Chapter 2

      Harry and Ron had just finished stammering out to Ginny the fact that they had no real plan just yet when they heard a thumping noise in the hallway. All four of them dashed into the hall, wands at the ready. To their astonishment, there was a young boy approximately their age standing there, and a girl climbing out of a hole in midair. Everyone froze, the girl with her leg in the air. He had been prepared for Death Eaters or Malfoy, not two ordinary looking children he did not know.
“Er…what are you doing here?” Harry demanded, trying to sound fearsome.
Lyra brought herself the rest of the way through the opening. A small animal followed her through. “My name is Lyra,” she said calmly, “and this is Will. We’ve come to try to find out why the world is tearing apart again.”
Harry did not know how to respond, but it did not look as if Lyra and Will were there to try to hurt them, so he put his wand away. “Well, why don’t you come and sit down?” Harry said, gesturing toward the kitchen. Lyra smiled and walked into the kitchen, followed by Will. Ron, Ginny, and Lyra sat down at the table, while Will, Harry and Hermione opted to stand.
“Now, what are you talking about?” asked Hermione.
Lyra smiled easily. “There are openings, like that one,” Lyra gestured toward the hallway, “appearing everywhere. This happened before, and we fixed it, but now it’s happening again. And we’re exploring to find out why.”
Harry and Hermione exchanged glances. “This has to have something to do with Voldemort.” Harry said.
“I bet You-Know-Who is causing it, but why?” Hermione replied, looking puzzled. She bit her lip in concentration.
“It might have something to do with the Dust,” Will said to Lyra.
“Dust?” said Ron incredulously. “I don’t think it has anything to do with dust.”
Lyra shook her head. “Not that kind of dust. There’s another kind of elementary particle that we call Dust. It’s what gathers around our brains and makes us conscious of ourselves. We start to attract it once we start growing up. It’s what makes us human,” she explained, “and when there are unnatural openings, they leak Dust.”
“Unnatural openings?” Harry repeated. “Are there natural ones?”
“Yes, a few,” Lyra replied, “and there’s nothing wrong with those, but unnatural ones leak the world’s Dust.”
“Oh, no,” Hermione said softly.
      “What is it?” asked Harry.
      Hermione looked at Lyra and Will. “In our world, some people are born with magical abilities and some aren’t. These abilities surface once the person starts to grow up, which, as you said, is the same time the Dust begins to gather around them” she said, giving Harry a significant glance. He started to see where she was going with this. “I’d be willing to bet,” she continued, “that if a person with magical abilities were to gather more of this Dust, that they would gain more magical power.”
      Ron’s eyes widened.
      “That has to be it!” exclaimed Harry, infuriated. “That’s what made him so happy. He’s gaining power!”
      “We need to stop this,” said Ginny gravely.
      “And fast,” added Ron, sounding alarmed.
      “Well,” said Lyra, “Will can close the openings, but-“
      “He can? That’s great!” broke in Ron, looking at the others. “Great! Isn’t that great?” he said, beginning to sound frantic.
      Will shook his head. “But every opening I close, I’m closing a door to a world that has probably thousands of more openings, and more being created. It’s pointless to start closing them until we stop what’s causing the openings to appear.”
      “Oh,” Ron’s voice cracked. “Right.” He sounded positively hysterical.
      “Calm down, Ronald,” said Hermione. Ron gulped and looked down. Turning back to the group, she said seriously, “We can’t do this by ourselves.”
      “And we can’t do it with anyone else either,” said Harry, frustrated. “Any adult we tell will tell us to stay out of it. And whether we listen to them or not, they won’t be helping us. Dumbledore’s the only one who would’ve let us do it.”
      They all sat in mournful silence for a moment.
      “Then what do we do?” asked Ginny quietly. “We do need help.”
      “Why don’t you come with us?” Lyra chimed in. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny jumped. They had almost forgotten Lyra and Will were there. “We decided to explore the worlds to find out what’s causing this. Now that we have, we’ll probably keep exploring to figure out how to stop it.” She looked at Will. He smiled and nodded. “So why don’t we all go,” Lyra continued. “Maybe we’ll find people who can help in other worlds.”
      Harry thought hard. It was a crazy, impossible plan. But they did need help. While it would be dangerous, if they found enough people- the right people- they could take Voldemort by surprise. Also, he admitted to himself, there were no other options.
      “Alright,” said Harry, “I’m going.” He looked around at the others.
      “Me too,” said Ginny, giving Harry a look that dared him to protest. He did not dare.
      “Of course I am also,” said Hermione, as if surprised anyone might think otherwise.
      They all looked at Ron. He gulped again. “It’s mental,” he said.
      “You don’t have to go, Ron,” said Harry.
      Ron looked at Harry, astonished. “Well, you’re not bloody leaving me behind!” he said indignantly.
      Harry smiled. “Alright. Everyone get together anything you might need. We’ll leave as soon as everyone’s ready.”
      
     ~~~
      
      Telemain walked around the spot where Mendanbar felt the rift in the magic, giving everything curious looks and saying “Hmmm” every so often. Mendanbar, Cimorene, Morwen, and Kazul were watching wearily. They had been there for an hour already and no one had found anything. Telemain, however, refused to give up. Mendanbar was just about to tell him to give it a rest and come back to the castle with the rest of them when Telemain suddenly crouched down and started walking forward in a strange waddling way.
      “What on Earth is he doing?” asked Cimorene. Mendanbar had no reply. Morwen just cocked her head and watched. Telemain walked in this crouched way for several feet until he seemed to cross some invisible line and disappeared. Everyone gasped, got to their feet and rushed over to the place where he had vanished, except for Kazul, who, being a large dragon, just craned her neck toward the spot. As they reached the place, Telemain suddenly reappeared again.
      “Amazing!” he said. “Astounding!”
      “Yes, I’m sure,” said Morwen wryly. “Now would you like to explain what just happened?”
      “It appears,” replied Telemain absently, staring at the opening, “that the ethereal boundaries between multiple realms of existence are deteriorating, causing ruptures in the dimensional lining, which provide avenues of inter-universal transport!”
      Everyone stared at him blankly, which he didn’t notice until Kazul cleared her throat pointedly. His head jerked up and he looked around at the others as if just noticing they were there. Kazul brought her head down so it was level with Telemain’s. “What was that?” Kazul said far too sweetly, with a smile that was far too toothy.
      Telemain backed up a step. “Ah, yes. This,” he said, gesturing to the spot where he had disappeared, “is an opening into a universe that exists in the same place ours does. I’ve always had a theory that there were billions of dimensions...”
      He trailed off, starting to look dreamy again, so Morwen brought him back to reality. “Yes? And why is this here?”
      Telemain started. “Right. Er, well, as I said, it appears that the dimensional lining, er-,” he threw a nervous glance at Kazul, “that is, the barrier between worlds, is weakening for some reason, almost like it’s being stretched, causing it to rip.”
      “So this leads to another world?” said Cimorene, leaning down to look through the opening. “Wow.”
      Mendanbar was less amazed and more concerned. After living in the Enchanted Forest for so long, he was used to unusual things, and they usually did not mean anything good. “Do you know why this is happening, what’s causing the barriers to weaken?”
      “Some type of spell, I believe, but nothing like anything I’ve ever seen before.” Telemain said, frowning, obviously displeased that he did not know the answer. He brightened a moment later when another thought struck him. “I shall have to study it!”
      “Yes,” said Mendanbar, “study it all you like, but I think it needs to be guarded too.” He turned to Kazul. “Do you think you or some of your dragons could guard the opening until we know what to do about it?”
Kazul stretched and flexed her claws. “I needed a vacation anyway, and the forest is as good a place as any. I’ll do it for a few days, and then if you still need a guard, I’ll assign another dragon.”
“Thank you,” said Mendanbar gratefully.
Kazul smiled. “Can I eat anyone that comes through it?”
Morwen, hearing this, turned to Kazul. “That’s probably not a good idea,” she said, looking over the tops of her glasses. “If anyone comes through, they may know more about the opening and whatever caused it.”
Kazul looked disappointed. “Can I eat any goats that come through it?” She asked hopefully.
“I don’t see any problem with that,” said Cimorene with a smile. “Unless they’re talking goats,” she added as an afterthought. Turning to the rest of the group, she said, “Speaking of eating, it’s almost lunchtime. We should get back to the castle.”
“Yes we should,” agreed Morwen, pulling Telemain away from the opening.
“I must study this!” Telemain protested.
“You can study all you like after we eat. Honestly, you’d study something until you died of starvation and you wouldn’t even notice.” Her voice was stern, but there was a sparkle of laughter in her eyes.
“Is everyone ready?” Mendanbar asked.
Cimorene turned to Kazul. “Would you like us to bring you some food?”
“I don’t think that will be necessary,” Kazul said, scanning the trees.
“Alright, we’ll come and visit you tomorrow.” Cimorene turned back to Mendanbar. “Let’s go.”
Mendanbar grabbed a thread of magic leading to the castle, and they faded away from the clearing, leaving Kazul to her hunting.

~~~