In the next room, they were gathered around a circle formed from rectangular tables. Some were sitting while others stood near the walls. In the middle was a tall, slender, dark-haired woman who was the first to speak to the group. “First, I wanted to welcome new pages to the story. I see Harry Potter and Geralt of Rivera have joined us. They are young and welcome here.”
“Get to it, Lilith. Why has this council been called?”
She ignored the heckle. “And a few are gone, into the fire.” The room fell silent. “Dr Frankenstein, Snow White and Scrooge.” She paused. “Back into the pages from where they came.”
“Ok, sentiment aside, why are we here?” The question echoed around the room. It was not a happy crowd. “We are vulnerable gathered together like this.”
“You are right, but we think we finally know why Axion Fudge has summoned us to this place.” The crowd went silent. “As you know, we are useless to him. We have freewill based on our stories, so we aren’t willing followers as he would wish, and we have very little power, if any, but it is what we bring with us, the totems. They are a different matter. They contain within them the energy of the imagination that created them and, in some cases, are linked to real totems, the ones that inspired them.”
“So you mean he would like Thor’s hammer so he could control storms?”
“In a way, yes, but it wouldn’t be as powerful as imagined in stories, but still a powerful totem, linked to the natural forces it gets that power from. And some things, the less magical things, are just as powerful as their fictional descriptions, such as Batman’s toys.” A snort was heard from the audience, “I mean tools… weapons.” She lifted a piece of paper. “We have a list of everything we know he has. Some of the items make sense… some not so much.”
“Is there any news on getting us back in the books?” Came a voice from the audience, then another, “We need to go, we don’t fit in this world!” and another, “I like it here, I don’t want to go back.” Lilith stood silent.
A strong voice sounded out, “You might fit in, but many of us are not of this time or place.” He continued. “Some of us have left, either burned by accident or deliberately. Some have even sought out their ends as they couldn’t stand being fiction in a world so different.”
“Dr Jeckle, we all know how hard it has been for some, but we know there is a way out, though the path of fire is painful and final.” She turned to the rest of the crowd, “It’s not certain that he can’t just summon us again, which is why we need to stop him, to take our power back.” She spun quickly round and pointed at Harry with what looked like a snake, “Which is why you, Harry, are so important. You are the most familiar with this world.”
“What!” Harry was a bit surprised, “I’m just working this out. Up until last night I thought I was an out-of-work actor suffering amnesia and working in a shit job.”
“Exactly! You have a job, you fit in even though you aren’t of this world. You are more connected to this place than any of us, as you live in it. Trust me… trust us when I say many of us didn’t have a clue the first time we saw a car and we huddled together in this place, hiding from the outside, stealing what we needed, which is little, as we don’t eat or drink.”
“But I’m not even a wizard, I’m just a teenager… I think!”
“Do you think I am really the mother of vampires?” A laugh rippled around the room. “Ok, ok… I do come across as that, but I am powerless here and awkward. I know nothing of this place.”
“You could do cosplay porn, you know they would lap you up!” More laughter. “You and Alice would clean up on cam!”
“Doctor, please, stop suggesting that. I’m not sure we can even function that way.”
“We can, can’t we, Cinders!” came the reply.
“Fuck off, Doctor.” A shout came from the back of the room.
Lilith sighed, “Doctor, this isn’t the time.“ There was a moan from The Doctor, ”If he got to your TARDIS, who knows what might happen?” She turned back to Harry. “See how hopeless we are. “ Clueless is probably more accurate.”
“But I am powerless!” He looked around the room. “How do I fight or fit in? I don’t have magic.”
“Give them a nasty paper cut, Harry.” It was Mr Tumnus, and there were smatterings of laughter. “No… no, I wasn’t being sarcastic. We can give those. They can be pretty serious!” More laughter filled the room.
“But you are relevant, and Harry, you chose to do good no matter what the cost, or at least your character did, and you are your character,” came a recognisable voice. “You stood on the side of right, and by your friends… You would have done that, even without your magic,” Gandalf stepped into the circle, “and maybe, with your help, we can draw this to a stop.”
“But what are we trying to stop?”
“The end of the world, Harry, just the end of the world.”
————————————————————————————————
After that revelation, Harry went silent. He headed out of the room at a pace, pushing past Gimli and 7 other much smaller dwarves, none of whom seemed happy. All this information was too much for him, and he just wanted to ignore it.
Turning right into the corridor and seeing a door marked Emergency Exit, he crashed through it into the cool night air and filled his lungs… Or did he? Was it cool, or did he just think it was? Did he even have lungs? He looked at his completely healed hand. Could he feel anything at all?
“The answer, quite simply, is yes, Mr Potter. You feel, so you are, and so we are.” It was Huck, “Don’t limit your thinking, and yes, that is you thinking, to the idea that you are just an idea. All people are just ideas of the world, of their parents… their creators.” He took a draw from an unlit pipe. “Freewill, Mr Potter, that is the measure of life, not intelligence, not purpose and definitely not blood… There is power in your will and the choices you make.”
“I didn’t see you follow me out?”
“No, you did not. I was already here. I was seeking my own counsel, and I don’t have much to add or to gain from the gathering in there.” He smiled, pretending to restock his empty pipe. “Though it does show how ‘Human’ we all are, in essence. We seek control and community. I take it you are uncomfortable with being the ‘chosen one’?”
“I am just trying to…”
“Catch up? Yes, that would be the right and normal response, I think. A baptism of fire is what you got, but…” He paused. “They did get it right. You may not be a wizard, Harry, but you are a good man, one that will stand up for the powerless, even though you might be powerless against the mob, not willing to see your friends take another blow. You are a h…”
“Are you going to come back in and join us?” The interruption took both Harry and Huck by surprise. “The room has calmed a little. Many have left, and I think it’s time you came back in to hear the plan.” Her voice was calm and yet undeniable. “Or help devise a plan to be more accurate.”
“Are you Lara Croft?” asked Harry.
She laughed. “No, I’m just adaptable, and this seemed the best attire… plus I don’t have the boobs!!” She turned sideways, arms on her hips, smirking, “I’m Cinderella, don’t believe everything you read or hear… I don’t need a man to save me, and the doctor wishes he’d had his way with me… the prick!” She took his hand.
“Ok, nice to meet you, Cinderella. Yes, I guess I’ll come back in now… are you ready to come and join the adventure, Huck?” He gestured to Huck with a shake of his head.
“Why yes, I am”, he placed his hand on Harry’s shoulder, “It’s a fine night to be with a new friend and to plan the end of your story, I think.”
———————————————————————————
“Harry! So glad you stuck around.” Gandalf was smiling, his pipe was alight, and grey smoke rose gently from it.
“I wasn’t sure I could leave?” Harry sat down at the table. “Kidnapping isn’t something I’ve had done to me before. And isn’t smoking bad for your health, or in this case, isn’t fire very dangerous for us?” Gandalf smiled and took a bigger puff.
“Sorry about that,” Lucy replied, “I do get a bit carried away. I’m not great at explaining, still with this bloody child’s brain… age has little effect on my core character. Oh, and his pipe, not really alight, just part of his ‘costume’.”
“Ahh, ok. Apology accepted.” He idly picked up a marshmallow and began chewing it. ‘What is it with all these things?’ He thought.
“Those are produced in large amounts by some of the ‘magical’ items used, such as the Tardis and the Wardrobe.” Harry looked at Lilith questioningly. “Not telepathy, just an informed guess. I’m gifted like that, to see questions in others.” She sat down opposite Harry. “You’re not a prisoner here, Harry. Everyone is free to come and go. It’s not easy to find the right people, nothing to do with power or strength, much more about resolve.”
“I understand, but I mean, the doctor. He has a TARDIS. He’s got to be more useful than me?”
“He’s too scared to act, Harry. He is used to having access to unlimited power in a universe he can manipulate. Here he’s just a bravado-driven man with a box that moves him from place to place, not through time and not indestructible or bigger on the inside.” Lilith sighed, “We need people who are strong enough to stand up and fight, at any odds. So we can reverse some of this damage and stop Axion, and you are the obvious choice to help with that.”
“The obvious choice for what?”
“To lead a fellowship on a possibly hopeless mission to stop Axion Fudge before he destroys the world,” said Huck.
“Well, when you put it like that, I’m in.”
———————————————————————————
Over the next hour and a lot of conversation, it was decided that a Fellowship should be formed to stop Axion Fudge, whose real name, it turned out, was Andrew Smedley.
“He hasn’t got the ring of power, has he?” Harry looked at Gandalf.
“That would be bad, very bad”, Gimli shook his head, “very, very bad… Very, very ver…”
“Oh, do shut up, Gimli,” Lilith frowned. “No, he doesn’t. Only Gandalf has one of those.”
“It’s not very effective, like the wand, but it does warm up a cold cup of coffee.” He held out his hand and blew on his fingers, and a ring became temporarily visible. “We don’t understand why some things retain power, and others don’t, but I think it’s because the power of this ring is connected to the elements and magic of Middle-earth, not here, so the connection is weaker.”
“Same reason my wands don’t work here?”
“Not strictly true, Mr Potter. Your wand does have some power, but the wand is a conduit, so unless the user ‘conjures’ magical energy, it has no ‘fuel’.” Olivander was sitting a little away from the group. “If you have magic, it will work; that’s why it’s useless to Fudge.”
“But I tried earlier”.
“You tried with my wand, Harry. You should try it with your own.”
“I don’t have it… I sold it on eBay when things were grim, along with the cloak.”
“Yes, Mr Potter, and I bought it,” Olivander slipped a slim, long package into Harry’s hand, wrapped up in brown paper and tied up with string.
Harry unwrapped the wand. It felt natural in his hand, comfortable and slightly warm. “Lumos,” he said, and a small spark fizzled and popped. He tried again. “Lumos”, this time a little louder.
“It will take time, Mr Potter.” Olivander smiled. “You are now tapping into something far away, something from another reality.”
Harry nodded, “But maybe this is what he wants, isn’t it, the power to bridge worlds, dimensions?” The other looked at him quizzically. “Maybe these stories told in books aren’t fiction but threads of other realities poking through into this one, like… like.”
“Rays of sunlight through holes in a curtain?” Cinderella offered.
“Yes, not enough to light up a room, but enough so you know the sun is up.” He looked at the group. “I don’t know, just guessing. But what’s his plan once he has access to that small amount of power?”
“To rip off the curtain and get to the power beyond”. Lilith says, almost whispering.
“To combine all the totems’ power into an infinite source of magical, creative energy, a weapon maybe, a conjuring portal?” Gandalf’s voice filled the room, and then, suddenly, there was silence, and all the light seemed to be swallowed up; it started to become cold. Harry looked at Gandalf. “Nothing to do with me.” He mouthed. A new voice boomed out.
“Not a weapon, but a tool to change reality. A way to remake it.” The voice was distant and close by at the same time. “It’s his dream to live in a land of fantasy he’s gleaned from books, films and games. He’s building a Chaos Engine”. Harry realised the voice wasn’t in the room; it was in his head!
“Death!” Gandalf gasped as they all fell unconscious.