Chapter 213: Infernal Garden

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I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.

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1 May 1994, Unknown Place

"I will come after you, and I will never ever stop!" It was getting harder to resist, but Harry still held on, "That is my promise to you, Albus Dumbledore."

And just like that, the artefact finally overpowered him, and everything turned white.

Harry regained consciousness with a gasp and realized that he was lying on what seemed to be very hard rocks. His first instinct was to use his Arcane Hearing, trying to see if there were any threats around, only to flinch as he was overwhelmed by how loud everything was. It was like someone was playing hundreds if not thousands of songs at once while putting everything on the highest volume. Just a second was enough to give him a headache.

Groaning in pain, he slowly got up and looked at what was around him. It was just a normal room, not unlike one from Hogwarts, with stone walls and a clear floor. Except for the runes surrounding his feet like a circle. They glowed for a fraction of a second before disappearing entirely. The odd thing was that he didn't recognize them. They were similar to runes on the golden disk Pettigrew bound Harry into, but there was nothing else. 

The only thing that remained was a large circle around him, with an ellipse going through it. For some reason, when he looked at it, he couldn't help but feel sad and angry. However, he had no idea why he was feeling like this. Harry shook his head; he must have been more out of it than he expected.

He looked around and saw that other than the weird circle thing, there was a wooden door on the other side of the room, but he hadn't reached for it yet. He needed to be careful about how he was going to proceed. This was a plan that originated from Dumbledore. Wherever he was, there wouldn't be a place he could easily escape. He wouldn't let someone like Harry go so easily, especially when he knew that he would pay him back for what he had done.

With a deep breath, Harry took a step forward and saw that nothing bad happened. It must be relatively safe then, "I don't know if you can hear me but if you think because you held my best friend hostage that I am weak, then you understand very little. I vowed that I would destroy you, Albus Dumbledore. And if there is anyone else that can hear me and be responsible for putting me here, then I advise you to be very, very afraid. I will find you, even if that takes me an eternity, and I will make you pay for what you have done."

With that proclamation, Harry opened the door and stepped forward. He found himself in a marble corridor. The architecture was very different than the room's, even the materials were. Where the room was robust, the corridor was ornate and grandiose. Pillars of pure white marble lined the path, each entwined with shimmering silver vines that seemed to pulse with a life of their own.

Torches ensconced within the jaws of metallic dragons cast a warm, flickering light that danced across the surfaces, lending the marble an almost translucent quality. The floor was a mosaic of countless small tiles, each one a different shade of blue, from the palest cerulean to the deepest navy. The tiles formed a river of colour that flowed down the length of the corridor, guiding Harry's way.

Harry approached the window at the corridor's end, the last barrier before the enigmatic double doors. As he peered through the leaded glass, his breath caught in his throat. Beyond the confines of the corridor lay a garden of such splendour that it seemed a fragment of paradise itself had been ensconced within the castle's boundaries.

The garden was a canvas of vibrant colours, with flower beds woven together like the threads of a masterful tapestry. Blooms of every hue and shape basked in the sunlight, their petals unfurling in the gentle caress of a warm, honeyed breeze. The air was sweet with the fragrance of jasmine and rose, mingling with the fresh, green scent of lush grass that rolled out like a plush carpet under the canopies of ancient trees.

A lake, clear as crystal, lay nestled at the garden's heart, its surface so still it mirrored the sky above in perfect symmetry. The water caught the light of the sun, breaking it into a thousand shimmering diamonds that danced upon the waves with each soft ripple. The lake was bordered by weeping willows, their slender branches trailing fingertips across the water's surface.

Harry couldn't help but speak out loud, "What is this place? A paradise of some sort? No, it can't be. There would be other people, there would be noise. I can't see any wildlife, just plants. A prison, then? Maybe, but what would be the point; there have to be better prisons to put someone in. The décor definitely doesn't match. So, which is it?"

He didn't have a chance to continue as the corridor started to shift. Behind him, the entire corridor started to shift. The door behind him was swallowed away, but the back of the corridor started to constrict itself, slamming down.

Harry ran, franticly to the other side, trying to outrun it. He found another door on the other side of the room. He tried to open it, only to find it locked. He growled and waved his wand at it, "Alohomora!"

The wand released some sparkles which fizzled very quickly. Damn it, what was wrong with his magic. The space between the corridor, he needed to think fast. It could barely be considered as a thought, but he was running out of time. Harry saw the window on his right and jumped out of it.

Well, that bought him enough time. His wand wasn't working properly, he needed to experiment somehow. Considering the distance estimated while looking out the window, he would fall for four to five seconds. Well, that's three extra seconds of life, that's a plus.

Back to his problem, his wand wasn't working. His Arcane Hearing wasn't either. Everything was too chaotic, too wild, too loud. Ah, wand spells were too fragile. The moment they left, they were snuffed out, saturated by the ambient magic, like a small drop of paint in an ocean.

His magic circles should be a lot stronger, but he would need something extra for it to work well enough. An emotional component should do. He needed something strong, something he could easily draw out. What did he feel right now? Fear. He was afraid.

With a wave of his hand, Harry conjured a magic circle and enhanced it with all the fear he felt at the thought of dying. The circle materialized for a few seconds, slowing down his fall. Harry grinned to himself until the circle was overwhelmed, and he was sent flying away, into the garden.

He must have blacked out from the whole thing, because the next time he opened his eyes, it was dark. A full moon illuminated the clearing he was in, being reflected by the calm lake. Harry got up and picked a few apples; he hadn't eaten anything for almost a day.

Again, he spoke up out loud, "You know, whoever designed this place is a genius. You might ask yourselves how I figured it out but that's easy. They were very good, but all I needed was to look at the sky. I wanted to use them to have an estimate of where I was. Astronomy is cool like that. I never expected that there weren't any stars in the first place. I definitely recognized some kind of space manipulation when the disk took me, so the question remains, where did you take me?"

He didn't know why he kept talking to himself out loud. Everything was just too quiet, too perfect, and he wanted to ruin it somehow? Or maybe it was because the silence unsettled him.

He walked slowly outwards, making sure to not fall into any traps that might be there. He kept walking until the sun rose and froze when he reached the end of the grounds.

Harry knew that it was the end because there was literally nothing. When he looked out of the boundary, all that remained was a giant void. There was no ground beneath, only a chasm of unfathomable depth that seemed to swallow all light and sound. Above him, the sky stretched into infinity, a vast expanse of azure that held neither cloud nor bird, a stark ceiling to this floating fragment of earth. He was alone on an island with no other place in sight, no way to determine his location and no way to return.

He was trapped.

Harry couldn't help but kneel in rage and desperation, "So, this is a prison. No, it is something more. I can feel it in my gut. You might think you're clever for trapping me here, but I will get out of here."

As if someone had heard him, the boundary of the island started to tremble. Harry instinctively walked back as the outer parts of the ground detached themselves from the island and fell into the abyss below it. It seemed like it was going to keep falling, but the entire thing stopped just a yard in, making the island's radius one yard smaller.

He didn't know how long he stood there, watching the abyss, until his stomach grumbled once more. Harry walked back, deciding that he wouldn't be able to focus without getting a bite to eat first.

With an apple in hand, Harry decided to search the castle once more. He froze when he saw it, "It shifted. The entire castle shifted. It must be connected to the ground falling. Does it happen at the same time?" 

Curious, he entered the castle once more, following the corridor. There was writing on the wall, writing that he just did not understand but it was pretty similar to the runes he had seen earlier. The architecture changed entirely with each room. This whole place was like a puzzle of old civilizations. But the corridor and the outside remained the same, like pieces of frozen time.

Whoever had made this place didn't need to go through so much trouble. Or maybe, they had to. Considering just how perfect everything is; there were no blemishes, no inaccuracies. Everything was just flawless to an unnatural degree, especially compared to what was inside.

The conclusion was very evident, "Whoever made this place is not human, and I'm not the first person here. This thing is very old, especially considering the signs of old civilizations, like Ancient Egyptians and Ancient Greeks, in the styles of a few rooms."

When the sun came down once more, Harry felt the castle shift once more. He ran out of it and watched from the garden as its walls shifted and turned. He walked towards the border once more, he noticed that it had come closer too.

"So, I'm on a countdown. Two yards every day, one at sunrise and another at sunset. The castle shifts with it, to keep me on my toes, to force me to leave it without being crushed. The magic is too dense, conjuration and transfiguration would be dispelled in seconds by the chaotic ambient magic, and Alchemy wouldn't work since everything here is artificial. It holds no magical meaning. This is a slow Death. Inevitably, the boundary will reach the castle and I will die. Is this supposed to be a torture chamber? Then if it is, then why the comfort? Why put the effort to make the architecture recognizable, to create rooms that seem familiar to the prisoners?"

As he expected, the only response he got from his speech was silence, "So, my life is a countdown. I guess, the first step would be to figure out how long I have left."

The next few days were filled with experimentation. What was possible? How did this place differ from his home? What kind of magic worked well, and what didn't? How long did he have until the garden fell fully into the void?

Getting his answers wasn't hard. The main difference was how ambient magic behaved differently. Its very nature was chaotic and maybe even a little corrosive in high doses. Harry often woke up with his magic circuits burning up from the strain, and he needed to release as much magic as he could to make the pain stop.

The ambient magic seemed to smother most magical spells, destabilizing it. Using wands was completely out of the question, but his magical circles seemed to stay longer since they were far more robust. Runes were a lost cause since they got activated randomly because of how thick the ambient magic was.

Harry also realized something else. Magic was how everything worked around here. The more magic he used, the slower the boundary got removed. If he didn't use any magic, the radius of the island became two yards shorter.

The goal of the island became very clear soon after, "I know what this is. It's not just a prison. It's a battery. This place is filled with chaotic magic. I don't know where it comes from, but it's unusable and very unstable. However, human mages automatically filtered the magic around them in their circuits, turning it into usable energy. That's what I'm here for, right? Well, I refuse. I will not be your cattle. I will get out of this place and when I'm done, I will make you pay."

There was only one thing that didn't make sense. This entire process was too inefficient, too inelegant compared to the magic used. If he calculated things correctly, then he had less than three months until he would eventually fall into the void. Three months of filtered magic wasn't really worth the effort. So, why bother?

But that didn't matter, the only thing that remained was finding out how he was going to get out of there. He was stuck there without a wand and without his Arcane Hearing. He only had his magic circles to work with, and even then, they weren't as effective because of the ambient magic.

Harry walked around the corridor, moving into the castle hoping to get any sort of insight into his situation, "I'm tired. Why am I tired? I feel exhausted all the time, from the moment I wake up, to the moment I die. I keep channelling magic, even to just release it, to give myself more time to think. But I can't really do anything when I just feel exhausted and worn out all the time. There's something I'm missing, and I think it's something terrible."

He kept walking around until he found himself in the room he arrived in, with the giant carved circle surrounded by an ellipsis. He touched it and felt how smooth it was. It felt different than the rest of the place. He could just tell it was. If there was something Harry learned in this lifetime, it would be to trust his gut.

Then suddenly, he felt his crest react the moment he touched it. It was a small tingle, but it was enough. Harry couldn't activate his crest the moment he landed. He thought it might have been the ambient magic, but whatever this circle was, unlocked just a single path, a single spell, one that wasn't completed.

Harry felt the knowledge enter his mind and he grinned to himself. This was the basics of a portal, a magic circle far more complex than he ever had before. It also included some more information about time. It was completely raw data, unprocessed. It felt incomplete like its creator was interrupted in the middle of his work. But it was better from nothing; it was literally the first lead he got to get out of there.

In fact, it was a little too specific. The magic circle was designed with the chaotic ambient magic in mind, including an emotional component to anchor the spell entirely. Most of its space manipulation aspect was done. All that remained was the time component and how they connected. Thankfully, there was enough data to keep things going.

He needed to start as quickly as possible. He did always his best work when he was under pressure. Every day becoming one more step to his inevitable death was more than enough pressure to get things working.

And so, weeks later, when the garden was almost gone, when his magic circles burned with every use, Harry discovered that he was stuck. The time data he had gotten just wasn't enough. Sure, it was groundbreaking stuff but in this beautiful hellish place, he did not care about academia anymore. Survival was far more important. And now, he was failing.

He had tried as much as he could, but he could barely channel magic anymore without screaming in pain. Harry needed more information. He had made some progress in the circle, but not enough. Not even close.

This was it, the last day. The last sunrise. He walked back to the room he arrived feeling far more defeated than he ever had before.

"It's not fair. I'm so close. I know I am. I just don't have the data. I don't have enough! I needed more information. I needed more data. I needed more time!"

And just like that, everything cleared up. It all fit together like a perfect giant puzzle. This wasn't a circle. It was Saturn, the planet that the Romans named for their equivalent of Chronos, the god of time. In the magical world, though, he was not a god or a titan, but an extremely powerful mage who often punished people by trapping them in loops of time.

As the castle trembled and everything started to shake, Harry let out a mocking grin, "I was right! What a terrible thing indeed! I wondered why my crest connected to this symbol. I thought it might have been a trap, a way to steal my family legacy. I asked myself how this place could know the exact frequency needed to awaken the knowledge needed. But this has nothing to do with this place, does it? I was the one who put it there, all those years ago. I put enough magic in it to act like a trigger, to cause a reaction of a precise place filled with the exact knowledge I needed. The spell isn't complete because I haven't finished it yet. I just don't remember creating it a very long time ago."

Harry burst into laughter, "Because that's how this place works, doesn't it? You pressure me to be as efficient as possible when filtering magic to halt the advancement, but in the end, my body fails. Everyone has a limit after all. But you don't want that for me, do you? You want me to keep doing it again and again. I don't know how you're doing it but you're somehow reverting everything back in time. But I'm figuring it out, aren't I? At the end of every loop, I am here, discovering what this place really is. I wait here, to the middle, storing my research in my crest, recharging the magic in the carving of Saturn on the ground and I wait."

The walls started to fall, "I wait for everything to end, and just as the loop restarts, I open my Arcane Hearing and look for the information I need. I imagine it must be agonizing but I don't need to understand it. I only need to store the song in my crest. I trust that my future self will decipher it during the next loop. It's a shame that I won't remember it. Because time can affect my body and my memories, but it cannot touch my soul."

Harry felt something start to affect him again, and opened up his Arcane Hearing, connecting it directly to his magical crest. His last words before blacking out from the pain were, "Good luck, Harry Potter!"

And so, Harry kept doing it again and again, each time getting a little closer to escaping. He could never tell how much time he stayed in this hellish garden. His body never aged, his mind never remembered, but he felt just a bit more tired every time; his soul remembered.

He kept at it, again and again, always fighting, always delaying the end, until he finally did it. One time just as the walls were closing in, just as he was about to reset, the spell was completed, and he disappeared from the garden with a giant flash of light. 

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AN: I'll be honest here. This was the hardest chapter I have ever written. I don't know if I did it right. And yes, I took some heavy inspiration from Doctor Who when writing this. It was one of my favourite episodes, after all. As usual, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.

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If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr

I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.