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Chapter 74 - The Element Of Earth

FLASHBACK

Dimension: 563 - Earth
Date: Unknown
Country: Unknown
Location: Unknown
Time: An Eternity In A Second

"Could we not have gone somewhere a bit warmer?" asked Harry, shivering slightly because of the strong winds.

"We are here to refine your elemental skills, specifically the skill of moving earth, rocks and plants, thusly we needed to go somewhere with a concentration of those elements." Explained Adam "You have your wand, you can cast a warming charm on yourself if you are cold."

The pair were standing in a small clearing at the base of a cliff somewhere, Harry guessed it was somewhere in Mexico or South America because of the lush rainforest like foliage that met the base of the cliff around the clearing.

"Just like you do with the other elements you need to force the element to do what you want," explained Adam "Thusly."

Walking over to a large bolder he proceeded to move into a firm stance before kicking it hard.

Harry winced as Adam's foot met the stone but was surprised when the bolder went flying in the direction it was kicked as if a wrecking ball had hit it.

"You used your strength to do that." Accused Harry.

"I did not." replied Adam calmly, stepping to the side before slamming his foot into the ground, sending a large rock lying in the dirt three meters away out of the ground with such a force that it flew ten meters into the air before it began to fall only to be punched by Adam as it fell, shattering it into thousands of pieces.

"When you have mastered the skill, you will be able to do almost anything you can imagine with that element."

END FLASHBACK
________________________________________________________________________

Dimension: 563 - Earth
Date: 15th September 2001 AD
Country: Italy - Aeolian Islands
Location: Stromboli - The Halls of Stromboli
Time: Unknown

As Harry regained consciousness he became aware of voices near him.

Remembering what had happened prior to his current state, he recalled that he had been visiting the Valkyrie's and that he was currently disguised as The Avatar.

Opening his eyes he saw that he was in a dark room, lit only by the light of three torches hanging on the walls.

He realised he was chained up with his arms restrained out to his side, his hands encased in lumps of rock (preventing him from moving his fingers so that he could not access his elemental powers), that were attached to heavy chains which led to weights hanging on the other side of the room; he was held high enough off the ground so that his feet could not reach the floor.

In front of him two male Valkyrie were arguing in English.

"Look, we tried pulling it off and it didn't work, we have to attach the weights to the mask and tear it off."

"And rip his head off along with it. The mask is magically attached to his head, it won't come off unless he takes it off, and remember Lord Voldemort wants him alive."

Harry eyes widened under his mask, the Valkyrie were already working for Voldemort; they invited them here to capture them, they had no intention of joining them.

But that was not important at the moment, right now he needed to get free and then find the others, and if there was so much as a scratch on any of them the Valkyrie's would pay.

Realising the guards thought him unconscious he returned his head to a hanging position. They could not see that his eyes were open through the mask.

And they also did not realise that he didn't need his hands to control the elements.

Turning his attention to one of the torches on the wall he began to raise and lower his eyebrows.

He continued to do so as the flame slowly increased in size. Controlling an element like this was very draining so he had to act quickly.

Luckily the guards were still too caught up in their argument (which had switched into Valkyrie) to notice as Harry began to direct the flame to flow through the air with his tongue, moving in little wisps to gather behind one of the guards; luckily the torch was directly behind him so even the one that was looking in the right direction could not see the fire.

Harry continued to use his tongue to draw the flame into a ball right behind the first guard.

It took almost five minutes for it to reach the size of a cricket ball without attracting attention, taking a greatly needed breath, Harry then rapidly jutted his head to the right.

The ball of fire flew into the back of the guard, sending him flying into his companion and both hard into the wall, knocking both unconscious.

Smiling in satisfaction Harry then turned his attention to freeing himself.

Breathing hard for several minutes he then began concentrating hard on the restraints, he focused on the slightly loose grip that the cable had on the stone encasing his left hand. Using sharp jerks of his head to move bits of grit from around the pin.

As he removed more and more, the pin got looser and looser until all of a sudden it slipped out, the weights on the other side of the room dropping to the floor with a crash as his arm fell to his side, the hard stone still encasing his hand making it drop like a lead weight into his leg as his back slid along the rough wall to hang by his single restrained arm.

Harry muffled a grunt as the lump of stone collided hard with his thigh and at the immense pain now tearing through his single restrained arm as all his weight was now hanging on his wrist.

Turning his attention to his other arm he, with enormous effort, swung his free arm up so that the stone restraints smashed into one another, shattering both lumps of stone, letting him drop to the floor in a shower of rock.

Waiting for the dust and the stone fragments, he attempted to climb back to his feet, attempting to support himself on his arm.

He was surprised when it collapsed out from under him, his nerve endings flaring in complaint, he had to grit his teeth to stop himself crying out in pain.

He must have done something to his shoulder when he was hanging from that wrist.

Climbing to his feet again, he let his right arm hang at his side, hopefully he could prevent further damage to it as he escaped, unfortunately even his Water Elemental skills could not heal the injury when he did not know what the problem was and he could not see the injury.

Moving over to the entrance he carefully looked through the bars in the window at the top of the door.

He saw an empty corridor that seemed to continue on for quite a way in both directions.

Moving back, he raised his useful hand, extended the fingers towards the stone around the door, before pulling back sharply and curling his fingers, whilst spinning and dropping to the floor defensively.

The wall creaked and a few stones cracked under the strain but nothing more.

Turning to the wall again he once again extended his hand before pulling and dropping to the floor and spinning into a defensive position.

The stone exploded out of the wall, bringing the door with it.

The stone smashed into the ground around Harry, denting and chipping the stone floor of the cell. One piece bounced of his good shoulder, creating a massive bruise and causing him to grunt in pain.

Hearing the door drop to the floor behind him, he slowly stood up, breathing heavily as he tried to recover from the energy drain of moving the stone, not just one handed but with his left hand which he was not as strong with.

Stepping out into the hallway, he checked it was clear before choosing a direction and beginning to walk.

He looked into several of the rooms he passed; most were either empty or contained stores of weapons and food. Passing one he spotted three wands lying on a table.

Back tracking he walked in and picked them up, identifying them as Fleur's, Tonks and Dimitri's. His was still within his cloak; a fact that he had forgotten when he let himself out of his cell, simply casting an unlocking charm would have been a lot less draining than shifting the stones.

Pocketing the wands he looked around the room and spotted one of his swords, Fleur's sais and an axe of Dwarven design. Pocketing them he examined the rest of the room but not being able to see his other sword or any other weapon of interest he turned and made his way towards the door.

As he neared the door he saw a pair of shadows approaching.

Leaning against the wall he waited until the shadows passed, before moving out into the hall and falling into step behind them, the two Valkyrie were armour plated and their footfalls and the clinking of their armour were rather loud, though he had not heard them whilst he was inside the armoury.

Harry guessed that there must be localised silencing charms around the doorways so that sound did not leave the rooms, he would have to look into every room as he went to make sure he did not go passed the cells of any of the others without knowing it.

He kept following the guards who were completely oblivious to his quiet footfalls around several corners before he caught a sight of some movement in a cell.

Stopping he looked back and saw a furiously fighting Tonks chained to the wall like he had been, screaming out insults at the three guards in front of her. One Valkyrie was lying on the floor holding his groin where Tonks had obviously kicked him, another was just moving a sword, HIS sword, to her throat to attempt to get her to stop struggling and the last of his friends was thoroughly enjoying himself, groping her chest through her Auror robes.

Harry's anger spiked as he observed the scene, his whole mind raged in anger at what he was seeing. Drawing his wand he opened the door, before replacing his wand and charging into the room.

He caught a glimpse of Tonks relieved face as he threw one of his fists forward, sending a blast of fire at the Valkyrie holding his sword, sending him and the sword flying into the wall beside Tonks before dropping to the floor.

His friend spun around only to have Harry's other sword swing through the air towards him

The Valkyrie collapsed to the floor in pain, staring at the stumps that had once been his fingers.

The one holding his groin never got a chance to stand as one swipe of Harry's sword cut deep into his neck, killing him instantly before Harry turned back to his fingerless friend.

He moved and stood over the terrified Valkyrie and aimed his sword at his throat.

"You touched my friend with that hand, and now you will never be able to touch anything ever again."

"Please....don't kill me." begged the guard, who Harry was sure was now regretting removing his armoured gloves before he copped a feel.

"Oh I'm not going to kill you." Said Harry darkly, kneeling over the shaking guard, making him look as dangerous as possible "I'm going to let you live so you remember never to touch anything that doesn't belong to you."

In one rapid movement Harry then lifted the sword point from the guard's neck before smashing the hand guard into his face, knocking him unconscious.

Standing up he moved to stand in front of Tonks.

"Are you alright?"

"I am now," she smiled "He only started about three seconds before you came in, his other friend," she said looking to the guard with the slit throat "Got about eight seconds in before I got him in the nuts. Could you err....get me down?"

"Of course." Nodded Harry, trying to think how best to do this without causing her injury like that which had happened to him. As an idea came to him he recovered his swords and replaced them, kneeling down in front of her and putting his knee beside her feet.

"What in Merlin's name are you doing?" she asked, looking down at him, shrinking her chest slightly so she could see him properly.

"I'm trying to get you down without injuring you, when I released myself I think I dislocated my shoulder."

"Ah, ok then," she nodded "What do you want me to do?"

"Stand your feet on my leg," he explained "That way when I release the first chain you won't drop, just try not to let the stone restraint hit your leg....Or me, please."

"Ok," nodded Tonks as she put her weight on Harry's leg "Ready."

"Three. Two. One."

A powerful cutting curse shot out of Harry's wand and sliced straight through the cable.

Tonks slumped a bit but did not tip forward or fall; she slowly lowered her arm so as not to risk injuring either of them before relaxing her muscles as she let her arm hang.

"Ok," nodded Harry "I'm going to cut the other one, rest the stone on my shoulder so that you are balanced, ready?"

"Ready."

"Three. Two. One."

Another cutting curse released her other arm, sending the weight smashing into the floor and letting Tonks lower her arm.

Tonks carefully stepped off Harry's leg.

"Great, now....how do I get rid of these?" she said raising her stone covered hands.

"Well I could try to pick the lock holding them shut or you could just slam them together like I did."

Tonks opted for the latter and immediately threw her arms together, sending chunks of rock and dust everywhere.

"Oh, that's so much better." She smiled, flexing her fingers before turning on the now fingerless Valkyrie.

Slowly walking over to him, she very carefully aimed and then rammed her foot at full speed into his groin.

Harry actually winced at the force of the impact; the guy would be in pain for days, and that was if he was lucky, he would be permanently damaged if he wasn't, but either way Harry doubted he would ever be a father.

Satisfied with her work Tonks turned to Harry, walked up to him and pulled his mouth down to hers.

Harry stood stunned as she passionately kissed him until she pulled back.

Harry didn't move for several seconds before managing.

"What was that?"

"That was for saving me from them." She smiled, before moving to look at his injured shoulder "Besides, now you know what you're missing." She grinned, adding a cheeky wink before gently touching his shoulder, making him gasp in pain "Yes, that's definitely dislocated. If I ha...."

She never got the chance to finish as Harry strode towards the wall and slammed his shoulder against the rock.

He let out a loud grunt as he did so before flexing his repaired arm, ignoring the lingering ache.

"I was about to say," said Tonks slowly "That if I had my wand I could have healed that painlessly."

"Oh, thanks for reminding me." He said as he reached into his pocket and withdrawing Tonks and Dimitri's wands before handing them to her "I've got all our weapons."

Taking the wands she raised an eyebrow at him. "Why did you force your shoulder back in rather then let me use my wand?"

"It was much more satisfying, I wanted to hit one of them," he said gesturing to the guards "But I get the feeling that if I hit the sole survivor I would probably kill him with the force of the impact and if he died he would never learn how to treat a Lady, so pushing my shoulder back in acted as a substitute."

Tonks shook her head before turning back to the guards.

"I don't think they were supposed to be in here anyway, by the way they snuck through the door I think they were supposed to be patrolling and just decided to take advantage of the situation, and if that doesn't teach them not to mess with Avatar's and Auror's nothing will."

"Shall we get moving?" He suggested, collecting his weapons before drawing a sword in his left hand and his wand in his right.

"Let's go kick some Valkyrie arse." She grinned before following him towards the door.

No sooner had they stepped out into the hallway when they heard a loud gong being rung.

"Damn," swore Harry "They must have discovered that I've escaped, we will have to move quickly."

"Which way did you come from?" asked Tonks as she turned back to her cell and started repairing the restraints and levitated one of the dead guards into place before roughly transfiguring his clothes and hair colour to look like her "That should confuse them for a bit, so which way?"

Harry pointed in the direction he came from before Tonks turned and ran in the opposite direction.

"Annoyingly the Valkyrie seem to have learnt not to keep prisoners in adjacent cells." she called back over her shoulder as they ran, taking glances into the surrounding cells as they went, a couple of times they saw decaying remains hanging from the walls, obviously prisoners they had killed or had died from some other cause "We can expect to run into resistance any minute now."

As they rounded a corner, they saw a pair of Valkyrie emerge from a turning further down the corridor.

Harry aimed his wand to curse them, but never got the chance to act as Tonks ran at the pair, jumped into the air, kicked off from the wall and caught one of the guards with a superb flying kick to the head, before landing, dropping to the floor, kicking the legs out from under the other and following it up with a punch to the nose as he hit the floor, leaving both unconscious, Harry suspected she may have still been a bit ticked off at being fondled.

Looking down at her handy work, Tonks nodded in satisfaction before turning to an open mouthed Harry, she guessed that under that mask his eyes had just jumped out of their sockets.

"What," she grinned "You thought all Auror's are taught to do is to fire curses."

"I did before." He admitted "Though I doubt I ever will again."

"Shall we?" she smiled, offering him point as they continued on down the hallway.

They turned around corner after corner after corner, taking down the half dozen guards they came across, but still found nothing.

"For goodness sake, what is this place," exclaimed Harry "The Minotaur's Labyrinth?"

"I'm beginning to wonder." Added Tonks, quickly glancing into another cell as they passed, before realising what she had seen and skidding to a stop "Hang on." She called as Harry came to hard stop to prevent himself colliding with her.

Doubling back to the door, Tonks looked into the room and saw a pair of swinging chains, putting her face right up to the bars so she could see what was hanging low on the opposing wall.

"We've found our resident stone cutter." She smiled to Harry before pointing her wand at the lock and letting them in.

No sooner had they crossed the threshold when they heard the stream of insults pouring from the Dwarfs mouth, luckily they were in Gobbledegook but they could guess what the words meant, he was so absorbed in insulting his absent captors that he didn't even notice them until he felt himself being lifted away from the wall and his wrists released.

"Avatar!" he said in surprise as he looked in astonishment as Harry cut through the chains, letting Tonks levitate him to the floor.

"Last time I checked." He smiled.

As soon as he touched the floor Kcor smashed his rock covered hands together.

"Ah, that's better, now if I only had my axe, I could teach tho...."

"Wish granted." Smiled Harry as he withdrew said axe from his cloak and handed it to the surprised Dwarf.

"Grand!" laughed Kcor, before shouting as a rallying call "Let's go and get those filthy Valkyrie."

They followed the Dwarf out the room and started running after him down the corridor only for him to stop dead after a few feet and dropped to the ground, pressing his palm to the floor.

Tonks came to such an abrupt halt that this time Harry did go flying into her but managed to keep them both upright.

"What can you feel Kcor?" asked Harry.

"We have three male Valkyrie heading this way, there are two more three corridors to the left and there are some chains hitting stone down that corridor."

"You can feel all that?" asked Tonks in astonishment.

Kcor stood and nodded proudly.

"And I thought I was good just being able to feel if someone was walking in the next room." Added Harry with a laugh "It's very complicated it is, feeling the different vibrations through the rock. After you Kcor."

The Dwarf took point and began to lead them towards where were he said the rattling chains where, rounding the next corner they came face to face with the three Valkyrie Kcor mentioned.

The Valkyrie never knew what hit them as they were blasted backwards by a jet of flame so big that it filled the corridor and scorched the walls.

Continuing on, the next pair were decapitated by a spinning axe which left the trio free to search for their restrained comrades.

"I've got Dimitri." Called Tonks as she opened a door and set to work releasing the Comte.

"Avatar," he called "Any sign of my daughter?"

"We haven't seen her yet," he replied worriedly before turning to Kcor "Can you feel her?"

Dropping to the floor, Kcor listened for a minute before shaking his head.

Harry was really worrying now, where could she....

Arry, Arry, can you hear me?

Harry breathed a sigh of relief then realised what a fool he had been to forget that they had a mental link.

I hear you, are you alright?

I'm ok; I'm chained to a wall in a room that I think is not far from the stairs that go down to the hall we met the King in as I can hear falling lava.

Is anyone with you?

No.

Start rattling your chains

I beg your pardon?

So, that Kcor can hear you.

Oh, ok.

"Do you hear chains now?" Harry asked.

"Yes, she's not far, only two corridors away, but it's hard to tell who else is nearby, there is a lot of moving lava around here, it's interfering with the vibrations."

"Let's go then." Said Dimitri, taking his wand from Tonks.

They quickly made their way to the corridor in question and found Fleur's room, except now it was guarded by half a dozen Valkyrie who charged them the second they saw the group.

Three of them were immediately felled by curses and the others were rapidly beaten back past the door by Kcor and Dimitri, learning the important life lesson that you should never get on the wrong side of an angry dwarf or an annoyed father.

Opening the door, Tonks and Harry rushed into the room.

"Arry." Sighed Fleur in relief "Thank goodness you are safe."

"I assure you the feeling is mutual." smiled Harry as Tonks levitated his mate while he drew both his and his father's wands and cut the cables, releasing her.

Tonks muttered a spell that released Fleur's hands from the rock restraints, allowing her to flow into Harry's arms; she kissed him passionately as he held her for several seconds before they sighed and separated.

"Thanks for rescuing me Arry." She smiled.

"If you two aren't too busy," called Dimitri from outside the room as a green spell went flying over his head "The Valkyrie have some friends."

The trio didn't hesitate, passing Fleur back her wand and sais the group stepped out into the corridor, firing curses as they went.

At the other end of the passage were two Valkyrie holding triangular shaped shields that were at least a foot and a half wide and five foot tall, allowing the four Death Eaters who had come up behind them to fire without having to worry too much about the large amount of the curses heading their way.

"The shields have anti-summoning charms on them." Called Dimitri as he ducked under another jet of green magic, he and Kcor were totally exposed in the narrow corridor and only rapid evasion had saved them serious injury up to this point.

Replacing his sword and wand Harry turned to Fleur and Tonks.

"Cover me." He said breathing deeply.

The pair had just put their heads around the corner as he went flying past them and sent a kick into the opposite wall, sending dust and rubble everywhere.

Through the haze, a hole just big enough for a human to step through (if he climbed over the rubble) appeared.

"Quickly." Called Harry, stepping back from the hole "Dimitri, Kcor, take cover in here, I've got an idea."

He watched, firing curses down the corridor, as Dimitri heaved Kcor through the hole before stepping through himself.

"Take cover." called Harry, causing the others to step back into the room as he stretched his arms out and upwards to the part of the tunnel roof above the Death Eaters; clenching his fists he yanked his hands down.

There was a crack as the ceiling above the enemy spell casters split open and the stone came tumbling down on top of the Valkyrie's and their allies.

Sticking her head out of the doorway she and Fleur had ducked into, Tonks looked at their now unconscious enemies.

"Very nice." She smiled.

"Agreed." Nodded Dimitri as he lifted Kcor back out the hole to rejoin the others in the hall.

"Shall we make ourselves scarce?" asked Tonks.

"I would suggest we do so very rapidly." Warned Dimitri, looking towards their fallen enemies, causing the others to follow his gaze.

Out of the hole in the ceiling magma was rapidly beginning to flow, covering their now deceased enemies and flowing in their direction.

"I agree with that suggestion." Nodded Harry as the group turned towards the way they had come and began to run.

They ran around several corners and were lucky enough to come face to face with a flight of stairs, but unlucky enough for Sigrdifa and a dozen guards to be standing in their way.

"You're not leaving." She announced, her kind demeanour completely gone., replaced with a look of fury.

"I will have to disagree." Replied Harry, moving to take point and drawing his swords.

Sigrdifa drew a pair of long thin blades similar to his rapiers except that the tips were curved to form hooks.

"Make us an exit, while I deal with her." He stated to the others before turning back to the Valkyrie princess "Let's dance."

The pair flew at each other, shortly followed by all the others in the hall.

Harry was aware of the others fighting but was too busy to pay them much attention. Sigrdifa was good, very good, she was matching him blow for blow.

He would aim for her neck and her blades would be there to block him, he aimed low and her feet were already out of the way.

They were perfectly matched, except he was sporting several injuries from his escape and previous fights.

One lucky attack caught him in the arm and leg making him disengage long enough for him to take in the rest of the scene.

Of the dozen guards who started the fight less than half that number were still moving, on his side Dimitri had received a large gash to his arm and Tonks had a bloodied nose but for the most part they were mostly unscathed.

He didn't have time to see more as Sigrdifa charged him.

She never reached him as he threw his hand at her, sending a blast of flame into her stomach, blasting her back against the stairs, knocking her unconscious, her charred dress smoking heavily.

Turning to the remaining enemies he sent two more blasts at the last two guards before turning to the others.

"Shall we?" he asked gesturing to the stairs.

They quickly ran up the stairs and emerged into the volcano.

Looking around they saw masses of guards, some riding Fire Wolves charging at them, there were also a few Death Eaters of in the distance who had just noticed them.

"The stairs. Quickly!" he shouted, clearing their way with two blasts fire, before leading the others towards the steps.

Extending one arm back he made a fist and pulled his arm around to his right, at the same time lava from one of the wall vents changed from flowing downward and flew as a large mass of burning liquid at the Fire Wolf coming at them on their left.

As it smashed into the side of the creature, it cried out in pain as the liquid seared its skin, making it trip, tumbling over its own legs to skid to a stop beside the group.

Reaching the stairs, Harry rushed everyone past him before extending his arms out to his sides and making fists.

With an almighty yell he pulled his fists together making two huge lumps of rock fly away from the walls of the volcano, huge streams of lava exploded out after them, sending Valkyrie fleeing as their volcanic home began to fill with molten liquid.

He watched as the craters inhabitants released the Fire Wolves who started climbing up the sheer rock cliffs, digging their claws into the stone, whilst their masters turned in to rooks and flew up with the smoke, attempting to escape their smouldering home, leaving the Death Eaters to scramble up the cliffs.

Nodding in satisfaction Harry turned and began to follow the others up the steps, if that did not keep the Valkyrie distracted whilst they made their escape, nothing would.

As he approached the top of the volcano's crater he sent a blast of air back behind him, propelling him up the last ten feet onto the rim, whilst simultaneously throwing a couple of Death Eaters that had made it to the slope flying back into the pooling larva.

Landing on the rim beside Fleur and Tonks, Harry collapsed from exhaustion.

"Are you alright?" asked Tonks as the women dropped to his side.

"To much...." he panted "Pulling rocks....Need....To rest."

"Quickly, make us a portkey!" called Tonks as she turned and muttered the spell that made the Guardian's mark appear above the volcano, the smoke swirling around it.

"As soon as possible!" urged Kcor who was watching the rooks forming into one large mass, about to dive and strike them on one side while the lava continued to rise behind them.

"Grab hold." Called Dimitri as he thrust his robe into their hands.

They disappeared in an instant, leaving the Valkyrie and their wolves to flee from the volcano as lava began to flow from the volcano and down its slopes.