, but Harry's eyes were still closed.
"Harry." Said a voice.
Harry tried to open his eyes. His eyelids felt incredibly heavy.
"Wake up Harry." Said the voice again.
Harry managed to force his eyes open.
The sensation of floating turned into a queasy dizziness.
The room, if you could call it a room, was either a perfect sphere, or had no walls. The walls, so to speak, seem to be gracefully changing colors, so smoothly that you couldn't even tell when the swirling masses changed from red to blue.
"Harry." The voice said from behind Harry.
Harry tried to jerk around, but instead he slowly drifted in a half circle to face the speaker.
Harry now saw them. It was a woman. Harry looked at her cautiously, her blond hair made him think of Malfoy and feel suspicious, but nothing else about her caused him to worry. She looked in about her forties, and currently her face looked sad and tired.
"I'm very sorry about this Harry." She said sadly.
"Sorry about what?" Harry said cautiously.
"Trapping you on Pern. I'm working on it though."
Harry stared. "How did you trap us on Pern?"
"Unfortunately I can't tell you, I'm not even sure how, not yet atleast."
"Who are you?"
"You don't know me, but I know you, I know everything about you. Your past, present, and future."
This put Harry on his guard again, hadn't Tom Riddle said almost the same thing?
"However," she continued, "while you are in Pern I can not help you."
Harry was quite sure he'd gone insane.
"No you haven't gone insane, though I know I've said that can be the effect of the Cruciatus Curse." The woman said smiling.
Suddenly the "room" grew dimmer.
The woman looked annoyed. "We don't have much time. Listen to me Harry, you six need to keep safe-."
Harry cut her off, "Six?"
"You, Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Hermione and Ron. You have to stay safe. I can't help you directly while you're on Pern, but I'll do what I can. You have to keep them safe Harry, if you don't everything will fall apart. You know very well, memories can be modified, but the dead can't be brought back to life."
The room was growing dim fast.
"Good luck Harry Potter." The woman said and started fading with the room.
"Wait!" Harry shouted. "Who are you! What are you talking about!"
The room completely faded.
"Get some help!" Ron shouted at the dragonriders who were just standing there.
"Come on Harry, come on Harry." Hermione kept repeating.
Several dragonriders turned to go 'get some help.'
"Wait!" Harry shouted suddenly.
The dragonriders froze.
"Harry!" Hermione shouted and hugged him.
"Hermione! Get off him!" Ron said forcing Hermione's death grip off Harry.
"I'm okay." Harry said slowly as if he wasn't entirely sure he was. He had no memory of the conversation he had just had with the mysterious woman.
Three new dragonriders walked into the room.
One came up to Harry and handed him a towel.
Harry wasn't entirely sure why, but then he realized his nose was bleeding.
The other two riders were holding a third man between them.
"Ramoth told us what was going on, we found him trying to run for it." One of the riders said shoving Lord Menron forward.
"Get your hands off me! What right do you have to be here!" Menron said in disgust.
"You invited us." F'lar said slowly.
Harry was happy to see F'lar had recovered. He appeared a bit unstable on his feet, but other than that he was the picture of dignity.
"Well I..." Menron could tell he was cornered. "Well I rescind the invitation. Leave."
F'lar got right in Menron's face. "Not till you tell us exactly where he came from," pointing at Malfoy's unconscious self, "And what you intended to do with him."
Menron opened and closed his mouth a couple times, "I don't have to tell you anything." He said firmly and finally.
Before F'lar could reply Ron stepped in.
"You better start talking before I make sure you never say a word again." He said with his wand centered in the middle of Menron's face.
Menron took an startled step backwards and his eyes crossed focusing on the tip of the wand.
"He said he'd help rid the world of thread and dragonriders!" The panic in Menron's voice was evident. "He said I'd be King of all Pern!"
"How'd he get here?" Hermione asked. She had slowly (she was supporting Harry because he insisted on coming too) walked over to join them.
"He came through that wall." Menron pointed at the one on the far side of the room. "He said they were on something called a train and they walked through a wall and found themselves here."
"Is this true?" Ron asked looking at Crabbe and Goyle who were still immobile against the wall.
Crabbe glared, but Goyle grunted and nodded yes.
"And how exactly did they plan to rid Pern of us?" F'lar asked Menron through gritted teeth.
"He has some sort of power." Menron sounded like a small child that had been caught stealing a cookie from the cookie jar.
"And you just intended to use them for some insane purpose." F'lar said visibly shaking.
"Well what did you intend to do with them." He pointed dramatically at Harry, Ron and Hermione. "I didn't see you announcing your Weyr secret to everyone."
Harry thought this was true, but F'lar seemed ready for such a comment.
"It wasn't a secret," he hissed. "Lots of people knew. Just no one thought the great Lord Menron needed to know." F'lar was dripping with sarcasm.
Menron glared at F'lar, and F'lar returned it.
The tension in the room was suddenly broken by a moan from Malfoy.
"Didn't you stupefy him?" Harry asked confused. The fact that the room was spinning really wasn't helping him keep track of things.
"I used Ron's wand." Hermione said in disgust.
F'lar quickly snatched Malfoy's wand off the ground and handed it to Ron.
Malfoy opened his eyes and raised his head off the ground a bit. If he was confused as to where he was for a moment, but then he quickly recovered and tried to jump to his feet.
Atleast four dragonriders were on him in an instant.
When the sudden pile of people had gotten up it was clear Malfoy was at a disadvantage. Two of the riders were behind Malfoy holding his arms in a double arm lock, and two other riders had their belt knifes out and looked ready to attack on a moments notice.
Malfoy flushed with panic (his cheeks turned a very faint pink).
"I say we deal with the little wizardling right now F'lar." Said an armed rider who Harry recognized as T'bor.
No one objected, and T'bor moved towards Malfoy with his knife out.
Hermione looked away from Malfoy, and Ron took a hesitant step back.
Harry just stared. They wouldn't would they?
Malfoy had gone wide eyed in terror and was paler then anyone had ever seen him.
Suddenly a voice only Harry could seem to hear said "Remember Harry, memories can be modified, but the dead can't be brought back to life."
The memory of what had happened suddenly came flooding back to Harry.
Harry hesitated a moment. Did it really happen? Could he really take that chance?
He moved.
"Wait!" Harry shouted and half jumped half fell between Malfoy and T'bor. "You can't!"
Everyone starred at Harry in surprise.
"Harry?" Hermione said cautiously approaching him. "Are you feeling alright?"
"Of course I'm alright." Harry said looking at Hermione.
Harry was anything but alright. His hair was messed up far more then usual, his face still had a large amount of drying blood on it, and his eyes were completely blood shot. In general Harry looked quite deranged.
Hermione stopped her approach.
"Malfoy what the hell are you doing it him!" Ron snarled.
"I'm not doing anything Weasley." Malfoy snarled back, his voice cracking mid-sentence.
"Harry," F'lar started.
"All of you stay back!" Harry shouted reaching for his wand to find it not there. Damn it, he thought. Quickly glancing around for it he saw it on the table far out of his reach.
"You especially, get back!" He pointed a threatening finger at T'bor.
"Shit." Harry heard Ron mutter. "It's the Crutasious Curse."
"What?" Harry asked
"Harry." Ron said cautiously approaching him. "Sometimes the Crutasious Curse can cause people to have, um, problems, after its been used on them too much."
"Ron! I haven't gone bloody insane!" Harry yelled.
Right then the thing Harry wanted more then anything in the world was his wand in his hand.
Oddly enough Harry got his wish.
There was a tapping from the table where his wand laid. The wand shot into the air and then flew over to Harry. He caught it.
There was a gasp from everyone. Even Ron and Hermione took a step back in surprise.
Ron was staring at Harry, "I didn't know you could do that."
"I didn't know anyone could do that." Hermione whispered in awe.
F'lar instantly turned diplomatic. "Okay Harry, we'll play it your way. These three are in your charge." He gestured at Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle. "They do anything wrong, I'm going to you. Got it?"
"Got it." Harry hissed.
"Harry?" Hermione said timidly. "Can I do one thing?"
Harry raised an eyebrow.
Hermione came over and whispered something in his ear. Harry grinned evilly and stepped asside.
Hermione strode over to Malfoy, and with one quick motion kneed him in the crotch.
Several of the males present flinched, but no one said anything.
Malfoy was keeling over in pain as much as he could (which wasn't much because of the two dragonriders still holding him).
Hermione grabbed his, now rather messy, blond hair and yanked on it forcing him to look up at her.
"Don't you ever touch me again you son of bitch." She hissed in his face.
Malfoy nodded biting his lip.
With a signal from F'lar the two riders let go of Malfoy (who instantly hit the ground), and T'bor sheathed his belt knife.