"Welcome, to Apocrypha..." The same voice from before drawled at them, either in their ears or directly in their heads, Hermione couldn't tell.
But as her vision darkened, Hermione's other senses sharpened while she reached out to grab hold of Harry's robes like a security net.
Her ears picked up the sound of what seemed like water crashing. The air around her felt warm and muggy, and merely being in this strange place made her feel as if every inch of her body was being defiled by something disgusting. Though nothing was touching her.
Worst of all though, was the smell.
Hermione had always loved the smell of books, new and old. Her favorite place had always been the library because of both that and the wonderful amount of books that she could read there. And since coming to Hogwarts she had also fallen in love with the smell of ink as it was drying, making the Hogwarts library her most favorite place in the world.
The smell that assaulted her nose now though was as if she were surrounded by books and ink, but both of them were rotting and mildewing badly as their scent filled the air around them. And when her vision finally returned, Hermione realized why.
She was standing on a small island in the middle of what looked like a sea of ink, twisted towers of ancient books rising up around her haphazardly. The sky meanwhile twisted and churned with swirling neon green clouds, within which were several vortexes that opened up to produce tentacles that stretched downwards, while even more of them stretched up from the sea of ink.
"Is everyone alright?" Rumbled a deep voice, drawing Hermione's attention to the robes she was clinging to for protection. Except the robes she was holding didn't belong to an eleven year old student.
Instead, standing before Hermione was a full-grown man dressed in robes she had never seen before, his hair extending into a long braid down his back while a full beard, also braided, shrouded his face. But Hermione did see the blazing emerald green eyes, and the lightning bolt scar on his forehead.
"H-Harry?!" She exclaimed in disbelief, having never seen what Harry looked like before he returned to Britain from Skyrim. And she wasn't the only one, as Horace and the professors also gaped at Harry with shock, while the headmaster was calmly analyzing their surroundings.
"Stay on your guard, but remember my rules and don't use magic unless there is absolutely no other choice." Harry told them sternly, right as the sea of ink exploded around them.
"GGGGRAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
A gurgling roar heralded the arrival of numerous humanoid creatures that merged from the ink, though they could only be considered so because they had two arms and legs. They each stood at least ten or so feet tall, and were covered in black fishlike scales along with fins, and a too wide mouth filled with razor sharp teeth.
"Lurkers." Harry growled in distaste as the things began to approach them, making room for more as they emerged from the inky sea in droves.
"They serve Hermaeus Mora and help guard the knowledge he collected and hordes here in Apocrypha. Their bodily fluids are so toxic that they can even corrode metal, rendering even the strongest weapons and armor useless after just a few exchanges. So smart people use magic against them instead."
"Smart people?" Snape drawled, his body notably tensing as he and the other professors prepared to assist if needed.
"Yes, smart people." Harry said, before he surprised them all by pulling off his robes so that he was wearing only his briefs.
"Potter?! What are you doing?!" McGonagall demanded as she hurriedly covered Hermione's eyes.
"I'm going to go and fight them." Harry replied as if it were obvious, reaching into his bag as he did so to pull out two massive battle axes that looked as if they were made of bone. "The Nord way."
"Wuld.... NAH KEST!"
There was a crack like thunder as Harry vanished from their side, reappearing deep within the lines of Lurkers as he swung his battle axes wildly.
Hermione stood transfixed as she beheld the spectacle before her, a masterful show of toxic blood and gore that Harry painted with his battle axes like he was an artist with brushes instead of weapons.
With each swing, blackish blood sprayed to paint the air and drain into the inky sea, while limbs and other body parts flew and spun in the air to spray yet more blood. It was a dance of violence, cruelty, and bloodshed that Hermione could not tear her gaze away from.
At the same time though, Harry was both outnumbered and outsized by the monstrous Lurkers.
Hermione's breath hitched in her throat when she saw the toxic and acidic blood spray Harry's bare body, something that assuredly caused him no small amount of pain. She also gasped when he swung one of his axes to cut three in half at once, giving a fourth the opening it needed to swipe his bare back with it's claws and leave several nasty gashes.
Then one of them stomped it's foot to summon a mass of writhing tentacles that wrapped around Harry's arms and legs to hold him in place, allowing the others to pour a deluge of poison onto his body during the brief moment before he could escape.
Hermione never even noticed her own nails digging into her face as she watched the battle with bated breath, nearly drawing blood as she worried over Harry as he seemingly acquired injury after injury.
But then, his entire body suddenly glowed with a vibrant golden light, one much more powerful than any Hermione had ever seen Harry use in the past as all of his wounds seemed to instantly close, and he managed to catch a second wind.
"Is it just me, or does mr Potter look as if he is...enjoying himself...?" Minerva asked warily, seeming even more uneased by that posibility than the scene before them.
"Minerva, you have to recall the environment Harry was raised in." Albus told her quietly. "The Nords that Harry grew up beside are akin to the vikings we are used to, a race that values combat prowess and courage more than anything else. Not only that, but it seems that by entering this realm Harry has also managed to return to his original age while also regaining his strength. Either reason has probably made him fairly happy."
The logic the headaster used was sound, but Minerva and the other professors, both past and present, all couldn't help but feel a litle unnerved from just how excited Harry looked tearing into his opponents.
Soon enough, despite the overwhelming numbers against him, Harry finished killing all of the Lurkers with brutal efficiancy. He even casually decapitated the final Lurker as it tried to crawl back to the inky sea.
"How utterly barbaric..." Hermione uttered despite the awe in her eyes, unable to tear her gaze away from the grisly sight. But as she was focused entirely on Harry, something completely invisible reached into the pocket of her robes.
"Oh no you don't!" Harry suddenly roared as he turned on them.
"Potter?!" Minerva exclaimed as lightning crackled around him, filling the air with the scent of ozone and making their hair stand on end(Hermione got the worst of it). Then, before any of them could say or do anything, light enveloped them all as lightning elgulfed the entire area.
Temporary blindness assaulted all of them, and the very air itself vibrated with enough power to to make their teeth chatter. Yet none of them felt any actual pain.
"Eh?" Hermione uttered in confusion as the light died down, revealing they were all fine. Instead, scattered around them were numerous piles of ash that were accompanied by what looked like large insectoid shells, and....books?
"Seekers." Harry said as he strutted up towards them, his expression grim. "They serve Hermaeus Mora by going out and seeking knowledge that does not yet exist in Apocrypha. Of course, to do so they turn invisible so they aren't constantly being attacked. You can always find some interesting books on them though."
As he said that, Harry dug through the ashes slightly to examine the books the Seekers had on them.
"The Talos Mistake? Trash. 101 Ways to Skin a Horker. Interesting... The Lusty Argonian Maid: Volume 68. Seriously? There's already that many?" Harry muttered to himself as he slipped all of the books, except the one denouncing Talos, into his bag while also grabbing a cloth to wipe himself off with.
"Are you alright, Potter?" Sprout asked worriedly as Harry wiped the acidic gore and blood from his body.
"Fine. It'll take more than this to hurt me. Especially with how much poison I've been exposed to throughout my life." Harry assured them, before slipping his robes back on after cleaning himself up as best as possible. Then he turned completely serious.
"Alright Mora, show yourself already." Harry called out to the void.
"Mmmm... Very well, my Champion." The void responded, as the air before them began to twist and churn to produce a writhing mass of tentacles and eyeballs. It was easily the most horrendous and disturbing thing any of them had ever seen, aside from Harry.
"I've already told you, several times at that. I'm not your Champion." Harry stated firmly to the Daedric prince as he finished showing his preferred form.
"Yet here we are... Once again.....you are seeking my knowledge..." Hermaeus Mora replied with barely concealed glee in his venomous drawl.
"I'm here to barter." Harry stated firmly, before pulling the scroll he had taken from Albus's desk earlier from his robe pocket. "Knowledge, for knowledge."
"Hmmm...? And what exactly do you plan to give me...?" The demon asked, thinly veiled interest hidden within his contemptuous voice.
"Have you ever heard of a Horcrux?" Harry asked him, while also ignoring the alarm of those behind him.
"Horcrux...? I cannot say I have..." Hermaeus Mora said, his interest now apparent.
"This scroll contains the original writings from their creator, detailing what they are and how to make them." Harry stated while waving the scroll around. If he had Mora's interest before, now he had his undivided attention.
"And what....pray tell, is a Horcrux...?" The demon asked as his tentacles began to writhe and squirm around him.
"Does it matter?" Harry asked, as if bored. "You don't know what they are, this scroll will tell you. What more do I need to tell you?"
"Hmmm.... Very well... What is it you wish to know...?" He asked eventually, and the corner of Harry's mouth curled upwards.
"The Champion of Mephala. I want to know everything you do about them." Harry stated firmly, knowing he had Mora where he wanted him.
"Ahhh... I should have known... Mephala has been busy recently... Proud of her new Champion..." Hermaeus Mora said in a condensending tone. "Especially after he managed...to steal from you..."
"Yeah yeah yeah, I get it." Harry snapped irritably, already expecting the jab about the Ebony Blade being taken right from under his nose.
"Unfortunately...I know little about her Champion.... She is playing him close to her chest... What I do know is that she is planning....something big... She is even gaining the cooperation of the other princes....making plans for Mrityu-Loka..." Hermaeus Mora told him with what sounded like disappointment. Harry knew that he HATED not knowing things.
"As for her Champion...she refers to him only as the Keeper of Secrets... One who's soul has been stained...with the most delicious scents of betrayal and deception. She refuses to say anything more...out of fear that the other Princes will eliminate him...once his usefulness is up."
Harry bit back a curse when he realized that was all he would get from the Daedric Prince, even as he held the scroll out to him with reluctance.
"Ahhh..." Hermaeus Mora groaned with ecstasy as he took the scroll with one of his tentacles and opened it. But then his many eyes began to blink.
"Runes I do not understand...?" He uttered quietly.
"But it is the original, and I never said what language it's written in." Harry pointed out to him.
"My tone is not from displeasure....my Champion... I shall enjoy decoding this language..." Hermaeus Mora drawled with what Harry recognized as excitement.
"Our bargin is complete... Until next time...my Champion..."
The second they heard those words, Harry and the others suddenly had their visions go dark once again before they found themselves back in Albus's office, the Black Book laying open before him while Harry was once more eleven.