Richard knew he was not awake.
That burst of magic, when he released his latest piece had drained and hammered him at the same time with no remorse.
Still, he didn't rush to wake up. Because he was in somewhere he had wanted to be for a long time.
His steps were slow and random, his gaze turning around to look at the shadows and the pale sky that appeared to be at he cusp of dawn.
It had changed, this inner world of his. And yet, he had never been able to see it so clearly till now.
The last time he had peaked here, it was nothing but pitch black.
Now, while he was still standing on a piece of barren land that appeared black as coal, he was able to make out a sky, a hill, and a horizon.
Especially the sky brilliant in spectacle.
A sky illuminated by a vast and colorful nebulae that appeared in the middle of the dark sky like a heaven split open, with stars that poured out of it, and clung on to it while it traversed like a majestic behemoth.
That...he reached out with his hand unconsciously. He wanted to make a sword out of it.
And as he thought so, the swirling cloud of stars dipped down a little, and a single bright star fell onto his hand.
As he clenched the brilliant light in his fist the name came out to his lips naturally.
Exanima
The sword materialized in his hand effortlessly, still carrying brilliance of that light.
And Richard understood the problem that caused him to end up here in the first place. He had tried to bring all the power of the stars into a single point of light.
What he held in his hand was a part of Exanima summoned by calling its name. The true Exanima was a magical phenomenon of its own. It had become one when it completed its transformation just like bishop.
Soon, it too would become..just like the fires he gave up.
If that was the case, then..
Bishop.
He called out for the connection between him and the bird of fire. Though he didnt bring it, but its power alone. And as always, the fire answered to his call.
Swoosh
Richard held it on one hand, while his other held the brilliant sword of light. He clenched his fist, and fires ran out from the crevices in between his fingers and rose up.
He wanted a sword from bishop.
The flames stopped reaching up, and collapsed down to his fist before they st reached horizontally. One side reaching farther, yet retaining a shape unlike normal flames could.
Whip
He gave it a few swings, and shaped the fire till he felt the weight become natural in his grip.
Well, 'Weight' didnt describe the actual physical weight to Richard, but rather a feeling of weight he felt from the weapon. It felt better when he finished with it.
Richard looked at the sword of star light in his left hand, and the formed fire he contained on his other. Two swords, from two powers. And two completely different aesthetics.
He stabbed them both to the ground and left them there as hr wandered inside his inner world.
Powers were powers, and swords were swords.Soon, he would combine them to create an entire hill filled with swords.
More powers meant more variations.
Richard pulled from another distant power source.
She was asleep, so she would never know. But since his world already had the swords of the bishops, it is only right to have the sword from the queen.
The power didnt listen to him very well though, a wisp of dark mist with a brilliant purple undertone and a metallic outline, that squirmed and flickered as it tried to move on its own even when he called on it.
It came to him slowly, maybe because it didnt stem from grand magic like bishop or Exanima. But because it came from someone. And it wasn't mature enough. Richard clicked his tongue in annoyance. He needed more, Tonks had to give him more..
Richard...
The sound was faint, but someone was calling him.
Richard wanted to sleep more,or rather spend some more time in his own world.
He was too busy fighting with the magical power that was harder to tame than a Basilisk.
"If he's asleep, then its up to me and you Harry. Sorry Ron, seeing as you can't stand-"
Richard scowled internally while letting the rebellious energy scatter
What were they going on about....
He cracked open an eyelid to see himself in a white room, lying on a white bed. On the bed in front of him, Ron was struggling to sit upright, though his bound and suspended leg didn't make it easier.
What's supposed to happen here?
Richard recollected his memory, trying to see what would happen now.
The shack, then Sirius, Pettigrew, Lupin, Dementors and then-
Richard's eyes flew open as he shot up straight from his bed like an arrow. His eyes darted and immediately locked onto both Harry and Hermione who were standing in the middle of the Infirmary, hunched over something.
Richard's sheets flew and his legs hit the linoleum before even he properly thought of a plan.
'Boost'
Richard closed the couple of meters between them in a fraction of a second. As he reached it to stop them, he noticed the gold trinket in Hermione's hand starting to blur.
There was no time.
His brain deciphered the information before he could understand.
Before a second they vanished, Richard grabbed onto the thin gold thread between Harry and Hermione. At the same time, his eyes caught the sight of Hermione, who was standing at the door, looking at him with obvious emotion he didnt bother to decript that second.
Richard felt a smirk form on his face for some reason just before the world blurred.
Woosh
Thud!
The world returned to normal, and both Richard, and Hermione collapsed dragging Harry as well onto the pile.
Hmm..somehow Richard hadn't felt the hard wood, even when he had fallen.
'Slap.'
"What!?"
"You complete arse,"
Richard stood slowly while pushing himself away from Hermione while slowly letting go of the chain he had in his hand. Slowly though, so that none of them would notice the blue light fading from it. She still looked angry though.
"Do you even know how close all three of us came to a fate worse than dying?" She pushed him away, and Richard let her, though a snarl briefly appeared on his face. Too little time to work his magic.
Hermione retrieved the chain which she had draped across Harry's neck while standing furiously.
"Do you have any idea what would have happened if the slightest mistake happened from the crazy stunt you pulled? Do you even know what happens to wizards who mess around with time? Because I do. And no one of them had a happy ending."
"Wait! Time magic?" Harry stood up while rubbing his reddened neck, after accidentally being garroted by Richard. "There's something like that?"
"Shut it Harry"
So, maybe there was a risk like that. But Richard wasn't the slightest bit sorry. If he hadn't grabbed onto that single chance then he would not have had the chance to experience time travel.
"Can you tone it down. Do you really want everyone at Hogwarts to know that you have a time turner with you?" Richard didnt care about how Hermione reacted. "Besides, I thought that we were on a strict time frame."
"_You knew ?"
"Obviously." Richard said as he pulled his jacket straight. "So, what do we have to do?"
He didn't know what happened to Sirius after their last meeting. But seeing as they were still going back in time, things were probably not so peachy back there.
When he asked the question, Hermione's face paled rapidly, and quickly grabbed Harry by his jacket, while motioning to Richard to follow.
"We need to hurry up-"
"Yup."
"But what's happening-" Richard stopped Harry's questions while jogging faster. The poor guy looked completely dumbfounded.
"Later Harry, Just follow Hermione for the moment. She's the only one with the full picture at the moment."
They quickly ran out of the castle, and towards the hill above Hagrid's hut.
"Hey, wait..that's us!?"
Harry tried to step forward towards them only to be stopped by Richard himself.
"Dude...you can't let yourself be seen. That's like time travel 101." Richard pulled Harry back into the shadows of the archway they were hiding in, before he could step out to point the obvious. "Haven't you heard of the butterfly effect?"
"So we really did travel back in time?"
"Yes, but I don't see the reason why." Richard wasn't really sure."Sirius is fine right? You all managed to convince the minister right?"
. They should have, given that both Snape and McGonagall were witness, though the first one might only do so grudgingly.
And there wasn't any drama with Buckbeak, because he had kept the idiot blond ferret away from the very dangerous magic a beast.
However Harry seems to know why, because he grabbed Richard's hand tightly.
"Then we still have time to stop professor Lupin before its too late."
Richard froze. Lupin? That was the farthest from his guesses, which revolved around Pettigrew, but then he remembered what Lupin was.
A werewolf.
No matter what the man was, it didnt change what the beast is.
Richard had a bad feeling from the bottom of his gut. When things go out if script, things neber went well to him.
"Tell me, what happened."
Harry felt the grip on his arm tighten enough for him to feel uncomfortable.
"Professor Lupin is imprisoned on the topmost tower of the astronomy tower, because.."
"Because he attacked a student, who's currently missing."Hermione finished.
"What's the student's name" Richard hoped his hunch to be wrong. But the world wasn't that kind
"Luna Lovegood."