Another one of my musings: Wouldn't Voldie had emptied the vaults of any valuable things? Money, gems, powerful magical artifacts - the lot.

After school he worked in a dead-end job as far as money was concerned. The he disappears for a few years and comes back applying for the Defense position. During the time he was missing (along with his circle of followers I might add) not even Dumbledore knew where they went, what they did or any other info.

After Dumbledore refused him the Defense position Voldemort's reign of terror started rather abruptly, and rather vicious. Now I'm not trying to find excuses for Dumds, but after defeating the Dark Lord at the hart of WW2, a new, budding Dark Lord would have had to have some kind of advantage not to be beaten into a corner from the beginning. Something like the cumulated wealth of a major wizarding city.

The former wizarding capital would have had a Department of Mysteries, no?

Why would a budding Dark Lord leave all that simply laying around? I mean, hello! Resources to be used! Conquerers pillage after they are victorious.

I say that all there is in the vaults are a huge number of perverse and deadly traps. That is exactly what Tommy would do:

"You got though my wards and wish to seek riches for your hard work. You were good enough and smart enough to get though MY wards! You were better and smarter then ME, LORD VOLDEMORT! YOU DARE INSULT ME THUS! I shall give you your reward then: only death! Am I not merciful? <insane laughter>"

 

If he did, why were the master keys and ledger still in the Manager's office where they took down the broom wards? Those both seem like excellent things to have if you want to loot the vaults. Otherwise you have to break the wards on each individual vault, never mind that only a gringotts goblin can touch them to open them without being sucked inside. Makes for tough work.

My money says that only one vault (probably #1 because he's conceited) was messed with. Not only would the number probably imply wealth and status, but it's also the oldest. Likely he looted that one of its considerable riches and placed his horcrux before warding the ever loving crap out of it and making the ultimate DJL. Why would the most powerful dark lord/wizard (so he claims) in the world need money? He thinks might makes right, and that he should be in charge. If he wants something he should ask for it, if they refuse or start bringing up money, kill them. After all it is his right! Isn't it? For those rare occasions where the "do it or I kill you family, rape your dog, and set fire to your neighbors" approach doesnt work, that's why he has followers.

Remember the Arrogance.

Also consider that the ledgers in the lobby listed the money in each vault. It would be troublesome to hand update that ledger after every transaction, more probably it was tied to a counting spell to automatically update the ledger.

 

Just to clarify, they never found the master keys or the master ledger. The anti-broom wards were on the 4th level - inside Goblin only territory. The keys and the Master Ledger were supposed to be on the 5th level in the Manager's office. The 5th level was pretty much destroyed and turned into a home where the dead Abraxan roamed (insert rest of lyrics here).

The ledgers at the tellers desks still show the amounts of monies in each vault. More on that next chapter.

The next few chapters should answer the questions about Voldemort's attack against the city 35 years ago. What constituted his army? What happened to that army afterwards? Why did he come there in the first place? Perhaps a history lesson is in order...but who to tell Harry about it? Who indeed?

For further clarification an accidental reductor from an 8 year old isn't likely to destroy a wall, but it would do some serious damage to a human being akin to a shot from a rifle.

As for the mention of my other story, I intend for that to be my next story, but there is a bunny that won't let me go. The pairing for that bunny would most likely be Harry/Margaret Edmondson. Google the girl's name and figure out what the story might be...

Ah the cursed bunnies!!!!

Jim

 

Now I guess that the Necro wards would play havoc upon ghosts, and after they come down angry spirits would generally be tamed, pleased, whatever. Bur if the town has gothic elements then the school would have some european traits as well. Like portraits. And maybe not just the school. So maybe some poor portrait has survived the plight and is downright itching to be taken someplace else, to tell the horrific story or simply to be turned off.

Now if the "Who indeed?" comment was accompanied by a knowing smirk, then I can barely wait!...

 

Gee, a BSG cross-over?! This oughta be interesting.

(Yay for first post in such a great thread!)

 

Very nice chaptet. I love the animals being made to zombies as well.

One problem... well not so much as a problem so much as something I don't like. The neco wards seem to be to powerful. I know Bill said it is the most impressive thing he has ever seen but for a set of wards to be able to reanimate any dead thing is a bit much. I would expect Zombies to be rather hard to make so making wards to make them should be doubly as hard and only able to work on humans or what ever animal you choose. Also you add the bit that makes them immune to fire. Which is great since I find that a pathetic weakness but it also adds to the uber power of these wards.

Then we come to the problem of who made them.

Bill and Sanchez are both very accomplised warders and this seems to be well beyond their capability. So I doubt Voldemort could do this.

I mean he was about 30ish when he did this job. He could not be THAT an accomplished warder. He has followers to get magics to learn I doubt he could dedicate enough time to become anything more than a average warder. It just to much for one man even if he is a dark lord to do.

Then if it wasn't him who was it? Someone of that talent must be one of the best in the world. which leeds to the question, Why hasn't Voldemort used him again? He must of survived the initial attack to make the wards and I doubt Voldemort would kill someone of that skill just to keep a secret. He would make him take an oath pay him a shit load and use him again.

Over all I lik the idwa of the zombies, it makes for a VERY intersesting story. But it just seems a bit to mush for the wards to do.

 

Er, What? BSG? Cross-over?

Bungle in the Jungle? Related?

On the subject of the newest chapter...

...Fucking awesome.

Bow down before the mighty Jbern mortals for he has blessed you with his presence and an update.

Your Harry is the best I have ever seen, this is the only story I am actively following at the moment and it's obvious why, it's fucking brilliant.

Well done Jbern, well done.

 

Thanks. The BSG crossover was where I mentioned a bunny that's about to enter development. I offered the sample pairing of Harry/Maragret Edmondson (ie Racetrack) as a possibility. It's either that story or the possible Harry/Fleur story that I try to get several chapters stockpiled for release when I need to buckle down and finish off TFtCD as this one concludes and I get ready to write the sequel.

TEAOS is right in that respect, who exactly did these wards? You'll have to wait for the answer, but perhaps for only a chapter or two.

However, back in the first set of ruins they encountered Necro Wards keeping about a dozen as I recall Inferi in that darkened room.

For my purposes there are 2 ways of creating Inferi. The first is individual animation. It allows a finer control and you can use it to go and attack someone else. Use a potion and a couple of spells and viola - walking dead.

The other way is if you need a place defended. You use Necro Wards that animate the dead in a certain area. I'll let you in on a tidbit from next chapter, Bill and Sanchez are both worried because they've never seen wards powerful enough to animate a dragon or cover such a large area before...

Jim

 

My guess is on the army. He either like someone said cut off the air supply or in my opinion he brought an army and slaughtered it after it slaughtered the town.

Im willing to bet that anyone who knows about the wards except for the people there and Tom is dead. Tom probably threatened to kill their families and went through with it regardless of if they spilled the beans or not. But Im going on FtCD Tom not Bungle Tom since I havent seen him yet.

 

Wait, there's going to be a sequel to BitJ? Even better now! :banana:

Hm, I'd be interested in how you'd bring Harry into BSG-verse; perhaps he could be one of the rookie pilots? A refugee from New Caprica? Possibly something like nonjon's Green Eyes, Brown Coat?

 

Roastpuff, i was wondering about that too. How about Voldie launcing Harry into space in some kind of suspended animation pod? To prevent Higher Magic or KFC or whatnot from sending another Slayer at the first one's death.
( Sorry. Crossoverfrenzy, i guess.)
Anyway, weird shit happens to him all the time. Getting saved by the Seekers of Earth is nothing, and since he's seeking for the same damn thing why shouldn't he join them?
Hmm. Would the Void stop Fawkes?
After all, Nonjon has already done the Survivor-thing. The reverse rescue would be funnier. Especially since Jbern could keep Harry awkwardly teenaged this way.
Unfortunatelly that would mean i would have to download BSG to get an idea about the original storyline. I've seen maybe two ep's and not in sequence, so i know very little about that world. Or lack of.
I'm looking forward to his Goblet remake myself. H/F as teens, written by Jbern? How could it NOT be great?

g

 

Ok, help me out here, what is BSG?

I'm looking forward to the reactions of Dumbledore and the rest. (and their reasoning). They can't honestly believe that love-potions would have helped Harry get the power Voldie knows not, especially when they dosed him with the other potion that he can't act on those feelings...

Especially Remus explanations would be interesting as he is the one that has all the financial control and normally in fanon is a "fan" of Harry.

Perhaps this Remus doesn't like Harry because of everybody dying around him/because of him?

On the story I have a feeling that the Horcrux is just lying in a house with additional wards. The ring was at the Gaunt's house and it was nearly a ruin if memory serves right...

 

Battlestar Galactica I think.

As for the potion, perhaps they were just hoping it could "kickstart" his feelings. He's already friends with the girls, so they figured it'd be easy to get him to fall in love with one of them and stay that way. Or they are just morons

 

well according to fleur it isn't actually a love inducing potion, more a feeling-enhancer.
What really fucks it up is the oblivation and the "not getting a choice" part (meaning presenting it as a done deed). If they just gave him the potion 2-3 times and then let things develop normally it wouldn't be bad imho (at least for a fairly strange wizarding world with slightly strange moral values to begin with, in our legal system a drug like that would most likely be counted as "rape-drug")

 

Hell yeah! Imagine Harry tearing into Molly for the administration of a rapedrug.
How would Ginny respond to the suggestion that she tried to rape him with a drug? Sexual suppressants only mean they've had him coming and going, without the fun interpretations of the words.
Harry could probably build a compelling argument about the complete mutilation of his emotions, and severe trauma to his ability to love at all because of this betrayal.
See Them Blanche!
Imagine Dumbdores reaction if Harry returned acting almost lobotomized. A guilt-trip would be too much to expect, but damn, it would be funny!
Theorizing is fun. Can't wait for the real thing.

g

 

Now I'm not accusing anyone of anything, but this fic may turn out to be a crossover itself. The wards are beginning to sound more and more with the ones from 'Legacy Of Blood' of the Diablo series, the ones guarding Bartuc's armor. The first chapter of the said book, in which the said wards are described is on http://www.blizzard.com/books/legacyofblood/ .

For those who don't want or don't have the book (though I may be persuaded to give directions as how to get a web copy for free), but have the knowledge, those wards were constructed by the followers of Rathma - the necromancers - with Vizjerei knowledge a couple of centuries before Baal was imprisoned.

Now that I think it through, Bartuc's armor seems more and more like a bunch of blood-magic enhanced Horcruxes. Hmmm... But for Horazon to do the same with the Arcan Sanctuary... <leaves mumbling to himself>

 

As a DM who loves coming up with crazy stuff like this for his games, let me offer you some unsolicited advice. While HP is not D&D writing fanfic and designing a campaign do have some similarities. I'm mentioning this to bring one of those similarities into the light. It's called Game/Plot Balance. Something you are generally very good at, but in this instance I'd like to offer some suggestions.

Obviously both methods you've described have some upsides and downsides but they aren't quite balanced. Given the choice between the two, any two bit necromancer who wants an army is going to use Necro Wards and just throw the bodies into the room. Instant soldiers! Bad idea.

Instead, perhaps you should specify that some quirk in the Necro Wards prevents inferi/zombies raised in this manner from being controlled. You just get angry dead things that attack anything that comes near. This way the wards are still good the way you've been using them (a static defense) but cant become a deal breaker where all the good-guy dead are enemy soldiers within minutes of falling on a battlefield (in a tomb defense scenario sure, but let's not set things up so Volde could throw a set of Necro Wards over a battlefield and start throwing AK's to create new minions).

Likewise perhaps there should be a limit to how powerful a creature could be raised by Necro wards (in game mechanics, that'd be a HD limit). Maybe that NecroDragon was created using the first method by Volde himself and asked to guard the place (limited intelligence) while all the others were mindless kill monkeys. It's still an impressive display of Voldemort's power to reanimate a Dragon, but it isn't super-broken Wards-O-Doom anymore. Only partially broken can't-get-rid-of-me Wards-O-Doom that have realistic limitations on what they can affect.

Balance... If the Dark Arts really were stronger, why aren't we ruled by a Dark Lord? If the Light is stronger, why are there Dark Wizards? I really enjoy the Necro Wards and how you've used them so far. This has been a really original piece of fiction that opened up the world of cursebreaking, but a touch of moderation in this instance would be nice.

 

^ Like that idea. Gives good balance which is what I was trying to get at.

 

Never read the Blizzard series. Played an awful lot of Diablo and Diablo 2 though and you guessed it my favorite character was the Necromancer.

D&D - haven't played it in ages, (3rd edition Early to mid 80's - before it got so muddled and what not...) By default I ended up as DM, so I know of what you speak. And in that frame of reference, the mindless kill monkeys are just the first level of this dungeon. Remember the wards are only restricted to a limited area. Bill and Sanchez have never seen Necro Wards that are capable of covering more than a building. This covers an entire city! It's part of the story...

Jim

 

Um...in essence, though, the wards ARE only covering one building...the cave that the city is located in. It IS an enclosed space, just a tad bit larger than what our intrepid cursebreakers are used to...