Chapter 3

Finding an unplottable place that is disconnected from all that exists in this world, that basically has its own little universe, is not easy. Harry knew that before he started looking. What he hadn't guessed was how difficult it would be. Because the school had bought and (literally) made a copy of the land well before anyone thought of going there it had never seen a muggle other than perhaps a few tribes of natives long long ago. The massive ring of mountains the school was located in weren't even on present day maps. They didn't even exist anymore. After copying what had been there (four hundred thousand square kilometers of land.) the founders of the school had altered the muggle landscape, making their school unique and ensuring that it could never be re-fused with what existed. They had at the same time made it so that anyone hearing stories of the school wouldn't believe them – mountains to rival the Himalayas? In Canada? Massive hot springs in said mountains? No one would believe the tales told by ex-students who might talk too much. The school itself was located at an altitude of roughly 8,000 feet above sea level. Kept warm by a set of hot springs and geysers vast enough to rival Yellowstone National Park in the United States. A lake kept so warm that you could swim in it all year round despite the harsh winters. Hidden away so that finding it had taken days.

Sure Harry had found the location, in the northern part of what was now known as Saskatchewan.

The problem was getting in. - There were no roads from the muggle to magical worlds, they were completely disconnected. The maps he searched for days were useless. No apparition, no portkeying.

Harry finally gave up on the getting there part, instead he took out a quill, parchment and ink, and wrote a letter.

-

-

Nvara Aelfly

Headmistress of the Akren Mountain School of Magic

It is my understanding that students are recruited for your school by talent hunters who visit all other wizarding schools, searching young people with the amount of dedication and talent that you seek.

However, because most of the magical population of Europe does not approve of your school, for one reason or another, your talent hunters have not visited Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in nearly three hundred years. Indeed, the teachers at Hogwarts have done everything possible to keep their students from learning that the Akren Mountain School of Magic even exists.

As a result I never had the chance to apply for testing to see if I qualified for the Akren Mountain School of Magic. I am asking for that chance now. I am about the start my seventh year at Hogwarts and am seventeen years old and though my OWL scores are not all that impressive I can assure that they are not indicative of what I can do. I am requesting the opportunity to be tested because I think that I can meet your standards and I feel that my education here at Hogwarts is sadly lacking.

Please consider my request,

Rahkesh Asmodaeus

-

Harry had given a lot of thought to his disguise, and he had never really liked his name much. He'd found the replacement by mixing and matching letter, and book of names. There was no way anyone would get Harry Potter, from someone with a name like Rahkesh Asmodaeus. The Headmistress would probably know that it was a false name, but Harry didn't mind that, so long as she did not object. After all many of the students probably used fake names, as many of them were not looking for legal jobs or lifestyles.

Harry then packed his things, he had made copies of all of the books he thought he would need, copying them word for word with a charmed quill, since spells didn't work. There were nearly a hundred of them, he placed them into his trunk, which was larger inside than it was outside. In another compartment he placed several dozen potions he had made. The next compartment carried his knives for blood magic, a small box with a few rubies, emeralds, diamonds, and sapphires, the four most common stones of stone magic. A long pieces of thread made form his hair, washed in his blood. These were apparently the basis of thread magic, which Harry also intended to earn.

He placed Sygra in a large cage in a compartment that also held Hedwig's old cage and owl treats. His clothing went into another compartment. Leaving him one left for his broom and whatever else he might get.

It would take a long time for an owl to get to Canada form England, so Harry had decided to travel there himself. He had always wanted to travel anyway and he had never gone to another country. It was the 31st of August in the outside world; Harry had found that most of his potions and the books he had copied had to be copied and brewed in real time. So he slipped into normal time, though still in the room, to finish what he thought he absolutely needed.

With everything packed away and ready for his trip Harry stepped out of the Room of Requirement and headed for a small inn at the end of Diagon Alley opposite the leaky Cauldron. He had a room reserved.

XXXX

The Rampaging Hippogriff was a smaller, cleaner establishment than the Leaky Cauldron. The main room was a massive restaurant. The floor covered in a thick green, red, tan, brown, and gray carpet. Small cushy booths lined the walls and circular tables with off-white table clothes and decorative candles covered the room. The chairs were elaborately carved solid wood things with satin seats and backs that matched the rug. It was an hour or so too early for dinner when Harry Potter, now named Rahkesh, arrived.

In the entrance way was a large desk and a massive wooden staircase that led to the upper two floors. The man sitting at the front desk gave him his key and showed him to his room. He was on the top floor, a room so much better than what the Leaky Cauldron offered that there was no comparison. A large bed, a desk and chairs, three large windows with silk curtains, his own bathroom made from marble.

Rahkesh set his things beside the bed and flopped down on it, pulling a travel brochure he had copied from the Room of Requirement out of his trunk he lay down to read it.

He knew next to nothing about how wizards traveled form country to country, but he couldn't see the Malfoy's getting on a plane, ever.

International Flying Carpet Service

The very best in the travel business! If you're looking for comfort and speed look no further.

Rahkesh flipped through to the destination they offered. All carpets left from and arrived at the same place. Rahkesh quickly copied down the directions; down the farthest end of Diagon Alley was a place where another alley branched off, down at the end of that was where the Flying carpet Service was located.

Rahkesh saw that he only had to reserve tickets in advance if wanted first class, he'd settle for second class, though he didn't want third.

Checking the times and destinations he found a flight leaving for Ottawa the next morning. It wasn't anywhere close to his destination but there was nothing better. Rahkesh figured that he could find a flight to someplace nearer to the school through the Canadian Carpet Service, which was mentioned in a list and only traveled around Canada. The real trick was going to be getting them his letter, and then getting into the school. Given how different it was he figured no one would mind if he was a day or two late, but he'd rather be on time. And that meant the 5th.

XXXX

"One ticket to Ottawa." The woman at the desk said, handing him a slip of paper.

"Thank you," Rahkesh replied before dodging away from the counter as someone who looked remarkable like Professor Trelawny stepped forward. Rahkesh looked down at the number on it and then at the pale orange ceiling where signs pointed to the stations the various carpets left from. He needed number fourteen; Rahkesh picked up his trunk and started off, following the signs. Rahkesh had charmed his trunk to be a dark green bag with six locks on the front. He thought it looked more like what other people had. Eventually he came to a large group of chairs and a large sign reading Gate 14. There was a door that led outside and onto a platform; there was no sign of the carpet. Minutes later he saw it.

It wasn't as large as he had thought, about the size of the living room floor at the Dursley's. Four large lamps turned on as the carpet drifted into its spot. Bright orange and green with a black and white fringe. There was no one on it, and it hovered as if it could fly away whenever it felt like it. But this didn't seem to be bothering any of the other people standing around. His fellow passengers were all wearing robes and waiting patiently, most of them carried small bags and suitcases. There was one family, a man and a woman with two little twin girls, both about eight, who had three massive trunks. The little blond girls raced around as if they weren't capable of stopping, and insisting on pointing out everything to their tired looking parents. In one chair there was one extremely old wizard in hideous pink robes with black socks and a gold hat with a bunch of dried leaves stuck to it. He was reading a magazine upside down and chewing green bubble gum while twirling a quill in one hand, the quill was dripping blue ink into the sleeve of his robes. Rahkesh tried hard not to stare. Wizarding folk sometimes surprised him; muggles would have dropped the man off at the nearest loony bin.

"Gate 14 carpet, departing for Ottawa, Canada, will begin boarding now." A woman dressed in a blue and tan uniform announced form beside the door. Rahkesh followed the others to form a line.

"Will you be putting your bag in storage or keeping it with you?" A uniformed man asked as he approached.

"I'll keep it with me, thanks." Rahkesh replied, wondering exactly where they would have storage space. There were forty people there and the carpet didn't look big enough for all of them to stand on, much less sit down with luggage.

"very well sir, the flight is three hours long and we will arrive at ten o'clock a.m. local time."

Rahkesh was briefly surprised, though he didn't let it show, how did they do that? Oh, time zones, he hadn't thought of that.

He handed his ticket to the woman and stepped through the door and, hesitantly, onto the carpet, which, though it rippled and moved, felt sturdy and solid. Now that he was on the carpet he could see reclining armchairs, each with a footstool and small table beside it. They were arranged along the outer edges of the carpet with more in the middle, forming two aisles that went back much further than the carpet appeared to have space for. Clearly it was bigger when you stepped on than it appeared from the outside.

He chose a seat about halfway back and sat down, the strange old wizard took the seat closest to him, across the aisle, the family went to the back. Rahkesh now noticed that there were no walls, he could probably jump off if he wanted.

The woman welcomed them on board, said that there were drinks and snacks available at the back, then told them to sit back and relax. Rahkesh looked off the side of the carpet and wondered if there wasn't something wrong. Did carpets go as high as planes? Wasn't there and air pressure or wind issue?

Suddenly the carpet lurched horribly, Rahkesh grabbed the armrests, which he now noticed had finger marks on them. Then, with speed faster than his firebolt, the carpet took off

The first thing he noticed was that he couldn't feel the wind, invisible walls then? Or walls made of magic? Or just charms on the carpet? He wanted to ask but the speed kept on increasing. The carpet rose quickly straight up, not like and airplane he realized, with one end rising higher than the other, but the whole carpet just lifting up. The little girls were laughing with delight. Seeing the city spread out below them Rahkesh began to relax, watching the buildings drop away far below

He was leaving England. A thrill shot through him, he hadn't thought it would be this exciting to realize that he was going some place new, to a new school, with new people. Rahkesh leaned the chair back and pulled out a book on animagi, this was going to be so much fun.

XXXX

Rahkesh got a room for one night in a small hotel recommended by a woman who worked at the Ottawa Flying Carpet Station. He left his bag there and set off to explore.

The hotel was in a part of the city that resembled Diagon Alley, magical people were going everywhere, most of them wearing muggle clothing. The helpful woman who had told him of the hotel had also mentioned that in all of North and South America, witches and wizards didn't wear robes. "Juts old fashioned uptight Europeans", she'd said. Rahkesh liked that; he'd never really liked wearing robes. The magical community was larger than Diagon Alley, and outside the main shopping center there were about a hundred homes, encircling the shopping area. There was a branch of Gringotts here too, the building looked almost identical to the one in London. Rahkesh stopped in at a book store and found a few things on necromancy that he liked. He also dropped into the rare potion ingredients shop, and came back out again feeling vaguely nauseated from the sight of fetal giraffe brains. How those would ever be used was beyond him, probably a very rare potion. He got a few things including a small phial containing a few phoenix tears. It was horribly expensive but he knew juts how powerful they were. Late that afternoon Rahkesh exited the fudge shop and walked down the street looking for the fastest owl post available.

There was only one owl post stop; he walked inside to a cacophony of hoots and screeches. Owls were everywhere, the yard out back were dozens more.

"Can I help you?" Rahkesh turned and smiled at the owner

"Yes, I need to send a letter to some friends in Saskatchewan. I'm afraid I've procrastinated a bit, I need to get it there as quickly as possible." He explained. The man nodded, his large round, owlish eyes blinking hard, and then he turned and led Rahkesh out back. There he opened up a very large cage, inside was the largest great horned owl Rahkesh had ever seen.

"My daughter named him Rudolph. He's the fastest we've got, but I don't let him out of the country." He said.

"Not a problem, I'm just sending this to Saskatchewan." Rahkesh replied, holding up the letter. The man nodded and held out his hand. "Nvara Aelfly." He said. The bird gave a loud hoot and held out its leg, the owner gave the bird the letter and it took off, Rahkesh followed the man back inside.

"Saskatchewan, three sickles please. The owl will get there in two days." Rahkesh handed over the money and left. Back at the hotel he went back to his book, he was going to become an animagus, thought he process was incredibly complicated and difficult. Two days to get there two days to get back, unless they came to meet him. He had checked the travel guides for foreigners and had found a hotel named The Garuda in Regina, which had the closest wizarding community to the school. He had mentioned that he would be staying there in his letter if they wished to contact him. There was a carpet flight there the next day.

Sygra? The serpent poked her head out of his open trunk.

We are there then? No more carpets and smelly nasty old wizards with strange clothing? Good, I don't like flying. We'll not be doing that again.

Well, actually we'll have another trip tomorrow, sorry. I wonder if a calming charm would help?

Only if it works on upset stomachs.

Sygra. Did you…?

Ah… yes actually. Rahkesh got up and cleaned the mess out of the trunk, thankful that it hadn't been in the same compartment with his potions ingredients. The snake settled around his neck and across his shoulders, looking tired.

Go to sleep, the flight doesn't leave until early tomorrow morning.

If snakes were meant to fly, young speaker, we would have been born with wings. Sygra went and curled up on his pillow. Rahkesh looked around, fortunately there were other pillows. The snake was clearly making and unspoken statement about what she thought of his travel ideas.

XXX

Nvara Aelfly had been the Headmistress of Akren Mountain School of Magic for thirty years. Never, in all that time, had they had an application from a Hogwarts student. In fact they hadn't had applications from any British of French students in centuries. There was the occasional one from Durmstrang, but even those were so few and far between that there hadn't been one in twenty years. Those were always the ones that knew family or family friends who had gone to Akren Mountain. This student had found the place on his own, he had spent years under the 'light' Hogwarts curriculum, and he wanted to get out. He was a little old, but he was not the only new seventeen year old they'd be getting this year. They always got a few in all the age groups. Since students weren't placed in classes according to age it didn't matter really. She was pretty sure the name was fake, but so was hers. She'd adopted it upon coming to Akren as an eighteen-year-old fresh out of another wizarding school, and had never changed it back. Most of the teachers were the same way.

His OWLs weren't impressive really, but no one at Akren - except for the new students who didn't know any better – cared at all about any other school's idea of testing. Especially since, with the list of grades, he'd mentioned that the tests were interrupted.

Nvara scratched her pet snow leopard on the head, the big cat purred and pawed at the letter.

"What do think Shadow? Let him in?" The cat yawned, "okay then, Rahkesh Asmodaeus, welcome to Akren." There were seventeen white orbs sitting on her desk in gold holders. Nvara touched one and spoke. "Steve, we have a new student who is in Regina, at The Garuda, juts the usual introduction." A few second later the bracelet she wore, which had an orb on it that appeared to be a smaller version of the ones on her desk, glowed. She held it up to her ear and soft reply came through.

"Alright, I'll go tomorrow." Nvara nodded and waved the owl away.

"We've got it, you can go, no return letter." The big bird flew out the open window.

XXX

Rahkesh had checked into the small hotel called the Garuda earlier in the day. Around lunch made his way downstairs to the restaurant that sat beneath the hotel. The setup was similar to the place he'd stayed at in Ottawa, so similar that he wondered if the same people had designed them. The Garuda wasn't as clean and had wood floors but other than that the two places were identical.

It was dinnertime on the evening of the 2nd and Rahkesh had come down early with a book of the basics of thread magic to eat and read. Since Akren Mountain School would be accepting new students soon. He sat down at a small square table and ordered dinner. It had juts arrived when he noticed a pretty blond girl coming down the stairs. She glanced shyly around, spotted him, and drifted over to his table. Rahkesh was glad Sygra had stayed behind in his room, no point in scaring people with that ability. Besides, snake talking marked him as Harry Potter as much as his eyes and hair had.

"Akren?" She asked quietly. Rahkesh nodded and gestured to one of the empty places for her to sit.

"Yes, you too huh? I'm Rahkesh." She sat down, seemingly relieved to find someone else to talk to.

"Alexia, but please call me Ally. Where are you from?"

"Europe, England actually. I'm seventeen, you?"

"America, and I'm sixteen, from Washington state." Rahkesh nodded, though the last meant nothing to him.

"Did the talent hunters come to your school?" He asked, she looked surprised.

"Of course, how else would I have gotten here? They didn't go to yours?" Rahkesh shrugged and then nodded.

"They haven't been allowed into any of the top three European schools in centuries. People Europe, you see, they have these ideas of good and bad magic that are very extreme. Soul magic, necromancy, blood magic, mind magic, they find those things to be universally evil. I found out about Akren from a book in the library. The restricted section of it, they don't want their children finding out about this place. They're afraid we might want to come here. Muggle fighting is regarded as beneath respectable wizards, few of them can duel. Muggle sports are looked upon with disdain. And a school that makes you heal yourself horrifies the parents. The schools there, you see, look after everyone like they were their parents. The think this is a school of evil just because it hold to its own standards and is so selective." Rahkesh explained. Ally was staring at him, looking quite shocked and juts a little superior.

"Well, we Americans aren't so thick headed." She stated, Rahkesh laughed.

His dinner had arrived and hers was on the way when he noticed two more people that looked close their age range enter. Immediately he knew that these two weren't human, well, they were but there was something very different about them.

The taller man was very handsome with short dark hair and black eyes which had a strange gleam to them, they glittered. He was searching the room as though looking for someone. The shorter one had long brown hair streaked with blond, tied back form his face, and bright blue eyes. He was holding a very large cat, the jet black animal looked very young.

Rahkesh watched them until they noticed him. The taller one spoke softly and both made their way over to the table. Ally looked up as the approached, her eyes narrowed briefly then she leaned towards Rahkesh.

"Vampires, you can tell by the eyes." She stated, not appearing frightened at all. Rahkesh saw that she was right, there was something strange about the eyes…they were murky, and hard and glittering at the same time.

"Evening, you two going to Akren Mountain?" The short one asked.

"Yes, sit with us? I'm Ally, this is Rahkesh." Ally replied for both of them. The shorter vampire pulled a tiny basket form his pocket and then pulled out and dark red wand, enlarged the basket, and placed it on the floor. The cat hopped right in and curled up.

"Thanks, I'm Silas, this is my cousin Daray." He introduced both of them, the dark haired one nodded silently.

"Where are you from?" Ally asked.

"Brazil, well actually we've traveled a lot, eleven years in Australia, four in China, and then two in Brazil. We're seventeen." Silas answered. His cat had leaped up onto his lap and was sniffing at Ally and Rahkesh.

"That's not a house cat." Rahkesh observed, "panther?" Silas grinned.

"Yeah, he's my familiar I guess, we understand each other fairly well you see." He explained, stroking the cub. Daray snorted.

"Fairly well? You tell him to turn on a light switch and the creature does it. Wait a few years; I'll bet you wind up with a telepathic connection. Waiter's coming." Daray added, Silas pushed the cat into its basket and patted it on the head.

Stay there please Nuri." The cub growled and id as it was told.

"How come none of your parents are here?" Rahkesh asked. The others all blinked collectively at him in surprise.

"Ahhh, because they weren't allowed to come perhaps?" Daray finally said. Rahkesh shook his head and repeated his explanation about applying to the school on his own.

"I don't even know if they've accepted me, but I think they did." He finished, felt the presence of someone behind him.

"Oh we did." Rahkesh turned around. There was a very tall man behind him. With dark silver hair and pale green eyes. He wore dark green pants tucked into black boots and a black shirt under a jacket that appeared to be made from deer hide dyed black. Rahkesh noted the knives in his boots and the gun at his hip. He smiled down at the group; one of his front teeth was made of silver. "The Headmistress decided to let you in. We haven't had a student form England in over a century. Welcome to Akren Mountain School of magic Mr. Asmodaeus. I'm sure these three can inform you of what is required of the students…you have to find the school yourselves you see." He turned to leave then paused and looked back

"I'm Steve Marluck, tactics and battlefield scenarios class, muggle weapons trainer, and Occlumency teacher." He left with a swirl of the black cape draped over his shoulders. Rahkesh looked back at the others.

"How exactly are we supposed to go about finding our way to the school?" he asked curiously.

XXXXXXXX

The next day was the 3rd, they had to be at the school by noon on the fifth. The four teenagers and taken over a booth in the dining room and were making a list of things they would need. The others had explained to Rahkesh that they had to hike in, there was a trail that led into the mountains. The school had provided a device similar to a portkey that would take them to the trail head. Apparently there were challenges they had to get through on the way in. It sounded a but like the TriWizard Tournament to Rahkesh, but he didn't mention that.

He had gotten a pair of good hiking boots in anticipation of things like Mr. Marluck's classes. From stones they had transfigured small backpacks, because everything fit into their suitcases the suitcases, or trunks, could not themselves be shrunk. Harry was very grateful he had only brought one and it could be transfigured so that it was made of cloth rather than wood, it fit better that way. Not knowing how long of a hike it was, and knowing that if they flew on brooms they would be attacked by dragons on the lookout for flying students, they had to walk.

There were other students there, sitting in small groups, about thirty all told. As they out their things into the bags two more students approached them. A boy and girl who must have arrived very late the night before.

"Hi. Hey we were thinking that this would go better if we all joined forces." The girl said. She had two very long braids of brown hair going down her back, and brown gold eyes. Much shorter than Ally, who was very tall, she was wearing a high quality mud stained backpack and a green bandana. Rahkesh looked over at Ally, who nodded, and then to Daray and Silas.

"In the letters we got it said there was a limit on group size, but not what the limit was." Silas said, "but we might as well try."

"Might as well, there's strength in numbers. I'm Rahkesh, these are Ally, Silas, and Daray." Rahkesh said, introducing each.

"I'm Tanya, he's Thom." The blond haired boy smiled and nodded to them in greeting.

"Actually, joining forces is a great idea. Are you about ready to set out?" Silas asked, putting his own backpack on. Rahkesh and Daray both rolled their eyes. They had been standing there waiting for the other two for at least a half hour. Silas saw the look.

"Sorry, has to get Nuri settled." He explained, the panther cub was seated in a bag inside the pack, his head poking out through a hole, looking around curiously. Rahkesh, who hadn't shown them his pet yet, had Sygra in the largest outside pocket of his bag. It was good thing she wasn't larger than two and half feet yet. He had charmed the pouch to be hard, incapable of squishing her, and larger inside than outside. She hadn't complained yet.

"Yeah, we're ready." Thom answered, Ally shouldered her pack and transfigured a pebble into a walking stick.

"Lets go then."