Magic Knows No Boundaries Chapter 32 (Patreon)

Title Pending

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Harry and Alastor departed the biplane and waved goodbye to the nice pilot lady and began their trek down towards Akhetaten. It only took a few steps away from the magically cooled biplane and tent hanger for the full heat of the Sahara to blast Harry at full force.

"How do people live like this?!" Harry panted as the sweat came down in buckets. "Are they trying to challenge mother nature

"Well, they also live here during the autumn, winter and spring seasons." Alastor said. "Which are supposedly more mild."

"Is it not autumn now?" Harry asked pleadingly as he fanned himself by opening and closing the neck of his shirt.

"Oh, stop being such a baby! It's barely seventy two out. And it's a dry heat." Alastor teased. "Besides, are you a wizard or aren't you?"

Alastor casually cast a cooling charm on Harry and he relaxed with a contented sigh.

"I am, but cooling charms are always nicer when somebody else casts it on you." Harry said. "Anyways, done sillying about. Let's get a move on."

The walk from the airstrip to the city gate was a short one. It had the same enchantments about it as Hogwarts did, making it seem like rundown ruins.

Yet another wizarding society hidden in plain sight of Muggles. Then again, Diagon Alley was smack in the middle of downtown London and most wizarding villages were planted right next to muggle ones. Hogwarts and Hogsmeade being so remote and isolated from Muggle society were more the exception to the rule, not the rule itself.

In the case of Akhetaten it wasn't actually a living area, so much as a seat of government, like the Ministry of Magic building in London. In this case the supposedly ruined foundation of the city was the illusion show to Muggle outside, who were not permitted beyond the boundary. And even if they got past it the illusion would still hold for them. The only thing wizards could see from the outside was the correct stone gates, hidden from Muggle view like the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron.

"Wow." Harry said as he looked upon the sculpture on either side of the gate. "That is one UGLY Pharoah... And one pretty Pharoahette."

The sculpture on the left depicted a Pharoah with a potbelly and a face that looked like it had been sculpted from wax then left too close to the stove. The right was a woman who looked like a marble statue of a middle eastern supermodel. Her face was all sharp angles and confidence. Well-deserved confidence.

"That, is Akhenaten. The misfit Pharoah, and his wife, Nefertiti, the icon of beauty in the ancient world. The Egyptian Venus." Alastor told Harry as they both stopped to appreciate the sculptures. "He looks like that from generations of inbreeding. Most of the other pharaohs likely were similarly deformed, but had their sculptures make them seem larger than life. Him? He had himself portrayed as he was. Flaws and all."

Wow. Humble. Honest. A ruler without pride or pomp. Harry already liked the guy.

"He built this entire city at the command of god. A city for misfits." Alastor went on. "He called god Aten, but the name we give God doesn't matter. He has so many of them. What was most important was that he recognized and spoke of god's true nature. As singular, the one and only, and as absolutely good and loving. The creator of all things."

Harry nodded. Yeah, that sounded like Christianity to him.

"What do you mean by city for misfits?" Harry asked. "Was it a city just for the sick and deformed?"

"Oh, it was much more than that." Alastor told him. "It was also for social outcasts. People bereft of homelands, many foreign peoples, came here and made a home in this city. Chiefly among them dragon cultists from around the middle east, particularly the Canaanite tribe of metallurgists who worshiped the great fiery serpent, Yahweh."

Okay. THAT name, Harry recognized.

"So, he converted them all?" Harry asked. "But kept the names?"

"Eehhh. It's much more complicated than that." Alastor said with a shake of his hand. "More like they all intermingled. The Canaanites at least were convinced to abandon their worship of serpents and dragons as such. In time the Canaanite immigrants merged with the Aten religion, along with the beliefs of other tribes from across North Africa and the Mediterranean. Each came to recognize the one true god with their own little additions. But he became most comflated the Canaanite gods El and Yahweh interchangeably. Makes it all very confused, but Aten was the most representative of the one true god. It would take many centuries for them to shed the last of their polytheistic ways and worship him alone, but hangovers of both the Egyptian polytheistic and Canaanite polytheistic beliefs remained. They would later break off into both Judaism and Zoroastrianism."

Harry had to think on this. He didn't know much about the Bible. Only the standard genesis, Noah and exodus stories. And even then, mostly from movies like Life of Brian, Mel Gibson and that beautifully animated movie of exodus.

"Is that what the serpent in the garden of Eden represents?" Harry asked. "The serpent gods they worshipped being a deception, and them coming to the true god?"

"Yes! Good job Hadrian." Alastor said. "That and fertility cultism. Long story. But yes, many of the parables in the bible are in reference to the destruction of polytheism and serpent, or dragon, worship in particular. The lines blur because the holdovers of both Canaanite and Egyptian faiths stayed. Judaism kept with them too much of the Canaanite religion, particularly the false belief that god's love was tied to their blood and they were his chosen people, whereas Zoroastrianism went the dualistic cosmology. It would take God coming to us in the flesh as Christ to clear everything up and remind us of what Akhenatan knew. The good news. That god wants us all, and loved the week and hurt above all others, and that all is good."

Hm. Harry could get behind most of that philosophically, but he wasn't the religious sort. He was just too grounded of a guy. His love for this world and anchors to it and it's people were too strong for him to care about anything greater or lesser, unless greater or lesser beings decided to invade from heaven and hell, in which case he'd wreck their shit. So yeah, he wouldn't be kneeling before any gods or demons anytime soon. Real or imaginary. Still, he loved his history.

"Shall we go learn of Aten?" Harry asked rhetorically.

He stepped through the gate, leading the way. Only to stop as soon as he entered the city and saw the statues lining the streets. Snakes. Snakes EVERYWHERE. Hooded snakes, multiheaded snakes, winged snakes and copper snakes. Most emblazoned with precious metals, especially copper. Alastor hadn't been joking when he said the Canaanites had brought a lot of their faith with them.

"Let me guess." Harry said. "They're all enchanted for parselmouths?"

Alastor blinked at him, then looked from him to the many statues and back again.

"Not that I've heard of. It would make sense though, since most priests and priestesses of snake and dragon cults were parselmouths in those days. All throughout the middle east and abroad." Alastor explained.

Harry blinked at him.

"Wait... so, Voldemort and I are both descended from ancient Egyptian and mesopotamian prists?" He asked.

"And Judaic priests. And Indian priests. And Chinese priests. And Celtic priests. Yes." Alastor confirmed. "But so is everybody else, so don't let it get to your head."

Harry blinked at him some more.

"Everyone on earth is, specifically, descended from parseltongues?" harry clarified

"Somewhere in their ancestry, certainly." Alastor hummed.

"...How can you possibly be certain of that?" Harry asked.

"Do you how exponents work?" Alastor asked.

"Yeeees?" Harry said, confused by the question.

"Well, every generation back your number of ancestors double. Two parents. Four grandparents. Eight great grandparents, and so forth." Alastor explained. "So, tell me, how many generations back do you have to go before you're descended from everybody on earth at the time twice over?"

Harry didn't have the brainpower to do that kind of math, but he did remember the old rice on a chessboard fable and new it was far less than one might think.

"No more than a few dozen." Harry said, guessing.

"Actually, two more than a couple dozen." Alastor said, with a raised eyebrow. "Twenty-six generations back, or about one thousand AD. And we're talking about three thousand BC. Everyone is descended from everybody that far back. Literally. We are all descendants of Abraham, congratulations on being an official Hebrew. And official everything else. That you inherited a single genetic trait that goes back that far isn't unique or bizarre. Plenty of people have their eye color or hair color that comes directly from somebody that far back. Possibly even somebody important. We will never know. And it doesn't really matter."

Now that was a good perspective to frame parseltongue in. He was right, definitely not something to let get into my head. Which also meant everyone in Brtain was descended from Salazar. And Helga. And Godric. And Rowena. Tom really wasn't that special after all, was he? Besides the cosmic coincidence of what genes happened to be passed down to him. Weird.

"Well. Let's give it a shot." Harry said before clearing his throat.

He looked closely at the nearest snake statue and let himself believe it was alive. But when he spoke he spoke loud enough for his voice to reach every single statue amongst the stone, decorated columns.

"Morning everyone! How are you all doing today." He said in parseltongue.

Every single statue turned to stare directly at him.

Of course.

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"I somehow always forget that the seasons are flipped down here." Voldemort complained as he shivered from the frigid breeze.

"Are you a wizard or aren't you?" Walburga teased.

"Well, I would cast a warming charm on myself but warming charms always feel better when a lady casts it on you for some reason." He said. "Kinda like how food cooked by somebody else tastes better."

"That or maybe you're pants at cooking?" Walburga suggested. "And also the whole not able to cast spells around here thing?"

That was a distinct possibility. Fortunately the black, rocky ground they were half climbing along was already beginning to warm up from the afternoon sunlight. So it preventing him from casting said warming charms were a moot point. And as they crested the last hill of black granite their goal came into view.

A great Olga, surrounded by black boulders on all sides, sat in the middle of the draw formed by the rocky hills on either side. It wasn't as large s Uluru, or as decorative as Kata Tjuta. Much like Uluru and Kata Tsuja, it had been created by a rainbow serpent as a marking stone above the cave and water system it had dug itself in the rock below. Unlike Uluru and Kata Tsuja, it was still inhabited and was surrounded on all sides by the mysterious cursed stone of Kalkajaka. Which made it a perfect place to hide something from wizards and Muggles alike.

As an active Olga still inhabited by a wild rainbow serpent, the wizarding government of Australia and aboriginal mages protected the entire area from Muggles. As a Kalkajaka it kept all but the most suicidal wizards away.

Nobody knew for certain where the black stones came from, but all enchanters and alchemists knew for sure wizards created them. The leading theory was that it was some kind of equal and opposite enchanting method. By binding two such slabs of granite, they could strengthen a positive enchantment on one by simultaneous casting a dark curse on the other.

It held up in theory, and had been proven through experimentation. Problem was, none of the positive counterparts had ever been found and there was evidence of a wizarding society large enough ever having existed in Australia who could have produced so many billions of these wretched stones in such piles all over the continent. These stones that made all wizards, witches and even squibs feel as if the magic in their veins had turned to wriggling worms and wanted to burst out through their chest. Merely using magic around these things could kill a wizard or witch. It also completely incapacitated any sensory abilities.

And that wasn't even the greatest of the defenses he had places around his Horcrux.

They neared a freshwater stream and he spoke in parseltongue.

"I have returned, great mother." He spoke to the water.

Then, they stood there and patiently waited. And waited. And waited some more. He was about to speak again when the water's surface finally exploded upwards in a deluce of water. Always the melodrama with the bigger snakes.

And she was even bigger than he recalled, and he once again hoped he'd have the chance to introduce her to Salazar's equally large basilisk. Sure, experimental breeding was illegal, but since when did he care about illegality?

Rainbow serpents were effectively giant white-lipped pythons. That was it. Their dark scales iridescent, reflecting a rainbow sheen. There was also the small matter that hteir scales were elongated, halfway to being feathers. They were still very much magical creatures, however. As their gigantism, like giants, was born of magic and hteir scales made for excellent wand cores. The core of his spell wand came specifically from her, actually.

There was also the small ability they have to eat stone and regurgitate it into solid masses. Hence how they carve out these tunnels and use the material to form Olga's.

"It has been too long, speaker." She said.

"Indeed, it has." Tom said.

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Harry groaned as the statues continued their song and dance. Literally.

"Everyone has his food, and his time of life is reckoned."

Harry groaned harder. Okay! We get it. Aten is a nice loving guy. The fact that the pharaoh made it rhyme in parseltongue was somehow enraging. he didn't even know you could make words rhyme in parseltongue! But the disconnect of it coming as English in his mind where it then didn't rhyme anymore was giving him a headache.

"They sure seem talkative. That are they saying?" Alastor asked.

"They are singing." Harry said annoyedly as the passed a sign declaring the building attached to it the Chinese Liaison office.

And so their search for the UK and American Liaison office continued.

"Their tongues are separate in speech,

And their natures as well;"

"About what?" Alastor asked.

"Aten." Harry said simply.

"Aten provides all people need, separated the nations by language, yada yada." Harry explained.

"Ah! That would be the great hymn of Aten. It actually changed over eons into Psalm one oh four..."

"Thank you! Religious study nerd. Continue the lecture when I'm not suffering very loud and annoying parseltongue in my ear, thank you kindly." Hary groused.

Finally, coming upon the stone building marked Uk/American Liaison Office, Harry damn near barreled through the tent flaps it had in place of a door and marveled at the wonderful silencing charms. Goodbye snake hymns, hello bureaucracy. Huge improvement.

No, really. The singing was that bad.

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This chapter came surprisingly easy to me. I couldn't get ten words down yesterday, but today was a breeze.

Wanted to show the protections around Tom's final Horcrux, but decided that ought to be an entire chapter, and since Harry will be busy with paperwork for the rest of his Saturday then visiting plots of land for his sunday, decided to save both for the next chapter. 

Hope you liked it all anyways.