Breaking Free

1

When his vision came into focus he found himself in an infirmary. But instead of the well-lit Hogwarts infirmary with its high vaulted ceiling and tall windows running parallel with the beds Harry Potter found himself in what appeared to be a dungeon equivalent of an infirmary. Instead of light pouring in through the windows the only source of light was several braziers and in the ceiling was much lower, probably about 8 feet high. Another difference between the Hogwarts infirmary and Harrys current location was that the door, whilst smaller than the door at the entrance to the Hogwarts infirmary was much grander, covered in gold, rubies and what Harry vaguely recognised as runes.

The young Potter heir immediately began to panic as he had no idea how he arrived in the dungeon/ infirmary. Several thoughts began to run wild through his mind from 'Where am I?' to 'Shit! Voldemort's captured me!'

Just as he was about to start hyperventilating there was a soft trill echoed through the small room. This trill caused the Potter heir to calm down and his mood to lighten. Looking around Harry expected to see the red and gold plumage of the Headmasters phoenix, however there sitting on a perch next to his hospital bed was a phoenix with a pure white chest and head with a black crest and wingtips. The phoenixes eyes however were a stormy grey colour which showed the immortal beings intelligence.

After staring into each other's eyes for what could've been minutes or hours a voice was projected into the young Potters mind.

'Greetings my Harry, are you well?'

"What? Who are you? Where am I?"

The phoenix feeling the young human starting to panic again trilled a soft note whilst saying 'Be at peace my human, we are underground where the small things work and I am your familiar Hedwig.'

"Small things? Underground" Harry questioned. This left two possibilities. The least likely possibility being with dwarves who are renowned for their solitude and haven't willingly let a human into their vast underground kingdoms since the time of the founders. The most probable answer being goblins most likely underneath Gringotts bank.

But the young Potter heir just caught onto what else the immortal being said. "HEDWIG?! But.. but Hedwig's an owl! I would've noticed if I'd had a phoenix familiar for the past 5 years!"

'I have only recently transformed into a phoenix my Harry; I do not know what caused the transformation either.'

At this point the doors were slammed open and half a dozen goblin warriors marched in and lined up along the walls. Goblin warriors tend to use roman style of armour instead of heavy plate armour and chain mail armour used during medieval times. The armour the goblin warriors wore a variation of lorica segmentata as it provides cover for the torso of the goblin whilst giving the wearer a lot of mobility. The difference between the roman armour and the goblin armour is that the goblins covered there armour in several dozen runes.

Following the goblin warriors was a proud and regal goblin and was half a foot taller than the goblin warriors and wore, strangely enough, a muggle (non-magical) business suit and a large crown with the crest of Gringotts (A galleon, sickle and knut) and several rubies imbedded in the golden crown (AN: LOOK AT THE DRAGON AGE ORIGINS DWARVEN KINGS CROWN).

The goblin king gave a toothy smile when it saw that the young potter heir was awake, which scared the teenager more than it encouraged.

"Ah! Mr Potter, awake at last I see"

"Umm.. yes sir I am" came Harrys reply, thinking it would be best to be respectful considering he wasn't sure how he got there so thinking being nice couldn't hurt.

A light frown appeared on the goblin kings face as he asked "You don't remember me do you Mr Potter?" When Harry shook his head in the negative the goblin continued "Do you remember what happened when we met Mr Potter?"