A legend of old

"Ron? Oh! and Harry too," Dean exclaimed as he looked at the duo leaning on the half-open sliding door. "We were just talking about…" Dean excitedly began to describe the details of our conversation. The more he talked, the more the inquisitive duo slid in and slowly made their way towards the empty corner where they now comfortably sat, listening to Dean as he finished.

"… so, we were thinking of using the transmission stone to watch from here. So, two birds, one stone," he said with a proud expression.

"No wonder I hadn't seen that bast-" I squinted at his words causing him to choke down the rest of the sentence, "… I didn't see Tom around here. So, he's in America, huh?" Ron said as he cupped his chin, "probably bullying some poor soul somewhere," he mumbled.

"ACHOO!"

John sneezed heavily, causing him to stumble over a slightly elevated brick on the cobblestone footpath. Tom gave him a fleeting look and shook his head before continuing onwards.

"Why does it feel like someone's talking about me?" John mumbled. "Who doesn't like to poke fun at the clown?" Fred said with a grin and playfully hit his shoulder before following behind Tom.

"Tch, clown your ass! I was most definitely the esteemed jester of some renowned king of old. You were probably a mere peasant somewhere, shovelling shit for a living," John spat indignantly with a haughty look. Fred looked at him oddly before mimicking Tom and shaking his head.

I could already see Tom causing trouble, so I couldn't outright refute Ron's words. For it seemed that Tom had done a number on the duo as hateful looks were cast in my direction. They weren't directed at me per se, but at Tom, yet since he wasn't here, I was his substitute.

"I didn't know there was such a thing in this world," said Harry with a look of fascination. Everyone turned to look at him before recalling his muggle circumstances. It was only natural that he wouldn't know about such things. After all, not everyone enjoyed reading books and studying like I did.

I turned to look at the Patil twins, "have you guys gone over the history books prescribed to us this year?"

"Oh, here we go," Ron said, rolling his eyes.

Padma ignored Ron and turned to me with a glint in her eye, "I most definitely did," her expression rapidly changing to one of extreme excitement, "I'm most interested in the legend of Pantheon. Although his description and details are vague, the periods he is mentioned in range from the bronze age all the way to about a century ago. It's too strange. Religions all across the globe were formed in his honour. Although, none of them are exactly the same, as if they can't quite recall the specific details. But what they all have in common is that he has a spear so sharp that it can split mountains, a shield so tough it can resist the weight of the world. As a result, he wonders the globe amassing magnificent armies." Her eyes sparkled the more she spoke.

"Armies? For what purpose?" Seamus asked, intrigued by the description of this legend.

"Sadly, that is not told in the books, at least. Many things aren't similar either. Some depict him as a man of massive stature with black armour, others as only having some armour, and few say that he has barely any armour and that it's almost in tatters. Some religions say that to battle, he brings with him a sea of stone and metal that form horrendous and ravenous beasts, unlike anything the world has ever seen. Some say his left arm is blood red as if made of water, and he can summon whatever he wants out of thin air. A cloud of ravens follows him high in the sky, turning into dragons and demons at his command. It's all too fantastical. Every country he has been to has experienced a period of grace known as the 'golden age' where they had huge harvests in the fields, gold flows like rain and babies born that year later caused massive waves throughout their time periods as if blessed by a god. Although most of it is probably exaggerated, what is recorded Is that he seems to be on a mission." She said.

By now, everyone, including me, was enraptured by her words. All of us leaning in to listen as if the most angelic music was drifting into our ears. Even the moronic Ron was listening dutifully as if it concerned his life.

"Go on, don't leave us in suspense, dammit!" Ron urged.

Padma grinned, "They say that they could often hear him mumbling incomprehensible things... things like 'the void is everywhere', 'a plague spreading across the universe', 'humans in the sky'. It's all so amazing. Although I doubt most of what they are saying, it seems he is someone with tremendous magical talent on a particular path. And since the locals couldn't understand it, they misinterpreted his words. But what amazes and confuses me is the time periods. The similarities are too accurate between each other, depicting the same person more or less. But all these religions span thousands of years. Even the strongest wizard wouldn't be able to live that long and still fight at the magnitude with which these religions depicted."

I listened to Padma's questions and realised they perfectly coincided with mine. I also doubted many of the feats performed by this being, and I also heavily doubted that he was the same person depicted in each religion. Potentially a group? Succession maybe? But one thing was for certain, whoever this person or people were, they were immensely powerful. After all, no other wizard had ever been given the honour of a shrine, less so multiple across the globe.

"They say there is still a shrine of this person in Japan, deep within the temple of Raijin, the god of thunder in their magical society. Maybe Tom might chance upon it and give us some details on it. But, unfortunately, there is little recorded about these shrines or the words inscribed on them inside the books I bought." I said regretfully.