Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 117: The First One
"Whoa!" Just as Harry was about to land, the tree moved one of its branches and slapped him out of the air.
"Ouch!" He landed on the ground and rolled a few times before stopping.
A moment of silence.
"What was th—…" He stopped when he saw the amused expression on Morgan's face as she landed a good distance away from the tree. "You knew about this." It was not a question.
Morgan chuckled. "They call it the Whomping Willow. It's a sentient tree that attacks everyone who gets too close. Or so I heard from some of the students."
"You could have given me a warning." Harry stood up and patted his robes clean.
"And where is the fun in that?" Morgan asked.
Harry decided to ignore her and looked at the tree in question. He held the sacred sword in his left hand and pointed it toward the tree, and it seemed to emit a light pulse, a sort of aura that he could detect, despite being very subtle.
"The fragment is definitely here," said Harry.
"Inside the tree?" Morgan asked. "Good luck getting that out."
Harry frowned. "I would rather not have to damage a sentient tree to obtain the fragment. But in any case, I don't think it's inside the tree…" He continued to move the sword until he was pointing at the ground beneath it. The feeling grew stronger. "There is something down there."
"Mmm…" Morgan narrowed her eyes as they gained a golden glow. "You are right, there is an entrance to a tunnel between those roots." She could easily pierce through the darkness and see what lay beyond the obvious.
Harry walked a bit closer, and the Willow immediately reacted by moving its branches backward, as if it were preparing to strike.
He stopped and closed his eyes for a moment.
"Are you going to talk to it?" Morgan raised an eyebrow. "It's just a tree. Let's break a few of its branches. I'm sure it won't mind that much."
Harry opened his eyes and looked at the tree. There was no change in its attitude. "It won't let us pass."
"Wait… you actually asked it for permission?"
"Not exactly," said Harry. "I tried to communicate my intentions, but this tree seems to have been tasked with protecting whatever is beneath it, so it will attack anyone who gets too close."
"Okay then, let's do it my way." Morgan grinned.
"There is no need for that. I have another idea." Harry's wand appeared in his hand. He pointed it at the willow tree. "Glacius."
A mass of white mist emerged from his wand and covered the entire tree.
A moment later, the willow appeared to be completely frozen.
Morgan stared at it in shock. "Did you just kill the tree? I thought you didn't want to harm it. I was merely going to break a few branches…"
"I killed nothing. The cold won't even harm such a big willow tree. It will just restrict its movements for a few minutes. Now, come on." Harry walked between the frozen branches and entered the secret passage.
After falling through a long, descending tunnel, he found himself inside something that looked like the room of a house.
"Lumos." A couple of orbs of light floated around the space before Harry.
"A basement? Why is this here?" Morgan poked her head from behind him.
"It is indeed an odd place to build a room. Someone must have used this place as a hideout at some point," Harry guessed.
Morgan used her enhanced senses to explore the place. "It seems like it's empty, at least."
"By the layer of dust, I would say no one has come here for many years," Harry pointed out.
"Are you sure the fragment is in here?"
"Positive." Harry examined the basement.
The room was not very big, and it was filled with things. It was clear that someone had been using this for storage. There were boxes on the floor, shelves with books and trinkets, old clothes, and a bed resting vertically against the wall.
"I hope you can pinpoint the location of the fragment. Otherwise, we are going to be here all night," Morgan said while covering her nose. "It smells weird in here… like wet dog."
Harry couldn't smell anything, but his five senses were nowhere near as potent as those of Morgan.
"We shouldn't need to search everything in here." He held the broken Excalibur in his hand and moved it around. "Now that we are this close… I should be able to call for the fragment."
"That would be fantastic… the sooner we are done here, the better."
"Give me a moment… I'm still trying to figure out how this works." Harry tried to focus on his new connection to the sword and its subsequent connection to its missing fragments.
"Yes… It's very close." He felt the pulse from the hidden fragment and tried to call for it using his pure will...to bring it closer.
"Mmm?… what was that?" Morgan glanced at the wooden floor and noticed that some of the planks were shaking. "Harry, I think the fragment is b—"
Suddenly, a sliver of silver shot out from the floor, and Morgan had to move aside to avoid it. "Whoa!"
Without stopping, the metallic fragment clashed against the broken sword in Harry's hand.
The two pieces of metal appeared to fuse together, and the blade began to change shape.
Under Harry and Morgan's watchful gazes, the broken sword reformed into a short blade, not much longer than a dagger, but at least it no longer appeared broken.
"I… didn't know it was going to do that," Harry muttered.
"It fixed itself. That's impressive," Morgan said.
"It's far from complete, but I think Excalibur's power can be used now. At least partially," said Harry.
Morgan stared at him for a long moment. "I have been wondering this, but… do you even know how to use a sword?"